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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRC 20210527 auto captionsall right so we currently have seven of the nine members so uh we do currently have a quorum just wanted to see if the rest of the commissioners were okay with getting started we will be starting with public comments and approval of meeting minutes so it'll be a bit before we get to the presentation as well anyways should give everyone time to join into the meeting all right in that case uh this time i'll be calling the meeting to order and stephanie can i please get roll call commissioner ali present commissioner daniel commissioner dillard here commissioner gathawa yes that's okay commissioner harris yeah commissioner johnson here commissioner rivera here commissioner cicales um and commissioner treyore here thank you all right in the newspaper with that we will move on to agenda item number two which is approval of the may 13th 2021 meeting minutes before we do the approval does anyone have any objections to anything in the meeting minutes or anything that they would like to have changed okay in that case at this time um stephanie can we oh first and foremost can i get a motion to approve the may 13th 2021 meeting minutes and a second chair i do want to point out that commissioner daniel is in the attendees list oh hold on second we'll just make sure she gets added before we begin the vote or she's i just promoted her okay thank you um and i said callus is she's trying to find the link via email she messaged me it was just sent out about maybe 10 minutes ago that i can resend it yeah i actually had it okay i i would like to make a motion uh to approve the minutes i want to second that and stephanie can you please get roll call been properly moved in second to approve the meeting minutes from the um april 29th excuse me the may 13th meeting date uh commissioner ali yes commissioner daniel yes commissioner dillard yes commissioner galtowa yes commissioner harris yes commissioner johnson um commissioner uh johnson yes thank you uh commissioner rivera yes commissioner sakais i just got on what is going on uh proving the uh meeting minutes from the may 13th oh yes thank you and commissioner treyore yes thank you motion passes nine zero thank you and before we begin anything else we are on agenda item number three which is public comment of items not on the agenda so just want to remind anyone from the public that is looking to speak at this time that this is for items that are not on tonight's agenda you will have up to five minutes to speak and if you would like your time now please raise your hand and we will give you your chance this looks like we currently just have uh kathie lee's song and i will now meet you and give you the opportunity to speak uh good evening uh commissioners i just wanted to make sure that at i'm that i'm presenting that uh we would be able to share a screen with but that's all i have yes and then do we have anyone else in the public that would like an opportunity to speak at this time on any items not on tonight's agenda currently not seeing any hands raised okay in that case we will now move to agenda item number four which is the update on the land and labor acknowledgement and so i will now hand the floor over to commissioners rivera and nobis um the uh excuse me i'm having issues with my computer oh my goodness can you hear me yes okay well that's good oh good um the um labor acknowledging adult acknowledgement our land the acknowledgement is going along well um i heard back last week from lance foster um the tribal historian of the iowa and kansas tribe highway tribe of kansas and nebraska and um he had some really good thoughts um to um amend it uh so it's more accurate uh as to who is in the vicinity you know uh specifically uh in iowa city and um waiting to hear back from him with the amendments that i added into the acknowledgement and then we can go from there and i have nothing to add thank you okay um do any other commissioners have any comments on this item if not then we will move on to agenda item number five all right we will now move on to agenda item number five which is the iowa catholic worker house presentation just want to inform everyone that the agenda does say 10 to 15 minutes but we'll be allowing them their full allotted time of about 25 minutes they had asked for to ensure that they can get their full presentation completed and i believe the first person on will be the catholic worker house account so i will give you the opportunity to share your screen and also to speak and stephanie just wanted there's someone with their hand up and i just want to make sure that we didn't miss anyone who wanted to publicly comment on the land acknowledgement i'm not sure when the person um raised their hand i just want to make sure that uh they're recognized just in case okay yeah yeah we'll give you uh mr manny galvez you yeah the opportunity sorry um i am the wanaka i want to start with the catholic workers so i didn't know how i was going to be the the dynamic because i want to be sure because after me is dr uh uh katie okay um i was informed that it would be beginning with the catholic worker house account and then we would be moving on to you if that has changed however then we can begin with you but i will be promoting uh you guys in order to as panelists and then giving the opportunity to share your screens for your presentation okay so i will start and after um you can unshare or like um the screen front.okay um promoting youtube panelists at this time so you do have the opportunity to share your screen commissioner chair if you wouldn't mind letting um kathy lease on the sharing of the screen then begin with manny thank you okay i can start so well you are like sharing the screen with dr katie when my name is manny galvez and i am part of the founder of the excluded workers coalition here in iowa city and we are here um just not to share these stories just not to uh share um this project but also we are here to to gain your support and to ask you to work together for this cause i think um in iowa and especially in iowa city we have this a great opportunity to show what is the mean to work together what is the mean to include everybody and something that is very important as you may know and as you're going to hear thousands of workers in iowa they were like excluded for support in iowa and as you may know uh in iowa the these workers always are a stereotype but we had the opportunity to say as i always say we have the opportunity to send a message just not to iowa not to iowa city but to the rest of the country what is the mean to build a different foundation for this nation and we can start here in iowa and now i'm going to pass the opportunity to talk to dr katie she's going to do this presentation about what is the mean and what is all the is related to this like the funded excluded workers in iowa thank you thank you so much manny members of the truth and reconciliation commission and good evening everyone my name is kathy lison i am a catholic worker i'm a pediatrician at the stead family children's hospital at our hospital as one arm of many crucial supplements front line essential workers such as nurses nursing assistants technicians housekeeping food services workers have been on guard's whole entire pandemic they kept working without adequate ppe at the start putting cells at risk in order to care for all of us there are the other supply chains where thousands of restaurants grocery hills seasonal farm farm workers meat packing farmers all risked their own health and safety to make sure we had what we need that's why i support the 54 million dollars of american plan money being used for long overdue and much deserved hazard pay for low wage they care for us and now it's our time to care for them so let's talk about the plan american rescue plan or art for short it was signed into law by pen on march 11th this 1.9 trillion dollar pandemic rule was passed to provide state and local governments with a substantial infusion of financial resources to meet the pandemic response needs and to help rebuild stronger and more equitable economy as we recover so much relief can iowa expect to receive from the arp funds iowa is set to receive 2.7 billion dollars in total 1.4 billion will go directly to state government and 1.3 billion go to the local communities what does that mean for johnson county right here 54 million dollars will be coming to johnson county area governments which leads to the county itself as well as city and towns within johnson county say that again 54 million dollars that's a lot of money we can do a lot of good with community but we need to make sure it goes to those most one important thing we should all know is that some art money has already been designated and earmarked on specific relief measures we have vaccines testing treatment stimulus checks that go to most families monthly child tax credit payments are coming for most families renting utility assistance aid to small businesses and many others forms of relief we want to focus on this evening is a different part of 54 million dollars coming to johnson county and what what it can be spent on let me though the counties and cities have a lot of discretion on how all of this will be spent and that's why it's important they hear from us ones with a very quiet voice and how we want these funds to be spent so let's take a look see how this 54 million dollar big pot of money can be spent what discretionary money we can provide direct financial aid to individuals and families who've been hit the hardest pandemic and the subsequent socioeconomic crisis fallout we can use these funds to provide premium pay for essential fine workers and their children this additional support will to have and continue to bear the greatest health risks because of their critical areas such as health care grocery retail restaurant meat packing farming and delivery sectors of our economy we can use these funds provide and improve vital services like healthcare access including mental health services education infrastructure structure or even reduce child poverty so i've talked a bit about what we can but what can it not be used for simply put governments can't use this discretionary rescue plan money to pay for