The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutTRC Transcript - May 2, 2024[00:00:00] [00:00:06] So it's 7:02. [00:00:08] Um, Stefanie, if you do roll call, please. [00:00:12] Commissioner Dillard. [00:00:13] Here. [00:00:13] Here- oh, and I guess it's still muted. [00:00:16] Oh, thank you. [00:00:18] Sorry. [00:00:19] Perfect. Thanks for catching that. Okay. Uh, Commissioner Dillard? [00:00:23] Here. [00:00:23] Commissioner Kiche? [00:00:25] Here. [00:00:25] Commissioner Johnson? [00:00:27] Here. [00:00:27] Commissioner Merritt? [00:00:29] Here. [00:00:30] Commissioner Tasinary. [00:00:32] Here. [00:00:33] And Commissioner Johnson? [00:00:35] Here again. [00:00:36] Thank you. I just wanted to make sure. [00:00:40] Thank you, Stefanie. I'll ask, uh, Vice Chair to read the Native American Land Acknowledgement, please. [00:00:49] 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 [00:01:00] was within the homelands of the Iowa, Meskwaki, and Sauk. And because history is complex and time goes far back beyond memory, we also acknowledge the ancient connections of many other indigenous peoples here. The history of broken treaties and forest 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. [00:01:34] Thank you- thank you so much, Vice Chair. Um, next, we'll move on to public co- comments of items not on the agenda. Um, anyone in the room, if you'd like to speak? Okay. Next, we will go to approval of meeting minutes from April 4th. And is there a- [00:01:57] Second. [00:01:57] A first? [00:01:58] I move. [00:01:59] And then [00:02:00] a second? Of course? [00:02:02] Seconded. [00:02:02] Thank you. Stefanie. [00:02:04] It's been properly moved and seconded to approve the meeting minutes from April 4th. All those in favor say aye. [00:02:09] Aye. [00:02:10] Aye. [00:02:10] Anyone opposed? Anyone abstaining? Motion passes 5:0. [00:02:17] Thank you very much. Next, we will go to Agenda item number 5, which is follow up and debrief from the TRC. Presentation to City Council. First, I will open up to public comment in the room. If there's anyone that like to address this agenda item, please come to the microphone. If not, we'll turn it over to anyone online that would like to comment on this agenda item. Okay. I will open it up to commissioners. If there's anything that anyone would like to talk about. If you were- were not in attendance, I believe it went pretty well. And we just have some work to do moving [00:03:00] forward. Any other comments on this? Okay, I will move on- I will move on to agenda item Number 6, which is facilitator's final report update. Thank you, Stefanie for printing it out for us. I will, I guess, turn it over to our facilitators, if there's any- were you planning on saying anything about this? V or Annie, or anyone else online? I don't think there's anyone else online. [00:03:35] I don't think we would. I mean, I don't think we have been planning to, but maybe V wants to say something. What I'd like to say is, I think there's a lot in there. I think you would want to look at the recommendations. We put in the appendix. We made it a real effort to put in everything that had been given to you and more so that you walked away [00:04:00] with that, right? That you have that as a resource. Like, what did they say in October? You've got that? So, um, that was the intent, not only to report back to the city, but to provide a document that was a really important resource for you-all, and for anybody in the future. So our recommendation would be that it is put on- put with a link on the- on your website, right? Uh, so anyway, anything else you want to say? I don't know if you've gotten a chance to look at it. [00:04:37] Nope, um, we just got this this week, and, um, I'm sure no one's had a chance to go through all of this. [00:04:44] Sure. Sure. Okay doke, well, we're glad to be available for you with whatever- with what questions you have. I'll speak for myself. [00:04:52] And, um, right, [00:04:55] we hope that it's a useful resource. [00:04:57] Thank you. [00:04:58] And Annie, I was just going [00:05:00] to say, um, the PDF that you sent, I think is like a Xerox copy. So some of the pages, like, 98, 99- [00:05:08] Yeah. [00:05:08] 103. [00:05:10] 102, like they're not really- visually, you can't really make anything out of them because it's for whatever reason, they're just not. [00:05:22] So I haven't seen it. I just saw it as the online doc that we were working on. [00:05:32] In just a second, we'll turn it over to V. [00:05:39] Yeah. My apologies for PDF not being agreeable on the format will definitely correct that. Thank you playing that out. I just wanted to say it really has been an honor to work with you-all these past several months. And I just wanted to reiterate what Annie said, in terms of moving forward, we hope that this is a document that is helpful. We did try [00:06:00] and put all the information in one place so that it is a repository as well. So that all of the information that you've had the trainings, the power points, all that information is in one document for quick reference. That was our intent and the pendencies, as well as the recommendations. That's the only thing I wanted to add to that. And of course, happy to answer any questions that you may have now or in the future at any time. We are all in community together. So thank you for your service deep deep gratitude for the service that you all are doing and the time that we've had together. So thank you. [00:06:38] Thank you, V. Do we have anything we want to say about this? I will suggest that we put it on a future agenda if we want to discuss it further. [00:06:49] Do we have an electronic copy of it? [00:06:51] Yes. I believe Stefanie, you just sent it electronically today to everyone? [00:06:55] Would have been sent yesterday. That was the late- that was the late attachment? [00:06:59] Correct. [00:07:00] Okay. Thank you. [00:07:01] That's when I saw it. Okay. If there's no other further discussion, I will move on to agenda item Number, um, 7, which is TRC- um, TRC budget updates and requests for additional funds. If there's anyone online or in the room that would like to discuss this before we get started on this discussion, please let me know. Raise your hand or come to the front. [00:07:30] One thing that I have and can provide to you is the job description for some of the tasks that we originally, as we put in our contract, thought would be helpful as, uh, as an assistant for you guys, so I can provide that. You don't have that tonight. [00:07:50] Thank you. Um, okay. TRC budget update and request for additional funds. I think this is a discussion we were [00:08:00] going to really dive into last month. Yes, the last meeting, but we weren't able to, so. [00:08:08] And, Chair, can I just jump in real quick? [00:08:09] Oh, yes. [00:08:10] On the, at least, the budget update aspect. So I passed out a, um, email. Actually, it was a response that I was given, uh, to, uh, a journalist reporter with the Daily Iowa. I don't know if it was intended to be published or it was part of a class project, or I'm not real sure. But, um, essentially, it asked for what had been spent to date. So there is still some close out work that needs to be done with a couple of the facilitation teams. Um, and I've been advising them that the close out will officially happen when the final report is sent to council. And so the last step is to have [00:09:00] some deliberation with the Commission and essentially accepting, uh, the report with any type of revisions to be happening at that level, and then the final report would be sent to the council. And at that time, contractually speaking, the, uh, contract would be complete. So, um, so there are still some outstanding invoices that we're working through. But, um, you- you at least have what has been spent up to date, as well as the, uh, discretionary funds that the Commission has been responsible for, if you recall, the $10,000 per phase is also shown on the back side of the email, so that you can have any questions, feel free to ask them. [00:09:49] I see. Okay. Does anyone have any immediate thoughts about, [00:10:00] um, the request for additional funds that we'd like to, um, move forward at City Council or with City Council the next time we meet with them? [00:10:12] I just had a question for Redmond. So if I add up all these numbers, we've spent to date $320,000 roughly? [00:10:19] Yes. [00:10:20] Okay. So there's about- so technically we've- there's still $80,000 that we could have been spent? [00:10:28] Yes. [00:10:29] Okay. Thanks. [00:10:32] $80,000 that's only tied to the contracts or $80,000 that we could use? [00:10:37] To the contracts. [00:10:38] Okay. [00:10:41] So, Chair, could you clarify what you're looking for in your question? [00:10:45] Ah, yes. Good question. So, um, actually, I guess, for this agenda item, it would be best to really jump into the next steps to really dive into what our plans are, but that's really what I was looking for. So thanks for [00:11:00] that question. Did you have something though? [00:11:02] So if you can imagine, we're planning on taking a trip. We're going to take a trip to Florida. Well, maybe not Florida, right? So maybe we're going to take a trip to, um, Montana. We know that the way we're to get there is when to get there via a vehicle, right? So we want to make sure we have the right vehicle. We know that a two seater is not going to work for all of us to get down there. So we probably need something like a mini van, right? So we're going to go ahead and we're going to figure out what type of vehicle we need that's going to fit us all comfortably, get it all of our luggage, and then we're going to be able to take the trip. Right? What we really haven't done is we haven't planed what we're going to do on the trip. We've planned the vehicle that we're going to get there, but not the trip. So, as an example, if you want to change something around affordable housing, you have to really understand how affordable housing works. I didn't really know how it works. So what I did is, I took a trip to [00:12:00] Nashville to where they had a conference for people like me that are not smart when it comes to housing to learn about how housing works. And a couple of things that I learned, right? And that's, we can talk about what I learned later. But I learned that. Once I was able to better understand the system, I knew the type of questions I needed to ask. I knew the type of information I needed to have, and I knew the type of people I needed to talk to. Once you then get that information, then you can make decisions about policies, procedures, right? That's what we have to do, in my opinion. We have spent a great deal of time appropriately on the vehicle. Now we have to get and spend time on the actual situations or things that we talked about, and we pick four of them, right? We have to get deep into understanding those four and [00:13:00] how they actually work and how they operate. As an example, if we found out that the police, that all the money that they collected for traffic tickets that they were using or they were giving the money and the money was being used by city council, right? To take lavish trips to Tiffin, Iowa, as an example, then if we wanted to do something about it, we know that we would have to figure out how do we do around the policy around how that money comes in and what we want to do with it. If we found out that the money is being used to be able to support more mental health services for the community, then maybe we don't want to do something around that policy to disrupt that because it may be used in its right way. So I think that, again, when we talk about the money we need, we need the money to better understand the- how systems [00:14:00] operate, specifically the four that we've chose by bringing in people who have that type of expertise. And then we need to develop the tools that we used in the first nine months with the information that we got from the understanding the systems to then run through the process so that we can then identify what the policies that we want to change. Now, there's a difference between systemic racism and racism that is just overt. So my granddad had to- when he went to the restroom, he had to go to colored only. Now, more than likely a white person if they were to walk into the colored only bathroom or they were to drink from the colored only fountain, more than likely they're not going to be penalized. But if my granddad were to do the opposite, he more than likely was going to be penalized, right? You can understand. So if that's a policy around that, the city has a policy that you have to be six foot tall, in essence, to drink from water fountains, [00:15:00] that's something we could easily identify. We could show, again, where the impact is, and we could address it. That's not how systematic racism works. It isn't in the policy. It's not in the action, it's actually in the results. So when you take a look at the policy, in most cases, that policy will not show on its surface that it is discriminatory, and you've experienced that. If the police stop more people of color than they stop others, then you have to ask, why? What is