The process of selecting Chicago’s next top cop hit another pothole Monday when four of the seven commissioners charged with finding finalists for the job skipped a meeting where they were supposed to select a firm to conduct a nationwide talent search.
The absence of a quorum forced Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability President Remel Terry to adjourn the meeting after taking three brief comments from audience members. Exactly what will happen next is unclear as the clock ticks down on the commission’s 120-day deadline to identify three world-class candidates for the mayor to choose from.
Terry and Sandra Wortham, who comprise the committee’s superintendent search workgroup, were the only members of the commission who showed up for Monday’s meeting at the Chicago Cultural Center. A third member, Anjanette Young, had long planned to join remotely, but Terry said Young could not be admitted because the lack of a quorum prohibited the commission from voting to approve remote participation.
All four commissioners who failed to appear, Anthony Driver Jr., Angelique Guzman, Gina Piemonte, and panel Vice President Angel Rubi Navarijo, are seeking to change the commission’s bylaws so that any topic supported by at least four commissioners can be placed on a public meeting agenda. The issue came to a head after Terry refused to remove Wortham from the search workgroup at the request of some commissioners and then declined to put the matter on a meeting agenda.
The two-person workgroup’s role, according to CCPSA, is to support the search process. But major decisions, including determining which candidates advance to interviews and selecting the three finalists submitted to the mayor, are made by the full commission, with all commissioners having equal votes.
During brief comments on Monday, Terry explained the superintendent search process, saying the commission has only 120 days from the date the superintendent position became vacant, July 15 in this case, to attract applicants, conduct interviews, hold five community listening sessions, and select three finalists for the mayor’s consideration.
Terry said the commission had received six bids in response to a request for proposals from talent search firms and had interviewed the companies. On Monday, the commission was supposed to pick the search firm.
Wortham also spoke briefly, pledging to “work as hard as I can to get the best candidate” and saying she was looking forward to voting so the commission could stay on track with its “very tight timeline to meet our ordinance requirements.”
The effort to remove Wortham, an attorney and former CPD civilian director, only began after former CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling announced his retirement. On July 10, Navarijo sent an email to the commissioners and CCPSA staff calling for the change.
After receiving a public records request from CWB Chicago for Navarijo’s email, CCPSA initially stated that the city’s technology staff had been unable to find it. However, late Thursday evening, the commission provided a heavily redacted copy of the email chain that provides no insight into Navarijo’s reasoning.
CCPSA cited a Freedom of Information Act exemption that allows, but does not require, public bodies to withhold information that is deemed “deliberative” or “pre-decisional.” Citing the same waivable exemptions, the commission also blacked out the email chain responses written by six of the seven commissioners, but noted that both Terry and Wortham explicitly wanted the material they wrote to be released to the public. The commission did not comply with their wishes.
The only commissioner whose response was allowed through the CCPSA censor was Anjanette Young, the newest member of the panel who landed in the spotlight after a botched, mistaken CPD raid on her home in 2019.
“I am still in the process of learning the Commission’s work, getting to know my fellow Commissioners, and understanding the various perspectives that have been shared,” Young wrote. “Rather than forming conclusions prematurely, I would like to allow myself the opportunity to observe, listen, and learn before making any judgments. I believe it is important that I develop my own informed understanding as I become more familiar with my colleagues and the Commission’s processes.”
Young said that “for matters related to this topic” she would “defer to president Terry’s communications regarding this matter.”
On Friday, CWB Chicago emailed all seven commissioners and CCPSA Executive Director Adam Gross, asking them to reconsider the heavy-handed redactions given that transparency and trust are the bedrock concepts upon which CCPSA was formed just a few short years ago. The commission did not respond, and CWB Chicago is now taking the matter to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.
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