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Ms. Green referred the council to the tally of individuals offering comment at forums and <br />comment sessions, written comments, and reported that the committee's Web site experienced <br />more than 1,000 hits. <br /> <br />Ms. Green stressed the unanimity of the committee's recommendation and asked for the <br />council's concurrence. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner asked staff to expand upon Mr. Miller's remarks regarding cost avoidance related to <br />litigation by providing the council with some actual figures quantifying those costs. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner did not believe that referring the proposal to the voters was a barrier to its <br />implementation, saying that successful passage would give the process legitimacy. He <br />supported referring the proposal to the voters. <br /> <br />Responding to a question from Mr. Meisner, Ms. Green said that the Police Forum had been <br />established to advise the department on policy related to and implementation of community <br />policing, but recently there had been some impetus for that group to address issues of broader <br />policy, so the proposal would end discussion of that possibility. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner asked if it was possible for the review board to take on the functions of the policy <br />group. Mr. Prozanski said that the committee believed that the proposed structure would maintain <br />credibility and legitimacy. The focus of the policy group went beyond the immediate question of <br />incident review. Ms. Green added that the time demand on members would be considerable. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner asked if other communities had a similar policy group in place. Ms. Green did not <br />know. She said that the committee received input at the forums and meetings that there was a <br />need for a public mechanism to deal with police policies and practices. <br /> <br />Mr. Tollenaar asked why a charter amendment was needed to establish the board, pointing out <br />that the council appointed commissions and boards all the time. City Attorney Glenn Klein <br />responded that a charter amendment was required to appoint the board because of the <br />responsibilities the board would be assigned related to personnel. If the board made <br />recommendations related to personnel issues, even if not making the final decision, a charter <br />amendment was necessary. At the current time, such decisions were the city manager's <br />purview. Mr. Tollenaar suggested that the City Manager be given the authority to appoint the <br />board. <br /> <br />Mr. Laue was not convinced that the establishment of the policy group would result in a broad- <br />based citizen input process. He supported the proposal for a review board and auditor but was <br />less convinced about the policy group. Mr. Prozanski said that the policy group would involve a <br />broad variety of people, including those most disenfranchised. Mr. Miller said that the committee <br />had not spent much time on the policy group, and had wanted to separate the issue from its <br />charge, but it kept hearing about issues that were policy-driven. He suggested that the current <br />Council Committee on Public Safety might wish to add citizen members to broaden its <br />representative base if the council chose not to appoint a policy group. Mr. Young said that the <br />committee also wanted to point out to the council that there was no forum for those issues to be <br />considered. <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 16, 1998 Page 2 <br /> 5:30 p.m. <br /> <br /> <br />