 In the meantime, you should have an opportunity to have two cards. One, that's a white index card. These index cards are for questions that you would like for me to ask. Obviously, we don't have enough time to probably get to everybody's question, but I'd love to have a nice stack of them so that we can ask our candidates some of the community questions. The other thing you should have is either a pastel index card or a half sheet of paper. This is for feedback that you'd like to share with Harold. Harold Dominguez, our city manager is the hiring manager for this position, public safety chief. And so he would like to know what you think after the end of the session today. So Robin and Carmen, if you guys can raise your hands. Robin and Carmen have cards and they're also collecting cards. So you don't have to get up. They'll be walking by to collect both kinds of cards. At the end of the session tonight, you're also welcome to leave the pastel ones on any of the tables as you leave. Then raise your hand and get Carmen to help you out. That's right. So that's what we're going to do here at the beginning. If you don't have two cards, raise your hand and keep it high until we get to you. Thank you. Yes, perfect. Excellent. Keep them high. Thank you all. Robin's coming. This is how we get our steps in community forums. Robin, Susie needs one too. Great. Okay. Everybody have two cards? No. Hey Robin, Susie still needs. Yes. I mean, turn me my voice up a little bit. Got it. Yeah. Get into the microphone a little bit. Yeah. Thanks. I appreciate that feedback. Okay. And gentlemen, one of you has a microphone sitting on your chair. If you can go ahead and turn it on and do a quick check real quick. We'll give channel eight. Test one. Perfect. Test one. Can you all hear them? Hey, all right. Very good. Thank you. Tim and channel eight folks, if you have any concerns, let us know now while we get started. And then we'll go ahead and get going. All right. Very good. As I have mentioned in some of our press that went out there, this is being live streamed not only on channel 16 for Comcast, which is your government channel. I bet you didn't know you had one of those, but channel 16 is your government channel. We're streaming this on Comcast as well as on the Longmont Public Media website. So for those who are watching from home, you will soon see something on the bottom of the screen letting you know how you can also provide feedback as part of this forum. So I'll repeat those instructions in just a second. All right. The other thing is that the facilities guy's on his way to turn on the air conditioning. So yes, you can use your other card for a fan until we get there. All right. Very good. Okay. We'll go ahead and get started. My name is Sandy Cedar. I'm the assistant city manager for the city of Longmont, and I work with the shared services. That is 13 divisions that are everything from fleet services to it to HR and communications. And so I'm glad to have worked for the city for over 20 years, and I'm glad to be part of this forum today. So as I mentioned, we're asking you all to go ahead and put questions on cards. Carmen and Robin are going to start walking down the aisles and grabbing those. And in the meantime, we have some community members that have submitted questions ahead of time. So we're going to go ahead and start with those. But first, I would love for you all to introduce yourself to the group if you didn't have a chance out there. So I'm going to start over here to my left. Just go ahead and tell us a little bit what your name is, where you're from, and a little bit about you. So good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Michael Moreno. I'm from just outside of DC in Prince George's County, Maryland, where I'm the current assistant fire chief in operations. I have been doing that for almost 21 years now. And I'm very excited to be able to discuss these issues with you tonight and apply to be your public safety director. Thank you. Evening, everyone. My name is Ken Chavez, and I am a Colorado native, and I live in the Longmont area. I just recently retired after 42 years of public service and law enforcement, and now wish to contribute to the safety of this community by serving you all. Great. You can go ahead and keep that one on that side. Go ahead. Good evening. Manny Almaghet, Colorado native, have lived all over Colorado. Pueblo, Rocky Fort, Walsenburg, Springfield, and currently in Denver. I'm a 22-year member of the Denver Fire Department. I have held every rank from firefighter to division chief of fire prevention, and I look forward to having great conversation and look forward to the questions by the group. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Zach Artis. I am from Commerce, Georgia, where I serve as the chief of police and public safety director. I'm finishing up my 23rd year in law enforcement, and it's an honor and privilege to be with you tonight and look forward to taking on your questions. Good evening, everyone. My name is Don Terrell-Landy. I'm from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and I gotta say this is great. I mean, I just, I've never been a part of anything like this where the community comes out and asks questions of potential candidates. I mean, that's a credit to this city and to all of you. Thank you for your time for coming out here. Just a little bit about myself. I spent all my career in the Pennsylvania State Police. I did everything from undercover work to criminal investigations to being an area commander, which is basically the chief of police of about 30 departments with personnel of about 1,500 people. So thank you again for being here and looking forward to answering your questions. Great, thank you so much. Okay, so Carmen and Robin, if you can go ahead and collect some cards and bring them just around to me as we go, we'll go ahead and ask a couple questions that the community submitted ahead of time. So the way I'm gonna do this, rather than ask one question and ask you all to repeat the exact same answer, you're each gonna get different questions to make it a little more interesting. So, and I will probably just go down and back if that works for folks. Okay, so actually we're gonna start on this end and your question is, what is your experience with community policing and how would you engage the city of Longmont community in regard with areas of need, such as homelessness, mental health, and substance abuse? We'll start with an easy one, how about? Well, thank you for the question. My experience with community outreach is varied. You know, I look at it as, you know, I can ask, ask, answer specifically those questions, but what I look at it is, I work for you. We are your police department. We need to have clarity, openness, and the ability to listen to your needs. I've been involved with a number of community outreach programs from the county of Philadelphia to Lancaster to Redding. Redding has the largest Dominican population in the country, I believe, or the state. So we had different community outreach programs for various organizations, and I think the key is listening to the community, listening to what your needs are, and knowing that you have a voice and that somebody cares and is going to listen to what you have to say, and if we can, take those suggestions and make change, positive change with those. I mean, this is a great country that we live in, and what makes us great, and I know some of you have heard me say this before, is our diversity. Whether we are from our different, whether you're male, female, black, white, Hispanic, the list goes on when you come from the country to city to, when we make decisions, whether it's a law enforcement decision or it's a social issue, we have this diverse group of people that we can get input from and their experiences that they have that are unique to them and to where they