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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-04-15 TranscriptionPage I Council Present: Bergus, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Weiner Staff Present: Fruin, Dilkes, Fruehling, Bowers, Platz Others Present: Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission members — Kevin John Rivera, Layana Navarre -Jackson, Amel Ali, Mohamed Traore (Chair), Chastity Dillard, Clifton Johnson, Sikowis (Christine) Nobiss, Wangui Gathua, Eric Harris (absent) Welcome and Introductions: Teague: Hello, it is now 7:00 PM, and I want to welcome everyone to the joint Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission work session. This is a City Council work session that we're having a joint meeting with our Truth and Reconciliation Commission. So veryexcited to be here tonight and welcome each of our Commissioners, as well as our Councilors, um, and want to start with item number 1 on our agenda, which is welcome and introductions, and so I thought what I ... what we might do is, um, I will ... we don't do roll call, um, at work sessions, but I thought for today we might do a roll call just to have everyone wave, um, so that we know who you are and you know who we are. So I'll start with our City Councilors, so (mumbled) our Mayor Pro Tem. Salih: (mumbled) Teague: Yes, yes, and then I want, uh, Councilor Mims. Mims: Hello, everybody! Teague: Councilor Thomas. Thomas: Hi, everyone. Teague: Councilor Taylor. Taylor: Hello, everybody. Teague: Councilor Bergus. Bergus: Hello, good evening. Teague: Councilor Weiner. Weiner: Hello. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 2 Teague: All right! So these are the City Councilors and we are very excited to have the opportunity to work, uh, to talk to you all, and then I will, um, actually go and introduce all of the Commissioners, if that's okay ...unless either the Chair or, uh, would like to do that, but... (female): Go ahead, Mayor. Traore: Yeah (garbled) Teague: All right. So I'm going to start with our Chair, Chair Traore and then our Vice Chair, uh, Commissioner Ali, and then we have Eric Harris, Commissioner Harris. I don't see him yet. Let me know when he shows up please, and then we have Commissioner Rivera. Great, and we have ... do we have Commissioner Navarre -Jackson? Navarre -Jackson: Hello. Teague: Hello, yes. Hello and then we have ... I was trying to go with our current Commissioners, and then we have some new in ... individuals. Did I miss any of our current Commissioners? All right, then we have some new Commissioners joining us. Now I'm gonna probably butcher some of these names (laughs) so, um, we have Commissioner, urn ... Wangui... (both talking) Gathua: Hi, everyone. Teague: Gathua. Okay! Yes, welcome, and then we have Commissioner Johnson. Johnson: Good afternoon, good evening, guys, how's it going? Teague: Yeah, good evening. Commissioner Dillard. Dillard: Hi, everyone. Teague: Hello, and then we have Commission Nobiss. All right, I believe I got all of our Commissioners (garbled) Did I forget anyone? Great. Well, welcome. Well, this is a very, um, good opportunity that we have a very unique opportunity where the Council connects (garbled) our Commissioners, and again, I want to welcome all of you. Is someone trying to say something, did I forget someone? Okay, all right great. So welcome, welcome, welcome, and I did want to just make... make note that we, um, did want to thank Commission Navarre - Jackson for her service here on the Commission and ... and acknowledge that, um, soon you'll be (mumbled) part in this Commission and then we'll be welcoming a new individual to the Commission, uh, Commissioner Daniel. So thank you for your service. TRC Resolution Review: Teague: We're going to move on to item number 2, which is the TRC Resolution Review. So this is the Truth and Reconciliation, urn ... review. What I did was, um, I thought ... that I would just kind of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 3 give a little ... a few highlights from the resolution, and maybe reserve some of the conversation within the resolution for later in our agenda. You'll note that we have bylaws and truth, uh, TRC budget, and the facilitator, um, and some subcommittees, a part of our agenda, and so, naturally some of those conversations will take place. But I did want to just start with the resolution that we did for the Truth and Reconciliation. It states that by October 1, 2020, we would create a Ad Hoc Commission to bear... to the truth of racial injustice in Iowa City, and to carry out restorative justice through the collection of testimony and public hearings, with such work to include a recommendation to the Council of a plan for dedicating and/or renaming public spaces and/or rights-of-way, in honor of Black Lives Matter movement, and I'm going to kind of skip around and highlight some points. And it says, whereas the City Council committed to allocate City funds of $1 million, which includes a variety of initiatives, among them the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. City Council also acknowledges the existence of painful, systemic, persistent, and varied forms of racial injustice in Iowa City, and acknowledges that such injustice persist despite past efforts to address, and then number two in the resolution states the TRC should have nine members who are representative of the City's BIPOC community and organization, so thanks again for all of you that are a part. Number five talks about the TRC is required to seek approval from the City Coon ... the TRC is not required to seek approval from the City Council, Mayor, or City Manager to set its own agenda and prioritize its own activities. We're going to come back to number six and seven, because that's a part of, um, number... number six is a part of the facilitator and then number seven is a part of what we'll call the