City Council Work Session Meeting Transcript –10/03/2017 Title: ATXN 24/7 Recording Channel: 6 - ATXN Recorded On: 10/3/2017 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 10/3/2017 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== [9:08:53 AM] >> Mayor Adler: So I think we're ready. All right. So today is Tuesday October 3, 2017, we're in the board's commission room at 301 west second street. City hall. It is 9:09. And we can begin. Manager? >> I'd like a moment of privilege. I would like to introduce our new library director, Roosevelt weeks. If you want to come up to the dais, say a few words. Roosevelt recently joined us. He was previously the deputy director of administration for the Houston public library system. And before that, he was their chief technology officer. He also has private sector experience with Accenture and Aetna. He has a bachelor degree in computer science and masters of library science. And we really want to welcome him to his first week of council meetings. He's got his first department director meeting this afternoon. So he'll get to meet others on our team today. If you would like to say a few words. >> Good morning, thank you. It is a pleasure to be here before you this morning. I want to thank all of you for supporting the library and everything you have done. We all are invited to our grand opening, October 28. And I really I'm looking forward to meeting with each one of you individually I'm from the process of planning and meeting with all the councilmembers. Look for that invite very soon. Thank you for having me. It is a pleasure to be able to [9:10:54 AM] work with you to help the citizens of Austin. Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Where exactly are you offices right now? >> I'm at the new central library right now. >> Mayor Adler: I like the way that sounds. >> It is a magnificent facility. On the 28th, when you get a chance to come by, you will just thoroughly enjoy it. Truly enjoy it. >> Mayor Adler: This is a community that is excited about that happening. It a long time coming. The anticipation has grown. >> And mayor, if any of you want to take a tour of the building prior to the event, please let me know. And we'll be more than happy to escort you around. >> Mayor Adler: That would be great. And welcome. >> Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Council, we didn't have anybody that pulled any items for this week's meeting. We have two reports, briefings to take. The matrix issue and then also the city manager. That's going -- the city manager presentation search is two parts. There is a public part to the presentation, then we go into executive session to take up two legal matters. We will also talk about the personnel matter as well. Let's go ahead and start with the matrix report. Councilmember pool is not feeling well this morning, so she's not with us, but is watching. >> Good morning, council, I'm chief, I have Troy gay with [9:12:55 AM] us, he's been working on this project. We're proud of what we have done. What we have done with matrix to this point. What I will do is give you a highlight of the chapters that specifically deal with the recommendations from the matrix report, surrounding community policing. I think you all are aware of the background of the matrix report that council authorized this examination a couple of years ago. And again, we got a report back that has several recommendations within a report addressing community policing. To start off with, I want to report about how we approached the matrix report and what we're using it for. We're using the matrix report as a blueprint as to how we will be in the years to come with community policing. One of the things matrix highlighted is that although Austin police department had specific programs for individuals that believed were practicing community policing effectively are or the principles of community policing. As an organization as a whole, we didn't have a philosophy that permeated everything we do and it wasn't necessarily the guiding principle of everything that we did throughout the department. So we took that to heart. And we took this report in phases. And the first thing that we wanted to do was ensure that we had built a strong foundation on which we can then work to implement all of the recommendations that were put forward by matrix. Again, I'll go into the specific recommendations, as we work through this. But we didn't want to look at this as checking off the boxes. As looking at 79 recommendations and just waiting to check a box and say that we've done this. We really looked at this as an opportunity to reevaluate the department, to pull in a more diverse and larger group of [9:14:57 AM] community members toward building a police department that truly reflects the wishes of all of the various communities around Austin and their specific interests. So to that point, we took the time to build the foundation on which we're now going to move forward to build the partnerships and to bring in additional community members to be a part of the stakeholder groups that will now weigh-in on not only the specific recommendations within the report, but really on priorities within their neighborhood. And making sure that we're practicing policing that is representative, not of a best practice only, or not of the law enforcement goal only, but also to address things that are of specific interest to the various neighborhoods across the city. I wanted to lay out the foundation of how we approached this. It wasn't a report card that we wanted to just check the box. This is a blueprint for redesigning the whole department to address what matrix felt like was a lack of a coherent philosophy and plan to have community policing throughout the entire department, that's how we approached the report itself. The goals, as you will see, in your handouts are up on the screens, were to implement community policing. Again, I talked about some of the key points here. Developing the community partnerships that are so important. To build the trust, legitimacy, transforming the organizational management structure and personnel and creating an engaging process for problem solving. As far as transforming organizational management, some of the steps that we have taken already, patrol, as you would imagine, is the frontline of our community policing efforts, although it needs to be reflected throughout the whole department. We currently -- not currently, but when I took over in December were structured with patrol falling under five commanders. The downtown commander had the downtown entertainment district because it is unique. The other four each had two [9:16:59 AM] regions to operate, control, lead, manage and the demands of managing two sectors like that just the requirements of all of the office work of response to resistance reviews, all of those things like that, the commanders didn't have time to engage the community, to attend the community meetings like I would want them to and I think the effective community policing commands them to. We will go to having nine commanders over patrol instead of five. We're doing that within our current resources because we realize the challenges of the budget right now and our focus on getting more front line officers. So we're combining some other areas within the department, restructuring some things within the department to free up four commanders to cover patrol. We have already done two, and we're working on two more through hiring of a civilian manager and some restructuring. That's the first thing that we did organizationally to set us up for successful implementation of the matrix report. What I really will believe is effective community policing for Austin. The second thing that we did is I redeployed a lieutenant from within the department. Again, knowing that we really don't have opportunity to get more high level positions in the department. Redeployed a lieutenant to oversee all of the community policing efforts, to oversee our district representative unit and then sure we're practicing community policing in a manner that suits this community. We started off with doing an audit of all the individual district units to understand what they're doing, how they're doing it, looking for programs that are working, looking for opportunities to roll those programs out across to the other district representative units as well. I think having one lieutenant overseeing the entire program is important for the [9:18:59 AM] consistency piece. That lieutenant actually -- his office is right outside of my office because this is that important to us as we redefine the department and use this as the blueprint, that I want that person to have daily access and I want to have daily interaction as we roll towards moving forward with this. The other piece that we're working on right now, and again, this is to garner as much community input as possible, is we recently sent out a survey to 300 organizations asking limits questions at this point, about what are the greatest challenges in their neighborhood, you know, who their councilmember representative is, who their district representative from the police department is. That will tell us a lot. That will tell us, is our district representative doing a good job of making the connections, being engaged in areas that we can make improvements. I think the main question that I wanted out of that, and what I am looking forward to getting back is feedback from these individual members on whether or not they are willing to come forward and participate in stakeholder group meeting with us as we work towards the implementation of the matrix report, the recommendations within the report, but also just overall community policing. And if they are not willing themselves, to be the representative, if they can recommend someone within their neighborhood that they think would be a good representative. So this is the first step that we're taking. Realizing we're not going to be able to access the entire community via e-mail surveys, this at least gets our foot in the door and gets a much wider representation across the community of folks that can come forward and be involved in the process and recommendations. That is something that we'll continue to move forward on. The last thing -- I will really move through the slides in a minute, I promise. I will highlight -- I won't [9:20:59 AM] spend as much time on each slide, but I want to highlight the steps we're taking to set this up. The last thing is organizational changes, that is important. I think you are aware that we have done monthly comstat reports that we talk about crime and changes in crime and displacement of crime or actually cease in crime. We're changing that a little bit. What we tracked were things that were important to us and traditionally all things police departments track, response times, crime create rates, things that are important. We will continue to track that. We weren't necessarily tracking what may be of importance to community members. We're going so far to change -- change what we call it. Not just comstat, but community stat. The community interests and the community wants. The format of comstat in the past, we bring every commander in all the chiefs. It was a very formal setting. A commander would present on their area of command and responsibility. It didn't lead to the level of interaction that we were looking for in that setting. Instead, what we will do is have individual meetings with the commanders each week the executive team will travel to the commanders' substations so out in the community, in the substations and we will not only meet with the commander, we will meet with the commander, their lieutenants and sergeants. Because at the end of the day, the commander is the one that will hold responsibility for his or her community. We want the lieutenants and sergeants to be fully engaged in what we do here to redesign the department as well. I think structurally we have made a lot of changes that are going to allow us to now move into the implementation of the recommendations we have not yet done in a much more strategic way and I think we set the groundwork for this to be successful. So where we're at, the matrix report had 79 recommendations. [9:23:00 AM] As a department, we agreed with all 79 but one. And that one was a specific request that we track officers' time spent volunteers -- volunteering. If you track that time, it is not volunteering. We felt that might be a challenge with fair labor standards or other issues. We didn't agree that is appropriate. We're making changes in that area as well. We have 78 of the recommendations that we have agreed with. And at the bottom of the slide there, we will see where you're at. We have 33 that have been completed to date. We have 39 that are currently in progress, and we have six that are pending. I will talk about I promise not each and every one of them, but we'll talk about where we're at on the key ones and show you some we have implemented, some we're working on and you are provided with a spreadsheet that shows each of the recommendations and the status of them on an individual basis. The most -- most of the progress. Most of the ones we have implemented are the foundational ones that we wanted to put in place to support our efforts as we move forward with community policing. We're going to go through the specific chapters, chapters 3 through 6, 3 and 4 will be meatier on the community implementation. What I will talk about to lay out the structure is the focus area of the chapters and some of the specific recommendations we implemented and some of the ones that were in progress and what we're doing within each. Chapter 3's focus is on the management of community oriented policing and tracking and evaluation of our community policing efforts. 