HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRC 20210624 auto captionsuh it's
now 7 10 p.m and calling the meeting to
order
and stephanie can we please give we'll
call
commissioner ali
commissioner daniel president
commissioner dillard president
commissioner gathaw president
commissioner harris
president commissioner johnson
here commissioner rivera here
here
right first and foremost we do have
public comment of items not on the
agenda
so if we do have anyone in the public
that would like to speak on any items
not on tonight's agenda we will be sure
to give you your full five minutes to do
so
please raise your hand
all right um not looking like we have
any public comment
okay in that case so before moving on to
agenda item number three
i just want to ensure that we do give
commissioner novice the opportunity
to speak on this item and to present as
well
so same goes as well with
uh item number four
the committee budget updates and also
the needs for votes and
talk on the stipend subcommittee needs
operational budget completion just want
to ensure that she has ability to hear
all of that
so if it is okay with everyone at the
moment i would like to move
to budget item number i mean um
number five on our agenda and then we
can come back to item number three
so item number five is timeline for
future meetings and meeting frequency
so at the moment we did talk in the
last meeting about how we would need
another bi-weekly meeting
for july 8th uh just to use that meeting
to get
budget straightened out and passed for
the operational budget
so it seems like we're very close to
getting that completed
most subcommittees have now had the
opportunity to meet but after
today's budget subcommittee updates i
believe that we'll have
a little bit more of a picture kind of
of
what needs to be discussed in the next
two weeks prior to that
final meeting july 8th
i do want to open it up for a
conversation on if
everyone wants to move to monthly
meetings after that july 8th meeting or
if we would rather
continue on bi-weekly schedule and also
to let you know
that i've been informed that if it comes
down to monthly meetings
the week that would be open for us would
be the fourth
thursday of every month
so does anyone have any thoughts on
doing bi-weekly verse monthly
um this is commissioner ollie speaking
i'm just gonna go first
um and just be really quick i i think we
should continue
bi-weekly until after we've established
a facilitator i know it's kind of
annoying
um but i don't think that this stuff
should wait
um for the fourth thursday or whatever
you know you just said um of every month
i think that the work that we're doing
is important
um especially since we're going to be
having this conversation regarding a
stipend i think that
you know we should continue meeting
bi-weekly
um i would say probably like maybe even
like a couple weeks after we hire
um the facilitator and i think
it's it's just in our best interest to
do that
does anyone else have any thoughts i
want to
pig back on this is uh commissioner
huang
i want to piggyback on commissioner
ali's
comments and suggestions i'm
feeling we have a lot on our plate
and also kind of
we have a lot of things in the air
that we are trying to
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to lay foundations as we move
so um thinking
not to move away because of that
not to move away from the two weeks
meeting
just because we've got a lot of ground
to cover and a lot of foundations to lay
that's my
rationale for that suggestion
um i can go um this is haircare
um i would rather stay a bite um like
bi-weekly um
especially with bringing up the part
about the stipend thing
i want to stay at bi-weekly um i would
also
like to move to say that eventually we
have to meet in person
that's
some point um
people lots of people have been
vaccinated and things like that
so you might want to think about that
too you know about meeting the person
because i think it'd be more
impersonal with me in person instead of
just all these zoom calls
actually um commissioner harris i'm just
gonna
based upon what you just said so
currently the the governor
has um an order in place that suspends
the requirement to hold public
um meetings or hearings in person it's
possible that she could
change that order at any time and if
that is changed
then the trc would be required to be
meeting in person
thank you for that information yes and
stephanie as i remember as you said uh
so it's it would expire at the end of
this week if it's not renewed
and then in that case okay yes
and and due to um some of the new
requirements from the city council the
the original location um at a recreation
center
at mercer um mercer does not have some
of the um
the the equipment or the accommodations
that will be needed
the the city council once um
commissions our meeting in person
requires for the meetings to be recorded
in audio recorded
and so at that point we're going to be
looking at um
you know probably city hall or something
similar that has the
the capabilities for meetings to be
recorded
and also having projector and computer
access
and so you'll probably be meeting at at
city hall
the parking at the ramp right across the
street there's there's no cost to
the park um by the time your meeting
starts and
city hall is also on a bus line where it
lets out
directly adjacent to
the city hall so that's something to be
mindful of and once
um you change to in-person meetings
there's not going to be like a hybrid
option there's not going to be a zoom
option
okay so you're gonna need to be in
person because the meetings are only
being recorded
and then they will play um on city
channel for youtube etc but there's not
going to be like a live
uh broadcast of the meetings so just so
everybody understands that
some members of the public will have to
attend in person as well
that's correct and stephanie is there
any way to
amend that to create more inclusivity
like to make it so that people can
attend
any lives that aren't comfortable still
or well the
the depending on the date that you
decide tentatively
it looks like the fourth thursday of
each month
um emma harvard hall which is also known
as council chambers is available
that that's a pretty large space where
um
persons could you know socially distance
if they wanted to
um depending on the date
if you're still meeting twice a month i
can't guarantee that you will always be
in harvard hall it could be that you're
in a little smaller space
but i as staff obviously would do my
best to to try to um
accommodate anyone who had concerns
whether they're a member of the public
or
um a member of the commission but if the
if the governor doesn't continue
um the suspension then there there's not
a lot of options in terms of
in-person meetings and the
correspondence that i have received from
the the city is that the the meetings
are recorded and there's not this
hybrid option
um yeah i can agree the table let's talk
about it later because we have to see
what the governor is going to do so
that's nothing that part of it in person
that doesn't have to be
decided tonight but i mean we can talk
about that like because we have to see
what the governor wants to do
one thing i just wanted to uh talk about
for
now is just the factor of
um so when i say that like the fourth
thursday of each month
i just want you all to realize that
would still mean that there'd still be
two meetings in july because there's
still a fourth thursday in july
so there's still two meetings that would
happen and the rfp
for facilitator expires july
13th i believe said still be another two
weeks to even get to review those before
that meeting would happen
but also to remember to that first
facilitator process
we can call for a special meeting at any
time
so it doesn't specifically mean we can
only meet once a month
there can be other meetings scheduled
and asked for
and i understand the concerns of need to
work on this
need to work on this but if public
meetings are bi-weekly
my fear as well is we have less of that
we're actually focusing on
directly in subcommittees on specific
topics
and getting moving on those things
because then we'd have
bi-weekly meetings getting sub-committee
meetings in
scheduling those getting those all
around and
i just want to ensure that we are
actually prioritizing that as well
because otherwise
these meetings then become need to
schedule subcommittee
things in general for each of these and
when we're talking about details we need
to iron out
that pushes those around as well and
also lengthens the public meetings
so just some things to be very on
no no one will reference the stipend
thing as well
just because we're not in a public
meeting doesn't mean you can't be doing
work
related to this subcommittee meetings
meeting people in public going to
people's trc meetings
volunteering things of that nature uh
going to events where you're just
learning about more people in the
community
showing your face and things of that
nature
it's like if we keep doing the bi-weekly
schedule
it's like my fear with that as well is
other things that could pop up in the
summer that people want to do or that
people need
to do or just in general of having a
schedule around
all of those things so just some things
to be wary of whereas
if we have one monthly public meeting
can always call a special meeting if
needed for
some topic that absolutely needs to be
addressed
this is commissioner rivera i was going
to bring up the same thing that you had
mentioned mo
just the idea that it is hard to
schedule subcommittee meetings um
in like the week and a half that we have
in between
our public meetings for that reason i i
do hope that
you know shortly after we do have a
facilitator facilitator in place we move
to monthly meetings but for right now i
see the reasoning that was
raised by commissioners um ali gathua
and
harris so far and i would agree with the
idea for
for right now continuing bi-weekly
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i just want to clarify by monthly
yeah that twice a month yeah okay
perfect thank you
um this is commissioner ali um and this
might be a question for
stephanie um but so
if slash when we do go to monthly
meetings
um
if we have to hold a special meeting uh
how does that work
where would we need to meet with the
city how would
accommodations for that work if we do
have to meet face to face and
zoom isn't an option i agree with that
yeah there's enough um city facilities
that i'm not concerned with
finding a location but in in terms of
where it would be it would depend on the
date
i you know i that i i don't know ahead
of time if another commissioner board
has something reserved then you know
city hall may not be an option but there
would be other options that would be
able to um
accommodate the commission so i i guess
i wouldn't let
that be a concern but it may not be
in council chambers or um emma harvey
hall it just kind of depends on the date
um okay thank you um and just so
we can kind of keep this meeting moving
forward since i see cicalos is back on
um i do want to say that i agree i think
monthly meetings are really
something that we should push towards i
just want
to hire a facilitator and i don't i want
those set dates to be
dates where there's meetings and things
like that
and if by you know
that last meeting in july we've picked
someone
then we just have to have that first
meeting in august and then we move to
the last thursday i think that that's
totally fine
and i i just would really push
to wait to make this decision until
we've gotten a facilitator
on board um and i'm going to yield to
the floor with that
anyone else have anything on that one
this commissioner johnson i agree it
just makes sense
okay so sounds like thus far was
no changes being made so in that case
the next meetings would be
july 8th and then july 22nd
and then from there
be august 4th i believe
no wait no 31 days
fifth okay so
yeah uh july 8th july 22nd
and then august 5th
all right um and stephanie is there's no
votes needed on that right since
that's already kind of bylaw thing
yeah i think since they're not making
any changes i think you're fine not
voting
and i'll start sharing the screen again
for the agenda
okay um with that
that is agenda item number five so we
can now move back
up to agenda item number three which
were the
updates from commissioner novice on the
land acknowledgement and also the
discussion
of land acknowledgement and i will now
yield the floor to commissioner novus
i wonder if we can open it up to public
comment oh
all right is there anyone from the
public
that would like to comment on agenda
item number three
if you raise your hand we'll be sure to
call on you and give you five minutes
okay uh commissioner nobis
i don't see any hands so looks like the
floor
is yours thank you i apologize for being
late
um it's been a hard few days for the
indigenous community
so i was uh doing some self-care
so um sorry about that um
so uh yes i've worked on the land
acknowledgement and spoken to
a few different um highway
uh expert neko niway expert
um my own like around you and talked to
a squawky person uh about the land
acknowledgement
and this is uh what uh we've come up
with
so i'll read it to everybody
we meet today in the community of iowa
city which now occupies the homelands of
native american nations to whom we owe
our commitment and dedication
the area of iowa city was within the
homelands of the iowa musquaki
sac and because history is complex and
time goes far back beyond memory
we also acknowledge the ancient
connections of many other indigenous
people here
the history of broken treaties and
forced removal
that dispossessed indigenous peoples of
their homelands
was and is an act of colonization and
genocide that we cannot erase
we implore the iowa city community to
commit to understanding and addressing
these injustices as we work toward
equity restoration and reparations
so basically we removed the longer list
of
people in the area as specifically to
iowa city this was
home to iowa muskoki and sac people
and then i added the ward reparations at
the end
as i feel that a land acknowledgement is
very empty
without trying to make um some taken
action
um otherwise why are we reading this
it's basically just telling people
hey um sorry we stole your land and uh
murdered you all but hey we're on your
land and acknowledging it
so um i really do want to um make sure
that we
we do our best to uh get people to take
action
um that is it for the lending management
i don't know thank you sagas can you um
just read a part again
was it something along the lines of we
implore the iowa city community
yes
we implore the iowa city community to
commit to understanding and addressing
these injustices
as we work toward equity restoration and
reparations i can put this in the chat
is that a good idea
um you know i i i really like the way
that lion reads uh because
originally i was wondering sort of who
the voice of this is right so it's the
body of our commission
maybe the human rights commission as
well um but
um some original discussions were for us
to
if both of our bodies were to adopt this
land acknowledgement for us to
recommend the city council adopted as
well
and then further push it out to other
commissions and bodies so the way that
it says
you know we implore the iowa city
community to
understand
those things right and then it says as
we
work towards equity restoration and
reparation
so the onus is still on the the city
bodies
to work towards those means um those
results
um and so i still i i appreciate the way
that that uh sentence is constructed
thank you and commissioner sakawis you i
gave you co-host permission and so if
you want to share your screen
that is another way for everybody to see
it okay
thank you uh do you want me to share it
please do i need to okay all right
excuse me for a second
and while it's going up is i just really
want to extend my gratitude for you
i'm doing a lot of heavy lifting um on
this
and working with some elders and
reaching out um
so that we can get some of their wisdom
as well
thank you so here we are
do you think that if other bodies um
in johnson county wanted to adopt
this land acknowledge igno
acknowledgement it would still
be appropriate um like let's say if it
was just like
coralville city council or something
like that
um or would we ask that they do their
own research and you know make sure that
they're
um acknowledging their right native
communities
i i think coralville would probably use
the same
the same uh
pretty much all of it is the same yeah
like the same people were in horrorville
too
i'd say as well for the other
communities or areas that would want to
adopt something similar
i would leave the onus on them to do
their own research because we
the line is in there to commit to
understanding and addressing these
injustices
so if it's just generally written for
everyone
and they have to do no work whatsoever
then i feel like it would leave it kind
of hollow
and how they would be adopting it and
it'd be more talk
and i'm actually believing in it in a
sense
it's like i'd want them to truly do
their own work
in terms of like looking at the words in
here
and then finding how it relates to them
reaching out to those native american
communities as well
see which groups it responds to and
things like that
instead of just taking everything from
city of iowa city and just saying okay
we're just going to change the word iowa
city to
this locality if that makes sense but
that's just my opinion
yeah i think that's great
was there any editing of the purpose
paragraph above
the official land acknowledgment
i don't remember now um
