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Mountain View’s police advisory board just got axed, after more than three years of serving as a liaison between the community and city’s police department.
In a 4-3 vote, the City Council approved a recommendation to dissolve the Public Safety Advisory Board at their meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
Council members Lisa Matichak, Lucas Ramirez, Ellen Kamei and Alison Hicks backed the motion, stating that the board had accomplished its main objectives and could be implemented more effectively in a less formal way.
Mayor Pat Showalter and Council members Emily Ann Ramos and Margaret Abe-Koga cast the dissenting votes, expressing a strong preference that PSAB continue to exist.
The dissolution of the PSAB was sudden, although not entirely unexpected. In September, Matichak raised concerns about its continuing relevance, in light of several board vacancies and a sense that members were struggling to come up with new work items.
“Perhaps this should have been a task force that had a limited scope and limited horizon that could accomplish the things that they’ve done,” Matichak said at the Dec. 10 meeting. “Because now they’re looking for, ‘Well now what do we do?’”
The advisory board was created at a time of community unrest and calls for police reform, following the murder of George Floyd. It was set up as an advisory board to provide recommendations on public safety issues.
Initially, the PSAB had a well-defined mandate driven by community concerns, according to the council report. These concerns related primarily to the presence of cops on school campuses, potential biases from law enforcement officers and the use of police to respond to mental health crises.
The board evaluated these issues but then struggled to come up with other projects that had a clear scope, the report said. It also required a big time commitment from city staff, who spent hundreds of hours preparing for meetings and working on projects.
For Council member Ramirez, freeing up staff to work on other city priorities was one reason to support the dissolution of the PSAB.
Ramirez also noted that public participation in the forum was not particularly robust, and that the same objectives could be achieved by holding other kinds of community gatherings that did not need to adhere to Brown Act regulations. There are more flexible ways to engage the community and police, such as through informal advisory groups, Ramirez said.
But Council member Ramos disagreed, pointing out that a city advisory board offers public protections. “The Brown Act exists to essentially prevent corruption, to prevent meetings that are behind closed doors, secret meetings, or anything like that,” she said.
Community members also weighed in on the proposal to dissolve the advisory board, expressing some ambivalence about its scope while emphasizing the importance of maintaining open communication and transparency with the police.
“I believe that the act of engaging back and forth in meaningful ways with the public creates that transparency, creates that trust, creates that capacity to believe that these institutions work for us,” said Dana Pede, a Mountain View resident and member of the Mountain View Coalition for Police Reform and Accountability.
“PSAB isn’t perfect, but we can’t lose the opportunities and the spaces to have meaningful engagement between our institutions and our public, now more than ever,” Pede said.
Pede also commented on the abruptness of the plan to dissolve the PSAB.
Mayor Showalter expressed surprise by the quick turnaround of the recommendation as well. She noted that even though the primary objectives of the PSAB were accomplished, more still could be done – a point emphasized by Council member Abe-Koga too.
“I think it’s premature at this time to say we finished our job and we should dissolve this body,” Abe-Koga said.
But for other council members, reaching the end-line was cause for celebration.
“I think it’s a badge of honor to be able to say we had goals and we achieved them. And it’s time to move on to the next item,” said Council member Kamei.
Probably a good idea to dissolve this group.
I know one member of this advisory board wrote a letter to the editor proposing an idea which would put law enforcement officers lives at risk by taking away their rifles. This was during a period of civil unrest. The motive was more ideology rather than any practical understanding of police work in the 2020s.
Dana made some good points here. But in the end, the police is doing their job (mostly). I don’t think they need to be micromanaged. They seemed to
Have responded effectively to Floyd-era concerns, the time spent on random little issues is a waste of time for staff and the police. I’d rather the council address issues as they come up.
A knee jerk end from a knee jerk beginning. We never had issues with MVPD that necessitated its formation. They’re obviously not perfect, but I think we have it pretty good in our little town when it comes to law enforcement.