EAST PALO ALTO
CITY COUNCIL
STAFF REPORT
DATE: February 21, 2023
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
VIA: Melvin Gaines, City Manager
BY: Melvin Gaines, City Manager
SUBJECT: Police Chief Recruitment Process Update
Recommendation
1. Receive an update on Councilmember Martha Barragan’s appointment of Ms. Maria Rocha to the Community Panel in place of former Councilmember Regina WallaceJones's appointee, Mr. Olatunde Sobomehin and authorize the city manager to work directly with each City Councilmember appointing any alternates to the community panel, as needed.
2. Adopt a resolution approving an updated police chief selection process and repeal Resolution 5034.
Alignment with City Council Strategic Plan
This recommendation is primarily aligned with:
• Promote Health & Public Safety
• Ensure our Financial and Organizational Health
Background
Resolution 5034 Police Chief Selection Process
On October 2, 2018, the City Council adopted Resolution 5034 (Attachment 1), defining the selection process for the Police Chief. This selection process is summarized as follows:
1. The City Council will select a recruitment firm to conduct the police chief recruitment.
2. The City Council and Human Resources (HR) will develop a recruitment brochure.
3. HR and the recruitment firm will:
a. screen the top 12 applications;
b. provide the City Council the top 12 applications; and c. produce a confidential closed session report recommending the top six candidates for City Council consideration.
4. In a closed session meeting, the City Council will review the top 12 applications and the HR/recruitment firm report and select the top six candidates.
5. For the top six candidates, HR will schedule two panel interviews:
a. A panel of law enforcement executives selected by HR and the recruitment firm (professional panel)
b. A panel of five community members, each appointed at the sole discretion of each councilmember (community panel).
6. The professional and community panels will interview the top six candidates and provide to HR their interview rating sheets, including comments, identifying their top three candidates.
7. HR will provide all materials from the professional and community panels to the City Council in a closed session report.
8. The City Council will interview the top six candidates and select the top three candidates for the city manager to consider.
9. The city manager will interview the top three candidates and make the final hiring decision.
The Current Police Chief Recruitment
Former Police Chief Albert Pardini announced his retirement in November 2021. The City Council began this recruitment process on February 1, 2022 by authorizing the city manager to enter into an agreement with Koff & Associates to provide recruitment services for the positions of city manager and police chief.
Currently, the police chief recruitment process is on step number 5 listed above. The City Council has identified the top six police chief candidates and HR and the recruitment firm are working to finalize the professional and community panels in preparation for interviews.
On September 20, 2022, the City Council agreed that each councilmember would appoint a community member to serve on the five-member community panel and directed the interim city manager to publish a future informational report complete with each Councilmember’s appointee. Each councilmember appointed a community member through emails to City staff, and staff provided an informational report documenting the community panel members appointed by each councilmember on October 18, 2022.
The appointees were as follows:
Table 1: City Council's Appointees for Five-Member
Community Interview Panel
Councilmember Appointee
Ruben Abrica (then-Mayor) Ms. Francisca Guzman
Lisa Gauthier (then-Vice
Mayor)
Pastor Paul Bains
Regina Wallace-Jones Mr. Olatunde Sobomehin
Carlos Romero Ms. Kenia Najar
Antonio Lopez Mr. Larry Moody
The recruitment process was originally expected to be completed by December 2022; however, the City placed the police chief recruitment process on hold in order to complete the city manager recruitment. Koff & Associates communicated to the top six candidates that the recruitment would resume once the new city manager began employment with the City. The City Council appointed a new city manager on January 17, 2023, commencing employment on January 30, 2023.
The city manager is working with Koff and Associates to resume the police chief recruitment process and requests that the City Council receive an update to the community panel and approve a modified police chief recruitment process.
Analysis
Update to the Community Panel
Because the police chief recruitment process is resuming after former Councilmember Regina Wallace-Jones has left the Council and Councilmember Martha Barragan has joined, Councilmember Barragan now has an opportunity to appoint a community member to the community panel. In consultation with the city manager, Councilmember Barragan proposed to appoint Ms. Maria Rocha to the community panel. Ms. Rocha will replace Mr. Olatunde Sobomehin, who was appointed by former Councilmember Regina Wallace Jones.
As the City and Koff & Associates work to schedule interview panels, some Councilmember appointed community panelist may no longer be available to participate on the community panel on the potential interview dates. If this occurs, the city manager will work with the appointing councilmember to receive a new appointment. Following the conclusion of the recruitment process, the city manager will provide an informational report summarizing any changes to the community panel.
Proposed Changes to the Police Chief Recruitment Process The ongoing recruitment to fill the vacancy left by former Police Chief Pardini is the City’s first police chief recruitment that is set to follow the process outlined in Resolution 5034. As the City is currently in step number 5 of the Resolution 5034 police chief recruitment process outlined above, the city manager, in consultation with Koff & Associates, recommends the modifications to the recruitment process outlined in Table 2, below. The proposed process is like what Council used for the city manager recruitment, where the Council conducted an initial interview via video conference to narrow down candidates, then invited the top three candidates to participate in community and professional panels followed by a final in-person interview with the City Council.
