Today we're going to interview what the board is going to interview today for the Secretary to the board of police commissioners. They have a few questions we ask that you give your when given your response. Try to be precise and concise as possible. I believe someone in the room is going to give a brief overview of the position and then we're going to jump right into the q&a. And excuse me, at this time, commissioners, feel free to introduce yourself.
Thank you, sir. Me while we do introductions, in fact, if you don't mind providing that brief description on the on the job application, Mr. Tipton. Could you could you run through that for the candidate Meanwhile, we'll introduce each other if you could pull that up for us.
Good morning. How are you morning? Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, great.
Here. My name is Susie Hernandez. I'll go to my right.
Hi attorney Linda Barnard district tube
Commissioner Willie Burton.
district five.
Miss Ferguson.
Commissioner Brian Ferguson district one
good morning what a police commissioner last year. Any hold at large.
All right. First of all, thank you for for applying. Thank you for your interest. In in serving the citizens of Detroit and I think one of the most critical areas that you might be able to find when it comes to oversight in this case police oversight. It's a position that is executive level as is and really I consider this position to be informally a Chief of Staff directing staff here at the at the Board of police commissioner as well as our Office of Chief Investigator Mr. Tipton could you actually verbatim read a portion of that job description?
I sure can, under a general direction at least a day to day operations of the board of police commissioners to enhance its overall effectiveness and the delivery of oversight services and initiatives in alignment with the city charter, the Open Meetings Act and the board's bylaws. supervises all be OPC employees, and the performance of their duties and accordance with the city charter and board's bylaws. Perform mightily complex administrative duties to ensure that the board members have accurate advice and resources to execute the duties as outlined in the city charter. Manager excuse me Management Board Meeting logistics and records. Distributed Board Meeting Minutes excuse me a district board meeting minutes and preparation for board meetings, prepare resolutions and form reviews and answer stakeholders inquiries on behalf of the board and provides counsel to the board complex issues related to governance to ensure effective, efficient delivery of public safety services ensure fair, constitutional and transparent policy and oversight.
Thank you, sir. So I'll give you a brief just overview of the format. It's very simple. You're going to have a series of questions that are asked by each of us here in the personnel training committee. And then will allow you to ask questions if you have some at the end of that. Do you have any questions before we? We start with the very first question and not at the present moment? Could you pronounce your last name? I don't want to mispronounce your last name. Monet. Monet, thank you so much. So with that, we'll get started and the first question is around what we call the dimension of technical experience. This is an opportunity for you to kind of brag a little bit about yourself. Tell us about your background, and specifically explain how your previous experience education and everything else has prepared you for this position. You could tell us about any experience that you may have in civilian oversight, law enforcement, the legal field, or just in general in the administrative field working on a board. So go ahead. We have about 40 minutes for this interview in total and it'll begin now.
Basically my current position I work for Wayne County for the Homeland Security and Emergency Management. I am a department manager working with finance for the department and the commissioners for the county of way many times I've had to present grants that we had to have approved to the commission. So their format is very similar to your commission routine. So therefore that experience has given me that exposure to basically how a commission does because we do have to receive their resolutions just like you have resolution. So very similar in terms of the format and operation from week to week.
Thank you any additional background that you'd like to add, feel free to.
I've done administrative work for the University of Michigan Dearborn as well as Homeland Security. I've also worked at Ford Motor Company as a contractor doing administrative work so I've had a variety of experiences with a variety of software. Having to organize information on Outlook as well as actual financial reports and various management reporting. So I've had that experience having to write a document itself while working at other jobs. I've had to I work for an organization called University physician group, and they have contracts where they contract out physicians to other locations. So I've had to examine contracts to make sure we're the physicians were being paid per contract and make sure the contracts were current. And so I'm used to looking at legal documentation.
Thank you, ma'am. Question two will be missile.
Morning. Hey, for agreeing to participate in this job interview opportunity. Dimension, demonstrates self confidence and as Mr. Tipton has indicated, these questions are asking that you respond in terms of your personal encounter involving these situations. Okay. Discuss options you will consider in handling someone who repeatedly refuses to comply with reasonable directives or is openly disrespectful. In your answer, describe your overall management, leadership style and tell us how many employees you have supervised.
I've supervised while working at the University of Michigan Dearborn, I supervise approximately it vary depending on you know, at the time of year but anywhere from 30 to 40 employees having to schedule their work schedules, having to make sure that they took the day off that their work was covered. So that occurred at the University of Michigan Dearborn and when i in terms of a person that is consistently or defiant, you know, I will give them an opportunity to hear what they had to say you know what was causing the defiance. Why? Weren't they being compliant, at least give them the opportunity to express their concerns and let them know that you know, these are the guidelines and this is what is important for you to follow. Now sometimes what I've encountered is some people don't understand software. So sometimes there's a lack of knowledge. And they just don't want to say that they don't know how to use the computer or they don't know how to. They need assistance. So in that instance, you know, I would sit I will make sure that they had all the knowledge that they needed, because I've even seen managers, I've worked with managers when I was at Ford Motor Company, then they had to report to me their credit card statements. And what I found out that people that didn't look at the information because I could see based on a computer system, that they hadn't even opened it. So I would contact the manager. There was an issue and I would say, hey, let's open your computer. I'm going to open mine. Alright, so I went one by one explaining him from screen to screen to screen, how to use the software because especially a manager doesn't want to admit that he's, he's totally lost. And that's the case and what I found, you know, a lot of times people don't want to admit that they don't know how to do something. So they keep doing it wrong because they don't want to admit the lack of knowledge. So that would be my four first course of action is determined are have they been well trained. Sometimes it's a lack of training. Sometimes it's just a lack of knowledge. And they don't want to admit I don't know how to do this. I never knew how to do it. Nobody trained me. So that is has always been my first course is what is causing the problem. You didn't get trained. You don't know how to use the software, you don't know the process and procedures, you don't know where to go in the software to get the information that you need. So that's always been, you know, what I've noticed is people don't want to admit they don't know how to do something. So I always start with Okay, let's see who's an expert on the floor that can help you. If I have to sit down and help you not a problem. We'll sit down and we'll go over screen by screen. Because some people are not verbal learners. They're visual, and so they need to actually see what is it on the screen. Where is it? Where do I go? What do I do? What do I do next? And sometimes just taking some screen prints, putting in a binder will help them to be able to go back to it and they'll have some written instructions with pictures on it that can help them go forward and be successful.
Yeah, you can use protein. Okay,
thank you, Miss Maroney. And I really appreciate the positive spin. You took on that question in terms of really accepting some of the responsibility of those individuals who couldn't they didn't know how to cook based on what you've said here. They didn't know how to communicate with you as well in terms of them not wanting to reveal their lack of skills. Now have you encountered staff people who you could assess were blatantly being disrespectful. And how did you deal with those situations?
No, I really have not encountered people that were blatantly disrespectful in terms of wanting to get the work done. Now, if they're just disrespectful, and it has nothing to do with production, it has nothing to do with the workload. They're still getting their work done. Then definitely I would have a conversation and see how we could work through their attitude. You know what is causing it? Are they mad because the group didn't go out to lunch with them. They weren't included. You know, things like high school, high school attitudes, baby attitudes, then you definitely have to talk about maturity. And you know, everybody's not obligated to go out to lunch with you. You know, if have you approach them and ask them, could you go to lunch with them? Because sometimes it's just petty things. That is just like immaturity. So definitely sit down let's have a conversation. So we can resolve what is it? What it what is it that's really behind your attitude? What's What's the background? What took place? Maybe two weeks ago, you still or something? Two years ago, you still haven't forgiven this person. You know, let's have a conversation about forgiveness. Let's have a conversation about moving forward. You know, so definitely we need to address and try to find the root of the issue because usually there is an issue that is not just they're just acting crazy. Now some people do take medication I I've had co workers that they didn't take their meds, so maybe you need to remind them you know, did you take your meds today? You know, try to remember to take your medication, because I've had co workers they were rude, because they hadn't taken their meds that day. So you know, usually there is there is a background to it. In most cases, they're just not acting crazy to be acting crazy. There's something that's causing that behavior. So that is my concern is get to the root of the behavior, what is causing the issue so we can work toward resolving it, so we don't have to dismiss you and that would definitely be part of the compensation. We don't want to dismiss you. You're a valuable employee to this department. I don't want to have to let you go. So let's find the root cause and let's work toward being a better employee.
