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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-08-13 Policy & Services Committee Summary MinutesPOLICY & SERVICES COMMITTEE SUMMARY MINUTES Page 1 of 13 Regular Meeting August 13, 2024 The Policy & Services Committee of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in Council Chambers and by virtual teleconference at 7:02 PM Present In-Person: Kou (Chair), Lythcott-Haims, Tanaka Council Member Tanaka arrived at 7:06 PM Present Virtually: Absent: Call to Order Chair Kou called the meeting to order. The clerk called roll and declared two were present. Public Comments The clerk noted that no hands were raised and there were no requests to speak. Agenda Items 1. Office of the City Auditor Presentation of the Procurement Process Review Audit City Auditor Kate Murdock commented that work for the audit had been approved by Council as part of the 2023 Annual Audit Plan. Baker Tilly Manager Mike Chimera announced that he would present the procurement process review audit results. They were tasked with completing four objectives, which were to determine whether needs assessment, budgeting, solicitation, and vendor selection processes were efficient and effective; determine whether the procurement process was valid through proper approvals, segregation of duties, and compliance with laws, regulations, and the City's policies; determine whether technology was effective and appropriate; and determine and identify any efficiency or effectiveness improvements. He outlined their findings and recommendations related to missing supporting documentation for contract awards, SUMMARY MINUTES Page 2 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 inconsistencies within the purchasing manual, there being no formal process in place related to the needs assessment and market analysis, and duplicate vendor records. Public Comments The Clerk expressed there were no requests to speak. Council Member Lythcott-Haims asked if there were vacancies in the Procurement Department and, if not, if staffing levels were sufficient. If departments were to take over responsibilities recommended by the auditor, she wondered if there was capacity to handle the responsibilities or if it should be handled in the currently distributed fashion. She inquired if there was an appropriate balance of proactivity versus reactivity in responsiveness related to procurement activities being most efficient, effective, and compliant. Regarding the missing checklists, it was recommended that a new checklist be created and she queried if it was the comprehensive checklists for all procurement transactions or if it was one of many to supplement what was in place or if it would become the overarching checklist under which everything would hang. Regarding the purchasing manual findings, she queried why design build had not been in the normal process and what percentage of the total contracts in a year were design build. She questioned why the Purchasing Department had not been a part of needs assessment and market analysis, if there were concerns about it happening elsewhere in the city, and if taking a decentralized approach and each department having authority would be considered best practice. She asked how many of the duplicate vendor entries were actual errors and the overall percentage of those vendors in the system. City Auditor Murdock replied that staffing levels of the Procurement Department was outside the scope of the audit. Concerning proactivity versus reactivity in responsiveness related to procurement activities, she voiced that they liked to point out best practices and provide guidance, but the audit focused on the controls. She indicated there could be a future audit looking more at performance to answer those questions. She would look into the duplicate vendor entries and return with an answer. Chief Financial Officer Lauren Lai noted there was one vacancy in the Department, a senior buyer position supporting the Utility divisions and recruitment was underway. Regarding departments being able to handle responsibilities versus it being handled in a distributed fashion, the City was seeking technology innovations to streamline best practices to centralize function where needed and decentralize it where it would be optimal, such as program managers overseeing programs and sometimes contract administration. They were sensitive to adding staffing where it would make sense to centralize certain things in the Department, but they wanted to first look at leveraging technology. Regarding being proactive versus reactive, she voiced that in the last couple years staff had streamlined some of the procurement and there was improvement yet to be done, which she discussed. She explained that the intake would be more streamlined. They were working with IT and the City Attorney's office to improve the forms and integrate them in an intake technology system. She thought the absence of the design build in the purchasing manual was an oversight. The updating of the SUMMARY MINUTES Page 3 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 manual was underway, and the City Attorney's office was reviewing it, and it would come back to staff. There was about 1 design build per year out of 1,500 contracts processed. The needs assessment and market analysis were being done informally in the departments and some was formally being done in purchasing functions. She explained why a needs assessment was often centralized within the department. She discussed the market assessment and some markets being clearly defined and a department being able to clearly determine who was in the markets; however, certain markets had to go through the Purchasing Department. It was a partnership and not all should live within a department or within Purchasing. Staff found that what was being done now was adequate. Formalizing and centralizing it in the Purchasing Department would make it more burdensome. Regarding SAP, she explained that there were two tiers