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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-28-19 Health and Public Safety o4SpUTH UC7 Ja PEACE J 1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK HEALTH &PUBLIC SAFETY JANUARY 28, 2019 4:58 P.M. Committee Members Present: Jo M. Broden, John Voorde, Karen White, Oliver Davis Committee Members Absent: None Other Council Present: Tim Scott,Jake Teshka, Gavin Ferlic, Regina Williams- Preston Other Council Absent: Sharon L. McBride Others Present: Kareemah Fowler, Jennifer Coffman, Bob Palmer Presenters: Steve Cox, Scott Ruszkowski, Christina Brooks, Jeff Rynearson Agenda: UPDATE: South Bend Police and Fire Departments Process, Status, and Strategies, Chief Scott Ruszkowski (SBPD), Operations Division Chief Jeff Rynearson (SBPD), Chief Steve Cox (SBFD), Danielle Fulmer (Director, Business Analytics- IT) Committee Chair Jo M. Broden called to order the Health and Public Safety Committee meeting at 4:58 p.m. She introduced members of the Committee and proceeded to give the floor to the presenters. UPDATE: South Bend Police and Fire Departments Process, Status, and Strategies, Chief Scott Ruszkowski (SBPD), Operations Division Chief Jeff Rynearson (SBPD), Chief Steve Cox (SBFD), Danielle Fulmer (Director, Business Analytics- IT) Steve Cox, Fire Chief for the City of South Bend with offices located at 1222 S. Michigan Street, stated, Thank you very much for asking me to come to this meeting today to present on the recruitment activities that we've been taking part in as the South Bend Fire Department. I would like to point out a few things before this presentation(which is available in the City Clerk's Office). There are two (2) points I would like to highlight. First (1st) of all, it is a team effort no matter what. It's been a team effort on the public safety agencies' part.Not only with the Fire Department, but we've partnered with the Police Department, Christina in the Office of Diversity, Human Resources and Ian Spindler is here representing FIR, we've worked with multiple people in HR in terms of recruitment, and then Danielle Fulmer is here representing the business analytics side of things. She has provided us with resources to be able to analyze the data associated with recruitment which has been very valuable to us as well. Secondly, I want to point this out because INTEGRITY' SERVICES ACCESSIBILITY JENNIFER M.COWMAN BIANCA L.TIRADO JOSEPH R.MOLNAR CIIIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 46601 I p 574.235.9221 I t 574.235.9173 I www.southbendin.gov CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK it is oftentimes lost in discussion specifically with the public safety agencies, we frequently talk about diversity and the hiring of women in fire service. One(1) of the things I feel like sometimes gets lost in all of that is that we always attempt to recruit and hire the best people for these positions. The simple fact of the matter is that the people that work for public safety agencies, with our City and every other city, enjoy what is called the public trust. In other words, when a citizen calls 911, it is typically the worst day of their life. So,they have to know that the officers responding to their emergency,be it Police,Fire, EMS or whatever,are trustworthy and if there is one hundred dollars ($100) on the kitchen table,that will be there when they walk out. Not only that but the resident is going to be ok with our officers locking the door for them and making sure their house is secured and all of their worldly possessions are good to go. On top of that, then we are taking them to the hospital or, obviously, on the law enforcement side they have different dispositions, but I wanted to start with that. Chief Cox continued,Thirdly,in order for us to have good context for this discussion,I put together some stats, associated with diversity within our department, prior to me becoming the Fire Chief and then after I became the Fire Chief. The reason I delineated that is because as a member of the South Bend Fire Department, I've been with the Department for almost twenty-six(26)years now. The twenty(20) years prior to 2012,here on this pie chart(referencing a slide in the presentation) shows the diversity breakdown for our department. In essence, and this has been public, and this has been presented to Council previously, this is not anything we are proud of. The department, along with departments nationwide, did not do much regarding recruitment. Frankly, Fire Departments throughout the country basically had the stance that we have jobs available, they are good jobs, if people want them, they should come to us. What we decided to do in 2012, and it was a good time to recruit because a lot of people were looking for work still as we were coming off the economic downturn of 2008.We took that advantage and started a lot of different initiatives within the department to make sure that we were reaching out, not only to a broader general population,but focusing specifically in diverse communities within the City and the region in order for us to bring in more diverse applicants. He went on, As you can see (referencing the slide of the presentation), all of the individuals we have recruited between October 1991 and October 2011, one hundred and fifty-six (156), or ninety-five percent (95%) were white and male. Four (4) were African American. Two (2) were Hispanic. We have one (1) Asian American that was hired during that time and one (1) Pacific Islander hired during that period of time. Moving forward from 2011,we've hired fifty-seven(57) individuals to our department, forty-eight (48) of which were white. Five (5) of those individuals were