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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRC Transcript - March 7, 2024[00:00:00] [00:00:07] [MUSIC] It is seven 715 and I think since Stefanie is not here, she suggested that we all just say our names that were present. Chastity Dillard is here. [00:00:20] Cliff Johnson here. [00:00:21] Amos O. Kiche is here. [00:00:23] Louis Tassinary here. [00:00:25] Chad Simmons here. [00:00:26] And anyone online? Lauren? [00:00:32] Lauren Merritt here. [00:00:34] Thank you, and that's all I see. Great. I'll go ahead and start with the reading of the Native American land acknowledgment. Would someone else like to read it today? And so would you like to read it? [00:00:48] I'll read it. [00:00:49] Thank you, Lou. [00:00:52] 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. [00:01:00] The area of Iowa City was within the homelands of the Iowa is quaky and Sauk. Because history is complex, and time goes far back beyond memory, we also acknowledge the ancient connections of many other indigenous peoples here. The history of broken treaties and forced removal that dispossessed indigenous peoples of their homelands was and is an act of colonization and genocide that we cannot erase. We implore the Iowa city community to commit to understanding and addressing these injustices, as we work toward equity, restoration and reparations. [00:01:35] [NOISE] Thank you, Commissioner Tassinary. Next we have the approval of meeting minutes from February 15. Since Stephanie is not here, she gave me verbiage to read. First I need first and second for approving the minutes. [00:01:48] Second. [00:01:52] The minutes have been properly moved and seconded to approve the meeting minutes from February 15. All those in favor say hi. [00:02:00] Hi. [00:02:02] Any opposed? Motion carries. Zero or it carries. [LAUGHTER] The next thing is to open up to public comment of items on the agenda. We have no one in the room right now for public comment, so I'm going to move past that to correspondence. Let me turn the page to see what that was again. We have a memo from campaign to organize graduate students. They sent us a letter. I'm not sure if everyone has had a chance to read through this yet, but if you haven't liked to say anything about this, we can speak now or save it for the next meeting. [00:02:55] Saving it for the next meeting would be better. [00:02:59] I'll agree [00:03:00] about it. [00:03:08] If everyone is in favor, I will go ahead and push that to the next meeting. [00:03:12] Next meeting - okay. [00:03:12] If everyone has a chance to just read through it, we'll deal with it at that time. Next, I'm going to go to production team for upcoming events. [00:03:28] I can at least que that discussion up. [00:03:31] Great. Thanks. [00:03:31] Thanks Commissioner Simmons will carry it on from there. I think as we move forward with the events, the question was how we would go about capturing that in some type of filming or documentation. I think there was some conversation on what staff could do. After checking with communications, we find out that we really don't have the capacity to [00:04:00] provide anything that is close to finished product with editing, lighting and all those things. We're really at the stage of just setting a camera somewhere, and just clicking it and turn it and and walking away. That's all we have the ability to do. Knowing that, that's probably not what the Commission wants for finished product of the events. Commissioner Simmons had a suggestion to hire that work out which would fit within the budget that the Commission still has as in its disposal. If you recall, there was $10,000 that was to be allotted to the Commission per phase. I don't believe we have gotten through the total $10,000 of Phase 1, but we still have another $10,000 available to the Commission [00:05:00] for Phase 2. Stephanie and I are working through where exactly we are, but very compably can say at least $10,000 is available because I don't think we've spent anything in Phase 2 as of yet. [00:05:15] Awesome. Could you remind me how much did he quote your price? [00:05:20] What the intention was in the initial intention was is that, the goal was is this is storytelling. On storytelling we need to explain, in my opinion, we need to explain to people the journey, how this got started, and then how we got to that given point. My thought was, is that we can do that in some type of video vignette, so that it can be shared. Now, I don't know if we can get it done as quickly as possible to have it ready for our first truth telling. But the intention is to create that type of vignette that then would be a part of the presentations [00:06:00] that would be given so the people knew this is what happened. This is why we were created, here's the work that we were supposed to do, and here's now what we're doing now. That was what the first intention was. The second was to record some of this information for us to be able to, in essence use in the future. I talked to Terence Thames to see if he would be willing to do some work for us and said he would be willing to do something. I told him, you know, I didn't give him the specifics because I didn't know what, it has to be approved. But my thinking is, is that it was going to be somewhere around $4,000-$6,000 just depending on what we wanted what we were going to ask him to