City Council Work Session Transcript – 03/02/2021 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - COAUS Recorded On: 3/2/2021 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 3/2/2021 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [11:19:33 AM] > Mayor Adler: Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021, it is 11:19, we have a quorum present, this is the Austin city council work session being held virtually. Colleagues, I'm looking at the schedule that we have, my understanding is that staff is pulling down for now the mobility presentation, I think going to do one-on- ones, is that right? >> That is correct, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: That gets us to the second briefing we have is the reimagining public safety briefing. We have consultants and other folks on that and they have asked -- they've been asked to be here at 1:30. So wherever we are at 1:30, we will come out for -- we will do that briefing. At 1:30 while we have those paid consultants. I understand that the briefing on the Broadie oaks planned development is not going to be happening now as [11:20:34 AM] well. Is that correct? >> Yes, sir. We are asking to postpone that to March 23rd. >> Mayor Adler: So without objection, we will go ahead and postpone that briefing to the 23rd of March. Any objection? Hearing none, that will be postponed to that date certain. Colleagues, I have not seen any pulled items, so I don't think that we have any pulled items. That means the only things that we have in front of us are the executive session item and the -- the police briefing at 1:30. My suggestion would be that we leave this meeting, we go into executive session, and we work in executive session first on the -- on the things we need chief Manley for, because I think he has a commitment. So we'll do those first in executive session. And we will come out and [11:21:35 AM] then we can do the -- the personnel issues. We will come out wherever we are at 1:30, back to do the policing briefing. And then as we decide, we can go back into executive session, if that's the will of the council. Everything we have on executive session today can, of course, also be addressed on Thursday. Councilmember alter? >> Alter: That sounds like a good plan, I did have one procedural question because we had items that were postponed specifically by council to the February 18th meeting and then we didn't have that meeting and some of those were not on this agenda. And there's one that I'm not ready to take up, but I wanted to understand the status of, which is for the funding model for the meca chambers, we still have more work to do and that work was delayed by the storm and -- [11:22:35 AM] and I don't yet have a great sense of when -- when we will have an alternate or adjustment proposal together. But I -- I didn't know if -- what the best way was to make sure that we don't just put it on an agenda automatically if we're not ready for it. >> Thanks councilmember. We were planning to put that on the next agenda, but we will work with you and send a message to mayor and council if there is a desire to further delay that if we haven't gotten the feedback needed to be able to put that on the agenda for the next cycle, so we will work with you after this. >> Alter: Great, thank you. >> Mayor, you had the planning commission appointments as well on this -- >> Mayor Adler: That's right, thank you for that. Let's do that real quickly here. I don't know if staff is present on that issue. [11:23:35 AM] As you will recall, on the planning commission item, there was some question about whether or not there were more than the allowed four people that had requisite ties to real estate. That led to a discussion that was broader in terms of how we appoint planning commission members. And how we give everyone equal access to those potential four spots. We also wanted to talk about how we maintain diversity on that sovereign board so that we have representative points of view from across the city. So we informally adopted a policy that said before anybody made any appointments, new people, they would circulate their resumes at least 10 days ahead of time. We also passed something that said when we first got together, we would begin to talk about how we do the planning commission [11:24:37 AM] appointments. To make sure that we were all reconciled. We have people that have started to make planning commission appointments. We have councilmember pool last week and as we talked about last week, her appointment was not one that impacted that -- the limitation on four. I think the staff has worked up a presentation and can talk to us about terms, because I think that was a question that was coming up and -- and, Ann, I think that would be helpful in just a second. But by way of further background, the clerk has given us kind of an outline of who it is that's on council, you know, from where I sit on this in trying to look at names, it appeared as if -- aid was in tight -- the board of adjustment ex-officio, [11:25:42 AM] Burwell, district 10 was Patricia Seeger, I guess potentially that could be [indiscernible] Cox. There was some indication of that. District number 9, I haven't heard anything about Carmen Padillo, moving district 8 potentially was Claire Hemphill, I think already existing, Todd Shaw in district 7. In district 6 there was an indication Greg Anderson might be replaced with Jennifer [indiscernible], am I right? Mckenzie? District 5 was Robert Schneider. District 4 [indiscernible] Connell Lee. District 3 Jeffrey Thompson, district 2 looked like it might be moving to -- to [indiscernible] Practice potentially. I think you are shaking your head yes on that. And then awas Azar, Jamie [11:26:43 AM] Shea, Yvette flourless all being reappointed. Maybe two of them, if they had a tie to real estate, certainly not the four. I think that -- that is the -- the clerk's answers may show us. And if that -- if that -- if the group that actually comes forward, it looks as if we have -- five people female eight male, half white, half of color, with hispanic, Asian or black, and more than two-thirds not directly or indirectly connected with real estate and the like. [Background noise]. So I think we may be [background noise] -- hitting perhaps others community issue not running into the other problem or the challenge that we had. That's why we wanted to touch base collectively as a [11:27:43 AM] group. I know that staff has prepared something and can talk to us about terms. And when people start and, you know, don't, which we could certainly hear from. But if other people had comments or thoughts, I just wanted to lay this out so people could move forward with appointments. Mayor pro tem? >> Mayor, you didn't make any reference to the appoint tees from the district 4. Just out of curiosity is it because you don't have any questions there? >> Mayor Adler: If I didn't do that, I -- [multiple voices] [Indiscernible] Howard. I have Patrick Howard as someone -- >> Harper-madison: You didn't say his name. >> Mayor Adler: Sorry, didn't mean to leave that off. Councilmember kitchen? >> Kitchen: Likewise district 5 is a reappointment of rob Schneider and he has no connections, no ties to [indiscernible]. >> Mayor Adler: Sounds good. Yes, councilmember alter? >> Alter: Sorry, I'm -- [11:28:44 AM] excuse me. Sorry, I'm proposing to reappoint -- to appoint Grayson cox, his name was circulated to the council a few weeks ago and was inadvertently left off of the initial version of the appointment form for Thursday and will be added to that. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Colleagues, do you want to hear the legal presentation about -- about terms? That question? Ann, do you want to do that quickly? >> Thank you, mayor. It's actually Jeanette who is going to be talking about the terms, I was just going to do a tiny introduction, which you kind of handled which really what to do with the -- the planning commission requirements, the planning commission requirements are set up in the charter. And those are the ones that indicate that there are 13 members, two-thirds of whom must be lay people as you described, not related directly or indirectly to real estate. And we -- this was kind of highlighted in 2018 because [11:29:45 AM] the city was sued or individual members of the planning commission were sued and it was called a [indiscernible] Case, meaning the lawsuit was filed directly against those volunteer members of the planning commission alleging that they were -- shouldn't be on there because of this conflict with the charter on the number of people who were related directly or indirectly to real estate. We represented the individuals on the planning commission, those members made arguments among them was that the council has deference to decide who meets the requirements of the charter. And the -- the people in the lawsuit changed over time because the members of the planning commission changed over time. Ultimately the attorney general did dismiss the lawsuit after we had filed a motion for summary judgment asking the court to do that. So given that, then in 2019 you all started this process when the mayor just described to really look at the members as a slate to make sure that we are not inadvertently getting in the [11:30:45 AM] midst of a problem with the charter about people related to land development and real estate. So that's where we are today as far as the litigation is gone, things have gone well and I think Jeanette was going to have a presentation about the date of the appointments. >> Mayor, this is Jeanette, can you hear me? >> Mayor Adler: We can. >> Okay. So you all should have received a presentation, I don't know if you want us to go through that entire presentation or if you just want me to point out some of the highlights that relate to the terms? >> Mayor Adler: I think the highlights related to the terms. I think the rest of this stuff we have worked our way through and I want to make sure we get done with the first executive session item by 12:30, which is when we will take our break. Jeanette if you can do it real quickly, that would be great. >> So as you all know, if you have the presentation where I'm at is on slide 3. [11:31:45 AM] Pre10-1 there were a couple of changes that impacted the planning commission. One is they set a term start date of July 1st. For planning commission members. But a March 1st for the other commission members. This was to give everyone time to get all of the appointments made. It did cause a little bit of heartache down the road because -- planning commissions at that time, their membership was a two- year set term. And so that left going forward the planning commission members had a July 1st start date. We corrected that. Since then, through a charter amendment, to set the planning commission terms to up to two years. And eliminated the July 1st start date for the [11:32:47 AM] terms. So this will allow us now to start getting all of the terms in alignment with the other -- with the other commissioners for a March 1st timeline. That will be their start date going forward. So each councilmember, as you get elected or reelected, because the commission members for the planning commission still have a two-year term, you will need to reappoint or appoint a new member at each -- following each election. So we will, in January, following each election for municipal officers, we will send out the spreadsheet that you receive this year, showing you who the current membership is. And any that we know that has been forwarded to us as interested in being appointed so that you guys can have some type of conversation about the [11:33:48 AM] membership makeup and who you may or may not want to submit as a nominee. >> Mayor Adler: Great. Thank you. Colleagues, at this points looks like we have three people who have indicated a change. Given you the demographic information. Doesn't appear to be an issue with respect to interested in real estate. So I think that we're okay for people moving forward with -- with their nominations. All right? Anything else on that? Yes, mayor pro tem? >> Not on that, mayor, but I had indicated earlier on that I would like to be a part of the mobility committee and that didn't happen. So I wonder if this is a good time when we have the clerk to clue me on the mobility committee. >> Mayor Adler: That would be fine. We have four people on the mobility committee, we can add a fifth. Mayor pro tem would like to serve on it. Any objection to that? So if the clerk would please [11:34:48 AM] make that note. We are adding mayor pro tem to mobility. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Mayor Adler: Colleagues let's go -- yeah? Councilmember Ellis? Councilmember Ellis thank you you, mayor. As the chair of mobility we would be very excited to have mayor pro tem harper-madison join us. I did want to take a brief moment. I know the mobility bond briefing has been removed from the schedule. But I wanted to just highlight the importance of cycling and bike safety. In November the voters overwhelming approved $460 million of bonds to assist with urban trails, bike lanes and sidewalks and major capital improvements. This weekend I was in my own bicycle accident. Crossing one of the bridges that is highlighted for preliminary engineering trying to avoid that dangerous situation and ended up in a bicycle accident myself. So if I'm a little slow this [11:35:53 AM] time to move around it's because I banged myself up pretty good and just brought -- brought to light how important this mobility bond is, how much our community is passionate about all mobility needs and how excited we are to get to work on these really important bike safety improvements. So I just wanted to daylight that while we're all here together in case I'm moving a little bit slow this week. I'm okay but recovering from a pretty serious accident. >> Mayor Adler: Good to hear you're okay. All right, colleagues, with that then the council is now going to go into closed session to take up to five items. Pursuant to 551.0716 the government code, legal matters related to item E 2, lawsuits and claims related to the Austin police department during the protests that occurred on may 30th and 31st. [11:36:54 AM] Pursuant to sections 551.074 of the government code city council will discuss personnel matters related to item E 3, E 4, E 5 and E 6, which are the duties and assignments and performance city clerk, city auditor, municipal clerk and the city manager. It is 11:36. Without objection, we would go into executive session, with the understanding is about 12:30 we're going to break for lunch, at 1:30 we will come back out to the public forum in order to be able to get the briefing on the police matter. And then we can figure out in executive session how we handle the scheduling of these [indiscernible]. Going to begin with ap. D so that the chief can do his afternoon -- councilmember tovo? >> Tovo: I apologize that I missed the opportunity for this a little bit earlier, also councilmember Ellis -- [11:37:55 AM] >> Mayor Adler: It is hard to hear you. >> Tovo: I was saying councilmember Ellis, I'm so sorry to hear about your bike accident. Certainly wish you a speedy recovery. Mayor, I'm sorry that I missed the opportunity to mention this earlier. But I did have something that I wanted to say about the council agenda. Seems like now is the best time. We had an item on our agenda whenever our last regular meeting was related to the downtown density bonus program and Rainey street and I had requested a postponement and requested that before it come back we have a accountable work session presentation about it because we have two cases coming up that relate to the downtown density bonus program and how it interacts with the rainy program. And also some questions, I think that need to be before council about how we -- how we regard zoning requests that exceed both of those programs. So that would have been today. For our powerpoint -- for our presentation from staff [11:38:55 AM] and our council discussion. Given that there were so many work session briefings already scheduled and some of which were very time sensitive, I let the staff know that I was comfortable with that presentation not happening today, but I would ask my colleagues to postpone item 24 on this council agenda until our next council meeting so that we can have that conversation at our work session the previous Tuesday. So if there are concerns about that postponement, it would be good to know them now because I would request that we build that presentation and conversation into Thursday's council meeting. Otherwise, I think these both can come both the presentation and our -- presentation/council conversation and the zoning case on that later March date. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember tovo, I support you in the postponement of that item. >> Tovo: All right, thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Until the next meeting. >> Tovo: Colleagues, any concerns about that? [11:39:55 AM] >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember kitchen? >> Kitchen: [Indiscernible] >> Mayor Adler: Just for the record, not hearing any concerns. >> Tovo: Thank you very much, appreciate it. >> Kitchen: I just wanted to highlight for people, I apologize if you already said this, but the briefing item on the [indiscernible] Has been postponed until the ends of March. >> Mayor Adler: Yes, to a date certain to that March 23rd meeting. Colleagues, anything else before we break for the executive session? Hearing none, let's go to executive session at 11:40. I will give everybody five minutes again to be able to make that transition, at 11:45, we will start with item E 2. See you guys there. [Executive session]. [11:48:18 AM] [ Executive session ] [12:12:14 PM] [ Executive session ] [Executive session ] [12:13:38 PM] [Executive session] [1:24:10 PM] [Music]. [1:27:54 PM] [Music]. [Music]. [1:33:39 PM] >> Mayor Adler: It is 1:33. It is still March 2nd, 2021. This is a continuation of the city of Austin city council work session. We are now out of closed session. In closed session we discussed legal matters related to item e2 and personnel matters related to items e3 through e6. It's the present intent to convene now for the briefing on reimagining public safety, the update on the resolution, the assessment on training academy. When we're done with this presentation, we'll go back in to executive session to continue on the personnel matters. [1:34:40 PM] Manager, we have seven, so we're still missing five people. I don't know if you want to ready your staff to jump on. >> Cronk: I think av is moving some people over. It looks like a few of your colleagues have also joined, which is great. >> Mayor Adler: Looks like we have Kathie and Vanessa. [1:35:45 PM] I think we have a critical mass now if you want to start. >> Mayor and council, thanks for the opportunity to provide a briefing today as part of the city's reimagining public safety process and an update on resolution 66. As you know this was originally scheduled for February 16th, but the weather event canceled that work session and I certainly appreciate the flexibility of our presenters to make this new time work. I'll note that there are three documents in backup on this item. The February 26th memo from Kroll associates and with the assessment of the Austin police training academy, as well as the presentations you will see today from Kroll and the Austin police department. We will a lot to get through and I will pass it off to Farah muscadin, the director of police oversight and the director of this work, to frame the presentation. I want to thank director muscadin and others who have been engaging in this work [1:36:45 PM] to ensure we have a training academy that reflect the value of our community. With that, director muscadin. >> Thank you, city manager cronk. Thank you, mayor, council. Farah muscadin, director of the the office of police oversight. I'm pleased to be here today with you to introduce our consultants from Kroll and associates. Just briefly a refresher, obviously council passed resolution 66 back in September 2019 and we've been working very hard to get this comprehensive assessment of APD started. At the direction of the city manager we broke down the components of that resolution and instituted a phased approach. In phase I the phase that we are currently in, it is an assessment of the training academy and also use of force and public interactions between the community and APD. Today you will hear from Kroll on their preliminary analysis of the training academy. With us today are three of the consultants that are part of the team from Kroll and associates. [1:37:46 PM] They include mark participate Ellers -- mark Ellers, an realistic brown and [indiscernible]. >> Thank you, Farah. I want to make sure that you can see all of us . Rick, are you there? >> I can hear everyone. I don't have video for some reason. I don't have a video icon anywhere on here. >> Thank you. I was looking in the wrong spot. [1:38:46 PM] Technically challenged. Why don't you introduce yourself and I'll go to Dan and then me for this part of the presentation. >> Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. As mark said my name is Rick brown. I spent a little over 29 years with the Pennsylvania state police department with over 4600 sworn members. At the end of my career I had oversight of a variety of functions that tie right into what we're doing in Austin. Areas like internal affairs, discipline, our diversity efforts when it came to recruitment, community engagement, eeo related issues such as discrimination and mental retardationment in the workplace. Also had oversight of the bureau of education and training in our five regional training centers. Lastly before I left I was overseeing the department's five-year end biased based policing study with the university of Cincinnati policing institute. [1:39:47 PM] I retired in 2010 and served on -- for the past 11 years as a consultant I've been independent monitoring teams. In Oakland, California, in Detroit, Michigan, niagra falls, New York. Most recently the maricopa county sheriff's office in Phoenix, Arizona. These consent decrees I was involved with my expertise involved checking for compliance issues related to their complaint process, processes and internal investigations, discipline, use of force and their reviews by their command and supervisory personnel. To make sure they were in compliance with court orders. Lastly, I'd just like to mention I was a member of the department of justice investigative team of the Baltimore police department. Their partner of practice investigation. My role in that investigation was to assess the Baltimore police department's use of force and I was also a technical advisor to the superintendent of professional responsibility. On all of their accountability process for [1:40:48 PM] the Puerto Rico police department, which at the time had 17,000 members. That led to