We Get Letters: Oversight Selection Process Must Be Fair

I, along with other members of our City, listened to the Public Safety Committee meeting today during which the Committee considered the 13 applicants for the three open, community-based organization seats (“CBO seats”) on the Community Police Oversight Commission.  These applicants were required to have applied for one of these CBO seats and to have been recommended by a community-based organization.  These seats are distinctly different from the other eight seats on the Commission who are nominated by the Mayor or one of the seven council members. 

I appreciated the vigorous debate among the Committee members and the narrowing of the field to be considered to seven of the applicants, who will be given the opportunity to personally appear before the Committee to make a statement and to respond to questions.  Thank you for this additional opportunity for the public to view the process of appointing members of this critical oversight body in our City.

I write to express my deep concern that some members of the Committee attempted to arbitrarily change the publicly-announced procedures for selecting candidates for a CBO seat on the Commission to allow a physician from Huntington Hospital to be considered for a CBO seat when she had not even submitted an application to be considered for a CBO seat.  Apparently, she interviewed for the District 6 appointment to the Commission, but did not submit an application for a CBO seat and had not been recommended by any community-based organization for the seat.  I do not know this physician but, from the discussion at today’s meeting, it appears she would be qualified for a CBO seat on the Commission and is held in high regard by this Committee. 

But that is beside the point.  She did not apply for a CBO seat.  If, as some on the Committee suggested, the Committee were to allow her to now submit an application to be considered for a CBO seat after the deadline, the only fair process would be to re-open the application process for a CBO seat to all in the community who wish to apply.  For example, Derric Johnson interviewed for the District 1 seat, was highly qualified and interviewed very well.  Would he be given the opportunity to apply for a CBO seat on the Commission?  How many others who applied to be nominated by a member of the City Council would also like to apply for appointment for one of the CBO seats?

Thankfully, Councilmember Kennedy stood firm and argued that allowing this physician to be considered for a CBO seat without having submitted an application for a CBO seat by the deadline and without also having been recommended by a community-based organization would be unfair.  He was right.  Lack of fairness, lack of transparency, and arbitrariness by elected officials are precisely why many lose faith in government.  Adequate notice to the public matters.  Transparency matters.  Fairness matters.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

Sonja K. Berndt, Esq. (retired)
Pasadena

Got something to say, email Managing Editor André Coleman, at andrec@pasadenanowmagazine.com