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cmd080421 spec mtgEDMONDS CITY COUNCIL VIRTUAL ONLINE SPECIAL MEETING APPROVED MINUTES August 4, 2021 ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESENT Susan Paine, Council President Adrienne Fraley-Monillas, Councilmember Kristiana Johnson, Councilmember Luke Distelhorst, Councilmember Diane Buckshnis, Councilmember Vivian Olson, Councilmember Laura Johnson, Councilmember CALL TO ORDER STAFF PRESENT Jessica Neill Hoyson, HR Director Scott Passey, City Clerk Dave Rohde, GIS Analyst The Edmonds City Council virtual online meeting was called to order at 12:00 p.m. by Council President Paine. 2. ROLL CALL City Clerk Scott Passey called the roll. All elected officials were present, participating remotely. Councilmember Buckshnis raised a point of order, asking if the Council should approve the agenda. Council President Paine advised that was not necessary and ruled point not taken 3. COUNCIL INTERVIEWS 1. COUNCIL INTERVIEWS OF POLICE CHIEF CANDIDATES Before each interview, Council President Paine welcome the candidate and described the interview process (six minute opening statement, Council questions five minutes each, and three minute wrap up). Michelle Bennett Councilmembers interviewed Chief Michelle Bennett (answers in italics): Opening statement: I am Michelle Bennett. I grew up in Eastern Washington, born in Richland and raised in Moses Lake. Came to Western Washington for high school, attended Shoreline High School my freshman year, graduated from Shorecrest High School. I was an exchange student in another country and learned to speak another language my senior year which was a very positive experience. Returned, started college and was hired by the EPD as police cadet internship during college when I was 19 or 20. Hired by the King County Sherij's Office in 1990 as a patrol officer. Went to the academy, graduated and came to the Shoreline area as my first assignment. Worked a number of assignments starting in Shoreline. I was in the undercover unit, spent time as afield training officer, and spent time as one of the pilot school resource Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 1 officers, in 1995 in the Northshore School District. Worked as a master police officer or corporal and then was selected to teach at the state police academy, I was a tach officer and taught criminal procedures which is basically constitutional law, what you can and can't do with caselaw in the departments. I was promoted to the rank of sergeant and served in the north area and southeast for several years. I was selected as the street crimes sergeant for a period of time as well as the FTO sergeant for a period of time. I was the storefront sergeant and floor sergeant in Shoreline and then selected as Chief of Police in the City of Maple Valley where I spent ten years. I started a number of community programs, very good experience. Came out of there as an administrative captain, spent time in the civil unit, property unit, records unit, facilities, vehicle fleets, diversity recruiting. Was the LGBTQ liaison for the Sheriff's Office and a host of other duties and assignments including records and data. Selected as the Chief of Police for the City of Sammamish, spent three years there and came out from there to be promoted to the rank of major, sent to work directly with the sheriff, responsible for creating 5-year strategic plan, biennial budget and operations plan for the Sher f 's Office, wrote the Wellness and Resiliency Policy, wrote the Body Cam Policy and was the liaison to the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight, a group that oversees law enforcement practices. I retired from the Sheriff's Office January 17, 2021 after almost 31 years. Lasted 61 days and then came to the City of Edmonds to begin work as the Interim Police Chief. I love to play soccer, softball, trail running have four beautiful children and do a lot of gardening. Went to Central Washington University for bachelors and master's degrees. Master's degree in organizational development and behavior, basically workplace psychology degree. Very interesting doing consulting work in different agencies. From there, I started a couple consulting businesses, specifically centered around bullying and teaching school prevention for bullying. Part of that was via a Department of Justice grant for $50, 000 when I worked in Shoreline to develop an anti -bullying curriculum that went nationwide, teaching at conferences and distributing the curriculum to various educational institutions. My doctorate is in education with an emphasis in curriculum and instruction through Seattle University; my dissertation topic was on bullying prevention which eventually led to my consultant work in workplace bullying. When people hit the age of 18, they do not necessarily stop all the behaviors they have done all their lives, it just is called something different. I've spent the last 15 years going into different police agencies, government agencies, schools, higher education and a variety of other places taking about workplace bullying and how to prevent it, Creating Civil Workplaces is the title of the presentation. I have a bigpassion for fairness and civility and how we treat each other, both internally and externally. That has been my life passion at work, even during my time as an employee of the Sheriffs Office as well as in Edmonds. Councilmember Olson: Thank you for coming to Edmonds in its time of need. Everybody has been following the national discussion about policing reform and appreciating the reason behind it. At the same time, we're a community that does appreciate law and order. Why do you think you're the right person to navigate that balancing act here in Edmonds? Do you mean the legislative initiatives and changes and how we police or? Not specifically but the movement toward a gentler, more interactive, less dealing with the here and now in the moment and being more relationship based and getting to root causes, and trying not to treat everything as a criminal justice issue and at the same time, trying to keep neighborhoods nice and safe and not having break-ins, vandalism and other things that people do not want to go unchecked but at the same time, may not be criminal things. The legislation is part of it, the state is responding to some of those initiatives. Also the City's own philosophies of trying to be a softer, gentler police force and yet still in the end being successful at having law and order in the community. You hit the nail on the head. That has been not only a local movement for many communities but also a state legislative movement now. I think that started at the Criminal Justice Training Commission when Sue Rahr took over there and changed the tagline to guardians instead of warriors which was sort of the previous thought process. Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 2 Nationally, we started in 2014 with the Ferguson incident which led to the 21 S` Century Task Force on Policing led by then President Obama. So he had six basic pillars of what we can do to enhance policing, building trust and legitimacy was one of the first ones; that comes into accountability. Police oversight is also part of accountability with trust and legitimacy. Technology and social media will be a huge piece of that; the message we are relaying of our work, what we can and can't do, how we can do crime prevention in the community and again connecting with community members. Community policing and crime reduction was a huge part of the 21" Century Task Force, specifically related to how do we get out in the community, how are we relating to community members, the police are the public, the public are the police, are we listening. Last night was National Night Out, crime prevention materials were handed out at various National Night Out locations, talking with community members and kids. Part of that is the community engagement piece which is one of the exciting things in Edmonds. One of my biggest passions in policing is creating community engagement programs and allowing the public to get to know you as a person. I heard a story yesterday from a person at a National Night Out event who said English was not their second language, and when they had an issue, an Edmonds officer called him by name and knew him. He was comforted that someone in the police department knew him, and it completely quelled all his fears. Engaging with the public and building trust is important as are training and education, anti -bias training, crisis reduction/intervention and officer wellness and safety. Those all correlate as the six pillars to address how we relate to the community. Council President Paine: How would you integrate the new laws in Washington State into the policies and procedures for the Edmonds Police Department? If you could provide specifics, that would be helpful. In integration we have developed general orders that provide the guidance we need on the ground for officers initially. We've been working with our