a memorandum of understanding with the department of justice for comprehensive police reform in handling police misconduct. So that's my background in a snapshot and thank you for your time and I appreciate being here. >> Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Dan Lenski. I'm a recovering police officer. I spent 28 years with the Boston police department. I'm now seven years outside. I actually have conversations with my children now as oppose to interview and interrogations with my children so slowly getting out of my old role. I was a real cop I like to say for 89 ears, I worked under-- 18 years, I worked under cover, bought drugs, narcotics, everything you see on TV. Then I became a boss and I did points in meetings for a number of years. I ran the uniform division. Was part of the community engagement strategy and one mfi proud moments is getting [1:41:49 PM] the cops out of cars to do walking beats and to engage in community conversations before there was an event or an issue. I became the chief of police. I spent five years as the chief of police in the Boston police department. My most culminating event I was in charge on marathon day during the marathon bombing attack. I was responsible for getting folks out of there as quickly as we could and try and save as many lives as we could. And oversaw the investigation for the BPD, wound up later with the terrorists in a gun battle in watertown. My wife and I decided that that was enough for law enforcement for us. I retired, started my own consulting group, a couple of contracts with the department of justice. I went to Ferguson, Missouri after the Michael Brown shooting, to try to figure out what happened there. And how we could prevent that and other locations and fix what was going on. Did a lot of work for the United States state department training our partner nations, their law enforcement agencies in setting up police accountability practices and [1:42:50 PM] police training practices. I'm a passionate trainer. I became an instructor in the academy after seven years on the job, taught at law enforcement academies throughout Massachusetts since leaving BPD I have taught at law enforcement agencies in 44 states and in 13 or 14 countries now. It's my honor and privilege to be here and I'm looking forward to the discussion. >> All right, thank you, thank you, Dan, thank you, Rick. And good afternoon, everyone. My name is mark Ellers, I'm a managing director at Kroll in this project and I'm working with the city of Austin and the Austin police department. Just by way of background I have been with Kroll for 14 years. I have done many internal investigations, everything from workplace misconduct, allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination to fraud and financial I am improprieties. I've done a lot of work with state and local governments [1:43:52 PM] and police department investigations and reviews since I've been at Kroll and also do a lot of work with title IX with universities and colleges. Prior to being at Kroll was I was an assistant attorney for 18 years and started out in Washington, D.C. As a prosecutor there for eight years doing primarily the local street crime prosecution. I spent about half my time in the rape unit and in the homicide unit there and then I went to the eastern district of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and I spent 10 years as a federal prosecutor and eight years in the organized crime strike [1:45:47 PM] . We have two academic consultants working with us, Dr. Robin ingle, a professor of criminal justice at the university of Cincinnati and she's the director of their center for police research and policy. She's been doing this for over 25 years and she's an expert in biased based policing and she's working with us on best practices with respect to the training academy as well as will be heavily involved in us in phase B of this project as we move forward. Dr. Cassie fields is a human capital expert. She's particularly astute at recruitment and promotion strategies and removing roadblocks and bias and hiring and promotion. Works with a lot of public service agencies around the country. And then we have two community engagement advisors that we're working with, Larry mays, who is like Dan based in Boston. He's done a lot of work in the civilian input of police investigations and reviews in the oversight panel of the Boston police department. Currently he's the [1:46:48 PM] vice-president of programs for catholic charities. He's the chief of human services there for a number of years. And aj Bingham is our local Austin point of contact and he's helping us with community outreach and is essentially our liaison to the Austin community. On this project. So just briefly, the project objectives of this assessment, are consistent with and essentially driven by council resolution 66. We are assessing the training academy's ability and readiness to prepare cadets for policing and diversity, consistent with best practices and to seek a transformational police academy that addresses racial and gender equity, emphasizes deescalation and moves away from a strictly regimented paramilitary academy to a true adult learning academy. This is obviously preliminary assessments so let me give you highlights of the work to date. We have examined a series of [1:47:48 PM] independent reports concerning various aspects of the training academy. These include the swat analysis by Dr. Sarah villa knew way va, the report of the equity office assessment, the racial inequities analysis by Joyce James consulting and the reports of the community video review panel. In addition we've conducted interviews in meetings with over 45 stakeholders, including department leadership, academy instructors, former cadets, community leaders and activists and the authors of the independent reports among others. We've been researching best practices and police training academies and we're reviewing a large volume of documents and data from the city and the department. We have work to do still. We're in the process of conducting additional reviews and conducting more research and analysis. So although our assessment is not yet complete, our [1:48:50 PM] February 26th memorandum contains a number of preliminary findings and recommendations which we're going to highlight now, but I should emphasize that these findings are preliminary in nature and they're subject to revision obviously as we review additional information. We've broken our findings down into a number of key areas. First and foremost is diversity. What we found to date is that academy leadership and supervisory staff currently reflect a much improved level of gender, racial and ethnic diversity than in years past. We also found that the recruiting unit at the academy also includes significant diversity throughout its ranks. However, family instructors on the whole are far less diverse. They're still predominantly white male although there's been some improvement in the last year or two and some signs of improvement and it does appear that the department recognizes and acknowledges the need to increase diversity among the [1:49:50 PM] instructor ranks. Nevertheless, academy does appear to have an effective outreach and recruiting program and that extends to other cities and states. It includes targeting historically black colleges and universities, latinx organizations and and as a result the candidates that are scheduled for the 144th class is reflected in the chart here on the right of this slide vment it consists of what we understand to be one of most diverse classes in history -- and there's been a look at institutional racism within the department. The academy does appear to do a good job on lgbtq issues and [1:50:50 PM] however the department needs to improve and expand its training in this area on the department-wide basis. It does have a value mentorship program for female cadets to help to guide them through the theacademy and beyond and could be a model for other mentorship programs. And we looked at the culture of the academy and the training academy remains a para-military training model with formal classroom settings and a regimented chain of command, though it's less rigid than in years past. However, the A.P.D. Leadership and really I would say the department through believes quite strongly that a para-military structure is a component of police training and is necessary to assure that cadets know how to respond in crisis situations. Although leadership tends to disfavor the warrior versus [1:51:53 PM] guardian terminology, they essentially train cadets to be in their own words 70% guardians and 30% warriors. Basically with the understanding that they train officers to be guardians on a day-to-day basis but they have to be ready to maintain a warrior mindset on a moment's notice if the threat occurs. And that the only place to learn how to do that in their mind is at the academy. To reduce the cadet injuries and lower the rate of attrition that impacted females and cadets of color, they have modified a couple practices. One is what they used to call fight day. They modified it to what was called a will to win though we found that it was still essentially operated in the same way. They did, in fact, they did get rid of two instructors that were found to be particularly aggressive during fight day prior to the 142nd cadet class. These individuals were [1:52:54 PM] aggressive, especially to female cadets, and they have since been removed and replaced at the academy. The academy has eliminated the stress testing which was a series of intense exercises that pushed cadets to their physical and psychological limits to see how they reacted under extreme stress. We found that this appeared to operate in a sense as a sort of hazing ritual to force out cadets early on who could, quote, not take it. This has been replaced by team-building exercises which is still stressful but a much more positive approach to these -- these exercises. Now the report of the community video review panel we have highlighted a couple times in our memorandum. This was released in January. It also highlighted the concerns regarding the academy's para-military culture and these concerns were echoed by many of the community leaders that we have spoken with to date. [1:53:57 PM] Particularly, their concern is that the department trains cadets with an us versus them bias by prioritizing officers' safety over the safety of the community, by treating citizen encounters as good guy versus bad guy interactions. By underplaying the value of an officer's emotional intelligence, and by teaching cadets that officers are essentially agents of control and that the public needs to be controlled. And so these and other factors, you know, potentially escalate the encounters between police and individuals of color and people with mental illness in particular, mental health issues in particular. Now we also took a look -- we have taken a look at the curriculum and the class schedules at the academy and this was also the subject of a couple of the reports reviewed. Particularly the report completed by Dr. Biloneuva in may, affirming the need for the academy to incorporate adult [1:54:59 PM] learning theories into its methods. While they've been revising the content to get ready for the next class, their focus has been to ensure that each course complies with state mandates. That is the Texas commission on law enforcement standards and the basic peace officer certification requirements. As for incorporating more adult learning strategies, many instructors indicated they were awaiting guidance from the new organizational training and development and management. Nevertheless, the majority of the academy staff has attended two teaching seminars within the last few months and these seminars addressed how to effectively to present course content and teach in ways that enhance learning. We found that historically the academy instructors have been reluctant to incorporate a lot of outside input into training content, and the plans are currently underway to purchase an automated learning management [1:55:59 PM] system, which is something that will help facilitate the better organization of course materials and allow for more efficient curriculum planning in the future. However, the department is yet to actually to procure this system. Now community input was another area we put a lot of focus on and a couple things to highlight here. Although the length of a planned 144th cadet class has been reduced from 32 to 28 weeks, the academy is adding 30 hours of community engagement program that was not previously included and they're currently reaching out to many of the organizations listed here among others and this is what the state and the intent to increase the participation and input from communities who will be invited to speak to cadets. We look at that as a positive effort if it's executed properly. >> Mr. Ellis, if you would allow me for a moment. Mayor, is there any possible way [1:57:00 PM] for us to make this a little bit larger, especially the last slide? I don't want to miss any of that information. But it's just too small. I can't see it. I am sorry, y'all. >> This has also been posted to our back-up. >> Okay, thank you. >> Mark, you can hit full screen on the view button to make it bigger. >> It's actually taking up my entire screen, so I don't know -- let me see -- >> Mayor Adler: Has this also been posted to the back-up? >> Yes, it has, sir. >> Mayor Adler: So the mayor pro tem now has that. >> And I did the full screen option for anybody else who doesn't have it, it makes it perfectly visible. Sorry for the interruption. >> Not a problem. Thank you. So also on the community input front, we do want to highlight [1:58:00 PM] again the work of the community video review panel. We would note that this was a difficult, but a positive collaboration in our minds at least between the department and the community that's spent seven months. The panel did find that many of the 110 training videos reviewed were outdated, unprofessional, and perpetuated harmful stereotypes against black and brown communities. And although community mistrust remains high, and I think some panel members were feeling a little jaded from the process, the department is actively making changes to its video library in response to those recommendations. And we believe that this is a model that can be built on moving forward. Now we also looked at cadet injuries and graduation rates based on data that was existed and reported, I believe in the equity office report. And it's database on A.P.D. [1:59:01 PM] Database on the last five years. And this data illustrates that the black cadets are less likely than their peers to graduate from the academy and more likely to be injured than other cadets. Female cadets also have lower graduation rates than white male and hispanic male cadets and as a result both cadets graduating from the academy have been underrepresented when compared to the population of Boston as a whole. So the differentials in the last two classes have not been materially significant so that's a potentially positive development. And, finally, before we get into the recommendations, I just wanted to highlight a few additional things I think that can be labeled as positive takeaways from our assessment to date. And I'll highlight a few here. First of all, the academy does devote an entire week or 40 hours to crisis intervention team training. And this is very important training which gives officers [2:00:01 PM] more tools to do their jobs safely and improves their knowledge of mental illness and community resources, and enhances deescalation skills. They have recently incorporated 10 hours into what is called integrating communications and assessment and tactics and this is the only deescalation training through imperical research to date to significantly reduce the use-of-force cases. We also found that the academy staff with the instructors and the supervisors are professional and passionate about what they do. They seem genuinely interested in making the academy a best-in-class institution. We believe that creating the organizational development and the training manager position was a positive and a proactive initiative that will help to further transition the academy into a true adult learning institution if given the proper backing and support. I think that there were some indication that the prior manager was not given as much [2:01:01 PM] support as she should have been and I think that there's been some discussions and a focus on making sure that happens with the new -- with the new individual. Overall, the department has established the foundation that we believe for more inclusive police community collaboration and an improved emphasis on diversity and issues of racial equity. Although there's obviously still a lot of work to do in this area. So although a truly transformational changes to academy culture and tackling long-term issues of systemic racism the certainly require longer-term strategy and commitment, we believe that there are short term and long-term measures that can and should be addressed immediately. So I want to ask Rick brown to look at the short-term measures and then Dan will look at the long-term measures. Rick? >> Hey, mark, I just got a text from Rick that he just lost his [2:02:01 PM] connection and he's trying to get back in. So I'll continue it up if you want to hit the next slide and we'll go through the preliminary recommendations and then hopefully Rick will be able to join us shortly. >> Okay. >> So we want to continue the work of Dr. Villanueva and hire a replacement to get that position filled to continue the adult learning model and to make sure that the academy reflects the challenges of learners who are not going to sit in a classroom and just get information off a powerpoint. We want to make sure that person has a mandate and authority, that they are speaking, and that it's not a suggestion or a thought or an idea, it is actually a way in which the leadership of the department wants to move forward and they're investing heavily in it. Next one, mark. We want to hire trained specialists with input from the odtm to help in build the [2:03:04 PM] training and assist in making sure that the courses are reflective of not just checking the box, you know, of 40 hours of this and 10 hours of that, but a narrative that goes throughout the flow of the day, the flow of the week, the flow of the training, where deescalation and all of the course work is woven together, along with the ethical responsibilities and the things that we need our police officers to be involved with today. And then build a blended civilian police-led academy. We think that there should be a revised schedule for the academy. I am a former United States marine. I have been to Paris island and to quantico training and police academies. I'm a firm believer in a para-military instruction and that that training is essential. I can tell you in my experience in watertown when there were explosive devices and firearms against my officers and I, that [2:04:05 PM] training was necessary -- absolutely necessary. Also a firm believer in instruction where learners learn a different way. I'm dyslexic and I have always worked with academies where the stress and the physical fitness and the para-military part of the training occurs outside with physical fitness and in drill and defensive tactics. And then we go into the academy setting where we learn about what we're doing and how we do it, what our courses are, why we do it, and our ethics of when we do it. And we allow learners to learn in the classroom without that stress that we have in the para-military organization. So I support it fully, but I think that it should be separated. And we recommend a revised schedule for the 144 that is separating P.T. From academics. Again, as a United States marine, I spent many a day out in the sand pit doing physical fitness because someone made a mistake or didn't know their information. That has been the way that they [2:05:06 PM] were doing some training at the academy. It's our understanding that A.D.P. Will address that after our presentation with their thoughts on that. I support writing reports when recruits make mistakes, because that's what we have them do in the real police world. It's a skill that we need them to do is to write things down and to report and document them articulately and effectively and it also provides a track record of how well a recruit is doing in the academy. As opposed that this recruit is better than another recruit. I can look in the file and see how many times they did not keep with the program and needed expedited work. I want to reiterate what mark said -- you have very passionate and very dedicated instructors who understand that they are responsible for molding the future police in your city and they also understand that when they went to an academy 10 or 15 years ago, the thoughts and the challenges and needs of police [2:06:07 PM] officers in the community today are different. And they're trying to figure out what the best content is that they can present to that. And what will help with that is a learning management system that will help to track programs, training, curriculum, schedules and make sure that's on track. Go ahead, mark. >> Dan, I think that Rick may be back. >> All right. >> Rick, are you back on? >> I'm back on. >> Okay. Rick, slide 23, Rick, if you want to pick up from there. >> Everything is shutting off on me here, mark. Hold on. 23, okay, I'll pick up on 23. >> Got it. >> Okay, go ahead, mark. The academy should establish an internal curriculum review panel with community representation. The purpose would be to find [2:07:07 PM] ways to incorporate the content into all aspects of training. The current siloed approach would be modified to ensure consistent messaging throughout all academy training. And check the box approach needs to be resisted. While cadets must be thoroughly trained on proper defensive tactics, crowd control and so on, the academy needs to drill home the ethical responsibilities of policing. And to teach sensitivity to the legitimate community fears that are based in history. Complicit messages, whether from training videos or course content, suggesting that certain people or certain neighborhoods are more dangerous than others, reinforcing the negative -- racial and gender stereotypes -- must be resisted when encountered. A.P.D. Should continue the community review of police training videos moving forward. This is an excellent opportunity for A.P.D. To continue to engage the community and build relationships. Next slide, mark. [2:08:09 PM] A will to win should be converted to a self-defense exercise near the end of the academy training. After cadets have been properly taught the defensive tactics, hand-to-hand encounters and similar tactics, we understand that A.P.D. Has already agreed to this recommendation. The use of the sand pit and