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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CCCOW-2022-05-11COMMON COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE PROCEEDINGS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK 6:00 p.m. May 11, 2022 PRESENT: Acting Mayor Lewis Alderpersons (9) Brock, McGonigal, Nguyen, Brown, Gearhart, Barken, Mehler, DeFendini, Cantelmo OTHERS PRESENT: City Clerk – Conley Holcomb City Attorney – Lavine City Controller – Thayer Human Resources Director – Michell-Nunn Chief of Staff – Vavra Mayor’s statement – a rare opportunity – get from Laura – George Floyd – national debate…NYS executive order…community has held many discussions…taking charge seriously…working collaboratively with Tompkins County…both Legislature and Council passed Resolutions…appointment of Task Force…Community Justice Center. Expressed strong support for Community Justice Center. Wants Council’s feedback on the draft terms…Monalita Smiley hired….each municipality will continue to work on their specific reports….working group – Eric/Karen…questions about processes…imperative to recognize work…separate questions from work…take this moment of time, refrain from … Received an e-mail from Chair of the Tompkins County Legislature – County disagrees with the term of the contract – would prefer a term expiring 2024..quarterly prospective reports, impractical and not………, not an effective use of staff time, CJC should include 3 positions – Program Director, Analyst, part-time administrative assistant…publishing the term sheet…breach of trush….responsibility to not put this at risk. Mayor’s response – important to Common Council to have a transparent discussion of the terms…. SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS: 1.1 Discussion of City/County Contract for Funding the Community Justice Center Responses to the term sheet: Nguyen – why is the term not starting at the start of Monalita’s hiring and why are we asking for quarterly budget approvals. Lavine – we’re here to find out what Council wants to do – nothing has been done yet. Essential to get Council’s approval and buy-in up-front. The start date was proposed by the County. The commitment that Council approved last year was for 2 years. The memo from May 18, 2021 refers to the 2 year commitment. Looking for guidance from Council on how frequently they want to be able to weigh in on the process. Lewis – reiterating that this is a draft and wants Council to make these decisions. Cantelmo – Memo appears to reflect salary costs for Program Director and Analyst – doesn’t seem to include the Administrative Assistant. Is there another document that addresses that position. Lewis - $13,000 for other operating expenses, $19,000 for County project management software – she didn’t remember a separate Resolution for this. Believes the amount the City will decide is roughly $9,000 for the part-time salary. Thayer – in his research, he looked at the original authorization which only included the 2 positions, but did include funds in the budget for the County/City activity – restricted contingency. The Mayor forwarded to Council and Controller more details during the 2022 budget discussions – included project director, analyst, administrative assistant at $4,000? Get from video May 11, 2022 Cantelmo – decouple with periodic reporting with periodic budget approvals. Disagrees that quarterly reporting is onerous; however, agrees that quarterly funding reauthorizations may not be appropriate. Lewis, believes that is a determination that Council can make. Lavine – clarify whether Council wants prospective plans or a report on what occurred during the past quarter. Brock – would be helpful to recognize what the CJC is doing and that the City has a role and voice in it. One question she has been receiving is about the collaborative effort between the City and County that doesn’t include other policing agencies – possibly even the TC Sheriff’s Office as the Sheriff is an elected position. City taxpayers pay County taxes as well. Lewis the work of the CJC…they will develop an advisory board that will address the implementation of those recommendations – both City and County-wide. Call delineation… McGonigal – this was a mis-understanding about paying for a part-time administrative assistant? Lewis – not mis-understanding – funds are in restricted contingency and would need to be released for this purpose. She believes that the City has agreed to share these costs with the City. McGonigal supports. For any collaboration to work, the City needs to be on good terms with the County. Should try to address this issue in order to move forward. Brown – This order was for the community to be involved in the process along the way – not clear on how the community will be involved moving forward. Lewis – she and Brock have been involved in….get from video….Brown – there is money going to other people but how will community members be financially supported to continue this work? Lewis – begins to touch upon some personnel related issues – will have an Executive Session later in the meeting. Gearhart – separating out reporting on activities of CJC with budgeting approvals. Barken – decouple finances from opportunities to provide updates. Quarterly updates are an opportunity to introduce programs to the community – broad outreach in collaboration with good resources. Cantelmo – his email – clarity of responsibilities for each division – not really call delineation. Echoed