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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRC 20210708 auto captionsall right so it is uh thursday july 8th looks like we have everyone we need so far um that i will call this meeting to order and stephanie can we please uh commissioner ali she's muted sorry no sorry it just it was lagging it went my phone for some reason i'm present thank you uh commissioner daniel commissioner uh dillard president commissioner gathaw president uh commissioner harris yeah commissioner johnson here commissioner rivera here uh commissioner sakawis here and commissioner treyore sure thank you oh and then from here uh so we missed the approval of meeting minutes from a few meetings on here so we just want to ensure that we do that today everyone so we do have in the agenda packet linked the meeting minutes from march 4th so this was a meeting that not everyone was on the trc for so stephanie i just wanted to ask about protocol on that so uh that march 4th meeting with everyone on the current trc not being in that meeting is there anything we'd want to do with that or push that for another meeting for approval um i mean you could do one motion to accept all meeting minutes um it will stay on the agenda until at some point the commission approves them um in the past with the human rights commission if there's members who weren't present who um are hesitant to approve the meeting minutes the the suggestion is that they can listen to the audio or the video if they wish to do that that was a longer meeting i think it went from about seven to a little before 11 30 maybe even a little after um so it's just comfort level but like at some point there they would need to be approved um and so um there's not a direct protocol it's just kind of you know there is audio and video available um if anybody want wants to view the minutes and that would be for the public too so okay um i have one change to make to the june 8th minutes um under the section review of draft rfp for facilitator it says rivera requested for rfp to be updated to reflect linux and hispanic and not white um i think that was commissioner dillard but i could be wrong about that okay thank you i can make that edit um do we have any other current changes to any of the other minutes and is there anyone hesitant to vote on approving the march 4th minutes okay um so we did make the small change just now to the june 10th minutes so i just wanted to ask as well if we could hold off on approving those minutes until the next meeting with commissioner daniel not being here with us changing something and possibly attributing it to her uh and just to keep things moving i i can go back and look at the video tomorrow so if you want to just approve the minute subject to uh possible edit for the purposes of who made that particular statement i i think that would be okay but if you want to wait till your meeting um in a in about a week and a half that that works too but if you want to keep it moving um that's easy enough for me to go back and listen to the audio watch the video okay i'm okay with option one personally but i just would like to ask everyone else us because we need someone to make a motion as well i make the motion to approve i'll second it okay it's been properly moved and seconded to approve um the meeting minutes then from march 4th june 10th and june 24th subject to the revision of the june 10th meeting that staff will go back and listen to audio slash video to um attribute that statement to the correct commissioner so with that i will take roll call commissioner ali yes commissioner uh dillard yes commissioner gathawa yes commissioner harris yes uh commissioner johnson yes commissioner rivera yes uh commissioner sakawas yep and commissioner trey already yes okay thank you motion passes okay next we have public comment of items not on the agenda so would just like to ask if we do have anyone from the public attending today that has any remarks that they would like to make we will give you up to five minutes to make your remarks and again these are four items not on the agenda for tonight so if you could please raise your hand and we will be sure to call on you and give you an opportunity to speak okay does not look like we have anyone for public comment of items not on the agenda so we will now move on to item number four on the agenda which is request for proposals update and stephanie just wanted to check in on this aspect see if we okay um so the um proposals are due um by this tuesday july 13th at 2 30. and once um the proposals are submitted the purchasing division will go through just to make sure that everybody submitted the proper requests as put forth in the rfp at that time there will be a scoring sheet that will be created and at least three members of the trc will need to volunteer to score the proposals and because the city requires um a proposal to at least score at 80 for it to move forward those proposals that are scored 80 or higher would then be um contacted for for an interview so so that's kind of the process so the um the commission can choose to to hold a special meeting if you're wanting to to to kind of review um those um proposals that score 80 or above or you could designate it to a subcommittee but until tuesday well i wouldn't even say tuesday i would probably get purchasing at least 24 hours to go through and make sure all the you know proper documents were received as part of the proposal but we'll say 24-48 hours later um getting those surveys out to those commissioners who are choosing to participate excuse me i call them surveys evaluations um and getting those uh graded to kind of move forward on next steps or do you have any knowledge of how many proposals have been submitted yet sure when when i checked today um there had not been any but i also know that as somebody who uh works with uh the public that you know that's people tend to wait till the last minute i myself can raise my hand and say that i've probably done that myself and so um as of today there have not been any submitted but again people have until tuesday at 2 30 and if um there are no proposals submitted the um the trc can choose to to rebid if you want to or there there is a clause that uh would allow you to kind of bypass um that process and and do more of uh what was done earlier um in the year in terms of selecting a facilitator so um but prior to tuesday i just don't i don't really know and so kind of what options are available until we see what comes through by tuesday at 2 30. in terms of personal position on social medias to raise awareness is that something that's allowed or is there language that we'd want to use to stay a little more neutral on it are you asking if i can ask the city to pump it out on social media uh that for one but also ourselves yeah you certainly can um i know it was shared on um we did a city a citywide news release it was also released on the um office of equity human rights news release listserv i know that it also appeared on linkedin so if anybody's on linkedin and wants to forward it you can find it there but i will uh speak with the department that handles social media and ask them to to shoot it out on whatever venues they feel appropriate so thank you thank you stephanie i feel like i'm asking a question about open records um at every meeting sorry about that um but i wanted to ask if say one of us posted about um trc sort of business uh or some something like this say on instagram or twitter is that part of open record that as it relates to what you posted in relationship to the commission that would be crap thank you somebody could say i would request all posts that commissioner rivera did as it relates to the trc so any post that had been done as it relates to the trc would be a public record great thank you and and i can also after the meeting i can resend via email the news release if folks would like me to do that that's very easy to do so i can resend out the actual news release to um via email after the meeting this evening i think that's a good idea does anyone have anything else about this rfp so we can move on to agenda item number five which are the updates on the land acknowledgement so i do want to give this one over to commissioners novus and rivera hello um yeah so in terms of the land acknowledgement uh it's done i don't know what else to say um i sent it to uh um the it's in the drive uh and i sent it to various people um i don't know what the next steps are with that so i guess somebody will have to tell me how that so goes it's in the agenda packet for today um and i want to thank again sakais for um for submitting it a couple things that i just wanted to point out um there's a typo in the word ancient [Music] and then just some discrepancies in when we when um indigenous people are used if the people is capitalized um in one instance it is not it should be indigenous peoples with a plural and capital p okay so i would suggest correcting those but otherwise i really like it and i think that it's ready for us to hopefully make a motion and approve after we get some more discussion if anyone has any other comments and maybe we should also open up to a public comment i'll make those corrections right now what was the word ancient you said ancient yeah okay all right line five in the acknowledgement okay does anyone from the public have any comment on this acknowledgement i'm seeing none do any other commissioners have any comments or discussion for this i don't at the moment just wanted to ask if we did feel comfortable today uh doing the vote to um essentially you know put our support behind it and use it going forward ourselves or if we were still waiting on human rights commission and um any other entity first i wasn't able to get it in front of the eyes of anyone on the human rights commission i could make the motion such that we approve the acknowledgement with the edits that we discussed [Music] for immediate implementation at the very beginning of our next meeting pending the approval from the human rights commission at their next meeting um as well so if they um if they approve it as is then i will formally adopt it as well stephanie is there any problem with that uh no the the human rights commission meets on tuesday july 27th so that's their next date um i'm just curious why are we getting um their input on this i was just gonna ask if it mattered if they didn't want to do it could we still vote to do it our on our own and then let them decide if they want to do it sure the the um reason that the human rights commission is being brought up is um the one of the former drafts of this was developed in partnership with them um and the way that we had intended to the way that i had originally intended this to be used was for both of our commissions to adopt it in a sort of unified manner so that we can also sort of jointly recommend that city council adopt this um but if the commission wanted to say we should just have our own land acknowledgement and then the human rights commission can can either use this one independently of us um then we can do that as well do you have a preference no i think that's great i just i was just curious i wanted to know the reasoning behind it i think that if we work in solidarity with them it's just stronger for stronger for that reason and then it makes it um more of an argument for the city to pick it up and actually use the word reparations which is the reason why um this isn't here because um i don't like the word reconciliation um i'm from canada i've been there done that reconciliation is not the way to um make things better we need equity and reparations so um i would really like this um adopted by the city and i think that working with the human rights commission is the best way to do that thanks for those comments yeah i would have to agree i think um i think that and i mean i don't remember word for word what your emotion you suggested just now was but i i would second it if you wanted to remake that motion so stephanie did you catch it the first time i i think so yeah so um to approve the land acknowledgement with edits for immediate implementation at the next trc meeting uh subject to the approval of the human rights commission yeah so i guess it would be for implementation um for the meeting follow for the trc meeting following the next hrc meeting okay i think that's august 5th i believe is when that would be yeah i also see this um as a test you know to see how people how serious people are about this work um because i know the word reparation is um a loaded word for a lot of people um and it's not used often in land acknowledgements for that reason so um if it's denied then that will be definitely something we'll have to talk about thank you yeah sakais can you um send the edited version to stephanie and then stephanie would you be able to send that to the whoever organizes the agenda for the hrc and see if they'd be willing to add it to their agenda yes great um it's in the drive and it's already edited so it should be ready to go okay so the hiccup with the city is that we are we can't access google drives it's it's a security measure and so i i would need it sent just to me directly i'll do that right now thank you for ollie yeah i'll go in and send it to you right now as a pdf thank you team um so i think that we've had my motion and then commissioner ali second if there's unless there's any other discussion maybe we can get roll call okay um commissioner ali yes commissioner dillard yes commissioner gatherwell yes commissioner harris yes commissioner johnson yes commissioner rivera yes uh commissioner cicales yes and commissioner trey ray yes okay passes eight zero thank you i'll just conclude by saying that i'm i'm i feel really um glad that we did this uh with the unanimous vote so i just want to thank everyone for this and again thank you to cicalis for being willing to do the work you're welcome and thank you uh steph do you mind giving me the ability to share my screen really quick i just want to make sure that i have the two corrections right because for some reason it's not showing me a history of uh sakawis making any changes you should you should be able to okay let's see i'll just resend what i have to you again so it's just the ancient and then indigenous peoples that those two right yeah no and then people should be capitalized and then also at the top in the purpose uh indigenous peoples should be plural and capitalized uh at the very top line on purpose my thing is going a little slow right here sorry there must be two versions of this somewhere yeah here i'll i'll fix it i just wanted to make sure that i have the two just those those ones okay we can move on okay so next on the agenda we do have just a conversation on national night out discussion on truth telling so this one as i have been informed may not actually end up taking the entire time in in the box as it is so uh i would like to make sure that we do at least touch base on this quickly and and then we do come back in our next meeting and actually go into more detail on this item but i just do want to hand this off to commissioners ali and also commissioner uh dillard are we inviting comments from the public on it oh um yes uh the public if you would like to speak on this item you do have the opportunity i'm just not sure how much we can know about it as of now that are currently here thank you for the reminder as well do we have anyone in the public that would like to comment on this agenda item i i don't see any hands raised okay so from here looks like yeah commissioners ali and commissioner dillard uh you do have the floor i'm gonna let commissioner ollie start off yeah just hang on i'm trying to get the right page up here um so i kind of uh when i had written this down i wanted to leave it as an open-ended conversation because i want to make sure that we're all on the same page about what we envision a truth telling session um to look like or be like so in the notes here um do you i don't know stuff is it easier if i share my screen with that if it's in the packaging yeah i can share mine okay perfect um so um i just think that it's really important that we're all like i said on the same page um and that were kind of aligned in what we envisioned this to look like um and so i'm gonna preface this also with um four of us uh commissioner treyore commissioner dillard and um commissioner um chasity and commissioner daniel and i um we spoke to a few members of the divided community project um who have kind of been following along on this journey um since the get-go um and they're kind of specialties uh with a lot of the people who are in this um in this group are things that deal with mediation restorative justice um you know i've talked about ron wakabayashi who was involved in a trc process and is currently involved in the california reparations process and so we had a long conversation um just talking about um even if we had a truth telling um session at the national night out and what that would look like and you know then we kind of realized um through dialogue that we're not really all on the exact same page of what we want to get out of this truth-telling session um and you know we decided that you know it might not be the best idea to do this session along with the national night out because you know a lot of the goal with the um national night out is to bring the community together um with the police and with first responders and things like that and um i just don't know that it would be in our best interest to have a session there without really really really putting some long thought into it um and one of the people that's involved in the divided community project um sent me this really great email after and um graciously has given me her permission to um share some of her thoughts and um share some of her ideas uh from what she got from our conversation from her experience working in mediation and things like that um so there is just like a few questions that i think are really important uh what do we hope to accomplish with these sessions um what changes are we seeking um and if are those changes for the individual the truth teller the community the broader iowa city um the the officials or like the commission itself um and you know she says you know that the answers to these questions are going to be really fundamental and giving us good framework um on how we're gonna go forward as a commission when we have these uh truth-telling sessions um so uh she gave these definitions that i thought were perfect and really well written about bunch of different kinds of truths so i'm going to read them and these are not textbook or dictionary definitions a lot of these definitions are used in transformative justice field in situations