Civilian Police Review & Advisory Board

MEETING MINUTES CIVILIAN POLICE REVIEW AND ADVISORY BOARD Regular Meeting December 14, 2023, 12 pm In person at the Public Safety Building and by Zoom Members present: Rich Burks, Bob Cohen, Megan Gandy, Dady Dadyburjor, Catherine Fonseca 1. Call to order: 12:10 p.m. 2. Minutes of the regular meeting of November 9, 2023 were approved on motion of Megan seconded by Dady. 3. OLD BUSINESS A. Committee Reports: i. Training Committee Rich reported that Dr. Jim Nolan has offered training to the Board in community policing. It was agreed to have the training at a special meeting of the Board. Megan will coordinate setting up the training on a date when Dr. Nolan and all members of the Board are available. ii. Community Outreach Committee Public forum -- It was agreed that, in view of the unavailability of all Board members on February 5, 2024, the public forum will be at the Library on the alternate date of February 8 at 6 pm. Bob will reserve the large meeting room at the Library for that date. Rachel is to work up content for a brochure. Rich and Bob are to propose a program. Suggestions for publicity include notifying the media (e.g., Dominion Post, TV stations, the Daily Atheneum, West Virginia Public Broadcasting), various organizations in the city (e.g., Human Rights Commission, Morgantown Pride, CCSJ, NOW, Morgantown-Kingwood and WVU NAACP chapters, Red Cross, Health Right, Community Kitchen, Interfaith Council), and asking City Council to publicize the forum. Neighborhood Meetings – Rich reported that he has spoken with a contact at the City Clerk’s office and has obtained a list of 10 neighborhood associations within the city. He will send emails to these 10 neighborhood associations stating that the Board would like to send a representative to one of their meetings. It was also decided to reach out to the various Rotary Clubs in the area. Dady will make these contacts. It was also decided that Rich would contact John Bolt at the Dismantling Racism group.  iii. Statistics and Reporting Committee Rich has emailed Chief Eric Powell asking who to contact within the Morgantown Police Department in order to set up a meeting to discuss how to use the MPD’s data collection system to obtain the information sought in the Board’s “Data Points for Statistical Reporting”. He has not received a response from Chief Powell. B. Case Study of 8/30/21 Sheetz Incident Catherine has uploaded the body camera footage received from the MPD. Rich emailed Chief Powell to set a date for a meeting but has not received a response. Rich will call Chief Powell and try to schedule a meeting on some date after the February 8, 2024 Public Forum. It will be set up as a special meeting of the Board. C. Board Vacancies Bob will prepare and circulate to the Board a list of those individuals who previously applied for membership on the Board and who had been interviewed by City Council. Bob’s email will also include a discussion of the requirements of Section 178.03(b)(5) of the CPRAB ordinance. Bob will also contact City Councilor Brian Butcher to check on City Council nominating two more individuals to bring the Board membership up to nine. 4. NEW BUSINESS A. 2023 Annual Report and 2024 Work Plan Prior to this meeting, Catherine took the initiative to prepare a draft of the Board’s Annual Report for 2023 including a Work Plan for 2024, as required by Section 178.06(a) of the CPRAB ordinance and Article XII(A) of the Board’s Bylaws. It was agreed that this was an excellent draft. Various specifics of Catherine’s draft were discussed in detail. It was agreed that Bob would put some technical/grammatical suggestions in writing and that Board members Bryan Church and Rachel Fetty, who could not be present at today’s meeting, would be asked to put comments on the draft in writing before the Board’s January meeting. B. Meeting Dates in 2024 It was agreed that the Board would continue to hold its regular monthly meetings on the second Thursday of each month. 5. Pursuant to Article VI(B)(2) of the Board’s Bylaws, an opportunity was provided for public comment. There was no public comment either in person or by Zoom. 6. The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m. on motion of Dady. Minutes prepared by Bob Cohen