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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Crime Control And Prevention District - 09/29/1997 oisoMINUTES FOR THE 411,1 CRIME CONTROL DISTRICT SEPTEMBER 29, 1997 - 12 NOON ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER'S CONFERENCE ROOM, CITY HALL BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT; Laurie Cook Fernando Morales Cefe Valenzuela Bert Quintanilla, Alternate Isaac Valencia OTHERS PRESENT: Police Chief P. Alvarez, Jr. Pat Eldridge Mary Ann Robinson, City Manager's Office Capt. Wayne Tisdale Jimmy Bray, City Attorney Blakely Fernandez Chairperson Laurie Cook called the meeting to order at 12:05 p.m. The first order of business was the approval of the September 9, 1997, minutes. Isaac Valencia stated his corrections. On Page 2 when the issue was discussed about the tapes and the fact that it was said that the Chief was not made aware of the need for the tapes, Mr. Valencia said he had made a comment and none of that is in the minutes, but basically Mr. Valencia noted behind Chief's comments that other Police staff were present and in addition that Eldridge advised that she was representing the Chief and further that she acknowledged his request for the copies and there was no objection from the Board on that particular matter. Ms. Cook said they would add that in the third paragraph from the bottom. Mr. ihr Valencia said it would go right below that. Ms. Cook asked if there were any other corrections. She said she has one correction on Page 1 in the bottom paragraph it starts, "Ms. Cook told the Board that they should have received a copy of the election order." About two-thirds of the way down it says, "Ms. Cook explained the building of a reserve was discussed and at the end of the five-year period", she wanted to add to it or add another sentence. The way it reads makes it sound like the budget was increased or changed and she said she knows at the time she made a comment that the budget was not changed, it is the same budget. The numbers that were in the election order were the same numbers that were included that the Board previously approved. In addition to that, the reserve was discussed at the time the budget was approved. She said the point trying to be made is that the budget had not been changed. Ms. Cook asked if anyone else had any corrections or changes to the September 9 minutes. With no further changes, Bert Quintanilla moved the minutes be approved, Cefe Valenzuela seconded, and the motion passed. Ms. Cook said the next item on the agenda is amendments to minutes of previous meetings. She stated since Dr. Lopez was not present at the moment she would like for a motion to approve the corrections that Dr. Lopez submitted to the Board (copy attached) . Ms. Cook said there are corrections for August 11 and August 13. She stated that the recording secretary has them for the record. Mr. Valencia moved the approval of the corrections Dr. Lopez submitted, Mr. Morales seconded, and the motion passed. Ms. Cook moved on to corrections to any other minutes. Mr. Valencia said he has some corrections for August 21, Page 1 after the second paragraph, basically when Eldridge covers the issues from the City Manager, questions and so forth, that is also when she introduced the fact that she will be representing the Chief's 411/ 1 SCANNED office since the Chief was not present at that meeting, so that was not included 4111/ in paragraph 3. He continued by saying on Page 11 under his last comments, about the 5th paragraph is when he made his request for the copies of the tapes. Ms. Cook asked if it were included. Mr. Valencia said it was not and he needs to have it in. He had made a request for the Crime Control tapes for many reasons, one because he was ill during that period of time and he wanted an opportunity to go back and review them. The fact that there were extensive minutes it was easier for him just to listen to tapes and also the historical value that they would get from these tapes because if it all passes, and he believes it will, there will be another Crime Control Board in five years that is going to have to retrace it all again and he thought it would be valuable for them to hear what the Board went over and discussed, he thought it might be beneficial. Ms. Cook asked him how much of that he wanted in the minutes and whether he had a specific paragraph he wanted to add. He said that he requested a copy of the Crime Control and Prevention meeting tapes. His purpose was to review them due to the fact that he was ill during those period of times and that it was acknowledged by those CCPD staff members present. Mr. Bray asked Mr. Valencia if he stated what his purpose was at that time or is he stating what his purpose was right now. Mr. Valencia said he stated his purpose at that time. Ms. Cook said she remembers him stating because he had been ill he wanted to listen to the tapes, she does not remember anything else, but she remembers that because he was sitting next to her. He said he also made the comment that the historical value was imperative. Ms. Cook asked if there were any other corrections. With no other corrections she said she needs a motion to add those corrections to the minutes of August 21. Mr. Morales moved that the August 21 minutes be approved with corrections stated, Mr. Valencia seconded, and the motion passed. Mr. Valencia said that there are a few changes that Sam Granato sent him for the August 13 meeting. He said on Page 1, paragraph 3, "however since this program is such that the City wants to get as much out of it as possible it is the City ibr Manager's recommendation to the