HomeMy WebLinkAbout4948-22 Establishing A Process For Selection Of Community Police Review Board Office RESOLUTION
No. 4948-22
Passed by the Common Council of the City of South Bend, Indiana
Marsh 14, 2029
Attest: City Clerk
Dawn M. Jones
Attest- `��b? 'rA c �CL President of Common Council
Presented by me to the Mayor of the City of South Bend, Indiana
March 14, 20 22 .
City Clerk
Dawn M. Jones
Approved and signed by me I !4 20
Bit--
Mayor
SUBSTITUTE BILL NO. 22-13
RESOLUTION NO. 4948-22
A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A PROCESS FOR
SELECTION OF COMMUNITY POLICE REVIEW BOARD OFFICE DIRECTOR&
A PROCESS FOR APPOINTMENT OF THE INITIAL REVIEW BOARD MEMBERS
WHEREAS, on October 5, 2020 the South Bend Common Council passed Ordinance No.
10721-20 establishing the Community Police Review Board, Review Board Office, and position
of Review Office Director; and
WHEREAS, on August 9, 2021 the Common Council also passed Ordinance No. 10804-
21 amending the Ordinance and moving the Review Board office to within the Mayoral
administration with involvement and oversight by the Council; and
WHEREAS, Section 2-12.1.17(a) of the Review Board Ordinance states that "[t]he
Mayor, with the consultation of the Common Council, shall appoint a full-time Director of the
Review Office. The Director shall be supervised and be subject to review and evaluation by the
Mayor or the Mayor's designee in collaboration with the Review Board and the Common
Council"; and
WHEREAS, Section 2-12.1.17(b) provides that"[t]he Mayor may request the Common
Council review applications and submit no more than three(3)names of candidates to the Mayor
for appointment as Director. And further states that"[u[nder this process, the Common Council
shall review all applications for the position of Director initially in an Executive Session, and the
submission of candidate names shall be conducted through resolution approved by a majority of
the Common Council"; and
WHEREAS, the position of Review Board Office Director was posted in late November
of 2021 and as of March 1, 2022 the City Human Resources Dept. has received 33 applications;
and
WHEREAS, Section 2-12.1.13 provides that Review Board Members shall be selected
from nominees submitted by each member of the Common Council, including at large Council
members; and
WHEREAS, Section 2-12.1.13 also states that no Council Member may nominate no
more than three(3) candidates for appointment to the Review Board and requires at least one (1)
Board Member be appointed from each City Councilmanic district; and
WHEREAS, no candidates for the Director position have been interviewed since the
previous Director resigned on August 20, 2021 and no process has been approved or written to
provide a guide or framework for Council as Council reviews and selects its candidates for
Director, as required by the Ordinance and as stated above; and
WHEREAS, applications for Review Board Members were first accepted during the
summer of 2021, but none have been selected and no process has been written or approved to
provide a guide or framework for Council as Council reviews and selects its appointees for
Review Board Members; and
WHEREAS, Council must fulfill its commitment to the community in a written and
transparent process and move forward the both the processes of reviewing& selecting applicants
for the Director and reviewing and appointmenting Review Board Members; and
WHEREAS, Council believes that selection process plans should now be approved and
put into place so that the process may begin and work on the Review Board Office can move
forward.
NOW,THEREFORE,be it RESOLVED that the Common Council of the City of
South Bend now do hereby agree and commit to the two selection processes as follows:
Section One.
REVIEW & SELECTION PROCESS FOR THE DIRECTOR.
1. All applicants from the spring 2021 hiring process have been previously notified of re-
opening of the application process and Human Resources has continued to collect
applications since late November.
2. The position will remain open and posted on the City website until such time as the
position is filled.
3. If at any point in this process no applicants in the pool are determined to be qualified or
all applicants have been removed from consideration, the City shall locate and hire a
recruiting company as soon as possible to assist in the search for qualified applicants and
creation of a new pool of applicants using the process of this Resolution.
