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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRC 20211118 auto transcript[Music] 705 pm i'm not calling this meeting to order stephanie can we please get roll call commission holly president commissioner daniel president commissioner dillard president commissioner commissioner johnson here commissioner harris yeah commissioner nobis uh has a prior engagement um commissioner rivera here and commissioner treyore president commissioner i just did roll call so thank you is that we're on the agenda item number three reading of the land acknowledgement i can read it we meet today in the community of iowa city which now occupies the homelands of native american nations to whom we owe our commitment and dedication the area of iowa city was once within the homelands of the iowa musquaki and sauk and because history is complex and time goes far back beyond memory we also acknowledge the ancient connections of many other indigenous peoples here the history of broken treaties and force removal that dispossessed indigenous peoples of their homelands was and is an act of colonization and genocide that we cannot erase we implore the iowa city community to commit to understanding and addressing these injustices as we work towards equity restoration and reparations now agenda item number four approval of meeting minutes from november 4th does anyone have any changes that they'd like to make to these i don't have any myself i'd like to make a motion to approve the meeting minutes from november 4th 2021. second okay commission ali yes commissioner daniel yay yes yes yes commissioner johnson yes commissioner harris yes commissioner rivera yes and commissioner yes next agenda item number six discuss city council work session of november 30th 2021 on the trc i like comment first five oh sorry i'm so sorry everyone uh hold up one second look is he saying back here um the seats up there are available all right next agenda item number five public comment of items not on the agenda commentators shall address the trc for no more than five minutes trc members shall not engage in discussion with the public concerning said times i just want to note in terms of public comment uh if there's a need to go over your five minutes we'll be flexible with that is that okay um we have the microphones set up uh right here if you'd like to do public comment you can just be sure to state your name not not gonna make you do the address thing and uh can go from there hello everyone sorry i'm not the greatest public speaker so i'm a better writer so i wrote out my statement um and stephanie i have a digital copy of this so i'll forward it to you afterwards as well okay so um here we go so i don't know if you're all aware of this but a black man was lynched in grinnell last year and the reason why i bring this up and i wouldn't really like fault you guys for not knowing this because there wasn't really a whole lot of coverage of the fact and the reason why i bring it up is because the trial of the men who murdered and i want to emphasize that murdered this man ended just yesterday in sigourney which is about an hour ish away from here i'm already getting okay so the child of the men who perpetrated this act ended yesterday about an hour away in sigourney they strung michael williams up by his neck in a basement bragged about the murder to their friends and then left his body burning in a ditch just yesterday as i noted they were found guilty of first-degree murder and some of you i don't know i'm an abolitionist this is not necessarily like punitive punishment is not my cup of tea but i recognize it to a lot of people this probably strikes them as justice but i've been following this case ever since it happened last september of last year and what i can't forget is how when it first happened the cops tried to claim that it had nothing to do with race it's a literal [ __ ] lynching i'm sorry not only that but the chair of the iowa nebraska naacp also tried to claim it had nothing to do with race chris kelly i don't know if you guys recognize this name another black man was beaten and tased by nearly a dozen icpd officers just outside of the waterfront hyvee that happened two years ago he was recently cleared of that about a year and a couple of months ago and in that case a federal judge literally said that it was the clearest instance of walking while black that he had ever seen and kelly is now suing the city iowa city for the violation of his civil rights and just like the police and grinnell just like betty andrews for those of you don't know that is the chair of the iowa nebraska naacp the city is insisting this city that occupies the building that we are in right now is insisting that just like that case mr kelly's case has nothing to do with race two days ago not in this building usually in this building but in the senior center counselors janice weiner and laura burgess insisted that the arrest of this man right here the chair of this very commission had nothing to do with his race that it was just an unfortunate coincidence that it was literally in janus weiner's terms bad optics now the good liberal people of iowa city good liberal iowa city practically pissed themselves in 2016 when donald trump was elected going on and on and on about the specter of creeping fascism yet we actually see fascism literally right here on our front doorstep and our good liberal leaders act like it's no big [ __ ] deal now i wonder how many of them probably have ever heard of miketa scott last summer i was out in the streets last summer we shouted her name every single night how many of them would know who brieza taylor is we shouted her name too sorry i'm a little nervous i apologize why is it that we hear them say over and over and over again black lives matter black lives matter and yet the brutalization of black lives right here in our town never seems to be on their radar last year the iowa city city council set aside a million dollars for quote-unquote black lives matter that's literally what the fund is called the fund if you look it up in the city registers called blm and yet today they have not spent a single penny of this money not only have they not spent it this commission actually tried to spend some of that money and refused to let you do it they have no plans to spend any of it they're not making any plans because they don't give a crap because it seems that now that we're not standing on their front lawns they don't give a [ __ ] anymore the threat is gone so as far as they're concerned they can just move on now i can't speak for anyone else who came out in the streets last summer but i for one and i apologize if this comes off as a little harsh i didn't put my body on the line so y'all could play ftse with city council how many times do they have to punch you in the face before you realize this is a political struggle and an incredibly serious one at that these good liberal leaders you're not all expected to play nice with are the very same people who [ __ ] on us constantly last summer and let's be clear you all are meeting here because we were out there now you probably saw the absolutely horrendous image of several young people being barreled through by a car on burlington what you probably never saw were the dozens of slightly less spectacular but no less dangerous incidents that occurred at every single protest i myself was standing less than 20 feet away when a frontier friend of mine when a fascist piece of [ __ ] backed his car right into him and you want to know what he said when he got up off the ground people were chasing after the car some people were banging on it they wanted to go get him he got up off the ground and he said to them that's not who we are he calmed everybody down and he got back in line this is the same person who on an almost weekly basis drags his ass out of bed early in the morning to go stand out in front of the emma goldman clinic so that when people go there for reproductive services they don't have to be harassed by the complete fascist piece of pieces of [ __ ] who torment them that's what he does he stands between people who just want to live their lives and the people who would rather see them dead now you may object to my hyperbolic statement my claim of these are fascists maybe you would prefer white supremacists there's not really a big difference fascism literally came out of american white supremacist white supremacy but the reason why i say that is because when that happened when that incident that i was standing it would have happened to me as they drove off the woman who was sitting in that car she yelled out white power so as it turns out you don't actually have to worry about creeping fascism because the fascism is already here we saw it every day and some of its most gleeful perpetrators are in this building they wear a badge they carry a gun you know i'm talking about and before you all become their next target i realize i've gone on way too long you might want to ask yourself who would actually stand between you all and them do you think it would be pauline taylor do you think it would be janice winer do you think it would be laura burgess do you think it would be the mayor do you think it would literally be the man who has done everything in his power to make sure that this commission fails or do you think it would be that young man who cut his ass up off the ground got back in line and went again now i didn't come here with a particular demand and i realized that my statement is kind of all over the place and it's a little i prefer to write i'm not a good speaker but i don't i'm not asking anything of you but i know that this commission is meeting with city council in a couple of weeks part of a joint work session i want you to keep that in mind when they tell you to try and get along with them thank you do we have any other public comment hello my name is nasrino gali and my name is maria kazembi and we're here to talk about what has been going on in our school district in our black student union we attend iowa city west high school and over the last weekend a video leaked of a white student that saying that he will stab all n-words in the eyes as well as a photo of another student doing blackface this is not a new or surprising experience for us and our classmates at west high racist remarks and actions are heard repeatedly and seen all over west high and other high schools in the iowa city community school district in response to the video leaked this weekend our school admins held the meeting for students the following monday to speak about how that video impacted us i along with many other students did not find the meeting sufficient enough and did not feel hurt after the meeting me and deasia with the help of other students started a school protest we peacefully protested around west high until the district equity board came during the protest only two teachers protested with us some students laughed at us as we walked by and a white student even asked a protester to give him a lap dance while we were protesting in the cafeteria the respect from students and teachers at west high is completely not there the environment at west high is not supportive of black rights this needs to change not just at west but throughout all iccsd high schools middle schools and even elementary schools northwest junior high and liberty high school have peacefully protested as well regarding the same issues going on in their schools since the protest i have been in numerous meetings with the district and my school's admin team and still not enough is being done in these meetings we spoke with the district and our school principal about what is going on in our school and what we would like to change multiple times i also had meetings regarding rumors being spread from anonymous sources that we were planning a violent protest with firearms and knives since these rumors sparked up the school has tried to get me to make a public statement about it on my social media instead of them doing it we have never and never will plan or condone a violent protest period all we are asking for is to be treated with respect and kindness by students and teachers when we were in school in response to these events i felt that the need to