grew up at, and we can take that information and make our community a better place. But the specific programs are the same as probably all of these gentlemen have had throughout, in most places throughout the country, and I could probably talk more, but I think my time might be in the machines. Thank you. Okay, the next question is, describe your leadership style and why you've adopted that approach. All right, thank you very much. When you talk about leadership, and we've had a lot of opportunity today to talk to a multitude of panels here within the city of Longmont, when you talk specifically about my leadership style, my leadership style is, I classify it as a servant leadership style. I feel that it's my responsibility in charge of an organization or department to help those around me to accomplish those goals and the needs that they have to meet those needs. We've talked a lot about organizational charts, and if you're familiar with an organizational chart, you usually have the chief or the director at the top of that organizational chart. I truly believe that that organizational chart should be flipped around so that the chief is at the bottom, and it's simply because the idea is that because I'm in a position of authority, because I am the highest positioner and I have the most responsibility, it also gives me the ability to help those around me to achieve what it is that they want to do, and so because I've been empowered and entrusted with that. And so when you talk about leadership styles, it is empowering those around you, taking a team approach to solutions and problems and running an organization. What I tell my folks in the way that I've done it in my organization is I bring my command staff in, and we sit at the table and we have honest and transparent conversations with each other. You know, a lot of times I recognize that I'm not the expert in everything. I don't have all the answers, but I try to surround myself with individuals who are smarter than me and know things more than I do. And so when we have those conversations in my leadership, what I've done is I've afforded them the opportunity to come in and challenge me on my decisions, challenge me on things that I'm doing because that makes me a better person and it makes the organization better. And what I've found that over the last four and a half years that I've worked at the City of Commerce, we've been able to accomplish a lot of things by sitting down and having those transparent conversations. If any of you have ever worked in leadership and organizations, you understand that when you begin to surround yourself by individuals who always tell you how wonderful you are and what a great job you're doing, they're not doing you any favors. They're not doing you any good. What they're actually doing is they're crippling you and they're crippling the organization. And so today, as I've talked to a lot of the employees of Longmont and citizens of Longmont, my leadership style is simply bring folks to the table, have honest and transparent conversations and make the best decisions that we can to lead organizations forward to tackle the challenges and issues that we're all facing. So I hope that answers your question. So thank you. Okay, the next question. In your opinion, what is the role of the Public Safety Director and how does it integrate with the different divisions, fire, police, community health and resilience and communications, as well as other departments within the city? Oh, that's a loaded question. It's a mouthful. So the role of the Public Safety Chief is you are representing police, you're representing fire, you're representing divisions of Office of Emergency Management and they're all vital for safety of our communities. And you're also a liaison between community groups, neighborhood groups, and the essence of what I've talked about today is community policing as everybody is a community police officer. Everybody has that duty to act. Everybody has that duty to report. And together, it is having the resources and the allies, and that's what the Public Safety Chief, being me, is able to secure those partnerships, to leverage those partnerships that the city of Longmont has. I believe the city of Longmont has over 150 partners for treatment providers. So we take advantage and we start looking for funding opportunities to better enhance equipment, safety of our personnel to provide that quality of service. And we talked a little bit about how do we maintain resiliency? Well, resiliency is that when you're out there on the front lines responding day to day to calls, especially for those who are on the margin, those who have experienced trauma, it becomes traumatic to us ourselves. So we need to be able to take care of ourselves in order to take care of you. And one of the things that we struggle with as first responders in public safety is compassion fatigue. And we take that home to our families. We take it home to, and we have that with our colleagues, that interaction, and it could be detrimental. And it's a cycle that we're never able to provide that quality of great customer service in public safety. So as a public safety chief, you have to build those resiliency skills in making sure that not only are community members who are community policing, but also our first responders are also given the tools. They have the access to support, to resources, where they can start talking about strategies, how they effectively cope. And I've said this many, many times today is that the interactions and the actions that have taken place between public safety and those in a crisis is no longer behind a black curtain. And we have been witness to this over the past year. And so now the public is demanding a well-rounded police officer, a well-rounded firefighter who is versed in cultural responsiveness, emotional intelligence, who are able to have solutions to problems that are very complex. I use the analogy that as a firefighter, we put the wet stuff on the red stuff. Well, the public wants more than that. As a public safety chief, I have to ensure that those under my leadership are given the tools to be successful so they can be resilient. And that's where you start leveraging resources. You start looking at funding for equipment. And that's where a collaborative effort that comes from everybody in the community, stakeholders, nonprofits, employee groups, the unions. And so I'll leave it at that because I can go on all day and talk about this, but I want to be respectful of everybody's time. Thank you. And thank you all for just doing this. It's like a speed round of America's Got Talent, right? And it's, yeah. No singing, please, no singing. No singing, okay, fair enough. Okay. So for you, what do you think a safe city or town is? Well, to me, a safe city or town is a place where everyone feels that they can live in safety. They can live without fear. They can live with an equitable enforcement of the law. That they can raise their families, have careers, play, shop, and experience life in this environment without any fear of retaliation, or fear of being persecuted or being discriminated against. Fear is a very tangible thing. And I've seen it not only in this country, but overseas in my military service. I spent 36 years as a military officer in the Colorado Army National Guard with four tours overseas, three of them in Afghanistan and Iraq. And I watched firsthand people that lived in fear every single day, not knowing if they were going to live or survive the day, let alone the week. And to have fear in this country, which is identified as being the safest and the country where everybody wants to go to or wants to come and live at, should be a place of safety without fear where you can prosper. It's part of our natural heritage and part of our constitution that you can fulfill your dreams here in the United States and in this community. Specifically