Demands for defunding Santa Rosa’s police continue at community forum

Santa Rosa residents continued to press the City Council this week to defund or reform the Santa Rosa Police Department as city officials, reacting to the protests over George Floyd’s killing, held hearings in an effort to improve community relations and increase scrutiny of the police department.

One of dozens of concerned Santa Rosa residents, Evan Phillips, noted that four of the City Council’s seven seats will be on the ballot in November and urged the city to act quickly in the face of demands for changes to address systemic racial injustice at the local level.

“This business-as-usual sort of attitude, it’s not going to suffice,” Phillips said Tuesday during a virtual community forum. “This incremental appeasement will not suffice. The speed of normal bureaucracy will not suffice.”

The city’s reaction to the protests — which proliferated after Floyd, a Black man, died at the hands of Minneapolis police who arrested him on Memorial Day — has so far resulted in a “community empowerment plan,” a three-pronged response that aims to foster better relationships with Black and Latinx leaders, create opportunities for public input on police reform and start a “feedback loop” to determine the effectiveness of the city’s eventual actions.

Law enforcement officers injured at least three of the hundreds of peaceful protesters who took to Santa Rosa’s streets in late May and early June, and two of the injured are suing the city in a lawsuit the City Council discussed in closed session Tuesday.

The Sonoma County Commission on Human Rights will submit to the city a report on police actions during the protests over Floyd’s death, said Dmitra Smith, chair of the commission.

“It will detail background leading up to June 2 and provide an account of use of force, detention and surveillance and human rights violations — disproportionately targeting Black, Latinx and indigenous residents,” Smith said. “... What we are looking for now is action and policy changes and accountability — not resolutions, not statements, but actual accountability.”

The City Council last week adopted a budget that increased police funding to the minimum required by a 2016 city ballot measure, Measure O — slightly less than what City Manager Sean McGlynn recommended in his original budget — but that decision did virtually nothing to satisfy proponents of defunding the police.

Vice Mayor Victoria Fleming stood apart from her colleagues by apologizing for misinterpreting calls to reduce police funding. And Councilman Chris Rogers floated the possibility of another vote for the public to revisit the decision it made in 2016, when Measure O received more than 70% of the vote.

“It’s not a one and done, it’s not one policy issue,” Rogers said. “It is an ongoing systemic change that we are committed to.”

Unlike the budget hearings, Tuesday’s forum drew some voices who opposed the notion of defunding the police.

“I do not want any changes made to the way that our police department will be funded, is to be funded, nothing that will detract from their budget,” said Santa Rosa resident Randy Field. “In fact, their budget needs to be increased."

Many of these pro-police commenters identified themselves as members of Citizens for Action Now, a local grassroots group that has been outspoken for tougher crackdowns on homeless encampments.

The Tuesday afternoon forum, which went into the evening due to the surge of public comment, was followed Wednesday by the inaugural meeting of the city’s public safety committee, comprising Mayor Tom Schwedhelm, Councilman John Sawyer and Fleming.

Santa Rosa Police Chief Rainer Navarro went over his department’s compliance with a package of reforms known as 8 Can’t Wait. The chief, who became the first Latino to head the Santa Rosa Police Department when he took over last year after nearly 30 years on the force, also offered a defense of his officers and command staff.

“I think we’ve done a very good job over the years at developing a culture where we hold ourselves to a higher standard,” Navarro said in response to questioning by Fleming. “We do hold ourselves accountable. ... We see something that happens 1,000 miles away — is that the same thing that happens here at the Santa Rosa Police Department?”

Though the 8 Can’t Wait campaign website indicates that Santa Rosa only complies with one of its eight recommended policies, Navarro said in an email that the city actually came into compliance with all eight last month after he banned carotid restraints. Schwedhelm, a former police chief, asked Navarro to get in touch with the 8 Can’t Wait campaign for clarity, and Navarro said he would.

Wednesday’s discussion also touched on the city’s police auditor position. The city created the watchdog role after the 2013 shooting and killing of Andy Lopez by a Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputy. But the position has been vacant since late 2018 after the city did not renew the contract of Bob Aaronson, who used part of his final report to criticize the city’s response to its homelessness emergency, leading to a public confrontation with the City Council.

And the council trio also got briefed on a forthcoming “after-action” report of the city’s response to the protests. McGlynn told the council that this review would be citywide — not limited to the police department — and that it would be separate from an investigation the City Council authorized Tuesday in closed session.

As the three council members looked ahead, Schwedhelm appeared to heed a frequent suggestion from many recent public comments by suggesting the city look into an emergency response program used in Eugene, Oregon, known as CAHOOTS.

Sawyer expressed a desire to hear more about the nature of calls for service in the city, after the council’s decision last week to move toward an emergency response system in which sworn, armed police officers do not respond to some lower-priority calls.

And Fleming suggested several ideas including a public tracker of progress on reforms — prompting McGlynn to express his support.

“There’s an urgency here that needs to be addressed,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.