tax cuts and that includes tax existences so in short the law and guidance on how funds can be used are local governments like johnson county and iowa city will have broadcast ability to help our communities and those most affected by the pandemic that's why we must make sure the 54 million dollars goes to an excluded workers fund now who is an excluded worker undocumented in previously incarcerated people unemployed workers kicked off the rules and anyone left behind in the previous pandemic relief star plan the coalition's plan for the 54 million dollar excluded work fund 22 provide pandemic relief to 6 000 excluded workers 20 million in hazard pay raises for more than 12 000 low-wage essential workers 14 million for affordable how public transportation child care infrastructure other key priorities let me say this we are not the first and we shall not be the last other states such as new york and new jersey and colorado all have approved their version of excluded workers fund and even other levels of government such as the city of denver new jersey both specifically use the cares fund dedicated to fundamental workers while recognizing the equity in accessibility in iowa we think we can do the same now we will our community members to give their testimonies first we have miss rosa pasteur who is an undocumented immigrant and emily will be assisting with spanish interpretation hi my name is i'm here living in the iowa city catholic worker house i'm going to explain what happened during the pandemic i was working in a mexican restaurant washing dishes when the pandemics started they fired us or let us go two months they called us again they did drop our hours down but then they let us go again um because they didn't have a lot of people coming to eat right now and without birth i have a son who is one and a half years old i haven't received any help right now we're asking you folks all to help us with some financial support because the latinas have really suffered without this support there are a lot of folks just like me that are without any support or work and just like myself there's lots of single mothers the children our children need lots of things too just like us yes we hope that we receive some good news from you thank you thanks gracias pastor for coming tonight next we have messenger who is also an undocumented hola my name is hi my name is i'm a mother of three children and i'm going to talk a little bit about how i got through the pandemic or getting through the pandemic i was working as a housekeeper in a hotel unfortunately it was closed during the pandemic [Music] i live in an apartment i pay rent water and light electricity i haven't been able to pay my bills i've tried to find work here and there whether it's cleaning houses or working in roofing but it's nothing permanent um i've applied for help with rent um but it's very difficult they asked for so many different papers i turned them in um say do what they asked me to but then i don't get any responses i haven't received any kind of support economic support we are not able to get unemployment my daughter who is an american citizen and i haven't received anything a stimulus check he knows we would like to ask you that you support the excluded workers running and don't forget us just because we are immigrants sharing your story next we have mr and what what kill moose how you doing everybody my name is my name is mitwa kilmusa last name is musa i'm employees at the university iowa city hospital and clinics i start from this room before the nutrition and now i'm doing training cis ci css central sterilization service i'm a father of five uh two of my kids the oldest uh my daughter she make it to harvard dennis school and i'm really proud of her my second child uh the second older sister first referee fresh here in college i work seven days a week we can delivering with charm food my wife she green people she's being laid off from the school she's a substitute teacher we struggled really hard my dad teach me something i have everything i have to earn and i try but the pandemic hit me so hard seven days a week working supporting a child in college two kids in college my wife stopped working working seven days a week i'm behind already for six months i just recently i didn't help with any of your i'm assistance the water all right if i show the car with the vent on it it's falling apart let's try i'm sorry what i'm doing is uh support my family make sure they get education put them on the right nothing else i could do i never thought about sitting here and asking for help because i've been doing it and that's what my dad told me i can't do more than working seven days a week i'm sorry i got a lot a lot but thank you thank you for all of your hard work we do see you next we have miss felonies martin who is an unemployed worker hello everyone um my name is philanese i'm 42 years old um i'm trying to do this without being really sad because i know you have heard everybody what they're saying but um in april of last year i lost my job i was a restaurant worker for a local restaurant here in town um up until the end of march i was receiving unemployment i ended up getting cut off and then i had to reapply that was a whole month long ordeal and then about a month ago i reapplied it and it it picked back up in the meantime i went to school and then i finished school and with the governor taking this away from us um i'm really scared um it's put a lot of stress and pressure on me to learn to use the skills that i just learned their new skills and i wanted to actually wait until september to get more of an expert on my skills so that i could do my job better um i'm really scared but actually i'm more scared for the people around me um i'm really upset with governor reynolds because she does not know what it's like i don't either i'm i don't know what it's like to be a refugee i don't know what it's like to everything that you have to go through for yourself or your family like the stories you heard and the ones you have yourself um i'm really upset with her because you know during this pandemic all of these people that look like me who i look like too we don't speak the same language but we are sisters and brothers and she did not have to go through she did not have to work she does not have to worry about health care she does not have to worry about where her next meal is going to come for her and her kids she did not have to work and risk her life like people have and will continue to do um i'm sorry i'm just i'm really angry and i'm really hurt i'm really hurt more for the people around me for these people this is supposed to be america not just iowa this is supposed to be america and we're supposed to help each other and i'm really sorry um so i am asking those of you that are listening to hand this out to those that need it for them for their children for their generation descendants and i stand with all of you all of you in this room out there i stand with you for the rest of my life and i will not stop fighting for you or with you and that's all i have to say thank you aires good evening my name is maria carlos my name is maria carlos i'm from columbus junction iowa gyotania mi trabajo and mosquito i was [Music] our work we didn't have any kind of protection a german permed kobe i got sacred coven hospital i was hospitalized for one week yes because if she would experience what we all have experienced those who have been sick with kovec not only my lungs my intestines i'm having trouble uh they want me to have an operation on my lungs because the kappa the the capacity of the of the oxygen yeah because um my lungs just do not have the capacity to hold as much much oxygen as before maybe i also lost my husband i am not the same person i don't know what i'm going to do when my unemployment runs out who's going to give me work who's going to understand me i know that i'm not going to be able to go back to work just like what's happened to me and how i am there's a lot of people out there yo espero and i know that we're not alone i know that they are going to help us i have faith in god that something good is going to happen i will give you our action plan okay here um are you gonna close this part um sorry there was a miscommunication between us i mean um thank you first i want to thank you because uh you gave this opportunities like a minute to hear these stories these these voices like we hear today these um stories is just like uh and like i just isolated this is thousands of people like them in the latino community when you see the numbers in iowa they say like we are around like five or six percent population and and it says like a five or six percent of the total of the people that was infected by kobe 19 they are latinos it means like a practically devastated community but in iowa who was affected by this pandemic all the people of color brown black people i mean like a blue-collar people and these stories i think this is the thing that we can reflect that this is not political issue this is not about left or right this is the opportunity we have to to understand and to respond to all the hate and we have the opportunity to not respond with the hate to respond with love always when i had the opportunity i said this we have this opportunity and we want to what we want today is like your support to like advance this proposal the only thing that we need to do together is your support and send a message to the local authorities that we can't we can do something different in our community please i i ask you the and we the meds we can demand together to the city into the county the support for this for this action and the most important we can find the legal way to do it properly we can find the way as a community to create a new foundation basically this is my last words thank you thank you very much um at this time i'm going to push you guys back in as attendees and i'll give the commission the opportunity to respond to what we have just heard in terms of having a discussion and anything we do from there on out is on everyone on the commission we're happy to take any questions if you haven't yet we're going to ask if anyone from the public has any questions or if we want to do that first before commissioners speak we have patricia bowen with her hand raised um my name is