the need to work collaboratively with the County. What are the County’s preferences? Personal leaning is prospective model – and funding being released on that work plan. Seconds the community component raised by Brown. Lavine – CJC will be a County entity – joint by funding only. County’s proposal included regular updates to both legislative bodies, but no approval process. Not a fan of vesting approval authority by Council over what work is being done. Council should ask itself whether you will be willing to implement plans dependent on the model presented. Brock – echoed Lavine’s comments. Common Council has authority over the police department. The County legislature has limited authority over the Sheriff’s Office. Would like to find a way to retain prospective….get from video. DeFendini – echoes comments made – leaning toward a prospective approach. Important that the launch of this program very seriously – important that the first step is as solid as possible. Lewis – intent of regular (quarterly) reports – interested in the success of this plank of the RPS. McGonigal – should date be modified to first of the year so that the contract goes from 2022-2023? Lewis – because staffing is just getting in place the CJC would only have 18 months of data vs. 2 years. McGonigal – when did we start spending money? Thayer – have not been invoiced from the County yet because we do not have a contract in place. Lavine – the County May 11, 2022 has expended funds, so they are interested in invoicing the City. Lewis – the County has been overseeing seeing the Project Director – providing office space – City sharing salary and benefit costs. Gearhart - If the work of the CJC didn’t start until January, should start the date then. Cantelmo – pending conversation with County colleagues – comfortable with an annual prospective work plan with funding approval from Council…and then with regular updates. Lavine – clarification – annual prospective work plan approved by Council? Yes. Lewis – annual funding as well? Yes, prospective work plan with approval from Council that would release funds annually, with regular progress updates to Council. Barken – fine to have an annual prospective work plan, but may want to reserve progress check ability before additional funds are released. Mid-year stop for reflection and release of additional funds. Cantelmo – 86% of budgeted amount is salary related – doesn’t want to create position insecurity for the staff in those positions. Brock – Didn’t hear Barken’s comment that same way. Thought that if the work plan needed to be amended mid-year, it could be – not necessarily tied to salary funding. When updates are being made – would like to hear about the work and participation of county-wide policing agencies. Lewis – the CJC would only work on city and County recommendations. The Advisory Board of the CJC will also be providing regular updates. Brown – baffled that this was only envisioned for two years….pilot program…Lewis – initially a two year commitment with the potential for annual extensions upon the approval of the Legislature and Common Council. Need to collect the data and consider paths moving forward. Barken – could a salary be created that is constant but also a little performance based. Lavine – County position – not a way to set up performance incentives. This isn’t about putting someone’s salary in jeopardy – it’s about approval of the work plan. Lewis – funding partners for CJC – there will be programmatic collaboration between the City / County and others via the Advisory Board. Mehler – annual presentations, quarterly e-mail reports. Lewis – prospective plans and regular updates on retrospective activities. Nguyen - favors 1 year prospective. Quarterly reports. Gearhart – nice to have input on things but money being approved is almost all for salary…do on an annual basis with release of funds – wants to be consistent with other processes. Cantelmo – annual work plans – annual funding release. Quarterly informational updates – written or verbal. Have conversation with County colleagues to see if that would be amenable to them. Brock – supports proactive approval of work plans on an annual basis – updates should be done on the floor of Council so the public can hear/see them – can include a written report as well. Brown – agrees with Brock – all partners should be on-board and informed. Lewis – will be another discussion with County folks. Council members have suggested moving forward with recommendations – Lewis is interested as well. One of the suggestions was sending this to public referendum this November. Lavine – in order to reach the November general election, Common Council would need to approve a Local Law in July, 2022. The Local Law would need to be aged first…Council would need to provide a very clear policy direction well before that in order to draft the local law appropriately. Lewis – discussion of City Manager position is May 11, 2022 already going to referendum in November – if that passes… Lavine - the creation of a Deputy City Manager would require budgetary and policy determinations by Council but would not require a mandatory referendum. If a Director of Community Safety was created it would create a mandatory referendum because of the change in relationship between the Mayor and the Police Chief. DeFendini – concerned about a referendum this year – a lot of variables are still unknown – important to have a successful first step. Has concerns about the logistical