Springfield City Council — February 21, 2023

0:05 Council work session to order with roll call mayor Ben Gordon here counselors Weber here Bradley here Doyle here and missionaries here thank you we have one item tonight which is the police update with the chief shear turn it over to the PD thank you good evening I'm Andrew Scheer the chief of police at Springfield Police Department and I thank you all the mayor and Council for the opportunity to speak with you this evening and provide an update on some of that as an infographical age at the Springfield Police Department

1:03 the second slide all right thanks uh before I begin I want to take a moment to recognize the men and women of SPD so from our Patrol officers and our impunity service officers who directly respond 24 7 to the immediate needs of this community to the record staff and the dispatchers who are off on the first Contact people that with our department our Detention officers who ensure a safe and secure environment for those in our Care at the Springfield jail and all the administrative staff that make the entire operation run behind the scenes I could not be prouder of the work that they do and the commitment they have to the people of Springfield I also want to recognize that people in the businesses of this community and thank them for their support it's been consistently demonstrated through their words of gratitude and it was very clear this past November when

1:49 the police bought Levy passed if passing secured another five years of financial stability for the PD the jail and the local justice system here in the City of Springfield I intend is to get through this in a timely fashion and I want to make sure you all have ample time for follow-up questions and discussions so slide three please during our last update in the fall we talked about our accountability processes they shared that we identified three specific areas where we were going to make improvements the first of those areas was to more effectively communicate with community members who file complaints we've since created and implemented a way to do exactly that the second thing we identified was that we needed to find a better way to document track and analyze complaint data to identify trends that would help inform us about areas

2:35 where we can do better we also completed that and we're going to be sharing that with you a little later tonight the third area that we identified was to commit to reporting out on complaint information to City officials and to the public which is what we're going to be doing here this evening and we're going to continue to do that by posting it on our website so the topics I'm going to cover tonight are as follows we're going to share our first yearly report related to complaints accommodations we're going to talk about the changes we've implemented to provide an improved feedback loop to community regarding oblanks we're going to talk about the results of the most recent CIS assessment of SPD A really brief measure 114 update and I'm also going to provide you with a staffing update

3:21 so in order to achieve public trust and legitimacy law enforcement agencies have to establish a culture of transparency and accountability our members consistently deliver high quality professional Public Safety service to the people of Springfield during the over 50 000 calls of the year that we take now that said we all bear significant responsibility and the expectations we're held to as an agency are rightfully very high and sometimes we don't get it right when asked PD members accused of misconduct we can reconduct a fair fact-finding investigation to uncover the truth and we then render a finding the Ia pro software we've discussed here at Council in the past and that we implemented in late 2021 to document and analyze uses of force also allows us to track complaints and accommodations more comprehensively

4:07 2022 is the first year we've been able to create a detailed report utilizing this new software it provides us with a more comprehensive picture which like the 2021 use of force report is going to help us identify Trends and in turn develop policy and training to address areas that need Improvement so when there's a complaint that's investigated there's four finding options those are defined here on the screen but we're going to discuss the complaints in more detail shortly when we go over the yearly complaint report so sustained means there was sufficient evidence to indicate the misconduct did in fact occur not sustained means there was insufficient evidence to prove or disprove the allegation unfounded means the investigation revealed the allegation was false and not based in fact and no misconduct occurred

4:52 and a finding of exonerated means the investigation revealed that the incident did actually occur but the main member acted off lawfully and properly within policies so in 2022 SPD members took 49 921 calls for service that includes the call that officers or community service officers respond to it's also were taken by record staff over the phone or contacts at the front desk self-initiated activity by officers instances of members conducting additional follow-up to previous cases basically every contact we had that was generated by a call from Community or initiated by an officer and so of those almost 50 000 calls we received 39 Community generated complaints which

5:37 represents .08 percent of all of our calls for service and we take every single call as an opportunity to learn and approve regardless if somebody complains about our service level and will people make a complaint that's an opportunity for us to look into what happened sometimes people may not be pleased with their service and some probably choose to not file a complaint or accommodation they might be busy they might not think anything is going to come of it they might not trust that we're going to take it seriously we very much understand that we're going to continually work to improve that trust so the numbers that I share with you tonight simply represent those who took the step of formally contacting us about their Police Service so this graphic shows that 18 employees received one complaint and we had 11

6:23 employees they received more than one complaint and how we can benefit from this trend analysis is that we can identify areas for improvement so one example is now that we know that a relatively small number of employees account for a disproportionate number of complaints so when we looked further into the categories and the frequency of those complaints it helps us identify if individual members need some kind of remedial or additional training in areas like communication the escalation control tactics so this report and the data contained in it is going to serve as a baseline for us moving forward to compare against in the years ahead however rather than waiting to address issues just simply on a yearly basis we plan to continually monitor this data to identify those who receive higher numbers of complaints that's going to

7:08 help us address the root causes more effectively it's also going to allow us to identify officers who receive a significant number of accommodations so we can learn from them hopefully to model some of their communication techniques on a broader level across the agency when people we serve are not pleased with their interactions and file complaints but we also receive commendations throughout the year that are submitted when the people are pleased with service they receive so like with the complaints accommodations can be submitted via email regular mail our website or in person and we receive those accommodations we also enter them into the iapro database and put copies in the member's personnel file so just like taking complaints and investigating them are a critically important part of our ongoing Improvement efforts so our consistent

7:54 documentation of the commendations officers who do good work and go above and beyond what is expected should be recognized for their efforts both to reinforce the positive engagements but also to show their peers that all the members are appreciated by our community and the effort that they put forth it's highly valued at the last update I shared that we've received feedback from community members that they wanted improvements in how we share information specifically with complainants the information flow and a way to close the loop on the final resolution the case is an area we identify where we need to do better and we've since implemented a process to do just that now when a complaint is received we notify the complainant Via a letter that's sent by a professional standard sergeant that acknowledges receipt of

