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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/17/2010 04B-2 Minutes 08-09-2010 Council Budget Committee yA8 z_(Z) * .., Ya "kima City C nm�ft I V �e eting ..... . Council Budget Committee • CM) Conference Room (2"' fT or) City 7falt Monday, August 09, 2010 8:30 - 10:00 a.m. Special Meeting Minutes Attendance: Council Members: Micah Cawley, Kathy Coffey, Bill Lover " Staff: Dick Zais, Rita DeBord, Robin Dukart Discussion: ➢ Dick Zais commenced the meeting by stating the City continues to project approximately $2m revenue shortfall for the 2011 General Government Budget. The 2011 projection includes approximately 2% reduction in general sales tax and 2% increase in property taxes from 2010 year -end estimates. ➢ After considerable discussion, the Committee agreed to refer decisions regarding the 2011 Budget to the full council, at their next regular meeting: 1) What amount, if any, of reserves should be utilized to balance the 2011 General Government budget? 2) Should the City allocate projected revenues to each Budget Priority in the same percentage as is currently in place (see attached worksheet)? 3) Identify any "Untouchable" programs or projects that are not to be reduced in the 2011 Budget from the 210 budget levels. ➢ CBC requested to have a discussion at the next meeting regarding revenue options available to Council at Council's discretion: (Options include: Utility Tax increase: City Utilities & Private Utilities: Business License: Gambling tax; and Admissions tax) Next Meeting: Due to scheduling conflicts, the next meeting date was rescheduled to: Wednesday, September 1, 2010 8:30 — 10:00 a.m. CED Conference Room Committee Chair (Micah 1 awley) Rd 8 -9 -10 CBC Minutes Council Public Safety Committee CED Conference Room City Hall July 28, 2010 Minutes Council Committee Members Present: Chairwoman Kathy Coffey, Maureen Adkison, and Bill Lover Chair Kathy Coffey called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. Gang Free Initiative Status Update Police Chief Sam Granato reported that the ,Gang Initiative Steering Committee Subcommittee . members have been appointed from the applicants recommended by the Public Safety Committee with only a few positions yet to be filled. The GFI Coordinator RFP submittal closing date has been extended until August 2, 2010, with the GFI Coordinator selection process most likely being a discussion topic at the first Steering Committee meeting slated for Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. Chief Granato also brought the Public Safety Committee up to date about the very good turnout at the recent Yakima County Gang Free Coalition meeting in Granger. One impressive idea that came out of that meeting is the YPAC "Media Training" • program for young people. City Manager Dick Zais made two announcements having to do with gang related issues: (1) For. Yakima County's gang coalition effort (the City of Yakima has not yet had one dedicated) has been earmarked by Senator Patty Murray's office and endorsed by the delegation in Washington DC The amount of the earmark submitted by Senator Patty Murray is in the $750,000 range. City Manager Zais pointed out that a number of federal earmarks and appropriation requests on behalf of cities and others which could potentially benefit the City will most likely not be dealt until after the November Elections. (2) Jim McDivitt personally notified the City Manager . with a preliminary favorable consideration "Safe Streets Task Force" endorsement which would pull together a unit from the FBI, ATF, DEA, ICE and YPD and YCSD operations. This group will also include a liaison from the WSP and the State DOC. Discussion followed about extended federal authority, police officer secret clearance training, and other aspects of the unit which will work out of the former probation services building. AGO Gang Proposal Talking Points Senior Assistant City Attorney Cynthia Martinez outlined some of the proposed anti -gang legislation talking points that were included in a letter from the State's Attorney General's 4110 Office. She provided a synopsis that included suggested changes within the juvenile categories and automatic adult jurisdictions categories for gang - related crime which would essentially 1 increase penalties for juveniles who are caught with fire arms. One suggested change being the • removal of the deferral option for juveniles who are caught with firearms during a first offense. Also included were a number of sentence enhancements within the auto adult jurisdiction for violent gang related crimes. One example is expanding the scope of criminal gang intimidation by allowing more instances to be charged and also increasing that crime's classification from a Class C felony to a Class B felony. Changing crime classifications with suggested stiffer sentences were also included as a suggestion for such crimes as tagging graffiti which would be going from a gross misdemeanor to a Class C felony and would only be handled by the County as a felony crime. Another area that needs suggested review is the "Definitions" section to relieve cumbersome definitions. Discussion followed about the