attorneys, Lighthouse Law, particularly Sharon who has been working closely with our staff. Each sergeant was assigned one of the bills that impact policing and they created groups to address every word within the legislation and then worked with the attorneys to build policies around that which led to the general orders that were sent out. My directed community message went out yesterday and I'm working with the video unit to put together five short, hopefully watchable videos that describe how the legislative initiatives might impact policing for them or the community. Going out into the public is another big piece. Most of the questions at yesterday's National Night Out were about the legislative changes and how that will impact citizens in their everyday life, what can and can't the police do. The big message in leading this department is we're not going to stop patrol, going out on community patrols. We're not going to sit in the station and wait for a 911 call and then go out. We will be out and present as a community force and community engagement, building relationships with people, being service oriented which is why everyone got into the job in the first place. It might just be different ways that things in policing have to be done, probably cause versus reasonable suspicion, removing less than lethal munitions because of the SO caliber rule, but those can be replaced with ones that don't break that law but are still a less than lethal force. Training and education is a huge piece of in-service training; what do each of these legislative initiatives mean for the department? Not just the definition, but what does it mean in action, scenario based training. Breaking it down into what we can and can't do and when. I've also been meeting with legislators to discuss some of the unintended consequences of some of the legislation and what can be done to fix it or make it better. I hope to continue to be a big part of that push with the legislative body to address some of the unintended consequences that may not have been foreseen. All those things together are pieces of how we are integrating the new legislation into this community. That messaging on social media, the message that we're out and about, the visibility of being out and about, I would never want anyone in the Edmonds community to feel like we're de policing or we're not going to Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 3 be out or we're not going to contact people. I think that's a woe -is -me attitude or sour grapes and I don't agree with it. There are some agencies locally that have told their staff to sit in the station until they get a 911 call and not go out otherwise. I completely disagree with that; we are community stewards, that's our role. We might do things a little different, create more time, distance and space, do more investigative work prior to establishingprobable cause, but we will maintain community safety, maintain police response and have the training and policy in place. We have the two main, 1054 and 1310, we have those policies in place and drafted and the in-service training is already written in our training unit. I feel good about what we've done; it's not me, it's all the work of the sergeants that have taken each one of these on and done research. I reached out to other chiefs in the community to borrow, appropriate and utilize their policies to see what they have done with their legal advisers. My staff has done an amazing job putting that together on time and we're ready to go. Councilmember Distelhorst: Police leaders must sometimes made decisions that are unpopular with the public, with employees and staff or even with themselves. Please describe a specific time when you had to make such a difficult decision, the response you encountered either from the public, staff or yourself and how you handled that response. Probably one of the most difficult things has been the new legislation, there will always be conflict because 50% of the people love it and 50% of the people hate it whether internally or externally. One of the really difficult issues borne out of the 1054 and 1310 house bills was the less than lethal 50 caliber, we call them sage launchers, it basically launches beanbag rounds, which has been effective in incapacitating people instead of using deadly force. There was recently a domestic violence where the person had a gun. We negotiated for a very long time. He wouldn't drop the gun. Several orders were issued. He was in conflict with his wife and son, it was a dangerous situation and we had the North South Metro SWAT Team trying to talk to him and create distance, dialogue and crisis intervention. Eventually as he was getting more ramped up, we were able to use that less than lethal which incapacitated him to the point where he dropped the gun and we were able to handcuff him without incident. That's how you always want things to go, the community is safe, the public is safe, the family is safe, he's safe because no one wants to be involved in the use of deadly force, and we were able to solve that and take him to jail. House Bill 1054 and 1310, specifically 1054, outlaws legally the use of less than lethal launchers because they are over 50 caliber which is what the law specifically states. It is not a popular decision, telling all your officers you have to remove your less than lethal from your vehicles based on law. Half the people were happy about it because they felt very uncomfortable having those and the other half were upset because this is a tool we need. The public also expects the police to have less than lethal, no one wants a use of force encounter involving deadly force and wherever possible avoid that. I did a lot of research, spoke with Washington State Police Chief and Sheriffs executive Board Steve Strand and Jim McMann who are the leaders in Washington State, kept getting different opinions, it wasn't really legislators' intent to remove those but they're not willing yet to make a statement or change the legislation. We talked to the attorney general's office but they haven't made any statements either even though they said they might. Then WACOPS and FOP, the two local union organizations in the state issued very strong statements that absolutely less than lethal shouldn't be in the vehicles, that it's civil liability, etc. The state academy issued a statement saying we don't think we'd decertify someone if they used less than lethal. But when it comes down to the law, if there's ambiguity, you always follows the letter of the law. By keeping less than lethal in vehicles, which is now illegal, I'm putting officers in a state where they have a less than lethal available and HB 1310 says you'll use all means up until lethal force, so if they use less than lethal they're using 1310, but if they use the less than lethal, they're violating 1054 which mandates immediate decertification as well as the potential for criminal charges and civil liability. It's like the impossible situation to be in; if you leave them in vehicles, they are darned either way; if you take then out, you've taken away a tool. Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 4 It was very difficult and there were a lot of conversations within the department and with the Mayor, and I probably spent two or three sleepless nights because there are ethic things and morals that come with that. Bottomline we were told by Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace that if they see less than lethal in our vehicles, they will report our officers to the state for decertification. Obviously the right decision is to remove them; however, in removing them, it is necessary to find less than lethal that does not violate state law. We 've been able to locate, although they're on backorder, a number of d f"erent less than lethal options that might not be quite as effective but are still effective. We're letting our staff know this is what we have, we're still going to protect you and the community, we just have to do it a little differently. Councilmember L. Johnson: Given your research, insight and expertise, what challenges and/or opportunities both internal and external facing have you identified that are specific though not necessarily exclusive to Edmonds? It's been a learning experience for me coming from an outside agency and a different county. I've been able to look at it with afresh lens which can be beneficial. It's a huge learning curve but it's also a way to look at things in a different way and if I hear one more time, that's the way we've always done things, I may explode. It's become a running joke because the next time I'm handed a stack ofpaper to sign, I ask why isn't this online? Some of the things with my research, insight and expertise and reading publications and living it in a different agency, one of the biggest things is we have no complaint tracking system in the City of Edmonds. So if you file a complaint, we take it on the phone and potentially nothing is done. Bestpractices for law enforcement is to have a