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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-06-09 Government Operations Committee Minutes ' Government Operations Committee , June 9, 2009 Minutes , Councilor Attendance: Wheeler, D'Errico, Blanchette, Gratwick, Palmer, � Nealley Sta� Attendance: Banett, Farrar, Gastia, Arno, McNeil, Heitmann, Dubois, Nicklas , Others: Two Bangor Humane Society Representatives, 1 Representative of]ohn Bapst H.S. 1. Council Resolve 09-201 Authorizing Applying for, Accepting and Appropriating ' $35,384 in Funds from the US Department of Justice, 2009 Justice Assistance Grant , Pursuant to the terms of the Grant, Amo mentioned that a public hearing on this solicitation is required. This is a yearly grant that the City takes part in with the � cooperation of the Penobscot County SherifYs Office (SO). The $35,384 is the amount that will be split between Penobscot SO and the Bangor Police Department. The City has agreed to administer the grant and be the pass through for the money ' and, in return, charge 2�/0 of Penobscot SO's share. Amo made a note to correct the memo to reflect that the Bangor PD's share with the 2% will be $18,045.84 and the SherifPs Office share will be $17,338.16. Amo stated that the amount of the grant ' changes every year and the City has been applying for it for about 6 or 7 years. This opportunity was given to the Department only a little over a week ago and staff has not had a chance to identify specific needs, but staff would propose to use about ' �/z of the money for training opportunities and the other Yz for the purchase of equipment. Barrett responded to Wheeler's question stating tfiat the public hearing is to take ' place at this Committee meeting. A motion was made and seconded to open the public hearing. No one responded and a motion was made and seconded to close ' the public hearing. The Committee recommended to the Council that this item have passage. 2. Recommendation to Increase Impound Fees for Stray Animals ' Gastia informed the Committee that the Police Department handles Animal Control � for the City of Bangor and has a fuli-time Animal Controi Officer, who handles a number of animals that are captured and transported to the Humane Society. The Humane Society accepts animals from a number of communities in the region. The , City of Bangor has a set fee that is used to offset the cost for capturing, retrieving and transporting these animals to the Humane Society. The fee is passed onto the owners of these animals when they retrieve them from the Humane Sociery. In , addition, the Police Department has a contract with the Humane Society for the animals that are taken there by ttie City. That contract price continues to go up, , ' ' � sometimes on a yearly basis. Bangor pays a higher fee than other communities and the Citys costs for fuel, maintenance for the vehicle, and personnel continue to go ' up. Gastia does not recall that the �ty has ever increased the fees for these stray animals. The current fee is $25 for a cat or dog for the first offense and then $35 for each for the second and $50 for the third offense. Staff is recommending reising � the fee for cats to $25 for the first offense, $40 for a second offense, and the third offense would be $60. For dogs, the fee would be $35 for the first offense for a dog, $50 for the second offense and $75 for a dog. Gastia stated that he did not , have the figures for repeat offenses but knows of one particular owner that has retrieved his dog on four different acasions. For the contract year of May 2008 to April 2009, there were a total of 144 dogs brought to the Humane Society and 106 of those were reclaimed. There were 276 wts that were brought to the Humane , Society and only 21 cats that were reclaimed. Susan Bell, the Executive Director of the Humane Society, commented that the fees the City is charging are in line with other communities; however, she sees the majority of the strays come from Bangor ' and believes that a rise in fees would help deter costs. It would also discourage pet owners from allowing their pets to roam. Responding to Gratwick, Bell stated that she feels that the City is going in the right direction and said that there are some ' communities that do not charge any fees and some that charge a per day fee instead of a flat fee. Gastia agreed that the City is going in the right direction and said that the idea is not to deter the owners from coming to get their animals but to , deter those whose pets are repeatedly on the loose. The Cammittee will recommend approval to the full Council. , 3. Two Proposed Minor Route Modifications— 8angor Mall Area and Hammond Street— BAT Community Connector , McNeil stated tfiat staff is proposing two minor route changes in the Bangor Mall area and on the Hammond Street run. Referring to the GPS map that was handed ' out, McNeil stated that in the Mall area and with the relocation of the Wal-Mart onto Stillwater Ave., staff is proposing to run the Stillwater bus directly