Meeting called to order on February 16, 2010, at 6:00 p.m.

In Attendance: Chief Luther, Scott Adams, Loren Kramer, Steve Rauenhorst, Mayor Jason Grimm, Chris Larrabee

Terri Hanson - Staff Liaison

Visitors: None

Presentation: None

Consent Agenda:

Approval of Minutes from the December 15, 2009 Commission Meeting
Motion by Scott Adams
Seconded by Loren Kramer
Steve Rauenhorst abstained
Carried 4-0 No vote from Steve Rauenhorst was not in the Police Commission in 2009.

Scott Adams: Does anybody have anything that they would like to add to the agenda for discussion.

Mayor Grimm explained that the council seat changes yearly (Jay Bunting served on the Police Commission in 2009, Steve Rauenhorst was selected in 2010) but the Mayor's seat does not rotate. The Mayor's seat does not get replaced only a City Council Member's seat changes.

New Business:

Review of Police Hiring Practice
Chief Luther talked about how the Rogers Police Department has in the past used a process of open applications for police officer's hiring. Because the majority of the candidates that are seeking employment as police officers are newly graduated from college and the skills program and lacking experience.

In August 2008, when the police department accepted applications, the department received more than 250 applicants. From that list, we narrowed it down to 24 candidates and then to the final four (4) finalists. Those four candidates were interviewed by a committee consisting of Mayor Grimm, Jay Bunting, Steve Stahmer, Stacy Doboszenski, Captain Miller & myself (Chief Luther).

During this hiring process, we had two (2) officers resign after being hired. These candidates resigned during Phase III of the FTO Program. One officer candidate is progressing through the FTO Program and is currently on her own. As a result of the two officers resigning during the FTO process, a decision was made to seek out candidates with experience to hire as police officers. A memorandum was distributed to the Rogers Police Officers asking for them to refer candidates that were looking for a police officer position, had law enforcement experience, and were candidates with impeccable character.

Chief Luther stated that the final interview committee had recently interviewed a candidate, who was referred by another Rogers Police Officer. The final interview committee was comprised of Mayor Grimm, Councilman Rauenhorst, Steve Stahmer, Stacy Doboszenski, Officer Pitts and Chief Luther. This was an experienced candidate, who worked for the Elk River Police Department, decided to leave policing and get a law degree. He was teaching at Bowling Green University and Rasmussen College, and currently wants to get back into policing. The interview committee decided to offer this candidate a conditional offer of employment. He is currently going through background, psychological evaluation and medical examination.

Mayor Grimm: That this young man is probably one of the best candidates he has ever gotten to be a part of the interview process. Extremely intelligent, good communications skills...just all around good guy....

Recruitment of New Officers

Chief Luther: Maple Grove has a policy regarding Community Service Officers. They hire CSOs, whose position has a set duration, usually a span of 2 years. At the end of the two (2) years, the CSO's are either hired by the city as police officers or they are released. The candidate knows that if they are not hired or given a conditional offer of employment by the city when their two (2) years is up, they have to find another job.

The original hiring process that we use to accepting applications is still an important process to continue. With that being said, I do not think we always get the proper candidates that we would like to hire. Sometimes hiring officers with experience is not always the right answer.

Mayor Grimm: Is there any rules, do we have to post a position for Police Officer?

Chief Luther: No, there are no rules. The only rules that the POST Board requires is medical examination, psychological assessment, and a background investigation. The city decides what process to use when hiring candidates as long as the three (3) POST Board requirements are met.

Mayor Grimm: Chief what are you asking then?

Chief Luther: My explanation is an informational piece. I would like to advise the police commission that I would like to recruit active law enforcement officers, but still have the option, flexibility to accept applications in an open process. These options are especially important as we move forward with the Hassan Annexation. In a recruiting process, we are selecting one (1) type of candidate, usually not a diverse candidate, but with a specific experience level as a police officer.

Mayor Grimm: Private sector, or recruiting, that should depend on what their pay grade is...if they come with a lot of experience they should come in at a different pay grade, then if somebody was coming in with no experience.

Chris Larrabee: What if the officer has a different job, we should be looking at what his pay grade is where is at to what his experience is?

Mayor Grimm: If they have experience, they should get a step increase

Steve Rauenhorst: I would do the step increase.

