your life.
All right. Well, good afternoon again
and we will now start the work session.
Um, we'll start with pets of the week.
Carol
Good afternoon. I'm Carol Nelson,
digital content specialist with the
Animal Services Center of the Messia
Valley. Um, we have really good news
this week. Our dog of the week has
actually already been adopted. We're
super happy for Raisin because he was
actually recently returned from an
adoptive family because it wasn't a good
fit and so we had someone snatch him up
fairly quickly. So, we're super happy
for Raisin. And for the time being, we
actually won't be having a cat of the
week um because we're not able to keep
cats long enough to be able to promote
them for pet of the week. So, also
another good problem to have that
they're getting adopted so quickly. Um
but we do always like to highlight more
of our animals. We want to highlight our
long-term residents. Um, and just as a
reminder, the longer animals stay at the
shelter, it is harder for them to thrive
and they start to run into behavioral
issues and things of that nature. So, we
always want to encourage the community
to look at our long-term residents. Hulu
has now been with us 344 days, Farah 299
days, Maddie 262 days, and Lily 257
days. So, all really good options for
adoption. Um, and as always, we like to
highlight our upcoming events. So, this
coming weekend, our adoption event will
be at the farmers market. We'll have our
adoptables there from 10 to 1. So, come
by and say hi. And also bring someone
who is ready to find a furry friend. And
we did want to put it on everyone's
radar that our we will be having an
upcoming drive-through vaccination
clinic. It will be February 22nd at the
Field of Dreams from 9:00 to 1. So
definitely come out uh get your pets
vaccinated and then up to date on
everything. And as always, for more
information, feel free to visit our
website or follow us on social media.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you, K. [snorts]
Next is the agenda items. The first one
is 2.1 police service aid PSA ordinance
revision. and we'll have uh city
attorney Brad Douglas and Lieutenant
Alawson.
Good afternoon, Mayor [clears throat]
Council.
Just give me a second so I can get this
up.
My eyes are getting bad. I can't see
where to turn it into a slideshow. So,
you might just have to suffer with me
through this.
F5. Christine, the clerk of the year,
tells me that it's F5. Thank you,
Christine. All right. So, uh, as the
mayor alluded, myself and, uh,
Lieutenant Cody Austin will be making a
presentation to you all with some
potential amendments to the Los Cusus
Municipal Code, uh, specifically section
uh, 2336 as it pertains to police
service aids and their duties, roles,
and responsibilities.
And so just a short background uh on the
topic. The purpose of police service
aids historically has been to promote uh
residents and visitors patronizing local
businesses by as it says here
regulating, managing and operating
parking meters and/or parking spaces or
facilities.
Uh patrons of those businesses uh should
should expect to have easy access to
those businesses. And so whenever there
are parking violations, our police
service aids do enforce those parking
violations in the Las Cusus Municipal
Court already. um [clears throat]
uh as as part of their evolving role
within the department, I believe it was
in 20
16 maybe 2017, there was a general order
uh enacted at LCPD that allowed our PSAs
to assist or to even take primary role
uh with regard to the investigative
portion of traffic crashes uh resulting
in up to minor injury. So obviously any
accident that involved great bodily harm
or a death, our PSAs would not be
handling those um commissioned officers
or sworn officers would be handling the
more serious traffic accidents within
the city. Although it is conceivable
that PSAs might assist even in the more
serious uh accidents.
And so, as I just stated, PSAs are
currently assisting with traffic
crashes. But in the event that a driver
is to be issued a citation for a traffic
offense, the current practice is that
PSAs have to wait for a commissioned
officer to arrive on scene uh to issue
those citations. And so if if we don't
have any available officers, it could
lead to an increase in wait time. Um
where we have PSAs on scene that could
already be uh if these amendments were
adopted, issuing citations for things
like no driver's license, no insurance,
no proof of registration, possibly due
care collision, or careless driving.
And so just some some quick and dirty
statistics for the past three years. In
2023, there was a total of 3,837
crash reports taken. Of those crash
reports, uh PSAs took 1,12.
And so the percentage of uh crash
reports taken by PSAs in 2023 was
approximately, excuse me, uh 28.7%.
Then we moved to 2024. There was a total
of 3,755 crash reports taken. As you can
see, there was an increase in the number
of crash reports taken by PSAs uh
increased to 2008. And the percentage of
crash reports taken by PSAs in 2024 were
a little higher than 53%.
And then our most recent year, 3,335
crash reports. Total number taken by PSA
is 2249.
uh percentage taken by PSAs over 67%. So
recent trends show us that PSAs are
already taking on a larger role with
regard to the minor vehicular accidents
and taking those crash reports. Uh but
again, if there are accompanying uh
traffic citations that need to be
accompanied or that need to accompany
those reports, those PSAs are currently
having to wait for sworn officers to
break off of other calls or to conclude
more serious criminal investigations to
come on to onto the scene and then issue
those citations or tickets.
