 All right, so yeah, call the meeting order. It is Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022, time is 6.42 p.m. We have a full quorum once Susie locks back into the meeting. Are there any additions and modifications to the agenda? I'm not... I'm sorry, I was slow hitting the unmute. Could we quickly talk about the terms and how many commissioners we'll need and what that process will be? Yeah, happy to talk about that. I'll second that. Any discussion or comments with adding an agenda item of discussion, of discussing, what's it about, who's signing back up or he's running again for commission terms? I mean, not even that, but just to have an understanding of how many positions will be open and what the city does in general for posting that information. I don't know. I do know that there will be four spots. Myself, Stephanie, Shirane, and you all. Our terms all end. Not sure if we're signing back up or not. And yeah, I'm happy to have had a discussion. So with that said, I'll second that. Any further questions or comments? All in favor of admitting the agenda to add this discussion, raise your hand to say aye. Aye. Aye. And that passes unanimously. I guess we'll tack that on to 6.04. Awesome, moving on to, sorry, any other further additions or modifications to the agenda? I'm not hearing any. I move to adopt the amended agenda for the meeting. Do I have a second? Seconded by Stephanie. All in favor, raise your hand to say aye. Aye. Aye. That passes unanimously. And I'm curious, Shannon, I think the phone number in the attendees is a Susie, but let me double check. Yeah, that's our phone number if you want to promote her, that'd be great, thank you. All right, moving on to approving the minutes of our last meeting. We have two minutes to approve. One for our regular commission meeting on the 22nd of February, and approving the minutes from the Special Police Commission meeting on the 23rd of February. I'll entertain a motion to adopt both minutes as is. Move to adopt. I'll motion to adopt a minute. Seconded. Any discussions or comments? I'm not hearing any. All those in favor of approving the minutes from the 22nd and the 23rd, please raise your hand to say aye. Aye. Aye. Susie, are you able to try, are you able to adopt? Technically, that's going to be your roll call vote since I can't hear Susie right now. I am in favor, Stephanie? Yes. In favor, Mila? Yes. In favor, Kevin? Yes. In favor, Shereen? So now, yes, and Susie? So that is six yays and one abstention from Susie. All right, moving on to public forum. Is there anybody in, sorry, Shannon, did anybody email you with a request to speak? I received no emails. All right, thank you. If there's anybody in the attendees that would like to speak for public forum, please raise your hand and we'd like you to a panelist if you can participate. I'm not hearing any. If, yeah, I'm not hearing anything, so I move to close public comment. And I'm sorry, Shannon, would you mind also promoting the As Comer first as well too? I think one is for visual, one's for speaking. Yeah, so I've tried twice to promote her, and it, it's not either, she's not accepting the promotion. Oh, there she goes. Yeah. Awesome. All right then. Moving on to agenda item 4.01, she's a discussion with BPD's community support leaders on, sorry, community support supervisor, Miss Lacey Smith. Lacey, before it's yours, thank you very much for being here. Hello everyone, I'm Lacey. I'm the community support supervisor with the city. I work at the Burlington Police Department. I apologize now if you hear the occasional toddler scream. My 13-year-old is trying to do his best in watching him. So with that, I first would like to say thank you for all the support that you all have provided and are very vocal about in terms of the community support liaisons. I am just so grateful to have them. They're just amazing. We're, we have a good team of people. There's four of us total. And so really the two additional positions would be helpful in terms of just expanding our hours as the need for just our response. You have some feedback. Okay, so it would allow for us to go basically past 6 p.m. I'm so sorry, Lacey. Could everybody mute their, mute their stuff, except for Lacey? Awesome, thank you so much. Apologies. Yeah, no worries. Thank you. Okay, so yeah, right now we work seven days a week and we are from basically 7.30 to 6 p.m. And the two additional positions would really allow for us to work basically longer into the evening and have an additional person over on the weekends because right now there's just one less. So outside of that, the program itself is like we get used every day, multiple times a day. We have a lot of discretion to be able to dispatch ourselves. So if we see something come in as a group, it really is as simple as us going over to a supervisor and just making sure that we're on the same page that this sounds like something we can respond to. Priority three calls, assuming that it's, you know, not an accident or something that a community service officer would respond to, we have the ability to just dispatch, self-dispatch without supervisor approval. It's really the priority two that are, we kind of will pow out about. And those are like certain welfare checks, like today I did one and also talking with a neighbor who is struggling with someone that lives across the street who is using like on the porch. So like we can, that would be a drug call. So we would be able to respond to something like that because there really doesn't too much in the way of public safety concern there. So I think it's moving along pretty nicely. We are, there are times where there's a need and we are all kind of busy doing our things. So yeah, I think the additional support would be really appreciated and we'll quickly be working once they, once we have them, if we get approved to get them. So I'm going to move along because I wanted to give two other additional updates and one was really going to be on the, the RFP that the city has posted around what they're calling the social service mobile team. I think I often refer to it as the mobile crisis team. But it's a little bit more to the city. Just because I think it kind of explains a little bit more as to what the intention of the work is. So that RFP has been posted for public comment on the city website. It is. Oh, it'll be up until April 1st. And then proposals will be. Do by the 15th. So from that process, we started to work with a group called RTI International. They are a non-profit independent research institute. And so they were in touch with us in regard to really wanting to work with cities that are at the ground level of creating a cahoots-like program, because even though there's a lot of this going on nationwide, there isn't research in regard to just like, how effective are the, like does the, what we want it to do, does it do it effectively? Is the cost value what we think it is? And totally, we have that, but we had no, it's never really been studied. So RTI, we've been working with them for a few months now, and we are one of three participating cities, Vallejo, California in Durham, North Carolina, or the other two that are participating in the research project. And so we will also have access to looking at how other departments are bringing this, are standing a program like this up, because some of them were all in different stages. So it's really a, really an incredible opportunity to be able to be a part of something like this and learn from other communities, and also really try to understand that are we doing, are we being as effective as we hope we are being in terms of really targeting interventions with different, with a different response. So before that's like all I really have with that, because it's still kind of in process, like I said, I have not had any questions, comments, or clarifications yet from the public. But it's, you know, still, you know, a ways away, a little, a little over a week away before we would have to respond to answers or answer questions. So does anybody have any questions with just that along? Otherwise I'm just going to move along to the mental health summit update. Go ahead, Suzy. Yeah, I'm wondering if it's possible to reach out to some, well, let me back up and say, do people generally go to the mayor's website just to sort of look around and see what's there? Because I'm wondering if it might be helpful to send out something, I don't know how you would do this to the general community to say this is up there. Please take a look. We'd love to have your feedback. Yeah, I don't. I'm trying to think about, you know, if it's been, I think it's just the website itself is to see, you know, I think is how you get to the RFP or HR. Oh, Shannon, go ahead. Oh, Burlington VT.gov slash RFP and all of the city's request for proposals are posted to that web page. I can certainly send the commission the link and it can be distributed to if you know some, you know, if you want to send it to some people, maybe that would be helpful. I'm not exactly sure, though, like how the RFP is, you know, distributed to other places. I just post it. I'm not quite sure on the other side. It's really only posted at this point for vendors. It's not posted for comment. The comments that would be directed at Lacey would be from perspective vendors, perspective respondents. There was talk of a public comment period that did not happen and there were legal reasons for it not to happen. Well, I understand that, but I'm just saying this lots of nonprofit organizations around who may or may not know. So it'd be nice if they had better access. That's all. Yeah, I mean, I do know that it has been shared with like directly with some nonprofits that we would think would potentially have interest in it. And that was just kind of more targeted like we would like, you know, in those conversations also existed in terms of like speaking with those entities around the development of this. So even before the RFP was put out publicly talking with the various nonprofits around just input as to will this fill a gap in how, in really looking for input in terms of like, it doesn't meet the need. And so, yeah, I think there was some targeted outreach, but I know globally I don't know if there has been. Thank you. So the mental health summit. So I met today with some two folks from the RAI B office as well as the United Way. And we are in the process of putting together the mental health summit that is then kind of birthed out of the resolution that you all put together. It's really in the beginning phases. We are united way has an initiative specific to mental health. So this really kind of in lines in lines with their priorities. And we are really envisioning this meeting as just being the first of ongoing like this is this situation that what we have going on with in regard to our mental health system and the stuff that needs to change is really not going to be resolved in one in one summit. So we don't really see this as just being a one off. We see it as to like, this needs to be just the beginning of really hoping that it kind of becomes and takes shape similar to the way that ComSat did or working it into that's the type of response that we actually will need in terms of trying to move the needle on some of the issues that we have around just the various gaps and capacity issues that we have in the mental health system. So without being said that's really they're hiring a backbone person which is really kind of an administrative position in the collective impact world we call it a backbone. And that person starts next week. And so we're going to be meeting pretty much weekly to put this together but we don't have an exact date we are shooting for in May. And that's really with like some physicians leaving the city others coming on and kind of and really the desire to want to make this something that will be meaningful and really kind of start to rally the troops around the longevity that this issue will need to actually try to address the stuff that's going on. I also am involved like tangent and tiled to the pod project that's happening over on Elmwood. The city did speak today around the hiring of the new position. And so I will just say that the woman that they've hired her name Sarah Russell she's just a wonderful person who has been doing the work for quite some time and I'm just so glad that I was involved in some of the hiring for that so it's just she's going to be a fantastic addition and really knows the subject matter that folks that are involved and really kind of gets it. So with that position being filled I think we'll see a lot more kind of fast tracking of all the stuff that's going to go on within the