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PSC - Minutes - 05-23-24MINUTES OF THE ROSEMEAD PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MAY 23, 2024 The Regular Meeting of the Rosemead Public Safety Commission was called to order by Chair Amy Wu at 7:11 p.m. in the Rosemead City Council Chamber located at 8838 East Valley Boulevard, Rosemead, California. PRESENT: Vice -Chair Foutz, Commissioners Fonseca, Garcia, and Kuang ABSENT: Commissioners Martinez and Ta PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: was led by Commissioner Kuang INVOCATION: was led by Commissioner Garcia 1. PUBLIC COMMENTS FROM THE AUDIENCE Chair Wu opened the Public Comment period. No Public Comments were received. Chair Wu closed the Public Comment period. 2. CONSENT CALENDAR Commissioner Garcia made a motion to approve the minutes from the April 25th, 2024, Public Safety Commission Meeting, and was seconded by Commissioner Fonseca. Motion carried by the following vote: YES: 5-0 3. MATTERS FROM STAFF A. Introduction of the New Senior Management Analyst, Amanda Moreno Assistant City Manager Richard Rojas presented the new Senior Management Analyst Amanda Moreno, who comes from the City of Norwalk. Assistant City Manager Rojas explained Senior Management Analyst Moreno has a variety of experience that makes her capable of handling a lot of different functions in the Administration Department. Senior Management Analyst Moreno stated she is excited to be working in the City of Rosemead and staff have been extremely welcoming. B. Introduction of L.A. CADA Supplemental Services Team Assistant City Manager Rojas introduced Josh Heinzman and Raimundo Torres from the Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol & Drug Abuse team, and briefly explained the homeless outreach services the team provides to the City, and invited the team to the podium to answer any questions the commissioners may have. Vice -Chair Foutz inquired if the team stays strictly within the bounds of Rosemead. Before answering the question, Josh explained the difference between the two different teams that serve the City. The supplemental team, a regional outreach team, is a service the City gets one day a week that is funded by the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments. Josh further explained that independent of the supplemental team, the City directly funds a team to provide services Monday through Friday. Josh returned to the original question and explained contractually the team provides services within the city boundaries but if they see an individual across the street in another jurisdiction, the team will engage the individual. Raimondo added if the team can get a client into a treatment facility in another city, the team will continue to provide services. Commissioner Kuang asked, after an individual is put into vital services, are they required to do anything to stay there? Josh explained it looks different for every individual and depends on the type of facility they are placed into. He further explained individuals aren't forced to go anywhere, unless they are arrested or placed on a hold because their mental health is unstable. The team tries to place an individual into programs where they're going to be most successful. Josh shared a story about Raimundo and his colleagues assisting an individual to get into a housing program, who struggled with bipolar, schizophrenia, and substance misuse. For the individual to get placed into the program, the facility required that the individual had their medication. The individual could not obtain the medication right away so the team assisted with placing the individual in a sobering center in downtown until the next day when the team could assist the individual with obtaining the required psychiatric medications to be admitted into the housing program. Vice -Chair Foutz echoed the importance of the team having a personal connection to continue to assist someone. Josh agreed that it takes time to build rapport and reiterated the benefit of having a team providing outreach services five days a week. Commissioner Kuang asked how long or how many hours are needed to address one case? Secondly, she asked if a record is kept for each individual, to see their progress and evaluate if the program is working. Josh advised the number of hours each case takes is dependent on the individual. At times the interaction can take 5 minutes or years. In response to the second question, the team can see the engagements an individual has with all providers through the homeless information management system but there is no way to measure effectiveness through that system, aside from individuals that are housed and stay housed. Commissioner Fonseca asked the team to define an engagement and clarify the stats on the monthly report. Josh responded an engagement means the team is interacting with the individual and the report details the total number of engagements that are broken down into first-time, follow-up, or declined services. Additionally, Commissioner Fonseca asked if there is an increase in engagements. Raimundo confirmed that is correct and the team has seen engagements triple last week. He also added that within the past three weeks, initially engagements were increasing to five a day and it's up to twelve now. Specifically pointing out the influx of homeless individuals from out of state. Commissioner Fonseca then asked why we're seeing an increase in unhoused out of state individuals in Rosemead? Is there a certain bus route? Or are they being admitted to a facility and being discharged locally? Raimundo clarified he doesn't think Rosemead was their end point. Josh confirmed Raimundo's response and added that they confirmed one individual was sent on a bus from Texas, but their endpoint was Los Angeles. Commissioner Fonseca additionally inquired if the team has identified any other hotspot areas, aside from the Rosemead City Hall, where they are noticing upticks. Raimundo advised there has been an uptick at the Jack in the Box on San Gabriel Blvd. and Garvey Ave. The team housed three individuals and is seeing a growing encampment at 7433 Garvey Ave. Commissioner Fonseca then expressed her concern of witnessing an individual smoking illegal substances in the same area in the early morning hours. Josh advised this activity is not unique to Rosemead and there has been a lot of legislative and policy changes within the past decade where these things are more commonplace. Commissioner Garcia expressed her concern of unhoused individuals' activity at night and littering near Garvey Park, creating unsafe conditions for kids to walk past on their way to school or on the playgrounds. Commissioner Garcia asked if there is a plan to reach these individuals who stay overnight in Rosemead. Josh responded that City staff does a great job of taking care of reported issues. In terms of a plan for the individuals mentioned, the likelihood is that they are already receiving services since they are likely Rosemead homeless neighbors, whether the team has seen them at night or not. Rojas added that the homeless committee is developing a plan to address some of the issues brought up tonight, that should be presented at an upcoming City