it about the results that tells you that there is a problem with the policy in the way the policy, in essence, is written? But on the surface, the policy is fine. There are four ways that you attack, in my opinion, that you attack things regarding to systems. There are four ways that systems are used against us. Your time, your talent, [00:16:00] your treasure, and the last one would be your temperature. Temperature is least known, so I explain that one. If I can just fatigue you to quit, that's all I need to do. Just get you to quit. So if I can get you to run through a process in such a way that you just give up, then the policy is what the policy is, and you just- you just give up, right? [00:16:26] The others are just as important, but most of them hit to the point of treasure. Be with treasure, you can buy time, you can buy talent, and you can even buy temperature. Because it's not so much you, it's someone else who has an eagerness for it. So that's what I think that we're really asking the money for is [NOISE] to be able to truly understand systems, the four systems that we chose to do testing around involvement. And I believe that the involvement that we're doing that [00:17:00] I do not believe the city council gets. But I believe what we're trying to do is we're trying to say, City council, stop trying to solve our problems, be a city council to help us solve our own problems. Don't just put the burden [NOISE] on us, give us the resources, so we'll solve the problems ourselves. Because we have more control over, we have more passion on it. I think what the city treaty hi- historically has done and said, you tell us what your problems. That's to me what listening posts are. And then we will come and figure out what we can do in essence to resolve it. And here's the last thing I would say. If there's a pothole in the street, and you know it's there. You can pretty much avoid it. If someone tells you it's there, then you can pretty much avoid it as well. But it doesn't stop the pothole from being there. So systemic racism is about really that pothole. You got to feel it. If you don't feel it, then everyone has to do work arounds in that sense, to make sure that it doesn't get in the way of the things that we're trying to do. [00:18:00] And historically, that's what we do is we do work arounds. We use individuals to help us muscle through getting certain things done. We ignore it because we already know where it is there, and then we- we go different routes to be able to- to avoid those potholes. That's what we have to help the city council better understand as far as what their role is. And from their questioning, or sometimes the lack of questioning, especially at the last- at the last meeting, city council meeting, I'm clear, I am- I am confident that they- they would probably welcome more information about systemic racism and how it really works, versus just the catchphrase of what the word is. That's where I think the 250,000 is. They just helped us create the vehicle. They just made sure that we all wouldn't have a mini van that we're going to have enough money for the gas tank, [NOISE] and we're going to get to where we want to go. But what we do while we get there, we have no clue. We have not really [00:19:00] figured any of that out, and that's where we need the money to figure out what the solutions to helping people solve their own problems. [00:19:12] Thank you, Commissioner Simmons. That makes a lot of sense. Does anyone else have any other thoughts? We can't continue this discussion in figuring out the next steps. Everyone's okay with that? Well, I'll move on to Agenda item Number 8, and then just open it up once again for public comments, either online or in the room. [OVERLAPPING] [00:19:39] I'm very sorry I didn't get you very well. I- I have some questions I want to raise on the budget. [00:19:46] Oh, okay. So sorry. [00:19:47] I'm very sorry. [NOISE] [00:19:50] Can everybody just remember to speak to the microphones. [00:19:52] Yes. [00:19:53] Thank you. [00:19:55] I think, I appreciate what Commissioner Chad has [00:20:00] reminded us about the- the vehicle, the big vehicle we are going to get into. But I also want us to talk about who is going to be in the vehicle? Who is going to be and who is not going to be. And I think that is really a big task for us today. And I look at a report that we had earlier and we have used this report for a long time, and we see like five major areas that all groups, areas that the Commission proposed. I was not in the Commission at that time. So I'll just follow that. And I think our planning should go around what the Commission had proposed earlier. In terms of. [00:20:46] The budget? [00:20:47] The budget, yes. What will it need to complete those what are those groups going to cost to complete the- the whatever? What's the timeline going to be? [00:21:00] How many events are we going to have? Public presentations and hearing? I think these are the things that we really need to talk on this agenda. That's the idea I thought I had when I was coming here. So we- [00:21:13] So that's what I was actually moving on to the next agenda item so we can start talking about exactly what you're talking about. Do you have any number questions for the budget right now? Or can we move on just so we're under the right agenda item, and then I'll let you. [00:21:27] I have a- I usually have a problem when I put in a big number when I don't know the things that are going to that number. That's something I just find very difficult for me. [00:21:36] So let me formally move on to the next agenda item, and then you can continue. So if there's anyone in the room or online that would like to speak to agenda item Number 8, which is next steps for Phases 3 and 4, please move to the microphone or raise your hand. Thank you, Commissioner Kiche. I just have to do those formal things. So if you want to continue what you were saying? [00:22:00] Yes, yeah. It looks like the agenda was, but it doesn't matter anyway now that have the opportunity to talk about that. So- so these are the things that [NOISE] as we go by the earlier plans, we had public presentations that we- we plan to have. And we should talk about how many public events are we thinking of having? What is that going to cost? We also have education work group. They are going to collect some information and data from the community from different people, different institutions. Social justice group is also going to work on some things that are not completed yet in terms of data, if possible, issues like the ones Commissioner Chad has raised. About how money is being spent, badges, and other things. That is additional information we will still want to- to look into to be far what we already got from the first phase. [00:23:00] On housing, we also need to talk about the data, the facts. We can't forget those three mandates. Anytime we're working on something, we have to remember there are those three mandates. We can't talk about the solutions and other things without producing facts that pertain to our city, Iowa City. Not to any other city somewhere else. And then on the issues of small business, which is I think issues of economic development. These are areas that will require us, or somebody in the staff or in the city to help us with this. So this is where I think we need to concentrate on and then we talk about how many of those ones, events, in terms of hearings will we need, and how much that's going to cost. Because if we don't do that, then we might find ourselves putting 250,000 on small business work groups. And we won't [00:24:00] have any basis for doing that. And I think that's something we have to be careful about so. So that's what I'm asking the Commission to think about. [00:24:14] Thank you, Commissioner Kiche. I'd like to go back to what Commissioner Simmons was saying about formulating what our goal is. What are we trying to do? Because we have the, you use the Minivan example. But right now we don't have an end goal. What do we want to, at the end of this year, December 31st, 2024 is when we're supposed to be completely done. So I- I think to answer your questions, Commissioner Kiche, we need to understand what our end goal is. I think we started that conversation the last time we got together, but we really need to solidify that, so we can decide what those events are? What experts we're going to bring? [NOISE] What topics we're going to really focus on. [00:25:00] So I'm hoping- that's what I was hoping for this um, conversation would be, since we can only be together [LAUGHTER] in the room right now. All talking about it. [00:25:11] The- the comment I'd like to make is I like for the end goal to be in to end for us as relates to our report to be in October. And the reason why I'd like it to be in October is November gets into election time. And then no one will hear us because- 'cause all trees are falling at that time. So my thought is- is that we present it in October as far as what our plan, our master recommendations are, then they will be able to they'll listen to that, and then we can continue to do other things. I do believe that we can have a public session, and I think we should one or two or three or four after that, but I do believe from the city council perspective, that it [00:26:00] should be October before the elections. [00:26:02] And you're saying the report, just the report of our recommendations. [00:26:07] So I think that they're when I kind of take a look at- I take a look at it is that there's a report to the city council, and then in that sense as a report to the community. And I believe the report to the City Council should happen in October, though, that the event that I like is the- the event for Sakai West Truth giving. I like that event and expanding that event to be the event for the community. But that's in November, and it will happen in November after the elections. But you can get the people galvanized around that. [00:26:48] So if we're thinking about it in that way, we're trying to get, let's say, the first meeting in October, so we're not too close to the elections. That gives us how many months. We're already in May, so [00:27:00] June, July, August, September. We have four months to do whatever we want to do um, with whatever events, private or public to really do that work. And then after October, those last few months, it's really us just presenting things. We shouldn't be doing work per se. Is that what I'm kind of hearing you say? [00:27:22] Yes, I think that we have one month per- per topic area, that we plan aggressively to have people come and visit us and talk about the topic so that we have a fuller understanding of that given area, and we get our thoughts around that given area, and we can start writing and putting our thoughts down as far as what we think things should be or/and gathering information. For that month. So we're going to do housing, then let's bring in several people to come in and talk to us from a variety of different perspectives around housing. You know, maybe Watts groups comes in. We have one [00:28:00] group that does affordable housing and non-profit that will come in. We can- and there are other folks, but we educate ourselves on the system and how the system works. And then we all- then we engage privately, gathering truth telling with people that are impacted by housing. But you focus on putting that master plan, so that's everything, let's say for June. And that's what you do in June. And by the end of June, you should have enough information about that specific topic to then figure out what recommendations that we want. We don't make them at that time, but we- we can now have the ability to talk about them and be able to move forward, and then we go on to the next one. Whatever the next one is. [00:28:50] I like what you're saying. Let me talk into the mike. I like what you're saying. I'm just a little concerned about time, because we are already all fatigued and just doing one month [00:29:00] seems to be not fair per topic. And if one of our recommendations that we've collectively agreed on is that we want to recommend that this commission lives on in whatever way, maybe we choose one more topic and really focus on that one. Maybe we still invite experts to talk on the different topics, but we're really diving into from- recommendations from one other. So we can use those four months to do- give its due diligence. And that's just a thought. I'm just [LAUGHTER] worried about time and how we're going to be able to pull it off month to month doing that unless we're overlapping over all of the months and gathering like the private truths behind the scenes, and we're just focusing publicly with the different topics. [00:29:49] I mean, [NOISE] I'll- I'll concur with that. I think that time also worries me, how much time we have. But the other thing that worries me a little bit is that, [00:30:00] if I want to know about social justice, affordable housing, economic development education, I can sit down and do a number of different searches. And I can find review articles that tell me about these topics at the 30,000' level. And I can read about them. But I can have an expert talk to me about