And so, uh, what we're proposing, uh,
are edits to 2336 to, uh, explicitly
authorize PSAs to investigate traffic
crashes resulting in up to minor injury,
uh, by themselves without the need for a
sworn officer. Of course, they could
always ask for the assistance of a sworn
officer on a case-byase basis uh, as may
be required. Uh but more significantly
the bigger change is authorizing PSAs to
issue citations for applicable traffic
regulation violations under our current
municipal code during post accident
investigation. So really important to
understand uh that
whether whether this these amendments
pass or not um PSAs are not pulling
people over. They're not initiating
traffic stops. Any citations that they
might issue under the revised code would
be post accident. So, they're already on
scene. They're already doing their post
accident investigation, generating a
crash report, and they find out that
let's say the driver of one of the
vehicles or both uh doesn't have
required financial responsibility, so no
insurance. Again, they could write that
citation themselves.
Uh again very important to understand
that if adopted by council
um PSAs still do not have arrest
authority. They won't they would not be
arresting anyone. They would be issuing
traffic citations. So in the event uh
hypothetically let's say because this is
something I talked to Chief Story about
and I thought we were on the same page
but I just wanted to make sure. Let's
say that there's a crash and the result
of that crash is someone who is
suspected of being DWI. Well, obviously
PSAs don't have arrest authority. So,
what would happen in those instances, a
sworn officer would come on uh to do
that portion of the investigation. And
if there's an arrest that's necessary,
again, the sworn officer would make that
arrest, not the PSA.
Um, other factors to consider, uh, this
would potentially be more efficient as
commissioned officers wouldn't have to
respond to all crashes involving minor
injury and/or property damage. And as I
just stated, uh the PSAs wouldn't have
arrest authority that would rest with
the sworn officers, but we're already
doing something similar to this uh
throughout the city with regard to codes
officers and animal control officers who
have citation but not arrest authority.
Um and just something that I was
thinking about as I was generating this
rather short PowerPoint presentation, uh
is that it would reduce the number of
encounters between citizens and police
officers. Uh, so if that's something
that's important to the council, that
would be a byproduct of this amended
legislation.
And I will stand for questions now. And
I also have Lieutenant Austin here if
you have any specific questions about
LCPD policies or practices.
Thank you, Brett. Councelor Harris.
Um, thanks. I had a uh question that
I've also received uh from the public uh
just to kind of clarify what um you know
we've got commissioned officers, we've
got codes and uh animal control and PSAs
and park rangers and so just kind of
what kind of if you could talk a little
bit about what kind of training and
other certifications that the PSAs have
uh relative to those other jobs.
Yes. Uh, Mayor Councelor Harris, I can
talk briefly about that, but Lieutenant
Austin will probably be better than me.
So, with regard to the PSAs, I know that
they've already received training with
regard to like report writing, uh,
citation writing because they already
write parking citations. They've had
training with, uh, courtroom procedure,
courtroom demeanor. Uh, Lieutenant
Austin, did you want to speak to this or
did I cover a lot of it? And I do expect
there would be refreshers. I'll turn it
over to Lieutenant
Good afternoon, mayor, council. My name
is Cody Austin. I'm the I'm the special
services lieutenant. Uh before what I
have right here is our most recent uh
academy that we had ran with the PSAs.
It's a fiveweek academy. Uh I'd like to
provide uh Miss Rivera with a copy of
them so you all have them to see what
our most recent training schedule looks
like. And then from there, I think it'll
give you a better idea of what they
have. If you have a specific question
about the duration or time uh that they
receive that training, we can go in
depth there.
Yes.
And so as Miss Rivera handles those out,
uh it is front and back. And so you will
see just like any other city employee
who is hired with the city of Los
Cruises, uh the first four days are
normally orientation, uh part of the
onboarding that we have. Uh from here we
would go into CIT uh deescalation uh
dealing with persons with mental health
issues,
report writing,
crime identification specific to
municipal code uh for when they are
actually investigating a traffic crash,
they can identify what uh ordinance to
properly site under. Uh from here we
will go into crash investigation. and
they already received approximately 40
hours of crash investigations along with
search and seizure training
along with some defensive tactics.
The PSAs are in a unique role where they
have a lot of contact with the public
and there may be some things under their
authority that they are able to handle
and we think it's important for them to
understand clearly what their roles and
boundaries are and if they encounter
something that is going to possibly uh
result in a in an arrest. So as uh the
city attorney alluded to was a DWI. Well
then an officer would have to be called.
So, we want them to be trained in
observing certain odor or I'm sorry,
actions, odors and slurred speech and
things of that nature to where we can
get an officer there. Um, if you have a
specific question, Mr. Harris, councelor
Harris, I could be more than willing to
answer it.