patricia bowen and i live on the east side of iowa city not too far from the catholic worker house and i have helped out there occasionally and listening again to these people's stories just makes me think i don't really have a question but i i just want everybody to understand that these people truly are invisible in our community nobody knows they're there and unless you have some kind of relationship with them either through the catholic worker house or through maybe your job where you go back into the kitchen and you see those people cleaning they're invisible to our community but yet they are part of our community and i think they are deserving of whatever we can do and i would really like to just put my two cents in that i would hope this commission could support using the arp money for the excluded workers you could feel their pain you could you just feel it and i won't go any further but i just wanted to say that thank you we have anyone else from the public that would like to make a comment all right i'll now turn it back over to the commission if there is any discussion anyone would like to be had or any questions to ask or any emotions you would like to put forth um i'll go um i just want to make a comment um i really don't let a lot of things move me emotionally but that kind of moved me emotionally because part of my family is that's you know um my daughters are part latino um and what they were saying is something that i understand because i was a kitchen worker before in my life i've been previously incarcerated as well and that like that those stories the stories that we need to hear you know um and that moved me where i had to turn my camera off because i was getting emotional about it and it was just you know that i know people that's you know part of my family that's undocumented and you know stuff like that to have to go through things like that that just moved me and that was a great presentation and that was a great truth telling right there with that i'm gonna yield the floor i absolutely agree i feel like uh it's our duty to do the best we can to help out those who don't have voices and i feel like we need to do the best we can to push forward however we can help out for those who who honestly need help not everybody out there uh has a chance and if we have a chance of helping them i think we need to do so absolutely i agree um i am clearly very emotional over that um i just want to thank everyone who uh spoke for their time and their honesty and um for just being vulnerable um because i know it takes a lot to share those things and ask for help so i really appreciate that um this is either i guess kathy or manny could probably answer this um what does the trc supporting you guys in in this look like um i want it to be more than just us verbally saying we support this um how can we be supportive and actually have action behind um what we're saying so or what we're supporting i i lost uh your last can you repeat the question please because i think i i lost you um how do you want us to support you other than saying we support this do you do you want us to um speak to counsel on your behalf speak to supervisors on your behalf um what does the trc supporting this look like i well i think one of the i mean all the ways like you said this is appropriate but also scientists is like a a legal process as a as a group that you have if you can have like one agreement and that could be something like we can submit to the city authorities to the car to the county authorities that could be good i mean that was the best you know and also um if you could like uh also talk in the meetings in behalf of us that would be the best because um as you can see most of the time all the excluded workers they don't have this opportunity to track in these spaces and most of the time they hire these two minutes and i think it's really unfair but you have you have you are in a position that you can make a difference and as i said i think that in a career asking right now if you are the end of this meeting one of the agreements is to support this effort we are showing like we are working as a community together for something that is going to be beneficial for everybody i hope that that makes that make sense and very specific how we can advance and work um as a community yeah thank you so much for that um i think uh the order after me was sakawas then kevo then mohammed raised their hands so if you guys want to go in that order uh thank you uh for allowing me to speak um i just wanted to give my full support uh to this what i call a crisis not an issue and this is something that i myself have been very passionate about for a long time because i do not recognize people's south of the border uh as not um indigenous um and i feel that it is in their full uh right within their traditions and customs uh to uh be in the territory of turtle island based upon traditional migratory paths and trading and it might seem like i'm going a little bit off topic but i i believe me when i say this uh the us and mexico and all of these uh colonized countries have no right to uh tell um people's indigenous peoples from these lands like where they can and cannot go but yet that is the case and sadly along with that um is a violation of their rights when they are in territories that they rightfully belong in colonial border uh policy enforcement and settler state immigration laws are key factors in eroding indigenous people's customs traditions and national identities through displacement restriction of traditional movement and ongoing encroachment and i just read you a little tiny tidbit from uh an intervention that i presented at the un um permanent foreign forum on indigenous peoples in 2019 um that was actually on um the issue of border imperialism and what it is doing to our people and uh you know the other aspect that we need to address is uh you know economics and the lack of uh of any type of uh the the erasure essentially of what's happening uh and the uh inability of a government built uh upon white supremacist politics to recognize that indigenous peoples uh should be treated um as citizens regardless of what their papers say um and so i just wanted to just say that just to my to give my full support behind uh doing what we can to make sure that these uh people's receive um compensation for what they've been doing uh and uh that's i i will do what we what we have to to make that happen thank you ahai kita mahin um this is commissioner rivera i'm so so grateful um that uh that we got to share space with those who um just provided us a lot of education on what our community is experiencing in a very real way and i say our community with a lot of intention you know it was mentioned that these excluded workers and all of these groups are invisible in our society and i certainly understand that as a child of once undocumented immigrants and uh it's it's such a real um real thing to to feel that stress of vulnerability on a daily basis um i can't imagine um even with that experience what it must have been like to live through every single day of this pandemic especially with how the pandemic has affected these marginalized groups but tonight was an opportunity to learn a little bit more firsthand about that so thank you for providing that education um to us and for sharing space um and for involving us in your work i i would be extremely honored um to support uh this robust coalition um and the efforts that they've put forward in their proposal um i really hope that this commission agrees my question is in terms of timeline and i'm not sure who can answer this but what kind of time constraints are we under because i think this deserves deserves a really you know well-formed statement um and if it if it needs to be tonight then i think that we should put in the work but um there might also be some work that could be done um for us to you know a small subcommittee to put together a statement that we can review and then support and pass along to city council board of supervisors other city governments in johnson county um so i'm just trying to wonder um sort of what time frame we have to support this work thank you um to answer that question um for commissioner rivera we know that the city and county received 50 of the money with the next 50 arriving maybe in 2022 so far funds have not been allocated and we would urge urgent on your resolution of this motion as well as to petition to the county city council plus the johnson county board supervisors to allocate this money to those who are in great great need thank you thank you um i just want to say that i would like to have a vote on this tonight personally so after everyone on the commission is done speaking if uh one of you could put forth a motion but before we go to that point just want to say that i thank all of you for your bravery for speaking out tonight just being a child of immigrants myself um i feel a lot of that pain that you expressed and also the courage it takes to come out and ask for help i grew up with my dad being one of those that didn't like asking for help and a big reason why being thinking that people wouldn't you know reach out and actually give their assistance when when asked for um so yeah i grew up a lot of my life with sharing my bedroom with family friends or friends of my fam friends of my dad that would need a place to stay that were immigrants coming in and i know a close family friend as well that in the last year he was incarcerated over immigration issues and has been a hard worker for multiple decades has a son in college another one in high school has never done anything wrong but was still almost forced out of the country and so a lot of this stuff just doesn't sit right with me how how people are treated in that fashion but also just that i feel that if i am going to stand behind the things i value and my own experiences and how i feel that this should all go i do have to say that i would like to support this as well because i don't want that mentality to go forward of when people ask for help help not being given because that's not what a community does if we are going to be a part of the same community we do need to be willing to help each other when others do ask for help and that's all i have to say on this for now and with that i'll yield the floor to commissioner