Resolution No. 5272 - Laserfiche WebLink

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F. It is not just statistics that demonstrate the City's need for increased community safety resources; community members have said there is a need too. A survey of Eugene voters in July 2018 demonstrated that the community strongly supports addressing the City's public safety needs. Avast majority of survey respondents (84%) believe that City Officials should take steps to address issues that impact public safety. Follow-up community outreach confirmed the community's very real and growing concern for a delayed, or no, police response due to police resource levels. G. Seeing the immediate, critical need for additional community safety services, in September 2018, the City Council approved spending $8.6 million to add some limited capacity and maintain funding for several critical programs (often referred to as the "bridge funding"). When appropriating the bridge funding, the Council made clear its intent to find a long-term, sustainable funding source for the community safety system. H. Without a new, permanent source of funds, the community safety services funded by the $8.6 million bridge would have ended, and the gaps in the system would have continued to widen. Specifically, response times would have kept getting longer, an increasing number of calls would have gone unanswered, a higher percentage of violations and citations would not have made it to the courts, safety concerns in parks, along pathways and in neighborhoods would have continued to go unsolved, the little time currently available for proactive policing would have dissipated, and fewer opportunities would have been available to move homeless community members onto paths of wellness. I. Recognizing that approximately $23.6 million per year is needed to make some of the systemic changes needed to alter the current trajectory of our community safety system, on June 10, 2019, the City Council adopted an ordinance imposing a payroll tax on employers and employees. The ordinance imposes 0.0021 tax on total wages paid by employers, 0.0015 tax on the first $100,000 of wages pay by employers with two or less employees, 0.0030 tax on total wages earned by non -minimum wage employees making a wage of $15.00/hour or less, no tax (0.0000 tax rate) on wages earned by minimum wage employees, and 0.0044 on total wages of all other employees. The ordinance also limits use of the payroll tax revenues to (a) community safety services (i.e., police services, fire and emergency medical services, municipal court and prosecution services, and prevention and homelessness services; and (b) administration of the tax. The City is working with the Oregon Department of Revenue to implement the City's payroll tax; payment of tax will not occur until after June 30, 2020. J. The ordinance adopted by Council provides that revenues from the payroll tax will pay for the following package of community safety services: • Police services, including 40 patrol officers, 5 detectives, 4 sergeants, 10 community service officers, 9.5 staff for 911, animal welfare and traffic safety officers, and evidence control and forensic analysts. • Fire and emergency medical services, including the creation of a 911 triage program and field triage/community response unit. • Municipal court and prosecution services, including opening third courtroom, expanding community court and mental health court programs and adding 10 jail beds and increased jail services. • Prevention and homelessness services, including adding emergency shelters, a day center and funding after school programs at Title 1 schools. Resolution - Page 2 of 4