Uh, sure. I guess um it's good to see
that we have specific training for uh
deescalation and dealing with people
with um mental health issues and mental
impairments. I know PSAs probably have a
lot of contact with the public um and
park rangers and those kind of roles
too. Um and
I guess um are there thoughts um about
adding more of that kind of training
into this uh regime in the future? Um
so yes, this uh fiveweek schedule is not
set in stone and so if we start to see
that we maybe have deficiencies or
opportunities to grow, we will
definitely expand this um or make the
necessary changes uh within the
schedule.
Cool. Thanks,
Councilman Kur.
Thank you. This is this is very helpful.
I I have a couple of sort of follow-up
questions or things that I'm curious
about somewhat training. Thank you for
bringing this. This is really very
helpful related, but also um and I just
have to acknowledge that I' I've been
reading the OIR reports and and PSAs are
I would describe them as over
represented in that in that um
sort of accountability measure that we
that we track on. And I I that might
have to do with measurement, that might
have to do with the types of reports
that are that are a part of it. But I'm
also curious about screening and then
followup for for folks in this this
category because I think um especially
given that they're interfacing with the
public a lot and some of the things that
we read in the O reports are very
troubling. Um, I would like us to be to
have a really tight sort of screening
process and then a really strong
follow-up like we do with officer, you
know, um, sworn officers. U, I
understand it might not be the same
level, but but I think those are two
areas that I would also hope have some
parody or that we're paying close
attention to, especially if there will
be an increased interface um, an
increased authority given to those
folks. So, that's one thing that I'm
curious if you can talk about. And then
the other part is I I I
feel like we're probably not naming
this, but I have a sense that there's an
ecosystem. There's something related to
right officers and their work. um which
is not what I'm considering as part of
this, but one part of this that I'm
curious about is um my sense is that
in insurance companies, and I don't want
to name villains, but I'm going to name
a villain in this in this conversation,
but but I my sense is that there are
increased demands for documentation and
accountability in traffic accidents, and
that is part of this over reporting. So,
I'm just wondering if you can talk a
little bit about if this is somewhat a
response to a paperwork bureaucratic
demand that exists that is totally
external to everything that
any police officers or or anyone has
control over, but that is affecting our
ability to serve the public. Um, and you
might not want to I I suspect you might
not want to name a villain specifically,
but I I'm curious if if either of you
might talk a little bit about that
paperwork demand. I think it relates to
IRA. I think it relates to how our
public records are available and
accessible. I I just think there's a
bigger issue here where we're bearing
the burden of a basically a private
transactional interface which is the
whole point of a traffic report I think
most of the time and if that's one of
the variables that's contributing to
this uh increased response and then and
I understand that police officers also
have increased response to demand but
I'm I'm hoping you might talk a little
bit about that so screening uh and
accountability and then The second part
of that is how much of this is because
insurance companies are like going
through the rigomemer role to get as
much documentation as they can to never
pay claims is my other part.
Mayor councelor Karan uh so our similar
we have a very similar hiring process as
we do to our cadets. uh you will
actually have uh your written exam,
you're going to have a PT test, you're
going to have an oral board, you're
going to have a psychological, you're
going to have a medical, you're going to
have a polygraph. A lot of those run
concurrent to how our academy standards
are. And what we have seen and reap the
benefit of is we have had four of our
PSAs who have taken the step and
transitioned into our police academy and
ultimately become officers. And so uh we
take it serious when we are trying to
see who it is that we are bringing on
and we want to hold on to them for as
long as possible. Um and so as far as
for how we are bringing them on, it is
very similar to our cadets. It's a very
thorough embedded process. Uh to your
second part, the numbers are concerning.
And when I looked at this, when I see
the rise in PSAs taking a number of
crashes uh versus officers, it's a
balance. And so I I looked at it in two
parts. And so one, we can continue to
have crashes and then we're very
responsive. Or we can try at least to be
somewhat proactive in our higher areas
of vehicle crashes to where we will work
with our uh real-time crime center.
We're working with our analysts to see
and designate what are our highest areas
for crashes and then we will send our
officers there to target those areas and
look at the contributing factors. I have
seven motor officers that are assigned
to that. uh you may see some updated
post to where we have them taking
specific actions in specific areas.
While they are busy with that, we have
the PSAs that are backfilling them and
helping take crashes as much as
possible. Uh we have staggered their
schedule uh from a 7:00 to 5:00 and at
10 to 8:00 at night to try and capture
as much as possible.
