City Council Committee Agendas

PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING OCTOBER 7, 2015 PRESENT  Mayor Jill Boudreau  Council Members o Mark Hulst o Ken Quam, o Dale Ragan o Gary Molenaar o Bob Fiedler o Mike Urban  Chief of Police Jerry Dodd  CED Director Bob Hyde  IS Director Kim Kleppe  Finance Director Alicia Huschka The Public Safety Committee Meeting was called to order by Councilman Mark Hulst. Public Safety Meeting Minutes from 09/02/15 were approved and adopted. OFFICER ZACH WRIGHT - K-9 UPDATE  400 hours of training completed in May o Vector was certified with “flying colors”  Trained with Bellingham handlers  Vector doing very well since then  60ish deployments so far o 14 to 15 arrests o Most common crimes are burglary, resisting, eluding, voyeurism  Cross training in narcotics o Vector is doing extremely well o Need approximately 200 hours ANSWERS TO K-9 QUESTIONS FROM COUNCIL  Not certain when Vector will be certified for drugs  Vektor is ahead of where Luther was at this stage in the game  Vektor weighs approximately 80 pounds  Chief of Police Jerry Dodd complimented Zach on being an excellent handler, an excellent trainer, and what an excellent job he did searching for the “right” dog. MVPD is very fortunate to have Officer Zach Wright. PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING OCTOBER 7, 2015 PAGE 1 OF 4 LIEUTENANT GREG BOOTH - NEIGHBORHOOD ISSUE AT/NEAR FAIRGROUNDS  Lieutenant Booth works closely with Skagit County Parks employees Brian Adams and Aric Gaither to prepare for and mitigate any issues that come up when events occur at the fairgrounds.  Most common issues are traffic and noise o Zero noise complaints over last several months o Eight traffic-related calls, most generated by Sam Bull, who lives at corner of Hazel and Walter Streets  Fairground guests/participants tend to use the Walter Street gate as entrance o Mr. Bull’s complaints to Skagit County Parks employees concerned vehicle traffic and vehicles blocking his driveway  Police Department did a study in June in 2015 o 385 vehicles travelling one direction and o 303 going the other with o Average speed was under 15 mph  Lieutenant Booth provided Mr. Bull and his wife, Lisa, the traffic study information and followed-up on Mr. Bull’s concerns o The Bulls were appreciative of our efforts and Lieutenant Booth’s visit  One other isolated incident did occur with bike riders, strong winds, and buses entering fairgrounds to “rescue” the bike riders  Signage has been posted in an attempt to divert traffic on Walter Street during fairground events  Mr. Bull seems satisfied with our efforts and his complaints are down POLICE CHIEF JERRY DODD – PERSONNEL UPDATE  Still have two Police Officer vacancies o Looking at two candidates  One has been through Chief and Mayor interviews  Second candidate spent his life in San Diego  Has passed suitability tests  Done couple ride-alongs  Positive feedback from staff  Has leadership training  Navy seal  Lot of skill sets to make him good candidate  Police Lieutenant Vacancy o Civil Service approved moving forward with only one candidate o Everything set for test in November  Will postpone promotion until January  Promotion of Lieutenant will generate Sergeant position o Don’t anticipate lack of interested candidates for Sergeant promotion  New officers who have completed BLEA and are currently in FTO include o Eric Kivi o Chris Carlson o Elizabeth Paul PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING OCTOBER 7, 2015 PAGE 2 OF 4  Officer Tyler Clark hired in September and will attend BLEA 10/27/15 POLICE CHIEF JERRY DODD – MISCELLANEOUS  09/19/15 National Thank a Police Officer Day o Great response from community  Brought cookies, ten pounds coffee, candy  Officers’ wives also brought a lot of food (sandwiches, veggies, etc.)  2015 Coat Drive o Last year’s coat drive was very successful o This year, we partnered with Rotary Skagit Morning Club to collect coats o All over news and Facebook o Everything done through Community Action  Drug Take Back Program o MVPD is only law enforcement agency that participated o This (drug take back) is done twice a year o 88 visitors and collected just short of 300 pounds of expired and non-used prescription drugs (filled 13 good size boxes) o DEA is responsible for expenses to destroy drugs  Update on North 27th Street o Green van was located  Identified driver of vehicle  Interviewed and interrogated that individual who was not shooter  Still looking for shooter o Regenerated Problem Elimination Team (PET)  New Block Watch group with three captains  Conducted three PET meetings  Increased communication with neighborhood  US mail (80); e-mail (30) residences  Conducted traffic count  756 cars with average speed of 26mph  New three way stop at N 27th and Broadway and cross-walks  LED street lighting upgrade scheduled  One hulk/abandoned vehicle removed  Person arrested shortly after drive-by shooting is still incarcerated o Speed bumps/humps o Looking into fence and trail head improvements o No incidents of recent violence or drug activity o No new criminal activity o No new graffiti vandalism o Code enforcement issues - education and enforcement  Ken Lee doing great job o Problem Pit Bull declared “potentially dangerous” PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING OCTOBER 7, 2015 PAGE 3 OF 4  o Continue to work on chronic problem houses o Neighborhood clean-up  Trucks loaded with trash from neighborhood  Gives ownership back to neighborhood o Calls for service are up as they feel more comfortable calling police o Zone Officers are up there  Officer Jason Graham taking lead on this o Great job of City Departments working together to solve problems FINANCE DIRECTOR ALICIA HUSCHKA  Discussion on taping committee meetings o Bob Fielder brought this up because County records their meetings  IS DIRECTOR KIM KLEPPE TOOK FLOOR o Discussion of impacts o IS employee time is an issue – approximately 3-1/2 hours for TV  Changes/resets to change from Committee Meeting to Council Meeting  Need a little time to make changes o Creates public record o Biggest thing is ten minute transition time between Committee and Council Meetings o Bob Fiedler asked Kim to ask County how and why they do it o Would cost approximately $3,500 for year  KEITH KINGSLEY – TV-10 ADDRESSED MAYOR AND COUNCIL  County streams Committee Meetings  County doesn’t record all their meetings Council will think about this FINANCE DIRECTOR ALICIA HUSCHKA – DOWNTOWN RESTROOM PROJECT UPDATE  Changes and revisions to restroom project budget  Additional cost of $49,000 for Axthelm due to change orders plus Carletti’s work  Budget will increased between $75,000 and $100,000 o Finance Director Huschka wanted to make sure Council is aware of costs o Axthelm is moving forward  Finance will presentdo budget amendment at appropriate time of project approval MAYOR JILL BOUDREAU  Addressed Council stating, “Whenever you guys want to have Board Meetings, just let us know.” Meeting adjourned at 6:55 PM. 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