like that but um so there's forensic truth which is used to gather evidence to establish what happened to reveal secrets create a culture of accountability this often includes gathering information legal slash liability considerations investigations oaths testimony this type of truth engagement is especially important when there has been gaslighting dis slash misinformation or secrecy the purpose is to reveal truth what has been hidden distorted and to make it known in public often includes investigators lawyers law experts um and the tone of this is a lot more formal uh the next thing is narrative truth um it's used for sharing personal stories and experiences of making public what has been a painful or harmful purple ex personal experience um this is centered around the victim uh the focus is usually on healing the acknowledgment of pain validation um there's care and compassion that's offered it's usually supported by therapists trauma specialists public health professionals um faith or traditional leaders um dialectic or dialogue truth um is used to exchange truths to share truths uh to learn more through stories filling in gaps broadening understanding co-creating a more complex and honest collective narrative well facilitated uh public dialogues and town meetings can serve this purpose uh this is kind of when we have this conversation this is kind of the forum that mo was envisioning um the takeaways could include recommendations for the commission uh the point isn't tearing down or proving someone wrong or debating the focus is on dynamic shifts taking place between people as they share the truth of their experience using collective energy to move forward in constructive ways co-editing the past and co-authoring the future mediators group facilitators people like the divided community project are going to be really useful um for this type of truth-telling process um there's restorative truth ah the emphasis on restorative truth is deep listening where people come together because they really want to learn they want to grow they want to heal and transform relationships and ways of relating the tone is really intentional careful and can be gentle even um here asking for forgiveness saying i'm sorry and the initials in the initial steps towards reconciliation might take place processes are often done in circles and can include rituals um and she said you know like indigenous practices um but again facilitators should include mental or spiritual health leaders um and so this is the last one is moral truth it's probably the most well-known because it was used in south africa's truth and reconciliation process um they the victims in that process they wanted to know why someone did what they did versus what they did so it was more about the why uh they wanted an explanation even if it wasn't a good one they wanted to give them they wanted a chance to face their perpetrators the individual perpetrators and the state perpetrators um the outcomes were powerful um and they can be very powerful they giving individuals or individual communities a chance to reclaim power and dignity uh the tone is pain indignation hurt shock anger sometimes release but must also be supported by specialists this process can be one of churning so knowing how to manage this specific processes dynamics is especially critical where we would want someone um who is well versed in that field um so after listening to me blab for about five ten minutes um i'm gonna stop talking and then i just kind of wanna hear what you guys have to say or like what if that invoked any thoughts from you guys so yeah i just wanted to say that i really enjoyed the meeting that we did get to have with the divided community project and that um the insight won very good but two to get the actual notes such as this would be really good going forward in terms of giving us a framework for you know the different types of listening sessions and something that could really benefit us going forward if we do also want to do something like this for the national night out but um as well in terms of how we want these things facilitated uh for each subcommittee as well in terms of when our as people continue to reach out uh this could be something that we could show them as well in terms of the type of process that they would like to see for how that truth-telling session goes at least that's just my thought on it i'm curious whether when the conversation was going on whether the word reparative truth arose at all you said uh reparative truth is yeah yeah because i see restorative i see reconciliation but there is always reparation but i i don't see that on this list um i'm just not sure in terms of i don't think that exact term was used at all but i'm not sure how uh we would essentially include like reparative truth in the sense that the reparations i believe is just the act of the actual um granting of of the monetary values whereas connecting that with the truth um i think that would also kind of be its own process within that that would probably have to come from the actual truth-telling session but in terms of defining that that's something that we could also have um a meeting on where we do look to get that defined we do look to ask more on that but i do know that amel did want to get uh ron wakavashi as well in for um for a presentation to us and he is the one that had been successful in getting reparations in the past and is currently working on that again so it seems like we could get that you know looked at a little more yeah andrei thank her commissioner sakai is always for not letting us that leave that behind as we move forward on getting as we move in listening to truths and moving to reconciliation not to leave that behind as we keep moving because it could leave wounds that are still festering or just sweeping things under the carpet and yeah so i just want to make sure that i write this down correctly you want to have a conversation um like reparative truth right yeah that it shouldn't uh i like the way commissioner chair triori has separated separation from the listening to the truth uh my thing is just not leaving reparations behind as we continue to listening and making recommendations and having conversations yeah um when reading through this these different types of truths i think the two that stick out the most to me for the trc um would have to be the uh narrative truth and um and [Music] dialect or dialogue truth those two stand out the most when i think of what our process would look like um but i do think that you know um different sessions might you know we might need different types of truths or we might have different um purposes with the different sessions like i don't see you know a session with women where we're talking about domestic violence and sexual abuse being um a forensic truth telling session you know i don't think it's going to be us investigating and all of that i think it might be more of like a narrative truth or a restorative truth um but that's i i think that muhammad did have like a good point and that we have different kinds of truths here that might be good for different might be good might have different purposes anyone else have any other comments they wanted to make on this and then i do know that we do have a member of the devoted community project here tonight and if you as well would like to make any comments on this um you are welcome to it's a little bit difficult for me to kind of decide what what i'm hoping um to sort of lead with when it comes to orienting these sessions partly because i don't know what the public wants to say right um i don't know what they're looking what they might be looking for um in these truth-telling sessions and so you know that gets us into a little bit of a catch-22 but i like the idea of at least sort of offering a few different options when we do invite people to come and say here here's sort of some of the options that we've been mulling over in terms of truth when it comes to your participation and you can inform us about kind of the purpose that you come to us with and sharing your story i'll piggyback on this is commissioner i'll piggyback on what kevo is saying um thinking all these ways of seeking truth it to me the way i see it it depends and for my purposes right now oh i remember suggesting and talking to an attacker in the community and at some point having conversations and even coming to the commission talk about that on using restorative uh res circles who where we would use we would use restoration format of listening to people's truths or listening to the community the iowa city community-wide listening to all the communities then uh we are also having from the african communities as we plan to listen in that one we haven't as yet we we are starting to approach it from a research action model but as we move forward it keeps it hasn't yet learned the best format of of gathering the truth but in a cultural proficient way right now using narrative truth lends itself to those communities to their culture so what i'm saying oh yeah we can have the general format but it depends on what we are doing then well how's your hand i yelled yeah did you yeah i was just gonna my suggestion i think so we can kind of i mean not like get things moving but like we should set up a truth-telling session um and i'm not saying that i don't think that it should be on the national night out um but i think that it would be important to get something like at least a ball rolling on something like you know having a session that is specific like for example maybe the week of the national night out we could have a truth-telling session in the south district and this topic could be how over policed and over supervised and all of this the people feel and we let the people know that we're gonna be here documenting people's experiences and the point of it is gonna be for um dialogue truth we're gonna exchange truth share we're gonna learn through our stories and we'll record that and the purpose for that might be dialectic or dialogue truth whereas then you know maybe like five months from now we'll have one with you know kind of something that's more along uh commissioner guthua's expertise where we deal with um domestic violence in specific communities and that might not be something where we want to do dialect or dialogue truth that might be something where we just want to do um narrative truth where we're just listening and offering support to you know the women that are there or you know and that kind of also brings another thing that like i don't know if every one of the commissioners also should be at all of that and i think that was something we kind of talked about too if like all of the commissioners are necessary at every single one of the truth-telling sessions like if we have ones for like women who are dealing with domestic and sexual abuse things i don't know that it would be helpful to have all of us here all of us at that specific session um so i think that that's something that we should also think about um as well when it comes to these truth-telling sessions but i i really think that i think that it is important that we get the ball rolling um on something like that and i know that there might be a lot of questions or issues and actually after this eric you can talk because i'm going to kind of use you here and um say like someone like eric who's perfect because he knows people in that community who have dealt with that stuff so he can like bring those people and you know i don't have to worry that anything's going to happen or anyone's going to get angry with each other because eric's there you know nobody in the community is going to disrespect anyone while eric's there especially in that community he's very respected or if you know we've got angie jordan helping facilitate or things like that i think these are things that can happen that we should we should work towards making happen and i want to do that sooner rather than later um and i'll yield the floor to eric um so this is eric harris so one of the things that we are kind of leaving out on and i haven't heard it discussed in this conversation is we're leaving out the um african american community so i haven't heard anything discussed about that you know um the truth telling will come from them you know because they are the people who are who has been marginalized for many of years almost i talked about it with a few other people it's been about 400 years that's the community that has been marginalized and the the the part about domestic violence and things like that that's that's that's what we want to spell about you know um so with that i'm here to flow i just want to say that um i've like i've been feeling lately that the african-american community has been marginalized and and i just want to be able to have people come from that community to speak more so with that idea i just do want to add that um well i well i do agree i would like to caution that um i think there are more demographics we can't get the truth from just with the fact that um the united states what is now called the united states being settled since back in the 1400s or so with native americans and indigenous peoples that had been here as well at that time so we do have many groups that can be uh you know very helpful in this true telling aspect i just don't want to get into the habit of singling anyone out but we i do think that we will be sure to at least bring forward the concerns and needs of anyone and everyone that would like to you know speak on um speak on other needs for truth and reconciliation additionally another thing i would like to say and add is that um uh thank you eric one for as well um so when we were you were speaking on earlier about how we needed more of the african immigrant mindset uh so uh commissioner harris did forward on to me actually someone that is looking to assist with that so he has studied um urban and regional planning at the university of iowa and is wanting to do a more holistic approach on community development and with that he is actually an immigrant from um africa so uh right now he is actually he just had to go back overseas with his family but he will be in touch in the coming weeks for commissioner announcements um wouldn't this be as related to actually doing a little bit more of what commissioner gathaw had talked about i'm kind of thinking we are responding to the agenda that's what i'm thinking to the item under discussion i could be wrong i i think just to to be mindful the agenda item is national night out discussion on truth spelling so anything that would relate to that is what should be discussed by commission members that is all i really had on that just wanted to yeah make that known that we do have other outlets for uh helping with that truth-telling aspect and also just collecting information so if anyone has anything else like that um just please keep in contact with them and just make sure that they do feel that they can participate in our processes and i yield the floor with that and then um if we don't have anything else on it one thing i would like to do is just at least give the public a reminder on the date for national night out in uh commissioner dillard what would that be again it is on tuesday august 3rd the time should be six to eight it may or may not change but it is on tuesday august 3rd and that'd be weatherby park as well weatherby park all right thank you very much do we have anyone else looking to comment on this item at this time i'm just gonna so at the next meeting i'm gonna come up with a date on a time where maybe we could do a truth telling um in the south district and i'll reach out to the president and the vice president and see if there's something that we can do around them that way we can at least notify the national night out people and then be able to um promote that event at national night out at the very least and i'll i'll present something next week and um or at the next meeting and then we can approve it or not approve it have a discussion on that this is uh commissioner dillard and i think um thank you so much to mel for putting or putting together or gathering the information for the different truths to share with us tonight i was just hoping we can all talk about the different questions in our subcommittees so we can have maybe more of a detailed discussion next time about truth-telling yeah yeah yeah that can be something that we can um everyone has this so that can be something that we all speak on at the next uh subcommittee meeting for all of us okay sounds like we are good to go on that aspect so now we are on to the next topic which is the budget subcommittee updates and overview so i did have the opportunity to have a quick meeting with commissioner ali on this one and i have um kind of an outline for the final budget proposal so this is something that i will need to share my screen for and i will do that now and stephanie i will also be sure to send this to you for the final packet okay so um put this in a more concise format for everyone to be able to see so i have the total lines for general budget and also subcommittee here so we do have the option to either go through and vote until october for our expenses and needs or we do also have the option to vote through the end of 2021 as well so whatever everyone is comfortable with but one thing before we begin discussion that i just want to speak on is just the in terms of the numbers that i have for researcher collaborator pay is that i was kind of just looking at the aspect of um so we are going to be looking to have you know secretary kind of thing or strategic planner facilitator so these are items where i wasn't particularly sure how we wanted to split those things out here yeah do we not need we can we go i thought we decided to nix the chromebook thing so so for the staff for the staff member and himself that we are not doing that unless steph wants a chromebook i guess if she feels it's necessary oh i have it listed as this would be for the facilitator the potential secretary and the strategic planner so they have a computer okay yeah yeah just one okay i thought you meant for like stuff or for each of us since you're contracting with the potential secretary strategic planner and facilitator i mean certain things you would presume that they would have as part of their capacity to serve as a professional to the commission so you know it's up to the commission but i i i would hope that that anybody who you would select as a facilitator would you know have their own type of computer system to be able to utilize for the for you know your your needs with them um the the fact that the the trc would fund the purchase of computer equipment from them wouldn't affect public you know records or requests or anything i