Riverside City Hall: How do I serve and who?
The Press Enterprise published an article about Riverside City Councilman's revised vision for the downtown mall.
Gardner who while running for the seat formerly held by Dom Betro said he didn't support the renovation of the downtown mall now said he did. Unlike his colleague in Ward Seven Steve Adams, apparently Gardner recognizes that he didn't win through a mandate especially if you only win by seven votes. He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.
If he continued to oppose the renovation, he'd be accused of not listening to the half of Ward One that didn't vote for him. After all, while the votes were being counted, there were demands that he either continue to carry out Betro's mandate because that was what the people really wanted or at least not to ignore Betro's voters.
If he supports the renovation, he'll be accused of flip flopping on his stance. But one lesson that the tenure of Betro on the dais taught me, is that you do have to watch carefully when politicians change their minds on too many things but Betro received the benefit of the doubt from me for quite a while, so I'm going to afford Gardner the same courtesy. But if Betro's camp is halfway to City Hall to get the recall forms, then I hope they keep us all informed at Craigslist or another venue so I can keep my readers up to date as well on that process.
The renovation of the pedestrian mall, a multi-million dollar redo of a project already financed by the use of the Downtown Neighborhood Partnership's business tax collections, is coming as both the state and local governments have realized that after years of spending, they will have to trim their budgets. To pay for this downtown development, how much money going to basic services will be cut? Will they be new positions in both the fire and police departments? New equipment? What about street repair? Sidewalk repair including repairing street signs that have broken off, leaving barely visible but still dangerous stubs in the sidewalk? I tripped over one of those years ago and dislocated one of my shoulders. Not a painless experience. If you're elderly for example, it can be even more hazardous, due to the possibility of broken hips or other bones.
According to the project designer, it's going to cost at least $8.5 million and if the history of projects in Riverside is any indication, it will probably cost more than that before it's finished. After all, watched how quickly Riverside Renaissance ballooned from $750 million to $1.9 billion.
Smart Park is still on the chopping block.
(excerpt)
Gardner would like the city to re-examine its entire downtown parking situation and to explore replacing the city's SmartPark meters -- there is typically one machine per block on either side of the street -- with individual meters for every parking space, he said.
It's the SmartPark meter technology in particular that confuses and frustrates many users, he said.
"They hate it," Gardner said.
With single-space meters, "you don't have to walk half a block" to pay for your space, he said, and they are usually much easier to use.
His proposal is exactly what Downtowne Bookstore co-owner Nadia Lee favors. She has been an outspoken critic of SmartPark. She understands the need for paid parking, she said, but too many of her customers have wasted time with the SmartPark meters.
"It would take them 15 or 20 minutes to get their parking sorted out," Lee said.
Coming probably in January, will be a meeting conducted by the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee to screen all the applications submitted to fill positions on the city's boards and commissions. The year for commission appointments starts in March and ends in February of the following year.
Here you can find all the online records for agendas, minutes and reports for this committee going back to 1999.
The list of the city's boards and commissions are here. Included in the rosters are the members of boards and commissions, their wards and their terms. Any asterisk next to a term means that's when they "term out" as commissioners are only allowed to serve two consecutive four-year terms.
Section 802 of the city's charter was amended in 2005 after the voters passed Measure GG in November 2004 which states that each ward shall have at least one resident serving on each of the boards and commissions.
The charter lists five boards and commissions which are the Community Police Review Commission (passed by voters in 2004), Planning Commission (added in 1995), Human Resources Board (1995), Park and Recreation Commission (1995) and the Board of Library Trustees (1995). It takes a charter vote to dissolve or make major changes for these boards and commissions. Some are required to be included by state law. Others like the CPRC are in the charter due to the dismay of the majority of the city's voters over the city council turning this body into a political football.
Applications are usually collected for the following year beginning November 1 of the previous year but you can submit an application to the City Clerk's office year-round. Any qualifications required for the Cultural Heritage Board for example are listed. Approximate time commitments are also included which are submitted by the department overseeing the board or commission but in some cases, are grossly underestimated.
The Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee which is chaired by Ron Loveridge and includes members of the Governmental Affairs Committee in its membership screens applications and comprises a list of people to interview for openings on all the boards and commissions. The lists then get forwarded to the entire city council which interviews these individuals and votes through paper ballots which are then read out by Loveridge and the appointments are made.
The current members besides Loveridge are Councilmen Frank Schiavone, Rusty Bailey and Steve Adams. There was once one council member who wasn't aware that as a member of the Governmental Affairs Committee that he also served on the screening committee until he had to be directed to City Clerk Colleen Nichol and educated about it.
