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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRC Transcript - January 25, 2024[00:00:00] [00:00:07] It is 7:13. Stephanie, would you please do roll call? [00:00:12] Commissioner Merritt. [00:00:15] Here. [00:00:16] Commissioner Cripps. [00:00:18] Here. [00:00:19] Commissioner Simmons. [00:00:20] Here. [00:00:21] Commissioner Gathua? [00:00:23] Yes. [00:00:24] Commissioner Nobiss. [00:00:28] Here. [00:00:29] Commissioner Dillard. [00:00:30] Here. [00:00:32] Thank you. Next, we're going to do the reading of the Native American Land Acknowledgment and it reads. [00:00:39] Commissioner Johnson here as well. [00:00:41] Oh, sorry Clift. [00:00:44] Thank you for that. We meet today in the community of Iowa City, which now occupies the homelands of Native American nations to whom we owe our commitment and dedication. The area of Iowa City was within the homelands of the Iowa, Musquakee, and Sok. [00:01:00] 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 dispossess 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. Next, I'm going to move to agenda item number three and if there's anyone in the room that would like to give public comment on items not on the agenda, please stand up to the podium, please. [NOISE] Next, I would go to agenda item Number 4 approval of the meeting minutes from January 4th meeting. Stephanie. [00:01:49] Oh, yeah, Second. [00:01:50] There needs to be a second first. I forgot. [00:01:53] I second. [00:01:54] Thank you. It's been properly moved and seconded to approve the meeting minutes from January 4th. [00:02:00] All those in favor say aye. [00:02:03] Aye. [00:02:03] Anyone opposed? Motion carries seven zero. [00:02:09] Next, I'm going to invite our facilitator up Annie, to go over community agreements with us as a part of agenda item number seven next steps for Phase 2. [00:02:21] Great. Thanks Chastity. The consultants were thinking that two things, can you hear me? [00:02:31] Yes. [00:02:32] Community agreements, one, it would be great for you all to have them as a body, but also that when you're doing your events, you may want to have some community agreements that you let folks know when they come in the room, this is what this space is, this is how we comport ourselves and so as an exercise to see what you all want to do for yourselves, but also [00:03:00] to begin thinking about how you want to handle that role, that statement for the community when they come to your events. I brought this and I wonder if anybody wants to read it. I can read it, but I'm used to my own voice. Do you want me to read it? [00:03:18] Go ahead. [00:03:19] Nobody's volunteering. These are from Think Peace, and you probably remember them from this summer when Think Peace did their event and training for you all. They used this and we all reviewed it and agreed to it. It says we share agreements to build understanding as we navigate meaningful and difficult conversations grounded in co-creating spaces for racial justice and healing together. We invite us all to contribute to and agree to the following guidelines. Listening. We listen fully, listen from [00:04:00] our heart, and we will allow space for silence. We bear witness but do not provide advice or argue with others. Speaking. We respect one person speaking at a time without verbal or nonverbal interruption. We speak for ourselves from the eye perspective, from our own experiences and perspectives, and avoid generalizing for others in the room. Number three, learning. We are a community of learners and we are growing. We take risks and are courageous, honest, and open with our own stories, with faith that we may make mistakes. We learn when we need to move up and move back and we know when we need to pass. We know this work may be difficult and we are curious about discomfort when it arises. We take responsibility if we are [00:05:00] hurt by others' words, and use hurt as an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and each other. Number 4, language. We use inclusive and non-gendered language and use each person's chosen pronouns. We investigate decoloniality, language and literacy, and interrogate our own positionality in regards the words and concepts we use and its impact on others in the Bipoc community. Number 5, trust and care. We aim to build trusting relationships and know we move at the speed of trust. We care for ourselves and each other's physical, spiritual, and emotional energy needs. Number 6, confidentiality. We honor what others say with confidentiality and integrity. Sharing only with context and in relevance to your own life and learning, [00:06:00] not as gossip. What is said in our meetings stays in our meetings. I'm offering, anybody want to respond to just have some thoughts about this? Share any thoughts about this. As a way of creating space, you have the opportunity to do whatever you want. This is just one example. Any thoughts? [00:06:34] I have a question here. Will this be used for all of our events or is it for specific pieces, or is that up to us? [00:06:49] I think it's up to you. I think one of the things that we wanted you to recognize is that you have the power to shape the space that people come into [00:07:00] and you have the power to make requests so that they have some clarity on where they are, what this space is, and what it isn't. You could have something that is read like the land agreement not agreement but the land acknowledgment. You could have something also that you say and before we start here is what we do here. [00:07:29] This is pretty lengthy, I think it's great food for thought. You could choose to use this. You could choose to use something simpler. You could choose to have something for your meetings and then something different for the truth telling events or other educational events that you have. We wanted to just raise this as a real opportunity. [00:07:54] I think it's really important to set the tone and have those guidelines in place, especially dealing with subjects [00:08:00] of the nature we'll be dealing with to help set the stage. I did feel a little concerned about the length of it. I think it's beautifully written but possibly something simpler. It's a little, I guess ease of use for everyone. [00:08:21] Use it for everyone, is that what you're saying? [00:08:23] Ease of use for everyone. [00:08:25] Yes. Excellent. I think that's a really important point. Anybody else have anything you want to say? [00:08:37] I think I wanted to say, thank you. As a facilitation group representing the facilitation group, bring this to us. I definitely agree with what Maria was saying. This is a great thing that we can incorporate with our true telling events. I like what you said this is something we could also incorporate in our own space here in our meetings so we can lead by example [00:09:00] in co-creating these community agreements with the community, so thank you. [00:09:08] Great. There's one other piece to think about. If someone isn't acting, isn't behaving consistently with what you've requested, with what you've stated, you need to figure out how you're going to deal with it. For example, when I have people in mediation make their own agreements, their own ground rules before they even start talking, and then I have to explain how it works. I'm just going to give this to you, not as what you would do, but for example. I say if one of you doesn't keep your agreement, any one of the three of us can go, excuse me, that doesn't seem consistent with what we said. I say that and then at that point, what I'll do is turn [00:10:00] to the person whose behavior is inconsistent and say so it seems like that's inconsistent with our ground rules. Can you take a pause for a moment and think about how you can say what you want said, but in a way that is consistent. I said our goal here is not to silence anyone. That's just like a bare bones something that you would want to all have some way of, I don't want to say enforcing, but supporting these and making sure that if it happens, you nip it in the bud, and you have a way to do that, that's respectful and lets that person continue. Anyway thank you very much. [00:10:48] Thank you Annie. I'm going to jump backwards to agenda item number 5, Conflict in Gaza. I believe B is going to help [00:11:00] facilitate this discussion. [00:11:02] Be fix my eyes. I'm really here to help facilitate the discussion. I believe this was an item that was suggested to be put on here that reflects the January 3rd resolution that city council approved. The resolution didn't make it in the packet. It is lengthy. I could read it, but I think it was more of a discussion for the commission. Happy to just assist in the discussion as much as I can in that capacity knowing that I have the resolution if you'd like me to reference that at any point. [00:11:37] I know that this was suggested by Commissioner Nobiss. I wanted to give you an opportunity to speak first about this since you requested it be on the agenda if you'd like to. [00:11:56] I had requested it to be on the agenda because [00:12:00] I was hoping that we could actually talk about asking the county to pass this because the city had passed it, but then the county did do that. But I guess the other thing I just wanted to say is that I just want us to endorse it, but I think that would be great. [00:12:27] Thank you. Any other thoughts on this discussion? [00:12:34] I'd be cool with endorsing him. [00:12:36] It doesn't seem to me much discussion on it right now. What would you suggest, V? [00:12:49] No, I think you could make an official endorsement and then I would turn over to staff and just I think it's probably something you have to vote would be my guess. [00:12:59] I would [00:13:00] also endorse the B agree with endorsement. I don't want to say that because it makes sense but unlike the person who first brought it to us said it's here and it's at the right commission right now. I would go with the commissioners who are saying we endorse. [00:13:41] If there is no further discussion, we need a motion and a second from someone. [00:13:46] Second it. [00:13:47] No, I haven't. [00:13:48] Sorry. I'm so eager. [00:13:52] She's ready. [00:13:54] I guess I would say that I, oh my goodness, why is my brain [00:14:00] not working? Somebody give me the words. Start to talk. [00:14:07] Move to approve endorsing the. [00:14:09] Move to. Thank you. Do I move to approve endorsing the Iowa City and the Johnson County resolutions. I moved at the TRC endorse lowa City and Johnson County resolutions. [00:14:33] Conflict. [00:14:34] I don't know what the name of the [00:14:37] Conflict in Gaza? [00:14:39] Yeah. [00:14:43] Wangui, did you want to second again? [00:14:45] Yes, I second the motion to endorse. [00:14:49] Okay. Is there any further discussion? I guess not. [00:14:56] Then properly moved and seconded to endorse. [00:15:00] [00:15:01] I'm so sorry. Lauren just raised her hand. [00:15:03] Okay. [00:15:04] Would you like to say something Lauren? [00:15:10] I haven't seen the copy of the resolution. [LAUGHTER] I was wondering, is it possible for to get example quit? [00:15:19] Did you want me to read the resolution? It's quite long. [00:15:22] If it's not long. [00:15:25] Okay. Yeah, I can read it. [00:15:27] Okay. Sure, if you'd like to read it. [00:15:29] Yeah. Resolution Number 24-11 Resolution supporting a permanent ceasefire in Palestine and Israel, the return of all hostages, and the delivery of humanitarian aid, and affirming opposition to anti- semitism, Islamophobia, and anti Arab bigotry with the aim of achieving a just and lasting political solution. Whereas all human life is precious and the targeting of civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law. Whereas over 1,200 Israelis were [00:16:00] killed on October 7, over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023, as of January 2, 2024 and people of other nationalities have been killed. Whereas continued hostilities have forced 85% of Palestinians in Gaza and 5-10% of Israelis to flee their homes. Whereas hundreds of thousands of lives are at imminent risk without an immediate permanent ceasefire, restoration of basic necessities and deliver of adequate and unconditional humanitarian aid without delay to Palestinian civilian non-combatants and whereas more than 100 Israeli hostages are held by Hamas, and more than 7,000 Palestinians are held without due process under Israeli martial law. Whereas the United States government and our elected leaders hold immense diplomatic power to save Palestinian and Israeli lives. US law requires that foreign military aid not be used in the contravention of international law. [00:17:00] Whereas the United States provides ongoing military aid to Israel, of which approximately 748,000 annually came from taxpayers in Iowa City, as well as humanitarian aid to Palestine, of which approximately 31,000 annually came from Iowa City taxpayers during the period of 2017 to 2022. Whereas the majority of nations in the UN have voted in favor of a ceasefire resolution and millions of people worldwide, including residents of Iowa City, have joined in peaceful protests since October 7 to amplify the call. Whereas Islamophobia, anti Palestinian, anti Arab bigotry and anti-semitism have risen significantly across the United States and around the world, with direct impacts on communities from synagogues and mosques to schools, universities, homes, offices and places where communities gather, as well as at protests and rallies. Whereas all these forms of bigotry, violence and oppression serve to divide our communities [00:18:00] and weaken our efforts to achieve collective safety, justice, and true multi-ethnic, multi-racial, [00:18:05] multi-religious democracy here and everywhere. [00:18:08] Now therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of the city of Iowa City. That one, the city of Iowa City unequivocally condemns both the attack on October 7, 2023 by Hamas and the killing of civilians in Gaza and West Bank by the State of Israel. Two, the city of Iowa City affirms its commitment to combat anti Palestinian, anti Arab bigotry, anti-semitism, and Islamophobia. Three, the city of Iowa City affirms its support for all people in Palestine and Israel to live in peace, justice, and security. Four, the city of Iowa City affirms its support for the rights of all people, including residents of Iowa City, to live, learn, work, play, worship, and engage in peaceful protest. All without intimidation, coercion, or the threat of violence. Five, the city of Iowa City asks our congressional delegation to support all resolutions and legislation [00:19:00] that match the values stated throughout the Iowa City resolution, especially those that aim to elevate the urgent humanitarian disaster in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages, such as US House Resolution Number 786. Six, the City of Iowa City affirms First Amendment rights of citizens to criticize government or government policy, and affirms the criticism of governments in Israel and Palestine is not inherently anti-semitic or anti Arab. Seven, the City of Iowa City supports the delivery of immediate, unconditional, and sufficient humanitarian aid to the non-combatant people of Gaza. Eight, the city of Iowa City