Public Safety Committee - work session thread

[Don Zimmerman]

Owing to very busy schedules and time constraints of committee members, this thread will serve as a placeholder for "work session" type discussion and deliberation among the committee, which (like full council work session) typical does not or cannot accomodate open public testimony, which also includes open committee discussion of Agenda priorities and scheduling, posting of draft minutes of past public meetings, etc.

Today (27-Mar-2015) in a PSC work session it was determined that there was inadequate time to set a PSC meeting prior to the 2-Apr-2015 full council meeting, therefore, Council Member Casar and I requested to the Agenda Office a time-certain 11:00 AM agenda item at the 2-Apr-2015 council meeting for additional public testimony on this item:
"Approve an ordinance establishing classifications and positions in the
classified service of the Austin Fire Department; creating and eliminating
certain positions and repealing Ordinance No. 20140908-004 relating to the
Austin Fire Department classifications and positions."

Going forward, we should post to this message thread our work session items for deliberation between public meetings. THE NEXT PUBLIC MEETING will be April 27th (2015) at 4:00 PM.
Here is the transcript for the 23-Mar-2015 meeting:
http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=228018

[Don Zimmerman]

PSC members:

I'm planning to bring the Municipal Clerk issue back April 27th for one more hearing to get stakeholder and constituent feedback on necessary and desirable objectives for the new clerk and possible management changes. We have an opportunity to make policy reforms with the search for the new permanent clerk. I sent the following e-mail last week to several stakeholder groups:
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Greetings,

As Chair of the new City Council Public Safety Committee, I’m asking you, as judges practicing in the Austin Municipal Court, to gather a consensus opinion on:
1). Service oriented changes which are a). necessary, and b). desirable, to Municipal Court policy
2). Qualifications you believe are a). necessary, and b). desirable, for the new Municipal Court Clerk.

We expect to hire a permanent clerk by the end of June this year; Yolanda McNight is serving as the temporary/acting clerk until that time.

We’d like you to present a 10 minute executive summary of your findings at an April 27th, 2015, time certain 4:00 PM hearing of the Public Safety Committee, and to send whatever supporting documentation you believe is appropriate to this e-mail list.

This issue is crucial and timely, because we have an usual opportunity to consider changing both policy and personnel at the clerk’s office.

To get a rounded view, we’re making this same request to the following groups:

Municipal Judges
Municipal Prosecutors
Municipal Defense attorneys
Existing Municipal Clerk staff

The hearing on April 27th will also include general constituent testimony as well, as time permits after 4:00 PM. Additional or general public testimony opens time certain at 7:00 PM.
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Because it has been so difficult finding time for all four members to meet during the week, let's use this CMB (Council Message Board) to answer these questions:
1. Should the PSC hold another public meeting on the towing dispatch RFP, or are members ready to offer an advisory opinion to council on this matter? Does the PSC want to discuss further the policy question of whether towing dispatch should be handled by a third party private company, or retained inside APD with the new high tech software used by APD?
2. Is the PSC ready to offer thoughts on possible reforms in Code Compliance? It was apparent from the first hearing that we had management priority conflicts: some cases not worth pursuing were going to court, while other more serious cases were not diligently pursued.

There will be other items on the Apr. 27th agenda.

[Christopher Hutchins]

Council Member Houston would like to say:
She does not wish to hold another public hearing on the dispatch Request for Proposal, and she is not ready to offer an advisory opinion to Council on this matter.
However, she does want to discuss the question of whether or not the towing dispatch should be handled by a third party, or retained by APD. Yes, it should be discussed further.

The reforms with Code Compliance must be discussed further. It would serve well to know what the Code Department might suggest to allow them to be pro-active, efficient, timely & consistent.

She feels that both issues require further discussion.

[Don Zimmerman]

DRAFT AGENDA
THE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE WILL MEET ON MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015 AT 4:00 PM, AUSTIN CITY HALL
301 W. SECOND STREET
AUSTIN, TEXAS

Don Zimmerman, Chair
Gregorio Casar, Vice Chair
Ora Houston
Leslie Pool

AGENDA

A quorum of the City Council may be present at this meeting. Action will only be taken by the members of the committee.

The City Council Public Safety Committee may go into a closed session under the Open Meetings Act, Section 551.071, of the Texas Government Code, to receive advice from legal counsel on any item on this agenda.

