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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRC 2022-05-05 transcript[00:00:00] [MUSIC] Let's call this meeting to order. It is now 07:08 PM. Commissioner Harris? Here. Commissioner Johnson? Here. [00:00:30] Commissioner Ali? Present. Commissioner Dillard? Here. Commissioner Traore? Here. Commissioner Gathua? Present. Let me unmute the people, and then Commissioner Daniel? We're taking roll call. Sorry. [00:01:00] No, she's present. All right. [NOISE] Next is the reading of the land acknowledgment. We meet today in the community of Iowa City, which now occupies the homelands of the Native American Nations to whom we owe our commitment and dedication. The area of Iowa City was once within the homelands of the Iowa Meskwaki and Sauk, [00:01:30] and because history is complex and time goes far back beyond memory, we also acknowledge the ancient connections of many other indigenous peoples here. The history of Broken Treaties and forced removal that dispossessed the indigenous peoples of their homelands, was and is, an act of colonization and genocide that we cannot erase. We implore the Iowa City community to commit to understanding and addressing these injustices as we work toward equity, restoration and reparations. [00:02:00] [NOISE] All right. Next is the approval of meeting minutes from April 7th. Motion to approve. I second that motion. It's been properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes from the April 7th meeting date, Commissioner Ali? Yes. Commissioner Daniel? [00:02:30] We can't hear you. Yes. Thank you. Commissioner Gathua? Yes. Commissioner Johnson? Yes. Commissioner Harris? Yes. Commissioner Traore? Yes. Commissioner Dillard? Yes. Motion passes. Perfect. Next is public comment of items not [00:03:00] on the agenda. The TRC members will not engage in discussion with the public concerning said items. If there's anyone who's on Zoom that wants to make a public comment about an item not on the agenda, now would be a good time to raise your hand. [OVERLAPPING] [00:03:30] There's someone's hands up. Yeah. That's what I was going to say. I can play it off from here. [OVERLAPPING] Can you hear me? [OVERLAPPING] Yes a little bit. Everyone stay away from their mic. Hello? Yes. Okay. [00:04:00] If I'm coming through, I just wanted to let the commission know, there was a late email to Stefanie, but I've asked her to share a link. For those who may not be familiar or have had the opportunity to see the report [00:04:30] that was done in Davenport, a disparity study report, that was done in Davenport some years ago. It is on the status of African American Commission website. I shared that link and invite members to look at that study. Not necessarily exactly what the TRC is doing, but it is at least an example [00:05:00] of another Iowan community that has taken the time to study social justice issue, and the end product of that body of work and energy. I happened to have been involved [NOISE] in depth and would be very happy to share those experiences, [00:05:30] just as a reference point as the commission is moving forward with its work. Thank you so much. Do we have anyone else on Zoom or from the public that would like to address the commission? [00:06:00] All right. Sounds like we are ready for the presentation [NOISE] from our lovely friends from Kearns & West, from Astig Planning, from Banjo Knits, from Think Peace. That's all of them, right? No, Mediation Services. We're [00:06:30] ready for you. [NOISE] Hang on one second, we're having technical difficulties. We can't hear you outside of Mohammed's laptop for some reason, so we're going to try to figure that out really quick. You're a genius. Thank you. Of course, [00:07:00] well that wasn't to me, I don't think. [LAUGHTER] Good evening, Commissioners, just double-checking we're all good. That you can hear me clearly? Yes. It's great to be with you all again, just for a reminder, I'm Larry Schooler, a Senior Director at Kearns & West firm with expertise in facilitation and consensus building, [NOISE] and work across the country. Honored as I was previously, to be joined by Angie Jordan at Banjo Knits, V Fixmer-Oraiz [00:07:30] at Astig Planning. I think Annie Tucker is with us from Mediation Services [NOISE] in the audience tonight. I also am representing Eduardo Gonzalez who is with Think Peace and is stationed in Mali at the moment, and so this time proved to be a little bit of a challenge. Given that it might be the middle of the night, I believe. Anyway, it's great to be with you, our intention here is to do a very short recap presentation of the team. There's [00:08:00] a trio of additions that we want to mention in particular, but we want to get straight to the point of tonight's meeting, which is to discuss a revised budget with you all. I want to emphasize at the start, this is a budget that is designed to ensure that we have enough resources to serve the needs of the TRC. If you're familiar with government parlance, meant to be like a not to exceed amount. Meaning we intend, as you know, to conduct a strategic [00:08:30] planning and work planning workshop with the TRC if we are awarded the contract. During that process, and over the course of our work together, we can decide, I say we, meaning, you all can decide how you would most like to have us serve you, and that can change. We are only going to ask for fees associated with the work we do, not some predetermined amount. As you look at this [00:09:00] complex set of figures tonight, I just want you to bear in mind that what we're trying to do is, ensure that we can complete the work, and hopefully, as we advance through the work, we can find opportunities to just ensure prudence on the part of Iowa City and the TRC as we go. I hope that that is helpful. I'm also available to provide additional details wherever needed, so certainly if you have questions that go beyond what I present to you, don't hesitate to ask me. [00:09:30] Stephanie, I'm so sorry to ask you this, but I think I need your permission to share my screen. Thank you so much. Just confirming everybody can see a slide. [NOISE] Great. As you know, we are a pretty diverse and remarkable team. I think [00:10:00] just in the sense of the incredible array of talents and skills and experiences that we'll bring to this. We, as I mentioned, certainly have professional mediators and facilitators like myself, who have worked almost exclusively in the public sector, in my case, for the last 15 years. We've also facilitated on very similar topics. I know that Chair Traore and I have a common friend in Elgin, Illinois, where I've been serving as the facilitator for the community task force on policing, one of the facilitators there, [00:10:30] but we've also done a good bit of work in equitable and inclusive engagement across the country. We believe that we have within our group, not just thought leadership on a national or international level when it comes to engaging the community, particularly in the form of Think Peace's experience with truth and reconciliation commissions around the world. I think most importantly, local thought leadership. People who understand Iowa City much better than I ever could and who can inform a strategy for engaging this community [00:11:00] that really suits that community's needs and speaks that community's values. We also have done specific work around policing and around racial equity on an array of other projects. We see our role in general as helping you well define and carry out your core vision, providing process and subject matter expertise, being third-party neutral facilitators who don't take positions on the topics you're discussing, but help you to formulate consensus [00:11:30] recommendations for Iowa City. Also to help you all to identify and elevate community voices and that goes back to the experience we have, both with community engagement in general, specifically in Iowa City, and with truth and reconciliation commissions. We're trying to do a 360 degree approach here and make sure that we have team members that can speak to all of that. Very very briefly, as I mentioned, K&W is a national firm [00:12:00] that does this kind of facilitation work in public engagement work around the country. I mentioned our experience. Just to reiterate, my personal experience includes a book length piece on truth and reconciliation commissions in Greensboro Main, and Canada, due out later this year and so I've got a particular interest in working with you all because of that subject matter expertise. To explain the way we fit into this, we would be in a project managerial role, helping to facilitate [00:12:30] strategic and work planning and implementation of those, helping develop agendas and facilitate TRC meetings, be advisors when it comes to the fact finding and truth telling processes with the public. Helping to train community members to be additional statement takers and receivers and facilitators, and helping to compile your all's work into a final report. That's how we see our role. As I mentioned, Eduardo Gonzalez is unavailable, but he [00:13:00] is for those of you who don't know, a global, world renowned expert in the field of truth and reconciliation. For many years, he served at the International Center for Transitional Justice. He's now affiliated with the Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation at George Mason University and Think Peace is an offshoot of that center with scholars and practitioners from around the globe who have worked directly on this thing, including David Ragland, whose work was most prominently featured in Ferguson Missouri then the Ferguson Missouri Truth [00:13:30] Commission that convened after Michael Brown's tragic murder. The Think Peace role here is to really help to co-create process for the TRC and focus more on the public processes that you all will undertake, so the sharing of testimony, the healing from trauma, societal participation, and so forth. If you think of Kearns & West is being your internal [00:14:00] facilitators, Think Peace in some ways functions as part of our external facilitation team, of course, will each be involved in each other's work in some way just because of our experience with both things, but you could ask for no one more well-versed in truth and reconciliation events than Eduardo Gonzalez to the Think Peace team. Let me turn it over to V Fixmer-Oraiz, so that they can share a bit about ASTIG. [NOISE] Thank you, Larry. ASTIG [00:14:30] planning we're here in Iowa City and we are part of a local team for community and environmental planners and we specifically focus on climate change impacts and racial and social justice. In the community we do a lot of community work and primarily focusing on outreach and education. As you can see here, we've worked with the University of Iowa for their Campus Safety Action Plan. We've also worked in Coralville, little bit further away, but [00:15:00] not too far for their Flood Resilience Action Plan and we were prioritizing underestimated community members and that so looking at folks who are already food insecure, transportation insecure understanding that when disasters hit, such as floods, derechos, COVID that our community members are going to be most vulnerable to these impacts, so getting to school, getting to work, getting their children, [00:15:30] taking care of their parents. Those are our community members and we need to make sure that we're caring for them. We also serve as racial equity consultants for a variety of non-profits across the State, particularly looking at food system, affordable housing, and transportation. Our role here is really to hold this space for facilitation and dialogue and also to assist in the design of outreach and engagement as local community partners. [BACKGROUND] [00:16:00] Looking forward to being a part of the team and working with you all, hopefully. Thank you so much V, I'll touch on this again later, but I just want to emphasize the second to last bullet on this slide, referencing