orientation for new members, where we'll talk about some open meetings and some public records. We'll have our City Attorney kind of talk to us about some of that. Number 11 talks about the charges of the TRC, the work that we're, um, asking of you, and so A is fact finding, true telling is B, and C is reconciliation. Now there's a lot in there, because that is your charges, and so I won't go into that as of now, but there's a lot to unpack there, and then number 14 is, uh, there was a charge by May 1, 2022, the TRC shall submit to Council, and there is an array of things that are there. So I kind of wanted to just highlight a few things and then we'll ... I believe if we can maybe go throughout the meeting a little bit, but I want to pause just to have any comments, of course, on these items. Um, but if we can go throughout the meeting, and then a lot of these items will come up because they somewhat intertwine, uh, throughout. So if the the ... if the Commission... if the Commissioners, as well as the Council are in agreement, let us maybe move forward, unless there are some comments now about the resolution. And there's... there's certainly some (both talking) Yes, go right ahead! Weiner: I'm sorry, I just wanted to note that Commission... since you introduced people, Commissioner Nobiss has jon... joined. Teague: Welcome Commissioner Nobiss. Welcome, welcome! All right, so I do want to, um... because (garbled) there are some items here that (garbled) maybe go through a little bit of the, um, of the agenda, because some of these will be addressed, and then things that are not addressed in the, uh, throughout the agenda, um, when we get to items number 10, we can certainly bring those up. All right. Item number three on our current agenda is land acknowledgments, and I want to invite Commissioner Rivera... because I know that this is an item that you wanted to talk about. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 4 Land Acknowledgments: Rivera: Thank you. This is something that has been in the works for a long time, and we have a space in the later agenda for the Commission to discuss more about the land acknowledgment that I've proposed that our Commission adopt, um, and that has been sort of collaborated on with the Human Rights Commission, but since the beginning of this work, it was notable that there wasn't any indigous... indigenous representation on the Commission, and I'm very (garbled) longer the case. We do have Commissioner Nobiss representing, uh, which is fantastic. In the meantime, I wanted to make sure that we were going to be talking about land acknowledgment as part of our reconciliation process, uh, for carrying out our mandate as the Commission. We have not yet as a Commission been able to discuss the land acknowledgment that I've drafted and it's gone through a .... a bunch of resolution... or revisions, but I was also very glad that members of the community were able to assist me in the work of creating, uh, the land acknowledgment that I proposed. Uh, so heavily in collaboration with the Native American Council at the University of Iowa, as well as other community members. This was a, um, topic that was also discussed at the most recent Human Rights Commission meeting, and we developed somewhat of a small working group with members of the public to sort of revise and edit and improve the, um, the statement that I had proposed, and so I'm looking forward to the Commission later to review the ... the draft of the land acknowledgment, as well as getting Commissioner Nobiss' input as well, um, and the hope would be that not only our Commission and the Human Rights Commission would adopt the use of a land acknowledgment (mumbled) our meetings, but that we would, uh, that we would make a joint recommendation to Council that you consider using one as well. Teague: Great, thank you for that information, and I know that we'll expect something from this Commission, based on what you've said and based on what has happened in the past, uh, about the land acknowledgment. Thank you so much. We're going to move on to item number four, which is the orientation for new members, and this is where we have a few new members and I thought, um, a part of our resolution (laughs) addresses some of the orientation pieces, such as the open meeting laws and the public records. So I'm going to invite our City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes to share at this time. Orientation for New Members: Dilkes: Thank you, Mayor. Eleanor Dilkes, City Attorney. So ... Iowa has, like most states do, what are called sunshine laws, which are aimed at having the sun shine on the workings of public bodies. So Iowa has both an Open Meetings Act and a Public Records Act, um, and generally the goal is to make public, um, business transparent to ... to the community members. So the Open Meetings Act essentially requires that meetings of ..of a governmental body, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a governmental body. It is created by the City Council, and it is subject to the open meetings law. So the essence of the ... of that law is that when you meet, you must do so in public. A meeting is a gathering of a quor...five or more of you, um, a majority of you, by any means — electronic, in-person, etc. - to have deliberation or take action on This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 5 something that is within the scope of the TRC's business. In terms of having your meetings, staff, Stefanie, will ... will take care of the logistics of that for you, but essentially what happens is the ... you have to give notice to the public about what you are going to talk about and that comes in the form of an agenda. So tonight everybody knows what the topics are because we have put out an agenda for this joint meeting, as well as the, urn ... your later meeting, and so it's very important that on that agenda you list