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RESOLUTION NO. 5272 A RESOLUTION CALLING A CITY ELECTION ON NOVEMBER 5, 2019, FOR THE PURPOSE OF REFERRING TO THE LEGAL ELECTORS OF THE CITY OF EUGENE A CHARTER AMENDMENT THAT CAPS THE RATE AND LIMITS THE USE OF THE CITY'S PAYROLL TAX. The City Council of the City of Eugene finds as follows: A. Being safe, and feeling safe, is important to everyone. The City, through its community safety services, strives to make Eugene a safe and welcoming place for everyone to live, work, and do business. B. The City's community safety services include the Eugene Police Department, the Eugene -Springfield Fire & EMS Department, Eugene Municipal Court, and multi -departmental efforts aimed at addressing and preventing homelessness. These City services provide the foundation needed to have accessible parks and natural resources, a prosperous economy, thriving arts and culture, and healthy, safe neighborhoods. C. During the recession the City eliminated over 20% ($30 million) of the general fund operating budget, primarily through efficiencies, reorganizations and trimming of some services. Recognizing the importance of providing safety services, during the recession and continuing today, the public safety budget has remained steady, at around 60% of the City's total general fund budget. D. To better serve our community's expanding and changing public safety needs, the City has worked over the last five years to optimize available resources and become even more efficient in its provision of services. Programs such as the Community Outreach Response Team, Mental Health Court, and Community Court provide alternative paths out of the traditional public safety system, helping reduce overall demands on the system. Eugene -Springfield Fire implemented Basic Life Support response for non -life-threatening calls to the Fire Department and added an Advanced Life Support ambulance unit which has improved patient outcomes for some of the most critical emergency medical calls for service across both Eugene and Springfield. Increased CAHOOTS services provide mobile crisis intervention that responds to thousands of police calls for service every year providing critical behavioral health services. Using grant funding, Municipal Court was able to make improvements that reduced their case backlog by 20%. While all of these programs are positive additions to our community safety system, more needs to be done. E. The community's need for safety services has continued to grow, outpacing City resources and resulting in critical gaps in the system. From 2014 to 2017, daily average calls for police services increased 21 %, but staffing has remained flat. Homicide, rape, robbery, assault, sex offenses and family offenses have increased by 18% in that same time. Police response time has increased 86% from 23 minutes in 2014 to 42 minutes in 2017. Police are unable to respond to 1 in 3 non -life-threatening calls for service, an increase of 40%. Eugene Municipal Court handles 5,000 misdemeanor criminal cases (like theft, disorderly conduct, or driving under the influence) annually — second in the state to Multnomah County's Circuit Court. The number of unsheltered homeless adults in Eugene is significantly higher than in many other similarly -sized communities. Resolution - Page 1 of 4