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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRC 20211104 auto transcript[Music] all right it is 704 p.m and with that now calling the meeting to order stephanie can you please give me here commissioner harris here commissioner nobis here commissioner rivera here and commissioner here and you didn't say my name it's okay i apologize commissioner dillard here it's okay thank you now we have the reading of land acknowledgement i'll read it today it says we meet today in the community of iowa city which now occupies the homelands of native american nations to whom we hope owe our commitment and dedication the area of iowa city was within the homelands of the iowa musquake and sauk and because history is complex and time goes far back beyond memory we also acknowledge the ancient connections of many of many other indigenous peoples here the history of broken treaties and forest removal that dispossess indigenous peoples of their homelands was and is an act of colonization and genocide that we cannot erase we implore the iowa city community to commit to understanding and addressing these injustices as we work toward equity restoration and reparations next we have agenda item number four approval of meeting minutes from october 21st 2021. does anyone have any changes they'd like to make to the record all right with that i'd like to make a motion to approve the meeting minutes from october 21st rivera a second commissioner ali yes commissioner daniel yes commissioner johnson yes commissioner harris yes commissioner nobis yes commissioner rivera yes and commissioner treyarch yes all right now we have public comment of items not on the agenda commentator shall address the trrc for no more than five minutes trc members shall not engage in discussion with the public concerning said items if anyone from the public would like to comment please raise your hand and we'll call on you and be sure to give you your time oh yeah okay yeah we can give you a second all right so we're going to have one public commenter from in person in a moment so if you prefer a chair feel free to use one if you prefer a chair i think if i can just hold it down a little bit okay thanks so i had i feel like i'm too close here so i had the um wonderful opportunity to be with um administrators and teachers learning circles yesterday and today and at the beginning of a circle there's some kind of beginning and then an end so an opening and this is what what someone had this is a poem turning to one another there is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about ask what is possible not what's wrong keep asking notice what you care about assume that many others share your dreams be brave enough to start a conversation that matters talk to people you know talk to people you don't know talk to people you never talk to be intrigued by the differences you hear expect to be surprised treasure curiosity more than certainty invite in everybody who cares to work on what's possible acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something know that creative solutions come from new connections remember you don't fear people whose story you know real listening always brings people closer together trust that meaningful conversations can change your world rely on human goodness stay together it's called turning to one another by margaret wheatley so i liked it a lot and just wanted to share it with you all oh my name is annie tucker and i live at 91 prairie hill lane check thank you annie definitely thank you do we do we have anyone else in the public that would like to comment all right we're on to agenda item number six discussion and vote on our recommendation to the city council to extend the trc's timeline so am seeing the agenda after did you want to speak on this one yeah i'm just trying to get the right screen up here so that i can share with you guys um it's not letting me share the screen i think i can change that setting okay not still saying host disabled you should be okay now okay can you guys see that yep thank you perfect um so from what this is is looking at what our timeline would be assuming um it started when the new commission was put together um and i am still under um the impression that i think that it's really important that we give a timeline while we're asking for um the extension so that kind of um you know they can see what it is we're going to be working on um this is just something i completely did on my own by looking researching and reading stuff so i would if anyone has any things that they want to add or focus on or things like that i'm more than happy to add it to this and i had spoken with eduardo gonzalez briefly a few days ago um and one last week we spoke and um kind of had a really good discussion about um the kind of things that um we haven't really thought about as far as truth telling um testimony and like how those events will look like um and you know and i also think that cabo made a really good point when uh we zoomed that um it might not be in our best interest to have every single uh commission member at every single event um and so that it doesn't all have to be recorded and then maybe pick from from the testimony that we hear we could reach out to those people and then work on um training them and helping them come up with how they're going to tell their story um so there's just like a lot of logistics that go into it um but uh there's this is just what i have so far so i'm open to hearing any suggestions or questions or anything like that is commissioner rivera thank you for putting this together it's nice to see it laid out um and it's you know i think it's a really good framework and i know that you've probably designed it to be a little bit flexible too in terms of specific timelines and also just kind of the development of the processes that we have um i think that the things that i would add or just kind of suggest at this point would be um in terms of drafting the process design for our truth telling or for our fact-finding um truth-telling sessions that um you know i think that we should get a lot of input from the organizations that were working with on how best to engage the the populations that they are working with um they think they should uh kind of help inform the process and so not everything should be completely regimented and scripted so that you know we we can make sure that people are comfortable um i think that you know march through october seems like a sort of ample time to carry out a significant number of events there's just going to be a lot of crunch time you know over the next couple months and in the latter months there on just synthesizing and putting everything together yeah i agree um i think you know and when we talk about this at the next agenda item i think our really big thing that we do need to is communicate and work with local organizations because they already have the trust of the communities that we are wanting to have trust in us in our process so i definitely think that um within the planning process we should reach out to other organizations and things like that does anyone else have anything oh this is again thank you amel for putting this together i think it looks wonderful the only thing i am thinking is i don't see why we couldn't flush this out and at least push it out to june of 2023 especially to give us a little bit more time for the analyzing or if there's anything else that we need to do um during that time i imagine you chose march through october to do the testimonies because of weather and easier access to people and i really like that idea i just imagine that giving us only two months to re-watch or analyze is just as