complaint tracking system which for most agencies is called IAPro or Blue Team, a way of tracking complaints. We take all complaints, you don't poo poo any of them. We take then, we track them, not only does the system take complaints and give accurate descriptions of those complaints and investigative steps, it also tracks use of force incidents specifically down to where on the body force was used. It has an early warning intervention system for officers if they have too many pursuits and uses of force in a row. It also ties performance evaluations, which are all done by hand now, into this system which also take accommodations, supervisor action logs, etc. It's all online and it's all by person which is huge. I can't tell you how many piece ofpaper I sign each day and it's like uploaded into the computer and put in a file. The problem with doing it that way is you can't draw data out of that system. We need to be able to do data analytics so we need that system. The first overarching theme is systems; we need a complaint tracking system, use of force tracking system, pursuit tracking system, performance evaluation tracking system, and a training system. Apparently the 2019 firearms records were lost for a time because they were all in a box; we can't do that, they need to be electronic or cloud -based. Developing systems is probably the biggest insight since I've arrived here. Number two is community engagement programs, we don't have any. We need a community academy, a volunteer program, an Explorer program, having the community engagement officer on board, doing outreach and tying social media into that. I could go on for hours. Community engagement is important. Third is related to how we communicate. Internally communication is improving; I've met with each officer individually which has been a huge piece of that communication, sending out regular communication. The organization goes from sergeant to assistant chief which is very bizarre so there's no mid -level management which helps with transparency and accountability. I would look at, using the least amount of money possible, how to restructure how we do things to have more transparency and accountability within our staff which will enhance communication. Those are the three big, huge things, if I'm still here, that will be budget decision packages, to help enhance what the police department does and being accountable and apparent both internally and externally. Councilmember Buckshnis: Thank you for your resume, it was very nicely done. As you know, my background is finance. The Edmonds Police Department has a $12 million budget. Over the past ten years if not longer, there has consistently been $400,000 in overtime. With the national talk of defunding or potentially defunding portions of the police department, what is your opinion about the Crisis Assistance Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 5 Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS) model which has been well received in many cities, what is your opinion about using such a private -public partnership and do you think it could have an impact on our budget? Good question and something a lot of agencies have been working towards. When I was in Sammamish we were working with the legislators there, I think it was Kathy Lambert who had $40, 000 to embed social workers within the department in Sammamish or that was something we were working toward before I was promoted. I think the model is good, popular or not, my belief has always been law enforcement should work in a team environment. The purpose of law enforcement is protecting and serving person and property. So if we're able to work in a team where we respond to a crisis event, law enforcement needs to render it safe first. There was an incident where a social worker was sent first and unfortunately thatperson was stabbed over 40 times because of the mental instability of the person they were addressing. We can't negate the safety piece of law enforcement rendering a volatile situation safe first. Once that safety has been ensured, whatever that looks like, whatever the issue is, whether it's crisis or mental health, addiction, unhoused or other social service need, it is really important to bring in the folks with social service experience to solve the problem. It doesn't help to pick up an unhoused person and drive them to the next county or city and drop them off. It doesn't help to arrest someone with addiction problems or mental health issues when we're not getting to the underlying cause because we 'll just arrest them again and again, not really serving what we need to serve. There was community court processes that Edmonds had for a while, but I understand it went away. I studied the Redmond model when I was in Sammamish; they have court where if someone chooses diversion, they go into the lobby and all the social services are in the lobby and they can partake in those services to get the help they needed. That is a brilliant model to get to the bottom of the iceberg, what is the actual problem? Working in teams and having a private public partnership in that way as long as it's safe is brilliant. I know the City is trying to hire a social worker. There were apparently problems from the last time that person was here, but it's an amazing idea and how we need to do policing in the future. Let's stop this didactic method of arrest, jail, rehabilitate. The systems is kind of broken and it's exciting to think about now with public support and a lot of legislative support looking at alternatives to how we've done business. The goal isn't to arrest someone and take them to jail, the goal is to solve your problem and make you as healthy a person as you can be. We're here to assist. Councilmember Fraley-Monillas: Thank you Chief Bennett for applying for the job. Policing is stressful, changing and has a high occurrence of burnout in the field. How do you support adding resiliency to your team knowing that stressed out officers don't always make the best decisions? You're absolutely right. Not only having that stressed out, mentally stressedperson not making the best decisions internally, they don't make the best decisions externally, so it's a huge issue that was really coming to a head prior to the George Floyd incident where there was actually national legislation looking at helping with wellness and resiliency. I don't think those things have disappeared, they are just more on the back burner. During my time with the Sheriffs Office, I was asked to develop a wellness and resiliency policy for the Sheriffs Office which has about 1, 000 members. I wrote a job description and a policy with 11 subcategories for how we can provide wellness and resiliency for officers. That position was called the WARD (Wellness And Resiliency Deputy). When the position was funded, there is a therapy dog that accompanies her to sites throughout the county. Peer support is a huge piece; there is a very robust peer support program in Edmonds. There are so many other things that could be done, I could list the I different methodologies, but I will cover the highlights. Issaquah Police Chief Scott Behrbaum has a financial counselor, nutritionist, and PTSD person come in once a week, open and available to police staff. Another important thing is physical health; two friends my age dropped from massive heart attacks who had no idea and I wouldn't have thought they were at risk. There is a program where a cardiologist comes into the station and anonymously tests for blockages. I Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 6 would love to see Edmonds take the lead in allowing officers on -duty to get an annual physical. It's covered by insurance and would have to be anonymous so there are no union issues. That would help with identifying health issues and doing preventative maintenance instead of reactive maintenance. Mentally, I'm working with the mental health counselor for this area both in Snohomish and Counties about PTSD and in -the -moment resiliency; while someone is in the middle of call, how to calm themselves down, steps to take after the call. I was president of the King County Chiefs Association, the current president of the FBI National Academy Association and on the WASPC Legislative Committee; those organizations agreed to work together and signed an MOU to develop a statewide available wellness and resiliency policy. One of the first pieces of that is an app that has wellness and resiliency folks that officers can contact for mental health issues, sleep disorders, nutrition, etc. It is very important to address this; I had a sergeant I worked with for 20 years who took his own life two years ago which no one saw coming. It haunts them all every day, what can we do to prevent that before it happens? Councilmember K. Johnson: What experience have you had or what ideas do you have for collaboration with local healthcare for facilities and emergency departments or interventions to address the opioid crisis? First my experience, while I was in Sammamish, we had two