through facilitated dialogue. We've apportioned the budget in such a way that ASTIG, Benjamin Mediation Services and our three newest team members can directly assist with facilitation. Not just be [00:16:30] boots on the ground, logistical type folks, but can be directly hands-on and helping to complement [LAUGHTER] or even supplant some of what we can offer in the space of facilitation, which is obviously so critical to the work here. Thanks V. Over to Angie Jordan at Banjo Knits. [NOISE] Thanks, Larry. Can you hear me okay? Yeah. All right. Cool. Yeah. Angie Jordan, Banjo Knits Empowerment. Basically, I focused on community organizing [00:17:00] and developing. I also work with Entrepreneurial Development and I do instruction in knitting, which is a practice for mindfulness and patients. For those of you who know me, know that I'm a lot about the south district, but really thinking about the south district in those events and those initiatives, those are all grassroots. Getting and prioritizing those being division, having the dreams, but then figuring out action steps to actually accomplishing them. That's the part of who I am and what I bring [00:17:30] to this. I'm super excited about the boots on the ground and logistics and coordinating. But I'm also really, excited to be part of designing implementation and also patient processes. I feel like as a local person that is already doing the work, this is a space where we can do it together as a team and bring more entities into the spaces to be doing this work together. That's a little bit about me and what I'll be doing. [00:18:00] I don't know, Larry, is there anything else that I should be adding before we pass it over to Annie? I think that you did great, Angie. I just want to make sure that we underscore the incredible asset that is the diversity market and the significance of that to this work. It's not like anything I've experienced in any of the communities that I've worked in. It's so critical that we be thoughtful and innovative in how we invite people to participate in this process. It's not enough to just [00:18:30] stick a piece of paper up on the bulletin board and say y'all come, and so the fact that Angie has got this incredibly innovative strategy if you will is super important. Thanks, Angie. Turning to Annie Tucker who I think is there in chambers to speak about mediation services. Okay. Thanks. I think what I bring is being with people, either preparing them and [00:19:00] being with them in hard conversations. Having in the prep work, giving them giving them a chance to imagine saying what they want heard and what they want people to understand. I bring that and I've done other things, helped film and edit the white privilege 101 film at two of the white privilege conferences. [00:19:30] We do restorative justice with youth and then also we are starting with adults. That's where Angie and I were together for the first circle that we are a part of. We do circles also or have been, I actually haven't done a circle since we did the November- December with some of you. At some point, I don't know, Larry, is this the time to mention [00:20:00] what we've been doing? Annie, it could be. Can you hear me? I can hear you just fine. Can you hear me? I'm not sure if I'm coming through now. Yes. Okay. Yeah. I definitely wanted to keep you on the mic to talk about our newest teammates, but if there was more you wanted to say on your prior piece, please go ahead. One more thing I'd want to say, and it's at the bottom of that slide, is [00:20:30] that it may be that you feel having a white woman involved or front-facing is not appropriate or at some point I feel that's the case. Then either way, I would just step down because I think that what's really important from my point of view is that you guys are driving this process so that your best judgment is making decisions. As Larry said earlier, [00:21:00] there's a budget in things that are being offered, but you people are the choice points for what processes you have, who's doing what? I totally trust your judgment and I just want to be upfront about that. Then I want to move on to thanking Sikowis. She expressed the concern about non- native people providing circles [00:21:30] as appropriation. That's like a continental conversation actually. What she's done since then is connect us directly with three Iowa, well, one is Nebraska, but native people who she trusted to talk with us about these issues. To be honest, in the most recent conversation we had, she said that she [00:22:00] and Lance I'm just not forgetting his last name were for non-Native people not doing circles. Nonetheless, we talked with three other people that she suggested we talk with and one is Donielle Wanatee, who is right now in Des Moines doing an MMIW missing murdered indigenous women event with Sikowis. [00:22:30] Not to characterize what she said, I invited all of them and gave them the link but nobody is able to come tonight. Anyway, she thought that that would be something she wanted to be part of. Another person, Manape LaMer is experienced in doing different kinds [00:23:00] of trauma healing work, which he told us stories about and he would be very interested. Since where our teacher learns circles was from a tribe in the Yukon, he said, "I think that we should make circles by Iowans created by Iowans for Iowans, so he's interested in being part of that. Again, I'm not speaking for them, I'm just representing it and ideally, you'll have a chance [00:23:30] to be directly in contact with them. Then the last person is Terrance, and he said to call him T. Medina. Today his nine-year-old grandson had emergency surgery on a ruptured appendix. I offered if he wanted to say something [00:24:00] that I could just read it. Here's what he said. So this is T. Medina. "I was just going to share with you and others that I've been running circles for many years. Talking, listening, prayer, spirituality, and empowerment circles and now most recently, a walking forward healing circle for those relatives going through grieving due to the loss of a loved one. My wife wrote this circle and it is actually a [00:24:30] nine-session class. Please feel free to share these words I would be honored to serve." Since the three of them expressed interest in providing circles specifically, we asked Larry to add them to the budget and give them the same number of hours that V and Angie and I have at the same rate of pay and they were interested in that. [00:25:00] Anyway, that's the update up till then. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Annie. I just want to hold space for the Medina family. Hearing that news was very saddening about T's grandchild, hoping for a complete recovery as speedily as possible. Thanks of course to Donielle and Manape as well, and very excited by the prospect of getting to team with them directly. [00:25:30] This is a piece that we've shared with you before. As I've said, we are not just professional facilitators being dropped into any generic topic. This is a team for whom truth and reconciliation are core values, and this is more than just another project that is a passion project. As I've said, we have a team that very much wants to see their hometown, and the region thrive through the work of the TRC and have the kind of lived experience [00:26:00] and sustained connections across the city that we think really are an asset. To the meat of the matter. Sorry, vegetarians. To the heart of the matter, this is a rundown of the ways in which we believe we can best serve the TRC's needs. I want to again emphasize that if anybody needs additional details, it's perfectly fine to ask. I'm happy to share them. I know that [00:26:30] some of this may seem voluminous or expensive and I guess what I want to say about that is we, as you know, went through this process of course, last year and came to a stopping point and got very clear guidance, got very clear direction, suggestion, you name it to enhance our team in a significant way. As Andy just mentioned with the three circle leaders, as well [00:27:00] as V's firm, Angie's firm, Andy's organization, and Eduardo's, we're bringing it all. [LAUGHTER] We're bringing the kitchen sink for you all at this. One of the things that is critical for you to understand about this budget is that when you look at that first bullet, strategic plan and work plan, all of this is subject to those things. What I mean by that is we fully hope [00:27:30] that the first action we could take if you all are able to retain us, is to meet with you in a session that helps to devise a strategic plan and a work plan. That work plan is designed to guide all of the remaining activities that we may do. What we've done in this budget is make suggestions about the kinds of things we think you all might want to undertake, but you could get into that work planning process and decide we need zero of that, we need a lot more of this, any number of different changes [00:28:00] to it. I would view this as preliminary in that respect, but one of the reasons that we need those kinds of resources is that as some of you may know, having been through strategic and work planning, it's not a short process, it's not an easy process, it has a lot of moving parts. I'm working with a federal agency next week on their strategic plan, and it's incredible how many hours it takes to just get to the retreat to the workshop, much less facilitated and report out. Along with that, we anticipate a 12 month period [00:28:30] of work with you all and so that combined with the amount of research that we think is important for us to do, not just to be educated about Iowa City, but to look at a variety of other paradigms for truth and reconciliation processes and so forth that accounts for that level of spend. All of the members of the team would be involved in one form or another in that work. K&W would assume main responsibilities for project management but certainly when it comes to participating in the strategic planning conversation, [00:29:00] the work planning conversation and research, we intend to tap our partner's in part for that. The design of the public-facing fact-finding, truth- telling and reconciliation process is one that will chiefly be led by Eduardo Gonzalez and his team at Think Peace. Again, with influence from the partners and K&W, but Eduardo has very carefully tailored a scope of work and budget to meet what he thinks are the coordinates of this group to really [00:29:30] do enough assessment as well as customized recommendations so that what gets rolled out by this TRC is the best fit for this community and this organization. The next part is for the public events themselves. It is important to note that these are based on some assumptions about the numbers of events. The numbers that we chose four large in- person events, four smaller circles, and four virtual circles [00:30:00] are reflective of what we think would be a way to reach a meaningful cross-section of the Iowa City community. For example, with four events, you could picture week nights as well as weekend events to appeal to different kinds of folks that want to come out at different times. For example, some folks may feel fully comfortable being in-person, others may prefer virtual for any number of reasons, so we certainly want to provide options. Then, as I mentioned before, the diversity markets are so crucial [00:30:30] to not just enticing people to participate, but actually enabling them to engage within the market framework itself. It's important to say here that when it comes to fact-finding and truth-telling, that doesn't just refer to someone coming up to a microphone and offering testimony. It also refers to being able to provide testimony with a statement taker in private, perhaps in writing, perhaps at an event but off to the side. It doesn't necessitate someone having to prepare an oration, [00:31:00] but it does in order to provide different options for how people share their truth we need to make sure we have enough resources to do