create a 2021 black student union or otherwise known as bsu was never more apparent nasserine and i along with our close teammates benna karyuki and talia ochoa formed the bsu in order to provide a platform for black students to be heard the black student union is an organization that advocates the needs of black students while empowering teaching discussing and exploring the black experience bsu serves as a liaison um as a liaison sorry between students and black individuals and west high some of our objectives include but are not limited to planning protests connecting black identifying individuals enriching the environment for black students attending a predominantly white school and giving said students opportunities and resources to academically succeed even though the 2021 bsu at west tie has been has only been established for a few weeks we've created solutions to prevent further disrespect to the black community inspired younger leaders to take action and collaborated with student leaders within the iccsd to create bsus at their own schools most recently we have gotten acknowledgement from the iowa from the iowa freedom writers who further recruited two of our members we're currently focused on making sure that those who have belittled silenced or ignored black individuals at west high face the repercussions that they rightly deserve there are there have been many times where black students were gaslighted or told by those in the position to help them that they were inherently targeting themselves that we are imagining our individual experiences of racism and victimizing ourselves what's going on at west high is very real and has serious impacts on the physical and mental beings of not only black students but other marginalized communities during one of our discussions with the apartment of with the department of equity a black student explained that they were going to give to give up the sport that they had planned to go into college for because of the racism that runs deep within west high and them not wanting to be part of a racist organization since the well-being of black students has been neglected the bsu will subsequently fight for students who feel stuck and unsupported we will continue to work to make west high a school that advocates for and has an inclusive environment for minorities thank you just a reminder uh no replies to the public comments i know it's tough but if anyone else has public comment um hi y'all uh my name is dan cobble and i'm just here to say i wasn't even planning to speak but i just wanted to say thank you for everything that you're doing and for going through all the crap that you had to go through to try to make the difference that you know will be best for our community um i have the tremendous amount of respect for each and every member of this commission um and i want to support you any way that i can and um it's it the people in power may not have respect for you but the people in the community know that you're doing good work and um if you need anything uh anything at all just let me know so thank you you have anyone else for public comment oh um yeah uh after you go we have someone uh attending that also like to comment hello my name is noah i'm also here to say thank you all for all you all are doing it's greatly appreciated and tremendous respect for all of you and um i also encourage all to fight the cities [ __ ] iowa city and their fascist police i mean what they did after last meeting arresting you is clear open unabashed fascism and i just want you know you're not alone in a fight and to to fight the city thank you uh next we have taylor khan hi yes yeah um i'm taylor cohn um i just wanted to express uh support for the chair and the other members of this commission after what was in my and others opinion clearly an act of retaliation by the police two weeks ago after this commission met um if the city was serious not only about your work but about your bodily safety they would be reacting completely differently from how they are right now as an observer i think there's no chance of them doing that we're in november of 2021 this conversation has been happening since summer of 2020 beyond that and they have proved over and over and over that they're playing with these buzz words about systemic racism but as councilor weiner even said on tuesday they need to quote be aware of the optics and the abuse and disrespect you all have received from the very people who appointed you proves that optics was all this was ever about to them and that this arrest happened and they haven't strongly condemned it shows what they will stoop to and what they will let happen to keep you from doing any work that will challenge the system they have invested their lives and their careers and their interests into so i'm frankly scared for you and people this commission is supposed to help um this isn't a coincidence or an accident that the chair has been targeted by icpd and it's unsurprising but no less alarming that the city's response has been pr damage control and not taking accountability for their partner for the way the members of the council have disrespected and devalued this commission and its mission even openly calling for it to be restarted at work sessions to be clear i don't expect integrity from politicians but this is a moment where nothing else would be acceptable for the narrative about the retaliation this commission is experiencing to be smoothed out that can't happen for councillor burgess to try to redirect the conversation and say this is how the system works as if she is not a participant that can't be allowed to happen for the mayor's role in this to get swept away or forgotten the record has to stay straight about this being retaliation from the city deliberate on the part of some if not all and if not deliberate on the part of others a clear result of their efforts to delegitimize your work so i just wanted to say i support you all and frankly [ __ ] 12. do we have anyone else for public comment and thank you taylor all right we now move on to agenda item number six discuss city council work session of november 30th um i was just talking to stephanie a second ago i'm not sure we have confirmation that'll be a joint session that's correct at this time it's a work session a regular work session for the city council it has not been set up as a joint meeting with the trc um had something changed or something that was always set up okay because someone had reached out uh to uh i believe uh was it you like had one of them reached out to you uh like a while ago like a few weeks ago about it okay yeah um i i heard that there's a possibility it could have been a work session at the beginning so i guess it had just been on the last few agendas kind of just to push that idea because i know they see at least things that are approved in our meeting minutes if they're mentioned but not really sure where we're at with them but once again as many of us have said in these last few meetings and as we still feel or at least i still feel now um i don't know that we really need whatever guidance it is that they want to give at this point unless it's on when can budget money be spent and how fast can it get out there so that's the most important thing to me right now from them otherwise it all depends on who we're just going to have participating with us and what we want to get accomplished and getting our timeline extended all those things can be up to us when it comes to that budget look looking at them for that because by the mandate that they wrote themselves this commission cannot end until or unless there is a facilitator facilitated group selected by us and put into place also requires payment on top of that so balls in their court um hope they don't slack that one off too much anyone else have anything on that i was just gonna suggest kind of combining six and seven together just because i want to discuss what i have for the proposed timeline from like the notes that i took from the last meeting um if that's okay can i share my screen give me a second please at some point we can ask for yeah actually um if you all do want to kind of combine the six and seven and before we speak more we can just let public comment go we don't need to vote on that yeah i'm fine with that is there anyone from the public that does want to speak on these items uh anything on that potential work session or that uh voting on a proposed timeline extension all right mel just want to give you that chance to share some of the highlights of this one well so the last two weeks have been heavy for me so i haven't had enough time to really work on this which is why i was gonna combine these two and just ask for more guidance from you guys um so this is what i had showed you guys last week um and uh the notes that i took um were from kevo uh they wanted to get input from organizations um that are directly involved within the communities that we want to engage in and i think that we might hear more about that later um and chastity had mentioned pushing the timeline to june 2023 um because of the worry that it would not be enough time two months would be a little bit pushing it if um to kind of look over all the testimonies and develop a report so this is kind of it's pretty much it's literally the same thing just different timelines and um there were some questions here and some comments that i had so we have people that are willing to meet with us and begin training us on how to facilitate like the truth-telling session how to prepare public-facing materials to assist attendees with participation including helping with developing a script for events questions for witnesses etc so eduardo gonzalez and team have offered their help on all of that um eduardo obviously has been involved in these processes before um and um he has a lot of templates and things that we could work from and then this kind of ties into what mo was saying earlier um the support stuff but i just wanted to leave this here because um i do think that it's important um to note that if they're not gonna let us hire an entire team that has it there are gonna be things that are just like out of our capacity um you know like i never knew what an rfp was and it was hard and i did it but there's no way that i am going to be able to strategically plan or even have an idea of what strategic planning would look like as it pertains to all of the specific topics that we want to cover in the city um so i had remembered from like a long time ago stuff we had talked about you hiring someone within your office um and like making a job posting um and i didn't know if that was still on the table um or how would that work just because the budget stuff is just so weird right now i mean any um position that would be created would have to go through city council that's not it would still have to go even if yeah once we make the job and stuff they would have to approve of the job in your department well the the funding for the position would come out of the budget okay and so that then would make it in the purview of the city council okay um so yeah those are the kind of those are the kind of things that i was just thinking of off the top of my head um i don't know whether you guys feel like um pushing it to june 2023 is better than pushing it um to having the report by december of 2022 which is 13 months from now so um i'm open to any suggestions and any ideas um i can go for right now um it's pretty evident and clear that we need to hear these truths we just heard a couple today i don't know about the date i'm willing to talk about which state we're going to push it to but these truths need to be told we heard from the public we heard from people that came here we need more time to do our work so that's my infield on the in whatever day people want to you know talk about how far it should go whether it should go to this state that's easy for us to work out so yeah do you think that so with that then do you think we should since the idea was to extend it a little longer to june um then do you think we should spend more time in 2022 collecting testimony and then maybe start from the end um of next year and to the beginning of 2023 kind of doing the strategic planning like looking and report making i agree with that i agree