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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/13/2007 Adjourned Meeting / Study Session 307 ADJOURNED MEETING /STUDY SESSION FEBRUARY 13, 2007 8:00 A.M. - 10:00 A.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS - YAKIMA CITY HALL 1. Roll CaII Present: Council: Mayor Dave Edler, presiding, Council Members Ron Bonlender, Micah Cawley, Norm Johnson, Bill Lover, and Susan Whitman Staff: City Manager Zais, City Attorney Paolella and City Clerk Moore Absent: Neil McClure (excused) 2. Review of crime -free, rental housing program Police Officer Shelley Upton and Sgt. Linda Watts recently underwent training on the Crime -Free Rental Housing program that has been adopted by various cities throughout the state of Washington. The goals of the program are to increase communications between patrol officers and the rental units themselves, lower the crime rate in rental units, and make a safer community. How it works The program is offered to all multi- housing units in the city. It is a three -phase operation for the rental owners. Phase 1 - property management training. Phase 2 - crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). Phase 3 - tenant and resident training. Upon completion of those phases, the landlords and property owners will receive a certificate and a crime free sign for posting, as well as permission to use the crime free logo on their documents. They will also receive continuing education. Officer Upton described the program in detail covering incident cards, the data base, and landlord notifications. Landlords will be trained on problems to look for such as drug and prostitution activity. Landlords can state what type of criminal history is not acceptable for a renter. Walla Walla, one -third the size of Yakima, runs the program with one full -time and two part-time officers. The Yakima Police Department is asking for one officer and one assistant. There are approximately 12,000 rental units in Yakima and there would be an expected cost of $125,000. They propose assessing a $10 -15 fee per rental unit to generate funds to cover the program. Council Member Lover questioned whether there was a duplication of effort with the Code Enforcement Department. Chief Granato suggested Code Enforcement could refer items to the program, but the main interest is the criminal element. It is a voluntary program for landlords that want to go through the training and receive certification as a crime free rental property 308 STUDY SESSION FEBRUARY 13, 2007 Council members gave mixed responses to the proposal. Mayor Edler commented that he had heard that the rental agencies like the program but do not support the fee. Chief Granato advised that the program is part of the SCAP proposal (Safe Community Action Plan). The first decision is to decide how to pay for it, then move an officer into the program who has already been trained. Legislation would have to go forward prior to proceeding. The financial aspects were discussed. Chief Granato also explained how the partnership would benefit the landlords. Currently, Police get a call for a landlord /tenant dispute and are limited in what they can do. Oftentimes the landlord is in the wrong because he has violated the tenant protection laws. This causes the landlords to get upset with the police. The training will educate landlords. Officer Upton, responding to questions about crossing departmental lines, explained that officers are responding to these problem areas already, without resolution that satisfies everyone. Currently, several different divisions within the City, while not working together, are going out on the same problem and not improving it. And, the landlord may not even know what is going on. With this program, the officer would be the focal point, and will partner with Animal Control, Codes, etc. by calling them in. Audience Participation Doug Lemon, spoke in support of the program but is against a fee. He felt the program would save enough money to pay for itself. Janet Tadlock, President of the Yakima Valley Landlord Association, said they are very enthused about the program and are anxious to cooperate with the police. Currently, neighbors are afraid to say anything. This would protect the neighbors from retribution. Landlords oppose the fee as this is not just a landlord issue and the police are going to those units anyway. This program will benefit the whole community. Rick Ensey, spoke in support of the program. He also pointed out there are problem landlords as well as problem tenants. He countered comments about passing the fee on to the tenants. Rent is based on the market not on costs. He recommended further research on funding. He fears the program would start out great and then just disappear while the landlords continue paying the fee. Richard Hamlin, Vice President of the Landlord Association, spoke in support of the program but not the fee. He spoke about tax breaks for new businesses, yet here we have established businesses where the City would add fees. Sam Karr, from the Landlord Association, also confirmed the merits of the program but expressed concern over the potential fee. If someone had 200 units, at the projected fee, it would cost $3,000 a year for police coverage. He also asked how many units the Housing Authority has and will the fee be waived for them? 2 .309 STUDY SESSION FEBRUARY 13, 2007 By request of the Council, the benefits of membership in the Landlord Association were defined. Following the close of the audience portion, Council members spoke about sending the issue back to the Public Safety Committee. Council Member Whitman said it has already been discussed by the Public Safety Committee and needs to be brought to a decision soon. 3. Review of red light and school speed zone camera enforcement Police Chief, Sam Granato, introduced Dr. Bill Kroske, from American Traffic Solutions (ATS), to give a presentation. • Overview Dr. Kroske's presentation was an overview of Red Light Photo Enforcement. It has been a successful program in Europe for many years. It is now in Seattle and is working well. They have just finished an analysis in Puyallup, Renton, and Lynnwood. The program is strictly about safety and they experience between 68 % -89% reduction in accidents at problem intersections. It has a halo effect causing reduction in accidents at other intersections as well. Dr. Kroske described the hardware required and how it works. It uses a single camera that picks up the violation and pictures the license plate. It is a live camera and can also be used for live viewing. It is able to hold data for approximately 30 days. It can be run one frame at a time and be used to reconstruct what happened at an intersection. They do the filtering, go to the Department of Motor Vehicles, pull up the plates and supply the information. They can also handle payments on -line using US Bank, if desired, at a cost of $1.50 for each instance. The program results in information for traffic engineering as well. • Community Relations Dr. Kroske continued, noted the program is good for community relations. People hate red light runners and school zone speeders. To get started, it is necessary to figure out whether the program is really needed. ATS will come out with a special unit and check on how many red light runners we really have and at what time of day, etc. If we have Tess than 10 - 12 a day, we probably do not need the system. The system will pay for itself if there are enough violations. Systems usually are in service 60 -90 days after approved. • Cost ATS provides all the front end needs, VIMs analysis, maintenance, installation, etc. The City must provide local signage, some Police Department time for review and court appearances, where necessary, (about 30 minutes a day), and court services for receiving payment. The system costs are $4,750 per 4 -lane approach per month. That has a cost neutral guarantee: 8 violations a day = 240 violations a month. Expect to lose 20% of those (a high estimate), @ $101 a violation = $19,200 /mo. revenue. Subtract the cost $4,750 and the result is the City receiving $14,450. It takes 1.6 paid tickets a day to cover the cost of the program. 3 310 STUDY SESSION FEBRUARY 13, 2007 • Other available systems They also have a photo enforcements'peed program. It cannot be used as a speed trap on the highways; it can only be used in the school zones. It uses the same camera, but requires loops cut into the road in order to make it court- verified speed. It can be programmed for recording and shut down. It can be a mounted camera or a van with a camera capable of being moved around. • Council questions Council Member Bonlender asked whether there was a minimum contract time. Dr. Kroske advised, if bought off of the Seattle program, it has a built in one year time frame. If we decided to keep it, it would just continue. He claimed that Seattle is over halfway through their first year, and they are ecstatic with it. Council Member Cawley asked about collections and Dr. Kroske said he would leave information on uncollected debt for review and later discussion. Council Member Whitman asked about the increase of rear -end accidents and Dr. Kroske volunteered articles on studies done on those questions. Council Member Lover asked about how many paid tickets would be required to pay for the City's costs above the cost of the system. The response was, if the system was in one intersection — none, two intersections — two violations per day would be more than enough to pay for the cost of the system and the manpower to support it. 4. Audience comments (9:15 a.m. — 9:30 a.m.) Audience comments for Item 2) Crime Free Rental Housing, are included in that section. There was no audience participation for Item 3) Red Light Camera Enforcement. 5. Other Business: (9:30 — 10:00 a.m.) • Consider amending the City of Yakima's 2007 State Legislative Priorities Capital Budget request for the Downtown Futures Initiative to include Convention Center campus /transportation enhancements Michael Morales, Deputy Director of Community and Economic Development, explained the requested change to the 2007 State Legislative Priorities. Making this change today would allow a briefing of our Legislators at the Legislative dinner tonight. This subject went through committee yesterday. City Manager Zais explained that Senator Clements approached the Convention Center and asked them if they would be interested in introducing this in this legislative session. CAWLEY MOVED AND BONLENDER SECONDED TO APPROVE THE AMENDMENT TO THE 2007 STATE LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES CAPITAL BUDGET REQUEST. The motion carried by unanimous roll call vote; McClure absent. 4