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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2009_tcwsmin0908Council Work Session September 8, 2009 Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, 7:30 p.m. Mayor Umstattd presiding. Council Members Present: David S. Butler, Thomas Dunn, II, Katie Sheldon Hammier, Marty Martinez, Kevin Wright and Mayor Kristen Umstattd Council Members Absent: Ken Reid. Council Member Dunn left at 8:45 p.m. Staff Present: Town Manager John Wells, Town Attorney Jeanette Irby, Deputy Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Director of Public Works Tom Mason, Chief of Police Joe Price, Director of Planning and Zoning Susan Berry Hill, Director of Plan Review Bill Ackman, Deputy Director of Planning and Zoning Brian Boucher, Zoning Administrator Chris Murphy, Assistant to the Town Manager Scott Parker, Research Manager Betsy Fields, Senior Planner Mark Browning, and Clerk of Council Lee Ann Green AGENDA ITEMS 1. Work Session Items for Discussion: a. County Wide Transportation Plan Referral This item was deferred until September 21, 2009. b. Rules of Order This item was deferred until September 21, 2009. Council Member Butler distributed his changes. Mr. Wells noted Council Member Wright had requested that staff consolidate the ethics information in one place. c. 2010 Legislative Agenda Mr. Dentler noted there are five specific items on the draft legislative agenda thus far. He stated they are 1) road funds to alleviate regional roadway congestion, 2) long term transportation funding for projects in the VDOT six- year plan including the Sycolin Road flyover, 3) state support for a GMU campus in Leesburg, 4) insurance coverage for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and 5) restoration of 599 police funds. He noted the Council has endorsed all of these in the past. Mayor Umstattd requested that #2 be moved to the #1 priority. Council Member Butler requested language to emphasize the flyover as the top priority and that the widening of the bypass can wait. Council Member Wright stated a very specific request for funding for the flyover should be made. He stated the Town may need to partner with the County to push for the acceleration lane to Rt. 9, as this may delay the need for the widening of the bypass. He requested traffic counts for Battlefield. Mr. Wells stated the new counts will be performed in October. Town Council Work Session of September 8~ 2009 Page 2 Council Member Martinez stated there is still a concern about pedestrians crossing the bypass near Fort Evans Road and Edwards Ferry Road. Mayor Umstattd noted there is a problem that the crossing points are too far apart to build only one pedestrian bridge. Council Member Martinez suggested a walking path along the bypass from Battlefield to Fort Evans Road and one pedestrian bridge at Fort Evans Road. He stated that will get some pedestrians off the shoulder of the bypass. There was discussion regarding possible solutions to the problem of pedestrians crossing the bypass and walking on the shoulder of the bypass. It was suggested that this be discussed with VDOT since these are VDOT maintained roads. Council Member Hammier requested that #5 be moved to #4 and the inclusion of wording about Towns retaining their authority to set their water and sewer rates. Mr. Wells suggested Council return with other changes at the next work session. d. Police Department Stimulus Grant Update Chief Price stated the Town has applied for three grants, two of which are part of the stimulus package. He stated the COPs program grant would fund four positions for the Police Department for three years at 100% up to a capped salary. Anything over that would be the responsibility of the jurisdiction. He -- stated this differs from previous COPs grants as they were always on a sliding scale. He stated as part of the stimulus package, this program would pay 100% up to the salary cap for three years. He stated there were a significant number of applications for these positions. He stated one billion dollars was allocated, which is estimated to cover about 5,500 positions, but over 7,300 applications were received equaling about $8.3 billion. The program was able to fund only about 13% of the applications. He stated the Town has not been denied, but has been moved to ~~pending" status. He stated the formula was primarily based on fiscal need, but also on crime index. He noted the maximum number of positions any one jurisdiction could receive was 50, which was granted to the District of Columbia, which accounts for 0.19% of the population of the country. Virginia accounts for 2.51% of the total population of the country and received 31 positions and Maryland accounts for 1.82% of the population and they received 112 positions. He stated the formula based each jurisdiction on a fiscal need index and then on a crime/community policing index. He stated the top candidate in the Commonwealth of Virginia was the City of Petersburg whose fiscal need index was calculated at 72% and crime index at 99.7% giving them a total of 99%. The Town of Leesburg was calculated with a fiscal need of 14.3% and a crime index of 27.8% for a total of 18.8%, which puts the Town very far down in the list of jurisdictions needing assistance, but reflects very positively on the Town from an economic standpoint and a crime standpoint. Chief Price stated the other two grants are still in a pending review process. Council Member Dunn stated there was some confusion on previous presentations about the shortfalls that Leesburg Police is experiencing as Town Council Work Session of September 8, 2009 Page 3 compared to other jurisdictions. He stated there is