Thank you so much for that. Last comment, especially.
Thank you. Question three will be Miss Linda Bernard.
Because she does, yes, it'd be a blessing. Thank you.
Oftentimes, we are placed under pressure or have conflicting demands for our time at work. multiple projects do at the same time. Two or more people require our time or assistance, two or more requests to complete a project differently, et cetera. Please describe a time when you were under pressure and experienced conflicting demands at work.
So while most just about every job has a certain amount of pressure, while I'm currently working at Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and so we get a lot of calls from maybe the grants department. We'll get calls from the Border Patrol. We'll get calls from the state will get calls from Macomb. We get calls from commission, they got they have questions about you know, a request that we have for funding. So each of those has, everybody wants their work done today. They want their questions answered today. So, in my situation, what I try to do is if there are several documents that need to be sent out, let's say for for the grant department, I'll just start slowly giving them some of the the documents they want so they can see progressing toward them, then we always make sure commission is answer first, because they're high level executives, so we make sure to answer their questions, and that is always priority. So I pretty much prioritize whatever assignment I have. I try to respond within a 24 hour period if possible. And definitely, if at all possible with an email. Sometimes I have to pick up the phone and say, Hey, I need clarification. What exactly do you want? And so I try to prioritize who needs you know commission is always first their their executives they get they get their questions answered right away. Then other departments then trickle down from there who's next in priority to make sure that everyone is gets their response as quickly as possible.
Thank you. Thank you. Question four will be Commissioner Burton.
I'm going to abstain because I don't agree with the process and these questions were not prepared by individual Commissioners. Thus far it is off panel.
Thank you. Question. Five will be actually you know what I will take question four.
So question four is around communication and managing conflicts so you're seeing a somewhat of a transitions questions God bless us. Tell us about a time when it was necessary to respond to interact. Respond with someone who became verbally abusive or may have been difficult to communicate blushing. If you have never encountered a situation, how would you respond?
Could you repeat that question again?
Yes, ma'am. says tell us about a time when it was necessary to respond to someone who became verbally abusive, or may have been difficult to communicate with. If you have never encountered this situation. How would you respond?
Well I've never encountered a person who's verbally abusive, to a great extent where I would, you know, make an issue about it. But if a person is, you know, maybe talking rather loudly or inappropriately, usually what I do is I continue to keep my voice at a low pitch. So if I keep talking at a low pitch, I'm not I'm not getting excited. I'm not matching their energy with my energy, but I keep talking in a low pitch and a soft voice. Eventually, they their excitement level will deflate it automatically. It never has failed for me. So if someone's talking loud, then I just keep talking you know, softly even tone, my conversation doesn't change. You know nothing you're doing is exciting me. Then they realize that Why am I being Why am I being so crazy? And they will bring their voice down? It is work for me. So that's what I do. Thank you.
Question five Mr. Ferguson.
This is about business acumen. What do you believe in the best way to manage expectations of many different stakeholders? Explain a previous experience and how you and your organization went about meeting the needs of the internal and external entities.
So can you break that question down? I'm not quite sure what you're asking.
I will give you the first one first. What do you believe is the best way to manage expectations of many different stakeholders, many people involved?
Well, first of all, I try to get a clear understanding on what each stakeholder what each stakeholder needs. So that's the priority. What exactly do you need so I can make sure I am, I am completely. I'm not doing work that I need to redo because I didn't get an understanding of what you want it. So I don't I prefer not to. Ford has a policy, do it right the first time. Fix it right the first time. So that's my, you know, I don't I don't like constantly having to redo work. So that's my first priority. I want a complete understanding of what you want, so that the staff doesn't have to redo it. I don't have to redo it. You're not wasting our time, constantly redoing something because you're not explaining it thoroughly. So I try to get it as best a thorough understanding of what specifically you need, how much you need for each item in whatever report or item we have to give you. What specifically do you need? Do you have an example of what you need that's already completed? So all we have to do is do similarly than what has done been given to you in the past. So that is my first part. I want to know clearly what you need. So that is first Secondly, when is it due? What is the exact due date? Okay, and then how much leverage do we have? Does it have to be on this date? Do you need or do you have some wiggle room so give me an exact date when is this due? How much is it due? Is it all due on this day have to part to give me clarity. So that is my first that's one of the first things I do. I like to have a clear understanding of what exactly you want. When you want it. How you want it. Do you want it in a certain order? Do you want? Do you want the title to be a certain way? If we're sending an email? Do you want the subject to be a certain way? We want to make sure that everything you want is followed to a tee because we don't want to have to do it two and three times. So that's one of the things that I do. I don't like to keep repeating something because you weren't clear. The staff didn't really understand what you're saying because you weren't clear in the first place. So that is one of the things I prefer to do is get a clearer understanding deadlines what you want how much you want when you want it. Give me clarity can have a be done now and half later. Do you need the whole thing now? What exactly do you want so we don't have to repeat work over and over. All right.
Now, can you give me a situation that you had to apply that? Oh, you
want me to give you a situation? Situation okay. So we I, our department gives reimbursement request to Macomb. That's our fiduciary. So they want their paperwork a certain way. Okay. So, one of the papers that I was when I when I started in the department, I was instructed to give one of these sheets as part of the package. And I was like, Man, this sheet doesn't seem to be a necessity in my mind. But I was trained to give this sheet and what it did was okay, let me give you an example. What we do we have there we have a grant, and it's called stone garden grant and what it does is it gives a border patrolling cities funding for they reimburse them for their overtime for Border Patrol. So we send that reimbursement because the county pays it out first. And then the federal grant through Macomb is the fiduciary that the state gives you know sends the funding through the through Macomb with and then the Macomb passes it for much into the state and then the state issues the check from the federal government so we gave a packet of paper that packet of paper can be anywhere from 20 to 80 pages depending on how much reimbursement a particular city has. So they had this one sheet that I was instructed to to include it had all the officers hours on it. It had the time that they worked, the day that they worked and their name, okay on a separate sheet of paper. Now the documentation itself the rest of the sheets already included the same information. So I'm like why do I need to make a separate sheet with just that information on it when the rest of the documents already include this information is such a waste of my time, especially when the packet is so big you got so many names to put it. Make sure all the hours on and make sure all the time is on it the days on it, and it's time consuming. So I finally after so many that I did I finally said to the state I was like do you need the sheet? And they were like no oh my oh my god. And then they said we're gonna forward it to another department and see if they need it. And they're like, No, we don't need that she. So I had been trained to include the sheet, which I'm wasting my time on. But in my mind I'm thinking what a waste. So after checking to see if they needed the sheet, then they didn't, but sometimes they'll send me the whole pack back because maybe they want this is just a true example. The dollar amount let's say this officer, his overtime is $53.77. So that's what I put on the calculation form. They have a calculation form you put it on, but I only use two decimal places. But they wanted the state one and four. So they sent the whole thing back. So this is this is where getting to know what they want done. And making sure that going forward. I do just the way they want it. So they don't have to keep redoing things. So that was one they wanted four decimal places not to because they said it was more accurate. So that's just an example of having to report submit a report and it being sent back because they want a specific four digit for the pay pay rate for each officer instead of two. So that was just an example and they just they'll send the whole pack back redo it.
Okay, thank you. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. That'll conclude the questions on our end of this interview. We have a few minutes left. Are there any questions that you have, whether it be for this committee or for Mr. Tipton city HR?
Oh, um, I would say
you know, I
wonder the question is how is how is the position happened to be open?
I'm sorry, how does a position happen to be open?
Correct.
Like what happened to the person that had the position?
Okay, so I'll give you a little bit of context. This position was or the responsibilities of this position were previously filled by an interim employee. And so if you're familiar with city charter and how that operates here in the city of Detroit, there are two positions that are charter mandated. One of those being this position for board secretary, and that's why it's this board's duty to fill that position. So we have not yet filled and replace the interim employee with a full time employee, again in alignment with city charter. So there was no attrition. There was no turnover. There was no no retirement, none of that. It was simply switching interim status. Okay.
