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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/18/2005 Study Session MinutesSTUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL JANUARY 18, 2005 PLACE AND DATE Marana Town Hall, January 18, 2005 I. CALL TO ORDER By Vice Mayor Kai at 5:40 p.m. The study session was held informally and no official roll call was given. All Council members were present and seated at the dais. A list of public attendees is attached. II. GENERAL ORDER OF BUSINESS 1. Study Session• Update on the Radio Communication System -- Motorola ASTRO LE Radio Upgrade Proiect (Tony Casella) Tony introduced Rick Brown, who provided the update to Council. Rick Brown summarized the current status of the ASTRO LE upgrade project. At the operation center, the equipment has been installed, tested, and is ready to go. At Beacon Hill, renovations have begun and shortly we should be able to test Beacon Hill. Northwest Fire is ready to go. When Beacon Hill is up and running, we expect to do some coverage testing. Due to some Qwest delays and issues with the 9-1-1 system, the move date has changed somewhat, so the police department will be moving February 27th instead of the original date of February 6th or 7th. Vice Mayor Kai: Do you think you could give us a little more detail on how the system will work, in layman terms? Beacon Hill will be a repeater system; is that right? And what about the MOC operation? Rick Brown: We are currently operating just off of Beacon Hill, so our coverage is somewhat limited. Under the new system, we will have three sites: Beacon Hill, the MOC, which will be the prime site, and Northwest Fire. Our coverage, will improve tremendously with those three sites and with the new dispatch center. Vice Mayor Kai: How many frequencies will we have in the whole system? Rick Brown: Four, which is what we are currently using. We have requested a fifth frequency, but it hasn't been granted yet. Mike Reuwsaat: The Northwest site is the site up at Dove Mountain. You have also been upgrading the MDTs. Rick Brown: The MDTs, mobile data terminals, are being upgraded. I am working with the vendor now to make sure that we do get the coverage. The MDTs are running off a separate system, so I am looking at that as well to make STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL JANUARY 18, 2005 sure that they are connected, or will be connected at a maximum coverage. That is running strictly from Beacon Hill at the moment. Mike Reuwsaat: Where are you with the new radios, the units, and the new dispatch system? Rick Brown: The new radios are in. They are currently being programmed. First we have to "PM" them, program them as they are called. Then we put in the templates that we are going to use, for instance, the number of channels we have, the number of talk groups, the users, and the badge numbers go on the portables. The templates have been designed, so those have been put into the mobile radios that go in the vehicles and, also, into the portables that each officer will be carrying. We expect that to be completed with the next week and a half to two weeks. Very soon after that, we will start installing mobiles, possibly in some of the non-essential vehicles where we can to try to get ahead of the installs. Vice Mayor Kai: Now, will police be using the ASTRO LE system, or some of Town employees; building people, be using that system also? Or is this mostly dedicated to the police department? Rick Brown: At the current time, it is mostly dedicated to the police department. Mike Reuwsaat: Then this system is the one that is in and operable that will meet all our future needs. Rick Brown: That is correct. Mike Reuwsaat: Our current system is 20 years old. Just to give you kind of a measure of comparison, I think the county changes theirs out about every seven years, so they are on the third generation while we are still -- I don't think they have tubes in them, but they are pretty close. Tony Casella: The new system is P-25 compliant, Project 2S, and that is the new standard. Our system will be operable with Pima County's. Mike Reuwsaat: By dedicating a staff person to the PD with the new equipment and the software system we purchased years ago, we'll be able to hold vendors accountable. Our IT staff is stretched right now, but I would like to do a `hats off to the IT department for the tremendous amount of work, and the quality of work they are doing in looking out for the best interest for the citizens of Marana and the safety of our officers so they can communicate better. Council Member Comerford: Not to mention the money that Tony saved by bargaining. STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL JANUARY 18, 2005 Council Member Escobedo: The test back in December, how long did that go for? The feedback from the officers was quite positive. Rick Brown: Back in December, we conducted a test for 10 days. We handed out 10 portable radios for them to use. Currently, we still have 4 mobiles installed in the police vehicles, the new radios, and of course, the intent of the test was not to do coverage testing, but to let them get a look and feel of the radios, although a radio is a radio, but these are a little bit different because they are a little more high-tech. The feedback was very positive. They liked the coverage, even though at the time it was just Northwest Fire that was up. Tony Casella: We will probably be looking at around 98 percent coverage for the Town limits with the three sites. Vice Mayor Kai thanked Rick and Tony for their presentation. 