Minutes – Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association Jan. 19, 2006 Board Meeting – Page 1 of 6

MINUTES

Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association (MCPA)

Board of Directors Meeting

October 4, 2007

Held at 1951 Woodlane Drive, Woodbury, MN

Minutes – Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association Jan. 19, 2006 Board Meeting – Page 1 of 6

Board Members Present:
Chief Tim Brennan

Chief Mona Dohman

Director Cari Gerlicher

Chief Bob Jacobson

Chief Peter Jansky

Chief Jeff McCormick

Chief Ron Sager

Chief Dave Thomalla

Chief Erv Weinkauf

Chief Mitch Weinzetl

Chief Rob Yant

MCPA Board Meeting Minutes, Oct. 4, 2007 – Page 1 of 6

Board Members Absent:Chief John Bolduc,Chief Jim Crace, Chief Kelvin Keena, Chief Dana Waldron

Staff Members Present:Harlan Johnson, Executive Director
Mary Henning, Communications/Training Coordinator
Eric Hyland, Legislative Representative

Guests:None

1.Call to Order:

President Mitch Weinzetlcalled the association board meeting to order at 10:34 a.m.

2.Opening Invocation:

Second Vice-PresidentMona Dohman offered the opening invocation.

3.Approval of the Agenda:

The agenda was approved.

Approval motions: 1st–P. Jansky, 2nd–B. Jacobson

4.President’s Report:

Legislative Report.Eric Hyland presented the following:

  • The legislature will hold a special 1-day session for flooding in SE Minnesota and review of a major transportation package as a result of the 35W bridge collapse.
  • Rep. Joe Mullery (DFL) 58A,will be considering mandatory mental health training for all peace officers, as well as a two-day training for law enforcement to deal with the hearing-impaired.

  • E. Hyland, MN Sheriff’s Association Exec. Dir. Jim Franklin, MCPA Exec. Dire. Harlan Johnson and MCPA President Mitch Weinzetlwill meet with Rep. Mullery to appeal to his support on admin fines and primary offense re: seat belts. Another supporter will be Rep. Michael Paymar (DFL) 64B, who is the chair of the House Finance Committee.
  • Other topics this year: scrap metal, racial profiling.

Governor’s Breakfast.MCPA received an invitation from governor to have breakfast; 6 MCPA representatives attended, along with representatives from the Sheriffs, Fire Chiefs,and EMS and Emergency Managers organizations.

Three issues to propose:

1. LGA Funding: public safety police and fire departments (LGA, fine revenues, taxing levy increases).

2. Data Privacy: Federal cyber like program called NDEX. Going to include report data, photos, more comprehensive. State of Minnesota has conflicting view. Paths and passwords to go through NDEX and LEO. Could violate state data privacy laws. Need to get federal legislation or make changes at the state level, as the issue relates to MNJAC.

3. Fund ARMER.Continue to support the radio network build-out and departments’ needs for compatible equipment.

MPPOA Coalition. M. Weinzetl is arranging meetings with MPPOA to collaborate more on legislative issues. A meeting is scheduled in November.

POST credit tracking – No automated system is in place to track credits. Weinzetl discussed a possibility with POST Exec. Dir. Neil Melton to institute a baseline for types of training. Rather than tracking all officers, the types of training could be listed, with names of officers and their hours listed below each category.

No further action. Further discussion and questions among board members included:

  • How would city council members interpret the categories of training and possible deficiencies?
  • Is reporting/credit tracking effective, given the reality of employee movement?
  • If you minimize the requirements, do you diminish the level of professionalism?
  • A transition to “categorizing” with a baseline of requirements still would not address the element of tracking credits.
  • Requirements and tracking would be different between full-time and part-time-licensed peace officers.
  • Discussion gravitates toward the familiar required tracking by departments combined with the need for an online, interactive information management system that is lacking at the POST Board.

Part-time vs. Full-time Licensing. M. Weinzetl proposes sunsetting part-time licensing in the state (approximately 290+ active, part-time licenses out of 11,000 total licenses) for the following reasons:

  • Differences in education (two-year vs. four-year programs).
  • Pay disparities.
  • Some departments are abusing the part-time licensing status to indicate their employees have more qualifications than they actually do.

Action: M. Weinzetl and H. Johnson will draft survey language to be issued at the April 2008 ETI conference. This further-fact-finding initiative will help answer questions among board members, which include:

  • How heavily do smaller agencies rely on peace officers with part-time licenses, vs. part-time peace officers with full-time licenses?
  • Arefour-year programs better than two-year programs?
  • Can smaller agencies fund a transition to allowing only full-time licenses?
  • How many complaints have come before the POST Board in recent years about part-time-licensed officers vs. full-time-licensed officers? Are those numbers indicative of success or failure of part-time licensing?

CIBRS –. Asked CJIS why do we need CIBRS? Catch data from agencies and CJIS to pass from agencies to feds. Adopt policies and issue training to staff. Ndex supposed to be up in February. Texas, another state already submitting data to ndex (test data).Ndex, internet browser, access LEO, credential people to get to Ndex through LEO. No cost.

Jacobson – people can’t afford CIBRS, let alone ndex. Ndex irrelevant without CIBRS happening first. Expressed concern that Minnesota must fix data privacy language.

Other discussion -- Warrants, e-charging, court systems, probation, statewide supervision; more than us looking at other people’s data. Still need records management staff.

