Good evening. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for being here, and welcome to committee on an ordinance. Today is May 13, and the time is 05:45 05:41. I'm chairman councilman Pedro Espinal along with my colleagues, councilman Royals, councilwoman Harris, councilwoman Peterson, and councilman Vargas, we welcome you all.
Madam clerk, please call the roll.
Chairman Espino? Present. Vice chairwoman Peterson? Present. Councilwoman Harris?
Councilman Vargas? Present. Councilor Royes? Present. Five present, no absent.
Thank you. Could you please read the first item on the agenda, please?
Item one, an ordinance amending chapter 18 and a half, please, section two, Providence External Review Authority, para, of the Providence Code of Ordinances.
Thank you. And I'll entertain a motion to enter into the record substitute a. So moved. Made by councilwoman Peterson, second by councilor Vargas. All in favor, aye.
Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. So, we'll go straight into the public comment and to present on this substitute and this ordinance, we have policy director, Aaron Eastergarner, who will present to us about the changes that we are trying to enact. Nope.
Thank you, chairman, members of the committee. I'm just gonna take a brief moment to, go over, you know, the changes as you see in this ordinance. So just to stop start from the top here. We can and you could follow along if you have the ordinance in front of you. And as this has been discussed for, you know, decent amount of time and there will be a lot of public comment, I'm gonna mainly, you know, go over the the major changes.
Clearly, when you read the ordinance, there are certain, like, you know, clarifying pieces that are very much, self explanatory. So just to start from the beginning, when we look at subsection a, which is called established, simply you will see language there that would add continuity to the term of the executive director, if not continued or if not there is not action by the council. Similar to a lot of different boards and commissions here in the city for the, you know, importance of the position just in case there is any, you know, slowdown in, you know, operations, that that body can still continue. So that's what that change is therefore in subsection a. And then, you know, moving along to subsection b, which speaks to the scope of authority, I'll go over number two.
And simply that language expands, periscope of review to include all trainings conducted on behalf of PPD, including, you know, some police academies. The language was very narrow and it could be construed to just speak of specific officers training officers or other individuals at the department. So four, additionally, this clarifies PERA's authority to conduct regular reviews of police conduct in practice. You know, something that you would imagine that,
you know, review board has the authority to do, but
we wanted to add that clarity for the board. Five, establishes an early warning system which is independent of, you know, the systems that are maintained by the police department. And and this is to, you know, be able to flag, you know, certain officers for for, you know, training and whatnot. But what's clear with this language is that it is something that would be, you know, shared, you know, with the police department and it wouldn't be just contained within PERA. So let's see.
So six, we have, you know, establishes periodic reviews of, you know, OPR, which is the Office of, you know, Professional Responsibility Investigations, you know, including the authority to make recommendations to reopen investigations or to amend findings, of OPR. And that, you know, goes over the changes in scope of authority. Then subsection c, which is composition. And again, this is, for clarity and continuity. Again, just like the executive director, for a board with, you know, this important function, continuity for the board members as well if there is counseling action in the future.
Also, clarity in terms of what is required to, you know, apply to the board. We wanna make it clear that, you know, a resume is to be submitted to the appointing authority, which could be the mayor or could be the council. And then additionally, which is very similar to, again, a lot of other boards and commissions, there's clear language that would bar, current elected officials from serving or, individuals that are board members to actually run for elected office, whether it be local, state, or federal. Alright. Moving along to subsection h, which covers the executive director oh, sorry.
One, it grants parainvestigative staff along with the executive director the authority to monitor internal OPR investigations. Moving on to two, it grants investigative staff that same authority regardless of external agency involvement. Five, clarifies that, again, when we're speaking about the continuity of an important board, it speaks to investigative staff taking the helm as executive director in case of absence of the executive director for numerous reasons that are outlined in the ordinance. Subsection k, also very, you know, straightforward, and it connects to language that was added in the earlier section, which is further clarifying language that the that the authority has the authority to review police academy, policies. And moving on to subsection q, in terms of is called investigation, and it's very, you know, simple.
While there is an OPR investigation ongoing, PERA will not investigate. They would not investigate until the conclusion of an internal investigation by the department. So, subjection t, which is somewhat unrelated. Let's see. Cooperation is the title of the section, and this would grant full user, access of the records management software of the police department to the executive director and para staff, but again clarifying that this is authority that's given to city staff and not necessarily, board members.
And then the last, change that I'll highlight would be subsection u, and it speaks to findings effect and determination. And quite simply, it just requires a timely response to, recommendations from PERA to, the police department. Just in past practice, when recommendations have been shared, with the department, there's been an open timeline in, you know, not knowing when an answer, you know, would be, you know, given publicly, so that this adds that timeline so it's in statute. Overall, those are the major changes. And outside of those, the others that you'll see are just very simple straightforward clarifying items.
So those are the major changes there.
Thank you, Aaron. Any question from our colleagues for Aaron? Councillor Peterson?
Thank you. Is that oh, there it is. Thank you, policy director Aaron, explaining all of this for us. And I'm sure we'll have additional testimony coming in, but there is one thing in particular here that I wanted to make sure that I highlighted. Mhmm.
And this is just something that I think personally, I believe that we should be doing for all of our boards. I believe very strongly in term limits and for a variety of reasons which we don't have to go into detail for, but one thing I don't see in any of this is a term limit for board members. I think I believe very very strongly in creating an opportunity for new people to come on after a certain after term has expired or a set number of term consecutive terms have have gone through. Mhmm. So I'd like to see if there's any possibility of creating and if this if this committee is okay with it, creating an opportunity where we create a consecutive term limit addition as an amendment to board members.