Chief Luther: We could look at lateral entry. All officers have to go thru our FTO program, but for the experienced officer that may be an abbreviated duration. For example, Officer Koroll had some experience. She was a dispatcher and worked part time for the Morrison County Sheriff's Office. She was able to complete Phases 1 through 3 in the FTO program fairly quickly.

Mayor Grimm: And an officer with experience, might be a Sheriff's Deputy in a huge county, but has five (5) years experience. The way that they are trained (FTO) would be completely different than the way our officers are trained with five (5) years of experience.

Chris Larrabee: The draw is that they have experience and training and sometimes that speaks volumes and to get the "right" candidate you might need to give an incentive offer like a higher pay rate. There has to be some give and take here...even like an extra week of vacation or something.

Mayor Grimm: It's union, we can't do that...
Chief Luther: Officer Koroll came here at base pay.
The Rogers Police Department was down one (1) officer, but after we made the conditional offer and all the requirements are completed (background, psychological and medical) the start date for the new officer, with Council approval is March 22, 2010. The Rogers Police Department will then be at full strength.

There is also another issue that we have to plan for. One of our officers may be activated and deployed in June 2010. He will be deployed for an eight month stint to Iraq. I have discussed this issue with the City Administrator (Steve Stahmer) and City Counsel to hire somebody to fill that temporary position with the understanding that in 2011 we will need to hire more officers as a result of the annexation.

Mayor Grimm: We do have the hire of three (3) officers pending prior to the merger, we have budgeted for that...there is one (1) additionally staff person added as well.

Chris Larrabee: Tell me about how you took the final four (4) candidates down to one (1) candidate? Do you have a testing process?

Chief Luther: As a testing process, we evaluate the candidate's resume and application and ranked them by experience and background. We then ran them through a scenario-based evaluation process. We found that the candidates that are coming out of college don't have any concept about what this job entails. The training, the time normally would be about six (6) months. Just like in Champlin, we are having difficulties with officers during Phase III of the FTO Program. Phase III is where the candidates are expected to use independent judgment, common sense, and problem solving. For instance, when we ran the last candidate in the scenario-based evaluation process (including a domestic assault - felony domestic strangulation; a medical emergency with a psych patient; a traffic accident - driver ran into a pole; and a theft incident culminating in a traffic stop, we found that this process was very beneficial.

Mayor Grimm: I think it is fine. I would hope that we would get better applicants. This last guy we interviewed is beyond anything we have ever interviewed. He has experience and is not fresh out of college. I don't know or think rather we are a big enough force to be a testing ground for those candidates without experience.

Chris Larrabee: This is where you good testers are...it really makes you think, it's time you have to think on your feet. In the City of Champlin it is a pass/fail test to move forward in the process. We have done recruitment and it has been a success. We have had Police Explorers and CSO's all move on to become police officers. Do you have any reserves that are in the school right now?

Chief Luther: We currently have two (2) candidates, both Police Reserves, who are in law enforcement programs. Council Member Rauenhorst has explained the process that Maple Grove uses has a hiring tool for their CSO's. The CSO program in Maple Grove hires for two (2) years, if they are not picked up by the city within that 2 year window they are released. They keep the pool fresh. Unfortunately, we don't have additional budgeted CSO positions right now. We do have a CSO right now, but it is totally different position.

Steve Rauenhorst: I have seen this program operate first hand. Cutting down on the processing, working with that person on a day to day basis, giving them extra duties in tow, will be a good chance to evaluate candidates. I see it as a really good college age kid job, giving them an opportunity with money and benefits. Then again recruiting is also good.

Chief Luther asking Chris Larrabee: What do you do with your CSOs?

Chris Larrabee: We have one (1) full time CSO and one (2) part time CSO's. The two (2) part-timers were hired specifically to bring them on as police officers in the future. We get them into our program, show them skills; and then we mentor them a little bit, show them how we do business, and bring them in. If you hire somebody in at 30 hours a week, no benefits, you can get away with that. However, it would have to be somebody that would be in college, because you hiring them at a lower level.

Loren Kramer: In St. Louis Park our full-time CSO worked pretty good. We got some really good people that were going through skills. The problem with the program is the people that were going through skills and we didn't have a position to hire them into. We lost several good people because the city didn't have an opening for them. But we did have good officers that were CSO's.