mean it you know whether they're using a laptop that they purchased or won that was purchased with city funds wouldn't affect that it would still be you know open to public uh records so sounds good to me uh so i have removed that from from now uh sounds like yeah that is something that they could also put into their proposal um and then for now um i did add a line for a strategic planer is thinking that that would kind of be a position that has a little bit more of a little bit more responsibility so that 8 000 a month uh if it did come down to that so at 8 000 a month would end up extrapolating to about not 96k a year so i don't know if that is the amount that they would ask for in their proposal but the point of the budget again is to at least ask for the funds in advance to then have those separated out just so that if that is the amount that is needed then we do have that ability to um to get those funds distributed so any amount in here um what is used in the end could be higher or lower however i just wanted to at least ensure that we did request for these amounts so that the budget could be set aside steph i have a question okay um so if let's say for example um for the month of october we didn't need that 18k for um expert slash training but we wanted to get in another person for strategic planning um one how easy is it to change that and two who do we do we have to ask permission before we pay out or do any type of like you know like if we're getting funds for materials like do i have to a do i pay for the materials first then get reversed is there how does that work uh so if you're talking about um you know whether the strategic planner um doesn't uh do any work for you in october but the expert training does um that that really doesn't affect your overall budget uh we pay off of invoices and so somebody would just submit an invoice and it would be paid out of that in terms of whether you would need a prior approval um you would not need prior approval as long as there was a majority consensus on the trc to move forward with ex planner or ex strategic planner so am i answering your questions um i think if we find a time to chat tomorrow i'll write down other questions i have and i can ask you that okay we'll clarify this expert's training line before we continue forward is that actually so i meant to actually just have these apportioned for august and september just when i was transposing the sheet and adding the months of october november december it got copied in as well just wanted to make everyone aware of that change i'll highlight that here as well so that it's more visible however so in terms of researcher pay collaborators collaborators consultants just wanted to quickly define those and then kevin i'll give you the opportunity but our researcher pay would then essentially just be if there was a specific area that we wanted um someone in the community or a student to look into or that we're asking for their expertise on then at least having the outlet to pay for that expertise or at least to pay them for their labor and then for collaborators consultants um again people from the community that are looking to advise us directly or people in general from around you know the nation as well that would be looking to advise us having funds available to distribute to those to those people um and just totaling this budget through december 21st if it were to be passed as is that would be a total of 243 000 however we do have the option once again to just choose to pass a budget through you know the month of end of the month of september end of the month of october and come back to the rest of it uh in the coming months i just wanted to include through december in case we decided otherwise and then kevo i'll let you go ahead um i think most of this looks good the only thing that i'm unprepared to vote on to approve is line item for the strategic planner just because i just i don't think that we as a commission have had sufficient time to discuss like how to use a strategic planner and when they would be useful to us um and i i really don't think that we would have um enough knowledge from the community by october to kind of know what to plan for the future um and so that's the only thing that i would not include at this juncture and also for that reason i think that it would be good to approve the budget only until october when we kind of force ourselves to revisit what other help that we need when once we have more facilitation going and without a yield thanks yeah i would generally have to agree with that i just want to see if everyone else does would like me to delete that strategic planar line and then we can come back to that going forward and as well just thoughts on approving budget um just after we have more continued discussion through the end of september or would we rather do through the end of october i want to vote on it so that's where i'm at uh chassis just want to give you the opportunity first and foremost to speak um i just wanted to say i have to uh agree with commissioner cavo i am still a little confused about the strategic planner so i i i don't feel comfortable having that on there as of now um until we have a little bit more clarification exactly what we're going to have this person do at this time and i yield the floor is there going to be back pay or is it starting this month like for [Music] commissions something that needs to be discussed as well i just wanted i didn't want to include anything that we hadn't spoken on yet in that um um so i can go um the back pay part um i have my my own opinions about it um you know when we had the meeting where we um um did the thing with ray sand whatever you want to call it um during that time i was in the hospital so i want people to hear that and understand um i was sick really sick and in a bad position so the back pain part you know i kind of agree with that part but you know during that time you know nobody didn't know i didn't tell anybody but i was in the hospital dealing with a serious health condition so and during the pandemic we were the people you know i i don't want to you know put people you know in different positions but like kevo mohammed amel we all did trc things during that time so i know people was in different different spots in different positions so and with that on the other floor so uh we have commissioner gotham's hand raised okay here is commissioner hungary i i'm just curious as to whether um they who uh i guess i'm just not seeing the point of leaving out the just the last two months and just voting just up to october and not all the way to december one is just the fun commitments too it says once again it's more all of your preferences i'm fine with doing it either way i just want to make sure that i don't include anything that everyone on the commission hasn't agreed on okay okay oh sorry i just want to add that since i'm new to the commission that i want to abstain from discussing back pay and i trust the expertise uh and the work that has been put in prior to this uh to the many people that have worked really hard to get to this point and have gone through a lot of uh drama if you will um and uh emotional labor actually that's a better way to put it um to get us to like this this good point that we're at so um like i don't know if new commissioners should necessarily receive back pay but like i definitely think that people that were on it and had to deal with a lot of emotional labor should probably receive some back pay that's just a thought i'm having um and then i want to like then i want to step back and let like you all decide that um one thing i would like to ask is if the back pay is done are we looking for that to be the same amount as the um current uh proposals for commissioner stipends uh for those of us that have been on the commission or are we looking for that to be retroactive at a certain percentage and i just want to make sure it's just clear and known so that i just know what to include can you repeat the beginning half of the question between before retroactive so in terms of the actual back pay for the months people have been on the commission are we looking for that to be the same amount as what we're looking to do now going forward or are we looking to do that as a certain percentage of it because i do also want to think about the fact that we did have one month where the commission was passed as well but again it's just something i just want to get on record how many how how many meetings did we go to before that one month how many months was it i believe it was december your first meeting was in december i want to say the 20th maybe or the 21st i can look it up but six six meetings then that would be uh three thousand uh commissioners rivera in harris how do you feel on this as well um some people um this is commissioner harris um some people are not well off as other people are so to go back um i agree with going back and paying people for their time you know um well we're we're gonna do that i think but they weren't was they didn't want to they just didn't want to be involved because they weren't here during those meetings so they're leaving they're leaving the decision for us and i'm saying that since we were involved in six meetings prior to the new start of the commission that would add up to three thousand dollars each for the six meetings that we did so what's the problem with that he's asking if you have a problem with it no there's no problem no i don't i don't i'm sorry i don't have a problem with that at all no i don't i don't have a problem either i want you all to have back pay that's my my my thought is yes we should all absolutely get back pay um and the the new commissioners we're in a different position than the past commissioners so i just didn't want to like be making uh decisions um in this capacity simply because i know that there was an intense amount of emotional labor that went into the six meetings prior to like myself uh and other commissioners getting on board so i just think that it's really important for this conversation to be had between the other ones that have been on this long term uh but yeah i'm like i'm all for back pay like uh i just wanted you all to figure out how much and whatever like together like the amount i mean the amount doesn't matter it's me it's just that like um the back pay part that should be part of it um [Music] i reached out to other commissioners and we talked about this and the back paid part i mean i think that's kind of important because i know commissioners that went through you know you know i'm i'm not saying anything bad but i know commissions that went through you know the roy sand times and things like that so that's me that that that one i mean that gets me to say hey the back pain is legitimate and if we had a vote on it i would vote on that so um i'd also have to agree um so at this time i was working for a different company and at that time to be able to make it to these meetings in a solid time frame i was using my own pto to to make it and as a result i was then working some overtime hours to then recruit uto to once again continue making meetings and then we did have some of the meetings that were going until you know 11 p.m and um the tumultuous one towards the end that did result in the pause that one i ended up getting home close to one in the morning and had to you know be back up and be back to work the next morning once again so a lot of those things aren't considered and then at the same time when you do have the press just continually trying to call you and bothering you and you don't have a sense of whether that is a call that you need to pick up because it's someone that you know then it's important or whether it's just the press haggling you uh really does begin to get to you and can cause some mental discomfort but just want that to be known as why i do think back pay should be done and also that that be a blanket back pay for all former uh commissioners that were here pre-pause as well for each meeting attended so will that apply to new commissioners for the two meetings that we've had prior to this or whatever it was we've had or is that is that like a different conversation to have what are you saying i i would say that yeah for that would probably be lumped in as well okay i would just put it as a separate item can you i was asking a question yeah i just i'm i missed your last sentence and then your answer to her question regarding oh i was just wondering okay so this is great like if that's what you want to vote on for the back pay for uh the prior commission to this new one um and then i was just wondering how to deal with the new commissioners um and how that will work so that's that's something i definitely would weigh in weight in on and then i just want to make a quick comment um looking at this budget um makes me very proud um and i want to say thank you to muhammad for putting this like that's a lot of work i make budgets a lot and i know how time consuming it is and i'm just really proud to see that uh because um like when you think about this budget this is really a very small amount of it and like of the total budget that we have and um i i think that um nobody should expect uh the kind of work that we're doing uh for free anymore and i just like think this is a really badass looking budget for that reason thank you thank you very much as well for the compliment yeah i want to add my thank you to that for the the budget subcommittee for the work that you are doing and i'm coming from a point of somebody who is pretty challenged on making budgets and who's very my side is very short as far as seeing budgets are concerned so thank you for doing that on our behalf and yes it does make moral sense to me uh for back pay and i won't say anything else on that other than yes it's something that should be done i yield so your the value that you're putting in right now is gonna also be forgiving i just want to make sure uh that what you're putting in for that for pre-trc pause the times nine so you mean a thousand for roy san a thousand four to shaelin a thousand for uh yeah for the pre-trc pause so uh we did have the six meetings prior so it's just doing that at that rate of 500 per meeting since it was the bi-weekly monthly meetings for the nine previous members yes the nine i'm gonna say you should make that four that's me saying right now you should make it four i don't think that you need to make it nine i mean i do know what you mean but in the spirit of one solidarity into fairness uh they were in those meetings as well and they did take the time out as well so i don't feel that it would be okay to to disclude them i i don't i'm gonna have to disagree on that one i don't think that i agree at all commissioner amell i wonder whether i'm curious whether there would be questions afterwards if there was exclusion and this is on the one thing i was saying i i'm not guys if if i i can i can get frank and real about it if you want me to get frank and real about it truly but in my heart of hearts i don't feel like that that is the right decision at all i'll take my pre-trc pause pay to make it so that i don't no none of us get it i'm serious i don't i don't agree with that the way that i was spoken to after meetings the way that i was spoken to before meetings was told to silence and not vote on things i don't think that that was in good spirit the stuff that i endured after meetings the three hour long phone calls about how i just shouldn't be agreeing with ranim or ifr i'm not with that and i don't want to be a part of that commission that's earning money if it's all nine of us and that's just like a me thing i'm not i don't think that that's right i don't think that they were in this commission for the right reasons and i'm not gonna i'm not just gonna be okay with that um i would go next um the nine thousand dollars i see that's on the spreadsheet um i would put that at a different number like we could spend money on something else different like maybe five thousand dollars i don't know but like the net that was another part i don't yeah i i yeah i don't want that much money so and what um the vice chair said i want to quickly clarify it's a thousand per person per month so we're not each getting nine thousand that's that'd be the total for yeah that's what's online people okay because i agree what what uh emil said about dealing with the royce saying things and i didn't see any calls out i didn't say anyone's name i just said you said it it was not a pleasant experience and i don't agree that uh i want to respond to commissioner emil and and and i'm talking from a point of not being there but thinking of blanketly work done other than going into the details of what each individual commission or desegregating what piece of work did somebody do or not do or just blanketly that they were there as a commission and they yeah coming from that that position and i think i'm being a devil's advocate here this is kind of a difficult situation so we got to figure it out i think we should figure it out today so this is commissioner rivera i am i appreciate just kind of the acknowledgement and the honesty that everyone's put forth so far um in terms of recognizing um how emotional uh how much emotional labor there has been in terms of are involvement previous to the pause and ongoing right this is still really difficult work um it's really hard for me to think back and to think about sort of the um how much chaos there was in trying to sort of define order in the chaos um i think that when we're when we are when we have discussed uh uh commission stipend we're talking about sort of just willingness to say yes at any given point um at any at any point during the commission um and so i think that is one of the reasons why you know it's been brought forth that yeah for those of us who are on the commission we should get back pay um um you know prorated to to our involvement in the meetings and um i uh for that reason in terms of just saying yes at least for the moment i would be in support of um providing back pay to um the now resigned commissioners the the former members of this commission because um they were part of the trc for the for some time and if we're saying that members of the trc should receive stipend then it should be um members of the trc you know i said i wouldn't say anything but oh my god like so i've just from years of experience years of lateral oppression and having to deal with like working with people that then like you know break up and like go their separate ways because of like um ideal ideological differences um i actually do believe as well that they should receive back pay because um we're classy and like we're a cool group of folks that understands the labor put in is the label put in