Richard Reid, a founding member of Salem City Watch, has put out an informative email message about the urgent need for people concerned about the direction Salem is going, and the quality of life here, to come to one of the final meetings of the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Police Facility Task Force:
Wednesday, March 11, 6 to 8 pm, Broadway Commons (upstairs), 1300 Broadway St. NE, Salem
I went to the last Task Force meeting, but got there late and didn't speak during the public comment time.
Which, appropriately, was at the beginning of the meeting, when it should be. Disturbingly, the agenda for the March 11 meeting shows public comments at the end -- very closed-minded and insulting to Salem's citizens.
Download Police Facilty Task Force Agenda
Even if you don't want to say anything to the Task Force, just being there sends a positive message: "I care about how the City plans to spend up to $80 million of our tax money. I want you to do the wisest and most cost-effective thing."
Here's Reid's message.
I've corrected the starting time of the meeting to 6 pm, and how long members of the public can speak to 2 minutes. Below it I'll share a Facebook post from Salem Community Vision about the upcoming meeting which includes some additional important information.
City Council’s goals have included a new police facility since 2007. A few years ago a tiny group of citizens and some city councilors fixated on rebuilding the police facility where it is now in a seismically risky location.
Finally at its last meeting there was general agreement on the Blue Ribbon Task Force to consider alternative sites other than the Civic Center. However, some task force members are still insisting that ONLY the Civic Center should be considered no matter how risky or costly.
Meanwhile, other Task Force members have found alternative sites they would like to propose but they but have been precluded from doing so.
Even though the Task Force is about to be disbanded, discussion of alternative sites is NOT on the Wednesday, March 11 Task Force Agenda!
It is possible that the Task Force may recommend that council ONLY consider rebuilding the Police Facility in the same unworkable site at City Hall. If so, eight years of effort to site the police facility where it will serve the police and the public best would be wasted.
That’s why your city needs you to come to the next Task Force meeting. WE CAN end nearly a decade of head-scratching and urge the Blue Ribbon Task Force to simply choose the best alternatives.
Just like at the last Task Force meeting, it would make a huge difference if you could attend the 6:00 pm meeting and:
Invite the Task Force to consider alternative sites. (30 alternative sites were screened on May 23, 2011.)
Help the Task Force to understand that considering only sites within 1.5 miles of city hall is unrealistic and unnecessary. (What would happen if all cities forced their police to operate with this limit?)
Remind the Task Force; at the last Task Force meeting the City Manager said $5 million to $8 million “might be found” and used for land acquisition for an alternative site.
See you there!
Richard Reid
PLEASE NOTE:
Time for public comment has been limited to the END of the meeting and each speaker will have 2 minutes maximum.
Please consider emailing your support for police facility siting alternatives to:
PLEASE ATTEND THE POLICE FACILITY MEETING ... this Wednesday March 11 at 6.00 p.m. (until 8.00) upstairs at Broadway Commons. The Mayor's Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Police Facility meets for a couple of hours.
Attendance and testimony by the Public at their February meeting was largely responsible for the committee finally doing something. They actually voted to exclude the Civic Center site because "it is not viable" for so many reasons. That site is a lake and a swamp.
The community insists that their trees and open space and lake not be destroyed. The cost there is prohibitive. Parking alone would be $55,000 a space for those employees. A surface parking lot would only be $4,000 a space, so the committee should focus on sites within a couple of miles of downtown.
1. The committee so far has shown it has no clear course of action (except the chair still seems focussed on the civic center area, an option that would surely be rejected by the voters).
2. The "discussion topics" are always so vague and do not communicate much to interested citizens.
3. What is the purpose of this meeting ? The mayor announced that the committee has served its purpose. The chair announced that he is writing a draft of a final report, and that draft mentions the Civic Center six times.
4. What outcome is being targeted ? The Finance Director gave a report on an $80.5M [million] bond measure, which the polls indicate will surely fail.
Some committee members are intent on setting some sensible Site Selection Criteria, e.g. 4+ acre site, surface parking, expandability, but no real criteria has been adopted yet, and the chair has indicated this might be the next to last meeting.
Six years of invisible meetings have gone on, and this promising committee has not done much, and is about to be terminated.
Meanwhile the Salem Police Department is in impossible working conditions of only 29,000 sq.ft. mostly in the basement of unsafe City Hall. They really need 70,000+ sq.ft. of efficient space to operate, with 200+ parking spaces, for police, employees, and public.
This is an urgent matter, and Salem Community Vision has urged the City to move along on this, i.e. an affordable and efficient facility, that can indeed be developed for less than half the $80M cost that the City contemplated at the Civic Center.
[Note: I believe this lower-cost alternative includes both a $20-30 million police facility and the $15 million seismic upgrades mentioned below.]
The seismic strengthening of the Civic Center also makes sense, and is only $15M. The committee has discussed a separate bond for that piece.
So the new Police Facility of 75,000 sq.ft. building on a 4 acre site, with surface parking, and an adjacent Municipal Court, should only cost $20M to $30M, which is more acceptable to the voters.
SCV would work hard to help get voter approval of such a sensible and badly needed facility.
DO ATTEND THIS MEETING. The agenda shows public testimony to be at the end, which is when the chair is anxious to adjourn and go home. We should demand that the public testimony be FIRST, i.e. before any bad decisions are made. See you there at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
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