CALL TO ORDER

Approval of Minutes
1. 4:00 PM: Review and approve minutes from March 23, 2015 meeting.

Discussion and Possible Action
2. City of Austin Municipal Judge and City of Austin Chief Prosecutor briefings regarding naming a new permanent clerk to replace retiring Municipal Clerk Rebecca Stark.
3. 4:45 PM: Staff briefing, invited testimony, and policy discussion regarding Police Body Cameras including Austin Police Department’s request for proposal development update.

Constituent Communications
4. 6:10 PM: Speakers signed up prior to this item being called will each be allowed three minutes to address their concerns regarding items posted or not posted on this agenda.

ADJOURN

[Don Zimmerman]

DRAFT meeting minutes and transcript from March 23rd, 2015 PSC public hearing:

Transcript: http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 164917.pdf


Draft Minutes: http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 165549.doc

As of today we're posting the April 27th Agenda at the usual place:
https://www.austintexas.gov/department/ ... -committee

[Don Zimmerman]

Dear PSC Colleagues:

The 4th Monday of May is a holiday; consequently we are proposing May 26th (Tuesday) at 3:00 PM for an abbreviated meeting of 1 hour (due to heavily loaded schedules). We'll resume the regular 3 hour meeting in June.

We propose this early draft agenda:

1. Review, possible modification, and approval of policy issues surrounding hiring of the new Municipal Court Clerk, including definition of management roles.

2. Review staff recommendations regarding Austin ISD school bus cameras for potential Austin city civil fines, i.e., "an ordinance that creates a civil offense for unlawfully passing a school bus".

Please reply to this thread with comments or requests.

Thanks,
Don

[Don Zimmerman]

PSC Members:
I'm proposing this draft resolution for discussion, as I've not heard further remarks from our committee members.
We should plan to deliberate on recommending (or not) something to council at the June PSC meeting.
Please post comments, amendments, etc. to this thread.
Thanks,
Don


PROPOSED RESOLUTION:

RESOLUTION NO._________________ (DRAFT)

Whereas, the Austin City Council’s Public Safety Committee (“PSC”) heard extensive testimony on March 23, 2015, regarding Request for Proposal (“RFP”) EAD0119REBID, which would establish total management of dispatch, towing, and impound services; and

Whereas, a crucial policy decision of delegating towing services management to a third party contractor was implicit in the RFP, a policy of significance to constituents that was not approved by elected City Council members; and

Whereas, an additional $25 fee for the new third party dispatch service was proposed on top of an already-high Austin towing fee schedule; and

Whereas, many local Austin towing company operators expressed objection to the RFP because of perceived favoritism that the proposal would benefit only three local towing companies; and

Whereas, there is consensus that new software tools – especially transactional based Software as a Service (“SaaS”) for towing operations, to provide virtual real-time data to the public, using GPS and other appropriate technology, regarding towing operations including location of towed vehicles, and dispatching algorithms based on GPS data – are of great benefit to the city irrespective of whether such new software is utilized by Austin Police Department (“APD”) dispatch or a third party company; and

Whereas, there may be consensus that early “first responder” tow truck travel to a crash site – prior to officer arrival and assessment of the crash scene – may most dramatically improve response time to clear accidents, and that new software tools could optimize tow company service rotation utilizing GPS; and

Whereas, a vast majority of local Austin towing companies desire re-writing the RFP with a focus on more inclusion of local company input and better Austin constituent service; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF AUSTIN:

The City Manager is directed to redraft the “management of dispatch, towing and impound services” RFP following a formal public hearing conducted by the PSC, with significant testimony from towing SaaS software experts, at least a dozen leading Austin tow operators, APD dispatch experts, and other vested stakeholders.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
The City Manager is directed to extend the Southside towing contract for non-consent tows, as is, until August of 2016.

[Don Zimmerman]

PSC members:
The PSC had discussed some method of ranking court clerk applications. I'm proposing the idea of having a "ranking" method on potential municipal clerks, where each of the 4 committee members, and the Presiding Judge - together with other municipal judges - all provide a ranking from 1-5 of their top 5 candidates (1 is the highest ranked, 5 is the lowest). So, 5 sets of rankings would be combined by HR, and the top 5 candidates would be revealed to the committee.

If there is no objection, I'm requesting HR and the Presiding Judge to follow through with the ranking method. Thanks in advance for your review and comment.