out Stillwater Ave. onto Ridgewood Drive. There is a nice Cul-de-sac by tfie Good Samaritans Home ' that tt�e bus is currently using. The bus goes there on request and the requests are becoming more and more frequent with the Family Practice and staff would like to do this on a more regular basis. This would require the Stillwater bus to go down Stillwater Ave. to Wal-Mart and then go to the Bangor Mall, where it will return to its � regular downtown route. The area that the bus did serve, which is where Shaw's was, is not long there. The Mount Hope bus wiil go to that area for possible future development. McNeil responded to Blanchette's question that the traffic in the , current Wal-Mart area is very light. The Mount Hope bus and the Stillwater bus served that area but the Stiliwater bus is not needed. ' The Hammond Street route is the busiest route of the system. In the beginning of the month the bus transported 600— 700 people a day with that one bus making 23 trips. The problem is that the drivers are being forced to maintain tfieir schedule � and under a Iot of pressure to go faster than the speed limit. Something needs to be done in order to slow things down a little. Currently, the slower part of that route is where it tums on West Broadway and then to Buck Street and onto Third Street. � , , The proposal is to eliminate that section every other trip. Doing that wil� save 4 to 6 � minutes, which will allow the Flammond Street bus to get back on schedule and maintain a safe operating speed and comfort level for the drivers. A motion was made and seconded to approve staff's recommendation. The changes , will be implemented during the month of July. � 4. Council Ordinance 09-198 Amending Schedules VI and VIII of Chapter 291, Article III, Sec. 40 of the Code of the City of Bangor— Parking for Persons with , Disabilities and for Buses Only— Broadway and Somerset Street Nicklas began by describing the Ordinance. He stated that the reason for the ' Ordinance is to switch the bus loading zone to Somerset Street and the handicap parking zone to Broadway. Currently the bus loading zone is in front of]ohn Bapst and around the corner on Somerset are two handicap parking spots. The purpose of , switching these is to relieve congestion on Broadway. Last year there was an experiment involving the switching of these two zones and the individuals involved felt that it worked out much better than the current system. Blanchette asked where ' the handicap spots proposed to be moved and if they are van assessable. Nicklas stated that the proposed spots would be 30 feet from the comer of Broadway and Somerset Street. This is close to the comer of John Bapst and would be the first ' parking spots in front of John Bapst. Barrett pointed out that tfiere are no ramps in the proposed spots for tt�e handicap but there is a ramp at the intersection. One of the issues with this proposal is how difficult it is to get van assessable spaces ' because of the lack of adequate width, as with many streets in Bangor. In the future the City may have to look at putting in diagonal parking such as the ones in the downtown area. Palmer noted that the Parking Committee might want to ' involve Mike Noyes, who is the Alpha 1 representative to that committee, about that location. Palmer believes that putting in the van lift on the sidewalk from the curb could be done without too much difficulty. Palmer believes that moving the bulk of , the traffic around the comer makes a lot of sense and is safer for the students. Gratwick, who is on the Parking Committee, stated that the area in front of John Bapst is not covered by the Parking Committee but he supports this idea. He said that he is concemed with the width of Somerset Street and says that because the • , street is fai�ly wide, people tend to go very fast. He said that data shows that the narrower the street, the slower people go. He wondered ff the narrowing of that street were possible and suggested that diagonal parking be put on that street in � order to narrow the street. Gastia said it is a possibility and putting diagonal parking has been looked at before, but one of the questions that have come up was"will there be a gain in parking spots, or will there be less?" The City already has a ' paricing issue in that area and would not want to lose any. He agrees that the narrower the road the slower the traffic will be, and he understands that when the school buses park on Somerset for loading and unloading, that will narrow that , street significantly and thinks that putting diagonal parking might narrow the street two much for two way traffic. Gasda suggested that the City Engineer look into it if the buses did not take up enough of the travel lane. Gratwick suggested to move � this remmmendatlon and if, in ttie future, there is a problem to bring it back to the � ' , ' committee to discuss diagonal parking at that time. The motion to moved was seconded. A vote was taken and all were in favor of stafPs recommendation. ' S. Proposal to