Public Safety Committee

Public Safety Committee Meeting Held at City Hall Tuesday, February 18, 2020, at 4:30 p.m. The meeting convened at 4:30 p.m. with Councilor Jeanine Best presiding, Councilor Steve Henderson, Councilor Barry Foster and Mike Mathews present. Councilor Angela Moore was absent. Staff Present: Chief Devin Graham RFD, Captain Kim Northcut RPD, Captain Mike Taylor RPD, Teri Best PVRCC, Jill Pollock RFD, Megan Telles Kennel Manager, Karen Sanders Emergency Manager, Bill Morris COR, Bill Bartlett Code Enforcement, Toby Franco Code Enforcement, Miller Butty Code Enforcement, Chief Phil Smith RPD, Joseph Pacheco RAS, Councilor Margaret Kennard, and Parker Patterson COR. Others attending were: Larry Connelly and Cristina Arnold. AGENDA APPROVAL Councilor Foster motioned to approve the agenda, including that Item 5 be moved to item 1A; Councilor Henderson was the second. A voice vote was unanimous, and the motion passed, with Councilor Moore being absent. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Councilor Foster motioned to approve the minutes for the January 14, 2020 meeting. Councilor Henderson was the second. A voice vote was unanimous, and the motion passed with Councilor Moore being absent. INFORMATION 1A. (5). Department Updates: Roswell Police: Captain Mike Taylor stated the RPD has started a Crime Prevention Detail and discussed the manpower, the in house departments involved, over time, and deployments. He said on the first two deployments were held Tuesday, February 4, 2020, and Wednesday, February 12, 2020. These resulted in multiple arrests, gun and drug recovery, and condemnation of a house. Captain Taylor gave the dates of future deployments and stated that SWAT, along with the Criminal Investigation Team, will also be involved. Captain Kim Northcut said the RPD would rotate criminal investigators and patrol officers through with narcotics on deployments to give them insight and understanding to other areas. Bill Bartlett said the new tactics by RPD had given them greater access to known drug houses. By granting them access to the inside of the homes, they can access the property and start the condemnation process on the homes as needed. Chief Smith stated this was a trial detail that is being tracked in many ways. The goal is that with the continued success, they will show cause to make this a permanent deployment. Roswell Fire: Chief Devin Graham said he had given a comprehensive report on the RFD several nights before and wanted to re-state the current problems with department staffing. He stated that the department would begin the next academy on February 28, 2020, with eight recruits; however, the department currently has eleven openings. The current eight recruits were from two hiring processes. Staffing problems are causing the overtime budget to exceed expectations. Chief Graham said a promotional exam would be held next week and discussed a few of the reservations had by a firefighter for promoting. Emergency Management: Karen Sanders stated she was still waiting on the reimbursement check for the high wind event a year ago. She said the threshold of $250,000 had been met by combining with surrounding areas. The Governor has issued an executive order to reimburse 75% of the cost. It has taken them ten months to issue the sub-grant agreement. Required paperwork, hours, and numbers are being put together to submit. Dispatch: Teri Best stated that staffing remains to be an issue. Dispatch does not currently have a training division; however, they have named a training coordinator. With staffing low, it is hard to pull people off of the floor to train. Teri stated next week she will be teaching their first recruit academy and has three recruits currently signed up. The academy will last one to two weeks and focus on basics such as introduction to the console, call processing, and fire and police vocabulary. Animal Control: Joseph Pacheco stated in January they had done daily patrols and citation notices. They began to implement the new ordinance, hired a new Patrol Officer, and kennel staff started learning the new cleaning equipment in the back. He stated February had been much of the same but included training the new Officer, putting the new cleaning equipment to use, and hiring new kennel staff. He said plans for March include the previous items, and working with local rescue groups and Roswell citizens to increase pet adoption. Microchip concerns are being addressed with local vets. Joseph said deep cleaning began this week. An outside company was brought in, and they were cleaning from floor to ceiling. Many things at the facility are improved and revamped. Animal Control was now working with nine local vets to improve situations. Code Enforcement: Bill Bartlett stated that they are excited to be working with the task force on the crime prevention detail. Code Enforcement has had a 100% condemnation rate on the houses from this detail. Mr. Bartlett said they are now moving forward on the chronic nuisance ordinance and will begin holding owners/landlords responsible. Code Enforcement is now fully staffed with the recent hire of three new officers and the promotion of one employee. Revamping of the nuisance ordinances is now in the works. REGULAR ITEMS 2. Condemnations: Resolution 20-XX. Councilor Henderson motioned to pass Resolution 20-XX and send to the Consent Agenda, as presented, Councilor Foster was the second. A voice vote was unanimous, and the motion passed with Councilor Moore being absent. 3. Amendment to Chapter 16 of the city code: Mike Matthews informed those present that the meeting packet contained all Chapter 16 (City Nuisance Codes). He stated that over the next month, everyone could look over the codes and redline the changes or additions they would like to have reviewed. Items will be discussed at the next Public Safety Meeting on March 17, 2020. NON-ACTION ITEMS 4. None CHAIR ANNOUNCEMENT / REPORTS None PUBLIC PARTICIPATION None ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 5:08 p.m.