Preserving the future of public safety

By City of West Fargo

When Police Chief Denis Otterness first worked for the West Fargo Police Department in 1994, the department consisted of 20 officers serving about 13,000 residents. When Otterness returned as police chief in 2020, the city’s population had exploded to 38,626. Today’s estimates place the population closer to 42,000. This rapid population increase has led to stretched budgets for both the police and fire departments and struggles to maintain an appropriate minimum level of protection and service.

“The reality is the growth of our community surpasses the property taxes that we are able to collect,” said Mayor Bernie Dardis. “The growth in the residential tax base is not keeping up with the demand on our police and fire departments so we need to do something.”

Both departments have come to a tipping point and are facing decreases in response speed and service limitations. They estimate it will take a $6,450,000 budget increase by 2026 to fund investments to fix these issues.

There is tough competition for a limited supply of outside funding from the state and federal governments and nongovernmental organizations.

After a financial analysis, the city identified an increase in sales tax as the best solution because it diversifies the police and fire departments’ funding sources, alleviates pressure on property taxes and shares the burden with visitors who also use the services.

A high volume of calls for service with minimum staffing levels has limited the police department’s ability to engage in additional proactive patrolling and deterrent activities.

“The community expects to see us in their neighborhoods patrolling. But we haven’t been able to increase our minimum level of patrol staff on the streets in a decade, so we are really stretched thin.”

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“I’ve been serving on the City Commission since the population growth took off and balancing the taxpayers’ safety needs with their financial needs has been a difficult process,” said West Fargo City Commissioner Mark Simmons, who holds the police and fire portfolios. “Adding this sales tax is a way to protect the ability of our public safety departments to do their jobs in the community.”

To increase the sales tax, West Fargo residents will need to approve a change in the city’s sales and use tax ordinance during the November general election. Ballots will include two city measures asking for approval to increase the tax 0.5%. Voters will need to vote yes on both measures to approve the increase, which could only be used on police and fire operations, equipment and buildings. Any use of the sales tax funds would go before the West Fargo City Commission during the annual budget approval process.

“Sales tax shares the cost of public safety with the greater public, not just property owners in West Fargo,” Dardis said. “Retail destination points in West Fargo are attracting visitors from across the region who are spending their dollars with us, but also using our public safety services.”

For example, car crashes can utilize both police and fire services for medical response, traffic control, crash reports and arrests. According to the North Dakota Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, only 28% of the crashes in West Fargo are caused by drivers with West Fargo ZIP codes. These incidents also tie up the limited staffing that is available and impact other calls for service.

“Our workload is increasing drastically and the data shows us that we are getting into a bad situation for the community unless we make some significant investments to catch up,” said West Fargo Fire Chief Dan Fuller.

From 2010 to 2020, the West Fargo Fire Department’s calls for service increased 900%. Fire loss increased 8% from 2020 to 2021 when it totaled over $1,100,000. At present, the West Fargo Fire Department’s response times for fire and emergency medical service calls are below the National Fire Protection Association’s standards.

“On major fire scenes, even if we do get there quick enough with the first truck, we still have a major issue because the next truck is too slow,” Fuller said. “The first on-scene firefighters are putting

SAFETY From Page 6 their lives in danger because they are on their own until the next truck shows up.”

Last year, there were 239 times full-time crews were engaged with multiple calls and off-duty and on-call staff had to be called in. Sometimes, the calls came in as frequently as four calls in 20 minutes and used up all of the available staffing and equipment resources the department has to offer.

“Up until 2019, we could go on every call that came in,” said Fuller.

“Because of the rise in calls, there were 5 times in 2021 that someone in the community called 911 and the department did not send a West Fargo fire company because all staff were already engaged on emergency calls.”

For the police department, these limitations don’t just happen when 911 is called.

“The community expects to see us in their neighborhoods patrolling,” Otterness said. “But we haven’t been able to increase our minimum

SAFETY: Page 9 level of patrol staff on the streets in a decade, so we are really stretched thin. We are struggling to proactively respond to traffic complaints, address frequent crash areas or increase visibility in criminal hot spots to provide deterrence.”

The public safety sales tax could only be used on police and fire operations, equipment and buildings. Any use of the sales tax funds would go before the West Fargo City Commission during the annual budget approval process.

For West Fargo City Commissioner Brad Olson, funding public safety is like funding an insurance policy for the community.

“You hope you never have to use it, but you can rest easy knowing that you have police and fire services at all times,” Olson said. “The alternative is not increasing funding and the response times will continue to get slower and callbacks will continue to increase.”

Recently, the West Fargo Police Department has been looking at its standard operating procedure for servicing non-emergent 911 calls. When an officer cannot arrive on scene right away the Red River Regional Dispatch Center will contact the caller after 15 minutes of waiting to confirm an officer is still coming.

“Due to the volume of calls for service we have, we aren’t able to clear our calls fast enough,” said Otterness. Now, the police department is considering extending it to 45 minutes before the caller is contacted again. “This is a real world example of the service limitations we are facing right now because of our staffing levels.”

Both chiefs say the sales tax will help them address the personnel, equipment and capital needs that have been put off over the years to keep property taxes down. This diversified funding approach also provides a long-term funding strategy for future population spikes as land opens up in the northwest segment of the city.

The impact of a 0.5% sales tax adds $3,675,000 in revenue in the first full year. By 2026, the revenue increases to $4,254,272, helping to further decrease the police and fire departments’ reliance on property taxes as a source of funding. This also offers an alternate source of funding for police and fire capital improvements to help decrease competition for capital improvement sales tax dollars that are earmarked for infrastructure.

For consumers, the impact will be a half-cent increase on taxable goods. For example, taxes on a retail bill with $150 of taxable items would go from $2.50 to $3.13, an increase of 63 cents.

As Commissioner Roben Anderson did the math to review the proposal, he found the impact of raising property taxes 10 to 15 mills to increase funding is likely larger than what taxpayers would spend through sales tax in the city in a year.

“On a $200,000 property, if you were to raise it by 11 mills that would be about $100. You’d have to spend about $20,000 in taxable goods in West Fargo in one year to equal that,” Anderson said. “So, it’s likely that passing the sales tax will cost our taxpayers less and they have control over it.”

Commissioner Mandy George also appreciates the savings for property owners.

“If this sales tax gets voted down, people’s property taxes may increase significantly to pay for public safety,” George said. “So, you are going to save money as a resident paying for it through sales tax because people from outside the area are also going to be contributing to that pot of money.”

As Dardis reviewed the options, he relied on two things: his commitment to the community and the data.

“My first oath is to the safety of my citizens and that is something I’m not willing to compromise on,” said Dardis. “We have expertise in our chiefs to gather hard data and analyze what our needs are and what we have to do. Facts are difficult to argue with when you are making decisions about people’s safety.”

To learn more about the public safety sales tax measure, visit westfargond. gov/Safety-Sales-Tax.