affirms its commitment to US laws requiring that arms transfers be used in accordance with international law. Nine, and this is the last one, the city of Iowa City resolves that the Iowa City Clerk's Office will provide a copy of this resolution to the members of the state legislature, the Iowa State Governor, the United States Congressional delegations from Iowa, and the president of [00:20:00] United States passed and supported this second day of January, 2024. It was signed by Bruce Teague and the votes, it was not unanimous. It looks like the nays were Alter, Harmson, and Mo, and the yays were Burgess, Dunn, Silly and Teague. [00:20:26] Thank you. [00:20:27] Yeah. [00:20:29] Thank you. [00:20:30] Is there any other further discussion before we move on to the vote? I think that we are ready to vote now. [00:20:41] Okay. It's been properly moved and seconded to endorse the resolution 24-11 passed by the City Council on January 3rd. All those in favor say aye. [00:20:51] Aye. [00:20:52] Aye. [00:20:53] Aye. [00:20:53] Anyone opposed? [00:20:53] Aye. [00:20:55] Anyone opposed? Anyone abstaining? [00:20:58] I abstain. [00:21:00] Motion passes 6:1 with Simmons. [00:21:05] I'm abstaining. [00:21:06] Hey, Stefanie, do we need any explanation on the abstention? [00:21:10] Why? [00:21:24] Stefanie. [00:21:28] That's not been the practice of this Commission so far. [00:21:33] Thank you. [00:21:35] Okay. Next I'm going to allow public comment on this agenda item before we move on to the next one. Anyone in the room, please stand to the podium. If not, if anyone online would like to raise their hand to speak. Looks like we're going to move on to agenda item Number 6, Native Partners Healing Circle [00:22:00] Training Events, and I believe Vee is going to just give us an update of this weekend. [00:22:04] Yeah. I'm very excited to say we have 25 people signed up this weekend. Some people I know, some people I didn't know, so I'm very thrilled to see that 13 people the first night, eight and then five on Sunday, which for a Sunday seems pretty successful. I know that Manipe and T met today. I was texting with him earlier to go over the approach. I do want to say that we did change the language. It is not necessarily a training. It's more of an experience and unfortunately, Manipe had a class tonight and I'm trying to see if T can get on but he's having connectivity issues. I asked if he could call in but unless Danielle is on, I don't know if we have anyone, I know they've been meeting but we don't have anybody to speak specifically to the content. What I can say is that [00:23:00] the team decided that we won't record or take pictures that have people's faces in them. But we will put together a summary of each event so that we can document what happened without having to divulge any details and make sure people feel like confidentiality is being kept. That's what I have for you. [00:23:25] You can always get some releases to media releases. [00:23:29] Yeah, we did talk about that at our last meeting. We could get the media release that the City uses, so I can ask Stephanie for that. Yeah, that's a great point. [00:23:38] Yeah. I mean, like some folks might not mind at all having their picture taken. [00:23:42] True. Yeah. [00:23:44] Then, of course, if commissioners are there, then maybe we can take pictures of the commissioners and the healers if they want. [00:23:50] I did see some commissioners sign up, so thank you. It's great. We also put together a post event survey as well, just to get an understanding [00:24:00] of how people arrive to this. Is it their first time? How do they feel during the session? After the session? Would they be interested in continuing to do it? We should be able to, I guess, capture some data. [00:24:13] V do you think with a quick turnaround, we'd be able to talk about what went on next meeting next Thursday? [00:24:20] Yeah. [00:24:20] Okay. [00:24:21] Think so. [00:24:21] For sure. Yeah. We'll try and have at least something to give at the Monday meeting for your staff and chair and vice chair, but definitely by Thursday. [00:24:31] Great. Thank you. [00:24:33] Are there any further questions about this event? I'm going to move on to the next agenda item. But before I do that, is there anyone in the room or online that would like to comment on this? Please raise your hand or stand up to the podium. Next we're diving into next steps for Phase 2. Again, I believe this will be Leo and or Larry that are [00:25:00] going to do an explanation or maybe Laurel about the roadmap that we talked about the last time we were here. [00:25:19] Hey, can you hear me? [00:25:20] Yes, welcome. [00:25:24] Hey. Sorry about that. There was a little communication blip on my side. Good evening everyone. I'm Laurel and I'm here to present the one topic version of the face. I will share my screen. Just one moment please. I'm sorry Stephanie, please ask you to enable screen sharing. [00:25:42] I think it should be working now. [00:25:46] Thank you so much. Is that showed up okay? [00:25:56] Yes. [00:25:59] Super, thanks. [00:26:00] This is much easier to look at view of the information we saw last time. I also have the spreadsheet and it's cleaner and simpler but I figured it might be nice to start with the visual because the conversation last time really emphasized we can make these decisions about when we want to have stuff, but it'll be a lot easier to do it in a calendar view. We are here in the month of January. This January 18th meeting is of-course moved to this evening. Then this coming weekend, we're looking forward to the circles that we and the Commission were just talking about. Then I'm not sure how large the plant is showing up, so please, somebody let me know if it's too little. [00:26:43] I think we can see it. [00:26:46] Thank you. The 15th was postponed due to snow to February, and that date is to be announced. That's why I just put this message here in parentheses but once we get that moved, we will update that. [00:27:00] These are things that have already been decided upon. Then looking forward into the future months, the TRC meetings are in this gold color. You can see and they are on the first and third Thursdays, and then the roadmap starts getting into the additional events, and those are color coded by which unit of the facilitator team will be providing them. The green is the healing circles led by our native and healing partners and those will be on two successive weekends in the beginning of February. You can see there are two options for the times here. There's 10:00-1:00 or 1:00-4:00 on each of those days. That would be one thing to consider. Sorry, I should mention at the beginning, I was thinking we could take a look through all the months of the calendar view and then we could get into the decision making on when events should be. Looking at the spreadsheet view, what would be easiest? Would you like to go month by month in the calendar or week by week in the spreadsheet. [00:28:00] [00:28:02] You're asking us to look month by month just at the different events that could be added or? [00:28:12] I'm sorry. That was a poorly phrased question, my bad. I guess I was saying would it be helpful to go all the way through the calendar before coming back and talking about the decisions that have to be made about events or would it be helpful to do that first time around? [00:28:23] I think maybe let's just go through the calendar first. [00:28:28] Sounds good. Sorry, mangle that one the first time around. That wraps up for February. Then scrolling down to March, this is where we start getting the fun rainbow colors here. The TRC meetings are the anchors and those are the first and third Thursdays 7:00-9:00. Then there's a new color reflected on the page, which is this red color. I use that to designate deliverables that go to city council. Those two are the report and then the presentation, which will be coming up. Then I know we'll be [00:29:00] getting into the decision making part of this a little later in the conversation, but just to orient to why there are so many things right here, you can see the numbers are a little bit small, but each culminating event as we're calling them, which is the final culminating event, that brings together the insights and the process, and the planning from the whole way through Phase 1 and Phase 2. Each of those has a couple of different dates that are options. Pardon me. I just want to point out one thing which I was thinking about before presenting, which is that it's not fact finding Option 1 and truth telling Option 1 or truth telling Option 1 and healing circle Option 1. Those aren't coupled together for every culminating event, there are two or three options for one to schedule it and those are pretty independent of each other. But either way, we propose in the roadmap that the culminating events take place between the middle of March towards the end of the month. Then [00:30:00] the report due to city council is by the end of March. We have it listed there on a Sunday but we would love to complete it sooner than that, and we'll begin working on it, but the culminating event will be nearby it. We want to make sure we do a lot of pre work so that we can hit the ground running with that. Then finally, looking at April again, the anchor schedules of the TRC regular meetings. Then April 16th is the projected presentation date to discuss all of the amazing work that was completed in Phase 1 and 2. That is the calendar view and the purpose of it was just to make it really clear how many times would people be expected to show up at something in person during the week. Commissioners and the facilitation team and city staff and all the people involved in the process might be working in various capacities between these events but these would be the days in the calendar with a time in a place and a specific event [00:31:00] planned for that time. That's just the organizing principle of the calendar. I would like to pull the spreadsheet, but in case there are any questions, I'd like to pause here and ask, Is there anything anybody would like to discuss further about the calendar or do you want to jump into the details now and then post all the details? [00:31:26] It looks like you can dive right in. [00:31:29] Gooey, just let me switch our windows here. Please let me know when that shows up. [00:31:48] We can see it. [00:31:51] Thank you. Last question is it large enough or should we zoom in a little bit? [00:31:57] I think it's fine. [00:32:00] Cool. This is the same old spreadsheet we've been working for about a month or so now, so I know we've talked about this before, but just quickly looking back at the tabs at the bottom again, just remember how we got to what we're looking at now. We made three topic roadmap at the beginning and we called them roadmap culminating, cascade, and cascade spread. The difference between those three was just that those culminating events in March are spaced out a little bit differently. That was the first draft. Then we got the feedback to narrow the number of topics from three to one. Then for each of these roadmaps, we went next tab over to a one topic version, but you see this is really cluttered. This has all of the tasks from all of the teams, so trying to get to just a cleaner view that's easier to go through. This is the clean view. This takes away all the intermediate process notes that the facilitators [00:33:00] are using to plan our work and just gets down again to the bottom line what needs to happen. What should the focus of the week be for people's attention and for people's activities? Those are all the tabs at the bottom. I'm just going to stay in this tab for the purposes of staying in one place, but the differences between the other tabs we've gone through, so if you look through the spreadsheet yourself, that's what all that verbiage is. Anyway, disclaimer is complete and you can see on the left side the weeks are listed one by one and then we have goals right here. Not to be redundant, but this is blank, not because it doesn't have info, but you just have to tap over to the one next to it to see. That's where all that info lives and then we'll be focusing on column C, which is the completed outputs and events. This whole title is in bold, so that's a little misleading in my mistake, but if you [00:34:00] look at the content in here, you can see some of this language is bolded, some is not and that's what I was trying to refer to with that title. The bolded items match the items that are listed on that calendar view. Those are the in person, time and place, attendance, hoped for and expected live events, and then the items that are not bolded are either documents that the facilitator team will produce and submit to the TRC by that time or they are topics that will be the focus for that given event. Looking just going from top to bottom we had the TRC meeting on 4th and then the next entry would be the TRC listening post at the event honoring MLK, which has been postponed in February, but once that new date comes up, we can revise this document right away. The presentation of Phase 2 roadmap, that's where we are now. That's not happening this week because of the snow, so that brings [00:35:00] us to the next week and the events that we just discussed and this note is here, not necessarily saying this will be happening today of course, but just connected to the rescheduling of the listening post inserting a note to say this is something to return to and not to be persnickety, but this is a date to select and then put on the roadmap as soon as possible and on the calendar too, so that everybody can look at the single view and see those same things. Where do I have to be and when? Then for the next week, that's when my colleague Larry will be coming to present the fact finding insights in person at your February 1st meeting. Hats off to everybody having two weeks of meetings in a row and it has been a pleasure to speak to the Commissioners and hear more about what they're hoping to get done in that session and Larry will speak more to that shortly as soon as we're done going through the roadmap. Then looking into February, those are those back to back weekends of circle experiences with the [00:36:00] native partner team. Then following that, this is the first thing that appears on here that is not indicated on the calendar, which is these are two documents that the consultant team will produce and deliver by this week to the Commission. This first item, which is in black font, is the Concept Note for the March CEs. CEs stands for those culminating events that we're all clumped in that view on calendar. The Concept Note, it's like a technical sounding name, but it's really just an outline of what are we thinking for each of these three events. What are they for? What are the broad strokes of? What do we expect will be necessary to make them successful? How big of a space and what kind of materials or training or what kind of people and which of the consultant teams we need to be there to make it successful? How many commissioners? All that thing, not necessarily getting down to the very nitty gritty of how many pens do we need on each table or what have you, but saying, we need a space that can accommodate this number of people where there are furniture options that [00:37:00] kind of thing and then the item that's in purple, that's the think piece team color and that will be a document specifically focused on public hearings. Both of those things will be deliverables that we're hoping to get to the Commission in advance of that time, so you guys have time to check it out and review. [00:37:19] At least for me, I like to let things marinate, especially written stuff before discussing them. That's our goal, is to get it to you all with plenty of time to digest it, come with questions, come with critiques, feedback, and then there's that 2/15 TRC meeting in the second Thursday of that month. Then here's more blank space. We know, of course, that the facilitator team will be furiously working during that time. It's just blank because there are no events during that time. But rest assured that that will be a busy and really productive time. Then coming here into the first week of March, this is where we go from that concept note that we would have presented just about a month earlier in the middle of February to that nitty gritty. [00:38:00] What are the phone numbers for every person who's going to be involved in this event? When does this building open? When are we going to be there to set up? Who's going to run AV? Really doing every single possible thing to prepare in advance to make sure that those events can be fully focused on the participants, on the goals, on the TRC, and on the future of this work. We will review that as a facilitation team and we'll create a presentation. Each team will come prepared to really speak kind of comprehensively about their teams event at that March 7th TRC meeting. Now we get back into what I think is one of the most just visually appealing parts of the calendar just because you see the commingling of these different legs of the stool of the TRC in a way that I find really exciting. Just a reminder that it's a clunky name. But this is the road map, "cascade" spread. The way to say that in normal language is this is the one that's the most spread out. You can see that [00:39:00] because in this week by week view, you have the fact finding event on the 14th and then fully in the next week, you have the truth telling culminating event. That has a note to say with healing components. That was an important item to highlight, just to say that we won't be asking people to come to a truth telling event and then say, okay, good evening, you see you some other time. There would be, as has already been referenced in this meeting, when Annie was discussing the different ways that the Commission could decide to use those community agreements. The follow up question from Commissioner Cripps, like what environment would you like to create? That's in the spirit of those same healing components, to say we're going to invite the community there and we will take care of them, whatever they offer and however they show up. It will be a busy week no matter what for the Commissioners. Because the very next day is a TRC meeting that of course is the third Thursday of the month. I know I'm a broken record, but just going top to bottom. Then again, in this version of the roadmap where the culminating events are spaced out [00:40:00] week by week, then the final helium reconciliation event would be in this last week of March. These initials are for Manipe and Danielle who right now are projected to lead those, but just wanted to explain what those initials are doing there. Then we have the final report for City Council there again, at the end of the month. Then finally, this is getting into the month of April, the consulting contracts end in March. That will be when we are done producing more written deliverables for the Commission. That might be when we're done making presentations at the TRC meetings, but especially in the vein of the the enhanced or expanded facilitation services that the team is hoping to provide over Phase 2. There will still be a facilitated presence available for these meetings. Especially because it's so important [00:40:54] that that presentation [00:40:56] capture the spirit, the accomplishments, the hopes, and [00:41:00] the nuance of all that has transpired over these two phases of work. Again, this is blank space on this view, but this will be another heady time for, of course, to the TRC and you all and also the facilitator team to really make sure we are bringing our best from all of this year and last year that we've been working. What is the best way to position the people who will be presenting to City Council to communicate what this effort was and what it accomplished and where it could go next? Also for you all to feel like your time was well spent. This document and this deliverable reflects why you join this effort and why you're here and what you'd like for your community. It will be a heady month of March, end of April 2nd, it looks, even though there's deceptively blank space around it. But just to quickly look at this last part right here, please forgive me. I'm just going to toggle over the tabs and I know sometimes that can be a little vertigo [00:42:00] inducing. I just want to orient really quickly and say, on the calendar view, we saw those events clump together. The spreadsheet view lets you see week by week, how it would look in different configurations. I just want to pull it out in case for anyone this is an easier visual way for them to see it. Some people are picture people, people are spreadsheets. Some people language, I just wanted to highlight this is March right here and not to be redundant, but we have the culminating event spaced out week by week. Then one culminating event, in this case, the truth telling one is back to back with this pre-scheduled TRC meeting. Then in a different version of the road map, this is the cascade instead of the cascade spread. You can see that if you look in the same spot, the big difference is that there are two different options for the healing circle culminating event. The fact finding event has moved a week later. This was on the 14th and this week [00:43:00] right here. Now this cell is empty because there are no events that week. You see this will be a big week. In this version of the roadmap, you have the fact finding event on Tuesday, truth telling on Wednesday, TRC meeting on Thursday, and the Healing Circle on Friday. Or alternatively, you could do Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for these three this week, and then the Healing Circle the following Friday, the 29th. It looks very similar to the view we were just looking at. The only difference is that there's one day break between the fact finding and the truth telling. But otherwise this view is the same as the other one. Just to reiterate, you'd have the truth telling event on Wednesday, the TRC meeting on Thursday, and then two options for when that Healing Circle culminating event would be either the [00:44:00] next day, which would be Friday, or the next week Friday. I'm going to toggle back to the most spread out version because I think it's easier to look at even if that's not the one we choose. I want to ask what would be a more useful view to keep on the screen for people to ask questions? Should we have them side by side? Or maybe I can just pause and ask if anybody has questions or any feedback and can jump between the two as people prefer. [00:44:32] I think we can keep it on where it's at and we can start asking questions now. Thank you so much, Laurel. [00:44:39] Thank you. [00:44:40] Thoughts? [00:44:49] Well, I'm going to start off and say, I really appreciate you all coming back, prepared to meet our needs the way that we asked for the last meeting. [00:45:00] I appreciate that you took into account how to make it look easier versus like we're going to be doing back to back events. So really appreciate that and it definitely does feel a little bit more digestible and easier to do in our first quarter of the year. [00:45:23] Thank you, Charity. Appreciate it. [00:45:28] Go ahead, Lauren. [00:45:33] Now, if we're looking at this roadmap, we would have to determine what are the actual fact finding culminating events, correct? Fact finding. Any of the culminating events is determined what they're going to be. [00:45:57] I'm sorry, I just said did anyone [00:46:00] have any questions without saying what are the decision points here as any always helpfully reminds us what are we discussing and what are the things that we can decide on? There's like the macro level of does this general cadence look good to everyone? What [inaudible 00:46:16] was just talking about, does it look doable? Does it look reasonable? Does it look manageable? Then there the specific decision points which are like, this deliverable being done on this day, that feels too soon, we're not going to be ready for that. Or actually, you know what, this is an example, not to pick on the think piece team or anything, but, actually we want that document on public hearings a week early, that would be an example of a decision point. But the biggest decision point in my view is the scheduling of the culminating events and then to Vice Chair Mayor's it's question of do you have to choose right now what those would look like in order to decide on when they are? To me, I think not. It's certainly a really good point that if [00:47:00] you had, I guess for certain events, depending on the undertaking. The thing that just popped in my head because I'm planning a wedding, although it is not a destination wedding is like one of these were a destination wedding, you wouldn't be able to have something the next day. But my impression is if everything is local and not physically taxing, that's not the right way to say it, but I think that these events should be possible to schedule in advance without knowing exactly how they will look. But it is something to take into account for sure, like this might be obvious but to me, what seems to be the biggest tradeoff is, a lot of times we've discussed the commission and the facilitator team and people in the community have discussed what is the TRC. The TRC has started getting the message out and producing amazing, incredibly clear detailed, attractive swag and also, explanatory materials, but the message is just getting out. I'm sorry, I don't mean to [00:48:00] be so wordy. Basically, it's an opportunity to start defining the cadence, but still in the early days of deciding exactly how you want to invite the community to participate. Anyway, the short answer to your question excuse me, Vice Chair Mayor, for going on so long, is that to me, no, you don't need to decide what the events will look at to decide when you would want them to occur. Please forgive me for the word sal. Goodness. Sorry. Please go ahead. [00:48:42] Because obviously, like right now, we don't know what the content, the specifics of these culminating events are just like general. So we would say, if we would agree on this schedule, this is a date for this and then then figure out [00:49:00] with the community whatever else, what do they want to do with that. Or say that we're going to have this and have people come to us to say that, yes, they want to be involved with this. Is that what we're thinking? [00:49:20] To me, yes. Then looking back just a few cells up in the roadmap this week in February, that has the concept note. Obviously right now we're here at the end of January and next week is the presentation of the fact finding insights. But the same time that the fact finding team has been working to generate our preliminary findings, the other teams have also been working to prepare for all of phase 2. For example, the Think Peace team is working on a stocking and public hearings the healing and reconciliation partners have been talking about, okay, we're going to have these different circles over the course of the phase 2, what should we expect from these [00:50:00] different circles over time? Basically, there are these planning conversations that are happening over the term of the whole phase 2 that we're not delivering all the time back to the TRC, but basically we're both planning as we go. The idea is that we would present the concept note that we hopefully will have sent you several days before for review in February, and that would be the opportunity to say, from what we've heard in the public meetings, from the meetings we've had with commissioners and with city staff and with the research we've done and the experience that the team encompasses, here's what we're thinking for these events. The bare bones would be, of course, the fact finding event will be some way of presenting the results to the community and getting their feedback, saying the same questions that facilitator team asks the TRC commissioners when we attend the meetings; is this right? Does this reflect where you wanted [00:51:00] it to? What's missing? What needs to change? So that's the opportunity to say this was our first crack at it. As a TRC, as a facilitator team working together, we chose topic of law enforcement, criminal justice, public safety, we found facts about it, we set up a Truth Telling form about it, had been connecting these Healing Circles, here's where we arrived. This would be the first first round of the TRC, which you would extend past when the facilitators contracts are set up to replicate and get to that replicable system that we've talked about a lot of TRC meetings. I think that the big questions are, do you feel comfortable or does it sound appealing to try to keep these events close together, recognizing that that's a big expectation for you all. It's big expectation for community members. But also on the flip side that this is such a unique and powerful structure, this TRC. [00:52:00] Few of these have happened, especially in this country. There's power in showing the community by doing not by telling. The swag and the explanatory materials I think they're quite high quality myself, but there's nothing like living it and making it real for people. I think that's the biggest tradeoff I see and they're both very valid points and I think a lot of it and then I'll stop gammering on, is it comes down to you as commissioners, you are the human beings with your lives who are on this commission and balancing it with all the other parts of your lives. Looking at this to my mind it would be like, okay, is there a week in March, can you devote or one week in March where you're basically a full time TRC person in addition to your life? That's a huge expectation. On the other hand, spreading it out over the weeks, maybe you would be concerned that there would be momentum lost. Anyway, I don't mean to belabor the point, but I think that [00:53:00] this decision will not constrain the options for the different culminating events. Honestly, one of the most nuts and bolts, practical reasons that it's important to choose this information advance is so that the facilitator team members that the TRC would find most helpful to be present can make their travel schedules now and make sure there's nothing that would interfere with that, make this a high priority and make it the organizing one. Then also, of course, the same thing applies to asking people to come. The more you all know this quite well by now, especially with the amazing crack planning that