Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Tuesday, April 12, 2022 @ 4:08 p.m. / Elections, Local Government
If Successful, Measure R Repeal Initiative Wouldn't Eliminate Tax, County Counsel Says; CAO Lopez Delivers Report on Repeal Impact Anyway
Previously:
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After receiving a report with the running theme that repealing Measure R would hurt recruitment and retention of Del Norte County staff, supervisors agreed to let the proposed initiative appear on the Nov. 8 ballot.
But even if the initiative is successful, the 1 percent sales tax that voters approved in 2020 would remain in place, according to County Counsel Joel Campbell-Blair.
“Voting for this initiative repeals the resolution by the Board of Supervisors that placed the tax on the ballot. It does not repeal the tax voters approved,” he told supervisors Tuesday. “It’s just not correctly drafted to do what it says it’s going to do.”
Campbell-Blair pointed to the petition circulated by county resident Linda Sutter, which states Measure R — enacted by a resolution on July 2020 — is repealed. Sutter’s petition has a strikethrough of the resolution supervisors approved July 28, 2020.
But, “the resolution isn’t the tax,” Campbell-Blair said. To repeal the tax, its opponents must repeal the ordinance following the vote that set the tax, he said.
It’s an error Sutter told supervisors she and members of the Crescent City-Del Norte County Taxpayers Association would rectify.
“I’m sure we will have to file another repeal,” she told supervisors.
Del Norte County voters narrowly approved Measure R in 2020 with 50.24 percent voting yes and 49.76 percent voting against it.
The tax measure was projected to generate $1.2 million in revenue annually. On Tuesday, County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez told supervisors that County Auditor-Controller Clinton Schaad changed that projection to be $1.8 million through the end of the 2021-22 fiscal year. The county has received more than $900,000 in Measure R dollars as of December 2021, he said.
That funding is earmarked for law enforcement and emergency response; road maintenance and pothole repair; maintaining dispatch service for fire, law enforcement and ambulance response; to address blight and public nuisances and to maintain infrastructure.
On the law enforcement side of things, $748,700 in Measure R funds were used for wage adjustments in an effort to make the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office’s patrol positions more competitive with other regional agencies, according to Lopez.
Those dollars also paid for increases for juvenile hall and adult probation officers, investigators in the District Attorney’s Office and correctional staff both in the jail and at juvenile hall. Measure R funds will also pay for a new emergency dispatch position and a second records clerk position within the sheriff’s office, Lopez said.
Vehicle replacement for the DA’s office, probation and the sheriff’s office is also budgeted for through Measure R.
The county has been able to hire a second code enforcement officer using $76,500 and a new Office of Emergency Services coordinator using $78,500. According to Lopez, historically there has only been one code enforcement officer and one emergency services manager in the county.
Roughly $60,000 in Measure R dollars has been earmarked to create a new animal services supervisor as well as additional training and wage adjustments for Del Norte County’s animal control officers.
Within the Community Development Department, $475,000 in Measure R dollars are budgeted for infrastructure and capital improvements while $77,000 will be used to hire an additional planner.
“I want to make clear that the positions that were created for code enforcement, planning and Office of Emergency Services has just increased staffing levels to two people in each of those departments,” Lopez said. “Calls for services far exceeds the staffing capacity we currently have.”
Nearly all the representatives for the departments receiving Measure R dollars said a repeal of the tax would impact their ability to recruit and retain additional staff as well as the morale for existing employees.
Within the county’s Animal Services Division, eliminating those tax dollars would result in reduced departmental safety when responding to animal abuse cases. Code Enforcement representatives said they wouldn’t be able to meet the community’s expectations regarding blight.
Within the Office of Emergency Services, repealing Measure R could result in staff burnout from being stretched too thin during emergencies and natural disasters.
Within the county’s Planning Division, a Measure R repeal could result in added public pressure and frustration from not obtaining permits and information in a timely manner and could result in possible state oversight of some programs if the county is unable to do so, according to Lopez.
In her petition, Sutter says Del Norte County has high unemployment, high poverty, high taxes, high gas prices and inflated food costs. Sutter states county employees “have not voluntarily reduced their salaries and benefits” and no attempt has been made to “reprioritize needs in light of our community emergency.”
Sutter also states that Measure R dollars were placed in the general fund, which means “there must be constant watch on how the supervisors are spending the money.”
Sutter also criticizes a recent county proposal to contribute $70,000 to hire a director for the Tri Agency Economic Development Authority and pay the balance of an outstanding U.S. Department of Agriculture Loan.
“Had the oversight committee been watching, they would have spoken out against paying $70,000 to a failed Tri-Agency,” she stated.
Though the Board of Supervisors discussed reviving the Tri-Agency Economic Development Authority in January, it hadn’t taken a vote on the issue.
Sutter’s petition generated 852 signatures, though 528 were verified through the Del Norte County Elections Office.
On Tuesday, Lopez spoke to the issue of transparency Sutter’s petition raised regarding how Measure R dollars are spent.
“The misinformation is that Measure R funds are being accounted for in the general fund,” Lopez said. “That is incorrect. The Board and auditor-controller created a separate fund for transparency purposes. It’s easy to account for the revenue and expenditures.”
Speaking during public comment, Norma Williams, president of the Del Norte County Employees Association, said repealing Measure R would equate to a 25-30 percent pay cut for public safety employees, including those at juvenile hall and in the District Attorney’s Office.
Repealing the tax measure could also impact “the very people who have been hired as a result of Measure R" and result in a reduction in programs and services, Williams said.
“You also then would be looking at a reduction in revenue,” she said. “General fund revenue in terms of collections of application fees and permit fees and planning fees and administrative fees — even penalties for violations of the codes that we have here in our county. And that would be problematic for future budget concerns.”
Klamath resident, David Jones, a spokesman for the Measure R Oversight Committee, said he voted against the tax measure in 2020, but wanted to be on the oversight committee to ensure the money was being spent properly.
“I think it’ll be a bad decision if Measure R is repealed because it’ll definitely hurt all our services and impact the entire county negatively,” said Jones, who is also running for District 5 supervisor.
Sutter criticized Lopez’s report.
“The common theme here is recruitment and retention,” she said. “How about this folks: Lack of leadership, lack of vision, lack of professionalism, lazy department heads, malfeasance of public funds. Until you change those areas, it doesn’t matter how much you tax the people. Nothing is ever going to change and Del Norte County is never going to prosper.”
Smith River resident Branden Bieber said that while he doesn’t want people to be unemployed, but he disagreed with what he calls government expansion.
“I think we should repeal Measure R and live within our means,” he said. “It should have been put on the preliminary election. A lot of people worked hard to get it on and it’s disappointed this Board thwarted those efforts.”
Bieber referred to the Board of Supervisor’s decision March 8 to ask Lopez to report back on the impacts repealing Measure R would have on the county. According to Campbell-Blair, that decision pushed the vote to the next available election that’s “at least 83 days out.”
Documents:
• Measure R Certification Results
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