African American. Four (4) were Hispanic. As of right now, we have not hired any other Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders. Male/female employees,there is a special piece I would like to point out. In the fire service in general, only about three percent(3%)of firefighters nationwide are female. There is an organization called I Women and that is basically a female firefighters union. They did a study several years back and they accounted for the fact that a lot of women don't want to be fire fighters. That was an anomaly in the data that they had to work out. What they came out with was a statement as a union supporting women in the Fire Service. All departments, nationwide, should be shooting for a total of roughly seventeen percent (17%) of their workforce being female, taking all things into account. So, between October 1991 and October 2011, the South Bend Fire Department hired a total of four(4)women. I have three (3)in the presentation because one (1) of those quit about two (2) years after we hired her. She is no longer part of the demographic of the department. In the same timeframe, we hired one hundred and sixty-four (164) men. Since 2011, we've hired eight (8) additional women to the department EXCELLENCE j ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 2 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK out of the fifty-seven (57) individuals we've hired since then, which amounts to fourteen percent (14%). That gets us close to that seventeen percent (17%) threshold. He continued, I will tell you, I still feel like seventeen percent (17%) is low. I did present to the Council that I went up to Madison, Wisconsin and Lansing, Michigan and discussed things with their departments. They both had tremendous success in diversifying their departments,both with minority and female firefighters. We are trying to use the models that those two (2) departments have instituted in order to attract more women and minority fire fighters to our department. Another demographic we look towards hiring are veterans. Fire Service has a tremendous number of veterans. The military service correlates very well to the Fire Service. Sixteen percent(16%)of our department hired between 1991 and 2011 were veterans. However, between 2011 and 2018 we've focused on veterans. Out of those fifty-seven we've hired, we've hired eighteen percent (18%)veterans. He went on, Our current hiring list currently only has sixty-two (62) individuals on it. There are a lot of reasons for this. One(1) is the rebound of the economy. There are fewer individuals that are applying.Although I will say we are using the applicant tracking system that HR instituted a couple years back and we still have a tremendous amount of people touching our application. In fact,over the last two (2) application processes, we had in excess of 1,000 people touching our application. All of the individuals that took our written test, there were about two hundred (200). Then ultimately through the physical agility test and the interviews,people were either weeded out,they didn't pass, or they didn't show up. Those individuals washed out of the process. So currently,the hiring list only has sixty-two (62) individuals. We didn't anticipate making huge hires this year or next year,so we are not terribly worried about the total number of individuals,but I wanted to look at the breakdowns of this current hiring list. He continued,We do not have any women on this list which is something I'm upset about. We did have a young lady that got through our whole process, but Mishawaka Fire got to her before we did to offer her a job and she took the job. As far as minority applicants go, out of that sixty-two (62), ten percent (10%) or six (6) individuals are African American. Seven (7) are Hispanic and we have one (1) Asian American on the list. Out of the total, twenty-three percent (23%) of this list is minority. We feel we did ok as far as minority applicants go. We did better than we have in the past percentage-wise. However, again, as far as female applicants go,we didn't have the same success. As far as veterans go, one (1) of the issues we have in counting our veterans with the applicant tracking system is we give bonus points, per State law, to individuals who served in a combat zone but not necessarily every single veteran has. So, we do know the number of individuals on the list that qualify for the combat zone duty, but we don't have the total numbers as far as total veterans. However, we did start a recruit academy at the beginning of this month and we had two (2) individuals who did not serve in the combat zone and one (1) that did serve in a combat zone. So, of the individuals we know that served in the military, we know five to eight percent(5% - 8%) of them served in a combat zone. He went on, I just want to talk about, really quickly, the different things we've done and have focused on in order for us to be able to target diverse areas with our outreach. First (1St) of all,we had to figure out why in the world it was that we were not attracting diverse applicants within our department. So, in 2012, we did a lot of research. We did research through other studies that have been done by different organizations. We went to other departments who have had success in diversity recruitment. We took some of those known ways to help diversify the department and we EXCELLENCE j ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 3 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK implemented them in our department. One(1)of those things we found that every single successful department did was they had a committee of individuals within our own department that would