do, and then also the speed in which we were trying to do it. But that was the intention, [00:07:00] two parts, to do some type of introduction that can be used during the sessions we have. Then to create something that we can ultimately use as far as to further tell the overall story of everything that we're doing. [00:07:17] I love that idea. I'm wondering, I know we're focused on the events, but maybe we could use him for, I'm imagining people come to the event and they're inspired to want to share their truths and maybe they want to do it offline on video. I mean, we'd have to let them know that if it's on video, it is now like public. But maybe we could schedule that with him. [00:07:37] Yeah, I could talk to him about that. I think he would be pretty excited to be a part of it. [00:07:42] Now if I really like his work. If he doesn't work out, I do have another person in mind that is local, that they both know each other, that would be willing to work with it as well. [00:07:53] Well, maybe they can work together on this one even to work. [00:07:56] I think $4,000-$6,000 is actually probably on [00:08:00] the lower end of a project, the way I'm imagining how we can use him further. But if everyone else agrees to spend a lot of our budget towards that documentation, which I think is important, I would love to see us work with it. [00:08:19] Yeah. My hope was is that we did still [NOISE] like $250,000 that they're ultimately holding. They're waiting on trying to wait to really see what we're going to present to them. They're not even, they won't consider that until once we do our presentation. My hope is that that that money is available for us to be able to fully stretch out some of the work that we're trying to do. But for the short term, this would at least allow us to have something captured during the period of time. [00:08:48] Do we know that his schedule would allow him to be free to do this on the 20th and 21st. [00:08:54] And the 18th? [00:08:55] Yeah, the 18th. [00:09:00] [00:09:02] To specifically answer the question is I do not know, if it's scheduled allow. I wanted to see if he was willing to do work. But I wasn't wanting to give him the specifics because I did not have the approval. But if we have an agreement of him doing the work, then what I would do is that I would give him a call tonight. [00:09:24] My only concern is he's in Des Moines, right? He's not here or does he have an office here in Iowa City? [00:09:29] He lives here. [00:09:30] Oh, he does live here. [00:09:31] And he has the office here in Iowa City. [00:09:33] Then I have no concerns. [LAUGHTER] That's great. For some reason I thought his office or his base was in Des Moines. [00:09:41] He has an office in Des Moines. [00:09:43] He does live in Des Moines. [00:09:46] Well, then that gives us even more access, and if we find someone that wants to speak, but they can only meet a certain time, I wanted to have an easier way to navigate that, the only thing I was thinking of. Thank you so much for [00:10:00] bringing that to us, Chad. Does anyone else? Everyone okay with this? [00:10:06] Probably should [OVERLAPPING]. [00:10:07] Do we need to vote? [00:10:10] Would you like to make a motion for that? [00:10:13] I move that we get a videographer to capture the work that we're doing for TRC. [00:10:21] Second. [00:10:21] Seconded. [00:10:22] Second. [00:10:23] Thank you. It's been properly moved and seconded. All of those in favor please say aye. [00:10:27] Aye. [00:10:29] Oh, I can't do that. [00:10:29] Aye. [00:10:31] No, you can't? I was just thinking you may want to have public comment if there's any public interested in talking on that subject before you take a vote, but. [00:10:39] So sorry. [00:10:41] Oh, it's okay. [LAUGHTER] [00:10:41] I moved through it fast. Did you have some oh. [00:10:45] Melinda has her hand raised. [00:10:46] I see that Melinda does have her hand raise. Would you like to speak on this? Please I think you're already unmuted, Melinda. [00:11:00] But now, she might be trying to connect in two different ways. [00:11:06] Here we go. [00:11:07] Now I can hear you. [00:11:11] Thank you. Greetings everybody. My question is about the documentary or the videoing, and who will shape the story in the sense that generally, when a filmmaker is creating a documentary they have influence over the story. To what degree will the Commissioners be involved in the editing process? [00:11:40] My intention is to be significantly involved. I've done this before, so to be significantly involved in the editing process and for there to be the approval of the Commission before something is distributed. [00:11:55] Thank you for your answer. [00:11:58] Great. Is there [00:12:00] anything else on your end, Redmond, that you wanted to talk about production team wise? [00:12:05] Well, I was going to say one of the benefits of contracting your own production team because you have so control over when you want to release it, editing, which Chad has already spoke to, framing all those things. It's not like you would have to go through any type of public rigor because it's basically controlled and owned by the Commission. [00:12:39] I do have one question. I said earlier because I thought this was true, but if we have a consultant or someone that is videoing things, is that also subject to the rules that we have for open record or can be, if someone's like, hey, I