City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: March 10, 2020
Agenda Item: 3.H
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Gigi Decavalles-Hughes, Director, Finance Department, Risk Management Lane Dilg, Interim City Manager, City Manager's Office
Subject: Adoption of a Child Protection Resolution and authorization to enter into Agreement with Praesidium to serve as the City’s Child Protection Officer Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt the attached resolution confirming the City’s commitment to enhancing procedures and practices to ensure lasting, City-wide efforts to prevent incidences of abuse of children in any City programs.
2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with Praesidium, Inc., an organization that specializes in policies and procedures to prevent incidences of abuse of children, in an amount not to exceed $220,000 for the period through June 30, 2021, with three additional one-year renewal options in amounts not to exceed $135,000, per year, with future funding contingent on Council budget approval, to serve as the City’s Child Protection Officer.
Executive Summary
The City of Santa Monica places the utmost importance on the health and safety of every child who participates in a City of Santa Monica program. In 2018, City employee Eric Uller was arrested by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office with five felony crimes related to allegations of sexual abuse against minors dating back to 1989 while Uller was working with the Police Activities League. Although the charges did not relate to current operations, City staff responded by immediately taking a number of steps, including publicly committing to do everything possible to prevent future incidents of abuse in any current City program providing services to youth. In furtherance of this commitment, the City retained Praesidium, Inc., which has 25 years of experience in working with entities to prevent 2 of 8
abuse, to review the policies and practices of the City’s current youth programs and provide guidance to assist the City in improving its policies and practices to accord with best practices for preventing any future incidents of abuse.
On October 15, 2019, Praesidium presented to the Council a summary of its review and a set of recommendations. Staff is taking steps to implement a number of these recommendations, including establishing a new administrative instruction that will create a cross-departmental child protection committee, establish a City-wide code of conduct and program standards that focus on prevention, implement standardized reporting and responding procedures for not only incidents of abuse but also red flag behaviors and youth to youth abuse, and require standardized training for all staff and volunteers focused on prevention.
Staff now recommends two additional actions in accordance with Praesidium’s recommendations. First, to provide a “voice from the top,” staff recommends adoption by the Council of a resolution that confirms the City’s commitment to putting in place procedures and practices to ensure lasting, City-wide efforts to prevent incidences of abuse of children in any City programs, outlines steps the City is taking towards this goal, and emphasizes that everyone, no matter their role with the City, needs to understand that safety and the protection of children is part of their jobs. Second, staff recommends that the Council authorize a contract through June 30, 2021 (with options to renew) for Praesidium to serve as the City’s Child Protection Officer, in which position it would coordinate and assist in implementing the requirements of the City’s new abuse prevention administrative instruction.
Background
In October 2018, Eric Uller, who was at the time employed with the City’s Information Services Department, was arrested by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office with five felony sexual crimes against four minors. The charges related to alleged incidents of abuse that dated back to 1989 and occurred while Uller was working or volunteering at PAL. Uller is now 3 of 8
deceased, having been found dead in his apartment, in an apparent suicide, during the course of the criminal proceedings.
Following Uller’s arrest, the City committed to respond to the horrific and heartbreaking allegations of abuse with transparency and accountability and to do everything it could to prevent any future incidents of abuse in any City program providing services to youth.
The City retained Praesidium, an outside consultant, to review the policies and practices of its current youth programs and provide guidance to assist the City in improving its policies and practices to accord with best practices for preventing any future incidents of abuse.
Discussion
Praesidium’s Review and Recommendations
Beginning in January 2019, the City worked with Praesidium to conduct a review of its youth programs’ policies and practices. Praesidium reviewed written policies and procedures. Praesidium staff also made two week-long trips to Santa Monica, in March 2019 and July 2019, during which they visited youth programs, observed their operations, interviewed staff members, participants, and parents, and reviewed program locations.
On October 15, 2019, Praesidium made a presentation to Council regarding the findings and recommendations from its review (Attachment A). Its recommendations were:
• Build on youth protection policies with a focus towards prevention. • Establish a cross-departmental youth protection committee and standardize youth protection policies and best practices throughout the entire city. • Centralize coordination of volunteers.
• Design and implement standardized training for all staff and volunteers focused on prevention.
• Implement standardized reporting and responding procedures for not only incidents of abuse but also red flag behaviors and youth to youth abuse. 4 of 8
• Ensure that everyone, no matter their role, understands that safety and the protection of children is part of their job.
Praesidium identified as immediate next steps:
• Form a youth protection committee.
• Roll out a new city-wide youth protection policy and code of conduct. • Implement city-wide policies and procedures.
Implementing Praesidium’s Recommendations
In response to the recommendations made by Praesidium, staff are promulgating a new Administrative Instruction (AI), Abuse Prevention. The new AI will:
• Establish a Child Protection Committee that includes representatives from the City Manager’s Office, City Attorney’s Office, Community & Cultural Services Department (Community Recreation and Human Services), Finance (Risk Management), Library Department, and Police Department, and task the Child Protection Committee with overseeing implementation of the AI’s requirements and ongoing assessment of whether modifications, changes, or additions to the AI’s requirements are necessary to accord with best practices for preventing child abuse and neglect;
• Implement a city-wide code of conduct for providing services to youth and new standards for City-managed youth programs that are modeled on best practices for prevention as identified by Praesidium;
• Implement updated, standardized reporting and responding procedures, modeled on best practices as identified by Praesidium, not only for incidents of abuse but also for red flag behaviors and youth to youth abuse;
• Implement updated, standardized screening of volunteers, including a standard application form, reference checks, and a “Live Scan Fingerprint” criminal background check; and
• Extend AI III-2-5, Child Abuse Mandated Reporter Training Requirements, which currently applies only to employees whose positions require direct contact with 5 of 8
and supervision of children, to require Child Abuse Mandated Reporter Training for all employees, volunteers, and contractors for any City-managed youth program, and require the development of annual training on best practices for the prevention of child abuse and neglect.