4. All applications shall remain in the possession of the Council Attorney and Human
Resources Director and will be handed out to Council for temporary distribution and re-
collection at the appropriate meetings.
5. The city Human Resources department shall have a representative("HR Rep") involved
in this entire process in an advisory role. The HR Rep shall notify applicants as they are
removed from consideration during this process.
6. There shall be NO COMMUNICATION with any applicant by the Mayor, city
staff/employees or Council Members to discuss the CRB Director position,
hiring/interview process, the CRB board or policing outside of this process, except for as
described in this process.
7. This Council review process shall consist of three interview rounds, of which the final
round will be an open public meeting, and the process shall consist of at least two
Community Relations Committee public input meetings as described below.
8. Prior to the start of the first round interviews the Council Attorney, Council President,
Council Vice President, HR Rep, the immediate past Council President and Community
Relations Chair shall meet and remove from consideration any applicant who does not
hold a college degree or who lacks relevant work experience.
9. Upon passage of this Resolution the Council President and the HR Rep shall as soon as
possible conduct an initial first round phone interview of applicants.
10. First round interviews shall focus on ensuring the minimum requirements and
highlighting strengths of all candidates; along with a short description of the remaining
hiring process to the applicant. HR Rep. and President shall determine those questions
and use a scoring rubric.
11. Interviewer(s) shall take detailed notes of each interview for later review by Council &
Mayor. The interview notes and scoring rubric for round one shall remain in the
possession of HR Rep. or Council Attorney
12. All first round interviews shall be completed within 10 days from the start of the
interviews.
13. Upon the start of the first round interview process, the Community Relations Chair shall
hold a public input meeting regarding desired skills, experiences and characteristics and
potential second and third round interview topics and questions. A media release
announcing the meeting shall be emailed out by the Community Relations Chair at least
seven (7) days prior to this public input meeting.
14. Second and third round questions shall include hypothetical situational questions
designed to extract from applicants their past experiences, ethical decision making skills,
critical analysis ability, and views on policing and community inclusion. Applicants shall
also be asked about previous discipline and any public statements that might be seen as
biased, including social media statements/posts.
15. Based on the input from the meeting discussed in paragraph#13, questions for second
and third round interviews and a scoring rubric shall be prepared by the Council Attorney
and Community Relations Chair.
16. Final approval of second and third round interview questions and scoring rubrics shall be
made by the Council President, the Vice President, the immediate past Council President
and the Chair of the Health & Public Safety Committee in consultation with the Council
Attorney and HR Rep.
17. Within five(5) business days following the completion of the first round interviews, the
Community Relations Committee shall hold an Executive Session to conduct an initial
review of applications, scoring rubric and notes from the first round of interviews.
18. All Council Members may attend and participate; however in compliance with state open
door laws no votes or tallies may be taken. The HR Rep may attend to observe and
advise. The Chief of Staff may attend to observe. All applications, scoring rubrics and
notes shall be distributed to all in attendance and collected prior to the end of the
executive session.
19. Immediately following the Executive Session, the Council President, the Vice President,
the immediate past Council President and the Chair of the Health & Public Safety
Committee shall meet in a closed door session. The Council Attorney and HR Rep may
attend in advisory capacity.
20. Based on the input from Council Members in the Executive Session, the Council
President, the Vice President, the immediate past Council President and the Chair of the
Health& Public Safety Committee may make a determination to remove applicants from
further consideration and removal from the remaining hiring process.
21. Following any cuts from consideration described in the previous paragraph, the Council
Attorney and HR Dept. shall create a background review packet for each applicant.
22. The background review packets shall remain in the possession of the Council Attorney
and shall only be temporarily distributed to Council Members during an Executive
Closed Door session discussed later.
23. The background review packet shall consist of a criminal Interstate Identification Index
report (national criminal database, the most common used standard employer check)
conducted by County Police Records Division at the request of the Council Attorney, a
social media review report to be conducted by an outside company, and an Access to
Public Records Act("APRA")request to any former government employers to be
conducted by Council Attorney with assistance of City Legal Dept.
