Submitted By
Rasheda Jackson, Assistant Village Attorney
Reviewed By
AMZ
Agenda Item Title
Title
Discussion of Next Steps to Select a Third-Party Consultant to Serve as an Independent Facilitator Related to the Village Board’s Community Safety Goals
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Overview
Overview
A Request for Proposals (RFP) for professional services was issued related to many aspects of the Community Safety Board Goals. Two (2) firms were invited to interview with the Village Board at the July 12, 2021, Board meeting. At the August 2, 2021, the Board requested additional information from the firms prior to making their final selection. This meeting will be for discussion regarding the previously interviewed firms, the additional supplemental information provided, and next steps in the process.
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Recommendation
Recommendation
Staff believes either identified firm would be qualified to perform the requested evaluation of the Village’s police practices and provide recommendations that would be both insightful and actionable.
The RFP was based upon a scope of work previously reviewed by the Village Board on August 25, 2020. However, it is recognized that with the recent adoption of the Village Board goals will require negotiation of a new scope of work prior to the Board engaging a consultant.
Fiscal Impact
This was an unbudgeted item and will require a Budget Amendment to cover the expenses incurred to perform the aforementioned analysis.
Background
Staff solicited and received seven (7) proposals in response to the RFP and have identified two (2) potential firms that ranked high in staff’s evaluation due to demonstrated knowledge and experience in the engagement of all stakeholders including but not limited to elected officials, citizen commission members, community members and the Police Chief and members of the Police Department as well as other Village staff .
The staff review team was comprised of the Assistant Village Attorney Rasheda Jackson, Deputy Police Chief Shatonya Johnson, Police Chief LaDon Reynolds, Assistant Village Manager/HR Director Kira Tchang, Deputy Village Manager Ahmad Zayyad, Deputy Village Manager Lisa Shelley and Village Manager Cara Pavlicek.
The RFP schedule was generally as follows:
• On June 22, 2020, the Village Board approved a Motion to direct staff to identify a third-party consultant.
• On August 25, 2020, a Special Meeting of the Village Board was held for staff to provide an update on work being done in response to the Village Board Direction on identifying a third-party consultant.
• On September 29, 2020, a presentation was given to the Village Board for staff to provide an update on work being done in response to the Village Board Direction on identifying a third-party consultant. The draft RFP was presented and the Village Board provided feedback.
• The RFP was issued October 21, 2020.
Of the seven (7) firms that submitted proposals, staff have identified the most qualified candidates to present before the Village Board.
The Village Manager is seeking direction from the Village Board regarding which of these firm(s) best suits the overall needs of the Village as presented in the Request for Proposals. It is also appropriate to review the scope of work and services to be included in the contract.
Consultant Summary:
BerryDunn ($159,250.00)
BerryDunn is an independent management and information technology (IT) consulting firm in Portland, Maine. They have over forty-six years in the consulting business with a separate division of 200 dedicated members in government focused consulting.
BerryDunn has worked with more than 300 state and local governmental clients. Throughout the evaluation process, BerryDunn has demonstrated that they have a wealth of knowledge and have a number of subject matter experts on their team that will assist on public safety and racial equity issues faced by the Village. Recent assessments include the community of Northglenn, CO, where they provided the Police Department a full operations and management study which incorporated an evaluation of bias-free procedurally-just policing, examining policies, and community policing strategies.
By reviewing ‘Calls for Service’ evaluation and identifying essential v. non-essential police services, Berry Dunn provided a proprietary method they developed and recently instituted for another municipality called “Community Co-Production Policing model (involves creating a CCPP Board)”. This may be a unique approach for the Board to consider.
BerryDunn has worked with the Village on two past projects and is proposing 4 Distinct Projects to fulfill the previous scope of the project as highlighted below; 1) Perform a full management assessment; 2) Audit of race equity issues; 3) Alternative response services evaluation; 4) Fair and Impartial Policing measures.
The project manager (Michele Weinzetl) assigned to lead this effort was a police chief in Minnesota for almost thirty years. Michele brings extensive experience conducting management and operations assessments for police departments across the country. Prior to BerryDunn, Michele worked for the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), evaluating police departments’ operations, management, and staffing capabilities, and has since refined her approach to conducting these studies.