Volunteer Coordinator
As part of the FY 2019-20 midyear budget, staff recommended creation of a new 0.5 FTE Volunteer Coordinator to implement Praesidium's recommendations that the City centralize coordination and training of volunteers. This position will oversee and coordinate the recruitment, training, and monitoring of volunteers across City programs.
The Community and Cultural Services Department, which oversees the largest number of City-managed youth programs and other programs with large numbers of volunteers, will incubate the position and the development of a Citywide volunteer program for an initial 18-month period, after which time the position will be transitioned to the Human Resources Department.
Proposed Resolution Expressing Commitment to Child Abuse Prevention In their recommendations, Praesidium emphasizes the importance of commitment to the prevention of child abuse. In demonstrating this commitment, one step is providing a “voice from the top,” that is, an indication from the highest level of City government that preventing child abuse is a priority. To provide this “voice from the top,” staff recommends that the Council adopt the proposed resolution (Attachment B), which confirms the City’s goal of doing everything it can to prevent any future incidents of abuse in any City program providing services to minors, outlines the steps the City is taking towards this goal, and emphasizes that everyone, no matter their role with the City, needs to understand that safety and the protection of children is part of their job.
Proposed Contract with Praesidium
Staff recommends that the City contract with Praesidium to serve, at least initially, as the Child Protection Officer called for in the new AI.
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Based on recommendations from Praesidium, and consistent with what appears to be common practice among non-profits that manage programs providing services to youth, the new AI will assign responsibility for many new requirements -- including centralized collection of materials relating to all City-managed youth programs, ongoing annual review of those materials to ensure compliance with evolving best practices, continuing periodic on site reviews of the operations of City-managed youth programs, and the design and monitoring of annual reminder training -- to a “Child Protection Officer.” Praesidium did not seek to serve as the City’s Child Protection Officer. After considering the options, including assigning the duties to an existing City position or seeking authority to hire a new full-time employee for the position, however, staff reached out to Praesidium to see if it would be willing to contract to fill the position.
Praesidium has the expertise, experience and resources to perform the required functions of the Child Protection Officer and, in doing so, to train existing City staff, whom staff anticipates will ultimately take on the role of Child Protection Officer following the initial engagement with Praesidium. In response to staff’s request, Praesidium has proposed assigning an account manager to serve as the Child Protection Officer who would be the primary liaison between Praesidium and the Child Protection Committee, and would coordinate with additional Praesidium staff on an asneeded basis to comply with the requirements of the new AI. Praesidium staff would continue to evaluate those requirements on an ongoing basis against evolving best practices and suggest any needed modifications. In addition, Praesidium staff would conduct onsite reviews of up to 20 City-managed youth programs each year, including interviews with supervisors, employees, advocates, youth and parents, to assess on an ongoing basis compliance with and the effectiveness of the abuse prevention policies and practices required by the new AI.
Contracting with Praesidium, at least initially, has advantages over either assigning the position’s duties to an existing City position or recruiting and hiring a full-time employee for the position. The duties required of the position, at least initially, are more than could be handled on a part-time basis as an adjunct to an existing City position. It would also be very difficult to find any individual, either already employed by the City or 7 of 8
as a new hire, who could provide the same level of experience and ability in this role as Praesidium; and, working with Praesidium for the initial period of this position will allow the City, in conjunction with Praesidium, to assess continually the position’s responsibilities as the City implements the practices and procedures reflected in the new AI. Finally, Praesidium’s proposal for filling the position is cost effective since their quote for the services on an annual basis appears to be below what it would cost, taking into account both salary and benefits, to hire a full-time City employee with the required experience and skills.
Staff recommends that the contract be awarded to Praesidium as an exception to the competitive bidding process pursuant to Santa Monica Municipal Code Section
2.24.250(b) and (h). Praesidium has been in business for 25 years and has developed a proprietary abuse risk management model that provided the basis for its initial review and recommendations and will provide the basis for its contracted work as the Child Protection Officer. Also, Praesidium was originally retained by the City Attorney as a consultant to provide professional services in conjunction with the litigation anticipated in the wake of Uller’s arrest. Working under this retention, Praesidium has already conducted on-site review of a number of City-managed youth programs, and can build on this work, rather than partially or completely repeating it as would be necessary for any other entity.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve funding from the Self-Insurance, Comprehensive Fund to award a contract with Praesidium for abuse prevention services.
Contract/Agreement/Purchase Order Request
FY 2019-20
Requested
Amount Department Account #
Total Contract
Amount
$85,000 72800002.552010 $220,000
Future year funding is contingent on Council budget approval. 8 of 8
Prepared By: Oles Gordeev, Risk Manager
Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Attachment A: Praesidium Presentation – 10/15/2019 Review and Recommendations
B. Attachment B: Proposed Resolution
C. Praesidium: Oaks Initiative Disclosure Form