Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Rules Committee 20240712 : vimarsa

SFGTV BOS Rules Committee July 12, 2024

Video conference and participate in the meeting to the same extent as if they were physically present. Public comment will be available on each item on the agenda. Both channel 26 and sfgovtv. Org are streaming the number across the stream. And each speaker is allowed two minutes to speak. And the opportunity to speak during the Public Comment period are available by calling 1 408 4189388. And, again, that is 1 408 4189388. And the meeting i. D. Is 146 661 0524. Again, that is 146 661 0524. And then press pound and pound again. When connected you will hear the meeting discussion but you will be muted and in listening mode only. When your item of interest comes up, hit star, 3, to be added to the speaker line. Speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively you may submit the Public Comment in either of the following ways. Email to myself, the rules Committee Clerk at bic. Org sfgov. Org. If you submit by email its forwarded to the supervisors and its included as part of the file. And finally items are expected to be on the board of supervisor agenda of july 7th, unless otherwise stated. Chair ronen can you call item one. Clerk item one is the Charter Amendment to amend the charter of the city and county of San Francisco to create the Sheriff Department Oversight Board to revise and report findings and recommendations to the sheriff and the board of supervisors regarding Sheriff Department operations, the Sheriff Department office of Inspector General, under the direction of the Inspector General appointed by the Oversight Board to investigate complaints of noncriminal misconduct by employees and contractors of the Sheriffs Department. And the incustody deaths and the policy recommendations for the Sheriffs Department and the finds and results and recommendations to the sheriff and the Oversight Board at elections to be held on november 3, 2020. Chair ronen thank you so much. And i wanted to welcome a bunch of guests to the committee, including supervisor walton and our District Attorney, and the public defender and the sheriff. And im going to ask supervisor walton, the author of this measure, to speak first and then well hear from the b. L. A. Report and then i know that the sheriff needs to leave at 10 20 so well ask to hear from him first. Supervisor walton. Supervisor walton thank you so much, chair ronen and i thank you all for attending this important hearing this morning. Im going to try to be as brief as possible and efficient in my comments. I do want to just start off by saying that we are at a pivotal time in terms of Justice Reform, not only here in San Francisco, but across the country. And prior to being elected in 2018, i met several times with public defender, and we had several conversations about the type of Justice Reforms that we would want to see if i were to be elected. And one of the most major and significant was how our people were being treated that were in custody. And all of the allegations of misconduct, abuse, that was running rampant to some degree in our jails. So thats something that we worked on right away, as soon as i assumed office. In fact, the public defender, his office and i began to immediately work on the appropriate sheriffs oversight. And one of the things that we focused after seeing all of the information about gladiator fights in the jails, lawsuits and allegations that were being heavily reported, we knew that it was a time for us to have independent oversight, particularly around investigations of certain assaults and misconduct in our jails. So i want to take the time first to thank the many callers and the ma many individuals who are incarcerated and advocate for the need for sheriffs oversight. And the stories they shared and the time they took to be sure that my office was continuing to work on this important issue is appreciated. And in particular i want to thank particular individuals who were in custody who called my Office Weekly to continue to push for their justice and share their story. Along with the stories of others who felt that they did not have a voice. Shortly after our initial work, unfortunately, our beloved public defender passed away. But today we remember him and his tireless commitment to Justice Reform. With the recent uprisings and calls for Justice Reform, due to the many instances of Law Enforcement attacks on black people and people of color, this Charter Amendment comes at the right time. Cities across the nation are rising up in protest and speaking up about the many injustices that have plagued us for decades. As a black man, i represent the African American community. My community has been hurt with the overcriminallization of our members, the lack of resources, and the institutional and Structural Racism that exists in our country today. And it is finally being acknowledged and it is time that we begin to take the steps to repair the harm. The moment is now to take a closer look at how we fund Law Enforcement and how we hold Law Enforcement accountable for all of the members of the community. This ordinance is a first step in rebuilding Community Trust and giving Community Members an opportunity to share and be heard. The cost of this Justice Reform and accountability is projected to cost close to 3 million. This is at a time when we are redirecting resources to invest in improving outcomes for people of color. This is the type of investment that we need to make. I believe that it is important to Work Together to build systems in which trust, transparency and accountability are ensured. During this process i have been able to work closely with the sheriff fro. From the beginning hes been open to Justice Reform and to proposed changes that many advocate for. Hes done amazing work and already committed to update the useofforce policy and reaffirm the departments 30year prohibition of the use of restraint and or chokeholds. I have also worked closely with the Sheriffs Union to share why we feel this is important. It needs to be implemented, especially now. It is my hope that it will serve as a tool that outlasts all of us here today and will give the community the assurance they need and that they can trust that we will always be able to be accountable and they will be heard. During our work on this topic, we reached out to experts in the field and was honored to work with robert atark, the founder of accountability associates, an oversight and Police Practices consultant whose career spans over 30 years in oversight and Law Enforcement. She is the author of Police Misconduct complaint investigations manual. And she worked endless hours helping my office to submit what you have before you today. I would like to also thank kathleen belts who has been instrumental in bringing her experience as assistant Inspector General at the Los Angeles County office of Inspector General. Whom i met with in Los Angeles County during my research. Miss belts helped to answer many of the questions that we had and helped us to put together what you see before you by using best practices to improve the oversight of corrections facilities. We had a great team of volunteers who worked endless hours on this policy. In particular, i want to thank former public defender and the current District Attorney chase bodine. Mr. Bodine helped to think this through and he continued his commitment to the work with our office on this. And i want to thank the public defender and his staff for the hours they have contributed to make sure that this oversight will continue long after all of us. And i have to thank mistracy browniarldo, an aide in my office who worked tirelessly with the entire community to work on this Charter Amendment to give us what i believe is the independent oversight that we need to make sure that we can protect individuals who are