The Rules and Legislation Committee met on Tuesday, May 7, 2026, at 10:32 AM. Councilmember Ramachandran chaired the meeting. Members present: Councilmember Brown, Councilmember Fife, and Councilmember Ramachandran. Council President Jenkins was excused and participating remotely but was not present in the queue. The meeting covered approval of minutes, scheduling of outstanding committee items, new scheduling items, review of draft agendas, and a discussion item on proposed charter amendments to the police commission.
Yo. Good morning, good morning, good morning. And welcome to the rules and legislation committee meeting on this Tuesday, May 7th. And this uh meeting shall come to order. Before I begin, excuse me, my apologize. It's at ten thirty-two, and uh this meeting shall come to order. Um, before I give roll, I will like to give instructions on how to submit a speaker card for an item on this agenda. If you are participating here in chambers with us in person and would like to submit a speaker card, please turn a speaker card into a clerk representative here in the front, either before the item is read into record or um ten minutes after this meeting start. This meeting started at ten thirty two, so that would be ten forty-two. Um, registering a speak via Zoom was due twenty-four hours before this meeting began, noting that there will no longer be online speaker cards accepted. But once again, this meeting began at ten thirty two. We will stop accepting speaker cards at ten forty-two or before the item is read into record. With that, um, I would like to begin roll. I do um, starting with Council Member Brown. Council Member Five. And Council President Jenkins, who is currently excused, he is participating remotely, but I don't see him here in the queue. All right. There is three more days left in municipal clerks, and we accept gift cards, donuts, and anything that you would like to provide. Thank you so much. With that, we will now move to item number one, which is the approval of the draft minutes for the committee meeting on April 23rd, 2026. Is there a motion? Yep, move up second. That was a motion by council member five, seconded by council member uh Brown to approve item one, which is the uh draft minutes for April 23rd, 2026. On roll, Councilmember Brown, aye. Council Member Fife, aye, and council member Ramachandra who's sharing this meeting. Aye. And Councilmember Jenkins excuse that was three ayes, one excuse Jenkins. That now takes us to item number two, uh, which is the termination of scheduling outstanding committee items, your pending list. And I do have two speakers for this item or one speaker. Okay, let's hear the public speakers. Thank you so much. I have Blair Beekman. Um, if you are here and participating online, your hand is raised. Thank you so much. You may begin. Hi, uh, Blair Beekman. Happy Thursday. Uh um, I um I'm interested in in this item that you have a uh you have an item that will be going to uh about the uh charter amendment changes to uh the civilian oversight of the OPD and that process. Um you guys have been having really awesome committee meetings uh lately, the past few months, very informative and informational, and at uh your most recent committee meetings, I think at the end of April, um I can't remember which one it was it was discussed um that you know the previous council and administration uh worked really hard to create uh important uh civilian oversight practices that were actually working well, and and something was actually working well. And I can't quite remember the facts uh about the situation, but it's like you guys are upsetting that process right now, all of you the administration, the new council staff, and you're trying to set up new standards and best practices with these civilian uh oversights and changes to the charter, but um we have to acknowledge that the the previous uh civilian uh uh police commission board was doing something very well, and you acknowledge that in the meeting, and I think you want to work on those best practices, yet at the same time, um, you're you're you're you're upsetting what was an already good balance that was taking place. And how how are you going to address that? I think all of that has to be addressed and certainly made clear how I can't remember to give a better facts about it, but it has to be made more clear what was doing, what was going well the previous time and what you're doing now to create these charter changes. Do we really need these charter changes? And the previous commissioners were really good actually. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. That concludes our public speakers for item number two. I need a motion. I'll entertain a motion, uh so moved, second. And that was a motion by Councilmember Brown.