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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-09-15 Government Operations Committee Minutes Government Operations Committee September 15, 2009 Minutes Councilor Attendance: Wheeler, Nealley, D’Errico, Blanchette, Gratwick, Bronson, Palmer Staff Attendance: Farrar, Cyr, Courtney, Douglas, Gastia Others: Rocky Marsh, TW Cable, Charlie Birkel Committee chair Wheeler opened the meeting at 5:00 p.m. Items were taken out of sequence. 2. Discussion of Recent Incidents in the Community – Police Chief Ron Gastia Wheeler said that the actions of the Police Department have been beyond exemplary. Gastia gave the committee an overview and stated that crime has gone up in the City of Bangor but is not indicative of the fact that Bangor is not a safe place to live, work or visit. Crime is generally going up across the country. Based on the past month or two, the City has seen an increase in property crime. He stated that property crime, in a poor economy, is expected to go up due to people being desperate, low on cash, afraid of losing their homes, etc. Even the drug users and dealers are participating in more property crime due to being low on funds. He is concerned about the wave of violent crimes going up in the City. When this type of crime goes up, the City tries to look at the reason for this and does not think that it is economy related. These crimes seem to be an anomaly, and while not necessarily a trend, Gastia feels that the City may be seeing a few more violent crimes per year than in the past. Gastia highlighted what has been happening in the City to include 6 assaults with knives in the past month. 5 of those assaults were within 11 days of each other. One of those resulted in a homicide. The motive behind those crimes appear to be one domestic issue, one paternity issue, one money related, and 3 are still under investigation. Staff does not remember the last time there have been so many stabbings in such a short period of time. Gastia said that before Portland and Lewiston had the large gang problems that they currently have, they began to see increases in violent crime. The City has been virtually immune to gangs over the years. The City has had some pseudo gangs, or individuals that want to be gangs, but nothing organized that constitutes a gang such as what Portland is seeing. If these anomalies are more of a trend, the City has been warned by the experts that the City may be seeing the beginnings of this trend of gang activities in the future. We have seen some individuals within the City that have been responsible for some violent crime in the past year or two who come from away and have been associated with gangs in the past. The Police Department has done a good job curtailing such activity once these individuals are identified. About a month ago Gastia invited a liaison from the U.S. Attorney’s office to speak to staff about what should be concerns regarding gang activity and possible trends in the future. Staff was told it is enviable and eventually Bangor will be subject to the same type of activity as Portland, Lewiston, and other southern areas. Portland is seeing some drive by shootings; and Gastia says he is concerned that Bangor might see this type of crime in the future. He believes that the key is to prepare staff now for this instead of waiting. Gastia stated that in all the stabbing instances the victim knew the attacker and these were not random acts of violence by strangers. He feels that it is important to let the public know that it is as safe today as it was a year ago to walk out on the streets of Bangor without fear of being attacked by a knife. Gastia spoke of robberies. He said not all robberies are property crimes. In this state, in order for something to be a robbery, it has to involve some sort of force or threat of force on someone else. If there isn’t that threat or force, it is a simple theft and not a robbery. In 2009, year to date, the City of Bangor has had 27 robberies. In 2008 in the same period of time, the st City had 14. Since June 1 of this year, the City has had 15 robberies. In 2008 during the same period of time the City had 5. These robberies include strong arm robberies, where someone comes up and steals a purse, presents a weapon in order to demand money, for example. He reminded the Committee of the 2 bank robberies that took place this year. He stated that Bangor has a higher residential population and a daytime population of over 100,000 people and, therefore, have more crime than other surrounding communities. Gastia reiterated that the reasons for the increase in crime are a result of the economy and the beginnings of gang related activities, but he feels that it goes further than that. He says that another reason is the limited resources for individuals with mental illness that require a lot of the department’s time. Services for the people with mental illness have decreased significantly mostly due to funding problems. The Police Department is always the last resort in handling these types of situations. Now the department has trained officers to handle these types of problems, but these take a huge amount of the officer’s time. Gastia said substance abuse is another reason for the crime. He stated that there are 3 methadone clinics in Bangor. He feels that those clinics have drawn cliental that have committed crimes. The Police Department has seen, on a regular basis, vehicles being stopped for erratic driving. They are either going to or coming from the methadone clinics. He is not saying that he doesn’t think there is a need for the methadone clinic, but it does mean that there is an attraction to these clinics of a criminal element. Another reason for the crime is the increase of homeless people. The homeless create a great deal of work for the Police Department. The homeless commit property crimes and officers are constantly responding to complaints having something to do with homeless people. Acadia Recovery Center used to take everyone at night regardless of whether or not they were filled to capacity but recently have stopped doing that and have a limit as to how many they will take per night. There is no other shelter for them so the Police Department sees them all night and they often drift into the Police Department. Gastia has a lot of concern regarding the crime to include the number of resources the Police Department has to handle