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City of Colorado Springs / Commissions & Committees / Public Safety Sales Tax Oversight Committee

Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Public Safety Sales TaxOversight Committee
Meeting Minutes: Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Police Operations Center ? Community Room 705 S. Nevada Avenue
 
Committee members in attendance:
Randy Case II, Richard Hansen, Frank O?Donnell, Winfield Pate, Joe Pelka, Ronald Ruckdeschel, Marjorie Smith, Pat McElderry, Bernie Herpin by phone.
 
Committee members absent:
Robert Gallagher, Cynthia Halsey
 
Others present:
Dan Raider/CSFD, Nina Rikoski/CSFD, Bob Lund/CSFD, Sue Autry/CSPD, Sam Azad/CSPD, Ron Gibson/CSPD, Pete Carey/CSPD, Joe Curro/CSPD, Leslie Hickey/Budget, JoAnn Cox/Budget
 
Call to Order:
Chair Richard Hansen called the meeting to order at 4:32 p.m. Cynthia Halsey resigned from the Committee today providing her resignation to Dick Hansen with a copy to Leslie Hickey, who forwarded it to Marti Devine Sletta in the Mayor?s office. Cynthia?s term expires April 2009.
 
Citizen Comment:
There were no citizens in attendance.
 
Approval of Minutes:
The Chair asked for approval of the minutes from the August 6 meeting. The committee reviewed and accepted the minutes.
 
MOTION:      Joe Pelka move to approve minutes from last meeting without changes. Ron Ruckdeschel seconded. The motion to approve the minutes passed 7-0-0.
 
Pat McElderry arrives at 4:35pm
 
Old Business:
Ballot Updates: Brief overview provided by Richard Hansen explaining that the County Commissioners voted to put initiative on November?s ballot. It is still a one percent sales tax increase with 34% (after CIP allocation) directed to the City using the formula the Citizens for Effective Government (CEG) Committee has agreed upon.
 
Committee members asked about the impact of the Bruce Initiatives. Staff explained that the City could loose approximately $23M dollars over 10 years. There was a brief discussion regarding the effects of the two initiatives and how there is no documentation or study preformed that shows how these initiatives will affect the citizens of the City. Determined that people need to read the message and ballot language to make their own intelligent decision.
 
Budget: Leslie Hickey provided the budget overview. City Council recently provided direction for the budget deficit. For 2008 the City is freezing some positions and taking some funding from the fund balance. The 2009 budget is facing a deficiency of approximately $23M. Police and Fire will be untouched; however, the rest of the City will be faced with major cuts, such as, Parks and Recreation and other entities. With a current short fall of $6-8M, departments have been asked to provide savings and have halted some projects. The Police state that they plan to save $1.1M by vacancies, while Fire will put into affect freezing of wages, and will carefully watch the OT budget to help with budget shortfalls.
 
Frank O?Donnell arrives at 4:46 p.m.
 
Fire Update: Bob Lund presented the Fire update. Station 17 is complete and Certificate of Occupancy was received yesterday. Regarding the ventilation projects for the various Fire Stations, the contractor has begun work and should be finished with Fire Station 2 in December 2008. Discussion of diesel particulates and its acceptable levels ensued. Stations 9 and 10 had high levels of diesel particulates. New HVAC units and an apparatus bay exhaust where installed in both of these stations. These changes resulted in significant decreases in diesel particulates in the sleeping quarters and apparatus bays. As there are no set standards for acceptable levels of diesel particulates, the Fire department used a benchmark number that was set in the 2004 Health/Safety Study of .058 milligrams per cubic meter. The 0.058 mg/m3 was the level measured in the old Fire Station 8, which was one of the busiest in the city. The CSFD is working diligently to ensure diesel particulate levels in all CSFD stations are below the .058 mg/m3 level.
 
Police Update: Joe Curro presented the Police update. The DNA lab is preparing for a testing visit on its way to becoming certified. Details will be provided next month by Ian Fitch, Metro Crime Lab Supervisor. The project came in under budget by $70,000 and monies have been returned to the Fund Balance.
 
Annual PSSTOC Presentation to City Council: Council budget work sessions for Police, Fire and PSST are scheduled for October 9, 1-5:00 p.m. Presentation slides were discussed with regard to the Budget Work Session next month.
 
Randy Case II left at 5:32 p.m.
 
Meeting adjourned at 6:35 P.M.
 
Next Meeting:
October 1, 2008, 4:30 ? 6:30 P.M., Police Operations Center, Community Room
 
Notes: The minutes of this meeting were taken by JoAnn Cox. Any omissions or corrections should be brought to the Chairperson?s attention at the next PSSTOC meeting.