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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 11/22/1993November 22, 1993 Vol. 28, Page 87 i REGULAII ADJOITRNEI) MEETING a PETALUMA CITY COiJNCII, 3 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1993 a ROLL CALL 7:00 p.m. s PRESENT: Nelson, Sobel, Hamilton, Barlas, Shea, Vice Mayor Read, Mayor 6 Hilligoss ~ ABSENT: None s PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 9 Police Chief DeWitt led the Pledge of Allegiance. io PiJBLIC COMMENT i i Dick Sharke, 17.12 Orinda Court -spoke in support of additional revenue for the Fire and is Police Departments. It has been a long since these departments have had sufficient 13 funding. If we do not increase this you will see Petaluma literally torn apart. The is leadership in the two departments is good. You can only stretch a rubber band so far is before it breaks. i6 Brian Hayes, 5 Morningsun Drive -spoke against the assessment funding of Fire and i~ Police Departments. He thinks this has been a wonderful Council. The problem is is simple, we need increased service. A lot of people have been laid off. This is the worst 19 financial problem since the great depression. We are broke. We all are broke. How do zo we get service? It boils down to "how do we get services and how do we pay for them?" zi This city is A+. We are willing to sacrifice to make it A- or B+. Somebody has to say a2 "stop" to added governmental costs. I am telling you folks, we don't have money to give 23 you. If we have to give to Police and Fire, cut somewhere else. $60.00 is a lot if you za don't have it. It is a very serious issue, somebody has to say "enough is enough". is David Salaun, 969 Phillips Avenue -Police officer in East Bay. Enough is enough. This 26 is a nice town for the most part. It is run very well. You have problems in town and you z~ don't want what the East Bay has. You have not hired for years. You have a wake up is call. I will lend my support. You need more police on the street. You have to change 29 your priority so that you hire more police officers. 3o Marypat Moore, 320 Cortez Drive -What she is mostly opposed to is you are going to 31 push it by the people and they are not going to have a vote. It is quite presumptuous not 3z to have a vote of the people. Why do you have so many police ,cars going to a situation? 33 Benjamin Moore, 320 Cortez Drive - He has lived here 40 years. Why do so many 34 police cars have to come to a call? 3s Fred Fair Brother, 109 Webster Street - Was a police officer and a fireman in London. 36 He does appreciate what the City is trying to do. At this time he is on Social Security. 37 He can ill afford to lay out any money because his money is meted out to groceries, rent 3s and so forth. If he could afford to pay this he would support it, because the Fire and 39 Police Departments do need the money. ao Bill Pisenti, Redwood Empire Trim Committee (the successor organization to Irate ai Taxpayers) -lives in Santa Rosa -spoke against the assessment. He urged the Council to a2 put it to a vote of the people. He has been a volunteer fireman for 35 years. He is a3 supportive of both the Fire and Police Departments, but he said make your cuts as elsewhere. Page 88, Vol. 28 November 22, 1993 The citizens are being regulated. too much and businesses: are being regulated .right out the door. We have to stop these end runs around Proposition 13 (which controls, property tax increases). We have to look at other agencies. within the government. that aren't as necessary as Fire and Police. Some. of these people have to live on $400 or $500 a month Social Security. How are they going to make it? We .have criminals roaming the streets because the fails can't hold any more. There are too many laws protecting and comforting the criminals and not enough laws to help the decent citizens. We have to start to make crime punishable. 9 Arnold Kaye, 1645 Lauren Drive - He is an ex-police officer from LOS Angeles. He io agrees with Mr. Pisenti. The :main problem is the judges and courts. If a minor is heard ii and convicted, have the parents pay for some of these jail costs. We should clamp down ~2 on the parents. Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) should be charged- to the 13 parents whose children are taking that in school. No governmental body should put a tax is on the taxpayers. It should be put to a vote. He has about 87 signatures from. neighbors is who are unhappy about being taxed without a vote. This is very important to the i6 constituents. ~~ Barbara Creamer,, 1328 Village East Drive. -She is supportive of the assessment. The is graffiti is not.:going away like it used, to in Petaluma. We live across the street from a 19 park. We asked fora .Neighborhood Watch program and we were. turned down because zo there is no money. We need to work together more. .She sympathizes with the people u who cannot afford the tax. Do not base your judgment on whom you hear, because .you 22 have snot .heard from everyone. It is a .good idea to appoint a 17 member committee. 