commissioner rivera said a little bit of a crunch time in my opinion um yeah so i can add that i've been trying to work to get people who want to come and tell truth and i remember on some months back that we discussed about maybe some of the people that are on the trc go and give their troops first they will give more confidence in people because i've been trying to get people but it seems that um they're kind of reluctant or they don't really know what's going on so i think by us telling our troops first and like maybe letting them know that we've already done it that will put more confidence in people to go and tell truth i'm not opposed to seeing what this timeline could look like and how the activities would change if we did project through june 2023 i wonder if other people have input on how what we're seeing now might change yeah yeah like i'm the same i don't oppose that either are you asking commissioner rivera like what parts of it would be extended right i and i was just um well i was saying if we needed more time for testimony it needed to go past october that would be fine but giving us at least that october um that more of the winter time to gather our recommendations would be wonderful in my opinion and just that i just said june june 2023 because that's originally what um 2022 is supposed to be so in terms of timeline preferences are we looking more for just the october november or wanting to do the vote to extend out further so go ahead i'm thinking i might want to hear what you wanted to add before i come in we're hearing me um i think what was that um i think that no matter like where this timeline goes i think aren't they my thing is i just want to make sure that when we do ask for the extension that we have a concise timeline with it um because they're the only ones that are going to be able to approve extending it and i don't have a lot of faith that um they were just they would just blindly allow the extension i would um sorry i'm gonna let you go actually yeah i just this is commissioner wang i just i thank you very much uh commissioner ali for uh the timeline uh yeah before taking it to the council to ask for extension i think i'm piggybacking on commissioner rivera and uh feeling that i it would be in our best interest uh to have invited a people from there the organizations to help us work on because it will give us not it will be part of the proposal where we're going and also be clear on what we're doing how we are doing and what we are doing it with so i right now i don't feel ready to vote on i wouldn't want to vote on right now to approach the council until uh i've had at least one meeting and kind of be clear on where we're going and how we're working i'll stop there because i'll start rambling is there a group of um maybe we can form like an ad hoc subcommittee just uh before our next public meeting that can further refine this timeline to to include an extension up to june 2023 and then maybe then we can have our vote i think that's fine um my only question and this might be a stephanie question is if we decide to vote on it at the next meeting which would be the third thursday would that be too late to ask council to consider it at their next meeting i mean technically recommendations to the city council are not considered finalized and they're not in their council formal packet until those meeting minutes have been approved so those if you wait on the next date then um those minutes wouldn't be approved until your december meeting the first thursday in december okay however council would know about it obviously but it it it's that formality with it being in their packet yeah yeah i think that makes sense um so i i agree i think kevo made a good point kind of have us like a little subcommittee i'm willing to make time to work on this with other people if two or three more people want to do this with me i'd be willing to help out mrs commissioner dillard i will as well commissioner johnson i will as well okay i'll reach out to you guys um throughout the next week and you just have to be mindful that five is a quorum isn't that four and now it i had um commission ali commissioner rivera i um i all defer to the other four um i'll thank those commissioners in advance for um pouring over this good um do you want to move on to the next one then and then we'll just plan to meet as a subcommittee and present a more detailed one at the next meeting is that okay all right stephanie do we have to do the formal vote to push this on for another week are we good i think that's a good idea the way it's written because it's it's written as discuss and vote on so if you're just deferring it somebody can just make a motion to defer till the november would it be the 18th yeah yeah commissioner ali i would like to make a motion to defer this until the uh november 18th meeting seconded okay commissioner ali yeah yes commissioner daniel yeah commissioner dillard yes commissioner gathawa yes commissioner johnson yes commissioner harris yes commissioner nobis yes commissioner rivera yes and commissioner treyary yes okay nine zero thank you next agenda item number seven updates on the progress of the fun excluded workers coalition and the american rescue plan yeah do we have anyone from the public that would like to comment on this all right looks like no um so we're on to the commission itself eric do you have any other updates as i know that we they did have the final listening session um between our last meeting and this one yeah it was the um it was the final listening session and as usual when they have these listening sessions they um you know all the people the scooter workers they showed up you know it had to be a hundred people there for the listening session and they they actually they actually listened on that last session um i wasn't present for it but they actually listened and gave people a chance to speak and so it's really inconclusive of are they gonna what are they gonna do um really don't know because that was just you know that was their last listening session so we don't know after that um i will be checking in this week um with david to get an update and see what's going on with it and see where they're at but um the result um ended up being that the uh city council is only going to stick it that you know that one million to one and a half million dollar um like plan that they made and um so johnson county um we don't really know exactly where they really stand on this so i'm gonna get an update um i think at the end of this i think tomorrow and so i'll be able to further get like more updates maybe at our next meeting um i will say this you know and it's just my personal opinion that um it's a shame that you know that they you know it takes this much effort just to get them to help people um it's you know and it's really it's really cause like some [Music] it just caused some conflicts because it shouldn't be like this you know the plan is called the american rescue plan so it should rescue people that are in america not businesses or things like this or um you know for example it shouldn't have anything to do with um like broadband because broadband has been an issue in this country and like real errors for like in rural areas for a long time and the government is already working on different packages to address this um so they specifically um gave money to the county of until johnson county to help the people in johnson county so with that being said um i will will you this is commissioner wang i just wanted to add as the coordinator of nissa african family services where we we provide services for survivors of sexual violences who identify as african immigrants and refugees i talked with david between our last meeting