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Public Safety Minutes 2004 08-26-04 Page 1 of 7 APPROVED 12/9/04 WITH CORRECTIONS UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE Public Safety Committee Meeting Thursday,August 26,2004 6:30 PM City Conference Room In Attendance: Chairman Alderman Kot Alderman James Alderwoman Ohare Alderwoman Spears Mayor Prochaska Police Chief Harold Martin Guests: Officer Jonathon Helland-City of Yorkville Barbara J. Dettmer-City of Yorkville, Dept of Bldg Safety W A Dettmer-City of Yorkville,Bldg Dept The meeting was called to order at 6:34 pm. Approval/Correction of Minutes: July 22,2004: The committee approved the minutes as amended. Police Reports—July 2004: Chief Martin stated that the Department is now going to be doing an informational sheet every month for training to give a better picture of what direction the Department is going and where the money is being spent. Alderwoman Ohare pointed out that there was a considerable amount of increase in the amount of pages in the report. Chief Martin stated there were a lot of reports made in July. He stated now there is 1,405 reports to date and last year they had only 1,650 reports for the year. Alderman Kot stated there was an increase in burglaries on the incident reports for offenses, he questioned if there was anything major going on in the community. Chief Martin replied that most of the burglaries are to vehicles, and all but one of the vehicles was unlocked. The officers are patrolling constantly to keep an eye on that issue. They did have an increase in overtime with investigating due to a burglary that occurred at Unified Supply. They are still exploring the case and have a couple of suspects. The offenders did damage to vehicles inside the building that were unlocked along with trashing some offices. Chief Martin noted that there was also a burglary at an Antique place in the City, but the owners did not allow the police to process the scene due to the dust they used. This caused the police to not collect any more information. 1 Page 2 of 7 Alderwoman Spears stated public complaints increased as well. Chief Martin stated most complaints were regarding either dogs,ATVs,or the miniature motorized scooters. Chief Martin stated one of the Officers had to give a ticket to a young man who had been warned numerous times for riding on the street. Chief Martin went over the Leads Report explaining that the Department successfully passed the Audit done by the Leads Agency as far as the Department complying with the rules and regulations. Sergeant Diederich is in charge of these compliances being followed and had every thing in place for the audit. Out of 30 rules,the Department only had 16 that applied to them and all were in compliance. Chief Martin gave praise to Sergeant Diederich for doing such a good job keeping the Department in line. Chief Martin pointed out a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice giving the Department a thank-you for having there canine involved in a previous search done in Cook County. Officer Andrew Jeleniewski was involved in the search done in the Lansing area. The Department also received a thank-you from the Yorkville Citizens Police Academy for hosting the Pork Chop Fundraiser. The City of Plano sent a thank-you for letting them use the Dare car and being in the Sesquicentennial parade on June 26, 2004. Chief Martin went over a letter he sent to Officer Barry Groesch for his involvement with the Educator's Police Academy and the Neighborhood Watch Program. Chief Martin stated had congratulated him for continuing to work so well in these areas. Chief Martin included news clippings that spoke about the good work they are doing. Chief Martin stated in the clippings it was shown that Officer Delaney had read at the Library to the kids. Chief Martin stated that the Department did put out the advertisement for the position of a full time Records Clerk. He stated that the internal posting led the part time clerk to apply and passed the testing and requirements. The Department hired her on as of August 16, 2004. The Department will now put out a posting for her previous position of a part time records clerk. Chief Martin stated that they require 50 wpm typing skills with 2years experience and 60 credit hours of college in that area. The Committee moved to send to COW on 9/7/04. Fire Works Ordinance: Alderman Kot invited guest speaker Mr. Dettmer to speak regarding this issue. Mr. Dettmer started by stating approximately 2 years ago he came before this Committee suggesting to the City to prohibit the sale of fireworks in the community. Sergeant Diederich and Mr. Dettmer are the ones who have been in charge of going out to the tents 2 Page 3 of 7 that sell in the City. He is approaching the Committee again to prohibit the sales of fireworks in the City due to the hazards both the Officer and him are seeing. Mr. Dettmer stated that the standard has been changed that they have to use a United Nations standard as a basis of weight in explosives. The standard that is set for fireworks is 1.4grams/ 1.3 grams in checking each box. He stated the boxes are no longer written in Chinese and they are marked with the new standards in mind. As Sergeant Diederich