President and Board of Trustees

123 Madison Street Village of Oak Park Oak Park, Illinois 60302 www.oak-park.us Meeting Minutes President and Board of Trustees Monday, July 12, 2021 6:00 PM Village Hall I. Call to Order Village President Scaman called the meeting to order at 6:02 P.M. She authorized a statement be read providing that the meeting is being held remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines and that it is not prudent to have people present at the Village Board's regular meeting location due to public health concerns related to that pandemic. II. Roll Call Present: 7- Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Buchanan, Village Trustee Enyia, Village Trustee Parakkat, Village Trustee Robinson, Village Trustee Taglia, and Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla Absent: 0 III. Non-Agenda Public Comment There were no non-agenda public comments. IV. Regular Agenda A. ID 21-200 Review and Discuss of the Police and Fire Pension Actuarial Reports in Preparation for the Fiscal Year 2022 Budget and Property Tax Levy Village Manager Cara Pavlicek introduced the Item. The Village’s Chief Financial Officer, Steve Drazner, introduced Bob Rietz, from Lauterbach & Amen, and Carolyn Clifford, Attorney for the Oak Park Firefighters’ Pension Fund. Bob Rietz and Carolyn Clifford gave an overview of their reports. Village Trustee Taglia noted it is good the village is gaining ground in the funding of these pensions; the village needs to be mindful that anything that reduces the required payments to these funds over the course of the next 20+ years will increase our overall funding obligations. This would mean higher pension costs in total and it would not be good for the taxpayer. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla was curious about the decision to move towards that actuarial evaluation software due to the cost since the administration of the fund will move to a consolidated fund at the end of the year. Village of Oak Park Page 1 Printed on 7/21/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes July 12, 2021 Bob Rietz responded previously their company used excel for their projections and implementing the new software reduced their process tenfold and is an investment in their future. Village Trustee Walker- Peddakotla mentioned it was important for the community to know that it is written into State law that these pension funds cannot be swept. Carolyn Clifford responded in the affirmative; these assets are held in a trust exclusively for paying benefits for the members of the fund. Village Trustee Parakkat questioned how did the village get to where it is with these funds (with the pension deficit). Carolynn Clifford responded it goes back to an issue of the actuarial profession having been more focused on providing information that clients want to hear rather than having clients be a little more prudent with pre-funding. It’s also demographics; people are living longer now and the investment markets have changed. Bob Rietz added they are now trying to be ahead of funding towards a reasonable target rather than funding to an unreasonable target. Employee contributions are no longer going to help pay off for the retirees like in the past. Village Manager Pavlicek stated in Oak Park there were a higher number of full-time employees in the fire department for decades and then it dropped. This resulted in a larger proportion of retirees versus active members which is indicative of the funding gap. Carolynn Clifford added the village has been tremendous at meeting and exceeding the funding requirements which has made all the difference. Village Trustee Robinson requested clarification regarding post-consolidation; can the village can still continue with the same goals and funding targets even though they vary from the state guidelines. Carolynn Clifford confirmed that. Village Trustee Buchanan requested clarification on the police funds being “un audited”. Bob Rietz responded by the time the reports are finalized the auditors may have not officially finalized the numbers, although the auditor will have confirmed the numbers will not change. Chief Financial Officer Drazner confirmed these are the audited numbers and nothing changed. Village Trustee Walker- Peddakotla commented for the community to understand that most of our levy increases every year go towards paying the pension funds. B. ID 21-198 Interviews of Third-Party Consultants to Serve as an Independent Village of Oak Park Page 2 Printed on 7/21/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes July 12, 2021 Facilitator Related to the Village Board Community Safety Goal Village Manager Cara Pavlicek introduced the Item and introduced Rasheda Jackson, Assitant Village Attorney, and Ahmad Zayyad, Deputy Village Manager. Deputy Village Manager Zayyad introduced the team from BerryDunn who then presented their proposal. Village Trustee Robinson requested clarification on the SRO (Student Resource Officer) policy since the village just removed the SRO program. Are they suggesting to put the program back? Michele Weinzetl from BerryDunn responded no, it is a type of data they may request in a typical proposal. Village Trustee Robinson requested clarification on how the vendor would solicit feedback from neighboring communities. Michele Weinzetl responded the firm uses a web based platform called Social Pinpoint that aims to engage the community and neighboring communities to solicit feedback. The firm also envisions holding community meetings in the adjacent communities to capture additional feedback. Village Trustee Buchanan asked what are the most innovated recommendations the vendor has made on changing how public safety is carried out. Michele Weinzetl responded their firm uses a Community Co-Production Policing (CCPP) model to engage the community. Rick Brown from BerryDunn added that it starts in the academy with the cadet training. The core courses that are taught do not give the cadets the culture competences to affectively navigate the black and brown communities. They have also brought in community members to be part of the academy curriculum review as well as creating a community video review panel to review videos being shown at the academy. Village Trustee Buchanan asked if the firm had any experience with the issue of decriminalization in order to decrease the interaction with police. Michele Weinzetl responded there are many ways to provide alternatives to arrests. Gloria Reyes from BerryDunn added by looking at the data and using a racial equity lens leads to reducing the rates of incarceration. Village Trustee Taglia asked for clarification on the Community Co-Production Policing model. Michele Weinzetl provided a response. Village Trustee Parakkat asked about their data-driven approach and how Village of Oak Park Page 3 Printed on 7/21/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes July 12, 2021 that facilitates some of the conversations the community needs to have. Michele Weinzetl responded about the types of data they will request and how they will capture the data. The firm will also look into the data that is not being collected by the department in order to get a more complete data picture. Village Trustee Enyia asked if there has been any substantial changes in other suburbs where the firm has worked with. Michele Weinzetl responded that this is a new model and have initially implemented this model in Northglenn, Colorado. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla asked if BerryDunn recommended any changes in Northglenn outside of policing, specifically did they recommend that calls for service be moved to different agencies. Michele Weinzetl responded they did not. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla questioned the firm's recommendation to Northglenn to hire additional police officers which some members of their community did not agree with. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla also voiced concerns with apparent overlap between this proposal and the CYSYNC contract. Village Manager Pavlicek responded the scope of work will need to be updated and vetted to reconcile any overlap as this request for proposal was sent out prior to the CYSYNC contract approval. President Scaman asked if the consultants would be open to look for ways to divert current calls for service to different agencies if requested. Michele Weinzetl responded in the affirmative. Deputy Village Manager Zayyad introduced the team from Hillard Heintze who then presented their proposal. Village Trustee Enyia asked how the consultant would implement the community engagement piece, what is the balance between the data they are given versus what they are getting from the community. Robert Davis from Hillard Heintze responded they always do outreach to the community to learn what they need to learn in order to interpret the data in such a way so they can make recommendations that will help to guide the department and the city to interact with the community the way they should. Village Trustee Buchanan asked what are the most innovated recommendations the vendor has made on changing how public safety is carried out. Village of Oak Park Page 4 Printed on 7/21/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes July 12, 2021 Sydney Roberts from Hillard Heintze responded highlighting past experiences in work they have done collaboratively with community organizations. Bob Boehmer from Hillard Heintze added the firm's work with Lancaster, California where the consultant helped the city to develop a hybrid policing model - a partnership between the community and the public safety department of the city to address some of the reoccurring problems in the community where the focus is not on enforcement. Village Trustee Buchanan asked if the firm had any experience with the issue of decriminalization in order to decrease the interaction with police. Robert Davis responded that there is a need to understand the root cause of issues and figure out how the community can co-respond to address those issues. Sydney Roberts added when the laws change, police officers' behavior did not change. The importance is to make sure that police officers are trained to respond appropriately to the change in the law and give them problem-based or situational training so they can see its application. Village Trustee Robinson requested clarification on their proposal not including the cost of a scientific analysis of vehicle stop data. Robert Davis responded that the request for proposal was not specifically requesting this study so it was not included in their proposal. If the village wanted to include this study then it would be at an additional cost. Village Trustee Taglia requested more detail on their scope of community stakeholder engagement. Robert Davis responded they would hold a kick off meeting, community forums, listening sessions and one-on-one meetings which can be done in person or virtually. Sydney Roberts added the consultant would report back periodically with updates and insights. Robert Davis added it is important for the community to see their input in the report; the report has to reflect the concerns and issues of the community. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla asked if the firm has ever recommended whether the police should stop responding to certain calls for service or that calls for service be moved to different agencies. Robert Davis responded in the affirmative. They are trying to figure out ways to reduce that impact to police resources and allow community entities to come in and handle certain calls for service. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla asked about the firm's recommendation in Salem to hire additional police officers to adequately Village of Oak Park Page 5 Printed on 7/21/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes July 12, 2021 address homelessness and mental health calls. Robert Davis responded the recommendation for additional staffing was to handle basic calls for service. He then gave an overview of how they determine appropriate staffing levels and spoke about their multidisciplinary approach. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla asked how the consultant would come in and work with the community who has not previously been listened to. Robert Davis responded they advocate for transparency in police operations, including listening to the community. Bob Boehmer added their work in Louisville and ensuring the community's voice was reflected in their report which includes actionable recommendations based on the community feedback. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla commented while the consultant's recommendations on the Louisville report may not have fixed anything, she appreciated the consultant being honest about the shortcomings in their report. Bob Boehmer added they take a look at the city and community to see how prepared they are to move forward with these innovative ideas; this may be reflected in why some recommendations are more of a starting point of how to move forward versus a community like Oak Park which historically is more progressive and may be more prime to move forward with these concepts. President Scaman commented that while it is well over due where some members of the community feel heard, there are a lot of people who work for the village and the Board that do care and this speaks to why they want to lead the conversation in the community that is responsive to the needs of everyone who lives here. Village Manager Pavlicek commented to the Board that staff worked hard to bring forward two candidates that offer qualified and unique approaches and they will schedule the next meeting for further review of the proposals. Village Trustee Parakkat requested to have one additional proposal from the Center for PS Management for review. Village Manager Pavlicek will provide the materials to the Board. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla requested a follow up on the question on how this work overlaps with CYSYNC. Village Trustee Parakkat requested clarification on the staff time requirements involved in this work. Chief Reynolds responded just the gathering of data and information to Village of Oak Park Page 6 Printed on 7/21/2021 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes July 12, 2021 develop a comprehensive picture will take a significant amount of time, but this is part of their effort to me more agile and transparent. President Scaman gave a brief overview of the timeline for next steps. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla asked if a third consultant could present to the Board if there was consensus to do so. Village Manager Pavlicek confirmed it is solely the Board's decision to invite in additional groups. V. Adjourn It was moved by Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla, seconded by Village Trustee Enyia, to adjourn. The motion was approved. The Meeting adjourned at 9:13 P.M., Monday, July 12, 2021. Respectfully Submitted, Deputy Clerk DeViller AYES: 7- Village President Scaman, Village Trustee Buchanan, Village Trustee Enyia, Village Trustee Parakkat, Village Trustee Robinson, Village Trustee Taglia, and Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla NAYS: 0 ABSENT: 0 Village of Oak Park Page 7 Printed on 7/21/2021