But if you ever have time to check out the screening process or the city council interviews and selection process, you should check it out. It's educational, entertaining and it teaches you a lot of what goes on inside City Hall. You should also apply for boards and commissions but be warned, some of them have high turnover such as the Human Relations Commission and the CPRC and several of them are so politicized that it's almost like you have to pay your dues to City Hall and its denizens before you have a real chance of getting interviewed, as has been seen in the last few rounds of selection for the CPRC for example. Working on political campaigns, receiving campaign contributions from the police union or working for a company that contracts with the city for public services certainly won't hurt your chances and may enhance them. However, if you don't "toe the line" or "tone it down", like former Commissioner Steve Simpson, then you probably won't last long on this commission and being uppity and asking the wrong questions might actually be akin to being "mentally incompetent" according to some folks on the seventh floor of City Hall. So if you really want to make change or a difference, maybe you should avoid some of the city's boards and commissions.
One good thing about the HRC is that it's viewed as being so diluted in its mission that City Hall doesn't see it as much of a problem, though it did lose its two full-time support staffing to the Public Works division after sending a letter to the city manager's office asking questions about the departures of several Black and Latino management employees in this city. Just a coincidence, the city would probably state but was it? At any rate, this commission was moved out of the city manager's office and is now under the jurisdiction of Loveridge's office.
HRC Commissioner A.J. Wilson once said at a meeting, that the commission writes too many reports and doesn't do enough else. He's got a point as it's somewhat academically steeped. However, it has had and has some very active, passionate members so maybe one of them will take the lead and take HRC into those directions, if it can ever overcome the massive exoduses which have occurred with this commission in the past six or seven years. Loveridge made a good point in saying that the HRC, which is the city's largest commission, may have a focal group of about five people with many people feeling as if they are on its peripheral edges. Some departing members have also said that some of the dynamics on the commission were discouraging as well.
There's actually a window of opportunity for this commission to be active before City Hall gets concerned and it should take advantage of it to advocate for improvement in different areas of living in this city.
Not so for the CPRC. Although the city government and/or its direct staffing have saber rattled at other boards and commissions including the Planning Commission, the Human Resources Board and the Cultural Heritage Board, the CPRC is still apparently the reigning champion of micromanagement by City Hall. City Manager Brad Hudson has even been heard joking about this "micromanagement" at meetings and some say, pay very close to his sense of humor on how his office does its job.
Expect that trend to continue in 2008, not so much with the HRC which has about six vacancies including several that might be ward specific, but with the CPRC, which has three including a member who's terming out after eight years. It's likely that since it's a Ward Five opening, that new councilman, Chris MacArthur will provide "input" and receive "help" from the members of the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee.
People talk about "paying dues" to serve on boards and commissions, but they're not boards of corporations, they are avenues for city residents to have opportunities to volunteer their services to the city. At least that's what they were set up to be. But Riverside rewrites its rules.
That's probably why a small group of city residents is trying to drum up support for a ballot initiative coming to you that will address the appointment process and are considering an alternative system to what's in place. This will be an interesting process to follow to see where it goes.
Another volunteer opportunity is here as part of the committee of community leaders who meets regularly with the Riverside County Superior Court judges to discuss issues.
The latest battle in the Los Angeles Police Department has begun. Here's a press release by the Police Protective League which represents the rank and file at the LAPD.
Mass Exodus of Officers Expected Due to New
Financial Disclosure Rules
Officers Leaving Specialized Units is Like the
Canary in the Coal Mine
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Over
five hundred LAPD
officers in specialized units including gang
enforcement and narcotics
will be requesting transfers or will retire rather
than submitting to
the draconian financial disclosures requirements
that are about to be
implemented by the LAPD by order of the Police
Commission.
The LAPD is moving forward on financial disclosures
despite five years
of negotiations in which the Police Protective
League argued that the
requirements are overly intrusive and lacking in
checks and balances,
and despite clear signals that this move will result
in qualified
officers choosing to leave the units that are
affected.
The staggered roll-out will mean a gradual but
steady erosion of
talent and experience from the units, as experienced
officers will
come up for reassignment and will request other
assignments that do
not come with the financial and personal risk of
identity theft.
The disclosure requirements do not include
stipulations about who in
the LAPD will be handling financial records, or how
their security
will be maintained. Officers point to the
considerable number of cases
nationwide of identity theft that have been
perpetrated by workers in
a position of trust, as well as documented cases of
theft and poor
records management at Parker Center and in other
City Departments.
Also of concern is the vulnerability of officers'
records to Pitchess
motions. Pitchess motions allow defendants in
criminal cases to view
the personnel records of law enforcement personnel
involved in their
cases. Although the inherent intent of Pitchess
motions is to expose
police misconduct, the threshold for reporting is
exceptionally low:
the possibility of police misconduct is enough
evidence to force
disclosure of police personnel records, meaning that
virtually any
defendant could force any arresting officer to share
his personnel
records, including financial disclosure forms. In
essence, officers
will be exposing every aspect of their life.