fentanyl overdoses of teen boys, both 16, both athletes. The reason I believe there were fatal results in both was they had taken a Percocetpill laced with fentanyl and immediately gone to bed. In both instances, they were found dead by family members in the morning from an opioid overdose. That made statewide news so the Sheriff and I worked with the Street Crimes Unit to address who was dealing, they were able to find the person who provided those which is the enforcement piece. Part of it was media; I worked with the school district to put on a town hall meeting held at Central Washington University campus in Sammamish open to all members of the public. A similar thing happened in Maple Valley when I was the chief, a drug crisis in the high school and they did a town hall meeting there as well. The town hall included a doctor to talk about the effects, people to describe drug kits, parent education, a program called Hidden in Plain Sight where parents are invited to unlock the bedroom of a teenager so they can spot what drug use and paraphernalia look like, there are about 50 items and most people have no idea. The school resource officers and the drug unit also talked. The second piece is working with non- profits; while in Sammamish I started a healthy communities coalition where approximately 50 nonprofits, many of whom were doing the same thing but weren't talking to each other, were invited to the police department which included the fire department, faith based organizations, school district, etc. and voted on the top four issues facing the city, one of which was drugs and alcohol among youth. They began putting together a number of programs to address it with drug dependency counselors, school counselors, educational programs, specialists making presentations on drugs and the impacts they can have. There were also youth panelists who talked about their stresses. It is interesting how law enforcement or adults tell kids what needs to be done to fix a problem; but really the kids need to tell us this is what we're experiencing and how you can help. For adults, the community court idea of actually getting to the addictive problem, getting to the core of the problem versus taking someone to jail, having a diversion program. Snohomish County has a heroin or opioid diversion program where instead of going to jail, you choose a treatment option. Last time I talked to the Sheri it had a 75% success rate. We need alternative methods to how we've always done things to address this horrible crisis which has taken so many lives. In King County, all officers have Narcan kits so part of how this is addressed by using hospitals and treatment centers is to make sure Narcan kits area issued to people struggling with addiction which will at least help with fatalities. Wrap Up: I would like to take any follow-up questions. Councilmember Buckshnis: How would CAHOOTS impact the budget? There is already money in the budget for the social worker and Human Services Program. I don't think there will be a huge impact to the budget because it's already been slated. It's really Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 7 just staff time helping to coordinate that and working with a lot of nonprofits so it could be pretty budget neutral. I've enjoyed my time in Edmonds, I love the community. When I came here I had really no thought of applying for the permanent job and after I was here for a little while, I thought this place was amazing. The officers are great, the community is fantastic and there's so much potential in this agency to really move forward in a very positive way with community engagement and doing things a little bit differently which sometimes is scary for folks but as they get into it, they can see how impactful and effective we can be. It's kind of like having the perfect sand and we just have to structure it in a way that's beneficial with input from all to make sure we're the best police department we can be and that's exciting for me. Dante Orlandi Councilmembers interviewed Major Dante Orlandi (answers in italics): Opening statement: I'd like to thank all of you for this opportunity. I know you have busy schedules and a lot on your plates so I appreciate the time you're taking to do this process and inviting me here to be part of the process. I worked for 34 years with the Pennsylvania State Police. The only reason that I'm not there now is I had to retire. We have mandatory retirement so I had no choice but to retire. In fact the commissioner who is a friend of mine, we actually looked into it a little further and we both knew legislatively there was nothing else we could do but retire. I have a passion for law enforcement; I love being part of the community, part of improving the world and making it a better place. As a little boy, the only thing I ever wanted to do was be a police officer. In fact in 1978 when I was 18 years old, I wrote letters across the country seeing ifI could get a job in law enforcement. I even didsome stuff in Washington, but of course no one would hire an 18 year old. So I waited until I turned 21 and started applying to the Pennsylvania State Police. I was hired in the 80s, 34-35 years ago and like most people that become troopers, I started in patrol. I worked patrol, crime, and undercover operations, I supervised patrol, undercover and criminal investigations, everything from organized crime to multiple homicides, officer involved shootings, have been involved in a lot of things throughout my career. Then I worked my way up and I became a captain and I was the director of drug law enforcement. For those unfamiliar with Pennsylvania State Police, it is the ninth largestpolice department in the country. There's 6,351 total complement with an operating budget of about $1.1 billion. I was the director of drug law enforcement therefor two years, involved in all types of drug investigations for the entire state. Then I was moved to become a troop commander where I was responsible for a complement of about 265 personnel at 5 stations within 4 counties and an operating budget of about $4.3 million. Reading is about 50-60 miles from Philadelphia. I was then promoted to captain where I was one of three area commanders responsible basically for the whole state. The state was broken down into three parts, east, west and central and I was the area commander for about 1500 people and 8 stations which equates to about 36 different police stations and responsible for everything from building a new station to human resources to resource allocations to risk management, everything associated with a police organization. I had a lot of experience with diverse groups of people. When I first got on the job, I was stationed at Avondale which was located outside Philadelphia and there was a dividing area where people like the Duponts were from, where Jackie Onassis would fly in for horse shows and right next to it was the migrant mushroom camps. One day I went to the artist Andrew Wyatt's house and the next day I'm dealing with people who can't speak English or who are impoverished. The gamut of experience reaches far. The Pennsylvania State Police isn't like a lot of other state police organizations where they are highway patrol; we were full service department that does everything from thefts to organized crime, from a mounted detail to various crisis intervention units, etc. You name it, that's what Iwas responsible for. And then Igot Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 8 to the point in my career, everybody works for the day they get to retire. I never wanted to do that; I never had any desire at all to retire. Due to mandatory retirement, I had no choice. Once I retired, I lined up a few things, but then COVID hit and things didn't work out. It kills me not to be a part of something greater than myself which is the reason I came into law enforcement to begin with. It's something I don't look at as a job, it's a passion, a calling, part of who I am and something I just love. Councilmember Buckshnis: I thoroughly enjoyed your resume and thank you for your service. My background is finance and I have a two part question. The Edmonds Police Department has a $12 million budget, of which about $400,000 has consistently been for overtime for at least a decade. With the national talk about defunding or potentially defunding portions of the police department, some cities have utilized the Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS) model where police join in a public -private partnership with an NGO and work the streets together. What is your opinion about this model and do you think implementing it would have a significant budget impact or no budget impact? It's difficult to say because I don't have a full grasp of how that would work. For the most part having an NGO working with police, it depends on their role. You do not want to putpeople in harm's way and often things happen very quickly making it difficult to determine when that person should be there. I don't know how it is in Washington, but in