The Greensboro City Council work session has two items on the agenda – storm water and the Greensboro Criminal Justice Advisory Commission (GCJAC) annual report – at its Tuesday, Feb. 4 work session.
At the Jan. 21 City Council meeting, the council discussed doing away with the Police Community Review Board (PCRB), which is affiliated with GCJAC. Some members serve on both boards, some don’t. It is a confusing system that the City Council didn’t appear to fully understand.
GCJAC has a new chair, Jaye Webb, who replaces David Sevier and may present some ideas on taking GCJAC in a new direction. Sevier, former City Councilmember Tom Phillips and Irving Allen made up the executive committee that devised the current GCJAC and PCRB.
Generally, GCJAC is supposed to look at trends and data. When the issue of the Greensboro Police Department using a restraint device called a Ripp Hobble became an issue, GCJAC was asked to investigate the different restraint devices available and make a recommendation.
One of the problems with the PCRB is that so few complaints actually make it through the system to the PCRB that some question whether it is worth having a separate committee for that function alone.
GCJAC has been working on the cash bail issue, and last month Chief District Court Judge Teresa Vincent and Senior Resident Superior Court Judge John Craig announced that people who have been charged with minor, nonviolent crimes should not be given cash or secured bonds.
For second work session in a row, the City Council will hear from the Water Resources Department. Some departments go years without making a presentation at a work session, for water resources to come up twice in two months is remarkable.
The presentation in January was about the new water meters that will cost the city about $30 million. This report is on stormwater. The report in January was given by then Water Resources Director Steve Drew, who retired Jan. 31, so this report would be the first for the newly appointed Water Resources Director Mike Borchers who, appropriately enough, started out with the city in the stormwater department.
“GCJAC has been working on the cash bail issue, and last month Chief District Court Judge Teresa Vincent and Senior Resident Superior Court Judge John Craig announced that people who have been charged with minor, nonviolent crimes should not be given cash or secured bonds.” — Does that mean we are going to turn into New York City where criminals are simply released back into the streets to offend again? How does that actually fight the growing crime problem in this city? Reprehensible!