happened pretty close to the event of the MLKDN and look how far everyone got. Imagine if we had two months to plan these events, knowing when they are and we can get those details down sooner, we can give people more opportunity and also more opportunity to maybe want to attend a TRC meeting. To say, well, [00:54:00] that sounds interesting, but what do you guys even talk about? Or what are you guys here for? Giving people a chance to let it marinate. Anyway I think I've really taken this one too long, so please forgive me. Those are the decision points that I see to summarize. The biggest one definitely is when will these culminating events be? The option is basically have most of them in this week right here, or space them out more than that. Then if people want them to be mostly in this week right here, the two decisions are whether they should be back to back to back, or it should be Monday, break, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then either having the Healing Circle that Friday or the next Friday. The biggest decision point is when. [00:54:49] Great. Thank you so much, Laurel. I think you're asking us to discuss what we think are the options. Unless someone wants to go first. I guess I like that you [00:55:00] have the schedule. I'm also thinking one thing now, just looking at it. Here in Iowa City I think utilizing weekends are a little bit easier for people that have kids, and I know these are all weekday events. There's pros and cons to all of those. I can see a pro having it all in one week and just getting it done that way. I also can see a pro and spreading it out. It might be hard to get every people to come multiple days in a row, but it also might be difficult to get them to come spread out. I would love to hear what other commissioners think about this first attempt and how we should try to schedule it with our own knowledge as community members here. [00:55:51] Commissioner Grab here. The only thing that I thought immediately is I would want Truth Telling and [00:56:00] Healing Circle to be as close as possible in case this were to bring up some hard things for folks, say to have that quick turnaround time to get into a Healing Circle. I know it's just one day in this week, but maybe if we did the Wednesday and Friday for those two. [00:56:20] Yeah. I agree with that. I don't think I know exactly how long the anticipation is for each of these events. Laurel or anyone, do you know? Is it a two hour event? Is it a three, four hour event? [00:56:40] I think that would be up to you all. My impression is that would maybe be a little bit longer than a normal meeting just because it would be novel and there would be a lot of community involvement and just a variety of activities. But I wouldn't presume to say, I think that would be up to you guys, but if I were [00:57:00] thinking, I would probably expect it to be a little longer than that meeting. [00:57:03] This is Commissioner Johnson, I think it's a good idea to compact everything in a one week. I feel like that makes the most sense for numerous reasons. Like you were just saying a second ago, if we are going to tell truth, then we got to make sure that we're able to give people the opportunity to heal as well, all in that same time frame on top of that compact. It's a lot easier for us to all set up our schedules and make sure that we can dedicate to that week, knock it out, and move forward. It sounds good to me. [00:57:41] This is Commissioner Wangui for the record. I just wanted to add to the scheduling that Commissioner Merritt you've talked about. Let us not have the TRC meeting coming between the truth-telling [00:58:00] culminating event and the healing. Let's have the healing before we come to the TRC meeting, please. [00:58:10] We could also not have the TRC meeting and use that as one of our events. I don't see a reason for having a TRC meeting during that week. If we were to do that. [00:58:22] I agree with that as well. We'll already be TRC meeting. [00:58:27] Let's not just have it set in between the two. [00:58:31] That makes a lot of sense. [00:58:33] Yeah. [00:58:34] If there's no one else I saw Leo had his hand up first, then Larry, would you all like to take your turns? [00:58:44] Do you want to go first? [00:58:45] We can't hear you, Leo. [00:58:49] Turn on my camera without my mic. Can you hear me now? [00:58:51] Yes. [00:58:53] Yes, sir. [00:58:55] Thank you. The moment might have passed but I wanted to share that the [00:59:00] truth-telling come on any event is meant for people to give testimony on public safety, law enforcement, and criminal justice. I just wanted to be clear that it is important to have the dates set even as we are developing the concept note for how they're going to be held. Because we do have the models, we are in the process of developing these deliverables, and so I just wanted to reassure you that you can set the dates and you will be fully prepared by the time we actually reach those dates. [00:59:36] Thank you. [00:59:36] Thank you. Larry? [00:59:40] Thank you, this is Larry Schooler. [00:59:41] We can't hear you. You sound really far away. [00:59:47] Sorry. Can you hear me now? [00:59:48] Yes. [00:59:50] Sorry about that. Just on the subject of a fact-finding culminating event, I would reinforce I think, what [01:00:00] Laurel said to say that a fact-finding culminating event is meant to allow you all to draw some definitive conclusions about the facts as you have received them, and I would anticipate that being an elongated TRC meeting in length. Maybe a two or three-hour deliberation with some additional facts presented, but mostly deliberative consensus-building exercise on that front. I would say that the truth-telling event, depending on the turnout has the potential to be longer if you're meant to honor each person that wants to give their testimony. Certainly, I would expect it to be longer than what we would do with fact-finding. Thanks. [01:00:47] Another thought. I know we have options. Is it possible to break any of these in two nights? Like for the truth-telling do you option 1 and [01:01:00] option 2 or are we looking to just do one day? [01:01:07] I'll speak for fact-finding and say we could certainly divide it up over two nights if needed. [01:01:15] I don't see fact-finding needing that as much as maybe truth-telling, but it's good to know. [01:01:24] Leo's, I think the only. Go ahead, Leo. [01:01:26] To risk potentially speaking out a turn, I think that we can be able to split the true telling or not really split it, but need more elongated time in which case you might be able to do both. [01:01:43] It would be nice from a planning standpoint to have a second date just in case. In case we decide that we need to continue, especially since this is the first time we're doing this. If people see other people speak that first night, maybe they feel brave enough to come back the [01:02:00] second night. Maybe that's a possibility, it would help with the momentum that we're trying to create. [01:02:07] Why don't we use Thursday? [01:02:08] Yes. I believe we also will have facilitators from Think Peace present on both days, so it shouldn't be a problem at all. [01:02:18] Great. [01:02:19] Are we able to use Thursday as well or would you guys want to use Thursday as well? [01:02:23] We can use any day. I think we just crossed out the TRC meeting so we can do whatever we want on that day. We could do true-telling event one day, then healing circle, and then truth-telling event one day in healing circle or? [01:02:36] How about mixture of the healing circle and truth-telling on that Thursday? [01:02:42] On the same day? [01:02:43] Yeah. Split it. That would make a lot more sense. [01:02:47] I agree with that. I think we need to have some healing for folks when they're sitting there and making themselves vulnerable. [01:02:57] It's that momentum. The momentum of the truth-telling [01:03:00] is rolling. If people didn't feel comfortable first day, second day, they might feel a little bit more roll into the third day. Then from there start to heal and then have more time for healing to digest afterwards. [01:03:12] Maybe, are you saying three truth-telling healing circle combination or? [01:03:17] I would say no, just blend Thursday and Friday together with healing circle and finish off with truth- telling on Thursday as well, so it flows a little better. [01:03:28] I see what you're saying. I do like this as a true telling presented week or a presentation of the TRC. With that to know I don't think we all agree, [01:04:00] I'm assuming that we don't think we should do a healing circle on the 29th and it should be in the same week. Is that what I'm hearing? [01:04:07] I agree. [01:04:21] Then maybe not the fact-finding on the 14th, just do everything on the week at the 17th? [01:04:49] Are there any other thoughts? [01:04:50] Please [01:04:51] Go ahead. [01:04:52] Sorry. No, I was about to ask, I think, a similar question, but please go ahead [inaudible 01:04:57]. [01:04:58] No, I think you can go ahead, thanks, [01:05:00] Laurel. [01:05:03] Sorry. It's tricky sometimes over zoom. That's a really interesting idea to split it over multiple days, and that might decompress it a little bit. I think the information that we need right now to make a decision about whether we could split the healing circle. I don't think we can get that information right now because we have to ask our new partners who are not in attendance tonight. We know for sure that this date is available for them. We do not know for sure that they can come on this date, but I think if the Commission is amenable to this, if we can decide taking into account what Chair Dillard, said about having backup options for events which is very savvy, and those are the words of an event planning veteran. I think that makes a lot of sense. Again, if the Commission is amenable to have a little bit more conversation, just about a sense of whether the [01:06:00] events would be split or not, if the Commission doesn't have an appetite for coming down on one side or the other this evening, that's fine. But at least to my eye, I think it would make sense to talk about that a little bit more if people are interested, and then in terms of an action item that the facilitator team would take away specifically yours truly, it would be checking up on these dates, and getting together with our native partners and with Vee, who's been doing a lot of planning and organizing work for those circles just to see what would be feasible, and quite literally, who from the facilitator team could come and make sure those events would be a success. Just to recap, I will have to check on this possibility right here, but it sounds like the Commission is pretty sure of having a healing event on this Friday, and the question for the healing culminating event, at least, specifically, it's whether it will be split into two, and so I'll follow up on that. But so by my count I'm no math whiz, but of the three legs of the stool, that sounds like we've [01:07:00] crossed off the list at least for this discussion of scheduling for the healing as well. [01:07:04] Real quick, Laurel, I think Vee wanted to chime in. [01:07:08] Sorry. [01:07:09] I'm sorry. Please. I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, please. [01:07:11] I've just been texting with some of the folks with the native partners. They can't be here in person, but the 21st and 22nd sounds like it will work. [01:07:22] Great. Seems better for travel. [01:07:23] At that Laurel, so you don't have to go back and forth. [01:07:27] Lightning speed feedback. Thank you. That was like a land speed record for I'll get back to you on that. Actually, Vee will right now. Thank you so much. I think that does it for the healing circle, so let me designate that option, so we'll just say part 2/2, and then part 2/2. The numbers in this font are showing up. [01:07:53] Part 1/1 of two? [01:07:57] Right. Of course. Forgive me. Thank you. [01:08:00] Terrific. I think that the questions that are remaining would please the Commission to discuss further whether it would be helpful maybe to talk about the fact finding, because think I heard Chair Dillard say that maybe it would be less likely to split up the fact finding over two days. Would it be helpful to talk about that whether it's likely to be split or not, I suppose. [01:08:28] I mean, that was just my opinion. But if you think you can split it, and it would be feasible, then whatever anyone else says, I don't feel as strongly about either of those options. [01:08:41] With the fact finding, I have a question. Do we think that Thursday could possibly still be a good thing because on Thursday, if you come across anything that you might need a little extra time for, then you at least have a few days before the next time [01:09:00] we are supposed to meet up and discuss or no. That's the only thing that I was thinking. [01:09:06] That 14th? [01:09:08] I'm just wondering if your thoughts. [01:09:13] Maybe. [01:09:14] If that might give just a little bit of leeway before hopping into a full week. [01:09:20] I do like the option of presenting multiple times, just giving people in the community multiple options to see the same presentation. Maybe not a Part 2, but like you couldn't make Thursday, so come Monday or whatever we decide is easiest. [01:09:41] I'm sorry, I didn't mention this before. I think that if the fact finding event is split over multiple days, I think those days would have to be consecutive. But I'm sorry because that's totally on me that I didn't mention that before, but I think that if it's a one-day event then the 14th, that's option one, and [01:10:00] then if it's a two-day event, that would be the 18th to 19th, so please forgive me for not mentioning that before. [01:10:05] That's understandable. I was wondering that. What does everyone else think? Should we offer it two times, or just stick to the one time? [01:10:15] I would say two, in my opinion. [01:10:18] Okay. [01:10:20] I'd want to go with the 18th and 19th or two days that are consecutive. [01:10:27] Okay. [01:10:28] Versus the one. I'm just wondering, since it is on top of the truth telling. Well, what days are we doing truth telling? The 20th. [01:10:38] The 19th and 20th. [01:10:40] Wait, we've got three days on there [01:10:42] 20, 21. [01:10:43] The 19th, 20 and the 21. I thought the full day was going to be the 19th. [01:10:53] I'm sorry, the way the color scheme falls apart when using it for brainstorming, so I'm sorry about that. [01:11:00] The purple, of course, refers to the truth telling, but in terms of the numbers next to it. Originally, we had thought of truth telling as one day thing, and so then when we start talking about, well, maybe we'll spread it over two days. That's where I said 1/2 or 2/2. But then there's another, if we want to split it over two days, of course we could either do 19 and 20, or 20 and 21. Sorry [01:11:23] No, keep going. I'm sorry. [01:11:26] I was about to read the same thing in different words. I'm sure, so please go ahead. [01:11:31] That makes a little bit more sense, so, if we did the fact finding on the 18th and 19th, we could still do truth telling on the 20th and 21st. Also, we know what the schedule is right now. If we need to tweak anything in the next two weeks, we