Whats going on this week on the council is pretty much limited to a general government committee on Monday and then a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday. Be there or be square.

I encourage everyone to attend the town hall meeting on Thursday. It looks to be a hoot. And, since the city is planning on having these at regular intervals, its best to get one under your belt before you really have something to bitch about.

The GG committee will meet on two topics, the downtown walking patrol, and something, I kid you not, called "Social Behaviors and Perceived or Real Issues of Public Safety in Downtown Olympia."

The crux of the downtown walking patrol is that while arrests are up 30 percent since 2004 calls for service are down 30 percent. This indicates (to me and the person who wrote the report) that the officers are being a tad less back on their heals about things.

The report ends with a very good point:

Enforcement is good at what it is designed to do – addressing crime problems. However, the issue behind some of the perception of safety problem in the Downtown is anti-social behavior, not crime. For that reason, enforcement (i.e., policing) alone is not going to resolve the Downtown perception of safety problem.

The community may choose to look at other resources that are designed and equipped to address social issues (e.g., mental health, substance abuse, employment, medical, housing services) for effective approaches to the perception of safety problem.

Being a jerk in not illegal, and cops aren't going to arrest you just for being mean.

The other topic for the GG committee this week is to discuss a memo written by councilmembers Doug Mah and Jeff Kingsbury that advocates a handful of ordinances that will clean up the perception of downtown being an unsafe place.

• A boot and tow law for unregistered vehicles.
• Mandatory minimum sentances for some sorts of lesser offenses, so the more times you get arrested for doing them, the time you spend in the pokey goes up.
• A no sidewalk sitting rule.
• And a couple of pandhandling rules that would apply to either a zone around an ATM or a particular geographic area.

I attached the two councilmembers memo below.

Attachment	Size
G_SocialBehaviorsATT.pdf	356.68 KB