with that yeah you'd want to understand that even if you want to do more sam i would agree with that absolutely i'd say those things and in terms of the collaboration with community organizations can do any truth-telling events or like kind of getting to know you sessions outside of the public trc meetings so you can kind of test these things out see how they work and make sure that when we actually roll them out you know it's running smoothly and we also have a good standing with with those community groups um so i think that it's important that we do vote on at least one of these if we think it should be pushed to june 2023 or um that first one and steph i realized i didn't send you this copy of the second one i'll send it to you right after i'm done sharing my screen um i have a logistical question for staff if we make a recommendation will it be on city's agenda for their november 30th work session so if you make a recommendation tonight on any matter on the um agenda it would go in the city council information packet because they would be draft minutes they would not go on a city council formal agenda until their next meeting which would be december 14th i believe having said that i mean can they be made aware of the recommendation that certainly can be done but in terms of it being on a formal council agenda that won't be until december 14th thank you so um i just have one like two quick questions on that one um so i know that they always have the option of deciding to pick something up or not but are there any stipulations of situations from commissions where they're forced to have something on the agenda not that i'm aware of like uh if there's anything that comes up in terms of uh passing some kind of budget or at least making a recommendation to allow for clearance of a hiring or a budget or those situations where they're required not that i'm aware of i mean the the council agenda um is within that purview and not really boards and commissions in terms of content okay um what's that did is that the only meeting they have in december by the way okay and then our meeting in december is december 3rd and do we have a second december meeting uh it'd be yeah the third and then the 17th i think yeah first and third yeah vice chair as you were looking at this timeline um and other commissioners can provide input on this as well um in terms of an extended um fact-finding sort of season for us throughout all of 2022 did you anticipate that this commission might have opportunities to make recommendations to city council on how to allocate funds from the blm fund throughout that time [Music] that's kind of a vague question but like throughout the entire timeline yeah like is is there room from the timeline that you've proposed for us to be concurrently you know obtained doing truth-telling sessions while also pushing city council to start allocating money i i feel like yeah i definitely think so i think it allows for that and the only other concern that i would have too is you know wait till december 14th and go to their meeting then and what if they don't take action then yeah we're going to be running out of time you know so hopefully we can hopefully that works out you know it hasn't been working out before but hopefully it works out because you know basically with the holidays coming up that'll put us at six months hope is all we got eric that's all we got i'm just saying i just want to make that me and i want to put that on the record because i think we got a little more than that because i mean with these community groups if you know the some things that have been shot down have just been more people at a meeting to speak against us and for us so to me one thing these community groups is those that are willing to stand with us and wanting to work with us wanting this work to be done um if they're willing to come to these city council meetings with us speak in support of it or talk in public comment and ask them to actually act on it becomes a lot harder not to a lot of reporters in those rooms those stories get right themselves so um otherwise even i still want to vote on this today but i i say that community group part because i think without it i don't i mean from what i've seen thus far i don't have any faith that they would have it on the december 14th one and if steph this is a question for you and if we vote on it today um it would be on that december 14th agenda but are we able to edit it and stuff before then like does it have to be this version that we vote on or can we it would have to well i mean because if you edit it at a future meeting then it becomes draft again okay so yeah and and one thing also you know the city council at the formal meetings there always is an opportunity for comments of items not on the agenda yeah so so you wouldn't have responses or engagement but that wouldn't you know prevent commissioners from talking during that agenda item another strategic piece of making sure we get that community comment that at the third december 14th meeting first meeting they have in january is bringing in their new city council members picking their mayor ratifying etc if you don't make a decision by then and you don't make a decision at that first meeting i willing to bet the news stories would be less about the new city council being created and more about the fact that new city council created still haven't done anything on the trc still haven't spent any of a million dollars so again ball's in their court um speaking more and more and more community members becoming very very clear to more of them that not much to say against us at this point but of course we always have room to improve and that main piece is just making sure we stay connected more so to them because that's who really matters and then for me for the timeline extension i know i've been going back on back and forth on this but you know what at this point i'm willing to still live here until june 2023 if needed i agree do you have a june 2023 version of this can you say that again do you have a june 2023 version of this yeah this is the june this was the june 2023 version but i just didn't know how long we wanted to extend like the last portion so i didn't know if we wanted to divide it into like analyzing and then writing the report so um well we've got two so that's seven months so i was thinking like four months analyzing three months getting the report written um and if anyone that's on zoom chastity or daphne if you guys have anything that would be helpful june 2023 sounds good to me i think we need to take our time to get this done yeah what i think i mean there's room for may to june of 2023 being like our opportunity to share our findings and really like publicly announce what our recommendations are for the city and for the community for us to share any video content we try to create so that can be yeah like our we're not able to talk about public comment at all um not directly replying to the person but there's that option of if you have been something indirect on it i think stephanie would that be okay during like the announcements portion as long as we don't respond no you can take public comment this is an agenda item so if you want to take public oh take public comment on this or no you want to comment or talk about and discuss that has already been brought up even just tonight nope no i'm not sure can you refrain i'm not sure he's asking if he can respond to a commentator that made a comment during publishing yeah you you can yeah it's an agenda item so i know the public comment that happened at the beginning of the meeting all of items not only have taken place here if you can respond to those comments okay then um like with the school and right and so that's because i kind of used the same thing when i referenced the thing where it was like you know we see how many people we have been public comment we need to have extension that's how i use it i don't know if that's right but um we can do going forward and make sure that budget item i mean that not by john agenda item we had from a few meetings ago of just that discussion of true telling process on trc i think was how it was written we could do that uh so that would kind of leave more room for the back and forth and we also always have the option to take anything from the public comment if the person you know is comfortable with it putting that on an agenda item to make sure we discuss it fully i would like to put everything that was discussed on the agenda item for next time and i would like to have a discussion about it absolutely um so [Music] then we'll go to may to june this will be like um working on the report i think working on the report to go in in the december to april trunk okay yeah it can be in both honestly because uh there may be key pieces we want to get done sooner rather than later that could inform some like timely recommendations when we put the report in the ask for extension um i would try to just try to think what i think what needs to be said is that like the things that we heard has to be a factor into asking them what we want to talk about so i just want to say that as a broad general statement without but the things that we heard whether it's web has been heard at that people need to tell their troops so that i want to i'm and that's on the record it's agreed i'll also add for that may june section um i mean something about just like strategizing community members organizations on um how the trc process went and what they would like to see whether it is continued indefinitely again after that if we get another trc or um if not how we would like to see some of these recommendations pressed for um this is commissioner dillard i just wanted to say that maybe it should be april through june since that december just to give us a little bit more time um because i kind of see i think commissioner rivera said kind of like a little um we're going in presenting what we are finding so just giving us a little bit more time to to do all that um and as i i know that we have it laid out but i would hope that we would be kind of fluid or flexible based on what's going on at in the moment for this timeline and then i yield the floor that makes sense thank you in terms of like the concrete detail detail in here um i know it's more so on the proposed timeline extension i feel like there's enough in here for the proposal whereas it seems to me that whatever their vote ends up being more than likely going to be something where they'll ask hey do you guys want to have a work session or something to talk it out further because i don't really see them voting on timeline just to say vote on timeline without talking to us they're not going to vote at that time because of what's going to happen in january so that yeah so so we can essentially just like flesh it out to him live but but yeah this is to me looks like a solid framework to begin does anyone feel like there's anything we're really missing still is what it is uh chastity uh see your hands up and just wasn't sure if you still had oh no i forgot to take it down and then i think we can't have a any kind of a quick emergency meeting to speak about certain things or how does that work we can do emergency meetings just the only thing on it is i think weekdays definitely are the requirement that does not matter okay i know the one thing is that there just has to be some kind of advanced notice to the public just like minimum of 48 hours was it 24 24 okay 24. so are we going to do that yeah we have the option at any time so major event comes up that's all we want to talk about can make a meeting for it just the things to know are if it's going to be a public meeting we just have to make sure we know we're going to have a quorum for it i'm good on that agree for that last section i just um like to include a bullet point about sharing our recommendations with the community through like public meetings community events and other media great ad actually gives it time to start like building out a little bit get some feedback i was um meeting april through june oops sorry should we try to quantify numbers like when it says lots of testimony should we have a goal or is there a reason to keep it vague i think it's tough to have the goal because i don't want it to seem like a