gotham thank you i am commissioner wang for the record and i am piggybacking on all the other commissioners who have talked thank you very much kasi for leading and money for leading this presentation and thank you very much for the testimonies that of of the workers who testimonized for us who are living this injustice thank you for the courage and the strength to stand in front of us and be very very personal and for me i thank you for the education i know as individuals you've also been educating us on this course thank you for working very very hard to even as a community as we listen and talk about the injustices the ratio injustices and listen even as we talk of the broad injustices as a group of the different groups that we have in our community i'm glad you desegregated this particular group and worked on that to let us see so thank you very much and for me personally i i would want to support this and i'm coming from a lot of it resonating with me as a a woman who immigrated to the u.s from africa so as commissioner ali had been talking about it's very emotional it is very sad because as the testimonies were being shared and a lot of that it's something it's things that i've lived it's things that i've seen those who are close to me live and they're still living that so uh it resonated with me it's something that i know it's something that i continue living so there is no way i cannot not support this and thank you commissioner nobis also for reminding me of history even i can talk of myself another as an immigrant crossing oceans to get to the usa but you reminded me of history that when we talk of mexico it's actually the natural things the boundaries that are there as far as history is concerned they are artificial and they happened at a particular time in history and we are talking about people who are really already there before the rest of us either came here uh voluntarily or forced here through activities that happened that were caused on some of our continents by the west world by imperialism thank you very much commissioner nobis for adding that and thank you commissioner rivera for also bringing up and cassie answering that question about the time because this is not something that can can wait already it's a it's long overdue i am going to stop there and just say that i i cannot not support this and i see that durability when i say i cannot not support thank you i yield the flaw prior to anything else being done or said by the commission i just want to make sure that we allow so we still have miss lisan with her hand up so if you have anything else to add a prior day okay um she okay put her hand down um are there any other comments or motions that anyone would like to raise or any emotions to second as well um go ahead daphne um so i'd like to know if there's been an economic impact analysis done um to see what the impact on these funds would have on the rest of the community in a sense where we'd be investing in a portion of the community community that has not been invested in and so i i'd like to know if that analysis has been done and if it is available thank you do we have any correspondence from miss lisan or the catholic worker house on this aspect all right um you do have the floor i don't believe we have that ancient but i think you can envision that between the 12 000 essential workers 6 000 undocumented immigrant workers by supporting their livelihoods they will then in turn bring it back to the economy they are surviving or trying to survive survive they just don't have funds so whatever you give to them they will not only thrive but that to the economy many folds that's all i have to say i would just like to add on the economic impact statement end um about mr galbaz i'll give you an opportunity here in a second uh that while we may not have one that's concrete as miss polisson did point out it is a little easier to imagine and i would just like to conceptualize it as i mean they gave the stimulus checks in the first place when the government did shut down knowing that had there not been money in people's pockets the entire economy would have crashed and the same thing happened in pretty much every country around the world for many of the same reasons and as some of these governments have had to shut down once again uh you know stimulus checks have gone out once again because if money is not moving then we do have major issues with banks with mortgages and everything of that nature so with these people also having a lot of these things that they're invested in as well and also having money to spend in the community this is money that it can be spent on goods and services so things that are also taxed through sales taxes but also we do need people to be able to spend money within their communities if we're ever going to support our own our businesses and our communities to even allow them to continue to hire people but i will now hand it over to mr galvez yes thank you muhammad i think now you'll say i really like a good example how it's going to be them but but i mean i just want to like uh maybe share with you stone idea about what is happening in the in the immigrant community which is just non-latino this is another thing when we talk about immigrants we just think like latinos but this is all around the country i mean all around the world but um for example in in in just in johnson county we are attacking like a more more um if if i and ride the last time base in the numbers like the iowa the state has we have like a more like a seven seven thousand latinos living here in iowa city in johnson county area just iowa city around like a four thousand coralville so all the workers in the factories and the in in the restaurants people like we don't see clean you know i mean overnight so that is so important when we when we think about the latino just here in johnson county because if you go like for example to columbus junction to waterloo all these like a mid-packing plants i mean there are like a the majority of the people is like a like a working class like immigrants and and for example in west liberty and columbus and in waterloo but but we need to focus here and we can send a message to these counties as well and and for example uh for 1.4 uh dollar gains for every one dollar like how we spent you know it's like i try to even like this is the best way to like to increase the money in the economy in the local economy i would say that [Music] and miss lisa absolutely right manny has that uh dollar figure yeah thank you um just not to also forget that albeit there be immediate economic uh returns we're talking about a lifelong addition long pain and suffering and trying we are continuing to incur upon our people the longer we do not support them the longer we hold money back from them and poverty the worse this whole entire duration will be and that price to pay is way more than the dollar that we spend thank you commission thank you um are there any other comments or questions from the commission um before we make a vote i i think um it would be worth a while if we do end up deciding to write up something to send to local officials to also reach out to other entities as well uh like we could see if the south district would support this and sign on or if corridor community action network would support this and sign on you know if nissa would also support this and sign on if we have a bunch of entities or grassroots organization type stuff to also agree um with this i think that would also be helpful um and without a yield to the floor um uh you can go ahead careful thanks eric um to uh respond to a mel i in the in one of some of the correspondence we received from the fund excluded workers coalition we did receive a list of um partner organizations um uh which includes not only iowa city catholic workers um but also the iowa city citizens for community improvement seiu local 199 iowa freedom writers great plans action society lulac 308 lulac state council afs cme 12 iowa student action exim carter incarcerated people organizing iowa corridor community action network iowa city mutual aid collective iowa city democratic socialists of america community transportation committee and veterans for peace iowa city so um i see a lot of broad support among the folks who are you know most closely associated with some of these most marginalized people i really appreciate the sentiment but i was really pleased to see this coalition so so robust and um i would add to that i'm pretty sure that the south district would support that i'm pretty sure that i can get other organizations like inside out to also support that so that's all i want to say thank you i would just like to piggyback on that i believe that there is also some organizations as i've already been mentioned that are creating little pockets of coalitions that we could tap into as well that have not been mentioned i'd just like to add that some of us do have relationships with people on council or in other government positions as well and i know that personally i will be trying to leverage these to speak with them uh to see if that is of assistance as well and i would encourage others to do the same um but yeah at this time i just know that i would like to have a vote on this on supporting this tonight if uh as was asked for i just know that under how we do operate i just have to allow someone else to make the motion in someone else's second i'd like to make the motion that we definitely support it i do wholeheartedly so i would like to know about it we we when it comes down to it you gotta water the roots for the tree to grow that's just the bottom line that's how i feel and i was secondary can we have daphne uh comment she had her hand raised before we vote on that and take a pro call yes so i just want to find out will there be any strings attached to these funds will there be any rules on how this money is supposed to be spent um yeah email you can handle that sorry i know i was just gonna say i had remembered in the presentation it said it was a pretty broad but i i can i see kathy and manny both have their hands up and they probably could better explain yeah um we're just to start i mean and kathy she can like go more indeed but this is one of the things like the officials and the city and county level saying that first we need to be agreeing and