Item 5.1, Community Empowerment Plan listening session reports, Magali Teyes leading us off. Good morning, Mayor Rogers, members of the council, appreciate your time being able to give this presentation to you all in the community, and sorry, I think our slides are not quite up yet. There we go. I'd just like to start with saying, I'd like to start off this presentation by thanking the community who gave us their time during a pandemic, and in between fires and poor air quality, who met with us in person and online. I would especially like to thank them for their vulnerability, honesty, and commitment to working collaboratively towards change. Thank you for speaking to us while you were juggling child care challenges, learning how to use Zoom while experiencing what Dr. Blanca Gordo coined as digital destitution without proper broadband access and working through the pain of racial and economic injustice. Thank you for your incredibly valuable contribution to this report. Also, I want to quickly note that the full Community Empowerment Plan report that we're going to be presenting today is available in English and in Spanish. You can find those on our website along with all of the other reports that were presented yesterday and today. There will be an abbreviated version coming very soon, which we will post as well. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Danielle Garvuno, Danielle Garvuno, who will be co-presenting with me today. Danielle. Thank you. Good morning, Mayor and members of the council. My name is Danielle Garvuno. I am the Community Engagement Coordinator for the City of Santa Rosa and with staff liaison to our Community Advisory Board. I played an extensive role in these listening sessions, including attending all listening sessions, collecting data from those listening sessions, analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data, and developing of this report. So next slide, please. As all of you know, on May 26, 2020 George Floyd was murdered by an on-duty police officer, which sparked protests across the nation, including here in Santa Rosa. The protest called for an overhaul of use of force policies as well as increased law enforcement oversight and accountability. The city responded by developing the Community Empowerment Plan and holding a list, a series of listening sessions with our Santa Rosa communities of color. Now, before I get into more about the Community Empowerment Plan and the listening sessions, I want to take a few moments to acknowledge the history of systemic and institutional racism in our country, both a deep part of the history of the United States. This history provides important context for why we continue to see mass protests and demonstrations both nationally and locally. American racism and oppression of BIPOC can be traced back to the 1600s when the kidnapping, enslavement, and transport of Africans and Indigenous Central and South Americans began taking place at the hands of white Europeans. The United States of America was built on the backs of Africans and Indigenous slaves, and the land was taken from Indigenous tribes and Mexican landowners during the expansion of the United States throughout the 17 and 1800s. Some of the earliest known policing groups in the United States were established in the early 1700s, with primary responsibility for controlling the movement of the slave population. Slaves are not allowed to leave their owner's property, nor make decisions for themselves, including who to marry, who they lived with, or who they communicated with outside of the property. Even when slavery was abolished in 1863, this did not eliminate systems of oppression, systemic racism, and racial violence towards our BIPOC communities throughout the country. Slavery was replaced by Jim Crow laws, and after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the Johnson administration enacted a war on crime, targeting communities of color, particularly those living in poverty. White supremacist views of people of color, particularly black Americans as criminals, led to mass arrests and incarceration of many black people during this time, often with little or no evidence of wrongdoing. The attitudes held by white supremacy culture is that people of color are dangerous and violent, often which lead to the perception of guilt, even in a country where all of its citizens are innocent until proven guilty. This belief continues to drive excessive sentencing policies today. In the 1980s, the war on drugs furthered the mass incarceration of black and brown Americans, many arrested and incarcerated for minor offenses, but sentenced to long prison terms. The city of Santa Rosa is not exempt from historical and institutional racism. Like most cities in America, we are not immune to redlining and other historical city policies, plans, programming and programming which have further segregation and disproportionate allocation of resources, which significantly impact our BIPOC communities today. We encourage city council, city staff and members of the public to view Dr. Sharon Washington's presentation called Tipping the Scale, Deconstructing Race and Racism Seminar for more information on the historical context of institutional and systemic racism. This presentation can be found on our website, SRCity.org, and then clicking the yellow button titled Community Empowerment. Next slide, please. So onto the Community Empowerment Plan, Vision and Goals. The vision of the plan was to build a trusting and open relationship of respect between SRPD and the community, and a space for ongoing, inclusive and constructive dialogue is available. The plan has three goals. The first is to increase constructive and inclusive dialogue between leaders from our BIPOC communities in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County and the city of Santa Rosa. The second is geared towards SRPD policies and use of use of force policies and practices, which state the community is provided with opportunities to review and provide input on Santa Rosa Police Department use of force and community policing policies. The third one is establishing a feedback loop to engage effectiveness of efforts in and with the community and among city staff. While we are here today to present information on the listing sessions, which are a part of Goal 1, it is important to note that for Goal 3, we are currently working with the city's equity officer and other staff to develop a feedback loop for this plan, which can serve as a model for other city projects. Next slide, please. So again, as I mentioned, this report and presentation only covers Goal 1 of the Community Empowerment Plan. Goal 2 will be addressed by SRPD in the next presentation. Goal 1 outcomes include we engage 280 people in this work, of which 265 people of color from people of color groups or communities. We held 18 listening sessions with 13 community groups. Five of these listening sessions were follow-up sessions. We held 18 one-on-one conversations and 15 informal group conversations. Next slide, please. Now going into the listening session outcomes. First of all, the listening sessions were held between June and December of 2020. This included participation from our former Mayor Tom Schwedhelm, Police Chief Ray Navarro, staff from our Office of Community Engagement, and also our Economic Development Director. We engaged 215 participants throughout these listening sessions. Again, 13 community groups were engaged, which included five Latinx community groups, four Black community groups, one Indigenous community group, and three mixed-race community groups. We chose groups from our BIPOC communities, including community members who have historically not been intentionally invited to engage with local government, including monolingual Spanish speakers, our Eritrean community, members of our Indigenous community groups, members of various Black community groups, and members of our immigrant populations in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. And from these listening sessions, five major themes reoccurred. Next slide, please. So diving into those themes. The first theme was build relationships between Santa Rosa Police Department and the community, including youth. And when we say build relationships, we're talking about positive relationships. Examples from this theme. Most participants mentioned that they had some kind of negative interaction with law enforcement at some point in their lives. However, they still believe positive interactions with SRPD officers are possible and need to happen, even with children. Part of the reasoning includes ensuring that their children feel comfortable calling on public safety for help when the need arise, as well as creating an interest in public safety careers among young people. In addition, all participating groups agreed that SRPD needs to work on improving and strengthening their relationships with our BIPOC communities. How to do this varied from group to group. To Sonoma County Lowrider Council proposed building a lowrider patrol car for SRPD. Participants from the Indigenous community listening session expressed interest in having a cadet program for youth, as well as utilizing community space at Yakaama for activities with officers and the community. One resident from this particular group also proposed doing spiritual check-ins between members of the Indigenous community and officers before officers start their shifts for the day. In addition to early interactions with police officers and more opportunities to engage with SRPD, several groups stated that they would like to see more police presence in their neighborhood. Some participants said that this presence of police would help improve their sense of safety within their own communities. The second theme was around investing in community programming and services, particularly for our BIPOC communities. This includes programming and resources that include increased services and housing for individuals experiencing homelessness, recreation centers for black community members, financial opportunities for small BIPOC businesses, financial assistance for culturally appropriate mental, behavioral and educational needs, community housing and development for older youth ages 18 to 24, and violence prevention and healing strategies such as mentoring programs and opportunity for youth. Participants also stated that they want more economic opportunities for BIPOC. Theme number three centered around police accountability and oversight mechanisms, and this particular theme came up and was probably the most prevalent throughout these listening sessions. Throughout these listening sessions, staff heard stories from participants about their experiences with SRPD. While some mentioned positive experiences, including positive experiences with school resource officers, many shared negative encounters. These experiences, including stories from mothers and children about their children who were targeted by police officers and labeled as gang members. Youth also shared their experiences with being racially profiled by police officers and witnessing family members' violent experiences with law enforcement. While a few others stated that they heard their peers describe situations with officers that include racist experiences, mistaken identities and being labeled as looking suspicious. All participants want more accountability from SRPD. Participants also mentioned that officers must report their colleagues in cases of inappropriate behavior and actions that go against professional standards and policies, not fear retaliation or discipline for speaking up. Participants agreed that until officers are held accountable for their actions, BIPOC will continue to be mistreated. Participants also mentioned that they would like to see follow up on complaints against and investigations of SRPD officers and the need for that whole process to be improved. In addition, hiring processes were also mentioned. Participants suggested officers have to undergo certification and recertification every two years. In addition, having community review panels when officers are up for recertification and promotional opportunities. Another suggestion was to make tracking information related to officers who resigned prior to disciplinary action or termination available to the public. As well as those who have been found to have multiple sustained complaints and or violations whose personnel records are closed or unavailable. This will allow other agencies access to their records for review when applying for other positions locally. The suggestion was increased training for officers, including cultural competency, awareness and sensitivity trainings, implicit bias trainings, power dynamics and power and privilege trainings, systemic racism and white supremacy culture awareness trainings, and emotional resiliency trainings. Number four really focused around addressing institutional racism, systemic racism and the culture of white supremacy in Santa Rosa, and uplifting and celebrating Santa Rosa's BIPOC communities. And this is for our entire organization and not just specific to SRPD. Nearly all participants mentioned that they often do not feel safe in their communities due to system of these listening sessions brought up the issue of respect towards BIPOC, but in particular the dehumanizing treatment of black individuals in Santa Rosa. One participant stated growing up as a black man in Santa Rosa is traumatic. I do not want to raise children here. Another issue that was brought up by participants around this theme is that they feel the city focuses all time, effort and funding on the Latino community, and does not spend sufficient time or funding that addresses the needs of other communities of color in Santa Rosa. This equitable distribution of resources has a real impact on communities of color in Santa Rosa, and the city is encouraged to look at how to better distribute resources to all members of the community who need them. Finally, it was suggested that the city of Santa Rosa make a statement on diversity, inclusion, racial equity, and have trainings recommended that were recommended for SRPD officers extend to all city staff, council members, and board commission and committee members. Finally, the number five centered around addressing homelessness in our neighborhoods. The issue of homelessness came up multiple times throughout the listening sessions, particularly in the Roseland and South Park neighborhoods. Residents mentioned that there is a large population of individuals experience homelessness in their neighborhoods, and both neighborhoods have issues with loitering and trash. Many residents in both neighborhoods express feeling unsafe around those loitering and those who have mental health issues that have not been addressed. Some of these participants suggested the Kahootz model from Eugene, Oregon, which was brought up several times as a recommendation. With that, I'm going to turn it back over to Director Deyes who will get into more specifics of the community recommendations. Thank you Danielle. Next slide please. Okay. The following slides contain recommendations made by the community members we spoke to. I want to highlight that the top folded wording for the next slides will be the community recommendation and the bottom bullet points are programs and initiatives that have begun since starting the listening sessions or will soon be launched by the city of Santa Rosa. So starting with the community recommendation to engage through an anti racist lens creating an organizational culture that values public engagement with all community members and increasing access to public engagement opportunities. The development of the community empowerment plan was a first step towards engaging through an anti racist lens. The city will continue to