bar we're trying to reach rather that however few or however many and expect it to be more rather than less all for it i agree that makes sense i'd like to make a motion to recommend to city council that we extend the timeline of the ad hoc truth and reconciliation commission through june 2023 um with the proposed timeline as shown here wally second and stephanie can we get roll call uh commissioner yes commissioner danielle yay commissioner dillard yes yes uh commissioner johnson yes commissioner harris yes commissioner rivera yes commissioner treyary yes because motion path is 8-0 thank you for your request yeah thank you very much um next we do have updates on the progress of the fun excluded workers coalition and the american rescue plan and before we talk about this want to give the public a chance to comment um does anyone from the public want to comment on this item before we begin all right um we're now on to the commission discussion um eric once again before i say anything just want to defer to you since you have the more the direct involvement yeah so um what happened um in the past couple days is the johnson county supervisors they um have passed um two million dollars to give social security workers but they've used the majority of money for other different things but they only put aside two million dollars for excluded workers now they've worked hard in battle for the past six to eight months almost a year about this most of those people that worked hard will be escorted because of red tape they don't maybe they don't have the proper documents maybe they're you know undocumented people most of the people that would benefit from this program are people who didn't go out there and support the school workers and also another part about it that's i don't agree with is that they're not going to roll it out until march of 2022. so we're going to go through a winner where it's possible that it could be another pandemic if you know you pay attention to what's going on with the pandemic you know there's been a lot of more outbreaks so it's just not enough money and the people that work hard they're continuing to work hard and they're moving it along to other counties and teaching them about how the government gets these it gets these funds you know that's supposed to help the people because the plan is called the american rescue plan it's not you know it's the rescue the american people so two million dollars for all the people who are affected through a pandemic which is going to be red tape and they're not going to not that they not have they have not really clarified how it's going to be distributed you know it's going to be destroyed by the government what's going to be sugary about the county which is going to be a bunch of red tape and some people you know i believe that you know if you have an address and you're working here in johnson county and you struggle through the pandemic and you're a central worker you should receive some of those funds because without those essential workers this economy and this city wouldn't have worked at all and with that on the yield um once again thank you for everything you've done on that and i i don't get at all how it takes i think march 3rd 2022 would be almost a full year if not a full year since the act was actually passed um so as we said since uh what was it may yeah that they were probably just gonna stall on this wait until after the election et cetera et cetera they said no that's exactly what they did anyways so well uh i guess we weren't lying um from there disappointing to say the very very least all you're going to give is two million dollars um american rescue plan build back better two things you hear all the time how do you build back better when you don't actually invest in the people that support the community so this is all your frontline workers this is all those excluded workers those people that you know you got to sit at home they brought you your food or while you sat at home they made sure your goods could get shipped around uh for me i worked at amazon logistics um uh for a few months um like a little later in the pandemic like november or so to to like mid spring and every single person i saw there just working so hard and talking overnight shifts doing anything and everything they can to make sure they get there and i just heard the craziest stories all the time of all the stuff they're dealing with what they're going through and with the size of checks that are going to come out there's no chance they're all going to be covered and there's no chance they're all going to be covered adequately since i've left i know the pace the pay has gone up but still that wasn't what the rate was the whole time through and i don't know what it is now but i don't know maybe they're not whole still at the end they're gonna um the johnson county supervisors or johnson county like they're gonna celebrate this as we're helping the people and we gave out this much money and we help the people but it's not enough they actually shouldn't be celebrating they should be ashamed in themselves so let me heal up now um for that two million is that so notice the johnson county uh does that include the contribution from the cities part of it or is that just the johnson county portion just that's what johnny council that's the johnson county portion the city they did less it's equivalent to our budget that we don't get to use so that part of it is about one million dollars and they said one million but they wasn't even specific on that part and they didn't have me came up with a date as far as i know but they said one to one and a half million which is you know equivalent to the budget that we can't use and they're gonna help all these you know people that suffer during the pandemic include and they're supposed to include that they're going to help formerly incarcerated people as well with 1 million dollars how many people go around ask people there's so many people who struggle doing the pandemic so it doesn't make a lot of sense to me so if you add it up i guess that's about three and a half million dollars to help probably tens of thousands of people who struggle but we'll see how they work it out probably be a bunch of red tape but with that idea because that's a you know like that subject right there is you know it's it bothers me a lot um there's been a lot of studies on what happens um to countries when middle classes shrink um you don't need studies to realize what happens there if you've ever grown up with not a lot but essentially what occurs when middle classes shrink get more people in lower class which means you have fewer and fewer and fewer people that have enough money to get by that have enough money to spend meaning that you're going to have more and more of the actual resources being consumed by those that do have the means to purchase them the other thing that that results in is things like drug addiction drug use um unstable families etc so so yeah and i agree with that because when they don't help the people they need to get help because we never went through anything like this in a whole lifetime i lived in america for my whole life and i saw a lot of different tragedies and things like that but a tragedy like this pandemic i never saw that many many people die in the last year and a half and so when people don't have a place to go you know of course they might turn to things you know that might be related to crime or drug use but you know all what would happen is funds and stuff would be used to increase law enforcement and say the crime rate's going up well you didn't help anybody i mean you know right there you know like reacting as if uh the correlation matched whereas like not actually studying what made it happen in the first place exactly yeah i could talk all day so we probably oh yeah yeah yeah oh does anyone else have anything on this is anybody else yeah i just wanted to um oh one sec right before you go just want to give daphne go ahead dr commissioner daniel good evening um i think it's fairly hypocritical for the city to [Music] hold things or have things like the eviction help desk um to pro to have quote unquote general relief and yet the people who were most impacted by the pandemic are going to be left out in the cult again we're excluding them again and it really seems like everything the city does is for appearances um and there's just not enough people to call them out um and apparently when you call them out you may end up becoming uh icpd's next uh anyway um i want to remain respectful um but i implore the public to to pay attention to this issue um and and start calling out some of this hypocrisy because it's it's getting it's getting pretty ridiculous that we have fed help desk and yet we are not giving money to people to help them pay their rent then what is the point of that um and with that i yield this is commissioner rivera i just wanted to add that um the the act of um refusing um the recommendations not only made by you know the fund excluded workers coalition itself but also the recommendations that we as a commission have made to city council the recommendations that the human rights commission have made to city council um on the allocation the urgent allocation of these funds the withholding of these monies and the reduction in the commitment is an act of violence against bipark individuals in our community right um you were talking about kind of the stress of being low income these are also people with who might be in mixed legal status families they face a lot of threats in a lot of ways to their livelihoods their threat to their health we talk a lot in health care about adverse childhood experiences and poverty is one of the stresses that can result in lifelong illness disability or at least increase the risk of that um so the choices that city council is making now these have like real impacts on the the lives and health of people and i just want us as a commission to remember that i want this i want the city to hear that i want members of our community to hear that um i think um the fund excluded workers commission or fund excluded workers coalition right now you know the priority goals and points that we want to keep making to city council is when the current commitment is not enough two these funds were needed months and months ago and three any disbursement of these funds needs to go directly into the hands of the people who need them most without a middleman i know um i've been the one sort of really advocating for community partnership but on this issue we really need to be advocating um that the disbursement of these funds and the way that we're advocating needs to be in the form of direct cash payments um so with any action we continue taking and any partnership we continue making with the coalition those need those need to be our stated goals and need to be talking points for other people in our in our community thank you for making those points i think those are really valid um requests and really easy to remember to you know just remind people of what they're asking for um before we move on i had noticed that um someone in the audience had their hand up um and i didn't know if it was a mistake um but if the rest of the commission is okay i would like to allow them to talk cool stephanie um we're unable to hear you mike might be connecting or it might be on the wrong input so just check on that side if you're on the desktop version there should just be that that unmute button at bottom left corner there's that arrow and that should let you change your microphone input we are good on audio on our side right correct okay yeah that looks like you just put the hand down oh yeah i forgot there's no chat um okay uh stephanie can you hear me now oh there we go yeah yeah all right but i have no idea what was going on there's not even a speaker on my computer that is named that i don't know what it was registering but it took me a minute so i guess what i wanted to talk about quickly is kind of related to this um it was something that came up in um i see man in our discord chat it was um one of the people that cooks for us is volunteering to help i don't know that it necessarily is important at which nonprofit in town but um it's a rent eviction protection and they were