HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-07-28 Government Operations Committee Minutes Government Operations Committee July 28, 2009 Minutes Councilor Attendance: Wheeler, D’Errico, Blanchette, Gratwick, Nealley, Palmer Staff Attendance: Barrett, Farrar, Heitmann, Cammack, Gastia Others: Patricia Brace, Steve Russell, Bill Collins, Jim Ryan, Eric Russell, BDN 1. Discussion – Proposed Sister City Relationship This item concerns a letter that Chair Palmer wrote to the City of Ulanhot in the Peoples Republic of China proposing a sister city relationship. Palmer said that he has been thinking about this idea for a while after visiting the City’s Sister City in Saint John New Brunswick, which has a relationship with a community in China. Bangor has a strong and progressive Chinese School where there are a number of people in that program both Asian Americans, Asians and non-Asians. When Palmer approached the City Manager about this idea, Barrett’s concern was the expense. After some time thinking about it, Palmer found a way to pursue it without much of an expense. He stated that this letter is just the beginning of a process. He referred to the last page, read the last sentence, and said that the letter nd was a letter of interest and not of intent. The letter went out on July 22 at about 3:40 p.m. The head of the Chinese School was headed to that community as part of a summer program for her students. He felt that it would take months for a response, if any response was given. The plane to China with the letter left on Saturday and on Monday the Chinese version went out. Palmer has also spoken to the Superintendent of Schools, who is very excited about the possibility I.T.V and of exchange of art and educational concepts. He asked for the support of other Councilors as this moves forward. Nealley believes that it is a good idea to have Sister Cities; however, he did not know that the letter was already on its way. He thought that there would be discussions prior to the selection of this City and a discussion on the process. He would like to see these discussions happen in the future. Blanchette states that she has no problem with Sister Cities but she feels that there needs to be a point. She feels that just sending letters back and forth could be a waste of time using Saint John New Brunswick as an example. Council and Staff go there and citizens of Saint John come here. In her opinion the objection from this Council is that there was not feedback from others before the letter to the Republic of China went out. She stated that as far as the emails that went to Council on this subject, she does not respond to emails in writing. She doesn’t feel that there is money to establish a relationship and feels that going over there for an introduction with a gift from the City is needed. She is not happy that a letter was mailed out with her name on it when she had no input. Palmer stated in response to Blanchette that he is not looking for just a paper exchange. When he asked the Bangor Chinese School for a suggestion of which community to approach, they came back with Ulanhot. He pointed out that he did not even spend money on postage for this letter and feels that the internet could be a great source of exchange. This is not to preclude a future visit with a future Council in a better economy. Gratwick said he is very much in favor of this and likes the idea of Sister Cities. He believes that there is increasing internationalization of the world and he commended Councilor Palmer for seizing that moment. A motion to refer this to full Council with a recommendation of support from this committee was made and seconded. Gratwick – yes, D’Errico – yes, Nealley – yes, Blanchette – no, Wheeler – no. The motion passed 3-2 2. Request by A Family for ME. for Use of City Hall Lobby for a Static Educational Display Patricia Brace, the Recruitment Specialist for “A family for ME”, stated that they are a non-profit organization with a goal to increase awareness for the need of more foster and adoptive families in the State of Maine. They are currently in the process of doing a downtown Heart Gallery display in Bangor, which are photographs of children who are available for adoption in Maine. This program has been very successful. There are currently 2,000 children in Maine and 160 who are available for adoption. The Heart Gallery Campaign has been going on since 2003, has photographed 448 children, and 275 have been successfully placed in adoptive families. Brace is asking to display a few of these photographs in the lobby of City Hall coinciding with the Downtown Heart Gallery display for the month of August. In response to Wheeler, Brace stated that this organization is specifically contracted by the Department of Health and Human Services and is the recruitment entity for the State of Maine. She stated that they are not actually performing the adoptions, but advocating the need. She believes that the 275 children she referred to earlier is the total number of children since the demise of the organization. Palmer commented on the fact that there are a number of folks out there that are adoptive parents and he feels that this is a tremendous program that is being offered. He feels that this is a fair request and if he could vote he would be in support of it. Responding to Gratwick, Farrar stated that he provided the Committee with the City Hall Use Policy and, with the Committee’s approval, this was a justified use. Responding to Gratwick, Brace stated that the group is located on Water Street in Gardner. It is also International Adoption Services Center and the contract is for the entire State of Maine. She said that the goal of the nice glossy photos are to peak interest and inspire people to do more research. Nealley moved to approve the hangings of the pictures in City Hall for the month of August. Palmer suggested that this be extended through the month of September when Property taxes are due and there would be more traffic in City Hall during that time. A motion was made and seconded to have the option to allow an additional month to the original motion. The item passed without objection. 