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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/01/2011 04B-4 Minutes 01-19-2011 Council Public Safety Committee 0 Council Public Safety Committee CED Conference Room City Hall January 19, 2011 MINUTES Council Committee Members Present: Maureen Adkison, Kathy Coffey, Bill Lover. Staff present: Michael Morales, Dave Willson, Greg Copeland, Tom Foley, Cynthia Martinez, Chris Waarvick, Ken Wilkinson, Linda Hagert, Ritch Fowler, Terri Croft. Guests: Dave Ettl. Coffey called the meeting to order at 3:00. I. Red Light Cameras There was a request to move the red light camera discussion to the top of the agenda, as Municipal Court Manager Linda Hagert wished to participate in the discussion but would have to leave the meeting early. Adkison stated she had been approached by a school bus driver for the Yakima School District asking if the topic could be brought . before Council again as he had been unavailable to attend the previous public comment is sessions. He has concerns about the safety of the children he drives with the traffic violations he witnesses as a school bus driver. Adkison asked the item be put on the agenda as a discussion point to see if there was any interest by the committee to revisit the issue. Hagert expressed her continuing concerns with the impact it would have on court staffing. She is unsure that any additional revenue would be enough to cover the additional expenditures. Several cities have put the issue to votes of the people to determine if they will install or retain red light camera progams. Coffey stated she felt that city staff is currently stretched too thin to do any additional research or work on this issue. She stressed that it needed to be a safety issue and not a revenue issue, and asked that the discussion be tabled for the time being. It was agreed to table the issue. II. Gang Free Initiative Update Coffey advised that,the subcommittees have been meeting regularly and the Community Assessment Committee has -put together a work group to start work on a community assessment. The full committee has been meeting monthly and will have another retreat on March 19. Coffey has stepped down as chair of the GFI and Councilman Ettl has taken the chairmanship of the committee. Due to limited available resources and funding opportunities, the GFI committee feels they will need to work closely with partner agencies /groups to write grant applications. III. Nuisance Housing Ordinance Officer Ritch Fowler was present to present an update on the nuisance housing ordinance enforcement. He stated that the new ordinance put significant power behind the Crime Free Rental Housing program and efforts to resolve nuisance properties. He has not yet had to apply the ordinance to any properties, but has been able to gain voluntary compliance with the property owners he has contacted to come to an agreeable solution. He has been focusing on properties that use the most police resources (numerous calls for service and /or time spent at the property). This approach has resulted in a significant drop in the calls for police response at the identified properties. He tries to assure the property owners that it is not to goal of the City of Yakima to take their property away from them, but to resolve the problems and give the property owners the tools they need to help themselves. There has been a very positive response from the Yakima Valley Landlords' Association. Foley added that the department is still working on the best practice to identify problem locations. Fowler is currently working off referrals from the patrol division and landlords. Coffey stated that initially the ACLU had concerns about minorities being targeted through this ordinance. However, all of the feedback council members has been positive from property owners and neighbors. She provided the ACLU representatives with Fowler's contact information so he could set them up to talk with property owners that had been through the process already and were happy with the results. IV. Update on Regional Fire Authority Willson advised that there had been interest by the mayors of Yakima and Union Gap in 4110 discussing a Regional Fire Authority. This interest resulted in a meeting on January 10 between interested parties. The next step is to form a work group to proceed. The process may take as long as 2 years to complete. Willson stated that citizens of Kent had recently approved creating a fire authority with 87% approval. V. Work Crew Proposal Martinez updated the committee that she had followed up on their directions to discuss creation of a work crew program with the Municipal Court. The presiding judge at that time was not interested in the program as a means to repay fines but would consider it as an alternative to incarceration. Martinez advised there are currently already two incarceration alternatives. The largest concern is that any form of the program would require supervision, and the Parks Department is simply not staffed to be able to provide any additional supervision of volunteers. Coffey asked if Martinez knew what the judge's reasons were for not wanting to use it as a fine repayment program, and Martinez's understanding was that the judge feared it would reduce the fines -they are collecting. The