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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-07-22 PUBLIC SAFETYCITY OF SANTA ANA CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT MINUTES July 22, 2014 CALL TO ORDER: Santa Ana Police Department Ross Annex, Room 1600 City Hall, 20 Civic Center Drive Santa Ana, California 5:30 PM ATTENDANCE: Council Committee members: David Benavides Michele Martinez Roman Reyna STAFF PRESENT: David Cavazos, CMO Carlos Rojas, PD Devin Leonard, OCFA Laura Rossini, CAO Ken Gorminslcy, PD Tanya Lyon, CMO Karen Haluza, Planning & Building Alvaro Nunez, Planning & Building Pete Semelsberger, PD Phil Kraft, PD Eileen F. Greene, Recording Secretary PUBLIC SPEAKERS: Carolyn Torres Irma Macias Madeleine Spencer Rose Finnegan Albert Castillo Gabriela Hernandez Olivia Arzate PUBLIC COMMENTS Carolyn Tones, resident, directs several questions to the Comm-nittee reference item No. 4 (Community Oriented Policing) and how effectiveness is measured. Irma Macias, resident, is concerned with homeowners being allowed to convert garages to living quarters. She believes it causes other problems such as parking for vehicles. Madeleine Spencer, resident, is concerned about the history of community- oriented policing and what structural changes will occur under the new Chief of Police. Rose Finnegan, resident, says many homeowners are not paying homeowner insurance because single - family dwellings are not allowed to have people living in the garage. Homeowners and home renters put as many families in a home to make money to pay rent /mortgage. This is abusive, need to work together to find a solution for these people. Albert Castillo, resident, speaks on two issues: living in garages and community policing. Mr. Castillo said at one time, he was lived in his parents' garage. He said lie also lived in garages of other family members, it isn't always other people. Families help each other out. Mr. Castillo says residents want to work together with the police. He believes the gang injunction is doing the reverse. The community needs a voice in the process, not just the DA's Office. Gabriela Hernandez, resident, says that regarding community oriented policing: same goals whether police, community organizers or therapists — we want a safe, healthy community. Community policing can bean empty promise. No transparency on the injunction. Olivia Arzate, resident, is upset about an incident when her son was arrested and how he was treated by the police. She said that he was beat up by four officers. Chief Rojas responded and said the Police Department does have video of the incident. He assured Mrs. Arzate that the Professional Standards Unit is investigating the conduct of the officers. AGENDAITEMS 1. Approval of Minutes of 6 -16 -14 Meeting Motion: Approve the Minutes of 6 -16 -14 meeting. MOTION: Martinez SECOND: Benavides VOTE: AYES: Martinez, Benavides NOES: None (0) Motion carries. 2. Briefing on Garage Conversions, Illegal Residential Construction and Pre -Sale Inspections — Interim Executive Director, Planning & Building, Karen Haluza (Strategic Plan No. 5, 4D). Ms. Haluza provides a handout with background information about garages and the laws the City has on the books as it relates to garage conversions. She explains that Planning & Building has been doing research and analysis with OCFA and Code Enforcement regarding garage conversions and illegal occupancy. There have been five fires since April 20, 2012, to June 19, 2014 with no history of deaths or injuries from garage conversions. Ms. Haluza states that garage conversions create an unsafe situation, and this topic is a top priority of the City's community preservation program. Garage conversions also affect the quality of life in areas as it relates to parking issues, overcrowding, and deteriorated landscaping. Code Enforcement responds when the City gets complaints, however, some neighborhoods don't complain due to the percentage of illegally occupied garages. Community Preservation Coordinator Alvaro Nunez explains the process the City takes: 1) receive complaint; 2) letter sent to property owner; 3) educate them on requirements; 4) schedule an inspection; 5) they are given due notice; 6) apply fines. 3. Recruitment Efforts (Update on Hiring at the Police Department) — Police Admin. Manager Robert Carroll (Strategic Plan No. 1, 111) Police Admin. Manager Robert Carroll has a handout updating recruitment efforts for the Police Department. Currently there are 24 police officer vacancies, primarily the result of retirements and promotions. A subcommittee has been developed to identify best practices and improve processes when recruiting police officers. One change is to rum continuous recruitments for police recruits /officers on -line and to have a strong web presence. The Department is also working on a recruitment video, marketing material, and holding job fairs. The long term strategy is to create a recruitment pipeline using the Police Department's own explorers, cadets, and other personnel. The number of Background Investigators has increased to assist with the amount of applicants. 4. Community Oriented Policing Overview (Police Department's Current Policing Program) — Commander Gominsky (Strategic Plan No. 1, 1A) Commander Gominsky gives an update on current efforts regarding the Police Department's community oriented policing strategy. Although the Police Department can check on what best practices are nationally, we need to go out and engage with the community to see what they believe community oriented policing should be. We heard about restorative justice; a lot of people believe it centers around the cop on the street. We will be using a survey that we send out to the community, with the timeline using the same process that the City used for the Strategic Plan. The outreach process will begin in approximately one month. Resources available currently are the Jose Vargas Community Affairs office in the City Hall building, the teen /parent academy and junior COP academy. The two academy programs were in jeopardy because of budget cuts. We partnered with Latino Health Access, who by way of the California endowment funded those programs. We are at the end of the Grant but looking at ways to keep those programs and extend them City -wide instead of just in the endowment areas. GRIP program: we no longer have one officer assigned, but our directed teams have moved forward with it. As was mentioned with the previous item on recruitment efforts, we are putting together a pipeline with our Explorers program which builds character. Our Cadet program is the begirming stages for possibly becoming a dispatcher or cop in our city. 5. Homeless Effort Overview — Interim Executive Director, Planning & Building, Karen Haluza (Strategic Plan No. 5, 3D) Ms. Haluza introduces Alma Flores who has been spearheading the staff working group at City Hall regarding the City's plans for addressing the homeless issue. Ms. Flores explains that on July 15th, the County Board of Supervisors approved the acquisition of a shelter site at 1217 E. Normandy which is in the vicinity of McFadden /Grand, a 23,000 square foot facility located in an industrial area for a homeless shelter. Moving forward with community outreach regarding this project with a meeting scheduled for July 28th. This is part of a larger regional approach in alignment with the City's Strategic Plan and the County Commission to End Homelessness. 