Minutes of Civilian Review Board Public Meeting
                                     City Hall, basement
                       605 East Main Street, Charlottesville, VA 22901
                                       August 28, 2018

Present:

   •   Gloria Beard, Josh Bowers, Sarah Burke, Don Gathers, Juan Gonzalez, Rosia Parker,
       Katrina Turner, and Guillermo Ubilla (full board)

Meeting Leader:

   •   Don Gathers

Secretary:

   •   Josh Bowers

Agenda:

   •   Welcome
   •   Review and Acceptance of Minutes
   •   Community Input
   •   Comments/Information from City Staff
   •   Old Business
   •   New Business
           o Presentation by UVA law students re: best practices for civilian review boards
   •   Discussion of Board
           o Creating subcommittees
           o Appointing city council member as a point of contact
           o Adoption of a working mission statement
           o Procedures for documentation of research
   •   Adjournment

Welcome:

   •   Don Gathers opened discussion and welcomed all present.

Review and Acceptance of Minutes:

   •   The Board reviewed the minutes of the August 16th meeting, circulated and posted to
       the website earlier by Josh Bowers and city administrative staff. On motion and second,
       the Board accepted the minutes unanimously.


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Community Input:

   •   No community member spoke during the community input portion of the agenda.

Comments/Information from City Staff:

   •   In addition to others, the following officials were present, representing city staff: Mayor
       Nikuyah Walker, Vice Mayor Heather Hill, and City Attorney John Blair. Previously, the
       Board had emailed a set of questions to the city, inquiring about the Board’s mission,
       independence, composition, and authority—specifically, with respect to the subjects of
       retaining outside counsel and appointing new members. Vice Mayor Hill had previously
       emailed responses to those questions, informed by her discussions with other council
       members and city attorney, John Blair. Building off of the earlier email exchange, the
       Board members and city staff now had a wide-ranging conversation about whether the
       Board should draft preliminary bylaws for the task at hand over the coming year,
       whether the Board needed outside counsel, and what it would take to appoint new
       Board members. As to the first two questions, no decision was reached or vote taken.
       However, Blair corrected the previous record to make clear that some boards, including
       the civilian review board in Fairfax County, Virginia, does employ outside counsel. As to
       the question of whether a new Board member could be appointed, city staff indicated
       that it could not be done without reopening the selection process—an unlikely and
       probably undesirable process.

   •   The Board members and the city staff then took up one of the later agenda items.
       Specifically, the Board members discussed whether a city council member ought to be
       appointed as a point of contact, to attend as many meeting as possible and to provide a
       liaison between the Board and city staff. No consensus was reached, so the Board
       tabled the question without a vote.

Old Business:

   •   All old business was covered by the (above-mentioned) discussion with city staff and the
       (below-mentioned) discussion of the board.

New Business:

   •   Adeola Ogunkeyede, the head of the Legal Aid Justice Center’s civil rights practice,
       accompanied UVA Law student, Taylor Mitchell, who presented findings on best
       practices for civilian review boards. A slide show was included in the presentation. The
       slide show has been made a part of the public record.

Discussion from Board:




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   •   By this point, the meeting had stretched to nearly two hours. The Board tabled the
       agenda items, “Adoption of a working mission statement” and “Procedures for
       documentation of research.” Instead, the Board took up only the question of creating
       and breaking into subcommittees. After an extensive discussion, the Board agreed
       unanimously to create the following subcommittees, staffed as indicated in the
       parentheticals:

          o   Bylaws and Rules (Sarah Burke and Juan Gonzalez)
          o   Community Outreach (Katrina Turner and Rosia Parker)
          o   Police Department Outreach (Josh Bowers and Gloria Beard)
          o   Public Official Outreach (Don Gathers)
          o   External Research (Guillermo Ubilla and Rosia Parker)

Adjourn

   •   Prior to adjourning, the Board expressed to city staff a desire to meet elsewhere over
       the coming sessions. City staff promised to look into alternative locations. At
       approximately 9 p.m., Don Gathers adjourned the meeting.




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