and now to formalize nasa's support to the fund excluded workers coalition and to be part of that and nissa iowa city is going to follow up that with a letter to the johnson county supervisor board to that effect i i yield thank you yeah um just to add a little bit more to it as well um i did get a get a notification that on like nissa is um officially signed up to be a partner of the school workers and i think that's um that's a great thing and um that's one of the um the school of workers that's you know i don't want to go back into a different agenda item but i will say that the that's one of the groups that i'm working on to get people to tell truths about what they've been going through and the things that they went through with that idea this is commissioner rivera i just want to echo the really powerful sentiments and statements that commissioner harris mentioned earlier it's it's taken so much effort um from a select few in our community to really really fight and advocate for um so many in our community who have been left by the wayside um it's really a shame how how city council has responded thus far with the urgency of the need so i just want to again always thank commissioner harris for keeping us in the loop with our connection to the occluded workers fund and um you know i i hope we in whatever way we can and it is appropriate that we continue to stand by our fellow members of that coalition thank you for that um and one thing i will add too as well is like whatever happens they're not gonna give up so that's and with that idea yeah i want to thank you as well eric for everything you've been doing on that do we have anyone else from the commission that wants to comment on this item all right so next we are on to agenda item number eight discussion on potential trc local partners so this is towards the back of the agenda so it's a list of the potential partners uh some from the list that stephanie have provided others just based on what anyone on the commission wanted to submit if there's anything missing from here that anyone feels we need then we can be sure to talk about that and get them added to the list other than that often names that we have so far does anyone have any strong preferences on certain groups or have ones that they know we definitely need to work with off of this list or if there's anyone that's out of these groups that's already said that they're ready to we also allow the community to comment yeah we have uh charlie thank you chair troy rory and commissioner members my name is charlie eastham i live in 953 campton street in iowa city uh and i have uh recommendations or suggestion for additional people or additional organizations i'm sorry to be added to the list that you've accumulated so far uh i know you haven't discussed whether or not how you're going to use this uh list of organizations but i would ask that you consider and additionally the forest view tenants association which is a far more organized group that of uh residents in the forestview mobile home park that rep that are working with the tenants there in term to establish a new forced view neighborhood second uh the iowa city community school district equity advisory committee which has a good represent representation from students in the school district as well as staff members there's also a a private group the iowa city community school district mental health uh special education and disability advocacy group which works a lot in terms of in in the area of this of advocating for the district to improve their services and treatment of special education students fourthly i would suggest the johnson county interfaith coalition which is a group which works both in the iowa city as well as the county is at large with many issues that are relevant to uh black and hispanic or latinx members of the community and finally there are several sudanese community organizations that i've heard about but i don't know the particulars or details many of you may may know a specific organ sudanese organizat organizations that i think would be a good additions to the list of folks here so thank you very much thank you thank you all right um in terms of the oh sorry andy go ahead hey annie tucker again we when we were at the um at the diversity market did you introduce me to a latinx woman who had a building across the street yeah she is on the list i'm thinking we talked to elizabeth is that whom we are talking about and i just don't know the name of her organization so i was sitting there thinking of her yeah okay yeah yeah perfect thank you thank you i i believe she's on the list if it's elizabeth bernal mm-hmm yeah okay yeah this is the perry land freedom yeah and maybe we double listed our dress listed maybe she's with um fairly unfreedom this is mr johnson i would like to propose uh i heart black businesses this is commissioner rivera i'll also add humanize my hoodie good call i was just about to say that this is commissioner dillard i um didn't realize that united action for youth is not on this list and they would be great for this um community is great plans action society on that list yes they're on the list yep yes this um i'd like to add that that any additional groups of people that we put on this list would be good because i'm looking over this list right now and about four or five of the people or the organizations on this list i believe that they definitely would want to be a partner um inside out south district dream city those are organizations that i'm already close to already so i believe that this is a great list i didn't even look at it until now and well i got it i did see the emails that were coming in but just some of the organizations are already great so any additional organizations or people will just make it better i hate to be that girl but um we i think that we have to have a productive discussion about what's feasible um for us i mean this is an amazing list and i really appreciate everyone's um input again we we are just nine people who are projecting to put on a bunch of events from maybe march to december of next year um and i think that we can get through a lot but not everyone um and so i think that we should keep brainstorming or at least continue eliciting today other groups but at some point i don't think personally that we'll be able to work with all of these people um this is commissioner dillard and i agree with commissioner rivera um i'm not familiar with some of these organizations could i ask people to um explain to me maybe the iowa job um actually i know i jag nevermind but um proteus yeah proteus is a medical clinic that works with farmers around iowa a lot of their target population includes migrant farmers hispanic people speaking populations people who are migrant workers so they have folks who are on staff with them and they also have a lot of volunteers providing really excellent health care uh to those those individuals thank you is commissioner one way of yeah uh like uh i'm piggybacking on commissioner rivera's mentor that we are not able to include all the organizations that we mention but we can help ourselves by when we look at our charge uh truth fact-finding on what i i don't think i'd be wrong if i said it's evidence on uh racism so who who we at we are wanting to get that from people who will give us that so that will guide us as we decide who whom do we i see a column there tlc approved so whom we we check to work with that will help us for example the organization that has just the clinic that has just been defined only that word they have migrants so that's some of the sources of people who experience racism so those are the people we are wanting to reach to share their truths on racism uh because we might