help us go out and attract individuals in the community. In other words, it makes sense to have Latino fire fighters show up to a Cinco de Mayo event.Additionally,if I have an African American church that asks us to come and do some outreach, we send a couple of our African American fire fighters to take part in that event. Typically speaking,we have found that to work very well.We've increased the amount of community outreach we do. We created a position for an individual that works as a community outreach coordinator. Captain Gerard Ellis is on the news frequently but doesn't just do press releases. He actually goes out and has our public education officers and our recruitment committee go to job fairs and everything else. They go out and do those things. We attend local, regional and national recruitment events. Like I said, we attend job fairs but locally and regionally. We do outreach and try to get veterans. We had members of our recruitment committee go so far as to go down to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, because they had a huge job fair for veterans down there. We sent three (3) individuals to that but we ultimately had veterans from Fort Campbell come up and test in South Bend for our department. Chis Villaire in our HR Department was instrumental in helping us coordinate. He continued, Additionally, we've utilized social media to help spread our message. We have a Facebook page, a Twitter feed and I know some of you probably follow us. We have a lot of followers on Twitter. We collaborated with HR and piloted and implemented the electronic application and tracking system. One(1)of the most interesting things that was told to us by some potential millennial applicants is we used to use a twenty-two (22) page application for our department. So, there were multiple interns we had one (1) summer and we couldn't figure out why we weren't getting anybody to fill out the application. So, we put it in front of them and said we have really good paying jobs, good benefits, you work ten(10) days a month and you're a fire fighter. One (1) of them just looked at us and said `I would never fill out the application for your department because this tells me you guys are in the dark ages.' He flopped it down and that was that. So, that was a lesson learned. We went to an electronic application. As I had mentioned, the applicant tracking system has been fantastic for us. It also helps us collect data to help us focus on where we should be doing more of our recruiting events. We've also collaborated to create multi- agency job fairs to increase interest and attendance by potential applicants and candidates. He went on, The idea behind that was what we know to be true is when.Meijer builds a store, they build it across the street from Walmart. CVS builds across from Walgreens. McDonalds across the street from Burger King. It increases business. We could have a job fair with just our department and we may attract a smaller amount of people. But if we include multiple different public safety agencies and a larger job fair, it will have a broader appeal and would bring more people. We've done a couple of these job fairs. I would say we have empowered a couple other departments in adjoining counties to do them and we've attended them with them and they attended ours. They have been very successful. We intend to continue doing that. He continued, One (1) of the most important things we have done is adapting our workforce culture, internally, to make sure all our fire fighters recognize that every single one (1) of them is a recruiter. It doesn't matter if we, in fact, go out to a job fair where there are three hundred(300) applicants or it's one (1) recruiter making a single phone call to a specific candidate, every single person we reach out to is potentially one (1) of those phenomenal applicants. We take that very seriously. One(1)of the things we track is how applicants got encouraged to fill out an application. One(1) study done by the International Association of Fire Fighters showed that about eighty-five EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 4 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK percent (85%) of people in the fire service are recruited through word of mouth. It's really important for us to make sure we follow up with that and we reach out to as many people as we can to get that word of mouth in. He went on(referencing a slide in the presentation),This is a picture from our recruitment class of 2017. As you can see, we had three (3) women in this recruit class. We had Joe Wade in the back of the photo,he's a graduate of Washington High School and is African American. Cesar Salinas is from Elkhart and is bilingual. Additionally, five(5) of these individuals are veterans. So, in one (1) class, I would argue we knocked it out of the park in regard to trying to bring more diversity to our department. I just wanted to show this picture as an example of the successes we've had. Additionally, the lady in the middle, Leah Eddy, is also Hispanic and is bilingual as well. She's a double legacy at our department as well. Her dad and her grandfather have served. I'm happy to answer any additional questions anybody may have. Committeemember Oliver Davis asked, What was the department up in Wisconsin doing that was the key thing? Chief Cox replied, That was the Madison Fire Department in Madison, Wisconsin. One(1) of the things they did was they created a recruitment committee. Chief Art Price formed a committee of approximately sixteen (16) individuals within his department. The diversity within Madison, Wisconsin is much different than in South Bend. They have a very large Hmong population, so