Loading...
2021 05 27 WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK .SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN May 27, 2021 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday, May 27, 2021, at 5:30 P.M., in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance: Jacob Powell Council Member Charles Johnson Council Member Mike Lester Council Member Chris Presley Council Member Heather Betancourth Mayor Pro Tern Brandon Capetillo Mayor Rick Davis City Manager Karen Horner City Attorney Angela Jackson Acting City Clerk Mayor Capetillo convened the May 27, 2021, City Council Regular Work Session with a quorum present at 5:36 P.M., all members were present with the exception of Council Member Laura Alvarado who was absent. 1. DISCUSSIONS a. Receive and discuss a presentation from the Baytown Police Strategic Planning Advisory Committee. City Manager Rick Davis introduced the item, and discussed the positivity he has witnessed in the strategic planning endeavor that occurred four month ago in order to aid the City in elevating trust between the Police Department and the community. City Manager Rick Davis introduced the Chair of the committee Lakesha Holmes. Chair Lakesha Holmes discusses the makeup of the committee introducing the four committee members, and three police officers. "The mission statement for the Baytown Police Strategic Planning Advisory Committee is to partner and engage with community members and organizations to create a plan to address local challenges in order to build trust and mutual respect between the community and the Baytown Police Department. We will accomplish this through a series of data -gathering exercises and community involvement." Chair Holmes goes on to state why the mission statement was developed and the purpose behind the mission statement being to create trust and mutual respect between the community and the Baytown Police Department. The Strategic Planning Process has four phases that the committee is currently going through being the launch phase, the data gathering phase, analysis phase; and the composition phase. The launch phase has already been completed which consisted of City Council Work Session Minutes May 13, 2021 Page 2 of 8 formulating and planning the data gathering activities and community engagement events for the strategic plan identifying critical stakeholders and notifying the public in regard to the start of the strategic planning process. The data gathering phase has also been completed which allowed the committee to focus on community driven activities and events including focus groups, surveys, workshops, polls and public meetings. The Baytown Police Strategic Planning Advisory Committee is currently in the analysist phase which consist of reviewing and interpreting the feedback and data received from the community engagement activities. The committee is about to enter the composition phase, where the strategic directives and initiatives will be identified by the committee. Once the final draft of the strategic plan is created it will be presented to the city manager for approval. The committee initiated and completed a community outreach campaign during the months of February, March and April. The members of our committee contacted organizations in the community and set up focus groups with the organizations. There were fifteen focus groups that were conducted and three public town hall meetings that were open to the public, there were two in -person and one virtual. The committee met with twelve other focus groups that were with organizations across the community, and canvased a scientific survey through a third party to get an accurate representation of the community. The committee utilized Baytown Engage as a platform, and as a resource for the community to continually share where the committee is in the process. Interviews were conducted with a number of community stakeholders as well with Pastor Montgomery the chair for the Baytown Police Advisory Committee. Our committee works closely with the city's public affairs department to promote media campaigning to ensure that we reach as many people in our community as possible who were interested in participating. Some of the organizations that the committee met with during the process included the West Baytown Civic Association, the ACE business district, the Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District, Glen Meadows HOA, Lynnwood Neighborhood Watch, the Juneteenth Celebration Committee, Top Ladies of Distinction Inc., local pastors, ecclesiastical leaders, Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, the Kiwanis Club, the Baytown Police Department, with youth from the Thomas Institute of Excellence (TIE) program, and input from a group of Baytown educators. Chair Holmes states that the key findings were broken down into perceived strengths and perceived areas of improvement. The perceived strengths, during the focus group, were often phrased as what's going well. The feedback reflects the areas that citizens felt are strengths of the police department and the things that the citizens like to see continue in the future. The perceived areas of improvement were often asked by stating if you were king or queen for a day, then what would you change about policing in Baytown? The feedback captured areas of improvement and where citizens would like the police to invest moving forward. Residents voiced support of the investments in community engagement that the police department has made. The citizens are appreciative of the police attempts to create positive interactions with community. The specific engagement approaches that received widespread praise, included Coffee with a Cop, DARE, Blue Santa, Pop Up Park and other numerous community events that police officers attend. The community called