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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSafe City - 1996-01-16SAFECI'I'Y~1996-01-16 SAFE CITY COMMITTEE MINUTES JAN UARY 16, 1996 The Safe City Committee held its meeting under the Chairmanship of Brock Stanley & Trudy Beaulne with the following members present: Councillor Karen Redman, Councillor Mark Yantzi, Julie Dean, Nancy Brawley, Philip Fernandez, Gregory Jahn, Wilfred Park, Alan Richardson, Karen Taylor-Harrison. Members Absent: Manuela Almeida, Bryan Stortz and Rita Westbrook. I To be done previous to February 6, 1996 meeting. Julie Dean Have the map revised to show the Definition that the Safe City Committee has adopted of the Downtown Area. While we were waiting for members of the Committee, the meeting unofficially began with Julie Dean mentioning 2 events of interest to the Committee. The first event being a display of the Kitchener Downtown Transportation Study in the Rotunda from 4:30 - 8:00 pm tomorrow, noting it is open to the public on a drop in basis. The second event being in the summer entitled Alternatives to Boot Camp, which is sponsored by a number of Community Groups (see attached). Julie Dean also explained that she had been in touch with the Safe City Facilitator, Carolyn Whitzman from Toronto, who has been on a six month sabbatical in Australia noting that she offered to come and speak to the Committee as long as she was reimbursed for transportation costs. Julie also suggested this should be included in the Future Agenda Items section of the Agenda. Trudy Beaulne also added that there would be a Workshop on Training for Trainers which would give a good solid background on Environmental Design and would be held at Conestoga College from 8:30 - 4:30 and would register approximately 12 - 15 people. Brock Stanley officially started the meeting by noting that he would act as Chair until the action of Election was completed. -31- 1. APPROVAL OF JANUARY 16TH AGENDA Brock Stanley asked for a motion to be brought forward to approve the Agenda for this evening. Moved By: Alan Richardson Seconded By: Wilfred Park CARRIED 2. REVIEW AND APPROVE MINUTES OF DECEMBER 14, 1995 The Committee was asked by Brock Stanley to comment on the detail of the Minutes, whether there was enough or too much. The general comment was that it was detailed, however, the Committee liked this. Trudy Beaulne suggested including the Activity Report at the front of the Minutes. Karen Taylor Harrison noted that she also felt the same as Julie Dean concerning how people were chosen to be on the Committee. Paragraph 4 on Page 2, 1st & 2nd Sentence should be changed to read as follows: "After reviewing Section 3 "Membership of the Safe City Committee and Coordinator" Julie Dean and Karen Taylor Harrison expressed concern over how the people were chosen for the Committee. Julie Dean noted that there was a person who was turned down because he/she did not live or work in Kitchener, even though he/she would have been a good asset because of his/her background." A motion was brought forth to approve the minutes with the above noted changes made. Moved By: Karen Taylor-Harrison Seconded By: Alan Richardson CARRIED 3. DISCUSSION OF SETTING OF JOB DESCRIPTIONS FOR CO-CHAIRSNICE- CHAIRS Brock Stanley referred to the attached memo he was asked to prepare for today's meeting, noting that the main purpose of the Chair and Co-Chair positions in the Joint Health and -32 - Safety Committees was to give a balance between management and the workers. Julie Dean added that she and Brock also worked on this on Monday and came up with a job description of each method (see attached). She noted that Co-Chairs gives the notion of equal responsibility where as ChairNice-Chair means Vice-Chair steps in when Chair is not able to perform duties. It was indicated by Julie Dean that the Co-Chair or ChairNice-Chair would also be responsible to work with the Working Groups of their interest. She also commented that in the case where the Chair would not necessarily always be able to attend we should look at having Co-Chairs. Wilfred Park expressed concern over Co-Chairs instead of ChairNice-Chair in the case where the two individuals do not get along. It was pointed out by Brock Stanley that the Terms of Reference states Co-Chairs rather than ChairNice-Chair. Alan Richardson commented that there were pros and cons to both systems. Gregory Jahn noted that if we had Co-Chairs they would both be kept up to speed as opposed to if a Chair was not able to attend a meeting it would be harder for a Vice-Chair to step in. 4. ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION OF BACKGROUND AND INTEREST IN THE COMMITTEE It was suggested by Brock Stanley that it might be a good idea to go around the table and give a background summary of yourself and to let the Committee know what initiatives of the Committee interest you. Each member gave their background and the following initiatives were mentioned as being important: Karen Taylor-Harrison expressed an interest in encouraging partnerships with other businesses and investment of stakeholder's. Bob Arnot explained his purpose of being at the meeting was to determine what the Department of Parks and Recreation's role will be with the Committee. Alan Richardson noted he was interested in all of the initiatives of the Committee. Nancy Brawley indicated her main interests are in keeping communications open and working as a community and not as independent groups. Trudy Beaulne emphasized she sees all the initiatives of equal importance and when one is dealt with we start on the next noting she sees this as both a challenge and an opportunity, she added that she sees both continued Community Action where people live and work and partnerships with all our resources as important initiatives. Philip Fernandez indicated he felt that we should focus City wide as what ever happens downtown can happen anywhere in the City. He also noted he would like to see a spirit of inclusion and we should reach out to everyone. -33- Wilfred Park expressed concern over safety and the increase in crime. He feels that to have a strong City we have to have a safer City Centre. He also noted that there should be some deterrent for a crime and sometimes the punishment does not suit the crime. Gregory Jahn commented that he felt the more you put into a community the better it will be. He noted that he also thought