Yakima Cities Talking About a Team Approach to Fight Crime

When the Yakima City Council meets on Tuesday they'll be talking a proposal by the Yakima Valley Conference of Governments to tackle local crime. YVCOG is bringing a Regional Crime Resource Center to the Yakima Valley.

It's a team approach to funding the local fight against crime

They say it's an opportunity for all jurisdictions to come together to fight local crime. They say it's a huge step forward in increasing public safety and evaluating solutions to reduce crime. YVCOG officials say the objective is to work together, across jurisdictional boundaries in support of each other, with shared information and resources.

The funding proposal has been a topic of discussion between YVCOG and cities

How will the proposal be funded? A press release says the costs will be shared across the board. "When YVCOG was formed in 1966, how we operate and ‘share’ in the cost was determined. To impact every member’s budget in an equal manner was determined. YVCOG uses Office of Financial Management’s (OFM) estimated population for each member and calculates the percentage of population for the region for each jurisdiction.
This percentage is used when determining the ‘share’ of a cost for a regional service. Still today, this is the fairest way to share in a cost. YVCOG understands how tight your budgets are. We have applied for funding to share in some of the startup costs for the Center and will hear back in April if our application is successful."

The council will also hear about efforts in Olympia

The council meets at 5:30 pm Tuesday. They'll also be talking about how Yakima benefitted from the recent legislative session.
The meeting will be held via Zoom and in person at Yakima City Hall, 129 N. 2nd Street. Masks are optional for those attending in person as a statewide mask mandate ended March 12th.
Live public comment on agenda items via Zoom is available. Click Public Comment | City Council (yakimawa.gov) for instructions and a Public Comment Request Form.

You can call in to city hall and listen over the phone

Another option is to call in and listen to the meeting:
Dial 1-253-215-8782 or 1-971-247-1195
When prompted for the meeting ID enter 995 4732 1316 #
When prompted for the participant ID enter #
When prompted for the meeting password enter 142536 #

The March 15th Yakima City Council regular meeting will air live at 5:30 pm on Y-PAC, Charter Spectrum Channel 194, and be streamed live at https://www.yakimawa.gov/council/live-stream/