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Referring to the culture of the police organization, Ms. Taylor related comments she had heard that the culture was affected by the fact that many police officers did not live in Eugene. She asked if that was a problem and if the department had considered recruiting from Eugene or requiring officers who were hired to move to Eugene. Chief Lehner said that had not been considered in the course of developing the plan. He said he had not seen a problem he considered to be associated with residency of officers. He said that residency issues in general were very problematic for police departments - economically and demographi- cally - and raised very significant issues for public employers. He did not believe there would be an adequate applicant pool if hiring was restricted to the City. Ms. Taylor suggested it might make a difference in organizational culture and officers' involvement in the community if they were required to live in Eugene, particularly with community policing. Chief Lehner replied that could be true in concept but based on his experience most police officers, in Eugene and other communities, did not live in the areas in which they patrolled. Ms. Taylor asked if the department did not pay enough for officers to move to Eugene. Ms. Towle replied that many police recruits, particularly experienced officers, moved because of the large surrounding area and many department employees lived outside of the cities. She noted that residency requirements were fairly unique and would likely have to be bargained. She speculated that a residency requirement could be a deterrent to recruitment efforts. Ms. Taylor related that she had recently attended a kindergarten graduation where many of the youngsters expressed a desire to be a police officer. Chief Lehner commented that a comprehensive recruitment philosophy also included recruiting parents to encourage their children to consider law enforcement careers. Mr. Pap~ concurred with previous comments regarding the Hobson Report and encouraged a new strategic examination of the department. He noted that the plan did not address the conflict between the Police Department and Human Resource and Risk Services in terms of recruitment, hiring and discipline that was raised in the ICMA-PERF report. Chief Lehner replied that in the areas of recruitment and hiring Human Resource was an active partner. He said some of the conflict may have occurred because procedures were not as formalized as they could have been and that would be addressed during accreditation as formalized, maintained and updated procedures were required. He felt the problem identified in the report was a system issue that would be resolved when procedures were formalized; that was also true with respect to discipline procedures. Mr. Pap~ asked who should make hiring decisions with regard to police personnel. Chief Lehner replied that technically the city manager made that decision and the manager had delegated that decision to the police chief. He said he would not delegate that decision to anyone as he was ultimately accountable to the community for hiring decisions. City Manager Taylor said the Police Department was an organization that was part of the City system and human resource professionals were engaged to provide assistance in recruitment and selection, validating procedures, ensuring that collective bargaining and discipline were within State law and labor contracts. He pointed out that while there was shared responsibility, the ultimate responsibility rested with the city manager. Human Resource and Risk Services Executive Director Lauren Chouinard added that a certain amount of tension between Human Resource and the rest of the organization was inherent in the relationship because the human resource function was focused on making sure the organization followed all policies and procedures. He agreed with Chief Lehner that part of the problem MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 22, 2005 Page 6 Work Session