3. Acceptance of a Donation of up to $1,000 from Eastern Maine Medical Center for the Purchase of a Taser to be Located at EMMC for Use by Bangor Police Department Gastia stated that the Police Department has less than 10 Tasers, which are an electronic control weapons. At the beginning of each shift, the officers will sign a Taser out and then sign them back in at the end of their shift. Non City government entities hire police officers for various reasons, such as Eastern Maine Medical Center. EMMC’s Emergency Room uses police officers from 8:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. 7 days a week because of an increase in potential violence in the Emergency Room. There have been instances recently that have staff members at the hospital have questioned why the Police Officers do not have Tasers. Other than not having enough Tasers to begin with, Gastia pointed out that Police Officers often go to these jobs directly from home and are not able to sign one out from the Department. The Officers are limited in the type of weapons that can be used in the ER such as using mace, or physical contact. The Hospital sees the need for having a Taser in the Emergency Room and contacted Gastia to ask how they would purchase one through the Bangor Police Department. Gastia feels that it is not appropriate for the medical center to purchase a Taser. He does not feel that staff at the hospital should own a Taser but that the Police Department should have one for this job. His response to EMMC was for them to write a letter requesting the opportunity to provide a grant to the Police Department. If the grant is accepted, the Police Department would use those funds to purchase a Taser which would be owned and used by the Police Department at the discretion of the department but would be left at the Medical Center. The Taser would be locked up and only used by Officers. Gastia has already received a letter from Steve Russell, head of security at the EMMC Hospital. Gastia sees this as a great opportunity for a continued partnership with EMMC and the Police Department. Nealley said that this is a win/win situation and a motion was made and seconded to recommend that Council accept this grant for the purchase of this Taser. Responding to Palmer, Gastia noted that most Officers on a daily basis have Tasers with them. Although the Department has a limited supply, there are enough for those Officers on duty on the street. The item will be referred with a positive recommendation. 4. Preliminary Update Regarding Penobscot Regional Communications Center Assuming Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) Functions from Bangor Police Department Gastia referred to the memo that was distributed regarding the Bangor PSAP and the possible consolidation with the County. He stated that a few months ago the City began looking at the Council’s request at whether or not Bangor Dispatch Center should be turned over to the County. There is a lot of concern about having the City’s entire dispatch center sent to the County. An alternative was laid out which was to send the Public Safety answering point portion of the City’s dispatch (PSAP) to the County. He looked into the pros and cons of this proposal and found that transferring the PSAP portion to the County has relatively little impact on the City of Bangor. Citizens would not know that it was not Bangor they were speaking to when they called 911. When a call is made to 911 it goes to the County where it is fielded by one of its telecommunicators. They would at that time determine if the call had to be Emergency Medical dispatched, in which case they would handle that portion of the call and notify the Bangor Police Dispatch. At that point the unit that needed to respond would be notified, such as Police, Fire or EMS. If it did not need Emergency Medical dispatched, then the call would immediately be transferred to the Bangor Dispatch Center at which point the call would be handled just as it is now. The only difference is that the initial 911 call would go to the County Dispatch. Nothing else would change with the Bangor Police Dispatch operationally. Gastia looked into the impact on personnel and has determined that the City would still need to maintain 10 dispatchers. The City would not be able to give up any positions because Bangor receives approximately 22,000 calls per year and those calls will continue to be received. Every call will still be transferred to Bangor Police Department. The benefit of using the County is that the full time dispatch supervisor’s position that is currently needed for the City could be delayed. He feels that eventually this position would need to be filled; however, with the new mandate from the State on PSAP, the work load increases for supervisors. In the future as the calls continue to increase, he believes that the City will need a supervisor. That results in a cost saving of approximately $62,000 per year. Gastia stated that the County has indicated that they would need between 3 and 4 new employees to meet the needs of Bangor’s 911 calls. The preliminary cost of that would be an increase in the County tax by $42,500 and $56,760. There might be additional costs as this moves forward due to the discussion of the transfer of this function with the Union at the Police Department. The need for training in the Bangor Police Department would decrease because the need for the dispatchers to be trained for Emergency Medical dispatching calls. This transfer would eliminate the need for the City’s 911 lines because they would all go to the County, which is less than $1,000 a year. The City would incur the cost of an additional line to transfer calls from the County to the Bangor Dispatch Center. He believes that eliminating the 911 calls would save time and allow the dispatcher more time to handle other issues. Another benefit of this transfer would be the liability. Often times, because of miscommunication or dissatisfaction of the actions of a dispatcher the City is faced with litigation. The City would not eliminate all liability, but would eliminate the Emergency Medical dispatching portion of it. The implementation time line would depend on when the County could