It's looking more and more like Portland's unique, fragile system for watchdogging federally mandated police reforms could creep past the constraints of its budget. One main reason: The team that's helping oversee those reforms still hasn't found a suitable place to work, nine months after winning the job.
As the Mercury reported back in March, a group of Chicago-based researchers and local support staff known as the Compliance Officer and Community Liaison (COCL) team quietly moved its offices from a community center toward the eastern edge of town to the same building where the Portland Police Bureau's traffic division is headquartered.
That raised ire and eyebrows. The people who are watching the city's efforts to improve how police handle mental health situations—a group called the Community Oversight Advisory Board (COAB)—worried having supposedly independent watchdogs working near cops could dissuade open interaction with citizens, and sent a bad message.
Remember, the city's in the midst of settling a 2012 lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice, and accusing Portland cops of disproportionately beating up people with mental health problems. The COCL team was created by that settlement (and caused outcry last year when a team from Chicago got the gig rather than local candidates).
The group is supposed to be independent of the city. Portland City Council even passed an ordinance in January that said "the COCL... requires office space which is not in a city building," then promptly forgot all about that part.
While the COCL's no longer in a police building, it's still in a city building. It moved to downtown's Commonwealth Building several months ago, to the same space that houses Portland's Office of Equity and Human Rights.
That doesn't sit so well with the feds, who seem to be insisting that—at bare minimum—the COCL folks have a lockable door separating their workspace from city employees.
"The settlement agreement requires that the COCL be independent of any city office," Deputy City Attorney Ellen Osoinach told city council Wednesday afternoon. "What the DOJ is struggling with is that, to the extent we house the COCL team in a bureau office, they see tension there."
Osoinach says, though, that federal officials acknowledge that the entire reform process is in a "fragile place." Five members of the community board tasked with holding the cops' feet to the fire have dropped out, and everyone involved is working far more hours than they were told to expect. Kathleen Saadat, who leads the COCL's day-to-day efforts in Portland, called the workload "overwhelming."
What's all this have to do with the budget?
City commissioners on Wednesday afternoon heard from COCL members, who are asking for changes to their contract with the city. Those tweaks include paying members of the COCL team tens of thousands of new dollars—largely because they're taking on more responsibility.
Estimated costs for the team are still below the city's budgeted $725,000 for the year, but mayoral policy adviser Deanna Wesson-Mitchell suggested that could change in several months, since it looks like the city either has to move the COCL team to a suitable spot, or complete an "office build-out," which she said could cost $35,000.
"We're not asking for a change in the budget yet," Mayor Charlie Hales clarified to his colleagues (foreshadowing!). Expect to hear more about this during this fall's
bump—that's shorthand for "budget monitoring process"—a twice-yearly event where the city recalibrates its expenses and doles out any extra money it finds.
Another issue presenting unexpected costs: A number of focus groups for targeting smaller populations (LGBT community, racial and ethnic minorities, people with mental health issues) who can't be isolated in the type of mass surveys that usually gauge a citizenry's feelings about cops.
Those focus groups drew some lively interactions between Saadat and Dan Saltzman, who wanted to know what LGBT folks and racial minorities had to do with the cops beating up people with mental health problems.
"I’m just afraid it becomes focus groups run amok," Saltzman said. Pretty much no one agreed with him.
"If an officer approaches a person who they think has a mental health problem, it is important for us to notice that those people don't all look, behave, or respond alike," Saadat said in response to the concerns. "Some of the behaviors and responses are tied to ethnic background, age, etc. If we hear from these groups, maybe we learn something."