Establish a City Charter Review Commission Wheeler stated tfiat it has been 20 years since the City Charter underwent a ' comprehensive review and he believes that one should be done. He originally requested tfiat the Govemment Operations Committee begin discussing the possibility of creating a Commission to review the City's Charter. He now believes, ' atter research and conversation with the City Solicitor, that this be supplemented with an altemative procedure. Heitmann did some research and found tfiat in 1989 the City Council had gone with a Committee. Heitmann compared tt�e cwo, in terms � of the process, and the procedure on how they wouid get set up and how they would work. The Commission has to be approved by the voters and the earliest that was possible would be during the election in November. If the voters did not ' approve the establishment of a Commission, it dces not happen. A Committee can be created by Council and the City has done so in the past. Under a Charter Commission, the voters elec[ 6 members from individuals that run for these ' positions. The City Council appoints 3 members, which makes a Commission of 9. In the Committee form, the Cty Council decides how many members and appoints all of them. If there is a Commission and the Commission were W recommend any , amendments to the Gty Charter, regardless of the City Council's opinions on those recommendations, those must go to the voters. If there is a Committee and they recommend amendments to tfie City Charter, it is for the Council to decide whether ' or not those recommendatlons get placed on the ballot. The Charter Commission, by statute, has up to 12 months to do its work. This would allow for 1 year after the Commission was formed to complete their work and a Commission couid ask the Council for another 12 months. In a Committee, the City Council can decide how ' long the committee has to do its work. For example, the Parking Committee had a term limit originally and every year it was renewed. Now, the Parking Committee is a regular committee. Heitmann also noted that the 1989 Charter Review Committee ' submitted their report on May 17, 1989 and it had been appointed earlier that same year. My Charter Amendments, such as the one we have this year, require a voter tumout of 30% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election. It is possible to , have the majority of the votes but sall not pass because it will not have enough voters. The City Clerk's office provided statistics on Special Elections from 2002. The largest turnout was 22%, and most of the tumouts were 10°h or less to include , every Special Elecfion the City has had to fill a Council seat. If that were to happen, even if the vote was 100% in favor of the Charter Amendment, it would not count. Responding to Wheeler, Heitrnann stated that a Charter Review Commission could , be initiated by the voters. Responding to Gratwick, Heitmann gave an overview of the members of the 1989's Charter Review Committee and stated that they met on 8 occasions over a period of about 5 months and came up with 16 different ' recommendations for changes. Gratwick asked Heitmann's opinion on whether or not staff could undertake this kind of project with how stretched they are already and the current and future budget issues. Barrett stated that, as he recalled, the ' 1989 efFort was primarily working with the City Solicitor's office. He believes that stafF took a look at the charter and made suggestions for the Committee to look at that were procedurally or operationally difficult, but most of the coordination work , , ' fell on the City Solicitor's office. Heitmann agreed and feels that if this goes forward, � his office would take the lead in terms of staff but others would be needed as different departments are involved. He believes that it would not be a difficult task ' on a staff level. Gratwidc likes the idea of this, but reminded people that currendy there is a Special Comprehensive Committee on Comprehensive Planning that draws on City StafYs time. He wonders if the City should wait until one finishes before starting another. Nealley moved that this be approved and stated that he feels that � since it has been 20 years, it is Ume to look at it again. Heitmann suggested if the Committee would like to move forward, that it be done now rether than wait. He agreed with D'Errico's suggestion that when/if this moves forward and the ' committee is appointed, it might be a good idea to have someone involved who has a mnrnection with the University and a connection with Publlc Administretion. A motion was moved and seconded to recommend to Council the establishment of a � Committee and not a Commission. Responding to Gratwick, Barrett stated that a workshop will be needed before going to the Council to decide the number of members, the qualifications, etc. A motion was made and seconded to proceed with ' the formation of the Committee with prior preparatory work in advance. Meeting was adjourned at 6:05 p.m. , ' ' ' ' ' ' ' � , ' '