8:40 the complaint that states we take the complaints very seriously and that we intend to investigate them we thank them for bringing it to our attention and explain that we intend to respond to them with an update within 30 days if we're unable to complete the investigation with 30 days then the notified via another letter stating that the investigation is being continued and in that letter will include a project and completion date upon completion of the investigation we deliver a final findings letter that outlines the specific allegations and finding for each allegations like I described earlier sustaining not sustained exonerated or unfounded we also include contact information so they can reach out to us if they have any further questions so with this process I hopefully it more clearly states to the complaints than we

9:26 have in the past that we heard them we acted we identified areas where we can do better and if we did not get things right we're going to take action to ensure accountability that leads to even more professional Service delivery in this community measure 114. so that requires permits for firearms purchases and restricts the sale or transfer of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition and that was approved by Oregon voters and scheduled to go into effect December 8th of 2022. so due to some legal challenges and other delays implementation of the measure Statewide is paused until those are all resolved so we've been monitoring very closely and working with the Oregon Association of chiefs of police and other agencies

10:11 to better understand the requirements and challenges to implementation the process changes that SPD and other agencies must make if it's implemented as it was originally written are going to require Personnel Resources and equipment and if we were to realign existing personnel and resources to meet these requirements it will impact our current level of service in other areas I got information from the Oregon State Police that in 2022 there were over 38 000 Firearms sold in Lane County they couldn't um they couldn't drill down to how many were sold within the city limits of Springfield 38 000 sold in Lane County and so with national and locally owned retail outlets right here in our city in a population of over 60 000 people I anticipate the number of permit requests will be significant

10:58 administering the new process would require additional staff members equipment and implementation of new processes SPD all of which would most definitely require additional investment by the city so we're going to continue monitoring developments and keep the council apprised and wait and see how this all unfolds and of course and at the legislative level foreign of 2022 the city's insurance carrier which is a city county Insurance Services better known as CIS conducted what they referred to as the best practices and risk assessment of the Springfield Police Department they reviewed three categories and included Patrol operations jail operations and they also conducted a human resources assessment they examined functions of the department to include risk management

11:43 policies training OSHA compliance hiring and promotional processes the jail and overall compliance with organ device statutes and administrative rules we received that report recently and it was included with your packet of materials to review this evening we continue to be transparent in our efforts to build trust and so we've also posted that report on our website under the open Beta tab the report summaries in all three categories were favorable and positive CIS did make recommendations for us to consider in the area of the human resources review the recommendations included further developing our interview questions on hiring and promotional processes as well as the success Criterion for scoring candidates they also recommend development of a more formalized recruitment strategy

12:30 the jail recommendations including putting the camera system for the jail on a capital replacement program having Springfield Human Resources explore workers comp coverage for adults in custody and to consider installing a plexig Plexiglas barrier on some of the upper levels of the jail to mitigate risk of injury based on jumping falling or being pushed off an elevated position for the patrol operations the recommendations included I'm exploring the option to randomly review body camera and dash camera video during the next bargaining unit negotiations the rest of the recommendations we're going to continue forward with the work we're currently engaging in in terms of development of Future Leaders in the department completion of our accreditation process and preparation for the subsequent re-accreditation process

13:16 continuing the supervisory reviews of high-risk incidents training of all staff and our ongoing Community engagement efforts so I I really appreciate that CIS acknowledged the work that the men and women of SPD have engaged in recently and I have to Echo their remarks about the team at SPD so the pace of change I feel like has been very rapid and I know the change breeds uncertainty about the future I'm as committed to the safety and well-being of the members of this agency as I am to the people of Springfield and we have to provide an environment where operators feel appreciated and valued because that translates into a desire to engage in and a commitment to community service we have a lot more yet to do and more improvements to make but I look forward to continuing down this path of organizational growth in ways that are

14:01 going to benefit members of the department and in turn this community Through increased trust transparency and a greater sense of Public Safety that's a QR code I think it works actually let me try it um we're trying to sign us all up yeah our total authorized Staffing levels at SPD currently are 124 and we're running at 101 agency-wide that is all inclusive of our sworn our non-sworn professional staff and our Springfield Municipal Jail detention staff of our 55 sworn police officer positions we currently have 43 filled we've worked very hard over the last year to try to close that Gap in Staffing and like every police agency government entity

14:47 and even in the private sector this is an area we expect it's going to remain a challenge in the years ahead seven of our officers today are in a probationary status and four of those fortunately our lateral officers who came here from other agencies and five of the seven are currently still working with a field training officer before they go into a solo status so two of our most recent lateral hires don't need to attend the 16-week Basic Police Academy but two of our other new hires still need to do so and my current understanding of the scheduling at the Academy is that one of our folks is going to attend that Academy that runs March through July but the other one won't be able to get in until June and that runs June through October so that's less than ideal because the academy should be the foundation where officers begin their training

15:32 but we're in a situation here where we're forced to train our own officers which takes away Personnel Resources away from their primary jobs and then we have to have them work for a coach for several months before we can even send them to the academy unfortunately we continue to hold a high standard for the people that we hire seeking only new members that are truly committed to protecting the people of Springfield in a manner that Embraces dignity and respect so we're currently unable to leverage the ability to use hiring bonuses for lateral officers to help recruit and that ended Statewide in September many other states offer hiring bonuses so every agency in Oregon are at a disadvantage and is extremely difficult hiring market and I believe there's efforts underway at the state level to

16:18 advocate for the ability for us to offer bonuses again and that's something that I very much support but the bottom line with the hiring is is that we're continuing to make it a priority just like most other law enforcement agencies and government entities and what continues to be a challenge we're looking at new opportunities we're beginning to attend college fairs we're exploring ways to connect with members of the military who are not going to be planned or who do not plan to re-enlist who developed a join SPD page on our website it describes the city the department the community the people who work here and the benefits of what SPD has to offer prospective candidates it also describes every step of our