28 recommendations within this chapter. Four are completed, 21 are in progress. Three are pending. When we look at the main focus areas of chapter 3, the first one was an implementation of a community policing focused vision, mission, and community policing policy. [9:25:01 AM] Our vision is to be respected by Austin's diverse community. Matrix felt like we needed to expand on that. We looked at our mission statement to keep you, our community safe and felt like we needed to expand on that as well. We worked with measure Austin, already. I think you are familiar with the group of young community activists we've been working with a few years. They've already weigheded in on what should be the new mission value for Austin police department. We have that. That is something we will bring to the upcoming meetings we have throughout the community as we look to redesign the department and the mission, vision value statements will be important in that. They recommended that we have a comprehension of community policing policy. We address community policing throughout our training and our policy, but we don't have a policy that is titled "Community policing." We have gotten sample policies we received from a few departments across the country. We're looking at those. We will use those as a base. Really neither of the bigger departments we looked at were exactly what we wanted. We will move those as we move into the discussions with the stakeholder groups as well, building a policy that reflects the values of Austin as well as the police department and how we're set up. That is what you will see happen in that area. The chapter also focused on management and organizational restructure to support community policing. I have touched on that in the opening in how we restructured the command staff and bringing in a lieutenant to oversee the outreach efforts as a department. And implementation of neighborhood focused problem solving and support of community policing. That goes back to the roots of community policing and the Sarah model, we'll get back into that looking at smaller segments within hot spots, looking to focus on the areas that are driving crime within [9:27:01 AM] specific neighborhoods. The focus areas in chapter 3 continue. Implementing training courses, focused on community policing. There was a lot of discussion on training. And where we're at now is we are working to put together a leadership course that is focused on community policing. We're also adding community policing elements to our already existing leadership programs that we have in the department. We have several leadership programs that officers go through, whether it be the 40-hour basic leadership program, all the way up to leadership for supervisors in the organization. Again, we have received some input from measure Austin on this, but as we continue to grow the stakeholder groups throughout the community, there will be discussions on that as well. I know the community in the past has been very interested offering not only input but even resources and support for our training efforts. I think that there is going to be an avenue for some participation and partnership as we move forward with that. The last one was the developing and tracking of evaluation metrics. That will be key as we put together the evaluation for what does success look like. We're designing this department, the roadmap, and the blueprint to focus, we have to define on the front end what success looks like. Measure Austin again has started that process. That is actually how they formed. That is why they're named measure Austin. They want to talk about what do you measure. Obviously, you work towards that which you measure and they want to make sure we're measuring appropriate metrics that are not only important to the department and the policing profession, but that are important to the community and the various segments. Just an idea as I wrap up on chapter 3, where we're at. A couple of examples of those that we completed. That is tracking the amount of proactive time spent by patrol officers in aggregate and regions and tracking in hot spots and areas. We are not where we want to be [9:29:02 AM] with tracking all of the time, however, we have a system in place now where when officers are engaging in community policing efforts that they're logging that in the cad system so we can start getting data on how frequently do we have time to engage in community policing, who is engaging in community policing, which parts of Austin is that taking place in more frequently, where do we have areas of improvement? That is where we're working. However, we completed the actual process of starting to collect the data. A few examples of things in progress, that is including pedestrian stops, field interviews in the annual racial profiling report. This is something we talked about as a community for a couple of years now. It has come up at the public safety commission. And I committed to this year, including all of that in the annual report that will be issued next year. And we are currently collecting all of that data this year. So when we issue the annual racial profiling report next year it will go beyond what the state requires as in those incidents that ended in citation and arrest and it will include those that were just subject stops where we might have done an fo card. That is something that will be in place by year's end. We're working to define the roles of supervisors, managers, command, exec as it relates to community policing and developing specifically defined performance measures to gain the effectiveness of community policing. I think I talked about some of that. We're working on including this. I'll speak on it on a future slide of how we evaluate our personnel throughout the department. >> Kitchen: Mr. Mayor, I would like to ask a question now. There is a lot of information. It would be easier if I stopped and asked a question. I wanted to ask a question about the defining performance measures to gain the effectiveness of community policing. So I heard you mention beginning to track time. But, you know, we have talked about the fact that it is not [9:31:03 AM] so much about time, but what is being done with the time. So I want to make sure I heard you right. So did I hear you say you're in the process of figuring out what this would be? >> I know this is important to you. What we have done is put in the foundation to where we're going to have a lot more community represent association we build the metrics. We have been working this past year, year and a half with measure Austin, which is a fantastic group to work with, but they don't represent the entire city and entire community. So through the surveys we're doing, through the gathering input on which community members are willing to come in and join us in the stakeholder process, what the plan is, we will then engage them in defining metrics along with what we have for measure Austin and along with our own ideas because we want to make sure the metrics are tracking what we believe community policing should achieve in this community. >> Kitchen: Ok. Do you have a time line for coming up with a set of performance measures? >> So the community surveys are out now. We expect to be engaging with all of our stakeholder groups by the end of the year. And then the expectation will be that we early next year, through the engagement process will be actively working on not only the metrics, but also all of the other things I will talk about as we go through the presentation today. I don't want to set an arbitrary deadline. >> Kitchen: Order of magnitude is all I'm asking. >> Again, we will be engaging with stakeholders by year-end and involving them in the discussions, working toward the quickest resolution as possible, but not understanding the DI nam igs of the -- dynamics of the decision, level of discussion that will take place, I'm [9:33:04 AM] confident telling you that will be a priority of what does success look like. >> Kitchen: So may be sometime in the spring or so. >> I think in the spring we will be comfortable letting you know where we're at. We'll have established metrics, maybe not a comprehensive list. We'll have some of the metrics defined, if not completed a good idea of the other areas we're looking to measure, but have not determined how to measure them. >> There is identifying areas and there is identifying actually what data elements do you need, stuff like that. Ok. So I wanted to make sure we were on the same page. It sounds like we are, that community policing is not just measuring time. So -- >> Yes. >> Kitchen: Ok. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: To that end, I don't know if it is an appropriate place now in terms of the metrics. It is in part measuring time, but it goes well beyond measuring time as councilmember kitchen is talking about. And then there are the performance metrics within the department that are broader, that we hope that community policing will ultimately be able to deliver. And that's the impact on complaints or opportunities for de-escalation or use of force. And I know that measure Austin has given you a suggestion, as you talked about, coming up with broadened metrics for how we measure the performance of the department that go beyond incidents of crime and those kinds of things, so that people's attention will also be focused on what we're measuring and what we're grading. So since our conversation is about metrics, to make sure that we also address what is the outcomes, that we hope to be able to see. >> I believe that is appropriate, mayor. We will be measuring that. And I really believe that the [9:35:05 AM] plan that I'm putting together with the team to focus on community policing will make the community safer and is a force multiplier. The more the community is engaged, involved and the more we work with them, it is that many more eyes, ears, individuals out there, all working toward the same end goal. >> Mayor Adler: And the end goal, not just defined in incidents of crime or safety but also an end goal in and of itself being lower incidents of force, increased opportunities for de-escalation as an end goal as well as you talk about the community efforts. So we're trying to elevate those kinds of metrics as well. >> Yes, mayor, as I close here in a little while, I will talk about the de-escalation issues and work done with Austin coalition as well. That is an appropriate add here, because that is where we're trying to take this. Not only to reduce crime and track things we know, but also de-escalation is important because that builds into the relationship we have with the community and therefore their willingness to participate and engage as community policing. I see it end connected. >> Mayor Adler: End goal, relating to citizen complaints and end goal that relates to the measures of relationship with the force of the community different from and separate from the pure safety measurements that we have. >> Yes, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: Please proceed. >> As we move into chapter 4, that is focused on community policing, recruiting, training, the other human resources. This is the chapter where we've made a lot of progress to date because it really is the foundational work that we have done. It all starts with recruiting. It all starts with getting the right men and women into the department and to training them appropriately in not only the police practice, but practicing policing in an [9:37:07 AM] effective community policing manner. So as you will see up there, there were 28 recommendations within the chapter. 