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February 13, 2010

DHS Public Safety Commission with City Council - Parcel Tax - February 11

Before the meeting, Commissioner Timothy Young was sworn in for his new term. He was absent from the previous meeting when the other commissioners were sworn in.

Parcel Tax

All five members of the City Council were in attendance, seated at their own table facing the Public Safety Commission on the dais. Mayor Parks had asked the city council to listen without remark until the commissioners finished their discussion on the public safety parcel tax.

There were no public comments.

Usually Chairman Bowman, like the chairs of the other commissions, allows the other commissioners to have their say before he weighs in. But tonight he started this discussion with his own powerpoint presentation on the parcel tax. He first wanted to establish common ground, saying the city needed the parcel tax (ten years ago and now) to provide additional funding for police and fire services. Commissioner Martin added that now an additional reason for the tax is so the annexation process can proceed to completion.

Next in the presentation was the question "Do we still need the funding?" No commissioner disagreed that we still need the funding. "Do we want to seek a renewal of the existing tax?" Mr. Bowman suggested that was perhaps what we needed to do at bare minimum.

The presentation went on to say that the subsequent discussion centers on these points:

• What is the level of public safety service that our citizens expect?
• What do we want to provide to our citizens?

Mr. Bowman said, "When it all comes down in reality, we get what we pay for." He said it occurred to him 6 years ago when he first became chair of the Public Safety Commission and crime was out of control in Desert Hot Springs, that we are getting exactly what we are paying for, no more, no less. But when Chief Williams and City Manager Daniels appeared on the scene, they began to find more money for public safety and we began to see improvement. Then last year's approval of the utility tax increase meant public safety services could be increased. We're getting more now, because we're paying more, Mr. Bowman said. The polling data the city has received shows that the voters can rise to the occasion if a tax increase is presented to them properly, fairly, and equitably because those voters aspire to a higher level of service.

Then Mr. Bowman asked if we want to look at the formula. He brought an Excel spreadsheet that would allow the commissioners to play with the formula and see the results. He said he asked himself why the council 10 years ago had not asked for more in the parcel tax. He asked everyone to set aside their political hats and think as citizens and business people.

Commissioner Hoopes asked if some of the parcel tax was earmarked to pay off the bankruptcy. Finance Director Jason Simpson said none of the parcel tax went for the bankruptcy. 100% of it goes for public safety.

Mr. Hoopes said it was imperative to get this tax passed because of the annexation and because no one wants to lose 14 law officers. He said the survey had shown that the only way to pass it was with no changes at all. He asked if we passed a ten-year extension of the current tax rate, could the city place another measure on the ballot in, say, 3 or 5 years to amend the rates? If we did so and that measure failed, would it cause the current parcel tax to terminate or continue unchanged? City Attorney Ruben Duran came to the podium to say, basically, yes the city could do this and any later measure to alter the tax would not change the parcel tax if the new measure failed.

Mr. Hoopes also asked if there was a maximum time limit for the extension. Did it have to sunset in 10 years? The answer is no. Could be for any length of time, including indefinite.

Commissioner Heidrick said she was concerned about tax revenues dropping in all areas. She cited the need for the annexation as a reason to renew the tax.

Commissioner Martin asked Councilmember Pye if when the parcel tax was originally approved, was it tied to calls for service. She answered "No, and the developers were involved." Mr. Martin said that the trouble with tying it to calls for service is that he has a lot of people in his neighborhood that have never called police or fire for anything. "Are they going to be entitled to a refund?" he asked. He answered himself, "No, because everybody benefits from a safe community." He said too much is riding on this measure to take the chance on getting a two-thirds vote (for an increased or revised tax). Mr. Martin suggested that whatever option was settled on, the commission and the city council should be unified and fully on board in its support.

Chairman Bowman said that using data from Jason Simpson, if you looked at it strictly on a calls-for-service basis, single-family residences are paying about 15% too much.

After the meeting Mr. Bowman sent a copy of the spreadsheet to me. I corrected some typos and edited the headers a little (color!) to try to make it a bit more readable, but I didn't touch any of the numbers or formulae. You can download a zipped version of the spreadsheet here (you've got to unzip it to use it). If, however, you don't want to download a living, breathing Microsoft Office document (and who could blame you?), here's a nice safe PDF version of it:

The PDF version requires you to use your own pencil, paper and calculator if you want to try different formulae.

