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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-06-15 Government Operations Committee Minutes Government Operations Committee June 15, 2010 Minutes Councilor Attendance: Gratwick, Blanchette, Wheeler Staff Attendance: Nicklas, Arno, Farrar, Gastia, Cammack Others: David Mahoney Committee Chair Gratwick opened the meeting at 5:00 p.m. 1. JAG Grant (public hearing) Arno began by stating this is a long standing opportunity for the Police Department with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department. This is a joint application in which this year the Bangor Police Department and the City of Bangor will be acting as the fiscal agent and eligible to apply jointly for $29,947, which will be split almost evenly with the Penobscot Sheriff’s Department and the Bangor Police Department. The City charges a 2% fee on the Sheriff’s Department portion. The total breaks down to $15,272.97 for the City and $14,674.03 for the County. As part of the grant requirement, there needs to be a public hearing and Arno asked if anyone had questions. The Police Department proposes to use their portion of the funds for continued training for sworn personnel. Responding to Blanchette, Arno said that the amount of this grant has been reduced over the past several years. Eight years ago, the amount allocated was $70,000 or so to be split between the two agencies. Blanchette recommends that a letter be sent out to the Congressional Delegation pointing out all that the City has been able to do with this money both in the Police Department and with the drug agency. A motion was made and seconded to approve the application for the Justice Assistance Grant for the City of Bangor. 2. Underage Drinking Grant Arno said that this grant is being made available through the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Substance Abuse. Staff is requesting permission to apply for up to $7500 in funding, which would be used for overtime reimbursement. He spoke about the Police Department and their efforts to step up their enforcement in the form of compliance checks of bars, restaurants and stores that serve or sell alcohol in the City. The department has been able to do this in partnership with Community Health and Wellness. Previously the Community Health and Wellness was the pass-through for the money for some overtime funding, and this year the department has been solicited to apply directly for the grant. The department has done things other than enforcement, such as hosting a number of training seminars available to stores and bars which has been successful with positive feedback. Blanchette asked if this is the same operation that has someone in the department that looks underage go into these establishments and try to buy alcohol. Arno said yes. A motion was made and seconded. Responding to Wheeler, Arno said that as a condition of the RFP issued by the Office of Substance Abuse, the City is required to have a dedicated comprehensive written underage drinking enforcement policy as part of the General Duty Manual. He said that currently the City does not have a standalone Underage Drinking policy but will work to develop one. He believes that what they are looking for is a statewide comprehensive effort that will show that all communities are doing the same thing in the same way. Arno said that in the past the enforcement of underage drinking was not a job for the local police department, but handled by the State Liquor Enforcement. Those efforts have been mostly disbanded and most of that responsibility has been pushed down to local and county agencies. Arno was surprised at the number of establishments that were cavalier in letting minors come on the premises both to consume and to purchase alcohol. When the department first went out to enforce, there were around 18 or more establishments charged with a number of different violations involving sales to minors. Two weeks later the department went out again and found the establishments to be very different. He said that the efforts have continued, and the number of repeat offenders has been disheartening. Gastia spoke about the fact that in early 2000 the State Liquor Enforcement was dissolved and it wasn’t until 2005 that the Legislature gave the authority to municipal agencies and local officers to enforce liquor enforcement laws. Unfortunately, very little training was given at that time and, until this grant was available, all training was done by this department. Gastia said it is the hope that some sort of a statewide strategy would be developed through these grants. Gastia said based on the conversations that he has had with the Bureau of Liquor enforcement, which does licensing; they have indicated that Bangor does a much better job than most other places in the state. Part of this is due to the enthusiasm of the officers and the number of establishments in Bangor. 3. Sprinkler System for Central Fire and Station 5 Cammack began by explaining that there are 3 fire stations in the City. Central Station is the oldest, and built in 1977. Station 5 located on the Hogan Rd was built in 1993 and the current station that has been re-done on the Griffin Rd. Out of those 3 stations, the only one that is in complete compliance with the Sprinkler Ordinance is the newest station on Griffin Rd. The Fire Department is requesting permission to apply for Assistance to Firefighters Grant. The purpose would be to install a complete sprinkler system in Central Fire and upgrade the system in Station 5. Blanchette thinks it is essential to have this done. She said it wouldn’t be right for the City to go out to the community and demand that businesses have sprinkler systems when it isn’t complying itself, Cammack said that the match for the City will be $12,836 for the total project for both stations. The grant is a total of $127,836. This requires a 10% local match. Responding to Wheeler, Cammack said that the average fire station should last between 50 and 80 years. The old stations of the City were close to 100 years old. He anticipates another 30 years of useful service for Central Station. A motion was made and seconded to allow the Fire Department to apply for the grant to install a sprinkler system for central fire and station 5. This will go to full Council. Responding to Gratwick, Cammack said that most of the buildings under the Civic umbrella are sprinkled. The estimate for getting the City Hall sprinkled was $233,586. This has been forwarded to the Finance Director. Cammack is not aware of any grants for giving assistance for City Hall. Cammack says that an offsite IT back up is in the process of being developed for Station 6. This will help make the City more sustainable. Cammack stated that the funds will come from the Fire Department’s Capital Fund account. 