Safety tax issue back on the table

Jeffrey Libby

Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2001 | 11:01 a.m.

A $2.25 million federal grant announced Monday by Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., could force the Henderson City Council to revive a public safety bond issue that voters narrowly rejected just 10 weeks ago.

They will discuss reviving the tax initiative for the June ballot at a special meeting open to the public at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the council chambers.

The federal money, which would partially fund the salaries of 30 additional Henderson police officers, was signed by the outgoing Clinton administration on Saturday.

But the grant requires matching funds that the city does not have in its 2001 budget, Vicki Taylor, assistant to the city manager, said Monday.

"We can't match that funding," Taylor said, of the $836,000 that would be required in 2001. "So we may have to turn down the federal funding. It's disheartening."

The city would have to budget $1.3 million and $1.76 million the following two years.

By Monday afternoon, however, City Clerk Monica Simmons had posted an agenda for a special meeting Thursday. It marked the last possible day the city could legally organize the tax initiative, Simmons said.

The meeting took two council members by surprise. Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers said she was unaware a meeting had been scheduled, and Councilman Andy Hafen said he had not yet seen an agenda and declined comment. Mayor Jim Gibson was out of town and Councilman Steve Kirk could not be reached for comment.

"We have an obligation to evaluate whether we did something wrong in educating the public," Councilman Jack Clark said. "We want to hear what everyone has to say."

In November City Hall asked voters to approve a public safety bond issue that would have taxed homeowners $84 annually per $100,000 of assessed valuation to pay the salaries of more than 200 new public safety workers over a period of three years.

Of those new hires, the city planned to field 166 police officers and 30 firefighters.

But voters rejected the initiative by 864 votes.

"There is a real need. We as a council have always made public safety our No. 1 priority, but we're getting to the point where we're about to break," Cyphers said Monday. "The cops have gone to a reactive mode. They're no longer seen interacting with the kids on neighborhood patrols. For every single 911 call, we still have a physical cop who goes to the house. But that community service is dwindling. "

Valerie Klein, spokeswoman for the Henderson Police Department, said that with the added stress of growth, response times for police and fire have slowed.

Services provided by police have not been cut yet, Klein said, but officers are having to set priorities.

"We still have the feel of a small town, but a lot of times we're running from call to call to call," Klein said. "We keep getting stressed, because we're not properly manned."

Mayes said the projected $120 million city budget at this point has enough funding for 10 new positions. Departments across the board have requested 75 new staff hires, she said.

The job ahead for City Hall, Taylor said, is convincing voters that the need is there for public safety.

This time around, the rallying call could be much less circumspect.

"There was a conscious decision (last fall)," Taylor said. "We didn't want to go out there and use scare tactics. But we may have overcorrected. And we really don't have a choice. We have to go back to the public."

Berkley, in an interview Monday, said she agreed.

"To have $2.25 million sitting on the table for an extraordinary, identifiable need and not be able to utilize it would be -- a crime," Berkley said. "We've done our job delivering the federal resources. Now it's up to the people of Henderson to make a determination."

The federal funding comes as part of a $112 million deal to partially fund the salaries of 1,433 new police officers at state and local law enforcement agencies across the nation.