i think there was yes i did edit this
as well um i tend to want to be more
uh much more brutally honest and so i
probably went through and
made some changes in that uh capacity
but
um but i don't think i would have made
any
big changes but i do remember going
through it
but you have access to this document too
um i think i believe you and muhammad
have access to this uh i don't know
i don't think so um
i will have to put it in the drive in
case it's not in there
this might be like or it should be the
same one you shared with me actually
so yeah yeah i i don't think that i
when i share it to you as like a sort of
digital non-online copy so i don't think
that i have
the most recently edited version oh okay
so i'll i'll do that
i don't i don't know if i have access to
the drive i don't
but yeah i can put that in there figure
that out yeah
um is there any way i could also this is
commissioner
uh is it also possible to get a copy
and just go through
yeah um i will i don't
have everybody's emails i don't think
maybe mohammed you
you send a lot of emails out to the
group right can you just add them to
this
like so they can do it yeah yeah i'll do
that and what i can do is i can just
download the document
and uh just send it to the ad hoc truth
at iowacd.org one and
that'll just send it to everyone okay
but um i i i think
it would be better for for it to be sent
to me and for me to send it out to
commissioners to reply to
their changes otherwise you're basically
having a meeting okay thank you
stephanie
so is what we're moving toward uh taking
another two weeks for everyone to review
this on their own and then making a vote
on it next time
yes and does anyone know when the human
uh rights commission meets next
because another thing that can be done
is to send uh
this current document as is to human
rights commission
in case they're meeting prior to then
they won't be i can look it up but they
meet the fourth tuesday of every month
so they're not meeting until late july
okay i'll make sure to reach out to
um commissioner lindley
and who's who's also joining us today um
and so to hear her thoughts and maybe i
can um
uh use those thoughts in in my
suggestions for the
for the document yeah yeah and i was
going to say i could
i could also ask the chair jessica
andino if
um she has any questions but i feel like
whatever we do i think it'll get to the
human rights commission either way
uh this is commissioner again i
i want to thank commissioner sir carries
and
kevo for uh leading on this
and the work even if
for
uh even if it it's painful
uh you have continued to lead us in it
and even uh
some of it we we knew but
bringing that home i
i didn't i knew about the history of the
mesquite
and colonization and i've
i've done a bit of work i've also been
to the
reservation and done some work with the
elders and
uh and
in the middle school
and some activities but
it's barely even
listening to one of their historians
jonathan
it's still barely scratching the surface
but i can never lie and see it's never
traumatic for me especially
when we talk colonization because
of course having come from a continent
that was colonized and then
come to the u.s where there is
the history of slavery and also the
what we are addressing even right now in
our meetings
it becomes painful so i appreciate
uh you taking us commissioner sarkaris
taking a lead on this
and bringing something i i didn't even
know
that iowa city sits on
miss kwaki and so clan so as i learned
it it's
i appreciate but i won't lie and see
it doesn't always bring a lot of pain
and a lot of suffering and a lot of
tears
but still having to move on
and keep on telling myself that
one day we shall see
restoration and reparation
and uh and healing
so thank you thank you
and uh thank you um commissioner rivera
for um
spearheading this project yeah yeah a
lot of things to go around i
again wanted to point out that we
received a lot of help from members of
the public including the advocacy of joe
coulter who has been
a really active member of the public in
these meetings and just super
appreciative of his input thus far as
well um
i i um wonder sakawis in your
conversations that you've had thus far
if any of the folks that you've talked
to expressed any interest
in just coming and educating and
providing um
us with um some of their wisdom on on
what sort of the next step after
acknowledgment looks like
right so i am sensitive to you know all
the sentiment that you've raised of
an acknowledgement is just empty words
unless we sort of commit to action
um but we're we're really sort of
floundering
um in that end without hearing directly
from sort of the voices of elders
yeah i can certainly ask lance foster
the tribal historian of the
highway of kansas and
see if if he would be interested he's
very knowledgeable
on this area and
these are the original stewards of this
land here so
i can see if he'd be interested in
having a discussion with us there might
be sacred
spots within the iowa city area that we
should look into
um getting protected or turning into
you know special spaces um
yeah so thank you for asking that
i'll look into it thanks
i just want to thank you as well for the
amount of effort put in and
for uh especially being willing to share
that today
with the news that has come out today
and over the past few weeks
um additionally
so i want to make sure that we do cover
this
once again in the next meeting that
we're going to have
so in the meantime let's just be sure
that we do reach out to
the human rights commission so they do
get the opportunity to see it
and we can just move closer to getting
this
land acknowledgment actually voted on
does anyone have anything else that
they'd like to say on this current topic
or does anyone have any motions that
they would like to go forward on it
go ahead
this doesn't have to do with the current
topic i just want to make sure it's
finished before i actually
ask my next question because it's to
stephanie it's completely off topic
i'm wondering whether we are ready to to
really
make any emotions on it yet
i've personally felt from moe's
sentiment and from cycalis and from
everyone else that we should
wait until after we get feedback from
the
other commissions and then um come back
and vote on this
personally i just wanted to say what i
meant was more so feedback from human
rights commission
in terms of it being in tandem with them
so i i feel that
after we hear from them then
it would be you know possible to have a
vote since those are the two that were
really like
intertwined with working on it but if we
do want to reach out to others
too everyone can feel free to do so but
those are just my thoughts on it
um steph
yes i i was i'm wondering if
we approved the minutes from last week
um is that something that we don't
don't have to do anymore no no you no
that's a great question so you do but
you'll just
have to approve two sets of minutes at
your your next meeting
okay from the from the previous one and
from tonight
okay okay perfect i just wanted to make
sure
it never hurts to check so i appreciate
that okay thank you
um i'll yield to the floor so we can
move on to the next agenda item in case
anyone
prior to moving on however did anyone
else have anything else on
budget on item number three for the line
acknowledgement
just wanna make sure
okay we are on to agenda
item number four which is budget
subcommittee updates
overview also including discussion on
budget line items
commissioner stipend and subcommittee
needs and timeline for completion of
operational budget
prior to us beginning our discussion i
want to ensure that we do give the
public
an opportunity to comment on this is
there anyone in the public that
would like to make a comment on agenda
item number four
on the budget subcommittee updates at
this time
okay it doesn't look like we have anyone
from the public
to speak on this item just want to make
sure we give you one more chance
okay all right so we are now
on to the commission discussion
so a bit of an overview just wanted to
give quickly
so we did have the budget subcommittee
meeting on
monday evening so from what we had
gathered there
uh it seems that we are very very close
to having an operational budget ready
and
at this point i feel that the things
that we're stressing
are more so budget to get through
about labor day or so that would give us
enough time to get a facilitator in
to do a little more work with
subcommittees and to truly know
a little bit more of what we may need
for subcommittees
before just passing a budget where we're
just looking to just allocate all this
money and not knowing exactly where we
want to spend it
um the main things that were really
looked at
were subcommittees what you want to do
in terms of your researchers
or collaborators that you may want to
work with
thoughts on how much you may want to
spend on those things and those are
things you can discuss in subcommittees
as well
or if you'd like to discuss a little bit
more of that tonight in terms of
guidance or anything but other than that
the main thing i just really had was
the line on the stipend
so does anyone have any thoughts on
anything
in terms of subcommittee needs the
general budget
or the stipend um i just have a question
so if we're gonna wait
and this might be a question that um
stuff may be
better to answer but if we wait to
submit
um the operational budget until let's
say after like what
labor day i don't know what day that is
is it in september
i didn't mean wait till labor day i
meant like one like an operational
budget to cover things through labor day
oh okay sorry sorry i thought i thought
you meant
shoot to have one sent to them by labor
day
um so my question was going to be then
if there are things
um and i guess it's still a question to
ask stuff if there are things that we
buy that are specific towards uh like
commission needs or things like that um
is there is there something that can be
put in the budget
to like for reimbursement or like
um like let's say we're gonna be doing
an event with another
uh outside entity and we're gonna have a
table there
but we don't have like any flyers or
anything like that and
someone takes it upon themselves to get
you know 40 flyers printed go
pick up some poster board draw some
beautiful sign
for the trc and they spend 70
doing all of that um
is that something that would need to be
put in the budget for like
reimbursement for things because i'm
wondering if like
you know like if we're even if we're
having like
i don't know like reimbursement for gas
if someone's going somewhere or like
things like that i just
i i had meant to ask that question and
unfortunately i missed the meeting on
monday so
that was one of the big things that was
kind of stuck in my head
so you you gave two different examples
that are not necessarily similar
if if the commission member is attending
an event on behalf of the trc
say you're going to a seminar or
something um
and and you're wanting reimbursement for
parking or for mileage then that would
be something that you could submit to me
and
i would run that through accounting for
reimbursement
if you're talking about getting things
printed for an event
that that would be something that you
could send to to staff and i mean it's
not an
issue for for us to get flyers printed
or something like that so i think
um generally speaking
most of the things for reimbursement
would would really be related more
towards travel needs or parking needs um
or maybe participating in an event that
required
um you to travel some distance
but but generally speaking if you're
registering for an event that has a
charge
that that would be something that you
could alert staff to and we could use
what we call
a p card and we would put it on the p
card
um so i i don't think there's a lot of
opportunities for reimbursement and
those that are
would probably be related to to travel
in indoor parking
but but most of those kind of clerical
things you you probably
could just shoot me an email or call me
and um
i i don't foresee there being any
complications in terms of the city being
able to do
those things for the commission
thank you that was you answered my
question perfectly
um this is um paris um i got something
to say about
you know interrelation about being
reimbursed for things you know
understand that you know gas mileage or
putting up flyers or things like that
and i think that you know a stipend
would take those things away you know if
you're getting a stipend you have to
maybe spend seventy dollars on something
like that
or something parking if you're getting a
stipend then you don't have to
go through the complicated process of
trying to reclaim money from the city
you know if you're getting a stipend you
have to pay for some parking
you're getting a sniper so
you should use that for that with that
idea
does anyone have anything else to add
before we kind of move towards
the stipend because i think that's kind
of like the hot
topic of the budget um currently
and i do have some opinions but i want
to make sure that we get everything
spoken about before we get on to that
because i think that's going to take the
majority of the time
for this discussion i just want to list
some of the current
line items we do have in the budget just
so everyone's just aware
yeah do you mind sharing your screen
yeah
just want to let everyone know once
again these are preliminary just
dummy numbers for the most part when it
comes to the actual
subcommittees in themselves just because
we don't really have a
full clarity on what exactly we'll need
and i think i just want to mention that
this
and the land acknowledgement will will
need to be sent to me
so that they can be put as a part of the
packet
so so that they can be archived with the
package so
they might be dry offs um and not finals
but they still just need to be archived
so i just wanted to let everybody know
thank you
yeah yeah these are in this in the trc
folder so
it'll be pretty easy to get these to you
as well and uh so again these being
dummy numbers in that sense i just put a
round number in this box
just um what i felt might end up being a
top end number
and then chromebooks for commissions so
i put we put an amount of 350 in that
for august
as in one facilitator being hired
want them to have a computer dedicated
to just their work on the commission
so in terms of collecting any files or
anything that they may be working on and
things of that nature
not having it mixed with some other
computer or anything like that
um facilitator as well in this sense
so this monthly amount that was put in
is
literally just based off of the past
contract that was written in
this is in no way guaranteeing this this
is what the payment amount would be
but more so kind of looking at what the
top end might be based off
what is currently going on um for
experts
in training so these are once again also
just
dummy numbers not really knowing how
much we may need for that
what those rfps may require um
how many experts how much training
people feel that we need
advertising outreach so this line is
more so in that sense of
flyers in terms of social media posts
if city social media post pages if it
was one
if we're wanting to pay for um
advertising for boosting of of posts to
kind of get
word out on certain things or also if
someone needed to be paid to
actually do this outreach
videographer as well so been in
conversations with someone from english
theater he'd be doing this work separate
from
angler however but it would just be like
that aspect of
wanting to have video of people's
testimonies um
and i do know that we have you know some
city staff city channel 4 for that
but in the off chance that a backup is
needed
or as well in that factor of if people
will feel less comfortable speaking with
a direct long-time standing city
person and they'd rather speak with
someone else
then um the fee that this videographer
has told me that he would be willing to
work under
us basically that four thousand dollar
mark
for this time span of
four months and
uh this this would include about 90 to
120 minutes of footage
after editing
and then for each subcommittee as well
kind of just
have some just rough numbers in there
just not knowing exactly how much people
may want
so left some months out here and there
this can be spread out however
however which way but just want to let
everyone know as well
the main cutoff that we'd kind of be
looking for for the first iteration
of budget is pretty much towards labor
day or end of september
because we can always come back and
revise these things just wanted to make
sure this was all plotted out
on longer term so we could kind of see
okay how much would this end up running
over the course
of full commission if the spending were
to continue
at that rate
so researchers collaborators are on
their materials
in terms of anything you may need in
terms of getting paperwork or printing
certain things
and had added it up to about a total
of just around 500 000
if it was going to be for every
subcommittee all general budgets and
everything over the course of the entire
length
of the commission through about end of
july if it were to go through that
if you were extrapolated out to about
september october then that number would
come
about closer to 600 000 but again that's
only if you take
all numbers in here as if they're being
spent in the same way all throughout
because remember as well the facilitator
at any time has decided we don't need
that
can be taken out and
things like that but that's all i have
on that at this time
if anyone has any questions or would
like to go over that and
not have that opportunity
what's the monthly totals what's the
