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ORDINANCE NO. 9016
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE XIV OF THE PUEBLO
MUNICIPAL CODE BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW CHAPTER 15
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF PUEBLO, that (brackets indicate
matter being deleted; underscoring indicates new matter being added):
SECTION 1.
The Pueblo Municipal Code is hereby amended by the addition of a new Chapter 15 of
Title XIV to read as follows:
CHAPTER 15
CITIZENS OF PUEBLO VIOLENCE AND CRIME PREVENTION ACT
Section 14-15-1. Intent.
Sec. 14-15-1. Intent.
The People of Pueblo hereby declare that on the effective date of this Ordinance, which
may be cited as the “Citizens of Pueblo Violence and Crime Prevention Act,” that there shall be a
one-quarter of one-cent ($0.0025) sales tax added to the rate in Section 14-4-85 solely for the
purpose of raising revenue necessary to enhance, implement and retain programs and services
to prevent violence and crime and to improve public safety in the City of Pueblo. 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. The tax will not replace local funds already budgeted for
public safety, nor shall it be offset by reductions in the budgeting of any position, operating
expense or entity performing services for the City of Pueblo. The tax rates set forth herein may
not be amended by action of the Council without the applicable voter approval.
Sec.14-15-2. Objectives.
The revenues raised from this Ordinance may be used only to pay for any costs and
expenses relating to or arising from efforts to achieve the following objectives and desired
outcomes:
a. Provide a broad and integrated network of violence and crime prevention and
intervention services, community-based programs and facilities, with an emphasis on
outreach to populations in most need, including at-risk youth and young adults.
b. Provide specialized community and neighborhood policing, training, crime suppression,
investigations and initiatives with a focus on Pueblo’s highest risk populations and highest
crime neighborhoods.
c. Reduce violence, homicides, robberies, burglaries, drug trafficking, drug houses, sex
trading, human trafficking, illegal gang/group activities and overall crime.
Sec. 14-15-3. Allocations of proceeds.
To achieve the objectives stated herein, no less than forty five percent (45%) of the total
funds collected shall be designated for the Safe Pueblo Programs component of this Ordinance,
which provides for a network of community-based services, programs and strategies. No less
than forty five percent (45%) of the total proceeds shall be allocated for the police services
component of this Ordinance, to include personnel, equipment, operations, training, and
consulting expenses for a Community Policing Unit consisting of at least 16 new sworn police
officers. Money raised shall not be used for wage or benefit increases of existing personnel. No
more than 10 percent (10%) of the total funds collected shall be set aside for office expenses,
staffing, consulting, assessments, plans, training and independent evaluations of the community
and police services and programs provided herein. No less than $40,000 shall be allotted for
education, training and seminars for Community Policing Unit officers during the first year this
Ordinance goes into effect, with no less than $15,000 allotted per year, following.
Sec. 14-15-4. Use of Proceeds.
Adoption of this Ordinance shall establish the following:
a. Safe Pueblo Programs. A civilian Program Coordinator shall be responsible for
strategically implementing the preventative programs component of this legislation, or
Safe Pueblo Programs. In consultation with the Public Safety Advisory Panel, the
Program Coordinator shall develop funding strategies that align with the services
delineated in this Ordinance. The Program Coordinator shall be based out of a centrally
located office (Safe Pueblo Programs Resource Center), outside of the City administrative
buildings, and shall be provided with the space, equipment, supplies and support staff to
perform his or her job effectively. Safe Pueblo Programs shall build a broad and integrated
network of best practice violence and crime prevention, intervention, and outreach
services. The network shall be involved in an extensive collaboration between various
program providers and inter-agencies including social services, the school district, health
department, the district attorneys office, the probation office, police, workforce agencies,
criminal justice practitioners and other related entities. Funding shall be provided for
training, seminars and educational opportunities subcontractors shall provide ongoing
training and technical assistance to funded programs. The Panel shall recruit, hire and
remove candidates for the Program Coordinator position. In the absence of a qualified
candidate, the position may initially be filled by an outside consultant, appointed by
member of the Panel, until a professional in permanently hired. The Program Coordinator
shall receive a professional pay consistent with the responsibilities determined by the
Panel.
