Nov. 08--The proposal from Macon police and Mayor Robert Reichert to hire several new police officers to specifically oversee youth violence intervention efforts, already heavily altered by the City Council's Public Safety Committee, got another rebuff Monday in the council's Appropriations Committee.
In its fourth appearance before a council committee, the idea was sent back to the Public Safety Committee for a fifth try.
Reichert initially asked to hire six new police officials: three privates, two lieutenants and a captain. After an Oct. 31 debate so confused that some Public Safety members wondered aloud what they'd actually voted on, committee Chairman Virgil Watkins told Assistant City Attorney Stuart Morelli to prepare a clear version for the Appropriations Committee to consider.
That's what was presented Monday, calling for just one new captain and one lieutenant, and one civilian hire. One existing private's job would be eliminated elsewhere in the department, with officers bumped up the ranks to fill the captain's job; and a sergeant now assigned to training would be moved to the new lieutenant's job.
The lieutenant would serve as liaison to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Sergeants had served as ATF liaisons before but kept leaving for higher-paying jobs with that bureau, city Internal Affairs Director Keith Moffett said. The sergeant's job was moved into a training position instead, but by bumping the ATF liaison job to a lieutenant, officers in that position might stay longer, he said.
But that drew immediate objection from Council President James Timley, who said the Public Safety Committee only approved moving a sergeant, not creating a new lieutenant. Timley asked Councilman Frank Tompkins, who made the final motion in the Public Safety meeting, what his intention had been.
"My concern was to move that ATF person, who was a sergeant, back to what we needed," Tompkins said.
He "never mentioned" that was to be a lieutenant, he said.
Appropriations Chairman Mike Cranford moved to send the proposal back again to the Public Safety Committee for clarification, and that passed without audible objection.
Solicitation ban
Council members Rick Hutto and Elaine Lucas backed an ordinance that passed the Appropriations Committee to closely regulate door-to-door solicitors.
It's similar to one Councilwoman Nancy White sought two years ago but which got snagged on legal questions.
Hutto said the city has received several complaints about aggressive solicitors and some scam artists in the Rosa Taylor neighborhood and others.
The ordinance would make solicitors get a personal permit from the city, good for 60 days. They'd have to have photo ID, pay a yet-unspecified fee and post a $5,000 insurance bond.
It would bar soliciting on Sundays, federal holidays or at night.
Politicians and church groups could still go door-to-door, Hutto said.
Barred from soliciting altogether would be anyone convicted in the last five years of a crime that "adversely reflects upon the person's ability to conduct solicitation activities in a legal, honest and professional manner."
Such crimes include burglary, various forms of fraud and any physical threat or harm to another, according to the ordinance.
White asked why her two-year-old request had been rejected by the legal department. City Attorney Martha Welsh said research on White's ordinance had been done by an assistant, who concluded that state law pre-empted tighter city rules; but the attorney's office has now looked more closely and decided that's not the case.
Welsh asked to change the ordinance's effective date from Jan. 1 to Feb. 1, to give the city business office time to prepare.
With that done, it passed the committee, heading for a likely vote by full council Nov. 14.
To contact writer Jim Gaines. call 744-4489.
Copyright 2011 - The Macon Telegraph, Ga.
