The Public Safety Commission is hosting a special community meeting at 6 p.m. tonight, March 13, at City Council Chambers (625 N. San Vicente Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069) to get feedback on whether WeHo should create its own police department.
The movement to end the city’s partnership with the Sheriff’s Department is well under way in City Hall, and staff members have already selected the consultant (Matrix Consulting) they want to work with in conducting a review of the current contract for law enforcement services and a feasibility study to determine the cost and scope of creating a West Hollywood municipal police department.
At the their last meeting, the commissioners raised several questions and concerns, including the makeup of the RFP review team, community engagement and involvement in the process, the cost analysis of creating a police department, and whether the study would be analyzing the current law enforcement contract. Some of the commissioners also expressed their displeasure with the pace of the RFP process and the lack of their involvement in the process.
During public comment, residents expressed concerns over the lack of engagement and outreach from the community, the lack of transparency or understanding of how the item was directed to staff or approved by the City Council, and the need to incorporate equity and sensitivity/LGBTQ+ training into the study for the creation of a West Hollywood police department.
The commission then set tonight as the dedicated time to this item and to work with staff on developing the structure of the meeting. The Commission also approved a motion to establish a clear scope of work that provides the options to continue with the existing contract and identify areas of improvement and provide a comprehensive cost analysis in the creation of a new police department that fits the needs of the West Hollywood community. The Commission also emphasized the need for a clear separation from the City Council regarding the study and/or implementation of the creation of a West Hollywood police department if that is decided to ensure there is no political involvement in the process.
City Council will review the chosen proposal on March 20.
TO PARTICIPATE BY PROVIDING PUBLIC COMMENT BY TELEPHONE:
You are strongly encouraged to email Jessica Anukam at janukam@weho.org no later than 3:00 P.M. on the meeting day (March 13, 2023) to be added to the Public Speaker List for the meeting. To speak during public comment, please email your name, the phone number from which you will be calling if applicable, and which item you would like to speak on. Your comments and information will become part of the official public record. Please call in and remember to place your phone on mute (*6).
Dial-in 10 minutes prior to the start of the meeting. You will be placed on HOLD in the Virtual Meeting Room until it is your turn to speak.
• Step 1 – Dial Phone Number: (669) 900-6833
• Step 2 – Enter in Meeting ID: 895 8302 3166; Then Press #
• Step 3 – Press *6 = Mute/Unmute
TO PARTICIPATE BY PROVIDING AN E-COMMENT (WRITTEN COMMENT):
You are strongly encouraged to email Jessica Anukam at janukam@weho.org no later than 3:00 P.M. on the meeting day (March 13, 2023). Written correspondence will not be read during the meeting; however, correspondence received by 3:00 P.M. will be forwarded to the Public Safety Commission and posted on the City’s website as part of the official meeting record. If you do not want your personal information included in the official record, please do not include your address and/or phone number.
HOW WE GOT HERE
In Spring of 2022, West Hollywood engaged with the community in the development of a comprehensive Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy. This strategy was aimed at ensuring the safety of the community while enhancing their overall well-being. The final plan was presented to City Council in December 2022. Additionally, the city’s Fiscal Year 2022-23 Budget included funds for ongoing work, including an independent review of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) contract and a feasibility analysis of creating a West Hollywood municipal police department.
On October 17, 2022, the city issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to select a qualified consultant to conduct a review of the current contract for law enforcement services and a feasibility study to determine the cost and scope of creating a West Hollywood municipal police department. The city manager and director of community safety held a question-and-answer session for prospective bidders, and a summary of the questions and responses was posted with the RFP after the meeting.
The feasibility study would not constitute an official policy recommendation, but it would serve to inform City Council on how the creation of a municipal police department would impact service and performance to the community. The selected consultant was expected to provide several deliverables, including a project report, effectiveness of the proposed municipal program compared to the existing LASD service model, an organizational plan for the proposed program, operational plan for the temporary increase of law enforcement or security personnel during major special events, findings from review of existing contracted law enforcement services, presentation to the public during the development of the report to gather feedback and input, and presentations to the Public Safety Commission and City Council of interim findings and final report.
Six prospective consultants submitted a written proposal by the established due date. As part of this RFP process, the city established a diverse review team to evaluate the six proposals. The review team comprised staff who work as part of the city’s Community Safety Working Group, along with experienced community safety professionals and a community member who currently serves as an appointed city official.
The six prospective consultants that submitted proposals and were interviewed included AP Triton, LLC, Arroyo Seco Associates, Inc., Center for Public Safety Management, LLC, Maroon Society, Inc., Matrix Consulting Group, and Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc. After review of the proposals and interviews with the six prospective consultants, each member of the review panel submitted an individual score for each of the six consultants.
The Commission also requested if the interview questions asked by the RFP review team to the consultants could be made available. Below are the questions asked during the interview process to all six consultants after they each presented to the RFP review team:
- In your experience what are the best industry practices when it comes to measuring police performance? What data or other factors are most useful for a robust evaluation of police performance?
