Reversing course on expansion of panel

Police Commission will shrink by 2 seats

Claremont expects to shrink its Police Commission by two seats by 2023, three years after the spots were added.

The City Council on Tuesday decided to phase out the two seats added in 2020 to reduce strain on city staffers. The expanded commission increased the number of ad hoc committees and created logistical issues for staffers, the city reported.

The appointments of Becky Margiotta and Rafik Mohamed, set against the backdrop of the George Floyd protests in 2020, were an effort to diversify the committee. Mohammed is a Black person and has a doctorate in criminology, and Margiotta, who identifies as queer, previously has served in the military.

With the terms of Margiotta and Mohamed set to expire in August, the council debated Tuesday whether to extend those terms or reduce the number of commission seats to seven.

Reducing the size of the commission so soon after it was expanded didn’t sit right with everyone.

“When you made the decision to move to nine members it was because of the voices of so many people in this community who were pushing for progress,” Noah Winnick, co-president of Claremont Change, told the council Tuesday. “It was because you believed we needed a Police Commission that looked more like Claremont.

“Now, two years later, that short commitment is being questioned,” he continued.

Though commissioners may serve two terms on a commission for eight years total, Margiotta and Mohamed were guaranteed only two years.

Yet in that period, the commission has made huge strides in leading police reform efforts in Claremont, according to many who spoke during public comment at the council meeting.

Most notably, the commission in 2021 made recommendations that led to the removal of dedicated police officers at some Claremont Unified School District campuses.

In the end, the council found a compromise and a way to keep both Margiotta and Mohamed on the commission.

Commissioner Jon Strash’s term also expires in August, which would drop the group’s size to eight if his seat is left unfilled. When another vacancy opens up in 2023, the council determined, that seat also will remain unfilled.

Meantime, the terms of Margiotta and Mohamed will be extended, in a resolution the coun

cil is expected to take up July 26.

While Council member Jennifer Stark joined her colleagues in agreeing to the changes for the commission, she said she had qualms about downsizing the group. Stark and Councilmember Corey Calaycay were part of the council’s two-member ad hoc selection committee that expanded the commission in 2020.

“We had more perspectives coming in with the nine commissioners,” Stark said. “This isn’t something we should be losing.”

Any individuals may apply to be on a city commission. Once a vacancy opens on a commission, all individuals that applied for the role are interviewed by the ad hoc selection committee, currently led by Mayor Jed Leano and Council member Ed Reece. Full approval of applicants is ultimately made by the City Council.