CC Minutes - 06/30/99 JEO - Laserfiche WebLink

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Tim Brooker, Mayor of Veneta, thanked the PSCC for all of their work with prevention as an important part of law enforcement. He said there can't be law enforcement without prevention programs like these. He said his community has a problem, they pay a large portion of their general fund dollars for a law enforcement contract they pay more for and get less service. He said his community needs to have more enforcement as there is no police presence. He said they are paying a large sum of money for a part-time sergeant and two deputies and it does not give them coverage for seven days a week, 24 hours per day. He said there is a running comment in the community that criminals know that they can commit crimes because no one will show up. He realizes that by budget constraints, the rural areas will continue to get less and less service. He stated the revenue sharing portion of this is great and they will use it for enforcement rather than for services or programs because they need it. He said he understood there are few ways to divide the money up but believes that they have to weigh some revenue sharing toward the incorporated communities to give them more of the share to solve some problems that are unique to their communities, especially in the area of enforcement, where they don't have a police presence. He said it is important to Veneta to have their enforcement needs met before they could think about dealing with prevention. Don Hampton, Mayor of Oakridge, noted they had talked about having a patrol presence as the chief need of unincorporated areas vs. the refinements to the jail that rural people can't identify with if they don't have enforcement action to begin with. He said when they started the PSCC finance committee, there were as many different points of view on what to do as they were people present and he commended Tollenaar for his efforts on keeping the group focused. He also recognized Warren Wong for his tax information. He said this revenue sharing issue will be a selling point for the rural areas. He noted the PSCC finance committee reached consensus with both rural and urban people that everyone could support. Darrel Williams, Mayor of Cottage Grove, stated he had not been involved on what the committee did as far as the PSCC is concerned. He said it appeared to him that people did put a lot of work into it. He said in his community, there is strong support for their local police department. He said the constituents in his community think that the revenue sharing program is a bribe, to get people to vote for this issue. He said people in the outlying areas think there is not enough deputies when they call, unless it is life threatening. He said there is a certain amount of suspicion in his community as far as Lane County is concerned, for administering this program, and it is evidenced by the fact they voted for the Forest Work Camp and it was closed down. He noted that prevention is an important element of the program. Gary Pap~, Eugene City Council, stated he thinks the proposal is fine and viable, provided that they are clear and specific as to what the money will be used for. He asked who would be implementing the alternative school programs for at risk youth. Jim Torrey, Mayor of Eugene, responded that last year when they spoke about the turn around Page 10 -- Lane County Joint Elected Officials Meeting -- June 30, 1999 WP bclm1990751M