for the needs review within departments for the purchase requisition. She was apprehensive about standardizing a needs assessment across the city, and finding a standard would be burdensome. Manager Chimera stated that the checklist was more overarching to ensure all documentation for retention was retained. Regarding taking a decentralized approach to the needs assessment and market analysis, the audit was looking for consistency of practice. Even with a decentralized approach, there should be guidance from the Purchasing Department for departments to follow. It was not clear how consistent the needs assessment was across departments. Council Member Tanaka thought this was the most important of all the audits. He inquired if the audit benchmarked how bids for projects were being done and if there were single bids, multiple bids, etc. He addressed the importance of getting multiple bids, and he was concerned about a lack of bids, and he requested the FY2025 citywide risk assessment address this. He wanted to know how often the lowest bids were chosen. City Auditor Murdock did not believe benchmarking how bids were being done was part of the scope of the audit. The audit was looking at the design of controls. Benchmarking would be more in a performance audit category, which they could look at for future audit work. City Attorney Molly Stump stated that the conversation was off topic. Chair Kou voiced that the executive summary and the purpose of the audit had to be considered, which had four bullet points. Council Member Tanaka disagreed that he was wandering from the agenda topic, and he read the first bullet point. He continued this line of discussion. He thought the City should report any gifts, lunches, trips, etc., paid by vendors, etc., and asked if the auditor considered that. He queried if the auditor looked at the efficacy of Staff Report transparency to the procurement process in terms of number of bids, direct awards, etc. He felt the staff reports should include this information and that it should be considered by the auditor. City Auditor Murdock answered that the reporting of gifts by vendors would have been a differently scoped audit. She was taking notes of Council Member Tanaka's comments and SUMMARY MINUTES Page 4 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 would consider exploring these areas in the next Audit Plan. It appeared that they did look at the number of bids as part of the testing, but she did not know if they looked at whether that information was provided via the Staff Report. Manager Chimera replied that as part of compliance testing, the efficacy of Staff Report transparency to the procurement process was included, and he concluded that transparency appeared reasonable. He explained that the Staff Report and number of bids, etc., were two different things. If the number of bids were not covered in the Staff Report, they were not within their testing attributes. Chair Kou again declared that Council Member Tanaka's comments/questions were not within the task order scope. She requested he speak to City Auditor Murdock about the type of audits he wanted to see in the FY2025 Risk Assessment Report. MOTION: Council Member Kou moved to recommend the City Council approve the Procurement Process Review Audit. Council Member Lythcott-Haims was concerned about the number of bids and appreciated Council Member Tanaka's concerns. She queried how the request for this should be conveyed to the City Auditor. Motion withdrawn by Council Member Kou. City Auditor Murdock responded that they were conducting the risk assessment for FY2024, which would culminate in formulation of the FY2025 Audit Plan. She had had several meetings with individual Council members to discuss what each wanted to see in the Audit Plan, and she was happy to have additional conversations. The risk raised at this meeting was a competitive process risk. They would compile a list of risks and narrow the list down to four or five audits to be done in the next fiscal year. They were looking to start that fiscal year in January, so the new Audit Plan would likely come before the Committee for approval in November. Chair Kou requested that the audit asks be clear and narrow. Council Member Tanaka commented that he had been discussing the bidding process for years with no improvement, and he opined that it was clearly stated as an agenda topic for this meeting. Regarding renewals, he also wanted the Staff Report to address the performance of a contract. Chief Financial Officer Lai remarked that the areas of concerns raised in this discussion included following through on solicitation, the agenda reports being transparent, and receipt of inappropriate gifts to staff members who would be a part of the selection process. She voiced that a solicitation process was not skipped unless the exemption was warranted, which were delineated in the City's muni code and rules and regulations, and a report would be provided to Council. She addressed solicitations being summarized in the Agenda Report, and she discussed the information that was included in a June Agenda Report (as an example), which was very SUMMARY MINUTES Page 5 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 transparent. Concerning gifts to employees, reports were submitted to Council on significant gifts and donations to the City, and a report would be forthcoming in September to provide that transparency. Council Member Lythcott-Haims thought Council Member Tanaka was addressing a low number of bids being reported. She shared concern about how the City was faring in that process. She assumed that the discussed subject matter would have been part of the audit, and she was surprised that it was not. She thought this subject should be addressed in the Audit Plan for the coming year if there was enough Council member support. Chief Financial Officer Lai responded, concerning bidding concerns, that there were advantages of shifting to the OpenGov e-Procurement Platform. She was hearing that three