Public Safety Committee Special Called Meeting Transcript – 11/22/2021 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 6 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 11/22/2021 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 11/22/2021 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. [2:12:09 PM] >> Good afternoon my name is Natasha harper-madison. I'm going to call to order the public safety committee meeting. We are meeting on the dais and webex in Austin Texas, November 22, 2021, at 2:12 P.M. I call the meeting to order. The first item is the approval of the minutes of the public safety committee meeting on Monday, September 20th, 2021. Is there a motion to pass those meeting minutes? Looks like councilmember Kelly is making the motion, and councilmember Casar is seconding that motion. All in favor please say aye. And I think I'm with the mayor remote that item one passes unanimously. Discussion and possible action is our item number 2. Approve the proposed 2022 public safety committee meeting schedule. Does everybody have those dates in front of them or should we go over them? I have Tuesday, February 8th, Monday, [2:13:11 PM] may 23rd. Monday, November 7th, Tuesday -- I'm sorry, Monday, March 28th, and then Monday, September 19th. I'm sorry, you said -- yes, 2 P.M., Monday, November 7th. Uh-huh. Okay. >> Mayor pro tem? >> Yes, councilmember Casar. >> I'll mention what I was going to mention, but I'll move approval of the schedule first. >> Thank you, I appreciate it, do we have a second? Looks like mayor Adler is going to second that item. All in favor? >> I wanted to bring something up really quickly. >> Absolutely. Please go ahead. >> I'm fine with this schedule for 2022. But as far as 2021 goes, [2:14:12 PM] I was hoping that at our meeting earlier, we would be able to take up the item on improvements and what we would do on sexual assault cases as well as victim services. And then of course we had award table to get together. There were emergencies and issues, so we had to cancel that meeting, when we reposted this one, I thought we were going to have that item on for this meeting, and I don't know where the miscommunication was or what it is that happened until it isn't on this agenda, and I really wanted to talk about it before we closed out the year. I don't know if I want it to go into 2022. I don't want it to be into 2022. And so after this meeting, maybe we can confer and either take it up as a sole item before the close of the year, if it's not in committee, I'll try to find a cosponsor for it to be taken up before the December 7 work session. It was one of the core issues brought up in the selection of the permanent police chief, and I think we need that [2:15:13 PM] report back and questions, totally understand why we weren't able to take it up in November, but would really like it in December, rather than 2022. >> So I do actually have a question. Thank you for daylighting that. My question would be do you have a preference as to whether or not it's a singular item on the agenda? Because I do believe there's been a couple of other items that have surfaced that we might be able to actually have a full meeting. >> And that could be the way to handle it. For me, I would like to take it up earlier than that 2022 meeting. If it's public safety with other items or we call a special one or bring it to work session on the 7th. I would like to take that up in December. >> Got it. I'll appreciate it, and I'll definitely take that into consideration and run it past other committee members. >> Thank you, chair. >> Anybody else have any commentary before we vote on the item? In which case, all in favor? Looks like the item is unanimous with the mayor joining us virtually, in [2:16:14 PM] which case I do believe we have a presentation coming up next, but I am -- heavily papered up here, but it's a serious paper situation. Da, da, da... Okay. So we approved the schedule. And then, oh, so now we are set to discuss and recommend judicial appointments for the city of Austin's municipal court. Do we have staff here presenting on that item? Hi there. Come on up, please. Thank you. >> Rebecca Kennedy, with the human resources department. Good afternoon, we're here today to present the slate of recommended judges and to have [2:17:15 PM] discussion in executive session. I did want to provide some feedback -- or the status to this point. Let's see. Do I control up here? So we visited with you earlier this year and explained the current judges with the municipal court, their term was expiring at the end of 2021. So this is the update from where we are now. So these are the qualifications to be a judge. These have not changed in the last few months, so I won't highlight those for too long. So we tried to put where -- what we have already completed that we said we would do when we visited with you in July. So we asked the judges for their -- a letter of interest, we received those from the judges. [2:18:17 PM] We evaluated potential vacancies and we convened the members of the judicial review panel. The human resources department did post vacancies for a substitute judge and associate judge, and we received a few applicants for that, and we will highlight that in the executive session. The judicial review panel reviewed the letters of interest from the sitting judges and may -- and we have recommendations that they have made to the public safety committee and that is what we'll go over today. After we review those, we hope by the end of the year that we have an item to bring forward to the city council that recommends the next slate of judges for the next term which starts on January 1, of 2022, and then ends December 31, of 2025. These are members of the judicial review panel, several of them had [2:19:20 PM] served on a judicial review panel with the city of Austin a few times. We did add an APD sergeant, Joshua greggers, at the request of this body, to have someone from APD on the panel. These members were also detailed to the committee in a memorandum that was sent in September. So our timeline, we are on time with getting the judges recommended by the end of the year. Most of these things had -- on this page, had to do with getting the letters of intent and then posting the position. And so now here we are today, where we're -- we will review the hiring recommendation from the judicial review panel. From there, we'll have the -- you have the ability to make that recommendation to the [2:20:21 PM] full council or if there's further steps that you would like us to take, we can do that as well. And these are the next steps for today. We'll review the recommendation and then we can accept -- you can accept the recommendation or conducted a additional interviews. And so that is the end of the update for where we are with the process, and we are available for a question. >> Thank you very much. We appreciate the presentation. Colleagues, do we have any questions? I see some heads shaking on the dais. Mayor Adler, I can -- we don't have any questions, you got off easy, thank you, appreciate your time. Excuse me, mayor pro tem, we do have a speaker on this item. >> Oh, thank you very much. Just for clarity, how many minutes does the speaker have for this [2:21:21 PM] item? >> Three minutes. >> Good afternoon, speaker. Thank you for joining us. Are you in person? Please approach. You have three minutes. Okay. >> My name is Mitch Solomon, and I have been privileged and honored to serve as municipal judge for almost 28 years now. I am seeking another term. I would like to serve one more term on the court. If you have any issues or concerns, concerning my reappointment or appointment as a municipal judge, I would appreciate the opportunity to address those. In executive session. That's all I have. I would like to thank you for your time and for your service. So thank you. >> Thank you very much. We appreciate you joining us. Colleagues, do we have any questions? Actually, I have a few, but I think -- I think some of them we're going to take up in executive [2:22:21 PM] session, in which case, if for whatever reason those don't get covered in our executive session, do I have your permission to follow-up? Thank you. In which case, without further adieu, unless there's something else that I missed, we have the opportunity now to break and go into executive session. So this committee will now go into closed session to take up one item, pursuant to sections 551.074 of the government code, the committee will discuss personnel matters related to item number 4, the discussion of recommendations for judicial appointments to the city of Austin's Austin municipal court. Is there any objection to us going into closed session on this item? And I don't see any, so hearing none, the committee will now go into executive session. And it is my understanding that we're taking our executive session virtually, so we'll give everybody a few minutes to get up to their offices. Thank you. >> There is a separate link for the executive session. >> Thank you for the [2:23:23 PM] reminder. Appreciate that. [ ♪ Music playing ♪ ] [2:54:53 PM] [Executive session] [3:16:44 PM] >> I wonder if we might preempt -- it sounds like I might be about to have a problem. It sounds like there's a cricket inside my microphone box. It's chirping at me. Maybe somebody could take a look at it before we get started and that will help me determine whether or not I need to slide down. Naturally, it will be like car repairs and it won't do it when you get up here. [3:19:41 PM] >> Harper-madison: Okay. It appears as though there's a quorum present. So we are out of closed session. In closed session we discussed personal items related to no. 4. As a result of that discussion, I would like to make a motion -- pardon me. I'm fogging up. I would like to make a motion that we approve the recommendation of the judicial review panel to recommend the following judges to city council for consideration. And those are Sherri statman for the presiding -- sorry. I'm fogging. Sherri statman for the presiding judge of the municipal court. Barbara Garcia, Patrick Mcneil, Michael coffee and [3:20:41 PM] teniece jennifers to serve as associated judges of the municipal court. Michael coffee to serve as the judge of the downtown community court. Tanisha and Belinda Hera, Stanley Kerr, Olga ceiling, Pamela cigman, Ryan turner, Kenneth, and John to serve as substitute judges. Can I get a second for that motion, please, colleagues? It appears I'm being seconded by council member Casar. Any further discussion, colleagues? Okay. So all in favor of the motion -- I won't -- I'll spare you reading all the names again but all in favor of the motion to approve the recommendation of the judicial review panel to [3:21:43 PM] recommend the following or to recommend the judges listed for city council. All in favor. I don't see mayor Adler, I think he had to leave us so it appears as though we are unanimous with council members Casar and Kelly remote, myself on the dais, and mayor Adler off the dais. Thank you. Okay. And with that, I think I get the opportunity now -- so if there's no objection, we are adjourned at 3:22 P.M. And council member Casar, I think we might need your face. With no objection, we are [3:22:45 PM] adjourned at 3:22 P.M. Seeing none, thank you, colleagues. Thank you everybody in attendance. [Meeting adjourned]