City Council

Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES MINUTES FOR Meeting of June 17, 2021 As Approved by the City Council at their regular meeting of July 6, 2021. The public is advised that pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.5 all writings submitted to the City Council are public records and will be made available for review. Please note that minutes are not verbatim minutes and are meant to be the City’s record of a summary of actions that took place at the meeting. City Council video recording are kept for a period of one year from date of meeting. The public is advised that pursuant to Government Code section 54957.5 all writings submitted to the City Council are public records and will be made available for review. Notice: All resolutions and ordinances introduced and/or adopted under this agenda are waived of all reading of entire resolution(s) and ordinance(s). The Sebastopol City Council welcomes you to its meetings that are generally scheduled for the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month. Your interest and participation are encouraged and appreciated. SIMULTANEOUS MEETING COMPENSATION DISCLOSURE (Government Code § 54952.3): Members of the City Council receive no additional compensation as a result of convening a joint meeting of the City Council and Successor Agency to the Former Community Development Agency. SB 751 Legislative bodies of local agencies must publicly report: (1) any action taken and (2) the vote or abstention on each action taken by each member present for the action at a meeting. ****GOVERNOR’S EXECUTIVE ORDER N-29-20**** **RE CORONAVIRUS COVID-19** CITY COUNCL MEETINGS WILL BE CONDUCTED PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE GOVERNOR’S EXECUTIVE ORDERS WHICH SUSPENDS CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS OF THE RALPH M. BROWN ACT. This meeting complies with the Sonoma County Health Officer’s COVID-19 Order to Shelter in Place issued on March 17, 2020, and pursuant to California Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-29-20 issued on March 17, 2020. Government Code Section 54953. (a) All meetings of the legislative body of a local agency shall be open and public, and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting of the legislative body of a local agency, except as otherwise provided in this chapter. (b) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the legislative body of a local agency may use teleconferencing for the benefit of the public and the legislative body of a local agency in connection with any meeting or proceeding authorized by law. The teleconferenced meeting or proceeding shall comply with all requirements of this chapter and all otherwise applicable provisions of law relating to a specific type of meeting or proceeding. Page 1 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 1 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 (2) Teleconferencing, as authorized by this section, may be used for all purposes in connection with any meeting within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body. All votes taken during a teleconferenced meeting shall be by rollcall. CORONAVIRUS DISEASE (COVID-19) ADVISORY To protect our constituents, City officials and City staff, the City requests all members of the public to follow the California Department of Health Services’ guidance and the County of Sonoma’s Public Health Officer Order for the Control of COVID-19 restricting group events and gatherings and maintaining social distancing. Consistent with Executive Order N-29-20, in-person participation by the public will not be permitted and no physical location from which the public may observe the meeting will be available. Remote public participation information is available on the City website. NOTICE: All Resolutions and Ordinances introduced and/or adopted under this agenda are waived of all reading of entire resolution(s) and ordinance(s). The Sebastopol City Council welcomes you remotely to its meetings that are generally scheduled for the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month. Your interest and participation are encouraged and appreciated. SIMULTANEOUS MEETING COMPENSATION DISCLOSURE (Government Code § 54952.3): Members of the City Council receive no additional compensation as a result of convening a joint meeting of the City Council and Successor Agency to the Former Community Development Agency. SB 751 Legislative bodies of local agencies must publicly report: (1) any action taken and (2) the vote or abstention on each action taken by each member present for the action at a meeting. City Council Regular Meetings are available in real time and archived on Livestream. Important Notice The City of Sebastopol shows both live broadcasts and Video Archive of City Council Meetings over the Internet. Your attendance at this public meeting may result in the recording and broadcast of your image and/or voice. Here is the link: http://bit.ly/sebcctv There are times that the meetings may not be live streamed due to technical issues; if that is the case, the meeting will be video-taped and uploaded as soon as possible to the City Web Site. Anyone using abusive, vulgar, offensive, threatening, or harassing language, personal attacks of any kind or offensive terms that target specific individuals or groups will be muted and removed from the meeting. 6:00 pm Convene Special City Council Meeting (ZOOM VIRTUAL FORMAT) CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Glass called the regular meeting to order at 6:07 p.m. ROLL CALL: Present: Mayor Una Glass – By video teleconference Vice Mayor Sarah Glade Gurney – By video teleconference Councilmember Neysa Hinton – By video teleconference Councilmember Diana Rich – By video teleconference Councilmember Patrick Slayter – By video teleconference Absent: None Staff: City Manager/City Attorney Larry McLaughlin Page 2 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 2 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 Assistant City Manager/City Clerk Mary Gourley Administrative Services Director Ana Kwong Police Chief Kevin Kilgore SALUTE TO THE FLAG: Mayor Glass led the salute to the flag. Mayor Glass read the COVID 19 Protocols. PUBLIC COMMENT FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA: There were none. PRESENTATION: 1. Independent Review of Sebastopol Police Dept. As part of its mission to better serve the community, the Sebastopol City Council commissioned an independent review of the Sebastopol Police Department focusing on the Department’s overall policies, practices, training, and organizational culture in the summer of 2020. The City sought an objective review and analysis that puts SPD’s operations into a broader framework of best practices and potential reforms. The report has now been concluded and will be presented to the Council. Mayor Glass commented as follows: • This is an independent review of the Sebastopol Police Department focusing on the department's overall policies, practices, training, and organizational culture in the summer of 2020. • The report has now been concluded and will be presented to the Council. • I'm very pleased that we have engaged to review our Police Department in light of the George Floyd killing and the many other problems. • They're beyond problems, the terrible injustices that were going on last year and have been going on for many centuries, actually. • It became very clear that our city with our values needed to respond to the crisis that was at hand. • I called up Jerry Threet who happens to be a resident of Sebastopol and who has a reputation for doing a thorough and objective response and analysis of law enforcement practices at the kind of level that I think would be compatible with our community. • I felt we needed, and I know all my colleagues felt the same way, that we needed a review of our