find out as we talk about the organization and realize uh no that one really won't give us any experiences of racism they might be working with uh people who experience that but they may not be able to help us reach those people i yield um um just to add to what has been said already um i do agree that and we won't be able to get everybody but some of these um organizations and some of these people uh i'm close to um we need to do something what i thought of in my head we need to reach out to these people we also need to do something that um it's like maybe like confidence building and make people have confidence in like partnering with us because um the trc has all has not always been a great experience to say you know so we need to do something that's called confidence building so we can get more organizations you know you know like one of the organizations on here is the south district neighborhood association and i'm on the leadership council of that so i mean those things are kind of easy you know but some of these things i haven't you know like the the um some of these organizations i haven't heard of as well myself so we need to try to reach out to them and maybe figure out between us which organization that we think will be worth it because or be somebody because it's like it's been mentioned someone might not be able to partner with us good idea um this is again commissioner dillard and i did want to add one more name um the corvo food pantry i talked to the executive director yesterday and he is very interested they have a lot of people that we would like to talk to that have been asking about it um as i'm looking at the list i'm thinking maybe we should be looking at churches or places of worship to its partners where people are gathering i worry that some of these organizations which is not a problem are more are not minority-led so um let's look for those organizations more i guess but i will agree that this is a great list and i know that a lot of these organizations will be able to lead us to great people that's super tough i think we look at this list and we see a bunch of amazing conversations and i think it's really heartening to know that these people are out there um doing the work that they're doing that was when i was um providing input on the list and and adding people to it um i was experiencing some of the tension that we're discussing thus far is like okay who are the people who are doing really good equity work who are the people who are sort of the largest catchment right iowa city's community school district has all of the students that are here um but you know are they very specific to the populations that we we want to address and so you try to find you know specific groups within those larger umbrellas so ijag is um underneath some of the different schools and i appreciate the contributions that you've made and like i mean the university of iowa too has like umpteen different minority groups um and we could do a listening session with each of them or we can kind of just try to have them all collaborate so i mean we can also ask some of these people to work together to do maybe some joint sessions as well um to make things a little bit easier johnson i have a suggestion wrong we pick about seven to kind of narrow things down not that there's no importance to others but if we can narrow it down to maybe about seven it might be a little bit easier and uh talk with them and if and if if it seems like we might get more from one group to another and kind of switch things up a little bit thoughts i have a counter suggestion sorry um you know we've already mentioned that some several of our commission members have really close connections with the people on the list like great plain jackson society like um the south district neighborhood association um and so i wonder if maybe folks can start just naming people that they personally naming organizations that they personally wouldn't mind being the liaison for um and then and you know that can be based on the capacity you feel that you have um to be sort of the contact person who partners with them and then we can kind of see who we have there and see if anyone else needs to be added and then kind of discuss from that list um yeah that's a good idea i like that idea and just to start naming some groups i can go first if somebody else wants to go after me and just start naming different um organizations that we have on this list on like you know i would say dream center because i'm going to be employed by dream center soon um inside out i have a close relationship with them i would like iowa city character worker you would definitely get some people to tell some truths out of there i have a close relationship with them and just like i mentioned in a few minutes ago um on the leadership council of the south district so that would be some things and also um one of the last ones that i would say is nisa because they've been involved in a lot of things lately and i appreciate that so this is my if i had to call out some of the groups that i see on here that's what i would those things that will call out i think up to um sorry go ahead sir no i was just gonna ask um just i guess in terms of organizing this discussion would it be any benefit for like a draft email to to be composed for the trc's review that could just be sent to all of these organizations get a reply from them because all the organizations are great but maybe some of them have commitments and they're just not able to partner with you and and so if you've already assigned a liaison and maybe they can't do it you know maybe we could put like a reply by date and then kind of go from that list and then connect commissioners to organizations that they're familiar with i really like the ideas i think we should do is like you know if if they were get an email from kind of this forum email it might not have sort of the personal connection and touch um that we can send it out individually you know so you're saying so it's not like a group email like you know i think that like um for example if we were emailing the dream center it would be that initial contact might be more personal if it was from directly from eric and then we could follow it up with the you know right yep so a compromise is to have us everyone use the same form tailor it to yourself so it's not i agree with that you don't want it to be generic but i would like if we're all doing the same thing that would be great yeah like i agree with that as well um because you know this is a great list of organizations and people um but you know on this list i can see some organizations not wanting to like partner with us like for example you know because of different things and you know i would say shelter house i wouldn't want to contact them because that would be really difficult so um the shelter house so i i was actually going to add my name there okay yeah but yeah maybe you might have a better connection with them but that would be extremely difficult you know i've had great relationships with the shelter house i think they would be a great partner so i think between me and uh yeah we can definitely get that together um so obviously um everyone knows if you forgot i am i work for the neighborhood center so i will be that liaison and you're a yes look it's so easy right i do have a connect well connection and i feel comfortable reaching out to community if no one else is interested in that um and i have um co-workers that can help me reach out with um the iowa city compassion so we can um take on those ones as well thank you so yeah that's what yeah i like i like that idea that the people that have those like these connections to these certain organizations i think