know we can block out that whole week. Is that okay from a facilitator perspective. We [01:12:00] know we're going to do fact finding in the beginning, we know healing is going to be in the end, and truth telling is going to be in the middle. [01:12:09] Commissioners, this Larry Schooler, I think it's difficult for us to say collectively. I can certainly speak for Kearns and West, and saying that at least I and maybe Laurel could be available those first two days, and I suppose there is a possibility that I could even stay to help support the other events happening on consecutive days later that week. I did just want to mention, and I hate to throw any wrinkle, but I don't know when spring break occurs in Iowa. [01:12:43] It's the week before. [01:12:44] In Texas, occurs on the week before, and so I don't know if that's a week that is better or worse for folks. It certainly makes my life easier in terms of my schedule, but I know we're trying to align around one particular week. But anyway, [01:13:00] I want to make sure that all the different teams of facilitators weigh in on their availability because we're different that way. [01:13:10] Spring break here is the week of the tenth. [01:13:20] I have a question. Is the week of the 18th of that a public presentation? [01:13:29] Everything is public. On the 18th? [01:13:38] The week of the 18th, so based on the training we had, we talked about people communicating what their truth is, and then out of that, we would then identify who we wanted to speak. Are we saying that the truth telling is [01:14:00] public? Are we saying that that happens earlier, and then the week of the 18th, that truth telling is the public presentation? [01:14:12] The way I understand it is that the week of the 18th is a public version of what you just said, and from now until then, we're doing the private conversations, unless someone says they don't want to be public, but it doesn't work for how we are set up. [01:14:37] You got that spot on, Chair Dillard. [01:14:44] Vee, were you going to come to the front? I just wanted to say, I think Edward Gonzalez is on zoom and potentially could answer this. [01:14:58] Can the [01:15:00] shared screen be stopped for a second? It's making it hard for me to, thank you. [01:15:06] There he is. Welcome. [01:15:25] Eduardo. [01:15:25] Yes. I understand the question is about availability the week of March the 18th. [01:15:34] The question was just asking if it would be a public session and how we would make sure that we're vetting people beforehand is how I understood it. [01:15:47] We share this Larry Schooler. I do want to have Eduardo and think this clarify what they can staff in the way of truth telling events overall. [01:16:00] I mean, it felt to me like the TRC was veering towards as many as three days of events, which is great. But it's important that we determine what facilitator support there would be for that. I wanted Eduardo first to just whether it's on his behalf or Melinda's or Dave Raglands or Leo's. Just identify how much capacity there is for think peace to support that, that week. Then the substantive question after that. [01:16:33] Thank you Larry. I think I understand better now. What I do remember is the idea was that there was going to be an integrated event with truth telling, fact finding, and healing circles. There were two options on truth telling, whether it was going to be Tuesday and Wednesday, or Wednesday and Thursday. In principle, we said we can cover [01:17:00] one of those options, but we just need to know when. In principle we have thought of today's. Now, if you're saying that it's not Tuesday, Wednesday, by Tuesday to Thursday, we will just need to adjust and allocate the appropriate time. At this point, we did have a calculation that we were going to be there at least one of our staff for two days, but please let us know what the final decision of the Commission is. [01:17:34] I think the way Lauren put it, it is two day options. One is on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Wednesday, Thursday. It does look like it's three days, but she clarified for us Tuesday, Wednesday, or Wednesday, Thursday. [01:17:49] Exactly. For us, it's the same whether it is Tuesday, Wednesday, or Wednesday, Thursday, because we are committed to make sure that there will be support for those two days, [01:18:00] whichever those are. [01:18:02] Great. [01:18:11] I have an idea. It might be a good idea if we're doing two fact finding presentations, but they're exactly the same, correct? [01:18:20] That's what I assume. [01:18:22] It might be a good idea to have one fact finding the week of spring break to maybe allow people to make it in just because people will be possibly free that spring break week and then have one the following week. [01:18:42] Back to the 14th and the 18th? [01:18:46] I was just thinking as far as like availability, it might be nice to have one over the spring break. [01:18:52] We're going back, that I agree. I agree. The blend of are we saying get rid of the 19th with it? I still think the blend [01:19:00] works better because it's like pulling off and then rolling right into the next one. It's all about the flow. [01:19:07] Maybe we could take the 18th off then, like give you. [01:19:15] If we did that, I think it was said that it would need to be consecutive dates for the Kearns and West team unless Larry wanted to clarify. [01:19:27] No, thanks Chair. I mean, I could do like the 13th and 14th for example, or I could do, theoretically could do the 14th and 15th, that generally don't travel or do business leading into the Sabbath, but if I needed to, I could probably make an exception on the 15th or it would need to be something like the 17th, 18th, 18th, 19th. Just because. [01:19:56] Never mind. That actually what I was thinking then.. [01:19:59] I would be away from. [01:20:00] Unless it was online presentation.. [01:20:01] Sorry about that Commissioner. [01:20:02] Are you all thinking that it would be easier for people during spring break? [01:20:24] I was just thinking if we had an option over spring break, maybe people would be free to show up. But, I mean, people might be out of town, too. I just thought, giving them some different options would be helpful, but that doesn't work. I guess my plan's off the table. [01:20:48] Commissioner, I think I heard Chair Dillard say, that maybe one of the dates could be virtual. In other words, if if there was a desire to do something the week of spring break, but [01:21:00] it didn't make sense to do them both that week. I suppose I could do a virtual presentation on the 14th and more of an in person facilitation, say on the 19th, if that made sense. I mean, I want to honor whatever is feeling best for you all. [01:21:21] Nice. That sounds good. [01:21:22] I think that's a good idea too. Then you can hit people who may not have transportation with a virtual option. [01:21:32] Just to clarify, I mean, I think that that would also, I think, help with the flow of what we're intending to achieve here. Meaning the virtual on the 14th could be more of a presentation on the facts found. The meeting on the 18th or 19th would be a facilitated discussion with you all having digested those facts. What conclusions do you want to draw as a commission on this topic? That would certainly be a meeting I want to facilitate in person. But [01:22:00] the first one could be a little bit more about information sharing. [01:22:04] That makes a lot of sense to me. [01:22:06] That sounds good. [01:22:12] Just for my planning purposes, I can certainly hold the 14th for the virtual. Did you want to do a Monday or a Tuesday, 18th or 19th for fact finding part two? [01:22:25] I know that Commissioner Johnson is saying that we should flow, which I do agree with him. I'm just wondering if since it is like a work day, like if we would start maybe at like 6:30 and truth telling can already be so long, I'm wondering how much time we would be asking people for putting those two together in that way and if we want to have like a real discussion out of fact finding, we might need a couple hours. [01:22:57] I agree with that reasoning, and I think [01:23:00] I would feel uneasy about starting a fact finding conversation at 6:00 with the idea that truth telling needed to happen that evening. I think we would either do short shrift to fact finding or keep people very late. [01:23:17] We could do the fact finding on the 19th, truth telling on the 20th and the 21st with the option for the healing circle on the 21st and healing circle on the 22nd and that way everything's together. [01:23:31] We're good. [01:23:37] I would love to talk the next time we hear from the native partners, they have said that healing circles can take as long as they need to take. That's another just thought when we're doing that. I'm curious if we did truth telling and had the option of healing circle after each one. If that would help, [01:24:00] like alleviate that. [01:24:06] Be fixed for us. I know that in the past, Manipe and others have indicated that, that's in fact exactly what they would want to do to host them at the same time. Even as people are stepping down from telling their truth, there's a circle ready for them. [01:24:20] So at the same time? [01:24:22] Yeah. They could be like they're present. [01:24:25] I like that. They're here ready. [01:24:27] That makes a lot of sense. [01:24:29] What if we had both true telling days also had healing circle. I mean, if people felt like they needed more healing, there could be an extra healing circle day. I guess that's standalone. [01:24:46] I'm going to throw something out here again. [01:24:48] Go ahead it's what you are here for. [01:24:49] What if we did truth telling and healing circles Friday and Saturday? Is the weekend an option? Because I think that would. [01:25:00] I think that. [01:25:00] It's going to be hard to fit all of this in and then people are getting off of work, they have like stuff to do after work. I'm thinking like Friday, but Saturday we would have a full day to really take our time with people. Because this is not something you want to rush. [01:25:18] Question to Eduardo. I know that you all had in your mind Tuesday and Wednesday or Wednesday and Thursday. But could a Friday and Saturday be possible? [01:25:28] I don't know because I'm not the one who was going to travel. [01:25:34] Could we put it as an option and then maybe just see if it's possible? [01:25:39] I can ask. [01:25:40] Thank you. I'm just thinking like especially Saturdays, for some of the people that we could offer childcare and stuff for, might be a little bit more easier. [01:25:54] Could we offer childcare for the nighttime? [01:25:56] Yes. [01:25:57] Then how many of us [01:26:00] would be available? Because I know some people work till like five. How many of us as Commissioners would be available? Maybe if we could start it four. [01:26:10] Well, I don't know. Well, I guess this is a question. Should all of us be there for the truth telling parts or? [01:26:18] I think we should. [01:26:22] Alisa. [01:26:24] Alysaa Co. [01:26:28] That's who we are. That's what we're supposed to be here for. I think we should all be there. [01:26:32] That makes sense. I think that is a good question, Marie and let's think about that. But I mean, if we're catering to people that might work until five or six anyways, I don't know. [01:26:47] That's what I'm concerned about and it could go the other way where maybe not a lot of people are wanting to tell the truth just yet and we're only there for 2 hours. But I also wouldn't want to shut people [01:27:00] down when they're in that space. [01:27:04] Also this is our first time when we're planning it, so we're really testing it out. We'll learn something from this. [01:27:12] Are the healing partners going to be there on the 18th? [01:27:21] No. Fact finding should be on the 18th is what I'm looking at. Then potentially truth telling and hearing circle on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, Saturday. [01:27:40] My other question and probably it was already presented at some point. This is more to the fact finding team and to the truth telling. [01:28:00] These events are triggering, traumatic and what are we having to deal with that in addition to the healing circles or nothing? Especially because on the 18th we don't have the native partners. [01:28:27] Are you thinking we should have the native partners for the fact finding? [01:28:30] No. My thing is it's really unethical to have when we do things that are triggering, are traumatic and then leave that there. I think Eduardo has his hand up raised. [01:28:59] We're talking [01:29:00] about different components to the event and we need to also be realistic about what is supposed to happen in each of those parts. What I can say is that the truth telling part is the one for which you need to make sure that participants and truth tellers will have to be prepared and will have support, which is why I think that any of the options that you have mentioned, 20 and 21 or 22 and 23, the truth telling can be combined with the healing circles because I can envision fluid passage from telling a story to sharing a space. Now, I would need to know what is envisioned for the fact-finding. But if the fact finding is basically the presentation [01:30:00] of research, I don't see why that would be as triggering as truth telling. There's no need either to think that absolutely all the parts of the event are going to be equally problematic or in principle difficult. But I don't know, Larry, what do you envision for the fact finding part? [01:30:25] Well, I want to be careful not to repeat too much Eduardo, I spoke about it before you were on. But I think that in general, the fact finding event is designed to enable the TRC to draw some conclusions about the state of the topic, the state of public safety, criminal justice, and law enforcement in Iowa City relative to the treatment of people of different races. The hope is that the truth-telling will supplant and supplement that in meaningful ways by [01:31:00] adding important contexts to data that's been collected. [01:31:07] Then you don't expect the fact finding to be testimonial? Is basically the presentation. [01:31:13] Not at all. [01:31:14] Exactly. [01:31:14] I mean, it would be a combination of presentation and facilitated commission discussion but not testimony. [01:31:20] Correct. If it is not testimony, then we can expect that probably you don't need the healing circles then. [01:31:31] Correct. [01:31:31] Exactly, which is why what I'm saying is then that the question of when to have native partners on the healing circles is really more linked to the truth telling part of the events. Otherwise, we're going to be asking our native partners to eat the entire week and to cover absolutely each part of the meetings, even those that are more dialogic in nature or presentations in nature. This is in reaction [01:32:00] to what Commissioner Wangui was saying. What I would advise is to keep it as it is, meaning the healing circles go hand in hand with truth selling and we can decide which two days of the week are going to be used for that. Be it as I understand now, Wednesday and Thursday or Friday and Saturday, I have already sent the question to my colleagues to see