Police Department that our constituents would feel confident in, that they would feel that the results were something they could believe in and that they felt they weren't just getting a whitewash. • That's why we retained Mr. Threet to do this analysis. • It has provided us a great deal of analysis as decisionmakers, but it has also provided a great deal of information to our new Police Chief, which is giving him a basis for getting the policies and procedures in our department particularly lined up with what our community values are. • I thank very much Mr. Threet for the work he's done and also for our new Chief, Kevin Kilgore and our interim Chief, Don Mort. • With that, I'm going to pass it onto Mr. Threet to present his findings. Mr. Threet commented as follows: • It's good to be here with you with this report, which is the public report of the independent review of the Sebastopol Police Department. Page 3 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 3 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • I want to take a few minutes to thank some folks who facilitated this review. • City Manager McLaughlin, interim Chief Mort, Assistant City Manager Gourley, and Tracy Peters of the Police Department. • I also want to say it's been very rewarding to work with Chief Kilgore since he came on board at the department, and I look forward to seeing how he moves the department forward as we get started there. • Also, before we get started I want to say a word about the timing. • It was my hope to have this hearing a little bit before now, but there were several factors that delayed it. • Mayor Glass spoke a little bit about that. • It did take a little bit longer to gain some access to records than we anticipated. • There's good reasons for that. • This is a very small department and every time someone was helping me, they were taken off their regular duties and the staffing has been short over at the department. • It's just taken a little bit longer than we expected. • Also, there's been a great deal of transition at the department. • Even while I was working on this report, there's been a great deal of transition. • That means you need to talk to more people and get different perspectives and sometimes it just takes a little bit longer. • Then, finally, I had to take off the entire month of February to handle some personal issues which were unanticipated. • But we're here today, we're ready to talk about the report and I'm very happy that we're here. Mr. Threet provided a slide show presentation to the Council. The Council discussed the process. Mayor Glass commented as follows: • At this time, I think maybe if we just ask you questions right now, some of them may be actually answered if we ask Chief Kilgore and Chief Mort to respond first and then we move to Council questions, because they may have something to say that is pertinent to what Mr. Threet stated, so we don't want to be asking questions that may be answered. • At this time, I think we should move on to asking Chief Kilgore and interim Chief Mort who was prior to Chief Kilgore if they have anything they would like to say in response to Mr. Threet's report. Chief Kilgore commented as follows: • First, I would like to thank Mr. Threet for the time he spent looking in depth into the processes we had in place and are moving forward from those. • You'll note that in the report not only did they provide the recommendations at the conclusion, but he also noted our response to those recommendations on things that have been accomplished already and things that are continuing to be accomplished as we use this document basically as my road map in moving the department forward. • Prior to my arrival here on March 1st, interim Chief Mort spent approximately seven months with the department and really started those processes moving forward and those processes have continued. • I have immense thanks for Chief Mort's implementation of many of these things already. Page 4 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 4 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • So the community knows, as I move forward, and as our department moves forward, I'm looking at this document as a roadmap for the things we are looking to do to accomplish the goals and the recommendations set forth. • Also, please know that this is a heavy lift. • This department has been in existence for 130 years. • Interim Chief Mort and I are not able to make changes overnight and instantly. • It's going to take a significant amount of time. • It may take well beyond 24-months to accomplish some of the goals and recommendations that are put forward and we really have to look at these recommendations with a critical eye and make sure that the things that are being recommended are also things that incorporate the values that our community has, the values that our department has, the values that our city has, and how we can incorporate those that best fit all of those puzzle pieces going forward. • Just keep those things in mind. • As Mr. Threet pointed out, we are a small agency. • We don't have a lot of staff and it takes staff to do these things. • At a time when we are facing critical fiscal responsibilities that we need to make sure we're tending to, we're asking our folks and I'm asking our folks to do more with less, which means we've added onto the time that these things can be accomplished. • Just know that things are moving forward and progress sometimes is quick and many times it's slow, but we are making progress. • Many of the things Mr. Threet speaks about in the report have been understood. • I don't have a whole lot of concerns with the recommendations he has made. • I think they are all things that are doable, but in that same breath I want to make sure everyone knows they're doable over a time period that may not be a quick time period. • With that, I'll turn it over the interim Chief Mort for any further comments. • I'm happy to provide any input to any questions that anyone has. Chief Mort commented as follows: • I concur with everything Chief Kilgore stated. • I do want to touch on one thing that Mr. Threet did talk about, the staff, the personnel. • The current employees that you have in that department are on board and do want to become a great department and do the right thing. • There's been challenges. • There's been things we're working on, but you do have a good departmental staff and people who want to step to the plate to do the right thing for that department. • That's very important for the community to know. • It does take time. • It's going to take time. • It took time for the department to get to the level it's at now and it's going to take time to rebuild it to where it should be. • I have faith in the current Chief and the employees that are there. • I look forward to watching as it continues on because I do have an interest to see what happens over the next couple years. • I'm ready to answer any questions you may have during my tenure there as well. • The support of the department is crucial to everything that's going to take place. • It doesn't take one person to change it. Page 5 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 5 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • It takes the entire department. Mayor Glass asked for questions. Vice Mayor Gurney commented as follows: • This is a general question and I'm not expecting an answer this evening. • I'm very interested in the recommendation to move forward and accomplish full staffing, that that would solve the morale problems, and some performance problems. It would help allow officers to go to training. • There are many reasons to do that. • My question would be, how does the cost of full staffing compare to the cost of the additional overtime? • We've all been in these discussions about the budget, and we have one coming up next Monday too. • That's