HomeMy WebLinkAbout121207 task force meeting notes
Prior Lake Area Community Safety Task Force Meeting Notes
December 12, 2007
Minutes Approved January 16, 2008
1. Welcome by Bill O’Rourke, Police Chief, at 4 p.m.
2. O’Rourke – this effort did not start in August with the notification that a Level III
Offen der was moving into the area, rather with the 2030 Vision and Strategic Planning
meeting in February 2007. The community task force is part of a concerted effort in
Prior Lake to be a Safe and Healthy Community. Introduced Mayor Jack Haugen.
3. Mayor Hauge n - r eaffirmed the 2030 Vision and referred to page 12 listing the Safe and
Healthy Community Vision Element. Recited the five - year and two - year objectives and
reviewed a number of them. Asked that the Task Force look at all elements of
community, not ju st one segment : seniors, kids, all kinds of issues are important.
Recited some of the exposures that we have. Invited the Task Force to be comprehensive
and inventive in its work. Have introduced the concept of a community task force to
other cities in SCALE. Thanked everyone for their participation. Introduced Council
members Chad LeMair and Ken Hedberg. Wished the Task Force happy holidays.
4. O’Rourke - passed around the membership roster and asked everyone to update the
information and check off by their name to show who is present.
5. O’Rourke – t hin gs we want to do is to find the primary areas where Task Force members
believe improvements could be made. Encouraged people to broaden their horizons.
Asked each person to introduce self , why they are here and the most critical safety issue .
Woody Spitzmueller – motivate by youth issues, jet ski and high powered boat issues,
working with seniors and identity theft.
Sandee Wright – Level III proposed to mov e to her block, interested in improving
communic ation and awareness especially for home educators. Want s to be sure the
whole community is notified. Also, how do we keep neighborhoods talking to each other
through the Neighborhood Watch program ?
Terese McCoy – problems with alcoholism. Also responsib le for people coming out of
prison – recidivism increases if they do not go to safe homes. Need to get people out of
institutions and back into community in safe, supportive surroundings .
Pat Ciliberto – greatest threat from a crime standpoint is people i n our county under the
influence of drugs or alcohol and driving. How do we get a grip on kids using drugs and
alcohol?
Scott Johnson – DARE officer – drug and alcohol problems are good to atta c k.
Concerned about school shootings. Need to get more train ing in being aware of and in
dealing with prevention of such situations.
Maureen O’Hehir – remembered back to Level III notification – people reacted that the
Police Department was doing nothing when for years she has been teaching kids how to
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fight back from abduction. Most offenders will not pick up victim off the street, but
instead a relationship is established via Internet. Ongoing drug and alcohol issues
shouldn’t be focused just on kids, but on all people.
Randy Geister – 10,000 kids participate i n P.L.A.Y. sports throughout the year. Want to
assu re there is protection f or kids until parents get there to pick them up. How can we
assu r e that parents recognize the issues ? Do background checks. People without a child
in the program should be able to find a volunteer spot, but maybe not with kids. Safety
focus on equipment as well . They are turning it over every five years.
Ken Hedberg – priorities: 1) youth issues – sexual offenses and predatory offenders as
well as drug and alcohol abuse; 2) act ive neighborhoods – some are and we want to
increase that number as it will be a healthier city with stronger neighborhoods; 3) crisis
notification - how do we get the word out, other cities have done a better job. We also
need to focus on implementation and upon ongoing safe governance.
Barb Marschall – talks with her kids about accidents , drugs and alcohol. Her k ids see the
problems every day and it bothers her that many kids are becoming hardened to it
because they see it so often. Trends in health suc h as various flu or colds are also areas
of safety concern .
Mary Haugen – deals with hundreds of kids yearly. Kids were high in the 1970s as well
as now. Believes the problems have been here for decades. Wants to identify top
priorities, say five, for us to focus on, implement them and then get to the next goal. Full
time parents are no longer usual and they can end up having the kids we talk about as
problems as well .
Sheri Boyer - Jacobs – very concerned about well being of our students. Meth use, ecs tasy
and other drug s. Some concerns are buy - in of the entire community. Families letting
k ids drink. What can we do to en courage more reporting by residents of parents who do
this? Has spent some time on the 2004 survey. The 2007 data will be out in t he next
month and a half. Reported chemical use is down in several areas. Stats are not yet
acceptable. There are concerns about ninth grade girls, self harms, sex, poor self image.
Also working on truancy, suicide, sexual activity and unsafe choices. Also concerned
about h ow kids use their time – they rarely read.
K itt y Merrill – neighbor and long time resident. D aughters were in schools in the mid
80s . She know s what’s going on in the neighborhood/community. Has neighborhood
watch but it needs to b e updated in her neighborhood. Things have changed in the
neighborhood. The “B roken Windows” conce pt is at work. Concerned about drugs,
safety and dangerous dogs moved in next door. Fe els her life threatened . The dog has
lunged at her , and her husband , three times a s documented by police records a nd bitten a
neighbor . Has gone to City Council. State statute prohibits banning dogs by breed.