details of the unarmed responders…need more time to develop the plan. Lewis – work of the working group …also was concerned about rushing the recommendations, weighing the considerations of all groups… McGonigal – at the end of the time – dealing with call types was rushed, making decisions about things they didn’t have full legal knowledge of – ran out of time. Regrets that the sub-committees didn’t communicate with the larger group enough – would have like to have heard other sub-committees perspectives. Need to get things right – may not have enough time to go to referendum this year. Would like to see how this …with the City Manager position. Cantelmo – the report is a large document. Are there parts of the reports that can move forward without the referendum. Lavine – yes, a number of recommendations to not require referendum. Cantelmo – Public Safety Standing Committee should be re- established so that there is a body dedicated to conducting research, etc. Brown – the report could have been deeper and gone further – transparency – history of policing across the country – this is not a process that we stop – it is a process that we continue to make progress on…will make sure to get on a committee and be involved… DeFendini – echoed comments made by Brown & Cantelmo…doesn’t think choices are binary (wait or pass now) – chew bubble gum and walk at the same time – can pass some changes right now. A Public Safety Committee would be a good idea to make sure that momentum is not lost and to keep the community conversation going. Gearhart – agrees – need to keep moving forward - scope of the work that needs to be done has been accelerated. When this is done, a commitment must be demonstrated to the community that this is moving forward. Before we get too wed in Deputy City Manager – remember that the City Manager won’t be hired until January 2024 at the earliest. McGonigal – responded to a comment made by Brown – the process never included losing 10 police officer positions, in this town the people who suffer the most of crime are often in the poorest neighborhoods, his constituents who happen to be black and brown ask for more law enforcement. Brown – response to comments. Nguyen – responded to comments made by McGonigal regarding understanding call delineations – took a lot of time to develop those and educate the community on why certain decisions were made. Not doing referendum is fine – wanted to get direct voter input on what they want to see. Should ask does Council want unarmed responders, do they want a civilian head of the department. Should move other parts forward. Cantelmo – point well taken on time delay on City Manager. City could create a Deputy Chief of Staff position in the interim. Would like to see some draft resolutions about the things that everyone is comfortable with put through committee. Time to begin to translate some of the recommendations to implementation. Lavine – in terms of legal scope, there is quite a bit that could be legislated. Would need guidance from Council as to which steps they are ready to pursue and which ones have to be done in concert with others. DeFendini – if the path forward consist of two pieces: table the ones that need more discussion – move forward with a list of legislation that can be drafted and considered, May 11, 2022 but should agree that ….everything will be considered and not forgotten and left on the table…get from video…likes the Public Safety Committee idea Lewis – would support the creation of an Ad-hoc committee to discuss Public Safety – not sure there is the capacity to create an additional Standing Committee now….DeFendini – Ad-hoc committee should include Council as well as community members – Lewis and coordinate with the CJC. Brock – supports the creation of a new committee – how it is structured is important – should be public and must contain a broad section of the community and victim advocacy groups, DA , etc. McGonigal – Commissioner …get from video…can seek the qualities that are being sought in the Commissioner in a Chief of Police now. Lewis – there was a good deal of consensus of having a civilian oversee the new department. Brock – agree with McGonigal can include the qualities that the City is seeking and fill the Chief of Police position. Look at NYS law to see if Police Chief is required to be a police officer. Lavine – it is a NYS law – can share the law. 1.2 Discussion of Process Issues in the Reimagining Public Safety Project Lavine – update – the Mayor has started an investigation into the third party financial influence into the RPS process ……..get from video…Tompkins County Board of Ethics has received a complaint regarding the process issues discussed in depth at last month’s City Administration Committee meeting. The County Board of Ethics has advisory jurisdiction over…evaluated the County Attorney’s decision on advisory jurisdiction and agrees with it. Anticipates that all City stakeholders cooperating with both investigations. Motion to Enter into Executive Session to Discuss a Personnel Matter: By Alderperson Cantelmo: Seconded by Alderperson Mehler RESOLVED, That Common Council enter into Executive Session to discuss a personnel matter. Carried Unanimously Reconvene: Common Council reconvened into Regular Session with no formal action taken. ADJOURNMENT: On a motion the meeting adjourned at 9:38 p.m. ______________________________ _______________________________ Julie Conley Holcomb, CMC Laura Lewis City Clerk Acting Mayor