Police levy renewal to appear on May ballot

by Laura Bednar

Sagamore Hills Trustees voted to send a 6-mill renewal of a police levy to the May 6 ballot during a special meeting on Feb. 4.

This is a replacement of an existing levy that was approved in 2012. The continuing levy would cost taxpayers $210 per $100,000 of county fiscal officer’s appraised property value, generating just over $2.8 million per year for the township police department.

Residents are already paying approximately two-thirds of this cost through the existing police levy. Trustees said the township is waiting for the county fiscal office to produce final numbers to determine the amount of increase they would pay if the renewal passes.

Township attorney Jeff Snell explained the township is replacing the 6-mill levy passed 13 years ago with the same levy, and will collect the revenue on the higher duplicate. He added that levies do not increase with inflation and can only collect the amount passed by voters.

At the Jan. 13 regular trustee meeting, Trustee David DePasquale said the cost of police equipment, vehicles and labor has increased. Trustee Paul Schweikert said Sagamore has 14 full-time officers, which is expensive when factoring in benefits. 

“We’re not getting part-timers. We’ve had to hire more full-timers this year, which has driven up the cost. We’ve never had this before,” he said.

DePasquale also said at the January meeting that Sagamore wants to continue using outside company PRADCO to perform officer testing and behavioral assessments. “We don’t want to lower our hiring standards,” he said.According to ballot language, the funds would provide and maintain vehicles, communications, equipment, buildings and sites for buildings used directly in the operation of a police department; salaries; contracts made with political subdivisions to obtain police protection; and the provision of ambulance or emergency medical services operated by police.