that. That's what is encompassed under the fact-finding and truth-telling public process. The TRC meetings are like the one we're having right now. What we did in that space was we assumed that instead of meeting every two weeks, and again this is entirely up to you and is totally subject to [00:31:30] change. But we thought about instead of a meeting every two weeks, that perhaps we could maximize efficiency by having one meeting per month, and I'll just share with you. I have another client that I'm traveling to where I come in on a Tuesday and I facilitate two evenings worth of meetings. In those two evenings, we often cover what it would have otherwise taken two months worth of regular weekly meetings to cover. This is just a proposed model, but what it does is it allows [00:32:00] us to facilitate in-person as well as keep the travel costs relatively managed. I know that we have a number of local members of our team and they certainly can play facilitative roles. We just wanted to make sure we had enough resources so that I and the other guys in West folks would be able to get their in-person. Of course, we're happy to pivot to any virtual needs either because of the pandemic or otherwise but of course we hope that you all can continue [00:32:30] meeting in-person for the most part. The TRC meeting budget does include travel costs. Then under report compilation, it's fairly self-explanatory, but we see it as an important responsibility of ours to help you craft the narrative that you're going to present, not just to the city council and the community, but generations to come. It certainly is intended to be a collaborative effort, we don't want to have any pride of authorship, but given how much [00:33:00] of your time you're having to commit to just being commissioners at meetings, we want to be in a position to help by leveraging our writing skills and ability to compile information. This again can be adjusted based on the desire of the commission, but we wanted to allocate resources to be able to draft that and to review it with you all and to make edits. That gets us to a total budget of $584,000 almost $585,000, which is a significant increase from what we brought you [00:33:30] when we initially proposed on this work. I firmly believe it is a better proposal, a better budget, and a better way for us to meet your needs as a commission. Because when we initially proposed, I think we were chiefly thinking about just in meeting facilitation and not the level of direct grassroots engagement across all communities that we believe that we can have now that we've assembled this incredibly rich team. I also want to mention that [00:34:00] embedded in our budget is a set of resources so that myself, Eduardo, others at Think Peace can conduct training so that community members can then take on roles in statement taking, facilitating and the like. The hope there is that they can not only serve the needs of the TRC in this initial 12 months, but they can perhaps be assets to the community for many years to come and bolster those skill set as [00:34:30] an extension. They would, we think benefit from being compensated, we didn't directly addressed that in this proposal because this refers to our service directly to you, but we'd certainly be open to discussing that with you. What we believe strongly in the value of a conversation core CRPS, a group of people who go through some basic training to then be in a position to help facilitate the dialogue that needs to happen. As large as our team is, we think that it would be greatly enhanced [00:35:00] by the participation of community members. Just referring back to Andy's point earlier, this does include budget for the three circle facilitators to be intimately involved in all parts of this project and compensated as Andy said at rates equivalent to those used by Astig and Banjo Kints and Mediation Services for about the same amount of time. I think the last thing that I'll say for now before we take your questions is, [00:35:30] again, these are resources that we're asking for as what we think we need. We very much believe that this can be tailored as we get into the work plan process. If you feel a little bit daunted by this, we hope that you take it as an insurance. [LAUGHTER] Let's have enough in place so that we can do what we need to do and if we find that [00:36:00] as commissioners work with other partnerships in the community that we can do more of this work ourselves than we thought, that's fine. There will be no offense taken, there will be no hard feelings. Now we just want to meet your needs in whatever way we can. I think that that's the extent of the overview I wanted to give you and I'm obviously happy to take your questions. Let me just mention a couple of other assumptions. I'm sorry. The funding does just [00:36:30] cover time as well as just the little bit of travel expense, but other expenses like supplies and venue rental would need to be accounted for elsewhere. It's a 12 month period of work, it assumes in-person meetings with Zoom option. You see there the breakdown of our focus on TRC meetings, Think Peace focusing on public events, and then Astig, Banjo Knits and Mediation Services, along with our three Circle facilitators, focusing on public events, Circles [00:37:00] and additional support and we obviously want TRC members to be involved in whatever way they like and that those roles get defined clearly during the strategic plan and work plan development process. Last but not least, we are seeking the approval of this body to proceed to city council. We would be working with city staff to develop a draft professional services agreement with a budget, to then be reviewed by city council. The goal would be to bring this to city council on May 17th [00:37:30] and then if approved, let's be optimistic. When approved, the team will schedule a kickoff meeting with the TRC leadership and get started as soon as we possibly can. Thank you all very much for your patients and please, happy to hear from you. Okay. we're going to start with public comments from folks who are [NOISE] attending via Zoom. If there's anyone in the attendance that has any questions for Kearns and West [00:38:00] Astig, for Mediation Services, Banjo Knits or Think Peace, now it'd be a good time to raise your hand. Hi there, can you hear me? Yes, Hi council member. Hi. My name is Megan Alter and I'm a council member. I have a question just to ask for a little bit of more detail yet ballpark about what potential or what possibilities there are for these [00:38:30] larger fact-finding events? Can you give me a for instance on that of what that might look like? Absolutely. Thanks for the question and thanks for your service, council member. It's interesting because when you look at three of the biggest North American TRCs, Greensboro, Maine, and Canada, they all come out at different ways. Canada's almost functions like a bazaar, if you will, meaning that you had a room for someone to come before a microphone and cameras and [00:39:00] give a very public statement. You had space where someone can meet very privately and offer testimony. You had rooms where people could gather both a First Nations and not to have healing conversations around the periphery experiences of First Nations members in Canada. A reconciliation opportunity or at least a truth receiving opportunity but in a small group setting. That was their approach. [00:39:30] Maine did almost all of their work in testimony gathering in private, and just saved public events for the launch of the commission, and then the reveal of their findings. Greensboro held three public hearings. Theirs were done with invited speakers from different sides of the particular tragedy they were exploring in 1979 and the testimony that they gave was either done for the first time, [00:40:00] they're in public or it was done as a rehash, but a reiteration of what they had said privately. Typically they would make an opening statement and then open themselves up to questions from the commissioners. Sometimes they just came in and the commissioners ask them questions and sometimes they just made a statement and didn't have question-and-answer. That's A model. It's incredibly important that both Eduardo Gonzalez and David Ragland and others who have worked on these commissions [00:40:30] elsewhere give a whole number of other examples of how it could look, but I think it certainly would be our goal to have events where anyone feels welcomed to participate in whatever way feels comfortable. That require certain resources like childcare, supervise children's activities, interpretation and other languages, accessible buildings, resources for those who need any accommodation. There is a lot that goes into that, of course, but that's something we wanted to [00:41:00] continue flushing out with the TRC as we get into work planning. I hope that answers your question. I see your hand. [LAUGHTER] I'm sorry. I didn't know if I was muted automatically or not. That's why my hand was up and just a follow-up, It sounds tremendous and I guess this is just something.. I apologize, I have not been in meetings where there have been discussions and so this might be rehashing things that the commission has already worked through [00:41:30] and talked about with you as well as our local partners. But I know that one of the things is best played intentions and in anticipation of getting a lot of people or having a whatever it might be projected that the large events oftentimes fall short and so guess I'm wondering, is there room within your thinking? This is for the entire coalition [00:42:00] to scale downward and to think about incremental. I love that there's also for virtual events, there are smaller events planned as well and the diversity market, I think that's ingenuity and has a lot of promise for being able to also be a space for people to veer off to the side and be able to do this process and to have a moment for themselves. But [00:42:30] I guess I'm just concerned about within that budget, I'll be honest, about four large events when it takes off a lot work to get a medium-size turnout or even a small turn out. [OVERLAPPING]. Was that a question? Yeah. I guess I'm just saying is there wiggle room in your budget to say, maybe we really don't need all this money because we may not have? It might be better do smaller events and not plan for four big ones? I'll be quiet [00:43:00] now. Honestly, council member, I could give you a longer answer, but the answer is absolutely yes. Okay. There's not much more I need to say. [LAUGHTER] I mean, we really hear that loud and clearly. Again, Maine encountered that exact thing. The state of Maine's Wabanaki TRC, encountered that exact issue relative to attracting testimony givers to events for variety of reasons. They pivoted and they leverage their resources to focus on privately taken testimony and other [00:43:30] outreach. We can do with this, whatever we like, we just wanted to make sure that we had allocated enough resources in the event that a large-scale event was of interest or that multiple large- scale events were of interest. We could also pilot one events, see how it goes, decide we want two, three more or that we want to switch entirely. The budget can accommodate any of that kind of permutation. Thank you so much. Sure. Is there anybody [00:44:00] else in the Zoom audience that has a question? [NOISE] Anyone here have questions? Counselor Burgers. I'm going to be allowed to ask questions. Yes. Hello. My name is Laura Berg a member of the City Council. Hi Larry, it's good to see you. You as well. Good to see all of you in person. [00:44:30] Really great to be here. I just wanted to reflect on a couple of things and maybe, not that there's answers for this, but when the city council approved the first budget and then declined to approve the contract, I think we move forward with the understanding that what would be coming back before us would be comparable. To be honest, I was a little shocked to see something almost