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MANAGER’S REPORT
TO: MAYOR & HONORABLE CITY COUNCILORS Welcome to a new term of the Council with a special welcome to the new Mayor, Walter Ash and new Council Member Janet Anderson. Please let me know if these Manager’s Reports meet your expectations as we go.
Non-Agenda Items: 2. Last Wednesday evening Council member Jim Roberts and I went to the Waldo County Selectmen’s Association meeting at the Waldo Town Hall to meet with elected officials from all over the County to get an update on the issues involving the Waldo County Jail. The meeting was largely informational and I provide this very brief update: Following the referendum defeat for a new jail four years ago a number of local elected officials have been meeting to identify ways to make the County’s Jail needs more affordable. The Jail can hold thirty-two people. We averaged 59.8 people per day so far for 2007. They consist of two groups: those waiting for trial and those serving a sentence. The first group is the major problem because they can only be tried in Superior Court which only sat in Belfast a few times last year for 3-4 weeks at a time. A single criminal case can eat up an entire Superior Court visit. Presently the County is spending well over $500,000 per year on boarding out prisoners. The Sheriff indicated that if the State would let the County pay the salary of a Superior Court Judge at about $125,000 per year to sit in Waldo County eight months a year then the County would save a lot of money because there would not be so many waiting so long for a trial. Recently he spoke to an inmate who was waiting eight months for his trial. People waiting for trial are in jail longer than those actually serving sentences. It cost about $85 per day to house an inmate, not including transportation. The Sheriff has worked many creative work programs to keep people out of jail resulting in substantial savings. If those programs were not in place it could mean ten extra inmates per day. The County owns 100 acres behind the Belfast Business Park. The County rents the District Court to the State but must finance the Superior Court next door out of County dollars. The County Commissioners referred to building deficiencies including heat loss, lack of handicapped accessibility etc. The Commissioners wrote to the State that they would be interested in forming a local-state partnership in constructing a Criminal Justice Complex on the 100 acres in Belfast where they would combine State Police Offices, County Sheriff’s Office, Jail, Probation, District Attorney, and both the District Court and the Superior Court. They have not had a response largely attributable to the Governor’s proposal for the State to take over the County jails, which has released very little information on the proposed cost savings. The County’s proposal does contemplate moving the two Court houses from Church Street to the 100 acre parcel and there was some note that at least one elected official in the City was opposed to such a move. The County Jail Review Group has not quantified what this Criminal Justice Complex will cost. They are simply trying to start a dialogue with the State and they wish to be ready to step up that conversation if the Governors plan does not happen. The Jail Group has investigated other options including the County to finance a wing on another County’s Jail building or the idea of building a multi county jail. These options do not appear promising and I did not see any cost estimates associated with those options. The Jail Group said once the various options started to look clearer in terms of cost they may recommend different preferred options. As far as the Governors proposal, it apparently says that it will save a lot of money and will hold the County expense flat. In other words the County would pay the same amount every year in the future. The Sheriff is not persuaded because the proposal also calls for Corrections Officers to become State Employees- who apparently all get better pay and benefits. There are also serious transportation issues that may face Police Departments like Belfast, which are responsible for pre- arraignment transport. Currently the County does this as a courtesy and because it can bled in with other transport. However, if our prisoners are elsewhere the City will have to leave town to get them into jail and then go back out of Town to bring them back to Court here to be formally charged before the Judge. 3. Monday, December 24th, Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve falls on a Monday this year and it is NOT a regularly scheduled Holiday. I will mention this in the Communications portion of the meeting to see if we want to restrict City Hall hours that day. I would not expect much business on Christmas Eve and we should decide if we want to do something about that.
