Deputy Mayor Offers Answers to Concern About Crime

When residents of River Road and the surrounding went to the city Council Sept. 4 to express concern about crime, deputy mayor Bill Phillips was listening.

On Sept. 6, he wrote to the city manager with suggestions about actions the city could take to address public safety issues.

Read it below:

:
Dear Susan & Chief Bogart,

As a follow up to the Concerned Citizens presentation at our City Council Vox Pox portion of our meeting on Wednesday night September 4, 2013 and our telephone conversations of yesterday regarding our approach to this matter. Please see the follow items that I would like to review & discuss on Tuesday night September 10, 2013 or Wednesday night immediately following the 9/11 ceremony in Sims Park, or next Saturday morning at City Hall.

We know Vox Pop is a portion of our meeting when we allow the citizens of New Port Richey to address Council on items that are not on our agenda. I got the feeling that the group that came to discuss their concerns about public safety wanted more action on our part that night. I really don’t see where a City Council Work Session would move the process along quickly, which is what I believe needs to happen.

So I am offer the following initial “Action Plan” steps to respond to these concerns:

Here are the “Take Back our City Action Plan” items that I believe would be a good starting point for the Council and Citizens group.

1. Immediately set 2 community meetings within the next 10-15 days to address their concerns & lay out a more formal Action Plan for Taking Our City Back.

2. Chief Bogart's overview, plan and suggestions for the process to work well with his Department (staffing, lead community officer, information, dedicated email & telephone line)

3. Have City Manager's administrative assistant compile a list (address, telephone #, email addresses) of the people who spoke at the Tuesday’s meeting and those people who signed the petition.

4. Contact all past retired NPR Police, Fire and Parks personnel to help volunteer or pay to work on our volunteer patrol

5. Have Doug Haag the Finance Director determine the remaining unspent money in the PD budget for 2013. Also, the amount of the revised Undesignated Reserve money that will come back into that fund on October 1. 2013.

6. Create a place on the Website for reporting concerns & immediate items (publish Pixel or Notice items)

7. Contact all of our City's volunteer board members to notify them of this meeting and that we need their help and support for a focused City approach to this issue.

8. Coordinate with the Recreation and Public Works Department immediate (Emergency) items to secure the public parking areas at all the City parks and the Overlook structure on Main Street. Discuss what other means of security we can put into place at Sims Park today.

There are many other items that need to be discussed, but I believe we need to act now with full involvement from the Community/Citizens in executing a visible plan to address many of these items.

Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you soon regarding this opportunity.

Sincerely,

Bill Phillips