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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Crime Control And Prevention District - 08/21/1997 410 410 MINUTES FOR THE CRIME CONTROL DISTRICT MEETING AUGUST 21, 1997 - 12 NOON CHIEF'S CONFERENCE ROOM, CCPD BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Laurie Cook Isaac Valencia Sandra Lanier-Lerma Bert Quintanilla, Alternate Rose Vela OTHERS PRESENT: Capt. Wayne Tisdale Mariah Boone, TRIP Mary Ann Robinson, City Manager's Office Jimmy Bray, City Attorney Asst. Chief K. A. Bung Pat Eldridge, Administrative Asst. Cmdr. Bryan Smith Asst. Chief L. Villagomez Jim Wiggins, CLEAT Chairperson Laurie Cook called the meeting to order. She suggested the Board approve the August 11 and August 13 minutes at the next meeting. Bert Quintanilla made the motion to table the minutes, Isaac Valencia seconded, motion passed. Ms. Cook said Ms. Eldridge kept a list of questions from the August 19 by the Council. She said what the Board needs to do today is discuss what occurred at 410 the City Council meeting. She said she is sorry that Rose Vela and Fernando Morales are unable to attend today's meeting because they were both at the Council meeting on Tuesday. She stated Dr. Lerma and Mr. Valencia were also present at the meeting. She asked everyone present to introduce themselves to Ms. Huerta's alternate, Bert Quintanilla. Ms. Eldridge began by saying she has her list of questions and the City Manager sent the Chief questions that need to be addressed. She said she would tell the Board about her list first. She said the Board needs to spell out support personnel. She stated it was not spelled out in the executive summary at all but it was in the detail. She said she would move the explanation from the detail into the executive summary as a line item. In addition, one of the things the CM had on his list is explain the need for ten more dispatchers. She asked the Board for input. Ms. Cook said there were two things pointed out at the meeting. The first thing was the question why are all the dispatchers being added on in the beginning, why not add some later in the year. She said she believes Mr. Martin was satisfied after looking at the budget realizing that no more officers can be added if there is any cost for dispatchers in year four or five, so adding the dispatchers in the earlier years causes more cost in the Crime District but not to the detriment of getting officers. She told Mr. Martin the reason that more dispatchers are needed is because officers calling for information have to wait, especially with the addition of more J.E.T. officers. These additional dispatchers should be tied specifically to community policing. This should state that there is more information and intelligence gathering, but also to state somewhere that if the consultant does not believe that more dispatchers are necessary that would be changed. She said she thinks Mr. Martin's suggestion was to tie the need for ten more dispatchers into the community-policing plan itself, not just to say they 1 SCANNED id V are support staff. And second, maybe if they are not all added the first year 416/ that would leave room for when the consultant comes in to be able to suggest something different. She said they are all being hired the first year and that does not leave the consultant the flexibility to make that suggestion. She said that was what Mr. Martin asked her specifically but she believes that is what he was trying to state at the Council meeting. Ms. Eldridge said she thinks one of the other issues is that PD is understaffed now and that was not talked about at the Council meeting. She said it is stated that these dispatchers will be support for the 50 officers being added, but in reality there are some that will support those 50 coming on, but five are needed that would take care of the PD's staffing needs now. Capt. Tisdale said at present Communications has 42 dispatchers and only ten positions have been authorized, two for police patrol, one for Fire/EMS, six for information channel, and six for 9-1-1 call takers. He said how the difference is being made is the dispatchers at present are working overtime. But what happened three years ago is that demand was so great from the field units because the crime rate and juvenile delinquencies had gone up, adding J.E.T. , splitting the city up in three, and adding one more information channel which was only supposed to operate during peak periods of time which is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. As growth continued for the last three years, the demand has been constant for two shifts of the day, everyday of the week. That has not been addressed or funded, so therefore overtime has skyrocketed. There is a multiple factor just to meet the required staffing level of what is in operation right now there has to be eight dispatchers. The additional dispatchers would go for the additional officers and that is just to maintain level of service. Ms. Cook told Capt. Tisdale that she would be very cautious with that argument 4 because of the question Mr. Martin asked in the Council meeting, "if this is such a pressing need why were there only two in the initial budget request", which are being withdrawn because of the Crime District. Chief Bung said the Juvenile Enforcement Team will have a lot of communication contact once community-policing concept increases. Ms. Cook said it