Finding funds
Council, residents haggle over police funding package at session but find no easy answers

OPD Patrol K9 officer Sam Almaraz and Dory, the department’s drug dog, are in the process of training for Dory’s certification. Though Dory is not certified, she is currently able to detect heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana. The Ontario Police Department is seeking more funding from the City Council for new officers to tackle lingering gang and traffic issues.

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“What do we want to fund, and how do we want to fund it?” Alexander asked near the beginning of the workshop, but his question was perhaps interpreted more broadly than he had intended.

Ontario City Councilman John Gaskill said society, locally and nationally, inevitably pays a price to solve its problems. It either funds solutions or suffers the consequences of letting the problems grow.

“That’s the other side of how you pay the price,” he said. “Society pays the price by a degradation of the quality of life.”

Ontario resident Bruce Hunter pointed out there are still pressing financial issues the city must address.

“We’ve done nothing to correct the library, the swimming pool, the downturn in the budget,” he said.

He said the school district will also be asking for money for building projects.

“We’ve got to come up with a source of revenue,” he said.

Hunter was not in favor of funding the two officers with a four-year levy. He likened that approach to using a Band-Aid to patch an amputation.

“We’re not going to clear this problem up in four years,” he said.

City Councilman Jim Mosier agreed.

“We will have to look at long-term funding,” he said. “It should not be a patchwork process.”

Gaskill, however, said the point of a four-year levy would be to show the public the police proposal would have real results so they would want to fund a longer term solution later.

Hunter said the police department actually needs four or five more officers, but he did not know how to convince Ontario residents of that.

He also said 10,000 people may live in Ontario, but more like 80,000 people use the city’s infrastructure and facilities.

Those who backed the failed sales tax felt it was the only sure way to make everyone who uses Ontario pay for its services.

Alexander, however, said a relatively small percentage of the problems the police respond to relate to out-of-towners.

“We deal with people from outside Ontario about 25 percent of the time,” he said.

That percentage of all the contacts the police have with people has remained constant the past three years, he said.

Alexander also offered several specific questions about the police proposal for City Councilman Dan Cummings, who had received the questions from citizens.

He said the gang enforcement officer would work with property owners on graffiti removal, gather intelligence on gangs, work with other agencies on gang issues, including the county prosecutor and juvenile department, and educate parents and guardians on how to recognize signs of gang involvement in their children.

Cummings said some residents had been concerned the position would end up as just a daytime desk job.

“This is not a Monday- through-Friday daytime job,” Alexander said.

The right gang officer, he said, is going to want to be out on the streets at night tracking down trouble.

It will be harder to convince that person, he said, to do the public education part of the job during the day.

As important as the gang officer would be for the safety of the community, Alexander said, the traffic officer would be more important.

“When is the last time you were cut off or almost hit by an unlicensed or impaired driver?” he said. “The chances of that are greater than of getting shot by a gang member.”

He reminded people, “Criminals use vehicles in criminal activities.”

The traffic position, he said, would at least raise some revenue through impound fees, traffic school and court citations, though that would not be the main reason for adding the position.

“We want to reduce crashes, to make sure we don’t have a traffic death here,” Alexander said.

Interestingly, he added, most crashes in Ontario are at traffic lights, not at uncontrolled intersections.

City Councilwoman Susann Mills asked if all the budgeted police positions have been filled.

Alexander said two officers need to be hired into budgeted positions just to maintain the normal patrol staff.

He said the gang officer, traffic officer and part-time dispatcher in the new proposal would be in addition to those two previously approved positions.

Two more fully equipped vehicles will also be needed, he said, and those both should be pursuit vehicles.

Cummings said one citizen was concerned with the current laws and justice system, simply making more arrests might not do any good.

Alexander said the laws are fine, but he agreed the county’s juvenile department has very limited resources and almost no budget for detention.

“Most kids go home with their parents, even for major stuff,” Alexander said.

Yet, he added, when the department took an officer off of traffic duty and put him on gang enforcement for a while, it resulted in some major gang members going to prison. Ontario Mayor Joe Dominick said the discussion on the police proposal will continue during Thursday’s work session at noon in the council chambers.