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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-09-09 Policy & Services Committee Summary MinutesPOLICY & SERVICES COMMITTEE SUMMARY MINUTES Page 1 of 7 Regular Meeting September 9, 2025 The Policy & Services Committee of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in Council Chambers and by virtual teleconference at 6:00 PM. Present In-Person: Veenker (Chair), Lu, Stone Absent: None Agenda Items 1. Office of the City Auditor Presentation of the Dispatch Center Assessment and Recommendation to the City Council to Accept the Report. CEQA – Not a Project City Auditor Kate Murdock presented on the results of the Dispatch Center Assessment. It was not an audit project and did not follow the typical process, but the City, police, and fire department had specific questions they asked the audit office to answer and specific service metrics they wanted benchmarked. The City operates a 24-hour Dispatch Center, or PSAP, housed in Police Dept Communications Division. In 2023, Palo Alto’s PSAP received over 145,000 calls. The budgeted staffing levels were in line with industry standards but the City has been unable to fill all budgeted positions. The City’s agreement with the Service Employees International Union requires PSAP be staffed with a minimum of 4 dispatchers from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and 3 dispatchers from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. Based on staffing guidelines from NENA, the City needs 20 dispatchers to meet the Union’s minimum staffing requirements. Overall stakeholder feedback on service was positive with some noted areas for improvement. The City should consider conducting a staffing utilization assessment and work with stakeholders to better understand dispatch needs. Two metrics were looked at regarding call processing: the time it takes a dispatcher to answer a call from first ring and the National Fire Protection Agency’s (NFPA) standard related to call processing time. The City’s PSAP exceeded NENA standards, answering more than 99% of calls within 10 seconds or less. However, the PSAP underperformed on the NFPA standard, dispatching 68% of calls within 90 seconds in 2024. The Dispatch Center lacks a formal QA process for reviewing general call processing, which the City might explore implementing in the future. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 2 of 7 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 9/9/2025 The City’s PSAP was found to be compliant with many EMD standards but not formalized with recommended standard operating procedures. The OCA analysis found that sampled EMD coded calls had correct coding, 6 percent of NOEMD calls should have been coded EMD, 70 percent of samples coded N/A should have been coded NOEMD, and 20 percent of sampled calls should have been coded EMD. There was no formal follow-up on performance reports. The QA vendor determined the overall agency performance met standards. The City should consider formalizing the process related to EMD Call Processing Standards, implementing a formal feedback structure for dispatcher performance, and adopting specific performance goals in relation to EMD for the agency and individual dispatchers. The City’s PSAP has a comprehensive training manual and all dispatchers were in compliance with continuing professional training requirements. Public Comment: None Council Member Stone asked for clarification around implementing the recommendation to eliminate duplicate incidents during emergency events and if the audit found need for improvement in that process. Council Member Stone questioned why the City is 22% under NFPA standards for dispatch time on calls and if there was a way to assess how quickly they are dispatching. Council Member Stone wondered if formal QA for calls was being developed and referenced the third bullet point on slide 5. Public Safety Communications Manager Lindsay Moore said duplicate calls happen often and explained that if another person takes a call at the same time as the original dispatcher, it will create a duplicate and it will put all of the information into a single call. Communications Manager Moore confirmed that was feedback from stakeholders. The City has not adopted and does not follow the NFPA standards. Communications Manager Moore explained what call processing was and the different factors that could affect it. There was no current QA program for general calls due to lack of bandwidth with staffing but supervisors work closely with the dispatchers and provide hands-on QA as calls come in. Assistant City Manager Kiely Nose said staff was prospectively expecting to track call processing to benchmark against and ultimately establish what staff believes would be a compliant standard for all PSAP partners. An accredited agency like NFPA requires a certain level of resources to meet those expectations. Council Member Lu felt the NFPA was the main metric improvement to be made and asked how atypical it was to not meet NFPA standards, how big the gap was, and why that standard was not being achieved. Council Member Lu queried if deeper analysis would require an additional FTE. Council Member Lu suggested a supervisor take 10 or 20 percent time over the course of several months to get an intuition of the problem to have a more detailed recommendation on whether to add the FTE in the next budget cycle. City Auditor Murdock confirmed that it is not common for smaller PSAPs, like Palo Alto, to not meet the NFPA standard. It was indicated that not many PSAPS meet the standard. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 3 of 7 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 9/9/2025 Assistant City Manager Nose explained the NFPA standard was not set as a policy target or goal. It would require more resources to become accredited and reach those standards. Assistant City Manager Nose said the City can prospectively track the metric to see what improvements can be made in the absence of additional resources. Assistant City Manager Nose felt the gap was wide because of both external factors and performance issues. Adding one additional dispatcher typically required more than one FTE. The one FTE referred to having in-house QA. The City would need enough resources to pull supervisors and management off of answering dispatch calls to do QA. The public safety team was meeting on a monthly basis to go over expectations and QA. A contractor is helping bolster staff to do more QA testing. Vice Mayor Veenker asked if there were resources to support dispatch staff and if there was a positive impact from the new public safety building. Vice Mayor Veenker queried what the impact would be if the NFPA standards were adopted. Vice Mayor Veenker supported assessing whether more resources were required to support public safety efforts. Vice Mayor Veenker clarified most of the recommendations were already beginning to be addressed. Communications Manager Moore explained there is a peer support team, extensive wellness training throughout the year, debriefs when there are difficult calls, and an overall good support system in place. The new building was appreciated, especially the windows. Assistant City Manager Nose said that every second counts, especially with medical calls, so the quicker dispatchers can answer and process calls, the more they can help; however, there are uncontrollable factors that go into response time. Assistant City Manager Nose confirmed many concerns were being addressed and the next steps are to continue coordination and work toward establishing a metric associated with PSAP, focusing on medical calls. One reason for the assessment is that medical calls will become increasingly important as staff looks at the service delivery changes. City Auditor Murdock noted that the third party vendor who looked at the EMD calls was able to provide feedback in relation to ways to process calls more efficiently. MOTION: Councilmember Stone moved, seconded by Vice Mayor Veenker, to recommend the City Council accept the results of the Dispatch Center Assessment report. MOTION PASSED: 3-0 2. Review Onboarding Practices for Boards, Commissions, and Committees Deputy City Clerk Francesca Reyes presented on the updates to the BCC handbook and onboarding process. Commissioner onboarding occurs in 2 phases. The City Clerk office leads the first phase, which covers general information and requirements relevant to all boards and commissions. Commissioners must complete 5 steps before participating in meetings: the oath of office, form 700, ethics and anti-harassment training, attesting to reviewing the BCC SUMMARY MINUTES Page 4 of 7 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 9/9/2025 handbook, and orientation sessions. Staff liaisons lead the second phase, which covers information specific to the commission such as the workplan, upcoming agenda topics, and guiding documents. The report includes the updated version of the handbook, which incorporates previous Council action affecting boards and commissions. This includes adjustment to recruitment and workplan schedules, changes to sizes of a few of the BCC, updates on the candidate interview selection process, clarifications around remote attendance and training requirements, and some minor formatting and grammatical edits. The goal is to ensure every new BCC member feels welcomed, informed, and prepared to serve. Public Comment: None Council Member Lu suggested formalizing an expectation where the Chair onboards new members. Council Member Lu wanted a recurrent brief survey to track how board and commission members felt about their roles. Council Member Stone agreed the Chair should have a formal role. Council Member Stone suggested adding Robert’s Rules of Order or other training related to proper meeting conduct. Council Member Stone wanted more training on a commission’s role as an advisory board. Vice Mayor Veenker had a recent meeting with the chairs and vice chairs of multiple boards and commissions. Feedback included chairs wanting own orientation, meeting management, Cal Cities providing valuable commissioner training, questions around the limits of authority, providing information to the public about limits of authority to set proper expectations, and expressing strong staff support. Vice Mayor Veenker asked who to refer commissioners to for questions. City Attorney Molly Stump said to refer commissioners to the staff support liaison and that staff is trying to address questions about roles as they have come up frequently. City Clerk Mahealani Ah Yun confirmed there was a Mayor-Chair training in 2021. Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton Gaines felt the yearly workplan discussions for each commission was a good opportunity to refresh roles and for Council to set expectations. NO ACTION TAKEN 3. Discussion of City Council Referral to Review a Schedule of Repeat Items that Occur Annually on Agendas for Policy & Services, Finance Committee, and City Council, Along with the Approximate Month They Occur SUMMARY MINUTES Page 5 of 7 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 9/9/2025 Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton Gaines provided a list of items that come to Council annually. The intention was to look at the list and discuss any suggestions, specifically if there are ways to optimize Council schedule. Public Comment: None Council Member Stone felt the agenda is unbalanced, with mid-May to the June recess and November and December being very busy while other times are very light. Council Member Stone wanted to examine the items to see if some could be delayed until after recesses to create a more balanced agenda. Council Member Stone thought the Policy and Services Committee gets a lot of audit reports and suggested reexamining the policy on no consent for a committee, specifically around audit reports. Council Member Stone opined it was unnecessary to review the Council Procedures and Protocol Handbook every year. City Attorney Molly Stump agreed to discuss with staff, the auditor, and the City Manager’s office regarding the policy on no consent and come back with further thoughts. Assistant City Manager Kiely Nose suggested changing the timing of reviewing the Council Procedures and Protocol Handbook. Assistant City Manager Nose explained that Council priorities include quarterly targets and staff tries to adhere to quarterly timelines, therefore some excess workload is present prior to summer and winter recesses. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines said in 2024, it was chosen to not do a handbook review because such extensive work had been done and suggested the Committee recommend reviewing the handbook every other year. June is the end of the fiscal year, which impacts the amount of things coming before Council. Staff tries to take time away when Council is away, which impacts the ability to produce all the reports necessary for early meetings. Vice Mayor Veenker felt that, unless there is a referral, reviewing the handbook once every 2 years would give each new group of council members a chance to weigh in without being excessive. Council Member Lu suggested holding the first budget study session a few weeks earlier and agreed some items could be shifted to meet Council Member Stone’s concerns. Vice Mayor Veenker wondered how it is determined what the Committee votes on versus what goes straight to Council and felt the upcoming legislative manual discussion would be a good time to talk through that. Vice Mayor Veenker thought the auditor-staff discussion when reviewing audits was the important thing and suggested only coming to the Committee if there were significant disagreements. Vice Mayor Veenker suggested Council have an expectation that newer item additions will avoid busier agenda times. Vice Mayor Veenker asked for thoughts on how to smooth out the year end/year start period. Vice Mayor Veenker suggested an optional meeting in late January after the recess to make the December and February meetings lighter. Vice Mayor Veenker asked if Council would have to approve an extra meeting SUMMARY MINUTES Page 6 of 7 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 9/9/2025 each time or if the committees could self-authorize that. Vice Mayor Veenker wanted to see the item list separated into what is consent versus not. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines noted the legislative manual discussion will be brought to the Committee in October and that if there were disagreements on a particular bill or actions that were beyond the legislative guidelines, those would get sent to Council for consent. Assistant City Manager Nose agreed being more cognizant of the agenda timelines when setting up quarterly goals may help but needed more time to think on the calendar year end timeframe due to the transition of newly elected people. Assistant City Manager Nose said January meetings could be set as a policy or the ad hoc usage could be enabled as needed, which is the provision that would be enacted for an optional meeting. City Attorney Stump explained it takes time for the Mayor to make decisions regarding committee memberships and for dates to be set. City Attorney Stump confirmed it could be set up where the committee chair authorized a January meeting without having to be approved by Council each time. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines highlighted that staff reports are published 11 days before a meeting for Council and Committees with an at least 2-week internal review period. City Attorney Stump wondered if there were items on the list that were no longer needed and suggested retiring some items, especially informational, if the work no longer adds value. Deputy City Clerk Christine Prior had a list of which items were consent, action, or informational. Council Member Lu felt the various financial reports did not add much value and suggested consolidating them. Assistant City Manager Nose said some financial reports are required by statutory codes but many are reported in alignment with Council’s desires. City Attorney Stump suggested a first step of those who generate the list identifying items that are no longer of significant value. Vice Mayor Veenker requested the chart of recurring items marked as action, consent, or informational; expressed a willingness to look into it further; and asked if it needed to be agendized. Assistant City Manager Nose said feedback from what the Committee finds useful is helpful for staff. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines agreed to bring the topic back at a subsequent meeting; work with the clerk’s office to follow up with a way to identify action, consent, or informational SUMMARY MINUTES Page 7 of 7 Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 9/9/2025 items on the list; and come up with suggestions to consolidate items or recommendations for which items no longer provide much value. NO ACTION TAKEN Future Meetings and Agendas Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton Gaines asked about an additional October meeting. The items for October are the Fair Chance and Housing Ordinance, a Building Permit and Inspection Fees audit report, a Community Services Department Equipment and Materials Inventory audit report, the nonprofit workplan, and the legislative manual. Vice Mayor Veenker will be absent for the October 14 meeting. Council Member Stone will chair. Council Member Lu asked if the audits or legislative manual could be deferred to a November meeting. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines said there are between 4 to 6 items per upcoming meeting. Tuesday, October 28 was decided for the second October meeting with the intention to do the nonprofit workplan and legislative manual. Deputy City Manager Cotton Gaines will double-check with the staff person for the nonprofit workplan. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 7:40 PM.