second what's above facilitator
where the commission stipend line
oh that's okay and then um
my so i'm just going to make a
strong suggestion that we
pause on the video videographer until we
have a
solid idea of when we're gonna need him
for
how long a video he's gonna take for how
many people
because i believe that the people that
we're gonna be video
taking videos of deserve um some type of
payment as well
um and so i really think and i don't
know
what this looks like to other people i
know i've brought this up in
subcommittee meetings
um when people are giving their
testimony to us
i i think it can be different from what
we gather to put in like a video
or a movie or documentary type of thing
where we talk about the experiences of
people i think of those as two different
things
um so i do some i don't think that you
know channel 4 is gonna you know help us
put this movie together so i think the
videographer is a really essential
and a really good person to have but i
also think before we think
about the videographer we need to really
sit down as a commission
and specifically plan um how we're going
to go about using the videographer
because i don't think
that it would be useful for us to use
them as the same
at the same time that channel 4 and
everyone is there it might have to be
like an
off-site type of thing where it's just
one commissioner
and then it's like seven testimonies
getting videotaped
um yeah yeah
before you go i just wanted to say that
like that's what i meant
in terms of like uh someone that might
not want to speak to the city in that
sense
but uh it's also pushed off until august
in that sense but again this is
a budget of where money can be spent and
allocated
i feel as though so again if this is
gonna be something that's gonna be
pushed off it needs to be spoken about
sooner rather than later so we can go
over that next meeting or something in
that sense
because otherwise that again just pushes
it off even more
and then pushes off gathering different
testimonies even more
so kind of just been floating this idea
for
a bit now so yeah let's just make sure
that we just talk about it
sooner rather than later yeah i think
that i'm going to end up
just reiterating a lot of what was
already said by you commissioner ali but
um and you uh chair
uh i think the reason that we initially
kind of slotted the start date of the
videographer in august or at least this
summer was because we were
thinking about at least for our first
video project sitting
um having videographers sit down with
each of the commissioners for some
interviews so that we can produce a
short
video that like highlights some of the
sort of personalities and
um priorities of the individual
commissioners so that we can put that
out to the public so that
they have a better understanding of who
we are as a commission
um but i certainly think that we can
shift those numbers around to any sort
of date on this timeline
but the the lump sum would end up still
being the same
i agree that um
the the if we do
put together sort of a large video
project as one of the main works of this
commission
it shouldn't necessarily be primarily
raw footage from any of our public
meetings or hearings but we can sort of
start to gather
testimony and then we can maybe ask
individuals who have shared if they
would like to come back and then share
and via a separate recording so that we
have a little bit more control over that
production
that's all i wanted to say
[Music]
thank you commissioner this commissioner
uh thank you commissioner triori for
sharing the screen uh
i i'm sorry to interrupt daphne had her
has had her hand up
oh okay okay after daphne speaks then i
it's you can take the floor but i just
want to make sure that she's heard
because she's
she's had her hand up for a while okay
thank you thank you
so as far as the videographer is
concerned
i i think we if we want to get this like
a project done
in august then we need to invite
bids on a contract
um i am i've never really been
comfortable with
um no bid contracts in government and so
i i don't i think we have a duty um
to open that process um i
also i i think offering payment for
testimony
is not a good idea i think that's a very
slippery slope
and i i do think it would undermine
some of like it would it would undermine
the work that we're doing
um because at the end of the day someone
could reject
what someone has to say because they
feel like this person is just trying to
get
paid so i i would like
to see if there's an alternative to that
we did discuss
child care and making it easier for
people and
i i really think that's what we should
focus on
and and not on paying people for their
truth
thank you yeah i appreciate that i agree
i
probably didn't use the best verbiage i
meant more on
like uh paying paying people for their
time
to have to come back and rehash that
truth on camera
which may not be in one cut and i think
that
i'm open to discussing like other things
that
we can do i just don't want to have
someone who's going to keep rehashing
their trauma maybe
um or things like that just
doing it without
them some type of something if that
makes sense and it might not be for
you know it doesn't have to be a money
figure or anything like that
it doesn't have to be cash or anything
like that i just i
i agree i i want to repay people for the
time that they are giving us for
giving their testimony and with that i'm
going to give the floor to
commissioner gathua yeah thank you i'll
just start
there sometimes the term sometimes that
is used
when somebody you uh
somebody is giving you something and
sometimes the word that's used is
reciprocity
and yeah one area
like commissioner daniels is is
suggesting
maybe child care or mileage
but that's yeah without uh
really using the word yeah
payment because you can't really
whatever they would be giving
is priceless okay i'll go on to my own
point i was
a commissioner treyore thank you for
sharing that because
i saw what i
i what was at the forefront of my mind
a researcher pay and collaborators
i'm glad to see that there because i'm
seeing already
we are all around we are going to use
uh we're going to use people and
collaborate with people
then something else uh
because of mentioning that i'm not
totally going oh
i think maybe now that we mentioned
researchers and
videographers i have a question for
stephanie
as as we
as we collect or listen to experiences
or we find out uh
with the city uh i
i'm thinking about being ethical and
also being legal
i wonder whether we need
uh or which office uh would
uh would ensure this is it something
that we apply for
if it's uh i know if with the
with the schools let's say the
university of iowa
if you are going to gather information
with people if let's say it's a study
you you have the research bureau and the
the ensure that you meet all the ethics
and the
legal things that you need i wonder in
our case
when i'm collecting in we are collecting
information
do we just go or is there a body
a city body that takes care of this
and i think i'm stephanie i think that
i'm directing to you
i mean i'm i'm not aware of a city body
that you would direct it to i think
that's kind of
part of the the charge of the the trc
if i'm understanding your question
correctly
yeah i got asked that question
uh together with uh because we're doing
painful work and then some people are
also feeling uh
it can also be political and hazardous
whether as a commission we would be able
to
how we would be able to assure people so
i just said i'll bring this and i'm
bringing it when we're talking about the
budget
because we talked about videos
and also researching
and collaborating with people
yeah you know i'm not sure that i quite
understand the call of the question
because the commission is
going to be
listening to people and this
even involves uh getting information
from people
and also it also the information is also
public information
uh
whether they we
uh as we go about doing that whether
there is a body
ensuring that as we do that or people
that we're working with
they're doing that uh whether there is
any place even for ourselves and for the
other side to ensure that we are ethical
as we go about it and we are doing it
legally
um i i i mean again
i i'm not sure i ca understand the the
call of the question but
you're you're correct in that any
information that's provided is
is public so so when you're talking
about ethics obviously
in my opinion it would be making sure
that there's disclaimers and that people
realize that it's not confidential
um that that it you know that what
they're
sharing with each of you you know if
there's a request could be shared with
with um everyone um
but i i guess other than that i'm not
really
sure that
i you know i i don't i don't know if
you're referring to
um
like a
it totally yeah i think it's like more
along the lines of like
the like uh legalities like if a court
case or something comes up out of it
maybe that you're thinking of
or like if we're like worried about the
person's safety or something
but we did kind of talk about this uh in
a past meeting and i think it just
really comes down again to
like having that disclaimer aspect of
like
this is like public information
so we're not like actively like forcing
people to come about
like you have to speak on this or you
have to do this
but rather of like if you want to do
this
if you want to speak on this you can
just
know that this is going to be public
if that makes sense yeah it it it does
and
i i mean depending on the circumstances
a person may have
a right under the law to file a
complaint you know
whether that's a complaint of
discrimination or a complaint with the
community police review board
but i mean that that's really going to
be on a case-by-case basis
um that would be determined by the area
that it occurred in and you know at some
points you would run into statute of
limitations
too but i i guess that may be something
that needs to be revisited as it gets
closer in time because
it you know some people may have some
remedies
other people may not um and
and so i i guess having this broad
conversation without more i could say in
some situations it's very possible
a person may have some some legal
remedies
um in terms of what they're addressing
with you but that doesn't necessarily
mean that they would in
all of the circumstances in context of
testimony you may take
it it's probably really going to be on a
case-by-case basis
so um this is commissioner daniel
um i do want to remind everyone that the
budget committee
will be um taking on the collections
like a collections policy when we're
through with the budget
at least that's what i thought we had
agreed on
um and so i i have
working on that and i imagine the ethics
if
if the commission has some ethical uh
positions it wants to adopt as far as
collecting truths and
archiving them for posterity um
i think we can work that into the
collections
uh the collections policies
uh with the discussion that has just
gone on from
stephanie commissioner treyori and what
you've added
commissioner daniel uh i have gotten the
answer that i was looking to
that as we collect it's under
the commission's work that is the
permission
so yeah i do have an answer as
uh going forward uh you've brought me
back to that
to knowing that it's under the
commission and
the constitution of the commission
thank you
are we ready to start talking about the
elephant in the room
oh sorry my mouse said pause but i just
wanted to say
uh yeah uh dr got to it yeah no no
problem at all and thank you for asking
it because
always a good time to ask questions yeah
but uh before we do move on to any
discussion of a stipend i just want to
make it clear
once again a lot of these numbers are
just dummy numbers i
usually just input a number in there
just as a starting point for people to
speak on
if you feel one way or the other and can
speak on that from there
again i just want to say that is
there's nowhere that says that the vote
on the amount
also has to be tonight that's the
decision of everyone on the commission
the main thing is the discussion on it
and if you would like to even have
a commission a stipend be a thing so
with that yield before is that what the
vote is and i didn't know that we were
like i wasn't under the impression that
we even had to vote on anything
regarding the stipend tonight
uh no i'm just i'm just saying like the
main pretense of
the item in itself is that but however
when it comes to amounts being decided i
just want to let everyone know that
you're not
forced to vote on that and you're not
also
and it's like it's discussion is listed
like specifically because
anything where it comes to votes of
approving things or
amounts and things of that nature that
has to be emotion like i can't just
you know um
so i just want to start really quick uh
about this stipend thing just because
i've been thinking long and hard about
it and i spoke to
some people who have good knowledge
on trcs um just briefly a few
people involved in this the college of
law at the university of iowa
one being a woman who has probably
50 years of experience um in
uh south africa and the south african
um truth and reconciliation commission
um so i want to start off by saying that
like
i definitely agree
morally and principally that like we
all deserve uh we all deserve to get
paid for this
work um it's i just don't really have
faith in counsel even like um
entertaining this idea for a slight
second
i know for sure there is one counselor
who's like oh yeah that sounds like a
good idea
um i don't have faith in any of the
other counselors
um like the human rights commission
tried to ask for a non-voting seat
of a bipod individual to be
on the council just to see
someone that didn't vote and it it was
it was discussed
by two words and that was our mirror
saying like
not happening um for i mean
and anyone who is there or heard it can
correct me if i'm wrong
um i do think that the work that we're
doing is super
important and i want to um
suggest that instead of asking for
stipends for ourselves um
this time around i think that we should
propose
to counsel for something kind of like
um what
the united nations has which is like a
special
um reporter
or like a special i don't know um
person who is specific
to um
doing investigations on the complaints
that actually has a say
in what happens because if any of you
guys have done
any research on the south african truth
and reconciliation commission
there's lots of reparations given people
were granted
amnesty for telling you know for telling
on themselves and others
and um things like that it was a long
complicated thing and i
i understand why those commissioners uh
needed embarrassment it was also
broadcasted on live television once a
week like national
television for anyone in south africa to
watch
um i i
also just um
i think a lot of people are going to
have pushback just because of the other
commissions
and i know that our commission does a
lot of
work that's different than the other
commissions we're all by poc i know the
history
of like you know people of color doing
the work and not getting paid for it and
not getting credit or anything like that
um
but i just
i i think that um
i think that yeah i just don't think
that the city is going to like even
like toy with this idea in the slightest
um i think that you know
the conversation we had last at our last
meeting was super
duper incredible um you know
commissioner harris made some really
good points you know as someone who
doesn't have children
it's important to hear from someone who
does have kids and
i mean tsukawa's sakau's point pretty
much steered me
in that direction i just don't
think that um the city is going to let
anything like that fly
[Music]
i think that they've
and me saying they i mean the council
they've ignored
you know molar molar
they've ignored arguments that are
coherent and i just like don't see them
budging for this one so yeah with that i
yield to the floor
i just want to say that i just want to
make sure i give everyone else a chance
to speak
before i say anything on this so
if you would like to speak on this could
you please like raise your hands
so we can just know the order
i can go mohammad um so this is
commissioner harris
so about the sniping thing the way i
feel about it
um we have done all the work on
many people in many spaces
and many things that's been going on
with trying to get this
agendas that we have with social
injustice and things like that
when events happen most of the time when
you go to the events that happen
you see either me mohammed
or a couple other people um
we we're not well off we don't you know
the generational wealth is part of
social injustice so i believe that like
we should get paid
for the work that we do um
is to the fact that where is you know
people that's calling
going for that we shouldn't get paid for
it we should just do the work and
not get paid for it it's not right um
i don't think it's a fair thing you know
we
you know we were talking about having
the um facilitator
that was going to get paid 65 000 a year
you know i made sure i kept that record
about that
65 000 a year is above the medium income
of americans so the work that we do
you know especially doing the pandemic
the work that we did
you know we would be on zone cost for
four
three four five hours
not accounting for you know anything
that we did
or the money that we might have lost or
the time that everybody lost with our
children or stuff like that
so calls to come and say that
commissioners
should not get stipends it's kind of
you know it's kind of on the wrong side
of the ball
there's no it's kind of you know it's
