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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/08/2009 Work Session City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, JUNE 8, 2009 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Library Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, June 8, 2009 at 6:36 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, Wylie, Ralston, and Pishioneri. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Joe Leahy, Clerk III Trudy Borrevik, and members of the staff. Council Leezer was absent (excused). 1. Springfield Municipal Court Programs Discussion. Finance Director Bob Duey presented the staff report on this item. The City Council and Presiding Judge Jim Strickland have both requested that following the annual Judge's review process additional time be set for a non-executive work session to allow a discussion of emerging topics for the City's judicial process. The three topics preliminarily identified are: l) Council's acceptance of process for the Council to contract for additional Judge Pro Tern hours; 2) the emergence of community issues from the Council to the Court as the municipal jail nears completion, and; 3) the potential for a program beginning this summer that would work with delinquent accounts holders to become payment active by offering incentives such as lifting driver's license suspensions or monetary incentives. Mr. Duey introduced Judge Strickland and Kathy Cunningham, Court Supervisor and turned the meeting over to them. Judge Strickland stated there was a need for the hiring of two judges for Municipal Court. He stated he had worked out what he thought the qualifications for a judge should be, however it could be fine tuned. Judge Strickland said the judge should be a citizen of the United States and should be a member of the Oregon State Bar. Although a Municipal Court Judge did not have to be a member ofthe bar, the Court was getting in an area that was complicated enough day in and day out and the days of the lay judges were rapidly coming to an end. Discussions had been held at the traffic conference and the fall conference as to whether or not Springfield courts should be courts of record. Judge Strickland stated he also thought a judge should have no complaints filed against him for violation of rules of professional conduct. According to the State Bar Association, a lawyer got a complaint filed against him about every 5 years. Complaints would be filed, but he had a problem if somewhat had actually violated some rules of professional conduct. He said he was kind of old fashioned and believed that cops, preachers, and judges should have to march to a higher drum than anyone else. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes June 8, 2009 Page 2 Judge Strickland said another qualification he felt a judge should have was not to have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude. He stated there were areas that he disagreed with the bar on regarding revocation of license and a conviction for moral turpitude. A judge should have at least 10 years of experience in a practice because it took time to see what life was like in the trenches. The ftrst 10 years of his practice was a court appointed criminal defense lawyer and he learned every trick in the books from the other attorneys. In the area of domestic relations you could see how people really wanted to hurt each other and you learned by those experiences. Judge Strickland said judges had to work with people who had different life experiences. He grew up in a middle class family, his father ran a store, his mother worked in the store with him, they attended church and there were pretty strict things his parents expected of him. He said he realized that not everyone had grown up with that background. One of the things that stood out for him in his experiences was when Chief Smith invited him to go along on a call where they were going to arrest some people on a drug raid. He watched a five year old get down and tie his mother's shoes while she was handcuffed. The spoon was there with a candle and needle, the judge's feet stuck to the floor as he walked in, and he wondered how the kid was going to survive. He said every time he got too righteous he thought back that he didn't have that type of a background. Judge Strickland said another item was limited educational advantages. There were not many people who were college graduates who came through the court for DUILs. Generally, the judges were working with people committing crimes who had limited educational advantages. That followed right in with the limited ability to understand the consequences of their actions. A lot of people simply couldn't understand the consequences of not being able to fmd a job when they had already dropped out of school at 18 years of age. Many of the jobs such as digging ditches, working in the mills, etc. were gone. Another concern was working with people with limited ftnancial means. Many people were working for minimum wage and a $250 fine was a weeks' work after taxes. They needed to understand that. Judge Strickland referred to numbers 4, 5 and 6 and said they