going commenting on like the extremely arduous application process and the amount of documentation like they're asking for volunteers to sit with people through the process and the sahana is going to do that and that's why it came up in our conversation and obviously that makes me ragey but um it's something that like i just kind of wanted to bring to you i'm sure you're aware that those kinds of things are going on but just in this general discussion felt like it was a good idea maybe even just echoing what keva said about making sure the money's just going to the people it needs to go to without so much of a middleman you know handing out the money because the process for applying for some of these programs is overwhelming a lot of people and to the point that they are bringing volunteers in to like and the amount of documentation that some of these people have is unattainable to them like they cannot come up with the documentation because they're unde because they're undocumented um that they need to apply for these programs and i don't know i mean obviously i don't know that you have any input in that it's just another maddening aspect of even though the money's out there i'm not certain that it's going to get to the people who are supposed to be getting it thank you stephanie thank you um this is commissioner wango igado and i'm piggybacking on commissioner rivera's last comment and also commissioner daniels when they were talking about the amount of time and work and money used to get any person trying to get exp and i'm speaking directly to especially getting rental assistance especially as a result of covid as the coordinator of nissa african families and working with african immigrants and refugees a population that is already marginalized all the way from international borders and then into our city since our state is one of the unhcr refugee destination so working with these people who are already very traumatized and uh going through that whole process because i do go because i am a multi-lego and mobile advocate i'm right there with the person as they go through somebody is looking for rental getting rental assistance of maybe 540 dollars and the amount of there has to be an interpreter a translator somebody who is volunteering their time and then going through the amount of paperwork that through iowa finance that somebody has to go through the amount of time this is a person whom i have to figure out how they have to get from their home which they are almost getting evicted from the transportation all these things before and even there has to be a call to a landlord whom in the first place does not even want that person uh and if the landlord does not pick up their phone they are not going to get the assistance yes getting the 540 dollars figuring getting it directly to the person who is already a commissioner where you use the word violence already this is somebody who's already received god violence from people who are close to them maybe a husband maybe a wife maybe a boyfriend or somebody then to me now our city our system is continuing with this violence and they've got the money to do it continuing instead of working with this person to get the power out of them to be on their own feet they continue with this with this all-round about way and sometimes connected to mental health some of these people end up in our psych ward or attempting to take their life because i'm thinking of somebody whom it has taken exactly a year to get assistance and exactly so many organizations so many people getting paid including even me getting paid before this person finally gets the 540 dollars so i'm saying all these in very many ways and giving my example of the actual groundwork that is being involved and in this particular case uh i was lucky the person only came out with getting depressed that they didn't but actually even mentioning taking away their life because they are going after 540 dollars and guess what so much more was used in the process of the hoops that they have to jump to get there and my question is and these people human beings and are we isn't our system able to be human or is it thinking that is all these things are human and with that i yield thank you um if we don't have anything else on this one um i'd like to go on to agenda item number nine so i think there's more strategizing to be done on the excluded workers fund aspect but i just want to make sure we have more of the coalition members or um um you know excluded workers themselves to actually kind of guide us more so on what they'd like to see done yeah i think that was um that was a pretty good update on that and that's what's going on with and that's where we're at right right now the more information i can get the more that i will share definitely so that's what we're at right now with it thank you uh agenda item number nine we have discussion on trc local partners do we have anyone from the public that like to comment on this one well noah uh and uh i'm one of the drivers for iowa city's mutual aid uh houseless lunch program that they started back in the pandemic when no one else he's like well i've met several people who where the young people delivered them their food for that day which i don't say i don't mean to interrupt you i just want to know what you said you was driving for what i'm sorry uh uh the i was seeing mutual aid so i'm just here to uh i guess offer my there's no class meetings you're talking about i know stephanie talked at the last one too i'm just here to like offer because i know there's people who would definitely have truths to come talk about that i've seen like the cops harass them many times and shelter house harassed people too unfortunately it's just well yeah so just i guess that's kind of my comment just as often yeah i know there's other drivers i'm sure would like to help too so yeah thanks noah thank you thank you and thanks for delivering food to the vulnerable communities during the pandemic it it truly makes a huge difference in their lives hi my name is felicia pieper thank you um i also drive with icma the iowa city mutual aid coalition collective and i'm also an organizer with ifr and i just wanted to bring up that um i also work with these folks i'm working with someone right now who's in an extremely precarious situation and i'm trying to figure out how to advocate for them but i i wouldn't i wouldn't bring her here um i think it would be dangerous and i just um as we're thinking about partnerships um i want to think about the potential harm to the individuals but also organizational harm that's less of a point but like if if bringing someone to the trc loses trust with the organization that you're working with that has more like compounding harm so i just want to be like really clear that this dangers people as well as much as we want to collect these stories thank you thank you yeah thank you oh was there anyone else from the public that wanted to comment on this item um before we go into further detail on it um i know we didn't have the west house black student union organization on this list i think it was more so recently created but they're one i would like to reach out to and work with especially if they're open to it agreed i also want to respond to that comment by commissioner treyore because we had tasked ourselves two weeks ago me this is onegoigadua to reach out to iccsd and see whom we were going to work with to help us listen to facts and racism experiences in the school district and especially because the student population who are the majority in iccsd not counting the faculty and the staff are minors and yeah that would be a good idea because uh iccsd bsu might be giving you the wrong name is has come in timely and yeah it would be a good idea to reach out to them as we continue and finding out the two public speakers who have spoken uh following that up and see how we can also do that because we got sidetracked commissioner triori and i in reaching out into the district so we shall continue or seeing who males or bcs bc bsu may be our point of contact yeah i do know we have some other contacts in the district you have charlie for one and um laura gray is another one i've spoken to and uh regardless of who we do have now for contacts whether it's iccsd iccsd foundation certain boards and commissions the student union student councils whatever it is i'm really glad you did bring up the point about the parental aspect because that's just one thing we just want to make sure uh is cleared on if there's any parents that might have an issue with their student coming to speak to us um this was this was actually something that came up like a long long time ago um and it is completely up to that student themselves we actually um don't need the parents permission if they want to tell their truths um this was a question i think like way back in the beginning but i do remember that being one of the things that i was i remembered yeah are we able to go speak with the school and staff or on on are we um we have to work that out yeah in terms of formally we'd have to work it out yeah probably so but you have to just work it out and just to update on you know just on this general item i talked with dream city officials and they're going to be on board to be a partner so that's no doubt about that um inside out you know i talk with them they're going through a kind of transition right now so i'll try to reach back around and talk to them as well so and south district um those are those were the things that i was assigned to south district was kind of a no question no-brainer type thing so i wouldn't worry about that but the only thing i got left is you know the inside-out thing i have to just go back around to them because they're in the transition phase right now but the other things you know dream center and south district those things are you know like you know i guess in the back so you don't have to worry about those things so i can provide an update on my contacts i admit that i sent out my emails fairly late in the game so i'm still waiting on hearing back from a lot of folks but um the the way i strategized some of my contacts was i grouped um open heartland which is the group that elizabeth bernal represents as well as prairielands freedom fund because i know that organizers from those two organizations frequently collaborate so they're having more discussions on kind of getting on the same page before they give us an official response about partnering with us i have heard back from stephanie in the iowa city mutual aid collective and they're down and it was suggested that if we did host events with them it might be sort of integrated like a truth telling session integrated into their normally scheduled community meals but further details would need to be worked out for that waiting to hear back on monsoon i need to still reach out to the shelter house in my contacts there and i've reached out to a couple of the cultural centers through the u um specifically the latin x and native american cultural center as well as the asian american cultural center those are my updates and i forgot one part of an update too is the outer captive worker um we supported them before they even you know thought about supporting us so they will support us but right now you know i i need to sit down with them and talk to them because they kind of you know on the front lines of things right now so they're doing a lot of things you know if you ever if you've been paying attention to the news they've been everywhere on the front line so but since we supported them i don't think that would be a problem at all either so i just got to have a good conversation with the right person but right now yeah there are every city council in every johnson county meeting there on the front line so i'm gonna let them do that and before i contact them you know so that's the best yeah i during the week commissioner van gogh again uh in the two weeks uh we were able to get together with commissioner rivera and divide up some of those groups he has mentioned whom he already sent the letter we agreed on i was able to [Music] reach to four organizations that i already doing the work of working in bringing out power in the people of color the first group that i one of the groups that i