Pennsylvania, there are certain things that can and can't be done with civilian personnel. For instance, going to a call where a father is having a dispute with their child, that is a private thing and who gets to go becomes a question I can't answer for how that works in Washington. I would have to know more specifics about what they would be involved in to make a good call. My kneejerk reaction would be it doesn't sound like something that would be appropriate for apartnership. Partnerships are great and I don't want to confuse things because I'm not 100% sure how it would play out. If we had a mental health crisis person working with a law enforcement person, that might be a good thing for the right circumstances. Issues would include when they are available, are they necessarily available at 3 a.m. when that call is received, and other things that would need to be worked out. Those partnerships could be good in the appropriate application. Overtime has always been an issue with law enforcement and I've dealt with it 27 years as a supervisor, 17 years as a commander; a commander is basically like a chief of police. Overtime has always been an issue; the responsibility of management and a leader is to be judicious about overtime. It's not my money or their money, it's taxpayers' money and we need to utilize that money so it best affects the people we work for and serve. I don't know if those partnerships would reduce the amount and could actually have an inverse effect by requiring officers to wait for the NGO person to arrive. I think it's worth exploring but it would be wrong for me to express an opinion when I do not have all the facts and exact details. But anytime we can work together to solve a problem is a good thing. Councilmember Buckshnis: I understand the differences between west coast and east coast; I have friends in Pennsylvania. Councilmember Fraley-Monillas: Understanding that policing is stressful, changing and has a high occurrence of burnout in the field, how do you support and add resiliency to your team knowing that stressed out officers don't always make the best decisions? One of the things I always did as a supervisor as a leader is to look out for my folks and make sure they're happy, productive and content. You want to keep people on an even keel, but there are great times when you get married or promoted, and there are those bad times when you have a sick child or issues. It is up to us to make sure we're looking out for them. For example, I had a polygraph operator who came into my office in tears because every time there was a homicide, a crucial investigation without a lot of physical evidence, the burden was on him because everyone was looking at the polygrapher to get that confession so it's crushing for them. I had a big burly guy, Marine type in a forensic services unit in my office crying because he was tired of going to see dead kids, dead bodies. The forensic services unit goes to autopsies, fires, crashes, etc. and it is stressful and difficult. What's going on now with law enforcement and some communities not supporting Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 9 law enforcement makes it really difficultfor them. They are our heroes who are out while we're sleeping comfortable in our houses at night, they are out dealing with things we don't even want to hear about. We have to look out for them. It's a stressful job and it's even more stressful with what's going on now. Whatever an officer is going through, whether personal, financial, marital, substance abuse, etc. we need to look out for them. We have peer contact; any time a supervisor sees someone whose behavior changes such as reports turned in late, it does not require a formal counseling session but just going out for coffee and talking about things which is usually where more information is shared about something going on in thatperson's life. Officers deal with people's problems all day long; who do they go to when they have problems? Unfortunately it tends to be this hero, macho thing where they don't want to tell anyone they're upset about something or that it disturbed them that a homeless person has no place to go and that there are no social services available. We have to look out for them and the best way is as a commander making sure your supervisors are aware, educated and trained to look beyond just the normal, everyday things that officers are involved in. It's about caring for them, it's like they are my children, like having 1500 people that I'm responsible for. Councilmember Fraley-Monillas thanked Major Orlandi for his service and the length of his service. Councilmember L. Johnson: Given your research, insight and/or expertise, what challenges or opportunities, both internal and external facing, have you identified or suspect that are specific to Edmonds but not necessarily exclusive to Edmonds? That's a tough one because anytime you say I'm going to come in and I'm going to bring change and do A, B and C, it's almost insulting to the people that are there and that they aren't doing a good job and there are issues. The only comments I can make are as an outsider. Certainly I could read news articles, two commanders need to be hired and the department is down about eight, but that is second, thirdhand information and I would be careful in saying I want to identify issues when I don't really have the facts. I don't think that's fair to the community, the officers or the department without having all the factual information. Edmonds will not be any different than many of the departments around the country. You're facing hiring practices, you want to hire a diverse group of people, the same is true around the country. It's hard to attract people to the police department at this point. When I was hired, there were thousands signing up for the testing; there was no advertising for the next test because so many people were applying. Now it's a different story. There's things that can be done to increase hiring. Training is always an issue; the better trained officers are, the better they can protect themselves which means less lawsuits. When they are better trained, more than likely they will not be involved in as many lawsuits which means there's not $10 million out the door, that $10 million that can be budgeted for community, parks, recreation and other things and not wasted because an officer did something they shouldn't have done and could have been easily rectified by training and education. There are many things, whether budgetary issues, using resource multipliers to combine resources to effectively get the job done. These are all things that are broad base around the country and I'm sure Edmonds is similar and having their issues as well. Councilmember Distelhorst: Having family connections to Reading, I have fond memories of Jimmy Cramer's Peanut Bar. Police leaders must sometimes make decisions which are unpopular with the public, with employees or even with themselves. Please describe a specific time when you had to make such a difficult decision, the response you encountered and how you dealt with it. The one thing that I can recall was dealing with informants. When I was doing undercover work years ago, there was a need to document informants. So there were all these salty old undercover troopers that didn't want to document their informants. There were many reasons for documenting informants, whether it was because an informant was killed, playing both sides of the fence, troopers saying they were paying informants when they were actually pocketing the money, male and female encounters, who was liable if something happened to an informant, etc. There was an unpopular decision made to require us to document informants. We required Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 10 them to take a photograph of the informant, fingerprint them, provide a state identification number and other bio information. That did not go over well with that community of police officers. Back then, you would go out and do a drug deal, give the informant maybe $50 for their time and service. We required two people be present to do that which alleviated a lot of false accusations and ultimately when it was explained to the officers, it worked out well. Another example would be body recorders for in - car cameras and actually activating the mics. Some in the community liked that and others didn't because if someone was stopped and had an innocent encounter yet were recorded, does that become part of the Freedom of Information Act? You may have been acting a little unprofessional in that; the community and law enforcement had mixed opinions on that. It was overwhelmingly supported but those changes were made, mostly with opposition within the department, not as much from outside. The first time scenes from a crime scene or officer involved shooting were captured or an officer was accused of something such as bribery that didn't occur, members realized how valuable the tool was in their safety and integrity and there was buy -in. The