MINUTES
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Tuesday, February 6, 2007

City Hall, Room 604
5:30 P.M.

MEMBERS PRESENT: Council President Chad Fradette, Council Vice-President Chris Wery, Ald. Celestine Jeffreys, Ald. Jerry Wiezbiskie, Ald. Tom Weber

MEMBERS EXCUSED: Ald. John Vanderleest

OTHERS PRESENT: Ald. Tom De Wane, Ald. Andy Nicholson, Atty. Jerry Hanson, John Rogers, Chad Weininger, Media

1. Call to order.

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Chad Fradette at 5:35 p.m. Ald. Tom DeWane was asked to sit in on the committee until Ald. Weber arrived at 5:40 p.m.

2. Approval of the Agenda.

Motion made by Ald. Jeffreys, seconded by Ald. De Wane to approve the agenda. Motion carried.

3. Approval of the Minutes of the September 18, 2006 meeting.

Motion made by Ald. De Wane, seconded by Ald. Jeffreys to approve the minutes of the September 18, 2006 meeting as submitted. Motion carried.

4. Report by the City Attorney’s Office on a liaison member participating in closed session.

Atty. Jerry Hanson referred to a memo from Asst. Atty. Jon Nitti, which stated that liaison members can vote and can participate in closed session, as long as the determination they are making is not a final decision. He stated that the liaison member cannot participate in a quasi judicial hearing. Ald. Fradette questioned then, that Sue Robinson, the liaison member appointed to the Protection & Welfare Committee is allowed to vote and to participate in closed session, as long as it is not a quasi hearing? Atty. Hanson confirmed this as being correct.

Motion made by Ald. Wery, seconded by Ald. Jeffreys to receive and place on file the report by the City Attorney’s Office on a liaison member participating in closed session. Motion carried.

5. Request by Ald. Nicholson to review the Imperial Lane project.

Ald. Nicholson said he has received updated information on four different options from the Planning Department with respect to the Imperial Lane project. He shared the plans with the committee members and said he would prefer the plan which would include making most of the rental unit buildings disappear; he believed this was Option #3. He said it will come down to choosing a plan and seeing what the cost would be. Ald. Jeffreys questioned Ald. Nicholson on his proposal for relocating the people that would otherwise be residing in these units. Ald. Nicholson said he needs to work this out with the Mayor’s Office.

Chad Weininger addressed the committee at the request of Ald. Nicholson. Chad W. apologized that a planner was not present as Rob Strong is ill and Mr. Lockery is attending another meeting. He stated there are a couple of options, depending on what type of funds we use to purchase the properties . He indicated that there have been a few developers who have talked with the Mayor and Economic Development and said the Mayor wants to get someone interested in the property, who has a plan. He said the development could be anything from commercial business or a new development with housing, and said Rob Strong could come to a future meeting and talk more in depth about the options. Discussion ensued about using donor TIF, with Chad W. responding that to fund a development will take more than TIF money and said they do not have a cost estimate on the plan options. Ald. Nicholson questioned if the Mayor’s Office is marketing this area to developers? Chad W. responded that the Mayor and Economic Development discuss different sites when developers come in said they do mention the Imperial Lane site for redevelopment. He indicated that the Mayor has talked to three developers but it didn’t work out for this site. Ald. Weber said the fair market value of the property is $10.2 million, adding that he didn’t believe a developer would pay that kind of money.

Ald. Weber questioned with the building of The Kroc Center, if that would that have a positive effect on the neighborhood? Ald. Nicholson responded that there are transient people living there who do not live there for many years. He said the crimes still remain and he doesn’t see how the Kroc Center would improve that problem, adding that he would like to clean up the area for the Kroc Center. Ald. Jeffreys questioned what effect razing the properties in question would have on the population of Eisenhower School? Ald. Nicholson said he will check and see how many students live in that area. The committee reviewed the sketches of the four options, with Ald. Nicholson stating that he brought this forward for the committee to review and give their input. It was agreed that this area is too dense, is a fire hazard and needs to be thinned out. Chad W. asked if the committee would like Rob Strong and the Planning Department to come back with a more formal presentation that would include the cost for these options.

Motion made by Ald. Weber, seconded by Ald. Wery to refer this item to staff for further information and analysis and to present at the next Advisory Committee meeting. Motion carried.

6. Request by Ald. Wery to review the Parking Division –examine revenue vs expenses and outsourcing if appropriate and examine the policy of issuing warnings and use of discretionary power where applicable.

