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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-09-29 Government Operations Committee Minutes Government Operations Committee September 29, 2009 Minutes Councilor Attendance: Wheeler, Nealley, Hawes, Blanchette, Gratwick, D’Errico, Palmer Staff Attendance: Barrett, Farrar, Cyr, Yardley, Ring, Wardwell, Gastia, Hughes Others: Charlie Birkel, 3 Recycling Committee Members, BDN Committee Chair Wheeler opened the meeting at 5:00 p.m. 1. Continuation of COPS Grant Acceptance Discussion Barrett gave some background. The application for the positions was approved in April while the City was in the middle of the budget process. Under this program the City has been awarded 4 positions of the 6 that was requested. The funding runs for 3 years and at the end of the three years the City is required to pick up the funding for at least one additional year and will cost the City approximately $320,000.00. Barrett said that assuming next year’s budget is a difficult budget it would be difficult to eliminate any positions in the Police Department without losing all of the funding for these positions and potentially being unable to apply for additional COPS grants for a period of a year. There are conditions under which it is possible to get a waiver to that provision. For example, if the City accepts the funding, goes forward with this process, the Excise Tax Referendum passes in November, and the City has to make cuts in the budget, and it can be shown to the Department of Justice that those cuts have been made throughout the organization and not just focused on the Police Department, and the City makes a case to them that the cuts were required by a change in our financial circumstances, they can, in effect, change the grant to a supplemental grant to allow the City to keep officers that might otherwise be laid off. Chief Gastia stated that the decision needs to be made by the end of October to accept the grant. He believes that the City does need to add additional forces to the Police Department. If the City does not do it now, it will need to happen later because the department stands to lose approximately 26 people to retirements in the next 4 years. There have been some questions by Council members in the past regarding those numbers as to how many individuals would really go, and Gastia is confident that about half of those will retire at that time. Most of those people have seniority in higher positions with a great deal of experience. The current force is a relatively young department and will be a much younger department in the near future. It takes approximately one year to fill a position due to the hiring process and the availability of the academy for training purposes. Once the academy is available, it takes 3 to 4 months of training. This will be difficult on the department and will require a lot of money in overtime if the City does not take advantage of putting officers on the streets when the opportunity is there. His recommendation is to accept all four and, although he realizes there are tough times ahead, the department will need extra staffing as the City moves into the future. Responding to Gratwick, Barrett said that if the Excise Tax Referendum passes in November and cuts $1.8M out of the City’s budget it could go into effect as early as January. If that happens, the City would have to find $900,000.00 in savings in the City’s expenditure budget over the final 6 months of the year which would translate to 20 or 30 positions City wide. There is no way those kinds of reductions would be made without affecting every department including the Public Safety Departments and Public Works. Under that scenario, the City could go back to the Federal Government and seek a change in the program to have them recognize that the financial situation has changed and to allow the City to use the funding to keep positions that would otherwise need to be laid off. He pointed out that he is unsure if they would allow the City to do that. If the referendum passes on the Excise Tax, Gratwick believes this is going to be very hard times for a City Department that is already stressed. He thinks this is the appropriate thing to do and public safety is of primary importance to all Bangor citizens. This is a time of unusual stress in Bangor due to the recession and there is an increase in crime with drugs, gangs, etc and mandates. Bangor has a good Public Safety Police Department at this current time. He feels that the City needs to set aside the money as time goes and not put it on Council three years down the road. He also said that Council will need to make some really hard choices between departments deciding the relative balance of the public safety, schools, fire, plowing snow, etc. He is against raising taxes and thinks that exceedingly hard and unpleasant choices will need to be made in the future. Responding to Blanchette, Gastia stated that 4, including him, are FBI trained academy graduates. Of those 2 and possibly 3 are eligible or planning to retire. Blanchette said that as Council, some hard decisions need to be made and with the strained budget of the City, also comes an increase in crime and delinquencies. She does not believe that the City can reduce the size of the Police force and expect to get the same enforcement. Responding to Blanchette, Gastia said that of the 6 positions that were originally applied for, one School Resource Officer, 2 Special Enforcement Team Officer and one Community Relations Officer, one Computer Crimes Investigator, and one Violent Crime Investigator, he still feels that although he is only being offered 4 positions, these positions are important. In his opinion, the 2 Special Enforcement Team officers, a School Resource Officer and the Community Relations Officer are essential. The other two positions were taken away when he took the position as Chief due to the need of the patrol officers. Responding to Blanchette, Chief explained that Bangor is one of two municipalities that have the ability to investigate murders. All of the investigators are trained to the level of homicide investigator. Whenever a new detective is brought into the criminal division, they are trained. There are 5 general investigators. The supervisor of that division will be retiring, but there are no other investigators that plan to retire. Gastia said that his department is constantly looking at sending the Lieutenants, as they come up to that position, through the FBI training, but unfortunately, the District of Maine only gets 2 positions per session to send to the FBI academy. Bangor has been fortunate that a position has become available about every 4 years. The City just got someone back a couple of weeks ago and has already begun the application process for another Lieutenant. He anticipates it might be another 4 years before another position for Bangor will become available. Responding to Nealley, Gastia said that 10 years ago Chief Winslow did a program budget, and 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, a 10 thousand call increase in 10 years. The number of patrol staff on the streets to patrol has not increased for over 27 years. There are three shifts; (6am-4pm), (4pm-2am) and (8pm-6am). 