Public Safety Minutes 2004 11-15-04 Page 1 of 6
APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS
1/13/2005
UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE
PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING
MONDAY,NOVEMBER 15,2004
6:30 P.M.
City Hall Conference Room
Committee Members Present:
Chairman Alderman Kot
Alderwoman Spears
Guests:
Mayor Prochaska(arrived 7:15 pm)
Police Chief Harold Martin
The meeting was called to order at 6:32pm by Chairman Alderman Kot. The Committee
will be looking over two Committee packets this evening due to the previous months
meeting having been cancelled.
1. Approval/Correction of Minutes: August 26,2004: Alderman Kot asked if there
were any corrections needed to the minutes at hand. With no corrections necessary the
Committee moved to approve the above minutes as written.
2. Police Reports—October 2004: Alderman Kot reminded those present that the
previous month's updates had already gone before the last COW. Chief Martin stated
that some of the items like#6
 didn't need to be discussed this evening do to them
already moving through the COW already. Alderman Kot stated that they could touch
base on those anyway this evening to stay with the agenda before them. Alderman Kot
then stated that the September police reports went as consent agenda from the last COW
meeting.
As far as the October Police Report, Alderman Kot stated he had a question regarding the
new Department Report for the Racial Profiling the Department put together. Chief
Martin walked the Committee members through the report explaining that this report
covers a large time period and shows that the Yorkville Police Department is not
profiling when it comes to policing the area. The only non-Caucasian ethnic group that
had some of a percentage shown is the Hispanic and the group agreed this is due to the
large Hispanic population from the surrounding areas like Plano and Aurora. Alderman
Kot and Alderwoman Spears agreed that the dates these figures were tracked from should
be put into the report as well to go into public record. Chief Martin will have his staff get
that properly marked for the Committee. Chief Martin added that the software used to
track this information was slightly pricey,but it does work in conjunction with the
software the State uses.
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The Committee looked over the letters that came in the packet with the actual reports.
Chief Martin stated he likes to put these in to show the Committee what kind of feedback
and support the Officers receive from doing their job.
Chief Martin stated that he wanted to point out to the Committee that he placed in the
reports a Memo to show all the training that the different members of the Department has
been involved in over the last three months. He went on to say they are doing a lot of
home-land security training. Some of the officers will be going to Louisiana soon and
then again to Colorado next year to continue this training with home-land security. He
added that all the funding is taken care of by the Federal funds except for the hourly pay
which is minimal for the City to have to cover for this kind of training.
Alderman Kot questioned if Officer Delaney was finished going through the crash
reconstruction class. Chief Martin stated that they had accomplished what they set out to
handle and he can be sent out to reconstruct the accident for the Department. Chief
Martin added that they are working with the Oswego Department in sharing the
Departments Officers with this expertise so that there will be someone on hand when
needed. Alderwoman Spears asked if they can send out Officer Delaney to go out and
assist if Oswego has an accident they can use help with. Chief Martin stated this was part
of the trade off that Oswego and Yorkville are trying to keep flowing between the
Departments to keep the information fresh and help the Officers learn more as well.
Chief Martin stated lastly he is greatly pleased with the cooperation between the
Departments and how everything works.
3. Liquor Ordinance Update: Item tabled due to City Attorney unable to attend.
4. Look at Raising the$250, 1"Time Offenders Fee for Alcohol License Holders:
Item tabled due to City Attorney unable to attend. Kelly Kramer is looking for
information to bring to the Committee to show justification in doing this.
5. Fireworks Ordinance: Item tabled due to Mr. Dettmer is still working on this item
and unable to attend tonight's meeting.
6. Business Registration Update/Alarm Response Update: Chief Martin started by
showing the Committee the amount of Alarm Calls recorded.
603-Total Calls
78-Residential
401-Business
124-Schools(majority) and Government
Chief Martin feels that the City should move forward with this plan and get with Kelly
Kramer to get ready to bring something back if the Committee feels warranted. Chief
Martin explained they should move forward due to having more than one a day and a
handful of the callers/place of call are the majority of the total for the year tracked. He
feels that with some penalty of a fine would solve this constant need and save the
Departments time. The Committee members present agreed that this should move
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forward as well. Chief Martin will have Kelly Kramer bring this item back with an
ordinance to the Public Safety Committee for next month's meeting.
