Public Safety Committee

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE June 18 2018 A meeting of the Public Safety Committee was held this date beginning at 2:40 p.m., at 80 Broad Street, City Hall, First Floor Conference Room. Notice of this meeting was sent to all local news media. PRESENT Councilmember Shahid, Chair, Councilmember Seekings, Councilmember Wagner, Councilmember Lewis and Mayor Tecklenburg Staff: Chief Luther Reynolds, Chief Roberts, Chief Vanhoy, Ed Most, Colleen Carducci, Frances Cantwell, Janie Borden The meeting was opened with a moment of silence provided by Councilmember Wagner. Approval of Minutes On the motion of Councilmember Seekings, seconded by Councilmember Wagner, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the April 9, 2018 and May 7, 2018 meetings. Update on the acquisition related to the Clements Ferry Road Fire Station location Councilmember Shahid stated he had gotten a tour of the northern territory of the City and had the opportunity to meet some of the firemen and look at the two Fire Stations on that side of town. He was shocked by what he saw and they had a lot of work to do. Chief Vanhoy stated that he brought a Powerpoint and he would go over the response area, the condition of the current facilities, along with future development. Effective response force in that area consisted of three engines, one ladder truck, one battalion chief, one water tender, and a brush truck that wasn’t staffed. There would have to be potential growth in that area. They had put together a plan for the next 10-12 years where they could address Station 20. They had been in that Station for 25+ years. It was a leased station and was a Type 1 classification. What they were proposing was to go to a four station model, four engines that would be fully staffed, two ladder trucks fully staffed, one water tender, and one battalion chief. Currently, they had Station 18 that was fully staffed with an engine, a ladder truck, and a battalion chief. The Station they were in right now did not meet the essential facilities. It didn’t have a back-up generator. Station 21 was the new facility they had just opened up. It was a leased facility. It had an engine, a water tender, and enough bay space to put an additional apparatus there. They were proposing for Station 22 to be built as the midway point, staffed with an engine, a ladder truck, three bays, and possibly a police substation, along with a rec center. At that point, they would have an effective response force. He continued, talking about the current call volume. From 2013 to 2017, it had gone from roughly 4,700 calls to a little over 5,000 with potential growth. The population in that area had also gone up, from 2010, roughly 6,000 people. He referred to the Powerpoint and stated that the circles represented four miles. Typically, they would have a gap around the Jack Primus area. Based off accreditation/ISO, they looked at four minute response times. The first response needed to be there in four minutes, with the remainder of the response coming in eight minutes. There was a lot of challenge in that area and it was growing. Chairman Shahid asked what the total population was represented in the four circles and Chief Vanhoy said it was 13,900 roughly. Chairman Shahid asked what the estimated growth would be in the next five years and Chief Vanhoy said he didn’t know about the next five years, but from 2010 they had seen about a 6% growth per year. Population and call volume was steadily growing. There was a new apartment development by the high school and there were about 400 units in that complex. Councilmember Lewis asked if they remembered how many stations were proposed in the original plans for that area. He remembered about 9 stations. Chief Vanhoy stated he had just heard rumors, but that he thought it was originally supposed to be like the Peninsula. They had been in Station 20 for 25+ years. Nothing was by code. He referred to pictures of it on the Powerpoint. The grade dropped down. It was all gravel and they hadn’t had to scrape it yet, but it was pretty expensive. There was very little storage, if any. Chairman Shahid stated that the pictures didn’t do justice to how bad the conditions were. He had to remind himself that there were personnel living in those conditions. This area flooded regularly. Chief Vanhoy stated that there was a screened area to give them a little more space and it led into where they stored their gear. Part of the roof was sagging over the gear locker. Chairman Shahid said they didn’t have a place to eat. Chief Vanhoy said it was pretty tight quarters. A gentleman stated that the building was originally built as a maintenance facility when they were building 526. Chief Vanhoy stated that history that went with the building was limited. It had two commodes and one shower for the 4-5 guys that were assigned there per shift. The building was a type 5, wood frame, and unprotected. They had to relocate during any rain event. They were looking at $70,748 yearly lease since 1991. Chairman Shahid said he understood that the City was responsible for most of the maintenance on the property, so in addition to the lease, they had to cover maintenance. Chief Vanhoy said they shouldn’t be responsible for it because they weren’t the owners. Every time it came around, they wanted to bump the lease up. Ms. Carducci stated that the landlord hadn’t been willing to change the lease. The parcel itself had no street access because on one side, they crossed the Ports Authority property, which was the current driveway, and on the other side they would have to cross another person’s property. Because the City didn’t own the property, it hadn’t been willing to acquire it, and the access to Marina Drive was a large offset. The road was much lower than the Station. There had never been funds made available for this Station to be relocated, so they had been in this situation for a long time. The last time the public safety bonds were put into place, the priorities were established wanting something to the north towards Cainhoy Road, so that they would have the book-ends for Clements Ferry Road. While they were trying to facilitate the land acquisition for that fire station, because of the urgency the City did the new lease there and got the building built. Once it was there, the Fire Department took a step back and said ‘wait, now that we have this new facility to the north, instead of building a replacement in the north end, we need to replace station 20.’ The City was immediately able to facilitate discussions with the owner of the property on Enterprise Drive. Mr. Most’s team with Capital Projects had been working with them, trying to get an appropriate site. They had been working on this one for at least a year. The City was excited about finding this opportunity to replace the station. Chairman Shahid stated that they had a police substation at Station 18, but they didn’t have another location for a substation. The same issues that the Fire Department was having, created dilemmas for the Police Department, as well. Chief Reynolds stated that they had a small office in Station 18. As this grew out to approximately 35,000, they had no footprint in that area, other than the small office at Station 18. He thought the plan was that Station 22, as they begin, would have a substantial footprint because of traffic issues, investigations, etc. That was the only place he thought existed. They were isolated and they needed to be in a space somewhere, which was what Station 22 would contain. Chief Vanhoy stated that what he gathered was that the money that was allocated right now for that Station was really only enough to build a 2-bay Station based off of current prices. There were schools and new developments in that area and the current response time was 10 minutes. Councilmember Seekings asked if there was room in Station 21 to put a substation or some police presence. Ms. Carducci said they did have an 8,000 square foot police facility just off of Clements Ferry, however it wasn’t a substation and it may not be equivocal to the needs that the police department would normally have out there. Chief Vanhoy stated there was not room at Station 21. They didn’t have access to the second floor because they had to have two ways in and two ways out. To be occupied, they needed the sprinkler system. It was unfinished and they would need two ways of egress to keep everything code compliant. Chairman Shahid stated that there was another issue brought to his attention surrounding jurisdictions. Generally, they had good working relationships and other areas would cover for them, but Mount Pleasant was not of that mind. Assistant Chief Roberts stated that Mount Pleasant was a mutual aid, meaning that the City would have to request them to respond to a call. North Charleston, Saint Andrews, Johns Island, and James Island were all automatic and were built into the system. Cainhoy had a volunteer fire station. It had one engine and it wasn’t consistent. Councilmember Seekings said on the agenda, it was listed as an update, but he wanted to know what the ask was. Chief Vanhoy stated that there was a 25 year plan that they put together that was addressing 13 stations. Instead of building Station 21 to replace, they wanted to allocate those funds over to Station 20, and work on the Station 22 plan, keeping in mind that it took roughly 3-4 years to build a station. They were already a year ahead of schedule with Station 20’s plan. Councilmember Seekings said that with Station 21, even though it was a temporary lease, it wasn’t a bad facility. Chief Vanhoy stated that Fire Station 21 showed a single-bay, but it was three apparatus deep. There was an engine and a tender assigned there. It had a generator with a 96 hour run time, fire protection system, and an alarm system. It had a dining room, an office area, and a training area. It had two bathroom facilities, a washer and a dryer, and living quarters with five bunks. It was a type three building, noncombustible steel structure. It was about $54,000 per year. Mayor Tecklenburg stated that if they were to make recommendations to the 25-year plan, it would be to replace Station 20, and to keep Station 21, in addition to building Station 22. This was confirmed. Mayor Tecklenburg said that this was new and at the end of the day, they would end up with four stations. Part of the reason they were there was because staff had picked up on this recommendation to first replace Station 20. They went so far as to bring a proposal to the Real Estate Committee to buy the property on Enterprise Drive. They had already put together a selection committee, and had an architect ready. He regretted that Councilmember White wasn’t there. This was his district, and he had shared that he didn’t feel like he was apprised of the change in priority. So, when they got to the point of wanting to buy the property on Enterprise Drive, he made the case, and felt strongly about it, that they shouldn’t do that first. He was fine with buying the property, but felt like they needed to replace Station 21 before Station 20. That was what the money was intended for. Mayor Tecklenburg stated that he wanted them to show this presentation to Councilmember White, but it wouldn’t surprise him if Councilmember White still held with that position. Part of the reason to bring this to the Public Safety Committee was to help in the decision making process, not to buy the property, but if they wanted to change their priorities officially to replace Station 20 first. Councilmember Seekings asked if they had a property identified for Station 21 and it was stated that they didn’t. Mayor Tecklenburg said they wouldn’t have to get out of the lease for Station 21. They would keep it while Station 21 was being built. At this point, given what the Department felt would be needed for the Station 22 site, they didn’t have enough money to build anyway. Chairman Shahid asked what the most critical need was right now. Chief Roberts stated that the preferable need was Station 20 because the facility was very lacking in meeting their needs. In the meantime, they could pursue land for Station 22. That piece of land would have to be large enough to accommodate