Michael.

You sent a reminder, right?

Yeah, but that was good.

Oh, there she is.

We might as well get started.

It is now five thirty-six.

It is Tuesday, March third, two thousand twenty-six.

Yeah.

Attendance law call.

Yes.

No.

Absent.

Absent.

Absent.

Don Joneson.

Yes.

Mike out of town.

Hari.

Yep.

Peggy.

Sonia.

Absolut.

Octavia out of town.

Desire here.

Okay.

So did everyone have a chance to uh review the um the uh January the February meeting.

I mean the January uh no, it'll be the February meeting minutes.

Yes.

Okay.

So and we can't vote to uh accept the minutes, so um we'll have to uh table that to the next uh meeting.

Uh okay, so the next thing on the agenda is the chairman's report.

Um up to date on staffing.

Um we still haven't um brought on uh the final uh member of the uh CRB board, which would have been the administrator.

Um as I mentioned last time, uh we're looking at some different options uh on saving the uh the board some money and uh I'll be meeting with the administrator talking over some different options and then I'll be bringing that to the board for let's make a correction you said our final person to bring on was administrator, you mean uh the uh investigator, I'm sorry correction that investigated not the administrator.

We're not getting ready.

So um as far as the board, we have uh two candidates that uh we're reviewing out of uh Corey Williams area.

Um so we'll be making the decision or co uh Corey will be making the decision soon on which member um he's gonna bring on board and then that will bring us to a full board.

Okay.

Um of the things that uh in the uh in our bylines is that each board member is supposed to be holding an event once per quarter in their given area.

Um if uh you guys can come up with some uh event places, uh please let Adonia know.

Um and she has some events that are scheduled that will are probably in some of your areas, so she'll be getting in contact with you to let you know which areas she's gonna be uh dealing with in the month of March.

Um and what we like to do is like we we like to have board members show up uh to volunteer and participate in those area in those events.

So the next thing on the agenda is the uh CRB administrative report.

Okay, the next thing on the agenda is the uh CRB administrative report.

Good evening.

Um February was uh marked by a steady pace of operations focused on um management and caseload files.

Um the office continues to ensure that all cases move forward efficiently.

Currently, the board has established a hearing date, though the logistical requirements must be met before proceeding.

So we do have it set.

We just have a few more things that we have to put in place before we can actually move forward.

Um our caseloads for the year of 2024 have been met.

We have uh finalized all of the cases and the final findings and letters are currently being distributed to the relevant parties of those particular cases.

Also, the cases for 2025, there were a total there are I'm sorry, a total of 83 cases for 2025.

Out of the 83, 13 of them are already completed.

Um, and we are study moving forward with those for the year of 2026.

To date, we have nine cases that have been opened already currently.

Um during the month of February, 10 new files were open, including setting up computer and paper records and mailing acknowledgement acknowledgement letters.

Additionally, seven files were officially closed.

We've also sent correspondents uh a total of 18 out, um, consisting of 10 acknowledgement letters, seven closing letters, and one complete form.

One complaint form, I'm sorry.

Um the staff has handled several calls, and we have also had two in-person meetings specifically regarding how to file a complaint with the CRB and what the process and the procedures would be.

Um monthly meetings we have uh every Friday.

We have a staff meeting.

Um, and then there's also monthly meetings, including drafting vote sheets and organizing board member folders.

Um the board participation, Don Johnson actively uh participated in the review and deliberation of five cases during scheduled board meetings.

Um the staff also coordinated with the legal department regarding a subpoena on an old file and uh drafted up the necessary responses for that.

Um SPD collaborations um we have met with I met with Chief Russin to facilitate uh data sharing between the CRB and our uh data analysis between uh Chris and the SPD.

Also recently um on the 28th, Chris did a board member training, which was very successful and giving us statistics and it was a very, very, very good meeting.

We uh got a chance to see what the statistics are uh from the previous up until now, and that was really successful.