Board the City not charge any indirect costs to this program and the City's direction is to work with the Budget office and the Police Department's budget in subsequent years to recover those costs in alternative ways but not have those costs as part of this program. He said eliminating this issue for consideration will allow the Board to move more quickly through the programs." Mr. Valencia said the point from Mr. Granato would be that the Board does not and will not supplant the Police budget. Ms. Cook said she does not believe that was discussed, there was no discussion of supplanting the Police budget at that time. Mr. Valencia said those are Mr. Granato's concerns and whether they were incorporated in the minutes or not it was a question, unless the Board prefers for him to make these changes. Ms. Cook said she thinks it would beneficial to have them the way Dr. Lopez had them, but they have to be really careful that they do not add to them because she honestly does not remember any discussion of supplanting in relation to the discussion of the overhead and indirect cost allocation. There was a lot of discussion of supplanting during that meeting, but not when it came to the indirect cost allocation, so the Board needs to make sure that it is a correction to the minutes and not a change. Mr. Valencia told the Board that his concern from the very beginning was that they do not want to see the Police budget supplanted. Ms. Cook said there was a lot of discussion of that in those minutes and they need to make sure that is reflected in the proper place. Mr. Bray said he does not think Jorge was addressing the supplanting issue, he was just asked to address administrative costs. Mr. Valencia asked if it would be easier for him to have Mr. Granato submit a format such as Dr. Lopez' . Ms. Cook said it would be easier so they can review the context. She said she knows the Board discussed the supplanting issue because the Chief made it very clear at that point that there is no supplanting going on and that it is an addition like they talked about like the attrition academies. Those attrition academies are going to continue, and this would be in addition to that so she thinks that was very 41/ 2 4 evident, and they need to make sure that is brought up in the proper place in the 41/ minutes. She said it may be worded without the use of the word supplanting, it may be accurately reflected already. She said if there are no more additions or changes the Board will move on. Ms. Cook said the next item is an update of what is going on with the efforts to pass the District. She said Mr. Valencia has some information. She thinks he had made it clear to the Board when the Union decided to commission a poll that he would share with the members the results, so he will give the Board what came out of the poll that GIS did. Mr. Valencia said first of all he wanted to point out that the focus of this particular poll was the Crime Control District and while some of the CPP issues were covered, they were not the purpose of this poll and in cooperation with the ABC committee he basically turned it over to them and what he will release here so that the Board can look at it, is the information specifically for the Crime Control District. He thinks it is going to be very promising and to a great extent has been validated by a separate poll that was done by CPP. On the first point, he will go and just highlight some of the important things that they looked at. When the question "what is the most important problem facing the City of Corpus Christi today that is what issues are you most personally concerned with", the number issue that was returned back to this poll was a 30% return that crime, gangs, and juvenile delinquency were considered to be the top most important problem that the public, at least the voters that were tested in this profile, 12% felt that property taxes were of importance, 7% pollution and the environment, 7% corruption in government, 4% schools and education, 3% loss of jobs/unemployment, 2% declining neighborhoods, and 1% illegal immigration. He said then there is a 30% category that encompasses everything else and that is going to break down even smaller than the numbers the Board just looked at, so of the respondents 30% were saying that crime was a number one problem. The next question of significance over the last four years would they say that crime in Corpus Christi has increased, decreased, 410, or remained the same. 63% said that it increased, 9% decreased, 22% remained the same, and 6% don't know or refused. Another issue, the most significant he would say, would be the actual question on the Crime Control District. The question read like this: On November 4 there will be a special election of the Crime Control District Plan. The project proposes the adoption of an increase in sales tax at a rate of 1/8 of 1 percent, increasing the sales tax from 7.75 to 7.88 percent, which means on a $10 purchase the sales tax would increase by 1.25 cents. The plan would provide funds for the development of a community-policing program increasing the number of police officers in the city and purchasing police technological equipment. If the special election for the Crime Control District were held today would you vote for or against the plan. 55% responded they would vote for, 29% against, the leaning for and leaning against in adding those numbers together results in a total for 61%, a total against 31% so again it is a very strong indication that they are very supportive of the Crime Control Plan. As far as the primary points of why you would want to vote for the Crime Control Plan, the questions were