Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/14/1995 COW minutes REVISED 3/28/95 4~25/95 MINUTES COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MARCH 14, 1995 I. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Gerald Farley celled the meeting to order at 6 10 p m Present at the meeting were Mayor Gerald L Farley, Trustees George CIowes, T~mothy Corcoran, R~chard Hendncks, Paul Hoefert and Irvana Wilks Trustee Michaele Skowron arrived at 6 18 p m Also present at the meebng were V~llage Manager Michael Janon~s, Assistant to the Village Manager David Strahl, Finance D~rector Dawd Jepson, Assistant Finance D~rector Carol Widmer, Fire Chief Edward Cavello, Deputy Fire Chiefs Del Ulre~ch and Steve Dumowch, Community Development Director William Cooney, Building Code Coordinator Brad Paulsen, Environmental Health Coordinator Robert Roels, Pohce Chief Ronald Pavlock and Deputy Pohce Chiefs Thomas Daley and Ronald R~chardson II. MINUTES Acceptance of the M~nutes from February 28, 1995 Motion made by Trustee Hoefert and Seconded by Trustee Clowes M~nutes were accepted unammously Trustee Clowes abstained II1.CITIZENS TO BE HEARD None IV, 1995 BUDGET DISCUSSION Mayer Farley prowded general opening remarks concerning the stage that the Budget d~scussmns are at to this point He stated that th~s is a contmuatmn of the Budget discussions for the e~ght-month budget penod Manager Janonls reminded the Village Board and citizens that we are discussing an eight-month budget The Budget reflects a 2 8% ~ncrease overall The Budget provides a continuing level of service and breaks no new ground He also reminded the Village Board and the citizens that the Budget Hearings for the 1996 Budget w~ll commence approximately October of 1995 Fire Department Over~ew Fire Chief Edward Cavello provided an overview outlining the restructunng of the Command Staff due to a recent retirement He also stated that there are currently 67 sworn personnel which has been reduced by one through the use of a =whan employee He also prowded a genera; overview of the Departmental operations Deputy Chief Del Ulreich provided an overview of the operabons budget outhmng the current servzca level and the current projects which are currently being ~mplemented Among the projects they are working on at this tame is the implementation of a Rescue Squad so that the new Quint which was purchased last year does not have to go on each fire carl He also stated that they are m the process of rews~ng the response grid to reduce the overall response t~me from the various stations Deputy Ch;ef Ulreich also stated that there have been an increased number of duty-inJury days off th~s year compared to prewous years He also stated that the Operations Diwsmn ~s also looking at financing a training tower in the future Deputy Chief Steve Dumovich provided an overview of the Fire Prevention act~wt~es for the previous year outhning the number of Inspect~ons and pubhc educabon programs in addition to the number of plan rewews which were performed He also stated fire prevent[on activities account for approximately 5% of the total Fire Department budget Chief Cavello prowded an overview of the acbvlt~es of various F~re Departments in order to estabhsh a F~re Service Accred~tabon Program s~mllar to the program which the Mount Prospect Police Department has recently been reaccred~ted In He stated that the accredltatmn program recently received valuable input from the ICMA Conference participants which was recently held in Chicago He stated that they are in the process of rewewmg the means to assign costs and benefits of estabhshing such a program General comments of the Village Board ~ncluded the following Numerous Board members asked how businesses are contacted as part of the pubhc education effort These contacts are estabhshed through the Chamber of Commerce and through personal contact including the Community Development Department which will be involved in future presentations to the various business owners for fire safety The sale of the old ladder truck is still pending The Department recently explored the least expensive approach to selling the vehicle but were unable to obtain a reasonable bid representative of its value At this point, the Department is rewew~ng the poss~b~hty of using a broker to market the vehicle The broker will take a percentage of the overall costs for the sale of the vehicle 2 A question was asked whether there was a poss~b~hty of staffing the Department for h~gh and Iow service demand t~mes Unfortunately, due to the variance m the staff service demands, the opportunity to vary the number of personnel which are on shift at any one time would be I~m~ted There has been extensive use of Automatic Aid Agreements to supplement full-bme personnel The Capital expenses requested include in-mask communications and an update and replacement of the Opflcom system throughout town The traimng tower would need approximately two acres to be effective