they have to very directly reach out to that community. They have a significant Latino and African American population as well. So, his suggestions were that it is very important for us to have fire fighters that look like the populations that we go out and recruit. That way, individuals in our community that we are recruiting,they have something in common. They don't feel like there is a wall between them. They can speak freely and openly about the department. That was the number one (1) take away we got from Madison. Now, they have a Big Ten (10) University right in town with 40,000 students. His applicant pool looks way different from ours as well. They go to the women's softball and basketball teams, even the men's football team. Chief Price went to a lot of different events in the city. We spoke to a lot of community leaders and in the end,when we spoke to nineteen (19) to twenty-three (23) year old individuals, no offense to anyone in the room but they don't want to talk to us. They want to talk to people their age about the job. I'm going to have a different perspective than the younger fire fighters do. And the folks in Lansing reiterated a lot of what the Madison department was doing. They had a recruitment committee and attended a lot of the same events. Councilmember Regina Williams-Preston asked,Have you seen people graduate the CTE program for high school and join your department? Chief Cox replied, Yes. They haven't gotten their way to actually being hired yet. We started that program three (3) years ago. It's a two (2) year program, the kids graduate and then move onto whatever else they're doing. On our current hiring list, we have two (2) year men who graduated our CTE program. In fact, one(1) of them is relatively high on the list right now. We anticipate to probably get to him. That will be a tremendous success story. I know when I brought that program to the Council,we wanted to think of that as a long-term recruitment tool. We had fifteen(15)kids start it this past fall. That program is growing and has been a wonderful experience. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 5 +CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Committee Chair Broden asked, What kind of numbers do you see at the multi-agency fairs compared to what you used to do? Chief Cox replied, When we did those fairs ourselves, we typically saw anywhere between one hundred (100) and one hundred and fifty (150) people. The first (1st) one (1) we did with multi- agencies, and we had great weather, we had over three hundred (300) people show up to the first (1St) one (1) of those that we did. It was a huge draw. We were surprised by the turnout ourselves. It was fantastic. Since then, we've hosted one (1) additional and Mishawaka hosted one (1). We also just had one(1)over in Elkhart but the weather was horrible for that one(1). Those events are all hands on deck. Committeemember Karen White asked, With the opening of the new Fire Station off Mishawaka, you had mentioned maybe having more of a relationship with IUSB, what is the impact of that? Chief Cox replied, That is something we're looking at as a long-term recruitment tool as well. We anticipate that we will be working with IUSB in a couple of different ways. One (1), IUSB has mentioned their interest in doing a paramedic program there. That would be perfect for us to assimilate with them because we will have an ambulance parked there at that station.Additionally, Dr. Dawn Hopkins just put in a grant to do a study on fire fighter health and wellness. We are collaborating with her and in her department on that as well. I imagine our close proximity will hopefully continue to build more programs up. Scott Ruszkowski, Chief of Police for the City of South Bend with offices located at 701 W. Sample Street, stated,Thank you all for having me. I know you all had asked what all we had done since the last time we spoke. Community in-reach, we still don't have it but we will get to that later. The very first (1St) slide you see (referencing a slide in a presentation which is available in the City Clerk's Office) is a snippet from our actual website. The South Bend Police has a Transparency Hub. Everybody in the world can see it. We've had it for two (2) years and yet we have people in our own City's Administration that have never been to it yet. Anything that you can possibly think of regarding the Police Department is on that website. All of our recruiting information, too. Everything from use of force to citizen complaints, you name it. Everything is on there. So please, push everybody and especially your constituents to use that. It's there. A lot of Councilmembers use a lot of time and energy to call me or email someone to get information. You could just click on there and in about thirty(30) seconds or less you can get that information. He continued, The next slide(referencing the presentation) gives our numbers. This is January 31 through December 31.We had 1,859 accessed applications. I will say as a disclaimer to what Chief Cox said, we have found more people actually follow through with the process when they come in person to pick up the application.Now,with the help of HR and the Diversity and Inclusion Office, we've shrunk the application size immensely. With that, we've found that people who show up in person tend to last a lot longer through the process. Out of those accessed applications, eight hundred and thirty-three (833) were turned in for processing. Four hundred and thirty-six (436) applicants failed to show or withdrew from some point in the process. There is a lot of speculation of course as to why that is the case. We are looking at requirements and discussing whether