court has already experience a contraction of revenue and fears this would create a larger revenue drop. Coffey asked if there aren't already a large number of fines that go unpaid because people just don't have the money to pay them, and if there was any research on handling those types of cases through a work crew program. Lover recommended following the ONDS community service model. Waarvick will continue to work with Lover to find a model that could work. VI. Enforcing RCW 9A.44.193 dl It was recently brought to the attention of the Parks Department that there was a Level 3 registered sex offender who was swimming regularly at Lion's Pool. That subject has been trespassed from City pools and parks. In researching the options available to prohibit sex offenders from being in certain public places, RCW 9A.44.193 was found to address the situation. This law requires personal service of notice to the sex offender that they are prohibited from parks, pools, etc. There are some problems with identifying sex offenders that should be trespassed, for example, their sex offender leveling only pertains to them for a set number of years unless they reoffend. Although there is a law mandating sex offenders to register their residence, many do not register at all or do not stay at the location they registered. This makes serving them notice difficult. Coffey requested that research be done for the next meeting of the costs and steps needed to send letters to each of the registered level II and level III sex offenders in the City of Yakima. VII. Response to Police Property Crimes Copeland reported to the committee that over the years, the Yakima Police Department has stopped providing services that the community had come to expect response to, such as vehicle lock outs or unverified home alarms. Additionally, there has been a transition to try to take as many police reports over the telephone as possible, however, this too has been made difficult with the reductions in the civilian staff. Copeland feels 0 the citizen of Yakima expect a full service police department and continue to expect the presence of a commissioned police officer for any property crime, and currently, if they request an officer, they will get an officer. Copeland suggested that if eliminating response to certain property crimes was to become a reality, he would suggest that it be accomplished in a tiered manner and car prowls (theft of property from a car, not theft of the car itself) be the first category of crime to be eliminated from commissioned patrol officer response. The department will still need to find a way to get a report on file and issue a case number. As there will soon be a transition to the Spillman records management system, Copeland thought it would be best to wait until the implementation has been completed and see what the impact of the new system is on the non- commissioned staff — if it frees up their time or if it will take more of their time. He would also like to see if Spillman could interface to an internet reporting system where citizens could enter their report online. Coffey feels that it is time for the Council to present the reality of the City's current budget situation to the public and take a firm stand by reducing or eliminating certain property crimes responses. She thinks that there will need to be good education of the community so the police staff doesn't take the brunt of the citizen's frustration over the changes. There was also discussion of having limited commission staff respond to some of the property crimes to take photos, etc., however, this would not help in reducing the budget. It was agreed to allow the Police Department to complete the Spillman implementation and evaluate it's effects and have the department report back on recommendation and abilities to otherwise address property crime reporting. VIII. Block Watch Coordinator Contract Foley advised that the City had contracted with OIC to provide a crime prevention coordinator. Part of the contract was that the coordinator and OIC were to seek out funding sources to continue the program. They have currently not been able to identify any new funding sources. Funding through Byrne Second Chance Grant, which currently covers the cost of the contract, will end in June. The program may have to be discontinued at that time if no new funding is found. It was noted that since the coordinator has been in place, the number of Block Watches in the City of Yakima has*doubled, although not necessarily in the Second Chance target neighborhoods. IX. Other Business Copeland advised that he would be attending the Transportation Committee meeting the next day. He is against the proposal to completely repeal the anti - cruising ordinance. He stated that with the current specially sanctioned cruise nights, cruising becomes an event and attracts a different crowd than what the City was seeing when cruising happened every weekend. The sanctioned events are also heavily staffed by police to prevent any problems, and additional resources would have to be deployed (i.e., the gang unit and /or pro active units) to handle cruising if it becomes open again. The meeting was adjourned at 4:35 p.m. 1 40 / 1&q /0.. ey Kathy Coffey I Public Safety Committee Minutes prepared by Terri Croft • S