by bypoc folks still um and i feel like it's a form of like um like it's like being it's like a form of retribution then to not give them that back pay um even though there was an immense amount of like uh emotional labor that they stirred up um i do think that it is highly important for us to put our best foot forward um and and i know that like it might sound hard to do that but this is something i struggle with every day in the work that i do um as you all know i've been organizing for 25 years and in the end like it is best to do um what is considered uh just and i do think that that it is just to give them that back pay if we are going to decide to give us that back pay otherwise we may look like we are not um uh we're thinking about only us and not about the uh you know and also being divisive which is what we're trying not to be so we're giving the new commissioners the back pay as well um i you know i'm yeah i mean i can get back paid but really i i'm not like that heartfelt about it like wait who's who are the two new commissioners is it just me or no there's another new commissioner i am new too i think they come in with you yeah yeah so there's five new commissioners i mean like that's a whole other topic i guess but um yeah i just i just think like i really appreciate everything that like amal and muhammad and uh uh i'm sorry who else is there uh cliff and uh sorry not cliff who who who is that eric sorry eric yes um and chest city or no it's just you four right are you three okay oh there's four of you okay so i just want to say i really appreciate what you guys did to lay the foundations that we're having these healthy conversations so i really want you to like have that back pay myself and the new commissioners like i'm not that worried about it because it's only been like a short amount of time um but like you guys kind of went to war in a way so i just want to say i appreciate it um and yeah and then also my other comments about like just getting it over with and moving on i would like to add i do believe you guys do i i agree you do deserve back pay you you are the ones who started things off and stuck around and are still pushing forward i i believe everyone who is currently on here now definitely deserves back pay and i'm gonna go this is commissioner harris i'm gonna go too because um i'm kinda you know i try to keep my cool about different things and stuff like that but some people who are well off and you know with money and stuff like that you know money is you know just object you know but some people have put in so much time into this commission and those people should be compensated it's not really an argument to have you know the people that are well off who can you know you know as far as african americans and people in america or native americans too because i'm part native american so i understand that part two some people need compensation some people are not well off all the time in their life so with that i'm here on the floor uh i will add as we talk about this type and then back pay uh i just wanna add that whether there would be a differential for the chair and the vice just because they have an added responsibility compared to the other seven of us i yield commissioner onegoi i'd rather get paid the same amount as you all i don't i don't think just because i have the title of chair that i'm above anyone in any way at any time my position could be moved or changed and at the end of the day we are all a unit and there's nothing i can put forward without a complete vote with all of you so um so i'm gonna for i turned my video off because i'm getting emotional about this because it kind of got into something else um like that i don't think that like people know how hard that pause was for me and how big of a kick and like the only way that i could have used to describe that pause was like for like a week the light was burnt out in me like the fire was completely burnt out because the counselor that i was the closest to betrayed me by suggesting you know that this commission be paused um and i know that and you know i agree with what kevo and sakawa said like yeah it is true to like be the bigger person um and stuff like that and it's you know like it they do in the spirit of like justness it is it is right to do that but then also you know it sucks like i'm out of mo um kevo eric and i am the only black woman you know i don't think that anyone except for maybe mohammed knows how much effort i put in to trying to make things work when we got back there was so much stuff that we should have done the first time around that was never addressed because the commission was so like sweeped up by people who had their own agenda that had nothing to do with truth and reconciliation they there were our bylaws were supposed to have been approved and we had never even talked about bylaws in the first six meetings like i i put in so much time into reading all of these bylaws from different commissions and language that i didn't understand i read robert's rules and like i had never even heard of robert's rules until i started working in this commission and i just think that you know it it just sucks because we were [__]on um and it hurt and it burned a fire out for a really long time and i don't think it affected any of the other people um who didn't have to deal with the fallout uh it sucked um i i get emotional thinking about how i felt during that meeting because it was such like it was just like like the epitome of like what is happening to the black women and to the black woman in the us like nobody believed in me nobody thought muhammad or i could do this nobody they just shut us down and then it was up to us to like just try to figure it out and prove and like you know how they all hunky dory at that first meeting back with like counselors and stuff they were all like oh yeah we'll be here for you whatever you need one council member has been consistently in contact with me none of them have sat at any of these meetings except for the one that has been in consistent contact with me i just want you guys you know i i want that to also be taken into account that like this is not like this has been very very very stressful especially at the time and mohammed knows this like during the pause we met with people who did did truth and reconciliation commissions and things like that and it was just really hard to get that fire relit in me and i'm sorry that i'm being emotional um but yeah that's all i'm gonna say about this i'll vote um whatever way we want to vote but that's just kind of my two cents on it i guess i just want to say thank you for sharing that thank you for being vulnerable in that sense and i really do appreciate everything that you do and i do appreciate everything that all of you do i know many of you do say a lot it's like oh you guys do a lot but i mean it makes it easy when you do know that you have eight other people standing right alongside you that are also doing a lot of work in the community and that are also dedicated to making sure this works so i'm more than happy to continue forward knowing that i have all of you alongside me and amel thank you so much for everything that you do as well from doing those um from doing the bylaws to the rfp it's also just checking in with me all the time and just making sure that i don't try to do too much each week and that i do make sure that you are supported as well in uh to just each and every one of you thank you so much for everything that you do yeah sorry i didn't need you know you know and i didn't want to make that be like oh look at everything i do and i just wanted to make sure like it was really an emotional toll and it was very stressful and there were times where i literally just wanted to give up on this because it just it sucks having you know like the flame that's what angie jordan told me she was like it just sounds like someone has blown out the flame inside of you and that's how it felt when the commission was paused for a while is this a reference to um providing back pay to the other commissioners that are no longer with us yeah oh okay um if i could respond to that i want to say i feel your pain i'm so sorry that this was very difficult um and i hope that it's not too upsetting that i you know want to uh provide them with um their back pay um and i'll i'll give you this reason um it's because you know um white supremacy um and you know the doctrine of discovery and everything has created a really good job of divide and conquer um and so a lot of our folks a lot of us deal with like serious lateral oppression um and have a very embedded um you know sense um of of like colonialism still like in our minds like all of us are trying to decolonize right some of us are like further ahead than others i'm not saying that these people weren't i'm not even like commenting on that i'm just saying that it's a very difficult thing to do this work because um heads but often because it is such an emotional topic um and so for that reason i don't think that um bi-pop folks who put the work into this um should be denied uh that back pay um and like i said um in the sense of uh fairness and and being just um it's it's i think that's up to us to to be that way uh and and just be good to people that we may have issues with um from like what's happened in the past um to also be like a good example um of how things should be working so um i i know that that might not help you at all feel better um but this is just speaking from you know my experience uh doing this work i just think that it's it's really important that we uh you know just just give them the back pay and i really hope that that helps a little bit to leave any kind of people no i appreciate your input i really do um and yeah no i all of you guys have said like really awesome things and i do know i do agree i tend to um have that issue with just you know i'm i hold grudges sometimes but no you guys are all making really really valid points um before i yield to commissioner gethua i just wanted to make sure that uh commissioner rivera um got to speak if he was able if he still had something to say because he had his hand raised before thanks vice chair um thank you for allowing me to speak and also um for sharing i think what you just modeled for us is the importance of sharing truth right and you also um put into words um kind of what we've been talking about in theory or in principle in terms of demonstrating uh [Music] how difficult it is to do the work that we're doing right and what kind of toll it takes and so you um did a really good job of expressing that um so that's that's mostly what i wanted to say um i think um the other things that i'll add is i think that all of the present commissioners should receive back pay um equal to like i don't know 500 dollars per meeting attended before the start date of the formal start date of our stipends um and that rate should apply to former commissioners who are now resigned as well thanks commissioner are you ready to speak yeah thank you commissioner um i just want to appreciate you commissioner amell for being very very courageous and being very very honest i wasn't there i'm one of the newer commissioners but i am sorry for what you can go through and it was summarized very well by commissioner sakawis that we always have to remember that the colonizers and the enslavers and especially the british they were very good at using divide and rule indirect rule you don't see them and it's a gift that continues giving and always as we work trying to rise above that thank you for also uh being very safe with us to be vulnerable and to be that courageous i am feeling very very humbled right now and very honored as we continue moving forward and also being honest about bearing a grudge because that that is not easy to voice it out and you're not only voicing it out to us as your fellow commissioners you are voicing it out literally to the whole world so i appreciate that as we move forward and it's not an easy example and to be there but you are leading the way and again still piggybacking on commissioners of course and kevo that as we move forward we get reminded that it's not an easy thing that we're doing it's difficult and sometimes it might even become more difficult even as we continue moving and especially when we move on to post coverage and it's even face to face and now it's not just us it's also we are out there with the public so thank you very much and i appreciate you thank you let cliff go i'm just wondering about uh the divide and conquer when it comes down to uh what took place before if if somebody could phone me i know on that that would be appreciated me personally as a commissioner a new commissioner also i don't see a reason why i would get any back pay i didn't do anything yet didn't have anything to do with anything yet i don't see a reason why i need any backpack however people definitely stand by every person who is still currently on here getting and receiving back paying compensation for uh dealing with things and then still moving forward it's it's i'm yeah i would i'm not sure about the divide and conquer i i would like if somebody could explain that part to me i would love it i just like this if you want because i'm the one i'd like to just quickly summarize that for you for you cliff it's just it was not a very conducive environment to how we wanted to move forward and i know aml and kevo can speak to this as well i quickly noticed after i think it was a second meeting um for those that were there or got to see it on video you could clearly see in renee mum's eyes that she was about to be about to break down in tears during the meeting however it was a very hostile environment and she kept getting shut down and i was seeing right there personally okay if this is how we're treating our own commissioners right here there's no one in this community that is going to stand in front of us and talk about anything that makes them vulnerable then there were so we reached out to her right after that meeting to let her know that we don't feel that that's how things should be going and that while not everyone agrees with her that her opinions still are welcome and from there we did have another meeting where we had some individuals from the public that wanted to have comment and me seeing you know we're public officials in a way we're supposed to be listening to the public and that's the whole point of everything having public comment continually shut down was just a terrible precedent to set so that was another thing that was just really bad for the environment and i don't want to point specific fingers at people because they do know who they are and i think most people do know who they are by now others can do that if they'd like but i'm ready to move on from it at this point um and if they do want to help us going forward that's cool if not that's fine as well we will still get to where we need to go i yield the floor good to go um i had my hand up and i'll i'll just go um yeah the the term divide and conquer is something i use often uh when speaking uh about the imperialist agenda like when they when when when you know with with the project of of colonization and genocide throughout north america um the uh the tactic was particularly with native nations um to divide us because you know when we are not united we are weaker and so that's a practice that has been ingrained uh into bypoc society still because we are still having issues uh getting out of our silos and working together like for instance even the black and indigenous and latino latino latino community we should be like completely in solidarity um in overcoming white supremacy uh in this country but yet uh we are still very siloed um and then so the divide and conquer uh mentality um really like rests within our communities also within our individual minds um and when i say that i'm talking about like um embodying you know like a lot of colonial ideology still a lot of issues with lateral oppression a lot of issues with um power you know power hungry people like you know ego things like that you know because getting attention to our causes is so difficult sometimes that like we end up um fighting uh for you know the mic if you will um like and funding and like just any kind of attention on how we can make things make it you know think make things better but what it in what it ends up doing is like continuing that agenda of divide and conquer and so what i was trying to say is like um yes there was a lot of issues with like this commission at the very beginning but like we can't just blame ourselves for that we also have to understand that there's a white supremacist agenda at play that is still like not just within our societal you know um you know our society but also like in within our minds and with individuals like when we also work together we're also fighting like white supremacy within ourselves and so like that's why um i don't want to not uh give these other commissioners uh back pay because um i i do believe that there is a much larger issue that we're fighting here understood i'll follow that up commissioner cliff in answering your two questions uh i think when we talk back pay there are two pieces of it uh for those who are current back pay is we started working in april so that's i'm that's what would be addressing as the newer members then there is also the prepost then the other thing about uh commissioner sakaweez is calling it divide and conquer and for those of us who have uh who are coming in from africa uh it's a it's a divide and rule the same thing and it call that's the way they were able to conquer a whole continent and still above in colonialism and their slavery dividing you up and conquering you and apathy even if there are fewer numbers they are able to do that and then of course when we end up here it's still continuing in africa that's new colonialism and when we end up here uh the dividend rule is still going on and yeah always having to be aware as we do things and know that it could be coming to play to be aware and a lot so that uh you can you can be aware and question yourself and reflect is this what is going on and if it's going on what do we do and i think this very moment that's what we're doing i yield commissioner harris yeah i can go um so one of the things that i've noticed there to talk about you know with native americans and things like that um i'm i'm a the first person um you know um i'm african american by birth you know but you know i have never had native american in my blood as well so kind of you know three-fourth african-american and hard native americans so the one of the things that i want to say about you know people talking about all the commissioners of should they get paid for the time that they did