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Date: 12/26/2023
HOLYOKE — Discussions have continued between Holyoke City Councilors and Mayor Joshua Garcia on establishing a police commission.
During the Charter and Rules Committee’s Dec. 11 meeting, an order tabled from a July meeting of the same subcommittee that looks to amend Section 34 of the Holyoke City Charter to establish a police commission.
At-Large Councilor Jose Maldonado Velez, one of the order’s authors, said in July there were two main reasons he was looking for the addition in Holyoke.
“Every department has some sort of commissioners committee led by citizens to make sure that there’s, you know, checks and balances going on in each department so that’s one reason for me why we should have it,” Maldonado Velez said.
His other point came from the recent audit done on the Holyoke Police Department that reported detailed strengths, weaknesses, risks and opportunities for the department through an extensive review and interviews of the department and department staff.
That July meeting and discussion ended with the committee awaiting a letter from the city solicitor’s office regarding the provisions of the charter that would be impacted by the implementation of a police commission.
The letter was received by the committee during its Dec. 11 meeting and listed a handful of sections within the city’s charter that would be impacted in order to form a police commission.
“We’re sort of information collecting,” Maldonado Velez said.
Maldonado Velez failed in a bid for reelection and said he was hoping this information could still be collected for the next Charter and Rules chair and committee members to have in case this was still something councilors wanted to pursue. He, as well as Ward 4 Councilor Kocayne Givner and At-Large Councilor Israel Rivera were the authors of the original order.
Garcia joined the discussion by saying this order in front of the council is an opportunity to structure governance to manage the affairs of the Police Department.
“I’m fine with whatever direction folks want to go. I like the idea of a police commission, but I know that there’s more discussions that need to take place, including reviewing each of the sections just brought up by the chairman,” Garcia said. “Just to make sure whatever change or direction we want to go, that all applicable laws are reflected accordingly.”
Keilana Rivera, a member of the Police Community Relations Group that Garcia meets with monthly, joined the conversation and said the group has a lot of good conversations and that the commission idea has come from the police audit’s findings. This advisory group was created by previous acting Mayor Terrance Murphy.
“We were part of getting the audit together and reviewing that and talking with the auditors about how it went. So, it’s just been really enriching to both the police and us as citizens,” Rivera said.
At-Large Councilor Tessa Murphy-Romboletti asked Rivera if the committee has thought about what a police commission would entail and the pros and cons of the discussions. Rivera said those conversations have not happened in detail but that it would be similar work to the advisory committee but a commission would have real capacity in decision making and input to the Police Department.
“One of our biggest things we did early on was transparency with the Police Department. We wanted more transparency, we were tired of hearing things on social media from community pages, and not the Police Department,” Rivera said. “So that was something that we as a group asked for and are pretty consistent on that. But we went over that with auditors, what a police commission would look like, but it was very vague, very surface level.”
Murphy-Romboletti also asked what the current process was for a citizen to file a report against a member of the Police Department. Garcia said he remembers discussions about improving that process but needed to check back in and see what has changed in regard to reporting a claim.
“For me, that was a big reason why I filed this order,” Murphy-Romboletti said in response. “I know there’s a lot of other great reasons for or against having a police commission, but for me right now because it’s been said to me, there is a way to do it through the state, which is wonderful, but I do wonder if — I know there should be a way to do it locally and I would like for that to be something we start discussing more and what that looks like.”
Murphy-Romboletti also asked Garcia if he would specify some of the reasons in his eyes he was for or against the commission. Garcia reiterated he was for the idea and said he has found in his time as mayor there is a lot of assumptions on what people think is going on versus reality in the department.
“Every time those assumptions come forward you unravel it and it turns out misguided, or misunderstood, of whatever may be,” Garcia said. “A three or five or however many members is ultimately decided, we have to manage the affairs in accordance with open meeting law.”
Garcia added many of the technicalities that would be impacted in the city’s charter for establishing a police commission remained the central focus of the pursuit of one.
At-Large Councilor Israel Rivera suggested collaborating with the community to draft what a police commission would look like.
“I think it would make sense to maybe pull together whatever some other communities have, look at what they have and draft something based on that. I don’t want to prolong it, but I know that it makes sense that if we’re going to do it we’re going to do it right,” Rivera said.
The order was tabled once again with the committee to gather more information on surrounding communities and how they have handled establishing a police commission and the impacts it has had.