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217 Main Street
PO Box 168 Molalla, OR 97038 Phone:
503.829.2301 |
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| Trying to lock down funding |
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| Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office seeks levy to reopen jail beds, hire more patrol officers |
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 | | Photo By Curt Kipp | | Many beds go unoccupied at the Clackamas County Jail due to a lack of staff who are able to watch the areas. If Ballot Measure 3-246 passes, it would reopen 84 closed beds. |
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November is less than a month away. That means one thing — a ballot full of proposed property tax measures.
Molalla is faced with four, one from Clackamas County, which is asking for additional funds to reopen jail beds currently dormant and to hire more patrol deputies via the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office Levy 3-246.
Why is this tax increase needed now?
Advocates for the money measure point to the same thing — growth. Rapid growth.
Over the next 25 years, Clackamas County will double in size, according to Metro estimates.
Government officials say they are not able to serve this growing customer base without additional revenue.
They point to the numbers:
• Clackamas County has fewer patrol officers today than in 2001.
• Clackamas County has less than one jail bed per 1,000 residents.
• Molalla has two city police officers per 1,000 residents.
• And Clackamas County has 0.4 full-time patrol officers per 1,000 residents.
These numbers are well behind the national average. Most of Molalla’s surrounding area is covered by the CCSO, and the MPD uses the Clackamas County Jail to harbor those the department has arrested. However, many non-violent offenders, like drug dealers, go free that day because the jail does not have the workers to watch them.
With so much growth expected in the near future, officials say now is the time to act.
Levy 3-246 would increase property taxes 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value over the next five years. It would raise an estimated $42.7 million.
The money would open 84 closed jail beds by hiring 30 new corrections officers, add 19 more patrol deputies and create a task force to fight meth.
“Meth is one of the largest issues facing the county and the state,” Sheriff Craig Roberts said.
Clackamas County has 25 percent fewer patrol deputies today than five years ago.
Meanwhile, population and calls for service have increased every year.
The county is operating at less than one bed per 1,000 population, which is the lowest in the state.
Oregon’s ratio is 2.3 beds per 1,000, and the national ratio is higher — 2.5 beds per 1,000.
“We cannot continue to supply the same level of service,” Roberts said. “We just cannot continue to respond at this level.”
The problem: Of the 434 total beds at the Clackamas County Jail, 84 are unusable due to budget constraints.
The county does not have enough money to hire the officers to keep those beds open.
That has very real implications for public safety in Molalla and throughout the county, officials said.
Last year, 3,500 inmates were released early due to lack of jail space.
In 2004 a special corrections grand jury investigated the jail and issued a report, recommending a levy to fund reopening the beds.
Another grand jury report in 2005 seconded the past recommendation, adding “that all Clackamas County Correctional facilities are in continued financial crisis that is putting the community at risk.”
Barry Rotrock agrees. He is treasurer of the Safer Clackamas County PAC and a former superintendent of the Oregon City School District.
“If everyone could see the records of some of these guys that are walking out that door because they have been matrixed out, they would be pounding down the door to vote yes on this levy,” he said. |
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