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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/18/2002 Work Session . MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY, MARCH 18,2002 The Springfield City Council met in work session at Springfield City Hall, Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday March 18, 2002 at 5:01 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding. . ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Leiken, and Councilors Ballew, Fitch, Hatfield, Lundberg, Ralston and Simmons. Also present were City Manager Mike Kelly, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Kim Krebs, and members of staff. Guests: Steve Cable, Chris Pettit, Patrick Luciano, Steve Singleton, PPTF members, Captain Lewis, Captain Harrison, and Judge James Strickland, Presiding Judge, Springfield Municipal Court. 1. Staffing Information in Aid of Levy Decision. . Police ChiefJerry Smith was present for the staff report on this issue. He introduced the members of the Police Planning Task Force (PPTF) in the audience, as well as Judge James Strickland, Presiding Judge from the Springfield Municipal Court. He said tonight staff would be presenting a power point presentation, as well as other information, which may include information that the City Council has seen in the past. Chief Smith said obviously, increased calls for service and growth of the City has had impacts on the police department as well as all city departments. While staffing levels have increased modestly over time, these increases have merely returned the department to the 1980 staffing level following serious staff reductions. He referred to the slide show presentation and highlighted the inforniation which included: · Springfield Population by Year · Springfield Police Department (SPD) Calls for Service 1980, 1990, and 1999 · Police Staffing by Year · Staffing Level for Comparable Oregon Cities · Uniform Crime Index Rating (UCR) 1998, for comparable Oregon Cities · Crime Comparisons o Crimes against persons 12% o Crimes against property 67% o Behavioral Crimes 21 % · Service Gaps o 87,000 telephone calls - 20% unanswered o 56,000 calls for service - delays for non critical calls o Inability to investigate most misdemeanor offenses o Arrest decisions, release decisions, sentencing decisions, probation decisions, inability to recover finds are all affected by a lack of j ail capacity . Springfield City Council Minutes Work Session - March 18,2002 Page - 2 . o Police patrol has been relegated to primarily a reactive service, responding to calls rather than proactively interacting with the community & investigating crime . Proposed Levy Options . Potential Savings with Jail Capacity Chief Smith circulated a flow chart that reflected the Failure to Appear (FTA) Cycle. He explained the process beginning at the arrest ofthe defendant, to the FTA at the initial arraignment date in the Springfield Municipal Court. He said the statistics reflect approximately 60% of defendants FT A for their initial arraignment. Judge Strickland said that figure represents at a minimum out of roughly 2600 misdemeanor crimes filed, 965 of those defendants FTA at least once for their appearance in Court. He said it is at that time that the FTA cycle begins. Chief Smith said unfortunately, staffing increases alone are not likely to totally meet the needs of the city in the long term. The current single most critical problem in the criminal justice system is the lack of an adequate jail facility. The City of Springfield and the City of Eugene both have contractual arrangements with the Lane County Jail for municipal prisoners. Neither of the respective city's contracts provide for sufficient capacity to deal with the municipal issues. He said the City of Springfield currently pays $149,000 for the use of 5 beds at the Lane County Jail while the City of Eugene contracts for 17 beds. . Chief Smith said arrest, sentencing, plea-bargaining, and release decisions are all being influenced by the inability to hold offenders accountable through incarceration. He said the recovery of fines imposed by the Municipal Court is negatively impacted as a product of an ineffective jail system. Chief Smith said implementing the Long Range Plan or any other staffing increase for the Springfield Police Department alone does not solve the capacity issues of the Lane County Jail. He said many citizens do hold the police department accountable when offenders are quickly released from custody through the matrix system after their arrest. He said, in fact, despite the best efforts of the department, there is little that can be done to reduce the actual crime if we have done nothing to hold offenders accountable as long as there is insufficient jail space for criminal offenders. Chief Smith said again, the latest data reflects that 60% of individuals released from custody under the federally mandated matrix, FTA to appear in court as required. This creates a catastrophic problem in the system by increasing the workload and time commitments of every aspect of the criminal justice system. He said an ongoing need, which must be addressed in the future, is the construction of a new public safety facility, and a serious consideration towards including a municipal jail with sufficient capacity to impact the crime rate in Springfield and the workload of the Police Department. . Chief Smith referred to Attachment 5 of the Agenda Item Summary (AIS), and said the City of Springfield commissioned Advanced Marketing Research Inc., in December, 2001 to conduct a survey of the community to assist in determining voter behavior regarding a variety of public issues including incr~asing police officers for patrol and building a new municipal jail. He said of the citizens surveyed, between 64% and 74% of the respondents' support or lean toward support for additional police officers. When asked about support for a municipal jail, support Springfield City Council Minutes Work Session - March 18,2002 Page - 3 . fluctuated between 34% and 64%, depending upon the question asked. He said it was interesting to find out that 31 % of the people surveyed, had called the Police Department during the preceding 12 months for service. Chief Smith said if the Council was to consider the possibility of a Levy, for every 5 cents levied it would generate approximately $112,500. Chief Smith said staff prepared some options for council to review and, discuss, those options are: O{ltions- 1. Submit a levy proposal that enables the full implementation of the Long Range Plan with enhancements to the Municipal Court and the City Prosecutor. Personnel enhancements include: Staffing Cost . 8 Police Officers 5 community Service Officers 6 Records Clerks 1 Communications Officer 2 Court Clerks .1 City Prosecutor Clerk Increase in Municipal Judges time TOTAL $ 560,000 $ 275,000 $ 252,000 $ 60,000 $ 84,000 $ 30,000 $ 26,000 $1,287,000 2. Submit a proposal that is essentially one half ofthe Long Range Plan: Staffing Cost 4 Police Officers 3 Records Clerks 1 Communications Officer 1 Court Clerk 1 Prosecutor Clerk TOTAL $ 280,000 $ 126,000 $ 60,000 $ 42,000 $' 30,000 $ 538,000 3. Develop a funding mechanism to construct a public safety facility that incorporates a municipal jail to create efficiencies that offset present and future staffing needs for the police, courts, and prosecutor. Cost Public Safety Facility Jail TOTAL $20,000,000 $ 8,000,000 $28,000,000 . 4. Maintain Status Quo and submit no levy to voters to improve police services. Springfield City Council Minutes Work Session - March 18,2002 Page - 4 . Chief Smith highlighted the key elements of the Levy Options 1-4. Finance Director Bob Duey responded to funding questions of the council. Judge Strickland highlighted his efforts in managing and tracking the warrant activity and probation violations in the Springfield Municipal Court. He said he is actively working the number of Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants (DUll) warrants and considers that a high priority. He described the types of crimes and prisoners that are difficult to keep in custody at the Lane County Jail due to the matrix and overcrowding of the facility. He said he is convinced that when a defendant is sentenced or put in j ail for the first time and kept there until bailor a fine is paid is the time that friends and family will come to their aide. The ability to hold individuals until bail is posted or a [me is paid would create an unfavorable environment for criminals, and will increase available officers time to provide services to citizens, as opposed to repeating previous work or booking prisoners at the jail. He believes this would nearly eliminate the PT A problem for municipal offenses and increase revenues to the city. Councilor Hatfield said a discussion came up recently at the Public Safety Coordinating Council about two ofthe pods at the Serbu Youth/Jail Facility. He said those two pods are currently vacant and not being used. He asked if there were any chance that the county or the city could take advantage of those beds as well. . Judge Strickland said he talked to Judge Leonard approximately a year ago regarding that very issue. He said adult and juvenile prisoners couldn't be housed together. He said the Serbu Facility does not have separate housing and, therefore, housing them together would violate state law. Chief Smith highlighted potential cost savings with an increase in jail capacity. The council discussed some different jail and staffing options related to the size and capacity of a new jail facility. Chief Smith said the lack of jail beds is creating a lot of extra demands, not only for this city but other jurisdictions as well. He said staffing needs would not be nearly what they were if the jail were able to handle the capacity that is needed. Councilor Hatfield said if we increase police activity all we are going to do is increase the jail problem as well as the intake problems. He said he believes there are two issues that need to be dealt with 1) capacity, and 2) intake. Chief Smith said he believes there is a third issue or component that needs to be dealt with and that is "calls for service". Mayor Leiken asked if the City of Medford had ajail? Chief Smith said he wasn't sure if Medford had a j ail now or not. . Mayor Leiken said this is a growing community and ultimately we must prepare ourselves for a much larger community. He asked the council to look forward and explore the option of building a new jail facility. As Mayor he would be supportive of a levy to build a new jail facility. He Springfield City Council Minutes Work Session - March 18,2002 Page - 5 . said it is imperative that we look at this for the long-term, not just look at the band-aid option, or short-term prospective. He said this community has prided it self with planning that works. He said he has been in favor of Option 3, developing a funding mechanism to construct a public safety facility. He talked about the next 10 years from an economical standpoint. Councilor Ralston said he has always supported an Option 1. But reducing the officers to six instead of eight would reduce it by $140,000.00, and then reduce the records clerks to four, which would reduce it by an additional $120,000. He said that would then bring the total down to IMillion, and make it easier to digest for the citizens. He said he too agrees with the Mayor and Councilor Hatfield that we would be spinning our wheels