Police Department
Memorandum
Date: February 1, 2023
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Pat Nikolai, Chief of Police
Subject: Proposed Neighborhood Stadium Relations Committee
Agenda item 23-1452 for the February 7, 2023 Council meeting is a report from staff regarding the proposal by Councilmember Jain to fund a Neighborhood Stadium Relations Committee (NSRC) with up to $150K from the Stadium Authority budget.
I am submitting this memorandum in opposition to the proposal.
The staff report is thorough and documents many issues that would need to be addressed in order to create a new committee. The first glaring issue is the dedication of $150,000 in Stadium Authority budget to this new committee. The stadium has failed for years to bring any direct economic benefit to the City’s general fund. It appears that this event season, which included several large concerts and home 49er play-off games, might break that trend. To funnel any of those proceeds to an unnecessary committee would be a waste of financial resources.
I use the word “unnecessary” because there are a multitude of ways that we communicate with the public regarding stadium events. These include:
• Community outreach to businesses and residences prior to the event season. • Directed outreach to the Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott Hotels. • A community “hotline” that is always available to receive calls and is specifically monitored by a police lieutenant during stadium events. • Informational magnets that are distributed to residents by our neighborhood protection detail during event days.
• Extensive information sharing via social media surrounding stadium events.
All these methods allow those impacted by stadium events to reach us directly, allowing us to respond to issues immediately. In addition, our Special Events Unit follows up on all concerns brought forth by the community and liaisons with the 49ers to collaboratively work together to find lasting solutions. The creation of a quarterly meeting would do nothing additional to address concerns raised by the public.
The most important issue, in my opinion, is the staffing of the various City departments that would be involved in this new committee. Every impacted department, including the police department, has vacancies. Many of them have frozen positions from prior budgetary reductions. And all the involved departments have been asked to present reduced budgets for the upcoming two years that will likely include more staffing reductions. As noted in the staff report, several of the existing City and Stadium Authority Committees, have been unable to meet as scheduled due to these staffing constraints. For example, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force, whose work is especially relevant today, has been forced to cancel several of their meetings. To add an additional committee would only exacerbate this problem, and flies in the face of common sense.
To be clear; the Police Department currently has eight (8) frozen or eliminated positions. Our initial 23/24-24/25 budget reduction exercise freezes an additional eight (8) positions. As a result of these reductions, which put us at nearly the same staffing levels as 10 years ago, we will be unable to staff or participate in the proposed NSRC.
The staff report has two alternatives. I urge you to adopt alternative 2 and not form this committee.