Community Meeting Minutes

MINUTES OF HIGHLAND DISTRICT COUNCIL COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING | November 10, 2008

Members of the Highland District Council Community Service Committee (CSC) met at the Hillcrest Recreation Center, 1978 Ford Parkway, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55116, at 7:00 p.m. on Monday November 10, 2008. Members present were: Jennifer Taylor James, Paul Krech, Bill Poulos, Georgia Dietz, Larry Hampel, Loren Sorenson, Phil Ledermann and Tim Puffer. Committee alternative Jenny Winkelman was seated.

1. Approval of Agenda

Motion was made by Jenny Winkelman to amend agenda to add Public Comment as item 5 and renumber the rest of the agenda. Motion was seconded and adopted. Georgia Dietz moved to amend agenda to make New Business number 10 and designate a time certain of 8:30 for the item. Motion was seconded and adopted. Jenny Winkleman moved to amend the agenda to include a Homecroft update under old business. Motion was seconded and adopted. Bill Poulos requested a ruling from the chair regarding whether Robert Brandtjen would be seated as an alternate for an alternate. The chair rule no. Mr. Poulos moved to appeal from the decision of the chair. The motion was seconded and did not prevail. The agenda was adopted as amended.

2. Speaker: Police Federation Amendment

Ed Dion, a Saint Paul police officer, presented information about an initiative which would amend the city charter to tie compensation of St. Paul police officers to competitive rates paid by other nearby municipalities. Officer Dion shared current comparative data on local area police wages, explained how lower wages paid in St. Paul made it difficult to recruit and retain police officers. He asked that the HDC support the charter amendment efforts of the Police Federation.

Bill Poulos moved that “ The Community Services Committee recommends that the Highland District Council take a position on the Police Federation compensation issue and that position be in support of the charter amendment proposed by the Police Federation and that the HDC president send a letter to the mayor stating that support.” The motion was seconded and adopted unanimously by a show of hands.

3. Old Business

The creation of the new online neighborhood issues forum which was approved by the full board was discussed. Georgia Dietz moved that the volunteer forum manager position opening be listed in the Highland Village Capsule and that interested persons come to the CSC meeting after which the committee will forward a recommendation to the full board. The motion was seconded. Jenny Winkelman offered an amendment that prospective volunteers be referred to the e-democracy.org model for in background on how the forum is intended to operate. The amendment was second and adopted.

A motion to call for the question was made and passed. The main motion was adopted as amended.

Jenny Winkelman asked about the motion to recommend nighttime barriers to the Homecroft parking lot entrances which was adopted by the committee at the September meeting. It was reported that such gates were determined to be unfeasible by the city because of the need for personnel to lock and unlock the gates every morning and evening. HDC Crime prevention coordinator Alisha Anderson will look further into the Homecroft gate situation.

Georgia Dietz raised questions about year-end crime prevention grant funds spending and amounts being budgeted to add people to HDC weekly email update lists. Ms Dietz moved that the community organizer provide a hard copy email list to the CSC at the November meeting and again at the January meeting to help determine how any names were added. The motion was seconded. After extensive discussion and multiple amendments which were made and then withdrawn, the motion was not adopted.

Ms. Dietz moved that the community organizer be directed to provide email list information to members of the CS upon request and conditional that the committee members keep the information confidential. Eh motion was seconded but not adopted.

During committee discussion of email lists, Alisha Anderson obtained the email list from the HDC office and shared it with committee members.

Jenny Winkelman moved to delay addressing the new business agenda item until remaining items on the agenda could be addressed. The motion was seconded and adopted.

4. Crime Prevention coordinator update

HDC crime prevention coordinator Alisha Anderson presented a compilation and counts of year-t-date police calls for District 15 and answered questions. The crime data is being compiled to help prioritize and plan for future HDC crime prevention work.

Jennifer Taylor James deferred the crime prevention rubric and 2009 crime prevention planning agenda items to the next meeting because of lack of time.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Tim Puffer, Committee Secretary