Public needs info on effect of JoCo budget issues
From our weekly issue dated May 14, 2008
Josephine County division managers and the board of county commissioners are aware that gaining support for revenue-raising ballot measures is a hard sell.
But with no resumption of federal O&C payments to the county in sight, even though funding is in a military spending bill that President Bush said he’ll veto, officials say that the timing couldn’t be more critical.
With the exception of a one-time levy during 2000, federal O&C payments financed county law enforcement, Sheriff Gil Gilbertson told county government leaders during a division manager update before the board of county commissioners Friday, May 9 at the courthouse in Grants Pass.
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“Most people don’t know but for that one-time levy, July of this year will be the first time in the history of O&C that your property tax money has gone to support the sheriff’s office,” Gilbertson stressed.
The sheriff’s office proposed budget has been reduced by some $2 million from the 2007-08 fiscal year approved budget of slightly more than $10 million. Approximately $6 million left from the last O&C extension comprises the county’s public safety budget.
“We just need to lay the facts out, and at the end of the day (the citizens) need to make the decision,” the sheriff said.
While the three county commissioners have yet to formally decide to put two-tiered special tax districts for law enforcement funding on the November ballot, much discussion has taken place in the courthouse about how to educate voters about the county’s financial situation. Rural Josephine County residents likely will be voting on a tax district to support sheriff’s office patrols.
Residents of the city of Grants Pass probably will face a levy for increased city police patrols, as well as the county tax district that would support incarceration and prosecution of criminals.
The question was raised as to how to involve in the conversation 80,000 people who have essentially “checked out” long ago. Audience member Curt Bynum stated that in his observation, the vast majority “are clueless.”
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Bynum prescribed a regimen of truth and trust to overcome voter reluctance to choose to finance public safety.
Said Bynum, “We need to get the Rotaries and the Zontas -- every group that gives a damn about people -- needs to be educated … and we have to give them credit for being smart enough to know what to do.
“Our job is to educate them, give them the facts and the truth and trust them to do the right thing. That would be a unique experience for the people of this county,” Bynum declared.
The board and county department leaders are conscious that they must make a clear distinction between advocacy and education.
“As a public entity, the county cannot advocate or fund advocacy,” cautioned board Chairman Dave Toler. “The county can develop facts about the issues and put them out there,” he said. But he acknowledged that the most-effective campaigns would be waged by civic groups and others in the community.
While he was encouraged to allow his deputies be available to the public to talk about their program, Gilbertson was adamant,
stating that, “A police officer cannot engage in political activity.”
However, “There’s nothing wrong with a little more visible presence to tell people what we do,” reasoned Public Works Director Rob Brandes. As an example, he mentioned how his department will devote staff time at the opening of the Jones Creek Bridge to explain to the public how $600,000 of its money went into the project.
Brandes said that similarly, the sheriff’s office could “educate” the public about what it does.
“It’s about education,” the managers agreed.
“If the facts will speak for themselves, then the people will act in their own best interests,” Brandes said. “We need to spread the facts and educate the people.”