make purposeful efforts to involve and engage our people of color communities, as well as other community members who have been as Abigail Echo Hawk from the Pawnee tribe has stated, we are working with the community advisory board to develop a citizen's guidebook and a citizen's academy, both aimed at educating community members on how local government functions, how decisions are made and how to get involved. We will also have a series of videos in English and Spanish. The city is taking steps to ensure that our monolingual Spanish speaking members which comprise of 30% of our population are able to participate in local government. This includes translation of city council agendas and city materials, as well as interpretation services available at city council meetings and many city hosted community meetings, translation and other languages can also be made available upon request. I want to talk about. Let's engage Santa Rosa. This engagement tool will assist us in gathering additional community input on a number of topics. The software will allow us to post surveys, polls, as well as other open ended input. We hope to have a soft launch later this month with a full launch by next month. Some examples of projects will be the social justice mapping project. Our collaboration with Sonoma County lawyer council, the Mary Lou and you'll be able to find polls and surveys on what the focus of the violence prevention program should be and many others. Next slide, please. The community recommends that the city of Santa Rosa make a public statement on the importance of diversity, inclusion and racial equity. The ask is that the city council include diversity, inclusion, racial equity and transparency as part of their mission statement. The city took initial steps towards this recommendation on June 28, 2020, when former mayor Tom Schwoldham and city manager Sean McGlynn released a letter to the community titled actions for change, a commitment from the Santa Rosa city council and city manager. More recently, Mayor Rogers and this council and the city council issued a resolution and a letter of support to our Asian American Pacific Islander communities standing in solidarity and condemning racial violence. In addition to these letters, the city has taken further steps to increase inclusion, diversity, equity, transparency and access over the last 10 months, adopting the open government ordinance that increases transparency of and access to city government processes and decision making. Working with seed collaborative to create plans to increase inclusion, diversity and equity and hiring, staff retention, staff trainings and engagement with the community, hiring and equity and public health planner who is responsible for ensuring city plans are inclusive, address community health disparities and incorporate public health best practice and the hiring of our diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity officer whose employment began on March 30, 2021. The office of community engagement has also created the multicultural roots project stories of Santa Rosa's black indigenous people of color. The goal of the project is to create visibility of Santa Rosa's people of color community by highlighting the contributions of past and present local leaders that have helped to shape Santa Rosa and Sonoma County into who they are today. This program will also include LGBTQ plus community as well as the voices of our younger residents who are actively working on making us a better community. This is a short list and we're happy to provide more examples at the end, specifically that the office of community engagement is directly working on next slide please. Okay, the community recommends the Council declare racism as a public health crisis for the city of Santa Rosa. Recently, the county of Sonoma joined 145 other cities and counties and 27 states, along with multiple organizations across California and the US and declaring racism as a public health crisis. In addition, the California State Legislature introduced Senate bill 17 also called the office of racial equity in December 2020. The proposed bill allows California to acknowledge the long standing impacts of systemic racism and to declare racism as a public health crisis. It creates a state office of equity and a racial equity and accountability council. The bill also states that California will approach laws and regulations with an anti racist health and equity in all policies focus that seeks whether policies play a role in creating, maintaining or dismantling racist systems and secure adequate resources to address the crisis. This new policy framework and leadership will also help California local governments and community based agencies develop strategies for reducing mental health disparities in BIPOC communities that will become an estimated 62% of the state's population by 2030. While the state legislature has yet to vote on SB 17, the city council could take a position of support on the bill and call for similar actions of the local level. Next slide please. Mandatory trainings and educational sessions for all city staff appointed and elected officials and members of city boards and commissions. Specifically, the community is asking that one public acknowledgement of how institutional racism impacts communities of color, including those here in Santa Rosa to development of self trainings. This would consist of staff members examining their own humanity and the humanity of those they serve and their role as public servants in the community. Three ethnic study sessions with an emphasis on history of policing in the US. The ask is for staff to receive ethnic studies education through sessions with a qualified facilitator. Integrate education on the history of policing in the United States and impacts of the system of communities of color. Furthermore, requesting annual required trainings for officers, which would include cultural competency, awareness and sensitive sensitivity trainings, power dynamics, power and privilege trainings, systemic racism and white supremacy culture awareness trainings and emotional resiliency trainings and mental health resources. Additionally, community members suggested mental health screenings for officers. These educational sessions are an important step that would lead us closer towards a healing relationship with the community, particularly with people of color. The following trainings are currently being administered or are upcoming and chief Navarro will address them further in his presentation. So it'd be skills for success training harassment in the workplace crisis intervention and implicit bias trainings community policing cultural awareness and implicit bias trainings through community matters. Next slide please. The community recommends the city develop a model of civilian oversight of law enforcement. The police department has recently issued a request for proposal for an independent police auditor position that will be overseen by the city manager. The art piece scope of work includes feedback received from listening session participants as outlined in the community empowerment plan goal 2.3 and chief Navarro will speak more on this in his presentation as well. Next slide please. Recommendation number six is restorative community justice circles with the community. In addition to working with the violence prevention partnership and its partner organizations who have subject matter experts in this field. We are looking at continuing to schedule speakers like Dr Sharon Washington, who walked us through the history of systemic racism, and how that has influenced where we are today. To Dr Daniela Dominguez who will speaking who will be speaking to the community advisory board on May 19th on self and community care as an act of resilience resistance. We will be reaching out to community to seek further input on what community healing looks like for them. This can and will look different for the many diverse communities that we have in the city, and we are aware that there is no one size fits all this work will have to be ongoing and constant. Next slide please. The final recommendation extends not just to SRPD, but to all city council city staff and San Rosa community members that and that and that is to continue to explore best practice responses to protest and demonstrations. To borrow the following bullet point suggestions from the League of California cities trauma informed responses to protest webinar and here are the sub recommendations. One get to know the community you are serving and what issues are important to them to recognize the humanity of why protests happen. Three recognize generational trauma and its impact on community for refrain from labeling protesters demonstrators as dangerous individuals. Five engage with the community and find out what they need to feel safe. The city has taken great strides towards these efforts via the community empowerment plan and we recognize that we still have quite a bit of work to do. Next slide please. The following are items that were born from the community empowerment plan goals and through listening to community needs chief Navarro will be expanding on these items in his presentation. So I will give a very light description of each. The public safety subcommittee was created as a forum to address SRPD use of force policies and also initially addressed other law enforcement related issues and concerns. The subcommittee is a forum where community members may attend and participate in these meetings providing feedback as the city continues to address police reform and public safety. The Santa Rosa police department with consultation from Whitebird Clinic, which implements the cahoots programming Eugene Oregon and in collaboration with other city departments is working on developing a program similar to cahoots that can be implemented in Santa Rosa. The chief's community advisory team is designed to be a bridge between the community and the Santa Rosa police department. It will facilitate and enhance communication and the relationship between the police department and the community. The office of community engagement and SRPD are teaming up with the Sonoma County lowrider council to build the Mary Lou. The car has been named after Mary Lou armor with permission from her family who was a fallen officer from SRPD and died of complications due to COVID last year. The Mary Lou lowrider patrol car will be used to engage community members of all ages and serve as a public safety recruitment tool. With this collaboration, we hope to develop opportunities for learning and growth, or we can share lowriding culture, not just as art, but as a form of healing and resistance to be able to bring in multiple speakers on the importance of cultural resiliency, the opportunity to partner with museums and connect segments of our communities that may have not intersected before an appreciation for each other. We'll have more to come on this. In closing, I'd like to say two items that came up for my team in this process. One, that BIPOC community is not a monolith. Even within our Latino community, we can have different opinions and needs and we heard that diversity thought throughout the listening sessions. Thoughts and opinions that were formed based on each other's on each individual's experience, immigration status, level of education and access to resources. As an institution and as a community, we need to honor that. Two, we need to continue to actively identify ways to invest in our communities of color. We have a number of programs that the Office of Community Engagement would like to launch next fiscal year, which are specific and intentional in nature. In addition, we are actively looking at programming that will assist our communities in the healing process. Some of our communities of color have compounded traumas, which have been exacerbated by fires. Next slide, please. And that is the end of our presentation. Thank you so much, Director Council who wants to start with questions. Adam Vice Mayor. Thank you guys so much for that presentation. It was great. I did want to say or ask that the lets engage Santa Rosa that if you had maybe a group of council members, people that are active on Facebook, have members that initially to get that started, if you could give us some posts that we can repost in order to engage our community members that follow us on social media. That would be great. If you get everyone involved. All right, Council Member Spathel. Mr. Mayor, I'm not sure who this would be for, but on slide three, we talked about the community empowerment plan vision and goals, which I'm very appreciative of. And number three talked about establishing the feedback loop to gauge effectiveness of efforts with and in the community among city staff. I know in previous council goal setting we have what we call the smart goals where we have some timelines. And I think Macaulay you had mentioned that we're starting and engaged with the EO officer position. I'm interested in hear a little bit more in some more specific details when we could you know what role would Council play with that what resources can we do to initiate that effort. Can you tell us a little bit more about what the plans would be for that other than continuing the dialogue which I know you're doing. Thank you so much for that question. And also thank you for being for being part of those listening sessions this last summer. So what we want to do is we want to come up with a more collaborative approach with other, you know, city staff, you know, because some of what we heard is also infrastructure base. You know, there were some issues with policing, but a lot of it had to do with city infrastructure and resources. So we do want to bring in, you know, planning our equity health officer, you know, our equity officer as well, and sort of come up with a model a program. And then we want to vet that through a couple of different groups and see, you know, how that feels, you know, for our process and definitely for community. So we'll definitely have more to come. I'm hoping to be able to update you all during our our staff report. In addition to that we are also building a toolkit and training for staff on community engagement. And really what what that looks like is community engagement beyond programs right so what are the best strategies the best practices out there. And also community engagement doesn't just have to be a community meeting. It can be multiple strategies put together as a full initiative. And so we are in the process of developing that. And through some of our other staff will be holding trainings hopefully towards the end of the year and into the next year as well. And then what do you see collectively is the next steps with the listening session because I know, you know, I was very appreciative being invited to be able to participate in those. But I'll just use the one example that Mr Alvar as part of being on council is that I remember asking him, what would it take to make you feel safe in the community. And again, it was just listening so that's pretty much where the conversation ended but I think that's where the real value of community, this entire community working together to solve some of those issues. So what are the, what are the next steps there and how can council be involved in some of those discussions, because I don't want to just leave it to the police department and I am a chief Navarro will be talking to the next presentation but how do you see council involvement in those type of dialogues. Thank you for the question and honestly I really wanted to refrain from saying this but we really need resources. This is really what it's going to take. There are an incredible group of young people that you know service providers has used from authorities who have been asking to get into a mentorship program with the city of Santa Rosa, it's something that we'd love to do. And to be really honest and I'm, I apologize ahead of time if this isn't appropriate but community engagement as a team is Danielle myself and half of the establishment don't have time. So it's there were an opportunity for us to borrow capacity from other, especially nonprofit partners and or you know other staff. We're in a crunch, you know, this year and we've gone through a lot. But the reality is that, you know, we love the opportunity to expand our reach and to dive deeper into some of these programs. I mean, just simply with the low rate of patrol car it's not about the car it's about the people that we want to bring to the table it's about their stories it's about their experience it's about their resistance it's, you know, it's about putting together those programs and events that are going to have different people coming to the table and having a conversation it's about us. Educated and acknowledging that there has been systemic racism and this is how we will move forward but we can't always dictate how we move forward the community has to help us with that right. So, everything's going to be centered around deep community input.  