Proposed budget prompts questions about police manpower

Members of the Menifee City Council and city staff discuss the proposed city budget for 2018-19. Menifee 24/7 photo: Doug Spoon

Story has been updated to correct a quote from city manager Armando Villa to read that code enforcement officers have "citation power."

As expected, questions and concerns about public safety and city infrastructure dominated a public workshop held at Menifee City Hall Thursday morning as City Council members were presented a proposed budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year by city staff.

The meeting was conducted by Mayor Pro Tem Lesa Sobek, who is serving in the mayor's capacity following the death of Mayor Neil Winter last Saturday. She and the other three council members were presented a detailed presentation by interim finance director Wendy Preece, with city staff members on hand to answer questions.

And there were plenty of them.

The proposed total general fund budget is $43.5 million, and it was presented as a balanced budget. But much of the discussion centered on the expenditures for and manpower provided through the Sheriff's Department contract as it relates to the Measure DD sales tax, which was approved by voters in 2016. The language explaining Measure DD in the 2016 voters' information guide promised to "keep Menifee safe by restoring the number of police officers we need to be full force" and "addressing our street infrastructure and traffic flow."

Measure DD revenue so far in the current fiscal year, according to the budget presentation, is $9.2 million. The amount budgeted from that fund for additional police officers was $3.57 million. However, because the Sheriff's Department has not completed the recruitment and training of additional deputies, five of the eight sworn officers budgeted for have never arrived.

According to city manager Armando Villa, the budget was adjusted in mid-year to put the unused funds set aside for those salaries -- as much as $3 million -- back into the reserve fund.

The proposed Measure DD budget for next fiscal year devotes $3.27 million to police. Thus the money will once again be there to pay for the four additional patrol officers and one additional motor officer, but there still is no timetable for when they will arrive. No additional officers beyond that are being requested in the proposed budget, and the city's contract with the Sheriff's Department will once again increase. The Riverside County Supervisors recently approved a 6.65 percent increase in the cost of police services for contract cities.

In fact, the only significant increase in the proposed Measure DD budget is in the area of code enforcement. The proposal includes $350,000 in Measure DD funds for three additional code enforcement officers.

"A lot of what our police officers are responding to are things like zoning violations, loitering and public nuisances," said Villa (left). "We believe it's more effective to pay for additional code enforcement to take care of those issues rather than paying patrol officers more to do the same thing. And a code enforcement has citation power."

Villa said this proposal was brought before the Measure DD Oversight Committee, made up of Menifee residents, and that committee members agreed with that strategy.

Council member John Denver asked when the additional police officers budgeted for in the current budget will be added to the Menifee police force. The response from Villa was, "They're still working on it."

Sheriff's Lt. Scott Forbes replied, "We've fulfilled all the requirements except for four deputies and one motor officer." The fulfilled requirements include four non-sworn community service officers, one sergeant dedicated to Menifee from the Sheriff's Department Perris station, and one crime prevention officer.

"We continue to have these increases," council member Matt Liesemeyer said about the expenditures for police through the Sheriff's Department. "If we lose Measure DD, it will only be more obvious that we need to do something. We need to look at the alternatives heavily."

One alternative is to further study a presentation made to the City Council by consultant Tom Hicks last October suggesting Menifee could create its own police department with more officers than the Sheriff's contract allows, and at a reasonable cost. No further discussion on that proposal has ever taken place.

City officials are well aware that a ballot measure asking voters to repeal Measure DD, authored by former mayor Scott Mann and resident John Smelser, will be on the November ballot.

Another key topic in Thursday's meeting was infrastructure. The proposed budget for Capital Improvement projects funded by Measure DD is $4.5 million. That amount includes $2.2 million to make the final payment for construction of the Scott Road interchange, expected to begin in August.

An additional $2.4 million is being reserved to go toward the eventual construction of the Holland Road Overpass. Those funds are coming from sources other than Measure DD.

The list of capital improvement projects also includes additional traffic signals and street resurfacing, but not a bridge on Bradley Road over Salt Creek, which floods during rains (right). Plans for such a bridge have been discussed for years. An official notice from the City of Menifee in December 2016 solicited public review of a declaration of negative environmental impact for the project. But although the bridge remains on the city's list of capital improvement projects, there is no funding for it built into the proposed budget.

"I've been here six years, speaking about this ad nauseam," said council member Greg August. "There's no DD funding for the bridge? It should at least be identified in here as a capital improvement project. Put aside $5 year for it -- something. Every year we talk about that bridge and every year the project disappears."

Denver agreed.

"I don't know how the Bradley Road bridge got moved down the list," he said. "If something happens on the freeway and there's rain, nobody's moving in Menifee."

Villa said city staff members were "taking notes" during the workshop and adjustments could be made before the budget is officially presented to the City Council for approval on June 20. He also spoke about the priority given to capital improvement projects.

"We focus on infrastructure that is an investment on which we can get a return," said Villa, referring to road projects related to major development. "I'm not sure we got direction today on the Holland Road Overpass vs. the Bradley bridge, but we will come back and clarify the issues."

The proposed budget also includes funding for 11 new full-time positions, which would bring the size of the city staff to 86 full-time and 10 part-time employees. Also in the budget is funding for the move to a larger City Hall, which is reported to be in a two-story office building being built down the street from the current City Hall on Haun Road.

During the May 2 City Council meeting, council members approved such a move, which would increase City Hall space from 13,000 square feet to 24,000 square feet at an improvement cost of $387,240. The city’s monthly lease payment would increase from its current $19,990 per month to $42,000 per month.