HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/16/2012 Work SessionCity of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2012
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth
Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, April 16, 2012 at 6:00 p.m., with Council President
Pishioneri presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Councilors Pishioneri, VanGordon, Wylie, Moore, Ralston and Woodrow. Also present
were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Matthew Cox,
City 'Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff.
Mayor Lundberg was absent (excused). She was in Washington DC for the United Front trip as the
City's representative.
1. Lane County District Attorney and Sheriff's Office Update.
City Manager Gino Grimaldi presented the staff report on this item. The purpose of tonight's work
session was to receive a briefing regarding the impact of pending budget reductions in the District
Attorney and Sheriff s Office. Council would need to meet later to discuss how Springfield's Police
Department would handle some of these reductions.
Mr. Grimaldi introduced Lane County District Attorney Alex Gardner,
Mr.' Gardner said the upcoming budget reductions were slightly worse than they had anticipated. He
provided some statistics, first from the Sheriff s Office. In 1979, there were 99 deputies on patrol. For
24/7 posts, that was about 16 -18 people on the road at one time. Last year there were 16 deputies, this
year there were 14, and next year there would be 5. Lane County was 4600 square miles, about the
size of Connecticut. With only 5 deputies, there would not be enough deputies to staff one post 24/7.
Staffing needed to be arranged so there was some capacity for backup. He noted that the. State Police
had also been reduce&in size. In 1979, there were 800 sworn officers and there were 300 today so they
no longer had the reserve capacity to make up for the County's deficiencies. In 1979, there were about
24 -26 detectives in the Sheriff s Office and there were now four. That meant that the citizens in rural
Lane County had learned over time not to report crime.
Mr. Gardner said the DA's Office used to have l a investigators and.n.ow had two in the criminal
division. Their support enforcement division had been protected as it was reimbursed for the most part
by the Federal Government because they had performed at a high level. The Medical Examiner's
division of the DA's Office did a lot of work. They normally had 1000 bodies in which they were
called in on during an average year. These were unattended deaths. He explained. The more
troublesome cases involved questionable deaths which needed experienced examiners to determine
cause of death. They should be staffed with 6 -7 people, but they had done the work with only two
people for many years. This year, the Medical Examiner's Office would be gone. They were trying to
find a way to respond to the large number of deceased. Of 400 they would normally take jurisdiction
of, they would perform about 200 autopsies. Because they did not have their own morgue, they had
been leasing space and some staff from Sacred Heart. The County was no longer able to pay, for that
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Council Work Session Minutes
April 16, 2012
Page 2
service so had been doing what they could with part-time staff remaining. The budget for those things
would also be going away. This was not a service. that could be provided by volunteers. The net
reduction in his office was 19 FTE this year. He would be able to mitigate some of the damage to the
employees, but not to the public. They could contract with the City of Eugene for some Municipal
Court prosecution and they hoped to. receive a HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) grant
that would allow them to do some narcotics work.
Mr. Gardner said the way he had to prioritize the work was by the highest personal violence cases.
Those cases took a lot of time and experience so most senior DA's worked those cases. They could
manage about fifty cases a year for those types of cases. The younger DA's who worked on DUII's
and other smaller crimes handled up to 700 cases a year. There were also middle of the road crimes
which included career forgers, residential burglaries, car thefts, etc. The DA's that managed that case
load handled between 250 -350 cases a year. The -bulk of the cuts coming out of their criminal division
were coming out of drugs and felon prosecution of property offenses. Losing nine Deputy DA's
meant there were about 2400 -3000 cases that would not be getting prosecuted. When a police officer
made an arrest, if there was no DA to file the case, the person was released. People who were arrested
selling heroin in cities in Lane County had no consequences because in many ways the Sheriff s cuts
were much deeper. The Sheriff's Office was down to about 120 jail beds. Average towns in the USA
had about 69 beds for 1000 crimes reported. Oregon had less jail capacity than the national average at
about 62 beds per 1000 reported crimes. Several years ago, Lane County was down to 8 %2 beds per
1000 crimes reported. They were able to add some beds with some additional funding which brought
the figure up to about 14 beds per 1000 crimes reported. If things remained the same in Lane County's
budget, they would have about 120 beds which averaged 5 -9 beds per 1000 crimes reported. They had
as many as 32 offenders in custody at Lane County jail on homicide charges, so the remaining beds
were full of high -risk offenders. Many dangerous people were being released. At that capacity, Lane
County was not able to comply with Oregon law which required Measure 11 offenders to be held
unless they posted security or the judge found they were not a threat to the community.
