Officials take hard look at needs as safety levy sinks

[JJT]

Officials take hard look at needs as safety levy sinks

Administrators in Washington County consider their options, including another vote
Thursday, November 04, 2004 HOLLY DANKS

HILLSBORO -- When a Rotarian asked District Attorney Robert W. Hermann at a recent public forum what would happen if Washington County's community safety levy failed, the longtime prosecutor laid it on the line.

"You see this big happy family up here?" Hermann said, referring to the county commissioner and sheriff's commander who sat with him on the dais. "Well, we might not be so happy."

On Wednesday, less than 16 hours after the first count showed the $68 million measure losing by 53 percent to 47 percent, county department heads and sheriff's administrators sat down at lunch to decide what is next.

The current $69 million, five-year levy, which expires June 30, 2006, funds more than 130 positions in the law enforcement and criminal justice sectors. That includes seven prosecutors and 11 victims' assistance specialists and clerks in the district attorney's office; 31 deputies, six detectives and six forensic specialists in the sheriff's office; six counselors and assistants in the Juvenile Department; 26 parole and probation officers and 15 residential work-release monitors in Community Corrections; and five staff members in the Domestic Violence Resource Center and women's shelter.

"The bottom line is that everybody certainly needs to look at what they do and what they can't get by without," Hermann said after Wednesday's leadership meeting. "But it could reach a point where departments could be saying, 'We really need X more than they need X.' "

While officials say it is too early to make a decision, the bottom line for residents is that the countywide community safety measure could go to another vote.

"Everything is on the table," Sheriff Rob Gordon said Tuesday night.

Gordon and other officials didn't make contingency plans for cutting their budgets, saying they didn't want to admit Tuesday's levy could fail and that they didn't want to be accused of using scare tactics to drum up support.

Now, to get new money in place before the current levy expires, an election would have to be held when approval requires the so-called "double-majority" rule -- a majority of "yes" votes as well as at least half of registered voters casting ballots. The requirement takes effect when a money measure comes before voters anytime other than a general election.

Residents approved tax money for extra sheriff's deputies three times by wide margins after first voting in 1987 to set up the Enhanced Sheriff's Patrol District in the county's urban unincorporated areas. And when the sheriff and county leaders got their first public safety levy in 2000, it won with 52 percent of the vote.

Besides 1998, when then-Sheriff Jim Spinden did not back the county's request for a public safety levy, the only time a law enforcement bid for extra money was scuttled -- until now -- was in May 2002, when the enhanced patrol district got the support of voters, but not the turnout to meet the double-majority requirement.

If the county were to wait for the next general election in November 2006 to ask for community safety money again, changes would have to be made in the meantime.

"There would be real austere budget choices to be made to get us on a sure glide path for voters," Philip Bransford, county spokesman, said Wednesday.

Bransford said the county general fund budget is about $146 million this fiscal year, with 70 percent of that going to the criminal justice system. At the same time, he said, the current levy supports 17 percent of the community safety work force.

"You just don't make a decision about that overnight," Bransford said. "This is a serious matter that has to be grappled with, and it's going to need across-the-board decisions among the leadership of the county, at the board level and the department-head level."

Holly Danks: 503-221-4377; hollydanks@news.oregonian.com



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