three times the scope. Now hearing what it entails, [00:45:00] and it sounds like very reasonable, very prudent if we think of the size of what we're tackling and trying to undertake with this, it makes very good sense to me. But when we talk about the expertise that's being brought to bear, both internationally, nationally, and locally and the scope of the events and the training to allow community members to go forward. I'm just [00:45:30] struck that this sounds better than any of the other examples that Larry, you or other experts has been able to describe to us, which is very exciting for us. But what is it about Iowa City that makes this the right project, the right place, the right time to undertake something that meaningful and significant? Such an interesting question council member. I'll do my best, but I would defer to [00:46:00] Vee, to Angie, to Anne, being residents. I mean, from my perspective, the other commissions have often been born, as many of you would know, out of a level of horror and tragedy that is unthinkable to me. The idea, for example, in Greensboro, that five anti-Ku Klux Klan protesters could be gunned down on essentially live television in front of children [00:46:30] in their homes living in Morningside Heights. It's just unthinkable, of course, today it's sadly not. But at that time I think it really was an unthinkable horror and revealed so many other wounds that existed there. Main and Canada both deal with the maltreatment of indigenous, Native American, and First Nation folks. I'm sure people are familiar with these "Residential schools" in Canada that were certainly not that and that cultural and physical genocide [00:47:00] occurred. I think that Iowa city is certainly grappling with extraordinary pain and trauma. What I think is interesting is the ability in this case to be a little bit proactive in addressing some of the issues that face the community and not to have to do it in the midst of some crisis or some, I don't know suicidal earthquake. But to do it in the context where we can deliberate on these things, we can [00:47:30] tap into our memories without fear of some instant calamity. I know that our world is very unpredictable these days. But I also think that Iowa City has taken this step in a way that virtually no other community around the country has. There are of course, other TRCs that have been convened and I'm watching them fairly closely and few, if any, with maybe one or two exceptions, have been moving as far along as you-all have. I think it just speaks to [00:48:00] the investment that's there of social capital to do this well. I'd like to think that with the level of support that the City of Iowa City has granted, which is also different in Greensboro, and the amount of commitment from your commissioners, all of whom are there locally, which is unique. I think you're very well-positioned for success. But let me go back to Vee and Andrea and Anne for anything additional. I would also add into that and maybe a lot [00:48:30] of this is echoing what Larry is saying. But just from my perspective, when Eduardo came in into the scene and I learn more about what all he does, I had that same question, why are you here bro? What I understood him saying was this is a very unique ecosystem that this is happening in Iowa City and wow, if it's successful, how it can template out. Again, for me, that rang [00:49:00] familiar with the neighborhood work that we do that a lot of seems like the city is looking to the south district to template out things that are happening. I think too, of all the resources in Johnson County and how sometimes we're not always on the same page. We don't always have a same goal. For me personally, this work aligns us very organically to come together. It excites [00:49:30] me because I think we're going to be able to bring so many more entities that are doing parts of the work. We're going to bring them together so we're all doing all the work. That's something that I would just bring into this conversation about why here, why now? Just throwing it over to Vee or Anne to see if they have more. Yeah. Thank you for that. Such a great question. I think also [00:50:00] to echo what Angie had said about what when we talk with Eduardo and wondering, yeah, why are you here? What is about this that you find unique? Some of his response was really Iowa in the landscape of American culture, is often looked to in the heartlanders, a place where possibility could happen. I mean, if you look at politically speaking, a lot of the caucuses or whatever you want to call it, we get a lot [00:50:30] of attention. His point was if Iowa city can do this, then it really does give hope I think to a lot of other places in America just given where Iowa is positioned. I think also a conversation that we had last week with Manape has really struck me and stayed with me. Many of the things that he shared were deeply moving and one of them that he shared was his own thoughts and feelings about how, [00:51:00] when you look at the Midwest, how absent Native Americans are and the real trauma and massacres and exportation of people and culture. That doesn't really exist on the landscape because people were moved to the West and forced from their homes and other atrocities. He felt like Iowa is really well-positioned to do some of that healing and we have an opportunity here to [00:51:30] do that, unlike other places in America. That really resonated with me as well. I just thought I would share that. Obviously, he's not saying it, but that's what I got from that. Why here, right now? Why now? Well, for one thing, George Floyd was killed and there was Black Lives Matter and this was a request and the city council [00:52:00] said they would do it. For another, I think every person of color who's a friend of mine has had something very hard and/or unjust, not just one happen to them and in this town, and not necessarily fully acknowledged by the public or by the people in power. It's like, why the heck not? That's what's happening here. It's not someplace [00:52:30] else. It's right here. Think of yourself or people that you know for whom this is true. A kid on a hot day, a young black kid walking to his grandmother's from Coralville to Pheasant Ridge stopped by a policeman saying, why are you sweating? Are you running from something? Did you do something? A kid going to see his grandmother. That's the least of what I can tell you. Seriously, you [00:53:00] gave permission for it. It's what needs to happen every place and we get to do it here. That's why. Thank you, Counselor Bergus. Does anyone else have a comment to make in the public? Daphney, if you have any questions or comments [NOISE] for the team, now it'd be [00:53:30] a good time to go over that. Vice Chair Ali, before you go there, Mr. Jones on Zoom raised his hand as well. Oh, sorry. I can't see that very well. Sorry, Daphney, I redact that statement. Redmond. [LAUGHTER] Thank you. Larry, I was just curious with all the different experiences that you've had with truth and reconciliation commissions [00:54:00] and efforts, have you seen some of the outcomes after let's say a successful process which you probably couldn't say. Is there ever a successful process, or is it ever complete? But typically, you like to get to a certain point where there's recommendations, and typically we are talking about a policy-making board, so maybe policy [00:54:30] recommendations, maybe there's program recommendations, things that require some resources. Is there some examples out there of processes that have generated such activities, and if there are any examples of how they're doing? Thank you very much, Mr. Jones, for the question. The best resource I can point you to would be some work being done by the CBC in Canada. CBC is [00:55:00] like NPR up there. The CBC has a website called Beyond 94, which is a reference to the 94 calls to action that were made by the TRC in Canada. If you go to the website, which I suppose I could do a very quick Screenshare of here, you'll see that they, as a news organization, have been very carefully tracking the extent to which the TRC calls to action have come to pass. As you can see, 13 of [00:55:30] the 94 are complete, but another 29 have projects underway, others have projects proposed, and others are not yet started. But the Prime Minister of Canada has devoted significant resources in the form of dedicated personnel to carrying out their work. The recommendations in Greensboro are noteworthy in that regard because Greensboro identified a number of economic undercurrents to what took place in 1979. Essentially that black [00:56:00] textile workers were unionizing, which posed a threat to some members of the clan. As they did their work, they came to believe that major economic change was needed in Greensboro. Sure enough, the Greensboro City Council later approved their recommendation to provide a fair living wage to all of its employees, and I believe it applied both the City of Greensboro and Guilford County. Which was a major step forward, particularly for a southern city to do something like that. [00:56:30] There also was a marker erected at the site of the incident which believe it or not, hadn't existed. There were official apologies and acknowledgments made by the city, which were a long time coming. The city was found liable by a civil court of wrongdoing because the police didn't prevent the violence. There are tangible recommendations that these commissions have made that have been implemented. Mains Commission is most notable for, I think, changes to processes [00:57:00] by which native children are managed within the States child welfare system. Their changes are both more subtle and more significant, if you will, so not necessarily an ordinance piece of law, but a change in how social workers and other professionals are ensuring that children from native tribes are protected and that the tribe's interests are protected and so on. The examples are many. I'm happy to send you a report if you'd need some [00:57:30] help falling asleep [LAUGHTER] that I wrote about this, but it's very much empirically true that these commissions make recommendations that then see the light of day and don't just attract dust on the shelf. Thank you. Of course. Daphney. [00:58:00] Vice Chair, she's put something in the chat. Oh, perfect. If it's okay, I'll just read it. Yeah. She says I have two questions. One, will the community be able to provide feedback after each event? If so, will that feedback help shape future events? I'm pretty sure Daphney hacked into my computer. That's exactly what I do for every single project. It's critical to do that. I think also to council member I [00:58:30] think it was Bogus's point. We don't want to do an event that doesn't attract the attention we want it to and then try to keep repeating something that isn't working. Absolutely we would keep the community's feedback top of mind, over the course of the process to make sure not just that the event was of the type that they wanted, but they get something out of it, do they feel it as well-orchestrated? What would they change? All of that stuff would be very much [00:59:00] critical. That integral not optional. That would be my answer to that question. Then I think she had a second. I'm not sure if she want to type or not. Yes, I see both at the same time. I see the one question in the chat. I'm sorry. I actually just have one question. I'm fighting a nasty cough. Poor thing. I'm sorry. I know had one question. But thank you so [00:59:30] [OVERLAPPING] No problem. That was two questions in one I see now. Daphney, feel better. I've been there recently. I think Council Alter re-raise her hand. It's so ironic because I live in Texas and my city council member is council member Alter. [LAUGHTER] Just a different, Alter. There she is. Yes, ma'am. Here [01:00:00] we go. I have a nuts and bolts question, actually. Within the budget breakout, you had roughly 181,000 for the TRC meetings. Yes. As you mentioned, you had a comparison to other ones where you were there. You were able to condense weekly meetings into one month and etc, and there would be travel expenses. Nevertheless, in saying that these starting month, [01:00:30] it seems that it breaks out to about $15,000 per month for your facilitation, is that accurate? Can you flush that out? [OVERLAPPING]. Thanks. No, I appreciate you asking that. I will say that's pretty hefty given that we have, I'm sure that TRC perhaps as filled in there. There's a backstory of our commissioners. Every commission works voluntarily, [01:01:00] and so I would just like you to explain a little bit about the 15k that would go into facilitation, recognizing as well that there are travel expenses, nevertheless, like that separate from all of the other activities that you've actually been able to do. Yes. Thanks, council member. That figure comes from a couple of different things. One is on almost every project that I do with limited [01:01:30] exception, there are at least two of us who facilitate because we just believe that even if I'm doing a great job, I'm my own single person and with my own background and a second person often has enormous value just by having a different set of life experiences and skills. It does contemplate two facilitators. It also contemplates, as I mentioned, the full attendance of NGVNA as well as our three circle [01:02:00] facilitators at all meetings. Now, again, that may become not something that is feasible or something that they would rather repurpose their efforts in a different part of the work. But we wanted to make sure that we had allocated enough so that they could all be there for all of the meetings. We also assumed a six-hour meetings split out over two days. In other words, a total of 72 hours of meeting [01:02:30] time spread out over those 12 months. Again, it could prove to be less than that. We could decide, well, we met for much longer and we don't need to meet for a little bit. That could change. But that cadence has worked for me elsewhere. Then there's obviously some hours just for agenda development and revision and consultation with the team, and the preparatory work and the follow-on that goes into facilitating meetings effectively. That's where that comes from. There would be seven people, [01:03:00] actually, eight when you include our three local partner organizations, the three-circle facilitators, and then myself and a colleague. That's why it's a little bit higher there. Thank you. That helps. Sure. I think we're just going to [NOISE] go to members of the commission that are here in person. Then if anyone [01:03:30] comes up with any other questions, just put them in the chat and we'll try to look through them. But let's start with Eric and work our way down. Is that okay? [inaudible 01:03:40]. Or do you want to start on that end? Yeah, as long as somebody's got something to say down there, they can go. I'm just thinking of going in order necessarily. That's just all I'm thinking. Okay. This is Commissioner Harris. [01:04:00] I'm going to say, first of all, at this point if there was a vote for this I will vote no. The reason being is half of this gentleman's conversation was about expenses and the concerns about how much money, $15,000? That's a lot of money. We do a hard job, we do it for free. If I went home and I had to pass due light bill before I came here when I get back none with this. [01:04:30] Meaning my light bill is going to be passed through still. That doesn't change anything. It's hard to listen to the amount of money that is going to be spent. Now, we have a debate I think that's going on in this county and in the city about excluded workers. Now, if the city would be willing to dish out that amount of money but they can't help the people that need money that suffer, I can't vote for it. [01:05:00] That's just my thing. When I came to this meeting today, I had to make sacrifices to make sure that my children and my family would fit in okay. I'm not supposed to sit here for a couple of hours or two or three hours and listen about how you're going to pay somebody $15,000 a month. I just can't. I love some of the people that we have presented these things. It's just that I wouldn't feel right without voicing [01:05:30] my opposition. I'm just opposed to it and it's just been a long time coming in and a long process about getting a budget and getting a facilitator, it's been a long thing. But the one thing that they leave out is about what the commissioners do. Do they want to be compensated? Do they want to get anything? It's all about everybody else getting paid off of the work that we do and I can't. [01:06:00] I don't want people to be mad at me about how I feel about it but I just can't let it go past. It's difficult and it's been difficult for a long time. I was hearing mention that, "Hey, you tried to go to the city. This is the second or third time you tried to get a facilitator." Well, we all know why. We haven't had a facilitator because after hard work of our Chair when he tried to bring in a part about [01:06:30] people getting stipends. That's why we've been stalled. It's not about who it is or what it is. We had it all in place. We voted on it and they denied it because it has something about stipends in there. How long do we have to be commissioners until we are respected? How long? That's it. Before [01:07:00] you guys respond, I want to say that [OVERLAPPING]. You can't do that. Well, I just wanted to say that [OVERLAPPING]. Let's not do that right now. Part of their position is to help us figure out how to talk to the council about the budget. Stuff like that is part of their job is to help us strategically plan. But I wanted you to understand my question without you putting an extra input. We're not doing that right now. Yeah. We're are not doing that. She can't [OVERLAPPING]. Just the both of you. [01:07:30] We're not doing that right now. Got you bro. We're not doing that right now. But you need to respond to what I said in my statement. [OVERLAPPING] Understood. But we can't do the talk back between us. Yeah, sure. Thank you. I'm just asking for the right to have him respond to what I said. Not her putting her two cents in with what I said. That's it. Understood. I just don't want to do this publicly right now. I got you. Thank you. But it's not fair so. Then [01:08:00] just want to make sure, is this a comment rather to steer us on to this topic or rather to reply to what he said. I just want to make sure we go correctly. That would be to steer on the comment. Go ahead. Part of their position is to help us strategically plan how to put together a budget because the Council did not like the budget that we put together last time. We've discussed that with Kyle Ivins specifically. At one of your first meetings, the time that you [01:08:30] spoke to us in regards to his position in helping us because of the work that he did. You'll probably have to correct me Larry when he was a student at the University of Iowa in regards to equal pay and stuff. But I do remember that being something that you guys were dedicated on helping us plan and strategically plan how to ask Council how to make a budget that actually represents something that's feasible that they can look at. [01:09:00] That's not what I– Before we continue with the commissioner comments. I think it might be best if we just establish a protocol or rather if we will all speak before we have replies from facilitator group. Or if we would rather each speak and get replies from the facilitator group. Exactly. I add on you. What you want to put in that. Before we continue, [01:09:30] let's decide as a group which route we would like to take. Motion. I would like that we all speak respectfully and wait for everyone to hear from our guests so that we can get our questions answered. Exactly. I'd really appreciate it please if other council members do not speak over each other. Thank you. Exactly. All right. I will say that I waited a long time to say what I had to say. Hey, Eric, I'm going [01:10:00] to ask you [OVERLAPPING]. I did not Interrupt anybody. You've been interrupting us. No, I haven't said a word for the past hours [OVERLAPPING]. Everyone. I've been sitting here [OVERLAPPING]. Right now I just have to say as Chair of the Commission, I don't want to be the person to ever do this. But I would like to decide right now the way we're going to do this. Each of us speak, we get all the way through and then we take the comments from them. That's going to help best. I do not want this back-and-forth again. [OVERLAPPING]. Honestly, the only [01:10:30] thing I was saying is that everybody else talk and I wanted to get a reply from a person from my climate, not nobody else as knowing what they're saying just to reply to my comment. That's upsetting me because that's not fair and the person that did that know what they were trying to do. That's all I'm saying about it. Understood. I hear you. [OVERLAPPING] He can reply and he responds is what I said. We will all speak first and then they will reply to all of us. You will get your reply. [01:11:00] [OVERLAPPING]. That was said before we established this protocol. I got you. I'm not saying another word. Next we have Commissioner Johnson. Thank you. Thank you. [NOISE] Commissioner Johnson. Yes. I am just taking this and that's all doing some thinking. [01:11:30] I would like us to not make this emotional. There's a lot of emotions that stir up, but every time that happens, we get stuck, and it doesn't make sense. If we keep shooting ourselves in the foot, we're not going to get anywhere. A response. I don't mind it personally, myself, one at a time. Keep an order with it. It makes sense. As of [01:12:00] right now, what I'm looking at here, when it comes down to the budget, it's not something that we would spend all that money for. Is that correct to say? Elaborate. Meaning? The 584. The 584, we're not looking to spend this out completely. Correct? This is just saying this is where it would stop. No. That would be [01:12:30] the payment for all of everything that they've just discussed that they would be providing. Like strategic planning, helping us with their report, everything on the slides before that. Vice Chair. Commissioner Johnson is correct. If I may just quickly interject, you're correct that it's meant to be a not to exceed amount, commissioner, meaning that it's a ceiling. We may find that we are needed in a much different way than we've envisioned in this budget. Meaning fewer events or fewer facilitation or what have you, in which case, the ultimate [01:13:00] cost would be much lower. At the end of the day, we can cut this down completely and then cut this down completely- He asked a question and got to responded to. I'm out. - and in cutting this down completely. I couldn't get [inaudible 01:13:15] my question, it's not fair. Cutting this down completely or cutting this down at least some pieces would make it a lot [01:13:30] easier for us to just set up a structure and try to implement a structure, correct? If that's the case. only other question I would have is, do we honestly believe that the city is going to back us up on this situation? That's pretty much where I sit with that. Now your turn. I've attended [01:14:00] all of these meetings. I know what they're asking for. You can go ahead. This is Commissioner Dillard. First I want to thank everyone for explaining this to us tonight. I do have several questions. Just reading this as our Council Member, Laura Bergus said, this is a shocking number. It is triple the amount. I definitely am in support of if this is what you all think we need to do, but I would love to know a little bit more [01:14:30] like if you can itemize each different section. I know you already explained to us the TRC meetings. I'd love to know a little bit more about the fact-finding why that number is 161,000. I know that we've got a late handout that I did not see that has a little bit more. That's not a late handout. It's the example of the last [OVERLAPPING] agreement [01:15:00] that the