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Public Safety Committee Minutes 2008 07-24-08 APPROVED 8/21/08 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING Thursday, July 24, 2008, 6:00 p.m. City Conference Room In Attendance: Chairperson Rose Spears Alderwoman Robyn Sutcliff Alderman Wally Werderich Alderman Joe Plocher Other City Officials in Attendance: Lt. Don Schwartzkopf Deputy Clerk Lisa Pickering Lt. Rich Hart Guests: Tony Scott,Kendall County Record The meeting was called to order at 6:01 p.m. by Chairwoman Rose Spears. Presentation: None Minutes for Approval/Correction: Minutes from April 7, 2008, April 24, 2008 and May 30, 2008 were all approved with corrections. New Business: 1. PS 2008-24 Police Reports for May 2008 & 2. PS 2008-25 Police Reports for June 2008 Alderman Werderich noted that there had been a spike in seatbelt tickets for the month of May. He said that it was due to the Click It or Ticket. Chairperson Spears said that incidents involving battery were also up a little. Chairperson Spears also noted all of the thank you notes to the police department. She feels that the police department is doing a fantastic job. Consensus was to move the police reports forward to the August 12, 2008 City Council consent agenda for approval. 3. PS 2008-26 Request to Hire Part-Time Records Clerk Chairperson Spears stated that due to the increase in duties as well as implementing the hearing process, the police department is requesting a part time clerk to add to the records staff. She feels that this is a justified request. Alderwoman Sutcliff stated that she felt Page 1 that they were going to need help. Alderman Werderich asked if it was just going to be a clerk used for the adjudication process. Chairperson Spears said that they currently have an overflow right now. It would also be helping with other duties as well, including data entry. Consensus was to move this request forward to the August 12, 2008 City Council consent agenda for approval. 4. PS 2008-27 Additional Signage/Striping on Walsh Circle Chairperson Spears asked if anyone had any information on this item. Alderman Werderich said that this had been brought up at the May 30 meeting. He said that citizens that live on Walsh are concerned about people driving through to the shopping center. He feels that the citizens have a perception that people are speeding through that area especially near the park area. The speed studies show that people are not speeding in that area. Alderman Werderich had asked at the May 30 meeting if it was possible to perhaps stripe the road in that area to call attention to the fact that there was a park there. Lt. Schwartzkopf said that he had talked to the Public Works Director and the City Engineer and found that it is not possible to put different colors on the road. He stated that there are regulations regarding this and what we have there is what the fed and the state use. He also asked about coloring the curbs. The problem with colored curbs is that the curbs would have to be repainted. The color fades and over time it does not look good. Lt. Schwartzkopf mentioned that public works had posted another sign in the southbound direction. The only other signage that could be done would be if the neighbors in that area had their own sign made up. The neighbors could put the sign on a sawhorse and they would have to bring it out and take it down. The sign would have to be on someone's property. It cannot be on the right of way. Alderman Werderich asked if the city could put up a sign that said Children at Play. Lt. Schwartzkopf said that he would check with the public works department to see if legally the city can put up any larger signs. Alderman Werderich also asked if staff could contact the residents that came in to city council with their concerns and see if those residents were interested in participating in the citizen's hand radar program and also give them information about the signs. Lt. Schwarzkopf said that he would have Sergeant Groesch contact both residents. Consensus was that after Sergeant Groesch contacted the residents a follow up memo would distributed to the aldermen via the Admin Weekly. 5. PS 2008-28 August Public Safety Committee Meeting Date Chairperson Spears asked if there would be any objections to changing the meeting date since the KenCom quarterly meeting is being held on the same day. Consensus was for the meeting date to be changed to August 21, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. Page 2 6 PS 2008-29 Fine Schedule for Administrative Adjudication Chairperson Spears said that the city needed to adopt a fine schedule so that the city could offer the option of pre-payment. This will give people the opportunity to claim they are liable and pay the fine instead of appearing before the hearing officer. Spears also mentioned that she wondered if the city should add illegal fireworks to the fine schedule. She said that the Village of Oswego takes in approximately $10,000 in fireworks fines. The reasons for fining people are that most fireworks are very dangerous and additionally, the police department receives many calls about fireworks going off. Spears feels that if people know that they are going to be fined, that it will help eliminate some of the illegal fireworks. It was asked if the city had an ordinance in place for fireworks. It was discussed that the city does not have one, that the city currently goes by state law. Alderman Werderich said that since the city doesn't have an existing ordinance for fireworks that an ordinance for fireworks would need to be created first. He also wanted to caution that the alderman