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HomeMy WebLinkAbout5-13-2021_Open Session_Item 1_Elliot, Terry_May 13, 2021 – Open Session, Agenda Item #1 Terry Elliott – Public Safety Commission Once again, Measure “S” was passed by the voters similar to the now Shuttered Measure “Z” as an option to increase Public Safety. Yet this proposed budget even with this HUGE gift from the Biden Administration does extraordinarily little to even take a step in that direction. It actually seems to move toward restoring some service everywhere else but to public safety. At the time Measure “Z” (.025%) was passed our City had 364 Budgeted Officers, Now with Measure “S”, (1.0%) it would seem like at least Council would add at least 10-12 more Police Officer positions to the current 250 +/- to at least show the public that you are attempting to move in the direction of keeping your commitment to the public when we approved measure “S”. Additionally, as the country re-opens post-covid the jails and courts should likewise be getting back to normalcy, as our officers aggressively make arrests with an average of about 3 hours of officer time involved booking at CDC or West Valley, this would seem to be an appropriate time to re-open our City Jail and consider a contract booking/transport service as most of our neighboring cities currently use. This would free our officers up to remain on the streets rather than stand in line for hours on end at the local hospitals or at the county jails. As I recall when this item was presented a couple of years ago , the nominal cost for to re-open our city Jail and hire the Contractor for booking and transport was somewhere in the area of $700,000.00 At least Council would be showing us that even though we are not adding officers to the department, At least we are keeping the ones we have on our streets. As to the one-time $80M gift from the federal government, I suggest that Council would once and for all, fix City Hall and get us moved back in, saving millions in rent. Give our Police Dept and Code Enforcement 3-5M and use the balance to do some street repair work on every single street in this city as possible. To restore elective services to parks, libraries etc., without hiring a single additional code enforcement officers and law enforcement (to work after 5 pm) to enforce the update Muni Codes as you move to add additional obligations, i.e., fireworks, street vending, cannabis, etc., (most of this activity does not start until 5 pm when staff is gone) make no sense at all! The result is that the Public will blame you and the Police Department, for not putting a stop to this illegal conduct, when it is in fact the obligation of full-time much needed code enforcement officers and business license checker who simply put, refuse to go out and do their job. City Attorney The city should hire a City Attorney & perhaps several legal assistants who is in house to handle day to day routine matters and contract out our litigation. This could potentially save our city millions and we would have counsel locally for routine matters. City Council The council should have at least 2 additional Part-time positions added. We have 7 active Council members, and they should have some sufficient staff to help address both their and the constituent concerns and needs. For the City Manager to subliminally suggest that our council who works hard to raise funds and get elected by us the residents, that their roles are simply almost ceremonial is not only an insult to the residents but suggest that their roles don’t count and, in some cases, surreptitiously their concerns present a nuisance it not well taken. City Manager I suggest that the Assistant City Manager position be held VACANT and that the City Manager hire several “Assistants to the city manager” and additional staffing instead. Code Enforcement I suggest that we need at least 10 Code Enforcement Officers who work side by side with Law enforcement at least up until 2 a.m. , 7 days a week. Mayor Like the Council office, The Mayor’s office too, must have a sufficient staff to likewise engage the Public on his/her behalf. At least 2 Part-time staffer Positions should be added to this office. Again, the failure to staff the offices of the persons elected by the residents sends the message that City Administration really doesn’t care how we the public, feel about what’s going on in our city. It sends the message that the public should shut up, pay our taxes, fees etc. and Damn how we feel! Police We MUST re-open our City Jail! Hire a security transport and booking contractor service ( we could potentially hire numerous contract employees for the annual cost of 4 Police officers) This would save our City millions and keep our current understaffed Officers on our streets. We are currently understaffed by near 100 Post Measure “Z”! We should definitely restore the Held vacant lieutenant position and possibly restore the eliminated Captain position for Community Policing. As our Department returned to the Community Policing Model that got us a grant for 12M for the Federal Government, it is ludicrous that the Community Policing specialist and Community Engagement Specialist are continually held vacant. Again, yet another signal that the community does not matter. The Community Policing model has the opportunity to become a beacon in the region, but it needs to be its own specific division with staffing. Yet this budget adds no money or staff for community Policing. Again, this makes no sense. It is an oxymoron. Patrol adds only 2 patrol Officers, Really? Traffic and parking enforcement adds Zero? These could be potentially part-times that could work in tandem with Code Enforcement to eliminate the blight and stain to our community caused by unregistered, junk vehicle strewn about our city that makes up look like a Vehicle sewer un-addressed. It is ludicrous that a Police Captain has to work from home on his own time to find a grant to replace a generator that powers our Emergency Operations Center (facilities responsibility) while facilities dept completely destroys a 250k generator we had on-hand by placing it in a local park that that was too large for that facility causing it to be a loss to our city. In the meantime, the Locker room for our Officers is a sewer with dilapidated plumbing and the equipment in the locker rooms is largely in dis-repair. We spend more on plumbing and maintenance than it would cost to just update the facility. Since PD got a grant to replace the generator, then facilities could at least fix the FACILITY! PD Saved them over 300k… While this budget does propose to add 4 Commercial Enforcement Officers ( for high profile commercial vehicles, which is much needed) what about more traffic Officers NOW to deal with our traffic problems, not to mention these Motorcycles and ATV’s running wild in our streets. And we need traffic officers on the streets 24/7! I applaud the proposal for replacement vehicles! Its About Time! Too often our Police vehicles are seen on the backs of tow trucks! For our Police to be driving 10+ year old vehicles that costs million in repair when we could update our fleet (with Factory Warranty) doesn’t make sense. To have our Officers standing on the side of the road alone waiting for a tow truck is to say the least, a shame! Additionally, you should include a line item for vehicle replacement, so that when we lose a city vehicle and there is another financially responsible party, (insurance), that money that we receive that pays off that vehicle should not go into the General Fund, it should go back to the department and do what it is intended, REPLACE THE VEHICLE! In a day where our Police Chief indicates that the Department resources are data driven. Meaning, I assume, that he is continually shifting resources based on data that indicates the current need. We pay our Executive a lot of money for their experience and expertise and they should be permitted to shift money around in their budget at their own discretion as the data and needs require. For instance, maybe there is a spike in traffic collisions, our chief must be able to assess that need and shift funds and resources within his budget to move staffing into the traffic division to address that current need without having to seek multiple approvals. (Data Driven)! As our criminals get smarter and operate more clandestine, our PD Executives MUST have the ability to keep up and shift resources within their budget as the needs arise. Airport As our airport continues to develop and come to life, we should consider a San Bernardino Airport Police Department! In this scenario, our airport authority would contract with our Police Department for Airport Policing. This alone would add officers to our department. Public Works We need to see improvements and/or repair to our City Streets. While I accept that we might need more high- level Administrators, what we really need is more blue-collar workers to get out and get on top of street repair quickly. Not every job requires the complete overhaul of a street, we need at least 12 on the ground street repair people who can hot/cold patch, repair and address the needs of all of our city streets, not just the major thoroughfares.