having cadets carry sandbags as punishment for messing up should also be modified or eliminated. There's a certain level of physical and psychological stress associated with policing and with training. But the old- school manner of yelling and screaming at cadets and other humiliation tactics serve little purpose other than to instill a military-like boot camp atmosphere that is counterproductive to preparing officers to serve as guardians of the community. The academy should engage in a variety of community leaders and activists willing to work productively with A.P.D. And presenting genuine community perspectives. To help to slowly break down the [2:09:12 PM] barriers of communication and to build meaningful relationships. The academy should are view all D.P.I. Courses and determine which will benefit from a content expert or community perspective. Most of these courses can be taught more effectively pursuant to a co-facilitation model with the delivery of this training. The department should consider tapping into the resources of its existing officer base to temporarily to assign diverse officers of exceptional skills to assist with the academy instruction. Particularly in courses where a diverse perspective would be worthwhile. Anti-racism workshops should be adopted either into cam me curriculum or as part of the annual training for academy staff and for eventually all officers. These educational opportunities [2:10:12 PM] for open and honest communications help reduce incidences of bias. So those anti-racism workshops are important. Consider developing or reinstituting a mentorship program for all cadets, especially the recruits of color, that will provide the additional support for cadets and help them to succeed at the academy. Next slide, mark. Finally, require an ongoing independent review of the academy by an outside monitor once the 144th academy class begins to ensure effective implementation of these recommendations and to help to ensure that further adjustments and improvements are made moving forward. And, of course, that would be reported to the appropriate stakeholders. We'll move on to long- term measures now and I'll turn that part over to Dan. >> Thanks, Rick. One of the things that we think that long term that the department should invest in is to consider the literacy for [2:11:12 PM] effective teaching videos and that's from Dr. Ferguson's report as well. Especially with the work that we saw from the community advisory panel. This would provide the opportunity to make videos that fit circumstances that are unique to Austin or unique to around the country, that could train the officers for all of the challenges that are out there while they are effectively looking at and preventing bias from being built into the video program that they're putting forward. Certainly, something -- and I just want to comment that I rode with a lot of police departments around the country. Nobody has done the work that the video review panel has done. Every police agency in America, the police academy, if they were to look at their videos are going to find the same issues and concerns that Austin found. And I give credit to Austin and the community for taking on some hard work and going forward in addressing that and that's a recommendation that every police academy in America should be following. Academy instructors teach their [2:12:13 PM] classes and they do a great job of doing so, but then they have time when they're not teaching. And what we fight against sometimes is the young cadet gets out of the academy and goes into a car with a field training officer, you know, and the old-timer says, don't listen to what they said you in the academy and I'll tell you how it really is. Well, we have taken steps across America and Austin has taken, to make sure that the academy is training recruits for how it really is, and making sure that the F.P.O. Program doesn't discourage the training that occurred and try to change some of the foundations that were put in these recruits. We think that having academy instructors serve as F.T.O.S will, one, have more people in their department interested in becoming an academy instructor, because there's some concerns and issues with being an instructor at the academy that might persist. It will allow the F.T.O.S and the staff to go out and ride to make sure that the officers are keeping up their end of the bargain and training recruits [2:13:13 PM] and make holding recruits accountable to what the academy trained them. And they can be extra eyes on the street for academy leadership and the department leadership to make sure that recruits are following the procedures and policies and the training. I can tell you that recruits build a relationship up with -- a mentor relationship with the academy instructors and if they go out on the street and there's a thought or an idea or something that doesn't feel right to them, if they have the ability to team back with instructors that serve as role models, that will provide for the ability to build an active by-stander presence in your police department. We want to police officers when they see something going wrong they don't act as by-standers who let things go on. We want them to be active by-standers who do something to address it. We believe that they should develop strategies to enhance long-term racial and ethnic diversity in the staff. A recruiting process is amazing and I could only recruit in the city of Boston and you had to be [2:14:14 PM] a resident a year before to comments. So we were losing out on great ethnicities, people of color, veterans who had served -- that we couldn't even consider for our academy process through our civil service regulations. And your team has gone far and wide to find folks. You have a very diverse recruiting team. And they start with the recruits upfront and know those relationships and we think that there's an opportunity to shift some of them over to help to continue the training once they get the recruits into the academy. And to help them to get other diverse candidates to come to the academy and help to share their lessons with the recruits. The way in which Texas training is set up is through a process called tcol. And I'm sure that you are all familiar with it. I'm dyslexic and I have to learn in a certain way and if I were to sit in your Austin police academy and had the same instructor giving the same instruction for 40 hours and I'm [2:15:15 PM] tested on it once, I would lose out on a learning opportunity. I don't learn that way. I'm better off learning two hours on Monday, two hours on Tuesday that touches on the work on Monday, and two hours on Friday that touches on Tuesday's and Monday's work. I have a test on Monday. I have learned some things well and I have learned some things not so well and I get to go over with a study group and find out what I did right and wrong. We make the academy process a whole learning process where all of that information is woven in. And then doing it with other courses, if it's criminal procedure or constitutional law or if it's ethics or community engagement strategies, you know, or policing in diverse community and the history of policing -- by changing the block courses the way they are currently structured you could have an academy where you could have a theme of knowledge and a theme of ethics and a theme of culture go throughout the entire academy day. I would fully recommend starting the academy at 7:00 A.M. It's Texas, you guys are very [2:16:17 PM] hot. Recruits I think should show up for work in their physical fitness uniform. And maybe mark can go to the next slide because I'm probably talking one slide ahead. I know that this might -- I don't think there's enough physical fitness in the academy. It was 40 hours when it was a full academy and even less when the academy is slimmed down a bit. I would like to see the recruits to be physically fit and physically fit recruits use less force, they're more comfortable in themselves, they're less likely to engage in aggressive behavior. I think that you could benefit from starting the day at 7:00 A.M. Through roll call and recruits get limber, stretch, have physical fitness and get cleaned up. We can do all kinds of stress and para-military work with them for the two hours in the morning. And then we put them in an academic setting where the instructors are playing off each other's themes so that the instructor in the afternoon is taking the information that I taught in the morning and we're sharing and we're learning from [2:17:17 PM] each other and we're learning together as a team. I think that there's a way to improve that, along with the changing of the physical fitness capabilities at the academy to give them more time to work out. The community engagement strategies -- I would like to see the community engagement strategies, we think that the communication strategies are huge. We don't want them to be someone coming into the acid me for two hours and we check a box. We looked at recruit surveys they said that it seemed that we just to get through this class. We don't want classes that are imperative for recruits' careers and imperative for our community engagement strategies to be a box-checking mission. We want there to be an immersion into what policing is all about. Having them to go to homeless shelters and seeing what the homeless advocates do. Have them go to mental health clinics where people are in crisis and seeing that there but for the grace of god go I. And then treating your fellow man the way that you want to be [2:18:19 PM] treated is probably the way that every police officer should start his day in the academy class or out of his cruiser. And Austin had some folks that they hired for the class that had moved into Austin, they were to bring them in. And they have used them as a civilian liaison to the neighborhoods and they've been experiencing what the community is looking for. Each community and each neighborhood is different. And we need to make sure that the community is involved and how they want to be policed by police and that involvement is loud and clear. We think that those immersion programs in the community -- not as a police cadet that I'm here to be the savior, but to be an educational piece for these cadets so they understand the history that they're coming into. And they understand the challenges of the community. And police officers are frustrated in Boston when the community members would witness violent crimes and they wouldn't come forward and help. And they'd say, why would people not help? Well, some people live with very legitimate fear in their communities. And it's a reality for them. And we have to make officers [2:19:20 PM] aware of that and they have to build their own relationship to build that trust. And it's a phenomenal program and we'd like to see that continued as a refresher and to continue to work on how do we deescalate and do everything possible to make sure that encounters with police officers are -- you know, that the best battle is the one that we never had to wage battle and we can talk ourselves out of issues and concerns. We want to make sure that Austin is investing in health and wellness build-up for recruits and make sure that they understand wellness and emotional survival. If you don't have a good emotional survival training program, recruits can take the stress of law enforcement and it can become an us versus them if we're not letting some of the things they see on the street to be dealt with in a way that's -- that's helpful and helps them to keep well. And academy staff can be burned out sometimes too. Those long hours and long days and making sure that we have a [2:20:21 PM] process to assist them. Mark, I think we go back to you now with next steps once we complete group a. >> Okay, thanks, Dan and this will be very quick. I just wanted to let the council know and remind the council that we still have work to do in the assessment of the training academy. Basically, you know, we'll be identifying police academies and evidence-based best practices and we have more interviews to do. And research and analysis before submitting a final report. Which I believe that will be coming out in early-to-mid April at the latest. Group B is the next phase and that's going to be due at the end of September. That's going to take a deeper dive into the recruitment and promotion practices. We're going to look at a large number of use-of-force incident reports and analyze those. We're going to be looking at that on police-citizen interactions and reducing bias and discrimination complaints over the last 10 years, among other things. [2:21:21 PM] And then two phases of this review that would still pending the council approval and if approved at some point, group C would include the compliance review of race and discrimination, employment laws, litigation regarding the alleged police misconduct, and identifying patterns of systemic racism and other forms of discrimination. And then group D, if approved in the future, is -- would be the electronic communications review and looking at public posts on social media platforms. And identifying electronic evidence of bias, racism, homophobia and so forth. And so that is our -- basically an overview and we're happy to answer questions either now or at an appropriate time this afternoon. So, thank you very much. And I'll stop sharing the screen. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you, mark, [2:22:22 PM] Dan and Rick and I appreciate the thoughtfulness and the preliminary report. I will turn it over to our A.D.P. Leadership to kick it off and then I'll pass it over to the chief of staff to provide some initial response to these recommendations and then we'll open it up for questions from the mayor and couple. >> Thank you, manager. Making sure that you can hear me. >> We can. >> Okay, very good. Rick, mark Dan, good to see you all again and the mayor and council -- I very much appreciate the opportunity for us to be before you today to highlight the work that we have been doing well over a year now to move forward the training academy, the curriculum, the instructor competencies, all in preparation of restarting our cadet class. We have very much enjoyed the engagement with Kroll and what you will see here shortly is a presentation from the Austin police department regarding the recommendations that Kroll just [2:23:23 PM] presented. And as you will see, we accept and agree with each of these recommendations. When you look at the short-term recommendations, you will see that other than a few of them that are more than ongoing recommendation, we do expect to complete each and every one of those short-term recommendations in the month of April. As has been well discussed and as you are well aware, I have announced my retirement and I will be leaving the organization here shortly. So chief of staff Troy Guay will go over a presentation here in a few minutes and outlining all of the progress that we have already made on each of these recommendations. The plan for full implementation. And then we too will be available for questions. But since chief Guay will be here for the continued implementation of these recommendations, he will give you the presentation and then, again, we will be available for questions on the backend. So I will now turn it over to chief Guay. [2:24:24 PM] Thank you. >> Thank you, chief, I appreciate it. Can y'all hear me? Getting the nod. I'll just wait for the presentation to come up. While we're waiting for that, I want to recognize as Kroll did, that the passion of the cadet instructors and leadership, they have definitely been working very diligently over the last year or so following Dr. Villanueva's roadmap that she worked on. So very excited to give you an update. Can we go to the next slide, please. I will try not to read these and I will just sort of summarize. I know that this was sent to you yesterday and I'm excited to say that we have hired a division manager, which is the [2:25:26 PM] organizational development training manager. It is Dr. Ann craigan, has a ph.d with a major field in criminal justice. Has done work with other agencies in their hiring and training and in their academy. So we're very excited to on board her in March 15th. Also we will -- we are excited that Dr. Villanueva has agreed to stay on as a temporary employeesee, not only to onboard Dr. Craigan, but to stay on as a resource for our department. We did recognize what Kroll had mentioned about making sure that this position is held to the highest level as a commander. As I had mentioned the organizational development training manager was a lower position in our organization. We have elevated this position [2:26:27 PM] to a division manager. Which is equal with the commander. This will also be -- we will make sure that the leadership command as well as those in the academy understand the position and the authority that this position brings. Also we're excited that we will be hiring -- it says training specialist, but we are in the process of reclassifying this position to a more appropriate title of a training supervisor, which will help this division manager move forth with I believe Dr. Ferguson in his report really mentioned the need to have someone that is a subject matter expert and curriculum building. So this person will be there to assist the division manager in helping us with this endeavor. Next slide, please. [2:27:30 PM] And as they mentioned, the learning management system, we are on track to expedite the procurement of this process. We did get the R.F.Q.S back on February 12th. We are on track to select a preferred vendor by mid-april. And then we will be working with city management to expedite bringing that forward to city council for approval. The next recommendation five was to formalize the internal review panel. We are excited that we are working towards the creation of this panel. I think that the work that we did with the video review panel sort of highlighted the need to have a community representation. We are working with both O.P.O. And equity office to identify the potential individuals that could serve on this role as well as potentially members that [2:28:31 PM] served on the video review panel. We do anticipate that the group will be established by mid-march, and, of course, the training specialists or the training supervisor will come onboard in mid-april. Next is next, we will be looking at how to incorporate this internal review board so as I mentioned is that we have already begun the evaluation of several of our courses. We went through the first 10 weeks and once we get our division manager on board, she will be starting that review on the first 10 weeks and we anticipate that between mid March and ape a political should be able to review the first ten weeks as well as the rest of the academy curriculum. Next slide, please. [2:29:34 PM] >> This particular recommendation was really to effectively train on proper defensive tactics and messaging throughout the academy we agree these particular topics will be addressed throughout the academy. We are going have increased efforts Al blind Dr. Villanueva and the Kroll recommendations to ensure there is consistent messaging throughout the academy so it is New Orleans sainted, not a one and done course but something that will be messaged throughout academy .. Also, in the next recommendation really is that we have created that framework as Kroll mentioned. We have worked with the community members on the community video review panel. We are very excited that we have really taken the time to be able to work with the community, to [2:30:36 PM] identify and agree. With he definitely not be showing any videos that have not gone through a review process and the really leaning towards more of a learned, adult learning method to replace some of the videos that had been used in the past. Next slide, please. As mentioned we did, are reflecting the will to win self defense so we agree this should move toward end of the academy. We definitely want to make sure that our new officers are fully trained with the escalation and communications and other training prior to going through this self defense exercise. Ten is also in the same line that we definitely want our cadets to be fully exposed to defensive tactics prior to that last exercise. The number 11 really goes over [2:31:38 PM] as was mentioned to have cadets succeed by giving them the tools, the self defense training, the challenges that occur with pt so definitely we intend to really emphasize service and -- in the academy. I know it was mentioned about the warrior versus guardian. We definitely believe that the daily work of our officers is in the guardian mindset and that's what we need to be teaching on, although we do need to have officers prepared as mark had mentioned when there is a threat that we have to be able to use defense receive tactics or other type of skills we learned in the academy. Next slide, please. It was mentioned about utilizing the sandpit or carrying sandbags as a punishment or discipline. [2:32:40 PM] This was eliminated, this was communicated with the staff as of February first of this will no long per used in the academy. The next slide or the next recommendation 13 about physical fitness team building, it was mentioned by Dan that physical fitness training should be separated from your academic learning, your team building, we totally agree with that. We will also be placing all of our physical fitness training on the calendar, so we agree with that recommendation. As part of its community engagement program the academy proactively reaches out to a wide variety of community leaders willing to work so we have already been working to identify community groups as mark has mentioned we added 30 additional hours in the academy. We are working to actually [2:33:42 PM] figure out what groups we will be utilizing and what we want to gain from each of the classes. We believe that learned and lived experiences from our community is really going to highlight that service as well as line out the community's expectations for our officers. Next slide, please. It was talked about the history of policing. This course was recommended. It was developed through the work of opo and the university of Texas law department. We have accepted the curriculum. We have actually found a subject matter expert in the community who has agreed, Dr. Courtney Robinson to teach this course, which will also be cotaught by one of our sargents who is there at the training academy. So we are very excited about [2:34:42 PM] really introducing this particular course as well as making sure that this course is the foundation to where it can be reinforced throughout the academy for our particular cadets. Also, in the next, it talks about the number 16 about the above course which is the history of policing is really coupled with a training community outreach emerging strategies, such as cadets spending time in food pantries. This is something