On Thursday, during the second part of a special Antioch city council meeting, the Antioch City Council opted against moving forward with an ad-hoc committee on police reform in favor an overall much larger community conversation.

Councilmembers Lamar Thorpe and Monica Wilson voted in favor of the ad-hoc committee, while Mayor Sean Wright and councilmembers Joy Motts and Lori Ogorchock opted for a larger community conversation after hearing more than 700 public comments.

“To be honest, this is too big, too important for our community, its too important for this moment. What I think we need to do is a series of special forums looking at the idea of police reform, talking to our police department, talking to our community leaders, talking to our religious leaders, it would be the same thing we would do as talking to our ad-hoc committee, but it would be inclusive of everybody on council and everybody would be able to participate, that is how big this moment is,” stated Mayor Sean Wright.

Antioch Mayor Sean Wright called the Special Meeting after a public request by Councilmember Lamar Thorpe who requested an ad-hoc committee be created to discuss and consider formation of a Police Reform Ad Hoc Committee including whether it shall review existing policies, rules, practices, customs, and general orders of the Antioch Police Department and make recommendations including but not limited to:

1. Prevention of excessive use of force by police officers against members of the public, including banning police from using carotid artery restraints and chokeholds;
2. Elimination of military equipment from the police department (“Demilitarization”)
3. Required use of conflict de-escalation approaches by all sworn officers when interacting with the public
4. Increased police accountability, including the process for receipt and review of public complaints against the police for excessive use of force, racial and/or ethnic profiling, and other police misconduct;
5. Improvement of police officer candidate recruitment, screening, training and hiring practices including an analysis of policies concerning implicit bias, candidate diversity and candidate background checks; and
6. Police department budget appropriations

Thursday Night Recap:

Mayor Sean Wright said after 7-hours of public comments, a lot was shared with a common thread of people saying they want a discussion to be a had and they took it on by working with the police department and citizens to have that conversation.

He explained tonight was not to tackle what conversations to have, but how they would begin the conversation and the format.

Mayor Pro Tem Joy Motts thanked the community for sharing views and recommendations on an issue that was important and needed to address racism in the country. She credited the City of Pittsburg for already having a community forum with the police department with the full council to participate.

“I do think this is an issue that needs the full attention of the entire council. It is just too important,” stated Motts. “We need it now!”

Motts motioned they do a community forum/townhall/study session to include the entire council and community.

At that point, Antioch City Attorney Thomas Lloyd Smith explained the motion was not necessary because it was direction and not on the agenda.

Mayor Wright confirmed with Smith that although there was a first and a second on the table, they were invalid because it was not on the agenda but they could move forward with a community forum, town hall without the motion because its direction to city staff because it was verbally acknowledged.

Councilmember Lamar Thorpe stated he liked the idea that Motts suggested but did not think it needed to be absent of an ad-hoc committee and it could still happen for the larger picture.  He then provided some prepared remarks stating he was blown away with where they were at as people used this issue to attack one another.

“I am not a politician. I am a father, a homeowner and your neighbor. I am a veteran and a public servant. Period. Since the murder of George Floyd there has been a national awakening that has made the streets of our nation the epicenter of expression, frustration, and hope including right here in Antioch. So let me start by saying I love my city this is exactly why I got into public service. How long anyone has lived here does not give their voice greater power than anybody else. We all have a say in the process. I love my city and because I love my city it comes with a willingness to have difficult conversations. I didn’t run for city council to be showing up for parades and waving.  I did it to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work. I did it because I wanted to make a difference and serve all of the people of Antioch.

As I said earlier I love my city as this is where I am raising my family. From the moment I introduced this ad-hoc committee, I made it very clear that I simply wanted to have a conversation about police reform. Yes, police reform. Reform does not mean a negative, instead it means we recognize the ability to evolve. If our police department is doing the same things ten, twenty, fifty years from now we have failed as a city because we have not evolved with the times.

That is why Mayor Pro Tem Motts you and I put together the homeless encampment task force because we recognized a failure there. That’s why Mayor Wright we put together the youth services task force because we were failing in that area as well, we evolved with the times and we have done some good work with that.

I find it ironic that there is a small group of special interest groups fighting with everything they have to stop this conversation from happening. The irony being that they feel everything is right with the police department from their perspective we should just take them at their word and not have the audacity to ask questions. Isn’t that the very reason why people are protesting in the streets of our nation today? What makes their perspective so powerful and so great that it means ignoring the rest of our city it isn’t, that is why we are here tonight.

I would like to take a moment to thank Mayor Wright for allowing his leadership in allowing this item on the agenda tonight despite the constant lobbying by special interest groups, he recognizes the need to serve all of the city. Thank you Mayor Wright for your leadership and willingness to be an ally in serving all of the people of Antioch is exactly the type of leadership we need in this moment. There is also an intellectually lethargic rumor circulated by those special interest groups that I am attacking the police department.