And what do you think is the most important thing about the position of Secretary to the Board of Commissioners
being able to understand dynamics, you have civilian expectations, you have Commissioner expectations. To a certain degree, you have departmental expectations from DPD. So it's managing a variety of different dynamics that I like to call and making sure that at the forefront of all of that is civilian oversight interest. That's our priority. It's listening to the community, doing a lot better and listening to the community and subsequently keeping the police department and any other stakeholders accountable. So it has to be accountability. But you have to be able to work with a variety of different stakeholders that all have differing opinions or differing perspectives. Yeah, if anyone would like to add, I don't want to be the only one.
Thank you again. This Monday. And the thing about the secretary to the board of police commissioners, I would suggest that title itself does not address the demands that will be expected of the person who feels that position. If you can visualize the secretary to the board of police commissioner, as the highest staff person in our whole hierarchy of responsibilities, and as the chair of this committee has indicated, your task your your scales, the scale requirement is very, I think there's a term and I'm sorry, Mr. Tipton, I don't mean to put you on the on the hot seat now, but I think his description is minimum, which is absolutely inaccurate. This job makes a lot of demands on the individual who we will appoint for this position
that I'd like to come in as well. The term secretary is actually a misnomer. And it's only there because it's what that's what the state that's what the rank the charter states is. That is the position. You really are the executive director or CEO Correct. Of the of the commission. You and you report to the board of police commissioners, which is really the board of directors and the executive director. I eat BOARD SECRETARY manages all staff and all issues regarding the the the Commission, the Commission is the oversight board for the police department. So so essentially that person takes the lead on all ages. We are a volunteer board. We're not paid as board members or anything like we're not like commissioners, like the Wayne County Board of Commissioners, which are paid staff people, cars, medical, dental, everything they have the whole shebang as you know since you're in finance. That's not what we do. Our our board secretary is an extremely hard working person. Your board of Wayne County Commissioners meets once a month we meet once a week, every week for the for at least for at least three hours usually, for me, the board secretary and the admitted the administrative staff, prepare all of those materials do all of the follow up. I mean, it's a big job. You are truly the CEO of a nonprofit corporation. That's really what you're doing. So it's it's very different from from what you described.
Thank you. Any other questions, ma'am?
How, how is it that how do you how does each if each Commissioner could comment? What do you like about being on the board? Yes, I was aware you guys do volunteer work, and we appreciate all your years of service and and all that you do too, for your oversight duties.
How?
What is it about what is it that you really like about being on the Police Board of Commissioners?
Mr. Ferguson, do you want to go first and then we circle? Yes. Well,
I have the honor and a privilege of being the chairperson of the board of police commissioners I truly take that to heart. All right. I'm a community guy. So the community and the people in my district and throughout the whole city of Detroit, they're my number one priority. Because I thought, I know. This is what I'm led to do. To help. Right and, and helping people I need help myself. And that will come from the board secretary along with the rest of the commissioners because I lean on them a lot. I do. So this is why I do this because I want to add a little air to the tire. Alright, we're running a little flat. So when we need help, right, and that's what the board secretary is tasked to do to help us to keep us on par up to date. The moment's notice moment's notice from all 10.
Thank you, sir, if we could keep we just have a few minutes that we could condense the answers case.
Thank you again, Miss Monet. What I appreciate in my commission as a border police commissioner is the fact that I am in a position to say look at the rights of citizens when there is an encounter between a civilian and a sworn law enforcement member and to investigate that situation. Whereby the outcome will be some balance, some balance that should be documented and reports body worn cameras, those various opportunities. So now that I have a very narrow focus, which is to conduct civilian oversight, I feel real, I hit I accept that responsibility with utmost importance.
Thank you. I'll keep it very simple to answer your question. What? Why I'm here and why I do this. I'm not here for votes. I don't need them. I'm not here for stipends. I don't need it. I'm here to improve access for community. Access is what leads to opportunity. And it's all surrounded by public safety, public health as well and other factors, education all that. But if we don't have streets that are safe that we won't have this influx of residency that we're trying to increase in the city of Detroit, which leads to businesses it's all a lifecycle. I strongly believe that being on this commission is an opportunity to try and affect accountable change to improve public safety. That's why I'm like
I mentioned earlier I'm an I'm an attorney. So I look at the issues regarding the police department a little differently. And I view my role too totally, if you will to represent the community. The Border Police Commission. I mean, the police department has a 400 $500 million budget and roughly almost 4000 employees so pumped and their job as a commissioner Hernandez just said is to provide public safety for all of us in this city and to do that, they have to do it through a methodology called constitutional policing. So that's important to me that that we do it the right way, and that we do it the right way the first time. So in addition to that, I'm also very engaged in other types of community events and I want what's best for residents of the city of Detroit. And I am focused primarily on on young African American males, as well as females in terms of trying to build their that constituency and into a productive, if you will marketplace, before that for them for the rest of their lives. And, and, and the police department has a tremendous impact as you know, on on young African Americans. And so that that's my my focus and my objective to try to make it good. Obviously have public safety for everyone. But also to make sure that there's fairness in that process. No discrimination in that process. And,
and transparency.
Thank you, ma'am.
Sir. As I mentioned before, I abstain because I don't agree with this process today.
Perfect. So Mr. Tipton is are there any closing comments or miss Monet? Are there any closing comments? Yeah.
Thank you so much. Monet. Again, thank you for being with us. This morning. We're still in the process. The board is still in the process of the interview and other candidates. Once the selection has been made. We reached out to that candidate to present a offer and solicit a start date. Again, we thank you for meeting with us is that this morning, and this concludes our interview for today.
Thank you, thank you for the opportunity to be interviewed.
Thank you as well.
All right, we will take a
three minute recess. Well what is the next candidate
the next next candidate? interview process? Interview is at 1030 So eight minutes,
we will take a six minute recess,
Mr. Tipton, you come down and I'm sure you're really excited about that.
I would love to do that. But you know I got I got I got my grapes here this morning. So
just make us all because we're sugar jumping jump
Michelle, you can come on camera when you're ready
Miss Shaw Are you there?
I am.
Hi Can you hear me Mr. Tipton? Sure can. So when I click on Start video I'm getting the message saying I can't start my video because the host has stopped it.
Okay, so they Okay, so they're gonna they're gonna bring you on. I thought once you get into a well you were able to do so. So they should bring you once the commissioners come back into the room. With Boston. We're going to bring you on Okay. Okay. Thank
you. Thank you
audio is recording Thank you ma'am recording in progress. We able to pull the candidate video
I stopped all video. Oh, because because of the dialogue. Okay, yeah, go ahead. If you could,
please ready, sir. She's ready. Perfect. Welcome. Not able to see you just yet but I'll allow Mr. Tipton to provide. There we go. I'll allow him to provide a quick intro before we get started.
Again, your good more mature. Thank you for joining us today. Again, my name is John and recruiter here with the city of Detroit. We have our honorable board of commissioners in the room here prepared to interview today we're going to interview for the board secretary position. We asked that I believe we got about six or seven questions. We're actually today. We ask that you basically questions two through six we situational so try to give us a specific situation. Maybe the tasks you had to take on and the action you took toward that task and then the end result when giving you a response. I'm going to give you a brief overview of the position. First I'm gonna let the commissioners introduce themselves and then I'll give you a brief overview of the position. Okay.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. We will do introductions. I will start again to my left. Mr. Ferguson, if you could start with the just very brief intro. My name is Brian Ferguson
border police commissioners.
Good morning. Michelle. I am a border police commissioner at Holt at large and Michelle May I have your first name is Vicki
or is
Victoria is Victoria I go by Vicki for sure. But my my legal name is Victoria first name.
Thank you so much for that. You're welcome.
This is Fernandez.