"We have seen courts repeatedly allow gang members
and others to
manipulate the system to target officers --
sometimes with the
encouragement of misguided attorneys. We have little
confidence that
the courts will be able to safeguard the personal
financial privacy of
officers," says Tim Sands, President of the Police
Protective League.
"The financial disclosures rules that the LAPD is
about to implement
opens the Pandora's box -- once someone's financial
information is
available and public, there is no way to turn back
and make it private
again," added Sands.
"No other law enforcement agency in the country
forces its officers to
share this kind of information. Our officers do not
have to put up
with this politically-motivated voyeurism: any other
law enforcement
agency in the country would be glad to hire these
officers and give
them a raise," said Sands.
"Even worse, for all of its negative impact, this
deeply offensive
intrusion into the private lives of officers, their
spouses and their
children will do nothing to route out corruption.
Looking at bank
account records is a completely ineffective way at
looking for cash
payouts. The truth of the matter is this -- there
are check and
balances in place to prevent corruption," continued
Sands.
"Perhaps the virtual elimination of specialty gang
and drug units,
which will occur upon implementation of the
financial disclosure
rules, will be the canary in the coal mine to awaken
officials and
community leaders to the inherent problems with the
more onerous and
dangerous consent decree requirements, such as
financial disclosure
regulations," concluded Sands.
About the LAPPL
Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective
League (LAPPL)
represents the more than 9,000 dedicated and
professional sworn
members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The
LAPPL can be found
on the Web at www.LAPD.com
CONTACT: For the Los Angeles Police Protective
League
Eric Rose
(805) 624-0572
Jude Schneider
(310) 854-8251
More on this latest controversy involving the LAPD is at the Los Angeles Times including this column arguing against the measure.
(excerpt)
So, what about the financial disclosure requirement? Is it a good idea?
In a word: no. For one thing, if an officer is doing what now-infamous Rampart Division bad apple Perez was doing -- namely skimming large amounts of high-ticket narcotics from police busts and reselling the stuff through proxies for a tidy profit -- do we really believe that he or she would deposit that ill-gotten loot in a Bank of America checking account? .
More relevantly, would the financial disclosure agreement have helped nail Perez sooner? Perez did not deposit his drug money; he spent it. But let's say it would've sped up the righteous pinching of Mr. Perez. In order to catch a handful of bad cops, is it wise to alienate and humiliate hundreds of decent officers? In any organization, morale is important. In law enforcement, it's everything.
"The federal monitor stood in open court and said this is 'best practice,' " said Hernandez. "So we challenged him to come up with one example where the strategy had worked, and he couldn't. The truth is, there's no legitimate need for this order. We don't have the kind of corruption it's meant to discover."
The heart of the Rampart scandal was never about stealing drugs or money. It was about use of force, planting evidence, picking up gang members and dropping them in "enemy" territory, "testilying." The result was wrongful convictions, millions of dollars in civil rights lawsuits and the long-term alienation of the communities most in need of the LAPD's protection and service.
Even in the worst old days, financial graft has never been the LAPD's problem. For that you'd want to look eastward to Chicago or New York.
Or as one upper-level officer said to me, "Historically, we may beat you up, but we don't take your wallet."
The Editorial Board stated reject the LAPD disclosure
(excerpt)
And yet. It's hard to see how periodic financial reports would help LAPD brass nail corrupt cops. Officers already must submit to lie detector tests, and they now work in an environment in which stings are all but routine. Financial disclosure would do nothing to allow the public to monitor the kinds of corruption and excessive force that led to the Rampart scandal -- or the kind of management and training failures that produced this year's MacArthur Park fiasco.
The Police Commission has long been in need of the sort of backbone it lacked when the union pushed it to close the truly crucial records of officer misconduct. It would be ironic if the commissioners suddenly found the nerve to stand up to the union on this superfluous requirement.
The judge overseeing implementation of the consent decree already rejected a compromise offered by the LAPD and the union, but the panel could call on the U.S. Department of Justice to revisit the requirement or, at least, seek an early sunset date from the court. Los Angeles has a citizen commission that should be able to distinguish between simply checking off a box on the consent decree and requiring disclosure because it's truly useful.
Heath Haussamen is blogging about the opinions of La Cruces, New Mexico political candidates on different issues they would face.
Here are their responses to one such issue.
(excerpt)
Do you support the creation of a citizens review board to consider complaints against city law enforcement officers? Why or why not?
Shipley: The citizens’ review board shall review and evaluate serious complaints brought by the public against the police department. Furthermore, the board shall review whether or not a complaint has been filed, and/or all police actions that result in the death of a person. The board may also refer complaints to the grand jury, district attorney or any other governmental agency authorized by law to investigate the activities of a law enforcement agency. The board shall submit semi-annual reports to the city manager and city council concerning its evaluation of the police department’s investigation of citizens’ complaints; provided, however, that such reports shall not disclose any information required to be kept confidential by law. I support the creation of a citizens’ review board to serve as a non-partial body to insure that acts of wrongdoing by our law enforcement agency are not hidden or swept under the carpet.
