Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: CONSENT CALENDAR (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: Cotati Police Officer's Association (CPOA) Side Letter to Add the Records-Analyst Position
Date: November 14, 2023
Written by: Damien O'Bid, City Manager
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a resolution approving a side letter to the memorandum of understanding with the Cotati Police Officers Association (CPOA) adding the new Police Records Support-Analyst job classification and approving an updated Salary Schedule adding said job classification.
Background
The City of Cotati has three separate bargaining units; the Cotati Employees Association (CEA), the Cotati Police Officers Association (CPOA), and the Cotati Police Management Association (CPMA), as well as the Non-Represented group and a single employment agreement with the City Manager.
During the budget approval process for fiscal year 2023/24, the City Council authorized adding a new position for the police department to address the need for a person who can assist with data extraction and analysis from the police record systems. Additionally, in recent years the Police Department has experienced significant increases in the scope and complexity of public records requests, which is challenging to manage as an ancillary duty of the Dispatcher-Clerks.
Analysis/Discussion
Following the adoption of the fiscal year 23/24 budget, the City Manager initiated discussions with the CPOA to define the scope of the new position as well as the proposed salary schedule.
This position became the Police Records Support-Analyst.
In broad terms, the new Police Records Support-Analyst will handle more complex records projects, including complex and time intensive public records requests, subpoenas, information to the District Attorney‘s Office and video redactions. As a result, this person will require specialized training and work closely with the City Clerk to become well versed in public record requirements, retention and management. The Dispatcher-Clerks will continue to handle all routine public records requests.
In addition to the aforementioned records duties, this position will be responsible for creating custom reports, exporting data as needed, and performing at least basic analysis of data from the consortium‘s records management system (RMS). In recent years, the public has demanded regular reporting of police data in forms that are not readily available from the RMS. Currently, producing data in the form required has been an extremely time-consuming and manual process.
This position is intended to address that need.
Financial Considerations
There are no new financial impacts associated with the creation of the new Police Records Support-Analyst position, as the proposed salary range is consistent with the budgeted expense in the adopted Fiscal Year 2023/24 budget.
Environmental Issues
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it is not a project which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, pursuant to CEQA Guideline section 15378.