Steve Rauenhorst: It would be a good opportunity to evaluation them. If you have a CSO that is just driving around, you can cut them loose.

Chris Larrabee: Multi-tasking is hard for some people

Steve Rauenhorst: Then they need to learn different tasks

Mayor Grimm: I agree, I think that it's good. We would have to figure out something in the budget. Are we looking at the three (3) spots that we are going to hire and get officers instead get CSO's?

Chief Luther: I expect to hire candidates with experience and grow them fairly quickly. I need them to hit the ground running. We need to certainly look at these issues.

Mayor Grimm: I think it is a financial commitment.

Steve Rauenhorst: I don't think tonight is the night that we can reconfigure or restructure the hiring process.

Scott Adams: Good Idea, I guess at this point what are you looking for Chief?

Chief Luther: I was just looking to give you information. Just presenting information to the Police Commission so you know what we are doing. This will provide you an update to the future of what other cities are doing with their CSO's. This type of process is going to require a lot of planning.

Steve Rauenhorst: Looking at a person before you bring them on (talking about the two (2) year stint) is an opportunity where you can see what you have to deal with.

Scott Adams: Any other comments about this issue?

No one responds.

Discussion of Showcase Skate Park:
Chief Luther: The reason I brought up this agenda item was because we have a Skate Park on Highway 81, but I am not sure how it is zoned. The owner of the building rented it to a person. That person sub-let it to a group who formed a skate park. They spent approximately $ 300,000 constructing the park. The park attracts kids come from all over. The renters weren't doing very well and they weren't able to pay their rent. The renters sublet the facility to another person. This person was Wayne Cummings. (Cummings was subsequently arrested for CSC). The previous renters took back the Skate Park.

Issues we have at the Skate Park include thefts, including cameras and cell phones. These types of incidents are no different than the calls that we are dealing with at the High School or the Middle School. The kids leave their backpacks lying around and they get their stuff stolen.

What has been surprising to me is that when Wayne Cummings had the place, he rented the building out to a production company. The production company hosted dances, which turned out to be a Mecca for drugs, alcohol, and criminal activity. We would go in and arrest juveniles and adults for criminal behavior. We thought that we had the problem solved. Now, we are starting to see production companies coming in and again hosting "dances". For instance, Halloween and New Year's Eve "dances" took place at the "Venue" portion of the Skatepark. These dances bring in people of all ages from North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Brooklyn Center, Mound, and Minneapolis. We are having issues with people drinking prior to coming to the event (because they do not sell liquor at the Skate Park) or doing drugs. The people attending the dances go to the party and are then passing out (under the influence of either narcotics or alcohol).

I advised the Production Company that there can be no juveniles in the dances anymore without permission. The juveniles (under 18) are in violation of the curfew and the production company agreed. The problem is that the juveniles get these permission slips filled out (supposed by the parents), but the slips are being forged by the juvenile. The production company hires security to control access and have hired our police officers to attend these dances. We are finding people that would come intoxicated and those people have been turned away at the door. Although they are not being admitted, we have found the people in cars in the parking lot so intoxicated that we have had to call North Ambulance. These people were over a .30 BAC. Some people were also popping ecstasy or other controlled substances.

We did not have that many problems at the Halloween Night "Dance" a few juveniles were given citations, but on New Year's numerous people were sent to the hospital by ambulance because of alcohol or drugs use. I advised the man in charge of security that I was not going to allow juveniles to attend these "dances" anymore. I told him that the people attending this "dances" must be 18 years or older...there will be NO ACCEPTIONS!

Chief Luther opened discussion from the police commission to entertain ideas on how to prohibit these types of events from occurring. Chief Luther was attempting to solicit ideas from the Police Commission about what we need to look into is the Ordinance and/or Zoning to prohibit these events from occurring.

Chris Larrabee: Do they have to have a permit? Charge for permit base on where they are at?

Scott Adams: There was, I believe, a variance that allowed them to operate. We need to look up and we need to find out if it that variance can be rescinded. I've got no problem with this. If the owners are not taking any responsibility and are simply trying to make a buck...when we started talking about alcohol and drugs and the time and effort to supervise, I don't agree with this. I have read the e-mails that are sent out and the Rogers Police Report and I see that most people that have been cited or arrested don't even live in Rogers.

Steve Rauenhorst: I have talked to Steve Stahmer, City Administrator, and asked about the background and/or zoning and he is looking into this for me.

