Page 1 1 MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL 2 PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION MEETING 3 4 BB&T CENTER 5 CHAIRMAN'S CLUB 6 ONE PANTHER PARKWAY 7 SUNRISE, FLORIDA 33323 8 9 August 8, 2018 10 11 12 COMMISSION MEMBERS/ATTENDEES: SHERIFF BOB GUALTIERI - CHAIR 13 JASON JONES - PSC GENERAL COUNSEL CHRIS NELSON - CHIEF OF POLICE, CITY OF AUBURNDALE 14 BRUCE BARTLETT - CHIEF ASSISTANT STATE ATTORNEY, SIXTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT 15 RICHARD SWEARINGEN - COMMISSIONER FLORIDA DEPARTMENT 16 OF LAW ENFORCEMENT MAX SCHACHTER - VICTIM PARENT 17 LARRY ASHLEY - SHERIFF, OKALOOSA COUNTY MELISSA LARKIN SKINNER - CEO, CENTERSTONE OF FLORIDA 18 PAM STUART - COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION JUSTIN SENIOR - SECRETARY, AHCA 19 CHRISTI DALY, SECRETARY, DEPT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE MICHAEL CARROLL - SECRETARY, DCF 20 JAMES HARPRING - UNDERSHERIFF/GC, INDIAN RIVER COUNTY 21 DESMOND BLACKBURN - SUPERINTENDENT, BREVARD COUNTY GRADY JUDD - SHERIFF, POLK COUNTY 22 DOUG JUDD - SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER, CITRUS COUNTY LAUREN BOOK - SENATOR, DISTRICT 32 23 RYAN PETTY - VICTIM PARENT MARSHA POWERS - SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER, MARTIN COUNTY 24 KEVIN LYSTAD - PRESIDENT, FLORIDA POLICE CHIEF ASSOC CHRISTINA LINTON - COMMISSION STAFF, FDLE 25 Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 2 1 (Thereupon, the meeting is called to order:) 2 CHAIR: We're getting ready to start here, 3 if everyone would take their seats. Please 4 stand and join me in a moment of silence in 5 memory of the victims of the Stoneman Douglas 6 tragedy. 7 (Thereupon, a moment of silence is had.) 8 CHAIR: Thank you. Please join me in the 9 pledge. 10 (Thereupon, the pledge of allegiance is stated.) 11 CHAIR: Thank you. Good morning 12 everybody, and welcome to the August meeting of 13 the Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety 14 Commission. As we open the meeting to begin, 15 you have received in your packet for the 16 meeting a copy of the minutes from the July 17 meeting. Does anybody have any changes, 18 corrections, modifications to the minutes? 19 Hearing none do we have a motion to approve the 20 minutes? 21 CHIEF NELSON: So, moved. 22 DR. BLACKBURN: Second. 23 CHAIR: Moved by Commissioner Nelson. And 24 who's the second? Commissioner Blackburn. So, 25 we have a motion and a second. All in favor, Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 3 1 aye. 2 (AYE) 3 CHAIR: And opposed like side. That 4 motion passes. I'll turn it over for a minute 5 to our general counsel Jason Jones for a 6 reminder about the Sunshine Law obligations. 7 MR. JONES: Good morning everyone. This 8 is just a reminder that this meeting is 9 governed by the Sunshine Law, which means that 10 any conversations that we have about subjects 11 coming before the commission need to be had in 12 the public, and not in side conversations, 13 either during breaks. Just also a reminder 14 that that also covers when we're outside of 15 these meetings, as far as e-mails, no e-mails 16 between each other or to the group. 17 And starting this meeting going forward, 18 just as with last meeting, we're going to start 19 getting into some confidential and exempt 20 information in our closed sessions, so this is 21 just a reminder that we need to keep those 22 items confidential and exempt regardless of 23 what's happening out in the media, or what's 24 being reported. If it ever gets to a point 25 where something that we have discussed can be Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 4 1 discussed openly we will let you all know that, 2 but for now anything that you receive that is 3 part of the confidential and exempt portions of 4 the meeting need to be held confidential. 5 Thank you. 6 CHAIR: Thanks, Jason. Just for 7 housekeeping, we now know that for the 8 September meeting that we'll be here again at 9 the BB&T Center, for planning purposes, and 10 Jennifer will get out some information to you 11 on that. For the October meeting we're 12 probably going to have to move because hockey 13 season starts, so we will let you all know 14 about the location for the October meeting, but 15 for planning purposes, we'll be back here again 16 in September. 