MINUTES HORRY COUNTY COUNCIL PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING Council Conference Room September 21, 2015 9:00 a.m. COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Al Allen, Chairman MEMBERS ABSENT: James Frazier, Cam Crawford OTHERS PRESENT: Chris Eldridge; Pat Hartley; Arrigo Carotti; Chief Saundra Rhodes; Chief Scott Thompson; Lisa Bourcier; Councilman Johnny Vaught, and Wes Covington. In accordance with the FOIA, notices of the meeting were provided to the press stating the time, date, and place of the meeting. CALL TO ORDER: Chairman Allen called the meeting to order at approximately 9:00 a.m. INVOCATION: Chairman Allen gave the invocation. PUBLIC INPUT: None REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF AGENDA CONTENTS: There being no changes to the agenda, Chairman Allen approved the agenda contents. APPROVAL OF MINUTES August 24, 2015: There being no changes to the minutes, Chairman Allen approved the minutes for August 24, 2015. RESOLUTIONS: Mutual Aid Agreement (Wes Covington): Mr. Covington began by informing the committee that this Mutual Aid Agreement was going to require a resolution and has been before the committee in the past. There have been court decisions and appellate court decisions that differed on whether or not County Council needed to approve these or just be notified by the law enforcement agency entering into them with another agency outside our jurisdiction. This one is between the 15 th circuit solicitor s office drug enforcement unit and Richland County Sheriff s office so out of caution, it would be best for Council to approve it so that no one s defense attorney could try to pull anything off later and nullify an arrest. Chairman Allen asked if anyone had any questions or input. There was none and he stated that it would be moved on before Council. ORDINANCES: Small animal management (Wes Covington): Chairman Allen brought up that there was some previous discussion on the subject and some concern that private owners were giving away a puppy or kitten under the age of 8 weeks and that there was a request for that to be adjusted or amended. 1
Mr. Covington confirmed and asked if Chairman Allen would like a full recap or to speak just to that point. Chairman Allen requested that he speak just to that point. Mr. Covington stated that some changes had been made and the ordinance specifically in the last section that talks about 8 weeks limitations, as well as inoculations and vaccinations according to American Veterinarian Association standards, only applies to breeding organizations and breeders. Which means that County officials have to determine that at least 25 animals are sold by a specific entity per year. None of these requirements will be imposed on individuals that just want to give/sell animals from litters from family pets. Mr. Allen clarified that the officers would not be out every day watching the neighbors but when the need arises the police will have a tool to address the problem. Without objection, the ordinance was forwarded to full council. DISCUSSION ITEMS: FOIA Cost Update (Lisa Bourcier) Mrs. Bourcier presented some charts and figures on a comparison of FOIA costs against some other municipalities in the area. The FOIA policy had not been changed since 2004 and were lower than most of the other cities. A comparison was made with Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, the school district and Coastal Carolina University regarding per copy charges as well as staff time for that. A chart was presented to show charges for FOIA specific to Waccamaw Publishing for requests to the police department for weekly requests for police reports. There was an email that Lt. Denis sends out several times a week to various parties reflecting the more high profile incidents that happen along with the arrest record and/or the police report. Chief Saundra Rhodes noted that Waccamaw Publishing was the only media outlet that would request a high number (60) of reports at one time. Chairman Allen turned to Michael Smith of Waccamaw Publishing and asked if he wanted to comment on that statement. Mr. Michael Smith introduced himself and stated he was with the Carolina Forest Chronicle and named several publications that were under the Waccamaw Publishing umbrella. He had a concern with not only the FOIA cost but also the access to getting information for his publications. He explained the process that was required of them to gain access to information and felt it may conflict with state law. He said that having to fill out a form for the information was a direct violation of the FOIA. The law stated if someone appeared in person to access information that they were not required to fill out a written request, but that every time they came to the police department to access the information they were required to do so. He also claimed that no other police department charged a labor and search fee. He would understand if they had requested a large amount of information but this was done on a weekly basis just for the current incident reports. He gave a couple of examples of organizations that