city. And I see the CSLs being involved in that in that world really again just around filling gaps and I'm trying to really have folks especially within the city understand that like the pods in my opinion the biggest advocacy point is really going to be again about filling gaps like we can't just recreate a low barrier wheel that we've already have. We need to be able to kind of be a little bit more person centered in our approach and individualized around how we try to address because these people that are still out there it's not really for lack of there is capacity issues of course but it's going to be a more individualized for individualized approach that's going to get them to engage it's not going to be like we have to be flexible and there really needs to be kind of this willingness to have boundaries have rules but also like you know work outside the box sometimes to be able to meet a need. So more there more to come as well. Any questions? Go ahead Stephanie. Thanks so much Lacey I have a series of questions for you actually related to the CSLs so I just want to clarify is it is it true that there are three CSLs right now and that you have the permission from the City Council to hire four? Can you explain that piece to me? I didn't so I was under the impression that we had the three were approved up front and then we knew our four yeah I'm the four okay all right great yeah so I call I mean we're a team I really like like I think of the supervision piece as just being like the admin like they're my team I don't you know it's weird just think about them as a team I need them just as much as they need me. So can you speak to what you and you shared with me with regard to weekends and nights in terms of coverage? Am I correct in understanding that there really isn't much coverage on those times and that's where this would be these two additional CSLs well in general it would expand your capacity? Yes so so right now both the CSLs and street outreach because they're like you know the other folks that might respond to some of the things that we would respond to they we all are kind of ceased to be working by 6 p.m. So like any sort of that doesn't mean that obviously as we know noise still happens and people are still outside and as summer comes on there's going to be like you know and there's more daylight hours the need of just like being able to respond to not just mental health stuff but just the other things that come into the department is just going to grow. So having an extra body the two CSLs I would envision would be working really kind of coming in later in the day so maybe more true to a second shift. So starting in like you know early afternoon and going to like 9 10 p.m. and then the weekends would be the same we have one CSL on now but again things kind of cease around six and we'll also pay attention to data I mean I think we do and that's how we you know right now why the CSLs kind of are scheduled the way that they are is just looking at calls for service and volume but I think as we kind of grow in the department shifts and we kind of see what how we can use the CSLs with you know especially priority to calls we're like it really kind of is very situation dependent. Yeah there's just as we'll always kind of be this need for one of us just even if it's just one of us to be present to be able to respond to just the things there isn't enough people at times to respond to the number of things that are coming into the department and so we are just one more set of people that work with the department to be able to not have to have people sitting and waiting for a response even for really low level things like you know illegal dumping you know having someone to have they might have to wait for you know hours versus like one of us being able to deal with it or waiting until the following day to even talk to somebody about it um if it comes in at seven at night and you know there's not an officer available. So yeah I think that they're just again we're here to fill gaps everybody and I think that there we know that there's a there is also a gap at the department um in terms of just officers and so while we work to kind of build that capacity um again we just start or want to be able to to help take some of this the load off of them as well. Great and if I might just ask a follow-up question um GPR I shared with this about the crisis advocacy intervention program the CATE program uh and you can you help us so understand institutionally all the pieces uh and how yeah and the RFP for these additional services how that would interface so maybe you could just give us a CATE 101. Yeah so CATE comes up basically the social services within the department have existed for some decades um but we all have been kind of popcorned throughout the department so with the creation of the CSLs it felt really like a good time to be more intentional um as there's this intersections of course with my team and us but we also have the victim advocate um Mary McAllister and we have the domestic violence police officer and then the community justice center has an employee that works within the department and that is the victim services specialist um and we all and our data our part-time data analysts we all sit in one wing of the building together so um it allows really from way more kind of obviously like organic intersections of the work because we all are working a lot of times with the same people um so CATE just kind of came from that um just the understanding that like we're already doing the work um but we might as well kind of just be intentional of having us all in the same wing and people just for the public's perspective the services that we often offer are not you know we do preventative work the CSLs especially in terms of like doing the follow-up that's necessary and um really digging in with folks around how do we actually address their needs but I think that I lost my train of thought sorry um it's the need for so anyway I'm just gonna leave whatever alone I forgot where I was going so the the way that this other team the RFP um where how that would intersect is really kind of I think in the same way that we work with street outreach like street outreach is in the department every day they come to our roll calls um they we are routinely in contact with them around regular or you know the people that really just tree-oshing around whose relationship who has what and who would be the best to respond there are definitely things the CSLs address that the you know that that um street outreach doesn't address at all just because it's outside of the scope of what they do um but I would see that them I mean the mobile this team that we're talking about creating that they're fully mobile that they are really kind of based out in the community out of a van functioning really more um on the go than anything else not really being stationed in any one particular place um and I do think that like I mean we are looking for it is looking for a service provider so I think that depending upon who what that entity actually is will also play into if they're gonna have a stationary kind of freaking mortar location or if they're truly gonna be just in a van the proposal speaks to them having a van though and that really being that their work is based out in the community and just kind of really bopping around town and and finding the people and spending time and doing what it is um really some of the upstream work when they're not in really kind of active crisis response mode um yeah does that answer your question okay thanks that was great thanks yeah thank you I wish I knew what I was where I was going I'm like sorry happens to all of us so I'm having to answer any additional questions if anyone has any um oh I know what I was gonna say I was going to say that um really part of the intentionality of having a cape exists is really around public around getting the information making it easier for people for the public to access and for there to be really um people don't know that we're there until they need us and we really the department knows that we need to do a better job at getting people the information before they actually needed in a crisis and the more that they know that it's there ahead of time um maybe the more we can kind of just the more peace of mind or it's less stressful for them in the moment whatever it may be um I think it was really for people to know that we do exist because one of the things I had always consistently heard from people was like you know I didn't even know police department does this or did this and so that's why that was part of the intention behind cape too is really just putting a a name to what it is that we all do um and so the public knows how to find us it's helpful thank you that's great so I don't got anything else unless yeah go ahead Susie it'd be really great if we could have some kind of a newspaper article either in the digger or in the local paper here or seven days even to talk about these different strands of the mental health system coming together and explicating what they actually are because I would tell you probably the average person on the street has no idea oh yeah no they don't have to and I talk to them all this time and I think for most people it's like um you know again like you're you just kind of are in your world you're in your and you're living your life and it's like you don't really even realize that this is something that you might need until you need it um exactly why you'd be good to do that yes I know so it is and I do think the department is is going to be doing more in terms of public um just knowledge and information sharing and um really trying to get the information out because there is a shifting in how we do business as a department and that's going to continue to evolve as the summer comes so I think it's important more important now for the community to know that there is um there's other ways to for you know for people to get help with issues um that are outside of the scope of public safety but have always just been gone to the department sooner the better yeah it's summer is coming so summer is oh I'm sorry Susie were you were you done I was very done thank you um summer is coming is that's just truth and we this is all a part of of community engagement and I think there are things that we um should definitely be doing I mean for sure asking Digger in seven days but really there can be some coordinated media outreach and then also I think we as a commission need to kind of brought it up before but everything going on with COVID um um I think as we look at more in person meetings whether we're going to be going back to in person do we revisit possibly going to different locations again um and I think we should look at as a commission um some of us have been invited to NPA meetings but maybe we need a regular presence on NPA meetings and and just some other things I think maybe we need to start when we talk about our agenda at the end of the meeting we need to be having just a line item for community agenda and starting to be more proactive um about getting information done because if our staffing levels for sworn officers isn't going to be met and so we also just need to continue to educate people in the other options that they have and then educate people on things they can do in terms of the community supporting community members directly thank you any further questions while we have lacy smith here with us I could think of 10 more but believe it at that well feel free I mean I'm always happy to talk offline anytime I mean and I'm really um yeah so just feel free to reach out to me and so I'm really happy to take the time to have longer conversations obviously I mean us that do the work could sit and have conversations about it all for hours thank you well um I very much appreciate we very much appreciate having you here uh thank you for these updates and good luck with our continuing work and I would be happy to like as things progress because that's what time does but progress happens time goes on um I'm happy to come back and kind of continue to give updates as we grow because well I'm good growth is happening and it's worth sharing thank you all we appreciate that you and we look forward to seeing you soon take care thank you right uh moving on to agenda item five which is the chief support and with that we give the floor to the chief parent uh thank you mr co-chair may I have a screen chair I'm glad I'm not the only one having technical challenges I feel much better I was partly waiting for a response that I could but I am working on it right now all right thank you um as always the incidents are at the start of it just