Girdwood Public Safety Advisory Committee

November 6, 2017

Minutes final

7PM Call to order, Raleigh Hill
Confirmation of Quorum: Attending are Raleigh Hill, Mandy Hawes, Mike Opalka
Michelle Weston is excused.
Agenda Approved with addition of item #4 for November 6, 2017 meeting

Minutes Approved for October 2, 2017 Meeting with no changes

Announcements:

PSAC will elect 2018 chair at their January meeting.

Public Safety Reports:

WPD Update (Sam Daniel for Chief Schofield)
Chief Schofield is back on duty as of last week.

Whittier is starting their budget cycle, and Chief is working on Police Budget.

Chief and Sam have tentative plans to have lunch next week in Girdwood. Sam invited PSAC members to join and will send info on the date/time once it’s arranged. He asks PSAC to let him know if they have items to be addressed at that meeting.

Police Substation communication of office location, phone number
No change. Substation is available for WPD and signed for public. Majority of their work is done from cars.

Phone exchange work for local Girdwood number to transfer to Whittier is on-going. Current system for non-emergency calls is working.

Review of month-end statistics and YTD:

Statistics received for July and added to YTD spreadsheet. Pending stats from May, August, Sept, Oct to bring up to date.

GFD stats and activities YTD and for the month (Chief Banning)

Chief Banning reports that the punch list is being completed at the new fire station.
October was Fire Prevention month, GFD did lots of kids programs, tours with the school kids and Little Bears. Positive feedback regarding GFD participation in Halloween events. GFD will host Thanksgiving Dinner on WED 11/22 at the fire station.

353 calls YTD. Chief Banning said that he is researching the volume of mutual aid calls that GFD responds to, and gave stats for current year. PSAC is interested in seeing these stats compared to previous years to determine if there is significant change in volume based on Trooper service.

GBOS Public Safety Supervisor report (Sam Daniel)

Sam is following up with Scott Thomas as requested by PSAC, to discuss the design of the sweeps on the new bike path. He has invited Scott to attend the November GBOS meeting to discuss resolving the issue with DOT before taking this item to the Commissioner/Governor/Legislature level.

Sam is continuing an effort to reach out to neighboring communities to encourage partnership and understanding of one another. He plans to hold a mid-winter meeting in January with representatives of community councils (Indian/Bird)/city council (Whittier). Concept is a lunch meeting, probably someplace in Girdwood, to help foster relationships among the communities. These communities have a lot in common, including public safety, mutual aid, visitor industry, etc.

GBOS is working with MOA on language for an Areawide ballot measure to change MOA charter to allow GVSA to deal with towing illegally parked vehicles in the town. The current language is specific to GVSA and uses WPD as an example of service provider to do the work.

Girdwood Public Safety Advisory Committee is a sub-committee to the Girdwood Board of Supervisors

Agendas and minutes are available on line: http://www.muni.org/gbos

WPD Service Feedback
Mandy Hawes stated that WPD responded to incident recently in which a vehicle was driven in to the back doors of the Daylodge building, presumably the intent was to steal the ATM machine. WPD arrived within 30 minutes and investigated the scene. Overall WPD did well, but some areas of investigation were prompted by Alyeska.

Margaret states that WPD has been very helpful in dealing with illegal camping.

Sam states that they have helped resolve some parking issues in the neighborhoods.

Old Business:

Review progress researching other policing options:
Kyle produced a spreadsheet comparing similar size towns to Girdwood and the cost of each police department.

The average cost is about $1.3M/year, compared to Girdwood’s contract with WPD at $618,000/yr. It is noted that independent cities are able to use a variety of sources to pay for this service, including harbor fees, sales tax, etc.

Group discusses that this is helpful information to have as they go plan for negotiations with Whittier for the next contract cycle and is key to the discussion with GBOS to provide an informed recommendation for service. PSAC plans to present this information to the public and GBOS at the January 2018 GBOS meeting so that an informed updated discussion regarding future policing in Girdwood can take place.

PSAC plans to provide GBOS with the following at the GBOS January 2018 Regular meeting

general, sample budget for a prospective Girdwood Police Dept

list of steps would need to be taken to create a Girdwood department.

statistics regarding police services provided since WPD began patrols in fall, 2016

Group also mentions that they would like to continue the conversation with the MOA about the possibility of a more rural model of policing by APD in Girdwood. Sam states that this was a topic at the October 2017 MOA/GBOS Quarterly meeting and will be on the agenda again at the January 2018 MOA/GBOS Quarterly meeting.

Discuss holding Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate (ALICE) information session/drill and other disaster response training.

No report.
Group discusses that usually GBOS does a disaster training session with GFD in the late winter annually.

Select coffee with cops date in November
Tentatively scheduled for November 18 from 10-12 at the Girdwood Picnic Club.

Margaret to confirm with Chief Schofield

New business

Girdwood Auto/Turnagain Towing presentation requesting motion supporting their request for a conditional use permit for a towing and impound business at the Girdwood Industrial Park (Brian Holliman, presenting).

Brian presents that he is requesting support from PSAC and LUC for GBOS to write a Resolution of Support for a Conditional Use Permit for a towing and impound business at the Industrial Park. As space is limited, the current plan is to share space with the Girdwood Fire Dept. Brian plans to be able to store 10-20 cars at the impound lot for not more than 90 days. He will provide drip pans under each vehicle for fluid collection and will have a secure area if needed.

Public Comment:

Tommy O’Malley mentions that WPD worked well with Girdwood Forest Fair regarding a situation with a religious group last summer at the fair. WPD encouraged the group to move to the corner across the street from the park venue, and this action was supported by MOA legal opinion that stated that the group has a right to free speech but not the venue when it was rented by GFF.

Tommy also stated that he appreciated seeing a WPD car at the Tesoro parking lot when he arrived in Girdwood late one evening recently. This sends a good message of safety to the community and makes it clear that the community is protected.

Other Business (Roundtable Comments from the Board):
Adjourn 8:10PM