Item 3: An Ordinance on Downtown Public Safety Zone

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provide enforcement in the downtown core. However, with Lane County’s critical jail bed capacity issues (down this last July from 280 to 196 beds and likely to decrease further in FY13), without the Downtown Public Safety Zone, the community lacks adequate consequences to hold offenders accountable and to reduce recidivism. For this reason, the Police Department has requested that the City Council discuss removing the sunset provision to the Downtown Public Safety Zone ordinance. To provide the City Council with additional community perspective and comments, the City’s Police Commission held a public forum on December 15, 2011. A brief report was made available prior to the Community Forum. It has been updated to include more recent information, and is included as Attachment A. The Police Commission discussed the input received at the Forum at its meeting January 12. A summary of the written and oral comments received at the Forum, via email, and at the subsequent Police Commission meeting is included as Attachment B. At the conclusion of the discussion at its January 12 meeting, the Police Commission voted to recommend to the City Council that the Downtown Public Safety Zone be continued, and that the sunset provision be eliminated. This was approved in a 9:1 vote with two members absent. Based on the discussion at the January 25 work session, an ordinance has been drafted. It includes two amendments from the current legislation: 1)Section one of the ordinance aligns the overall enforcement action to council intent and current practice. The current language in the ordinance would require that every violation “shall” receive an exclusion citation. Current practice and council intent is more permissive, allowing discretion in determining the circumstances when an exclusion citation is issued. This change replaces the word “shall” with the word “may”. 2)Section two of the ordinance amends the sunset date from April 30, 2012 to April 30, 2014. Following the public hearing on February 21, council action is scheduled for February 27, 2012. RELATED CITY POLICIES This topic relates to the Safe Community Vision: A community where people feel safe, valued and welcome, and increased downtown development, as well as support for small and local businesses. COUNCIL OPTIONS No formal action is required at this public hearing. Council action is scheduled for February 27, 2012. CITY MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION This item is scheduled for public hearing only. No recommendation is being made at this time. SUGGESTED MOTION No motion is proposed for the public hearing. S:\CMO\2012 Council Agendas\M120221\S1202213.doc