Public Safety, Health, and Environment Committee

CITY OF GRAND PRAIRIE PUBLIC SAFETY, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE CITY HALL - COUNCIL BRIEFING ROOM MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 AT 3:00 PM MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Chairwoman Jorja Clemson called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. PRESENT Chairwoman Jorja Clemson Council Member Junior Ezeonu Council Member Jacquin Headen AGENDA ITEMS Citizens may speak for five minutes on any item on the agenda by completing and submitting a speaker card. 1. Minutes of the August 1, 2022 Public Safety, Health and Environmental Meeting No discussion on minutes. Approved as presented. Motion made by Council Member Ezeonu, Seconded by Council Member Headen. Voting Yea: Chairwoman Clemson, Council Member Ezeonu, Council Member Headen 2. 2023 Public Safety, Health and Environment Committee Meeting Dates Deputy City Manager Cheryl DeLeon advised that we can adjust meeting dates if needed. Motion made by Council Member Ezeonu, Seconded by Council Member Headen. Voting Yea: Chairwoman Clemson, Council Member Ezeonu, Council Member Headen 3. Ordinance Amending Chapter 29 “Code Compliance” Article V “General Nuisances” to amend the procedures related to nuisance determinations, abatements, and appeals Code Compliance Manager Chad McGowan briefed the committee on this item. He explained that we are looking at new processes for violations of accumulation of trash, rubbish and debris, sight obstructions and outside/open storage. The main changes we are proposing is to allow the Code Compliance Manager to make a nuisance determination, in which appeals requested by property owners will go to the Building Advisors and Appeals Board (BAAB), and allows for City abatement in less than one month. BAAB gives ten days to the property owner to abate the nuisance themselves, if they don't the city can take care of it. The appeals Public Safety, Health, and Environment Committee – September 12, 2022 Page 1 of 5  process is heard by BAAB and it takes five votes to overturn the nuisance determination. If determination is upheld the property owner has six days to abate the nuisance. This presentation will go to City Council as well. Motion made by Council Member Headen, Seconded by Council Member Ezeonu. Voting Yea: Chairwoman Clemson, Council Member Ezeonu, Council Member Headen 4. Resolution authorizing the City Manager to enter into a Data Use Agreement with the Arizona Board of Regents for Arizona State University Police Chief Daniel Scesney briefed the committee on this item. Arizona State University (ASU) wants our data to research dating violence. Assistant Chief Ronnie Morris will get the data to ASU. There will be key info on the reports given to ASU, but names and personal information will be scrubbed from the data. Councilwoman Headen asked how ASU heard about Grand Prairie’s data on this. Chief Scesney explained that we were down in Austin a lot while passing the Christine Blubaugh Act and they reached out to Texas Police Chiefs Association for organizations that are leading the charge in this space. The time frame on when this information is released is several years but we don't have a set time when we will see the results of this study. Motion made by Council Member Ezeonu, Seconded by Council Member Headen. Voting Yea: Chairwoman Clemson, Council Member Ezeonu, Council Member Headen 5. Resolution authorizing the City Manager to enter into a Master Memorandum of Understanding / Interlocal Agreement (MOU/ILA) with the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas (DPS) for access to the State’s Multimodal Biometric Identification System (MBIS) Police Chief Daniel Scesney briefed the committee on this item. All our staff and vendors that enter the Public Safety Building have to be fingerprinted for safety. At this time, we have to get the fingerprints done in the detention center which is really obtrusive to our operations. This agreement will allow us to add a fingerprinting system in our emergency communications center which is a little easier to access. Councilman Ezeonu asked if there are any funds associated with this? Aubry Insco explained the communications center was blessed to commandeer a lot of equipment from the municipal court that they weren't using, but we do have a one time expenditure of a little over $6,000. This will allow us to upgrade the software and get everything setup with the state and then we will have a reoccurring