The city has received two dozen applications for the five vacancies on the new Fire & Police Commission, and two have former law enforcement experience, city officials said.
All applicants are from the City of Santa Barbara because it is required to be a qualified elector of the city to be eligible to serve (as it is a Chartered Commission), Barbara Andersen, senior assistant to the city manager, told the News-Press.
“From the information provided in the applications, two applicants have former law enforcement experience,” she said.
The Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously to create the newly constituted commission assigning additional civilian oversight duties in an effort to improve transparency, accountability and public trust.
“We are creating, with the passage of this ordinance, a framework,” Councilwoman Meagan Harmon said at the time. “It is the single most significant step toward meaningful civilian oversight in our city’s history. That is a big, big deal.”
The city’s goal is to have the new commission up and running in January. Commission members’ terms will expire Dec. 31, 2026.
The City Council is scheduled to interview the applicants on Tuesday, and to make appointments to the board the following Tuesday, Dec. 13, Andersen said.
Applicants that do not participate in the interview process will not be eligible to be appointed to serve on the commission, said Ms. Andersen.
She will serve as an independent police monitor who receives and processes complaints about alleged police misconduct, provides an ongoing analysis of complaint trends and prepares reports for the commission in coordination with the police department. An outside expert will be retained to guide the monitoring process.
During its deliberations, council members took pains to ensure that former firefighters and law enforcement officers could apply for a position on the board. Some people had questioned whether there might be at least a perception of bias on the part of ex-law enforcement officers serving on the civilian oversight board because of their ties to former colleagues they once considered as close as family members, but councilmembers rejected that notion in favor of their up-close and personal law enforcement experience while on the job.
Under the new ordinance, reports detailing the total number and type of internal and external complaints received and subsequent action taken, as well as the number of officers disciplined and the level of discipline imposed, will be provided to the commission for its review.
The commission also will review and discuss individual investigations in open session with the police chief once investigations are disclosable under the California Public Records Act.
Moreover, the police chief will make presentations to the commission regarding any officer-involved shootings. Those presentations will occur once the agency conducting such an investigation makes its determinations of finding.
The 24 applicants are Anne Bauman, Blanca Flor Benedict, Vito Rolf Bialla, Rachel Bishar, Walter Scott Burns, John D. Cross, Linda Esparza Dozer, Dieter John Dupont, Suzan Garner, Eric J. Grossman, Paul E. Hannah III, Richard G. Heller, Daniel Robert Herlinger, Gary Jon Hill, Glen H. Hodges, Robert C. Meltzer, Joseph Navarro, Lizzie Rodriguez, Augustina T. Russell, Raymond L. Szabo, John Joseph Thyne, Tracy C. Trotter, Rodney D. Utt and Ana Alicia Zepeda.
email: nhartsteinnewspress@gmail.com