6. Marijuana Dispensary Enforcement Plan - Staff (Strategic Plan No. 5, 4E) Interim Executive Director Karen Haluza says there have been some new developments, and the City Council authorized funding for active enforcement as it pertains to medical marijuana dispensaries. A task force comprised of members of Planning & Building, Code Enforcement, the Police Department, and the City Attorney's Office met last week. A decision was made that no matter what happens in November even if voters decide to allow a certain number of dispensaries, enforcement efforts will continue with illegal dispensaries. Chief Rojas explains that one of the missing components in dealing with the dispensaries was that previously the Police Department was not enforcing criminal statutes of the municipal code and prosecution of that enforcement. The Department is now doing enforcement, and Chief Rojas asks Commander Gominsky for an update on these enforcement efforts. Commander Gominsky explains that enforcement efforts were conducted mainly at those dispensaries operating illegally on E. Garry and E. Edinger Avenues. Citations were given for owning, managing, conducting, operating or being an employee, contractor, agent, or volunteer. Two security guards were also cited for working out of compliance with the Business & Professions Code. The Police Department and Code Enforcement conducted a second operation with dispensaries that were operating near schools. Both of these enforcement efforts yielded 42 people taken into custody. A few items of interest: looking on -line at Weed Maps.com, the dispensaries that were targeted were listed as being closed but that they would re -open the next day. A review of the 42 arrestees' addresses indicated that only five lived in Santa Ana. There are no medical clinicians on the premises of any of these dispensaries. Commander Gominsky also talked about Dabs, which is a concentrated form of cannabis/hashish. The appellate courts, as well as an Attorney General guideline, say it is legal to possess Dabs. New case law addresses how it can be concentrated. Dabs are either manufactured by butane, like methamphetamine, or a water system. The courts have pled that if you are manufacturing dabs using the same procedure for methamphetamine, you can shut clown the operation. However, it is not illegal to possess, sell, or smoke a dab. Only to manufacture because of Health & Safety concerns about butane, open containers, explosions, fires. Reyna if you come across somebody that is not supposed to be manufacturing, are they required to let us know where they acquired it? COMMITTEE MEMBER COMMENTS On Recruitment Efforts: Michele Martinez suggests using Tanya Lyon, the new Communications Manager for the City, to assist with marketing strategies for recruitment. Also to use wrap - around ads on buses, billboards. Roman Reyna feels some of the recruitment tools being used are standard, we need to see what young people today are looking at, even if we need to reach out to college students to ask thern what that is. Roman Reyna concerned with residents in garages who have no family ties have little resources that's why they are there. Benavides want people to have a dignified to live besides converted garages, best practices, other options, look at Costa Mesa, look at pre -sale requirements. On Community Oriented Policing: Chairman Benavides says there are many programs available in reference to community oriented policing; however, this item needs to be brought back to Council once the survey is completed with feedback from the community. The idea of community oriented policing involves training, developing a culture. The vision of community oriented policing should show how we are defining it. A philosophy and a culture will dictate what programs you should have. As a City, we will strive to provide excellent customer service no matter what the circumstances of the contact with the public are. In the future, Chairman Benavides would like to see how we measure the effectiveness of some of the programs offered by the Police Department. He also wants the Police Department to work with the City's new Communications Manager when doing outreach to the community. Michele Martinez wanted to know how some of our programs are funded, from grants or Department - funded? She said we want to be sure we are allocating fiords strategically, and we should make assessments on current ones to see which are successful. Perhaps we can keep some or merge them together. We may also want to partner with other agencies. Committee Member Roman Reyna agrees with community oriented policing, but we need to have that trust factor with the community or the program will not be effective. On Homeless Efforts Overview: Chairman Benavides states that there will be an RFP process in hiring an operator, and the City needs to be on board from the beginning. He says there has been talk of a check -in center, a transitional housing area possibly at the Transportation Center, before going over to the approved site at Normandy. We want people to have a dignified place to live besides converted garages. Look at best practices, other options, pre -sale requirements. The City of Costa Mesa did something recently regarding this issue, need to look at what they have done. Michele Martinez comments that the community forum in the beginning of July was not appropriate because all the non - profits that attended were speaking, without giving the actual residents an opportunity to give their own input. Residents don't want to hear about the programs the non - profits have to offer, they are concerned with this issue being in their own backyards. As the City moves forward with true community engagement, Ms. Martinez believes the residents should have time to voice their concerns instead of setting up a bunch of presentations from other groups. She also wants to make sure we provide dignified housing for residents in Santa Ana. Homeowners can take advantage of those people who live in converted garages, and we do not want these people to become homeless. We should be using people like Scott Kutner and Margarita Macedonio from the Community Development Agency as a resource. Committee Member Roman Reyna said he believes that some of the residents were upset that so much of the process had already taken place prior to their involvement. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Garage Conversion Discussion ➢ Recruitment Process ➢ Patrol Deployment Modeling ➢ Restorative Justice ➢ Transgender Community 9 Street Sweeping ➢ Towing Contracts ➢ Myrtle /Townsend, the area around KidWorks ADJOURNMENT — 7:40 P.M. CARLOSROJAS Chief of Police