would probably make sense to address the fact that there is current need. Capt. Tisdale said his suggestion is to add, "in previous budget years additional resources for general police officers be an added response, with increase in violent crimes in the city". Mr. Valencia asked the timeline for getting a dispatcher hired. Capt. Tisdale said it takes 9-12 months. He stated that is why this item was put in the first portion of the plan, because dispatchers have to be trained when the officers go on the street. Ms. Cook said it is more cost effective to train ten at a time instead of five. Capt. Tisdale said up to 12 dispatchers can be trained at a time. He stated there is a 30% "wash out" rate. Ms. Eldridge said the Board can expand on the verbiage for the hiring of the dispatchers. Dr. Lerma said she thinks current needs do need to be addressed, expressing some of the points Capt. Tisdale made about the "wash out" rate, and the comparison 1111, of adding new officers. 2 410 Ms. Eldridge said one of the major points would be that when the new initiatives ihr are in place they generate a lot of inquiries on their own. They are not just riding around in a car and a dispatcher has to handle special inquiries from the officers. Dr. Lerma said Ms. Eldridge is correct in that statement because the Juvenile Enforcement Team is being increased. Capt. Tisdale said the Juvenile Enforcement Team is extensive use of dispatch. One thing the Board needs to realize is that the Crime District is supposed to improve efficiency to make that operation in the department more fluent. When the current officers are waiting 10-15 minutes in line to get a return, if more dispatchers are added the officers get what they need and move on to the next call. It makes the officer more available for service. Ms. Cook said that is tied into the fact that the use of a dispatcher in a more efficient way reduces the need to add another officer at some point. Capt. Tisdale said he did not say it reduces the need, it reduces the amount of time that is tied up administratively. Cmdr. Smith said it increases the officers' effectiveness and efficiency. Dr. Lerma asked if there have been comparisons with other cities like ratios of dispatchers to officers. Capt. Tisdale said he has not done any comparisons. He said he could only speculate. He stated when our PD goes up against Austin, Houston, or San Antonio they are behind on dispatchers. 411, Mr. Quintanilla said the budget process outside of the Crime Control District will not change regardless of what happens to the District. The PD will still have a budget process every year. How many dispatchers have been added through the current budget proposal. Ms. Eldridge said two have been added this year. Mr. Quintanilla asked about the last five years. Capt. Tisdale said since 1989 there were no dispatchers requested. He said there has been a 77% increase in calls from 199,000 to 353, 000 last year since 1989- 1996 and there has been no increase in staff, except this year with two added. Ms. Cook asked if the dispatchers are being trained now. Capt. Tisdale told her the academy starts Monday. Ms. Cook said she would like to stay away from raising that issue because it goes back to how many were requested and why is it all of a sudden a current need. She thinks that with the statistics just stated about having not added dispatchers since 1989 and now two are being added this year, the ultimate question will be why was the request made. Cmdr. Smith said it is about a change in philosophy about the way PD will go about policing. When that occurs citizens will be requested to call in on things they have never called in before. The call takers will be handling numerous calls. Business cards are being handed out telling citizens that PD cares about the quality of life issue above and beyond the actual crime trends that are developing because those quality of life issues have been found to affect the 411, crime trends. The officers will be facilitating things they never even worked 3 V r.i► on before and those calls will increase because the officers will be contacting the citizens as they go into those areas. Chief Bung said by increasing the department by 50 officers we will be increasing the "eyes" of the Police Department tenfold. Mr. Quintanilla said he understands the Council had a question on the neighborhood districts being from high schools to the elementary level which would increase the number of citizens advisory councils and would tie into the increase in calls for service. Capt. Tisdale said there was another Council Member that brought up when PD went into the Navarro Project that the weeds were cut. All the other city services to be coordinated, under community policing, the police officer will handle it through dispatch. Ms. Eldridge said she would prefer not to mention an officer waiting because that was used to sell the MDT's. Ms. Cook said the second part of that is the MDT's are supposed to improve efficiency to get information without using dispatchers. Will that cut out some need for dispatchers. Capt. Tisdale said not in the life of this Crime Control District. If the implementation and training timeline are reviewed the Board can see the time the vast majority of the officers will be fully functional. Ms. Eldridge said current needs as well as future needs will be addressed. Technology makes what the PD has more efficient, it does not replace