here in Longmont, in my home state. And that's important. If people don't have that ability and they have a fear or they have limitations on where they can go and how they can aspire to, then that is bad. And I would hope that it is a public service cheat that I could be looked at as an example of what people could aspire to. That, hey, I'm a minority and I could be just like that person and get that job someday, I hope. Right? I'm a young kid thinking about us. I'm not thinking about public service. I don't know if I want to go to the military. I don't want to go to the fire department or the police or be a paramedic. But I want to have that ability to be able to dream and aspire to those roles. So a safe environment is encompassing for many different concepts. Not only physical safety, but emotional safety, career safety, and other safeties involving your family and the generations that come before you and after you. That's my concept of what it is to be safe. Thank you. Okay, your question is, this is the tallest I've ever been. You have to know this podium. How will you prioritize restorative justice in our community? Great question. So the priorities of any public safety organization need to come from the community. And the legitimacy of any public safety organization comes from the community. Restorative justice gives law enforcement different tools to act in society rather than the criminal justice system. And that's important so that we can have a safer, more just society and apply the resources that we need to the issue. Longmont has done a lot of great work in innovating in community policing and working towards non-traditional assets other than crime and punishment for some of these behavioral health, substance abuse issues. And that needs to continue because quite frankly, number one, it's the right thing to do. Number two, it's very cost effective. And number three, that's what the community priorities that I'm hearing demand. You may ask why a fire chief wants to be the public safety director in Longmont and talk about restorative justice. In my background, I have worked for many, many years within police department innovating, sharing personnel between fire police using resources more efficiently and effectively towards common good for the community. I've also run investigation units as a sworn officer with our arson and bomb squad. So I have a lot of law enforcement experience and holistic experience building cross-functional teams which really aligns with the public safety organization that Longmont has done. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're going to stop for just a second. If you still have a white card that hasn't been collected by someone, you want to go ahead and wave your hands up in the air. Make sure we catch them. Thank you. Robin. Oh, good. Karma's got it. Thanks, Carmen. Okay. Okay. So we're going to start back over here. Both police and fire are currently running short staffed and admin staff is at a skeleton crew. How does a police or fire department avoid letting training fall through the cracks? That's a great question. You need to prioritize. What are your priorities as a public safety organization? It's to serve all of you and the people outside this building. And how do we do that? How do I get to know your needs? Or how do I get to know how to handle a homeless person or somebody that's suffering from addiction problems? It comes from training. I just don't get that knowledge. And training is important. It gives us the tools so that we can better serve you. If we, there's things that you can do and things that I've done in the past. So it's not unique to be shorthanded in law enforcement or in fire departments. It's not unique to have shorthanded or not enough money to do all the things that you want to do. We have some great people that have great ideas. But one of the things that always comes up is limited resources. And one of the things that we can't afford to do is let training fall through the cracks. So one of the things that I've done is that I would mandate in our department we would have roll call every morning at the start of every shift. And so that was an opportunity to provide training. Now it might be just a little short thing that was the hot topic of the day. Usually Wednesdays in our scheduling was the heavy day. We had the most personnel available. So we would pick a topic out and that would be the topic for Wednesdays roll call and maybe a 10 minute training session on whatever it might be. It might be somebody that's diabetic and arresting them for intoxication because there are similar things there. How to handle mental crisis, people in crisis. And we would take those little snippets of information or training and we would take that opportunity because we're doing roll call anyway to do extra training. Now that didn't cost us any extra money. It didn't cost any extra personnel. We did it and we looked at what the needs were. What is important to keeping officers safe? What's best to keep the community safe? And what are the best topics that we can present? Another thing that we used to do is we would have command meetings and that was another way of training commanders. So usually every Monday I would have all the commanders there. We would discuss what's going on in the area for that week. And then that was also a time for training. Now it might not be the same type of training that you're thinking of for the first line supervisor but it was an opportunity to train the commanders so that the commanders understand what our priorities are. Our priorities are to serve, to protect and keep our officers safe the other day. There's a lot of things that you can do to... One thing that I found in law enforcement, firefighters is that we're going to get the job done. We care about the community. It's not about us, it's about you and we're going to get it done. And if we don't have the money to do that, to send somebody for outer service training, we're going to do it in-house. And we can look for experts within to be able to do additional training to make sure that we fit the needs of our training. And that training makes us better and it reduces lawsuits. It reduces internal affairs investigations and it increases public support and confidence in law enforcement. So I could talk more on this like everybody else but it wouldn't be fair so I'll end it there. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, the next question is also around training. What kind of training do you have planned for your Longmont City employees as it relates to interacting with people of different races and ethnicities? And how will you hold people accountable? Well, I believe that you start off establishing a culture that embraces differences. If we look at Longmont and its mission statement is to prove the quality of life for those that live here, those that work here, and those that visit here. And when you look at Longmont as collectively, you find that Council's 20-year vision is to create a world village that brings in folks from different parts of the community, the different parts of the world. Longmont has a long history and tradition of diversity and cultural diversity. And so I think Longmont is already moving forward and embracing that as we speak. And it comes down to when we look at community policing and how we're policing our community. You see, it's not something that we do, it's something that we do with the community. It's something about having those difficult and tough conversations to understand what it is that the community needs. Because when you serve a diverse community, it's not one solution to the problem. Because each, within our community, there are other sub-communities. And each of those communities have needs and expectations from their public safety. And so it's critical that we understand that the needs individually from those. So