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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Public Safety (Committee) - 01/08/2013 KENT w., ,ware. CITY OF KENT PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES January 8, 2013 COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Les Thomas, Dana Ralph, and William Boyce, Chair. The meeting was called to order by Council Chair William Boyce at 4:32 p.m. 1. Approval of Minutes Councilmember Ralph MOVED and Councilmember Thomas SECONDED a Motion to approve the November 13, 2012 minutes. Motion PASSED 3-0. 2. Target Grant Assistant Chief Randy Bourne advised that the city received an award of $500 from the Target Corporation for the purchase of a Photoshop program to digitize photos that businesses turn in regarding robberies to help prosecutors. Les Thomas thanked Target in their participation in the community including National Night Out. After deliberating, Councilmember Ralph MOVED and Councilmember Thomas SECONDED a Motion to recommend that Council accept the Target grant in an amount of $500, authorize amending the budget and authorized expenditure of the funds in accordance with the grant terms acceptable to the police chief and city attorney. Motion PASSED 3-1. 3. Ordinance amending KCC 9.02.150 Deputy city attorney Pat Fitzpatrick presented an ordinance amending the criminal code so that it complies with Initiative 502. Decriminalizes a portion of the Kent City Code and adopts a couple of sections of the RCW so that it complies with state law. Adopts a section of 502 that decriminalizes the possession of one ounce of marijuana or less and adopts the infraction relating to the use of marijuana in public (opening a package of marijuana in public). Committee Chair Boyce asked if the dispensaries covered. Pat Fitzpatrick indicated that I-502 only permits-the-sale or-production-of-marijuana-subject-to-state -liquor- control-board control. The State is currently establishing rules and regulations regarding permitting and opening facilities to grow and sell marijuana. City will have an opportunity to comment on the rules, subject to a policy decision of the mayor and council. The State estimates it will take a year to establish rules. Committee Chair Boyce indicated that a dispensary that was closed is now open. Pat Fitzpatrick indicated that they are violating the zoning code, violating state and federal law. The city is currently assessing that particular situation. Councilmember Ralph asked if these changes put Kent in conflict with Federal law. Pat Fitzpatrick indicated that Kent chooses to follow state law. Since Kent does not enforce Federal law, we are not in conflict with Federal law. If Kent were encouraging taking steps to actively participate in the production, Kent may be in conflict with Federal Law. The message voters sent was that this is no longer illegal according to Washington law - does not mention Federal law. Kent needs to be consistent with the way this law is written regarding enforcement so that Kent police officers can participate in programs with the federal government. Councilmember Ralph stated that she struggles to vote to make it ok. Pat Fitzpatrick indicated that, as a city, it would not be a wise legal decision to remain out of compliance with state law and that this is the most complex issue the law department has dealt with. Pat Fitzpatrick indicated that the city of Kent police department has and will continue to vigorously enforce the driving laws relating to the use of marijuana. The city has drug recognition officers that are trained to notice people that are under the influence of marijuana. The city of Kent law department vigorously enforces marijuana-related DUIs. After deliberating, Councilmember Thomas MOVED and Councilmember Ralph SECONDED a Motion to recommend adoption of the ordinance amending Section 9.02.150 of the Kent City Code, entitled, "Criminal Code," adopting new RCW's relating to marijuana. The Motion PASSED 3-0. 4. Community Education Unit — Information Only Sara Wood and Stacy Judd, Public Education Specialists (PES) in the Community Education Unit of the Police Department. Inform the committee on the jobs and functions of the Public Education Specialists. Police department deploys resources and education to the four sectors of the City; K-2 (East Hill), K-3 (West Hill), K-4 (New Panther Lake Area), K-5 (Valley). Sara Wood is assigned to West Hill and Valley sectors. Stacy Judd is assigned to all East sectors. Currently there are 106 block watch programs. Sara and Stacy communicate weekly with groups and advise of current crimes and provide information to groups. Hold block-watch 101 classes informing how to set up, information on crime trends and tips. Committee Chair Boyce asked what forms of communication are used for advertising the Block Watch 101 classes. Stacy advised that Sara is the media expert and she puts it on Facebook, Twitter, City's website and the Kent Reporter in addition to sending information to current block watch participants. Neighborhood response officers also refer victims of residential burglaries to Sara and Stacy. Sara Wood is required to spend 85% of her time on traffic safety-related projects in Kent and South King County. Sara is the Target Zero project manager for the South King County area. 25 Target Zero managers across state who manage funding that is filtered through the — Washington-Traffic Safety-Commission (WTSC)-from-the-National-Highway Transportation--Safety — Administration (NHTSA) to facilitate five large DUI impaired driving mobilizations per year. January 