Feb. 28: Cleveland Community Police Commission
Covered by Documenter Tina Scott (notes)
Job hunting
The Cleveland Community Police Commission is looking for a permanent executive director. At their Feb. 28 meeting, commissioners unanimously voted to reopen the hiring committee for the position.
They appointed commissioners Shandra Benito, Gregory Reaves, James Chura, Audrianna Rodriguez and Teri Wang to the committee. Commissioner Alana Garrett-Ferguson said Interim Executive Director Jason Goodrick’s contract ends this spring.
Wang said the commission should also vote on whether to extend a contract with Mark Wallach, a lawyer independent from the city. The commission hired Wallach to determine whether Mayor Justin Bibb had the authority to reject the commission’s nomination of Goodrick to permanent executive director.
Due to time constraints, the vote on Wallach’s contract was set aside to discuss at the next full commission meeting. The commission has scheduled a special meeting for March 6 at 6 p.m.
Cleveland police discipline case work
Two people have appealed police discipline decisions to the Community Police Commission.
Wang said one of the complaints is from Antoine Tolbert against Sgt. Lance Henderson. She said that former Public Safety Director Karrie Howard “departed from,” or overruled, the Civilian Police Review Board’s decision to give Henderson the highest level of discipline for improperly stopping and arresting Tolbert. Henderson stopped Tolbert, president of the community patrol group New Era Cleveland, while he was legally carrying a gun.
The commission’s co-chairs and its Police Accountability Committee wrote a letter to the review board, Wang said. They asked its members to determine if there was clear and convincing evidence for Howard’s departure and that, without such evidence, the board “affirm” their initial decisions and override Howard’s. Voters changed Cleveland’s charter in 2021 to give the board that power, but the board has not yet used it.
This article has been updated with additional information from the letter, Wang’s description of the letter in the meeting, and a link to the letter itself.
Chief Ethics Officer Delante Spencer Thomas encouraged commissioners to work with Martin Bielat, a city attorney who works part-time with the commission, on the process to take appeal cases. He also suggested speaking with Bielat about how they will discuss cases in public settings. He said they should be careful about swaying opinions before cases have been heard.
Delayed police commission discipline
Commissioner Piet van Lier rescinded two motions. One would remove Wang from her position as chair of the Police Accountability Committee. The other would have recommended to Bibb her removal from the commission as a whole. Members of the commission’s Rules Committee voted to remove Wang from her position as chair in February.
This article was updated to reflect that only members of the Rules Committee voted to remove Wang from her position chairing the committee.
Commissioner Janice McCullough Ridgeway asked about the process to remove a committee chair. The Rules Committee is reviewing that rule, van Lier said. Benito added that she is working on a draft accountability process but it could take months to finalize.
The commission also delayed to its next meeting an “executive session to discuss the discipline of a public official.”
Read the notes from Documenter Tina Scott:
