2024-09-17 Council PSPHSP MinutesPUBLIC SAFETY, PLANNING, HUMAN SERVICES & PERSONNEL
COMMITTEE MEETING
September 17, 2024
Elected Officials Present Staff Present
Councilmember Neil Tibbott (Chair) Michelle Bennett, Police Chief
Councilmember Chris Eck Rod Sniffen, Assistant Police Chief
Council President Vivian Olson(ex-officio) Jessica Neill Hoyson, HR Director
Councilmember Susan Paine Shane Hope, Acting Planning & Dev. Dir.
Councilmember Will Chen Angie Feser, Parks, Rec. & Human Serv. Dir.
Councilmember Jenna Nand Scott Passey, City Clerk
CALL TO ORDER
The Edmonds City Council PSPHSP Committee meeting was called to order virtually and in the City
Council Conference Room, 121 — 5tn Avenue North, Edmonds, at 3:30 pm by Councilmember Tibbott.
2. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
1. Comprehensive Plan Update
Ms. Hope relayed a lot of work has been done on the comprehensive plan, a lot of ideas, and significant
input, but a lot of things still needed to be done. For example, the draft EIS was expected to be done in
August; staff received a preliminary draft but more information was needed related to environmental
impacts. Staff is working with the consultant on the DEIS as well as specific aspects of the draft
comprehensive plan to make it more readable and remove unnecessary details, action statements and
implementation steps from the policies. Language for some elements still needs to be drafted which will
require additional planning board and public input and council discussion and direction, issuance of a
final EIS, etc. Staff and the consultants are working hard to get the draft comp plan to an appropriate
level and enough usable information for the DEIS. The DEIS and draft comprehensive plan are expected
to be issued later this month.
Ms. Hope did not anticipate the comprehensive plan update would be completed by the State's
December 31 deadline. Staff will provide a schedule to council in the future. She will provide further
details and there will be time for questions/comments at tonight's special council meeting. In January
the State will begin determining which cities and counties have met the deadline. The City is not eligible
to obtain State grants and loans until the comprehensive plan update is submitted.
Questions and discussion followed regarding support for the goals and policies being more general
without a lot of detail, the State's December 31, 2024 deadline to have an adopted comprehensive plan,
impact of missing that deadline, the code update that follows the comprehensive plan update, and
whether the budget allocated for the comprehensive plan update is adequate.
Committee recommendation: Further discussion at 7 pm special council meeting.
2. Update to ECC 2.10.010 - Acting Appointments
Ms. Neill Hoyson explained when a director position is vacant, the mayor has the ability to appoint an
acting director to perform the director duties while recruitment is underway. The position must be vacant
for the mayor make an acting appointment. Vacant usually means the person is no longer on the City's
payroll. There have been some situations where a decision has been made to separate employment of
a director and they may have been offered a separation agreement. When a person employed in
Washington State is over 40 years old, they are allowed 21 days to review the separation agreement
09/17/24 PSPHSP Committee Minutes, Page 2
and once they sign the agreement, they have an additional 7 days to revoke their signature which leads
to a 28 day period when the mayor cannot appoint an acting director, but the person who was in that
role is no longer performing any director functions. The position is placed on admin leave while
reviewing the separation agreement. The proposed update to Section E adds language related to when
a position is deemed vacant.
Questions and discussion followed regarding the amendment to Section E, the definition of vacant, the
need to appoint an acting director, why it is not always ideal to have the next level manager run the
department in the interim, a request to clearly identify the amended language when it comes to council,
and time period the City could be paying both a director on admin leave and an acting director.
Committee recommendation: Consent agenda
3. Update to Promotion Policy - Compensation
Ms. Neill Hoyson explained HR will be working on a full policy manual update early next year, but some
policies need to be addressed in the interim such as the promotional policy that addresses
compensation when an internal applicant has a promotional opportunity. Currently when an employee
is promoted, they receive a 5% increase regardless of the increase in responsibility, authority,
specialized skill set, etc. The way salary structures are created, there is a 5% difference between each
range and a 5% difference between each step within each range so a 5% increase is a one-step
increase for an employee. This update will allow the pay increase to reflect an employee's promotion to
a much higher level of responsibility.
