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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFH Inclusion and Policing Task Force Agenda Packet_1-31-17CITY OF FALCON HEIGHTS Falcon Heights Task Force City Hall 2077 West Larpenteur Avenue AGENDA January 31, 2017 7:15 P.M. to 9:30 P.M. I.Call to Order II.Review Agenda III. Review Meeting Minutes IV.Discussion of Draft Statements of Falcon Heights Community Values V.BREAK (5 Minutes) VI.Community Engagement Planning – Design Team VII.Next Meeting – February 7, 2017 VIII.Announcements and Updates IX.Adjourn BLANK PAGE  Falcon Heights Task Force on Policing and Inclusion Tuesday Jan. 10, 2017 Meeting Minutes Attendance: Melanie Leehy, Randy Gustafson, Sack Thongvanh, Mayor Peter Lindstrom, Michael Wade, Kate Thompson, Kathy Quick, Ken Morris, Amy Johnson, Kay Andrews, Jay Colond, Jim Ballentine Peter Demarath and Dan Johnson-Powers planned to be absent. I.Call to Order Meeting was called to order at 7:20pm. II.Review Meeting Minutes Minutes from the Jan. 3, 2017 meeting were reviewed and approved as is. III.Adoption of Participation Agreement Changes were made to the Participation Agreement regarding progress markers and a statement about task force meetings being open to the public but participation is restricted to task force members. A copy of new agreement was made and was signed by all members present. IV.Community Meeting Plan Members thought the Community Meeting Plan looked good and would provide a safe environment for conversations. Meetings would have multiple small group discussion with 8-10 people to foster a cross section of opinion from the public. A question was raised about where the attendees would come from. This will be a challenge to the task force members. Communication ideas suggested were personal invitations, city newsletter, the city's listserve, and bulk mail. The city has Facebook and Twitter accounts. There are also a couple of neighborhoods that have Facebook pages. The sooner the plan is approved the sooner invitations and advertising can be distributed. The city has a list of email addresses of those who provided feedback during the listening session in July. The meetings are designed to walk attendees through levels of discussion and will provide more than one occasion for people to talk. People will be encouraged to attend the meetings they are able. A debrief before each meeting was recommended to help everyone be aware of what was discussed at prior meetings. Members should be engaged in the meetings although the primary role is to listen and observe to gain a better understanding of what the community is saying. The design team has a pool of trained facilitators. A question was raised about how to can get people to attend who don't think there is a problem. Suggestions were made around having conversations with those members of the community and framing discussion around community values. People may not seem interested in the current task force activities but will be interested in what the task force recommends to the city council. This could also be mentioned to those who don't believe there is a problem. Members approved the Community Meeting Plan were looking forward to having the design team at the next meeting. There was a discussion around previous community dialogues based on cards and emails that were received by the city. The time frame of the feedback was from July 6 or 7 through January 9. Some community member's comments and tone changed over this time period while others did not. Every response has value to the community discussion. Members who attended the DOJ listening session on Monday, January 9 provided their impressions of the meeting. There was clearly tension in the room and attendees were passionate about their concerns. Some felt this would be swept under the rug and that there was little hope of change. There were two 1 of 4 very different narratives of driving on Larpenteur. Attendees who were white never had an issue while breaking many laws. Attendees of color said their experience was the opposite. Discussion continued around a lack of trust, action, and leadership. Sometimes Falcon Heights gets negative publicity when incidents occur in other cities along Larpenteur. Falcon Heights staff has been responsive to issues raised by the community. Policing complaints have not been raised. Some community members may believe nothing would change if a complaint was brought forward. More communication is needed from the council, that they are concerned and want to address these issues. V.Break 5 mins. VI.Community Dialog Assignment Members shared feedback from the assignment to ask 3-5 community members about what problems need to be remedied, what healing needs to occur, what is going well and what should be sustained. Common themes were a lack of trust, shame, lack of respect for people of color and lack of action regarding discrimination. Members were encouraged to think about trust being built on caring, competence, communication, consistency and courage. Community members who don't feel they have a stake in this will not see the need to be involved. Those who do have a stake will be frustrated with the other group. All need to realize the importance of equality for the common good. Suggestions were made for more deescalation training and mental health training for the police. Perhaps a citizen review board could be established to help hold police accountable. CRB's are present around the country however police unions have been resistant to these. Sustainable change is needed but racism is a difficult subject to bring up. People will quickly put walls up. Task force members can have influence through building relationships in the community and by getting community members talking to one another. This will then affect values, behaviors, and policing. Some in Falcon Heights would say we don't have a race problem but the police are racist and don't see this as a broader issue. Community sets the standard on how policing is done. Who is supervising the police? How are citizens communicating with elected officials. There appears to be a communication barrier. Some from the community have been vocal about their experiences along Larpenteur but more voices are needed. Ken and Kathy to draft statements for the task force members to wrestle with and discuss in individual mtgs with Ken and Kathy Task force has a broader scope than policing. Inclusion is part of the charter. Sack is working on getting the DOJ involved with group to avoid overlap and contradictions. 9:34pm meeting adjourned. Next meeting Tuesday January 31. 2 of 4 Falcon Heights Task Force on Inclusion and Policing DRAFT, PROVISIONAL Statements of Community Values for discussion For discussion at January 31, 2017 Task Force meeting and subsequent community meetings The following statements are drafts. They are intentionally incomplete and provisional, to serve as a starting point for task force and community discussions (per the process described below). They may be revised later to reflect new insights. Draft Values Statements These are values that the Falcon Heights community asserts and upholds for itself and for its city government (including, but not excluded to, policing on behalf of the city). Trust and transparency. We value relationships of mutual trust among community members and city government. We value transparency, communication, and respecting diverse perspectives in governance. Equity and justice. We value protecting and treating all residents and visitors equally and fairly under the law. We reject prejudice and value working persistently to remedy bias within individuals, the community, and in our government and policing. Welcome and inclusion. We value diversity, welcoming all people with respect and dignity, creating authentic relationships across differences, and working together to heal and strengthen our community. Safety: We value safety, including both individual protection from personal harm and group protection from prejudice and hostility. Active Citizenship. We value taking individual and collective responsibility to uphold these values, including by naming problems and pursuing solutions and healing when these values are not upheld. Process / Rationale for Articulating Community Values No dead ends, no surprises. We are stating values as a foundation for checking that actions are consistent with values. Statements of values are inherently aspirational, but provide context to guide and correct action. Ideally, the community will accomplishment an alignment of community values, guidelines for implementing policing and other activities, and performance measures. There should be no dead ends, meaning no values that do not have associated, follow-through actions for and accountability measures. Similarly, in the Task Force’s final 3 of 4 recommendations, there should be no free-floating, surprise suggestions that are not grounded in community values. Process a. Co-facilitators will create intentionally rough drafts, from: a) community input previously gathered (e.g., categories and words drawn from Task Force meeting, community members’ statements at listening sessions and other meetings, emails to mayor and city administrator, etc.); and b) review of existing values statements from Falcon Heights, SAPD, and other entities, as models and starting points. b. Task Force members and co-facilitators will meet 1:1 to exchange additional ideas and elaborate draft values statements. c. Task Force, at January 31 meeting, will review and provisionally adopt statements for community review. d. There will be 1-2 community meetings for community discussion of values, response and elaboration of the provisional values statements. e. The Task Force will review the community input, revise the values statements, and use them as a foundation for discussions about how to implement these values in policing. Conditions: Values to sustain, or problems that need to be addressed Statements of community values to uphold Implementation guidelines: priorities, methods, and expectations for enacting the values Performance standards and assessment measures 4 of 4