Remarks by Dave Donelson
131 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 6
“Yeah, thank you, Madam President, and good morning, Cherie. Good morning. My apologies for being a few minutes late. I was coming from the MAC meeting, and that went a little bit longer. This is a real specific question. Do you know that the building demolition, you know, the .3 million, so 300,000, is that the structure kind of near Corpus Christi Church on... I think it would be Beacon Street, because I drove by it the other day, and it's the one right along the trail that we did by the railroad tracks, and it has some, like the plywood in the windows, there's holes cut in it, and I…”
“Yeah, thanks, Madam President, and good morning, Jen. Good morning. On that same topic, that's a concern of mine. I think several of us up here have talked with maybe representatives from the fire department, not those who are in the room right now. but about concerns that although there are increases in pay and as a percentage it's not a small number, it doesn't really, we're treading water. We're not making up the difference with other departments which are, essentially uh taking our trained uh you know firefighters from us and they're going there for less work and more pay so you know my…”
“Okay, then I'll hold any other discussion unless you want to add something else to that.”
“And just for my colleague's knowledge, I asked too, and I believe these were sent to us.”
“Yeah, these slides were sent to us this morning, so we haven't had a chance to look at them yet.”
“Oh, you want it for the book? Yeah, okay, thanks.”
“Just, I just want to be sure of the numbers. I jotted them down, right, Chief? But good morning to you. Morning. 768 out of 839? Correct. Is that right? Correct. And what's the gap there? That's like 40, you probably, 70, that's 70 some, 72 or three with over short, right? Yes. Roughly. How does that compare to a year ago? About the same?”
“And so that's good news. Out in Huntsville, I spoke with a gentleman who's from Douglas County, and when I mentioned we're having some it's a challenge to fill these slots even though we have the slots, we have the pay. He was real skeptical and he was like, wow, we get more applicants and we know what to do with all our, he didn't say all their positions were filled, that's what he was implying. And so he kind of rolled his eyes. How would you respond to that? What's the difference between Douglas County Sheriff's Department and CSPD as far as filling slots and attracting applicants?”
“Okay, thank you for that. Sorry to go off on a sidebar right away.”
“Yeah, thanks, Madam President, and good morning, Chief. In that last, those few sentences you said, you know, then we'll get rid of our flock cameras, but we don't really have flock cameras, right? We have Axon.”
“Okay. You know, you talked about, hey, we're solving crimes more efficiently like this. Are there some crimes you think we wouldn't have been able to solve without ALPRs or the technology that we're using?”
“What kind of effort is there for PR about that, for publicizing it almost on a weekly basis so citizens see the upside to what you're doing or what we are doing versus just the concerns about privacy?”
“Okay, and I think that's really important because I think if things are popping up in the local news once a week or in the Gazette or on social media, not waiting for them to come to us to get the story or go to our website, but we're sending something out, that will help. That will... explain to citizens why is this worth the concerns about privacy? What difference is it really making? Because I believe it really, it does make a difference. And I think it has saved lives and will save lives. And it also, you talked about it as quality of life, but it allows PD to deal with things like the…”
“And then perhaps it goes back to where we started with 768 out of 839. And if we had 820, we could deal with that. So we need to fill those positions. Okay, thank you. Councilman Leinweber.”
“I had a tissue in the way of my button there. It messed me up. Chief, one other question about this ALPRs, because I know this is a concern of some people with more like the flock cameras. Do ALPRs register any decals on the back of the vehicle on the bumper?”
“And why would that, I don't want to interrupt you, but when you continue, say why that might be useful. Sure.”
“And also, even if they had the license plate, if the person took the license plate off, you still have something else that identifies? Yes.”
“And I know the concern among some citizens, I just think this is useful to this be recorded that, well, you know, the government's going to find everybody who has an NRA sticker on their vehicle and they're going to get them at some point. But there is a reason, a practical reason. that a sticker on a car or vehicle is useful information in case you don't have the license plate. You kind of laid it out. Or in case the license plate is switched. They steal a different license plate and stick it on there.”
“Okay, is there anything else to add on that? It's not just to round people up who have... whatever, go COS stickers in the future.”
“And I'll just point out, I'm an NRA member, so I don't have anything against the NRA, thanks.”
“And thank you, Madam President. And Chief, if I understand this right, then we should subtract $3 million from grants on this slide.”
“so and then chief vasquez kind of pointed out the uh hey this is our authorized strength 839 of sworn we're at 768. for you i took a picture you know what is your authorized then what do you actually have so our sworn authorized strength is 516. we are right there with our training academy that we have going in there but when they come out we are probably going to be a couple down”
“Okay, so you're probably at about 514, but there's just a continuous leak, so to speak, of firefighters leaving and then you're filling it back in. Are those that are leaving, and I won't go one minute on this, those that are leaving, are they retiring? Is it 50% are retiring, 50% are going somewhere else?”
“So that's new that we're losing that many.”
“They're staying on the front range. They're just going somewhere else for better pay and less work. Okay, maybe we can talk more about that later on. Thanks. Okay, thanks.”