key to all those things is communication. If your boss tells you to do something and you think that doesn't sound good, when the reasons are explained and you provide your input, it makes it more palatable because you're part of the decision making process. Plus when you understand why you're doing certain things, it make sense because sometimes you don't have the whole picture, but someone in a position of leadership like the Mayor or City Council has a bigger perspective and understands it and buy -in comes from understanding. It all comes down to communication. Councilmember K. Johnson: What experience have you had or what ideas do you have for collaboration with local healthcare for facilities and emergency departments or interventions to address the opioid crisis? I have a lot of experience unfortunately; I worked undercover for two years in Philadelphia. I supervised a drug unit for four years and was the director for the state of Pennsylvania for drugs. One of the things I get down on myself about is I became a trooper because I wanted to win that war on drugs, I wanted to make the world a better place, but we've utterly failed with drugs. I can't blame anyone person, I can't blame law enforcement for the devastation that occurs due to drug addiction. I remember working with an informant one time, a hardened criminal, who was going to make a couple kilo buy and he said I did various drugs and didn't think it was a big deal and then I injected heroin and I knew from that day on that it was over. I live in a nice development, four houses down the kid that my daughter grew up with overdosed on heroin; it's a terrible thing. To think about the pain that mother goes through every Christmas because her son's not there. It's horrible. What can we do? Enforcement's a big thing; if you were to ask me 20 years ago what percentage of your budget goes toward law enforcement versus interdiction work versus rehabilitation versus discouraging it, I would have said give it all to law enforcement because we're gonna solve this problem. That comes from a 25 year old without enough experience. It is multifaceted, if we had the answer, we wouldn't have the problem. It's complex; we need to partner with as many people as we can, healthcare providers and schools. One of the programs I started was, I got tired of just having presentation by community service people going into schools, telling a 4`h grader not to do heroin isn't effective, they probably don't have a clue about how to get heroin. We should be going into colleges where access is more likely. We tried to do that in high schools, but educators are under a lot of mandates as well so they can't take time out of their curriculum to spend an hour on drug information. Same thing on the healthcare side, nobody wants to put people with a social problem in the criminal justice system when there are better places for them like the healthcare system. We still need to do law enforcement, that's what we do, we're not healthcare workers or social services, but connecting law enforcement with those other entities at least gives a fighting chance, an opportunity to partner with healthcare. One of the things is having a connection with local emergency rooms, not just in Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 11 the local community, but in neighboring counties to see what they are seeing which provides intelligence for officers and task forces. There are a lot of connections that can be made, probation/parole, to make it a team effort, the best that we can. I think there is a lot we can do, but unfortunately sometimes budget and priorities are competing interests. One of the biggest problems in society, and I'm biased due to my background in drug work, is opioids and the devastation they cause. Councilmember Olson: We've all been following the national conversation about policing reform and appreciating the reasons behind it and at the same time we're a community that appreciates law and order. Why do you think you're the right person to navigate this balancing act in Edmonds? From my background, I'm kind of a law and order person. After 34 years, that what I grew up on the job with. Police reform, some of it is silliness, they do not understand what they're talking about, but some of it is important and legitimate and things we need to look at. Just like the community activist or whoever it might be that's always bringing something up, a lot of times there is substance behind their complaint. We need to look at those complaints and what those reforms are. If a reform says we want a database on officer assaults or use offorce incidents, that might be a good thing to do in police reform. It is still about law and order, but it's still about what's best for the community that law enforcement serves. I have 34 years of experience; I've done patrol work, I've done undercover work, I've done community outreach, I don't like talking about myself but I have a lot of experience and in reading 21" Century Policing, one of the questions is whether this is just another template. There are 156points in it that fall within 6 pillars; that is a good foundation to build on and dovetailing my 34 years of experience with 21" Century Policing gives me the ability to understand things that are practical and others that are not, and be able to pursue not just the hot topics, but topics of substance and can truly make law enforcement better. Law enforcement does an outstanding job; I have so many stories. As a troop commander I want our members getting out and being part of the public as best they can; I had a trooper who didn't tell anyone, went to the store, bought a bunch of roses and on Mother's Day he goes to a nursing home and passed them out. That's what law enforcement is and that's what I want to be apart of. If there are good police reform points, let's look at them, talk about them and if they are appropriate, it is not one size fits all. Something that works in Philadelphia might not work in Pittsburg even though they are similar cities. Things that work in Lancaster may not work in Edmonds. Across the board there are a lot of good things that could be done, but not paint everything with a broad brush that all police officers are bad. From my personal experience, the overwhelming majority of officers, I would lay down my life for them in a minute, that's how much I feel for the folks I have worked with through the years. If reform is needed and things that need to be done better, almost all of us want to do a better job so we can better serve the communities and society in general. Council President Paine: How will you integrate the new laws of Washington state into the policies and procedures for the Edmonds Police Department? And if you can, be specific or draw on past experience. I'm not as familiar with Washington. I know there's some laws they were talking about related to police pursuits or military type equipment. Just like the earlier question regarding how to get buy -in when there and unpopular policy, it is the same thing. I may totally disagree about military equipment, I've been involved in instances where those big, fortified armored vehicles saved troopers' lives. That is not military equipment, but police equipment that saves police officers' and citizens' lives. If the policy makers say you can't use that, I have no choice. There are plenty of things I may not agree with or like but are now law so we have to deal with that. If there are other ways around things and still get the job done, that's great. Mace is considered military equipment or controversial. When I came on the job, I had a revolver with a six round speed loader and a pair of handcuffs; there was no mace, no tasers, nothing. When I was in a confrontation, it was either a fight or it went right to lethal force. What do you do when someone comes toward you with a knife when you only have a pistol in your hands? I was in that position and for the grace Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 12 of God I wasn't killed and we were able to not harm that person. Looking back, that might not have been the smartest thing, I might not have two daughters now because of that. Those tools are useful and helpful to police officers. If the new law is we can't use those, we have to determine why that law was enacted and how can we still get the job done in compliance with the law and also still protect our officers and protect our communities. The hat, the gun, the badge, the patch on the sleeve are all great symbols of the police department but it is what in our hearts that counts. We work for the public so if society says we no longer want police pursuits, I've been involved in my share of those and I can tell you Josh Miller who was shot and killed but saved a child in the car, that pursuit was well worth it, not because the trooper died but because the kid lived. I have opinions on it but if the law says you cannot do a pursuit, we'll have to work in a different way, whether it's radioing ahead although that might not be the right thing, but there might be things we can do to still get some kind of result while being compliant with the new policies we're confronted with. Sometimes it's hard but I'm not going to back away because it's hard; if that's the law, we'll work with it and find a way to still get the job done one way or another in compliance with the wishes of the community at large through the laws they enact. Wrap-up: Thank you for allowing me to come here and be part of this process. You have to make the right pick, whoever that is. If it's not me, great; you have to be comfortable with who you have because this is an important position. Being a City Councilmember or Mayor are great positions, prestigious but you have a responsibility to the community. You wouldn't be in the position if you didn't take it seriously because you spent a lot of your time doing it. This is an important decision and I certainly would love to be that pick, but I understand I might not be and I wish you well in whoever you pick. I hope whoever it is works out for you and I wish you well. Thanks again for inviting me here. This seems like a great place to live. Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to move out west. It's beautiful around here, there's a nice community, and it's nice to have a small town atmosphere but yet there are the amenities of a city. I hope you know how lucky you have it; this is a great place, a beautiful place and it seems like there are a lot of good people. I was walking down the street in a suit on my way to meet with the Mayor and someone struck up a conversation with me. It seems like a friendly place that I want to be part of. I thank you again. Lawrence Hunter Councilmembers interviewed Captain Lawrence Hunter (answers in italics): Opening statement: My name is Lawrence Hunter. I am a lifelong resident of the City of Waterbury, Connecticut. I jointed the police department when I was 22 years old. I was therefor 24 years and retired at the rank of captain. During that time I was a defensive tactics instructor, I taught implicit bias, I taught civil complaints, and a number of other things. I rose through the ranks via civil service testing to become a sergeant, lieutenant, and ultimately a captain. I was a midnight shift commander for a number of years as well as the internal affairs commander. Through that time I coached ourpolice activities league, I believe in being an active member of the community and kept my children involved in that. I coached basketball, baseball, and a host of other sports. When I was a lieutenant, I decided to complete my education, got three degrees in six years, completing my associates, bachelors and masters in three years while coaching, raising a family and being married. People often ask me how I did it and I can say, I really don't know. I was working third shift at the time so I was tired all the time. I retired in 2019 and spent the vast majority of my career in law enforcement and love it. I started a podcast called Captain Hunter's Podcast. I wrote a book called Police Reform which demonstrates my dedication and my love for what I've done and accomplished in my life. I started a consulting agency where I help officers who want to take promotional tests, walk them through the process. I currently teach at University of Bridgeport and will be teaching at Post University in the fall. Both classes Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 13 are online so I can go somewhere else and still be an active member of the universities. I was an active member of my department. Councilmember L. Johnson: Welcome Captain Hunter and thank you for being here today. Given your research, insight and/or expertise, what challenges or opportunities, both internal and external facing have you identified or do you suspect that are specific to Edmonds through not necessarily exclusive to Edmonds? I think one of the biggest things that I did some research on is the homeless population problem that's going on in Seattle and I understand is now growing in Edmonds. That was a problem in my home city and is a problem across the country. Almost every intersection where I come from there are now people standing with homeless signs saying they will workfor food and along those lines. That is a serious, major challenge that much of law enforcement is being confronted with. The idea of scaling back on the use of force and developing alternative methods to arrest so that is a major challenge we need to understand how to tackle and tackle it compassionately with other organizations and stakeholders and understand people may be down on their luck at the moment but that does not mean they are bad people or negative. It will be a challenge to convince people, those who are better off socioeconomically, to develop different ways and different mindsets about that. The police unfortunately can be a very conservative organization that has believed in the past about arresting their way out of differentproblems and circumstances and that's not going to work going forward. Councilmember Buckshnis: Thank you for your resume and your explanation of all the fun things about going to school, raising kids and having a job. I have a background in finance. The police department has a $12 million budget of which $400,000 has been overtime for the past decade. With the national talk of defending and potential defunding of police departments, some cities have gone on to a Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS) model which utilizes NGOs or nonprofits to assist police officers in their job. What is your opinion about using such a model and do you think it would have an impact on the budget? So I'm totally in favor of the CAHOOTS model. I didn't mention this, I was one of the first officers that was part of our crisis intervention team, training to help persons in crisis. I think CAHOOTS is a viable model. I recently interviewed one of the members of the CAHOOTS in Washington on my podcast although she may be living in Phoenix now. We had a great talk about their model. It is my understanding that with that model, the funding still comes from the protective services public services or emergency budget. I'm not sure how that would impact it on the front end. In the short run, we could scale back on officers' need for services so officers can focus on other things such as criminal aspects, protective services, other things along those lines. Maybe on the back end, that would be the best way to impact the budget. Councilmember Buckshnis: I was using the Eugene, Oregon model because I'm from Oregon. We had a huge article about it in Eugene. You were the only one who knew the actual acronym. Councilmember Distelhorst: Thank you for your application and for being with us this afternoon. Police leaders must sometimes make decisions which are unpopular with the public, with employees or even with yourself. Can you please describe a specific time when you had to make such a difficult decision and what the results were? An unpopular decision in the public's eye, your staff or something that you personally struggled with during your service and leadership in law enforcement and how you approached that and what was the outcome. I will take it from the staff perspective. As a commander of the midnight shift,there were many times when I had to confront officers, talk to officers, correct officers but the job has to be done. Our philosophy for our department was we do what the citizens ask us to do. Therefore, a lot of times, particularly in recent years because times have been changing so much, the way law enforcement has traditionally gone and we try to go in a different direction, less arrests, less tickets, less negative interaction with the public and trying to arrest our way out of problems, a lot of officers don't understand that and Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 14 think the old way, the traditional way was the best way. Here we are years later with protests and riots in the street and public perception of law enforcement is at an all-time low. My decisions were always based on what's best for the public; getting officers to go along with that was a true problem. So I explained the changes, I explaining why we were going along these lines, whatever that was, and that was always the bests method of going forward. It's not going to be popular, you're going be hated, you're going to be disliked and people are going to want to talk to you in your officer privately and they don't understand certain things. Case in point is the implicit bias training which I instructed; a lot of officers didn't understand why we had to teach implicit bias. They would come to me and say I'm not a racist. Well that's great, I'm glad you're not, but there's still some items we need to discuss and talk about. Many people when they think about implicit bias training, they think about race, but implicit bias training isn't necessarily about race. People have a natural preference for pretty females. So if you're a police officer and you pull over a pretty