Thomas: We clearly need to investigate the complaints being made. Initially, we might want to consider bringing in outside evaluators, a team of people who are trained to do this kind of assessment. In the future, we might want to establish some kind of a citizens review board to handle complaints.
Trujillo: The Las Cruces Police Department currently has a professional standards unit that is comprised of the different ranks within the department. I do not support a citizen review board because law enforcement is a unique profession; it should be reviewed and critiqued by those who not only understand the stresses and triumphs of the job, but have also lived through those stresses and triumphs.
Curran: With regard to a police review board, I have seen both good and bad ones in cities in which I have lived. I would need to know the size, composition and guidelines of the plan before I could comment further.
Joy: I support a citizens review board of all the departments including the city attorney office, codes enforcement, animal control, as well as law enforcement. The people of this city need to have access to arbitration and problem resolution that does not belong in the court system. Professional mediators such as Mr. Curran would be excellent candidates for this type of community service.
The New York Times published an article on training law enforcement officers to interface with autistic people.
(excerpt)
Mr. Debbaudt said he had heard of 6 to 12 cases each year in which people with autism are harmed, hit with a stun gun or killed by law enforcement officials.
The officers were told to take plenty of time and be calm when interviewing autistic people. Some are crime victims, some are suspects, but the majority who come to the attention of the police have wandered away from their caregivers, often without an understanding of the dangers of traffic or open water, which often attracts them. In fact, drowning is a leading cause of death for people with autism, Mr. Debbaudt said.
People with autism may be very afraid of or very drawn to police dogs, Mr. Debbaudt said. They may be attracted to an officer’s badge and try to grab it, and they may panic if their routines are broken, if their favorite objects are taken from them, or if surrounding sights, sounds and smells overwhelm them.
Similar training sessions have been offered around the country. Autism Speaks, a nonprofit advocacy and fund-raising group, worked with the Chicago Police Department last spring, and it is working on a safety tool kit for all first responders, said Lisa Goring, director of family services for the group.
“We’ve heard from families as well as from professionals that they just need more instruction, certainly in terms of first responders understanding that a person with autism may not respond appropriately or may not respond at all when given a command,” she said.
Oakland's city council has voted to retain the services of their monitoring team to evaluate the progress of the police department's reform process, according to Inside Bay Area.
(excerpt)
The monitors were assigned to keep watch on the Police Department following the city's settlement in the "Riders" police misconduct case, in which a group of rogue officers were prosecuted for beating and framing residents in West Oakland. The total contract amount, including the two-year extension, will not exceed $5.02million, according to the city.
Attorney John Burris, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys in the Riders case, said keeping the same monitoring team was crucial.
He said it would have been "unconscionable" for the city to switch to a new team after the original one already had done five years of work.
"It's extremely important," he said, of the agreement. "A lot of work has already been done."
The Independent Monitoring Team, as it is called, released its 10th report on the police department in September. It found the Police Department made significant progress on a host of reforms, but needed to do a better job of training its officers in order to move toward full compliance with the orders of the court.
Police Chief Wayne Tucker told the council Tuesday he was confident full compliance would be reached in two year's time.
Burris credited Tucker and other top police officials for quickening the pace of reforms in recent years.
It wasn't always so, he said.
In fact, Judge Thelton Henderson's decision earlier this year to extend court oversight of the department through Jan. 20, 2010, two years beyond the original five-year period, said the department made "virtually no progress" during the initial two years of the settlement.
What do you do when those encharged to investigate allegations of criminal conduct among employees themselves become subjects of such probes?
Cleveland's police department is about to find out after at least one of its lieutenants has been indicted for theft and other supervisors may face criminal charges, according to The Plain Dealer.
(excerpt)
The inquiry began in 2006 after an audit of city-owned parking garages in the Gateway District. About 24 officers were caught moonlighting as security guards at a downtown parking garage while on duty.
The inquiry is ongoing. Investigators sent evidence to the prosecutor's office, and it appears other officers will be indicted, Flask said.
Jackson led the office when investigators said he falsified records to claim overtime that he didn't work between November 2005 and June 2006. He is suspended without pay.
Lt. Thomas Stacho, police spokesman, said Jackson falsified duty reports and lied about his whereabouts. Investigators used swipe cards and surveillance tapes to track his movements, Stacho said.
Jackson could not be reached. Lt. Brian Betley, vice president for the Fraternal Order of Police, said the union supports Jackson.
Visitors dropped by from the following places.
City of Riverside
County of Riverside
Office of the State Treasurer Bill Lockyer
University of California, Riverside
Utah Educational Network
Southern Methodist University
Dimension Servicing Corporation
Tennessee Board of Regents
California State Senate
LDCOM (France)
Claremont Colleges
Administration Office of the U.S. Courts
Gardner who while running for the seat formerly held by Dom Betro said he didn't support the renovation of the downtown mall now said he did. Unlike his colleague in Ward Seven Steve Adams, apparently Gardner recognizes that he didn't win through a mandate especially if you only win by seven votes. He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.
