May Message

April has been a busy month for this volunteer and the neighborhoods. I have talked to several neighborhood activists who are trying to start, restart or re-energize their neighborhood associations. This is happening all across town. As volunteers, our challenge is to grow our replacements and to have the leadership of our associations a mixture of veterans and fresh faces. Sometimes the transition works well and sometimes, it does not. Changing neighborhoods complicate this job as well. CONA is there to help with advice, the school of hard knocks, and many examples of what works that you are free to copy. Please join us at the meetings and get to know other neighborhood leaders who face similar challenges.

One of the side effects of the CONA agenda is that it is forward looking. As a result, it does not reflect too much on problems largely solved. Code enforcement has been a major issue in St. Petersburg for the last 15 years. I am happy to say that a large number of improvements to the system have been made over the last couple of years. The addition of a special master helped relieve the backlog at the code enforcement meetings. Cell phones and computers have improved communication with the code officers. Reorganization of the typing of notices has taken many weeks out of the enforcement process. This month, the codes office added the ability to report violations, check on status of violations and check to see if a property has violations, all from the city’s web site. This represents significant progress in a very important department for the neighborhoods.

By the time you receive this newsletter, the City Council will have given the scope of the management review of the police department to the staff so they may hire a consultant. After 18 years, we hope the hard questions will be asked:

1. What can we do to reduce turnover?

2. What can we learn from other cities who are cutting crime rates every year?

3. How can we improve our “closure” rate (solved cases) to match the City of Clearwater?

4. And, near and dear to neighborhoods, how are other cities using community policing to eliminate “hot spots” or crime clusters in their communities?

Thank you for caring about your neighborhood. Together, we can make a difference.

Karl Nurse
President
Council of Neighborhood Associations