Note: The transcript of this meeting is dated October 27, 2022, but the meeting is specified to have occurred on November 3, 2022.
The meeting opened with a motion and second, which passed unanimously. The primary agenda items included an audit report on first‑quarter spending from the Community Policing and Prevention Fund (CPPF) and a presentation on the extreme weather plan for people experiencing homelessness.
City Auditor Doug Jones presented the audit, which examined whether the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) spent the CPPF as intended by the City Council during the first quarter of FY2023 (May–July 2022). Key findings:
Josh Hinges, Homeless Prevention Coordinator, presented the 2022–2023 extreme weather plan.
No formal votes on the audit or plan were taken; they were presented for discussion.
Session of October 27, 2022. Is there a motion? Second. So moved and seconded. All in favor indicate by saying aye. All opposed. The motion passes. First item is audit, second item is audit report, the fiscal year 2023 first quarter police spending from the community policing and prevention fund. City auditor. Good afternoon, Mayor Lucas, members of the city council, Doug Jones, City Auditor's Office. I'm here to present our audit of the police department spending from the community policing and prevention fund for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023. I will discuss the audit objective, provide a little bit of background, and summarize our findings. In front of you are copies of the audit report, highlights page, as well as the presentation slides. The team for the audit was Jonathan Lequeur and Vivian Z. In March 2022, the City Council passed ordinance 220216, creating the community policing and prevention fund. The ordinance also directed the city auditors to schedule and conduct quarterly audits of the Board of Police Commissioners' efforts to meet the city's expectations as outlined in the ordinance and report to the council as soon as practical at the end of each fiscal quarter. Our audit focuses on whether the police department spent the CPP fund as expected by the city council during the quarter. To answer our objective, we assess the method the police department developed for reporting the CPP fund spending, summarized all reporting categories, and evaluate the accuracy and eligibility of expenditures allocated to school resource officers and community action network fund categories. We conducted the audit in accordance with government auditing standards, with the exception of reporting the views of management concerning the audit because we did not make any recommendations in this report. Police department reported spending about a third of the funds appropriated to the CPP fund and allocated these expenditures to eligible spending categories. A summary of spending allocated each category shown exhibit one on pages two and three of the report. The police department's fiscal division developed a process that, if operated as intended, will accurately report to the city the department's quarterly use of the fund. The process does carry some risk because it is manual. Additionally, it is labor-intensive and time consuming for police department staff. $2.6 million of the CPP fund was appropriated to the special operations division and traffic division category. The police department reported spending the full appropriation and using the department's general fund to cover remaining operations in this category for the first quarter. For the first quarter, we verified whether officers were assigned as school resource officers in Kansas City Public Schools and East Patrol and Metro Patrol Community Action Network Centers. Established community network action centers, community action network centers in the East and Metro Patrols was a city expectation. The department reported allocating the expenses of two officers to the Metro Patrol can center for all seven pay periods during the first quarter and two officers in the East Patrol can center for the last two pay periods of the quarter. Another city expectation was dedicated school resource officers for public schools in Kansas City. The department allocated the expenses of five officers for six of seven pay periods and four officers for the last pay period of the quarter. A breakdown of how the police department allocated expenses to each community policing and prevention fund category for the first quarter starts on page five of the report and continues to the end of it. We plan to verify the expenses of some of these categories for some of these categories in future quarters. We did not request a response from the department because as I said, we did not make any recommendations in this report. This concludes my presentation. What questions do you have? And representatives from the police department are also here to answer questions you may have. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any questions for the city auditor? All right. Seeing none. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Park Show. Well, I don't know that I have questions for the auditor, but uh for uh the police KCPD that's in the room, I I would just like to maybe ask since this is first quarter expenses, what if and if you're not able to answer this today, I'm okay with that. But um, can you give us some insight on the future quarters and kind of what's going on today and uh how you anticipate this these percentages changing over this the rest of this year? All right, from the police department, do we have a I guess Deputy Chief Neyer? Uh and I don't know if you caught the councilwoman's question, but uh we can repeat for you if you get the chance deputy chief Niemyer with the police department. This is Captain Josh Hynan.