bids would be optimal, so staff needed to optimize the number of responses once publicized. Council Member Tanaka expressed that he voted no on consent items if the Staff Report did not include number of bids, high/low bids, etc. He hoped that Council members and the auditor would address the procurement process to ensure fair competition and value for money. He noted that the transparency provided in the June Agenda Report spoken of was an exception. He asked how this would change from what had been happening for at least the past 7½ years and what would be needed to address the procurement process. He asked if a proposal covering the topic could be put together and brought back to the Committee. He understood that it may require a lot of hours, and he would support it because it would make a big impact in serving the people. City Auditor Murdock responded that the overall scoping of the audit was more on the compliance side and looking at the design of controls. She was looking to make the next FY2025 Audit Plan much more performance-audit focused, which would include reducing the number of audits. The number of hours allotted for this audit did not allow the kind of analysis being spoken of. There was not much more in the auditing budget to look beyond the design of the controls. They were making strides to look at performance moving forward. To address the procurement process, it needed to be determined what specifically should be examined – the bidding process, etc. It was important to have the particular questions in mind when writing the scope. Regarding a proposal to cover the topic, she was adding it to the list for consideration for the next FY Audit Plan. MOTION: Council Member Lythcott-Haims moved, seconded by Council Member Kou, to accept the Procurement Process Review Audit and recommend the City Council approve the audit. Council Member Tanaka asked the auditor if anything was needed in the motion to help bring forward a proposal that would bring competitive bidding to the City. City Auditor Murdock replied that they were undergoing the risk assessment process, so she would reach out to all Policy and Services Committee members for input. Nothing else needed to be added to the motion. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 6 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 Public Comments The clerk declared that there were no requests to speak on the item. MOTION PASSED: 2-1, Tanaka no 2. Recommend City Council Approve a New Assessment of Dispatch Center Efficiency and Effectiveness in place of FY2024 Task Order 4.21 Purchasing Card Audit. City Auditor Kate Murdock voiced that the Auditor's office was recommending City Council approve adoption of a new assessment of the Dispatch Center operations as part of the FY2024 Audit Plan. The assessment was requested by staff and would look at Dispatch Center performance, including staffing levels, call processing, EMD, and training. The work was proposed to begin in August with an anticipated reporting date of January 2025. The assessment would replace the Purchasing Card Audit, which would be deferred to the FY2025 Audit Plan. There would be no fiscal impact to the Audit Budget. Public Comments The clerk voiced that there were no requests to speak. Chair Kou asked what it meant to gather information to understand the environment under assessment. City Auditor Murdock answered that the overall performance of the Dispatch Center was to be examined, which included staffing, call volumes, time in which calls were answered, metrics around call processing, how calls were triaged and how quickly they were dispatched, the City's performance relative to surrounding cities of similar size and call processing, training, and how the dispatch process worked. Council Member Lythcott-Haims inquired if the audit was being conducted before the computer software was changed over, if it was being conducted with the software in place, or if it was to determine whether new software was needed. She asked for confirmation of OEM's plan. She inquired if software should be purchased after the audit of the facility to ensure that the software would address what needed to be addressed – if the audit should dictate which system to use. City Auditor Murdock understood that staff was in the process of evaluating different dispatch software proposals. She did not know when that decision needed to be made. The audit would in part look at how well the new software would work with the existing system. Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton Gaines confirmed that City Auditor Murdock's comments were correct. She believed this was a Council priority item for this year. She did not think a system had been chosen yet and that the process was in motion. Concerning software being purchased after the audit, she thought the intention of the audit was to gather information to SUMMARY MINUTES Page 7 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 be used as part of the implementation process. The idea was that the audit would be in service to the new system. The task order was to hopefully get the audit underway so the information would influence the process, but she would see where they were in process and share that information with the Committee. City Auditor Murdock explained that this was not technically an audit but an assessment. The information they provide through the assessment should help management make an informed decision. The assessment should take place prior to the purchase of the software. Chair Kou asked who requested the assessment. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines replied that Management staff in partnership with the Police Department requested the assessment. Council Member Tanaka queried if this audit would include performance metrics for response times and how that would be measured; if the number of calls versus the number of employees would be considered; and if there would be a process to measure the quality of service. He voiced that quality of service was one of the most important metrics. He remarked that it would be great to have some sort of customer survey. City Auditor Murdock confirmed that performance times would be included in the audit, which would include a trend analysis and comparisons to performance of surrounding communities of similar size and call centers taking similar calls, and they would look at the number of calls per staff member and compare it to best practice as well as benchmarking to other cities. They would look at how calls were dispatched, which would address the quality of the dispatch, and some testing may include listening to calls. She was not aware of the Department doing any customer service satisfaction-type surveys, but it was something they would review. As for measuring quality of service, at this point, she would have to rely on data collected by the Department. In terms of the hours they had to conduct this assessment, she did not think a survey, for example, was within the scope of the assessment or the budget. Council Member Tanaka voiced that maybe it should be a bigger budget, and he asked what would be needed to do it. He spoke of a bad customer experience for someone, which had been written about in the papers, and he had heard firsthand of bad experiences. City Auditor Murdock replied that it would need to be determined if there were stipulations to augment the budget. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines provided some information related to Council Member Lythcott-Haims' questions. The CAD system process for the RFP was a collaboration between Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Mountain View, which were using the CAD system, so the vendor selection was done among those agencies. The idea was that the information from the assessment would be used to configure the new system accordingly to help with the processes and procedures in putting the new system in place. It would not impact the scope of procuring a specific vendor, but it would impact how the system would be put in place. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 8 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 Chair Kou asked if City Auditor Murdock's team would be assessing the Dispatch Center in person. She asked if this needed to go to Council for an increased cost of an expanded review or assessment on this task. City Auditor Murdock replied that an on-site visit was built into the budget, so she anticipated her team being at the center for probably a week. She believed calls were recorded, so much of the work could likely be done remotely. Regarding an expanded review or assessment, she would need to draw up a proposal. Council Member Tanaka requested City Auditor Murdock present Council with a proposal for an expanded review or assessment. Since City Auditor Murdock's team was going to be at the center for a week, he recommended they listen to the written incident he had spoken of earlier, and he questioned if she could do that. If needed, he could send her more details offline. He was thinking about response time, efficiency of labor, and quality of service, and he thought more resources were needed for the quality-of-service piece, and he wanted to know what resources City Auditor Murdock needed for that, and he would support it. He wanted to ensure that service was done well. City Auditor Murdock responded that the original scope was to look at staffing, call processing, how calls were dispatched, and training. She thought Council Member Tanaka was looking at customer satisfaction. She would return with a proposal related to quality of service. Chair Kou did not want this to be delayed because other agencies wanted to see the assessment as well, so she highly recommended moving this forward and that the proposal with the increased cost be taken to Council for consideration and a vote. Council Member Tanaka thought the cost of the audit should be shared, and perhaps there could be a proposal to share the cost with the partner agencies. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines answered that this audit was replacing another audit, so it was included in the City's budget, and she understood that it was not split with the other agencies. City Auditor Murdock had the same understanding. This was taking place of the Purchasing Card Audit and did not expand the budget allotted for this fiscal year. Council Member Kou commented that Palo Alto employees provided the service, so the City should determine if changes should be made. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines clarified that the CAD system was shared with the other cities but the processes within each city was different, so the audit work would inform Palo Alto's processes within the system, but Palo Alto was not doing the dispatch for the other cities, which was possibly the justification for Palo Alto paying the entire cost of the audit. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 9 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 MOTION: Council Member Lythcott-Haims moved, seconded by Council Member Kou, to recommend the City Council: 1. Approval of a new assessment, Task Order 4.28 Dispatch Center Program, to determine if operational activities are effective and efficient as compared to best practices and dispatch centers of a similar size, type of service, and volume of calls. This assessment will commence in August 2024 and is planned for reporting in February 2025. 