that Civilian Resources should be used to their full potential as being an important initiative and would like to see these pulled together. Councillor Karen Redman indicated that she would like to get back a greater sense of Community noting she sees safety as everyone's concern and should be inclusive of more than the Downtown, however, keep the focus in the Downtown. She noted one specific initiative she sees as being important is the Lighting Audit. Nancy Brawley, Gregory Jahn and Wilfred Park added they also see this as an important initiative especially with bushes overgrown etc. indicating that eduction of the Community was an important factor of this initiative. $. ELECTION OF CHAIR AND CO-CHAIR Trudy Beaulne indicated that we still have not made a decision on Co-Chairs or ChairNice- Chair. Councillor Mark Yantzi reminded the Committee that Brock Stanley had mentioned it was noted as Co-Chairs in the Terms of Reference and suggested going this route for now and if we find it is not working that at that time we can look at changing it. Wilfred Park suggested having a discussion on whether we wanted a Councillor to act as Co-Chair. A motion was brought forth to have one Councillor and one member who is not a Councillor act as Co-Chairs. Moved By: Alan Richardson Seconded By: Nancy Brawley CARRIED A motion was brought forth to nominate Councillor Karen Redman and Trudy Beaulne to act as Co-Chairs to the Safe City Committee. Brock Stanley then asked if there were any other nominations to be brought forward. No other nominations were brought forward. Moved By: Councillor Mark Yantzi Seconded By: Karen Taylor-Harrison CARRIED Trudy Beaulne took over Chairmanship of the meeting at this point. -34- 6. SET A REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING DATE FOR THE FUTURE Avril Tanner informed the Committee that after most of the Committee members called her that the 1 st or 2nd Tuesday of the month from either 3:00 - 5:00 pm or 3:30 - 5:30 pm would be the only available time slots to hold our regular meeting. A motion was brought forth to hold the meetings from 3:00 - 5:00 pm. Moved By: Nancy Brawley Seconded By: Karen Taylor-Harrison CARRIED A motion was made for the 2nd Tuesday of the month, after some discussion it was decided to change that motion from the 2nd Tuesday of the month to the 1 st Tuesday of the month. Moved By: Councillor Karen Redman Seconded By: Nancy Brawley CARRIED Since the first Tuesday of the month is in a couple of weeks some discussion took place as to whether we wanted to wait till March to hold our next meeting. A motion was made to hold our next meeting on February (5, 199(5 from 3:00 - 5:00 pm. Moved By: Trudy Beaulne Seconded By: Karen Taylor-Harrison CARRIED Nancy Brawley suggested that if there was a problem with booking a room that the Kitchener Downtown Business Association has a meeting room that might be available. Due to the time constraint, Trudy Beaulne suggested allowing 15 minutes on an item and if not enough time continuing on with the next item. -35- 7. DEFINITION OF THE DOWNTOWN Karen Taylor-Harrison and Bob Arnot noted that it had never been specifically stated as to whether the funds available were only to be spent on the Downtown. Councillor Karen Redman indicated that she sees the Downtown as our main focus and then we would work out from there. Nancy Brawley explained that the original concept came from the Downtown for the Downtown and that if the focus was City wide she had some concerns with the $100,000.00 being taken from the Downtown Budget if these funds were not going into the Downtown. Some discussion took place as to whether we should include the grey and white areas in the definition along with Section #1 on the "Downtown and the Inner 18 Neighbourhoods" map (see attached maps). No decision at this time was made. Brock Stanley explained he talked to Finance about how the funds came through from the Budget noting these amounts budgeted were the amounts required to implement the Mayor's Task Force. He explained there were two different amounts allotted, $5,000.00 for Safer Community Committee and $100,000.00 originally listed for Lighting Conversion and then changed to Safety Audit. Brock Stanley suggested we should discuss whether we want to include the white outside areas noting that Breithaupt Neighbourhood is not on the Downtown definition on the Downtown Action Committee. Karen Taylor-Harrison added that Eastwood and Rockway were not included either. Alan Richardson commented that he was happy with the abutting neighbourhoods. Trudy Beaulne reminded the Committee that the original proposal was to begin by focusing on the Downtown and to branch out from there. She suggested we define the Downtown as Sections 1,2,13,10,8,7, 4 and 3. Nancy Brawley recommended including Sections 9,5 and 14 as they are just as close to the Downtown Core (Section #1 ) as the grey areas. After some major discussion on whether the funds were meant only for the Downtown Core or to be extended into the immediate areas surrounding the Downtown it was decided that if initiatives come up for surrounding areas that at that time if the Committee felt it was important enough we could make a recommendation to Council that we have funds allotted to carry this initiative through. -36- A motion was brought forth to adopt Sections 1,2,13,10,8,7,4,3,9,5 and 14 on the "Downtown and the Inner 18 Neighbourhoods" map as the Safe City Committee's definition of the Downtown. Moved By: Trudy Beaulne Seconded By: Karen Taylor-Harrison CARRIED Councillor Mark Yantzi noted he would like to see this item brought back. Julie Dean noted they would have the map revised to show the Safe City Committee's definition of the Downtown and bring it back for everyone to see. Councillor Mark Yantzi noted he would like to see the Committee adopt a motion on seeing our focus on the Downtown however, if there is an initiative of importance outside the Downtown that we also deal City wide with these initiatives. Councillor Karen Redman noted that this was included in our Mission Statement. It was decided, due to time, to defer the last 2 items until our next meeting. Meeting adjourned 6:10 pm A. Tanner LIST OF ATTACHMENTS 1. Alternatives To Boot Camp 2. Memo on Chairs/Co-Chairs 3. Job Responsibilities of ChairNice-Chair and Co-Chairs 4. Downtown And The Inner 18 Neighbourhoods - Map 5. Map of the Downtown 6. Planning Communities Map