HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-04-08 TranscriptionApril 8, 1997 Council Work Session-PCRB page 1
· April 8, 1997 Council Work Session 4:00 PM
Council: Nov, Baker, Kubby, Lehman, Norton, Thornberry, Vanderhoef.
Staff: Atkins, Helling, Woito, Karr, Winklehake, Holecek, Widmer, Harney.
Tapes: 97-59, all; 97-60 Side 1
PCRB 97-59 S1
Nov/Due to the fact that we all tend to talk over each other the last time we talked about
PCRB, I am going to call on you in order and we are going to rotate for the sake
of the tape.
Baker/Can we have any follow-up questions or questions whether council asks?
Nov/Yes, but please say it, don't just talk over them. Say I have a follow-up question.
That would be fine. Okay. Linda, do you want to start with your charts? Would
that be the best way to do it?
Woito/
I would like to. What I want to do before we get to the charts is talk about an
additional guiding principle that I think needs clarified. As I tried to work through
the personnel matters and confidential questions and the closed and open meetings,
etc., in speaking with Ivan Webber and other attorneys, I just discovered about 15
minutes ago that St. Paul has a process that sounds similar to us, in speaking with
the attorney from Minneapolis. So I made a phone call to them and haven't talked
to them yet but it may help sort through some of these things. But one of the
things that I want to point out is that our ordinance does not attempt to waive any
of the employee's/police officer's rights under state law, under federal law,
constitutional law, the union contract or Civil Service. That ought to be- I may
have said it in another way but I want to make it very clear that that is one of our
guiding principles.
Nov/Yes, it is clear.
Woito/And now, if you will look in your packet and find Supplemental Additional
Investigation- I.
Nov/If it is okay with you, Linda, we are going to say that city council members may ask
questions for clarification of this chart and then we will move onto something else.
Okay. Ernie, do you want to start and rotate this way.
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Lehman/I will pass right now.
Nov/Okay. Karen.
Woito/First I want to clarify that this needs to come out.
Nov/Okay. We also took out the police officer when we talked about this last time.
Norton/Why?
Nov/I don't remember why. I do remember that both of those were X'd out.
Kubby/Because ofthe-
Thornberry/Who can talk?
Nov/Please go ahead, You can talk.
Kubby/I would love it if we could just have a conversation with each other.
Baker/It worked in the past.
Nov/It did not work because we talked over each other and no matter how many times I
said let's not all talk at once, we did it and Karen said let's not all talk at once and
we still did it. So, can we start, please, one at a time. I don't care who starts. One
at a time.
Kubby/Dean, would you start?
Thornberry/Thank you, I will start. I think we took out the police- Didn't we take out the
police officer because at the time- Maybe R. J. can more accurately talk about it. I
understand why we took out the officer because he would know what sanctions he
was going to be under and then if it went to the Board and came back and they
changed it and it came back, then it would be different and that is not fair. Or he
would be in limbo for an extended length of time, 60 or 90 days in limbo not
knowing if he is going to have a letter in his file or three days off or whatever and
it is not a good working atmosphere to be under.
Woito/It can be in there or out.
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Nov/I have notes from last time that said the Chief's findings and report will go to the
Board, the citizen, the city manager and the police officer. Then the Review Board
will report and comment. What we did is take the citizen and the police officer and
move them below the point where the comments came in.
Woito/Right.
Thornberry/For that reason.
Nov/Right. And I don't remember days. Did we have 45 days?
Woito/That is something that I pulled out of the air after listening to R. J.
Nov/Okay.
Thornberry/Well, how long does the Board have to review it. Again, I am not- I am
thinking that to usurp the authority of the department head as far as commendation
or days off or a letter of reprimand or whatever it may be, you are usurping the
authority of that department head, of the Police Chief. And I do not believe that
the citizen or the Review Board should tell the Chief what to do with his people.
Nov/I think they should comment.
Thornberry/They may comment all they want after it has been done but I still think I don't
want to usurp the authority of the department head.
Nov/Okay, I did not view a comment a statement of opinion as usurping the authority
because we have already said that only the Police Chief and the City Manager have
that authority.
Woito/Larry, you had a comment.
Baker/I am just disagreeing with Dean's interpretation that Naomi clarified.
Norton/I don't understand where we are at all. Is this the case where the citizen is not
appealing?
Woito/We haven't even gotten that far.
Norton/What is this situation related to the other two methods? I need to understand this
in context. This is to deal with what? A complaint?
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Woito/This is a complaint by a citizen which is then investigated by the Police
Department. The Police Chief reviews that investigation and does his own report.
He gives a carbon copy- He gives a copy for sure to the Board on the
presumption, is what I read last meeting. That regardless of what the Police Chief
decides, you wanted a copy of all of those to go to the Board and then the Board
would decide how much or the extent of review. Whether they looked at it,
whether they reviewed it or whether they really dug into it.
Norton/I guess I don't understand.
Woito/I think- Are we agreed up to here?
Norton/No, I am not because I don't understand why you would try to draw a picture
here. It has got to have a branch because the Police Department review has got to
go to the citizen so they can decide whether to appeal. It may go to the Board at
the same time.
Woito/The citizen's involvement cannot be kicked in at this point because at this point
you have directed the Police Chief to do the job of investigation and we need to let
that department and the Police Chief do the job of the investigation. Then it goes
to the Board.
Nov/(Can't hear) with the citizen.
Woito/The Board reviews it. The citizen has no input at this point yet other than filing a
complaint and participating in the investigation by the Police Department.
Norton/The issue I want to raise is this. I understand what you are saying but it seems to
me that if it went to the Board and the citizen, the Board might take a different
approach to this thing if they knew an appeal was coming than otherwise.
Therefore, it would seem to me that the report would go to both. The Board holds
up for five days and if they don't hear an appeal, they can decide what to do the
way you are outlining here. If they do hear an appeal, they may proceed slightly
different.
Woito/It is my understanding that the Board- You want this- The Board to be a Review
Board and the Board cannot review anything until they receive it from the Chief.
Norton/True. But they can review it either quite independently of a appeal or only after
an appeal and in one case they must and the other case they may.
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Woito/And what you are talking about is my II.
Nov/You are going beyond the step.
Woito/Right.
Nov/Just proceeding to another step. Dean, what did you want to say?
Thornberry/I was saying how would the complainant appeal if he didn't even have- If the
investigation wasn't completed yet.
Norton/You have the Chief reports, right? And you are talking about where his report
goes. I think his report goes to the Board and simultaneously to the citizen.
Nov/But his report at that point is proposed, not final.
Woito/Up to this point, all this information is confidential. At this point, the citizen is not
entitled to that confidential information until it has been reviewed by the Board.
The Board will have to decide a number of things.
Nov/Can we add the City Manager. Do you think he also should be reviewing it?
Woito/If you elect not to have Steve be the final appeal Board up here, I would insert
Steve in here. But if he is going to end up being an appellant reviewer, he should
stay out of it at this point. R. J. would have consulted with Dale and my office and
Personnel. So it is going to depend on whether you want to take Steve out of the
final appellant role.
Nov/What about the police officer?
Woito/I think in many- in some respects, the police officer is entitled to some due process
rights knowing of what the investigation shows. In some ways, if you give them a
copy, you are giving them more due process than perhaps the Constitution
requires. It depends on what side of the Constitution you want to err on, giving the
police officer more rights or-
Kubby/I guess what I want to do is have the complainant and the officer being on parallel
tracks.
Lehman/I agree.
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Kubby/Whether it is earlier in the process or later in the process. I guess at this point I
prefer later in the process so that the Board has had a chance to comment so that
they know when they get it that they would be able to appeal or not.
Woito/They would then be on a level playing field. Do I think I see agreement for that?
Nov/Yes, this is what we agreed to last time. We agreed to defer the report to both of
them until after the comment from the Board.
Lehman/Which is in the final report.
Nov/Okay.
Woito/Then the Board, if they want to do a cursory review, they review it on the record
with no additional evidence, make a final determination, and at that point the
police officer, the citizen and the police chief get that decision.
Nov/That is still a recommendation rather than a decision.
Thornberry/Yes.
Woito/Yes, this is only a recommendation. Any discipline imposed or any finding or
misconduct or finding of no misconduct.
Norton/But that one, until the Chief has taken account of the Board's comments
presumably, yeah.
Woito/At this point the Chief has not talked with the Board unless the Board has asked.
Norton/But he has gotten the Board's comments?
Woito/He has received the Board's comments at this juncture.
Kubby/So, in that course of action that is the point at which the citizen can go back to the
Board and ask for an appeal? At~er the final report has been issued?
Woito/Yes.
Norton/Then it makes no sense to me.
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Woito/That would be- That would be my II.
Norton/It makes no sense to me. I don't see why they don't- The thing that they were
appealing from was the police investigation, not the police investigation as
reviewed by the Board.
Kubby/And the final outcome is what they are reviewing and the final outcome cannot be
determined until the Board has reviewed the investigation and made their
recommendation to the Chief and the Chief has made the final determination. How
else can they appeal mid-process?
Woito/I think you want the Board to review the matter and then the citizen can ask for
further review either to the Board or to the City Manager.
Norton/I thought they only appealed afterwards but I am totally confused. Because what
they were appealing from and what Dave Baldus cited in his article and his
comments always was that the police investigation is done and the proposed-
everything is proposed there and then the appeal. Now, if they appeal, the Board
has to deal with it. But they might not appeal and the Board may not have to deal
with it at all other than read it.
Nov/That is another scenario.
Woito/That is scenario II.
Kubby/That is what A is. If the-
Norton/But you have the citizen seeing it only after the Board has had input.
Woito/That is correct.
Norton/I thought the Board ought to see it. I don't see why the citizen wouldn't see what
the police investigation said.
Woito/The citizen can become involved. Let's assume the Board does not want to do a
cursory review. They want to do a more in-depth review which is over here.
Norton/Before or after citizen complaint?
Woito/The citizen complaint is up here.
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Norton/I mean before or after an appeal?
Woito/There is no appeal yet. They is a request for additional review.
Norton/I am lost. I am not totally agreeing but I am lost.
Thornberry/What are they going to appeal until the final decision?
Norton/The police investigation.
Woito/But I think in terms of fairness, you need to give your Board a chance to see what
the Police Chief has done.
Nov/Okay.
Baker/Is- Can I ask a question?
Woito/Sure.
Baker/
Dee, is your- I am trying to read between the lines. Are you saying that when the
Board gets the report, that is when the citizen ought to also get the report? So as
the Board makes it recommendation back to the Police Chief, they will have had an
opportunity for the citizen to respond at that level. It may not be a formal appeal
since the discipline hasn't been imposed yet. But at least the citizen has had input
at that level before- And the Board takes into account the citizen's concerns at that
level and they make their report back to the Chief.