if we supported Option I, without supporting Option 3. Councilor Fitch asked what the additional cost would be on insurance if Springfield had it's own j ail facility? Chief Smith said he does not have that answer currently, but was hoping council would support the National Institute of Corrections to assess space needs, and long term financing strategies for the city. He said the answer to Council's many questions should be answered in that study. He highlighted the steps that the NIC would take in order to report back to staff and council. Councilor Fitch said she supports the study. . Chief Smith responded to a question of Councilor Lundberg regarding the school officers and funding of that program. ' There was discussion regarding the duplication of programs, and how to better utilize the Community Service Officers, and freeing up time for the sworn officers to be on the street. Judge Strickland responded to questions related to priority hold prisoners. The council discussed the need totake this subject back to PSCC for discussion, that this issue cannot be solved solely by the Springfield Police Department or the City of Springfield. Councilor Ballew commended the police department staff on their report. She said she is not opposed to the NIC study as long as they feel it would be beneficial. , After further discussion, council consensus was to go forward with the study from the NIC, and directed staffto bring back the fmdings ofthat study as soon as they are available. 2. Floodplain Issues - Gateway Area. City Engineer Al Peroutka was present for the staff report on this issue. He introduced, Ann Byer, from Department Land Conservation Department, State Floodplain Program Manager. Mr. Peroutka referred to the wall chart outlining the current work plan. He said that work plan includes: . · Informational meetings · April 8th, public input meeting before the council- He said staff is suggesting to council that a public input meeting be scheduled for April 8th to fulfill an obligation regarding Springfield City Council Minutes Work Session - March 18,2002 Page - 6 . allowing the public to have input regarding this discussion, and to provide the council with that other side of the picture and information about the flood plain · Current work with Corps on an advanced measures investigation on the revetments; · FEMA cooperative project on flood plain mapping. He said FEMA would not have the funding available for this project until October 2002 at the earliest. He said that might set things back a little. He said FEMA is going to be working through the state in setting priorities for doing their studies, so city staff will also be working with the state as well. Mr. Peroutka said there are a few items not currently on the work plan that will eventually need to be added. 1 ) for staff to do all the work analysis and fit into the department work program, i.e. The ESA response in terms of flood plain management, and that work still needs to be scheduled; 2) Peace Health Master Planning to actually do some restudy of the flood plain in that area by looking at existing and future conditions, and what effects that might have. Ms. Byer, said her position was funded under a cooperative agreement with FEMA, and FEMA funds this type of position in every state in order to coordinate with local governments to make sure the flood insurance programs are being administered effectively in each state. She said she would be reviewing the minimum regulations of the National Flood Insurance Program, as well as state regulations. . Ms. Byer said the National Flood Insurance Program was adopted in the early 1970's, and provided a brief history of the theory of the program when it was adopted. She said the idea was to make sure that people could buy flood insurance, but in exchange for that if they were going to build in flood plain areas, they had to take particular precautions. In order to implement that, the National Flood Insurance Program informed local governments who were best able to administer flood plain development. They told local governments that if they adopt a flood plain development ordinance that meets the minimum standards of the National Flood Insurance Program, they would provide flood insurance to citizens in the local communities at the federally subsidized insurance rate. Ms. Byer said Oregon has a statewide planning goal, which is Goal 7 that deals with natural hazards. She said included in the state wide planning goal there is language that says "if local governments do the minimum National Insurance Flood Insurance program requirements, then you are ok for Goal 7 flood insurance purposes". She said 100% of flood prone communities in Oregon have elected to participate in the flood insurance program. She said communities in Oregon have all adopted ordinances that meet the National Flood Insurance Program regulations. She said the minimum National Flood Insurance Program regulations don't preclude flood plain development. It states if a person develops in a flood plain you must develop to certain standards. For example: · Residential- homes must be elevated above the flood level; · CommerciallNon-Residential- elevate or somehow flood proof the structure; Ms. Byer said development in the flood plain is ok, but again certain precautions must be taken. She said that is where the local flood plain ordinances mirror the National Flood Insurance Program. She said there are many other requirements as well for utilities, anchoring buildings, and basically doing smart flood plain management. . Springfield City Council Minutes Work Session - March 18,2002 Page - 7 . Ms. Byer said part ofthe National Flood Insurance Program is the Flood Insurance Rate Maps that reflect where the 