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As summer comes to an end the Eugene Chamber is looking toward the fall and making plans for how we can support businesses through what looks to be another difficult season. One area we are consistently focused on is advocating for businesses and right now we are preparing for the city council to return from break and begin taking up important issues relevant to the business community.
One of the first issues on their docket is community safety and the future of the Community Safety Initiative. The Community Safety Initiative was passed by the Eugene city council in 2019 to increase funding and align resources that would reduce crime, improve neighborhood quality of life, and stabilize our public safety system. It is funded by employers and employees in the form of a payroll tax that went into effect in January of 2021. IDENTIFYING THE NEEDS OF OUR COMMUNITY In 2019, city councilors were presented with a review of our community justice system that indicated a significant gap existed between the level of public safety services needed for a community our size and the current services being provided. It was found that while Eugene’s population had grown, along with the demand on our police and fire departments, the number of officers serving our community had decreased. As a result, we learned that officer response time had increased by almost 20 minutes, and police were unable to respond to one out of three calls for service. Our Fire and Emergency Medical Service faced similar problems. The growing demand continued to outpace capacity causing critical gaps in community safety and services. Staff estimated that funding of $22.8 million annually was needed to fill the gaps and maintain safety and quality of life in our community. THE CHAMBER’S PERSPECTIVE When this initiative was introduced to the community, our chamber was less than enthusiastic about a new tax on business, but our leaders understood the dire state our community safety system was in and how an underperforming safety system negatively impacted the economic prosperity of our region. When originally passed, the Community Safety Initiative outlined how funding would be split between critical functions of the justice system: 65% for police services; 10% for fire and emergency medical services; 15% for municipal court and prosecution services; and 10% for prevention and homelessness services. Our business community supported the payroll tax with the promise the City would expand needed police services, including 40 patrol officers, 5 detectives, 4 sergeants, 10 community service officers, 9.5 staff for 911, animal welfare, and traffic safety officers, and evidence control and forensic analysts. WHERE WE ARE NOW Two years later, our community and country have experienced multiple crises that have put increased strain on our community safety system while also shining a light on how our institutions are failing to safely serve diverse members of our community. Today, our elected officials are facing pressure to defund our police department and reallocate funds to other places in our community, while at the same time they are hearing story after story of how our police officers didn’t show up for hours when they were needed if they were able to respond at all. On September 13th Council will discuss if they will shift how funding for the Community Safety Initiative will be spent. Our chamber strongly believes that policy recommendations from BIPOC community members to improve the nature of policing in our community should be prioritized by our council. However, shifting funding away from our police will not bring our community safety services up to the level that our community is expecting and deserves. This initiative was introduced because of a significant lack of resources—our community was already coming from behind. The world looks a lot different today than it did two years ago, but we would argue the safety of our community is worse off, not better than it was when this ordinance was passed. Eugene City Councilors made a commitment to our community. It is imperative that they keep their promises and do their job to keep our community safe. I hope you all are staying healthy and navigating yet another round of COVID challenges.
We have been collecting contacts for business leaders impacted by the growing safety concerns in our community and I want to address that issue today, which our chamber has been working on extensively. Community Safety Initiative/ Payroll Tax On Monday, September 13th Eugene City Councilors will come back from a summer break to a work session on the Community Safety Initiative (you can watch that meeting at 5:30 pm here). The Community Safety Initiative and ordinance was passed by Eugene City Council in 2019 to increase funding and align resources that would reduce crime, improve neighborhood quality of life, and stabilize our public safety system. It is funded by employers and employees in the form of a payroll tax that went into effect January of 2021. For a history of the Community Safety Initiative, why it came to be, and the role the chamber played in the negotiations, please see this brief article we published today: https://www.openforbizeugene.com/a-quick-note-the-safety-of-our-community/ When this initiative was introduced to the community, our chamber was less than enthusiastic about a new tax on business, but our leaders understood the dire state our community safety system was in and how an underperforming safety system negatively impacted the economic prosperity of our region. At the time, our Chamber played a large role in influencing the outcome of that ordinance to better serve the business community. Among many different items, we advocated for citizen oversight of the funds, demanded metrics be included in the ordinance, and pushed for a public vote after seven years to hold the city accountable for accomplishing those metrics. Today, city councilors are facing pressure to defund the police and shift funds away from the police department to other places in our community- while at the same time we are telling them story after story of how police officers didn’t show up for hours when they were called in an emergency if they were able to respond at all. City councilors will be getting a report on the history of that initiative, the current state of our safety metrics and an update on how much money has been collected to date. They are not likely to make a final decision on September 13th but we believe it is important that prior to that meeting, they each hear the stories of businesses and neighbors who do not feel safe in this community and who want to see more police support in our community, not less. CALL TO ACTION: Please send a note to our elected officials BEFORE SEPTEMBER 13th urging them to keep their promises to our community to decrease police response times, increase the number of calls they can respond to, and decrease crime in neighborhoods by spending more time proactively policing. Email the full city council at this address: [email protected]. If you would like to email your city councilor directly, a full contact list is attached. Council members are hearing from individuals who want to defund the police. They need to keep hearing from businesses that need more protection, not less. Thank you all for your support in this effort. |
Brittany Quick -WarnerPresident & CEO, Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce Archives
December 2021
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