1st was the last mobilization. Sara coordinates funding for 13 South King County police departments and coordinates the patrols for events. Sara works closely with City of Kent Sergeant, Robert Constant, who is the law enforcement liaison for the Target Zero program South King County. Sara discussed success of program. Statewide Target Zero goal is to have zero fatalities and serious injuries on roadways by the year 2030. Sara works closely with engineering regarding traffic calming and pedestrian safety. Sara discussed current grant from the State regarding pedestrian safety along Kent-Kangley from 104th to 132nd. Deployed extra law enforcement officers and reviewing data-driven approaches to crime and traffic safety. The City will evaluate the stats to determine if extra traffic enforcement has any positive affect on the crime rates. Sara is working with North King County Target Zero manager on $70,000 distracted driving grant and campaign throughout King County. Sara manages the false alarm program. Manage monthly alarms, if business has three or more false alarms in any one month, a warning letter is sent out. If the same business has three or Public Safety Committee Minutes January 8, 2012 2 more false alarms in another month within the same quarter, a letter is sent out advising them that the City is interested in working with them in an effort to help them stay in compliance. There is no charge to the businesses for this program. Stacy Judd manages the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) grant and Stop Underage Drinking Prevention grant. City is in fifth year of grant with DFC. The grant is at $54,000 per year. City will be applying for years six through 10, but that application .is competitive. The City is in the first year the five-year Stop Underage Drinking Prevention grant. The grant is $48,000 per year. Major focus on these grants is on middle and high school students in the Kent School District. Focuses on drug and alcohol prevention. New challenges regarding the new marijuana . law. Stacy works with Kent Police Youth Board which consists of 25 middle and high school students. Game of Life Youth Conference was held in the beginning of December. There were over 300 participants from Kent, Renton, Enumclaw, Seattle and Auburn. Volunteers meet 2-3 times per month focusing on drug and alcohol prevention and also leadership development. Students can serve from 7th through 12th grade. Most students serve on the board until they graduate. In the springtime the kids will work on another community-based project. Last spring the kids worked with Sara on the distracted driving presentation, program, banners, and commercials that ran on Comcast cable and at the AMC theaters that focused on drug and alcohol prevention. Work with Kent Drug Free Coalition focusing on monitoring the Drug Free Communities grant and the Stop Underage Drinking Prevention Grant. Monitor the alcohol establishments in Kent regarding good business practices of not over- serving. Work with the liquor control board on compliance checks on underage sales of alcohol. Both work on the STAR and trespass programs. STAR is for rental property units of two or more. The trespass program is for property managers to partner with the police department to allow police officers to trespass people from their property without approval. Four police personnel teach the police sciences class at Kent Meridian High School. Councilmember Thomas asked if there is a plan to implement the science class at Kentridge High School. Stacy indicated that there are staffing issues, so she is not sure. National Night Out. City received loth in the nation - the highest that the city has been recognized in our new population category. It is a citywide effort which is coordinated through the Community Education Unit. Cornucopia and Fourth of July events. The Public Education Specialists represent the city, answer questions, and provide informational materials to the public during various events. Do personal safety presentations for businesses and employees. Passed out flyers for auto theft prevention and vehicle prowl prevention. Look for-grants in an effort to bring unique programs to Kent. Graffiti - City has volunteers, corrections work crew that will clean up the graffiti with the homeowner's permission. Can provide paint for the homeowner to do graffiti removal. Graffiti hotline is (253)856-GRAF and leave a message where the graffiti is and Stacy and Sara will work with homeowner to get the graffiti cleaned up. Committee member Ralph thanked Sara and Stacy for coming to the meeting and reminding the community of the work that they do reaching out to every part of the community helping to keep residents and businesses safe. Committee chair Boyce also expressed his gratitude. Public Safety Committee Minutes January 8, 2012 3 S. Inmate Phone Services - Information Oniv Diane McCulstion, Corrections Commander, discussed upgrading the inmate telephone service the inmates in the housing units use. Current service is 20 years old. Expensive to repair, expensive for inmates to use, does not have the ability to call cellular phones. Over the past few months- city staff has met with various providers and evaluated options. Val Added Communications (VAC) is the current provider and was bought out by another provider. Securus Technologies offers best program including low-cost calls for inmates, free attorney/public defender calls. Service and hardware is free to the City. City will receive 50% of the revenue generated. Last year revenues were approximately $38,000 and it is