« Dedication of the Henry Vellore Lozano, USMCR, Community Center | Main | Medical Marijuana in West Hollywood »
November 15, 2009
DHS Public Safety Commission - November 12
The meeting began with Chief Williams requesting the commissioners to add an urgency item to the agenda: discussion of the Residential Rental Unit Inspection Ordinance. Even though the ordinance has been in the works for 6 or 7 months, the reason it became urgent is because the city council will consider it at their December 1 meeting, and if the Public Safety Commission wants to weigh in on it, it's now or never. The Chief's request was approved 5-0.
Red Light Cameras
Before we even get into this, let me tell you that I don't think very highly of red light cameras. That's based on vague recollections of anecdotal information about some jurisdictions who tried to use them to make money and shortened the yellow light times in order to increase the violations. The unintended result was an increase in accidents as drivers learned to slam on the brakes as soon as the yellow light came on. My second concern is that a violation is first charged to the registered owner of the vehicle, even though there may be no evidence that he or she committed the infraction. Then, it's up to that owner to help the police find whoever was driving at the time.
Those issues deserve a lot more discussion, but I'll do that in some other post. Here is an article about voters in three different cities approving amendments to ban red light cameras this month. One of those cities was College Station, Texas, where the provider is American Traffic Solutions, who is proposing a red light camera system in Desert Hot Springs.
Cathedral City police report a 30% drop in accidents and a 50% drop in violations since the system was set up at Ramon and Date Palm in 2007. They report a drop in accidents at similar intersections as well. The police give credit to the red light cameras for this wide spread effect. Of course, what we have here is correlation, and from that alone you cannot conclude cause and effect. It could be that some other factor is reducing accidents in Cathedral City (people driving less due to the poor economy perhaps?), and the benefit shows up at Ramon and Date Palm as well as at other intersections.
With that opinionated preamble behind us, let's proceed. Bill Kroske from American Traffic Solutions gave an impressive presentation that convinced me the city isn't in it for the money and almost convinced me to lay down my due process rights. He started out by referring to an "article" that appeared over the weekend about "the worst intersections in Coachella Valley." He said one DHS intersection was on the list. I (and others, I'm sure) were mystified by his references to this until the end when Chairman Bowman asked him which intersection. The intersection is Palm Drive & Two Bunch Palms Trail. I've searched the Desert Sun for this article and found nothing, but he didn't say it was in the DS. If anybody can point me to it, I would like to check it out. To my mind "worst intersection" means one that is slow, difficult to navigate and has a lot of accidents — and there aren't many like that at all in the Coachella Valley. Mr. Kroske, I think, was looking at it only from his point of view, which is red light running.
What his firm has done, in cooperation with DHS Police, is to set up some temporary cameras at intersections in the city to gather data. They took the images from those cameras, analyzed them and concluded that only the Palm Drive & Two Bunch Palms Trail could justify red light cameras. The Chief said he will be requesting installation of two cameras there, plus one camera at another intersection which he did not identify.
American Traffic Solutions pays for EVERYthing. The whole system is designed to cost the city almost nothing. The "almost" is because the police do have to do two things:
- The police have to validate the violation - obviously, a private firm can't issue a traffic ticket, that has to come from the police; and
- If the accused takes it to court, a police officer has to show up.
Other than that, ATS provides the hardware, pays for the installation, operates and maintains it, and they analyze the resulting data. When requested by the police department, ATS will also attempt to provide other photos or video to the police. If, for example, photographic evidence to supplement the images from the newly installed police camera at that location were needed to help solve a crime, ATS would attempt to supply it. Once the police validate a violation, ATS mails the notice to the registered owner of the vehicle and they monitor the county court to find out when and how much of the fine was paid, which is data that the police are unable to get otherwise. And what does ATS get out of this? They get to keep the first $5,300/month in traffic fines generated from their red light cameras. Above $5,300 the money goes to the city. If the revenue is below $5,300 in a month, too bad for ATS. Some day, when all drivers are enlightened and safe, ATS will be losing too much money on the site and will remove the cameras.