I feel like there's a lot of low hanging fruit of things that we could do Danielle, did I miss anything. No, I think that, you know, we would love to expand these listening sessions into all of the different districts and expand them to more than just our BIPOC community groups right. We want to be inclusive of all of our community members and their experiences, but as director to as mentioned, it's just the two of us and one of the half of one other person and so how do we do that. We are very creative. And we are going to have to work with each member on council to get to your different districts and get those folks at the table so we, we appreciate the collaboration and the opportunity and are open to suggestions. And I really appreciate that and I guess for Mr. City Manager, I would just ask that council is presented with options with funding. This is new territory for the city of Santa Rosa. We've never had the EO officer. I'm interested in here was she asked what her thoughts are and regarding, you know, we all know we're sitting on some one time money and I'm guessing that might be an appropriate use so I would just ask that some of those options be presented there because having attended Dr. Washington's training, it takes time energy and we all have to focus in my opinion on ourselves first and how can we be an ally to prevent the systemic racism that is in this community. And it's going to take us all and that is like what you said in my colleague that will take resource and so I would just ask Mr. when when we come up to these budget hearings right around the corner that we are given options. But you will see options in the budget. Some of them have been placed directly in the city council's budget. There will be obviously additional opportunities. I think the council's is doing her analysis and so see collaborative, but there is one thing that council really needs to be conscious of is that it's not just a investment in terms of money it's an investment in time. And so, and, and that requires staff time across the organization and you are going to be considering the work plan that seed is working on that they need staff commitment and time, which means other things will have to be deferred. If you're going to approach that. So I think those are really important conversations, but it's not just dollars. It's actually finding, as you heard Miss Taya state. It's it's about getting access to staff right and staff has to understand that that's an important step, and that you're going to carve out that space. There's a lot on the on the docket. And so when when the next city manager sits down that's going to be one of the things you're going to have to have a conversation with them about creating that space to allow staff to get access to staff. Thank you. Thank you, my god to be in your wonderful presentation. I really appreciate your connection with the community. And all those different listening sessions I participated on. There's very valuable information shared so thank you for all your efforts. member and I do before I go on to other council members I do just want to also point out for council that this is a study session so there are a number of questions that are embedded in this about our next steps that the council members after we do public comment can help direct you specifically the resource question with some of our one-time funding we'll obviously talk about that in the budget I have heard the resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis I've heard support for SB 17 and then obviously we'll also have our discussions with the chief on some of the other suggestions or recommendations that were made as well so I did want to just make sure that I pointed out that this meeting is structured so that these next two components are study sessions so that council can give that direction back to staff once we have these discussions council member Sawyer thank you mayor and thank you for mentioning the future conversations today about funding and resources et cetera because I agree with council member Schwedhelm everything here is important but it will take me those resources that are all important and thank you Magali and Danielle for a great presentation one of the two of the items that resonated to be one of which is shown clearly in your recommendation number one which is the guidebook you know kudos to to emphasizing the need for that guidebook we especially now with districts having more and more people involved in the community and knowing what it takes to run for council and to be involved in boards and commissions is so all important because the the pool given our circumstances right now and families being challenged and the entire community being challenged the pool is getting has has been lessened somewhat and so it's a shallower pool in which to find people that have the time and energy and willingness to spend the kind of time it takes to serve their community but between the guidebook and the and an academy a city academy that we used to have again lots of resources necessary but so important the the more people know about how our city functions the more they can decide or not to just to decide to become involved but it's it's all important and thank you very much you've brought some really really vital issues to the to the to the four and I very much appreciate it thank you councilmember tibbetz thank you mayor I had a question about community engagement and I know that it sounds like the listening sessions sounds like they went well sounds like we're going to do more of those but you know I guess we have the lowrider council are there were there other suggestions concrete suggestions from the community about how we can better engage and also you know kind of do lasting engagement and kind of one of the things that that comes up on my mind is listening sessions are good and I think that when we're trying to build trust where trust doesn't exist conversations are certainly a prerequisite to that but how are we going beyond that I guess is what I'm saying you know I speaking for myself one of the accusations I hear is that City Hall comes in and listens holds community sessions does the democracy dots yet potholes aren't getting filled on the west side of town so I guess what I'm trying to drive at is are there other methods that that you've heard that we can be involved in that that really kind of create that ongoing contact that ongoing relationships sports for example I think team-based experiences are really great at building lasting relationships lasting friendships similarly shared learning experiences I think the lowrider council and the Mary Lou lowrider is cool because I see that as kind of like a shared learning experience but how do we go bigger is my question thank you for asking that and I'm going to take it three steps back we have we met with community members who have no idea who the mayor is they don't know about districts they don't know how to get a hold of somebody at City Hall they don't even know how to get a hold of me so we are faced with that challenge as well of we need to go into community like you know especially with the challenge we mentioned with zoom there were pockets where folks didn't have adequate adequate broadband we have to go out there and meet them we have to speak Spanish right and we have to take it a step further there is a very rich indigenous community who Spanish is their second language right and so how do we access and connect with those resources so we can properly engage with folks who are have not been invited we need to do intentional invitations right so that takes a lot of effort that takes a lot of planning so we have to set up those really basic steps and then get to the point where we can get folks to okay think about how do I serve on a board and commission or young people tell us all the time like I want to be mentored because I want to understand how to be on a board and commission and I'm scared because I might be the only person that looks like me and I might be the youngest person are they going to listen to me right so we're listening to all of those community concerns and trying to find ways how can we either borrow capacity or find capacity somewhere find funding somewhere to connect community members to feel more empowered to step into those roles right I think a lot of it has been you know difficult because we can't be in community right like we want to be mindful of where we've been at with this pandemic but we are thinking about those things it's super multi-pronged and it's catered to each community and to Danielle's points in the report you know we do have a community of african-americans that feel totally left out of the conversation and I and I feel very mindful and very responsible for for doing something different right for providing for setting the stage and being the example for Sonoma County in in that we you know we have to have adequate attention to all of our groups like don't get me wrong I love Latin people right I'm probably one of the most proud Latin people you'll meet but we really need to be equitable across the board right and and thinking about our region community right like they're very active in our community and and they participate in ways that we may have not historically given value to and we need to honor that and and meet them Danielle another important reminder for council is the community advisory board has their community improvement grant program and that is an opportunity to use funds that council has given the cab to put community engagement things that we have heard in these sessions into action so community groups neighborhood groups non-profit schools etc can apply for these mini grants to do community building type projects throughout the city so community garden creation public art you know like murals or street painting type type projects you know there's so many different things that the community can do with these grants so please please please let your your district constituents know that the grants are open right now the first round closes June 30th but there are other opportunities to apply there are other deadlines including September 30th and December 31st of this year so the cab has opened it up to have an ongoing application process so please let the community know help us get that word out that community members can apply for up to $2,500 mini grants for these community community improvement and community building type projects and to Danielle's point that the grant program is amazing she's done a really fantastic job of putting presentations together in English and Spanish one tiny grow block if you are a community group and you are not a non-profit you get reimbursed right you're awarded the the scran you get reimbursed but if you are disengaged from the process and you don't know a non-profit that will be your fiscal sponsor then it's really difficult to participate so we want to look at you know are there foundations in our community that would like to partner with us in figuring out a way to create you know some sort of fiscal sponsorship model or how can we make this easier for community members to have access to right um sorry had to do that shameless plug can follow up question so um you know what I'd like to see from your department is to kind of maybe come back to us at some point with recommendations on I mean I don't know if it's a legal reason why we have to do reimbursement and fiscal sponsorship but can we help remove that barrier that financial barrier for folks and just give them the money and good faith and you know maybe do some follow-up later similarly you know how I'm wondering too thinking about the budget and what's coming up measure O funds I know that we've made a lot of investments already using our measure O funds but can we do more or can we realign some of the funding with a real focus over the next few years over making these investments in our you know communities of color so those are just some thoughts that I have and I'd like I'd love to see follow-up speaking for myself sure thank you yeah and a quick shout out to the chairwoman of the community advisory board who I see is also on the meeting today I do remember from my time on cab that one of the concerns and why they moved to the reimbursement policy it's not to say that we can't change it but there were instances of individuals utilizing the funds for an ineligible component so I'm sure there's a better way for us to get around that barrier councilmember Fleming thank you and I want to thank the community engagement team for a great presentation and I do hear you know all of these wonderful things and my questions and concerns come out of a fear here that we're focusing very much on you know beautifying the system that exists not getting into the deep change that we need to to make and so you know I I'm curious to know how you see your office effectuating policy change how you imagine your role and as it relates to the public safety subcommittee which is a vehicle potentially to make some changes you know the community advisory board is a wonderful outlet for the kinds of things that you're doing but it it's not specifically a policy it's it's it's not a policy board and so and then additionally how you plan to work with other agencies throughout the community how you plan used equity officer the police department how how you plan to engage these groups to effectuate policy change to realize the goals that were identified in the listening sessions thank you for that question and I just want to start out with I hope the report is able to convey that government doesn't work for everybody the way the way we do government right and and so my hope is that for us as a division to be incredibly community input driven to take those steps to get the information first and then show community how do you how do policies change and happen I mean on the most basic level like what does that look like because I think a lot of community members are not aware and yes they should expect change and they should expect things to happen but how do we make that how do we move the needle with community right so it doesn't feel like this is another performative thing that we're doing or that it's not authentic or that it's not sustainable so we are in that sort of process it has taken us some time to get here but we are in that process of you know what could this look like with partnering with the public safety subcommittee partnering with non-profits and that is another conversation that I think we we do need to have and I want to have more clear answers for you