The PFC, which consists of five (5) citizens from the Madison community, remains committed to receiving community input regarding the police chief appointment process. The PFC is an independent body created pursuant to state law, Wis. Stat. § 62.13. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has stated that “one of the primary purposes for the legislative act providing for the creation of the board was to remove the administration of fire and police departments from city politics and to place it in the hands of impartial and nonpolitical citizen boards.”
The PFC has spent the last year carefully working on this process, including designing various methods for community members to provide input. The PFC committed to listening to all residents in the City of Madison, including those who have the greatest challenges to providing feedback. For instance, the PFC received oral comments over the course of multiple meetings from various groups and individuals. The PFC also received numerous written comments through its community survey, via e-mail and U.S. Mail. The PFC worked with Local Voices Network (LVN) to facilitate small group discussions and received helpful summaries and suggested questions from LVN. Further, the PFC conducted virtual town hall meetings and participated in several radio programs.
The following is a link to the PFC’s Agenda for November 9, 2020, which contains links to the extensive community input that the PFC received: https://madison.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=738266&GUID=2515F04B-789E-4548-8DA8-D4E940EE04E7.
The PFC has spent a considerable amount of time developing questions for the candidates based directly on the community input that it has received to date (both for the initial interviews and for the final interviews) to ensure that it selects the best candidate for the City of Madison. The community input has contributed to all stages of this process. The PFC is also committed to ensuring a fair hiring process for all candidates.
A component of the final interview process will include a 35-minute recorded Q&A session with each candidate based directly on the community input that the PFC received during this process. The videos will be published on December 9, 2020, on the PFC’s webpage: www.cityofmadison.com/PFC.
The PFC will be holding a Special Meeting on December 9, 2020, at 5:30 P.M., which will include a public comment period. In addition, the next regular meeting of the PFC is scheduled for December 14, 2020, at 5:30 P.M., and will include a public comment period. If there is insufficient time available on December 14, 2020, to hear oral comments from those members of the public who have registered, the PFC will likely set aside additional time after December 14, 2020, so that any member of the public who wishes to offer public comment regarding this process can do so. Members of the public who wish to offer comment during the public comment period must register in advance using the City of Madison’s Registration Statement Form available on the PFC’s webpage: www.cityofmadison.com/PFC. Once completed, the Form must be submitted to the following e-mail address: policechiefsearch@cityofmadison.com. The order of speakers will be based on the order of submission of the completed Registration Form. Based on the PFC’s standard practice, each speaker will be limited to a maximum of three (3) minutes. The PFC is also receiving written feedback at policechiefsearch@cityofmadison.com.