24. The APRA of the Council Attorney shall request the information listed as public record
by I.C. 5-14-34(a)(8), including information of dates of employment, information
relating to the status of any formal charges against the employee and the factual basis for
a disciplinary action in which final action has been taken and that resulted in the
employee being suspended, demoted, or discharged.
25. Following any cuts from consideration as described in paragraph#20, the HR Dept. shall
work with the Community Relation Chair to schedule second round interviews to be held
in an Executive Session(s) of the Community Relations Committee as required by the
ordinance.
26. If an applicant is unable to attend the second round interviews in-person due to illness or
distance of travel, they may participate in the second round interview electronically.
However, in-person attendance is to be strongly encouraged.
27. All Council Members, the Council Attorney, HR Rep, Chief of Staff may attend the
second round interviews of the Executive Session in-person,however participation is
limited as described below. All individuals named in this paragraph must attend the
interviews in-person.
28. During second round interviews all questions and discussion shall be done solely by HR
Rep, the Council Attorney, and the Council President.
29. No Council Member nor the Chief of Staff may participate in the dialogue during the
interviews. If they wish to have a question or line of questioning asked during the
interviews they should preferably submit that in the public meeting discussion in
paragraph#13, or at the minimum submit it to the Council Attorney at least 48 hour in
advance of the start of the second round of interviews.
30. All applicants will be asked the same questions during the second round of interviews.
Any necessary follow up questions again shall only be asked of the applicants by the
Council Attorney, HR Rep or Council President.
31. Final determination of all questions shall be made by the Council President, the Vice
President, the immediate past Council President and the Chair of the Health & Public
Safety Committee in consultation with the Council Attorney and HR Rep.
32. Any Council Member in attendance may complete a scoring rubric for each candidate.
Scoring rubrics shall remain in possession of the Council Attorney.
33. Notes of applicant responses during the second round interviews shall be taken by an HR
representative.
34. The notes shall be reviewed by the Council Attorney within five (5) days of the end of
the second round. The Council attorney shall make necessary redactions of sensitive
personal information and prepare the notes for public distribution.
35. Council President shall then release the second round interview response notes with no
personal identifiers and demographic data of candidates with a media release within ten
(10) days of the completion of the second round of interviews. Scoring rubrics shall not
be made public.
36. Following the completion of the second round interviews and preparation of the
background review packets, the Community Relations Committee shall hold an
Executive Session to review all applications, interview notes, scoring rubrics, and the
background review packets completed by the Council Attorney.
37. All Council Members may attend and participate in this Executive Session to review;
however in compliance with state open door laws no votes or tallies may be taken. The
HR Rep. and Chief of Staff may attend to observe and advise.
38. All applications, notes, rubrics, and background review packets shall be distributed to all
in attendance and collected prior to the end of the executive session.
39. Immediately following the Executive Session the Council President, the Vice President,
the immediate past Council President and the Chair of the Health & Public Safety
Committee shall meet in a closed door session. The Council Attorney and HR Rep may
attend in advisory capacity.
40. Based on the input from all Council Members in the Executive Session, scoring rubrics,
and interview notes the Council President, the Vice President, the immediate past Council
President and the Chair of the Health& Public Safety Committee shall discuss & confer
and must cut the applicant pool down to no more than five (5) applicants to move forward
to the third round of interviews.
41. The third round of interviews shall be a public meeting of the Community Relations
Committee and shall be held as soon as possible after the reduction of candidates down to
a list of no more than five (5) as described in previous paragraph. HR Rep and
Community Relations Chair shall coordinate the scheduling of one public meeting to
introduce and interview remaining applicants.
42. The third round of interviews should preferably be held in a large public venue such as
the Century Center. This public meeting may include a moderator to be chosen by the
Council President. The moderator shall introduce the applicants, ensure time limits are
kept, and facilitate public input described in paragraph#50.
43. If an applicant is unable to attend in-person due to illness or distance of travel, they may
participate in the interview electronically. However, in-person attendance is to be
strongly encouraged.
