Community Organization Applicants For Police Oversight Commission to Make Presentations to City Council

Three applicants representing local community based organizations vying for a seat on the city’s soon-to-be-seated Community Police Oversight Commission will give short presentations to the City Council on Monday.

“In order to guide the Council’s decision-making, the candidates have been invited to attend Monday’s City Council meeting and give two-minute presentations,” according to a report to the council.  

Mikala Rahn of Learning Works, Patrice Marshall McKenzie of Alpha Kappa Alpha, and Alexis Abernathy who represents the Pasadena-Altadena Chapter of the Links, will make the presentations. 

Last Wednesday, the council unanimously selected two applicants, Juliana Serrano of All Saints Church and Florence Annang of the NAACP, but was unable to agree on a third candidate to recommend to the council.

The council reserves the right to reject all three candidates and return to the list of the original 13 community organization candidates.

The commission is on track to be one of the most diverse in the city’s history. 

The three candidates have widespread community support.

“Mrs. Marshall Mckenzie’s intelligence, even-handedness and unique perspective will only benefit the police department and the Pasadena community as she is a true and caring activist and advocate,” wrote Tracey Blount in correspondence to the city. 

Rahn formerly sat on the Pasadena Board of Education.

“Her record of outstanding involvement and successful accomplishments in the community have given her valuable experience and knowledge so important for this type of commission,” wrote Christy Bradley in support of Rahn. 

“Based on her commitment to our youth, community service and her dedication to the Pasadena community, we highly recommend Dr. Abernathy for a community-based organization seat on the Pasadena Community Police Oversight Commission,” said L. Charmayne Mills Ealy, president of the Links.

On April 26, the mayor and the seven councilmembers will reveal their eight individual choices to sit on the commission. 

Across the nation’s cities are dealing with the impacts of police-involved shootings.

Closing arguments are expected in the Derek Chauvin murder trial in Minnesota in which the former Minneapolis police officer is accused of murdering George Floyd. 

Also, former police officer Kim Potter in Brooklyn Center, just outside of Minneapolis, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of 20-year Daunte Wright during a traffic stop. Potter said she meant to use her Taser but instead reached for her service revolver when she fatally shot Wright.

The incident has led to several nights of protests and unrest in Minnesota. And residents in Chicago protested after video footage appeared on television of the fatal police shooting of 13-year old Adam Toledo.

Meanwhile, police in Portland, Oregon say they cannot reveal if a gun was found in the April 16 fatal police shooting of a white man after receiving calls of a “white man with a gun in the park.”

Similar investigations are just starting in relation to other officer-involved shootings in Northern California, Ohio and Colorado.