install the appropriate equipment, hire the personnel and find the space. Gastia believes that it would be no sooner than 6 months after a decision has been made. Overall, Gastia says he does not believe that this transfer will save the City a substantial amount but will allow the Police Department more time to pursue revenue generating functions and save some liability. Cammack stated that the QAQI, which is an EMS function, actually comes out of the Fire Department. Many are struggling with this and his response is to go back to the Legislature and expose this as an unfunded mandate because it is going to require a lot of human resources to do this. Jim Ryan spoke of the relationship between himself, Chief Gastia and Cammack. They have worked in the past on saving money and pointed out that there is a major difference between dispatching and Public Safety Answering Points. Public Safety Answering Points are the answering of a 911 call and EM dispatching that call if required. He promised that the County would do the best job possible for Bangor. Gratwick is in favor of working closely with the County and feels that although there will be changes in the future, this will give the City and the County many more options. Barrett pointed out that the reference to the additional cost to the County Tax is for Bangor only. The City is in this unusual circumstance that for a number of years now Bangor has been subsidizing the operation of the County because the services were not being used but the City has been paying for them. If this goes forward, the other communities in the County would pick up about 3 times that amount between them. The City can justify this given that the City has been helping to subsidize this service for last 10 years. Barrett stated that this allows the City to continue to utilize the dispatchers in the day to day operations in management on the field forces. Barrett feels like Gastia is more comfortable with this due to not losing the ability to manage the field forces and is not required to upgrade that level to a Sergeant or Lieutenant level with a considerably higher cost. Nealley made a motion to send this to full Council without recommendation. Barrett said that the hope was to get this introduced, give people an opportunity to ask questions, do some follow up on a few issues, and then if the Committee was interested this could go to a Council Workshop. This would allow the full Council to review it and provide direction on how to proceed. In response to Blanchette, Collins said that the County has already begun working on the County’s budget but the Commissioners have not assigned the official dates, but it will take place sometime in November. By October there is a hope that the numbers are finalized. Collins said that if the City made a decision by September he would be very happy. Nealley withdrew his early motion and made a motion that this be referred to a full Council Workshop with a date recommended by the City Manager. Barrett suggested having a workshop on Wednesday following a Council Meeting, which normally does not have a regularly scheduled committee meeting. thth The 12 or the 26 of August was suggested after checking with both Chiefs and the Electronic Calendar. Gratwick asked the Chief to provide more data in regards to the income that would result in answering burglar alarms. Gastia agreed, but informed the Committee that this is an area in which he knows little about and would have to do some research that might take some time. Wheeler asked th for a motion to refer this to a full Council workshop on August 26 and Nealley made the motion. Blanchette stated that she would like to have more information regarding what benefit this action has on the tax payers. Wheeler pointed out due to the absence of an objection this will be referred to the th Council Workshop on August 26. 5. Annual Election Ballot for Maine Municipal Association Vice President and Executive Committee Members Farrar began by giving background on the process of voting for the MMA Vice-President and 3 Officers to the Board of Directors. The slate that has been put forward this year is for Mark Green, currently the Sanford Town Manager to become the Vice President. For the Executive Committee the nominees are Matthew Arnett, Hampden Town Councilor, Joyce Maker, Calais City Councilor, and Peter Nielsen, Oakland Town Manager. He also noted that in addition to Mr. Green being nominated by the nominating committee, Mr. Stephan Bunker is also running for VP. This means that it is a contested race for an incoming position of Vice President. He noted that of the 3 Directors who terms are expiring, Peter Neilsen who is the Oakland Town Manager is being nominated for reappointment. The term for Clint Duschene, who is the current Town Manager of Hermon, and Mr. Bunker are expiring. In that past this has gone to full Council. Barrett noted that he does not know Mr. Bunker but does know Mr. Green. He referred the Committee to the letter in the packet from Mr. Green. Barrett stated that Mr. Green has had experience in larger communities. He worked for Portland and Sanford both of which are service center communities. He noted that Farmington, although smaller, is also a service center community and is where Mr. Bunker’s experience comes from. Responding to Blanchette, Farrar said that Mr. Bunker did not express any reason why he was running. Mr. Bunker did not submit a letter. The process for him to be nominated by petition is that he would need to obtain the majority support of 5 other communities elected officials. Nealley said that he feels that the City Manager and the Assistant City Manager have a better understanding through their networking to have other information and/or background as to who the better candidate would be. Nealley suggested sending it to full Council without recommendation unless the City Manager or Assistant City Manager had a suggestion. Barrett agreed and pointed out that it would allow time to check out these candidates, their backgrounds and possibly get a statement from Mr. Bunker. Without objection this was referred to the full Council without recommendation. Meeting to adjourn at 6:35 p.m.