Public safety, Measure P funds lead points of debate at forum
EL CENTRO — Public safety led the list of hot topics up for discussion at a City Council candidate forum held at Desert Trail RV Park’s Ryerson Hall Thursday night.
Other topics of concern included economic development, city restoration, the rising homeless population and tax funding allocation.
All five candidates — current Mayor Cheryl Viegas-Walker, former Chamber of Commerce President Les Smith, District Representative Tomas Oliva, Burgers & Beer restaurant owner Jaime Honold and business manager Sylvia Marroquin — were all in attendance. Voters will be asked to choose two of them on the Nov. 6 ballot.
Each candidate was given two minutes to respond to questions asked by a panel of moderators; following this portion of the forum, each candidate was given 30 seconds to answer questions submitted by forum attendees.
Throughout the forum, one of the most prevalent concerns was how to best handle and fund public safety. With multiple vacancies currently existing in the El Centro Police Department, all contenders agreed that hiring more police officers is a crucial task. Their opinions were more varied, however, when it came to describing the best way to go about doing that.
Oliva, for instance, said that retention is the main issue for hiring more officers. Smith expounded on that idea by suggesting the money from the oliva
approved Measure P sales tax be allocated toward better pay packages for El Centro’s police officers.
Passed in November 2016, Measure P enacted an additional 0.5 percent sales tax to fund general city services. The tax generates approximately $5 million per year for the city, but the best way to allocate those funds has been a topic of dispute.
While Marroquin, Oliva and Smith voiced support for using the tax dollars to reinforce law enforcement, hire new police officers and increase public safety, Walker insisted that the money generated from Measure P was originally intended primarily for capital projects, such as park upgrades and developing new facilities.
Dissenting from Walker’s view, Smith argued that higher pay scales for police officers would attract more qualified candidates, consequently reducing the number of vacancies on the police force by providing more incentive for competent officers to stay.
“We are still at the same staffing levels we were at 10 years ago,” Marroquin observed. “We still fall short of the minimum needed for El Centro’s population, and we need more revenue streams to unfreeze salaries.”
Contributing to the need for increased public safety measures in El Centro is the growing homeless population and the hotly contested methadone clinic near the downtown business district. With the homeless population treating their addictions publicly in the area immediately surrounding the facility, many citizens have expressed worry that an unsafe environment is being fostered and maintained by the clinic’s presence.
Noting that the city cannot force the clinic to relocate if it possesses the proper zoning licenses, both Honold and Walker said the solution is to rely on code smith enforcement to resolve the hazards created by clients of the clinic.
“We must run the city as a business,” Honold said.
Agreeing with Honold’s desire to attract new business investors to El Centro, Marroquin and Smith affirmed that bringing businesses up to code and renovating the downtown area is key to propelling economic development. However, solving the problem of vagrancy downtown remains a puzzle for which there was no consensus.
Stating the need for a cleaner and more family-oriented city, Smith argued the methadone clinic’s programs need to be restructured more
effectively. Calling attention to the fact many homeless individuals require adequate behavioral health services and affordable housing, Oliva stressed the importance of approaching the homeless conundrum with empathy.
“We need to address vagrancy in order to address the crime in our city,” Oliva said. Marroquin suggested re-evaluating the city’s resources by allocating funds to provide an official men’s shelter for those in need of housing. Currently, no such facility exists.
Continuing the discussion regarding public safety, another point of focus centered on the parks of El Centro. Citing the necessity of providing amenities to residents that increase their overall quality of life, Walker advocated maintaining and improving the city’s parks.
Both Honold and Smith expressed concern the city’s parks are not being maintained as well as they could be. With city resources lacking in this department, both candidates advocated for the rehabilitation of these parks before creating new ones.
Candidates touched on the development of the El Centro Aquatic Center on Adams Avenue. While Honold and Marroquin expressed concern regarding the projected
$750,000 cost per year to operate the aquatic park, Oliva and Walker openly supported the allocation of the funds. Insisting that money is already available to sustain operations for the aquatic center, Walker said both public safety and the operation of the park could be funded comfortably.
Smith and Honold, however, expressed worry that the cost of operation would infringe upon opportunities to bolster public safety measures.
“Funds appropriated by the state for our budget such as the Measure P sales tax are critical to sustaining our city and future without putting us in debt long-term,” Smith contended. “We need to clean our city up, and make it a friendlier place with these funds.”