Ald. Wery asked that this item be referred to staff, adding that he is working with staff on this item and said they will see this at Traffic or Improvement & Service Committee in the near future.

Motion made by Ald. Jeffreys, seconded by Ald. Weber to refer Ald. Wery’s request to staff. Motion carried.

7. Request by Ald. Nicholson to review the Possibility of having the City withdraw from the County 911 Communication Center and create the City’s own communication center.

Ald. Nicholson requested to postpone this item until the next meeting. Ald. Jeffreys asked if discussion could be held since interim director of the communication center, John Rogers was present. Ald. Weber inquired of Mr. Rogers what his opinion is on the city having a separate 911 Communication Center? Mr. Rogers responded that he believes it would be financially irresponsible for the city to do this, adding that the outlay would be huge.

When asked for a report on the present operation of the 911 Communication Center, Mr. Rogers responded that initially there were problems with people being stressed out from working too long of hours but said they are now up to full staff and said they improved training. He stated that he has not had any complaints in the five weeks that he has been interim director. He indicated that they worked out some issues and streamlined some things. He said there is always room for improvement and said some of their infrastructure is 20-25 years old. He said they badly need improvement in equipment adding that the radio reception in some parts of the county is terrible. He stated that this has been worked on for two years with an RFP being done. John said the center is under the County budget and said they receive federal funding and this amount has been enhanced through a grant for $764,000, since 9/11 and said this amount is being paid to the County at $52,000 a quarter. He stated that last year the center received 407,000 phone calls, with some of them being duplicate calls (reporting the same accident, etc) with 68,000 being 911 calls and198,000 ended up with dispatches.

Mr. Rogers said he sees dedicated people who are doing a good job. He indicated that he has met with Chief Jim Arts and encouraged him to have his officers contact him if they have any problems. When asked for a cost estimate if the city should break away from the county, Mr. Rogers said he would guess a little over $5 million for the infrastructure alone plus the operating costs. He indicated that the county’s payroll is about $2.5 million for the communication center. He stated that if the city were to cut off from the county, the interoperability would still be there and said we had that before to a degree, adding that Ashwaubenon has their own center and act as a back-up station for the county. He said the outlying areas would remain with the county.

Ald. Nicholson asked Mr. Rogers if he was familiar with the March, 2006 Public Safety Committee meeting where officers documented complaints against the communication center and said these problems are not going away? Mr. Rogers said he is not familiar with what was discussed at this meeting, but will review the minutes. Ald. Fradette relayed issues of citizen complaints where the caller received rude response or was almost accused of a crime when they called in to report a crime. He said there was a report of a long delay before putting a call into the Police cue and one time the call never being passed along. Mr. Rogers said there were times when calls were getting stacked, sometimes at the request of the officers because they didn’t want to leave their zone. He indicated that the Police Dept. came to him with a proposal and said they wanted everything dispatched and said now officers are being dispatched to calls outside of their zone if necessary, to answer every call. He stated that this policy has been in place for three weeks. He asked to have people call him at 448-7610, if they are being treated rudely and said he will check into the complaint. Ald. De Wane also relayed an incident when he was on a ride-along with the Community Police Officer and a girl called in because her boyfriend was trying to break into her car. He indicated that the police officer was a block away from the incident, but the 911 call was held for 15 minutes and by the time the officer received the call, the car had left.

Mr. Rogers said calls are always prioritized and officers are asked to respond to a call in their zone, if they are going to be freed up in a few minutes. Mr. Rogers said stacking calls is not unique to Brown County, adding that it happens in other cities as well. He said the County interacts with the City and gave the example of the Drug Task Force where they work jointly and added that the Fire Department is just as busy and responds to almost every incident as well. Ald. Weber said it would be ideal if we could control the times people have accidents or emergencies and level out the times of the calls, but said the only way we could fully satisfy the reaction to police or fire calls is to virtually have a police officer on every corner and a fire station on every other corner. He said this would require our taxes to triple. Mr. Rogers said that Friday and Saturday evenings are the peak times for calls and stated that the city took steps and have extra Police in the downtown area and he assigned extra people at the dispatch center at these times. He said if they felt a need to call in more Police, they would contact the Police commanders and let them decide.

Motion was made by Ald. Wizbiskie, seconded by Ald. Wery to review the performance of the 911 Communication Center in three months. Motion carried.

There being no further business, a motion was made by Ald. Jeffreys, seconded by Ald. Weber to adjourn. Motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 6:25 p.m.