PUBLIC COMMENT
AGENDA ITEM H.5. JOINT-USE PARKS AGREEMENT
CITY COUNCIL MEETING 10/16/23
Item 5. Joint-Use Parks Agreement October 16, 2023
Randall Abram
Earlier this year I attended a joint meeting with the City Council and the Lawndale Elementary School District. The intent of this meeting was to begin to discuss a new joint park maintenance agreement between these two bodies. It was hoped that the school district would share some of these costs unlike past years. However it appears that the City will pay addtional fees on top of the ongoing maintenance costs from past years.
The agreement presented tonight appears to require the City to actually increase spending on school parks. Why would the City be liable for 1.5 million to complete the Rogers/Anderson parking lot project? Isn't most of the activity of this lot based on school usage? There is even a $1,000 per day late fee for projects not completed on time.
Does the actual usage of these parks justify these increased costs from the general fund? It appears the school district has even better terms in this three year agreement than previous years.
PUBLIC COMMENT
AGENDA ITEM H.11. MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS INC/VIGILANT SOLUTIONS
AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE READERS
CITY COUNCIL MEETING 10/16/23
Item 11. Recommendation to Use Motorola Solutions October 16, 2023 Randall Abram
After reviewing the staff report proposing the use of automated license plate readers, I have some questions. After the initial cost of over $249,000, will there be other operating costs? Will these additional costs be covered by ARPA? Where will the data be stored? Who will access this data and for how long? What is the error rate of these readers? Attached with the staff report is an agreement with Motorola/Vigilant. That agreement directs the signer to a link to Motorola master agreement. Has that master agreement been reviewed by the City Attorney? The verdict is out on the success rate of these license plate readers. While there are incidents of faulty readings of a license plate causing innocent families to be hauled out of their cars, there has been success in recovering stolen vehicles, generating investigative leads, or assisting law enforcement to solve heinous crimes. As privacy is a major concern, it is incumbent on Lawndale to put proper safeguards and policies in place before adopting ALPRs. For ALPRs, key safeguards include (1) limiting database access and use, (2) adopting short retention periods of data, (3) cleaning ALPR databases, (4) requiring periodic impact and assessment reports, and (5) creating enforcement mechanisms for those that misuse this information. There should be short retention periods for this data and the data need to be updated. There have been incidents of stolen cars returned to its owner and then the owner is pulled over later as the data was not updated.
Before installing the license readers, a program must be implemented as to how it will be administered. Senate Bill 34 (Civil code section 1798.90.5) details all the requirements for implementing an APLR system and requires a public agency that operates or intends to operate an ALPR system to provide an opportunity for public comment at a regularly scheduled public meeting before implementing the program. The bill would also prohibit a public agency from selling, sharing, or transferring ALPR information, except to another public agency, as specified. Policies need to be in place that detail who is the administrator of the program, who are authorized users and how privacy will be protected. Both the cities of Hawthorne and Manhattan Beach have written ALPRs policies that address some of these issues.