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Minutes-180205 POLICE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION 7800 Golden Valley Road – Golden Valley, MN 55427 MEETING Monday, February 5, 2018 – 9:30 AM Public Safety Building Conference Room MINUTES Call to Order Attendance/Roll Call The meeting was called to order by Chair Wold at 9:34 AM. Present at the meeting were Commissioners Gloria Kumagai, Ralph Schulz and Andrew Wold; Police Chief Jason Sturgis, City Manager Tim Cruikshank, Human Resources Director Kirsten Santelices, Council Member Joanie Clausen, Commander Steve Johnson, Commander Dave Kuhnly, City Attorney Maria Cisneros, Administrative Assistant Amanda Johnson and resident Andy Snope. Agenda Review Approval of Minutes of November 2, 2017 Commissioner Schulz moved to approve the meeting minutes from November 2, 2017; seconded by Commissioner Kumagai. The November 2, 2017 minutes were approved by consensus. Rules & Regulations Discussion Chief Sturgis gave an overview of the revised and reformatted rules and regulations proposal. Manager Cruikshank advised the rules and regulations were revised to reflect the past practices of the commission to create consistency. Attorney Cisneros stated the most significant change to the rules and regulations is the removal of the “Promotional Register.” The rules were revised to allow for community service officers to be added to the “Eligible Register” after the completion of testing requirements, thus eliminating the need for a “Promotional Register.” Chair Wold stated his opinion is the proposed rules and regulations delegate too much authority to the city manager and he feels the proposal effectively abolishes the commission by removing its authority. Attorney Cisneros advised there is a lot of case law concerning the delegation of authority to city staff and while not many cities have a Civil Service Commission, many that do delegate much authority to staff. Attorney Cisneros advised when the statutory framework was written for Civil Service Commissions there wasn’t much labor law or many human resources departments to ensure hiring processes were conducted in a fair manner. Over the years labor laws have developed and expanded to the point many cities have delegated authority to staff because there are human resources departments that are more equipped to work within the employment law framework. Chair Wold recommended presenting the discussion to the city council for input on what the desired duties of the Civil Service Commission are. Council Member Clausen stated the statute governing Civil Service Commissions is very old and many factors have evolved over time- especially concerning the legalities of police work. Council Member Clausen stated when commissioners were appointed she did not intend to give them the power that the statute allows; however, she does believe the rules and regulations should be revised to reflect the actual practices of the commission. Council Member Clausen also stated she believes hiring practices should be consistent across all city departments and city staff is better suited to handle those responsibilities. Police Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes February 5, 2018 – Page 2 Manager Cruikshank advised it is a fairly unique situation to have a city manager form of government in addition to a Civil Service Commission. Staff conducted research and found only 7 of the 50 cities sampled had a Civil Service Commission (some are both Police & Fire), and only 3 of those have a city manager form of government- Coon Rapids, Roseville and Maplewood. Staff reached out to the City of Maplewood to inquire how the Civil Service Commission operates and has not heard back. Coon Rapids has a Police & Fire Civil Service Commission, which is significantly different than solely having a Police Civil Service Commission. Richfield had a joint Police & Fire Civil Service Commission and their council voted in July 2017 to abolish the Police Civil Service Commission due to the inherent conflict between the city manager form of government and the statutory duties of the commission. Richfield did retain the Fire Civil Service Commission. Council Member Clausen stated she believes it is appropriate at times to have citizen input into police department operations, but does not feel the commission should dictate police department operations. Chair Wold stated he believes the delegation to city staff is more than is seen in the rules and regulations of other cities he has reviewed and requested the commission go before the city council to discuss the commission’s duties. Council Member Joanie Clausen inquired what changes Chair Wold would like to see and he advised he would need to have a discussion with fellow commissioners to draft a proposal if the city council is interested in retaining the commission. Commissioner Wold advised he would like to see the case law Attorney Cisneros referenced. Commissioner Schulz advised it is his opinion that one shouldn’t fix what isn’t broken. He stated he does not want to be part of an activist commission that forces changes in the hiring of police officers. Commissioner Schulz cited several recent stories of officers involved in fatal shootings where lawsuits have been filed and damages awarded, and he stated he does not want to be part of potential lawsuits that could be filed stemming from incidents involving Golden Valley police officers, which could happen if the Civil Service Commission is directly involved in hiring. Chair Wold stated there is a difference between being an activist commission and an active commission, and he feels the commission has existed as a rubber stamp commission, which seems unnecessary. He advised his understanding was there is civilian oversight of the police department and when he joined the commission he discovered there is not. Council Member Clausen stated she believes commissioners are liaisons between the police and the community and feels commissioners could bring up concerns to the police department about how matters in Golden Valley and surrounding cities are handled. Chair Wold advised if the city desires to have a liaison commission, the Civil Service Commission