anything. Ms. Cook said she believes that answers the question. Ms. Eldridge said one of the other questions was from John Longoria about the code enforcement and Ms. Cook suggested the following verbiage "the citizens advisory councils and police will work other city departments, such as Code Enforcement, to determine conditions in a neighborhood that may get more susceptible to criminal activity". She also stated that on the issue of citizens advisory council boundaries, instead of high schools the suggestion was elementary schools, but she believes middle schools would be a little more manageable for PD as far as the boundaries go. Dr. Lerma asked what Ms. Eldridge means by the boundaries. Ms. Cook said in the plan itself there is language in the citizens advisory council section stating "to encourage neighborhood involvement in identifying these problems, citizen advisory councils will be formed using boundaries of local high schools and incorporating the Police Department's existing Neighbors on Watch program". She said Mr. Longoria was saying they are very large boundaries and he suggested that elementary school areas be used for the citizens advisory councils. Dr. Lerma said the boundaries of a high school include all the middle and elementary schools that feed into them. Mr. Quintanilla said the Board should look at it with numbers from high schools or junior highs. Dr. Lerma said there are 40 elementary schools and 12 middle schools just from ` CCISD. 4 v 4100 Ms. Cook said if middle schools are considered there are 15 or 20, which will be ` more manageable. Dr. Lemma said she would suggest middle schools. Csdr. Smith said that is where Community Relations is aiming right now with some of the programs. Ms. Cook said when the council itself meets, if they could meet in the middle schools it gets the citizens into the school and that interaction is there between officers and middle schools. She said she thinks that ties better into the overall plan. Ms. Cook said page 24 should be changed to include boundaries of middle schools and a sentence about the reasoning of using middle schools should be added. Capt. Tisdale said the purpose is for the monthly meetings at the schools would include each individual council allowing the first-line supervisor and the second-line supervisor who is responsible for patroling that area to go out and correct the problems immediately on a month-to-month basis if possible. Then on a quarterly basis anything that cannot be dealt with can be allocated to the Chief's level. Ms. Cook said there could be a little more explanation of it in the paragraph which will improve the understanding. Dr. Lerma said she thinks it is important to put into the plan the monthly and quarterly meetings. Ms. Eldridge said another issue presented Tuesday was the salary of personnel associated with the truancy and assessment center. She said the director's salary came from a combination of individuals who are in the field. The concept was that PD wants a manager at the center to run it. She said PD wants to make certain there is a competent individual who can handle counseling of the children. She said it is not a "glorified babysitting job". That is why the salary in that position was $44,000 because there will be a competent person in charge of the entire program and that person will report to the Chief. She said the salaries of the other individuals are based on the market value of this area. Ms. Cook said the salary is not a $44,000 salary. It includes benefits which is hard to explain, which would be another 12-15%. So the position is probably a $36, 000 or $37, 000 salary. Ms. Eldridge said on the case managers it is $98,000 for four of them, for the three counselors it is $73,500, and the clerk-typist is $16, 000. Ms. Cook said she believes all the salaries axe reasonable. She said she thinks Mr. Longoria was looking at the salary thinking it was a $44, 000 salary and not realizing it is a lower salary because benefits are added. It seems like any savings would be in the operating costs. Ms. Cook requested a detail for each Board member on the year one and two budgets for better understanding. Ms. Cook said there was a lot of discussion on this particular area and she thinks Mr. Bray's language was extremely beneficial. She asked if any Board members think there needs to be a change in the plan about the salary issue. Mr. Valencia said an addition might be added to explain the costs, but he said he understands when the TRIP center closes, the kids are taken to La Raza. When the curfew center closes the kids are taken to La Raza. He said he remembers Dr. Garza making a comment that at some point the kids are put to bed. He stated he questions whether the proposed curfew and truancy center would have something 5 %MO 11110 similar to it. Would there be a need for it because the kids should not be kept kir up all night if no one comes for them. Chief Hung said the kids cannot be held past 6 a.m. so the same procedure will be followed. They cannot be kept for longer than six hours. Ms. Cook asked if the Board feels any other changes need to be made to the curfew and truancy center item or the way it was presented. Ms. Eldridge said the only thing she will do is put the language that Mr. Bray wrote in the executive summary. Ms. Cook said Mr. Longoria was trying to tie the center with a building that is being suggested in the CPP and tie the two