The Clark County Council is once again considering how to fund body and dash cameras for the sheriff’s office. The council reviewed options for placing a public safety tax on the ballot in either August or November during its council time meeting Wednesday.
“If the council wants to put this on the August ballot, we will have to have a public hearing on May 3 to meet the deadlines,” County Manager Kathleen Otto told the council.
Otto said waiting to place the measure on the November ballot would give the council more time to review the options and hold a public hearing. She said she would have more information on spending options for the council to review at its meeting next week.
“I’m all in favor of moving this forward to the earliest possible ballot,” Councilor Gary Medvigy said. “I kind of sense from prior discussions that the council does support putting this on (the ballot) in either August or November.”
The council last discussed funding for body and dash cameras in February after a sales tax measure failed to pass in the November election. That measure would have created a 0.1 percent sales tax to be used for juvenile detention facilities and jails. General fund dollars that would have gone to juvenile detention and jails would then have gone to the body and dash camera program.
The county is now pursuing a public safety tax program that allows counties to impose a sales tax of up to 0.3 percent. The county would keep 60 percent of the revenue collected, with 40 percent shared with Clark County’s cities. The cities could also ask voters to approve a 0.1 percent sales tax in their jurisdictions, but only if the county doesn’t implement the full 0.3 percent tax rate.
Finance Director Mark Gassaway explained how much revenue the county would receive from each one-tenth of 1 percent included in the ballot measure.
“The county would receive $7.2 million for each tenth (of a percent), and the cities’ share would be $4.8 million,” Gassaway said, adding that would be the amount collected over a 12-month period.
Gassaway noted the county has priced the initial costs for the body and dash cameras at around $2 million, which would leave approximately $5 million for ongoing costs related to body and dash cameras as well as other public safety operations or infrastructure needs.
Gassaway noted there are other timing issues to consider besides meeting election deadlines.
“If you decide to put this on the August ballot, we would begin collecting this in March 2023; we would institute it in January. If it goes on the November ballot, it wouldn’t become effective until April, and we wouldn’t begin collecting it until June,” Gassaway said.
With the Clark County Sheriff’s Office’s recent announcement that deputies would no longer respond to some calls because of staffing shortages, Medvigy asked if some of the funds collected by the tax could be used for hiring deputies or other activities.
“We really need to look at our sheriff’s department’s compensation packages, from admins to corrections and patrol deputies. That’s going to take some additional revenue,” Medvigy said.
Otto said she has asked for additional information from the sheriff’s office to identify those needs and expects to have the information at next week’s meeting, as well.
For an agenda or link to the county council meeting, go to https://clark.wa.gov/calendar.