don't really like what I sounded or looked like. Can you delete [00:13:00] it? [00:13:01] It will become a public record once you release it. [00:13:04] Once we release it but in the editing phase. [00:13:06] But, no. Once you have your finished product and you release it for public consumption, that's when it's a public record that will be, kept in archived like a public record. But until that time is considered to be a working document or a progress, a work in progress. That's essentially, that's where you have the ability to, if you want to take testimony in and out and all that thing, that you have that ability to do that. [00:13:40] Could I ask, do we run into any difficulties with respect to the requirements for bidding? [00:13:50] I don't think so when the number is pretty low. Also, I think this is rather unique, and [00:14:00] especially with the timing, it's very easy to be a sole source. [00:14:05] But we might have to do some sole source justification. [00:14:08] We may. I'll have to take a look especially if the price is what you've been talking about. I think you're going to be under the threshold though. [00:14:20] Commissioner Simmons, you're effectively taking the lead on this, I'm assuming. Do you need any help with anything to get this? I want to make sure. [00:14:33] Yes. I was actually looking for my list, but just as I have a thought of a script. That includes Commissioner speaking, current and past. That includes the mayor speaking, one of our city council, another one of our city council [00:15:00] members speaking. I've asked for us to get video of the George Floyd situation incident and then also get any video that we have of the marches that have happened in the area. The intention is to include voices so that we can round out what's happened, what got us to the place of creating it, what's happened in the past. To try to be not just authentic, but to try to share the challenges, and then how we've moved, we've gotten to this given place. [00:15:45] You are already working in script and you want to bring it to us, or you want to have a small committee that helps you work on that. [00:15:51] What I want to do first is I want to see if I can schedule people to [00:16:00] get video of. I'll schedule a lot more people than we'll actually use. Then from there then put something together as a straw person, and then leverage and use that to move to the final product. [00:16:18] Okay. [00:16:18] Instead of a written script, I want it to be a visual script for you to be able to see. [00:16:25] Great. Let me know how I can help or how we can help or what you need in that process. [00:16:32] As soon as I have the conversation with him, then what I will do is send out an email or I will ask Stephanie to send out an email requesting when you all would be available to do interviews, and those interviews will more than likely last around 15 minutes to 20 minutes. [00:16:50] Sounds good. Did someone else raise a hand? Never mind, any other talk on this topic. [00:17:00] When we say production team for upcoming events, is this where we talk about the upcoming events or, oh, there's nothing up on the screen, is that? [00:17:10] I'm just noticing that. [00:17:12] No. The screen wasn't supposed to be working. They knew that. I think there's a whole another process to get it on the screen. But I think people can see us here. But we just can't see them. [00:17:26] Well, looking at our agenda, I just wanted to do some updates now about our progress for the upcoming events. I know that there is a flyer that Stephanie told me earlier. Redmond, were you going to present it to us and so we can finally use it? [00:17:45] I think it was as presented, I think we held off sending it out until tomorrow because this meeting was going to be scheduled. I wanted to make sure that if there was any changes that it would be covered. [00:17:59] I haven't [00:18:00] seen, is it in our packet? I haven't seen any emails of the flyer. [00:18:10] I don't know if I have, I thought it was sent to Stephanie, and maybe you didn't send something to Stephanie. [00:18:25] When I asked her about it, she said that we were going to get it tonight or released tonight. I don't know if that was going to be the email. I'm just looking at my email. [00:18:40] Let me see if it's in my email. I was not directly involved in that, so I apologize. [00:18:48] Well, hopefully we can figure it out tomorrow when Stephanie's in the office. I know she's at an event right now. [00:18:54] Something is supposed to go out at nine o'clock tomorrow, so I'm assuming that's what it is. [00:18:57] I know that they're going to start doing emails out to [00:19:00] our own contacts. [00:19:03] I might be conflating the press release. I think the press release is going out tomorrow at nine. I don't know about the flyer, so I was confusing to both. [00:19:15] I wrote to Stephanie today to ask her if she could send me the flyer so I could begin sending it out to people, and she said that it was not available until you all made a decision on it tonight. She would send it to me tomorrow. I don't know if you can make a decision contingent on seeing it tomorrow morning or something and everybody still agree, oh, I don't know. [00:19:40] We need it to go out. We needed it out a little bit ago. Let's move on on the conversation. I'm going to send her a text and figure that out. But just so everyone