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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-01-11; City Council; N/A; Proposal to Purchase Helicopter for ASTREADecember 30, ·t 982 TO: Frank Aleshire, City Manager ,k\,.- FROM: Vincent Jimno, Chief of Police~ PROPOSAL TO PURCHASE A HELICOPTER FOR ASTREA Recommendation ,r"";°3·~ ~r 1 1 l '--31 I would be favorable to the City of Carlsbad contributing on a per capita basis to fund the purchase of a replacement helicopter for the Sheriff's department at this time. I have some concern regarding the' financial shift of responsibilities from the county to the cities; however, I fe~l the benefits justify the expendit.ur~. There are two concerns I would have. The first, from which account are the funds to be utilized. Do we look for it within the current police oudget or is this an exceptional expense that we should look elsewhere for the funds. And secondly, are we agreeing to a precedent setting proposal which will lead to other similar proposals for other items. Background Currently, the Sheriff's department has a total of seven helicopters and five heli- copter flight crews. Routinely, they attempt to keep two helicopters in the air for two shifts a day which constitutes a majority of the flyable time during a normal work day. The helicopters are assigned to general areas with some overlapping. One works in the southern half of the county and the other in the northern half. Per- centage wise, cities receive more service than the unincorporated or Sheriff's juris- di<:tion. The bulk of the service delivered has been to the City of San Diego as it is the largest population base within the county. Thare is a little question that the helicopters currently operated by ASTREA are old and becoming more difficult to maintain. Mechanics who operate the repair facility indicate that they have difficulty finding parts to keep at least two of them in the air at any given time. It is unknown at this time how the Sheriff would utilize or assign a new helicopter; however, an additional helicopter, especially a jet heli- copter, would have a significant impact upon the Sheriff's ability t•::> respond to the needs of the individual cities. A jet helicopter would be able to respond more quickly to any portion of the county than the current older model helicopter. ASTR~A provides a number of services to both police and fire officials in the county. It is extremely difficult to measure what benefits the city has actually received from the ASTREA program; however, during the past year (1982), ASTREA responded to 65 calls for services from Carlsbad, logging 52 hours at a cost of $6500. This doe~ noc include unrequested normal surveillance while in transit. I feel that it is a type of pro- gram that has allowed great flexibility and tremendous benefit to the City of Carlsbad in the past. ASTREA has assisted the police department during a number of ways during the past year. These assists ir.cluded the motorcycle problem in the outlying areas in locating individuals who are injured in the uninhabited portion of the city, assist- ing fire officials in pinpointing hot spots and deployment of fire personnul from an aerial platform, assisting police personnel during a pursuit, as well as many j \ ,., ~ other similar types of operations. ASTREA has at times located criminal offenses that are difficult to detect from the surface areas. One of the major benefits of ASTREA is the ability to track movements of suspects from the air while waiting for an adequate number of police units to take control of the area. It is an excellent tool in tracking a person trying to escape police units on the land surface through back yards, gullies, canals, etc. The potential of an aerial platform is unlimited. This is especially true during rescue and disaster operations. One of the continual complaints that we 1 ve noted in the past is the current aircraft is unable to perform adequately during rescue operations and if a proper type of air- craft were provided, a number of rescue operations could be accomplished more safely. This would include such places as the areas that our police and fire personnel have had difficulty in rescuing peop·1 e who have been injured in the eastern portion of the city and the inassessab1e valleys and gullies. COUNCIL ACTION: 1-11-83 Council approved the program in concept. I I _j MARY SHEPARDSON, Mayor LINDA ORAVEC, Deputy Mayor BOB EMERY, Councilmcmber BRUCE TARZY, Councilmcmbcr CARL KRUSE, Counc1lmcmbcr December 21, 1982 Ms. Harriet Stockwell Chairwoman San Diego Association of Governments Suite 524, Security Pacific Plaza 1200 Third Avenue San Diego, California 92101 Dear Chairwoman Stockwell: During the past year, virtually every City in San Diego County has received direct benefit from the San Diego County Sheriff's Office ASTREA program. It is well known that from both age and utility perspectives, the current aircraft are in dire need of replacement. The Poway City Council has for- mally endorsed the fund raising effo-rts of the ASTRID\ Group, a private group, and Proposition A which appeared on the November ballot. Although Proposition A received a majority voter approval, it fell sliqhtly short of the two-thirds vote necessary in order to place the one-time assessment of $3.25 per resi- dent on the tax rolls. In recognition of the desirability to have at least one helicopter that can be operational under virtually all conditions in San Diego County, the Poway City Council through Councilmember Bob Emery, is requesting the member cities of SANDAG to consider funding the purchase of a new helicopter. As3uming that the helicopter would cost $300,000, the city per capita assessment for member cities would be approximately $.20, based on 1980 census data. In order to provide momentum for this proposal, the Poway City Council is pre- pared to commit $7,400 as our proportional share of this cost. Although each of us is facing many unanswered fiscal problems at this time, I think that the benefits derived from ASTREA would greatly exceed the cost of the aircraft. On behalf of the Poway City Council, I respectfully request that this proposal be discussed by the members of the SANDAG Board of Directors at your earliest convenience. Mary Sh MS:lf cc: San Diego County Sheriff chairman and Members of the Board of Supervisors SANDAG Member Cities Members of the Poway City Council City Hall Located at 13325 Civic Center Drive Mailing Address: P.O. Box 785, Poway, California 92064 • (619) 748-6600, (619) 695-1400