Oakwatch: The Oakland Code Enforcement Project Minutes March 15, 2017 Present: John Fournier, Elana Zaitsoff, Bob Kollar, Janice Markowitz, Lizabeth Gray, Mark Oleniacz, Alicia Carberry, Kathy Chintam, Ernest Rajakone, Marjory Lake, Rebekkah Ranallo, Arlind Karpuzi, Pitt SGB, John Wilds, Pitt CGR, Millie Sass, Blithe Runsdorf, Michael Medwed, John Hamilton, Evan Bowen-Gaddy, Viola Garis, Sophie Koss, Officer Nick Black, Officer David Calamosca, Daniel Herrmann, Ron Griffin, David Shifren, Jeffrey Barone, Joann Cohen , John Tokarski, Kannu Sahni, Guy Johnson, Heather Camp, JOHN FOURNIER, PITTSBURGH PARKING AUTHORITY Q: Who is handling Area E surveys? Residents haven’t heard back. A: I’ll work with Andrew Dash and Neil Manganaro to figure out what’s going on. Andrew Dash is point person on this right now. Q: Area E requested a change in hours for non-resident parking from one hour to 3O minutes and for change of enforcement hours. The area is up for recertification and there was also a question of a survey that never occurred. Addition request is for a change in the renewal schedule. Students are buying permits in July then moving out of the permit area but continuing to park there. Suggested lessening the grace period, evening enforcement and change of calendar year. Alicia asked OPDC to share notes from the COR parking subcommittee meeting from last year with John Fournier to catch him up on past conversations. Q: Why are three permits issued per household? Seems too many for our dense blocks. A: We’ll issue up to three permits per household for unrelated and more for people who are related. Q: How will new sticker-less system work? A: Several reasons we’re going paperless. Having to come downtown or mail applications is inefficient. Creating online portal so people can purchase permits online. We will still accept walk-ins and mail-in purchases. Very active black market for RPPP permits and visitor permits. All permits connected to license plates and therefore can’t be passed around car to car. In regards to people concerned about transparency for residents, we feel benefit of eliminating black market outweighs the benefit of residents being able to police cars. New hardware system, new vendor and seven fully functional RPL vehicles will be in place by the end of this year to cover much more ground than in past. We are looking at 25 enforcement officers out at a time enforcing 10,000 spots, Monday through Saturday with a total of 40 on staff. Trying to make their jobs easier by making these improvements. Without RPL system everything takes much longer and is less efficient.
Q: What do we do now in place of visitor passes? Permit holder goes online and enters license plate number for visitor. Folks without computer access can call the visitor in. Q: Savings seems pittance compared to cost for residents in neighborhoods with major enforcement issues like Oakland. A: We are saving $30k a year by eliminating stickers. Significant. I do think you’ll see this new system will benefit your neighborhood. Q: When is this all effective? A: Will roll out RPP district by district as they expire. Starting with May 2017 expirations. Q: Regarding street cleaning, can we do a better job of alerting people when to move cars? Q: Could Pitt send out university wide email to students reminding them? A: Pitt’s Kannu Sahni says they can try to push things out via social media at least. A: Reminder to sign up for reminders on www.pgh.st which will soon push out street cleaning reminders in addition to trash reminders. COMMANDER HERRMANN, OFFICER SHIFREN, ZONE 4 POLICE REPORT Officer Pauley has moved on to another assignment. Officer Barone will take Pauley’s responsibilities handling 311 issues. Residents thanked Officer Pauley for his great work in our neighborhood. He was always quick to respond to issues. Reminder that Zone 4 Public Safety Council meeting is held the third Thursday of every month. You can connect with other neighborhoods in zone about common issues. This week’s meeting will be a great training on what to do if there’s an active shooter. February was a quieter month in general with most numbers down:15 non-traffic citations issued: 10 Underage drinking 5 Disorderly conduct 4 Public drunkenness 3 Open containers 1 Public urination OFFICER JOHNSON, PITT POLICE UPDATES Apologized for missing Feb meeting and gave both Jan and Feb updates: 17 parties shut down in January via impact detail 41 citations sent to Judicial Board; most alcohol or drug related: 1 arson 3 disorderly conducts 2 aggravated assaults 5 disorderly for marijuana 2 arrest for DUI