that we will talk more in the long-term strategies but we have been already looking at the success that we had with the eight cadets that had been working with the district representatives out in the community and really trying to do-create -- prior to the academy which we hope to have implemented by the 145th police [2:35:43 PM] academy. The next is the 17, which is talking about really making sure that all of the courses are booked within, looked at through a dei lens. As we talked about above, we are not only doing the history of police bug looking at all of our classes to make sure that we are looking at our courses through a dei lens and we do anticipate that that will be at the completion of April when we have our new division manager on board to relook at our curriculum. The next slide, please. As it was mentioned we have taken a lot of efforts to try to diversify our recruiting and training academy. We have made efforts and recognize that there is still work to be done, although we have added additional instructors we recognize that we need to bring more officers with [2:36:43 PM] diversity so we are identifying more instructors that can actually fill that role until we actually increase the diversity with our instructors. We do like the concepts of go-facilitating and that would be not only with adjunct instructors within our organization but also bringing in community members on particular courses that have been identified to where it will be critical to have that viewpoint from the community. We definitely are really looking at the groundwater analysis. This is part of the department's equity plan for our department in the training -- and the training academy will be a part of that. We anticipate here in the next several weeks that we are bringing forth a long-term plan to council to hopefully approve [2:37:45 PM] that will really look at our leadership, our understanding, our dei lens as well as looking at the groundwater analysis that will be talked through for all of our officers in the department. We talked about the academy should reinstitute the practice of following one cadets, although this has been something that informally has always been done we recently put that into the sops and it is already complete and we will make sure that is done on a regular basis. Next slide, please. We do have a very successful women's mentoring group. This is something over the last couple of years we felt that it was necessary. I think it was already mentioned that we were losing female cadets and we really wanted to create that mentoring group. We recognize that they are not the only group that needs to be [2:38:47 PM] mentored throughout the academy. We will be utilizing the best practices learned from that particular group and working with infinity groups to really establish a mentoring groups for all of our cadets. The last is really what was identified in the short-term of having the independent review, really making sure that we are being accountable and that you are actually implementing the reviews. We will be working with city manager's office to identify potential consultant that can do that work. That is all of the short- term. I will go do the long-term and then turn it over. Next slide, please. We definitely agree on number one, which is to build that positive collaboration between APD and the community. Again, I just keep pointing back to the community video review panel. [2:39:47 PM] I believe that it really broadened the lens of our instructors and really recognized the need that we need to have community input when we are developing our curriculum. This will be assigned to our division manager when she comes on board in March. We also recognize the need for our fto's. We do not want to have a culture to where you graduate from the academy and then you go out and the fto says, well, now we are really going 0 teach you how to do real police wok. We do not believe that is the culture, but we do believe that there are fto's that need to be in sync with our academy. They do come to our academy to do annual training. We will make sure that they understand the expectations of our departments and also follow through with them. We also are incorporated a [2:40:49 PM] survey, just like you saw with Dr. Ferguson's report with our cadets for our cadet instructors. We also will be doing that for our fto's who ensure that they are aligned with the mission of our department. We do have our instructors ride quarterly and that is really just to make sure that things are aligned with how they are teaching and they are aligned with what is going on with patrol operations and really overseeing that fto program. Next slide, please. >> There is the intentional strategy for enhancing the long-term diversity. I believe I already covered that and we recognize that and we definitely have made efforts towards that and this will be a continuous process. The next is the academy class schedules. We do agree that this should be taught in smaller segments. [2:41:50 PM] As mentioned. The colonel has recommendations and when they provide recommendations .. It is recommendations that they really believe it should be taught in a 40 hour block. I do believe that in working with tcol and working with our APD, tcol advisory that we can potentially get that changed, but like you said, like we said that's a long-term strategy and we believe we can get this incorporated in the 145th class, in conjunction with the learning management system as well. Next slide, please. This is about our .. Physical fitness. We totally agree physical fitness is key. Currently cole does not require any physical fitness standards for Poth graduation. This is something that our department has been working on for several years, about setting a baseline for our officers. This is also something that has [2:42:50 PM] been brought up in legislation for the last two sessions at least and there has been a pushback by associations regarding setting these standards, but we will continue to work on this project and think it is key to having a healthy workforce and physical fitness is a part of that. Number 6 is really the part about expanding physical fitness training to a daily regiment and this is really starting in the morning and we already talked about separating the academic and the physical fitness. There are some limitations to the size of our facility, because it is for three of our public safety agencies, we will be working to identify some short-term and long-term goals of how to get this accomplished. Next slide, please. [2:43:54 PM] This is about the two-week course, the project connect that I talked about already. We are very excited to do create this with the community, and really for our new officers to really connect with the community and understand that level of service and the expectations of our community for our department and our officers. We have already added 30 additional hours to the actual curriculum which of course will have our community members who will be able to share their learned and lived experiences with our cadets. It was already mentioned about the cap training. We definitely believe that the escalation is key in the department and believe we need to have a continued refresher training and this will be built into our biannual training that [2:44:55 PM] cole requires but we will also add that to a mandate that will be done with all of our officers. I believe I have one more slide. This is to promote wellness and burnout. We definitely agree with this. We are going to try to schedule our academies to I where we do have a break. We believe just like in the academic world of an institutional of higher learning that is where instructors were used in summertime or a short break to work on their curriculum, work on new learning styles, their professional development, so we definitely agree that we need to be able to build in that time as it was already mentioned is that one of our key take aways in our department is really the officer wellness and this goes right in [2:45:57 PM] line with our vision for that particular program. The last is the long-term system of internal and external reviews. This is an ongoing process. Although we do agree there should be periodic reviews, we believe classes should be reviewed and critiqued and changed on a regular basis after they are taught, so this is an ongoing process. And I do believe that that was the last slide. So I appreciate it and if you have any questions, we will be here to answer. Thank you. >> Thank you,. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you, chief. And really appreciate you and your colleagues leaning into this, you know, agreeing with wall of the recommendations and being clear about how you are addressing them as part of this review. I will just remind the mayor and council that Kroll will be coming back with the final reports at the end of the month and so we will be providing that to you. But I would now like to pass it back to you, mayor and open it [2:46:57 PM] up to any questions. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Colleagues? Mayor pro tem. >> As you imagine, mayor, my office and I have we have many, many, many questions by I will try to only take a few, appropriate amount of space. Some of the questions that came up for me was separating pt from academics. You will have to forgive me, there was a gentleman with a very strong northeast accent, was it Mr. Lepke. >> But the pilgrims landed right outside of my house here, so that's the original accent and I don't know what happened when it went across the country. >> When you said the thing you said, it was something as a layman it occurred to me on multiple occasions, like I wonder if there should be some separation, between the academic component and the physical [2:47:58 PM] component so I really would like very mucho just get a little more insight from you about what do you think that insight when it actually manifests? >> What does that look like. >> >> So I was the drill instruct for for for the Boston police academy and physical fitness instructor and also the criminal law instruct 0 for, so at 7:00 A.M. They showed up and, you know, the intensity changes as you know go and you build relationships with recruits and get them used to the process, but like you said, I know he was at one point with me. I screamed and yelled and got them nervous and not them hyper, with their heart rate up because that is what is going to happened if they are challenged to a physical force or snriens the street you go from talking to citizens to immediately reacting your heart rate goes up and we have to train recruits to deal with an elevated heart rate and have that stress and to go back to their training, to go back to what they will learn in [2:48:58 PM] physical fitness and defensive tactics to, what we will learn in deescalation and what we learned and what the policies, and rules and I can't tell you the number of people people yelled and screamed in my face but that is not against the law. It is acceptable, and a human reaction, and we have to train the human reaction out of recruits, the way to do that is when you -- so for us, you show up at 7:00 o'clock, everyone starts, we start out in the parking lot with our roll call, uniforms, we stretch out to make sure we are [indiscernible] When I first was an academy instructor, my lownt was saying, go out there and get them, Dan. Go. It was to stress these kids out and see who quit and then I became achieve and said want wait a minute, I invested $100,000 in recruiting to get these kids in the academy and make the best class we had, I don't want them to go away. I want to give them tools to succeed so we went to where we [2:49:59 PM] yelled and screamed and regiment regimented and put them under stress, pushups and situps and getting them in shape, at the same time preparing them for that stressful situation and preparing them for paramilitary organizations, but then when you go back in the classroom, I would turn it off and come in my first day when I was the criminal law instructor and say, listen, my role and responsibility out there is a different role and responsibility here. My job here is to give you information and to provide you with the knowledge you need to be a cop and to tell you how to deal with people as a person. And I would teach my class without my stress, there was open conversation, I realized some students learned different than others, and figure out how can I get this student to understand it and that student to understand it and to make sure I was getting the information across and I can't do that if they are waiting for the door to open for someone to scream and yell at them and do physical fitness in their dress [2:51:01 PM] uniform. It just isn't effective at all. There is a time for that, and in the academy setting, I think if you expand your physical fitness training and separate it out and start the academic day where they can be tasked with% learning, and I go back to that 40 hour block, I can't learn in a 40 hour block. Way don't make sure we are talking about ethics and how we treat people and my life -- when we are working under cover a homeless person shared my life and I share with my recruits that experience in trying to get them to realize, not everyone who has been arrest sad bad person, right? We all have bad days and try to humanize the police work and the instructor who came behind me when he was doing patrol procedures tried to bring that same theme to our academy commander and put it forward, so I think there is a time for stress and physical fitness and academics should be, we learned different ways, some people are sound oriented and some are [2:52:01 PM] experientially oriented and we want them to learn without undue stress. The academy is stressful in itself and we try to separate the two. >> Harper-madison: Thank you, I think I will follow up with you, I don't know I got clarity I am looking for but there is not the only opportunity we have have to communicate. The other question I had, so during the course of the conversation, did I hear somebody say they were going to going to go from 32 week to 28 week time frame? And if so, I would just like to know what the implications are of losing those four weeks. I am concerned -- >> I can address that real quick, you and -- >> Harper-madison: Mr. Ellis, thank you. >> Mr. Ellis. How are you doing? >> We understand the academy as being -- it was originally 32 to -- weeks and what they cut out was predominantly the intermediate course content, that they are not eliminating it entirely is what they are just doing is taking it out of the [2:53:03 PM] initial academy training and then the graduating officers will be taught these intermediate courses over the first two years of being an officer. So they will be coming back to the academy once they are out on the street patrolling and they graduated and progressed to officers and so that intermediate content probably takes up aim not sure four weeks or six weeks of content. But what they did was they eliminated that and then they added 30 hours of -- >> >> Harper-madison: At. >> Harper-madison:s at the not removed entirely? >> It is not removed. It is just removed from the initial -- >> Harper-madison: Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Madam, by removing the intermediate courses, this is Linsky again, by removing the course again, those are better experienced by a police officer with some time on the job who has been out there and experienced it and so I applaud APD can for moving those courses down the road and also gives [2:54:04 PM] them some touch point with new police officers, so graduating academy recruits they do a great job of training them and go out the door and start to get a little soft and get bad habits. This allows them to come back there the academy and look at what they went through for the past six months, nine months or a year and trade them on additional things, now you have some experience and might understand this better. That gives them more time to put some of the community policing initiatives back into the academy. And supplement that time frame on the other end. So we agree with pushing out the intermediate work. To me, it also -- you can focus in on the guardian mentality and training, how to be able to go out and engage people and deal with the community first and then we can teach the tactical stuff we might need some day on the job but the majority of the time we won't need that but that way we get them getting out in the community and understanding and focus on training for a terrorist event, my experience or other is, you know, once you [2:55:05 PM] are guardian you can learn the other skills. The thoughts, I think I agree with it and my team agrees with it. >> Harper-madison: Appreciate it:thank you. One of the things that was said was about emotional survival which got me thinking about another item in addition to this one that my office sought through was through mental health and wellness. I would like very much to get a clearer picture of, given the opportunity to have very thoroughly assessed our -- well as much as you have been able to thus far, until we get the latter half of the report, the ability to assess, what do we have -- do we have the appropriate protocol in place to first of all, as people come through make zs about mental health and wellness and whether or not we are recruiting the appropriate parties in terms of [2:56:06 PM] mental health and, you know -- who should be in this position? But then more importantly what is the future level of assessment look like? How frequently should we do be doing that? The truth of the matter is, I don't think any of us don't recognize the difficulty of the job and the exposure to trauma consistently. You all on the line you don't know me but my husband is a first responder in which case for almost 19 years now I have been watching what it looks like when they come home. I know what in looks like. That is to say I do think there should be some very clear and concise opportunities for us to check back in and make sure everybody is okay mentally and so I am not asking you to answer that question right now. I just wanted to air it. In fact you don't have to answer it. >> I know my colleagues have questions and then the one last thing I would leave you with, multiple people talked about chain of command, civilians don't know what you are talking about. You know, we all know too many cooks in the kitchen -- they [2:57:09 PM] don't know what we are talking about, chain of command so I would like very much in the future when we have these conversations with our constituents, I just want to make sure cole, I want to make sure we are very careful about making sure that our community understands that we are not talking over them, that we are talking directly to them and that is very important that they understand the conversation as well and that we are not going to use vernacular that they don't understand. And I think there is nobody who doesn't understand what chain of command is. They get it. Iyou pick a boss and a couple of people other them. There is no -- one person you run to, but what the implication there is are, again we don't have to answer that today, I would like to, in the the up, get some answers from you all about what that looks like and what are the implications for engagement with the community? But thank you to everybody for your time. I really appreciate you all said [2:58:09 PM] the thing that I think we thought this all along. This is a beautiful opportunity for us to be the template for the rest of the country, for us to get it right so much so that people look at us and say, wow, how did you dual that? So when you said the thing about how, you know, Austin contributed this much so far to this process, and nobody else is doing it and everybody else should be, I have been trying to say that all along. I really think this was an opportunity and I would slierk much to make sure we all keep that same, you know, positive optimistic energy and take this as an opportunity to get state right, it is what everybody else looks to as the example. So thank you for your time. We appreciate you and all of the community members that have contributed as well. >> Mayor Adler: Council -- >> Thank you, everyone for this really thorough presentation and thank you mayor pro tem for bringing up the alphabet soup, I know a lot of time during staff meetings or council meeting I don't even understand what we are talking about even with a public safety background it can get confusing. I have a couple of questions. My first one I was hoping to ask [2:59:10 PM] chief panly what his thoughts were on this presentation .. What do you see as the biggest chain for -- the most significant finding further, do you have any thoughts on your vision for the academy? >> I guess maybe what the best finding or what I hope that people seize on is the fact that we are agreeing with all of the recommendations and that there has been a tremendous amount of work done over the past year on implementing them, so much so that all of the short-term recommendations we expect to be completed by mid April other than those that will be complete, but ongoing, so I think that this is and the opportunity to highlight the work that the men and women have been doing and working on. We started this by bringing in outside experts prior to these reports with Dr. Villanueva and I think this is a further -- step forward, I do believe [3:00:12 PM] partnering with Kroll brought in experts that both have experienced, real lived experience serving in communities across our country, serving as law enforcement officers, but also bring a completely different focus, that community focus that is so important here in this moment right now, and that their recommendations are very well balanced and, again, we are well on our way to full implementation, especially of those short-term ones that we want to see complete prior to the next class. Kelly Loeffler thank you so much for that. .. And my last question is really for the city manager Spencer, thank you so much for bringing this to council. I would hope maybe you can explain what the next steps might be in the academy. I know currently we are about 250 officers short of where we should be according to our city's population, and we are really at staffing levels in the police department where we were in 2011. What are the next steps to start a new academy? What would that would that look like? [3:01:14 PM] >> Thank you, councilmember Kelly, I think the first step is really getting the speed back from the community colleagues on the work that has been going on and we will continue to do as you heard there has been tremendous amount of leaning into the recommendations that have been presented, both the ones that have been completed, the ones that are ongoing and then path forward to completing the rest. We as management are committed to getting this academy started as soon as possible and we await further direction from council so today's conversation will be an important one. Thank you so much for that. I look forward to working with my colleagues as well as your office and/or our consultants to make sure we can have the best police department in the entire country and then it is our citizens here in Austin are well protected from the things that happen every day. I think that public safety has always been paramount and I look forward to ensuring we have the best department in the country. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Colleagues? [3:02:14 PM] Councilmember alter, then councilmember tovo. >> Alter: Thank you. I really appreciate all of the work that went into this, and the experter the tease -- expertise of our consultants here. I wanted to drill down a little bit. We just received this yesterday so I apologize if this is fully in the report. But I had some questions specific to the cat, the integrating communications assessment and tactics training. I notice that was praised for being 10 hours but then elsewhere it says gold standard is 16 hours. So can someone please tell me what we are planning moving forward with respect to the number of hours for that training? Which as I understand it is the gold star training for deescalation and not using force force. >> Let me take -- I will take an [3:03:16 PM] initial crack at that, councilmember. Yes. I think what we intended to do was to -- we praised the fact that the police academy has incorporated cat training into the curriculum. II believe it was instituted approximately a year ago, if I am not mistaken. However I would note that the the -- you know, there is a curriculum that is designed by the police executive research forum and normally it is more than ten hours. I think it is a 16 hour course content. What we understand is, and we will be doing more analysis of in before the final report comes out, taking a closer look at exactly what curriculum the academy is using with respect to cat and how effective we believe that is .. Under 10 hours. They do have additional deescalation training, so I believe there is another eight-hour of specific deescalation training they kind of do in conjunction with cat [3:04:17 PM] that has to do with things like verbal judo and other things that, you know, Rick or Dan could probably speak to better, but that is something we need to take a deeper dive in, but we were praising the fact that they at least instituted cat, that's a step in the right direction and now we need to analyze and continue to evaluate it and we will have more to say I think in final report about that. >> >> And cat originally was designed for in-service officers, officers who already graduated from the academy and they had experience to try to bring them back in and get them engaged in deescalation tactics and there was -- what they thought was the appropriate time. So I believe that is the course that was taught to all of the active duty officers at Austin pd, the full course, and it looks like they adopted some of the cat training in addition to other the deescalation training which Sybil a total of, I think mark on the call was 20 hours of deescalation and communications [3:05:19 PM] crisis communications training that they put together. So that is the thing. I originally was, it was originally an inservice program and it is a recruit supplemental program as well. >> Alter: I appreciate that, when you do come back at the end of the month with your report I hope we have greater clarity on what those recommendations -- I think one of the biggest concerns we have is an actual or perceived -- additional use of force which -- when maybe it is not necessary so I think -- to make sure we have the gold training for this training as we are doing this, it is important -- what training is being offered with respect to victims and trauma informed approaches to victims as I understood it, previously it was something like one day on victims and I know that we have a lot of expertise [3:06:19 PM] even within APD in our victim services unit. They play a role sometimes of, you know,eaching officers about how -- which strategy to use when you have trauma because they have that training, additionally, but I have to -- I have the sense our officers would benefit from additional training in that area. So what are your recommended recommendations in that area. >> >> So that is something we hope to take -- dig further into, because there are a number of adjunct professors that come in that work in domestic assault, violence training as well, I know one of the instructors comes this is a member of the gay community and talks about the issue and challenges that members of the lgbtq deal with as victims and how they are victimized and how they interact with police sometimes when they are victimized and they might be keeping a portion of their life from others and don't want to be publicly outed. [3:07:20 PM] So that is the process we are going through with the actual curriculum discovery as to what is in the curriculum for academy instructors, what are adjunct people coming in and saying that are police officers that come with some of these special population units. I know we had a child -- program that was successful, domestic violence case, we realize children need to be treated as well as dealing with whatever law enforcement actually action had to take and we are assessing exactly what that is, including community voices, what used to be the community voices and then hope fly figure out what the new community voices coming in, the department figures out who they are bringing in to kind of co- present some of these topics so that's something we will hopefully address at the end of this month with further detail. >> Alter: I would like to express I would like to see us really take seriously the opportunity to provide trauma informed training. We have a lot of sexual assaults and a lot of domestic vibes issues that we are dealing with [3:08:21 PM] and our officers are called to deal with, and one day of training just doesn't seem sufficient for that, you know, and those are cases he think they would encounter on a regular basis. The third area I wanted to ask about, you know, Austin, we have a very large Spanish speaking population and I was sort of shocked when we were going through the program in earlier conversations that we had about how little Spanish language training was offered and on a voluntary basis through the academy. Can you spec to what you are looking at and, you know, in a community that has a large Spanish speaking population what is the best practice? .. That's a challenge law enforcement is dealing with across the country, to make sure we are getting more language skills out there. What we heard from recruits and cadets is they want more Spanish [3:09:21 PM] training. They found it to be valuable. Found it to be something that was interesting to them and presented well, in an informative manner and the only challenge with the academy is we try to get all kinds of knowledge in a period of time and then have them on the street so we will evaluate exactly what the language program is, but every -- not every, but the majority of recruits ask that more Spanish language training be put into the curriculum going forward, and it might also be one of those intermediate classes we can get them trained up as recruits and then, you know, reinforce some of that language skills going forward. I know some departments actually incentivize people who are bilingual and able to do translation and a financial incentive to do it so they go to classes to get the training 3 need and get the skill set and at the same time be a better cop on the street with it. >> Alter: Yes. And as someone who is a language lover I would say there is also [3:10:22 PM] a lot of online options that didn't traditionally used to be there that have cop really far, if someone is actually interested in learning a language to help build and reinforce if they are a learning person and my final question right now is about the learning management system. And the options there. We sometimes have a tendency not to buy the Cadillac version and I would like to make sure that we are getting what we need, given the high priority that our community has placed on making sure that we set up an academy that is a learning environment that is, you know, commensurate with the tasks we are asking our police officers to take and the risks that they are prepared. So can you speak a little bit more to that learning management system and how you recommend we proceed with that? >> I haven't seen the returns and the vendors that are [3:11:23 PM] responding. I agree with you wholeheartedly, there is no sense in investing in something that is not going to be steady and with you for years to come, and sometimes in government we look for the low bidder and my mother would say sometimes you get what you pay for. So if there is any ability to set, you know, sometimes we set standards on our rfps in my own department where we want very specific things and that sometimes with -- that would be a stole source because of the uniqueness of a program. So I would recommend that you buy the Cadillac, escalade of learning management systems. It is only going to be an item that is going to be needed even more as you move forward and videos and adult learning and learning modules come into play, especially hopefully around the covid world soon but online training and processes or something that I think our corporation is investing in so I would invest in the Cadillac. [3:12:27 PM] >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember tovo, I think was next and then councilmember kitchen. >> Tovo: Thank you all very much and thank you to our police department for their response. I had a couple of questions I think are aimed at the con can consultants first. Let's see. There was a conversation about recruiters and the fact that -- I am sorry, about the academy instructors and the fact that the academy instructors are not reflecting the diversity of our community. And in the report you talked about a variety of reasons why the academy has had difficulty increasing diversity among the instructors and I wanted to get a little bit, because -- of how you accumulated that information. Was it -- it looks like it was -- it looks like it was through instructor surveys but I want to [3:13:28 PM] understand whether that information came just from current instructors or whether it came from individuals on the force who might have considered instructing, becoming instructors and they were offering new information about why they wouldn't consider it and I think it sounded like one, the financial -- that there was a financial disincentive as a loss -- because of loss of over time in preferential pay and other physical fitness that the instructor lacked preprestige or a pathway to promotion. How did you compile that information, and second question, can you give us some sense of what the primary -- what the primary factor is? Is it primarily a 0 financial disincentive? Not seeing a career sat. >> Yes. I will take that. >> Career path? >> Yes. We got it from two sources, first the -- one of the independent outside experts did some surveys of the academy -- the staff there, and that information about having access [3:14:29 PM] to exercise facilities and additional training that you might not get in the field, better work schedule, that information we leveraged from those reports. But in the process in the last two months, we interviewed a number of academies, so we got a cross-section, there was some academy staff persons that agreed with that, but there were some that said that the biggest hurdle is the financial losses that they lose from getting over time in the field, when you are working patrol, you know, you work over time and have special assignments and things like that and kind of got -- I remember talking to one instructor, and we got kind of an estimate of like, hey, I am losing like maybe 1,500 dollars a month by coming here so I am losing money, which affects my family, and -- but then again too, some of the trade- off is, better schedule, more opportunities to hone those educational skills while at the [3:15:30 PM] >> Tovo: Thanks it sounds both in terms of the benefits as well as the disincentives, you were really talking to those who have opted in, they have become instructors. >> We also did conversations with other officers who were in groups, union member and leadership and folks who aren't academy instructors as well. >> Tovo: Yeah, because I guess I'm wondering if it wouldn't be productive to kind of open that question up to the people who aren't currently serving as instructors to see what's -- whether those factors remain true about whether they might not be interested in opting into those position. >> Some of the research that the instructors did because they had somebody who they thought would be a really good candidate, they say hey, why don't you come over here. Kind of happy where I am. Financially works for me, time-wise it works for me. There's a physical aspect of, you know, the physical fitness test that doesn't work for me. [3:16:31 PM] So some of the instructors try and get other people that they think would be good for their recruits, that's the feedback that they get from the officers they are speaking with. We have heard that from some of the folks that we talked to. >> Tovo: Thank you, that's helpful. There were really good recommendations throughout your report about ways to integrate community voices into the curriculum as the course is unfolding. I understand -- I understand that there is an extended -- the proposal is to have an extended period of time in the community. But I'm still really -- intrigued and interested in the recommendations that came out of this report. To have -- to have those outside content experts actually be part of the -- part of the ongoing curriculum. And so I guess my question for our -- for our consultants -- on page 11 of your report, it -- you've [3:17:33 PM] made the comment except for the history of policing and race in Austin, there does not appear to be any intentional or clearly articulated plans to incorporate outside content experts. And so I -- so I wanted to offer you the -- the -- the opportunity to talk a little bit about that and then to switch to APD and see why or -- why that is not the plan moving forward. It would seem to me it would address a variety of the issues, that have been identified. One that kind of death by powerpoint I'm using an expression in the report itself, not one that I came up with. But having that change in speakers I think is important. Having that -- those authentic voices from lived experience makes the curriculum more powerful. To those hearing it. I think it addresses some of the questions -- some of the points that you raised, Mr. Lindski about a variety of learning styles. To me I always find [3:18:33 PM] different learning styles -- it's important to have different speakers sometimes in there. To hit -- to really reach out to people with different learning styles. So -- so -- is -- when you see APD's response and planning moving forward to have most of the community voices be part of that post-academy community experience, responsive to the -- to the recommendations that you made about what -- what would appear to be more of a seamless integration of those community voices into the curriculum. >> So we looked at what initially was there. And also at what -- what had already been suggested and was under consideration by the APD to bring in. Policing. Then there was kind of an open book. We also -- they are looking for other voices. We strongly suggest other voices. I just did my fourth case with things project and it was a -- with the innocence project, a case where a [3:19:34 PM] young man was shot by police officers and spend years in prison for a sexual assault he didn't commit. The firearm was owned by a police officer. It was a travesty, those voices should be in the police academy. There are civil rights activists who have a different lens. Chief Manley and I, I see him at functions, we get to go to places where academics and people with outside thoughts on restorative justice and people with thoughts on victimization and criminology, we get to have conversations and we get different [indiscernible] Sites and thoughts and ideas and hopefully take them back to our departments and let them grow. I would encourage you to get those into the academy as early as you can. I would bring in your hashest critics and have them explain why they are harsh critics. Your civil rights attorney, your corporation accountable has probably written [3:20:34 PM] numerous checks to raising concerns, I would have him or her come in and explain what they look at and why they are being effective and what they need you to do as a police officer so they don't sue the department and sue you. I had [indiscernible] A young man that I chased through the streets of Boston is a gang member who sold crack cocaine and carried guns. Shooting. Went to prison. Found religion. Became a member of the nation of slam and he became one of my strongest partners in trying to help reeducate gang members coming out of the justice system to be prepared for society. He would come and talk to our police officers. Some of them have never experienced some of the challenges he grew up with and experienced. The more we can have them build relationships with different opinions and ideas in the community, the better off we are. And -- I just don't want to say we have a course that someone came in and spoke for two hours about issues on this particular group. Because that doesn't work. That's a course. [3:21:36 PM] And what chief, what we hear from chief Manley and leadership from APD and the manager's office is they want to change the culture where the understanding starts in the academy and continues a life long lesson on the street. Loud and intense voices outside of policing that you can get in the academy, we support that wholeheartedly. >> Tovo: Thank you. It would seem to me that you really make that point if you have those community voices integrated throughout the whole academy, right, then you are getting your learning not just from officers, but also from those community voices, I think it would send an important message about the way we construct learning. I guess chief gay, chief Manley, could you talk about how you are using those suggestions to inform moving forward. >> Absolutely. That was a great question. I want to totally agree with -- with how you are perceiving the transformation that we are looking towards. [3:22:38 PM] We do anticipate that the community voices need to be heard throughout the academy. What we presented was real basic to the recommendations, but we do incorporate the -- the [indiscernible] Hours, the pre-work that will happen before the academy. But we will -- we do want that to be incorporated throughout the academy and as Dan mentioned, it's just not a -- not a check in the box saying, hey, we heard from the community here. We truly believe that it needs to be incorporated. I believe one of the councilmembers asked what did we learn from Kroll and other presentations. We learned that through the community video review panel and others that they bring a lens into our environment that we haven't seen before and it is so critical that our officers understand [3:23:38 PM] different perspectives. So it is critical for it to be integrated throughout the academy and that is our goal. >> Tovo: Thank you. So do you see the curriculum moving toward the suggestion that was made in the Kroll report to have those courses be co-taught by APD instructors in cooperation with appropriate subject matter experts or community allies? >> Absolutely. We are doing a review of all of the courses. Any course that we believe can be co--taught, we will be doing that. I believe in Kroll's report it listed over 15 different entities that we are trying to have conversations with. As well as looking for others as well. >> Tovo: Yeah and it looked to me like those were community groups that would be useful. I think there probably are also some other subject area experts, both in our universities and some of the [3:24:39 PM] organizations, active here in the capital and others. I would assume that's a very, just a snapshot of a list. >> Absolutely. >> Of those who might be considered. I had a few other questions, but I -- I will -- I will conclude here for now, thank you very much. >> Thank you, councilmember kitchen? >> Kitchen: Thank you, I have two questions, two sets of questions, I guess. First question just relates to -- I wanted to note -- I think [indiscernible] The continued underrepresentation, pretty serious underrepresentation of women in the academy, I think 17% or something like that. So my question for you all is what you reviewed the curriculum, and you reviewed other aspects of how the training academy operates, did you identify a particular -- particular issues that were impacting [3:25:42 PM] the -- the enters and ability for -- interests and ability for women to participate? You know, I have not read through your report, so I apologize if you have got a section of your report that speaks to that. But I would like to understand specifically what you all uncovered with regard to participation of women in the academy and policing, of course. That's one aspect of the diversity that we need in our police department. >> So I -- initially when we look back at where females were leaving the academy, it was around a couple of locations. One was [indiscernible] And the stress reaction training where -- fight day. Where they -- where they, you know, went into a fight day and went trained on how to defend themselves, how to throw a jab, how to put your feet together, how to move and it was just an assessment as to where they were and their ability to be [3:26:42 PM] involved in a fight. A lot of people, when faced with that, especially females and cadets of color, didn't go through that process, they decided to leave the academy and part ways at that program. That has changed. There has been some staff that were moved. There was an indication some staff appeared to be more aggressive with female recruits in that process and they are no longer instructors at the academy. In fact, I don't even know if they are employed at APD anymore. And there is now a lead, a female instructor, who is a pacific Asian woman who is now in charge of the physical fitness and the physical training program that we have seen better numbers in the recent class where we didn't see the drop out of female cadets. So it looks like that was -- this first reaction training up front and the fight day were two of the contributing factors that were impacting retention of female recruits. [3:27:42 PM] >> Okay. Thank you. Does your analysis identify -- is there -- you know, I apologize, I will go and study it. But does your analysis and then your final