20 have been completed. Eight are in progress. Specific focus areas in this chapter, revising the department's social media footprint to reflect the community policing principles. I know we have been before you, probably a year ago, when we were talking about our recruiting efforts. And you know, the first introduction to the Austin police department online, if you want to look at us, you would watch a video. It is a typical video of what you see of a major police department around this country. It was our S.W.A.T. Team, bomb squad, lake patrol. It was everything that was tactical and exciting about policing that is a draw for some but that's not the only people we want to draw. We want to bring in the right people into the profession. We have redone the video you will see on the website -- I didn't want to take time today to play it, but it is now very community focused. It is very much about relationships, and it is a very different image of the Austin police department. And I think it is very reflective of the men and women we're trying to bring in now. That is men and women with the heart of a servant that are willing to come in, practice policing in a community policing environment. We added a question to the background questionnaire, it is a simple question, it is where do you volunteer? What is your level of volunteerism. As we understand, are they already engaged with the communities, are they already giving back to their communities, not that we wouldn't hire them if they're not. It lets us get a better feel for the men and women we're recruiting into the organization. As far as social media, we have taken a really big step in that area by changing the introductory video. If it is of interest, it is on our web page and will show you [9:39:08 AM] what we're trying to accomplish. Recruiting and hiring employees consistent. I talked about that with the questionnaires and background information. And reinforcement of community oriented principles in all aspects of training. Throughout the training curriculum for our officers, there are -- we have identified 135 hours of training that deal with community policing in some form or fashion. And what we're trying to do is consolidate all of that. Bring that together, and again make sure our curriculum is reflective in every area it can be on community policing. Because it should be -- and there -- I can't sit here and think of a circumstance where community policing isn't a part of it. Even in a tactical operation. There is parts that would be community policing. And so I think that that is one of the focus areas of this chapter, and it is something we're looking at. We're looking at a couple of training classes for our instructors and our field training officers. And when a cadet graduates academy after eight months of training and go out in the field, they're assigned with a field training officer to oversee them as he or she puts into practice everything we trained them in the academy to actually make sure it is transferring into the real environment in which they'll police. We're looking at additional training for the men and women that work in our academy and the men and women that serve as field training officers that are focused on community policing. One is tactical social interaction and the other is on partnerships. And again, it is all about ensuring that we're communicating appropriately, because I firmly believe that the first step to any successful de-escalation is communication. That is where it all starts. We're ensuring that we're building that into our instructors and fto. They're the ones building officers for today and tomorrow. We're also, I mentioned earlier, revamping the leadership academy to bring in community policing principles [9:41:09 AM] and creating a few other leadership classes that focus on community policing. As we look at chapter 4 examples of things that we have completed. Automating -- again, these are specific recommendations that came out of the matrix report. And these are just identifying for you examples some completed and some we're working on to give you a sense of where we're at. The automatization of background checking to speed up the process. I think we told you we have the online application tool. Prior to that the first introduction to serving into Austin. It was a 26-page paper application. It didn't represent us well and made it difficult for those from other states or those serving overseas to apply to the Austin police department. We saw our numbers skyrocket as far as launching that tool as far as folks submitting applications. We have seen success with that. We're happy to see what is happening with that. We also have enhanced the community immersion practical, which was a recommendation out of matrix. You all recall, the community immersion project, we would take a cadet class and depending on the size of the class, break them into into smaller groups, maybe five or eight, depending on class size. We assign them a specific community group with which to study through the academy. Groups including the African- American community, the hispanic community, it also went into different directions, mental health community, biking community, the student community because we have so many students because within each community there are different things that are important. There are different histories within policing. Different expectations. It is important for our officers to understand the community. But what we saw is we saw that five to eight of the cadets were getting really, really [9:43:10 AM] educated in one specific community but the program would culminate with each group giving a presentation to the class on their work. You would get in depth knowledge within one community and you would get a research paper a presentation on all of the others. We changed that and now actually instead of doing individual projects they work as a class and they go out and meet with all of the different communities around Austin. I think it is yielding a much better understanding of Austin and the communities within Austin. Again, it is setting ourselves up to serve in the manner in which the community wants us to serve, reflective of the values that exist, some are across the entire city, some may be specific to individual communities. We have to respect policy's history with specific communities not only here in Austin but across the country as well. We have done a lot of work into that. I don't want to read all of this, for time's sake. The few in progress, providing community -- providing training on community policing to all nonsworn members. We have done a good job on the sworn side of the house. But we have 736 civilians that serve in various positions across the department ass well. They touch the community and work with the community and it is important that their efforts and work is also reflective of the community policing values that we are working to build a comprehensive program within the department on. And then developing a reward system that is recognizing the efforts in community policing. You will see us in the dress uniform, we wear ribbons that represent different accomplishments or employments or things done in your career. We want one that reflects community policing. If we value it the way we say we value it, we should reward the men and women doing great work in that area. We are expanding the definition of the superior service citation to include [9:45:11 AM] outstanding work in community policing. That is something we want to work with the stakeholder groups. You think well, just do it.. We could, but we want to work with the community stakeholder groups as well to understand what does successful community policing look like. What is important to you? Again, I believe the men and women in the department will work towards the goals we set. We want to make sure we set the goals and expectations that are reflective of the community values as well. That's where we're at with those chapter 5, if you remember deals with staffing. I want to start by saying this was never meant to be a staffing report. We have not look at as this a staffing report as the Austin police department. I hope you hear what I am saying here and believe we really are looking at this as a roadmap and the blueprint to build the department for the future, to set us up to be an example for other agencies across the country in successful community policing. And maximizing community engagement, in reflecting the community's values, in all of the things that we've talked about. So I'm going to talk about the staffing section, because it is important. Matrix put this in here because they recognized to do all the things that we need to do to be successful in community policing, that we have to have the level of resources necessary to achieve those goals. And so again, I want to emphasize that this was not looked at as a staffing report, but staffing is a component of what matrix put out. That is what I will highlight here in the next couple of slides. The report highlighted that to do -- to be successful in community policing you should have 35 to 45% time that is not committed to calls for service or other demands. Time that you can engage the community, to do all the things we talked about. I know I sat before you all and talked about this a lot. I don't want to spend a lot of time on that today, but as a reminder, the report consultants also identified that at the time they did that report, Austin had the absolute lowest level of [9:47:12 AM] community engagement time available out of any study they had ever done on any other agency. So we knew we were starting from a strong deficit here in Austin. We have made improvements. We were as low as 17%. Last measure was 22%. We're moving towards what we need to be to meet what the consultants felt was the appropriate level and somewhat of an industry standard for successful community policing. That is where we started. Again, chapter 5 focuses on ensuring that we have enough staffing so we have the amount of time necessary to practice community policing outside of all of the drivers for calls for service that we have here in Austin. The chapter actually had five recommendations, one's complete, three in progress, and one is pending. To look at the actual recommendations, again, as a reminder for you all. This was in the report, I think you have seen it, and we talked about it, at least last year. What matrix, the consultants recommended in their report for the first year was 12 new nonsworn community service officers. These were positions they felt like could go out and do work that police officers do but don't require a police license, police power, police authority. It is work that needs to be done. It is a recommendation for 12 positions to do that. Also a recommendation for 12 community service officers to replace 11 district representatives. We were going to free up officers to go back into patrol and put some civilians within the district representative program. They recommended 66 officers added in year one. Four to highway enforcement and eight corporals to patrol. They went on to recommend in years two through five, the addition of 20 officers in the second year, followed by 18, 15, 13. This is the five-year plan as laid out by matrix, based on their review of the department [9:49:12 AM] on our workload, and on our availability of community engagement time and where we want to be as an organization. We concur with their recommendations, and I think we have been before you as well, stating that we agree that this is an appropriate approach to staffing. We also feel, though, that as we move into implementing this, we need to address the need for supervision. So as we put the officers in, at some point, although matrix didn't identify this, if we reach that threshold, we might need to discuss adding additional supervision so spans of control don't get beyond what we want for front line police officers given all of the community interactions that take place. That's very important. Our recommendation for fy18 was that we do add the 66 officers for patrol. The four corporals, the four sergeants. We also recommended nine csos to free up one district rep in each of the nine district represented units across the community. We heard loud and clear and I expect we will again as we have this discussion, from many community leaders across this city, neighborhood leaders, leaders of class that they do not support replacing the officers with civilians. I actually take pride in that, because I think that shows the value of the relationship that has been built within the units and the importance the community places on the officers. I think we can take a step and put one civilian in each unit and test it to see that it works. I think there is work done within the district representative programs and units around the department that don't require police officers, and I think it is worthy that we try that. Lastly, we put forward a request for 20 detectives. We have come before you before with -- a recommendation -- we have come before you oftentimes talking about front [9:51:13 AM] line patrol, but as the city has grown and as we have added more officers over the years, the officers take more calls, generate more reports, as crime