Police, Judicial, Legal Committee

TOWN OF MOUNT PLEASANT, SOUTH CAROLINA POLICE, JUDICIAL & LEGAL COMMITTEE Tuesday September 4, 2018 Municipal Complex, Committee Meeting Room, 3rd Floor [The following correction was made to these minutes on November 5, 2018] Page 5 on the next to last line, the word “residence” was corrected to “residents”. Revised Minutes Members Present: Mayor Will Haynie, Chair, Gary Santos, Joe Bustos Absent: GM Whitley Staff Present: Eric DeMoura, Levica Kirvin, Chief Ritchie Also Present: Jim Hinchey, Corporation Counsel Mayor Haynie called the meeting to order at 11:44am. 1. Approval of Minutes from the August 6, 2018 meeting Mayor Haynie asked that the minutes from August 6, 2018 meeting be approved. Mr. Bustos made the motion for approval; seconded by Ms. Whitley. Motion carried unanimously. 2. Public Comments None 3. Police matters a. Employee years of service recognition Chief Ritchie stated that he would like to recognize Nicole Neville for 5 years of service with the Town of Mount Pleasant and the Police Department specifically. Chief Ritchie stated that Ms. Neville is the Administrative Assistant for the Criminal Investigations bureau. He added that she maintains the  Police, Judicial & Legal Committee September 4, 2018 Page 2 of 8 investigative cases and case management system and has been instrumental in assisting the Department with re-accreditation and gathering CALEA standards so she is part of the reason the Department was re-accredited with Gold Standard with Excellence. Chief Ritchie stated that she is a great liaison for other State and Federal Agencies that the Department has cases that we work with, specifically the Solicitors office by getting case packets to them so they are prepared, and our officers are prepared. Chief Ritchie stated that Ms. Neville fills in wherever needed that she is one of those type of employees that if you say you need assistance somewhere she is the first to respond. He added that she assists his office and Lori on a regular basis and she is much appreciated. b. Discussion of traffic concerns on Long Point Road near Hobcaw Creek Plantation and Hidden Cove Mayor Haynie stated that this is also a Transportation issue but that right now it is a law enforcement issue. Chief Ritchie stated that he would let Lieutenant Pat Carter, who has gathered the data and done great work on this, come up and speak on the some of the issues the Department is dealing with or not dealing with. Lt. Carter stated that this has been an area that the Department has continued to monitor over the many years he has been in traffic and they have watched for it due to the growth in area. He added that Sergeant Michael Johnson has been specifically assigned in that area from Traffic and has been working the area. Lt. Carter stated that there have only been two collisions and one of those was a car failing to yield to a commercial vehicle and the other involved two cars. He added that a lot of the complaints are on the trucks, but he has not seen collision issues from it.  Police, Judicial & Legal Committee September 4, 2018 Page 3 of 8 Lt. Carter stated that the main issue identified in that area was parking issues. Commercial vehicles have been stopping to do paperwork and parking their vehicles in the roadway which generated several complaints. He added that Sgt. Johnson has worked on this and issued 27 parking citations and has gotten a lot of the commercial vehicles to move. Lt. Carter stated that at the traffic light, since January, they have identified about a dozen violations that were either tickets or warnings from disregarding the signal and not all of those were commercial vehicles so that is something he will have continually watched at Wando Park. Lt. Carter stated that they ran their stealth survey system in the area last week for a 36-hour period and approximately 8,000 vehicles went thru with the 85-percentile speed being 38 mph in a 35 mph. He added that over 85% of traffic was 3 mph above the speed limit or less. He added that they are not seeing this as a huge speeding issue in that area, but they will continue to monitor it. Chief Ritchie stated so that the Mayor and Council know, this issue comes up regularly, these trucks are large, and they can look like they are going faster than they really are. He added that he has personally reached out and Sgt. Johnson has a great relationship with some of the trucking companies and they both have let them know the concerns from the neighborhoods so Chief Ritchie feels the communication and the contact is very good with the trucking industry in that area and he will continue to work on this by addressing the issues as they arise. Mr. Santos stated that he did not have any questions but would like to comment that there will only be more trucks on the road, as the ships are getting bigger, and unfortunately there are no Rails so the only way to go is trucks.  Police, Judicial & Legal Committee September 4, 2018 Page 4 of 8 Chief Ritchie stated that he understands that and believes that will be the case, but the Department is not seeing where the trucks are the problem right now. Mayor Haynie stated that first thing, the Town has a plan underway for re- doing the area. He added that he cannot remember all the Transportation plans as they all end up looking alike but he believes that the expected increase of container trucks was being addressed as the port gets deepened and the ships get bigger and more TEUs. Mayor Haynie stated that he could not remember what the exact plan was to keep the residential and the commercial traffic separate, but he believes there is a plan for that. Mr. DeMoura stated that most of the improvements will be from a traffic improvement point of view and one of the biggest improvements will be the re-alignment of that intersection which is currently not in good alignment. Mayor Haynie asked Mr. DeMoura to tell the committee which intersection that is. Mr. DeMoura stated that intersection by Wando Park and Longpoint Road. He added that this mis-alignment does not make an ideal situation so that would be one major improvement. The other improvement is a better