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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/04/2017 05C Minutes 01-26-2017 Council Public Safety Committee r k :r71.1 xs ; BUSINESS OF THE CITY COUNCIL YAKIMA, WASHINGTON AGENDASTATEMENT Item No. 5.C. For Meeting of: April 4, 2017 ITEM TITLE: Accept Public Safety Committee minutes of January 26, 2017 and February 23, 2017 SUBMITTED BY: Terri Croft, Police Administrative Assistant SUMMARY EXPLANATION: See attached minutes ITEM BUDGETED: NA STRATEGIC PRIORITY: Public Safety APPROVED FOR SUBMITTAL: City Manager STAFF RECOMMENDATION: BOARD/COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION: Public Safety Committee approved 1/26/17 minutes on 2/23/17, and approved 2/23/17 minutes on 3/23/17. ATTACHMENTS: Description Upload Date Type CI February 23,2017 Public Safety mitt ee Minutes 3/24/2017 Backup Material 121 January 26,2017 Public Safety ,,mitt ee Minutes 3/24/2017 Backup Material Council Public Safety Committee February 23, 2017 MINUTES Members: Staff: Councilmember Carmen Mendez (chair) City Manager Cliff Moore Councilmember Kathy Coffey Chief Dominic Rizzi, Police Councilmember Dulce Gutierrez Chief Bob Stewart, Fire Cynthia Martinez, Prosecutor Terri Croft, Police The meeting was called to order at 3:01 p.m. • Approval of minutes of January 26, 2017 It was MOVED by Gutierrez to approve the minutes of the January 26, 2017 meeting as presented. Motion was SECONDED by Coffey. Motion PASSED unanimously. New Business There was no new business Old Business 1. Domestic Violence Public Service Announcements Beehler provided a report on when the domestic violence public service announcements were aired and which PSAs were used. He advised that extra spots were able to be procured due to partnerships that were utilized. Coffey requested a copy of the campaigns used. She also asked that Beehler coordinate with the Washington State Broadcasting Association on their PSA program regarding domestic violence. She stated that she would like to see the PSAs start before Thanksgiving and run through the holidays, and stressed the importance of airing the PSAs during critical months and time. Mendez provided a brief history of the topic for the audience 2. Domestic Violence Work Group This item was tabled. 3. Welcoming City Resolution Mendez provided a brief history of this topic and how it came to be discussed in the Public Safety Committee. Rizzi provided information regarding the policies of the Yakima Police Department in regards to immigration status. The Yakima Police Department officers are commissioned Washington State to enforce city and state laws. There is no agreement in place with the Enforcement and Removal division Immigration and Customs Enforcement. There are only 16 jurisdictions in the country that have such an agreement. Coffey thanked Chief Rizzi for his comments, and also thanked City Manager Moore for his statement released on February 21. She clarified a statement she had made at an earlier council meeting that she felt may have been misconstrued. She said her earlier statement encouraging the audience to read Moore's statement and to discontinue coming to meetings to discuss further was intended to redirect the community's energy toward immigration reform and helping immigrants in the Yakima Valley and City of Yakima. She understands that the process for legal immigration is long, complicated, and expensive, and that there are only three immigration attorneys in Yakima. She encouraged people to research the process and stated that she would be focusing her efforts and energy on helping to improve this process. Stewart advised that the Fire Department had no instances where they would have to ask for immigration status. Mendez then opened the meeting up to audience participation and limited comments to two minutes per speaker. The following community members spoke against becoming a Welcoming City: Larry Apigian, City resident; Alyssa Chamberlain, City resident; Faith Torres, non-resident; Charles Hutchinson, City resident; Gary Wirt, City resident; Dave Ettl, City resident; Bill Duerr, City resident; John Larson, City resident; Rick Weiss, City resident; Luis Lopez, City resident; Beverly Breitenfeldt, City resident; Mark Jones, City resident; Doug Miller, non-resident; Les Heimgartner, City resident; Dennis Saltmarsh, City resident; Bob Bieren, City resident; Daniel Scott, City resident. The following community members spoke in support of becoming a Welcoming City: David Alcontara, City resident; Diana Lopez-Bautista, City resident; Linda Brown, City resident; David Morales, City resident; Sister Mary Ellen Robinson, non-resident; Joyce Hernandez, City resident; Robert Strader, City resident; Norma Martinez, City resident; Ed Pacheco, City resident; Molly Storrs, City resident; Connie Chronister, City resident; Zulma S., non-resident; Merivet Lombera, City resident; Rogelio Montes, City resident. Jennifer James, City resident, asked questions regarding sanctuary city status. Kay Funk, City resident, spoke in favor of Hispanic residents but against the Welcoming City resolution. Phil Dindia, City resident, requested a citizen's committee be formed to develop a resolution. Joey Anderson, City resident, spoke of protection for all citizens and against the Welcoming City resolution. Gutierrez reinforced that the City's policies are to not inquire about immigration status. She stated that only true sanctuary cities do not share information and