Paul Warr-King is the current President of the Gresham City Council.
We sincerely would like your vote to re-elect him to Position 5 of the City Council.

Public Safety (Police/Fire and Gang Enforcement Programs)

A recently completed Citizen survey revealed that crime is the major concern of the citizens. The media emphasis and a series of well publicized incidents on MAX may have magnified this problem over the past year. However the final recommendations of the Mayor's 34 member citizen public safety task force certainly reinforced this concern and the continuing negative image for our community.

The conclusions came down to the low ratio of police per 1000 of citizens for our community compared with other local jurisdictions. Since our general fund is used up to 90% for Fire and Police, with the residual used primarily for parks and economic development, it was recommended by the Task Force that we should propose a Public Safety levy on the November ballot to add 36 new sworn officers and 12 support staff.

This levy would last for five years and provide roughly $3 million per year for the funding of this program which would have strict accountability for positive results and performance.

One of my major concerns is how fast we can fill this personnel gap as there is a tremendous demand for trained police officers across the country making it difficult to "headhunt" for lateral moves. Newly hired "rookie" officers reportedly will take close to a year of internal and external training before they can be effective. I have also voiced my belief that with an increased level of policing, there should be an emphasis on Community Policing. This means getting out of their cars and mingling with the community by visiting with businesses and citizens to break down the image and communication barriers.

If you have a question or comment on the above, please email me directly at pwarrking@msn.com

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Please join us in re-electing Paul Warr-King
to Gresham City Council Position 5

If you would like to make a contribution, help us with the campaign or
just have a question please feel free to contact us at:

pwarrking@msn.com

"Bringing the experience, dedication and knowledge we need in Gresham"