City likely to hire 30 officers with extra revenue

Jeffrey Libby

Friday, June 22, 2001 | 11:21 a.m.

Henderson officials will likely hire new police officers with the $3.6 million annual tax revenue boost approved in the special session of the Legislature, City Manager Phil Speight said Thursday.

The additional state funding would preserve a $2.25 million federal grant awarded in January with help from Rep. Shelley Berkley. The grant, which requires matching city funds, would partially fund the salaries of 30 new police officers.

The City Council must formally accept the federal grant by July 3. If not, the grant expires three days later, July 6, and the city loses the funding. The federal money has hung in limbo for five months.

To accept the federal grant, the city would have to budget $1.3 million in matching funds this fiscal year. In the months before the special session, the city said it simply didn't have funds to accept the grant. But with the passage of Assembly Bill 653, or AB10 as it was renamed during last week's special session, the city will gain a projected $3.6 million annually in state funds.

Henderson officials successfully argued that a consolidated tax formula approved by lawmakers in 1997 unfairly shortchanged fast-growing communities such as theirs in favor of older, more established communities.

The adjusted funding formula, which takes effect July 1, will give Henderson a larger share of state revenues than in the past four years, but not as much as it received before 1997. The estimated $3.6 million in recovered funding is an elastic figure and will shift with the fortunes of the state's economy.

That elasticity, in part, is why Speight said city finance officers have yet to determine a final recommendation for the City Council.

Paying the $1.3 million in matching funds this year would not be a problem, Speight said. Nor would the $1.5 million and $1.2 million required for each of the following years, he said. But in 2004, when the grant runs out, the city would have to budget $3 million to pay salaries and related costs for the 30 new officers. Those costs would only increase in following years.

City finance officers also want to staff the Anthem-Del Webb fire station when construction is complete in December. The city has said previously that 15 firefighters would be required to open the station. But Speight on Thursday declined to say whether enough funding will be available for that many new employees.

Other city departments will not likely see much, if any, of the new funding, Speight said.

Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers expressed support for hiring more police officers with the new funds. But even if the City Council chooses to match the federal grant, Cyphers said small-town police services will still be curtailed.

"We really need to start focusing on life-threatening situations and drug issues as the city grows, instead of answering calls about a stray dog in my yard or a cat in a tree," Cyphers said.

Residents rejected a tax initiative earlier this month that would have raised a projected $850 million over 30 years to pay the salaries of 166 new police officers as well as 30 firefighters and 41 support staff members.

Proponents of the tax, including the City Council, said the police department needed the extra staff to get "an edge" on crime. They said the city's needs had changed as it grew. But opponents said growth should pay for growth.

Following the vote, the police department announced it will no longer respond to residential burglary alarms as of July 1.

At a meeting this Tuesday, police staff plan to determine further cuts in service.

Deputy Chief Monty Sparks said even if the city approves funding for an additional 30 patrol officers, the 214-member department will still be short-staffed.

"Today we need 119 new officers. Today. I'm not talking tomorrow," Sparks said.

Those additional officers would give police about 1.5 officers for every 1,000 residents, a ratio recommended by consulting group Kirchhoff & Assoc. in May 2000. The department has about one officer for every 1,000 residents today.

The soonest that all 30 officers could be trained and patrolling streets would be December 2002, Sparks said. By that time, the population will have increased by about 30,000 people, he said, and the department will have lost more ground. Even so, he expressed appreciation for "the support we are getting from all the entities in the city."