council chose not to approve from current and rest. Okay. [NOISE] Well, so I still would definitely love to just hear more about like how many people are we expecting? Are you hoping to have attend the larger versus the smaller? I think these are questions that people in the community are going to ask and people at council are going to ask. This is a large number, and even if I am in support of it, I think it makes sense to have more clarification [01:15:30] on what all of these numbers truly mean. True. Before you go- Mr. Chairman, I just want to make sure Commissioner Harris knows I'm more than happy to answer his question whatever the time is right. I apologize for missing that. Oh, no problem. Thank You. I just want to say just for myself, once again, I know we keep hearing the dollar amount high, but again, we did add more people to the facilitated group as well with the original [01:16:00] facilitated proposal that Kearns & West had brought that timeline was again shorter than the current one. This timeline has been extended, has become longer. From what I understand, that essentially gives us the opportunity to do more work and address more people with that work. If we're expecting that, that would mean that this would be a higher dollar amount. On top of that as well as I remember it, inflation rates are pretty high right now. Whatever that money was worth the last year, not worth [01:16:30] that amount now, meaning you need to pay, I think it's like seven percent or so, that currency inflation around 13 percent dating back to 2020. But regardless, very high. I bring up the 2020 number because that was the year the City Council actually passed the million dollars for this. Thirteen percent inflated away. That means that money is actually worth around $870,000 right now. The longer we do this whole thing and keep dancing around, [01:17:00] the more that money just deflates, and just goes away and away and away and away and away. It doesn't go to anyone in this community. Whereas their money is being inflated away, their housing costs are going up. They're having all these issues in the schools. Like we have some people still continuing to say choice words to other students in the schools, causing them to not to ever want to go to that school again, etc. [01:17:30] We have a lot of problems around here, everyone knows that. At least everyone in this room I would hope. We keep talking about how we don't know how many people in the community will show up and we're just afraid of who will show up, who will not. That is something I am not even willing to entertain in terms of a conversation. Because here we are and I don't believe not nearly enough has been done for the media attention for the actual work that this commission is trying to [01:18:00] do. We're talking about how we're worried about people showing up. We haven't even shown people who we actually are, what we're actually trying to do, the points we're actually trying to convey. How are we just going to assume that we're going to have small numbers that attend. If this city is going to talk about how progressive it is, how liberal it is, how together everyone is, how diverse we are, then it's shameful in the same breath for us to be able to sit here and [OVERLAPPING] think that people wouldn't [01:18:30] show up to these things. Because that means that everything we think about this place is completely false. If that's the case, then a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is needed and is necessary and has been and if that again, is the case, that $584,000 worth it, in my mind, at least. I would rather have that than people sitting here growing up, hating the place they live because they hate going to school, because of the way they're treated. The way they're treated not only [01:19:00] by potentially their teachers, but their classmates, people around their town, officers in the town, etc, whatever it is. We need to remember that this is not just about the money that gets spent now, this is about the effects that it has for generations to come. Also remember that in 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, because of how inflation works, that $584,000 will not seem [01:19:30] like that much at all. Let's remember what the actual goal is. Healing, what is the dollar value that you all put on that. With that I yield. This is Commissioner Wangui for the record. If I were to vote right [01:20:00] now, if I were to take a vote for our facilitator proposal, I would vote yes and I'll go backwards and say I'm at the point where when I started this process, and this is me when I went to the council and they were discussing why I should be a commissioner. [01:20:30] One of the things I offered is I am trained at the University of Iowa to be a researcher. One of the things I research in is social injustice, racism, discrimination and I also teach that specifically to counselors. I'm a licensed counselor in Iowa, particularly to our school counselors. One of the things when I started, and [01:21:00] I've shared this publicly. I have never done a truth and reconciliation commission work. When I go to the field, one of the things I want is a framework to work with. Fast-forward a year later working through this process of looking for a facilitator. [01:21:30] Thank you Dr. Schooler because you led Kearns & West and Gonzalez and the whole team, I got clarity and my framework that I want. The in-between, something else that has, we have been working on this, I think we took the other thing I'll vote yes. Kearns & West is here, I voted for them way back before we took the proposal to the city council. I'm thinking September 21. I could be [01:22:00] wrong on the date but we took it to them and they took it back to us. Even after working with the whole team, more and in a more involving manner, and even me researching into their work, it confirmed my vote. I think you presented once or twice, once to us and to the council. Now I have engaged and [01:22:30] also thank you City Council. I've taken a course for the last seven weeks which has made me, as Dr. Schooler you were talking about Greensboro. I went through that trauma, the triggering and the pain of listening to that work, Wabanaki and also the TRCs that have been there in the world and also really even crying and even have to handle that [01:23:00] as one of those justice and truth reconciliation is my own in my own country, Kenya. That is also part of the example of the work that's still going on because though those TRCs you're talking about, even the one that's also going on, the task force in California, the work is not done. I'm still saying that having engaged and also between I think December 16th when we broke off we [01:23:30] got sent back by the Council that there wasn't local involvement in the facilitation process. A lot of work was being done and I think some communication wasn't there because I publicly see there's some places I'm lost on on bringing on our local organizations. But there are organizations that I know they're there in the community [01:24:00] and mediation services. I've always worked with Annie in my work coordinating domestic violence in Eastern Iowa. I got to engage as we were moving forward and asking all the questions about the budget. I'm not in finance, that's not my area but engaging with the bodies that are making [01:24:30] our facilitator. Having done that and asked my question, even the question Counselor Bergus was asking of reminding ourselves, what are we doing? Why are we here? Again, what rationale is this TRC based on and having those questions answered, I thank you very much [01:25:00] because all the expertise and all the work that has gone in getting us to that point. We have been very thoughtful in learning and getting to that point. For me, seeing this framework coming together, it has not been easy. We fought and others have cried even here publicly or [01:25:30] in private because it's painful work and it's going to be painful and we're not going to end it. For me, again, what I'm saying in very many words, thank you, our pieces that are making our facilitator Kearns & West, Think Peace, Astig, Banjo Knits, and Mediation Services and most excited to bring in the [01:26:00] circles in. Thank you very much and I have engaged in bringing this piece and work together. If we're voting, my vote will be yes as our chair represents us to take this again to the council if we decide to do that. Thank you very much. Thank you commissioner. [NOISE] Just to go [01:26:30] back with the budget thing, I think all the points that Mohammed made were really, really important and pertinent [NOISE] and also I think it's really important to note that this money has been sitting there for two years. That's another thing. They haven't done anything with this $1 million that's allocated for Black Lives Matter. [NOISE] [01:27:00] One thing I think I've learned especially in being so heavily involved in this process with the facilitator team combination, all of you guys, has been watching how much thought you guys have put into every single aspect of this. Before we even heard the circles thing, [01:27:30] it's weird. I'm like just hang on guys. They're talking to someone behind the scenes. I know it doesn't make sense right now but they're connecting to people. I want to make sure that it's known that you guys, we all took this so seriously. I don't know how many hours of Zooms you guys and I have had. There's a reason why Larry is Lar-Bear to me and I can say how yummy Angie's husband is [01:28:00] and it's because of [LAUGHTER] all of the time we've spent together. I appreciate all of the work that you guys have put into this and I want you guys to be prepared for all of the details that you're going to be asked in regards to that price point. I'm going to be very frank. I think that you should get yourself ready for some harsh criticism and some hard questions. I have one million percent faith but [01:28:30] I got my flame burned out once last year, right Laura? I don't want it to happen again. [LAUGHTER] I'll go with that. Oh, Daphney, you can go ahead. Thank you. I just want to clarify. What is not on the table this evening is the matter of stipends which [01:29:00] if we have a facilitator I think the conversation around that issue would probably change. I want to clarify stipend. We're not talking about stipends this evening and this is not directly connected to the excluded workers fund. I don't know if this is a question that anyone at this meeting could answer but it is one [01:29:30] that we may want answered, is this something where if the facilitator is granted the money for the excluded workers fund, is there any way that money will be taken out of the money? No way. That's virtually illegal. Actually it's illegal. No way that that money would ever be in the same near accounts or have people running it. Nothing [01:30:00] whatsoever. Then this is not about stipends, that that's not on the table. No, it is not. You are correct on that. Thank you. Yeah, of course. This is Commissioner Johnson. I just would like to also say, once again, we all volunteer for this. Stipends, that's nice, but that's not exactly what the bigger picture is. We need to focus and make sure that we make [01:30:30] this work. I'd like to do whatever it takes that in the right direction, period. Yield with that. Are you guys ready to answer those tons and tons of questions before we go over this consultant agreement and make some edits to it? Larry. Yes Vice Chair, I'm happy to try to answer questions. I do want to clarify the [01:31:00] procedurally and maybe Stefanie Bowers can help here. I just want to understand what the TRC might [LAUGHTER] be voting on. I think that we understood you ought to be voting whether or not to recommend the Council that they move forward with us to determine the terms of an agreement. Just wanted to clarify if that was the case. I [01:31:30] think to answer your question, they would be recommending to City Council to recommend you for the