PSC Draft Minutes for December 4, 2023 — original pdf

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PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION REGULAR CALLED MEETING MINUTES MONDAY December 4, 2023 The PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION convened in a REGULAR CALLED MEETING on Monday, December 4, 2023 at City Hall Building, Boards and Commissions Rm, 301 W. 2nd Street, AUSTIN, TEXAS Chair Ramirez called the Public Safety Commission Meeting to order at 4:05pm. Board Members/Commissioners in Attendance: Nelly Ramirez, Chair Rebecca Bernhardt, Vice Chair Pierre Nguyen Board Members/Commissioners in Attendance Remotely: David Holmes and Cory Hall-Martin Absent: Commissioners John Kiracofe (resigned), Jasmine Smith, and Kristy Orr Tim Ruttan Lauren Pena PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: - Carlos Leon – Capital Metro regarding customer service APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Chair Ramirez called for the approval of the minutes for November 6, 2023. The minutes from the meeting of November 6, 2023 were approved on Commissioner Nguyen’s motion, Commissioner Pena’s second on a 6-0 vote. Commissioners Orr, and Smith were absent. 2. Staff Briefings – post to the website 1  3. Public Safety Quarterly Report for EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Speaker – Chief of Staff, Teresa Gardner Chief Gardner presented the usual quarterly stats for EMS. The categories presented on were: current staffing, employee separations, current vacancy rate, turnover rate, Opiate overdose numbers and Narcan Rescue kits used this quarter. In addition to these categories there was new information on Pop Ups Resource Clinics. The Pop Up clinics is where different agencies come together in communities of homeless population mostly and communities that are lacking in various resources. The Pop Up clinics help to shelter, health assistance and various resources needed for the less advantage population. There is a new service offered “Tele judge Implementation “set up in October 2023. There were questions from Commissioner Nguyen on heat maps being used in future presenting of quarterly stats, and an update on how the community education programs are affecting the community they are serving. Commissioner Ruttan asked if there was any special help/assistance from Public Safety Commission needed to support the Narcan Kits education. In closing Commissioner Ramirez was curious on the number of times the Tele- judge had been used. 4. Discussion of Office of Police Oversight’s under new leadership, implementation of APOA and Resolution 99 with Equity Action and community leaders Chair Ramirez welcomed new Gail McCant, Director of Office of Police Oversight and opened the floor for her to introduce herself and present her overview of the Office of Police Oversight, the staff makeup of this office and the role of the OPO. In addition to the overview, a summary of status on Resolution 99 was shared as well. Director McCant presented a timeline on Prop A and Resolution 99 implementation status. A summary of progress on Resolution 99 and Proposition A was also shared with the commissioners. In closing of the presentation, Director McCant thanked her staff, and various City of Austin departments that worked together to try and rebuild community trust. Chris Harris, with C4 Organization commented after Director McCant expressing his thoughts on OPO going forward. The OPO office should be established to represent the people and should stand alone independently of other City of Austin departments, in an effort to gain more trust from the City of Austin residents you are representing. Chair Ramirez opened the floor for questions and further discussion from the commissioners. The main topic of discussions was the delay on implementation of the resolution and the reason/s behind the delay. Some commissioners expressed disappointment that more progress had not been made even thought they are aware of stop gaps that could happen along the way to implementing. Various reasons were shared on why there was time delays, mainly technical issues as it relates to accessing/searching 2  APD’s server for information. Commissioners wanted to know which City of Austin offices did OPO need to coordinate/collaborate with to implement the Resolution 99. There was discussion on G file and the response/decision from the AG’s office, and clarification was requested from City of Austin’s Law Department regarding their interpretation of the AG’s response. Assistant Chief Greenwalt elaborated on the laws regarding accessing APD server per FBI’s mandates when offering other access to APD’s servers. After much discussion, Chair Ramirez offered Chris Harris to have the closing remarks on this item. 5. Sobering Center - Discussion of Sobering Center and its cooperation with public safety agencies with Executive Director Laura Elmore Chair Ramirez welcomed Director Elmore and invited her to start her presentation on the Sobering Center. Director Elmore begin with an introduction of the Sobering Center and shared their mission, who they are and what service they offer to people who are publicy intoxicated. The Sobering Center is not a jail and there is no cost to being placed there. The agency is a HIPPA protected agency. The presentation included/provided stats on people served by Sobering Center, referral sources, demographics, and some history on the Center. This Sobering Center was founded in 2018 through a City of Austin/Travis County Interlocal Agreement. The presentation closed with two questions from Chair Ramirez and Commissioner Bernhardt. 6. CSCRM Working Group Update: There were no updates as the working group had just presented updated the group in December 2023 meeting. The working group anticipates being able to discuss their budget request next month. 7. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Human Rights Commission requesting Public Safety Commission’s support (Ramirez) Update on Chief Medical Director Office transition (Ramirez) Life Challenges/Affordability in City of Austin for public safety employees (Nguyen) ADJOURNMENT @ 5:55pm 3  . 4