so that people who are seeing it online once we post it can can go over the incidents and know what incident categories we do and don't track um here's a quick picture of our incident volume for the year so far to date so each of these numbers is the their respective year and the to date uh we're a little higher than last year but we are still lower than previous years again the majority of that decrease as in just over 50 percent of that decrease in each year is the result of uh traffic and and foot patrols and the ab and the diminishment of traffic and foot patrols um we've stacked 12 percent of the calls so far this year that's a little down from where we were by the end of last year about 15 percent so uh I think that says something about where we are right now with with overall volume it's a thankfully not extremely busy time of year but it's getting a little busier you can see here that we are uh on track a little bit above last year but not approaching the previous years yet uh and maybe we won't but again priority one remains uh very high and in this particular instance at this time of the year it's the it's the first highest or second highest of the past several years um uses of force uh are flattened out this month but they were on a trajectory I didn't particularly care to see um but uh where there is a certain amount of noise in this uh category and so you can have varying years that that can change rapidly as far as which ones high or low uh and we do have good progress on the front of our digital media redaction specialist who posted that job we have gotten applications for it and we are reviewing those this is our current sworn headcount um and the the current sworn headcount is uh 64 total officers uh and of those 58 are effective so from that 64 total we take out 15 supervisors uh 13 detectives there's an asterix there because that includes three supervisors among those total 13 detectives eight at the airport and asterix there as well because that includes one supervisor among those eight at the airport um there are three on long-term military leave three on injury leave uh one domestic violence officer one recruiting officer one officer who's currently in field training and is therefore not effective one at the Vermont police academy who is therefore not effective um and and so again we go from 64 to 58 effective what this means uh unfortunately is that the the total number available for patrol for the for the uniform services bureau non-supervisory on uniform services bureau is 24 that is farble it's less than 50 percent of what our normal numbers are for patrol in the past where routinely it's 52 to 54 officers non-supervisory officers available for patrol we this is I think an interesting slide that talks about recruitment and retention patterns which are going to be very important in the coming year and years as we seek to to implement a recruitment program the mayor will be has asked me to prepare one I have shown him drafts we are working on other aspects of it and I'm hopeful that we will be able to make that public soon but these patterns show us a little bit of what we are up against which is a historical pattern of of only growing uh once in the past since since essentially 2015 um uh there's only been one year where we have had more officers in than we have had out now some component of that is purposeful when we are staffed and and uh when we have a budget we are attempting to keep at that budget uh not necessarily to to grow beyond it and you have to be careful uh you can't hire more than you are allotted but we've never been at a higher number than we've been allotted again if we look at this slide uh even when we were allotted at 105 we were never at that number we always hovered a little bit below it um but would bounce up and down still never able to get more than two in means that for us to grow uh by as many as 20 to 25 officers over the next five to 10 years uh that will require extraordinary years compared to the past history furthermore our retention is a component of that as well so it's not only about the inflow it's about uh making certain that the outflow gets minimized preferably you want it only to be tenure retention you only want officers to leave when they have actually hit their 20 and are prepared to retire uh that's not what we see we see resignations prior to retirement and we see a significant number of them some of them happen at the police academy very early in an officer's career others happen at different stages and for different reasons obviously that has been far more pronounced over the past two years um what we see here is on the right side of the screen there are two columns talking about recruit hires and the number of recruits of those hired how many are still employed as of today and then there are uh also there's also a column excuse me for lateral hires officers who come from other police departments oftentimes out of state and how many of those officers are still with us today um and both of those are things that we're going to have to really dig into we want to make certain that the recruits that we are hiring are recruits who are going to make it through the police academy who know what they're getting into and want to be in that police academy and and uh have the drive to to see through what can be a very arduous and difficult process and then have the drive to actually see through our field training process as well and yet that drive cannot be compromised by dimension standards we're always going to lose some from our recruit uh training it's it's just the nature of the training regime and the fact that some people find out during the process that this is not a profession for them um with regard to laterals we want to be able to bring them in and retain more of them we want to make sure we're attracting people to this department who know what they are getting in the department and have a desire to come along with this department as it grows and changes in ways that are uh frankly at the cutting edge of the profession and that are indicative of a department that that sees its role and its uh mission of serving its neighbors differently than perhaps the places from which they've come and want that that's why they are coming here um this of course is I like putting this up simply because I am posting all of these publicly and I want anybody who happens upon them whether they're happening upon the chief's presentation from March or from uh of 2022 or from October of 2021 excuse me October of 2022 or March of 2022 I want them to see what what we're offering um and uh we we are offering that $15,000 hiring incentive we have a very competitive salary I'm hopeful that that will become even more competitive and stronger once we are once we see a negotiation for the new contract which is in progress and uh we're we're hopeful for a lot of things to come from that contract including a a package that makes us even more attractive to both new recruits and to lateral officers um we have seen progress already we have two new probationary police officers currently on staff uh one is in field training one is attending the police academy but in that time in that same time frame since October of 2021 um we've unfortunately lost seven non-probationary police officers uh in keeping with what uh community support supervisor Smith talked about um we are building other capacities we have a total of seven community service officers currently on staff we are working to hire at least one additional and potentially if workload justifies four beyond that or a total of uh 12 uh community service officers that was the full build envisioned by the public safety continuity plan we have three community support liaisons and that too was is less than the support than the community excuse me than the public safety continuity plan envisioned the public safety continuity plan envisioned a total of six of these positions plus a supervisor um and so uh getting to that the uh I believe that the commission is is very helpfully and and we are grateful for the commission's um advocacy on on expanding that CSL role and the CSL position and the number of CSLs that we have uh it has been an incredibly successful uh endeavor I'm really proud of of having uh worked with Lacey to create it uh for working as we are to integrate it into uh what the department does watching as officers uh gravitate towards it with regard to recognizing it as a resource so that every morning officers are uh leaving emails for the CSLs we I went to a call I could not really see the call through to fruition I did what I could in the immediate moment and and rendered people safe or addressed the needs as best I could but can you help in this way and they do um they follow up they engage and they uh give a service level that uh that officers can't and fill a gap that previously was not being bridged so um it's really really terrific role very very proud that we have been able to implement that in a way that is innovative and useful and the the question now is can we if expanding it uh start to do some things along the lines of co-deployment um those are processes that were envisioned by the public safety continuity plan uh the Vermont state police is having some experiments with that right now having at least one victims or crime advocate or mental health worker at each barric and allowing a certain amount of co-deployment with that so we're going to be looking at what other agencies are doing talking with others and others are talking with us I've had long conversations with other police chiefs um I think for example uh and and and and and scheduled to have additional with other police chiefs I I know that while I was away in the last uh for the last police commission meeting on vacation um you spoke with with Chief Hardy she and I have been in contact both before that invitation that you gave her to the commission meeting but also afterwards to talk about uh modeling some of what we're doing with with other agencies like hers um I have been seeing what other agencies are doing well there's some innovative things in Montpelier as I said the Vermont state police uh are working on some programs there's a lot of sharing and learning by others examples right now as well as innovating in uh ways that are are unique to Burlington into the Burlington police department so um that those are some discussions of where we are sort of numerically and the stats that we have um with regard to other things going on in department we had a we've had a good month in the time since the department saw you last uh we did a swearing in the ceremony last week for those new community service officers and also for recruit officers who are police officers um and we have are working on as I said some issues around recruitment and retention plans around that we are working on some plans around deployment we are going to have to alter our deployment posture this summer there's no avoiding it we do not have sufficient resources to cover the city in the same way that we have when we are down more than 50 percent on patrol and so we will be talking about new deployment plans and and how we wrestle with that and and serve parts of the city that clearly need that kind of service and where do we focus resources what we have on the issues in front of us um we are also uh working on some some new ideas internally around uh morale uh Shannon has been working to get photographs of everyone so that we can have some art on the walls and have that I've been in contact with members of the queen city police foundation and some funders around uh different kinds of trainings that can be brought into the department around uh around morale and and mission setting and visioning um and we also of course are working with the city administration on other kinds of training including uh are the race training that will be mandated for the calendar year of 2022 um and as well as as trainings that are required at other levels of Vermont law enforcement including our patrol procedures etc all of which we are um working to make sure are as robust as they have been in the past even though we have fewer resources so that balance is is a challenge um when we routinely have four or even fewer officers on patrol how do you pull officers away to train them uh and those are uh sort of logistical questions that were in the midst of asking um with regard to other issues I think uh we had a something of a death in the family uh there was a gentleman who has worked for years around different parts of Burlington and uh particularly at beansies bus which parks in our parking lot or not our parking lot but in the parking lot uh next to our building between us in the