or not they are too extreme. Gender and race of the eight hundred and thirty-three (833) are unknown. We don't know what they are because they are self-reporting. In 2018 we hired ten (10) white males,one(1)African American male and one(1)white female. In 2019,the academy starts today, and we have three(3)white males and one(1)white female. We have two hundred thirty-six(236) EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 6 •CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK in the department right now, to count those four (4) additional, that puts us right at two hundred and forty(240). He went on, So these(referencing a slide in the presentation) are some of the things we have been to. We did the dual fair in South Bend and in Mishawaka. We went to the Michigan State Criminal Justice Fair,the Marine Corps Family Day,and the National Night Out was huge.We also attended the Ivy Tech Community College Job Fair. Halloween at Four Winds had 6,500 to 7,000 people there. There are so many events at the KROC Center. I think there were seven (7) or eight (8) events in 2018 at the KROC Center. The Indiana Health Center, Book Bag Giveaway, Touch-a- Truck, Strategic Focus Unit, Strategic Intel Unit, Patrol Officers and the Wenger and Freemont Park events. I know this seems trivial but trust me, it isn't. Over five hundred (500) hotdogs, six hundred(600)bags of chips and over six hundred(600)bottles of water,popsicles and everything else. We played football, frisbee, basketball and all kinds of face painting. We had known gang members come up to us and have conversations. Texas Roadhouse Book Bag Giveaway, Washington High School Career Fair, Riley High School Career and Science Fair and, as a matter of fact, Bri Fenton who is our Civilian Crime Analyst and I went to Riley High School to a computer class they have, and we discussed computer forensics on the stuff we do analytically. Those kids ate that up. All the stuff they are interested in, it culminated at that point. He continued, We read at elementary schools and that is something we love to do. I'm projecting we will be over 7,000 for walking school zones, combined. We have School Resource Officers and they are huge. We strive to have kids having an awesome rapport with every SRO. Some of our officers are Big Brothers and Big Sisters as a part of that program.The Police Athletic League, eight hundred and forty-one(841)is the exact number for 2018.That is huge. Plus,we are working with folks who will start soccer as well as Notre Dame Lacrosse. We are really starting to focus on working with everyone in the area.We had two (2)officers go to D.C. for a few days to discuss minority recruiting. They will implement some things we are going to try. Currently,we have four (4) Cadet Positions we are seeking. We used to only have two (2) and now we have four(4). Jeff Diggins and Zack Overton left the program to be sworn into the Department this February. He went on, Lastly, we have a few things in progress. We have a Community Roundtable which is twenty(20)to twenty-five(25)prominent community leaders. We sit around, and it can be very contentious at times, but we have open and candid conversation. This is where we look for the community input. This is exactly what that is. They are monthly meetings that will move toward quarterly once we establish the parameters and guidelines. We are in the final stages of that right now. Lastly, we are a regional academy at the Police Department. Areas even as far down as Evansville will come up to our classes. We had twenty-three (23) in 2018. The good news is that gives us the opportunity to have some lateral transfer from other departments, but the bad news is it gives the opportunity for lateral transfer to other departments. He continued, We also have had some issues we have resolved. So, incremental layout of steps involved. So, what is the process from start to finish? We laid that out, transparency, on our website, every single step you can possibly think of. We posted the pay and requirements and the criteria needed in all these steps. We figured everybody knew but people didn't. Then people see the pay and benefits and that is an eye opener. We posted videos on how to do a pushup, running and I know it sounds weird, but it is very legitimate because people do pushups wrong, they get disqualified and they become disheartened. For the doctor's exam, that was one (1) of the things they had to have before they took the physical. We looked at test scores and the biggest thing that EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 7 CITY OFSOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK stuck out to all of us was spelling and grammar. We have little red squiggly lines on computers that tell us if something is spelled wrong, it corrects it. We lowered that. There is no sense in keeping it there if we have stuff to correct it now. We brought the passing percentage threshold down two percent (2%) as well. We also have a practice agility test. So, if they pass the test, they pass. If they don't, they have a few more weeks to practice. Councilmember Gavin Ferlic left the meeting at 5:33 p.m. Chief Ruszkowski continued, We also have a practice exam and we actually have where they can come in a day before the exam and pretty much take the actual exam and know what is going to be on it, then come back the next day and pass the darn thing. You'll know what you got wrong and will know what you need to study on. One (1) thing we are trying to focus on is making the training personal. Like I said, in the very beginning when they get their application by hand, they tend to get a lot further through the process. Mentorship should start right