44. The applicants shall all participate individually, one at a time in the meeting and not be
present when they are not participating.
45. Each applicant will be given seven (7) minutes to introduce themselves and discuss their
goals for the office, followed by questioning by the facilitators discussed in paragraphs
Ws 47-48 below.
46. The public will be allowed to submit written questions or discussion topics to the Council
Attorney or President for consideration prior to the meeting. All questions and topics
shall be submitted to the Council Attorney or President at least 48 hours in advance.
47. As during the second round, all questions and discussion shall be done solely by HR Rep,
the Council Attorney, and the President. No Council Member, Mayor, or Chief of Staff or
member of the public may participate in the discussion.
48. All applicants will be asked the same questions during this third round of interviews. Any
necessary follow up questions again shall only be asked of the applicants by the Council
Attorney, HR Rep. or Council President.
49. Final determination of all questions shall be made by the Council President, the Vice
President, immediate past Council President and the Chair of the Health& Public Safety
Committee in consultation with the Council Attorney and HR Rep.
50. Immediately following the interview of all candidates, the meeting will be opened up for
public input and discussion on the applicants by the public. This meeting is intended to be
a listening session for the Council and the Council will hold all of its input and discussion
for the public meeting described in the next paragraph.
51. The Council President may select a moderator from outside the Council to facilitate the
public input portion of the meeting. During the public input portion, the public shall be
allotted three(3) minutes for comments and after all those have spoken that wish to speak
a second comment time of two (2)minutes.
52. Within 48 hours of this public interview meeting, the Community Relations Committee
shall hold another public committee meeting for Council to provide its input into the final
determinations and express its opinion on the finalists.
53. Immediately following the committee meeting described in previous paragraph, based on
the input of both the public meeting and the meeting, the Council President, the Vice
President, the immediate past Council President and the Chair of the Health& Public
Safety Committee shall hold a closed door meeting and then file a Recommendation
Resolution recommending no more than three applicants to the Mayor as required by the
Ordinance.
54. The Council shall hold a public hearing and vote on the Recommendation Resolution at
its next scheduled meeting.
55. The Mayor shall select one of the applicants listed in the approved Recommendation
Resolution for the position of Director of the Community Police Review Board Office. If
that selected candidate should refuse or be unable to accept the position, the Mayor with
consultation with the Council President, the Vice President, past Council President and
the Chair of the Health & Public Safety Committee may either select another candidate
named in the Recommendation Resolution, or reconsider an additional Recommendation
Resolution as discussed in paragraph#53 or re-start the process of this Resolution as
described in paragraph#3 with assistance from an outside recruiting company.
Section Two.
REVIEW & SELECTION OF APPOINTEES TO REVIEW BOARD.
1. The online application for CPR Board Members shall continue to remain open until
4:OOpm on April 15, 2021.
2. A media release informing the public that applications are still being accepted shall be
sent out by the Council President upon passage of this Resolution.
3. Applications received anytime during 2021 and 2022 shall be eligible for consideration
by Councilmembers.
4. Any resident that expresses an interest to a Council Member shall also be eligible for
consideration by that Council Member, so long as the resident completes an application
prior to May 1, 2022.
5. District Council Members shall review all applications of residents within their respective
district.
6. At-large Council Members shall review all applications.
7. Council Members shall consult with the Council Attorney as they consider candidates
and remove candidates from consideration.
8. Councilmembers may narrow the pool of applicants in consideration and should conduct
an interview of each candidate in consideration.
9. Council Members shall conduct an interview with an applicant prior to selecting that
applicant as their nominee.
10. Before 5:00 pm on May 2, 2022, each Council Member shall select one nominee and
provide that nominee's name, address and phone number via email to the Council
Attorney and the Chair of the Community Relations Committee.
11. District members shall nominate a resident of their respective district, At-large members
shall nominate a resident of the City of South Bend,resulting in nine (9) possible
nominees and a nominee from each Councilmanic District.
