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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-10-2000 Meeting I PUBLIC SAFETY COl\1MITIEE COMMITTEE ROOM - April 10, 2000 3:30 P.M. PRESENT: B. Young, Mayor, L. Beard, Chairman, J. Brigham, S. Shepard, M. Williams, members, R. Oliver, Administrator, J. Wall, Attorney, P. Wasson, Director 911, D. Craig, DA, R. Acree, Facilities Manager, R. Sherman, L&I, L. Bonner, Clerk of Commission. ALSO PRESENT: S. Eidson. Metro Spirit Consider waiver of educational requirements for initial appointments of 911 Assistant Director and Training Coordinator. Mr. Beard: This was brought back to the committee so that we could take a second look at this. Some of the people felt that if we could possibly waive the educational requirements for the 911 Coordinator and the Communications Chief the same as we've done for the Director's position, this would give those people who have been working in those positions an opportunity to apply for the positions of Assistant Director and the Training Coordinator, giving them the same opportunity that we've given the Director who has been working in that position. ,I Mr. Williams: I would like to make a motion that we consider waiving the educational requirements for the present Communications Chief and the 911 Coordinator so they would be able to apply for the Assistant Directors position as well as the Training Coordinator position. Mr. Beard: Second. Mr. Wasson: I would mention that the 911 Advisory Committee had recommended that there be a wavier of education requirements for the initial filling of these two positions and that it passed the Committee. Motion carries 3-1 with Mr. Brigham voting no. Discuss District Attorney's space. Mr. Shepard: The regular grand jury recently returned some presentments in connection with the District Attorney's office on March 17,2000 and filed them with Judge Pickett. The Regular Grand Jury was concerned about some of the physical conditions of the District Attorney's office. [asked Mr. Craig to come and discuss this with us today. I Mr. Craig: There was a line in that presentment where the Regular Grand Jury recommended that this matter be referred to the Special Grand Jury and [ thought that was over reacting and actually had suggested that that sentence and the next one be deleted from the Grand Jury presentments and they over rode my veto. That sentence seems to be a little intimidating and [ wouldn't want the Commission to think that the conditions at the District Attorney's office are any different now than they were when [ first moved there in 1993. They are dismal, but we have been able to get by. And I have taken a position with each of you privately and with all of you together publicly that the most irnportant thing I think we need to address as far as the District Attorney's office is a long range plan. And that it should not, as a county government, get into a situation where we are spending money as a band-aid approach to what is obviously a long-term need. And that long-term need goes hand and glove with the long-term needs of the entire judiciary system here in Richmond County. We're just at that point in time in our history where we have out grown all of our facilities. [felt that it was necessary . therefore, that we look at that long-range solution and that long-range solution. I think that everyone in the community is agreeing, is going to necessitate the construction of a new justice center so that we can allow for future growth and can accommodate our future needs. The DA's office does pose some risk. What it does not pose in my opinion, is a risk to the personal safety of the people who come to work there. The office has sufficient escapes so that in the event there was a fire in that building we could all get out and it would not present any sort of hazard to the individuals that work there. There is no danger of light fixtures falling on anyone's head. There have been occasions where rain would go into the lenses of the lights and fill with water and pour out on the desk of the people that work under them. But there is no danger that the light fixtures themselves are going to fall on anyone's head. The windows of course are not sealed and when it rains real hard the rain comes inside the building, but those are situations that we have lived with now for a long time. What [ did, because the fourth floor constantly flooded and I think you may have seen this covered by a local broadcast media, we went upstairs and put 2x4's on all of the floors and placed all of our file boxes on those 2x4's in order to provide some sort of a buffer between the wet floor and the boxes of files that we maintain and then we covered them with plastic. So basically what we have is a green house effect within the fourth floor of the building and the files are now secure. We have a strict policy about when you take the plastic off the box you have to put the plastic back on after you retrieve the file and after you return it to the appropriate place. So you can gather without my going on and on. the situation is not conducive to the proficient operation of a large urban metropolitan district attorney's office. Because we have tllled the facility absolutely beyond its limits, we are not able to expand our staff any more. [ have told you before our staff is a little less than forty percent of what the staff in the Savannah District Attorney's Office is. which is about the next lowest or fewest number of staff members that we have in urban areas in the state 0 f Georgia. That is they are serving 200,000 people with a staff of thirty-three lawyers, we're serving 365,000 people with a staff of fourteen lawyers. We are able to get the job done, in the short term, it would be wrong for me to mislead you into thinking that we would always be able to get the job done working with a staff which is less than forty percent of the size of the staff of the every other comparable district attorney's office in the state of Georgia. At some point in time [ 'm going to start losing really good seasoned trial lawyers who will not be able to sacrifice their weekends and their nights any longer in order to do the work of two or three people. We're going to suffer in so far as the quality of presentations that we make in your courtrooms. Which means that your criminals are just simply going to pass through the courtroom and go right back out to your streets and we don't want that to happen. It hasn't happened yet. Our success rate is extremely exemplary, in fact it's I 1 I I used as a standard through out the state and we're proud of that. But at some point in time I'm concerned that we won't be able to continue to work under these conditions as proficiently as we have worked in the past. And so that's your situation. I've met with the SPLOST Committee and I know there are plans under way to earmark