April 10, 2010 Meeting Summary

Agenda Items:
Preparation
Attendees
Meeting

Preparation

E-mail reminder was sent.

Attendees

5 members

Meeting

Agenda Items:

The meeting began around 11:25 am

  • Summary of Police community meeting for Council District 4
    • This meeting took place at Pasadena High School on March 25.  There were lots of police officers and explorers there.  Turnout of citizens was more then most community meetings, but not a large number.
    • Lt Tom Delgado was introduced.  A 27 year veteran, he is the fairly new watch commander for the police department’s East Service Area.  That is an area which is basically east of Altadena Drive.
    • The police chief and other top level officers also spoke.
    • They described how they have recently changed policy to make patrol a priority and to try to keep each officer serving the same neighborhood for at least a year.
    • They have changed the schedules so each officer works patrol three days a week for 12 hours a day.  That leaves 10 hours a month for use in training and community outreach.  Training as part of the regular schedule will save on overtime.  But they say the overtime funds saved will be reinvested back into having officers work on particular problems in their service area.
    • They introduced about 12 officers currently working the area.  There are about 18 total.  At any given time there are now twoor three officers on duty for the area.  The slow time is 2 am to 7 am.  There are two additional city wide teams plus detectives.
    • They showed statistics that crime is down in Pasadena over recent years, except burglary is up 9%.  Also Pasadena solves crimes at a higher rate then the national average, except for burglaries.  This was attributed to detectives being given the resources to solve crimes.  In this area the crime rate is low compared to many other parts of Pasadena.  Burglary is the worse problem.
    • There have been a lot of auto thefts and burglaries in recent months.  The police are reminding everyone to not leave anything visible of value (or that looks like it could have value or be hiding something) in their car. And to lock it, and set the alarm (if you have one).  And report any crimes or suspicious activities immediately.
    • As for burglaries, it was noted that if you are home when someone rings your bell or knocks on your door, even if you have no intention of talking to them you should make noise they can hear so they know someone is home and not think it is a good target for burglary.  They also suggest not opening the door to anyone you don’t know or aren’t expecting.  And call the police about anyone that seems suspicious.
    • In response to questions, they said to call them about people going through the trash.  Raiding the recycle bins is a crime.  They won’t always be able to come, but will if they can.
    • There has been increasing incidents of mail and deliveries being stolen.  Get a locking box and put outgoing mail in official postal boxes.  If there is a theft, they said to report it to Pasadena Police as well as postmaster – that PPD has more capacity to investigate because the postmaster is completely overwhelmed.  Also if you find opened packages where they shouldn’t be, don’t touch them and call the police.
    • Recommended programming the Pasadena PD non-emergency phone number 626 744-4241 into your cell phone.  Said that it is often much faster to call it even in an emergency because 911 dialed from cell phones goes to the statewide CHP response and they are totally overwhelmed.  The Pasadena PD dispatcher will re-direct your call to the appropriate agency if needed.
    • They said prostitution in East Pasadena (eg Colorado Blvd) is much reduced.  Special enforcement section has been aggressively enforcing.  Just 6 calls in last 3 months.
    • They talked about their e-policing initiative.  They are hoping to provide more timely and accurate information to the public then what typically occurs with rumors.  Reports to state and FBI are only once a month and only for “part 1 crimes”.  Data on service calls are being uploaded to crimemapping.com every day.  For privacy reasons, the crimemapping.com location data is offset by 40′ on the street and only localized to the nearest 100 block.   There was concern expressed by an East Colorado hotel owner that people might see crime icons nearby and not think the area is safe.
    • Anyone interested in setting up a Neighborhood Watch program for their immediate neighborhood (usually a block at most) is encouraged to contact police specialist Laura Morris at 626 744-7657.
  • PLEAS Emergency Notification System Registration
    • PLEAS stands for Pasadena Local Emergency Alert System.
    • It will automatically call all households and businesses within specific areas during or after a disaster or emergency.  PLEAS messages are emergency notifications or time-critical safety alerts.
    • PLEAS is part of disaster response and is not related to NIXLE (which is more for press releases).
    • The Pasadena Fire Department is requesting that people “self-register” their contact information with the PLEAS system.
    • The city already has traditional land line phone numbers in the PLEAS system, but you have to self-register cell phone numbers, voice-over-internet phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.
      • Detailed information and links to self-registration can be found here: http://cityofpasadena.net/Fire/PLEAS
      • The self registration form requires input of at least name, address, at least one phone number, and at least one e-mail address. It says the e-mail address becomes an account login user name.  (Apparently you are setting up an online account where you can log in and change your information in the future.)  You can checkmark on a list of notification types: Fire Alerts, Police ResidentialAlerts, Police Business Alerts, Public Health Alerts, Unplanned Utility Outage Alerts, Red Flag Parking Restrictions.
    • They are also asking you to put the phone number (626) 405-2358 into phone contact lists so you will recognize when you are getting a call from PLEAS.  And the e-mail address [email protected] into address books so its messages won’t be filtered out as spam.
    • When it has a notification to deliver, the system is supposed to “know whether or not the message has been delivered to a person, recorded to voicemail, or was not delivered due to a telephone system error.  The system will continue to attempt to deliver its message until the message is successfully delivered to a person, or until the message expires.”  To believe that you got the message, it requires you to answer the phone, say “Hello”, press a numeric key, listen to the entire message, follow any instructions, and wait for it to say “Goodbye”.
    • They are also recommending registering with LA County’s similar system at http://www.lacounty.gov/emergency/alert-la/
  • Alameda speed hump installation delayed
    • Our neighbor Kim says she has been told that the city “ran out of money” and therefore installation of the speed humps on Alameda will be delayed until sometime after they solicit bids and approve a contract forthe next fiscal year starting in July.
  • Property of former strip club on East Foothill sold
    • According to a blog article published online by the LA Times
    • The property that used to be a strip club at 3570-72 Foothill Blvd (across the street from Ralphs shopping center) has been sold to “a real estate investment firm based in Pasadena and controlled by Pasadena businessman Steve Schultz”.
    • It says he owns many other commercial properties in Pasadena and hopes to convert the building into medical or other offices or possibly a store.
  • City proposing to lease land at Sierra Madre and Washington Blvds?
    • The City Council is meeting with County Supervisor Michael Antonovitch on April 15 and one of the agenda items is described by the weekly Neighborhood Connections community e-mail as follows:
      • proposed lease of county land at Washington Boulevard and Sierra Madre Boulevard to expand local community recreation facilities and increase access to quality, affordable, youth-oriented recreational opportunities, as well as proposed development of new multipurpose fields
    • No additional information has been made available yet.
  • anything else attendees wish to discuss
    • utility discount for low income users
      • One of our seniors reported she now receives a significant and very helpful discount on her Pasadena Water and Power bill. She said the process was easy and recommends it to those who qualify. She called the number on an insert in a recent bill, made an appointment, and then took the documentation they requested with her.
      • The qualifying income levels were raised last year. There is also a non-income qualified discount for users of electricity hog medical equipment.
      • See the PWP web page for details: http://cityofpasadena.net/waterandpower/CARE/

Next meeting is May 8, 2010, 11:15 am, at Hastings Branch Library

Adjourned about 12:30 pm