2. Study Session: Presentation: Proposed expansion of Marana Training Facility (Mike Reuwsaat) Mike Reuwsaat: For some time, we have been talking with MTC staff about, issues at two levels. The first one is they would like an expansion of their current facility to handle more inmates at the Marana MTC center. Second, in order to do that, from a financial liability standpoint, if the Council were to grant such a request, they would have to broaden the number of categories, the types of inmates that come out here so they could fill the beds. The information in your packet talks about the benefits of the current operation to the community. The second part of that package talks specifically about some of the category changes they would like to see if the expansion of the center was to be granted. Tonight is an education session. Jack Hartwig is here today with staff members, whom he will introduce his staff members, and who will be making a presentation, then we will be open for discussion and questions from Council. Jack Hartwig, introduced Marana Warden Lieder, and Tom Dorn and Eric Achen from Phoenix and Marana, respectively. The word expansion is a little ahead it itself. What we are really asking from all of you this evening is to change the use permit that came into play when the facility was opened 10 years ago. We have listed some of the things that will change -- that would be the new eligibility criteria for people that may come and live at Marana. The expansion is way down the road, and many, many, many things have to happen, over which we have zero control. The department has to give us the inmates. They have to appropriate the money to build it, etc. All we are asking for this evening is just to change the use permit to expand the criteria. Before we do that, I want Warden to talk a little bit about Marana being a very good neighbor here in Marana for the last 10 years. Warden Lieder: I took the job with MTC at the Marana facility in September. Previously, I have worked with the company as a contract monitor when I STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL JANUARY 18, 2005 worked for the State of Arizona. Warden Lieder then went on to recount the working relationship between the Town and the Marana facility since 1994, when the facility was established. She emphasized the staff to Marana resident ratio, trying to keep most of the jobs available to Marana residents. Our biggest concern is, that we emphasize with you, is that 50 percent of staff that work at MTC come from the Town of Marana and about 15 percent of our staff that work at MTC at the Marana facility come from within a 10-mile radius of the Town of Marana. Vice Mayor Kai: Warden, how many actual employees would that be? Warden Lieder: 116 staff, so 50 percent of that live in the Town of Marana. An additional 15 percent are within the range of the community. Local contractors, subcontractors for building for anything that we need done at the facility is 90 percent. We subcontract 90 percent of services with local contractors. Our main focus with the facility is that it is a substance treatment facility. Currently, we have about 450 inmates that are housed there. We provide a 14- week intensive substance abuse program. They to a prerelease type of treatment after that until they are released or sent back to another ADC facility. That is our focus: education and substance abuse treatment so they are ready for release when they get out. Council Member Honea: I have had the privilege of walking through your facility a couple of times on tour. The facility appears to be very well kept and very well run and very well maintained. I have a question on one of the items that was left out. You want to expand the type of inmate or type of person that you are going to bring into the facility. One of the biggest selling points that we had when we approved MTC in the early days was that no one that had committed a crime with a weapon, any kind of deadly-force type thing was allowed in the MTC facility. I don't see that in the new proposal of the new inmates. I don't know if I am getting ahead of myself or what. Maybe the specificity is here and I am just missing it. One of the things that we sold to our community was that these individuals, whether they are working on the street or they are helping with projects, which we appreciate, was that no one housed at the Silverbell Road facility has ever robbed a bank at gunpoint or pulled a knife on someone and stabbed someone or something like that. That was very specific in the early days. When you are talking about expanded -- Jack Hartwig: The security level of the facility is not going to change. The score you have to get on the classification instrument to come here is not going to change. What is going to be adjusted is some of the crimes that were not once considered could now be considered, and we have listed those