Um what it has created is when we have
the PSA's unable to issue these
citations, it has uh really created a
backlog for us because they're having to
go back to an officer or pull an officer
away to come and issue that citation
when they had no real involvement in the
case and ultimately leading to subpoenas
for them in court and ultimately uh the
implementation of the RO through
municipal court. Um, what this would
help us do is eliminate that by giving
them a little bit more authority than
what they already have and the case
would stay with them. As far as for your
insurance question, um, it's a hassle.
Um, the we get and the speed of which
they come in, it seems like it's it's a
race to try to keep up. Um,
I don't know if I can go any further
than that, but I'll leave that there.
Thank you. I just want to name I just
want to name that there are other
variables that you also are accountable
to that are just really bureaucratic BS
in that in the in that case a thing that
is I don't think
making the public any safer. I just
think it's saving someone money and and
for me that's I that stinks in in the
grand ecosystem of what we do and I
understand how that is a variable in in
this paperwork um who can issue the
paperwork and and how it's issued
conversation. So I just wanted to name
it. So thanks. That's that's as
diplomatic. I I expect no less. Thank
you for your extraordinary diplomacy but
clarity. I appreciate it.
Thanks.
Before I get to you, Mayor Prom. Uh
Chief Story, did you want to say
something?
Thank you, Mayor and Council. Jeremy
Story, please chief. Just to clarify
further, counselor, the this is really a
response to two issues. one having to
call the officer to the scene to issue
the citation. Obviously kind of um
undermines the whole point that council
approved the PSA program which was to
free up commission officer time. But
what also happens if there's not an
officer available is they'll complete
the crash report. They'll go back to the
station. They won't issue the citation
on scene obviously because they can't
and then they'll send a summon in the
mail later with the citation. Well, that
creates problems because if it's not on
the crash report right away, then it
looks like uh it, you know, I wasn't the
person who did it and then the insurance
companies have a hard time figuring out
who's at fault. And then the courts send
out notice and if they don't appear,
well, now do they issue a warrant? This
person got it in the mail. And I I think
all of us would say, well, I'd want to
actually make sure I got that citation
if I'm going to get an arrest warrant.
So, this is addressing concerns that
municipal court has brought to us as
well as the issues on scene.
Thank you. I appreciate Thank you for
naming that aspect of it too. Um, which
I didn't wasn't even considering. So, I
appreciate that. Thanks, Chief Story.
Thank you, Chief. Uh, Mayor Prom,
um, Mayor, city councilors, Lieutenant
Austin with if um, if approved, this is
going to increase interactions. It has
the potential to also increase escalated
interactions. I just want to know um,
probably have this already. If not, what
are the plans for? Things, safety
equipment like uh safety vests, kevlar
gloves, other items like that that will
uh equipped the PSAs to keep them safe.
Mayor M, mayor and mayor promp u I think
it's a valid question and one that we
have considered. And so some of those
things that we have tried to address is
through having high visibil high
visibility uniforms for them uh vest
along with uh aspaton and pepper spray.
These are things that we would give to
them but the goal for them is not to
engage. It's to be able to defend
themselves and create distance and get
away and summons for a police officer to
come. Um I don't know if the numbers are
going to increase that much more
drastically because they are already
showing up um a lot of the time and
we've had good success with them
already.
Thank you
councelor Bring.
Thank you mayor. Thank you so much
officer. I um actually just to follow up
on councelor Corin's questions because
when I was first reading about this I
also sort of a couple flags were raised
for me regarding the OIR reports that I
you know I don't have a perfect memory
but I do remember there being several
and I think there are at least five
reports that included um PSAs in the OIR
reports and and I don't again I don't
remember all of them when they're
outcomes but I think it just reminded me
that we have had sort of some of these
concerns. And so for me, I think what I
would just love for you to address a
little bit more because I think a lot of
folks have asked about that. But I think
for me, an increase of authority means
an increase in expectation of
professionalism. And I just want to make
sure that we speak to that and we're
committed to to that.
Uh, Mayor Councelor Vinko, no, that's
that's a good point. That's something
that we've we've kind of thought about.
So, uh even though these PSAs who are
already working have already undergone
undergone, excuse me, uh a lot of
trainings with regard to deescalation,
professionalism, uh so on and so forth.
What what we were talking about is if we
do identify issues in the early going,
we will certainly uh provide them with
refresher trainings. We could even I
don't want to speak for chief or
lieutenant Austin, but another option is
something as simple as um well something
that we do for commissioned officers is
as issues come up or or we see trends
that are either concerning or just
something that we need to discuss. Uh
what we've done in the past is we do you
know shift briefings like before you go
on like these are things to consider
these are things that you might want to
watch out for and these are things that
you might want to watch out for from
yourself as well. And so that's
something that uh we anticipate that
there you know there could always be
growing pains. We don't we hope not and
we don't think that there will be with
this but if there are uh refresher
trainings uh remedial training all of
that is going to be things or all of
those options are on the table.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks counselor.