proposal. Right. When they decide to vote on it this evening I will point them back to the agreement that was done back in September to just make sure that it's understood that if there is something about the proposal today or something that they disagree with what was presented [01:32:00] today then that would be part of that agreement, the one in front of Council. So they just need to take that into consideration when they vote. Absolutely. Yeah, thanks Stefanie. I wanted to circle up to, is commissioner Harris still in the room? No, but it would definitely be helpful if you'll still answer. Is that commissioner Johnson? I'm sorry, I'm only seeing two faces. Commissioner Johnson, I want to just tell commissioner Harris if he's listening that your time [01:32:30] is valuable and maybe even more than mine is. I am unfortunately not in a position to do something directly other than to facilitate as someone mentioned a strategic planning process and a work plan process so that you-all may present a fresh, any change in the way that your money can be spent, the money that's been allocated to the TRC and rest assured I hear you loudly and clearly [01:33:00] that your time is as valuable as anyone's and perhaps more than mine. Commissioner Daniel I don't think had a question other than about the excluded workers fund and I think Vice Chair Ali took that one. Commissioner Johnson I think that your questions were answered but just to confirm the budgetary amount is meant to be a cap that we would not exceed and that we only would be [01:33:30] compensated based on the actual time and services performed and so it very likely could be a different final amount based on either some of our work being off-loaded to others in the community or us just not doing some of the work we had proposed doing here that will all come out I think in the strategic and work planning process does that answer your question? Absolutely, definitely. Thank you. Only one other thing if does not pass with the city what is going to be our next [01:34:00] plan for that after that? That's all, just something to think about. I think Commissioner Dillard also had asked about the itemized budget. Yes, no that I was going to get to that next but Commissioner Johnson I'm afraid I don't know the answer to the question you just asked that's probably something that you all have to decide as a TRC and the city council, city manager will have to decide. As it relates to Commissioner Dillard thank you for the questions you asked and so [01:34:30] I'm going to attempt to go through as you put it an itemized list of the things that are encompassed by it. I see a question also from Mr. Jones in the chat that I'll try to come back to if that's okay. Commissioner Dillard for the portion of the, as a matter of fact that might be best if I re-share the slide that has the overview, can you all see the budget overview slide? Yes. Okay, great. [01:35:00] The strategic and work plan research and project management, this is the project where we would anticipate needing to be in very frequent contact with both the TRC members, the TRC leadership and city staff and so we've allocated enough time to ensure that we can meet very regularly to ensure that we're all on the same page with where things are headed and that [01:35:30] we can put the preparation into design and then facilitate a meaningful retreat, a meaningful workshop so that you can come away with a strategic and work plan. As you may know that those things often take multiple days even months and we're hoping that we can abbreviate that a considerable amount but we did want make sure we had enough resources to be able to thoughtfully plan out how workshop like that would go to make highest and best use of your time and to make sure that [01:36:00] all that we needed to do to ensure we have enough background information on this work can be completed in advance as well so it accounts for the preparations for and the facilitation of and the follow-on from the strategic and work planning retreat as well as ongoing coordination and project management that is in this particular case we think pretty high just because of how many people need to be coordinated with if I can end a sentence [01:36:30] with a preposition. On the design of the fact-finding and truth-telling process I think that one of the things that is very much a hallmark of Eduardo Gonzalez's approach to this is that he not or that a small number of us not sit in some room and design a process but that it'd be directly informed by the particular needs of the audience that is trying to be reached and so that necessitates things like interviews [01:37:00] conducted with either individuals or community organizations, in-person and door-to-door visits we call it fact-finding but you could call it canvassing in other words just a way to go and meet people who might not have the inclination or the resources to be involved in an organization that we would otherwise touch but who we could meet in the process of walking the community and get some input that way. Develop the plan for [01:37:30] diversity markets and a way for those markets to be leveraged both as an outreach tool and as a way for us to collect information for the TRC. Designing the overall process for training community volunteers and getting that training in place so that we can multiply our forces at considerable amount. It's essentially a multipronged way of ensuring that any public events are done with a very careful eye [01:38:00] towards what this community wants and I think the chair Traore and others point earlier what they will attend, what will lower if not eliminate the barriers to their participating? Because we know those barriers exist no matter what happens, anytime you call a public meeting you're likely to encounter barriers to participation and so we want to make sure we've done a very deep dive with the Iowa City community in every fashion possible without privileging technology or the ability to drive to a meeting [01:38:30] and make sure we understand what this community is after. On the fact-finding and truth-telling that's in this particular case the one that has the most detail but that line item includes the training of community members to be statement takers, it includes the coordination of all the logistics for the in-person events, it includes the actual day of hosting for the large in-person events and again we put four of those into the budget because we just thought that might be [01:39:00] suitable but it could be fewer, it could be more, it includes the time and personnel for the circle events and for the diversity markets and a small amount of time for an after action report because it's critical that as the TRC is going along we don't just wait until some endpoint to give you a sense of what your community is telling you, that we prepare that report and that the community sees that they are being heard that report would be publicly [01:39:30] available so that's what's encompassed by the third item. On the fourth item I think I talked about this a little bit more but this emerge in six hours of TRC meeting time per month spread out over a couple of days with one meeting a month over the course of a year long period and of course that schedule could be adjusted, it does include the work of developing a meeting strategy, proposed agendas, presentation materials, meeting with the project team and other [01:40:00] individuals to coordinate anything that needs to be prepared for a TRC meeting, that might be a panel or a guest speaker or the like, obviously the facilitation itself including setup and tear down and then reporting out with some reason minutes for you all in conjunction with Stephanie and others. Again, that item does take into account the possibility for travel, it may be that we come to the conclusion that the level of travel we've laid out in the budget is higher than necessary but [01:40:30] we understood the meetings to be resuming in-person and we wanted to make sure we accounted for that. Then the report compilation is essentially the task of going through all of the information gathered by the TRC and all of the information produced by the TRC over the course of their meetings and preparing a narrative, this would certainly in our opinion be done best as a collaborative effort with TRC commissioners directly but given the amount of time that you're already going to be spending in meetings and at public [01:41:00] events we just wanted to make sure we were positioned to spend the requisite amount of time at least drafting sections of the document for your review and edit and certainly if there were commissioners who wanted to be part of that process or take it over we're fine with that but we wanted to make sure we were in a position to help drive that because the report is also critical as well as the specific recommendations. Commissioner Dillard that was a great question I don't know if I've done it justice, is there anything else I can help you with on that one? [01:41:30] That was great, thank you so much, I understand now. Of course. Let's see, I think LV had to step away thanks to them for coming. Mr. Jones asked if there was a base to the budget and I think I know what that means but if I'm off on this please correct me. Really this is a budget that would have to be considered once we've determined [01:42:00] the tasks that the TRC truly wants us to have and it will also be subject to change as the process moves forward based on you know we're having these meetings I think we could afford to meet a little less or enough events we don't need to plan more or whatever the particulars of that would be so I'd hesitate to say there's a base, I mean we certainly would want to start with the work of coming to Iowa City and conducting that [01:42:30] planning process so I suppose that the baseline is getting there and getting that level of pre-work done but absent that there's really not a like a floor so much as there is a suite of possibilities for us to undertake on the commissions behalf and then we can ascertain what of that would be most needed. Council member Alter on the chat says that what would be the timeline [01:43:00] for the strategic and work planning? I certainly think that we would like that to happen as quickly as we can if we are able to get notice to proceed, once we have that, I mean I think we would want to try to identify if we could some summer dates and carry that work out as quickly as we could and I would also say council member that we would strive to make it as light of a meeting lift as possible and try to encourage [01:43:30] some pre-work and maybe some in-between meeting work so that the commissioners wouldn't get too tired from extra time or have to make too many extraordinary schedule sacrifices or other sacrifices to be part of it but I think we would strive to get the ball rolling on that as soon as we have noticed to proceed, get it scheduled as quickly as possible thereafter, come to town, do those meetings and then within say a month's time to be able to produce a plan for the TRC to [01:44:00] review and or approve so I hope that's helpful. Commissioners, I believe that I've covered what was asked but please let me know if I've missed anybody with a question or a comment. Appreciate it, thank you. Yes, sir. Do you want to share that [OVERLAPPING] agreement so that we can do what [01:44:30] you were talking about? [LAUGHTER] I think based upon the conversation, I mean, just so that everybody understands when you move to item number seven, that this is the previous agreement that went in front of City Council that did not pass back in September of last year. What you would be approving today looks like, I think Redmund has his hand [01:45:00] raised but I'll finish real quick, it would be taking the information from the slides and reinserting it into the scopes of services. Again, just reminding everyone that the information that was discussed today along with the details within the slide deck would be what Kearns and West and the others