when you talk about what are we going to do internally with the one we're going to have to have a culture to where we're willing to have those conversations with community members about what it is that they need and how we can better serve, we're going to have to look at understanding our biases to where we all struggle with biases and how that affects our decision-making and come to understanding that. We're going to have to look at diversity training to try to understand the differences between each and every one of us. And so you'd have to look at and continue to look at opportunities to make and challenge the organization to meet the needs of the community. And doing that by training, education, and engagement with your community. So, thank you. Thanks. Okay, your question is, please tell us about your approach in dealing with domestic violence in your community. So in the fire service, we usually encounter the aftermath of domestic violence. And when we come into a person's home, we're usually there because it's coded as domestic violence. So the fire service would never really go in unless it's not reported. And so my experience is that when I have come across domestic violence in my community, it's usually with a police officer. And it is providing medical treatment, it's providing that transport, and it's providing that continuity of care. But then it ends. And so where it's important in a community that is recognizing those who are experiencing a crisis, it has to be that continuity of care. And talking with police officers who have responded to domestic violence, it is a very unique skill set. It's not for every police officer, it's not for every firefighter. And it takes a different approach for someone who's a victim of domestic violence. And often domestic violence is often a trigger of something else. Mental illness can be a factor. Substance abuse can be a factor. Being an addict can be a factor. So when you start looking, what's a contributing factor to domestic violence, then you can start zeroing in and having precise strategies on getting the right people to intervene. And I can speak for myself. I don't have any skill set on other than to offer empathy, compassion, provide medical treatment for somebody who's experiencing domestic violence. However, I do have the skill set of providing compassion, empathy, being able to help them in a formed trauma approach that there are reasons why they may be nervous to speak with me as somebody in uniform. There may be reasons why they're guarded and they're protecting the abuser. So those are all things that you have to consider when you start looking at those who are victims of violence. And it's not just domestic violence as a total category, there are subcategories of domestic violence. How did it occur? Was it battery? Was it a weapon used? We talked earlier today about strangulation being something that's on the rise. So I believe that my experience is more about mitigating the incident and I think we've all talked about that's how we're wired. But we really fail in that we don't have that continuity of care. We don't really have that transition back into the community. We don't have that continuity of care from treatment centers. And that's where the importance of community policing is important, that every member of the community should be able to have the confidence in reporting somebody who is a victim of domestic violence. And that's where I said that's where we come up with mapping and that's where we come up with getting the right people to intervene. Thank you. Okay, your question is, what are your suggestions for handling homelessness or people who are not able to afford housing? Unfortunately, I've had a lot of experience of this. The greatest concentration that are homeless or houseless as they prefer sometimes is down in Denver, Missouri. I've had to deal with hundreds and hundreds of people that are homeless in a very concentrated area in one of the most populated areas of the state. There are many reasons for these situations but in every single case they must be treated with compassion and understanding and with dignity. And there's many various different types of categories of people that are homeless. But the first one to me, in my experience, I've been dealing with this for 20-some years, is someone that is temporarily homeless because of a quick financial situation or a medical issue or losing a job. And they want to quickly get back on their feet and maybe just a little bit of help, a little bit of compassion, a little bit of understanding, finding a family apartment in Allyson where a car will fetch a kid. Come on, there's me. Yeah, I don't want to move. Are we okay? Yes, what's going on? Yeah, I can stir them toward assistance and help and get them off the street and out of a car and back on their jobs, back in medical care, whatever. Then you have people that have substance abuse. They cannot break that cycle. They've lost everything and now they're on the street and they're hooked on crack, on meth, on heroin. They also need compassion and understanding and you have to steer them toward treatment facilities and treatment programs. Officers oftentimes get calls on them because of the fact that they're committing crimes. Businesses call them in, homeowners call them in, residents call them in. So you have to treat them in a certain fashion and identify what's going on with them and get them for these programs if you can. And it's difficult because as long as they stay in that area and that environment, they'll keep the addiction cycle going and going. They need to be set somewhere else where they can get clean, get productive and break that cycling along. There's also mental health issues. The people, maybe because of addiction or mental health disease have not been treated for long periods of time and they've debilitated and gone to this state. They've lost everything. And unfortunately, they're on the street trying to survive day by day and you see them and you talk to them and they don't make any sense. That's one important to quickly identify how the mental health issue you're bringing in. Long one has a great team called your core team where you have a mental health clinician, a paramedic and a police officer that go on these mental health specific issues whether it's framing suicide or having a crisis or whatever. That applies with homelessness as well. We're trying to get them stirred on. And then finally, the last fourth category that I've experienced is with the group that that is what they have chosen. They have chosen to unfortunately separate themselves from society's rules and behaviors and they want to be homeless. They choose that as their lifestyle and oftentimes some are very pleasant in their manner. Anybody has seen the movie No Man Land? Anybody seen that? Very nice lady. They declared herself I'm not homeless. I'm just houseless. I don't live in a band. And she's peaceful and promise you obey the law. But then again, you have some other people that are homeless that I choose this and I'm going to live my way and I'll sleep where I want and I'll steal what I want and I'll do what I want and I don't want to obey society's rules. They have to be dealt with accordingly as well. So quickly identifying which category of homeless you have and run them appropriately, turn them to the right directions and if needed, it may be appropriate to be a criminal action. Because you also have to think about the consideration of the residents of the neighborhood with businesses, public thoroughfares and parks where people want to take their kids and not be accosted or wrestle with hand-handling and handle them accordingly. In a balancing act where everybody's treating with dignity and respect, we all have a responsibility whether we are Jeff Bezos, the richest man in America, or homeless and we're off the main street and we all have