did not charge for copies such as Coastal Carolina and the City of Myrtle Beach puts them free online for public access. Lisa Bourcier added as follow up that there was no charge for a simple police report either but when there is a request for 60 reports in a week that would be a different case. She explained that the reporter did not come in with a specific request for a single incident, but wanted to look at everything in order to fill their crime blotter section of their paper. She explained further that there would be no cost for a single report/request, but that it was the volume that was the issue, explaining that there was a large volume weekly that had to be checked and redacted before allowing access to the reporter. Mr. Eldridge suggested that the charge for staff time per hour needed to be addressed for general FOIA requests. Mrs. Bourcier added that there were over 1000 FOIA requests per year. 2
Mr. Allen said that he felt there were not a lot of serious crime included in the 60 or so reports per week that was requested and that it put a burden on the staff that had to process these reports when only maybe 10% of them were serious enough that the public really needed to know. Mr. Smith spoke up again about his confusion as to why they had to fill out a form/request for an incident report when the law states that it was not required. Mr. Allen asked Wes Covington to address Mr. Smith s concern. Mr. Covington explained that the staff and county attorney s office had been working together to look at this issue but what needed to be remembered was that it was not only FOIA but also the privacy act under the South Carolina constitution as well as Federal law and Federal privacy act. He said that he and Lisa Bourcier and the Chief of Police were working together and spoke weekly about what could be done to address and cover all the concerns. Mr. Allen suggested to Mr. Covington that he head up a group consisting of Lisa Bourcier, Lt. Denis and Michael Smith between now and next public safety meeting to address the concerns and offered to referee if needed. Chief Saundra Rhodes spoke up and stated that they had met on numerous occasions and tried to resolve this issue and there was no violation of FOIA there and any individual that wanted a copy of an incident report would present no problem, but requests that come from Waccamaw Publishers are very labor intensive. An officer had to go through each report and redact private information before being released and that the reporter was welcome to sit and wait rather than having to come back for reports later. Mr. Allen asked Chief Rhodes to contact other law enforcement agencies and ask them what their requests were from different media outlets as a comparison against what the County gets with their size versus what they get based on their size. Mr. Eldridge asked if the committee would be interested in looking at staff time per hour and Mr. Allen said that he definitely would. Mr. Allen said he would wait to see what the reports said and the issue would be brought up again. Camp Pride Presentation: (Chief Saundra Rhodes) Mrs. Rhodes explained that Camp Pride was a program that allowed involvement with children during the summer and that the school resource officers were involved in. When the funding was available, there were two camps per year. She presented a video presentation of some of the children, counselors, officers and activities that were part of Camp Pride. The children involved were all at risk students. They were given a chance to interact with officers for three weeks including every part of the police department. There was a graduation ceremony where the children received a certificate of graduation at the end of the program. Police Department Project Updates: (Chief Saundra Rhodes) Mrs. Rhodes gave an update on 5 new officers that had been sworn in with 4 of them attending the academy and one that was already a certified officer in environmental services. All cameras have been deployed to the patrol officers, training was complete and everything was working now. There was now an ATF Task force with officers from Horry County Police Department, Myrtle Beach Police Department and the Horry County Sheriff s office assigned to the unit and was up and running now. Fire/Rescue Department Project Updates: (Chief Scott Thompson) The big project was the apparatus replacement program that had been implemented. There were units in service and operating out of the stations. Bucksport s unit had an unfortunate run in with a turkey vulture that 3
