Vallejo’s Measure P Committee recommends funding road repair, temporary police buildings

VALLEJO – Vallejo’s Measure P Oversight Committee recommended that the Vallejo City Council approve $10.5 million to fund roadwork, temporary police buildings and fire department equipment at a meeting Thursday, but declined to recommend $3 million for Mare Island Causeway repairs and declined $1.26 million for police and fire staff. 

The committee makes recommendations to the City Council on how to spend funds raised by Measure P, an eighth-cent sales tax increase passed by voters in 2022. The bulk of the funding that the committee recommended for approval is for repairs to the city’s streets. 

The recommendations include $10 million for road repair projects that will take place this summer. The planned projects will total 3 miles of badly damaged sections that need extensive repair and 8 miles of roadway that can be repaired and sealed to improve the surface and extend the lifetime. 

This package of road repair projects is part of the city’s broader plan for a 10 year effort to bring the quality of Vallejo’s streets up to a level at which the road system can be sustainably maintained. The entire cost of that project is estimated to be $120 million. City staff plans to propose a bond to finance the full project, which will be paid off incrementally with Measure P funds.

The committee also recommended $300,000 for temporary modular buildings to house the police dispatch center and other police operations during the construction of a new police station. 

They also approved $85,000 for firefighter personal protective equipment, $70,000 for ten thermal imaging cameras that allow firefighters to make their way through smoke filled buildings and identify hot spots. $100,000 was approved for pedestrian safety projects at 17 Vallejo intersections and $20,000 was approved for maintenance of the Bay Trail/Vine trail.

But proposals to fund the ongoing costs for police and fire staffing positions raised several concerns at the meeting.

Committee vice chair Brien Farrell acknowledged the importance of adding additional staff in public safety positions but questioned the long term impact of committing Measure P funds to the ongoing annual cost of funding staff positions.

“The reality is all departments can make valid cases for additional staff,” Farrell said. “We are understaffed but I don't believe that Measure P should assume responsibilities for funding positions in perpetuity.””

The Police Department requested $480,000 annually to hire four staff members to fill a new 911 “call taker” position that supports police dispatch positions, which require a more advanced skill level. The department also requested $354,000 annually to continue funding three police assistant positions that will lose American Rescue Plan Act funding in September. 

Deputy Chief Robert Knight said that the department currently has 13 approved police assistant positions but eight of the positions are vacant. He said that if the current ARPA funding is not replaced the department will only be able to hire for five positions.  

“The more police assistants we have, the more places we can deploy them throughout the department,” Knight said. “They do things such as take non-injury traffic collisions. They take stolen vehicle and stolen license plate reports. They take theft reports, burglary reports, they help us with directing traffic, whether it be traffic accidents or critical emergencies.”

The fire department also asked for approximately $430,000 annually to fund the salary for a new administrative battalion chief position that would coordinate the Emergency Operations Center, regularly update emergency operations plans and ensure that city departments are coordinated and all staff are properly trained for emergency scenarios. 

Measure P Oversight Committee Chair Jasmine Salmeron said that the rebuttal argument in the voter information guide for Measure P expressed community concerns that the proposed sales tax would be used for salaries instead of infrastructure because the measure did not include guardrails specifying what the money could be used for. 

City staff also requested $3 million to cover a gap in funding for repairs to the Mare Island Causeway bridge. The project is primarily funded by federal grants but Vallejo is required to provide 11.5% in matching funds, part of which is covered by additional grant funding. 

After the staff presentation of the funding proposal, community members from the Mare Island Special Tax Elimination Alliance brought up questions about Mare Island commercial property revenues that they claim have not been collected by the city. 

The group of Mare Island residents have long advocated for the removal of a special tax that requires Mare Island home owners to pay thousands of dollars more a year for police and fire services than mainland Vallojans pay.

Assistant City Attorney Randy Risner said that the city had looked into the revenue collection issue and it has been discussed by City Council in closed session. However, he said, they have found that the city can no longer collect those revenues due to a change in ownership that invalidated an early agreement with a former Mare Island developer.

The Measure P committee voted not to recommend the funding for the bridge, reasoning that the city has not been adequately transparent with Mare Island residents and that full details on the project’s grant funding had not been provided to the committee.