kind of on the wrong side of the fence
you know
like you know i see people sam i know a
lot of guys
you know a lot of like a lot of people
you know
like the chairperson
i see him do so many things in this
community not just my community
he does so many things and i will see we
deserve to get money
if we and if we can
put in the budget to pay somebody
seventy thousand dollars
the only question i have is who makes
seventy thousand dollars a year
or seventy thousand dollars a year
that's on his commission with that idea
you do have commissioner daniel next
so i i do want to bring up the fact that
um when we talk about the other
commissions there's something that we
have that the other commissioners don't
or the other commissions don't and
that's a deadline
so we have to get our work done
um within a time like we have a deadline
we got to get the work done which means
we cannot let things just drag until
next month or next year like other
commissions can
we have to get it done now and that
means putting aside other things we have
going on
and if council doesn't think this work
is worth worth even a stipend we're not
talking about a salary we're not talking
about a wage we're talking about a
stipend
then i'm i'm at the point where i'm
thinking maybe they can do this
themselves
um i don't know about anyone else but
this turned out to be
a much bigger commitment than i was
expecting
and i think it's it borders on
dehumanizing to think
that i'm going to give up my time
when i could be doing other things like
earning money or
in self-care
and think that my time's not worth
anything
and i don't i really this argument that
council won't even entertain it well
if they won't entertain it they can
figure out how to get this work done
because
my name's on the council my my
reputation isn't necessarily on the line
council's reputation is on the line if
they can't work with their
trc that that's a little bit of truth
and
forever for the council they're
listening
thank you i yield
anyone else on the commission like to
say anything
i think that all of those this is
commissioner ali i think that all of
those are good points
um i wasn't like saying all of the
things just to say that i disagree or
anything that i don't think
because i think frankly i don't remember
if it was healthcare
subcommittee or um education
subcommittee i said that last week i was
swayed
you know i i said that originally i
didn't think
yes but now i understand
because i don't have kids i don't you
know all of that
despite the amount of time that i've put
into this um
but also i'm just trying to
just like i hate the saying play the
devil's advocate because that's not it
i'm just
this is the type of i know the type of
um
backlash we're gonna receive whether it
be from like the community
or um anyone
you know other people i just and i'm not
saying
that like we shouldn't try because
that's not where my head is at
i just don't i genuinely don't
think that the same you know
counsel that paused us when we kicked
their friends
out from the top is going to be the same
council
that votes for us to have a stipend and
i think that's just fact of the matter
um i i would i will honestly i
i think that if everyone's leaning one
way then i will definitely vote for it
um
i just don't think council is gonna
let that fly oh
this is commissioner wangui i can't see
whether anybody else's hand is up
we do have a few hands up okay great so
like if it's okay i'll go and then
sakais and then you
okay um uh i
appreciate um just uh
vice chair's honesty because you know i
do i do
share in a lot of the feelings of
mistrust um
just in regard to um how
much city council will listen to the
recommendations of this commission
including sort of our own sort of
assertion of self-worth and
the work that we're putting on i really
do feel like in my body
that the work that we're doing is
causing stress right like i feel tired
um and and certainly um there is a lot
of heavy lifting that's being done
outside of these public meetings um so
i i think that we go through with sort
of what we agreed on
um which is asking for the stipend and
submitting that with our budget i think
that we go through with
us as a commission tonight deciding how
much we want
um for those stipends so that that can
be voted on
for um for the final budget
considerations at our next meeting um
and we we give council
another opportunity to listen to the
voices on this commission and
what we're asking for rather than
um playing it safe because if we if we
under ask then we'll
we'll never get substantial or
meaningful work done
[Music]
i'm going to yield to cicalas
yeah i don't know why i would be worried
about what they would think
i mean i think we should just submit it
and um
if they don't like it then we just
continue to
push because this is a huge part of the
work that
um always gets overlooked um is
the emotional uh the physical and the um
intellectual labor that um bipol folks
have been putting into this work for
um centuries that's never been you know
uh compensated for um and then we burn
out
uh and you know because grass that's
that's what happens
in grassroots communities or in spaces
where people
um have to volunteer on top of jobs and
whatever whatever else they're doing um
you know if they're trying to if if this
really is the trc
then i mean i don't know why they
wouldn't want to change how things are
done
um and i think it should start with the
people on the committee
um to make sure that they are uh being
treated in the way that
they're trying to treat people so i i
don't know how far does this go
like so this committee exists now so
they're just perpetuating the same thing
if they're not going to
uh recognize the uh the work that goes
into this and why we should no longer
expect free labor
from uh bypoc people
thank you
uh i think mine uh this is daphne
i don't know if she her hand was up
before but she should she's spoken prior
so i just want to make sure we gave
commissioner gothar first
yeah for some reason i think i've lost
my
my feature for raising my hand or even
seeing other people's
or from on my screen uh i think i was
just going to ask commissioner sir
curry's
if that's okay whether because
uh last time your
argument really swayed me because
i was saying i
when i'm getting people's experiences
i do it in
academia in research and publication and
it's frowned upon
because of integrity if
uh if people get paid both the giver
of the information and the person who is
taking
that information even if there is at all
on the it's their time and all that and
for the
participant or the subject the
when they get given something it's
usually it's not the time is not used
payment another time will be used
and yeah and then i said
uh coming into the u.s and
uh collecting information and also
worked in other commissions like the
human rights commission
i got surprised because i'd come from my
euro-centric
uh view and way of doing these things
europe and then south africa trc and
then
we also had something of the thought in
kenya in zero eight when we had
political violence
uh but people have always been paid in
those commissions
it's never even up for discussion
because
uh people use their time
people use their money to get to the
places where they're meeting
so it's never even up for discussion but
then
here i am then i came in i got
shocked that uh
because compensating somebody for when
they're sitting there
they'll have a drink of water so take
care of that
when i'm i'm here for about three hours
please take care of that
oh it's my dinner time take care of that
so but then i wondered it's a question
i've always had so i'm wondering is that
where the
the point that the council is coming
from
but then commissioner sakaweez you
you said something that swayed me
and uh um
if i i don't recapture correctly please
correct
me such that as the trc
we would be succumbing to the very thing
that we are helping lead
we are leading in listening to
experiences of racial injustices so that
we can
end up at reconciliation yet
here we are still agreeing
to ratio injustice
in some ratio injustice and continuing
with that
that's that's what i took and that's
the meaning making i made out of what
you said
yeah but then again we yeah that's what
i meant to say
like let's start with the trc
yeah then we went to our subcommittee
meetings i remember
in the education subcommittee
again we went to wondering
uh whether
do we go ahead and i'll summarize in
feeling again
uncomfortable taking something for this
work
and always all of us here have done this
kind of work
advocating being an activist for this
and a lot of it not paid
the what we get most of us is an award
or a scholarship
so so we we we never even
at the education commission subcommittee
meeting we didn't come up with an answer
we again we were just there sitting
in discomfort about taking anything
but now that i'm sitting here that is
why i'm bringing up what again you said
commissioner sakaweez
and i don't know where the cancer is
coming from
whether it's coming from this is how
it's done other commissions are not paid
or it's still coming from the
oppressor's viewpoint where
i do if i do the same thing you're doing
i get paid
but and as i'm doing that i will even
have you volunteer
actually a lot of it you're actually
helping me or doing my work
but i'm the one who's going to get paid
you don't get paid so those thoughts
have come back to me again
and yeah let me not get convoluted and
go back
again to saying the same thing i yield
to the floor
i want to give both chastity and email a
chance to speak before i say anything
cassidy has a hand up thank you um
commissioner i just wanted to say um
before coming to this meeting i felt
similar to
what amel was saying more on the side of
it just makes me uncomfortable
taking money for work that should be
done but after hearing what everyone has
said
especially commissioner cicales and in
harris
um you've definitely swayed my opinion
and i
i do believe as black and brown people
people of color that we do
deserve to be paid for this hard work
that we're going to be doing
so um and i do hear commission
commissioner ali
in what you're saying you don't believe
that
the city council will hear us but i i do
agree
that it doesn't hurt to try and as
commissioner daniel said if they don't
want to do it that makes them look bad
compared to what we're trying to do here
so um thank you all for all of your
opinions i really
appreciate hearing it i yield the floor
um and i just i wanna know mohammed
well i just wanted to make sure i don't
say anything that you
you guys are already going no i i
feel like um no i just wanted to make
sure i don't
i'm not against this idea at all
i think that i said that during our
subcommittee meetings
i'm fine with the uncomfort i think that
you know we would be better off if we
were
able to have these uncomfortable
conversations um
on the big scheme of things i just
wanted to kind of regurgitate some of
the feedback that i felt like we would
get especially
living um in iowa city
i think that all of the work that we are
doing
is completely different from all of the
other commissions
uh things that they're asking for us to
do
um the emotions that they're asking for
us to deal with
and relive um i think are really
intense emotions and we you know we
deserve
to be reimbursed for the time and the
energy
um so i i appreciate that you know
everyone's point that they made and i
i i definitely am leaning on that side
of getting a stipend i just i guess my
question would be
maybe more of a stephanie
question if it's a stipend is it a
one-time
thing um do we decide when we get it
and this might be something maybe you
want to write down muhammad i can write
it down to you and i can wait till
everyone talks and then we can answer
the question
i just want to know the logistics behind
that um
just you know for the sake of knowing
and how all of that works out and stuff
i i think in terms of whether it's one
time or it's paid out on a quarterly
basis i mean i think
that's part of the recommendation you
would make to city council i
i don't necessarily think there it has
to be a one-time
and not quarterly i mean i think it's
kind of based upon the conclusions or
consensus that the group comes to in in
terms of how it's allocated out
um so you want to go behind me or
definitely want to go first or
it doesn't i see all the three of my
hands are raised
um i just whichever one of you two yeah
whatever um so i just wanted to thank
um a number of commissioners who um
expressed their uh position
in a way that um i couldn't and
commissioner ali thank you for um for
kind of playing the devil's advocate
because i i did not realize
how strongly i felt about this and
um until until you did that and so
um yeah i just i just want to thank
everybody for
for their honesty and their openness on
this i yield
yeah and i'm just going to be really
sure that harris you can go next and
then muhammad
yeah i i just simply had asked other
people what their thoughts of were about
this
and i kind of you know i was like what
do you think that the public or the
community would have to say
about this trc just because you all know
we
the like reporters love us they love the
drama that's going on and i just
wouldn't put it past
a reporter to be like oh after
everything they've been through
now these guys want money you know i
just i don't
you know that's just kind of where i was
coming from
um but yeah go ahead commissioner harris
i promise i'm done talking now
okay so i'mma say the first thing that i
got to say about that
um everybody doesn't have money
everybody is not rich
um also i'm gonna call out a couple
commissioners
on a positive note commissioner cliff
commission trailer ali
[Music]
y'all see the work i do in the community
you know
um y'all see i'm beside outside the trc
i do a lot of work you know you show up
to events and i'm there
and and and i'm always there with this
you know different communities south
district things whether it's
you know other things like that i'm
always i'm i'm almost
i'm almost always there you know and
and and so the part about the stipend
thing you know
i got like i'm a dad you know and then
part of my life is a single dad
you know i have a wife that i have
children with but i have other children
that i take care of
and so to be compensated for what we're
doing
you know i feel like it's a thing that
we should do
you know um some of the commissions that
i mentioned
they know but i'm saying that when
events happen
i'm there i'm there whether it's iowa
cactus
worker house which i saw a couple people
there you know this past week
um whether it's things to do with inside
out what just things to do
with diversity market what these things
and i know
a few commissions that always there
they always there what about their
regular life
what about their jobs what about their
kids
we should be compensated for doing the
work that we are doing
and some people may be well off and
doing better than other people but i
think that's part of the problem
in this country some people they don't
get that people take a lot of time out
of their life
because they want to be on commissions
like this they want to make a change
and with that idea
thank you um
be very frank right now um
i really don't care what city council
thinks
if they want to shame us for it same
with the media
if they want to try to shame us for it
and i know they have access to the
recording so i'm saying this on purpose
because when it comes to an interview
for this i'll repeat it same time then
and just want to make it clear right now
i've already done many interviews with
them
where i'll be more frank such as this
and really notice how they
write those things of cutting out so
much of what you say just to get these
little bits and pieces here and there
that's once again what i mean of like we
keep getting used for these stories for
these clicks for this
this that and the other but what happens
when all this is done
where are they then are they gonna keep
following the stories if we can keep
doing this they're going to keep doing
that
and piece of advice i got from henry
harper
from those you know him so he was
the community outreach officer the youth
director for the iowa city police
department
2015-2019 he's done
so much work in the iowa city area this
is one of those people
that gave his life for for this stuff
he's now the community relations
coordinator
the national development council big
reason why he's not here anymore
is because a lot of the stuff he kept
pushing for to get done and to get
prioritized
wasn't being respected wasn't being done
so he decided up and move on
so for me it's like this is also about
setting a precedent of
you can't keep using people that want to
help
that want to do something real just for
the time that they're there
and then afterwards not actually
implement those things
not do anything so
had i actually believed that the city
would not do anything that we said
and not care about those recommendations
i wouldn't be here right now
so i'm not arguing for the stipend
thinking that it's not gonna happen
it's gonna happen
otherwise they're gonna hear a lot from
not only myself but from a lot of other
people
every single time someone asks me about
this commission and i tell them all the
stuff we do
same line every time oh how much you get
paid for that or wait you do that for
free
every single time for reference
i woke up at 5 15 today i've been up
since 5 15 a.m
there's not been one week over the last
four months that between work
volunteering
helping people out with whatever it is
start a financial education podcast
recently that all these
