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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLetters from Jim Brady - Oral CommunicationsORAL COMMUNICATIONS (City Council Meeting 11-13-17) My name is Jim Brady and I'm a resident of Seal Beach. First, let me apologize for not personally being present at the meeting. I am out of town on a trip that has been planned for a year. I realize how important this meeting is and the critical decisions that each of you must make. Your decisions are going to shape the future of public safety for the City. As I think each of you will agree, there is an inadequate level of police services in Seal Beach. I know that Chief of Police Miller agrees and who should know better than he. I have attached a copy of the presentation 1 delivered to the City Council at the Special Meeting of the Seal Beach City Council on October 18, 2017, to provide some background to my comments today. On October 18", 1 asked the City Council members to direct staff to explore every avenue to fund additional police officers, including something none of us wants, a ballot measure to increase taxes. The reason for the request is that the City has an inadequate number of police officers. Thirty years ago the City employed 47 police officers. Today the City employs 31, a decrease of about 33%. This is in light of the fact that the City has increased in residents, shopping centers and tourists. In actuality, the City should have increased the number of police officers by 33%. 1 need to point out, that the reduction of the police department officers occurred years before the current City Management and City Council were working in their current positions for Seal Beach. As a result of the reduction, the crime rate has spiked, especially in light of the passage of Prop 47 and AB 109. The current need of the Police Department is an immediate hiring of a minimum of 10 additional officers, which would only bring the number of officers to 41. A staffing study needs to be conducted to determine how many more officers need to be hired. The question is "how does the City fund the additional police officer positions"? There are several funding possibilities. First, there are Federal grants available, however, the City is required to commit matching funds, grants are limited to 2-3 years and a minimal number of officers could be hired, so they are a short-term solution. Second, there are funds currently set aside for a swimming pool that could be temporarily "borrowed" to fund the immediate need for police officers, but there has to be a plan to repay the money to the swimming pool fund, again a short term solution. Third, a ballot measure could be introduced to allow the residents of Seal Beach to vote on an increase in taxes that would be earmarked for public safety only. Although this alternative addresses a long term solution, the problem with a tax increase is determining the amount of increase and getting residents to vote in favor of the tax. Also, this alternative does not provide the immediate funding for the needed police officers. The last alternative for funding is oil revenue. Apparently, the city is not currently taking advantage of exploring the possibility that there is a significant amount of money in uncollected oil revenue. If I understand correctly, there is a consultant that is willing to contract with the City to pursue these funds with the City not having to come out of pocket. The consultant is willing to "capture" these untapped funds for a small percentage of what he returns to the City. If no oil money is produced, the City pays nothing. From all the alternatives I'm aware of, the City Council should direct the City Manager and Director of Finance to investigate increased oil revenue to fund the additional police officers. The other alternatives are either short-term fixes or will take time until the funding would be available. It appears that funding from increased oil revenue would not only take care of the long-term funding of police officers but the initial funding would be available in the very near future. I'm not aware if Staff has provided additional funding methods, (to add police officers), to the City Council or if Council members have developed funding methods themselves, I just know that something needs to be done immediately. I respectively recommend that the Council members agree to immediately fund 3-4 police officers temporarily using the money set aside for the Community Pool. Also, direct Staff to continue pursuing any available Federal Grants. Further, direct Staff and the City Attorney to explore the viability of increasing oil revenues to the City, even if the cost to the City is a small percentage of the revenue that the City is not currently collecting. Finally, direct Staff to investigate the feasibility of a ballot measure. You weren't here when the Police Department was drastically reduced, but you are now! Public Safety is in your hands. You must make a decision that is going to affect the entire City. A "no" decision or continuing this matter is not facing up to your responsibility. I know that you are all good people and you want to do what's best for Seal Beach. You are faced with an extremely difficult decision. No matter how you vote, you're going to be criticized by someone. lust remember that the majority of residents in Seal Beach support you, the City Manager, the Finance Director and Chief of Police. We all trust you will do the right thing. Thank you. PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS Good morning. My name is Jim Brady. I am a resident of Seal Beach I want to address an issue this morning that is adversely affecting the City of Seal Beach and will continue to get worse if not remedied immediately. A few weeks ago, I was speaking with the owner of Marina Liquor and he told me about a rash of crimes that had occurred in or around his store. Each time he called the police they would show up but it was well after the crime. The owner said that when he first bought the store he would see police cars throughout the day driving by but over the years that visual diminished until now where he only sees a police car when it answers a call at his business. That