after to find the way it was like uh we we said in the beginning another cities and other states first they they agree and we can find the legal and process kind of follow the rules for everything i mean like who can receive it which families which workers and to have records everything so yes that is i mean the first step is to agree that we can help this population and that could be good if somebody from this group can be part of that and to follow on what manny had said to the according to the new jersey model really had no barriers for access simply said that we can borrow and look at other entities or government organizations where they have created this low barrier to access and other than what we know we cannot use these funds for everything is according what the community needs as leaders can identify that can give the money to where is needed if you look at the arp fund globally all of the other domains that we typically think of roads transportation housing all of those have been taken care of by others of the designated art fund this is discretionary so no strings attached other than users thank you um as we've been having this discussion i've been trying to furiously type some sort of recommendation that is a pretty simple expression of support for this um and before we make a vote on sort of supporting and then i i think that having some sort of recommendation that could be sent to city council and then johnson county supervisors and then other city governments in johnson county and i think that would be one of the best ways for us to show support so would you mind if i shared what i've drafted thus far i'm okay with you sharing it i just do want to just make sure we do clarify what the motion was before because it was just on whether we did want to provide support uh so yeah we can have that vote prior to um going over the actual language yep okay uh commissioner ali yes commissioner daniel yes commissioner dillard yes commissioner yes commissioner harris yes john commissioner johnson yes uh commissioner rivera yes uh commissioner sakalis yes and commissioner treyore yes okay thank you 9-0 so i would like to give commissioner rivera this time and then immediately after we do have uh miss lisan with her hand up i'm just going to try to share my screen here um so i'm a little bit vulnerable because this hasn't really even been proof read but what i've written so far is to the cities of coralville hills iowa city lone tree north liberty oxford chewyville swollen swisher tiffin and university heights and to the johnson county board of supervisors the coven 19 pandemic has affected the lives of every iowan this is especially true for the most marginalized communities to continue to remain disproportionately vulnerable to the long-term impact of this crisis while federal state and local governments have previously attempted to provide relief to individuals and families who have been affected by the pandemic several groups have been ignored as excluded workers which includes undocumented immigrants previously incarcerated people and others we urge you to review the proposal for an excluded workers fund prepared for prepared by the fund excluded workers coalition which makes use of the 54 million unearmarked funds allotted to communities in johnson county through the american rescue plan we support the excluded workers fund and we recommend that you work closely and together and closely with the coalition to create a strategy to enact this fund in solidarity with all iowans us any thoughts i don't believe that i have anything against what's currently in there except for the typos yeah i think shoe evil is fine it's just google i mean uh microsoft word just doesn't recognize it and thank you uh commissioner rivera for going ahead and putting something down because uh a it's also serving in elevating some of the negative feelings and the sadness that is coming out of this as we move towards because it's possible to make the situation better so seeing it there written uh personally it makes me feel better that we are moving in the right direction with the urgency that this deserves thank you i yield the flaw and i have nothing else to add to what you have written i yield mr daniel go ahead so i really like this i would add some aspect of rebuilding or recovery to kind of tie it to the actual language of the act i'd also add something about investing to kind of go along with the trend of investment rebuilding the new normal whatever you want to call it other than that looks good um i'm going to ask for specifics dr uh commissioner daniel or for anyone else if you have a specific statement that i could add and where [Music] we maybe do the and after that we support the excluded workers fund comma um that that advocates for reinvestment into fellow members of our community sorry can you say that again my internet is bad oh sorry which advocates for reinvestment into our community and fellow community members to ensure that we come out of this pandemic committed to a new normal and new normal in quotes in which we uh strive to support our fellow community members and then yeah i think that works you can do a period and take out the and and just capitalize we recommend does anyone have any objections to the structure of that no not me i like it okay just like that so we just remember to attach the slides from the powerpoint presentation to this and then as well i have collected some links from some of the other websites for the colorado new york and new jersey funds that i can send as well to the rest of the commissions just ensure we just package it all together um at this time i would just say that the only thing left would just be to at least vote to approve the current structure of this and we invite any members of the coalition to comment on on the statement that we drafted just to see if they have any other suggestions and also if we have their permission to share the slides that they presented to us tonight to these local entities commissioner rivera do you want to say that again please yeah i was wondering if we could invite um members of the coalition to to see if they had anything else to add or comment on regarding the statement it looks great from where are sitting thank you um and would we have permission to share the slides uh that you all gave us tonight absolutely yeah the uh commissioner bear the slides would be public record just because they were a part of the meeting tonight all right so i would motion that we i guess accept this statement to be forwarded along with the slides that were presented to us as well as um some of other links to other examples to the named entities in the letter a second it any further discussion okay uh commissioner ali yes commissioner daniel yes commissioner dillard yes commissioner gathaw yes commissioner harris yes commissioner johnson yes commissioner rivera yes commissioner cicales yes and commissioner trey alright commissioner treyori yes sorry thank you okay it passes 9-0 thank you to the iowa catholic worker house uh miss lisan and also mr galvez for taking the time to share with us tonight um with that we will now be moving to agenda item number six which is the african coalition presentation and this will be an agenda item that i will hand off to commissioner gothwa thank you commissioner triori and i am not sharing anything because and i'm not going to take long in talking i think i should i won't be i won't even take more than five minutes and what i'm bringing to the commission is the way the african communities network in johnson county has decided to share their ratio in just injustices experiences to the commission and what i would be asking of the commission a support in the way they have decided to go forward [Music] earlier i had forwarded a video of a dissertation presentation of a phd african student in the minnesota university who just defended her dissertation uh this spring in may a it sparked off or that idea of putting the inequity experiences together uh i'll just give a brief summary of the video in case some commissioners didn't get time to watch it because it's long it's i think one and a half hours the whole thing so a school district in minneapolis the african immigrants there they put together uh their experiences in the school district with the the food that they served in the cafeterias and that is an area uh the majority of people in in the usa uh are white so a lot of things uh come from that culture so sometimes uh beings can say moke for example in that school district things are okay when it's looked at as a group but then when you disaggregate or look at some pieces not everybody is doing so well so we discussed that idea and we spent a week going back and forth on their records on that on our whatsapp groups discussed that and then ended up with the board calling a meeting this saturday and we talked about it and discussed and concluded that instead of individuals coming here to the commission and to talk or the commission going to the or the it would be easier for them to put together their experiences and then at the end uh a present that have a document at the end to give the commission to give to the council so and this is based on it's a a fair way to do it that way because african communities are communal and activities are carried out in a communal way or what is called in the u.s a collective way that is where that is coming from and then the other thing they also have a lot to say and if they do it in a group with them or with themselves they will feel safer as they share the pains because africans have ended up in the usa and in johnson county in the usa through voluntary or involuntary immigration some people came as slaves others have come as refugees by instability in the continent which start off in the western world so starting with that pain and then mistrust of the white world they would feel safer sharing their experiences and then getting them to the commission and finally to the council where uh their lives would be made better so that is what i wanted to share with the commission asking for support as the african communities move forward and even at that meeting it wasn't just the african communities that were that are in johnson county or in iowa city uh it was a meeting because when it comes to racial injustice africans