A plan to spend Measure H half-cent sales tax dollars was approved last week with a criticism that it’s been a practice that has been neglected in past years.
Measure H was approved by Ceres voters in 2007 and may only be used for eligible police, fire, and emergency response services.
The first Measure H expenditure plan was adopted by the city council in April 2008 and covered a 10-year period. The expenditure plan was amended in 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2016 to adjust for evolving public safety needs, including additional fire personnel, narcotics, the canine program, a crime analysis position, and new technology.
The last expenditure plan was approved in 2017.
Finance Director Vanessa Portillo noted that Measure H currently pays for 10 sworn police officer positions, approximately 21 percent of the fire services contract and about 35 percent for Axon for the body-worn cameras.
Councilwoman Cerina Otero said Measure H has been one of her concerns and said “I’m not sure why there hasn’t been a public safety expenditure plan in the past several years or why the city hadn’t been following what was stated in the ordinance … but we shouldn’t be out of compliance with our own city ordinance.”
“When we recognized that this was a deficiency, credit to the finance director, she worked very hard to create an expenditure plan,” said Interim City Manager Steve Williams. He said even though Measure H monies were approved as part of the budget process in all the years “there is not a page in the budget that you can flip to to see this is how all of the Measure H money is allocated. It’s spread throughout the formalized budget that’s adopted.”
Otero said the intent of Measure H tax dollars was to supplement existing public safety funding but “never replace the general fund.”
She noted that intent of Measure H was to fund a Street Crimes Unit which was later disbanded.
“It makes me wonder if we would have completed a forensic audit, at the time that a Measure H committee member had requested it, would the issue have been found months ago?”