Mr. Bowman displayed his spreadsheet which had the statistics broken out by land-use category. The top three land-use categories for calls for public service are:

1. Single-family residences
2. Commercial developments larger than 0.15 acres
3. Apartments

Those three combine to account for 80% of the calls for public service.

There are three categories that greatly underpay, if you are looking it on a strictly calls-for-service basis:

• Duplexes - underpaying by 44%
• Apartments - underpaying by 67%
• Hotels - underpaying by 59%

Mr. Bowman suggested that increasing the parcel tax in these three areas plus commercial vacant and residential vacant could generate a serious amount of revenue for public safety. He said he was willing to go ahead and support a renewal of the existing tax and then have some focus groups where the formula is analyzed to find something that works better.

Commissioner Martin pointed out that the poll results showed that voters can be persuaded by arguments on both sides, and he thinks groups will come forward to fight the tax if it is raised on any one group. But, he said he agreed with Mr. Bowman, that it was important to get the tax approved.

Chairman Bowman said the Public Safety Commission had never established what level of public safety service was desired. He said he knows that the public expects public safety to show up when they call 911. He said that the renewal of the parcel tax cannot be presented to the voters as the "final solution to this problem." We don't have enough police or firefighters to protect our city, he said.

Commissioner Hoopes moved to extend the parcel tax at its current rate to sunset in 20 years and that the rates be re-examined as soon as practical. His motion died for lack of a second.

He re-made the motion with a 10-year sunset provision. Commissioner Martin seconded. Approved 5-0.

Then Chairman Bowman invited questions and comments from the City Council. Mayor Parks said we need more police and fire and should come back later to consider an increase. Councilmember Baker said he appreciated the analysis because it confirmed his suspicion that the rental population takes more service than the homeowner population. [I think it should be clarified here that "single-family residence" does not necessarily mean "owner-occupied" – there are a lot of rented single-family residences.] He said he would like to get back half of the recent reductions in property taxes and apply that to public safety. Commissioner Martin said he would be happier to have the value of his home back. Mr. Baker agreed, and said the only way to get the value of homes back up is to minimize crime.

Mayor Pro Tem Matas is concerned with the formula. He said when he goes and speaks to people he needs to be able to explain the formula for the parcel tax, but it looks like we are just going to move along with the unexplained old formula. He said that in ten years we have to find a way to finally sunset this tax. The Public Safety Commission is going to be tasked with the responsibility to come up with that solution for a formula that makes sense.

Mayor Parks said she thought it was optimistic to hope to be able to sunset the tax in 10 years. But she said we can do some focus groups and some education of the community that they get what they pay for. Increased service comes at a cost. She suggested that in possibly two years an increase in the parcel tax could be considered.

Chairman Bowman reminded us that pushing the tax renewal at the same rate will leave public safety a million dollars short in 2010-11.

At this point the City Council left the meeting.

Police Report

This month a DHS Police Officer will be joining the gang task force. While we have always been a member of that force, now we will have an actual person assigned to them.

From 2006 to 2009 property crime has declined by 21%-22%, Chief Williams said. Violent crime is down 10%.

Serious crime in December 2009 (133 reports) was way down from December 2008 (172 reports). Motor theft dropped from 28 in 12/08 to 6 in 12/09.

Out of 34 authorized positions, the police force is down by only 2 positions right now, the Chief said. The two vacancies should be filled in the next month.

Commissioner Heidrick asked if the new "substation" in Tedesco Park was producing any noticeable changes. Chief Williams said the neighborhood kids do come around just to try to find out what's going on. The police are working with Boys & Girls Club to bring some programs to Tedesco Park.

Commissioner Hoopes asked about the police cameras. The Chief said 26 are in active use. Two cameras have yet to be installed at Palm & Pierson. A second camera has been added at Hacienda & Mountain View but it is not yet operational because a tree is interfering with its communication with the network tower. Rather than bring in a laser cannon to burn a clear path to the network tower, they are going to run some cable under the intersection and up to the antenna of the other camera which will support communication to both cameras. The camera at Palm and Dillon is up but has power issues, which the Chief expected would be resolved before you read this report.