attention to the City Council Work Session Minutes May 13, 2021 Page 3 of 8 implementation of body cameras for patrolling officers and to step towards documentation and transparency, by conducting random audits of the body camera footage to review officer behavior and assure quality services from its officers. In line with a feedback for increased community engagement, residents expressed a desire for more targeted outreach to the youth of Baytown. One of the repeated things that we heard included feedback that youth, elementary school kids, have positive interactions with police officers in elementary through the DARE program, but that they had little to no interaction with officers during middle school by the time they got to high school officers were suspicious of them and wanting to check their lockers and there's a 180, a big gap from their experience just a few years ago. The police department receives extensive training, but residents felt that additional training is needed in specific areas, including de-escalation, mental health and racial biases. These trainings were viewed as important aspects in addressing areas of improvement. Ms. Holmes reviewed a few highlights that were collected from the survey instrument that the committee implemented. 71 % of residents who had an opinion think it's important for the makeup of the Baytown Police Department to reflect the community in terms of race and ethnicity, 57% of residents who had an opinion indicated that they think the Baytown Police Department currently reflects the community in terms of race and ethnicity, while 43% do not think the department currently reflects the community in regard to Baytown Police Department composition. Three areas residents believe should receive the most emphasis over the next few years were, visibility of police in the neighborhoods, efforts to prevent crime, and how quickly police respond to emergencies. The visibility of police in the neighborhood was 50%. The effort to reduce crime was 41 %. How quickly police respond to emergencies was 29%. The three issues residents believe should receive the most emphasis over the next two years are the Baytown police personnel have appropriate training in regard to handling confrontation with citizens, personnel treating residents of different races or ethnicities equally, and the Baytown Police Department trying hard to maintain good relations with the community. 42% of the residents believed the Baytown police personnel must have appropriate training in regard to confrontations with citizens. 37% stated Baytown Police Department personnel treat residents of different races or ethnicities equally. 35% stated the Baytown Police Department maintaining good relations with the community. Residents who had an opinion stated that 34% very satisfied, 37% were satisfied with the professionalism of police officers, which totals 71 % of residents satisfied with Baytown Police Department professionalism. The directives of the committee are to foster community relationships, more community engagement, and more positive interactions with the police. While the residents praised the efforts of the department and being involved with the community, the residents shared ways in which engagement could be expanded to cover more individuals and create more trust. Certain City Council Work Session Minutes May 13, 2021 Page 4 of 8 groups shared that the police department and other leaders should regularly meet with stakeholders across the community to maintain close relations and to help distill information to residents. Stakeholder groups include local nonprofits and religious leaders, particularly those with established connections to the Black and Hispanic communities. Residents and officers alike voiced several ideas of in regard to better equipping officers in responding to mental health calls and ensuring the city has the right resources in place. The ideas include additional training for all officers on best practices, hiring mental health experts and/or social workers who can be on call to assist officers in their assessments, and training the city's paramedics to respond to mental health calls. Residents favor increased community policing. These directives focus on a philosophy, a full - service policing that's highly personal where officers patrol the same area for a period of time and develop partnership with citizens to identify and solve problems. This includes officers getting out of their vehicles in populated areas walking and interacting with citizens. It also includes continued recruitment where possible Baytown residents serve on a police force, and a police force that reflects the ethnic diversity of the community in Baytown, particularly in Hispanic and Black representation. Transparency includes more proactive communications with those who submit complaints or are witnesses to an incident, informing them of what steps are taken and the disciplinary review process. Transparency could include educating the public on the adaption of new policies, training the officers to go through, and social media post highlighting community involvement and officers who go above and beyond. The next steps are concluding the analysis phase, composing the final plan, presenting that plan to the city manager, and the estimated completion date is July 2021. Our committee is currently completing our analysis of the data and feedback we received from our community engagement activities and survey information. The Committee is still in the process of determining specific initiatives of the plan. Once we have those recommendations, we'll begin the composition of the final plan. Once the city manager approves the finalized plan and presents it to city council, it will be available online for citizens to review. Our committee is also working with city staff