anticipated that the City will continue to receive this same amount. Committee Char! Boyce asked about the cost to the City and Diane indicated that there is no cost to the City. Committee member Ralph questioned if Diane anticipates the revenue remaining the same even if the costs to the inmates are reduced. Diane indicated that there will be an increase in the revenue due to the ability for the inmates to call cell phones. Committee member Thomas asked if this item will go to Operations committee. Deputy City Attorney, Pat Fitzpatrick, advised that the City's procurement code requires council approval on items that cost the city money. Since the inmate phone services will not cost the city money and it is being presented to the Public Safety Committee as information only. Additionally, since Securus owns and maintains the system, there is no cost to the City due to Securus owning the equipment. The City only shares in the revenue generated from phone calls from a much- improved system for providing the clientele for the phone system. Commander McCuistion informed the committee that the new system will also record phone calls for investigatory purposes. 6. Photo traffic enforcement in School Zones - Information Only. Chief Thomas assigned Traffic Sergeant, Robert Constant, to start researching the photo traffic program and present preliminary information to the Committee in order to give an opportunity for input and direction. Chief Thomas hopes to bring this item back to committee in February. Sergeant Constant advised that this program has gone through legal challenges in the State of Washington and all have been exhausted, so implementation should not be challenged. Increases traffic calming and enforcement in areas that have increased ongoing collisions and fatalities. Auburn and Renton have had for the past 3-5 years. Des Moines just completed an 18 month trail program and is in the process of implementing a second school zone traffic enforcement camera program. Regionally, the program is working well and it is anticipated that -- --Kent-would-also benefit from-this-program.- Committee--member Thomas-questioned-if-Kent is - -- thinking about a pilot program. Chief Thomas asked for direction as to whether or not the committee is interested in a pilot program vs. a working with the company evaluating as many schools as possible. The businesses providing this program will research and do a study to determine which school zones would be best, that make the most sense for sustainability. Chief Thomas would like direction from the committee on what they desire. Committee member Ralph asked for information regarding the number of school zones vs. how many traffic officers we have. Sergeant Constant indicated that there are 25 schools and 38 school zones. The traffic unit consists of eight traffic officers and Sergeant Constant is the traffic supervisor. At any one time there are 2-3 traffic officers working the City. Additionally, there are 119 signal- controlled intersections, 500+ stop sign controlled intersections, and 724 miles of roadway. Utilizing technology and mechanical implementation can be effective. Committee member Ralph asked if the Kent School District Both Committee Chair Boyce and Chief Thomas have spoken with Dr. Vargas from the Kent School District who is very passionate about and has already identified ten schools he would like to implement this technology. Chair Boyce requested that the city move forward without implementing a pilot program first. Public Safety Committee Minutes January 8, 2012 4 Committee Chair Boyce asked about the costs involved. Sergeant Constant indicated that the school zone traffic camera companies will ensure compliance with the statutes by completing feasibility studies. Costs average $4,800-$5,000 per month per approach. The company ensures the traffic volumes will support implementing the cameras in the specific area. City would be responsible for matching fees if there are fewer violations that anticipated. All surrounding agencies are not having any problem meeting minimum requirements. The Traffic Safety Commission Study that was just released indicates that the proceeds generated by school zone traffic cameras are applied to the costs of infrastructure. A commissioned officer has to review each violation (takes approx. 3-5 minutes/violation) additional costs to courts, records and prosecutor's office. Surrounding jurisdictions apply excess revenues towards the costs involved in managing the program and then apply the funds to traffic calming needs, Committee member Ralph would like to see what it Is going to take in resources from staff. She indicated that the goal of this program is student safety not a revenue generator. Setting up the program having it pay for itself and then using excess revenue for traffic calming programs. Sergeant Constant indicated that the results the surround jurisdictions and the reductions in schools zones indicates that this program would be very beneficial. Chief Thomas indicated that he spoke with Margaret Yetter, the Courts Administrator and indicated her desire to be involved in the decision making process. Committee Chair Boyce indicated that he would like us to move forward. Committee member Thomas indicated that he would like us to implement around five school zones. Sargent Constant indicated that the City would not be able to support anything more than three zones to start. After looking at Renton and Auburn (each are doing three schools), how they are managing them, including their traffic unit. Based on that information, Kent would only be able to do three zones. Committee Boyce would like the police department to move forward with gathering data that would fit our needs, be the most beneficial to the city and the most cost-effective to the City. The police department should then bring back a recommendation to the February or March Public Safety Committee meeting with their recommendation. All three committee members' support moving forward with this program. 