and him started developing there inspection technique and going thru every single package,he pointed out that they found over 50%of the items the City told the vendors they could not sell were found. Mr. Dettmer passed around pictures of the products found at the tents that were not allowed by the City of Yorkville to be sold. He added that the vendors kept trying to pull more things on them. Mr. Dettmer stated that it is known that approximately 24,000 fires are started by fireworks outside and there are approximately 8,000 injuries when dealing with fireworks. Most of these injuries happen to children. He pointed out to the Committee that a fountain firework burns at approximately 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Mr. Dettmer explained that as they package these items they are coming in with a higher explosive value to them. He went over that this past season there were two tents up and one of them opened without following the rules. The Sergeant and Mr. Dettmer do everything methodical to do everything identical to make it fair for all. They had to close the tent down at that point and found in the tent they were selling numerous items not allowed. Mr. Dettmer explained that by being a building inspector he is involved in this area due to his military experience with explosives and having been in the fire service. He stated the policing over the tents and the sale of fireworks is a constant for the City by allowing these sales. The Police Department had to do constant patrolling as well. Mr. Dettmer stated that this previous season they even had to speak with one Vendor's Attorney. When they explained the City's position,the Attorney agreed to listen and help in the removal of the restricted fireworks. He explained to the Committee the eagerness for these Vendors to sell restricted fireworks. If they get those thru,the City will end up dealing with the Court end if there are any injuries. Most other Communities do not allow the sale of any fireworks for these safety issues. Mr. Dettmer offered his time to the City to help in setting up the law to prohibit these sales any longer. The Committee agreed that there is no need for the City to allow the sale of fireworks any where due to the safety and the constant policing necessary to handle correctly. They asked that this new ordinance be ready by the next Public Safety Committee Meeting to be approved. 3 Page 4 of 7 The Committee questioned Chief Martin on how the Law works with people getting the fireworks elsewhere and bringing them into the community. Chief Martin replied that the Law allows people to possess them, they just cannot use them. DARE 2003/2004 Survey: Chief Martin stated that the Department had received the results and the kids were mostly positive about the program The kids involved are Kindergarten, 3`d, 5d', and 7d'grades. Alderwoman Spears questioned why the program is not run in the High School grades. Chief Martin stated it was due to funding issues, but the Department is just glad to have it running so well in the lower grades. Alderman Kot added that with the lack of funding,he understands why the program is losing interest. He urged Chief Martin to keep the citizens informed on how the program is going for the youth. Chief Martin agreed to this important issue of showing the public that the City is behind it. Chief Martin also stated that they located a class for one of the new Officers to attend. The class will be in Springfield Missouri and will be an 80 hour class. They have to go so far for classes due to the State of Illinois having stopped funding for training. Police Cadet Update: Officer Helland approached the Committee to discuss the policy and procedure for running a Cadet program in Yorkville. The policy mirrors Aurora's policy which has been running well since 1997. He also did a breakdown of how much it will cost the City to outfit a Cadet. The cost will be approximately$750.00 which is more than half the cost of a normal Officer. The City will have all items returned upon any Cadet leaving the program as well. Chief Martin stated they will only start with having one Cadet until the City has more of a need with the work load. Officer Helland informed the Committee that the Cadet will go for 2-3 years, due to the Cadet being required to be attending College full time while in the program The policy states the Cadet will have to attend Waubonsie Community College so that the Cadet does not have to spend time on travel more than necessary. Alderman Kot asked if the Labor Attorney had a chance to review the Policy and Procedures yet. Chief Martin stated that it is still in the infant stages to get this program running. Chief Martin also stated they are looking to get the program going by the next budget year. Officer Helland thought the only timing issue will be the budget year with the School semester beginning. The Committee all approved this process to continue and urged Officer Helland to have the Attorney look over and approve the policy by the next Public Safety Meeting. Neighborhood Watch Update: Chief Martin stated this is regarding Media information out of the newspaper and block parties that have happened as an FYI for the Committee. He continued by saying that the Riverfront