some confusion as to whether the Chief is requesting additional officers. Chief Price stated the department is very proud of the work they have done and use the Strategic Plan as the basis for budget submissions. He stated in FY2010, based on the economic situation faced by the Town, it was felt that it would not be appropriate to request the number of officers shown in the Strategic Plan. He stated the Police Department does an extremely effective job in keeping the community safe but due to a number of factors including the economy, the urbanization of the community and improved transportation, the nature of crime in Leesburg is changing. He discussed the future need for the deployment of additional officers. He stated during the budget process would be the timeframe to go through those discussions. He reviewed the training process and verified that the department could only handle 6-8 new hires at any given time. Council Member Dunn verified that the two new hires from the budget process did not make it into the August training session at the Academy. Chief Price stated one of the new hires is a former officer who will not need to be retrained at the Academy and will be ready for deployment in November. He stated the other officers in the hiring process are coming from other law enforcement agencies and thus are already certified. He stated they anticipate the four new hires will be ready on or before November 1. Council Member Dunn questioned whether the Chief bases his needs on presumed budget restrictions. Chief Price clarified he follows the adopted Strategic Plan and also uses workload metrics to establish what the staffing needs will be. He stated his realization that the Town would face financial constraints during FY2010; he felt it better not to ask for additional officers at that time. Council Member Dunn questioned whether the Town is short 20 officers and yet no additional officers were requested. Chief Price stated the 20 officers are a metric for the Council and the public to consider when making budgetary decisions. He stated the department has a good crime record -size of population, geographic area, and calls for service. Council Member Dunn stated during the budget process, the majority of Council did not want to fund additional officers until after it was ascertained whether the Town would receive any COPs grant money. He questioned where the funds for the two additional downtown officers came from. Mr. Wells stated money will be utilized from existing general fund appropriations. He stated the Council authorizes the General Fund budget, not individual department budgets, and authorizes total FTEs. He stated those positions can be reallocated within the General Fund. Council Member Dunn questioned why this was not brought back to Council since the majority of Council did not want to fund any new officers until after the COPs grants had been awarded. Town Council Work Session of September 8, 2009 Page 4 Mr. Wells stated due to circumstances at the time, he felt there was a desire from the community and the Council that added public safety visibility was needed at that time. Council Member Dunn stated he was for that all along. Chief Price noted the reduction of 599 funds by the Commonwealth to local jurisdictions may affect the budget by between $60,000-$70,000. He stated this may be an immediate cut or made during upcoming quarters. Mr. Wells stated staff will be monitoring the Governor's plan to deal with shortfalls at the State level. He added he will be providing an update regarding the Town's financial situation in October. Council Member Butler noted due to the Town's situation compared to other jurisdictions, it is unlikely the Town will receive the COPs funding. Council Member Wright recapped the FY2010 budget process. He noted this included the addition of two officers paid for from the Town budget even though they had not been requested and the grant application for four additional officers with a reassessment of need after decisions on the grants had been made and presently we will have four new officers by the end of November which includes the two originally approved in the budget and the two emergency allocation positions. He clarified that the other jurisdictions compared to Leesburg are not all towns and but some are cities and counties with jails and court systems so have higher needs for personnel. He noted that our main benefit of being -- county residents is we have the benefit of the Sheriff's department for the Courts and the county jail. He questioned how many officers the department is looking for in the Strategic Plan for FY2010 and FY2011. Chief Price responded that one of the initial officers in the department's strategic plan for FY2011 is the school resource officer for Tuscarora High School, which is slated for opening in fall of 2010. He stated FY2010 the Strategic Plan shows the need for three additional officers and FY2011 shows four additional officers. Further, he stated in response to citizen and Council requests for additional traffic officers, the plan shows a need one traffic supervisor, two traffic officers and one school resource officer. He discussed a need to migrate the traffic officers into core business district officers, as needed, for the major commercial centers in the Town. Council Member Wright clarified that the plan called for three officers for FY2010 and now there will be four. Further, the plan for FY2011 calls for four officers so the Town is ahead of the Strategic Plan. Chief Price added that, as in the past, the funding for the SRO would be requested as anon-departmental grant from the County. Council Member Wright questioned whether the Town should