they should take the lead on reaching out to those organizations that they have a connection to commissioner johnson you're going to see something uh i was going to say uh this commissioner johnson again i i've worked with uh i heart black business and uh i wouldn't mind reaching out to them so definitely and the organizations i mentioned and forwarded to [Music] all of us through staff i have working relations with them on and as a ordinate nissa and in and of course when we we work in the area of sexual violences for people of color it does intersect with systemic racism so [Music] even before i listed them i have been talking to them since we started trc work and when we decided two weeks ago that we are going to reach out to uh unless and work with organizations i have been telling these people that uh to a heads up that we might or we might approach them so [Music] and anitaka and commissioner treyore was we were three of us when we were talking about this with elizabeth burno at the our diversity markets even if we didn't know what form we were gonna take but now it's taking shape so we had already talked to her and she had already verbally agreed there that no problem which is also the same time i also forwarded anitaka and we've been having a lot of conversations with annie even if it's always around circles so and even [Music] the brahm elias he's a law professor at the u of i uh he's an immigration attorney so he he comes across a lot of systemic racism in that area so [Music] he's also somebody that i do work with because when we work with immigrants the area of immigra statuses and is also [Music] yeah so even that one from las i uh i listed him i'm in contact with him and then there's peter gerlach he teaches and also works with international students immigrants from all nationalities uh he's also in the u of i international international uh office so and that's another area where you have immigrant immigrants uh from from all over the world then there is treasured sticker and she would be the point person i also see iowa city compassion is listed and maybe twice authorized she would be the point person because that's another area where we have immigrants from all over the world so she would be a point person there and of course for nissa i would be the person and together with this thank you very much ali for mentioning the sudanese groups there are three of them that are official and when we talk about african immigrants uh i am in a good position because we have african communities network and under that it kind of forms african union so the country blocks and the leaders are pretty much acquainted with those leaders and in that area and commissioner treyore is also familiar with that area and we also touch on other people of african origin who who have come from the caribbean so they also we we are also able to get into contact with those because we uh with sexual violences because if it's people who are latinx they have luna we don't have an office in iowa city so it's washington then for african americans we have a money and those aren't that's uh that's um but for africans uh from whom who are not from africa and who are not african-americans so they end up falling under under this group so for example asians or yeah so i will yield and that's the the least and the the organizations and the contact people i'll be able to contact on behalf of the commission can you list those again uh if somebody else doesn't uh do elizabeth i can do that because i already we started a conversation then there's bram elias the immigration attorney then this peter garlic teresa sticker also splash iowa city compassion yeah then there is anitaka is already here and nissa and i'm also in touch with monsoon which is the domestic video for asians so i'm in touch yeah yeah with the director and then there's the african immigrants and refugees on the african communities network in jason county and yeah so i'm and and also covering the other black people out of the africans and out of the african-americans that's the only way i'm about to put it yeah and that may not be the legal i think i think you mean the black diaspora or african diaspora so um haitians jamaicans barbadians um the caribbean people yeah the commissioner daniel i'm tying myself in notes because even even even the the groups uh even the it ends up being african diaspora ends up being everybody from africa who is out i know yeah yeah i know i'm i'm haitian so it's it's weird like what how do you describe us so caribbean the caribbean people but i know the population that you mean um and and some of those people might fall into latin x because they are um afro-latin latina and so they may fall under that but as far as i know there isn't a group that focuses specifically on caribbean diaspora but if anyone does find a group i'd like to know for um for trc and personal reasons yeah i would also want to know because then that's some of the truths that we would want to hear from these people because sometimes the key the people give talk they keep get getting tossed around if for example if it's legal aid and they're wanting to send somebody to nissa and then they get to send to monsoon society is there anyone else that you'd um like to liaise with on this list um i don't know where the list is is it in the minutes um oh i apologize i didn't see it i must have yeah okay all right um give me a second and i'll get back to you okay thank you so another thing i can do um just create like a sign up genius page with all these names on there and people can pick specific ones they wanted to work with and that kind of give us a bit more of an outline for it um making sure that no one's contacting the same people as another one and that everyone picks their preferences so i don't know that we're going to get a good comprehensive list in a short amount of time tonight with everyone listed on here yeah i agree i can already i can already say no sorry to um uh but i can already say now i o legally it probably shouldn't be on the list um there there's just a lot of confidentiality questions about that but also um i don't know if we generally would refer clients to disclose what's happening like what their legal situation is for a number of reasons but um i i i mean i can ask but i don't i don't think i o legal aid should be on the list uh just because of the nature of the work that we do and i yield yeah that was going to be my next question is are there other groups on this list that folks might protest to someone reaching out to what does the iowa city mutual aid collective um do essentially just like collect donations from people in the city to give to individuals if they're having issues like rent or if like need money for food things like that i can't remember exactly who started it but i know a lot of people involved kind of like ifr and just the university students in general are kind of the main people i think behind it and a few other community organizations do you believe that they would be an organization that could bring us people or they're more like an organization that's an in between um i know that a number of folks who work with and run the mutual aid collective have been like vocal supporters of the of this trc in recent months on social media so they're they're tuned in to sort of the activities and um are already trying to use their voice to um promote the trc's work i don't want to deter anyone from doing that so that makes sense i just looked through the list and i i'll just stick with great plains action society thank you so tra um chair do you want us um to spend a little bit more time then and kind of just move on um depends on what everyone else wants to do if you if we all feel like