1999-12-08 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 12-08-99Page 13 of 31 situation where the Chief wants, and you want, as a Commission, how would you see that being settled, as far as sending it for budget review, sending it to the legislators to have it be considered? How do you see that being settled? Who’d have the power? J. HERKES: First of all, we’d like to have that challenge. I think it is a matter of is the Chief voicing his personal opinion as to how, or what, legislation should be done for policy making, or is he adhering to what the County wants. MARTIN: What’s in the best interest of the County is what you’re trying to say. J. HERKES: Exactly. MARTIN: Again, understood that, but if you have this power, and there’s a difference of opinion, how are you going to settle it? J. HERKES: Who does the Police Chief work for? MARTIN: He works for the County, but that’s kind of a redundant question. After he’s hired, isn’t it his department to run? J. HERKES: To administer policy that had been set, that’s his job. An entity, or a Commission like this one, which I believed the original intent was to set forth that policy, to give him direction. Not to interfere with any officer that, perhaps, my personal opinion, if I said you’re out of uniform and you’re on duty; that’s interfering administratively. But, to set general policy so that we are in tune with what the goals are of our Police Department. MARTIN: I understand what you’re saying. Possibly, I even agree there should be some movement in the book, as it’s written, to do what you’re saying, but the problem I’m having is how are you going to settle dispute, if it comes to that. SCHEELE: I don’t know how we’d settle it. I would think that the Commission should be the one who has the final say, as a Board of Directors. MARTIN: Okay, thank you. RAY: John. SANTANGELO: Again, I go back to, as far as the budget goes, it occurs to me, and we’ve done this with other things in non- profits, one way that that could be fixed is if, through an arbitration process, we got a figure that says that the Police Commission’s budget shall not exceed a certain amount of the entire Police budget. And that way, you’re guaranteed, as you submit your budget, as long as you’re under the cap, and the tendency is to go to the max, and that would have to be set prudently, then you would have a little more control of your ship. But if we go back to a performance based, and I understand what Mr. Martin was bringing up, but just like in the $12 million credit union that I’m president of, we set policy and budget. We hire a Chief Executive. We cannot micro manage any other employee in that credit union, but we look for the flags, we look for the standards, and we look for the performance standards to say are you on track. If not, what’s wrong and how can we adjust it. That’s a policy. And then, that Chief Executive job depends on that. So, the dispute is easily settled. Do it and do it right, or hit the road. And the way you do it and do it right is by these performance based standards, you’ve got a track record that you can then dismiss or renew a contract, and it’s based on something. So then if you have that with your Chief, you’ve got this person’s attention and, it seems like, the rest of the letter of the law, because figures don’t lie, but liars use figures. Sometimes you get rulings that back up a certain fiefdom or something, and it just seems to me that may create more accountability. And, again, it’s awful simple so maybe it’s not the right solution, but again, I bring it back to that because it seems to work a whole lot of other places. SCHEELE: I don’t know that we have the solutions. We’re here for ya’ll to have the solutions. SANTANGELO: The question comes back, and you both are nodding your heads, so it sounds like it’s great, but why can’t you do that now, and if not, how can we fix that? J. HERKES: By listening to our suggestions as to how we can change the Charter. And, this has nothing to do with personalities now. Look all the way up until the next ten years that we can change the Charter again. So, if the language is there and it’s black and white, very clear and no gray areas, which we see right now, then there should be no question as to file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 12-08-99.html7/1/2011