Ballot Language for Charter Reform on Police Oversight to Come Before City Council on Monday

The police oversight model designed by Mayor Terry Tornek and Councilmember John Kennedy will not be up for a vote on Monday.

Instead, a model proposed by Vice Mayor Tyron Hampton requiring change to the City Charter will be on the agenda.

Hampton’s proposal must beat the clock on Monday to appear on the November ballot. If Council members don’t approve it, local police oversight will not be on the November ballot.

“We have to take action Monday night if it’s going to be on the ballot in November and Mr. Hampton is going to work with the city attorney’s office to craft ballot language that will be presented to the council for action on Monday,” Tornek told Pasadena Now.

The Charter is the most important document in the city. It defines the city’s governance model and its powers and functions.

Hampton told Pasadena Now on Wednesday that he has not given up on Charter reform.

The City Council is seriously discussing police oversight for the first time in the wake of the death of George Floyd, the Minnesota motorist killed at the hands of police in May. Floyd’s death sparked protests and led to some civil unrest.

In the past, the topic was dismissed without serious discussed before it left the Public Safety Committee.

But although the topic is receiving serious discussion agreement on a model moving forward remains unclear.

Kennedy and Tornek are pushing for a non-charter change model that would lead to the hiring of an independent auditor and a 13-member commission model that would fall under the City Manager’s purview with no subpoena power. The commission would largely be chosen by the Council.

The model complies with Pasadena’s City Manager form of governance, which places the City Manager over all departments except the City Attorney, City Clerk,

Councilmember Margaret McAustin likes the basic framework of that model, but opposes the council choosing the members of the commission out of concerns it could become politicized.

Hampton is calling for a model with subpoena power that reports to the City Council, but that could dictate a change to the City’s Charter.

Hampton did propose hiring a City Prosecutor and placing oversight under that office which would not require a change to the Charter as the City Prosecutor answers to the City Council.

“A charter amendment is a big deal,” McAustin said. “And usually we study these things and have a community task force or something before we put something on the ballot.”

According to the Center of Public Integrity (CPI) there are more than 140 such review bodies nationwide with varying degrees of effectiveness.

But even if oversight exposes issues in a department, many times it does not cure them. Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, has three oversight bodies, according to the CPI.

According to Richard Rosenthal, who ran oversight bodies in the US and Canada, successful oversight includes strong access to police information, paid staff, and a mandate to look at not just individual complaints but also systemic problems and political support for recommendations.

“Avoid doing it on the cheap,” he told the CPI. “If elected officials create an office that meets the bare minimum to look like oversight, “in the end, it’s not going to have the impact.”

Tornek and Kennedy believe that their model does not require subpoena power because the City Manager’s office has access to the documents which means the auditor will as well.

“If you have an independent commission truly independent, um, then it might need the subpoena power in order to get the information that it wants depending on what its responsibilities are, but in the format that we’ve suggested that it’s redundant.”

That model won’t come up for a vote on Monday because there are no time constraints.

“We have some time on that,” Tornek said. “We’ll have some further discussion about that to the extent that we’re ready, but there isn’t the same time crunch.  I’m not intending that we would act on that on Monday, but we will continue to develop that proposal and have some further discussion on that. But the time sensitive one is the Charter amendment and that would require council action Monday.”