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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; By city councilwoman Beth Gilbert McBride&rsquo;s own admission, the ordinance she&rsquo;s proposing to create a Citizen Police Review Board is just the beginning.
				The eight-page draft that&rsquo;s on the <a href="https://www.wilkes-barre.city/sites/g/files/vyhlif4086/f/agendas/binder1_0-2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">agenda</a> for council&rsquo;s Thursday night meeting could be different from the final product. But, it&rsquo;s the starting point that McBride said is necessary to create a public process to address alleged police misconduct.
				&ldquo;The purpose of the ordinance is to ensure that there is an avenue for citizens to file a complaint. There really isn&rsquo;t a formal process,&rdquo; McBride said Tuesday.
				The ordinance, modeled after what Pittsburgh has in place, has been in the works for a while and coincides with the demands nationally for police reform by Black Lives Matter after the May 25 death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
				There hasn&rsquo;t been a case like that in Wilkes-Barre, but if nothing changes in terms of reform, McBride worries the city could be heading in that direction.
				&ldquo;I have heard numerous complaints about a couple of the same officers over and over again, and that&rsquo;s concerning,&rdquo; McBride said.
				&ldquo;No police department is perfect,&rdquo; McBride said, adding the ordinance is not an &ldquo;attack&rdquo; on police. Her grandfather was a police officer, she said. If the city could improve the police department to prevent something like Floyd&rsquo;s death happening here, &ldquo;why wouldn&rsquo;t we do it,&rdquo; she asked.
				The Wilkes-Barre Police Benevolent Association, the union representing officers in the department, did not respond to a request for comment.
				Previously, the PBA said it had concerns about language in the ordinance that authorizes the board to investigate alleged misconduct, subpoena witnesses, conduct public hearings and recommend actions to be taken by the mayor and chief of police.
				The PBA gave its support to the <a href="https://www.wilkes-barre.city/sites/g/files/vyhlif4086/f/uploads/police_advisory_committee_guidelines.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Police Advisory </a><a href="https://www.wilkes-barre.city/sites/g/files/vyhlif4086/f/uploads/police_advisory_committee_guidelines.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Committee</a> that Mayor George Brown detailed Tuesday.
				The mayor&rsquo;s proposal does not require approval by city council. However, the ordinance requires two votes by council in order to become law.
				The Committee, like the Board, will have appointed members &mdash; nine for the Board and seven for the Committee, with the mayor and police chief non-voting Committee members. Both seek a diverse representation of residents for the unpaid seats.
				The Committee members are appointed by the mayor. Applications are available on the city web site, <a href="https://www.wilkes-barre.city/sites/g/files/vyhlif4086/f/uploads/application_for_appointment_to_board_july_2020_update.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wilkes-barre.city</a>.
				By contrast, the Wilkes-Barre NAACP Branch #2306 and the NEPA Rainbow Alliance would form a board to review and appoint applicants to the Board as proposed in the ordinance.
				Ron Felton, president of the Wilkes-Barre branch of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the organization had input into the ordinance.
				&ldquo;We got quite a bit of the recommendations that we had suggested,&rdquo; Felton said. Among them was the size of the board and the hiring of an independent investigator on an as-needed basis.
				&ldquo;We felt in order to accomplish the diversity that reflects the city, we felt the board should be expanded from seven to nine,&rdquo; Felton said.
				The Committee and the Board focus on public safety and confidence in the city law enforcement, but go about it differently.
				The Committee aims at building &ldquo;positive relationships and improved understanding between the Wilkes-Barre Police Department and the members of the community,&rdquo; according to its guidelines.
				City Council Chairman Bill Barrett, a former Wilkes-Barre police officer and chief, supported the Committee over the Board.
				Barrett said he would not vote for the ordinance and favored the approach taken by Gov. Tom Wolf, who on Tuesday signed into law several bills on police reform.
				One piece of legislation established an electronic database on the separation records of law enforcement officers to be maintained by the Municipal Police Officers&rsquo; Training and Education Training Commission. Wolf recently appointed Barrett to a vacant seat on MPOTEC.
				&rdquo;I think that&rsquo;s where we need to keep the focus and not on the local level,&rdquo; Barrett said.
				Boards like the one proposed in the ordinance &ldquo;don&rsquo;t have great history of being productive,&rdquo; Barrett said.
				City Council Vice Chairman Tony Brooks, on the other hand, said he will vote for the ordinance. &ldquo;I support increasing civic participation in our democracy and increasing transparency and accountability,&rdquo; he said.
				Messages left Tuesday for councilmen Mike Belusko and John Marconi were not returned.

Proposed police oversight takes on different forms