Public record • Police & Fire governance • 2016 onward

From direct Council control to “reimagining public safety.”

In 2016 Thomas Small signed the official argument for keeping the Police and Fire Chiefs directly accountable to the elected City Council. By June 2020 he was serving on the Council’s Police Liaison Subcommittee. The Council then began a public-safety review the City later described as examining how to shift resources and reduce reliance on law enforcement. This project follows that record forward and compares it with later votes by Freddy Puza and other Council members.

Thomas Small record What “reimagining” meant Freddy Puza votes

Reading rule: exact votes are shown when recoverable; later consequences are labeled as later consequences; secondary-source political material is separated from City records. Readers can decide how the documented direction fits their own public-safety priorities.

Plain English

What did “reimagining public safety” mean in Culver City?

Culver City’s own documents describe concrete changes in staffing, response models, oversight and policy development — not just a slogan.

8sworn police positions eliminated in FY2021/227% of the sworn force; four replaced by civilian positions and four vacant positions eliminated.

$1.5Mallocated for a Mobile Crisis Intervention ServiceDesigned for specified mental-health, drug-use, homelessness and other well-being calls.

90 daysfor the 2020 public-safety reviewThe City says the review examined shifting resources and reducing reliance on law enforcement.

3–22023 vote excluding the Reimagining Public Safety ElementFreddy Puza and Yasmine-Imani McMorrin voted against excluding it.

2016Keep chiefs under Council

Measure CA fails after Small and four co-signers argue against transferring Police and Fire Chief authority to the City Manager.

June 2020Police Liaison + Mayor’s Pledge

Small is documented on the Police Liaison Subcommittee; the City says the entire Council supported authorizing the Mayor’s police-reform pledge.

July 2020Review services and resources

Council launches a review of use of force and broader public-safety services, resources and responsibilities.

2020–2023General Plan policy track

GPAC and a Policing and Public Safety TAC develop policy, actions and metrics for a proposed General Plan element.

After SmallStaffing + non-police response

Later Councils eliminate eight sworn positions and fund a mobile crisis response model.

Important boundary: the eight-position reduction and Mobile Crisis funding occurred after Small left office. The Small-era record establishes his Police Liaison role, Council-wide support for the June 2020 pledge, and the launch of the broader review. It does not make every later decision Small’s personal action.

City Public Safety Review ↗ Sworn-position reduction ↗ General Plan staff report ↗ 2023 vote ↗

Department baseline

What were Police and Fire actually doing?

Policy arguments are easier to evaluate when department performance and training are visible beside them.

Culver City Police Department

These are descriptive figures from CCPD and City publications. They do not by themselves answer whether any particular reform proposal was justified.

3:40average emergency response time reported in 2024The City said CCPD reported one of the fastest response times among Los Angeles County police agencies.

48,311calls for service in 2024CCPD year-end report.

0.23%calls associated with a use-of-force incident in 2024113 force incidents out of 48,311 calls.

02024 incidents in CCPD’s lethal-force category112 of 113 incidents were limited force; one was less-lethal.

Training already included reform-era practices

CCPD’s published training materials document de-escalation and tactical communication, implicit-bias and racial-profiling instruction, procedural justice, crisis intervention, scenario training, and related arrest-and-control instruction.

De-escalationProcedural justiceImplicit biasRacial profilingCrisis interventionScenario training

A precise description for the training sometimes discussed politically as “woke” is procedural-justice, anti-bias, de-escalation and crisis-intervention training.

CCPD training disclosures ↗2024 report ↗2024 RIPA report ↗

Fire: Class 1, accredited, round-the-clock staffing

CCFD is both CFAI-accredited and ISO Class 1. The department says it has maintained Class 1 since 1995. Its emergency-services page reports three engines, one ladder truck, three paramedic rescue units and a battalion-chief vehicle, with 20 personnel assigned to each shift.

Class 1ISO Public Protection Classification

498Class 1 agencies among 38,000+ surveyed nationally in the 2023 ISO assessment

20personnel assigned to each shift

~75%uniformed staff certified as paramedics

CCFD’s Standards of Cover publishes 90th-percentile response performance by risk category and response component. This site does not collapse those distinct measures into a single “average Fire response time.”

ISO rating ↗Accreditation ↗Emergency services ↗Standards of Cover ↗

Starting point • 2016

Measure CA

Measure CA proposed moving appointing authority and reporting responsibility for the Police Chief and Fire Chief from the City Council to the City Manager. It was defeated 10,898 No to 5,958 Yes, leaving direct Council supervision in place.

Small’s recorded position

The City Attorney’s impartial analysis said a YES vote would place the Police Chief and Fire Chief under the direction and supervision of the City Manager; a NO vote would retain the existing City Council relationship.

The official opposition filing was signed by Thomas Small, Meghan Sahli-Wells, Alex Fisch, Kelly Kent and Deborah Wallace.

The opposition argument emphasized direct Council oversight and citizen participation in Police and Fire governance.

Official 2016 results ↗Impartial analysis ↗

The official opposition filing

Page 2 shows the names/signatures of Meghan Sahli-Wells, Alex Fisch, Kelly Kent, Thomas Small and Deborah Wallace.

Thomas SmallAlex FischKelly KentMeghan Sahli-WellsDeborah Wallace

Argument against ↗Rebuttal ↗

Governance consequence to measure

The chiefs stayed directly on the Council’s desk.

Because Measure CA failed, the Police and Fire Chiefs continued to report directly to the City Council rather than the City Manager. That makes the frequency and duration of direct Council oversight a factual research question.

Already documented

Separate Police Chief and Fire Chief performance-evaluation items were before Council in closed session on October 9, 2017.
A Police Liaison Subcommittee reviewed police initiatives and provided Council-member feedback and direction.
By June 2020 Thomas Small was one of the two Police Liaison members.
Public-safety policy later expanded into use-of-force review, resource allocation and General Plan work.

Now being quantified

This project is building a meeting-by-meeting dataset of Police and Fire Chief appearances, performance evaluations, policy briefings, budget questioning and meeting-video duration.

2chief performance-evaluation items already identified for Oct. 9, 2017

2016–20Small-era review window

Nextcount appearances and minutes of direct Council questioning

The record can establish how much direct Council oversight occurred. It cannot establish that questioning made a job “intolerable” without additional evidence such as testimony, correspondence or employment records.

Selected verified votes

Freddy Puza: public-safety policy and equipment

These are selected official votes with clear City summaries. They are not yet an exhaustive scorecard and the matters differ materially.

4selected verified public-safety matters shown

3Puza “No” votes across these selected motions

1Puza “Aye” vote across these selected motions

Nov. 13, 2023Reimagining Public Safety ElementMotion was to exclude the element from General Plan 2045. Puza voted against exclusion.NO

May 28, 2024Police pursuit-mitigation technologyThree-year StarChase contract not to exceed $143,689. Puza voted against approval.NO

Sep. 23, 2024Body cameras, in-car cameras and Taser systemsTen-year Axon agreement not to exceed $4.9 million. Puza voted against approval.NO

Oct. 14, 2024AB 481 military-equipment annual reportPuza voted to approve the report; McMorrin abstained.AYE

Nov. 2023 summary ↗May 2024 summary ↗Sep. 2024 summary ↗Oct. 2024 summary ↗

A “No” vote is not automatically an “anti-police” vote. The site preserves the subject, motion and outcome so readers can distinguish opposition to a technology, a contract, a planning element or a compliance report.

The institutional pathway

Police policy moved through more than ordinary Council votes.

The official record shows Council oversight, a Police Liaison Subcommittee, a public-safety review, General Plan advisory bodies, a dedicated Policing and Public Safety Technical Advisory Committee, and a proposed Reimagining Public Safety Element.

1. Small entered the Police Liaison structure

A May 11, 2020 staff report listed Meghan Sahli-Wells and Goran Eriksson. By June 22, the staff report identified Eriksson and Thomas Small. The exact appointment motion remains under records review, but the membership change is documented.

File 20-934 ↗File 20-1087 ↗

2. Council approved the 2020 review process

The City says the July 2020 review examined options for shifting resources and reducing reliance on law enforcement while reviewing public-safety services, resources and responsibilities.

City history ↗File 21-30 ↗

3. The General Plan became a police-policy channel

City staff later documented that GPAC met twice in 2020 on reimagining public safety and that a dedicated Policing and Public Safety TAC was created to develop General Plan policy, actions and metrics.

The final General Plan credits Noah Zatz as both a GPAC member and a TAC participant and also lists Kelly Kent and Alex Fisch among TAC participants.

2023 staff report ↗Committee credits ↗

4. The City later identified process differences

The 2023 staff report says the Reimagining Public Safety Element was not in the original General Plan scope, received a different review process, and that Police Department staff were not included in the review process or consulted during drafting.

Staff also wrote that, to its knowledge, no California jurisdiction had adopted a General Plan element on reimagining public safety/police reform.

File 24-358 staff report ↗

Political context • separated from City records

How the reform argument was expressed in 2024

The items below come from Culver City Coalition articles supplied for this research. They are useful leads and are labeled separately from official City records.

Campaign-forum quote reported by Coalition

Law enforcement included among groups described as “furthering harm”

“...folks that are furthering harm to our community and to our society.”

The Coalition article attributes this to Yasmine-Imani McMorrin at the June 2, 2024 Culver City Democratic Club candidate forum while discussing categories of support she did not want, including law enforcement.

Coalition article ↗Forum video ↗

Email screenshots published by Coalition

The $200 armed-robbery exchange

“$200 seems like such a low amount. I spend that each time I go to Costco...”

The Coalition article says the email followed a 2022 armed-robbery press release and reproduces screenshots of an exchange with then-Chief Manuel Cid. The article also reports McMorrin asking about the victim’s wealth and the amount stolen.

The original municipal email has not yet been independently retrieved into this project’s evidence archive, so the site treats the Coalition publication as a secondary source pending direct-record verification.

Coalition article ↗

Research lead, not yet a verified quotation: the separate claim that McMorrin said the existence of police causes crime to rise has not yet been located in a primary recording or transcript during this project’s review. It will not be presented as fact until the exact wording is recovered.

Chronological record • oldest to newest

The Small record

Exact votes are shown where the official record exposes them. Older matters remain labeled when the final roll call is still being recovered.

2016

Measure CA opposition

Small signs the official argument against transferring Police and Fire Chief authority to the City Manager

Thomas Small appears with Meghan Sahli-Wells, Alex Fisch, Kelly Kent and Deborah Wallace on the official opposition filing. Voters later rejected Measure CA.

Primary source

Mar. 27, 2017

Legistar File 16-784

Council adopts Resolution 2017-R025 declaring Culver City a Sanctuary City

The resolution addressed CCPD and City practices involving federal immigration enforcement, judicial-warrant requirements, immigration-status inquiries, privacy and fair and impartial policing.

Outcome verified

Matter ↗Resolution ↗

Oct. 9, 2017

Files 18-0358 / 18-0359

Council conducts Police Chief and Fire Chief performance evaluations

Separate closed-session items placed the performance evaluation of each chief directly before the City Council.

Closed session • no public roll call

Mar. 13, 2018

Files 18-0957 / 18-0958

UAV and automated-license-plate-reader proposals

Police technology matters included a UAV purchase/policy discussion and an ALPR expansion with a stated project ceiling of $562,200. Individual roll calls remain under records review.

Roll calls unresolved

May 29, 2018

Police Liaison Subcommittee

Later City records identify this as the subcommittee’s creation date

The City described its purpose as reviewing upcoming Police Department initiatives and providing timely feedback and direction.

Creation date verified retrospectively

May–Jun. 2020

Files 20-934 / 20-1087

Small joins the Police Liaison Subcommittee

May 11 records list Sahli-Wells and Eriksson; June 22 records list Eriksson and Small. The precise appointment motion is still being recovered.

Membership transition verified

June 15, 2020

Mayor’s Pledge

City says the entire Council supported authorizing the Mayor’s police-reform pledge

The pledge committed the City to review use-of-force policy, engage community input, report findings and reform policy.

Council-wide support verified

City history ↗

June 22, 2020

Legistar File 20-1066

FY 2020/2021 budget, appropriations limit and Police/Fire salary schedules

Vote verified

DateJune 22, 2020

ActionAdopted

Moved byAlex Fisch

Seconded byThomas Small

OutcomePassed 4–1

Record ID79214

Councilmember	Vote	Role
Goran Eriksson	AYE	—
Alex Fisch	AYE	Mover
Daniel Lee	NO	—
Meghan Sahli-Wells	AYE	—
Thomas Small	AYE	Seconder

This was the full City budget package; the roll call does not establish a separate position on every individual Police or Fire line item.

Meeting record ↗Official vote data ↗

July 13, 2020

Legistar File 21-30

Council launches use-of-force and broader public-safety review

The City’s retrospective account says Council approved the review process. The individual Small roll call is still being recovered from the older record.

Outcome verified • individual roll call pending

File 21-30 ↗City review history ↗

Parallel profile

Freddy Puza

The Puza profile is being expanded from exact Council votes on police/fire staffing, budgets, cameras, Tasers, pursuit mitigation, AB 481, mobile crisis, oversight, Fire equipment and emergency response.

Source index

Open the records yourself

Secondary material is labeled separately from City records until the underlying primary record is independently retrieved.