knows, I think Eduardo or Melinda is online. [00:20:00] But we've been talking about the program I believe [inaudible 00:20:05] - Think Peace sent us a schedule for the two truth-telling days suggested. A group of us have been working on getting. Wow, I cannot talk, it's been a long day, you guys. We have all been working on finding our first guests to do the truth telling. I'm just going to give an update on someone that I've been working with and I'm not going to say her name right now, but it is a Sudanese woman who would like to come and speak about her experience with racial injustice, involving her son in the law enforcement and how they believed that he was wrongfully charged, and he's serving a sentence right now. She would like to come talk about that. Going to set up a time for her to sit and talk with Eduardo in the next few days. For that, [00:21:00] I have been reaching out to other commissions to get in touch with what they have as well. I have a lead within the Latino community for that representation as well, and I know a few of us have been working on other people. When I've been talking with Eduardo and Melinda, they really said just focusing on 4-6 people each night. But four minimum should be great. We talked about in the program, which I'm hoping to have a little bit more solidified so that everyone can look at it. We talked about having, in addition to the native partners, some religious leaders that are very diverse, coming and speaking towards racial justice as well. In [00:22:00] the beginning of the program, I wish I had the program in front of me but that's my update right now. I believe there might be some other updates. [00:22:22] I know when Guyi was had some updates but she's not here tonight and we are working on city officials as well being a part of this program. Are there any questions? Thoughts? I want to say thank you to Cliff for allowing us to use his gym for one of the days. It's going to be a nice venue and have we announced where the different venues are going to be? I can't remember the meetings I've talked about. [00:22:59] I think that's in [00:23:00] the press release. [00:23:01] It's in the press release so we narrowed down the right house of fashion for the fact finding day and one of the days will be iCore Boxing and the other will be the gym's theater. [00:23:14] I think there's an event here as well. [00:23:16] We'll do the virtual presentation next week here. [00:23:25] We're going over to briefing for that event next week. [00:23:32] We can, I'll add it at the end of since we're going to do the virtual and we're already here meeting, we can have an agenda, Redmond? So we'll have that last one on there. Does anyone have any questions otherwise, I'm going to move on. [00:23:51] With the native partners do all the venues allow the smudging or is it just? [00:23:57] Yes. [00:24:00] Excited for these upcoming events. Excited for the documentary that we'll put together to showcase what we've been trying to do. If there's no further questions, I'm going to move to public comments. If you have any comment, please raise your hand and we will click on you to speak. Otherwise, I'm going to move on to translations for upcoming events. I assume, Annie, that you have updates on that. Is that from you? [00:24:27] It is from me. [00:24:28] Or it's Melinda. It is from you. Go ahead. [00:24:31] It is from me. I think I reported last time that I talked with the UI with the help desk who then talked with software group on campus and they said there wasn't anything that they knew of that they had or that they knew of. That was what I was asking. And I was asking for something where someone could be speaking in one language and everybody present would have some app where they could hear it in their own language. It doesn't quite exist [00:25:00] yet. [00:25:02] Can you speak a little closer into the microphone. [00:25:04] Yes, thanks. So, do you want me to repeat what I said? [00:25:07] No, I think I heard you, but if you could continue in the microphone. [00:25:10] Perfect. I've been asking other places what they know of and I have not come up with anything that someone can use their phone to translate a speaker at a distance. I've actually worked in a mediation where someone wrote a message on their phone. Their phone translated it, and then they had me read it and because English wasn't their language, so there are things like that. But I'm sorry to say that I don't have anything more than to encourage you all to let folks potential truth tellers and anybody else know that you're willing to get translators for anybody who's speaking so that anybody speaking any of the [00:26:00] few languages that are common in our community could feel like they would be heard, so I would encourage that to be part of the materials and the verbal. Check. [00:26:11] Thank you. [00:26:13] There's something that keeps popping up on my Facebook, apparently because it had probably conversations I have on here. There's a, I'm hoping it'll just pop up. There is something that it's a little handheld device and it transfers it any language. As soon as I can find it, I'll make sure I get it to you guys, as I haven't taken a picture of it, but I will. [00:26:41] That'd be great. My question is can it do something at a distance. [00:26:45] Distance? [00:26:46] Rather, I've seen those online where I could be talking to Redmond and what