the current call volume. Gastia learned today that in 2000 when Chief Winslow did his last program budget, it was reported that officers responded to approximately 22,000 calls. In the previous year, the Police Department responded to just over 32,000 calls. That is a 10 thousand call increase in 9 years. Because of the makeup of the Police Department, the department is able to supply 5 police officers during the daytime hours to the streets to patrol the 100,000 + people in Bangor. That is the same level that the Police Department had for many years. On top of that, there is increased traffic and parking enforcement. Gastia said he knows what his priorities are and the priority of his supervisory staff, but does not know what the priorities of the Council are. He believes that there will need to be some choices made in the future, particularly if the call volume continues to increase. He stated that even with the possible 4 new officer positions, it will not alleviate all of the resource issues. Other concerns Gastia has is the transition from the assaults with knives to other weapons. The department will be keeping a watchful eye on any type of gang activity that appears to be moving into the City. Gastia also said he is concerned about the number of registered sex offenders in the City. About a week in a half ago, there was a news article about a major city in California that has about 100,000 residents. They were outraged because there were about 100 registered sex offenders within their city. Bangor has 32,000 residents and over 230 registered sex offenders. Bangor has the largest number of registered sex offenders of any community including Portland in the State. Bangor has a very large homeless community, which is larger than most communities in the state. These are reason for most of the crimes here in Bangor. He spoke of one solution to these issues, which is to educate the public on how to avoid becoming a victim. The City needs to improve in this area. An increase in the number of officers on the streets will be needed in order to manage the case load and to provide a presence for a deterrent. The federal government has also realized this and offered money to increase the number of officers on the streets. Gastia also believes that the Special Enforcement Team (SET) should go back on the street. This team has been inactive for about 2 years. He feels that was a very valuable tool that the City had. The reason that is not available right now is because the department does not have the resources due to the 5 officers that are needed on the streets. The department has shifted the resources within the department and there have been some positions that were eliminated and other positions that have been moved around in order to keep those 5 officers on the street. Gastia stated that the department is only down 2 positions right now and there are some officers that are ready to come out of training. He is hoping to shift some of the resources so that he can bring the SET team back to the streets. He feels that this team helped to bring down violent crime instances and also reduced noise in the neighborhoods, apartment house parties, and red light violations. For other solutions, Gastia spoke of the need to continue to support the efforts of the drug flow, which means supporting the MDEA and their office. He also talked of the need to seek and support better ways to manage people with mental illness. It will reduce the drain on the resources that the Police Department currently uses to address these issues. Looking at the registered sex offenders and how do deal with what the City has and what the increase is likely to be, would require officers or finding a way to decrease the number of registered sex offenders in the City. School Resource Officers are a valuable resource for the department. A plan is needed to educate the public and increase community police efforts. He believes this is very important and said that current efforts are not enough. He feels that a way to decrease the number of criminals that move into Bangor is needed. Gastia says that people move to Bangor because of the services Bangor offers that are appealing to them not because Bangor is an appealing place to commit crimes. There are 6 beats in Bangor and on any given day one of these beats are unfilled. East of the Kenduskeag Stream only has 2 beats. The mall area is still being handled the same way since Gastia came on 25 years ago even though that area has increased significantly. This forces him to use 1 officer in the mall area or the department would be unstaffed 2 beats. Main Street needs to be looked at. The waterfront is growing and Hollywood Slots is also there. He believes that pedestrian and traffic will increase in that area and activity on the waterfront will continue to increase and there are not enough resources to have extra officers in that area. Nealley asked for clarification on the 5 patrol officers per day on the 6 beats in Bangor and asked if this is times 3 for the 8 hour shifts. He is then wondering if this means there are others to help with the 7 days because he doesn’t believe the City is paying for overtime. Gastia responded by stating that each patrol officer works four 10 hour shifts. The patrol staff consists of 79 sworn officers and currently 37 active sworn patrol officers to do motorized patrol. One is a desk officer, and there are three shifts; (6am- 4pm), (4pm-2am) and (8pm-6am). This gives a double crew from 8pm to 2 am because the City is most volatile and more of the safety issue for the officers. This breaks down to 12 officers for the day crew, 12 officers for the pm crew and 12 for the am crew, which are 36 officers. The balance of those sworn officers is spread out to other positions such as detectives, services, and the supervisory staff. Of the 36 patrol officers, that number would need to be divided by 2 due to the number of days in the week. Because officers are working 4 ten hour days, the week needs to be split in half. This brings it to 6 officers that would be out actively on the streets but it is necessary to account for vacations, sick leave, etc. Typically, Gastia has five officers on the day crew from 6 am until 4 pm, which is the time when the City has the highest volume of people within the City. From 4 pm until 8 pm, there are again roughly 5 or 6 officers that are on that crew. At 8pm there is double coverage. Depending on