Additional members on the BerryDunn team are as followed:
Doug Rowe who is principal of BerryDunn’s Justice and Public Safety Practice. He brings over 40 years of IT industry experience-20 of which have been spent working with public safety agencies. An experienced facilitator, Doug assists organizations in evaluating current processes, envisioning a desired future state, and mapping the way to get there. His work is typically focused on modernizing the technology systems used by public safety agencies in order to deliver exceptional services to constituents. This background gives Doug an understanding of both the granularity of each public safety stakeholder and the broader scope of how each stakeholder is interrelated. As project principal, Doug will be responsible for our commitment to the Village. He review all deliverables to help ensure quality and oversee that the appropriate resources are designated to the project.
Gloria Reyes who is a Subject Matter Expert and has focused her career on public safety and racial equity initiatives. She has developed a racial equity organizational justice model and has worked with diverse communities to build trust and legitimacy between communities of color and law enforcement. Gloria was the founder of the Madison Police Department's Amigos en
Azul program dedicated to dissolving cultural barriers between the Madison Police Department and the Latino community. She started and led the racial equity team within the Madison Police Department to review and assess the Madison Police Department's policies and procedures through a racial equity lens. While serving as deputy mayor, an officer-involved shooting of an unarmed black male sparked community protests. In response, a review of the Madison Police Department was launched and Gloria had oversight of the evaluation of the Madison Police Department working with consultants, citizen's committee, the police, City staff, and the City Council. As a subject matter expert, Gloria will contribute her law enforcement and racial equity experience as well as her knowledge of conducting police agency evaluations as needed throughout this project.
Rick Brown is a Subject Matter expert, Rick retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel after completing more than 29 years of service with the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP). As the former Deputy Commissioner of Professional Responsibility for the PSP, he specialized in citizen’s complaints, internal investigations, discipline, diversity issues, and community trust
building. Prior to his retirement, Rick founded Transparency Matters-a law enforcement consulting firm developing more effective accountability and related processes that enhance public trust. Rick was appointed as member of the federal Independent Monitoring Teams for the City of Oakland Police Department, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (Arizona), the Detroit Police Department, and the Monitoring Team for the Niagara Falls Police Department Consent Decree brought by the State of New York. These positions required an objective, third-party monitor to determine if the police departments are following requirements set forth by the Consent Decree. As a subject matter expert, Rick will contribute his law enforcement, racial equity, and related professional expertise to this engagement. He will support the evaluation of the Village’s police operations and services, and provide recommendations and best practices for the future.
Fred Fletcher is a Subject Matter Expert, Fred has over 23 years of law enforcement experience - including 10 years of command and executive experience. He most recently served as chief of police in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Prior to that, he held a command position in the Austin,
Texas, Police Department for over 20 years. Fred is committed to relational policing with a hands-on approach and a dedication to progressive strategies. He is especially knowledgeable in the realm of police technologies. In Chattanooga, he built a Real Time Intelligence Center and acquired a field-based quality control system that reduced data lag from 15+ days to mere minutes, eliminating the need for excessive data entry. As a subject matter expert, Fred will contribute his law enforcement expertise for this engagement. He will support the assessment, help evaluate the Village’s police operations and services, and assist with facilitating implementation of recommended reforms.
Hillard Heintze ($115,599.60)
Hillard Heintze has been Operating since 2004 with a diverse project team and 40 employees in the State of Illinois alone. Hillard Heintze has major experience in performing the type of assessments needed under the issued RFP and was the chosen firm by the U.S. Dept. of Justice to assisted with police reform efforts in 3 different cities.
Hillard Heintze's approach will be to identify best practices to help the OPPD and community to rethink how the Police Department provides its services. They anticipate the assessment and monitoring based on the previous scope of work will take approximately 16 weeks to complete which will include an internal survey to department employees and host group discussions that include OP community and Village officials to discuss policing issues.
