With the city’s general fund tapped out and sporadic violence an
ongoing problem, police and the city council will turn to the
cash-replete Redevelopment Agency to ramp up crime prevention and
community policing in downtown Morgan Hill and outlying
neighborhoods.
With the city’s general fund tapped out and sporadic violence an ongoing problem, police and the city council will turn to the cash-replete Redevelopment Agency to ramp up crime prevention and community policing in downtown Morgan Hill and outlying neighborhoods.
The police department’s new, RDA-funded “community resource unit,” which is expected to be in effect this fall, will consolidate law enforcement duties that are currently spread out in the department. The unit’s intent is to more efficiently provide police services that discourage and eliminate property blight, while also reducing the need for residents and business owners to call the police, according to Morgan Hill police Cmdr. Joe Sampson.
The CRU will consist of two existing street-crimes detectives, the city’s only school resource officer, a part-time graffiti abatement officer and another full-time officer, Sampson said.
Among their duties will be working with local organizations such as the Downtown Association, nonprofits and property owners to facilitate communication with police; private property code enforcement; working with bars to help reduce problems associated with alcohol consumption; sharing information with other police and regulatory agencies; issuing licenses and conducting background checks for massage, taxi cab and live entertainment applicants; and the removal and enforcement of graffiti, Sampson said.
The new unit would also determine how to deal with new state laws, such as the potential legalization of marijuana if a ballot referendum passes in November, and a new state law regulating massage establishments.
“We want to make sure all the teammates are communicating with police, and with each other,” Sampson said. “Hopefully it will be a better response, and we will be able to track our successes better.”
Now and in recent years, Morgan Hill police have been responsible for most of the tasks to be taken on by the CRU, but they haven’t been as organized and packaged as they will be in the CRU. Issuing licenses, for example, is handled by a police secretary.
The primary purpose of the city’s RDA, as sanctioned by the state, is to revitalize neighborhoods by removing blight on public and private property, with the coordination of public agencies and property owners.
State laws dictating how RDA funds (local property tax revenues) can be spent are strict. The funds can only be spent to improve properties within the RDA boundary, which in Morgan Hill consists of downtown, plus commercial areas and neighborhoods to the north and south, up to Madrone Parkway and south past Tennant Avenue. It also includes Sobrato High School, neighborhoods in the area of Lacrosse Drive, as well as along Wright Avenue and Butterfield Boulevard.
Plus, the money can only be used to advance the RDA’s primary goals of blight removal and rejuvenation of struggling properties, city Manager Ed Tewes said. Funds cannot be shifted into the general fund to pay for regular municipal services.
For example, the RDA funded the construction of city recreation facilities on properties that were previously unused, and is working with Barry Swenson Builder to develop a $40-million mixed-use project and cinema on two downtown properties on Monterey Road.
RDA-funded tasks of the CRU will focus on the agency’s goals both directly – through the removal of graffiti and enforcement of property codes – and indirectly, through the prevention of crime.
Crime in the RDA area discourages new businesses from opening, leading to a lack of investment in vacant properties, leading to property neglect, destruction and blight, Tewes explained.
By improving the problem areas, the city could attract investors, thereby bringing in more revenues, Sampson added. Furthermore, a secondary goal of the RDA is the promotion of “quality of life.”
Some of the issues police commonly face in relation to blighted or vacant properties – inside and outside the RDA – are vandalism, drug dealers and users hanging out on street corners, late-night fighting and other drunken disturbances such as vomiting or urinating in unlit public areas, Sampson said. The city has even had a handful of recent incidents involving squatters in foreclosed homes.
Police already work with property owners and businesses. The street-crimes unit does foot patrols through downtown and walks through bars on weekend evenings to ensure they are complying with the conditions of their alcohol licenses, and to prevent patrons from causing trouble.
And the city works with the property managers of affordable housing complexes, including Murphy Ranch apartments near the intersection of Monterey Road and Butterfield Boulevard.
Murphy Ranch is considered a “hot spot” among Morgan Hill police – a neighborhood where multiple calls to police have originated in the last year. In 2009, Murphy Ranch accounted for about 131 calls to police.
Property manager Melissa Hernandez said she made most of those calls. She said the apartment complex does not seem to have a rampant crime problem, and most incidents are caused by tenants or their guests. For example, the owner recently evicted a family whose 11-year-old son was walking around the property at night breaking sprinklers with a hockey stick.
One way the property owner and the city work together is through monthly meetings with police, city staff and a number of affordable housing property managers, Hernandez said. Attendees at those meetings brainstorm for ideas on how to prevent crime and other problems on the properties.
Some of those ideas include ensuring the property management staff walk through the property regularly, making sure common areas are properly lit, and advising residents not to leave valuables in their cars. At Murphy Ranch, the property owners try to promote a mindset among residents that they should look out for each other, and let neighbors and managers know if they see anything suspicious, Hernandez said.
“I think a lot of it has to do with on-site management,” she said. “If people know there is on-site management, you earn that reputation that people can’t mess around there.”
Murphy Ranch also takes more proactive steps to protect the property, such as conducting background and credit checks on prospective tenants, offering after-school programs for young residents and free annual unlimited VTA passes to residents, Hernandez said.
The RDA’s biggest hot spot last year was the downtown corridor, where 505 police calls emanated. From 2004 to 2009, police responded to a total of 2,534 calls downtown.
This year, police have responded to at least two gravely violent incidents – a May 9 fight among several people that left one victim with a stab wound to his neck and another unconscious with a broken nose, and a May 29 shooting that injured a Gilroy man. Both incidents happened after dark on weekends, and in public areas along Monterey Road.
Utilizing RDA money to pay for partial police services is a way to compensate for some of the loss of services typically paid for through the general fund, police said. For fiscal year 2010-2011, which started July 1, about $500,000 of the police department’s $10.9-million budget will be financed by the RDA. That includes the CRU staff and resources, as well as half a records clerk position, Tewes said.
Last year, the RDA funded two officers and the half-clerk position.
Because of the city’s ongoing budget crunch that required about $2 million to be cut from this year’s budget, the police department eliminated two of three school resource officers from last year, leaving only one officer to assist students and faculty at all Morgan Hill public schools. The two officers who occupied those positions were reassigned to regular police patrol and investigation duties.
By the numbers
-20,617: Calls for police service to Morgan Hill RDA project area in 2009*
-505: Calls to downtown in 2009*
-2,534: calls downtown from 2004 to 2009*
-$500,000: amount RDA will fund of PD’s $10.9 million budget
*Does not include events, arrests or stops initiated by officers.