17:03 hiring process it has a link for people with questions to reach out directly we're focusing on improving our responsiveness to candidates who contact us for information because we found quick responses to their questions offers to give them tours and ride-alongs connecting them with other officers who may have recently been hired who can share with them their experiences are always we're seeking to connect with the best candidates and recruit them to join SBD so the final topic I'm going to touch on tonight is our community outreach for 2022. so positive non-enforcement related police interactions are one of the ways to improve perceptions of police by eroding distrust over time and by engaging in relationship building

17:48 we increase in trusted legitimacy which in turn benefits the community to Greater partnership the results of Public Safety the new community outreach report is attached and this is the first year we've ever tried to track our hours and events attended uh we documented our attendance at 166 events totaling about 358 hours we continue to seek out opportunities to engage throughout Springfield and welcome suggestions and invitations by everyone one of the ongoing efforts we've enjoyed is our regular food delivery program we've partnered with Catholic community services and have committed to making deliveries in support of their efforts to Fight Hunger right here in Springfield so two days every month we deliver food boxes to multiple homebound community members including disabled

18:35 seniors and I know it's appreciated by the people that we're serving but it's also a great opportunity for our members to help those in this community that are in need it's been very well received and it's something that we plan to continue indefinitely so thank you for the opportunity to share this update with you tonight I want to open up to any of your questions or comments Steve um I'd support you guys 100 you make so many improvements in the past two years since the aspects we've had in the past uh that true part of Springfield's reputation get us out of that um but I'm going to another thing um I had we had talked about having Spanish language instructions waiting area and I've been I've been down I've been told that they are not

19:21 part there anymore when you walk in the front door we have a stand just the right where they're in there and they're also at the front desk and the other thing is somebody made some complain that it's acknowledged with the letter you said delivered by a sergeant uh it's mailed to them and we can also email them you have them say Sergeant so oh I'm sorry yeah that that the sergeant that uh runs our Professional Standards division that's his responsibility yes thank you for this I appreciate it and I really appreciate you sharing the um the whatever the CIS report summary because there were things in there that I didn't know that I really appreciated and I

20:07 think that one of the things that they called out in there was really around this intent which we talked about a year and a half or so ago that you said we're going to focus on training we're going to focus on culture we're going to focus on these things and the way they listed out all of the different things that we've done was very helpful I think to see all of that um and I appreciate that and I and they also call out something that I want to call out is I also think that um you know having the support of our city manager who has been such a strong advocate for not only for the work that you're doing but for the changes that we needed to make so I feel like we're on this journey and I've had a few folks reach out to me and say well things are not changed fast enough or things are

20:52 not magically changed which I say systems don't change with magic um and that this is going to take I mean this is decades in the making and we are two years in and we can see these tangible results so I just deeply appreciate that and I appreciate the focus on um I mean little things which seem little but aren't little like visible tattoos are okay and these things that say to people that they can come to work bring themselves to work and be accepted in the workforce are great so that was my very messy way of saying I appreciate this I know we've got a long way to go and by collecting the data it does give us that Baseline so we can start like seeing how we're improving and is this working or is this working so thank you

21:43 all right other questions Joe great guarantee I'm reading write a report and I'm still trying to Cipher out there we uh data is collected on the amount of complaints and accommodations by work Group which is great um but I'm I'm kind of care and I'm not saying you're going to hand out any homework or anything but maybe you have a sense of those complaints by work group is there a Common Thread what type of complaints by work group are they common to you know you have records work group complaints so say okay Rob I didn't get answered the phone didn't answer soon enough and then you have control complaints that it's like I got

22:29 pepper spray where I would you know you know what I'm saying there's different categories or complaints and I'm just wondering why a work group I noticed that like the detectively it was 11 of nominations but they had only four percent of the complaints so I'm just trying to look at is there a common can you read into the type of complaints by work group and see where there may be areas that work that themselves may have you can focus on training in that particular type of uh weak spot yeah I can speculate to some of this why does Patrol get more complaints than some of the other groups and all that um but by just putting together this report I mean we literally have to have this data for a very short time right so now that we've got it we need to start diving into it looking at

23:15 that those are all very valid points um you know the the three records complaints were they all in the same area was it courtesy was it delay time delay like what was it and where can we identify areas of improvement and that's exactly what we want to do with this data you guys did a great job the report's awesome I can totally see all this happening I mean that's just good you really um I had my doubts a couple years ago as to okay what can we show civilians citizens what can we show them and it's not easy in law enforcement it's really difficult to share law enforcement with civilians or citizens when it's a it's a murky world and you

24:00 guys have done a really good job and appreciate your work a lot so um one of the things I would recommend if uh for people who watch this later would be to download the actual report and actually read the report it's got a lot of information it gives you a lot more detail about what the complaints are how many that they found that were sustained how many were exonerated um I thought the detail looked you know we've never seen that kind of detail about what we're what we're seeing from in in the PD at all and uh you know the amount of work that you guys are spending to sort of research and remediate you know sort of service issues right like it's just absolutely outstanding um the one thing I do on a call like

24:45 there was a graph that was at the very start the setup you know we're getting complaints on like 0.48 percent of you know and I think um you know and I think you made a very interesting comment which was just an acknowledgment that that is what gets reported that doesn't mean you don't have you know you don't have sergeants and lieutenants that are following up and providing coaching on you know some you know the rest of the pie right they're not we know that we're not perfect you know every you know every single time the point eight percent is just the the amount that people sort of raise their hand for it so I was glad to see that uh the other the other couple of things that really really jumped out to me um I think that the Staffing thing right like it is you know anything that we can