- What methodology will you use to project staffing requirements? Can you provide examples of using this methodology in past assessments?
- Is there an appropriate role for an audit component to be included in your analysis? Specifically, how do you propose evaluating whether or not West Hollywood is receiving ‘value for money’ in its current arrangement with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department?
- Describe your approach to conducting business process reviews, and the methodology that you will use?
- What intangible factors (e.g., relationships with community leaders) have you identified in past assessments, and how have you incorporated that in your feasibility study? Describe the difficulty, if any, of quantifying these qualitative imperatives when recommending a new, or confirming a status quo, law enforcement service delivery structure?
- • With West Hollywood having a large LGBTQI+ makeup in both our residential population and our visitors, how would you guide the City in building a police force that would understand and meet the needs of our community?
Based on the evaluation performed by the review panel and their individual scores, the city recommended the selection of the Matrix Consulting Group. Matrix was the ranked the top candidate by seven of the eight review panelists after the interview process concluded. Matrix Consulting Group demonstrated their long-standing experience in public sector organizational analysis, particularly in law enforcement, data and financial analysis, community engagement, and project management.
Matrix Consulting Group’s familiarity with the institutional processes and organizational structure of local city and county governments in California separated them from the rest of the prospective consultants, the staff report said. Matrix Consulting Group was also the only consultant that will be training and sharing their data analysis program with the city, allowing for continual assessment of law enforcement operations.
THE PROPOSALS
- City Request For Proposal – Municipal Police Force Feasibility Study
- Matrix Consulting Group – Recommended Proposal
- AP Triton LLC – Proposal
- -Arroyo Seco Associates Inc – Proposal
- Center for Public Safety Management – Proposal
- Maroon Society – Proposal
- Raftelis – Proposal
Just the facts
https://www.laalmanac.com/crime/cr69.php
Of 88 cities in Los Angeles County 42, almost half, have their own police law enforcement. How do they do it? 21st century law enforcement. Drones instead of helicopters. Motorcycles [electric] to have rapid response through gridlocked traffic, followed by standard SUIV units. No more cycling deputies every 6 months out of the city. No more sharing deputies from WeHo with the Federal building in Westwood. Same substation covers both. If the city can drop $!8M plus on a robogarage behind City Hall and another $220,000,000.00 Plus on a poor revamp of the City Park they can fund local law… Read more »
Facts speak far louder than “what ifs”. It has been done by far smaller and poorer cities than WH. The average Sheriff that rotates here could give a rat’s a** about WH or its residents.
https://cops.usdoj.gov/ric/Publications/cops-p109-pub.pdf
HELL YESSSSSS!!!
There are but two individuals that can read and comprehend the item on the agenda. The others simply have mouths to voice their narrow opinions, grandstand or in the case of one commissioner, spout politically expedient words. Will have to subject myself to the torture and watch this evening. All but two need a course in logic and ethics.
Sepi is set on putting this on her resume.
We do not have the money, the equipment or the infrastructure to hire, train and equip our own police force. We went through all this when West Hollywood first became a city. Our city council (with a few exceptions) has been woefully inadequate at running the city. We can’t possibly trust them to implement something as VITAL as a police force.
Yup, we’ve already spent time and money looking into this..but hey, let’s waste some more money! This city has run itself into a dark hole.
That is NOT true. That was the BS excuse cooked up to hire the Sheriff. We are paying ridiculous salaries to employees and you think we can’t afford OUR OWN safety.
Most police officers have previous experience. WH is surrounded by small cities that did exactly that, BH, Glendale, Burbank, SM. WH’s tax rate is one of the highest in the nation…To hell we can’t afford it!
We can’t afford NOT TOO!
we have weirdo’s on our city council. they can’t be trusted.
We deserve to see the numbers, the costs. If they can drop [over $220,000,000.oo on the park doesn’t seem to be the issue
I hope someone can explain how a commission appointed by politics can effectively call for removing politics from any of this. This is, has always been, and will forever be a political issue. Talk of establishing a municipal police force is a power play that needs to be shut down by resident voters once and for all. Neither the public safety commission, nor the council can do this work free of bias and manipulation.
So true!
Let’s not give the city another task they know nothing about.
Is this meeting being live-streamed?
it will be in person at the council chambers, and also on YouTube. I don’t know if it will be on channel 10. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: TO PARTICIPATE BY PROVIDING PUBLIC COMMENT BY TELEPHONE: You are strongly encouraged to email Jessica Anukam at janukam@weho.org no later than 3:00 P.M. on the meeting day (March 13, 2023) to be added to the Public Speaker List for the meeting. To speak during public comment, please email your name, the phone number from which you will be calling if applicable, and which item you would like to speak on. Your comments and information will… Read more »
This has already been studied before. Waste of a taxpayer dollars.
We can’t trust WH to operate their own Police Dpt. They are constantly proving to us how inept they are at running this tiny city.