Linda Barnard Commissioner Willie Berg. Thank you, commissioners. So here's a brief description of the position and the general direction leads the day to day operations of the board of police commissioners to enhance his overall effectiveness and the delivery of oversight services and initiative in alignment with the city charter. The Open Meetings Act and the board bylaws. supervise our border police commissioned employees in the performance of their duties in accordance with the city charter and wars bylaws perform moderately complex administrative duties to ensure that the board members have accurate advice and resources to execute their duties. As outlined in the city charter. Managers board meetings, logistics and record. Excuse me, logician and record and disturbance board meeting minutes and preparation for the board meetings, prepare resolutions and form reviews and answer stakeholders inquiries. On behalf of the board and provide counsel to the board on complex issues related to governance to ensure efficient delivery of public safety services that ensure a fair constitutional and transport student be transparent policing and oversight. Thank you that is a brief description of the Border Police Commissioner Secretary row commissioners. It's all yours Commissioner Hernandez.
Thank you, sir. So I will give just a very brief background and we'll provide an all candidates as you may or may not be aware. And I think Commissioner Barnard articulated better than I can, I think use the term misnomer when it comes to the title of Ford secretary. And I agree with with Ms. Barnard and saying that this is what I consider to be more of a chief of staff role and executive director role, as Bernard said more of a CEO of a nonprofit type of roles. So it's certainly executive and we definitely want all candidates and know that that's the case, independent of the title. The title obviously is stated that way based on city charter, so we're consistent with it. And again, as you may or may not be familiar this this position in particular is the top level position as part of the DLP staff which oversees OCI, which is our Office of Chief Investigator. It's a very critical position to our ability as a board to provide a countable, policing oversight. So we're looking for a candidate who will be able to fill that role in a very diligent, hopefully progressive way. So you're going to get questions from each of the commissioners. We're going to start with myself but that's okay. And then at the end of this will allow you that to ask any questions, should you have any. Before we get started, though, do you have any preliminary questions?
And this is honored to be here. Thank you so much for for inviting me for an interview.
Thank you so much, man. Question one. All these questions are going to be based on a dimension a different dimension. The first dimension is around technical slash experience or technical experience. Please explain how your previous experience and or education have prepared you for this position. Tell us about any experience that you may have in civilian oversight law enforcement in the legal field, or in administration working on or with a board. And just as a reference, you can obviously see us on camera. We're looking down it's because we're taking notes.
Okay, no problem. Thank you. So first, I want to start out by saying that I've been a Detroit resident for over 20 years, I have a vested interest in the community and understanding and compassion for the needs of Detroit residents. from an education perspective. my bachelor's degree is in Business Administration. Where I learned the foundations of best practices in business to handling complex administrative tasks. So things like coordinating and preparing documents for meetings and trainings, preparing and maintaining sensitive materials responding to increase analyzing data, identifying facts that require action, as well as leading projects and workgroups and preparing and delivering presentations. Now, I'm throughout my professional career, I've been awarded increasingly progressive management responsibility up to an including the most recent executive position that I held as director of vendor business partner operations. Now in that role, I successfully managed complex relationship matrices between multiple internal departments, multiple vendors, multiple clients my direct reporting team consisted of seven managers, five project consultants, three senior analysts, a financial analyst, as well as an administrative assistant. And we leverage continuous improvement and industry best practices in order to manage the performance and budget for over 1000 team members across multiple states and several countries. Now, you can see on my resume, I want to make sure that you all got the resume the portfolio that was delivered to
the office, to the main office, I believe so I know that personally I'm basing it off of the employment application that was submitted to the city. Okay, I believe the packages were, were received.
Perfect, okay. Feel free to reference those at a later time. But anyway, on my resume, which you would have seen an application as well. You will be able to see my the you know, the depth and breadth of my responsibility, and that included things like writing and negotiating vendor contracts, negotiating union contracts, managing annual budget cycles, development staff and teams inventory management such as was handled in OCI. Developing and implementing new processes have planned and hosted professional multimedia meetings and conferences, as well as project management. I also have practice in maintaining the strictest of confidentiality when appropriate. So for example, I participated in corporate strategy discussions as well as vendor contract negotiations and new union negotiations. Which meant that there were times I had to gather information from my team or other teams to assist in those discussions but couldn't disclose what was going on in those discussions. And there's a letter that I included as well. From my former senior director and another director that attests to my effectiveness in that role. Now in 2019, I graduated from the leadership Oakland program, not sure if any of you are familiar with that. And through that, I learned how to take those executive leadership skills that I had mastered in the business sector and transitional skills into community and government leadership. And since then, I've progressively increased my leadership role in the community by founding a special interest private membership association, a black club, as well as community organizing around neighborhood beautification, resident resources, sit citizen engagement and local government with a special focus on the board of police commissioners. And in those projects, I've created articles, proposals, flyers, curriculum for training, organized events, deliver presentations, live meetings, as well as recorded a podcast. Last, I'll mention that, with an exception of maybe two or three meetings. I attend every LPC meeting, I attend Neko webinars as well as I attended the 2022 Neko conference. All of that with the goal of deepening my understanding of law enforcement oversight, so I can have a greater
impact there. Hope that answers your question.
Thank you, ma'am. Question two. We will go to miss any hoped self competence
thank you again, Michelle, for participating in this interview process for the Secretary to the board. My question will capsulize a topic known as demonstrates self competence. And as I believe Mr. Tipton has said that you're going to have your answers reflect personal encounters that you've experienced as it relates to this. This particular question this guy's discuss options you would consider in handling someone who repeatedly refuses to comply with reasonable directives, or is openly disrespectful. And your answer describe your overall management, leadership style and tell us how many employees you have supervised. Okay.
Thank you for that question.
Commissioner Holt. Um,
so
as far as style I'll say, refusing to comply with the leaders directive or being disrespectful is never acceptable. With my teams, I lay a foundation of culture of mutual respect and accountability. I do that through regular team meetings, individual one on ones positive feedback coaching and development. I like clear expectations like team and individual responsibilities and goals, and I keep an open door support to every team member. A leaders conversation with an employee should not be only when they've done something wrong. And then when they have it's important to figure out if there's a skill issue or will issue. So I'll give you an example. My first financial analyst was already in place when I took leadership of one of my teams and they were selected for the position by the previous leader at a time when the role my skill set needs for that position were not like fully established. And so those needs as that person was in the role got further defined and even got further defined under my leadership. And it turned out that the skill set just wasn't right for the role. And that was causing that person major frustration and embarrassment. So they were expressing this by pushing back on assigned tasks, and having a poor attitude and meetings and with coworkers. None of that's acceptable. So I discussed this with the person during multiple one on ones ad hoc meetings to uncover the root cause of what was going on. And it was a skill issue. It wasn't as much a will issue as a skill issue. So I did provide them with some temporary training and support to bridge the skill gap while we worked on finding them a better fitting position on the team, which will happen to be opening up so that worked out I made it clear that their interactions with others, though had to immediately improve and they could not refuse assignments. But then my door was open to make sure that they had the support they need to be successful. That employee went from met most performance review to a year or two later meeting and exceeding performance just doing a really excellent job. So you know, I tried to my messaging combines like clear expectations, support for success and if needed, Action Plan an action plan to improve the performance and out of their behavior. And normally that is received well,
I'm I
established into integrity and trust with my team so they know I'm working with them and not over them. And when it's not received well because that happens as well. Sometimes, I have moved employees down documented discipline paths, where they either voluntarily or involuntarily moved on and when necessary. I've disciplined union employees in accordance with union contracts up to including interim Chairman. I'm sorry, the termination through to termination sorry about that. Um, I've disciplined non union employees through appropriate documentation. And you can also say I've discipline so to speak companies as a whole through contractual agreements by invoking penalties, reducing their work, as well as up to and including termination of their contracts.
Now, hope that answers your question.
Thank you. Follow up. Wow.
I don't know that I am writing so I can't say that you can respond but how many people? How many? Yeah, sure.
Sorry. I didn't answer that product question. Um, so that last team I was speaking of had a total of 17 members on the team, and our team was responsible for the performance and budget for over 1000
agents.
But my direct team was 17.
Thank you for that response. Sure.
