2022-11-18 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes November 18, 2022 Page 5 • Donna Grabow provided testimony via Zoom she spoke about vaccine mandates, orders, and proclamations and stated they were unconstitutional. She stated we need a police chief who did not consent to be injected with poison. She further stated someone who has not consented demonstrates that they will not compromise their health to keep their job. If they're respectful of their health, they'll be respectful of others' decisions. She stated that she praises the police, they deal with a lot of violence and are in dangerous situations. She stated all social ills cannot be the responsibility of the police chief and officers of peace, the kuleana is also on all the people to stand up and start a better community. She thanked the police commission who are volunteering their time and took the time to listen to the community. • Brian Black Executive Director of Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest provided written testimony as well as Zoom. He strongly encourages the commission against holding executive sessions closed to the public for the selection of the chief process. He stated he's happy to answer questions or discuss options regarding compliance with the Sunshine Law. Chair Bertsch addressed where they are in the process. He stated when they posted the position, they received 44 applicants, from the state and nationwide. They have reviewed and are looking diligently at all of those applicants. They subsequently sent out interrogatories; questions to all the applicants, of those, 22 responded. Of the 22 that responded, one of them rescinded. They currently have 21 applicants within their pool. The commission is deliberating with regard to their answers to their questions. Their goal is to try to come up with the finalists they feel will be appropriate for this chief position. The moment they do that, they will ask those applicants for their permission to share their names and go public. Once they receive permission to go public with the finalists' names, the commission will be 100% open and transparent. They are doing their absolute best to keep this as fast and professional as they possibly can. They have fantastic candidates on paper and the commission is looking forward to speaking with these individuals in person. The commission still does not know the identities of all the applicants, numbers are associated with the applicants and those numbers were generated and given to them by human resources. They want to get this process going as fast as they possibly can. He explained that it's a nine-member commission, all need to agree and they open it up for public testimony. Chair Bertsch thanked Mr. Black for his letter and testimony. He stated it's their goal to be as transparent as possible. Mr. Black stated he thinks the community would be interested in seeing the criteria that are being used and watching the process by which the commission is using to narrow down the candidates to those that become the finalists. He stated the courts have been clear, especially if you don't even know their names. That the standard exception that has been used in the past for privacy and personnel decisions would not be a basis for holding a closed session.