an engine, a ladder truck, a police substation, a meeting place for the community, etc. Chairman Shahid asked where the proposed land was for Station 20. Chief Roberts said it was on Enterprise Drive, about a quarter of a mile from Station 20. The Battalion Commander, who ran this section of the City, responded from Station 18 and the goal was that if they built a new Station 20, they would relocate him from Station 18 to Station 20 so that he was more centrally located. Chairman Shahid said that they had mentioned using this space for other recreation uses and Chief Roberts said it would depend on how large the land was and whatever the selection committee put into the design. Ed Most stated that in Capital Projects they tried to respond to the client’s needs. In construction, there were classes of buildings. The class one building was basically a lean-to structure. It would blow away in a wind storm. A class two was what they saw with Station 20, wooden trusses, basically a shed. Class 3 was what Fire Station 21 was constructed as and a Class 4 was like the MEOC. IF they were to replace Station 20, they would have a class four station. Station 18 was a class four as well. Councilmember Lewis said that once Station 20 and 22 were built it would give them more back-up. Chairman Shahid asked if anyone knew the projection of the movement in population growth in that area. Councilmember Seekings said it was moving towards the new Station 22 area. He asked with Station 21, if the City had to pay for improvements and if they essentially owned it. Ms. Carducci said that they did. The structure was the responsibility of the landlord, but the interior maintenance was the City’s responsibility. Councilmember Seekings asked if they had some kind of plan to expand to the second floor to try to get the police in there. Chief Vanhoy stated that as of right now, they had no future plans for the use of the second floor. Councilmember Seekings said they need to. Chairman Shahid asked if they had anything for the location of Station 22. Chief Roberts said that they had been working with staff to determine what land would meet their needs. They would like to have something near Jack Primus Road, but no further south than that. Ms. Carducci stated that they had been trying to locate sites in that area for many years and they had worked with a Cainhoy developer on the north side of Clements Ferry Road and identified sites. However, it was always a matter of not having roads to get into the site and it became very expensive to try to facilitate putting a Station on that side of the road. There were challenges such as curves in the road and trying to locate near an intersection. The site by the school’s was dismissed because of the density of the traffic in that area. Councilmember Wagner asked what the difference was from the past to the current Stations and if the water had improved. He would like to learn from past development of Johns Island. Chief Roberts said that the reason for the water tender was that there were still areas in Cainhoy that didn’t have City water. Councilmember Wagner asked if that looked better for the future. Chief Roberts stated that they were thinking that as the City developed, it would become more of a priority. Councilmember Lewis stated that the Master Plan had called for 9 Fire Stations for Daniel Island. It didn’t specifically say where. Councilmember Seekings stated that they may have a couple options. One, would be to have a joint meeting with the Real Estate Committee. The second would be to send a recommendation to the Real Estate Committee on how they felt the Stations should be built and in what order. A hybrid of that would be to make the recommendation and sit down with the Real Estate Committee to get it all straightened out. They couldn’t just keep having updates. They needed to move it along. It seemed to him that Station 20 needed to be the priority. Chairman Shahid said that he would suggest that they recommend to the Real Estate Committee that they acquire land for a new Station 20 and simultaneously, look for a site for Station 22. Mayor Tecklenburg said that the Real Estate Committee had no hesitation in buying the property to replace Station 20. Councilmember White’s concern was the order in which they proceed. Under all of this, there was a commitment that they needed to make, that they would have another bond referendum to provide public safety facilities, and that would require a millage adjustment. He did want to be respectful of Councilmember White and asked if they would review this with him. Councilmember Shahid said he would like to be present for that. Chairman Shahid stated that they needed to keep in mind the Police Department’s response out there as well and that he would like to take a tour of the rest of the facilities. On the motion of Mayor Tecklenburg, seconded by Councilmember Lewis, the Committee voted unanimously to recommend to the Real Estate Committee to move forward with the acquisition of property for Station 20, to make Station 20 the priority, and to look for property for Station 22. An ordinance to amend Chapter 21, Article X, Section 219 of the Code of the City of Charleston, South Carolina, to prohibit the brandishing of a deadly weapon within the City limits and to amend Chapter 19 of the Code of the City of Charleston, to prohibit threats to safety associated with parades Ms. Borden stated that they were proposing an ordinance amendment that would amend two sections of the City’s code to prevent the brandishing of a deadly weapon and to prohibit the brandishing of deadly weapons at a parade. This was to protect the public safety and they had run into incidences where there was a potential that someone could use one of those objects to threaten the public safety. Chief Reynolds stated that they were trying to find a balance in the confines of the current laws. On the motion of Councilmember Seekings, seconded by Councilmember Lewis, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the above item. Having no further business, the Committee adjourned at 3:39 p.m. Bethany Whitaker Council Secretary