to complete a scorecard, similar to the city's community scorecard that citizens may access and see the progress that the police department is snaking towards implementing the plan. Chair Lakesha Holmes stated the following thing was to share the committee members experiences. Ms. Holmes states that for her it has been an educational process and experiencing police officers on the committee was a good thing because community members in the committee were able to go to them and ask questions about police training, about how many officers are on duty at a particular time, about police programs and just any number of questions that other committee members had. Ms. Holmes stated it was also interesting to have participated in the community engagement, to hear the diverse perspectives of our community members on policing in Baytown. Chair Holmes states that one of the focus groups that she attended, included the parents of an officer who was shot in the line of duty, responding to a call. The perspectives of the parents were different from some of the other people in the focus group. Ms. Holmes found the most interesting or unexpected thing was that there were some commonalities, City Council Work Session Minutes May 13, 2021 Page 5of8 didn't matter what focus group or what survey, there were some commonalities and those included people wanting more police engagement in their community, wanting more police presence in their community, wanting police training or additional resources for mental health and wanting officers who engage in misconduct to be held accountable. Which for Ms. Holmes signifies that the community knows and what unites it is greater than what separates it. Mayor Brandon Capetillo invited the two attending committee members Sergeant Aaron Crowell and Derrick Wade to state their experience in the Baytown Police Strategic Planning Committee. Sergeant Aaron Crowell introduced himself and his position in the Baytown Police Department. Sergeant Crowell stated as a police officer, they are very insular as a rule, do not share well with others, do not communicate well outside of a call for service when we're dealing with the public, and do not like to share feelings and thoughts outside of the department. The process has forced officers to be self -reflective as a whole departmentally, and individually. The process has forced police officers to ask themselves some uncomfortable and tough questions. The questions consisted of what are we doing well, what do we need to do better, what do we not need to be doing, how can police officers be better because police officers owe that to the citizens, and the tax payers. The Baytown Police Department has to be the best department that it can be. The creation of the survey document, the questions the police department wanted to ask forced the police officers to think about what the police department was wanting to get out of the process. When the survey results came back the results mirrored the findings internally. The police department needs to be better, requires training, to interact with citizens, and engage more. It was gratifying, to see that the community is supportive of the efforts of the police department, but it also does recognize that there are things that the police department can do better and will do better. The process was a learning experience, a growing experience, it allowed for the department to reflect and grow. Sergeant Crowell states some good things are coining out of this process. The product, and hard work of the committee will please the City Council. Committee Member Derrick Wade introduced himself, stating the committee was an interesting experience that allowed everybody how to come together although they did not all have the same experiences. The committee has allowed for people to sit down and talk to each other whether you agree or do not. It allows for the community to learn how to work through issues, and listen to each other. Mayor Brandon Capetillo questioned if there were any questions for Ms. Holmes, to which there were not. Mayor Capetillo went on to state that the Council looks forward to the final report. Council Member Charles Johnson thanked the committee for their time and effort, the time spent on focus groups, the determination for the greater good. Mr. Johnson stated the Council appreciated the time and effort that has been put into it, and the effort the committee will continue to put into it. b. Receive and discuss a legislative Update. Director of Public Affairs Thomas Reeves discussed the discussed were bills of interest, issues that are still looming, There were six bills of interest in Baytown that the City Advocates. City Council Work Session Minutes May 13, 2021 Page 6 of 8 item, the three areas Mr. Reeves and what would be the next steps. had been watching with the City House Bill 3682 is the City of Baytown's main priority, and has been presented through legislature as the Baytown Bill. House Bill 3682 expands the parameter of the hotel occupancy tax revenues and allows for the City to use the revenues for more, specifically the City of Baytown's athletic fields and facilities. Representative Perez campaigned House Bill 3682 in the House of Representatives, and Senator Alvarado sponsored it in the Senate. House Bill 3682 passed in both the House and the Senate, and will go to the governor for signature. The City feels very optimistic, and believes September 1" would be the date House Bill 3682 will give the City the ability to use the funds. House Bill 2776 authorizes registered voters in a certain area to petition for release of the area from a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction, and authorizes registered voters in a certain area to petition a city for disannexation of the area. The City of Baytown is concerned how House