7. K-9 Dog Run Update: Chief Martin updated the Committee to where the work
stands in having a K-9 Dog Run built for the Departments dogs. He stated that the slab is
poured and he stated that Sgt. Ron Diederich and Jay McCoy plan on finishing the project
this coming weekend. Chief Martin added that the Department had the original total of
$2,800.00 to build they had that cost knocked down to just under$1,000.00. The
Department then had$1,500.00 donated by the Moose Club. Chief Martin stated he is
pleased with the outcome of the project. Alderman Kot asked if next month they can
have an update on how well it is working for both the Officers and the K-9's.
8. Police Cadet Update: Chief Martin stated that they are still working on this issue, but
still have final touches to put on before presenting again to the Committee. He would
like to have this set for the next budget year. He will try to bring this forward in February
then to have it passed by this Committee and then on to City Council to have ready for
the first of next fiscal year.
9. COPS Universal Hiring Process Grant Update: Chief Martin stated that they still
haven't received any funds from the Grant,but the Department is still in the running. He
stated that there is not much money in the program right now, so the Department will not
be counting on the grant from this.
10. Meeting Date/Time Memo: This item came from the last scheduled meeting where
they changed the meeting date and time. No future action necessary.
11. Generator Update: Chief Martin stated that the generator should be received by
next weekend to be scheduled to put in. Alderman Kot asked why this keeps getting
pushed back. Chief Martin responded he did not have the answer to why it does keep
getting moved. Chief Martin went on to state that the old pad has been removed and the
new pad has been poured. He pointed out that the new pad was moved slightly in order
to save a tree. The Committee stressed they were not impressed this job kept getting
pushed back, but they hope now that the schedule to have this finished next weekend will
be nice to see.
12. Thor Guard Lightning Detector Update: Chief Martin explained that there had
been a problem with the Detector, but is now completely repaired. The City did have a
temporary detector to use while the original was out being repaired. The warranty did not
cover the work that had to be done in this situation. They have had to have the detector
repaired twice since purchasing the detector, which is a good considering all that can
happen to it on top of the building. Chief Martin stated that with all the problems the
building has experienced with the electrical system may have something to do with it as
well. It cost approximately$400.00 for the repairs to be done. Chief Martin did
recommend continuing the warranty coverage on the detector to be safe. Alderwoman
Spears asked who would do the work or help the City out if the main contact were out of
the area and could not be reached. Chief Martin stated he would look into that. Chief
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Martin stated also that he does not know much about the actual detector, he did know that
this one is one of the most reliable on the market. Chief Martin also stated that the funds
are budgeted and available for the warranty renewal.
13. Crossing Guard Update—Route 126&Mill: Chief Martin explained to the
Committee that the Schools had changed the ending time and this change was allotted for
in the budget. He stated that due to the schools being released at different times the
guards are on duty up to 1&1/2 hr longer depending on where located. He stated that one
guard has gone from$25.00 per day up to $50.00 per day since that guards' time needed
has doubled. The other guards have been compensated accordingly too. Due to this time
change the Department only had enough budgeted for the time that was used the year
before. Chief Martin explained to the Committee that the funds will be paid out of
contingency funds which will be plenty to cover this unexpected cost with the guards.
Chief Martin stated that this change has been put in the revised budget. Chief Martin
again stressed he would not be comfortable to take these funds out of the overtime funds.
14. Request for Budgeted New Police Officer on/or before December 1,2004: Chief
Martin stated to those present he was hoping to have a full quorum to discuss this issue.
The schooling dates originally planned for this position has already been missed. He
went on to tell the Committee that the next schooling will start on January 3, 2005. He
stated that they still have a chance to be able to move this forward for that schooling.
The Committee discussed the time frame necessary to get the new hire in to that
schooling. They could hire by the 14''of December to make that schooling session.
Alderwoman Spears suggested making a revision to tomorrow's COW agenda to get
through sooner. The Committee discussed what steps needed to be taken exactly
considering that this has already gone before the Committee and is a budgeted item to be
paid for. The group came to the conclusion that since there are no changes to the date of
hiring or what they are hiring for that Chief Martin can take action in hiring the new
officer.
15. Request for Supervisor's Position & 16. Projection of Needed Staff Increases
for Fiscal 2005/2006: Chief Martin explained to the Committee that they were looking
at the hiring process he has set up as far as projecting the positions that will be needed for
the next fiscal year. He explained that they want to keep the 2.3 officers per 1,000
citizens' ratio as the City grows. He wants to be able to get people on line starting May
1, 2005, being 4 new officers to join the force. With hiring four more officers that will
bring the Police force total number of officers up to 27 working officers on staff. Right
now Chief Martin has stated that on the interested candidate list there are no applicants
that have previous experience which will involve more time for training and schooling.