people want to like partner with to have
education for people on it etc
70 to 90 hours a week last four months
i'm not tired i'm not stopping etc like
for me the money is not about me having
extra money in my pocket it's about me
having extra money to keep advancing
those other things
because my life doesn't stop at the end
of the trc
and this is not the only thing that
matters to me
other things that matter to me are
having money to donate to causes i care
about
and not having it be just the money i'm
making from all of my work in the things
i'm doing there
this is also work until that facilitator
comes in
we're all doing his job or her job
so i just want to really put that piece
out there
okay so it sounds like most if not all
of us are on the same page
i think the next step is discussing an
amount and how
often so um does anyone want to start
with what they think
um i feel like
i don't know and like i don't want to
put you on the spot mo
but do you have an idea of like i know
that you said those numbers are mumbo
jumbo so i don't want to go off of what
you said
on the budget but like is there a number
that you're thinking of
in your head um because if we're
i i think the number that got said last
time was 250
maybe and correct me if i'm wrong but i
i just
i want to know what people are thinking
or what that even looks like
um what is enough for you guys
i'll put it this way um when it comes to
city council i think they're about 14
000
or something like that a year and what
they deal with is what's going on in
here now in the current year
and we're being tasked with looking back
decades most of us from
literally before we were born yet
you know so for me i think a floor
of 500 to begin the conversation and i
think the ceiling
should be at that thousand mark so
somewhere in that range whatever people
want to do
and i also think it should be much
really quick
council makes 9k a year uh the mayor
makes 14k
well that too it's actually 12k i think
yeah i
think they raised it a few years ago
yeah
yeah it's reasoning okay yeah nine or
they get a thousand dollars a month as
council members
yeah the reasoning they gave for raising
it as well was that they want it to be
so that people
have lower incomes or people from
backgrounds so they don't have more
money
can feel comfortable serving on things
like city council without losing out on
income
and things of that nature so that's the
rationale they gave for upping their own
pay
so i just want to put that out there
um this is commissioner harris i'm gonna
be you know
you know every time we're not talking
pretty frank about things
um doing the pandemic that happened
um some members like cliff and
collis and chastity and daphne
we went through the whole pandemic and
we were working on things
i mean things didn't happen the way it
should have happened but we spent
you know most of the time doing the
pandemic on these zoom costs
four and five hours at times
um i'm not saying to go back and pay us
for those times
but going forward we should get paid i
mean if we're going to offer somebody 65
000
a year to be a facilitator which i know
that's changed now
that's a lot of money you know um
and i think about 65 000 you know that's
a lot of money
you know my house struggles to make that
we could be close to that amount but my
house struggles to make that amount with
three people working
and so it shouldn't really be an
argument and
i kind of agree with but
the chair said you know if city council
wants to talk stuff about it
news outlets want to talk about it they
use us
for this whole year for news stories
because probably
out of all the commissioners on this
commission i've probably done
more news stories than anybody and
having that paid a cent
not one dollar maybe it was the army
truck maybe it's the
expanding of shootings in this
neighborhood maybe it was
you know about voting rights and but
i've done more interviews
i'm just estimating but i think i've
done more interviews than anybody
on this whole commission so with that
idea
i i also just
um i i don't want to
do this the whole thing with what makes
me feel uncomfortable about this whole
process is i don't want to do
um that
you know i've done this in the last this
many months so i deserve this but you
haven't done this much and this much and
i've done more than you
and and i just don't want that to happen
i think that's counterproductive to the
goal
that we have at the end as a commission
um
and going back to what commissioner uh
wayne gooey said earlier about
you know those
other areas where they had the trc
um where their commissioners got paid i
i agree
i think that the two trcs that i have
done research on
um uh well i definitely
i think that they deserve to have gotten
some type of stipend um
but one thing about it i don't wanna if
if we're gonna agree on the stipend
i think that we should agree on the
stipend i don't want to get into
um the messy game of you know well
i did six interviews this month and i
also was in the
you know this for this many times and i
went to this many things and
i i just i think that that's going to be
counterproductive to the goal because i
think that we've all agreed that we
deserve
something um so now let's figure out
what that
something is rather than trying to tally
up
or compare what we've all done compared
to one another because i don't think
that that's going to do anything but you
know take us steps back
and i'm going to yield to sakawis with
that
um i don't um think that anybody needs
to like i said
last time they need to defend themselves
or uh
give reasoning uh for why they're
getting this money
or what they're going to do with it or
what they've done in the past to deserve
this
this money um i think that our work
speaks for ourselves being on this
committee
and the committee in and of itself being
a truth and reconciliation committee
should probably just like do some truth
and reconciliation and
reparations um and that's
what it's about so like i said again
it's like
the work we're doing is for the
community and then we
are a reflection of that work in and of
itself being here doing this
what we're doing um so i don't need to
tell anybody like why i deserve the
money
um and i don't think anybody else here
should do that either um
and uh i think that uh everybody here
is well known for their good work in the
community and in iowa and throughout the
nation
and um uh yeah i just want to say i
really agree with um
with what eric is saying uh and uh i
want um
i want i just i want to say again i
don't i don't think it's
i don't think we should feel bad about
it i don't feel bad about it
i mean why would i feel bad about this
are you serious like
this is why we're here um i would be
proud to say
that um we created compensation
for a bypoc committee um working towards
truth and reconciliation like that to me
is a feat
i am proud of that so this is what i've
been working towards my whole life i've
been doing this work since i was 19
years old
and i refused to do it for free
um for um you know
generally like white communities which
is what we're doing right
now um so they can you know feel better
about themselves i'm doing this work so
that we can uplift the voices of our
people
and like make the world better for our
people who are
like facing serious oppression uh
dealing with you know
uh banning critical race theory uh and
like legislation
the iowa legislator all this stuff we
have such an uphill battle like i'm
sorry but i just cannot
uh do this work for free um anymore so
thank you
i agree sakais i think that you made a
great point
um so um and i hope that chair talks
after this i think with this stipend
also what we should do because
i think that's now maybe the second or
third time that someone has brought up
the amount of hours that we are in these
private meetings
um or in these public meetings
i think that if we're going to do a
stipend then we should
also include like the maybe like
um hours like a pay per hour for the
meeting
on top of like whatever the other number
may be
because some you know i i think i i
don't know if that's
some way to make what commissioner was
harris was saying more fair because i do
understand that before there was this
initial
commission we did have meetings that
went on for hours and hours
um but i i want to try to come up
with i think the next step is coming up
with what we think that number
is and what the frequency is of that
stipend that's where i think the next
step
is okay um
so i'll go again mohammad real quick
um i see hands raised but i just get
what i got to say out the way because i
see daphne and rays and go ahead and
raise
um so one of the things i'm going to be
pretty frank about it you know
um chairperson
mohammed and co-chairperson ali
they know the hours that we spent
because
co-chair person elite was just with me
we didn't get paid for none of that
stuff
we just hung out and talked about ish
last night co-chair muhammad i mean
chairperson mohammed
he was with me and we talked about a lot
of things we don't get paid for that
stuff
um cliff commissioner member cliff
he was with me at that hot house at that
cafe
it was so hot in there and that was a
good thing that happened
you know also kevin was there with us
and he saw what happened the
transformation that we're trying to do
and try to restore things and get things
together is very important
so when people say you know how they
feel about getting compensated for
things like that well
the city might say this the news agency
might say this or
they might say that who cares
i don't really care because they're not
doing the work
and with that i'm gonna yield to the
people
thank you um one thing so daphne i will
give you a chance to speak right after
this but
i just want to say real quick that once
again we don't have to
vote on a concrete number today or
time i'm just happy we're at least
talking about it
we've said that we want to pass this
budget july 8th
we do have opportunities to speak
amongst each other subcommittees
and actually do that final vote on
payments schedules payment amounts in
the next meeting
so if we'd rather take more time to have
that conversation
that's okay with me just my priority for
today is to at least
know going into the next meeting
are we even going to vote to pass
the idea of a stipend
so if we'd like to do that tonight i
think we already
have though like no i think that we've
all agreed though if do we need to have
a vote if all of us the consensus is
that we all agree on it
i think that we've all kind of said that
we agree that this is necessary
um and i think that i genuinely believe
that we should
not have to vote on whether we get it or
not i think what we should have to vote
on or make the decision on is whether
it's you know this many dollars or this
many dollars i think that's what the
important decision is and
i'm gonna yield to daphne
um i actually just want to make a motion
um because i think we have gotten
far enough in this in this discussion
where we can have a vote on whether
we would like to include a line item
in the operational budget for stipends
for the commissioners and we can
determine
the amount and um
uh um i'm
i'm blanking on the maybe i don't know
that's a bad for lack of a better term
frequency
yes thank you for some reason i wanted
to say periodical i don't
yeah frequency of the payments um or of
the stipends or of the disbursements or
of the allocation
however you want to describe it but we
can do that at a later meeting
and just vote to include that line item
and then the budget
subcommittee will have have some ability
to
discuss it at our next next subcommittee
meeting
um there's a point of discussion yeah
before someone seconds that
cable no she didn't make a motion so
yeah i was going to say before she makes
that motion i want to make sure you had
a chance to
discuss what your say what you were
going to say thanks um
i really appreciated the discussion
tonight it was like i think it was just
really a lot more
opportunities for us to sort of really
justify
our positions on things i um i worry
that if we don't come up with at least a
ballpark number
of what everyone's comfortable with then
our budget subcommittee is just going to
kind of not really be able to do very
much work in our next
subcommittee meeting um and you know we
were kind of at this place at the very
end of our last public meeting where we
were all kind of on board with this
and moving forward with having a stipend
and so when we look at
sort of the end result there there
actually hasn't been very much movement
which is
the reason why i would like to come up
with
a number that people are comfortable
with
yeah yeah i would i would definitely
agree with that before we make
any type of i mean and i agree with
daphne i just i think and steph can
correct me if i'm wrong i think that
since we're all kind of on the same page
about
we deserve this then that's we don't
have to make a motion on it
um i think that we should talk about um
the frequency and um
how much so um
and the last thing that i wanted to
mention and then i'll yield
um is um we've talked a lot about
having sort of our words taken out of
context and us our
justifications not being sort of
correctly represented and i just
would um suggest that our either our
subcommittee or
the people who feel really strongly
about this um
kind of lead the charge in coming up
with a press release that we can also
vote on
um when we submit our budget so that we
as a commission can kind of in one voice
say
here's how we came to this reasoning and
why we think
this is important work not only for the
people on this commission but also
like a good example of what we'd like to
see in this community
um i i don't necessarily think that i
should be the one to
to write that press release um
and so maybe i can volunteer either
chair or vice chair to accept anyone
else
who's volunteering on that part um i can
go next um real quick
i got a unique idea that i just thought
of um i think it should be a one-time
payment
and it should be a significant amount
but i think that
whatever charity or calls that people
have i think that half of the
significant amount should go to that and
then they get the rest of it
and and you have to invest and then that
way when you go to the
news or media you can say hey you know i
might have got fifteen hundred dollars
or i might have got a thousand dollars
but i
put 500 of that toward this charity
and i took 500 you know because of my
work
and so just that's just that's just a
brainstorming idea that i came up with
you know i just thought about that right
now you know it you know
and then and and by doing that you can
show
you know because the city or media might
have something to say
like hey well they gave me a thousand
dollars one time to pay me for being on
the
trc but i took 500 that and i donated
that to a cause that i believe in
eric i just i think i think that you are
coming from
such a great place in your heart but as
a black man you don't owe
anyone an explanation for what this
money
you use it for i'm just telling you that
right now i think that that should be
the consensus
with all of us um as um
you know bypoc individuals i don't think
that we should entertain
any i mean if you want to donate the
money donate the money if you want to
get
you i don't that's not anyone else's
business
frankly i don't think that anyone should
have the right to ask you
about that um and this kind of goes into
what we talked about you know at our
subcommittee meeting with education with
um commissioner gathua is like you know
you don't have to feel guilty or feel
like you have to prove
anything to anyone for this you know
i mean i agree like i agree what you're
saying but like
some people brought up what the media
are going to say or what the city is
going to say about it yeah
and then and and my answer to that is my
answer to that
is everyone is capable of not responding
to the media eric you know my situation
that i have with the media currently and
it's because i don't respond to them at
all
in any way shape or form you are
completely capable of not responding to
the media if you don't want to
and i'm going to say this like one for
very last time nobody owes anyone an
explanation on any way
shape or form that they spend this
stipend and i don't want to have
this discussion about you know people
feeling guilty or
you know what they're going to do or
having to prove that they're going to
donate this because the fact of the
matter is i think that we've decided
that we're going to get the stipend
it's it's nobody's business what we
do with it i i firmly believe that in my
heart of hearts
and i would love for the chair to speak
now because i have taken a lot of this
time and i want to hear it no
no there's one more thing just just one
more thing um
i don't need the money but i do want the
money so i see what you're saying
and i know we don't have to pay
attention to what the media is not my
business if you need or don't need the
money though that's the thing it's
nobody's business if you need or don't
need the money we've made the decision
already though that's
i want that to be where your headspace
is it doesn't matter we don't have to
explain ourselves to anyone who's asking
for an explanation
that can be the end of it just to make
this uh
so i think for time sake i think we
should have a vote on something are we
gonna do it
the amount either one of those you know
we should talk we need to talk about
we need to talk about right now yeah
yeah just just to be succinct but i want
to hear from other people too
you know like kind of cliff and you know
some other people
and i want to hear from them and see
