Council Agrees on Pay, Selection Process for Police Oversight Commission

The Pasadena City Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution that allows the city to pay members of the city’s police oversight commission $100 per meeting.

The resolution also allows each councilperson to decide how they will choose their appointed commissioner.

However, the council stopped short of establishing rules and regulations for the commission.

The commission will consist of 11 members to be appointed by the City Council. All 11 members must be residents of Pasadena, but council nominees need not reside in the nominating council member’s district.

Each councilmember, including the mayor, has one nominee to the commission, for a total of eight members. Three additional members representing community-based organizations must also be nominated.

Applications for the three community-based organizations will be sent to the city. City staff will forward the applications to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. After the PSC vets the applications they will make recommendations to the City Council.

The City Council reserves the right to see all applications.
Although it was established as part of the appointment procedure, the council decided to refer the rules and regulations to the council’s Public Safety Committee.

“The minimal job would be to safeguard everyone’s rights. That would be the bare minimum,” said Councilmember Steve Madison, after expressing concerns about commissioners and the independent auditor possibly accessing confidential information.

“I can see all sorts of unintended consequences,” Madison said.

According to the rule and regulations presented on Monday, commissioners would be required to sign a confidentiality oath and take an oath before being sworn in.

The rules could also prohibit matters from being placed on the commission’s agenda if it would compromise pending criminal and personnel investigations.

That could prevent the commission from agendizing officer-involved shootings for several months or even longer as criminal and personnel investigations wend their way through the city’s process.

“Here we go all over again, asking the same questions we asked six or seven months ago,” Councilmember Tyron Hampton said. “This is something the community has had a lot of input on. Tremendous input, and it should not be prolonged at this point.”

The rules and regulations could be taken up or established in conjunction with the auditor and the commission.

The city has already started accepting applications for commissioners. Currently, there are no deadlines for the applications.

Despite 30 years of calls for oversight, it took the officer-involved death of George Floyd, a Black man in another state, to move a majority of council members in Pasadena to finally support some form of police oversight.

After protests swept the nation in response to the May 25 death of Floyd, who died during an encounter with Minneapolis police, the majority of the council said they supported oversight.