Council meeting. Chair Wu thanked the team for the presentation and followed up with a question regarding a motel location listed on the monthly report with the high number of encounters. She asked if the individuals contacted were hotel guests. Josh advised the report is not implying that individuals are staying there, it happens to be a location where the team had the most interactions. Historically this will result in the weekly reporting of some locations staying the same. Chair Wu asked a final question, if the public sees someone on the street, what should they do or who should they contact to get them services. Raimundo advised the public can reach out to Mandy at the Public Safety Center and she will assist with connecting the individual to the team or we can provide the number for the outreach phone. C. Community Engagement: Local Hazard Mitigation Plan Overview Public Safety Supervisor, Mandy Wong provided a detailed presentation on the updates for the City's Local Hazard Mitigation Plan. She explained the plan is a framework to guide decision making and policy development to reduce or eliminate risk to life and property, specifically identifying natural hazards that threaten the community. The plan expired on October 23, 2023, and staff is in the process to update the plan. Staff submitted a grant proposal in June 2021 and was awarded $45,000 by FEMA in August 2022. In October 2022, the City released a request for proposal and awarded a consultant to assist with updating the plan. Public Safety Supervisor Mandy explained the process of working with the consultant to update the plan. On September 28, 2023, staff submitted the draft plan to CAL Office of Emergency Services (CAL OES) and received feedback on November 8, 2023. Staff have been working on the revisions and explained that more revisions were received than anticipated, due to FEMA guidelines changing in 2023. Based on the feedback received from CAL OES, staff are focusing on community involvement in underserved communities. Commissioner Garcia asked if underserved communities have been identified in Rosemead. Public Safety Supervisor Mandy advised those communities to be identified in the general element plan. Public Safety Supervisor Mandy advised staff is working on the Community Engagement element now and is asking everyone to share the drafted plan with the community for feedback. All information can be found on the City website, where the plan is summarized and a survey is available for feedback. Chair Wu thanked Public Safety Supervisor Mandy for her presentation. Vice -Chair Foutz asked if Public Safety Supervisor Mandy has any recommendations. She advised that in the event of an emergency, residents should be self-reliant for at least 21 days. She reiterated the importance of being prepared for an emergency following comments from Vice -Chair Foutz recalling a windstorm event that wiped out the power in Rosemead and nearby cities. She added the importance of having this plan in place to apply for funding and resources. This item was Received and Filed by the Commission. D. LACoFD Fire and EMS Incidents Report (April 2024) Assistant City Manager Rojas presented Battalion Chief Darren Walker, attending on behalf of Chief Gonzalez. Battalion Chief Walker provided a presentation on how the Fire Department produces the data and incident response codes for the monthly reports. He explained the sources of emergency response data come from two sources. One is the fire view software that captures all response data from the CAD, which is the computer aided dispatch. And the other is image trend that contains all EMS data for emergency responses. The two data sets are combined for a complete data set. Most calls are either EMS or fire, and within those EMS and fire, we put those into specific codes. Walker added that reports could be generated based on responding to calls for people experiencing homelessness. Chair Wu requested the data would be beneficial to see. Walker advised he would pass along the data request to Chief Gonzalez. This item was Received and Filed by the Commission. E. Crime Statistics (April 2024) A summary of the crime statistics from March 2024 was provided by Police Chief Lt. Tiwari. As mentioned in previous months, thefts have been increasing. Lt. Tiwari explained the process for cases that are not rejected for individuals arrested for petty theft. He explained if it's their first or second offense, their punishment is an eight-hour class to not commit theft, with no repercussions if the individual does not attend the class. Auto thefts are trending down, the biggest contributors being Kia's and Hyundai's due to the ease of stealing those vehicles. Hopefully there is a downward trend because of clubs being provided for car owners. Lt. Tiwari explained the aggravated assault data is mostly domestic related incidents and most crime fluctuates with the weather. Overall stats are trending downwards, regardless of the increase in thefts. Lt. Tiwari addressed a topic brought up at the last meeting regarding the total number of arrests and the percentage of District Attorney rejects among those. He advised they generated a report for the past six months of arrests made by Rosemead deputies, totaling 479 individuals arrested for misdemeanor felonies, where 170 or 35% were rejects. He highlighted that even the cases that are getting filed, deputies are not being subpoenaed and if individuals are on probation, they are provided an opportunity to extend probation. He expressed his concern over the lack of real punishment for criminals. He added that these rejected cases are a result of the District Attorney's directive. This item was Received and Filed by the Commission. F. Rosemead SAO Team Weekly Reports (April 2024) Commissioner Fonseca pointed out the motor stats were repeated, and Lt. Tiwari clarified this may have been an oversight. Commissioner Fonseca asked for details on the discussion with the Motel Six Manager regarding the crime trends and transient issues. Lt. Tiwari clarified the conversation was a follow-up regarding the trends that the manager has been seeing. This item was Received and Filed by the Commission. G. L.A. CADA Supplemental Services Report (April 2024) This item was Received and Filed by the Commission. H. Crime Prevention and Emergency Preparedness Activities Public Safety Supervisor Wong advised the Community Academy will graduate on May 29b at the Rosemead Community Center. Additionally, the Community Area Watch will take place June 28ffi at the Public Safety Center. This item was Received and Filed by the Commission. 4. MATTERS FROM COMMISSION A. Commissioner Comments Commissioner Fonseca inquired when the Rosemead Rangers are coming in to speak about what they do in the City. Assistant City Manager Rojas advised their presentation was rescheduled due to the special presentation today. They are prepared to come to our next meeting in July. He also added that the June meeting is canceled. 5. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m. The next Public Safety Commission meeting will be held on Thursday, July 24th, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. APPROVED: ")� 7)-,� chard Rojas, istant City Manager Amy Wu, Chair