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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/21/2006 Adjourned Meeting 187 YAKIMA CITY COUNCIL ADJOURNED MEETING SEPTEMBER 21, 2006 — 7:00 P.M. YAKIMA VALLEY MUSEUM 2105 Tieton Drive 1. Roll Call Mayor Edler called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. Present: Council: Mayor Edler, presiding, Council Members Ron Bonlender, Micah Cawley, Norm Johnson, Bill Lover, and Susan Whitman Staff: Acting City Manager Zabell, Police Chief Granato, Finance and Budget Director DeBord, and Deputy City Clerk Watkins Absent: Council Member McClure (excused) 2. Informational public forum to introduce "Yakima's Safe Community Action - Plan" and proposed funding sources A. Introduction Council Member Cawley gave an opening statement and turned the meeting over to Captain Jeff Schneider. B. Power Point presentation Captain Schneider began the Power Point presentation that highlighted the need for the additional police officers. He explained how and why the plan was developed. Rita DeBord, Director of Budget and Finance, presented the financial aspects of the plan. C. Public comment -- questions /opinions Steve Rohrich, 1423 Hamilton Avenue, asked if 22 new officers were enough. With a four -year ramp up, is our population growing faster than the plan? Captain Schneider responded that it is enough to start making an impact. Mr. Rohrich claimed that Yakima is known as "Crackima" across the state and one solution would be to provide drug treatment. Until we address the root cause of the drug problem with treatment, the problem will continue. Mr. Rohrich said he has met people who have come through drug treatment and are now productive citizens. He recommended increasing the work with low -crime offenders by having them do community work to help pay their own way. Another problem in our city is poverty and until we can attract high tech jobs and increase the standard of living, we will always be addressing it. 188 ADJOURNED MEETING — SEPTEMBER 21, 2006 SAFE COMMUNITY ACTION PLAN — YAKIMA VALLEY MUSEUM Wallace Friedline (Andy), 603 S. 17 Avenue, said he was in favor of the plan, but his major complaint is the way the City funds Fire and Police. Out of the total budget, these positions should come first. Any budget shortages requiring tax increases should be on other programs and positions. He felt it was backwards to ask taxpayers to pay for necessary civil services. Mr. Friedline submitted a document he had prepared outlining recommended budget cuts. His suggestions included items such as a graduated reduction of salaries, reducing the number of positions, privatizing transit, discontinue using outside attorneys. With those cuts, he felt the funds would be available from the existing budget to support the plan without a tax increase. Jay Cady, 213 N. 29 Avenue, said he is a lifetime resident of Yakima and is not proud of the way things are going. He expressed concern how adding 22 officers might impact the court system. He then gave his thoughts on citizens living in the community on a free ticket, and the lack of jail time for car thieves. He questioned the dollars in the plan for fines and forfeitures noting that most of the people do not have the money to pay them. He recommended looking into reducing City staff rather than asking the community for tax dollars. His other comments were regarding holding kids accountable, looking at every level of City government for effectiveness, lobbying efforts by officials in Olympia to help find an answer to our problem. Matt Lunstrom also expressed concern about the ability to obtain funds from fines and forfeitures, the ineffectiveness of the court system, and limited jail time. He is in favor of putting efforts into rehabilitation and prevention by targeting young people with programs like YPAL. Robert Mansfield, spoke about the verified response issue; how criminals are now being rewarded, and his support of YPAL. Yvonne Wilbur complimented Captain Schneider on a recent experience she had when calling 911. She said she would like to see Yakima the way it was in the 50's and 60's. Daray McCotter asked for information on future annexations. City Manager Zais spoke about the Growth Management Plan. Wally Betke asked about accountability on the projected 20% crime reduction. What happens if the goal is not reached? Mayor Edler responded that the City Council will hold the Police Department and City management responsible for producing the kind of numbers they have expressed they will produce. Robbie Burn commented that having 22 more police officers in town does not make him feel safer as our judicial system cannot handle the criminals that are coming through the system now. He suggested running the criminals out of town. Mayor Edler referred to a comment Chief Granato had made at a previous meeting, that ultimately the criminals will get tired of being arrested and will leave town. Mr. Zais said that, although no one , wants that element in their community, there have been court decisions and case law from the State Supreme Court, that they have the right to live wherever they choose. 