And that is my report for the month.

Okay, when I add just one other thing on that, we have also reached out to the city to have Chris uh Chris meet with the uh uh data person here in the city to uh uh uh share data.

So what we're looking at doing is getting data from the SPD and from the city to help us make a better judgment on on what's happening with the city and what are and with the districts and with the police department.

So uh I think it'll be a very good uh uh take for the board once we get all that data and get that information out there uh that both the police and the city departments can use to help make better plans for the citizens of Syracuse.

So okay.

And don't forget that we have a meeting with the training.

Oh, yeah.

On uh this Saturday, um, the board and uh members of the uh CRB will be uh doing police training uh at the police station uh on Saturday.

So we get an understanding of how things work at the police department, so we make sure that we follow the procedure as well as them following the procedures.

So don't have any old business to discuss.

Um and then uh we're still working on putting together the committees uh for the CRB.

Um I have drafted the uh template, sent that out to everyone and waiting for uh the members to get back to decide which which committee they want to work on.

And once we get that done, we'll then get that published out so everyone will know what committee we're working on.

Um right now we're at the point for um public comments.

So if someone wants to make a comment.

Oh well, I'm sorry.

Um upcoming city events with the CRB.

Um those are actually posted on our website.

So um you can go to uh Syracuse.gov slash CRB and go to the event calendar and you can see the events that we have planned uh for the city on the uh website.

Um if you want to use that information.

Okay.

Uh so um open comments.

Um Barry Gowanter for the record, because we're um on camera.

Um I live on the west side um near the reservoir on Ryder Avenue.

Um first um issue question.

I would really like more information publicly in a meeting about what options you are considering re the investigation, the investigator to save the board money.

It's been mentioned now in two successive meetings, but it's not transparent because it hasn't been talked about openly here, and I ask that it does.

I also urge you strongly to preserve that position.

Getting that position was hard fought, and I'm a little concerned that options may involve a dilution of that position rather than preserving it.

Well, let me interject on that.

Uh and the reason why we haven't made it public is that we this is just under discussion.

Um so once we come to a hard heart and fact on that, then we'll uh make sure that that's information is out to the public.

But until then, we're just discussing a couple of different options.

So I would suggest that it would give the public the opportunity to provide you input if you just stated what options you're discussing.

If you go ahead and make the decision outside of a public meeting, the public has no opportunity to weigh in until it's a fate accomplish.

Oh no, no, that we would definitely not do that.

So once once we um had the format in place on what what we think that would work, um of course it has to go through the board and it has to go to the public, and the public could uh respond to that.

So but uh you know, and I'm I'll have to ask Connor on this.

If it's an HR issue, does that have to be discussed out in the public or not?

Sorry, for that louder.

Oh yeah, so we have it's like a personnel.

I would suggest that this may not be about an individual, but about a position, i.e.

a structural issue, and I would suggest that that should be at least discussed in public.

Oh, absolutely.

Okay.

Um second on data.

Uh you mentioned that the training on data was very productive, and that's great, but you also said that you learned about statistics.

I request that you be transparent about that.

And I'd like to know as things go forward if some of the data that the data analyst is identifying or producing will be available on the website, sort of like in a dashboard kind of fashion.

Okay.

I would suggest that you um err on the side of transparency whenever possible.

Absolutely.

And and and here's where we're at, Barry, on that.

It was that the data that that Chris ran all the numbers on was from uh prior years where we had no impact on starting 2025.

That would be the the data that we'll be posting on the website for everyone to see all the stats that we come up with.

It may be that the public is interested in the stats on prior years as well.

I understand that there's a new board, but um there's a lot that's gone on in history provides lessons for the present, and I think the public has a right to know.

Um I'm also interested to know you had a train, you're going to have a training with the police department.

What topics are you going to cover?

Um I'll put that out there, and I'm interested in knowing.

Um there was one that that has been set up by the police department.