and the things that they did that was a tough time that was a really really tough time you know people you know that would that were around for that time that was a really tough time we dealt with a whole bunch of things you know like scrutiny from the city we deal with scrutiny from the public right now we when we call for uh public comments we don't really have any public comments because they don't want to talk anymore you know but during the times when we first started uh mohammed was there emile was there a few other people were there so we we we just tried our best so um what i was saying with back pay um it doesn't matter about back pay but we should we should we should compensate and i don't know if i need to call the motion or something or to get this you know get this part over with but um we need back pain and we need to get paid for what we did because some of the people that um have put these commissions together they're they have money they're well off you know they you know they don't have any problems in life you know because they just talk and they just say things and but you know the people that's on this commission i don't know how they are how they live or how to live their life or whatever but me being on this commission um it like it took a lot of hours out of my life you know like for my children and stuff like that and you know being those commissioners it just took a lot of hours out of my life you know so with that i'm here to flow i'll let commissioner johnson go first and then i'll just kind of explain the ones i've had checked and then what we can kind of do going forward on this item i appreciate everybody uh in explaining things on how they feel with things i really do uh and i i i stand by what i what i what i said about those who have already been here and been on when it comes down to when i joined in uh on in april or from that point on after i mean i i am not worried about anything from before when i wasn't going there getting paid with that at all uh but i'd like i do appreciate you guys as well because i watched you guys go through a struggle and at the same time i was it really disturbed me when everything fell apart because i felt like it was all gonna dissolve possibly and never come back and that worried me a lot i it made me very happy to see that you guys were continuing on and you were pushing through and i feel like we are as a unit better when we're all working together on the same team fighting for the same cause because we're all fighting for each other and for our fellow you know brothers and sisters out there i just i don't know i yeah i'm gonna leave it at that i love that marine talk in there i i felt it a little bit it was good that was good i just wanted to say that before mo started speaking but i appreciate it i just wanted to say real quick in terms of the items i've checked so what i was doing while we were speaking was just checking all the formula boxes and everything making sure everything was typed out correctly so there weren't any mistakes in here with any of the editions um and then also so the boxes i've checked were the ones that it sounded like everyone was pretty much okay with so i just wanted to get uh like um to hear from anyone if there was anything against that at this time and then we can just focus more so on these four items that aren't checked and then from there i guess we could just move towards a vote that way to make this process a little more concise and to move on to the next items this is uh commissioner dillard and i just had a thought um for transportation i think we could um boost that up a little bit just in case we have more people that might need some specific needs for that um and we do have the money for it and then uh originally i was thinking under materials and miscellaneous um that doesn't seem like enough for food or whatever but i guess that would be under our subcommittee budget totals um or i just think that number could be a little bit higher but i don't know what materials miscellaneous would be you have the budget for it multiplied by five per subcommittee i think you should do 500 for materials and 500 for transport okay for transportation 500 or do you think i i think a thousand's actually a really good amount i just don't know if it's going to be that much but i'm envisioning like vouchers for like taxis or um like uh uber and lyft vouchers but i don't know i was thinking 500 um would be good but if a thousand is what you guys think would be good then i i agree anything over i guess we could use towards other stuff too i mean if it's easier for us to have the money and not use it i'd rather have too much which is a good place to be and i've never been in that situation than to need more so if we can boost it to a thousand for both transportation materials i don't see why not i agree yeah let's just make materials slash miscellaneous a thousand as well um i i definitely i mean i know that we're probably before we submit this to council i keep writing this down it's i just want to make sure that we send it to them with them knowing like this is probably going to change like these aren't mounts aren't exact um so um this is commissioner harris uh i think it's time for a vote maybe or i just want to make sure we go over these ones in orange and uh the stipend before we vote on anything because these are ones that we didn't really touch on today but i think they'd be a little quicker i just wanted to explain the videographer thing of as well of like this is another situation to just have money set aside for it in case we go that route but we can also not include it this time and just look to do it in a future meeting i just wanted to set something aside in case we did need to go with the videographer at some point and for advertising outreach a big reason i have this in here is um in terms of needing to pay for social media posts to be both to be boosted or whether there's a need to pay for a social media manager or something of that sort i have this in here because i've always been disappointed with uh the you know the city's level of outreach for certain things that are related to bypoc individuals so i just have this money included in here to assist with that i mean for one if we just look at the excluded workers fund issues and getting uh support for that and getting proper representation in those um in those surveys that's a big reason why i think we need to have this advertising outreach budget line item this is commissioners i always speak out about the video the the video africa thing uh i don't know i need i think we need to get that salt uh that may be um for next meeting or something like that but that part of it we need to get that figured out so again i do have an individual that is wanting to do it um and that is also asked uh more so i mean has also said that he would be willing to do uh 90 minutes of fully edited video for uh for that four thousand dollar fee so that when i say 90 minutes of edited video the edited like after everything is shot it would be 90 minutes in total length so that would include probably closer to five hours or so of actual filming um so whatever is actually needed there um i did look at other rates that videographers usually take and it's very very very low compared to anything anyone else would would do so we do have the option to go through rfps for it as well but just wanted to make that known this is commissioner dillard again um i agree with you um mo that that's very low so if we have the money i suggest we give this person what they're worth 90 minutes for four thousand dollars sounds like you're getting paid less than minimum wage as a lay person who does video so if we wanted to boost that i'm okay with it and also with the advertising we have the money we should boost it as well um it's better to have it on there and um not use it than to need to go over in my opinion and yeah advertising outreach would include things like flyers as well and um also helping to get those flyers around the community or like those like billboards people would like put on top of their cars to drive through or just like paying people to go door to door to knock on those doors you know some of the things i wish were done a little more essentially do we have transportation for necessary participants on here twice for a reason did i miss that yes so one is for the subcommittees but i also have one included for general meetings because um because there could be a difference between those actual public meetings and let's say that there's an extra boost of people that are coming for a specific speaker or something of that nature i just want to make sure that that's separated out and in here just in case got it and the last thing is for the experts in training the main thing i want to go over on this is that so i've been looking through like consultant fees and things like that so we have collaborators and consultants for certain subcommittees but however these two amounts i just want to caution is that while that total is 36k and while it's listed in august and september that does i don't believe that that ties us to using it in only august september i rather just put them there in those values so we could just see them as bigger numbers and kind of realize that this would be more extensive training or like if people needed to go to some kind of training course or something like that and also just to give the idea of that we would rather get these types of training sooner rather than later before we like fully get into anything and everything we're looking to do so just wanted to hear if anyone had any pushback on any of those items okay doesn't look like it um i will hand it off over to commissioners uh johnson first and foremost and then commissioner gotham right after uh commissioner johnson i just was saying i think that advertising is extremely important so uh i i definitely agree with uh even i wouldn't mind putting up more on it because we i mean we have to we have to get people involved that's that's our whole point so uh if yeah if need be i i would say go even harder with that advertising advertisement outreach that's all we have to make sure that we bring people in and get people as involved as possible so that's all i have okay i'll go commissioner hungary uh thank you for shedding light on all those uh three items that were in orange i want to zero in on photography and uh mine is a question with the of the videographer is for for use for what we're doing as a whole commission if we need a videographer or it's also as we are doing some individual work for example i [Music] as we for example as i collect information from the desegregated community when we desegregate a community a group uh yeah i guess that's what i'm asking or whether do i go and look for another my own videographer or it all comes down there so at this time from what i've spoken to them on is that there would be a short video series of just a few minutes of each commissioner kind of talking about their goals for the trc why they joined and then the more like 60 minute portion would be anyone from the community looking to have their truths actually recorded and put in video format um but then after that you know there is always the opportunity to lock either the same person up or more people as videographers going forward i just wanted to get at least one type of series and and um some amount of time frame of things out there so that people kind of understand a little more of what we're doing and what's going on because we you know we all probably still get those questions of what exactly do you guys do what are you trying to do yeah thank you for explaining again because now that you you explained i remember you explained it during the last meeting thank you for going over it again oh no no problem at all yeah um this is commissioner dillard i was just wanting to go back to the videographer and say if we can increase the um amount that we have on there i'd like to see 2 um or even the 3500 to match the at advertising thank you no problem and yeah again that just gives us the opportunity to either lock up more video time or more videographers if needed so just want to clarify once again for everyone is in the public as well these amounts in here are what we are allowed to use in terms of what we ask the city for for expenditures so if certain amounts are not exhausted just like how it happens with the city in some ways those funds can always be reapportioned did we allow for public comment at the beginning of uh this agenda item and there wasn't anyone that raised your hand um i guess that would be a stephanie question i can't remember if we did but we can't ask for it again now because i do know we've had it on a few other but yeah i'd like to hear what the public has to say before the final vote stephanie yeah i haven't seen any hand raise from the um attendees okay so then i did ask each person on the commission or at least the ones i could get to what they were looking for on the stipend and i know some of you had said that you were willing to go with whatever the rest of the commissioners had gone with um i heard from one individual on the commission that the absolute lowest they were willing to go before they would probably resign is 250 a month um i and but the amount that i was really hearing um was more of a floor of amount of 800 in the ceiling of either 1000 or 1200 and i just wanted to say personally that i prefaced all those conversations with that my actual proposal was that we each did the amount of 1000 per month that you are on the commission because i see it as that stipend being something that you can use on transportation to meetings um as we go to public meetings sometime in the future or as well if you are needing to go to someone's house to you know speak to them in private on something or go to someone's house for a private meeting or a subcommittee going somewhere together or as well if you're just needing to pay some bills or if you're wanting to donate to some cause or if you're needing to pay for your internet to be able to do these zoom meetings your phone as well to keep doing the phone calls just have having that discretion um so that you rather have more money to do as needed rather than less is there anyone that it would be against that one thousand dollar uh per month per commissioner um and would like to see it adjusted or would we like to have any motions on votes not hearing anyone against it but just wanted to just make clear for everyone as well um i personally cannot make the motions uh so if there is anyone that wanted to make a motion um then it would have to be someone else on the commission uh to you know pass the budget forward and then another person to a second that or if there's a further conversation that's needed to be had then we can do that as well this commissioner johnson i make a motion for a vote no just to be clear we're voting on the stipend or the entire budget i'm assuming it's the entire budget if i had right okay i just wanted to clarify things and through what time period yeah i was going to say wait wait clifton you made the motion i think that you should uh tell us through what time period and if it's for the budget versus the statement please i was gonna say uh i was voting for the stipend uh that's what i thought he was just talking about and then from there to the full budget i feel like the full budget i thought we were still kind of not exactly completely squared away when it came down to that but the stipend wise i i thought you had already made that decision a while back ago so yeah i think we're all in agreement on the stipend but okay can you um nobody had said anything when muhammad asked about other concerns so what are your concerns with the budget i personally uh don't really as of right now from what i'm looking at have any other concerns when it comes down to the budget i just wasn't sure what else we might have to uh go through or possibly uh negotiate or discuss that's all and then mohammed can you can you just clarify for the back pay on this budget before um i make a motion um thank you uh so so for the post trc yeah i use it oh for the post trc pause that's just more so since that date in mid april as we've gone forward so the meetings that everyone had been in so there would have been five of them um not including today because today would be included in that one thousand per month um with that being you know uh this being the month of budget passing so essentially five meetings 500 per meeting and then that would have been 2500 per person multiplying that by all nine people on the commission but one thing that i do want to add as well is that we did sadly lose uh commissioner nevari jackson as well after the first meeting and she did attend the meeting even though you know she does work two jobs and she was very busy so i would like to be paid the fullest what the 500 per meeting i think is what we should go by so 500 for every meeting that was attended so she'll just get 500 more than the other people and then for the term of pre-trc pause essentially just before the city council had made that vote deposit trc after um being pressured by some individuals um and that's 500 per meeting attended so that would have been six meetings and then nine members of the commission so that's how we're getting to that total of 27 000 there perfect i just wanted to make sure that it was clarified at the very end at least in the minutes that's actually a good thing to afford to clarify so um we had a motion and it was seconded um cliff uh it sounded like you landed on um clarifying that your emotion was to approve the stipend um or would you like to like expand that to improve the budget as a whole yeah i second that one too so i would go with the sniping as of right now that's off i i i would like to motion for the sniper but we didn't need to vote on that if that's okay like i think we all agree about it yeah steph it's if if the motion was put forth and seconded do we have to do a vote or can we just withdraw it um i could say i would i mean if you're you could do a vote but if everybody's gonna vote in the the negative because you're just gonna vote on the entire budget um i think that um if commissioner johnson um feels comfortable the the motion can be withdrawn and that's no problem and i'm wondering whether are we going all the way to december as we make a decision for us yes yeah with how we have inflated certain things i would like to go through december just to ensure that we do have funds locked up through that point because that would also take us through um this next city council election where we do have two new city councilors coming in so i don't want to possibly face the whole thing of oh going into the election don't want to vote