A photo of Cleveland Community Police Commissioner Teri Wang (right) telling Co-Chair Audrianna Rodriguez (second from left) that she is out of order and must request to speak at the Cleveland Community Police Commission meeting on July 12, 2023.
Cleveland Community Police Commissioner Teri Wang (right) tells Co-Chair Audrianna Rodriguez (second from left) she is out of order and requests to speak. Credit: Cleveland Community Police Commission YouTube

Covered by Documenters Breana Smith (notes) and Chau Tang (live-tweet thread)

Community grants

Cleveland Community Police Commissioner John Adams shared information about the Community Police Commission’s (CPC) community grants. Organizations based in Cleveland can apply for up to $50,000 for work they’re doing on restorative justice, violence prevention, or mediation. Applicants can ask for more funding, but anything over $50,000 requires approval by Cleveland City Council. Applications are available in Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic and are due July 31.

Conflict of interest?

CPC Interim Executive Director Jason Goodrick said he intended to hire a staff attorney employed by the city’s law department. He said a city-employed attorney would work best for the commission’s budget and fall within the city’s procedures for legal work. If there’s a conflict, an outside attorney can still be hired for that work. Commissioner Teri Wang expressed concern about potential conflicts of interest. She proposed a motion to reassess this hiring decision. Co-chair Audrianna Rodriguez told her hiring new employees is the domain of the executive director and, since this was a special meeting, no new motions would be considered.

Out of order

Wang, who chairs the Rules Committee, was unable to report on her committee’s work. Rodriguez took control of the meeting after Wang began her report with comments on a letter that Co-chair Jan Ridgeway shared earlier that evening. Wang repeatedly said she believed Rodriguez was out of order. Rodriguez said they needed to move the meeting forward to focus on the agenda items only because it was a special meeting. During public comment, Mariah Crenshaw, lead researcher and analyst with Chasing Justice LLC, criticized Rodriguez for her behavior during the meeting.

Read more from Documenter Breana Smith

Check out more details from Documenter Chau Tang’s live-tweet thread:

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