Norton/The Board does nothing because the report of the investigation- I made my own
charts and the police investigation goes to the complainant and to the Board. Now
the Board- The complainant has, let's say, five days to appeal and if there is no
appeal, the Board may process that complaint quite differently than if the person
does appeal.
Baker/What I am saying is that if the citizen gets the report the same time the Board does,
the Board responds offers that citizen a chance to respond to the report at their
level and the Board makes their recommendation review back to the Police Chief.
The Chief imposes a discipline, the citizen then can formally appeal the decision
but that appeal, maybe we are jumping ahead. But that appeal can't go back to the
Board. It has got to go back to the City Manager. I mean that is where I think you
are leading.
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Nov/That is what I think we have done here.
Kubby/No, that is not what we have here but that may be a slightly more streamlined
process but it may not be as full of a process.
Woito/Right here the citizen, if the Board chooses to review the Police Chiefs
investigation in a more in-depth approach, the Board may well call in the citizen
and interview them and get their input with a further investigation at this stage,
Dee.
Baker/Yeah but regardless of the Board calling in the citizen, the citizen ought to have an
opportunity somewhere in that process to go to the Board.
Norton/Yeah, what is the citizen appealing. They are appealing the findings or the results
of the findings of the police investigation and the proposed sanctions or whatever
may be there.
Baker/The report back to the Chief from the Board takes into account any concerns that
the citizen has.
Woito/You are going to have some tremendous problems with confidentiality if you
interpose the citizen rights at this stage.
Baker/Well, maybe that is the point where at that point the report that goes to the Board,
if a copy is going to the citizen, it ought to go to the police officer.
Woito/How do we maintain confidentiality at that point?
Nov/I don't know that you can.
Baker/But at some point you are going to lose confidentiality anyway.
Woito/The personnel records. Until there is a finding of misconduct and an imposition of
discipline, the personnel records of an employee in term of performance and
evaluation are private, confidential personnel records that are not public.
Baker/I don't see the problem here. I am like Dee. I mean, I may be stupid but I am not
dumb.
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Kubby/Because when discipline is imposed, that discipline if it is a stepped discipline, a
punitive discipline and that can be told that this is a second time at the point which
it is imposed. Right? But only when it is final and imposed can we say that.
Baker/But the chief is making a recommendation about discipline to the Board in that
report, isn't he?
Norton/Yeah.
Kubby/At that point though, because it is not final, (can't hear). And you have to wait
until it is final before it becomes no longer confidential.
Norton/But it is not final if the review comes at the point she just suggested on B. Things
are not final yet.
Woito/It could be final here unless the citizen requests additional review either over to the
City Manager or in my II it would be a request for additional review by the Board.
Baker/
What about separating the report to the Board from the recommendation of
discipline? The report to the Board, citizen allowed to see the report and comment.
Then the Board gets a separate recommendation on discipline that is still
confidential.
Woito/
Yes, a number of- Minnesota cases, they bifurcate the data into factual information
concerning the complaint and misconduct versus a finding of misconduct and
discipline.
Kubby/But how can the citizen fully comment on that if they don't know what the final
outcome is? That there will be no action taken, that there will adjustment in record
taking, that there will be an apology or a meeting or discipline. How do they know
if they want to react to that?
Baker/They actually have two opportunities: one to respond to what are the facts of
record. Do they want to add to that? Is there something else that needs to be
considered. And then it goes back to the Chief, the Chief makes a recommendation
for discipline, the Board may or may not comment on that. But the appeal from the
citizen doesn't go back to the Board on the discipline. It goes to the City Manager.
Norton/How do you respond to Dave's comment that if you don't get into the discipline,
you become a paper tiger which he seems to worried we are going to become.
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Baker/In a sense you are a- You are not a paper tiger but you are a advisory tiger. You
are not going to impose- The Board is not going to impose discipline, period. And
all we are dickering about now is when they comment on the discipline. And how
the citizen comments on the discipline. They are not going to change it unless it
goes through an appeal to the City Manager.
Kubby/The citizen gets there- The thing that I have been worried about in the past couple
of minutes is where does the citizen get to have their say. That internal
investigation happens and police officers get to explain from their perspective what
happened and bounce that off of policies and procedures and accepted behavior.
Where does the citizen get to do that? They get to do it when they make the
complaint. And everybody-
Baker/They are part of that investigative process just like the police officer is.
Kubby/Right, so actually they have two times where their information can be part of the
system. In A, everything is on record. You are not talking to any bodies at this
point. You are just looking at the record. So you have got the record from the
citizen within the internal investigation and the record froln the citizens, the other
written complaint which can be as extensive as they need to tell their story.
Thornberry/Again, I thought we were setting up a Review Board, not a Board to mete
out anything. It is just to review.
Kubby/And comment.
Thornberry/It is still a Review Board of the current procedures that we have got in place.
The only reason that we are doing a police citizen Review Board is because of one
incident that has never happened before. That is the only reason that this ever came
out.
Norton/(Can't hear).
Thornberry/That is the reason that we are even talking about a citizen Review Board for
the Police Department. All they, as I understand this Board to do, is to review the
procedures that the Police Department does and to review the policies that the
police are working under. Am I wrong?
Baker/And actions.
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Kubby/Right, I would say there are two other functions of the police Review Board. One
is that you have a more comfortable place to make a complaint. And two, that they
make comments about the investigation and about the outcome of the investigation
that the Chief then can use as one piece of information in which to make his final
determination about outcomes.
Thornberry/Say that last part again.
Kubby/That the Review Board looks at all the records and say I agree or disagree with
the Chief's determination about what the outcome of this complaint should be.
Thornberry/Now wait, stop right there. If they disagree with the Chief, then what?
Kubby/They can say what they think should happen and the Chief uses that information as
one piece of information in making his final determination about outcomes. He
may adjust it, he may not.
Thornberry/Like he gets information from the City Manager or the City Attorney or-
Kubby/We understand that the PCRB cannot dictate to the Chief or the City Manager.
That he will use their comments as one of many pieces of information in which to
make his final determination about the outcomes of this claim. If the PCRB doesn't
like the final outcome or the citizen doesn't like it, then they can go to the City
Manager and he is the final say.
Norton/Well, the city council has got to be the final say I suppose, don't they?
Kubby/No. The City Manager is-
Council/(All talking).
Thornberry/They can take it to civil court.
Vanderhoef/Karen, I don't quite agree with what I think you are saying and I am not
positive that this is what you are saying. As I look at it. We have got a citizen who
didn't have his complaint taken care of at the initial time of the incident, whatever
it might be. So he writes a formal complaint and it is handed on. And the Chief
sends his recommendation to the citizen Board. The citizen Board looks at it,
agrees or disagrees. Up until this point, I don't see that citizen coming to the
Review Board.
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Kubby/I have not stated that.
Vanderhoef/Okay. So, then if this is the case, then the Review Board sends their
recommendation back to the Chief and the Chief hands out his discipline, whatever
it is or lack of, So we still don't have anything to do with the citizen and the citizen
is not going to be coming back to the Review Board.
Kubby/If they appeal they would be.
Vanderhoef/No, once the procedure ends when the discipline is put in there, there isn't
anyway that we can ask the Chief to change that discipline.
Kubby/Right, but in your process, before the Chief makes the final determination, there is
a period of time that we had talked about being maybe five days where the citizen
can appeal the Review Board.
Vanderhoef/What are they appealing?
Kubby/They are appealing that final outcome.
Vanderhoef/But that is not possible, Karen. And when you have already gotten a
recommendation from the Chief, you have gotten a chance to look it over as a
member of the PCRB. Then you either agree with what the Chief said or you make
up another recommendation to the Chief and you send that back. There is no place
in there for the complainant and the Chief still has to make that decision. The only
time the complainant can get into an appeal is after discipline has been- You are
making it very complicated on a very simple kind of thing. This Board does not
have appeal power.
Council/(All talking).
Vanderhoef/I don't agree that we decided anything and this is where it is going way off
into a different track of what a citizens Review Board can look like and we do
want-
Woito/Can I suggest something?
Nov/One more minute. What can a citizen's Board look like?
Vanderhoef/It can be a place to listen and to see and review on a regular basis what the
Police Department is doing. we are also gathering statistics in here which is a great
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offer to the community and gives us information that leads back to how our truly
Police Department runs and that is with policy and procedure. As a council, we are
in charge of policy and procedure. That is how a Police Department is run. It isn't
run with all sorts of appeals.
Nov/However if you were a complaining citizen, this Board would act as a receiver of
your complaint and would review whatever you were complaining about.
Vanderhoef/And you are, in that case, you are reviewing us over the Police Department
and the procedure that they have for discipline.
Norton/That part, there is a general review that they are certainly going to do as a result
of this particular process. But the particular process- What I am looking at is you
take the history of the case that is in front of us and here is an internal report that
comes along, right? And my judgment is that if the report comes in, the Board, the
Review Board would process that differently if a person has complained or if the
person has not complained. If the person has not complained, the point that we
look at it for information and may not say anything to the Chief. Just try to keep
track of things and understand what is going on. But if the citizen complains, the
Board is obliged to try and take a look and see if there is any more information
needed.
Vanderhoef/That is true but it still does not put the citizen sitting in front of the PCRB.
The PCRB is doing the investigation and looking at the Chief's report, making its
own report and sending it back to the Chief for final dispensation.
Norton/Yes, but they are responding to a complaint to an appeal from-
Vanderhoef/And there is no place in this that the citizen is making appeals to a PCRB that
has no power, no jurisdiction.
Kubby/In your design of a PCRB, that may be true. But we can design it to have that
process that we talked about last time.
Vanderhoef/And I don't choose to do it that way.
Nov/From what I understand that this conversation from a couple of weeks ago, we did
say we were going to allow the complaint to come to the Board originally or the
Police Department but there would be a review and an appeal process. Am I
remembering directly?
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Woito/In this case, the appeal process goes to the City Manger after the Board has
reviewed. You could have an appeal from here if you wanted to over to the City
Manager.
Kubby/But we had talked last time that before the final determination, the Board gives its
recommendations and comments to the Chief and at that point, the police officer
and the citizen were notified of the Board's comments and that is when they can
have that five days to appeal.
Woito/Right. And that is what you have here and you can have an appeal- I am calling
this a request for additional review because it is my understanding we don't have
unanimity. I wish we had unanimity but I think we have unanimity in saying that
this is a Review Board, not an appeal Board.
Norton/What does that mean?
Thornberry/That is correct.
Woito/Is reviewing what the Police Department has investigated 99 times out of 100.