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. Nealley thinks that the COPS program is a gift to Bangor with the attrition and no budgeted dollars for this. The City has several years to budget in for these positions when the funding ends. D’Errico recalls many past Councils that have taken risks. He spoke about 1968 when the City lost 13,000 people due to the deployment of military personnel and their families. One of the things the City attempted to do was to have the State create an airport, which was turned down. The next attempt was to form an authority within the surrounding communities, which was also turned down. The government offered the City the airport and immediately recognized it as a resource for economic development. However, there was quite a risk involved. He pointed out that the risk was a substantial risk and he says that Bangor is growing and changing. In today’s Bangor Daily newspaper, Derrico pointed out that 60 criminals are going to trial. He believes that the City should take advantage of this opportunity by accepting this grant. Responding to Wheeler, Barrett said that in the union contracts there are management rights to take actions if positions need to be eliminated. Responding to Wheeler, Gastia said that the functions of a Community Relations Officer is very broad and will ask other departments that currently have a Community Relations Officer to fine tune a job description. The department currently has a part time position for a Public Information Officer to deal with the press and he feels that the Community Relations Officer would be something entirely different. Although working hand in hand with the Public Information Officer, the Community Relations Officer will be educating the public. He see the misunderstanding the public has about what the department is doing and believes the department is focusing on things it should not be focused on. He feels that becoming proactive in crime and educating people about ways to prevent these crimes are key. He believes that having a Community Relations Officer will help to improve the image of the department. He thinks it is important for the City to employ community policing such as a Community Watch program. He wants to speak with the schools, meet with neighborhoods and parents, which is important and not something that his officers have had time to do. Responding to Wheeler, Gastia said that a Community Relations Officer could go to colleges and schools to help recruit individuals of the highest caliber. The City would like to find individuals that are good representatives of the City and good ambassadors that are personable, and this is hard to do in the current hiring process. A motion was moved and seconded that this Committee recommend acceptance of the 4 COPS position to the full Council. A voice vote was done and it was unanimous. Blanchette commended Gastia for holding strong on the Community Relations Officer position from the beginning and thinks he has explained his case and his cause very well. 2. Discussion Regarding Whether the Recycling Committee and City Staff Should Continue to Pursue and Analyze Solid Waste and Recycling Alternatives Ring began by mentioning the comprehensive overview of both Recycling and Solid Waste issues. The City may be facing financial challenges in the future and there are some major contracts dealing with the Solid Waste Management coming up very soon. He referred to information that was provided to the Committee with descriptions of some alternatives ways to deal with both recycling and solid waste. He said that he is not in a position to discuss these alternatives right now, and the information was intended to be informational at this point. The Recycling Committee has spent a great deal of time discussing other possible things the City might consider in the future. There are no recommendations at this point but there are other alternatives that other communities use and the question posed was whether there is interest in having the Recycling Committee and City Staff continue to collect and analyze data regarding the various solid wastes and recycling alternatives available in addition to, or in place of, our current systems. The research would take 2 or 3 months to come back to the Committee with something useful. Blanchette said that many people are opposed to using plastic bags due to the environmental issue and she would be interested in discussing the idea allowing containers without bags, or paper bags for disposal. She would like to see all areas of recycling explored. She is not interested in stopping the current recycling program and says that once the system is stopped it is very hard to start up again. She said that even though the number of households recycling is low, every amount not going to the land fill or being burned and creating toxic fumes is important. Ring responded by saying that many of the things that Blanchette is talking about would be researched if the Committee decides that they want staff to go forward with the collection of data and research. Hawes observed that the Recycling Committee has not had Council commitment in the past. She was on the Recycling Committee and they would often come to the Council with a message that something was needed and would come back with the least expensive way to accomplish the task. She agrees that there will be some difficult decisions to be made with the budget, but one of the things that the City cannot afford is not to recycle. She agrees that more information is needed and believes