increases, there is more back end work to be done. We see a 7% increase per year on the cases that demand follow-up investigation. We're trying to address that. Now saying all of this, I do realize the budgetary constraints that we're in and that the possibility of the 66 officers, with everything else up there, would likely be a stretch. And we very comfortable saying that if we cannot achieve this in year one, if what we cannot achieve in year one is averaged into years two through five, to come up with a five-year strategic plan to address what is laid out in matrix. We agree with it, but recognize they were aggressive on the front end because of where we're at with community engagement time. If we can come up with a five-year approach to address this, that is something we would absolutely support. The last chapter I will talk about is chapter 6. This focused on both the Dr program and other community support units. And it looked at how we can support patrol in our efforts towards community policing. This chapter had 19 recommendations. Eight completed, seven in progress, two pending and this is the one chapter that had the recommendation that we are not working to implement. Specific focus areas were the enhancement of the district representative program to support community policing. I talked about the redeployment of the lieutenant and bringing all of the efforts under one leader. That, again, reports directly to the chiefs, sits outside of my office so we can have daily contact. We focused on the district representatives continuing to work with neighborhood groups. And all sworn and nonsworn play a role in enhancing community policing. I think I talked probably enough on that about what we're doing in those areas. [9:53:14 AM] Couple of examples of things we have completed and where we're at with others. We did redeploy the lieutenant as I mentioned and they recommended the highway enforcement command should continue enforcement of motor units in the patrol districts handling accident calls for service and selective traffic enforcement. We are doing that. That is underway. And that frees up time for the beat officers not to spend handling the calls but be free to increase community engagement time. And also the highway enforcement having more time in the patrol districts -- I'm sorry. I did that. The examples of those in progress is the community liaison should establish constituents that meet with the liaison quarterly to discuss the issues. It is part of the larger stakeholder process we talked about. The police activity league and explorers should try to recruit youth that represent all languages spoke in Austin. Again, an attempt to diversify the communities in which we're engaging in our outreach efforts. A few that are pending. And these deal with staffing of increasing the current size of the motor units as well as a funding issue that publication of crime prevention materials in languages other than English. The last slide as I told you I was going to touch on a little bit. The work we've been doing with Austin justice coalition in response to resistance. The budget rider attached to the budget last year specifically addressed this issue. We have been working towards this. Bee have worked with the Austin -- we have worked with the Austin justice coalition and received from them recommended changes to the response to resistance policy, things they think should be included and what should be changed in the policy. They worked with members of the Austin coalition and brought in members of the [9:55:15 AM] legal team that made suggestions as well. I think they put suggestions forward that have a lot of value and we're currently have looked at those internally. We had our entire executive team go through them. There is a force review board that reviews all level 2 incidents of force. They see most of the incidents that rise to that level in the department. We had them look at this as well to see the recommendations that were put forward would work into our current policies as well as our reviews. We have gotten feedback from our force review board now, and we're going to now meet with the Austin justice coalition towards the end of this month, bringing everybody together to address the recommendations they put forward. And to look at how we can implement some of those into the policies of the Austin police department. I think this is going -- it is really going to be I think a model endeavor, bringing in the community to have input, to have a voice in setting the department's policies on response to resistance. And this is one of those policies that is often at odds when we have incidents occur in the community. I think it is important that they have a voice as we discuss making improvements, as we discuss making changes to this policy. I will say, just in short, they includes a section in their proposed policy on de- escalation that was fantastic. And was very impressed with the work they put into it, and we look forward to having discussions on that section in particular and how we work that into the policies of the Austin police department. I wanted to just give you an update on where we're at with this, since this was also part of the budget rider. I think we made great strides here and I look forward to bringing everybody in the room now so we can look at what the [9:57:17 AM] recommendations that were put forth look like and how we can implement some of them into the department's policies and ultimately our practices and our training. So kind of to wrap it up, I know I got a little long winded at times. But we really did look at the matrix report as a blueprint for the department. I did not want to take this report and just use it as a report card. And spend six months with the groups that we meet with regularly and check a box to say we have done it. I feel strongly we have put forth a plan that will allow for increased participation from parts of the community that maybe we have not had participation before, by taking folks that want to volunteer to participate or that are recommended from their neighborhoods because of their level of involvement and bringing them into the process. And as we work through this, I do think we'll set up a model approach and ultimately position the Austin police department to yet again be a leader in how you practice effective community policing that is reflective of the values of the entire community, that is reflective of best practices and it serves our community the best of our abilities. So with that, mayor, council, I will end my formal presentation and make myself available for any questions. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Council? Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: Thank you very much. This is very helpful. I wanted to ask if you could just provide us, at some point, when you can get to it -- I'd love to see a document that kind of compares the recommendations to where you were at in the process by recommendation. This is great giving us examples and the right level of detail for us -- you did? Never mind. So thank you for that. [9:59:19 AM] >> You're welcome. >> Kitchen: I also want to say -- I want to make sure -- how you are feeling -- from your earlier conversation you explained this. You know, part of our conversation last year was, you know, in the context of additional officers, we were also talking about making sure that the recommendations in the matrix report that related to the infrastructure around community policing and metrics, that sort of thing we're putting in place. From my perspective, I was concerned about moving forward, just with additional officers without having that infrastructure in place. So that remains a I'm very, very happy to hear you're on track, but I do think it's important that we not just focus on the number of officers. I know you're not doing that but I'm just trying to explain, from my perspective, just putting additional officers in will not get us community policing if we're not putting the infrastructure in that we talked about. And the metrics to measure it. So I also just wanted to mention, I didn't hear a conversation about additional support for, like, victim services. We talked to you about recommendations around officers, detectives, what about victim services? I know we've had come forward to us a recommendation -- or request, I guess, for additional victim services, ftes, particularly, to work with victims of sexual assault. So is that on y'all's radar screen as a need? >> Yes, it's not addressed in here because it wasn't part of matrix. I believe that was added at the council level. It's obviously a need. It was discussed amongst you all during the budget deliberations that we've actually lost counselors over the year and given the growth of the city and all of that I do think that it's important. [10:01:21 AM] >> Kitchen: Okay, thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember alter. >> Alter: Thank you. Chief, I'm really happy to see this being used as a blueprint and not just being put on the shelf, and to that end, either there are pieces of this that are not complete, there's pending and in progress, and if anyone was looking for where this was, there was a memo that was sent and it's a link in that to the rest of council. I, as you know, we're in the process, the city, of negotiating our contract with the police association. One of the things that I would like to better understand are there elements of the contract that may be helping or hindering implementation of the matrix report? >> None that I can think of. I'm sorry. I'm trying to think through the various sections and all, but, no, everything that I'm trying to do with the department and the blueprint and what we're doing here can be done outside of any contract restraints or any provisions within the contract. >> Alter: So the hiring provisions and A.P.D. And whatnot do not constrain your ability to implement -- >> No. I actually have pretty wide berth in my hiring standards and what we set forth. >> Alter: Okay. If you could maybe take a little bit of time to look at it and see since now is the time if we do need to make any changes in the contract and look at that with respect to the matrix report but also take a look with respect to the 2008 report. I know I had requested an update on that for council, but I think there are some things in the 2008 report that if we were to implement would be -- our ability to implement would be influenced by the contract and I would appreciate hearing back from you on that, if that would be possible, and to do it in a timely manner since we're moving next week into the [10:03:22 AM] next stage. >> Sure. If it's possible, councilmember, I know you've looked at that report, if there are specific sections or recommendations within mgt that your staff could send to us and we will look to see whether there's any conflict within the contract, that would be helpful. I know that your staff has spent a lot of time on that report. >> Alter: Sure. I will definitely have my staff do that. >> Thank you. >> Alter: And I was also hoping that before we have to make a decision on the contract that we would have an opportunity to hear from you, some of the specifics on your budget, because if we're going to move into a budget amendment process shortly after the public safety contract I would appreciate having that information on the budget proposal in the lead-up to that so that we understand the full decisions before us. >> Okay. >> Alter: Thank you. And then on the -- in matrix, which you provided, that was very helpful, on the status, I wanted to better understand kind of when something got a status of complete. So we have, like, number 6, which is A.P.D. Should provide funding for the Pio to market community policing efforts and there's a action plan that says additional funding will need to I've marketing from who can assist pro Bono and that's listed as complete. And then we have some other ones where, like, item 22 -- I'm sorry if these are by different chapters -- on page 5 -- I'm not sure which chapter that is, chapter 4, item 22, says conduct a training needs assessment of all A.P.D. Training functions every three years, then academy staff will review this recommendation and that's marked complete. 