Chairman Bowman asked if the Chief had any successes with the cameras that he could share. The Chief said nothing significant yet, as they are still in the training phase. BUT he did have a couple of interesting stories. The principal and a vice-principal from the high school came over to the police station to see the camera system in use. They were flipping through different cameras to show them the capabilities when they espied two young people lounging in Mission Springs Park in the middle of a school day. They zoomed in the cameras until the principal could identify the two. An officer was sent to retrieve the two truants. At about the same time five students were detained at the shopping center at Palm and Ironwood. They had the students line up and face the camera so that the principal could identify them from the police station.

That's a pretty amazing success rate right there, seven positive IDs on a serendipitous video tour of the city. I would suggest that a video display linked to the police camera system be installed in the principal's office (at school district expense). Any time the police spot some high school age kids wandering the city during school hours they could save a ton of gas and time by just sending the images to the principal so he could identify them and call their mothers forthwith.

Animal Control

An animal control representative did not show up in time for the meeting, but here are some numbers from the report: Dogs - 71 strays, 13 owner turn-ins; Cats - 8 strays; Other (python? chupacabra?) - 1 stray. 5 bite calls, 11 sick/injured calls, 9 vicious animals, 16 cruelty/neglect, 106 licenses issued.

Code Enforcement

They were absent from the meeting too, but here is info from their written report:

Admin Citations issued: $4,800
Fines received for Admin Citations: $15,029.72

Foreclosure penalties issued: $246,000
Foreclosure penalties received: $145,000

Total amount of demand letters sent (i.e., we should be getting this money soon): $132,817.32

Code enforcement re-boarded up the house at 10304 Santa Cruz. they also directed the board-up of two properties on troubled Calle Las Tiendas. They are in foreclosure.

Walgreen's has agreed to comply with the shopping cart ordinance.

Somebody sued the city over a code enforcement issue. The case was heard in Indio Superior Court and code enforcement won. In December there were three administrative hearings held in La Quinta. Code enforcement was upheld in all three cases. In January three administrative hearings were scheduled, but only one appellant showed up. The decision on that one is still pending. I assume the other two were decided in the favor of code enforcement, but the report doesn't say.

Graffiti was removed from 402 properties in January. More trash, mattresses, junk and tires were picked up.

Finally, they say they've got two properties in the process of demolition: 11160 Verbena Drive and 66202 4th Street. Here you can see photos of the structures at 66200 4th Street, which I'm sure is what the city intends to demolish. I'm also sure the mail box says 66200, not 66202. But I'm also sure code enforcement checks these things carefully before any wrecking actually begins.

Fire Report

The written fire report now includes the Skyborne station, but the numbers are incomplete, so the Chief will wait until next month to do a complete report on fire station activity.

At the pancake breakfast in Tedesco Park the chefs were Chief Veik and Commissioner Young.

Volunteer firefighters participated in a combined HIV-awareness and Black History Month activity at Walgreen's.

Lunch With A Firefighter will go live in a couple of weeks, but the Chief is not revealing which school yet. The principal at that school is already recommending that it be expanded to the other schools in Desert Hot Springs.

Commissioner Reports

Commissioner Martin shared a newspaper article about red light cameras. Moreno Valley has decided to get rid of their red light cameras. I believe this may be the article he was referring to.

Eric Lewis, the city's traffic engineer, evaluated the data and said the 18-month test program was successful: Accidents dropped by a third at Frederick/Centerpoint and 16 percent at the Perris/Alessandro.

But the program proved to be a marginal moneymaker, the public detested it and the council decided it wasn't worth it.

Mr. Martin said the fact that the "public detested it" was tantamount to the gang bangers complaining about Operation Falling Sun.

He also discussed the skate park. He had read an article saying that the city's liability is reduced in skate parks and playgrounds if (1) the city posts a set of safety rules and (2) enforces them. He said there are a couple of rules posted at our skate park. He requested the issue be added to the agenda for next month's meeting.

Commissioner Bowman suggested putting graffiti control's phone number on your phone: 760-288-0609. He described a massive graffiti attack that extended along Hacienda for blocks. If you paint over graffiti on your private property, take a photo of it first. Mr. Bowman's business was tagged and he turned the images over to the police. The detectives managed to identify the perpetrator by going through the police officer assigned to the high school.

Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | February 13, 2010 at 02:18 PM

Comments

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Posted by: Ron's Log at Feb 15, 2010 5:13:51 PM

thank you for your wonderful informative blog, i currently own property in the City of DHS and intend to retire there in two years I am very interested as to what is going on with the City

please put me on your email list

thank you Sarah

Posted by: sarah at Feb 15, 2010 3:11:40 PM

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