to wait a long time and we have to do that. Thank you. Before we go to the next question, we may be having an audio issue. Is it the microphone? Is it the microphone? The power is off. Oh, the power was off. Okay. Well, there we go. You all could hear him but at home. Okay. I tend to be that way sometimes. Sorry. Hang on one second. I want to grab one more. Okay. Thank you. You all could hear him. Yes. Okay. So now for people at home, we've got the microphone on. Okay. Good. Okay. How do you plan to address the loud vehicles and speeding issues in Longmont? Hot topic, right? So first, I think jumping to a criminal action is a little bit premature and I would need to, as the Public Safety Director, understand what has taken place before and what education has taken place and what community outreach has done on this program. It sounds like this is a recurring issue and still needs to be addressed. So with community input about addressing this and applying more patrol resources to this issue, this quality of life issue is important because it's important to the citizens and that has been brought up to the level of the Public Safety Director. Quality of life issues, nuisance issues, quote-unquote nuisance issues are important. They factor in into a livable community here in Longmont and part of our responsibility in Longmont is to make it as livable as possible embracing the values that we talked about. But there's certainly increased enforcement measures that can be done, but we can also talk about education and outreach with our community partners to hopefully decrease that issue. Now, if that doesn't work, then we have a law enforcement division who is capable of handling that situation with enforcement action and we'll take a look at that. Thank you. You can leave the microphone on just in case. That's okay. But everything in the room should be brand new. Okay, over here. How will you make the city safe for everyone? Thank you for the question. Making the community safe for everyone is what our job is about. So, hang on one second. Let's make sure your microphone's on. Can you hear me? Yeah, there we go. Yeah, it might have to be a little closer. There you go. Okay. Okay. And the question was how to keep the community safe for everyone. How will you make the city safe for everyone? Well, what we've done in the past is we did problem-specific policing. So, we would look at our maps or where crimes were occurring and we would deploy resources to those locations. I mean, it's simple. I mean, you know, let me back up for a second. You got some outstanding candidates here. I mean, I think you're really lucky to have these gentlemen up here competing for this position. I had an opportunity to listen to them and talk to them. They're going to do a great job. This is easy stuff. How do you enforce it? It's law enforcement. It's putting your resources where they're needed. If you have a construction burglary issue, you're putting resources there. If there's something in a certain community, you're putting your resources there. It's enforcing the law equally, equitably, for all. It doesn't matter your race, your creed, your color, your condition. The law is for everyone and we would enforce it equally without any disregard for those aforementioned things. We're here to serve everyone and keep everyone safe in our community. Thanks. Okay. What is the role of police and fire in Longmont's community to build trust and relationships? Well, I think you just need to take a moment and just look at what Longmont has been doing over the probably the last 25 years under your former Public Safety Chief, Mike Butler, and some of the programs that he's instituted here to build community relations. And so when you look at what we're doing and what Longmont has been doing with their lead programs, their core programs, their angel programs, their Levi programs, these programs are in the community, working with the community to address quality of life issues. I believe there's a partnership between Boulder and Longmont as we were talking of homelessness. Earlier, take the next step or take one step. That works to help steer folks out of dealing with the stubborn, sorry, that are struggling with homelessness to give them a pathway out. So Longmont is working and has been working for years to build community relations both on the fire and both on the police side to continue to find the needs and the opportunities to better serve the community. If you'll repeat it for me more time, I want to make sure I touch on everything. What is the role of police and fire in Longmont's community to build trust and relationships? Yeah. And I think that we're doing that. We're building trust through our lead program that takes low level offenders and diverts them away and gives them the opportunity to learn and change their action and behavior. The core program that is helping recognize the mental health and substance abuse disorders do not need to be handled by the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system is not equipped, but we have resources here in this community that are prepared to take and help. We're looking at the reduction in our core program. We look at the reduction of the suicide rate of about 50 percent. That's huge to look at that. We're looking at recidivism rate in our lead program that is I think around 44 percent. We're seeing that 44 percent of those folks aren't coming back into the system. And so because of those partnerships and because of those programs and because of what we're doing the work it is we're seeing a difference here in Longmont. And so I think that's how you build community trust, you build community relations is that you continue to find programs that meet the needs of the community that continues to improve the quality of life for all of our citizens. And so that Longmont becomes the place that people want to live, work, and play in as we move forward. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, this is a similar question. If you are selected as the Chief Safety Officer, Public Safety Chief, how will you build trust in the LGBTQ community? And what is your real experience in this? Okay, so building trust comes with transparency. It comes with effective communication. It's inclusive messaging. And it is a right that each and every one of us whether we live in the prosperous neighborhoods of Longmont or we're homeless, you have the right to have effective communication and you have the right to have accessible access to information. So how to build that trust you and transparency is you have to be able to be accountable to each other and for each other. Like I said earlier, I have a duty to act. You have a duty to act. You have a duty to report. We need to build trust and transparency by incentivizing. What are we doing great in this city? How are our groups on the margins? How are they receiving that quality of care? And so when I talk about the LGBTQ committee and and for equity, it was about two years ago when I was the head of fire prevention and I was called into an office and I said chief, I need your help. I'm thinking, okay, I think I've heard everything now and I'm thinking, why can't this individual another chief not handle this incident? So he says, somebody just came forward and said that they are transvestite. I'm like, okay. So what do we do? So he goes, I don't know. That's why I'm calling you. So I said, okay. So the member who came forward says, I want to broadcast it to the department. And I said, slow down. Let's be methodical. Let's be strategic about this. And let's do it right because we have one shot at it where we have the right message. We are going to able to rally gather resources and we're going to be able to bring in the community. We're going to be able to bring in partners from public safety, Denver Sheriff, Denver Police, and we're going to be able to come up with a