just a key question we might all have. • Is there a savings when you go to full staffing? Is it going to cost more? • Like I say, we might benefit in our budget discussions if we knew those numbers. Chief Mort commented as follows: • It's not a matter of a small department. • What's crucial and what's missed in this is that the overtime becomes almost too much overtime to meet that staffing. • We start adding up costs. • It's not just the cost of the overtime hours. • It's the cost of the wear and tear on the physical and mental condition of the staffing that takes place that you really can't put a figure on and the burnout factor, which leads to employees maybe slipping just a little bit because they're fried. • It's a difficult question to balance, to get a hard-core figure on it, if that makes any sense? Chief Kilgore commented as follows: • I would concur with Chief Mort. • As we move forward, and hopefully as we start to begin to come out of this pandemic and look at more positive fiscal years to come over the next 3-5 years, our hope is that not only do we become fully staffed, but that we can possibly increase that as well because what we have seen is that the mental and physical wellness of our folks who are out here doing this daily work every day are suffering. • It's not just the burnout. • It's the fact that they're here on a regular basis. • They're here with very little time off. They're not spending time with their families. • That wears on someone mentally and physically and those are all things that need to be considered. • There is valuable savings, both fiscally and in other areas such as wellness when it comes to being fully staffed. • The other thing too that plays into this is that when we do have folks who are working so much, it also creates a greater opportunity for them to be injured on duty, which now creates a negative impact for the department as well where we go back into that role of more overtime as well. Page 6 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 6 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 Mayor Glass commented as follows: • I'm thinking, Chief Kilgore, that it probably would be very useful to the Council if you could have a very simple analysis of where we stand in terms of staffing now versus where we might be able to stand in the next fiscal year, because I know we've had a number of people that are out on disability and I'm not quite sure where all that stands. • I think it's kind of unclear where we're going. • When we talk about full staffing, what does that mean, because we've been hampered by having so many people out on disability to moving into replacing people because it's not clear whether they're coming back, et cetera. • If you could prepare maybe your short thoughts about that with a little bit more monetary information for our meeting on Monday, I think everybody would find that extremely illuminating and useful. • I know that's a very short time frame. Chief Kilgore commented I don't know if I'll be able to have the monetary values associated with that, but I will be at least able to have a summary for you regarding an overview of where we are with our current staffing, where we're looking to be and where we would like to get to. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • Mr. Threet, thank you for the report, the thoroughness, the broad brush and the deep inquiry are really appreciated and also, it's very pleasing to hear as a City Council person that you got such a high level of cooperation from the people with whom you were dealing with in leadership. • That makes your results and recommendations much more reliable for us. • My main question when I look at all of this, a lot of suggestions here and I looked through all of the list of, I think, over 50 recommendations in the report, each one of which included a response and kind of a status report. • I look at this and my biggest question is, how can all this get done? • I don't think it's just a money thing. Money is clearly a factor here. It's also just, bandwidth, energy, and ability to focus. • Yes, I understand that full staffing is the first question, but Chief Kilgore, we're talking training on multiple levels, we're talking complete revision and review of your internal policies on a variety of topics, really ongoing self-examination that Mr. Threet is recommending in terms of policing patterns, that kind of thing, a lot of community engagement time, the website update. • I look at all this and I say to myself, it's hugely important, but as a City Council person, then I say to you what do you need from us to actually make this happen? • It's a big question and maybe you can't answer it now. • What do you need in order to make all this happen, assuming this City Council has the oomph to do what you need for it? • Those are all things that need to be considered. Chief Kilgore commented as follows: • I think there are a few things that are definite needs. • Number one is the continued support I have from all of you, because I think that's the most important thing. • The second thing is your patience. It's going to take time. • The third thing is that I fully understand the fiscal impacts the City has had as a result of the pandemic and where we are moving forward as far as the budget goes with that. Page 7 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 7 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • I understand that I, and our department are going to have to make this heavy lift where we are right now, and hopefully when we get to a point where we're starting to see positive fiscal impacts to our city, we may be able to get to a point where administrative help is something that we can discuss and possibly be provided that will help us with this heavy lift. • It does take all of us, and when I say all of us, it's not just all of us at the Police Department. • It's us here in the City, the community, the Council, and so it is something I might be reaching out to some of you asking for your help on that heavy lift that we have because of all the things that are happening. • I think that there are often times misperceptions of what occurs in a police department and things that are required of a police department, and one of those things is that sometimes community members may feel our officers are just out there enforcing laws or driving around and trying to prevent crime. • What you're not seeing is all the things that happen behind the scenes. • All the requirements that are legislative requirements and laws that we have to meet. • The requirements that are required of us by the California Peace Officers Standards and Training, known as POST. • That is a state body that governs our approval as a law enforcement entity in the State of California, and so there are a lot of working parts that are happening behind the scenes. • We're kind of like a clock, where you see the front face of the clock and the two hands that are moving. • You just don't see all the stuff that's happening behind. • There's a lot of stuff happening behind. • I think those are the major things that will be needed. • We will work through the impacts that we have had on the budget as we can, and we know that will take time as well, but as we start to see some positive impacts to our fiscal budget going forward, I think that looking at how we can really utilize the resources that we have in existence within the City right now. • Then also possibly adding to those resources as we move into the future. Councilmember Rich commented as follows: • You look at a police audit like this and it's easy to focus, and appropriate to focus on what needs to be done in the future, but I am getting a message of hope and opportunity from you, and I guess I'm looking for reinforcement of that message. • This is a serious issue that we're tackling here, and yet it's clear to me from