were nearly the same. Most people really wanted to try to do well, but as soon as they got outside they had problems. It was very obvious that judges had to follow the Oregon Judicial Code of Conduct. Municipal Judges professionally were not subject to the Judicial Code of Conduct by a supreme court case; however if they were members of the Oregon State Bar, they were subject to the Professional Rules of Conduct. Judge Strickland said a judge should have the ability to exemplify the Springfield philosophy of solving the problem instead of getting hung up on why we couldn't do things. He felt the judge couldn't be too lenient because they still had to use the appropriate sentence to attempt to rehabilitate the citizens effectively. He gave an example of someone that he had sentenced to jail that had a number of DUI' s and noted the need to be tough in some situations in order to protect others. Judge Strickland said it was tough not to jump to conclusions. They heard the same thing day in and day out, but they needed to keep that open mind until the last bit of evidence came in or they were asking for trouble. Some judges made up their mind at opening statements. He didn't like it as a trial lawyer and didn't want to do the same thing himself. Mayor Leiken stated that judges had the tool of the jail to work with. The Springfield Jail had made national news about a week or so ago. He said Judge Strickland had stated he worked with City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes June 8, 2009 Page 3 people with limited fmancial means. He wanted to know what the judge's thoughts were on the $60 inmate fee and if in his view it should be made a requirement or something those convicted could work off. Judge Strickland said he didn't have the statue with him; however, it stated something to the effect that the Judge shall make a determination of the fmancial ability of the defendant to pay considering income, the hardship of the defendant and dependants. There were five other areas to consider but he couldn't recall them all. He stated that there was a meeting next week to work on the issue. The Judge was going to have to be involved up front in order to make those determinations. Finance Director, Bob Duey, was going to ask the Department of Revenue if there was any way the Judge would be able to get information from them immediately as to income because he knew defendants lied to him about their fmancial obligations. If the people were really down and out and hadn't been employed for two years, if they were on SSI, or they were living on Social Security, to assign a judgment was a waste oftime and resources in trying to collect. Before we started assessing, there was going to be some way of fmding out if they had the ability to pay. Judge Strickland referenced an article in USA Today regarding the Springfield Jail and a letter to the editor from a professor from Antioch College in Texas, the head of the Sociology Department. Judge Strickland said he had been trying to reach that professor by phone to see if he had any expertise or done any research in this area or was just writing a letter. Councilor Pishioneri said he would like to see a description of moral turpitude and the conviction of crimes under Attachment II. There were several crimes that didn't necessarily jump into the world of moral turpitude that he would not want one of the judges to be convicted of. Judge Strickland asked if it was DUIL. Councilor Pishioneri stated not necessarily. It would depend on the time when they were arrested for DUll. If they had a recent conviction of a DUII then they should be excluded or that should be looked into further to exclude them. If it happened 25 years ago, that might be different. He also stated that the 10 years experience in practice of law should be focused into criminal law versus environmental law. From a selection point of view, if a lot of applications were anticipated than he would like to exclude the ones that had 10 years experience in environmental law versus ones that had lO years experience of criminal law. If that was described in thejob description, then we could exclude some of the others and not waste a lot of staff time. Judge Strickland stated he had some hesitancy about having someone with 10 years of criniinal law because two of the judges that he has seen perform very poorly in Circuit Court had those backgrounds. Councilor Pishioneri said maybe 10 years of general practice law, half or a portion of which had been in criminal law. He referred to number 6 and asked for Clarification. Judge Strickland explained. Councilor Pishioneri referred to number 4. He would like to see Judge Strickland establish a matrix able to be used should Judge Strickland leave or his health was to deCline. . Judge Strickland said he had worked on a matrix, but it was difficult to know where to start. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes June 8, 2009 Page 4 Councilor Pishioneri asked about the fmancial ability for defendants to pay and how they could access their financial records to determine that ability. Judge Strickland gave an example of how to determine fmancial ability to pay. Mr. Duey stated he needed direction from Council as to how to proceed with the application process. Consensus was that the Judicial Committee would like to see the job description prior to advertising and then have the applications screened before providing the fmal applications to the full Council for their review. Judge Strickland talked about emergent community issues. He did an overview of the attachment in the council packet and what charges the Court handled, the number filed, the number terminated for 2008, and an estimate for 2009. He discussed the difference between person crimes and property crimes. Councilor Pishioneri asked if the emergent community issues were the judge's opinion. Yes. Judge Strickland wanted to know what the Council's emergent community issues were as well. Discussion was held about what Council saw as emergent community issues and if they were the same as those of Judge Strickland. Councilor Wylie asked why the Reckless Endangering (Child) had increased significantly from 2008 to 2009 estimates. Judge Strickland explained this had to do with the DUII and a child being present in the car when the driver was arrested for DUII. Councilor Pishioneri asked if Chief Smith had looked at the data sheets. No. Councilor Pishioneri would like to get the Police departments' opinions on the trends. The Mayor stated Council may want to get more engaged in this as it did affect quality of life and economic development. He explained further. Judge Strickland said this was why he brought this to Council, so they could look at priorities. Councilor Ralston said they would have to wait to see what happened with the new jail. Discussion was held on how involved the Council should be with the Court and related services. The last area discussed was amnesty and economic recovery. Judge Strickland said the Court had a lot of money on the books and was having a lot of problems collecting it. Judgments could be extended for 20 years and licenses could be suspended for 20 years. The trouble with suspending someone's license was that by suspending someone's license, it made it difficult for them to work and therefore difficult to pay their fmes. A hardship license could not be obtained for non- payments offmes. He referred to Attachment 5 in the agenda packet. For a period of20 years, the amount of unpaid fmes for non-payment plus interest was about $13M. The Court had tried to work out a method offering incentives for someone to pay their fmes. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes June 8, 2009 Page 5 Court Administrator Kathy Cunningham outlined some of the proposals where people could be given a discount if they paid their fines in full, by either deducting a percentage of the fine when paid, or their license could be reinstated if a certain percentage was suspended. Councilor Ralston asked about cases that had been sent to collection and how those would be handled. Ms. Cunningham eXplained how that would work. Judge Strickland talked about the lack of assistance from the State with license suspensions. Finance Director Bob Duey stated they were looking for direction from Council to get the program going prior to the jail opening. Councilor Pishioneri stated he supported this program and he supported a huge discount up front with the discount dropping as the months increased. The sooner the citizen got the past due fmes paid, the larger the discount would be. Judge Strickland gave an example of someone paying consistently for a couple of years and then the Courts could write the rest off. Mr. Duey asked ifthis was something that could go before the Finance and Judicial Committee. Yes. Councilor Ralston supported graduated refunds. He explained. Judge Strickland said he appreciated this discussion and the support from the Council. Mayor Leiken agreed this should go to the Finance and Judiciary Committee. 2. Parkway Roundabout Pedestrian Crossings. Traffic Engineer Brian Barnett presented the staff report on this item. An advocacy group in . LCOG' s Senior and Disabled program raised concerns with staff about the safety and accessibility of pedestrian crossings at the multi-lane roundabout at MLK Jr. Parkway and Hayden Bridge Road. Staff has assessed the applicable standards and the field conditions and proposed certain actions to enhance pedestrian safety. Staff and the City Attorney met with representatives of the LCOG advocacy group on several occasions to hear their concerns and discuss a possible plan for actions that may improve pedestrian safety. At the most recent meeting staff distributed an outline of actions and their timelines. The outline is included as Attachment I to this Agenda Item Summary. Staff continues to investigate possible pedestrian crossing treatments for immediate implementation. In addition we are monitoring the progress of a National Cooperative Highway Research Program project that focuses upon multilane roundabouts and continuous flow turn lanes at signalized intersections (NCHRP 3-78). The project is studying methods of improving pedestrian access and safety when crossing two or more lanes of flowing traffic. Once research is completed and the report published, staff plans to use the results to guide further recommendations for action. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes June 8, 2009 Page 6 Mr. Barnett asked the Mayor and Council to refer to Attachment I in the agenda packet. Any of the actions listed in section 3. a. may be taken in the very near term and may be effective in increasing safety. The actions listed in 3. b. were under evaluation in National Cooperative Highway Research Project (NCHRP) 3-78. These actions were recommended for consideration once research was complete and we had a better understanding of how to make the most effective use of those techniques. He noted that use of pedestrian actuated flashing yellow beacons (flashing beacons) was listed in both sections 3. a. and 3. b. Flashing beacons were a standard treatment at mid-block pedestrian crossings and sign-controlled intersection crossings. As a result, staff had determined that they may be used appropriately as an interim measure. Once NCHRP 3-78 was complete, the flashing beacons should be reviewed for removal, modification or unchanged continued operation. Actions listed in section 3. c. were not recommended due to nonconformance with Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Device standards, excessive cost, or non-effective for the desired outcome of enhanced pedestrian safety. The low cost items such as signs and markings ($5,000 - $10,000), enforcement and education (stafftime reprioritized) could be completed within existing budgets with some adjustments. Funds for the more costly enhancements such as pedestrian actuated flashing yellow beacons ($50,000 - $ 100,000) may be allocated from transportation system development charges or in the case of increasing illumination levels ($4,000 - $6,000) from Pioneer Parkway Overlay and Illumination stimulus funds. Mr. Barnett stated there were a number of options staff was recommending and costs involved. He recommended the rapid implementation and immediate action from AttachmentI items 3.a.i., 3.a.ii., 3.a.iii and to complete the analysis of existing illuminations levels and proceed with Item 3.a.iv if warranted. Mr. Barnett said staff was committed to the roundabout and making it work. Councilor Pishioneri stated he liked the recommendations. He would like to see targeted enforcement of the roundabout area and what grants might be available from ODOT for pedestrian safety. He asked about the annexation and when that would take effect. Mr. Barnett said the annexation was scheduled for July, with an effective date 30 days after approved. Discussion was held about targeting enforcement and if it was okay for the Springfield Police Department to actively enforce laws outside the City Limits. Councilor Lundberg stated she was fme with flashing beacons, but felt that cars going through the roundabout were more worried about cars in the roundabout than pedestrians. Signage wouldn't help, but flashing lights were more likely to get the driver's attention. She liked the landscape being kept under control to see when cars were coming. Mr. Barnett stated that the landscape did get out of control, but they were working on that. Councilor Wylie stated she liked the flashing beacons, but would like to see a full sized body be put on the sign. She discussed the art work being considered for the roundabout. Warning signs before the roundabout advising pedestrians of a crossing up ahead would also be helpful. She would like to wait for enforcement until the annexation was passed. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes June 8, 2009 Page 7 The Mayor asked if conversations had been held with Lane Transit District regarding flashing beacons and if they would have any impact on LTD's service. . Mr. Barnett stated they had not talked with L TD on what was being presented to Council this evening. They would need to work with L TD on how the flashing beacons worked and how they would need to be delayed if an L TD bus was trying to use the station. The Mayor expressed his concerns about the speed of traffic going into the roundabout from Pioneer Parkway to MLK Jr. Parkway. The bottom line was safety. He commended staff on the work they had done on this. Councilor Ralston stated he liked the suggestions. The number one issue was safety and we needed to comply with all the rules and laws. He was willing to look outside the box as long as they complied with State law. Mr. Barnett talked about rumble strips and said they were part of the evaluation. He was anxious to see the results of that evaluation. Mayor Leiken stated he would like to see staff work through this with whatever funding they had and to think outside the box. Mr. Barnett said fortunately, conduit had been already placed in the ground which would decrease some of the fmancial issues. City Attorney Joe Leahy confIrmed that Council concurred with the recommendations of staff. Upon receipt of the (NCHRP) 3-78 report, staff would work diligently to implement that report. That was correct. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:52 p.m. Minutes Recorder - Trudy Borrevik Attest: ~. Amy Eo ~ CJ\vtt.u ().? LA ~t'v. City Recorder