04-10-2000 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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• ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING J MINUTES FOR APRIL 10, 2000 ROLL The Council met on the above - mentioned date with the following members present: Mayor Gabriel Jabbour, Council Members Charles Kelley, Barbara Peterson, Richard Flint, and Bob Sansevere. Representing staff were City Administrator Ron Moorse, City Attorney Tom Barrett, Senior Planning Coordinator Michael Gaffron, Assistant Zoning Administrator Paul Weinberger, City Engineer Tom Kellogg, Public Services Director Greg Gappa, and Recorder Alissa Winternheimer. Mayor Jabbour called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. PRESENTATION BY AMY KLOBUCHAR, HENNEPIN COUNTY ATTORNEY Mayor Jabbour welcomed and introduced Ms. Klobuchar. Klobuchar stated the City has been assigned a representative in the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. They have appointed a lawyer to each city in Hennepin County to help decrease the bureaucracy and make the office more accessible. The City of Orono's representative is Carrie Meyer. Meyer has been with the office for many years and has • prosecuted sex abuse, child abuse, juvenile, and gang cases. She lives in Orono. If the City's Police Chief has questions about a case, Meyer will respond to them. Klobuchar stated she also wanted to update the Council on the focus of their office and answer any questions from the Council. Klobuchar put together a set of goals when she became the Hennepin County Attorney. The first issue she focused on was gun possession. They have used a statute regarding felons in possession of guns effectively (such as in the Donald Blum case) and increased the number of cases they charge by 25% last year. The second thing they focused on was the drug and gang area. They have doubled the commitment rate for first degree drug dealers, and have had a lot of major victories in the gang area. The third area of focus, which she stated is more relevant to Orono, is the property team she has established. People in the community were concerned that, while murder cases were being handled, theft cases were falling to the wayside. The County Attorney's office handles felony burglaries. Because of the volume of property crimes, they were able to set up a team of 7 lawyers whose sole job is to prosecute property crimes. One lawyer is devoted to prosecuting chronic felonies (5 or more break -ins on record). The fourth area is the juvenile area. Of their 69 murder convictions last year (they got convictions on some murders that occurred before last year), 8 were 16 and 17- year -old juveniles. They have focused a lot on schools this year and have assigned liasons to all of the junior and senior high schools. They charge every school crime on a one day basis. They have charged over 700 school crimes across the county this year, most of them were minor offenses. By the holiday break this year they had only 26 weapons offenses, of those • only 8 involved guns, 1