then and there. So, we do follow up. We send emails and text messages. We will give phone calls. Committeemember Davis interjected, So many people, public safety like teachers, are generational. My parents were teachers. Are there any recruitment efforts made to children of fire fighters or children of police officers to encourage them? Sometimes children want to go away from what parents did, but at the same time, we are finding some that go that way. So, you know, my daughter is going to branch out,but I see a good part of the recruitment can almost be from the people who have already served, whether they are fire fighters or police officers. What is done nationally and locally to help the generational families? Chief Ruszkowski replied, Well, you're looking at one(1). I'm a third generation. Committeemember Davis interjected, So what is happening? You know, when I think about it, Davis is a name and it is nice to see a person follow. Not that we have to get stuck on a family generation, but it is nice to see. They already come in with a certain level of understanding that is different than even the people that go to the academy. Chief Ruszkowski replied, You're spot on and that would be, ultimately, the preference. Not only mirroring the community but from our community. Committeemember Davis and Chief Ruszkowski then discussed generational careers in public safety and public education. Chief Ruszkowski went on, When you look at the uniform, this is one (1) of the things we have modernized. Seventeen-year-old children have told us the uniform looks lame. So, when we did all this stuff, we would ask young people's opinions to make sure we get modernized. We don't ever want to forget where we came from, but we don't want to stay where we came from. That is one(1)of the things we live by.This all incorporates the career path development and performance evaluations.As a matter of fact,this past weekend we had the testing we do for promotional exams. We didn't do that before and now people hear about it and know they get a fair shake at this. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant. Now they see it. Performance evaluations, we never thought of.We thought,well,the Council isn't complaining,the Mayor isn't complaining,we must be doing our job. But we realized we didn't really know that. That performance evaluation is two (2) ways and includes so many people as it is very intensive work. Our Administration including EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574 235 9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 8 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK the Mayor's Office,the FOP,Diversity and Inclusion, Human Capital and Danielle,as usual. This is one (1) of the many projects she was involved in. Is it flawless? No, but it is pretty darn close. Again, this is a two (2)-way street. I had a supervisor today email us and ask if they could do a survey to find out from each direct supervisor, Lieutenant, Captain, Division Chief and even the Chief of Police a critique of some sort. Nobody minds that but it's not going to be an exacerbated hallway rumor either. It will be legitimate critiques to make it better for everyone. If we get it right, we will definitely get it right out on the streets where we are expected to be perfect. He continued, I already talked about the Riley High School class. Social Media, so, as you can see and if you don't already know, we've been really good doing our positive community outreach, but it only takes one (1) person to get one hundred (100) likes not knowing what they're talking about, saying how much cops suck. We know that is not true but by then, the damage is done. It is already through the community that we did something that totally did not happen,and we still have rules,laws and regulations that we have to follow before we come out and rebut or at least put that truth out. There are a lot of measures that take place in the interim but that,probably by far, is the biggest obstacle we have to overcome. That is why I talked about the community in-reach component. People step up and say, look, if we screw up, we will tell you we screwed up and we will fix it, so it doesn't happen again. But to be constantly lambasted again, and again, whether it is social media or other media, it is totally a disservice to our service. Committeemember White asked, Can you share more about the work from your department,going to schools and talking about social media? And the different workshops and things that go on? Chief Ruszkowski replied, We just went to Riley today and after that, we were invited to their Engineering Fair at Riley, then all the schools will be having one (1) and we were invited to that. When we have our newer officers that are more versed in technology,that is what the kids want to hear. That is what they are looking for. We have all that stuff, we just don't get it out. But again, you can get everything we have online. The disclaimer we have is a lot of the stuff we are doing now, getting rid of the police positions and hiring non-sworn civilians, we will be further and further into that. So,when the time comes we get that hair fiber that does catch that bad guy,they'll send out the cops to get that bad guy so he's not hurting anyone else. Committeemember White followed up, I was also thinking about the workshops and presentations you've done with female students that talk about the use of social media and all the dangers it causes. It doesn't go away. Chief Ruszkowski replied, At Penn, that's right. Ken Garcia and Mitch Kaizer. Mitch Kaizer, if you didn't know, was an officer shot in the line of duty. He is now a Masters PhD with Notre Dame in the