Loading...
PSC 09-13-2012 CUPERTINO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Thursday, September 13, 2012, 7:00 p.m. Cupertino City Hall, Conference Room A I. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Huang called to order the regular meeting of the Cupertino Public Safety Commission at approximately 7:06 p.m. on Thursday, September 13, 2012 in the Cupertino City Hall, Conference Room A, located at 10300 Torre Avenue, Cupertino, California 95014. II. ROLL CALL Commissioners Present: Andy Huang Daniel Nguyen Nina Daruwalla Robert McCoy Lily Lim Commissioners Absent: None Staff Present: Captain Ken Binder, Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Battalion Chief Daron Pisciotta, Santa Clara County Fire Department Staff Absent: None Others Present: None III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS There were no oral communications to discuss at this regular meeting. IV. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS There were no written communications to discuss at this regular meeting. V. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. August 9, 2012 ACTION: YES VOTE: YES MOTION: Lim SECONDED Huang 4 to 0 Commissioner Lim motioned to approve the minutes of August 9, 2012; Commissioner Huang seconded the motion; votes taken, Commissioner Nguyen abstained because he was absent last meeting, all else in favor to approve the minutes of August 9, 2012 with the correction: (XI): The next regular meeting is scheduled on Thursday, September 13, 2012... VI. OLD BUSINESS 1. Discussion of Walk/Bike/Carpool (WBC)to School project, ongoing ACTION: YES VOTE: NO MOTION: N/A SECONDED: N/A 0 to 0 Commissioner Lim remarks that her son has tried biking to school at Stevens Creek Elementary, but finds all the steep hills to be a deterring problem. She mentions that there is a new principal this year, and that perhaps she can approach the principal in regards to promoting walking at least for the W/B/C Program if not biking. Unfortunately, the PTO meetings take place on the same night as the PSC meetings. However, Commissioner Huang mentions that it is acceptable for a commissioner to miss up to three PSC meetings per year, so Commissioner Lim may attend a PTO meeting if necessary. Commissioner Daruwalla points out to Captain Binder that Caroline Young is the new person in charge of the Garden Gate Elementary W/B/C Program this year. 2. Boltage Program progress/updates (Lim) ACTION: YES VOTE: YES MOTION: Lim SECONDED: Nguyen 5 to 0 Commissioner Lim motions to approve the current$500.00 proposal for Kennedy Middle School; Commissioner Nguyen seconded the motion; votes taken, all in favor to approve the current proposal. Commissioner Lim states that Leslie from Kennedy Middle School has submitted a proposal for $500.00 to cover incentive prizes for their Bolt age program. She states that Leslie is very resourceful and has done a good job. Commissioner Nguyen adds that the last proposal covered three years of incentives for the program. 3. Report on Surveys to Schools (Nguyen) ACTION: YES VOTE: NO MOTION: N/A SECONDED: N/A 0 to 0 Commissioner Nguyen reports that he entered all the collected Surveys, but the data does not look good. Generally, many schools show decreased participation, although the overall average participation remains fairly steady at about half. Unfortunately, the Fall Survey results dropped 3% and 3.5% over the last two years. Participation is generally higher in the spring and Commissioner Daruwalla supposes that may be due to the better weather of spring. She also suspects that if they could convince Garden Gate Elementary to fill out and return the Surveys, the overall numbers would greatly improve because she notices first-hand the students' high participation in walking and biking to school. Commissioner Nguyen states that the PSC should keep collecting data and hope for improvement. Commissioner Nguyen proposes that the next Fall Survey to Schools take place the week of October 15, 2012. Therefore, the SRO's should drop off the forms the week of October 8 and collect the surveys for return the week of October 22. Commissioner Huang adds that the SRO's should soon make contact with each school to let them know to expect the Surveys so that it is not a surprise. 2 4. Discuss participation in the Alert SCC Program and the new CAS Program (Huang) ACTION: YES VOTE: NO MOTION: N/A SECONDED: N/A 0 to 0 Commissioner Daruwalla reminds everyone that the Garden Gate Safety night will take place next Thursday, September 20, 2012, from 6:00-7:30pm with an average attendance of 60-70 people. Sheriffs Office deputies talk about Stranger Danger and bicycle safety; Fire personnel discuss Stop-Drop-&-Roll, and fire prevention. She confirms with Captain Binder that he will speak at the event, and mentions that she will have ten minutes to talk about AlertSCC. She will also have a long table and bring a binder to try to capture.AIertSCC sign-ups. She asks if AIertSCC postcards are available to give out so that people can sign-up later instead of at the event. She also mentions that she would appreciate it if other Commissioners could attend the event, and bring extra AIertSCC sign-up binders, to help capture the most sign-ups possible. Commissioner Huang reports that Cupertino and the County have each received the database of recently collected contact numbers for AIertSCC and the Cupertino Alert system. The recent increase in phone number collection through sign-ups at various events has made Cupertino number one for AlertSCC and has provided a strong kick-off for the Cupertino Alert system. Unfortunately, there were many phone number errors found last week. Problems include phone numbers with no area code, one number listed for everyone in a household, and no number given for some names and addresses. Volunteers are massaging the database for import. However, the City has instructed Rick Kitson's department to prioritize all Apple-related matters because Apple filed with the State for their new building construction to be fast-tracked. This means that Cupertino must respond to any request, complaint or inquiry from any member of the public regarding Apple within 10-15 days. This has pulled personnel and resources away from getting the Cupertino Alert system up and running. Still, the system needs to be live by the third week of October for the planned Citywide Drill. Commissioner McCoy reiterates the concerns of the TICC Commission related to control of Cupertino Alert. Commissioner Huang states that