Monday, July 22, 2024

Public Health & HOA Efficiency Proposal for the City of Camas, WA

Public Safety  & HOA Efficiency Proposal for the City of Camas, WA




In preparation for our scheduled meeting with the City of Camas' City Administrator, I  have written an essay
just published by CDN on Washington's Public Safety Program called Target Zero. Target Zero is a plan with the goal to reduce the number of traffic deaths and serious injuries on Washington’s roadways to zero by the year 2030, to add transparency and to hold officials accountable

It's not working. Portland's Zero Vision is not working either.



As you may know, I had a nice phone conversation with Steve Wall. I trust that he now better understand the issues I raised, as he was not familiar with Target Zero nor the Concept of New Product Introduction in systems engineering.

Based on the essay, I have specific, requests/ suggestions, that I can elaborate on during our meeting:



PUBLIC SAFETY


[ ] DUI/Distracted driving accounts for four of the six traffic crashes in the Woodburn Elementary School community, consistent with state and nationwide statistics. Need aggressive awareness campaigns at the City and HOAs levels. Portland's PBOT makes yard signs available for pick up free, for example.

[ ] Need to reduce speeding in Woodburn and Tanoak. Request two or three speed bumps.

[ ] Harmonize parking enforcement in public streets: Current process is wasteful, inefficient, inconsistent and incoherent and has potential for litigation. I recommend the City takes over exclusive parking enforcement of all city-owned streets: too many cooks spoil the broth.


[ ] Current overflow parking provides the opportunity for crime (old security professionals' MOM - Motive, Opportunity, Means - any crime is possible.) Overflow parking is often used as a personal garage. Defeats the purpose of temporary parking spaces in the community. Need to add tow away signage & have city enforcement


[ ] Sign Obstruction: While signage is not a factor in traffic crashes, it perpetuates the "don't care about safety" culture. The city can work with the various HOA's to keep up the maintenance

[ ] Visibility: the dog catcher is seen in the community regularly. Not law enforcement. The message: "the city cares more about unleashed dogs than speeding cars." Even a randomly staged patrol car can help.

[ ] The city should demonstrate public safety leadership by adopting a Vision Zero program, say a Camas Safe program, but unlike the state of Washington, really mean it.


[ ] EFFICIENCY/RED TAPE

The City offloads a lot of its work on HOAs. Every year, HOA laws change. The City- HOA interface hasn't changed. The City can demonstrate leadership by adopting a "New Product Introduction" Process: The hand-off from the builder to the HOA, should be done like a New Product Introduction, including check-list & Q& A

Need an HOA Liason at the City to expedite problem resolution. The CamasConnect is totally useless 


Camas Connect is totally useless - several issues were reported, "completed," nothing was done and no explanation provided as to why the issue was marked completed.


No comments: