City Council Work Session Transcript – 05/04/2021 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - COAUS Recorded On: 5/4/2021 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 5/4/2021 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. [11:00:10 AM] >> Mayor Adler: It's may 4th, 2021. It's 11:00. We have a quorum present. This is being convened remotely. We have two items that have been pulled. Colleagues, item number 40 pulled by councilmember Casar, item 41 pulled by councilmember kitchen. We also have some executive session items. And we have two briefings. The briefing on Kroll is a time certain at 2:30 because of the consultants that are participating. So wherever we are we'll start that then. We can do the homelessness briefing before, we will do the executive session and we'll play that by ear. We have a 5:00 hard stop [11:01:11 AM] today because they need the space to get to boards and commissions meetings. With that said let's -- the goal is to take lunch between 12 and 1:00, and as we told the mayor pro tem, I may need to step off the dais from like 1:15 to 1:30ish. Let's do pulled items. Councilmember Casar, you pulled item 40? >> Casar: I did, mayor and we were going to go over some of this during our housing committee yesterday, but it was interpret itty short. I -- it was pretty short. I wanted to take five minutes or less to show some photos that are in backup and that av has because we all went through as a whole community the winter storm together, some people impacted much more than others, but everybody went through it together, but we are still, some people are [11:02:15 AM] really in horrible conditions from the storm. I know several of you have visited with constituents that are still suffering from pretty severe damage, but I wanted -- if av could to share briefly some of the photographs we took in d4 as we work on this item asking for our city to not just handle mold issues that exist now, but to improve the way that we can enforce against some of these hazardous living conditions caused by things like the storm. So -- if you just flip through -- I think there are six pictures. If you just sit on each one of them for two seconds, I think it's just important to see and for the community to see why it is that we're still working on this. And these are all apartments that are currently occupied by folks. [11:03:24 AM] In part what the resolution does is ask for us to change the way and improve the -- look at how other cities enforce mold issues. Currently my understanding is many of the photos that you see aren't a violation of city health or safety code in and of themselves. Mold itself isn't a violation. Some of the underlying conditions are a violation. That can be really hard to -- really hard to enforce. So some of these things like fungus just straight up growing out of the ground, not a violation in and of itself. And this last slide was from our housing committee yesterday. I thought important to show here. This is how many winter storm damaged code violations and deficiencies there are per district. As you can see they exist across every single city [11:04:24 AM] council district, but there's just such a concentration of older housing stock that hasn't been kept up in district 4 in particular that I thought would be important just for folks to see here. The second chart on the bottom is deficiencies, that is damage spotted specifically by the code department after a call comes in and the number of deficiencies listed in d4 was surprised to see how it out strips every part of the city, the whole city combined. It doesn't even get close to the number of damaged units that the code department has found in d4. And I think that is just something to note how we have just this really serious concentration units of housing that are -- that are vulnerable to extreme damage like this and then [11:05:27 AM] not repaired across the city. It's important and any person living in those conditions is a terrible thing, but I thought the disproportionality here in the northeast, north central part of our city was important to note and to see. You may have seen in the news and some people have called and reported to the city about continuing to live in mold and damaged units now coming up on three months after the storm and now some property owners in those places are now saying that those units are unliveable even after they've collected rent for multiple months telling folks that now they need to move. In addressing mold issues we need to think about what legal protections we can have for tenants so if they raise these issues and continue to push for repairs [11:06:28 AM] that they don't wind up on the street but instead get accommodated by their property owners. I know that the mayor pro tem, haca worked hard on those issues and at mount Carmel to make sure people weren't dismissed and we still have -- displaced and we still have renters who are suffering from the storm. We have to improve how it is that we address mold and improve those tenant's rights not to end up being displaced or living in hazardous conditions and figure out what things we can have in place and for landlords to make sure people aren't kicked out, but also not entrapped in these sorts of units. Thank y'all. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Ellis. >> Ellis: I appreciate councilmember Casar bringing this forward. I reached out to be a co-sponsor. I think that was okay. I wanted to say that on the [11:07:28 AM] record. >> Casar: We should asked your name if it isn't added already. >> Ellis: Appreciate that. I heard from a Hugh constituents here that are going through water repairs and so this is definitely happening in every district. And it is clear that some districts are affected more than others and I look forward to seeing how we can move forward to help apartment renters in our community. >> Mayor Adler: Staff, I think that councilmember Renteria is having trouble getting on as well. I don't know if you can reach out to him. Councilmember pool? >> Pool: I think this also points up the importance of building construction standards because cheaper built structures will be more likely to fail and that also increases the importance and the emphasis [11:08:28 AM] we should be putting on the landlords' responsibility to make repairs timely. And then of course those who may be renting to identify them when they see them so that the repairs can also be done timely. It's a whole ecosystem that we all need to work together in order to get the positive outcomes, but it really is pretty abhorrent to be living in those kinds of conditions. And so we definitely need not only to boost the repairs and emphasize them with the property owners, but also to bring to our policy discussion the importance of properly building to good standards and not necessarily the lowest common denominator. I recognize that that gets into affordability issues as well. But frankly it's cheaper to build really well at the front end and then to maintain than it is to go back and retrofit or make costly repairs like what is [11:09:30 AM] likely happening here. And I just think it's just awful to hear that now the landlords are using the fact that the properties are damaged and unhe will think as a -- healthy as a reason to evict and move people out because they were so delinquent and dilatory to make those repairs. That's just awful. So yes, I would like to see our landlord community step up to the plate and assume the responsibility for ensuring the healthy environments for their tenants. It's the least that we can ask them that they can do. Thanks, Greg, for bringing this. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Fuentes. >> Fuentes: Thank you. I just wanted to thank councilmember Casar for his leadership on this issue. We had many in my district as well that face these circumstances as your district and I want to applaud your leadership. While I'm grateful for [11:10:32 AM] landlords that are diligent in making the repairs needed, we know that's not always the case. And for some in our community they are afraid to report mold in their apartments. So it's incumbent upon all of us to do more to ensure that we have those protections and I think that -- one thing is that landlords are not required to disclose the results from a mold test with their tents tenants and so if there are ways that we can identify as a city to provide additional support to tenants and getting access to mold screenings and mold tests so that they're armed with that information and know what kind of conditions they're living with, I think I'm super open to exploring that and certainly there's a need. I want to thank you for your leadership and I'm happy to be a co-sponsor on this resolution. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember kitchen and then councilmember alter. >> Kitchen: Thank you for sharing the -- councilmember Casar, thank you for sharing [11:11:33 AM] the data that's available to us about what's happening across the city. Is there anything that you would like to add about the ability to drill down on that data? Is it pretty much what you presented or would you suggest that there's ability for us to go deeper in our districts with regard to locations and that sort of thing? >> Casar: I think it could be really helpful for any of you and we've asked for this for the code department to provide they have addresses for each of those data points so that we can have a sense of where cases stand and which ones still need repairs. And I think they even have data about closed out cases because I think as some of you mentioned there certainly have been property owners that had the damage to their rental properties and got it fixed within days or at a minimum weeks. So it is also a a fairness issue to those property owners that had a complaint [11:12:34 AM] and got it fixed for us to have some folks at this point still with outstanding damage. So I think, council member, each of you touching base with code in our districts can be a useful tool because they do have all the deeper data behind that chart. >> Councilmember alter. >> Is that what you're asking, council? >> Yes, it is. And I would like that data so I'll reach out to the code department. Or perhaps I can ask right now if they're on. I think I see Jose. I'll send an email. >> We'll be more than happy to help you with that, council member. I'm with the code department. As a matter of fact, I want to add to that we've been working on a public facing dashboard that is going to have all the data and we'll be able to filter by different cases and addresses so that will be available for everybody. [11:13:39 AM] >> Mayor Adler: All right. Thank you very much. Councilmember Flannigan. >> Alter: I would latinx to see that for my district as well. Thank you, Greg, for bringing this. I saw something that might be missing from this that I think could be very helpful which is that we did have a disaster declaration for storm uri and this is directly from the aftermath. And I didn't see anything here about assisting landlords with that application process for FEMA. There is a certain portion of this response that depends on funds being available and making that easier. And it is not always easy to navigate those processes but I think we have folks at the city who can support that. So I plan to make an amendment to add something to that affect. And since it looked like your base quorum was four and councilmember Ellis added to be a co- sponsor in here, maybe my staff and [11:14:40 AM] yours can collaborate that to make sure we get that right and then we can post it to the message board would that make sense? >> Casar: That sounds great, thank you. >> Alter: Mold remediation should be a FEMA reimbursable expense and it may also be an expense that, you know, under some circumstances we can fund responses by the city too as well. I don't know under what circumstances, I don't know what level of detail, but it seems like that should be part and parcel of the response. >> I'm sure we could find a way for that to be friendly and bake into the resolution as we bring it forward Thursday. >> Alter: Thank you. I would also like to be added as a co-sponsor. [11:15:41 AM] >> Casar: Great. We'll note that. I appreciate everyone taking the time on this. It was one I pulled because I thought there would be disagreement, but because this is helpful for people to take a moment to see it because the disaster in some ways is really ongoing for people in each of our districts, so thank you. >> Mayor Adler: I wonder if councilmember Casar in falling up to councilmember alter, on the FEMA programs can allow direct application for individuals, there's an item on the agenda dealing with navigators and I think they were thinking about the other programs, maybe there's a an application or a tie to the city being able to facility people's access so everybody should try it and not have to figure it out on their own. >> Casar: That's great. We'll take a look at that. Thank you, mayor. >> Mayor Adler: All right. [11:16:41 AM] Any other conversations on this item number 40? Let's go to item number 41 then. This is pulled by the mayor pro tem and councilmember kitchen. >> Harper-madison: Thank you, mayor, I assume you're recognizing me. Item 41 is our etod item. It may not feel like project connect is coming up so fast, but my team and I as we were working through this we wanted to take all the necessary points into consideration, including Randy Clarke, if you talk to him about project connect, he will say this is not a single project, this is a program. It's a whole buffet of investments with different timelines. So the 'lil routes might not open until the end of the decades, but the metrorapids are going to come online within two years. We can't not recognize the fact that the development is continuing along the corridor and frankly that clock is ticking to get in front of it pronto really. [11:17:41 AM] So we know transit investments are like cat nip for developers. Like I've said before that's the market's way of telling us that people really, really like living and working near high quality transit. And will pay a premium for it. So project connect can do a lot towards helping us achieve our 50/50 mode shift goals, our climate goals, our vision zero goals and a lot more. The one thing that will help us get the most bang for our buck is ridership so from the word go so we need to have our transit system be able to grow in a way that maximizes relationship potential. At the same time we cannot -- we must not and will not -- must not and will not let our residents to depend on transit lose access to it once it becomes a first class service. So the intent of this resolution is to work in lock step with cap metro as it reduction its etod studies of the Orange, blue [11:18:43 AM] and green lines. And we're also creating additional opportunities to ensure impacted renters, riders, property owners, and other stakeholders have a clear voice in shaping their neighborhoods. So the timeline that I've proposed here is based on thorough conversations with cap metro and with our city staff. It's linked to the anticipated completion of the etod sdies, but it also allows staff the opportunity come back to us at the halfway point to provide some additional recommendations. And to be clear, the end goal is to have a policy plan in place that serves as a guide to make necessary changes to avoid potential displacement. Maintain affordability and provide for more opportunities for more people of all income levels to live near these transit investments. Like Ann said in her message board post we need to move fast. I don't sees this a a resolution to ask staff to come back in a year with recommendations for future [11:19:44 AM] recommendations. This resolution is about coordinating with cap metro to set up the city for success to be able to implement the necessary changes to support project connect as soon as we can get the green. That's why I think it's important to allow cap metro and staff the flexibility to get the best recommendations within the designated timeline. So outside of the green line what project connect does is largely invest in upgrades to existing transit services. Cap metro has decades of experience that gives them experience and expertise in understanding how we can best manage the potential of transit stations and stops. So throughout all the discussions about our land development code and growth in Austin in general, the overwhelming consensus has been that we should add more density to our corridors. And now that we have a true world class transit plan in the pipeline we need to hit the ground running to try to figure out how to get it [11:20:44 AM] going. We need those neighborhood level strategies to guide us in those efforts to provide displacement and I'm glad we have people like our new community displacement officer, nefertiti Jackson on board to help steer that boat because it's imperative that as we have the city be more walk away and transit friendly that we do it in a way that prioritized equity and stability. That's how we will get more of the compact, connected, mixed income, complete communities that imagine Austin talks about. So I want to thanks some folks who helped put this together. Housing staff, cap metro staff and each of my co- sponsors, including our newest co-sponsor, councilmember kitchen. Your leadership on all things mobility has been inspiring and I appreciate the level of expertise that informs the amendments that you've offered to this resolution. So there's a lot there and a [11:21:45 AM] lot looks to be friendly reinforcement of the original intent. So I look forward to discussing them a little further so we can all understand what our respective goals are. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: Thank you, mayor pro tem. I do believe that amendments are at least intended to align -- I hear what you're saying about the timeline so we can talk about that. So I appreciate you bringing this forward. I think it's very, very timely. We need to do it now. So it is time for us to align our time use planning processes around tod's with what cap metro is planning around project connect. And as you point out that's coming quicker than we think, especially with the metro rapids, which are coming along very quickly. [11:22:45 AM] So just quickly, I know that you will need some more time to think through the amendments. I was only able to get them posted yesterday and I know others may want to think through them also. But I thought what I would do today is quickly tell you what they're intended to do and then happy to work on language. So the biggest thing in terms of any kind of content is just I wanted to add specifically the process for postponing additional tod areas. The way our current tod land use policies and procedures work is that you have to start by naming an area as a tod. And we have a lot of them named already that were named back in 2005 and 2006 and those all align with project connect areas but we're missing some that we might need to think about. It really doesn't focus on south Austin. [11:23:49 AM] So if we want to think in particular about lines like the pleasant valley or south congress or even south Lamar, we need to think about whether it's appropriate to name them now. We don't want to name them too soon in the process. What I did in here is I suggested that as part of the budget process in August that the staff might want to recommend to us some additional areas to name. I'll leave it to my colleagues that represent those areas to think about whether they -- I'll leave it to councilmember Fuentes about whether she thinks pleasant valley, councilmember Renteria, those of you who represent that area, whether those should be named, but I did want to point out if we just go forward without naming additional tods, we won't be -- a, cap metro doesn't have a tod plapping process for all those areas. [11:24:51 AM] Second, they don't do the land use side. That's our responsibility. So unless we name some additional tod districts they won't be subject to either the current tod process or any improvements that you suggested, mayor pro tem, so for example, the current tod regulations that are in place right now they don't have anything about affordable housing so I really appreciate all the language that you added about that. So to circle back around, one of my amendments proposed that staff come back to us or perhaps kicked suggest areas to add to be considered as tod's. The second thing is the timing that I was trying to look at, and this may be handled by what you just said, mayor pro tem, is that the tod process is a two-step -- the process for actually determining what happens on the ground in a [11:25:52 AM] particular geographic area is two-step process. First they have to be named as a tod so we could perhaps address that. But second if we're going to get the kinds of changes that are being proposed, we have to put them in ordinance. Not just policy although it could be helpful to put it in policy, but until we put it in the land development code ordinance we're not nailing down those changes. So that's why I was suggesting changing from 12 months to 14 months. There's only a two month difference there. So whether that's appropriate or not. I wanted us to get to a point where we were making changes for the land development code for tods. I appreciate what you've done is have a shorter time period for interim recommendations coming back to us so that might take care of my concerns about timing as long as we do go ahead and quickly consider [11:26:56 AM] if we want to add additional areas. The other language I added was more clarification kinds of language. I wanted to make it clear that we were aligning our designation of Todd with the timeline so we weren't too late on doing station area plans and also wanted to clarify as you mentioned that neighborhood planning and anti-displacement are a part of this. You have all that in there so I just had some clarifying things. I may also want to add a few things about disability access, access for people who rely on sidewalks and other kinds of things, if they have wheelchairs. Disability access I didn't see that mentioned. [11:27:56 AM] The potential to consider creative spaces you may want to consider that also B those are the things that -- two things that I'm thinking about. So that's the essence of it. I know people need time to think about the amendments, but that's what I was trying to achieve. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Any other comments on this item 41? Councilmember kitchen, thank you. Colleagues, councilmember alter has asked to speak on item 2. >> Alter: Thank you, mayor. So item 2 is sort of the allocation of the first tranche of the arp funding. And I have been exchanging with the city manager and Mr. Van eenoo and Ms. Lange sort of about that process and I think it's important that we clarify publicly a little bit more about that [11:28:57 AM] process. So I'm not sure I see Mr. Cronk. I guess you're able to speak, but not visible right now. So I had a couple of questions for him and then wanted to make a couple comments. So Mr. Cronk, when will -- or Mr. Van eenoo, whoever is going to respond here. Can you clarify when council -- >> Mayor Adler: Hang on one second. Let's confirm. Manager, can you hear? Ed is here. All right. We have Ed for you. >> Thank you. Can you tell me when council will be allocating the funds which will remain after adoption of item 2? >> Our interim budget officer Gary Lange will speak to that question. We're also trying to get director Briseno on the line [11:29:57 AM] if there are additional questions about the next stage of our arp process. >> Good morning, council. Jerry Lange, budget officer. Right now the staff is working on the items from the resolution back in March and we are going to be presenting those items in briefing on may 18th right now to the council so that you all can see the recommended spending framework. And on June 3rd we're anticipating potentially coming for those items to be brought to council for action. And of course we're still working on -- waiting to receive feedback from the U.S. Treasury on guidelines so that will determine how soon we'll be able to come to council for action. >> Thank you. And the backup on item 2 includes the March 12th memo. And I want to clarify that it is not staff's intention [11:30:59 AM] that approval of item 2 next week serves as council's approval of the March 12th framework. >> Correct. That item was included in the action items for historical context. We wanted to be sure that we included all the information pertaining to this item so that you all could have all the related information. >> Alter: Thank you. And I have requested that you post the final version of item number 111 to the backup that is where we laid out some additional priorities. You may have already done that, but I would reiterate that. Thank you. So colleagues, I just wanted to flag I also have some additional questions that we posted in the q&a and I'm hopeful that I will have answers to those questions by Wednesday. They're pretty basic questions about what the money is being spent on, however if they're not answered I'm not going to be comfortable moving forward. With that full item. I have some concern about [11:32:00 AM] any delay for the navigator piece. I'm hopeful that we will get those questions answered, but I did not want it to be a surprise if not and you can look in the q&a. To see it's really more detail on the budget and what it's being spent on because so much of our dollars are FEMA and the vaccine pieces trying to understand what public health pieces are being funded by this large amount of money in more specific detail rather than just a giant pot going I think is important for us, for instance, to have that detail and then there's some other pieces to that. And I will note that in clarifying other questions, the aid caregivers are not the sole caregivers that we may be undertaking, but they are included in the basic health proposal as they were in the March 12th or whatever -- the March memo. [11:33:02 AM] So if there were additional things for that fourth priority that we had in 111 those would still potentially go forward, but those two were included in the base for item 2. So I just wanted to throw this out there so that we had some greater clarity on the process because we're getting some questions and I know our colleagues were asking that so I thought the transparency about the process was important and also wanted to signal that I needed answers to those questions which staff are working on diligently, I understand, but did want to flag that for my colleagues. >> Mayor Adler: If staff could go ahead and publish those questions. I don't know if they're on q&a yet, but that would let us know what kind of questions you're asking. Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: Thank you for bringing that item up, councilmember alter. I would also like to suggest that we definitely vote by [11:34:04 AM] June 3rd. I think it's really important that we make some decisions about our use of the remaining arp funds. I particularly am interested in dedicating a substantial portion of them to reaching the goals that are set out -- that were set out by the community summit regarding re-housing people who are experiencing homelessness. I think it is critical that we take the opportunity working with the rest of the community to really move forward with a game stranger. And I think it's possible for us to do that. So I would love to see -- I'm hoping that is intended to be reflected in what comes back to us from our staff, and regardless of that, certainly want to have that conversation with my colleagues about what level of investment to reach the [11:35:04 AM] summit goals is appropriate. I also want to suggest that a number of us have identified a number of things that we think are important to include. And some of those may be reflected in the backup, some of them may not. So city manager, I'm hoping that you will follow a process that will allow each of us to indicate what outpatients might be. And I think that that might be more expeditious if those conversations are had with each of us prior to what is brought back to us. So that the set of recommendations that are brought back to us can reflect what each of us have as priorities, understanding that we'll need to have some conversations as we always [11:36:04 AM] do. But as you have done in the -- with budgets in the past when you help us put together a list or a set of recommendations as a starting point, that is helpful. Can you speak to your process, city manager? >> I appreciate that, council member. Certainly we've started that, but really look forward to having another round with individual council members that will help inform what we bring forward at the next work session. So agreed. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Fuentes and then councilmember pool. >> Fuentes: Thank you. I wanted to go back to councilmember alter's conversation around the Austin public health funding and join her in calling for more details in that level of funding. What I am curious about is if there's space for us to [11:37:05 AM] have a conversation on how we spent our cares act funding and how effective the usage of dollars were in that regard and how that might affect how they spend that bucket of funds from the American rescue plan and how that lines up with the previous resolution that council adopted around our covid response effort that outlined the strategic priority heirs in our response efforts. And so I really want to get more detail and clarity as to how we will allocate those funds that are aligned to those specific areas but also that meet the needs of where we're at right now with rescuing our community from this pandemc. And so definitely want to welcome that conversation and have a more detailed conversation on the spending of those dollars. Especially this morning we met with Travis county and we talked about the hesitancy rate among our [11:38:05 AM] community. We want to think innovatively and in a flexible way so that we meet the needs of our community. And with that we just wanted to mention that -- it's a question for EdD. Are they on the line? >> Council, this is Ed van eenoo. I know Veronica is on the line by phone. I don't know if he's able to answer your questions. Veronica, can you hear us and respond? >> Good afternoon -- did morning. This is Veronica Briseno. I am on the line. Can you hear me? >> Fuentes: Yes. I know you mentioned we had 125 [indiscernible] With respondents on how the community believes we should spend our funds. I just wanted some clarification of how many of those speaking engagements have come through this year for '21 and if those speaking againments are [11:39:06 AM] focus group -- engagements are focus group meetings with the community or if engagement means a response to the survey that we have up on our website. >> I don't know the breakdown of how many happened this year, but we can get that for you, council member. And the engagement includes focus group meetings as well as as well as presentations that we've made to different organizations and different public engagements that we've had in this regard. I believe the survey, if it's including the survey, it's the fact that we conducted surveys, but not each responded to the survey. But let me make absolutely sure on that and we can follow up with your office. >> Fuentes: Gotcha. Thank you. I would be curious on how the community's thoughts have changed since a year ago or when we first received the cares act funding to where we are now and see if there's any priority areas that have bubbled up in those responses. Thank you. >> Absolutely. We can follow up on that. [11:40:17 AM] >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember pool. >> Pool: On the rescue plan, a couple of things. I think what Vanessa was suggesting about how the cares act was spent with the rescue funding is good for us to level set. I want to look at our deficit posture for fiscal '22 in the longer range five-year forecast and center that because for us to have a better posture five years out we need to be addressing it this year in the work that we're doing for fiscal '22. That is part of what I think, if I'm remembering right, that is part of where the rescue act was put together was to help fund those operations and programs that because of the lack of other avenues are in the red. So I want to center us on [11:41:20 AM] our deficit situation because that relates to our tax rate. And for us to be in a good position going forward again in the context of the five-year forecast which I hope everybody will have the opportunity to have the one on one with our most excellent financial staff really get a sense of what that looks like and to the extent that we are also addressing the concerns of our community, one of the best ways we can do that across the board is by scrutinizing our tax rate because that applies to everybody, whether you're rent be or reasoning, for example. And the cost of our services and so forth. So I'd like to put that out there for some consideration. I support the additional money request for our music venue folks, our creative sector that was a concern that we heard repeatedly last year and we did get to [11:42:20 AM] addressing it more specifically and directly towards the end of the year last year, but it was insufficient as we know. So we need to ramp up our attention to that sector in some significant ways as well. And then with regard to the homelessness piece I know there was a significant carveout of monies for homelessness from the federal government and I want to make sure -- I think that was $11 million. It's not a huge amount of money, but it's a good amount of money. It's about five percent of the total that we're getting. If the total is around 200 million. So I want to make sure that that is factored in as well. And that we look at all the strands and the individual programs and the funds that are coming down individually when we're having the -- when we're reviewing and parsing through what the staff is recommending on the rescue plan so that we are [11:43:21 AM] paying attention to those parts of our community that did not get the direct attention or only a small amount of attention in the past. Thanks. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember alter. >> Alter: Thank you. Several things. First I appreciate Ann's suggestion about those conversations and doing the rounds to really see where we're at. I think that's important role that the city manager can play here to help us to further sharpen our priorities so that we can spend these funds in a transformational way, but also hit some things where we just need to infuse some funds and also appreciate Vanessa's comments about understanding the effectiveness. I will add that in terms of the clarity that I'm thinking, there's money [11:44:21 AM] going in the public health, vaccines that are like not in that bucket, but trying to understand the sum totality of what we're planning to spend and which portion is FEMA and what's the portion of spending of our own money above and beyond that and what is the target and what are we funding with that with respect to public health. I think we all had said that we had to prioritize public health with this funding, but I think we need some greater clarity at this stage of sort of what those details are. And then I wanted to flag that I will post shortly an updated version of the childcare proposal from success by six, which a majority of the council supported. We are going to be following up on requests by councilmember Fuentes and Casar with preschool targets [11:45:21 AM] with additional funding. And I continue to have conversations with the conversations with the county to encourage their participation and for those of you who have friends in the the county there, I hope you will reach out to them and share your support of the childcare proposal and encourage them to be involved. I think the childcare proposal for me epitomizes kind of what I'm trying to accomplish in terms of getting us to resiliency and making investments that ultimately can be sustained over time. And in important ways. And that achieve kind of multiple goals. We cannot get our economy moving if people can't have decent childcare. It is particularly important for women in our community for that childcare to be there at the odd hours and other kinds of things that that proposal makes happen. There is similar benefits in terms of achieving multiple goals that come from some of the workforce opportunities. [11:46:24 AM] In the base proposal there was spending for the Austin civilian conservation corps which puts people to work trains them, even can train them in disaster stuff and put this them to work that helps our environment. We have many opportunities to scale that in our departments and they're also using it as a way to recruit folks so I hope that we will see additional funding there that will then allow us to bring down further funding. And similarly there's a proposal from workforce solutions for workforce development that I think is key to our economic recovery. There is also a lot there that will help us up skill folks in the trades, which is an essential part of of our achieving affordability. One of the biggest con restaurants there is access to -- constraints is access to skilled labor and there are enormous opportunities to target those efforts at [11:47:26 AM] training to populations that have had more trouble getting employed in our economy before and they have now tested some programs that have had really high success rates and allow that to be done online. So I would call your attention to those proposals as well. There's a lot of things that we can fund. We are going to have to make some choices on different things, but I think we really do have to have the sum total of the available resources in our awareness as we do that. And I may be making an amendment in item 2 that reinforces some of the navigator roles, but even with respect to our intergovernmental relations staff and their ability to be helping some of our sister organizations that are public institutions or [11:48:33 AM] universities or huston-tillotson where the city can perhaps put some oomph and efforts behind the dollars for maximizing the flow, whether it's our dollars or not, seems to be a really high priority. We emphasize that in 111 and I appreciate the navigators, but as currently deadvised, I think there may be some things left out of the navigator approach that we are moving forward on. >> Mayor Adler: I agree with most everything that everybody has said. I am mourned and with what -- encouraged and what staff said and making generational changes with these dollars because they give us the opportunity to do something that we wouldn't have without this kind of scale. [11:49:33 AM] I think the community has indicated they want to really do something. Fundamentally with respect to people experiencing homelessness. I agree we're anxious to see the transformational changes on childcare that's been brought to us and still believe that priority and agree with the statements about workforce development because those things are so tied together. And the food insecurity. So access to see that coming back. I agree that the navigator is really key and as much as we can do that and in expanding the FEMA reimbursement, it was good to see organizations like zap has applied for like just under two and a half million dollars. I hope and trust that there are so many of our organizations that are also [11:50:33 AM] in line for that federal funding that comes outside of the allocation that we've gotten so that we create the biggest line item possible. Any other comments before we go? We may run into executive session real fast. Councilmember kitchen and then councilmember Fuentes. >> Kitchen: Quickly, I wanted to talk about councilmember alter's mentioning the workforce development. I think we can also as part of this process look at synergies. I know that one aspect of the of the thinking or recommendations or ideas around the summit pointed out the need for additional workforce development for navigators and case workers, social workers, but particularly navigators in that sense to help connect people to housing. So that's a workforce need. [11:51:36 AM] And the summit identified I think 200 additional staffing needs there. The other aspect also of course is that we have talked in the past and we do have provisions around helping individuals experiencing homelessness connect to jobs for those who can. Our skills training. I think there's some synergy there. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember tovo and then councilmember tovo. >> Fuentes: My comment around the community piece on number 2 to help our community pry for federal assistance. I guess my comment is around -- we know that just yesterday the restaurant revitalization fund opened up through the sba and they have laid out a process that is first come first serve but they are prioritizing minority owned businesses for at least the first three weeks. I would hope that we pass the item on Thursday that we quickly work to help our [11:52:39 AM] restaurants get in line and apply especially since there is this prioritization time frame and we have only just a few weeks to help out. So I just wanted to emphasize the need to move quickly in that outreach. And please count on my office's support in helping with that outreach and wanting to make sure that information gets to our restaurants. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember tovo. >> Tovo: Yeah. Thanks. I agree also with what a lot of my colleagues have said with regard to the American rescue plan but I want to emphasize a couple of priorities for me. I am interested in seeing -- first of all, let me step back and say that councilmember tovo, I really like -- that councilmember Fuentes, I like how we benefited from them. I am also really interested in something that councilmember alter and others of us have talked about throughout this and really looking at how we use the American rescue plan to invest in transformational change and try to always [11:53:42 AM] look for those situations where there are multi-benefits. So those are the kinds of programs that I'm going to be most interested in in helping invest in. I am also interested in seeing us invest a good amount in homelessness and really using that to set a challenge for the private community to come forward arrested invest in that challenge as well. I did want to just speak to the idea of if me the multi- benefit, looking for the programs where we can achieve multiple benefits. I think the case workers and navigators are a great example and I had mentioned this idea in the public health committee meeting because in the summit as councilmember kitchen mentioned there was an identified need for several hundred more case managers here in Austin and I want to let my colleagues know this is an idea that my office has begun to explore. I have talked to a few of [11:54:42 AM] you who have interest in it as well and when he a productive meeting with one of the workforce providers last week. I see that as a useful way to potentially achieve some benefits in both of those areas by investing in individuals in their training and their employment, but also helping generate some expertise and some additional resources in an area where we know we need them. So thanks, colleagues. I look forward to this work and I'm glad that we're taking time with it and are going to be thoughtful in our approach and really see, as several of you have said, what other resources are out there so that we're not -- so we can really target ours effectively. It looks like a lot of money I think to our community. We started -- it's almost like it's budget time. We're getting so many emails about this every hour from lots and lots of individuals and lots and lots of individual groups and it will be challenging and we'll have to make some hard decisions. I want to urge the community [11:55:43 AM] to really understand that this is -- we absolutely have those gaps and those needs that we need to fill, but it is also your job to make sure we're investing it in -- this is our opportunity to invest in transformational change and that will mean that we will have to say no to some of those requests for funding and for investments. So again, I hope that we'll take this on a timeline that really allows us to do very thoughtful work and have lots of conversations among ourselves. Mayor, I had a different item before we conclude so at the appropriate time if you would recognize me for that. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Renteria and councilmember Casar. >> Renteria: Thank you, mayor. My biggest priority is to make sure that we invest enough in our day care centers. That's very important right [11:56:43 AM] now with the day care service so expensive to our working mothers that we need to really be able to help out and also I want to make sure that like we did in cares that we also put funds in the rise funds so that no one got left behind. So I want to make sure that if there's any restrictions in the American rescue plan, but if there is we need to make sure that we set aside enough funding to take care of those who might not qualify. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Councilmember Casar. >> Casar: I agree with everything that folks have said here. The only thing it seems like there are some set aside funds that are separate from the local financial [11:57:44 AM] assistance funds for rental assistance, but I think really important as the eviction rules change and move to if you're beyond five months behind that evictions would happen to make sure we have funding available for those folks who can't make it work at that point that we're able to continue to assist those people before because we obviously don't want to have the evictions in our community. We've done such a good job of keeping evictions low, not just to Texas, but pretty much relative to anywhere in the country. And I think we certainly want to be able to maintain that through the year using our assistance. My only question for you, manager, is given the conversation here today and there's been multiple memos that have come back and forth, is there arrested a a sense of timeline of when we would be voting on these [11:58:44 AM] issues or is that still in flux? I feel like I've seen various timelines and dates between the county and city so I wanted to know what the latest was give inthis conversation today. >> Thanks, council member. I'll just have our officer confirm this. We were going to present recommendations at the next session, and that first cycle in June is when we would post for action, again contingent on how that work session discussion goes and the additional guidance that we'd be getting from the federal government. But interim budget officer, did I miss anything about those dates? >> All good. >> Casar: Thank you for that clarification. Appreciate it. >> Mayor Adler: Colleague S, anything else on this? All right. It is straight-up noon now -- oh, you had another item, council member tovo. >> Tovo: Just very quickly, mayor, I just wanted to call my colleagues' attention to the work sessions that our staff -- our agenda staff have scheduled for may 10th and may 11th. As you all remember, in [11:59:45 AM] one of our first after-storm meetings, we passed an amendment that then I followed up with a resolution that many of you sponsored to create these, you know -- to analyze the winter storm from a couple of different perspectives, one of which was to create an opportunity for our council to have some work sessions where we can just do kind of a question and answer format and get some of those questions answered that we haven't yet been able to really drill down on. It's been tremendously challenging. Our agenda staff and my office staff have worked really, really hard and spent many hours trying to figure out how to schedule this between everybody's calendars, it's been -- it's taken us this long. So, again, these are scheduled for may 10th and may 11th, and I hope, since this was, you know, passed almost unanimously, I hope everyone can get there for some piece of it. It is -- the mayor and I have met Jason Alexander [12:00:45 PM] several times. I've talked with him too. We've really, I think, carved out a plan that will allow us to cover a lot of ground and not cover similar ground to what we've already covered in the previous sessions. And so again, it's really an opportunity for us to ask -- to do kind of question and answer and also to provide the manager with a list of some of the questions that we would like them to address in the after action report. But for some of these questions, I think they need to be aired in a public session and also to provide us with some initial feedback on that, because I know many of us are thinking it through and working through some recommendations and prior to kind of jumping into more resolutions and more -- more -- providing new directives to the city staff, I know I need a little bit better understanding of what actually happened. So that's -- that is again circulating. Our agenda office has gotten feedback from some of you on whether or not you'll be attending, and I would just really ask, it would be great to have a conversation with you all. I know we just do better, we can all meet with staff individually, but I [12:01:46 PM] just think we have a fuller conversation, when I can hear your questions, when you can hear mine, when we have an opportunity to work together through some of these issues. The community task force has begun meeting. The first public hearing was last week. They were initially going to have those sessions focused on -- by district, by council district. Last week's was council district 6 and 8, and I know council member Ellis did a welcome. I was able to hear this session. I know, council member Kelly, you had intended to and were not able to. They have switched their process, which I think makes great sense. They're going to now just have a series of public sessions that are not focused on council district. So please encourage your constituents that there were not very many speakers at last week's, but it was an extremely good group of speakers and a very thoughtful conversation and it's a great opportunity for us to get the word out among the community groups and the individuals who we know are very active during the storm, to come and provide -- provide that public group, that [12:02:48 PM] task -- that commission with information, with testimonies, with experiences, so that that information can get forwarded to us. It is really just a listening session. As we described their role, they are not providing us -- that commission is not providing us with recommendations. They are providing us with a summary of the testimonies and the accounts that they've heard. And it is -- you know, I found it to be very useful and also very moving to hear, to hear those comments and those accounts from the public, and I think it's going to be an extremely valuable piece -- body of information for us as policymakers. So thanks very much. >> Mayor Adler: Council member tovo, thank you. >> Tovo: This is a huge lift for our staff so thank you, staff, for taking this on and making these opportunities possible. >> Mayor Adler: Council member tovo, thank you for your effort. This has not been easy. We've been wrangling lots of pieces. I appreciate your diligence on this. I think it's going to be [12:03:48 PM] really helpful. Council member kitchen and council member alter. >> Kitchen: I just wanted to give people a heads-up that item number 11, which is related to the Dougherty arts center, is being postponed until may -- I think it's -- our next meeting in may, whatever that date is. And that this is something that pard staff is aligned with, wanting to spend more time thinking through the options that are available to us. So I just want to do give -- that will be noted on changes and corrections and just want to do give people a heads-up. >> Mayor Adler: Sounds good. I think that's may 20th. Council member alter. >> Alter: I just want to do flag that flag, Monday afternoon we have a campo meeting, which makes it difficult for us to be there for the session, and I don't know if that was conveyed yet. I had asked my staff to convey that when I saw that the other day. And I don't know the way around that. But that's -- makes it [12:04:49 PM] difficult for us to participate. >> Tovo: Yeah, thank you. I did just note that feedback that I got on the information, Jason Alexander got it. I know that agenda staff and my staff were trying to avoid those conflicts, so I'm not sure how that one happened, but we'll see if we can figure out another solution. But it'll probably mean pulling it out -- pushing it off of that day and trying to get another date. On the other hand, if -- it depends to some extent, several of you have not provided feedback to the agenda office on whether with you can be present and at some point we may just have to move forward with which days we have the most critical mass on but if we can avoid campo, that would be a great thing to be able to do. >> Mayor Adler: It's five after noon. [12:05:50 PM] Let's go ahead and we're going to recess now. Let's come back into executive session at 1:00, and that way we can come back and maybe have the briefing on homelessness and then the briefing on policing at 2:30. So at 1:00, we're going to recess our council meeting now, work session. We're going to go into closed session to take up two items, pursuant to section 551.071 of the government code. We're going to discuss legal issues related to e2, which is the may 1st, 2021 election, pursuant to 551.027 and 071 of the government code. We're going to discuss real estate matters and legal matters related to e3, the purchase of the candlewood suites. Without objection, we'll go into executive session [12:06:50 PM] at 1:00 this afternoon. I'll see you guys there. [City council is in recess] [2:58:21 PM] >> Mayor Adler: In closed session we discussed real estate matters and legal matters related to item you -- it is may 4th, 2:58, and manager, I'll turn over this presentation to you, recognizing that we'll go through fairly quickly; we want to be able to get back to executive session [indiscernible] Counsel, colleagues. >> Thank you, mayor and council. I am excited to bring to you an update from our consultants that have been working with us for a few months on reviewing our police academy training and curriculum. As you remember, back in March we provided you with a preliminary report based on recommendations, short-term and long-term, they are providing, and a blueprint [2:59:21 PM] of how we would go forward and you gave a blueprint for moving forward with our cadet academy. We're here today to take that next step and ask for full confirmation of getting that academy started June 7th, and we are here today to learn from our partners at Kroll what they have found and put in their final reports, and then an update from our police department and our interim chief is here to provide that presentation. So to kick things off, I'm going to turn it over to our director of police oversight, who has been tasked with leading this project. I want to thank her for her diligence in this effort. I'll pass it over. >> Thank you, manager. Good afternoon, mayor, council. Thank you for this opportunity to present the final report from our consultants, Kroll and associates. We are joined this afternoon by mark Ellers, Rick brown, and Dan linsk you're. As you know, they presented their preliminary analysis to you in March. [3:00:22 PM] This is a presentation of their final report. I will just segue to them so they can start their presentation. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Farah, and good afternoon, everyone. It's great to be back in front of you again. -- Will ihave the ability to share the screen at this time? Okay. I was going to -- I was actually going to share a different set of slides, if that's possible. There we go. Thank you. Okay. Can everyone hopefully see that? >> We can. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. So again, thank you and good afternoon. I just want -- [3:01:23 PM] >> [Indiscernible] >> I'm sorry? So for the next just 15 minutes or so, we want to highlight our overall assessment of the police training academy that's contained in our final report of April 23rd. Hopefully you've all had a chance to at least receive a copy of that. Understanding it's a long report so we're just going to try to highlight over the next few minutes some updated findings and recommendations that were not reflected in our preliminary report that we submitted at the end of February and presented to you on March 2nd. So as we stated in our report on April 23rd, and consistent with national best practices, Kroll is recommending that the Austin police department shift from a stress-oriented military- style academy to a resiliency based approach supported by adult learning [3:02:26 PM] and student centered instruction, that they adopt a care training model that emphasizes service to the community and become an evidence-based learning organization. And we believe that by doing so, the Austin police department will essentially develop into a transformational best in class police academy. Now, in section 4 of our report, there's about a 20-page section that discusses best practices in police training academies across the United States. Our research shows academies with success in building resilient caretaker police departments are ones that move away from a warrior mentality, reframe police culture into a community oriented service provider with less emphasis on a paramilitary style of policing, that educates cadets on the history of how police in the United States has impacted communities of color and how police are perceived in certain communities, as well as the lack of trust that comes [3:03:26 PM] with that; that are not afraid to include civilian leadership in senior academy positions and who emphasize respectful and constitutional policing. So our report highlights a number of programs that we believe should be part of all police academies, including on such topics as procedural justice, community policing, deescalation training, crisis intervention team training, peer intervention, implicit bias training, programs on officer wellness, and train on psychological skills, such as cognitive development and emotional intelligence. And while the Austin police department training academy covers certainly some or all of these areas in part, we've included additional recommendations at the end of our final report that address gaps in what we perceive to be a.p.d.'s current training practices from best practices. Now, since we last addressed the council in early March, [3:04:27 PM] we've updated some findings that were contained in our preliminary report. We'll highlight some of them over the next few slides. So first, based on the numbers provided to us as of March 31st, the 144th cadet class remains on class to be among the most diverse classes in A.P.D. History. At present, nearly 58% of cadets identify as either black, hispanic, Asian, or multiracial, and approximately 20% are female. In addition, academy staff is also more diverse, with approximately 43% of staff identifying as black, Latino, Asian or multiracial, although only 10% of the training unit are made up of women, several of its top leaders are currently female and over one quarter of the cadet training division is family. And as the lower chart reflects, the recruiting unit also is fairly diverse, with over 50% of the recruiting unit staff identifying as either black [3:05:29 PM] or hispanic. Now, one of the significant developments since we last spoke to you was on March 15th, the police department hired Dr. Ann cringe in here to fill the training manager position and made her division manager with equivalent rank of commander. Then on March 31st, this substitutional backing was affirmed by interim chief Joseph cacon and James mason when they met with academy staff. On April 1st, Dr. Cringen submitted plans to update all curriculum with a focus on adult learning methods and to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion content is incorporated throughout the academy. She's also working to ensure proper balance between academic style learning, physical and tactical training, disciplinary measures, and chain of command structures. Significantly, Dr. Cringen was a police officer before she pursued her ph.d. In criminal justice from texas [3:06:29 PM] state university and she's conducted extensive research into policing, including issues such as mental illness, stigma, crisis intervention, gender imbalances in policing, community policing through community engagement and identifying barriers to black applicants in police employment. With the assistance of Dr. Cringen, the academy has updated its job descriptions for instructor positions to require instructors model professional behavior in communication and exhibit appropriate behavior in language, among other things, that the utilized procedural justice practices such as treating citizens with respect and decisions based on facts instead of biases and maintain a professional atmosphere in training environment to engage students and facilitate learning. The job descriptions further emphasize that to become an instructor at the academy, one must be able to communicate in ways that -- empathyand understanding, emotional [3:07:30 PM] skills to understand and collaborate with the immunity in building trusting rips. Knowing effective strategies and practices, know the diverse cultural groups that make up Austin, a know situations and contacts. One should be able to establish effective working relationships with diverse cultural groups in Austin, and they must have good listening skills and ability to maintain professionalism during difficult interactions with law enforcement. Essentially, the instructors are to model the type of officer we're trying to create and develop in the department, recognizing that it all starts with training. Now, another top priority of the academy and Dr. Cringen is establishing an academy curriculum review committee to help transition the academy to a civilian police-led institute with a strong community focus. The community is to consist of division manager, Dr. Cringen and soon to be hired training supervisor. It will have at least two academy instructors [3:08:31 PM] specifically selected to serve on that committee, at least two outside academic experts, three or four outside community representatives, and representatives from each of the -- these city agencies, victim services, equity office, and office of police oversight. And the purpose of the committee is to review all diversity, equity, and inclusion content, to evaluate and recommend outside subject matter experts and community participants, and to ensure appropriate emphasis on dei content, as well as deescalation training and trauma informed training. On pages 55 to 66 of our final report, evaluated the academy's cultural competency training, which focused particularly on the courses listed here. There's 12 of them. And we recommend that upset and revisions to some of these courses, in order to keep them current and prevent a, quote/unquote, [3:09:31 PM] check the box approach to this training, and those recommended revisions and updates are incorporated into an additional short-term recommendation we can talk about shortly. We also noted in our preliminary report that the academy has added approximately 30 hours of community engagement or lived experiences programming, for a total of, I believe, 36 to 37 hours, and we've asked that academy staff join the list of organizations and potential community partners that they've reached out to and that we included in our preliminary report to expand their outreach to include the organizations listed here, and others, including critics of the department. Now, it's noted in our preliminary report the community video review panel made a number of recommendations that called for eliminating biases in training materials, developing more effective teaching methods, building community trust, and addressing systemic change, and we've attempted to [3:10:31 PM] address these issues in our recommendations in the report. And in response, the department has established a formal process and begun the second phase of the community panel's work, which real review and provide input on training videos not previously reviewed, and the work of the panel will continue to be a joint collaboration between the community representatives and academy instructors. Now, section 7 of our report outlines our short-term and long-term recommendations. Most of these are unchanged from our preliminary report or they've been updated slightly to reflect developments over the past several weeks. But we did add a few recommendations. One was a short-term recommendation, it's recommendation number 17, I believe on page 97 of our report. And this is to update and revise the cultural competency training courses that we discussed on pages 55 to 66, specifically these courses listed here, so forth. And then we've also added [3:11:33 PM] several long-term recommendations to address identified gaps from best practices, and these are specifically long-term recommendations 8 through 11, which are on page 99 of our report, and they urge the academy to develop additional content on procedural justice, that's recommendation number 8, collaborate with mental health advocacy organizations outside of cit training or in addition to cit training, that's number 9; to develop a formal peer intervention training program, such as project able or ethical policing is courageous, two programs that are being adopted by agencies across the country and that are very promising. A.P.D. Is currently looking at both and, as I understand it, plans to adopt at least one of these or something similar, and we're just asking that that be done as part of the long-term recommendations. Also, we've recommended that the department incorporate content on cognitive decision making and [3:12:34 PM] emotional intelligence and effective social interaction skills. That's number 11. And then the last several long-term recommendations all address aspects of the department's field training officer program. Recommendation number 12 canvas already included in our preliminary report but we've added four more related to the fto program, numbers 13 to 16, pages 9 to 100 of our final report. As we suggested previously, the only way to determine how effective any of these changes are carried out and whether they have the intended effect is to evaluate the academy in action, and then come back and report on further adjustments and needed measures moving forward. We're happy to address any questions on the independent evaluator process. And then with respect to A.P.D. Implementation of our recommendations to date, we would note that over the past two months we've continued to consult with academy leadership, which has accepted our recommendations and has been working diligently to implement them. [3:13:34 PM] Just to highlight I think some of the key measures that have been done to date that are quite significant for this new academy is the increase of civilian leadership that exists now with the division manager and training supervisor positions, as well as the academy curriculum review committee, which includes community and academic representation. They've expanded community engaged programming to include the 30 additional hours of community engagement lived experiences program, as well as adding a two-week community immersion orientation program, which will be in place for the 144th academy. The department has increased emphasis on racial equity issues with antiracism training pursuant to groundwater analysis, racial equity training of Dr. -- Or James -- James joyous consulting, for academy staff, as well as cadets as part of the curriculum. They've added an eight hour course on history of police and race that will be taught [3:14:35 PM] by a subject matter expert from the community. They formalized the process for community review panel. They've expanded physical fitness training and adopted fewer week-long blocks of technical course content. And they have less emphasis now on military style training. They've eliminated such things as sand pits and sand bags, and they've eliminated or essentially changed what used to be called fight [indiscernible] To win, now a self-defense exercise at the end of the academy after the cadets have been trained properly on techniques. As a result, the academy now covers 34-weeks, which has increased from 26 weeks, which is where it was when we first sort of started this process. So in a sense, they've essentially added eight weeks of programming to the academy, and they've incorporated increased community participation and civilian oversight, a deemphasis on military style training, increased emphasis on diverts, equity, [3:15:35 PM] inclusion, and adult learning methods, and increased emphasis on officer safety and wellness and mentorship programs. And just by way of comparison, if you exclude European police agencies, many of which have much longer training programs than the United States, Austin's training program is now longer than many other comparable police departments in Texas and throughout the united States. So with the plan set forth by the division manager to achieve all short-term recommendations by may 31st, we believe a state of readiness for the 144th cadet class is achievable, with a caveat that there be an independent valuation once it's up and running. A lot of hard work remains to be done to establish the long-term foundation for a resiliency based community oriented police department, but we see no reason why this cannot be accomplished going forward. So with that, I'm happy to [3:16:35 PM] answer any questions or proceed however -- and I'll shop sharing the screen. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Manager, do you have anything before or -- before we ask questions, do you guys have anything? >> Alter: Do we want to hear from A.P.D. First or -- >> Mayor Adler: Okay. >> Good afternoon, everyone. If we can bring up the powerpoint that you had started to put up for Kroll and associates. That is the one. All right. Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor, council member, city manager. Joseph Chacon, interim chief of police. I'm very pleased to be discussing our reimagine [3:17:37 PM] pilot police cadet academy and the progress we've made on the blueprint pursuant to the counsel resolution. The blueprint laid out 23 tasks that would need to being completed prior to beginning a new academy class, and I'm here to report on the progress of those tasks and to assure you that these tasks will all be completed prior to the proposed June 7th start date for the academy. Of the 23 tasks, 11 have been completed, and the remainder are all in various stages of completion. I'll start by giving a very high level overview of the progress since March and the timeline for three things, and then proceed to highlight each of the tasks and give you a greater level of detail for each that will help to answer your questions and provide the level of assurance that I know you need in order to know that this reimagined academy class is headed in the right direction. Next slide, please. So beginning in March a new -- as mentioned, a new training division manager, Dr. Ann cringen was hired [3:18:38 PM] and again her work at that time. She began with evaluating the course schedule in order to implement active learning components and began her academic curriculum review for all the courses that are taught during the duration of the academy. We began adding new course content, including the history of race and policing course that was mentioned, and ensuring that all courses are being evaluated to incorporate diversity, equities, and inclusion content. We also developed an --evidence-based exit interview and follow-up process for cadets who leave the academy prior to graduation. Moving to April we began the process of hiring a training supervisor, and we still have that person fully onboarded by this month. We've conducted significant outreach to community organizations to play a part in long- term curriculum review, providing community members to assist with instruction and, as mentioned, formalizing a final video review process. [3:19:39 PM] The finalized course schedule includes a significant upgrade, which is a two-week, pre-academy pilot program known as community connect. This workshop will provide new cadets an immersive experience in the Austin community and its community members. The process of identification, selection and retention of subject matter experts and community members to teach these selected courses was also achieved, and finally the Kroll report was I should issued and an action plan implemented for the recommendations of the report. Coming in may, the faculty continues to receive instruction and guidance in adult learning theory, as well as all faculty will go through Ms. Joyce James courses. Review of final videos to be used and developing a field [3:20:40 PM] training officer refresher course. We'll finalize the procurement of a learning management system and retain independent evaluation of courses to ensure that the recommended changes have been implemented. Community connect begins for academy cadets on June the 7th and will run for two weeks, and then in-class instruction would begin on June 21st. The assessment will be continuous and ongoing, asking the questions, which changes worked? What elements met community expectations? What instructional practices were not effective? And which elements need additional revision? I feel quite confident that all of these measures, which I will detail in the next few slides, will all be completed on time and in full, thanks to all of our partners that helped us get to this point. Next slide, please. So I know there's -- we're running a little bit short on time today. [3:21:40 PM] I'm going to try to get through all of these as quickly and efficiently as I can, but I don't want to overlook or minimize any of these steps as they're all very crucial. So I'm going to divine with the March tasks. As discussed, we're hired -- the first one hired our new training manager, Dr. Ann cringen, and we are marking that step as complete. The second, we have evaluated the academy course schedule in order to implement active learning opportunities. All lesson plans have been reviewed and revised and include at least one active learning component. Active learning components are instructional techniques that incorporate discussion, practice, review, and application, and are a large part of adult learning theory and activities. These have proven to be much more effective in helping learners to process and retain new information. The third, we have established an academy curriculum review committee. The committee members have been selected and contracts are being approved for all the members. We are marking this task as [3:22:41 PM] complete. The compete members come from a section of our community, community members, members from the equity office, victim services and from A.P.D. I'll be talking more about the academic curriculum review in a few slides. The fourth, which is the eight-hour history of race and policing course, has been implemented into our academy schedule, and this task is also complete. Just as background, the course, history of policing and race in America, was created through a collaborative effort between the office of police oversight and the university of Texas school of law. And it will be taught by subject matter experts. The fifth course, content valuation has begun and is underway. So the lesson plan revision was divided into two phases. In phase I, it was reviewed to ensure that the content is current, meets standards, links back to a learning [3:23:41 PM] objective and has at least one active learning activity in each lesson plan. In phase II there will be a number of objectives, analyzing each lesson plan to include content related to diversity, equity, inclusion, each lesson includes presentations of ideas visually, so, for instance, using graphs or info graphics. That each lesson plan has assessment to ensure achievement of the learning objective, and all lesson plans include one current event or a local example that is relevant to each unit goal. Full content evaluation will be complete no later than June 4th. Number six, a new exit interview and follow-up procedure has been designed and implemented, and this task is now complete. The new exit interview tool is evidence-based and, thereby, eliminating any potential bias in the interviews, and will be more helpful in producing usable data for academy staff for [3:24:42 PM] retention rates in future classes. Next slide, please. The training supervisor hire is in the final stages, and we will have that individual onboarded this week. This person will be assisting Dr. Cringen in the coordination of all of these tasks and will be instrumental moving forward in keeping everything on pace. We will very quickly be moving this task to the completed column. Number eight, A.P.D. Staff has conducted outreach with established and new community members and partner organizations to assist with instruction and community immersion. They come from a broad spectrum of our community and include the following organizations: Life anew, restorative justice, just limit, jail the jobs, the Austin area urban league, measure, naacp, consulate general of Mexico, and many [3:25:43 PM] others. We are going to be marking this task as complete. Number 9, the video review process has been completed. The committee members have met three times since the middle of March, and in order to continue the video review work, contract terms have been delivered to the members of the committee last week. So those meetings will be ongoing, and there's another one this week, and I'll talk a little bit more about the video review process in just a little bit. Number 10: The course schedule has been -- had been previously completed. However, the Kroll recommendations required us to add some additional physical fitness hours, which is being worked into the schedule now. So we have moved this task back into the ongoing column, but once that is completed, we will be moving it back to completed, and that should be shortly. Number 11, the community connect pre-academy workshop [3:26:43 PM] is almost complete. The content has been finalized and almost all of the organizations and panelists have been confirmed. There is still some community input on design that is ongoing, and again, this is one of those tasks that we'll be moving to completed very soon. Number 12: We continue to identify those courses that can and should be either taught or co-taught by members of our community. We're finalizing the contracts with all the instructors and should have those completed by may 21st, at which time this task will be marked as completed. Number 13: This task is related to the last task, number 12, and it's on the same timeline. We should have all of the contracts executed and in place by may 21st. Must be 14: We received the report from Kroll associates on April 23rd and have been working on analysis of all of the recommendations. [3:27:43 PM] We plan to have all remaining recommendations implemented by June the 4th. As you heard just a few moments ago from -- directly from Kroll, A.P.D. Has been in constant communication and contact with them to ensure that the steps we are taking are actually fulfilling the recommendations and that they approve those. Number 15: We've incorporated adult learning theory elements into all of our academy courses. So I touched on this briefly earlier, and adult learning theory really contains five key assumptions and elements. The first is self-concept. Adults are more independent than children and prefer self-directed learning. The second, adult learner experience. Adults have more experiences than children and learn better when we incorporate those experiences. The third is a readiness to learn. Adults want to understand the reason why they are learning. And so we are incorporating [3:28:45 PM] those types of things into our courses and how that knowledge relates to the ultimate goal. The fourth is developing an orientation of learning. Adults want to learn more practical skills than general knowledge. It helps them solve problems and work better. And then finally, the motivation to learn, and that is developing the intrinsic value that people will get from the process of learning. So all of these elements are being worked into the curriculum, and we are marking this task as complete. Number number 16, the process for ongoing academy faculty evaluation and review is being developed at this time. We've contracted with instructors from Texas state university to develop this process and it will be completed prior to June 4th. [3:29:46 PM] Number 17, I spoke about the groundwater analysis course for the course and the cadets. All of that will be completed prior to beginning the sit-down portion of the academy. We're also putting all of the demand and executive staff for the department that have not yet been through that court through that training over the next few weeks. Number 18, the first meeting with the equity office occurred on April 27th and another meeting is scheduled for this month. So as background the equity office conducted an assessment that essentially was a squad analysis and resulted in many of the same recommendations that are in the Kroll report. As a result, there is significant overlap between those two efforts. The equity assessment can really be broken down into four key areas. First, engaging the equity office in changes within the academy related to equity issues. This was the initial meeting [3:30:47 PM] that kicked off the effort and subsequent meetings will be held. Secondly implementing specific revisions to academy curriculum and course materials. To accomplish this we left the policing in the curriculum and all material is being reviewed as part of phase 2 as I discussed. Third, I am promoting personnel changes to -- implementing personnel changes to increase diversity in staff. You've already made changes as you've heard in the Kroll presentation and have increased our diversity with the staff and we're working to further diversify our staff in the future. And finally, implementing internal assessments to quantify equity issues so we will be collecting substantial amount of new information as noted in this blueprint that will include things like cadet injuries, reasons for separation, completion rates and all of [3:31:47 PM] those things, including our exit interview process and survey will help us address the equity concerns. So this process will be completed prior to June 4th. Finally, the cammie curriculum review is being established for a series of meetings during the month of may and early June. A total of four meetings will occur. The first yesterday, may 3rd. That's another on may 10th, may 24th and then June 7 with the committee members to ensure that everybody understands the clear path forward in the coming forth in the fulcrum review or as I'll refer to it as acr. The acr will be in three work group, which will include -- work groups, which will include an non-academic community member, an academic member and an officer in each group as well as one staff member [3:32:49 PM] from the office of police oversight, from the equity office. These groups will recommend revisions to the academy curriculum providing a variety of different perspectives. Each work group will be responsible for reviewing one lesson plan per month. Areas that they are reviewing for are diversity, equity, inclusion content. Verifying active learning components, verifying that deescalation components are included in every lesson. That there are community teaching components where possible. The in addition of Spanish language instruction in many lesson plans and that we have an acceptable implementation of trauma informed training in these lesson plans. So this will be an ongoing effort prior to and during the academy and going forward. Next slide, please. The video review committee will continue through the length of the academy and no videos will be shown without [3:33:49 PM] approval of that committee. As you know, the committee has been working for several months and has offered valuable insight into the video selection process. Very importantly they are developing the lens through which our academy staff will work through in the future when wants to bring forth videos in use and construction. So contracts for the committee members are in place and that task is now complete. Number 21, in order to ensure that we're incorporating trauma informed practices into all of our training modules, I've kind of gone over the steps of how we are going that on a large scale, but members of the victim services unit will be participating in the academy curriculum review and will also be participating in academy role play scenario-based training. They'll be co-teaching the victim of crime and domestic violence courses and they are currently revising those lesson plans. So this task will be completed by June 4th and is ongoing. Number 22, we have begun the process to select a vendor for our new learning management system. [3:34:50 PM] We have second round of vendor violations seconded for the week -- evaluations for the week of may 10th and hope to have it done by the beginning of the academy. And finally, we retained Kroll associates as the independent evaluator as they discussed during their presentation. And this task is now complete. Next slide, please. So just two other key elements that we thought were important to discuss in this reimagined cadet class that are not listed in the blueprint, but they are noteworthy and I'll just briefly describe them. With the approval of the Joyce James consulting group contract, there will be the development and expansion of a mentoring program for our cadets. So we have had a women's mentoring group in existence for some time now and next it will be developed with the assistance of Ms. James and her group as a mentorship program for our african-americankets. And then finally, we are [3:35:50 PM] developing a refresher course for our ftos and ensuring that their training is also in line with the new direction of the academy. Specifically with regards to the developments of diversity, equity and inclusion. It will be in the class when cadets are given their fto training. So just in conclusion, I want to assure mayor and council as well as our community that we're working diligently and urgently to fulfill our commitment to reimagining our cadet training academy and that we are delivering instruction in line with the expectation that we are building efficient, capable, caring guardians of our community. I thank you for your time and Lexington and I'll be stand -- and attention and I'll be standing by in any questions that we may have. [3:36:51 PM] >> Thank you, team from Kroll and chief. I really appreciate that appreciation analysis. We stand for questions, but really support the ongoing work and all the efforts to do this reimagined academy. Mayor? >> Mayor Adler: Thank you, manager. Councilmember alter? >> Alter: I appreciate all the work that went into this report both by our consultants and our staff on various teams and also the insights of the reimagining Texas workforce as well. There are a few things I would like further clarity. To some degree chief Chacon you answered but I would like them maybe condensed and focused on the particular topic. There was much more in your presentation than what was [3:37:51 PM] on the sheets. So you touched on it. I want to recognize that we have a really phenomenal team of victim services counselors at APD and we've heard a desire from that unit to be more involved in the academy training and they've offered to help intertwine the trauma-informed approaches more holistically throughout the academy curriculum. We also received a recommendation from the reimagining public safety task force to extend the number of hours that cadets spend on victim services from 16 up to 30. That included training for officer training program and recertification. And then increasing just competency and trauma-informed approaches to victims and survivors I think is just critical so I [3:38:54 PM] wanted to ask chief Chacon if you could talk about how victim services role in the academy will be expanded and how we are incorporating their work into the academy as well as throughout the department consistently. I know you did touch on this in pieces but I want to understand it together rather than via the bullets and if you could also speak to the number of hours that that roughly amounts to or give me that if you don't have it at your fingertips. >> Sure. I appreciate the question, council member. So they'll be teaching two classes districtly which I would directly count as hours. The first is victims of crime course, a 10 hour course. And the domestic violence and sexual assault investigations which is an eight-hour course. So that's 18 course which I can directly attribute to that victim service role as