what is happing there might only be 9 or 10 officers. There are not the 12 officers that would be expected because the department tries to give some time off, sick leave and vacations. At 2 am there is minimal staffing of usually 4, but Gastia feels it should be at least 5. Responding to Nealley’s question regarding the officers nearing retirement and if that would free up money for more officers, Gastia said that he looked at what would happen over the next 4 years due to the COPS grant. He stated that over the next 3 ½ years there are 26 people who could retire. Some of those people will not retire due to the economy. Many have already indicated their retirement plans and these positions are high supervisory positions. The department is very young and has a number of people who have less than 5 years experience. Gastia said he felt that the retirements will monetarily amount to a backfill of no more than 1 ¼ to 1 1/3 officers. Responding to Gratwick, Gastia said his priorities are homicides, child abuse cases, violent crime, sexual abuse, etc. He also said that he has had conversations with Shawn Yardley and Chief Cammack as well as organizations within the City that are advocates for the homeless. He believes that the Council can help with this, but does not have a solution at this point. He would like to see the doors open for future conversations with Council to identify issues. Bronson said that very little of what Chief Gastia presented to the Committee surprises him and he believes this is all very accurate. He is interested to find out what Gastia thinks can be done in a proactive way to decrease crime. Bronson feels that if city departments met with the Council on a periodic basis, the communication breakdown would not take place as it does now. He stated that he supports school resources and feels they are absolute necessary. Responding to Bronson, Gastia said that minimum staffing is not built into union contracts but is the right of management to assign. Going below these minimum staffing limits would probably cause the unions to complain that it is unsafe and he would concur. Bronson asked if Bangor can afford anyone in the DEA pool and if the City eligible to receive some of the monies back out of that. Responding, Gastia said that the City currently has 2 people in Maine Drug Enforcement and the City reaps the benefits of the forfeitures. If Bangor officers participate in a crime scene where there is a seizure made, Bangor’s Police Department gets a percentage of that. Gastia spoke about the limitations of what the money can be used for. Wheeler spoke of the possibility to the introduction of high gang related activity in Bangor. Responding, Gastia said that there are no Bangor officers that are currently trained in gang graffiti because the department has never had a reason to be trained. As the City moves forward, one of the ways to be proactive is training for the things that are anticipated and this would be one of them. 1. Preliminary Discussion – COPS Grant Award, Police Department Gastia stated that he would need to go back and re examine the deadline for the City’s decision to make sure the City does not miss this opportunity. The paperwork states that the decision must be made within 90 days and he is not exactly sure if this October th 28 date is accurate. He gave an overview of the 4 positions that the State has granted the City. These positions will allow him to put the (SET) team back into operation and as well as an additional School Resource Officer. The City currently has one School Resource Officer and Gastia would like at least one more. He would like to have a Computer Crimes Investigator because computer crimes have exploded and the City does not have the necessary resources to address these crimes. A Violent Crime Investigator is also on the list along with a Community Relations Officer. This is different than a Public Information Officer, which is a part time position the department currently has to keep the public, mostly through the media, informed of what is going on in the City. A Community Relations Officer would be a full time position to address community policing issues, educate the public, improve the relationship with the public and the Police Department, and get the public involved so that the department can be more proactive in terms of preventing crimes. Gastia said he is looking at his priorities and wanting to look at the priorities of the Council. He stated that if the City wants to fill those positions right now and does not accept these 4 COPS positions a reduction in staffing and patrol would be necessary. He does not think he has the manpower to do that. By getting these positions, it will allow him to leave the patrol staff alone and still fill these positions. Gastia said it is important to look at the supervisory positions that will become available next year due to retirements. He stated that if he loses 5 next year, he will be at a great deficit. He will need to have those seasoned officers as seasoned as possible in the ranks so that the City does not have a totally green force. He thinks it is an advantage to take the next 3 years of funding to help the department prepare for the retirements. He pointed out that this would require the City, in year 4, to maintain 83 positions. Nealley made a recommendation to full Council that the Committee authorize the Police Department to move forward on the COPS program but retracted his recommendation due to the upcoming Council Workshop meeting to review the Police Department’s budget. After hearing Gastia’s presentation, Gratwick agrees this is priority for keeping a proper sense of place. Gastia clarified that when a police officer is hired they have to be trained at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy to be a police officer. The officers would be trained and go on the street and the more seasoned officer would be promoted into one of these positions. 