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Show Point of Sale vs DUI Quota' System Chief, -MaQr Battle W.V.C. for Liquor Funds the funds to be distributed based on a department's DUI conviction rate and 20 percent based the population of the area it serves. Bell admits that proposal would reduce Park City's potential share of the funds to practically nothing. "We have a relatively small permanent population, and because we have no holding facilities in Park City and limited man power, we physically can't regularly throw up road blocks and make wholesale DUI arrests," the chief said. Notwithstanding the potential po-tential revenue loss for Park City posed by the per-convic-tion distribution method, Bell said he opposes the measure for ' 'legal and moral reasons." "It smacks of the quota systems used in the past that have been challenged legally and constitutionally," he said. "1 recent being told to get out and make DUI arrests if I want to get any state money for liquor law enforcement enforce-ment and I don't think that type of incentive is proper in any law enforcement agency." Both Bell and Green are supporting Senate Bill (SB) 109, a compromise measure that proposes to distribute the funds equally based on population, DUI conviction rates, and retail liquor sales. Because Park City has relatively high retail liquor sales it would be entitled to nearly $65,000 this year under the proposal. "We think this is a fair compromise," Bell said. "Liquor enforcement problems pro-blems are tied to liquor consumption, which is tied to liquor sales-not population." West Valley City, on the other hand, remains opposed to distributing any of the funds based on retail sales. Its lobbyists have apparently agreed to a compromise with half the money distributed based on DUI convictions and half on population. Bell said he plans to continue to push for a retail sales distribution method at the Legislature this week. The distribution of more -than $4 million in state liquor lawenforcement funds has been a hotly debated and highly controversial issue in both the House and Senate during the current legislative session that winds up this week in Salt Lake. Utah lawmakers are trying to find an equitable method of distributing additional revenues generated by the recently approved tax on retail beer sales, plus other funds that have been similarly similar-ly earmarked for alcohol treatment programs and tougher drunken driving laws. At the center of the controversy is a proposal to distribute the funds to individual law enforcement agencies based largely on their DUI conviction rate. Legislators earlier shot down an even more debated proposal that called for a cash bonus or bounty to be paid directly to officers for each conviction. The conviction rate method of distributing the funds is heavily supported by Salt Lake County's West Valley City, where bounties are already allegedly being paid officers for DUI arrests and convictions. West Valley Police Chief David Campbell admits his department is waging an aggressive war against drunken drivers, but Campbell Camp-bell told the Record this week it is not paying DUI bounties to its officers. "They're a lot of stories going on about us," he said, "They claim we spray cars parked at taverns with florescent paint so we can spot them when they leave, and they claim we pay bonuses for DUI arrests and convictions. Those stone: are not true."., . West Valley City does, however, frequently employ road blocks to catch drunken drivers, which has led to an unusualiy high incedent of DUI arrests for the department. depart-ment. "We processed over 1,000 DUI arrests last year, which averages out to about 15 per officer," Campbell said. He said some officers who routinely work the weekend road blocks have much higher averages. Because of West Valley's high rate of DUI arrests, it stands to gain greatly if the liquor funds are distributed on a per-conviction basis. Campbell said he supports that method of distribution because it provides some accountability for the money's use. "When the money was given out on a population basis, much of it went to small cities and towns that had no means of using the money for its intended purpose." Many times that money just wound up in the general fund and I don't want to see that happen to the drunken driving money," mon-ey," Campbell said. Park City Police Chief Frank Bell, who has openly opposed the per,-conviction proposal at the Legislature says that can't happen. "Those funds are specifically specifi-cally earmarked for liquor law enforcement programs and, if they are not used for those purposes, they revert back to the state. They can't just be funneled into the general fund." Bell and Mayor Jack Green have been vocal opponants of House Bill (HB) 53 that calls for 80 percent of |