Moyer targets public housing
By NICOLE YOUNG, Staff Writer
Published August 23, 2007
Mayor Ellen O. Moyer said she wants to work with the Annapolis Housing Authority to beef up security efforts at the 10 public housing properties around the city and put more police officers in each community.
Ms. Moyer announced the plan yesterday to install surveillance cameras, create a police substation and assign undercover police in each public housing neighborhood. She also wants to make sure a community service program for residents, as required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is enforced.
She said that for this to happen, the housing authority will have to handle the majority of the costs, sharing the camera and substation costs with the city Police Department.
It's the latest of several recent efforts by Ms. Moyer to address escalating fears of crime and violence in the city. But the plan isn't all that new.
Housing authority leaders had requested the same things last year, only to be rebuffed by the mayor.
"We proposed this to the mayor and she rejected it," said Eric Brown, executive director of the housing authority. "But personally, I'm elated that she's come around to our way of thinking. I just wish she would have done this earlier."
The city has provided the housing authority with $200,000 since 2004 to hire Annapolis police to work as off-duty security, Ms. Moyer said. But she now contends that the authority hasn't used the city's contribution and has been unsuccessful in recruiting officers for the program, calling it "sketchy at best."
Mr. Brown said that although the mayor claims the housing authority needs to manage public safety and money itself, the city didn't simply give it a lump sum of $200,000.
"They would reimburse us for the money we put out, up to $200,000," he said. "It actually ends up costing us money with that kind of arrangement."
Police Chief Joseph S. Johnson said he supports any efforts Ms. Moyer wants to put in place, and said she's right to challenge the housing authority to pay a portion of the substation costs.
"We already co-op secondary employment to them, but we need more manpower," he said.
The housing authority also has the space for police substations in the property management offices and community centers, Mr. Brown said.
In May, HUD called the housing authority "troubled," citing problems with its record-keeping and safety hazards in its dwellings, and gave it a score of only 38 out of a possible 100 points during an evaluation.
Mr. Brown said the authority has worked to fix those problems and announced plans to redevelop four of its most troubled properties - College Creek Terrace, Obery Court, Bowman Court and Annapolis Gardens - as well as appointing a new chairman for the board of directors, Howard Pinskey. Mr. Pinskey replaced Trudy McFall, who resigned in July.
One of the mayor's requests - placing the housing authority in accordance with HUD community service guidelines requiring residents to complete eight hours of community service each month was already in place, although it hadn't previously been enforced.
Mr. Brown said he and the housing authority are willing to go forward on these measures, but it will take time and money to put them in place.
He also would like to see a special detachment of Annapolis police officers specifically assigned to the housing authority, as well as a bigger push on the Neighborhood Watch program, which he said would be a more immediate solution.
He said he's hoping to meet with Ms. Moyer as soon as possible, but has yet to hear from her.
"It's been on the table, and if it is something that they want to explore, we are certainly open to it, as we have proposed this before," Mr. Brown said. "This is something that is viable and we are elated."
Eric Hartley:Mayor's crime focus welcome, if overdue
Published August 23, 2007
Eric Brown, who runs the Annapolis Housing Authority, seemed a bit surprised when he heard Mayor Ellen Moyer's latest suggestions for tackling crime in public housing.
It wasn't that the ideas were so odd or revolutionary; rather, it was that they sounded awfully familiar.
Police substations, surveillance cameras, more undercover officers assigned to the communities - weren't some of these the same steps Ms. Moyer's police chief, Joseph Johnson, dismissed as "garbage" earlier this year when Mr. Brown's agency proposed them?
Choosing his words carefully, Mr. Brown said: "Many of the things that from what you tell me are being proposed are things that we have placed on the table before, and they up to this point have been rejected by the city."
Still, Mr. Brown - executive director of the housing authority, which is mostly independent of city government - said he was glad to hear the suggestions and added, "I think those are things we could embrace."
So why does Ms. Moyer, fresh off her six-week summer vacation jaunt through Annapolis' sister cities in Europe, suddenly seem so focused on crime? Was there something in the water in Dumfries, Scotland?
"The first thing I get hit with when I get back in town after meeting with sister cities is, 'We've got a crime problem. We've got a crime problem. We've got a crime problem,' " the mayor said.
So first, there was a five-point plan on general public safety issues; next, a four-point plan on public housing specifically; and a forthcoming proposal (alas, no word on the number of points) to beef up partnerships with federal and state authorities on gun and drug prosecutions.
It's hard to keep it all straight, and I'm not even going to talk about the horse the mayor wants the police department to buy. The ideas are a mixture of the small and concrete (better lighting in dark areas, more Segways so officers can zip around downtown faster, juggling police work schedules) and the ambitious (more money for drug treatment, enhanced neighborhood-watch training).
Ms. Moyer acknowledged that many of the ideas aren't new. But she said, "It's a way to focus and get everybody talking and working together."
A nice thought, but why now? Ms. Moyer has been mayor for nearly six years, and while she has talked about crime many times, little seems to have changed.
Accurate or not, there's a perception that her administration has been more interested in talking about tourism, sailing and the city's 300th anniversary bash than wading into thornier problems like crime and drugs.
Ms. Moyer called that charge unfair and said she's been working with residents on crime issues for 20 years, going back to her 14 years as an alderman from Eastport.
Of course, just about every elected official in America is expected to "solve" some crime problem, even though there's only so much one city's politicians and police can do to combat national societal trends.
It's not fair to blame Ms. Moyer for not solving a problem that can probably never be solved. But it is fair to ask whether her latest plans will accomplish very much, or just make it look like she tried.
Let's hope we're not in for another round of all talk and no action.
As they're doing now, housing authority and city officials pledged to work together earlier this year. But when the housing authority offered its ideas in March, including a substation and foot patrols in Robinwood and license plate scanners, Chief Johnson sent a clear message: Leave police work to the professionals.
As Ray Weaver, a city spokesman, said at the time: "We have to get by our own turf wars we all seem to be having if we're going to help people having problems on theirs."
