ROCHESTER POLICE COMMISSION
ROCHESTER, NH 03867
Barry K. Flanagan, Chairman
Paul J. Dumont, Commissioner
R. Gary Stenhouse, Commissioner
MINUTES OF THE POLICE COMMISSION MONTHLY MEETING
The Rochester Police Commission held their regular monthly meeting on September 5, 2007.
Present at this meeting was, Comm. Flanagan, Comm. Stenhouse, Comm. Dumont, Chief Dubois, Dep. Chief Allen, Capt. Callaghan, Capt. Dumas, Comm. Supervisor Martha Swats, Attorney Grossman, Chaplain Ron Lachapelle, and Secretary Warburton.
Also present was resident Mr. Jack Sousae, Officer Keith MacKenzie, and family, Anne May, Assistant Director of Recreation, Arena and Youth Services; Art Jacobs Recreation Programs; School Resource Officer Donovan Funk, members of the public and the media.
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 P.M.
2. PUBLIC COMMENT:
1. Jack Sousae 152 Gear Road. Mr. Sousae noted that he is a Navy Veteran and that he retired here. He had an issue with the Profile Bowman=s Club, which the City Council is working on. His purpose for attending the Commission meeting was regarding a police report that he made, which took several weeks to complete before it came out. He received a copy of the report, two pages, from the City Manager with information blacked out. He got a final copy of the report from the Police Department, which is four pages. That is the report he wants to bring to attention. Everyone=s information on that report, except his was blacked out and he wants to know why.
Chairman Flanagan authorized the Chief to speak to Mr. Sousae. A brief dialogue ensured.
Mr. Sousae advised he was in this forum, as he was advised to do, by the City Council. He said AI=m looking for the Chief, for you, as responsible for this report, I want an apology. A public apology.@
Chief Dubois replied, AYou have my word I will get back to you and do what I can to make this right.@
3. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES:
Comm. Dumont MOVED to accept the minutes of the August 1, 2007 meeting as submitted. SECOND by Comm. Flanagan. The motion PASSED 2 - 0, with Comm. Stenhouse abstaining due to not being in attendance at that meeting.
4. OLD AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
A. Accreditation Update B Montreal Conference. Capt. Dumas advised that this is going well. We will not make the deadline we set for ourselves. We have two chapters to go and will get the remainder to the Commission shortly, should be this week.
B. Job Descriptions for command staff: Review and Adopt recommended changes Chief Dubois advised this is back on the agenda, waiting for a full board to make the formal adoption.
Comm. Dumont indicated that he had read them and had no issues.
Comm. Dumont MOVED to adopt the amended job descriptions for sworn non union positions. SECOND by Comm. Flanagan. Open for Discussion.
Comm. Stenhouse noted that they appear to be in accordance with existing descriptions.
The motion to adopt the descriptions PASSED unanimously.
C. Bids B Amend bid award for clothing, item #22; traffic vest. Dep. Chief Allen noted that upon reviewing the bids awarded to the uniform and equipment suppliers, Item 22, a traffic vest, was awarded to an incorrect vendor. The vendor we did award it to didn=t meet the requirements of the bid. We need to amend our award to the proper vendor, which was Ben=s Uniforms.
Comm. Dumont MOVED to amend the Uniform and Equipment Award, Item 22, Traffic Vest to Ben=s Uniform. The motion was SECONDED by Comm. Stenhouse. Open for discussion.
Comm. Stenhouse asked what the price difference was between the two, and how many we buy.
Deputy Chief Allen advised the non compliant vest was bid at $15.00. The compliant vest was bid at $60.00. We buy the vests as needed.
The motion PASSED unanimously.
D. 06/07 4th Quarter Goals Report. 2nd Reading. Discussion and Adopt
E. 06/07 Annual Report: 2nd Reading. Discussion and Adopt
F. 07/08 Goals and Objectives. 2nd Reading. Discussion and Adopt.
Chief Dubois noted that we looked at each of the items in D, E, and F, submitting them for review and feedback from the Commission. No action was taken at the last meeting as Comm. Stenhouse was not present. We are looking for final comment and approval from the Commission.
Comm. Dumont noted that it appears we are biting off more than we can chew.
Chief Dubois responded we have a history of aiming high and usually do fairly well.
Comm. Stenhouse noted it was a good annual report and we should set high goals, otherwise they are a waste.
Comm. Dumont MOVED to accept and adopt agenda items D, E. And F. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unaniomusly.
G. Other.
1. Job Description. Comm. Flanagan noted there is an internal job description that he hopes to further review at the next meeting.
5. NEW BUSINESS:
A. Award Recognition: Officer Keith MacKenzie B Life Saving Award. Chief Dubois stated that he is happy to present this award. What is really nice is that Keith has built relationships in the Community with youth, as a high school hockey coach, where the youth were comfortable enough to call him on his personal cell phone for a youth that was ill and non responsive. Chief Dubois said it=s pretty significant when youth can reach out to a police officer with that kind of information.
Officer Mackenzie responded, rendered first aid until relieved by paramedics. Keith=s actions that night saved this person=s life. Officer MacKenzie was presented with a life saving award to be worn on his uniform.
B. Bureau Commander Reports.
1. Patrol Division: Deputy Chief Allen. Deputy Chief Allen noted that he is reporting on patrol services due to recent restructuring we have implemented.
The comp stat report shows that burglaries are up 24% for the year to date. We are doing proactive work in this area in terms of prevention methods. We hope to see a reduction by the end of the year. The program spearheaded by Sgt. Bossi who is assisted by Volunteer Kelly Brochu on educating the business community, providing prevention tips and target hardening strategies on site is on going.
We have representation in all wards for the RUN Program. Meetings have been set for Ward 3 and Ward 4, and as reported there was a block party in Ward 4 last month, which was successful. We are working on soliciting residents, elected officials and businesses in these wards to get involved and get this program fully up and running.
National Night Out coordinated by Deb Houle and Capt. Callaghan was a great success. There was a large turnout and lots of positive feedback.
The Rochester Fair will open again in a couple of weeks. We have met with the general manager, Mark Perry regarding schedules and coordinating coverage. We=ve stepped up our proactive work which has paid off the past couple of years and we hope it will this year as well.
We have one officer recently released to solo patrol, and one still in the field training program.
Commissioner=s Dumont and Flanagan noted they were not notified of the Ward 4 meeting.
2. Support Division: Capt. Scott Dumas. Capt. Dumas said that he would touch on a couple of things, and answer questions. He invited a couple of folks to the meeting and hopes the Commission will indulge him by allowing them to speak during this report.
The new prosecutor, Chris Somma started the job and is doing an outstanding job. He really had no choice but to hit the ground running. His first couple of days had numerous arraignments and it was a bit overwhelming. But he=s doing a good job so far. We met with the Mental Health council yesterday and got Chris up to speed on what the program was about and what his role is in the process.
We had an intern this summer, Dan Houle. He participated in a variety of activities in the Department, such as the web site, accreditation, ride alongs, and National Night Out. Tuesdays he spent at the summer camps with the School Resource Officers. Our volunteers and now our interns are forcing us to look at our resources to police the community in a different way, which has been beneficial to all of us.
Capt. Dumas asked to turn the microphone over to Anne May and Art Jacobs to discuss the benefits of the summer rec program.
Assistant Director Anne May spoke at length about the positive outcome of the program. She noted there were early reservations but as the summer moved along, it was clear this was a good program. The roles of the counselors= and the SRO=s were clearly defined. Police day at the camps was very successful. Having the SRO=s on site not only built relationships for the future, but questions that cropped up from the counselor=s could be answered, where before that was a resource they didn=t have.
Art Jacobs and SRO Don Funk offered positive comments about the program as well, indicating their hope we can do the program again next year.
3. Communications. Supervisor Swats advised that 88 applications had been received for the one full time opening in dispatch. We have extended a conditional offer and a back ground is underway.
Supervisor Swats noted she attended the APCO conference in Baltimore during the past month, as did the assistant supervisor at Strafford County dispatch.
We obtained permission for a per diem dispatch, which will allow us to maximize our investment in a current employee, which helping our overtime line. A grant was also obtained to conduct a terrorism exercise that will involve police, fire, ems and tactical dispatchers.
Comm. Dumont inquired how EMS dispatching was going.
Supervisor Swats responded that it's working well. We did so much together anyway. Information we may have missed before, we are now directly involved with and that aids not only the police but fire as well.
4. Financial Report: Chief Dubois noted that this early in the year there=s not a lot to be alarmed about, with the exception of the dispatch overtime. They are 49% spent. We have a plan in place that we are monitoring and Martha has been creative with the per diem stuff. We will continue to monitor this.
We are doing some preliminary review of hiring part time certified officers for work that is funded by an outside source. Where it involves personnel, most of this discussion would be more appropriate in non public. We think we can get more bang for our dollar by making some changes along those lines this fiscal year. We will talk more about this in budget preparation, which will begin fairly quickly.
6. CORRESPONDENCE:
A. Appreciation and Recognition: Comm. Flanagan noted that it=s always a pleasure to commend our personnel, and it's nice to see the public recognizes them too. Persons recognized during the previous month included: New Durham Chief Bernier thanks Off. Mackenzie and Fina for a search in their community. Off. Mundy and Lambert are recognized for neighborhood patrols in the areas of Harding and Chamberlain Streets, regarding traffic as a result of construction in the area. Spec. Brian Daigle is recognized for his dispatching skills by a coworker. Spec. Reinert is recognized for his EMS dispatching skills by a coworker, and also recognized by a citizen for his customer service.skills. The Garzillo=s recognize Sgt. Dugas for his kindness and sincerity in a call for service. Sgt. Thomas
is thanked by Shirley Copp of Victims Inc. for a tour of the building. Off. Funk and Off. Blair are recognized for outstanding work with the summer recreation program. Ms. Phoenix thanks Det. Lustwerk for compassion during a traffic detail
7. INFORMATION:
A. Financial Reports. Chief Dubois noted we talked about this under bureau reports. We will move this to that section in the future and report out on it only one time per meeting.
B. Information other; enclosed with Agenda.
1. JAG Grant. We received written notification of acceptance of the JAG grant we applied for with Dover. We will prepare the paperwork to go to the City Council for acceptance.
8. NON-PUBLIC SESSION:
Comm. Dumont MOVED to enter a non-public session at 7:54P.M. for the purpose of personnel and legal matters. SECOND by Comm. Flanagan. The motion PASSED by roll call vote, Comm. Dumont-yes, Comm. Stenhouse-yes, Comm. Flanagan-yes. The non-public session closed at 11:54 P.M. on a MOTION by Comm. Stenhouse, SECOND by Comm. Flanagan and PASSED 2 B 0.
9. ADJOURNMENT:
Comm. Flanagan MOVED to adjourn. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse at 11:55 P.M.
Respectfully Submitted,
Rebecca J. Warburton
Secretary
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