in the packet we gave you, like burglary, fraud. Council Member Honea: I was looking at that comparison, but specifically, I am interested in anyone that has perpetrated a crime with a weapon or knife. STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL JANUARY 18, 2005 Jack Hartwig: Warden Lieder can certainly explain to you, much better than I, how the classification goes and the grading system. Because of certain crimes, you get certain scores. Warden Lieder described some of the technical components of offense classifications. Council Member Honea: Inmates can be reclassified within the system. You can go in for murder. If you serve a certain amount of years and you are a model citizen and you do things, they can move you down in the classification. Warden Lieder: Not to a Level II facility, not to a minimum security facility. Council Member Honea: So if you rob a Circle K with a gun, you will never end up in this facility? Warden Lieder: If you start out at their highest custody level, you will never reach the minimum security level, because the classification system has certain breaks in it. If you start out as a P-5, which is the most severe offense that they can classify you for, you do not go below a Level III unit. Council Member Honea: I am going to ask you the question again very specifically. Can anybody that has perpetrated a crime with a gun get down to the classification where they can get in this facility under the new specs? Warden Lieder: It is a little more technical than that. Council Member Honea: All I am looking for is a yes or a no. If somebody robbed a bank with the gun can they make it here? Warden Lieder: I can't give you a yes or no answer. That would be determined by ADC central classification. SPEAKER: So you can't tell this Council that a guy went to Circle K, held them up, got $15, got picked up by Paul and his guys, and he was doped out, and they sent him to prison. You can't tell this Council that that guy can or cannot make it to this facility. Warden Lieder: Again, it would depend. I mean, with our proposal for the change in the violence criteria, again, we consider use of a weapon or injuries to the victim. We are requesting the department to use that as criteria that they use to evaluate the inmates that come to us. Me personally, I cannot tell you. Council Member McGorray: Your definition of violent is someone who has injured somebody and/or used a weapon in the process. STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL JANUARY 18, 2005 Warden Lieder: Yes Council Member McGorray: What is your definition of violent? Warden Lieder: What the department uses as a serious offense includes injury or use of a weapon or violence in the offense, which is first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, sexual assault, any dangerous crimes against children, armed robbery, burglary in the first degree, kidnapping, sexual conduct with a minor. Council Member McGorray: So you don't describe any other prisoner as violent, except those on the list you just read describing some of the crimes. Warden Lieder: They do evaluate a history of arrest or felony convictions, not just their current offense, but if they have any history. Council Member Escobedo: There is a note in here that says: Note: exception would be given to inmates serving a sentence for aggravated assault, consider use of dangerous weapon and victim to injuries. Warden Lieder: We are asking them to evaluate, if an inmate is convicted of aggravated assault if he used a weapon or there were injuries to a victim. If that is true, then we are asking them not to send them to us. Jack Hartwig: All those crimes she read, those people would not live at Marana. That was true 10 years ago; that is true today. So nothing has changed there. Warden Lieder: They would never come. Council Member Honea: I am looking for specificity, and I still didn't get an answer, so I guess eventually we can get one somewhere. Council Member Comerford: What I would like to see in plain black -- what are the changes? Who are we allowing now that we didn't allow before? Jack Hartwig: Because of the Arizona Revised Statutes are lengthy, I didn't list everything. On the list of what you have are three and a half pages of the bigger chunk of crimes that will be considered with this change of criteria. Just because you see aggravated assault listed, they are all in numerical order in the statute, so that does not necessarily means that you are going to get a preponderance of those. What is going to happen is the fraud and theft. That is the big thing the department needs to find places for, and Marana is a perfect site for that. Council Member Comerford: You are saying these are presently excluded, and these are the ones you wish to put on. Warden Lieder: Yes STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL JANUARY 18, 2005 Council Member Escobedo: Now, you say that no inmates with a Class IV, V, and VI would come to this facility, or V and VI, if they were rated at a IV, V, and VI. Is that correct? Are there different ratings for different type of offenses? Warden Lieder: Yes, there are. Council Member Escobedo: Property offenses? Warden Lieder: It is actually based on the felony