park every summer and uh beansies bus is a sort of mobile restaurant that stations itself um uh got a gentleman named Alan Akin who worked for the bus and was a director of traffic and a police supporter and somebody involved at Sarah Holbrook Center and somebody involved in a lot of different places um we received a welfare check call and found him past and we are are working with with his friends and family such as it is to try to honor him in a way that is in keeping with the the role he played in this place we saw him every day he was a fixture here at at our headquarters and a kind good soul and a jovial presence and I think I know that I'll miss him every morning as I would come in and have the time when I'd see him at night as well um so uh we're working on a lot of different things in a lot of different ways right now and trying to keep up with uh the overall volume of work which we believe is going to increase a lot as the summer comes along even as we are getting to stages where we're frankly stretched thinner and thinner uh owing both to absolute headcount but also the degree to which we are running our engines on all cylinders with the uh officers and resources that we've got remaining I'm sorry yes Commissioner Comfort what I know historically that um from a past commissioner who served for I don't think eight years or so but way back you know maybe 15 years ago or so that it's historical that Burlington police are sort of sucked out of the police department to go to other departments where there's less activity and better pay or whatever um what is the possibility of doing the reverse trying to bring people from sitting positions in other police departments into Burlington police because we're never going to get it's going to take forever if they have to go through the police academy over and over and then do field training what what is the likelihood of that happening well so that would be the lateral positions that we talked about we really can't take them from other law enforcement inside the state it is unlikely we will get them from others um and I think DC Lebrecht who has more uh longer institutional knowledge than I could certainly clarify I don't know that we have always been a place that people have left we've been often in the past a place where people have gone to because they have seen I don't I'm sorry if there's a an echo I'm we've been a place where people have gone to because we have had uh an agency that had more career opportunities and a greater number of roles and we've really brought people in getting people from in-state is going to be a real challenge people in the profession look at this department and they see the city and the the challenges that we've had over the past two years and it is not an attractive uh package for them and so in-state recruitment lateral recruitment will be unlikely um we will work on it and again a good contract can can get some of uh can clear some of that hurdle but our better bet is to be able to bring people in from out of state they won't have to go to the complete academy they'll have to complete a lateral training regime which takes uh over the course of a year but it's pieces and it's not going down to the police academy and being there for 17 months um and their field training uh it has to be as long as our current field training but it can sometimes be a little bit quicker and they certainly get to pick up on things quicker if they have been successful police officers in other states uh that's our best bet but I do want to D.C. Lebrecht to be able to weigh in on sort of the inflow outflow and how it used to be so yeah historically when I started I was there were six of us that went to the academy and we were six out of over 300 applications to the department at that time and we were the six that made the final cut um and historically yeah our officers go on not to even to other departments so much as that they go to other departments either out of state or they go to the federal government DDA, ATF um those types of areas because we were the premier law enforcement uh agency in the state I would go when I went down to the academy I saw people that unfortunately you know didn't make it through our regime but did get hired by other departments and um you know it was us and the state police we were the two agencies that had almost always the most applications because we had you know a ton of stuff to offer you had our detective bureau you had our narcotics unit you had our canine unit we had a bicycle unit we had the chitenden unit for special investigations which we actually brunt and helped form and start you know we had all these opportunities and um you know officers would go there and we'd occasionally lose an officer to another department and you know the thing is they go to these other departments and they're rock stars um you know and that you know I agree with what the chief said we are not that we are no longer that department you know the departments that we used to if we did get people we would take them from are the ones that are you know for lack of a better word like now it's kind of you know I guess some uh I don't want to say payback but I'm sure they're taking a little bit of uh I don't know what the word would be uh that we have kind of fallen right out yeah thank you that's exactly it's shot in front of that we have fallen off our pedestal um and that really just leaves the state police that's why you certainly do they have way more options available to younger officers and it's a catch 22 with the low headcount uh you know one of the worst things that could happen to us is if we had to actually start removing or taking detectives back like the newest detectives back to the road and you know really that's the only thing we have left right now that um that has any avenue of other than uh working your entire 20 or 25 years on the road um you know taking calls our canine units down to one uh handler right now because we can't afford to have someone go to the canine school this summer um so hopefully in the fall we'll be able to promote someone to that position and they can go to the narcotics school and hopefully by next summer we'll have enough headcount that we can uh send them to the patrol school but that's time it's time-wise and resource-wise when he says afford it's not it's not a cost issue it's a cost issue of not having a person of taking a person away from the road for that like the time the same is true of other things we used to do bike units takes two weeks to do bike training for police officers and we can't afford to take officers away from uh radio response for two weeks yeah it's gonna be uh you know it's gonna be years i you know realistically to build back up to uh 87 or so uh officers and you know hopefully when we get to that point you know we all as soon as we can expand and start adding some of those things back in i think that'll it'll catch momentum then it'll be like kind of like a snowball rolling downhill um but right now we're kind of pushing the snowball up the hill uh to get to the top and it's just there's no easy fix um there's just no quick fix to any of this um we had you know two in the academy and because i told you that last time while one of them decided on the first day that it wasn't for them and they've left so we now have one in the academy thank you uh thank you mila see your hand race thank you um a couple of questions are we tracking why people aren't making it through the academy are these meetings yes um well yeah when they we uh we always take you know the why they leave they do an exit interview um and what they you know found that they liked or just didn't like or some people find you know a lot of times that what they find out is halfway through that they the the profession itself is just not for them i would say that was a good majority of the ones that people that don't make it through the academy just and they're honest with themselves and i actually appreciate that um that they are able to say you know it's not what i thought it was going to be um and this isn't the profession for me uh because it really can you know it takes a lot of time away you know from their lives and if they make it into field training but it's not really what they want to do um you know then you have field training officers and all that other time and stuff that's invested in it uh in field training most of the time uh you know i would say the ones that don't make it through field training uh it's usually the amount of just tasks that the officers are required to do on a daily daily basis um you know we require a lot from our officers because of the volume of calls and how busy we are and a lot of them find that that pace is just it's not sustainable for them you know in field training's 14 weeks but we go out of our way to extend them you know i think the longest we've extended somebody is 20 weeks or 20 some odd weeks you know trying to help them work through um you know the issues that are having but i would say a lot of the times the ones that leave from field training is just the sheer volume of and the pace of work that we are required to do in a busy city a lot of them you know when when they leave too we will actually like know that if they were in a different city or or a municipality uh we'll reach out to we have some officers that didn't make it through field training with us that we've called other agencies in smaller towns and they flourished there that was more of their pace of policing that they were that they were looking for so i would say if you had to look at the two big things one in the academy it's just the profession is not what they thought it was going to be and then the other during field training would just for us would be how busy and how much you know work is required by them and it overwhelms it can be overwhelming i hope that helped thank you um have the city and the department looked at targeted um recruitment for lateral placements that's a component of the of the proposed recruitment plan it will be a component of that in the past there have been efforts in in various ways with various levels of success okay thank you um i have a couple of miscellaneous items uh regarding um incident statistics so i wanted to get some you know in terms of reviewing some information on the cna report i was trying to isolate information for um stats associated with the airport and i wasn't able to come up with anything uh do you keep statistics for the airport and if so can those be provided or just give me advice of exactly how i should be searching for the airport like i would go on and i would just as opposed to selecting all incident types i would just select the airport and literally nothing comes up for a month after month after month you would most likely want to put in the address 1200 airport drive um and you know most of their most of their responses are either out front for parking minor um crashes in the parking garage and when the tsa or one of the counters activates their duress alarm that means usually it means a passenger or somebody um they're feeling uh threatened or something or they're afraid that situation may get out of hand those are the i would say the three main um jobs that that calls for service that the airport gets and the other would be you know they are responsible for being at the gates um and also for patrolling the the airport side of the of the airport not the national guard side they have their own um but they do regular patrols in a vehicle around the perimeter of the airport uh and that type of thing uh they do write tickets i guess you could say for air air violations if uh someone's speeding or something those tugs that pull your suitcases to the airplanes actually in that area around the jets they're only allowed to go at um 15 miles an hour or less um so that's if they drive too fast we've actually had officers back in the day that would use a one of the laser units to see how fast they were going and they would get a ticket or if they don't secure their doorways usually it's some sort of type of security violation around not using their badges that allow them into secure areas correctly so a lot of the work they do is not something that they punch a card for but it's a good point they probably should punch or start a card for more of those of those things a complicating factor is that the radios are not reliable at the airport and as a result you can't call dispatch in order to start or end the call for service when you're on it so there are a number of things that they're also required to do on a daily basis with regards to federal law and the tsa and a combination of both the requirement to have the same number of