4. Regional Water Storage Tanks for Fire Suppression Cammack said that for the first time the Fire Department has been part of a regional application to the Assistance to Firefighters Grant. This year the department is looking to work with Orono and Veazie for the purpose of putting some cement storage tanks for water in the outlying districts of the City of Bangor as well as Veazie and Orono. Staff is asking permission to enter into the regional application. The total amount of the grant is $92,800 and there is a 10% match which will be split 3 ways. The City’s match would be $3,093. Tentative locations for the tanks in the City would be Essex and Church Street in Bangor, Forest Avenue and Essex Street th in Orono and Stillwater Ave near American Concrete in Veazie, and the location for the 4 tank has not yet been determined. Responding to Wheeler, Cammack explained the difference between how to put out a structural fire compared to a forest fire. A motion was made and seconded to authorize the Fire Department to apply for the regional application to the Assistance to Firefighters Grant program with the towns of Orono and Veazie. Responding to Gratwick, Cammack said the tanks will be buried deep enough and insulated properly to insure that there is no freezing; therefore, ice and snow will not be an issue. Cammack spoke about the new development with very expensive homes on outer Essex Street that are outside of that hydrant district. This program will help that issue. Blanchette asked about the zoning laws in these areas and wondered if there are regulations about how far away from the woods should the home be built, etc. Cammack said he was not aware of any laws. 9. Atler Lot Coin Box (taken out of sequence) Nicklas spoke about the Atler Lot located across from the Federal Building and was mainly used for visitors to the post office. The lot will now be used primarily for visitors and employees of the various government agencies located in the Federal Building. The lot is currently a one hour parking lot and he assumes that the employees would need this time for much longer than one hour. Nicklas said that the Downtown Parking Advisory Board is recommending that the lot be converted to a coin box lot. This would provide small revenue for the City and would hopefully be more convenient for those visiting and employed by the government building. David Mahoney, District Manager for the Social Security Administration, spoke about the memo prepared by Nicklas regarding the parking lot. He spoke to the Building Manager regarding whether he felt employees were parking in this lot or behind the building and in the garage under the building. To the best of his knowledge, the Building Manager does not think that employees park in this lot. In the Social Security Department, Mahoney said they serve the full range of population; young and old; disabled and physically fit; financially well off and those that have limited income and resources. He feels that a fee for these individuals would impact them. He said it is hard to tell if these visitors stay longer than an hour, but he went back to the machine at the reception desk that visitors punch in to track the purpose of their visit. In a year, the Social Security department sees about 20,000 people. This is an average of over 400 people a week. About 70% of those visitors or 17,000 people transact business that takes less than an hour. He feels that the existing parking structure would fit their needs. Responding to Blanchette, Mahoney said that the Social Security office covers 4 counties. Blanchette believes that the lot needs to be a 2 hour lot because the time it takes to park, check in, see the representative, and get back to the vehicle is much longer than 1 hour. Wheeler asked if the coin box was installed and someone anticipated the visit to be well over an hour and paid for that anticipated time but was out before the hour was up, would that allow another person to take advantage of the time left. Gratwick said yes. Gratwick serves on the Downtown Parking Advisory Board and admits that many have opinions. The goal of the Committee is to make parking user-friendly for visitors and also that business are well served and people can get in and out. The current system is very kind and allows for 3 warnings before tickets are issued. Gastia pointed out that the Post Office has just recently vacated that property and there has not been a lot of time to assess how that is affecting people that need that lot. He thinks there are several things to weigh; is there sufficient parking for employees, and how the on-street parking will affect the parking lot. He is concerned that in the same area there would be two different parking enforcements. One is the on-street parking and the other would be the coin parking in the lot across the street that would require the attendant to check whether it has been paid and if the time has run out. Nicklas added that he thinks some of the parking spaces in front of the building might go away as a result of increased security requirement for the federal building. Responding to Wheeler, Gastia said that the one difference between the Atler Lot and the Columbia Lot is the type of businesses located at each. With the Federal Building, there are people that go in very quickly and out very quickly versus the Columbia Street lot where many are visiting attorneys, and other businesses in several buildings. Due to the complexity, Gratwick suggested that this item come back to the Parking Committee and then to the Council. Blanchette suggest that no action be taken until the Federal Building remodeling takes place and some assessment be taken. Wheeler moved to table this discussion. All three Councilors agreed. 