THESE MINUTES ARE NOT OFFICIAL
UNTIL APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE
Special City of Culver City /Culver City Unified School District Liaison Committee Meeting
July 13, 2023 (4:00 P.M.)
Patacchia Conference Room and via WebEx
CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
Jeremy Bocchino , City Clerk, called the meeting to order at 4: 10 P.M. with all Members present.
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Pledge of Allegiance
Jeremy Bocchino, City Clerk led the Pledge of Allegiance.
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PUBLIC COMMENT – Items NOT On The Agenda
Jeremy Bocchino, City Clerk, explained procedures for participation.
The following members of the public addressed the Committee:
Jim Shanman thanked everyone for convening the meeting; provided an update on Safe Routes to School; discussed work with schools to encourage walk and bike to school programs; participation by all the schools; classes over the summer; monthly group rides; Family Fun Rides; the YMCA Bike Club; group rides; attendance at public events; outreach and engagement over the summer; signing and striping; curb extensions; identifying areas for the Park and Walk program; and the new website coming online.
MEMBERS
Yasmine-Imani McMorrin, Vice Mayor
Dan O’Brien, Councilmember
Triston Ezidore, Member - Board of Education
Stephanie Loredo, Member – Board of Education
STAFF
Quoc Tran, Superintendent
John M. Nachbar, City Manager
Jeanine Woodston indic ated being a parent advocating for improvements to the Grossing Guard program; discussed lack of consistent staffing; approval of an agreement with an outside contractor for 8 intersections; she noted improvement, but indicated that some intersections were still lacking in safety for students; discussed identification of high impact intersections; lack of funding; she proposed partnering with the City to expand the ACMS contract to get identified intersections covered; discussed volume of pedestrian and car traffic; rates for crossing guards; and jurisdiction over contract management.
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Receipt of Correspondence
Jeremy Bocchino, City Clerk, reported no correspondence had been received.
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CONSENT CALENDAR
Item C-1
Meeting Minutes
MOVED BY MEMBER MCMORRIN, SECONDED BY MEMBER LOREDO AND
UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED, THAT THE CITY OF CULVER CITY/CULVER CITY
UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT LIAISON COMMITTEE APPROVE MINUTES FOR THE REGULAR MEETING OF MAY 20, 2021 AS SUBMITTED.
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Order of the Agenda
No changes to the agenda were made.
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ACTION ITEMS
Item A-1
Presentation on Homelessness by City of Culver City
Jeremy Bocchino, City Clerk, indicated that the Action Items were part of the minutes; discussed the process at the end of the meeting to agendize things to talk about at the
next meeting; and she indicated that Tevis Barnes was unable to be present to make the presentation for Item A-1.
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Item A-2
Update on School Resource Officers (SRO)
Jason Sims, Police Chief , provided an overview of the School Resource Officer (SRO) program; discussed history and goals of the program; statistics from the last school year; number and types of calls handled; relationships with administrators; proactive partnerships; number of arrests; juvenile diversion data; determining whether police action is needed; the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU); SRO uniforms; and he introduced new SRO Patty Banda.
Discussion ensued between staff and Committee Members regarding duties; a typical day for an SRO; providing a visible presence as a deterrent; addressing referrals from Los Angeles County Children Services; specialized training; deployment at the High School and Middle School where the majority of calls are generated; the partnership with LA County; the county -led program; service providers to provi de diversion services through the county; the Youth Advocate Program (YAP); cases that do not qualify for diversion; the penal code; people who are already on probation; collaboration with probation officers; unreported student collisions; near -misses; va lue of collision reports; improving safety overall; improving the partnership; the importance of data; traffic enforcement; clarification that all arrests made were of CCUSD students; gender breakdown; ethnicity; anti - bias training; clarification that the arrest is generated by the school, not the SRO , and most issues are handled by the school; threats on social media; required training for CCPD officers vs. for SROs; post -approved training; service providers; type of calls; calls from the school vs. calls from parents; demographic breakdown of data; disproportionality; ensuring that the District is supported; ways that SROs enhance safety at the schools; fights that were occurring at the schools last year; improving trust and partnerships with the students ; formal complaints against the SRO; cost of the program; grant funding; clarification that the program is fully - funded by the City and the SRO is an extension of the City’s patrol services and can be pulled for use by CCPD when appropriate; consistency of the uniform with that of other officers; data indicating that SROs do very little to reduce campus violence or mass shootings; data indicating that the presence of SROs is damaging to many students and actually increases the number of incidents ; ensuring that anything being introduced is for the highest good; making the meeting and the presentation available to the public; street safety; improving infrastructure; engaging other departments in safety; the SRO MOU; parents who came to protest safety issues; student awareness of SROs; intimidation; survey responses; hours; and Safe Routes to School.