18 and 19 of that same chapter, explore the use of problem-based learning or explore the use of [indiscernible] And it says academy staff will review [10:05:23 AM] this recommendation and then it's marked complete. Can you help me understand what that means and how I should look at the actual plan versus complete. >> Sure. The initial one on the marketing plan, you know, the department I mentioned earlier would change some of our videos and all that, we actually did get a local company to do pro Bono work for us and I didn't want to lengthen the presentation any longer than necessary but we are working towards a redesign of the department. There's some things that we're doing with this company to rebrand the police department, to be reflective of what we're doing here with community engagement and community involvement. So that one is marked complete because we actually were able to successfully get someone to come in and do this on a pro Bono basis. The one involving training, it's interesting because we've had a couple discussions on this. There's one in there that talks about will provide leadership training to the entire department and it's marked completed purchase well, we've got the training and it's ready but the department has to come take it so that could have been in progress or completed. So it's kind of just a judgment call on each one. I think the academy staff has marked it as completed because their work on that was completed and now as a department officers need to come and work through that training either through the learning environment or in-class, depending on the different segments of that training.% so that's how we approached each one to determine whether it's complete or whether it's in progress. Yes, you will see some that say "Complete" because we've done the work that now has officers either need to come in, get this training or be exposed to it. >> Alter: Thank you. I appreciate that clarification. And then the last question had to do with who you're reaching out to, how you're kind of defining community. I know you have evidence working with the community most recently with respect to rescinding the curfew and you went out there and learned from the community and looked at the data and [10:07:23 AM] learned and I applaud you for that. In the conversations that we've been having about this report -- and I'm admittedly just coming to this more recently, not having benefited from the prior discussion, not being on council, but there's a lot of discussion of reaching out to the neighborhood associations. While I'm a huge fan of neighborhood associations, they're not the sum total of the community that you would want to be engaging with. So can you speak to -- a little bit more how you're engaging other parts of the community than the neighborhood associations? And I'm thinking specifically of perhaps the faith communities. I don't know if there are restrictions on your ability to do that, but I know during the campaign we had several organizations who were active in pushing for community policing, offering that they had resources and abilities to connect the A.P.D. Up with work that they were doing in their faith communities. And I don't see that reflected in here so I wanted a broader sense of how you're looking at that and approaching that. >> Very fair question. I mentioned earlier we reached out to over 300 of the established neighborhood groups, recognizing that may not be completely representative of everybody we want to reach with. We do work regularly with our faith community here in Austin, we have programs like bibles and badges, we meet with the various representation from around the -- from around the faith community, the different -- of all the different faiths. We have a very successful chaplain program at the Austin police department and our lead chaplain, Rick Randall, I believe he's well respected among the faith community and I also know he's very well connected within the faith community. He frequently sets up meeting for us to meet with these groups. I hear what you're saying and I think it is a valuable opportunity to try and use that to reach out within the church -- within the various churches and the various faith communities to bring [10:09:24 AM] others into the process so I think that's something that we can look at, but we do work with the faith community, and I'm comfortable saying we work with them regularly and we meet with them. The one other thing that I didn't mention earlier as far as trying to do outreach to the community, the way we used to do commander forums you all may be aware we would set up a commander's forum within a region and whether it was monthly or quarterly, we would set up the meeting, we would set up the location, the invites, and the agenda, and the people that would show up were normally the same people that showed up to the previous meetings and the ones we would expect to show up to the next meeting. And we recognize it was not inclusive but it's how we've done things. I've changed that. We no longer do commander forums where we call people to a certain location. We are now doing community forums. We look for established meetings that are already taking place throughout the city, and we work to interject ourselves into those meetings if they'll have us to show up, to have a conversation about what the community members want to talk about. Now, we'll bring some things that we think are important because there are things we need to let the community know, but, again, it's just another effort to try and bring in a wider range of participation and a wider range of voices into the process. >> And if we, as council, have groups that have expressed interest and we want to make sure they connect up with the right people at A.P.D., who should we be referring them to? >> And I'll send you an email on this, but I would definitely want to be CC'd on that email but I would actually have you send that to Janet Jackson and copy chief Gaye as well and lieutenant [indiscernible] My lieutenant I mentioned earlier that I have all over my community policing efforts and sits right owed my office. >> Alter: Great. Thank you. >> Flannigan: On one item it talked about reassessing the [10:11:25 AM] workload of regions. Is that -- are you thinking about changing the drawing of the regions? >> We do an analysis annually because, you know, as the city grows, it doesn't grow equally across the city. We all know that. So we rebalance our staffing. We look at it annually. We try not to necessarily we draw the boundaries frequently because redrawing the boundaries has a lot of requirements on our cad system if we start looking at redefining the boundary of a sector we then have to go back and normalize all the data because if we were to take an address that used to be in a sector that was in your district and we move it to a different sector, whenever we're going to run data reports and analysis you have to go back and change all the data that we have to reflect that. What we look at is staffing levels and that's why you're not going to see the same number of officers in region two that you'll see in region three or in Adam's sector that you'll see in Charlie sector because the call loads are different. It really is a significant undertaking if we're going to redraw boundaries. >> Flannigan: One of the frustrating things in my part of town, region two, it's so big and has dramatically different needs depending on what part of the region ear in. That was just one point. My bigger questions are really more about community service officers. One thing you said is that the community service officers can do things that don't require police powers. Where is what requires police powers defined? Is there a state law that defines that? >> I don't know that it's necessarily a state -- yes, there would be state laws. The code of criminal procedure outlines specific authorities given to peace officers such as swearing out affidavits, such as making arrests, making detentions so that's how we approach it. I know that the matrix identified things that they felt like -- I don't like the term but it's a term that gets used "Civilnize" because if you're [10:13:26 AM] civilnizing it, it's just a challenging word to use. And we did this last year with y'all as far as bringing additional civilians into the department to free up officers and we were very successful. Was that 21, I think, 21 positions that we actually brought in civilians for to free up 21 officers to go out to patrol, and y'all were helpful in that last year, and that's kind of what matrix was getting at, the -- probably the best example of one that's pending is the district representative program and the possibility to put one civilian in each of the nine units. Therefore, it's not a cost savings because you have to incur the cost of those nine civilians but you've just received nine additional officers to go on patrol for the cost of nine civilians to fill the job they were doing. >> Flannigan: So is -- I agree with you the word "Civilian" is troubling because it has other implications in other areas. Is there -- are the civilians that were hired last year the same as the community service officer or is it there are civilian positions that are non-sworn officer positions and they're sworn officer? How should we be thinking about this? >> We didn't redefine them agency a community service officer because that's not how we're doing it. We just took a job that, you know, during the difficult budget years, you know, here in Austin we fared better than a lot of cities did. We actually still hired minimally but we hired through some of the down years. What we ended up with was, you know, the job still has to be done and if you don't have enough civilians to do it and the workload -- the demand on the civil yap work staff is such that they can't handle it anymore, we were in a position where we would have a commissioned officer go over there and do the work so the work got done. What we've done is gone through and identified either positions like that or positions that just historically have been done by a police officer that didn't necessarily have to be that way and we put civilians in them. [10:15:27 AM] And I can very easily get you a list later today of the positions that we actually replaced officers with civilians so that you can get an idea of what we've done to address that last year with the positions that you gave towards us, and then this year -- well, here, I've got a few examples right here. Here. We've got our background investigator, so we had -- we use officers to do the background investigations, and we believe that we can do a blend of that, that we can have some officers do it but that a lot of work can be done by civilians. There's certain things you actually have to have authority to look at criminal background, to access some of the databases we access, but we looked at that has an opportunity to bring in some civilians to do some of the work. You're aware of the the Austin regional intelligence center is we have a lot of staff out there and a lot of analysts -- analytical work that gets done out there so we've made a mix out there as well. It used to be all commissioned and so we've moved some of the commissioned positions back out into the department and we've replaced them with some civilian positions because there's a lot of very qualified, very skilled civilian analysts that can do the work that need to be done. >> Flannigan: And when the matrix report first came out I was all over it and I was really fascinated by the community service officer concept. Is that something that's nationally developed? Is there a definition of of that that other departments use in other cities? >> So I don't know if there's a uniform definition. There are examples of how other police departments approach the issue of putting civilians. >> Some of these roles. You know, what you'll hear examples of is minor crashes, a crash where there's no injuries and it's not blocking the road, and could you just send a civilian over there and, therefore, you're not sending the officer over there to take that call. So that's probably the most [10:17:27 AM] significant example that comes up that when you look at things that demand officers' time but that could be handled by a civilian. >> Flannigan: And the staffing recommendations -- and I understand that you understand that it's challenging from a budget perspective, but are your -- are you looking at how you can best leverage this? I mean, as you said in previous years -- and I want to know more about those decisions -- but that you were able to reduce the need for new officers because we were able to shift the duties around. I mean, are we still maximizing that? >> Yes. I think and we still look at that every year when we put forth a recommendation, and that's why this year we did talk about nine civilians for the district representative program. We believe that that is worth the effort. Again, knowing that it's going to be a controversial idea for y'all as councilmembers because I expect that you will hear from constituents within your individual areas that are very much in favor of keeping it all commissioned, but that is what we put forth. And that will continue to be a focus every year as we go into budget discussions, is there a part of the organization now that for some reason, some change or something that we can look at having that work done by a civilian instead of a commissioned officer. >> Flannigan: All right. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Mr. Casar. Then Ms. Houston. >> Casar: Thanks, chief. I'm not going to ask you about all 78 of these today. Thank you for sending the spreadsheet with which ones are in progress and the like. I'll shoot questions over to the department and if any of them are of public enough interest to the council I'll share them on the message board. I did want to ask about one of them because it may impact our audit plan, which is up for vote next Thursday. Number 6 in the first section, in chapter 3, is [10:19:30 AM] about -- sorry. That's actually the wrong number. Let me pull it up. Number 6 in alphabetting the effectiveness of community policing, you agreed that we should conduct a periodic and independent assessment of our performance in critical community policing efforts interactions but it's in the pending section because it says we need to utilize -- we need to utilize the city auditor to do that. Can y'all, one, tell me what that recommendation means or let us know a little bit more about what that recommendation means? And then, second, if y'all have spoken with the auditor's office about it and whether that's something that needs to get done this year or next year. Just give us an update on that because I don't want us making decisions soon that would slow down the process if there's a way for us to help. >> So it basically is just to have an audit done to review how successful are you at community policing. And, I mean, it didn't come with a lot of specifics. I think the discussion around it was don't be comfortable with what you're doing and thinking it's working because of the people that you interact with are here regularly. You've got to go back and you've got to audit it. It's pending because I think we're doing so much work right now to be innovative and to make change and really to redesign the department and transform it into what I want it to be, and that's the model community policing agency, and I don't think that we need to audit it this first year because what you're going to audit is what we've been doing and not what we are all talking about here and what we're working towards, and so my recommendation actually is going to be that this one would pend for a while, knowing that we would get with the auditor because I think they're the appropriate one to come in to take a look at this if they're willing but not in this year because this year I really look at as the building year as we transform the department. >> Casar: That makes good sense to me. I just wanted to understand what this meant. Of course it doesn't make sense to audit something you're actively changing. It makes sense to check back in about how that works. [10:21:30 AM] So thank you, and that seems to make good sense to me. I just wanted to check in. I appreciate that y'all are working with measure and with community groups on metrics for community policing. When do y'all anticipate that you'd have some draft of what it is you're considering to propose available for us to take a look at or for public -- folks out in the community who may not be involved -- as involved in those groups to see so they're input could be heard before final decisions are made? >> So the goal will be to meet with all of these stakeholder groups by year's end, again, to pull together a group that's very reflective of the various communities around Austin, pull them together, engage them in the process, have the discussions, start talking about all of the issues and metrics we want to have stakeholder input on, understanding the metrics we set are very important to you as a council as we engage in these discussions. So my comment would be that I don't want to lock us into that arbitrary deadline but I think we could come back to you in spring and give an update of where we are at, we will have established -- I would expect we will have established some metrics within the spring but I don't expect we will have established all of the metrics because some of them we will likely have identified that this is important to measure but we have not yet identified the method by which we'll measure it. So I'm comfortable saying that in the spring that we would be ready to give you an update of how that stakeholder process is going and where we're at with specific metrics. >> Casar: And is there going to be a phase where folks can know what's being considered pre their establishment? And I think just so that -- I guess I'm just trying to figure out how the sequencing works. I understand that maybe y'all will establish metrics and won't be done and then you might do a second round of adding new measures, but [10:23:32 AM] where -- where and when is place where we would know what the metrics are that you're considering before they're established or implemented? What is the -- what is that? Is there going to be a pre- putting them into practice draft? >> I think we can device a method by which wield advise mayor and council of the work that's been accomplished, probably a memo from the department outlining the work that's being done, the milestones that have been achieved, the metrics that are under consideration at that point, and then the metrics that are important but that have not yet been identified as far as the data collection method. >> Casar: I think it would be really helpful to know -- sorry. I think it would be really helpful just for folks to know what you're considering. I've had some conversations with folks from measure and I think many of their ideas are very good. They've sent us a strong memo. But there are some places where I think we might be interested in hearing what is being considered. Just an example for the council so it doesn't sound so vague what I'm talking about, for example, some folks have proposed should we have a metric where we want to see the number of complaints going into the police monitor's office go down? While that sounds good in one sense, I think there needs to be accompanying metrics about education about the police monitor's office because complaints going down doesn't necessarily mean things are better. It could mean fewer people know how to make a complaint, which is of course not what we want. And, again, this is -- that's an arbitrary -- sort of an arbitrary example that is a real example that's hit my in-box but I wanted to bring that up just because I think that there is some importance to community members to know sort of what's being considered before it's implemented so that folks can come up with ideas for how we both can measure decreasing complaints but also measure increasing levels of awareness so that decreasing complaints we know are actually tied to decreasing [10:25:33 AM] incidents rather than decreasing awareness. If that makes sense. >> Sure. >> Casar: And then my -- >> Mayor Adler: It's interesting on that point and issue because we have several city processes happening all at the same time, so we're going to have a report at the end of the month on the strategic planning issue which is going to be staff reporting back to us on six main areas in the next level down but right now I think we're scheduled or about to be scheduled for the end of November, first part of December to actually have conversation with staff as to the specific metrics that they might be proposing. So we're probably going to have a first look at this at some level, recognizing the process that you've set up that's going to be a conversation that the council will have relative to the public safety section of that at the very end of November, early December. I just note that tie-in. >> Casar: It would be helpful for us to not have to have that conversation two different ways if possible. And my very last -- I don't know if it's a question, but just a reminder. I appreciate y'all looking at the response to resistance policy work. I think our direction, you know, did ask for y'all to be doing this and appreciate y'all -- your response. And direction also asks for us to not just think about policy change but also the work plan for implementation and what making that policy change real on the ground looks like. Whenever y'all bring that back you mentioned you'd come report back to us how that process goes, if y'all could bring back to us also what that -- what sort of the work plan is for implementing any change, that would be helpful. Your use of force or response to resistance policy, that's just something that you administratively change within the -- your own policies and procedures, right? That's not something that council has to vote on or look on -- >> No, yes, that's the purview of the police chief to set policy. >> Casar: Okay. [10:27:34 AM] And so when you decide to accept or not accept certain recommendations, if you just come back and report back to let us know what it is that y'all decided to do and then how it is that you would implement that on the ground, I think that would be helpful. >> Okay. >> Casar: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Houston. >> Houston: Thank you. Thank you, chief, for the -- the matrix report was pretty daunting but I think you all are getting a good step on how to change the culture of the police department. And I see that active in town hall meetings that I've had, and we've invited the commander and the district tropes come out because in certain communities there are different critical issues, and you recognize the fact that all Austin cannot be treated the same. You've got to look at specific neighborhoods by neighborhoods. And so the problem with the district representatives was one that was critical to district 1 because when they're calling, they're calling on the weekend and there's no district rep on the weekend. And so that was a way for the commander to hear what some of the concerns are, and then he went back and actively worked to try to find a solution to those problems. So I think we have something in place. I don't know whether that's all over the city or just in certain districts, but so that people, if it's -- if it's an emergency, somebody is alerted and somebody responsibilities. So those are the things that I think you're doing, is you're thinking about the community needs instead of the police's needs, and that's a different orientation that's gonna take time and I just wanted to tell you on behalf of district 1, we appreciate your willingness to even listen to the concerns of the citizens and then respond in ways that are helpful and appropriate. >> Thank you, councilmember. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Mr. Renteria. >> Renteria: Thank you, mayor. You know, I was reading through this, and it's -- [10:29:36 AM] you know, I'm pretty sure -- how do you track your volunteer time? I mean, I'm sure that there are police officers out there that are volunteering, but since you don't track their hours because of the fair labor standard, so do y'all ever recognize your officers when they volunteer out in community? >> We do because we become aware of it sometimes because often times we may be at an event and then we get -- European if you're an exempt employee we can work as many hours as you want. We will often see them at events. We will get letters oftentimes from community members if an officer shows up at an event or does something on a volunteer basis. We're lucky here in Austin that we do hear from the community with -- recognizing officers that go above and beyond. And so if it's a come endation, it goes in their personnel file, also goes back out to area command so in their show up briefing before a shift their sergeant can read that in front of the entire staff. Whether it's a good job they do on the job or volunteering. We do have a lot of officers that volunteer. It may be through schools their children attend or sports programs. >> Renteria: It would be nice if we could recognize them in the community when they do volunteer. It might be a possibility -- we have a pal program at the rec center and we've got an officer that helps out in the boxing program there, and we don't know if he's -- I know he's probably working sometime but he's there so often, you know, working with the kids that I assume sometimes he's probably volunteering his time. But it would be nice to know if these police officers are [10:31:36 AM] doing -- volunteering and so the community can recognize them sunglass and I think that's important and that kind of falls in line with us kind of expand what we want to consider for citation award for officers out there engaged in volunteer work, successful community policing, things like that, councilmember, I think that's very appropriate. >> Renteria: It would be really nice if we could get that information because I know that we have some officers in our community that must be volunteering also, and it would be nice to know so we could recognize them. >> Okay. And actually on our website there's also a link to where you can go and either commend an officer or complain on an officer so I think it's important. It's just an opportunity to advertise that, that that link exists and we will work to do a better job informing y'all when we're recognizing officers for great work or for volunteerism. >> Renteria: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Anything else? Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: I have a couple of quick questions. And I just want to add my thanks. I appreciate the responsiveness that you've shown by taking the steps you have and the steps that you've outlined that you're intending to take in the future, both with regard to listening and incorporating community suggestions into policy, to actual policies and practices, as well as the restructuring I think sounds very effective. Like it will help the department be even more effective. So I appreciate that. You talked about that you can't measure the volunteer time but that you are in recruiting asking individuals to comment on it. And I wondered if in recruiting you are also asking applicants about their ties to the Austin community, whether they live here, whether they've lived here in the past, how long they've lived here because that continues to seem to me to be very important, that we encourage our officers to live in the community, to have ties to the community, and if we can recruit from within the community, that's even better. >> So that is part of the application process. You have to list where you've lived for -- it's at [10:33:38 AM] least the past ten years. So we will immediately know whether it's a current Austin resident and then if they're not then we'll know where they're currently living but we'll also have their history of where they've lived in the years leading up to you that. >> Tovo: But it would also seem to me for those applying from outside of Austin that they're asking the question about how familiar they are with Austin, the time they've spent there could also be important. I mean, it's -- you know, if I know doing the hiring I'd be interesting to know if they were applying from someplace very different, what's their connection to Austin, why do they feel drawn to Austin, what's their knowledge about our community. >> I think that's a fair and we we might achieve the same end goal but maybe we can be more direct about it. We do ask why are you wanting to join the Austin police department. What's important to us first of all is why do you want to be a police officer to understand the job, but then why Austin, why here? I think we vet some of that out but there may be opportunity there to to be more direct with the question as you're posing it. >> Tovo: As I listen to your presentation it occurs to me we talked about residency a few years ago and ways to encourage or incentivize residency and haven't really followed up on that work, so, councilmember Houston, I know you and I talked about it and I made a note in my notebook, I hope we can get back to that and went figure out whether it's appropriate for the city to move forward with setting in place some kind of program of that sort, incentive program arbitration let me say that again, incentive program, just so we know, cause concerns. There was also a recommendation within your presentation about making sure that you're reaching out to diverse youth and encouraging them to get involved in the existing youth programs. And I just every time we talk about youth programs within the police department I just feel compelled to say, you know, we have youth programs within our parks department, too, often trying to reach some of the same youth in different [10:35:38 AM] neighborhoods and I would love -- sort of my annual cry that we see more collaboration between the police department and their youth programs and our other departments that are also conducting youth programs, that would be our parks department, our library departments. So it seems to me that especially in a time of such scarce resources, leveraging those resources in the service of youth would be important, and I regard all of those other programs as also being part of our public safety strategy in this community, and so if there were actually a link to -- some more formal link, that would be, I think, I would think, useful. >> Councilmember, absolutely know we've talked about this in the years leading up. This was part of the discussion on the curfew group as well, if we're going to talk about other alternatives for youth, other opportunities for them to have, you know -- things to do in the evening hours and it would be liaisonning with other existing city programs or other existing city departments so it is an ongoing discussion. >> Tovo: That's great. I'm glad to hear the curfew group took up that and if there's an easy way for me to access information from that discussion, I'd love to see at the. And then my last comment or question is about moving civilians, the proposal to use some civilians within the district representative program. And you talked about those would be new resources, new civilian positions. Is there an opportunity to reassign existing civilian positions so that they have an opportunity to maybe do something a little different at the police department and work in that capacity? I mean, are you also looking, I guess, another way of saying that is are you also looking at the civilians working throughout the police department and seeing whether those could be shifted to better leverage our existing resources? >> We do. We look at that. I would say our list for needs for civilians in the department is significant, whether it be the communications division or forensics division, things we've talked to you about in years past. So always willing to take another look, but I don't [10:37:38 AM] believe there's going to be opportunity there just because we do look at that, and we've got so many areas in the department, as I mentioned earlier, through the lean years we were successful in getting officers year to year but the civilian staff has just been very difficult for a department as large as ours. So I would tell you we would look at that but I don't know of any immediate opportunity but instead would probably think of a handful more of areas where we need civilians. >> Tovo: Okay. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Houston. >> Houston: I just wanted to say to mayor pro tem two Saturdays ago at colony park at the recreation center there was an event and the explorer troop -- there are three members of the explorer troop there and when I left there were about ten little kids of all kinds of colors just -- they were just -- they thought that was the coolest thing, to be in the explorer troop. So I think they're getting out. >> Mayor Adler: Great. Thank you very much. Very good presentation. >> Thank you, mayor, council. >> Mayor Adler: Let's go to the public portion of the personnel review. The city manager search. We're going to get this public presentation, then we'll break, go back to executive session and I think there are probably three or four councilmembers that need to leave at 11:30 so let's see how much we can get done. Ms. Kitchen. >> Kitchen: I guess I should wait until councilmember Casar gets back. I know we didn't pull any items for work session but I wanted to signal to him letting him know I had a few questions about his item 33. So I can post it object message board. >> Mayor Adler: Or daylight them if you wanted to do that. >> Kitchen: [Off mic] >> Mayor Adler: Okay. That would be fine. >> Tovo: Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: Yes. >> Tovo: I apologize I missed what you said about [10:39:39 AM] our schedule today. >> Mayor Adler: There's three or four of us that need to break from about 11:30 to 11:50 so there's going to be about a 20 minute hole in there. >> Tovo: I see. >> Mayor Adler: We didn't have anything pulled. We have this presentation and then we have an executive session where there are three things that are brought up and we maybe able to get all those things done before we take that break. >> Tovo: Great. And then I guess I would add to councilmember kitchen if we could spend a few minutes talking about the agenda generally for Thursday and the structure of the day maybe before we break at 11:30. >> Mayor Adler: We can certainly do that. >> Troxclair: Mayor, can I ask what the break is for? >> Mayor Adler: It's a visit Austin meeting at the -- >> Troxclair: Okay. >> Mayor Adler: Lunch on. >> For only 20 intestines. >> Mayor Adler: I think that visit Austin lunch -- I'm not sure of the time frame, I'm not sure how long people are going to want to stay. >> Troxclair: But I think it's at the convention center so -- >> Mayor Adler: Correct. >> Troxclair: It will probably be longer than 20 minutes. >> Mayor Adler: Could be. And differing people may stay differing amounts of time. I haven't talked to any of the other people so I don't know the answer to that. >> Tovo: To be clear though, I mean, are we breaking until he shall everybody is back or just for those 20 minutes. >> Mayor Adler: We may not we may get all the work done before 11:30. If we do then we're going to have to discuss that question. >> Tovo: Okay. >> Mayor Adler: Please proceed. >> Good morning, council, Julia human resource director. We're here to provide you an update on the process or recruitment for the position and at this time I'll turn it over to Steve. >> Thank you, Julia. Good morning, mayor, members of council. We are deleted to be back. We have been working on your behalf over the last several weeks. As you may recall, we started this process laying out a process for you. We are now well into the [10:41:40 AM] process. Our goal here today is to give you a overview as to where we are and then, secondly, talk about the next steps. Overall, Aaron and I feel very comfortable as to where we are in the process. We are now in the market, as we say, reaching out to all corners of the united States, as we promised we would, do we are reaching out to a very diverse slate of candidates, both individuals who are currently or have been in traditional city manager roles but also looking beyond that tradition. I would say that on balance Austin has a very good brand in the market. We are getting a lot of response that is positive not because they want to be a city manager necessarily but because they want to be a city manager in Austin. It has a tremendous cache and also interest as they have been able to read the job profile we crafted with your task force. The quality of conversations is -- let me just highlight two points which I think are important. One, those who are familiar with the traditional city manager process applaud this process of transparency. What we mean by that is your ability to reach out to the community, solicit over a thousand points of view on the job profile has not been lost on those individuals. Secondly, they also appreciate the fact that we are treating this process confidential, certainly through this point and are very, very appreciative of that. So where are we now? We have been in the market for about roughly one month, that is to say from the time that the job profile was crafted and approved by yourselves, and we have employed really two or three methods to approach candidates. The first is, as, you know, the job is posted on your website. I would say that the results [10:43:44 AM] of that have exceeded expectation in terms of numbers of profiles submitted, underwithheld us in terms of the actual quality of those profiles but that is not expected at all. The primary way we go about doing our work is we reach out to individuals really across a wide range of backgrounds to solicit their input as to profiles they would recommend to us. As an example, we have reached into the federal administration, we have reached into state governments, former city mayors around the country and have come up with this list of candidates which we will talk to you about in our executive session in a few minutes. The range of profiles -- let me just adhere -- as I said a moment ago, we will have people who are a combination of traditional city managers but also those who have been in and out of the public sector, either at the federal level, the state level, or the city level. I think in all cases or 95% of the cases, everyone will have had some experience with the public sector. The other point I want to make is that it is a very diverse slate. We have backgrounds that are diverse but, more importantly, emnick and gender diversity through the this mix of candidates. Over the next two weeks we will be fishing our list of protects to solicit to you -- to forward to you, although today I'd say we are about two-thirds of the way through what we think will be the rough -- the right number of candidates for you to meet with. So today, if you turn to the time line and deliverables, which you have on the screen and I'm going to turn to in just a second, we have reached out to