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Home My WebLink About8-16-22 Board of Police Commissioners “Capital City’s Finest” Lansing Police Department Board of Police Commissioners 120 West Michigan Avenue Lansing, MI 48933 Phone: (517) 483-6040 Fax: (517) 483-4617 BOARD OF POLICE COMMISSIONERS MEETING MINUTES Tuesday, August 16, 2022 Location: Letts Community Center, 1220 W. Kalamazoo St., Lansing, MI 48915 The Board of Police Commissioners met in regular session and meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Chairperson Patty Farhat. Present: Commission Members Brewster, Carnegie, Farhat, McDermitt and Milton. Excused Commissioner Abood. Motion carried to accept the excused absences by Commissioner Brewster and seconded by Commissioner Carnegie By Vote: Yeas: 5 Nays: 0 Unexcused Absence: Vice-Chair Deyeya Jones Also Present: Chief Ellery Sosebee, Assistant City Attorney Mary Bowen, HRCS Director Kim Coleman, Delvata Moses, Jordan Gulkis, Willard Walker, Lucianna Solis and Ruth Grant. Public attendees: 2 Roll call was taken, and quorum was present. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: The Pledge of Allegiance led by Commissioner McDermitt. PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEMS: None. ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA: None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The Board meeting minutes from July 19, 2022, were moved by Chairperson Farhat to approve and place on file. Motion carried by Commissioner Brewster with Commissioner Carnegie seconding the motion. By Vote: Yeas: 5 Nays: 0 EDUCATION PRESENTATION: Jordan Gulkis, Public Information Director • Ms. Gulkis was introduced as the new LPD PIO. She comes with a strong journalism background. “Capital City’s Finest” Lansing Police Department Board of Police Commissioners 120 West Michigan Avenue Lansing, MI 48933 Phone: (517) 483-6040 Fax: (517) 483-4617 • Currently, she is putting emphases on positive LPD stories that the media outlets release. She strives to build trust and humanize officers. She is building improved relationships with all media having coffee with them once a week. • Jordan leads the LPD Social Media venues which has received many compliments. • Ms. Gulkis is also working on to improve the recruitment efforts and rebranding LPD with flyers, trading cards or pamphlets. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT: Chief Ellery Sosebee • Also assisting PIO Gulkis are Officer Dave Dalen’s (Facebook and Instagram) and Crime Analyst Amanda Hall (Atlas One Mobile App). He is very pleased with the transition and direction of the Public Information Office. • Detention Officer Melissa Ouderkirk will be retiring September 7th and on September 22nd a promotional ceremony will be held for Sgt. Joshua Traviglia to rank of Lieutenant, Ofc. Mark Stanley to rank of Sergeant and Ofc. Tim Mapley to rank of Detective. NEW BUSINESS: None. LEGAL AND ADVISOR REPORT: Assistant City Attorney Mary Bowen • Two new city attorneys will be hired soon to help with the vacancy of Assistant Heather Sumner who left for the private sector. HUMAN RESOURCES REPORT: Reported by Commissioner McDermitt • Detention: 1 Male and 1 Female vacancy; 1 Female vacancy filled on 8/1/22. 1 Male - Interviews are schedule to 8/23/2022. Anticipating 2 Female vacancies in September. • FOIA – 1 vacancy (anticipate another vacancy); 1 candidate sent to background on 8/2/2022 and one candidate withdrew. Working on reporting position. • Cadets: August 8, 2022, new hire began employment (1 Female) • Certified/Certifiable: Currently posting on Neogov and accepting applications. • Recruits: August 8, 2022, new hire recruits, 2 Female and 1 Male. Interviews conducted July 5, 6, 12 14, 2022 in preparation for January 2023 Police Academy. 14 applications have been sent for background checks. Posting was reopened on August 8th, 2022, to August 15, 2022. • Radio Technician: 1 vacancy; 1 candidate had unfavorable background. Working with hiring manager to either repost or bring someone in on contract. UNFINISHED BUSNESS: None. CORRESPONDANCE SENT AND RECEIVED: None. DEPARTMENT REPORTS: Moved by Chairperson Farhat to accept and place on file the July 19th, 2022, department reports. Motion carried by Commissioner Brewster and seconded by Commissioner Carnegie. Approval: 5 Nays: 0 “Capital City’s Finest” Lansing Police Department Board of Police Commissioners 120 West Michigan Avenue Lansing, MI 48933 Phone: (517) 483-6040 Fax: (517) 483-4617 BOARD COMMITTEE REPOTS: • Budget Committee: Ms. Rupprecht is getting acclimated to budget process, the new systems, grants, and completing invoices from last year. Commissioner Carnegie to set up a meeting with Budget Committee and Ms. Rupprecht to discuss the upcoming new budget to keep on track and understand all timelines. • Government Liaison Committee: No report. • Awards & Incentives Committee: Commissioner Brewster – No report. • Ad Hoc Committee on Board Policies and Rules: No report. • Complaint Committee: Chairperson Farhat reported the committee will be meeting with Internal Affairs on August 24, 2022. • Recruitment and Hiring Committee: No additional report from that provided in the HR section above. • Commission Investigator Delvata Moses: For month of July, there were 6 complaints filed. 3 were administrative or employee based; 3 were citizen based. 8 complaints were closed. 3 complaints have been forwarded to Chief Sosebee to apply the matrix. (Chief Sosebee clarified this was one person with 3 combined complaints). COMMISSIONERS COMMENTS: • Commissioner Brewster: Pleased to see LPD Facebook coverage of the GREAT training that took place the week of August 8-12 with approximately 10 LPD officers participating as well as officers from in and out of the country. • Commissioner Milton: No comment. • Commissioner Carnegie: Glad to see Chairperson Farhat doing well. He also was happy to see the contact information on the back of LPD business cards includes the social worker and other pertinent information. He is requesting Ms. Moses contact information be listed also. He suggested someone look into police diversion programs from across the country in hopes these could be used here and help the youth. To PIO Gulkis, the greatest need in any community is a relationship with citizens and law enforcement and whatever help the PIO can do will help build better law enforcement programs is good. • Commissioner McDermitt: She likes the direction of LPD social media is taking and appreciates the LPD stories. • Commissioner Farhat: Expressed her thanks to the LPD Chiefs, officers, and social workers who attended National Night out to make it a success. OTHER BUSINESS: None. PUBLIC COMMENT: • Daniel Arnold – Appreciates the job of law enforcement. Social media sometimes paints a bad light on law enforcement however he has been treated with respect at LPD. He appreciates the mental health training officers receive to handle situations. ADJOURNMENT: Chairperson Farhat concluded by thanking everyone and moved to adjourn the meeting; motion to adjourn at 6:02 pm. “Capital City’s Finest” Lansing Police Department Board of Police Commissioners 120 West Michigan Avenue Lansing, MI 48933 Phone: (517) 483-6040 Fax: (517) 483-4617 By Vote: Yeas (5) Nays (0) Submitted by Ruth Grant, Recording Secretary, Lansing Board of Police Commissioners.