I'm saying would go for him, and he could hear it, or see it in his language. But I haven't seen something that is really at a distance. [00:27:00] But I will follow up on anything that you find. [00:27:03] Is it something that would like pick up what you're saying and put it up on a screen or something like that? [00:27:09] No, if you're sitting here listening, but the person speaking is all the way over there. [00:27:13] That will translate it in mid-air. Well, I wasn't thinking that in general, I was thinking something that could put the words up rather than translate it directly. [00:27:24] Kind of like in operas where they have the English words for them, what they're singing. [00:27:30] Like that's easier to find than. [00:27:35] I'll see about that. I don't know if our current venues can accommodate that. But I'll follow up with that as the idea and anything else that you come up with, because I think we all agree that it's really important for all voices to be heard. Whatever that takes. [00:27:51] Found it. [00:27:52] Great. You want to. [00:27:54] I will take a picture of it right now. [00:27:57] Well, thank you. [00:27:58] Thank you. [00:28:00] I see Melinda, you have your hand up again. Would you like to speak? [00:28:08] Yes. Sorry, this is not Melinda. This is Eduardo, I'm sharing Melinda's link. I hope that's okay. [00:28:15] Hi, Eduardo. [00:28:18] I have a problem with Iowa City's Firewall. Sometimes I just need to jump in Melinda's link. I really like the idea of the video production, the vignettes that Chad has proposed. One idea that I will propose is that perhaps it would be possible to reach out to people in other places in the country who are also creating truth commissions, or who have already created truth commissions. In the past. I think that we have been able to be contacts and some communication from Reverend Nelson Johnson in Greenville, North Carolina, [00:29:00] a leader in the Wabanaki nation in Maine. There are people around the country who surely would love to send their solidarity and their thoughts for the success of the work of PRC. [00:29:19] Thank you. Any other thoughts or any other things to discuss about translations? Annie. [00:29:29] No, thank you. [00:29:30] Thank you. If there's no further discussion, I'm going to open up to public comments if there's anyone online. Next, I'm going to open it up to update on fact finding and and invite Larry to speak on this. [00:29:47] Hey, can you all hear me okay? [00:29:49] Yes. [00:29:51] Sorry that I'm coming to you from outer space. That's not intentional and, I from a lift on the way home from the airport. I'm sorry if the audio is [00:30:00] so choppy, but not much of an update to share other than just that we're looking forward to the briefing on the 14th and you should expect to receive some written materials in advance of that event that you'll be able to review and prepare some questions based off of. But the purpose of the 14th will be to digest the information that we've been able to gather, particularly with the help of Redmond and Stephanie and some of their staff, as well as the Chief of police and we'll present the material to you in written form prior to the event and in oral form at the event and the purpose of the 14th is really for a brief discussion of the material and then the 18th is really where we intend to facilitate a dialogue amongst you all at which you try to formulate some conclusions around what the facts are telling you and obviously, the truth telling events that follow two days later [00:31:00] are meant to go hand in hand with the fact finding work. And so it may be that the facts tell you one thing and the testimony tells you something very different. But for purposes of your report and for the work you'll ultimately do to make recommendations. We think it's important that we help you, as best we can, steer to some consensus on what the facts reveal to you as it relates to your mandate. Virtual on Thursday the 14th, in person on the 18th, and we're excited for both. Happy to take any questions. [00:31:34] Thank you, Larry. I don't have any questions right now. Does anyone else? [00:31:40] No. [00:31:44] Well, if you don't have anything else, Doctor Schooler, I'm going to move on to the next item. Thank you for joining us. [00:31:50] Absolutely. Thank you. [00:31:52] Do we have any public comment online? Please raise your hand. The next one will be updates [00:32:00] on truth telling. We have Eduardo and Melinda to give us updates. [00:32:09] Thank you, Chair Dillard. As you mentioned, we have had a few communications in the past couple of weeks. Also we have sent some materials that are available for the Commission to use. You will remember that we proposed, for example, protocol that is trauma informed or how to deal with persons who want to be truth tellers, giving some practical advice on what to do, what not to do. We also presented a manual on how to realize the truth telling events. We have sent a memo that we call a step by step memo on the practical actions that need to be taken from here [00:33:00] to the event. Finally, recently as you mentioned, we proposed a run off show a program that we have also sent to you chair, for sharing with the Commission. None of these documents is prescriptive. If you don't need to do exactly what it says, there they are all just recommendations. But in general lines, as you have mentioned, what we are recommending is a simple event. I don't know if the word is correct, but an intimate event event which is a small circle of people listening to each other, neighbors listening to each other, members of the same community making an effort to talk to each other. We are not thinking of a very large event on the basis of a first come, first serve, as you would do, for example, in a public comment. In a long public comment. But we're talking about [00:34:00] something where you in advance talk to a few people who have specific experiences on the topic, on the question of rule of law, policing, and how that intersects with race and racial injustice. If you can get five people perhaps per day, that would be certainly enough. When people talk about their experiences and they have time to explain their experiences, to reflect on their experiences. Those are not necessarily extremely long testimonials. Those can be things happening anywhere between 12, 15, 20 minutes stops. Four or five people, perhaps, per day would provide with enough material to reflect, to hear each other, to react to [00:35:00] each other in a constructive manner, in a compassionate manner. That is what we were recommending as you mentioned. Also, we are providing some time availability in case you want us to participate in conversations with people who are deciding on whether to provide the experiences in the truth telling events. [00:35:29] Thank you. [00:35:31] I'll jump in to also say, Dave Raglan and myself are very excited to arrive in Iowa City on the night of the 19th and we will be meeting in person to go over the run of show. We're very excited about gathering together for the truth telling experience on the night of the 20th followed by the [00:36:00] healing circles, Native partners again on the night of 21st. Looking forward to seeing you all again and I'm really appreciative of all the hard work that you're putting in, particularly as you go forth in making contact with potential truth tellers. [00:36:26] Thank you. As Eduardo mentioned, I just realized that I was the only one that has the agenda. I'll make sure that Stephanie sends it out to everyone today or tomorrow. If you have any things that you would you have questions about or would like to change, let me know before next week and we can just finalize that and we'll all be on the same page. Eduardo, Melinda, Leo. Do you have anything else that we need to know as of right now? [00:37:00] Nothing on my end. Eduardo, anything you'd like to contribute? [00:37:08] No, I don't think so. I think that the task of the moment is for the Commissioners to decide on the program, reach out to the prospective tailors, and in general, trying to organize an event that is as productive, as constructive, as compassionate as possible. [00:37:35] Okay. Well, thank you very much. Do we have any questions as Commissioners? [00:37:42] Yes, I have a quiz. [00:37:43] Go ahead. [00:37:45] My question, Eduardo, is about safety in terms of the participants coming to that gathering. That there could be members of the community that are not really comfortable with law enforcement [00:38:00] in some form or not leave alone the videos and the recording. I'm not sure about that part, but actually it's just the observation, just the visuals. I know earlier you sent us one of the documents and in that document we had a list of either a retired police commissioner or any member of law enforcement being part of this. I'm a little bit worried about that, but I don't know what other Commissioners also think about, but that could be I don't want to make a conclusion on that. I think we have to be careful about that. But what can you tell us about that in terms of people being comfortable and the level of safety? These are just guarantees which sometimes we're not sure of. [00:38:52] Yes. Thank you, Commissioner. Well, those are two different things. The question of [00:39:00] feeling comfortable in an event or feeling safe. I think the obligation of the Commission is to ensure that there is safety, that no one is going to be adversely affected for their participation in an event that there are not going to be, for example, reprisals or someone who says something that, that other people find unpalatable. To make sure that the conversation is going to be maintained in the parameters of good civic conversation. That there are not going to be situations of old security that persons are going to be supported because of the potential emotionality of the participation, of the possibility of trauma and retraumatization. [00:40:00] All those are elements of security that need to be addressed and we need to be sure about that. Now, the other thing is whether a person is going to feel comfortable. These are not comfortable conversations, regretfully, most of all, because when you talk about situations that are still dysfunctional, still challenges in our communities, well, not everybody wants to listen about that. Not everybody wants to hear, and so those are the first persons who are going to say to you, I am uncomfortable. Because they are uncomfortable about hearing about things in the status school that probably need to change and they're not going to like that. Now, I think discomfort must never get to the point of insecurity. One thing is to think, well, I'm [00:41:00] feeling challenged. This is a difficult conversation. This