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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 04/25/05 Mtg MINUTES Eugene City Council Regular Session Council Chamber--City Hall April 25, 2005 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: George Poling, David Kelly, Betty Taylor, Jennifer Solomon, Chris Pryor, Andrea Ortiz, Bonny Bettman, Gary Papd. Mayor Kitty Piercy convened the meeting of the Eugene City Council and welcomed all those present. 1. PUBLIC HEARING Police Executive Research Forum and International City Management Association Report on Selected Police Operations City Manager Taylor recounted that the City had jointly commissioned an outside audit of the Eugene Police Department (EPD) in October 2004, which had culminated in the report submitted to the City Council during the previous month. He stated that the report contained 57 recommendations for improving the EPD and the present public hearing sought to provide the community with an opportunity to weigh in on them. EPD Chief Bob Lehner and Executive Director of the Human Risk and Resource Services (HRRS) Lauren Chouinard would subsequently provide their responses to the recommendations. He noted that the City was about to receive its annual internal affairs audit report from its contracted auditor, Howell Lankford, to be presented to a joint meeting of the Police Commission and the Human Rights Commission. Because of the three events coming together, he indicated he had extended to May 9 the time frame for Chief Lehner and Mr. Chouinard to respond to the report and the public hearing. Mayor Piercy opened the public hearing and reviewed the rules that governed the proceeding. Nadia Sindi, 3950 Goodpasture Island Loop, #J-111, submitted her testimony in writing. She alleged that she had been harassed, intimidated, and followed by officers of the EPD since 1983. She felt this harassment had increased after she had filed a complaint in 1997 regarding an incident in which she was allegedly assaulted by a police officer. She suggested vandalism to her vehicle was connected to her allegations regarding the Police Department. She said she filed numerous complaints and testified before the council and police commission. She thought the more she complained, the more she had been retaliated against. She asserted that she had been ticketed more than other members of the City's populace. She felt she had been %oycotted" from serving on any City committee or commission. Zachary Vishanoff, Patterson Street, thought the Planning and Development Department (PDD) was integrally tied to the EPD because the situations that "got the police in a bad way" were related to PDD. He cited the "smart growth" Broadway Apartments, which had won a Governor's Livability Award since its construction. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 25, 2005 Page 1 Regular Session Mr. Vishanoff thought the "big report about police misconduct" under consideration precluded the "real stories about what was happening with the citizens." He indicated that he was not likely to read the report. He recalled his encounter with the EPD when he was hit with a non-lethal beanbag. He said his complaints about being hit had gone unaddressed and alleged the police continued to characterize his actions on that day as threatening. He wished the EPD would apologize to him. Continuing, Mr. Vishanoff likened the report before the council to "big reports" the University of Oregon generated to support planning changes. He asserted that people were '~torn from their homes and thrown in the street." He wished the University of Oregon would talk to its neighbors more and rely less on big reports written by outsiders. He suggested the City start over and find out everything the police had done. David C. Woods, 935 West 8th Avenue, called the problems at hand a deep issue. He averred that the problem was not the police so much as it was violence. He said people try to raise children to talk to each other and resolve problems civilly while citizens tell our leaders to solve problems through violence. He asserted that citizens were supposed to have a civil society and not a militaristic society or a police state. He pointed out that police officers were citizens like the rest of the citizenry. He said police officers put their lives on the line in their work but so did construction workers and medical personnel, among others. He stated that police officers did not have special rights to intimidate the people of the community. He thought the police should show respect to the citizens and the respect would be returned. Jim Hale, 1715 Linnea Avenue, commented that the only time he felt intimidated by police officers was when he was receiving a traffic ticket that he deserved. He disputed the need to hire consultants or an assistant to the police chief. He averred that the department needed to hire more officers. He pointed out that the city of Eugene had a high incidence of property crimes. He disagreed with the report's recommendation that a consultant be hired to do a time study of the sergeants. He thought an increase in sergeants was unneeded, though perhaps a few more lieutenants should be hired. Mr. Hale said answers were needed to the questions raised by the report, such as whether the HRRS tampered with files and whether investigative reports were changed at its behest. He thought there was a need for better records security so that police and personnel files did not disappear and reappear. Mr. Hale reiterated that the primary conclusion of the report, in his opinion, was that there were not enough officers to do community policing. Jana Jackson, 1012 East 22nd Avenue, spoke in support of the EPD. She said she was one of the 1,500 friends of Officer Randy Ellis. She related that she had spoken with over 2,000 people in the past two months regarding policing in the city of Eugene. She had concluded from speaking to people that most of the citizens were more "far more conservative" than those who frequented City Council meetings. She asserted that people, in general, wanted more policing and an increased budget for the EPD. She expressed her support for the modifications to the Metro Plan that would provide more funding for the Lane County Sheriff's Office. Ms. Jackson shared that some people she discussed these issues with had spoken wistfully of "Sheriff Joe," the sheriff in Arizona who kept prisoners in a tent city. She related that a couple of merchants expressed concern that some people would begin to take the law into their own hands. She said a greater number of people were more matter-of-fact about such things; the people would take the law into their own hands and this was inevitable given the lack of community policing. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 25, 2005 Page 2 Regular Session Regarding racial profiling and racism in Eugene, Ms. Jackson stated that Eugene was "the whitest town" she had ever been in and the people needed to take a hard look inward. She did not think anyone could point an accusatory finger at the police without looking in the mirror first. Susan Miller, homeless, said she was 55-years-old and had raised three children. She related that she had been harassed for being homeless. She recounted several incidents in which she had felt harassed. She asserted that she contributed to her community and that her daughter volunteered. She said Eugene citizens were all people and needed love and respect. She averred that the police should not step outside "the box of the law." She stressed that she was not against the law or the police, she was against hate. Charles Biggs, 540 Antelope Way, thanked the City for investigating the EPD. He said he had reviewed the report up to page 55 and had made four pages of notes. He thought the report was "sugar-coated," as it called the problems that had prompted the investigation "incidents" and "mishaps." He asserted that the report missed the point. He asked what kind of community would allow something so horrendous to go unaddressed for so long. He noted that Terry Orsby had filed a sexual harassment suit in 1996. He recognized that an ethics program was part of the EPD training, but thought there was a culture within the Police Department that fostered "protectionist" behaviors. Patricia Hadley, 2611 Edison Street, said there was no option to "wait and see" at this point. She stated that the role of the police and the role of good citizens had become adversarial. She agreed with the Police Union that an external review board was in order. She thought the community should define what it considered dangerous to public safety and there was no "one size fits all." Ms. Hadley commented that the police issued tickets to homeless people for sitting on the grass and asked if this made citizens feel safer. She averred that a homeless person who returned to a patch of grass that he or she had been evicted from would receive a second ticket and ultimately be subject to arrest. She recounted that she had recently met a homeless man in a wheelchair who had 30 tickets, some for sitting in the wrong place and some for sitting in the wrong place again. She asked how it served our society for this man to be ticketed and ultimately incarcerated. Ms. Hadley believed racial profiling in Eugene was real. Referring to the recently publicized incident in which Cortez Johnson was stopped, she asserted that if he felt racial bias then there was racial bias. She noted that she had been accused in the past of seeing gender bias where there was none, but it felt like gender bias and ultimately her feelings proved to be true. Ms. Hadley thought the third recommendation should be the top priority of the council, that of determining what the community's expectations of the police department and development of policies that matched those expectations and fully implementing community policing. She remarked that there were already active neighborhood groups. She pointed out that nearly every day she witnessed people being ticketed for speeding on Roosevelt Boulevard while two drug houses in her immediate neighborhood went unaddressed. She felt no one cared about that. In closing, Ms. Hadley said she wished to know the name of her "beat cop." She opined that if New York City could do it, Eugene could do it, too. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 25, 2005 Page 3 Regular Session Majeska Seese-Green, PO Box 1214, speaking on behalf of the Whiteaker Community Council, conveyed the community council's recommendation to form an independent external police review process. She was pleased to see that it was the fourth recommendation in the report. She expressed the Whiteaker council's support for the first and third recommendations, regarding the development of mechanisms to access more segments of the community and the determination of community expectations of the police department respectively. She stated that the Whiteaker Community Council, together with the Police Commission, planned to co-sponsor a discussion of the report and also of the progress on the independent police review at 7 p.m. on June 1. Speaking for herself, Ms. Seese-Green urged implementation of nearly all of the recommendations. She appreciated that the report was done and expressed hope that the community would get its "money's worth" out of it. Tim Laue, 124 Spencers Crest Drive, thanked the council for the opportunity to address the issue. He said the Police Commission had sent a memorandum regarding its recommendations on the report. He noted the City Manager said the report had provided a "road map" for addressing some of the most critical hiring, training, and management practices that were at issue in the organization of the EPD. He stated that while the commission acknowledged that ultimately successful implementation of the report would require significant resources and leadership from the City and the council, the commissioners were hopeful that through such a commitment, police services to the community could be enhanced and the complaint system could be redesigned to provide accountability and increased transparency. He averred that this would ultimately yield the changes that would in turn generate trust and confidence in the EPD. He said this would prevent the reoccurrence of the type of activities that brought about the report in the first place. Mr. Laue averred that social scientists had understood for decades that in trying to build a better community, people were unwilling to cooperate with people they do not know and unwilling to trust people they had not met. He asserted that in order to reestablish the mutual trust and support necessary for the community to get past the crisis and to diminish the isolation that separated and divided people, people needed to reintroduce themselves to one another and acknowledge the mistakes made and address the attitudes and practices that allowed such mistakes to be made in the first place. He felt that no report and no amount of money could accomplish this. He said this result could only happen if the community found common ground and worked together to serve the community that the residents loved. Mayor Piercy closed the public hearing and called for comments from the City Council. Councilor Pap6 appreciated Police Commission Chair Laue's contribution to the hearing as well as the substantive report provided to the council by the commission. In response to a question from Councilor Pap6, City Manager Taylor stated that input and recommendations had been encouraged from all citizens and the Human Rights Commission and Police Commission. Councilor Ortiz thanked everyone for testifying, particularly those for whom it took great courage to speak. Councilor Kelly noted that the Police Commission memorandum made the point that it was the initial reaction to the report and not the final analysis of it. He underscored that the Police Commission would be providing further input regarding the results of the review. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 25, 2005 Page 4 Regular Session Councilor Kelly asked if the reports from Chief Lehner and Mr. Chouinard could be posted on the City's Web site as soon as they were available. City Manager Taylor responded that he would ensure this was done. City Manager Taylor reiterated that this was one of the council's areas for action planning and implementation. He said an action plan would come before the council in a work session as well as a strategic plan and recommendations on some of the specifics of the internal affairs complaint handling. He indicated there would be multiple opportunities to talk about the progress the City would make going forward based on the framework formed by the study's recommendations. Councilor Kelly said a joint meeting of the Police Commission and the City Council would be held on July 25 to discuss the commission's recommendations regarding external review. City Manager Taylor reiterated that the report from Chief Lehner and Mr. Chouinard would come to him on May 9. He stated that an update on the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF)/International City Management Association (ICMA) review process was scheduled for the work session on June 22. He underscored his intent to keep the public informed as the process unfolded. Mayor Piercy appreciated that the City was keeping the process in front of the public. She adjourned the meeting at 8:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Ruth Atcherson) MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 25, 2005 Page 5 Regular Session