offense itself. P-Ss, which is the highest custody level for the department, is murder, second-degree murder, that kind of thing. P-4s, which are high/medium custody, all Class I and II felonies. They go to a high/medium custody. P-3s are all Class III and IV felonies. They go to a Level II medium security facility. P-2s, which is what we currently house, and which is what we are still asking for, is just P-2s, are Class V felonies or Class VI felonies. Council Member Escobedo: What, then, is a I-3? I am just going to go down the list. Warden Lieder: I-3 is an institutional score of a 3. It is different from the P score. The P score is the public risk. The "I "score is an institutional risk: Are they a risk to the operation of the facility? Do they cause problems? Do they get disciplined? That kind of thing. Council Member Escobedo: How about an A/D-2? Warden Lieder: That is an alcohol and drug score. Council Member Escobedo: What is N M-2? Warden Lieder: That is a medical score. Council Member Escobedo: Same thing with N MH-2? Warden Lieder: Yes. Council Member Comerford: So far in this facility, we have only had P-ls and not P-2s? Warden Lieder: No. You have had P-ls and 2s. Council Member Comerford: So we have had as high as classified in Class VI. Warden Lieder: Yes. Those are the lowest class felonies you have. Council Member Comerford: Is it because Arizona law has changed that you are STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL JANUARY 18, 2005 coming to us, or because there is a need for it. Jack Hartwig: It is 10 years. The population has shifted over the years, and we have a treatment facility here that can serve the needs of the department, if they choose, to send these inmates to us. With the current capacity, we could probably take another 50 inmates in the existing physical plan. To do that, we need to expand and adjust the boundaries a little bit so we can take in that extra. Council Member Comerford: The boundaries you are talking about are not the facility. The boundaries you are talking about are -- Warden Lieder: The criteria. Jack Hartwig: The Arizona Department of Corrections still does all the classification, makes the decision to send them to Marana. That will not change either. Mr. Hartwig invited the Council to visit the facility. Mike Reuwsaat: If it would be the Council's pleasure, Jaret or I could sit down with them and go through all the list? There is just a level of uncertainty here. I think staff would feel comfortable. We could sit down and go through the code with them and get yes and no answers to the issues in question. We understand what you want, and I think you want a little more specificity. Jack Hartwig: We want you to be comfortable with the decision. We will answer all your questions so you know yes or no this is what is going to happen. Council Member Escobedo: The way I read this, this is what I would have been led to believe. It is to include the reclassification of the inmates. So it is just reclassification. Warden Lieder: Changing the use criteria. Mike Reuwsaat: They could use that now to fill the last 50 beds. Jack Hartwig: The department needs it. Council Member Comerford: So you are saying your facility can accommodate 500 prisoners and you are only 450. Warden Lieder: Yes. Council Member Comerford: Is it because you can't find 50 more in the current classification? Warden Lieder: No, it isn't a matter of not being able to find just 50 more. It is a STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL JANUARY 18, 2005 matter of giving the flexibility to the department. Because the inmates we have are so close to release, we have in influx of inmates, and then we have a bunch of them leave. To be able to expand the criteria a little bit would give the flexibility to the department. Council Member Comerford: Are they released from your facility if time is served? Warden Lieder: Some of them are, yes. Council Member Comerford: And where is their relocation, or do you know? Warden Lieder: I don't have the solid numbers, but I can get it for you. Most of them go to the metropolitan areas, Pima County and Maricopa County, because that is where the other treatment facilities or programs are that they have access to when they leave. 3. Study Session: Presentation: Evergreen Air Park (Mike Reuwsaatl Mike Reuwsaat: Tonight, we have Robert McAndrew from the Evergreen Air Center to make a presentation on what is going on as our neighbor. Robert McAndrew: With me from Evergreen is my chief financial officer, Michael Melvin, and our community coordinator, Tom Hinman. I am here to talk about Evergreen Air Center, where we are in our business, what we do, some of our business activities, tell you the status of our business. Our business is doing well, and we are ready to grow, and we are looking for support from the City of Marana. We have 59 current customers at the air center. The companies that are bigger than the air center all have multiple hangars, and that is the reason why I am here tonight, to talk our growth and our constraints. In 2003 when this chart was done, we did 850,000 man hours. We are coming up on the end our current fiscal year, and we are approaching 930,000 man hours. We are almost to the