on these certain things or might get some pushback i want to make sure that we do have these things locked up through at least the end of the year again um i didn't make the motion so i just want to make sure that is clarified for uh before the vote uh this is commissioner ali i'm going to make a motion to approve the budget uh as is right now with the contingency um or the knowledge that we may edit that knowledge going to the council i'll second that and stephanie commissioner ali do you mind um putting the time frame just in the motion just for clarity for the minutes oh yeah i apologize uh this is commissioner ali uh my motion is to approve this budget through december uh with the knowledge that we may have amendments to it for city council okay thank you any further discussion okay commissioner ali yes commissioner dillard yes uh commissioner gathawa yes commissioner harris yes commissioner johnson yes commissioner rivera yes uh commissioner sakalis yes and commissioner treyore yes okay motion passes thank you thank you everyone before we move forward um following up on the discussion um pertaining to the budget um was there any uh progress made on a press release that would accompany this budget proposal there wasn't but i'd like to also just wait to craft that a little more just because there were certain things that we did kind of add to it and change um i think we we may want to just uh take some time over these next two weeks to truly craft that and then also i don't feel like we owe the press an immediate explanation by any means they can talk about it however they wish you know people people can hate if they want but at the end of the day we explained ourselves they can listen to the tapes if they want and they can ask us directly but but yeah i do think we should try to do something at some point yeah i would i would definitely be open to um working on writing something up um the only person that i'm going to openly share it to that works for any press is dion braxton that's the only person i'm gonna support uh in the press currently but i would be totally open to writing something that uh kind of i mean not even not even that this needs justification but just to work on that and probably have that ready um maybe even by like to later tonight or tomorrow morning um i would like to offer my help to you email if you'd like it this is commissioner dillard thank you i always say that i am there to read anything like i said i do a lot of reading and upgrading mostly so this is about the uh this is the budget press release right yeah sorry i got confused for a sec yeah i mean i think that um if you need any help with any i mean i think it would be great because a lot of press releases have statements like quotes from people um i think if we took some good quotes from the things that we discussed here like reasoning why we think it's important yeah i was actually going to reach out to you specifically after this oh okay well i mean i think everybody's yeah but i think everybody has said some pretty strong things and so yeah like you know it doesn't have to be just one person's quote i mean like you should insert like different people's like perspectives on this i was actually gonna say i think eric has said some really amazing things yeah um you know uh about why uh we need to be paid and of course you know like anything i've said you're welcome to use uh in any of these recordings but yeah i mean like to be honest it would be really nice i mean press releases can be short press releases can be long um i think it would be nice to have a quote from everybody um because it shows the diversity um and the um uh reasoning for more than just one person and um then the press can choose to like talk to more than just like one person so it's not one person's burden um and then uh just make sure that the quotes aren't like very long you know so anyone who has my cell phone number please feel free to text me a quote um um so um i can go now um this is commissioner harris i can go now um um so one of the questions that i want to get cleared up is it is when do we get this money how do we get this money and then as far as suppressing um many people know in the community that's around me that you know i'm down and willing to do depressed things and things like that so so that's those questions get answered um that's what i want to get answered is when do we get this money how do we get this money um if the press comes um i can do all the press things um and one other question i got is when i do press things um how do i represent that you know like do i say i'm speaking on my own or i'm speaking on behalf of the crc it would be in your best interest to say that you are only representing the views of yourself as an individual and you do not represent the views of any members of the trc okay that is what i would do okay that sounds good i propose a timeline then for us to all kind of speak with a mel and provide a statement that would be included in the press release and then that press release be presented at our next public meeting and we can vote for it to go out um is do you think that two weeks from now is like too long for a press release i i i do worry about that i just i just have concerns that we i i want to approve the press release before it goes out right if it's going to be on the path of the commission i'd say we could send quotes by this coming monday and then look to get something in the press by next week on friday by way i mean we do have the subcommittees as well that we can honestly individually don't comment i want quotes by tomorrow morning and i feel like it would be pretty easy to write something up i'm so sorry but i can't do anything for the morning um i'm going to be traveling and actually it's 9 22 at night like i have no i have nothing in me to do right now like i'm also sick by the way i'm um i just came from quick care so um yeah i i just don't know if i can get anything to you by the morning i apologize yeah anyway oh sorry go ahead commissioner um if you write something up if you write something up um i'm willing to present it you know but this has to be a consensus like what we want to write up and i can't i'm not going to go out and say stuff that i feel i would rather have a consensus of people writing stuff up and then i can go out and say it so well okay i before steph i'm gonna give you the floor realistically speaking anyone in this meeting right now could call or talk to press after this and tell them everything that we talked about and everything we approved and all of that right now so i just want to go in thinking that um and with bearing that in mind i i don't mind not having um stuff done right away i just i don't think that i mean i guess i don't know maybe people will see it the news on monday and care because actually people have given a lot more interest in this trc than i thought in the first place but um steph do you want to chime in yeah i i just kind of wanted to provide some context and um kind of a timeline um one if there's going to be a news release done i mean technically nine of you should not be working on a news release in between meetings because that's going to be a violation of open open meetings right so the question is can a subcommittee form that could do a news release but then how do the other five people approve of it right without violating open meetings so i i think unless you're going to make a motion that delegates the subcommittee to write a news release that everybody will sign off on you know without seeing it you're kind of going to run into problems i also um wanted to mention in terms of commissioner harris i kind of asked about next steps so the the budget um would get submitted to the city council the city council only meets one additional time in july and one time in august so they meet july 27th and then they meet august 17th and so if you're um since you've approved the budget it it really should be part of the july 27th city council meeting date which means that that commission excuse me that city council packet would get posted on thursday july 22nd and so if you're looking at a a news release the the the general public um really wouldn't have access to to your budget or what details are in it until that packet comes out from the city council on the 22nd um so that's just something to be mindful of um because i'll have to do a resolution for your budget um recommendation to the city council for that meeting on july 27th unless you choose to um defer it until the august 17th meeting date but again those are the only two upcoming meetings that the city council has planned as as a part of the budget um recommendation to the city council um you also will need to consider who's going to present that is it going to be the chair vice chair just the chair you know kind of the delegation of commissioners um if you're familiar with city council meetings you know that when items are on the agenda there's you know a discussion and usually a presentation by staff in this case it would be members or a member of the trc commission so that's just kind of something to think about when you're looking at dates generally speaking because you are a city board commission the the what you're calling press releases they call news releases but but same difference um usually those would be sent out by the um you would send it to me and then i would send it to the department that releases those and so it would go out on a general uh city news release but i i don't know i was kind of a lot of information in a little amount of time but if anybody has any questions or if i need to go back over dates just let me know and i would be more than happy to do that but commissioner harris to answer your question in terms of funding and um you know when it becomes available it would need to you know would be after the it goes in front of the the city council for their approval yeah i was just mentioning that because um you know i know a lot of commissioner members did a lot of media things and i'm more familiar with the media so i you know if it was a statement to be made you know i kind of could be the person to [Music] make that statement so you know i know that mohammed and cairo and a couple other people have done we did things and you know i have a lot of media connects so i would think that you know me making a statement would be would make it you know you know and emil has a lot of immediate contacts as well so with that i use the floor uh mel before you go i would just prefer that one of yeah one of you guys uh someone else on the commission does it i don't really feel like speaking to the media on this one um but a mel all yield to you um so i'm thinking since uh steph made that great point of the public agenda is not going to be out for the um council meeting until later in july i say during our subcommittee meetings we can come up with some ideas or general statements to put together um in the next week and then i can have one ready for the next commission meeting that we can all approve uh if that if that's something that everyone's okay with working on and doing that sounds good okay sweet i see the general consensus is yes i wrote it down i um just want to move on to the next agenda item if we're all ready to one last thing i just wanted to clarify as well is that if we could do a quick vote as well on the timing of each dispersal of payments because my suggestion would essentially be so if we're doing it for each month on the commission the best way to likely do it would be the first the first friday of the following month i some something tells me that i don't think that we have a choice on that do we stephanie all right yeah i think that um is probably um something that if the city council approves the the budget that could be determined at that time yeah okay so then we can all kind of talk about that when the time comes yeah let's move on to the next item then so we do have the item number eight july 22nd meeting date discussion on whether we'll be doing it on zoom or in person so i definitely do want to give the community the opportunity to speak on this one uh if there is anyone in the public that would like to have any input on this so this is just essentially whether we will do the next meeting on zoom or in person um at one of the city's sites such as i believe the options would be the senior center and then somewhere else um actually um it i have reserved the council chambers the council chambers yeah now because you're still meeting um every other thursday there might be some thursdays where we're across the hall in the helling conference room but you know you would still be at city hall it's just you would either be on the left or right side depending on the the the day um but yes so that's and and one more thing that i want to add in front of any community comment is just to provide some context for this the the governor um has extended the ability for boards and commissions within the state of iowa to still meet remotely through july 25th um in her last correspondence um she strongly indicated that she probably would not be extending that any further and so if you choose to meet on the 22 the 22nd virtually your next meeting in august the the fifth i would believe is the fifth or sixth that you know would not be an option anymore you would be required to meet in person so it's really just this kind of the last meeting in july in terms of whether you want to meet at city hall or if you want to meet virtually thank you i think as uh bipoc folks we should err on the side of caution um you know there's still another strain out there that is spreading and iowa from the get-go has been ridiculously irresponsible um we didn't give kim reynolds nickname kovid kim for no reason and i think that these zoo meetings have been quite successful um because i think that people um are like using the uh the how do i say it like in our ways we have circles you know like you know we give people um time to speak simply because we can't uh necessarily go off people's you know facial expressions and so um i i would like to continue on these meetings for as long as we can uh simply because of again new strains uh and then also because i want to be an example for how things can be successful remotely until we are you know until everyone is vaccinated and until um we resolve these issues in our state particularly with a government that is trying to do the exact opposite of like the right thing so we need to do we need to push harder in the other direction for that reason this is commissioner dillard and i'd just like to say i um completely agree with what commissioner nobis just said and also um if it's just a lot more convenient for the the community members to join us as well at this time so i would vote to stay virtual for the next meeting as well i'm hearing it sounds like we're going to probably just go with that zoom meeting again for the next meeting and then uh from what stephanie had said as well we do have oh cliff go ahead just quick question does if i heard correctly uh future meetings no matter what have to be in person correct unless the governor extends it past the july 25th um deadline i just wonder well if it's if the meetings do have to be in person starting august 5th are there going to be um zoom options for people who can't attend in person i think that it's important that we at least have like i'll sacrifice my macbook and we can have a zoom that's just facing us where people can you know raise their hands like this or something yeah so my understanding from the the procedure currently in place the the meetings would be recorded but they would not be live streamed i i can definitely follow up um for your next meeting but i i know that they kind of prefer um conformity with with all boards and commissions but my understanding as of um this evening is is that if they would not zoom would no longer be an option they would just be recorded and played later and is that an iowa law or a irony law well i i wouldn't i wouldn't call it a law i would say it's the the procedure or the protocol that the city has put in place for when boards and commissions return to meeting in person i think that's problematic i just want to add a point that i was just going to thank you guys elderly people are still at home you know people with immune compromised you know uh systems are still at home you know even my own son uh is you know has asthma that is at home also i do want to say as an indigenous person our peoples had the highest rates of covet in the country and we had to uh block off our nations with our own people with our own security to make sure that outsiders did not enter our reservations i do work with our people in other communities like besides iowa city and i just like want to say that that makes me angry i'm not saying that on a personal level like i don't feel like uh okay about it because like yes i'm vaccinated and you know cdc says it's fine blah blah blah to be doing things but like also uh we are a pillar for the community and we have to be showing um uh the best uh possible practice that we can and if we can avoid uh meeting in person then we are also showing that like technology works fine for the interim until it really is safe for everybody to go out um we are excluding like portions of the community um because of this and i absolutely want to take issue with the city because they refused to uh live stream this i was you know i think it might have been live streamed for this city i mean this is this is the best that i can do this evening is that i can talk to the folks at the city and i can report back at your next meeting yeah i understand everyone's concerns you know so it's not it's not something that i have the authority to give a green light on right yeah but i i have no problem in getting more information and um based upon that information your meeting on the 22nd can still be virtual and you don't have another meeting until august 5th yeah and yes and so you know you can kind of form next steps at that point if you know if it's unfavorable um thank you yeah but i just i just want to make it clear that it's not like stephanie bowers is saying that i mean it's just no no no no no no no no no no no uh if this is the city's policy then like we need to take issue with it folks for instance we have we have a responsibility to communities that are already facing the highest rates of coverts and coveted in the country and so like we need to be extra diligent and show like a good example of how to um be safe with uh covid also because this is coming on us so last minute i do want to bring up the issue of child care um and there will be people that might need that uh compensation then and then i know we've already agreed on the budget but um this just made me