Merced public safety tax in limbo? Some tense moments highlight Measure C council talks
Plans to place a half-cent sales tax on Merced’s November ballot to support public safety and essential city services were derailed during a sometimes-tense City Council meeting Tuesday.
A majority of the City Council voted last month to include Measure C’s renewal on the November ballot.
Measure C came before Merced leaders for discussion again during their Tuesday night meeting — but this time most of the council decided against it, by a 4-1 vote.
The absence of two council members from the meeting — as well as others changing their minds since the last vote —contributed to the renewal measure failing.
In the years since Measure C was passed by voters in 2006, the local sales tax has significantly bolstered Merced’s police and fire departments, as well as public works projects like road and street improvements.
But the measure was only granted a 20-year lifespan at the time and is slated to expire in 2026.
City officials estimate that without Measure C, Merced would face a $7 million annual budgetary shortfall, according to information previously provided by the city.
It would also leave the roughly 30 police and fire department jobs funded by the half-cent sales tax in a difficult bind.
“This is incredibly important to the fiscal health of the city,” Merced Mayor Matt Serratto said of Measure C.
The mayor said the renewal should go on November’s ballot because waiting until 2024 is too tight of a time frame if the measure fails.
Other renewal proponents have echoed this, stating the city should try for renewal during each election cycle opportunity.
Why did the council not support it Tuesday?
During the last Merced City Council meeting in June, elected officials voted 6-1 to direct city staff to begin the steps needed to put a Measure C renewal on the ballot in November.
Council direction came after city staff presented strong polling data indicating that voters would support a Measure C renewal.
A big difference from the last time Merced voters were faced with Measure C is that this time, the renewal includes no sunset date.
That means that if it were to pass, the sales tax wouldn’t expire until it’s placed on a future ballot and voters choose to repeal it.
Last month, supporters of the move faced minimal pushback from Merced residents who spoke at the meeting and the City Council, with only Councilmember Jesse Ornelas voting against the renewal measure.
That changed Tuesday, when Merced City Council voted on the next step of directing city staff to execute the necessary documents needed to put a Measure C renewal on the ballot.
Only Councilmember Delray Shelton voted in support of moving forward with the renewal — a marked change from the overwhelming support it had received during the last meeting.
Councilmembers Sarah Boyle and Kevin Blake, who had each previously expressed strong support for renewing the tax, were both absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
It is unclear whether the measure still has a chance of find a place on the general election ballot in November.
Discussion momentarily becomes heated
Some on the council voiced concerns Tuesday over how the process of getting a renewal on the ballot has been conducted.
Councilmember Fernando Echevarria, who previously supported placing Measure C on the upcoming election’s ballot, said he was “overwhelmed” by emails and messages from constituents that changed his mind.
“We’ve got time, and that is a good thing,” Echevarria said. “We need more community input.”
Echevarria criticized the city’s Measure C polling for surveying an inadequate percentage of his constituents in District 2 — just 8%, he said.
South Merced Districts 1, 2 and 3 in total made up about 34% of those polled compared to the 66% in north Merced Districts 4, 5 and 6, he said.
Echevarria called the polling biased and said it excluded many Hispanic and Latino residents from being surveyed.
Shelton pushed back against his colleague’s assertion, stating that the polling wasn’t meant to represent the entire city, but rather gauge the city’s temperament toward renewing Measure C.
“This is not a matter of race, this is not a matter of who was sampled and not sampled,” Shelton said. “Everybody will get a say-so on this. They’ll get a say-so when they vote.”
Echevarria staunchly disagreed with Shelton’s position. “In all due respect, this does have something to do with race. My Hispanic people are being left out of the conversation,” he said.
“You’re absolutely wrong. They are not being left out,” Shelton retorted, saying Echevarria was “out of line.”
“How are they going to know to vote when they are not even informed?” Echevarria shot back.
From there, Shelton and Echevarria both began to argue in an elevated tone, causing Serratto to use his mayoral gavel and call for a recess.
No definite end date for tax?
The half-cent sales tax also received substantial resistance from community members who spoke during Tuesday’s meeting. Out of nearly a dozen speakers, only one resident voiced support for including a renewal measure in the next election.
“Not enough people are aware right now what the tax is and that it’s an indefinite tax,” resident Noelle Anderson said in a comment that encapsulated many critics’ concerns.
Several residents voiced distress about the tax being put on the ballot without a scheduled sunset, stating that the community had not been properly engaged about how they’d like a Measure C renewal to look.
Anderson called on Merced leaders to wait until the 2024 election cycle to ask voters to renew Measure C, and conduct more thorough community engagement in the mean time.
