Business Group Looks at Ways to Beef Up Policing

Fed up with an underfinanced and overworked police force, an influential group of business people led by a former mayor plans to present recommendations to improve the department to the City Council within 30 days.

The group has discussed proposals ranging from increasing taxes to pay for more police to contracting for law enforcement services with the county sheriff--the culmination of seven months of research.

It is unknown whether proposals from an independent panel not affiliated with City Hall would be swiftly adopted, but city officials say they are prepared to listen to the group’s concerns.

Yet the unprecedented step of examining law enforcement issues by a 10-member group of concerned residents--who call themselves the Public Safety Strategy Team--is a sign of the dissatisfaction with crime that some have in this poor agricultural community.

“People are upset because the community seems to have decayed over the years,” said Police Chief Walt Adair, who concedes that his department’s upcoming $3.05-million budget means focusing on major crimes to the detriment of quality-of-life concerns.

“The little neighborhood things--graffiti, vandalism--they give a negative impression of the community,” he said. “Frankly, we’re underfunded. We don’t have the [financial] level or people we need to do the job.”

Few disagree that something needs to be done.

For the past three years, Santa Paula has cut its police budget while other cities in the county have increased funds for law enforcement. Similarly sized Port Hueneme, for example, increased its spending for police by 32%.

After eight months working without a labor contract, the Police Department’s 33 employees finally received a new pact early Tuesday, but despite 9% in raises scheduled over two years, Santa Paula’s officers remain the lowest paid in the county.

And although major crimes decreased in Santa Paula between 1993 and 1995, Adair noted in an unusually candid report to the council that residents are expressing “outright dissatisfaction” with criminal activity in the city of 26,700.

“There is, I believe, a perception that the town is becoming crime-ridden and nothing is being done by the city to stop it,” he wrote in the February report. “The feeling I get from the community is that there is far more crime and criminal activity in town than the raw numbers . . . suggest.”

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The committee’s efforts are an expression of that simmering frustration.

“I’m . . . hoping against hope that in some way the city could create more revenue,” said committee member Steve Hanson, a real estate agent. “Presently, there’s not enough money to go around, and that’s symptomatic of a lot of our departments in the city. . . . Our streets aren’t doing too well either.”

More money invariably translates into more taxes.

“Any type of attempt to raise taxes or assessments would have to come from the public because the city can’t do it alone,” City Manager Arnold Dowdy said. “It’s political suicide to go out there and start putting taxes on people.”

A utility tax designated to pay for more police would be difficult to pass, because it would require two-thirds approval at the ballot box.

Over the long term, the best solution is to expand the tax base, Mayor John Melton said. And while the city is trying to do that--a San Fernando company, for example, has agreed to save about 200 jobs by taking over operation of a Santa Paula lingerie plant that was slated to close this summer--economic development efforts don’t translate into instant cash.

An alternative is to get more for less, perhaps by contracting for police services with the county. But former Mayor Kay Wilson-Bolton, the committee’s organizer, said that is only one of several options being studied.

“We’re looking into what’s best for . . . the city,” she said. “This is not a single-issue matter.”

A recent Times survey showed that sheriff’s deputies police four of the five cities with the lowest law enforcement costs in Ventura County. However, most of those cities are affluent white-collar communities with lower crime rates than Santa Paula.

And Melton, who opposes contracting, said that determining the Police Department’s value can’t be measured only in dollars.

“The dedication of our officers--that’s worth something to me,” he said. “Their involvement in the community. That’s worth something to me--and the community.”

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The committee is waiting to unveil its recommendations until the results of an unrelated municipal survey are tabulated next month. The questionnaire asks residents for feedback on such issues as the Police Department’s performance.

Meanwhile, the committee meets monthly and has interviewed everybody from Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury to Det. Gary Marshall, president of the Santa Paula Police Officers Assn.

But the group has apparently yet to reach a consensus.

“I kind of suspect they’ll come out with several different types of alternatives,” Marshall said. “I know for a fact there is some difference of opinion [on the committee]. Some people think the sheriff’s contract would be better. Some people want to keep a small-town police department.”

Whatever happens, Hanson believes that the group has already made a difference in the community.

“It’s real easy to get complacent and think that nothing can be done,” he said. “If nothing else, maybe the City Council will open their eyes and see the magnitude of the problem.”