block party will move forward. Chief Martin 4 Page 5 of 7 also said that the Fox Hill neighborhood is moving along. The Department has tried to break the groups down into smaller numbers to help them work easier. Chief Martin thought there are approximately 10-12 groups running now. Business Registration/False Alarm Ordinance: Chief Martin opened discussion with showing the committee different packets from other Communities as far as their business registration and how they handle False Alarms on there buildings or homes. Chief Martin stated that it is not unusual for the Department to handle 3 or 4 alarms to go off on one shift. The examples provided show the Committee the different fees other local Communities charge after so many different False Alarms go off at one place. With the fees in place,people tend to fix the problems that caused the False Alarm faster to save the Police and/or Fire Department time and money from going out when not needed. Chief Martin spoke to the Committee regarding how big of an issue it is with the constant calls to the School with alarms always being set off. The Department will look into talking to the School Board to help resolve this issue and work it out. The Committee asked Chief Martin to look back six months to chart how many False Alarms have occurred to show the Committee how much money could come into the City from setting up fees and to show how much time and money has already been spent on False Alarms. Chief Martin will have this information ready for the next Public Safety Meeting, as well as having a draft of an ordinance for Residential & Business for the False Alarms. K-9 Dog Run: Chief Martin went over the memo on the Proposal for an outside Canine dog run for when they need to be out of the vehicles. The proposal from McCoy Construction Co. is estimating the cost to be not more than$2,760.00 for a IN x 14ft run. The Committee questioned if funds were available at this time. Mayor Prochaska stated that the Moose was just inquiring what they could donate money to the City for. He felt this would be the perfect project for that. It was also suggested to write a letter to the FBI for assistance. Chief Martin will look into the donations and bring back the results to the Committee at the next meeting with the results. The Committee will send this to 9/7/04 COW as a FYI that they are contingent as long as funding is found. FBI Academy Attendance: Chief Martin informed the Committee that he was invited by the Supervisor out of the Chicago FBI Office to attend the Academy in July for 10-11 weeks in Quantico, Virginia. The Committee thought this is a great compliment for the Chief and a great opportunity for the City to have a Chief with such intense training in charge of the Department. The 5 Page 6 of 7 Academy is offering Chief Martin Master's Level Training which will specialize in higher command personnel. Chief Martin stated there is no guarantee he will be able to attend, but with the Committee's strong approval will try to move forward and attend. Additional Business: • Alderwoman Spears stated she had received a complaint regarding the sidewalk that runs high above the west side of Rt 47 just south of the river. The citizen found it was crumbling every where and felt quite uneven, especially trying to push the stroller. Mayor Prochaska suggested putting a call into IDOT explaining how unsafe it is for the citizens. • Chief Martin informed the Committee about a Breakfast with the Seniors he had attended along with four of the other Officers. There were 50-60 seniors there and it was a great event. • Alderman Kot questioned if the Culvert grate had been installed yet. Chief Martin stated he will find out if Eric Dhuse had that complete. • Alderman Kot questioned if there was any thing ready to continue with the Liquor Ordinance yet. Mayor Prochaska stated that Chief Martin and he had met with Dan&Kelly last Friday to have them put together some information by the next meeting. • Alderman Kot also stated he spoke with Officer Groesch about having the State come in and doing an Anti-Drug presentation. He asked Chief Martin if he had received any update about that. Chief Martin stated it was moving along well but not for sure. Alderman Kot stated that he had spoken to the School and they had talked about tying it in with the mandatory requirement with doing extracurricular activities at school. If it is to happen this fall, Mr. Kot would like to move forward quickly. • Mayor Prochaska brought up the issue of why the speed limit is 55mph out west of Cannonball, yet Oswego has a 40mph limit with a four lane road with few driveways. Chief Martin will put a call into IDOT to find out how Oswego qualified for that low speed limit. • Mayor Prochaska also stated that in the paper it was run that the City did run a liquor sting and the City did have 3 sales go thru that are being dealt with. • Chief Martin added that in the paper today was a call from the Police Department asking the Trucks to slow down or else there will be consequences. The Committee discussed on having the next meeting October 7, 2004 to set up there meetings for the first Thursday of the month. The meeting was adjourned at 7:58pm. 6 Page 7 of 7 Minutes by: Sheila Teausaw 7