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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-03-12 Policy & Services Committee Summary MinutesPOLICY AND SERVICES COMMITTEE SUMMARY MINUTES Page 1 of 8 Regular Meeting March 12, 2024 The Policy and Services Committee of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Community Meeting Room and by virtual teleconference at 7:00 P.M. Present In Person: Kou (Chair), Lythcott-Haims, Tanaka Present Remotely: Absent: Call to Order Chair Lydia Kou called the meeting to order. The clerk called roll with a quorum of three present. Action Items 1. Race and Equity Updates and Potential Direction on the Collection and Use of Boards and Commissions Demographic Data Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton-Gaines provided a slide presentation of the Race and Equity Quarterly Update discussing the topics to review, an outline of remaining assignments, an overview of the Boards and Commissions survey, discussion questions regarding the survey results, information on events representing the diversity they have at the City and a summary of their recommendations to the committee particularly around the Boards and Commissions discussion. Council Member Julie Lythcott-Haims queried how many Board and Commission members there are and what response rate was received on the previous survey. She asked how robust the set of responses was. She wanted to know the City’s overall demographic profile. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines answered the representation on the Boards and Commissions did not match the corresponding demographic groups within the community. Council Member Lythcott-Haims thought it would be good to have that number the next time this comes around for transparency. If they want to demonstrate that race and equity matter to this community, they have to always think about opportunities to present more information, SUMMARY MINUTES Page 2 of 8 Sp. Policy & Services Meeting Summary Minutes: 03/12/2024 share data and give updates. She was struck by the fact that the lowest band, $150,00 and below, is the roughly the area median income for a family of four. That signals they are more interested in those folks because they are more granular for higher amounts. In the next iteration, she encouraged them to take the area median income and make it the middle band or do quartiles in order to contemplate everybody equal. It occurred to her that someone in a household of two people making $350,000 or above is a very different situation than being in a household of five or six making $350,000 and above. She thought there are ways to get the more granular answer to the question of how wealthy or unwealthy are the people who serve on Boards and Commissions. She was curious as to why the Ivy Planning Group is going directly to City Council. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines answered there is no specific reason. They want to make sure they can share the information with Council soon so they can have it out there publicly but if it needed to go through this committee, it is fine. Male stated given the expectation that the Council as a whole will want to engage in the material, they thought a study session for the full Council would be in order. Council Member Lythcott-Haims asked for more specifics as to what starting the conversation means regarding the RIPA data on Item C and when they think they will have some analysis. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines stated they had the first meeting a couple of weeks prior and the next step would be the National Policing Institute providing the exact timeline. Her goal is to get something back this year. Council Member Lythcott-Haims questioned if they have a multi-year contract with the National Policing Institute. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines answered they are benefiting from something called the Knowledge Lab. The initial work they are doing with the National Policing Institute is for that project and they can add more on after that. Council Member Lythcott-Haims thought they should be prepared to interrogate that report when it comes so they know what they want to ask for the next time. She asked if the National Policing Institute is a think tank and if it is affiliated with law enforcement. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines believed it is a nonprofit but she will look it up to confirm. She added the total number of Board and Commission members is about 52. She provided the race and ethnicity demographics stating that information would be included in the next report. Council Member Lythcott-Haims said she is in favor of giving it to Council to have as a reference point. She noted that on Item D, PERT was marked as completed but she knew that their first effort stalled shortly out of the blocks in that the mental health clinician resigned. She wondered if they knew the reason the clinician resigned. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 3 of 8 Sp. Policy & Services Meeting Summary Minutes: 03/12/2024 City Manager Ed Shikada stated it was their understanding that it was a decision to relocate out of the area. He added the employees are employees of the county of Santa Clara and they are going through a selection process for replacement. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines added it is kept in the update because they know it is of interest to this body. Council Member Lythcott-Haims thought it would be good to have shorthand parenthetical to make information more transparent to the public. She was glad to see CEDAW in the report. Council Member Greg Tanaka assumed the survey is optional. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines confirmed that the survey and each question within they survey is optional. Council Member Tanaka thought it should be noted that there are a number of people in the community whose wealth is not their income but their assets and that the number of people in the household is something to consider. He wondered if it would be more representative if each Council member appoints who they feel like in order for the Commissions and Boards to be reflective of the Council Members’ opinions in the future. Chair Kou supposed that would be something Council would have to decide in terms of the format. Regarding Assignment C, she wanted to know if they could rely on DOJ finishing up with their studies in April and approximately when would they get a report on the analysis from 2022-2023. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines answered she should have an estimated timeline from the National Policing Institute within the month and she would then report that back to the committee. Captain James Reifschneider stated they are confident they will get the report back from DOJ quickly and discussed the process. He said the data will be published to the Police Department’s website in April in its raw format and as part of the dashboard they already have live for the 2022 data. The analysis of the 2022 and 2023 data will be performed by the National Policing Institute. He thought they were finalizing the format it will be presented in to Council and the public. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines added when the dashboard is updated, they would inform Council and for the actual analysis, they would likely come to this committee. Chair Kou wondered if there is any feedback or survey regarding Attachment B that went out to the Boards and Commissioners to get a feel of how they felt during that survey. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines stated they did not formally ask them but received a little bit of informal feedback and overall, there seemed to be an appreciation and understanding of SUMMARY MINUTES Page 4 of 8 Sp. Policy & Services Meeting Summary Minutes: 03/12/2024 why they are collecting it. Most noteworthy is that they did not have 100 percent response rate so that spoke to people being busy and not having time or recognizing if they felt uncomfortable filling it out that they did not have to. The positive of the survey is having that ability but the negative is that there will always be gaps in their data. Chair Kou had a concern that this is informational for them and for the City but she wanted to make sure they do not forget about qualifications even with the volunteers. Council Member Lythcott-Haims believed this data would be useful in prompting questions in order to understand certain issues around encountering law enforcement in the City. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines provided information on the National Policing Institute. Chair Kou hoped that the question on education did not stop others from participating in joining a board or commission and they should not forget about qualifications. She asked her colleagues how they feel about the recommendations given regarding the Board and Commission demographics survey responses. Council Member Tanaka thought they should be race blind, but it is good to know because it can change the kind of outreach they do. He still thinks it would be better for Council Members to select a proxy for themselves. Chair Kou countered that this is an informational item for Council to be aware of. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines confirmed that it is data for the Council for awareness and not intended for presumption for a certain amount of seats, quota or anything that may violate law in any kind of way. She provided clarification of the socioeconomic status piece of the report. Council Member Lythcott-Haims thought because of the timing it was premature to be trying to nail this down any further and wanted to see what happens with the survey that has been put out there. She wondered what folks would think of a question as to whether they describe their career as blue collar, white collar or a combination of both. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines stated they would do additional research on that. MOTION: Council Member Lythcott-Haims moved, seconded by Chair Kou for the Policy and Services Committee to recommend to the City Council to provide demographic data on the current composition of BCCs, and corresponding data for Palo Alto as a whole, as a reference prior to making new BCC appointments MOTION PASSED: 3-0 SUMMARY MINUTES Page 5 of 8 Sp. Policy & Services Meeting Summary Minutes: 03/12/2024 MOTION: Chair Kou moved, seconded by Council Member Lythcott-Haims for the Policy and Services Committee to recommend to the City Council to accept this report including plans to bring a study session to the City Council on assignment L in Q2 MOTION PASSED: 3-0 2. Discussion and Recommendation to Council on potential allocation of $2,000 annually from the City Council contingency fund to each Council member for expenditures consistent with defined purposes City Attorney Molly Stump talked about a report that identified a number of potential purposes the committee could focus on. The committee was interested in reimbursement for actual and necessary expenses and particularly interested in the City of Mountain View’s procedure. They have gathered a number of procedures on actual reimbursement including one from Palo Alto. There are more similarities than differences. They focus on travel and standard reimbursement for City required activities. She asked if there were modifications they would like to see to the City’s existing policy. She noted that she had heard a couple of specific ideas from committee members that fall outside of that lane. She stated that Council Member Lythcott-Haims mentioned expenses she incurs from time to time for various events that she may organize for community development and activities. That does not fall within this approach because they are not Council directed or assigned tasks. Council Member Tanaka mentioned interest in stipends for folks who he retains their services to assist him in his duties as council member. That issue raises complex issues potentially changing the governance system of the Council to be looking at paid staff for council members and that is outside of the scope of what it is that Council directed in this referral. If the committee is interested in that, she recommended to call that out to be taken back to Council. City Manager Shikada editorialized based on the City Attorney’s comments that to the extent that the committee and ultimately wants to focus on necessary expenses, that is a relatively straightforward issue. With sufficient clarity on the types of expenses Council wants to include, he hoped they could wrap that up fairly quickly. The other category does raise the prospect of requiring more work to define parameters and how that would work. Council Member Lythcott-Haims asked when Council referred it to this committee, what the referral was and if it was tied into the council member compensation colleague’s memo. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines explained the text of the title came from City Council from their annual discussion of their Procedures and Protocols Handbook. City Attorney Stump added there is an interface, but it did not originate with the Council compensation discussion. Council determined that they would like their compensation to be adjusted to the max permitted by state law and the Palo Alto Charter currently incorporates the state law limit. She discussed what that meant and ways to do it. She discussed other options Council might be interested in. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 6 of 8 Sp. Policy & Services Meeting Summary Minutes: 03/12/2024 Council Member Lythcott-Haims was intrigued that the comparable municipalities seem to reimburse for travel and technology-related stuff and communication. She was interested in a technology allowance. She offered that the suggestions in the Staff report about what they might want to direct $2000 a year toward included things that did not come up in the comparables. City Attorney Stump explained they focused on where the committee directed them last time. City Manager Shikada added part of the reason they made reference to grants to other organizations is that in the referral from the full Council, it was described as coming from the Council contingency. The Council contingency has been used for that type of grant or expenditure on a one-time basis with procedures established by City Council, so they wanted to make that linkage. Council Member Lythcott-Haims supposed the Council contingency fund is dispersed according to the Mayor’s and Vice Mayor’s wishes. City Manager Shikada instructed there is a whole section on that in the Procedures and Protocols Handbook. He provided examples of what kinds of things Council has spent that contingency money on. Council Member Lythcott-Haims asked if there was concern about improper influence with them directing money to outside organizations. City Attorney Stump explained there would still need to be a policy that puts parameters around that. Council Member Tanaka felt they should keep it simple and do what other cities do. Chair Kou thought they would have to have some framework and parameters in how the funds are being used. She felt the current reimbursement policy seemed sufficient. She wanted to clarify that reimbursement being provided had to be something that was all about the City and it is open to public records request. City Attorney Stump confirmed that it can include very small minor incidental private use and it is open to public records request. Chair Kou asked if the City still provides an iPad. City Manager Shikada did not believe they currently do that. Chair Kou thought more work needed to go into vetting and setting the parameters. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 7 of 8 Sp. Policy & Services Meeting Summary Minutes: 03/12/2024 Council Member Tanaka suggested adopting Mountain View’s policy up to $2000. City Attorney Stump stated the City has a policy in their packet that is narrower than Mountain View’s policy. She described the way they could implement Council Member Tanaka’s suggestion. Council Member Lythcott-Haims asked if anybody knows where the Mountain View chart is that gives the dollar amounts. City Attorney Stump said they did not look at that because the Council referral identified $2000. She did not see why the committee could not return to Council with a recommendation for a higher number. She discussed ways in which the Mountain View policy is broader. Council Member Lythcott-Haims stated her interest was not being out of pocket for the various things she does for the City. It was her understanding that she would have to buy a whole new set of equipment and only use it for the City in order to receive the reimbursement. City Manager Shikada noted Mountain View’s policy requires itemized receipts in order to document their reimbursement claims. Chair Kou thought they might come up with a list of some of the items they use a lot if they are looking for reimbursement for a technology account for Staff to vet. City Attorney Stump thought there could be some stipends provided where they were able to show a reasonable proportion of a service such as a cell phone or Zoom account in order to defray some of the City-related costs. She agreed to provide a list of those. Council Member Lythcott-Haims hoped to get a list for guidance on what is allowed and the use for private use. City Attorney Stump agreed to bring this item back with a sample policy that focuses on supporting them around their communications and technology. If it is found to meet the committee’s needs it will go on consent as an amendment. City Manager Shikada said the goal would be to bring something very specific back that the committee could hopefully recommend unanimously and enable a consent approval. No action taken. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 8 of 8 Sp. Policy & Services Meeting Summary Minutes: 03/12/2024 Future Meetings and Agendas Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines stated she would follow-up with the chairperson and thought the other noteworthy part is the draft workplan that tentatively gives their items as still in discussion at City Council. They will keep this group updated. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:31 P.M.