fee of a little over $2,000. This will allow us to expedite our fingerprinting process. Motion made by Council Member Headen, Seconded by Council Member Ezeonu. Voting Yea: Chairwoman Clemson, Council Member Ezeonu, Council Member Headen 6. Tarrant County 9-1-1 District FY 2023 Budget Emergency Communications Manager Aubry Insco introduced the board to Sherry Decker who is the Executive Director of Tarrant County 911 District. Ms. Decker presented the Tarrant County 911 budget due to funds that they allocate to us to reimburse radio systems and they also do a lot of our Emergency Communications training. Ms. Decker explained how the budget is constructed, some of the priorities and the Next Generation 911 Project we are trying Public Safety, Health, and Environment Committee – September 12, 2022 Page 2 of 5  to embark upon and how that will affect the 2023 budget. In September of 2021 the FCC mandated us to upgrade to a brand new 911 platform. We were fortunate enough to get $12 million in grant money to use for this $30 million project. The $12 million grant money has to be used before the end of 2024 and we are looking to spend that before we use the Tarrant County 911 citizens funds. We have cut our budget in 2023 by $2.8 million to help us get our foot in the door. Due to the unknowns our budget this year is very different because we are not entirely sure how much this new 911 platform will cost. We have a consulting firm helping us with this project and we are meeting in and out of state with agencies that have already done this implementation so we can learn what to do or not to do. Since 2014 we have been able to help our 911 Centers with available funds that we have had left over with PSAP programs and projects. Chief Don Crowson, Tarrant County Board Member, explained to the committee that the $140,000 that we are normally able to give to Grand Prairie is suspended until we can figure out how much the new infrastructure will cost us. Our general consensus is that we can still allocate this money to Grand Prairie but we are just unsure. Once this new project is completed it will be a game changer for our citizens. Cyber Security will be part of the new project and is a key aspect of the entire program. Deputy City Manager Cheryl Deleon suggests that we make a motion to continue to receive the funding that we have in the past and to help Tarrant County 911 receive state funding by attempting to get our Mayor involved if possible. Ms. Deleon requested that the City be notified sooner if we are not going to receive there funds next year so we can plan for that. Tarrant County 911 will come back in March of 2023 and should have more information on the project and they can come back and do a presentation to the board. Motion made by Chairwoman Clemson, Seconded by Council Member Ezeonu. Voting Yea: Chairwoman Clemson, Council Member Ezeonu, Council Member Headen 7. Resolution supporting the application for and acceptance of a FY 2022 Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Bureau of Justice Assistance to be used for law enforcement purposes for $36,347 in total funding with an agreement for $10,904.10 to be allocated to funding Dallas County projects and $1,781 to be allocated to the City of Dallas for fiscal administration fees and expenditures leaving a net amount of $23,661.90 to the City of Grand Prairie and authorizing the City Manager to execute documents relative to the acceptance of the grant including an interlocal agreement with the City of Dallas, Dallas County, and other Dallas County subrecipients Police Operations Support Bureau Assistant Director Ryan Simpson briefed the committee on this item. We have received funds from this federal grant for over 20 years. We are able to use these funds on anything police related, but it takes a while to get the funds. This year we have decided to use these funds on new tough books for the police officers squad cars just in case some go out of service. We will receive just under $24,000 from this grant which is figured by a formula that Dallas County uses based on population of city and available funds. Motion made by Council Member Ezeonu, Seconded by Council Member Headen. Voting Yea: Chairwoman Clemson, Council Member Ezeonu, Council Member Headen Public Safety, Health, and Environment Committee – September 12, 2022 Page 3 of 5  8. Consider the renewal of the City's Juvenile Curfew Ordinance, Section 17-45 of the Code of Ordinances Police Operations Support Bureau Assistant Director Ryan Simpson