together. She said there is a building next to LULAC in the 78415 area and see if LULAC can run the program. She said she told him that and RFP would be written that has the proper specifications. Ms. Boone said TRIP's steering committee has been voicing concern that the Council does not know that TRIP, as it works now, has in place a wide multi- disciplinary coalition with outside agencies working with them. She said the steering committee would hate to see that coalition lost. Dr. Lerma said that issue can be in the RFP as interagency collaboration. Ms. Cook said it might be something to insert in the plan to continue the interagency cooperation. Ms. Eldridge said in the background information all the entities involved can be included and that they will be called upon for their input in the RFP. Dr. Lerma said almost every federal and state RFP has that proviso about interagency collaboration. It has to be shown. Mr. Eldridge said that if the center is established it will be a one of a kind first approach. Ms. Cook said she received a call saying that Judge Hunter apparently thinks that what is in the plan is going to include a detox center. She said she made it clear that it is not included. Capt. Tisdale said he would like to tell the Board that you do not ever want to bring a kid that has been drinking in with kids that have not been. The detox center now requires a physician, because it is not known whether the kid has consumed so much alcohol that they will become intoxicated and then go beyond whatever the body can handle. So that is the critical reason those two programs should never be mixed. Ms. Cook said her response was the reason children in possession of alcohol would not be taken to the center was because there will not be a physician on site. She asked about the tobacco law. Cmdr. Smith said he has been reviewing that law and primarily PD's response to it will be by citation, a Class "C" misdemeanor. None of the law will change the dealing with or number of intoxicated juveniles. Ms. Cook requested a response be written to the question of why the curfew and truancy center cannot function as a detox center and what the response will be for minors in possession of tobacco in that they might be referred to the center [ 6 v v for counseling but not taken to the center because there will be citations issued. Mr. Valencia asked what would happen to a juvenile who is in violation of the curfew law and in possession of tobacco. Chief Bung said a citation would be written for the tobacco and they will still be taken to the curfew center. Ms. Eldridge said she would add to the project background the statement of maintaining a coalition. She said the next item she has is to change the be- annual fear of crime survey. Dr. Lerma asked how it got the name fear of crime. Ms. Eldridge said they were trying to relate it back to the Board's goal. One of the things suggested was to call it "Crime Control District annual evaluation survey". She said that change will be incorporated into the plan. Ms. Cook said the City Manager's list of requests will be reviewed at this time. There has already been discussion of the need to hire ten more dispatchers. The next item is report on current status and recent changes in pawn shop activity. She said she thought it would put some uniform officers back in the field, but she was corrected on it at the Council meeting. Ms. Eldridge said Ms. Cook was basically correct because that was done until March or April because there have been officers, but those officers have since got off light duty and they are out in the field. So at present civilians on light duty are working in that division. Ms. Cook said it seemed to her that this is a policy issue that the Council needs to discuss as opposed to changing the plan. She said the next items on the list is what can be done to "beef up" code enforcement to support the Crime District's initiatives. She said that has been previously discussed. The next item review and explain the proposed salaries of police legal advisor and curfew center staff. The curfew center staff has already been addressed. The Board should talk about the police legal advisor and whether what is in the budget is an adequate salary. Mr. Bray said it entails a salary of $38,500 that is the bottom of the range for the Attorney II classification. Ms. Cook asked the range of an Attorney II. Ms. Eldridge said the range is $38,500 to $54,900. Ms. Cook said $46,600 would be mid-level and benefits of $8,000 should be added. Mr. Bray said it does make a difference on the effectiveness of the position if the salary is raised somewhat. Ms. Cook said if the line item is in there, it needs to be made adequate for what the needs are or it needs to be deleted. Dr. Lerma said she thinks the Board needs to make the salary adequate. Ms. Eldridge said one of the things talked about is an expert in the criminal justice field. 