Ron's Log

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November 18, 2013

Commissioner Brady was absent from this meeting of the Public Safety Commission.

Public Comments

Lisa Delagada said she owns two vacant lots on Mountain View. Code enforcement cited her for excessive weeds, but she says there are no weeds, only desert landscaping. She said there had been weeds behind her lot on property owned by the neighboring motel. She wanted to know what to do. She was advised by Commander Peary to talk to the Code Enforcement Supervisor David Wilson who was present.

Animal Control

The stats are in line with what is usually experienced at this time of year. 83 canines impounded, 58 felines, 3 "others." Of the 276 calls for service, 10 were for vicious animals, 20 for cruelty or neglect. 41 citations were issued and 101 animals were licensed. In the last few months there was one house where Animal Control impounded 15 dogs. At another house there were 14 or 15 cats that had been abandoned.

Fire

Chief Tomlinson was not present, but October 2013 was another record month for fire service calls. Here are October calls going back to 2008.

• 2013: 335
• 2012: 325
• 2011: 302
• 2010: 307
• 2009: 258
• 2008: 230

271 of the calls in October 2013 were medical; 7 were fires; 26 were false alarms; 12 were traffic collisions. Some of the leading medical calls as reported by dispatch were abdominal pain (17), assault (19), chest pain (20), difficulty breathing (44), fall (24), "person down" (54), traffic collision (16).

Code Enforcement

In October 60 citations were issued with a total dollar amount of $37,850. $34,411.48 was paid toward citations. 72 notices of violation were sent. 13 demand letters were issued with a value of $35,985.44.

There was a single-family residence that was converted illegally into five apartments. Code Enforcement staff met with the owner and City Attorney, Planning and Building Inspector. Code Enforcement wants access to inspect, but the owner is not expected to cooperate. A warrant may be necessary.

On November 14 Code Enforcement officers did a sweep of all the commercial properties on Palm Drive from Mission Lakes south past Dillon. That's 164 locations, finding 602 potential violations. Officers looked at everything, including trash enclosures, business licenses, and signage.

Police

Commander Peary delivered the report. Once again, crime numbers are down overall compared with last year.

Filed under Desert Hot Springs,Public Safety | permalink | November 18, 2013 at 01:58 PM

Comments

This just happened to be a very brief meeting. Any changes in public safety get vetted through this commission before going on to the city council. It provides a public forum where the public can come and talk to/with the police, fire, code enforcement and animal control honchos. The only one who's potentially getting paid OT is the city clerk, and it's quite possible that her schedule is arranged so that this is NOT overtime.

Posted by: Ron's Log at Nov 29, 2013 7:15:06 AM

Why does this "commission" even meet?? Paying staff OT to meet and give a "report" that can be read via email just shows how financially inept the city is.

Posted by: Fred at Nov 28, 2013 9:39:50 PM

Ron,

FYI....Kelley Brady has resigned from the Public Safety Commission.

Posted by: Russ Martin at Nov 18, 2013 7:58:58 PM

It's been the policy of Code Enforcement for some time that natural desert vegetation on vacant lots is fine. In the instance of Ms. Delagada, my guess is they were simply wrong on where the property line ran.

As for other citations, you could probably contact David Wilson and ask, but it would probably be more productive to come to the next Public Safety meeting where they should present some info about citations issued as a result of the Palm Drive sweep. Commercial properties are afforded the same opportunities as residents to fix their violations before they are cited, so at this point they're probably only verbal warnings.

Posted by: Ron's Log at Nov 18, 2013 4:40:37 PM

Curious to know if the city is manicuring the city owned vacant lots as they point out the problems with desert landscaping on private lots. Probably not as there's no revenue from that. And if they are so concerned about public safety, have they cited Vons for blocking the exit/entrance at night with shopping carts and locking one side of doors which they do nightly "to prevent shoplifting". That is a fire ordinance violation and serious threat to public safety. Even if there wasn't a fire but a panic in a store, there should never be locked or blocked doors that say "These doors are to remain unlocked during business hours" or were they more worried about bird shit on a monument sign?

Posted by: P.S. I love u at Nov 18, 2013 4:22:45 PM

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