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Home My WebLink About2015-05-26 PUBLIC SAFETYCITY OF SANTA ANA CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT MINUTES May 26, 2015 CALL TO ORDER: Ross Annex, Room 1600 City Hall, 20 Civic Center Drive Santa Ana, California 5:30 PM ATTENDANCE: Council Committee members: David Benavides Sal Tinajero Angelica Amezcua STAFF PRESENT: David Cavazos, CMO Carlos Rojas, PD Devin Leonard, OCFA Laura Rossini, CAO Doug McGeachy, PD Jason Viramontes, PD Ken Gominsky, PD Christina Holland, PD -Jail Bureau Robert Carroll, PD Ed Raya, City Personnel Ellen7-m-iley, City Personnel Eileen F. Greene, Recording Secretary PUBLIC SPEAKERS: Jeff Chapman Linnea Chapman Jeremy Bruce PUBLIC COMMENTS Jeff Chapman, resident, addressed Item No. 3 (Bees). Mr. Chapman gives a brief synopsis of how his three Australian Shepherd dogs were killed as a result of feral bees swarming from his neighbor's property. The neighbor had a beehive of Africanized bees that attacked and killed his three dogs. Mr. Chapman wanted to bring this incident to the attention of this Committee. Animal Control was understaffed, untrained and unprepared to respond to this type of incident. Linnea Chapman, resident, referred to item No. 3. It was a 15 -point process from when she found her dogs dead in her backyard to being able to have them removed 24 hours later. The dogs were killed as a result of the neighbor's bees. This is a public safety issue. Jeremy Bruce, vendor, Bee Busters states more information is needed on bee -keeping. The city of Santa Ana is not a place to keep Africanized bees that should be kept in wide open spaces. AGENDAITEMS 1. Approval of Minutes of 3-24-15 Meeting Motion: Approve the Minutes of 3-24-15 meeting. MOTION: Amezcua SECOND: Benavides VOTE: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Motion carries. Benavides, Amezcua None (0) Tinajero Committee member Tinajero joins the meeting in progress at approximately 6:OOPM. 2. Re-entry Program (Update on Re-entry Program of Recently Released Offenders With Community Stakeholders) — Jail Administrator Christina Holland {Strategic Plan Goal No. 1, 6f} Jail Administrator Christina Holland provided a power point presentation reviewing an overview of the Police Department's response to recently released offenders back into the community as part of the Strategic Plan. The Police Department partners with Santa Ana College to provide inmates with continuing education such as vocational business programs, state certificate programs and other life skills courses. Funding is provided by the college and the Santa Ana Jail Inmate Welfare Fund. The presentation cites other non -profits who provide services and resources for housing, treatment programs, food and clothing. The Orange County Re -Entry Partnership website provides links to public, community, and faith -based agencies and advocates. Re-entry services for employment were also provided. 3. Bees (Discussion Regarding Bee Incidents On Private Property and/or Public Property and Applicable Laws) — Deputy Chief Doug McGeachy {Strategic Plan Goal No. 11 Chief Rojas remarked that the Aminal Services issue brought up in Public Comments is being evaluated with a report coming to this Committee in the near future. Deputy Chief McGeachy supplied a power point presentation regarding bees and the current laws governing them. There is no state law prohibiting feral beehives on private property and no special permits to keep bees in the state of California or county of Orange. The Santa Ana Municipal Code prohibits bees within the city, except by special permit in the A-1 General Agricultural District. This discussion came about due to the attack and death of three Australian Shepherd dogs while in their backyard by a neighbor's bees. 4. Fireworks (Update on Enforcement for 4th of July) — Commander Ken Gominsky {Strategic Plan Goal No. 1, 2d} Commander Ken Gominsky delivered a power point presentation updating the enforcement plan for 4th of July. The anonymous tip line will be shared citywide via community outreach, social media and school flyers. Commander Gominsky shows has samples of the flyers for elementary school children, and posters to be placed around the city. A video clip is shown of the Public Service Announcement made by Santa Ana Police Chief Rojas and OCFA Captain Homer. The Department has already been receiving tips regarding illegal fireworks and undercover operations have begun. 