17 I just want to update you, as I have the 18 last couple meetings, on some things that have 19 been going on over the last few weeks since we 20 last were together. The investigators have 21 been very busy over the last month analyzing 22 evidence, preparing chronologies and summaries, 23 and interviewing witnesses, and you're going to 24 hear, especially tomorrow afternoon, you're 25 going to hear some results of their work, Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 5 1 especially related to Cruz's activity from 2 birth through February 13th. 3 If you remember what I said, we divided it 4 into several different chronologies, and that 5 chronology is, is ready. You're going to hear 6 today about school hardening and best 7 practices, one of the topics that's come up 8 quite a bit are the legal requirements keeping 9 information private and confidential, and how 10 in some instances that can present challenges, 11 and even barriers to the effective information 12 sharing. And you're going to hear late this 13 afternoon how law enforcement information data 14 is acquired and shared here in Broward County. 15 If you remember one of the topics we 16 decided on very early in the commission, and it 17 affected our first meeting, that we needed to 18 address, was what happened regarding school 19 shootings in other active assailant incidents 20 in the K-12 setting during recent history. We 21 also wanted to know if any trends or patterns, 22 and lessons learned from those incidents, and 23 how those prior incidents impacted Florida. 24 You're going to hear an extensive and 25 enlightening presentation tomorrow morning on Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 6 1 this topic from Nevin Smith with the Florida 2 Department of Law Enforcement, who has done a 3 tremendous job in putting all of that together. 4 We're then going to have a discussion tomorrow 5 on another statutory mandate, and that is how 6 to establish the appropriate SRO to student 7 ratios. 8 As we have learned, and you'll see, it's 9 much easier said than done. This is actually a 10 complicated topic. It appears there is no 11 methodology that has been previously developed 12 anywhere in the country to decide on the most 13 appropriate SRO staffing levels. You heard 14 some mention in the past, and as early as the 15 days right after the shooting, that there was 16 some ratios out there about 1:1000, et cetera, 17 and that had been floated around out there by 18 NASRO, the National Association of School 19 Resource Officers, but when we contacted them 20 we found out that there's no methodology to 21 that, it was basically what somebody felt, and 22 there's no data, there's no analysis, and again 23 no framework, and no methodology, so there's 24 really nothing in the country, and it's 25 something that we're going to have to address. Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 7 1 We'll talk about it a little bit tomorrow 2 morning, setting it up for the September 3 meeting, where we're going to ask for your 4 specific input, and develop what our 5 recommendations will be for the report. So, 6 that's, again, it's a statutory mandate, it's 7 important that we get that done, and we're at a 8 stage now where I think we're prepared to do 9 that. 10 If you remember the last meeting we 11 reviewed in the closed session information 12 about Cruz's treatment by Henderson Behavioral 13 Health, and we told you that those records, 14 along with others, would be integrated into one 15 of the chronologies that we've been working on. 16 And as I said a minute ago the one regarding 17 Cruz's life through February 13th is ready to 18 be shared with the commission, and we'll do 19 that in closed session tomorrow afternoon. 20 Again, as I said last time, I wish that a 21 lot of this information can be shared publicly, 22 because it's very enlightening as to what 23 occurred, and provides some of the answers the 24 community is looking for as to what happened 25 and why, but as to this raw material we have to Veritext Legal Solutions 800-726-7007 305-376-8800 Page 8 1 respect privacy laws regarding confidentiality. 2 Nonetheless I'm confident that we will be able 3 to adequately provide the information needed in 4 our January report for the community to have an 5 understanding of what led up to this tragedy. 6 The commission should know about a couple 7 of legal matters that we're dealing with, and 8 this has come up in the last few weeks since we 9 met. The Broward Public Defender's Office 10 served us with a subpoena in the criminal case 11 asking for documents regarding the commission's 12 investigation.