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<br />Attachment B <br />ORDINANCE NO. _________ <br /> <br /> <br />AN ORDINANCE TO FUND COMMUNITY SAFETY SERVICES WITH A <br />PAYROLL TAX AND ADDING NEW SECTIONS TO THE EUGENE CODE, <br />1971. <br /> <br /> <br /> The City Council of the City of Eugene finds as follows: <br /> <br />A. Being safe, and feeling safe, is important to everyone. The City, through its <br />community safety services, strives to make Eugene a safe and welcoming place for everyone to <br />live, work, and do business. <br /> <br />B. The City’s community safety services include the Eugene Police Department, the <br />Eugene-Springfield Fire & EMS Department, Eugene Municipal Court, and multi-departmental <br />efforts aimed at addressing and preventing homelessness. These City services provide the <br />foundation needed to have accessible parks and natural resources, a prosperous economy, <br />thriving arts and culture, and healthy, safe neighborhoods. <br /> <br />C. During the recession the City eliminated over 20% ($30 million) of the general fund <br />operating budget, primarily through efficiencies, reorganizations and trimming of some services. <br />Recognizing the importance of providing safety services, during the recession and continuing <br />today, the public safety budget has remained steady, at around 60% of the City’s total general <br />fund budget. <br /> <br />D. To better serve our community’s expanding and changing public safety needs, the <br />City has worked over the last five years to optimize available resources and become even more <br />efficient in its provision of services. Programs such as the Community Outreach Response <br />Team, Mental Health Court, and Community Court provide alternative paths out of the traditional <br />public safety system, helping reduce overall demands on the system. Eugene-Springfield Fire <br />implemented Basic Life Support response for non-life-threatening calls to the Fire Department <br />and added an Advanced Life Support ambulance unit which has improved patient outcomes for <br />some of the most critical emergency medical calls for service across both Eugene and <br />Springfield. Increased CAHOOTS services provide mobile crisis intervention that responds to <br />thousands of police calls for service every year providing critical behavioral health services. <br />Using grant funding, Municipal Court was able to make improvements that reduced their case <br />backlog by 20%. While all of these programs are positive additions to our community safety <br />system, more needs to be done. <br /> <br />E. The community’s need for safety services has continued to grow, outpacing City <br />resources and resulting in critical gaps in the system. From 2014 to 2017, daily average calls <br />for police services increased 21%, but staffing has remained flat. Homicide, rape, robbery, <br />assault, sex offenses and family offenses have increased by 18% in that same time. Police <br />response time has increased 86% from 23 minutes in 2014 to 42 minutes in 2017. Police are <br />unable to respond to 1 in 3 non-life-threatening calls for service, an increase of 40%. Eugene <br />Municipal Court handles 5,000 misdemeanor criminal cases (like theft, disorderly conduct, or <br />driving under the influence) annually – second in the state to Multnomah County’s Circuit Court. <br />The number of unsheltered homeless adults in Eugene is significantly higher than in many other <br />similarly-sized communities. <br /> <br />June 10, 2019, Work Session – Item 2