well as what we're doing in [3:39:55 PM] the academy curriculum review process so we're bringing in every single course that we look at and we're making those changes. We have a member of the victim services unit that will be injecting and putting those trauma-transformed pieces into that process and make sure we're looking through a victim-process informed conference and that that can come forward during the construction. -- During the instruction. During the role play part of it, which is so crucial for our cadets, we'll have victim services there during that time. So as role play ends and they debrief and critique afterwards, the victim services counselor could say you might have done more in this area. We want to certainly [3:40:59 PM] recognize that for victims of crime that might be another call to the officer, but for that scried that's the worst time in -- for that individual that's the worst time in their life. Creating that caregiving attitude for our officers will be critical during those role plays as well. >> Alter: Thank you. That's something I'll definitely be watching and trying to see how that moves forward. I think those lessons are extremely important as we want to shift to more a guardian approach and being able to understand those perspectives and we've seen again and again within the justice system how important it is to really have a deeper understanding of say domestic violence or some of the things that the victims are experiencing through that process. I want to flag for my [3:42:00 PM] colleagues that I am planning an amendment to the resolution that will just speak a little bit more specifically to some minimal reporting requirements, some of which may already be planned, but reiterating some of the things we had last month when we moved forward with the blueprint in there to make sure that those are transparently happening because I think that sunshine on this process and council attention is important to reassure our community that we are committed that this is a pilot and we're learning from this pilot and we're moving -- we're moving forward, but this is a pilot and we have to learn and we have to be incorporating lessons and we move forward and we may not get it all right this time, but that we're going to be very intentional about that. The last thing I wanted to to say is reflecting on the [3:43:02 PM] process that got us here, when he a number of results from a number of consultants all coming to the same conclusion. One of the observations that we observed was friction between the academy staff and Dr. Villanueva, had you a very hard task. And it's my view that we need to have full openness and a willingness to make changes from sworn staff and we need leadership and a change at APD culture so that we can have a receptiveness to change which is what we're seeking through the changes in the academy. Obviously we've had new leadership at the academy and I've heard nothing but fabulous things about the work that she has gotten underway and gotten running and moving things forward or we wouldn't really be here today. I also understand there's a [3:44:03 PM] chain of command culture in APD and so in order to have a transformation happen that message has to really come from the top. And I've appreciated chief Chacon, your willingness, to step into this role and help us move this process forward, but I'd like you to speak to the ways that you and your direct staff are supporting Dr. Crinkon and how the staff will embrace her work forward. >> Thank you, council member. As mentioned during the Kroll presentation, shortly after Dr. Crinkon was hired, myself, commander mason -- assistant chief mason, commander Johnson, all met with every member of the training staff out there, with Dr. Crinkon in attendance, and I welcomed her and made it very clear that she was the training division manager. And that she is at the level [3:45:05 PM] where she is a peer to commander Johnson and a report to the assistant chief over that bureau. Her division where it needed to go was to go followed and the response has been very good from our staff. I think clearly understanding what the direction and the instructions were coming directly from me and from the other members of leadership has helped to set that tone and we have not had issues with -- some of the issues that you're discussing that we had seen in the past. Dr. Kringen brings a very good manner with her to how she conducts the work and has been very well received by her staff. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Council, Ed Lenske from Kroll. If I could add my thoughts. We did Steve tensions from [3:46:05 PM] the director that was previously there and staff. We flagged them as issues and concerns and got input from both sides on that. There are reasons for the tensions. I had a similar situation in my prior department with the senior policy advisor that I had some tension with homicide unit commanders and it took us going and changing that homicide unit commander and having a conversation saying that this is who we've decided to go in and we want to make sure we had full support here. I cannot tell you the actions of the chief and assistant chief going out there, having that conversation, which is something that hadn't occurred previously, is what exactly needs to happen to set the tenor and tone and help rebuild a police academy with a new culture and sense of purpose. So it was exactly what we were hoping for and exactly what we saw. >> Mayor Adler: I want to reiterate that the tone is key. There are a lot of specifics in the report and there need [3:47:06 PM] to be because there are a lot of specifics raised by the consultants leading up to this. Best I could tell in going through it that you caught the ones that I had identified and I appreciate that exhaustive work. Chief, I want to thank you for leaning into this process because I think you set at a high level what that tone is. And I think that you've been leaning into what this community has been trying to do even with your visits up at the state legislature and the like as well as the comments you've given to the media and I appreciate that. I also want to thank Farah for the work that she's doing. She's in a pretty pivotal place in this whole conversation. Also not an easy place to be in and you seem to be negotiating this very well. My question, manager, goes to you. [3:48:06 PM] Part of the blueprint process had us not only identifying what the staff and stakeholders would be doing relative to the identified issues, but also some measure of certification from you. I'd like to know how you're approaching what and what your timeline is with respect to that. >> Thanks. >> Mary, as you've heard, it's -- thanks, mayor, as you've heard it's an ongoing the recommendations that came from these reports. We have now hired Kroll as an independent evaluator so they will be really tasked with having not just this certification that you're describing coming from within the city, but making sure that's done from an outside perspective. I know Farah has been discussing this a little bit more so I will ask her if she wishes to speak, but we [3:49:07 PM] have the insight based on the actions that will be taken in the next few weeks and have the way that Kroll has already been looking at and evaluating if we're ready and they will continue to do that going forward. Ms. Muscadin? >> Thank you, mayor. I think I can answer that question in two parts. The first part is that we already know that Kroll has evaluated the short-term recommendations and the implementation of that. They've been reviewing and getting information from Dr. Kringden of all the changes they've done thus far. I think that is a form of certification. And additionally, the way we drafted the scope of work for the independent evaluator is to parallel the blueprint and it matches the three parts that we set out with the transformative change, culture of adult learning and community involvement. And it's specifically tied to tasks under those particular areas of the blueprint that Kroll will be [3:50:07 PM] looking into, they will be assessing regularly. We've set it up where they will meet with academy staff on a monthly basis both in-person and virtually. It provides an opportunity in realtime to give feedback to the academy so they can adjust and feedback that supports the outcomes that we're trying to achieve. So I think I'm answering that question in two parts in terms of one, we have a formal certification in terms of pd status on the short-term recommendations, but then we do kind of have an ongoing certification in terms of how they're going to be assessing the progress and the implementation during the pilot academy. >> Mayor Adler: That's good. I think, city manager, you have value of your advice. I think the council required you to make that certification and I think that was significant because [3:51:09 PM] it's you that I that will communicate to the community your personal assessment. Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: First I want to say thank you to everyone who has been involved in this. I know it's been a lot of work for all of you and I appreciate the efforts that have been going into this. I want to thank the chief for going over each of the 23 items in detail. I think that is -- that has been so helpful to help the community see that attention was paid to each one of those items and the way that you've presented it with the status report on each one and additional information on the key ones has been very helpful. So I really want to say that I appreciate that. I have one question that you -- again, similar to what council member Alison alter said. You kind of covered this, [3:52:10 PM] but I would like to reiterate it. And that is one aspect of certification that we did talk about previously was the community involvement and I know that we have talked about -- you talked about the participation of community members on the acr and also talked about the fact that this is an iterative process as well as what we just talked about with regard to the Kroll role. But I would like for you to specifically reiterate for us what the role is for the community in reviewing this process and actually being a part of this certification. >> Thank you, council member. So just to kind of review, one of the most important things that they're doing is the acr, so part of that, and they will be involved in the long- term review of all of our courses. They've also been involved [3:53:11 PM] in our video review committee and they will continue to be involved in that portion. The new community connect piece is going to be primarily community members that will all be as well as some either advocacy based or systems based advocates that our cadets will interact with at the beginning of the academy. We're prying in committee members -- we're bringing in committee members wherever we can to teach and reteach any of the courses I'm talking about, including the history of race and policing in America, and some of the other courses where DI is so important. And finally what I would say is we had plans to have many of our courses be monitored by community members going through the academy. They don't be in every [3:54:12 PM] single class, but for those we know it's crucial and that the community has a high interest in to take sure that we're teaching it that they will have the ability to kind of monitor out that's going and provide the input so that we can take it and implement it in the future. >> Kitchen: Thank you, chief. The other thing that you mentioned that there's a number of the items that were on the blueprint that are in process that are scheduled to be completed by June 4th. So I think it would be helpful to have a process for reporting back to us upon their completion. That may be part of what councilmember alter was referring to in her amendment, which is great if that's what she was thinking of. But I just want to ask you, chief, can you commit to some kind of process to let us know as those are completed prior to the start date of the academy? >> Absolutely. Rile work with city manager [3:55:13 PM] and city staff to make sure how that reporting goes to make sure that you get the timely reports. >> Kitchen: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Fuentes. >> Fuentes: Thank you. My questions are building off of the questions that were previously raised. So with the Kroll assessment, and I get they're an independent evaluator and it's an iterative process and they will be giving realtime feedback as the pilot academy goes along, will council receive a report at the end of the pilot academy of the findings of things that were tweaked or any parts of the academy curriculum that still need to be changed. I'm just not sure if that is formally part of the process or is it that we'll be getting bimonthly updates on how the academy is going? >> Do you want to take that, [3:56:13 PM] Farah? >> Yes. Council member, the way we drafted that scope of work is there would be an initial report and we did that report midway through the pilot academy. So approximately the date and the scope of work is October 18th. And then the final report would be issued on March 7th of 2022. >> Fuentes: Great. So we'll get two reports then. Then my second question is we'll be potentially redoing a pilot academy and we'll have cadets who are in the reimagined process, chief, if you can talk through how can we ensure that the culture of the department that they'll be walking into once they graduate will embrace those reforms and will be open and welcome to the reforms. If you could speak a little bit to that effort. >> Certainly. Thank you, council member. I'll just tell you that I've been working with executive and command staff on all of the -- what we're talking about through the [3:57:16 PM] reimagination process. I did mention that whatever members have not been through the groundwater analysis course of our leadership cadre will be going through it within the next few weeks. And I have already been through that course. It's an amazing course. It's one that I think opens a lot of people's eyes about the way that police are viewed in the committee. And it lays some good groundwork for F what we're trying accomplish moving forward. Then the expectation will be -- is being set and will continue to be set that we are -- as mentioned earlier, that we're really leaning into all of the changes that our community would like to see be made with the Austin police department. We still have a responsibility to maintain public safety and we will maintain that responsibility, but at the same time how those services are delivered will be, you know -- that's why we are making the changes that we [3:58:17 PM] are to the academy because we do want to create those guardians and those caregivers that are -- that really is their role the vast majority of the time. >> Fuentes: Thank you. That's so important. I'm grateful to hear your commitment to that because those are what I'm thinking of is once they graduate what kind of department culture are they walking into and will that department culture align to the reformations that are being made. So I appreciate that. >> Colleagues, anything else before we go back? >> I think most of my questions have been answered over the last several months. I just wanted to echo my appreciation for everybody who's been doing very valuable and important work. I feel a distinct sense of appreciation for the work that the community members have done [3:59:19 PM] as well, in which case I want to also echo the appreciation for what they've contributed. I do look forward to, on Thursday, I know we have a 5:00 time certain, so I'm trying to be mindful of that. So I do look forward to a little bit more conversation on Thursday, because there are a couple of things that have been brought to my attention by way of members of the community, and just want to make certain that there's room for continued discussion with community members. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. If it's okay, we haven't heard yet from council member Ellis. Council member Ellis, go ahead. >> Ellis: Thank you, mayor. I know council member alter had her hand up, too. I do look forward to seeing the amendments that she might be bringing, because I agree with her line of thinking on this matter. I think what's really most important is that we maintain this line of transparency in understanding that a pilot class is something that will continue to be reviewed, continue to have [4:00:20 PM] public input, and that it needs to be an opportunity for us to really fine tune it and make sure that it is operating in a way that we really need it to. There's been so much community input along the way that I and my colleagues are so appreciative of. But we absolutely need these checks and balances just to make sure that all of our city departments are performing the work in a manner that is consistent with our values throughout the community. So I do look forward to seeing council member alter's updates and continuing to have this conversation over the next few weeks. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Council member alter did have her hands raised, but she nodded when I asked if it was okay to recognize you. Council member alter. >> Alter: Yeah, I was waiting to see if anyone had their hand up before. So I apologize for that. So, I have a question on the de-escalation long-term recommendation number 6. It is marked as complete in the co-report, but when I read the [4:01:22 PM] APD response, it seems like it's still very much under way, so if the department has plans for incorporating de-escalation training into the mandatory in-service training, but it isn't in place yet. And they will ensure videos will be reviewed, but it's really unclear if the review for the de-escalation training video has been completed. And, you know, as has been underscored by some of my colleagues, you know, it matters the culture into which the cadets go out, and we've talked before about the importance of the field training program and the challenges of conflicting signals. So this is a really important piece of the reform for the training, and I don't want to it to get lost, because it's been marked completed when it hasn't been in some ways. So, my first question is, has the video review for de-escalation training been completed? >> And I take it the question is for me. >> Alter: I'm not sure who is the best person, so thank you for jump in. >> I appreciate that. [4:02:22 PM] Thank you, council member. So the video review process has completed to a point, but it's still an ongoing process to make sure that -- because we have to look at every single video that we were showing previously in the academy. And specifically to eliminate those that either showed bias or didn't talk about the de-escalation techniques that you were highlighting here. And we needed to bring those forward. So, as our staff continues to -- as I discussed, develop that lens that is going to be the expectation for bringing videos forward, they'll bring it to the video review committee that will have to approve the use of the video, and it has to have those de-escalation components in it. During the acr, during the curriculum review, one of the things they'll be reviewing is do we have de-escalation [4:03:22 PM] techniques that are woven through this particular lesson that they're reviewing at the time. So that is going to happen for every single course and we're going to look for the opportunities to continue to teach de-escalation. And of course, we have our standalone training, integrating communications assessment and tactics that is a perf model that we have incorporated, have been teaching for some time. And will continue to teach in the academy and in inservice of all of our officers. So we continue to have a very strong emphasis on de-escalation. >> Alter: So on that icat train, as I may recall, and I may have my numbers a little backwards. Our academy had the training at ten hours, but the national standard was 16. I asked about that I think in March and I didn't see where [4:04:24 PM] that was reconciled, why we were choosing the lower amount. >> So I did see that as well, council member, and I can tell you that the reason that we had installed ten hours to begin with was because when we conducted our train the trainer with perf, ten hours was the length of the course. I believe that perf has since updated and said we need to increase to 16. So we are in the process then of looking at how are we going to increase this, given, you know, all the other time constraints and demands on our time for our officers. I can tell you that in addition to that ten hours, our inservice has already received eight hours in the last training cycle, will receive another eight hours in the coming cycle, as well as some standalone courses that have been developed that are 30 hours in length that are just about de- escalation. So we have some, you know, inservice courses that will also [4:05:24 PM] be available. We are looking to see if we can possibly find a few more hours to increase based on the new perf recommendations. >> Alter: Okay. So how will we know how that's evolving? >> I think that as this continues to move forward and we continue to provide reports to council, that I'm taking it as a takeaway to see, are we going to be able to do it, or are we going to have to push it to, you know, some inservice class following graduation for those additional hours. >> Alter: And it's my understanding that the way that the academy is structured, we're hearing only about the hours that are happening before they go for their field train, but it was sort of designed that there would be, like, inservice at a later point? Can you speak to what that involves? [4:06:24 PM] Talking about the number of weeks that was mentioned at one point. Can you speak to how that plays out? >> Yeah, I want to make sure that I understand the question. You're asking how many hours we cover in preservice and how many in inservice? >> Alter: Well, I had thought that when we were picking the number of weeks, that part of the rationale was that you wanted to come back and, like, reinforce that at a later date and was planned to do that. But we haven't heard anything about that part of the training. It's my understanding that we were doing the academy at the 30-something weeks, and they were going out to do the field training, and there was some -- I don't know what point in time, between the field training and going out in the field. But there was the expectation there would be another period of time as part of their sort of initial training, even though it would be after their field training. [4:07:25 PM] Am I remembering that correctly? >> Well, you, you are. Some of that training has been delayed because it was -- we were teaching intermediate courses during our cadet training class to kind of get people ahead of schedule into getting that more advanced training, and simply at that point, this is talking previously, that we had extended the length of the academy so that we could do that. We also talked about introducing the second week of crisis intervention training during the academy time. And actually, when we came back, and for instance, revisited that one course, it actually made sense to give them the first week, which was the basic cit course, have them go into the field with a field training officer, take these calls so that they had a better understanding, and then bring them back for the second part that they would complete prior to coming off of probation. So, there are going to be some courses that it's absolutely critical in order to get them even licensed, that have to [4:08:28 PM] happen during the academy as we know it, the 34 weeks. And then there's some other ones that we can push a little bit, and we still want to do it in a timely manner, but in order to, you know, use our time the best and also to kind of conform with best practices, that we want to push just a little bit either to the end of their -- you know, during their probation period, at the end of their probation period, but prior to making fully functional officers. >> Alter: Thank you. So perhaps when you report back in June, you could get us a little bit more of an outline of what that plan is, because I'm not -- I understand that we're saying academy is over at 34 weeks, but in terms of the training, I see that as part of what we're delivering, and so it would be helpful if that's ready. And obviously you have 30-some weeks before that happens, so it might not be fully fleshed out, but if you could give us a sense of the process, that would be great. And then my last question has to do with the paramilitary [4:09:33 PM] culture. You know, the report found that there was significant value in shifting away from a paramilitary culture and towards an adult learning theme. And at our last update, we heard hesitancy from APD about moving away from the paramilitary culture. So, aside from moving physical training away from the classroom setting and changing the will to win day to self-defense day, can you explain how we are structuring the academy to be more of a learning-focused environment and reducing aspects of the paramilitary training? >> Sure. Appreciate that question. I think that is very important to people. I talked during the presentation about active learning components. So, you know, the paramilitary culture really is lecture and listen. To have people sit at attention, stand at attention. You don't speak unless you're spoken to, or given permission to. Those are all elements of a paramilitary or a military [4:10:35 PM] organization. We are changing that. And it is going to become much more of that adult learning environment that I think I described as being more conducive to learning. We're making sure that there are components in each one that actually incorporate the feedback and the interaction from the students as well as tying them to either local or national events that are going on at that time so that they see how it all relates together, and then they can -- it helps them to internalize that information much more readily. Every lesson plan has to have at least one active learning component, and there are a number of examples. And as I said, as we're going through this on the adult learning environment overall, and how we are doing it, I gave several examples of what the key components of that are, and that [4:11:35 PM] we are incorporating those into the lesson plans, into that curriculum review process so that we give our cadets an opportunity in the classroom setting to have a lot of interaction. I can tell you, when I went through the academy, that is not how it was. It was very structured and very disciplined. We are going to be allowing people to ask those questions, to understand the why, because it's so important, I think for adult learners to do that. And that is going to -- I think in the end, is really going to produce a better police officer. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: Thank you. Alex, anything else? Mayor pro tem? >> Harper-madison: Chief Chacon, you piqued my interest with something you just said with your comparison about your experience as a cadet and what [4:12:37 PM] these cadets are going to receive with our re-imagined academy. And I'm curious to know if -- you know, sort of retroactively or as continued education, if folks have already been through academy are going to have the opportunity to be exposed to some of this new and improved curriculum. >> Thank you, council member, mayor pro tem. I think that you will see it in the -- because we're not just doing it for preservice. We're looking at our inservice courses as well. And, you know, we've done that to a large extent already, because it's almost like, you know, once you graduate from the academy and move on, the nature of the courses really changes and it does become more of that adult learning environment, where feedback is solicited, input is solicited, and there's more scenario-based, you know, discussions and things like [4:13:38 PM] that. So I think that, you know, we certainly have always seen the value of it, but I think it was important in the academy setting, that was -- the thinking was that's the only way we can build discipline. And I don't think that that's accurate. I think that we will be able to have good professional police officers that will graduate from our academy, even in this new kind of adult learning environment. >> Harper- madison: Thank you. I appreciate that. And for what it's worth, that's something that I'll probably follow up with you on just to sort of see where we are with implementation and follow-up. Because I'd really like to lean from what a seasoned officer's experience with going through the new curriculum is like. I'm curious. Thank you. >> Mayor Adler: We'll go ahead and pick this conversation back up on Thursday if there's [4:14:42 PM] nothing else. All right. Manager, staff, chief, others, thank you for your presentation today. Colleagues, we're going to now go into closed session to take up one item, pursuant to 551071 of government code. We're going to discuss legal issues related to item e2, which is the may 1 election. Without objection, we will now go into executive session. Don't anticipate us coming back out to do anything other than me coming back out to close the meeting. And again, we're trying to have a hard stop at 5:00. So, with that here at 4:15, we'll go ahead into executive session. [ In second Executive Session ] [5:14:15 PM] [Mayor Adler: Alright. It's May 4th, 2021 the time is 5:14 p.m. This is Greg Casar's birthday today. So if you see him make sure you wish him a happy birthday. We are out of closed session. In closed session we discussed real estate matters, legal matters rather regarding item: E2 and with that this meeting today is adjourned.