Policies and Procedures

Section 1

1.1 Description of Organization

The Office of Professional Accountability Review Board (OPARB) is a three-member board established pursuant to Seattle Municipal Code 3.28.900.

The City Council shall appoint the three (3) members of the OPA
Review Board to provide review and assessment of the investigation of
Office of Professional Accountability complaints.

1.2 Meetings

1. Regular meetings of OPARB shall be held monthly.
2. Special meetings of OPARB may be called by the Chair or any two members of OPARB with 24 hours prior written notice, mailed, hand-delivered, faxed or e-mailed to all OPARB members. Such notice will also be in conformity to RCW 42.30.080.
3. All meetings of OPARB shall be open meetings in accordance with the State Open Meeting Law, RCW 42.30.110.
4. Minutes shall be taken at all meetings.

1.3 Telephonic Meetings

1. OPARB may hold meetings in which, for some or the entire meeting any or all members are present and voting by telephone conference call. Such meetings shall be designated “telephonic meetings” on the meeting agenda. OPARB members may be present and may vote by telephone conference call, as provided in subsection (2) of this rule 1.3, for the conduct of all business.
2. A telephonic meeting shall be deemed to take place in the meeting place designated on the agenda, where at least one member of OPARB staff shall be present and where there shall be a telephone device on which can be heard the voices of all OPARB members on the telephone line by everyone present in the meeting room and by all other OPARB members on the telephone line. Each OPARB member who is on the telephone line shall identify him or herself before speaking, and shall notify the others if he or she is about to disconnect from the call. An OPARB member who is connected remotely to the telephone line in the meeting place shall be considered to be actually present at that meeting for the period of time he or she is so connected, and that presence shall count toward a quorum of OPARB for all purposes.

1.4 Quorum and Voting

Two members of OPARB shall constitute a quorum.

1.5 Meeting Attendance

1. In the event any member of OPARB has three consecutive unexcused absences and/or has missed 75% of the regularly scheduled OPARB meetings within a twelve-month period, the OPARB shall report such fact to the City Council with the request that removal proceedings be initiated.
2. An absence will be considered excused if the absent member has notified the Chair of the OPARB in advance of the meeting and/or the Chair determines the absence to be excused.
3. The status of a member’s absence will be recorded in the OPARB meeting minutes.

Section 2

2.1 OPA Case Selection

OPA cases will be selected for OPARB review using the following protocols:

1. On the first working day of each month the OPARB staff will send an e-mail to OPA staff requesting the following three lists for the previous month via e-mail:
• All cases received by OPA during the month.
• All cases closed during the month by OPA investigators and sent to the OPA Director
• All cases formally closed during the month by the OPA Director and the control log cases.
2. This “initiating e-mail” will be kept as a permanent record
3. When the e-mail with the lists is received from OPA this list will be prepared for presentation to OPARB for review and formal approval for random selection.
4. At the next OPARB meeting following receipt of the closed case lists from OPA, the OPARB will review and formally direct staff to request the monthly sample, which might vary in size and focus depending on the interest of OPARB. In general a stratified random sampling system will be used to select random cases from the Supervisory Referral (SR), OPA Investigation Section (IS), Preliminary Investigation Reports (PIR), Line Investigations (LI) and the Contact Log (CL) lists.
5. The Preliminary Investigation Reports (PIR) and the Contact Log (CL) cases will not be a part of the routine sample, but only sampled as part of a special review.
6. The OPARB staff will implement the random selection process to identify the cases to be requested from OPA as per formal direction on a monthly basis by OPARB.
7. The OPARB staff will send an e-mail to OPA requesting the specific cases. This e-mail should be retained as part of a permanent record.
8. When the cases arrive from OPA they will be formally logged into a case tracking system that includes a date and time stamp on each case and prepared for distribution to the OPARB for review.
9. A standard case analysis and reporting system will be used to track system indicators such as average time that cases are received and then closed by investigators, average time between investigator closures and Director closures, average time between case receipt and final closures, and tracking of cases that go beyond the 180 day contract limit, and, if applicable cases that are received but never closed.

2.2 OPA Case Tracking and Control

1. A formal case log will be utilized to track the receipt and movement of cases during the case review process.
2. All cases will be stored in a secure file in the OPARB staff office.
3. The OPARB collectively shall determine which cases will be signed out to authorized person(s).
4. To remove a case from the secure file the following criteria and procedures must be followed:
• The person(s) must be either an OPARB member or authorized professional.
• The authorized professional must have Board approval to remove the cases.
• The person must sign and place in the OPARB staff file a signed confidentiality agreement.
• The person must sign out the case(s) using the case checkout log that will establish the date, time, name of the person, volume number of the case(s), the required return date and a stated reason for checking out the case(s).
• Only one binder may be checked out at a time.
• All removed cases will have a required return date that may range from 30 to 45 days after the original sign out date.
• Cases not returned by the return date will be immediately brought to the attention of the person in custody of the case and OPARB.
• Extension of the case return date must be approved by the OPARB.
• When cases are returned the case will be signed and logged into the case-tracking log.
• Cases may not be copied unless formally approved by OPARB.
• If a Board member leaves (resignation, termination, term completed) their position on OPARB they will return all checked out cases within 10 days of the leaving of the OPARB.
5. At each monthly OPARB meeting the OPARB staff will give a brief report of the current status of the cases as per the case log.

Seattle City Hall
600 4th Ave. 2nd Floor
Seattle, WA

Mailing Address:
PO Box 34025
Seattle, WA 98124-4025

Phone: 206.684.8888
Fax: 206.684.8587
TTY/TDD: 206.233.0025
Listen Line: 206.684.8566