The cameras provide video as well as still images. In California they are required to photograph both the driver and the license plate. In the event of a violation, the information is sent to the police who validate it, then ATS sends a notice to the registered owner. That letter, besides notifying them of the violation, the fine, their due process rights and how to proceed, gives the registered owner access via the web to all the incriminating photographic data. A friend of mine who had the pleasure of being nailed by the cameras at Ramon and Date Palm confirms that everything Mr. Kroske said about the notification process is completely accurate. You can go look at several photos of your car with you driving it as it goes through the intersection. You can see the yellow light, and then your guilty self proceeding on red. The video is there too. You should probably make sure that when you view this evidence you do not have a pistol or ceremonial sword nearby, lest you be overcome with guilt and carry out justice on yourself immediately.
Mr. Kroske showed us a sample of all the information that is provided to the police in order to support the charge, should it go to court. That information includes the duration of the yellow light. I wanted to find out how that duration is determined, but Mr. Kroske left immediately after his presentation so I couldn't ask. The camera system must be wired into the box that controls the traffic lights. Does it measure the yellow light time from that? Or is it determined directly from the photographic evidence? Or is it merely pulled from a database provided by the police?
Asked if red light camera installation meant that more sensing loops would have to be installed under the road surface, Mr. Kroske's answer was "no." Recent technology has developed little black boxes to replace the wire loops. He showed us one. It's a cube, about 4 inches by 4 by 4. It's a quick job to install two under the pavement and then cover them. Of course, there needs to be a power and data connection, so there will be some wire under there too. Two are needed for each lane of traffic. While only three lanes are marked on Palm Drive at the intersection with Two Bunch, we know that people make a fourth right turn lane when there's room. So that should mean 16 little boxes under Palm and 12 under Two Bunch.
ATS has access to registered vehicle ownership in all 50 states (plus D.C.) and every province in Canada. Mr. Kroske didn't mention Mexico, however. In any case, Mr. Kroske said they are prepared for as many as 30% of apparent violations to yield nothing because of the highly transient population in Coachella Valley. Many owners don't keep DMV up to date on their addresses. ATS does seem to set things up to avoid citing any false positives. The only false positives they should generate will be in those cases where someone other than the registered owner is driving. In that case, the registered owner is requested to supply a copy of his or her drivers license and to tell them who was driving. Chief Williams didn't get into explaining how much force of law backs up that request. There will also be the occasional instance where the registered owner wasn't driving and isn't a licensed driver. I suppose other state-issued ID with photo would be accepted in those cases.
Mr. Kroske emphasized that the goal of the system isn't to generate violations, but to reduce the accident rate at the intersections where they put in cameras. He said the real financial benefit to the city will be the reduction in time and expense that the police have to spend dealing with traffic accidents.
The public safety commission voted 5-0 in support of the red light camera program.
Current and Future Fire Department Assessment
The city needs a fire station on the eastern side. The fire department is working with GIS to establish an ideal location. Beyond that, the city will eventually need a fourth station in the soon-to-be annexed southern parts of the city. Chief Dean Veik recommends that the future site should be identified now, and not wait for future growth to get ahead of the fire department's ability to respond quickly enough.
Chief Veik said he also hoped the city would fund the purchase of some thermal-imaging cameras which will assist fire fighters in finding people in smoky fires or the dark of a desert night.
Residential Rental Unit Inspection
Martin Magaña discussed this upcoming ordinance. Every landlord would register his rental property with the city. Code enforcement would then go out and inspect the properties, looking for such things as illegal additions, garage conversions, faulty wiring, improper HVAC, plumbing, broken windows, broken locks. The intention is to improve the housing. If violations are found, the landlord will be given a timeframe in which to remedy the violations. If the violations are not fixed, the landlord could be fined. Ultimately, when all is right, the landlord gets a "certificate of compliance" which is good for three years. After those three years, code enforcement would come and inspect again.
The city council has indicated they want to exclude single-family rental homes. The time limit to register initially will be 30 or 60 days. The fees have not been decided yet, except to say that the landlord will pay a fee.
