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PSC - Minutes - 08-25-22MINUTES OF THE ROSEMEAD PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 25, 2022 The regular meeting of the Rosemead Public Safety Commission was called to order by Assistant City Manager Mike Bruckner at 7:14 p.m. in the Rosemead City Council Chamber located at 8838 East Valley Boulevard, Rosemead, California. PRESENT: Commissioners Cao, Fonseca, Foutz, Garcia, and Wu ABSENT: None PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: was led by Commissioner Cao INVOCATION: was led by Commissioner Garcia ADMINISTRATION OF OATH OF OFFICE: The Oath of Office was administered to newly appointed Commissioners Michael Cao, Liz Fonseca, Jeff Foutz, Stephanie Garcia, and Amy Wu. 1. PUBLIC COMMENTS FROM THE AUDIENCE Assistant City Manager Bruckner opened the Public Comment period Council Member Armenta addressed the Public Safety Commission and thanked them for their dedication to the City. She emphasized the importance of the first-ever Public Safety Commission and its role in being the eyes and ears of the community. She mentioned how proud and excited she is for everyone. Council Member Polly Low submitted a public comment via email, "I would like to thank each of the commissioners for serving on the Public Safety Commission. Public safety is an important issue in our community. We need you to work with the community and the Sheriffs Department to bring together ideas to continue to help our residents and businesses to provide a safe environment for everyone. You are the bridge between the city and the community. The city council thanks you for your time and effort. We look forward in working with you and hear your ideas." There being no further speakers, Assistant City Manager Bruckner closed the Public Comment period. 2. CONSENT CALENDAR: None Assistant City Manager Bruckner informed the commission that there are no items on the consent calendar; however, the following meeting would include minutes for the commission to approve. 3. MATTERS FROM STAFF A. Overview of Commission Purpose & Duties and Discussion of Public Safety Issues Assistant City Manager Bruckner invited the Commission and the City's Public Safety Team to provide a brief introduction. The Commission provided a brief introduction followed by the staff listed below: Michael Bruckner, Assistant City Manager Lt. Paul Shigo, Police Chief Gerald Gonzales, Assistant Fire Chief Wayne Co, Public Safety Manager Mandy Wong, Public Safety Supervisor Jennifer Pineda, Management Analyst/Commission Liaison Charlotte Cabeza, Management Analyst/Commission Liaison Assistant City Manager Bruckner provided an overview of the Public Safety Commission. The purpose of the Commission is to facilitate a citizen -based, community effort to organize, promote, advocate, and participate in public safety efforts concerning matters relating to public safety, including understanding police and fire operations, crime prevention, and emergency preparedness to enhance public safety and improve the quality of life in Rosemead. The duties of the commission will be as follows: • Serve in an advisory capacity to the City Council and staff on public safety efforts • To advise on other related items as assigned by the City Council • Receive and review crime incidents and trends provided by LASD and Public Safety Department for recommendation to the City Council • Receive and review staff recommendations on emergency preparedness (e.g., earthquake, heatwaves, any additional emergency preparedness) information for recommendation to the City Council • Make recommendations to the City Council regarding policies and services related to public safety • Provide the City Council with a Year -End Review Recommendation Report The Commission is a Brown Act commission, which is a policy that governs open meetings for legislative bodies that requires that local government business is conducted in an open and public meeting, except in certain situations. Limited situations refer to closed sessions, matters of litigation, and employee relations which would need to be behind closed doors. The Brown Act is based upon state policy that the people must be informed so they can keep control over their government. Given that the Public Safety Commission is a legislative body, the Brown Act does apply, and meetings must be open to the public to allow the public to participate in the decision-making process. The Brown Act definition of the term "meeting" is a very broad definition that encompasses almost every gathering of a maoority of Commission members, at least three commissioners, and includes: 2 "Any congregation of a majority of members of a legislative body at the same time and place to hear, discuss, or deliberate upon any item that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body or the local agency to which it pertains." The exceptions are individual contact, seminar or conferences, community meetings, other legislative body exception, social or ceremonial occasion exception, and standing committee exception. There most common violation of the Brown Act is when members engage in Serial Meetings. Serial meetings commonly occur in one of two ways; either a staff member, a member of the body or some other person individually contacts a majority of members such as member A contacting member B and member B contacting member C to discuss an item related to the agenda. The other violation would be if member A calls member B, and then calls member C, and so on until a majority of the body has reached a collective concurrence on a matter. Staff will provide broad items for discussion on the agenda as it relates to public safety. If the Commission would like to engage in discussion on topics outside of the scope of the agenda, then they would need to ask for concurrence from two members of the Commission to be placed on a future agenda. This process allows for the public to be sufficiently noticed on the topic of conversation. The City of Rosemead has adopted the Rosenberg's Rules of Order which allows the Commission as a deliberative body to provide direction to staff as one voice. The appointment of the Chair and Vice -Chair will need to be selected during the next meeting. The Chair will be responsible for the management of the agenda and calling the meeting to order. The Vice -Chair would lead the meeting in the absence of the Chair. Staff is recommending that the Chair and Vice -Chair be established for the term of up to June 30, 2023. The City reorganizes yearly in July. Assistant City Manager Bruckner asked the Commission to discuss and provide concerns or items they would like presented over the next few meetings. He opened up the meeting to the Commission to discuss the items to be included in future meetings. Commissioner Cao was interested in trends for the previous five years which include burglary, organized crimes to incidental crimes. He would the trends compare from a business to residential standpoint. He also inquired about response times from the Sheriff s Department as well as the Fire Department. Commissioner Cao also asked about providing information for calls by type. Commissioner Fonseca asked whether there has been any outreach to the homeless population in Rosemead and she has seen an influx of activity on Garvey and Walnut Grove. She asked if Rosemead had a homeless outreach program and if it involved the Temple City Sheriff's Station. She mentioned the increase in fires, especially in the Whittier Narrows area, and requested stats for those fires and if it is due to the homeless population. Commissioner Fonseca would like to know crime 3 trends separated by location to see where there is an influx of crime to have those areas patrolled more frequently. Commissioner Foutz mentioned he would like to know if the way information has been provided has been modified. He stated that something that was reported as a felony 10 years ago could be seen as a misdemeanor today and therefore would like to know about those changes and whether they skewed the numbers. He asked that if people see something, they need to say something and report the incident. Commissioner Garcia mentioned the importance of involving the community and wants to know how Rosemead can educate the community. She mentioned she no longer feels safe and educating the community and involving them would help. Commissioner Wu stated there are many great programs that the City currently has and it would be great to share all of the information on those programs. She mentioned the homelessness issue is a big problem that also affects the City's image. She would also like to know about obstacles seen from the Staff s point of view. 4. MATTERS FROM COMMISSION A. Commissioner Comments Commissioner Cao asked whether there is a Neighborhood Watch that encompasses both residents and businesses. He asked how this can be established or expanded. Assistant City Manager Bruckner announced that there is a current Neighborhood Watch program. Commissioner Fonseca inquired about Code Enforcement's responsibilities in the community. Public Safety Manager Wayne Co mentioned that Code staff enforces the municipal code, addresses blight, resident calls, works with LAHSA for homelessness issues and outreach, bulky item pickup, and Customer Relations Management (CRM) requests. 5. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:08 p.m. The next Public Safety Commission meeting will be held on Thursday, September 22, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. in the Couplil Chambers. APPROVED: Jennifer Pineda, t7gllnent Analyst v' Commission Chair