One year ago, the City Council confronted the chronic under-staffing of our fire and police departments during the deliberations about the 2017-18 budget. The City Manager was directed to review staffing and service delivery models with the goal to improve response times.
The City Manager formed a citizens’ advisory task force which met throughout the year. The City Council received a staffing report on September 26, 2017 and a Public Safety Strategies Report on December 19, 2017.
These reports found that we spend 2/3 of our general fund budget on police and fire departments, clearly our City’s top priority services. Despite this large portion of our general fund, our police and fire departments are among the lowest-staffed in the state. We have 0.8 police officers per thousand in population when the standard is 2 officers per thousand, and 0.44 firefighters per thousand when the standard is 0.88. In fact, we have fewer police officers today than we did in 2007, even though our population has grown by 25%.
On February 13, 2018 the City Council decided to ask the voters to approve a half-cent sales tax so that we can hire 43 police personnel and 36 firefighters. A citizens’ oversight committee will be established to ensure that these funds are only used to hire police and fire personnel, and a separate account in each budget will be made of all income and expenditures of Measure A for maximum transparency and accountability.
Chula Vista remains a safe city, but our police officers and firefighters are stretched thin, and our response times to 9-1-1 calls prove this. We have not met national standards in response times since 2007. On any given day, we have only 12 police officers patrolling and 39 firefighters protecting a city that is 52 square miles and has a population of 270,000 people.
Our police officers and firefighters need our help. That is why they have spent their free time over the past two months talking to voters to explain our situation and to urge a Yes vote on Measure A.
It is not easy to ask you to vote to increase taxes – no one wants to pay more taxes. But this half-cent tax increase is a small price to pay to ensure the safety of our families.
Please join our police officers and firefighters who work so hard every day to keep us safe and are now working so hard on their off days in support of Measure A.
A vote for Measure A is a vote for more police officers and more firefighters.
Please vote Yes on Measure A, for a safer Chula Vista.
