Mayor John Tyler Hammons yanked his proposal to increase the city’s sales tax to beef up police protection from consideration Monday, offering instead additional time for the department to restructure.

Hammons called this past week for the passage of a 10-year sales tax that would have cost consumers an extra 10 cents for every $100 spent. The tax was expected to generate up to $6 million, which would have been used to hire 10 new police officers and create two more divisions within the department.

Those divisions, Hammons said two weeks ago, would have been charged with criminal interdiction and collecting intelligence on gang activity and organized crime.

Critics of Hammons’ plan argued in favor of restructuring the police department, which is staffed at levels exceeding the national average for cities of similar size.

According to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, cities the size of Muskogee have an average of 1.8 commissioned officers for every 1,000 residents. With 91 commissioned officers employed by the Muskogee Police Department, the city’s per capita ratio is 2.32 officers for every 1,000 residents.

Hammons said he decided to pull back from the plan after talking with residents and some city councilors about those concerns.

He said saturation patrols by police during the past few weeks in targeted neighborhoods have proven successful. Further restructuring, Hammons said, could help achieve the results he wants to see without raising taxes.

“I just think everybody should have some skin in the game,” Hammons said. “There were some concerns the taxpayers would be paying for this without the police department giving up something as well.”

Police Chief Rex Eskridge, who defends the size of his department and supported the mayor’s proposal, said after re-examining the issue he believes the delay is prudent. Some concerns that arose, Eskridge said, involved issues that affect the city’s contract with the union.

“I don’t want this to be divisive, I want it to bring people together,” Eskridge said, offering assurances delaying the vote on the sales tax would not put the public at risk. “We need to restructure — please give us enough time to do that.”

Eskridge said he believes he can accomplish through internal restructuring what Hammons wanted to achieve with the tax: put more officers on the street.

Ward I Councilor David Jones was the only person who expressed concerns about not moving forward with the ballot measure.

“I’m concerned that we have an immediate problem,” Jones said. “We need to restructure immediately. If we do this (not vote on the proposed ordinance) you need to report and let us know what’s going on.”

 Jones also expressed concerns that not moving the issue forward now would result with additional costs of a special election. The measure, under Hammons’ original proposal, would have been placed on the April 3 run-off ballot, negating concerns about election costs.

Reach D.E. Smoot at (918) 684-2901 or dsmoot@muskogeephoenix.com.