your report that this is a staff that's hungry for training and very willing to leap in there to do more community engagement with leadership that has embraced your suggestions and actually, as I look through all of those, has already revised a lot of policies and moved forward. • In terms of the potential, are we getting that message of hope appropriately? • Is that really there? • And if so, what would you recommend other than funding for moving staffing along, which is not just funding, it's getting staff? • Other than that, what would you recommend we consider doing to make all this happen? Mr. Threet commented as follows: • Well, I would say that yes, you are getting the message correct. • I'm actually very impressed with the staff of the department. Page 8 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 8 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • I will say I didn't get to meet everyone and talk with everyone, and I do understand that there are some folks that are more challenging than others in the department, just like any other department, but overall I think this is a department that has staff members who are truly dedicated to community service. • They're in it for the right reasons. • They really have pride in the department and want to serve the public, and that's what they're all about. • When they told me what they wanted, it was completely in line with what I thought the experts in the field think community policing should be. • I think that the staff is ready for the leadership that the Chief appears to be providing at this point, and I think that they're going to move forward, and it's going to be a great improvement. • That's the way I see it. • I'm going to have my eye on it, because I am very hopeful, and I love to see things come to fruition like that. • What would I recommend? • I do think what the Chief said is important. • I think the Council needs to stay involved at the level where they can support the Chief in what he needs to achieve these goals. Because it is a heavy lift. • The benefit I have in doing a report like this is I don't have to figure out how it gets done. • I make the recommendations. • The real work comes with the Chief and the staff day after day making those things happen. • I think that they can do that with your support. Mayor Glass commented as follows: • I actually wanted to bring out a particular initiative that the Council may be pursuing here in the next week and ask Chief Kilgore what impact he thinks that this could have, whether this resource will be helpful, if it will have an impact on the load that is currently on our Police Department? • That's that the City Council is currently considering funding a homeless outreach worker through West County Community Services (WCCS), or through a social services contractor that would work closely with your Police Department as well as charities and activists and the community in general to do outreach to our unhoused population. • Then I also understand, Chief, that you have been getting into the CAHOOTS loop also, and I thought you might want to make some comments about that. Chief Kilgore commented as follows: • I think that looking at a model where we do have a community advocate or a community social worker who's assessing some of our unhoused community issues that we're seeing, mental health issues, things of that nature, is a positive thing, not only for the community, but for the Police Department. • Many of our resources and our time is spent dealing with some of the complex issues that face our unhoused, unsheltered communities, and those who are suffering from mental crises as well. • Having that group or having a person who is assigned to do that, working in partnership with the Police Department, is something that I believe and wholeheartedly think is going to have a positive outcome for us. • We are also very lucky to have been able to secure a spot to have our city studied as part of the CAHOOTS model in a recent study that is now happening with some other neighboring Sonoma County cities. Page 9 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 9 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • We have been able to secure that. • They are going to start looking at our data to provide us with an overview of what that CAHOOTS model may look like, and if it's one that can be done in a collaborative partnership with our surrounding cities as well, which I think in my first look at this from the outside, without knowing what the calls are and the numbers that go with that data, that collaborative partnership sharing approach to this I think is beneficial for Sebastopol and county agencies as well. • It is something that's positive, it is something that would be helpful for us. • We dedicated a lot of resources to that. • We were out today handing out popsicles and letting our unhoused community know about the cooling center that has opened up, and our technician has taken a proactive role in reaching out to our unsheltered community and then also reaching out to our community advocates to get the resources for our unhoused community, to have that partnership and that resource available. • The short answer to your question is that that is something that's positive that I support. Mayor Glass opened for public comment. Jim Duffy commented as follows: • Thank you for holding this hearing and taking my comments. • Mr. Threet's note says the Chief says there was a lack of cooperation from some union leaders and staff. • Going forward, when you establish a civilian oversight partner, it's authorizing legislation must include a directive for all Police Department staff to fully cooperate with the oversight agency. • The report noted some employees stated that they had issues in their background that caused difficulties with their attempts to be hired by other agencies yet were not barriers at SPD. • It would be valuable for the community to know the nature of these issues. • The report notes some employees viewed the union as sometimes reflecting a personal interest of its leaders more than the interests of the union members, a minority of employees believed the union was a disruptive element in the workplace and that some union leaders bullied employees. • The City Council should investigate these allegations. • Mr. Threet's important recommendation for bystander training, also known as community training, reduces litigation expenses and shifts the culture, and we all know that culture eats policy for breakfast. • SPD's response to several of Mr. Threet's recommendations was that the department is taking such action under Chief Kilgore. • This means that under the current department leadership, the recommendations are accepted but when leadership changes the recommendations may be discarded. • If the City Council supports any recommendations that were responded to, thusly they should direct staff to change the written policy. • Community hiring and promotion panels are great. • Congratulations on implementing them. • The City should form a community group to inform the structure for civilian oversight of the City. • As Mr. Threet said, do that in a year, give it time. • The report is probably going to be focused on front-end oversight like policies, and training procedures, rather than reviews of law enforcement officers. Page 10 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 10 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • Recommend you forget the Chief's advisory board model as it fails on the basic principle of independence and runs the risk of being viewed as an attempt to not have independent oversight. • Many civil rights organizers were under the mistaken impression that this City Council was going to embrace an ordinance at the same time this report was being heard. • A discussion of the programs operating in Sebastopol should be agendized