Agenda Item #13 Postponed: Daily Bulletin Story

Here's a link to the Daily Bulletin's story about last night's Council decision to postpone discussion of outsourcing public safety.

Agenda Item #13 Postponed

Intent on supporting our police and fire departments, we headed downtown this evening to attend the City Council meeting. The turn out was very impressive. Every seat in the hall filled. The foyer bursting with people watching the proceedings on a TV. Lots of people on the stairs. Others milling about on the cement in front of the building.

Shortly after the open portion of the meeting began, the Council opted to "continue" (read: postpone) discussion of Agenda Item #13, which concerned the possible outsourcing of policing and fire fighting.

As people poured out of the hall, I listened in on reactions. Sentiments seemed split. Some thought the postponement was a good thing, feeling it signaled the Council's desire to do more thinking about the issue before proceeding.

Others thought the postponement signaled a desire to chink the armor of support. These individuals thought the Council postponed in hopes fewer people would show up for the April 19th discussion.

Given residents didn't have a chance to share their views on this issue at this evening's meeting, feel free to sound off here. I know at least some members of the Council read this and other Pomona blogs. So, here's a chance to let 'em know what you think.

What gives?

On the off-chance any Pomonawatch readers do not also read the M-M-M-My Pomona blog, I'd like to draw your attention to John Clifford's post about the upcoming City Council discussion about outsourcing policing efforts.

Gun Play

I meandered over to the park late this afternoon to enjoy a little fresh air. Four youngsters, perhaps 10 years of age, sat on the side-by-side slides loading hard plastic pellets into their orange-tipped -- though nevertheless real-looking -- toy guns.

I asked the boys if they planned to shoot their toy guns in the park. They said no. I told them I was glad to hear that because the hard pellets could really hurt someone if they went into an eye.

One of the youngsters then said, "If someone does a drive-by, we're going to shoot them back."

Ugh. I've got such a pit in my stomach over this comment. The park isn't a dangerous place, but clearly this kiddo is tuned in enough to the possibility of gang violence that he -- and his friends -- have incorporated that reality into their play.

I saw the kids again a couple minutes later, but didn't see their guns. I can't help but think they may have hidden their "pieces" in their waist bands.

I'm not sure if I should chalk this up to acting vigilante, posing gangsta, or mere play. I'm also curious to know if there are any laws or even recommendations about using toy guns in public areas. It sure seems like the kind of thing that could scare other kids and parents from the park.

What numbers do you have available on your cell phone?

This weekend I engaged in our biannual tradition of updating the ol' earthquake kits (yes, plural -- home, office, car). It's something I do with each time change, right after I check the smoke detector batteries.

This "spring forward" I added a new little ritual to my expanding effort to enhance perceived control of the uncontrollable: I updated my cell phone to include a couple more emergency/urgent numbers. In particular, I added numbers for the Poison Action Center (1-800-222-1222) and Kaiser's advice nurse.

This update got me thinking about other phone numbers I "should" keep handy. Any recommendations? So far, I've got:

Pomona Dispatch 909-622-1241
Graffiti Removal Hotline 909-620-2265
Code Compliance 909-620-2374
Shopping Cart Rescue 800-497-1984
Poison Action Center 800-222-1222

Pomona K-9 Saves the Day

Three cheers for K-9 Officer Willow and her human partner, Officer Joe Hernandez, for tracking and finding a missing child in Fontana!

Here's a link to KTLA's story.

SeeClickFix -- Citizens Communicating to Cities

Listening to a huge backlog of podcasts, I found myself zoning out given many of the reports no longer felt timely. My ears perked up, however, as NPR's Melissa Block introduced a story about citizens using technology to communicate concerns to the city.

I'm now "watching Pomona" using a very cool service titled seeclickfix. It is available as a website and a smart phone ap. And, you can follow the service using the various social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook.

Here's how it works...

1. Residents post concerns--and photographs, when available--about the city to the site. The more specific the better, in my humble opinion. For example, we can report a big ol' pothole at a particular intersection, an out-of-commission street light in a given park, an ugly banner hanging out of a window at a specific address.

2. Other residents "vote" to indicate they, too, are concerned about the issue and would like the issue fixed. If you would like to lend your voice to the process by endorsing items for fixing of leaving comments, consider setting up an account (though it looks like you can also just enter an e-mail address -- I'm guessing the address wouldn't get displayed, but I'm not sure, hence the recommendation for an account). It looks like it is also possible to text in your vote. Ingenious.

3. Everyone keeps an eye out for the municipality to fix the concern. Once the issue is resolved (e.g., a pot hole gets filled in), users can indicate that the concern has been fixed.

4. And -- this is very cool -- once you submit an issue, the site will automatically generate a flier you can print out with the details of your concern. Talk about making things easy!

According to the NPR story, this tool has really taken off like wild fire in some areas. I'll be curious to see how well it works here in Pomona.

I'm trying to figure out how to add a tool to this blog that will allow us even easier access to voting and reporting on issues. The seeclickfix website generated the script, but I'm not sure how to get the widget to appear as a stable feature of the page (it appears below as an element within this post). Any ideas?