25:31 do as a council to continue to support that through the state law enforcement organizations with the legislature that is going to be an ongoing challenge for us um you know I wish you had 10 more people like but you can get into tomorrow um but about the academy is that gonna get is that left over from the pandemic or is that like a long-term challenge that or that you you see sort of staying out here three to five years down the road and I think it's gonna be long term it is a direct result of the pandemic and how long they were closed down everybody's trying to get caught up everybody's trying to hire they can only put on so many academies a year that we have so big of a staff and they really are trying to improve the pace and move things along I can't tell you how long it's going to take before they get

26:16 caught up it could be years and years but they're trying and they're getting better I don't want to paint the picture that they're not being helpful to us but they're just in a bind because everybody's trying to get cops into the academy there's only so many spots okay um I have I did have one question about the letter that comes out and says you know and I think this was a goal we all talked about early on which was tell people what happened with their complaint right and I'm glad that that's coming out is it just coming out with the result are we sending out sort of some explanation or so is it more like hey we're just saying it was sustained are we saying hey here's some of the reasoning why there will be a brief very brief explanation in that letter but we were very deliberate about putting contact information in there about Professional Standards so somebody have further questions that are not answered by the letter they can reach other

27:01 Professional Standards and that one might be something that's really interesting to you know just you know talk about next year is like well how many additional calls are we getting back from people saying hey I had more information or um I've got sort of you know other other questions about what about what's happening um so the and then the CIS report like it looked like it hadn't been recommendations are we still going through that are we sort of at the point where we're we're saying we're doing all of it the recommend the recommendations in this report for the CIS portion of the report so when India 21 yep

27:46 they they sent their they sent their event they sent some opinions and the CIS report takeaways yeah so are we done with all of that are we doing it no we just got the report here that week ago and I think most of them are I mean we are developing a recruitment strategy we've already reached out to HR got examples from CIS about it improved the scoring criteria in our hiring we've got the jail staff and our bunch of people looking at the capital replacement for the for the camera system and the workers comp thing for adults and custody I mean that's very interesting is I think that's something they're seeing at facilities in other parts of the state so I think we've ended even looking at that as well so yeah we're looking at every one of these or maybe or Focus down on page 8

28:31 of 21 Detachment four which shows it and I think it's specifically going out the patrol operations recommendation page eight you said correct 80 or 21. and which one which one are you referring to um control operations recommendations one through eight like just for example continue the community engagement I mean that's a recommendation they make well we're doing that yeah continue the training of all staff I mean we've pretty much doubled our training budget even though we don't have a double do a training budget this year because we're trying to get caught up on a lot of things uh so continue supervisory reviews on high risk events we're doing that we have

29:16 detailed after actions on a high-risk events vehicle Pursuits all those kind of things so a lot of their recommendations or things you're already doing and they're just saying just keep doing um last thing like thank you right like this is you know each each year we're sort of building you know I've seen a PD um sort of take it you guys have been constructively dissatisfied right like look at everything we've done and tried to put different places different things in place to make the make this better and this level of information about what's actually happening like I said we've never seen it I want to end by reading one of these because you went really fast for those quotes right so over the last two years the Springfield Police Department has made a remarkable improvements in all aspects of their Department there is a clear and obvious change in the culture of the department

30:02 there's like four other quotes that say essentially that same thing so please pass on our thanks and keep the team up that didn't work absolutely thank you was the last one done in 2020 I don't want to steal center from the council but I am so grateful to be a teacher and uh to all the that we can parish and Zach here and I'm also grateful to see other members of our executive team out here and listening to this report is it's important that we learn from each other and always strive for continuous Improvement and I think that this is a part of an example of a department that

30:48 had really good people that were really yearning for leadership and once that the caliber of two share we can't you know I don't know the best karma in the world I don't know um they I think I've seen this entire department really respond and Blossom just so proud of them I always knew that the that was present in the majority of the people that I ever talked to in the department they just had to have the right conditions to flourish and that's what uh the chief and really every member of the department provides so I'm very proud of the store so I do nothing else for the city this is the one thing I'm I'm the most proud of all right we even got this done 15 minutes early

31:35 um any other questions before we let let the police to wrap this thing up um they will I think we've got s back coming back as far as um maybe you see it uh as far as you know sort of a police work session topic here in the next couple of months so we will see we will see the PD back shortly so I believe our use of force reporters great great thank you so much we are here I'm gonna call the regular session of the Springfield City Council to order with roll call Mayor Van Gordon here councilor Weber here councilor Mo here Council rodley here councilor Doyle here and Council commissioner here thank you

32:21 please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all excellent Neil how many people do we have joining us this evening mayor appears we have 21 folks here in the castle Chambers and eight attendees online all right so um apparently I did not pack my script this evening so if you are interested in giving public testimony there is going

33:07 to be multiple times to do that uh if you're in the room you need to give a card to AJ if you're online we will take your testimony you just have to raise your hand at those at those time periods first item please first item is the consent calendar like to make a motion to approve the consent calendar second uh Neil could you call a vote please yes councilor Weber yes yes counselor Mo yes Council Radley yes counselor Doyle aye and Council Pictionary aye motion passes five yeses zero knows next item please next item is uh public hearings public hearing number one is a fiscal year 23 supplemental budget two

33:52 and Appropriations transfer this is resolution number one a resolution adjusting resources and requirements in the following funds General special Revenue Community Development fire local option Levy Regional Wastewater Capital Street Capital Regional Wastewater ambulance storm drainage operations vehicle and equipment and authorizing the transfer of Appropriations with within the regional Wastewater capital projects fund from operating expense to Capital expense and from general fund contingency expense to Fire and Life Safety operating expense and from fire local option Levy fund contingency expense to Fire and Life Safety operating expense and from ambulance fund contingency expense to Fire and Life Safety operating expense and Neil o'bringer is here for the staff report

