Redmond council agrees not to seek police/parks funding

(Update: Councilors vote 6-0 not to proceed with tax measure)

The Redmond City Council unanimously agreed with the city manager’s recommendation Tuesday night and decided not to proceed with a proposed November property tax measure to fund more police officers, park workers and park improvements.

The vote was 6-0, City Manager Keith Witcosky said.

The proposal discussed in recent months would have boosted Redmond’s permanent property tax rate by 64 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, to $4.05, and raise about $1.2 million. Decision time was approaching, as the deadline to submit a ballot title to Deschutes County is Aug. 17.

In an issue summary, Witcosky noted the recently approved new city budget adds four patrol officers, while the budget committee (seven councilors and equal number of citizens) discussed the need for for additional officers, for a total of eight, as well as boosting parks staffing by three workers and more parks capital improvement.

Witcosky said city staff had talked recently with the Redmond School District about their planned November funding measure, and also secured a consultant to conduct a survey of registered voters to determine their level of support for higher taxes for public safety and parks.

GS Strategy Group conducted its survey this month of 240 registered Redmond voters likely to vote this fall. An initial interview found only 47.5 percent in support, and after information was provided, the number rose, to 49.2 percent — still not enough to pass — “essentially a coin toss,” Witcosky wrote.

The city manager noted that 55 percent of those surveyed said Redmond has about the right number of officers and nearly 86 percent rated city parks as excellent or good.

“A ballot measure is more successful when people already feel a sense of urgency to address a burning issue,” Witcosky wrote.

The survey did find that people have strong (86 percent) favorable views of Redmond police and lesser but still a majority favorable opinions about Mayor George Endicott, the city council and city government as a whole, from 53 to 66 percent.

“This is notable, as overall trust in government has yielded poor polling across the state for decades,” Witcosky wrote.

Nevertheless, the city manager recommended that the city not pursue a ballot measure now, but that the council direct staff to “continue to identify opportunities to fund parks and public safety within existing and forecasted resources.”

Endicott said Tuesday the need for more officers is still pressing.

“We’re adding an officer a year, okay, so that’s built-in,” he said. “The issue we’ve had is catch-up, because we’ve been way behind. We have the same number of officers now we had like in 2010, and yet we’ve grown by thousands.”.