them. But what we're trying to do here is so Iowa City centric. That's the part that I get worried about the time and about the specificity. If we're going to be providing recommendations either to the City Council or to the community. I don't know how we get that specificity with domain experts who are going to come in and talk to us for the most part at the 30,000'. They don't know Iowa City specifics. They don't know like what Chad was saying, you know, where does the money go from here to there? Where are the potholes in Iowa City? They can tell [00:31:00] us, we've looked at all the cities, major cities that have greater than I don't know, 100,000 people in them. And typically in those cities, these are kinds of things we find. But how do we get to Iowa to something that the public's going to want to hear that's going to convince the City Council and do it in the amount of time that we have? And when I think about it that way, then I'm like, Yeah, I don't know how we could possibly do four. You know, two would be like the most I would think we could do. But I don't know what- what your thoughts are. [00:31:31] Well, I think my thoughts are is right. There's research that we can do on our own to gather information, but there's also research that we can gain and having people come and speak with us. I think the public presentation says, this is what people are telling us that truth is. Here's where we see the problem is. Here's where we see the policy that- that we believe that needs to be approached to address that problem. Or a policy needs to be created. [00:32:00] And then here's what we think a possibility of solutions would be. But none of that is done now. All of that is going to be done for the public is going to be done in November. For the council, we need someone to write stuff up. That's where I think that there's going to be a lot of time of putting that stuff together in a format that makes sense. So that's the other reason why we want the money so that we can hire people to do some things for us. They can then help us formulate and do additional research, but they can help make sure that what we say is our wording is- is what it is. So that's kind of what my thinking is. I don't know- well, I'll stop right there. [00:32:47] So, I know, at- at least for affordable housing, there is a housing commission or committee in Iowa City that's been working on it for, I want to say, at least a decade, if not more, that could come present to us. [00:33:00] Um, tell me your thoughts? [00:33:04] I think you're absolutely right, that there are people who are here that have a passion that can teach us things. But I also believe that there are people that specifically, when it comes to people of color, they better help us understand the barriers that exist and how they and us get around the barriers. So I think it's a combination, but I do think we have the talent here to be able to come. And if we ask them, and we tell them specifically what we're looking for. I- I- I asked someone a question in the city council. I just said, how does, you know, if someone wants to learn how to do- do development, I wanna develop housing, where do I go to do that? No, I got an MBA, but they didn't teach me that in my MBA. So where do I go to learn how to get into that skill set? The person I ask, again, very talented, smart individual, he doesn't know, he makes decisions. So these are the type of things that, [00:34:00] um, it's a combination, it's not that the knowledge isn't out there, is it's how do we gather it in such a way that we can then make it more accessible. And then the question would be, for an example, if there are people that wi- will have more of an interest of what we have, and what I found out- this what I found- the quick thing I found out, It's not really about housing. There used to be a time that you would do affordable housing, you make cheap houses. The laws and the way set- set, you cannot make cheap housing anymore. So what the person said is, the cost of the house is the cost of the house, the cost of the hotel is the cost of hot- it is what it is. What you're looking for is you're looking for affordable financing. You're looking for equity versus having to go to the banks to be able to get money at 10%. You're looking for someone who's willing, you know, to put in a couple of million dollars so that you can develop something where you have land, and you can develop it. We don't [00:35:00] have access to those individuals, where we rarely, and we- we- sometimes we eat lunch next to them, and we walk next to them, but there are some people that have that type- they have that type of revenue and money. And what they'll tell us is that they have interest of making money, but they have interest in making money with people who are proving that they can make money. So that means someone like me with my MBA, still would not qualify for some of those things. So when we start thinking about solutions, we're really starting to think about, how do we get people, you know, um, that we can get, you know, Commissioner Johnson to take his concept of what he has and continue to grow and expand this concept. What is it that he needs from an equity perspective, and then how do we do that? The other thing I'll just say is, if you take a look at Coralville and their development over the past 20 years, [00:36:00] and you take a look at Iowa City, and even North Liberty and their development is totally different. They have a totally different strategy, they do things totally different. They choose to take a lot more risk, and they do. They own hotels, you know what I'm saying? You know, that hotel that that has a name on it, the High Regency, Coralville owns it, that's her hotel. And they get High Regency, it used to be the Marriott, you know, to manage it for them. So it thinks of that nature, which is how they leverage and use their- their equity to make things possible. Well, how is it that we want Iowa City to use this equity to make things possible different than the way they currently do now? [00:36:54] Do you have ideas- do you have ideas, Commissioner Simmons of people to bring in, like, we could bring in [00:37:00] next month for housing? [00:37:01] Yeah, my- my- what my thinking would be is that I send you a list of individuals, and then we- we ask some of them, if we tell them what our project is, what we're trying to do, and we asked if they would come, and they would speak to us, but these are going to be people that, A, they will be 50,000 fee, but these are going to be very busy people, so we want to be very targeted. But we'd have at our next meeting, let say- let me let's say our next meeting, our meeting in June, we would have it so that they would come in, and they would talk to us about that, we'd have several people come and do that. We'd also have, you know, things around projects that we say, how do we get the community involved in things around housing? So it's not just us talk- listening to them, but it's how do we get, you know, test things out to get the community involved to do stuff of that nature? Dream City, I think, is doing wonderful, but I'm experiencing some of the challenges that they're having because this is very new to them from that perspective. [00:38:00] So I think that if we set that up, it- it's a lot of work on the back end, but you set it up for the meeting to happen, then I think you can get enough information, and you give people enough information in advance to, um, to do research to study. So Lewis has the information he needs or shares the information he has with others, then I think those things could be, um, of great value, but I think that's really with everything that we do, even when it's social justice, even when it's education. I know, we cannot solve every educational problem that exists, but we can pick one and say, or we can listen to the people, really identify what the challenges they're having, and we may say, we want to address the issue around parents, and parents having to choose between work and, um, and- and, um, and- and, um, things around their children's education, [00:39:00] and what- what are some of the drivers that makes it difficult for them to be able to manage that? Whatever it is, we done- do the exact same thing, we gather information, we have people come and talk to us. We take a look, and then from there, you know, we do truth telling. Bu-but then from there, then we come up with what we think again, what the focus should be. [00:39:21] And this is a- this a public event we're inviting the entire community to come learn with us, right? [00:39:27] I think there are some events you want to invite the entire community. [00:39:31] Specifically, what you were just talking about is what I'm asking. [00:39:33] So I think some events, so for example, um, I think that there are events that people could come here, and they can- they can teach us at our- at our meeting, they can come and do that. I also believe that there are some events that we can put on in the community that specifically try to address the issue that we know that people are having and- and better help them understand why that's a problem. So if you wanna talk about education, you need the educational, [00:40:00] um, experts that can really give you a sense of how the state works, how, you know, the- the school districts work, and those type of things, but so some of them are here, which means they're recorded, and some of them are, um, public sessions that can be recorded or not, they don't have to be. At the end of that information of whatever we gather and a story that we want to tell, we use that for our truth telling, it's now we make that part, let's say an hour. Fifteen minutes really describing what we've learned the problem is, 15 minutes of getting truth telling, um, for people that telling us kind of what the situation is, um, you know, going through our- our process and maybe 15 minutes of here's the solutions that we think that, in essence, can help us get closer to the community solving the problem. [00:40:54] But- but I do think that to pull something off like that [00:41:00] we need to have the dedicated staff person. We- we're not going to be able to coordinate bringing all these people in- in a way, because you may know people, other people may know people, we say, we want them to come in on this day, half of them can't make it. And it's got there's all these logistical issues and multiple phone calls and back and forth and all the rest. And I know Chastity is not going to do it, and I know the rest of us aren't going to do it. So that's got to be kind of the- the first thing the hurdle we have to need to jump through if we're going to pull any of that off. [00:41:37] Thus, you then understand why we need the 250,000, because if we don't have the money, then we don't- then again, it's about time tiling and treasure. What you ultimately, what we're saying is, is that even if we don't have the time, that's what we're saying. We have the passion for it, so temperature is there, we don't have the time. So what we're saying is, let's say we need a treasure to get to talent. [00:42:00] If pay for somebody who can do it. [00:42:02] It's the same with the report, we want to have a lot of thoughts about the report. Someone's going to need to write the report for us, that's why we needed 250. So that's what I'm saying, I- I agree with you. [00:42:14] Can I interrupt, just ask a question about, um, personnel to Stefanie and Redmond, how- if- if we were to get the 250 the next meeting we meet with, um, city council, would we have to do an RFP for- to hire a part-time person to help us with this for the next 4-6 months? How soon could we get someone? [00:42:37] Yeah, I think our RFP is probably what we have to advertise. [00:42:41] So you have to advertise? [00:42:42] I think that's what you're asking. [00:42:45] So that's a three month or two month process before we could get someone? [00:42:50] Well, this is a hypothetical, so I'm assuming that this is a city position. [00:42:55] Does it have to- does city do temporary? [00:42:58] City that's temporary. [00:43:00] If it's temporary, is that different than a city position? [00:43:03] No. [00:43:04] Okay. So I think we need to find a way to bypass that if we're-. [00:43:08] Chair. [00:43:08] I'm just asking questions. [00:43:09] You- you ask a brilliant question, I don't believe it's a city position. And I don't think that that's what we- that we should do is that we should try to hire a city person to do this. But I do think that we ultimately need to hire someone to do this, like we hire consultants. We do need to hire someone to specifically on specific projects that we want and hold them accountable to it, but they're accountable to us. [00:43:32] I hear you, I'm just- and do you have more thoughts on how we can do that without having to go through the city process? That was just- [00:43:41] What's the city process? [00:43:42] Described. [00:43:44] Well, you know, again, I'm trying to catch up here, this is- this is all kind of hypothetical. [00:43:51] Let's not get hypothetical, let's get really- let's- let's- let's get something that's real. So what we're ultimately saying is, is that