conversation got me thinking and I had to agree, over the years I have seen fewer and fewer patrol cars driving around. I coupled that with the obvious spike in crime in Seal Beach and the increasing number of homeless and thought we may not have enough police patrolling the City. So, I did a preliminary investigation into the current state of affairs of the police department. My investigation was neither comprehensive nor exhaustive, but it was enlightening. I couldn't believe the insufficient number of sworn officers that Chief Miller has to deploy to protect the City of Seal Beach. He is woefully understaffed for a City this size and with its diversity Now it hasn't always been like this. When the Police Department building was constructed over 30 years ago (at least) it was built for a large police contingent. Touring the facility, I likened the number of Seal Beach officers in the building to a marble rattling around in a 5 gallon can. 30 years ago there were about 46 or 47 police officers. Today there are 31 with 2 possibly in the pipeline. So, as the City has grown, shopping centers have gone in, population and tourists have increased, instead of increasing the members of the police department we have shrunk the department by about 33%. Now, this reduction is no fault of the current City Council members, the Director of Finance or City Manager they had nothing to do with this reduction. They weren't working for the City of Seal Beach when this occurred. Likewise, they had no control over Prop 47 or AB 109 passing which has handcuffed the police and driven crime up throughout the State. So, at this point, it does not help to point fingers. We, as a City, need to deal with the current dire public safety situation. The police department is woefully understaffed which results in safety issues both for the police and the people in Seal Beach, not to mention the possibility of decreasing property values. The residents of Seal Beach are not only endangered by a lack of a police presence but also response times to emergency calls. We can't expect a one officer car to respond to an emergency call like a robbery, burglary, person with a weapon, a fight or even a disturbing the peace call without sufficient back-up. The responding officer needs to wait for their back-up before they can arrive at the location and handle the call. What can happen to a resident in distress during those precious minutes while waiting for a police force that is so thinly spread? We need more police officersl Likewise, from an officer's point of view, there is a lot of good police work that the officer can't do if they don't know where their backup is and how long it is going to take for them to get there. Word gets out and Cities get reputations for the type of visible and aggressive policing that goes on. If the criminal element or even opportunists in the City realize that they never get stopped and don't even seethe police, they are more likely to not only commit a crime but also to comeback. They also talk to their buddies about how easy it is to getaway with crime in Seal Beach. This is why you hear so many complaints about safely walking the streets in Seal Beach, robberies, increased petty thefts, car burglaries, stolen bikes and traffic violations. Good police officers, like we have in Seal Beach, can't pull over "suspicious" cars because of safety reasons when there is no backup. In other words, the police officer is inhibited from using their police instincts when on patrol. All of this contributes to a display of weak police presence and an increase in crime. I was also surprised to find that our shift watch commander doubles as the field supervisor. When the watch commander is in the field there are no supervisory personnel at the station to handle any problems that arise. If the watch commander stays in the station there is no supervisory presence in the field to assist the patrol officers. There needs to be supervisors both in the station and in the field. We need more police! By the way, speaking of safety issues, you might want to check with the City Attorney to see if the City has any liability for an understaffed police department. The detective "division" is understaffed and there is a tremendous backlog of cases. Citizen's cases are important to them and they are under the impression that the police are actively investigating every wrong that occurs. I wonder how many citizens know there is a backlog of cases and the detective may never get to theirs. We need more police! I wasn't able to determine how Chief Miller is able to meet his commitment to police the city with such a sparse number of officers. I know that the Seal Beach police officers are resourceful. However, there is a lot of police work that can't be done that would reduce crime and make the streets safe because there are not enough officers to allow them to fully exercise all of their police experience and talent for us. We need more police I think that revenues to the City have decreased over the years caused by a reduction in property taxes (due to the 2008 housing bubble collapse) and oil revenues (due to the decrease in the price of a barrel of oil) and maybe others I'm not aware of, but we need to play with the hand we're dealt. I have heard that the City is trying to get 2 additional officers for the department. Chief Miller, I'm sure, is thankful but really wants 6. The truth is that Chief Miller needs a minimum of 10. I'm asking the City Council to direct staff to look in every direction for revenue to fund additional police officers, including a ballot measure. The budget cuts, in previous years, to the police department staffing has now come home to roost and it is up to each one of you to make this a safe City again. Six months ago this council agreed to a directive to enhance public safety. Ask yourselves over the last 6 months what you have done to meet that commitment. We need more police. One last thing, I understand that Chief Miller is thinking of retiring soon. The City management needs to ensure that Chief Miller stays on for at least 2-3 more years so he can work his magic as you provide more police officers for him to adequately police the City. Thank you.