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City Council Meeting Minutes September 1, 2020 force by officers • Prepare any appropriate recommendations for potential changes to the policies and present the same to the Chiefs Advisory Panel To accomplish these goals, the ad-hoc committee will work closely with Chief Klett and his team so that they have all of the resources needed to compare the SMPD policy to best practices from across the country. Staff also recommends that the ad-hoc committee conduct public outreach as they work through the policy evaluation process. City staff will be available to assist with this outreach. The committee's final work product should be condensed into a written report to be delivered in a joint meeting with the standing Chief's Advisory Panel. Once these tasks are accomplished, the Chief of Police will receive a set of recommendations from the Chief s Advisory Panel. The Chief will then prepare an update for Council to include feedback and recommendations made by the committees and any resulting changes to the policy. There are two key components of this process that were not discussed in detail at the July 7 meeting. Our hope is to receive guidance from the Council at the September 1 meeting in these two areas: The size of the ad-hoc committee and the process to be used in nominating committee members. Staff recommends that the ad hoc committee be comprised of 15 San Marcos residents. This would allow for each Council Member to appoint 2 members and for the Mayor to appoint 3. The odd number is helpful in the event that the group is divided on a particular recommendation or other course of action. A group this size should be small enough to allow for open and meaningful dialogue between all participants. Larger groups often lose agility in their ability to work through their charged tasks. At the same time, a group of this size is large enough to allow for adequate diversity and representation from various segments of our community. We have formed committees such as this one using different methods in the past. The process recommended by staff is one that has been used multiple times recently to form various Council committees. That process involves taking applications from interested residents for a certain time period determined by Council and then nominating panel members during a subsequent meeting to arrive at the desired number of committee members. Staff would work with the City Clerk and our Communications team to create the application form and publish it so that interested residents may apply. The application should contain basic identifying and residency information for each applicant along with two critical questions: • What experiences and/or training make you well suited to serve on this City of San Marcos Page 21