If he continued to oppose the renovation, he'd be accused of not listening to the half of Ward One that didn't vote for him. After all, while the votes were being counted, there were demands that he either continue to carry out Betro's mandate because that was what the people really wanted or at least not to ignore Betro's voters.
If he supports the renovation, he'll be accused of flip flopping on his stance. But one lesson that the tenure of Betro on the dais taught me, is that you do have to watch carefully when politicians change their minds on too many things but Betro received the benefit of the doubt from me for quite a while, so I'm going to afford Gardner the same courtesy. But if Betro's camp is halfway to City Hall to get the recall forms, then I hope they keep us all informed at Craigslist or another venue so I can keep my readers up to date as well on that process.
The renovation of the pedestrian mall, a multi-million dollar redo of a project already financed by the use of the Downtown Neighborhood Partnership's business tax collections, is coming as both the state and local governments have realized that after years of spending, they will have to trim their budgets. To pay for this downtown development, how much money going to basic services will be cut? Will they be new positions in both the fire and police departments? New equipment? What about street repair? Sidewalk repair including repairing street signs that have broken off, leaving barely visible but still dangerous stubs in the sidewalk? I tripped over one of those years ago and dislocated one of my shoulders. Not a painless experience. If you're elderly for example, it can be even more hazardous, due to the possibility of broken hips or other bones.
According to the project designer, it's going to cost at least $8.5 million and if the history of projects in Riverside is any indication, it will probably cost more than that before it's finished. After all, watched how quickly Riverside Renaissance ballooned from $750 million to $1.9 billion.
Smart Park is still on the chopping block.
(excerpt)
Gardner would like the city to re-examine its entire downtown parking situation and to explore replacing the city's SmartPark meters -- there is typically one machine per block on either side of the street -- with individual meters for every parking space, he said.
It's the SmartPark meter technology in particular that confuses and frustrates many users, he said.
"They hate it," Gardner said.
With single-space meters, "you don't have to walk half a block" to pay for your space, he said, and they are usually much easier to use.
His proposal is exactly what Downtowne Bookstore co-owner Nadia Lee favors. She has been an outspoken critic of SmartPark. She understands the need for paid parking, she said, but too many of her customers have wasted time with the SmartPark meters.
"It would take them 15 or 20 minutes to get their parking sorted out," Lee said.
Coming probably in January, will be a meeting conducted by the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee to screen all the applications submitted to fill positions on the city's boards and commissions. The year for commission appointments starts in March and ends in February of the following year.
Here you can find all the online records for agendas, minutes and reports for this committee going back to 1999.
The list of the city's boards and commissions are here. Included in the rosters are the members of boards and commissions, their wards and their terms. Any asterisk next to a term means that's when they "term out" as commissioners are only allowed to serve two consecutive four-year terms.
Section 802 of the city's charter was amended in 2005 after the voters passed Measure GG in November 2004 which states that each ward shall have at least one resident serving on each of the boards and commissions.
The charter lists five boards and commissions which are the Community Police Review Commission (passed by voters in 2004), Planning Commission (added in 1995), Human Resources Board (1995), Park and Recreation Commission (1995) and the Board of Library Trustees (1995). It takes a charter vote to dissolve or make major changes for these boards and commissions. Some are required to be included by state law. Others like the CPRC are in the charter due to the dismay of the majority of the city's voters over the city council turning this body into a political football.
Applications are usually collected for the following year beginning November 1 of the previous year but you can submit an application to the City Clerk's office year-round. Any qualifications required for the Cultural Heritage Board for example are listed. Approximate time commitments are also included which are submitted by the department overseeing the board or commission but in some cases, are grossly underestimated.
The Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee which is chaired by Ron Loveridge and includes members of the Governmental Affairs Committee in its membership screens applications and comprises a list of people to interview for openings on all the boards and commissions. The lists then get forwarded to the entire city council which interviews these individuals and votes through paper ballots which are then read out by Loveridge and the appointments are made.
The current members besides Loveridge are Councilmen Frank Schiavone, Rusty Bailey and Steve Adams. There was once one council member who wasn't aware that as a member of the Governmental Affairs Committee that he also served on the screening committee until he had to be directed to City Clerk Colleen Nichol and educated about it.
