During Community Police Commission meetings last year, Delante Thomas often sat on the sidelines watching as commissioners talked over each other or raised their voices.
Sometimes commissioners or community members asked Thomas, the city’s chief ethics officer, to provide clarity in the middle of a discussion. Part of his role was navigating the balance between providing guidance from the city’s perspective and respecting the commission’s independence.
“The city will step in where it’s necessary and appropriate, and legally appropriate,” Thomas told Signal Cleveland. “Contentious moments at meetings may or may not rise to that level.”
The Community Police Commission, and the Civilian Police Review Board, became independent from the Public Safety Department after Issue 24 passed. But the commission is still a city entity that needs to work with other departments, Thomas said.
Signal Cleveland spoke with Thomas about the commission’s first year and the city’s role in ensuring the commission’s success. The administration’s job is to continue supporting the commission and ensuring it succeeds, he said.
“If the commission doesn’t succeed, that reflects on all of us,” he said. “That reflects on the city, on the administration, on the commission, on the community. This is an all-hands-on-deck project.”
Thomas said Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration will continue to work with the commission to reach everyone’s goal of safer communities.
“Change is not always easy, and there have certainly been hiccups and things have not been perfect,” Thomas said. “However, we’re proud of the work that is being done, and the commissioners themselves have put in a lot of work to try to help get this off the ground, and they continue to work through challenges and move things forward.”
City not trying to be a barrier
The level of independence the commission should have from the city has been discussed at meetings.
Commissioners from past versions of the CPC warned the new commission in their first meeting that the city would not be their friend.
Community members who brought Issue 24 to the voters were also critical of the commission’s reliance on the city in its first year and of administration actions they say delayed some of the commission’s progress. One example they cite was Bibb’s rejection of the commission’s recommendation for its executive director in 2023.
Thomas said the city has not set out to be a barrier to the commission’s success.
Regarding the executive director position, Thomas said the charter makes it clear that the position is a mayoral appointment. In a letter to the commission, Bibb said that the decision to nominate Jason Goodrick was not transparent and did not include community input.
“This is a decision that the commission and the mayor make together,” Thomas said. “And that’s in no way impeding in the commission’s independence or their authority or their ability to move forward.”
While deciding whether to hire an independent attorney or an attorney through the city’s law department, commissioners expressed concern about potential conflicts of interest.
Mark Griffin, the city’s law director, said the law department proposed a full-time attorney. But the commission and its executive director ultimately decided they wanted a part-time attorney, based on their budget.
The law department worked with the commission to hire an attorney who would work part time for the commission and part-time for the city.
The commission can also hire outside counsel for issues that arise when there’s a conflict with the city.
‘We want to make sure that we extend grace’
Thomas said that despite the internal conflicts, commissioners accomplished a lot in their first year.
He put their work into perspective.
The Community Police Commission, as a whole, met twice a month the first few months, then once a month after June. Those meetings were about two and a half hours long. That’s less than a month of work if you were to convert it to a 40-hour work week, he said. (It’s a lot less — 65 hours.)
“We want to make sure that we extend grace to the commissioners based on that timeline,” Thomas said. “Because if you or I started a brand new job, you don’t know everything after a month.”
And still, in that time, they learned about police policies, ethics and conflicts of interest, as well as how the city’s human resources department works. They heard from law professors about constitutional and criminal law. They created a grants program and set up committees and work groups.
“It has not always been easy, but building something groundbreaking never is,” Thomas said. “We’re proud of the work being done.”
For other perspectives on the Community Police Commission’s first year, read the articles below.