report that's upcoming for us, will it include specific discussion of the impact on -- on women both in recruiting and the academy? In other words, you just provided some -- some very interesting and helpful information. Will that kind of information be called out in your report so that if I -- >> Yes. >> Okay. So if I'm -- if I'm understanding specifically the impact on women, then I would be able to read that somewhere in your report? >> Yes, both previously, what was going on, and what -- what has changed and -- the differences and -- Rick did a lot of analysis and follow- up with -- with folks who had left the training process to see the reasons why. I believe we pointed out [3:28:44 PM] initially in your initial report, but we will go into more detail in the final. >> Kitchen: Okay. And did you -- you had a slide in there that -- about the impact of injuries. Or actually, yeah, I guess the number of injuries on cadets. I didn't see -- that they were mentioned specifically on that slide. Are women disproportionately experiencing injuries? >> Similar circumstance. So fight day and the stress reaction training we were seeing women and cadets of color who were experiencing injuries. Now, there's also been a change in -- in the tracking of injuries at the academy. So -- so where injuries may have been unreported before, if it wasn't a major injury, now it's our understanding that the commander requires all injuries to be documented. But we did see more injuries with females and recruits of [3:29:44 PM] color in the old fight day and stress reaction training programs before they phased out those programs for team building and will to win, which the last will to win with the new leadership we didn't see the injuries that occurred previously. And we hope with the self-defense that that will continue. >> Kitchen: Okay. And then one more question related to this is so what is y'all's thinking about the -- the reason behind the -- I think it was 17% of women as part of the -- as part of the -- I think 144th -- cadet class? Why is it that low? Was that within the scope of what you were looking at? I would like to understand that. >> Your question, council, the class that's currently recruited for, those results -- [3:30:45 PM] >> Kitchen: It's in your slide deck. A result on your slide desk, you are looking at the com pox of the class. For purposes of determining diversity of the class. I don't have it right in front of me, but I think it was slide 11 perhaps or -- >> I can speak to that briefly. >> Kitchen: Slide 11, uh-huh. >> Councilmember, I think -- one thing that we were pointing out was that the diversity of the planned 144th cadet class is actually better than in past years, it was considered -- it's considered one of the more diverse cadet classes. Now, it's true that the female cadet numbers are low there. But 17% is actually an increase over what the -- what the typical numbers are. Which I believe are typically in like the 10% range. So -- so, you know, obviously there's a lot of work to do to get more females into the academy. But this has been something [3:31:46 PM] I think police departments throughout the country are struggling with for a number of reasons. I think Dan has talked about. But that number, 17%, is actually, if I understand it, actually higher than historically what is typically the case. >> Kitchen: Well, thank you, I appreciate that. I just want to make sure as we are analyzing the kingfisher and the -- analyzing the curriculum and the operations of the academy, we are doing so with a very thorough and critical eye as well as a very sensitive eye as to the -- as to what's going on that -- that contributes to the barriers to welcome participating. And I certainly understand there's a lot, a lot of different factors and the training academy is N the only thing. There's a lot of factors about why women may or may not go into, you know, into policing. But I would like to make [3:32:46 PM] sure -- I want to make sure we really did a thorough analysis of that aspect and the fact that 17% is better than 10%, that's great, but still not very good. So I would like to make sure that we did that level of analysis. So my question really is did -- did -- I just want to understand -- I want to understand that you used best practices, that you, of course, used your extensive background and experience, but that you also consulted with women that are involved in policing who have an extensive background and can look at these kinds of things through their lens. >> So let me just say that -- that the issue that you are talking about really goes to recruitment. And recruitment that is going to be part of our phase B. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> That's part of phase B. That really is not part of our -- the current assessment that we are doing now. We are touching upon these issues a little bit to the extent that we are looking at issues like diversity at the academy. [3:33:49 PM] But we will be digging much deeper into that in phase B, one of our instructors, Kasi fields and [indiscernible] Brown looking into what road blocks exist to recruitment efforts to people of color, to welcome, to other groups that have traditionally been perhaps not as robust in the membership of the academy. Those are things that we will be looking at much more deeply in phase B. >> Kitchen: Okay, that's very helpful, thank you. I'm sure that as you look at recruitment, that will provide some insight. As to any impact that the actual training process has on recruitment or perception of the training process has on recruitment. Okay. I wanted to ask one other question. This follows up on I think it was councilmember Kellee may have asked this question. This may be a question for [3:34:49 PM] you, city manager, or perhaps for you, chief Manley. I'm trying to understand what else needs to happen to get us to the point where we have made the necessary changes to curriculum and we're ready to restart -- restart with another -- to restart training with another cadet class. And what recommendation do you have at this point if you do and if you don't have a recommendation at this point, do you expect to make a recommendation at some point? I'm just not clear on -- on what our next step is to address that question. >> Thank you, councilmember, again, first step is getting this feedback from you and your colleagues. We do believe that we have put forward a robust body of work that not only addresses some immediate concerns and recommendations that have been presented and working with our community to really [3:35:49 PM] look at those longer term strategies that we're going to use. So we are going to be taking this feedback and then meeting with you and your colleagues about has that next step will be. With in the management and within the department are ready to move as soon as possible to get this academy started again. [Indiscernible] Budget recommendation, a budget amendment to council and so that would be the council action that would really trigger us to be able to start back the class again. >> Kitchen: When do you expect to bring forward a budget amendment or are you waiting to have the conversation with us first? >> I'm waiting for this conversation, but we would be ready even next cycle, but I want to make sure that we are doing so in a way that moves it the way that you are comfortable with. >> Kitchen: Okay. You know, if the council is -- we all still have a lot of questions. So I'm not trying to presuppose that anyone is ready at this point. I'm just trying to [3:36:50 PM] understand the path, because I know there's a certain amount of timeframe that has to be built in. Even if the -- if the council felt like the appropriate changes have been made, and we were ready to proceed, how much -- how much time does that take between a decision to proceed and actually starting a new cadet class? >> I will let the chief or chief of staff answer that. >> Certainly. Once we get the go ahead to start a class, we would be looking at a four to six-week window to go ahead and get that class underway. We would need time to contact the recruits, time for them to relocate those that need to, time to get an orientation underway. So there would need to be a lead-up time for that. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Councilmember kitchen, I think if I remember correctly, the series -- the mayor had to step off the dais, so I'm going to making the next round of calls. [3:37:51 PM] I believe it was councilmember Casar and then councilmember Fuentes? >> Casar: All right. Well, I appreciate the work that you all have laid out that has already gotten done. That's really important and I appreciate the takeaway that you mentioned, chief, about all of the recommendations being acceptable to the police department and so I'm not going to focus -- I'm not going to focus too much on the things that have been agreed to, are because I think we've discussed that a good bit. But for the consultants, for my first question, I am interested in part of your report where it seems like there might be some daylight or differences because I want to understand that or understand if they are not a difference. So I do appreciate how in many parts of the report we list the changes done so there's not fight day done anymore or that folks won't be wearing military camouflage at the academy. There's a part where you mentioned there will be less [3:38:52 PM] of the yelling and screaming directly one-on-one at cadets. Those changes, I think, are important and I appreciate that those sounds like those have gone into effect and those are agreed to. Then for the folks that Kroll, part of your report says that the department has been reluctant, not my words, this is just from the report that's been delivered to us. Your report says that APD has been reduxant to embrace -- reluckant to embrace some of the recommendations regarding course content and strong recommendations to change the paramilitary nature of the academy in any fundamental way. Could you help -- we tried to sort out what things we change short term and long-term. I think it's just important for us to know where and which recommendations you all have made that you as consultants think are the right thing to do but that either the department or the [3:39:53 PM] city disagrees with or are reluctant to do so we can determine ourselves where they are recommendations we take or don't take. But can you help us understand what some of the recommendations are that you have made that have not been implemented and what it would take to -- to change some of the nature of the academy in that more fundamental way. >> I don't know of any recommendations that we made that were not accepted by the pd. I can tell you during the processes, there were different places we spoke with a number of people inside the academy, outside the academy, inside and outside of the department. Different people from where they are sitting from the way they think. Sometimes the senior leadership of the city and the senior leaders for the department can be on one point of thought and have [3:40:53 PM] communicated their thoughts on that. Sometimes the implementation is not quite understood and somebody takes what somebody said and is waiting for -- for example, the -- to their credit, they brought in an outside expert to look at the academic academy program and have an educational professional look at how they were training recruits. That person was brought in at a cam hander level with the -- commander level with the understanding they would speak as a commander and if they give a suggestion, that was more than a suggestion, something that you needed to take to heart and evaluate. If you are a police officer and growing up in an organization and no one is giving you clear instruction that the civilian is there to help you improve and that you are supposed to treat them as if you would a commander giving the instruction, there's also a, I don't want to [3:41:54 PM] [indiscernible], something in Texas law that says somewhere that sworn police officers can't report to civilians. Sometimes I used to have it in my own police department where police officers feel that they are different than civilians and everyone in in policing is trying to work hard to change that throughout the country. We don't give dispatchers the respect they deserve because they're not police officers. I explain to my police officers we all take multiple fill in the blank tests, that's the difference between being a police officer and dispatcher sometimes. They are just as valuable on the streets as you are. Any police officer that has been in a hard event that had a dispatcher bring help to them, we can tell you that's true. There was some disconnect on what the mission was. Sometimes people waiting for, you know, somebody to telling them exactly what the mission was. I think we were able to hear that from both sides and inform APD leadership that some of the communication wasn't as effective as [3:42:54 PM] thought. That's why I believe the new recommendation has the civilian advisor at a higher level reporting now directly to an assistant chief to where they speak from the chief. I had that in the Boston police department. Dr. Anthony bragger I brought in, helped the homicide project for me. We had a homicide commander who wasn't going to listen to a civilian because he was a police officer. We said well no he works for us as a superintendent basically on our staff. Let us clarify this. The commander didn't want to do that, so they were no longer the commander. So there might have been a need in direct conversations to have people -- sometimes, you know, we spoke with an individual who says I'm not going to put up with all of this stuff they are trying to do to change the academy. We would say oh, what is that? They are trying to get rid of physical fitness. Well now, what do you think of this? That's a good idea. [3:43:55 PM] Well, they are trying to do this, they want to make it less stressful out there. What do you think about having stress on the pt field and not when you teach a class. I agree with that 100%. So some of this is police officers my experience hate two things. They hate change, any change at all. And they hate the way things are. Sometimes we need to as leaders of departments explain to the officers why we are doing things and I can tell you from the passion of the instructors, when they understand the why, they are invested wholeheartedly in making sure they get recruits that they can go out and place in the community effectively. They would try to figure out how to make it work. I don't think we gave any recommendations that pd said absolutely not. Some things they said that's a great idea we're going to need some time on that. I would be happy to push back on that if that's appropriate. But I don't think there's anything that we heard no we can't do that. [3:44:58 PM] We heard from the community what they thought the academy should be doing. Most of the things we talked to the academy about they agreed with our thoughts and ideas, that's what we put on the table on the report. >> Casar: Thanks, let me make sure that I understand sort of the -- what it is you mean in the report then that y'all sent to us. Because what I read to you was straight from your report. But tell me if this is right. What you are saying is that when you all said that APD has been reluctant to embrace some of your recommendations and even stronger reluctant to change some of the paramilitary nature of the academy, what you mean in that sentence is that there was that reluctant but now you don't see that reluctance? >> [Indiscernible]. I will speak briefly to clarify. What we were referring to there, councilmember, was the -- there were [3:45:59 PM] recommendations made, for example, in a number of independent reports that we also reviewed and assessed, lying Dr. Villanueva's report, Dr. Ferguson's report on curriculum review. They talked a lot about the paramilitary nature of the academy and their recommendations were that there needs to be kind of a transition to a less regemented academy and more of an adult learning model. It was certainly with respect to many of the recommendations, at least when we first began to look into this, the recommendations that they were making, Dr. Villanueva, Ferguson and others, those recommendations that we believe that the department was reluctant to adapt. Part of it was similar to we had mentioned that, you know, they are in the process of replacing Dr. Villanueva. But in the meantime, when we were talking to instructors, we were trying to figure out, okay, have you looked at Dr. V's report, have you embraced some of those recommendations, what are you doing to try to put more adult learning content into [3:47:00 PM] curriculum? And the typical response at that time was well we're waiting for a new, whoever replaces Dr. Villanueva, and waiting for guidance. In the meantime, we're just making sure that the courses comply with the state mandates. It was kind of in that realm that we I think were commenting in our findings section that there was some reluctance to embrace that. I think what Dan is suggesting is that at least as far as our recommendations go, because we are trying to basically build on our recommendations, look, we agree with Dr. Villanueva and Dr. Ferguson in this area, there does need to be more adult and more active learning so forth. I think the department is saying you know what we agree with that, we're going to go there. Part of the way they're going there is by replacing Dr. Villanueva, which I believe they have hired now a Dr. -- I'm going to batch her name. Botch her name. The new replacement for her. [3:48:01 PM] That that person will now have the proper backing and support, the proper rank and authority to work with and in a hands-on with academy supervisors and instructors to really help them as they go forward build in much more of this adult learning concept. So it kind of comes full circle that way. But just I hope that clarifies a little bit, maybe that gap that you were seeing in the report. >> Casar: That's useful, thank you. I hope the answer to this one is quick. I really appreciate the recommendation and the acceptance of the recommendation for us to have someone present and monitoring the 144th class. To see how these recommendations go and to ensure fidelity to this work. Is that a person or group that we plan on bringing on board before that 144th class begins? I know that it takes time to bring folks on board, so how [3:49:02 PM] would that timeline work? >> That is something we're looking at right now as far as whether that would be a partnership with a governmental entity that would want to come in and do kind of like an oversight auditing role or whether that would be a private consultant that would come in and do that type of audit. So that is something that is still under review. What we are saying is that we do agree that there should be some mechanism by which there is auditing of -- of the classes, some of the classes, all of the classes, so that there can be accountability to these changes that we are committing to make. But as of today, we have not yet identified what that looks like. And then, of course, depending upon the complexity of that, and the cost of that, that could be another item that would have to go through the procurement process. So that's where we're at right now as far as assessing how we'll approach that recommendation. >> Casar: Thank you, [3:50:03 PM] chief. And manager, whatever we can do to get that in place in time for the beginning, whenever that is, I think that that would be important. And I appreciate that recommendation. My last question is, you know, I just want to ground us back into how we got here in the first place, the resolution that was first passed on this. I just want to -- I think everybody has stated here that we want to see an academy up and going and we want to see an academy up and going where we don't have reports from the -- from cadets or from the equity office or others that read like some of the reports that we have gotten. So I want to ground us in that and read a snippet from one of the errors that we received and ask Kroll a question here. These respect my words, just a report that we got from the equity office. From the equity office, part [3:51:03 PM] of the report says: During interviews conducted as a part of this assessment, multiple cadets alleged that the training academy fostered a dangerous and I think effective learning environment. Degrades and injuries highly qualified candidates. Many whom decide to -- training staff promoting rhetoric, antagonistic towards people experiencing homelessness, dangerous training tactics deployed described by cadets with military background "Worse than anything I went through in us military training." Amid numerous valid concerns over testing practices, unsafe physical texts, racist and sexist language, physical abuse, inequitable employment outcomes and a toxic training culture driven by an us versus them mindset, city and APD leaders should rebuild the training academy and implement structural reforms. Given that's the report that [3:52:03 PM] we got from our equity office, what I am interested in from Kroll is do you believe with the recommendations you provided today, if those are implemented with fidelity, at the end of the 14 9 14 - - 144th class, if there were a similar report conducted we wouldn't receive a similar report or the recommendations that you provide today and the ones that you will provide at the end of the month that you think that we can get to a 144th class, if we had the equity office do a similar analysis, we would get a very different analysis? >> I think if we look at where you were, when those recruits and some of those issues came forward, I think we would look at what's happened since then because APD with credit has done some things without being told to do and has made some changes significant to [3:53:03 PM] address those very issues. We found there was also more work to do, we gave the recommendations we feel are short-term. But I would caution that there is no perfect academy class and there never can be. There has to be a continuing process of evaluating training adjusting training, looking to see what worked and didn't work. That's one of the reasons I wanted to bring back recruiters so when people leave the academy, recruiters have spent six to nine months recruiting officers, getting to know them, building trust, getting them into the academy process. If somebody leaves they are probably trusted people who can have a real conversation about why did you leave, I was physically abused during fight day. We didn't like that. I can tell you APD leadership from the academy didn't like fight day and they changed it. They changed it to will to win. We evaluated that and thought that was good but wasn't great. Came up with suggestions for [3:54:04 PM] what we think will get them to great. I would say based on the work already done, our suggestions for short-term milestones, they could begin an academy class. That is we recommend somebody should be there on site to hold the feet to the fire to the staff that is going to have to live with our recommendations and figure out how they work. Wouldn't be the first time in my career that I gave recommendations that don't work in real life and they have to be changed and adjusted for people on the ground who might have better ideas. Having that process and making this a chess class where we -- test class where we test fly it and see how it works, what's community thoughts of what happened in this class, what are the instructors' thoughts, cadets thoughts, supervisors who have these officers come out and using them to fill their shifts on the streets, we can evaluate what worked, didn't work. Hopefully put long-term recommendations in place and see if there's other ones that need to be put in there [3:55:05 PM] and adjusted. I hope that was a short answer to your question. Hopefully the answer that you were looking for. >> Casar: I appreciate it. I am not looking for the perfect class. I recognize there are lots of parts of this city every day before us where there were imperfections and problems that we need to solve. Everybody can agree what was in those prior reports is worse than that and of course many of it is allegation. But the question is just do -- the recommendations that you presented, things that have already bun done, does that get -- been done, does that get you to take a place where a where if a class was started we wouldn't get that level of a shocking of a report or are there other things that you are still trying to come up with for your final report that is coming. >> I will speak for myself, I think that I speak for my team, we feel confident if those measures are met you will have the process of an effective academy training [3:56:06 PM] program. >> Casar: The one that's you printed today, to be clear. >> Presented today, to be clear. >> Correct. >> If I could chime in on that, one of the other things that we are doing, we have -- earlier we talked about some of the other members of our team, we have Dr. Robin angle, she's going to work with us to do some data mining, too. We're going to dig down and see exactly where starting cadets are falling out of the process in training, looking for trends and patterns. We're going to build that into this next report, too. That's something that will be -- we'll be able to continue monitoring moving forward. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you, councilmember Fuentes? >> Fuentes: [Multiple voices] >> Mayor Adler: Hang on one second. It's almost 4:00. I understand from the clerk we have a hard stop at 5:00. So we're going to continue this conversation, it may be that we don't get to pick up the executive session until Thursday. But let's see how it goes. [3:57:08 PM] Councilmember Fuentes? >> Fuentes: Thank you. My question has been covered, so no questions for me. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Okay, councilmember pool. >> Pool: Real quick, Spencer, city manager, I wanted to get some -- if you could revisit what you said about you would be ready to return to the council I think you said next cycle. With the budget amendment for the next class, next cycle, were you talking about next meeting, next fiscal year, what were you meaning by next cycle? >> The next council meeting. But again I want to get this feedback and I'll follow up with individual councilmembers and make sure that we are ready to implement that. >> So that would be our next meeting in March. >> Correct. >> Pool: Thanks so much, that's all that I had. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Renteria. >> Hey, yes, thank you, mayor. >> Renteria: My question is what do you see, you know, there's a lot about [3:58:10 PM] community training and community policing. What do you see a cadet doing different than they have done before when it comes to community policing and training? >> So I would like to -- more exposure to the community and the history of what police in the community relations were before. That recruit puts a badge on his chest or her chest, if I had my druthers, this is down the road, I would try to put recruits in community facing assignments. Where there are walking beats or bicycle units. Where they are not facing 911 calls and high speed pursuits, running on adrenaline. Where they are getting to know the owners of the grocery stores and the bodegas, what the challenges are in the schools and get them to know people first. That's -- that's going to take the training, formal training of being a -- an [3:59:14 PM] enforcement officer, come back later for intermediate training and we will talk about active shooter response and advanced domestic violence cases then put you in police cars to chase 911 calls. But you first learn how to -- I worked very hard as a police trainer. We train cops how to [indiscernible] Assess if someone is armed, ask questions to get somebody to trip themselves up. I sent the police in the central community meeting and said can you take care of the community meeting for me. When I got there, an hour into it, 25 of my community members around the table are talking about policing the neighborhood. A police officer at the back door standing like this. I said David, what are you doing? He said you told me to guard the community meeting, boss. I had to teach him he was there to be part of the community meeting.if we give the recruits the instruction and the ability to engage with the community, we have to keep police officers safe, but the majority of the work [4:00:14 PM] they do is mundane and writing reports and in helping people in crisis. So if we train them for that, I'm all for training as the guardian upfront, assignments that can be less cops on TV and more community policing. And then bring them back in and train them to be a warrior because in my experience when terrorists blew up my city we needed officers to go in. I think it's the best of both worlds. >> Renteria: I really appreciate that. We were one of -- our neighborhood was one of the first to embrace community policing and it was really -- the outcome was just really great. We reduced the crime. We didn't have the youth gang member problem that other part of the town was having. So I really am one of those councilmembers that have community policing and I'm glad that part of that is [4:01:14 PM] going to be part of the training of our officers. We really need to get this implemented, chief, because this is very important to the community. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Ellis. >> Ellis: Thank you, mayor. Some of the thoughts I've had have been covered by a number of my colleagues so I just wanted to express that I also am thinking forward into what does the oversight continue to look like. How do we ensure that the training once it gets back going is fresh, is up to date. Do we have certain targets that every X number of years we needing to going through processes like this to understand that we're still delivering content to cadets that is timely and fresh so we don't end up in a situation where the materials are so old that they're way out of date and not helpful to the community. So I do want to make sure we know what those steps are before proceeding with [4:02:16 PM] approving another class. And I also care about community engagement so people feel like the ones this is affected by policing have a voice in the process and I know have had an opportunity to do the last few months that. We don't lose sight of that and that we continue to provide that forum for people who are trying to tell us the information that cadets really need to understand. So I want to make sure that we think about that before moving forward and really understand what that is before we as a council move forward with the materials and the next sets of training. >> Cronk: That's very helpful, councilmember. Thanks for that feedback. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Colleagues? I think when we went through the class and talked about the cadet classes early E we had I believe made a commitment to the community not to do the cadet classes [4:03:18 PM] until we thought we could do them right, until we thought we could do them better. And I think that's still the promise that we have to the community. I appreciate the review that's gone on here, appreciate the steps, appreciate the comment to councilmember Casar's last question. Thinking of of this next class as a test class makes sense to me because a lot of these things I think you're not going to really be able to know how they translate until you actually see how they are implemented. It is probably the kind of thing that evolves over time. I don't know if it's possible to livestream the classes, but a camera in the back of the room and just put it on stream somewhere so that people in community who wanted to watch how classes are being taught in realtime, I don't know if that is -- violates any of [4:04:19 PM] the protocols or isn't practical, but that might be in keeping with thinking about this as a test class when it starts. But I do know and I agree with councilmember Renteria and some others that have spoken, councilmember kitchen I think earlier. If we have made a quantum change in what we're doing, it's going to be materially different, I do believe having cadet classes gives us an opportunity for cultural change agents. And an opportunity to be able to effect the kind of cultural change that we want to -- that we want to see. Part of it, manager, is I would like to have your assessment based on these recommendations. I mean, do you think -- ultimately, you know, over the course of this there's going to be kind of a change [4:05:21 PM] in APD leadership so I think folks will be looking to you to be the guarantor that if we went forward with a class it's going to result in a different kind of class and move us toward a different kind of culture. So your recommendation and what do you think we're ready or when we're ready to be able to do this I think will be significant for the community to hear. I for one would have like to have a class sooner than later, but only to the degree that it would be materially different. Mayor pro tem? Harper-madison thank you, mayor. I think like a lot of my colleagues have expressed, a [4:06:21 PM] lot of my questions have been answered. I think the one thing that I wonder if we're putting the appropriate amount of attention to is how we got here in the first place, but things that have transpired, the report, the data, like how we got here in the first place, what the problematic elements were. I want to make sure that we don't lose sight of that. Taking the opportunity to see, you know, that we can get this right and do it really well. I don't think it should take away the opportunity to recognize how we got here in the first place. And some of the data, you know, throughout the course of this process, you know, while Kroll was doing the work they were doing, the community members were doing the work they were doing, some of the data that's been presented to us even as a result of that about racial profiling and some of the other really problematic elements including -- I think somebody might have said today and I'll follow [4:07:22 PM] up with the actual question, but if people were actually fired, removed from their positions as a result of bad behavior, trusted individuals who were training our cadets, I'd like very much to get a little more insight into what happened there. But then one of the other things that early on when we were trying to put together this resolution, something we took into consideration was what is the appropriate order of operations? Is it cadet class? Is it recruitment? We were asking the questions because we don't know. I'm so grateful that we have the professionals on scene. Not to say that I don't want us to forget how we got here in the first place. I also would like to ask some questions that early on for me were problematic and I haven't heard us discuss them. My hope is that maybe this is a part of the next phase, but there were some problematic disqualification [4:08:23 PM] codes, for example. I heard about a dq code that talked about hair. You were dq'd if you had locks. There were a group of black officers who got that fixed. That to say the fact that they had to repeatedly ask to get that fixed, that's a very racist, problematic disqualification code. The fact that we weren't-- we didn't address it faster is a problem. I've heard some concerns about dq codes that have to do with people's personal credit. I'd like very much to make certain that as we are doing these assessments and we are really revolutionizing how we do this, we make sure that we ask all those hard questions about the recruitment component and the disqualification codes and make certain that everything is fair. I heard a story one time where one cadet had this series of events, the other had another series of events. It just so happens the white cadet was pushed forward. The black cadet was [4:09:24 PM] disqualified. I want to make sure that we don't lose the opportunity to make certain that things happen in a way that unilateral, the same level of expectation for every cadet and things like a group of white men making an assessment about whether or not you're qualified to be a police officer because of black hair that they don't know anything about. So I just want to make certain that, you know, I certainly don't want to make -- I don't want to make -- I don't want to introduce any further problematic elements to these conversations but I want to make certain that we are having very difficult decisions -- I'm sorry, difficult conversations. I just want to make sure that we do that. So I think the last thing that I heard that gives me pause is the conversation about reassumption of cadet [4:10:25 PM] classes. And mayor, while I appreciate your ideology about a test class, these are people's children. These are people's parents. These are-- I don't want to test them out. I don't want them to be put in a position that could be harmful. So I just want to make sure that the circular element of consideration before we do a cadet class is that everybody will be safe, including our cadets. >> Mayor Adler: I certainly didn't mean to imply otherwise. >> Harper-madison: You didn't. I wanted to make sure I was clear. You didn't. I wanted to make sure I was clear. Thank you, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: I agree with what you said. Anything else on this, guys, on the community policing? Manager? >> Cronk: Thank you, Kroll team for this thoughtful assessment of the work. [4:11:26 PM] It's preliminary to date, the designing of the police academy which really places a priority on diversity and equity. We're also listening to the community voices that helped shape several of these recommendations, particularly the work of the video review panel. As we've said before, the next steps in this process will be receiving the final report from Kroll next month. We will make sure that we see all the short-term measures outlined and implemented. We need to have that clear path and plan and timeline for implementing the long-term recommendations in the preliminary reports and we'll be gathering additional feedback from the community, including the city-community task force that will be incorporated with this feedback. Again, thank you all, mayor and council for your important conversation today. And when we feel like we have achieved these objectives we'll be able to move forward with the budget amendment on the agenda for your consideration to restart the academy, but keeping you informed of the specific timelines as we move forward. Again, really appreciate [4:12:27 PM] this conversation today. A lot more to come, but I want to thank our consultants, director muscadin and our deputy city manager for really spearheading this work. Thank you all. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. And you will come back at the next meeting with both of the budget amendment that would enable us to act, but your recommendation on whether you think we're ready to do that. >> Cronk: I can certainly do that, yes. >> Mayor Adler: Okay, thank you. Anything else on this policing issue in front of us now? Councilmember Kelly. >> Kelly: Thank you so much. Obviously there's an incredible amount of work into even getting this far and I'm really hopeful for the outco that will come across with our future police academy. I want to address something that you said earlier mayor when you were talking about livestreaming the academy. I would hope that maybe we could consult with legal about that. I know that things can be touchy and I don't want to put us into some sort of precarious position without getting their opinion on that. [4:13:27 PM] And while I do believe in transparency, I think it's a very important thing for a city government to have, I want to make sure if we do forward with that we do it with consulting with legal first. >> If I could chime in on that from Kroll. We have some concerns about livestreaming in an educational environment. You know, it could stifle learning. Besides the privacy concerns that you would probably be talking with your legal department about, if cadets enter the academy, like Dan said earlier, they have different strengths, differences, learning ability. If they know they would be live streamed that could hinder learning in-class participation. That's something we're concerned about. And when it comes time to have those discussion, open and honest discussions, especially about race, gender, dei issues, that could keep those individuals from speaking out and knowing that their conversations and their shared life experiences could be out for the public to see. So as consultants we have that concern in addition to [4:14:29 PM] what legal concerns you might identify, but we have the concern about how it could hinder learning in some of these important classes we're talking about implementing moving forward. >> Thank you for that. Chief Manley dorks have anything you wanted to add from your background and knowledge and the possibility of livestreaming something like this. >> I believe the comments that were made is something that we would address is that we wouldn't want anything that would inhibit the free flow and discussion because people were fearful. I would never want to take that out of that environment because I think that's where the true learning is going to take place, especially with all these changes we're working to implement when we want our cadets to be open and free with each other about their lived experiences. So that would be something we would have to address. So thank you. >> Kelly: Thank you for that. Mayor, I do appreciate that suggestion, I just know coming from a public safety background myself, that might be a really planning commission situation to put people in -- peculiar [4:15:29 PM] situation to put people into before we offer it. Again, I am a big proponent of being open in government mostly, but this is a particular situation that we should probably pay a little more attention to. Thank you very much for letting me speak. >> Mayor Adler: I appreciate that. And I would like for us to do something that enables us to learn from this class. I wasn't recommending that or throwing it out, but I would like for us to try and figure out how we can make sure in moving forward with a class that that is in fact achieving the goals that we want it to. Councilmember Casar? >> Casar: I wanted to catch the last part of the conversation here. What I heard earlier from the manager is that he was going to consult with us and think about when the budget amendment was right. Then at the end of the conversation it sounded like y'all were confirming that the budget amendment is coming in two weeks. I just want to understand what the path moving forward is. [4:16:29 PM] >> Mayor Adler: What I was asking for is what I thought was consistent where we would have the ability to be able to do it, but not necessarily doing it. I've asked for a recommendation as to whether and when we should do it. But having the ability to be able to do it on that timing is something that I would like us to have. I don't know whether it's the right thing to do or not. >> Casar: Okay. I just generally see it either as the manager's role to put it on the agenda when he recommends it or as the council's role to put it on the agenda if there is four members to put it on an agenda. And so if we're going to divert from that process I just want that to be explicit. >> Mayor Adler: So let's talk about it. Ann asked the question, manager is ready to do it this cycle. We have to ask the question what cycle meant. He said by the end of the next meeting. So what's the procedure we would follow then? I guess if the manager's not [4:17:30 PM] going to put it on the agenda he has to give us sufficient notice so that somebody else has the able to put it on the agenda if they want to, which means then we're looking for recommendation from you, manager, some time prior to two weeks before the meeting so as to give council the opportunity to be able to respond. Does that work? >> Absolutely. >> Casar: And in that context it's just useful to know that that's the general timeline because I and others of course kept our questions short today and it's a report that we just got last night. So I think there's good reason for to us have further discussion to land on a timeline and place. >> Mayor Adler: I was trying to avoid initiating that conversation at the end of the month if in fact it's something that we wanted to be able to do. Councilmember alter. >> Alter: So I wanted to [4:18:31 PM] just get clarity over when we would have the final report, which is supposed to be at the end of the month. Which our meeting is like March -- >> Mayor Adler: 23rd. >> Alter: -- 23rd. Or 25th. So is that -- would we even have the final report for when we would be voting? >> I'll confirm with consultants and our staff and we can give you an updated memo on the time frame. >> Alter: Thank you. Broadly speaking, I favor us being able to move forward with an academy, as others have said, as soon as we're clear that we have material difference. We did just receive the report yesterday. This has been a process that the community has engaged with us, and I do believe [4:19:33 PM] that a lot bit of time for folks to digest it. I'm not saying lots of extra time, but we do need to provide some time for folks to digest it and provide some feedback and thoughts moving forward. I would be comfortable with a special called meeting if we needed to that first week of April if we can work it around passover and Easter appropriately. I think the magnitude of what we're trying to do with this being able to have it focused and have value to that. I would ask the manager to that aredo that as an option to that we can move forward with material changes, but also with the speed with which we need to in order to be able to move forward with the class given the lead time that's necessary. >> Those are good ideas. >> Mayor Adler: Colleagues, anything else on this topic? Okay. [4:20:33 PM] Consultants, thank you all for the report and for the continued work. Thank you for your project lead on this, mark. Manager, thanks. >> Thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Two things to address before we go back into personnel. We have four items on the agenda that N week that speak to covid response. We've just heard that the governor is removing his constraints on businesses as well as ending his mask mandate, which is is not supported by any of the scientists or any of the data that I've heard. Consistent with the four items that we have this week on the covid stuff, manager, do you know -- I would hope [4:21:33 PM] that the city would consider us requiring masking in all city facilities and city activities. I would hope that judge brown would consider the same thing. I see the chamber issued a statement encouraging all businesses to continue doing masking. It just seems to be something fundamentally unfair about not having sufficient vaccines yet for frontline workers in businesses and then having them go to those businesses and removing a mask while they're not allowed to protect themselves. So I hope that while we figure out what the right response is, at the very least we're continuing to do everything that we can. >> Thank you for bringing that up, mayor. I agree and have already consulted hr and making sure that we communicate that out to having all of the city-owned facilities still require masking. So that will be the case. >> Mayor Adler: Okay, thank you. [4:22:34 PM] Councilmember pool? >> Pool: Yeah. I just wanted to make sure I understand. In the example that you just gave you were saying that the workers in like a restaurant wouldn't be able to protect themselves, but they can still wear a mask, right? I mean, the governor hasn't said no one can wear a mask. He is saying that we're not required to, but we still can. And I certainly expect that many austinites will. So in the example that you gave -- do you want to try that again? >> Mayor Adler: Yeah. What I was referencing is they're not entitled to get a vaccine yet because if you have a worker that's under 65 and a frontline worker they can't get vaccinated yet because they don't qualify. They can't protect themselves that way, but with the governor's order we're having them potentially be in the position where they're going to be interacting with someone that possibly could not be wearing a mask. [4:23:34 PM] And they can wear their mask and protect the others around them, but it's the others around them wearing a mask that protects the workers. So I hope everybody in our community continues to protect those frontline workers by continuing to wear masks. But you're absolutely right, councilmember pool. The governor's order didn't say you couldn't wear a mask, it just said that cities were not -- that cities were not allowed to enforce the mask mandate. >> Pool: Great, thank you very much. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Kelly. >> Kelly: Thank you, mayor. I want to echo what councilmember pool said. We all need to practice personal responsibility here and be good neighbors that one another and wear a mask until we're through this, even though the governor said there's no mask mandate, it's still a great idea to help one another out in the community and wear one when it's appropriate, especially around people who [4:24:34 PM] are vulnerable and haven't yet been vaccinated because we all need to do this together and the only way we can do that is to continue to mask up like Dr. Escott said this morning. Thank you, everybody here for being on the same page and asking that and spreading it throughout our community so we can all be stronger at the end of this together. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you, councilmember Kelly. One last item we have on our agenda, the opportunity to take action with respect to ballot language. I think the supreme court's rule, Ann, I'm going to turn it over to you to lead us in the next subject. >> Thank you, mayor. I just sent an email to all of you councilmembers within the next 20 minutes or something. The supreme court of Texas has ruled in the decision that -- you may remember that after we called the election we were sued by a group of individuals who challenged the language that we used for the ballot for the citizen initiated ordinance regarding sit-lie-camping [4:25:36 PM] solicitation. The third court of appeals determined that the language otherwise roadway it went to the Texas supreme court that ruled early he today. The plaintiffs argued that the council should have used the petition caption that was on the petition itself and then they argued that the language that we used was emphasized the criminal penalties too much and also had to use the word anyone within the ballot language to describe who would be subject to the prohibition on sitting and lying and camping. The supreme court said of those three arguments the one that they determined was problematic was the use of the word anyone because within the ordinance itself there are exceptions to having -- to being criminally penalized for sitting or lying or camping. And those as you remember,, there's an exception in [4:26:37 PM] section 7 about sitting and lying on the sidewalk and the exceptions are if you're having a medical emergency, you're operating or patronizing a commercial establishment, you're participating or viewing a parade or festival. You're sitting in a chair or bench supplied by an agency abutting to the sidewalk. You're at a bus stop or waiting in lines for goods. So there are exceptions to the sit-lie and similarly there are exceptions to the camping provision so that if you are told by a police officer to move along, that's an exception to giving you a criminal penalty. And I think that when we used the word anyone it was to clarify that this was not selectively looking at any particular kind of person. It was across the board. Nevertheless, we don't have time to have a full argument in front of the supreme court. What they've asked is they've conditionally granted the mandamus to grant that relief and said that they are certain that [4:27:38 PM] the city council will make the change that is necessary, which is simply to remove the word anyone from the ballot language. So we have dawn in the ballot language where Carolyn Webster has created an ordinance that has that language taken out so the ballot language is exactly the same except it removes the word anyone in Tse two places. And so we would -- our request would be that you take the action today so that the county can call the election timely and vote on the ordinance. And we'll put it in the backup right now. >> Mayor Adler: Can you read the language? Where anyone comes out? >> The language that we had says shall an ordinance be adopted that would create a criminal offense and a penalty for anyone sitting or lying down on a public sidewalk or sleeping outdoors in and near the downtown area and a the area around the university of [4:28:40 PM] Texas campus, create a criminal offense and penalty for solicitation, defined as requesting money or another thing of value at specific hours and locations or for solicitation in a public area that is deemed aggressive in manner, create a criminal offense and penalty for anyone camping in a public area not designated by the parks and recreation department. So again, it's simply removing the words anyone in those two places, modifying the sit-lie and the camping piece of this. >> Mayor Adler: So it reads shall an ordinance be adopted to create a criminal offense or penalty for sitting or lying down in a public sidewalk. >> Correct. >> Mayor Adler: Continuing on. Okay. I think I understand that change. Councilmember Casar? >> Casar: Mayor, I would move that we adopt that. >> Mayor Adler: Is there a second to the motion? Mayor pro tem seconds. Is there any discussion? I'm fine with this language. To me it -- to most people reading it I think it's [4:29:40 PM] going to read the same. It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Those in favor of making the change please raise your hand. Those opposed? I think that is -- that's all of us. It passes. Colleagues, that's all of the -- >> Thank you, Ann. >> Mayor Adler: The only thing we have left is the executive session on personnel, which we can certainly go back to or we can pick it up on Thursday. Councilmember kitchen, then the mayor pro tem. >> Kitchen: I just wanted to make a quick reminder announcement for folks. Tomorrow is our joint Austin energy and water oversight committee meeting. I have posted on the message board the agenda for the water oversight committee portion of the meeting. I believe that councilmember pool has also posted on the [4:30:42 PM] message board the approach for the Austin energy portion of the meeting. So I invite you all to take a look at that. If you have any comments or questions, it would be great if you have a chance to send them to me tonight. You can also send them in the morning. I just wanted to -- I know we've all been in this meeting all day so I wanted to bring that to your attention that that's posted on the message board. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Mayor pro tem. >> Harper-madison: Oh, mayor, this actually might have been -- I didn't see his face. He was bent down. I wanted to make certain, you said unanimous. I didn't see councilmember Renteria. Can we just make sure to be clear that it was an affirmative? >> Mayor Adler: It was. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: You guys want to go into the executive session for the next 30 minutes? Everybody that would like to go in for the next 30 minutes raise your hand so I can see. Folks that would like to just pick it up on Thursday [4:31:43 PM] raise your hand. I think that seems to be the controlling vote. We have Thursday to pick it up. We'll go ahead and do that. I think people are tired. It is 4:31 and we can end this meeting unless anyone has anything else. Seeing none, this meeting is adjourned. We'll see you tomorrow at the combined committee meetings. [6:01:23 PM] >>> >> >>> Zoning and platting commission. >> Chair: I'd like to welcome commissioner Kerry Thompson. And commissioner Kerry Thompson, before I even do the roll, if you want to say a few words about yourself? >> Sure, I'm happy to. I don't know what information is useful. I live in district 10, but have a long history in district 4. And still own a house there. I work at the meadows center for the water and the environment where I'm director of operations. And have a long history of working on environmental issues here in central Texas. And elsewhere across the country. [6:02:26 PM] And I am a certified mediator and work on the conflict resolution part of mediation. >> Chair: Through. And I always start with saying it's 6:02 on Tuesday, March second. For tonight's zoning and platting meeting. I'll call the roll first. And commissioner Acosta? >> Presente. >> Chair: Vice-chair Barrera Ramirez. >> Here. >> Chair: Commissioner bray. Commissioner denkler. >> Present. >> Chair: Commissioner Evans. Commissioner king. >> Here. >> Chair: And I'm here, commissioner kiolbassa. Commissioner ray. >> Here. >> Commissioner Smith. >> Here. >> Commissioner Thompson. >> Here. >> Chair: Commissioner woody. Okay. Then I'm going to read the agenda for today, a1, approval of minutes from [6:03:28 PM] second second, 2021. And b1 was posted in error so there's no action. These are all on the consent agenda, b2, c8-2020-0255.0a, Avery lakeline. And that's on the consent agenda for approval with conditions. B3, partial plat, vacation. C8-2019-0041.1a, vack Avery lakeline. That is on the consent agenda for approval with conditions. B4 preliminary plat, c8j-2019-0143, Howard lane a, small lot subdivision preliminary plan. And that is on the consent agenda for recommendation. [6:04:29 PM] B5, final plat with preliminary plan, c8j-2018-0151.1a, whisper valley village 1, phase 3, final plat. That is on the consent agenda. And then b6, final plat with preliminary plan, c8j-2018-0151.2a. >> Whisper valley village 1, phase 4 final plat. And that's on the consent agenda for approval. So that is our consent agenda for today. And I'll ask a few things. First off, if you are on, but not speaking, if you could hit mute and second is there anybody who has signed up to speak on any of these issues. I don't believe I even saw a speaker sign-up for tonight, but I just had to ask. And then on -- given on a that, we can have a motion [6:05:29 PM] to close the public hearing and to approve the consent agenda. Motion by commissioner Smith, seconded by commissioner denkler. All those in favor of the consent agenda please raise your hand. And it looks like it's unanimous. And except I can't see commissioner bray. It happens he has joined us. And there's commissioner bray. Great. Thank you for joining us. And then on to our next agenda item, and that is items from the commission, discussion and possible action regarding matters related to any proposed revisions to the code. And if anybody has anything, if not we can skip on to the next agenda item. And -- commissioner Smith. I can't hear you. >> We have two phone numbers [6:06:29 PM] listed. One is ends in 430 and one ends in 442. >> Chair, commission liaison Andrew Rivera. >> Chair: Who are are those, good point. Who are those mystery phone numbers? >> Those are staff phone numbers. If you will discard the phone numbers on the screen. >> Chair: City hall tech person can you help us off on this. >> We have one ending in 43 and one in 42. >> These are -- >> Chair: Do you know? Is that somebody speaking on an issue? >> So we had to bring in some staff members on this side. Our phone line seems to be having some issues so we have just told them to call in here. >> Okay, great. Thanks. And thanks, commissioner Smith for asking. [6:07:30 PM] And commissioner bray has joined us in case it wasn't noted. Then our next agenda item is -- and that motion for the agenda passed. And then we have next, future agenda items, and vice-chair Barrera Ramirez and I have asked for a presentation on the Austin climate equity plan. And I understand that that will be -- we will receive that on March 16th. Is that correct? Andrew? >> Chair, commission, liaison Andrew Rivera. That is correct. >> Chair: Thank you for scheduling that. And thank you, vice-chair Barrera Ramirez for recommending that. Okay. And then I guess I'm trying to set the record for the quickest meeting ever. >> This is commissioner king. I don't know if somebody is taking notes or not, but I am taking brief notes here in case we need those for the minutes and I just wanted to get that out there, okay? >> Chair: You are right on [6:08:31 PM] top of our next agenda item, and that is e1, nomination and election of secretary. So does anybody -- is nibbling to accept up to the plate -- step up to the plate, would love to be secretary, is just trying to be secretary? Don't rush all at once. Commissioner king, since you said that you were taking notes, had you to open your mouth. How about it? I think it's great. So okay. So we can nominate -- unless anybody else wants to. >> No. I make a motion to nominate commissioner king as secretary. >> Chair: Okay. That sounds good. All those in favor of commissioner king as secretary king, please raise your hands. And it is to make it unanimous -- I hope that's [6:09:31 PM] not undue. I hope that's not against Robert's rules of order. So it's unanimous, commissioner king is our secretary. Thank you so much. And then next on to our agenda item, our nominations and elections, and rile read it out, e2 was nomination and consideration for member to serve on joint committee. He have 3, same thing for joint plan committee and then one to serve on the small area planning joint committee. And again, those are joint committees and there's a slot available on each of them. Is anybody interested or any nominations or anything like that? I'll jump in there. I haven't been on a joint committee in two years so I would love to be on the codes and ordinances [6:10:33 PM] committee. And commissioner king. >> You're muted. >> I'd like to nominate chair kiolbassa for the codes and ordinances committee. >> Chair: Then there's still two others, the comprehensive plan and the joint committee. >> I think if we stay on the ones we've been on? >> Yeah, you can stay on the ones you've been on because it's just for the opening of the people of the commissioners who have left us. So we can revisit all that too, but it's -- and commissioner denkler. >> You're muted. >> Sorry, I was going to second Mr. King's motion. I think it's been three years or more really. [6:11:37 PM] Is there -- so I'll second David's motion. >> Chair: Okay. Is there anybody else who wants to be on that. Or commissioner bray. >> Hello. I'm working actually doing water distribution stuff so I wasn't able to [indiscernible], sorry if it's noisy. I would be interested in doing codes and ordinances as well. I don't know if you have a certain number of people we're aiming for? >> Chair: It's one vacancy because it's a joint committee with the planning commission. >> Okay. Do we have any other vacancies? >> Chair: Yes, yes. There's comprehensive plan and there is small area planning. >> I'd be interested in small area plan. >> Chair: Okay. That would just leave comprehensive plan. >> Who is the vacancy on the small area joint commission? >> Chair: Who is the vacancy from? From commissioner Aguirre. [6:12:39 PM] >> Because king and ray are on there already. Is there three members on that one? >> Chair: Yes. >> Okay. I don't know. Is commissioner [indiscernible] And commissioner Evans still on the commission. There was backup that the person from district 6 was no longer on the commission. >> Chair: Oh! >> Chair, commission liaison Andrew Rivera. Yes, we received communication that the d6 representative vacated the seat so we have two vacancies on the comprehensive plan joint committee that you can nominate this evening. >> Chair: Okay. Thanks. And commissioner Acosta? And I like your cat. Needs a hat, though. >> Yeah. I would like to go ahead and if there is availability to be on the comprehensive plan joint committee. >> Chair: Okay. So that would fill that. We would then need one more for the comprehensive plan. [6:13:39 PM] Are there any takers on the comprehensive plan for the other position? Don't all rush at once again. And we can see, we're missing commissioner woody. I feel like we're missing -- I don't know. I've got to get used to this. >> I'm here. >> Chair: I looked and we can fill the comprehensive plan. It's not meeting real soon. Okay. So we'll just do that. So how about that for a slate for comprehensive plan that would be commissioner Acosta. Small plan: Commissioner bray. And me for the codes and ordinances. [6:14:42 PM] >> And for that motion, commissioner king? >> If it's appropriate I would ask that chair kiolbassa be nominated for the codes and ordinance. That commissioner bray be nominated for the small area joint planning committee and that commissioner Acosta be it further resolved a member of the comprehensive plan joint committee. >> I'll second. >> Chair: Okay. That sounds good. That's our slate and it will go to council for approval. It still has to be approved. But okay, all those in favor of the vote please raise your hands. It's unanimous. And thank you to commissioners bray and commissioner Acosta for stepping up. And thank you actually commissioner king for being secretary. >> Chair, may I just clarify. I made that motion and who seconded it? >> Commissioner Smith. >> Okay. And then we had a second motion for my appointment to the -- as the secretary. >> >> Chair: Yes. [6:15:42 PM] And I believe I could count as making the motion and Robert's rules of order a small group like this I could do that. >> Okay. Was there a second to that? >> Yes. >> Chair: Commissioner denkler. >> Second on the nomination for secretary was moved. I had Smith, but let's make it kill bass so, Acosta second, passed unanimously. >> I trust you all's recollection. I run the meeting, I don't pay attention otherwise. >> All right. Just to be clear, I've got kiolbassa and denkler on my appointment as secretary. And then on all the other ones me and Smith made the motion on that. Okay, thank you. >> Chair: Okay. Thank you. Are there -- we've taken care of that. And then are there any reports on any of our joint [6:16:46 PM] committees? And I don't believe so. And then after that then it looks like that what we have is our adjournment. But I guess I could -- commissioner king. >> I'm trying to be good about muting when I'm not talking. [Laughter]. I'm sorry about that. But did we miss the future agenda items? >> Chair: I'm sorry, that was where -- we can have future agenda items, yeah. I sped through that. Let's go back to future agenda items because I had in fact focused on the item that vice-chair Barrera Ramirez and I had put on. Are there any future agenda items. I'm sorry I didn't ask. Commissioner king. >> Thank you, chair. So yes, I would like to put the item that was on our previous agenda, but dropped off because one of the [6:17:47 PM] co-sponsors is no longer on our commission. So I'd like to-- I'm just getting it back on the agenda so that we can follow up with the work that was started with this item. And it is a discussion, possible action and support of increased community flood protection and flood resilience efforts in response to climate change. >> Chair: Okay. That sounds good. And I'm willing to co-sponsor -- I was an original co-sponsor on that. It doesn't really matter, just takes two to co-sponsor. Yeah, that would be great. >> Thank you. >> Chair: Do you have an idea of when you would want to have that? >> Given what we're going through right now and recovering in the pandemic and everything, the vaccination programs that we're involved with throughout the city, I'm not trying to push this too hard, but I do think that it is kind of timely when we're talking about what we just went through and climate change and how it changes our resilience. So I think if we let it go for a couple of weeks or a [6:18:47 PM] month and follow back up on it, I think it would be beneficial. >> That sounds good. I'll just see when -- I'll circle back to it in probably a month. Okay, that sounds good. >> Thank you. >> Chair: Any other future agenda items? I see you're all struggling. Well then, commissioner denkler. >> I think this is a record. >> Chair: I don't know. I had a record before, but I'm going to keep track of this. So we are adjourned -- >> [Indiscernible] Is in charge of time keeping. >> Chair: And everybody enjoy the rest of your evening and lovely to meet you, commissioner Thompson. Thank you so much.