we can just pick right now and go off of that and narrow it all down or if we'd rather just do the sign of genius to have the redundancy on the back would it be better to do are we not allowed to do an excel doc is that why you're saying sign up genius um i'm not sure that there's an issue one way or the other because i just think an excel document would be a lot easier i just i personally like the idea of us saying here like at the end of this meeting us having clear marching orders on who we're going to have contacted by our next meeting yes so that's my only concern with deferring it and not finalizing the list now but can we just go through the remaining ones that aren't assigned and see if anyone would like to take one um is is the crisis center the community is that has someone taken that uh chastity is listed there but do you want to partner with chastity and if you would if you have a better contact you can go ahead daphne okay sure um and then i'm also i'm gonna i'm gonna get off the call i'm not feeling well so i'm gonna i'm gonna go okay thank you thank you um have a good rest of the your evening and a good rest of your week thank you anyone feel like they have a good contact with center for worker justice uh did you say you're going to yeah yeah moz on city council so i'm just going through the list if that's okay i i i wonder if it's just better for people to say exactly who they want to work with i don't know uh i wanted to add that i i i could if somebody hasn't already decided to contact center for worker justice because i'm thinking the contact person is uh is she formal or is she still counsellor still on there yeah yeah yeah i can because i i work a lot nissa works a lot with them and the african communities too another immigrant communities the latinx so i could do that yeah let's see let's do that then yeah and then i'm also going to add to that list the african student association at the university of iowa i don't know whether that's also the name that they use in cockword but i'm also going to reach to the african students in concord so and the african student association i don't know whether i listed that but i'm also going to reach out to them under that last line in the table i just listed like everyone at the university of iowa all the student groups all the centers all the councils um so i don't i that's a project in and of itself i don't i don't know i i i walk with them in the area of title is it title is it nine yeah under the sexual misconduct office so i am in touch with the latinx center and with the black students union and with the african student association i am with the leader i'd be happy to discuss with you after that yeah yeah how we can do that yeah with the university we can do that and see who does what where yeah the other question i had and this question is for you eric uh because i don't know whether we we already said who's going to talk to david with the catholic worker house because they also work with another with bypoc people and i had mentioned to david uh in between our last meeting and this one that we might contact him to work with him and he said no problem yeah um it could be it could be either or but you know i have a close relationship with our catholic worker house so i mean it could be either or and i've and i've cyber set contact for the you know the past six months or so so i'm really close with that and just to say that and just while i'm talking right now i can say that south district um dream city inside out and iowa captain worker i think those are things that i would pick to do because i already have an established relationship with all those things including others on here but um those four things i'm already really close to so um [Music] so but yeah but i would cut the worker um that's one of the ones on here that um anybody can do it because it you know i'm pretty confident that there won't be any problems with that one so i can help out with dream city and iowa catholic workers as well and with and with dream city um you know in the next week or so i'm starting and starting next week i'm going to be there all the time so with that you know i can always deal with that but like any help you know as well that would help so just to let everyone know i've um put my name next to um prairielands freedom fund the shelter house alongside chastity um so all those university of iowa uh diversity groups with alongside um bengui um humanized my hoodie although i'm sick oh no i'm sorry that she didn't want to um i didn't see them on there oh yeah we added them afterwards do you want would you want to work with them absolutely yeah i work with them all the every day almost so i'm i'm yeah i can do that okay i'll put your you there that was the sales [ __ ] andre a few weeks ago i am comfortable reaching out to mdc iowa and johnson county interface coalition i can pair with you on interfaith coalition i'm meeting with uh someone from there tomorrow okay if you're gonna meet with them tomorrow then you can have it sorry i'm not touching it what was the first one it's the multicultural development center of iowa do we have a letter for potential partners written yet nope no not yet i was just talked about it i was thinking that i could draft one but if someone else wants to they can once we get the uh the least started yeah i think if kevin writes a letter like audrey i'd be down with that that sounds like a good idea you know get a letter and adjusting the next few days or so so we can send out stuff so i think that's kind of what i was thinking about with the email so i called it an email but also i mentioned corvo food pantry earlier i'll take them um for black voices project uh chassis do you want to take that one on or i can either one um for iowa freedom riders mel i know you have some like a better relationship with them would you rather take that she had to leave the call oh she had oh okay that's right sorry um all right for any ones that we don't get checked off today we can do that but i'll just put my name next to iowa freedom riders for now and we're taking off the iowa legal aid then yeah and i could press it and i could potentially help a little bit with diamond free riders because i know some of them too so i can do the ijag one uh jobs for american graduates oh okay yeah i don't know and since with iowa city schools i feel like those could be lumped with some of the other iowa city schools that charlie brought up because they're kind of going to be corresponding with few of the same people and in the district i'm wondering who would be the best people to work with i drew the johnson county refugee alliance to to work with the schools the district usually has a liaison person in the community and then they work with uh [Music] i'm more familiar with the immigrantly with the immigrant communities liaisons especially because of language and culture right now the one who's retiring her name is john um vanderbug yeah she's retired but she is able to [Music] or so whoever the office that office is would be a rich one for our purposes but i i think i went off what commissioner triori you were talking about yeah i can pair with you on iccsd and then okay yeah we yeah and i'm thinking the for the black voices which they also cover a lot i wonder you've you've um you have a lot of really fantastic connections i wonder if you feel like it's feasible for you to like actually help all these people host a listening session oh ask your question again like i i imagine that um you have like rich rich connections without all of these individuals but um i i just want to make sure that we're protecting your time and energy i mean not overextending yourself in terms of working with these individuals