12. If at anytime a Council Member fails or refuses to submit the name of a nominee as
described in paragraph# 10, or if a District Council Member fails to submit the name of a
resident of their respective Council district, then the Community Relations Chair shall
call a public committee meeting prior to May 10, 2022 for the purpose of considering
candidates and selecting nominee(s)to achieve a list of nine(9)nominees.
13. During the meeting described in the previous paragraph, all Council Members may
provide the name and resume of a candidate for consideration and all Council Members
may take part in a public roll call vote on all candidates in consideration. To be selected
as a nominee, a candidate must receive at least five(5) votes from Council Members.
Voting may take place in multiple rounds and candidates who do not receive at least one
(1) shall be cut and removed from consideration for all later rounds.
14. If a Council Member names more than one (1) nominee as described in paragraph# 10,
then the Community Relations Chair shall call a public committee meeting prior to May
10, 2022 for the purpose of that Council Members nominee down to only one (1)
nominee.
15. During the meeting described in the previous paragraph, all Council Members may attend
and may all take part in a public roll call vote choosing only one nominee. The nominees
themselves may attend and introduce themselves. To be selected as a final one(1)
nominee of that Council Member, a candidate must receive at least five (5) votes from
Council Members.
16. The final list of all nine (9)nominees shall be made public by the Community Relations
Chair via a media release within 24-hours of her/his receipt of a full list of nine (9)
nominees.
17. Upon receiving nominees from Council, the Council Attorney shall create a background
review packet for each nominee. The background check review packets shall remain in
the possession of the Council Attorney and shall only be temporarily distributed to
Council Members during an Executive Closed Door session discussed later.
18. The background review shall consist of a criminal Interstate Identification Index report
(national criminal database,the most common used standard employer check) conducted
by County Police Records Division at the request of the Council Attorney, a social media
review report to be conducted by an outside company, and an Access to Public Records
Act ("APRA") request to any former government employers to be conducted by Council
Attorney.
19. The APRA of the Council Attorney shall request the information listed as public record
by I.C. 5-14-34(a)(8), including information of dates of employment, information
relating to the status of any formal charges against the employee and the factual basis for
a disciplinary action in which final action has been taken and that resulted in the
employee being suspended, demoted, or discharged.
20. The Council Attorney shall distribute background review packets of all nominees to all
Council Members. If any Council Member has concerns with information in the
background review packet of any nominee they should contact the Council Member who
named the nominee,the Council President, and the Council Attorney. This will not
automatically disqualify any nominee.
21. If after reviewing the background review packets a Council Member chooses to remove
their nominee from consideration, that Council Member shall name a new nominee and a
background review packet shall be completed as provided by paragraphs 17-20. The
Council may continue with the other nominees while the process of background review
packet completion is done.
22. On or before June 6, 2022 the Community Relations Chair shall file an Appointment
Resolution with the City Clerk appointing all nine(9)nominees to be first Citizen
Review Board.
23. The Appointment Resolution shall have a public hearing in Committee on June 13, 2022
along with public introduction of the nominees. The Appointment Resolution may be sent
to the full Council by the Committee for consideration on that same date. The Resolution
shall require passage by a majority vote of the Council.
24. All nominees shall attend the June 13, 2022 Committee meeting and provide an
introduction of herself/himself to the Council and Community. Introductions shall be
limited to three(3)minutes.
25. When the Appointment Resolution is presented to the full Council, the nominees shall
also provide introductions, limited again to three (3)minutes.
26. If any nominee is stricken from the Appointment Resolution by Amendment passed by a
majority of the Council, the member whose nominee was struck may appoint another
nominee after completion of a background review process in paragraphs 17-20 above and
a second Appointment Resolution shall then be filed with that new nominee.
27. Upon passage of the Appointment Resolution, the Community Relations Chair shall
begin the process of coordinating training referenced in the ordinance, to begin as soon as
possible. That process shall be taken over by the Office Director upon hiring of the
Director.
Sharon L. McBride, Council President
South Bend Common Council