officers as there are gates open and an officer at each gate while it's open as well as a requirement um to have uh the they're not just requirement but the the memorandum of understanding with the tsa tsa has no arrest powers so they can't uh they can't use force and they can't do certain things that police officers can and in fact airports have to be controlled by municipal officers not federal officers and not by the tsa so uh they're by law there has to be officers available in order to back up tsa if and when they find x or y or z whether that is criminal or whether there's any kind of resistance or violence on the part of people traveling uh and then of course there are also issues uh once off the plane uh in the air it's generally a federal issue but once off the plane it becomes the issue of the locality where the plane lands and you have to have local law enforcement to deal with those kinds of situations as well of people uh disembarking in ways that are uh not entirely either not voluntary or are uh not entirely safe um because federal officers can't enforce the state laws that's the right the reasoning behind that okay thank you for that information um a lot of it I already knew but I definitely think it's very helpful for the public to be aware of that um I I guess I guess I'm curious in terms of where is the activity with regards to to to what they're they're dealing with up there I would really like to see that information um so are you saying I have to put in that specific address in order to bring it up um in the data portal if you're I mean I guess I'm thinking about it if you ran it in our Valcor system that's how I would run it um to see run it by the address of the airport I don't know how the portal I guess chief you're probably better spoken to what the portal will show. John O'Larsen is on and John O may be able to say the ways in which that can be tracked on either the dashboard or the data portal. Yeah hi everyone so my name is John O I'm the data analyst um so uh Milo are you using the the data dashboard um on the Burlington Vermont.gov website? Yes okay yeah so um and if you're if you're using that dashboard um it sounds like what you're doing is um you're selecting the airport uh like call type in order to search for um calls that the airport officers might be going to um unfortunately there isn't a way with the dashboard to to search for um the location of the airport or the location or neighborhood of incidents um and I think um a lot of times when uh airport officers do uh enter a call into Valcor they're not necessarily giving it that airport call type um so that is a limitation of this dashboard. We do post information about all police incidents um to the open data portal which is at data dot Burlington VT.gov and um so unfortunately it's a little bit more difficult to use because um the data is in just sort of um like table format um but if you do use the data at data dot Burlington VT.gov um the the um area column has um the different uh BPT areas there in it and um so you can look for airport in that column and that will any any incident that happened at the airport will have airport listed under the area column so it's it's not as easy to use unfortunately but it is a way to get at any police incident um that happened at the airport. Okay so you're saying search by area. Yeah exactly. All right um maybe we can we can chat about this directly because I I want to be able to see there's been a lot of questions about the airport um so I just want to be able to see that information um and direct other people you know who who ask these questions like exactly how they can see that information um I assume um that it's it's summarized in some way I mean outside of uh requiring an officer for each gate that is opens you know tracking peak times of activity that that would be something that the department does is is that correct chief? Sorry I'm sorry what? So what I'm I'm trying to have an understanding is um how you're looking at um incidents at the airport in order to track staffing at the airport. Oh so I let me just uh help clarify even if the officers went to zero calls by federal law we are we have to have two officers present when the gates are open and and when people are planing and deplaning so even if they went to nothing uh by federal law we have to have them there just just the an FYI for everybody. And I understand that and and thank you for the you know additional clarity uh so everyone does it. But in terms of actually knowing what they're working with for for uh like I I've had personal questions about it from community members and it is something that I've been wondering about when looking at certain sections of the the CNA um so I'm just you know how are we like how do we what if that number isn't enough so we know what the federal minimum is what if that number isn't enough how are you tracking to determine that that number is not might not be enough? Well technically it isn't enough because they actually consider the area behind the counter where they take your bags and stuff like that as another checkpoint so we are actually getting by right now by just they're they're not really no one's saying you know raising a kerfuffle about uh you know the fact that we just have officers that are able to respond to each of the the concourses um at this time so you know if in a perfect world we'd have enough officers that yeah we would actually have one that would be able to respond to both gates and to that area right behind the counters where the baggage goes back because that is a screening area I'm sure everybody's seen that's flown out of there they have the machines that screen as well um so yeah technically we are not quite uh following the federal guidelines or regulations I'm sorry uh that that are laid down um oh I'm sorry I'm not trying to be difficult no no I just it's a hard fast rule right no no and I I appreciate a lot I am just trying to have an understanding how is the their activity being tracked and how can someone see that information like I would assume the department would be looking at that information somehow there's a supervisor assigned to the airport who is able to monitor what's going on in workload and does share that workload in supervisory meetings in so far as saying you know we've got we're having these kinds of conditions or these kinds of uh of uh you know incidents at the airport more regularly or less like regularly uh when buses began letting off there again after the pandemic uh there was an uptick in for example calls for service around issues of houselessness and mental health they deal with the same kinds of things that can happen downtown um uh how is that tracked again it is tracked in our valcor system we can use the address of the airport for those incidents that do end up with a valcor incident but for the most part because the radios don't work there are a great number of incidents that don't get tracked in that way and because valcor is the way in which we track everything it is that that is the system we use uh like it or not and to greater or lesser degrees of efficacy um that's how we determine what is happening out there and incidents etc if they make an arrest it's going to have a valcor number um but if they are called by airport uh the airport ambassadors for example to deal with a person who uh maybe publicly intoxicated or having a uh you know some kind of episode if they go to that and then deal with it themselves without calling downtown for example to a csl or to street outreach both of which do happen then there may not be an entry in valcor for it if they are forced to recall if they have to call dispatch directly and say can you send a csl up here or a uh a street outreach worker up here um then there will be a valcor incident logged for it uh we have talked with the supervisor uh in the scene about having a new system for at the end of the day sort of tallying up different kinds of calls that were done even if they can't be done directly by radio uh but that's something that we're working on okay so when the supervisor gives his report then he does they don't have a um it's it's not a report based on actual data uh i i guess what it sounds like it's an issue where there's incomplete data and is it is it possible to have something generated out of valcor by that address to see what has been submitted yes an address searching valcor would be able to show what has been submitted it will not be a complete picture okay and then so just to clarify it sounds like you're trying to make steps so that you have a more complete picture we want that we want to be able to understand what is uh you know what occurs at the airport or not um there are arguments that the airport needs to be staffed better both dc lebrecht's argument but also the fact that they uh the nature of the overtime that's done at the airport is indicative of the fact that they're understaffed because uh an entity shouldn't have to have as much overtime as it's done in past years until this most recent year when a sergeant uh has done a huge amount of overtime in past years the officer there have there have always been officers at the airport who are our highest overtime earners because they fill in for themselves and they basically are working the equivalent of one and a half to almost two officers of work and that's because we don't want to have to send officers from downtown up to the airport on any given shift in order to fill in a blank there and as a result the officers at the airport generally fill in for themselves and for each other and do what used to be inordinate amounts of overtime compared to the rest of the department the rest of the department unfortunately has caught up uh a lot owing to the staffing issues downtown now uh we want to know what they're doing and i don't understand that better that is a component that we're looking at valcor is an incident is a dispatch incident system they are generally not dispatched to jobs they pick up jobs based on calls for service within the airport or things that they observe themselves or the mere necessity of them being on what is equivalent to a footpost and as a result it's it doesn't get into the system in quite the same way okay um can we i was wondering if you could add to your monthly report information about what comes into the tip line in terms of how many calls come into the tip line i understand that they're not actual incidents so they're not included in the incident reports but given the amount of drug activity in the community right now i'm curious um as to um the number of calls that are being submitted through that option that the community has yes we can add the tip line to the chief's report okay thank you very much and then um i wanted to talk about morale issues but um actually i'm gonna i'm gonna leave it uh there for now just in case uh anyone else has any other questions or concerns thank you just real quick i ran sorry just real quick i ran the numbers just from january to now there's been 28 incidents that are associated with the airport most of them are there's a stolen vehicle vandalism accident usually the parking garage uh mental health issues a lot of agency assists um few intoxications in there but a lot of them are are just assists uh agency assists probably to other departments or tsa that seems to be the majority of the ones that the cards or the incidents that were started by the officers out there that was just an fyi thank you for that thank you um lastly i add to this um in the question and comments section uh for zoom uh jonah uh stated that he's happy to talk directly to anyone with progressive data his email address is listed in there and so it's his phone number um all right um moving on to that um brings us to commission actions and agenda item 6.01 uh first one up is the csl resolution and with that i'll give the floor to co-chair stefanie there we go all right uh thank you so this uh this motion this resolution stems from our last meeting uh in which dc labreck shared with us uh some information about csls their efficacy thus far and the further need for them and so this resolution was vetted by lacy as well as chief mirad and dc labreck and it is to ask for uh the city council's support in funding these two additional positions and just to say this is really the good timing because the budget is being uh being considered at this point and this is something then that could be added to the budget i think that lacy also made the case for this motion but uh i'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has any questions about this uh uh says uh commissioner comford yet not a not a question but a comment i think this is really important