soon. • Thank you for taking my comments. JoJo Sanders commented as follows: • I'm a longtime resident. • To start off, I want to express my appreciation to Mr. Threet for his time and energy that went into that report. Thank you for that. • I want to say that I'm in support of many of the recommendations in this report, particularly the suggestion of a civilian oversight committee as well as formal policies on accountability and the strengthening of the internal and external accountability systems. • In my mind those are the most important things mentioned. • I'm also glad to hear Sebastopol would be participating in the study about CAHOOTS. • I had two questions about that. • First, what's the time frame of that? • A couple months or a year? • Just to have an idea about that. • Is that being conducted by the CAHOOTS program? • Is that an outside group? • I would like to know a little bit more about that. • I'm really glad that we are participating in that and that that might mean in the future adopting the CAHOOTS program and participating in that. • Again, thank you to Mr. Threet for all the hard work, and thank you to the Council and Mayor Glass for taking the time to hear my comments. Courtney commented as follows: • I was a little late coming to the special meeting but I really appreciate it was held today. • I came in at the part that I care about most, which is our unsheltered community members. • I just have to say that I really, really appreciate what Chief Kilgore was saying about how one of his colleagues is very passionate about serving these people in a positive way, offering water bottles, popsicles, directions to cooling centers, et cetera. • That makes me extremely happy. • It almost brought tears to my eyes. • I hope we can strength than allyship. • I also support an oversight committee. • I think that that's probably a good thing, especially with the contentiousness that surrounds policing these days. • I absolutely support supporting the mental health and staffing of the Police Department to make sure that morale is high, that people feel like they're not being burnt out, and I also support anti- racist training and opportunities to make sure that that does not factor into our peace officer careers. • That's all I would like to say. Page 11 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 11 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • Thank you so much. Steven Zollman commented as follows: • Thank you to the Council for facilitating this audit. • Thank you to Mr. Threet. • I have two comments and a question. • My first comment is that I was very concerned. • I serve and have served on a number of our nonprofits and was also the City's Library Commissioner. • I was very concerned to hear that as part of our last commission meeting, which involved nonprofits trying to serve our unsheltered and most marginalized, that the day after a huge convening where it seemed like everybody was holding hands and getting along that all the folks on Morris Street received tickets to move. • That seemed very disturbing to me that there's a huge disconnect about what our Council is putting forward and what our Chief is actually doing. • Second comment is that, yes, I do wholeheartedly embrace the recommendations and I would like them to be implemented as soon as possible. • My question is, is the Chief and department's commitment to following best practices of similarly situated jurisdictions? • Because some of us have not lived here for that long and have lived in cities that have been seen as being far more progressive in their policing than Sebastopol. • I would like to know or see a report on how similarly sized jurisdictions have implemented similar policies and recommendations given the budget that this department currently has, which consists of 50% of our taxpayers' dollars. • I would like to see a report either through the Chief about how similarly situated jurisdictions can implement these in a similar time frame, and if he cannot, why he cannot. Kyle Falbo commented as follows: • First, I want to give thanks to Mr. Threet’s diligent work seen here tonight. • My comments tonight are to remind the public and the Council historically of the glaring hole in the proposed scope of work that Mr. Threet's presentation was to be merely a piece of. • June 23, 2020, Council discussion recognizing the need the way the police budget is currently presented and the desire for increased transparency. • June 30th, 2020, Councilmember Gurney emphasized the need to look at how the police are using their time and money and at this time Council suggestion of both a citizen committee as well as the role of social service professionals. • Mayor Slayter at this meeting suggested where we spend our money is on is on the list of things we need to take a look at, specifically citing budgetary changes where changes needed to be made. • July 21st, 2020, Mr. Threet offered 20 hours per week • Based on proposed phase one I calculate 180 to 270 hours. Based on Mr. Threet's offer of time this equates to nine to fourteen weeks • Mr. Threet himself was ambiguous in his assessment of the timeline. As of this week, we're closing in on 40 to 50 weeks well beyond the nine to fourteen weeks. • Why is this delay so noteworthy? • It was suggested that the scope of work at the July 21st meeting that a community bulletin and facilitation component be submitted but the Council was unable to secure a facilitator. Page 12 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 12 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • No further proposal was put forward and Mayor Slayter mentioned that this aspect would return very soon. • Loose timeline was discussed for a community committee panel to take place near Labor Day of 2020. • Councilmember Hinton stated she heard loud and clear that the public wanted the police budget to be reduced, that she was well aware of the large percentage of the budget going to police services and cited specific numbers in the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually that are paid in overtime, overtime connected to mutual aid requests. • Two additional times Councilmember Hinton called for a fiscal audit of the financials. • It was clear the Mr. Threet's scope was not to include financial audit but the massive delay in the presentation of Mr. Threet’s work should not have given the Council a pass to delay both the implementation of Phase 2 community input as well as the requested financial audit. • Of note, we still don't have any financials described as phase 2 of the Council’s proposal while the police budget increased 17% from the 2019-2020 budget. • I reflect on the work of CoMission that has now cost the City well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and an all-day event that was recently held. • So much planning and vision went into this event yet there was no panel discussion related to Sebastopol policing nearly a year after this concept was structured within the scope of work our Council put forward. • Mr. Threet cited 24 departmental employees. • That still gives Sebastopol more police per capita than any other municipality in the County • What is happening in the other municipalities that allows them to work on thinner margins than our own? Katrina Phillips commented as follows: • I'd like to thank you mayor and Council for hosting this meeting, first of all. • Again, I would also like to thank Mr. Threet for such a thorough report and I truly recommend that everybody reads it word by word. • It's invaluable. • Chief Kilgore and Chief Mort, thank you very much for your input. • I'm the chair of the Sonoma County Commission on Human Rights. • I want to you know that I'm open to communication as a liaison with the community as always improving the relationship between you, your department, and every department in Sonoma County within the