Public Safety Committee Fine-Tunes Police Oversight Commission

Following the January 25 City Council meeting that established pay for Police Oversight Commission members, the Public Safety Committee Wednesday discussed the rules and regulations of the commission.. 

The Committee was tasked with fine-tuning the January 25 approval and sending any findings or discussion points back to the full City Council for approval. 

After a presentation by Chief Assistant City Attorney Javan Rad, the Committee took up three items—commission applications from non-profit organizations, whether to impose a deadline for initial applications for Commission seats and parameters for attendance at Committee meetings. 

In what was essentially an open-ended discussion, Mayor Victor Gordo outlined the procedure for non-profits to nominate members, saying that a nonprofit could nominate three applicants, and those would be considered by the council and either be approved or not approved. Should they not be approved, the organization could then nominate other applicants. 

While agreeing with the procedure, Councilmember Tyron Hampton emphasized that local nonprofits should already have been actively involved in police or similar community issues.

Said Hampton, “It should be in writing somewhere that these groups have a history or track record of working in this space.” 

As Hampton explained further, “If there is some organization that has never, ever worked in this space that has a track record of working within our community, and all of a sudden is now given the opportunity to apply for one of these positions over the organization that has already been working in this space… That’s my reticence.” 

Hampton asked that the Council specify in its rules that the organization work in the community police justice space or similar, “and not just the Tournament of Roses or any other organization that decides, ‘Hey, you know, I’ve got friends on the city council and we can make an appointment.’”

In a followup discussion led by Councilmember Steve Madison,  however, the Committee eventually agreed that they would “cast a broad net” in the first round of applicants and that each organization or applicant would be weighed on their own merits. 

Hampton pointed out that he was using the Tournament of Roses only as a “for instance.”

Councilmember John Kennedy also noted that there is currently already a nominating process in place for the mayor as well as for councilmembers,  for committees and commissions. 

“I’m in favor of mirroring what each council member and the mayor are currently allowed to do,” said Kennedy. “I want to make sure we get, either by recruitment or by any individual’s own desire to participate in the process, the best people or persons qualified to participate in this activity. So I have a lot of confidence in our individual community members that have the skill set.” 

The Committee eventually passed a motion approving the item, with Hampton voting “no.”

Addressing the issue of commission attendance, Councilmember Madison took some issue with the idea of removing a member for three consecutive missed meetings. Madison said he would be in favor of removing a member following a total of three missed meetings, whether consecutive or not. 

However, attorney Rav explained that a provision in the City’s municipal code says that any member of the commission may be reviewed by the city council at its pleasure. 

So I think that would be on the council to take up that number independent of saying, “There are three unexcused absences. Another way to address it would be, to remove a member at the council’s pleasure, which is already in the code for the commission.” 

The committee agreed with Rav’s assessment, but Councilmember Hampton emphasized, “I just want to make sure that it’s clear that when people are appointed to this commission, that we are taking the attendance very seriously.”

Applications for the position of Independent Police Auditor are currently being accepted through February 25, while Commission member applications have no current deadline, as agreed by the Committee.