Bill 2776 will affect the Industrial District Agreements (IDA's) and how it will impact the Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ). House Bill 2776 died on the House floor. House Bill 1079 would have impacted the relocation of the Battleship Texas after refurbishment but it died in the committee as well. Due to House Bill 1079 dying, this allows for a path for the City of Baytown to relocate the battleship. Senate concurrent resolution SCR 29 urges the US Board of Geographic Names to approve request to change racially offensive place names in accordance with Texas House Bill 1756 which is from 1991. In 1999 the City wanted to change the name of one of the waterways, but was rejected. The SCR 29 urges the Board of Geographic Names to adapt the name changes. A local representative authored House Bill 1877 and House Bill 1878 which interested and concerned the City of Baytown. The Bills were related to vacant residential buildings, reducing municipal oversight to structures as such. House Bill 1877 is pending in the committee while House Bill 1878 died on the house floor. Public Affairs Director Thomas Reeves stated that although the legislative session is in the final days there are a couple of bills the City is still paying attention to. House Bill 1869 has passed in the House and was voted out of the Senate local government committee. The Bill would modify the definition of debt for purposes of the debt service property tax rate calculation to only include debt approved at an election, causing the City of Baytown to have to take any debt issuance to the voters. House Bill 1869 was amended to give cities leeway and the ability to debt finance certain infrastructure and equipment, which is good. The Senate based the bill Tuesday and it will have to go to the House for concurrence with the amendments. Mr. Reeves states he believes it will be successful. City Council Work Session Minutes May 13, 2021 Page 7 of 8 House Bill 4242 offered a two-year extension of the expiration of certain parts of the Texas Economic Development Act or Chapter 313. The City is watching it closely for the education partners, the bill passed the House but was voted out of the Senate committee and will likely die on the Senate floor. The governor could potentially bring it back during the special session in June, but as of now it does not look to be successful. Mr. Reeves goes on to state that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick took to Twitter to ask Governor Greg Abbott to call a special session of the legislature for three major issues. The issues being transgender people in sports, the use of taxpayer funds for lobbyist, and punishing social media companies for censoring Texans for their political views. The governor stated that was premature and urged lawmakers to work together to come to a resolution. There will be a special session in June primarily to focus on redistricting, and the City will watch closely to see what else will occur in the session. Public Affairs Director discussed the things he is working on next due to the legislative session ending. Mr. Reeves focus will be to build a foundation for a new platfonn, the legislative platfonn was well received by the City legislatures and that was worked on two years ago. Mr. Reeves anticipates to start the process next summer which is earlier this time around, and will include a subcommittee consisting of city leadership and city council members. Mr. Reeves states that between now and the establishment of the new platfonn he will be focusing on forming relationships with our legislators and their staff. In order to build such relationships Mr. Reeves will be meeting with the legislators and their staff regularly to learn about their priorities, philosophies, why they vote certain ways, what is passionate to them, why they believe certain things about city legislation, the priorities that are important to the City and see if a relationship can be sustained. Public Affairs Director Thomas Reeves states he has already began meeting with Representative Middleton's key staff, and has also visited the capital to testify and meet with state advocates. The City of Baytown is on a positive trajectory, and is being noticed by our legislators, and by the City stakeholders. Mr. Reeves states he is available to the City Council at any time, and is open for suggestion as to how to elevate the City profile to make people aware of the Baytown way. Council Member Heather Betancourth questioned a bill Representative Middleton introduced in regard to removing the cap on homestead exemptions. Assistant City Manager Nick Woolery stated the bill did not go anywhere and received no traction. Council Member Chris Presley questioned the vacant building proposals and which office the proposals came out of to which Public Affairs Director Thomas Reeves stated both Bills 77 and 78 essentially died and were both proposed by Representative Gaetz. Mayor Brandon Capetillo question which committee Representative Gaetz fits on the committee, to which Mr. Reeves stated he does not know. Assistant City Manager Nick Woolery stated Representative Gaetz filed sixty (60) bills this session, and he is more than likely sitting on multiple committees. Mr. Woolery stated BJ is there for questions regarding the 313 if the City Council is interested. City Council Work Session Minutes May 13, 2021 Page S of S City Attorney Karen Horner stated Representative Gaetz sits on the Appropriation in Urban Affairs committees. C. Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda for May 27, 2021, which is attached below. There was no discussion for this item. 2. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Capetillo adjourned the May 27, 2021, City Council Regular Work Session at 6:11 P.M. Angela Jason, Acting City of Baytown A_�� •,ns