Question three will be Commissioner Bernard. I have right here. Sorry about that. Okay, no, that's fine. Okay. After
reading here, yes. Oftentimes we have placed under what before I read this question. I want to comment briefly about the package that you gave us. First of all, I want to thank you. I'm used to dealing with people and an employment situation where they have sent cover letters, but they have documented what they've done like you have with respect to your certificates, your education, everything and what your letters of reference, your package has a recommendation letters, letters of people who work with you who are commenting about you, and they did do so in considerable detail. So I want to thank you for being totally professional in terms of seeking this position, which is a professional position. So I'm very impressed. By what you've done. This is not the minimum minimis just takes a lot of time and a lot of work. I know putting all these little boxes together. I have no ability to do this personally. So I just want to tell you, and including what our pictures on it and all that is very, very exceptionally well done. Thank you. Now the question is, oftentimes we are placed under pressure, or have conflicting demands for our time at work. multiple projects do at the same time. Two or more people require our time or assistance, two or more requests to complete a project differently. Please describe a time when you were under pressure and experienced conflicting demands at work. Think once you think about that for a moment, but I have one more comment to make with respect to my colleagues. We have your employment application with the city of Detroit. This is the same employment application that people who want to be a garbage worker fill out or want to be a summer lifeguard. So I urge my colleagues to pay attention to the package and not to this application. This is not an application for a professional position. This is the standard employment application that high school graduates complete. Okay, back to the point, your My question, the question was, oftentimes again we are placed under pressure, or we have conflicting demands for our time at work. multiple projects do at the same time. Two or more people require our time or assistance, two or more requests to complete a project differently. Please describe a time when you were under pressure and experienced conflicting demands at work.
Thank you. Okay. Thank thank you for that Commissioner. Um, so, there are different types of conflicting demands, right? The most common one that most people talk about is relation to time, right? So, um, you know, different timeframes and time management that's common, I have effective strategies for resolving those routinely was more challenging is when the competing demands involve, like multiple stakeholders with competing priorities and demands around the same initiative. So for example, multiple commissioners with different perspectives, multiple community perspectives CPDs perspective, city leadership's perspective, legal opinions, and you know, so all of that together is a very complex stakeholder matrix to say the least. Um, when I was a director, our company ran into major and prolonged staffing shortages due to COVID and other factors. Around that same time, the association that we're accountable to made the quality program standards more challenging as well. My team supported multiple segments and directors similar to how multiple districts have each each have their own Commissioner. So those segments have unique priorities and risk factors that had to be considered when trying to balance staffing levels, and quality of performance. Also, each of my vendors had their own goals to acquire more business and make more money. And then we had contracts and legal compliance guidelines I had to be adhere to. So again, we're talking about a very complex stakeholder matrix. To meet that challenge. I assigned each of my managers again has seven to be dedicated to support two or three segments each and the directors for those segments. That way they had intimate knowledge of the unique needs of those areas. And that helped them to make the appropriate fire or retain decisions in each area to balance the quality of work with staffing levels. I also work with our training area to develop training strategies to get staff ready to work more quickly as well as with better quality and I negotiated contract terms with our vendors to produce Win Win agreements with them to meet their priorities as well as our own. Finally, I kept our compliance and legal liaisons in the loop at every step to make sure that we adhere to all rules and regulations. So um, so that's the approach that I took with that in as far as the outcome both the staffing levels and the quality improved and cost at different rates to customize rates for each segment, but at rates that that made the entire division to be successful overall. And so stakeholders met in the middle on outcomes that everyone could live with.
Just can you target your response to that question, that what you know about to be LPC and about a law enforcement and oversight?
Sure. Um, so, again, the BLP see is part of a complex stakeholder matrix as well. I mean,
we've got the
elected commissioners as well as the appointed commissioners. And in my view of of the meetings over time, each of you have different styles, each of you have different approach to how you want things done and you're bringing your concerns from your constituents to the meetings. And that brings a whole other level of complexity. Some people are very focused on one thing and some are focused on something else and we want it to come out this way or that way. In addition to that, you've got the department over here who's trying to accomplish certain things. And that doesn't always align with what the residents want. We've got I'm sure direction coming from city leadership as well. Sometimes you have to go for a legal opinion for something. There's a charter that's got to be referenced. There's just a lot of different pieces. And so when you're trying to deal with a certain issue, like like an incident, you know, I'm with the officer and you've got residents over here saying we want to see the footage. And then for some reason we can't show the footage or we can't talk about what we saw on the footage, you know, it's just a lot to balance with that. And so, it's important to understand what all the stakeholders are trying to accomplish and the board's responsibility is to the community first, while still maintaining positive and collaborative relationships with the department as well. So, um, I don't know I hope that answers answers your question. There's, there's a proposal in the packet on community engagement. And on one of those slides, there's an example of how that matrix that I used with the board of directors that I supported, how something similar to that will be helpful with the board in order to give each Commissioner the type of support that you need and the attention that you need to meet the needs of your constituents. So yeah, that's, that's what I have for them.
Thank you. But I just wanted help. So you could tell I appreciate you putting tabs on this letter, no problem, which for the proposal that was that's what you were referencing.
Yes. Says proposal.
Okay.
Thank you. Thank you. Question for around communication will go to commission a burden unless you are conceding that question again. I'm going to
I'm going to abstain because I don't agree with the process and these questions are for not prepare by me they will prepare about a board I'm going to abstain on agree with this process. Perfect.
So I will ask question four around communication which is as follows tell us about a time when it was necessary to respond to someone who became verbally abusive, or may have been difficult to communicate with if you have never encountered this situation, how would you respond?
Okay.
So I'm going to
differentiate between that verbal abuse coming from staff or from some other stakeholder so very quickly from staff, if there's a staff member on my team that's being verbally abusive or difficult to work with that doesn't fit into the culture of the teams that I build. So add approach that similar to how I answered the previous questions conversations to determine Skill versus Will action plans to address the root cause if possible, and then if it continues, documented, discipline steps up. To including including termination. For other stakeholders, though, there has to be even more of a reliance on the relationship. And I try to establish my relationships with the foundation of mutual respect. So if someone becomes verbally abusive, it's not possible for us to achieve the desired outcomes of either party. So return to respect this critical order move forward. And you'll see my background is customer service. So you already know. I've had an opportunity to talk to plenty of Ira callers and and I'm causative escalated to me and leadership and have dealt with all of that. I'm gonna give you an example though, from my experience as an emergency medical technician, though, I am a licensed EMT, I work for a private company. I don't work for the city or anything, and I often transport patients that are in mental health prices. So a few weeks ago, my partner and I arrived to an ER to transport a patient to a mental health hospital and the nurse and I walked into the patient room and as soon as I started introducing myself, the nurse really the nurse like quickly went up to this patient. She had equipment all in her hand. She told the patient, she was getting ready to leave and start trying to put the blood pressure cuff on the patient. The patient escalated immediately. She said she wasn't going she started cursing, she threatened to hit the nurse. The nurse threatened to medicate her, which made the patient more upset. It was just going bad. So security and a few other staff members start to gather at the door and they were like ready to take this lady down. Now, we certainly could have restrained her physically or chemically but my preference is to get the patient's buy in if at all possible. so I gently asked the nurse if I could relieve her. And I approached the patient not too close, but I didn't have anything my hands I left them visible. And as she was yelling I calmly asked her several times a black speak for a moment. And finally she led me I introduced myself and my partner. I told her what we were there to do. She explained she didn't want to go that this was illegal. She complained about how she had been treated in the ER, and I listened to her. I acknowledged her concerns. I explained what we need to do in the moment, which was go and told her some options. She had to address her complaints after she got out of the hospital, but I kept my tone calm and slowly she started to match my tone. I explained to her what she could expect at the hospital and that we would treat her well. I negotiated some terms with her like she didn't want her vitals taken which is fine. But she did have to put on her seatbelts on on the stretcher and by the and she willingly got on our stretcher and went with us and the rest of the transport was uneventful.
Thank you for that. Um, just as a reminder, we have approximately eight minutes left for this interview. Your question and that will go to Mr. Ferguson.
All right. Here, here we go adults. This is business acumen. What do you believe is the best way to manage expectations of many different stakeholders? Okay,
is that is that the full question?
I'm gonna do that part first. Okay. If you can explain, you know, experience you had with doing that.
