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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSafe City - 1995-12-14SAFECI'rY~1995-12-14 SAFE CITY COMMITTEE MINUTES DECEMBER 14, 1995 The Safe City Committee held its first meeting under the Chairmanship of Brock Stanley with the following members present: Julie Dean, Manuela Almeida, Trudy Beaulne, Nancy Brawley, Gregory Jahn, Wilfred Park, Bryan Stortz, Karen Taylor-Harrison and Rita Westbrook. 1. OPENING REMARKS Brock Stanley opened the meeting by informing the Committee that Councillor's Mark Yantzi and Karen Redman were still at Regional Council and would not be able to attend this afternoon's meeting. 2. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF PARTICIPANTS Brock Stanley started by introducing himself and gave a summary of his background and then asked each member of the Committee to do the same. 3. ELECTION OF CHAIR & CO-CHAIR The Committee was notified by Brock Stanley that Councillor Karen Redman would like to stand for Chair. Brock also gave some background of how other Committees work stating that there is an advantage to having a Chair on Council, however, the Terms of Reference states that this is not mandatory. Brock then posed the question to the Committe as to whether or not we wanted to make this decision today or to postpone making this decision until the next meeting. Nancy Brawley suggested waiting to make this decision until we get to know the Committee Members. Wilfred Park supported Nancy Brawley's suggestion and asked for this item to be placed on the Agenda for the next meeting. 4. SETTING A REGULAR MEETING DATE Brock Stanley noted that the second Thursday of the month is always Regional Council therefore it would be better to not meet on this day as the Councillors could bet held up at Regional Council. After some discussion of what times and days were good and bad the Committee decided to Call Avril Tanner with their possible dates and times and Avril would Coordinate these times and come up with an appropriate date and time. -2- 5. REVIEW OF TERMS OF REFERENCE Brock Stanley stated he thought it was a good idea to review the Terms of Reference to give those Committee Members who did not have a part in putting them together a background and understanding of the purpose and function of the Committee. He started by explaining that these Terms of Reference were put together by the Safety Committee which grew out of the Strategic Plan Process approximately 2 year ago. He also noted that they are more broader than most special committees because of a stronger emphasis with the Community and identifying Roll with Committee Members. Brock then started reviewing the first section of the Terms of Reference with the Committee. After reviewing the first section titled "Goals of the Safe City Committee" Bryan Stortz asked the question of how the Crime Prevention Council relates to the Committee. Trudy Beaulne explained that once the Working Groups are running that most likely there would be members from the Crime Prevention council in the Working Groups. Karen Taylor- Harrison noted she saw this as enhancing the Crime Prevention Council. After review Section 2 "Access To City Resources" Brock Stanley informed the Committee that Julie Dean is the Coordinator for the Safe City Committee. After reviewing Section 3 "Membership Of The Safe City Committee and Coordinator: Julie Dean express concern over how the people were chosen for the Committee noting that there was a person who was turned down because he/she did not live or work in Kitchener, even though she would have been a good asset because of her background. She suggested that maybe this Committee would want to make a response to council on this matter. Bryan Stortz asked if it was still possible to include them by invitation as a resource. Some discussion was made and it was decided that this should be brought to the Councillor's attention. Also after reviewing Section 3.4 it was recommended that may be the Committee discuss whether the title should be Co-chair or Vice-Chair and whether or not the Chair and Co- chair would share the responsibilities and running of the meetings. It was also suggested that maybe the Committee should write up a job description of both these positions. Brock Stanley expressed a concern of time and suggested this be done at the end of this meeting. After reviewing Section 4, 5 & 6 "Membership Review SubCommittee", "Meetings" and "Ongoing Evaluation" Brock noted that the Terms of Reference were adopted by council and that this Committee should adopt them as well. Moved by: Nancy Brawley Seconded by: Rita Westbrook -3- That this Committee ratifies and adopts the Terms of Reference. Brock noted that at 5:45 pm a 15 minutes discussion of the job responsibilities for Chair and Co-Chair would take place. 6. HOW AGENDAS WILL BE SET Brock Stanley explained that the agenda will be set approximately 2 weeks before the meeting date, by Brock Stanley, Chair, Co-Chair and the Coordinator through a meeting. Items will be added to the agenda if they are: Referred by Council Mentioned in a Meeting By Contacting Chair, Co-Chair, Brock or Julie Nancy Brawley suggested that we should identify items for future meetings on the Agendas as well. Julie Dean then opened a discussion on when people would like to receive a copy of the minutes as well noting there were two ways, as soon as possible after the meeting or sending it out with the Agenda for the next meeting. Nancy Brawley noted she thought it was better to receive the Minutes after the meeting and before the Agenda is sent out as a reminder of tasks assigned. 7. BACKGROUND OF COMMITTEE - Julie Dean Julie Dean overviewed the background with the Committee Members (See attached "Working For A Safer Community - Safety Initiatives"). She also noted that they were looking for a broad expertise and Resources to be brought to this Committee and that they were looking for new people, ideas, expertise and energy. Julie also noted that a lot of research and resources were collected and handed out a list of Resources that are available (see attached). 8. DISCUSSION OF BUDGE AND SETTING UP OF PROCESS REGARDING THE SPENDING OF MONEY Brock Stanley started the discussion by noting that there were two different types of Budgets available for the Committee's Use. The first of which was a specific budget in the Operating Budget. It was originally suggested that $5,000.00 would be needed to cover such items as meeting expenses, dinner expenses and promotional or publication items. -4- The City Administration cut all Special and Standing Committee Budgets by 50% leaving us with $2,500.00 which should be enough. Brock also noted that if need be we might be able to find money in other places. The second source of financial support was the Capital Budget. This was recommended on a quick review of what would be needed and is listed under General Downtown Improvements. Brock noted Safety Audit should actually read Safety Implementation and that $100,000.00 was assigned for the first 6 years and $50,000.00 to each year after. Brock stressed that these figures were not concrete and can be changed as the years approach. He also noted that these figures were considered and adopted by the Finance Committee on Monday December 11, 1995. Brock informed the Committee that these funds would be used for physical items, studies done by consultants, pilot projects, etc., if there is a necessity it would be recommended to Council by this Committee. Bryan Stortz inquired as to if there were any other budgets available for a lighting conversion as $100,000.00 would not go very far. Brock Stanley noted that if it was in the Downtown then there was a possibility of that Budget. He also noted, however, that the Capital Budget for Safety items had already been taken out of the funds and set aside for the Downtown. Bryan Stortz made reference to reports put together on a lighting conversion and suggested they should be brought to the Committee and put on the Agenda for a future meeting. Julie Dean replied by saying she had the report at the meeting and that they would like to have a working group on Lighting to report to this Committee. A concern was stated that this $100,000.00 was taken out of the Downtown Budget in year 3 as this Committee was only concentrating on the Downtown for 2 years then going City wide in year 3. Brock Stanley said he would look into this and bring it back to the next meeting. Trudy Beaulne inquired as to what would be included in the General Downtown Improvement Budget as Safety is a major priority. Brock Stanley informed the Committee that the Finance Department forecasted actual costs directly associated with the Mayor's Task Force and included Safety Implementation. He also noted that this Committee will Liaise with other staff through the Interdepartmental Resource Group. Julie Dean expressed concern over the fact that a definition of the Downtown has not been done. Rita Westbrook suggested this as an Agenda Item for the next meeting noting that a map should also be brought to this meeting. Brock Stanley concluded this Agenda item by saying that the key function of this Committee is to recommend items related to Safety to Council and therefore we can change the Budget amounts to reflect this as long as it is mentioned during budget time. He also indicated that the Committee might want to look at how it wishes to use the $2,500.00 budget. -5- 9. FOCUSING ON INITIATIVES AND PRIORITY SETTING PROCESS Julie Dean referred to the Terms of Reference (see attached) Appendix 3 and asked if there were any questions concerning the Initiatives suggested noting that the committee would have to prioritize these and decide which Working Groups would start first. Trudy Beaulne added that these initiatives came out of research only and therefore may not include everything. Nancy Brawley asked Julie if the Committee should prioritize these initiatives now and Julie Dean replied the purpose of overviewing them was to have people who did not work on them to have a chance to input now. Wilfred Park noted that everything on the list seemed physical and wondered if the Committee would be getting into any Legal aspects. Nancy Brawley stated that this had come up in previous discussions. Wilfred then stated concern over the fact that it should be included. It was noted by Julie Dean that this was hinted at in item H. Trudy Beaulne again stressed the fact that not everything may have been included as the items only came from research. She also noted there is a rather time consuming process to go through to prioritized these initiatives. 10. EVENING WORKSHOPS Brock noted that because of being jobs like prioritizing the Initiatives the idea of evening workshops might want to be looked at, as usually during a regular meeting there is not enough time to discuss something in length. He noted they would usually bring in dinner and work till 9:00 pm. Julie inquired as to whether this would create any problems for family life. After some discussion it was decided that we consider some possible dates to have an evening workshop to prioritize the initiatives. Julie Dean added that she would ge together initiatives of the other Committees that they put together and prioritized to use a reference. 11. DISCUSSION ON JOB RESPONSIBILITIES OF CHAIR AND CO-CHAIR Wilfred Park suggested that Brock put something together to be included in the minutes and then the Committee can review and comment at the next meeting. Some discussion took place as to whether it was advantageous to have a member of Council act as Chair or Co-Chair. Alan Richardson expressed his opinion that if a Council Member was a member of the Committee and not Chair or Co-Chair they could still help in the process with Council. Brock noted he would put together job descriptions of Chair and Co-Chair to be attached to the Agenda for the next meeting. NANCY BRAWLEY SUGGESTED THAT PEOPLE WHO WERE INTERESTED IN ACTING AS CHAIR OR CO-CHAIR SHOULD NOTIFY BROCK STANLEY BEFORE THE NEXT MEETING. -6- A list with the daytime phone numbers for each Committee Member was handed out. Nancy Brawley noted it would be nice to have fax #'s included on this. Trudy Beaulne noted she would be interested in acting as Co-Chair or Chair. 12. JANUARY MEETING DATE After some discussion Tuesday, January 16th at 4:00 - 6:00 pm was chosen for our next meeting date. Meeting adjourned 6:00 pm A. Tanner