CITY OF BANNING
STAFF REPORT

Receive and file the Banning Police Department Organizational Assessment prepared by Jacob Green & Associates

On November 25, 2025, the City Council held a 7.5-hour Strategic Planning Workshop to review the organization's main challenges and set long-term priorities. The workshop found four departments in severe distress: Finance, Information Technology, Human Resources, and Police. The Police Department was named the highest priority for immediate action. At the time, the Department had a vacancy rate of about 30%, a large number of employment-related claims, and an internal culture that, by the Chief's own assessment, needed a formal reset. The Council chose to spend one-time funds on an independent assessment of the Department.

The City's risk management authority, PERMA, recommended Jacob Green & Associates (JGA) as a leader in public safety organizational assessment. The Police Chief, Human Resources, and the City Attorney's Office met with JGA and jointly selected the firm. JGA submitted its proposal on December 26, 2025. On January 13, 2026, the City Council voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 2026-12, awarding JGA a professional services agreement to conduct the assessment. JGA's fee was an all-inclusive $48,000. The agreement ran from January 13 through June 30, 2026, and the assessment was to be completed within 90 days.

On February 24, 2026, the City Council adopted the City's Strategic Plan, Banning 2030: Designing Our Future TODAY! Under Strategic Goal 1, Ensuring Public Safety, the plan makes the assessment a first-tier policy initiative: 1b. Provide One-Time Resources and Independently Evaluate the Police Department. The initiative's charter, the Banning PD Organizational Assessment and Improvement Initiative, calls for an objective evaluation of the Department's culture and practical strategies to move it in a more positive direction. It also calls for consistent performance expectations across all ranks. Its final milestone is a review of the assessment's recommendations and a proposed implementation plan for the Police Chief and City Manager.

The assessment aimed to provide an objective view of the Department's culture and operations. It was also meant to give Department leadership practical strategies for setting consistent performance expectations across all ranks.

JGA gathered input in three ways:

• One-on-one interviews with 20 Department employees
• A survey of Department staff, with 26 responses
• A survey of City department heads, with 5 responses

Interviews and surveys covered four areas: purpose, resources, leadership, and culture and climate. JGA presented its findings to City staff on June 12, 2026.

The assessment results were shared with all Police Department employees on September 25, 2026, along with a summary from the City Manager. The assessment is now being presented to the City Council and made available to the public (Attachment 1).

The assessment gives the City a clear, independent picture of where the Police Department stands and a practical set of next steps. Receiving it in public completes the assessment phase of Strategic Plan Initiative 1b and gives the community the same information the City is using to guide improvements.

Strengths. JGA found a workforce that remains committed to serving the community despite serious staffing pressure. Employees generally view their immediate supervisors positively. Several reported that assignment and promotion processes have become more transparent and merit-based. Employees showed broad awareness that improvement is needed and a willingness to support change. Other City departments described the Department as generally open to collaboration (average rating 3.8 out of 5).

Challenges. JGA also identified significant concerns in each area it reviewed:

• Staffing and workload: Shortages across patrol, dispatch, investigations, and support functions are the Department's most significant operational risk. They contribute to overtime, burnout, turnover, and officer safety concerns. Strategic Plan Initiative 4c, a proactive outreach and hiring program for Police, also targets this issue.
• Direction and structure: Employees reported uncertainty about the Department's mission, goals, and priorities. Divisions often operate in silos, and service delivery is mostly reactive.
• Leadership: Employees described executive leadership as divided, with low trust and inconsistent accountability and communication.
• Culture and climate: Employees reported low morale, perceived favoritism, internal conflict, and hesitation to raise concerns for fear of retaliation.
• Systems and training: Administrative systems and report-writing tools are outdated, and training and professional development opportunities are limited.

Selected staff survey results (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree)

Recommendations. JGA recommends short-term, measurable actions to build confidence, alignment, and results:

1. Strengthen executive leadership alignment, with clearly defined roles and consistent messaging.
2. Evaluate bringing in experienced executive leadership from outside the Department.
3. Implement a proactive, data-driven policing strategy.
4. Complete a comprehensive staffing and workload analysis.
5. Establish a formal internal communication strategy.
6. Standardize written criteria for discipline, assignments, promotions, training, and evaluations.
7. Develop a department-wide culture and wellness plan.
8. Rebuild trust through listening sessions and facilitated teambuilding.
9. Reinforce chain of command and provide leadership training for supervisors.

Each recommendation includes measures so the City can track progress.

Actions underway. The City has already begun to respond:

• Results shared with employees. All Police Department employees received the assessment and a summary from the City Manager before this public presentation.
• Command structure. The Fiscal Year 2026–27 budget, adopted by the City Council on September 22, 2026, eliminated the Police Captain position. The Acting Captain assignment referenced in the survey no longer exists.
• Outside interim leadership. JGA recommended experienced executive leadership from outside the Department, without prior internal alliances or history. Consistent with that recommendation, the City Manager is asking the City Council to approve the appointment of an experienced retired annuitant to serve as interim Police Chief. That appointment is a separate item on tonight's agenda.

Consistent with the Initiative 1b charter, staff will use the recommendations to develop an implementation plan for the Department.

Receiving and filing the assessment has no fiscal impact. Under Resolution 2026-12, the City Council appropriated $52,800 for this work in Fiscal Year 2025/26 to Account 001-1300-412.33-11 (Human Resources – Professional Services). That amount covered JGA's $48,000 all-inclusive fee plus a 10% contingency for additional services. The total paid to JGA was $49,601.36. Any recommendations requiring funding will return to the City Council for consideration, in keeping with Banning's Workout Plan to Fiscal Sustainability.