Agenda Packet 4-8-19 Work Session

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April 8, 2019, Work Session – Item 2 EUGENE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY Work Session: Community Safety Initiative Meeting Date: April 8, 2019 Agenda Item Number: 2 Department: Central Services Staff Contact: Kristie Hammitt www.eugene-or.gov Contact Telephone Number: 541-682-5524 ISSUE STATEMENT The purpose of this work session is to provide the City Council with additional information about a possible payroll tax structure to fund the Community Safety service system gaps. BACKGROUND At the September 26, 2018, work session on Community Safety, staff provided an update on Community Safety funding options, community outreach efforts, and results of an online survey. The presentation included strategies and funding packages to address community safety system gaps and desired outcomes identified by the council. The City Council unanimously passed a motion to include $8.6 million in Supplemental Budget #1. This one-time, 18-month bridge funding strategy supports prevention efforts and services for youth and people experiencing homelessness as well as police and emergency response services. The funding includes expanding prevention programs that help move at-risk youth and chronic offenders toward stable lives and away from the jail and the courtroom, and also adds police officers, 911 dispatchers and jail beds. Council also gave direction to immediately begin work on long-term funding strategies to address critical community safety needs based on the identified strategies. A Community Safety Revenue Team was formed to develop a recommendation for the City Manager. The Revenue Team included Councilors Pryor, Semple, and Yeh, current and former Budget Committee Members Scott Nowicki, Eliza Kashinsky, John Barofsky, and Laura Illig as well as Bill Whalen from the Police Commission. The team began meeting in November 2018 and has been working to develop funding options to fund Community Safety strategies of $22 million on an on-going basis. The Revenue Team met between November 2018 and February 1, 2019, and submitted a report to the City Manager recommending a payroll tax as the ongoing funding mechanism for the community safety initiative. At the February 13, 2019, work session staff provided an update on the progress of the Community Safety Initiative and the Revenue Team’s recommendation of a payroll tax. At the February 23, 2019, City Council workshop, staff provided more information on the Revenue Team’s work including evaluation of a local option levy, public safety service fee, utility consumption tax and the payroll tax. Additional payroll tax information on accountability