[pjw] REPORT BACK: City Attorney agrees to meet, not change gutted oversight plan

[Peace and Justice Works]

PJW supporters

I just sent this report back/update to the Portland Copwatch list. Sorry 
for duplication.
dan h

Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2023 12:52:30
From: Portland Copwatch <copwatch at portlandcopwatch.org>

PCW supporters

Yesterday City Council voted unanimously to adopt the watered-down code
creating the new police oversight board that was offered by the City
Attorney. Commissioner Rubio offered two useless amendments, one of
which swapped out a Citizen Review Committee member for a Police Review
Board member to be on the nominating committee for the new Board (rather
than removing the police reps), and the other adding the word
"objective" to describe how to decide someone has bias for or against
the police (but not DEFINING what "bias" means, which is the problem.)

Twelve members of the Police Accountability Commission were among the 55
people who testified over the course of the 3.5 hour long meeting.
Another five sent written testimony (though one wrote anonymously). So
that's 17 of the final 19 active members of the Commission directly
weighing in. the 250+ people who wrote in, mostly complaining about how
the City trampled on the PAC's proposal.

https://www.portland.gov/council-clerk/viewwrittentestimony

At the beginning, the City Attorney, flanked by Council aides to hide
the fact that most of the changes that were made were driven by the
Attorney's over-sensitivity to potential legal challenges by the police,
made it sound as if they were being very magnanimous and touted how
great the PAC's plans to have a complaint navigator are. But ignored
that their plan delays assigning such an advocate until after the
complainant makes first contact and gets interviewed, and the staff
decides to investigate their complaint. The key problem is they think
like attorneys protecting their clients, not like community members
who've experienced harm at the hands of police.

Of the 55 people I counted 20 supporting the City Attorney's plan or
calling to get rid of the Charter amendment that requires the Board to
be set up, and 34 supporting the PAC. One person did a little of both,
though leaning heavily on the city's side (a business owner from
downtown).

At the end the Mayor asked whether the City Attorney would grant the
request which came from most every PAC member who spoke: a meeting to go
through the changes and get an explanation for them and a chance to
discuss revising the City's version, then bring back changes to Council
next month.

To the surprise of many, they agreed to meet and talk... but not to come
back to Council unless there were substantive changes that differ vastly
from what they already wrote. Let's hope there are some!

Mayor Wheeler said he would "keep an open  mind" ___IF____ (not when)
they come back to Council.

Because the vote was technically to adopt a draft code that informs
changes that need to be made to the US Department of Justice Settlement
Agreement, the city set up this email for people to comment on the plan:

  DOJ-comments at portlandoregon.gov

I guess I should also mention that in addition to my testimony, two other
members of PCW spoke. The president of the League of Women Voters of
Portland, Executive Director of the ACLU of Oregon, Chair and another
key member of the AMA Coalition for Justice and Police Reform,
spokesperson for Portland Forward, and civil rights attorney Jason
Kafoury all spoke too.

Written testimony came from Portland Jobs with Justice, Sisters of the
Road and many many more (It'll probably take me a week to sort through
all 250).


The only news stories I've seen so far are the KGW-TV news story
from yesterday, as posted on MSN.com:

  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/portland-city-council-unanimously-approves-updated-language-for-police-oversight-committee/ar-AA1k0ekU

and today's OPB story by Alex Zielensky (formerly of the Portland
Mercury):

  https://www.opb.org/article/2023/11/16/portland-city-council-approves-new-police-oversight-system-despite-public-concerns/

You can watch the whole hearing here:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G58tplQ1fs8

Also if you are interested I was interviewed OPB's Think Out Loud and
KBOO evening news on Tuesday:

https://www.opb.org/article/2023/11/13/think-out-loud-portland-city-council-voter-changes-to-police-oversight/

(about 18 minutes)

https://kboo.fm/media/118832-evening-news-111423

(runs from "-28:30" to " -17:48" or just under 11 minutes)

There's probably a lot more, including follow up, but that's all I have
time for right now!!
dan handelman
portland copwatch