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Item A-3
Joint Use Agreement Discussion
Armando Abrego, Parks, Recreation and Community Services (PRCS) Director, discussed the need to update the Joint Use Agreement; items that were not executed by either agency; cooperation; limited access to facilities; and communication with the Superintendent on the need for a staff liaison.
Discussion ensued between staff and Committee Members regarding distribution of the agreement to Committee Members; limited access to facilities by the afterschool program; differences between schools and their knowledge of the document; The Plunge; prioritization of usage during s chool hours; other schools using programs; ongoing negotiations; practice that strays from the agreement over time; the challenge of providing access to the limited resources available; keeping students safe; maximizing use; inevitable friction; security issues with Blanco Park; allowing the gate to stay open to allow for a safe route; staff time; refining the MOU to reflect what happens in practice; needed flexibility with access to the swimming pool; insurance needed with the Booster Club; consistency with City requirements; the outdated exhibits in the agreement; competition for all facilities; responsibility for ensuring equity with use of facilities; the changing situation with availability of classrooms; planning; who is considered a part of the Distr ict; the importance of hold harmless language to mitigate risk; upgrading technology to service people in real time; graduations; PTAs (Parent Teacher Associations); the outdated agreement; the timeline; the importance of using data in the fair and equita ble distribution of resources; and taking a community survey to improve awareness, receive feedback, and allow public engagement in the process.
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Item A-4
Student Support Services Discussion
Discussion ensued between staff and Committee Members regarding the crossing guard contracts; consolidating the CCUSD and City contracts; responsibility for payment; using the positions judiciously; piecemeal efforts; having a single entity directing the contracts; identified locations provided by the City at the direction of CCUSD; the pedestrian focus; busy intersections; benefits of traffic being directed by trained security hired by CCPD; traffic control provided by CCPD; special events; the higher degree of authority and awareness required to safeguard student safety on a daily basis; loss of continuity with the pandemic; gap in services; reliance on CCPD; PRCS contracting of crossing guard services out to ACMS; the five intersections added; data; requiring the hospital to be responsible for the adjacent
intersection; the request of CCUSD that the City finance all traffic support services; work hours for crossing guards; monitoring of driveways; standards for traffic enforcement; precedent; parental input vs. data; perceived notions; lack of equitability; listening to those with the loudest voices; safety; frustration with going into anoth er year without addressing issues; the need to address the expired contracts; cost sharing; determin ing the actual number of needed positions; communication between Safe Routes to School and ACMS; driver behavior; timing; and the process to move forward.
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Item A-5
Next Steps, Items for Upcoming Agenda, Next Meeting Date/Time
Discussion ensued between staff and Committee Members regarding agendizing a report fr om Jim Shanman and his goals for Safe Routes to School; ways to incentivize parents to drop off three blocks away from the school to reduce vehicular traffic around the school; minimizing car time and maximizing sidewalk time; frequency of meetings; the student support services discussion; support for unhoused students; bringing back Item A -1 with a focus on youth; understanding the vision for equity in CCUSD; a suggestion to invite a representative from Upward Bound to make a presentation; inviting someone from Human Resources who is working on equity to be present when the equity discussion takes place; agendizing a presentation from Youth For ward; an update on CCUSD Restorative Justice programs; support for mental health or counselors; ensuring that young people have what they need and identifying how the City can support; investigation of the feasibility of following the model of Santa Monica which gives a portion of a tax approved by Santa Monica voters to their school district; prioritized items for the next meeting; and the Committee agreed to meet on September 21, 2023.
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Public Comment – Items NOT On the Agenda (Continued)
None.
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Items from Members/Staff
None.
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ADJOURNMENT
At 6:15 P.M. the City Council/CCUSD Liaison Committee adjourned to September 21, 2023 at 4:00 P.M.
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Jeremy Bocchino
SECRETARY PRO TEMPORE of the City Council/CCUSD Liaison Committee Culver City, California
APPROVED
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YASMINE-IMANI MCMORRIN
CHAIR of the City Council/CCUSD Liaison Committee
Culver City, California