contacted and i've already been working with and i've spoken about uh in our meetings is the african communities network in johnson county and lynn county so i already talked to the director because i directed our letter to her and on this sunday they are going she is going to uh she's called a special board meeting to discuss their working together because there is already a team that has already been following and ready to work with the african communities in their culturally and linguistic uh proficient way so [Music] those ones i already have a response from on behalf of the trc the second group the other three groups i do not have a response yet but i the people that i've always worked with i used to recommission i talked to the executive executive director teresa stecker i emailed i don't have a response yet she directs the ic compassion and they give services to immigrants and refugees in ic i don't have an answer yet from uh ameri uh african-american council i directed our letter to shalisa gladney uh at the in the u of i campus so and she she's also she also coordinates the multicultural center at the u of i and b a c black students union on at the in the u of i campus is also under her and her and also the african students association and that's all that those associations i also interact with them as i coordinate nissa african family services and also under african communities of johnson county network the fourth organization that i reached out to is the international student support and engagement coordinator this is shuhui lin i'm familiar with working with her when i plan uh events for these groups of people international students uh uh for them bringing out their power so but i do not have a response yet but even as i do this i i think of as people are responding to us and as we continue on the work of collecting truths i think of something that has also been mentioned that uh whether people fear retaliation or some sort of attracting some negative reactions on themselves even as they would want to come forward and work with us and come forward to bring their truth but the me expressing that doesn't mean that i under the individuals don't go forward with our work i yield the best conversation i had actually so far was earlier today with pastor smith from the johnson county interfaith coalition so uh you know just kind of sat down told each other a little bit about ourselves and one thing that just kept coming up over and over and over again was we seem to agree on more than we disagree on and um i think that's just going to be something that's going to tie more of these groups together rather than and keep them away but just important to get those of them that are that are ready to step forward here and now there so it's that effect of you know seeing that community and wanting to be a part of it and uh we talked about just having more conversations with other community groups like their leaders or stakeholders kind of just roundtables and seeing what we can strategize on what we can agree on in terms of messaging and then kind of bringing that to the table in terms of official like participation collaboration with trc i'm not sure that we came to concrete anything on that but i don't see it being ruled out by any means and then um still do have plans to meet with uh fred newell from dream city uh after the holidays and then it's gonna it's gonna be a little longer than that yeah yeah he'll be gone for a little bit yeah and then uh for university of iowa i did have a chance to talk just very very briefly before the last meeting even uh with uh broader bins who's the um the head of the diversity equity and inclusion i think it's the official title i can't remember but um i'm gonna look to get like an official meeting or whatever it is with him see a little more of if there's specific groups he might be able to help us get into contact with at the university or if there's room to kind of work together on on these things will you let me and commissioner guthu uh know what those recommendations might be yeah and um i just think in terms of all the other organizations any that we haven't gotten to thus far we can just be sure to you know reach out to them prior to the next meeting and just making sure those that have responded thus far if they want to meet with us again before the next meeting we can get four or less of us there then it doesn't have to be public or anything and and we can start planning uh whether it's one group at a time or two three or four um just know that it's probably be hard next week with thanksgiving holidays um and one last thing before we go to the next agenda item um i think that it's important when we're talking about like local partners and the truth-telling sessions that we will have um and uh i don't plan on having any like truth-telling sessions here in this building um and i think that most of us would feel that same way um i you know i would agree um and i can talk more about this during uh commissioner comments but um i think we're all on the same page about that and all on the same page of making sure that um we're finding a safe space um where there is trust and um we can have um support for them that's not just us listening to the stories um so yeah and i just wanted to make that the f that last final note i would not listen to no truth in this bill uh yeah i'm working on that so agreed don't see that happening or at least not you know shoes in this building so um i'd like to ask a question and see if um others would have ideas about this um i i'd like to have a little bit more information to provide some of these organizations or partners on like just like an initial framework for what the truth-telling sessions might be and for that reason i'm wondering if it would be helpful um sooner rather than later for eddie and um mary hoax under or whatever the the group is um to have a meeting with us so that we can really get into the nitty-gritty um of like the bones of what these yeah truth telling that sessions might be and i think at that time we can kind of address questions about ethics and convent comfort not confidentiality but like just making sure that we're doing it the right way so that um we would be prepared to answer those questions for any of our potential partners that yeah that works for me and i can set that up um do you want to just text me your availability and we can find the time well i was wondering if they could just like if we can make that an agenda item and that guy oh at the next meeting we have to focus on one of our upcoming meetings yes are you saying that we don't have a location no no no that's not it that's not it so it's not going to be using this by default locations we use like city property and things like that but uh probably be best to go to areas where these organizations actually work in does not just make it easier okay um are you ready to move on to the next agenda item um so the follow-up on the circle invitation um do we have anyone from the public that wants to comment on this before we have our discussion so um me and kevo and eric and when gooey all had the pleasure of attending a circles um with annie tucker v and angie jordan um and it was just a really before you keep going just want to know for the public for context um it's not that everyone from the commission couldn't make it but if we have five or more of us in any of these events they have to be open to public yes yeah quorum is five and uh yeah we were struggling um and i felt like it was a really um insightful and i feel like i got closer to when gooey and eric and kevo um it was not anything that i actually was expecting but i didn't really go in having any expectations because it was my first time being involved in a circle um but yeah it was really nice to step away from everything and not have to worry about um for lack of a better term the bs that we're all having to deal with whether it's through this or in our daily lives and things like that so it was nice to decompress with fellow commission members and just learn a little bit more about one another i yield yeah um i would go too i'm gonna keep it short but it was it was really nice to you know be able to listen to people because that's the most important thing is to listen to people and you know and the way that it was set up it gave people a space to say you know a safe space where they can say you know what's on their mind what they feel and sometimes you may see a person every day but you don't know the stuff that's going on inside of them and it and you know it it it was kind of out it was kind of at opening when i went home i was i just kind of just reflected on it and i'll say this is a good thing i never been in a circle myself before so it was my first time with that idea yeah i'll say that it was a really wonderful experience it was therapeutic for me to participate in like uml i um felt like i just got a lot a lot more opportunity to get you each get to know each of you on a more personal level um a couple thoughts that i had walking away was just a really fantastic reminder of how important it is for you know we address each other as commissioners and we we have a fairly sort of specific charge and role um within this commission but um i think it's really important reminder for me and for for us moving forward as we continue to do the work to not place ourselves on any hierarchy above you know the people that we're trying to serve um that the the people whose voices were trying to elevate and amplify that those are the the the people that need to be centered in the work that we're doing um so i appreciate the opportunity to reflect on that i um also was thinking that in terms of where we take circles from here and how we incorporate it into our work i really envision it being um one of the sort of mechanisms that we can recommend certain reconciliatory processes um after we collect our stories but i i think that there's a lot of um sort of process and ethic that we can take away from the circles themselves into our truth-telling or intro of the truth-telling sessions that we host next year so um i encourage any other commissioners who have not gotten to participate in those to respond to the email or invitations from angie and annie and participated i i have no no bad things to say about it yeah i agree with uh it's commissioner wang again with what my fellow commissioners who were at this particular cycle with the experiences yes it is therapeutic and uh eve as we have more i it would serve a good purpose for people who are working on these anti-racism work and i'm thinking of going back all the way to may 25 when george floyd died people took up the protest and all that pain through circles and people who have kept on going and and keeping the empowering going even as when it seems as if probably the city council would be wanting it to be just using ways of diffusing this detention that was there and really not it being actual work of actually making our city better and so it is a tool that would be useful for people to recharge because both the people in the community who are at the forefront and who are uh working with the tlc as the trc the carries out its charge it's a space to to to help with the deal with the emotional the emotion at all that this work brings with it and also sit for an hour or two and hear the experiences that you're going through and the fears that you're having that uh you are not alone and also hear that even if you fear and you and people might tell you you're endangered that there are others who are and you come out recharged so that's one of my main takeaway during that circle and also space to see very heavy things in uh in a space that is safe and in a space where uh discussions honest discussions can go on so that was my takeaway out of this the circle that we attended um so i really like the circles process i think um i've watched videos and i've done like a lot of research and i really believe in the healing that can happen um and you know i know a lot of people in this room right now um know about my situation um regarding my sexual assault and when i think of justice and what justice looks like for me i picture sitting and speaking with this man in a circle um where he is being held accountable and we're discussing