23 That committee should be so diverse. that we can trust their direction. za COUNCIL COMMENT zs Bonnie Nelson -regarding how many officers does it take, how many officers would you 26 wish to have on hand if it were your. daughter, or your son, or any member of your own 2~ family. is n Shea. -there is a Neighborhood Watch program. If you contact the Police 29 ~ Department I am: su they will respond. B ~~ ~-~~- 3o STAFF PRESENTATION 31 David Spilman said the City has, no control over property taxes, sales taxes, revenues 32 from other agencies or fines, forfeitures. and penalties. The City can .and has increased 33 licenses,, permits and. fees for services. Business license permits have also been 34 increased. Regarding expenses, staff 'has done as much as it can to reduce operating 3s expenses, except cut personnel costs through employee reduction. Regarding how the 36 City arrived at this financial position, he noted the recession and the State of California 37 have combined to create this. 3s Revenues Commandeered by the. State It was noted that in the last three (3) years the 39 State. of California has managed ao expropriate portions of all the cities' property. taxes as ao well as other "formerly local" revenues. This has amounted to a loss: of $2,:178,530 from ai the Petaluma General Fund and $650,480 from the Redevelopment Fund. There is no a2 way to predict what continuing the impact of the State will be in the 1994 budget. November 22, 1993 i The Finance Director listed the following as a summary of the specific z, Fire and Police Departments to which the proposed assessment would go: Vol. 28, Page. 89 short-falls in the 3 Replacement of lost revenues $420,000 a Continue DARE Program $120,000 s Additional Police Services $360,000 6 Equipment Additions and Replacement ~ Fire $150,000 a Police $120, 000 9 Assessment Administration 30 000 to Total $1,200,000 i i It is anticipated that we will purchase 2 fire trucks next fiscal year. For the next 10 years i2 there is a total of $1,113,800 in the vehicle replacement program. 13 The $1.2 Million. does .not take exemptions into consideration. The money would be used is solely for Fire and Police. There is no intent to shift funds. Regarding the 1/2 cent is sales tax revenue that was. approved by the voters statewide earlier in the month, this i6 money (approximately $250,000 to Petaluma) will only keep the Fire and Police at the i~ current rate of service. The "replacement of lost funds" does not take into account the is potential of any further depletion of the City's revenues by actions of the State to balance 19 the State's budget. It was suggested that.~DARE costs could very well be jointly paid for zo by the parents and the City. They pay for other ,special offerings of the schools. It ai would be nice to find some funds for a teen center or to be proactive in finding something Za for the kids to do. A lot of what is happening in this community is standing around street 23 corners. Za City Manager John Scharer advised this is funding could -not be for=a teen center. Zs Staff was asked what would happen to service by the. City if the assessment were not 26 passed. Staff responded you would .have police officers with no labor contract and the 2~ City doesn't expect to be able to retain the officers. Next year we will have no labor Za contracts in force after July 1. You have your work force negotiating next year. You i9 will have turn over in other departments. You will see deterioration in recreation 3o programs. If you keep the Public .Safety revenues up, you will have to reduce the other 31 departments. Petaluma has traditionally been an extremely conservative town. The City 32 needs a long term source of revenue. 33 Staff was asked if the City could publish an analysis that would identify cost cuts. That 3a would include all that has already been done. Every step should be as clearly identified 3s as a picture. 36 It was asked whether or not this city or any other city is taking any proactive steps to stop 37 the State. Staff responded to support the League of California Cities which is the city's 3a lobbyist in Sacramento. 