briefed the committee on this item. This is a renewal that is required every three years by the local government code. This ordinance has been around since 1994. This imposes a 11 p.m. curfew Sunday through Thursday night and a midnight curfew Friday and Saturday night, which is no change to what we already have on the books. We don't write many citations for this, but instead we use it as a tool to get children home or to a responsible party. Motion made by Council Member Headen, Seconded by Council Member Ezeonu. Voting Yea: Chairwoman Clemson, Council Member Ezeonu, Council Member Headen 9. Joe Pool Lake Watershed Protection Interlocal Agreement with the Trinity River Authority for an amount not to exceed $50,000 over five years Environmental Quality Manager Jody Cason briefed the committee on this item. He explained that a Watershed Protection Plan is intended to protect the water that runs into Joe Pool Lake. The products that people use on their lawns to help their grass grow can cause algae to grow in a lake. This is a proactive approach to solving water quality issues opposed to regulatory action through a Total Maximum Daily Load. The Trinity River Authority received grant funds from a 319 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and initiated this project in 2018. There was work done prior to 2018 like monitoring and watershed models to determine where bacteria may be the highest, but this is when the development phase started. Grand Prairie, Cedar Hill, Mansfield and Midlothian all put in about $20,000 in the past three years, and held 19 meetings open to the public, to get opinions from the people living in the watershed. There is a plan approved by the TCEQ and is now under review by the EPA which we are hoping is approved by the end of the year. The Implementation Phase will be a total cost of $50,000 from each partner city, $10,000 per year for five years to coordinate long term oversight. We will create Best Managements Practices (BMP's) areas and present proposed actions to citizens living on the watershed. If this is approved today the cost will come out of the existing water inspection budget. Motion made by Council Member Ezeonu, Seconded by Council Member Headen. Voting Yea: Chairwoman Clemson, Council Member Ezeonu, Council Member Headen 10. Five-year extension for GHA Barnett LLC to drill gas wells on the Race Padsite at 2200 Lower Tarrant Road Public Health & Environmental Quality Direct Cindy Mendez briefed the committee on this item. She will include items 10-12 in one presentation. Ms. Mendez explained that the city ordinance prior to 2011 had no expiration date on permits for gas wells. There is now a notice of intent which doesn't require them to get a new permit. Today we are discussing three pad- sites that have requested re-authorization which include Race Pad-site at 2200 Lower Tarrant, Auto Impound at 3010 Hardrock Road, and One Prime at 1044 Santerre. Race Pad-site has zero complaints, it is 965 ft to closest protected use and was originally permitted by City Council in 2013. They received their first re-authorization extension in 2018 and have just requested for another extension. Auto Impound Pad-site has had two complaints in 2022 to include air Public Safety, Health, and Environment Committee – September 12, 2022 Page 4 of 5  quality and noise abatement. The closest protected use is 701 feet, they have 26 notice of intents on file and have drilled four wells in 2022. Special Conditions have been requested for this re-authorization to include 40 foot noise walls, electric rig, no hydraulic fracturing weekends and holidays and to notify homeowners within 1,000 feet of drilling ten days prior. One Prime Pad-site was 514 feet to closest protected use but is now 387 feet, they have 47 notice of intents on file, four noise complaints on file and their re-authorization is required to include the special conditions as Auto Impound Pad-site. Motion made by Council Member Headen, Seconded by Council Member Ezeonu. Voting Yea: Chairwoman Clemson, Council Member Ezeonu, Council Member Headen 11. Five-year extension for GHA Barnett LLC to drill gas wells on the Auto Impound Padsite at 3010 Hardrock Road See item 10. 12. Five-year extension for GHA Barnett LLC to drill gas wells on the One Prime Padsite at 1044 Santerre See item 10. EXECUTIVE SESSION No Executive Session. CITIZEN COMMENTS No Citizen Comments. ADJOURNMENT 4:36 p.m. Jorja Clemson, Chairwoman Public Safety, Health, and Environment Committee – September 12, 2022 Page 5 of 5