7 V 410 Ms. Cook said the salary should be changed to at least $46, 600 and leave the 4111, position at Attorney II. She said the next item of "fear of crime survey" wording has been discussed and changed. She stated the next item of consider proposing ordinance requiring customers to pay first at self-service gas stations does not need to be addressed at the meeting. She said she talked with Mr. Longoria yesterday and he is fine with the explanation to the question. She said the next item does the Fair Labor Standards Act allow the Crime District to fund school district hiring of off-duty police. Mr. Bray said he thinks the Board is not in violation because the District is a separate governmental entity that distributes the money that will be given directly to the school district for a certain use. The school district will be doing the hiring which is no different than what they are doing right now in using officers off duty. The only thing is the City is really more involved in this transaction because the City Council appoints the Board and approves the budget so there is definitely some City input into that cost. Ms. Cook said the fact is the officers will be employed by the school district and subject to the rules of any other officers that are working off duty for the school district. She asked Mr. Bray to keep the Board informed on the issue. Mr. Bray asked with the program whether the school district would be restricted to hiring PD officers or can they use the money to hire other peace officers. Chief Bung said they can use any peace officers. Mr. Bray said he thinks that helps with the FLSA question. Ms. Cook said she thinks it will help to say that the school district is not restricted to hiring CCPD. 4111, Ms. Eldridge said she would change the wording to include "off-duty peace officers" instead of CCPD officers. Ms. Cook moved onto the item can a schedule for hiring additional police officers be accelerated. The timeline needed to be changed because it did not match the budget. She said she went through the hiring dates verbally with the Council. She explained the change to the Board with them reviewing the timeline. Ms. Eldridge said the grant has allowed for the accelerated hiring of ten officers. Ms. Cook said instead of ten officers a year there will be three academies of 30 in two years, then ten, and then another ten. Her question is if there is going to be a class in August of 15, could that be accelerated. Ms. Eldridge stated there cannot be an academy of less than 15 people. Mary Ann Robinson said if 40 officers are added in two years it will put a strain on every area. It will cost more. Ms. Cook said Ms. Eldridge will change the timeline to match the budget. Ms. Eldridge said she changed the timeline to reflect the programs beginning on August 1 to match the City's fiscal year. Ms. Cook asked Ms. Robinson to include in the budget a list of support staff making is more obvious of which personnel it includes. She said the Board will move onto report showing organization of current staff of police department and IOW 8 �1✓ V proposed with Crime District additions. She said this item raises another issue for her because she wants to make sure the lieutenant and breathalyzer are included in the description for DWI enforcement. She said she does not remember seeing that supervision included in that dollar amount. Ms. Eldridge said she will say also included is a lieutenant and breathalyzer operator. Capt. Tisdale said it is a year-round program with the STEP grant Ms. Eldridge is working on with the state. Ms. Eldridge said it is overtime. She said the plan says it is anticipated that the PD will receive grant funding for DWI enforcement but only for 26 weeks of the year. The project calls for four officers for 26 weeks to compliment the grant proposal to begin on October 1. She said she would move this item to the project summary and expand upon the grant concept. She will also add the officer included is a field lieutenant and a breathalyzer operator during the same hours. Ms. Cook said she assumed the need for supervision would be addressed in the department budget. She wanted to know if the Board needs to indicate that they know there is going to be supervision. Ms. Eldridge said the supervision element will have to be addressed on site because taking a senior officer and bumping them up to a lieutenant would cost about $5, 000. Ms. Cook asked whether the budget should include raises for supervisory personnel. (� Ms. Eldridge stated she talked with the Chief about this matter and he said he does not want to list supervisory personnel in detail. He wants to be able to handle it internally within the department's general fund budget. Ma. Cook said what the Board needs to say that supervisory personnel are addressed within the department budget so the Board can indicate they know there are supervisory personnel and their costs will not be covered within the Crime District. Cndr. Smith said the focus should remain on putting 50 officers on the street to handle directed patrol functions that the Chief has mandated. He said supervision should not be addressed because it is being handled now and left to the decision of the Chief. Ms. Cook said the Board should expressly state that fact. Ms. Eldridge said maybe it can be addressed when she includes the statement for the prisoner transport vehicle stating that the maintenance and fuel costs for this vehicle will be absorbed by the City of Corpus Christi general fund. Ms. Cook said the next item report detailing support staff in Crime Control and Prevention budget plan has been previously discussed. Mr. Valencia asked if the four digital cameras have been addressed by the Board. Ms. Eldridge told Mr. Valencia that it is addressed under equipment for J.E.T. Ms. Cook asked Board members if they were approached at the meeting with any other questions. She said she received a question during and after the meeting