4. Discussion of Problems with Government Access Channel and Quality of Televised Meetings Cyr updated the Committee with new information and indicated that last week staff placed a call to Brookside Technology and Time Warner. Both have been very responsive to staff calls. Time Warner changed out the modulators on Friday. The crossing of two wires was a mistake and resulted in the volume on with no picture on one channel and the picture without sound on the other channel. This has been corrected and should not be an issue in the future. Residents of Bangor have reported trouble seeing or hearing both channels. Time Warner has been more than receptive and has gone out to the individual’s homes. There have been spot issues in neighborhoods and some issues are generated with the equipment that is used here in City Hall. The City’s biggest issue with equipment is the video quality. One camera tends to lighten up and washes out the picture and is being contributed to the color of the room in the Council Chambers. Earlier today, Time Warner offered that if staff provides a list of all the equipment that is used, they would have some of their engineers look at it to help diagnosis potential issues. Due to the number of issues that are contributing to the problems, Time Warner will not be able to say that one specific thing should be done and the problem will be solved. Ken from Brookside Technologies says another contributing factor with these issues is the age of the City’s equipment. Cyr pointed out that this equipment was brought to the City about 8 years ago. Two of the 4 cameras have been replaced within the last 8 years. One of the cameras is currently out for repair and another camera is close to going. Staff looked at the video from last night and it was recorded just fine. When the video is looked at, it is obvious that the shots from camera 1 are a better quality than camera 2. Camera 2 tends to wash out the images. Another issue is the knox switcher, which is a piece of equipment that cannot be repaired or replaced. If it breaks than the Government Channel goes as well until the City buys new equipment. Ken has given the City information on a Nexise type system that is used in other communities for this type of access. He has also given some general feedback to staff with these issues, such as painting the walls, hanging light blocking shades, and replacing the light bulbs. Marsh stated that he is here for support, and it is important to Time Warner that the Government Channel works as well as it possibly can. He said that the channel has a lot of draw and his customers like to see the channel. The Time Warner team is available day and night and they will send someone here if needed. Marsh stated that they would be glad to help out. Time Warner would be glad to look at the equipment the City has as far as quality and even some pricing on new equipment. Time Warner would not be able to get equipment for the City but might be able to lead the City down the right path. Mike Leonard, their studio Manager/Engineer who takes care of Time Warner’s internal channel that goes across the state, is more than willing to meet with the City to help increase the overall performance or work with what is here within the City’s budget. Responding to Blanchette, Cyr said that a light blue color would work to help reduce the washed out look and said that staff has no expertise in this field and would like to look into the suggestions made by Ken. He has indicated painting the Chambers and changing the drapes could potentially correct the washing out by up to 50%. Responding to Palmer’s complaint that people sitting at home watching these broadcasts cannot tell who is speaking due to the quality of the cameras, Blanchette suggested that Councilors should stand up to address the speaker and the speaker should be always addressing the Chair. Bronson said, although he is not an expert on television, he understands that florescent lighting is the worst type of lighting for cameras. He believes that it is the City’s problem and responsibility to produce a quality product in order to go out over the system and be successful. He asked Marsh if the City produces a relatively good product than why are some individuals not able to receive that product. Responding to Bronson, Marsh said the product that is being developed at City Hall is a local, self contained video/audio product. Time Warner is not doing any reconditioning of that product. It goes from here, downstairs and then to an optical link and goes a few miles to their head end site and goes right back out over their system. What City staff hands him, is what he hands off to the system. Marsh said that it is possible for the error to be Time Warner’s, but he feels that with as many people that use Time Warner as a service, there are bound to be some that experience problems not receiving the channel correctly. Other reasons could be that Time Warner customers are adding cable or additional TVs and doing the wiring themselves, which could cause lost channels. Responding to Bronson, Marsh said that channels 2 through 22 are more susceptible to interference due to other frequencies. Most of the equipment that can be purchased by Radio Shack or Time Warner is of a high grade and the communication industry has done a good job of upgrading material quality. Unfortunately, with the digital vs. RF, Time Warner is still delivering an RF product to a lot of customers that do not have one of the converter boxes. Those RF signals are more apt to be interfered with. As the transition to an all digital market, which is just around the corner, this will not be a problem. Wheeler requested that Deb Cyr stay with this project until the issues have been resolved. Bronson asked if by the next Government Operations Meeting Cyr would come back with quotes of how much it would cost to upgrade the equipment or any other information to include an investigation into going digital. Cyr agreed to come back to another meeting with more information but said she thought she would need more time to obtain quotes and gather enough information. She felt that a month th would be more realistic, on or about the October 13 meeting. Charlie Birkel spoke about the franchise agreement between the City and Time Warner and thanked the Council for looking out for the citizens. 3. Designation of Voting Delegate and Alternate for the Maine Municipal Association Annual Business Meeting. This was placed last on the agenda. Wheeler asked the Committee to designate one voting representative and an alternate to participate in voting at the meeting. It was moved and seconded to have the City Manager and the Assistant City Manager as the delegate and the alternate delegate to the annual MMA Business Meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at the Augusta Civic Center in conjunction with the Annual MMA Fall Convention. Meeting adjourned @ 6:50 p.m.