incarcerated. Last, heres a brief overview of what is being proposed in the charter. The proposed legislation will place an initiative on the november 3rd ballot in 2020 to amend the citys charter to create a civilian sheriffs Department Oversight board and office of the Inspector General to support the Sheriff Department Oversight Board. The Sheriff Department Oversight Board and the office of the Inspector General will be responsible for investigating complaints against the Sheriffs Department and other City Employees or contractors who interact with individuals in sheriffs custody. As well as making recommendations for disciplinary action and policy changes that are related to use of force. The sheriffs Department Oversight board and the office of Inspector General would have the power to have subpoenas or testimony, but the sheriff would have the discretion to impose discipline on the Sheriff Department employees with thorough thought out recommendations from the Sheriff Department Oversight Board. The board consists of seven minutes appointed by the board of supervisors and take a majority vote in november to pass. In the end i want to thank everyone for all of the work they have done to getting us here today. I think that this is great policy and a positive step forward to getting to the accountability for Law Enforcement that we all wish to achieve. Supervisor ronen, i know that you already called o on the sheriff, and if its all right with you id love to bring him up at this time. Chair ronen perfect. Yes, sheriff, good morning. Good morning. Sorry, i have hit the mute as we all know on these things, its part of what we have to do now. Good morning, everyone. And thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. I apologize for the accommodation that has to be considered for my time. Were swearing in a new assistant sheriff today and thats part of our process of change and looking forward to moving in a direction of making sure that we are responsive to the needs of the community. And this legislation represents exactly what supervisor walton mentioned. And as he also mentioned, we are a part of the collaboration in making this happen. I do want to make sure that everyone is clear though that my position as the sheriff in regards to the legislation itself and the work that we are doing to try to make sure that it is responsive but also responsible. And as i have mentioned earlier, i do support overall the concepts in regards to the creation of a Community Advisory board of an Oversight Board which would look to being a part of the transparency and the accountability that we hope to achieve in making sure that people are very clear on what our office does and how we do it. I want to though to make sure that were also responsible as elected and as an elected official myself included, that there are concerns about this legislation with regards to the cost as supervisor walton pointed out. I believe that we have an opportunity to merge both those plans which i had in place prior to covid happening and all of the Different Things that have occurred which have changed our perspective on how to get things dondone, and also put delays on some of the hopes and the goals that we have as newly elected official coming in. One of which was the creation of an advisory board. I shared that with supervisor walton and im happy to see that theres a board consideration here in the legislation. I want to say that im supportive of that. I am supportive of the creation of a board so long as it includes members of areas of concern for us with Mental Health, rehabilitation and reentry, and victims rights, equity and diversity, Restorative Justice and pretrial release, all things that we are very familiar with in the Sheriffs Office and want to ensure that would be part of the discussions. Not just a focus in terms of the behaviors of our staff, but also how we get things done. I also wanted to offer up that part of this process would include what we already have in place which is an office of the ombudsperson. And this office is actually responsible for the review of the grievance process, the review of what we would call a grievance process but would also be known as concerns or issues that are brought up by our incustody population in order for us to make sure that were responsive to any concerns they have about the process. I would want that to be a part of the language here. And we are continuing to work on the amendments to the language. So i want to say as we move forward that my comments, while were not looking to say completely no to this whole thing we want to make sure that its as responsible as possible in terms of the language. So were absolutely in support of that. The construct that is listed in terms of the participation of the board of supervisors and the mayor in determining who is on that board is something this we are also open to and look to, working towards the construct that we will use moving forward. The concern that we have in terms of the budgetary issues have to do more with the duplication of some of the things that we already have in place. As most of you know, we have an m. O. U. And a memorandum of understanding with the department of Police Accountability right now and both my attorneys and the people from d. P. A. Have been working on expanding on our current m. O. U. To cover some investigations and some constructs of things that we would anticipate falling under the purview. Which will expand more on what we have already have in place and also be a huge component of what were talking about here in this legislation regarding the creation of an office of Inspector General in regards to investigative body. Its my belief that in regards to review and investigating of complaints, both against our staff, complaints of misconduct and against all other people who interact with those in our custody and care, both out in the community and in an incarcerated setting, i think that we are duplicating a process that is already being addressed in terms of those investigations by independent investigative body represented by the d. P. A. And i would speak to this as we discuss moving forward making changes to this legislation or this proposed Charter Amendment so that we focus more on the Community Advisory board as opposed to the creation of a new investigative body. In regards to the office of Inspector General, i do know that these investigative components are part of that office that is proposed to be created under this amendment. I would say that we should look further into such an office being created without the Administrative Burden of the investigations, but with full access to and reports back on any investigations being conducted by d. P. A. So other than having the problem of being pressed for time now, i hope that i have been able to show this by the Sheriffs Office. Were looking forward to moving forward and making sure that we address the areas of concern by creating an advisory board, by creating a construct of a process, which includes the current processes, so that we can be more transparent and accountable as an office. And, you know, you mentioned trust, supervisor walton, trust and transparency and accountability. I want to just say that were working towards the transparency and accountability with these processes, but the most important thing to remember is that as an elected official my trust come from the fact that i was elected. And that i would still be making the decisions regardless of whatever final product that we have. Those decisions will lie with me in terms of discipline, in terms of followup on the recommendations and the advice of any of the bodies that we end up with as part of this Charter Amendment. So thank you for your time. I appreciate that youve been ive been given the opportunity to speak. I am going to have to go right now and tha

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