all of you to reach a date that would make sense for all of you to meet with us. [10:45:45 AM] We are -- on the second slide we are offering two options in terms of actually interviewing the candidates before we get to the actual date, let me just point you to page 2 of this presentation. We are suggesting two interview process options, and I will have an opinion, if you ask me, afterwards, but option one is where everyone will meet with the candidates as a group much as you are today with the candidate sitting in front of you with a range of questions which we will have helped prepare you for beforehand. That has several benefits. One is that you all hear the same answers. It's a more efficient use of your time. And I think you have the ability to assess a candidate in a larger forum, which is a very typical forum in which they will be presenting to you on a regular basis. The cons are frankly that it represents a quorum, so that is something to be discussed. You will have less time individually to ask follow-up questions, and it may be a slightly more impersonal feeling to the interview process. The second option that we outline below is that we break this group into three groups, two or three groups, depending on the exact number. The group would not constitute a quorum. You will have more time for back and forth questions, follow-up questions. The cons as you see, it's more time consuming and that not all of you will hear the same answers from the candidate. So these are two options we present to you, and we would like you to -- I think in executive session we'll discuss this in more detail, as to which option you go with. Back to the actual time line, we have canvassed all of you. We have one date that is held at this point where not all of you are available but that would be October 30. And that for us would be a full-day session. Remember that there will be a second session with these [10:47:48 AM] candidates, so if -- unfortunately, we can't get everyone on the same day. There will certainly obviously also be a second round of interviews. So let me just pause there and see if you have any questions as to the process -- the process options or the date. >> Mayor Adler: Ms. Kitchen. >> Kitchen: I'm sorry. Did you say October 30th was the date? >> Yes. We have used a -- what do we call it? Doodle to get people's responses, and needless to say it is a challenge to get everyone on the same day. For a period of time that would extend to interview between six and eight candidates. >> Tovo: Mayor. >> Mayor Adler: Yes, mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: Did you want us to discuss the options at this point or would you prefer to do your presentation? >> I am very open to discussing options at this point. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> Tovo: I guess I continue to think that it would be wise -- you know, it would be my preference to meet as a group and do those interviews as a group, and if we decide along the way to do smaller group interviews, but I think there's real value in having our council together. We're very often together when we're interacting with our city manager, and I know that I'm always -- you know, my decision-making is always enriched by having more colleagues in that discussion in that kind of setting, when we're doing those interviews. So that's my -- those are my thoughts on it. >> Mayor Adler: Yes, councilmember Garza. >> Garza: You said not everybody was available the 30th. Was the -- I remember taking this, but I've taken several doodle polls this week probably for other committees. Was the 31st an option because that's a work session day and usually everybody is available. It might be a little scary, but -- [ laughter ] Give me a chance to -- don't give me a chance to make a corny joke, folks. [10:49:48 AM] [ Laughter ] Was the 31st an option? >> I think because of the work session day we did not give it out as an option but we're open to it if it works for -- >> Garza: I would suggest that since that's usually on everybody's calendar and -- how long did you think that this would -- >> Well, so let me just walk you through the -- what a day would look like typically, and I'll try not to go into too much detail. We should assume that each interview will be one hour in leverage with a 15 minute -- 15 minutes inbreak, that would assume we do three before lunch, break for lunch, and three after lunch. I caution you because six hours of interviews is exhausting and what I would say to you, frankly, the first interview does not go as well as the middle and the last one people are tired. So there is some of that that goes on, but that would be the way we would do six in a day. Four is a better number, to be honest with you, but we'll follow your lead on that. >> Garza: Maybe the city manager can look at the November -- whatever that council meeting is that week and see if there's a way to make that council meeting lighter. I know the second week is the last one for the rest of that month, and I know you usually try to not load that one up, but if we had a light council meeting we could at least do four or five, maybe, on the 31st if we didn't have a heavy work session because we don't have a heavy council meeting. Just a suggestion. >> Mayor Adler: Mayor pro tem. >> Tovo: I guess I need some clarification now. I didn't understand that all of our council was not available on the 30th. Okay. I missed that. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Tovo: So another option could be -- you know, I noticed this week's agenda is pretty light, next week's agenda is pretty light, probably those agendas could have been combined. What about not having our November 2, I think it's the second, council meeting and have that be our interview day in we're all clearly [10:51:48 AM] scheduled to be here on that day. That would -- that would be something that might work rather than make our -- anyway. . . >> Mayor Adler: That would be fine by me. I think that's what I -- even if we just had to meet to take care of emergency items on that day, if it was possible to open up that day. >> Tovo: Yeah councilmember, I was building on councilmember Garza, rather than have a light agenda, cancel. >> We will work to limit or cancel that meeting but I know there were a few zoning items that got postponed to the second. But for those zoning items, unless we can find a legal way to postpone them again, we might have to have a meeting just to postpone them again. >> Tovo: Got it. >> But we can certainly, as staff, work to minimize or eliminate all the items or consolidate some of them. We may have to scramble. We post the 19th this Friday, so we're going to have to move things up or more them back, but we'll work on it. >> Mayor Adler: For what it's worth, my preference would also be to have us together as one council talking to the candidates so that we're all hearing the same information. We benefit by the questions that are being asked. Councilmember alter. >> Alter: I just wanted to mention that we all have the 26th for the strategic planning session and I know that's something we've been working hard on, but I'm just wondering if that's easier to maneuver to the Thursday of that week than the candidates might be. I just wanted to throw that out as an option. I don't want to give up the strategic planning session. Just in terms of the availability and time, I just wanted to throw that out. I -- for the first round of interviews, I would prefer small groups, but I will go with the will of the council. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Flannigan. >> Flannigan: I can see it both ways easily but I [10:53:49 AM] wanted to endorse cancelling the 19th. This is a big enough thing, it's incredibly critical to the city of -- which one are we cancel cancelling November 2. I don't even really care at this point. [ Laughter ] Having four cancel meetings in a row this month is very difficult for all of us and unnecessary as we see these agendas come out so I definitely support cancelling a council meeting in order to focus our energies on this work. >> Mayor Adler: Can you take a look at the 26th, second -- I think it's really important that serve there. So we need to find a solution if we can that makes that happen. >> Mayor, may I offer an option of doing three interviews on the 26 inspector general -- and three interviews on the second and we can accommodate what is previously scheduled and it will be a little less taxing. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> It's close enough together that it would be effective. >> Mayor Adler: That sound good too. Why don't you take a look at that. >> We will. >> Mayor Adler: I'm sorry, what? >> The strategic planning session was for -- >> Mayor Adler: Full day. >> Full day, 9:00 to 4:00. But if we cancel the second we could do a portion on the 31st or we could switch -- depending on availability of the consultant, we could move the strategic planning to the 31st, you could have interviews on the 26th and November 2, if that -- >> Mayor Adler: We also have the work session that people have pulled. So we also have that Tuesday that it's on people's calendars as well. So between the 26th, the second, and the Tuesday before, 31st, I'm comfortable with you just visiting with the search firm and strategy planning folks and figuring out how best to do that within those three days. [10:55:51 AM] >> Okay. >> Mayor Adler: Given all of the competing issues. Councilmember Houston. >> Houston: And, manager hart, it would be my preference that we do it on two different days as close as we can because doing six in a one-day session is gonna be tedious. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> Mayor, I would just add it, brings a lot more flexibility to the candidates to have more day options, and considering the fact that Russell Reynolds is also planning to do additional recruitment sessions you may end up with more potential candidates so allowing more days will provide flexibility to the consultant to add more potential candidates as they become available. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Mr. Casar. >> Casar: So, mayor, just as a wrap-up, we're -- the city manager will see if that meeting can be -- if items of that meeting can be significantly shortened, but it's likely that we're still going to have a meeting in order to postpone items that have to be on that agenda or any emergency thing that comes up, we should really try to minimize any council items there, but it will still be posted. Is that the -- >> Mayor Adler: It probably still needs to be posted because we're going to meet as a group. That's going to be a noticed meeting that we would retire to executive session so we would also need a quorum at the beginning of the day to start the day to call the meeting to then go into executive session. Yes, councilmember troxclair. >> Troxclair: Okay. I like the idea of having two different days. I think it's better for us and for the candidates. But I just wanted -- and I'm fine with, you know, having a short meeting on the second. But I don't know what it -- I don't know -- I don't remember what it -- what the zoning cases were that we postponed until the second, so to the extent that we might just be able to meet from 10:00 to 12:00 or something and actually handle those issues instead just don't want to cause further delay for the [10:57:52 AM] applicants or the neighborhoods or whatever the situation -- you know how it is sometimes. So maybe it's possible that we can meet for a couple hours, handle a short council agenda, and then meet with the candidates in the afternoon. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Thank you. Want to continue with your presentation? Is there anything else before we go to -- >> The only point I wanted to mention to councilmember alter is that the second round, if we do a single group in the first round, we would recommend that the second round be broken into much smaller groups where you'll have more time to visit with each of those finalist candidates. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Anything else before we go into executive session? >> Mayor Adler: Anything else before we go into executive session? We will take up three items pursuant to the government code. We'll discuss personnel matters related to e2, the search and appointment of the new city manager, and pursuant to 551 of government code, we'll take up e3 and e4, city of Austin versus nahc apartments, and city of Austin versus Walter Olenick. Any objection to going into executive session? Hearing none, it's 11:00. We'll now go into executive session. Let's see if we can start this as quickly as we can. [12:18:40 PM] >>Tovo: Today is October 3rd it is 12:20 and we are now out of closed session. In closed session we have discussed personnel matters related to E2 and legal matters related to E3 and E4. It is 12:20 and we stand adjourned.