but unfortunately I don't think I I have enough of those things defined to be able to to present them um Danielle I don't know if there's anything that you can add but it is something that we are definitely looking at now that we are here we presented the information um we want to take those next steps thank you so much councilmember alvarez thank you mayor councilmember swoleham made a great point for for myself it was the most impressionable moment with a couple chairs sitting under the shade of city hall and having the question posed no amount of funding no amount of money could have ever equaled it and my god he is absolutely right about council members going into the community with a handshake once we're able to do that for myself with the experience that I had with Gustavo was exactly that chairs or actually at the time of zoom zoom meetings and we had great conversation with our neighbors over by the center of the creek about the center of the creek and what I would hope to see out of the community engagement is the tools that you possess the experience that you possess and how we can use that especially as a councilmember that really has no tools when it comes to community engagement I like to go and shoot the with the community but that's where my skill level comes in it's not really taking the notes down and and and Jen Jen Santos I mean that's that that's an angel to me as she really let me her experience into being effective when we have these talks with the community in regards to to moving forward and once the the COVID is over I would love to see us really going into those those communities and even our retreating brothers and sisters if you think of a retreat they have Plaza de Mexico and I bring that up because it is simple the mile you know the the pride that that our retreating brothers have of always being independent and never having been conquered is is speak to the pride that they have and yet we haven't been able to acknowledge that of them and it'd be beautiful to bring them into and I believe it was a course that we spoke of of preparing people that want to know about how to get engaged into local government maybe it's good that we didn't have that when I was thinking about running because I might not have done it but nonetheless though I'm glad that that that I did run and and I want to think to each and every one of you as council members and and city managers and and Magali Daniel and everyone included because of the support that I've received here I feel confident in being going to tell other members from my community it's okay to step forward it's okay and and you're going to find a great set of people who are going to take you under their wing and going to educate you on how to be effective hopefully one day I will I will be effective but it comes down to the support and I want to thank each and every one of you for allowing me and giving me the support that I need to be affected to represent my community I'm sorry about the voice I'm drinking my tea it's not working thank you council member director uh first I want to thank you for inviting me uh to speak with the youth from the torus uh just last week it it's one of my favorite things that that we do is talking with youth and um I know georgia pedgriffe when she was with the city was a huge huge huge advocate for youth involvement in governance uh and in the the city council uh and I'm just wondering if you have any recommendations on next steps that we can take to start getting the ball rolling so that as we come out of the pandemic and as we're able to do more things in person uh how can we better include our youth so that they feel like their time is well spent uh and that it furthers their interest in participating in their own local community thank you and we have a list of things um Daniel I'll let you go first yeah I'm glad that you asked that question so actually um through our AmeriCorps VISTA program our next VISTA will actually be taking that citizen guidebook for participation and making it a youth friendly version number one um they will also be helping to take uh the cab citizen engagement academy and making that also youth friendly um and helping us to roll that out with various uh youth groups throughout the the community um so that's definitely a first step we have looked into the team council um but again team council takes staffing and resources um and additional funding um because working with youth is quite different than working with um with adults uh that serve on our board and commission right um and so we have to have the necessary tools um and resources available for them so at this time unfortunately we won't be able to do that um the cab has been talking about doing a mentorship program with youth so having each cab member uh bring on a youth that they can mentor and that can sit with them um virtually first and then once we're back in person can sit with them during cab meetings um and see how these types of meetings work uh how do brown brown-acted meetings go right um and and learn more about what is going on in their community and Macaulay I'll turn it over to to you yeah I would say internships I mean I work at Sonoma State I always say this for 17 years and young people are so interested in learning more about what we haven't had that open door right um you know when when I was working with students at Sonoma State you know asking like do you know what a city planner is like like who are your council members and constantly right we we didn't know because we were so disengaged from that process and you know one idea that I've been floating around with my team is doing when we're allowed to um tours of you know the city facilities right like departments and this is who does that open houses right we can do specific teen open houses right for young people questions that they need to ask where they don't feel intimidated because there's you know older community members there who may know more and so just creating those spaces that are particular to specific groups of people that we want to intentionally reach uh but internships whether they're paid or we can um you know make a connection with Sonoma State or SRJC where they could students could receive units uh you know we have the work available um so we just we just need to connect with with the young people um as the next step now I really appreciate that and it's something that I hope will continue to talk about and implement um and one of the things that I was particularly struck by in that conversation as well was this idea that they didn't want to with their limited time with everything else going on they didn't want to um feel like their time was wasted they wanted to feel like they actually had to say that their input was uh actually mattered uh to us and I've been a big proponent for a long time of community budgeting participatory budgeting and I know we have sort of a hybrid model and how we do that with our community improvement grants through cab are there any recommendations or are there any types of ways with potentially with some of our one time funding that we could stand up community empowerment participatory budgeting programs throughout our community yeah before I get into that I actually want to go back to the internship thing really quick um one of the suggestions that we've heard from other staff um as well as uh some of our younger people is around the internship policy that we have here at the city currently we are only allowed to um hire interns who are currently actively enrolled in um courses at uh in college right so jc ssu other uh other universities policy change could be allowing those internship opportunities to be available to recent graduates of those institutions right they need some real world experience um they may not have gotten that they may not have had an internship opportunity while they were enrolled uh that would be a fantastic opportunity for them once they have graduated to get them some more of that real world experience if if I can jump in really fast there as well um I would think that an internship is also particularly valuable for individuals who are not going uh to hire institutions that that are trying to to find their path to see whether this is someplace that they would want to come and work eventually um and so I'm not sure quite why that that requirement is in place but I'd be interested in uh evaluating interns based on their merit and interests not based on what path they find themselves on so so just for technical reasons that's a federal law okay it's a pay versus educational experience so departments do have the opportunity to hire interns that are outside of that space but it's a hiring practice the other practice is federally a federal regulation that you you can only not pay an intern if they're having the appropriate college credit that's the differentiation okay all right I appreciate that clarification um and then before I go to public comment here and I jumped in and mentioned it for council members I am looking for uh council consensus in this discussion on a couple of these items uh and in particular I'd like to hear direction from the council and from the community on the preparation of that resolution declaring racism as a public health uh crisis uh to be able to to have the authority to bring that forward to council as well as if there's an interest in uh either through the Santa Rosa City Council or I also chair the mayors and council members legislative committee taking up the question about SB 17 which is working its way through state legislation all right so with that I'll go to public comment and we'll start with Elaine. Mayor Rogers I did want to make the announcement that due to a recent zoom update the audio dinger for the your time's up notice is not functioning today as it was not functioning last night so we just ask the public commenters to please be mindful of the visual reminder thank you I appreciate that thank you so much Dina I'll be uh polite but firm and reminding folks when their three minutes are up so go ahead Elaine if you can unmute can you hear me there you go okay I really appreciate this I was very involved with the Andy Lopez situation we went to meeting after meeting after meeting same kind of recommendations I heard same kind of conversations same kind of promises I was very shocked when uh council uh councilman John Sawyer said that he was very appreciated learning all this new information and new recommendations I heard these recommendations over and over and over again and I would like to be reassured how this is going to happen I mean how are we really going to bring about change and I am still stunned that nobody knows who signed off on allowing those weapons of mass destruction to be thrown into the crowd at that protest I can't believe that there was no accountability you know and all they keep saying is accountability accountability accountability everything I hear is in the report of 2000 made by the United States Civil Rights Commission when they came in and yet we're still in the same crack fire we're still having the same conversation so as an older woman as a person who's been in this community for 40 years and trying to understand I hear the same things over and over again and hey what happens more and more problems so I really think uh the the public needs a little bit more reassurance rather than all these reports so thank you so much for listening thank you Elaine we'll go to Evan followed by Michael Evan you there are you able to hear me there you go okay um good afternoon or morning I guess still my name is Evan Phillips I know many of you personally and professionally I'm born and raised in Santa Rosa for those who don't know and I have a lot of stake and investment in the long-standing wellness of this community and uh first off I very much appreciate the amount of effort energy the the sincerity that the earnest um participation from the community engagement staff you know which was identified as basically just here Magali and Danielle and it seems that we have this ongoing trend in some of these issues we face not just with law enforcement but for the city in general where we really lack perspective on the order of operations and we spend a lot of time and energy around responsive measures when we are not doing what we are capable of doing to have healthier communities in the first place and the fact that we wouldn't start with a larger investment with a department that is more equipped not just to gather this information but to actually implement models and to partner with additional uh third-party service providers whether it be non-profit or otherwise is just going to keep leading to the exact same result um I mean how do we get to a discussion when we're talking about our own police department tear gassing and firing live munition rounds on its own people and then we're broadly categorizing these events as a necessary response to rioting and looting which is an incredibly reckless distortion of the bigger picture the issue here which has been reflected now you know you just heard a lot of it in in in the community engagement report back there is a glaring lack of cultural competence from the city and particularly the police department to understand the dynamic at hand that it's fact and it's now factually dangerous I mean such a poor breed of the landscape with such little grasp of the nuances of our own community led to both the civilian public and the police department being at unnecessary risk with it was very reckless escalation to use right geared military equipped officers and it should have been abundantly obvious to santa rosa police department leadership that's such a strong show of that force would have only led to a heightened possibility of hostility and more need for policing so their own presence was justifying the future need of presence it's it's incredible lack of competence it from my perspective and for them to not even understand the nuance of what a sideshow is and to understand that use of fireworks is not a use of weaponry shows like where do these people live what are they even aware of what is their world view and now I hear arguments made that the way that we need to protect this or prevent this is you need more funding and more resources for police officers and and and you know more chain of authority when you're not actually addressing the core issues of how we arrive to these things and we cannot forget heaven I need you to please wrap up your comments that's okay I'll leave it there all right I appreciate it next we have michael followed by kelsey are we all able to unmute michael here hey I just saw the zoom the unmute button there we go I'm not for a little while um so I want to say I guess that you know the first thing I want to say here is um this is not a publicity issue this is an accountability issue what we saw happen in with the protests last summer um a lot of violence was committed against the protesters and I think it was disproportionate there the the level of violence that you saw against police officers we're talking about you know water bottles being thrown at officers and full body armor um there were you know a couple instances of fireworks being shot at officers um but we're talking about people who got their their teeth smashed into the roof of their mouth protesters who had a testicle shot off uh we're talking about sexual assault talking about all kinds of things that absolutely need to be helped people need to be held accountable for these things the problem is not that the community it's not how do we get the community to trust srpd more it's not that the community doesn't trust srpd because of what srpd has done and we need to have hold them accountable for that programs which are trying to make them look less racist than they are is not what we need right