Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

I I'll call this month's meeting of the Public Safety Committee to order. Roll call. We have everybody present except Alder Cummings who will be excused. He had called me earlier. Public comment, is there anybody in the public that wishes to speak at this time?

Yes, ma'am. If you want to step up to the desk or the table here, the mic with the green is on. No, I mean his comments. Yep. I'm with you.

Second call for public comment on any item on the agenda. And before I call the third one, sir, I know you're here for a particular item. This would be the time where you could address the committee if you would like to. You don't have to, but you could. But we can't get into a situation where we can question you or anything like that or respond to you. But if you have something you would like to say, this is the time to say it and we'll listen. Otherwise, we'll just go about it otherwise.

So you know, can't be any back and

forth. Right. If you give name and address on the record. My

name is James Pfeiffer. I live at 2111 Pheasant Drive, Manitowoc, Wisconsin. And I just am here to talk about the bill I received. And I wanted to make sure that if there was anything that I would have left out that would inform the situation better if you had questions, I understand. You can ask them but at some point, if you do, I'll be here. That's it. Thank you. Thank you.

Third call for public input. Going once, going twice, hearing nothing else, I'll call public input closed. Under the consent agenda, is there anything on the consent agenda that anybody would like pulled and discussed. Seeing none, I'll accept the motion to accept the agenda as presented. So moved.

Go ahead. I'll second.

There's a motion and a second. All those in favor, aye.

Aye.

Okay. We have an agenda. Moving on, we've got discussion items. The first one on the list is policy for regulating intersections. A little history about that very quickly is back last year, about November, I think, at the Public Safety Committee, we brought up the item.

There was a lot of concern, especially on the near south side here, about intersections and uncontrolled. And there was two accidents in particular, I think on 12th Street. And I can't remember the other cross street. But luckily nobody got killed, but they were pretty bad accidents. And it got us thinking about that whole near South Side as far as the number of uncontrolled intersections.

A little research told us that if you go to Green Bay or you go to Sheboygan, you are going to find about 80%, 85% of all their intersections are controlled in one way, shape, or form. Either they have got stop and go lights, they've got stop signs, they've got yield on certain directions. And ours was, what, about 60%? Barely 60% was for controlled intersections. And so the public safety committee allowed me to head up a subcommittee to study intersections, particularly the South Side.

And we started meeting in December. And we met in January. We met in March. And we met in April. And the committee members were myself. I headed it up. The mayor was there for every meeting. We also had the police chief, Nick Reimer. And then when he decided, no, I'm going to retire, John Musel was good enough to join us. We had Dan Koski from what is now Public Works, Greg Minickel, who is our city engineer, Billy Hutter, who is our streets person.

And I probably don't have the right new titles, but I'm close. And so we all met and we went through by looking at the maps as to what's there now. And we all took a stab at proposing what we should have there. And so we would fill out the maps. We'd come back, meet again, explain why we did what we did.

Sometimes we go, Okay, that's a better idea. And we kept that process going until we came across what you have in front of you today is that is the best proposal we can come up with at this time that says, here's where it should be. The original starting point was, well, why even start? Well, because of the complaints. There was a number of complaints on Facebook by the neighborhood, different neighborhood people over there.

And I guess even Channel twenty six, I guess, came down and interviewed a number of constituents and neighbors in that area that were complaining that they needed something. And so that's what started the process. It was a long process, as you know. Like I said, we got the ball rolling actually last November, and here we are at May already. So what's before you is the best idea we came up with.

The process started as why? I said, well, if you look at the south side, well, they said, well, are we going to apply all these rules? And I said, well, suggested, well, what happens if a developer came in and looked at that whole south side and gave you a map saying, this is what I'm going to develop. What would we put where and why? And approach it that way to begin with.

If there is something that you want done more or less than what's on that map, that's part of the procedure is there is going to be something on the internet where you can just copy it off and say, here, this is what I'd like to change. You can put it into our public works department because there will be a process to analyze each request, whether it comes from the mayor or if it comes from an alderman or if it comes from a member of the public. So there will be a way to get an addition, a subtraction, or whatever after this. So that's a little bit about the history on that. So are there any questions regarding what was presented in your material?

No questions?

No questions? I have a question. Yes, sir. Would

the implementation of the policy result in all of the signage being placed that is proposed? Or is there it sounded like you said there was

first about time know, And next next we do that. Do whatever. So, yeah, And originally, whatever is on that map, public works is aware of that and they're prepared to order the signs and the orange markers and all of that stuff if we approve it through the city council. They're prepared to do that. It's not a budget breaker.

If it was, I would have said, yeah, let's approve it, but then make it put it in next year's budget. The only like I said, I mentioned a number of people that were on the committee. But Dan, could you tell me Greg is not here. There was a number another gentleman or lady or maybe a couple of them in your office that actually helped put all the maps together and helped us in this. And they should be recognized because they did a good job.

Sure. So you're asking who those people are? Jill Erickson. Jill? Jill Erickson.

Jill Erickson. She did a lot of work because I know when I talked to Greg, Greg says, well, I've only got it partially done, but that's okay. Got Jill.

