Council approves PD sales tax for Nov. ballot

The Cameron City Council unanimously approved placing a 1/4-cent sales tax on the November ballot in order to generate an estimated $330,000 in funds for the city police department.
The final approval of the ballot measure occurred the same night as two Cameron Police Department promotions and Bashor hopes it will be a proactive measure in keeping well trained officers in a CPD uniform.
“What this would bring to us is to help the police department be more competitive with our salaries,” said Bashor while presenting the sales tax increase to the city council earlier this month.
“It will also reinstate our overtime. We’re on comp time so if our officers have overtime, then they have to take comp time off. With this overtime, we will possibly have more officers on the streets working.”
While speaking to the Citizen Observer in July, Bashor said one goal in the near future was to make department salaries more competitive with Cameron officers in some instances having starting salaries $8,000 lower than nearby municipalities. Other concerns Bashor hopes to address with the new sales tax is repairing the police station’s leaking roof and hiring additional dispatchers in the future.
Councilman Dennis Clark and Councilwoman Julie Ausmus initially showed hesitance to place the sales tax on the ballot.
Fearing voters would reject it t as a reaction to the recent across-the-board increase in utility rates, due a $1.1 million budget shortfall from lost utility revenue from the closing of Crossroads Correctional Center both Ausmus and Clark expressed their concerns during the Aug. 5 meeting and last week’s meeting but approved placing the sales tax on the ballot during both votes.
“This is the wrong time. I would do it very differently for political reasons,” Clark said. “I think it is going to be harder for you as a PD to be successful passing that tax and it may make it harder for us as a council and as a community to succeed … I’m going to support you because I need to send the message that we’re supporting the police. If you would like to sit down with me, then I would be glad to share my reasons why I don’t think it’s in your best interest as a police department. But I do not want to send a message to the community that you guys do not need or deserve this stuff.”
Before approving the ballot measure, Bashor formally introduced CPD Officers Steve Smith and Bryson Janovec as the two officers promoted to detective in order to reinstate the department’s investigation unit. Before the Smith and Janovec’s promotions, officers responding to the scene of a crime or incident conducted the investigation. That often complicated investigations with responding officers not able to follow up on leads due to having the next day off.
“We were short on the road and we need to make sure we have cars out there answering calls,” said Bashor in July.  “Now, we have filled two spots. August 1st, they will be starting full-time with us. Now, we get to fill those spots we’ve been without in our detectives division. We’re going to be doing a promotion, then we will get those detectives back there and working with the sergeant.”