busted out the windshield that will need repairing. There were still 5 more at the dealers and will be here starting at the end of the week. There were guys that have returned to Pennsylvania to inspect the last 2 units with the big tower ladder with the bucket on it and one last engine. Other capital projects were that we were in year 4 of life-pack cardiac monitor replacement program and the 5 monitors for this year s purchase have been ordered and starting to come in. The new stretchers that were seen last month have been ordered, but ran into some road blocks with the dive boat replacement and may have to bid it out which will take a little longer. He said they were working with Finance, Justin and Barry Spivey and the Administrator to get ready to do the apparatus purchase for this year and should have a report on that next month. There was some turnover in the hiring process but have started a recruiting school and it was a full class of 20. There was also 11 hired that had EMS training that were put directly on the street. By the first of the year there should be 30 full-fledged fire fighter paramedic EMT s out serving on the street. Mr. Allen brought up that some turnover was expected with about 43 different outfits / stations to run with about 300 employees and he felt that Mr. Thompson was doing a good job. Mr. Thompson added that they had been monitoring and had determined they could run about 3 schools a year on the career side and about 4 schools a year for the volunteer side. A lot of the volunteers got in and decided they liked it so they ended up being hired. Progress has been made for the fire station in the university area and we were still trying to negotiate the final price. He added that he had spoken with representatives from North Myrtle Beach about a training center concept that they had approached us about and those conversations will continue. Mr. Allen asked about space at station 15 and could it be used for the training center, since it was away from congested areas. Mr. Thompson stated there were only 7 acres that had been purchased. Towing charges: (Arrigo Carotti): Mr. Carotti stated that this topic was initiated by a call from Mr. Paul Prince, who had spoken with a tow truck driver that had some concerns and complaints about 2 items in our towing ordinance. First was the $5 administrative fee that is charged for those that are on our rotation wrecker program. Mr. Allen asked if that was per call and Mr. Carotti confirmed. Mr. Carotti added the other concern was the rates in general, wanting those rates to be increased to state highway patrol level. He continued with a little history of the County s towing ordinance dating back to 2009. A study was done comparing different cities and what Horry County eventually passed was on the high end of the spectrum statewide. A more recent study was done by Capt. Strickland and it was hard making comparisons as they are not all identical situations, jurisdictions and formulas. Taking a look at our scheduled fees, and comparing it to the standard towing fees found by Capt. Strickland when he researched this last week, you can see that we are still compatible with what other jurisdictions charge. He added that it was up to Council if they wanted to make any changes to pricing and this was just to address the concerns expressed by Mr. P. Prince. Mr. Allen stated he felt the pricing was reasonable and in line with everyone else and did not see any need to change anything unless the price up fuel were to increase drastically and at that time, Council may need to revisit the pricing. Mr. Allen noted that all discussion items had been addressed but he wanted to comment on the Animal Care Center and that Mr. Gary Gause was present. He said that in the last couple of weeks he had heard some very nice comments about the animal care center and wanted Mr. Gause to know that he felt the staff there was doing a good job. Mr. Gause said one of their main concerns was live release (getting the animals back out the front door) and that this month there was 68% live release which is a big jump from years past. Also this month there were 80 adoptions, 30 reclaims and 6 to 4
transfer this month alone. Mr. Allen added that he appreciated his efforts and that it was one of the cleanest animal shelters he had seen and would put it up against any in the state. Executive Session: Mr. Allen moved to enter an executive session at 9:45 a.m. Mr. Allen moved to come out of executive session at 10:05 a.m. Mr. Arrigo Carrotti added that the executive session was a discussion of negotiations to proposed contractual arrangements with no decisions made and no votes were taken. Mr. Allen asked if there were any other questions or concerns from the staff and Ms. Pat Hartley responded with a request to discuss dates for the next committee meetings. She suggested that the next meeting date should be Monday, October 26. Mr. Allen asked if everyone was good with that date and made note of the date and time. Ms. Hartley then suggested November, 16 as the next date for consideration. Mr. Allen asked if everyone was good with that date, then made note of the date and time. Ms. Hartley then added for December, if needed, her suggestion would be December 14. Mr. Allen reminded everyone to make note of the dates and to remember that December would be a very busy month, but if a meeting was needed, it could be done and could be determined possibly during the November meeting if a December meeting would be necessary. DEPARTMENT REPORTS: Police: Fire / Rescue: Animal Care Center: Emergency Management; E911: ANNOUNCEMENTS: ADJOURNMENT: With no further business, Mr. Allen moved to adjourn at approximately 10:07 a.m. 5