But if you ever have time to check out the screening process or the city council interviews and selection process, you should check it out. It's educational, entertaining and it teaches you a lot of what goes on inside City Hall. You should also apply for boards and commissions but be warned, some of them have high turnover such as the Human Relations Commission and the CPRC and several of them are so politicized that it's almost like you have to pay your dues to City Hall and its denizens before you have a real chance of getting interviewed, as has been seen in the last few rounds of selection for the CPRC for example. Working on political campaigns, receiving campaign contributions from the police union or working for a company that contracts with the city for public services certainly won't hurt your chances and may enhance them. However, if you don't "toe the line" or "tone it down", like former Commissioner Steve Simpson, then you probably won't last long on this commission and being uppity and asking the wrong questions might actually be akin to being "mentally incompetent" according to some folks on the seventh floor of City Hall. So if you really want to make change or a difference, maybe you should avoid some of the city's boards and commissions.
One good thing about the HRC is that it's viewed as being so diluted in its mission that City Hall doesn't see it as much of a problem, though it did lose its two full-time support staffing to the Public Works division after sending a letter to the city manager's office asking questions about the departures of several Black and Latino management employees in this city. Just a coincidence, the city would probably state but was it? At any rate, this commission was moved out of the city manager's office and is now under the jurisdiction of Loveridge's office.
HRC Commissioner A.J. Wilson once said at a meeting, that the commission writes too many reports and doesn't do enough else. He's got a point as it's somewhat academically steeped. However, it has had and has some very active, passionate members so maybe one of them will take the lead and take HRC into those directions, if it can ever overcome the massive exoduses which have occurred with this commission in the past six or seven years. Loveridge made a good point in saying that the HRC, which is the city's largest commission, may have a focal group of about five people with many people feeling as if they are on its peripheral edges. Some departing members have also said that some of the dynamics on the commission were discouraging as well.
There's actually a window of opportunity for this commission to be active before City Hall gets concerned and it should take advantage of it to advocate for improvement in different areas of living in this city.
Not so for the CPRC. Although the city government and/or its direct staffing have saber rattled at other boards and commissions including the Planning Commission, the Human Resources Board and the Cultural Heritage Board, the CPRC is still apparently the reigning champion of micromanagement by City Hall. City Manager Brad Hudson has even been heard joking about this "micromanagement" at meetings and some say, pay very close to his sense of humor on how his office does its job.
Expect that trend to continue in 2008, not so much with the HRC which has about six vacancies including several that might be ward specific, but with the CPRC, which has three including a member who's terming out after eight years. It's likely that since it's a Ward Five opening, that new councilman, Chris MacArthur will provide "input" and receive "help" from the members of the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee.
People talk about "paying dues" to serve on boards and commissions, but they're not boards of corporations, they are avenues for city residents to have opportunities to volunteer their services to the city. At least that's what they were set up to be. But Riverside rewrites its rules.
That's probably why a small group of city residents is trying to drum up support for a ballot initiative coming to you that will address the appointment process and are considering an alternative system to what's in place. This will be an interesting process to follow to see where it goes.
Another volunteer opportunity is here as part of the committee of community leaders who meets regularly with the Riverside County Superior Court judges to discuss issues.
The latest battle in the Los Angeles Police Department has begun. Here's a press release by the Police Protective League which represents the rank and file at the LAPD.
Mass Exodus of Officers Expected Due to New
Financial Disclosure Rules
Officers Leaving Specialized Units is Like the
Canary in the Coal Mine
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Over
five hundred LAPD
officers in specialized units including gang
enforcement and narcotics
will be requesting transfers or will retire rather
than submitting to
the draconian financial disclosures requirements
that are about to be
implemented by the LAPD by order of the Police
Commission.
The LAPD is moving forward on financial disclosures
despite five years
of negotiations in which the Police Protective
League argued that the
requirements are overly intrusive and lacking in
checks and balances,
and despite clear signals that this move will result
in qualified
officers choosing to leave the units that are
affected.
The staggered roll-out will mean a gradual but
steady erosion of
talent and experience from the units, as experienced
officers will
come up for reassignment and will request other
assignments that do
not come with the financial and personal risk of
identity theft.
The disclosure requirements do not include
stipulations about who in
the LAPD will be handling financial records, or how
their security
will be maintained. Officers point to the
considerable number of cases
nationwide of identity theft that have been
perpetrated by workers in
a position of trust, as well as documented cases of
theft and poor
records management at Parker Center and in other
City Departments.
Also of concern is the vulnerability of officers'
records to Pitchess
motions. Pitchess motions allow defendants in
criminal cases to view
the personnel records of law enforcement personnel
involved in their
cases. Although the inherent intent of Pitchess
motions is to expose
police misconduct, the threshold for reporting is
exceptionally low:
the possibility of police misconduct is enough
evidence to force
disclosure of police personnel records, meaning that
virtually any
defendant could force any arresting officer to share
his personnel
records, including financial disclosure forms. In
essence, officers
will be exposing every aspect of their life.
"We have seen courts repeatedly allow gang members
and others to
manipulate the system to target officers --
sometimes with the
encouragement of misguided attorneys. We have little
confidence that
the courts will be able to safeguard the personal
financial privacy of
officers," says Tim Sands, President of the Police
Protective League.