initial proposals he is aware of would let only certain City personnel control outgoing messages from Cupertino Alert. Viewing access, though, is a separate issue to which he has not heard an answer. He says he will try to talk with Rick again soon regarding these questions. VII. NEW BUSINESS ACTION: YES VOTE: NO MOTION: N/A SECONDED: N/A 5 to 0 There is no new business to discuss at this regular meeting. VIII. REPORTS 1. Santa Clara County Fire Department Battalion Chief Daron Pisciotta reviews the August Fire Report. There were only minor fires in August, including a kitchen fire and a passenger vehicle fire, which incurred little property damage totaling $25,600.00. All 'ignition factors' were determined to be 'unintentional' with one being 'undetermined'. Response times for all units are on par at an average of 5.2 minutes. He also presents an activity log of inspections fire personnel have made at construction sites, etc. 3 B.C. Pisciotta mentions that his repeated absence at PSC meetings has been due to the wildfire season. Cupertino units, sometimes including himself, were called away for up to a month at a time to assist in battling wildfires in the Northern Sierras where there was little snow pack this year. All crews are back now; however, he expects some to be sent south as the Santa Ana winds pick up this fall. Commissioner Daruwalla asks if Cupertino retains enough Fire Department coverage with all these crews on loan out of the area. B.C. Pisciotta states that yes, there is a pre-determined maximum number of 5 crews they will allow to be loaned at one time, in order to maintain Santa Clara County as their first priority. 2. Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Captain Binder from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office reviews the August status report. Deputy response times significantly beat the requirements. The average response times for Priority One calls for service was 3:15 minutes compared to the required 6 minutes, the average for Priority Two was 5:20 minutes compared to the required 9 minutes, and Priority Three calls averaged just 10:30 minutes out of the required 20 minutes. Property crimes have gone up sharply, but robberies have gone down from seven in July to zero in August. This is a good trend because robberies involve direct theft from a person using force or fear, whereas general property crimes occur when the victim is not present. Even so, residential burglaries went up from 6 to 14, vehicle burglaries went up 25 to 30, and grand theft went up 4-11. It is important to note that there are actually a small number of people committing a high number of crimes. Criminals organize into teams and, for instance, go hit eight cars at once in a row. So there may be no burglaries one day and eight the next, all done by the same people. The positive side of this is that when a team is caught, multiple crimes may be solved at once, and the crime numbers drop until the next team forms, usually consisting of people who just recently got out of jail. West Valley Patrol has arrested five burglars in the past two weeks, so Captain Binder expects crime numbers to go down on the September or October report. Regarding other crimes, domestic violence has increased sharply (almost tripled) and aggravated assault and sex crimes have also gone up. In general, August was a busy month. Captain Binder mentions specifically that auto burglars are aggressively hitting the Vallco parking lots. In fact, deputies recently caught two burglars at gunpoint following a tip from a security guard watching the parking lot cameras. They were both East San Jose residents on probation, and deputies found a large number of stolen items in their vehicle that may help solve multiple recent crimes in the area. Captain Binder brings up another worrisome crime trend, involving burglars targeting homes tented for extermination. There is at least one known burglar ring that enters tented houses before the gasses are released, easily stealing a variety of property including major appliances. Commissioner Nguyen asks if there is overlap in the reported numbers of burglaries and grand thefts, but the Captain states that each incidert is classified under only one category so there is no hyperinflation of numbers. He then clarifies the different terminology, explaining that burglary requires force used to enter and steal, such as breaking a car window to steal a computer, whereas simple theft occurs when there is no barrier to entry, such as when someone leaves a door unlocked. Among thefts, the dollar amount of stolen property determines whether a theft is petty or grand. Traffic related citations remain consistent. Numbers of moving citations are the same and there is a slight increase in speeding citations. Deputies also made nine DUI arrests in August. Traffic accidents have increased a little. Commissioner Daruwalla inquires whether there is always a report for every call to emergency services. Captain Binder answers that no, not every call for service generates a report. Generally, deputies write reports if a crime has been committed, or if there is a fatality, but the Sheriff's Office does not report general injuries or medical issues. The Fire Department must fill out paperwork when they respond for medical issues, but those reports are not available for public review due to privacy issues. 4 Commissioner Nguyen takes a moment to mention the recent fatality of CHP Officer Youngstrom who was only 37 and leaves behind a wife and 4 children. He was an organ donor and helped save four other lives through that choice. Captain Binder adds that many Sheriffs Office badged personnel attended the funeral. He then points out that after traffic accidents, dangerous car stops are the most common cause of fatality for police officers. 3. Commission Reports There is no mention of reports from other Commissions at this regular meeting. IX. FUTURE AGENDA FOR NEXT REGULAR MEETING 1. Walk/Bike/Carpool to School Project, ongoing 2. Boltage Program progress/updates 3. Report on Survey to Schools 4. Discuss progress on participation in AlertSCC and CAS Programs X. ADJOURNMENT This regular meeting adjourned at 8:14 p.m. XI. NEXT MEETING The next regular meeting is scheduled on Thursday, October 11, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. SUBMITTED BY: Jennifer Roth Administrative Assistant West Valley Patrol Division Santa Clara County Office of the Sheriff September 19, 2012 APPROVED BY: (O/tI / iz Andy Huang, Commission Chair Date 5