now um i've met with with the group that met with magali um and uh we had a good discussion about the ethnic studies with the cop pilot program which was launched as part of the community empowerment program um programs like that which put officers in the classroom with with students and the idea that um we're learning ethnic studies with students and not really having a real ethnic studies curriculum again you know this is more trying to make good publicity and doing it in a way that's not i don't think um culturally responsive but you know i what i my main point is i think that it's the work that we do in terms of community outreach is one thing and i it's not my main issue here my main issue is how this has been kind of held up as the city's response to these protests the ways in which we're trying to make better um but it's not it's disjointed it's unrelated to the atrocities that the community experienced and it doesn't touch on you know the the real issue of how much is our department like the department that killed George Floyd um what are the links we didn't know about very broad um until recently but we do know now so what are we going to do about that what are we going to do to make sure that SRPD is held accountable for its internal culture um it's not just about trying to get the community to trust SRPD more we need to have them to have good reasons to trust SRPD all right thank you Michael tell us followed by Kimberly hi can you hear me yep there you go okay um so yeah i want to echo what has already been said about how this a lot of this sounds like coming at it from a PR standpoint um and how the actual day-to-day actions of our police force and our sheriff's department is um what's at issue here the community is trying to draw attention to the abuses that they have suffered and we just keep talking about how to build trust without talking about how to stop the harm stopping the harm that's that's the point um we need people to be safe walking home walking down the street protesting um all of the above uh i i definitely want to hear more discussion of civilian oversight of the police department it's sort of a gap in what we have going on and it should be central to any discussion moving forward um and i just also want to bring attention to representation in decision making so listening circles are great but who's making the decisions and who sits there and have they had the lived experience um to to make decisions about their own communities rather than people discussing you know what needs to happen for them we want to see change in a substantive systemic way and i want to hear a discussion of over policing uh in the day to day when you if you can think of it in terms of our budget representing our values um what you can see is that when we're spending money in the form of police budgets and police salaries and all of the above um then we are spending that money to to do harm we're spending it to to incarcerate people spending it on taking people away spending it on abuses and beatings and arrests and all of the above and then saying that there is no money to help those communities just give the money to the people and many of the problems that they faced will go away on their own they just need the investment they need the opportunities and they need to be safe from the state and so that i'll yield the rest of my time all right thank you kelsey kimberley followed by alexis hello can you hear me yep we can hear you it feels like this meeting is completely unrelated to their presentations today before regarding the police use of force nothing mentioned here encourages deep systemic change and if the goal is to create better public trust then you need to address the roots of the issue which is that people in this community are being harmed by law enforcement and no one seems to take it seriously this is something we've said over and over again for years come on help publish consider that right now we see regular police base during the pandemic which most normal shawls for its neighbors it's the council and navarro not that and i when there are accusations of support of people last summer and if they weren't any of us last month is how many need to take these types of allegations seriously maybe loser looks like man okay uh go ahead and re-raise your hand and we'll jump back if possible here but for now we'll go on to alexis followed by madonna hi can you hear me yep wonderful um i just i want to echo a lot of what's being said um about this really feels like a like a band aid that we've seen time and time again by by government where it's like you want to you want to seem like you're being uh proactive about something and then it just turns into really nothing it's so it just kind of seems like more of the same and it's really frustrating and hard to hear and i was really grateful that somebody's that um i'm sorry i i missed the name spoke up and said you know this is all this isn't doing anything this is just words um i also want to talk us for a second um tidbits i hear time and again very tone deaf things coming out of your mouth um there's a lot of privilege that i don't think that you're even aware that you have and i i know in the past you suggested something like kids playing soccer kids who are afraid of the cops who just shot their friend playing soccer with the kids of the community and and today i hear you talking about sports teams and things like that and not talking about real investment in your community what like how what how is that going to build real change and i understand that that community activities are wonderful and i i don't i'm not i'm not saying anything negative about that but i think that you really need to get more in touch with your community because i don't think you have any idea what the people of the community really want or need i think that you need to step outside your privilege and step outside who you are and look at what your actual community is asking of you um i yield the rest of my time thank you alexis we'll go to madonna followed by katrine hi can you hear me yep thank you i've one of first acknowledge i'm currently on plomo land i am lakota and plomo i am as long term center as a resident um i'd like to challenge the city council um i recommend uh that you go to suskland or tribal council um and i want to thank a council member alvarez for taking that challenge and enrolling and registering in the historical trauma workshop series that was first originally created for the napa mental health department um i want to see you guys in that series it is on zoom it's an hour um once a month i'm sure you could make time i don't approve of arrays or any money given to srpd um yesterday's report that that was just really embarrassing for me um and you need to get get in other communities i mean the white privilege is just it's ridiculous and i mean i've i've had uh srpd you know put a gun to my face i i'm not a big scary person um the only time you know i'm not pulled over is when i dye my hair blonde um and that really sucks um the streets are not safe for my child to walk in um last year the the youth that was shot i mean that that that you guys the the police traumatized our youth and their their house is so dirty i mean i i don't know even what to suggest to suggest to um navarro i mean i i i just i'm i'm so angry um the youth that were hurt um in my relative who was shot in the face that that's not even enough money that's not enough i i'm not i'm not okay with that i yield my time thank you madonna katrine followed by leslie hi can you hear me yeah hi thank you just um from a personal perspective real quick i'm a privileged white woman living in san arosa and i am grateful to our youth including my own daughter for shaking me awake from my liberal complacent slumber during the week of so-called civil unrest last summer i'm forever changed because of the courageous and bold voices and actions of the youth who took to the streets of san arosa and i'm proud to walk and stand with them anytime i personally know youth who were tear gas kettled dragged out of their cars zip tied and arrested while trying to get home after distributing water to protesters the cost of a few broken windows pales in comparison to the grave injuries inflicted on protesters like marcus redbear martinez and mikaela stax by local law enforcement so listening to the special session yesterday i was deeply disappointed with how quickly the city council breathed through their human rights commission report with no questions and instead focused on the pandering presentations by oir and hillard heinzer this flies in the face of the gravity of the human rights violations committed by s srp d and srp d and chief navarro that um chief navarro continues to refuse to acknowledge so and while the efforts of the community engagement initiative are well in tension and i want to say i really appreciate the work of magali and danielle their sincerity and i acknowledge the importance of community outreach i completely agree with the previous callers and i have to say forgive me it feels a little bit like putting lipstick on a pig we don't need pretty band aids to placate the community um in the context of the atrocities that have been committed we need radical change we need true civilian oversight for all law enforcement in sonoma county including srp d we need to ban the use of tear gas and rubber bullets we need to follow the recommendations of the sonoma county human rights commission we need accountability from chief navarro and srp d for the violations that occurred and finally we need to defund the police and invest our tax dollars in actual public safety measures like mental health support housing education and racial justice enough is enough thank you i yield my time thank you we'll go to leslie followed by lori good morning um my name is leslie graves i'm the chair of the community advisory board uh i'm appearing here this morning as a private citizen of san rosa i want to thank you again for having this study session i don't want to reiterate the the calls for action but i believe that those calls for action that you've been hearing this morning um and the urgency around them are important what i do want to bring attention to and i want to thank council member vitoria phleming for asking about policy and systemic change i want to um respond to that by saying that we need to remove the barriers of community members that are that uh are now being faced for participation in policy matters um i know that there are good many community members that want to be more involved but their time is valuable i want to point out that 280 people were engaged in these listening sessions i think that more could have been engaged and would have come to listening sessions if things like a stipend and k would have been part of uh part of the system i think that starting with the civilian oversight committee that needs to be uh brought together as soon as possible and with the hiring of an auditor for the police department that that community oversight committee members need to know that a stipend is available so that it breaks down the barriers to participating we want to see people of all backgrounds and for that committee to be completely inclusive i realize that there is going to be a report by the police chief coming up and we might get into a little bit of talk about the new police chief ambassador team i would call for a stop action on the police chief ambassador team a police the civilian oversight committee takes precedence and we need that action faster and more urgent for that committee to be formed i i will go ahead and give my time to others but please do hear from the community that action is really important i i really want to see some action coming out of these study sessions as far as bringing it back to staff to bring them to a council meeting very soon as to see things like the ban on gas and munitions an auditor being hired and a civilian oversight committee thank you so much thank you madam chair lori followed by allegra can hear me yep we can hear you great um my name is lori anderson and i really appreciate the attention and consideration of the council members and especially other folks who have offered their super important beliefs and anecdotes and public comment um most of my comments are going to center around uh yesterday's reports while i find the community engagement work i really appreciate the sincere efforts um there but find it less important than the reports that i was able to tune into yesterday um i can't help but be a bit disturbed by the contract between what we heard in the human rights commission presentation and the other two um even so much of what i heard in the second presentation was also super scary albeit dulled by fancier vocabulary part of what i heard for example is that during the summer protests the srpd sent officers out to police the protest with an unknown number of dangerous projectiles that it did not keep track of um before during or after with proper reporting uh furthermore the sergeants in charge of overseeing this action were also deploying these unaccounted work projectiles so this alone is terrifying and shows an ineptitude that should really give us pause and even it pales in comparison to the real harm caused by the srpd to folks in our community um injury to and traumatization of individuals were and are real and i'd appreciate the council acknowledging that by giving equal if not more airtime and precedence in these presentations and in these resolution processes to the points of view of those people who were injured and traumatized i appreciate the incorporation of contracted experts and i want to see immediate change from mr. Navarro and the srpd i i hope i can trust that taking tear gas and these projectiles out of the rotation are necessary and immediate steps but i think from council on a higher level what i'm looking for is the response that acknowledges the humanity of the folks you're representing um i wanted to also address the line of questioning that i believe council member flaming brought up yesterday which is why a curfew was declared in santa rosa in the first place if we are and i hope we are at a place where we can acknowledge that the murder of george floyd was and is unjust and unacceptable therefore warranting outrage especially on the part of folks who are victims of systemic oppression and law enforcement and other aspects of society if we have that common understanding why weren't these protesters supported and kept safe for as long as they saw fit to demonstrate peacefully so to make a big show a force of that opportunity by declaring the curfew um sorry hold on one second uh by declaring the curfew um and by enforcing it um with tear gas projectiles and then arrest with inadequate safety during the pandemic it's upsetting to say the least so frankly it's hard to come up with any other reason for it aside from purposefully intimidating people who were and are rightfully upset about the injustices perpetrated and glossed over by institutions by the police um so i appreciate you the council for taking time and care with these issues and i trust you to take definitive action in both the short and long term and uh with that i will be done thanks thank you lori colin followed by noah hi can you hear me yep hi my name is colin uh i'm a santa rosa resident um so i mean i echo the things that everyone else has said as well um but i specifically kind of wanted to to ask about a particular section um i've been going to these encampment clearings in santa rosa and abroad pretty much every week now for the last few months and um it's exhausting um it's it's terrifying it's incredibly upsetting and i notice in your community discussion on uh houselessness um which unfortunately i i missed the section where you discussed that