b. Pueblo Safety Advisory Panel and Grant Committee. The Pueblo Safety Advisory
Panel shall oversee the proper administration of the revenue collection and spending, and
the implementation of programs and services funded through this Ordinance. The Panel
shall help the Safe Pueblo Program Coordinator create policies for Safe Pueblo Programs
and will review budgets, annual financial audits and evaluations. Members of the Citizens
for a Safe Pueblo Committee, who drafted this ordinance, will appoint the initial members
of the Panel and shall be charged with creating procedures, protocols, and by-laws,
including a system by which members will be elected and appointed after the initial
members terms expire. The Panel shall also provide oversight for the Community Policing
component of the legislation, reviewing financials, reports and evaluations, and making
policy recommendations. The Panel shall be comprised of nine (9) members with
experience in criminal justice, public health, social services, education, research,
evaluation, finance, audits and/or public policy. At least two (2) members shall have
experience working with the most at-risk target populations. The Panel may increase its
membership by majority vote and may stipulate that any member be non-voting, advisory
member to ensure that the Panel is least political in nature. To prevent conflicts of interest,
the Panel shall appoint a Grant Manager and an at least (5) member Grant Committee to
oversee the allocation of Safe Pueblo Programs grant funding. The committee shall work
in consultation with an outside consultant, appointed by the Panel, to establish committee
by-laws and rules of operation for grants. The Grant Manager and committee will draft
request for proposals for a competitive bidding process from grants awarded with revenue
from this program, and will monitor the compliance of the grantees under the guidance set
forth by the Panel. All grantees will be audited by an outside source.
c. Violence and Crime Prevention Programs. Safe Pueblo Programs shall collaborate
with an outside consultant, appointed by the Panel, and other interested parties to co-
produce a Community Needs Assessment. The assessment shall address the deep-
rooted social and cultural issues that contribute to violence and crime in Pueblo. A
consultant will also help produce a Pueblo Violence and Crime Prevention Strategy and
Work Plan within the first year, and every two years to follow, to include short and long
term goals, objectives and strategies, with measurable statistical benchmarks.
Recommendations shall be provided for specific enhanced and new programs and
services that further the objectives set forth in this Ordinance, such as the following:
1. School-based education and training programs to teach students and families
how to resist violence, gangs, bullying, drugs, and other issues.
2. Research-based services, campaigns and initiative for substance abuse
prevention, treatment and recovery, with a strategy to combine criminal justice
sanctions with substance abuse treatment to decrease drug abuse and related
crime.
3. Re-entry programs to assist ex-offenders with short-term housing, job
readiness, life skills training, mentorships and other services.
4. Activities, events, mentoring, outreach programs and summer campaigns to
target at-risk youth, young adults and neighborhoods with populations in most
need.
5. Recreational centers and facilities with programs for at-risk youth, young adults
and families in targeted neighborhoods where crime, gangs and violence are most
prevalent.
6. Self-sufficiency programs to include job readiness training, education,
internships and employment opportunities, with a special emphasis on at-risk
youth, young adults and ex-offenders.
7. Life coaching/intensive case management programs to re-direct highest risk
individuals towards healthy participation in their families and communities through
coaching, mentoring, advocacy and connection to local resources.
8. Street-based education and outreach programs to build relationships between
outreach workers and youth, individuals and families to encourage healthy,
productive and crime-free lives.
9. Neighborhood-based community policing programs to improve relations
between citizens and law enforcement, with initiatives to target the small
percentage of resident who are most violent and criminal.
10. Crisis response programs for victims of violence and crimes, with specific
intervention strategies for victims of gun violence and for victims of sexual abuse
and exploitation.
11. Other enhanced and new community-based nonprofit or agency programs
with innovative and best practice approaches to violence and crime prevention and
intervention.
d. Geographic and Community Policing, the new PPD Community Policing Unit, provided
by this Ordinance, shall consist of at least eleven (11) new Problem Solving Officers
(PSOs), including a supervisor or captain Team Leader, and at least five (5) Violence and
Crime Reduction Task Force investigators. The at least sixteen (16) police officers funded
by this Ordinance shall be provided with extensive training in best practice community
policing techniques for a more proactive, collaborative problem solving approach to
Pueblo’s violence and crime issues. PSOs shall focus on neighborhoods, building
interactive partnerships with citizens, leaders, organizations, nonprofits and other
agencies, PSOs will responding to calls for service in specific neighborhoods, will provide
traditional, foot and bike patrols (providing business cards with each encounter with PSOs
name and Safe Pueblo Program resources), will attend geographic and demographic
meetings, will recruit volunteers, will help produce newsletters and marketing materials,
and will assist with programs, especially for at-risk youth and young adults. PSOs shall
produce annual strategic Neighborhood Crime Prevention Strategy and Work Plans for
each of at least ten geographic areas, reporting crime statistics and achievements
quarterly. PSOs will be based out of the PPD’s East, West, South and any other
Substations implemented hereafter. The PSO’s Team Leader may be headquartered at
the main police department, preferably with a visible office at the entrance level of the
building, to help improve the quality of interactions with the public.