million- man-hour mark at the air center. We have 575 people, 445 technicians. The higher pay rate, A&P, which are aircraft mechanics, special engineers, special test people, and a lot of special techniques for the people that work on aircraft. We are continuing to add people, and we have a program to stay well in touch with our employees. Contribution to the community for the Evergreen Air Center, even though we are just across the border in Pinal County, 85 percent of our employees are form Pima County. Our payroll is over $30,000,000 per year. We did a survey. About 70 percent of our people live in Marana, North Tucson, so most of our employees are home in Marana in this area. That payroll, 70 percent, is about $21,000,000. We looked at some economic indicators, 3, 3.2, and economic impact to the area is about $60,000,000 a year. Looking at some average tax rates, we feel our employees contribute about $4.8 million from the air center. We are approaching $60,000,000 this year, and we have utilized every STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL JANUARY 18, 2005 facility we have. We have met with our management. They agree we have maxed out our facilities, and we need to expand at the air center. MRO business, if you follow the trade papers, you know low-cost airlines are the way of the future. Major airlines, United, Northwest, American, have all maintained their aircraft, but they have to outsource. Outsource comes to people like Evergreen. Our competition, Temco, in Seattle. The airlines are outsourcing, and that is a strong business indicator for the air center. We are seeing more and more work from the airlines. We can create new jobs, and we need to expand at the air center. We have done the design analysis, laid out what we need. It is a $15,000,000 hangar that is a wide-body hangar, and consolidation of our shops. When we look at the growth of that hangar, we would expect to create 210 new jobs for Marana, North Tucson. Our average pay rate is $42,000 a year. We figure that will equal about $8 to $9,000,000 a year of additional impact. With the growth factor, it is over $25,000,000 a year. Over a 10-year period, we are looking at a new hangar at the air center would generate over $90,000,000 in revenues for the area. How can Marana help? We are looking to bring this additional income into the community. We can bring 210 new jobs. We really want to fast-track it. We don't want to study it. We are looking at both Marana and the City of Tucson. We need some funding for this hangar. We are asking Marana to give us a $5,000,000 loan. We would like for it to be principal only for 10 years, no interest, and starting to pay it back. We are prepared to pay it back once we open a new hangar. The new hanger build plan is 12 months. So it goes fairly quickly. We are meeting with the City of Tucson, but it is really looking to help Marana to add a couple hundred more jobs to this area. I certainly will take questions, and also, would invite anyone on the Council that would like to come and visit the air center, look at it, because I know it looks so different from three miles out on I-10 to when you come on site and see the work we are doing. It is all commercial aviation work. We have some of the major airlines. We have 54 aircraft from Northwest Airlines there, and we have some very strong customer base, and we it is just a great opportunity to expand. Vice Mayor Kai: I think a tour of your facility would be good for our Council. Bob McAndrew: It would be our pleasure. I think you would find it very interesting. It is much more than an aircraft parking facility. We are running at peak hours at the moment. Vice Mayor Kai: Possibly we can get together with staff and get a good time for Council to come out get a tour. Town Manager Reuwsaat: We will go ahead and work with you to arrange that tour. I will be in touch, and we will set up an initial meeting to discuss their request. Have you talked to Pima County? STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL JANUARY 18, 2005 Bob McAndrew: We have had some dialogue. We are having the Tucson Mayor and City Council on February 3rd. We are meeting with Pima. And I met with the supervisors of Pinal County this morning, but I am really trying to fast-track to see what kind of support we can have. In the case of jobs, again, they are all in Pima County. It is 80-90 percent Pima, and a high majority, of course, here in Marana and North Tucson. MikeReuwsaat: When your request is for $5,000,000, is that for Marana and the other 10 of the 15 coming from Pima County, Tucson? Bob McAndrew: That is correct. Town Manager Reuwsaat: So what you are looking for is for the entire $15,000,000. Bob McAndrew: $15,000,000 is the budget for the hangar. We have done some surveys. We have the design. We are ready to build. We are asking for a loan, not a grant, not a gift. We will pay it back. It is an opportunity for us to corner another significant piece of the business. III. ADJOURNMENT The Vice Mayor adjourned the meeting. The time was 6:25 p.rn. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing are the true and correct minutes of the Study Session held on January 18, 2005. I further certify that a quorum was present.