cyber-crimes unit. He does a lot of the stuff still with us that he will incorporate our people, specifically Ken, on the safeties that should be taken concerning social media. The kids were freaked out today when they found out that they may have privacy settings or may have deleted something, but it never goes away. They were surprised to hear how many of our volatile situations come from social media. That is how it is started usually and certainly how it's fueled over time. They had no clue. They thought you hit send then it's done. That is the furthest from the truth. Councilmember Williams-Preston stated, The work I do in schools deals with transition. So, kids tell me what they want to do afterwards. I have tons of kids that love watching those forensic EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION 1 EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 I i D574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 9 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK shows. I'm curious because I don't know if they have things, like, I've heard kids saying it would be cool to have a forensic club. Maybe we'll talk about that with regards to community in-reach. Committee Chair Broden stated, Thank you. Before we completely close out, I would like to give the floor to anyone who has been working behind the scenes. Christina Brooks, Diversity Inclusion Officer for the City of South Bend with offices located on the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated, We are advertising at every social event. Any public event that is a part of the recruitment process,we are encouraging neighborhoods to actually help identify ten(10)individuals, specifically African American and Latino,men and women,that they can recommend to us that we could then start working with and go through all of the resources we have in place. We want to bring them in as a cohort so that they would go through the process together and support each other through it. It is a strategy that has been effective in other industries and this is something we are doing with the Police Department. Bill Redman with the Sheriff s Department is also piggybacking off our idea. He is also embarking on this same activity. This really doesn't do the work justice. The man hours, woman hours, officer hours, and fire fighter hours that went into putting all of this together over the last couple of years has been extraordinary. I always tell people that when systemic or institutional changes happen at this level, you're usually looking at five (5) to seven (7) years for them to come to fruition. The fact that the South Bend Public Safety divisions have been able to do this in two (2) years is unheard of. It is unheard of. To me, it speaks to the level of commitment from both the Police and Fire Chiefs, the team assembled to push this forward, Innovation with Danielle, HR with Ian, Christine and Kyra, and my work I've done with Diversity Inclusion. We are proud of this. We still have a long way to go but I'm encouraged. Jeff Rynearson, Operations Division Chief for the South Bend Police Department with offices located at 701 W. Sample Street, stated, I would like to just add, and it's a mantra I grew up with, we all know someone in public service or someone who would be a good candidate for public service. It's up to the community and the Tribune actually did a nice article a couple weeks ago. They also realize that it is important for the community to recognize that this is an issue and that we need to encourage young men and women to fall into this line of work. Really, every community member and especially those leaders, need to help steer those individuals our way. One(1) of the things we are looking at is trying to get into high schools as a medium to long-term plan. I think that would be a nice partnership. Chief Cox stated, I would like to add one (1) last piece. I just want to mention that, and I don't think either one (1) of us has said this yet, I would be remised if I didn't add to Christina's point. Scott and I have the privilege of coming before the Council or speaking before the Mayor and bringing the good news and everything here. Honestly, we couldn't do this without the teams within our department. Christina hit the nail on the head. We are talking about hundreds upon thousands of hours of work by folks within our departments who are out there and are passionately driving home this message. They are going into their own communities and working really hard. It is important for everyone to remember this is not just a one (1) shot deal, this is a never-ending process. So, the idea of this is that it continues. We're just starting. We need to continue to build as we move forward. Committee Chair Broden stated, At a future meeting, I would like to see the performance evaluations on the career path development come back. I do think if you are happy in your job, EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION ! INCLUSION ! EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 I I D574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 10 41110 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK that is communicated. It is its own recruitment. Thank you so much for your presentation. This was a lot of work. I appreciate it. Committee Chair Broden then opened the floor to members of the public. There were none. With no further business, Committee Chair Broden adjourned the Health and Public Safety Committee meeting at 5:53 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, tn. A/414A.-- Jo roden, Committee Chair EXCELLENCE i ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION ! INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 11