100-year flood plain is. She said FEMA developed those maps in the late 1970's, and updated in the mid 1980's. She said those maps are now out of date, and FEMA is trying to obtain additional resources to re-map areas. She said from the state prospective, they would like FEMA to focus and correct some of the inaccuracies in 1996, as well as focusing on the growing areas as new development occurs it are protected, as well as protecting existing areas. Councilor Fitch asked since the focus would be on those' areas, would it be better for the City of , Springfield, or would that place us lower on their priority list? Ms. Byer said there have been changes in the hydrology in Springfield since 1994 as a result of new development, and that would place Springfield higher on the list. She said she has asked FEMA to focus on the Willamette Valley, Portland, and some ofthe coastal areas due to the large amount of rain. Ms. Byer said if a developer is willing to help fund the FEMA updating in a specific area, which would raise the area on the priority list for mapping corrections. Councilor Simmons. said in response to Ms. Byers' statement regarding changing hydrology. He referred to a letter from FEMA in a previous discussion, there was a statement that said there was no change in hydrology in the McKenzie side of Springfield. He said there might be hydrological changes that have occurred because of growth, hillside development, etc. . Ms. Byer said it would be important for staff to raise those issues with FEMA, look at the changes that have happened in this community since the maps were prepared. She said it is worth looking at all of the data that the city has available and again bring those issues up with FEMA. Ms. Byer said there are other state requirements that apply to .flood plain development. She said the State Building Code is more stringent than the minimum regulations. She said the National Flood Insurance program establishes the minimum requires, and state and local governments can always go beyond those minimums. She said a number of jurisdictions have gone beyond those minimum federal regulations. She highlighted the different ways in which communities have gone beyond the minimum federal regulations. Ms. Byer said if a local government adopts stronger limitations than state law they may get in trouble with Ballot Measure 7 issues? Since Measure 7 has passed, many jurisdictions have adopted more stringent hazard development. She said there are incentives for adopting more stringent standards that go beyond the insurance rates may be reduced for homeowners. Insurance savings from 5 - 20% for flood insurance. Ms. Byer said as a risk assessment, it is important to determine what the city is attempting to protect, is it life, property, or access from flood damage. She said these are the questions as a community that needs to be identified. She said as community leaders this is the information that needs to be determined, and will help in deciding how stringent the regulations should be. . Ms. Byer talked about balance, cut and fill, and the advantages and disadvantages of this technique, and highlighted what other communities have done in the different areas She said that FEMA is currently looking at the fill issue as it relates to compliance with the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA)4dRule. She said they know Springfield City Council Minutes Work Session - March 18,2002 Page - 8 . that fill in a flood plain is not good for fish, so FEMA has proposed a model Ordinance to NMFS to say if communities adopt this model ordinance, is it good enough? She said FEMA and NMFS &re still having discussions about that and are waiting to see if this would be an acceptable approach. She said generally NMFS likes to review issues on a case-by-case basis, where FEMA had hoped that the model could be used throughout. She said again, fill in the flood plain is a big concern for a number of reasons, 1) causes loss of flood storage, 2) issues for fisheries. Councilor Simmons said the model ordinance is currently under consideration from NMFS. Mr. Peroutka said the work session is nearing the end of the discussion, and asked the council for any final questions, and said that Mr. Joe Weber from FEMA would be present at the next work session meeting and would be providing information surrounding the model ordinance. Al said with the little time left, asked the council how they chose to use the last few minutes. Planning Manager Greg Mott said in response to a question related to undeveloped land located within the floodway and floodway fringe, staff has prepared an inventory of that land. He referred to an overhead map as well as the information contained in the Council Briefing Memorandum (Attachment A) in the staff report. He responded to questions of the council related to the map and staff report: . Mr. Peroutka apologized to council for not being able to address all the issues related to the . Gateway area. 'He asked council for direction on scheduling a public input and gathering meeting on April 8th related to the flood plain issue. Consensus of the Council was ok to hold a public input and gathering meeting. Mayor said all of the council has been indoctrinated on the Gateway issues because it has been a very popular area of this community for a number of years. He said it is important that these floodplain discussions take place. He said because of what is coming from FEMA in the future, these informational meetings would be important. Discussions will include not only the Gateway area, but all other areas of the Springfield community as well. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:05 p.m. \. Minutes Recorder - Kim Krebs ~ Kim Krebs, City Recorde .