Public Safety Committee Minutes 2006 05-11-06 Page 1 of 4
APPROVED 6/8/06
PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE
YORKVILLE CITY HALL CONFERENCE ROOM
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Committee Chairman Rose Spears called the meeting to order,at 6:30 p.m.
Present
Alderwoman Rose Spears, Aldermen Dean Wolfer and Jim Bock, Police Chief Harold
Martin and Mayor Art Prochaska. Community members: Judy Johnson, Rich Johnson,
Carol Pickert, Janet Dhuse and Mary Unterbunmer.
1. Minutes for Approval/Correction—None.
2. Discussion of Parking Ban Referendum
Alderman Jim Bock said he believes consulting residents is a good idea when discussing
a possible referendum on the parking ban issue. Oswego did a survey before the city ran a
referendum by mailing with the city's utility bills. The city had a 40 percent return on the
survey.
Bock said it would be a good idea to talk to City Attorney John Wyeth about phrasing the
questions neutrally if the city were to send out its own questionnaire.
Chairman Spears said she'd like to obtain a map of actual streets and street names in each
ward. That way it would be easier to identify which streets are problems. Mayor Art
Prochaska said a map exists with the street names marked on streets,but it would be a big
map to try to provide aldermen.
He suggested that the city or committee look at policies. The city possibly could consider
allowing parking on one side of the street only if the street is a certain width. Or, he said,
in new neighborhoods, the city could try to place fire hydrants and mail boxes on one
side of the street and allow parking on the other side. But Spears said some people don't
want other cars parked in front of their homes. Prochaska said that no matter what the
city does, it won't find a solution that satisfies everyone.
As for a creating a referendum committee that would include residents, Wolfer said there
needs to be a way to select volunteers. The committee would like to have Wyeth help
draft some questions. The questionnaire likely will be sent out in the city's July
newsletter. Wolfer suggested having a committee formed so that it's ready to review the
survey results when they come back.
The committee decided to revisit the topic at the June 8 meeting,make some decisions
and bring it forward to the Committee of the Whole.
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Resident Rich Johnson thanked the committee for listening to residents. He said it shows
the governmental system is working.
3. PS 2006-25 Countryside Parkway—Address Changes
Resident Janet Dhuse said cost is her biggest concern on the address change issue. She
said she was informed that the address at her,business needs to be changed rather quickly
because the neighboring medical building needs an address.
However, Chief Martin questioned why Dhuse's business would need a Countryside
Parkway address.
Wolfer said Ken-Com officials were unanimous in agreement that the addresses on
Countryside Parkway need to be changed for safety reasons. Until the problem is solved a
message will appear on any call notifying the response team about the address glitches.
Spears said that Fire Chief Hitzman said the address should be changed but pointed out
that there are numerous address anomalies across the city. Also, Spears said she talked to
dispatchers at Ken-Corn who said they give crossroads with the calls, so the address
glitches shouldn't be a problem.
Mayor Prochaska said if the city does look at changing the addresses on Countryside
Parkway, it should change all of the improper addresses throughout the city.
Spears asked Chief Martin to contact City Engineer Joe Wywrot to inform him the
committee would prefer to correct all of the address problems throughout the city and
also that the Dbuse address shouldn't need to change.
The committee will update the issue at the June 8 meeting.
4. PS 2006-20 Police Reports for April 2006
The committee approved the reports and agreed to forward them to the June 6 Committee
of the Whole meeting on the consent agenda.
5. PS 2006-18 Request to Limit the Number of Liquor Licenses
Mayor said the city doesn't want to limit the number of licenses too much. Instead,he
said it might be better to look at performances rather than numbers. For instance, he said
the city could prohibit more than one liquor license for packaged liquor in a 100,000
square foot shopping center.
Spears said she'd like to have the city attorney look into what limits the city could put on
packaged liquor sales. The committee decided to discuss the issue again in June.
6. PS 2006-21 Trailer Ordinance
Chief Martin said this issue looks at trailers left unattended and not hooked up to a
working vehicle.
Page 3 of 4
Martin said the ordinance isn't aimed at contractors who are working at a job site..
Contractors often park a trailer while their working a come back to it as the job
progresses.
The spirit of the ordinance is aimed more at people who park trailers and leave them
while not working on a specific job.
Wolfer said sometimes if the trailers are parked in the streets, even ones that are at a
working job site, are sometimes hard to see. He wondered if the city could require
markings or something to make them more visible. Mayor Prochaska said he doesn't
have a problem with requiring the trailers to be marked with visible signals on the traffic
side of the trailer.
The committee decided to bring the matter to the C.O.W. on June 6.
Agenda items 7, 8, and 9 PS 2006-08, PS 2006-22 and PS 2006-23, all cul-de-sac opt-out
petitions were tabled because they no longer are pertinent.
10. PS 2006-24 Purchase of New Squads
Chief Martin said he'd like to purchase two new squad cars as soon as possible, one of
which is a K-9 unit..
The bid for the new K-9 car is for a 2006 Dodge Charger at the Illinois State Bid price of
$20,290.While the current K-9 unit is a Ford, Chief Martin said the Dodge could be
retrofitted and the allowance is in the budget.
Also, Chief Martin a new vehicle will be added to administration/investigation. The
winning bid was $18,866 for a Chevrolet,
The committee agreed to move the purchases forward to the C.O.W. on the consent
agenda.
11. Police Department Promotions
Chief Martin said the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners gave the department
approval to promote Sgt. Richard Hart to lieutenant and detective James Presnak to
sergeant. The promotions will be effective June 1.
Also, records clerk Shamim Hopkins will be promoted to records supervisor also
effective June 1.
All of the funds are approved in the FY06-07 budget approved by the City Council, Chief
Martin said.
The committee agreed to bring the promotions to the May 23 City Council meeting.
12. PS 2006-26 Police Department 2005 Year End Analysis
Page 4 of
Spears commended Chief Martin on the report report. Bock said he was struck by the
number of domestic calls the department responds to. Chief Martin said domestic calls
are one of the most dangerous calls officers receive.
The committee members also commended the police department for its number of
training hours.
The report will go to the June 6 City Council meeting.
13. Additional Business
Spears wondered if the city should enact a police fee for new construction so that officers
would be able to better patrol the construction sites.
Mayor Prochaska said as part of the administration fee on some of the larger
developments money goes toward police operations.
The meeting adjourned at 7:55 p.m.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Dina Gipe
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