and incredibly necessary you know given the low numbers in the police department so that the police can do the job they're supposed to be doing so i support it wholeheartedly surey i do as well and i do support the addition of the um request for the position for a public information officer as well so thank you for adding that i don't think it is in the resolution as it stands right now why five you had it in there in the last did you change it since what you last sent us so uh i i did send an email about this that there was some concern that we didn't have a position description and there wasn't enough information okay sorry i didn't see the updated email on that and i will just say that i did forward that uh uh commit uh city councilor caron paul sent me a draft of that position and if anyone wants to make a friendly amendment to add that that would be fine i would be open to that if people feel like they need more time to review that information and the draft position we could take this next month yeah so do you feel like you with what i'm sorry i'm just seeing that that email is there i apologize for noticing that i if if looking at that information from um councilor paul you feel like it gives us what we need then i'd be comfortable making that friendly amendment tonight so we can do this as one rather than waiting a month so you're posing you're proposing the friendly amendment i have forgotten hailey on robert's rules about uh what happens to a friendly amendment i know that i would accept that but does there need to be a second to the motion for a friendly amendment so i don't maybe i missed it but i don't know that i actually heard a formal first motion um so unless unless i miss that i think you could just make the motion to uh to pass the resolution uh with the following additional language unless i is there is there a motion on the floor or did i that i missed or did have we just kind of jumped to discussion well in our own informal way there is a second on the floor and susie's seconded um so then then the question is do we can you just give us i'm sorry go ahead javu i'll just say hey everyone read um read that email from sephine if not i propose maybe like a three minute recess everyone can read it the update on it so i have read it so i'm okay with this for everybody else that it's i maybe we can take a sense of the room does anybody else need any time to read that i'm sorry i might have missed it so i i'm seeing the first email where we didn't have a description but i'm not seeing what was forwarded from karen with the description um so the email that i'm looking at the email and actually she's not on it you're not on it actually so that is why you didn't get it um so with that i will forward that to you right now um thank you i wish i had that excuse i don't you're way too honest for your own good sometimes i'm gonna share with you all what the amended the uh marine's friendly amendment would be uh based on the earlier version and it is as follows and shannon don't worry about this i can email this to the commission also urges the city council to support funding for a public information officer for the burlington police department this is also a recommendation from cna who note that increased communication between bpd and community and the community can help to increase transparency and build trust with the community that would be the added statement and i can post put that in the chat if that is helpful so we get the voting stage new uh i sorry but i think you so go ahead i think someone just has to second adding that to uh stephanie's original motion so mine was to add that extra language so if someone wants to second it and if not then it sounds okay great happy to second it uh so it's a friendly amendment i accept it but it was seconded i think the question now is to do we need uh does anybody need a couple of minutes to read that email that gives the job description for the public information officer i'm going through it right now i guess i would say that um i don't think there would be any question from anyone that has been listening to me for the last uh three years or so i am strongly for um improvement um in community engagement and i have felt for some time that the department needed um assistance with regards to this um especially in light of certain uh issues with social media and um relying so heavily on just press releases looking at the essential job functions do see i do see some things that are referring to community engagement but quite frankly not in um strong enough terms um so i actually i'd like us to move through this expeditiously so just to clarify this is a draft job description that has not yet been approved but uh there was a request to understand what the position would roughly look like and that's what you have before you if there is not enough information on this now to vote on it then uh then i suggest that we we abandon the amendment and vote on the original resolution but i do want to clarify that the process of uh determining the job description is something that is yet to be finalized this is conceptual and as i said it's consistent with the cna recommend report recommendation uh so i i i here's what i would like to suggest i'd like to suggest that i hear from anybody else and that we vote on this motion so just to clarify i i would be for voting for the original motion um i guess i would not support the what do we call it a friendly amendment to include um the pio position i would rather us have a final draft of the um job description thank you chief mirror and am i correct that the final draft wouldn't be developed unless the position was approved that is correct uh i'd like to just hear from everybody else hold on a sec hold on a sec i'd like to hear from everybody else uh and we'll figure out how to proceed from there susie let us to move forward now and the reason is that we are still in a position as a community where information positive information from the police is really important so i would like to go now and just have a vote having said that i also appreciate um commission of grants concerns thanks anybody else no i'm in favor of taking the vote as well tonight i'd be in favor of voting for this now seeing how the i really can't find any words today i'm sorry uh i'd be i'd be in favor of voting for this now seeing that uh the the draft description it won't it won't be final uh will be worked on one stamp roof of uh creating the job see uh that that is also my fear is that we can add in better language for opinion gave in the future so with that being said uh i'll vote on this now chief mirad is there a possibility that the commission could weigh in on a job ad once it was a job description once it was uh developed i don't think there's anything that prohibits it being shared the job description process is one that generally has any number of of cooks in the kitchen as it were in this particular instance some of it went through the mayor's office it was going through uh parts of hr and then it stalled out because the uh that resolution was not accepted i can't recall if resolution is the exact term but the mayor's request to the city council was that aspect of it was not uh accepted um and so inevitably even had there been an acceptance there would have been a number of drafts post that which is why i say that this is not you know that you cannot generate a correct draft i mean a final draft really until you have the authorization because inevitably there will be additional things that have to go with it particularly if there are any union implications this is a non-union position in law likelihood but there's grading that has to be done by the uh by hr um there are other kinds of things it got it has to go through legal to make certain that it's you know being looked at properly and all of that would occur after the position is budgeted and known mr grant does that in any way assuage your concerns that there would be an opportunity for input later on i would rather have that in the um our friendly amendment stating that so that we're not overlooked um because even with this draft i i'm surprised that nobody asked us our opinion um in terms of putting you know together any draft for this position and how important it is um in the community so i guess i'm looking for some kind of guarantee that we would definitely be um touch uh that our opinion would be you know asked for because it's such an important and there's just a couple of things that i'm i'm really concerned with um in this particular draft as it stands i also would add the caveat that uh when it's presented to the city council because i actually think there is widespread support but it needs to be presented as um you know no political games it needs to be presented as a standalone item thank you this motion however it passes with the csl's or with the public information officer is something that i would reach out to uh city councilor karen paul to sponsor at the city council and i could certainly share with her uh that the the request that we have input into the final version should this be budgeted uh i think that that's something that we can do commissioner grant commissioner comford i think there are times you know at times we're going to disagree with each other and that's okay you know we have a lot of respect for each other's integrity and sometimes we just you know we differ i don't think it's a bad thing to vote and i also think that um commissioner grants concerns are important and we can address them you know in in two ways you know through the chief's word of it also through karen paul so i think we i think we can go ahead i don't think we're you know it's it's not a bad thing to disagree does anybody else have any other input before we vote okay all those in uh jebu like that to the chair jebu oh that's okay uh i'm gonna say all in favor of the proposed friendly amendment amendment raise your hand or say aye aye all those not in favor raise your hand or say aye aye all right we're going to do a roll call vote because it's not unanimous um i vote in favor of the proposed amendment um susie that is a hand in that that's sorry for the clarification that it's in support of the proposed amendment your hand okay um kevin uh are you support in support all right syrene uh raise your hand to say aye if you're in support aye the amendment stiffening raise your hand to say aye if you're in support of the amendment all right and uh may low please raise your hand to uh say i if you are in support of the amendment if not say nay nay nay um that is one two three four five two three four five yeses and one no and then I think that moves us to before we go but can we um Shannon can you put in the minutes Milo's concerns um and then the two steps we're going to follow thank you and thank you Commissioner Grant. So now we've passed the amendment to the motion I believe now we vote on the motion as we'll pull with the amendment um and Hailey correct me if I'm wrong uh all right then so I then propose sorry I was just looking for my unmute I was just gonna say you know I understood the first motion to be to adopt the resolution as amended um if that was the understanding of the rest of the commissioners I don't think you need a second vote but if if there's some confusion around that to actually formally adopt the resolution as amended you know second vote won't hurt but I think what I heard the first time was to adopt the resolution as amended yes that's what happened okay very most cool that um cool not holding another vote um all right then I believe that closes out that agenda item um moves on to agenda item 6.02 to the cna committee updates I will start off and I'll let uh Milo fill in all the gaps that I miss um so we have completed sections one through six of the recommendations um we've gone through part of uh section seven and we have the entirety of section eight and nine to complete um section nine is very short section eight is a big meteor meteor um but that being said though um we're making a progress right now uh we have one we have one more meeting left next week and I think maybe one more after that to to summarize the report um I don't believe I'll be ready for us next week Tuesday but in the following Tuesday so yeah once our report comes out um I'll share that with the commission and yeah uh I don't know if you have anything else to add um just I I know it's it's long but I just continue to recommend that when people can make the time um to actually read it because there's a lot of interesting information in it um I do understand that the department doesn't agree with everything that's in it but the the methodology is explained um and I think that you know