PORT TOWNSEND — A measure to raise the property tax rate to support fire services was headed for defeat after Tuesday’s primary election, with 1,585 (54.73 percent) opposed to the measure over 1,311 (45.27 percent) voting in favor.
The measure needed 50 percent plus one vote to pass.
When the election results were announced, three Port Townsend City Council members, Laurie Medlicott, Mark Welch and David King, were attending a meeting of the joint oversight board of East Jefferson Fire-Rescue, on which they serve as representatives of the city.
All three, as well as Fire Chief Gordon Pomeroy, said the voters did not understand the measure.
And while the early returns demonstrated a decisive percentage, Welch noted that the vote margin was only 274 votes.
A simple majority of 50 percent plus one vote is needed for passage.
“It was an educational issue, and we did not articulate our message as well as we could have,” Welch said.
“This is part of an on going process as to what fire service means to the city,” King said.
“The city is unfamiliar with the role of the fire district, so we’ll just have to consider how to deal with this in the next round of budgeting.”
“In its entire history, the city has never voted on a fire levy,” Medlicott said.
“It has always been paid for out of the general fund.”
The measure was intended as a “placeholder” that will maintain services as the city and the county seek to reorganize fire services, either by creating an all-county fire district or to annex city services into East Jefferson Fire-Rescue.
It was meant to compensate for a $600,000 shortfall until one of those options could be ratified and bring city fire services to the same level to that of the rest of the county, where voters approved a levy lift April 27.
In planning the April election, the City Council decided to not ask voters for a tax raise, deciding instead to explore other options.
When those options did not materialize, the council voted to place the measure on the primary ballot.
After Tuesday’s vote, Welch said that action might have been a mistake, that the fire measure “maybe would have done better if it was presented along with the other ballot measures.”
King said that the city “would most likely try again” with a similar measure.
The measure would have increased the city levy rate for fire services by 43 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, adding an additional $190 annually in taxes for a house valued at $300,000, according to City Manager David Timmons.
The increase would have been reflected in 2011 tax bills, which will go out in February.
The rate that Port Townsend now dedicates to fire services from its general levy is 57 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
The increase would have brought the rate the city devotes to fire services to $1 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Port Townsend is not part of the East Jefferson Fire-Rescue district. The city obtains fire and emergency medical services from the district through a services contract.
The Jefferson County Auditor’s Office on Tuesday night counted 3,093 ballots of the 6,746 ballots mailed in the Port Townsend city limit, or 45.8 percent of the vote.
Countywide, 10,335 ballots, or 47.61 percent of the 21,704 ballots mailed, were counted Tuesday.
This included all ballots that arrived by Tuesday’s mail delivery, but not those placed in the courthouse’s drop boxes on Tuesday.
Those ballots — along with those from a drop box at the Jefferson County Library in Port Hadlock — will be collected today and processed for the next count, scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Auditor Donna Eldridge estimated these would add up to an additional 1,600 votes, and the county would show at least a 55 percent voter participation — 2 points fewer than what she had hoped.
Even so, later returns could reach that mark.
She said that Jefferson County’s turnout well exceeded the 38 percent statewide projection from Secretary of State Sam Reed.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
