The tide may be twisting in favor of Salt Lake City's goal to build a new downtown police headquarters with public money.
A new poll, commissioned by the capital, shows 68 percent of likely city voters support a $125 million bond known as Proposition 1 that would fund a five-story police headquarters and a three-story emergency-operations center east of Library Square.
Nearly 30 percent oppose the bond.
The phone survey, conducted last week by California-based Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates also reveals 90 percent of respondents are aware of Prop 1, which the mayor's office sees as a healthy sign for passage this fall.
"Policy analysts traditionally view 90 percent voter awareness of a bond issue in August as a positive signal that voters are engaged and are seeking further education," said Marla Kennedy, spokeswoman for Mayor Ralph Becker.
The results also reflect widening support -- indeed a 10-percentage-point jump -- for the measure. A July survey reported 58 percent backing for such a public-safety bond.
If approved at the ballot box Nov. 3, Prop 1 would cost the owner of an average $260,000 home $75 more a year in property taxes. A $192 million bond for a police-fire headquarters lost by a couple hundred votes in 2007.
Opposition to the police complex subsided this summer when Becker, under public pressure, abandoned his "preferred" location on Library Square. City Hall was blitzed with complaints -- a Facebook cause even swelled to 1,000 "friends" -- urging the mayor not to house police on the cultural square's green space. Now, the city intends to erect the new buildings on the east side of 300 East between 400 South and 500 South.
In the new poll, voters most frequently stressed the need for a new police-fire headquarters as the reason for backing the bond. Those opposed most often cited a reluctance to raise taxes. But despite the grip of the recession, the numbers suggest resistance to the bond is waning. Prop 1 faces no organized opposition.
The existing 50-year-old police building at 315 E. 200 South suffers from sewage leaks, water damage, a lack of space and elevators on the fritz. The proposed buildings, which also would house the fire headquarters, would be energy efficient, roomier and earthquake-safe.
"Even though economic times are tough," Becker said Wednesday, "this research reflects the community overwhelmingly agrees that a streamlined and cost-effective proposal to strengthen Salt Lake City's emergency preparedness is something worth considering."
In a glossy brochure addressing Prop 1, Becker labels the public-safety need a "moral obligation."
Flames raging in the background, two firefighters appear overmatched on a glossy brochure under an equally ominous headline: "The future of public safety ... it's yours to decide."
A supersized quote from Mayor Ralph Becker reinforces the point, calling the need for a public-safety complex "a moral obligation."
The pamphlet is a key tool in the city's "education" campaign about Proposition 1, a $125 million bond facing capital voters in November. If approved, the bond will fund a new police-fire headquarters and an emergency-operations center east of Library Square.
But despite the "urgent need" to replace the crumbling and crammed 50-year-old police center, state law says the city must be careful with campaign rhetoric since the consulting Exoro Group was paid $75,000 in tax dollars to distribute the information.
Neither the brochure in question nor the latest poll cross that legal line, according to city attorneys.
"We are deeply committed to fulfilling our civic duty and just limiting this to an education campaign," says Maura Carabello, Exoro's managing partner. "We are familiar with the law; we are comfortable with the law."
The city took no chances. A 15-page contract takes long strides to stress Exoro must avoid advocacy and stick to "neutral encouragement to vote." (As elected officials, Becker and City Council members are exempt from the rule.)
City Attorney Ed Rutan says Exoro frequently will float Prop 1 language by his attorneys to be safe. "We'll look at some of the copy," Rutan explains, "and say, 'That's OK, that's OK, that sounds like advocacy, so no.' "
That said, the pollster Exoro hired -- California-based Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates -- boasts on its Web site that it has helped local governments pass tens of billions in bonds.
The company says its surveys "help shape the communications for winning the necessary approval from voters."
In 2007, days before a $192 million public-safety bond narrowly lost at the polls, the city was busted for asking police dispatchers to help stuff 50,000 envelopes with bond fliers. State law bars city employees from electioneering on the taxpayer dime.
"They had such a sensitivity to this issue that we decided it was best just to run an education campaign," says Carabello, noting her suggestion to run a corollary advocacy campaign with private money was rejected by the mayor's team. "They wanted a lot of distance from it."
Derek P. Jensen
