Syracuse Citizen Review Board Meeting - August 7, 2025
Syracuse Citizen Review Board Meeting - August 7, 2025
The Citizen Review Board held its regular meeting on August 7, 2025, at 5:32 PM. The meeting included approval of previous minutes, election of a vice chairman, discussion on accessing police body camera footage, updates from the administrator, planning for community outreach, action on board attendance, and establishment of a bylaws review committee.
Consent Calendar
- None (the approval of June and July minutes was done as separate motions, not as a consent calendar).
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public were present to comment.
Discussion Items
- Approval of June and July Minutes: The board ratified the June meeting minutes (motion passed unanimously). The July meeting minutes were also approved (motion passed unanimously).
- Election of Vice Chairman: Peggy was nominated and elected as the new vice chairman. She accepted the position.
- Board Secretary Position: The duties were not known; the matter was tabled until the next meeting.
- Accessing Evidence.com: A major discussion about purchasing a license for evidence.com to access police body camera footage directly, rather than going through Internal Affairs. The board voted to authorize exploring the cost and to bring back information for a future decision. The motion passed.
- Administrator Report (Nolita): Reported on July activities: tabling at Wine and Jazz Fest, meeting with Police Chief, attending mayoral candidates forum, training on PeopleSoft and Chronos, hiring of Julie Bonifest as legal secretary, and plans for further hiring. Referral made to Sergeant Grimsley regarding Lexapol and Evidence.com.
- Upcoming Outreach Events: Board discussed tabling at upcoming events: New York State Fair (Pan African village) – on waiting list; Hispanic event on August 16 in Clinton Square – will contact organization. Need Spanish-language literature.
- Meet and Greet: Board members proposed a meet and greet event at the office; members will suggest dates.
- Attendance and Board Membership: A board member missed more than four consecutive meetings. A letter to councilman Choke and Marty was approved to request removal. Two vacancies exist (one district, one at-large); letter will be sent to council to fill them.
- Bylaws Review Committee: Extended discussion on whether to create an external advisory board or a committee to review bylaws and legislation. Ultimately, the board voted to establish a bylaws committee of seven members, to include the director. The motion passed.
Key Outcomes
- Votes:
- Approval of June and July minutes: passed unanimously.
- Election of Peggy as Vice Chairman: passed.
- Motion to explore evidence.com: passed.
- Motion to send letter regarding removal of absent board member: passed.
- Motion to establish a bylaws committee of seven members (including director): passed.
- Directives:
- Chair to send letters to council about board member removal and vacancies.
- Members to submit three possible dates for the meet and greet.
- Administrator to follow up on evidence.com cost and Lexapol/Evidence.com contacts.
- Board members to review bylaws and propose names for the bylaws committee.
- Next Steps: The board will reconvene in executive session after adjournment.
Meeting Transcript
The opening of the official um uh August 7th meeting for the citizen review board. Um it is now five thirty two and we do have a quorum, so we will start the meeting. Um uh let's do the uh roll call. Elise Faker. Uh Linda here. Um Ada is missing, uh Don Johnson here, Mike. Uh Harry? Here Olivia is missing, uh Peggy. Uh Somnia? Here. Okay. Um so the first um point of business is that since last in June we didn't have a quorum to ratify the June uh minutes. Has everyone had an opportunity to look at those minutes? We can have a July one yeah, no, June. So in July we didn't have enough people to ratify the June minutes. So um if everyone's okay with the June minute uh minutes, we need to get a uh a motion to accept the June minutes. I'll move that. Okay, second. Uh it has been moved and second any discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. So the June uh uh minutes uh pass and now um for the july, I sent out those meetings for the July meeting. Uh has everyone had an opportunity to look at that. Uh we did not have a quorum during that meeting, so um the discussion of that meeting is in the uh July uh minutes. If you have read through that, uh if we can get a motion to accept uh the July meeting. Uh can we get a second? Second. It has been moved and second. Any objections? Any discussion? Can we get a vote on the uh July meeting? All in favor? Aye. Opposed. No distinction. So the July uh meeting uh passes. Um so the next thing on here is the um the um chairman's uh report. And as of right now, um there's not a report from the chairman. Um and before we go on, I would like to introduce everyone to our new um student. Um Mike, not Mike, excuse me. David. David is our new summer student. Uh David has been very instrumental in terms. David has been very instrumental in helping us get the office reorganized, and he has been a true asset to the CRB board, and we're glad to have him on board. So thank you very much, David. Okay, so action items that we need to um get taken care of. The first action item is that we need to um select a vice chairman uh for the committee. Um I have I have spoken with Peggy, sort of twisted her arm. Um and Peggy has said that she would be willing to step into the position as vice chairman, um, unless we have any other nominations that uh people would like to bring to the board for vice chairman.
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