COUNCILOR ZORAYA HIGHTOWER: WHY IM VOTING AGAINST THE NOMINATION OF JON MURAD AS CHIEF OF POLICE
I wanted to share my stance on the nomination of Acting Chief Jon Murad (AC Murad) today, having just shared it with him as well. I will not be supporting the nomination for three reasons, as outlined below.
I worked with the Mayor and Councilor Paul on a compromise: we give AC Murad a clean slate and new resources to help him succeed as well as four clear performance objectives. If he meets the objectives, we move forward with his nomination. We all ended the meeting hopeful. However, I just learned this morning that this compromise is off the table. As councilors, too often our only power is vetoing. Although I am still hopeful for improvement, with what I know today, I cannot vote to confirm. I also want to note this is not an easy or political decision for me. Many councilors struggled with this vote, and tonight it maybe just as likely to be a 8-4 as it is to be a 6-6 nonconfirmation.
For the sake of space and because this has already been done in others' statements, including the Mayor's, I won't detail the reasons to confirm Murad's nomination which include his commitment to Burlington and the support he's won from our BPD officers.
1) Lack of commitment to transformation and reform. In my conversations with acting chief Murad, his conversations with the police commission, and his conversations with CNA, he has consistently denied that there is a racial bias problem in the BPD. One of CNA's seven key recommendations after a full operational assessment was simple: "BPD should consider the possibility that the disparities found are driven by bias (implicit or explicit) and proactively address potential bias in officer's behavior or department practices." That this made it to the level of key recommendation speaks to how persistent the mentality is within BPD leadership that there is no problem. And racial bias isn't the only area where acting chief Murad has been unaccepting of transformative policies. In recent public safety meetings he maintained his disagreement with best-practice models recommended by CNA and NACOLE such as citizen oversight of policing . Others from across the aisle have shared with me concerns of his commitment to transformative practices such as overdose prevention and his persistent criticism of State's Attorney Sarah George. If our criteria for hiring a police chief is supporting transformative policing, I need to see real commitment from the acting chief both in supporting these publicly and in moving transformative policies forward.
2) The flawed process that got us to this nomination. In May of last year, Mayor Weinberger announced a new Police Chief Search and then, three months later, the posting of the position. By November 5th, we had two candidates that met the minimum job requirements and the Search Committee, which at that point had significant internal frustrations with the process, recommended not continuing with the current limited pool and refused to interview the candidates. Mayor Weinberger suspended the search altogether. He asked the council for an increase in salary and a commitment to provide the new Chief the resources they needed. I was supportive of this. A week later the Mayor wrote the council another memo with more demands including that the Chief retain leadership over officer discipline. I could not support this. It went against both the ask of thousands of community members as well as the recommendations of the two consulting organizations the City has worked with: NACOLE and CNA. In December, the council passed a resolution asking the administration to move forward with hiring a search firm and allowing the salary to be increased in line with the recommendations of the search firm. The Mayor ignored this ask.
If Mayor Weinberger brought a resolution for the 12th of November with his original asks, I believe we would be ready to make a final offer now. The process that got us here was both contentious and incomplete - AC Murad was never even interviewed by the search committee. I will not move forward with appointing Acting Chief Murad unless the search committee or at least the police commission, recommends this.
3) The criticisms from those who have worked closely with the Acting Chief. Several people are appalled at his behavior when critiqued. We have gotten complaints on this behavior spanning adjectives from 'misogynistic' to 'bullying'. AFSCME, our local government employee union, has asked the council not to make a decision on nominating him until he addresses a management concern. I empathize that the role of Acting Chief is immensely stressful. However, council just removed another City Director unanimously on similar concerns and I don't feel comfortable appointing a new department head when several people have come to me on this. Before I could confirm AC Murad, I would need to see a good-faith effort at resolving the union dispute and a real attempt at improved relationships, especially with the police commission.
