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Home My WebLink About10/06/2009 04B Minutes 09-09-2009 Council Public Safety Committee • Council Public Safety Committee CED Conference Room City Hall September 9, 2009 MINUTES Council Members Present: Maureen Adkison, Dave Edler and Sonia Rodriguez The meeting was called to order by Adkison at 4:00 p.m. I. Revision to Municipal Code and City Polices regarding parade and special event permit processes and notices to affected parties. Joan Davenport and Joe Caruso advised this issue had been referred back to the Public Safety Committee from the full council. Currently, requests for street closures and special event permits are processed through the police department, however, recent events have brought to light that the process doesn't provide for notification of other 410 impacted departments or neighbors . in the event area. The permit center has an automated routing system for processing permits and is amenable to taking over the . routing of parade /special event permits if the committee is in agreement. Some of the issues the permit center could address in the application process are a notice to the requester to notify neighbors /neighboring businesses and clean up expectations. The ordinance would have to be moved from YMC 9.7 Traffic to YMC 8.2 Right of Way Use. Representatives from the Committee for Downtown Yakima spoke in support of the change and would assist by being a central location to get information about special event permits. Other ideas were discussed regarding notification. Large events such as the Sunfair parade would not be able to make notification to all affected parties, however, smaller events should require notice be made to affected neighbors. A clean up deposit could be imposed to encourage event coordinators to clean up after the event rather than leave it for the City to clean up, however, this may impact smaller events that have an extremely limited budget. It is currently part of the ordinance that the Chief of Police may bill the sponsoring group for clean up costs, but it is not utilized. It was decided to leave the current billing option in the ordinance but to add a clean up plan to the application. Davenport advised she would draft revisions to the ordinance and distribute them to the committee for review. II. Jail Cost Containments There will be an appropriation going to Council, of which a large proportion will be to cover jail costs. The City is currently spending approximately $4 million to house primarily misdemeanants. Some steps that are being taken to reduce these costs are providing indigent defense at arraignments and the pilot study for the Crisis Intervention Team program to divert mentally ill offenders out of the jail system and into treatment. These will only provide an approximate 5 % -.10% reduction in jail costs. Chief Granato stated that to truly reduce costs, the City would need to expand the City jail, however, it would be most beneficial to keep it as a strictly misdemeanor jail, as we currently don't pay the County for inmates booked on felony only charges. Other options are expanding the Electronic Home Monitoring program, changing criteria for charging determinations when a subject is arrested for both felony and misdemeanor offenses, moving to a relicensing program for DWLS 3 offenders that would keep offenders out of jail and allow them to make time payments to regain their driving privileges, increasing the charging threshold on larceny crimes from $25 to $50, and pre- charging diversion programs. These are all broad policy issues that would need to be explored and discussed in depth. There was discussion about the limitations of Electronic Home Monitoring (EHM) and possible advances that may allow for expansion of the program. The option of the City absorbing the cost of the EHM rather than paying for incarceration was also discussed. There is currently no misdemeanor work release program. Edier asked if other cities and counties were also looking into these options, which they are. Zais advised that the prior recommendations for cost containment cut much deeper. It was MOVED by Edier and SECONDED by Rodriguez to forward the Jail Cost Reduction Recommendations to the full Council for consideration, with an expansion on option 5 (EHM) to give the judge the option to have the City assume the costs for EHM, and the removal of item 3 (charging thresholds). The motion was amended to remove items 1 and 2 (misdemeanor /felony charging decisions and fine only dispositions for DWLS 3 charges), as staff has the authority to implement those changes. Motion PASSED unanimously to forward the remaining recommendations to the full Council for consideration with the recommendation of the committee. III. Graffiti Update A summary report was presented to the committee of the graffiti enforcement efforts presented at the last Public Safety Committee meeting. This report was approved to forward to the full Council. IV. Other Business Mayor Edier wanted to inform the committee that he has been affiliated for some time with a group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The NRA has recently become aware 0 of his affiliation and has started distributing flyers encouraging people to call to complain /request he remove himself from the group. Edier stated that the flyers provide erroneous information, that the group is only interested in eliminating the trafficking of illegal guns and not in restricting legitimate gun rights. He also advised that a forum on illegal guns is being planned and he would like to invite them to hold it in Yakima, however, he would not extend this invitation without input from the committee or the Council. Edler also brought to the committee's attention the AWC Subcommittee. on Community Safety and Justice's recommendation on legislative issues for 2010. Gang suppression was not something that was originally on their list for 2010, however now it is one of their top priorities. Edler requested the opportunity at a future meeting to discuss the 2012 county -wide EMS levy renewal, specifically what dollar amount should be requested. The current levy is at $.25, and an increase to $.50 was defeated. The formula for distribution of funds is not slanted to favor large cities. The County Commissioners have the final say in the portioning of levy funds. Edler would like to discuss if the committee should recommend that the Council approach the County Commissioners to discuss portioning. Edler also expressed his concerns regarding the current economy and proposed staffing cuts for support staff in both the police and fire departments. Rodriguez added that she felt budget cuts should be minimized in the police department. Granato al advised that it would be necessary to move to the Spillman RMS system in order to make the budget cuts work for the department. Rodriguez also asked Zais to follow up on the street light issue she had brought up. Granato provided an update on the gang emphasis patrols. The preliminary statistics . are showing a decrease in Part 1 crimes, but an increase in Part 2 crimes in other districts outside of the target area. Rodriguez added that this was part of the street light issue she had brought up, to increase the number of street lights in the target area as when she had done a ride -along in the area, it was very dark. This ties into the CPTED concept (Community Policing Through Environmental Design). Chris Waarvick will provide additional information at the next Public Safety Committee meeting. Zais advised the committee of current budget issues. He advised that, regardless of the budget model used, there is not enough money to meet all of the City's needs. The reason for presenting the budget to the Council so early is to give the Council time to review and revise their priorities if needed. Edler wants to make sure the committee advocates for Public Safety in the budget process. V. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 6:07 p.m. 7/ / AO CP), 7 Maureen Adkispn Public Safety CJom ' ittee Minutes prepared by Terri Greer ■