Resident Pangcha Vang with the Party for Socialism and Liberation echoed Anderson’s concerns, stating that the polling survey was rushed, poorly advertised to Merced residents and biased toward funding public safety, even if participants wanted Measure C dollars used in different ways.
Although the half-cent tax funds benefits many community projects, a majority of the dollars generated go toward public safety. Several residents have asked the council to redirect Measure C funds toward alternative initiatives.
Vang said they attended a Measure C community focus group and only three people were present. “That’s just not enough. I want to hear where our community wants our tax dollars going to,” Vang said.
Frustration voiced with County Elections Office
Following the meeting’s recess, emotions again flared high when it came to light that an imminent deadline to get Measure C’s renewal on the ballot may be inaccurate.
Until Tuesday, the city had been operating under the assumption that Tuesday’s meeting was the last chance to execute the necessary documentation to get the renewal measure on the November ballot.
That deadline guided when Measure C renewal items were put on the City Council agenda and partially contributed to the hurried pace, City Manager Stephanie Dietz told the Sun-Star.
However, the Merced city attorney was informed verbally by the Merced County Registrar of Voters Office on Tuesday afternoon that the deadline wasn’t actually until Aug. 12 — over a month away.
Dietz said she tried to confirm with the county, in writing, that the August deadline was correct. But Dietz said she didn’t hear back from the Merced County Registrar of Voters or CEO’s Office before the City Council meeting began.
The city attorney informed the City Council about midway through the Measure C discussion that the Tuesday deadline appeared inaccurate, meaning the council had a unexpected cushion of time to decide how to proceed with the renewal.
The revelation elicited frustration at the dais, as council members realized they may have had more time to make a decision about how, or if, to put a Measure C renewal on the ballot.
“I just want to say, out loud, I kind of feel misled,” Ornelas said during the meeting. He also voiced irritation that the later deadline wasn’t revealed until it became clear that the tide of City Council opinion had changed against asking voters to renew Measure C this election.
“I think our problem here today is, we’re coming without the full facts, and that leads us to believe we’re feeling a little deceived, left out, not communicated with,” Councilmember Bertha Perez echoed. “That doesn’t feel right.”
Shelton also stated that the deadline information should have been sent out to all council members before the meeting.
During the meeting, Dietz told the frustrated council that the new information concerning the deadline should have been shared with them prior to the meeting’s start.
Echevarria called the last-minute deadline confusion “ridiculous” and stated that whoever is responsible should be held accountable. “I just want to find out who’s responsible for this misinformation coming from the elections department,” he said. “This caused a lot of distress.”
City staff said they received confirmation from the County Registrar of Voters Office Wednesday afternoon that the Aug. 12 date is the accurate deadline.
“The facts keep changing for us too, as staff,” Dietz told the Sun-Star. “I don’t think anyone was happy about what happened last night.”
County Registrar of Voters Darlene Ingersoll said in a written statement to the Sun-Star that official information regarding the November election was mailed to the City of Merced and other jurisdictions in May. That information included a measure calendar with recommended filing dates, as well as deadlines and applicable elections code sections.
City clerks were provided a training by the elections department in April —a portion of which focused on measures, Ingersoll said.
“Accuracy is very important to us at the Registrar of Voters Office,” Ingersoll said in the statement.
What’s next for Measure C?
With the Aug. 12 measure deadline confirmed, those pushing to see a Measure C renewal included in the upcoming general election may still have hope.
Serratto told the Sun-Star that Tuesday’s outcome was a setback for the half-cent sales tax, but not an outright death.
The mayor said he cast a “no” vote Tuesday for strategic reasons once it was clear the renewal wouldn’t garner enough support. “It was obvious to me that it wasn’t going to get the votes it needed to proceed,” he said.
Voting “no” allows the mayor or any other elected officialwho voted in opposition to make a motion to reconsider the item during a future City Council meeting.
With over a month to go until the Aug. 12 deadline, Serratto said he believes a Measure C renewal can still be revived in time for the November election.
“I’ll certainly make my best effort to give it my best shot,” he said. “In my view, this is something that’s incredibly important to the city’s operations and the services the city provides.”
In the lead up to putting a Measure C renewal on the ballot, Merced staff and elected officials have each emphasized that the stakes for the city are high.
In a Jan. 16 column in the Sun-Star, Serratto wrote that letting the measure expire would be “catastrophic” for city operations. Without Measure C dollars, police and fire funding would fall woefully short, he previously told the Sun-Star.
Approximately $88.1 million has been generated by Measure C since it took effect in 2006 and the start of this year, averaging between $4.5 million and $8.2 million annually.
If a Measure C extension fails to pass or be put on the ballot in November, the city will have the opportunity to retry during future elections before the measure expires in 2026.
This story was originally published July 6, 2022 at 1:53 PM.
