Page 3 - The Friday Flyer ● JUNE 28, 2019

JUNE 28, 2019 THE FRIDAY FLYER A-3

The POA
Board of
Directors and
the Canyon
Lake City
Council meet
in the Holiday
Bay Room for
a joint meet-
ing to discuss
public safety.
PHOTO BY MACKENZIE DORE

Public safety is topic of POA, city joint meeting

The second joint meeting of the POA Board of Di- model for the remainder of the year. Under the “mu- Allied Universal works closely with the city police
rectors and the City Council took place at the lodge nicipal” staffing model, there is a captain on shift at department when needed for backup in emergencies,
on Monday evening. Present from the city were Mayor all times. Under the “non-municipal” staffing model, special events and major incidents.
Pro Tem Jordan Ehrenkrantz, Councilmembers Randy there is just one captain. When that captain is off shift, City Council members had the opportunity to add
Bonner, Kasey Castillo and Jeremy Smith, City Man- the next highest ranking person will be in charge of the comments. Mayor Pro Tem Ehrenkrantz said the city is
ager Chris Mann and Acting City Clerk Ana Saucedo. station. According to the city, this staffing change will working on issues pertaining to fire protection servic-
Present from the POA were President Dale Welty, save the city approximately $95,000 in the 2019/2020 es. Councilwoman Castillo reported work on the police
Treasurer Jeanne O’Dell, Secretary Chris Poland, Di- fiscal year. contract and issues, including having deputies in vis-
rector Jim Barringham, Director Tom Nathan, General Other options being discussed include a two-man ible places and not at the City Hall police station office.
Manager Eric Kazakoff, Assistant General Manager response, closing Station 60 and using AMR for medi- She stated that she has had a discussion with the city
Lyn Jensen, PIO and Clerk of the Board Harmony Mc- cal response, as well as contracting with other cities for attorney about potentially combining police and se-
Naughton and Member Services Director Cory Gor- fire response. Eighty to 85 percent of calls are medical. curity services. “Given government code regulations,
ham. State law requires a fire truck to respond first to all that’s not necessarily just something we can do,” said
The meeting began with a moment of silence for calls. the councilwoman. “We’ve talked about potentially
the wife of Canyon Lake Mayor Larry Greene, who is The POA owns the fire station. The city contracts looking at spot legislation to fix that because we are a
battling cancer, followed by the flag salute and public with the POA to lease the station for $1 a year. small community and we can’t take a one size fits all
comments. The city has contacted Murrieta, Hemet, Corona and approach the way other cities do with these contracts.”
Public comments began with EVMWD District One Calimesa with no real solutions at this time. A possibil- Councilman Smith has been having an open dialog
Director Darcy Burke, who discussed possible rate in- ity discussed is forming a Joint Powers Authority be- with AMR, the county’s emergency medical respond-
creases for water. There will be financial assistance for tween the city and the POA for fire and police services, ers. A possibility of a building near East Port Park for
those who are eligible. She also stated that residents including security. However, with this option, it could AMR to help cut down on response times was dis-
will be receiving the Water Quality report in their mail- take years to sort out the legalities and the agreement cussed. The rental income on the building would go to
boxes soon. would be very complex. The city is also looking at oth- the POA.
Other members talked about Marine Patrol, the dan- er cities in other counties that have different models. “Our goal is to get them inside the community and
gers of kids driving golf carts, the fire department, the On police matters, crimes in the city are low and to push forward the relationship also,” said Smith. He
“speedway” between Sparkle Dr. and Village Way Dr., Canyon Lake could perhaps share a second deputy suggested that a couple of board members and AMR
no new taxes from the Riverside County Flood Con- with another city, start a robust volunteer program, or discuss this possibility of a building inside Canyon
trol and Conservation District, Canyon Lake’s zip code contract with another city instead of RSO. The city has Lake.
shared with Quail Valley and Sun City, getting RSO contacted Menifee, Wildomar, Murrieta, and Hemet, The county, not the city, pays for AMR services. If
to publish what is going on in the community, noise with no real interest at this time. the city enters into a separate contract with AMR, the
on the lake by the main causeway, and managing and The city is also looking at ways to increase revenue. city would have to pay.
solving the issues with CALFire. These options include increasing the UUT, a Special POA President Welty reaffirmed the POA Board’s
The city manager gave a presentation on the city’s Tax, a Parcel Tax, economic development and the willingness to work with the city. Director Welty and
financial position and cost increase in the last six years BLM land. Director Nathan will serve as POA liaisons to the city.
for police and fire services. The presentation outlined POA Member Services Director Cory Gorham gave Director Poland stated that’s he would like to know
what Canyon Lake receives in services from each a presentation on Allied Universal, the POA’s security how Canyon Lake compares in terms of police and fire
agency. provider, and outlined the services provided, such as protection to other communities of the same size. “Is
According to the city, the amount the county has gate attendants, dispatch, supervisors, guest call-in, everybody having the same problem being able to af-
charged the city for providing fire protection and emer- traffic violations, rules violations and special events. ford their police and fire?” he asked.
gency medical services has risen approximately 79 The contract has gone from $2,133,623 in 2017- Director Poland also stated that he would like to see
percent since 2014. City revenues, while also growing, 2018, to $2,445,915 in 2019-2020. Bill Jordan, Can- the construction permit process streamlined.
have not been able to keep pace. These drastic increas- yon Lake’s Allied Universal manager, explained the Director O’Dell mentioned that Lake Elsinore is ag-
es have thrown the city’s budget into a structural defi- number of employees and hours of service at various gressively moving the homeless and some of that ac-
cit. If not corrected, the city’s budget deficit of nearly positions. Recently, the POA has returned the captain tion impacts Canyon Lake. “I think the POA and the
$670,000 will quickly eat away at its General Fund re- of Marine Patrol to a POA position from Allied Univer- city need to begin to work together as to how we’re go-
serves, estimated at $3.7 million. As the current budget sal to assure a better knowledge of the lake. ing to be able to address some of that,” said O’dell. “I
situation is not sustainable, the City Council and city A software program called HeliAUS tracks all em- think that would be a great topic for a future meeting.”
staff are in the process of evaluating potential options. ployees, including their location and what they are The city and the POA agreed to joint meetings four
To save money, the city plans to maintain a “munici- working on. These employees have a red cell phone to times a year. There was talk of increasing the number
pal” staffing model at the fire station through August communicate with headquarters. The software maps a of joint meetings as necessary.
2019 and then switch to a “non-municipal” staffing 24-hour period and provides an accountability graph. The meeting was adjourned at 7:49 p.m.

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