I am a member of the town’s Ad Hoc Citizens Committee to review ways to consistently generate a source, or sources, of revenues to maintain and improve the infrastructure of the town. The Ad Hoc committee consisted of myself, Lee Fagot (Chair), Mark Robinson (Co-chair) and two council people (Marico Sayoc and Steve Leonardis) with guidance from town staff. Essentially, the town can sell off assets or tax the citizens to accomplish this. If you read other stuff that I have written, you’ll understand that I am not for selling off town properties at all. Go here for more information: https://lg-ca.com/lets-dont-sell-off-town-property-just-because-we-need-short-term-profits/
Why was the committee formed? The town is looking for a more consistent source of revenues to finance the cost of repair and improvement of the infrastructure (things like streets, sewers, lights, etc). We were instructed to look at raising the Transit Occupancy Tax which is a tax on people that stay at hotels in Los Gatos. (EG, Los Gatos is currently charging a 10%, tax, Campbell is 12%, Saratoga 10%, Palo Alto 14%, Gilroy at 9%, etc.). Additionally we were to look at the Utility Users Tax (UUT) – think about your electric bill with the additional taxes tacked on) If we raise the TOT in Los Gatos by 2%, that will cost the visitor about $3.00 more for the average room. Our TOT rate has not increased since 1983. We have never had a UUT
Before we added taxes, we wanted to understand that the costs born by the town are pared down such that the town can do the best job with the least amount of money needed to do the job right the first time. The single largest budget item for the Los Gatos operating budget is currently a topic of major discussion, and that is the cost of local police vs the cost of outsourcing to the sheriff.. That has become one persons hot button that we felt we needed to understand before moving forward on taxes.
There are only three cities in Santa Clara Co. that have outsourced to the sheriff, all for a long period of time; Saratoga, Cupertino and Los Altos Hills. Cost comparisons are by the ratio of total police expenditures divided by total operating budget. Los Gatos has the highest ratio by far. With that said, we also realized that we have to understand what comprises the numbers. As with looking at a car to purchase, you need to know what’s under the hood, and what do you need (or want) to get from point A to point B. Some want a Lexus; some want a Fiat. The committees’ residents in particular wanted to know the basis behind why our cost ratio was higher and if it was justifiable or acceptable to the towns citizens, or not.
Les White, while employed by the town of Los Gatos both as an interim town manager and later as a consultant, did a study comparing the costs of those three towns and compared them to Los Gatos. As a very short summary of his findings, the wages at the patrolmen level were very similar. The patrolmen and the services demanded of them are central to the cost drivers. As you went up the ladder, the highest levels of the sheriff were considerably higher, but those wages are distributed over a larger base of the population. As I reviewed Mr. White’s report to the town, I came up with about 13 questions to better understand why our costs were higher than the 3 cities. We residents on the committee felt it imperative to understand whether or not we could help finance infrastructure by cutting costs rather than adding taxes. If you would like to review Mr. White’s report, go to: http://www.losgatosca.gov/documentcenter/view/15379
Before we looked at the police costs, we first questioned staff levels and found that through attrition, the staff is already substantially understaffed, so we did not pursue cutting more staff. That left us with the cost of the police issue which is brought up numerous times at council meetings by John Shepardson. Mr. White’s report was developed by the town staff and Mr. White. If you don’t conduct your own study to contradict their findings, then you have to make a judgement call based on the veracity of the people involved. Based on the people I worked with, and believing I am relatively astute, I believe most, if not all, of the answers I was given. Those will be forthcoming in the next installment.
You are welcome to delve deeper into costs as the budget is open and available at http://www.losgatosca.gov/21/Operating-Budget , and you are always welcome to speak at council meetings, or you can attend our Ad Hoc Committee meeting this next Tue, March 22, at 1 pm in the council chambers at 110 East Main Street. All of these meetings are open to the public. Go here to catch up on all of our meetings:
http://www.town.los-gatos.ca.us/AgendaCenter/Ad-Hoc-Citizens-Adviosry-Committee-16
This article will be built upon as this is the first installment.
phil koen
Here is my take on Les White’s analysis of police services. It is off the mark in that it frames the issue of local police vs the sheriff department in terms of costs, sworn service hours provided and response times yet never addresses the core question, namely, how much does the Town spend to deliver the desired outcomes of a low crime rate, less traffic congestion, better parking enforcement, etc.
Before one can make an informed decision on which agency should provide police services to the Town, we need to benchmark the current policing model to determine if the right level of services are provided at the right cost while delivering the right outcomes. Once we understanding the level of services needed, then we can determine which agency is best suited to deliver these services.