today in particular we talked a lot about data right and there are a lot of things that our officers do that aren't captured so that that definitely needs to be um and we mentioned it in the meeting um a project how do how do we do a better job to to capture all the things that the officers are actually actually doing um um something else that continues um to trouble me is um representative for the business community feeling that they are are not part of the community discussions um and need to be asked to be part of the community discussions I think that that may be something that we may want to have as a topic for a future meeting and ask for representatives from the business community to come in and talk about it I personally know that I've made a specific request of members of the the business community to um to participate in and things like what Talitha was doing and and other different types of meetings so I am a little bit concerned as specifically to for the the downtown because we have businesses all over the city but specifically the downtown business community I'm concerned that they have this feeling of isolation from the rest of the the city um and I see that sometimes reflected in the community as well there's a uh feeling that businesses care more about quote-unquote buildings and people which I don't think is true but um I don't know I think it's it's another question part of community engagement and it seems to be affecting some of these conversations that we're having thank you thank you I guess for the commission now any questions you guys have for us with regards to seeing a committee I don't have a question I have a comment I just want to say thank you to both of you I know how much time you put into this and also how important it is so thank you appreciate that thank you all right I'm not seeing any further questions or comments on 6.02 so moves on to 6.03 which is a update on the update on paul's review and uh revision process uh this is I'm I'm sorry please forgive my um interruption can I go back to the vote for a minute because I thought we were voting on the friendly amendment okay do we have to do a vote for the resolution separately that was what that was what I asked um now we do I did I did that well it sounds like there it's all just jump in yeah sounds like there is some confusion so what I was saying before commissioner grant is that it was my understanding that the vote was on to adopt the resolution as amended with the friendly amendment but it sounds as though some in the group had the understanding that it was just to continue with the resolution on the floor with the friendly amendment so since it sounds like there was some confusion on the vote I if you're looking for a recommendation chair gommash I guess it would be to to vote to adopt the resolution as amended with the friendly amendment okay Stephanie sorry hand up there um just so just for everybody's future information when there's a friendly amendment it is up to the person making the motion as to whether to accept that friendly amendment or not and I did accept that I'm happy to have the vote now but just for clarity for the future purposes that's how friendly amendments work and it would be it would be my prerogative as the person who developed the motion to reject the friendly friendly amendment but just to for future reference okay I was not aware of that because I don't support the amendment but I do support the resolutions because I strongly support the addition of additional CSLs so um I guess in that case I'd be happy to have a vote on the resolution just so your support can go on record for resolution and I guess I didn't understand because I thought at first we were discussing only the addition of the amendment so I apologize that wasn't clear to me so I'm wondering if we can do that I mean because it by accepting a friendly amendment it substantive changes the entire package and then we voted on the entire package I don't think we can do that can we yes that's what you do if the friendly amendment is accepted that becomes the new motion on the floor and then people can reject that and go back to the original motion if there's not support for the amended motion so that's how the process works but okay so because I was I didn't support the amendment I go down as a no vote for the the whole motion right the whole motion okay so I guess can I ask I can only give my verbal support I think people know I support CSL positions and have for some time now felt the city was moving too slowly on it but um okay so I guess we'll have to to leave it there thank you with that said Shannon can you can you possibly like a little note on the minutes being like this yeah expressing here thank you all right then leave house at 6.03 update on policy review and revision processes um this is a continuation of uh this agenda item from last meeting um we're I believe the commission is currently looking at two right now um two department directors slash policies to update uh person being person with diminished capacities in persons with uh just uh yeah persons with diminished capacities and the second one being the complaint policies so I don't know who wants to start uh a quick update I'll let uh Sharon start with uh the person with diminished capacities then yeah and Susie just um feel free to interrupt or tack on so Susie and I are working on the persons with diminished capacities in persons with disabilities policies we um this month had a couple of meetings that life got in the way for a couple of us and we were not able to meet but the department did its part which was to look at the current policies and get us redlined or revised uh it took the policies looked at them as they promised they would to um indicate to us what their but they how they should change based on current practices we then reached out to some of the um subject matter experts we had identified as folks we'd like to have at the table or you know looking at what we're doing and uh we're pleased that disability rights Vermont will be um this happy to be at the table with us looking over what we're doing and providing some input so that's where we are um you know obviously we didn't get as far as we wished but we're moving forward I would just add a friendly amendment that two of the people that I was trying to track down um one is just retired that would um that would be from Vermont Family Network and the gentleman from NFI is in California working in California so I took first took a long time to get them actually to respond but then I found out why they didn't respond right away but because of those two reasons so so I'm like on the trail now one subject expert is not enough so I'm on the trail looking for a few other characters we also were able to try to um take the the two policies as they stand and transform them into documents we can write on so we made we made a little bit of progress for a lot of for a lot of effort thanks Susie I accept that amendment awesome thank you for that update uh and I guess for the complaint policy Kevin do you want to share what you worked on with regard to the Tolita report you're muted yeah so here I go so yeah I I had helped with uh from uh commissioner Hart um and we basically took all the comments the public comments and put them on a datashee and I kind of I went through them all and my thinking is you know the cna report and the the resolutions that they have the recommendations um I think that's something that we could uh focus more of our time on um I thought that some of the the comments in the Tolita report um a lot of people were just like confused about the process too I was seeing like they didn't really know how to uh address it so I think with the the cna report I think those recommendations are something we we should focus our attention on moving forward but I'm open to any suggestions as well um I would mention that the Tolita report had most of the detail with regards to specific conversations around um how the community felt about um submitting complaints so I think we need to lean more heavily on the feedback provided in that report um another one of the biggest concerns that really stood out to me was you know uh I felt like oh this online process is pretty direct um and several people brought up the issue of uh the lack of multiple languages um so that was an interesting feature and there were some other things brought up about um accessing online as well so it yeah I guess I would I would recommend um leaning more heavily toward the Tolita report thank you yeah so yeah I went through and I carefully carefully read uh all the public comments and even though some of them were I I felt uh had some you know some some substance there I I strongly believe that cna report um gives us a better road you know to follow um and that's just my thinking but I'm open to any further suggestions around that you know the complaint process and I you know and I did see a lot of people um were commenting that they didn't really know how to process that they didn't know where it was the first time they heard about it so I think it's important to so yeah you're right Commissioner Graham yeah I think it's really a combination of both but the those type of comments were what to attract um and and we're really um just exposed some um some issues with uh the lack of awareness in the community thank you um so thank you for that any uh any questions or comments um for the questions working on these wild policies I'm not seeing or hearing any um which moves on to the amended agenda which is 6.04 and I believe it's the conversation on uh the future vacancies on the commission um Milo I'm sorry I this is your amendment so I guess I'll let you start as starting to run off with uh I guess kind of what do you want to hear and what do you want to uh get that from out of us I'm sorry could you repeat that oh uh so this was you asked you asked to have a uh to add a discussion on I believe the four vacancies coming up on the commission um who's staying um who's planning on reapplying and whatnot so I guess I'll let you see the conversation I guess of what you of what you want to get out of what what you want for the conversation oh thank you um I I guess I was looking more or less for um the timeline for people with expiring positions I I'm not uh sure what decisions people are making if they will be submitting to continue or not but I just wanted to have an idea so we're at our March meeting um when does the city post so the current positions would be the last meetings would be in June correct and then the new positions would start in July so when would the city would the city be posting what would be the deadline for the city to post the positions would that be April and then the city the city council committee uh selects in May I believe if I recall I might be wrong someone can correct me but I believe last time we did this the applications were due in mid-May like May 14th or something like that is what is in my memory I don't know what that means about okay yeah so um they'll post them for the four positions no matter what the individuals decide to do they get posted and then they will have interviews and um a vote uh Susie I'm curious I would like to make an impassioned plea which all of you have heard before that we try to stay as constant as we can through the next year or two um because there's a lot of change going on and I think you know it takes time for a group to know one trust each other and I you know even in the in the last go around you know with the amendment it was apparent to me the integrity and also the caring of the people in this group we know each other and we can rely on each other and we can even disagree with each other and still say still say still be in a relationship of co-workers and colleagues and so with all the change that is happening right now I think it serves us mightily to try to stay steady if we can so that's my impassioned plea it's not a golden handshake and doesn't mean you have to stay forever to give us some continuity across time otherwise Kevin and I are going to head to the hills so I just have some information I just have some quick information for the group so on the city's website there's postings for all vacancies on boards and commissions and just just for the commission's awareness to the extent that you're not already there's a sort of general posting for police commissioner that is up there there's not a due date that's posted and there's not a number of vacancies that's posted but there is a description of the role of a commissioner that's posted there and there is like a it seems like it's just a solicitation for rolling for for people to apply on a rolling basis