5. BNRC Lease - Shawn Yardley Nicklas said that this is for the renewal of the Health and Community Services lease at 103 Texas Avenue with Bangor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The lease agreement is due to thst expire on June 30, 2010. The new lease that would go into effect on July 1, 2010 would maintain the same rate of $10 per sq. ft. per year. Currently, the Health & Community Services leases a little over 13,000 sq. ft. of that building. He also noted that Municipal Funds pay only 25% of that rental cost. There are various grant funds that Health & Community Services has procured that pay for the other 75%. A motion was made and seconded to approve the renewal of the lease. Responding to Gratwick, Farrar said that this rate was agreeable on both sides and might be a little below market value. He also added that he has spoken to Shawn Yardley on several occasions and Yardley appreciates the opportunity to lease from them because he is able to adjust his space accordingly when the department has some shrinkage and has less needs. On the other hand, when the department is expanding and more space is needed that is an option. 6. Draft Electronic Device Policy - Bob Farrar Farrar said that about a month ago this item appeared on an agenda and staff was asked to prepare a draft City policy dealing with electronic devices primarily at meetings. Staff has been prepared a simple policy of approximately 1 ½ pages and deals with the use of electronic devices at Council meetings and/or Board or Committee meetings. It sets forth a procedure for the use and general courteous guidelines, applicability, how the device would be provided, and an effective date. He reminded the Committee that this issue came up as a result of a couple Councilors who prefer to receive all of their correspondence from the City electronically, which saves the City printing costs. The general thought was that by providing electronic devices for those that would like them, or for those that already have them, it would create some savings to the City in terms of printing costs. Blanchette says that if the Councilor has their own device, there is no way to tell what is on the device or who they are in contact with. She feels that if the Councilors are doing City business then it should be done only on City devices. She does not know if the City is ready for this or if there is money in the budget for this right now. Responding to Wheeler, Nicklas spoke about the memory of these devices and the capability of retrieving older materials and documents. Wheeler has no objection to others that want to use them, but he will not request one. He also believes that a City-owned device is preferable to a personal one. Responding to Gratwick, Farrar said that he believes there is WIFI in the Chambers and it can be turned on or off at particular times. This would block incoming mail, website, etc. If these devices were provided by the City, Nichlas said it would be easy to cripple them in some manner to not allow certain signals. Nicklas referred to the draft and pointed out that under the procedures it states that these devices shall not be used to solicit or access comments on items before the board, etc. Gratwick asked the Committee how it would like to proceed. . Blanchette responded by saying no. She feels that right now she is dealing with a Council that has lost the decorum of serving on the Bangor City Council. She said the Council does not observe protocol when in meetings and sometimes downright rude and discourteous to the public because the Council is not paying attention. Everyone has the right to come up and expect, and almost demand, the attention of the nine elected officials. She has seen the decorum fall down and she is uncomfortable with it. She has a problem not observing Robert’s Rules. It is her understanding that the Chair of the Council is facilitator of meetings and does not stand at the podium to express an opinion or ask questions. The Chair is to relinquish the gavel and appoint one of the committee members to come up and take the gavel. This policy has been breached many times and she seems to be the only one aware of it or concerned about it. She is afraid that if this electronic device policy is passed, it will be like the same enforcement with the trash disposal and the tall grass. It will not be enforced because she is not sure how to enforce it. She says that until the Council can adhere to the policies in place, and bring back some of the decorum, she does not want anything else brought in to distract herself. A motion was made and seconded to indefinitely postpone item #6 which is the Draft Electronic Device Policy. Wheeler thinks that Blanchette has painted this Council with an extremely wide brush. He does not disagree that there have been some lapse of decorum or courtesy on this Council and have seen it on other Councils. He reminded the Committee of how long he has served on this Council and said that at first he was offended with Blanchette’s remarks but has calmed down. He just doesn’t think that it is appropriate to say that “we”, which includes all of the Councilors, have totally lost decorum. Speaking for himself, he doesn’t think she would find one or two cases where he has been called by the chair for not paying attention. He prides himself on paying close attention to citizens and responding to all emails and phone calls within 48 hours. Gratwick will talk about his item with the Council Chair and see if there is any desire from anyone else to discuss this more widely. 