everywhere in the world are impacted so it's an area that has interest and support because even at the meeting we had people in the meeting who are even outside the usa africans in diaspora and who have been a lot of them they've not chosen to be outside their continent it's because of the ills that have been caused by western imperialism so that is what i would be i'm bringing to the commission and uh i will stop there for that that's what i i i came in to suggest and to ask for and to inform thank you very much um i just want to say that uh yeah i do agree with a lot of that sentiment um from just my experiences and the african culture and just how my family has operated as well uh yeah handling things quietly communally and then coming together publicly seems to be the way that most things are done um just the one thing i would just like to ask to consider is that in terms of the timeline of presentations that it at least be um a few months prior to the end of the commission so that some of the things brought up can be acted upon or at least be studied or whatever is needed to be done so they can officially be included in the set of recommendations yeah in uh in line with that uh because moving forward it would be a group focus a community one and especially it's covered time we would want it to happen before it becomes cold before october so and that would be the community bringing together its information but which is already people already beginning to bring in information because they already know people are commissioners and people are already approaching people to bring in what they have so but the communal one should would be uh not beyond october when it gets cold and people won't be able to me uh with my experience in the u.s as an african i find gay especially in in iowa and in iowa city and johnson county africans tend to for lack of a better word to hibernate unless if they have to meet for illness or for disease which is understandable they come from a continent where the coldest it gets is 65 degrees so we would want we are aiming at having the big forum by end of october and then soon after that [Music] the people who are leading in collecting the information get together to start putting it together and writing it down so because they are aware that the commission we have the date of june 22. i don't know whether i've answered your question commissioner triori no no no definitely thank you for providing that timeline yeah that sounds like more than enough time to address everything i just do want to add though however that we do still have the opportunity if commissioners do decide um in either this meeting or one coming in the near future to ask for an extension um on the length of the commission and just want to disclose at this time that i did have an opportunity to speak with the city manager jeff ruin and the mayor as well last week about the aspect of the length of the commission and it seems to me that we basically do have the ability to ask for an extension just it comes down to a vote and the amount of time that we feel like we would absolutely need for this and when i'm talking of working collectively it's community engagement uh it is uh just like the work we are doing it is our community and why i am talking of africans it's because even as a community they are the universal injustices and then there are also some experiences that are particular to a particular community and as far as the engagement is concerned it's anybody can get engaged in this and we are inviting others in in being part of that so it's not any one person or one gui it's a it's a community engagement in looking into their problems and into the solutions as we go thank you thank you very much i truly appreciate you sharing that and as well the video i didn't get a chance to review it and i will be watching it again as well uh due to the depth of the content with it being a phd dissertation but um i would like to have an opportunity to speak on it with you further in one of the education subcommittee meetings or any other subcommittee meeting or public meeting going forward if you would like and then in terms of the comment on implementing things like circles uh with the way the commission operates that is something i am still interested in and uh we just basically need the rest of the commission to take some time to review that process and we just need to get in contact with those that have the ability to offer the knowledge on that to us and possibly have a presentation before we can just implement something like that now that you mentioned circles i wanted to add yeah that is a good way to [Music] going into the community again and now not just a piece of the community of our community but collecting information now from everybody because yeah and i have seen it work so when i talk about circles and and i've seen it work and also facilitated the discussions so and i yeah and it's also supported by research which either it ever came to that but the people who are experts would be yeah would be brought in to support the effectiveness of it of them you have anyone else on the commission that would like to make any comments okay uh commissioner gather do you have anything else you would like to add on this at this time or uh it's more of a question and guidance as we do this and go to get information when it comes to our budget for example when i talked about a community forum uh where they might be uh food and then they will be stationary uh those are the things that i i know for sure they are going to be there uh in terms of the commission or whether because it's something i would want to ask for support from there and how that would be in the budget or yeah in our budget um yeah that is something that we can have as part of the budget as well and i would just like to say we can invite you to a budget subcommittee meeting to just ensure that we get your full uh voice and perspective on that um and so we can just include that properly uh but other than like concrete numbers i just don't have any to give at this time due to the logistics of it yeah and at that point i would be able either at the subcommittee or even at a a full commission meeting to present a full presentation of the whole process but this time i only uh very briefly of the overview of how this would be done but i would break it down to and making the whole proposal and how this should happen i yield i've gone over the five minutes yeah don't worry about i just want to say thank you very much for um asking to have this included on the agenda and also in the future when you are ready for a full presentation we can include it on the agenda once again but we would definitely like to hear from you in sub-committee meetings just to ensure that we do give you time to flesh the ideas out all right thank you um i think that having a facilitator or someone who has a knowledge in local government processes it would be really important for this commission i think someone who has worked with marginalized communities and has has had positive outcomes um i think that experience and mediation and compu in community-based conflict resolution is important um i think they should have good networking skills and teamworking and community organizing and event planning just because i i don't want us to spend a lot of time outside of our subcommittees and our commission working on trying to plan an entire event uh without someone who's probably done it um before and then steph can tell me or tell us if the conflict of interest is is important i saw this in a few of them uh specific to this city and what people have presented to the city of iowa city um but yeah that is what i wrote up does anyone have any suggestions or questions i'm open to whatever and commissioners i think i'll just um jump in here real quick uh commissioner ali i just want to state that you've done a fantastic job of putting this together and i i don't think i need to confuse matters with actually showing an example i i think you um have definitely kind of hit the high points of what it would look like and i think um working with staff we can probably draft it into a format that looks um or is that that's consistent with what uh templates look like for rfps but but a basic overview of the rfps are you're you're really going to have three areas the first is the project description which is just kind of an overview of the what you're looking for in a facilitator which i think um this um document um has um content in that that would fall under that um you're also going to um detail the services that you want provided which i think commission ali referred to as the scope of work which is fine i think that's just a matter of wording um and then you're going to want a component on the background and the background is more for the person who would be applying for for um the the role of a facilitator so giving them background on iowa city uh giving them background on johnson county um giving them kind of the purpose or the background on why the trc was formed when it was formed and then the the functions of the trc as part of the um rfp process it's important to include within that um bullet points of what u.s commissioners will be looking at to evaluate each proposal so some of the things i heard mentioned was you know prior experience positive outcomes um skills and mediation uh team building so all of those things are things that also should be stated in the proposal in terms of things that application would be evaluated on you're also as part of the rfp process it would include a statement of qualifications which is basically asking the submitter to provide uh references um information documents that show that they um have the qualifications to be able to to do this and then um uh finally um just kind of putting that again in the template and i i don't think the purpose is for um the the trc members to to do all of the um the groundwork on this right so so staff is available to assist and we can definitely assist in getting this into a working document that would present more like it would be presented once it would be released and i think from there um i i don't know at what process you're in i don't know if this is something that uh between the subcommittee and staff could be presented kind of as a final draft at the june 10th