And then also Matt Smith did a lot of the background research as well. So he's one of our engineering technicians.

Super. Thank you for that. Well, thank you. Because like I said, people that do the work should get the recognition. They certainly get the faults all the time. If somebody doesn't like it, they should get the recognition when things go right.

For sure.

Any approve and pass on to the city council.

So moved. Second.

There's a motion and a Yep. I write slow. Or at least it's legible. Sometimes I write it's not even legible. Those in favor of the motion say aye.

Opposed, nay. Passed unanimously. It's always based on who's here tonight. Yep. Next item on the agenda is 26,004 to one, sex offender residency board appeal for Dominique Singleton.

Chief, I guess, will give us a few words on that. Ladies in the back that are here to speak on this issue, would you want to come up and speak on this issue first before we hear no, no, stay there, chief. Slide down. Come up to the table and you can give us some comments on that.

Hello. I am Jacqueline Singleton. I live at 2401 Washington Street, Manitowoc. I'm here to represent my husband, Dominique Singleton, who is currently on the agenda today. I understand that what we are requesting is for him to move to Manitowoc. We're requesting the appeal because it was originally denied because he had no residency here in Manitowoc. Oh, sorry.

Okay.

So, I've been a resident of Manitowoc for a little under a year. I do really like it here. I would like to stay here. I originally moved for work. I'm a working part of the community. I'm in health care right now. I'm a pharmacist in the city. And I would like him to come here and enjoy the city with me. I just wanted to state, I understand the, again, the crime itself, not trying to lessen it, with what the crime is. But it was from many, many years ago.

I believe he has changed as an individual. I am obviously here to monitor and support him as well. Also looking out for his well-being as I also do with the community in general as I hear come to work every day here. So, I just wanted to state that.

Hello. Can you hear me okay? You hear me okay? Almost eat it? Okay. My name is Patricia Moore. I am Dominique's mother and I'm here to support Jackie and of course my son. Whatever I would say obviously is what a mother would say right they believe in their son. I do want to state for the record it's the crime again was a while ago he has had no other issues completed all of his programs, etcetera. He's gotten several certifications, is looking forward to moving on.

His crime obviously was serious. It was a non contact kind of a crime, but I know that is a serious thing. It's been been a while and it would be wonderful for them to stay here. I know that they love or Jackie loves this city. And like I said I've come here from Brookfield, Wisconsin to support her and my son. Thank you.

Chief?

Yeah, a couple couple things on this topic. I guess some factors that I took into consideration in denying this residency change. The first one was he's had several probation parole violations from my understanding when I ran a criminal history report. PNP initially I believe it was probation parole that denied the transfer wasn't the city correct? Yeah so probation parole denied the transfer initially from P and P in Waukesha to Manitowoc.

I don't know the reason on that but obviously they have a reason that they didn't want him moving. One other factor that we discovered when we were looking into his background, I don't have access to the case report from Waukesha regarding to the case details in this in the child So, did find out that October '25 he was charged with possession of cocaine and paraphernalia. Paraphernalia was dismissed but he was the case. The the The application case is was submitted. Now after reviewing the application it says in the application convictions.

So at the time of the application it was three thirty. The charges were filed on '25. So he was well aware that he had cocaine charges pending. It probably would have given me more weight if he would have been upfront in his application that he had charges pending. Again there are too many issues here that I see that I have a hard time supporting the transfer up to Manitowoc.

Does the committee have any questions of the police chief? Like I said, we can't get into a debate or discussion with members of the public in these settings. But we certainly can ask questions of the police chief if you have any.

Have no question.

Not hearing any. I would accept a motion either to deny the request or another way, I guess, is to approve the denial or whatever what's the wishes of the committee.

So basically, recommendation to go with the chief's recommendation to deny? Yes.

Go against his recommendation. Well, was there a motion? Yeah, we got to have a motion, but we got to have somebody want to make a motion one way or another and a second and then we can either discuss it a little more or vote.

I'll make a motion to support the chief's findings. Decision.

Second. I'll second that. I'm sorry. Second. Second. Okay. By Ben Zinger. And the motion was to approve the denial of the request. Any other discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion say aye.

Aye. Opposed, nay? Unanimous. It has been denied, unfortunately.

Thank you for your time. Yep.

Next item is convene in closed session. I've got to read this here. So notice is hereby given that the above of the board of in closed session for the purposes of considering financial, medical, social, or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons, preliminary The company's history, which the the is a have a substantial very adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data or involved in such problems and to the second of Okay. There's a motion and second. All those, oh, roll call.

Alderperson Beaman. Of Directors Anderson. Aye. And then Benzinger. Aye.

Yeah, I did. We are now in closed session. And then I guess we'll be adjourned to the room back there. Okay. The Public Safety Committee is back in open session.

The item before us is the item 26Dash422. What is the wishes? I make able to of

Directors

next item on the agenda for some reason is adjournment. Motion to adjourn. There is a motion. Second.

Second.

To adjourn. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Just like that. Thank you.