Hi, I’ll be live-tweeting the regular meeting of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability today for #CHIdocumenters
@CHIdocumenters

The Community Commission is supposed to be a new model for police oversight, accountability, and public safety. Divided into two distinct bodies, the commission and the district councils, the former, elected half by the mayor and half by the district council, with power to…

advance reform and the latter, elected in regular municipals, broadly connecting the community to the commission and the police department.

Commissioners Oswaldo Gomez (and Vice President), Isaac Troncoso, Beth Brown, Cliff Nellis, Anthony Driver Jr. (President), Remel Terry, and Yvette Loizon are in attendance.

There are about thirty people in attendance besides the commissioners.

We are jumping right into public comment as the meeting is getting started at 6:37.

The first commenter is in person and asks for clarification on who exactly he should go to to “make sure people are doing what they should be doing.” He has heard that there won’t be committees but believes that there actually is.

The second commenter is via zoom. But there is no response so Driver moves on.

There are some technical difficulties with zoom. The commissioners were not being heard by the folks on zoom. The issue has been worked out.

Driver states that, the commissioners will not be responding publicly to any public comment this evening.

A zoom commenter complains that during the “31st street incident” when youth were smoking and waving guns by her residence, she called the police many times but the police response was “lacking.” She is concerned about the summer time and youth and not enough police response.

Anthony Driver is moving on to discuss voting on closed meetings related to the appointing of the police superintendent and police board.

Commissioner Gomez has seconded holding a series of closed meetings.

All commissioners have voted to hold a series of closed meetings in order to determine new appointments.

Another vote has been passed to allow Commissioners to appear remotely to meetings.

The voting period is over and Com. Terry and Driver begin to share on the superintendent search. They hired a search firm. The mayor will ultimately choose from the three choices they select.

Driver states that May 7th is the deadline for applicants for Superintendent and that there have been nine applications so far. He reminded us that they do not know the identities of the applicants because they are using a search firm and respect the applicants privacy.

Driver says that he appreciates community organizing around superintendent applicants, however “This is not a popularity contest… We are listening to you, but this is not an election.”

Driver continues that the media is spinning some mistruths about the superintendent campaign. He clarifies, it’s not true that no one is applying for this role. He expects the number of applicants to be the same as the last time a superintendent was chosen.

Driver speaks to the effort the Commission is putting into reaching out to the police unions, specific commanders, rank and file officers, and the CPD more broadly. They are all discussing how to make surveys and focus groups for police officers and how to build trust all around

Com. Gomez asks why they chose the search firm they did. Driver and Terry explain that, they hired them, not to churn up unavailable appointees as the media says, but because the firm is very experienced and because the CCPSA is overworked and needs help hiring.

Com. Terry adds that the firm has done 50 national searches in the past. Com. Troncoso adds that the firm historically focuses on police chief searches and their office is made up of past police officers, stating that, because of this, they are very qualified.

Driver insists that the commission has power over the firm and not the other way around, apparently still responding to media criticism.