On Tuesday, Dec. 5, the Stockton City Council will hold a second hearing to consider whether to renew Measure A, a ¾ cent sales tax for public safety and city services approved by voters in 2013.
The sales tax is scheduled to expire in March 2024.
The council is presently fleshing out a plan to earmark up to 35 percent of the Measure A funds toward police officer retention, which is an estimated $10 million to $12 million. Several council members lamented that the city has hired a sufficient number of officers, but lost them to competing police departments in other cities.
“A lot of our officers are leaving to work one city over, or (for) BART,” said Vice Mayor Kimberly Warmsley, District 6 councilmember. “We’re having a difficult time retaining officers. For officers to leave 2 to 3 years in, it’s a disservice to the community.”
While the city council is still formulating the precise percentage, Warmsley said the council hopes to solidify it by Tuesday.
Taking $10 million to $12 million comes with a downside, however: a potential reduction of officers on the streets.
“It does decrease the amount of officers on the force,” said Warmsley, “potentially a 50 to 60 officer drop.”
While Warmsley said the city has never been able to get to its target of 450 officers, “we are hopeful the new strategy, used with recruitment, will help meet the new mark of having 400 officers max.”
The new retention strategy has garnered support from the Stockton Police Officers’ Association, said Warmsley, while adding that as Stockton continues to grow, the hope is to “build back the force”
District 2 Councilmember Dan Wright viewed the extension of Measure A as “absolutely necessary in keeping the Stockton police department competitive with neighboring cities.
“We’ve taken way too long to adjust for it,” said Wright, in reference to the competitive salaries that lure away Stockton Police officers from the city’s ranks. “We need a retention strategy rather than a signing bonus. We’ve hired more than enough (officers) to fill our ranks. The problem is that we haven’t been able to retain them.”
While the city may continue with signing bonuses to “get them here,” Wright said “our issue is paying them enough to stay here, even when money is dangled in front of them from other cities.”
Wright pointed to the City of Alameda, whose council approved a $75,000 signing bonus for police officers in April, a move that Alameda Police Chief Nishant Joshi called the largest in the nation.
By offering retention bonuses to Stockton Police officers, Wright hopes more experienced officers will stay with Stockton Police instead of continuing to live in Stockton and working for a police department in the Bay Area. “We don’t want a bunch of young officers entirely making up our force,” said Wright. “We want to keep people in Stockton who know Stockton.”
Stockton City Council members have also been meeting with the California League of cities to reset the felony theft threshold under Prop 47 from $950 to a lower amount, said Wright. “The trick is, how do you fix that without creating mass incarceration? That isn’t good either.”
District 3 Councilmember Michael Blower called the proposed move to extend the ¾ cent Measure A sales tax a “no brainer,” because “if we don’t, we would have to cut a lot of city programs.”
Councilmembers Michele Padilla, Susan Lenz, and Brando Villapudua did not return requests for comment.
Want more? Sign up to get Stocktonia delivered to your inbox three days a week.