The Winston-Salem Public Safety Committee met on Monday, December 9, 2024, at 2:00 PM in City Hall. The meeting was called to order by Chair Annette Scippio and included Council Members Regina Ford Hall, Vivián V. Joiner, and Scott Andree-Bowen, along with Mayor Allen Joines and Mayor Pro Tempore Adams. All four committee members were present. The meeting lasted until 3:05 PM and covered a consent agenda, two general agenda items, and a committee orientation with presentations from the fire and police departments.
We're all awake and doing well, right? I see smiling faces. Well, this is um wonderful first safety council meeting for our new council. So I thank all of you who are here, and uh we'll have the roll call. All right, we have council member CPO present. Councilmember Hall. Present. Councilmember joyner. Present. Councilmember Andrew Bowen. Here thank you very much, council members. And for those of you who are here and in the public, um this is I will call it a neophyte council because all of us are new to the public safety committee. Um I was not a former committee member, but I came to all the meetings. Um, and these are all of our new newly elected uh council members, and uh so we have the wonderful wonderful task of serving on public safety, which is one of the most important areas of our city and the services that we render to the public. It's the thing that most people know and remember about our city. So we're very honored to actually serve on this uh committee. Normally the way the uh committee works and we'll follow our agenda is that we have a consent agenda and we have a general agenda. Uh new council members. Typically, the consent agenda is voted on unless you pull an item because these items have been discussed in a previous committee, typically. So, are there any items that you would like to have pulled for any discussion today? If none, is there a motion to approve the consent? To approve. Second. Great. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Great. We'll continue now to our general agenda. And these items will have some discussion, and we will also be voting if we need to vote. We'll be voting online on our item. Okay. So Madam Clerk, may we have the first item? Item G1 resolution authorizing support of the reclassification of Winston Salem Police Department 911 dispatchers as protective service occupations. And we are having um Chief Penn is not here, but who will be presenting this reclassification? Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Um, I have Director Martha Hicks, who's our communications director here, and this was something we had worked on to present. It's a federal movement for reclassification from a clerical to public safety professionals across the nation. There are several uh jurisdictions throughout the country as well as within our state, Guilford County, Greensboro being some of them most close to us that have passed this resolution previously, and we thought it also was important for our city to recognize the work of our telecommunicators and the great work that they do as public safety professionals. And uh the communications folks at the West Fail Police Department, the 911 Center do want to become part of this resolution is so that we know that the city and the mayor, the city council, the assistant managers, the city manager are all behind the 911 folks, and that we will become the first responders also because we are the first of the first responders. We have most of the first contacts with anything that comes through the city. And this is important on uh federal level because when they re-examine the movement to reclassify them, they will look at jurisdiction across the country that have passed a motion in support of the legislation to make that happen. So they will look at various um areas and jurisdictions that have passed this legislation and are in support of it. I'm sorry, of the resolution in support of the legislation to make that happen. So we want to be on that um list of jurisdictions that have already passed support for the legislation to show that we value the work and that we truly recognize them as the first first responders. Any questions or comments about this? Um Mr. Mayor?