what happens. [01:32:31] What you sent to them, Eduardo, was the options of one Tuesday, Wednesday, or Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, Saturday. [01:32:41] It's too complicated. Since it's so many people at the same time, I think we need to simplify. Tuesday is out of the question because that day is going to be fact finding and the discussion before was the fact finding needed time on its own. [01:32:56] Fact finding is going to be on the 18th. It's not on the 19th anymore. [01:33:00] We took it off. [01:33:06] But it's complicated to us 19 and 20, 20 and 21, 21 and 22, or 22 and 23. It's easier to give a couple of options. Otherwise, we have four options and that's going to be- [01:33:21] Three options. Tuesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, Saturday. Three options. [01:33:30] You know what, let me ask. Tuesday, Wednesday, 19, 20. [01:33:35] Wednesday, Thursday, 20,21. [01:33:37] Or 22 and 23. [01:33:39] Friday, Saturday. [01:33:42] With preference to the Friday, Saturday. [01:33:46] What do you prefer exactly? That's the point. Do you prefer 22nd and 23rd? [01:33:50] Yes, but if those can't work, then we are open to those other days. [01:33:57] Yeah, [inaudible 01:33:59]. [01:33:59] Thank [01:34:00] you so much. [01:34:09] Sure. [01:34:10] Thank you for cleaning that up, Lauren. I assume that's you doing that. [01:34:15] Yes, ma'am. Thanks for saying so. Just to recap, making sure I understand this is reflected properly and then I'll stop sharing and I think pass it on to Larry. I really appreciate your guys' patience. I know it's always a headache to schedule things, but I think we're 75% of the way there, and hats off to everyone. I know there are 1 million things being balanced. Just recapping, we have a fact finding culminating event. This week, which is again the season, a spring break, that will be virtual, more of a presentation of the facts, give people the opportunity to have that digest. Next week will be the culminating event that is in person. Definitely Larry, potentially, I will be in town. That will be a facilitated discussion for the Commission on the findings that were presented the prior Thursday. Then there's the question of when the truth telling [01:35:00] culminating events will be. The options are either Tuesday and Wednesday, Wednesday and Thursday, or Friday and Saturday, and as indicated here, the hearing circle would follow whenever that was. Then the only inflexible dates in these months are the report due to city council at the end of the month and then the presentation at the City Council the month following. But I believe that that wraps up everything we needed to discuss from the road map perspective. The last thing I wanted to just double check was that on a week-by- week basis, people were comfortable. Is my whole screen sharing or was it just the Word document? Do you see the spreadsheet? [01:35:41] No, we don't. We just see the Word document. [01:35:45] Sorry about that. Just the last double check I would do, and then thank you for your time and go back on mute, is just to say if there are any intermediate notes, really, it would actually just be this week right here. Does the Commission feel [01:36:00] comfortable, not at the next meeting, which is next week, when Larry will be presenting the fact finding insights, but does the Commission feel comfortable getting the fundamentals of those culminating events to Vice Chairman question of what are they actually going to be. Does the Commission feel comfortable committing to the state as the time when we will present and discuss that? I think if people are comfortable with that, then that's the only other decision point besides the culminating events. If your answer is, well, I'm not sure, then I think we can also give more details on that at the meeting next week. But I think we spent a good chunk of time on this and I want to make sure we can move forward with the agenda. Just want to do a double check on this one right here and if there are no further questions, then I'd like to stop sharing and say goodnight. [01:36:50] Thank you. [01:36:51] Laura before you go, I just wanted to say that Mana pay is on here in case there was anything you wanted to add or ask of him. [01:37:00] I can't promote because I can't see it. Thank you. [01:37:06] Hello Stephanie. [01:37:08] I just wanted to let you know that he was on 'cause he couldn't see that he had joined. [01:37:12] Thank you. I don't have any questions from Mana pay because I think we answered them. But does anyone else? [01:37:26] My question is to Stephanie. The Excel sheet, the hard copy if it would be possible to get something that it's really small? [01:37:48] Yeah, I can. I'll just send you the file. Because when you have the file, you can blow it up. [01:37:57] Then play around and see whether I can print out something that [01:38:00] I can. [01:38:01] The problem is if I make it readable, which I get it. Then it's on five different pages and it doesn't read right and it's very confusing. But I think if you have the actual file on your laptop or your PC, you can just switch the viewing in that way. It can be as big as you need it to be. [01:38:19] Thank you. I think I already have it. I'll print out something that I'm able to work with that I can see. [01:38:30] I think Laurel asked this, but is the question now, are we as a commission agreeing to move forward, like this is what we want to do? [01:38:40] Yes, ma'am. [01:38:42] Do we need to vote on that or can we just say we're ready to move forward so we can start in the planning phase for this? Guess that's kind of a given. [01:38:51] We need to vote. [01:38:55] Can we move forward? [01:38:56] Definitely. [01:38:57] The only thing I'll carry with me is on the [01:39:00] fact finding because it's factual presentation. It's presentation for some people, even the mere word of mention of the word police, it's pretty traumatic and triggering. As we move forward, that's still something I'll have with me and usually even when teaching these facts or talking about them. There is triggering so I'll carry that with me and I know for a fact because when we are places where we are presenting this, we really even one. On the lookout as we present, and we let people know what [01:40:00] we are going to do. I'll have with me when we're doing this. [01:40:10] That makes a lot of sense. Laurel, it seems like we've agreed that we're going to move forward. Then just to pay you back off of what Commissioner Gathua, I would love to ask our facilitators to just think about ways that we can make sure we're taking care of people during the fact finding time if it's not going to be with our healing partners. Just to make sure that we're not triggering anyone in a way that we're not thinking about. [01:40:33] I think the warning is a good idea. [01:40:35] Trigger warnings. [01:40:36] Like letting people know we're going to be discussing, however you want to word it, some hard facts. [01:40:50] Absolutely. That's a really important thing to keep in mind and we definitely. [01:40:55] I also wanted to just add that we do have mobile crisis counselors in our community, [01:41:00] and we could certainly reach out to them. That has been in the background of like, if we need folks. I know Commissioner Merritt had brought up that we will have local people that have been attending the healing circles and that's great. Also, I don't know if that would necessarily be a great first opportunity to utilize those skills when we have native partners and local crisis counselors that can have that experience and be right there. We can definitely put that list together. [01:41:33] Yes and together with the warning. Just letting the attendees, let them know. Even ask the crisis counselors who are there, just let the attendees know too. For them to raise their hands and also they know their work. They will also be watching out for that. Thank you very much. [01:41:58] Absolutely. I have attended [01:42:00] community meetings where crisis counselors are present. They usually identify themselves ahead of time and have a space where they can go to that's separate and people know they can just contact, they can literally walk over to that space. When we're planning that event, it's just something that we should think about for space needs is that we have a separate room that people can gather. That's a way which can be done in many different fashions, but just something to put out there. Thank you. [01:42:30] Is there any other discussion on the road map portion or are we ready to move on? I did see someone in the online community would like to comment on what we just spoke of. If you'd like to raise your hand again, we'll promote you. [01:42:49] Allowed to talk if they're not just [OVERLAPPING]. [01:42:52] Oh, I meant allowed to talk, sorry. Well, then we will move on. Larry said that we do not need to talk about fact finding, [01:43:00] correct, Larry? [01:43:03] Commissioners, just real briefly, thank you for those who I've met with individually and I'll see Commissioners Krebs and Simmons next week. I look forward to facilitating more robustly with you all on the first. [01:43:18] Awesome. Thank you. We have true telling on here. I didn't know if Eduardo you had anything specific you wanted to check in about for next steps for phase 2. [01:43:30] No. As you remember, we have presented protocol on traumatic informed treatment for truth tellers that is going to be very useful going ahead. The other thing is that we are now working on envisioning the truth telling part of the event. To prepare a protocol on public hearings and public activities of the commission that we will present to you. [01:43:57] Awesome. Eduardo, do you think that we would be able to see [01:44:00] that by the middle of February? [01:44:03] Yes. According to the roadmap, is for February 15.th [01:44:09] That's what that is. Perfect. Thank you. I'll move on and jump into agenda Item 17, requests for additional funds for City Council. I don't know if Commissioner Simmons if you wanted to jump into that. [01:44:30] I don't have anything. [01:44:35] I did get a question. If we could jump real quick back to fact finding about time for next week what since he will be here. Our meetings are normally at 7:00 PM. He's requested if we would like to meet a little bit earlier just because his meetings are a little bit longer. I want to respect everyone's time on both ends if you don't want to meet earlier, [01:45:00] but also recognizing we might have a later evening next Thursday. Just want to get a consensus. [01:45:07] I would be good with meeting earlier. [01:45:13] Does five o'clock work or six o'clock. [01:45:22] 5:00 works for me. [01:45:23] 5:00 works for you. [01:45:27] I can do 5:00. [01:45:29] I'm good with either the time 5:00, 6:00, whatever works best for most of us,. [01:45:35] I know Commissioner Merritt gets out at 5:00. If we did start at 5:00, we'd be starting a little bit later. [01:45:44] We can do 5:30 give us some time to get here. [01:45:49] Does that work, Stephanie, Redmond for the space to be here? [01:45:55] I believe I haven't reserved it from 5:00 that's starting at 5:00. [01:46:00] [01:46:01] Commissioner Simmons, Nobiss, any concerns or issues? [01:46:06] I have no comments. [01:46:07] No comments. [01:46:10] No comments. [01:46:14] 5:30 next week sounds like a plan. We'll do 5:30 next week. Going back to agenda Item 17, we talked a few weeks ago about requesting additional funds. We don't have any further discussion now, but I did want to point out we are looking into one commissioner. I believe Commissioner Nobiss did request that we look into hiring someone. I have been working with our facilitators to just discuss what that could look like. If you would like to join that discussion, please talk to me afterwards and we can figure out what that could look like together. If there's no one else that wants to talk about that, we can talk about more general items for [OVERLAPPING]. [01:46:56] I don't understand the statement that you just made. Could you explain more [01:47:00] about hiring someone? [01:47:01] Yes. Last meeting there was a mention that since people were a little alarmed about how much work it's going to be, why don't we look into hiring another individual, to help us do the work in the last half of the year. I'm not saying that we're going to do this, just looking into the possibilities of what that could look like with our facilitators to alleviate some of the work that could go on after we do this first test in the first quarter. I just wanted to let everyone know that's what I was looking at and being open and transparent about that. [01:47:45] I'm sorry, I still need a little bit more clarification. Once we go through this first part and we do this in May, what do you foresee the rest of the steps being as far as things that we would need to do. [01:48:00] What would you see the timeline being for the remainder of the year for us? [01:48:05] As we talked about, this is the first try, and I imagined, and I believe we've talked about, that we would be repeating the process over the rest of the year. We're only doing one topic right now. We're doing public safety and police force for this first one. We have several other topics that we said we wanted to try out. We wanted to do listening posts, we wanted to be involved in other community events, make sure that we're there. It was made very clear that we all have work and things to do and we don't have enough time to spread ourselves thin. It was suggested that maybe we should look into hiring someone that can help us out with that work. The suggestion is originally there was a suggestion to hire a point person at the city [01:49:00] and maybe using that description to move forward and see if that's possible. Just a suggestion, not something that we would definitely do unless we all agree to it, but just a thought process. [01:49:22] I moved forward because this is something that was talked about extensively, just about how much time it takes for us to be a part of this in our last meeting, so trying to think about the commitment that all of us are giving to this commission. [01:49:41] Do you believe that we need the rest of the year in order to complete our mission? [01:49:47] I think so. What do you all think? We have the rest of the year. I think we should do as many events and things that are necessary for [01:50:00] the community as we all collectively deemed that we should. I wouldn't want to stop at the first one at the trial, but again, that's just my view of it. [01:50:19] Once the consultants contracts are up, we are doing all of this on our own. [01:50:25] When you say we're doing all of this, what is this? [01:50:32] Putting together the events, the truth telling, and the healing for the people. Because we have several different topics to cover and this will just be one of them. [01:50:44] I believe that what your belief is that our goal is to do as many of these as possible. Then once we do that, then we are to then give recommendations to [01:51:00] the city council on these specific truth telling events that we've done. [01:51:06] Well, all the collective events together. [01:51:10] On the truth telling or on the events that we've done. [01:51:16] Lauren, I see your hand is raised. [01:51:24] Picking