Again, I think it's it's it only makes what we try to do stronger and how we support the community stronger and I'd love to be able to see something like that. And I don't know if it if I should have explained this now, but it is something that was just Yeah. In the moment. So I just wanted to make sure that I addressed that.
Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. And my quicker response would be that, yeah, you are correct that there's nothing in this ordinance that speaks specifically to, you know, term limits. But if, you know, know, the committee would want to move to add this, like, there's certainly a proper section a proper area under subsection c composition, but that could potentially, you know, be added.
It would just be a matter of determining, you know, for how many consecutive terms you wanna limit board members to. But yeah, that is possible.
Just I to make it similar to what we do with other other term limit consistencies of with counsel and things like I would assume that a term limit of and I don't know how long these go. Do these go for three years or these go for four years? Okay.
I think so they go for three years and then, you know, I think that if you wanted to, for instance, line it up very similar to, you know, the terms of the council, I think that would be four consecutive terms and that would be potentially twelve years for them. But, yes, that would be the the proper area to put it in in subsection c.
I would say that that's more than fair. And as long as my the committee is okay with making that amendment, I would request that we do that.
Okay. Indeed. Indeed. Thank you, councilor Peterson. Anybody else?
Councilwoman Harris, please.
Thank you. And I wanna thank councilwoman Peterson for recommending that addition. We see that in the first section of establishment established upon expiration of the initial two year term, the executive director shall continue to serve in authority unless a new executive director is appointed. Given what councilwoman Peterson, we know that the executive director do have two year term.
And just to piggyback off what councilwoman Peterson said about really identifying the term
That would guarantee that the city council would have some kind of alarm or whatever
That that person's term is up. That person's not is not don't have a responsibility to let the council know that their term is
But usually I think this is done by the executive director who says that person's term is up in order to avoid the error. I think it would be good to have that term limit so we know in advance. Well, the council itself would know in advance to be ready for any nominations. I think we do a lot of that marketing around we need people to serve on the board. Absolutely.
I thank you councilman Peterson for that recommendation.
Thank you councilwoman Harris. Anybody else? Okay. Well, thank you so much, Aaron. Appreciate your input.
City Sergeant, can you please bring me the list of those members of the public that have signed up to speak on this item? Before we call the rest of the members, we have major Remolina from Providence Police Department who is here to speak on this. Good evening, sir.
My name is Major Henry Rommelina, and I serve as the commanding officer of the office of professional responsibility for the Providence Police Department. I appreciate the opportunity to speak this evening regarding the proposed amendments for the Providence External Review Authority Ordinance. At the outset, I want to acknowledge the ongoing collaboration between the administration, city solicitor's office, and the council staff on this ordinance. We recognize and appreciate that several changes are made in response to concerns previously raised by the department. As you know, we believe that power plays an important role in our department and our community.
We support meaningful civilian oversight and understand the important role accountability and transparency plays in maintaining public trust. OPR exists for that exact reason, to ensure allegations of misconduct are investigated thoroughly, professionally, and fairly. Still, with the revisions, the department continues to have serious operational, legal, public safety concerns with portions of the ordinance currently, drafted, particularly sections t and u. As commanding officer of OPR, my primary concern is preserving the integrity of investigations involving officers misconduct, especially investigations that may involve potential criminal conduct. The language contained in section t would grant PERA full user access to police record systems, internal investigative files, and body worn camera systems.
These systems contain highly sensitive material including criminal investigation investigative information, protective personal records, victim and witness statements, confidential evidence, and information subject to both state and federal confidentiality protections. Importantly, the proposed access exceeds what many members of the department and law department are permitted to access absent specific operational needs. Even internal investigators and legal per personnel access materials based upon investigative necessity, chain of command, and legal authority. From an investigative standpoint, unrestricted and inadequately limited access creates a very potential for parallel investigations to occur outside established department procedures without proper conditional, coordination with OPR. That presents significant risk to our city, our department, and community trust.
Parallel investigations have the potential to compromise inquiries that may ultimately lead to criminal charges involving officer misconduct. If PERA initiates investigation into matters involving potential criminal conduct, it could interfere with or impede the investigation the police department is legally obligated to conduct. OPR investigators are trained professionals who utilize established investigative techniques and nationally recognized best practice. A premature or overlapping civilian investigation could unintentionally undermine the integrity of the investigative process, compromise evidentiary procedures, and jeopardize the department's ability to reach legal sound conclusion. Most importantly, the community should not be placed in a position where an officer who may otherwise have been removed from duty remains on the street because an investigation was compromised or improperly handled.
Internal investigations involve potential criminal conduct should be first conducted by trained law enforcement investigators with the appropriate experience, legal authority, and investigative resources necessary to protect the accountability and due process. That does not mean transparency should be denied. Once an internal investigation is completed, the Providence Police Department is fully prepared to cooperate with PERA by providing reports, evidence, and additional information necessary to ensure accountability, transparency, while still protecting the integrity of the investigative process. We also remain concerned with section u, which currently states that chief shall impose discipline based upon peril recommendations. Under Rhode Island law, collective bargaining agreements and law enforcement officers bill of rights, disciplinary authority and procedural procedures involve specific legal obligations and due process protections.
Parrot recommendations should absolutely be considered seriously and thoughtfully. However, the ordinance should preserve the chief discretion to accept, reject, or modify disciplinary recommendations based on totality of facts, applicable law, departmental policies, and procedural requirements. Ultimately, the department remains committed to continue collaboration with the council and all stakeholders to develop an ordinance that strengthens public confidence while also protecting investigative integrity, officers due process rights, sensitive information, and compliance with state law. Thank you for your time and consideration.