to plan all of these listening sessions with them from march to december of next year is it listening that we're planning i thought it's just the initial email oh okay yeah the and making the initial con uh well yeah i mean yes the initial but you know if all these people say yes then someone's gonna need to work with them yeah we can we can divvy it up uh based off of who responds and who doesn't okay um i just have a question um so one of these on the list is the iowa city free medical and dental clinic and i never really heard of that um are we going to try that too yeah i think that's one in town crest okay yeah so right now i don't have anyone next to international women's club of iowa city iowa city free medical dental clinic iowa city mutual aid collective i feel like we're missing both like daphne and amell right now so yeah just take some of these and put them in that um like a google doc or a sign up genius to give them an opportunity to sign up for once yeah otherwise a lot of us just gonna end up with a ton of these and i'll go back to answering commissioner rivera's question these are organizations and people that i already work with and not just for the last two years with nissa but just by being a person of color in iowa city so we and even a lot of the experiences they'll be bringing the people things that uh they already talk about in those areas yeah there's somebody from the um audience that has their hand up uh yeah stephanie hey i just wanted to let you know that iowa city mutual aid is listening and we'd be happy to get that email and i signed up with our email for the zoom so you can maybe not put us on the list oh so you're saying can i oh yeah i'm the organizer for uh one of the organizers for iowa city mutual aid and i was already listening in so you can kind of consider us reached how's that and just let us know what's going on okay thank you sorry stephanie i got confused for for a second on the talking ah open meetings rules man so who's going to be responsible for that it's an agenda item i'll i'll add my name to the mutually collective okay thank you all right so with that um yeah i'll add all these to a google sheet and then get that sent out to everyone tonight and i'll just follow up with the mail and daphne to see which ones they wanted to pick up and then we can work on doing the email drafts can kind of just go off of what each other say kind of like last week send them to each other see if you want to cherry pick something someone said in an email to help draft yours are we or we can do phone calls to the people too we want to have reached out to everyone by next meeting right okay i i i'll draft a form letter and send it out and then everyone can just personalize that when they're contacting all their assigned organizations so i'll uh i'll have that sent out this saturday thank you thank you thank you commissioner rivera for taking that up for us thank you it's going to be simple [Laughter] do we have anything else on this agenda item for now next we're on to item number nine circle invitation if anyone from the public wants to comment on this before we begin do not have the floor so i'll just go ahead and read this one this one's from angie jordan good morning stephanie and others because this message we passed along to all trc members for discussion we appreciate your help getting this to the commissioners and also available for any questions or clarifications hope you all have a wonderful day so dear members of the trc it is exciting and uplifting to navigate possible options for exploring truth telling in iowa city last week i sent a proposal within an email outlining a series of circles and since then i've been learning so much about what goes into setting up and creating a circle in my newfound knowledge i am now resubmitting an evolved proposal more in line with creating a safe space that is informed by those present in it so we are no longer proposing a specific series of circles and we are glad to provide any circles a trc or others request we are still offering a circle for trc members i want to make it clear that the goal of the circle or meeting for trc members is to create a safe space for them to explore truth-telling through circles and provide them with an opportunity to engage in this process firsthand there will not be any trc issues discussed or decisions made there we hope that will make it possible for all interested trc members to join this meeting in a circle the facilitator asks for a question and we pass a talking piece around each person gets a chance to answer the question or to pass when the talking piece comes to them in this circle the questions will be about personal memories or experiences there'll be no questions related to trc issues here are the kind of questions that will be asked name of value you think would be helpful in making a circle a safe space i'm a person who has made a positive difference in your life and how they did tell about a time when someone listened to you tell your truth what made that possible and how did it affect you tell about a time when you listen to someone tell the truth and how it affected you circle invitation details remain the same tuesday november 16th 6 to 8 pm at dream city all trc members are invited sets in the south district again the goal of the meeting is to create a safe space to explore chew telling through the circle process and provide trc members an opportunity to engage in this process firsthand discussion and decisions about trc issues or other circles will not happen at that time i appreciate your patience and kindness as i continue to learn and grow in my understanding of how to engage through telling methods and also working together on a new team alongside v fixmer or ayes sorry if i butchered that and annie tucker if you have any questions please contact any of us or we are all included in this email so um you all probably noticed the multiple times it was said in there that not discussing trc stuff in there just because i reached out to her and let her know about the open meetings rules and everything for quorums so stephanie i'm not sure if that changes anything on how many of us can be there because that's just been one logistical thing of planning the whole thing um there's a thought of um one with black voices project or city council as well too so we're just kind of trying to game plan around the open meetings rules i'll i'll double check with the city attorney but i think the fact that it involves exploring telling and stuff made and that's kind of part of the resolution i i'm not sure if those two things can be separated in terms of it not being commissioned business but i'll i'll get an opinion and i'll um get that sent out to everyone as soon as yeah i mean or alternatively if four went to one i mean as long as there weren't nine of you at the same session then that doesn't really become an issue either you know if you just made sure there are no more than five of you or no more than four of you there i think that's probably gonna end up being the safest thing chair like i mean this is in our packet it's like it's like almost officially business just by being having been sent to us and put on our agenda and so i don't think that we can really weasel our way out of um us breaking the rules yeah because one other thing i was interested in was like how city council before the facilitator uh like vote meaning they had a closed session at one point of their meeting where it was still open but they voted to like start a closed session and then had some discussion and then went back to an open session so i was wondering if that was another way it could be done uh there wouldn't be an exception for for for this for a circle