Portland council postpones police oversight workshop, moves into executive session on General Assistance audit

The Portland City Council voted 6-1 to postpone a planned workshop on police oversight to March 10 and then voted unanimously to enter an executive session to discuss the city's administrative appeal of a Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) audit of its General Assistance (GA) program and the potential impact of the department's proposed Rule 26.

Councilor Ali moved to adjourn and postpone the workshop so council members could review documents and "do the due diligence," saying, "I did send an email to all of us this morning that our colleague, Councilor Sides, have asked a lot of questions and requests for some information to be shared with us. And looking at that, I want to make a motion to adjourn and postpone this meeting so that, we can have that document and do the due diligence, and then come into the meeting and prepare to go into that work." Councilor Sykes seconded the motion. The roll call produced six votes in favor and one opposed.

Councilor Sykes told colleagues she supported the delay, citing recent materials from the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement and the need to review both national case studies and the city's recent local work. "I've actually done quite a bit of research on the topic of police oversight," Sykes said. "They've done a lot of case studies, and I think it would really behoove us as a city to look at some of those case studies and see how things look, as well as get information that we need from our our own process that's been going on for the last 2, 3 years. So I I appreciate that. I think it would it'd be a good thing to have that information before we actually have a workshop."

Before adjourning the public portion of the meeting, the mayor said that members would "retire to Room 209 for a briefing from counsel" on the GA matters. Corporation Counsel read the legal basis for a closed session, moving the council to go into executive session "pursuant to 1 M.R.S. section 405(6)(E), for the council to discuss with its attorneys the city's administrative appeal from a decision of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services concerning a general assistance program audit and the impact of the department's proposed Rule 26 on the city's general assistance program." Councilor Ali moved to enter executive session; Councilor Phillips seconded. The motion passed unanimously, and the council recessed into executive session at 5:06 p.m.

The public record from the meeting does not include deliberations or votes taken inside the executive session. The council scheduled the public workshop on police oversight for March 10; speakers noted some council members may attend the National League of Cities conference that same day and discussed possibilities for remote participation or an alternate date in June if needed.

Because the executive session was authorized under 1 M.R.S. A7 405(6)(E), the city did not disclose details of its attorney-client discussion, including specifics about the administrative appeal or any legal strategy discussed in Room 209.