34:38 good evening mayor and Council Neil o'bringer budget and procurement manager in the finance department as Neil said this is the second supplemental budget of FY 23 with three planned total this year as with all a supplemental budget requests these items reflect items that were not identified in the adopted budget or in Prior supplemental budgets that were processed um in the CBM tonight you'll see items that were summarized by staff um that were were um were included because staff thought they may be of interest to the council um you'll also see additional items all items um really were summarized in exhibit a of the resolution as well

35:23 um so on any of those items I'm happy to try and take any questions you might have are there any questions okay then I'm going to open the public hearing I do not have any cards for this item Neil do we have any hands online it's not up here we have any hands for this item all right I'm going to close the public hearing I can make a motion to adopt resolution number one second please yes counselor Weber yes Cal sermo yes Council Radley yes counselor Doyle aye councilor Pictionary yes thank you uh motion passes five yeses zero knows next item please next item is the

36:08 interim award for Council appointment process and Mary Bridget here Smith is here for the staff report Council I'm here tonight to continue the discussion about the process for appointing the award for interim counselor um this evening uh I'm asking the council to conduct a public hearing to have an opportunity for public input on the process for appointing the interim counselor and then also approve the process with emotion and a vote I'd like to talk a little bit about the reason behind the public hearing and the actual

36:54 process before we jump into the hearing if that's all right okay so this is a new uh having the public hearing is a new part of the process that's because last year a council changed its operating policies and procedures to provide for a public hearing for an interim counselor appointment or a mayor appointment for a vacancy with the idea being that the give the public an opportunity to weigh in on the type of process that the council will use um so that's why we're having a public hearing tonight having the council formally approve the appointment process is not new you did that last time with the ward one vacancy where councilor Pitts was selected um I did want to talk a little bit about the components of the process and schedule and then depending on if anyone

37:39 testifies at the public hearing they may answer their questions so this uh process has four components advertising and recruitment candidate evaluation deliberations and appointment the advertising in recruitment is the part where I am looking for some feedback from the council about some of the tactics that we plan on using that's the idea that you're trying to inform the public about what the opening is what all it entails in terms of a time commitment and role and then making sure that the advertising gets out to the community as a whole so we have a wider view of potential candidates in ward 4. some of the tactics that are

38:27 um who's sick today so otherwise I think she would have been here to talk about this but as in mind are you know making sure on the web page and on the front of the webpage there's information that people can get to about the vacancy so that would be one issue or one tactic I should say leveraging Partnerships with Team Springfield in the chamber to get the word out leveraging pushing out through social media channels back to the website so they can get the application and know the schedule and that um and then you know perhaps other um Affinity groups like Springfield realtors association rotary those kinds of things advertising on the calc community calendar which is a calendar that comes out periodically and we've

39:13 advertised had advertisements on there before potentially paying for maybe some social media advertisements or an ad in the chronicle depending on cost might be another way and then getting out to um you know the Molina leadership Solutions podcast potentially spent the rent podcast kpnw and other local news you know through ears or those kinds of things so I think trying to think about ways to kind of get the word out um and then the next part of the process is the candidate evaluation this is the where the written application comes into play and then evaluating um also with an interview and in-person interview the application I just wanted to confirm last time we talked the council was interested in um asking candidates to

40:00 include a cover letter so we'll be sure to put that on the application you know please insert or you know feel free to submit a cover letter and sort of you know put all your creative energies in the cover letter and not in other areas of the application and just answer those questions so well you don't see that in your package tonight but if that works for everybody we'll make sure that that's in there so you can see those and then um for the interviews uh on April 3rd uh the council comes back in a work session to evaluate the candidates we have a list of like 10 or 11 interview questions I thought I would bring those to that work session because that may depend on how many candidates you have who you want to interview how you want to work that and certainly you could change that but I thought maybe it was just a little too much detail for this

40:45 level of the process and then deliberations are by a vote some majority vote and um and then the person is appointed and then officially sworn in so those are the components of the process there's a schedule included in your packet it has about a 30-day application period I think it goes till March 23rd work session on April 3rd that's sort of a regroup like how many applicants do we have you know who do you want to interview how do you want to work these and then some time on the schedule for April 17th for interviews and deliberations you would make the vote at that time according to the schedule and then the person actually is sworn in most likely at a subsequent

41:30 council meeting that kind of works for their schedule May 1st I think is your next scheduled regular meeting but you know could depend on schedules or you could always ask to have a special meeting just to swear the person in if we get into the schedule let's say it's April 3rd or it's April 17th there's still more deliberations to do we certainly can add more time in it's just a schedule to kind of give the public and you an idea of sort of where we're going so those are the components in the schedule um unless you have any questions or want to wait to after the public hearing but I'm ready for you Corey I have it's kind of a suggestion really because of a couple of folks have asked me okay so when we do the um advertising and recruitment

42:15 um could we put some information in there that says when that it's a you know when the term would be up and a person would have to run yes um so that people could be really clear that it's an interim for these months and then you would be running in 2024. when they would have to run again when their next home would start all that stuff making sure that's to share that because that might influence whether people do or don't yeah okay thank you thank you that's good feedback anybody else so this is just saying okay we're moving forward but it's not making a decision as to what level of advertising you're proposing I'm looking for your feedback on the level of advertising I I

43:00 personally am not interested in putting a lot of energy or money into advertising okay because I think that people have an interest in the city are going to be well aware of that the positions being open and plus I think it's incumbent upon counselors too to seek people that that may be interested in a post Eric you know nominal advertising is okay but yeah but I don't I don't want to put a lot of resources and money into that advertising and frankly I really wouldn't be too excited if we had 400 applicants okay I understand yeah understood all right any other questions all right all right I'll step aside in case I'm going to open the public

43:46 hearing um I do not have any cards for this item we have no hands for this item all right then I'm going to close the public hearing um the one last question before I take a message that how are we publishing the hours commitment we um talked about that trying to make clear that it's um and in one of the first drafts we had talked about was just you know in addition to the council meetings there are also other committee requirements and then um trying to acknowledge that the counselors are on multiple committees I'm happy for feedback about like you know should we have sort of a estimate of monthly every hours a month or a number of committees like whatever you don't know if you want to scare