realize that's actually a really important aspect of this for instance uh my organization great plans action society we never make an employee do something without providing adequate child care for them so that they can attend events because we all know that lack of child care is a massive block in biopath communities and y'all pay well they pay yeah we pair people well i just want to say that we have the materials miscellaneous line on there as well that can be used for things such as that and if we are doing meetings in places such as downtown we do have the recreation centers and things nearby we could use that to kind of um have a larger group um child care session in a way with the gyms and everything of that nature and we also want to make sure that the people who are taking care of the children and the children are safe and the children have access to adequate ppe and you know all of that stuff too because um i know for a fact my mom is 100 she's certified to take care of children and all of that legally able to ever all of that would definitely be willing to do that in her spare time but i would also want to make sure that my mother is protected if she is going to be doing that uh the other thing is oh sorry um i thought you're done no i just i i was going to say one more thing about um oh and story cliff the i was gonna say one more thing about the whole city protocol thing i just i um and i can touch back base with you about this stephanie if it's like protocol if it's like written somewhere like is it like protocol that's like written because i don't think that that's fair and i think that if we wanted the city to get pushback for that we could very easily make it happen because it's not fair and other people have already complained about this since last night's council meeting and since the des moines council meetings have started and i just wanted to quickly add sorry i wanted to say one more point when i was speaking um you said that this meeting will be in the um uh elderly center i'm sorry what was the name of the center again um no it would be at city hall in council chambers and we we should be able oh i'm sorry i thought i heard that we're going to be the you you can them or whatever it's called um yeah so i apologize i wanted to clarify that thank you okay okay okay so i want to go real quick um that's a comment you know um so we talked about cover 19 and how the people struggle with that stuff um one of the things that i would share with people is that like um and i had to share this before but my wife all of my children had covered 19 i didn't get cover 19. um it was that was a pretty bad time so you need to go um one thing i would say you got to go get vaccinate i'm fully vaccinated my whole family is fully vaccinated so in person meetings would be a good thing i think because in the past couple months i've seen people that i haven't seen that i've talked to over zoom calls or debated with over zoom calls and things like that and seeing those seeing those people in person has been a really great thing so everybody you know needs to get vaccinated um as far as the public safety and the health safety thing like i understand that but i want to have in-person meetings again so well not again but just have it in person because we've you know it's a couple people on here that we've spent the whole winter fall having discussions and debates over zone calls we haven't met in personal rifts so with that idea we do have cliffs hand raised uh i i was just uh trying to remember if we were allowed to still call things in our i thought that was a thought that was a thing where we can uh still call in if we can't make it in or anything along those lines is that true or not yeah that's correct if a commission member is unable to participate as long as we can set up a speaker phone um if you watch the city council meeting the other day there was a member who wasn't there and they were just on a speaker phone so that's correct so if worst case scenario if somebody if somebody can't make it in a phone call in can still work from sounds of it so i personally uh i deal with people all the time and it might sound crazy but i i have people actually spit in my face by accident just from dealing with people so much not just by accident it's not on purpose of course but uh uh i wear a mask still i have no problem wearing a mask uh and i i think it is i think it's helpful to see people eye to eye right in person and i i understand the concerns i definitely do and i i sympathize completely when it comes down to uh everybody who is uh dealing with any kind of issues because of covet or uh i just i just feel like in person is almost uh it's it's important it's important i feel like it through the computer people lose humanity or they they get a different sense and a different feel and if we are able to look each other eye and eye to eye and really empathize with each other hopefully we can find better solutions a little bit faster that's just personally how i feel actually like i said i feel the opposite i feel like people are using like the real like talking circle method here in this space because people actually have to pause and think before they speak um because there's like that you know that delay where you have to like see if anybody else is going to so i've actually really appreciated um this method of communication um because it reminds me of like when i'm on clubhouse with my people or in sp like you know public spaces with my people like this is how we do business and um so that's all i wanted to say thank you so it sounds to me like yeah at this point you know the zoo meeting but what we can do in the meantime for going forward is you know talk to some of the city officials get a little more clarity see what's going on and see if there are any extra accommodations we can't get put in or any policy changes we can have made if that sounds good to everyone so we do have the community topics for discussion i do want to give the public again the opportunity to speak on any of these topics uh prior to us continuing so we have the bans on critical race theory for one removing monuments to white supremacy and also the south district neighborhood association on there so if anyone from the public would like to comment on any of these items please raise your hand and you will get your opportunity to speak okay i'm not seeing any hands at the moment so it looks like we will get this uh over to the commissioners and i just wanted to say uh thank you commissioner novice as well for sending some topics in i just want to remind everyone on the commission again feel free at any time to send topics in um it was just a situation of she said that she wanted some topics on there and no questions asked get at it i mean i'm pretty much like that with the agenda i'm not going to stop you from getting something on there you want you want discussed so specifically what this agenda item's for thank you for that we can actually combine a and b because they are essentially one of the same so as of uh july first uh there is a ban and effect on critical race theory in the state of iowa i was one of 17 states that has banned critical race theory um and in my opinion uh it is a um ongoing attempt to continue trump's legacy of white supremacy in this country not that this country hasn't been supporting um uh you know a white supremacist agenda since its foundation but that um there's people that are really angry right now with the fact that uh trump is not in presidency our governor is an example of that and i feel that is absolutely necessary as the truth and reconciliation commission uh to take this issue on uh because we cannot stand uh quite on this topic if that means that we only release a press release stating our opposition to it that's great um if we start a subcommittee on it that's great um the other thing that like really works into it is the um abolishment of monuments to white supremacy in iowa which is something that i have been working on for many years in this state and have finally made headway uh to write a bill um with a legislator uh to uh you know to actually move on with this process which is like massive and i'm really excited to do that work um i think that we can make it more effective uh if the city of iowa city and possibly johnson county also like does their own initiative to also like to um keep teaching critical race theory to oppose uh the the states uh ban and then also to remove monuments to white supremacy in the city of iowa city and possibly johnson county these are huge asks that i'm making right now um but i just wanted to put it out there so that we can begin the conversation um because i i love that we are taking the time to set a foundation for this amazing commission uh with you know salaries with uh the uh the contractor that we're bringing on all these other things but i want to get into the meat of the matter and that is like since like seriously taking on a very problematic government uh in this state and uh taking on like past atrocities which is why we're called the truth and reconciliation commission so that we can uh make a real difference uh with what the meaning of uh this this commission is thank you so that was a b um i had my hand up first then commissioner troyer then commissioner harris then johnson i believe um but my question is because i am oblivious uh sakawis we i i wasn't aware that we had white supremacist monuments in johnson county um i couldn't say if there are any um i do know that what's the guy that's downtown uh i'm just gonna say i was i was if there was any i know they'd be downtown the guy in the suit the guy in the suit um that stands like on the i think it's on lynn and washington ever i think yeah so that guy is a white supremacist just so you all know um also school named after him yeah um and so not only monuments to white supremacy but names and mascots um i know that the city of marion took on that issue um geez about six months ago um westwind's uh nonprofit organization hit me up i think it's cersei stumbo that like runs that and asked me for my input on that issue um this is something that like i've been working on for about like well many years actually and then very like very much so the past three it's been a huge issue for me so um like you know at the capitol building there's a bust of like christopher columbus who was a rapist uh and a slave trader and then like never step foot on the actual continent of north america and so like why does he have to be here uh in iowa and then there's like a whole like 40-foot mural um in the iowa state capitol building of the depiction of a manifest destiny um i think it's a linn county courthouse that actually has murals of natives being removed from the state of iowa and then there's my piesta resistance like i don't know how to say it but it's the the piece that's like on the west terrace of the capitol building that is the friendly indian showing the way to two white uh settler invaders um to a new home pointing west and the indian is sitting dejected like in my opinion like at their feet and this is like a huge monument like it's like like 30 feet tall um on the west side of the the capitol building and so um as like you know we can't just be focused on iowa city yes like we are like definitely like trying to make change here but we can also take issue with like larger iowa larger iowa issues as well um because they affect us uh in our spaces and so the why you know dc just banned uh monuments to white supremacy and they will be removing them um the state of colorado uh just banned racist mascots so i think that as a small city we can begin that process uh very easily here and i think that should be a priority for us because if you ban critical race theory you are spitting upon everything that the truth and reconciliation committee is doing thank you thank you oh one last thing um the reason why these two go together is because um critical kim reynolds said critical race theory is problematic because it depicts people or it defines people based on their gender their race or their sex and we need to judge people based on their character now if that is the case then why would the state of iowa put up busts of columbus who is a rapist and a a murderer and a slave trader so if we're going to judge people by their character then why would the state of iowa want that on their grounds why would the state of iowa want a falsified example of genocide on their grounds why would they want a depiction of manifest destiny on their grounds because it does not it is not the best character that they are putting forward in fact i argue and i will argue in the bill that we're going to write that it is actually hate speech and it deters people of color uh bipol folks from being in those spaces because it makes us feel highly uncomfortable and hated and it reminds us of genocide and slavery and triggers trauma thank you thank you i just wanted to add as well i'm very happy that you did reach out to add these items to our agenda for today because i felt the same way when they had voted on that bill and i decided at that moment that um i would do everything that i can to ensure that kim reynolds does not have another term in office so since then um i want to say thank you to janice weiner who did help me get in touch with ross smith who is currently running for the governor to get the opportunity to meet him a few weeks ago and some of the other iowa house democrats um had some harsh criticisms for them but it was all out of i need them to actually do something worthwhile so they can beat her i would be more than willing to try to facilitate some introductions between yourself and people looking to run for office as well to ensure that they do hear you out and they do try to get some more of those policies going sooner rather than later uh other than that when it comes to um you know on the national stage i do know that uh ross wilburn as well did reach out to me so i actually grew up on the same street as him when he was i was sitting mayor and his daughter as well went to school with myself in a mel but they get in touch with him recently and you know they're going to be having people running for senate and things like that coming through here the big reason i did get on the trc or at least that i applied was seeing that the date and the timing that we are going to be finishing if we do when we do this right every candidate that comes through iowa city does truly get to see whatever what the people here value and it really gets to be a cohesive framework for them to know this is how you do get people to come together and this is how you do make change so i think we have a lot of power in that sense and that we truly can drive change not just here and in this county but in this state and hopefully in the country and i yield the floor with that i think cliff and uh chastity wanted to speak you can go first if you want chest go ahead cliff i you were before me it's fine i i thank you i appreciate that uh when it comes down to a and b both uh the bands on critical race theory and removing monuments of white supremacy that is literally our job that is uh we need to be all over that uh i feel like there is i mean to me it seems like common sense uh to teach the right thing about our history the only way we can move forward is by first recognizing that there's a problem in the first place and if we constantly brush everything under the carpet i don't understand how we're gonna get anywhere at all there's no reason why we shouldn't have and i'm also glad that this was brought up as well and i thank you for bringing it up because it was definitely on my mindset and i just didn't get it in time or i i this was definitely on my mind so uh i wasn't familiar about the monuments of white supremacy that were here in iowa city i wasn't aware that at all there's a confederate monument in iowa by the way i wanted to add that i had no idea but i i feel like anything else along those lines that is a major problem if we are trying to unify our country and bring us together it is gonna be ugly and it does not sound good to everyone but that's is if the truth is the truth is the truth and the only way to make real positive change is to first recognize what it is if we really want to make a change in the difference move forward from it recognize what it is address it and then make the proper steps that's kind of like i well my that is our job to a certain level one degree to keep that ball rolling and get that ball rolling so i i'm glad you guys brought it up uh and i i think we need to do the best that we can to move on that's all that's what i have um this is commissioner dillard and i just wanted to echo what everyone was saying and thank you commissioner umass for bringing this up um i was definitely thinking about it as much as everyone else is and so i'm glad that you were able to um send something out to muhammad um especially as someone who's born and raised in iowa and it's from iowa i just feel like as a black island for our governor to um to to really stand behind this is like a spit is spitting in our faces which is not surprising but i just wanted to touch on the on the first thing you said about us maybe creating a new subcommittee for this because i would love for us to move forward on this as fast as possible um if i don't know how we're going to go about that but that's what i i really heard when he's when he first we're talking about this yeah i'm thinking we definitely need a subcommittee for this like this is exactly why we are here and like we have basically been given the finger by the state just now like this is like exactly what we are trying to avoid and so what makes me nervous is that we might actually be affected by this ban i don't know the the intricacies of how far this goes so we need to um look into that uh because it bans uh any uh state-funded institution from teaching critical race theory and basically everything we do here is that and i say that loud and proud because if they want to come at us with it then like we're here to make a massive noise for it okay i can go what i want to say um they talk about christopher columbus a whole bunch um this is going to be a controversial statement that i make but um i have to make the indians was here first you know um they talk about christmas columbus but the indians they were they were here first um this is a native land um i believe in that and i will never let that go um one thing that i didn't hear in this conversation is about how to change the name of johnson county from a different person um johnson county was named for a guy that was named richard minster johnson he served as the vice president of the president bear bearing but they changed the name to lulu merrell johnson who was