I don't know if you wanted to add
something
mayor councelor Beno. Um, one of the
things I would like to add on to that is
we already have a good model with codes
and acco um, who have a similar
authority and so I don't think that it's
going to be a totally a new adventure
into this. Um, I think the groundwork
and the foundation has been laid and if
we incorporate uh the higher standard
that we have for our police officers as
well that I think that we can measure
it. Um, and I think uh, Mr. Douglas had
touched on a p p p p p p p p p p p p p p
p p p p p p piece of that, but I also
think that there's more with continued
ongoing inservice training um and
including them more and hopefully we can
get there.
Thank you. I appreciate that followup
from both of you. I think and I
appreciate hearing our concerns around
it. I think the priority should both be
safety for our officers, PSAs,
non-commissioned officers included, and
the public as well. So, thank you so
much,
Councelor Matise. Yeah, I I just have a
a different question. It it applies to
crashes, you know, since we have that
topic being discussed and how the state
ranks. Uh we get rankings like 50th
in the nation for education, but what
are we on crashes? Is there a ranking?
Is there an association that ranks the
state and particularly Los Cusus
in number of crashes? Mayor, councelor
Matise. Um, I've looked at that and some
of the numbers that I've compared uh was
NMDOT and they have a grant with UNM
which generally run two years behind and
they have to glean the data and review
it. You will see that our numbers are
significantly lower than what they are
reporting. The reason for that is
because it will include other in other
areas within loss cruises that
definitely do not meet our boundaries.
So, we are getting some of the
information from Donana County Sheriff's
and New Mexico State Police, which um
isn't directly tied to us. And so, if
there's a correlation between the
education um aspect of it, I couldn't
answer that. Uh what I could tell you is
as I look at it, it's what are the
contributing factors? Um where is it
that we need to be and can we be more
targeted and more precise with trying to
reduce those number of crashes, not only
through enforcement, but through working
with our city engineers for roadway
design.
Thank you.
Sorry, I just want council.
I just I just wanted to add something to
that. Thank you. My sense is actually to
councelor Matis's point is that LCPD
does an extraordinarily good job of
tracking this better than the two-year
delay. Um, and you all are sort of have
a lot more data points. my s I think
that you all have a lot more data points
that would be actionable than the folks
in the county or in other parts of of
New Mexico. So I actually I I really
just wanted to say thank you for that.
And I think this would be a like I think
this is all about data too, right? Our
own paperwork piles of paperwork that we
create. This helps us have that data
more meaningfully documented and more
consistently documented as you and Chief
Story have alluded to. So, I just wanted
to thank you for I think being a leader
in in the community and that um that
annoying to your gap report. I know that
you guys are more on it than than that
than that is. So, thank I just wanted to
thank you for that.
All right. Yeah, I had a few questions.
Um first of all, when when did we start
again uh having PSAs with LCPD?
June of 2016 is when they first came
out. And how many do we currently have?
We currently have nine full-time
positions.
And you know, I'm going say I I I like
the the program. I like what it does.
It's it's no different than uh when we
look at priority dispatching. We want to
make sure that if we have an extrication
or an injury or if we just have a fender
bender that we're sending the right
resources out there and we're not
duplicating services. So this is a great
way of doing it on the police side and
uh it's also training ground. I guess
you said that four have converted over
to becoming police officers. This is a
great introduction to the police
service. So I I think this is this is on
the right track and uh again the checks
and balances. I'm sure uh as part of the
five-week training there's what we've
learned since 2016 is continued
education and CES and those type of
things.
Um the the other thing is more for legal
is if if um
if there's any citations that go to
municipal court who is uh trying these
cases as a case agent.
Mayor, that's a good question. So
[clears throat]
typically these would be officer
prosecute cases. So, uh, my office, for
example, has, uh, taken on a heavier
case load with regard to certain
enumerated crimes. So, the city
attorney's office prosecutes DWI, for
example, uh battery, assault on a peace
officer, um shoplifting to try to and a
number of others to try and uh sort of
have our officers uh engaging in what we
think of as more traditional crime
detection, law enforcement activity. Uh
so if this were to pass uh the PSAs
right now they prosecute their own
parking citations. Uh they would be
prosecuting these but what I'll say is
uh my office is happy to be a resource
uh for any PSAs that need us because
they are going to be taking on increased
responsibilities.
Okay. So this is similar to our code
officers and animal control, but your
office is there for any checks and
balances, any trends, anything that are
taking place that we can see that we
need to make some changes or additional
training.
Mayor, that is that is correct. Just
like we already do for our code section,
for our animal control section, uh we'll
be a resource for those PSAs.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay, I think we're good.
So, we can move to the next uh item on
the agenda 2.2, the annual inspector uh
general brief. That'll be Mr. Charles
Tucker.
