CC Minutes - 05/29/07 Work Session

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Ms. Bettman said that an administrative investigation in such a situation was standard in every jurisdiction; some investigations were done in conjunction with and some occurred after the criminal investigation. She acknowledged that the City had conducted some studies and reviews, such as the ICM/PERF study, but those were not administrative investigations. She said now that police oversight had been implemented with the hiring of a police auditor, the council had the opportunity to finish the job by closing the record on what happened and moving forward. She urged the council to take its responsibility to ensure accountability seriously. She said the elapsed time since the criminal investigation had been orchestrated by the admini- stration and she was happy to grant immunity to personnel in the Police Department in order to complete an administrative investigation and close the book on the matter. Ms. Ortiz asked if the City Manager felt that no administrative investigation had been done yet. City Manager Taylor replied that he believed an administrative investigation had occurred. He had requested, when one of the officers had been indicted and the other was under investigation, that victims come forward and he and the police chief had reviewed information at every step along the way. He said that information developed during discovery was also reviewed. He felt that an administrative review had been ongoing since the day the officers were identified and there had been no evidence to warrant further disciplinary action, either administratively or criminally, against any individuals other than the two who were indicted and convicted. Ms. Ortiz related that she had worked on establishing the police auditor function along with Ms. Bettman and, while she understood Ms. Bettman’s purpose, she could not support the motion as she felt that it would not be in the interest of moving forward. She preferred to have the auditor focus on other issues that she felt would better serve the community. Ms. Taylor thought some members of the public and the council still did not understand how those activities could have occurred without anyone knowing about them. Ms. Bettman explained her motion would direct the auditor to bring back to the council a scope of work and costs. She said the ordinance establishing the auditor function granted the authority to contract out work and she hoped that was what would happen. She said the auditor could answer the question about whether an administrative investigation had occurred, instead of the City Manager. She pointed out that the council would be considering resource issues for the Police Department later in the meeting and she did not take her motion lightly. She felt that the department’s credibility had not yet been established with the community and questions about how two officers could have failed to perform their jobs and gone undetected had to be answered before addressing the issue of additional resources. Mr. Zelenka said he was interested in the police auditor’s opinion on the issue and was surprised that no other police personnel had been disciplined as a result of the Magana/Lara incident. He thought the Police Department should do a better job of informing the public about what changes had occurred since then. He felt there were many people in the community who were still unsettled about the situation and having the police auditor look into it and offer an opinion could help address those concerns. Mr. Poling thanked Ms. Ortiz for her comments. He said that his discussions in the community reflected the feeling that the department had handled the problem appropriately and people were aware of some of the changes within the department. He thought it was time to move forward instead of continuing to drag out the issue. He did not feel another administrative review was necessary. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 29, 2007 Page 3 Work Session