to the so to the extent that you're not aware and you're interested it's it's there on the city's website um under boards and commissions and thank you for that um so I guess my question is is when does that get updated so that interested parties know specific deadlines because in the past there's been confusion about that so that's that's the only reason I bringing it up thank you yeah and and to the extent that started at me commissioner grant I I don't know the answer to that question I think that would probably be best directed to chief of staff in the mayor's office uh as soon as I see your hand is uh is your hand still new question or a new comment or that's on the old hand okay awesome so um thank you for that um if any commissioners want to speak on or if any questions have like their minds made up on what they want to do in the future you're welcome to speak now but that being said um I will not put anybody on the spot and if you're still undecided you are still undecided sorry uh Shannon um sorry commissioner grant and um the rest of the commissioners I can reach out to lori olberg who actually is the one that helps you know send out applications and receive applications last year they were due by May 14th that date may be the 14th or 15th depending on whatever whatever day that is um I can certainly include in the email the application and you know once it's available I'm not sure Haley is the application on the the boards and commissions they can see or it's just a general posting it looks to me just to be a general posting unless I'm not toggling through to the right screen but that's what I'm seeing under the boards and commissions it's just sure I was a list of vacancies I was just looking back last year it looks like around eight the mid april mark is when lori would um like release give me a heads up like you know such and such term is up you know here's if you you know here's some applications so I can um commissioner grant can send the entire commission the email that has the application and the link so that they can go and you know if you know of somebody or someone in the community has expressed interest to you then you might help forward that on um to them if they're interested and then those will get returned directly to lori um and then they're they're interviewed and met with and discussed and then brought before city council for appointment or approval um in june I believe it is but I can send a follow-up email so that you'll have that information for anyone maybe that you come across that's interested thank you all right um and I guess to this topic um I will say that I will not be reapplying um I have some family things I need to take care of that I cannot discuss right now in a public setting but um I will contact you all in the future and explain to you my decision but um so I guess I'll put that on the record right now that I will not be reapplying um for for this position you've been you've done this for such a long time javelani and through a huge huge amount of change and shift I just want to say thank you for that for what you've done appreciate thank you very much hey you're not off the hook yet so don't get too comfortable no worries I've got a long couple months left absolutely awesome um yeah I this this is the end of my second term so end of my sixth year so at this time I'm not planning to reapply as much as I would like to um I I have really enjoyed working with this group but um I don't think I'm in a position to renew and I also feel like um I really do need to make the way for other folks to be able to sit on the commission I think we should stop now I don't want to have a trend here I know y'all make it be sad well in that case I will I will quickly close this agenda item and move on to the next one um uh for the question the comments I we shall move on to agenda item 7.01 which is the use of force report for February 2022 and I hope we were all able to review um this force report as it came in um I I always find it interesting when I read the report I'm like ah I remember that incident happening um to my vantage point at work and this was definitely one of those reports um with that being said there's any of them that that you flag that you'd like to review um I guess please state that now and if you doesn't come to you right now please email DC Labreck and he'll forward us the corresponding um BWC but yeah is there any that are that are sticking out to people right now that it's the elected review please just let me know and I can uh I send those to you awesome thank you much appreciate DC Labreck thank you right uh moving on to agenda item 8 which is commendation so with that I give to Florida Shannon um I do just have one that came in um at the end of it's kind of like on the borderline it was written the beginning of the second day of March but I do believe that maybe perhaps this was a February incident so I'll I'll check this off the list for now um received commendation for several officers including street outreach and officers um it was in conjunction with the fire department um and it was an appreciation for the professionalism and restraint that the BPD showed on an incident um where a straight out street outreach was called some uh looks like some negotiators were also called on scene from BPD um to help the subject um that was uh in their apartment and the fire department needed to get into the apartment um to for a water issue and um the person was in crisis and was not um was in a mental health crisis and so um they spent a lot of time slowing the incident down at states and taking their time um in allowing the fire department to eventually get into the department uh into the apartment and so there's just um an appreciation that uh the BPD and the FD personnel worked as a strong team and that both departments listened to each other and collaborated well um and an attempt to make contact with the occupant um to help the fire department get inside the department the apartment so that is all for that one thank you for that appreciate um all right moving on to uh agenda item nine commissioner updates and comments um i'll start this one off um so i so blue city dropped a mask mandate i'm actually not sure uh i actually have the commission meeting i believe sorry the committee was done in person i think on monday so i believe we are allowed to meet back in person for meetings um as much as i love zoom i'd much rather see your uh your beautiful face as a person um so i'd be very happy to move back to in person meetings obviously that'd be hybrid so people can can zoom in from wherever if you're in town or not um but i would definitely i would i would like to see us return to um in person meetings not sure that what else is thoughts on that and i'm happy to go with the will of the commission on this one because maybe if i could if before i guess if you're if you're against it i guess i'd like to hear from you but i'm going to take the silence as okay to meeting back in person moving forward with that said um i am happy to do executive sessions via zoom um i think we have a big asset to get everyone together two nights in a row in the same location so i'd be very much minimal to keeping executive sessions via zoom and moving our regular meetings to back to in person um actually can we have hybrid meetings well upside uh when i say in person i mean hybrid as in like you can you can zoom in if you'd like for sure thank you i'm i mean i'm happy to attend uh public um in person but i'm thinking that it's having the hybrid meetings is convenient for the public who has the option to listen from home if they can't attend live and participate and i did i did mention before i did say before that i'm happy to do the hybrid for just for for for that very reason but moving forward uh yeah i'm very much love to be in person with ever with people i can zoom in if they want elsewhere susie so i'm going to have to be zoomed for health reasons i'm also remote from work so i'll be on zoom okay absolutely yeah i very well may go on zoom as well i'm not sure yet take it as we go all right sounds good um and i forget how this works under open meeting laws uh so hey krimi are we allowed to to converse amongst each other um for like planning out scheduling meetings without having a meeting to schedule a meeting that makes sense yes yes that's kind of that's one of those administrative clerical type things and you're allowed to discuss stuff like that that as long as you don't get into substantive discussions of you know hashing out what you're going to talk about at the meeting it's perfectly fine to to chat about scheduling meetings as a group offline sounds good uh seems like we're not out of consensus here so uh this portion of the conversation um i'll just email you email y'all and we'll figure something out um i guess that's it for my my personal uh commercial updates anyone else has anything to add bring up comment questions whatever now is the time i'm not seeing or hearing from anyone um so that moves on to each other out of 10 other business which is next meeting agenda items um um off top i had i could think of um an educational component i guess another update uh hopefully the final update from the cna report and share that report with y'all um policy revision and update and like three yeah um one of the things that i need to do is i said that i would work on the um the ethics so forgive me susie what was the document that you found for us that i was going to um it was like a code of ethics for the commission so that would be nice if we got through that before june so i will my hope is to have a draft circulated to folks before the next meeting thank you april i believe it's also the month that uh jonah larson will give us the annual report oh that's right the fourth Tuesday of next month is april 26th and just moving ahead in the future uh the fourth Tuesday of may is the 24th any further commissioner comments or updates i was wondering if we could and i don't know if we want to do it as like a little police commission sub committee but something we kind of talked about in the past about putting together information for new commissioners so since it looks like going forward we will have new commissioners just you know information on um you know forwarding links on the napal training um i i still feel i could use obviously after our vote earlier today roberts rules for dummies or something like that but just so where people um they're they're giving information and they're about what we've been discussing uh copy of the cna report um things like that i i think would warrant discussing so that people who step into the commission aren't immediately overwhelmed or or feel really behind in discussions thanks we've been trying to do that we've been posting things stephanie's been posting things serena's been posting things so we're trying to to get ahead of the game here a little bit um thank you for that i think it once again depends upon getting the staff person because this would be the work of a staff person um i i'm sorry continue up continue me love oh my apologies uh didn't need to speak over you i was just going to say if we if we don't get the staff person in a in a timely manner um then would i would think this would have to fall back on us to somehow put together this information for any new members thank you i did start drafting kind of like a media policy which more or less like how much you should like deal with like communicating to each other brass constituency at eliana um i'd be happy to try to roll in some some of those other things that you just brought up there into into that uh what's i'm done with that i'll be happy to send it out i think ideally i could probably get something out to everybody next week and a half or so um so yeah um i guess this has been like that and we can either put that in jennifer next month or the one after uh well time's running out the time's coming quickly um yeah um i'll see if i can get that done so we can get on the jennifer next meeting any further questions or comments from christianers i'm not seeing or hearing any um i guess my last update was is that um tomorrow night we'll be having an executive session um there will be a public public portion of that you start at six o'clock so anybody in the public would like to comment uh please check out board docs for our meeting link uh for tomorrow night sorry it's at six p.m and with that um i'll entertain a motion to adjourn so moved uh moved by stefanie seconded by kevin for seeing us on backwards um any questions or comments not hearing any all in favor of adjourning the meeting raise your hand to say aye aye that passes unanimously at eight fifty nine p.m