Let me get my glasses.
Good afternoon, mayor. Good afternoon,
council. I'm going to open up my slide
deck here in a second. And uh
Okay.
What was it? F5. Thank you. I should
have been paying more attention. I know
you said it earlier and I couldn't
remember.
[clears throat]
So, good afternoon. U. My name is
Charles Tucker. For the counselors that
don't know who I am, I'm the inspector
general for the city of Los Cusus. And
I'm going to go over a quick um in this
slide deck I'll go over a quick what my
roles and responsibilities are so that
you guys are aware of exactly what I do
and what I provide for the city.
So IG areas to cover. I'll cover the
hotline cases for fiscal year to date
2024 and 2025. And when I say fiscal
year to date that's from July to June.
So,
and then I'll talk about the
investigations that I've done this past
um year and then um my my outreach that
I provide for the city of Los Cusus.
So, division 6 accountability and
government, the inspector general and
the city auditor shall annually report
to the city council completed internal
audits, activities, investigations. This
will serve as a report by the inspector
general
[clears throat]
in bit. My role as the IG for the city
will be to investigate fraud, waste, and
abuse of city resources. And that
includes city funds, city property, city
employees, and city services.
So what is fraud? What is waste? And
what is abuse? Fraud, obtaining
something of value through willful,
willful misrepresentation.
Waste is the act of using or expending
resources carelessly, extravagantly, or
to no purpose.
And that abuse, behavior that is
deficient or improper when compared with
the behavior that is prudent person
would consider a reasonable and
necessary business practice given the
facts and circumstances. I bet you'll
never guess where that um definition
came from.
Brad
brief to council. How are complaints
received and provided to the IG? Avenues
to receive complaints include the city
board of ethics, city complaints
reporting mechanism, which is our
hotline,
city employees, city residents, or
anybody with a complaint against the
city.
Jurisdiction and authority of the
inspector general
2-177.1A.
The inspector general shall have the
authority to investigate municipal
matters that include that involve
elected or appointed officials,
employees, municipal agencies and
instrumentalities, contractors, their
subcontractor contractors and lower tier
subcontractors and other parties doing
business with the city or receiving city
funds.
The IG may undertake a formal
investigation of any matter if it
appears to the inspector general that
such matter falls within the scope of
responsibilities described in this
division, primarily fraud, waste, and
abuse.
The IG will not investigate criminal
acts. The IG will refer the complaint to
the appropriate prosecuting authority or
law enforcement agency. The IG will not
investigate anything in the jurisdiction
of the police or the fire department
internal affairs. The IG will refer
anything that warrants an audit to the
Office of Internal Audit. The IG will
not investigate complaints of
discrimination or labor law or threaten
or pending litigation.
So, I have two other off-site locations
besides my office here in city hall. I
go down to the building. We rent an
office down there and I'm down there
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by
appointments only now. And then I I also
go out to the two locations. One out on
the East Mesa at the Sage Cafe and
that's on the sec the second and fourth
Thursday of every month and I'm out
there from 2 to 4. And then I go to the
Frank O'Brien Papin Community Center on
the first and third Friday of every
month from 2:00 to 4 as well.
And that gives the the citizenship
there's people that don't want to come
to city hall because of the cameras to
talk to the IG. So, it gives them the
opportunity to come talk to me even
though we have cameras out there too,
but
but they'll if if need be, they can meet
me at the office and we can talk
there.
So, problems or peeps, citizens and
employees that are using the hotline to
report issues that are not IG
appropriate. Right now, we do get a lot
of those. So, um, be sure to give your
supervisors, and this would always tell
the the, um, the employees of the city,
be sure to give your supervisors,
managers, and directors a chance to
correct problems before you come and
bring them to me.
So, anonymity, anonymous complaints can
be made through the hotline. We will not
attempt to discover who the
complaintant, nor will the complaintant
receive any correspondence from the IG.
Complaintant can talk to an IG face to
face and request to remain anonymous.
There's no guarantee of anonymity, but
the IG will strive to protect your
requested anonymity.
And the sphere of activity is all city
property, personnel, services, and
resources.
So, currently right now on the hotline,
we've received 400, it says 488. As of
this morning, it's 493.
Um, we allow 100 per year and the
contract runs from January 28th to
January 27th of the next year. So, we're
coming up on um the end of that contract
year. And as long as we stay under 100,
we we pay a flat fee. If we go over,
then we get charged per complaint.
So far this year, we've had 50
62 complaints.
That's from January 28 to present. and
18 are still open.
So, February 2025, we had a total of 79
complaints. So, we remained under that
hundred. February 20 uh fiscal year
2024, we went over and we ended up
paying about $3,000 in uh extra costs
because that we exceeded that number,
that 100. So right now our top
categories are employee relations,
policy issues, well this is 2025, excuse
me, employee relations, policy issues,
fraud 11%, theft of time 11%, and
conflict of interest. For 2026, we've
had a total of 59 complaints so far.
