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PSPHSP071222PUBLIC SAFETY, PLANNING, HUMAN SERVICES, & PERSONNEL COMMITTEE MEETING July 12, 2022 Elected Officials Participating Virtually Councilmember Laura Johnson (Chair) Councilmember Susan Paine Council President Vivian Olson (ex-officio) Elected Officials Present Councilmember Diane Buckshnis 1. CALL TO ORDER Staff Participating Virtually Jessica Neill Hoyson, HR Director Michelle Bennett, Police Chief Dave Turley, Administrative Services Director Jeff Taraday, City Attorney Scott Passey, City Clerk The Edmonds City Council virtual online PSPHSP Committee meeting was called to order at 4:30 p.m. by Councilmember L. Johnson. 2. COMMITTEE BUSINESS 1. Administrative Services Job Descriptions Mr. Turley explained there are four accounting specialist positions in administrative services, one that does payroll, one that does accounts payable/receivable, and two that do utility billing; each have a job description written specifically and uniquely for that job. The accounting skills are similar enough that the job descriptions for the three positions could be combined into one which would assist with cross - training and work coverage for one another. This proposal is acceptable to the union, the employees and HR. Staff's recommendation is to combine the three job descriptions into one. Discussion followed regarding support for the proposal, limiting siloing and providing backup when needed. Action: Consent Agenda 2. New Public Records Associate Position Mr. Turley explained the City currently has one public records officer who handles all public records requests other than for the police department who does their own. Public records requests have increased dramatically in the last year and fulfilling them take a great deal of time especially when information needs to be redacted. The proposed public records associate position, which would be two pay ranges below the public records, would respond immediately to requests and handle simple requests as well as provide vacation coverage and have opportunity for advancement. The packet includes statistics regarding the increase in public records requests. Discussion followed the growth in requests this year over last year, reasons for the increase in requests, whether requests are made by the same people, redactions made by city attorney's office, public records requests related to elected officials, opportunity for technology solutions, best practices for electeds related to public records requests, legislative changes related to public records requests, requests received for years' worth of emails, asking a requester for specificity, and restrictions against requesting information for commercial purposes. 07/12/22 PSPHSP Committee Minutes, Page 2 Mr. Turley clarified the request is for a new job description and an FTE. He anticipated the position would be filled by approximately September; the position could be funded for the remaining four months from salary savings due to other vacancies or via a budget amendment. Discussion continued regarding financials not driving operations, a suggestion to add review of the position to the Finance Committee agenda, and a preference to have this position go to full council. Action: Full council 3. Public Records Specialist Position Request Chief Bennett explained this position is related to public disclosure requests (PDR) specific to body cameras. She provided statistics and lessons learned from the Seattle Police Department; all officers were equipped with body cameras in 2017. At that time they had 8 public disclosure personnel, 2 litigation support analysts, and a full-time video specialist. Seattle now has 13 public disclosure personnel, 2 litigation support analysts, 1 communication analyst and 3 video specialists and over 3.4 million videos in Evidence.com and have retained all video since the programs inception. She anticipated Edmonds would purge video that is not of evidentiary value in 30-90 days. Since Edmonds Police Department's pilot program began, it was discovered every 1 hour of video takes 6-10 hours to redact. Existing staff has been doing that work which has been difficult. The delay in proceeding with a full body camera program is due in part to the need for these PDR positions. She was hopeful that two positions would be enough to handle PDR specific to bodycams. This is a request for a second position (one position was included in the budget); the job description is included in the agenda packet. The original position was anticipated to be a commissioned person but it was determined the disclosures could be handled by a non-commissioned person which is less expensive. Staff's recommendation is to approve the job description and the budget request for a second position. Questions and discussion followed regarding hazards mentioned in the job description, support for the job description but concern with a request for second position, a suggestion to clarify the need for a second position in the agenda memo, and efficiencies associated with posting and filling two positions at the same time. Action: Full Council with explanation regarding the need for a second position. 4. Police Cadet Position Chief Bennett explained the budget for this position has already been approved. The job description was updated using information from Lynnwood's cadet program and the pay range was also updated. Discussion followed regarding support for this internship position and assistance this position will provide to the police department. Action: Consent Agenda 5. Public Information Officer Job Description Revision Council President Olson explained the intent was to add clarity regarding the role of the public information officer (PIO) which would be helpful to the person in the position as well as those the position reports to. The draft update to the job description in the packet reflects the research of other cities done by the council's executive assistant regarding the PIO job description as well as input from Interim Director Merriman who supervised the position at the time and who had experience working with PIOs in other cities. The job description was reviewed by Director Neill Hoyson and some changes were made, primarily removing "neutral" due to the difficulty quantifying that aspect. 07/12/22 PSPHSP Committee Minutes, Page 3 Questions and discussion followed regarding whether it was standard/accepted practice for the legislative branch to attempt to censor/limit information coming from the executive branch, concern with the legislative branch determining what was fact based, the role of the PIO, opinion pieces not within the role of the PIO, enforcement, redundancy in the description, PIO job descriptions in other cities, lack of a forum for the mayor to express their opinion, PIO as the City's mouthpiece and not opinion based, concern with council overstep, preference for opinion pieces to come from the mayor and not from the PIO, and concern this is person -based and not needs -based. Action: Return to PSPHSP Committee next month. 6. Repeal of Safe Gun Storage and Related Laws after Washington Supreme Court's Field Preemption Ruling Due to the late hour, this item was not considered. Councilmember L. Johnson advised the committee may have a special meeting to discuss this item. 3. ADJOURN The meeting was adjourned at 5:31 p.m.