as a first priority, at least I've been told that, the funds from the SPLOST option beginning next year and that should allow monies to be available for the construction of a facility that could accommodate us and allow for our expansion. I also understand that you're looking into the possibility of using such funds in order to expand the courtroom and the judges office facilities at the same time. Mr. Shepard: Danny do you think that the issues of security, structural integrity of the roof, these kinds of things can be addressed administratively with Facilities Management and the Administrator in your office? Do we need to do anything today? Mr. Craig: No I don't think you need to do anything today. And I do think that can be addressed with Facilities Management. '1 Mr. Beard: I think that after hearing what Danny has said the things that you may need at this point could be worked out administratively. It would be my thoughts that we are a little premature to go into any type of building or renovations at this time. I think it's time that the Commission moved off center to some point in the space study. I think we all understand that there is a need for space and the circumstances that you are working under. Mr. Shepard: I move we accept this as information, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mays: Second. Motion carried unanimously. Update on Data Processing Activities. Mr. Oliver: There has been a lot of discussion recently about data processing activities and there are a number of things that we have done including changing a number of systems from year end that were not Y2K compliant. We're through the phases. We haven't had any problems with Y2K to date but I know that there are some issues that have come up and will continue to come up to some extent. I !vir. Rushton: Hopefully, each one of you received our quarterly report to date. Looking at those we have eight goals and objectives and a status was given on each one of those. Going back to the comments that Mr. Oliver just made we did have a lot of systems that were not Y2K compliant. We purchased new software from many vendors to replace that software. We believe that we avoided any Y2K compliant problems by doing that. What we also have are problems with some of the systems that we implemented to resolve those problems they had other problems. We've been working with those problems and they are settling down tremendously. After further discussion, I Mr. Mayor: In view of the amount of work that you have to do for the agencies within this government, I noticed in your report that IT worked for Clean & Beautiful and Main Street Augusta which are two private non-profit corporations. My concern is where do we draw the line. Ifwe're going to do work for them, should we not be doing work for the Arts Council, Museum and other such agencies or indeed should we be doing it for any at all when we have such great needs here within the government with the resources you have? Mr. Rushton: I guess those are questions that really need to be answered by the Commission on where we draw that line. Because we as IT try to satisfy the needs or any request that come our way. Ifwe need to draw that line or withdraw from some of the areas we're working we'll be glad to take any guidance from the Commission on where we should go. Mr. Mayor: Where is the line drawn now? Mr. Rushton: Right now we work with the request that come to us. I'll corne back with a recommendation of a policy on the way outside agencies are handled at the next committee meeting. Mr. Shepard: So move to receive this as information. I Mr. Brigham: Second. Motion carried unanimously. Motion to approve Ordinance amending Augusta Richmond County Code to provide for disposal of personal property following service of eviction orders. lVIr. Oliver: You have been furnished a copy of a resolution from the Neighborhood .Alliance as it relates to their viewpoints. I would also note that you have been furnished a letter from the Builders Association indicating that there was perhaps a miscommunication in correspondence that was written that represented them. They indicated that they had not discussed the issue. The issue before the committee is the fact that the current process relating to evictions is once the court enters a writ of eviction the Marshal's department goes out and supervises the tenants belongings that are left in the unit that are being taken from the unit to the right-ot~way. And after that is done those belongings stay on the right-of-way for seventy-two hours and after that they are deemed by law abandoned. At that point we then go out and pick them up. For the first two and a half months of the year we have done approximately one hundred eighty-seven evictions and clean-ups through our public works department. I've talked to Mr. Wall and several people, there seems to some agreement or some people who desire to I compromise the issue where we would have a policy. Mr. Wall has indicated that he is I comfortable with this where they could be on the right-of-way for twenty-four hours. There is a statutory problem to deem it to be abandoned immediately and that the twenty- four hours would give him comfort that that is a reasonable amount of time to deem it abandoned. And then give the landlord at that point four hours to remove it beyond the twenty-four hours. We believe that that would perhaps minimize the burden on both the people that live in the area as well as minimize the burden on the landlord. Mr. Beard: I can understand the tenants situation in this. I do sympathize with them. I think since we have this and to me it's kind of conflicting. The committee may want to look at the possibility of establishing a committee of the tenants, people who are for this and against this and work out some type of compromise along with members of the committee. I think all of this needs a little more looking at. [don't think we should rush and establish an ordinance at this time. I think we should be able to sit down at least at one or two meetings with representatives from each side and come up with something that we can all agree on. Mr. Williams: I would like to make a motion that we form a committee to get together with realtors and try to come up with something that can eleviate this problem. Mr. Brigham: Second. Motion carried unanimously. I With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjoUrned. Lena 1. Bonner Clerk of Commission Ibb I I PUBLIC SAFETY AGENDA COMMITTEE ROOM - April 1 0, 2000 3:30 P. M. 1. Consider waiver of educational requirements for initial appointments of 911 Assistant Director and Training Coordinator. 2. Discuss District Attorney's space. 3. Update on Data Processing Activities. 4. Motion to approve Ordinance amending Augusta Richmond County Code to provide for disposal of personal property following service of eviction orders. I I