Public Safety (Subcommittee of the City Council)

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MINUTES Wednesday July 11th, 2018 Emergency Management 16 South Golden Street, Norwich 7:00 PM Committee Members Present: Alderman William Nash, Alderman Joseph A. DeLucia, and Alderwoman Joanne Philbrick Committee Members Absent: None Administration and Staff Present: Captain Jim Veiga, Norwich Police Department; John Salomone, City Manager, City of Norwich; and Christopher LaRose, Assistant General Manager, Norwich Public Utilities. Volunteer/Central Fire Departments and Others: Taftville Chief Timothy Jencks, Assistant Chief William Hadam, and Deputy Chief Tom Jencks; Norwich Captain Mike Dzavit, Director of Training and Safety Jake Manke and Kyle Seitz; Laurel Hill Jerry Martin; and Yantic Chief Frank Blanchard Citizens Present: Brian Kobylarz of 16 Hobart Avenue and Mike Dzavitz of 248 Browning Road. I. Call to Order and Quorum: Alderman Nash called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. There was a quorum present. II. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of Wednesday June 13th, 2018 Alderman Nash motioned, seconded by Alderwoman Philbrick, to approve the Wednesday June 13th, 2018 meeting minutes. The motion passed unanimously. III. Correspondence: None. IV. Citizen Comment: a) Brian Kobylarz of 16 Hobart Avenue wanted to make the committee aware there are currently 102 registered sex offenders in surrounding towns, 14 of those being listed as non-compliance. He stated currently Norwich is at 153 sex offenders, 21 of them being non-compliant which means 14% of the sex offenders in Norwich are unaccounted for and he felt that was a very significant number. He said the previous Thursday one of his neighbors had one of the sex offenders in their neighborhood break into her home while she was there alone. Brian said she was thankfully able to deescalate the situation but the suspect was only charged on breach of peace and criminal mischief. Brian feels we need to make keeping track of current sex offenders a priority and look at why there are significantly more offenders in our town than those around us. Alderwoman Philbrick responded that being the social  services capital in Southeastern Connecticut leads Norwich to have a lot more citizens that wouldn’t be able to live elsewhere. She encouraged Captain Veiga to get ahead of this issue and to try to be proactive instead of just reactive. Alderman Nash said he would get this out in front of the City Council and arrange a meeting with Captain Veiga to see what can be done to address this. b) Mike Dzavit of 248 Browning Road and the Norwich Fire Fighters L892 reported that IMC Bridge it is still not fully complete but it is moving ahead still and it is a lot farther along than he had reported previously. Mike wished to reiterate that only two IT staff members are not enough to serve the diverse needs of the city. He also stated he has only been able to meet with three chiefs since last month’s Public Safety Committee meeting but over the next couple weeks the plan is to meet with the other chiefs and has gotten positive reviews. Mike is hoping that next month he can report that the IMC bridge is almost complete. Alderwoman Philbrick asked City Manager John Salomone what is holdup with IMC Bridge and he responded while not all of the speed bumps are IT but work volume is an issue. She expressed her concern of how much of a priority this is for him as public safety needs to be our top priority and would like this to be completed immediately. V. Old Business: a) Apparatus/ Equipment Financing: – City Manager John Salomone reported the specifications are done and being returned to each chief and their committees for final review. He said he should have another update next meeting. VI. New Business: a) Norwich Public Utilities Update – Assistant General Manager Chris LaRose stated the Mohegan park tank is back online and operating well and that the Occum tank is still waiting for a control package from vendor; they are expecting it be online mid-August. b) Emergency Management: Director of Training and Safety Jake Manke reported July was very busy for Emergency Management; they are continuing organizing operations center and have participated in state and local exercises. On June 20th there was a statewide disaster drill for hurricanes. He said Mr. Salomone and several other city departments all came down as acted if an actually a Category 3 hurricane had hit and operated our existing plan. Jake reported it was very successful and that earlier today, himself, the city manager, Chief Scandariato and Chris LaRose of NPU sat down and did an after accident report of the drill, discussed issues and problem solving. Emergency Management’s upcoming needs for the budget are replacing the CERT vehicle for the CERT team. c) American Ambulance: None d) Norwich Police Department: Chief Jim Veiga stated they had two recent promotions, Josip Peperni to Lieutenant and Detective St. Jean to  Sergeant with a promotional ceremony planned for July 20th. Their current needs include updating the radio system as currently they are dealing with Motorola and have a meeting planned next week to see how they can cut