7. Staffing elan for police department — Information only Chief Thomas discussed the staffing plan for the police department with Council President Higgins and Committee Chair Boyce. Committee Chair Boyce and Committee member Ralph would like to have the chief put together a staffing plan based on information on the national, state, and local levels of staffing that take into account the population numbers. Committee Chair Boyce would like the chief to determine what the desired level of staffing should be compared to other jurisdictions and prepare a plan, including a timeline, on how the city can achieve those desired levels. Once the committee receives the plan, they will review the plan during the next budget cycle. Councilmember Ralph indicated that a formal plan will establish goals, targets, and provide accountability which will provide measures for the council to work towards. Chief Thomas indicated that in February, Bobby Hollis will move back into the active recruiting position. Public Safety Committee Minutes January 8, 2012 5 Staffing goals can be discussed as a committee in addition to internally with the police department and city administration. Paying for the new staff is the biggest challenge. Current cost per officer to hire is $107,000-$110,000 which includes training, vehicles and uniforms. Chief Thomas indicated that the City of Kent is safe and we have the best employees and police officers in the state of Washington. Our officers work hard and smart and do a very good job. The citizens of the city of Kent are safe, but we could use more officers so that we can be better. Council Chair Boyce would like a document that is a guideline for ideal staffing levels for the city of Kent. Committee member Thomas advised that some officers need to be replaced as they retire. Advised that Sergeant Gustafson is retiring at the end of January and Sergeant Pagel, out of detectives, is retiring at the end of this year. Chief Thomas indicated that administration fully supports immediately filling vacated positions, in order to maintain current levels, Two new officers starting - one January 16th and the other on February 1st. By this summer, if the revenue is right, the police department should be able to hire four positions that were on hold. The city has unfrozen one of the criminal justice positions. Chief Thomas is encouraged with the plan to move forward. City is safe and our police department is very, very good. Committee Chair Boyce requests that the Chief get Committee member Ralph would like to see what fully-staffed areas (NRT, bike patrol, and traffic) would look like. Chief Thomas has already assigned assistant chiefs with the task of working with their commanders to evaluate desired staffing levels to get to full capacity. Committee Chair Boyce would like this to be discussed again in the next few months. S. Chiefs update Homeless in downtown. Chief is getting mixed responses. Officers are actively addressing the negative issues and impact to the businesses, parks and sidewalks. Chief Thomas is working with the city attorney's office regarding civility laws. The officers are working with downtown businesses on trespass issues. The goal is to make Kent a clean and livable city with a high -quality of life, Chief Thomas met with Dr. Vargas on January 7th, 2013 and discussed the Connecticut School Shooting. Kent Police Department partners with the Kent School District to provide School Resource Officers in the middle and high schools. Nothing addresses the grade schools. Some schools in the country assign patrol officers to grade schools within their geographical "beat area." The officers are responsible for randomly checking in with the school periodically for 15 minutes and speak with the office personnel and students as regular policing duties in order to provide more presence in the schools. Chief Thomas spoke with Dr. Vargas regarding this program and he indicated that the school district is excited and interested in expanding their partnership with the Kent Police Department. Chief Thomas also indicated that they would also implement the program in the Federal Way Schools located within the City of Kent to increase the police presence and allow the officers to become familiar with the students, staff and campus. The city of Kent detective's unit would like to adopt schools to be able to contribute to the safety of the kids. The police department is working on the process of implementing the program. Public Safety Committee Minutes January 8, 2012 6 Committee Chair Boyce would like the Chief to follow up with a status report in the next few months. Review plan, budget and address staffing levels from a public safety prospective. Chief Thomas indicated that he would be implementing the downtown bicycle unit once the weather and timing is right. Committee member Thomas asked how many arrests were made for fireworks on New Year's Eve. Chief Thomas indicated zero, since the police were actively responding and dealing with incidents. Adjournment Council Chair Boyce adjourned the meeting at 5:55 p.m. Kim A. Komoto Public Safety Committee Secretary Public Safety Committee Minutes January 8, 2012 7