Introductions and Welcome: Mary Weaver, Chairman; in attendance were Milwaukie Police Chief Bob Jordan, Officer John Truong, Interim City Manager Pat Du Val, and our city liaison, Mr. Michael Ralls, Milwaukie HS, Mayor Jeremy Ferguson, Councilor Greg Chaimov, Nicole West, City Community Development Department, and 7 neighbors
Police Report: Officer Truong brought thank you letters from the children and administrator at the Meyers Boys and Girls club in Sellwood for the grant we gave them, and a report on the items purchased.
Chief Jordan reported that the department has lost its most recently hired officer for personal reasons. They are currently hiring for two patrol positions and promoting a detective. The Chief reported on the unfortunate suicide death of a young man at the trestle over McLoughlin Blvd. at the south end of Milwaukie near River road. There was an armed robbery at the Mo Betta Deli on King and Linwood on the first day of school, which sent Whitcomb and Linwood schools and the Wichita Family Center to go into lockdown at about 8:15 a.m. The suspect was a white male adult, and was tracked by CCSO K-9 unit south on Linwood but was then lost. They do have good surveillance camera footage and MPD is working with Portland Police who have a similar suspect in two cases in their jurisdiction. Mary Weaver passed around a map for neighbors to indicate where in the neighborhood they live. Chief Jordan invited us to report speeders and situations in our areas and they will respond with either photo radar van or motorcycle or other officers. Sometimes it is only 1 or 2 individuals causing a nuisance in an area and once identified they can be talked to privately which often ends the problem. He reported that crime is down nationally and statewide, even at Clackamas Town Center and violent crime such as robbery or assault that often occurs on the trains or stations, but shoplifting and identity theft which might be perpetrated by those traveling on light rail has risen slightly. Chief Jordan said there is no anticipation of additional crime in Milwaukie due to Light rail and he is active in assuring that design for security is being used. He has passed the Light Rail station design architectural drawings to the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Light Rail Committee who provided feedback on security for our light rail system.
Minutes: The minutes from the previous meeting were approved by consensus.
Treasurer’s Report: David Aschenbrenner reported that our bank account earned about $1.38 in interest last month. He is still reconciling the accounts, but noted that we spent in the neighborhood of $1300 on the picnic.
Light Rail monthly meetings are the 3rd Monday of the month at the Public Safety Building at 6pm. Mr. Aschenbrenner reported that the shortfall in federal funding of 10% will require some cuts to be made, such as postponing the building of several-story park and rides, but that Tri-met has reassured that lack of money will not compromise security and that the line will continue to Park Avenue. The platform at the Lake road station will now be a central platform rather than split platform.
Clackamas County FD #1 Their latest newsletter is available on: http://www.clackamasfire.com/documents/communitynewsletters/ and monthly in the NDA’s email at [email protected].
Projects Update: no projects are currently pending
Parks Report: Nothing to report
Grant Requests: No new requests at this time.
Public Safety Advisory Committee Report: Mary Weaver reported that the police uniforms will now have an American flag patch sewn on. Also, opinion of those present was requested on whether the police department should pursue an agreement of understanding with Portland Police Bureau to cover non-emergency calls in Milwaukie if Milwaukie’s own officers have responded to non-emergency calls in specific areas that are not within jurisdiction, i.e., the Springwater Trail and Elk Rock Island. Mr. Aschenbrenner proposed that HCNDA is in favor of PSAC aiding the Chief in coming to such an agreement. Seconded by Linda Hedges. Passed unanimously.
Milwaukie HS Health and Wellness Center Michael Ralls, Assistant Principal at MHS, presented information about the new center they are building in the old woodworking shop at the high school. They are partnering with Outside In (a medical nonprofit) for overall authority and to provide liability and billing services, and some grant funding to pay for medical practitioners. Children served by MHS and their siblings can use the program. They are doing fundraising and we offered writing our support of their program.
Mayor’s report:
Jackson Street and Sculpture Garden Mayor Ferguson answered a neighbor’s question about how the Jackson Street project was funded. He said that it was done to regain some downtown parking, to create improvement to the bus stops and reduce the total number of bus shelters on the transit area and to assist with crime prevention and the environment. $40,000 was paid by the City of Milwaukie, $500,000 by tri-Met and $993,000 by federal stimulus funding. A Clackamas County tourism grant paid for the sculpture garden. It was suggested that an additional article should be featured in The Pilot. He advised that the dedication of the Garden will be on October 1st.
City Manager Candidate Interviews Five candidates were interviewed by Council, and panels of city staff and NDA leaders. A sixth candidate has also been interviewed by Council and will be interviewed by city staff and NDA Leader panels. The 6th candidate is City Attorney Bill Monahan. The other candidates are from the Pacific northwest and the MidWest.
Mayor and Council members contact details are on the city’s website, which is due to be relaunched soon following an upgrade.
Publication of The Pilot was skipped for two months during August and September to save money in the budget and because Grady Wheeler, who prepares it, was on paternity leave. Several neighbors spoke about how they looked forward to reading it and learning about events around town.
Councilor Chaimov
Candidate’s Forum: North Clackamas Chamber of Commerce is hosting a forum for city council and mayoral candidates. The event will be held at 6pm at City Hall on October 6th. It will be taped for cable access.
Walk Safely Program – Nicole West from Milwaukie Community Development Department
School Safety Zones – City staff has made changes to school zones around the city, reducing their size to conform to State rules. Nicole distributed a map showing the changes where flashers will be changed or removed, school zones have been removed from some streets, and the length of zones has been shortened in others.
Walk Safely Program – The Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program that ran for the previous two years with city funding under the Engineering Department has been changed by the city’s Community Development Department to the Walk Safely Program with funding from the state gas tax. Nicole West described the program, which has 4 benchmarks: a) empower NDAs to fund high priority projects; b) increase the involvement of residents in neighborhood planning; c) increase the sense of safety, ease and enjoyment for pedestrians and bicyclists on neighborhood streets; and d) improve the safety of pedestrian crossings at arterial and collector streets without compromising auto mobility. Three types of projects are eligible: a) pedestrian amenities and local street calming; b) street design and collector/arterial street calming; and c) awareness and education. Nicole distributed a timeline for submission of project proposals by the NDAs, and described the grading for merit process for funding. There will be $47,000 in 2010-11 and approximately $100,000 each in 2011-12 and 2012-13. Dave Hedges, Chair of the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) expressed strong disagreement with the staff’s changing the actual process for funding, which usurps PSAC’s role as the final decision maker and replaces neighborhood representatives with city staff. He said it was incongruous to say that one of the program’s goals is to increase the involvement of residents in planning and then severely limit the influence from the decision-making process the only city committee that actually has an elected representative from each neighborhood. Following heated discussion about the process, discussion concluded with no immediate resolution about the issue over PSAC’s not making the decisions about which projects get funding. This project will be presented at the Council’s work session on Tuesday September 21st, before PSAC meets to discuss it.
Information:
a) Logo discussion – postponed
Next Meeting will be 6pm-8pm on October 11 , 2010.
Prepared by: Linda M Hedges September 14, 2010
Approved: Mary Weaver