model where we can embrace it and come up with programs. And we partnered with Human Resources Division. We came up with the training program and that's how we started to bridge that gap and open up that line of dialogue with our LGBTQ committee. I said this early on a couple of my panels. I came up here Sunday. My wife and I, and we wanted to be a part of the Pride festivities and that's where it starts. It starts with the messaging from me. You see me out in the community and interacting with everyone, including those on the margins and those in the LGBTQ committee. That's my expectation in each and every one of the officers of public safety. And so, you know, I've been fortunate that I have and I mentioned this early. Manny is kind of the catch-all on Denver Fire. You want representation at the LGBTQ annual breakfast call Manny. You want representation for domestic violence at the Latina Safehouse. Call Manny. So it is something that I believe that you have to be open, expansive, and you have to have shared leadership with members of your community, members of your department, and that's how you create change. And also it needs to be reinforced with being culturally responsive and being gender responsive. And we have not had that training, at least where I come from, on how we start implementing and how we start providing that training. So it's a very strategic approach, but you have to be transparent. You have to invite everyone to have a seat at the table. You need to provide the education and training. You need to be accountable and you also need to have faith in the processes. There needs to be administrative justice. So if there is misconduct, there are allegations that I need to have faith that discipline, if necessary, is fair and consistent. If somebody's put on some kind of a stipulation and agreement for a training program, it has to be fair and consistent, but it should be fairly black and white if there is misconduct and administrative justice is necessary, we have to have faith in it in order to move forward. And that's how we start bridging that gap between public safety and those on the margins. Thank you. I see water coming your way. We'll stop for just a second. So I need to do these water bottles. Thank you. Okay, your question. So we've talked a little bit about our programs, the core and the lead programs. Behavioral health is involved with almost half of our calls and Lamont has the correspondent program as we just talked about lead and angel initiative. How will you enhance and expand those services? In order to enhance and expand those services, you have to take a look at resources, funding, training, equipment, and then staff to expand those capabilities. So it's now maybe not just eight hours a day, but going to 16, 20, 24 hours a day. But you require the staff, the resources, the qualifications after training, and the capabilities. They'll need cars, they'll need radios, they'll need training, they'll need integration into the department's access. So you expand those programs by taking the foundation of what you have so far and expanding upon that by giving them the resources, the training, and the things they need to expand and cover it for more time, for more people, more customers across the board. And it's an important thing. We've seen that mental health issues have permeated a lot of problems that overlap into criminal actions. And their basis is mental health and nature, but it's perceived by criminal actions that come to our attention through calls for service from the public or businesses. So handling it in the appropriate matters is very important. And that every single situation is not a criminal matter that requires a citation or an arrest, because what those people need is treatment and understanding and compassion to stir them in directions to get them the things they need. So they are alleviated from those mental health issues and can function better in society, cause less crimes and calls for service. And overall, improve the society in the community of Longwood. Thank you. Okay, your question. Our school district works closely with our school resource officers, SROs. And recently, there's been a lot of publicity about the removal of SROs. Where do you stand on this? So I stand, as the public safety director, I stand where the community stands. But I think in the cultural shift of law enforcement today with 21st century policing, you see a shift of the warrior mentality to a guardian mentality. And I think that's beneficial for the community in many, many aspects one of which is in our schools. So we need to make sure that we provide a safe learning environment in our schools, which obviously starts with physical safety and emotional safety that can be enhanced with law enforcement presence. In many cases, in my case, I had a lot of law enforcement mentors to look up to very early as a child. And I think that's positive for the community to have positive role models and to see themselves in the community, in the public services, which we provide. So in so much as getting into the community, I think it is valuable to be in schools to provide both security and mentorship and vision to see children can see themselves in the department. I understand that this is contentious in Longmont and I'm not naive that I'm an outsider to Longmont. I think I have the knowledge and experience and abilities to navigate these issues, but it is a challenge for me to listen to the community on these issues and it is also an opportunity to bring fresh perspective as an outsider towards this issue. But I think in my experience, we've had a positive impact by having good police officers, good law enforcement professionals provide physical security and mentorship to youth that need it. Thanks. Okay, well that's it for the easy questions. Just kidding. Okay. Ready? Okay. Can I take the one on noise complaints? The noise complaints one. Okay. Describe how you would respond to those who demand justice and view police as racist and bullies. Sitting down, listening to what they have to say. Maybe they have a point. Maybe they're misguided. Maybe they don't understand criminal or police procedure. I think it's about getting their perspective and having an open line of communication. What are the issues? And I think the best thing is discussing them with them. I mean, I think it's pretty simple and I don't want to get overly burdened and take 10 minutes to discuss it. I think in a nutshell, that would be it. I mean, could you repeat that one more time just to make sure that I didn't miss a part of that? Describe how you would respond to those who demand justice and view police as racist and bullies. I mean, just meeting with them, explaining how police procedures work, listening to what they have to say and really just I'm just going to repeat myself and just open door listening and hopefully coming to some kind of consensus of why the actions that were taken were taken. Thank you. Thanks. This is a part B question. Please tell us how you would support your officers in this political climate from the pressure coming at them from all sides of the spectrum. All sides of the spectrum, pardon me. Well, I think it's important as we talk about kind of the view of law enforcement today as we watch news media and we watch some of the challenge that law enforcement faces there is a uncertainty. There is this negative light that kind of follows law enforcement right now. And as we talk about supporting the law enforcement officers and supporting, it's critical that we have conversations. Everything boils down that we've talked to tonight about having conversations. And it's important about having conversations with your officers, your organization about what our values are, about what we do, how we do our job. It's important to make sure that we have policies and procedures in place that show that we're using the best