Gotcha. Okay, so I'm gonna go back to supporting the, the board of directors in my role as a as a director of Independent Business Partner operations. Just to kind of add to what I talked about that before I will reiterate all of that, um, we had each segment, they had their director, and we also had other stakeholders that were involved. So what I did in that case is I set up a matrix reporting relationship for my managers. So each of my managers like I mentioned, were assigned to several directors and I created we had these matrix meetings that include once a month that included the manager, each director they support it and myself, and I developed a matrix template in Excel that had the manager's goals on the left and each role and those goals tied to each of the directors to have each of directors for the areas what goals they had, okay. Each month, a manager will update that matrix to show the performance metrics and activities they live with their vendors to work toward those goals for the director. And the manager will present that to us in the matrix meeting. We provide feedback, additional direction office support, and those matrix meetings were extremely effective. The directors got the support that was customized that they needed. They were able to direct the managers focus even though the managers reported to me and I was there to maintain alignment where appropriate and ensure we remain within our scope of responsibility and that we maintain alignment with compliance and legal. I got to hear firsthand from the directors what they were expecting, so I could then hold my managers accountable and support them in the commitments that we made to our stakeholders. In my portfolio, there's a letter from one of the directors that I supported on Lewis and he reinforces how awesome this model work to support his team as well as others. And then like I mentioned, in the proposal, there's an example of a similar structure that will be effective for VPC if you would choose to adopt that.
Thank you. Sure, no problem.
So that will conclude the questions that we have, are there any questions that you'd like to ask the board?
I do have a couple of questions.
And what would the
board be looking for for the new secretary to accomplish in like the first 3060 90 days?
I'll start with that answer or that question. I won't give you a 3060 90 Because I believe that onboarding is probably going to be key with meeting those different stakeholders including commissioners, including the Office of the Chief including, you know, the city HR law department. There are a variety of stakeholders that this person should meet first in the 30 in the first 30 days. But when you start heading into the 16th is when I would at least expect to see organizational structure. So doing a complete review of current state when it comes to staff, a review of current state when it comes to needs any gaps that we have when it comes to personnel. Secondary to that once you start heading 60 into 90 is doing a thorough review of our current processes. I think the biggest arm that we have is the Office of Chief Investigator which you you may be aware that that position is going to be also filled as part of this process. We have interviews later today. So it's working in tandem with that selected candidate. To review processes make sure that they are in alignment with best practices more than anything else, and that there are no discrepancies, including a prior year review, as well as planning a half. Okay, three minutes. Anyone else want to add to that or should we allow her to ask another question? Hi.
My, I would expect that you would you analyze the capabilities of all existing staff, establish, understand their role and what they're trying to accomplish. Some people have a lot of experience and that's very valuable to you in terms of getting into a management role within an organization. And then secondly, to meet with the board and determine both our individual and collective goals so that you could be responsive to if you will, your board. That That to me is critical and as as Mr. Hernandez said, is equally important. Our primary responsibility under the charter is OCI. So you essentially would be an over that person as well because you're running the whole organization. And I'd expect you to to look at the capabilities of that staff. And that put that person has to work obviously, you know, you know with them very, very well because they are selected by us as well as there's no question about that, but but certainly to to get a hold on the operation with with an expression of what your future goals are for the commission. I'm a milestone person. I want the commission to be all that it can be not a piece of what it can be like it is right now. I want it to really serve the community. I want to be the 600 pound gorilla at the table. That's Coleman used to say he was he said he definitely I remember him saying that was when I was working with him. So I want us to give that kind of respect. Like City Council does not and other bodies within the city. And so I would appreciate that kind of initiative as well. And I want to build our public persona. I want us to be really the best not just saying we're the best.
Thank you. And with that we have about a minute left. Mr. Tipton, can you wrap us up? Sure.
Again, Miss Shaw, thank you for the time to meet with us. We appreciate you coming in this morning to be with us to take this interview on as the board is still in the process of interview the candidates. Once the selection has been made by the board. We'll be reaching out to that person to present an offer as listed to start date.
Okay, thank you so much for the time I appreciate every one of you.
Thank you. Yes,
well at this time we will take a very quick five minute recess. We will reconvene exactly at 1113 because we have an 1115 interview Mr. Tipton
were confirmed. Correct? Yeah. Confirm for the 1115 interview.
Thank you. We'll recess recording stopped
The way I can do that. Recording. Alright.
Are we are we good? So we will reconvene from our recess and continue the interview process for board secretary Mr. Tipton. Are you on the line sir?
I'm here.
If you could give us a quick intro and if we could pull up the next candidate on screen.
Oh, yes. The next candidate is Robin Underwood because someone Britton if possible, can you bring her in the room please?
Can we spotlight Miss underwear please? And Robin I start an ever access to start a video
isn't Kenny This is not I don't ask him. Thank you
sir. You sorry. So go ahead.
Good morning, Miss Underwood. How are
you? Good morning. I'm great. How are you doing? Very great.
My name is John recruiting here with the city of Detroit. I have the honorable board. of police commissioners in front of you as well. And today we're going to interview for our board secretary position. The board has about six questions they're going to ask you for questions two through six are kind of situational. So we're looking for a specific situation that Tasha had to take on the action you took toward that test and then the end result when Give me your response. Thank you. Okay. The board will introduce themselves and then I'll give a brief overview of the position and then we'll jump right into the q&a. Thank you.
Mr. Ferguson Feel
Good morning, Miss Underwood. Can you line yourself up one side of you is lighting the other side is dark.
No, the light is behind her at the window. Oh,
there you go. Keep keep moving forward a little bit. Once you can face more or keep coming forward. So
yeah, just to make sure we don't lose connection. Go. Okay.
Okay, how are you doing? My name is Brian Ferguson. I'm border police commissioner. I'm the chairperson of the board of police commissioners and I represent district one.
Nice to meet you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, my name is any hold on board of police commissioners. Vice Chair at large.
Good morning Vice Chair hope. How are you doing?
I'm excellent. How are you? I'm great. Thank you.
Good morning, ma'am. This is Fernandez. I am chairperson of this committee, which is the personnel and training committee, otherwise known as HR.
Thank you. Good morning. How are you?
Hi, I'm attorney Linda Barnard. I represent
district two.
It's a pleasure meeting you.
Commissioner Nair. Good morning. Good morning.
Good morning out Commissioner Willie Burton represent the fifth district.
Good morning, Commissioner Burton.
So, I'm gonna read you a brief description. The Border Police Commissioner Secretary role under general direction least a day to day operations of the board of police commissioners to enhance its overall effectiveness in the delivery of oversight services and initiatives in alignment with the city charter. The Open Meetings Act and the board's bylaws. supervise all Border Police Commission employees in the performance of their duties in accordance with the city charter and board bylaws. Performance moderately complex administrative duties to ensure that the board members have accurate advice and resources to execute their duties as outlined outlined in the city charter. Managers board meetings, logistics and records and this distributes board meeting minutes and preparation for the board meetings, prepare resolutions and forms reviews and answer stakeholders inquiries on behalf of the board and provides counsel to the board on complex issues related to governance to ensure efficient delivery of public safety services that ensure fair, constitutional and transparent policing, policy and oversight.
Thank you,
Commissioner Hernandez.
Thank you, sir, for the intro. I will give you the same. At this point. I think it's become a disclaimer that we're giving every single candidate around this position. It may be titled board secretary, but I'll quote my colleague, Miss Barnard and saying that that is somewhat of a misnomer. And it's not entirely accurately this board of Secretary position. It's named that way in compliance with city charter as mandated by charter for us to name it that way. However, it's actually the top level position as part of the board of police commissioner's staff. So this position will have responsibility over the Office of Chief Investigator which is our primary arm of policing oversight on board. And really in total, I think there's probably close to maybe 30 Plus staff. Yes, my my correct in saying that. So it certainly is not an administrative role. It is entirely and again, I'll quote Miss Bernard and saying that it's a an executive director type roles. It is a an equivalent to a CEO and a nonprofit in that capacity, so we will get started. We each have questions that will ask of you and at the end of it will allow you to ask the board questions or rather this committee questions about the position so if you don't have any preliminary questions, we will get started with ours.
You may proceed.
Thank you, man. So question one and each of these is going to be based off of a dimension that we call. The first one is around technical experience. Please briefly explain how your previous experience and or education have prepared you for this position. Tell us about any experience that you may have in civilian oversight. Law enforcement the legal field in administration or working with a board.
