02-04-13 Health & Public Safety - Laserfiche WebLink

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HEALTH&PUBLIC SAFETY February 4, 2013 4:00 p.m. Committee Members Present: Karen White, Dr. David Varner, Dr. Fred Ferlic, Tim Scott Other Council Present: Henry Davis, Gavin Ferlic, Derek Dieter Others Present: Chief Teachman, SBPD, Mike Schmuhl Agenda: Organizational Meeting Health & Public Safety Committee Chair Karen White opened the committee organizational meeting promptly at 4:00 with full committee present. Karen's opening remarks emphasized the importance of quality of life issues, a long-standing focus of her Council work. Karen's intent in setting this meeting was to review the 2012 annual committee report, and set some goals and objectives for 2013 incorporating input from fellow councilmembers and the public. Before moving into the agenda items Karen asked the Mayor's Chief of Staff to introduce the new Police Chief Ron Teachman. Given a few minutes to address the Council the Chief said he was about the process of listening to the Council to see the City through their eyes. He hoped to get to know each councilmember, tour their districts, hear their concerns and mutually establish priorities for the police department. Next, Karen asked Dr. Fred Ferlic to review the committee's annual report. (A copy is on file in the Office of the City Clerk) As chair of the committee in 2012, Dr. Ferlic noted the committee met 20 times tackling a wide range of quality of life issues. Of particular emphasis were efforts to address the vacant and abandoned house problems with the Mayor's task force addressing the problem. One specific problem was the Council's work on the problematic Courtyard Apartments along with Councilmember Tim Scott; Dr. Ferlic described an apartment complex that had 3 calls for service a day from the police department. Out of state ownership of the apartment complex, since gone into bankruptcy, was too far removed to effectively address the problems. Working with newly court appointment management calls have been reduced to one per day. Problem tenants have been evicted and the Council has begun work on a "nuisance ordinance"to address similar problems. Karen shifted discussion of issues the committee would focus on in 2013. Starting with the Police Department. Henry Davis said an overriding issue is allocation of police resources. He maintained that a core issue is the need for greater police visibility in neighborhoods. Karen followed saying five police issues were listed in feedback from the Council. There were questions about"beat"staffing, downtown patrols, technology needs, downtown sector coverage and the possible re-establishment of a traffic division. Karen said there were few suggestions for fire; but Henry suggested the firefighter's entry age be lowered to 18 from 21. Though this would require a change in state law, maybe a cadet or internship program could be started here. The Neighborhood Code Enforcement Department drew a greater number of concerns. Karen focused on the imperative for a clean city suggesting a collaborative review of Neighborhood Code Enforcement's resources. Dr. Ferlic and Derek Dieter both commented on the need for more technology to limit paper use and improve efficiency. Asking for additional concerns Karen heard two from Council Attorney Kathy Cekanski-Farrand. First was the apparent lack of enforcement to safeguard downtown areas. Secondly, she thought the Council should be involved with the necessary insurance cost effects of Obamacare.