39 Police Department Police Chief DeWitt noted that between 1986 and 1992 the crime ao rates have changed as follows: ai Request for Police 1986 1992 az Calls for Service 33,275 - 46,228 a3 Arrests 2,157 3,413 as Drug Arrests 147 318 as Driving Linder Influence 281 463 a6 Aggravated Assaults 69 178 Page 90, Vol. 28 November 22, 1993 The problems are -not really with. the people who live here, it is the .people coming through that have, been the problem. In the year 1986, .1987, and 1988 we asked for more officers. Since there was no money, we didn't ask for it. We have looked at the way we do business. We no longer send a policeman to do an incident report, we mail one to the citizen .and we do not enclosed a stamped envelope.. We need to be proactive such as we are'with the DARE program. ~ The police vehicles do not last as long as a private automobile, because they are used 24 a hours a day, 365 days a year. ..Regarding the number of responders to a call,. there are 9 guns used by their "clients". This occurs. several times a week. In this day one never io knows what. sort of weapon will be encountered. We want the officers to maintain their ~i safety as well as capture criminals. Regarding gang behavior, you need men to handle'it. i2 If we don't add men to the Police Department; in the next 3 to 5 years the Petaluma we 13 want will not be. If he were in politics,, he would probably be a one term person because is he would have to do what in his own heart he knew was right. ~s The people are concerned about the level of criminality on the street now. The manner in i6 which litigation. is capriciously addressed is certainly a factor, people retain Melvin Belli: i~ when a dog gets shot.. :Regarding the. question,.. whether or .not guns are taken to school is by the. youth of .the town, Chief DeWitt stated the young people just don't .feel as safe as 19 they used to. Regarding. the higher profile of .gang culture, Chief DeWitt said'. that issue Zo is getting hotter and hotter- every weekend. Zi Fire Department -Fire Chief Knout noted the department continues to look. at how. it is n. doing business and how the department can be 'innovative. He noted that he is proud, of z3 how the staff keeps the equipment working. as long as" possible; however, they, are Za reaching a :crisis with the apparatus: and the rolling stock. We recently had 4 vehicles as down at one time. The life span of a vehicle is generally 15 years. We are using trucks 26 that were ,purchased in 1966, 1971., 1975 .and :1981. 'The engine that suffered mechanical 2~ problems m Malibu. has been rebuilt, all except '..for the distributor. That has now been Zs replaced, too. This engine was sent to Malibu because it has. a covered cab and 29 earphones. for the firemen so they Bari communicate: We have done in-house placement 30 of headsets in two engines.. That has cost. about $1,500 to $2;000 to retrofit each engine. 31 When we do have the opportunity to spec out a new :engine we will. be doing our best to 32 get the type of equipment. needed that will carry us on for a good number of years. 93 Regarding response time, Chief Knout noted that the 4 minute goal has been established . 3a based on both medical knowledge- and on fire knowledge. The American Heart 3s Association study of survival of patients says that a patient receiving medical aid past the 36 4 minute time is not as able to recover and at 8 minutes there is n_o survival.. With the 37 fire response time of 4 minutes, a fire increases logarithmically by minute. If you don't 3s overcome fire load with water you will have to watch the fire burn until all the material is 39 consumed. ao Staff ai Percentag;e of Protests The Council was asked what percentage of protests they would a2 like to have .included in the ordinance, S % or 10 % or some .other number. The Council a3 seemed to support the 5 % protest .fore the assessment. district process. That means if as protests were .received from over 5 % of the properCy ownership value, the issue would be as sent to the voters. November 22, 1993 Vol. 28, Page 91 i Sunset Clause The Council agreed there should not be a sunset clause in the ordinance 2 that will be on the December 6 agenda. Rather, the Council and staff should review the 3 assessment every other year to determine whether or not it is still needed, or whether or a not the amount should be changed. s Protest The ordinance will contain a description of the procedures for protest action. 6 The audience was cautioned to utilize appropriate protest procedures in order for them to ~ be effective. s Amount of fee It was agreed the amount of the assessment fee would remain unchanged, 9 unless a future Council took action to do otherwise. io Exemptions and the like Staff was asked to make some suggestions as to what the State i i law would allow along this category. There was concern about people who have a i2 limited income and who would be impacted by this type of action. It was suggested that is an offset for the needy might come from the Housing Program. is It was agreed the ordinance will be introduced on December 6 and adopted on December is 20. i6 LEVEL OF SERVICE i~ The study session on Levels of Service was not held due to the lateness of the hour. is AIDT®LTRN At 10:00 the meeting adjourned to a closed ses ~ n with the Petal a Community i9 Development Commission on property at -- Zo M. Patricia Hilligoss, Mayor Zi ATTEST: za Patricia E. Bernard, City Clerk