in a safe space obviously and in these situations people have their own support that that comes in there's it's not just the facilitator and you and this other person there's also your own personal support but um i i picture it being a really powerful process that can be used um in our court system here um it's already been used one other time that i know of for sure um and uh the police officer seemed to have um been really compelled by the circle experience um so i just i have a lot of faith in circles and it's not that i think that you know this is the only thing that will work or blah blah blah but i really think that um trying to implement more facilitators of circles and facilitators that look like us commissioners you know um i think that would be really cool um and i think also when we're working with other entities and like different organizations i think and i'm hoping that people from those organizations will want to learn how to facilitate these circles because they're the ones that have the closest connection to those communities that we might not be able to um enter they might not trust us as much as they would trust you know someone in the organization um but yeah that's just kind of my thought about it um i see daphne has her hand raised yes thank you um i think it's important that we make it clear that circles or talking circles are culturally are a part of indigenous people's culture and so before we participate or encourage talking circles we really should take keep that in mind and understand the very slippery slope between um homage or paying respect or adapting a technique or culture cultural uh whatever um a cultural tradition or something and appropriating it i personally i don't know if i feel comfortable with circles um i i feel like there are met there are a few more things that would need to be in place before i feel comfortable but it is something to keep in mind and it is something i want to make sure that we recognize that this is almost a gift that we are um that we are embracing from indigenous people who are kind enough to share this um and it has very real spiritual um like value and that and it's not just merely a sociology experiment or sociology exercise and with that i yield yeah thank you for making that point daphne and i i apologize i should have started it off by saying uh that when the circle started um annie tucker was very you know straight forward and said these practices are not um she learned from indigenous peoples and and she was very clear about where this started and how she learned about this process and who she learned the processes from and yeah so i apologize for not making that clear um first um and and she has spoken a few times at these meetings you know saying that she she understands that you know she's just a white woman coming to us um but um i think that she really did a good job of um educating us on how she learned the circles process and who she learned the circles process from um i i don't know about what up the the three others what they think about it but um she didn't make that very clear i agree what you're saying because she did make it very clear about where that came from and she she gave us we didn't even start the circle until she explained that whole thing so yeah yes she did go into uh acknowledging and saying she isn't getting involved in any cultural misappropriation and yeah there's a lot of education that would go into uh studying uh indigenous people's uh restorative justice circles before somebody can back and on them and as i was going into them because i also the very first time an attacker started talking about them for me uh going into them and following into that i like commissioner lee has said some time back uh we did have community circles uh some sometime back and it was conversations with the police and the communities and sitting down in circles with people who are hurting you them talking and the ones that i sat in were people who black and white mostly and talking and my main takeaway from those circles was uh and mostly the major thing that was being talked about is uh is people harming others physically and the main conclusion when they because i funding i i think got exhausted for funding the circles uh was nobody wants to be harmed it doesn't matter what skin color the person is but nobody wants to have a neighbor who is humming them you don't want them to be your color you don't want them to be any other color so that's one of the reasons that i i support circles because they are they allow the person being harmed and they are the person uh the person who is perpetrating the harm to have some space safe space to to face each other and talk the other thing for me circles resonate with my own culture that i grew up in my a lot of african nations use council of elders in worldwide using councils of elders and we still do to organize ourselves where people will actually be in a circle as uh even if even the leader of the circle of the council would be fast among equals recognizing each other's humanity so that's another reason and also as a licensed school counselor in iowa under school counselor educator and trainer and supervisor uh i've done my research and circles also work in schools when we are dealing with bullying in schools and violence in schools we are able to use them to have uh to because uh even as uh the the student who is bullying another even as they face consequences we still need to see it in a circle and and and for the students it's a safe space so thank you commissioner daniels for bringing that up that people need not just getting hyped up and running sarcostaco and not having the background knowledge and the research and where all these comes from because we might end up doing more harm even to the people the very people that we are thinking we would be working on bringing out their power with that i yield so just the only thing i have on it is that not only do i want to participate but also i want to make sure the people that are leading the circles and organizing these things also being compensated for their time and efforts so um i'd like to work with annie and angie and whoever else is uh you know authorized to kind of like lead these things or uh wanting to participate in these programs making sure they are compensated for their time so i'll be in contact with all of you see if there's something we can work out in terms of the receipts so we can make sure to get those to the city and then when it's time for a budget to actually be truly considered making sure that's a line item on there all right so we are actually now on to jenna item number 11 which is announcements of commissioners or staff all right uh we have commissioners with any announcements i can start um i uh i'm someone who is a strong advocate for expressing gratitude as a personal process that can be really helpful and so i hope that you all commissioners take some time [Music] to practice gratitude next week or now whenever i think it could be helpful but i also wanted to promote some of the work that fellow commissioner sakaos does through the great transaction society they are hosting an event in des moines in conjunction with humanize my hoodie um to discuss truth giving which is resource and education opportunity to for people to learn more about what thanksgiving means to indigenous peoples if you're not able to participate in that there is an online resource at truthsgiving.org which i would encourage all of us to really take a deep dive into you know as part of our commitment to indigenous folks so that it can be a learning opportunity for us and then maybe we can share some of what we learn during any activities we all particularly partake in next week thanks um i only have one announcement and it's to address what occurred after the last meeting just want to make sure i had set in my own words but i initially thought about maybe going to that city council meeting to say it there then decided against it of the knowledge time or whatever it'd be given but here kind of had that flexibility but um first and foremost drunk driving is not okay and i am someone that's done it twice terrible terrible terrible choices i don't always make good choices and i'm going to be you know truthful in that but the other thing i want to add is that i don't always make bad choices either and for anyone where that was the first time you'd heard of me heard my name whatever it was that is not who i am that was january 5th of 2019 this one that occurred it's been over a thousand days since that day so to me um the real issue was that i was essentially forced to just put that out there for anyone and everyone at the same time and you know of course always going to be public information but it's one thing for someone to go looking for it and see it or me to tell someone that i know and for it to just be out there that is just major story then you're hearing from people you haven't heard from for months maybe years reaching out to you asking you are you are you okay like what happened is something else up or having people ask you if you are okay because they think something else bad happened to you so i want to thank you especially wingley for making sure that my mom was calmed because i know she would have freaked out uh initially with what had happened but um at first i was just worried that something had to happen to a family member of mine um just really glad that that's not the case putting all of this behind me is the utmost priority of mine in that not only do i not work in the same field at all i don't like a lot of the same things i don't do a lot of the same things i live a completely different life these days the the hardest thing for me is when something comes in the way of what i've tried so hard to fight for which is not only a better job in the sense that i can do more to help my family out but also just being a better person so i can be better to the people around me and being taken back to that self of me that wasn't really coherent and there that was more so worried about hey this is what's going on with me like yeah i got anxiety i got depression i'm feeling terrible like i'm just gonna do stupid things i've learned that's not the way it's just gonna make it worse and yeah full disclosure like i deal with mental health but like that's not the excuse for what happened what happened was me also just making terrible choices so anyone that does hear that wants you to know if you're going through anything like that too you can really turn it around and just want to say thank you to all my family and friends that have stuck by me through all of it because i i wouldn't be here right now without without all of you and for everyone in the community that spoke up for me thank you too and for whatever it is that the city or police department wants to say right now on it honestly no offense to it to you all but i just don't really care because you don't know what i went through and i don't know that all of you truly want to ask because if you did there's no way you would have done what you did after that last meeting with that i yield i want to go next i am not responding to commissioner triore's announcement no i'm not i just want to say the last two weeks have been very heavy for me and i start with also saying i'm sorry commissioner treyore that happened right after the trc meeting and through the media a lot of people in the community they asked that question and the icpd chief did respond to that and did say it could have been done better it could have been done privately without or seeming as if there is some agenda to it in targeting the trc and so that was heavy and then in addition to all that uh they are the cases that are taking place ahmad aubry's case and they can notice a case so that is heavy for people who look like me and then of course bringing the case that happened in grinnell and then in addition to that on november 9 media we have the peter kelly case and for me this is personal because the police officer who was involved sat with me in some meetings asking for nisa or african communities to work so that he can be able to have a forum or forums with the african communities uh to use to the to translate the trust that the communities have with me on that so anytime i think of