RCPRC October 13, 2020 Minutes

RCPRC Meeting Minutes

10-13-2020

1. Attendance.

• Terry Johnson – Volunteer Committee Member
• Jennifer Bliss – Volunteer Committee Member, Chair
• Ted Dixon – Volunteer Committee Member, Vice Chair
• Josh Baron – Volunteer Committee Member, Secretary
• Rich Wright – Volunteer Committee Member
• Marc Cassidy – Volunteer Committee Member,
• Chief Scott Schaffrick – Chief of Police, Rosendale Police Department
• Councilman Matt Igoe – Rosendale Town Council Member (non-voting member, Police Commission liaison) – Was not able to attend
• Councilwoman Carrie Wykoff – Rosendale Town Council Member (non-voting member, Town Council liaison) – Left at 6:42
• Jessieca McNabb (Volunteer Committee Member) – Was not able to attend
• ADA Blackmon – did not attend

3. Meeting minutes for our 9/17 and 10/8 meetings were approved. Jennifer noted that she would do a final review and then have them posted to the Town website.
4. Remaining progress reports were reviewed, including: Rich (budget/staffing), Ted (community engagement), Jen (use of force and internal accountability).

Rich (budget and staffing) shared initial information on the RPD budget and noted that it was lower than local fire departments.  Josh suggested that we get a more detailed budget breakdown and also comparison data from other local Towns.

Ted (Community Engagement) met with the Chief to learn more about the RPD’s efforts to engage with the community and discussed issues of diversity in the police department and to the extent that it represents the demographics of the Town.  There was a discussion about the benefits of having a more diverse police force as well as some of the legal issues related to the hiring process.  There was also discussion of working to schedule face-to-face community meetings that might take place in local firehouses.

Jen (Accountability and Force) provided an overview of some of the existing policies related to use of force and internal accountability.  She noted that it might be useful to make the policies easier for the public to understand.

4. Public communications plans for first round of public meetings were discussed.

October 29th is the current tentative date for the first meeting, with November 12th and early December being suggestions for follow up public meetings.  Initial plans for the 29th would be to provide a brief overview of the Committee’s mission/charge and then brief review of each subcommittee with periods for public comment.  We also discussed providing a summary of some of the public survey comments.  Josh will work with Carrie to finalize technical plans for using Zoom for the virtual meeting.

5. Review/set dates for next action items for the committee.

This was done as part of the prior agenda item and updated in our Work Plan.

6. Next full group meeting date?

We discussed options for scheduling out next meeting.

We adjourned at 7 pm.