we've had consultants, [00:44:00] the consultants did the work on us creating the vehicle of how we wanted to be able to communicate and work with the community and work with the city, whether it's a city staff or work with the, um, city council. We have recommendations that we're supposed to come up with. We ultimately need someone to be able to, for example, write those recommendations down for us. What is the best way that we can, um, be able to do that in the quickest fashion? [00:44:33] Probably a contractual or some type of contractual. [00:44:37] If we do- of we do it based on it being contractual, is it that we have to bid it out in a certain way in order for it to follow certain guidelines? [00:44:46] That's what we had to do before. [00:44:48] And when we did that before, how long did it normally take? [00:44:50] That took a while. [00:44:52] When you say a while, what are saying? [00:44:54] Well, I- I was- it was even before I get- I started here. [00:44:59] Feel like it was two months [00:45:00] But there was an RFP process and the first- I think the first time it wasn't accepted by counsel, and so there had to be some negotiating and working reworking, and then it was resubmitted, and that was ultimately approved, um, so. [00:45:18] So I think this is great because I think that what we've identified in our process and what we've gone through which is again, something I'm going to talk to the city council about, is a weakness between the way of how we as the commission want to operate the rules of the city employees and the rules of the city council. So in essence, what- what, um, what Redmond is telling us is, is that, if we are to follow the rules the way the rules are written, that we probably won't get the consultant for, let's just say three months. [00:45:55] Excuse me chair. Mr. Redmond, does [00:46:00] the city in the commission or in the department have some capacity that we can tap on to help us with the- some of these? [00:46:09] I think so, and I- I also want to say, we did bring on a photogra- videographer pretty quickly. So it- it depends on what kind of money we're talking about. So if we're working within the city manager's discretion, there might be- there might be a solution that could be worked out. Again, this is very hypothetical. So I don't know exactly, I'm just saying what we've done in the past. Um, so we did do some things, there are some capacity levels at the department level that- that we could utilize. It really kind of depends on the scope of the work that- that- that Commissioner Simmons is talking about. [00:46:52] Yeah. I think we will have to as the commission, we are the ones who know where it aches on us and in the community, [00:47:00] so we will get together and define the parameters, especially on housing. And that requires that we listen to the people first and probably speculate on some of the areas that we want to get into, and by listening to people in the housing commission and the other places. And probably if other things don't work, that is the way we get some data very quickly from them. And if they can be commissioned, or maybe that's not the right word, they can be directed to work on specific areas on housing that we are interested in that they can generate information to us. Once they do that, we will have something written by them, or we- we jointly work on that. And I want to use that also to address the proposal by Commissioner Chad on doing these two events together. To me, I think that's very cumbersome, gonna be very difficult. We are like gotta Bing consultants to help [00:48:00] us on that day, and we don't even post a problem to them. We want them to listen to the problem on that day in the public meeting and solve it for us there. There would be, in 50 minutes, that wouldn't be the case. Yet we are paying- gonna pay them consultant's fee with which is very high. So we need to probably define our problem, know what- how the problem looks like from our community. Then we tell, these are the problem areas, how can we develop this type of housing for these kinds of people? What is it going to cost? What type of projects? We listen to the community based on the data that we have on the ground. And then we approach the consultants and tell them, this is the problem we're having, can you solve this for us, help solve this for the community? That's what I was thinking, so I- I would propose something that's different from Commissioner Chad regarding the approach that we work with the housing authority or any other area we pick on. Get some facts very quickly, get one hearing [00:49:00] from the community very quickly. We hear from them, and we also discuss those facts as us. Then we define the problem, that in the report before we present the final recommendations to anybody to the city council, we can bring a consultant and ask those questions if the budget allows, but we can allocate money for that consultant in advance, that we will need a consultant to work with us in this area. [00:49:29] So- so clearly, Commissioner Amos and I not we're not on the same page, and I- I acknowledge that, and I understand that. This is the time, Stefanie, you remember, I sent you this the thing about Snoopy, and- [00:49:43] Lucy, and if you remember, Lucy would tell Snoopy, hey, I'm going to hold this football for you, I want you to kick it. And Snoopy would say, "Hey- hey, I tried to do it last time, and you pulled it away. Well, I'm not gonna do it this time. You should go ahead and do this." No- no- no, [00:50:00] because this is what you did last time. We've already seen in nine months the experience of the operation between working with the city council, the city, and the commission. You've already seen that. I would just simply say this, and- and Commissioner Amos, I would just have you consider this. The issue is was about the money, the 250,000. You wanted to make more detailed about how the money was, in essence, going to be used. If you do not have the money, you cannot be able to do the work around the destination of where we're trying to go. It's the most critical and most important. The- the traveling is- is beautiful. But again, we- we've already done, uh, um, putting in situations where we had listening posts. That's all truth telling is by itself, is listening posts. If you want there to forced to B to move forward, we have to figure out how to get the 250,000. [00:51:00] I would tell you, in my opinion, you don't get the 250,000 than the projects did because then it is requiring us to put our time, our talent. And you all have even talked about two meetings or the last meeting raising money, which is our treasure to get stuff done. So I- I would just keep it simple and simply say, "What is it that we need to do, in that sense, to be able to get the funding to complete the rest of the work?" If we can come to agreement there, at least you and I, then I think that we can be at least on the same page as far as having resources to be able to- to be able to solve the problem. If we can, to me, all of these organizations have already been here. They've been here forever. If they wanted to solve the problem, they could have solve the problem anytime they want. Most of them don't even realize there is a problem, and some of them just don't care. [00:51:56] And the only thing I'm afraid of is the risk [00:52:00] we're taking. I remember before I became a commissioner, the long history of approving the budget that the commission was trying to propose. That took almost a year or more, I can't remember, because there were issues about itemization. So if you know very well, and somebody can tell me, promise me or guarantee- guarantees, probably a wrong- a wrong word, that if the commission just votes this, the city is just going to say, "Okay, that's good." If you can really, really convince me that, if you can persuade me about that, then I'm really in with you. Yeah, I don't want to be I know the story of Lucy. That- that story, I don't know very well [LAUGHTER] from a different culture. Yeah- yeah, I've not picked that even though I've been here for many years, but I've picked that. I'll try to read on that. But if- if I can- I can't be persuaded that the risk we're taking is not that high. That if we vote, then it's just got to happen. Based on the history we have heard, and [00:53:00] based on- we have commissioner. We have council member here and Redmond here. You can probably help me with that. The chances, just- just the risk we're taking. [00:53:12] Um, you wanted- you wanted to ask? [00:53:19] Yeah, if they can help us with that any. [00:53:20] I think- I don't know. [LAUGHTER] I think we have a little bit more- I have one thing to say. I just want to say one thing. I hear both of you. Um, I'm leaning towards Commissioner Simmons right now because I don't know about anyone else, but I'm tired. And I don't know how we can do any of the stuff we've talked about without an assistant. And that's part of the money that- that we're talking about. I think all the stuff we've talked about doing is possible, but we- we need the dollars to move forward. So- [00:53:58] And I follow up on that. [00:54:00] I mean, any came up and reminded us that early on, there was a specification for the position that we're thinking about right now seriously. So my thought would be that if we're going to go to the city council, it's like, look, you know what we've done. This is what we want to do. To move forward, we need something. The consultants that you agreed to hire suggested, this is an important thing. We can tweak the job description to the extent that we'd like to and say, we want this to happen, and we want to have money in order to bring people forward, experts in the field to educate us on these issues. And we don't have to give them a, you know, penny by penny description of how the money would be spent. But we can say, this is going to be a chunk. This is a necessary chunk, and we need some flexibility. Our guesstimate is, it's going to cost this much. [00:54:57] I'm for, um, finding other solutions. Maybe [00:55:00] I don't know, if Redmond and Stefanie. Maybe there's an intern option. Maybe there's the other option that you talked about, but we need personnel to help us make this happen. We had a lot of help with logistics behind the scenes with our local partners. Uh, unless we're all prepared to fill in those shoes alongside with what the city is able to provide for us, it's not- it's not going to work the way that we're thinking in four months time. I say this as a event planner and someone who's very adept at making things happen in this community. So that's my professional opinion. [00:55:37] I would like the opportunity to advise the city manager on- on this discussion and- and see if there is some options that maybe, uh, Stef can present the commission with by his next- his next meeting. [00:55:50] That's very nice. We submitted the budget to them in January. They sat on it. We said that we were gonna go to them. [00:56:00] This is to come to- I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was going to say something. I'm Christian. I was going to say for me, it would be to come to Jesus conversation. [LAUGHTER] That's what it would be to me. What we should do is outline to them what the plan is. What the resources we need, in that sense, to be able to complete the plan and have them buy into the whole plan. [00:56:24] Yeah. [00:56:24] We don't have to give them the details, but they will then say, yes, not only we will give you the money, but we support the plan and the timeline that you put in place. So we can talk about our timeline, right? And we can come to make sure, because I think, again, Commissioner Amos brings up a point. He's talking about how you manage risk, right? And risk management is important. We come up to something that we agree with, and then we let it- we give it to them, and then they- they bless us, so they don't. But at least we're- we're real and we understand where they are, [00:57:00] and they understand where we're at. [00:57:02] And back to your point, you're worried about how do we make sure we're getting into the community, right? Is that what I'm hearing you say? [00:57:09] No. No, not really that way. [00:57:10] Okay. [00:57:10] That is not really. We are working on the budget the 250. [00:57:14] That's our- yeah, we won't get it very quickly, but I'm worried about being delayed. [00:57:20] Being delayed. [00:57:21] Because we- we- we just told them, give us 250,000. [00:57:26] Yeah. [00:57:27] That's not- I don't think it works like that. I'll go and I think I agree with the commissioners for having said that, just a general itemization, not really detailed because we don't have the details as such, but just- just something to had to- so that they can read something and say, well, you need 50,000 for this housing area. And what- what is that 50,000 going to go for? And this and this up to the point where we are about 250,000 that commissioner suggest. And that's- that's really what I wanted at. I think we're going round round, right? [00:58:00] It's not a complex thing. [00:58:01] Yeah. [00:58:03] The other details. Now we're going to do that, whether it is one presentation, consultants