The at least five (5) police officers, hired as members of the new Violence and Crime Task
Force through this Ordinance, will be provided with funding for extensive outside
consulting and training to launch strategic violence and crime reduction initiatives, one of
which may be cited as “operation Ceasefire Pueblo,” replicated after a nationally
renowned, data-driven approach, using tactics and strategies proven to reduce gun
violence at least forty percent (40%) in U.S. cities. Industry experts shall provide ongoing
consulting for local officers as they collaborate with other agencies to target Pueblo’s
highest risk populations and highest crime neighborhoods, with investigations, patrols,
raids and crack downs on violent gangs, street level drug markets, drug houses, sex trades
and human trafficking, PSOs and Task Force members may provide training and
seminars in the latest community-policing strategies for citizens, students, volunteers,
officers, dispatch workers and other City personnel to help the PPD become a model for
coordinated best practice community policing. The Public Safety Accountability Panel
shall receive regular reports from the Community Policing Unit and may offer
recommendations for training, education, initiatives and policies to members and
management at the PPD and the City. A joint annual Public Safety Summit of community
members and agencies related to public safety shall be facilitated by a consultant,
members of the Community Policing Unit and Safe Pueblo Programs to discuss programs
and services provided by this Ordinance.
Sec.14-15-5. Auditing.
Adoption of this Ordinance shall establish the following:
An independent data-based annual audit shall be performed to assure accountability and
the proper disbursement of proceeds of this tax in accordance with the objectives stated herein.
The auditor shall be appointed by the Public Safety Advisory Panel.
Sec.14-15-6. Special Provisions.
The intent of this augmented funding is to help maintain sufficient resources to allow for
the implementation of comprehensive policing within the City’s resources and to begin the process
of restoring the sworn staffing of the PPD to a number of crime reduction teams, problem solving
officers and other sworn police personnel appropriate to meet the PPD’s stated mission to
enhance the quality of life in Pueblo, to solve crime problems and to enforce the laws, preserve
the peace, reduce fear and provide for a safe environment. To ensure the PPD’s progress
towards this mission the following shall apply:
a. Funds allocated by this measure will support a minimum of 16 sworn police personnel
positions above the 2016-2017 general purpose fund budgeted positions.
b. As early as practicable after the passage of this Ordinance, and at all times after July
1, 2019, the City shall maintain a budgeted level of no fewer than two hundred (200) sworn
police officers (not including the officers funded by this Ordinance) at all times, with the
long term goal of increasing the department to meet the state and national average of 2.1
police officers per 1,000, calculated as 231 sworn officers in 2016.
c. City Council shall adopt an annual sworn police personnel hiring plan demonstrating
how the City will achieve and maintain the strength of force required by this Ordinance,
taking into account historic attrition rates, recruiting success, academy yield and other
relevant factors affecting the growth or shrinkage of the department. Reports outlining the
number of working sworn police officers shall be made public once a month at Council
meetings.
d. The City shall be prohibited from collecting taxes for the police services component of
this Ordinance at any time that it has failed to budget for a minimum of 200 sworn police
personnel, and at any time after July 1, 2019, that it has failed to hire and maintain such,
with the following exceptions.
e. If the City fails to meet the maintenance number, the City will, within 90 days, provide
a report to the Public Safety Advisory Panel and the public with justifications and a plan of
action to return to the said level. The Panel shall review the City’s reasons for the sworn
police personnel falling short and a proposal to restore levels, and shall decide if a new
hiring plan is sufficient to prevent prohibition.
f. Prohibition will apply to the fiscal year following 90 days from the determination and
Council must adopt a resolution stating that the grant funding is no longer available. In
such an event, taxes will continue to be collected for the programs component of this
legislation.
g. Exceptions shall include severe and unanticipated financial or other events that so
adversely impacts the general purpose fund to prevent the city from budgeting for and
maintain this mandated minimum number of sworn officers. In this case the Council shall
adopt a resolution that includes reasons for a reduction in sworn police personnel,
approved by the Panel.
h. The City shall, reopen, maintain, and provide support staff for East, West and South
Substations, as mandated previously by voters so that PSOs can base their community
policing efforts out of these most at-risk neighborhoods per the previous voter mandate.
i. If there is a legal dispute between the City and this program, in the event that the City
loses such a legal dispute, the City shall refund this program for all legal costs.
FOR THE ORDINANCE 21,312
AGAINST THE ORDINANCE 26,289