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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 13997 City of Palo Alto (ID # 13997) Policy and Services Committee Staff Report Meeting Date: 2/8/2022 Report Type: Action Items City of Palo Alto Page 1 Title: Receive an Update on Recent Race and Equity Work Since September 2021 Including an Update on a Records Management System (RMS) Contract for Police Data Collection and Provide any Recommendations on the City's Race and Equity Work From: City Manager Lead Department: City Manager Recommendation Staff recommends that the Policy and Services Committee Receive this Update on the City’s Recent Race and Equity Work and Provide any Recommendations to Council on the City’s Race and Equity Work. Background As part of the City’s ongoing Race and Equity work, the City Council adopted a list of directives in November 2020 (link to Action Minutes (pages 4 and 5); Report CMR #11754). The directives and progress on each of the directives, as well as other efforts since September 2021, are detailed in this report. Other updates that have come to the Policy and Services Committee quarterly are as follows: - March 2021 Update (CMR #12053) - June 2021 Update (CMR #12342) - September 2021 Update (CMR #13568) Discussion In addition to the assignments made by the City Council in November 2020, the City has been engaged in many community initiatives, conversations, and events related to race, equity, and culture. These updates are provided at the end of this memo. The City issued a blog update in July to share information about race and equity events occurring throughout Summer 2021. The blog included information about many things including the public art residency program and more. Staff will also issue an updated blog to reflect the updates included in this February quarterly report memo. Update on Work Assignments The tables below provide updates on the 17 assignments given by the City Council in November 2020 pertaining to the City’s Race and Equity efforts. The first table details updates on City of Palo Alto Page 2 assignments in progress (3 of 17) and the second table details assignments that have been completed since September 2021 (an additional 3 assignments to total 14 of 17 completed). Where necessary, further information is shared on the assignments following the two tables. The assignments that were completed as of September 2021 are included in Attachment A and included in the September Race and Equity report (CMR #13568). Updates on Remaining Assignments Assignment Work Assignment Status C Starting after the full implementation of the RMS and the first data collection period, direct Staff to resume annual data collection and analysis of police contact data similar to the previous Stop Data reports; Partially completed. Staff has implemented the new RMS system and officers are regularly entering the data into the Dept. of Justice database. The first reporting period will not be until January 2023. Further analysis can be conducted thereafter. K Return in the fall of 2021 with parameters, proposals, and strategies prior to engaging in Palo Alto Peace Officers’ Association (PAPOA) negotiations; The City Council and the City’s negotiators, through closed session meetings, will continue to analyze and review any desired and required MOA changes that relate to the City’s Race and Equity efforts for the Police Department. As of the writing of this memo, negotiations with PAPOA over a successor agreement have not yet begun. L Direct Staff, in coordination with the City’s overall diversity and inclusion efforts, to conduct a workforce demographic assessment as baseline information and to pursue an employee assessment to measure City workforce culture; Staff has begun this analysis. Staff has developed a framework for the data and has created an updated form to collect updated employee demographic information. Staff is currently collecting the information. Staff completed the Board/Commission demographic survey in 2021. The summary report will be uploaded to the race and equity webpage. This survey will be repeated either annually or bi- annually. The survey is anonymous and not linked to specific BCC members. Staff is working on a citywide climate survey anticipated to be distributed early this year. Tasks and Assignments completed since September 2021 Update City of Palo Alto Page 3 Assignment Work Assignment Status B Expedite implementation of the new police records management system (RMS) with quarterly reports to Council, and to return with the necessary agreements for the records management system allowing for Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) implementation; Completed. A detailed update is included below these tables. D Work with Santa Clara County on implementation of participation in the Santa Clara County Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) program and the Mobile Crisis Response Teams (MCRT) program and to return to the City Council with any necessary agreements for program participation; Completed. An update on this item is included below these tables. Staff continues to work on alternative service programs through partnership with Santa Clara County. H Include use of force information to the regular Supplemental Report submitted to the City Council as a cover memorandum to each IPA report; Completed. The use of force (UOF) information for Dec. 2020-Dec. 2021 as an annual report of a full calendar year of data will be released with the next IPA report in February 2022. This information will be shared for the year 2022 in early 2023. The report includes all uses of force similar to the June 2020 report. The use of force (UOF) information for Jan. 1, 2015 – June 1, 2020 is available online (https://tinyurl.com/4kwwy6xb). Assignments Completed before September 2021 are listed with detail in Attachment A (note: this information was shared in the September Quarterly Report (CMR #13568). Further Details Directives B and C: Expedite implementation of the new police records management system (RMS) and resume collection of stop data: As planned, the Police Department implemented its new RMS on December 1, 2021. The system eliminates most paper reporting and is compliant with the new California Incident- Based Reporting System (CIBRS) Department of Justice (DOJ) reporting requirements. CIBRS reporting is much more comprehensive than the old Uniform Crime Reporting of police report data. The Police Department just submitted its first month of CIBRS reporting to DOJ with a successful