Budget committee seeks clearer public accounting for Englewood’s sales‑and‑use tax funding of alternative policing

Chair Peter Atco opened the Budget Advisory Committee’s March 25 discussion by reviewing the 2022 voter‑approved sales‑and‑use tax measures and asking staff and departments to provide clearer public accounting for funds dedicated to alternative policing.

Atco read the ballot language the committee is tasked to audit: the measures increased the city’s sales and use tax by 0.2 percentage points to repay and improve streets and by 0.1 percentage points to fund “alternative policing services to address matters including homelessness, mental health, and addiction,” with revenues subject to annual independent audit and review by a citizen committee.

Committee members and staff discussed a spreadsheet the city uses to report dedicated expenditures. Nevan (city staff, identified by the committee as the in‑house sales and use tax expert) proposed separating a combined column into two fields: one that specifies services provided and another that lists the number of positions or FTE equivalencies. The committee agreed by consensus to adopt that format as the official reporting template going forward; no formal roll‑call vote was recorded.

Members asked the police department to fill out the newly separated description column consistently so that each line item (for example, “zone policing,” “impact team,” or “mobile response unit”) includes a short description of activities. The committee also asked for clearer metrics, where available, tied to the three topics named in the ballot: homelessness, mental health and addiction. The committee discussed three practical approaches:

• Have departments complete the description column (column G) consistently for every line item so a public reader can see the activities funded.

• Ask departments to mark which of the three ballot categories each expenditure principally addresses (for example, by adding checkboxes for homelessness, mental health, addiction, with a fourth category for co‑occurring incidents).

• Request a high‑level case tally for each category (and for co‑occurring incidents) so the committee can estimate the share of annual sales‑and‑use tax revenue directed to each category and present that allocation in its annual report.

Nevan and committee members noted data limitations. A police department representative said dispatch disposition codes already include an “H” tag for homelessness calls and that co‑responder deployments and formal program deployments are relatively straightforward to track; more granular categorization of every call may be inconsistent across officers and systems. The city manager and council liaisons confirmed the city has previously tracked some of these markers and that the city’s presentation can be adjusted to include this material.

The committee asked that both the Police Department and Public Works include a dedicated section about sales‑and‑use‑tax implementation in their presentations to the committee, and that departments provide the requested spreadsheet updates in time for the committee’s June 24 review and for drafting the committee’s annual report in July. Committee members also agreed to ask the police chief whether converting FTE percentages into estimated work hours for each program is feasible; the chief may respond that the conversion is either readily available, possible with additional effort, or not feasible due to mixed hourly/salary staff and recording constraints.

Peter Atco summarized the committee’s agreed asks and said he would circulate the requests to departments by email. The committee will revisit department responses at the April 22 regular presentations and will expect more detailed material at the June 24 audit and annual‑report meeting.

Votes at a glance: The committee approved the minutes of the Feb. 25 meeting on a motion from Chair Peter Atco; no second was recorded in the transcript and the approval was taken by voice vote (“Aye”), with the outcome recorded as approved.