all this my body shivers because you i'm working on the historical mistrust of colonization in africa slave trade in the americas of black bodies to today somebody may will always say that happened many years ago centuries ago but the trauma has come down to me even my 18-month grandchild so it is still these things bring it up for me so all those things happening in the last two weeks and the the case that has been going on in iowa city west high school and even the response of the principal saying that the protests in the hallways of the school and the school campus were disruptive to learning i am an educator i am a licensed school counselor in iowa the thought that goes around in my head what brought those protests doesn't that matter isn't that disruptive but protesting what went on before is disruptive so it has been a stressful week and but i am very grateful because the after our meeting a lot of us commissioners uh hardly got any sleep because we were trying to understand it for me as a black speaker as a black-skinned mother it was very very frightening to uh to be there and and even just seeing the on that particular day as we went out and were going towards getting out of the building there was a high presence of police officers and uh which hadn't seemed like anything until when i was and until i saw commissioner treyore being in between two police officers and [Music] for me that was very triggering uh a black young man in the middle of two police officers and uh at the steps to others the in what for them it's professional pose two of them but for me it's threatening with all the belts and me also seeing guns and whatever else is there and the black man all that was very very triggering and also thinking and seeing all the recent videos of i was i couldn't help thinking of police brutality and automatically my arms went around commissioner triori and i was even thinking how much protection would i have provided and on the street facing us there were two police cars with their lights on right on us and then there was a community member charlie and annie tucker they were also there and also annie joined the embrace and joined me all that the aftermath and that's all the adrenaline that i was on as even at 1am some of you are calling you at 5 a.m and thank you very much because i really felt your warmth through the phone call and even the next day until when i had to send that email and tell you that triore commissioner treyori is not there but at the same time it still gives me pause oh it's very even when the chief the icpd chief said that it could have been done better the message i got was the timing of it was intimidation but thank you very much for all the assurances and that tension of about 24 hours and wondering as we keep continuing to do our work whereas is some close friends of mine got frightened and somebody actually told me one gooey you need to get out of trc especially because just now a spanish teacher not an hour away from here has just been beaten to death by two 16 year old white boys you need to get away from that work it's dangerous work uh thank you very much for letting me again uh express my my the thoughts and my fear as all that happened and that image of being surrounded by by uh by the strength of the our icpd which at that particular moment it didn't feel very protective and i'm still feeling pretty tense thank you i yield i'm gonna say something quick um mo and sorry excuse my french beforehand i don't give a [ __ ] that you drove around twice like that doesn't what happened to you out there is horrible and what they did was disgusting and it was on purpose and nobody can convince me otherwise sorry i'm getting emotional um that's not fair um there are white men who have killed while drunk driving in the same state that have literally walked away that night um i i don't think that anyone disagrees that you know drunk driving isn't ideal whatever um but that doesn't even it doesn't matter what you did someone went out of their way to look you up another entity another i and i was told this verbatim that another um agency was made aware of your warrant and told some of their the iowa city police officers this is clearly someone was looking you up and clearly someone wanted to give you a little shake in your boots and um whether they admit it or not i don't really care i think that it speaks the facts are so obvious um i'm proud of you for like maintaining your cool and everything um but this is like this is really messed up like i i literally was too scared to drive here tonight like i made my nice white boyfriend drop me off um and pick me up because i said there's no way in hell i'm gonna drive my car and get fall i don't even want it like the thought of even being pulled i know i'm not doing anything wrong but the thought of being pulled over literally i like it makes me shake i don't i don't even want to have any interaction with police and the fact that that happens shows what they're capable of and i'm not saying that i've been like the most wonderful like citizen i've been arrested for pot three times in this state you know like i've i've done some things so it doesn't make me feel safe it doesn't make me have any trust um and i know that this the assistant city manager is here but i really think that some form of accountability needs to happen um you can't just keep using these excuses of all these young officers and just wow they're so excited whatever blah blah blah like something needs to happen someone needs to be held accountable for these things because it's not i don't feel safe i don't feel comfortable um clearly you know we've heard tonight that other people telling their truths and coming to us with their testimonies if it's in this space people are going to avoid it they're going to actively avoid it and i truly truly truly believe that um so not only do i want to say what happened to you is so messed up everything and you're so strong um the one thing literally that kept me i think when gooey up all night is like for her it was for your mom but i'm like if this was anyone else like what if he had children at home like what if he had like a pet that needed to be fed what if he had like you're just literally picking this guy up on some warrant that's two years old and like nothing like if you had a daughter who was getting babysat i don't like that's just it's insane to me i don't know and like the fact that you could have literally just been called and made aware of this and then just turned yourself in or gotten it even figured out and this would have been so much less of an issue they wanted to embarrass you muhammad they wanted to make this trc look like it was run i i don't know it just was wanting to embarrass you and if you don't believe that that is totally fair and that is probably you know better for your mental sanity but i i can't i can't sit here and say that you know i'm comfortable um and i don't think that this would i can't say for sure that i don't think this would happen again easily so um i'm gonna yield to the floor with that yeah i just got something quick to say um i'm not gonna specifically reply to the situation but everybody knows that it was wrong and it some people don't understand the effect that it had on other people as well you know when i was home and that situation happened i was outside checking my lights on my vehicle making sure all my lights working so they wouldn't have no problems it put me in the mental health thing like where it bothered my mental health i was like these guys are after us they're gonna try you know because unfortunately i'm well versed in the criminal justice system so i haven't dealt with it for a long time almost 10 years now but i'm well versed in it and i know that if you said somebody has to do you know these amount of days in jail you're not going to wait i don't care about what's going on with cove those guys don't wait at all you're going to go do those seven days when you supposedly those seven days it is the what the actions that happened is very suspicious doesn't really make sense at all um i have discussions with people of how we down in this building every other week we're in rooms full of cops at times we're at city council meetings someone or somebody or some entity and i'm glad that this assistant city manager here is holding the garage somewhere somewhere because that shouldn't never happen and it put me and other commissioners on edge i was on edge well i didn't come outside for a couple days like other people mentioned i didn't even come outside for a couple days after that i just sat inside shouting on my phone like this is not right and then it just doesn't make sense this needs to be heard i know that i'm looking at here and we're not supposed to respond to what commissioners say but it's needed i sat in my house for two days like these guys don't come get me next you know throw a bag of some drugs in my car or something i don't even have i don't have any warrants but i still was worried yeah i still was just sitting there worried even my well it's my wife got to worrying about like are you going to be okay i was like no because these guys are targeting us they wanted to arrest any of us i've been in many rooms with you with police officers and ain't doing nothing about it so it's it's it's destabilizing it's like it's so conveniently that we've been sitting in these rooms for all these months and a election happens and then that happens get some paper and do some math are you i am sitting this is commissioner johnson and all i constantly keep hearing is that our fellow citizens our neighbors are living in fear due to [Music] trying to do the right thing for the betterment of our city for all of us as a whole what is the mayor got to say about that and when can we talk to him we need to all have a sit down there is absolutely no reason at all for this in any way shape or form when we were brought on to the trc for one like i said i came in late but the trc was already made to help solve problems here in our community for more problems that come out of it due to the fact that people are trying to do the job that they asked us to do that's insane that makes absolutely no sense when i hear this is happening to our students and it's just brushed off like it's not a big deal it enrages me i have to admit i was it was shaking me inside because those are kids those are kids and then what happened to you i i i mean it just obviously doesn't make sense obviously something needs to be done immediately we all need to sit down period there's no other way around and it needs to be a public thing clearly the public doesn't agree with all of it it's just what it is there's a lot of good people in this city and every single one of those good people that step up and they give their truth and they come out and they speak they need to be not just heard understood and then taken care of i i just i'm i'm like i don't want my fellow people to sit here and sit in fear that's insane it makes me mad i don't get scared i'm a marine as a marine i don't i get very upset more than anything else this this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever we need a sit down we need an emergency time to talk because that's out of control what's next and what are we going to wait for other than i i i don't even want to hear it i just want to talk and i want it to be on record i think we all need to sit down and really get it together that's all there is to it there's too many good people out here for us to be quiet at all not at all and everybody that stood up and and stepped up to the plate let's go again let's get back let's let's work together towards this period that's that's simply how i feel i don't want anybody to feel like they're in fear that's insane what what what sense does that make in this day and age right now after a lot that has already gone on that we're still going to keep going down a course that does nothing i really hope that we can have a sit down immediately if not sooner that's that's my bottom line does anyone else have any comments that's online i couldn't see if their hands are oh they're down there motion to adjourn and uh with that meeting is adjourned i want to thank everyone for for coming really do appreciate it [Music] [Music] you