CC PACKET 06232020 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 9, 2020 Page 2 A. Update from Police Chief Jon Mangseth and Fire Chief/Emergency Manager Mark 1 Sitarz. 2 3 City Manager Casey explained both Chiefs will be giving an update to the City Council. He also 4 stated he wanted to introduce the idea to the City Council about the possibility of creating a 5 Public Safety Commission. He envisioned that potentially this commission could be an advisory 6 to the Council and could be composed of residents, a City Council liaison and also supported by 7 staff. This commission could serve as a forum for residents to voice their opinions regarding 8 public safety within the community. The commission could be modeled in some ways after the 9 existing commissions of both the Planning and Parks and Environmental Commissions. What 10 staff would do is follow up with a draft ordinance that would help to define its charge and get 11 input from the Council and if this would be acceptable staff could follow a similar process by 12 taking applications and having the Council perform the interviews and appoint Commissioners. 13 Staff would be looking for some direction if this would be an interest or not of the Council to 14 establish a Public Safety Commission with the opportunity to have staff come back and draft up 15 what the charge of this group would be and also a little bit of some parameters what staff would 16 think some of the duties and focus would be. 17 18 Mayor Stille thanked Mr. Casey and indicated this is sort of a consensual action and would be 19 giving the City Manager the ok to move forward and spend a little internal time on this. He 20 asked if anyone had any comments or questions. 21 22 Councilmember Walker asked what the timeframe would be to have the Commission start. Mr. 23 Casey thought it would depend on how quickly information could come together and if it is 24 acceptable or not. He thought maybe the earliest to get back to the Council would be the Council 25 meeting after the next one for a draft, but he thought there should be a Worksession before then. 26 27 Councilmember Randle asked if there is a mechanism where they could get comments or 28 opinions from the City as a whole. Mr. Casey asked if Councilmember Randle would like 29 comments in regard to the formation of the Commission or what the duties are of the 30 Commission. Councilmember Randle indicated he would like to hear from the community as a 31 whole, just not some portions of the community. Mr. Casey explained one option would be for 32 staff to draft something up and have some discussion at a Worksession and then role that out into 33 the community through the social media platforms or anything else. If this did more forward, it 34 would be done through an ordinance which would require the 3 readings and it would be a little 35 more formalized, but some engagement could be made before that as well. 36 37 Councilmember Jenson hoped that they really think through the process and as we put together 38 what the City wants to put together that it will truly be effective and helpful for the City and that 39 this is not rushed through and due diligence is performed so that the City will have an effective 40 Commission and that there can be certain actions in place or items in place to measure the results 41 of what may happen and if it is working and if it is not working then how does the City make 42 changes to it and improve it. He personally liked the concept. As a member of the Metro Cities, 43 he indicated he was on the Board of Directors, and reached out to the Executive Director and 44 asked her if there are any Cities throughout the Metro area that have some type of Public Safety 45 2