City Council Committee Agendas

PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING JANUARY 6, 2016 PRESENT  Mayor Jill Boudreau  Council Members o Bob Fiedler o Mary Hudson o Mark Hulst o Joe Lindquist o Gary Molenaar o Dale Ragan  Chief of Police Jerry Dodd  Fire Chief Roy Hari  CED Director Bob Hyde  City Attorney Kevin Rogerson  Finance Director Alicia Huschka The Public Safety Committee Meeting was called to order by Councilman Mark Hulst. Public Safety Meeting Minutes from 10/07/15 and 12/02/15 were approved and adopted. JERRY DODD – CHIEF OF POLICE DOG KENNEL UPDATE  Special thanks to Dean Gilbert for all he’s done toward this project  Provided update/photographs showing progress of new dog kennel  Work also being done on entry to Police Department (photographs provided) PERSONNEL UPDATE  One Police Officer vacancy  One Lieutenant vacancy o Promotion projected end of February/first of March  Seven officers eligible for retirement in 2016  Tyler Clark to graduate from BLEA 03/09/16  John Flaherty to begin BLEA next month  Ed Gless hired in December and may be accepted in BLEA w/Flaherty  Background being done on two potential candidates  Officers Chris Carlson, Eric Kivi, Elizabeth Paul completed field training Next six months  Will continue hiring process  Possible Police Sergeant promotion Next nine months PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING JANUARY 6, 2016 PAGE 1 OF 4   Fill temporary assignments 2016 EVENTS, PROJECTS, ETC.  Overview of 2016 Department priorities o Goals and objectives o Planning process o Accreditation o Neighborhood Policing continues o 25 planned community events already scheduled for 2016 o Vektor to complete drug dog training o Continue Neighborhood Meetings, revisit all Block Watch Groups, 14th Preparatory Academy, 22nd Citizens Academy  2016 Challenges o Homelessness o Fill temporary assignments o Spillman Imaging o Gang emphasis o Focus on identified “hot spots”  Neighborhood Successes – Measuring Successes o Neighborhood livability o Proactive policing o Problem solving efforts  Provided list of 2015 successes – 82 total  Resolved - 52  Reduced frequency – 22  On-going – 8 o MVPD is a model agency on dealing with neighborhood issues  Very proactive in our policing MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS  Vektor provided free Kevlar vest (donated)  Ford Interceptor Utility Update – Two Years of Use o No maintenance issues (no glitches) o Will be requesting additional vehicles (replacements) in 2017  Annual “Shop With a Hero” was a success again in 2015 o In conjunction with Wal Mart, officers shop with underprivileged kids  Good sense of community  2015 “Annual Coat Drive” also a success o MVPD Officers started drive a few years ago, this year, partnered with Skagit Rotary o 3,000 coats donated  Modern Cleaners volunteered to clean all donated coats o Cash donations also received ROY HARI – FIRE CHIEF AND ALICIA HUSCHKA – FINANCE DIRECTOR PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING JANUARY 6, 2016 PAGE 2 OF 4 BRUSH TRUCK SKID UNIT  Possible upcoming budget amendment  Fire Chief Roy Hari talked about brush truck, grants, funding sources, etc. o Finance Director Alicia Huschka discussed cost, etc. MAYOR JILL BOUDREAU  Signup sheet for committee chairpersons  Has been an expressed interest by Council Members to switch seats HOMELESSNESS UPDATE  Increase in homeless individuals  Mayor Boudreau provided chronological timeline of what’s been done to date o Roundtable group o AWC human services meeting o Compass Mental Health o Skagit County/Community Action – outreach team concept  “Cannot emphasize enough the complexity of this problem” o Mental Health and substance abuse o Homeless Prevention o Affordable housing o Permanent Supportable housing o Shelter and services o Street vagrancy  Other efforts o Population Health Trust o Community Action coordinated entry into services, identifying models o Affordable housing  Part of comprehensive planning  SCOG – housing inventory  Affordable housing projects  Permanent supportive housing proposals o Skagit County Public Health 0.01% funding  Comes from sales tax and goes directly to public health services  How can this be allocated to homelessness issues? o Regional mental health realignments o Family Promise  Churches helping homeless issues by taking in families  Getting families connected with social services  CITY IMPACTS o POLICE DEPARTMENT  Drinking, drug use  Theft (shoplifting, power)  Aggressive panhandling and behavior  Squatting  Department spending two hours per week proactively looking for homeless o Reactive services $9,800 PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING JANUARY 6, 2016 PAGE 3 OF 4   Officer Leighton is officer leading/documenting this o Documented 188 unique contacts in two years o Asking questions and gathering data  40% are drug users (meth, heroin)  32% convicted felons o FIRE DEPARTMENT  EMS, drug overdose o PARKS DEPARTMENT  Tom Wenzl (City Work Program) has been cleaning up transient camps  Litter, HAZMAT: human waste and needles  367 cubic yards garbage cleaned out  100% sites have had drug paraphernalia  829 man-hours spent on cleaning homeless encampments  Vandalism o LIBRARY  Loitering, Vandalism and Disruptive behavior  Ideas o Continue accountability of behavior at City sites  Legal officer contact  Regular encampment patrols – who pays?  Trespassing, ticketing – for what?  Physical environment changes  Other – Limited hours at library  Mental Health Court/Drug Court expansion  Financial resources (or lack thereof)  Daylight or Triage shelter – who? o Showers o Laundry o Connections to services  Assertive mobile outreach teams o Phased approach – DATA COLLECTORS  Crisis Prevention and Intervention Teams – Compass Health o Anyone eligible for team to visit them whether at home or on street  14 days of case management Homelessness will be put on 01/20/16 study session agenda for further discussion Meeting adjourned at 7:03 PM PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING JANUARY 6, 2016 PAGE 4 OF 4