Fredericksburg City Council is scheduled to meet Thursday night at 5:30. The City describes the meeting as a “discussion of next steps related to civil unrest.” Council continues to meet electronically. The meeting can be seen: facebook.com/FXBGgov, Cox Channel 84 or Verizon Channel 42 or online at regionalwebtv.com
Part of the meeting includes a discussion of this plan:
June 16, 2020 draft City of Fredericksburg response and recovery plan – calls for reform to address racial inequality and race discrimination.
Immediate phase
1. Description: the immediate phase, over the next three and six weeks, is a continuation of the incident response phase of emergency management. We anticipate that the community will continue to experience permitted and unpermitted demonstrations, including traffic and business disruption, especially in the downtown area. The continued disruption requires continued time, attention, and adaptation of City police and special events personnel. This time period will focus on gathering and preparing for the release of the information related to actions taken from Sunday, May 31st through the first week of June.
After this is accomplished a review by the Citizens Advisory Panel (and/or third party), and then the public will be prioritized. This phase will also include the planning for emergency recovery activities for the community.
2. Goals:
2.1. Continue focus on the safety for protesters and the public as the top priority
2.2. Formalize incident management team and have it meet regularly
2.3. Complete administrative investigation of Use of Force Reports and Incident Command Reports; complete reports and submit for review by Citizen Advisory Panel
2.4. Complete Professional Standards investigation into incidents of all uses of force
2.5. Provide clear information to the public re: City goals and priorities, approach to enforcement
2.6. Maintain/support Police Department and other City staff morale
2.7. Reduce traffic conflicts and disruptions associated with protests
2.8. Seek continuous public feedback for City’s approach
2.9. Obtain supplemental advisors as needed
2.10. Discuss obtaining third party review of law enforcement actions of May 31st/June 1st
2.11. Begin to identify reform topics for further consideration
3. Actions:
3.1. Continue to manage permitted protests
3.2. Continue to provide public safety for unpermitted protests 3.3. Communicate daily reports to the public
3.4. Improve outreach to the downtown business community 3.5. Schedule and hold City Council special meetings as necessary; update on progress; provide for Council discussion and direction/course correction as needed
3.6. City Council approves this plan and requests periodic updates (use visual approach of the two-year priority quarterly updates?)
3.7. Invite “Whole of Community” to participate in the City Council’s response to racial injustice.
3.8. Identify proposed criminal justice reforms, compare to current Fredericksburg actions and make recommendations on a path forward
4. Incident management team:
4.1. City Manager
4.2. Public Information Officer
4.3. Chief of Police
4.4. Police Department Public Information Officer
4.5. Police Captain
4.6. Coordinator of Emergency Management (esp. liaison with Department of Health and Virginia Department of Emergency Management Services)
4.7. City Attorney
4.8. Assistant City Attorney
4.9. Director of Economic Development & Tourism
4.10. Director of Public Works
4.11. Director of IT (Project Management subject matter expert)
4.12. Special Events Supervisor
Intermediate Phase (end of June through end of August)
5. Description: This phase is expected to be characterized by the wind-down of emergency response activities and the turn toward emergency recovery activities. The important work of this phase is to continue to generate actionable proposals for the community’s work over the next biennium. This phase will likely include a special session of the Virginia General Assembly in August, which will include legislative proposals for criminal justice reform. This phase may begin earlier than end of June if emergency response phase ends earlier than expected.
6. Goals:
6.1. Continue work to reduce community disruption associated with protest activities
6.2. Turn the discussion to potential reform measures
7. Activities:
7.1. Continue/maintain Immediate Term actions as needed 7.2. Prepare for General Assembly Special Session
7.3. Identify criminal justice reform proposals and assess whether Fredericksburg Police Department meets the proposed reform element
7.4. Engage community stakeholders and encourage to continue to develop their proposed role in Whole of Community response
7.5. Plan for Whole of Community meeting(s)
7.6. Plan for City Council priority-setting two-day meeting – assess availability/desirability of facilitator
Strategic Planning Phase (September – January)
8. Description: The Council will hear from its community stakeholders through one or a series of “Whole of Community” meetings, in order to obtain input to shape its deliberations during its two-day priority-setting meeting. The Council will then hold its two-day meeting, informed by the community input. The Council will use the theme of racial equality to tie together its priorities for the next biennium and generate a draft statement of its Vision, Desired Future States, and Actions for community review.
9. Goals: The accomplishments of this phase will lay the groundwork for the longer-term City Council and community response to manifestations of racial inequality throughout the City.
10. Activities:
10.1. City Council holds one or more “Whole of Community” meetings with stakeholders. These meetings may be in-person or virtual, depending on the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic and the risk to community health.
10.2. City Council holds its two-day strategic planning meeting.
10.3. City Manager/consultant develops the product of the strategic planning meeting
10.4. City Council publishes draft strategic plan for public input 10.5. City Council adopts strategic plan and encourages its community stakeholders to adopt complementary action plans for the biennium