what they think about it because i think
we need to have some type of vote so
that we can't go past this meeting
without a vote because we're going to be
right back next week on the same stuff
i just want to say two things very
quickly
um i'm i don't know if there's a need to
be concerned
about the so-called media i assume you
mean like reporters
who are actually getting paid for their
work so you
would hope they'd understand wanting to
get paid for your labor
and i actually want to say i do need the
money because
i feel like at the very at the very
basic essential
as a human i expect to get um
some type of value for my labor and
so it's it's a mental thing like
we're putting in a lot of work in this
and i'd like to be
like valued for that um for too long my
ancestors were not valued for their
labor and toil
and uh i think that needs to end
so i yield i'll
i'll just make it quick and simple to
start the debate
i think thousand dollars payable the
last week of the month
every month you're on the commission
start the debate there
uh and and chair um i just wanted to
mention i know there's been discussion
of whether or not there needs to be a
vote
on whether or not to do stipends and
obviously that's up to the commission
but but what i will say is
if you take a vote there's a record that
there's unanimous support right
you you you might not get unanimous
support on the amount
you you might get 72 you know and so i i
guess
in my opinion i i don't know what the
harm is
to to show that nine commissioners think
there needs to be a stipend but it's
it's up to the commission but
um you know you may run into different
vote outcomes even though you've all
decided on having a stipend
and then there's really no record unless
somebody's literally gonna go through
the transcript
to see that all nine people initially
agreed on this so
that that's that's my two cents but i i
guess i don't see where
it would hurt but
yeah i'd have to say i agree i just i
was just more throwing that out there
for
whether we vote on amount frequency or
not tonight
that everyone at least knows my personal
position so you can
go over these next two weeks and can
reach out to each other
otherwise and get that information out
to budget subcommittee or myself or
anyone else on the commission so we can
really have that decided
but yes definitely
so let him say something because like
you want to say something so
yeah this is a commissioner johnson i
was under impression we were already
doing that
so i was i mean
that that's where i believe we should be
uh
other than that discussing how much
and when that's where i figured the next
step is so
let's just take that and move on
well somebody's not going to propose
i can't propose a mission i was just i
was just
actually going to say so
okay so i'm going to make the motion
that we get stipends will anybody like
to second that motion
i second you conditionally this is
commissioner
seconding that motion any further
oh sorry any further discussion
okay uh commissioner ali
yes uh commissioner daniel
yes commissioner dillard yes
uh commissioner gathawa yes commissioner
harris
yes commissioner johnson
yes commissioner rivera yes
nurse sakawis yes and commissioner
treyori
yes thank you 9-0
um i also want to touch on on one thing
that the chairperson said
he said a thousand dollars every fourth
week um
do we have to wait till next meeting to
talk about the amount or
can we just figure we want to talk about
the amount now we want to talk about the
amount
now he just wanted to get that just for
purposes of you know the votes and stuff
so nobody would have to look back on the
meeting to know that we
all unanimously decided so
opinions are welcome because i would
well this is my opinion
he said a thousand dollars i would say
about 1100 1200
and i don't know if i need to put a
motivation for it for that
to vote about that but i mean
we might as well get it out the way so
we can afford to win
yeah can we have more of a discussion
before you know the motion gets
put out i just want to know where other
people's head's at because you know
1000 that would infinitely help me but i
just i want to know where everyone
else's head at
and what they think too before we put
that motion out because we do need to
discuss it
so
um as i i just wanted to know more about
obviously i could definitely use a
thousand dollars a month
don't get me wrong i want to know more
what
why are you saying a thousand dollars is
it because it's a round number like can
you
um i guess i'm asking um our chair can
you say why
that is the number that you decided i
yield the floor
i decided on a thousand dollars a month
because that comes out to the rate that
each city council members paid
and once again they work on things that
occurred during the year
whereas we are tasked with not only
trying to catch up on things currently
occurring but things that have
either not been addressed due to people
being short-sighted
or just not having the wherewithal to go
forward and actually address those
things
well not just people not caring
exactly that too so like you want to add
that oh don't know your problem
but yeah there's a lot of the stuff that
we're just looking at that's not just
here and now
but also involves what's currently going
on so i think it should be at a rate
even to them also because many of us
also go to their meetings on top of it
and
there's only one or two of them that
have even come to these and they always
have that open invitation
thank you commissioner um thank you
chair
i think that um
just to get to the end of this um what
he said was very
true um
um we should have a vote on that about
the amount because
if it's equal it could be less of
what the city council gets that wasn't
that wouldn't matter to me but it should
be equal to that so
i don't know why we shouldn't have a
vote about it because
as we rattling and haggling around about
things about money we haven't really had
no shoes except for
you know the undocumented immigrants
when we had that truth and we need to
get to that part
so
with that idea
go ahead commissioner daniel thank you
um i think we should wait until the next
meeting
to take a vote on an amount
um i think we need to have a better
reason than
because that's how much city council
makes so
if we want to discuss over the next two
weeks
figure out how much time we're spending
at the meetings on average
um how much time we're spending and
like we need to be very specific on trc
work not other community work
but the the time we spend on the
subcommittees the time we spend
researching some of the issues that
we're bringing forward to subcommittees
into commission
meetings will have a better idea on
on what is a reasonable amount and then
also
a better more persuasive argument
for why we have chosen this amount
i yield
i like that idea it also gives us time
to do things
such as ask some of the reporters
listening in or that we'll eventually
ask questions to
also ask city council how much time they
spend monthly and we can also call city
council and ask them how much time they
spend monthly because i feel like that
kind of makes the you know comparison
and
also calculation easier um earlier
commissioner rivera mentioned something
about um you know a press release
i would be more than happy to take that
on
um i think that maybe we should discuss
if it's more important to do this before
the next meeting and just kind of let
people know that this is what we're
asking
like not even a number just say hey this
is what we're gonna do and why or do you
guys think that we should
wait until we have that specific number
um i'm personally going to reach out
to just dion braxton um
because i support his work that he does
and i think that he has been the most
supportive
uh to this commission and to the members
of this commission
um and i think that that is the reporter
i would give my time to but i just want
to make sure
that if uh that the point that
commissioner rivera made
about um the press release
is thought about because i do think that
that is an important point
and i was wondering if slash one with
you guys we're not going to decide a
number
should we wait till after we decide a
number should we do it sooner rather
than later what's up where it
sooner rather than later so that we can
kind of gauge what the public thinks or
would you guys just rather wait until
it's all done i was imagining that we
just submitted with our budget proposal
okay i'll start working on a rough
outline of one
and then i can ask each of you what you
think of it
and then can add to it from there that
way we can come into the next meeting
with
kind of like outline and structure
already prepared
okay and um once you have a finalized uh
news release um you can send it
to me and that it will get released
through the city channels
if anyone else would you know like to
chime in in terms of like the actual
like creation and structure of it
feel free like i'm not saying it has to
just be me i'm just saying i'm
i'm fine to start at least jotting
somebody
hey commissioner true alright i'm gonna
start it
and i'm gonna reach out to some people
and then me and you can touch base next
week you don't need another thing on
your plate and i
have a lot of free time so i'm just
gonna start it and maybe
talk to um a couple of connections that
i have within the
college of law just to at the university
just to
help me kind of maybe articulate this in
a much better
sense um and i do believe i'm not sure
commissioner daniel have you had your
hand up this whole time or are you
waiting to say something
no i am not well i probably have i keep
forgetting to
lower my hand so
i just wanted to make sure i didn't miss
you i just wanted to make sure i didn't
miss you
um so then it sounds like
um at the next meeting we're gonna have
a final vote on what the stipend is
the amount is
a mountain frequency from what i'm
hearing unless there's any objections to
that
and then also with amount and frequency
um we're also going to have a draft
for the press release
yeah which we could finalize at the same
meeting
yeah and i can start working on it with
others and then whenever we meet for
budget i'll show you guys and then i'll
send it with the paperwork for
our meeting two weeks from now and
uh i would add too that if you need a
person to
put their face out there to talk to
somebody i know
emil has some issues with the media
right now so
i always be willing to do it so
eric the media has issues with me it's
not
it's not it's not what you think i just
don't
because i don't care so
i don't i don't really do have anything
to do with the media because i don't
think i pick up my phone
if anyone calls so um what i'm going to
say is i'm offering to
do any edits proofreading
yeah perfect
um so maybe um i'll start writing up a
draft
um i think some of this stuff that
actually
sakawis had said in the last meeting was
really powerful
um so i might just listen to that and
kind of use that verbiage because
uh even commissioner gethu and i were
talking about this the other day like if
it wouldn't have been for what she said
i probably wouldn't have you know
thought that it might have been a good
idea
um so if that's okay with you
commissioner zakalis yeah i'm gonna i'll
go back and read that and then i will
um you know communicate with people in
the budget
subcommittee and i'll i'll get this sent
out via stephanie
um in the next hopefully week i have it
written down and i'll get a little draft
sent out and we can add and do
changes and i'll put it in the google
doc so that we can all
kind of work on it together if that's
okay with you guys
and the last thing i say um i'm always
available for
a good fire or barbecue so between
meetings if anybody want to come talk
you know you can do that so any other
any of the commission members so a
couple of them know about it but
you know we've had good talks but we're
good with people in the community
so if you ever want to have a good top
just
you know give me a couple hours advance
and i cook up some good food and
start a nice fire so with that idea
i'll respond and i'm not raising my hand
because i can't find my future
i'm not even seeing people when they
raise up their hands
for some reason today on my screen i'm
responding to
commissioner ali and
i'll just say if i can also offer to
prove read
and i should be pretty good
i agreed so yeah so
i can offer that and then the other
thing
and yeah commissioner sarkoz what you
told us was really
it made us move and feel yeah it's
really with us it was really really
powerful
so i would go for it even though
if we use your ones it's just a long
time of organizing and
realizing how important my work is yeah
then the other thing as far as the
figure is concerned
because even at the
um kevo what what meeting were we the
meeting that we had
your meeting on health he threw the
figure out there of one thousand
i've had it again with with the chair
uh from treyori and
and then i've had eric mention eleven
hundred
twelve hundred uh anything around that
i'll go with the
the figures not because they've been
mentioned it's not that they've just
been planted in my brain
but also uh uh
commissioner the chair you supported
that with where you're coming from
for commissioner rivera he said i'm
throwing out that figure
out there uh yeah but now there is the
argument and even when i think back i
said i've worked in commissions and
committees
uh uh which are eurocentric
and african-centric and that
those figures fit in that's why i'm
going on with that
and the the backing and the support of
those arguments that's out there
it's a figure that is making sense and
the frequency too
so for me whether we wait two weeks from
now
that i'm with that figure around 1
1200 sub around there so
that's what i'll go with as i continue
reading
just looking at uh other work that has
been
done on this i just wanted to
i just want to clarify um i threw out
the number 1000 because that was
what was sort of pended on our document
at the time we were discussing it
i haven't come up with an amount
i just wanted that clarified okay
um i think that this is a really good
place to end
actually for like this conversation i
think that we all have a sense of where
everyone is um i will work
on this press release in the next 10
days
i will send it to the people that i need
to send it to
in order to proofread and look through
it then hopefully
14 days from now we can approve it and
then that time
but maybe the budget committee let's
focus on
uh just getting something really good
and solid for
what we're gonna do for the stipend at
least for the next meeting let's make
that a goal to have
at least you know a stipend amount
or formula or whatever figured out um
because i think that that is going to be
important
um does anyone have anything else to say
about this
budget this is commissioner um dillard i
just wanted to also offer
my my help to you um commissioner ali
because
i have worked on press releases in the
past
perfect i'm totally gonna take advantage
of that thank you so much
all right it sounds like from there we
are on to so we had
agenda item number five earlier so we
are now on to agenda item number six
which would be community topics for
discussion so this
is a excluded workers fund b
south district neighborhood association
and diversity market c
juneteenth celebrations before we do
begin on this aspect i would like to ask
if anyone
from the community in the meeting would
like to say anything on these topics
before
we begin
okay so with that we want to add
something
like to discuss for like community topic
if we're all in agreement about adding
it or like
i i just wasn't sure are these the only
three topics that we're allowed to speak
about or can i bring something
else up during this time if it
it's related to community engagement
uh it would it wouldn't need to have
been on the agenda for the public to
have noticed that the commission was
going to discuss it
announcements well yeah so then i just
i'm gonna push for next time when we're
writing out the agenda not to put any
specific things
on it for like a b and c uh just so that
we can kind of have an
open discussion semi like we did last
week because there are some things that
i really want
your guys's feedback on and i think that
uh commissioner dillard would appreciate
well i i think that we've had this
discussion before and steph
clarified that anything that goes in
this section has to be explicitly stated
and the public has to be notified
on the excluded workers fund i do know
that
um commissioners harris
johnson and rivera did have the
opportunity to
go to the iowa catholic worker house
event last weekend
unfortunately this was one of those
situations where i was doing a lot
last weekend and i couldn't make it
but i did see the pictures and i was
updated on
everything from you from some of you but
also as well from david goodner and
looked like
one an amazing event two
sad to have missed it in three if yeah
if you guys have anything else you'd
like to share with the commission i
think
i think it'd be really beneficial yeah
so
i can go real quick um cliff was there
kevin was there
um both of those guys were there um
it was pretty uncomfortable in there
because of the temperature situations
but
it was kind of similar to when we had
them
come and speak at our meeting i think it
was
not the last meeting but me before that
um
when they spoke about the struggles and
the difficulties that they went through
i was almost inspired again you know
and it was just terrible to hear the
stories and
um they um
to help people that have been left out
during the pandemic
um i think it's a good thing that we put
you know
