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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPSC Minutes 7-28-16 approvedCouncil Public Safety Committee July 28, 2016 MINUTES Members: Councilmember Kathy Coffey (chair) Councilmember Dulce Gutierrez Councilmember Bill Lover (alt.) The meeting was called to order at 3:03 p.m. • Proposed Street Lighting upgrade Staff: City Manager Cliff Moore Chief Dominic Rizzi, Police Chief Bob Stewart, Fire Scott Schafer, Public Works Cynthia Martinez, City Prosecutor Joan Davenport, Community Dev. Joe Caruso, Code Enforcement Joe Rosenlund, Public Works Brett Sheffield, Engineering Terri Croft, Police Schafer presented a proposal to upgrade lighting using statistics of crimes of opportunity as a basis for installation prioritization. The proposal was for $100,000 per year for the next 5 years and will be included in the 2017 budget requests. Schafer advised that he did not believe budget cuts in other areas of his budget could be identified to cover the request, but upgrades will need to be done and prioritized with whatever funding is awarded. The committee requested that reports be submitted of the areas upgraded and crime statistics in those areas. Schafer provided additional information about individual citizen requests for lighting. Any individual requests for lighting that are currently pending would be processed and then the new crime statistically driven prioritization method would be implemented. The committee inquired if grant funding was being sought. Schafer advised the available grants are not as robust as they have been in previous years. There are some rebates available through Pacific Power and there is cost savings in operations once the lighting is switched over to LED. It was MOVED by Gutierrez and SECONDED by Lover to move this issue to the budgeting process. Motion PASSED unanimously. Moore stated that there would be prioritization of all strategic initiatives during the budget process. • Complete Streets Ordinance Sheffield presented the proposed Complete Streets Ordinance, advising the Transportation Improvement Board has a new funding mechanism and the complete streets ordinance was needed to be eligible for funding. He requested the ordinance be placed on the August 16 full council agenda, which would allow the city to be eligible to apply for funds. Lover inquired about recent Supreme Court rulings that might impact the Complete Streets Ordinance, that the ruling would require bicycles to be addressed within the ordinance. He expressed concerns over risk management and inquired if Seattle consultants could be kept on to advise on these issues or if there was time to address bicycle issues in the ordinance while still maintaining the timelines for grant submission, or if grant funding could be applied for to address the bicycle issues. Sheffield advised he would research the issue and if there was any additional information that could or should be included, it would be added prior to submission to the full council. Gutierrez requested clarification on exemptions to the ordinance. Sheffield advised all exemptions would go before the Bicycle/Pedestrian Committee. There was additional discussion regarding the Bicycle/Pedestrian Committee. The ordinance was moved forward to the full council for consideration. Coffey additionally requested that the placement of the Bicycle/Pedestrian Committee discussion be placed on the August 2 full council agenda. • Grafitti Coffey commended city staff and all of the volunteers participating in graffiti abatement work. There has been a notable decrease in graffiti in the downtown area. Coffey requested that action be taken to recognize all who have contributed to this effort. • Homeless Encampment Martinez updated the committee on the master leasing program (commonly known as the "voucher program"). The program is on schedule and people should be moving into house next week. Davenport reported that the city maintains a good working relationship with Neighborhood Health, which is coordinating the housing intake. There was discussion of: next steps if there is not enough housing available or if people do not wish to participate, the need for the city to provide a location for a homeless encampment until transitional housing was available, options for encampment locations, inability to enforce the "no camping in the city" without a referral location for homeless people, and a future resolution to terminate the current encampment permit once the transitional housing is available. The committee advised the resolution timing would be discussed after the leasing program was in effect and could be evaluated. There was additional discussion of the participation of the Yakima County Conference of Governments and Yakima County. Davenport advised the City is working with both YCCOG and Yakima County. Coffey inquired if the City could lease a facility or property and utilize it as a referral location. She was advised this was a possibility. Moore advised he would have updated information on the topic for the August 2nd full council meeting. • Pit Bull ordinance Coffey requested the pit bull discussion be moved to the August Public Safety Committee meeting, as Mendez was not able to be present. There was discussion of how the item came to the committee after the full council voted to end discussion on the topic. After discussion, it was MOVED by Gutierrez and SECONDED by Lover to remove the pit bull ban discussion from future agendas. Motion PASSED with two aye votes. • GFI Budget information It was MOVED by Gutierrez and SECONDED by Coffey to move the GFI budget information to the August 25 Public Safety Committee meeting. • Audience participation Joey Anderson spoke regarding the graffiti abatement. An unnamed citizen spoke regarding the various issues discussed during the meeting. • Other Business Martinez had additional information regarding Uber coming to Yakima. Gutierrez requested this topic be moved to the August 25 meeting. It was MOVED by Lover and SECONDED by Coffey to adjourn to the August 25, 2016 meeting. Motion PASSED unanimously. Approved: