Deputy city manager outlines path to community responder program; council asks for gap analysis and timeline

Deputy City Manager Tom presented the city’s work plan for developing a community responder program on May 14, describing three options: enhance existing programs, pilot a small responder team, or implement a larger new responder unit that complements existing emergency-response systems.

Tom told council the proposal builds on years of community engagement and prior work by the Community Justice Center (CJC), Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD), the city’s care team, outreach programs and resource hubs. He said staff would convene an “action team” of municipal staff, community organizations, public- and mental‑health partners, people with lived experience and law enforcement to guide implementation.

Tom described the next steps: interview local service providers to create a gap analysis using a spreadsheet of roughly 38 activity measures and roughly 20 local and regional providers; use the results to draft job descriptions, define training and protocols, and select evaluation metrics. He said communities that have implemented similar programs typically started with roughly one responder per 7,000–10,000 residents; a full implementation could include three to four responders plus a dispatch supervisor, while a pilot might be one to two responders.

Council members debated approach and timing. Alderperson Fabrizio urged stronger coordination of existing programs rather than creating new ones; he asked whether a survey could substitute for interviews. Tom said the interviews would probe nuance and that the gap analysis will make clear where new capacity is needed. Alderperson Kumar, Alderperson Kiel and Alderperson Lehi (as other council members) pressed for timely action: Kumar and Kiel said they favored moving more quickly and some members publicly supported a full implementation rather than a minimal pilot.

Deputy city manager Tom said the Community Justice Center would co‑convene the action team and that outreach to advisory groups and people with lived experience would begin as early as June. Tom also laid out evaluation metrics (about 30 data points) to track dispatch patterns, training, service referrals and system impacts.

On resources, staff said $777,000 from previous budgets has been encumbered to support the work and that at least three full-time equivalent (FTE) positions were added in the 2023 budget. Tom said no immediate council vote was requested; he sought feedback and direction on which model council prefers and pledged to return with a gap-analysis memo and a timetable for pilot or implementation options.

Council members asked staff to provide a one-week window for council questions to be compiled and transmitted to planning, and several members said they want interviews (not just surveys) to capture context and lived experience. No formal action or ordinance was adopted at the May 14 meeting; staff will return with the gap analysis and budget estimates.