there. I think those details will work ourselves based on what we think is efficient. Yeah. So I would just propose that we- we- if we wanna vote, we can vote. We are supposed to be voting sometimes, what we tend to agree on whether to itemize a few things that we need for the whole plan for the 250. So that- something that makes it quicker to get the 250. And then we see- [00:58:40] We go ahead. I say with respect to quicker, I want to bring this issue up again. I don't know if there's any way to solve it. But if we meet every two weeks, never gets done. I mean, we have to figure out some way to- to work offline on some of these pieces. [00:59:00] So I just suggest that if it's someone is gonna work to draft, you know, the job description, someone is gonna do a little bit of work on how much would it really cost to bring in the speakers that we would want, the number of times we'd want them. Just really rough, but just so that at the next meeting, we can each point to each other and say, okay, what did- you were gonna do this, and you were gonna do this, and we can be ready for that next meeting. [00:59:26] Yeah, I agree we should delegate. I wanted to real quick ask, uh, Councilwoman Burgess, if you have any advice on how we approached this topic with city council. [00:59:41] I can't speak for my colleagues, of course. I can speak for myself and my experience on counsel, I do think that scoping a position for someone who is dedicated to assist you in your work now that you have the template, now that you have the vehicle. Uh, I- to me, sounds like a very [01:00:00] reasonable step that would be relatively easy to articulate and could be pulled together quickly. I think if it were a part time position that was being added, um, like, that wouldn't have to go through an RFP. I think it depends on the position, maybe if it goes to counsel even. Not sure. Um, but I think that's- that's something that feels like something everyone could get their hands around pretty easily and quickly. Um, and then the question of, you know, having the resources available for the work that needs to be done when you have that support, I think is a different question. I, you know, was on the council for the entirety of the tenure of the commission, and I- I have some hesitation as to- it's a different council now, but I- I have some hesitation as to the council's capacity or willingness to, um, to approve a sum of that size without a real articulated kind of what it would be spent [01:01:00] on. And I think you- you all have seen that and know that history as well. But I- I do carry that concern. [01:01:08] Thank you. Commissioner Mart or Johnson, do you have anything that you'd like to add? Love your opinions? [01:01:23] I'm thinking about that right now. [01:01:40] Okay. So one we're thinking of a personnel, staff, whatever dedicated person. Then there's the portion of- [01:02:00] So if we've this- if we get this person approved, that this person is going to be the one that's going to coordinate contacting the whoever entities to come- [01:02:14] I visualize a project manager, event logistics person. I also envision a second person that is a writer because those seem like two different jobs, but we can negotiate that. [01:02:30] The- the writer portion though, um, doesn't have to be right now, that writer person can come in a month in or a little bit later, correct? Cause stuff has to happen first before we can start writing it up. [01:02:45] I mean, I don't know. A writer could take our history and write a lot already. I feel like they could start writing right now. They could start writing yesterday. [01:02:54] I mean, we already have stuff that's sort of in writing. [01:02:57] So then- so we- it would be great to have [01:03:00] someone that can digest this for us and take from this and everything else and- and put it together. [01:03:06] Right. But- but if you have somebody who is a dedicated writer. And that's all that they're gonna be doing. They can come in at- in July. [01:03:17] Oh, that's okay, July. [01:03:18] Okay. [01:03:18] So sure. [01:03:19] We- we need the staff dedicated person to work first. The writing portion can be picked up later. I'm- I remember in college doing all nighters and that kind of- the writing person can come in July to start that whatever. But- but we're- but we're still talking about- so if we're thinking the month- the month of June to be a month, we're going to be diving into- it sounds like housing is the one that we really should be talking about one of the topics. I'm just thinking about, again, you know, the type of money that we're talking about, what we need for things to happen in June. [01:04:00] So we're talking about bringing X person to talk, correct? That one of the things we're talking about? Which one thing we said could happen at one of our meetings, which is something that so it doesn't involve necessarily somebody flying to be here, whatever else they can be zoomed, or if they're local, which we should tap into those people. Making sure that they can be here at those dates that are already on the calendar. Where do you know what dates those are? I'm just still trying to figure out what parts of activities that we need to have to happen to think about how much money we're talking about. So I say, personnel is the first one. That's a big chunk or else was a big chunk. [01:04:48] Anything related to documentaries last truth telling, anything for childcare, for any community events, plus community events expenses that we may or [01:05:00] may not do. [01:05:01] So again, we talk about- ever talking about the truth telling, listening posts, events, whatever else? Um, and one that we did talk about going to places like to churches, go to where they're already having their own events, and we go in there. So again, that's a scheduling thing that a person who we have as a personnel would be in charge of scheduling that- [01:05:28] I mean, a personnel this staff member could also help coordinate if we wanted volunteers or other people that wanted to be in like, they could go in and reach out to specific people, help us connect to them that type of thing daily. [01:05:44] So that we're talking about- that's the time part that we're buying into. Um, I would think having, um, one or two commissioners [01:06:00] being at least a point of contact to help co- work with that person, would be something that's happening outside of the- our normal meetings. We have to have some kind of work happening there. So people who- so have a commissioner or commissioners say, yes, I can be part of that task group for that. [01:06:23] I mean, this would be our point of conduct. This person could travel if we are all meeting in separate groups outside of this, this person could be the one person that can travel each one and fill us in, without us having to wait for these meetings. [01:06:34] Exactly. Um, what other kind of activities are -that I'm missing that we need to think about the money dedicated for? [01:06:48] Well, I think there was also if we're gonna get domain experts to come in, there's gonna be some money for that. You know, to talk to us in these different areas. So. [01:07:00] And also again, when we presented it. Um- [01:07:04] In January? [01:07:04] In November. [01:07:05] Uh, was it Nov- whatever. [01:07:07] In November we presented the projects, you know, that were around up to around $150,000. So my thought is - is that we still work on projects that are community-solving problems. Um, that- so I -I would have that. [01:07:26] So there's- the 250,000, there's a portion of it is the community project that we already talked about, whatever else. [01:07:37] Yeah, I think it's whatever the - the commission decides. But this is - let me - let me throw this out. When we did the presentation, right, the way we did the presentation we put it together. We had discussions among several of us. The presentation was sent out to everybody, and then people had the ability to provide feedback. Why don't we do this something that's very similar to that as far as to come up with [01:08:00] what the master plan is? I will- I will volunteer to put a plan together, send it out to everyone to review it, um, and then we can work with the chair to make changes or adjustments and in essence needs to be made. So then we can then agree that there is this plan and the reason you want that plan is that you wanna be able to present that plan to the commission - to the city council to say, this is what our plan is for this period of time and we can then talk about how we want the money split up and I'll split up the money, and we can make adjustments and changes to how we want the money split. Right? Specific enough so they understand what we're trying to do with it, but not so specific that it ties us into any given one project? [01:08:41] Correct. [01:08:42] Right. We don't have to have our meetings and do it in June, August and, I mean July and August and September. If we wanted to, we could say, we're gonna meet on the - we're gonna meet on Thursdays, all of August. We're gonna do all the work in advance for the next two months, get all of our stuff together. [01:09:00] We can even say, in some cases, that we're gonna go and videotape questions or stuff for these - these people so that then we can send - so everyone can see it, right? Everyone can see the response. They don't have to come here, and they can see the response and then we can make a determination if there's any additional people, or we want them to come back because it's something that we wanna have explained. So that's what - that's what I'm offering. I'd be more than willing to put something together for the team to then- how to make changes and adjustments to- for the purpose of using it to share with the city council. [01:09:37] I think a vigil would be nice to do - to look at that. [01:09:43] So you're saying that um, if you have time, you'd be able to make it like in the next week, and then we can look at it before our next meeting because I don't know when we're scheduled to. [01:09:54] The 16th is the next meeting. [01:09:56] So next Tuesday is the first city council meeting. Right. [01:09:58] Yeah. [01:09:59] And then- [01:10:00] and then, I think it's the - it's the third Tuesday? Right. So my assumption is - is that you're gonna wanna present it at the third city council meeting? [01:10:08] Yes and I was actually wondering if we're on that agenda if it's been requested for us to be on that one. [01:10:16] Or 3rd. [01:10:17] The 3rd. [01:10:18] The third for city council? [01:10:20] The third - the 16th or whatever the date it is. [01:10:24] 16th is our next meet - is our next meeting. [01:10:27] Okay. No this coming city council meeting, but the one after. [01:10:31] So, the one after hasn't been - the agenda has not been prepared. [01:10:36] Okay. So when do we have to ask. [01:10:39] So if you wanna - to be on that one, you- you don't have to be based on the con- contract. So this- this would be- this would be a new meeting for them. So the- the city council is not expecting to - to have another meeting with the TRC um, unless the TRC wants to, obviously, that will be made possible. So [01:11:00] there's no expectation that the TRC is gonna be coming back immediately or whatever. [01:11:06] But there- there is a meeting because we have to get them to say yes or no to the money that we requested four months ago? [01:11:12] Yeah, that would be a whole separate thing, right? I- I don't know if you were talking about the contracts because once the final report, it goes to the council. [01:11:21] We're talking about. [01:11:22] We're talking about- we're talking about the money. [01:11:24] So the money that's- yeah, how you wanna go about that request, you can get on the agenda. It will have to be the earliest would have to be the - the one after next I think. [01:11:35] The 21st. [01:11:36] Right. So that's what we're asking if you would put it on that agenda. [01:11:39] Oh, we can - we can - I can certainly let them. You know, you like to be on that agenda, yes. [01:11:44] Yeah. [01:11:49] So, to answer your question, yes, I'm okay with you doing that. I'm happy that you're volunteering. Thank you very much, and I do have some ideas. So I'll just send them your way and you [01:12:00] can incorporate them. However, makes sense? [01:12:03] You can send them my way or you can wait till I send them your way and then make adjustments and changes. I'm totally fine with either way. My - my goal, just like with a presentation is just to get it started and then allow the input to happen as it normally does. But it would allow us to be able to communicate with each other without having to have a meeting. And it would allow us to get ready for- we're gonna be in a unique situation this month that our meeting, if we choose to have a meeting on the third Thursday, is before the third Tuesday meeting for the city council. [01:12:39] Yes. Uh, so I think that's a good plan, but we should still discuss. So we make sure we're all on the same page. I think we've thrown some ideas out there. I think we've all agreed to having an expert come. Um, maybe that's one every month of - for four months. It's kind of - if we