44:32 people away or like just tell them 10 10 hours a month and it'll be fine okay I don't want to scare it you might don't hype up that 85 stipend because that's really drawing yeah it's big money yeah but that is something we have talked about because it is um it's a significant commitment and you you want somebody who has the yeah if we put time if we put time on there like let's I don't know if it's an asterisk or like let's um we we should put we should put a con we should put a comment about there that like we can size and scale and you know it's flexible we can work like we can work with people to figure figure that figure that piece out right because this thing could be 80 hours a week if you wanted to yes if people weren't you know

45:17 work and what their commitments are like we can we can shrink and size that accordingly Victoria could we also I mean we might mention that if they are interested to feel free to reach out to other counselors because then they could talk to us individually and ask different each one of us what our commitment is and and our experience and we'll try not to scare them off okay yeah our comedy chops aren't going to cut it um and then yeah and I and I'm good with I'm good with nominal advertising the social media post makes sense pushing out like the usual things sort of makes sense I don't know that we need to hit every every airwave possible okay that sounds good then would it I think then we can leverage social media and maybe look into the cost of a nominal ad with um Facebook or Instagram and then call

46:03 it good okay all right okay I can make a motion to adopt across the process discussed in this public hearing for appointing an interim Ward 4 Century Council second IO yes councilor Weber yes Council Irmo yes councilor Bradley yes counselor Doyle aye and Council Pictionary yes thank you motion passes five yeses zero no next item Place mirror next time is business from the audience I have no cards do we have anybody online we have one uh speaker so far online no one on Deck the first speaker is Holly shaper

46:51 Ollie just a moment will unmute your microphone good evening can you hear me yes good evening my name is Holly shaper I live in ward 2. I wanted to ask a couple of questions tonight about the police update that was provided during the work session first there have been two biannual reviews of SPD by their insurance company CIS as mandated by the Kenny settlement they occurred in 2020 and 2022 respectively and both reviews recommended that random review of body cam footage be conducted in order to observe officers in day-to-day interactions to confirm that policies are being followed and to recognize and

47:36 reinforce positive behavior of officers or to council officers if needed unfortunately the current contract with the Springfield Police Association does not allow this as you all learned in work session however the current contract expires at the end of June this year which means the city and the Springfield Police Association will be negotiating a new contract or are currently negotiating is this twice recommended random review of body camera footage part of the terms of negotiation between the city and the Springfield Police Association it seems noteworthy that the city's liability insurance provider CIS is recommending this especially given the fact that they have nearly dropped Springfield from coverage multiple times over recent

48:23 years and that there is a current five hundred thousand dollar per claim deductible on police and jail claims meaning the city is liable for the first five hundred thousand dollars of every settlement that is a result of lawsuits stemming from the police in jail hopefully this recommendation is being taken very seriously especially given it has been a repeat recommendation by the insurance company itself and the next opportunity for negotiating it into the contract is right now second I have a question about complaints that are internally generated meaning not generated by the public at Large for example if the same officer or officers have repeat instances of unlawful searches or seizures as

49:08 determined by the district attorney when they send back a case with a finding of no file sorry no file meaning they are unable to proceed with charges does that pattern of unlawful searches automatically generate an open investigation into the officer's conduct how is that recorded or documented and then one final comment I wanted to make is that we are again expecting snow on the valley floor tonight and with a low expected temperature of 33 degrees the Eagan warming centers will not activate please consider this fact when working to ban all warming fires people don't have places to go to keep warm thank you

49:56 because we have no other hands for reasons all right thank you is there anybody that wants to have Council response your your timer was close to mine all right next item please mayor the next item you have three resolutions resolution number one is the resolution of necessity for Mill Street project p21156 reconstruction this is a resolution number two uh resolution exercising the power of eminent domain and authorizing a resolution pursuant to ORS 223.005 ors-223.105 and rs 35.600-625 concerning acquisition right-of-way necessary for Mill Street

50:42 Redevelopment project this is Project number p21156 and Jeff Pascal is here for the staff good evening thank you mayor and Council this is very similar to a resolution you saw a couple weeks ago so when you see these capital projects like this especially road projects you're going to see us coming to you with these resolutions of necessity um what we're doing with these Mill Street in particular and the next two is Mill Street we're not growing the right-of-way a great deal what we need is temporary construction easements and typically Clips on the corners for Ada to accommodate current Ada accommodation so to get the ramps put in there and so when you looked at

51:27 the map that was in there that it's demonstrating Which tax slots we're negotiating with not the green box does not represent the area that we are looking to acquire so and most of the folks out here we've already been in communication with through the design process we're just to that next step where we have to start identifying the specific areas that we need access to their property ciao the biggest question I have is of those properties that you've been identified in regards to negotiating what are well we have existing right away so there's nothing really to negotiate except for you said just a little bit and that kind of is a little bit spooky

52:12 in my mind what just a little bit is because in some cases it's one foot for a temporary construction easement just to give the contractor room to put a form board for the concrete sidewalk and that's that's temporary to give that back right correct okay and then in some cases it's actually getting a clip at the corner because these older neighborhoods the property lines are to a 90. but we need space to get an appropriate Ada ramp in there and where we weren't able to design around those we have to get clip that corner and so in some cases I mean looking at examples like on Mohawk Boulevard and things like that it could be anywhere from 100 square feet to just 10 square feet is what we need when we design that an area as big as 10 foot by 10 foot potentially

52:59 I don't think we have any of those on Mill Street Mohawk was a probably not a great example for that because of the just the sheer space and the size of the roadway and the size of those ramps and just we had some funny and angles where roads didn't come in at 90s but yeah sometimes they're here most of these we were working to design these to be bulb outs so we're trying to minimize by pushing out into the roadway and use the right-of-way that we have and minimize that take on those roadway on those properties so of those properties do we have I guess we wouldn't be going to or exercising well I think in the next one is eminent domain our goal is not to have to exercise that imminent domain and this

