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Minutes for the Public Safety Committee meeting on October 18, 2005.
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PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MINUTES
October 18, 2005
The Jonesboro Public Safety Committee met October 18, 2005, at 4:45 p.m. in the City Council Conference Room of the Huntington Building located at 900 W. Monroe, Jonesboro, Arkansas. Present were: Jim Hargis, Harold Perrin, Tim McCall, Judy Furr, Mitch Johnson, Mayor Doug Formon, City Clerk Donna Jackson, Staff, Press and Audience. Councilman Chris Moore was unable to attend.
Acting chairman Tim McCall opened the meeting at 4:45 p.m.
PRESENTATION BY POLICE DEPARTMENT
Police Chief Michael Yates presented the committee with a proposal to purchase new police vehicles. He discussed the take home vehicle program, which allows the police officers to take their police vehicles home. Chief Yates added a policy would be set up regarding how the cars would be used and maintained and who would be able to take them home. He further informed the committee that the take home program would help ensure accountability of the vehicles since if only one person is using the vehicle and something goes wrong with it, then the department will know who is responsible. He also stated that police officer recruitment might be increased, as well as officer moral. He estimated that 39 of the department’s 90 vehicles have hit or will hit 100,000 miles within the next twelve months. Chief Yates also explained 55% of the current fleet is “hot seated”, which means the vehicle is in use during every shift each day. Hot seated vehicles usually go through a 36,000 mile/3 year warranty within eight months due to the excessive use.
Chief Yates proposed moving the department to the take home policy and purchasing 50 new police vehicles. He suggested utilizing a capital lease purchase program to finance the purchase of the vehicles. The four year plan would cost approximately $418,000 a year, while the 5 year plan would cost approximately $334,000 each year.
Chief Yates discussed the response time to incidents increasing with the take home program. Right now, there is no way for Jonesboro to simultaneously deploy the police officers. The officers have to travel to the department, to a staging area, get their equipment and then proceed to the incident. The current response time in incidents is 45 minutes to an hour. With the take home program, the response time is cut down to 20 minutes.
Chief Yates noted that the expense of the capital purchase program is not different from the amounts that have been spent each year for vehicle purchases. He added that in addition to the purchase program, 5 to 10 vehicles would need to be purchased each year starting in 2007. He explained that although there are many good points to the purchase of the vehicles and the take home program, there are some drawbacks. There would be an increase in fuel charges, as well as an increase in insurance for the vehicles. He also stated the additional cost for AVL units for the new fleet would be offset by the lower than estimated cost of computers and computer setup for the vehicles.
Chief Yates also presented the committee with a draft of a policy regarding the use of take home vehicles.
It was questioned whether purchasing 29 vehicles instead of 50 would get rid of all the vehicles over 100,000 miles. Chief Yates agreed it would, but it would not get the police department out of the hole they’re currently in with the vehicles.
A monthly report was given out to the committee members. It was reported the department has $11,000 of forfeitures, with another $8,000 ready to go in the account. In addition, two pounds of ice were taken off the streets earlier that day.
PRESENTATION BY FIRE DEPARTMENT
Fire Chief Aaron Keller presented the committee with a five-year strategic plan to correct the current deficiencies in the Fire Department. He informed the committee that ISO had sent the department a survey to fill out. ISO will compare the responses with that of the previous complete survey in 2001 and send the department the red flags they found. After that, they may make contact to set up a visit.
Assistant Fire Chief Leonard Jadrich explained what GIS and ISO use to rate the city’s Fire Department. He reported they currently do not meet deployment objectives, performance objectives for the needed number of fire stations, or performance objectives for ladder companies. He gave an example of the time it takes fire trucks to reach certain areas of the city, like Ridge Pointe. For a truck to reach a home in Ridge Pointe from Station 5, it would take approximately 9 minutes. But, he added the big point is that one truck with two people is not very effective. For a second truck to arrive from either Station 2 or Station 4, it would take approximately 15 minutes. He explained 5 people is a minimum by NFPA 1710 to perform all the needed functions at a fire. The Fire Department can reach 81% of the roads with 5 people there within 8 minutes. He stressed 8 minutes is critical in fighting fires since after 8 minutes, flashover occurs and the fire will spread.
Assistant Chief Jadrich further explained for a full alarm response, there should be at a minimum, 15 people. At this time, the Fire Department can only respond to a full alarm with at least 15 people only 38.7% of all roads within 8 minutes.
He went on to explain Jonesboro is currently an ISO rating of 3. ISO has a standard response time of 3.2 minutes; while Jonesboro’s current response time is 5 minutes.
According to ISO standards, there is a need for four new fire stations with a fifth station being needed in approximately four years. In addition, a ladder company is needed around Station 4.
