Remarks by Dimple Ajmera
136 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 6
Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Harrington. Do we have anyone here from CMPD to answer questions? I know this is for deferral, which I do support to get additional information and get additional questions addressed, but it would be helpful to get information on how undercover or unmarked vehicles have helped with the investigation or addressing undercover work. If there are examples and data that can be provided, I think that would be important. Okay, we have someone here from CMPD. I think we do need to hear from you, yes.
Other questions? No, this is very helpful. Yes, ma'am. Certainly, this is very important work that you're doing, bringing justice to victims and their families. Especially this past weekend, we lost five people, and these were young people. So I understand the importance of unmarked vehicles that helps bring justice to victims and their families and holds criminals accountable. So to follow up on that, how many unmarked vehicles you currently have? And how urgent it is that we buy new vehicles?
I think that gives further insight into why this is important and why this is necessary. Because these vehicles are used to solve crime and hold people accountable. And you said 90 to 95 vehicles, these are undercover vehicles that are separate from unmarked vehicles?
I understand. So I just want to make sure by deferring this item, we're not delaying justice for our families that are counting on you.
I guess how reasonable, what would be the timeframe that would be reasonable for, because the last thing I would want to do is to defer something that brings justice to the families that are counting on this.
Yeah, that is very helpful. I appreciate your work. I appreciate your service. Thank you. That's all I have.
Yes. Thank you, Mayor Harrington. On the substitute motion, I do support the substitute motion because it... we need to differentiate the use from what's in front of us. And I think that's fair. I just want to make sure because immigration had come up and I know that CMPD does not enforce federal immigration law. Could you just please confirm that? So it's in our, in our record, because I know unmarked vehicle often comes up this conversation about immigration. If you could just confirm that.
Thank you, Mayor Harrington. So thank you, Attorney Battle, for bringing this modernizing the ordinance to in front of us. I certainly appreciate your work on this. Council Member Anderson, who is the Chair of the Safety Committee and I attended a virtual meeting we had with taxi operators locally. And the major concern we heard was leveling the playing field, right? And I appreciate that we have taken a step forward by allowing at least an app to be used. So I guess I'm still not clear why would we not have our local operators use their own app as opposed to the national app where they do…
That's fair. So I would like us to bring us an option forward where local companies can use their own app while considering there is no disparity between to address some of the concerns that the attorney's office has. Well, that's all I have. Thank you.
This is the public hearing. We are in the public hearing. Indecision tonight. But we don't have anyone signed up for it.
Yes. Thank you, Mayor Harrington. And thank you, Council Member Mayo, for giving that example. Another property that comes to mind was in District 3 near the airport, and we heard from many residents nearby about what steps we did not take to preserve and approve the recommendations of the Historic Landmark Commission. I know this is something that was recommended by Historic Landmark Commission, which sits within the county. So I appreciate a bit of a history about why this is being recommended, about with its unique nature of how this site was built and the construction technique that was…
There was a recommendation made to keep it as is. As is, yeah.
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Yes, I appreciate there have been conversations. It's good to hear that we are almost there. I would like to hear from the Bike Advisory Committee as to where the difference is that still exists. I know we are almost 90% there. I would be interested in knowing where is the 10% where they do not align. Because I think I appreciate Council Member Owens passion on this issue about protecting pedestrians and ensuring that we are also looking out for our young people who are on e-bikes. But at the same time, I'm very I want us to be very thoughtful about not limiting transportation choices,…
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Okay, so... I'm not clear. So are you saying that if someone does a property damage that we would be issuing some sort of citation or would we hold them accountable?
Okay, that's fair. So are we currently not doing that? Could someone not get citation for damaging a personal property?
Yes, I'm not clear on how this would be different than where it currently exists.
Got it. But currently it still exists. I mean, if there was damage done by an e-bike or e-motor or e-moped or anything, there is still consequence. Yes. So I think this is just specifically for e-bikes. I don't know if truly it addresses the problem because we already have something in the books. And in terms of the enforcement, it's truly challenging. I see there are enforcement perspectives here. But I think really we need to invest in prevention and education campaign because enforcement is really difficult for this kind of violations. And that's all I have. Thank you.
Oh, got it. So everything else is covered except e-bikes.
Okay, but everything else is covered under...
Thank you, Mayor Harrington. This is a huge step forward towards responsible development. I want to thank the task force members as well as the attorney's office and the staff for working towards this. And in the next 11 months, we will have an opportunity to put guardrails in place to protect our residents, to protect our neighborhoods, and to protect water and the electricity grid. So I appreciate the work that's been done so far.
Thank you, Mayor Harrington. I have two items. First, I just want to take a moment to address the heartbreaking violence we saw across Charlotte this weekend. We saw 16-year-old and 17-year-old young lives that were lost, five lives that were lost, and five families who will never be the same. So I appreciate what Chief Patterson and CMPD is doing to keep our community safe. Certainly we made progress based on the recent report that was released by CMPD, but this weekend was a painful reminder that we have much more work to do. So I would like to ask the chief to provide counsel with an…
Thank you, Mayor Harrington. This one is for the specific use of EV charging stations, is that correct?