due to the number of vehicles and the space needed for appropriate maneuvering The Department is currently reviewing the possiblhty of Grant Funds for ass~sbng m tra~mng tower ac, qu~s~tion and construction A review of the Carbon Monoxide Detector responses was also d~scussed Some Board members also expressed a concern about the number of personnel sent on a carbon monoxide call Other members of the Wllage Board expressed concern about the on-duty inJury totals which, during the past year, were due to back injunes associated w~th removing wctims from vanous confinements Resident Dick Bachhuber asked whether the Fire Department has estabhshed an estimated cost per fire and ambulance run Chief Cavello stated the best guess on such a cost estimate would be based on the total budget d~vided on the number of calls for the past year. Police Department Oven/iew Police Chief Ronald Pavlock provided a general overview of the current service levels provided by the Pohce Department personnel He stated that this budget reflects a conbnuat~on of the previous service level established by the Village Board He also prowded a general overview of the C~tlzens' Survey which was recently completed as part of Accred~tabon requirements Some hlghhghts of the Budget included an increase in overtime over last year due to stepped up activity in Court due in part to additional arrests He also stated that the s~x add~bonal Police Officers which had been authorized to be hired are now paying off in ~ncreased act~wbes Chief Pavlock also stated that dunng 1995, there will be a need to schedule a promotional test for the Sergeant list which is soon to be expiring Mayor Farley read Candidate Tom Davies' letter which he sent concerning recommendations to purchase a mobile Police substabon for use in the areas of h~gh activity 3 General d~scuss~on by the V~llage Board members ensued It was determined that , the Student Resource Officer (SRO) discussion w~ll occur after the general ~,~ d~scusslon of the Police Budget The Department is currently considering the poss~b~hty of putting a program together which w~ll adJudicate mowng violations to minimize the Court time ~f the wolator pays the fine to avoid having to appear in Court and would be able to keep the m~nor vlolabon off of their general dnwng record The increase in statistics from the prewous year ~s expected to increase even further in 1995 when all the new Officers become fully operational which did not occur until February of 1995 A cell-in question was answered concerning Randhurst secunty and the numb&r of young people who congregate at the Randhurst Mall The Randhurst secunty force works very closely w~th the Mount Prospect Pohce Department and there have been no concerns expressed by the secunty detail to the Police Department ccncem~ng the number of people which are congregating at Randhurst Mall It ~s not unusual for groups of young people to be seen at the Mall The SRO d~scusslon took place ~n which Board members d~scussed the poss~b~hty of the funding w~th the Pohce Department personnel Village Manager 'Janonis prowded an update to the Village Board on the ~ d~scuss~on with the Ad Hoc group with school staff and Village personnel which prewously took place to d~scuss the poss,b~ht~es of funding assistance for the SRO Program However, since the Grant apphcaflon was fast approaching pnor to getting consensus of the group, he authorized the Grant application being submitted pnor to approval by the Village Board ~n order to protect the opportunity to receive the funding ~f, m fact, the Village Board d~d so designate Chief Pavlock prowded a general overview of the Grant process He also stated that the V~llage could opt out of the program ~n future years and stated that the Grant itself provided some percentage of funding for at least three years The concept that he is recommending at this point ~s a problem-solving umt of two Pohce Officers These Officers would focus on specific problems which have been ident~fied by these Officers for a specific penod of bme The measure of success of such a program would be based on the number of partnerships estabhshed with vanous commumty groups including neighborhood groups and Vismns Committee involvement in addition to Cnme Prevention The Officers would be responsible for identifying and resolving problems which have been pointed out to them through these contacts The key component of this Program is the flexlbihty of the Officers to work in any problem area Such a problem area may also include a school or any other location Trustee Skowron stated that she supported the proposal of a problem-solwng umt because she thought it was important to do more than just respond to 9-1-1 calls She also was supporbve of acflwty measures to determine the success of the program Trustee Corcoran stated that he also supported the proposal and would be ~nterested m cons~denng an SRO Program m the future if the statistics justify ~t Trustee Clowes stated that