53:45 just puts us that the um and I think Mary Bridget can speak to this the the relocation act requires us to go through certain steps and notify and its protections for the property owner and protections for the city so by declaring this a public necessity if we have to get to that point where we need to declare eminent domain we probably most likely be back here with to council with where we're at in the negotiation process and what that next step is but our goal is to successfully negotiate these and I'd like I think of all the ones we've been on Mohawk Boulevard Olympic and all of the overlays on all of those we then go to imminent domain once on any of those Corner clips so so it stands out for me then is is there any property owner at this point not wanting to be part of this I mean or

54:30 or fighting it or I guess whatever term you want to use just speak for Christy because it's her project and she's managing that and she's managing that but I have not heard from her that she has anybody on the pro that we know of at this stage of the project that is in essence protesting or not wanting to participate in negotiations so I would personally love to have assurance that that every single affected property owner hasn't has indeed been contacted and that their responses are documented so we have some documentation from those Property Owners should six months down the road or three months down the road we start moving forward and they jump up and say I never knew but I want to be able to see some documentation says well

55:15 yeah you did I think that's one piece through the relocation process it's very specific on if we need to take property or we need to negotiate property for the project even a temporary construction easement it has is very specific on what the notification has to be what they receive in feedback and then how many days they have to consider that before we can even go back and entertain a quick claim I mean just something so we can refer back and that's down the road and that's all documented I mean from my when I was doing projects like that you document all of those because of all of those negotiations some of it is if you're negotiating things that get done during construction to make sure that those things get done so we have a file

56:00 that they keep a file for each one of those properties with those conversations and those did not negotiations we're not using I don't think we're using the county for Mill Street but typically they have a diary when they meet with those folks the the appraisers and the those folks they keep a diary of what that conversation and when those notifications are right well so if it's not documented it didn't happen just understood but that's and this is a federal aid project so that puts us even under more scrutiny because if something goes sideways and the FEDS found out that we didn't follow the the law right we might have to give them the money back that we built the project with that we don't have that we wouldn't have Victoria

56:48 this is always a subject that as I mentioned the last time we talked about this that makes my hair on the back of my neck stand up and the part of this says it says temporary construction easement but prior to that it says acquire permanent Road wide right of way and so what I'm understanding is if we vote on this even though you're in negotiations the reality is is that once we vote on this and it goes through as yes that if you get into those negotiations and they don't work out you're gonna you can take it am I I mean just to simplify it down to that is that not the case regardless of the process and how long it takes the reality is is we vote on this and you can take their property Jeff I can put that this is the first set it's true this is the first step in a condemnation manner but you recall that um for condemnation and imminent domain property can only be acquired by

57:33 the government for just compensation so what we do tonight is to um you know acknowledge that there's a public use for this property that it's part of our Capital Improvement program and then this is the first step in potentially acquiring property via eminent domain but if when we have done these projects before when they come back we've done larger imminent domain projects in other areas like Franklin and Gateway there is more process to come back to the council but you're correct this is the first step yeah and just compensation is in the eye of the beholder good point so maybe that could be something that would help us right because this is this what we're doing tonight is a first step

58:19 and we're kind of treating it like a new process right and maybe what would help us as we see more of these is this is there sort of remind us that we are here yeah okay right and we have plenty of counsel either feedback openings um a chance to what chance to weigh in this isn't the last time we would be see it I think the one thing too I tell you so we have a new city surveyor that City surveyor was the person at Lane County who managed all of their right-of-way acquisitioning as an expert in this process and so I think working with him I I'm if the council would like he is very interested in sharing that knowledge and he can give you kind of what the steps are because in his view is this is protection for the property

59:04 owner and protection for the City by initiating this in the past whenever we've gotten to a sticking point where we couldn't successfully negotiate we would come and ask for this resolution on those specific properties that we needed to initiate condemnation the one issue with that is it sets us back and so it can be it can really hold the project up if we don't do this in the beginning and um okay because you have to sometimes you have to start the process over from the night that you we got that resolution from the council are there any other questions and I would imagine everybody on Mill streets just so excited to you know get the road fixed more than anything I haven't heard anything that the folks on Mill Street are upset with the process Corey and

59:49 no this is not related to this but being able to add all of those Ada ramps along that in addition to developing it and having lived through what happened on Mohawk um it was rather quick and when we get closer the folks who are most impacted I found were pedestrians and bicyclists by those that work but I am very excited to have all of that ADA accessibility for folks in that area I think all right any other questions all right Joe you're up I can make a motion to adopt resolution number two second Neil could you call the vote please answer Weber yes counselor yes councilor rodley yes councilor Doyle no counselor Pictionary yes

1:00:34 motion passes or yeses one no next item please next item is a resolution of necessity for South 28th Street Paving project that's p21155 this is resolution number three a resolution exercises in the power of eminent domain and authorizing a resolution pursuant to ors223.005 or s223.105 and rrs35.600-625 concerning acquisition right-of-way of this way necessary for the South 28th Street Paving project again project number p21155 and Jeff Pascal is here for the staff report it's similar to the last one this is um

1:01:20 but I'll get into this I'll just go directly to the specifics with South 28th Street so to um some of counselor Pictionary so the map inside shows the area the frontage so this is an unimproved Road and so and if for those of you who've been on South 28th Street it's kind of just one long driveway for some of those businesses and so the um project manager and Lane County through the design process and where they've gone have actually been working closely with I believe it's three property owners in there on how best to work on that Frontage and so they have been a part of the design process in working with the project team and know that this is coming so this is now just that step of we've defined the

