Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

Home Browse Search

4. ACTION: Appointments to Civilian Review Board Police Auditor Cris Beamud said the number of members who would serve on the Citizen Review Board (CRB) had yet to be determined by the council. She stated that the council would also have to decide who would be on the CRB and what the term lengths would be. She reviewed the application and interview process for the CRB candidates. She believed the screening committee had been very diligent. She noted that in a preliminary poll, one candidate had garnered a clear majority of council support. Councilor Bettman thought the council should have addressed whether or not to interview applicants outside of recommendations of the screening committee. Councilor Bettman, seconded by Councilor Taylor, moved to limit the appointments to within the nine nominees of the screening committee. Councilor Bettman averred that fairness was important and that the screening committee had conducted its process in a balanced and fair way. Councilor Ortiz indicated she would not support the motion. She said the nominees that had been set forth had met the criteria. Councilor Poling said he could not support the motion. He felt the criteria had been changed by the screening committee after the applications had been sent out. He thought the screening committee had taken it upon itself to change the criteria. He thought the changes made were an “insult” to the applicants that had applied prior to the changes. Councilor Pryor stated that he would not support the motion. Councilor Taylor said because she trusted the screening committee and it had spent a lot of time, she would limit her choices to the people set forth by the committee. Councilor Clark opposed the motion. He was concerned about the community’s need to have a perception of a lack of bias on the part of the screening committee. He noted that the Mayor’s Sustainable Business Initiative Task Force had found widespread community support because of the wide spectrum of people who served on that committee. Councilor Bettman asserted that the Police Commission and the enabling ordinance reinforced that the CRB should be objective and credible. She believed that the CRB should not be appointed with the idea of achieving political balance between a contingent of “anti-police” and “pro-police.” She opined that the screening committee had tried to screen these points of view out in order to gain an objective roster of candidates for the CRB. Roll call vote; the motion failed; councilors Bettman and Taylor voting in favor. Councilor Solomon observed that the CRB was a new concept and the council was, in effect, “inventing the wheel.” She commented that the process of the screening committee had been disheartening and a disappointment. She thought it added a layer of bureaucracy to the CRB appointment process and had reduced the transparency. She remarked that of the four people who were “self-selected” to be on the screening committee, only one had been familiar to her. She thought the council should have conducted the MINUTES—Eugene City Council April 9, 2007 Page 4 Regular Meeting