R112321
City Council Meeting: February 25, 2020 Santa Monica, California
RESOLUTION NUMBER 11232 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA CONFIRMING
THE CITY’S COMMITMENT TO IMPLEMENT BEST PRACTICES FOR PREVENTING
INCIDENCES OF ABUSE OF CHILDREN IN ANY CITY PROGRAMS
WHEREAS, in October 2018, Eric Uller, who was at the time employed with the City’s
Information Services Department, was arrested by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and
charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office with five felony sexual crimes against four
minors; and
WHEREAS, the criminal charges related to alleged incidents of abuse that dated back to
1989 and occurred while Uller was working or volunteering at the Santa Monica Police Activities
League (PAL); and
WHEREAS, on November 15, 2018, a date on which Uller was scheduled to appear in
court on the criminal charges, Uller was found dead in his apartment, in an apparent suicide;
and
WHEREAS, following Uller’s arrest, the City committed to responding to the horrific and
heartbreaking allegations of abuse with transparency and accountability and to doing everything
it could to prevent any future incidents of abuse in any City program providing services to youth;
and
WHEREAS, the City retained Praesidium, Inc., an outside consultant with 25 years of
experience in working with entities to prevent abuse, to review the policies and practices of its
current youth programs and provide guidance to assist the City in improving its policies and
practices to accord with best practices for preventing any future incidents of abuse; and
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WHEREAS, beginning in January 2019, the City worked with Praesidium to conduct a
review of its youth programs’ policies and practices, with Praesidium reviewing written policies
and procedures and Praesidium staff making two week-long trips to Santa Monica, in March
2019 and July 2019, during which they visited youth programs, observed their operations,
interviewed staff members, participants, and parents, and reviewed program locations; and
WHEREAS, on October 15, 2019, Praesidium presented to the Council a summary of its
review and a set of recommendations; and
WHEREAS, staff is implementing a number of these recommendations, including
establishing a new administrative instruction that will create a cross-departmental child
protection committee, establish a city-wide code of conduct and program standards that focus
on prevention, implement standardized reporting and responding procedures for not only
incidents of abuse but also red flag behaviors and youth to youth bullying and abuse, and
require standardized training for all staff and volunteers focused on prevention; and
WHEREAS, in accordance with Praesidium’s recommendations, it is the desire of the
City Council to confirm the City’s commitment to implement procedures and practices to ensure
lasting, City-wide efforts, in accordance with best practices, to prevent incidences of abuse of
children in any City programs and to emphasize that everyone, no matter their role with the City,
needs to understand that safety and the protection of children is part of their job;
NOW, THEREFORE, the City of Santa Monica does resolve as follows:
SECTION 1. The City shall put in place procedures and practices, including a city-wide
code of conduct and program standards that focus on prevention, adopted in accordance with
best practices, to prevent incidences of abuse of children in any City-managed programs
providing services to youth. The City shall also put in place procedures and practices to ensure
that these abuse prevention procedures and practices are reviewed and updated as necessary.
SECTION 2. The City shall put in place procedures and practices, adopted in
accordance with best practices, for standardized reporting and response to allegations of abuse,
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as well as to red flag behaviors and youth to youth abuse. The City shall also put in place
procedures and practices to ensure that these reporting and response procedures and practices
are reviewed and updated as necessary.
SECTION 3. The City manages, provides grant funds to support, and permits operation
in City parks and facilities of programs that provide services to youth. It is an integral
responsibility of everyone associated with any of these programs, whether a City employee,
volunteer, contractor, grantee, or permittee, to take steps to prevent abuse and to ensure that
children entrusted by their parents to participate in these programs are safe and protected.
SECTION 4. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Resolution and
thenceforth and thereafter the same shall be in full force and effect.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
________________________
LANE DILG
City Attorney
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Adopted and approved this 10th day of March 2020.
_____________________________
Kevin McKeown, Mayor
I, Denise Anderson-Warren, City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do hereby
certify that Resolution No. 11232 (CCS) was duly adopted at a meeting of the
Santa Monica City Council held on the 10th day of March 2020, by the following
vote:
AYES: Councilmembers Davis, Himmelrich, Jara, Morena, Winterer,
Mayor Pro Tem O’Day, Mayor McKeown
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
ATTEST:
________________________________
Denise Anderson-Warren, City Clerk
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