what the plan is, what you plan to talk about, and in terms of the specificity of that agenda, the ... the way to think about that is just to make sure that your average person, if they read that agenda, would know that you were going to talk about those things. If a person looking at your agenda does not ... could not know that you are going to talk about subject B, then you're not entitled to talk about public or...uh, item B, and that would be a violation of the Open Meetings Act. Um, that agenda or that public notice of the meeting has to be given within at least 24 hours of the meeting, unless you can establish an emergency, and that rarely happens. At the meeting, the votes of every member and ... must be recorded, and minutes must be kept of your meetings, and those then become a matter of public record. One of the issues, when you think about pub ... public meetings and the need to give notice of those meetings, so what we're trying to avoid is ... is a meeting that hasn't been properly noticed, for which an agenda has not been sent out. So let's say if five of you get together at a coffee shop and are talking and you end up talking about TRC business, that's a violation of the, um, of the Open Meetings Act. Another example is email communication. Email communication can be very tricky because it is so quick and happens... there's... there's, the exchanges are so ... so quick that sometimes if you are having email communications, five or more of you may be communicating with each other simultaneously, and that will be considered a public meeting. So, for instance, when I communicate with the City Council, I ... and when ... when the City Manager communicates with the City Council, we at the bottom of our emails say `this is for information only, do not reply all to this email,' um, and `contact me if...if you have a question individually.' So essentially what you want to do is you want to route your communications, except when you are at a public meeting, you want to route those communications through staff. Okay, any questions on public meetings so far? No? Okay, we'll talk about public records and then we'll just talk about some kind of words of wisdom. So public records is any information stored in any medium, again, electronic emails, texts, anything that relates to the business of the TRC, and that does ... and it does not matter where that communication or that document is. It doesn't matter if it's on your personal computer or if it's on a City computer. If it is about the business of the TRC, if someone requests documents relating to the TRC, we will need to gather ...we will help you (laughs) staff will help you do that, but we will be required to gather, have you gather and provide to us all the documents you have, including all the emails you have, all the texts you have that relate to the businesses of the TRC. Any person for any reason can ask to review public records. They ...so .... you have to ... just know that at any time records can be requested. There are some confidential records in terms of your work. I think it's very unlikely that there will be many of those. If there are violations of the, um, the Public Records and the Open Meetings Act, there can be personal... personal sanctions, fines, against the individual members if...if they're found to be intentional. So ... so just a couple of things I always say when I'm advising people how to operate as a member of a public body is to assume that you will be asked for your emails and your texts, and so if you put something in writing in an email or a text, you should be okay with that being on the front page of the paper. You want This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 6 to be careful when... about talking about sensitive subjects in writing that are really not meant for anybody else to see. So if you need to have a sensitive conversation and ... or a touchy matter or anything that you really don't want to see the light of day, you need to do that on the phone and not by email or by text, or you ... you need to find a way to do that at your public meetings that are properly noticed. Again, don't use email as ... as a ... as a method of communi... communicating among yourselves. Again, send it to Stefanie. Stefanie will distribute it to the rest of you or send it to that ... that, uh, your email address TRC@iowa-city.org and then it will get descri... distributed. If you do use personal email to communicate about the TRC, it would be very helpful if you could segregate those emails. So, for instance, if..if...if...and it's likely that those requests will come through the City Clerk or through Stefanie's office or through my office, and they'll say, `I want all emails between the members of the TRC or between a member of the TRC and anybody else, uh, about the TRC, um, from X date to Y date.' So we're going to have to gather those, and if you have them segregated on your computer in the event you are doing personal emails like that or texts in the event you're doing texts, it will be much easier for us to find those, review them, determine if there's anything confidential about them, and provide them to the member of the public who is asking. Um, rather than having to go through all your personal emails to find ... find those documents, which you would prefer we don't do, and we would prefer we don't do. Again, if you get a request for records, you should talk to Stefanie about that, and she will involve my office and we'll figure out how we need to ... how we need to respond to it. That's kind of -you should have gotten, when you were appointed, you should have gotten a brochure from the League of Cities, which has a much more detailed explanation of open meetings and open records. Stefanie knows a lot about how to ... the open meetings and open records, and she will be at your meeting and will be able to ... to address those questions, and she will