practices. It's important that when the situation does happen that as leadership we don't immediately jump to the negative, that we take the time to gather the information to be transparent with our community and we share that information. And if an officer has done what he or she should have done and followed the rule of law and done their job, then it's imperative that as a leader we stand beside that individual through whatever the trials or tribulations that may come. Now in fact, if that officer has not done what he or she should have done, then there should be repercussions for that because as an organization and as law enforcement we are responsible and we answer to the citizens of our community. But I truly believe that it begins with communication, it begins with painting a vision, it begins communicating to the expectations of the officers within the organization of what we expect so that when they go out on the street they know the expectations, they know what the community needs they know what the challenges are. And when something does happen as I repeated or as I said earlier, it is our responsibility as leaders of an organization to look at that not to jump to conclusions but to stand with the officers he or she did what they needed to and if they did not do that then it is our responsibility to begin to repair the damage that's been done with the community and move forward from that point and learn from those opportunities. Thank you. Okay, your question. Will you oppose policies and information sharing with ICE and incidents relating to our undocumented immigrant community? That's a great question. No, I believe every record is open to the public and I believe that can you hear me? Yes. And I believe that the public has a right to know. You know practices involving ICE and and I'm telling you as public safety we don't have training on immigration and sanctuary laws. We are just basically asked to not ask questions and to handle an incident arrest or to provide treatment but I will tell you that if the public is asking for that transparency then absolutely you give it to them because that's where I say that's where you start to create policies that are reflective of the current climate in society and the current climate of the community. So that's a very difficult question and I'm doing my best to answer it and that the you know there are in my experience and in many of the people who are in communities and who are undocumented they are leery of law enforcement. They are leery about reporting crime even victims of domestic violence. You know so it's a cycle and I think we've talked a lot about crime being a cycle and so if it is an obstacle and somebody receiving equity and fairness and intervention then why wouldn't you want to share that information? Why would you want to advocate for a victim? So that's how I would answer that question and just being transparent and it's two ways and we should be able to provide to our community members who are facing those scenarios of being undocumented they should be able to provide that information whether it's confidential or if it's on an open platform whether it's a community forum but they should be able to have the trust and confidence in public safety that we will advocate and what it comes down to is we talked about this over and over again quality of life whether you're documented or undocumented or a U.S. citizen you have the right to treatment you have the right to benefits and you have the right for continuity of care and why would you not want to share that with the decision makers and city leaders in the city of Long Island? Thank you. Okay. What changes would you make to the boundaries of acceptable use of force? That is the number one topic in America today when it comes to policing is the use of force. And Ken let's make sure your microphone is on and right up there. Okay great thanks. It is the predominant topic when you talk about police in the United States and the issues that we've seen over the last year in a couple years. While it is an authority of police to utilize force and a duty at times it also comes with a great deal of responsibility and force is not always to be utilized in those situations. And I understand that very well having been placed in those situations myself. No officer wants to end their shift tonight. They want to go home to their family as does the public. The use of force has to be judicious. It has to be appropriate. It has to be objectionably reasonable. And it has to be legal and ethical. And it is a difficult topic that a lot of people see. We've seen many videos on social media and on TV and across the media of officers utilizing questionable use of force incidents. And it stirs the public and gets them angry. And oftentimes has them look at the police as a totality across the entire nation. Something happened in Minneapolis and police were here blamed for that. Or in our region we're like whoa I'm not I wasn't there. Why are you blaming me? And unfortunately but it's a reflection on our profession. And we have to demonstrate that in a daily basis that force will only be used in the appropriate manner. And the least amount of force at all times and never excessive. We have a great tool now called body worn cameras. And they show the officer's perspective. And on my practice is that on every use of force incident those body worn videos are reviewed. And if any citizens have videos we'll review them as well. As we saw was the critical evidence in the case of Minneapolis. And then it's reviewed by a supervisor and then another level let by a command officer. Was the force utilized by that officer appropriate, objectionable, objectionable, objectively reasonable, legal and was it necessary. And if it was fine then the officer acted accordingly. But if the use of force was not then it either requires training or it requires discipline. And if it's repetitive in action then it might even require termination. Because it exposes the city to great risk, great financial risk, great great emotional and respectless because you will lose the respect of the people if they believe that you will have a force that is predominantly forceful and it uses above necessary force. And it's a delicate balance because like I say every officer wants to go home every single night to their family. I have but yet there's also that the citizens want to go with the same thing and every contact needs to be in that lawful fashion as well. And I am very well aware of the situation that happened on Main Street 40 years ago. That is still in the memories of people here in this community and understand that very well. So it's always a predominant thought in my head as a public safety chief that we utilize force appropriately that there's training that there's more tools that which we have now that we had in the past and everything is utilized to the minimum amount of force to control a person and once that they are under control that they're allowed to breathe they're allowed to sit up and we get them into treatment right away and if they are injured we call paramedics and it's examined every single use of force is examined afterwards to see if it was appropriate and by policy and also legal and if not then we have a requirement as command and a member of the government here to take the appropriate action that is a pledge I give you Thank you Okay your question is what is your understanding of the culture of our organization? So I am proud to have spent the last several weeks understanding Longmont and understanding the culture as I see it in my very limited view over the course of being selected for this panel The value system of Longmont is evident right up front from the first interaction with City Hall and what you espouse as a community to be citizen-centric and values-driven From the public safety perspective there is a high sense of the worthiness of