Mr. Gardner said the loss of the Medical Examiner function was effective May 19, 2012. The DA's
office was working with partner agencies to find some short-term way to deal with this. The challenge
was that someone had to .notify next of kin and make a finding of cause of death. Today it was very
difficult to get family physicians to sign death certificates if they hadn't seen the patient in several
years. Funeral homes couldn't process people to funeral services, cremation or burial without the
necessary paperwork in place. This was an essential function of government that many people didn't
consider.It.was difficult to imagine that the corrimunity would tolerate this level of public safety
dysfunction. Lane County had been in crisis for 3.0 years, but this was now past profound. Springfield
Police Chief Smith could provide more detail on how these cuts would affect Springfield. He provided
an example of how the questionable deaths would be addressed. Someone would need to come in to
determine whether or not it was a homicide and that would be very expensive if brought in on a
contract basis. Ultimately, all citizens would pay more for the Medical Examiner service than if. it was
funded through Lane County.
Councilor Moore asked if Lane County and City of Eugene elected officials had heard this
information.
Mr. Gardner said he had not presented to the City of Eugene, but had made it known through emails
and media. The people that would ultimately suffer would be the victims of violence.
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Council Work Session Minutes
April 16, 2012
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Councilor Wylie noted a television show she had seen that showed a flash mob robbery. The
brazenness of lawlessness was scary and that frightened her. They had always had good law
enforcement, but as criminals found there was no consequence they would become brazen. It was
much harder to put the system back together again once they got to that point.
Mr. Gardner said the city police were great on high risk calls and assisting the County when they
could. People who were not involved in law enforcement had different ideas of how to manage crime.
There was an ebb and flow of different types of crime, and crime actually went up when the economy
improved. Many crime categories had dropped in part due to Springfield's jail, and had dropped
significantly in Springfield because of the jail. When crime went down_ , people got complacent. Public
safety needed to remain solid. There was a lot of vigilante talk among rural residents due to the
frustration of no law enforcement response.
Councilor Pishioneri thanked Mr. Gardner for attending. He noted the Lane County Jail experienced
about 14,000 bookings per year and only had about 120 jail beds. He commended the District
Attorney's crew for doing an excellent job with the tools they had, but they needed more tools. He
would do anything in his power to get the system back on track.
Councilor Ralston asked what it would take for a ballot measure specific for public safety.
Mr. Gardner said it would require funding, but it was less clear how that would be accomplished.
Personally; he felt the County should have a modest, focused, targeted measure. In the short term, they
would need a serial levy. A levy of $0..90/$1000 would cover the deficit of $15M and could show
citizens they were getting something for their money. A levy of $1.10/$1000 could show rural citizens
they were getting something for their money. One' thought for better coverage in the rural areas was
that by having deputies living in outlying communities, they would have a better visible deputy
presence. It was important for citizens in rural Lane County to feel they had some law enforcement
presence. He would be inclined to go with the smaller figure. A measure could go on the ballot by
citizen signature or by having the Lane County Board of Commissioners put in on the ballot. He
would prefer that it came from citizens so the community had more of a sense of ownership. He felt
there was contempt of government, so he would be happy to have citizens step up and take the lead.
Councilor Woodrow said she had heard Mr. Gardner speak on this .issue for many years. The general
public had so many things that had gone on over -the last four or five years that they may not have
noticed the decline if they had not experienced it personally.
Mr. Gardner said in community meetings he attended, he heard from people that they were tired of
those in government asking for funding.
Councilor Woodrow asked what they could do to get people's attention. These were core services and
were expected by the citizens. She asked how the councilors could help.
Mr. Gardner said he didn't know how to get their attention, other than citizens experiencing the lack of
service as victims. He noted a horrific case in California that resulted in a great deal of funding
following. a lot of sharing with the public. Unfortunately, that was the type of thing it took to get
people's attention.
Councilor Woodrow said it seemed like we needed to hit bottom and hadn't reached there yet.
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Council Work Session Minutes
April 16, 2012 .
Page 4
Mr. Gardner said he and the sheriff hoped this was the bottom and that there wasn't a step beyond.
They were both very concerned that if nothing was done they would see families get hurt.
Councilor Moore said she had heard of tiered funding for Deschutes County which meant people in
Bend were not paying as high of a rate for the County law enforcement. Some of the services now
being cut at Lane County would affect citizens in the cities more than in the past. She asked for Mr.
Gardner's opinion on the.tiered tax and if it could help pass a serial levy.
Mr. Gardner said it was narrowly successful in Deschutes County. He felt it made sense, but there
were a number of challenges including creation of a service district which would require the cities of
Eugene and Springfield to approve of an amendment to the Metro Plan. The last time they looked into
this type of district, Springfield was willing to participate, but Eugene was not. One reason they had
been opposed was that a tax district took priority over serial levies. They had tried to figure out how to
share the management of such a district with the cities. The biggest problem in the short-term was that
it took a very complicated legal arrangement to get everyone on the same page. He felt it could be
done with the current cuts. Another factor was how best to communicate that to the citizens so they
trusted it and thought it was sensible. The more complicated things were, the less trustworthy they
were to citizens. They were looking, instead to find a short-term bridge such as a serial levy, and then
communicate to the public that they would be le looking for a long -term solution for the citizens to
approve in several years.