contact me or another member of my office if she needs assistance in ... in answering those questions. And that's... that's all I have, but I'm happy to answer any questions that... that you might have. Ali: Can you see Commissioner Rivera has his hand up? Teague: Yeah, and you can just jump right on in. Rivera: Thank you, uh, for the information. I just wanted to ask about records. Uh, if the record... records request comes would ... would we have to collect all received and sent messages, or just sent? Dilkes: It would be both, it would be both and ... there is..at... when, and I don't know if you all are ... plan to do this, but sometimes it's helpful to put something on the bottom of your emails that are about TRC business that, you know, this may be, if you communicate with me about the TRC in writing, that may be a public record. That we'll have to disclose. A lot of times... it's not ... it's not unusual at all to get requests for emails from us ... or electronic communication emails and texts from one point to another point in time, and that, of course, would include sent and received. Bylaws: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 7 Teague: Thank you, Eleanor. Any other questions for Eleanor? All right, we are moving on to Item number five, which is bylaws and in the TRC, um ... uh... in the resolution, this has ... has recently been kind of a point of controversy, um, about the TRC and their bylaws. I know that I've spoken with various members of even... even my Councilors, and we've done it publicly, talking about some of the bylaws that we felt were .... um, individuals felt was necessary, and I have, uh, Mayor Pro Tem and I had the pleasure of speaking with, um, Vice Chair and Chair of the TRC, and I wanted ... maybe I can invite our Vice Chair Ali if she would like to talk about this, cause I know there was some interesting parts that you shared, just to open us up and ... and engage in this conversation. Ali: Yeah, um, let me ... here, I'm gonna open up my notes from that day, um, but (clears throat) pretty much what I did was I met with staff, and staff sent me ... this is a few weeks back, um, bylaw examples from other commissions. So I have the Human Rights Commission, uh, the Community Police Review Board, and then another commission that, um, pretty much just looked through their bylaws and kind of picked and chose, you know, the ones that would work for our Commission and kind of the same verbiage, um, to put some things together for our TRC. Um, so (garbled) We were going to present those bylaws, um, to everyone throughout the next week and like the next meeting, just so that we could really focus this next meeting on getting to know one another and building that communication line. Um, but we do have bylaws that we're working on, and I went off of examples of what has worked before in other commissions, and kind of what hasn't worked before, and I took, you know, Mayor Teague's advice about public comments and, um, just kind of figured out some solid ideas, and in speaking about the bylaws, I did want to say also, um, I want to give a shout -out to Laura and Janice because they connected me with Ohio State University's, uh, Divided Community Project, uh, Director Carl Smallwood, and he has been the most incredible help. Him and his team have helped guide us in so many ways already outside of this. So, um, yeah, I just wanted to thank you guys publicly for the effort that you guys put in and setting that up, and taking notes and everything. That meant a lot and that connection now that we have with those five is something that is, you know, I can't thank you guys enough for us seriously. Um, but yeah, so we made that connection with the Divided Community, um, Project and they gave us some really great ideas about working with intention and how to work these bylaws in and not make it a place where ... we have to question things, because a lot of us are new to this and we have to give ourselves grace for that, that not a lot of us have been in these commission situations where we are using Robert's Rules or Rusty's Rules and stuff. So, um, yeah, I don't know, I... is that kind of what you were hoping I would say (laughs) (both talking) Yeah, and I ... I didn't want to like waste your guys's time and go over every single bylaw (laughs) we wrote and stuff like that, but that is something that the Commission has been working on and we will be voting on at one of our meetings so. Thanks, guys. Dilkes: Mayor, before you move on, can I ... I want to back up and just make one more comment about something I had forgotten (garbled) to the bylaws as well. So in terms of public comment, there ... the public is entitled by law to have access to your meetings. Whether that's in person, if you're having in-person meetings or electronically if you're having in-pers... or if you're having This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 8 electronic meetings. The public does not have a legal right to comment or participate in your meetings, unless you're holding a public hearing. You can certainly, as you know, the Council does make opportunities for public comment; however you choose to make it, but that is up to you to decide. And ... and I think it's really important then for you to let the public know how you're going to do that, so you can have some... orderly conversations, that you all can get your work done without being interrupted by others, but you still give them an opportunity to ... to comment when ... when you... you're interested in their comments. So, and then the other thing I would say about bylaws is bylaws, as you've probably seen in some of the examples that ... that Stefanie has given you, they ..they need not be complicated. It's just some ... some pretty .. pretty simple, basic rules and if your bylaws are ... are doing the right..i£..doing what they're supposed to do, you shouldn't need