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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-02-2021_Open Session_Item 7_Elliot, Terry_any links sanitizedPage 1 of 3 June 2, 2021 – Open Session, Agenda Item #7 Terry Elliott – Public Safety Commission Member I admit in advance that I do give more deliberate discussion and recommendations to the Police Dept because as a Public Safety Commission member, I am more familiar with its operational structure & needs as I personally see them. City Attorney The City should hire In-House Counsel & several legal assistants to handle day to day routine matters and contract out our litigation. This could potentially save our city millions and we would have the benefit of on-site counsel for routine, day to day matters. City Council The Council should have at least 2 additional Part-time positions added and be permitted to have volunteer/Intern support staffing. We have 7 highly active Council members, and they should have the staffing to assist them with day to day, constituent concerns. To subliminally suggest that Council Members, who work hard to fundraise, run for election and get elected by the residents, are simply ceremonial, is an insult to the residents. In many cases, staff routinely gives the impression to the public, albeit surreptitiously, that “OUR Council Member” concerns, often present a nuisance. This is not well taken! City Manager - I suggest that the City Manager be permitted to hire several non-Executive level staffing to assist his office in its efficiency, instead. Code Enforcement - I suggest that we need a minimum of 10 additional Code Enforcement Officers who work alongside our PD at least up until 2 a.m. , seven (7) days a week. To restore elective services to parks, libraries etc., without hiring a single additional code enforcement officer and equally, law enforcement (to work after 5 pm) to enforce our Municipal 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) with Code Staff who goes home at 5 pm, make no sense at all! The result is that the Public will blame you and the Police Department, for not putting a stop to illegal conduct, when it is in fact, the obligation of full-time much needed code enforcement officers and business license checkers, who seemingly refuse to go out and do their job. 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 the professional 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 - Once again, Measure “S” was passed by the voters similar to the now Shuttered Measure “Z” as an option to increase Public Safety. I will even go as far as to lament that without the significant efforts of the SBPOA , support/passage of Measure “S” was faltering at best. Yet this proposed budget, even with this HUGE gift from the Biden Administration, does extraordinarily little to take a step towards addressing Public Safety. Page 2 of 3 It appears to move toward restoring services everywhere else but to public safety. At the time Measure “Z” (.025%) was passed, our City had 360+ Budgeted Officers, Now with Measure “S”, (1.0%) one would think that at least Council would add at least up to 12 more Police Officers to the current 250 +/- to at least show the public that you are starting to move in the direction of keeping your commitment to public safety, when we approved measure “S”. Additionally, as the country re-opens post-covid, the jails & courts likewise are moving back toward normalcy, as our officers continually aggressively make arrests with an average of 3 hours + of officer time involved with transport & booking at CDC, ARMC or West Valley, it is critical to re-open our City Jail and engage a contract booking/transport service, as near all of our neighboring cities. This option keeps our current officers on our streets rather than standing in line for hours on end, at local hospitals or the county jails to book prisoners. The narrative provided in the agenda packet by staff, points out that with our Police Sworn staff almost 100 Officers below the Measure “Z” threshold, at least we could/should provide them with the civilian support staff to try and mitigate that personnel shortage. I agree! The nominal costs of re-opening our city Jail & hiring a contractor for booking and transport is well worth it! This is a no brainer! At least Council would be showing the public that even though you are unable or unwilling to significantly add sworn officers to the department, at least you are keeping the ones we currently have, out on our streets! I can personally accept a compromised suggestion of five(5) additional Patrol Officers and 5 Motor Officers for a total of 10 additional Officers this fiscal year, with the requisite civilian support staff. I strongly urge you to adopt Packages 1, 3& 4 and… open the jail & hire a booking/transport service! 2 Cameras added annually for the next 3 years. This would not over-tax the immediate budget but would add this critical inventory into a cycle that would continue to maturate. (28k per unit – another NO-BRAINER)! I applaud the replacement vehicles! It’s 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 I can imagine, costs millions 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, instead of responding to your emergency, is an indictment! Additionally, include a line item for vehicle replacement, so that when we lose a city vehicle and there is another financially responsible party, (insurance), the money the city receives to pay off that disabled vehicle, should go back to the specifically affected department immediately to REPLACE THE VEHICLE! Our Police Chief indicates that the Department resource distribution is all, data driven. Meaning, I assume, that he is continually shifting resources based on data indicating the current exigency. We pay our Executives a lot of money for their experience and expertise. They should be permitted to shift money and resources around inside of their respective adopted budgets, at their discretion, to focus on shifting developments. For instance, 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 tackle that current situation without having to seek multiple public approvals which likely could expose his tactics. (Data Driven)! As our criminal element is continually adjusting its tactics and ever operating more clandestine, our PD Executives MUST have the ability to keep up and shift resources within their budget as the needs arise. Proactive Policing V. Reactive Policing! Page 3 of 3 Airport - As our airport continues to develop and come to life, we should get the airport to consider a San Bernardino Airport Police Department! In this scenario, our airport authority could contract with our Police Department for Airport Policing. This alone would add officers to our department at no costs to the City. (Just an idea…) 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 all of our city streets, not just the major thoroughfares. Conclusion - Perhaps another option to try to approach council member concerns as it relates to CIP allocations, is to treat it like a “budget inside of a budget”. Allocate CIP $$ equally to each ward and let the sitting Council Member of that ward, designate what he/she wants done with it! This relieves the burden on City Staff of bearing the brunt of insinuation, of inequities in the city wards as it relates to projects. It puts the onus squarely on the shoulders of the elected Council Member. If the constituents aren’t happy with their Council Member’s choices, they can hold them accountable on election day. Hypothetical Example: Give each ward a 10M CIP Budget and let the Council Member select projects, within that budget, of their choosing, to spend their allocation on. If things do/don’t get fixed, resourced, repaired or addressed (Emergency Exceptions), the constituents can look squarely at their Council member, rather than attack City Staff. One Council Member lamented at a previous meeting that our Police Dept Administration is “Top-Heavy”. I suggest that all of our Depts. appear that way. We need less Administrators / Executives and more blue-collar, boots on the ground, workers! This was, is and can continue to be, a high-level middle-class population. This is not “Wall Street”! Put the workers in the street and give them the salary, inventory and equipment to adequately respond and hold them accountable! While I lament in part, that our City’s Professional staff is needed and generally appreciated, Citizens need to be confident that “WE MATTER”! Instead of appearing to seek to aggrandize and inflate their individual resume’s, do the work that the people can respect and appreciate, in so doing, they automatically give themselves great job security! Living in the City wouldn’t hurt either…!