he is supporbve of the problem-solving unit He also was favorable to the fiex~b~hty that such a Program lends itself to The program should sunset after three years w~th the unit presenting recommendations to the Wllage Board at the end of the three-year period for ways to do away w~th the umt The focus should be to eliminate the problems which create the need for Officers in the first place He felt that the statistics as they currently exist do not support an SRO Program in the schools Trustee Wilks stated that she also supports the concept and feels that three years worth of funding assistance should prowde a good review of the program She also stated that she felt th~s was a proactive approach to addressing the problems which have been ~dentlfied Trustee Hoefert stated that he has concerns w,th the SRO approach but supports this program due to its flexibility as outhned and proposed by the Chief Manager Janonis stated that he did not anticipate funding assistance from the schools for the program as outhned The Grant monies would assist ~n training and getting the Officers on board for the three-year period of the Grant Trustee Hendricks stated that he felt the Officers should be used on a commun~ty- w~de bas~s and the head count should be reduced back to 1995 levels once the funding for the program has expired Mayor Farley asked for a poll of Board members to determine their level of support for the SRO Program and the problem-oriented Pohc4ng Program as outlined by Chief Pavlock Consensus of the Village Board: There was unanimous support for the problem- solwng unit to be established with Grant funds The SRO Program had majority support for additional discussion In the future Community Development Overview Community Development Director Bill Cooney prowded an overview of the reorganization of the Planning and Inspection Serv~cas Departments He also prowded a general overview of the functions of each D~ws~on w~thm Community Development He also prowded an overview of the highhghts of both Departments for the last fiscal year. He stated ~t ~s anticipated that by 1997, a new Bu,ld~ng Department ret~ng system w, ll be in place to rata effectiveness of a Building Code Permit system s~m~lar to the ISO rating system General comments and questions from the Board included questions concerning the status of the computenzed permit tracking system Also, Board members asked about the number of food service inspections and number of re~nspect~ons from the last calendar year The increase m the number of housing remspect~ons ~s based on ~mproved follow-up by Inspectors and the Court pohcy which has been estabhshed Currently, staff ~s working on numerous approaches to reduce the burden on staff but to maintain a h~gh level of comphance At th,s point, the focus of many of the Inspectors has been to at least get fines of some type lewed by the Judges V. ANY OTHER BUSINESS Dennis P~tkkel, 1731 West Pheasant Trail, spoke He wanted to congratulate staff on their actlwt~es in addressing the problems of the south s~de However, he wanted to point out h~s concerns at T~mberlake and the general poor attitude of the building owners in trying to address the problems which extst there. Manager Janonls stated that he has been made aware of the concerns at T~mberlake and staff is addressing those ~ssues as we speak Trustee Cora)mn stated that he beheved each Board member had received a letter about Gun Control Preemption and requested the Wllage Board consider sending a letter requesting our respective elected representatives at the State level to vote against th~s legislation or to consider passing a Resolution due to the proposed preemption of home rule powers ~n th~s B~II There was general support of all Village Board members to consider a Resolution at the next Village Board meeting Trustee Hendricks stated that he feels that the conservator of the peace regulation which currently exists under State Statutes continues to provide h~m w~th the necessary powers to continue as a conservator of the peace due to h~s elected official status He also is requesting the V~llage Manager s~gn h~m up to attend a weapons training class s~mllar to the one that sworn Police Officers must attend pnor to becoming active Patrol Officers He also stated he opposes the Village selling water to Prospect Heights for use at their Police Station which is currently under construcbon Trustee Clowes requested that the Gang Suppression Ordinance draft which was prowded to the V~liage Board members include an area which h~ghl~ghts the Sections which are currently existing in the Municipal Code elsewhere Trustee Wilks stated she hopes to get the final revisions to the Gang Suppression Ordinance completed as soon as possible so that the Village Board members can consider the Ordinance at its earliest convemence ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adJOUrned at 10 17 p m Respectfully submitted,_ , DAVID STRAHL DS/rco Assistant to the V~llage Manager 7