female, you may be less inclined to give her a ticket versus an ugly male, you might give them a ticket or someone who's short. So I try to address that from all angles and try to get officers to understand and see that the big picture regarding why we're doing what we're doing. It's not because people are necessarily racist in that particular example, I'm trying to convey that there's a bigger picture and you have to get officers to see the bigger picture and try to convince them to buy into what the organization is doing as a whole. Councilmember Fraley-Monillas: Thank you for applying for the job. Policing is a stressful, changing and has a high occurrence of burnout in the field. How do you support and add resiliency to your team knowing that a stressed out officer doesn't always make the best decisions?.I think it's important for officers to take vacation, to develop hobbies outside of work, to engage and interact with people who are notpolice officers. Often police officers' only friends and contacts are other police officers. I've been at softball games and the first thing they do is talk about the call they had last night. That has to stop. It is very important for officers to develop hobbies outside of law enforcement, have friends outside of law enforcement, take vacation time. A lot of times when suicides are committed by police officers, they go through their personnel file and realize in many instances these officers have not taken a vacation in years. It is important for administration and officials to encourage family life, encourage life outside of law enforcement. I was always questioned about my habits about not being more involved in what was going on, why I never joined SWAT or was on the K9 team. It is not that I don't enjoy the big guns and big toys, but I enjoyed more time with my family. That was why I coached my police activity league and coached my kids through that. I made sure my daughter was in softball and I personally brought her to that. That's why I stayed on the midnight shift so long was because I believed that family life was extremely important. I would encourage officers to take this line of thinking, to get out the box of being a cop all the time and be themselves and enjoy their kids, their wife, their dog. Councilmember Fraley-Monillas thanked him for applying for the job, commenting we all enjoy our time off. Council President Paine: How would you integrate the new laws of Washington State into policies and procedures for Edmonds Police Department. If you can, use specifics either drawing from your past or what your practice incudes. So again, I think it is a matter of buy -in. I was just reviewing some of the laws and changes related to military weapons which I understand a little bit of that. I think it's good to get an understanding so I would talk to inhouse counsel for the police department, have a great understanding regarding the intention of the laws, even call some representatives in, talk to other police departments, see the best way we're going to go about integrating these laws. From there, change policies and procedures and really try to make sure everyone has a great understanding and are able to buy into the law and changes. These laws are not popular, they are not popular in Connecticut and I understand they are not popular in Washington. I have a friend in Minnesota, I know they are not popular there as well. Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 15 Again, as Imentioned earlier, this is about thepublic and aboutpublic safety. We have to ensure all citizens are able to walk the streets, be pulled over by police officers and not have police officers overreact because they're scared or they thought they saw a weapon that was really a wallet or something along those lines. That's the method I would use; I would speak to other stakeholders, get an understanding myself, ensure my department has an understanding, talk to legal counsel and develop the best way of going forward and implement those plans as best we can with the police department. I'm sure I can convince them that every tool we already have we can be successful in enforcing the laws and keeping the public safe without the unnecessary aspects that people think will be coming down the line. Councilmember K. Johnson: What experience have you had or what ideas do you have for collaboration with local healthcare for facilities and emergency departments or interventions to address the opioid crisis? My interest would be in collaborating with those that know more about that than I do. Whatever the police department can do, we can certainly keep numbers, have officers trained in Narcan, the chemical used to help those who have overdosed regain consciousness. As far as combating the opioid crisis, that is a public health and doctors' situation. We would do whatever we can to support this to ensure people are referred for help and not always arresting people, but it is something for the medical field. As far as the criminal end, certainly we would investigate any situation that comes along, make the proper arrests, do the proper investigations that lead to arrest and all types of referrals and things along those lines. Essentially, it is a medical problem. Councilmember Olson: Thank you for being with us today. I really admire your energy and work ethic. My question has probably been answered in one way or other throughout, but we are to ask the same questions of everybody so feel free to repeat yourself. Everyone has been following the national conversation on policing reform and appreciating the reasons behind it. At the same time we are a community that appreciates law and order. Why do you think you are the right person to navigate this balancing act for Edmonds? I think my career, my life has demonstrated that. I understand what I means to be a kid from the other side of the tracks. I grew up very poor without a father. My mother raised my brother and me so I understand that aspect of the public schools, graduation and the rest of the story. As far as the public conversation, I understand what it is. I was stopped by the police growing up, a few times I saw some interactions that I did not think were very positive. It didn't turn me off; I decided to become part of the solution instead of talking about it. I think that's really important. I'm the right person because I understand both sides of the coin. I talk about this on my podcast, the tagline is Bridging the Divide between the Police and the Community. I understand the police aspect, why they do what they do, how they think and I also understand the community aspect, not only from my own life experiences but from coaching all these different kids, hearing how they talk about the police and everything along those lines. It's my goal, my drive, my desire to bring these two entities together. Unfortunately, the police have been seen as inactive in many cases, the occupying force, the enemy of the people. The truth of the matter is the police are there to protect us. Sometimes citizens step out of line and it's the police officer'sjob to correct them and bring them to justice when and if that happens. The conversation is not easy and is constantly evolving. I think we're at a good point and for the City of Edmonds, I know what to do, I understand it. My city is a larger small city, we call it a very large town because it still has that hometown feel to it. From my short time here in Edmonds, I'm experiencing that as well. Wrap-up: Thank you for the opportunity. I'm truly honored that you considered me thus far in this process and I really appreciate it. My entire adult life has been given to law enforcement, policing. I love it, I enjoy it. I forgot to mention I'm kind of a glutton for punishment; I'm going for my PhD in leadership. I really just want to be the best candidate and the best person for the job and I believe that I am. I believe my life experience, my education, my drive, my passion, my goals are a good fit with this community. In reading Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 16 through the vision and mission statement for the police department, it talks about we are committed to reducing crime and enhancingpublic safety and security, dedicated to earning and maintaining the respect and confidence entrusted to us. Many people really have a trustfor the police department; unfortunately, that trust has been broken through circumstances and situations and unfortunately that trust is broken not because of the personal interactions they have seen, but what we've seen across the country in viral videos. I think we need to put out more viral videos of police officers acting in the right way and the right manner and I believe I'm the one to be able to spearhead that and say here's how our officers act, here's how we should behave, here's how we do behave. ADJOURN With no further business, the Council meeting was adjourned at 2:25 p.m. MICR L NELSON, MAYOR i O PASS , CITY CLER Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes August 4, 2021 Page 17