costs. e) Fire House Status Updates: Taftville: Chief Timothy Jencks reported they responded to a couple serious motorcycle accidents, standard call volume, and provided mutual aid to Yantic and NLPD. He said they are also being deployed by coast guard for Sailfest this upcoming weekend. Chief Jencks said they had responded to the fire on Norwich Avenue with Norwich Fire Department, there were some issues but he is planning to meet with Chief Scandariato next week and will update the committee from there. He stated membership is stable with two new members in the works. The department completed ladder test on ground and aerials and plan to have Fleet Maintenance work on apparatus ladders that need attention. Chief Jencks said their current needs include updates to their radio as their current system is 23 years old and while its mechanical sound at the moment the future council will need to start thinking about working it into the budget. He added their additional has finally started and they currently have partial walls up. The Chief also said they petitioned to take former tennis court that borders the Taftville Firehouse as additional parking. Occum: None. East Great Plain: Alderman Nash said he received correspondence from Chief Milton stating EGP had 73 calls and 7 mutual aids with other departments in the last month. Chief Milton reported that they have been conducting training and a variance was passed for their new fire escape so they are currently getting a building permit and other paperwork together for its replacement. Chief Milton said their needs are new tires for the tanker but John Raymond at Fleet Maintenance was able to find them re-treaded tires. He also added their 75th anniversary is next month and will be kicking off on August 5th with a rededication ceremony. Yantic: Chief Frank Blanchard reported their membership at is the same as last month at 58 and June was average with mutual aid runs to Franklin, Bozrah, Colchester and Lisbon. He stated the engines underwent pump testing today and all passed. Chief said their current needs are replacement air conditioning in the main floor of the station where the apparatus are located. He said the overhead doors in Yantic also need to be replaced, not just repaired. He added that the in-ground oil tank at the firehouse reached the end of its useful life three years ago so the committee needs to get in front of the issue and at least being to work on designs costs of figuring out a new system. Chief Blanchard said that the neighboring Hale Mill has sold and the property manager has been down a lot as he has his hands full with the amount of deteriorations that has happened in the 18 months since Yantic visited the mill.  Laurel Hill: Jerry Martin reported that membership is same and the firehouse recently conducted drafting and alternate water supply training. He said their needs also include air conditioning for the firehouse but they are unsure if theirs is still under warranty. Norwich: Director of Training and Safety Jake Manke reported on behalf of Chief Scandariato that in the last month Norwich has responded to 166 incidents with an overlap of 23 times with the same calls and a average response time of 3.17 minutes. He stated the rear parking lot renovations have been completed and a bid has been awarded for Greenville station repairs. They also completed pump testing earlier that day. Chief Scandariato attended the opiate epidemic summit at Backus Hospital with other chiefs and congressman in attendance. Jake said that Norwich will also be attending Sailfest with the new boat under the grant agreement. Norwich has filled their vanacy in the fire department with Cathy Davis who will be the first African American female for the department and should be graduating around December. Chief Scandariato relayed their current needs are the replacement of Squad A. VI. Other: a) IMC Bridge Update: Discussed in citizen comment. b) Chiefs Meetings: City Manager John Salomone said there is a meeting schedule for next week with an IT personnel in attendance to discuss some of the technical issues relating to the IMC Bridge as well as other things. c) Sex Offender Violations: Alderman Joe DeLucia asked Captain Veiga what our current mechanism is for enforcing sex offender violation. Captain Veiga responded that there is an office that goes and does compliance checks, if someone goes into non-compliance there is an arrest warrant issued and the offender is arrested once located. Alderman Nash asked if we are currently working with Social Services to help keep track of offenders as they often utilize these services and the Chief responded that we do. Alderwoman Philbrick asked when someone is released from a correctional facility if they are required to list a specification location that they are planning to reside. Chief Veiga said that as far as he was aware they were required to do so within a specific window of time if they are on the registry since they must be compliant from the moment they are released. VII. Future Agenda Items: Chiefs Meeting. VIII. Adjournment: Upon a motion by Alderman Nash, seconded by Alderman DeLucia, the meeting was unanimously adjourned at 7:58pm Respectfully Submitted, Katherine Rose