— Reported by Alex Pickett and Wayne Garcia

It seemed simple enough. Neighborhood activists in St. Pete are faced with reductions in programs aimed at fighting crime and improving the city, due to the potential $22.6 million in budget cuts that may follow property tax reform.

What if, they asked, the city contracted out its police work to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office?

For the past few weeks, they had secretly talked with City Council members about the idea as they gathered financial data to see how much money could be saved.

But asking Sheriff Jim Coats to step in? That part was apparently too hot to handle. When asked about the plan by CL reporters, community leaders who had been briefed about it denied knowing of it or backed away from it quickly — likely because policing in St. Petersburg is a political and racial hot potato.

On Wednesday night, however, the Council Of Neighborhood Associations took the plunge anyway. Its members voted 13-3 to urge the St. Petersburg City Council to send a Request for Proposed Services letter to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office for a cost estimate on outsourcing police duties for the city. CONA’s police review committee will also start researching the matter.

“The rumblings have always been that the Sheriff’s Office could do the policing job for much less than the police department can do it,” says former CONA president Karl Nurse, who presented the issue to the membership. “It looks like the alternative [budget cuts due to property tax reform] could be as much as wipe out everything but police, fire, sewer and garbage services. In that kind of environment, I don’t know how you could not at least ask the question.”

This article appears in May 16-22, 2007.