Norton/They are reviewing that but they are also in a position to deal with an appeal.
Woito/Okay, let me approach it another way.
Kubby/But it is not a legal term appeal, the way we are using it. Where they are saying
they can say I want-
Norton/If the investigation is incomplete or something?
Kubby/Right. I want another hearing- I want you to hear me.
Woito/Call it a hearing. You didn't hear me using the term hearing. If we don't call it- We
can call it an appeal, traditional. You can call it an additional investigation. What I
am calling it now is a request for additional review.
Norton/Okay.
Nov/All right, additional review rather than appeal but it is basically-
Woito/Because I didn't have consensus on the term appeal last week.
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Nov/Right, the terminology is not in question at the moment but I don't mind which
terminology. I want some clarification that if a citizen were to receive this report,
the final report where it says citizen, they can tell somebody and preferably the
appeal Board that they want this reviewed or do they tell only the City Manager?
Woito/If you want it to go to the appeal Board, then you go to my II, which is the appeal
to the Board rather than the City manager as the final say. I see heads shaking no.
Norton/Tell me where you are now.
Woito/I am on Supplemental Additional Investigation II.
Baker/
We all agree there has to be some sort of- I will use the word appeal process at the
tail end. Now where they appeal, to whom they appeal is directed at what stage is
still in question but not the fact that once the discipline is announced, not
necessarily imposed, that citizen has a right to say I disagree. I think, personally,
that disagreement after the Review Board has already looked at (can't hear), that
disagreement ought to go directly to the City Manager as the last resort because he
hasn't signed off on the discipline yet.
Kubby/But how does the appeal of the citizen may raise questions that weren't raised
before in front of the Board who may then want to vote for supplemental
investigation, internal or external.
Norton/The second one you mean?
Kubby/How does that happen? How can the citizen then have influence to make that
happen in our process?
Baker/
Go back to the idea that Linda talked about, bifurcation of the report. here is the
report of the facts, policies affected, everything but the recommended discipline.
At that point, the citizen gets a copy of the first report and say I agree or disagree
with the facts, I agree or disagree with the interpretation of the policy and then if
you want more information based on the facts of the case, make that request at
that time. but once the Board signs off on the discipline which is a separate report,
it can be done concurrently. I mean, they could get copies of two reports at the
same time, the citizen gets one copy, the Board gets two copies. The citizen can
comment to the Board about what they have received. Once the Board sign on the
discipline, signs off on the sense of reviews the discipline, sends it to the Chief,
there is a period, five, seven days, whatever it is in which the citizen is aware of the
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discipline, the police officer is aware of the discipline. The appeal of the discipline
goes to the City Manager.
Norton/Of the discipline.
Baker/Of the discipline.
Norton/But the appeal, for example, the citizen gets that initial police report and says you
didn't interview X-
Baker/That is the Board.
Norton/Didn't ask question Y-
Baker/That is the Board.
Norton/Okay and thinks that is the reason they are bringing it to the Board. The Board
has to consider whether that is a reasonable request.
Baker/To ask for more information.
Norton/So that is why I think it would come to them right up there, up high on #1.
Baker/I am trying to get us to the end somehow.
Lehman/Well, it would seem to me to be very difficult to have a final report without a
citizen seeing the police report and saying look, I don't believe this is right. I think
this, this, this, and this should be looked at. So I don't think that it is totally
appropriate that the Board review the police report and based on that alone
without an opportunity for the citizen to comment. That they then issue a final
report. However, I am absolutely opposed to the citizen even being involved in
commenting on the discipline. The Board, I think, is qualified to do that. I do not
believe-
Baker/
I think what you will- I think what you will discover is that they get concurrent
reports, the citizen disagrees with the facts of the first report. The discipline
recommendation or review is put in hold if the Board so chooses. But there is no
reason to hold up that process, that can be held in limbo if there is more
information that can be required and then perhaps they take that into account and
maybe as they are getting more information, the Chief will amend his
recommendation for discipline at that time. You use the word streamline which I
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think it is important because this is one of the things that the officer and citizen
both expect, to get it through fairly but-
Norton/But the citizen has got to get in very early, not after the Board has chopped away
on it. They ought to see the police report.
Baker/And they will.
Norton/That is what you are suggesting, yes.
Kubby/But does having the citizen come into the Review Board to talk with them
streamline things or make it more complicated versus reading stuff on paper that
the citizen has had a chance through the complaint process and the internal
investigation to express themselves in those two manners.
Baker/They are expressing themselves in an investigation process even before the report
is finished, right? So I am not sure where they are shut out.
Norton/The appeal is different than the complaint.
Kubby/You are saying the comments about the investigation.
Norton/Their comments about the investigation are different than their complaint. They
are saying to the Board hey, they didn't look at X.
Woito/Well, in some- I think Larry has hit on something. In some respects you are giving
the Board authority to sort of stand in the shoes of the complainant and protect the
complainants interest in some ways. And I think for that reason, Dee, it isn't the
complainant that needs to be triggering all of these things but the Board needs to
be involved and so when they review the police report, they will be standing in
some ways in the shoes of the complainant.
Norton/They can take initiative to review a report in more or less depth. They will see
them all and they can review them in more or less depth at their discretion,
assuming the complainant didn't do anything besides file a complaint. But my point
is if the complainant appeals from the police internal report or their investigation,
says that doesn't seem adequate to me, the Board ought to step in to try to see
what they can do to make it more adequate.
Vanderhoef/What are you saying isn't adequate? Excuse me.
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Norton/The Board says you didn't introduce Sergeant X and he was right there.
Woito/And in both of my I and II, I have that capacity for the Board to do that very
thing.
Norton/I don't want to do it so late. I want to do it right after they-
Kubby/Before they make a determination or before they make comments to the Chief,
you are suggesting that the citizen be able to-
Woito/This is something that you did not agree on last week which is something the
concurrent jurisdiction, the ability of the Board to jump in at the git-go.
Norton/That was the one that we were so torn up about. Yeah, that is very difficult.
Woito/And I think that is partly what you are talking about, Dee.
Kubby/I really think, at some point, I would like to- Because it was 3-4 and 4-3 that we
should talk about that again because we had discussed the possibility- We had
narrowed it down to the possibility of in the case of death or serious injury, the
possibility of this and it was going back 3-4.
Nov/Can we get to that later? Can we try to solve this one first?
Norton/This is still supplemental that we are talking about?
Woito/Yes, this is still supplemental. We are not on concurrent because Naomi said we
are putting that aside.
Nov/I really would like to do this, finish off this before we go to the next one.
Woito/I agree.
Thornberry/You are saying, Linda, that the Board is not equal in that they're representing
the complainant against the Police Department.
Woito/No. No.
Thornberry/You said they are standing in the shoes of the complainant.
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Woito/I am trying to get you to think about rather than giving the citizen a lot of rights to
appeal, the right to assert their rights to go to the Board or to got to the City
Manager or whatever, that you are setting up a Board which is going to be doing a
lot of those things that you want to happen in terms of review of the investigation
and complaints, receiving complaints, looking into them and maybe even deciding
to do additional investigation. In some ways they are carrying out your purpose
which is to provide external accountability to the public. But no, they are not in an
adversarial role with the police officer.
Thornberry/Then they are not standing in the shoes of the complainant.
Norton/That is not quite right.
Woito/No, I am saying in some respects, you have chosen to set up the Board to receive
citizen complaints, to make sure that this citizen down here is getting heard and
you have assured- By either I or II, you have assured the citizen always is heard.
Their complaints are seriously taken because the police must investigate. Their
complaints, they are listened to, they give their testimony and the police chief
writes up a report about their complaint and then the Board reviews all of those,
reports and decides whether to do additional evidence or to do a review on the
record and in this case, if the citizen is still not satisfied they can either appeal for
here to the Board for review, they can review to the Board from here or you can
send it to the City Manager.
Norton/I don't get it to come back to the Board there. That would be bizarre. lit goes-
Once that preliminary investigation comes in and goes to the Board and the citizen.
Let me just try and outline. It goes to the Board and the citizen and, in my
judgment, to the officer. We will talk about his prerogatives in a minute. The
Board would- You got to look at time things here because the citizen has to have
time to read the report and decide whether they can buy it or not, right? If they
don't- They get five days. At the end of five days the Board is sitting there and
they have got a report with no appeal. At that point the Board doesn't have to do
anything except they have seen the report and studies it. They don't have to do
anything. But they may choose to intervene there and say something back to the
Chief about the report but they don't have to.
Woito/In that case you are giving more credence to the citizen than to the Board's
authority.
Norton/But they would have to if the citizen filed an appeal within five days, the Board
would then have to do something. They would have to file a report, either working
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from the record or asking for additional information or initiating additional
investigation on their own and holding hearings, all of which would take different
time lines depending on which of those routes they go.
Woito/It depends on you philosophically whether you want to give the authority to the
individual citizen to trigger all of these steps or you want to give an overall review
authority to the Board to decide.
Kubby/But on the question if the Board has to take every complaint, I think the Board
needs to comment on every complaint, even if they say the way it has been
resolved is fine.
Woito/And that would be either under-
Kubby/They have an obligation to respond.
Norton/Say Chief, yes, okay, go.
Woito/You have got that-
Nov/I don't want to give them any discretion, Dee, to read a report and hand it back
without comment.
Norton/Hand it back, I agree with you, for the record.
Nov/A paper trail.
Norton/Okay, leave a paper trail, notify the PD that they agree or don't have any
comments basically.
Nov/They can say this is fine the way it is or we recommend that it be changed.
Woito/That is A.
Council/(All talking).
Lehman/Wait a minute, Dee.
Baker/What be changed?
Nov/Anything.
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Lehman/I would say if a citizen appeals, the Board has the discretion to do further
investigation or say we are satisfied.
Norton/They have the discretion to say we have to decide where we are, to read the
record again or to ask for additional- They have several levels.
Lehman/Or just leave it the way it is.
Norton/They could say yes, we don't agree that it needs to be pursued any further.
Lehman/That is their discretion.
Norton/That is right but they have to look at it whether I am going to say more seriously
perhaps then they did in the case when an appeal was not filed.
Lehman/I agree.
Woito/Is there any interest in pursuing Larry's suggestion ofbifurcation of facts versus
discipline?
Nov/I think it sounds good.
Baker/It expedites the process and it is fair. It is clear. It allows an appeal process at the
end.
Kubby/I would like to see what that looks like so I can compare it before I say yea or nay.
I would be interested in looking at it for comparison purposes. If it streamlines it
and allows more input early on at the same time, if it seems like it is going to do
that, that would make sense. But if it adds another layer-
Baker/That is designed to eliminate layers.