born in 1907 in a small time in a small time a small top town in iowa city she was one of the first people who got a phd from the university of iowa and that's what they changed the name that's what johnson county represents right now so i just want to let that be out there and let people know um another part about it um she earned a phd from the university which is now more commonly called the university of iowa she was a tenth black woman to earn a doctorate from the university according to the university biography and so we need to recognize that we need to talk about that you know like she johnson county is now named for her right now you know maybe like some like something on the website or like a plaque somewhere um i don't know if it's i that's a good question i don't know if it's that but they changed the name because the people were were having concerns is why is it named after a white person and and she was born into slavery oh i'm sorry i apologize can you react like jesus are you saying that what is who is johnson county named after um richard mintzer johnson who served as the vice president under the under the president martin van buren but lulu merle johnson was born in 1907 in a small town in a small town called gravity in southwestern ivory in southwestern iowa and she was one of 14 black women at the university and she completed her bachelor's and master's degree there in the 1930s in the phd in 1941 so you should go look that up you know that's something that no one talks about or we don't we you know we don't have discussions about that you know but that's something and i in johnson county recently changed the name to you know johnson county under this old guy but now it's named after this person you know the first black woman you know in iowa to get a phd and one of the few black women to get a phd in iowa so you know you know you know that's truths and stuff we need to talk about so with that idea and we do have uh commissioner goth was hand raised and then commissioner johnson again after that yeah thank you secrets for bringing that this emotional and controversial agenda to our discussion to our meeting tonight and as far as setting up a [Music] we can do that or it can go to the education subcommittee because those are some of the topics that were going to come under that because even before tier before pre-trc in our listening posts that's something i already put that out there that there's a lot of american history that is not in our curriculum so it could come under that although that would be covering the uh more than for more education but then we can decide whether we are still going to have another subcommittee because it's not just educating our children all the way from pre-k uh but also our our communities then the other thing i wanted to add um as far as uh this is us concerned the people communities we we just don't i think we have been oppressed for so long we don't realize our power or probably it could either be that or or an internalizing all that but as as we move on and we talk of the government that we have that continues to be very very blatantly oppressive we we have to let ourselves know and remind ourselves that uh already the things a commissioner trailer you confessed about even uh thinking ahead we'll just be we are pleased the commission is placed in a very good place as the change of government is going to occur and already even already the person who has already said they're vying for governorship we already have time to look into them and also so as to get and direct and put concert our power because we are powerful we just don't either seem to know it so this commission and thank you commissioner supervisor again for bringing this here right at the beginning so that we can harness our power and concert it and use it uh somebody may accuse some of us of being political but then again you're accused of being political by somebody who's always used that poll of the that political to oppress you so yeah we do have the power to change things and make things better for ourselves easy of course not it isn't painful of course it is losses of course yeah so yes we do have that power and we can continue planning on how to go about it with that i yield i like the idea of the education committee but i also it also made me realize that lobbying against [Music] shitty legislation is a job in and of itself so a political engagement committee might be necessary um not that i don't want to say that it isn't also very much in the realm of education but maybe expanding the education committee or you know making a political engagement committee and then adding a portion of education into i'm just i'm just giving some thoughts on that and thank you so much uh uh i'm sorry uh commissioner uh i've never actually said your name so am i saying it right yes thank you i uh i'm very wary of that uh coming from the indigenous community so i always want to do my best and so yeah i want to say thank you for the nod i feel like johnson county has a lot of potential to be shining examples of what we should do and how we should be as not just here but everywhere and one of the things that i really did appreciate about even the uh the people's trc is the people that came out and i feel like the people that came out it was a very it was a mixed group of people and i think that's our power that's our strength is for us to work together to move forward and wipe out all of this it's clear that on a lot of multiple different sides that we all want to move forward we have things that are in the way but that's that's one of the reasons why i was so confused about why are we not why are we not all as a unit pushing forward on this rather than breaking off into subgroups i mean i i can understand that to a certain degree but at the same time their strength in numbers period and everybody if you feel as though something is wrong bring your voice forward bring it forward and then we all push it forward together and then change it i i i just see johnson county i see iowa city as being better than what we used to be no matter what any issues that we might have had the day before three days before whatever we need to keep pushing forward we will have our hiccups but at the same time it's it's progress only makes things better for everybody that's all there is to it so yeah i yeah i would like to push forward with this as much as possible as well glad you said it that way uh yeah man i'ma jump in real quick um i don't want to say this because it's going to be controversial if i say it but you know pretty much most people know and most people have knowledge who's the original man of this earth so yeah yeah i just wanted to say as well um yeah i'm glad you said it that way in terms of uh uh all working together so i would still like to work with alongside the people's crc i do feel like that could that barrier could be broken at some point but just refocusing on on these current things that we have in terms of the south district and everything um so uh there is the final diversity market this weekend so i know for a fact i will be there um missed the last two but yeah other than that i have made the other ones i will definitely be at this one and and i'll be bringing some money as well to spend at it because it's really hard not to shop while you're there some very talented individuals there's some great food as well and i really like to uh talk to the business owners there as well of how they think we can support them going forward just to let everyone know as well the south district neighborhood association is also looking to pass a smid so if you guys know what the downtown iowa city business district is or uh the new bohemian collaborative in cedar rapids so those are also smith's so essentially what those are is small sections that community or certain district people pay in higher property taxes to so then that money can be used directly within uh that area of town on any projects that are needed to you know shore up um to shore up public services or to shore up some kind of uh business development fund or community development fund so they're looking to get something like that going for the south district neighborhood association and um i just really think that that's something that would will really be key moving forward because based on what i heard at the city council meeting when i went to it on tuesday is going to be a long road forward getting them to truly value the south district and i know it's not something we all want to hear but all i kept hearing was stuff about how if we do this cost if we do this cost did we do this cost and unfortunately didn't get the opportunity to speak again on it but it's really sad to hear all this money they'll say a 150k to this consultant 200k to this to this consultant for this study this this and that and then i say something simple such as there's an empty lot right next to dream city it's like if you want to talk about doing your consultants this this and this like how about you just build the rec center right there because we know the kids need it we know it's needed in that community and and then it's met with uh but yeah we know of building a new facility it's gonna cost this much it's gonna do this and what i wanted to talk about was when you increase property values you one increase the amount of property taxes that are being paid which also helps the city budget but two is well i mean i don't hear much in the way of but what about the budget when we keep giving all these business owners tax breaks and these all these developers tax breaks so i just wanted to say that on record right here now since i didn't get the opportunity to on on tuesday but i am going to continue pushing them on that stuff because uh some of the things i heard on tuesday i was just is honestly just ridiculous how we could just throw our throw around these six figure numbers like it's nothing on just studies for consultants but we can't even take some time to pay some people to go into communities to ask them about how they want millions of dollars to be spent from the american rescue plan and we act like it's impossible or it's hard to figure out why we're not getting people's input but that's all i have to say on that yield the floor okay so with me being a south district resident and the person that lives in the south district and contributes to the south district and helps the south christ a lot we are one of the most ignored neighborhoods in my city um lots of you know we don't have um all the places that they have downtown they have a bunch of restaurants and businesses the south district doesn't have that stuff you know we got property places and some of the places um unfortunately um they decided that if they didn't want to sign up for the smith that the thing we worked on for a long time and tried to get them to sign up for them so it's kind of the corporate business like casey's and hyvee and things like that um so i thank muhammad for talking about the south district because um we this neighborhood is the neighborhood that we live in um it is the most culturally diverse neighborhood that we have in iowa city um my next-door neighbors are you know different you know they they you know they but they're not white people you know but you know down the street is a large community of african people down down the street from me so i appreciate mohammed bringing that up and i wish we could talk about more about the south district because most of the shootings and things that happen and things that happen in iowa city some stuff happens downtown yeah of course but most of the things that happened that happened in the south district with that idea i feel like we shouldn't stop talking about the south jersey district until we have change period we we need to just keep pushing forward and if we if there's a problem and there's it's it i i'm i'm a minnesota i love the south district myself i i mean it's everybody in here has been really good people and there there's no reason why we should be ignored over in the south district at all and uh whatever we can do better for our community around here we we should uh there's no there's just no other way of putting it uh we're already the city's growing as we speak and we know where we need to start making more progress so yeah we need to talk about it more and don't stop that's all i just want to add as well it's like i know there are other areas of the city such as you know the pheasant ridge neighborhood area um that that also needs some assistance and i know they have a large immigrant community as well and i'm not overlooking them by any means but it's just when also looking at the amenities that are there compared to the south district west high being so close university bus lines being right there on top of city bus lines and then how close it is to the corville strip uh all the current development that they have going on as well them having like fairway right there heartland uh i believe a heartache drug right there in in all these things whereas when i look at the south district it's losing grocery stores more liquor stores coming in and they keep asking about like why these situations keep happening in the south district it's like you are literally inviting it in by what you're doing with the businesses there so it's just baffling to me once again how we give power to all these people that say that they're so wise and know this this and this but these things are just staring them straight in the face and they just won't sit there and just get a clue and actually realize yeah if i replace a bunch of grocery stores with liquor stores and then put mental health facilities and substance abuse facilities right there probably going to have an issue i i would like to just add that um starting with the south district neighborhood association and like the south uh east area of iowa is a fantastic start and nobody should have to feel overwhelmed to have to do everything at once we have a huge task in front of us and um we have like huge allies there and this this district has been uh being built up for a while and so we can do some really like really strategic great things there and then use that as an example moving forward uh and tackle all of iowa city and hopefully partner with the city of coralville to do the same thing because as we all know there are lots of uh relatives living there too and then um you know keep keep doing what we're doing and be shining examples of how to uh you know deal with uh reckon you know uh healing and reparations thank you well i would um i appreciate that um i appreciate what you said um being a south district resident um some in the south district things haven't changed since the pandemic um um you can you know if you don't get gas in the south district past 10 p.m you have to drive out of the south district to go get gas because all the stores close you can't it's nothing to do you know in the south district you know the downtown district is taken care of way better than the south district is and the south district is a well-trafficked neighborhood because in the south district um we have amazon in the south district we have a lot of things in the south district that that's over in our area but it's neglected you know so i'm glad we could have a conversation about south district and with that iu does anyone have anything else that they'd like to add on this topic for commission announcements okay um so commission announcements just want to say i thought this was a really productive meeting and i really like the progress we're making and really like how we're starting to come together and excited to keep working with you all going forward um am i allowed to announce something that my own organization has done i think i asked that last time but it was in a different context so i wanted to just be sure okay yeah go ahead okay so um this is actually a past announcement but if anybody's interested in learning more about uh the ban on critical race theory and um the uh effort to abolish monuments to white supremacy uh please go to great plains action society facebook page and look at our past events uh on july 4th um just like the past uh like just like last year and then like many other like times in the past we've uh been at the capitol we were there again uh to um oppose july 4th because we are not um savages as is said in government documents and uh is it five eighths or like five eight no five eighths of a human no what is it um for slaves in the south it was three-eighths or three-fifths or some three what three-fifths three-fifths thank you so we are considered savages and uh black folks are considered uh three-fifths of a human and so um why would we celebrate july 4th and so um in in celebration of not selling celebrating uh july 4th we celebrate uh us as bipod folks in this state uh and then we also oppose monuments to white supremacy and then this year had to add on uh critical race theory uh plus the over 1500 children that have been on uncovered if you will um in canada so far and that is only a seven of about 500 boarding schools throughout canada and the us that have only been searched so on july 1st the ban on critical race theory went forth and on that same day canada was celebrating their day of liberation they were celebrating canada day and uh millions of people around the world marched and stood up and tried to cancel canada day for that reason and so july 1st was a very important day for indigenous peoples here in iowa and like across the world and so please check out um that event so you can like watch the live feeds they're not the best but uh and just see what like amazing organizations across the state and eastern nebraska had to say about the ban on critical race theory and um banning uh you know abolishing monuments to white supremacy in the state of iowa thank you sorry that was a long announcement but there was a lot to preface okay and i just want to say thank you again um don't apologize for the length i mean time is used for giving the information out so to get some good notes on that as well i will definitely look into that but no one does have any other announcements then i do want to hand it over to stephanie for staff announcements i don't have anything but thank you okay um well with that uh thank you everyone for bearing with us today i know it was a little longer but very productive night and um well with that i'd say that the meeting is adjourned if we can get a roll call vote on that stuff uh sure uh commissioner ali yes commissioner dillard yes uh commissioner gather law yes commissioner harris yes commissioner johnson yes commissioner rivera yes commissioner cecalis yes and commissioner treyore yes okay meeting adjourned thank you everyone thank you thank you have a good night