"The financial disclosures rules that the LAPD is
about to implement
opens the Pandora's box -- once someone's financial
information is
available and public, there is no way to turn back
and make it private
again," added Sands.
"No other law enforcement agency in the country
forces its officers to
share this kind of information. Our officers do not
have to put up
with this politically-motivated voyeurism: any other
law enforcement
agency in the country would be glad to hire these
officers and give
them a raise," said Sands.
"Even worse, for all of its negative impact, this
deeply offensive
intrusion into the private lives of officers, their
spouses and their
children will do nothing to route out corruption.
Looking at bank
account records is a completely ineffective way at
looking for cash
payouts. The truth of the matter is this -- there
are check and
balances in place to prevent corruption," continued
Sands.
"Perhaps the virtual elimination of specialty gang
and drug units,
which will occur upon implementation of the
financial disclosure
rules, will be the canary in the coal mine to awaken
officials and
community leaders to the inherent problems with the
more onerous and
dangerous consent decree requirements, such as
financial disclosure
regulations," concluded Sands.
About the LAPPL
Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective
League (LAPPL)
represents the more than 9,000 dedicated and
professional sworn
members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The
LAPPL can be found
on the Web at www.LAPD.com
CONTACT: For the Los Angeles Police Protective
League
Eric Rose
(805) 624-0572
Jude Schneider
(310) 854-8251
More on this latest controversy involving the LAPD is at the Los Angeles Times including this column arguing against the measure.
(excerpt)
So, what about the financial disclosure requirement? Is it a good idea?
In a word: no. For one thing, if an officer is doing what now-infamous Rampart Division bad apple Perez was doing -- namely skimming large amounts of high-ticket narcotics from police busts and reselling the stuff through proxies for a tidy profit -- do we really believe that he or she would deposit that ill-gotten loot in a Bank of America checking account? .
More relevantly, would the financial disclosure agreement have helped nail Perez sooner? Perez did not deposit his drug money; he spent it. But let's say it would've sped up the righteous pinching of Mr. Perez. In order to catch a handful of bad cops, is it wise to alienate and humiliate hundreds of decent officers? In any organization, morale is important. In law enforcement, it's everything.
"The federal monitor stood in open court and said this is 'best practice,' " said Hernandez. "So we challenged him to come up with one example where the strategy had worked, and he couldn't. The truth is, there's no legitimate need for this order. We don't have the kind of corruption it's meant to discover."
The heart of the Rampart scandal was never about stealing drugs or money. It was about use of force, planting evidence, picking up gang members and dropping them in "enemy" territory, "testilying." The result was wrongful convictions, millions of dollars in civil rights lawsuits and the long-term alienation of the communities most in need of the LAPD's protection and service.
Even in the worst old days, financial graft has never been the LAPD's problem. For that you'd want to look eastward to Chicago or New York.
Or as one upper-level officer said to me, "Historically, we may beat you up, but we don't take your wallet."
The Editorial Board stated reject the LAPD disclosure
(excerpt)
And yet. It's hard to see how periodic financial reports would help LAPD brass nail corrupt cops. Officers already must submit to lie detector tests, and they now work in an environment in which stings are all but routine. Financial disclosure would do nothing to allow the public to monitor the kinds of corruption and excessive force that led to the Rampart scandal -- or the kind of management and training failures that produced this year's MacArthur Park fiasco.
The Police Commission has long been in need of the sort of backbone it lacked when the union pushed it to close the truly crucial records of officer misconduct. It would be ironic if the commissioners suddenly found the nerve to stand up to the union on this superfluous requirement.
The judge overseeing implementation of the consent decree already rejected a compromise offered by the LAPD and the union, but the panel could call on the U.S. Department of Justice to revisit the requirement or, at least, seek an early sunset date from the court. Los Angeles has a citizen commission that should be able to distinguish between simply checking off a box on the consent decree and requiring disclosure because it's truly useful.
Heath Haussamen is blogging about the opinions of La Cruces, New Mexico political candidates on different issues they would face.
Here are their responses to one such issue.
(excerpt)
Do you support the creation of a citizens review board to consider complaints against city law enforcement officers? Why or why not?
Shipley: The citizens’ review board shall review and evaluate serious complaints brought by the public against the police department. Furthermore, the board shall review whether or not a complaint has been filed, and/or all police actions that result in the death of a person. The board may also refer complaints to the grand jury, district attorney or any other governmental agency authorized by law to investigate the activities of a law enforcement agency. The board shall submit semi-annual reports to the city manager and city council concerning its evaluation of the police department’s investigation of citizens’ complaints; provided, however, that such reports shall not disclose any information required to be kept confidential by law. I support the creation of a citizens’ review board to serve as a non-partial body to insure that acts of wrongdoing by our law enforcement agency are not hidden or swept under the carpet.