I am a former elected city clerk back in 1991. I'm the first black elected city clerk city of ecourse. My experiences I have a master's degree in Community Development. I've attended three years of the clerk's Institute, state of Michigan within Central Michigan, and an International Institute of municipal clerks. I am a certified municipal clerk. I'm presently deputy clerk and being in that position since 1991. intermittently as the city clerk and then deputy city clerk has given me the opportunity and experience as well as the education to proceed with this position. Namely with oversight with the Open Meetings at the FOIA, the Michigan Sunshine laws, and technically, I'd normally have a full complement staff who does a lot of the technical work as far as recording and transcribing and the dictation of minutes and the proceedings. of the meeting.
Thank you. Is there anything additional you'd like to add before moving to the next function?
I'm ready to proceed. Thank you, ma'am.
Question two will be Miss Holt.
Good morning again. Miss Underwood. Your question will fall on the under the title demonstrates self confidence. And as it's been stated before, your responses are to be unique to various experiences you've had as you interact with folks, look staff or supervisors or whomever discuss options you would consider in handling someone who repeatedly refuses to comply with reasonable directives or is openly disrespectful in your answer. Describe your overall management leadership style, and tell us how many employees you have supervised.
I with a couple men have over at least 20 employees, a staff of about five temporary employees when I was with the city of Detroit clerk's office and we were under the emergency management at the time. My my self confidence I'm God confident. I do have a bachelor's degree in English I have a master's degree in Community Development, but my my compliment is that my my self assurance. I'm appointed by God and I just want to say that I feel that with my my background in the clerk's office with the being a certified municipal clerk gives me assurance to to seek out assistance. If there's a problem with the with any employee, I was sick Human Resources direction or I would seek legal staff. A lot of times I don't have the knowledge how to proceed. I seek help in those areas of the human resources, the legal department, as well as the board of police commissioners do an assessment. I don't have all the answers to all problems. But I have had some experiences that yes, I've encountered employees who who do not follow the directives that are placed or put in place. Usually there's a standard operational procedure. Usually there's policies from the Human Resources perspective. Usually there's policies from the law department perspective. And those hopefully are in place written in place that guides us to follow and to to move forward. Again, I would seek out counsel, I will seek out those who are in the position to handle any problem employees to assist me make an assessment and also to to move forward. Thank you. It was experienced with that. I mean, it normally happens because we're in the clerk's office being elected. A lot of times you have not a lot there are situations that I've had that because I was elected there thinking, Oh, I'm just here on a temporary basis. But when I take that oath of office, I'm there to be there permanently, if that's the will of the people. A lot of times you are or in my experience I've been placed in a position where I had to, to file a grievance or employee filed agreements. Well, there are boards and what they call the Human Rights board. They are boards with the with the personnel department that again, I say you seek guidance and you seek assistance from those who are qualified to assist you in handling any any problems with any employees or or any situations.
Thank you again for Miss Underwood. Again. Could you give us one unique exam examples where you've interacted with blatant disrespectful staff people and how it was the outcome of that situation?
Yes, um, there was a situation that I had with the city of Detroit where it didn't directly was blatant towards me, but it was blatant towards one of the officials in the department and it was brought to my attention that I needed to to address it when they onboard it with the clerk's office at the administrative level. They were in the elections department, and they were brought over to be placed in the clerk's department, downtown administrative building. So onboarding, there are policies in place and I follow those policies to the letter. When you onboard somebody there is a step that you take different procedures, different materials that you handle, that you hand them, they sign off on it, there's a file that you keep you keep a record, you keep a paper trail, and you have them sign up. So if it wasn't for the fact that I had that that in place, and I do have some experience with human resources, that was one of my first official jobs after I graduated from Fisk University at Comerica Bank and employee relations and staffing. So I understood dealing with union employees. There are steps step one, verbal step two, you meeting with the the steward or the union steward. Step three, it can be a written procedure, and you go for it. We had to go to the Human Rights Report. If it wasn't for the fact that I followed the standard operating procedures and onboarding, whether this was a newly hired employee. Or someone who was transferred from another division of the Department. I followed those guidelines. I had that employee sign off that they received and we went over and checked off every step if it wasn't for that human rights. The Human Rights Department said that and indicated that because of I followed those guidelines, we were able to move forward the Human Rights department to administer whatever level of and I can't say punishment, but whatever level that the employee had to go through to remedy you know, it's not all about it's not all about sanctioning the employee or, or saying they did something wrong. Maybe they need a little assistance. If it's attendance, maybe they need to go through attendance review steps or when human resource so it's not always about punishing or writing up an employee. Maybe there are steps we can take to help remedy because we don't know sometimes what that person is dealing with in their personal life. So if we can do something to assist to bring them on to gear or steer them in the right direction, and support them, and we have those supports in place, and then we can help out with hopefully, that employee will move on on the right track.
Thank you, Miss Underwood.
You're welcome.
Question three, I believe is Miss Bernard.
Hi, how are you?
Great, thank you.
Oftentimes we are placed under pressure, or have conflicting demands for our time at work, ie multiple projects do at the same time. Two or more people require our time or assistance, two or more request to compete to complete a project differently, et cetera. We use describe a time when you were under pressure and experienced conflicting demands at work.
That's the life of a clerk. That's the life of and I say clerk because it can be transcribed as the secretary to the board. We are we are tasked with multitasking here we have elections here we have the the board or the what is it the the board or the elected officials that we have to support we have budget we have so many different areas that we are tasked with. thing is you prioritize and also I would also implement a workflow. If someone needs something done. Well. You fill out a form and you put what the task is the time it was received. When do you expect it to be accomplished? And you pretty much have to assess how what the priority is and also knowing how to delegate. Hopefully, there's a new set there's over 30 plus staff members, the board secretary can handle everything so you know how to delegate you know how to implement procedures on how to deal with workflows, and how to deal with with the different measures and the different tasks that are needed to accomplish the overall goal of success for the board of police commissioners.
Thank you. Can I Can you be more specific about a specific situation where you were dealing with the issue of organizing, planning and prioritizing work? How did you navigate it?
Well as the clerk as the clerk to the elected officials to the mayor and council again, I've had the task of
right. Let me just one question. In terms of your conflicting demands between the city and the mayor. You're talking about the city of Detroit, correct?
Well, I have been with the city of ecourse when I started out as an elected official with the city clerk. So I can use this as a broad spectrum as a clerk. I'm dealing with the mayor and the council as clerk. It doesn't necessarily have to be with the city of Detroit.
I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.
I say doesn't necessarily have to be the city of Detroit. I started out as the elected city clerk city of ecourse. So I've had experiences that there were elected officials or even department heads because the clerk's office is the disseminator of information. We are the one stop shop for departments for citizens, for elected officials, for people just wanting information. So again, I developed a form that a workflow if it's something that you are seeking assistance with, then you fill out this form. You I've had them fill out forms that I would have to prioritize. And then I would delegate to either it was another department could be the law department. It was the the city manager's office. I've had experiences where I've received multiple requests to feel something maybe in a day's time again knowing how to delegate that is the priority for me.
But let me understand you made one statement previous to that. We spoke about emergency management. So you were speaking about emergency management for the city of ecourse. Yes,
I've been I've worked with this emergency management, the CFE course I was also with the city of Detroit when they were under emergency management, as well as working with the Detroit public school systems when they were under emergency management.
But with the DPS you weren't a clerk
no I was a long term substitute teacher.
Okay, thank you.
All right. Question four will be Commissioner burden unless he is conceding that question as he asked for every other candidate.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to abstain because that doesn't it doesn't I don't agree with today's process. So I'm going to a stain and these questions were not prepared by individual listeners thinking
perfect I will actually ask you the question that was provided to us by city HR, around communication and managing conflict. Tell us about a time when it was necessary to respond to someone who became verbally abusive, or may have been difficult to communicate with. If you have never encountered this situation, how would you respond?