that we want to back them up with that
um david is a good guy
um i was even i was even able to take my
children over there you know because
they had
other children in the backyard because i
was wondering i was like
well i got my children with me you know
but they were they accommodated my
children
really well um one of the things they
talked about
is that the people that struggle before
pandemic
they struggle during the pandemic and
they're gonna struggle
after the pandemic and so
the thing to bring up um he told me that
he thinks that um the school the workers
fund thing is going to pass through the
johnson county supervisors but
he needs more help he needs people to
put more pressure on the johnson county
supervisors about this because he
believes that they're going to try to
you know they have i don't know the
amount of millions that they have but he
thinks that they're going to try to give
him a hundred thousand dollars
and just say here take this and that's
not enough money
that's not enough at all for all the
people that are affected
in iowa city and the whole community
so um there's more people you know i was
very very happy to see you know
some some fellow commissioner members
who showed up that i didn't even know
you know the first person i seen when i
went there was kevin when i got out
of my truck and i and i seen kevin i was
like yes this is what we need
so that's about you know as far as i can
go with update um
and so let's talk today
um i just want to say that i'm going to
some events over the
next week um where i'll get to
run into some of these people making
these decisions and i will be very sure
to talk to them about it so of course
you know some of them abduct emails
phone calls texts
so i get to see them in person now so um
i will also add that um the thing that i
left out is
at that event um cliff and kevin knows
that john green was there and he told us
that one of the first things that he
told us when we
talked to him is that he was like i want
to stay all night to talk to people
and he did that i left before he left
so that's kind of one of the people that
maybe
maybe in the future we can have him as a
guest speaker because he really means
good and he stayed there
i think yeah when me cliff and kevin
left
john green was still there so with that
idea
um can you bring the
agenda back up was the south district
one of those um
topics okay so then
i guess my in um chastity you can
jump in whenever you want because this
event has to do with the south district
and i think that
um it's important that we decide if we
want to be involved in this or not
um so if you want to take over chastity
and talk about
the national night out because that's
kind of like you're
you're kind of helping plan that and i
want to make sure you get to
say what you want to say about it i
think
before we go there can i just say
something about the excluded
workers fund yeah go ahead because i
think that the south issue is the next
topic after this one so
yeah i just wanted to say i missed what
uh
uh you guys commissioner harris and kevo
attended there because i i guess i miss
the
information if there's something else
and especially when we touch on support
i would want to attend because i
i'm also talking to the to
to the nissan management so that the
the nissa african family services
organization
can also be part of part of the support
and
as an organization no yeah so that we
can also be part of that because
we will also benefit uh
when they go through i will send you the
information
yeah yeah so that we can also formalize
that i just didn't
cut the the date properly and the time
of the event
so that i can go there also
uh also representing the organization
and
the organization being behind their work
yeah thank you i yield and chair treyori
i i
saw uh commissioner johnson's hand
raised i don't
on th okay yeah me too i saw his hand
raised too so
yeah i was just uh
speaking about uh the time when we were
over
at the catholic workers house
i do believe john green is somebody that
we uh
should definitely tap into and it was
good seeing our uh
fellow commissioners there there there
is a lot of work that's being done on a
outskirts that should be
recognized and uh use the right people
and the right places to kind of help us
push along
uh i feel like john green would be
somebody that we should definitely try
to tap to
tap into as well so
i thought again yep and i would say
really quickly that when i was speaking
at that event
i saw cliff or commissioner johnson
he was sitting on the floor and so um
when i saw that i was like yes this is
what we need to tap into with that idea
i'd like to agree with the statement on
john green definitely someone
that we want to keep in touch with
literally the night
i mean the morning after his election
victory
so that night you know dm'd him on
twitter
asking if he'd have time within the next
week to talk
and you know he was like how about
tomorrow morning
which was surprising because a lot of
other members of these city councils in
the county
some members of the board of supervisors
once again
ducking calls emails texts and this guy
just gets elected and the next morning
is willing to have a phone call
and we also saw him at the juneteenth
event
and just keep seeing them everywhere and
he looks dead tired
but he's still out there doing the work
still
and and remember yeah me and eric talk
to him as well we're just like
man you gotta rest for a second and he
said
and it was really nice hearing them say
this like this is my job that's what i
signed up for
so definitely a good person to stay in
touch with
do you have anything else on this uh
first one uh are we ready for
south district neighborhood association
slash diversity market
all right so chastity want to give you
the opportunity to talk on that
so um i don't know if there's other
things related to um
this line item but i um
as everyone may or may not know i work
for the neighborhood centers of johnson
county
and we're partnering with the south
district neighborhood association along
with other
organizations to put on national night
out
the date is tuesday
august 3rd so it's the first tuesday in
august
and um if you don't know the the goal
and the point of the event
is to bring the community together and
to also
facilitate more community connections
with
our first responders which is police
officers
people who work first responders
firefighters
things like that um so this would be a
good opportunity i believe for us
as a trc to host a true telling session
it has actually been requested by um
community members
so i was hoping we could talk about if
this is something we'd be interested in
it's going to be at weatherby park
so it's going to be on the south side
southeast side which is
where we really have a huge
concentration need to focus on
um for a lot of things right now um and
i'm i'm planning it so we have full
access
to what we need it can be either during
the event before or
after however we see fit
what date was it again it's tuesday
august 3rd
um i believe our times are six to eight
it i might need to double check that but
it's around that time
okay um and
so i with that i think
that so chastity has told me about this
event at our
um education committee meetings
i think that it would be really good
opportunity for us to hone in
on some of this marginalized population
also while like receiving really
great um testimony i
i don't know what um
this would look like i don't know if
it's like necessarily
you know kind of how we were talking
about earlier if there's more than a
certain amount of us then it's
technically like a public meeting and
then
there would need to be channel 4 and
stuff there um
so i'm open to discussing the idea of
having
less of us there and doing that so
that you know channel 4 doesn't have to
be there but then also the question came
up and this is a stuffed question let's
say chastity is there and she's
representing the neighborhood centers of
johnson county
um but there is four of us there
representing the trc
and you know let's say for some
weird reason the university of iowa
healthcare decides to have
a thing there and then we have another
commissioner
is is there rules about that what does
that look
like i mean you know if all nine of us
are at the jazz fest
um but we're not talking about
commissioner things then
i would assume that that's fine but i
also don't want to um
make this an event for us to sign up for
if it has
we have special circumstances that we
have to work under because of
our leak like legal status or whatever
yeah so again i kind of heard two
different things if
if nine commission members are at the
jazz fest
um individually just enjoying it that's
not trc business right
unless for some reason the trc has
decided to take up the jazz fest
as something that is a matter okay so
but if you're speaking of going to
national night out
and holding a what i believe was called
a truth telling session
then then yeah you're city channel 4
doesn't have anything to to do with that
where that where it becomes important is
then there would need to be an agenda
posted because that would be considered
a meeting
if there are a quorum of trc members
there doing a truth-telling
uh session so so as you guys
know as well there there's already a
scheduled meeting for that thursday so
that's something to think about as well
so we could also just kind of
make that a special meeting week or
something and roll stuff back i don't
know
but um and i kind of got a question
well kind of a two-fold well i got the
question in a statement um
and my question is for stephanie what
about you know when we go down to things
like june 10th
and the channel 4 guys comes up for
interview um
can we do those or are we supposed to do
those or
i mean yeah there's definitely no um
restrictions
on a commission member's ability to
speak to to the press
or to a news outlet okay
yeah so yeah that's not a problem and
just the other thing that i would say
like thank you to chastity um for
promoting her
in our neighborhood um that's a good
thing also we don't want to leave out
that we have two more diversity markets
in the south district
on the next two saturdays um
that's a good thing that's been going on
and i want people
you know you can't have you know other
people have other commitments and things
like that but
on the first diversity market when i
came up to it the first person i saw was
the chairperson
muhammad directing traffic in the middle
of the street
so we need more help over there with the
diver
market um it's a really good thing um
every time i talk to mohammad about
going there he said well i'm going to
show up at this time because i want to
shop first and then
you know i hate to interrupt you eric
i'm so sorry
um i just i want to make sure that we
finish the conversation
about the national night out before we
start talking about the diversity market
just because those are two really
important things happening in the south
district
but i don't want people to think that
these two are intertwined or related
so for um it has nothing to do with
being related or entertaining like the
agenda topic
was south district and the diversity
market it wasn't
so then are we are we done talking about
the what we need to do
as a commission or what we want to do as
a commission for
the national night out because i say
this
when it comes to national night out it
sounds like it's too early to
concretely plan what exactly we can do
for it because if we're going to have a
truth-telling session there
we still have to come up with a
truth-telling process which
we have talked about earlier in the
meeting that we need to get a concrete
like set of things on so i would like to
do something like that
but there's just not much else we can
say on it until we even have that
process
created and also that ties into if we're
going to have
video taken or anything we talked about
tabling the videographer thing
so how again do we do that so just it's
a longer conversation
and again i have i have been asking and
begging and questioning the need
for a videographer when you don't have a
process so we're trying to make a
process happen i think that we should
prioritize this because this is a good
opportunity where there will be a lot of
people present
so then it should be its own agenda
topic
then like exactly it should be like
other things
okay and i is is it all right if i
finish what i'm saying
i i don't think that we should miss out
on this
opportunity i don't think that it's a
question of
should we or should we not participate
in this because i feel like we
definitely should i think the question
should be is
how are we going to get this process
moving forward and how are we going to
get people to know that we're going to
be there
before this event happens and i am more
than happy to take
every single step of action towards that
working with commissioner dillard
i'm totally for that i don't mind um
i just wanted to make sure that my whole
thing wasn't talking about what we were
gonna do
my whole thing was i just want to make
sure that everyone else is okay with the
trc
being represented at this activity not
you know i i
but if we're i i'm just thinking that
trcb like
you know affiliated with this is that
okay that's i think
i have a point i think it's just
premature to make that concrete decision
that's why i want it as its own agenda
item for a full discussion
but i just want to say when it comes to
going to the event i i
added it to my calendar 10 minutes ago
that's why i asked the date again like
i'll be there
uh i don't i don't i don't yeah i don't
want to say we're going to make it a
truth-telling thing before we have a
process
i'm not saying we'll make this a
truth-telling thing i'm saying it can
the truth and reconciliation
be involved can we be like co-involved
with
the efforts that they're making for this
national night out that's
that's what i'm trying to say does
chastity have the permission to use our
likeness
for that event do we is that like i mean
kind of and commissioner daniel can you
go ahead i don't want to
talk over you or take the time that
you're speaking
so thank you i'm i'm a little confused
on which agenda item this
is and i i also don't think this is
something that we need to hash out at a
public meeting
when it's clear that even some of the
commissioners
are not really don't really understand
how we got to talking about this so i
think we can assign this
they're a subcommittee or we can discuss
this at different subcommittees
and see who would be available to to
put in like the work that's needed
to allow us to participate in whatever
um capacity that the organization
would like us to participate in
i yield yeah um we're on
six item b the south district
neighborhood association
and diversity market the broadway
neighborhood center is who
is doing this event and they are located
in the south district
and i i want to let chase cassidy and
cicales
um thank you um commissioners
so just to reiterate what um
commissioner ali said um
and to respond to commissioner daniels
so i was under the impression that
since it is part of the southeast
neighbor south district neighborhood
association that we could talk about it
during this time
um i don't know um what more to say
about that but i do agree maybe we can
move this to a subcommittee
um and since i'm a part of the education
subcommittee i think it would be fitting
with that so if everyone's okay with
that we'll just
end the discussion and then talk go from
there and then that
next meeting we can make it an agenda
item
and have a full discussion if that's
okay
okay someone else has a hand up too so
i'd also be happy to yeah if you want to
have a phone call before the next
meeting or anything
please do i feel free that way i kind of
just know like how exactly
to like talk with the male about how to
outline that budget item i mean
ah agenda item so we like have it
directly on there in a way that you can
speak on it any way you need to
yeah i just i don't i hope it didn't
come off that i was calling anyone out
or trying to scold anyone
i just this we're talking about two
different
different events that both should
deserve um
their own agenda item um and i'm not as
familiar with
um the the broadway neighborhood center
or anything like that so i was
i was actually just a little confused um
so thank you for clarifying
i yield yeah and then i'll go too
because
we still have to cowish right after you
but then
down i don't know
um yeah i'm i'm okay i just i wanted to
just
encourage us to stick to the topic and
keep moving because it's getting late
that's true um i just want to say that
you know this the whole south district
neighborhood
um i had to fight to get things about
the south district on
the agendas and things like that so i i
believe that the
national night out is not on the agenda
um the south district neighborhood and
the diversity market which we have done
for the past two weeks
is hey where's national night out
located at can you just
can you ask can you just let your lord
when i was located
i just want to say as well let's let's
not get into the animosity of things
like we have
where is national night out at well when
i talked about south sudan
in the past and it wasn't on the agenda
then we had to wait to get it on the
agenda so i think that
then it got on the agenda nobody's
arguing with you here
nobody is arguing with you what you're
saying
um commissioners it is
it is almost 10 o'clock so i feel like
we should
maybe move on to um agenda item 6c
yes please yep
does anyone have anything to say on the
juneteenth celebrations
i'm just really happy that finally
it is a federal holiday
