Public Safety Committee (Building & Codes, Fire, Police)

BUDGET DISCUSSION WITH PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MAY 7, 2019 CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS Committee Members Present: Jeff Henley, Chair, Vondell Richmond, Ron Erb, Wanda Smith, Travis Holleman Mayor Pitts wanted to take a moment to commend the CPD for a cold case that they solved. CITY CLERK (Ernie Griffith) - not a lot of changes from last year. Judge Smith’s salary increase depends on the CPI. Talked about software updates gaining efficiencies. Will be paperless by the end of the summer. BUILDING & CODES (Mike Baker) – talked about changes in employee structure – cutting one employee and taking 2 code enforcement officers to train to be inspectors. Have $47,000 in for 2 pickup trucks. Discussion about what the computers are being used for. They are for the field – wireless and done on site. Have 2-way radios and getting wireless printers for all that have tablets to print out citations. For enforcement division only. Planning to promote two staff from within and they will also be doing inspections. 5 different areas: Electrical, Plumbing, Mechanical, Building and Gas. Need cross training and encourage it. Will expand the areas and divvy them up. Gas is the most dangerous inspection and work with CFR. Abatements have gone down. Talked about dilapidated properties that need to be taken care of. FIRE RESCUE (Chief Roberts) – Committee questioned State Supplement (what is it) and Chief explained that the State of Tennessee pays eligible staff money if they meet certain annual requirements. This is done in the Spring. Discussed Capital Projects – Fire Maintenance Facility (Shop) is a dump and Mayor has agreed it needs to go. Is not safe and no longer meets our needs. This is for the next Fire Chief and Mayor to tackle. Was initially approved in 2016. Station 10 renovation (Needmore Road) initially designed for 3 firefighters and now have 5. Not enough parking. Will add initial bathroom, bunker gear room, laundry room and proper ventilation. Will be replacing a custom truck. There is $228,000 already in the fund balance from insurance company for wrecked truck which will help pay for it. In Capital Outlay there is an alerting system that was moved from 2019 into 2020 budget. County and E911 requested that the bid not go out until July 1st. Have to have OSHA physicals every year and now we have to do cancer screening annually which has increased the budget. Account 4740 – discussed high power extrication equipment. Will be leaving a lot for the new Fire Chief to make decisions on. Talked about the fire alarm program. Wanda Smith discussed overtime. Trying to bring it down. POLICE DEPARTMENT (Chief Ansley) – 7 new positions requested and will hire February 1st, 2020. Are down 22 Officers right now. Provided back up on staff that has left and why which includes retirements. Average about 20 people leaving a year. Discussed police officer ratio per population. Talked about various things in the department to include arrests, staffing levels, etc. The bottom line for cadet pay was increased. Have been no termination this year. Wanda Smith talked about training and education. Chief explained that they have 40 in-house hours of in-service training every year. Also send staff to schools for training. Number one for CPD is personnel. Provided in-car camera survey to Committee. Discussed training – largest portion of the increase is for the 13 new cadets plus an additional 7. Cost is $3,300 to send one person to the academy. Discussed in-car cameras. Very costly. Asking for 175 cameras and these will be for those below the rank of Sgt. 1st year payment is $184,799 and every year after that is extremely costly. Talked about the increase in account 4650 (Other Equipment). Ms. Matta explained that her department moved monies around from other accounts to try to be more accountable and though there is an increase in 4650 you will notice decreases in other account. Discussed vehicle replacement. Asking for 15 new replacement vehicles. Chief explained that they follow the Fleet Management Policy in determining replacement of their vehicles. Discussed retention of Officers. What needs to be done. Need to re-look at jobs that were created several years ago. People were just placed in positions based on certain criteria and the jobs are very generic. Discussed performance pay. Chief Ansley and Chief Roberts said that this does not work for Public Safety. Talked about the Special Revenue Funds. Susan Harris Clarksville Fire Rescue