community, and I thank you for your commitment. Suzanne commented as follows: • First, I wish to thank all participants, everyone we've heard today. • I'm not going to go through all the names. • My view of what's happening with police is that there's some vast giant steps that are really, really good. • It's true, we have to collaborate, all of us. • My name is Suzanne Lande, and I live here, have for a long time, and also I'm one of the volunteers who worked to help on Morris Street when there was some funding to fix vehicles, and we definitely collaborated with the police. • I appreciate them. • My one question is related to CAHOOTS. Page 13 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 13 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • I know that Chief Kilgore said that there's collaboration with cities south of us, but what about unincorporated towns like Forestville, Guerneville, Graton, any of them, the Sheriff's Department? • I'm hoping there could be some CAHOOTS training and collaboration with them. • I really like the idea of CAHOOTS and the mental health aspect. • That's really my main thing to say. Mayor Glass responded to public comments as follows: • Mr. Duffy indicated a concern that we weren't going over the surveillance technology ordinance or the possibility for that, and I'm thinking that that is going to be something that, as we determine what further action we're going to take in the future in terms of monitoring the results of Mr. Threet’s report and any kind of ordinances that we need to enact in response or written policy changes, that we will take that into account. • We will need to be doing an agenda item in the near future to take into account how we're moving forward in action in response to Mr. Threet’s report. • We're not ignoring that. • We're going to move forward and take a look at that. • Jojo asked about the CAHOOTS time frame on the CAHOOTS study and who is doing it, and Chief, I think that you can respond to that. Chief Kilgore commented as follows: • I don't have the time frame as to how long it will take. • The consultant who's doing that is gathering all the data, but we're not the only City that he is addressing right now as well. • It may take a few months for him to get that done. • I don't know, he's not provided me with a time frame at this point. • The person who is doing it is a consultant who used to work for CAHOOTS and has a very strong intimate knowledge of CAHOOTS and the CAHOOTS model, he's very familiar with the model, very familiar with the data that is needed as we move forward to look to see if this is something that can be brought to fruition here. Mayor Glass commented as follows: • Mr. Zollman asked about following up best practices, how similarly sized cities are engaging in what would seem to be more progressive best practices and he was asking for a report on how we plan to implement the recommendations. Chief Kilgore commented as follows: • if you have some cities that you have in mind that you're considering, please feel free to let me know of those cities and I'll see what the comparison may be and look at it from that point. • I think from my standpoint, I have been here since March 1st, and so sometimes when you have someone who's been here for a very long period of time, progressiveness sometimes is stalled and a department becomes stagnant. • Now, with new leadership in place who is not from here, not from the area, but comes from a very progressive department as well, I think that that's my job to lead that progressiveness as we move forward, and we've already started taking some of those actions. • We'll continue to look at the progressiveness that we can make here in Sebastopol with the staffing that we have. Page 14 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 14 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • I'd also like to address the Morris Street comment that you provided. • As Ms. Lande can attest, we have worked collaboratively with our community advocates on Morris Street. • There was a misperception and a miscommunication that the Police Department was actually out there doing enforcement that had not been done by prior administrations, and that was incorrect. • What we did is we first went out and had conversations with our Morris Street community to let them know of what our goal was, which is, number one, to treat everybody fairly and equitably across the city, and number two, to work with our community advocates to try to provide the resources for them that they need. • We're not specifically looking at the camping issues that are happening on Morris Street. • However, we do have to address other vehicle issues that are present. • Such as 72-hour parking, unregistered vehicles for many months to many years, and also leaking fluids and sewage from vehicles. • There's a misperception that we were going to start taking enforcement action, instead we are helping the folks with our community advocate groups to have their vehicles be legal to be parked on the roadway and also not create a situation where the vehicles that were leaking fluids and sewage were creating more significant work for our Public Works Department and also creating a public health hazard as well. • The tickets that you were informed about did not occur any differently than what occurred in the last five years. • The data is there to prove that. • Our contacts were consistent. • The greater stuff that we took was the conversation with our unsheltered community and with our community advocates and, as Ms. Lande mentioned, it has become a collaborative partnership as we approach the issues to try to provide resources for our unhoused community. Mayor Glass responded to public comments as follows: • Question from Mr. Falbo was, why are other cities in the county able to provide policing with less, I believe it was the per capital ratio that he was trying to address. • He is saying that we have more police and we're spending more per capita than other cities, that was his question. Chief Kilgore commented as follows: • I think the number that I would compare us to is Cloverdale, and Cloverdale is also experiencing the same issues that we've experienced with understaffing with a similar sized community and significant overtime as well. • Some agencies that may not be experiencing the same types of things that we've experienced where we have had several officers off at the same time due to injuries and due to other family medical leave matters. • When it comes to that, that's where that comparison comes to. • I think the other thing, too, that has to be considered second is that Sebastopol is a destination city, where as other cities may not be a destination city. • When you have a downtown similar to ours or a place for arts and recreation within our city, we have more people who are coming into the city than what others may be experiencing. • If there's a specific number that you're looking at, I'm happy to look at those numbers as well. • Very open to that conversation. Page 15 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 15 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 Mayor Glass responded to public comments as follows: • Question from Ms. Lande and it was about the CAHOOTS model and collaboration with unincorporated towns, and I don't know if you've heard anything about that, Chief Kilgore, whether you're hearing that any of the work being done in CAHOOTS is also involving the county of Sonoma or only involving cities at this point? Chief Kilgore commented as follows: • Right now it's only involving some of the cities because the County has the MST team that responds to mental health calls for service. • I don't know if they've explored the CAHOOTS model. • Since the County Sheriff's Department is the law enforcement agency within the unincorporated areas, it would be something they would be