meeting because i'm just thinking forward if this is um allowed to be bidded for four weeks you're you're looking at the second week in july so i think probably a target date of your next meeting would be ideal for for really having kind of a rough draft to move forward on in ample time for other commissioners to provide um input or edits prior to that meeting so that when you come together you can use your time most efficiently to really have a discussion of what you want this rfp process to to look like so well thank you um i'm glad that you think it looks good because i was really worried about it um so with that being said um i can try i think writing like the background is gonna be super easy because um counselor burgess and weiner pretty much wrote that in like the resolution or something like why the trc was started um and we can just um probably use that and then add um some more to it um and then yeah i think it's just a matter of moving some things around um but if you guys are good with this i can um work with steph to get this kind of um put in into a better template uh within the next two weeks and then um hopefully we can approve it by the next meeting because i don't think that there's a whole lot of work that we will that is going to be left to do on this i think it's just going to be a lot of moving around and kind of um maybe working on the statement of qualifications and getting some input from uh the rest of the commissioners but yeah what do you guys think go ahead wayne gooey yeah uh thank you very much between the two of you commissioner ali and steph you've captured almost you've captured everything so i it's just a question on the qualifications section which i'm thinking that is education level and i wonder whether they're in will include some you talked a lot about the experience of the in facilitation what about the some training in facilitation yeah that's all i yield i would just like to say thank you commissioner ali um especially for all the hard work you put in on this but also to commissioners daniel and rivera for all the hard work you put in on this as well and for stephanie for your continued help with everything with the commission uh just like to thank you guys most of all because you know i was out of town last week and just doing so much and just everything you guys have done has made a lot of things easier coming back and catching up on everything so just can't thank you enough you're welcome yeah so i'd support moving forward as stated um i don't think that we need like a motion or anything since we're not voting on any final document but i would suggest that uh i would encourage uh you um commissioner ali and to work with staff and other staff to um go with this um and get into a final version for us to vote on next meeting that sounds good to me if you guys are cool with that we can move on to the next agenda item unless anyone has anything else to add okay thanks all right we are now on agenda item number eight which is discussion on future agenda item community topics we want discussed so the essential idea behind this is that so there are commission announcements at the end of meetings however there's no real chance to have any sort of discussion during that section but there are certain things that come up during the weeks uh leading up to when agendas are put out that people may have on their mind or that they may want to address so we were just looking to see if other commissioners would like to have this added as a future agenda item just to ensure that we can you know debrief each other on maybe some meetings that we attended recently or talk about some things in the news that happened or something that happened locally that we'd like to raise awareness or attention on and possibly discuss and if i could just add before the discussion begins i've spoken with a few commissioners and and i the the rationale are kind of the concern with past meetings is when when you get to announcement of commissioners it's truly announcements of commissioners um and sometimes it gets really close to to engagement and discussion of stuff that's not on the agenda so so i think what what this is trying to cure or make a solution for is if commissioners ahead of the agenda being posted so say that monday by noon if you're meeting that thursday if there is something that you have seen or something that you want to discuss or talk about at the meeting on thursday if you could let the chair vice chair know this so that it could be discussed under this item and specifically noted to give the public um the ability to realize that this is something the commission is going to be discussing um that that would just help out and really avoid any fine lines between discussing things that just aren't on the agenda and also discussing them within the proper framework of the agenda and not putting it under announcements which is not really the the place for for things like that so and with that i will give it back to the commissioners thanks steph before you go just uh to clarify um so uh the agenda item would have would still have sort of bulleted sort of named topics for discussion and and we still would be restricted to those uh items that's correct i think if you just left the agenda as community topics that the trc wants to discuss i don't feel that that's enough notice to the public to know what would fall under that um i i think virtually anything could fall under that and so it's just um being um more specific and things that you want to discuss okay thank you i support this um steph if there's just like a general consensus that we all support this is is there is it necessary to make a vote just because this is regarding the agenda so then if we get any correspondence from anyone within the next two weeks can we add it to the agenda or do we need to make a motion to have this be an item did that make sense yeah i i think it does i mean generally speaking the the entire commission doesn't vote on what's on the agenda now so i i guess i don't feel that it's necessary to take a vote because really the commission is not voting on what's appearing on the agenda at this time there's input by all commissioners but ultimately it's the chair and vice chair that are setting the agenda so i think you're fine proceeding without i'm actually making a formal motion perfect okay thank you okay so i can go ahead and go first um anything i mean something that i want to add to the future like agenda is about crime and safe um lately you know i'm a south district resident so um lately it's been a whole bunch of things going on in the south district it hasn't been discussed and i would like to add that to the agenda maybe in the future i'm not going to say that this is an item right now that we need to talk about but um it's been a lot of you know crime and things that's been going on but also the main thing that's been going on is excessive use of force by law enforcement you know um i was out with my children on tuesday morning we were doing yard work we were mowing our grass picking up weeds and all of a sudden we just saw this big army truck come through you know they was doing a raid to go and arrest somebody for some recent shootings but um i think that that's not a good thing to do that doesn't break like that doesn't build trust in the community at all um and so that's one of the things that i want to talk about you know i want to have maybe brought up in the future agenda item you know um because and then we also have another issue with um the gas section by our houses was the only gas station with the armed security guard so the climate and the way that we feel over here in the south district is something that we need to talk about in the future because it's going to impact you know what goes on in the future you know if the police come and drive down our street with an army vehicle that can could make things in the future you know that's something we have to talk about so and with that i'm gonna heal the floor so i just want i just want people to be aware of that and maybe that's something we can talk about in the future you know about the excessive use of law enforcement things you know you don't need an army truck to come and serve a warrant or whatever you want to come serve with that on your floor in in commissioner harrison to other commissioners that that would be something that if you could let the chair vice chair know by the monday preceding a meeting which the next one would be that monday the 7th if you could let them know by noon just because they're trying to get me all the agenda items by five just so that we can get the agenda posted in a timely matter those would be examples commissioner harris's examples would be things that you would bring forth to the chair vice chair to be placed on on the agenda and um commissioner harris i i did write that down and i'll touch base with you before our next meeting so i just want to let you know that you are being heard and um thank you for sharing that and we'll talk about it all right i'd like to echo that same sentiment and also just thank you commissioner harris for the work you are doing with the south district neighborhood association they get a chance to go to that crime and safety meeting that you had all held with the south district neighborhood association members and some of the police department as well and it was really eye-opening one to just be able to hear uh all of the concerns but also just to hear about some of the methods that um the police force was looking to use to try to mitigate things and also solutions come up yeah and see this is kind of where you're kind of getting into a discussion of something that's not on the agenda so this is what we're trying to avoid because you're commenting based upon something another commissioner said which is leading to the discussion so that's that's what we're trying to get at exactly my apologies no problem thank you is that not good uh do we have anyone else on the commission that would like to speak on this item prior to going agenda item number nine so i just have a question are we giving ideas right now for future discussion are we saying that we're in support of this um you can do either or at this time i just wanted to let you know that it's for a new agenda item it would be something that we just