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Police Advisory Commission Minutes 07-15-2009MINUTES MONTICELLO POLICE ADVISORY COMMISSION Wednesday, July 15, 2009 7 p.m. Boom Island Room Monticello Community Center Members Present: Brad Fyle, Dick Slais, Tom Perrault and Jim Roberts Members Absent: None Ex- Officio Representatives: Lt. Dan Anselment -Wright County Sheriff's Department Bruce Westby - City Engineer Others Present: Jason Roubinek — City resident/PAC applicant 1. Call to Order Commissioner Fyle called the meeting to order at 6:58 p.m. It was noted that a quorum was present. Commissioner Roberts arrived at 7:02 pin (following approval of meeting minutes). 2. Approval of minutes of April 15, 2009 Police Advisory Commission meeting. COMMISSIONER PERRAULT MOTIONED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE APRIL 15, 2009 POLICE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING AS WRITTEN. COMMISSIONER FYLE SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY (3 -0). 3. Consideration of adding items to the agenda. Commissioner Slais — Many drivers do not stop for STOP signs. Commissioner Perrault — When will special Police Commission meeting minutes be presented for approval? Commissioner Roberts — Has one more application for vacant Commissioners seat. 4. Wright County Sheriff's Department updates / O &A session. Lieutenant Ansehment updated the Commission on several items including: • Introduced Deputy Erik Knoop who will be working the afternoon shift in Monticello. • Distributed and discussed speed data taken by Deputy Miller on West River Street. Data indicates speeding is not an issue on West River Street, which supports the results of speed data gathered by the City. • The Wright County Sheriff s Office is not recommending an increase in law enforcement service hours for 2010 since crime has generally not been on the rise. • In response to citizen complaints Sheriff's Deputies recently visited some "persons of interest" living at a residence in Monticello, and in following up on their visit it appears those persons have since moved out of the City and things have quieted down. Police Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes July 15, 2009 Page 2 • Things were generally quiet at RiverFest again this year, and that only one incident occurred during the street dance. NO FORMAL ACTION REQUIRED /TAKEN. 5. Review of 2010 budget for Wright County Sheriff's Department. Mr. Westby asked the Police Advisory Commission to provide a recommendation to the City Council regarding the number of hours the City should budget for law enforcement services in 2010. In 2009 the City of Monticello contracted with the Wright County Sheriff s Office for a total of 18,980 service howl, which equates to 52 hours per day. Commissioner Fyle asked whether any other cities the Sheriff's Department contracts with reduced their hours for 2010. Lieutenant Anselment indicated that the other cities all opted to stay with their current hours and that none had reduced their service hours for 2010. Based on comments made by Lieutenant Anselment, including those made with the previous agenda item, the Commissioners all felt it made sense to contract for the same amount of hours in 2010 as the current 2009 allotment. COMMISSIONER PERRAULT MADE A MOTION TO RECOMMEND TO THE CITY COUNCIL APPROVAL OF LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICES FOR 2010 AT THE SAME AMOUNT OF HOURS DEFINED IN THE 2009 LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRACT. COMMISSIONER SLAIS SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION WAS UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED. 6. Update on efforts to develop Sheriff's Office space within Monticello Community Center. Mr. Westby informed the Police Advisory Commission that staff recently met to discuss the office space needs for the Sheriff s Deputies, and that this is part of a larger issue regarding the office space needs of all City staff since any work space provided for Sheriff's Deputies must be located within a city -owned building per the contract language. Mr. Westby then noted that Lieutenant Anselment was also in attendance at the meeting and that he might be able to provide further insights, but based on the outcome of the meeting a decision on the location of their office space would not likely be made for several months. Lieutenant Anselment reminded everyone that their deputies are currently working out of the Fire Hall and that while things are going okay at present he fears there could be some potential data privacy issues looming due to the amount of foot traffic near their work area and the fact that they do not have a locked office to keep their paperwork secure. Lieutenant Anselment informed the Commission that a probation officer is also working out of the Fire Hall which is not the ideal location for such work. Lieutenant Anselment also noted that he would be worried about what the public's perception would be if they saw squad cars parked in front of the Community Center should they be relocated there. For that reason he would prefer that their office space be located in the Town Center office behind the liquor store on Walnut Street, if at all possible. NO FORMAL ACTION REQUIRED /TAKEN. Police Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes July 15, 2009 Page 3 Update on application for Economic Stimulus Funding for development of Wi -Fi application in conjunction with FiberNet Monticello. Mr. Westby informed the Commission that the City recently learned that the FiberNet project will not qualify for economic stimulus funding. However, the Commission should be aware that this does not mean that the FiberNet project will not move forward, including the development of a Wi -Fi application for mobile emergency services and law enforcement personnel. NO FORMAL ACTION REQUIRED /TAKEN. 8. Update on current River Street / TH 25 access modification pilot project. Mr. Westby informed the Commission that City staff was hoping to have some resolution to this item by now, but that City staff was recently contacted by the newly formed Monticello Downtown Business Association who requested that we meet with them to review our plans for the intersection before presenting those plans to the City Council for approval. Staff will therefore be meeting with them this week to review our plans with them, and to receive their input related to traffic considerations for the downtown area. NO FORMAL ACTION REQUIRED /TAKEN. 9. Update on applicant search for vacant Police Advisory Commission seat. Within their agenda packages each of the Commissioners had received a copy of the lone application the City had received to date to fill the vacant Police Advisory Commission seat. The applicant, Jason Roubinek, was in attendance at the meeting in case any of the Commissioners had questions for him. At this point Commissioner Roberts presented another application to the Commission for their consideration. It was then discussed that since nobody had an opportunity yet to review the new application that this item should be tabled and discussed during a special meeting to be held in the near future, and that the application process should be closed as of today to avoid receiving any other applications between now and the special meeting. COMMISSIONER ROBERTS MADE A MOTION TO CLOSE THE APPLICATION PROCESS EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, AND TO HOLD A SPECIAL MEETING ON THURSDAY, JULY 30TH AT 7 PM FOR THE PURPOSE OF INTERVIEWING THE TWO APPLICANTS. COMMISSIONER FYLE SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION WAS APPROVED BY A VOTE OF 3 TO 1 WITH COMMISSIONER PERRAULT VOTING IN OPPOSITION. 10. Discussion of added items. Drivers not stopping at STOP signs: Commissioner Slais commented that he is seeing more and more drivers running STOP signs and he is wondering what the Sheriff's Department can do about this safety issue. Lt. Anselment responded that everyone seems to be in more of a hung these days so drivers are becoming less considerate to others, including other drivers and pedestrians, in order to save time. He indicated that they do ticket drivers who run STOP signs when they see them, and outside of that there isn't much else they can do. Police Advisory Connnission Meeting Minutes July 15, 2009 Page 4 Special Police Advisory Commission meeting minutes: Commissioner Perrault noticed that the meeting minutes from their special meeting on May 20`1' weren't included in their packets this time and was wondering when the minutes would be available. Mr. Westby indicated they will be presented for approval at their next regular meeting. Additional application for vacant Police Advisory Commission seat: See item #9 above. 11. Schedule next meeting. The next regular Police Advisory Commission meeting will be scheduled at the special meeting scheduled for July 30, 2009 per item #9 above. 12. Adiourn. MOTION WAS MADE TO ADJOURN BY COMMISSIONER FYLE AND WAS SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER PERRAULT. MOTION WAS APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY AT 7:54 P.M. L Bruce Westby, City EngineZf Recording Secretary