up on what Chad was saying about there is a recommendation that we need to get to the city, and then we also talked about this proposal, requesting this money for specific events, topics for projects. Chad had a list of some of those options. I think we're doing this trial run, so that's going to happen into March, and I think we could probably give [01:52:00] the city recommendations in April. But since we have the commission approved to go through to December with this request of this additional money, I could see that being utilized for some of these projects that we have suggestions or some of the ones we don't even know of, but they might be coming up to use that money after the contract with the facilitators are done, and we're either commissions on our own, or we've actually maybe hired somebody or the city hire somebody to help facilitate what we've recommended. I guess I'm sorry if I'm speaking off my head here, but I'm seeing that one we are going to do a recommendation I think come April, once we're done with this, [01:53:00] the plan that we have here, the road map. But I also see that the money that we are requesting for specific projects that either we already have ideas of or ones that are going to be coming up, it's going to be something separate that I think is the commission or person that could get hired by the city could run through. If that makes any sense. I'm done. [01:53:36] Thank you, Lauren [01:53:37] I would agree. I never and I'm more than willing to have more discussion about this. There was a period of time where we had two years or so in that sense to go through this process and to provide the information. That was to two years I came in. Then, we were given a very [01:54:00] short period of time because the charter was going to end at a certain time to go through this marathon experience that we were going to go through. It seems that when we got to that place, it was less about the specific topics. The topics were used as examples of how to solve certain problems. It was more about creating a system in place, which was what the training went through in essence to us, to say that this is something that should be used and should be a part of the recommendation. We went through the first part, it was supposed to be training, and then the second part was supposed to be the experiential of actually doing it. I'm struggling with why we would want to, [01:55:00] considering that we know that this is a long term process, why we would want to continue for the rest of the year doing this versus maybe doing it one more time so we feel comfortable with the model, and then preparing our recommendations for the city council that would include them making sure that this is done from a long term perspective. When you talk about systemic changes that need to happen, systems beat and compete against systems. People really don't compete against systems. When they do, people traditionally lose. My thought is that within a short period of time, there's not going to be a lot that we're going to be able to get out to allow the system to be changed, altered or adjusted, or even for it to be for people to even get [01:56:00] around it. I understand everything up to March, and then if you said we want to do it again, I could understand that. But where I'm struggling is, why would we want to keep doing this when we know or at least believe that we need a more permanent structure for these type of things to be able to happen, for there to be true change to happen in the system. [01:56:32] I just want to make sure I understand quickly. You're proposing that this year would be securing a concrete model for our work? [01:56:42] When you talk about something like education, there's a lot of things that could go under education. What you really want to do is you want to attack a specific problem and then you want to go through the process. Through the process, you want to come up with what you believe are solutions, [01:57:00] and then you want to implement some of those solutions and then you want to then see if those solutions take. I just don't see us being able to do that with four or five topics. I understand why we pick them, but what we can offer is, here's the model, we put forth the model, we went through it, we went through the training, then we actually tried to implement parts of the model. We learn from the experience and then we want to make adjustments to changes. We said, healing circles should be done by indigenous folks only. I'm curious in how that actually works. I understand from a community perspective to not give that up, but I'm still curious in how you implement something like that in such a way [01:58:00] that in accent it works. Even when we had the conversation of healing circles, we had the conversation that we possibly need not only people who are experienced at healing circles, but also professionals who are very experienced at dealing with things from trauma and who are professionals at this. We can assume learning that we're going to have from that experience. But I don't think we're going to come up with the solution to all things education. We can simply say that here's a system that would allow something like issues around education or something like the issues around housing or something to this would allow us to be engaged in the community in a very different way than we have traditionally engaged in them, and here's the model we recommend that you should use, and here's the way and that's you should go about it, here's the way in that's you should think of funding it, here are the issues that you need to be [01:59:00] able to, that you should address, and here's how you know when it's not working or it is working, just as an example. [01:59:10] I'm thinking May, June, July a year. It took us a year from that time. But just because we were given all of the time doesn't mean we should use it. Considering the type of effort and work we have to put in which no other commission does, we're hurting ourselves. I struggle with that. [01:59:44] I think all of that is valid. [01:59:46] I think I agree with everything you're saying. The only thing that I push back on is that I think we need to test it out a little bit more. I think you're right, that we need to show them. [02:00:00] We need to get to that conclusion. But I think we are in an unfortunate spot where we need to show a little bit more. If we take this now more condensed model and try it out. I wouldn't ever try to sell a model unless trying it at least three times and test it out. This first quarter test it out again in May gives us enough time to plan that. Test it again by the end of August and then give that report and have at least three or four months to go do a tour, talk to everyone, tell them what we found, showcase that. Then those recommendations are like, we need to make this permanence, and that's a 2025 charter. [02:00:46] I agree. [02:00:49] Can I say something? [02:00:50] Of course. [02:00:51] Sorry. I just want to say that I really like what Chad is saying because it basically empowers myself to speak up, as [02:01:00] well. I feel like we're not doing what the people want. We're doing like what people would be hired want. I feel like I haven't had much of a voice in figuring out what's or like the native community hasn't had much of a voice and figure in like this process of like finding these four or five things that we're tasked. I don't know, just I just like Chad was saying, it's not just about these things. The one thing I do appreciate is like these healing circles is how we find out the things. Then, like having conversations, I had this morning with Larry and Laurel, I believe, where I'm providing a context for another community that has been doing good work with their police department, which is pretty rare in the US [02:02:00] and how we might want to start recommending things like that here. Maybe we can have that conversation with our community. I don't know I feel confused as well. There's just all these things we have to do. It's very mountainous, if you will. After we go through all this, it feels like we're just basically doing colonial work. We're doing busy work, and then we're paying a lot of people to do a lot of money. The money is just getting funneled into something, but it's not going into the community to where people actually need it. I just feel in the end, I don't think this is truly doing what it's supposed to do, which is I would say reparations and real healing justice work. [02:03:00] It just feels like it's meant for space that exists in the ether, if that makes sense. I don't know. I might be a little bit lofty in what I'm talking about, but I mean, I'm just trying to explain how life I just come to these meetings lately and just listened because I just feel like I've given up. [02:03:28] My personal opinion. [02:03:30] Can you put the right. [02:03:32] Gordo has his hand up. [02:03:34] Go ahead. You can speak first and then Eduardo. [02:03:38] My personal opinion is I think we should definitely do it a few times to test it out. I feel it makes a lot more sense. I do agree with testing a model and making sure it works before we go any further and full disclosure, I got to get out of here in about two minutes. There you go. [02:04:00] Eduardo. [02:04:02] Is similarly short. What the resolution, or the charter says is that the TRC is going to submit recommendations. The TRC is not going to submit solutions, it's just recommendations. Those recommendations are based on the three lines of activity according to the charter. Fact finding, truth- telling, and healing. Now, regarding fact finding, you have already agreed on a number of meetings ago that those were going to be three specific topics. It's not either, absolutely all the facets of racial injustice. I think you mentioned the issue of criminal justice and public safety. That's one subject. The other one was economic development and empowerment, and the other one was education. If by March you are going to carry out an integrated event on [02:05:00] the question of public safety, it follows that perhaps once you learn how those events happen, the next ones are going to be easier. The difficult one is always the first one. Once you have the first one, which is your test of concept, then you can have perhaps, as you have mentioned two others in the second and third quarter on the other two topics. In that case, what is nice about having a first event in March is that you can carry out and you can get conclusions on the basis of that, yes, this is the event we want to do or perhaps you decide that there is no continuity from that. But I don't think that you can decide that before doing one of the events, it's just a matter of order to me. You decide after you have seen how it works, not before. That's what I would say. I also have a certain limitation of time, but [02:06:00] I would say that the charter is the best guide and the charter is going to say. It says very clearly that among the recommendations that you're going to submit to the city, you are going to also submit a recommendation on where and how the work of the commission could continue. There is no contradiction with the idea of models that are going to keep working on the question of racial injustices. That is not contradictory to having two or three events. [02:06:33] I think Eduardo, I understand exactly what you're saying. I totally don't agree, but I do understand what you're saying. But I think where we come in alignment is that there has to be recommendations that are in essence made. I do not believe that the motto is the only thing that we're recommending, whether it works or not, or how it should work. I believe what it is that we're really trying to [02:07:00] recommend is, are we creating something and putting something in place that will allow the community to be able to better help solve its problems. In order to be able to do that. You do want to do some testing to make sure that you feel in all three areas that these things actually are things that can work. I think that's where we are in alignment of trying to make sure that we feel comfortable that the model is the thing that works. But I think the other thing that we're also trying to do is we're trying to say the way that we engage. It's something that works. When I say engagement, what I'm saying is that it actually the model will help us solve the problems that we've had in the past. What we have traditionally done is that we've put out things that have not helped us solve the problems. When you talk about the issue of that we're not [02:08:00] responsible for solutions. I would simply say that we are responsible for creating an environment or a culture that will allow people to take care of themselves. When people marched, they marched because we're in a situation where they saw someone put their knee on someone's neck. The people that were arguing with the police, they were not trying to stop them from taking him to jail. They were really just trying to stop him from taking a life because they knew that once you died there is no other option. I'm just saying here is that I think that it is going to be easier for us to solve the issues around what the city wants, as it relates to the staff, and as it relates to what the city council wants, as it relates to doing this work. I think [02:09:00] that we also have to remember, we're trying to do it for the people, and we had the conversation, you and I about, again, if you have been, and your history says that you have been enslaved. I don't know much about being an immigrant, so I cannot speak fully to that, other than if you're black or if you are from African descent, or if you're dark-skinned, then you're more likely to be treated like me. One who has a history, a family legacy of enslavement, than you are to be treated like someone else. That's the only thing I can really say for sure. But what I am saying is that there has, we've done enough of trying to appease people about feeling good, about the bad situation that they're in. That there has to be point where we have to allow people to come up with solutions to address the true problems that exist. It has to be a part of the recommendation. [02:10:00] If it isn't a part of the recommendation, then what are we doing here? [02:10:09] What I'm saying is that it is, and that is exactly what the charter says. [02:10:14] I understand what the charter says. What I'm saying is the process about this system does not fully address the issues, and that's why the solutions or at least examples of solutions that show some type of success are important to the process of the recommendations that they're given. [02:10:42] Basically what we are talking about is that in order to respond to well seated historical systemic issues of racism, you really need to envision a [02:11:00] deeply transformative process. What the charter literally says is that the recommendations to the city include opportunities to create new social practices, expectations, protocols, habits, rituals that will move Iowa City toward a shared experience of race and difference, justice, inequity and community and harmony. That's incredibly ambitious. I do think that that is where everyone in the commission is in agreement, which is why they serve. Now the question