Norton/And make it possible for the citizen to come in earlier without getting-
Nov/Let me try to ask a question which may clarify. Do I understand correctly when the
Chief comes back with a report and hands it to the Board, it has two pages or two
sections that are separated. One section is all of the investigative procedures,
findings, etc. and the other part of the Chief's recommendation of discipline or no
discipline which is on a separate sheet of paper.
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Woito/If that were the case, it could not be given the citizen at that point because there
would be confidential personnel information in there.
Nov/However, if both-
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 97-59 SIDE 2
Nov/Just the first piece of paper is given the citizen and to the police officer.
Woito/As long as that first piece of paper has been redacted for confidential information,
yes.
Nov/What is confidential information in that investigation? Is there confidential
information aside from the discipline?
Woito/Yes, there will no doubt be. Yes, there will be. There could be.
Vanderhoef/There could be something from the Police Department.
Woito/That is why, in terms of the confidentiality, that is why my plans are simpler in
terms of when it can be released to the citizen and be public. Once there is a
finding by the Police Chief of misconduct and the Board agrees there is
misconduct, then it can become public.
Kubby/That is a separate decision as to the imposition of discipline.
Woito/Yes, that is separate.
Norton/Your scheme puts the citizen too far down the pile. I want him up right after the
police report is in. That is what Dave says ifI look at Dave's comments very
carefully.
Woito/I just want to remind you that we don't want to set up a system that tells our
citizens that they may- That they have some input into discipline when, as a legal
matter, they have input into if there is a complaint, there has been something done
by the Police Department. The facts should be dug into, they should be disclosed
but they have no rights of input into what discipline is imposed by either one of
these two gentlemen.
Council/(All talking).
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Woito/They can, yes, they can comment.
Norton/Nobody is disagreeing with that, Linda. And I think Larry's mechanism is
presumably designed to facilitate that.
Woito/Yes.
Vanderhoef/But their comment, as I would envision it, would be with their initial
complaint. I don't like X, Y, Z and this is what I saw happen to me and this is
what I would like to see happen to him. That kind of thing. But they don't have
any other- Unless the Board asks them for more information or corroboration to
the information that was on the original complaint, they have nothing more there.
Woito/The citizen would have been interviewed by the Police Department and the Police
Chief if need be.
Vanderhoef/And if the Board wanted more information, they could ask for it and the
Police Chief could get it or if they chose to ask the complainant, they could do
that. Otherwise the complainant is all completed with their whole part of the
process until the Board has reported back and the discipline has been meted and
then if the complainant still wants to have an appeal on the process of the
discipline, then it goes to the City Manager.
Kubby/There are at least three people who disagree, saying that there should be an
opportunity for the citizen to look at the investigative report-
Vanderhoef/And what-
Kubby/These kinds of questions weren't asked and I would like them to be asked. Would
you consider that and then the Board has to vote 4/7 to choose to get
supplemental information.
Vanderhoef/But the Board can do that initially, Karen, is what I am saying and they can
initiate the additional information that they want. So if they don't feel they have all
of the questions answered for them on the report, they can invite the chief to get
more information for them. but leave the complainant out of it from the idea that
they think that they have some say in the discipline which they don't.
Council/(All talking).
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Kubby/Where in your design does the citizen see the investigative report and then where
do they, if they feel like it, approach the Board asking for more information or
different perspective. Where do those two things happen in your design?
Vanderhoef/They happen after the discipline has been imposed.
Kubby/That is too late.
Baker/That doesn't make any-
Vanderhoef/That doesn't make any difference because we have already had the
opportunity to get all of the information that we need from the citizen and once all
of the information has been received.
Kubby/We re disagreeing.
Council/(All talking).
Thornberry/When does the complainant get a final answer that he can disagree with?
Norton/A final answer?
Thornberry/That he can disagree with. He is- I do not agree with what happened to me.
So I file a complaint. I do not agree with the investigation. All right, then they are
going to re-investigate or whatever if they feel like it. They don't have to re-
investigate, I don't want to.
Norton/But they may.
Thornberry/But they may but they don't have to. Wait a minute. Then the citizen, the
complainant, gets the final judgment of what happened to the officer. I don't agree.
Norton/There I don't know where they- They go to the City Manager as far as I know at
that point.
Thornberry/They still can't get confirmation as to their disagreement with the- They were
wronged, they were-
Norton/I don't know where they go then.
Council (All talking).
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Thornberry/Then what do they do?
Norton/City Manager or the court, I don't know where.
Council/(All talking.)
Nov/We are talking over each other.
Thornberry/How many times does this complainant get to say I have been wronged and I
don't agree with what is going on? How many times in the process?
Norton/In answer to you, They get, in my judgment, they get one at the point where they
see the internal report.
Thornberry/The first one is the complaint.
Norton/The complaint but I don't think that is the end of it as Dee has suggested. When
they see the police report, sans sanctions- That when they see that report, they may
say for God sake, you didn't talk to Y. Okay, so that is some aspects- Then you
get to make a question there and the Board gets to decide whether to review that
or not. Whether to pursue that or not and how. By a vote they can pursue it in
many ways. Or they could say to hell with it, we are not going to pursue it. Then
the process proceeds down to an end and at the point the final thing comes out, the
citizen has an appeal, I guess, to the City Manager, maybe to the courts. I don't
know.
Baker/You got that period between recommendation and imposition. That is the period
where the disagreement with the discipline is expressed if they want to express it.
Now the question is where do they express that. I keep going back to send it right
to the City Manager who has not bought into the- Has not signed off of the
imposition yet.
Norton/Yeah, the Chief doesn't impose his sanction when that report comes forward.
Baker/You still got to get-
Norton/The sanctions are drained but not imposed if any or non-imposed, whatever.
Baker/I would assume that Steve and R. J. might disagree.
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Woito/Dee, you are giving the citizens like three bites at the apple and I thought the
Board was suppose to be acting as-
Thornberry/A review.
Woito/As sort of looking things over.
Norton/Where does the citizen get three bites?
Woito/You have given them a bite for the complaint to the Board and then they get input
into the Chief's report and then they get- Actually four. Then they get another
appeal to the Board and then they get an appeal to the City Manager.
Norton/No, they don't. You added the last one. They only get one in my judgment. They
review the internal report. That is the whole point as Dave says. It will be useful
for the council to focus on situations in which a citizen who is unhappy with the
Police Chief's recommendation to file an appeal to the Board. The Board makes a
recommendation and the Board and the PC either agree or disagree. In other
words, that is the bite that seems to me is the most crucial and I don't regard the
complaint as a bite.
Thornberry/Of course it is. That is the biggest bite of all.
Kubby/But the asking of questions I don't think is a bite because it may just be a question
that was overlooked or a perspective that was overlooked. It doesn't mean that
they are going to disagree with the outcome of the investigation. It is just saying I
think some things are missing here that is important because they haven't seen the
outcome yet.
Woito/But that would be handled-
Nov/Before the (can't hear). of discipline?
Woito/That would be handled by the Board.
Council/(All talking).
Woito/That would be handled by the Board in either I or II.
Kubby/Right but that is another place where you were counting as a bite and I don't think
it is a bite. I think that is information clarification.
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Nov/Oh well, let's not define bites and information as two different things, please.
Kubby/I mean the police officer certainly has a chance and if we are counting, 'then how
many times does the police officer get to have their perspective listened to. I mean-
Lehman/Looks like one time to me.
Council (All talking).
Woito/They have a lot of protection.
Norton/They have a grievance committee, they have got Civil Service.
Thornberry/That is after the thing is all done, though. During this whole process, they are
interviewed up there under the Chief's report, right. I mean during the Police
Department's investigation, information is gathered from that officer.
Norton/I think he might also be able to, in my judgment, would be that they would also be
able to ask the Board to look further. I don't know. I am worried about that
because there is a grievance system already set up.
Nov/Well, okay, Larry.
Thornberry/Well, If you are talking about a level playing field, then you know, don't
overload the complainant.
Norton/Right.
Nov/Okay, you two, you have had your say. Larry, you had something else to say?
Baker/No.
Nov/Okay. I thought I heard a voice and I-
Kubby/One of the reasons that the appeal process somewhere in here was put in is out of
fairness because the police officer, if disciplined and if disagreed, has an appeal
process and there was no place in some of our original documents for the citizen to
have an appeal. And that is why it was put in and I think it is a real important
parallel process, even if it can't be the same body that it be a similar process.
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Woito/Well, can we clarify. Are there four of you who want the citizen to be able to
comment on the Police Chief's report before it goes to the Board for additional
investigation?
NoWNo.
Baker/At the same time.
Nov/At the same time it can go to both except that the Board would receive both parts.
The citizen would receive only the investigation part.
Woito/The bifurcation.
Nov/Correct.
Kubby/I want to see what that looks like.
Norton/I do, too.
Woito/Okay. And then from there you want the final arbiter to be Steve?
Baker/Yes.
Woito/As an appeal.
Baker/Yes.
Norton/I don't know how else?
Council/(All talking).
Kubby/Back to the Board, the way we have got it written down.
Council/(All talking).
Baker/Once the citizen buys into the, you know, here are the facts of the case. I agree to
that. All right, conduct or no misconduct. Then the discipline is announced based
upon an agreed police report, an investigative report, between officer and citizen,
department. The discipline is announced and the citizen doesn't like the discipline
based up on the report they have already bought into. Then they don't take it back
to the Board. They take it to Steve.
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Nov/I can see them coming to the Board somewhere in between because the investigative
report was not as thorough as they might have liked. They thought that such and
such occurred this way and the officers report didn't say the way I believe it
occurred. I can understand appealing to the Board on the investigation.
Kubby/Yes, that is part of what-
Norton/We all agree with that.
Nov/Some kind of a cross discussion. I don't want to wait until after discipline to-
Norton/We are just saying there will be that final appeal though.
Woito/Okay, the citizen gets a- There will be two reports from the Chief, one will be
factual citizen allegations, redacted for any confidential information. the other one
will deal with discipline. The citizen will get the factual rendition from the Chief
and have an appeal fight of the facts to the Board?
Baker/They get it at the same time the Board does.
Kubby/The officer should get it at the same time, too, that same report.
Nov/And the officer can also-
Baker/The officer also can ask for an amended report.
Nov/Yeah, right, that is what I am trying to say.
Thornberry/If the complainant says it happened this way and the officer says it happened
this way. Chances are it happened the third way anyway. You know. But if the
complainant gets a chance to go to the Board and say hey, wait a minute, it didn't
happen the way the officer said it did, it happened the way I said it did and officer
doesn't have a chance to defend his statements. There is something wrong.