delineation through lane markings, landscaping of lanes for trucks and lanes for cars to try to make a better marriage of the two in the area, as is shown in the conceptual plan. Mr. DeMoura stated that those are the plans underway and they will be going to design soon and with the money that the Mayor and Council have allocated, will be able to construct a good portion of it. Mayor Haynie stated that he believes the Town still has from the TIF appropriations about one and a half million dollars for that area. He added  Police, Judicial & Legal Committee September 4, 2018 Page 5 of 8 that Council has been thinking about what it would entail with the increased amount of trucks, not that State Ports bringing their offices over there will increase traffic that much, but the whole area is a real focus for the Town and there is money to spend if needed. Mayor Haynie asked if the money was still available. Mr. DeMoura stated that it is available and when the design is finished it will be brought back to Transportation Committee. If the Mayor and Committee are comfortable with it, then it will move toward design and ultimately construction. Mayor Haynie asked if the money will be spent on this new design or is there other funding for that and that is in addition to this design. Mr. DeMoura stated that the hope is to be able to fit all the improvements into the current budget. He added that he suspects that a little more money may need to be allocated to complete all the improvements that are necessary out there and if that is the case, once further along in the design process, the cost estimates will be produced, and they should know relatively quickly if there is enough money to do it all or not. He added that if not an appropriation will be asked for at the right time. Mayor Haynie stated that he thought it was a good exercise during the bridge crisis with State Ports in that they worked with the Town well on what was needed done on the gate times and other operations. Mayor Haynie stated that as things move forward hopefully under every circumstance but especially under special circumstances that they are willing to partner with the Town to do what is best for the citizens of Mount Pleasant as they know there are times when the Port and the Town will not have the exact same interests and the Town is looking after the residents and they are looking after the flow of trucks.  Police, Judicial & Legal Committee September 4, 2018 Page 6 of 8 Mr. Bustos stated he would give some of his constituents a call. He added that some Homeowner’s Associations had come together and had questions and he will make sure they understand about the targeted enforcement. Chief Ritchie stated that Lt. Carter and his traffic team would be happy to meet with them as well. Mr. Santos stated that he noticed that it was said that there would be a car lane and an truck lane and that the Town has those on the bridge and no one is policing them, not that it is the Town’s responsibility, but clearly the cars get in the truck lanes, go flying down to the end, then merge over just to get in front of ten cars. Mr. Santos asked if the Police Department would enforce that and would there be any kind of penalty for cars in the truck lanes or vice-versa. He added if not that there was really no reason to even do it and call them car lanes and truck lanes if they are going to do like they do on the bridge. Mr. Santos asked if there is still a round-about planned for that. Mr. DeMoura stated that the round-about is gone because it was not the most efficient option. Chief Ritchie stated they would certainly look into it, but he is not sure how efficient of effective it would be as you are talking about car after car that will try to get into traffic and trucks not using the truck lane either. He added that by the time vehicles stop, and traffic gets held up it would not work well. Mr. Santos stated that it would be almost impossible to do because trucks going back over the bridge will stay in the right lane so they can keep their position and cars that need to go that will be doing the same as well or even the ones that want to take the turn into Mount Pleasant will be stacked in the right lane.  Police, Judicial & Legal Committee September 4, 2018 Page 7 of 8 Mr. Santos stated with cars and trucks in that lane he does not think it can be done. Chief Ritchie stated that since the bridge closure, the truck lane is completely closed right now and there is no truck lane coming into the Town. Mr. Santos stated that before then nobody was paying attention to that and the trucks stayed in the regular and the BMW’s and the Porsche’s were in the truck lane but there was really no enforcement up there, so he is not sure how it can be done but feels we should give it a shot and see what happens. Mayor Haynie stated that he would like to thank Lt. Carter and Sgt. Johnson for their good work and for working with the community. 4. Judicial matters No agenda items 5. Legal matters a. Executive Session- Legal update on Brock v. Town of Mt. Pleasant (2018-CP-10-3481) Mayor Haynie stated that the Committee would go into executive session for an update on Brock vs. the Town of Mount Pleasant case #2018-CP-10- 3481 and if the Committee goes into post executive session, when they return, the Committee may take action on any item listed on an executive session agenda or discuss an executive session during a properly noticed meeting. Ms. Whitley moved to go into executive session to receive a legal update on Brock vs. the Town of Mount Pleasant. Mr. Bustos seconded the motion. All present were in favor.  Police, Judicial & Legal Committee September 4, 2018 Page 8 of 8 The committee entered executive session at 11:57am. The committee exited executive session at 12:10 pm. b. Post executive session Committee may take action on any item listed on an executive Session agenda or discussed in an executive session during a Properly noticed meeting. Mayor Haynie stated that the Committee did not take any votes and no actions were taken during executive session. 6. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:11pm. Minutes submitted by: Lori Gaskin 09/04/2018