Olympia's Economic Development Director Mike Reid asked the Community Livability and Public Safety Committee to review the Downtown Ambassador Program to address role clarity and the funding gap.
Reid spoke about the program at the committee meeting on June 28, which he said has taken on multiple roles beyond business engagement.
Reid presented the committee with three main areas to review:
Reid noted that the Ambassador Program is designed for business engagement, welfare checks, parking, and visitor assistance. However, it is being used by stakeholders as "public safety through routine presence."
Reid claimed that, at times, the ambassadors have been called to crimes in progress, such as trespassing, harassment or assaultive behavior, suspect shoplifting, lewd and sexual behavior, and other disorderly conduct.
"We also see the ambassadors routinely being utilized for de-escalation purposes, removing somebody who may be intoxicated or having a mental health crisis from a store. Those are more suited for crisis response [Crisis Response Unit]," Reid said.
Reid added that stakeholders often approach ambassadors directly for immediate assistance instead of going through the Thurston 911 Communications (TCOMM) dispatch process. As a result, ambassadors have had to file numerous incidents over the two years relating to assault or other related negative behavior.
Currently, the Ambassador program is managed by the Economic Development Program.
"I think it is fair to ask, is that the right place for oversight, especially if this is more in crisis response or public safety?" Reid inquired. He added that the way the ambassadors are being utilized may not be in the right "house."
Reid mentioned that they relocated the clean team from its previous oversight area to Public Works. The move allowed synergistic relationships with other complementary programs.
With both the clean team and Waste Resources under Public Works, they could collaborate more closely and effectively in addressing various issues. The change also improved career pathways for the clean team members, offering them opportunities for growth and advancement within the organization.
The Ambassador Program has four funding sources: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Parking and Business Improvement Area Board (PBIA), and contributions from parking services and the general fund.
According to Reid, the program will no longer receive CDBG funding, saying that the Ambassador Program may not align with the intended purpose of the grant. "It can put us in a compliance issue at some point with continuous use of those [grant]."
Historically, the program received $50,000 a year from CDBG.
The Downtown Ambassador Program's total budget is $196,000, with the bulk allocated for salaries and benefits for the two staff typically ranging from $54,000 to $66,000 annually.
In evaluating the Ambassador Program, Reid said they considered the challenges they need to address, including managing the problem whether it is related to public safety, behavioral issues, or business engagement; making sure that the program's design, staffing, and supervision align with its intended goals; and finding alternative funding sources due to the loss of CDBG funding.
Reid presented some options for exploration:
Committee member Dontae Payne suggested blending the roles of the Walking CRU and the ambassador program.
Olympia City Manager Jay Burney agreed with Payne, saying that the ambassadors and walking patrol could play a role in periodically checking in on businesses.
Reid said they could explore the idea of a blend of roles that would focus on routine presence, highlighting the concept of public safety.
Regarding finding alternative sources, Burney assured Reid he would provide recommendations for the 2024 budget.
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JohnPaget
Jane Jacobs said, "The first thing to understand is that public peace - the sidewalk and street peace - of cities is not kept primarily by the police, necessary as police are. It is kept primarily by an intricate, almost unconscious network of voluntary controls and standards among the people themselves, and enforced by the people themselves....No amount of police can enforce civilization where the normal casual enforcement of it has broken down."
No amount of police - and no amount of hired downtown ambassadors - can replace what the "eyes on street" phenomenon does without even trying or knowing it's doing it.
She further explains how to have "eyes on the street":
“The sidewalk must have users on it fairly continuously, both to add to the number of effective eyes on the street and to induce the people in buildings along the street to watch the sidewalks in sufficient numbers. Nobody enjoys sitting on a stoop or looking out a window at an empty street. Almost nobody does such a thing. Large numbers of people entertain themselves, off and on, by watching street activity.”
“The basic requisite for such surveillance is a substantial quantity of stores and other public places sprinkled along the sidewalks of a district; enterprises and public places that are used by evening and night must be among them especially. Stores, bars and restaurants, as the chief examples, work in several different and complex ways to abet sidewalk safety.
First, they give people — both residents and strangers — concrete reasons for using the sidewalks on which these enterprises face.
Second, they draw people along the sidewalks past places which have no attractions to public use in themselves but which become traveled and peopled as routes to somewhere else; this influence does not carry very far geographically, so enterprises must be frequent in a city district if they are to populate with walkers those other stretches of street that lack public places along the sidewalk. Moreover, there should be many different kinds of enterprises, to give people reasons for crisscrossing paths.
Third, storekeepers and other small businessmen are typically strong proponents of peace and order themselves; they hate broken windows and holdups; they hate having customers made nervous about safety. They are great street watchers and sidewalk guardians if present in sufficient numbers.
Fourth, the activity generated by people on errands, or people aiming for food or drink, is itself an attraction to still other people.”
-from Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Thursday, July 6, 2023 Report this