1:02:05 envelope we know what we're going to construct and this is what we're going to need to acquire to make this project happen and so but those property owners are aware of it this is isn't the surprise to them in that process are there any questions just one go ahead so if my memory serves me correctly there's a um Auto Parts wrecking yard business there in the middle and it seems like they're they're building I remember is just kind of close up to 28th not a whole lot of space there was a was that I think that's actually a sub-building they have a if I'm thinking of the one that's fenced off and you look at the map it looks I believe that's actually sub

1:02:50 water oh I'll take it that's fine so we are actually having that's one of the areas we have to design around because they put that that building in there okay I knew there was something yeah the one that's really close to the roadway I believe is sub Waters it's the opponent we got to work around it or probably go right through it we're not going to take building at least I'm not aware that we're taking the building that adds a lot of costs because then we have to relocate the building and there's a lot of pumps in there I believe so how about necessity I'm sorry I should be keep your day job comedy's not going to be your uh not your best suit any other questions all right hang on

1:03:36 um I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution number three Neil could you call the vote please yes councilor Weber yes yes councilmo yes counselor rodley yes counselor Doyle no and counselor Pictionary yes motion passes for yes is one note next item please and last resolution of necessity um resolution of necessity Laura Street this is p21188 this is resolution number four resolution exercising the power of eminent domain and authorizing a resolution pursuant to ors-223.005 ors223.105 and rs35.600-625 concerning acquiring right-of-way necessary for the Laura Street Redevelopment project again project number p21188 of Pascal's here

1:04:21 for the snap report um so with lower Street the particulars for those of you who are very familiar is a a mismatch of improve or I searched say Urban standard and unimproved streets the Lane County so the history of this project is Lane County has money to improve their portions of the roadway there's a small section that the city has that's still unimproved but we're also going to improve the Ada and some of the pavement in there on the improved sections of the roadway or the urban standard where we already have sidewalk curb and gutter however when you look at the map again you'll see areas where the um those unimproved sections where the right way hasn't been dedicated

1:05:06 because those properties just haven't been annexed and developed yet at this point in time so we'll be negotiating with those for those Frontage improvements and those takings for the need for that right away and also again some Corner clips and temporary construction easements on the already Urban improved sections where we do have sidewalks okay so when I look at the map there's two portions to this there's a Lane County driven portion and a city driven portion and this looks like just the Lane County driven portion in my is that correct I don't think so that if that is the case that's a mistake that I missed because there's nothing it's probably

1:05:51 yeah I don't see you're correct we might have to because I don't see this stuff that's south of there yeah because we shouldn't the council should need to act on the counties portions it should just be on the city's portion I would think right Mary Bridgette that's great Okay so yeah we may need to come back that's a good point I didn't now that I look at the map I'm noticing it I only see the north section all right see you later on this one yeah well also I have to confess I'm not the project manager I'm filling in and so I'm not as familiar with the project and what you know the needs are as as a person who drives Laura quite a bit there are parts of it that are beginning to look like Mill Street and so like

1:06:37 this from a from uh when when I talk to people that are in my neighborhood and the businesses out there they are very much like this is a priority to get done yeah and that's when we looked at the pavement that's why we looked at our section two and also when the county got the money to um improve their section it was like we need to find the money to improve ours and just make actually finally complete lower street it's been I think it's been a topic in the CIP since I've been here for 19 plus years it's been one of those things back and forth with the county of who's going to get sidewalks and with the manufactured home park and we get a lot of people who use Mobility devices and there's no sidewalks or walking so oh yeah yeah

1:07:23 okay then we will reschedule this item did that County money come through NPC yes okay and I think they're going to give us the road what's that Victoria oh all right next item please any business from the city council new business all right I actually had two two quick pieces of business and um without Leonard here we do need somebody that could temporarily step in for the Arts commission I did get an email asking since they were so short asking if you know they could just have somebody check in on them and that meeting is Thursday um between I think 5 30 and 7 before I

1:08:10 volunteer somebody here's now your opportunity Steve to volunteer okay I think my wife has applied for a position on that so you'll be you bring your before too long all right then AJ could your family could you let them know that that uh Steve will join them at least temporarily until we get a ward 4 Ward four commissioner our counselor now Nancy's got me doing it um second question now I forgot the acronym Corey um yeah so you want to ask the question or you want so so um at on the phb uh this came up when

1:08:55 the county reported out about the governor's executive order on um on homelessness and there's an interagency committee that's sitting that was called the Mac that had other agencies on it but they didn't like they didn't mention us and we hadn't like I had no idea what this what this committee was so I think there's two questions one of them is on a staff level are we participating in that committee the second question is what is it actually what does that committee actually do and my understanding is it's going to be the sort of executive committee guiding the process to prepare for the process and I can look at the information that Kate sent out but and I know that mayor Venice said that Eugene had a seat on

1:09:41 that so I was like does Springfield have a seat on the Mac and I'm also meeting with Kate but on Thursday so I can also pester her when I'm wearing 17 hats you are indeed a married Council I it's been a while since I've read the executive order on that um I know that it's specifically referenced uh communities more Northern to us so I need to look at what our regional involvement is but I can have um our staff look at that and send you an email that would be great okay all right next time tag teaming it we couldn't get it right just like we want to have to say that that's how confusing the count the and not to blame the county but that's how confusing the

1:10:26 explanation and the lack of knowledge is right now um is fighting fast yeah I would just say ordinarily when you're looking at issues of housing Human Services those fall within County purview so it wouldn't be odd if we weren't included as a city um my I could only imagine if Eugene is involved you know the county seat is Eugene they they have a lot of um they've chosen to have a lot of service Provisions there so it would make sense on a Lane County side so let me look into it a little bit more yeah and I am not necessarily invested in that we need to be involved it's more that more that we need to figure out well what's this thing and how's it playing in the broader broader picture all right next item please any business from the city manager no business thank

1:11:12 you give me business from the city attorney no business tonight thank you all right we are adjourned thank you everybody