about substations and the question during the meeting got addressed. She stated [ 9 Mr. Valencia brought up the fact again that if there were savings, the issue of 41, storefronts would be addressed. Ms. Vela said it seemed some Council Members were getting substations confused with storefronts. Ms. Cook said she got a question after the meeting whether the substations would be expanding. She said there was some discussion about making the assembly points more accessible and visible but that was something that would be addressed by the department in the long-range plan and also addressed by the grant consultant. She said she received another question which she does not think is related to the Crime Control District. She said a man has talked to her several times about gun dealers and the gun shows having some kind of change that only federally-licensed dealers are allowed to participate in gun shows within the city limits. She stated she told him she did not think that was within the realm of the Crime Control District, but she told him she would bring the issue up. Cmdr. Smith suggested Ms. Cook refer him to ATF the next time he calls her. Ms. Cook asked if Board members had any other questions brought to their attention. She said it did not appear to her that drastic changes needed to be made to the plan. Chief Bung said it was obvious that the Council was pleased with the work the Board did on the plan. Mr. Valencia said the polling company has been selected as Global Strategies. They have done many of these polls. Drafted questions should be arriving soon. Ms. Cook said the ballot language was distributed to Board members. She stated it is very simple and comes from the statute. Mr. Bray said that the statute states what the ballot language should be word for word. The only option is if the City Council were to appoint themselves as the permanent board of the district it would have to be on the ballot but they expressed explicitly Tuesday they do not want that to occur. Mr. Quintanilla asked if the temporary board will be intact until election day. Ms. Cook said her understanding is that the temporary board stays in place. If the election is successful, the votes will be canvassed and the temporary board will be dissolved, then the Council would appoint a permanent board. If the election is unsuccessful the temporary board will stay in place until the Council chooses to dissolve them. Mr. Bray said they can call another election for up to five years. Mr. Quintanilla said he knows CPP is getting together groups to raise private money for the election campaign. He asked Mr. Bray whether the Crime Control District Board can do the same thing. Mr. Bray said that as a government entity the temporary board would not raise any money as individuals, but they can go out with other individuals and form support groups to raise money. Ms. Cook said it is her understanding from Mr. Jones, CPP, that they are forming separate and apart from CPP a special purpose committee that will be responsible for running a campaign and they will be collecting campaign contributions. They ` will have a separate campaign structure. She said the Crime Control District 111/ Board can do that in conjunction with CPP. 10 V 11110 Mr. Bray wanted to mention something from the open meetings standpoint that if a quorum of this Board is going to meet to discuss campaign strategies notice will have to be posted. Ms. Cook wanted to know how a posted meeting notice about campaigning would affect city staff being present at the meeting. Mr. Bray said that would not be a problem. Capt. Tisdale asked if a City employee speaking for the Crime Control District would be in violation or conflict of interest. Mr. Bray stated that fire and police officers clearly have a right as long as they are off duty and not in uniform. Mr. Valencia asked Mr. Bray to clarify since he is relieved from duty full time for the purpose of serving as head of the CCPOA, in his personal time as well as relieved duty time would he still be available to speak on the subject. Dr. Lerma asked whether the rule of thumb is that employees can speak and give information but they cannot tell anyone how to vote. Mr. Bray said that is what has been done in the bond elections and measures in the past. Ms. Cook said she wanted to make sure the meeting on September 9 gets posted correctly. It is scheduled for 9 a.m. on that day but she would like to change the location. Mr. Bray said on September 9 there will be an election order for the Board to adopt. After discussion, the Board decided to hold the September 9 meeting at the Council Chambers at 10 a.m. Ms. Cook asked about the format of the public hearing on August 26. Mr. Bray said both the City Council and Crime Control District will be convened. The public hearing will be opened, take whatever comments, then close. There will then be a joint discussion with the City Council whether there are any changes and what is going to go out in the packet. Be suggested a page be inserted in the plan in the front with a simple summary sheet so the Council can refer easily to the changes. There will be a resolution for the Board and Council to adopt the plan with the changes made since last presented to the Council. Ms. Cook stressed the importance of every Board member or alternate attending the public hearing on August 26. With no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned at 2:05 p.m. 11