under um the open meetings you we i presume they probably i mean without knowing the meeting date but usually when they go into closed session it's for um a personnel matter and somebody's requested a hearing indoor it could be for um property that the city may be buying or so i mean it it's it's it's not really applicable to a circle under the chapter i mean that wouldn't fall under any of the exceptions and i i mean i have all the exceptions list i have them all with me but i you know i could read them but they there wouldn't be one that would uh give you um an opportunity to to opt out of it being a public meeting at the very least would it be possible to still have it at a location other than like city grounds if for whatever reason it was all of us an open meeting yeah definitely it just has to be posted for where it's at to give notice to the public so that's not a problem at all channel 4 show up wherever i'm here can can channel 4 set up wherever like if it becomes a public meeting can they um when when they're off site i'm i'm not sure i mean really the the policy is since we're going through this pandemic that the the city records all public meetings but you know i i don't know if that would be necessary if say you're meeting at i'll just say neighborhood centers of johnson county or something like that i mean so i i'm i don't think that's a requirement um to to have it recorded i mean there's it's it's a preference that the city is following but that's not a requirement does that answer the question okay yeah yeah it's essentially like two pats forward either the all of us and then just do it as an open meeting or can do the split sessions so um and just talk to each of you and angie and annie outside of this to figure that out yeah because i'm one of the people i'm already committed to doing it because it's in the south district so i've been already committed to doing it so yeah same here yeah that's what i thought yeah i was also invited to the november 16th when yeah since it'll be in a little less than two weeks i'll just make sure to have word to all of you by the end of sunday on how it looks that will be going forward and um stephanie i'll send that an email to you to distribute and can just like call or text each of you as well do we have anything else on this one with that we're on agenda item number 10 announcements of commissioners or staff trc members shall not engage in discussion with one another concerning said announcements does anyone have anything i just wanted to remind commissioners i had sent out an email um in mid october about an opportunity to participate in an open meetings public records training that is occurring on wednesday december 8th at 6 pm via zoom it's open to all board and commission members so it might be a good idea to to have a few representatives at that particularly as you're moving forward in terms of how you're going to um interact with the public for the truth-telling might just be nice to have a few members there are you able to rescind it sure thank you thank you that was going to be my question as well so thank you um me and mel met with uh eduardo on eduardo gonzalez on monday and um some suggestions he gave for trying to do more things like op-eds uh generally to get word out about the trc and also about publicizing the letter from the mali trc so it's gonna be another thing working on but um it's been giving really good advice so if any of one of you do want to meet with him feel free to reach out at any time he is back in the united states now um other than that only other thing i have is stephanie i'll just get with you to see if we can get more information from city council on what exactly they're looking to discuss for that joint session at the end of the month sure they meet on the 14th and i think after that meeting there should be more explicit details in terms of what that november 30th work session is going to look like this is commissioner are you done uh october was domestic violence awareness month and last week the three organizations the domestic violence intervention programs had some activities monsoon nasa and then we had the joint one the dvip award ceremonies and it was covered by kcrg the award ceremony and for me as especially as a trc commissioner i did get triggered since we are collecting truths of ratio discrimination and racism evidence and facts during the ceremony and as an advocate as an advocate for [Music] individuals who suffer sexual violences and coordinator of services and also being lead in organizing those events and participants at the ceremony a it's it's sweet the whole month because we reflect on the year on the successes that we make but then at the same time we also at the because on this year we're able to do it again physically we are usually surrounded by cardboard ghosts of victims of domestic violence so it's over too and at the same time there's a bit of bitterness because even as an advocate of people who suffer violence uh racism still does come in i was thinking about the our days for and i processed this with a monsoon assistant director in iowa city they individual award went to the sheriff of johnson county that's the area of law enforcement and for somebody who looks like me right now uh i get all sorts of real i i reactive in my body and my mind it's painful or for for me that's not right now that's not uh if it was just people who look like me that's not whom we would have nominated law enforcement right now this minute and we processed that and then the organization one went to big grove brewery again uh people who look like me again that's not where it would have gone just before coved uh iowa city uh in 2020 february university heights after statistics were collected an ordinance was passed against ratio profiling because of the high statistics what the point of looking at the statistics i don't think they're in in iowa city in bars the ratio profiling that happens for people who look like me in iowa city and especially because these are also personal experience and truths of having experienced that so yes sweet for the successes we've made but at the same time still a bit of sadness because even as i work as a commissioner and as i walk this it's painful but it has to be done because the pain has to be told by those who are going through it thank you i yelled um i can go next the only announcement that i have um we talked earlier in this meeting about partnering you know partnering with the uh school of the workers fund so i would like to just say and acknowledge that um david goodner and his partner they won the international award for human rights so i just want to announce that and i was at the breakfast when they won the award i was i won an award last year but i was there at the breakfast and i definitely think that through the efforts of partnership and just hard working that he really deserves that award with that idea just want to say thank you to inclusive cultural university so it's a non-profit based out of the des moines area had this event last week at the green state credit union headquarters i went to that and it was like the iowa wrestling team some representatives from eye women's basketball and iowa track and field so um that and some of the people from icu and police officers in the area so it's kind of names to faces having conversations talking it's like four or five hour event um went pretty well and looking to keep following up with inclusive cultural university and some of those other sports teams seems like he's trying to get more of these events together and get more of the athletics programs involved so that's all i have for now so we don't have anything else on the agenda so with that meeting is adjourned