Let me be very clear, I have not attacked the police department, the fact that exploring questions in a public setting is considered an attack is precisely why we need to do this today. No city department including the police department is above our community’s ability to hold them accountable to seek answers. If there were an ad-hoc committee about any other delegation in our city, no one would be fighting me. That is the problem. Why is the police department so above us all that we cannot even ask questions in a pubic setting. Under that construct, if a member of the Antioch City Council has to fight for this moment, fight just to be here and have this conversation here today, this absolutely confirms the fact why many in our community is voiceless as it relates to this issue. Today we take the first step in giving a voice to those individuals in our community. It is my hope that my colleagues rise to the challenge and realize those who are fighting to stop us from having conversations are already on the wrong side of history.

So I would urge the establishment of this ad-hoc committee along with councilmember Motts idea that we can have a larger conversation even before that committee gets started and I do appreciate Mayor Wright giving the opportunity to have follow up discussions through workshops, I think that is important.”

Councilmember Monica Wilson thanked everyone for their comments while stating the world was changing while communities across the world were having these conversations.

“I am very amazed at the resistance just to start this conversation. We just want to start to have a conversation on how this works. Never at anytime was it to exclude anybody, but to include everybody,” stated Wilson. “From the beginning I have always stated I wanted to have a dialogue with our community and speak for those in our community who feel that they do not have a voice.”

Wilson continued by explaining that everybody could always do better regardless of job or career but not to examine and enhance is to stagnant and fail.

“For those in our community that feel like everything is fine, I want you to realize that there are some who do not feel that way,” stated Wilson. “So their voices need to be heard as well.”

Wilson said she supported the ad-hoc committee along with Councilwoman Motts suggestion while also urging people show up and be a part of the conversation.

Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock thanked everyone for all their comments.

“Everybody’s voice wants to be heard. All council members want to be heard so having an ad-hoc committee would only allow two people do be on it, not five. Therefore, I am not for an ad-hoc committee because I want all five of us sitting together with the community, with community leaders, with the police department, everybody,” said Ogorchock. “All voices need to be heard and we need to sit in that room time after time. It shouldn’t be one town hall or meeting and should go into action.”

She challenged the ad-hoc committee process saying two people go off and do the research and hand their recommendations to the rest of the council.

“That is not fair, I personally would like us all sit together in a public forum,” stated Ogorchock. “

Mayor Sean Wright said they had 700 public comments on this issue and show how important this is. He explained how powerful an ad-hoc committee could be when gathering research and information while stating all five councilmembers have requested to be on this committee.

“To be honest, this is bigger than an ad-hoc committee. An ad-hoc committee is a series of forums with two members of the council that come together and learn and bring it back to council. I was trying to fix that, lets do that and add a special study session so they can share what they learned,” explained Wright. “To be honest, this is too big, too important for our community, its too important for this moment. What I think we need to do is a series of special forums looking at the idea of police reform, talking to our police department, talking to our community leaders, talking to our religious leaders, it would be the same thing we would do as talking to our ad-hoc committee, but it would be inclusive of everybody on council and everybody would be able to participate, that is how big this moment is.”

Wright wanted to do something to allow the full council and everybody to participate with posted meetings, minutes, and provide transparency.

Thorpe rejected that saying he disagreed with the Mayor because it limits people’s participation.

“We have tried that before with cannabis issue and nobody showed up to that because it was too formal for people,” stated Thorpe. “The key to the ad-hoc that we are allowed to do workshops, panel discussion, allowed to have more flexibility where we can engage with the community and engage with them where their voice is truly heard instead of coming up to a meeting and speaking for 3-minutes,” stated Thorpe.

Wright countered that when they did cannabis, they tried to get people to make comments and nobody did, but with this topic they already have had 700 comments. He suggested that they start out with the public forums and if nobody was participating they could reconsider an ad-hoc committee.

At that point, Thorpe made a motion to create the police ad-hoc committee with Wilson making a second.

Wright then stated, “I just think its too big to have an ad-hoc committee.

Motts then encouraged Antioch to follow the Pittsburg model with forums and community meetings.

Thorpe then jumped in challenging Motts and her comments about Pittsburg.

“What did they do Joy?” asked Thorpe. “They had a meeting and looked at their budget. Nothing came out of that.”

Motts said that was not what she read.

Thorpe again interjected.

“You are making assertions of what Pittsburg did that didn’t happen. They didn’t make any changes to their police department, they didn’t do anything,” said Thorpe. “This ad-hoc is just to have a discussion. What Pittsburg did, what you are suggesting is not accurate.

Thorpe stated his comments were going off a conversation he had with Pittsburg councilmember Holland Barrett White earlier in the day.

Motts said regardless of what Pittsburg was or was not doing, she had faith in the Antioch council since all of them wanted to participate calling this so big, so passionate and the community is expressing themselves.

The motion then failed to advance with Motts, Ogorchock and Wright all voting no.

The council then provided staff with direction to begin a series of community forums and possible study sessions and workshops.  They wished to include members of the community, faith leaders, NAACP, police department, crime commission, and others.