this morning so um feel free to let me know if there's just something i missed there but um i mean i would i would first like to know if that discussion included members of our houseless community um and asking them what they think would help for their community um but i also notice like there's discussion in there about cahoots which is great i'm really looking forward to seeing the implementation of that program in santa rosa um but i think a discussion also needs to be had about just stopping sweeps in general i understand that there are a number of places that camps crop up that are then become public safety hazards because folks are in the street and there's some concern about vehicles you know drivers not being careful enough into hitting people who are just trying to sleep who are just trying to live their lives um but i think that is something that seems to be missing from the the published report at least that i read that indicates that uh suggested action is to work more with heap and with cahoots on these issues and it seems like a discussion about stopping the sweeps at all is severely lacking um there are a number of places that people live that are public safety hazards there were people living in historical fire areas across santa rosa um which would be a public safety issue for them as well moving forward and you don't see the city coming in to evict them in the same way that the city comes into evict camps every week um it just needs to stop okay thank you colin we'll go to noah followed by sarah can you hear me yep all right i want to uplift the speakers before who spoke to many of the same points that i will be reiterating and i want to especially uplift the fact that one of the speaker's name that we are on southern polo land and i think that should be brought before the council before public comment fundamentally stop being performative this runs deeper than just asks for participation and further labor from black indians people of color in our community in a system that already alienates them this runs as deep as the bloodshed of our own police department this runs as deep as the pockets of white and wealthy county decision makers who ignore marginalized people a few low riders and inadequate ethnic studies with armed officers prowling over students is an insult to the collective intelligence of this town we've been saying the same thing for a year a whole year where the police have proven themselves to be only increasingly violent images mean nothing if our community is suffering under police oppression PR means nothing and instead of taking that suffering seriously we heard protesters get vilified and systemic issues distorted into a narrative of a few bad actors yesterday if anyone on this council doesn't know this phrase by now a single sentence which has been carried predominantly by women and trans and queer people of color throughout santa rosa learn it no good cops in a racist system think about how many millions this council hands to police how many meals could that buy for struggling families in a pandemic how many shelves in the rosalind library with that fill with books tidbits do this community a favor and actually engage with anti-racism before you open your mouth we will not accept a single dollar more towards police departments we will not accept the vilification of youth of color we will not accept mass evictions of unsheltered people who it is this council's duty to shelter they will not accept propaganda from cops given more credibility than the lived experiences of trauma of young people and black indigenous people of color organizers disarm defund and dismantle srpd reinvest in communities of color listen to us i yield my time thank you noah sarah followed by a rose oh yes okay so uh it seems like y'all are really set on not listening to people and i'm really tired of repeating the same thing so i'm just gonna let stevie address this issue for y'all all right thank you so much sarah we've got to wrap up we'll go to a rose followed by pamela hi can you hear me yep hi my name's alissa after seven hours of listening in the last 24 hours i echo what i've heard from the majority of our community members who have been listening we are tired of platitudes and band-aids we don't need soccer games we need to ban tear gas rubber bullets we need to defund the srpd and at the very least at the very least we need to change in leadership and the removal of navarro and esic who have proven that they cannot effectively protect our community we need to defund our police not add additional funds for higher up officers i'm shocked but not surprised at how you breezed over the human rights commission report yesterday and while i appreciate seeing more engagement this morning with janielle and me golly thank you so much for both of your time i want to hear from each of you on the council about that human rights report now that you've had time to sit overnight with your missteps and how you dealt with it yesterday we want to hear from you and jack tidbits every comment that i've heard from you in the last two days has been so far out of touch with what is actually going on that you are clearly blatantly ignoring and glossing over our community trauma and pandering to your privileged white constituents i yield the rest of my time thank you alissa pamela followed by alan hi thank you for this opportunity to speak um i am a 50 year old white woman from santa rosa who has a house that i own so i have a lot of privilege here i'm educated um but i want to be an ally for those folks who are out on the street and i join them and i walk side by side with them and i was even almost hit by a white suv with my daughters at one of those protests um last summer um and i feel very strongly that if this is a true community empowerment session i want to talk about power and i want to talk about community because if you are you trying to really empower or make people feel empowered that's different to have authentic empowerment means that you are being vulnerable you are being humble and you are saying you know the police have too much power and our communities don't and so let's not have a performative situation where we want people to feel heard let's actually have them be heard and make policies that actually bring more power economic power opportunity power voices being heard and acted on in our government that would be really democratic wouldn't it that would really be empowering and in fact it would be safer let's face it if you want to hold people down have bullies with power alerting over them so people don't feel safe that's not a safe situation let's have public safety not instead of enforcement let's have a place where every life is valued let's truly value the people who live in santa rosa no matter who you are no matter if you have a roof over your head or not and that's what i'd like to see i love the idea of magali of having these vistas helping um in the community within with training and community empowerment in fact i think each uh city council member should have a team of six or ten of these helping them understand who is living in your district and how you can really be listening and really acting on the needs and desires and interests of your people that you represent lastly i'd like to advocate for a public parking area for RVs and vans and tents fully accessible with some toilets and showers and trash receptacles for those who do not have permanent homes it's not illegal to be homeless but it is hard to be homeless and we need to help those people more and provide a place for them to put these vehicles i heal the rest of my time thank you pamela alan followed by veronica uh can you hear me yep we can hear you alan okay thank you for allowing me to speak and uh i leave this on behalf of the community appreciated alan veronica followed by concerned citizen saying or good afternoon and i just wanted to thank you guys for having this forum i'm a 60 year old this year latina spent 40 years in santa rosa i'm a homeowner i'm a 32 year 32 year civil servant and i spent 3.5 years on cab and i was very proud of the work we did and i have to give a big shout out to danielle and to magali for the doing such a big job with no resources you guys lead on volunteers to do community engagement and we're volunteers we've given hours on top of hours to send out messages and to go do things and do this do that and it's like if you really value community engagement you're going to put your money where your mouth is and give the magali in this division some resources and some money in a bigger budget because if you want to hear the community and you really value community engagement you got to run this department it is you can't expect two people to do this huge job if you really value community engagement you're going to fund this department in a bigger way that was my biggest frustration with being on cap it's like we were expected to do so much and you guys rely on the work and you appreciate it you talk about how you really want this you really want that and we hear from all these departments and we're giving you we're a sounding board and which i enjoyed that time but it was a it was a lot of work so anyway that's one point and as far as community engagement is like who is the equity officer i'll look search the whole santo's the city website this morning i could not find a name for that person the person was prior to march who is that person who's on ccat we talk about ccat i applied for that i was told i was not going to be on it but i don't know who was on it who was on it is it anywhere listed somewhere on the website i i'm like if community engagement and educating the the public on how city government works you guys got to put it out there i hear about it on this forum but it's like i can't find it on the website and i'm pretty resourceful i can find quite a bit of stuff um i i just want to add thank to just thank daniel amigale for the enormous amount of work that they do with one hand tied behind the back so support them give them a bigger budget give them some money to actually have real staff work in to do some of these things that you guys say that you value as a city council thank you thank you for onica we'll go to concerned citizen followed by alias time but i just wanted to say that i felt like these last three days you guys um completely defeated the purpose of this meeting i didn't hear much talked about the brutality to the protesters it was more about the personal property and i feel like we accomplished anything here except for once again we're back to beg you guys i'm tired of begging i'm a person i'm a citizen and i'm a county member i don't understand how cheap it is still here when he constantly comes to the meeting to make some mockery of him he leaves and comes as he wants and then yesterday to the barrow said that he had enough money to test the rape kids he published that and he's not just saying anything the cover is at i'm personally sick of it thank you for your comments alias followed by elizabeth yeah can you hear me yep yeah so following up on my sister jelly yeah uh you know i appreciate the work that went into this presentation but in all honestly you know we're here for we're here for accountability and you know possible solution maybe some of the police department can uh funnel some of their money to this office of community engagement or to the office of equity or more importantly what i would favor is funds being diverted to the affinity groups and the neighborhoods associated with the victims of these past attacks from these protests to repair the relationship that is currently broken and the and you know we understand the chief has a hard road of making examples out of these officers that have belonged people's body parts i mean damn near off and and that's the type of healing we're looking for for example some of the solutions that look uh we're spoken about with the restorative justice thing healing requires action and accountability and you know what someone needs to someone needs to get fired you know someone needs to lose a pension because that's what accountability looks like and that's what people are looking for we the people must be assured that if something wants to happen to them or a loved one someone's going to be held accountable and the type of accountability must be serious because that's how you create a culture of accountability and respect and to the chief we understand you are up against powerful unions state and federal bodies that may honestly lead to them not supporting you in the future but you have an obligation to the people that so that supported you and are looking and looking up to you to make an example of these officers that shocked people's body parts off you know and i use that word to really understand that's what we're dealing with and these things are the things that were discussed yesterday about i had never seen the word unintentional typed in a presentation so many times these things were not and these things were not unintentional these were targets shot in certain people's body parts people's growing people's heads i mean that's a small area people got a target so we're not dumb and we expect accountability i knew the rest of my time thank you alias elizabeth followed by zyra good afternoon city council um can you hear me yep go ahead thank you well um after listening to the public comment that has come before me um the report that was given out today that was very thoughtfully prepared by magali and danielle thank you very much for doing all of that hard work on getting in touch with your community um and seeking those solutions to um to restore um to hopefully restore the trust that your community is is having a hard time to restore with the srpd i might recommend too that we need to take a couple steps back because trust cannot be even talked about yet unless there is accountability and unless these you know the atrocities that happened last summer are addressed and more listening sessions more additional time for um you know we're sorry we made a mistake um and lending out a hand because let just trust us to do our job but the job was not done correctly the first time or even worse so let's think about that and also referring back to page 26 of the human rights commission report the recommendations put before our commission accountability okay i'll bullet point that one highlight accountability of the srpd for the inhumane treatment of peaceful protesters and also if we're asking for more money for the pd then maybe let's consider banning the use of the military grade weaponry that is not required for our city and like the last speaker said mr alias it's really funny to use the word unintentional when you hold such weapon and perhaps even that appetite for power to shoot projectiles towards a direction of a group of protesters where you know there were young people people of color children even how is it unintentional to fire projectile and these tear gas and and whatnot into a crowd of people i asked for humanity too when thinking about what moral compass you might have please consider this and please again read the report from the human rights commission in its entirety i'm pointing to page 26 section 4 and take those recommendations to heart thank you elizabeth syrah followed by ava hey everyone thank you so much so i echo what everyone had already said and those recommendations on the human rights commission should definitely be looked at and sincerely considered and it sounds like your community is wanting you as leaders to put in the work and not just checkboxes this is why representation matters because the reality is as white people you don't experience racism or systemic oppression and learning about racism and systemic oppression is actually a privilege that you all have this isn't meant to be an attack