Woito/If it goes to the Board and you have the Board deciding to give - to take evidence,
take additional evidence. They can take additional evidence from both the
complainant and the police officer. Then you are into, on a simple majority vote,
they decide to take additional evidence.
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Norton/They could take it themselves. They could say look, we want to talk to X and X
and X.
Kubby/It is up to the Board as to who they speak with.
Norton/They could ask the Department to do it all together, too.
Woito/Right.
Nov/Give the Board the option to talk to people themselves or to just refer it back to the
internal investigator and say why didn't you ask this question.
Woito/Okay.
Kubby/So really at that point there is three choices. The Board ask the questions
themselves, they ask the Police Department to ask the questions or they can vote
to hire outside investigators. There is really three choices at that point.
Woito/So basically we are into B. Only we have gotten to B slightly differently.
Norton/Yes, that is true because-
Woito/There are several other lines there and you still want investigation, internal,
external, all of those are on a simple majority vote of the Board to do those.
Kubby/Yes.
Baker/But did we talk about the external investigation being narrowed and focused only
to particular incidence like death or bodily injury?
Kubby/Not for supplemental. Only for concurrent.
Norton/No, these are supplemental.
Baker/Okay.
Norton/I thought they were but I thought they could work just from the record or they
could ask the PD for additional information on investigation, you have to give
additional time. Or they may initiate their own investigation.
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Woito/Right. All those options are available under - You can combine A and B. I mean
they could do it on the record, they could do additional. The only difference will be
there will be citizen input here.
Norton/And there will be different time lines and everybody has to be- It gets complicated
there.
Woito/Are we all in agreement on that?
Thornberry/How would the officer know that the citizen was not satisfied with the Police
Department's investigation?
Woito/We will have to let the officer know that.
Norton/A copy to him.
Thornberry/Okay. I just want a level playing field is all.
Norton/I am very sensitive to that, Dean. I agree with you entirely.
Woito/And the rest of the- The citizen, after the Board decides to do additional
investigation or to hold hearings, there will be no further appeals by the citizen to
the City Manager. Right.
Thornberry/There is someplace that it has got to end. When you get a grade from a class,
you can appeal that grade to a certain level and then they say-
Council/(All talking).
Kubby/Before you say okay to that-
Nov/I don't see everybody agreeing on that one.
Kubby/I thought we were talking about after the Board has made its comments to the
Chief, and the Chief has made a determination but has not imposed, that the citizen
can disagree and go to the City Manager. The City Manager then makes the
determination and that is the end of it for our solution of the City of Iowa City
process.
Woito/So we are back to I, only we have altered this step here.
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Norton/Yes, the Board sees it once and then it goes onto the Chief and he grinds it up.
Nov/What we are saying, I think, is that all of the investigative report appeal should go to
the Board, should go to the Police Chief, should be refined before a discipline is
imposed. And an appeal of discipline and only discipline goes to the City manager
because all of the other questions has been answered through the Board.
Thomberry/The discipline goes the City Manager?
Nov/The appeal of the discipline because only the Police Chief and the City Manager can
impose the discipline. The Board cannot.
Thornberry/That is correct but why would the citizen have any input as to the-
Woito/No but the Board is going to be reviewing the Police Chief' s recommendations,
right, on discipline.
Thornberry/And so what can they do?
Woito/They are going to do what I think you envisioned all along is comment.
Norton/Yeah, they comment on that.
Kubby/Then the citizen also has a chance to comment to the Manager if they want.
Norton/That is later, isn't it?
Kubby/Yes.
Lehman/Well, the citizen can do that irrespective of this ordinance or any other one. They
can disapprove of the discipline.
Kubby/I know but if it is part of the process, it should be laid out so people know what
the beginning of the process is and what the end of the process is even if it ends up
being redundant in terms of the last thing of any citizen can go the City Manager.
Woito/I will have to think about the bifurcation and how it ends.
Norton/You have to clarify something for me and that is I only see the Board seeing this
thing once. I do not see the Board involved twice. Where is their second
involvement?
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Nov/Why do you see them twice?
Norton/What?
Nov/Where did we get twice?
Norton/I thought they only saw it once and I heard Karen say she thought they saw it
twice.
Kubby/I think it is once when they originally see the report and then the citizen gets a
hold of them and says these things need to be reviewed.
Norton/Okay.
Council (All talking).
Baker/I is a short or long process, but it is one process.
Norton/It is really once because they are going to see it for sure but they also might see it
along with an appeal.
Kubby/But it might be two different days.
Norton/They will see it first and then they wait five days to see if an appeal comes in.
Kubby/Right and they may see it again because they decide on their own volition even
without an appeal from the citizen that they want more information.
Baker/The Board gets the report. When the report is sent to the Board, a copy of the
factual part is sent to the citizen and the citizen is told that the Board will consider
this on such and such a date. If you would like to comment, disagree, whatever,
you need to do it at that time. And then the Board may-
Norton/All one step basically.
Nov/I think that just telling the citizen it is on the agenda at that time means that it is an
open meeting and they may or may not choose to comment.
Baker/Make it clear in the instructions that that is their option.
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Kubby/The ordinance has to specifically outline what they're able to do at that point,
what they have the right to do in that process at that point. It can't just be notify
them it is on the agenda, we have got to-
Nov/No, you tell them that if they want to change anything, if they want to question
anything, they must do it at that point. It is sort of speak now or forever hold your
piece.
Norton/That is right. That is their appeal window.
Vanderhoef/They either agree with the written report or you disagree with it and you
make your own comments.
Kubby/Right and that is what we have talked about all along.
Norton/That is right.
Kubby/I mean we are calling-
Norton/I think the new thing is this bifurcation and that might help if it worked. I think
that is an interesting possibility. Larry, to separate them.
Nov/Linda, will you think about separating.
Woito/Yes, I will have to think about that.
Nov/Because if we do not separate, we don't give this report to the citizen until after it
has been through the Review Board.
Woito/Right. Okay, I will think about bifurcation.
Norton/Do you want initial?
Nov/It sounds to me as if the supplemental #1 is closest to what we agree on?
Woito/Yes, sounds like it.
Nov/Except for the separation of the two reports.
Woito/Right.
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Lehman/Naomi, I am sure this probably isn't the popular opinion but I really think that
the citizen should be able to appeal based on the outcome of the investigation, not
on the discipline. I think the Chief and I think the City Manager and, for that
matter, the Review Board after some experience will be far more capable of
commenting on whether or not the discipline was appropriate. I really think the
complainant should not be encouraged to complain or appeal to the City Manager
based on discipline.
Thornberry/I think the operative word there, based on what you said, was right or not
right. That the review of the Chief's discipline was, not is going to be. I mean I
don't see that the Board, their one aspect that the Chief may tap into like he does
with Dale then as opposed to Steve, Linda and Personnel to see about discipline of
a specific officer for a specific incident. I am sure he does that before he metes out
his discipline. AT least we have been told that is the process. I don't- In addition
now, he will also get the Board's recommendation, right? But it is still his decision
and if the Board disagrees with his decision-
Lehman/They can tell him so.
Norton/That is just for him and the CM to deal with.
Nov/They could not necessarily say I disagree. They may have a conversation and they
may persuade each other.
Kubby/Right, so the Chief makes a determination before it is final. Are there four people
who want to allow the citizen to know what that pretty final or final but not
imposed outcome is and that they can go to the City Manager?
Thornberry/I don't think that is their responsibility.
Council/(All talking).
Baker/It just says you have five days. It goes to the City Manager on such and such, the
City Manager will make a final determination on X date. If you would like to
comment before hand-
Kubby/But the PCRB or the citizen can go to the City Manager.
Baker/Sure.
Norton/I would like to be sure that we are- Pardon me, Karen.
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Kubby/I am not hearing, are there four votes for that?
Nov/I hear only two at this point.
Baker/What?
Norton/Let me make sure what you are wanting four votes for.
Thornberry/I don't want the citizen to say no, I think they should have three days off. No,
I don't think so.
Norton/What are you making the four votes for again?
Baker/They can say that now.
Thornberry/Hell, they say it in the Press Citizen.
Norton/Oh, yeah.
Baker/We are missing the point here.
Thornberry/I don't think he should be involved in the disciplinary process of the officer.
Baker/All we are doing is clarifying a right that they already have.
Norton/Yeah.
Thornberry/He can say that in his complaint if that is what he wants to do.
Kubby/Although, what we are doing is saying that we will not impose discipline unless
until they have had that five days in which to do the thing that they already have
the right to do.
Council (All talking).
Baker/Is that fair policy? The Chief makes the report, the City Manger has got five days
to agree or disagree and in the mean time, the citizen, if they wa~nt to contact the
City Manager, they can.
Norton/Is that present policy?
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Baker/The fact that a citizen can go to the City Manager and complain is clearly present
policy.
Norton/No. But do they know the punishment issue before they go. I guess I am not quite
clear what you wanted to say here.
Baker/I doubt it. But-
Norton/I don't think they do.
Kubby/That is the question that Linda-
Woito/They shouldn't know. It is not public.
Baker/Because by the time it is announced, it is already- Steve has already bought into it.
Woito/Right, that is right.
Kubby/So you are saying that the citizen cannot have any influence before discipline is
imposed or is it before it is announced.
Thornberry/Any what?
Norton/Any influence.
Thornberry/Influence or-
Woito/I mean they can have influence before it is imposed. In this whole process they can
have-
Kubby/How is this working then in your I? Citizen. Citizen requests additional review by
City Manager. That is about outcome.
Woito/That is before the discipline is imposed.
Kubby/Yes, that is what I am suggesting. That is what I thought we had clearly agreed on
before.
Thornberry/But it has been decided on.
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Kubby/It has been decided but it hasn't been imposed. If the citizen is persuasive, things
can change. The citizen may not-
Norton/Let me ask Steve-
Arkins/You have to confirm that discipline by the time it gets to me because if it gets to
my office, I have the final authority on discipline, the officer needs to know
because the officer has the right to appeal to the Civil Service Commission. You
know we have got to end it somewhere whether it is me or- It has got to be ended.
The officer said I don't like this discipline, this is a done deal, I am going to Civil
Service.
Norton/What about the citizen?
Atkins/The citizen just needs to be informed.
Woito/Well, that is obviously why I prefer to not have as much as citizen input on the
beginning because of the confidentiality for the police officer.
Vanderhoef/The only time that the discipline will get as far as Steve, as I understand it, is
if the PCRB and the Chief are recommending two different things.
Norton/Even if they agreed, it would have to go to him.
Vanderhoef/It still ends up going there but otherwise, if there is an agreement-
Atkins/In theory, I could disagree with both.
Woito/Right.
Vanderhoef/Yes.