will work with the City Attorney's [01:45:30] office and compiling into a document to go in front of City Council. There would be other changes when you look at the timeline, obviously, it was discussed that this would go for a year from now, so those timelines would change too, it would be May of 2023. Just so you're mindful of that when you vote. Basically, if there's something that you have a concern with, [01:46:00] then you would need to address it at this time. I see a comment in chat. I don't know if, commissioners, it's appropriate to read it. It's from Mr. Jones. If Mr. Jones would be recognized, I defer to you all. Based on your response, would it be possible to get a price for the initial assessment and once the scope is detailed from the meeting, a second phase be presented to the [01:46:30] council? Larry, you can answer that. Yeah. I mean, I would say perhaps. It's something that I'd have to discuss with the team in more depth. But I would definitely recommend that we do as much as we can to define the ways we think the facilitation team is going to support this work and we can always make modifications to our tasks so [01:47:00] long as we're able to stay within the allotted budget. It certainly is possible, I suppose, but I would prefer, if possible, that we come to an understanding about the work we will do in total and then we can certainly come back after the strategic and work planning session and say, "Here's some adjustments that we've made to that. Here are some projections as to how that might play out in the budget." Again, we do a time and materials [01:47:30] process in most cases, rather than any sort of flat fee or some such. There would be no obligation from the TRC or Iowa City until we had agreed in writing on exactly what we'll do and then we would only be invoicing and requesting payment upon completion of that work. Yeah. I'm going to say from my standpoint, from having [01:48:00] dealt with everything from the beginning to now that I would not agree with that being our strategy of moving things forward, especially just because of how things have gone in the past, even before Redmund was in Iowa City. Is there anyone else that has any other comments? I just wanted to say I think it'd be good for the record to clarify which you don't agree with. Can we read it out? I mean, which [01:48:30] standpoint you don't agree with, the two phases or the one? Yes, I do not agree with the two phases. The question was based on your response, would it be possible to get a price for the initial assessment once the scope is detailed from that meeting, a second phase be presented to the council? I am just clarifying that because of everything that I've been through, that doesn't seem like it would be a good way to move forward. Yes, [01:49:00] that's my initial thoughts on it. Are you guys ready to move on or do you want to discuss more? Go ahead. The only thing I have to say is that I feel like we can solve a lot of problems if we start right here. Yeah. My only hesitation, like I said, is just making sure that it is detailed enough so that people fully understand. I hope, moving forward, we can have that, [01:49:30] as I've been saying, itemized so that there won't be the questions of what is being spent. I do appreciate the explanation but I anticipate there is going to be people coming up in arms again. [LAUGHTER] Is that Commissioner Dillard? Yes. Commissioner Dillard, I just wanted to affirm that and tell you that I can't prejudge what might go into the professional services agreement that we hopefully get amended but my hope would be [01:50:00] that everything I recited to you would go into that agreement so that it would be available for folks to understand exactly what it is that we are intending to do in the way of services. Then for clarification purposes, because we all know that whenever it comes to this lawyer stuff, I get really confused. It's not our job to go over this. This is something Kearns and West is going to do with your legal team for this city, right? [01:50:30] That's part of their proposal that you would be agreeing to because that's one of the things that they state on one of the slides is that if you approve the proposal then they would work with the City Attorney's office and putting together an agreement that's reflective of the proposal. That would be this? It would not be the agreement, you're approving the proposal that will be reflected in the agreement. [01:51:00] I mean, you could have a proven agreement, certainly, but that's not how it was presented. Yeah. If I could, Stephanie, I would characterize the agreement as just memorializing and writing everything we've talked about here. As long as the TRC is comfortable at the conceptual level with everything we've shared, then we'll make sure that in our work with the City Manager and the City Attorney that that's all reflected in the written document that the council would vote to approve. [01:51:30] That would be the document that Council sees, so it's not going to be like Council's seeing these slides. No. Okay. Perfect. I mean, we can make a presentation to City Council, obviously, but it would be the professional services agreement. Yes. Perfect. I just wanted to make sure on that front because I was like, am I going to have to make this and put this piece and everything into these parts and build the bubbles? No. All right. We're golden, pony boys. [LAUGHTER] [01:52:00] Are you guys ready to move on to the next agenda item? Yes. Yes. What's the next agenda item? Discussion and vote. Oh my gosh. I'm going to cry, this has been since November. Is there anything that you guys want to discuss about this? I don't really have [01:52:30] discussion point, just want to give a big thank you to the entire group for all the work that you have put into this, to Stephanie as well for conducting so much of this correspondence emails staff. Thank you. I agree as well for stepping in at some point, but I especially want to thank Vice Chair Emile here. I've had so little to do with this since November that it's not even funny. She's pretty much taken all of this on, [01:53:00] so thank you for doing that. Really helped me do more with my actual job, which was nice. I feel like just doing a lot better if compared to where I was in the fall. I just thank you so much for taking this on and really leading the charge and being our leader through this time. But that's all I have on it. Then I appreciate that, Mohammed. [01:53:30] I'm so weird and emotional. This is weird. I don't like this. But I wanted to say that I appreciate Larry and company for putting up with me [LAUGHTER] for the last few months. Some weird and fun Zooms and also lots of weird questions. I appreciate you guys for everything you've taught me and valuable stuff. [01:54:00] But I do have a question that I forgot to ask earlier. This is something that we can think about. This goes with, I think I told you guys a long time ago when I was working on a logo for us, but I'm not artistic at all. But [NOISE] if this gets passed and approved and then let's say council approves it, is there something that we could do within TRC at the diversity [01:54:30] market, like have our logo on something or something like that, just so that we can get our name out there more? I want it to be affiliated with that as well. That's just I'm planting a little seed in Angie's garden and I had there. I think that's the underlying intent, Vice Chair, of Andrew's being a part of this. Not to speak for her [LAUGHTER] But [01:55:00] yeah, nobody else wants to make a comment then I'm going to go ahead and make a motion. I just want to add because I already made my comments on Number 6. If you see me looking I'm just looking in Commissioner Traore's laptop to see you guys who up there. I just want to add that on the question of the [01:55:30] budget, I recognize that some of the money may look like somebody may think and this will come again from the questions, that it may look like it's going directly into some of the individual pockets, but we know it going into the actual work. [01:56:00] We also know and I recognize a lot of the work you have been doing so far. It has been voluntary even to get to this point and there's also a lot of voluntary work and an unpaid work that you will continue doing that is not even included in the money that is there. That being said, I will stop myself because I have a lot of words that come out of me. I'll stop there and just [01:56:30] repeat. Thank you for all of you and working with you and engaging to get to this point. I am going to make a motion to vote yes on the facilitator proposal. Second. Commissioner Johnson, second. Just narrowly made the motion. I'm properly moved and seconded to recommend to the City Council the proposal from currents [01:57:00] and Western cooperation with local entities. Any further discussion? Commissioner Ali? Yes. Commissioner Daniel? Yes. Commissioner Dillard? Yes. Commissioner Catherine? Yes. Commissioner Johnson? Yes. Okay, motion passes 6-0. Traore, sorry. I'll say yes. [LAUGHTER] [01:57:30] My bad. All good. Next we have announcements from staff and does anyone here have any announcements? The only thing I want to add here is thank you everyone for attending. Also, just want to apologize for little disagreement earlier. Anyone felt disrespected by my [01:58:00] comments personally, I'm sorry. Just wanted to make sure that we did not continue on that conversation at this time. The last thing I want to add is just that thank you everyone that even comes to these meetings or listens to these things. There's definitely going to need you when it comes time to get this thing passed and especially going to need the media to make sure that when you're writing these stories [01:58:30] on what this commission does, and especially what's going to happen with the city council meetings, be sure it's balanced and be assured that the viewpoints of the commissioners are actually properly addressed. Because a lot of people are not going to show up at that meeting. Most people, the first time they will even notice things still exists is when they read your articles. If we're completely mischaracterized or if we are made as the bullies or the bad people in every single paper, [01:59:00] that is what everyone will know us as and that is how everyone will treat us. Just be sure that you are fair and balanced in the reporting that I yield. I have a kind of rather say sad. Our country hates women and doesn't want them to have their own body autonomy. Right now I'm actually preaching to the straight men in the room, [01:59:30] preaching to this cis men in the room, don't just post memes, talk to people about it. You probably know someone, you probably love someone who's had an abortion. One in four women have. Give money to abortion funds. Give money to clinics that provide contraceptive care and emergency contraceptive. Give your friends with uteruses money. But don't just [02:00:00] sit and be quiet while the government tries to tell us what we can and can't do with our bodies because this affects everyone. I think we really need to take this seriously and it's got to start with straight men, making other straight men uncomfortable. With that I yield to the floor. Motion to adjourn. I [02:00:30] just want to thank the city for paying for the course that I've just got done with the truth-telling project for the last 7 weeks. I'm glad it happened as we were moving towards today's meeting and this point, because though painful triggering and all that, [02:01:00] it has been a very educative 7 weeks. Thank you City for paying for that. I yield the floor. Commissioner Johnson, we just need to get things done. I think we have an opportunity right now to make a huge difference and change the lives of a lot of people in a positive way and on top of that, why not? [02:01:30] The city needs to help us do it. We need to get this done. We've already said we've done a lot of talking about it. Let's get it done. Motion to adjourn. Second. Peace. Thank you [MUSIC]