dealing directly with. Mayor Glass commented as follows: • There's actually a lot of movement with the CDC and the COC, which are the agencies that deal with the unhoused to developing a strategic plan and shared resources to address things in more of a regional way. • I go to a lot of meetings that are countywide meetings, and everybody just keeps talking about how fragmented everything is. • Problem is we keep talking about how fragmented everything is and haven’t solved it yet. • At least there is more movement happening. • I'm going to regular meetings with a Sonoma County group about how to collaborate more on unhoused issues, and we are making some significant progress. • There is a new director of the CDC that actually used to be a city manager, both in Sonoma and in Healdsburg I think it was, and he is much more city oriented rather than only, like, siloed in county universe. • He understands that we need to collaborate between unincorporated and people that live within the boundaries of cities. • I think everybody's hoping for more movement towards collaboration and having a more unified system so that we can act in a more effective way. • But once again, as Mr. Threet said and then as Chief Kilgore said, after years and years of these systems being so siloed, it's going to take a while to solve these problems. • With that I think I've gotten through everybody's questions from the public. Mayor Glass re-opened for public comment. There was no further comments. Mayor Glass commented as follows: • In summary I'm thinking we need to agendize in the near future how we are going to monitor taking action on this. • We did not agendize taking any action at this meeting. • I think we're going to need to have an agenda item in the near future to make sure that we are monitoring the report, the recommendations that Mr. Threet gave us, and monitoring, with the assistance of our Police Chief, the progress that we are making on those recommendations. • We need to agendize that and additionally, take a look at the recommendations and see what specific ordinances or written policies we may need to put in place that are in response to Mr. Threet’s recommendations. Page 16 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 16 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • I'm expecting that we'll get a staff report from our Chief about any specific things we need to put in place that are written ordinances that are in response to Mr. Threet’s recommendations. Councilmember Slayter commented as follows: • On that last point you were discussing, Mayor Glass, the next steps and those things, and you're absolutely right that that is not on this agenda. • What we are here to do is receive the report, have the community receive the report. • I believe it was Ms. Phillips who mentioned to read every single word. • I can say as a member of the law enforcement committee, I've done that a number of times and I would agree wholeheartedly that it is well worth reading cover to cover. • It's not a page turner, but it's incredibly interesting reading. • The work that has gone into it is substantial. • Yes, it took longer than what we anticipated. • Some of the challenges that we've all been through this last year, honestly, for us to have initiated this process with somebody who is so well qualified as Mr. Threet, it was remarkable we were able to pull that off in and of itself in a lot of ways. • It was to have a report that was objective, completely objective. • In some of the research that Mayor Glass and I went through, and in initially looking at possibilities for this report, or the analysis that led to this report, what we found in many communities across the country is that when a police department audit occurs, it's done by a retired police officer who maybe worked in the next town over. • You can imagine the objectivity that is delivered by those kinds of audits. • That's not the kind of audit that we were after. • I think that what we have here is a really useful and worthwhile document. • My suggestion would be for the law enforcement committee to get together and discuss what to put in an agenda item to bring to the full Council for approval on the part of the full Council, and we can hear from the public again, of course, also. • Because the document outlines so many recommendations, and we can't just do all of them all at once, and it doesn't make sense to do all of them all at once in so many ways. • A lot of them, honestly, have already been well started. • Kudos to the interim Chief and new Chief for moving on that so rapidly. • I think that what we need to do is, the subcommittee should meet and put together an agenda item with a proposed overview of what the schedule would look like for implementing changes. • I think a lot of this is going to be informed by what we learned with the research from the CAHOOTS model, it's not necessarily exactly related, but they're certainly adjacent. • The budget discussion and the item for providing homeless outreach services in a coordinated way being provided by somebody who is a professional in that field and using all the community energy that we have, Ms. Lande and the group of advocates and Mr. George and all those people, let's do that the right way. • I think that that is certainly something that the Police Department can be a part of and have good input in. • Finally, the last thought I have is, I don't remember you saying this, Chief Kilgore, this evening, but I think that it would be good for the Council and staff and the community to hear your explanation of your expertise in the field of implicit bias and anti-implicit bias training. • To me, that was a big, big part of why you fit so well here. • You have that deep knowledge and understanding, given the expertise you have and the trainings you put together. Page 17 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 17 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • If I might lean on you just a little bit to describe your expertise in that, that would be great. Chief Kilgore commented as follows: • For those of you who don't know my history, in 2015 I was the sergeant with the UCLA Police Department and I oversaw the personnel and training department. • In that year our department was sued for a –case. The result was that our department would be trained in procedural justice and implicit bias. • I was given the opportunity to look at a variety of different courses. • In looking at those courses and being asked to determine which one was the best for our department, I quickly realized that this was something that was personal to me and something that I felt that I could draft a class for as well. • I began working on that draft, ended up drafting an eight-hour training course that was later certified by the State of California's POST, which is Peace Officer Standards and Training, and that course was approved. • I have since been given the great opportunity to teach that course throughout the state of California. • It's not just a course that was written for law enforcement personnel. • It was a course that was written for and could be easily adapted to our communities, our City Council’s, our elected officials, and a variety of folks because what it comes down to is that there are four pillars of procedural justice. • Those are respect, giving people a voice, providing fair and objective neutral treatment, and establishing a foundation of trustworthiness. • Those all come as a result of just being a human. • Incorporated in that is implicit bias because we have, all of us, because we're human, have implicit biases. • Some folks have biases to different senses, whether that's sight or smell, and those biases come from when we are very young children and infants and the environments that we grow up in, the experiences that we have throughout our lives. • It's important to