1 false ID arrest 1 open container citation 1 panhandling citation 4 public drunken citations 1 public urination citation 16 underage drinking citations 3 warrant arrests 22 parties shutdown in Feb. via impact detail Q: State police have visited 3746 Dawson that has huge parties 300 kids. Repeatedly a nuisance property every year; reported to police on numerous occasions. Owned by Peter Teris. Q: Are issues expected this weekend because of St Patrick’s day? A: We’re anticipating most issues in South Side but will be proactive in Oakland. JOHN TOKARSKI, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY April 19th city wide public meeting. Hosted by several public safety councils. Starts at 6:30 includes dinner. Will be held at JCC Katz Auditorium. Focus will be heroin epidemic. Q: Is law enforcement doing anything for child abuse awareness month in April? Direct correlation between this and drug epidemics. MARIA BETHEL, DISRUPTIVE PROPERTIES – Liz gave report 1 –disorderly conduct and drug possession 2 - disorderly conduct-noise JULIA REILAND, PLI – Liz gave report 3224 Blvd of Allies at PLI Public hearing: owner appealing on condemnation order on 3/21/17. 3109 Niagara re-inspection 4/17/17. Discussion on how to ensure we are helping neighbors in need. Many resources available. Many in room expressed willingness to volunteer their time for cases where elderly or disabled homeowners need help. 3421 Parkview at housing court 4/6/17. 244 Dunseith, 3221 Kennett and 306 Ophelia no updates/changes at this time. 3216, etc. Fifth Ave. [Portal project on Fifth Avenue] at housing court on 4/6/17. Previous mail service has been returned and new mail service has been filed buy PLI. 386 Lawn failed their second inspection; third re-inspection 3/15/17. 3514-3518 Frazier : decision pending from ZBA re variance requests. 333 Atwood building construction: no new work since September 2O16.
3400 block of Bates Street row houses [Oakland Gateway Ventures] returned to list; new tickets filed for trash and graffiti. PITT COMMUNITY AND GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS Safety Fair on campus was good interaction with students. Upcoming alcohol education conference in Gettysburg. Pitt Police are presenting. ERNEST RAJAKONE, MAYORS OFFICE Inclusive Innovation Week coming up, lots of events including helping seniors use technology, etc. Collecting repaving priorities from Liz, please send issues to Liz and she’ll get them to me. CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 8 Alicia: Students ages 13-16 youth participatory budget council, a Councilman Corey O’Connor initiative. Application on city website. Construction updates in North Oakland: CMU building new building next to Tepper Quad building on Forbes past South Craig. Empire Building on Center will open summer 2018. Also on Centre Ave, Mitchell’s Colonade Building going to Planning Commission and Nathan Hart is presenting to BCI next week. City is getting a Dept. of Mobility and Infrastructure after Council approves it. Neil could not attend but reminds constituents to call office if anything is needed. PITT STUDENT GOVERNMENT BOARD Arlind: Co-hosted safety fair at Pitt Union with Public Safety, Res Life and CGR. Great turnout. Working closely with It’s On Us campaign started by former VP Joe Biden to spread awareness about sexual assault awareness. Display of shirts made by students coming up in April, details TBA. We sent students with Pitt Serves to Ecuador to help kids in need. ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS Oakland Town Hall next Wednesday. Saturday March 25th NeighborWorks doing homebuyer workshop. Zone 4 Public Safety Council tomorrow, March 16, at JCC, 6PM. ALLEGHENY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT REPORT Not in attendance. MEETING ADJOURNED