unanimity of a broad coalition of groups of this bi- partisan supported gang initiative issue for stiffer penalties and sentence enhancements being top priority items which include the City's new local legislative committee, the AWC's legislative committee, law enforcement organizations such as the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) that also included an invitation for dialogue with the ACLU. Inmate Work Crews City Manager Zais explained the Inmate Work Crew matter had been considered during the budget deliberations last year, but it was deleted during last year's mid -year budget reductions. Chris Waarvick outlined the preliminary analysis of what it would take to reinstitute the DOC work crew program with City work crews instead of Yakima County Department of Corrections. There is lots of work to do, but it is not getting done because money is not available to pay for it. One thing they discovered is the pre - arraignment process has been successful in reducing jail costs, but it has reduced the number of people who are waiting court disposition thus dramatically reducing the number of inmates available to assign to a work crew. The cost per year to use City personnel is basically the same as it was for using County personnel, about $90,000, which includes the cost for the vital supervisory component along with a trailer with a sprayer and a porta -potty on . it and a vehicle to pull it around. Councilwoman Maureen Adkison asked what has changed since the program was discontinued because economically things have gotten worse and $90,000 is still a lot of money. City Manager Zais announced that the City will be at a $2 million deficit at the start -up of the 2011 budget process and this would add to that. Inmate work crews certainly have merit and benefit but that has to be factored and weighed in against all of the other competing demands and this is something he can't recommend at this point, although he is willing to leave it in place to look at as the 2011 budget is developed. Committee questions were entertained and discussion followed about other suggested ideas including utilizing one work crew with a City supervisor at a lower rate than what the County uses with either a city or county inmate work crew. Chief Granato pointed out that one of the things that wasn't calculated was how much money did we save by using inmates versus using full -time employees. Chair Kathy Coffey requested a comparison of the number of vacant positions costs savings versus the $90,000 cost for the work not being done by the DOC work crews. Councilman Bill Lover said what you'll most likely find is a cost - prohibitive number and you might want to explore contracting this out. One • suggestion was to check into using community service as an alternative to diminished services 2 111) because those people would not require corrections officer supervision. Chair Kathy Coffey agreed this should be looked at. More information about the community service program is • needed from Archie Mathews at ONDS. Cynthia Martinez suggested considering a program that has been successful in other areas of the state. The City of Tacoma has a program in place where work crews are an alternative to sentencing, as opposed to being pulled out of jail, so you could choose to be in a work crew instead of jail. One other thing is .there is a wide participation regarding people who didn't have the money to pay their fines; those people had the choice of working off their fines on the, work crew. This wasn't an alternative to confinement. There were a lot of people who signed up to work off their fines. Chief Granato pointed out that Archie Mathews does get some juveniles who are assigned community service by the courts who have to go out and work with . the paint -out crews. Chief Granato also noted that they had looked at outsourcing the graffiti abatement, but it was a $300,000 proposition just for that. The key to successful abatement is having a sufficient number of crews to be able to deal with it all the time, and that may be a viable way to go because we generate a lot of people who go through Municipal Court who might not have the money right away to pay for a fine, but would be willing to do the work to offset that. Chair Kathy Coffey asked if somebody would look into this also. The Chronic Nuisance Ordinance Cynthia Martinez explained that the Chronic Nuisance Ordinance which took effect May 19, • 2010, may be a way to address problems in the future. Most of the police officers have received in- service training to help identify properties and determine whether they are chronic nuisance properties. She explained the procedure has been worked out and the next step is assigning an officer. Chief Granato referred to a report identifying the number of properties in the City that had three or more police calls for service within the last year indicating there are over 300.properties . meeting the criteria. Cynthia Martinez described the detailed prepatory work necessary for enforcement of the chronic nuisance ordinance. Detailing specific steps that have been developed to enforce the ordinance and pointing out there is a cost attached to that because it will require