Dear Director Jefferson,
I have no idea who drafted the CCPO agenda that now appears online. But I assume it came from your office, and this will be only the second time in the history of civilian oversight in Minneapolis, which goes back to 1990, that a civilian oversight body will hold a public meeting without public comment. The first time was last month’s first meeting of the CCPO.
Now, I don’t know if you’ve read the City of Minneapolis-MDHR settlement agreement, in particular the “Part 10: Accountability and Oversight” part of that agreement — or if not that entire section, at least the “Section VIII: Community Oversight Commissioni” (I think the CCPO fits within that description) portion of Part 10 — but that part of the document includes this in paragraph 337 on page 103:
Community Oversight Commission. The City will maintain a community oversight commission to provide meaningful public participatory independent oversight of the MPD by, at a minimum, hosting regularly scheduled meetings with comments from the public [highlighting added].
I do realize that the settlement agreement doesn’t take effect until a judge says it does, but my heavens, I would think that whoever put this agenda together would at least have read what the settlement agreement is going to require of the CCPO.
I told you after the first CCPO meeting that that was the first civilian oversight body meeting ever held in Minneapolis that didn’t include public comment, and that I was pissed! You can only imagine how pissed I am now!
Moreover on the CCPO’s own website, if you click on “What We Do,” this comes up:
The Community Commission on Police Oversight (CCPO was established to provide a forum for the public to have meaningful engagement in police oversight.
Note that it doesn’t say “to provide a forum for the public’s representatives to have meaningful engagement.” No, it says “for the public to have meaningful engagement.”
At your June 12, 2023, meeting, if no CCPO member moves to amend the agenda to include public comment, I will be speaking out — whether allowed to or not — insisting that public comment be put on your agenda.
How did this happen yet again? Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!
And, once again, please forward this email to the five CCPO commissioners not cc-ed on this email.
Yours,
Chuck Turchick