Um so you could probably contact those guys and they can let you know what the training subject matter is going to be.

Um I'm actually asking the board, so perhaps I can rephrase and say after your training, can you report to the public what topics were covered?

Okay, absolutely.

Okay.

Um there was an item of old business that you may not have wanted to discuss because you didn't have a quorum, but you were talking before about an advisory committee of some sort that might look at the legislation and make recommendations for enhancements or changes.

And um I didn't hear anything about that because there was no old business discussed.

But I just wanted to point out that that's a matter of old business.

Right.

That that because of the transition based on the new regime coming in, you know a lot of things have to wait until the new persons vote on or we put stuff through, but we have to wait until um someone else uh approve certain things or speak to us about it.

So once that transition is finished with the new mayor and the staffs and different things, or someone else like Cho came out, someone else went in, so it's in it's in limbo until we finish getting it together based on with them.

And if if I may uh correct that statement, is that the board was just going to be putting together names of people that we thought that would be working well on the committee.

Uh we were not formulating anything other than putting together names of people that we thought that may work uh well on restructuring once the mayor's because that that is um uh um the mayor's office uh prerogative decide on who will sit on the committee or if they even need a committee to do that.

So I request clarification as to whether or not this is a committee to be created by the mayor of the council to suggest recommendations to the law, or is it as it was presented last time, a committee formed by this board to provide information and recommendations to this board about its position or what its position should be on what in the law should be adjusted or um revised.

And so I'm not really clear on what the position of this committee is because it was stated one way last time, and perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but you seem to be talking about it as a committee to be formed by the mayor.

Well well, it is is my understanding that um when Shoel had the position, Cho was in and the mayor would have to vote on any changes to uh the law and the and the um the um legislation for the for the CRB board.

This board right here, our our only uh purpose was to come up with names that if that did happen, we would have someone to place on there, or we would have suggestions of people that could go on that board.

Okay, um I would ask you to review your resolution from last time because that's not what I remember was presented.

Um the idea that the mayor would vote on any legislation is totally incorrect.

It's not it's not the mayor, it's the counselors.

Correct.

Right.

So I just wanted to point that out.

And just for clarification, even though we voted to establish the committee.

Right.

But it's not in our in our powers.

I think the council.

Yeah, I think the council has the powers to make the only one that has the power to do that.

So I'm not sure that's right.

I think that you can ask people to advise you.

But we brought it to the table.

Our role is to suggest people from our areas that might be interested or be good at doing this.

But it has to be it.

We are appointing them.

They will be appointed by the council.

Correct.

It's a collaboration.

Excuse me.

It's a collaboration.

We suggested that we needed it so policies can be changed based on some things that we saw that is a conflict.

So we presented it to our council person that was over it, and they're to they're supposed to bring it alive, in other words.

So you're saying it doesn't.

We all have a part in this collaboration between the council, the boards, because there's a lot of things that we think we can do better with or understand a little bit more if they change some laws and bylaws.

So we suggested that we get a committee.

And you've been here through that process and saying things in regards to it.

So it's a collaboration between all of us trying to make that come alive.

But how it affects the board is it'll help us make better decisions on things that keeps us stagnant.

For instance, if uh we have to have a mayor, uh mayor person that's appointed by mayor or county ledge or whatever, and we can't change something or can't get it through because uh one person is not here.

So it's things like that where we're trying to find a better way to get things pushed forward because a lot of things keep cases laid in the back for some reason.

So it's a collaboration between us.

We suggested it, the council take it from there, and because of the mayor being a part of it totally, the mayor's office or his cabinet or whomever, then all of it plays a part with everything come together, but ours was the suggestion uh getting change in policies made.

We don't have power legislative.

Right.

We don't have a they're the ones that no, but you do have power of recommendation.

Which is what we and I think it's crucial that this board come up with a position on what you think needs to be changed in the legislation and how, and I'm not sure that you're ready to do that yet.