Registered sex off statute changes.– M. Weinzetl met with the Department of Corrections and a Governor’s designee to pass along issues and propose solutions. Changes may be coming, within the context of existing Adam Walsh regulations.

Admin Fines discussion. M. Weinzetl proposed an alternative strategy to pushing for admin fines. The board discussed the following issues and concluded that the state needs to solve the problem of whether admin fines are legal. The MCPA legislative committee is charged with proposing further action.

  • For cities that collect fines, they do it not to earn revenue, but to avoid large fees to citizens, with the majority of that large-fee amount going to the state. Any profits are reinvested into the department for improvements or equipment directly related to traffic safety.
  • The board has an overall desire to avoid beaurocracy, and so does not wish to incorporate more administrative responsibility by considering sub-levels of violations.
  • Departments differ in their opinions on the severity of a traffic violation, matched with the reasonableness of the amount of a fine.
  • To date, one city has been questioned by the State Auditor about the amount of money collected.
  • MPPOA and the MCPA have pursued discussions and compromises on the issue, but have not agreed upon a legislative proposal.

5.Secretary’s Report:

Minutes from the August 24 meeting were approved with minor changes.

Approval motions: 1st–P. Jansky, 2nd– R. Sager

6.Treasurer’s Report:

New Members. The board approved new members:

Chief Jeff MadsenHill City Police Department

Chief William StockDawson Police Department

Chief Eric SwensonSebeka Police Department

Chief Ron KelmBrownton Police Department

Approval motions: 1st–P. Jansky, 2nd– R. Sager

Bills to be paid.Approved.

Approval motions: 1st–P. Jansky, 2nd–M. Dohman

Treasurer’s Report: Approved.

Approval motions: 1st–P. Jansky, 2nd–T. Brennan

7.Executive Director’s Report:

Membership. Membership totals are540 paid and 193lifetime members.

Building Payment. In May 2008 a balloon payment is due. MCPA will meet with the Minnesota Sheriff’s Association in November to decide whether to pay off half the mortgage in May, then institute a 50/50 ownership of the building.

St. Paul shooting, indirect relevance to MCPA. – The St. Paul Police Department shot and killed a man who formerly worked as a Community Safety telemarketer on behalf of the MPCA.

BCA Retirement. Charles Rix is retiring from the BCA Crime Watch.

Gang Narcotics Task Force MCPA representation. The MCPA has appointed Board DirectorBob Jacobson as Vice-Chair. The new chair is Rod Barsh.

MCPA/DPS Feature Articles. Four ready-to-use feature articles will be distributed, in partnership with MN Dept. of Public Safety, to MCPA members for their tailoring and use in hometown newspapers. Topics will be: car theft prevention, car restraints safety, crosswalk safety, and possibly underage drinking/parties. MCPA also is pursuing a possible topic of shoplifting with Target Corporation.

8.Board/Task Force representations:

  1. Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Advisory Board
  2. 3,000 “Support Our Troops” license plates will be made available to peace officers for $3 each. The design will NOT include a pink or red flag.
  3. MCPA will check on CIBRS 2-hour online training availability and publish in C-Notes when released.
  4. Minnesotacar dealerships are beginning to incorporate the Computerized Vehicle Registration (CVR) software, made available by the so-named company that is based in California. The software will log or have entry access to every new license plate in the state of Minnesota. The benefit is that newly owned cars will have license plate numbers issued before they are driven off the dealership lot. By comparison to DVS, for which numbers take two or three weeks to be entered into the DVS database, the record-keeping is immediate. MCPA will request a demo from the company.
  1. CriMNet –
  2. $14 million in budget; searching for an executive director.
  3. POST Board Report:No report.
  4. Gang/Drug Task Force – No report.
  5. CJIS – No report.
  6. Human Trafficking – No report.

9.Committee Reports:

  1. Member ServicesNo report.
  1. Promotions and RecognitionNo report.
  2. Education and Training Committee.

Fall Conference. 60 attendees; evaluations reflect that the format and content met objectives for the majority of attendees. $1,500 will go toward MCPA Scholarships, thanks to Board DirectorRon Sager for coordinating sponsorships. The Education and Training Committee will proceed next year with the same mission and plan for the Fall Conference. The Association of Emergency Managers will meet again at Breezy Point, so it is likely the Fall Conference will be located there.

Leadership and CLEO and Command Academies. Proceeding as scheduled. Instructor pool expanded to accommodate 45 attendees.

  1. Magazine CommitteeNo report.
  2. ETI CommitteeNo report.
  3. ExecutiveNo report.
  4. Rules No report.
  5. Legislative CommitteeReported above by Eric Hyland.
  6. Regional Representatives Committee

The next meeting will be held October 10 at Woodbury.

  1. Bylaws CommitteeNo report.

10.Items From the Floor:

Tim Brennan – A decision by the Minnesota Court of Appeals rules that a homestead is exempt from civil forfeiture.

Star Tribune article – Court of Appeals ruling tells officers to try to get a warrant at the crash scene before a suspect's blood is drawn. An appeal is likely.

Erv Weinkauf -- Employer Services for the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) would like to recognize the MCPA as a supportive employer in a presentation from Ms. Ray Schwarz at the ETI awardsbanquet.

11.Old Business: None.

12.New Business: None.

13.Adjourn:

Move to adjourn, 1:34 p.m.

Approval motions: 1st – P. Jansky, 2nd – B. Jacobson

Respectfully submitted to Chief David Thomalla, Secretary

M.H.