I've had a situation where a citizen came to the clerk's office and demanded that we post our notices and this is what the city of Detroit demanded that we post our meeting notices, not in the hallway on the main floor where public notices are posted. He brought it to my attention that when they enter the Monroe entrance that you can't go through security if it was in the after hours or the weekend. So I asked him to show me so I had he escorted me I went down to the main floor. And when I looked at the board I said okay, this is where the public notices have been posted for for years and years prior to me working with the city of Detroit and I went and I talked to the building management. And I said how can we post notices so that those citizens who come to the city of Detroit and they can't they're not allowed access into the building after hours or on weekends? How can they be exposed to or able to see any public notices. So when you enter the this common a young municipal center at the Monroe interest, you will see that there is a display now and that display is locked. That display now has your public notices, and that was due to an A citizen who would often appear at the council meetings, always had a negative comment or always was kind of belligerent. But when he showed me what his his contention was, I listened to him. And I asked him to calm down at the counter. I asked him to walk me to what he was dressing. He showed me what he was. And I thought to myself, he is correct. So I went and I went and I made some assessments. I talked to the clerk I said you know he has a point there that the person or people who may live downtown or who are riding the bus system and they're coming they just want to know what's going on and through the open meetings that we need to allow access pretty much on a 24/7 basis that they are allowed this information. A lot of people there's a digital divide in the city of Detroit. A lot of people don't have access to the to the computer or to the internet. So we need to ensure that our citizens are taxpaying citizens are allowed to know what's going on with the study and at the city. And if you win, like I said, if you walk into the building now that display is there and it's under locking key that we are now and hopefully they are continuing with that and placing those meeting, meeting notices to adhere to the Open Meetings Act the Sunshine laws of the state of Michigan.
Thank you so much. You're welcome. Question five Mr. Ferguson business acumen
Yes, this is business acumen. What what do you believe is the best way to manage expectations are many state different stakeholders as part of it,
okay, repeat their question again.
What do you believe is the best way to manage expectations of many different stakeholders?
The best way to manage the expectations of many stakeholders or you have laws just like I mentioned, your Sunshine laws, your open meetings that come in we have we have policies and procedures that are already in place. We have laws that are in place, and I think that's the best way to manage the expectations of stakeholders. They do have rights, and we as elected officials or you as the honorable body you also have rights but to meet those expectations. let's adhere to the laws that are in place and let's hold them to the letter of the law.
Now, can you can you give me an example of a situation you ran into that had to deal with that?
Well, I mean, just my example of the the Open Meetings Act with the being x having access to the to the meetings. They are supposed to be accessible 24 hours seven at least 18 hours prior to a meeting. So if a person doesn't have access to that notice, and like I said the digital divide in Detroit at the time back in 2014. And even still today, we need to address to meet the expectations of our stakeholders, you know, not all times that they come to our meetings and they have a problem. Sometimes this is good to listen and like I said, we have laws in place. Let's make it accessible to all and let's respect the citizenry, the stakeholders of all.
Thank you so much. At this point, that will conclude the questions that we have, are there any questions that you have for this body? I just want to
thank you for the opportunity to come before this honorable body to spread to express my interest in the position of Secretary to the board of police commissioners. You have a reorganization plan. What are your major points of contention in your reorganization plan and how was the Secretary's position aligned with meeting those goals?
So here's here's the I'll take that question. It's a good one. The simple answer to it is because this position is again, the executive level or executive director position. Part of the responsibility that we're looking and expecting this person to implement is exactly what you're asking. It's a thorough review of current state when it comes to personnel or staff, the processes that exist that are in place, it's making sure that those processes are in alignment and that the skill set is on par with the expectations of the board and what we need. Also conducting a thorough review of the Office of Chief Investigator their process their policies, their approach to investigating non criminal citizen complaints. So again, the expectation is that the individual that's selected for this role, would bring that level of expertise and that level of perspective to be able to implement any other comments that anyone wants to add.
No, I don't have any. We're very
we have about five minutes left. If you have any other questions. If not, we will take it over to Mr. Tipton.
Well, because of that reorganization plan, and this position has been with an interim secretary to the Board of Commissioners. I'd like to know in order to see and I plan to succeed as the secretary to the board of police commissioners if given the opportunity. How will you as the board invest in my training my support evaluations assessment?
Yeah, I'll take that one too. It's a great question. Your success is not just our success, it's the community's success, because that's who we represent. So we have a plan in place in partnership with city HR and other stakeholders in the city to be able to provide a very great onboarding experience for whoever is selected. That includes, you know, one on ones and intros with the Office of the Chief, with city, HR city law department, all of the stakeholders that we work with that are relevant, including the community as well as at various community means. So we want to set you up for success because ultimately again, if you're the selected candidate, we want you to be able to implement some great things for citizens so that we can then be prepared to provide the civilian oversight that we're tasked with delivering on and the other times,
if I could comment because we are a volunteer board, we are not a we are not employees. of the city of Detroit. We're not like the Wayne County Commission commissioners or any other body. We are volunteers who are elected and we are volunteers are unpaid. So we look to a staff to develop things and bring things to us and a very comprehensive manner in terms of what I would be looking for, for in terms of the view if you were the candidate, you mentioned, you know what sort of training skills, I will look for you to tell us and that's what I've done previously, as I tell my board when I need I said I've been to Harvard, to the executive to executive their executive management programs. I told him what I wanted to do that Cornell for two weeks, did that. I I mean, my job our job is to propose your job was to dispose and in order to do that, I think you need you know, just an incredible network and support system but also you need skills development. Business is very different now than it was you know, has been for the last 10 years. It's very, very different. And so there's an investment there quite frankly, I think any director or that we will be making it in a new and a new I'm calling Executive Director, BOARD SECRETARY that hasn't been made here today. It's not just Nico, it'd be way beyond that. In order to be progressive, run things, generate revenue, generate relationships that are necessary for this board to be successful like I'm supposed to be.
Thank you last night at your board meeting I was in attendance and I listen to the board speak of attendance from the community. And that's something that I would like to assist with. Again, my master's degree is in community development. And I was thinking as I was sitting there, what can I do to to bring a more of an attendance at greater attendance from your your citizenry, because I think that's important. And sometimes it's just the little things that can help and if it's just a snack, or some water, or little things, but that's something that I would like to to assist with an attendance at your your main headquarters attendance and also your community, your community meetings, and that was a beautiful building I had I did not know that it existed. So coming there and being in attendance. I appreciate that. Thank you. Well, thank you.
Yeah, we got a I'm sorry to. Now I recall this underwear because you and I were leaving at the same time. And you were you in absolute awe of that facility.
You mentioned it. I remember that too, right.
Yes, yes.
Thank you. Investing in some of your time to come to that meeting as well.
All right, in attendance at your other meetings prior to 2020. According to the COVID I'm the daughter of a retired Chief of Detectives.
Oh, thank you so much, ma'am. It's 1155 Mr. Tipton, could you close
this out? Yes. So Miss Underwood again. Thank you for being with us this morning. The board has continued to interview for several for this position. They have a position, once concluded has been done and made a selection. I'll be reaching out to that person to present a offer and solicit a start date at that point in time.
Thank you. I appreciate you, Mr. Tipton.
Thank you. Have a good afternoon.
Thank you. Have a blessed day.
And we will go to recess until our next interview which is for Chief Investigator beginning at 1210. Correct. Okay, thank you, Mr. mudras. And to the lunch. No, I should have planned that. Well. I'll pick up Okay, so then we
will quick we were going to have some time for lunch. Can we have a couple of cancellations or And now Now, when we come back I'll explain that when we come back.
Now let's get to know now who was to
so let me run. I have the list can you just say if confirmed or not? Courtney Blake's at 1210. That's confirmed. Okay. James Jones at 1255.
So James did not respond. Email or any phone is not in service at this time. So I'm not sure if he was going to show up or email was sent out to him. However, they did not confirm.
Okay, Paul Lilly at 140. Paul as confirmed Bradley Martin at 225.
No, Riley is x. That's the one who needed a different time who indicated that?
Okay, and then drew Warfield 310. Confirmed. Okay, so then we will see Yes, well, we'll reconvene at 1210 until 1250 and then we'll have a break until 140. So we'll have about a 15 minute break. 15 minute break but after we interview this first candidate
at 1210
Alright, perfect. Thank you so much. Yeah, we'll recess. Thank you. So when are the recording stopped? Off? 1020 Minutes.