title searches to notify the owners of the property, Chief Granato also described the verification leg work required to make sure the right people get notified. CPR Training Fire Chief Charlie Hines provided a report in response to two inquiries from the City Council. The . first item is what are the cardiac arrests survival rates here in Yakima County and specifically how they relate to King County - Seattle which is usually number one in. the .nation. Currently, there is a new Medical Director, Dr. Acousta and one of his goals is to increase the number of saves in the Yakima County. Yakima Fire Department is collecting data in conjunction with the two hospitals in Yakima. With that data they will begin to identify a plan to get us to the goal to be able to save more folks. That is going to take another 60 to 90 days. Preliminary data provided by Yakima County EMS from the 1980s, 1990s, and through 2009; 3 shows the number of cardiac arrests saved in the field compared to King County. There are about 100 cardiac arrests in the county every year. He referred to the four things you have to do to meet the goal of helping more people. Dr. Acousta will probably visit here within the next 3 months and he will have a formal presentation to the Public Safety Committee as well as other organizations throughout Yakima County on results of their data and the steps taken on his recommendation to increase the survival rate in the field. Councilman Bill Lover asked if there are records showing how many City employees, particularly police officers who have received CPR training. Discussion followed about the success of CPR Saturday in Yakima and offering automated defibullator training refresher courses during this event. Discussion and questions also followed about the cost of the automated external defibullators and regulations that other entities have requiring one be available when large crowds gather as well as where all the automated defibullators throughout the City are specifically located. Mutual Aid Update Chief Hines provided a five -year picture of the mutual aid response situations where we help more stations than come in and help us. This is because Yakima Fire Department is the only fully -paid department in the area so we have the expertise, knowledge and experience and we have equipment that the surrounding fire districts don't have such as aerial ladder trucks, the rescue boat, the technical rescue vehicle, etc. We do call on our neighbors to come and help us as well. The thing you should be aware of is that the surrounding volunteer fire districts are • challenged because when an alarm goes off, they wonder who is going to be able to show up. It is getting harder and harder to recruit and retrain volunteer fire 'fighters. Virtually every department in the state signs a mutual aid agreement. Mutual aid is free. Chief Hines announced that the ATF determined the July 25, 2010, Cowiche /Tieton fire was arson, and they are continuing their investigation. Monthly Police Report Chief Granato said there is no police report for this month due to a change in personnel. Next month both months' reports will be provided. Chief Granato summarized reports on the emphasis patrols that were conducted beginning in late April, early May, and June due to the increase of violent criminal gang activity. The reports show it made impact as to what had been occurring in the previous three months and the emphasis patrols significantly impacted crime in June. The City -wide report shows there has been a 25.4% reduction largely because of the emphasis patrols. Another emphasis is planned for August that will roll into the beginning of the school year which is usually when an uptick in gang violence occurs especially when youth go back to school. We are hopeful that the trend in record - breaking number of homicides is broken and the emphasis patrols have shown their worth. 4 Budget Charts Councilman Bill Lover's request for an updated budget chart reflecting all of the realignment of duty assignments was provided from the Police Department. There will be more changes to reflect additional personnel changes. Chief Granato noted that the "Public Safety Testing" firm which is a private firm that does police and fire testing throughout the Northwest does offer background testing such as polygraphs and other services. The City will be using this firm full time during the recruit process. The change is being made because they do background tests early in the recruitment process that show suitability to the job. City Manager Zais noted that the jail cost reductions are in the range of about $750,000 almost $800,000 with more trending information available next month. Chair Kathy Coffey indicated that next month's agenda is to include GFI updates and inmate work crew update information . . asked for during today's meeting. City Manager Zais invited input from the Police Department for the first Steering Committee meeting and discussion followed about the need to establish the Steering Committee by ordinance or some other referencing document. The meeting adjourned at 3:25 p.m. . AD Ka y Coif: V 1 , Public Safety Committee Chair Minutes prepared by Melynn Skovald. • . 5