submission (error rate below 3%). The Department is still implementing some software interfaces with the new RMS, which should be completed over the next few months. City of Palo Alto Page 4 As of January 1, 2022, the Department began submitting required Stop Data Collection to DOJ through the DOJ web portal. As of near the end of January (about one month of data), the Department has submitted 353 stop data records. The first comprehensive report from DOJ involving Palo Alto-sized agencies will be published in April 2023. The Police Department partnered with Information Technology (IT) Department to create a Police Calls For Service Interactive Map, which displays completed police calls for service in the past 24 hours. This map was created to improve the visibility of police operations to the public in a way that captures community-initiated police interactions that may not always result in police reports. View the map at www.cityofpaloalto.org/PAPDmap. Directive D: Direct Staff to work with Santa Clara County on implementation of participation in the Santa Clara County Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) program and the Mobile Crisis Response Teams (MCRT) program and to return to the City Council with any necessary agreements for program participation: Staff continues to move on this directive since the last update to the Policy and Services Committee in September 2021. The three updates are as follows: 1. County PERT Program: The City signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Santa Clary County to begin the PERT partnership. The program launched in early December 2021 and the News Release is available online: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/News-Articles/Police-Department/PERT. The Palo Alto Police Department will become the second law enforcement agency in Santa Clara County to field a PERT unit to assist people who are in mental health crisis. 2. Santa Clara County’s new Community Mobile Response Program (branded: the Trusted Response Urgent Support Team (TRUST) Program): Santa Clara County’s Behavioral Health Department made a presentation to the Policy and Services Committee in March 2021 (CMR #12051) about their new alternative response program. As discussed then, the TRUST program is a non-law enforcement response resource for lower-level mental health crises based on Eugene, Oregon’s CAHOOTS program and other alternative response program. Following that presentation, Palo Alto successfully advocated for inclusion of a third north county site in addition to the two originally proposed in East San Jose and Gilroy. The overview for the program can be found here: https://mhsoac.ca.gov/sites/default/files/MHSOAC_Materials_05272021_0.pdf beginning on page 101. Next steps for the County include the of a ten-digit phone number, obtaining and provisioning vehicles, and the evaluation of responses to the Request For Proposals to select the Community Based Organizations that will provide services through TRUST. The County hopes to begin administering the TRUST program at the beginning of calendar year 2022. 3. Requesting funds for an alternative mental health response program: In order to ensure adequate coverage of a mental health alternative response program for Palo Alto, the City also submitted for federal Community Project Funding (earmarks) for financial City of Palo Alto Page 5 support for this type of program in partnership with the City of Mountain View and the City of Los Altos. The City received many letters of support for this type of program to accompany the application. Congresswoman Eshoo pushed forward the City’s request to the subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee and it moved all the way through the House of Representatives. The City is now waiting for Congress to approve the budget containing the earmarks. Until that budget approval, there is no certainty of receiving the funds. The City is proud to have made it this far in pursuing additional funds to complement any mental health alternative response program in North County and ensure adequate coverage of Palo Alto’s needs. Other Citywide Race and Equity/Diversity Updates The City is held a Town Hall CommUNITY event in the fall focused on Community Unity in light of recent hate crimes and hate incidents that have taken place, especially against Asian community members. The event recording is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa0aH4HTZ9I. Staff is working to schedule the Policy and Services recommendation from September 2021 to the full City Council for further discussion on the concept of a local ordinance related to hate crimes (in addition to the other recommendations included within the Committee action). Human Relations Commission 100 Conversations on Race and Lived Experiences in Palo Alto Building on the feedback shared with the City Council in January 2021 in the Black and Brown Palo Alto – History and Current Experience (CMR #11911) Report, the Human Relations Commission led this initiative intended to encourage the community to have conversations about race in small groups to grow Palo Alto into a community characterized by belonging, vested in diversity, inclusion, and equity and committed to putting words into action. More information is on the website at: https://www.100conversations.net/. The HRC shared the report findings with the Policy and Services Committee in September and with the full City Council in January (CMR #13841). The HRC is excited to continue the work and will discuss upcoming efforts at their February retreat. Palo Alto Art Center Activities • The Art of Disability Culture From September 11-December 11, 2021, the Palo Alto Art Center presented the exhibition The Art of Disability Culture: Artists with disabilities dispelling myths, dissolving barriers, and disrupting prejudice. The exhibition featured the work of 20 artists who self-identify as having a disability. Enhanced access features in the exhibition included QR codes that linked to visual descriptions of artworks on view, Braille labels, and live captioning for public events. An enhanced website lives on after the exhibition. • Centering Accessibility Thanks to a grant to the Palo Alto Art Center Foundation from the Institute of Museum and City of Palo Alto Page 6 Library Services, this project helps to further accessibility efforts at the Art Center. The initiative includes an advisory committee, additional access features for exhibitions, and staff training to promote a culture of inclusion. • Creative Attention: Art and Community Restoration On view from January 22-May 21, 2022, this exhibition explores the power of art to promote individual and community wellbeing. The exhibition also includes two artist residencies. One is with artist Christine Wong Yap, who is exploring places of belonging in the community with teens and seniors. The other is Marcel Pardo Ariza, who will be leading workshops with the Rainbow Collective, the LGBTQ+ community at Avenidas. Palo Alto Children’s Theatre Activities Palo Alto Children’s Theatre has focused on producing work that allows all Palo Alto residents to see themselves reflected on the stage. Here are some highlights from the past five months: • Rahi Ray of Light In November 2021, the Children’s Theatre produced the world premiere of RAHI RAY OF LIGHT by Gamal Abdel Chasten, with original music composed by Daibashish Ganguly, and choreography by Aparna Seetharaman. The play was commissioned through a collaboration with the Friends of the Palo Alto Children’s Theatre and The Breath Project, and was the result of a collaboration with a community of South Asian Palo Alto residents. • The Snow Queen A World Premiere adaptation of THE SNOW QUEEN, written by Gamal Abdel Chasten with original songs composed by Ron Sheffer, was produced in January 2022, as part of the popular Playhouse Series, fairy tales for very young audiences, at the Children’s Theatre. Due to incredibly high demand, the Children’s Theatre added a second weekend of Playhouse performances, for the first time in the history of the series. This new adaptation was commissioned by the Friends of the Palo Alto Children’s Theatre, in order to tell this traditional fairytale through a more diverse lens, incorporating multicultural influences in the casting, as well as the book and lyrics. • The Breath Project – Reparations Project Palo Alto Children’s Theatre is part of the Reparations Project, a national collaboration with The Breath Project, funded through a generous grant from The Tides Foundation, to encourage conversations around the topic of slavery reparations in educational and performing arts institutions. This new project, which has a three-year timeline, was launched in the Fall of 2021, and has included panel discussions with educators and civil rights experts, as well as a research and development phase, the goal of which is to establish the parameters of a fictional lawsuit regarding reparations, for mock-trials to be held in classrooms across the country (including Palo Alto High School) in year two of the collaboration. View the original 8-minute-and-46-second work, Say Hello Stewart, that was produced as part City of Palo Alto Page 7 of the launch of The Breath Project in the summer of 2020, and the full-length play that was presented in live, sold-out, performances at Palo Alto Children’s Theatre, November 12 – 21, 2021. Palo Alto Public Art Program Activities • Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King Artist Residency In following the City Council direction in 2021, the Palo Alto Public Art Program is launching the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. & Coretta Scott King Artist Residency. In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, for whom King Plaza is named, the City Council asked the Public Art Commission to consider commissioning a permanent work signaling the City’s commitment to race, equity, and belonging. The Public Art Commission is committed to a permanent platform for ongoing conversations about equity, inclusion, and belonging in Palo Alto through the arts. As a result, the King Artist Residency Program was established. The Public Art Commission has approved Rayos Magos as the first artist for the King Artist Residency, based on recommendations by a selection panel. Rayos Magos will utilize the power of storytelling and imagery in community conversations about culture, identity, and mental health within Latinx/BIPOC communities living and/or working in Palo Alto. Community programming will begin in February and his documentation of personal stories will result in a final temporary artwork displayed on King Plaza for a period of six months to one year. Library Activities The library Director is an Anti-Racism Action Team member of the Urban Libraries Council. They have been doing some significant work on developing Anti-Racist Executive Leadership for Public Libraries and Trigger Terms: Harmful Detours and Healing Redirects framework here. Here is a list of programs/events done by the Library between September 2021-February 2022: • Land acknowledgments shared at the start of every program since November 2021 • New Americans Program: Ongoing ESL Conversation Group, ESL Book Club, Advanced ESL • Stay Woke: A Social Justice Book Club (monthly) • Brown Bag Book Club (monthly): highlights cultural observation for monthly selection • Weekly Hispanic Heritage Month Storytimes (Sept 15 – Oct 15, 2021) • Noche de Lotería/Loteria Night (10/07/21): Virtual game night • Family Craft: Día de los Muertos Flower Crown • Weekly Native American History Month Storytimes (November 2021) • Diwali Storytime (11/02/21) • MLK, Jr. Day of Service Storytime (01/17/22) • Lunar New Year Storytimes (Feb 1-4, 2022) • Weekly Black History Month Storytimes (February 2022) • Lunar New Year Performance by Leung’s White Crane Association (02/09/22) City of Palo Alto Page 8 • Current blogs: Celebrate the Year of the Tiger and Celebrate Black History Month with the Library • Upcoming: Weekly Women’s History Month Storytimes (March 2022) • In development: planning to do storytimes and other events for AAPI in May 2022. Timeline, Resource Impact, Policy Implications Resource requirements for the topics and recommendations within this report vary widely. If new recommendations are proposed to move forward, staff will further assess and describe resource impacts. Stakeholder Engagement Community engagement is an integral part of Palo Alto’s race and equity work. Engaging the community at large to provide feedback for the City’s Race and Equity strategy has been a priority throughout this process as shown in the Framework. The City continues to engage the community through a series of Race and Equity conversations. Updates on the City’s ongoing efforts can be found on the Race and Equity webpage on the City website (www.cityofpaloalto.org/raceandequity). Staff is also planning an updated Community blog with the information contained within this report. The blog will be posted on the City’s Medium page at: https://medium.com/paloaltoconnect.