it's just you have to acknowledge that you represent a system that for centuries have oppressed marginalized communities so when community comes at you it's not about you it's the system that you represent it's a system that is flawed so for trust to happen your community is asking for transparency to data and accountability again i want to thank councilmember fleming for asking about policy within the e o department we also have to recognize about tokenization and gatekeeping because most of those folks are going to be safe why are they safe they're safe because you don't want confrontation and you don't like when people rock the boat that needs to stop um so also you need to stop reinventing the wheel there are resources like nonprofits such as nb op lsp kura project the junior commission human rights sonoma county black coalition lgbtq connections positive images sonoma county acts of kindness for unhoused communities sonoma county tenant union as well as the api communities and that's just to name a few because organizers save lives so this is going to take a lot of time it's going to take years and this is going to be something that you need to acknowledge that you are working on undoing centuries of oppression this isn't within a you know a flick this is going to take years so therefore you need to have to spend time in undoing these things so if you want policy interaction don't include policing your community engagement reimagine your tax dollars create a civilian oversight committee which can't be done because petaluma has done it i sit on that ad hoc committee and thankfully our city was smart enough to hire a de and i consultant tracy web who is a black woman to ensure that we are creating a culture for racial equity justice is keeping our black and brown communities alive so we also uh that's all i wanted to give tonight and appreciate the fact thanks so much thank you xyra and that's the last live hand i see us we'll go to voicemail pre-recorded public comments for this item there there were no voicemail public comments for item 5.1 great i'll go ahead bring it back to council then uh there was in particular there was one question that uh was asked about who our new eeo uh officer is uh that's sequoro sheels and i know that uh she is working her way into the job and is looking forward to getting out and engaging folks i am working with the community engagement department even more so i did want to mention that there's also a question about the the ccat who serves on that i'm actually gonna hold that that question the next presentation is from the chief of police i know we'll go over that and so we can talk about that as well uh and then i'll bring it back for comments from council members again this is a study session so it's an opportunity to provide direction to staff uh on next steps uh council member fleming thank you mayor i uh appreciate the opportunity to give feedback on a couple of things one is that um i'm you know and i understand that staffing is limited and i encourage um our our council and uh city management to look at ways to to increase funding um to make the playing field more equitable in terms of community engagement and in the same bread i encourage our community engagement team to look for existing opportunities within the organizational structure because as has been made abundantly clear government does not work um super quickly even though individuals like yourselves work really um really efficiently we're gonna need to to look at collaborations um hopefully with our new equity officer and um with our police department and you know i want to say to the community i hear really clearly what you're saying about the structure being difficult for people to engage with when you know people are working a lot and taking care of small children and um these positions are are not paid and it's something that is systemic throughout the policy side of the shop of the city it's it doesn't end with you know it includes the city council as well and and how and who is able to participate and so you know the the overwhelming thing i heard from the community today is that policy is the next step for us and so to that end i'm really hopeful and excited to work with our community and our community engagement team on determining next steps and i implore you to use the public safety subcommittee to help us um revision what public safety means and and how to best accommodate um and engage our community in a way that public safety can take on a meaning that goes beyond policing and goes to assuring that that safe participation in in daily living is assured for all who reside visit and work in in the city of Santa Rosa so again i really appreciate not just the work of the community engagement team but the everybody in the community shows up to do this work i hear loud and clear that this is difficult and traumatic for many of you and so i i just want to acknowledge that it takes a lot to show up here and to put yourselves out and i'm deeply appreciative thank you councilmember councilmember tidbits thank you mayor i just wanted to go through and give my comments um you know i'm one of the things that i definitely want to support uh for the office of engagement is the crisis declaration the public safety excuse me public health declaration of crisis around racism in senate bill 17 um i do want to support increasing the budget for the engagement department to you know do some of that that initial outreach work that uh janielle magali brought up putting in the foundation to have more input um as far as something else that was brought up that i actually thought was interesting and it something i'll probably bring up in the next presentation assuming we get into more policy conversations but about kind of a restorative justice model or restorative justice circle and what role does that have um and if i answer all the questions mayor i think that it was really those two was it not uh yeah i think there was the lingering question also about sp17 yeah i so supporting that as well janielle magali did you need anything else okay councilmembers what helm thank you mr mayor um you know it's interesting having been with the city for a while the um we never moved fast enough for all the events that are coming but i know magali's current position you're the third occupant of that chair it wasn't created until after the open government task force that was just uh recommendations remain 2014 so is it fast enough to anyone's liking absolutely not but we are making progress and even just the investment that the city and this city council has made in the seed collaborative which i think is foundational and that's again why i was asking what are some of those specific um objectives that will be participating how do we embed this in the organization that doesn't happen overnight and again i think we've heard and i'm very supportive we need to give our employees and our community time to hear learn and make those changes to make this better inclusive community for all um additionally with our eo officer new shields i'm really anxious to hear her perspective on many of these things and that's she's been an employee here since march of 21 so i'm anxious to get that information to see how we can start prioritizing that essential work for the city of santa rosa mr mayor for the two questions that you asked i think was on slide nine the clear racism is a public health crisis in santa rosa absolutely supportive of that but i'm also interested in hearing more information about it because i think uh it's easy to say yes it's a public health crisis but what are we going to do what are the investments are we going to be doing um about that so i don't want this just to be a check the box we've declared it as a public health crisis but what proactive steps are we going to take to make a difference same thing with sb 17 i'd like to hear more information about what are the impacts what we can do what can we do other than just saying yes check the box we were supportive of it but how do we embed it in our culture and the steps of the operation city of santa rosa thanks thank you council member council member alvarez thank you mayor in regards to increasing the funding uh to empower our community absolutely i would like to see that happen in regards to our mission statement i believe one of the words was diversity amongst others uh my god if you would like to touch on that and what with the other uh changes that you want to see to the mission statement i believe as well as the health crisis declaration but also equating what what council member swallown just stated that it just can't be words it has to be what we do afterwards and i am interested in and what is what is what is happening with the police auditor and how to move that forward one of the things that i hear from the community is is that we that we that we speak a lot about empowering the community but yet we we haven't put those tools into place all right madame city clerk are we ready to resume yes we are all right let's go ahead and call the roll council member tibbetz here council member here council member soyer here council member fleming here council member alvarez vice mayor rogers president mayor rogers here let the record show that all council members are present great thank you so much we'll go on to item 5.2 item 5.2 police reform updates chief navarro leading us off good morning mayor rogers and members of the city council sorry about the delay it goes off when it when i rejoin here um brainer navarro chief of police captain cregan captain lichville and i will be presenting this item uh before we start uh it's important to again go through uh some comments i know some of this may be a little repetitive from yesterday but i'm not sure uh who who wasn't watching yesterday and um i feel it's really important to make sure that we're setting the stage uh but today we will be addressing the recommendations found in the independent reports related to last summer's protest and provide an update on the actionable steps the police department is taken in regard to each of the recommendations i'll also outline the actions of the police department which we have taken or will be working toward related to reform measures in building community trust the um the violent protests last summer were an extraordinary and prolonged event for our community and at times very overwhelming for our officers many many communities throughout our nation including ours have never experienced this level of unlawful acts as the peaceful protests turned violent uh during the during the evening hours we did promise to conduct a comprehensive review and provide a detailed report into the protest and although it's been almost a year we did take immediate action to begin evaluating our process and response and we didn't wait for the official reports to come out again i want to reiterate that both consultants had our full cooperation both hillard hinds and the oir group were provided unfettered access to the police department staff our reports policies hundreds of hours of body work camera footage our officers as noted in both the after action and the use of forest reports experience unlawful activity and assaults as the nights wore on not only to themselves but also to the businesses which were looted and vandalized and our community members both demonstrators and bystanders who were assaulted our use of force was in response to the assault of behavior within the crowds after the initial demonstrators left we had inadequate staffing which led to expanded control issues and officers being on the line for expiry extended period of time without a break although most of our officers uh and use of although most of our use of force and the actions were within policy and professional there were several incidents in which we made serious errors we are here to discuss those concerns and how we move forward and get better there was not enough staff we failed to control unauthorized munitions from getting in the field which was ultimately deployed and there was significant injury which could have been prevented i was part of several of the listening sessions that occurred over this last year and i heard the distrust and the concern over law enforcement and the need for reforms i also heard the desire to work with us to overcome these concerns and and the request for more officers in some neighborhoods and more opportunities to engage with officers in a positive setting i am fully committed to making sure there are mistakes noted in these reports will not be repeated and at the best practices we employ to limit issues and continue will continue and are going to be expanded into the future this afternoon we will walk through each of the recommendations by the consultant and the work we are doing in response to the community empowerment plan and the listening sessions as we do i'm sure there's going to be a lot of questions we've separated this to in different segments captain cregan will provide a response to the oir report which will be followed by captain litchfield and our response to the after action report and there may be specific questions related to those but then after that i'll come back and i'll talk about our community of some of the things going on with from our community empowerment strategy and summarize what you've heard and then we will have an opportunity to ask questions after that so with that i will turn it over to captain cregan thank you thank you good afternoon mayor and council and especially members of our community have joined us today um so if we can go to the next slide i'm going to go over the oir group report and i'm the captain who manages our special services division so the special services division incorporates our investigations bureau our hiring and recruitment and then an important part of this presentation which is our professional standards team which investigates all citizen complaints and officer misconduct cases and this team worked very closely with steve connelly and mike genocco from oir group we provided hundreds of hours of body-worn camera footage to oir group all police reports they set in on our administrative investigations involving these officers they directly asked the officer's questions they met week after week with myself and other members of our command staff team as we received feedback from them they were part of our decisions on the discipline on these cases and we came to agreement on all the discipline and on our findings on these administrative investigations but out of the report as we heard yesterday they delivered seven key recommendations and we've been going over those recommendations and i'm going to share with you some of our first steps toward making some reforms based on those recommendations and then talk about the pathways we continue to see community and city leadership correspondence and work with this as we develop on this to develop this even further so we can go to the first slide for the first recommendation so the first recommendation that we had in the oir group report is right here in the top and it's talking about the department's planning and messaging the personnel and our supervisor follow-up and the key part of this is improving our methods for appropriately and timely documenting and reviewing all uses of force and to be very clear for counsel we have an extensive policy already in place for investigating and reporting uses of force our policy now is as soon as an officer can safely contact the supervisor after forces use they have to immediately contact the supervisor and advise them that force has been used then the protocol is that the supervisor actually responds to the scene and they assess the use of force as soon as practical and be able to view it in the field and that incorporates talking to the officer who