should be abolished and a new committee should form to work between police and the community. City Manager Cruikshank advised he does not believe the intent of the statute is to have civilian review of the police department and recommended there be discussion of what commissioners believe the intent of the statute is. Attorney Cisneros also recommended there be open discussion of desired changes to allow staff an opportunity to conduct more research ahead of drafting a final proposal. Chair Wold advised he did not have anything prepared to propose, having just received the city’s draft proposal on Friday. Chair Wold recommended tabling the discussion and having the discussion with the full council to see if the desire is to abolish the commission before commissioners work on a draft proposal of their own. City Manager Cruikshank requested to hear Commissioner Kumagai’s thoughts on the discussion and she advised the city’s draft proposal was sent to commissioners with no context and it was difficult to determine what changes were made to the rules and regulations. She advised she was not prepared to propose changes at this time and requested the opportunity to look at the Maplewood and Roseville rules and regulations. City Manager Cruikshank advised it would be helpful for staff to know the thoughts of commissioners in order to Police Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes February 5, 2018 – Page 3 proceed with making changes or keeping the rules and regulations aligned with the past practices of the commission. Commissioner Schulz, Manager Cruikshank, Human Resources Director Santelices and Council Member Clausen inquired what changes Chair Wold would like to see and Chair Wold advised he is not prepared or comfortable articulating his opinion at this time and would rather put his thoughts into a written proposal. Manager Cruikshank advised staff can help provide more information to commissioners on how Coon Rapids, Roseville and Maplewood operate. Commissioner Schulz advised Chair Wold mentioned at the last commission meeting that if candidates have equal scores, minorities should be moved to the top of the list. Chair Wold advised he does believe there should be an affirmative action policy, but that is a separate issue from the rules and regulations discussion. City Manager Cruikshank advised such policy would become integrated as part of the Civil Service Commission rules and it would be helpful for Chair Wold and other commissioners to advise what objectives they have so staff has subject matter to research and work with. Chair Wold advised where there is no defined method to ranking candidates of equal scores (when those candidates include minorities), minorities should be considered as the top candidates. Attorney Cisneros advised cities most often adopt Affirmative Action Plans for two primary reasons: 1) If the organization wants to contract with the federal government; and 2) If the government requires an organization to have an Affirmative Action Plan as a punitive measure- stemming from some sort of violation. Chair Wold advised those are examples of what an Affirmative Action Plan is used for, but those are not the only reasons an organization would develop an Affirmative Action Plan. Chief Sturgis advised when scores have been equal among candidates in the past, almost always the women and minority candidates have been ranked at the top. However, there have been instances where candidates with experience may rank higher than women or minorities with the same score based on department needs at the time. Chair Wold recommended experience be given a point value to differentiate scores of candidates on the eligible register. Commissioner Kumagai moved to table the rules and regulations discussion while more research is conducted; seconded by Chair Wold. Commissioner Schulz abstained from voting, stating he believed a motion should be made to accept the draft proposal presented to the commission. Motion carried. Membership Term Expirations Chair Wold advised per state law, the commissioner in the last year of his/her term is the designated chair of the commission, thus, Commissioner Schulz should be the chair through 05/01/18 when his term expires. Chair Wold also recommended Commissioner Kumagai be elected secretary through 05/01/18. On 05/01/18, Commissioner Kumagai would become the designated chair and Commissioner Wold would be elected secretary. Commissioner Kumagai proposed these recommendations be accepted; seconded by Commissioner Schulz. The motion was approved by consensus. Chief’s Report Chief Sturgis advised the police department currently has one vacancy for a patrol officer and a hiring process is underway. Chief Sturgis stated the department has selected a vendor for body-worn cameras and the new cameras are expected to go into service sometime in March. Chief Sturgis advised several Golden Valley police officers assisted Bloomington and Minneapolis Police Departments in covering events surrounding the Super Bowl. Chief Sturgis introduced Dave Kuhnly as the new police commander, effective 02/05/18. Chief Sturgis anticipates a sergeant retiring in 2019, which is the only resignation he is aware of. In summarizing 2017, Chief Sturgis stated Part 1 crimes were up approximately 1% and Part 2 crimes were up 19%. The 2018 Citizen’s Academy is currently underway and several Coffee with a Cop events are scheduled for 2018. Police Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes February 5, 2018 – Page 4 Human Resources Director Kirsten Santelices advised the commission that the city desires to utilize the community service officer program as a feeder program for sworn officer positions and expects to expand its outreach to candidates that may be interested in law enforcement. Director Santelices mentioned that the proposed rules and regulations of the Civil Service Commission removed the requirement for a sergeant to be a current Golden Valley police officer, allowing the city to hire a sergeant from an outside agency. Adjournment Commissioner Schulz moved to adjourn the meeting; seconded by Commissioner Kumagai. The meeting was adjourned at 11:08 AM. Respectfully submitted, Ralph Schulz, Secretary