New police advisory board set to start in Blue Springs

Boards work in Blue Springs.
There’s no reason to think another won’t.
Next Tuesday begins the start of yet another board, this one modeled after a similar board that disbanded in the 1980s.
Called the Public Safety Citizens Advisory Board, the group is comprised of six people, all recently appointed by Mayor Carson Ross and all graduates of the city’s Citizen Academy program. They are Chairman Chris Lievsay, Chuck Zuvers, Michelle Weisenborn, Lee Miller, Janet Black and Tom Echerd.
The board will serve as a liaison between the public and the Police Department, and it will offer public forums for people to talk about issues related to community safety and the department itself.
The first meeting, considered more of an organizational session, is at 6 p.m., Tuesday.
“From my standpoint, it’s needed,” Chief Wayne McCoy said. “I think it will only serve to strengthen the work done by the task force.”
Many issues face the department, including a possible public safety sales tax that, as other communities design it, serves as a funding source to pay for anything from equipment upgrades to personnel.
Ross said Thursday the board has a specific mission, and the sales tax issue will be one of the first the board investigates. Should such a sales tax appear on a ballot, it would be the first time for the city. And with significant mandates on the horizon, notably the radio system the department must purchase and put into place by 2013, the tax appears necessary.
For a public safety sales tax issue to appear on the ballot, however, the city would first have to get approval at the state level before presenting it to City Council, which would then vote whether or not to put it on the ballot.
The board’s involvement would be research and fielding questions from the public in a forum.
“We’re not sure when the public meeting will be held, but it should be in the near future,” Ross said. “But residents are welcome to attend the regular meetings.”
Blue Springs has a relatively low sales tax rate compared to most surrounding communities (7.3 percent), though certain areas, like the Coronado Drive, Adams Dairy Landing and Home Depot, have a rate of 8.35 percent.
A few board’s have been created since Ross took office in 2008, including the Multi-family Task Force, a Telecommunications Task Force, and the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Public Safety.
All such groups met regularly and made formal presentations to the City Council and Planning Commission.