East Palo Alto Municipal Code Art. I General

A. Title. This chapter may be cited as the "City Council-sponsored Crime-Fighting Act of 2007."

B. Purpose. The taxes imposed or increased under this chapter are solely for the purpose of raising revenue necessary to retain and enhance services and programs to prevent violence and crime in the City of East Palo Alto.

The parcel tax imposed in Article II is not an ad valorem tax on real property, nor a transaction tax or sales tax on the sale of real property. It is an excise tax on the privilege of using and use of municipal services. Such municipal services increase and provide a greater benefit to owners of parcels when programs aimed at preventing violence and crime in the city are enhanced. Because the proceeds of the tax will be deposited in a special fund restricted for the services and programs specified herein, the tax is a special tax.

(Ord. No. 298, pt. 1.1, 2-20-2007)

A. Investing in a coordinated system of early intervention, community policing and violence prevention efforts before crime occurs will reduce economic and emotional costs and be a cost-effective use of taxpayer dollars.

B. Violence and crime occurs at workplaces, on school grounds, and in residential neighborhoods within the East Palo Alto community.

C. Due to budget constraints, the city's police department is staffed at a level significantly lower than cities of similar size in the United States.

D. This special tax is based on a community assessment of innovative prevention strategies and is intended to be proportional to and based on estimates of typical use and benefit from these municipal services.

E. Crime in East Palo Alto disrupts local commercial activity, reduces business and industrial productivity, deters tourism and outside financial investments, and depreciates the value of real estate.

F. The apportionment of the parcel tax to various types of properties is based, in part, on the intensity of policing and violence prevention needed for different kinds of land uses and on the average number of occupants of a parcel of each type of property. Users of residential property typically generate more calls for service to the police and fire departments, and the intensity of use of police protection services increases as the number of residential units on a parcel increases. On the other hand, because of the typically large size of commercial and industrial parcels, and because the employees who work for businesses located on such parcels and the customers who visit such businesses generally outnumber the residents of even a similarly sized parcel of residential property (partly because nonresidentially developed real property often has more than one business operating on it), the tax on commercial/industrial properties is calculated based on single-family equivalent units.

G. As the density of residential development increases, the cost of providing policing and violence and crime prevention services also increases. The differing tax rates accurately reflect the differing costs of providing services to the different densities of residential development.

H. The parcel tax rates established in this chapter are intended to be proportional to and based on estimates of typical use of and benefit to occupants of different residential parcels of policing and violence prevention services. The rates are not tailored to individual use both because such tailoring is not administratively feasible and because the city must make police services available to all parcels and owners of parcels equally.

I. Each occupant of a parcel derives value from the availability policing and violence and crime prevention services. The value of such services is in their availability and benefit to all residents, and it would be unfair to charge their costs only to those persons who actually use the services. Even if such services are not presently used by an occupant, they may be used in the future and, in any event, their availability benefits each occupant. The city's policing and violence prevention enhance the health, safety and welfare of all occupants of property in the city and improve their quality of life both directly and indirectly. Reducing violence and crime is vitally important to the health, safety and welfare of the occupants.

J. It is not feasible for the city to collect the tax from the nonowner occupants on whom it is imposed because the records available to the city do not include the names of nonowner occupants. Therefore, the only practical way to collect a tax imposed on occupants is to collect it from the owners of the occupied properties.

K. This chapter is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, Public Resources Code section 21000 et seq., as it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity authorized herein may have a significant effect on the environment.

(Ord. No. 298, pt. 1.2, 2-20-2007; Ord. No. 304, § 1.1, 7-3-2007)

The tax proceeds raised by this chapter may only be used as part of the following integrated program of violence prevention and public safety intervention, in accordance with the following specific purposes:

A. Community and neighborhood policing, training, crime suppression and investigations.

B. Violence prevention services with an emphasis on youth and families. Such services include preventive social services provided by the City of East Palo Alto, or by adding capacity to community-based nonprofit programs with a focus on youth, ex-felons, domestic violence and support for senor citizens.

C. Not less than one percent or more than three percent of funds appropriated to each police service or social service program shall be set aside for the purpose of independent evaluation of the program, including the number of people served and the rate of crime or violence reduction achieved.

D. Mandated apportionment of funds: Of the total proceeds spent on programs enumerated in subsections A and B of this section, not less than fifty (50) percent of such proceeds shall be directed at violence prevention programs with emphasis on youth, ex-felons and senior protection.

(Ord. No. 298, pt. 1.3, 2-20-2007)