City to Solicit Public Opinion on Police Funding

Photo courtesy City of Menifee

There is little doubt what Menifee residents would say if asked in a formal survey whether the city has enough police manpower to battle crime. Informally -- including places such as the Menifee 24/7 Facebook page -- complaints about rising crime and a short-staffed police force are common.

But how would residents suggest that extra police manpower be paid for? Would they accept a 1 percent sales tax increase, for instance?

The Menifee City Council on Wednesday directed City Manager Rob Johnson to work with a consulting firm in setting up a series of surveys and other forms of outreach in the coming weeks to determine what residents think about proposals being considered to fund additional police manpower. This form of outreach may include town hall meetings, online surveys and polls, and other forms of interaction with residents.

Authorized at the previous council meeting to contract with a consulting firm regarding this issue, Johnson hired FM3, a public opinion consulting firm with considerable experience in assessing public opinion on city government issues and helping to craft language for ballot measures. Johnson was authorized to spend up to $50,000 for this project but obtained a contract for $29,000, he said Wednesday.

In a 2014 report to the City Council, former police chief Mike Judge said the Riverside County Sheriff's Department provides 23 patrol officers serving Menifee through a contract with the city. Even when adding in "dedicated" officers (administration, etc.), that works out to less than .5 officers per 1,000 residents -- about half of the county's suggested standard. According to that report, there are 10 to 15 officers a day on patrol in Menifee, and those officers are divided into three shifts. That means that at any one time, there may be no more than five patrol officers working a city of more than 85,000 covering about 50 square miles.

The current police chief is Brandon Ford, captain of the Sheriff's Department Perris station, with which the city contracts. He addressed concerns on this topic at a Menifee 24/7 forum in February.

Everyone agrees more police protection is needed. Here's the problem: According to Johnson, the City of Menifee pays $11.4 million per year to the Sheriff's Department for police service. When you include $8.3 million paid to the Fire Department, public safety makes up 64 percent of the city's $30 million general fund.

City officials agree that after making millions of dollars in cuts in recent years to balance the budget and maintain the current level of police protection, there is nowhere else to cut to bring in additional police. In fact, Johnson said, police services through the city's contract with the Sheriff's Department has increased an average of 5-7 percent per year.

"We're at the point where we can't cut anything else," Johnson said. "These are costs that won't go down. Costs keep increasing, so we can't hire more officers.

"Every time two thousand more people come into the city, if we can't add an officer, our ratio (officers per 1,000 population) goes down. Eventually, the ratio will go down to the point where people who will want to come here aren't good folks."

Mayor Scott Mann (right) asked Johnson what would happen if the city maintained status quo regarding police protection.

"We would have to make some very difficult choices in terms of cutting the level of service in police, fire and (city) staff," Johnson said.

In preparing for Wednesday's city council meeting, Johnson presented five options city staff believes could be considered as ways of raising additional funding for police protection.

Option 1 would be to approve the creation of a Public Safety Community Facilities Safety District and direct staff to initiate the process of forming a CFD that would charge homeowners in new residential developments a fee of $516 per year.

In essence, this would mean future homeowners would be the only ones paying for the rising level of crime that is already here. This option was voted on separately by the council Wednesday night and approved 3-2, with Mann and council member John Denver opposing it.

"I believe it's unfair to put the CFD only on new homeowners," said Mann, suggesting the possibility of dipping into the city's reserve funds, which total $8 million.

That left the remaining four options under consideration. Johnson's recommendation to the council was to instruct the consulting firm to solicit public reaction to those options through the planned surveys. A motion to do that was approved unanimously.

Options 2-5 list possible ballot measures for the November election. Voters could potentially be asked to vote on:

2.  A 1 percent sales tax measure.

3. A 1 percent public safety sales tax measure.

4. A utility user tax measure.

5. An advisory measure or measures to inquire whether residents want the city to create its own police department and if they would be willing to be taxed for it.

Surveys of residents on these options (or others) would have to be completed before Aug. 3 to allow time for placement on any measure on the November ballot.