Atkins/That could occur.
Vanderhoef/But then that conversation is between you and the Chief.
Atkins/Yes.
Vanderhoef/(Can't hear).
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Woito/Can I ask, Larry, can I ask you a question about your bifurcation? Let's say that
the Board gets the information, the factual information that the citizen has received
and the disciplinary information that the Chief has given them and they concur with
the Chief that X discipline should be imposed. It is then announced do you all
agree that you want five days for the citizen to comment to Steve on the
discipline?
Norton/If the officer has time.
Baker/I don't want them going back to the citizen Review Board.
Norton/No.
Woito/No, definitely, right.
Atkins/There must be a time frame.
Baker/There must be a time frame.
Atkins/IfI am to be removed from the process. Now, I confirm the discipline long before
any other appeal. But in this more highly structured process, if I am going to be an
appeal, I need to be removed from it because-
Woito/That is why I took you out.
Atkins/I understand what you did because I have to confirm that so the officer knows for
sure what the level of discipline is so they know for sure what they are going to
appeal. So does the citizen. Also keeping in mind that the Civil Service
Commission can over-turn the whole bunch of us and add more to or take away
from.
Kubby/Where does that happen. Does that happen at B or does that happen at the end?
Atkins/I think it happens at the end. If you offer the opportunity-
Norton/At the very end.
Atkins/Offer the opportunity for appeal.
Woito/At the end.
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Baker/At the end.
Norton/That is fine.
Nov/Now, if this is appealed by the police officer to the Civil'Service Commission that is
an open hearing. Does the citizen who doesn't agree with this appeal, have a
chance to say something?
Woito/Yes.
Nov/Okay, they can come with a final time at a Civil Service appeal.
Atkins/In theory again-
Woito/Depends upon what the prosecutor which is the Police Chief and my office or the
police officer's attorney.
Atkins/In theory the citizen request additional review by the City Manager, that is fine.
Then I impose the discipline. Somewhere in there the officer can appeal the
decision through the grievance process as well as Civil Service.
Woito/Right. Correct.
Atkins/So we still need- You need to end this process somewhere so other reviews that
they are entitled to are triggered.
Kubby/That is the end. Once they have appealed to you and you make the final
determination.
Atkins/Then I make the call. Then the officer, the citizen, everyone is aware of what the
level of discipline will be. I am done. The officer has a choice of Civil Service
Commission. I assume the citizen has the choice to litigate.
Woito/They always have a choice to litigate.
Kubby/The question that I am still unclear is when in the process does the officer and the
citizen finally get information about outcome?
Norton/E.g. sanctions.
Woito/Final outcome?
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Kubby/About outcome- final determination of outcome but before imposition.
Atkins/I think what you just said, Karen. It is the final report is the outcome unless it is
appealed.
Woito/Right.
Atkins/If it is appealed, it is up for grabs.
Baker/
Okay but I am assuming that because we have said the citizen Review Board
makes their comment or review back to the Police Chief about the discipline, the
citizen is informed of the recommended discipline. The citizen has five days to
comment to the City Manager. I am assuming that the police officer also has five
days, gets the disciplinary report at the same time and says Mr. City Manager, I
also disagree with this.
Atkins/The issue of final report, I am assuming it is a public document.
Baker/I mean the officer has appealed beyond you but he has an equivalent appeal with
you along with the citizen.
Atkins/I mean with the issuance with a final report by this Board, it becomes a public
document. So, therefore, they all need to know at the same time.
Woito/Well, that is an interesting question. That is not entirely true. I want-
Norton/I want to understand the final report because I thought the Board commented on
that before the final report. The final report comes from the Chief, doesn't it?
Woito/
This is something from Minnesota that I think I am going to be working off of. It
says public data Minnesota has an open records law that is similar to Iowa's.
Theirs is codified, ours is based on case law. But they're relatively similar. So what
I am looking at this is the information that I will- We can eventually see as being
available to the public. The name and address of the complainant when the
complaint is filed. Only the Board will get the actual complaint. That will be
confidential. This whole process from A up to B- I am sorry, from the complaint
up to the Chief's report is confidential. The name and rank of the officer who has
been cited in the complaint will be a public record.
Baker/(Can't hear).
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Woito/This is from the time of filing.
Baker/(Can't hear).
Kubby/At the time of the original complaint is made. This is in Minnesota.
Woito/Yes.
Norton/The level of detail here is getting beyond me I am afraid. I don't know where we
are going with this.
Woito/The status of a complaint- The process from the time the complaints filed until the
Police Chief finishes his investigation in terms of overall confidentiality of
personnel records. The police officer is entitled to have that information kept
confidential except for these particular facts. The fact that a complaint was filed,
the name of a complainant, the officer's rank, the status of the complaint as it
moves through the process.
Baker/Is that true now under our law?
Woito/Basically our Iowa law pretty much tracks this except when you get down to E. I
still haven't figured that out.
Baker/All of those complaints that were filed previously with the Police Department, the
ten, twelve, whatever that number was were always public record?
Woito/I don't know how R. J. treated those.
Winklehake/(Can't hear). We had not treated those as public record,
Woito/But the fact that they had been filed would be treated as a public record.
Norton/(Can't hear).
Baker/But the name, rank, and job description of the officer on any complaint, regardless
of the eventual outcome, is public record.
Woito/It can be, yes.
Baker/Does it have to be?
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Woito/No, I guess that is up to you all.
Kubby/It matters what kind of reporting we want.
Woito/Yeah. And you may let the Board decide that.
Thornberry/What do you mean?
Kubby/It means do we want to have statistics about every complaint that is made which I
would say yes. But we also need to know statistics about the output.
Thornberry/Well, statistics I don't think is a problem. The record will be there. But the
question is should it be made public right away?
Woito/I mean, you don't have to make this public.
Baker/Okay.
Woito/This is a- In terms of external accountability, I sort of assume that most of you
would want as much of this to be public as possible at the beginning, knowing full
well that much of the investigation is going to be confidential until you get to the
end.
Baker/What happens is a complaint is filed against an officer. It hits the paper the next
day. 45 days, 70 days later it is resolved. It is not a story.
Norton/Nothing happens. But that is the way with the arrests, you know. You want to
get arrested for drunk driving, they haven't established it yet but your arrest record
is right there.
Baker/A complaint and an arrest are two different things.
Norton/Well.
Woito/This wouldn't- We don't have to follow this. This is one model of somebody-
Minneapolis has done this and I don't mind plagiarizing from other lawyers.
Thornberry/I don't think it needs to be public at this point.
Woito/We don't need to deal in this detail. And I will think about bifurcation.
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Kubby/I have some other issues.
Woito/Sarah is gone. Yes.
Kubby/I have a couple of other issues. I am looking at the May 13 memo that has both
your explanatory memo attached-
Woito/May?
Kubby/I am sorry, March 13.
Woito/Yes.
Kubby/And I can't remember- I am looking at page 7, #9.
Thornberry/I have got March 14, February 11, I got March 27.
Kubby/It is the thick one, does that help.
Norton/I got it.
Nov/One of the thick ones.
Council/(All talking).
Kubby/March 13, page 7.
Thornberry/Page 7?
Kubby/I am looking at-
Woito/Believe it or not, I don't have it with me.
Kubby/Okay, you don't need it for what I am going to ask.
Woito/I remember that stuff.
Kubby/What did we- In our discussions from today, I am assuming that we are deciding
that a member of the PCRB will not be part of the internal investigation team.
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Nov/I think we decided that last time.
Kubby/Okay, I was unclear. That is why I wanted to ask.
Norton/It is good to understand how it works.
Kubby/Okay.
Woito/I think that is correct.
Kubby/Second question is I know in the ordinance language it says that someone directly
affected by an incident can make a complaint which I am assuming either means an
incident happened- I was a player, I was an eyewitness because you are directly
affected. Or the parent or guardian of someone who was directly affected. Isn't
that in the language of the ordinance?
Woito/Yes.
Kubby/One of the things that we had talked about at one point is could someone who has
credible knowledge of an incident make a complaint?
Thornberry/I don't think so. My sister told me that this happened.
Kubby/That is what I am asking.
Thornberry/I don't think so. That is second hand knowledge.
Woito/The way I have it written now, I don't believe that that would be a complaint but
my overall intent and encouragement is to accept all complaints and let the process
sort them out. So if you want to broaden this, that is fine.
Nov/It was my understanding that we did not agree to broaden it to that extent.
Kubby/So that if you have credible information or belief but you are not directly affected
or a parent or guardian of someone who was directly affected, you cannot make a
complaint?
Norton/Suppose the complainant is incapacitated by the incident.
Nov/Well, then they will have a guardian.
page 46
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Woito/The way I have written it, their designated representative has authority to do that.
Kubby/Okay, all right. I am looking now on page 9 at the issues under//16 which is who
is going to comprise the Board and it talks at the bottom, at the last of that, and in
the ordinance it mentions that all Board members shall attend the Citizen Police
Academy and do a ride along. I think those are two really good things but they are
both ways that the Board becomes familiar with the process from the perspective
of the Police Department and I think it is not enough. And I think there are at least
two other kinds of- three other kinds of training that I think could probably all
happen at once. One would be diversity training. Another one would be some
training in conflict resolution and listening skills that are not provided by the Police
Department, those training's. I think they need some outside so that they don't
become too enveloped by the Police Department. These other things I think are
really important and should not be-
Norton/I don't want to make them have to go to school.
Thornberry/Well, let's get them a Ph.D.
Norton/Yeah, right, get a Ph.D. to get on here.
Kubby/These things can be done incrementally. They don't have to be done all at once. I
am not talking about sending them to a five week institute. I am talking about
maybe a eight hour training that would save them a lot. It would streamline the
process, I believe, if those-
Vanderhoef/Streamline what process?
Kubby/In them dealing with citizens, taking complaints.
Thornberry/We don't have to do that to be on the city council.
Kubby/It would probably really help us streamline what we do by having listening skills,
diversity training and some conflict resolution.
Norton/I just think that is just a little- I don't know. It seems to me a put down of the
citizens and I kind of would find that tough to say to a person you are going to
have to go through X, Y, and Z.
Kubby/Well, you are saying that already and the only training that is being outlined comes
from the Police Department which I think does not give the air of independence.
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Those things we are talking about, I think, are vital for them to understand how
police work.
Thomberry/You don't think they will have independence to be on the Board because they
don't do these things.
Nov/We need to say where this training will come from. You do have something in mind?
Kubby/No. But my biggest point here is that all the training that is mandated after you
become a Board member should not solely come from the Police Department.
Nov/All right, how about if we-
Kubby/That is my biggest point. These are just suggestions for other kinds of training. I
personally think would be helpful.
