WOODS CROSS -- Drug related crimes in Davis County continue to occur, and in response, Davis mayors recognize the importance of continuing to support and fund the Davis Metro Narcotics Strike Force.
The first hurdle in meeting that obligation centers around making things more equitable between the cities who support the force by assigning an officer to it, versus the cities that are allowed to make an annual cash assessment to the force based on what some consider to be an outdated formula.
"We need to make certain the manpower and assessments are equitable," Bountiful Mayor Joe Johnson said. "The people that are providing manpower, compared to those paying cash, there is quite an inequity."
In citing a comparison, Johnson said, Bountiful Police commit about $80,000 to assign an officer to the strike force, while some Davis cities pay between a $4,000 to $5,000 assessment.
"We all need to play a part in it. The question is how do we fund it, and fund it fairly," Johnson said.
To get a better idea of how to fund the strike force more equitably between Davis cities, the Davis Council of Governments agreed to have a five member committee, made up of city mayors, review where the strike force is at as it relates to support and funding and bring a recommendation back to COG at a later date.
The agreement was made by consensus on Wednesday at the COG regularly monthly meeting.
"I think the police have looked at it. Some of the city managers have looked at it. But the mayors have not. We need to look at it from a mayor's standpoint," Johnson said.
But regardless of what is discovered, Johnson said, Bountiful Police remain committed to the strike force and will continue to assign an officer to it.
Of the 10 officers assigned to the strike force, five are from Layton, two from the Davis County Sheriff's Office, and one each from Syracuse, Clearfield and Bountiful, said Layton Police Chief Terry Keefe, strike force chairman.
The remaining Davis cities participate by paying an assessment, he said.
The concern is some cities have been paying the same 50-cents-per-person assessment for years with no readjustment for growth, Keefe said.
"It would spread out the cost a little more fairly," Keefe said. "Some cities are paying (to the task force) what they were paying in 1996.
But the city of Layton is not proposing the need for a change, Keefe said, but it is having to provide information to the mayors as a result of it having command and administrative control of the Davis Metro Narcotics Strike Force since January of 2005.
One of the changes that have been previously discussed is increasing the assessment per person from 50-cents, to a 60-cent, 70-cent or 75-cent per person fee, Keefe said.
For example, it cost Layton $429,000 a year in salary and benefits for the five officers it has assigned to the strike force, not including fuel or maintenance costs for the vehicles they use, Keefe said.
There has also been talk of adjusting the cities' population figures to bring them in line with the census, he said.
"Narcotics are a problem county-wide," Keefe said.
Johnson agrees drug trafficking knows no border.
"There is no question that the task force is great for the county and our cities," he said.
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