Curry County Defeats Law Enforcement Levy

Curry County may go down in history as the first bankrupt county in Oregon, possibly by next June.  The citizens defeated a law-enforcement levy, one of 4 levies on the ballot yesterday.  They did approve a hospital bond levy and a Port Orford police levy, but shot down the law enforcement and a levy. to fund a new fire truck in Gold Beach.  The county landed a $1 million Federal Funds windfall thanks to Ron Wyden, but even with that their projected deficit is at $2 million.
The county commissioners had this to say.

Curry County Commissioner chair David Brock Smith plans to open conversations with Gov. John Kitzhaber regarding the economic status of the county after the failure of Measure 8-73 at the ballot boxes yesterday.

“The whole thing went down in flames,” he said, after a long pause. “I understand the hard economic times we’re in, that it’s difficult for citizens to look at their pocketbook and have to write out that extra check. …”

The county has enough money to fund its existing services — already basically cut in half this past year — until June 30.

Of note is that the county is down to four sheriff’s deputies, leaving most of the county without coverage during some parts of the day.

“As unfortunate as it is, we must begin conversations with the governor’s office on what those minimum adequate levels of public safety are, Smith said. “We must keep some level of civility in terms of public safety. We must keep the jail open, we must be able to keep the DA’s office whole so we can prosecute crimes other than just Measure 11 crimes.

“We must keep the juvenile department solid so we can give them the resources to preempt youth from becoming adult criminals. That’s a core service within the county, if not the core service.”

Commissioner David Itzen said he understands why voters rejected the measure, especially with three other tax questions on the ballot.

“They just couldn’t find it within their budget to make the necessary changes,” he said. “I guess we’ll need to do something again.”

That “something,” Itzen said, will likely be another question on the May ballot.

Curry County “We’re cut to the bone.”

The Curry County Board of Commissioners met last week to try and figure out how to keep the wheels of government turning a little while longer.  It was a long painful meeting.  Since the voters voted down a property tax increase to fund law enforcement, their first priority was to fund that. 

Curry County will borrow $950,000 from its road department to help pay for sheriff’s deputies and fire suppression at the jail, commissioners decided Tuesday.

To highlight the painful decisions, they reluctantly aggreed to allocate $100,000 to install a fire suppression system in the 50 year old jail.  One of the citizens attending objected, noting that "It hasn't burned in 50 years".

Commissioners also debated — and eventually approved — allocating $100,000 from the road fund to install a fire suppression system in the jail. The state fire marshal has “given us a pass” for the past 15 years, Bishop said, but his last letter was more terse and implied the county needs to bring that part of the operations to code.

After that, there was nothing left for other County functions.

Many departments no longer exist under the auspices of the county, having been spun off into nonprofit agencies in the past two years. Among them are Home Health and Hospice, Curry Community Health, the animal shelter, mental health and addictions.

Next year, Healthy Start will receive no funding, nor will liquor law enforcement, planning, building or environmental offices.

And the county will have less than $95,000 to do desperately-needed repairs on buildings.

Commissioners expressed their thanks to the budget committee, whose members noted their struggles with the budget.

“I hate doing it this way,” Scaffo said. “I hate eating up those reserve funds. I hate taking road funds for a second year in a row. But the alternative is worse.”

“There wasn’t anywhere else to cut,” Smith said. “We’re cut to the bone.” 

The Oregon State legislature is making plans to take over the county administration and possibly levy an emergency State Income Tax on the county residents, anticipating that the county will soon be unable to fund the most basic functions.

Curry County Oregon will change

The Public Safety Property Tax levy was soundly defeated in Curry County, so what's next?

What Sheriff John Bishop believes he’s facing after Tuesday’s defeat of a public safety property tax is hardly the stuff of childhood Wild, Wild West games.

Throughout the past several months, Bishop has also related to the board his worst fears: criminals running rampant, no one available to respond to even the worst of crimes – and then, if an arrest is made, nowhere to put the perpetrator.

He’s spoken of the “Mexican Mafia,” insurance rates on homeowners and businesses increasing, the county’s liabilities and his obligations to maintain the safety and welfare of the citizens.

Tax measure 8-71 would have increased Curry County’s tax rate from 59.9 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation an additional $1.97 per $1,000 for those living in unincorporated Curry County and $1.84 per $1,000 for those living in the county’s three cities.

“It’s unfortunate that we were not able to inform the citizens well enough with regards to the importance of the levy,” said Commissioner David Brock Smith, by and large the measure’s biggest supporter. “And it would have been much easier to inform citizens if we’d had a unified board. The only organized opposition was the city of Brookings; I don’t know what their motives are for the opposition. Only time will tell.”

However one County Commissioner, Susan Brown was bubbly, she opposed the levy.

“Now we need to get to work.” said Commissioner Susan Brown, the holdout against the measure on the commission board. “I think it’s an opportunity – a huge opportunity. We’ll sit with the citizens and see see what we can do. It’s all good.” 

We'll see about that, doesn't sound so good to me.  The Cities of Brookings and Gold Beach have their own law enforcement, but residents in unincorporated areas are pretty much on their own. People are saying the State may have to intervene if law enforcement becomes non existent and they plan to close the jail and release all the criminals.  The State might enforce some local income tax levy to keep law enforcement going.