decide to do those four other areas, [01:13:00] um, I would suggest maybe we would focus on maybe select one or two more of the- the topics and maybe keep the law enforcement one because I think there's still areas, or I don't know. I think we should just really discuss if it's too much to bite off at one time. [01:13:21] I think since there's still more that we need to do with the police one, especially if we're talking about some reconciliation, some policy changes, how the police, you know, how they work and try to figure out a solution. There's still work that needs to be done there. But I do think the housing one would be a good second one for us to be working on, and knowing that the other things are if we - if the time fits, or also is gonna say, this is an example of what still needs to be done after December. I mean. [01:13:59] I mean, I- [01:14:00] I kind of like the idea of having opportunities to have multiple, like, experts come and not having to do it on just one date, or, like, if something happens, we can't all meet or something. So it just gives us a little bit more leeway, and we can alternate. So we're not feeling so. [01:14:17] The- the way I like to put things together is I don't like to block us in about the specific date. Nor do I wanna make - wanna make a commitment to the city council about the specific day we're gonna do so. [01:14:28] Yeah. [01:14:28] What I just wanna make a commitment is is that we're gonna do stuff, and we're gonna plan it accordingly based on people's schedules to make sure that it best fits our schedule. So whether we chose to do it on a month or we said, we're gonna do it all in August and do all the prep work in advance. We - we want the freedom and flexibility to do that. We just want them to know we have a master plan and this is an opportunity for them to support it or for them to kill it. And I - my feeling I'm gonna tell them this, you know, because I remember having a conversation with the - with [01:15:00] the Cedar Rapids Police chief, and we're talking about what's happening in Missouri and I - I was telling them. I said, look, man, if you not - you have to understand this is a bigger issue than just what's happening, you know, in Missouri and if you don't get to resolve this issue, if you don't figure out how to fix this, it's gonna happen here. And what happened? Exact same thing that happened in Cedar Rapids. And that's - that is what I'm gonna tell ultimately, city council. It is the same thing. People have expressed that there's a problem. They're looking for solutions. You all gave it to us to solve, which, in many cases, was just mean spirited. But let's just say that part of it, that they really was hoping for us to solve it. Then when you have to - when you do anything around innovation, you have to understand that things are gonna happen. So you can kill it. City council, you have every right. This is your - your can figure out - you can figure out this money, you can figure out you wanna do something different, but this is gonna come up again, and it's not gonna be as nice next time, [01:16:00] because there is no one - there is one will believe in you as an institution to be able to solve their problems. So you have to remember, you're not really dealing with us as a "commission", you're dealing with us as a community, with the community. We came in there to help you. You don't wanna help us help solve our problems, then that's fine, but that's on you. And that's to me the thing that we have to really get them to understand and be accepting whatever decision that if they believe that this was just something that happened in the past. They- they believe that if that's true, then I'm like, okay, then it's - it's on you. But when it comes up again, and it will, it won't be as nice, because people are now shifting to the point of, you know- [LAUGHTER] you know, you start doing stuff that is not in my best interest. I'm gonna start doing stuff that's not in your best interest. And that's where- that's where they have to understand that the fire is still burning, just because nothing specifically has happened today doesn't mean [01:17:00] that there's not a problem. And- and you can see that, again, the whole issue that's happening in the- in the institutions as a right now, you know, whether it's in Columbia or UCLA. You know, people are saying there's a problem, but they've always said there's a problem. They're just not dealing with it anymore. So I'm just saying I feel good if we- I think that they held onto it because they wanted to see a wait and see to see what we're gonna do. I think if we all come up with an agreement with a plan, we present that plan. We tell them what we wanna do, then they have to be in a situation. [01:17:37] Yes or no. [01:17:37] Yes or no. I mean, we know- we know and it's either my words, No, Laura. We know she loves us. Right? And she loves the work that we're doing. We know that. [LAUGHTER] Right? But we also know that she's not the only one that's on that- that commission. But I listened. I was listening to when you all were doing the presentation and some of the questions was [01:18:00] that they clearly don't understand what we're doing. So I just wanna present and then we then - then have to make a decision based on all of the information that we have. [01:18:17] I have a - just a quick suggestion about the areas of interest. What about if we just prioritize them? So we just say social justice, we're definitely doing that. We've done all work with the police. We're gonna keep that. Then we pick - we say affordable housing is second, economic development, third, education fourth. And if we're successful as we're moving through, we will pick up that other one. But that can be part of the plan. Right? I mean we don't have to commit to all four. We don't have to just commit to. We can say this is how we prioritized it. [01:18:49] I think that's - that's a good idea. I think- what I was thinking was two different things. Like, you're thinking about pre- present. Why I can't speak [01:19:00] right now. Presenting to city council, and I'm thinking both. I'm thinking about having our plan, which is very detailed and- and presenting. But you're- you're saying we need to show - we need to, like, kind of share our vision. [01:19:17] Share, this is what - this is we have. What? Seven months left? Here's the seven months, and that's how we wanna spend our seven months. This is what we need in that's sense to be able to spend it so that we can get stuff done. I don't- personally, I don't even think we need to have two meetings every month. I don't think we need to even do that. I do think that the meetings that we have, they have to be extremely impactful. They have to be like, oh, wow. I got to think about this. [LAUGHTER] Right? I need to go home, and I need to think about what just happened to us. Right? What information we got. I do think that, but I think that we owe it to them to say, this is what we wanna do when they owe it to us to tell us whether they're gonna support us or not. [01:20:00] Okay. [01:20:01] [inaudible 01:20:01] I just wanna make sure that I'm clear. You were talking of two issues here, presentation about the budget, request for the money, and also talking about report on what we have done and our plans. These are two things we have to be very clear. Do you want this on one day with the - with the meeting or you want this separately. We have to be very clear about this. [01:20:23] So I was talking about the presentation and what we're doing moving forward. We've already given them our report of what's happened. That's what we did a couple of weeks ago. But I was thinking about our plan, like, detailed, what are we doing June, July, August, September through the end of the year. Yeah versus what we're gonna present, how specific we're gonna be at the presentations the city council. I think that's what we're talking about right now. [01:20:55] Yeah, I'm still confused. We are presenting a plan or- [01:21:00] you remember, you promised the- the city council that you're gonna give them some details on where- what we've done and a few other things and a plan on the next course. Yeah. So those- are you still gonna thinking of- still thinking of [inaudible 01:21:15]. [01:21:15] We. [01:21:19] Not me. But ah, I think that's what we're discussing right now. How like, detailed do we need to be when presenting to the city council? So if you have an opinion that's different, please share it. I think the opinion I have you promised, we promised- we promised the Commission promised the council that we'll give them a detailed kind of performance appraisal on what we've done. I know that is. [01:21:46] Well, not um. [01:21:47] Part- part of it is. [01:21:48] A performance appraisal or um, a plan of what we'll do moving forward, cause I don't agree that we promise that we'd give them a performance appraisal because we already did that last month. [01:22:00] And we said that we were going to come back and share with them what we want to do moving forward so we can ask for more money. [01:22:08] Okay. Yeah. [01:22:09] Yeah. [01:22:10] That's what the- the Part 3 and Part 4 is talking about. [01:22:14] Come back. [01:22:15] I'm doing with the remainder of our time. [01:22:17] Mm. [01:22:18] Okay, so we're just going for one thing, which is the plan only and with the budget. [01:22:24] Yes, plan in the budget, because we already, um, talked about the past. We've already fulfilled that. [01:22:29] Because we need the- we need the money, the budget to be able to do what we want to do for the next. [01:22:36] Seven months. [01:22:36] Seven months. So it's- [01:22:38] But it was your understanding, um, Commissioner Kit that we're going to talk more about? [01:22:42] Yes. That is how I got it, and I might have been wrong because, you see we had, we faced a lot of dilemma in terms of questions because we were not even telling them how many meetings we have had. We could just say 100 people. [01:23:00] And ah, you- you did your best as our leaders at that moment because we had just a few days to do that. And I thought we followed Commissioner Chad's strategy. Do not give them too much to achieve because we could have been in trouble. And we had some recommendations from a draft report from the facilitators that gave us a lot of data on the number of meetings we have had, the accomplishments. I think the city sometimes care about data to justify things. The data was in here, but we didn't have time to look at them. You know, for example, on March 20, all the things that we did. [01:23:44] Yeah. [01:23:44] They were in here. I thought that. [01:23:47] So- [01:23:47] Those are the things probably in our next round with them, we could include that. Then we finalized with the request for the budget, for the- for the- money, with the plan. [01:23:59] I mean, I don't see why [01:24:00] we couldn't, ah, incorporate some of those pieces to justify why we need, ah, to move forward, but they also received the final report, which has all of that information, ah, this week. So they should have all that information. [01:24:12] City Council hasn't. [01:24:14] They haven't received it. [01:24:15] City council, no. The process is that the Commission, um, needs to review and have whatever feedback, and then it goes to the City Council. [01:24:23] Oh, I'm sorry, misspoke. Thank you for the action. [01:24:26] Yeah. [01:24:26] I don't- I don't think they have that, and if they the report we got from them still does not even have their own data that they gave us preliminary. I think they forgot somewhere. And some of the things that we talked about is kind of missing. And something I want, you said we we'll talk about- [01:24:45] You talk about here? [01:24:45] Yes. [01:24:46] Okay. [01:24:46] That we'll talk about in the next meeting. Yeah. [01:24:48] Yes. [01:24:48] I no I'm getting out of line a little bit. Yeah, but, so- so the issue, one of the issue I'm having is whether we are [01:25:00] going to give them a detailed report on what we've done as, but I'm being convinced, and I'll trust that I'm the one who didn't hear that properly. [01:25:12] I mean, I think we can do both. We can- we can push and share our vision as passionately as Commissioner Simmons was and talk about everything that we've done in more detail with data and numbers, but really push the vision of why we need to do this and why we need to move forward and what we need from the city to move forward to complete the mission that they gave us. So I don't think you're wrong, ah, in that interpretation. I- I don't know. It's definitely not my plan in at this point, I think our plan to do, like, a slide show presentation of everything we did in the last, like, four months, ah, because we already did that. [01:25:52] Just needs to be cleaned up a little. [01:25:54] And then we can give them a little bit more information, though. [01:25:59] So [01:26:00] if I could offer, if I'm following the- the discussion, ah, on the, ah, city council meeting after next, um, there's a presentation about your future steps, or future path, whatever that looks like, that could be a presentation. It probably will not um, be a- a vote or action item that is a funding