that there are more ways to recycle. Gratwick said that coming together with the Community is what needs to happen. This is done by having public meetings. Barrett responded to Blanchette by explaining once the Committee has indicated whether or not they approve staff moving forward with research, the Recycling Committee would then meet again with this committee to discuss the recommendation of certain proposals. Wheeler recommended to the Committee that the Council pass a Resolution or Resolve. Jay Dresser is a member of the Recycling Committee and stated there are a few issues being discussed in the Committee. One being the single stream and the other is user fees. These are both very complicated and interesting ideas, however, he believes in multi-stream as opposed to single stream. He says that multi-stream is free labor. The consumer separates the trash rather than someone on a conveyor belt. There is also less contamination with multi-stream. Single stream has a huge transportation cost. He is ok with user fees as long as 100% of the revenue goes to the Recycling Committee to purchase things such as new bailers. He suggested having another drop off center on the north side but currently there is not any funding for that. If the City accepted user fees that might be a possibility in the future and the collection efforts could increase. Monique Goudreau is also on the committee and pointed out that at a recent workshop, Gratwick shared that 62 other communities in Maine have forms of pay per throw for their solid waste. She found that very surprising and said that the committee has been studying this for a short period of time and she agrees with Jay that this is complicated. She agrees that user fees are not popular and will be a challenge to sell the idea, but she feels that this is the time to do it. The Committee did some random phone calls and she was surprised that the response was as favorable as it was. Blanchette asked that with the Resolve there should be a time table that staff report back to the Committee before budget time. She believes that there is a big possibility that the City may have to ask for a user fee. All the information needs to be in place to make informed decisions. Barrett said that after talking to Ring they feel that information can be available by mid-January. Hawes said that the City will need an education process and believes that going to the schools would be beneficial. Wheeler said that discussing this with the Superintendent of Schools would be a start. Blanchette pointed out people from the State of Maine who should be contacted, such as, Neil Rhodes, who has written a book on this topic and Sherri Huburd, who headed up the recycling. She said there might be some grants the City could tap into and would help get an education program going in the Bangor school system. Monique Goudreau pointed out that there are two opportunities at the High School that have the potential for getting this information out. The SEED group, which is an afterschool program that is an environmental group, would be happy to have some involvement with something like this. She said that she works with a Special Ed program called Project Transition where the kids do projects in the morning and the afternoon and do job coaching. One of the places they go three times a week is the recycling center. A motion was made and seconded to draft a Resolve to the City Council recommending the Recycling Committee and City Staff continue to collect and analyze data regarding th solid waste and recycling alternatives and return to the Committee by January 15, 2009. 3. Revised General Assistance Workfare Strategy Yardley stated that this idea came from staff and he is proud of them and thinks this idea has a lot of merit. General Assistance has a Workfare component for those able bodied people that find themselves in need of general assistance. The idea is that they work at a rate of minimum wage to repay the benefits they receive. Although this is a good concept, Yardley believes it is difficult to manage. Work sites have to be found and they have to be coordinated. In the past, it has been difficult to find supervisors, find sufficient work to keep people busy. Staff came up with the idea, which is modeled after other labor programs, and is a labor ready concept where it would be made easy for potential employers who are, for example, other City departments, or non-profit organizations in the community, etc. to let us know their need and this program would help meet that need with people that have that requirement. Blanchette thought this was a great idea and suggested that helping to keep City Hall and the loading dock outside City Hall clean would be beneficial. Yardley responded by saying that this program allows those that have fallen on tough times or had a tough history, a chance to create a positive work history that can be used as a spring board to find employment. If the labor that is required helps these individuals to find a paying job that is a side benefit. The challenge is to get worksites appropriately supervised. Once they leave our office, they are then the responsibility of the placement and in the past that has been a problem. Yardley stated he wanted to get the endorsement of the Committee before he contacted all the City departments and some targeted social service agencies in town. Responding to D’Errico, Yardley said that if the individual did not have their own transportation, the BAT bus is timed to stop at his department at the same time the shift would begin. Bus tickets would be provided. Nealley commended Yardley and his staff for the great idea. Gratwick also agreed and asked how it has worked in other communities. Responding to Gratwick, Yardley pointed out that some of the challenges will be people refusing to work or doing an adequate job that will result in a loss of benefits. He said that this program will at least force these individuals to come into the office and report for duty at 8:00 a.m. and if there is not enough work they will be released of their obligations for that day. Palmer suggested that the wording of able bodied be replaced with work capable. Yardley agreed and said that he will go back and change his paperwork and, if possible, will ask the state level to do the same. A motion was made and seconded to support the Workforce program, and so voted. Meeting adjourned @ 6:50 p.m.