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Chuck Hafner is spending his free time these days talking to people about public safety.
On Monday night, the Ponderosa resident joined Spokane Valley Fire Chief Mike Thompson, Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke and Spokane Valley Police Chief Rick VanLeuven at a meeting of the Millwood Town Council to talk about a ballot initiative that would restore Crime Check and bring significant upgrades to the county’s public safety communications system.
Last fall, Hafner volunteered to be part of a citizens committee dedicated to promoting a vote that would increase sales tax by one-tenth of 1 percent, generating around $8 million a year for the program. The ballot measure failed by 280 votes in November.
County commissioners have since announced that a revised version of the proposal will appear on the May 20 ballot – this time around, the initiative will include a 10-year sunset clause and more specific wording related to Crime Check.
“I think this is more important than school levies, bonds or library votes because it’s about our safety,” Hafner told Millwood council members at
Monday’s meeting. “We need to get the word out.”
The Federal Communications Commission is requiring that all VHF/UHF radio systems in the U.S. convert to narrow band technology by the end of 2012. Currently, most of the radio operations within the greater Spokane area are VHF/UHF.
Mielke said the short time period before the November ballot – voters only had about five weeks to study the issue – likely had an effect on the final margin. Thompson added that, leading up to the vote in May, “the focus will be on the basics.”
“I think the criticism we heard was that voters just didn’t have the information they needed to see where it fit into their priority list,” he said.
At the end of the presentation, the council unanimously approved Public Safety Communication Resolution 08-02, expressing support of the ballot initiative.
“This is money well spent,” said Council Member Kevin Freeman. “If we don’t start now and come up with a funding source, we’re not going to be ready by 2012.”
Van Leuven described how the 30-year-old system has become obsolete, resulting in lack of radio coverage and shortfalls in data integration and available frequencies. While the county has number for reporting crimes not in progress, Van Leuven said the loss of a full-time Crime Check number has had a negative impact on 9-1-1, specifically “when people call in with second-tier emergencies, tying up these lines.”
Hafner emphasized the importance of funding services like a “reverse 9-1-1 system” which alerts residents when there is a broad-scale emergency such as the fire storm that swept through the Ponderosa area in 1991.
“I wish we would have had reverse 9-1-1 back then,” Hafner said.
Thompson explained that improvements to the current setup would be “a multiyear, multi-phase process.” Overall cost for the proposal is expected to be between $40 million to $45 million.
“We need to figure out how to fix this thing,” Thompson said.
Mielke, who currently serves on the 9-1-1 advisory board, emphasized that voters can rest assured that funds generated by the new tax “will be very specific to this purpose.” He encouraged Millwood leaders to get the word out about the need to “help others understand the significance of this issue.”
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By
Craig Howard