Agenda Items: “This will be a five unit, one bedroom, one floor, apartment building. We will rent the units to people with a developmental disability who wish to live in the area and are eligible to live in these units. Eligibility will be determined by the presence of a developmental disability, being at least 18 years old, and the need for support services, eligible for services from Maine Department of Health and Human Services/Developmental Services and income level. Since this is a USDHUD financed project, the tenants will need to meet the income criteria of USDHUD. The current annual income limit for one person is $17,550 and for two it is $20,050. If the person wishing to live in one of these apartments meets these income criteria, they will pay 30% of their monthly income toward the monthly rent charge and USDHUD will pay the balance. The support services will be provided by staff of Group Home Foundation. The amount of support services that are provided to each person is dependant upon their needs and wishes. The types of support include transportation when needed, help with meal planning, meal preparation, budgeting and paying bills, help with State and Federal government forms, help in setting up medical/dental appointments, etc. Group Home has already received a grant from the Federal Housing and Urban Development Agency (HUD) in excess of $500,000 to build this facility. Project cost indicates they need the City to apply for a $150,000 CDBG grant to complete the project. The financial impact to the City is as follows:
Estimated time City
Planner pre-application: 12 hours Applying for this Grant WILL NOT impact the City’s ability to file for CDBG Economic Development Grants this year. 11.C Public Works Department Truck Bid Opening. You have the results of two bid results in your packet along with Director of Public Works, Bob Richards, recommendation to go with the lowest bid. This truck will replace a 1991- 1 Ton truck that has 90,000 miles. This truck was originally used for plowing and is used every day in the functions of that department and driven by many different drivers. Mechanically it has been expensive to maintain since January of 2005. Repairs included tie-rod ends, steering column (twice), body work, brakes and drums (twice), wheel bearings, door and floor boards replaced twice, exhaust parts, batteries, hydroelectric hoses and pump, starter, injector parts, fender and hood repairs, replacement of pressure plates. Bob Richards will be at the meeting to answer any questions you may have. (Lilac) 11.D Request by Tim Woitowitz on behalf of the Old Fashioned Christmas. (Peppermint) There are attachments describing the parade request. The organizer has also asked for Police services at this function. Based upon the representations of the organizer, made directly to the Police Chief, we have determined that they will need to call in two additional officers to handle this event. It is easy to just assume that Belfast Police Officers can simply be rerouted from their duties for these events and occasionally that might be true. In this case it is not. We have expectations of 20 floats and marching bands. Main Street by the Post Office is likely to be closed down for about an hour. We will re-route existing patrols and also have two others brought in just for this function. Under the Contract there are a minimum number of hours paid to a Police Officer called in for duty. The Chief feels there will be a lot of traffic to manage and is personally going to assist. They must still have someone else around who can respond to accidents, domestic disputes etc. Given other public events to date the Chief has already exhausted any available monies to bring in two extra officers for this event and we will need to move the sum of $240 from the City’s Undesignated Fund Balance (Reserve) to the Police Department Budget (Line 220-501) if you wish to authorize and fund this request. If you approve the parade I certainly recommend that you fund the Police services necessary to protect both the participants and the general public who are affected by it. 11. E Discussion and Request by the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Maine. (Gray) MDA has requested to use two city Police officers and two City Police Cruisers to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy at a cost of $240. In your packet there is a letter from MDA of Maine requesting this assistance. I called Ms. Dunn to discuss this with her. She seemed very surprised that I was not automatically saying yes given her experience in other communities. She said that Darby’s Restaurant agreed to act as the “Jail” and that they had over thirty-five local people willing to be “arrested” from their jobs, homes or other locations that day by our Police Department. This will cost about $240 in extra expense for the Police Department. I do not recommend that we simply relocate on duty Offices to address this function. On duty Officers have existing responsibilities to do- house and property checks, ongoing investigations and lots of paperwork that attend to every complaint and investigation. At the risk of sounding “uncaring” as one person put it, I do not recommend we do this under any circumstances. Even if MDA wished to pay for the time-we should never “rent out” public safety response for this type of function. No aspect of the work will make any person, property, road or intersection safer. It proposes to take police officers and make them actors and I can’t support that regardless of the cause. It would be a very bad precedent. Secondly, we don’t have money ourselves for this effort. If the Council wants to do this then they will have to move $240 from Undesignated Fund Balance and transfer it to the Police Department Budget (Line item 220-501). 11.F Request from Parks and Recreation Commission. (Green) Your packet includes a Memo from Parks and Recreation Director Jim Bell requesting permission to revise wording in the Municipal Code to expand membership from five members to seven. Jim advised me that there are many reasons for the request. One reason is to provide greater opportunity for community participation in Parks matters. The Commission also hopes to add to the “volunteer” efforts of the Commission themselves in Parks events. 11.G Introduction of Proposed Amendments to the City Code of Ordinances, Chapter 102, and Zoning to amend such Zoning for the area located on the southerly side of Route 3 from Jesse Robbins Road to the east and the Belmont-Belfast Municipal boundary to the west. The proposed change is from Protection Rural Zoning District to Residential Agricultural 1 Zoning District. Supporting material and maps are provided by Wayne Marshall, Director of Community Planning, for your review and consideration. (Blue) 11.H Revised second and final reading Language for amendments to City Code of Ordinances, Chapter 102, Zoning, Article IX Performance Standards Division 3, Nonresidential Development Standards-Route 3 Commercial. Supporting materials are enclosed for your consideration and review from Wayne Marshall, Director of Community Planning. (Salmon) 11.I Council consideration of proposal to use contract rezoning to regulate all non-residential uses on the “Les Hills” property, rather than using specific performance standards (agenda item H). Wayne Marshall, Director of Community Planning has support materials for your review and consideration. (Buff) |
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