is, of course, how to get there. The only discussion here was whether it would be prudent to test the events more than once to see whether this is recommendable. I happen to believe that perhaps this is something that should be responded after the event, and not before. [02:11:58] I just realized why I'm frustrated. [02:12:00] I just wanted to say, because I'm not trying to pooh on anything. I'm just trying to figure out why I'm so frustrated with this process? Well, firstly, the city screwed us over for a long time and then we paid a lot of money for all these things to happen, but now we're doing all this stuff when we thought the facilitators were going to do it and that somebody was going to be hired to do all that stuff and that changed over time. Now here we are with this huge plate and then also, I feel the whole process of fact finding and talking with the community has been complicated by a colonial process where again, it's made to feel we can't do this without these facilitators, we can't do this without all of this money. When essentially, I do this every single day in my work, in my community just by hanging out with my people. I guess I feel we should have just been chilling with our people, hanging out with them, having events. The work we do [02:13:00] at Great Plans Action Society is exactly that. We host event after event, after rally, after protest. Just programs, campaigns, just all stuff and it's all about our community and finding out what they need and how we can help. It just feels like it's so disconnected from that. This is so disconnected from what we should have been doing this whole entire time, we could have just done it for free. Well, not for free we could have had a budget and just hosted some meals with our communities and some healing circles and just I don't know, it just feels it's the process is really full of red tape and bureaucracy, and that's really making me angry. That's what I wanted to say, but I'm done speaking. I'm not trying to push against anything, I'm not asking for any resolutions, I'm not trying to say, don't do this. Please continue with what is going on. It's great, whatever [02:14:00] it is, you're doing great. I'm just saying this is where I realize why I'm always confused. It's not grassroots work. It's just not, I think that's my problem. Anyways, thank you for letting me voice that. I just think it's important that this is on the record, just so people can understand, how this process came together, and how we have two different systems trying to merge, but they're really not. [02:14:35] Eduardo. [02:14:37] Yes, indeed. Actually, I also agree with that meaning, again, going back to what the commission is. Of course, social justice activists are already doing this in their communities. The idea of the DRC, if we understand correctly, this idea, this is how I read it, is to do it together. [02:15:00] It's an invitation to do together what we do well, in an excellent way separately. That is why it's so difficult, because obviously we know how to do it on our own, the question is how to do it together. The other important thing here is that this discussion comes because you guys are discussing the possibility of actually having a budget so that you hired people to help do it. You are not physically doing it yourselves. That is the point. The other question is what was the role of the facilitators? We'll actually prepare you to be able to do all this. That is why you are not thinking of extending the role of the facilitators. Again, as the resolution says, the facilitators serve at your pleasure. You decide when to stop. No one has said that it should continue. Indeed, I think that everybody agrees that this is not work that people [02:16:00] in the commission should be doing physically on their own. Obviously, that is why people are saying we will need additional budget from the city, which by the way, the resolution also separated it, allocated about $1 million for having the staff, the people, the capacity, the resources to actually do this in a way that is not abusive of your time. [02:16:29] Thank you for that. I just appreciate the response. What I had to say really didn't even need a response, like I said, I just wanted it to be on record how I feel about it. [02:16:44] I think Sikowis that's why things like truth telling was so important. I think that's why the event was so important because it created an environment where things like this, in essence, can happen on a regular basis. That's why I'm an advocate. [02:16:58] Are you meaning truth giving? [02:16:59] Truth [02:17:00] giving. Thank you. Not truth telling. Truth giving. [02:17:05] Then I think hit the nail on the head just now when Eduardo said social justice activists there's just those of us in here that are working at a real grassroots level, and it's just this is almost I can't seem to understand this. I appreciate Chad in the work Chad has been doing, in the way he talks about it. I feel he's getting to that point more succinctly than I am. [02:17:33] I think I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. We are going to do this model, we're going to have the public presentation hat's going to happen in March. Then after that, we're going to learn from the experience, we're going to make adjustments and changes, and then we're going to try to do the model a couple more times. [02:17:53] As of right now, unless we decide after March that we don't want to do it anymore or we want to do something [02:18:00] completely different, or it's too much or whatever we decide collectively. I think we just need to try this first one and see what happens. That's how I see it. [02:18:14] I'm confused that we're a disagreement really lies. [02:18:18] What I'm hearing, what I think has always happened from the beginning, is just a difference in opinion of what the purpose of our commission is to a piece of it. [02:18:33] I don't think anyone is wrong. I don't think anyone's right. I think it is why we all came together and how we joined the Commission. I think that's what I'm hearing. How I view the Commission is obviously different than some of my fellow commissioners. But I do agree that we all want the same thing in the end. [02:18:53] It sounds we're all in agreement? [02:18:56] I guess. [02:18:56] Not really. [02:18:57] Not really. [02:18:59] That's why I'm [02:19:00] a little confused. Where's the disagreement? I think here's where I believe the disagreement was or is when we started at the very beginning, it was seemed to be very clear. We needed consultants to be able to help us go through the process to get work done. [02:19:20] That's why we didn't do things at the university market and everything like that the whole time. [02:19:25] There were some challenges that happened. Things didn't go well, which is normal through any group to go through that. This is not unusual or uncomfortable. But as time goes by, then the sting of the thing that God has started also fades. You with me? [02:19:43] Yes. [02:19:44] We continued on the path as if nothing changed, and we will continue to do that exact same work and we were extended and given more time to do the exact same work. Instead of our charter [02:20:00] ending when it initially is supposed to end, it was moved and then I think it was moved again. We're on the same path of what we're doing. What I have been saying is that time is gone, that work no longer exists. It needs to be done by something permanent, but not by something that's ad hoc. What we want to do is come up with whatever we think that thing is, we want to test it out. Then we want to go to the City Council and say, this is the system that we believe that will work. Here's the example of the things that we've done that we show that we think that we're really on the right path. Here's what we think you should invest. It should be a permanent commission. It should be different from what work is being done from the Human Rights Commission and here's what we believe the mandate is, UOY City Council [02:21:00] make it so to the best of your ability. Then they would then put something in place, in essence, that would continue down the path that they wouldn't have us continue to do this work, myth people believe. City councils believe that we could give them the recommendation tomorrow and they'd be ready to move on. I just think that if we're stuck in the same situation that we have to do all of this work that we're doing, and the fatigue that in essence, has gone through that now everyone is just getting tight and tired. That's where I think that there is this pull and push. Do we go ahead and do exactly the way that it was intended to be done at the very beginning, or do we pivot and make a change, still provide information to them, but force the City Council to do something, give them an option [02:22:00] that's different than the option of it being done by the ad hoc committee. That's where this is struggle. You're right. Our chair had made sure we got the time to do the work, we can take the rest of the year. I say our time is up. What we should do is we should take the next five months and not only should we do the testing, but what we also should do is we should come up with our recommendations. I wanted to do it earlier because I wanted to fit in the budget. They're going to come up with their budget, the budget's going to be set and probably February, March they'll probably wait until after the session is over with the legislative session is over with. Then the budget is pretty much going to be set for fiscal year 2025. It's going to be done. Once that's done, there is no [02:23:00] you can't go after any extra money, you're done. Then it's just, here's the recommendation. They'll come back and say there's no money and then we'll say, well, we'll try to plan for the future and then it'll disappear. When I talk about it, I'm looking at it the way that our system works, not the way we want to work. I know the way we want to work. But our system puts it in such a situation that the system will destroy itself. It will destroy everything that we put together. Because eventually they're going to have to figure out how to do it. Now, most folks will tell you that the City Council will give us a fair shot and they will look at everything that we've offered, and I believe that they will. But if anything requires cash, so, I don't think we want to be able to get over that now. I just say I don't want us to put ourselves [02:24:00] through abuse because now it's getting close to abuse of working Hebrew slaves for something that we're not going to get the return on the investment. I want a decent return on investment. [02:24:18] When you say return on investment, what are you seeing? Because I see return on investment, allowing people that don't normally get a chance to talk, their opportunity to share their truths with the community. Their opportunity to share what has happened to them, especially when it involves this topic of racial injustice. Their opportunity to actually be seen and I feel that is a return on investment. [02:24:42] I think that would be a return on investment. I would agree with that, and I will acknowledge, because of how old I'm, that [02:25:00] it's not good enough for me because we've always had that. There's never not had that. They've always put us in situations where we can be heard and have we been able to solve our own problems and I don't need anyone to help solve our problems for us. The only thing I need the city to do, which I think the city can do, is just be a good referee. Just make sure that someone go to come up behind and hit me on the back of the head. Look, I understand, you want to go ahead and you want, vouchers for children. Well, let me at least work with people to figure out, how I can get around that or how I can stop that. I understand that, whatever it is that that people want to do I'm fine with that. I went to a housing conference. I drove myself to Nashville for a housing conference and I'll just simply say this, I've never been around so many sharp intelligent [02:26:00] people around housing and what they ultimately told me is that the reason we affordable housing issues, really the reason is we just don't have enough housing and the reason we don't have enough housing because to have enough housing, you have to have enough green space and if you have enough green space, you have to build brand new housing. Not by existing, you have to build brand new housing. When I talk to these folks, most of us don't know how to even do that. We have the skill set, we don't know how to do that. I can't deal with housing unless I can deal with building housing. If it's about people being hurt, I think we're going to get there. I don't think that's going to be a problem, but it's about solving our problems. [02:26:52] That's where I'm saying, when I joined this commission, I was all about letting people get hurt, as it said, as Eduardo [02:27:00] solving people's problems I might not have the ages you just mentioned. [02:27:08] I get to thank God for that. [02:27:09] But I'm just saying, I don't know if I've ever believed that we would be able to fully solve any problems. But I do know the power of people having an opportunity to share their story and what I can do for someone individually and possibly systemically. But it is a start and it's something that hasn't fully happened here. [02:27:34] I think Stefanie, are we able to continue without quorum? I didn't know if we couldn't. [02:27:47] I think Redmond's going to try and catch Cliff. [02:27:49] Well, can we just end, or? [02:27:53] Is there no longer quorum? [02:27:56] We're going to pause. [02:28:00] I'm sorry, I have to leave. It's about 11:00 P.M. here and a. [02:28:06] Have a good night Eduardo. Thank you. [02:28:09] Thanks for joining. [02:28:09] To continue with. No, [02:28:11] thank you for the fascinating conversation. It's really always an experience to hear and learn. [02:28:21] Thank you, Eduardo. It's always great to see you even if it's on zoom. So I'm really looking forward to you being here in person. Thank you. [02:28:34] What's the quorum number? [02:28:50] There are not five of us or there have to be five in person. [02:28:56] Five in person. [02:29:00] [02:29:03] Did you? [02:29:06] This is a normal quiet moment. [02:29:09] We pause. [02:29:11] I caught with Cliff and he just has to go. I guess we don't have a meeting because we don't have quorum. [02:29:23] What do I do say we're just done? [02:29:25] Done. [02:29:26] We're done and we'll pick back up with our next meeting wherever we left off and on the agenda. [02:29:33] I read one. [02:29:34] Did you say we can't continue? I thought you said we don't have a meeting. Does that mean what has gone on before? [02:29:43] No. From this point on, you just lost quorum just when Cliff left. Everything else before that was a legit meeting, it just didn't come to an adjournment normally, we would normally have an adjournment. [02:29:58] Thank you. [02:30:00] Redmond, next week, you will you want to present first sentence? [02:30:03] Yes, I'll be prepared. Nope. [02:30:08] I forgot about that. [02:30:10] It's okay. Honestly, it was going to dovetail into this conversation. It's probably be good whenever we do get to speak on it. [02:30:24] Well, thank you everyone.