Alderman Kot stated that if the Department can justify the need for all these hiring's to
take place he is all for staying ahead of the work load that will come with the growth of
the City.
Chief Martin moved into the explanation of the promotions he is looking to give with the
current staff they have now. He stated that when he gets his people back from school,the
2 new officers they got back as of Friday and will hit the streets in the FTO for
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approximately 10-12 weeks depending on performance. At that point then he would like
to have their two individuals permanently as Detectives and will replace the current
individuals who are on the street,which are Officer Stacey Friddle and Officer James
Presnak. Those two then will become the new Investigators. Officer James Presnak is
presently doing this position due to working on day shift and they have enough work to
keep him busy with more and more coming in too. He is also looking to promote from
within to run the investigative unit. This will be the next person on the list and
essentially will be up to the Board of Police Commissioners to do the promoting. Chief
Martin will still have to go through COW, then City Council to have the positions
Okayed. If this follows through as planned the Police Department will have a complete
investigative unit with 2-Detectives, 1-Sgt in charge and 1-CPAD Officer(not shown on
list provided by Chief Martin).
Chief Martin stated that towards January of 2006 he is looking to also look for help as far
as administration goes to lessen the load for Lt. Don Schwartzkopf and himself. Chief
Martin stated he does more Administrative than operations,but he could definitely cut
down on some hours. Alderwoman Spears at this point questioned if Chief Martin had
looked into increasing the number of secretarial workers along with the increase of
Officers. He stated he had that issue considered, but would like to wait until the
springtime when the secretarial workload is less and the current staff could take sufficient
time to work with the new person for proper training. Alderwoman Spears advised Chief
Martin not to wait until the staff is completely overwhelmed and then throw a new person
into their work load to train and then not be able to train properly. Chief Martin agreed
with that and they all thought a good plan he had set out. The Committee agreed to move
this onto COW on 12/7/04 to move along to help put together the new budget.
Chief Martin stated he was ready for COW for part of the plan and he stated it wouldn't
have to move forward until the next meeting and he was now here to fill the Committee
in on what his plans to do were. The one to hire in April would be what he wants to take
to Committee now and move forward on that from there.
Mayor Prochaska arrived at 7:15 to join the meeting.
17. Proposal to Purchase Digital Video Recording for Squad Cars: Chief Martin
explained to the Committee that the VCR system that the Department is using now is
going to be obsolete soon. The vendor that the Department is currently using has
equipment to replace their system and start the Department in using a Digital recording
system. By doing this it will no longer cause trunk space to be used up by recording
equipment as well as it holding the past three hours of taping at all times in case of an
Officer being involved in an accident or needing taping ability when not expected. Chief
Martin went on to explain that you can offload the information into a tower system that
will take information directly from the hard drive to the tower and then you are able to
use that information. The Department's tape storage is becoming massive and by
switching over to Digital this will not be an issue anymore. Chief Martin will be bringing
the actual fund amount needed to do the switch over for the next meeting. The
Committee discussed the importance of doing this and how it has been beneficial to other
local Departments that have already made the switch. Chief Martin also informed the
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Committee that the Department already has the funds to do this switch for the rehab of
the new squad car;the only extra expense would be the tower unit. Only one tower unit
would be necessary to take information off of as many Digital Recording units that the
Department ends up having. He stated that he believed for the tower unit and the
installation would be approximately$4,000.00-$5,000.00. The unit itself he thought
would cost about$2,000.00 more than a VCR unit. The Committee asked Chief Martin
to bring this back for the next meeting with the figures and maybe even a brochure for the
Committee Members to look at. Chief Martin replied that he could do that, plus he might
even be able to borrow an actual unit from Aurora to have the Committee look at.
18. Additional Business:
• Chief Martin stated he had Officer Ray McColowsik and Pat McMahan graduate
from PTI Champaign. He went on to state that Ray got the Academic Award with
98.7%average on testing and also the Shooting Award with 100% for firearms.
Chief Martin stated he was impressed by this outcome.
• Alderman Kot asked if the culvert grate that was discussed in a previous month's
meeting had ever been installed. Chief Martin replied that it was done the week
after the last discussion.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:22 p.m.
Minutes By: Sheila Teausaw
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