Newton Rotary Meeting Tuesday Jan 7, 2014

Announcements:
Jeff Tucker:  Jan 26th is Death by Chocolate Fundraiser.  We are putting together a lottery basket.  Please give cash to contribute and they'll buy the lottery tickets.  You can also give auction items at the next Rotary meeting.  Or do a sponsorship at $250, $500, or $1K levels.

Tom Keery:  Newton Has Talent fundraiser update.  We had a meeting last week which was productive.  

Marie Presti:  Dictionary Project - We didn't get our matching funding this year for the dictionary project so we're looking to augment our $800 with an additional $800 to cover the full costs of giving dictionaries to all 3rd grade children in the city of Newton.  Anyone looking to help Marie raise these funds please see her.  Or if you know of a company who is willing to donate the funds, see her asap.

Marc Epstein:  Car donation project - Mark reiterated that we have a car donation project and any Rotarian who knows of a car someone is looking to donate can see him and he will manage the disposal and donation of the proceeds to the club.

Paul Kerrissey:  Gave us an update on Bruce Leaver.  He's looking to have the club help him and his wife have a vacation.  Susanne has donated her Cape house for an off season week and he was asking the club to help out too for spending money.  The board agreed on $150 from the President's discretionary money and $150 from the emergency fund be given to Bruce.  Bruce has brain cancer and doesn't have his job anymore.  Although he's doing better after chemotherapy appointments, he can't drive either.

Chris announced that its Dick Bowen's birthday this week.  We sang happy birthday to him!

We inducted Maureen Gagnon from Newton at Home to the club as our newest Rotarian.

Presenter Chief Howard Mintz:
Chief Mintz was named to his position in March 2013 after serving at Interim Chief after the former chief was removed.  Mayor Setti Warren said in his announcement that he selected Mintz because of his professionalism and integrity.

His late father in law was a Rotarian.  He's been married 27 years. but this is his first Rotary meeting.
He was sworn in  April 10, 2013 as the permanent chief of police.  He's been in the Newton Police department for 30 years. The year before being sworn in, he was appointed as "interim chief".

He has 144 members budgeted on the payroll.  He's still hiring a few positions.

He has 190 FT and PT cross guards, 10 meter maids, $19M budget, and covers 18 square miles of the city of Newton.

Crime rate dropped in 2013 by 11%.

10th largest city in Massachusetts and we have the lowest crime rate.  Sexual assault was the only category that increased.  Crashes/speeding went down by 8%.

When he started in the police academy you had to do 13 weeks.  This was back in 1984.  Now you have to do 22-24 weeks in the academy to become a police officer.  Then be mentored for weeks and then have an evaluation.  So its tougher now than way back when.

He was in charge during the Marathon bombing attack and provided mutual aide to Boston and Watertown.  He's also aided Salem during Halloween.

He said that 80-90% of a police officers role is a service role and not a crime fighting role.  They mediate disputes, find people, help facilitate calls to mental/health professionals, recover loss property, etc.  The compliments exceed complaints.

Chris adjoined at 1:30PM

Submitted by Marie Presti.