Chairman Bowman said that he thinks there are many former spas that have been converted to apartments that have not correctly reported their current status to the city. He wanted to know what the sudden rush was for this ordinance.
Commissioner Young asked how the three-year term was settled on. Mr. Magaña said it was based on what most other cities had done. Some cities go as long as five years, but our city is so dynamic, a shorter time frame may be necessary.
Commissioner Sholty said that due to the age of much of the housing stock in Desert Hot Springs, a repair might fail after only 6 months. He wanted to know if there was a way tenants could report code violations anonymously. Mr. Magaña said the city already gets anonymous reports from tenants, and the city responds to those.
Commissioner Scheurer asked if the ordinance was mandatory for all landlords or was an inspection based on "probable cause." Yeah, he asked that. The answer, of course, is that it will be mandatory for all properties that are included in the scope of the ordinance.
No other city in the Coachella Valley has an ordinance like this.
Commissioner Martin asked if the commission could provide a list of spas converted to apartments to the city, would that be helpful. He said they are easy to spot as they still have their spa signs up, but are not being used as spa. Commissioner Martin volunteered Chairman Bowman as the expert on the subject.
Chairman Bowman called it a Herculean task. Indeed, I myself wonder if we have sufficient code enforcement officers to handle this.
Commissioner Scheurer and Chairman Bowman both said they would like to see a copy of the ordinance.
Here is a copy [PDF] of the proposed ordinance as it was presented to the city council on November 9. This is not the final proposal that will come to the city council for a vote in December.
Mr. Magaña said he would supply a copy to the commission. A discussion ensued as to whether the ordinance should be reviewed by an ad hoc committee or the full commission. It was decided that the full commission should review it. In the discussion of when to meet for that review, Commissioner Scheurer suggested that the commission should request the city council to delay its vote on the ordinance in order to give the commission time to review it at its next regular meeting. Chief Williams explained that the city council had already directed staff to bring the ordinance to them on December 1, and a request from the public safety commission to delay would likely be ignored. The commission decided to meet on Tuesday, November 24, in the Carl May Center immediately following the city council special meeting (or at 7 PM, whichever is later) to discuss the rental inspection ordinance.
Police Update
Chief Williams showed the Powerpoint presentation that he had previously shown to the city council and water district board.
Crime statistics for August and September:
| Call Classification | 8/2008 | 8/2008 | |
| Criminal Homicide | 0 | 0 | |
| Rape | 0 | 0 | |
| Robbery | 15 | 8 | |
| Assault | 24 | 52 | |
| Burglary | 42 | 51 | |
| Larceny | 53 | 67 | |
| Vehicle Theft | 23 | 24 | |
| Total | 157 | 202 | |
| 9/2008 | 9/2009 | 1/09 - 9/09 | |
| Criminal Homicide | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Rape | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Robbery | 5 | 13 | 59 |
| Assault | 39 | 48 | 299 |
| Burglary | 49 | 52 | 398 |
| Larceny | 69 | 54 | 443 |
| Vehicle Theft | 16 | 18 | 220 |
| Total | 178 | 185 | 1429 |
You can see that the numbers are up in most categories in both months. The chief attributes this to the fact that the residents, knowing now that the police are actually going to respond to their calls and may likely capture a criminal, are much more willing to call the police. The chief pointed out that from May through November 2008 there were 48 arrests of juveniles. From May through November this year they've arrested 91 juveniles. Adults arrested 5 through 11/2008 175; 5 through 11/2009 330 adult arrests. He says we're a victim of our own success, and that crime statistics show only that which is reported to the police. As we get more cops out in the field, he said we should expect to see the numbers of arrests continue to rise. The police now are routinely working overtime.
You may have noticed a story in the Desert Sun that Cathedral City would like to pass two or three people from their police department to ours, as they try to trim their budget. My only concern with that is whether the Cathedral City staffers would be up to Chief Williams's standards. In a conversation between the chief and Karl Baker at the dedication of the Henry Vellore Community Center on Saturday, where I was just a fly on the wall, the chief did indicate that he would be willing to accept transfers from Cathedral City.
Code Enforcement
In October: cases opened 198, closed 123. Administrative citation fines issued (non-foreclosure) $30,700; fines received $58,067.96. Administrative citation fines and civil penalties issued for foreclosures: $425,500; received $16,000.
Walgreen's has been issued its third $500 fine for not complying with the shopping cart containment ordinance. An abatement warrant for the abandoned house at 12th and West is being sought. When that is received, the city can demolish the structure. The city has sent its clean-up contractor to 66221 Estrella ad 66164 3rd Street. The expense will be liened against those properties.
The ball got dropped on the 5th Street trailer park (66434 5th Street), which had shown significant improvement, which seems to have plateaued. That process has to be restarted. The trailer park was inspected on October 21 and a list of the violations was given to the owner. The follow up inspection will be on or around November 21. I, myself, have observed clean-up underway at that trailer park over the last couple of weeks.
An abandoned semi trailer on Two Bunch Palms Trail between Cholla and Little Morongo was cited. Sunset Springs and Paradise Springs were sent notices to comply with dust requirements. Code enforcement caught a resident of 66985 Casa Grande in the act of attempting to discharge sewage via a hose into a manhole. A house in Skyborne (11874 Skylark Street) has been posted as "Substandard." The owner is in the process of cleaning up a public nuisance left by sub-lessees.
Code enforcement has begun to inspect the areas south of the city that are to be annexed, so that possible code violations can be presented to the county before the annexation is approved!
A citation has been issued to the owner of the former Blockbuster Video for failure to maintain the property...and missing address numbers (the bastard!).
The clean up of Area 8 removed 9.6 tons, including 23 tires and 20 "large items." On my street, when the DVD truck came through for its second run of the week, I saw my neighbors responding to the sound of the truck by rushing more trash down to the roadside. It was like the ice cream truck was coming, but it was just trash, and the adults were the only ones running. OTOH, I heard one neighbor complain to another as she saw the truck pass by, "How was I supposed to know when they would come?" The other neighbor responded saying, "They put a flyer on your door, plus I told you last Friday that they could come any day and you should just put our stuff out." So there will always be those residents who've got too many other things on their mind (kids, TV, beer, whatever) to even haul their trash to the curb. Maybe some day when this is a rich city we can have strong-backed social workers accompany the DVD truck. The social worker will actually go up to each house to knock on the door and ask if they have any trash today, and would they like any help carrying it out to the curb. But don't count on that soon.
After the clean-up, I saw that my favorite Area 8 abandoned tires were still there on Pierson Boulevard across the street from Casablanca Studios. Next time we have a big clean-up, I'll just go get them myself and put them in front of my house.
Code enforcement is vigorously pursuing enforcement of the new sign ordinance, chasing down illegal banners, pennants and flags. In October they also boarded up six properties.
Alternate Commissioner Heidrick asked about an abandoned, boarded-up house that was on Cactus (she wasn't entirely sure it was Cactus) near Two Bunch. It is surrounded by chain link fence and, she said, has been that way since she moved to the city 15 years ago. Code enforcement will check on that and get back to her.
Animal Control
Animal Control's regular hours are 7:30 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday. The rest of the time they are on standby call and should be able to respond to an urgent call within an hour.
Numbers for October: Canines: 5 turned in by owners, 98 strays, 12 dead. 49 cats were brought in, 10 of them dead. 4 other kinds of animals were impounded. They got 5 bite calls, 3 sick/injured animal calls, 5 urgent vicious animal calls, 15 cruelty/neglect calls, 4 nuisance animal complaints, and issued 79 licenses.
Commissioner Reports
Commissioner Sholty said that he will not be seeking re-appointment as a public safety commissioner. He will be absent from the December meeting, so this was his farewell from the commission. If you have are a DHS resident and have an interest in these subjects that you see are within the purview of the Public Safety Commission, get the application form here. All the commissioners on all the commissions will be up for reappointment in January, so you might want to speak to your favorite member(s) of the city council to find out what vacancies might be coming up.
Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | November 15, 2009 at 04:10 PM