databases, and there is no discussion of Yakima becoming a sanctuary city. She defined the purpose of the forum was to allow the community to discuss how this impacts our community safety. Coffey stated she appreciated the opinions of all who spoke, and feels privileged that the Yakima community is so diverse and caring. She again urged the community to support immigration reform and getting undocumented people citizenship. She will be asking and encouraging the Council to take a legislative stance on the Bridge Act and other immigration legislation. She feels this is a community discussion that needs to go out into the community and it should be led by others than the Council. It was MOVED by Coffey to send a recommendation to the full council to add immigration reform to the Federal and State legislative priorities. Motion was SECONDED by Gutierrez. Motion PASSED unanimously. Mendez reiterated the need for a community discussion and advised the Dispute Resolution Center was present to discuss how they could assist in facilitating that discussion. She pointed out that the Council had approved the recreational production and sale of marijuana, in violation of federal law. Gutierrez asked Rizzi if the Police Department participated in the 287g Federal program. Rizzi advised the 287g program allows law enforcement to access immigration databases. There are stringent training, background, recertification, and ICE supervision requirements. There are 37 agencies nationwide who participate in the program and they are all jail operations. There are only 3 police department in the program and they run the program through their department's jail operations. There are no Washington jurisdictions currently participating in the program. She asked how frequently the jail population registration is shared, and Rizzi advised it is shared daily. Gutierrez asked if Rizzi asserts that immigration enforcement is a Federal responsibility. Rizzi advised it is, although there are municipalities that are more pro-active and participate in the 287g program. Those municipalities are primarily in border states and have significantly different circumstances. Rizzi also discussed the police department's policy and the RCW against racial profiling. Gutierrez asked if the Police Department impartially enforces the laws. Rizzi replied that the Yakima Police Department treats all community members will respect and highest regard for the sanctity of life. Coffey asked if Rizzi was aware of the issues with the Spokane Valley policy regarding Welcoming City. Rizzi was not aware of the specific issues, but understood that they had come out as officially not a welcoming city. Rizzi discussed the city of Miami, who declared they were not a sanctuary city but the Obama administration classified them as a sanctuary city based on their actions despite their proclamation. Coffey stated that a petition was distributed in Spokane Valley against the sanctuary city status and went to ballot. The public voted to not be a sanctuary city. Coffey provided this story to illustrate how at times it is best to leave things alone. 4. Dispute Resolution Center Matt Fairbanks spoke about how the DRC could assist in fostering the community conversation and a proposal had been drafted and submitted. Coffey stated she would like to study the proposal and thought it looked interesting and positive. There was discussion as to whether the proposal should go to the NCBC for review. Coffey advised she would like the PSC members to meeting and discuss, then send to the full council. Adjournment Meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m. Approved: /It ��� PErd Council Public Safety Committee January 26, 2017 MINUTES Members: Staff: Councilmember Carmen Mendez (chair) City Manager Cliff Moore Councilmember Kathy Coffey Chief Dominic Rizzi, Police Councilmember Dulce Gutierrez Chief Bob Stewart, Fire Scott Schafer, Public Works Cynthia Martinez, Prosecutor Bronson Faul, Legal Jeannett Mora, Police Services Mgr. Brad Coughenour, SunComm Terri Croft, Police The meeting was called to order at 3:35 p.m. • Approval of minutes of December 1, 2016 It was MOVED by Gutierrez to approve the minutes of the December 1, 2016 meeting as presented. Motion was SECONDED by Coffey. Motion PASSED unanimously. New Business • Police Fees Mora advised the Police Department is presenting an updated to their fee schedule. Several items are related to services that the Police Department no longer provides. Faul noted that most of the fees are set by statute and RCW. It was MOVED by Coffey to move to the full council with a recommendation by the committee to approve. Motion was SECONDED by Gutierrez. Motion PASSED unanimously. • SAFER Grant Stewart presented an update on the SAFER grant. In the last grant cycle, the grant covered 100% of firefighter costs, however, the new grant cycle requires some cost sharing. The timing of the SAFER grant ties in nicely with the negotiations for the Union Gap fire service contract. When the initial contract was drafted with Union Gap, 9 Union Gap firefighters were brought over to the Yakima Fire Department. However, 9 firefighters is not sufficient to create a fully operational unit. This shortage has created an impact on the fire department's overtime. The Fire Department intends to negotiate three additional firefighter positions into the Union Gap service agreement. The revenue from Union Gap for the additional firefighter positions would be used to offset the cost