asked "the Crime Control Plan provide additional officers in high crime areas of the city, the total was 76% said that was a convincing argument and 18% said it was an unconvincing argument, so the point that the Crime Control would add more officers and that they could be targeted to directed patrol and other instances, the public believed that and they favor that. Another question, the Crime Control Plan will decrease juvenile delinquency in crimes committed by young offenders, again the total rating for convincing with that statement was 62%, total unconvincing was 32% so again it is extremely numbers but they do believe that it will make an impact. The next issue was the Crime Control District Plan would provide preventive measures to fight gang violence and the motivation to join gangs, again the total convincing was 69%, total unconvincing on that statement was 23%. The fourth item was the Crime Control District Plan will improve the Police Department's ability to fight ( crime by technological enhancements and new equipment, again a high number of 74% 3 4 were total convincing statement, and a 19% was an unconvincing statement. He 411/ thinks the things that they are trying to target in the Crime Control Plan actually do resinate with the voters. The breakdown as far as the age groups, 3% were between 18-24, 9% were between 25-34, 23% were between 35-44, 19% were between 45-54, 18% between 55-64, and 16% between 65-74. Breakdown on political affiliations 41% were democrats, 34% were republican, and 15% identified themselves as independents, 1% of the party, 9% they do not know or they refused. As far as a conservative issue, in thinking of your general outlook politically would you describe yourself as a conservative, somewhat conservative, moderate somewhat liberal or liberal, 32% saw themselves to be conservative, 23% somewhat conservative, 28% moderate, 8% somewhat liberal, 3% liberal, and of course 6% do not know. The ethnic background for this particular poll was 62% as describing themselves as white/Caucasian, 4% African/American black, 30% Hispanic/Latino, an non-recorded percent for Asian/American, 1% other, and 3% they refused or do not know. The gender breakdown was 48% were male and 52% were female. It was a 300 person poll with a plus or minus margin of 5.7% and it was conducted between August 28 and September 1. He said he can tell them that a lot of this information is consistent with the other poll that was conducted. Mr. Morales asked him who took the poll. Mr. Valencia said Global Strategies of New York. He stated they do a lot of police groups in the State of Texas and it is an international polling firm. He said it is safe to say that from the Crime Control standpoint that the public is very positive on it but that does not mean they should sit on their laurels, they have a lot of work ahead of them. Ms. Cook said along those lines she knows that the Board had requested that she and Blakely put together some information so that they can have a consistent message when they speak and the two of them have worked on a lot of things but not on that but she promises them that they will. She said she knows Rose has done a couple of things. She stated that Chief Alvarez and Rose spoke to the Mayor's Task Force and that went real well and she's been doing some speaking in 411, fact she did something this morning. She thinks that is going well but she would like to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to do that. She said she thinks Bert is actually going to be contacting them about doing some Spanish media. Mr. Quintanilla said starting this week. Ms. Cook said she got a copy of an article by the Taxpayers Association saying that the City is being held hostage and that the CPP and Council was holding them hostage, but basically implying that the reason that certain things had not happened in the budget was because of the Crime District and that the CPP is trying to tie on to the Crime District and the City could have done the Police but they did the Arts and they got caught in the middle of that. She wanted to reassure all that from her standpoint if they read that, that it is entirely incorrect. The Arts funding was $90,000 and that did get reported. If the City Council did the Arts instead of the Police that is not what happened and that was certainly no deal that was cut between the CPP and anybody else. She said that she wanted to reassure them that if anybody calls them and asks them about that or ask them to make any comments, that the CPP had nothing to do with that and certainly the Crime District has been all above board, all the meetings have been open, anybody can attend. She said the Taxpayers Association was even at one of the meetings and they know that they had nothing to do with that. Mr. Morales said what would help if they had an outline to follow when asked questions. Ms. Cook said she and Blakely will work on that. She said basically she gives them a history of how the Board can into being and then go through the points one by one, just the goals, and the other target areas, and then some highlights of the projects and then have them ask questions. So she thinks she can put that together fairly easy. She said it would be good if the Board were accepting some speaking engagements, let her know so they can make sure it is on the calendar. She stated there is a whole series of neighborhood meetings coming up that the League of Women Voters is going to be handling. Those are lir 4 it4110 • informational, those are less campaign oriented as opposed to being informational. The Board and Council members will be presenting information. They can stand