June 25, 2024
Department
DATE: June 25, 2024
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
LaShonda White, Deputy City Manager – Community
Services
Sam Vaughn, Deputy Director of Community Services –
Office of Neighborhood Safety
Michael Romero, Program Manager of Community Crisis
Response
Subject:
Establishment of a Community Crisis Response Program
Community Advisory Board and Proposed Bylaws
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
July 26, 2022
September 12, 2023
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
On September 12, 2023, City Council instructed City staff to work with the Reimagining Public Safety Community
Task Force (Task Force) to help develop the proposal for the structure of the Community Crisis Response Program
(CCRP) Community Advisory Board (CAB), including its
purpose, powers, and composition. The Task Force
drafted and is recommending approval of the CCRP CAB
bylaws.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROVE the establishment of a Community Crisis
Response Program Community Advisory Board, and the
proposed bylaws drafted and recommended by the
Reimagining Public Safety Community Task Force –
Community Services Department (LaShonda White 510-
620-6512/Sam Vaughn 510-620-5404).
AGENDA
REPORT
June 25, 2024
DISCUSSION:
The formation of the Community Crisis Response Program (CCRP) began in November 2020, emerging from discussions within the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force (Task Force). Through a series of Task Force community roundtable forums, subcommittee meetings, and subsequent approvals by City Council in the Fall of 2021.
City staff issued a Request for Proposal in early 2022 leading to the approval of a contract with Urban Strategies Council (USC) to facilitate the CCRP's implementation, including the establishment of a Community Advisory Board (CAB).
On July 8, 2023, a draft report from USC on the Implementation of the Community Crisis Response Program in Richmond was shared with Task Force members and discussed at meetings on July 12, 2023, and August 23, 2023. At the special meeting on August 30, 2023, the members voted to recommend to the City Council that CCRP be implemented within a new or existing department within the City of Richmond.
On September 12, 2023, the City Council voted to place CCRP under the leadership of the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS). The City Council also directed staff to return in November with more specific guidelines for launching the program, begin recruitment to staff the program by December 15, 2023, and launch the program by August 2024.
Lastly, the City Council instructed City staff to work with the Task Force to help develop the proposal for the structure of the CCRP Community Advisory Board (CAB), including purpose, powers, and composition.
At the September 27, 2023, and October 25, 2023, Task Force meetings, members began discussing a proposal for the purpose, powers, and composition of the CAB and subsequently, a working group was formed. The working group, which included Task Force members Marisol Cantú, Jamin Pursell, Kristin Kilian-Lobos, and Steve Bischoff, drafted a proposal in advance of the November 29, 2023, special meeting of the Task Force. However, action was not taken by the Task Force until the March 27, 2024, meeting, where a motion was made to submit to the City Attorney’s Office draft bylaws for review and subsequent City Council approval.
The Task Force was asked to come up with bylaws for the CCRP Community Advisory Board Working Group. The stated purpose of the CAB is to provide a method for the public to be able to interact with a standard board, and to be integrated into the City to offer a method where residents could be informed and have their complaints heard. The CAB’s bylaws were modeled closely to other City of Richmond boards and commissions. The committee understood that the CAB would not do CCRP’s work but would support and enhance it.
City staff have been working diligently to launch the CCRP based on City Council direction. Most recently, Michael Romero, a professional with more than 20 years of mental health and crisis intervention experience, started with the City of Richmond as its CCRP Program Manager on May 16, 2024. Looking ahead, one of the immediate objectives for the CCRP is to establish a Community Advisory Board, accept the
June 25, 2024
proposed bylaws drafted and recommended by the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, and appoint members to fill the CAB seats.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – [DRAFT] Community Crisis Response Program Community Advisory Board (CAB) Bylaws.