Public safety officials warn that if voters defeat the proposed March 11 tax hike for the Deschutes County 911 system, the agency’s ability to protect the public will suffer.

”Local taxpayers pay more than $50 million per year for police, fire and emergency services,” said Deschutes County 911 Chief David Malkin. ”If this (911) doesn’t work right, none of the rest of it is worth a damn.”

One of the most important casualties, according to Malkin, would be a recently purchased ”reverse 911” phone service, which has been used to alert county residents of danger. The system provided help in finding an 85-year-old Alzheimers patient who wandered away from home in La Pine in October 1991, Malkin said.

Authorities used the system to alert nearly 2,000 La Pine residents of the woman’s disappearance in just a few minutes – a task that would have taken dispatchers hours.

The woman was found after area resident Phil Fimbres received a recorded message and remembered seeing the woman earlier in the day near a fence. He flagged down rescuers and the woman was found nearby, unharmed.

The system was also successfully used to evacuate Black Butte Ranch during the Cache Mountain Fire last summer, Malkin said.

Election officials plan to begin mailing about 73,000 ballots for the one-issue election on Friday, Feb. 21. Voters have until March 11 to return their ballots.

The ballot issue asks voters for a tax increase of nine cents per $1,000 in assessed property tax value over a four-year period.

The Deschutes County 911 Service District currently is funded by a 75-cent monthly phone tax and a permanent property tax levy of 16 cents for every $1,000 in value. The additional levy would cost the owner of a $150,000 home an extra $13.50 per year.

The total budget for the agency is currently $2.8 million. The tax would raise about $800,000 a year for four years.

If the tax increase fails, Deschutes County’s 911 system will be losing money by the 2004-2005 budget years, Deschutes County Sheriff Les Stiles said.

Some other 911 centers in Oregon operate on a fee basis, charging agencies such as fire districts and police departments that use a combined call center a fee based on the number of calls received from their jurisdictions. Deschutes County operated on a user-fee system until 1994, when the permanent mill levy was implemented.

Stiles said returning to a fee system would deplete the sheriff’s department budget, possibly affecting staffing.

Stung by the narrow defeat of an identical tax increase in November, Deschutes County public safety officials are mobilizing to promote the March election. Backers of the tax have raised about $17,000 and plan to mount an advertising campaign soon, Malkin said.

In promoting the tax hike, officials will try to explain the breadth of duties performed by the 911 center, which takes calls and dispatches for several fire districts and police departments as well as state and federal agencies.

Malkin listed budget cuts that he says will take place if voters don’t vote for the tax hike. Cuts would eliminate:

– The $38,000 ”reverse 911” system.

– An $82,100 equipment reserve fund.

– A $93,967 contingency fund.

-A $125,000 paging system that would improve paging coverage in Deschutes County.

– About $12,000 in equipment to allow the county to comply with federal rules that will require dispatch centers to pinpoint the location of 911 calls made from cell phones.

– A $25,000 back-up communications antennae.

– The hiring of a dispatcher at a salary of $27,000, with benefits of $11,610.

No arguments against the 911 tax will be presented on voter booklets because none were filed, said Deschutes County Clerk Nancy Blankenship.

Supporters of the tax will have more to contend with than public distaste of tax increases that led to a 23,838-24,743 defeat of an identical issue last November. That’s because Oregon law requires tax elections in non-general elections to be decided by at least 50 percent of registered voters. That means if the tax measure wins, but, for instance, only 40 percent of voters vote in the election, the measure actually is defeated.

”Probably the biggest challenge for this election is getting a 50 percent election turnout,” said Bend Mayor Oran Teater.

Deschutes County voters have a mixed record when it comes to off-year tax elections, according to county clerk Blankenship.

Since 1999, voters have reached the 50 percent voter turnout threshold and voted in favor of tax increases for a three-year sheriff’s office levy, a Sisters School District bond election and a Bend-La Pine School District bond election.

Turnout below 50 percent killed earlier proposals for a previous sheriff’s office tax levy and a Bend Central Community College tax levy even though both of the issues garnered a majority of ”yes” votes, according to Blankenship.

The previous 911 tax election failed in part due to unfair media scrutiny of a pay raise awarded to Deschutes County dispatchers two years ago, Malkin said.

He defended the raise, which upped the minimum dispatcher salary from $11.42 per hour to $12.53, and the maximum salary from $16.98 to $18.53.

Malkin said the raises were implemented after a salary survey conducted in May of 2001 showed comparable dispatchers across the state making more money than those in Deschutes.

In addition, Malkin said the dispatch center was streamlined in 2000, cutting three non-dispatcher positions. More than 85 percent of the center’s $2.8 million budget goes toward personnel, he added.

The Bend City Council plans to weigh in on the 911 issue at an upcoming meeting, said Teater. Redmond Mayor Al Unger said the Redmond council has yet to address the issue. Sisters Mayor Dave Elliott couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.

The current national emphasis on security could help sell voters on the election, said Bill Friedman, a Bend City Councilor who contributed $600 toward promoting the 911 tax levy.

”They provide a really critical service, one that is particularly under these circumstances not optional,” he said.

Chris Barker can be reached at 541-617-7829 or at cbarker@bendbulletin.com.