2. Defer commencement of Task Order 4.22 Purchasing Card Audit to the FY2025 Audit Plan. Direct the City Auditor return to City Council with information on increased resources needed to provide to information on response time, labor efficiency, and quality of service. MOTION PASSED: 3-0 3. Office of the City Auditor Presentation of the Parking Permit Technology Contracts Audit City Auditor Kate Murdock stated that work for the audit was approved by Council as part of the FY2023 Annual Audit Plan. Baker Tilly Manager Mike Chimera stated that they were tasked with two objectives – to determine whether adequate policies and procedures were implemented effectively to protect the privacy of personal information gathered using parking permit technology per the City's parking management and to determine whether the City monitored the vendor's performance to ensure compliance, contract terms, and laws and regulations related to data privacy. Public Comments The clerk mentioned there were no requests to speak. Chair Kou requested the definition of a privacy program owner. She asked why management partially agreed with Findings #4 (breach of contract with third-party vendor) and #2 (PII) and what was needed to rectify the findings. She asked if the information gathered was in the City's database or the vendor's database. Manager Chimera defined a privacy program owner as an individual maintaining the privacy policies or procedures. Regarding Finding #4, there was no mention of breaches with third- party vendors in the agreement with the vendor. He believed it was partially agreed to because there were cyber security terms and conditions matching within the contract, but nothing related back to the response plan expectation. This could be reviewed and updated. Director of IT Darren Numoto added that they partially agreed to the cyber security terms and conditions because there was a required response time, which he believed was 48 hours, and if a breach was encountered, response time was sometimes negotiated to be longer than 48 SUMMARY MINUTES Page 10 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 hours. As for rectifying the finding, they were in the process of working on a solution to monitor policy and procedures, so they could be updated and catalogued better. Concerning PII, staff were required to undergo PII training and vendors were to follow standard guidelines; however, no one was fully protected against breeches, so rectifying it was about having the right response programs in place. Chief Transportation Official Philip Kamhi replied that the information gathered was on the vendor's database, but he noted that their database queried whether a license plate had a valid permit, so it was two systems, one that looked for a valid permit, and if there was not a valid permit, another system printed a citation. There was an online system that collected information for purchasing permits, which included PII, which City staff did not have access to, but the vendor maintained the database and could assist customers with their accounts. The vendor kept all the information gathered, and it was not shared with the City. An individual in his department would get PII only if a customer provided it to them for assistance. MOTION: Council Member Kou moved, seconded by Council Member Lythcott-Haims, to receive the Parking Permit Technology Contracts Audit and recommend the City Council approve the audit. He displayed slides and outlined their findings and recommendations related to data privacy, personal identifiable information, user access listing and reviews, contract terms and conditions with third-party vendors, vendor performance assessment, and third- party agreement requirements. MOTION PASSED: 3-0 4. Race and Equity Quarterly Report Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton Gaines noted that the report was informational and to update the Committee on the status of the implementation of the items. They were hopeful that all the items from the assignments in 2020 would be completed by the end of calendar year 2024, and she would provide more information about that. They hoped to shift from the current format of the report as the assignments were completed. She provided updates on the two remaining assignments from 2020 (listed on Packet Page 40), which were the implementation of RMS and the analysis of the RIPA data. They were working with the National Policing Institute to help with the initial analyzing of the RIPA data. They expected to have draft information from them by the end of this calendar year, and staff would report on that in early 2025. Packet Page 41 contained information about Assignment L, which was in process and partially complete. She detailed what had been completed. The demographic assessment of the workforce was not yet complete, and the goal was to have it done by the end of this calendar year, which would be provided on the HR webpage and a location to share the information publicly. The item would be considered complete once the data had been uploaded to the webpage. She highlighted that the HRC would have two study sessions on Monday, August 19, and the topics would link back to discussions this Committee had had. One related to the HRC's research on the lived experiences of Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, and the report was in the public packet for August 19, and the Committee would receive the SUMMARY MINUTES Page 11 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 report from the HRC on Monday, August 19. The other one was work the HRC had done as part of a listening opportunity with community members related to what was called The Voices of Our Community Listening Sessions on Local Experience of Islamophobia, Anti-Arab Hate, and Anti-Semitism. Those reports would be presented at the City Council Meeting on Monday, August 19. Equity & Inclusion Program Manager Kojo Pierce mentioned that the next DI training would be on October 9 and 10. The topic would be gender uncovered. The next session for Mental Health First Aid Training would be August 20 and 21. He provided numbers related to people trained, outreach, and case management. The federal grant funding the Mental Health First Aid Training would come to a close the end of August. They conducted an evaluation of the TRUST Augmentation Program, and the report would be available online. He shared PERT updates, which included not having a clinician since the end of 2022, and there was currently open recruitment and the City was in contact with County. Palo Alto had a PERT officer, who responded to calls for service. He supplied updates for the Art Center and furnished highlights of the What's Cookin' exhibition, which would conclude on August 18. As for the King Artist in Residence, Alma Landeta had been selected in April 2024. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines mentioned that the updates on the mental health programs were provided because the alternative response programs had been a Committee discussion. She was excited to implement the Equity Action Plan. Item 4 Public Comment Cherrill S., a member of the Palo Alto branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, commented that she did not see any mention of ongoing or upcoming work in the Race and Equity quarterly report on an ordinance based on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was listed in the 2024 and 2025 Equity Action Plan, Item 3.4. She requested that staff be allowed to work on developing the ordinance. She had provided a copy of her remarks to the City Clerk. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines stated that the ordinance was included in the 2024/2025 Equity Action Plan, and the projects would be kicked off this summer/fall, and it was a project at the top of the list. Chair Kou mentioned that it would be in upcoming agenda items. Council Member Lythcott-Haims voiced that the torch for the ordinance was being carried. It was baffling to her that it had been six years since the HRC and Council unanimously recommended it. She wanted it to be moved forward and asked if there were any impediments to doing that. She inquired if the workforce demographic assessment remained to be done for Item L. She requested information on the topic of pursuing an employee assessment to measure City workforce culture. She spoke of last night's Council meeting in which it was predicted that at least half the audience would be Spanish speaking, and an AI translation service had been put in place, but she explained why it best served the English-speaking SUMMARY MINUTES Page 12 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 community. She voiced that there should have been simultaneous translation (English- Spanish/Spanish-English) in chambers throughout the night. She suggested there be deeper thinking about the definition of equity, and she voiced that all should have access to the predominant languages spoken in the moment. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines replied that there were no impediments to moving the ordinance based on CEDAW forward. They had been trying to organize the broader efforts to get the assessment done. With the Equity Action Plan in place, they could work on and prioritize the projects. The workforce demographic assessment remained to be done for Item L. They had the infrastructure of the survey tool in place, and it would likely be conducted annually. There was a large volume of data, and they were making sure the information was organized in an understandable way, which was the last step before implementing the item. Regarding pursuing an employee assessment to measure City workforce culture, the Ivy Planning Group had been working with staff focus groups, and the assessment had been reported to Council in April. The culture piece was complete. She thanked Council Member Lythcott-Haims for the feedback related to language translation, which was a reminder to involve voices and to create solutions to ensure involvement. Item 1.7 in the Equity Action Plan focused on feedback being provided in people's native languages. There was an opportunity for continual improvement in working with staff and members of the public. Council Member Lythcott-Haims appreciated that language translation fell under Item 1.7, but she also saw it belonging also, if not instead, under fostering an inclusive environment or applying an equity lens. She noted that Item 1.7 allowed all residents to provide feedback to the City in their language of choice; however, she was equally interested in them being able to understand everybody in the room. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines thought it could be a multi-categorized item. Council Member Tanaka wanted to see more of the live translations as in last night's Council meeting. He thought the program provided a pulldown to switch the translation to Spanish. He stated it was great to see technology being leveraged. Chair Kou was excited about RMS and compiling all the RIPA data, which she thought would help inform something needing to be reexamined, etc. She asked if there was a replacement PERT officer. She believed the Police Department received grants for certain use, and she thought it would be beneficial to apply some of it toward officers having someone to talk to, etc. Police Captain James Reifschneider responded that there was a specially trained PERT officer responding to mental health calls, but they had not been able to get a replacement clinician through County. MOTION: Council Member Lythcott-Haims moved, seconded by Council Member Kou, to receive the quarterly report. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 13 of 13 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 8/13/2024 Council Member Lythcott-Haims commended staff and appreciated their work, which was broad, deep, and beautiful. MOTION PASSED: 3-0 Future Meetings and Agendas Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton Gaines announced that in September they anticipated some audit reports coming to the Committee. The specific topics had not been finalized yet. A follow-up discussion was anticipated on the Council referral related to discretionary spending. Related to the Council referral for the Boards and Commissions Handbook, there would be updates with some of the changes. She clarified that this was for the Boards and Commissions Handbook, not the Procedures and Protocols document, but there was always plenty to do on the Procedures and Protocols as well. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 PM