Corona voters will be asked in November if the sales tax in Riverside County’s third-largest city should rise by a penny on the dollar to raise $30 million a year for city services.
The Corona City Council also placed a measure on the ballot that, if approved, would limit service on the council to three terms in one’s lifetime.
The council voted Wednesday, July 15, to put those questions before voters Nov. 3.
Terms last four years. The measure comes as three-year Councilman Jason Scott, in his 12th year, has pulled nomination papers to run for another term, city spokeswoman Cindy Solis said.
Term-limit advocate Chris McCoy said he lives in District 3, which encompasses central Corona, where Scott is looking to make his bid for a fourth term.
“Jason Scott is a poster child for why we need term limits,” McCoy said.
Scott, in an email, defended his plan to run and said the term-limit measure would not affect that.
“I last ran in 2016 against four opponents and over 22,000 Corona residents voted for me,” Scott wrote. “The voters made the decision to have me continue to serve them.”
If the measure were to pass, Solis said by email, only those terms beginning in 2020 and thereafter would count toward one’s lifetime limit.
In the upcoming election, the District 2 and District 3 seats are up for grabs, as well as the citywide office of city treasurer, she said.
As for the 1% sales-tax measure, Corona Mayor Jim Steiner said he realizes it could be difficult, with the economy reeling from coronavirus-related business closures, to persuade residents to agree to be taxed more.
With that in mind, he said, the council decided the new tax wouldn’t take effect until July 1, 2021, “when hopefully COVID will be in the rear-view mirror.”
In recent years, several neighboring cities also have won approval for sales-tax increase measures. In November, Menifee voters will be asked whether a recent increase should be repealed.
Steiner, a retired fire captain, said the additional revenue is needed to shore up public safety in the city of nearly 170,000 residents.
He said the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009 led Corona to sharply cut its police and fire departments, and staffing levels remain well below what they were before that period.
Solis said Corona budgeted for 193 police officers in fiscal 2008 and the current budget for fiscal 2021 supports 153 officers. In September, the city will add an officer to work cannabis sales, bringing the total to 154 officers. The city plans to add four more officers in the first half of 2021, she wrote.
Also over the past decade, Solis said, the Corona Fire Department has lost an aerial fire truck and a rescue squad vehicle, along with 18 firefighter positions.
“Obviously, when you cut, cut, cut you’re going to get slower response times,” Steiner said, saying the fire department is not currently meeting national guidelines.
“And that’s a problem,” he said.
According to a November 2019 audit of city fire operations conducted by Citygate Associates, none of Corona’s seven fire stations has an average response time approaching the 7-minute-30-second “best practice goal for an urban area.” The average citywide response time is 9:37.
Steiner, while emphasizing that the firefighters and officers on hand are doing the best they can, said police cuts likewise have resulted, for example, in less enforcement of such concerns as traffic violations around schools and business break-ins.
Having more revenue would address those challenges, he said, as well as enable the city to “build a powerhouse economic development team” that can lure high-paying professional jobs and reduce the community’s dependency on commuting.
As for term limits, Councilwoman Jacque Casillas, elected in 2018, said they would make council races more competitive, which she thinks is healthy.
“It’s a really good thing for our democracy,” Casillas said. “It’s a really good thing for our community.”
But, she said, long-serving incumbents have a huge advantage over newcomers.
McCoy, the resident who pushed the council to consider limits, said he is gratified that the council put on the ballot a measure that would establish a lifetime limit rather than require a council member to step out for four years or so and then let them run again.
“That’s just serving perpetually with a break once in a while,” he said.
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