up and say vote for this, but the City people present cannot. She said they want to stand up there as Board members and present the facts and the speech she has does that. Mr. Morales said he thought it is important for all the Board to be saying the same thing. Ms. Fernandez told the Board if they axe speaking to Rotary, Lions Club, or something like that they might want to check in with a Council member to attend with them. Ms. Cook said the Council members are pretty knowledgeable about this, they can answer questions. Mr. Morales asked Ms. Cook how long the presentations were. Ms. Cook said she has been doing them for 20 minutes including questions. She said they get a lot of questions. Mr. Morales asked Ms. Cook to put together an outline of those kinds of questions. She said they have the most common questions already written down. Ms. Cook told Mr. Bray she would like to have the Crime Control District Plan placed in the City's libraries. She said she knows the budget got placed in the libraries, but she wanted to do the same thing with the plan, since it is a public document. She said she would talk with Armando Chapa about it. She said she talked with someone at the Alliance about putting it on-line and it turns out that is a bigger project than she thought it was. Ms. Eldridge said the PD will put it on their homepage by Friday. Ms. Cook said she thinks the Board should consider adding some facts on the Caller-Times homepage, which is something they will look into. Mr. Valencia said there were three things he would like to discuss briefly. One, of course, to thank the Chief and City Manager for the approval to disseminate the Crime Control Plan to all the shifts. Of course, they are not going to be out there campaigning, but they are going to go out there to give them the books, so that way they can look at it at their leisure and be able to answer questions because there are people out there with some questions on it. The handout that ihr also goes with the CPP side as far as pointing out what the projects are, they just wanted to be able to pass out that information and the Chief got them the approval for that and they are going to take care of all those copies. He said the issue was also to give some to the civilians so they are looking at 500 to be made just to pass out. Ms. Cook said that Chief Alvarez has already done something in the newsletter indicating the Chief and department were involved in the plan itself. Mr. Valencia said he has taken up an offer from the Taxpayers Association to visit them today at 6:30. Finally he wanted to point out while it has not been publicly announced, it will be, they are planning to stage it, that the POA membership and the POA PAC have given complete endorsements to both the CPP and the Crime Control Plan. The Nueces County Sheriffs Officers Association is tentatively in the process of doing it, but he wants to get the vote from their side and if he could get that this week they will do a combined press release for that purpose and also the Police auxiliary. They have an auxiliary that is very active but they have not taken an official vote yet. They are trying to wrap it all together and make it one large event and show the public that they all support it. Ms. Cook asked Mr. Bray if it would be appropriate for the Crime Control members to be present when they did it. She understands it would have to be posted but asked if there would be any problem with it. Mr. Bray said the members are free to do as they please. Ms. Cook asked Mr. Valencia to give them 72 hours notice so it can be posted. Ms. Cook said she is going to meet with the Board of the Fraternal Order of Police this afternoon at 4:30. She said she has met with them already once and talked with their president several times on the phone and he has given her every indication that they have their questions answered and they are ready to support it. She said that the Coastal Bend Alliance for Youth has indicated they are also going to endorse it, so they will be doing that next week. Then the Labor Council's meeting is next week. She said there is a 411/ 5 0 problem with one organization but overall they seem like they are going to endorse it too. She thinks they have a lot of community support. They have business support, but they also have labor support. She said if any of the Board has influence with the CWA (Communications Workers) , they are the ones they are having problems with, someone might want to talk with them and see if there is something they can do. She said all the Board is really trying to do is answer questions because people hear about it and when they get their questions answered they are comfortable. Mr. Morales asked when the Board might have a copy of the outline. Ms. Cook said this week. Mr. Morales asked if it were up to each Board member to schedule their own meetings. Ms. Cook said that Ms. Fernandez has been scheduling some of them. Capt. Tisdale asked Mr. Bray whether as a police officer he can give his opinion. Mr. Bray told him as a police officer if they are off duty acting in the course of their employment they will just be giving factual information, but outside of that, officers are free to campaign, they are almost unrestricted under state law. Mary Ann Robinson suggested that a member of the Board get with Senior Community Services to target the AARP. Ms. Fernandez said she would make certain that is covered. Mr. Bray told the Board there is a joint Council/County meeting tonight on Children and Youth Commission at 5:30 at the Bayfront if they are interested in attending. With no further business, Ms. Cook adjourned the meeting at 12:45 p.m. (1. 6