Norton/We might encourage that but I don't know whether I want to demand it. I just
find it-
Kubby/Are you going to demand a ride along and demand the Citizen Police Academy.
Norton/I am a little bit reluctant to that, too. I just encourage it but I am not sure I want
to demand it.
Nov/Okay. Well, how about if we do not include training as part of an ordinance.
Woito/Take it out..
Nov/And this kind of specificity. We just say our Legal Department will provide training
and then as a matter of rules or by-laws, this group will decide the training that
they feel is essential.
Thornberry/Or may provide the training. I mean if they want training in a certain area,
they can request it and it will be approved.
Nov/I just don't know that it has to be part of an ordinance. Specifically the Police
Academy and the ride along. I think the City Attorney will provide training or
something similar to that and then the Board will have a way to consult with that
person and make a joint decision and put their rules in order without putting it in
the ordinance.
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Kubby/We need to have the facts that there will be some training offer as part of the
ordinance.
Nov/I see there is no harm in saying that there will be training provided. I see no harm in
saying that but I just don't agree with the specifics.
Norton/Available, yes.
Woito/I had already written that word down, Larry.
Nov/What was it, Larry?
Baker/Available.
Woito/Board training available.
Nov/Training available is good and I would like as much discretion in terms of by-laws
and rules of behavior that we can give them.
Woito/Yes, take a lot of the ordinance out and let the Board put it in the by-laws which
you will have to approve anyway.
Nov/I believe we should not tie their hands too tight.
Woito/Okay.
Norton/Do you want to look at original jurisdiction?
Thornberry/As in-
Kubby/I noticed two different places in the draPt of the ordinance from the March 13
packet that in one place the Board, in terms of the standard they were looking at
was preponderance of the evidence and at one time, in another place, we talked
about reasonable basis. And I think it is important for us to- Once we finalize the
process, we also need to clarify what'the standard is.
Thornberry/I think that would be in their by-laws that we would review once they get that
done.
Kubby/Isn't that a huge policy question about what level of standard they will use to-
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Baker/Is there a level of standard that the Chief has to use to justify the discipline or come
to a conclusion about conduct or misconduct?
Woito/Not specific in Iowa but generally it is the administrative rule. What a reasonably
prudent police officer would do to conduct their business using due diligence and
common sense.
Kubby/Whatever is the wording(can't hear). It is just in the body of the ordinance there
are two different standards.
Woito/Well, it is going to depend on whether the Board is reviewing the Police Chief's
investigation in which case I recommend the administrative review of what a
reasonable police officer would have considered. If you are going to give
independent investigative authority, then it would probably be preponderance of
the evidence.
Kubby/Does that include the supplemental investigative powers that we have agreed on
or only concurrent? Because some of it could be external to supplemental.
Woito/Yes. It could be a mixture.
Kubby/So we need to still think about-
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 96-60 SIDE I
Woito/More likely than not to have happened.
Atkins/What is clear and convincing?
Woito/That is a higher standard that-
Atkins/That is what I saw on a couple of those ordinances.
Woito/After reviewing 15 ordinances I went back to preponderance of the evidence.
Atkins/I just remember reading clear and convincing.
Kubby/So I guess I would like- Once we get another flow chart that-
Woito/Bifurcates.
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Norton/That we can understand, yeah.
Kubby/The reflects the decision that we made. I would like to talk about this issue again
and if there is going to be different standards, where in the different levels.
Woito/Okay.
Baker/Are we anywhere close to having a rough rough draft ordinance that we can have a
p.h. on?
Woito/I think so.
Council/(All talking).
Baker/Knowing that it is very rough, the what the public sees- Most of the time the
ordinance is very close to what they are going to be.
Norton/I think we ought to be one more step myself to look at what comes out of this
because it is still pretty confusing to us to try to- Every time we come back
together we are not quite in the pace we thought we were.
Nov/I
am afraid for us to come back together once more. I think we ought to say that we
have agreed on this supplement I or additional whatever we are calling it and have
a p.h. and see what else can be added afterwards.
Kubby/But we need to make sure that we are all understanding what it is we are putting
out to the public.
Norton/We got to look at it once more.
Kubby/I think we need to glance at it once more before we put it out.
Norton/Particularly this bifurcation thing because Dave makes a big point in his
comments and I understand them. That the Board ought to be able to comment on
the sanctions proposed and that assumes this bifurcation thing will work.
Thornberry/Comment yes but make a decision, no.
Norton/No, no, no, I understand that but I mean (can't hear) because he said that is the
only way (can't hear).
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Thornberry/I am just saying-
Norton/He said that is one of the fine ways you fine tune-
Nov/Do I hear us saying the same thing again and again? Stop.
Vanderhoef/What I have a request for is with the flow chart that there would be a
corresponding description of this, by number, at say at the Police Department
stage. This is what happens here. Step//2, Chief s report.
Woito/I did a narrative but I just decided to- You were being buried in paperwork. I
decided to just go with the chart. We can flush out the narrative.
Vanderhoef/(Can't hear). Need to go to the public, then the public is going to need a
narrative and I think we should be cleaning up a narrative to put out with it.
Woito/Okay.
Nov/Can we have a narrative for discussion next time and set a p.h. for the following
time? Does that sound reasonable?
Atkins/Can I offer a comment on the p.h.? My impression on a p.h. would be that folks
will come to the microphone and I am not so sure would critique the proposal but
question what does this mean, what does that mean. While it may make it a little
longer, would it be worthwhile to have some sort of an informal session. I prefer
Linda doing it. Maybe like at the library some evening. Walk through what this
thing is all about. So folks at least, when they came to the microphone, I don't like
that element and here is why. Because I am afraid a p.h. right now is going to be
not a whole lot different than what you have been going through the last few
sessions.
Norton/Only worse.
Atkins/That they will pose uninformed questions and I think we need to inform before
you have a p.h. I don't know how to do it.
Kubby/The input will be more valuable if people understand the process.
Atkins/You want a critique. Let them understand what is going on so they can say I don't
like that.
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Nov/We need a strong narrative before you have a public comment and it really is not-
Atkins/My point is the flow chart, the narrative, all of those things. But some sort of an
informal session and I think I would prefer having someone like Linda do it some
evening. Make it open to the public. I am Linda, I am going to walk you through
how this thing is intended to work. And then we can announce council will be
setting a p.h. I just think it might be a lot easier.
Norton/That is a good idea.
Woito/That makes sense.
Nov/And you want this at the library rather than here?
Atkins/Oh no. I am just saying I think some pre-meeting before a p.h. would be helpful to
everybody.
Thornberry/The library would be good.
Atkins/Well, whatever, we will worry about that.
Woito/They have the cable system all set up there, don't they?
Atkins/Yeah.
Kubby/I have another issue or two I want to ask. In the latest version of the ordinance it
seems like the attorney is being given a lot of responsibility. The attorney who is
part of the Review Board is given a lot of responsibility and power. It may be how
things are written or changed because (can't hear).
Nov/What page are you on?
Kubby/I am looking at the ordinance, page 14.
Norton/We can't do that.
Woito/I don't think I intended that.
Kubby/Okay because it just says it shall be the exclusive responsibility of the Board's
chair or the Board member attorney or staff attorney to determine the order and
conduct of any p.h. held under the ordinance.
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Woito/I gave you three options.
Kubby/Prighr.
Norton/You can't put that burden on a volunteer.
Woito/Pick one.
Kubby/I am just concerned (can't hear) power as well as responsibility.
Woito/You would prefer the Board's hired attorney.
Kubby/If it is at that point, yeah.
Woito/Or just the Board's chair. I am totally indifferent about that. I pulled it out of an
ordinance that I read.
Kubby/I don't know what should be.
Norton/I want to find out where we are on the original jurisdiction. Is that still a viable
topic? Are we going to have any such thing under extreme circumstances or
whatever?
Woito/I have my overhead. Anyone who wants to talk about it.
Kubby/A parallel investigation.
Nov/Whether or not we give them jurisdiction to conduct an investigation parallel to
whatever is going on in the internal investigation.
Kuhby/If we restricted it only to cases of death or serious injury which can be legally
defined, I think it would be very very rarely used and that should be an option.
Norton/It is what Dave suggests too and I feel like it would be fairly rare and should be
fairly rare. But it ought to be an option, I think, even though I don't quite
understand how it would work. It would be doing two sets of investigation parallel
but only rarely.
Nov/It would be not easy.
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Thornberry/No, absolutely not. It is not a investigative Board.
Norton/Just supplementary, in other words. They might be doing some investigation on
their own later.
Thornberry/Later but to in concert.
Vanderhoef/What would concern me with that, Dee, would be the fact that there
wouldn't be the possibility lots of times to get the information at the same time as
the internal investigation is going on and then whether you could get to the
principal people and get testimony from them at that same time would be fairly
doubtful.
Kubby/First don't we agree whether we would like that or not and then it is Linda's job
to figure if it can happen and if the logistics can work out to make it happen. I
don't think those details should stop us from saying-
Woito/
I don't have any trouble with- It can happen legally and it can happen logistically.
It is going to take a lot of employee time of people being tracked down and being
interviewed. There is no doubt about it, this is going to cost money and time.
Thornberry/I don't think the PCRB should take the place of the DCI. That is what I am
hearing in some instances that it is just going to be another investigative body and I
just didn't think that that was what we were setting up here.
Norton/It certainly is (can't hear). I don't know how but everybody- I don't know. I am
torn on this one as I was last time because some people think that power to take it
up on an emergency or heavy duty cases might be appropriate to have even though
you might not like it most of the time. Maybe a few times it will be necessary.
Woito/Maybe go back- Take out the subject matter and go back to a 5-7 vote.
Vanderhoef/Take out the subject matter? What are you-
Woito/Death or serious injury. Just take that out. That they could take it- The Board
could take up a matter that they felt strongly about on a 5-7 vote.
Nov/Or a 6~7 vote.
Woito/Or a 6-7 vote or a 7-7 vote.
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Norton/To reinforce the principles of super-majorities that are by and large bad, as I tell
the Governor.
Woito/Well, but in some ways you are at least giving the Board the power to do what
they think is important.
Kubby/And it is part of that independence. Part of that external accountability.
Woito/Would they have voted on a 6-7 vote to take up the Shaw matter? Probably yes.
Thomberry/Then we are creating a DCI.
Woito/No.
Lehman/No.
Woito/No, the DCI- Well, with all due respect.
Thornberry/Then it is not a Review Board.
Woito/Dean, the DCI investigates criminal matters. This Board cannot step their toe into
criminal matters. It is forbidden.
Thornberry/All right, instead of DCI, it is civil.
