“MICHAEL KEMPS
”As a Councilmember, I would demand that we further investigate and measure our safety against other cities, with a comparison of the spending required to achieve these metrics. This must be accomplished in conjunction with evaluating costs and spending requirements to achieve these results. Making decisions associated with our community’s safety based on emotion alone is insufficient. Should our community ultimately decide that retaining our PVE PD presence is justified and preferred, I am not opposed – but the decision must be fully and appropriately funded and supported, with voters understanding the true and complete comparable costs. Passing a short-term funding bill with insufficient funds and zero escalation for Cost of Living Adjustments lacks truth and transparency.””

“JENNIFER KING (incumbent)
”PVE is one of the safest cities in California, and I am committed to ensuring that it remains so. While it is always helpful to learn from other cities, it is more important to understand the unique characteristics of PVE and the interests and well being of our residents. My goal on the City Council has been and will be to continue to deliver the level of safety our residents expect and deserve in a cost effective manner.’”

“VICTORIA LOZZI
”I believe the residents of PVE, as evidenced by the high voter turnout for the Measure E election and the 69% passage, want to maintain the PVEPD. But I do not believe that vote was a mandate from the residents for unlimited spending on the police department. The police department needs to run as efficiently as possible in order to get the budget as close to the $5MM tax revenue as possible. I believe more of the recommendations from the McCrary study should have been implemented to improve efficiency. The City Council needs to address the difference between the tax and the actual cost and communicate to residents the long-term budget plan.””

“KEVIN MCCARTHY
”I believe several if not many of those issues were identified during the Measure E campaign and nevertheless, two-thirds of the voters supported maintaining the PVEPD. Outsourcing police services would be less expensive because LASD’s infrastructure costs would be a fraction of ours and they have volume. However, the responsible thing to do is to reach out to agencies with similar variables and lower costs to determine what best practices could apply to PVEPD.””

“DAVID MCGOWAN
”I would be open to at least looking into these crime statistics, but based upon my experiences attempting to perform an “apples to apples” comparison can be difficult and many times misleading due to differing population densities, adjacent community crime levels, etc. I personally know the Mayor of Rancho Santa Margarita and would be happy explore their situation. “”

“BETTY LIN PETERSON (incumbent)
”I compare our PVEPD vs Sheriffs similar to PPO vs HMO. All is well when people are healthy (crimes are not being committed). But when people get sick (crimes are committed), is the extra cost to get faster, dedicated and specialized care worth the money? For our residents who suffered home invasion robberies, knowing that our Police sifted through hundreds of hours of video surveillance and was able to arrest, prosecute, and keep these criminals off the streets, I’m sure brings much needed peace and closure. Our PD was also able to connect these criminals to multiple unsolved robberies around Los Angeles and possibly Orange County. Of course larger agencies with shared overheads can be less expensive. But shared overheads and shared resources also means our crimes may not be a priority for them. Where as, to our Police Department, protecting the residents of Palos Verdes Estates IS their priority.””