deployed the force and used the force talking to the individual the force was employed against and determined they can get a voluntary statement from that individual about what led up to the force and and any witnesses that may be on the scene the sergeant then reviews the report that's later written by that officer and reviews the body worn camera footage to be able to see if that force was applied legally and within our policy that sergeant then completes a use of force review form that we have that goes through a series of steps that the sergeant needs to determine again if this was within policy and within the law and if there are any training methods that need to be incorporated to assist that officer or other members of our organization then we have a second stage review where a lieutenant who oversees the patrol teams reviews again the body worn camera footage and goes through that use of force investigation so those first two levels of review would happen on every use of force that's documented by the santa rosa police department what the oir group pointed out is some of these mechanisms weren't able to be followed in the setting of these large crowd control situations where multiple officers were out on the scene as we talked about clearly multiple applications of force were applied throughout the week and it made it difficult to follow that of having a supervisor stop what was going on and obviously be able to talk to people where the force was used against so what we're looking at is incorporating some mechanisms where we still can have that use of force review some of those things that are outlined here as us starting with our in our incident action plan and the incident action plan is at the beginning of every pre-planned event that happens where we have a team who outlines who the supervisors are in charge some of the basic rules of engagement for our staff some of the safety plans and and talks about the use of force application and goes over some of our policies but this is where we want to be able to go over some of this stuff and discuss some of the big changes that we're going to talk about today about that we've already made in our use of force policy with restricting when less lethal devices can be used with having more oversight on the deployment of gas and less lethal munitions another key part when we'll be looking at other agencies across california and what they're doing is implementing the safety or compliance supervisors that we're going to have out in the field now again this is going to be one of the key triggers for this is having the staffing to allow this to occur and last time that was something that we saw throughout the week was quickly running out of supervisors and staff to be able to fill some of these roles but we want to be able to work toward is having a plan so these compliance supervisors and their key role is going to be in the field through the monitoring the deployment and the use of all force and the actions that are our officers to make sure that they're staying within the bounds of our policies within the law and with the direction by the supervisors who are managing that event and that's going to be one of the key things that I think is going to be in addition and it's really going to be able to help address some of the key community concerns that were brought up and concerns that were brought up through our after action report and the oir group report so this is something that we're going to be working and we'll continue to educate our community and our city leaders on how we implement this program and identify the supervisors for that role can we go to the next slide please so this one talks again and the first three recommendations all have a common theme and this one is talking about supervisors staying in traditional functions and to not actually be stepping out of their supervisor roles and starting applying force so I are brought up a group brought up some examples where supervisors were supervising the officers who were on the scene but due to the lack of available resources stepped into the additional role and actually deployed force themselves and supervisors are of course all trained to deploy force and are authorized to use force but what our hope is that they're able to stay in their role of supervising the event and monitoring what the force is being used and making sure that we're having discretion and applying some of our core de-escalation techniques that are core part of our training and part of our protocols here at the police department this again comes down to having the staff to be able to properly fill each one of the roles that we have for these overwhelming events such as large-scale protests that were spread out among different geographical areas in the city some of the other things as us incorporating into our interaction plan into our briefings about ensuring that the lieutenants and sergeants who are out in the field when they see supervisors stepping out of that role to take action and we've talked about in our policies about a duty to intervene when we see uses of force and we actually have that incorporated currently in two of our policies both in our code of conduct and in our use of force policy about ensuring that not only supervisors but every officer in our organization has that duty to intercede when they see other officers who aren't following policies or are stepping out of our guidelines that we train our officers for can we go to the next slide please this one is talking about and this came back to an OIR provided us some some critical feedback on having our training supervisors and our professional standard staff who were out in the field and in some cases deployed force within the professional standards team and the training sergeants they're part of our internal review process and that brought up a cure conflict for the OIR group of saying you can't have people who are using force in the field who are then part of the process overall of reviewing the use of force and we agree with that so we're taking steps to be able to make sure that doesn't occur and we had we built in follow-up protocols within the use of force here where we have the professional standards lieutenant was going over those those and the professional standards lieutenant was not using force in the field and was able to review all of the uses of force including those employed by the supervisors but this is where we feel like a key role for that professional standard sergeant and the training sergeant is to be able to step in as those compliance officers they have the training and the expertise and it's in their purview of their current work to be able to step into that role and to be able to ensure that we're able to report at the end of these events that we're complying with the needs of our community complying with the needs of our policies and the law and be able to report back some of the at the end of the day which i'll believe will to be a market difference in our response to protest going forward can we go to our recommendation number four the next slide so this is a key one and we started laying some of this groundwork today with the office of community engagement and the things that would be done and they are a group gave the recommendation of us working with our community and having honest and open conversations about when and whether we should deploy less lethal munitions and crowd control situations and this is something that we've begun some of this work but it's clear that there's still work to be done and we heard feedback over the last year and especially yesterday and today and these community listening sessions here and with our city council and the frustrations and the anger from our community were probable we heard those and we're sitting here listening as command staff understanding that changes need to be made and we can give you a firm commitment that the santa rosa police department is committed to making some of those changes now the pathway to getting there is working with continuing to work with our office of community engagement and uh migale tell us and the rest of her team to be able to work with some of our community grassroots organizations members of our bicoch community uh some of the faith-based organizations and other in our community so we're able to get what is the expectations of our community but also we're going to work with some of our business owners and talk to our small business owners in downtown santa rosa who were affected by this and get their feedback on this process and we're going to talk to city staff members who were out on this process and how they were involved in this and i think it's important for us to holistically bring all these groups together and have genuine and honest conversations so we can talk about where do we want to see going forward with our use of less lethal munitions and how can we do it to be able to protect all in our community another key factor would be on that and we talked about this a little bit in the earlier presentation but it was our work with seed collaborative and we've begun our meetings with seed collaborative where we're looking at creating an equitable policing plan for the police department and for our city and that's going to incorporate of us getting the additional feedback from our community i'm our police department liaison for that team and we set up a core group of stakeholders within the department that are representing our hiring and our recruitment and our training and our community engagement we've met twice already with socorro shills our new equity officer to be able to evolve her with the process and look how we can get input on our hiring and our training and our recruitment and our policies going forward so i'm excited to see what we can get out of the seed collaborative effort and be able to bring a substantive plan back to our city council and to our community and be able to incorporate some of that feedback chief navar will talk later in the presentation about the chief's community ambassador program the ccat team and how we're going to use that as key stakeholders from our community to be able to provide feedback on some of these changes that we can be made and i think this is going to be in the months going forward something that we're putting a lot of effort to in working with not just these three organizations we mentioned here but with many more organizations and we want to be able to receive that so for community members today we'd love for you to reach out you can reach out to me or other members of our organization to be part of those conversations we'll be working with the human rights commission and other people who have given rather critical feedback and that's the feedback that we need we don't we want to be able to hear how can we make some of these changes and um and what i can assure you right now is that we're hearing this and we are going to see changes going forward including the ones that have already been made as of today we'll of course be working with the city council public safety subcommittee and frequently providing public feedback and presentations on the progress that we've made and continuing to seek feedback both from the community and from our city leaders on how we can look at policy changes organizational changes as we go forward next slide please now this is another one that came up and we've heard this over the last couple days and through i through the oir reports but it's talking about when we're actually declaring an unlawful assembly and it's important for everyone understand that many of these interactions were starting around 12 12 30 in the afternoon and for 10 to 12 hours peaceful protests occurred and people were able to exercise their first amendment rights and be able to express their frustrations with some of the societal issues and policing issues in america and that was done safely and done without breaking any laws or without any violence to others but then there's a clear distinction that later in the night and this was most nights around 11 30 to past midnight at night where then that's when you started to see some of the violent behavior and some of the actions that took place and that's when an unlawful assembly was declared which serves the law allows us to do and then in that case is when we started doing the announcements and using this enhanced loud speaking device but what we heard from some of the feedback from oir group and from some of our community that the devices we had weren't loud enough to be able to provide clear direction and so what we did was an invested in this device that is used by agencies across the nation which greatly enhances our ability to be able to communicate with the crowd and what we want to do is make sure they understand that there's a lawful order at that time to disperse that they clearly understand why the lawful order is based on and that they have a clear direction that they can safely exit and be able to leave the area before there's any type of arrest made or before there's any type of force used and all those things so it allows us to pre-record messages in english and spanish that we can provide to our community and it also allows the tactical commander on that scene that day to be able to continue to provide updates and provide specific instructions depending upon the intersection or location that there are that device we're going to talk about and we've already developed a policy on there were some community members who expressed some concern about using that device and some of the alert and warning tones that could be used on that we have a policy that we've already addressed that restricts the use of that device in those matters is going to be focused on giving just be able to clear and loud direction to our community so they understand where to go and what the instructions are so that's a key step that we've made going forward in this and i think it's going to be able to help us that everyone on the street and in that crowd understands and this is only going to be used on those rare cases that it is declared an unlawful assembly and that's something that we're really going to take a lot of restraint and being able to declare those but at times and places it may result in that we have to do that we can go to the next slide please this is another one that talks about just the the critical importance importance of getting our community feedback so the last one talked about with the engagement of our less lethal munitions which was our 40 millimeter uh less lethal launchers that we use during the crowd control situations the second one is talking about here with the tear gas deployment and that again is going to be a key part of us working with our office of community engagement seed collaborative our ccat team the human rights commission and other local nonprofits and community-based organizations to get their feedback upon when that should be used and when it shouldn't be used and to make it clear uh that there's going to be restrictions on that and the clear community feedback we heard about the restraint that should be used and the use of those devices in our community again we'll be reporting back to our city council safety public safety subcommittee and be able to give them clear and public direction on the policy changes that have been made and continuing to get that feedback from our community as we develop these policies if we go to our next recommendation on the next slide so this was a critical one and this is some of the most stinging criticism that we received throughout this process and this was in the in truly the in its in excusable actions of barricade rounds being introduced in a crowd control situation to give a little bit of clarity in that the the barricade round is used for when someone may be quote-unquote barricaded in