request at that particular point. [01:26:30] Why not? [01:26:31] No, why not? [01:26:32] Well, because it takes- there's a protocol to get on the agenda. It takes two city council members typically to get on that agenda. And that is exactly why I didn't move before. So they have what they call an information packet that the city council gets, which shows your minutes and any requests. So that request that you had with the 250 was presented, um, but the council didn't pick it up. [01:27:00] So there's a process. [01:27:02] Are you asking, are you telling us that we need two city council people to support it being brought up? [01:27:10] Supported to be, yes. And do you don't need that to be a presentation. So you can get on- the city manager can get you on as a presentation, but it won't be a action item where the council will actually be taking a vote. [01:27:25] And when does- when is it that the city must know that they have two people that want it to be brought up? When is it that we need to- and we need to make a request that at least two- at least two city council, ah, members would bring up the issue of the funding so that it can be decided on the same day that we do the presentation. How- how soon do they have to let us know? [01:27:56] So every Thursday, there's an information packet that goes out. [01:28:00] The city council will see this discussion, and they'll see if you want request to be made, that can be in a memo or whatever, they'll see that. It's up to them if they- they want to put that on the agenda. [01:28:13] No. I told them-. [01:28:14] So every opportunity every week, they'll see, they'll have an opportunity to say, hey, we want this on the next agenda. [01:28:19] I understand the page. So I think what I'm hearing you say to us is that every Thursday, they will- they will get a packet. [01:28:29] Right. [01:28:30] When is it that they have to then request that it is on the agenda for the vote? [01:28:38] I think that timeline depends, ah, but I would say that the city clerk likes to have that information in if it's going to be on the next city council meeting. And again, it depends on when that next city council meeting is. So whenever that rotation is coming up and that memo and has that interest and that it has been expressed to the city manager and [01:29:00] that's been expressed to the city clerk, and that gets on the agenda, right? So that happens usually the Friday before the city council. [01:29:08] You stand- you- when you hear yourself, you understand how difficult it is. [01:29:12] And you're asking- you're asking hypotheticals that are. [01:29:15] No, it's not a hypothetical. That was a real question. [01:29:17] Well, it's a question that we already went through the process once, right? [01:29:21] No. [01:29:22] You already had made a vote from the Commission to 4-250. [01:29:26] No, no, no. [01:29:26] And there was a memo that was accompanying, right? [01:29:28] Yes. [01:29:29] But went city council. [01:29:31] Yeah. But the point that I'm trying to make is is that what you're saying, and again, I could ask the city council. I don't want to put her in the situation. But what you're asking- what you're telling us is is that a couple of city council members have to say that it's going to be up for discussion. So let me just be real with you. That means that we need to have conversations with city council members to get them to vote and say that when we give them this presentation that they vote. And my question to you is, is [01:30:00] that when is it that they have to tell someone to make sure that it is on the agenda for there to be a vote. [01:30:08] Because next Thursday the 9th is the next information. [01:30:13] Right. [01:30:14] Packet date. Okay. So on the 9th, they're going to see this and whatever knowing what we are going to request. So on the 9th, potentially two Council members can say, we want to have this on the next available meeting, which technically that Friday, that information can be given to is it the city clerk, or whatever else, to be on - [01:30:42] So it is back. So it would be the Thursday. [01:30:47] The 9th is the next information packet meeting. You said- you said they meet every Thursday. [01:30:54] Right. [01:30:54] So the night. So- [01:30:55] Right. [01:30:56] And that's all based on if you have the support to [01:31:00] make the request. [01:31:01] You say the support has to be at least two. [01:31:03] That is correct. That's the program. If two people, regardless if everyone doesn't want it, but if two people say yes, then it has to be voted on. [01:31:12] It has to be on the agenda. [01:31:15] Yeah. [01:31:15] So the next agenda- so the next agenda available is the 21st, May 21. That would be the next meeting. [01:31:23] Order in front of me. So the dates are. [01:31:25] I'll just give you the process. [01:31:27] Okay, but that would be the next, that would be the next meeting because the next meeting after that information packet meeting. [01:31:37] And it's always the Thursday before the meeting happens, right? [01:31:40] Every Thursday comes out, even the Thursday of the off week. [01:31:44] Right. Technically. [01:31:45] To shots at. [01:31:46] So every Thursday. [01:31:47] Okay. [01:31:48] Yeah, we have two Thursdays in the sense for the information thing. But the 9th is at the very next information packet meeting day, the next council meeting after that isn't [01:32:00] going to be until the 21st, which is a week and a half. I'm sorry? [01:32:07] Sorry. So there's two Thursdays. [01:32:09] Yeah, there's two Thursday, but if they decide best case scenario that at the next information meeting on Thursday the 9th, that they say there's two council members and say, yes, we want to put this on the agenda. That next meeting isn't until May 21st. [01:32:25] Right. [01:32:26] So, Council Member Burgess, if you can you tell us, you keep putting that up. [01:32:33] So based on the rules that the council has adopted, it takes at least three counselors to put something on the agenda or the Mayor. So on Wednesdays, before the packet is assembled, the Mayor, Mayor Po Tem and City Manager meet to decide what's on the agenda. So I think it answered your question. It could be any time, but whoever said we should be having conversations with counselors, 100%. Getting buy in before anything would come before us or not [01:33:00] buy in. Getting an understanding, as Commissioner Simmons said, the meeting where you made the presentation. Some of those questions from my colleagues did suggest that they haven't been tracking very closely what's been happening with the Commission. So I think any way to provide them with information in a one on one setting so we can ask questions and, you know, really understand what's happening is way more effective than trying to force something to a vote in my opinion, personally as one counselor. [01:33:32] Thank you. I, um, I'm struggling a little bit, because um, until that information was given to us, we might have gone to this meeting, thinking that we would, um, be able to have a vote. But without- without that knowledge. [01:33:50] Politics over law. [01:33:52] Yes. [01:33:52] So I need more help in, um, understanding things. When we don't know things and we're talking about [01:34:00] things, it'd be really appreciated if we're given that information Right away, because we've been told this is the purpose of us going to the meeting is to get a vote. So it would be a waste of our time to go to this meeting without getting that vote. [01:34:14] So, again, Laura's one of my favorites. So I just like her. I just love her spirit. And she's absolutely right. Politically, you don't ask something for someone until you're going to get the yes that you want. You don't ask for the vote until you make sure you got the vote. What- what technically we should do is we should go, and we should talk to and testing 1, 2, 3, we should talk to every city council person and say, this is what we need, and this is why we need it. Now, we should do that. That's what we should do, and we should convince them that they should say yes. [01:34:47] Now, that politics. [01:34:49] But we first need to be in agreement with ourselves, what are we going to the council members and saying? [01:34:56] Right. [01:34:56] So make sure we have our message. [01:34:58] Make sure we have our message together. But that's the politics [01:35:00] of it. But if you speak of it without the politics, I just- I just want them to make a decision. I don't mind that they make a decision of no. I think that they're going to pay for it. I think they want to pay for it seriously. But what they're doing is they're making us pay for it. They're making us go to meetings every two weeks. For us to have meetings and not have the resources. Now we're here. But we knew we were going to be here. [01:35:24] That's why we asked for the resources early. And they knew we were going to be here, and that's why they didn't give us the resources. I believe that it is their nature, okay? Dogs bite, it's their nature. I have no problem with that. It is their nature to do it from a political perspective, because they can always say, we're doing this because it is a city, it is community money, and we're trying to be fiscally responsible. I don't doubt that. I think we should go and talk to them if you want to play the politics of it [01:36:00] and everyone should have conversations with these folks. And I think we should get our way to yes. But I personally feel if even if you get your way to know, they're telling us who they are, and I'm not wasting my time with people who aren't as committed to us trying to help them solve a problem than they are. It's their problem. It's not my problem. It's their problem. And they agree to it being their problem when they ran for office. So that's what my suggestion is, if we want to play the politics, we should just talk to each one. [01:36:35] Mm. [01:36:36] So, that makes sense. I was thinking that before you well, while you're talking about it. [01:36:41] Before I jumped in. [01:36:42] No. [01:36:44] I wasn't seeing it like that. [01:36:46] I know you were for that. [01:36:47] [LAUGHTER] Um, I guess my question is, uh, and not everyone has to do this, but who is interested in having conversations? Because then we can decide to divide and conquer. I think, pairs, [01:37:00] or if anyone's comfortable doing one on one, um, works out, but not everyone has to have conversations. I think it's good for the city council to hear from all of us. I don't think all of them have. So that could be a good experience in different perspectives. I do agree, Lauren said we need to be on the same page, but I think we have our vision. It almost feels like all the things we want to do. We can't move forward until we have these conversations to see if it's even possible. That's kind of what I'm gathering right now. [01:37:37] So I wanna- what we're talking about- what you're going to get together? I want that we're gonna need to have when we sit down with the council members. Second thing I want to say is, I'm going to be out of the country the second half of this month. [01:37:52] Yeah. [01:37:53] So I'm- so there's very limited time that I have. I will try to do as much as I can. [01:38:00] And also, our- our next meeting is my birthday, which I probably am not gonna be here for. So I just want to get that out there. But other times of the week. Um, I will be available if I need to meet up with a council member with somebody, I can coordinate my schedule that way to sort like get that out there. [01:38:23] Are we able to get them in a Zoom meeting and kind of talk to them as a group or anything to make it easier. [01:38:28] All of us? Can't be or. [01:38:31] Not all of us. [01:38:33] I mean, I think this is probably in person meetings, but we can always. And we can talk to each of them multiple times. I mean, we don't. Yeah, Zoom and in person. I can, you know, annoy the crap out of them. [01:38:47] So something that's just convenient, easy. And I mean, I was just make it easier for us to speak with him fast. [01:38:54] I mean, I've spoken with obviously Laura, but I've spoken with Josh. I've spoken [01:39:00] with Mazer. Spoken with the mayor on other things in the past. I'm perfectly willing to talk to those three and put in a phone call, see if they'll return the phone call to talk to them. [01:39:11] Yeah, I think- I think as we're going through what our next steps are, is this our first step is these two items. If you, Commissioner Simmons can still create the plan that you were talking about. And then we need to schedule, like, meetings. I will reach out to the people on city council that I know personally. If anyone else has, um, connections might be looking at you. That they feel are stronger, and then we can just, you know, work it out from there. We can look at Zoom options as well, and in person. I mean, we have two weeks. So if we get delayed, then we get delayed, and it's not our fault that we're getting delayed. We're playing politics. [01:39:58] I'll try to reach out to [01:40:00] the mayor speak with them. [01:40:05] You keep smiling at me. I don't know what you're saying. [01:40:07] You're a wonderful job. That's