A Joplin town hall meeting was called July 13, 2006, according to Kaenan Cortez, Public Safety Citizens Task Force chairman, because the "future safety concerns of the city desperately need to be addressed."
A quick count revealed that about 8 citizens showed up who didn't represent media, a member of City government, the school district or a relative of members of the volunteer task force. And unlike regular Joplin Council meetings, this one wasn't being televised to reach those at home.
"The citizens didn't realize the need to upgrade," Cortez said at the outset of the meeting when he referred to the southwest part of Joplin as "definitely in need of a fire station." He then called the fire and police departments grossly understaffed and in need of up-to-date equipment.
"What is not getting the proper attention right now?" task force member Ryan Jackson asked, suggesting that the 5 or 6 patrolmen on the streets during the nighttime meeting were not adequate in maintaining public safety.
Taking into account a daytime population in Joplin of 270,000, and a suggested FBI staffing ratio of 2.3 patrolmen per 1,000 people, Cortez said that Joplin falls short with .29 officers during the day and that "outlying areas were unprotected". He didn't mention the role the Jasper County Sheriff's Department might play in filling in for the personnel shortfall, or the previously approved large increase in the sales tax rate in Jasper County supporting them.
Interestingly, in answer to a 2006 Police Citizen Survey conducted by Dr. Mark Elickson, president of Opinion Research Specialists, 82% of the respondents said they felt safe in Joplin and 85% said they felt safe in their neighborhoods.
A couple of times calling himself an "old country boy," Cortez, who works for a finance company, told the audience that he had no vested interest in suggesting that taxes needed to be raised to pay for the improvements and that he was not on the city payroll.
Cortez said he and his task force spent one month gathering information and coming up with options that included property or sales tax funding or a combination of the two. He referred to charts that showed Joplin appearing towards the bottom of a total sales tax ranking in April 2006 with a rate of 7.225% compared to a high of 7.388% in nearby Carthage or 8.6% in Miami, OK, the city that topped the list. Curiously, when comparing sales tax totals, Springfield remained near the bottom position with 6.6% and with a city sales tax portion of 0.750% less than Joplin, but in a better position to share in property tax revenue collected by Greene County, 0.6086% as compared to Jasper and Newton County's contribution to Joplin of 0.1527%.
Citizens speak up
Jim Baine, spokesperson for Citizens for a Better Joplin, said his group was "unanimously against any form of increased property tax or blended tax." Although his group supported the addition of fire and police personnel, Blaine wanted an assurance that the tax would all be used for public safety by a line item specification of its use. He also suggested that there be more cooperation between the City and Missouri Southern State University so that grants for which Southern qualifies may be used to help defray the cost of training fire department personnel.
Sgt. Michael Hobson, who is president of the Southwest Missouri Fraternal Order of Police, said in favoring sales tax funding that his department "provides service to many visitors" and that it was "only fair they should contribute," but Hobson called attention to the annexation of areas, including those in Iron Gates and around Petro, that stretched the department thin and condemned the City for not following through with the promise that sales tax from the annexed areas would pay for additional officers. "It never happened," he said. Additionally, he called attention to the shifting of monies from the police allocation in the budget to subsidize, for example, the golf course ($400,000), cops for city hall ($700,000), streetlights and snow blowers for the airport. Therefore, he concluded by saying that the fire and police department budgets should not be cut after the tax is in force, that there be no future caveats in sales tax funding and that all non-safety items in the proposal be struck.
Representing the voice of the Joplin R-8 school district with its 1200 employees and 12 campuses, were Jim Simpson (pictured), superintendent of schools; Jim Coburn, president of the Joplin R-8 Board of Education; and Paul Barr, R-8 chief financial officer. Although they came to the podium to speak their minds separately, they were a single force in criticizing the use of the property tax for funding city projects. All questioned how the City that supported numerous tax abatements for business development affecting 8% of the R-8 budget, could now consider dipping further into their source of revenue. "It would be so damaging for public schools," Simpson said. "We would have to back off for many years trying to get what we want."
Irwin Wilson, who maneuvered himself to the podium in a wheelchair, spoke for the large majority of citizens in Joplin, like himself, on a fixed income. He commented that he's seen "a lot of things go on that shouldn't go on" "Make sure that every penny goes to public safety," he said, "or citizens of Joplin will not go for it." He said he was against the blended tax and thought that the cost should be spread to visitors.
Don Hobson agreed with Wilson's demand that Joplin budget the monies responsibly. He asked the task force to "check priorities" and "have some concern for people that pay the bills," especially in light of the Joplin Library's request on the August primary ballot for a property tax increase of 10-cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Bob Davidson puts his priority as a taxpayer over his needs as a firefighter. He called attention to the "short funding of the police and fire pension plans as a major concern of everyone working for the City. He said there was a time when "people were savvy on how much revenue is taken in." He questioned why the revenue that must be climbing at a healthy pace isn't meeting the city's needs. In answer to his suggestion that spending should be prioritized on every level and budget increases controlled, task force member Naomi Ruth Hunter replied that there was "nothing in the budget to cut." Davidson left the podium and said that he would vote no against raising his own taxes."
Harlan Snow, a member of the staff of the Joplin Globe for 27 years, said he was on many boards during his residence here. He asked the task force to consider when out-of-town guests would say no to shopping in Joplin because of a high sales tax. He asked the task force to consider a property tax or general fund tax increase. Town officials, he said, were "flexible as heck when they purchased this building [city hall]." "Where'd it [the funding] come from?" he asked. Snow also didn't think it was fair that huge absentee financial investors collected revenue, put demands on safety, yet paid no property or sales taxes.
Task force members included one ex-council member, two people whom the voters rejected for city council slots, one ex-police chief of another community, one rejected nominee to fill a council seat, one possible cook-off organizer and one who doesn't like noise, a representative from an insulation firm and two others who managed to avoid publicity. It's interesting that so many citizens with credentials complain that they are not selected for openings on Joplin's boards and commissions.
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