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Public-safety sales tax funds staffing and capital for police and fire; chiefs press for training facility and more officers
Summary
City finance staff and chiefs described how the new 20-year public-safety sales tax will fund a firefighter pay plan, a training facility and additional police officers. The fire chief described a newly purchased 7-acre site for training and possible material savings; the police chief stressed persistent vacancies and long recruit timelines.
Finance staff reviewed the 0.25% public-safety sales tax (20-year measure approved Nov. 2024 and effective April 1, 2025) and explained a 10-year balanced plan to apply proceeds to pay plans, personnel, facilities and equipment without overspending in early years.
Chief Lorenz (Fire) said the department is operating from eight stations with minimum staffing and emphasized training needs and aging training infrastructure at Station 4; he described a recent land purchase of a 7-acre former lumber site as a candidate location for a new regional training facility and for shared material staging that could yield operational savings (staff estimated up to $200,000/year in aggregate materials savings through rail delivery partnerships).
"Our goal is to bring railcars in and train on... Ben is working on a solution to help bring salt and other aggregates in that the city uses... a ballpark estimate is up to a $200,000 a year that we could save in those materials," Lorenz said.
Chief Stefanowicz (Police) said the department currently has about 201 sworn officers with multiple vacancies and many officers unavailable while in academy/training or on extended leave; he said reaching a staffing level nearer national averages will take multi-year hiring and training commitments and asked for line-level officers as the top priority.
"On paper today we have one officer vacancy. The reality looks like seven in training and 13 in the academy… so very quickly, on paper one number, but reality looks like another number," Stefanowicz said, describing long timelines to recruit, train and staff officers for full 24/7 coverage.
Commissioners debated whether the city should reallocate more general fund dollars to public safety or use the sales-tax funding flow established by prior votes. No final allocations were adopted at the workshop; staff said the plan will continue to be refined and presented in the coming budget cycle.
