By Jorge Casuso

November 29, 2023 -- Santa Monica's Police Reform Commission will hold a special meeting Thursday night to vote -- again -- on a pretexual stop policy after its initial vote was deemed invalid.

The vote comes after Northeast Neighbors filed a complaint that the November 7 Commission agenda violated the Brown Act by failing to adequately describe the item.

While the agenda title called for voting on a report on racial profiling, the Commission voted to recommend that the City Council adopt LAPD’s pretext stop policy ("Police Reform Commission Approves Recommendations to Address Racial Profiling," November 21, 2023).

"After reviewing the agenda title," wrote Assistant City Attorney Susan Cola, "we agree that (the agenda title) does not clearly indicate" what was voted on.

The special meeting was to have been scheduled for Wednesday night, but the item was not posted in time to meet the 24-hour notice the Commission must give the public.

Northeast Neighbors also has complained that the Commission's meeting minutes have not been posted and that the in-person public meetings that commenced in April have not been live-streamed or videotaped.

"Residents are concerned about the fact that this commission has routinely and repeatedly conducted itself in a manner that avoids public scrutiny," Northeast Neighbors Chair Tricia Crane wrote in a letter to the Commission Wednesday.

"The (Commission) is poised to discuss and consider recommending that SMPD adopt LAPD policy on traffic stops even though they have no relevant data to support the policy change."

Crane said she was one of seven members of the public -- two of them police officials -- who attended the November 7 meeting.

"That was like a big event for them," Crane said. "Apparently no one attends their meetings."

After the meeting, Crane requested a copy of the minutes that had not been posted online.

Lisa Parson, the City's Equity and Inclusion Manager who oversees the meetings, responded: "The commission has not approved any minutes so they haven't been posted."

Crane, who couldn't find the minutes for any of the meetings since the Commission first convened on September 2, 2021, responded:

"I am unclear about how to interpret your last email," she wrote. "Do you mean that there have never been ANY Minutes of meetings posted?"

Parson responded: "Regarding the minutes, the Chairs preferred to have the full meeting videos posted rather than minutes during the time the commission ran virtually.

"Since transitioning to in person meetings in April, I have prepared the meeting minutes each night in chambers and sent them to the commission for approval at the end of each meeting.

"Minutes have been agendized for approval a few times, and unfortunately they were not approved by a majority of commissioners," Parson wrote.

Parson said she raised the concern with the Chair and Vice Chair "and they have advised all commissioners to review the minutes prior to the December meeting where they will be approved."

The Commission has also agreed to "a two month turn around for minutes going forward to avoid having a backlog like this again," Parson said.

Crane said she is stunned that the meetings -- which address important public safety issues -- can only be viewed by those who attend in person.

"They're sitting in the Council chambers," Crane said. "The equipment is there to broadcast the meetings live."

"No one goes to their meetings because no one knows they are going on."

Editor's note: The following paragraph has been deleted from the story: When several attendees left before the meeting ended, Commission Chair Derek Devermont followed them down the City Hall stairs, Crane said. "Who are you people?" she said he asked. The incident reportedly took place at the July 11 meeting, not the November 7 meeting.