so at least i've always been part of the
celebrations that happened in our county
and our city but one yeah
i was very very happy and
was part of pushing our organization
to even if it happened real quick
that we had that holiday and
we are going to make it among the
holidays that we
get to to
get off from work and it's way past time
that
it should have been made a national
holiday
that's although also
even as it's also it's sad
for me it's a sad holiday
[Music]
but as well the disappointing part to me
is
i had so many people like i put this on
my snapchat story of like me at the
event and i had so many
black people hit me up and say what is
that
where are you at and that immediately
for me is like
so it's not the city employees that are
in charge
of the communications being down on
because they do the job that they're
told to do but more so on the people
planning what they're supposed to do
i've said this so many times but the
social media outreach
and the general media outreach of the
city needs to
drastically improve because that should
not be happening
where people aren't knowing that a
juneteenth celebration is going on
and they're asking me at 8 15 on that
day when it ends at 8 30
and they don't even know what it is and
but not even that
just like it became a national holiday
just a few days prior and then
all of a sudden all this stuff on my
calendar for work is just getting
canceled in terms of meetings on friday
and it's like oh so all
white people just get a day off now so
are any of you like taking time to like
read about like what this was
why this is any of that or is it just
like another day for you to just do
whatever
so it's so it's nice that it's a federal
holiday
but i'd like to see more in terms of
what we put into
actually you know celebrating it
like more education opportunities more
actual
outreach and not just all right everyone
has a day off do whatever
you know if that makes sense
oh go ahead so i i'd like to push back
on that
just a little bit because um
one i i don't think it matters that
white people got the day off it's a
federal holiday so
everyone gets the day off um if you if
you're
whatever who your employer follows the
federal
uh holiday calendar but um
i think if you're if you make that
argument then a lot of the people who
take the like memorial day off or
veterans day off never bother to learn
about
veterans or do anything for veterans or
remember
their sacrifice so i don't think
we're in any position to shame people
who
who did anything for june teens and who
didn't bother to look up what the
holiday was about
um i also think that you know
the city can only do so much and so if
people
are signed up for the for the digest or
or the newsletters
they'll get that if they're following
the social media they'll
they may see it but um the city's not
going to send every black person in iowa
city
a special invitation to show up to
juneteenth event you actually have to
put in some effort
yeah i think it's like was being
misunderstood what i'm saying like i'm
not saying
that to shame people on it i'm saying
more so of like
it's not hard to like tell people like
hey
this is why juneteenth is a thing and to
at least give them the opportunities of
like events to go to
to learn more about it instead of just
hey you have a day off and leave it at
that
but also that's again of like why there
is a responsibility because again it's a
federal holiday
so it's a government mandated thing
so also the responsibility of the
government to say
this is why this is occurring we have
these things going on for this
etc etc etc but i think the social media
presence is severely lacking like there
you rarely see them post even if you do
follow them
uh it's very very easy to send out a
tweet with literally just the flyer
of what it is so people can retweet it
as well or people can reshare it on
their facebook instead of it just being
that one facebook group
like does they already have the social
media accounts
it's just yeah the effort put into the
outreach is just very very low
in terms of what it could really be it's
just how i feel
yeah i i work with veterans
and you know when you see how
little people know about veterans and
veterans day or memorial day
it's no surprise that people would be
ignorant about a federal holiday that
just became a federal holiday
uh i think we we deserve to be a little
bit more
understanding of um blind spots
and ignorance um and and
and moved to change it but i think we
should have like we should take a more
um positive approach to
outrage like not even outreach but like
getting the word out about what
juneteenth is about because
even the term juneteenth celebration you
know it's
it is a very bittersweet holiday it is
very much like even though these people
were free
they're kept like they were
their their oppressors did not let them
know of their freedom and
it's when you really think about it it's
just very sad but
um yeah i yield
that is what i mean though of like
continuing in the future
can i put something with this talk about
so juneteenth has already happened i
think it's
important if we're going to continue to
like um
like discuss this i think maybe like
what we should work on is what what can
we do to make
the next juneteenth a more educational
and
a more uh exciting and equitable
experience for
those around us um i think that we
should look i know that like
you know we don't a part of being a part
of the trc is looking into the history
and looking to the past but i think this
is one of those things that
we should hone in on um as far as
juneteenth because
you know like the ifr and people's truth
and reckoning they had an incredible
juneteenth event and i think that
if education and letting people know
what this is about is what our goal is i
really think that we should get to start
planning
um you know the next year's activities
and i know that sounds like it's kind of
weird and far from now but the city does
have things planned
out way further than that for advance
and i
i i would be open for having that is
what i mean though
if they can do that with other events
why not this one you know
yeah yeah yeah so i'm saying then we
should work on making next year's event
you know in a more you know public space
where
more center part of iowa city or
you know taking an entire thing to i'm
saying that we should work on
making ideas so that we can make sure
that next year's juneteenth is something
that is
celebrated and all of you know
just we educate those around us i think
that is you know the point that i'm
trying to make and
i'll yield to commissioner dillard
so i um real quick just wanna also push
back a little bit because i do know
um several of the people that were part
of the planning committee instead of
it feels like um complaining
we should be celebrating the huge
accomplishment that happened this
this um this year we did a lot of great
things
um especially since the the planning
committee are
um and were people of color black women
that helped put it together so
um i i'm having
a little public charlie says we should
be focusing on more
of a positive note so that's all i want
to say
i agree with all of you i just think
we're talking past each other and like i
did say that i put it more on the city
for not giving that incentive to really
make it public
with the control of the accounts and i
did i'm not putting it on the
organizers that are the city employees
rather the people that run the city
themselves
they have more of a responsibility to
give more to allow it to happen
you know it's like i'm happy it all
happened i'm just saying that i'd like
to see
the people higher up making the
decisions truly prioritize it in the way
all these other things are like when it
comes to the downtown iowa city block
party that they're gonna have next month
i saw that on kcrg like
why didn't i see this same thing you
know
what um
but yeah i'm happy it all it all
occurred i'm i'm just i'm just at least
wanting to point those things out
so going forward into the future we can
keep some of those
pitfalls that happen in mind so we know
exactly
or at least some of the ideas to push
for in the future
or at least to kind of focus on
if that makes sense yeah
i i think that everything that you're
saying
makes sense i think everyone that's
we're all talking in just like
circular form right now um so i think
that it would be best
probably just to move on to the next one
i think
that we're all in the same agreement and
sentiment about juneteenth and
stuff i really just don't think that us
talking about this
any longer is gonna make for anything
productive
um so i really would hope that we could
move on to
uh agenda item number seven which is
commission announcements
yeah but before we move on there i don't
that point lost
the one that the chair is talking about
that about at some point having
something concrete
on what what that point has
that point has not been lost because i
think uh a few of us have
repeated that sentiment i didn't finish
i didn't finish commissioner ali
at that what exactly do we want the city
to do
put the same amount of effort into
promoting this as they do to promote
other things
such as put new spots on the cable news
like they did just now for a downtown
block party
actually post about it repeatedly talk
to talk to reporters to write
articles about it incessantly all the
time and then also for them to talk
about it in
these like private meetings and things
that they go to with all their friends
and stuff
like it's it's that simple they don't
but they don't do it and it's clear to
see
and yes you have captured a very
important point which is very integral
to this commission uh i remember even
with the listening posts
uh i remember saying publicly and
telling the council
don't just say the listening posts were
the people who are mostly impacted are
people of color
and yet you are having an event and i
don't say that they didn't show up
what effort did you make to make sure
that they're there
so a lot of it happens again and again
so not to believe by the point that
already that has been said
but it captures a pattern
of when it's something about certain
groups people of color
the same effort is not put in i yield
i just want to apologize about keeping
that going it's just more for me
i just want to just get that off
and then from here whatever we do going
forward we can at least
keep some of that in mind but again i am
very proud
of everyone that did put everything they
had into
making this event a success all the food
that was given out
the three on three basketball
tournaments and and all of that that was
all amazing to see
i just think it could be bigger can i
see some oh sorry there's a hand up
definitely commissioner daniel yeah and
then sakawis you can speak after
commissioner daniel
um so i would i'd like us to can start
thinking about considering the budget
committee as also
our subcommittee as also like a planning
subcommittee since we're already kind of
looking at
um the trc's future as far as budgeting
and this could be one of the things that
we look more into
um you know what what
what the student celebrations were great
how can
we help make it make how can we help
make them better
um i yield
i just wanted to say that when i heard
um
the chair speak about you know the
criticism of not advertising the event
as as much that you know i heard a
criticism about
uh a criticism of like uh
institutionalized racism
uh and systematic discrimination which
is exactly why this commission is set up
um and that the city itself
should be putting just as much work and
effort
and time and money into these types of
celebrations
as they are into uh the block party
um i did i didn't hear a criticism of
the wonderful people that
organized um the event um
and i want to say the same thing because
uh
when it comes to uh columbus day and
indigenous people's day
um there's still a celebration of
columbus day they still haven't done
away
with columbus day so like what's the
point of indigenous people's day
um it's just a tokenizing uh event and
so i relate to what's been discussed
here
in in terms of of that as well so
thank you so much for letting me speak
we do now have commission announcements
if no one has anything else
only announcement i have is just once
again diversity market
this saturday next two saturdays after
that but
i'm gonna make sure i just stopped
talking at this point
i've been saying a lot this meeting yeah
me too the only announcement that i
would have is uh
the diversity market is for the next two
weekends
not in august we'll talk about august
i'm gonna get to july
so that's the only thing i gotta say
commissioner daniel
i i would like to encourage everyone to
do some self-care tomorrow and this
weekend
and just enjoy the summer it's going
it's going to be short so you know it it
goes by so quickly
get outside uh get reconnected to nature
um i yield
um can somebody please help me with the
structure of this with commissioner
announcements i know i'm not supposed to
talk to anybody
um am i allowed to
talk about events that i'm involved with
that i can
announce yes
only thing that we can respond for as
commissioners
is to ask for like if the time
or the date we can like clarify
questions okay
um i would like to announce um the
uh annual event to abolish monuments to
white supremacy
um at the capitol building
which will be happening on july 4th and
there's you can go to the facebook page
at great plains action society and
you'll see the event there
um this year we are also um going to be
working on
bringing lights to the recent bill
that was passed to ban critical race
theory
in iowa
funded institutions which means like our
kids
will not get critical race theory uh and
um this is a coalition event
uh many organizations across the state
and even into eastern nebraska have have
joined on
um and i would like to
encourage people to attend and support
um
because this has a lot to do with
um the
very reason why the trc exists so
uh and i'm not talking to the trc i'm
talking to the audience that's watching
um uh thank you very much
time
i'm sorry time time oh uh one two three
uh on july 4th at the iowa capitol
building at the west
terrace and um the facebook event page
uh can be found through great plains
action society
um i just wanted to add very quickly
that um
the reason i mentioned about the
self-care is because june is national
pollinator month
and gardening is one way i do
self-care so that's why i brought it up
but yes please
uh remember you're like the pollinators
that
help us get our food thank you
i attended the diversity market
and i'll continue attending them
uh the subcommittee education
subcommittee started meeting
and the team that is going to collect
the
ratio discrimination experiences
in the the team that's leading with the
african communities
started meeting
i yield
um and before i don't know if there's
any other commissioner announcements i
just wanted to make sure there's no
updates on the rfp before i made a
motion
there's no update
do you have any announcements steph um
i i did want to mention just two brief
things
if somebody wants an item under the
community
um discussion on the agenda
it at the last meeting if you just
emailed the chair vice chair and just cc
me so that i'm in the loop
um that you know it would ultimately i
guess be up to the chair and vice chair
but it's certainly something
if anybody has something specifically
they want to talk about under that
item or on the agenda period and then i
i just wanted to mention on the budget
some some of the things you know if you
look back at the resolution it says
things not covered by other
city services programs or
um not it says beyond what existing city
staff programs and services can provide
so it appears that some of those items
could be items that city staff services
or programs could provide
um i've offered my assistance of
knowledge so i
i mean if there's ever a question it
doesn't shoot to call me or shoot me an
email because
you you may be allocating funding to
something that the city
has a program service or staff that
could do
um and you can put that funding towards
something that the city couldn't provide
so i'm just offering you know my
knowledge as city staff
to to make sure you're not doing light
items for things that could be allocated
to trainings or or to other things that
you're you're wanting to do
as a part of your mission so i i just
wanted to throw that out there but
that's it
um i definitely
want to make sure that i say this really
quick before we
adjourn um there are
a number of protesters from last year's
protest
who have been getting arrested lately
and just like the gnaw situation at the
beginning of the spring
they would like our support in johnson
county court i know that the next
protesters court date happens to be the
next thursday that we meet i believe
july
8th um it's at 1 30.
uh there's mate mohamed and
um another protester whose name i don't
have
uh but i think that it's important that
we support people's rights
uh to their freedom of speech and i
think
that um everything that this legislation
and this
local government and state government
has done as far as protesting safety
protester safety
uh has just been all bumbo jumbo so
um if you want any more info about that
just let me know but i think that it's
important that we support those who are
helping
lift those marginalized voices up
and with that i'll make a motion to
adjourn
oh go ahead
i second the motion
okay and then oh okay it's been properly
moved in second
to adjourn the meeting uh all those in
favor say aye
aye anyone opposed
okay i would say meeting is adjourned 10
14.you