03-10-08 Health and Public Safety Committee

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HEALTH AND PUBLIC SAFETY The April 7, 2008 meeting of the Health and Public Safety Committee of the South Bend Common Council was called to order by its Chairperson, Councilmember Karen White at 5:00 p.m. in the Council's Informal Meeting Room. Persons in attendance included Council Members Henry Davis; Derek D. Dieter; Oliver Davis; Timothy A. Rouse; Other present were! Mark Dollinger, Weed & Seed Coordinator; Jamie Loo, South Bend Tribune; Gail Brodie, Weed & Seed Alliance; Chuck Leone, City Attorney, Lynn Coleman, Assistance to the Mayor, Catherine Toppel, Director Code Enforcement, Roger Hamburg, Tim Hudak; Kathy Cekanski-Farrand, Council Attorney. The City Council's Health & Public Safety Committee led by Chairperson Karen White continued to address quality of life issues in South Bend. Specifically addressed was the growing concern over pervasive graffiti, especially on the city's west side. Focusing on the graffiti problem, the Committee discussed the nature of the graffiti, past efforts to deal with it, and the formulation of a coordinated plan to combat it in the future. Karen White began the meeting with introductions of attendees and an overview of the graffiti problem emphasizing a sense of urgency of devising a plan before summer. Mark Dollinger, the coordinator of the Weed and Seed Program outlined the past years effort to combat graffiti. He said that over five thousand dollars and 20,000 man hours were expended to cover graffiti at over 290 sites last year. Sixty sites were already identified this year. Left alone graffiti discourages both people and businesses from feeling positive about the city. Derek Dieter, Councilmember and Police Officer, spoke to the serious nature of graffiti threatening both property values and citizens safety. He indicated a need for a specific incident response protocol, what he described as a chain of responsibility. Citizens and police officers as well need to know who to call when graffiti is seen and who was to follow-up with abatement. Given the difficulty in actually catching someone in the act he proposed a crime watcher type approach where someone could report graffiti culprits anonymously for a reward. Council President Timothy Rouse emphasized the pervasive city-wide nature of graffiti. He observed graffiti was more than a by-product of frustrated artists but a sign of growing gang activity threatening the public's sense of well-being. Councilmember's Oliver and Henry Davis spoke of recent meetings with neighborhood groups in their districts where people felt that NCE's follow-up letters to homeowners made them feel like the culprits as opposed to the victims. Oliver Davis whose district may be most hard hit asked how the law treats graffiti. Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand briefly reviewed both State and Local Laws explaining that graffiti is treated as a misdemeanor even though remediation can require considerable time, inconvenience and expense. She outlined the approach other cities were taking citing the effectiveness of a crime stopper approach suggested by Dieter. She indicated some cities use motion activated cameras, 24 hr. hotlines, and additional patrols as effective deterrents. She also noted the law does allow community service and driver's license suspension for minors caught and prosecuted.