Santa Rosa council approves contract for police auditor after 3-year vacancy

The Santa Rosa City Council on Tuesday approved a contract with the city’s new independent police auditor, a Los Angeles firm that helped review the police department’s use of force during last summer’s racial justice protests.

In a 6-0 vote with Councilman Jack Tibbetts absent, the council signed off on a three-year contract with OIR Group, for up to $270,000. The post had been vacant since late 2018 following a council dispute with the past auditor, whose contract was not renewed.

The firm will review the police department’s internal investigations of officer misconduct and critical incidents such as police shootings, and is tasked with reaching out to and receiving complaints from the community.

“Today is a good day. It should not have taken as long as it has, but it is here now,” Councilwoman Victoria Fleming, who chairs the public safety subcommittee, said before the council vote.

Though the contract was approved with few changes, one revision by the council leaves open the possibility of establishing a community board that would receive reports from the auditor, an amendment proposed by Mayor Chris Rogers.

“I’m proud to support this. I look forward to a transparent, inclusive process that makes our community feel that they are represented with respect and dignity,” said Councilman Eddie Alvarez.

The watchdog post has been unfilled since the end of 2018. In the interim, law enforcement oversight became an even higher-profile community issue, especially in the wake of the police department’s handling of street protests calling for an end to police violence.

Santa Rosa officers fired tear gas, less-lethal munitions and unauthorized barricade rounds meant to pierce walls and windows at protesters, injuring multiple people, the OIR Group concluded in its review of the department’s response.

Three civil rights lawsuits brought by injured protesters led to payouts from the city totaling $2.3 million.

Michael Gennaco, OIR Group’s chief principal, and Brian Corr, the former president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement who will be subcontracted for the auditor’s community outreach work, took questions from council members during Tuesday’s hearing.

The primary point of contention, voiced by Alvarez and Rogers and in public comment ahead of the vote, was what form that community input would take.

A provision within the contract for a “Chief’s Community Ambassador Team” drew ire in public comments, with many saying that a group of 15 people hand-picked by Police Chief Ray Navarro could not operate with full independence.

“There is an inherent conflict built in to any kind of advisory body appointed by the chief of police. It’s nothing personal, it’s just a fact,” said Santa Rosa resident Kathleen Finigan, a community activist. “It simply can’t, and does not, represent any measure of independence.”

Navarro said that the ambassador team was selected through working with the city’s Community Engagement Division and that it would not have any oversight function or advisory power within the police department. Instead, its primary role would be gathering input from the public and facilitating at least two community meetings a year.

Most callers also pointed to the omission of a formal independent community body to work alongside the auditor, a key demand from advocates during the vacancy.

OIR Group “talked a good game in this meeting, and I like what I’m hearing, but it’s a firm and … it’s not local, and that’s why the civilian body has to be empowered, because there is no trust,” said Kelsey Vero.

In the discussion before the vote, Gennaco said that in the cities OIR Group serves that have hybrid oversight systems, “the community board or group or commission can end up being helpful to our work as well, because they are the eyes and the ears of the community.”

Corr said that he also has experience working with independent civilian commissions participating in the law enforcement oversight process elsewhere.

“Community outreach with stakeholders, community meetings twice a year — those are important steps that you have to do, but they’re not sufficient,” Corr said. “Whatever structure Santa Rosa presents and decides on, it will be our task as we implement it to make sure community voice and community presence is there all through the process.”

In the approved contract, the council made an amendment to have the twice-yearly community meetings be held not by the chief’s ambassador team, but by “the mayor or his designee,” allowing for future deliberations over who that would be.

You can reach Staff Writer Emily Wilder at 707-521-5337 or emily.wilder@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @vv1lder.