Lack of outcome data
The report talks at length about sworn service hours provided, response times and the cost of these hours. Mr. White opens the report by rhetorically asking if there is a problem with police services in the Town. But he never answers the question in terms of hard evidence that addresses the actual crime trends. Nor did the report analyze our outcomes vs. similar cities. Do other cities of similar size have better outcomes than we do and how much do they spend to achieve these outcomes?
We should not confuse the quality of the police services with the number of sworn service hours provided, response times or the ratio of total police expenditures to total operating budget. These are critical measures for sure, but only when you look at outcomes can an informed decision be arrived at concerning the quality of police services delivered and the level of services provided.
How do we compare to Cupertino?
The Town of Los Gatos (including Monte Sereno) has a population of 33,956. Cupertino has a population of 59,946. The Town of Los Gatos “buys” 81,120 sworn service hours (that is 2.39 hours per capita) while Cupertino buys 60,876 hours (that is 1.02 hours per capita), which is 57% less than Los Gatos.
As a result the police services budget for Cupertino ($10,634,011) is 22% less than Los Gatos ($13,746,579). That means that on a per capita basis the Town of Los Gatos is paying $405 vs. Cupertino paying $177. This is a material difference which is never addressed in the report.
The logical question to ask is what did the residents of Los Gatos get in terms of outcomes as a result of “buying” 2.3x more police service? Did this spending translate into a lower crime rate, better traffic and parking control, less traffic accidents?
According to a report issued by the Santa Clara County Law Enforcement Agencies prepared by the Campbell Police Department, in 2014 Los Gatos reported 737 crimes while Cupertino reported 1196 crimes. On a per capita basis, this report suggests that the crime rate in Los Gatos is .0217 vs. Cupertino’s rate of .0199! This leads to the following question.
Why does the Town spend 2.3x more per capita for police services and “buy” 2.3x more sworn service hours per capita and yet incur a per capita crime rate that is 10% worse than Cupertino?
How do we compare to Saratoga?
Saratoga (which adopted an outsourced policing model) has a population of 30,887. It “buys” 27,669 sworn service hours which is .9 sworn service hours per capita. This is 62% less than Los Gatos.
The cost of these service hours is $4,973,080 which is 64% less than Los Gatos. The residents of Saratoga are paying $161 per capita which is 60% less than Los Gatos and 9% less than Cupertino. On the surface this seems to be a pretty efficient policing cost model.
According to the same report prepared by the Campbell police department, Saratoga reported .0091 crimes per capita which is 60% lower than Los Gatos crime rate per capita!
In other words, Los Gatos “consumed” 3.0x more sworn service hours per capita, “paid” 2.5x more per capita for these sworn service hours and experienced 2.5x more crimes per capita than Saratoga.
In both of these instances more sworn service hours and excellent response times to crimes did not translate into actual lower crime rates on a per capita basis.
We need to understand why the Los Gatos police service model is not translating into better outcomes BEFORE we can address the question as to who should provide police services to the Town of Los Gatos.
What is the true cost of police services provided to Los Gatos?
The White report failed to analyze the total cost associated with having a local police force. The report does acknowledge that there are a number of unknown factors such as CalPERS liability, general and worker’s compensation liabilities, future pay increases which will impact the cost of future police services delivered. But there wasn’t any attempt to analyze the future trends of any of these costs.
Today, the safety pension fund which covers the Town’s Police Department has an UNFUNDED liability totaling $18.7m. This is a real cost that the Town at some point needs to pay. Currently the Town is contributing on an annual basis $632,785 toward this unfunded liability. BUT that contribution rate is projected to increase 90% to over $1.2m by 2020/2021.
The same issue applies to workers compensation costs. Over the 5 year period of 2009/10 to 2014/15 workman’s compensation payments totaled over $3m. Police claims have averaged 67% of the Town’s total claims which is over $2.0 million. We need to understand these costs and their trends in order to get a true understanding of the cost associated with a local police force. The White report failed to address this in a comprehensive and thoughtful way.
The possibility exists that the operating costs coupled with the retirement and workman’s compensation costs associated with a local police force may be too great for a town of our size to cover without a material increase in revenues to finance these services. Are the residents of the Town prepared to step up to this? My guess is the answer is no.
In conclusion White’s statement that “comparative information with similar agencies….demonstrates that the Town is competitive in terms of cost while excelling in providing excellent response times to crimes” is at best a dubious conclusion. The facts are that we pay 2.3 – 2.5x more than our neighboring communities on a per capita basis for police services and have a higher crime rate per capita despite consuming 2.3x – 2.5x more sworn service hours.
Let’s hope that this debate will focus on facts with the goal of determining what is best for the residents of the Town in terms of cost and desired outcomes.