2 189 ADJOURNED MEETING — SEPTEMBER 21, 2006 SAFE COMMUNITY ACTION PLAN — YAKIMA VALLEY MUSEUM Joe Adams said he will vote for this but is not happy about it as this isn't a new problem and should have been addressed in past years. Every year the Council approves a budget that under funds law and order. This should have been the number one priority all along. Law and order is a basic government service that should be paid out of basic taxes. He said the City should cut back expenditures elsewhere such as lawsuits and fighting development as those are not a public service, yet the public is paying for all of that and being denied basic services. He felt four years to implement the program is terrible and reducing crime by only 20% is not acceptable. • COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS Council Member Cawley — This plan will not fix all the problems but will be a start. City Council members have to look into things like privatizing. As suggested, there can be budget cuts, but some services will no longer be there. He agrees that YPAL funding should be increased. He has done the ride - alongs with the police and understands how • hard they work. As a city of 85,000 in population, we all need to go to Olympia and tell them to fix the sentencing guidelines. Council cannot do it alone. Council Member Bonlender - Economic development is crucial to our area, but we're not going to have it if we are not a safe city. We won't be a safe city if we don't have the proper ratio of police per capita. Companies look for quality -of -life issues. We have to have a proactive police force, for our safety and the safety of police officers. If you are undermanned, over the long term there will be higher turn over, lower trained officers, and frustrated police officers. We have been discussing this for at least eight months. We know it is a burden for many people, but the increased safety in the city will benefit the most those that have the least. Council Member Whitman — I'm ticked off. The .3% sales tax was spearheaded by the sheriff, and the County got the majority of it. We got 23 %. We are nowhere near the western state average of police per thousand population. As far as the negative comments about ramping up over four years, we can only send so many to the academy per year. Citizens are either going to pay the tax or pay in other ways, e.g. with higher insurance. In response to Mr. Mansfield's comments, and others, about accountability, we cannot treat the criminals the way we would like to. We all need to work with our legislators to get things changed. With regard to comments about who will pay fines and • forfeitures, I won't pay for them if I don't break the law and neither will you. We have to have a positive attitude. I am tired of hearing people who live in this beautiful productive community put it down. If you don't attack things with a positive attitude, nothing is going 'to get done. We started this initiative with a positive attitude. We have a problem that has to be fixed. We're addressing it with a positive attitude. That works on our kids too. It starts at home. We are trying to do what we can with what we have available. Council Member Johnson — I agree that drug treatment has to be an integral part of any program we put forward. We are working with the treatment agencies. There have to be changes made in the penal and the juvenile code and it will take all of us going to Olympia. The justice system in Yakima is working hard. Legislation has been introduced repeatedly to overhaul the codes but it hasn't even gotten a hearing. Legislation for a boot camp was also introduced, but that did not get a hearing. It cannot be just local elected officials going to Olympia, we all have to work together. 3 190 ADJOURNED MEETING - SEPTEMBER 21, 2006 SAFE COMMUNITY ACTION PLAN – YAKIMA VALLEY MUSEUM Council Member Lover - This Council gets it. We agree with almost everything the citizens have said tonight. We have made City management uncomfortable with this proposal as it will impact reserves. All the City budgets are currently being reviewed and it is even more difficult than in past years. When it is finalized, I believe the 2007 budget will be one of the leanest in memory. With regard to drugs, Comprehensive Mental Health is working on a program in our jail. Also, Commissioner Leita is currently in Florida dealing with those programs, referrals, and treatment. This plan isn't designed to cure all the problems in front of us, but we consider protecting our neighborhoods as our number one priority and it will help with this issue. Mayor Edler – This has been an interesting process. At the public meetings, we have gotten a lot of public input, and have gotten criticized. I am concerned where our community is going. We strongly believe this to be the most important thing we have faced in a long time. I serve on a legislative committee trying to press our legislators to do more to help our communities. But, we believe, the citizens of Yakima need to take care of the problem ourselves and this is just a piece of it. Citizens are saying we are always asking for taxes. This is something that came from the citizenry, now the citizens of Yakima need to decide whether they will raise their taxes. I have spent a lot of my adult life working with kids. If you want to know what is wrong with kids, look at adults. I may be speaking to a group of people who volunteer hours to work with kids whose parents are in the devastating cycle of drug abuse. The City of Yakima, your City Council and government, are not going to have the effect on those kids that you could have if you would volunteer your life to mentor, care for and reach into these dark places in our community because their parents can't help themselves. If someone doesn't intervene, they will be just like their parents. Violence and crime are cyclical and you cannot look to the government to fix it. We are asking citizens to increase their own taxes and in this city, that is a bad word. I am saying to you, as one of seven people representing you, I believe with all of my heart that we need to do this. I believe, with everything in that this will be one of the best things that the citizens can do for ourselves in a long long time. 3. Adjournment at 8:30 p.m. to Adjourned Meeting on September 26, 2006 for a Study Session on the Railroad Grade Separation Project schedule and cost estimate update The meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m. READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY C NCIL ME B DATE '11vAlh.c.:61,,„,(1 06, 101.-ri COUNCIL MEMBER / DATE ATTEST: / Ari CITY CLERK DAVID EDLER, MAYOR Minutes prepared by Linda Watkins. An audio and video tape of this meeting are available in the City Clerk's Office 4