Thomas: We clearly need to investigate the complaints being made. Initially, we might want to consider bringing in outside evaluators, a team of people who are trained to do this kind of assessment. In the future, we might want to establish some kind of a citizens review board to handle complaints.
Trujillo: The Las Cruces Police Department currently has a professional standards unit that is comprised of the different ranks within the department. I do not support a citizen review board because law enforcement is a unique profession; it should be reviewed and critiqued by those who not only understand the stresses and triumphs of the job, but have also lived through those stresses and triumphs.
Curran: With regard to a police review board, I have seen both good and bad ones in cities in which I have lived. I would need to know the size, composition and guidelines of the plan before I could comment further.
Joy: I support a citizens review board of all the departments including the city attorney office, codes enforcement, animal control, as well as law enforcement. The people of this city need to have access to arbitration and problem resolution that does not belong in the court system. Professional mediators such as Mr. Curran would be excellent candidates for this type of community service.
The New York Times published an article on training law enforcement officers to interface with autistic people.
(excerpt)
Mr. Debbaudt said he had heard of 6 to 12 cases each year in which people with autism are harmed, hit with a stun gun or killed by law enforcement officials.
The officers were told to take plenty of time and be calm when interviewing autistic people. Some are crime victims, some are suspects, but the majority who come to the attention of the police have wandered away from their caregivers, often without an understanding of the dangers of traffic or open water, which often attracts them. In fact, drowning is a leading cause of death for people with autism, Mr. Debbaudt said.
People with autism may be very afraid of or very drawn to police dogs, Mr. Debbaudt said. They may be attracted to an officer’s badge and try to grab it, and they may panic if their routines are broken, if their favorite objects are taken from them, or if surrounding sights, sounds and smells overwhelm them.
Similar training sessions have been offered around the country. Autism Speaks, a nonprofit advocacy and fund-raising group, worked with the Chicago Police Department last spring, and it is working on a safety tool kit for all first responders, said Lisa Goring, director of family services for the group.
“We’ve heard from families as well as from professionals that they just need more instruction, certainly in terms of first responders understanding that a person with autism may not respond appropriately or may not respond at all when given a command,” she said.
Oakland's city council has voted to retain the services of their monitoring team to evaluate the progress of the police department's reform process, according to Inside Bay Area.
(excerpt)
The monitors were assigned to keep watch on the Police Department following the city's settlement in the "Riders" police misconduct case, in which a group of rogue officers were prosecuted for beating and framing residents in West Oakland. The total contract amount, including the two-year extension, will not exceed $5.02million, according to the city.
Attorney John Burris, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys in the Riders case, said keeping the same monitoring team was crucial.
He said it would have been "unconscionable" for the city to switch to a new team after the original one already had done five years of work.
"It's extremely important," he said, of the agreement. "A lot of work has already been done."
The Independent Monitoring Team, as it is called, released its 10th report on the police department in September. It found the Police Department made significant progress on a host of reforms, but needed to do a better job of training its officers in order to move toward full compliance with the orders of the court.
Police Chief Wayne Tucker told the council Tuesday he was confident full compliance would be reached in two year's time.
Burris credited Tucker and other top police officials for quickening the pace of reforms in recent years.
It wasn't always so, he said.
In fact, Judge Thelton Henderson's decision earlier this year to extend court oversight of the department through Jan. 20, 2010, two years beyond the original five-year period, said the department made "virtually no progress" during the initial two years of the settlement.
What do you do when those encharged to investigate allegations of criminal conduct among employees themselves become subjects of such probes?
Cleveland's police department is about to find out after at least one of its lieutenants has been indicted for theft and other supervisors may face criminal charges, according to The Plain Dealer.
(excerpt)
The inquiry began in 2006 after an audit of city-owned parking garages in the Gateway District. About 24 officers were caught moonlighting as security guards at a downtown parking garage while on duty.
The inquiry is ongoing. Investigators sent evidence to the prosecutor's office, and it appears other officers will be indicted, Flask said.
Jackson led the office when investigators said he falsified records to claim overtime that he didn't work between November 2005 and June 2006. He is suspended without pay.
Lt. Thomas Stacho, police spokesman, said Jackson falsified duty reports and lied about his whereabouts. Investigators used swipe cards and surveillance tapes to track his movements, Stacho said.
Jackson could not be reached. Lt. Brian Betley, vice president for the Fraternal Order of Police, said the union supports Jackson.
Visitors dropped by from the following places.
City of Riverside
County of Riverside
Office of the State Treasurer Bill Lockyer
University of California, Riverside
Utah Educational Network
Southern Methodist University
Dimension Servicing Corporation
Tennessee Board of Regents
California State Senate
LDCOM (France)
Claremont Colleges
Administration Office of the U.S. Courts
Labels: City Hall 101, civilian review spreads, consent decrees and other adventures, labor pains, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 1:43 PM
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