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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSafe City - 1999-04-06SAFECITY~1999-04-06 Present: Others Present: Absent: The Safe City Committee held its meeting under the Chairmanship of Coun. Karen Taylor-Harrison with the following members present: Trudy Beaulne, Nancy Brawley, Lori Gove, Sandro Bassanese, Fred Bishop, Rita Westbrook, Jackie Marsh and Dennis Schnarr. Brock Stanley, Julie Dean, Sandy Amarelo, Roger Wyatt and Avril Tanner (minutes). Coun. Mark Yantzi and Steve Bongelli. The agenda for the April 6, 1999 meeting was approved with the addition of 2 information items from Julie Dean. Moved By: Fred Bishop Seconded By: Dennis Schnarr CARRIED. The minutes of the February 2, 1999, February 10, 1999 and March 2, 1999 Minutes were approved. Moved By: Rita Westbrook Seconded By: Dennis Schnarr CARRIED. Julie Dean circulated a copy of a report she put together to update the committee members on the projects that are currently being worked on (see attached). She explained that this report will now become a regular part of the agenda and will be used to ensure that all members are kept up to date with any current projects. All information regarding the Working Group Reports will be included within the report. Only those issues that are to be discussed will now be included under the Working Group Report section of the agenda. If there were any questions regarding items included on her monthly update report Julie indicated she would be glad to answer them. Coun. Karen Taylor-Harrison mentioned that one of the things we did not discuss as a committee while giving updates on the Safe City Co-ordinator Position was a Job Description. Brock explained that when Julie Dean first started the position she only had 25% of her time allotted to Safe City. Even though there was only 25% of her time allotted there was still a Job Description that had been developed. He added that normally a committee like Safe City would not necessarily get involved in developing a job description, however, in this case the position relates closely enough that he felt if the committee wished to they could review the job description and make any suggestions. Brock also mentioned that Julie Dean reported directly to him. The question also arose regarding staff support for the committee now that Julie's position is full time. It was noted that Sandy Amarelo our Planning Co-op student has been helping as well as Jamie Austin who has volunteered to work on the Safety Audits and Crime Statistics. Brock also mentioned that Sandy would be leaving shortly however, added that another student would be hired on and he mentioned that if required, we would allot some of the student's time to the committee if it was felt that more staff support would be required. Sandy Amarelo mentioned that she had been working on the College Street Safety Audit, had helped with cataloguing the Resource Library and had worked on the Little Black Handbook for Youth. During Discussions regarding the Job Description and staff support the following concerns and suggestions were noted: · There should be clear direction on the reporting structure of the position. · Does the committee have a say in the direction of the job description and what the position would focus on. Brock mentioned that we could bring a copy of a draft work plan for the committee to review if requested to do so. · There was some concern that Committee members should not just give direction to Julie but should bring their requests through the committee. · There was concern noted that Julie may have too much of a workload. Julie indicated that currently the projects she is working on do not have specific deadlines at this point and are therefore quite manageable, · A suggestion was made that any requests made from the community with regards to projects should be submitted in writing. This way all requests could be tracked. After some discussion it was decided that a copy of the job description & draft work plan would be brought to the next meeting for review by the committee and that a set of guidelines would be developed to ensure that there are no conflicts with projects that Julie is working on. Such guidelines would also clearly address the role of the Safe City Coordination in relation to the Safe City committee and the City Administration. Julie Dean explained that originally the Little Black Book was developed in Vancouver. She added that a lot of services available in British Columbia are not the same here and therefore a lot of the information that was originally included was either removed or changed to reflect what is available here. It was decided that the draft would be circulated to Roger Wyatt, Lori Gove, Sandro Bassanese, Fred Bishop, Trudy Bealune and Rita Westbrook for their review and comments. It was also suggested that representatives from the targeted market group also have a chance to review the draft before final circulation. During discussion regarding circulation of the handbook, the following suggestions were made: · Check with school boards to see if they would be interested in circulating the handbook within the schools. · Could have available at places like the internet cafe, sandwich shops, bars, frosh packages given to university students. · Blank pages should be incorporated within the handbook in case they wished to include other personal phone numbers. Brock Stanley explained that the Committee had purchased a table for the Justice Dinner. It was decided that Fred Bishop, Trudy Beaulne, Roger Wyatt, Tim Dickson from MACOY, Brock Stanley, Julie Dean and Avril Tanner would attend. With regards to a display, the PowerPoint presentation that was given to Council last year will be set up and will run continuously during the display. There will also be information regarding the committee included. Dennis Schnarr indicated that he would like to forward some information to be included within the display. Jackie Marsh added that she too would forward some information regarding the COPS Program. 3 Coun. Karen Taylor-Harrison referred to the Policy that was attached to the agenda (see attached). It was explained that there had been 2 separate public meetings with regards to public violence. It is hoped that the attached report would help to allow for consistency with regards to policies within city facilities when it comes to dealing with public violence. Some concern was noted that if there were too many rules to adhere to that this would discourage youth from hanging around at the facilities in which the Youth Issues Committee was trying to encourage kids to use. It was pointed out that the Draft Policy for review today is a separate matter than that of the policy which is being developed for the Community Centre's. Roger Wyatt pointed out however, that the policy in which Parks & Recreation is developing for the Community Centre's would at some point fit within this policy. He added that both policies are being reviewed by Jim Shivas, City Solicitor to ensure that they do not conflict with one another. During review of the attached Policy regarding the Duties of City Security Officers the following comments were made: · It was noted that this policy has now been approved and will be in place shortly. Any policies regarding Community Centres is still being developed. · Concerns were noted that if security is only at City Hall how are they going to get to specific areas where problems may occur. · It was suggested that once the business plan is developed it would be clearer when to call police or security for different issues that may arise. There was discussions regarding what the original intent of the community centres was when the were started and how committees like this can make suggestions and input into how they draw youth into the centres. Roger Wyatt pointed out that Parks & Recreation is currently completing a Feasibility Study which would include input from the communities themselves with regards to community centres. It was added that other Committee's of Council would probably like to be involved in the process along with Safe City Committee and City Wide Youth Issues Committee. (For further clarification please see attached e-mail from Roger Wyatt). Information Attached. Eeaming t~ stay Safe is fo" Attached is a newspaper article from the Hamilton Spectator. e,i~e .,eventi~n nference Information Attached. 4 Everyone at the meeting was given a chance to evaluate how they felt the meeting ran and the following comments were made: · More clarification should be given regarding the issues brought to the table for discussion and a clearer idea of what is required on an issue for it to go forward. · Most committee members felt that the Policy regarding Security Officers should not have been discussed to the extent that it was. · Once a decision has been made the Chair of the committee should clarify the decision and note any action that should be taken with regards to the item being discussed. NEXT MEETING: Meeting Adjourned: Tuesday, May 4, 1999, Human Resources Learning Rm 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm 5:56PM. List of Attachments 1. Safe City Co-ordinator's Report. 2. Policy Regarding Duties of City Security Officers. 3. E-mail from Roger Wyatt. 4. Chaos, Change and Opportunity Information. 5. Learning to Stay Safe is for youths - Hamilton Spectator Article. 6. Crime prevention conference. SUBMITTED BY: Avril Tanner, Committee Secretary 5