want to ensure that we have added for a future meeting to just make sure that the public has ample notice and i think the way the agenda read was just more of a discussion of adding this as an agenda item i think if individual commissioners have things that they want discussed again that would be something to follow up with the chair and vice chair just being mindful of a monday at noon or some type of similar um deadline to to make sure that we can get the agendas posted in time um i don't mean to interrupt you but can we just have a vote on it like to add it to the agenda for next week or you know so we can talk about it next week or there so there doesn't need to be a vote eric since we all just agree on it it's there's no voting on agenda items so that's why i said i'll touch base with you beforehand so i can get the specifics of what you want on the agenda since muhammad and i make it and send it to steph but i will touch base with you before our next meeting and before i send the agenda in is this something that should be brought to a subcommittee before brought to the whole commission when it comes to agenda items uh from the way that the bylaws are structured you can always just bring it directly to chair and vice chair you can go the route of talking to your subcommittee first as well if you would all like to present it together or just to show more importance behind it but at the end of the day yeah just make sure you just reach out to us and i'm always open to anything being added to the agenda so uh yeah just that notice is just the minky okay if we don't have anything else on that then we are now on agenda item number nine which is discussion on whether to hold a special meeting to meet with uh ron wakabayashi and i will hand this over to commissioner ali [Music] um so i met ron uh through my um conversations with the divided community project ron is an asian american who um excuse me was involved in a truth and reconciliation process in the united states um when uh japanese americans suffered um from the internment camps after world war ii um they dealt with a lot of um a lot of injustices because of that and um ron was a part of the human relations commission and the coalition that helped um bring justice and they were involved in a trc process and they actually received reparations for the japanese americans who are harmed by this and i just think it would be really important for us to hear his experience and how that worked out because i i think that hearing from someone who got testimony and was a part of this process that was successful uh would be really important for the rest of the commission and i wanted to ask permission before i just um brought him forward and see if you guys were interested in having this discussion um and hearing how that process went for him and with that i will yield to the floor i've had the opportunity to meet him as well and i think he's fantastic individual and he's been great with sharing articles uh recently with just reform ideas but also things he's been involved with in the past but anyone we can get to present to us on the success of a trc i think is beneficial so i'd be in support of it i want to hear from him i also agree even if i'd never heard of him but having hearing from commissioner treyore and ali and having gone through this experience uh the most of us are starting i i would want to hear because i know i would benefit i will benefit i agree as well i would definitely like to hear more phone i was just gonna say i'll make it happen we can go on to the next agenda item if nobody else has anything to add well i just want to say i agree as well too so we talked about this already so i agree as well because not only were they um incarcerated after world war ii they were incarcerated during world war ii so yeah eric's quite a historian i don't know if you guys know that he actually schooled me on this subject when i was talking to him about it it's actually very interesting but okay thanks guys for your input i will try to make this happen for at least the next meeting and thank you for finding him yeah no problem yeah right and with that we are now on agenda item number 10 commission announcements so just a reminder commissioners shall not engage in discussion with one another concerning said announcements and would just like to ask at this time if there are any other commissioners that would like to make any announcements i just wanted to i'm not sure if this is the right time to say this to correct me if this is not um but i did have a a good discussion um with the south district neighborhood association um in my organization we're partnering to work on national night out which is coming out coming up in august which is going to be a good event that maybe the trc can partner with and it was actually asked if we could do so so maybe that could be talked about in the future and i yield the floor um my announcement is more to the general public but um the united states just recently lowered the age requirements for getting a colonoscopy to 45 and i think that it's really important that everyone gets checked and listened to their bodies my partner was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer as 23 years old so it's something that is very important to me and i encourage you to tell your loved ones who have reached that age to get themselves checked out because the cases of colon cancer are rising amongst adults between 30 to 40 so it's really important it does affect the marginalized community disproportionately so yeah with that i yield to the floor um i have an announcement um on saturdays in the south district on june 12th june 19th june 26 july 7 and july 10th at the kingdom center they're going to have a diversity market so it's going to be food trucks it's going to be people's it's going to be a pop-up event um where people can come through people are going to be selling all type of things it's going to be most people from the bypa community um and it's going to be at the kingdom center which is at 6 11 south gate avenue in iowa city in the south district and there'd be a lot of people that would be trucks there'd be food trucks it'd be people selling things it's a really good event with that ideal floor i just wanted to announce a volunteer opportunity particularly for young people in our community so two organizations that i care a lot about are neighbors of iowa city and the shelter house and they are partnering together on a new housing first build that is being done by hodge construction but they are looking for volunteers ages 16 to 23 to volunteer in building the project throughout the month of june dates include sunday june 6 thursday june 10th thursday june 24th and sunday june 27th so if you're between the ages of 16 and 23 or no folks who are and want to get involved in an exciting housing project for some of the most vulnerable folks in our community i would ask that you reach out to neighbors of iowa city and sign up their email address is neighbors of iowa city gmail.com thanks [Music] thank you and i would just like to say that um prior to the next meeting um i will just be making sure i get with a few people from each subcommittee just to ensure i just go over some notes and things i learned from the leadership training i went to last week in ankeny and i just think there are some really nice things we could try to implement to help streamline our process a little more and just ensure that we don't have to just depend on public meetings to get items done or to just to see where we align and how we want to move forward and that we can get some action items together uh so i have a document on that typed up already and i'll just be sure to share that with all of you by the end of the weekend one but two as well just to get into the subcommittee meetings to ensure that that spread there and the only other thing i'd like to say this time is that we have not changed uh schedules yet for future meetings so at this time our next meeting would be in two weeks because we are so bi-weekly by what we had voted on so that would be june 10th that thursday i would just like to say this time if we do decide at that meeting or one immediately after that we need to move to a monthly meetings i'm open to doing a vote on something of that nature and that's all i have i just want to make two announcements uh i came across a flyer letting people in the community know that the police department is hiring so and i think it's police officers from the community so just pointing out to and spreading the word and then also kakkud community college the english as a second language department they are also hiring teachers the person in church it's on their website say that by september they're looking to hire 16 teachers those are my two announcements i yield if we do not have any other announcements at this time then we will be moving on to agenda item number 11 which is staff announcements thank you um i i don't have much i just i think each of you should have received a an email about some upcoming juneteenth activities and one of those is uh education and resource fair which is on wednesday june 16th it's being held virtually it starts at four i mentioned this to the human rights commission at their meeting on tuesday if if any of them were interested on participating in that education or resource fair to let me know and i would just extend that same invitation to um any trc members who wanted to participate in that virtual education or resource to let me know um as long as we don't get past that four we should be okay so if you could just send me a note um so that i could um get you registered to participate that would be greatly appreciated and as always it's a pleasure working with each of you and i hope you all enjoy the long weekend so thank you thank you very much stephanie and we are now on the last agenda item which is adjournment so i just need a motion to adjourn and a second rivera moved commissioner ollie second and stephanie can we please get roll call sure uh commissioner ali yes commissioner daniel yes commissioner dillard yes commissioner gathawa yes commissioner harris yes commissioner johnson yes commissioner rivera yes commissioner sakawis yes and commissioner treyarch yes okay nine zero thank you thank you everyone and with that we are now journey