7. Parking Fee Increase - Boot Fee Nicklas gave an overview of usage of the boot. If a vehicle has had 3 or more unpaid parking tickets, with other circumstances as well, the current boot fee is $25. The Parking Advisory Committee is recommending an increase to $100. Gastia clarified that the current Ordinance indicates that the vehicle can be booted if they have been issued 3 tickets, one of which is over 30 days old. However, the current practice that has been enforced for the last 20 years is that vehicles are not booted until they have 3 tickets all of which are over 30 days old. If a vehicle can be booted, it can also be towed. Almost in all cases the boot is used. One of the reasons that this is done is because the vehicle might be parked in a way that makes it difficult to tow. It is also more convenient for the person whose vehicle has received the boot to have it removed. This is due to the police department being located within the downtown area and requires the fee to be paid and the boot removed. If the vehicle is towed, the owner will then be required to come to the Police Department to get a release, find a way to the towing facility assuming they are open to retrieve their vehicle. It is also more beneficial for the City to receive the payment rather than giving it to the towing service. The current towing contract for daytime is towing is only $50 and with the new increase they would pay $100 for getting a boot. Nicklas spoke of one theory in making this increase was that there is a certain amount of inequity in someone that might get booted at 9:00 a.m. and then be in that parking spot all day and not receive any other tickets. When a ticket is $15 and $25 for a boot for the whole day, there lacks enough incentive to move the car. The other theory is the cost and time that it takes a police officer to put the boot on the vehicle. Responding to Nicklas, Gastia said $25 is on the low side of what it costs the department in administrative costs. He doesn’t think it would ever approach $100. Gastia spoke of the maintenance on these boots and stated there are only 2 operating boots at this time. If the department increased the number of boots put on vehicles, more boots would need to be purchased. There was a third boot, but it was damaged by someone who attempted to drive off with it and the department saw no reimbursement. Responding to Wheeler, Gastia said that the boot is sometimes applied on vehicles outside the downtown area. However, that rarely happens because the officers do not receive the boot list on a regular basis and sometime never. The downtown parking aides have the boot list because they are in contact with those vehicles every day. He finds that the people that are intentionally trying to avoid the police know they are on the boot list and will park in other places on the outskirts of downtown. Gastia said that on the current boot list that goes to the parking aids there are 56 vehicles that have at least 3 parking tickets that have doubled. This means they are over 30 days old. There are just fewer than 20 additional vehicles on that list that are by ordinance in violation and could be booted. He then spoke of another list that goes to collections. Some of those vehicles if not all of them would be eligible for the boot list by Ordinance. There are nearly 1200 vehicles on the collections list and 56 on the current boot list. Wheeler feels the increase is absolutely outrageous considering three tickets which have doubled in fines which is $90 and the cost of the boot if it goes to $50 will bring the cost of releasing the vehicle to up to $140. He will not support an increase from $25 to $100 but will support an increase of $25 to $50. Blanchette said that she would not support this increase. She said that she has heard some of the Council state at times that they appear to be unfriendly to businesses in the downtown area. She suspects that some of these business owners are on the boot list because they drive their cars here every day. Any one of these businesses can move if they choose to relocate to an area outside the downtown area. She thinks approving this increase would be sending a negative message to people that are doing the City a service by being in the downtown area. The parking fees and waivers have gone up and she thinks that will send the message. A motion was made and seconded to postpone this item indefinitely. Gratwick thinks that the policy works towards the Police Department being adequately remunerated for the work that they do and the whole issue of scaffolds drives him crazy. He thinks that if people are legitimate, conscious and pay attention to the parking tickets, it will encourage better behavior. He also feels that this fee should cover the boots and the people that put them on. 8. Parking Fee Increase - Repeat Offender Fee Nicklas said that this is to increase fees for repeat parking offenders. The Downtown Parking Advisory Committee recommends holding off on implementing any sort of repeat offender fee for a least a few months as the overtime parking fee was just changed. This change was from $12 to $15 and they thought it would be a good idea to have data on what the effect of that $15 rate is before another fee is added. The recommendation was to wait 3 to 6 months in order to collect the data. Responding to Blanchette, Farrar said it is possible to postpone action for up to 6 months if that is what the Council decides. He would suggest tabling the item and when the appropriate time has passed the item will come back to the agenda. A motion was made and seconded for this item to be tabled for action for a later date. Meeting adjourned at 6:45 p.m.