community policing and community engagement and meeting the community where they are in the community Everyone here is self-selected to be involved in this process and understand who will be your next public safety director and their motivations My concern as a public safety director who have we not engaged with and are we meeting their needs and that is very evident in the research that I have done on Longmont and using a different tool than just the criminal justice system or emergency services I think that speaks a lot to the value system of Longmont and the justice that we want to see for every in respect that we want to see for every individual in Longmont and that community-centric citizen-centric approach has been very evident to me in my journey in this public safety director's position Thank you Okay, it's time to wrap up for the hour So what I'm going to do is ask each of you if there is because everybody got so many different questions and my gosh you guys came up with great questions So if there's something that you'd like to touch on that we haven't heard yet if you could just repeat your name because this is the point where it's time to offer feedback So on your pastel colored cards and pieces of paper anything that you would like for Harold to know at the end of the evening we'd like for you to go ahead and write it down on there So I'd like for you just to repeat your name and anything that we didn't touch on tonight Again, my name is Don Terrell-Andy Boy, I think you touched on a lot of important topics There's nothing more important right now for public safety than picking somebody that is the right fit for your community I think each one of us would like to be in that position But my hope is that you pick the right person and if it's if again I'm going to repeat myself again that I had an opportunity to listen to them to speak with them and I'm very impressed You're going to end up with somebody that cares about Longmont You're going to have somebody that is competent somebody that has shown leadership skills and I think regardless of who gets the position Longmont is going to be in good hands and thank you for the invitation to come out here and to address you and to get to know some of you and thanks Stay safe Thank you Thank you Repeat your name one more time Dante or Landy Okay, thank you Thank you very much for the opportunity to come out and just share a little bit with you tonight I know we've touched from everything from use of force to substance abuse disorders to homelessness we've talked really the gamut of everything that you can really think that is being discussed in the media today but it has been my pleasure to to go through this process and to be invited I wish Longmont the best of luck I want to thank you again for coming out tonight I thank you for the opportunity to just to have a few ministers to speak with you and to share my thoughts and ideas and I think we're supposed to say our name so my name is Zach Artis and again thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this process Thanks, Zach Artis Thank you Thank you so much Manny Almagedd and I just want to thank you for this process I've been through numerous processes in my career for promotion but I tell you what this is the process it is grueling and it is thorough and I'm telling you that I am going to sleep like a baby tonight and so but it's a testament to the true collaborative spirit of Longmont you need to be applauded and be proud you know I've been coming to Longmont for almost all my life but I came from a different perspective and a different lens over the past couple of weeks I see a vibrant community I see community members that care I see representation from just about everybody that I can imagine I mean I'm seeing advocacy groups I'm seeing community groups I'm seeing non-profits and collectively that banner out there should not be taken lightly that's just not an award they give to any community so be proud Longmont and I look forward to being part of this great team once again Manny Elmagedd thank you Ken Chavez I applaud everyone here for coming out tonight taking time out of your busy schedules away from your families and away from your homes to come here tonight it shows the dedication you have in your community and what you want to see and how you want to see your police force and your fire department and your public safety agencies act in the future it's an important decision for Longmont and picking the right person is critical for that because the leader of this organization will set the tone for 2021 and beyond where it's going to go from where it's been taking the perspective of the past the present and moving forward by taking a look at the actions across the nation but also relating them to how it affects here in Longmont you are a big little city understanding it is important having lived in this state my entire life having lived in this area I feel I have a good perspective of that and because it's a part of my community I feel a necessary need to help support that we'll ask you why after a long career would you want to do this and as a a chief friend of mine said to me and goes you still have fire in the belly don't you I go I do and I still have a desire to serve I've been a career public servant my entire life it's the only thing I know how to do I can't do anything else I would be a terrible salesman I might be a decent teacher but that's what I know and what I do I'm a guardian I'm a sheep dog that is what I was bred to do that is what my family created and that's the way I've been educated and taught and I take great responsibility to that and to me it would be a great privilege and an honor to serve this community in this capacity because it has been and will be my home for the rest of my life thank you Ken Chavez thank you Michael Marino so I also like to thank you for your engagement on this very important issue for the Longmont and I would like to thank the city leadership team who I'll reiterate has put together a tremendous process so that you get the right person in the seat so thank you both for that what I will say is this I expect that the way that Longmont has structured their public safety agency is that you want a deep multidisciplinary professional to lead the diverse resources that you coalesce under one umbrella to solve community issues I will also say that all these issues that we talked about tonight doesn't matter if it's homelessness crime we didn't really get into any fire issues they boil down to trust they boil down to the trust that the community instills upon its public safety leadership and public safety personnel to do the job that you ask us to do and prioritize the list so that we're doing the right thing with the right group at the right time in my opinion you get the trust through four actions I think it's a very simple formula and it doesn't need to be over complicated trust you need to be transparent in your actions whether it's law enforcement or any emergency services you need to show respect for all individuals you have to be accountable and as your public safety director that is my pledge to you all of these attributes and you have to have communications back and forth to get these complex issues right takes a lot of dialogue and listening so thank you again Michael Marino honored to be a part of this process and this community tonight thank you thank you so would you join me in a gigantic round of applause for all of our panelists tonight and I do understand the grueling nature of our interview process and it's by design of course so thank you all I'd like to to re-echo that as well thank you all for coming here for giving such great questions for being part of this process make sure that you give your feedback forms to either Robyn Carmen Marika's over here or Harold's right in the back he's running away thank you so much for being here tonight