We haven't written down, we have stuff written down because we set long hours uh about different things that we could, so it may not be finalized all the way, but we definitely need an advisory board and start the process going because we do have a lot of things that are holding us back from making decisions.

So that's what that's what we put it in play for.

So we may not have the totality of it, but we do have some things worked out.

So I would suggest that if you're gonna discuss recommendations for making changes in law, you do that with transparency and not behind closed doors.

Well, so please keep that in mind.

Okay, thank you.

Yep, yep.

And Barry, I'll I'll go ahead and uh check and re-re go through that uh the minutes and see exactly what was stated there.

I think you said something entirely different.

Okay.

Forgive my tardiness.

You guys know I get off at six, and sometimes I can get out earlier and sometimes I can't.

Now we've got a quorum.

We're glad to do that.

Yeah, we got finally that core.

Uh I I like to make a comment.

Comment is this.

Um things will come out openly for the public once certain things are taken in consideration.

And once we finish, like the data analyst, we can't put out data.

The uh as a matter of fact, would you talk about that?

Thank you.

Yeah, so the Chris.

You gotta introduce yourself and where you're from.

So I am Chris Vierrow.

I am from uh from the CRP.

I was trying to think of where I was from physically in the city.

Um I'm still new, so I don't have that on the top of my head yet.

It's like but the to address your question uh about uh the data being presented publicly is that the form that it's in right now, um there are concerns about it being identifying to the individuals in the cases, so I'm still trying to work in a way to uh anonymize it better so that it couldn't be traced back to the person.

That that's where my concern is right now.

Thank you.

Okay.

And the other part is we're not gonna put it out there before it's ready.

Uh we have to make sure every dot is dotted and every T is crossed so that when we put it out there, it'll be factual between all the agencies between policing.

We gotta compare and contrast on those things.

So that's why the information isn't out there yet, but we will make it transparent to the public so that everybody can see it, everybody can read it and understand it.

So it's gotta be uh tweaked.

Right the right way.

Okay, Don.

Okay.

So uh now since we have a quorum, um we can go back if I'm correct, uh and vote on the uh minutes from um February.

Yeah, yeah, sure.

So uh so I need to get a motion on the floor.

I move the motion.

I'll never make a motion to uh accept uh I move the motion to accept the minutes for February.

Okay.

And I'll second that.

We have a motion and a second on the floor.

Any discussion?

All in favor?

I agree.

All right.

Any extensions?

Motion carries the report is uh uh verified for February.

So the next thing we need to do um is um we may need we need a motion to go into executive session to review uh cases.

I'll make a motion to go into executive session to review cases.

Okay, we have a um a motion on the floor and a second.

Um discussion all in favor?

All right, those opposed.

Any abstention session is closed for executive session.

We will be returning after we come out of executive session.

Barry, he's trying to catch you here.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

He's separated from like 2012.

And then I just did yes, but I had an RNA, which you can give my own.

Okay.

Fair enough.

Okay.

I was just got district working on it.

I will talk about it.

Or I can talk to someone if you're not going to be able to do it.

Oh, okay.

Okay, okay.

Great.

Where are we going?

Probably.

Well, we couldn't take them because they didn't want to want us to any possibility that anybody else could get their hands.

Oh, okay.

So this I can't take.

I can't take that out.

Oh, okay.

Oh, okay.

But no lead out.

Um, we have Kristen Grove.

Just give give um is the email that we have for you guys that we have on file.

Uh Don said he updated it.

Okay.

Did you get her email?

If you got her email today.

Is that with the pie charts?

No.

But what we will do is send the pie charts.

Okay.

We'll we'll get a copy from um Chris and we'll send it to you.

Okay.

He did it, great.

Uh uh.

Somehow he'll start with the thing.

Yeah, I got it.

Okay, sorry.

Is he gonna put them all online eventually?

Um.

Oh okay.

Okay.