Posted July 7, 201510:18 am
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson on Tuesday, July 7, announced an 11-member, independent panel that will select the 13 members of a community police commission, beginning the process that will lead to a reform of the city’s division of police.
Panel members introduced by Jackson at a news conference at the Stokes Federal Court House were as follows:
• Eugenia Cash, chair of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board of Cuyahoga County and an administrator with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District;
• Gabriella Celeste, director of child policy at Case Western Reserve University’s Schubert Center for Child Studies;
• Rev. Dr. Jawanza Karriem Colvin, pastor of the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church;
• Colleen Cotter, executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland;
• Rev. Jimmy Gates, pastor of Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church;
• Anita Gray, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League;
• Phyllis Harris, executive director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Greater Cleveland;
• Alex Johnson, president of Cuyahoga Community College;
• Ronn Richard, president and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation;
• Victor Ruiz, executive director of Esperanza Inc.; and
• Timothy Tramble, executive director of Burten, Bell, Carr Development Inc.
The panel appointed Tuesday will solicit applicants for the police commission and then select its members within 60 days, said Steven Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. Jackson said he chose the selection panel in consultation with Dettelbach and Cleveland City Council.
In May, the city and the U.S. Department of Justice entered into a court enforceable consent agreement in response to a Justice Department investigation that found that the Cleveland Division of Police violated the civil rights of citizens by engaging in a pattern of using excessive force. The agreement requires widespread reforms of the police division, including the creation of a civilian oversight panel.
Both Jackson and Dettelbach, to emphasize the selection panel’s independence, shied away from answering any questions about how the selection process will operate. They pointed out that they expect the group will chose when and where to meet and will create its own application for membership on the police commission.
The panel held its first organizational meeting after the news conference.
But Dettelbach stressed that it will be an open process for membership on the police commission.
“People who are interested in serving on the first ever community police commission are going to have a chance to apply to this selection panel in an open process,” he said. “We hope people who reside or work in Cleveland will volunteer to serve.”