June 13th, 2011
As you may recall, this organization was the catalyst behind the Efficiency and Best Practices Audits of each city department approved by the Council in the 2010 budget.
The first of these reports which studied Phoenix PD, known as the Berkshire Report, has been completed and is available for review.
The next step in the process is to see how many of the 66 recommendations made by Berkshire we as a city want to institute.
Sadly, as the review committee and sub-committees were being set-up, grassroots community input was nowhere to be found.
This was particularly disconcerting since Phoenix practices what is known as Community Based Policing. To rectify this injustice, Ann Malone had a series of meetings with Deputy City Manager Ed Zeurcher, Acting Chief of Police Joe Yahner, and several Asst. Chiefs to explain the importance of including citizens at every level of the review. She also rallied several of our member neighborhood leaders from all over the city to attend the City Council Public Safety & Veterans Sub-Committee meeting on the 24th of May and presented a paper, “Community Perspective on the Berkshire Report” to demonstrate why our input is vital. She as well as other Neighborhood Activists spoke supporting the Citizens for Phoenix position that the Community should be an integral part of the review and implementation process, and furthermore, that we should never have to fight for a place at the table since it is our table!
We stood together and they not only listened they have done the right thing. Here is the Organization Chart of the PPD Berkshire Review Steering and Sub-Committees. As you can see, everything flows through the Community. Acting Chief Joe Yahner also informed Mrs. Malone that Commander A.B. Smith has been assigned to oversee and coordinate the information coming out of the sub-committees and to the Community Advisory group. In addition, Deputy City Manager Ed Zeurcher assured her that while no specific community members will be assigned to the sub-committees, citizens are welcome to sit in and observe any and all of these meetings.
We will report back as the names of the Community Advisory Board Members, dates, agendas, and any information from the Sub-Committees become available.
Paul Barnes and Ann Malone
Cofounders – Citizens For Phoenix
Special thanks to Community Activists Jerry Cline, Shannon Dubasik, Rosie Gullion, Gail Morgan, Russ Pomerantz, Lou Snow, Josee Valenzuela, (who together represent over 16,000 households); and Joe Clure and Will Buividas of PLEA (who represent 2400 rank and file officers) for supporting our position to include the Community at the 5/24 meeting.