recognize that the implicit biases that we have are innate in all of us. • Those biases come in different ways. • As a member of the LGBTQ community, I've experienced biases that have been explicit, I've experienced biases that have been implicit in my own personal life, and I use that experience as I teach this course. • I think that that's what adds credibility to me in the role of teaching this course, developing this course, and bringing this course forward. • Not just in a teaching format, but in a modelling format that I try to do every single day, and model for others as well. • If you'd like to have more in-depth conversation on that, that's a little bit about that. • I've had the opportunity to teach that throughout the state of California. • It was approved with the department, and I am extremely proud to say that effective last week it is now a course that is owned by the Sebastopol Police Department and will be taught by us, too. Councilmember Hinton commented as follows: • Well, first of all, I just wanted to cover a couple of things. • I wanted to thank Mr. Threet for his report. • I was hesitant, I guess I would say, a year ago and I'm so pleased with the report. • I think it's an investment we were able to make in the city. Page 18 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 18 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • I've read it and I think it's something we can refer back to, and it's certainly not going to go on the shelf. • Thank you very much, Mr. Threet, for doing what I feel was a really great report, unbiased, and will make us a better city and our Police Department a better department. • Also, I wanted to thank our new Chief who it feels like you've been here a long time, Chief Kilgore, but again, since March. • Here we are. you're implementing things already that were within the report, and I have 100% confidence in you leading the department and moving us forward with best practices. The speech you just gave about your implicit bias training just proves it. • I think the City is on the right track and we're moving forward to modern policing in Sebastopol. • Having grown up here, I think we might have got a little off track with our traditions and it's time to bring us up to modern times. • I feel with this report, and the recommendations, and our new Chief implementing that, I understand, and I want to give you the time. • It's a big ocean liner that just can't pivot on a dime. • I know Mr. Threet is recommending a year. • You brought up 24 months, and I feel highly confident that we're making strides in the right direction. • I just wanted to thank you both, and our public for kind of calling for this in our times last year. • I do think it's an investment that will serve us well in the next two, three, five years and I really appreciate everybody. Vice Mayor Gurney commented as follows: • I want to thank Councilmember Hinton for her remarks because she just said how I was feeling. • At first, I was pretty apprehensive that we would get a result almost to our shame, that we were doing so much wrong that we knew our community didn't want to be happening. • I'm relieved that we seem on track, and that Mr. Threet has confidence in our department, and that we have Chief Mort and Chief Kilgore working with him, so immediately and thoroughly and collaboratively. • It took a lot of my anxiety about this away to hear you all through the reports that you've given. • I have much more confidence that we will do well. • I understand that it's going to take time, and that Chief Kilgore needs our support and our confidence in him, and our patience. • I will do my best at that. • I have to say, I'm not always a very patient person as a Councilmember. • I want things right now. • Let's just consider that future. • I want to check with Mayor Glass after those thank-yous, that I mean much more deeply than words say. • I want to ask her and Councilmember Slayter about next steps. • I heard them very differently, and I'm not sure where we're going now with next steps. • I sense Mayor Glass’ remarks were more like, let's put this on a future agenda pretty quickly and figure out how the whole Council wants to move forward on this. • Then I heard Councilmember Slayter say, no, let's take this aside to the law enforcement committee, which is himself and Mayor Glass, and have that committee run through the material and decide. Page 19 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 19 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 • I believe that since this is such a timely report that has so much substance to it, that the conversation should include all of us, and we don't have time or the ability to have that conversation tonight because of the way the agenda has been written. • Personally, I would prefer that it was a five-member conversation from the start, and also done in public rather than a conversation between two Council members, well intended, well informed, well engaged on this issue, but yet not available to the public in that deliberation between the two of you. • I think my preference would be that it come back for all of us having maybe at the most a month on this. • Having the budget situation and the Capital Improvement Program and do all that, but have it come back with, maybe a meeting or two's worth of reflection to look at some choices here and look at what we sense from our experience of this conversation and input from the public on what might be the priorities. • Also give the Chief some opportunity to reflect upon tonight's meeting, public comment, and our comments on the report and see how it shakes down so we can have a meaningful public discussion about our timeline, our priorities, and how we want to engage in the recommendations of the report. • I'm looking for what I thought was Mayor Glass’ idea of a next step which would be a public discussion of how we want to own this report and take action with input from the Chief. Mayor Glass commented as follows: • I believe that we do need to put that on the agenda in the very near future. • There does need to be a public discussion about how we move forward. • However, Councilmember Slayter and I have been working with Mr. Threet on this for a year. • I think if Councilmember Slayter and I need to get to work really quickly and help put together the staff report along with Chief Kilgore so that we can just organize the ideas, and then very rapidly have a full Council discussion on this, I don't think this needs to be us deliberating for the next three months figuring out what to do. • I think that Councilmember Slayter and I could, the two of us together, could put together an agenda item that is cohesive since we've been bouncing off each other and working on this with Mr. Threet for many months now. • I would say, let's get it on the agenda for July or early August at the latest, and that the law enforcement subcommittee will get together with Chief Kilgore and make sure that we've got all the items on the agenda so that we can all have a comprehensive discussion with the entire Council. The Council thanked Mr. Threet for his report. City Council Action: No action taken. City Council received the report. Minute Order Number: 2021-134 ADJOURNMENT OF CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING Meeting will be adjourned to the City Council Regular Meeting of June 21st 2021 Special City Council Meeting at 6:00 pm. (VIRTUAL ZOOM PLATFORM) ADJOURNMENT OF CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING Mayor Glass adjourned the meeting at 8:24 pm. Page 20 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 20 of 21  Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Minutes of June 17, 2021 Respectfully Submitted: Mary C. Gourley Assistant City Manager/City Clerk, MMC Page 21 of 21 Agenda Item Number 7 City Council Meeting Packet of July 6, 2021 Page 21 of 21