Um policy issues again are 22% that
leads the the policy issues and employee
relations are the two top are the top
two fraud 9% theft of time 9% and
conflict of interest
9%.
So so far this year these are the
investigations that I've done u we've
had an allegation of theft from parks
and recreation that was referred to
LCPD. It turned out not to be anything
unfair hiring practices. um library that
was referred to HR. An allegation that a
contractor was committing fraud that was
referred to LCPD that turned out not to
be substantiated as well. Thank
goodness. Employee was stealing time
that was substantiating and I believe
that employee was terminated. South
Central solid waste um that was
submitted to the state auditor general
and I don't know what they've done with
that report so far. Employee theft of
time that was not substantiated. I've
got two complaints from the animal
services center that I'm just waiting to
sit down and talk with the new director
out there because that's not really
their HR issues. They're not something
that I can take care of. So, I'll talk
with them. They're just personnel, I
guess, um conflicts with other
personnel. Potential employee nepotism.
We I looked at that one so far and
that's was not substantiated. And there
was a report of animal abuse that the um
the animal control officers are
currently working right now and it's a
pretty ugly one. So,
and that is my brief.
Any questions?
All right. Thank you, Charles. Any
questions?
Councelor Her, thank you. This is kind
of a random question, but when you say
that we're allowed 100 complaints on the
hotline, is that like 100 dials, 100
real complaints? You know, this is all
new to me, so I'm just curious.
If if if the uh Thank you, counselor. Um
if the complaintant leaves a complaint,
that counts as a complaint. So, even if
it's um somebody complaining about
people not flushing the toilets in city
hall, that counts as a complaint if it
goes to the hotline. So, and we have two
sides of the Highline. We have a U
employee side and we have a public side.
So, and all of those count as a 100.
They're all bald in the same 100 and
we've only exceeded that number once
since I've been here. So,
good to know. Thanks,
Mayor Pro Tim. U Mr. Mayor, city
councilors, Mr. Tucker, on the uh
complaints that are employee related.
So, you said you don't handle those, but
those employee relations, you don't
handle those.
Um, counselor, yes, I mayor prom, excuse
me. Um, I do to if it's something that
involves fraud, waste, or abuse. Gotcha.
If it's personality issues, I'll let a
director or I'll send it to a manager
for them to look at and let them do, you
know, work that through. I I try to stay
out of stuff that's not fraud, waste,
and abuse.
Gotcha. And so, Mr. Mr. Tucker. So, I'm
assuming that there's some HR training
or some sort of training that employees
know how and what should go to the
hotline um or feel comfortable going to
the hotline or how does that how does
that work? I
I'm new also, so we kind of learned
I think
like I said, I I try to stay in my lane
with fraud, waste, and abuse when it
comes to HR issues. I'm I think when
when when by the time I get the
complaint, they're pretty frustrated.
Okay.
So, they may have tried to use their
managers.
Okay.
And especially when um when it comes to
the animal services center, they had no
director for a long time. They had an
interim and um I think there was a lot
of fingerpointing at people that was
going on. So that's why I wanted to talk
with the new director once they're in
place and and sit down and let them know
what I've seen that's come across my
desk just to give them a heads up.
Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. No, I was just
trying to um looking at at optimizing
your time and ensuring that we're not
spending more taxpayer money that we
need to spend and um so yeah, training
and communication will definitely help.
Yes, sir.
I appreciate it. Council Pre Mayor
Pertims
Council Cor.
Thank you. I appreciate that and I
really appreciate that followup with
ASMB specifically or I anytime that you
feel like this is happening in a in an
area that you can do some education with
folks about the best ways to address it.
I I really appreciate you doing that
proactively. So, thank you. Um I just
sort of wanted to follow up too with
with you all. I know we also get an in a
different presentation. we get uh
climate survey results typically to
council. So I think some of the things
that probably boil to you are also
represented in those. So I know we get
those each year. I can't remember what
the timeline is for those. Um and then
we also get our audit. Um which I think
is coming at to the next meeting or one
of the next two meetings. So just to
triangulate some of the things that you
you talked about other domains we we do
hear about some of those too. So, so you
there's an opportunity for that
feedback, too. So, I appreciate you um
seeing those different spheres and and
sending things in the directions that
they they go. Um I I was hoping you
could just talk a little bit about how
you interface with the oversight
committee. I I say this because I I also
am not on the oversight committee and I
know that they are working on things
that you work with them pretty closely.
So, I'm just hoping you could just talk
a little bit about that just to get us
all on the page because this is the
first time we've had this type this
conversation. So, thank you for for
doing it and being here.