shouldn't look at putting this in place to make money for the city. They should look at it in terms of enforcement if someone is breaking a law. The purpose of the fine schedule should be to streamline the process and make thing easier for the city. It was discussed that the fine schedule was time sensitive and needed to be passed before the city could start the administrative adjudication process. It was asked if the fireworks could be brought back next month separate from the fine schedule. Lt. Hart mentioned that the city attorney wants to get the administrative adjudication process up and running and then she plans on doing a second phase that will include things like towed vehicles, loud stereos, and probably fireworks. Alderman Werderich asked what the timeline was on the administrative adjudication. Deputy Clerk Pickering said that it was approximately one month. She also said that the fine schedule would need to be adopted before the hearing process started. The alderman discussed that they would like to be more informed about the implementation of the adjudication process. Lt. Schwartzkopf will keep the public safety members up to date in the future. Alderwoman Sutcliff clarified that even if the fine schedule is adopted, that it doesn't mean that the police are only going to ticket citizens, she wanted to make sure that the officers would still be able to give out warnings. Lt. Schwartzkopf said officers would still be able to give verbal and written warnings. Consensus was to move the fine schedule forward to the August 12, 2008 City Council agenda for approval under the Public Safety Committee Report. Old Business: 1. PS 2008-22 Request to Purchase Lightening Detectors Chairperson Spears stated that Parks and Recreation Director Mogle was going to check with the Park Board and School District after the May 30 meeting to see if there was a way to share the costs. Lt. Schwartzkopf said the Director Mogle was at a Park Board meeting tonight and was unable to attend the public safety meeting. He said that Director Mogle was still working on this item. Schwartzkopf said that Mogle wondered if there was a remote type of sensor that could be brought to different parks. Lt. Schwartzkopf doesn't think that there is. Alderman Werderich asked if the city has, as part of our impact fees, a warning system charge. Lt. Schwartzkopf said that he thinks Page 3 that fee is for tornadoes. At the May 30 meeting it was brought up that the police department suggested that we place the lightening detectors at the two school park locations. Alderman Werderich mentioned that Director Mogle thought that was a good idea and he had asked if they could add detectors to other park locations or if the parks could be involved in funding that. Alderman Werderich feels that if the city has money available through impact fees, he doesn't want to tap into the parks fund. Consensus was to move this request forward to the August 12, 2008 City Council consent agenda for approval. 2. PS 2008-23 City Parks—Parking Concerns— Update Chairperson Spears and Director Mogle went door to door talking to residents about the parking concerns around the Prairie Meadows Park. Lt. Schwartzkopf said that the city is going to put no parking signs on the north side of the street. Chairperson Spears said that the residents were very receptive when they spoke with them. Spears said that they told the residents that the no parking area would be on the north side of the street because the park is on the south side and they don't want children running across the street to get into cars. She also mentioned that three of the residents that they spoke with mentioned that they would like a dog park. This was an informational item only. 3. PS 2007-43 Parking Restriction for East Kendall Drive This item was not discussed. Additional Business: Alderwoman Sutcliff said that a resident emailed her about large animals running loose. A couple of neighborhoods are worried that there are a lot of loose cats running around. She said that we do not seem to have any rules for cats. Lts. Schwartzkopf and Hart replied that it is the same for dogs—that they are considered animals at large. Sutcliff said that it is the residents' perception that the city is not enforcing our animals at large ordinance. She said that the problem is that cats are running around loose everywhere. Lt. Hart said that the biggest problem right now is that animal control won't accept cats. There is no where that you can take them to. The only way to deal with the problem is if you can find out who the owner is. If the animal doesn't have tags, that can be very difficult. Alderman Werderich commented that the police department probably doesn't want to be in the business of taking care of cats. He said that cats are outdoor animals compared to dogs. Alderman Sutcliff said that cats can be pretty vicious and that they kill a lot of wildlife. Alderman Werderich commented that maybe we should make it clear that the problem is not that the city is not enforcing the ordinance; the problem is that the ordinance is difficult to enforce. ----------------------------------- Page 4 --------------------------------- Chairperson Spears asked if the committee wanted to discuss the fireworks ordinance at next month's public safety meeting. She also asked if staff could put a copy of Oswego's ordinance in the public safety packets for them to look at. Consensus was to bring this item to the August 21, 2008 Public Safety meeting for discussion. ----------------------------------- The meeting was adjourned at 6:56 pm. Minutes respectfully submitted by Lisa Pickering, Deputy Clerk Page 5