CC Minutes - 05/26/99 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Fart said the council needed to keep in mind both the uniformed officers and the support services, such as Mac McFadden's outreach to campers. He said that those services helped free up police for other services at a relatively Iow cost. Mr. Pap~ said he wanted more police on the streets and in the substations, but thinks that requires coupling those efforts with more community awareness, such as through the neighborhood watch programs. He said that all citizens needed to take responsibility for safety in the neighborhood and learn how to coordinate efforts with the cops on the beats and the substations. He suggested that the City could use existing resources to employ the fire stations as safe houses, increase its efforts with the neighborhood watches, and educate the community with the result that there may be fewer people in uniform but more "eyes on the street." Mr. Torrey asked if prevention and youth programs were addressed in another goal. Mr. Kelly said yes. He said that, if after school was an important time to reduce crime by juveniles, what did the council propose to do to address it. Mr. Kelly referred Mr. Torrey to the action plan priority calling for the development and implementation of a comprehensive youth program in coordination with other agencies. The action was listed under the category "Safe Community." Mr. Johnson said that the police did not separate the social service or youth activities from community policing, and given that PSCC was unlikely to include funding for prevention programs, did that mean the council needed to consider funding for such programs in any money measure it put before the voters. Mr. Torrey noted his concern about the lack of prevention funding and youth programs in the PSCC recommendation. He had been frustrated because Eugene residents had clearly supported those elements of the past levy related to prevention. He believed there would be major differences between what the PSCC would propose and what the council would want. At some point in time, the council might have to state that there were certain elements a money measure must have, or Eugene would seek funding for its own measure. Mr. Lee expressed concern that the conversation the council was having was so different from the discussions the PSCC members were having. He said that the two groups were in two camps with different visions. The PSCC was looking at community policing on a more system-wide level, and the council was talking about community policing at the neighborhood level. Mr. Lee said that for him to represent the council adequately, it may need to make a decision soon. He said he wanted the council to have information from the PSCC to give it more context for its decision making. Mr. Meisner said that the council needed a matrix of data illustrating service gaps to make a decision about what to put on a ballot or about how to evaluate the PSCC measure. He called for a comprehensive and coordinated approach, saying he would not support an ad hoc, piecemeal approach. Mr. Kelly concurred, saying that if such an approach took more time, he supported that. Mr. Kelly noted his concurrence with the mayor's remarks related to the basis of Eugene's support for the previous levy, saying a shift to a focus on system structural capacity issues only could cause the measure to fail again, this time because Eugene voters opposed it. He urged the council's representatives to the PSCC to remind the PSCC that Eugene felt strongly that public safety was a continuum of services. MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 26, 1999 Page 10 5:30 p.m.