Oversight Panel welcomes six new members
The Boulder Police Oversight Panel welcomed six new members Wednesday night during its first official meeting following a bumpy several months after the City Council twice continued its vote to approve new members due to community pushback.
The new panelists include Lisa Sweeney-miran, Jason Savela, Soledad Diaz, Madelyn Strong Woodley, Sam Zhang and Mylene Vialard. With the additions, the panel expands from nine to 11 members.
On Wednesday, the panel spent the first half of the meeting choosing its new co-chairs and assigning its members to its three committees: community engagement, governance and legacy. Daniel Leonard was reappointed as co-chair and continuing member Hadasa Villalobos was also selected as a co-chair. Sweeney-Miranor volunteered to serve as co-chair until Villalobos said she would be happy to take on the role. None of the other new members or continuing panelists volunteered due to the workload that being a cochair entails. While panelists are given a $200 stipend every month from the city, co-chairs receive $250 and are required to lead the meetings and represent the panel to the community or media.
Zhang asked how the stipend amount was determined and whether it was possible for cochairs to receive more than just $50 extra.
“Is the stipend amount set by us or is that a city ordinance because hearing the 10 to 15 extra hours a month for $50 a month — that the math doesn’t really work out,” he said.
Leonard said the Boulder City Council last year raised the stipend amount up from $100.
“That’s something we can take back to council if we would like at some point because this is important work, and I want to highlight that we’re taking time out of our lives to do this,” he said.
“We are community volunteers, but it’s important for the accessibility of this panel that we are helping people financially.”
The panel agreed to add two new trainings — one on the police union and another on how officers are trained on values and ethics — to the list of what they will learn about in the coming months.
During the last portion of the meeting, Florence Finkle, the interim independent police monitor, discussed three cases that the panel chose to review and made recommendations on.
The first case involved an allegation against one Boulder police officer who was suspected of asking another officer if she was single while they were training her. The officer was also accused of speaking to her about the state of their marriage, talking about the other officer’s appearance and discussing the “sex acts” they wanted to have with her. The panel recommended that the department terminate this officer, which was sustained by the police department, but the officer resigned ahead of his administrative hearing before the Boulder police chief, Finkle said.
Both the panel and the police department exonerated the two officers involved in the second case the panel reviewed, and neither the panel nor the department sustained an allegation against one officer involved in the third case.
The panel ultimately selected four Boulder Police Department cases that were split among members to review.
For one case, both Leonard and Sweeney-miran recused themselves from voting on whether they wanted to see it reviewed but did not say why they could not vote. The case involves three officers. All the officers are accused of violating rule one — compliance with values, rules and general orders because they reportedly attended a Boulder City Council meeting while on duty. The panel was required to discuss which members would review this case during executive session following the meeting, Finkle said.
One of the other cases the panel chose to review involves seven officers. All the officers involved are accused of violating rule five: police authority and public trust; and rule six: use of force.
Before the panel moved into executive session, Martha Wilson, who resigned from the panel late last year, spoke during public comment to offer her support to any new members. She also commented on the case involving the officer who resigned ahead of termination.
“With regard to the pervert patrolman, it is a shame that officer was allowed to resign, but I personally think such deplorable actions warrant reporting to the National Police Accountability Project so that other police departments know what they are potentially welcoming into their communities,” she said.