is a conversation that activates me, but a very different thing is to feel, I feel fear for my personal safety. That's a different thing. That's the difference. I think that certain level of discomfort is inevitable in a conversation like this, but what we need to make sure is that there is no insecurity now regarding the topic. The topic is the intersections of racial injustice and policy enforcement, etc. Well, this is a difficult conversation and the other conversations are quite similar. Injustice and economic empowerment, racial injustice and education differentials. All those are comfortable discussions and some discomfort is going to happen. Now I think that it would be productive to have a conversation between people who normally don't talk to each other. That [00:42:00] is why our suggestion was if possible. It is just a suggestion if possible study how appropriate it would be to have former members of the law enforcement community, for example, to hear what the perspective is. It doesn't mean you have to do it exactly that way, but if you know, the sense of the Commission is to try to facilitate this difficult conversations regarding the publicity of the event. Well, I don't think there is much of a, of a choice there. Every activity by the Truth Commission is public. These meetings that we are having now are public. Public comment is public. It is all part of public record. In that sense, there is little difference between a person who would come to public comment and say something about [00:43:00] an unsavory situation regarding race in public comment, and someone who comes in a truth telling event. They are all truth tellers. The only difference with the truth telling event is that you are preparing it more in advance so that it is more organized, is a more effective testimonial, but it is going to be public anyway. I think that any person who are thinking of coming and offering their experiences should know that and should intentionally know that they are coming to a public event. If they don't feel safe about it or comfortable about it, then they shouldn't go. Of course, no one should be forced to participate. This is completely on a volunteer basis. [00:43:56] Thank you. [00:43:59] Any other [00:44:00] questions? [00:44:04] No. But if there are individuals who feel uncomfortable in the public setting, there still is nothing that would prevent us subsequent to the public setting, having a private session with the knowledge that will also be made public, but there might be different people present when the testimony is given that would make the person feel comfortable. [00:44:35] Exactly, that's a different thing. That would not be a public trust-telling event, this would be a nonpublic event. This has to do a little bit with your by-laws as a PRC. When the by-laws were being approved, I remember we in the same pace proposed that the Commission was able to hold closed- door meetings, [00:45:00] a special meeting, because with the by-laws as they are right now, all your meetings are public. It is enough that there are five of you for the meeting to happen and to be public. If you want to listen to someone, it's just three of you, two of you. It's probably an interesting conversation, but it's probably also not going to be part of the work of the Commission formally. If a sufficient number of you are there to receive private testimony, it will become public eventually, and people may not want to participate in those conditions. I mean, imagine someone who is a whistleblower about experiences that happening in an institution, in a hospital, in Housing Authority, in something like that. They will want certain guarantees that they can speak in a protective manner. My recommendation on that has always been [00:46:00] that in your by-laws you incorporate the possibility of having close all meetings, in as much as that is possible according to law. I understand that by-law has a number of exceptions for the publicity of meetings. For example, privileged information between a defendant and a lawyer, medical information between a person and their doctor, trade secrets. There are a number of exceptions to what is public. I'm pretty sure that the Commission should be able to receive information. If that is not possible, if the by-laws cannot change, then the second best is that yes, a limited number of Commission meet in private, in an informal way, with persons to receive their testimony. Probably that is not going to become part of what the Commission formally [00:47:00] does, but still, it would enrich the work of the commissioners themselves, and hopefully, it will also enrich the experience of that person. [00:47:11] Okay, thank you. [00:47:15] Thank you again. Is there any other questions or thoughts? All right. Thank you. Our team members from Think Peace, I'm going to move on to well, is there any public comment on this agenda item? Please raise your hand. All right. The next agenda item is other updates for Phase 2. I don't have anything for this right now. I know we'll need to start talking about that in a little bit, but as we are focused on this event, that's what I'm focused on right now, but if anyone? [00:47:53] Early last meeting, we said we'd have a conversation about reconciliation, and we said that we would [00:48:00] bring that up as far as that doesn't seem to be a part of what we're doing over the next couple