There have been situations where employees have declined promotions because the increased
responsibility was not commensurate with the pay increase. With this update, the hiring department
would have the ability to submit a request to HR for review by HR and the mayor and the mayor would
approve or decline the request for an increase higher than 5%. This update also addresses a situation
where an internal applicant is competing against external applicants and allows an internal applicant to
negotiate their job offer. She described benefits of promoting from within.
Questions and discussion followed regarding how other cities handle internal promotions, the change
only applying to non -represented employees but anticipation the unions will request this addition to their
contracts in future, ability to be competitive and adequately compensate for a substantial increase in
responsibility, how often someone is promoted multiple ranges, a request to clearly identify the new
language when it comes to council, and support for preserving institutional knowledge whenever
possible via promoting from within.
Committee recommendation: Consent agenda
4. Social Worker Supervision Contract
Police Chief Bennett explained per RCW the City is required to have a supervisor for the social worker.
The contract between the City and Wendy Warman is for 2 hours/month at $90/hour for a total of
$180/month, and a not to exceed amount of $2500/year. Funding for this contract is covered by the
grant.
Committee recommendation: Consent agenda
5. ILA with Edmonds School District
Assistant Chief Sniffen relayed the Edmonds Police Department currently provides security services at
afterschool and weekend events like football games, dances, and graduations. Several years ago the
City and ESD entered into agreement whereby the City provides the staff and bills the District directly
for the overtime incurred. This is renewal of a five year agreement.
09/17/24 PSPHSP Committee Minutes, Page 3
Questions and discussion followed regarding this being a win for City and the police department, how
this is added to the officers' pay, times when the EPD is unable to fulfill ESD requests for security due
to staffing shortages, opportunity to bring the police department closer to the community, and review of
the ILA by the city attorney.
Committee recommendation: Consent agenda
6. Flock Camera Presentation
Police Chief Bennett recognized Crime Analysist Molly Reeves for obtaining a grant to fully fund this
program. She reviewed:
• What is Flock
o Flock is a license plate reading hardware and software network
o Flock will cross reference license plates captured against state databases like NCIC
o Flock allows agencies to share suspect vehicles with other police departments using Flock
o Flock will alert a Police Department within seconds once a missing, wanted or stolen plate
is captured on a camera
• With Flock Safety you get:
o Flock Safety provides your police department with indiscriminate evidence from fixed
locations.
o We provide all of the maintenance so your police department and city staff can focus on
keeping your city safe and prosperous
o Infrastructure free
0 24/7 coverage
o Real-time alerts
o Ethically built
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• What this is:
o License Plate Recognition (LPR)
o Gathers objective evidence and facts about vehicles, not people
o Alerts police of wanted vehicles
o Used to solve crime
o Adheres to all state laws
What this is not:
o Not facial recognition
o Not collection of biometric or sensitive information
o Not used for tracking speed or parking violations
o Data automatically deletes every 30 days
Protecting privacy
09/17/24 PSPHSP Committee Minutes, Page 4
o Footage owned by agency/city and will never be sold to private third parties by Flock
0 30-day data retention, then automatically hard deleted
o Takes human bias out of crime -solving by detecting only objective data
o All data is stored security with end to end encryption of all data
Accountability Mechanisms
o Search reason and user number saved in indefinitely available audit trail
o NOT facial recognition software, NOT collecting biometric information
o NOT used for parking enforcement or tolls
o Not connected to registration data or 3rd party databases (Carfax, DMV)
o Transparency portal (free and optional)
Transparency & Insights
o Measure ROI and promote the ethical use of public safety technology
o Transparent Portal
■ Customizable for each agency
■ Display technology policies
■ Publish usage metrics
o Insights Dashboard
■ Measure crime patterns and ROI
■ Audit search history
o Examples
■ Morgan Hill PD
■ Vallejo PD
Questions and discussion followed regarding demonstration of Flock at the AWC conference showing
its effectiveness, what happens if someone obscures or changes their license plate, whether the City
would be notified if another government agency wanted to access the City's cameras, current
technology (body cameras and in -car cameras with plate readers), funding beyond the 12-month grant,
ability to fund a 2-year contract for $131,000, whether there would be an option for renumeration from
insurance companies for recovery of stolen vehicles using data collected by a Flock system, and the
focus on license numbers and not facial recognition.
Committee recommendation: Full council with presentation by Flock
3. ADJOURN
The meeting was adjourned at 4:35 pm.
09/17/24 PSPHSP Committee Minutes,
SCOTT PASSEY; CLERK