Members on the Hillard Heintze team are as followed:
Robert L. Davis, Senior Vice President and Practice Lead, Law Enforcement Consulting. Rob is a highly regarded and innovative national leader in policing and public safety with extensive experience assessing federal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the U.S. Rob served in a variety of capacities during his 30 years’ career with the San Jose Police Department, including as the Chief of Police for seven years. During his time as chief, Rob also served as the President of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. He provided consulting services for the U.S.
State Department, traveling on numerous occasions to Central and South America to provide training in community policing methods addressing gang prevention, intervention and suppression. Since retiring from San Jose, Rob has been involved in numerous assessments of police departments across the nation, including serving as the Project Director for Hillard Heintze’s Department of Justice Collaborative Reform Initiative for Technical Assistance contract.
Sydney R. Roberts, JD, Senior Director. Sydney brings over three decades of experience to her role as Senior Consultant at Jensen Hughes. A leader in police oversight and accountability, Sydney has provided insight and guidance on civil and human rights matters impacting law
enforcement, including illegal search and seizure, denial of counsel and officer involved shootings. In addition to her career in law enforcement and police reform, Sydney has built and lead diverse and inclusive high-performance teams on multimillion-dollar enterprises in public safety, compliance and community advocacy. Before joining the Hillard Heintze team, Sydney served as Chief Administrator for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) in Chicago, Illinois, where she was integral in enabling civilian oversight of law enforcement. She developed the Policy, Research & Analysis Division (PRAD) to demonstrate performance, mitigate risk and improve the policing practices of the Chicago Police Department (CPD). Her accomplishments at COPA include increasing case closure, reducing intake and managing a comprehensive real-time response to a surge in police misconduct complaints filed after George Floyd’s death and the ensuing civil unrest that followed.
Robert Boehmer, Esq., Vice President (Subject Matter Expert). Robert is an experienced facilitator, trainer and public speaker, with expertise in collaborative problem solving, community policing, partnership development and information sharing. For the past several years, he has been facilitating sessions for the Department of Homeland Security’s Building Communities of Trust Initiative, focusing on developing trust among law enforcement, fusion centers and the communities they serve. As a Vice President in the Law Enforcement Consulting
practice at Hillard Heintze, Robert manages complex law enforcement assessments and helps police agencies transform their organizations and adopt national best practices and industry standards central to improving accountability, transparency and community trust.
Mark Giuffre, CFE, CAMS, CPP, Senior Director (Subject Matter Expert). With 30 years of experience serving in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Mark Giuffre is a globally recognized expert in narcotics investigations, interdiction, border security, transnational crime groups and synthetic opioids. He has developed and provided training programs and instruction to federal, state, local, tribal and foreign law enforcement officials. In addition, he is trained, experienced and certified in financial, fraud and asset forfeiture investigations. Mark retired as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Chicago Office where he was responsible for narcotics investigations, money laundering investigations, intelligence and enforcement in five Midwestern states. Earlier in his career, Mark was stationed at the American Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand for seven years, with travel and assignments to 37 other nations.
Each of the consultants has had an opportunity to present to the Village Board on why they would be the best firm to be selected to perform the assessment. Staff is seeking Board direction on who should staff engage based on the information provided in the original proposal, interview responses, and the recent presentation.
Alternatives
N/A.
Previous Board Action
• On the August 2, 2021, the Board requested additional information be provided from the firms prior to making their final selection.
• On July 12, 2021, two (2) firms were invited to interview with the Village Board during the Village Board meeting.
• On June 22, 2020, the Village Board approved a Motion to direct staff to identify a third-party consultant.
• On August 25, 2020, a Special Meeting of the Village Board was held for staff to provide an update on work being done in response to the Village Board Direction on identifying a third-party consultant.
• On September 29, 2020, a presentation was given to the Village Board for staff to provide an update on work being done in response to the Village Board Direction on identifying a third-party consultant. The draft RFP was presented and the Village Board provided feedback.
Citizen Advisory Commission Action
N/A
Anticipated Future Actions/Commitments
A meeting with the Village Board will be schedule to receive direction regarding review of the scope of work and services to be included in the contract.