House next door is in foreclosure. No idea if dog is gone. Is ready to leave. City has
helped but something else needs to happen to get a handle on this. Would like to see
Prior Lake get a handle on dangerous dogs.
Susan Hadley – focus is domestic violence. Established a national program in 1986. Is a
b oard member for Safe Haven and Southern Valley Alliance. Focus in doctorate program
has been sexual offenders.
LeAnn Jorgenson – PL Soccer Club – she is here to be sure we set things up for safety for
soccer participants and families .
Lea Latour – here on behalf of Jim Muelken.
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Greg Hays – here on behalf of Jim Muelken. SMSC wants to keep strengthening ties
with the community. Also see that many of p roblems which exist in the SMSC also exist
in Prior Lake so helping one can help the other.
Bryan Fleming – school administrator. Passion is education. Theme for him is working
with families and kids to link with resources and support to find out what is going on in
the family unit to see what values exist.
Chad LeMair – passion about the sexual predator issue. Still concerned about sexual
predators and residenti al restrictions. Would like us to focus on changing the laws
having to do with sexual predators. Should they be able to move anywhere after serving
their sentence ? Also concerned about gang activities in adjacent communities. Also
concerned about meth users and behaviors/crimes associated with it. Wants to work on
what we do to protect ourselves and families from such things.
Kyle Haugen – from a DARE perspective trying to give strategies and focusing on
abstinence from usage . Wants to be able to fee l safe at home with the door locked or
when he is not home or in public.
Tim Bell – wants to be sure we educate for prevention to help reduce the incidence of
what we talked about as we went around the room. Is a new resident, but wants us to use
the vill age philosophy. It takes the village to raise the village – be there for each other.
Working together.
Jeff Peer – giant step forward with the lights as Fish Point and CR 21 – applauds Council.
As a rep of the P rior Lake - Savage Hockey Association he is concerned about premise
issues. Concerns about Lakefront Park, about people snatching purses from cars or
people going into garages. Has seen the damage broken families can do from his foster
care experience.
Betsy Jader – main reason for being here is i n 1995 , Grant Hassy , her best friend’s son
was killed in the Shakopee river bottoms. The murderer committed suicide. A
foundation was formed to try to prevent youth sexual abuse and abduction. Long term
goal is to develop policies and procedures for imp lementation by businesses and to
educate people around children.
Gina Loch – concerned about drugs and alcohol, also tobacco use and the general lack of
exercise.
Janine Alcorn – concerned about risky behaviors our children are involved in. We have
an opp ortunity for all of us to get on the same page so we can back each other up and
reinforce the same message. Need to be aware of what’s happening in drugs, violence
and gangs. Sees this as a great opportunity.
Amy Donaldson – represents Playworks. Her ro le is to assure kids are safe. Starts with
making sure the people who are hired are backgrounded. Concerned about drugs in the
community. Also concerned about driving. Kids are thrown into driving and parents are
supposed to go with them as driving tra iner.
Judy Anderson – can take advantage of the global perspective and can take that
information back to the county. Wants the village to be active in implementing the ideas
that come out of here this task force.
Peggy Johnson – fraud prevention, identit y theft and pandemic. Also c oncerned as a
mom and parent. People need to remember to lock cars, close garage doors because
things can happen.
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Ron Nicholas – works within a group of people who are a community within a
community. Each is affected by the o ther. As a church community we talk about the
standards that our behavior is based upon. Golden rule is the guide.
John Vaughn – the religious community must be involved. Our Christian day school
requires safety measures, now they see to locks, safety c ameras and the like. The
understanding used to be the safest place in the city is the church. Not any more. Wants
to represent and share with the entire religious community.
Jim Petersen – each of us has our own part. A member of the Prior Lake Ski Cl ub, also
Lions and Rotary. He represents these bodies that have contact with kids. Also a bus
driver. We are all touching base in different places and he is happy to part of it.
6. O’Rourke - t hanked everyone. Talked about the relationship with Nancy Sab in and how
we sh ould create a task force to work together. The synergy is better than the sum of the
parts. Everyone in the room is doing something to promote safety, but we don’t know it.
Cops have been doing things for years as have the schools, count y, athletic associations.
Our hope is that we identify both the issues and then can share the information with one
another and that should be one of the biggest benefits. We need to get the adult buy - in.
“The kids just don’t have anything to do” is the reason that everything happens. Seems
the theory is idle hands and minds. Need to put out the message. We need to start with
our kids and being the role model for them to watch for things as simple as wearing seat
belts and not being a preoccupied driv er.
7. O’Rourke - w ould like to clean up our notes and distribute them b efore the next meeting.
Also want to share information with each other. City Council will discuss.
8. Next meeting – tentatively will schedule for the second week in January to meet en masse
to identify issues for us to broaden out.
9. January 7 – presentation by Dr. David Walsh @ PL High School from 7 – 8:30 p.m.
Inservice for administrators 5 – 6:30 p.m. The presentation is entitled, “ NO – Why Kids
Need to Hear it and How Parents Can S ay It. ” A copy of the DVD is available for $250 .
10. The task force adjourned at 5:20 p.m.
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