5. Police Officer Body Cameras (Update on Status of Exploratory Committee and Department of Justice Grant Submission) — Commander Jason Viramontes {Strategic Plan Goal No. 1, if and 3b} Commander Viramontes provided a power point presentation with an update on police body cameras. The first community forum was held on April 30th. It was a small group of people made up of diverse backgrounds: political leaders, students, and local media and community activist groups. Topics discussed included benefits and concerns about the body cameras. There is more community forums planned with the arrival of demonstration pieces. There are 12 Federal grants available that the Police Department is looking at. 6. Downtown Video Project (Update on Planning, Implementation and Funding) — Commander Ken Gominsky {Strategic Plan Goal No. 1, lj} Commander Ken Gominsky discussed and updated the video project where the Downtown Santa Ana area will have video capabilities and customer service kiosks during his power point presentation. Video cameras will be mounted on City -owned buildings, traffic poles and in parking garages. Radio communication will provide wireless service of the video to the Santa Ana Police Department. The Department is in the final process of procurement and then it will come before City Council. Once the project is approved, it can be up and running in two months. 7. Community Policing Plan/Self-Assessment Tool (Update) — Commander Ken Gominsky {Strategic Plan Goal No. 1, lal Commander Ken Gominsky gave an update on Community Oriented Policing Survey. The power point presentation defined the goal of the survey as helping create a Community Oriented Policing Plan. There will be six steps: informal information gathering, compiling data and sorting into common themes, select an entity to co-author the COP survey, select a research partner, utilize the partnership to establish four community forums in each of the four policing districts, and finally have the research partner utilize data from all prior actions sent out via the City of Santa Ana and SAUSD resources, as well as social media. 8. Police Officer Recruitment (Update) — Police Admin. Manager Robert Carroll {Strategic Plan Goal No. 1, lil Police Admin. Manager Carroll dispensed a power point presentation which highlighted progress made since the beginning of 2015 as it relates to police officer recruitment. He discussed various resources that the Department continues to use to attract viable candidates. The Department also implemented different strategies and identified funds for marketing activities and recruiting candidates. Upcoming will be implementation and research of new software programs to increase efficiency. 9. Wage and Benefit Study (Discussion of Comparable Wage and Benefits of Police Officers) — Executive Director, Personnel, Ed Raya {Strategic Plan Goal No. 7, 4a) Ed Raya, Executive Director of Personnel, dispensed a handout addressing the results of a salary study. The salary study is a tool used when studying a number of positions to maintain who we are and the compensation we offer across the board with other cities in the county. Police officers picked the agencies that most resemble Santa Ana, including some cities outside the county that serve larger, diverse communities. Adding together Santa Ana's base pay and total potential annual compensation, the City of Santa Ana came up at being No. 3. Santa Ana is competitive in the marketplace with base pay average and total compensation a little above average. COMMITTEE MEMBER COMMENTS Chairman Benavides, Councilmember Amezcua and Councilmember Tinajero were in attendance to discuss the above agenda items. The Public Safety Committee was very supportive of the Police Department's re-entry program and different certificates available, this year's public awareness/educational campaign regarding fireworks, having community forums to discuss the issues of police body cameras, and enhancing public safety in the Downtown. Councilmember Tinaj ero was excited about the community policing plan but wanted to exercise caution with the survey because of the diversification of Santa Ana's population. The City Manager thanked the Committee for making Police Officer Recruitment a priority. Overall, the Public Safety Committee was complimentary and thanked the City Manager, Police Chief and the Chief of OCFA for all their hard work. I.T61KI `il► Councilmember Amezcua directed staff to create a Public Service Announcement regarding the dangers of having feral or Africanized bees. The Police Department will work on a public safety campaign with the owners of the dogs who were killed to raise awareness of laws and dangers. City Manager Cavazos agreed that the report would be brought back to this Council sub- committee. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS No future items identified. ADJOURNMENT — 6:59 P.M. CARLOS ROJAS Chief of Police