Uh, Council Karan, u, thank you for that
question, by the way. And, uh, I also
wanted to point of fact that I've been
dreading going down to the animal
services center cuz I had to put a dog
down and I every time I go down there, I
end up walking through all those cages
and look at I want to take them all home
and it kills me every time I leave and I
don't bring a dog with me. But
I can help you with that if you need it.
Just for the record, we can talk
offline.
Um, but I do work with the oversight
committee. We meet so sometimes it's
once a month, sometimes it's once every
other month. It depends on how many
cases we have. Um, right now our
ordinance calls for me to have my cases
go before anything that I investigate.
It gets redacted and then it goes to the
oversight committee for them to review
and then they can make comment. If they
don't agree with my uh findings or they
don't agree with my issues that I
identify, they have the ability to
attach a another document to that and
then that'll go to the city manager.
So, but they review everything that I've
done that I do.
Thank you. So it's it's a it's there's a
there are connections but also it's a
independent sort of conversation. So
correct and if if I'm doing something
incorrect or if I'm
scanning over something that should not
be you know um like initially we had a
problem with our redacting process that
was going on with the cases. They were
redacted when I would look at them
online but somehow when they got emailed
all the redactions would be gone. So
it's like oh we got to figure that out.
So that was an issue and everything was
just laid wide open and we're trying not
to do that because we don't want to, you
know, point people out to the public on
some of the issues that we're taking
care of within the city. So we got that
fixed. But yes, everything that I do
that I investigate is reviewed by the
oversight committee.
Council Matis.
Yeah. Just for the benefit of the new
members, when the uh oversight committee
and the inspector general, there was a
sort of a sbatical. How many years was
it not happening? I I believe it wasn't
an um
I can't remember exactly when we started
the oversight committee up. Uh councelor
Matis, I'm sorry. I I can't remember
exactly when we started the oversight
committee up again, but I know the
oversight committee closed down in
October of 2023.
That was under Mr. Eekman and then there
was a a part maybe we went a whole year
without an oversight committee and then
we started one back up again. I can't
remember exactly what month it started,
but I don't know if you remember, Brad
or
counselor. Uh I believe that we were
effectively
uh without an oversight committee for
approximately 9 or 10 months.
Okay. Yeah. It may not have been a year
then. Councilor Matis.
Okay. Thank you, Brad. Thank you.
And also um I wanted to let you guys um
let the the council know I also am the
liaison for the veterans advisory board
and um um so I do that as well and um I
have really really really enjoyed
working with my fellow veterans on that
for the city. So that's been fantastic.
So, and now I'm taking care of [snorts]
calls coming in from other sources. So,
I've got a whole folder of complaints
that I'm working on now from a habitual
complainer. So,
okay. Uh Charles, a question. when um
you said that some of them are either
employee relations or policy, are you
gathering that data to see what those
policies are and then the data from
maybe where those departments, those
employee relation problems are coming
from so that it can either be a policy
change, training or or something to that
effect.
Um thank you for that question, mayor.
Um, a lot of times what'll happen is
when somebody gets on to the hotline and
they're making their complaint, they'll
select something like employee
relations. And it's not really employee
relations. It's something like um
somebody was acting out
um during a meeting or something like
that and somebody another employee
didn't like it. They don't want to go to
their boss because they fear
retaliation. So, they just call it into
the hotline. And it's not really an
employee relations. It's just
personality issues. But yes, I I gather
all the data. I have all the data if if
we wanted to go through it. But anytime
we see something where it's a policy
issue, then that will what will be
addressed if it truly is a policy issue.
Um, a lot of times what'll happen is
when we get these things, everything I
get on the hotline goes to a hotline
committee which consists of the two
assistant city managers,
um, Brad and Joe, our HR director. We
all develop a course of action and then
those investigations will either be sent
down to a director for them to
investigate or have one of their their
subordinates investigate or it'll come
to me to investigate. or if it's not
even something that we should be taking
care of like um it'll go to either um
Lieutenant Alva over at the LCPD or
you know um we'll send it down to
whoever it belongs to. Um if it's one of
our um JPAs, we'll send it down there
and have them um do whatever they need
to do with it. But then um
but but
anything that's a policy issue, yes,
we'll look at and we'll make sure if we
need to update our policies, we'll all
talk about it at that point because it's
not only me making those decisions. It's
everybody on the committee.
Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you for the
presentation and thank you for serving
as a liaison for the veterans. I really
appreciate that. That's Thank you. Thank
you, city council. Thank you.
Okay, that's our last item on the
agenda. So, I'll look for a motion to
adjurnn.
So, moved.
Second.
This is on the motion to adjourn the
work session. Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes. Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencomo,
yes.
Councelor Cran,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
And mayor,
yes.