Norton/Parallel to the police investigation.
Woito/It would be parallel to the police investigation, internal affairs.
Thornberry/But we are not creating an internal affairs investigative body.
Woito/Well, that is up to you.
Kubby/Some of us would like that function in these extreme cases to have some external
accountability in that manner,
Thornberry/I think, perhaps, the-
Kubby/And you disagree, that is fine. I understand that you don't want to do that
duplication.
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Nov/Karen, let him finish. Have you finished? Okay. I have another question on this. If
we take this case as our example and we have already the DCI involved, it
appeared to me that what the Police Department did was review the testimony as
the DCI had taken it. Did they take separate testimony. And if they did, were they
going to then allow a private investigator to get a third recording of the same
officer explaining the same event?
Woito/Unlikely.
Vanderhoef/That is exactly what I was saying.
Woito/It would depend on whether the officer wanted to cooperate or not.
Nov/And whether the officer's lawyer wanted to cooperate or not.
Woito/Even more problematical, correct.
Norton/It is very difficult, the mechanics.
Nov/So even if we said in the case of death or serious injury caused by a Police
Department employee, it still could be a situation where it didn't happen.
Vanderhoef/That is right.
Norton/It is very tough.
Woito/It is your Board. You can give it the power you want to give it.
Nov/We can give it the power but we also have to understand that though they have
accepted the power to designate that investigation, there will be others who say
no.
Woito/They would eventually be able to get information after the criminal matter was
resolved.
Nov/True but that would be a little ways down the road.
Kubby/That is true for the Police Department's internal investigation. They didn't get the
DCI report from some of the testimony. We still haven't seen some of that.
Nov/But they get some of the DCI interview of police officers.
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Kubby/And the PCRB may have that same privilege.
Norton/And they did some of their own, didn't they.
Thornberry/Why have three investigations.
Nov/Because it is seen as external accountability.
Thornberry/Then the Board should review the police interviews and procedures after they
did it. To have a concurrent on-going investigation, they are going to be trampling
over each other. You have got the Police Department doing an investigation. You
got the DCI doing an investigation. You have got the Review Board doing an
investigation.
Kubby/It just matters what level of independence in these serious cases you want to give
the authority-
Thornberry/No, no. They will have the independence. They can say hey Police
Department, we think you did a good job on your investigation.
Kubby/I don't believe that the PCRB getting the police investigation is independent. That
for most of the cases that is going to be very sufficient.
Thornberry/I think the Review Board does not need to be an investigative body.
Norton/In serious cases and on a majority vote, they can proceed further than that. They
can decide to do their own investigation later. The only point is do it concurrently
in the first three weeks after the event. That is where everybody is going to be
stepping on each other. I don't understand quite how that would work myself.
That is all I am asking.
Nov/I still have a question about whether or not it would work.
Vanderhoef/I doubt it.
Kubby/But if we don't say that take it out of the logistics and say that it is a value that we
hold. We ask Linda to say what would the logistics look like. She brings it back to
us to say yea or nay. If we don't give her the direction to do that, we don't know
is it possible. That that is not where we are at yet. We are making a policy decision
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to see if it could happen. I guess I would like to know, are there other people who
would like to see-
Woito/Larry.
Baker/The power.
Thornberry/I think it would be easier to give the Board-
Nov/Microphone, Larry.
Thornberry/Additional responsibility and authority as opposed to taking some away when
we are seeing that maybe they are overstepping their bounds or getting in
everybody's way. I think it is easier to give more as opposed to- Starting out with
you got everything. Well, then we are going to start taking some things away. I
don't think that will happen.
Baker/
Two things are going to happen. One, it may be determined that logistically it can't
be done. And two, there may be a situation where bodily harm, death, where the
Board says no, we are not interesting in pursuing a separate one. There may be a
police shooting, officer accidentally kills somebody. There on the face of it doesn't
seem to be the same concern that was expressed in the Eric Shaw shooting and the
Board says we don't need to pursue this at this time.
Thornberry/I think the DCI would be involved almost immediately on the death of a
person from being shot.
Kubby/For a criminal investigation?
Thornberry/So you have already got two that are going on already.
Baker/One of your functions, the abstract function of the PCRB, is public confidence in
the Police Department and police protection, city personnel.
Thornberry/It would be the review process then that the citizen would look at.
Council/(All talking).
Baker/It may be that the public, we can argue about the definition later, the public wants
something done and the PCRB is the vehicle that they want it done in a more
timely fashion. I am just saying that I don't think- The times that it is actually
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going to happen will be very rare but they ought to have the authority, the option
to pursue that.
Norton/6 out of 7?
Baker/There was a very unique circumstances that they feel-
Norton/5 out of 7?
Council/(All talking).
Thornberry/I don't think they should have that power.
Nov/Serious injury or death.
Thornberry/Serious injury or death is going to be a criminal investigation anyway.
Norton/Not necessarily.
Nov/Yes, he is right. It is very likely it will be a criminal investigation.
Norton/I don't know. Dave, what do you- I don't know. I would like-
Council/(All talking).
Nov/This isn't Dave's decision.
Norton/Can we clarify it or do we have to decide this minute?
Nov/I think that we would like to- At least I think I hear four people saying let's at least
consider this option. Let's consider it on death or serious injury issues and 6 out of
7.
Norton/5.
Kubby/5 out of 7.
Vanderhoef/6 out of 7.
Nov/6 out of 7 is what I thought I heard most of the time here.
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Kubby/5.
Norton/6 is ridiculous.
Thornberry/It is not ridiculous. They shouldn't even have the power to do it.
Norton/I may be where you are, Dean. I just want to get it drafted and see what it looks
like.
Thornberry/Why in the world would you say 5 out of 7 if you don't think this should-
Norton/Because I think even if we have this, it ought to be a rare event and that ought to
be taken-
Thornberry/That rare event would be DCI anywhere. You are going to have three
investigations going on the same time.
Kubby/We are not convincing each other on this.
Nov/Okay folks, I hear-
Woito/You already have a draft, Dee.
Nov/I hear three 5's.
Woito/Of my concurrent.
Nov/Say something, Ernie.
Lehman/There is one other situation where I think it might be viable and that is at the
request of the Police Chief and the City manager. Then I don't think that would
even require a vote. There may be situations where R. J. and Steve really feel that
this situation is grave enough and serious enough that we would like something
done right now and I think under those circumstances they should have the power
to go ahead and do it.
Kubby/Well, there are definitely four people who want to see something and we need to
argue about whether it is a simple 5 or 6 out of 7.
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Norton/Let me ask one last. Does this preclude the possibilities that in extreme
circumstances, the police might invite somebody from the PCRB to sit in on their
investigation?
Thornberry/Jesus.
Woito/No.
Nov/I think we dropped that one.
Lehman/I think we dropped that one.
Thornberry/I think if we start getting into any and every eventuality, we are going to sit
here all day.
Kubby/The one thing that we haven't thought about is we talked about an appeal process
for a sworn officer and an appeal process, so to speak, for the complainant. But
there is no appeal process for the CSO who cannot go to the Civil Service
Commission and I would like the CSO to be able to go to the City manager in the
same process that the complainant can go to the City Manager so that they have a
parallel place to go.
Woito/Actually my pitch to you was going to be to take the CSOs out. I think if you are
concerned about police misconduct, that we ought to be focusing on the serious
problems which are the sworn officers.
Kubby/How do we, because we are getting more and more CSO officers every year and
that there may be some legitimate concerns about behavior. It may not be about
use of deadly force. But it could be about some other behaviors, about rudeness,
about intimidation. How do we then- The public doesn't view, I don't believe, that
much difference between the two.
Woito/They don't carry guns. That is a big difference.
Kubby/But if we need to have CSOs to have additional training so that their behavior is
what we are deeming as appropriate, how do we assess that there is a problem?
Woito/I would like to know- R. J., are you getting a lot of complaints about CSOs?
Winklehake/No.
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Council/(All talking).
Nov/Okay, in general, if you have a complaint about the CSO, do you apply discipline
and do they appeal?
Winklehake/If we apply discipline, they have a grievance procedure that they can go
through. They don't have the Civil Service Commission but they do have the
normal grievance procedure they have for the AFSCME contract people.
Woito/They are under AFSCME. They are civilians.
Nov/For example, somebody decided to complain to you about the behavior ofa CSO,
how many times have they appealed? Do they otten appeal? Do they seldom
appeal?
Winklehake/How many times have the CSOs appealed?
Nov/Yeah.
Winklehake/I can't think of any.
Nov/Okay, thank you.
Arkins/I have not had a CSO grievance. Dale, I don't recall one.
Nov/That answers a question.
Thornberry/Does a CSO write a parking ticket?
Winklehake/Yes.
Thornberry/Did they write a speeding ticket?
Winklehake/No.
Kubby/They are still interacting with the public and in a police manner with a uniform.
Woito/Yes, with a uniform and with a marked police car.
Nov/And we have excluded parking. We have said there are other avenues of' appeal. This
Board does not appeal parking.
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Baker/Can a CSO arrest anybody?
Woito/No, they have no arrest powers because they are not sworn officers.
Thornberry/A citizen can make a citizens arrest. I guess it would be the same.
Norton/But if there were a complaint of some kind behavior during a parking arrest, they
can certainly get-
Thornberry/There is not a parking arrest, I believe.
Woito/They cannot arrest.
Baker/Can we just say yes or no, CSOs in or out?
Woito/I would prefer CSOs be taken out but it is your call.
Baker/I would say in.
Kubby/In.
Thornberry/Out.
Vanderhoef/Out.
Nov/Let's leave it out. We could always add it.
Woito/Okay.
Nov/I think I hear four outs.
Kubby/Who are they?
Norton/I am an out.
Thornberry/I am a out.
Nov/One, two, three, four, five. Okay, five.
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Woito/Okay. So I do another schematic with a bifurcation and do a narrative and another
ordinance draft. Or do I wait.
Nov/Yes, an ordinance form and as simple as possible, please.
Thornberry/One thing that we did not talk about that we said we were going to talk about
the last time, Karen, was- Karen-
Nov/Karen.
Kubby/(Can't hear).
Thornberry/There was one thing that we decided that we were going to talk about this
time that we talked about last time and we didn't come to a conclusion was it was
their power of requiring somebody to testify.
Karr/Do you want this on the record or are we done? Are we adjourned or not?
Thornberry/We are done.
Karr/I just can't tell if you want it on.
Nov/I would like us to agree to be done in which I didn't think we agreed to.
Kubby/Well then Dean's question needs to be brought up at the next time we talk about
this.
Nov/Okay. Okay. Are we done? Thank you.
Adjourned: 6:05 PM
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