Loren Kramer: St. Louis Park had the same problem...a conditional permit was any building being used above and beyond what the building was original built for. The permit was $5,000. They came back and said we were discriminating against them.

Chief Luther: I have tried to police them. I have informed them of the ordinance. They go through all the hoops that I have asked them to complete. I advised them that all people will be carded. I have told them (the production company) that we are not going to go through this with underage kids again. The contract that the Production Company states there is no drugs, no alcohol, but they cannot control what people have in their cars or in their systems. When they walk in the doors they appear fine. It's when they get into the dance they get all looped up from whatever they took outside. This is the concern that I have. I do not have the man power to patrol everybody outside and inside an event with hundreds of people attending.

Scott Adams: The other thing that I have noticed, the e-mail police activities, I'm not seeing that this place is utilized from the people or citizens that reside in Rogers, from my stand point it's all out-of-towners coming to Rogers and causing problems.

Chief Luther: From what I was told, the New Year's Eve party was here at the Rogers Skate Park because First Avenue in Minneapolis was booked. Kids that are coming to use the Skatepark actually skate; however, that doesn't mean that they aren't coming here for mischief. These "dance" parties, however, are a major concern to me. Wayne Cummings arrest was a perfect example of what can occur when there is not proper supervision.

Loren Kramer: On the conditional use permit, the non-profit organizations do get special dispensation.

Mayor Grimm: On the off chance, we have to figure out who is attending these parties, what type of event is it; is everybody under the age is 18

Chief Luther: We also have had issues with the dances at the school and we have had to remove people that are not students at Rogers. When kids are coming from Brooklyn Center or adults that are 22 years-old, trying to get into a High School dance, you are going to have to have them removed.

Mayor Grimm: I think we need to talk to our City Attorney and find out what are options are on a conditional use permit.

Loren Kramer: If a church (or non-profit organization) was requesting a conditional use permit it would depend on the event and usually the fee was waived. Mr. Kramer was talking about the process that occurred in the city of St. Louis Park.

Mayor Grimm: That is what I want to know. Will the City Attorney agree that we have the right to waive a fee if the conditional use permit is for a not for profit organization? Obviously if those production companies are coming in they are making money.

Loren Kramer: All the equipment, time, police should dictate how much the permit costs. We also need to make sure that they are bonded and licensed.

Chief Luther: This particular security company was bonded and licensed, but these events are money making deals for them.

Chris Larrabee: Does the Skatepark hold any licenses from the city?

Chief Luther: No, we don't have any license for them. You could rent the Community Center and do the same thing

Chris Larrabee: What if you make them put a deposit down of say $10,000 and if you find anything wrong before, during or after the event the City keeps the money.

Scott Adams: I would like to make a motion requesting that this issue be examined with exiting conditional use permits or some type of ordinance to regulate use through the advice of the City Attorney.

Chief Luther: The process of using the City Attorney, or the firm that the city hired for the City Planning is going to cost us money to do the research, we need to bring it back to the City Council for better direction.

Mayor Grimm: I don't have a problem with a motion

Steven Rauenhorst: I will talk to Steve Stahmer (city administrator) about this issue

Motion: Scott Adams
Seconded by Mayor Grimm
Motion Passed: 5-0

Old Business Update:

Rogers Police Reserve
I promoted Dan Gelo and Dean Capps to the position of Sergeant for the Police Reserves. These men have dedicated many hours to City of Rogers. Mrs. Jane Bunting is coordinating our Neighborhood Watch and doing a fabulous job. She has scheduled two (2) dates for Neighborhood Watch start-up Meetings: one (1) at the RAC and the other at the Community Center (March 10th and March 18th). These meetings are designed to meet with people that would be interested in starting their own neighborhood watch group. Mrs. Bunting has done a great job in organizing this initiative.

Chief Luther: Invited the Police Commission Members to attend the Policeman's Ball on March 6, 2010, at the Crown Room (Wellstead of Rogers). This is an event where an officer is awarded an Outstanding Public Service Officer of Merit Award, which is selected by their peers. Additionally, there is a silent auction. Chief Luther thanked the Police Foundation for all their hard work and donations to the Police Department.

Scott Adams: Motion to adjourn at 6:50
Seconded by Steve Rauenhorst

Motion Carried: 5-0