Remarks by Marc Laplante
101 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 5
“The people of Lawrence should have that final say. to sign a recall petition to put this question in front of the residents.”
“I'll just go over that last point because I think that's probably the most important point of this. To make certain that there's no confusion, I'm willing to and willing and prepared to sign the recall petition the democratic process, and I believe the people of Lawrence deserve the opportunity to make that decision for themselves. Thank you, Council President.”
“Are we just talking about that item or just any camera items at all?”
“So the public hearing item, we're willing to discuss that now. I forget the number. So the public hearing was closed. 341. 341.”
“But we have the police officer here. We have the IT director here. They're here so that, because there's a lot of information, I just think it's important that we hear. They're... What we have written, we want to hear a little like a summary of that information regarding what's happening in the police department and also what's happening outside of the police department and other departments, which I think RIT offices go. So if there's no objection, Council President, what I would ask is that the police department give a presentation, if they will, overall on all of the issues regarding…”
“Councilors, any questions? Councilor Platt. Yeah, sure. So because we'll be dealing with flock, I'm not going anywhere near flock. And just a reminder, while the police department has the biggest piece of the pie, there is another piece of the pie with IT, which has City Hall, DPW, and the library. So we're going to need to bring them up because they don't have flocks. They have cameras. And so we will want to know more about that. But, you know, The most important thing about this evening is this, from my perspective. It is to get information to the public. The whole idea behind 925, when I…”
“Let me just ask one specific question and I'm gonna get off because we know it was a lot of stuff, we're all acknowledging. So one example of an issue, how do we determine where the 400, 450 cameras are in the city and are they all working? Are there any out of commission? So that's a two-fold question. And I'm not going to go beyond that because there's a lot we can do and we're not going to have time.”
“And how do we choose where these locations are?”
“Okay, thanks. And how do we make the decision? And there's 415. I remember we started with 50. Yes. We started with 50 back. I don't remember what year it was. I think it was VASC who started this whole thing back in the day. And it was 50. And now we have exploded. And we're going to talk, not tonight, but we're going to talk about why we've exploded. But how do we decide where those locations are? There's 415.”
“Councillor Blunt. I'm all done with the police department. I just want to take the time. Chief Aguilar, when you first heard that we were behind the eight ball on this, you stepped up immediately to give us at least a preliminary information on that. So you understood we had some issues, and obviously this is way more comprehensive tonight, but you initially got some stuff. So I just want to publicly say thank you for getting us, as quickly as you heard about it, some information because you saw the seriousness of it early on during your tenure as chief. So I appreciate that, and I just want…”
“SO HOW DO YOU DECIDE HOW MANY CAMERAS ARE APPROPRIATE AND ADEQUATE IN CITY HALL? SO I'M GOING TO ASK YOU TWO QUESTIONS BEFORE I FORGET THE SECOND ONE. OR THE DPW OR THE LIBRARY. HOW DO YOU DECIDE HOW MANY AND WHERE? AND NUMBER ONE, NUMBER TWO. The police department's a little bit easier. The chief wants, the chief gets, right? So it's pretty simple. In your arena, who has the authority to say, I want to see videos? Who has that authority?”
“Are there audio on the cameras or just video? No, just video. All in the video? I know right now, for all we know what happened recently, I just noticed around this building, for example, we see that there is cameras are in use in audio or whatever.”
“And last question, again, we could spend a lot of time on this. I'm not going to take any more time. I asked the police department, this question I'll ask you, out of the 16 at City Hall, the nine at DPO, that's 25, 20 at the library, I think that's 53. Out of the 53 cameras that we have, are they all operational or some out of operation?”
“Again, plenty of stuff. I'm going to stop. Thank you very much. Thank you for your cooperation and working through. I know this is a very sensitive topic now. None of us, we all understand and see you and understand what's going on. From what I'm saying, I appreciate your assistance on trying to get us information. And how can the public find out where the cameras are for your work?”
“It's the whole idea. The whole idea behind this is to get it out. The second, the council president, the second step in this, this is not a tonight thing. This is a in the future thing. This is step one. Step two is for us to have a conversation regarding, now that the approvals, the discussions, this is a very broad overview, but what we need to find out are what are the results? What are the impacts? That's the next conversation that needs to come from this. So this is step one, and there needs to be step two for the police and with the IT and their things. But tonight, I think we've…”
“That box is now checked off. There needs to be another item, I think, new item introduced to say, what are the results? What's happening? We got that. Now we need to figure out, what are the numbers? So we can dig a little deeper on that, and it's going to go beyond the flocks. That's everything. Again.”
“So, actually, I had a question. The yearly contract needs to be approved by this council now. I think that's been established. Correct. So, from this point going forward, whenever that due date is, we should have an opportunity to... to know more about what's happening, et cetera, et cetera. So just so we're aware of that.”
“And that's my real point here, which is this. Finally, since 2018, this is what this council intended to see when this ordinance was passed. We are finally, it took how many years now? eight years or so, but we're finally where we should be when regarding the cameras and allowing us as a council to review and understand because of the sensitivities of the cameras, the civil liberties of the cameras, the way these cameras can be abused, BE ABUSED, AND WE'RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO HANDLE THAT, AND IT'S GOING TO BE A TOOL, AND IT'S ALL ABOUT MAKING SURE THAT WE PROTECT, MAKING SURE THAT POLICE HAS…”
“Can I make a recommendation, Council President, that we continue with the police department so they can move on and finish with them tonight with document 6526, which is the noise ordinance?”
“Who is the author of the underlying motion?”
“Let me just start off by saying One of the most important issues, the thing that aggravates residents the most, in my opinion, parking is starting to creep up, by the way, but it is noise. You mentioned it, Captain. You mentioned the lack of sleep, families, people trying to get to work, trying to go to school, elderly people just want a quiet time. It's loud. You get it. You've given us numbers. You gave us a number. I wrote it down somewhere. 3,400 noise calls this current year. We're not even done with the year yet. We still have two more months left. It's probably going to eclipse 3,500,…”
“I'm amending my own motion with this document.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“I do have some questions regarding the application, which is what I'm focusing on. I am focusing on pieces of paper that tell about your past. I'm also focusing on requirements in our ordinances that have requirements on there. So as I ask you these questions, please keep in mind what I'm trying to do is to see if what you have done matches what the requirements are in our ordinances. So the first thing that just jumps at me in looking at materials is the requirement for a master's degree in, I should have had it open. I'm going to read it. A candidate for this position requires to have a…”
“And so step one is a master's degree in urban and regional planning preferred. So it's a master's degree of which you're acknowledging you don't have a master's degree. Correct. So you haven't even crossed that threshold. The next part of that.”