The ISO study concludes 32.39% of Jonesboro’s total square miles is covered. The ladder company coverage is 31.14% of Jonesboro. If the City’s ISO ratings increase, the homeowner’s in the City limits will see an average homeowner’s insurance increase of 25-35%, according to Farm Bureau for each rating above 3. In addition, Town and Country reported an increase of 10% for commercial insurance for each rating above 3.
Assistant Chief Jadrich explained if the fire stations are added, along with the new equipment and personnel, the City will comply with ISO ratings as well as GIS ratings.
Questions arose concerning who issues the ratings. Chief Keller explained ISO is a company hired by insurance companies to get a formula and rate the departments. He further explained that the City last sent them information four years ago. He added that the information being sent in right now is not for a rating, just for information. But, if red flags come up, ISO may require a visit and rate the City.
It was questioned how long the Fire Department has before needing to comply with the standards to avoid a higher rating. Chief Keller indicated the Fire Department will have 90 days to make a plan for improvements and then will have another 18 months to comply before a rating change will occur.
Questions also were raised concerning whether there was a firm that could conduct a study as to what the City needs to do to conform with ISO and GIS ratings. It was asked if someone from the Fire Department or the Mayor’s office could conduct an analysis what the homeowner’s insurance increase would be on homes in Arkansas. Points were made that the people in Jonesboro would either have to pay a tax to pay for the new stations or pay an increase in homeowner’s insurance.
MINUTES
Councilman Johnson moved, seconded by Councilman Hargis to accept the minutes as provided for the September 20, 2005, meeting. All voted aye. Minutes were provided to all in attendance of the meeting.
ANIMAL CONTROL
Officer Terry Veal provided the committee with a monthly report for the Animal Control department. He reported that he had driven fewer miles last month because he was on vacation part of the time and also went away to a seminar. Another officer had driven less miles as well because he was gone to help with Hurricane Katrina clean-up.
Officer Kim Johnson explained that the wording of the vicious dog ordinance needing to be changed because it’s easier to have a vicious animal as opposed to a dangerous animal, which allowed for some animals to go straight to vicious instead of being deemed dangerous first. Officer Johnson discussed one recent situation where an animal attacked and bit two children and had the correct ordinance been in place, the animal could’ve been characterized as a vicious animal and been humanely taken care of quickly, as opposed to being deemed dangerous and then having to go through the court process to deem the animal as vicious. The ordinance was prepared by City Attorney Phillip Crego and was presented at the recommendation of the ad hoc committee. Councilman Hargis moved, seconded by Councilman Perrin to present to full council the ordinance redefining a vicious animal and the penalties for harboring a vicious animal. All voted aye. The ordinance was to be placed on the City Council agenda for the night of October 18, 2005.
Councilman Hargis presented a mosquito control report from Vector. The report indicated Vector will continue to service the city through October and then do their annual maintenance and clean-up in November. The report stated that a total of 2, 209 gallons of adulticiding chemicals were used in 2005 with 12, 276 miles sprayed at an average of 4.7 spray nights per week. It also showed the yearly light trap average was 12.6 and the yearly control trap average was 124.5. It was also asked for the mayor to contact a professor at ASU whose field is entomology and zoology. It was suggested the professor may be able to help the City find out what can be done to better service the City in regards to mosquito control.
E911
A September 2005 status report was presented from the 911 Communications Center. It reported 3, 547 911 phone calls and 19, 412 administrative phone calls. The police department had 7,434 calls, the fire department had 88 calls and EMS had 236 calls. The total number of calls processed in September was 33, 805.
Councilman Perrin updated the committee on the tower. The tower is up and being worked on. They are in the process of contacting the state department to possibly make use of their tower located in near the Services Center.
Mayor Formon announced 12 of the AWIN car radios had been received that day and were being tested so they could be set up in the vehicles.
CODE ENFORCEMENT
Mr. Ron Shipley informed the committee that while his department was in need of more personnel, they were able to come up with ways to change their evaluation process and are hoping to implement the changes in November. It was asked for Mr. Shipley to start looking at the City’s current permit fees for possible increases.
OTHER
Councilman Perrin discussed the ordinance regarding digital surveying to be done by the IT department. The original plan was for the department to perform digital surveys over 5 acres, but it’s been shown that most of the surveys were for under 5 acres. The ordinance is being reviewed. Mr. Alan Young added he is drafting the ordinance and hopes to have something to present to the Finance committee at their next meeting.
Mr. Young discussed the remote connectivity policy. One ambulance service has fulfilled the requirements, but has not purchased the needed software from Relativity. The other ambulance service has not expressed interest in the remote connectivity. It was explained using the remote connectivity, the ambulance services will only be able to see the other ambulances in the company, not the competitions’ ambulances or any City vehicles. Mr. Young added he still needs to meet with Mayor Formon and Ms. Suzanne Hackney before he presents anything to the committee.
ADJOURNMENT
With no further business, Councilwoman Furr moved, seconded by Councilman Perrin for adjournment. All voted aye.