Councilor Wylie said it was a hard sell to people because of the economy. People were looking at
where funds were going they were already paying. They felt their money was going into high salaries
and PERS retirements, and the people had no more money to give. They didn't understand the cost of
doing business for the government was very expensive. Springfield had been fortunate to have voter
support both Police and Fire levies in the past. It had been on a good faith approach to the voters. The
concept of becoming a lawless community was scary. They needed to relate what that would cost to
the citizen.
Mr. Gardner said the amount of taxes that went to Lane County per household was relatively small,
just under $1.28/$1000. He noted many of the larger metro counties that had a higher tax rate. In
response to Councilor Wylie's comment regarding PERS, he explained that personally, his wages had
doubled since 1998, but the PERS estimate was 35% less than in 1999.
Councilor Wylie understood but said many people didn't have any retirement
Councilor VanGordon said he appreciated their work. He liked the idea of focusing on a short-term
bridge and wished there were better solutions. He encouraged Mr. Gardner to come back to talk to the
Council more. He would be willing to talk to citizens about this issue and advocate that we needed
public safety. What happened at the County level affected the City.
The rest of the Council agreed that they would be willing to have those conversations.
Mr. Gardner said many times the people served by Lane County, in circumstances such as rescues
along the river an&traffic accidents in rural areas, were city residents. They needed to look at law
enforcement as a region.
Councilor Moore said she would be willing to talk with citizens and, to get signatures. She couldn't
imagine there wouldn't be other elected officials willing to do the same. She was convinced people
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Council Work Session Minutes
April 16, 2012
Page 5
were reasonable if they were spoken to reasonably. Many people worried about their own lives and
had trouble looking beyond..
Councilor VanGordon said this had been going on for 30 years. He asked if this was as bad as things
would get or if it would continue to get worse.
Mr. Gardner said this was the steepest drop, but things could get worse. One of the challenges was that
there was no more Federal funding.
Councilor Woodrow said the City had a Police levy coming up this Fall and she wanted to look at how
they could address both the City and County during public inforums. The difficult part was that
Springfield residents often had a disconnect with the County.
Chief Smith said in 2006 when the City went out for renewal, the County was also going out for a tax
measure. At every neighborhood group he talked to, he spoke about the importance of Lane County
and the City's dependence on many of the programs provided by the County. During that election, the
County's measure passed in the City of Springfield precincts, but not in other areas of Lane County.
Councilor Ralston said Springfield couldn't solve the problem..
Councilor Pishioneri said the only border the DA's office was concerned with was the County border.
Many of the crimes they prosecuted were within city limits. The DA's office dealt with a larger
portion than the Sheriff's office. Citizens in Springfield were paying more for parks than for core
services. He felt the citizens didn't really understand the difference in the costs.
Mr. Gardner said the supervision piece was important for community safety and funding. Lane County
received. about $9M in community corrections funding from the State of Oregon. That money was
apportioned based on Lane County's proportion of the offender population. He provided an example
of how the funds were distributed using a percentage of number of offenders. Currently, Lane County
had about 3100 or 3200 on supervision. If the County couldn't prosecute people, their share of the
State Corrections funding would be diminished. It would take four or five years to recover during
which they would be losing about $3 -$4M per year. He had talked with the Governor's office at the
State Police Headquarters. The State's first response was that the County had to provide the Medical
Examiner function. Mr. Gardner said he understood the requirements, but with no funding was unable
to provide certain services. He said he was very grateful for the support from the Council.
Councilor Pishioneri said the Council was very supportive of the County's work. He invited Mr.
Gardner to share any ideas with the Council at a time when they could assist further.
Mr. Gardner said he would wait to hear from Mr. Grimaldi.
Councilor Ralston said they needed to get the same level of support from Eugene
Councilor Woodrow said the more information the Council had, the more they could share with the
citizens.
Mr. Gardner encouraged councilors to email him with questions or if they wanted more information.
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Council Work Session Minutes
April 16, 2012
Page 6
Councilor Moore said it would be nice to have concise information, especially related to the Medical
Examiner, as well as the DA's Office and the cuts they were facing.
Councilor Pishioneri asked Mr. Gardner to provide that to the City Manager who could share it with
councilors.
Councilor Wylie said she would also like to see a fact sheeting comparing staffing and population
today with 1979.
Councilor Ralston said he had an old flyer that listed all of the crimes that would not be prosecuted. It
was astounding.
Mr. Gardner said they would not be printing that type of list again because it had negative
consequences. That list would now be.much longer. A meeting was scheduled with all of the Chiefs to
discuss how they could triage the services. They would be looking at law enforcement partners to-
identify the people that represented the biggest risk.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:58 p.m.
Minutes Recorder — Amy Sowa
Christine L. Lundberg
Mayor
Attest:
j;A_
Amy So
City Recorder