of weeks and that would be something that we would do, it would be after this first phase. Is that accurate? [00:48:16] It makes sense, its good. [00:48:18] Did you want to talk about it right now? [00:48:21] I just wanted confirmation is something that's what we're going to work on. [00:48:25] Okay. [00:48:25] That's a part of the work that we're going to do after this. If this is not the healing circles. It's not to me, reconciliation. It helps, I think we've agreed that if there are individuals that are sharing, or they are individuals in the crowd that have some type of reaction, that we would the healing circles was a vehicle for them versus reconciliation over the overall situation. [00:48:52] Okay. Yeah. If I'm hearing you correctly, we need to make sure that we have this discussion sooner than later, but definitely, [00:49:00] as soon as the events are over. Is that what you're saying? [00:49:04] Well, the projects that I had put forth, the 250,000 dollars, but those projects were more related to. [00:49:12] Yes. [00:49:13] Addressing, not all but some we're addressing reconciliation, and absolution. As long as I think we're on board that it's a part of the work that we still want to complete, then I'm fine with it. We can discuss it when it's appropriate. [00:49:29] Yes, I am in agreement with that. If I see that Melinda has her hand up. Does anyone want to say anything before she speaks? [00:49:38] I'm going to agree with that too. [00:49:40] Okay. Thank you, Lauren. [00:49:42] Melinda, did you have something you wanted to add? It might be Eduardo. [00:49:49] It's actually Eduardo. Yes, it's actually Eduardo again, I just want to agree also with Commissioner Simmons is saying. Yes, healing is just part of it, is hopefully a component [00:50:00] of reconciliation. Reconciliation is more of a long-term process, and the ordinance that creates the PRC mentions a number of possibilities of what reconciliation can look like. It speaks about healing because it says rituals for example, but it also speaks about changing the culture, ensuring the possibility of common celebrations, commemoration, etc. I have always thought, for example, that Lower is a city of culture, a city of letters, a city of poetry, and it sounds to me that enormous artistic and cultural energy should be directed towards the logic of reconciliation. That is going to be a very long process, most probably going far beyond the mandate of the Commission itself. [00:51:00] Thank you for that, Eduardo. [00:51:03] I'd just like to speak a little bit more based on what Eduardo said. I think that was going through some transition. To me, it started during the transition. It so happens today is the State of the Union, but it really started to me during the transition of a general presidential race where Obama was running for the first time. Iowa has gone through a great transition and has moved into directions and I would say that's been very different than Johnson County, and specifically very different than Iowa City. Some of it is discouraging because it is people that are in my generation that I thought would be leading the revolution for significant change. I happen to be right, I just happened to be wrong in the change that they're leading, but those are things [00:52:00] that we'll have to deal with. Culture is very difficult to change in an environment where there's a lot of pressure against that culture trying to flourish. That's what I think that in many cases we're working through. Systems are designed to protect themselves, and that's the other situation that we're working through. The system doesn't matter about the words, but if the system is such that it has enough force from other systems, then it, in essence, can do things to protect itself from any insurgencies or people trying to do things very different. I think we have to really keep that in mind whether you deem to be a, you know, radical or you just deemed to be, you know, revolutionary however you team it. You have to understand the strategy of what you're actually going against. That's just something I think we have to strongly consider in our moves as we continue [00:53:00] to try to progress to the next level. [00:53:09] Thank you for that. Any other thoughts on updates for Phase 2? If not, I'm going to open it up to public discussion online. With that, I'm going to move on to announcements of Commission. Does anyone have an announcement they want to go first? No. Okay. Well, I'm going to do a non-shameless but plug for my organization. We are having our first-ever Spring Gala, on April 12th. It's going to be a very fun, diverse night. We're going to have a fashion show, a documentary. Lots of food stems from all different cultures in this planet. I'd love to see [00:54:00] some of you there. I know that Stephanie did buy a table for city folks, so if you're interested, you can talk to her about that. I'd love to have you all there as our guests. It is a fundraiser, so if you would like to sponsor anything, I'm looking for sponsorships and silent auction items, putting that out there. Thank you so much. If there's no other things. I'm going to move to City staff announcements. [00:54:31] I don't have any. [00:54:32] Thank you. And then I'm going to move to adjourn. [00:54:34] Second. [00:54:35] Thank you for a meeting that's an hour and ten minutes. [00:54:39] That's good. [00:54:41] Thank you.