Proposition 1.

Whatcom County Special Election — Proposition No. 1
Submitted by Whatcom County Council
Jail Facilities Sale and Use Tax

The Whatcom County Council passed Resolution No. 2004-050 concerning a proposition to authorize a sales and use tax for jail and juvenile detention facilities. This ballot proposition would authorize the imposition of a sales and use tax, in addition to any other taxes authorized by law, of one tenth of one percent (0.1%—10 cents for every $100) to be used solely for costs associated with financing, design, acquisition, construction, equipping, operating, maintaining, remodeling, repairing, reequipping, and improvement of jail facilities that house inmates being held, charged, or convicted of misdemeanor and felony acts, as authorized by RCW 82.14.350. Should this proposition be:

A car is weaving from side to side as it careens along the street in a school zone. A young school child in the crosswalk is frozen in place as she looks up in horror as the vehicle bears down on her. A moment later a young innocent life has been snuffed out by a man who is driving while intoxicated. Just one hour before he was stopped by a police officer for driving under the influence. The officer cited him, took away his car keys, and had to let him go because there was no room in the county jail. This could be a real incident and could happen to your family.

Drivers like this drunk driver can never be stopped and the community protected unless they are taken off the streets and put behind bars. In order for it to be effective, punishment should be swift and sure.

A young man on Railroad Avenue snatches a lady’s purse and knocks her over as he flees. A few blocks away alerted police officers apprehend him. He smiles as he is given a citation and then released. He smiles as he walks away because he knows that he will not be arrested because there is no room in the county jail. He also knows that he will never go to court to answer the citation unless he is arrested and booked into the jail. The next unsuspecting victim may suffer worse harm. Real incidents like this happen in the cities and rural areas of out county every day.

The Whatcom County jail, originally designed for 110 inmates now regularly holds over 250 offenders. This endangers both the inmates and the corrections officers who are there to maintain security and order.

Increasing numbers of criminals are moving into Whatcom County because the word has spread about the jail “booking restrictions” and they know they won’t go to jail. Each time someone is booked into the jail someone else has to be given “early” release to make room for the new offender. Offenders who should be confined and punished by the orders of the court are walking around in our community because there is nor room in the county jail. When someone commits a crime and is not punished that person is emboldened to commit increasingly severe crimes.

The Whatcom County Council has wisely placed a measure on the November ballot, County Proposition No. 1, that would increase the sales tax by one tenth of 1 percent, just 10 cents on a $100 purchase. If a person made $20,000 of purchases a year that would amount to $20. That’s a small price to pay for making Whatcom County a safer place in which to live.

It is important to remember that the money generated by the one tenth of one percent sales tax can by state law only be used for the construction and operation of a jail. It cannot be diverted to the general fund or for any other purpose. In addition, those people who do not live in the county but shop here pay one fourth of the sales taxes.

County Proposition No. 1 is being supported by the business community, judges, law enforcement and citizens who want a safer community in which to work and raise their families. The only people I can envision who would oppose this proposition are members of the criminal community.

Please vote yes on County Proposition No. 1.

Are the massive amount already spent on law and justice being poorly divided, thus creating the image of a shortage? Why is a new tax suggested when county reserves (savings accounts) are already twice the amount necessary to build a jail? Makes you wonder why the declared problems haven’t been addressed.

National think thanks describe criminal justice as a three-legged stool. Law enforcement works best when the police leg (sheriff), the court system (courtroom staffing, judges, prosecution, public defenders) and housing (jail and jailers) each possess an equal share of the public defense budget. It’s the obligation of our executive and councils to keep this balance.

But is this model followed in Whatcom County? Is it possible the problems are the result of a misallocation of already adequate monies? This writer feels it’s our duty to remind our government that they make do with the abdundant resources they already possess. So why do they say more money is needed?

Let’s agree that a stool needs three legs to stand evenly. For the sake of comparison in our jurisdiction, most would say that the court system’s leg is about right. The jail housing leg is perhaps a little short. Which might cause one to assess that the sheriff’s leg must then be too long. Bearing in mind, the stool model is used because it’s easy to visualize how ineffective a stool is when the legs aren’t even.

Deception begets misallocation. In a county where it could believably be argued that we enjoy the largest per capita police protection (local police, sheriff, state patrol, federal officers and homeland security—combined, they measure in the several hundreds) of any venue in America, how is it that we need a sheriff’s department that measures it employees in the hundreds? Is this where the jail money is being wasted?

It’s been said that sheriff response times are poor because there may be only three deputies to cover the county. This is the mantra that’s always used to get more personnel—and it works. But is this true? You do the math. There are currently some 80 (plus or minus) patrol personnel (allowing for sickness, leave, vacations), that means that the five shifts necessary to provide 24-hour coverage should already have some 16 officers available per shift. More than they claim, arguably more than needed. Additionally, the sheriff’s department has some 140+ vehicles, the bulk of the patrol vehicles costing about $50,000 to field. Seem a bit extravagant? Yes, it’s reasonable to ask, if there are only three deputies per shift, or even 16, why we need the extra 125+ vehicles!

The above is but one area of waste, but simple calculations of 125 extra vehicles at $50,000 per (vehicle, radios, computers, rear seat replacement and separation, light bar, push bumper, assault gear in the trunk, extra fuel, etc.) showing spending of some $6,250,000 (enough to have build a new jail) in years past.When the jail needs fixing, shouldn’t they do the upgrades instead of buying Expeditions? It seems inherently wrong to know what your demands are, ignore them, and instead participate in what appears to be empire building. Since government did the mis-prioritization, it would follow then, that for them to ask for, and we give them, extra bonus money to further gorge the criminal justice payroll, is … for lack of a better word, criminal. Bear in mind, they’ve got enough tax cash to buy all the rigs, staff them and still salt away “for a rainy day” several million dollars. Does this sound like they need more? Maybe it’s a “rainy day!”

They need to address the jail problems now, but they need to do it with the money they already have! Giving more now says, “your past waste is okay!”