what I'm smiling. [01:40:09] [LAUGHTER] I always. [01:40:11] I'm feeling uncomfortable, but I could be wrong. [LAUGHTER] What it means. I smile, I don't say. [01:40:18] Um, I don't- I mean- I think if we have more to talk about, we can. I feel like, uh, I don't want to dismiss what commissioner Kiche was saying. I think everything you were talking about was very valuable. So we'll definitely move forward on that- on making sure that when we're making that presentation. We're giving the background information that we missed the last time and have a good enough plan moving forward. I do want to give you Commissioner Johnson an opportunity to speak more since- if you want to. [01:40:50] Right now, like I said, I'm taking things in. [01:40:52] Okay. [01:40:54] I have some thoughts and ideas that are brewing, so we'll get there. I have some ideas. [01:41:00] [01:41:01] Is there more that we need to talk about in this, or do we kind of have some action plans? [01:41:06] So my goal is to develop a template. And then to send it out for people to then examine and have conversations about the template or make adjustments or changes that you believe that should happen. I'm trying to keep it vague enough for the communication to the city council so that we're not blocked into doing something. We said we were going to do it on Wednesday. We didn't do it on Wednesday, we're out of- out of align with our program. So nothing else we say will be believable. That would be an example. I don't want them to be able to say something of that nature. So that's the goal is to help them understand what the framework is and the general timeline of when it's going to happen. So don't take into consideration that I'm saying if I say something that's going to happen this summer. Doesn't mean that I'm saying that it's going to be in June, It could be in August, it could be in July. We have the flexibility [01:42:00] to choose the time. And then we can get more specific in kind of the overall plan, but I'll put something together to address our issue, and then you can make modifications to it, and you will have it by Tuesday. [01:42:15] Okay, thank you. I was going to ask that question. And will you send it to Stefanie so she can send it to all of us because that's what you have to do for Corum. [01:42:23] Yes. So first, what I do is I- I send it to my chair. [01:42:27] Yes. [01:42:28] But my vice chair. And then after they give me permission, then- then I support it being sent out. [01:42:35] Speed up the process. Just, I'm okay with you sending it to everyone. [01:42:38] Just go rogue and just go directly. [01:42:41] It's not rogue, [LAUGHTER] but send it to all of us so that we can, you know, speed it up just a little bit. [01:42:47] Then I'll do that. [01:42:48] Thank you. [01:42:49] I would mean that we would then by- we will still have to if I'm not mistaken. We would have to send that presentation to them. [01:43:00] [01:43:01] The Thursday before, right or is it the Monday before? [01:43:04] We're talking I guess I'm using the 21st date. Yeah. So to be the Friday before that Tuesday meeting. [01:43:15] Meeting, and then after our meeting, then we can then submit it. [01:43:19] Right. So if you're able to give it to us next Tuesday, and I'll just bring up actual dates real quick. Next Tuesday is the 7th. If people are able to give feedback by the 13th, which is that following Monday, having conversations in between with each other, I'll try to make it a point to reach out to people probably in groups. [01:43:44] Then we finalized on the 16th. [01:43:47] Then we can- yes then we'll finalize on the 16th. [01:43:49] And then we submit on the 17th. [01:43:52] But like. [01:43:52] Present on the 21st. [01:43:55] So that is the plan. And then on the meantime- in the meantime, [01:44:00] we're working on communicating and sharing our vision with city council. And we can talk offline a little bit more individually if people have thoughts on what that means. Moving forward. [01:44:16] I think just a question. Commissioner Snary proposed that we make a decision on prioritizing this because of the problem of time. And we didn't I believe we did not reach an agreement on that. I'm wondering if we can complete that process to help Commissioner Chad in his template so that if he doesn't have to worry about any of these items that we don't want right here. Can we make that today? [01:44:51] Yeah, um, I was hearing that a lot of housing seems to be the next one that people are thinking. [01:45:00] If that is not true for you, speak now. Do you think that something should be more of a priority than housing? [01:45:07] I believe housing would be the next one. [01:45:11] Okay. [01:45:11] And then I'm thinking of small business. [01:45:16] So I think the priorities are the area of interest, not the community projects. [01:45:21] Well, yeah, I mean, just okay. [01:45:24] No, I think he's still- he's talking about- no he's talking about talking about economic development. [01:45:29] Economic development. [01:45:30] Yeah. [01:45:30] And that's what you're saying in small business? [01:45:33] Yes. So I would- me I would start with housing, small business, and then education. If we have to eliminate one. [01:45:43] I will say I'm partial to education, but I think we- we have a lot to work with so. [01:45:49] Well, think about with education, because of what was just notified in the notification this week, you know, talking about how much their budget has been cut. There's going to be so much change [01:46:00] going on that they probably need to figure out before we can even dive into much. I think we can pay attention to what's going on in the news with them and what's going on. But I think our involvement probably will be a little bit later with the education just because of I don't even know what it's going to look like in a few months. [01:46:22] So priority is affordable housing, economic development and education. Are we still doing public safety? [01:46:30] Yeah, I thought public safety- I'm sorry I thought public safety was falling under like social justice. [01:46:33] Is that what social justice is. [01:46:35] That's what I'm thinking. [01:46:36] Okay. I missed that part. [01:46:38] [LAUGHTER] So I was thinking that because we've done a lot of work on that already. That's number 1. We're going to continue with that. Then affordable housing, we think we have enough bandwidth, we can cover that. Maybe there's enough to go to economic development, but we'll find out to try to give more flexibility to the plan. We'll find that out as we go along. And if we're really cruising along, everything's great, [01:47:00] then we would finally turn to do something with education. [01:47:02] Okay. I'm actually also supposed to be meeting with the police chief, probably. We're trying to coordinate schedules, so within the next couple of weeks. So that's also happening. [01:47:14] Great. So we have made our priorities. I mean, on the list. We got that. In the spirit of delegation, we did talk about what can- what- what will everyone else do? We have our tasks of the plan of reaching out to city council. If there's any other things, I know I'm just going to bring up what you sent me in an e-mail, Commissioner Tasiner, about, like, a possible viewing of a movie or something, a documentary. There's those type of connections or we talked previously about going to churches. Those connections, um, I think it makes sense that we start building upon those and have, some- something to bring back to talk about at [01:48:00] our next meeting. If you reach out to those people, see what those connections can look like and how they can fit in the plan that Commissioner Simmons is going to be putting together so that we're not coming back talking about, well, we should do this. But what we already know what we need to do to move forward in doing that. Does that make sense? [01:48:19] Yeah, that makes good sense. And we probably can do this, you know, after the meeting, whatever, but I want to make sure that we have identified who is talking to which council member so that every one of them is. We know exactly who's contacting them, so that nobody's missed. [01:48:38] Um, I don't know how to divide that right now. [01:48:41] No, We do it afterwards. Not now. [01:48:43] Okay. Afterwards. Yeah. We'll make sure that's-that's very clear. Um, are there any other action items for this agenda item, or does anyone else have any other thoughts or concerns that they'd like to voice right now? [01:49:00] I just want to make sure on May 21st, we're looking to have presentation, funding requests, and the final report submitted to counsel. That's final report. Yeah. [01:49:17] Thank you for bringing that back to my attention. Do we think that we have enough time to look through this report and discuss it by next meeting? [01:49:25] I think so. [01:49:25] Yes, it should be. [01:49:27] I do think we have enough time to look at it and discuss it by next meeting and see whether we want to present it with a cover letter. [01:49:33] Okay. [01:49:34] I do think that. I like to bring clarity, though. When you talk about the funding request, the request has already been made. So we're not- we're not asking for a new funding request. That would be accurate? [01:49:47] Well, you want it on the agenda. Is essentially, right. [01:49:51] I'm not quite sure. Well, so my answer to my- your question is, yes. But what I understood was, is we have to get three people to support it or the mayor to support it? [01:50:00] That's what yes. [01:50:02] So as long as we do that, we don't have to write another request for money. [01:50:06] That's right. [01:50:07] Or would you think that it makes sense for us to resend the request? [01:50:12] No, I- unless you want to provide, I think there's been some discussion about providing some more detail. So you certainly can do that, but it's not like that request is dead. It's still out there. So it's not like you have to reproduce any more paperwork or what have you. [01:50:30] Is the request in every Thursday- it's in every Thursday memo since January? [01:50:35] Is not- it doesn't like- it's not represented, but it's been presented, and it's part of the record. [01:50:42] Okay. Um, Any other thoughts? Go ahead. [01:50:49] Yeah. This is just a request from the partners. And they might be having some information or data that will make our [01:51:00] presentation a little bit more convincing. You already did a good job and on the draft report that you gave us the previous one. Yeah, which are very good. If there is additional one, we could help us help chat with that put that in together. [01:51:19] I think some of things in here are in here. [01:51:23] I'm not sure they're all in there. I kind of- I think I went this- through this a little bit. Spent some time on it. I didn't see that in there. You think these are. [01:51:35] Yeah, come on. [01:51:40] So I think you're accurate, Amos, that the information that I handed out that was- could have been the slide show. That is not directly in the report. [01:51:52] In this one. [01:51:53] Right. [01:51:53] That is a very important [overlapping]. [01:51:55] And so would you like me to send you that electronically, that [01:52:00] slide show information? [01:52:02] I think send it to the Commission Chair or. [01:52:05] [OVERLAPPING] Send it to Stefanie and then you can send to all of us, please. [01:52:09] I'll do that. [01:52:10] Yes. [01:52:10] I'll do that. [01:52:11] Yeah. [01:52:11] Good thanks. Good point that-that didn't get here. [01:52:14] But this, I know that- I recognize from I guess the fact finding presentation. [01:52:20] Yes. [01:52:20] So that's in there. [01:52:22] Oh, yeah. The fact finding aspects are there, but I don't want to talk about it right now because we'll discuss it next time. There are other things that we talked about in the Commission that are not here. Yeah. I don't think. You can do that now. [01:52:36] Thank you. Any other comments or concerns or requests for this agenda item. Before we move on to commissioner announcements. Well, thank you, everyone. We'll move on to agenda item number 9. Commissioner announcements, [01:53:00] if anyone has anything? Speak now. Staff announcements? [01:53:09] I just wanted to make a clarification, and it wasn't wrong, but commissioner Tasiner had asked a question about the- the budget and what was outstanding yet to be spent. And we think it said $80,000, which is in the ballpark, but I think what that included was the discretionary $20,000 that the Commission had. Those dollars do come out of the black lives matter fund, but they do not come out of the not to exceed $400,000 that was allotted for the facilitators. So and also to note that there's a couple of facilitators that have multiple months yet to be paid. So roughly there's about $100,000 [01:54:00] for facilitation. And the $20,000, which the commission slightly went over by 200 whatever dollars came out of the black life manage fund, but not out of the facilitation for 100,000. That's all. [01:54:16] Thank you for the clarification. Stefanie, did you have any announcements? Thank you. I will motion for an adjournment. [01:54:23] I move. [01:54:25] Second. [01:54:26] Thank you.