D.A.R.E. PROPOSAL DEFEATED KELLER PLAN, VOTERS SAY

KELLER - Saturday's defeat of a two-year, $1.3 million crime
prevention tax package was the result of opposition to the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education program, voters on both sides of the referendum
said yesterday.

"If there was a reason to be for D.A.R.E., no one told us what it
was," said Sharron Turner, who voted against the crime district.

Because of that opposition, city officials said they may seek another
referendum on the crime control district as early as fall, possibly
replacing the D.A.R.E. proposal with another anti-drug program.

"Based on the results of this election, the crime tax should be
resurrected again with the possible elimination of the D.A.R.E.
program, because it wasn't supported," said Councilman Ken Hill, a
member of the crime control district board.

Members of the crime control board had proposed using some of the
revenue from a half-cent sales tax rate increase to hire four officers
for a D.A.R.E. program that would have been extended from first
through 12th grades. More than $270,000 was budgeted for the first
year of the expanded D.A.R.E. program out of the estimated $700,000
that the sales tax rate increase would have raised, crime control
district records show.

Other revenue would have been used to hire a senior citizens advocate,
an advocate for domestic violence victims and four public service
officers to take over administrative duties often handled by patrol
officers and dispatchers. The district also would have paid for mobile
data communications equipment and two unmarked police vehicles.

Several officials said they were surprised by the election results,
saying they had been confident of the proposal's approval. Crowley is
the only other Tarrant County community to defeat a crime district
tax, rejecting one in January 1997. Voters in Colleyville, Euless,
Fort Worth, Haltom City, Hurst, North Richland Hills and Southlake
have approved a tax for crime control districts.

Some Keller residents who campaigned against the tax rate increase
cited concerns about D.A.R.E. and said the money could be spent more
effectively.

"There must be other programs available," said Patrice Stanton
Lenaburg, who voted and spoke against the D.A.R.E. program. "This is
money that would be better spent identifying the problem, then
counseling the kids with the problem."

Turner said the program is cost-prohibitive. She and others said they
were more interested in using the money to have more officers
patrolling the streets.

"If they had said, `Use this money to bulk up the Police Department,'
the proposal would have had a better reception," Turner said.

Police Chief Bill Griffith said he believes that voters didn't
understand what the city was trying to accomplish. Some people were
confused about D.A.R.E. officers' duties, Griffith said. New D.A.R.E.
officers would have performed other community police duties, he said.

Griffith also said that some people were overconfident about the
election.

"I think there was a real comfort level among those involved that
there was a lot of parental support out there for the D.A.R.E.
program," he said. "There was a big assumption that those parents were
going to be supportive of that program. I just wish they would have
showed up at the polls."

City Manager Lyle Dresher, who was one of several city officials who
believed that the measure would be approved, said that if it goes to
voters again, the city must do a better job of explaining it.

"In retrospect, perhaps we should have gotten out more information,"

he said.