sharing requirements of the SAFER grant. The Fire Department is looking for direction from the committee on if they should proceed with the application process. Mendez asked if the Fire Department would continue negotiations with Union Gap for the three additional firefighters even if the grant was not received. Stewart advised they would. Gutierrez asked if adding the three firefighters would take the department to the 90 authorized positions. Stewart advised that it would increase the authorized compliment to 93 firefighters. Stewart also advised of upcoming retirements and the amount of time it takes to recruit, hire, and train new firefighters. Stewart explained that the overtime impact of not having a full operational unit was not to address large events, it is to keep minimum/adequate staffing levels. It was MOVED by Coffey and SECONDED by Gutierrez to move the item to the full council with a recommendation of the committee to approve. Motion PASSED unanimously. Old Business • Private Ambulance Dispatch Fees Stewart reported that after the council meeting addressing the ambulance dispatch fee proposal, he and Coughenour agreed to meet with representatives of the ambulance companies and EMS. In that meeting, it was determined that the ambulance companies are not completely opposed to paying a fee, however, they do not transport on every call they are dispatched to, and do not have any means to recoup their fees. The item will be discussed with the EMS and Fire Chiefs' boards to prepare a counter proposal, and staff will meet with the ambulance companies again in March. Stewart also advised there was a possibility of direct payment from the EMS levy to SunComm. Coughenour stated that part of the issue was that the dispatch service is a county-wide service, but expenditures are covered by the City of Yakima. Coffey agreed that the overages were resting on the City of Yakima and the underlying issue was that of fairness. Gutierrez advised that she had spoken with Councilman Lover and he had many questions and concerns, and asked if there would be any opportunity to address those questions. A study session is scheduled for April for this issue. Coffey requested that Councilman Lover's questions be submitted to staff in advance so they could have the answers prepared for the study session. There was clarification as to some of the topics presented at the council meeting that are not relevant to the fee proposal. • Domestic Violence Mendez noted that domestic violence appears to be more prevalent in our city than in other cities and asked what measures the police department was taking to address domestic violence. Rizzi advised that the role of the police department was to make arrests in DV cases, refer the cases for prosecution, and identify trends. He noted that treatment is a social issue and is not within the purview of law enforcement. Rizzi stated that there can be difficulties in providing information to service providers due to privacy issues. Martinez added that DV cases are prosecuted in municipal court, making up 20-25% of the case load. She noted that DV cases are the most time and labor intensive cases to prosecute. Gutierrez asked how Yakima could incorporate a system to prosecute offenders when there is a non-cooperative witness. She also asked how additional training could be obtained for prosecutors. Martinez advised that they do prosecute cases with non- cooperative witnesses, and hope to host a training in Yakima to improve that process. She also stated that they Legal Department sends one prosecutor each year to the DV Symposium at Seattle University. The limitation on training is due to a limited training budget. The cost for one prosecutor to attend is approximately $1000, most of which are travel expenses. Coffey asked if the YWCA might co-sponsor the training. She inquired about the PSAs regarding DV, stating that she had not seen or heard any follow up on them. Moore advised he would get a report from Beehler on when the PSAs ran. Coffey advised she would like to see a full, well-rounded media campaign and business plan to address domestic violence. There was discussion of a possible work group with the police chief, city prosecutor, victim/witness assistance program, YWCA, and other partners to coordinate current efforts. Staff will review the need for a work group. This item will remain on the February agenda. Other Business • Welcoming City Resolution NCBC recommended to move the Welcoming City topic to the Public Safety Committee for further discussion, in order to include input from the police chief. Mendez did not feel there was enough time to discuss the issue in the present meeting and requested it be put on the February Public Safety Committee agenda. Gutierrez supported this request and Coffey opposed it, believing the topic was politicized and further discussion i was not necessary. Discussion will be limited to the proposed resolution. The committee requested Rizzi prepare information on the police department's current practices, and identify pros and cons to the resolution. Mendez requested that the Dispute Resolution Center have a representative present at the next meeting and that it be held in Council Chambers to allow for community input. Recap of Upcoming Agenda Agenda items for February 23, 2017: O Domestic Violence PA campaign status O Discussion of Domestic Violence Work Group O Welcoming City resolution Adjournment Meeting was adjourned at 4:25 p.m. Approved: , .--- / , I i (