look for additional resources for the two additional officers that were not covered by grants or whether, in Chief Price's estimation, the Town can wait until the next budget cycle to re-evaluate the need for additional officers. Town Council Work Session of September 8, 2009 Page 5 Chief Price responded that the department can wait until the next budget cycle to evaluate the need for additional officers. Vice Mayor Hammler stated she was pleased the department was anticipating the need for additional commercial area policing, which was one of her concerns. She questioned whether the latest rash of car break ins is the result of youths breaking into cars or cars being unlocked, as in the last episode. Chief Price stated the majority of the time, the vehicle owner cannot remember whether the car was locked, but there is no sign of forced entry. He advised residents to keep their cars locked. Vice Mayor Hammler stated the Town receives assistance from other agencies for higher profile crimes such as hostage taking, homicides and armed robberies so the main concern on a daily basis is for the chronic problems. Council Member Martinez stated Council depends on Chief Price's expertise in knowing what his staffing levels need to be in order to keep the Town safe. He stated it appears the Town is not as far behind as some would like everyone to think in keeping up with the Strategic Plan. He questioned whether not having as many officers per 1000 as other jurisdictions affects Leesburg Police Department's ability to keep people safe. Chief Price stated there are a multitude of metrics used in determining the number of officers needed, not just the officers per 1000 number. He stated that number is valuable to give the community and the Council a common measuring device to be able to compare it to another community. He stated the -- budget is a planning process; a one year snapshot of what is needed to incorporate the Strategic Plan. He stated they look at how the community is changing, how the requests for service are changing and how the department can address those changes. Council Member Martinez asked Chief Price to describe how the County Sheriff's department works with the Town. Chief Price described regular meetings to discuss cases and crime trends. He stated some of their major cases have impact on the Town and some of the Town's major cases have impacts in the County. Vice Mayor Hammler noted the Town should have requested funding for the SRO for Tuscarora at the time water and sewer was being negotiated with the County for the high school. Mr. Wells stated the new high school will constitute a large portion of the public safety requests for next year. He stated the Town is in conversations with the County budget office and the County Administrator's office regarding this subject. Council Member Wright noted the County has not denied this funding, but might need to be reminded of their obligation. Mayor Umstattd clarified that the four new police officers puts the department ahead of staffing needs by one officer for Year One of the Strategic Plan. She Town Council Work Session of September 8, 2009 Page 6 questioned whether the Town will still need the two officers identified in Year Two of the Strategic Plan. She discussed the need for officers for Village at Leesburg. Chief Price stated that is under the assumption that things do not dramatically change. He stated things will not change overnight. He stated Wegman's will have security and will supplement their security forces with additional off-duty officers during the grand opening period and holiday season. He noted the representatives of the Village at Leesburg did not have an interest in providing additional security for the remainder of the site. Vice Mayor Hammler stated her highest priority is those issues that involve citizen safety, welfare and well-being issues. She stated if the management of a private shopping center is not protecting its own businesses, then officers cannot be taken from the neighborhoods. Mayor Umstattd agreed most citizens want to keep their neighborhoods safe. She stated she hopes the management of Village at Leesburg changes their mind regarding how seriously they need to take the issue of safety of their customers. Further, she added there have been no members of Council who have opposed the hiring of new police officers. She stated everyone is sensitive of the Police Department's needs. Council Member Butler stated he would like to make sure the Town residents are getting the same amount of service from the Sheriff's office as those County residents who do not live within the Town limits. ~- 2. Additions to Future Council Meetings None 3. Closed Session Mayor Umstattd made the following motion: Pursuant to Section 2.2-3711(A)(3) of the Code of Virginia, I move that the Leesburg Town Council convene in a closed The motion was seconded by Council Member Wright and approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay:. None Vote: 6-0-1 (Reid absent) Mayor Umstattd made the following motion: In accordance with Section 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia, I move that Council certify that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed or considered in the meeting by Council. The motion was seconded by Council Member Martinez and approved by the following vote: Town Council Work Session of September 8, 2009 Page 7 Aye: Butler, Hammier, Martinez, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None - Vote: 5-0-2 (Dunn, Reid absent) 4. Adjournment On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council M Wright, the meeting was adjourned at 9:42 p.m. .^, ~ i L ~~ Clerk of Council 2009 tcwsmin0908