John Adams, one of two new co-chairs of the Community Police Commission, hopes the group will have so much work to do this year that there will not be time for personal disagreements.
“If people are focused on the work, it should, hopefully, decrease the personal issues,” Adams said. “Because in the end, that’s why we’re on the commission.”
Signal Cleveland asked the co-chairs who ran the commission during its first year, and Adams, who became co-chair in January, to reflect on the group’s first year of work. They talked about the future of the commission and about how they intend to regain public trust after a year of conflict.
Adams said there wasn’t a lot of police accountability work done last year, the kind of work he and community members expected the group would be doing.
Instead, commissioners went through training, created a budget and formed committees. They set bylaws and put together a grants program and an 18-month plan for the work they want to accomplish.
“I think it was more of like laying a foundation and some groundwork,” Adams said. “But now, the commission is moving a lot quicker. There’s more focus on the work.”
Internal conflict brings challenges
In their first meeting, on Jan. 25, 2023, commissioners went into executive session to discuss the interim executive director position. That’s when the conflicts began.
Janice McCullough Ridgeway, former co-chair, said choosing an interim executive director divided the commission at that meeting. That division continued throughout the year, she said.
Some commissioners were more open to Jason Goodrick being interim executive director while others wanted to “start all over again,” in searching for a new director, Ridgeway said. The commission voted that day to make Goodrick interim executive director and to create a hiring committee for the position.
Someone made a comment in the executive session that some commissioners considered inappropriate, said Audrianna Rodriguez, former co-chair, which is when tensions cropped up. While the comment didn’t specify anyone, some commissioners felt it was directed at Goodrick, she said.
Rodriguez said that executive session discussion had a big impact on how the commissioners related to one another throughout the year.
“I would have never anticipated that that executive session would have had such turmoil,” Rodriguez said. “Especially in our first meeting.”
Being co-chair of the Community Police Commission was “probably the most difficult experience I’ve ever had,” Ridgeway said, adding that she’s served on close to 20 boards, commissions or committees, although none had statutory authority. It was hard to meet the public’s high expectations while working with 12 other people with unique voices, she said. She had to reduce even her own expectations of what the group would accomplish in its first year.
“I’m a little frustrated about the amount of contention at every single meeting we had,” Ridgeway said. “And I guess I’m a little bit discouraged by the amount of progress we made.”
Learning to balance independence
Navigating its independence while relying on the city for training, getting records, and sharing a lawyer is something the commission is still figuring out, Rodriguez said.
Commissioners were initially concerned with potential conflicts of interest if they hired a city-employed attorney. The commission and the city are now sharing an attorney but can hire outside counsel if there are conflicts.
Ridgeway said the commission didn’t have good working relationships with a lot of city departments because of distrust.
Mistrust came from all directions — from other commissioners, community members and city officials — as the commission learned how to balance its newfound independence from the public safety department.
“I think we are still struggling with what it means to be independent. … I do not believe that we exist totally separately and independently of the City of Cleveland,” Ridgeway said.
New Co-chair Adams agrees. He said the commission has to collaborate with the city to move the police department into compliance with the consent decree. But that doesn’t mean the commission does whatever city or police officials tell it to do.
“I just think we need to hold the line and assert our authority when it’s violated,” Adams said. “So if the charter is not being followed, then I think we have a duty to call that out, call attention to it. But I don’t think that means we have to have an adversarial relationship with the mayor’s office or the police.”
‘We need to do better’
Regaining trust will come over time, as commissioners continue to learn from experience, Rodriguez said.
She said she tried her best as co-chair to build bridges with all stakeholders while remaining fair and neutral.
“I didn’t come to coddle the city,” she said. “I didn’t come to crucify the police.”
She hopes the commission can continue to grow in its second year and ensure sustainability as some members’ terms end after two years.
Ridgeway hopes the commission can build on the foundation of its first year and assume the authority the law gives it. But first, the commissioners have to learn to work together.
“We need to do better,” Ridgeway said. “And we can’t do better if we don’t know how to be better.”
Adams said the commission should listen more to what community members are saying, even if it comes as criticism.
“We literally are the community police commission,” he said. “We have to remember that our job is to be the voice of the community.”
For other perspectives on the Community Police Commission’s first year, read the articles below.