Table 2: Existing vs Proposed Process Comparison
Step Existing Resolution 5034 Process Proposed Modifications
5. For the top 6 candidates, HR will schedule
two interview panels:
a. A panel of law enforcement
executives selected by HR and
the recruitment firm
(professional panel)
b. A panel of 5 community
members, each appointed at the
sole discretion of each
councilmember (community
panel).
For the top 6 candidates, HR and Koff &
Associates will schedule interviews with the
City Council.
6. Interview day 1. In person (ideally)
interviews. 6 candidates each participate in
2 interviews over the course of 6 to 8
hours).
Interview day 1. Video conference (ideally)
interviews. 6 candidates will meet with the
City Council over the course of 6 hours.
The professional and community panels
will interview the top 6 candidates and
provide to HR their interview and rating
sheets including comments identifying their
top 3 candidates.
The City Council will interview the top 6
candidates (via video conference) and
select the top 3 candidates to participate in
the next round of interviews.
7. HR will provide all materials and
recommendations from the professional
and community panels to the City Council
in a closed session report.
For the top 3 candidates, HR and Koff &
Associates will schedule two interview
panels:
a. A panel of law enforcement
executives selected by HR and
the recruitment firm (professional
panel)
b. A panel of five community
members, each appointed at the
sole discretion of each
councilmember (community
panel).
8. Interview day 2. Video conference
(ideally). 6 candidates will each participate
in one interview with the City Council.
Interview day 2. In person (ideally)
interviews. 3 candidates will each
participate in 2 panel interviews over the
course of 3 to 4 hours.
The City Council will interview the top six
candidates and select the top three
candidates for the City Manager to
consider.
The professional and community panels will
interview the top 6 candidates and provide
to HR their interview and rating sheets
including comments identifying their top
candidate.
9. Interview day 3. In person (ideally). The
top 3 candidates will participate in
interviews with the city manager.
Interview day 2 (continued). In person
(ideally). The top 3 candidates will
participate in interviews with the City
Manager.
The city manager will interview the top
three candidates and make the final hiring
decision.
The city manager will interview the top three
candidates.
10. Considering the input from the community,
professional, City Council and city manager
interviews, the city manager will make a
final hiring decision.
Challenges Implementing the Resolution 5034 Police Chief Recruitment Process The existing process requires the top six candidates to participate in three interview panels on at least two different dates (steps number 5 and 8 of Resolution 5034 listed above).
Furthermore, this process would likely require the top three candidates to participate in four interview panels on at least three different dates (Resolution 5034 steps number 5, 8 and 9 above).
Step 6: The professional and community panels (Resolution 5034 step number 6 above) would optimally be conducted in person as opposed to through video conference. To have in person community and professional panels, the existing recruitment process could require the City to provide travel accommodations to up to six candidates depending on where each candidate resides. Providing travel accommodations to candidates is standard practice for executive level recruitments.
Step 7: Resolution 5034 step number 7 listed above requires the City to compile the materials from the community and professional panels and to provide a closed session report to the City Council prior to the Council’s interviews of the top six candidates. Staff would be challenged to provide such a report to the Council on the same day that they facilitated six candidates each going through two interview panels; a process that would take six to eight hours to complete.
Thus, the community and professional panels would likely need to occur on a different date than the Council’s interviews.
Step 8. If the Council desires for these interviews do be conducted in person, the existing policy could require the City to provide travel accommodations to up to six candidates depending on where each candidate resides. This could be the second occurrence that the City would need to provide travel accommodations to up to six candidates.
Step 9: The city manager could interview the Council’s top three candidates on the same day that the Council interviews the top six candidates and reduces the number of candidates to three, but this is not recommended. This would be a very long interview day for the top three candidates (six hours for the Council’s six interviews and up to three hours for the city manager’s interviews).
Proposed Police Chief Recruitment Process
Step 6: The proposed process involves the Council interviews of the top six candidates as the first interview step. The council would interview all six candidates and identify the top three candidates to continue in the recruitment process. This interview could be done in person or via video conference; however, video conference is recommended to ease scheduling and reduce potential travel accommodation costs.
Step 8: Only the top three candidates identified by the City Council would participate in the community and professional panels. These panels are recommended to occur in person, so having fewer candidates participate in these panels could reduce potential travel accommodation costs.
Step 9: Because only three police chief candidates would participate in the community and professional panels, it is possible for the city manager to conduct final interviews on the same date as the community and professional panels. This process does not require City staff or Koff & Associates to compile community or professional panel interview results prior to the city manager conducting interviews.
Step 10: Following the conclusion of the interviews, the city manager can consider the input on the top three candidates from the City Council, community panel, and professional panel to help make a final decision.
The proposed modified recruitment process will increase efficiency (two days of interviews as opposed to three) and will reduce potential travel accommodation costs the City could incur (one day of potential travel accommodations for up to three candidates as opposed to two days of potential travel accommodations for up to six candidates).
Fiscal Impact
There is no fiscal impact associated with this recommendation.
Public Notice
The public was provided notice of this agenda item by posting the City Council agenda on the City’s official bulletin board outside City Hall and making the agenda and report available at the City’s website and at the San Mateo County Library located at 2415 University Avenue, East Palo Alto.
Environmental
The proposed action is not a “project” within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), pursuant to CEQA Guideline section 15378(b)(2), in that it is government administrative activity that will not result in direct or indirect changes in the environment.
Attachments
1. Resolution 5034
2. Proposed Resolution