HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CPB-2000-06-22•
ITHACA COMMUNITY POLICE BOARD MEETING
MINUTES: Ithaca Community Police Board
PLACE: First Floor Conference Room, Human Services Building 320 W. State
TIME & DATE June 22, 2000, at 3:30 PM
PRESENT: Commissioners Laskowitz, Graham, Nelson, Jones, and Killeen.
Chief Richard Basile, Deputy Chief David Barnes
Nancy Falconer CPB Staff
Excused: Alderperson Pryor
1. Approval of Minutes of May 24, 2000
The Minutes were approved unanimously.
2 Comments from the Public
No one from the public attended.
3. Report from Common Council
No one from Common Council was present.
4 Report From Police Chief
a) Officer D. Johnson has recently retired, and new candidates
can now be hired. On September 11, 2000, Kenneth Lowman
will be hired as a new Community Service Officer. Officer Kevin
McKenna has finished the first phase of his probationary
training and will now move to the second phase.
b) Zelda Lockhart has begun training for the new Hate Crimes
legislation and when complete about 90% of the force will have
been trained. She is also starting the training for City
employees.
c) Contract negotiations have continued. There are a number
of grievances and labor complaints received that are holding up
the negotiations.
d) Deputy Chief Barnes gave two of the empty cases for the
badges when new members are appointed to the Board.
He will inform staff of the procedure for obtaining the
badges themselves.
S.OId Business
a) Commissioner Jones reported his meeting with Chris Wilbur
at IHS. He was given several suggestions for names of
•
Ithaca Community Police Board Meeting
May 24, 2000
potential youth members, and has passed these on to
Alderman Pryor to pursue with the Mayor.
Richard Van Every at I H S is also a good contact and is
willing to help with contacts with youth groups and the
Board.
b) Outreach to the Community:
Staff will prepare a list of the contact groups that have been
named by Commissioners for their use in community
outreach duties. Commissioner Jones will add the Rotary
groups to his list, and Peter Martin at Cornell Law School
was also added.
c) The previously tabled discussion of why Commissioners
chose to join the Board was resumed. Commissioners
named a number of reasons, such as advocacy for people
needing help in dealing with the police force, oversight of the
largely discretionary powers of the street officers in using
their power with private citizens, serving as a safety valve for
occasional citizen's anger at the police by intervening and
discussing as intermediaries, and helping the Department to
remain more open to hearing the community citizens
opinions and thoughts about the force.
d) Staff reported that the English version has been modified for
recent changes and is being printed. The Spanish version
will be modified as needed by Commissioner Laskowitz.
6. New Business
At the request of Commissioner Killeen, comparisons of the last
three years numbers of complaints were handed out, and
discussed. Commissioner Killeen asked if there were a way to
`weed out' frivolous complaints before they were assigned, but
the Commissioners as a whole felt that there is no way to
determine this until a complaint is actually investigated. To do
otherwise might result in missing a valid complaint. There was
a decision by the members to discuss this further and to define
a complaint at the next meeting.
A motion was made by Commissioner Laskowitz to adjourn to
Executive Session and was seconded by Commissioner Killeen.
2