Robert's Rules. Robert's Rules are really not a ... (laughs) they can be a very cumbersome thing to use in the context of a body like the City Council or...or the TRC, and so hopefully your... your... your bylaws will take care of those issues. Thanks, Mayor. Teague: And this is certainly open discussion, especially on these items. So if. ... please jump right on in and I'll patiently wait for people to make comments. Traore: Mohamed Traore here, and I just wanted to add that, yeah, in terms of bylaws, I do understand what you mean in terms of, um, not feeling that Robert's Rules should be necessary if the bylaws are robust enough. But yeah, we just wanted to give all the new members the opportunity first to read over what we have so far, because we want to make sure that anything and everything we do decide in this Commission is a true democratic process and that it isn't just the Chair and Vice Chair, and I'm just talking things over and deciding for everyone. And that this is our first opportunity meeting everyone, so we'd like to present them in our formal meeting and then come back in the next meeting, and then from there just truly decide what set of everything that we want to put forward and, uh, at this time, personally, I do feel that public comment will be necessary (mumbled) pretty much every meeting, uh, outside of just the very beginning portion. So we'll be working on ... working with each other on how exactly that will happen, and we just figured that subcommittee meetings prior to the next meeting would probably just be the best way to really decide that, so that there is less haggling publicly, and then once we finally come together (garbled) process, but that's all I really have for now. Thank you. Teague: I think personally, for myself, when I've seen... and... and I want to talk about the future, right? (laughs) I want to talk about the future of the ... the reinstituted, no longer suspended TRC, right? How do I believe there will be great success, and so, personally, I believe that when you look at your agenda item, just like tonight, um, I .... I, you know, your agenda item, you have .... um, just a few items on there, and I think you have your public comment, um, right up ... right up towards the front. And I think as you ... as you're going through some of the ... some of the, you know, looking at other commissions, I think there'll be some value into, um, always making a point that before the Commissioners speak ... that the public is allowed to speak, and then once the public, you know, has been identified that the public is, um, you know, finished speaking, then that's when the Commissioners speak. I think you'll find great value and allowing for the opportunity for the public to share their thoughts on ... on ... on a item. Because This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 9 sometimes, like Mayor Pro Tem has said in the past, sometimes we hear from the public and, you know, we get information that we didn't quite know, and we might change our thought process (garbled) things we've learned from the public. So it's critical for the public ... for us to hear from the public, and it's also very critical that once the public has spoken, in my view, that the Councilor... that the Commissioners at that point take the opportunity to kind of just have a conversation, and so one of the things that I am, um, I ... I think in our ...in our resolution for the TRC there are no bylaws. I think a part of the intention was for the TRC to kind of have, you know, some guidance, um, some charges, as well as some things kind of left up, um, to, uh, creativity and... and... and... and items suggested by the public, and so when I do you think about the TRC resolution, I ... I find that there's a lot of things that really do require your conversation to happen before we even touch on some of these. When I think about the, um, the... the... the, um (mumbled) one of the, uh, some of the (garbled) just like the fact finding, the truth telling, and the reconciliation, there are some items under there that are very specific and spelled out for the, uh, for the Commission. And I really believe you got to kind of go through each point and make some comments, and if there are some things that you need clarity from ... for, that you all can't quite figure out, I think you can certainly reach out to the Council, um, to ask the entire Council for some clarity, but, um, so there are some things that we really clearly defined and then other things, um, we didn't as much. Now a part of the bylaws, um, if you want to consider it to be that we just had our City Attorney talk about those, Chapter ...I think it's 21 and Chapter 22, um, open meeting laws and... and... and the public records, and so those are some structures that, you know, guide your operations. I think what I would like to propose, at least to the City Council, is that we allow the .... the TRC to certainly create some bylaws, cause I really believe that for ...for myself, I would like to see your bylaws and I would like, um, I ... I just want to see them and if I feel compelled to make comment, then I can bring it up amongst my fellow Councilors and ... and see if there's a support to make any comments in response to them, but I think from conversations that I've had with individuals on the Commission, I feel quite confident that the bylaws that you all create will really work great moving forward, and so unless there's any more comments about the bylaws, I think I would propose to our City Councilors that we just kind of, um, we ask that the Commissioner ...that the Commission submit us a report of your bylaws, once you have voted them ... voted on them, uh, just for Council, and we'll get those actually in our, um, in ... in your minutes. Dilkes: Mayor, just a quick comment, the ... the Council does have to approve the bylaws. That's a ... it's a charter requirement. TRC Budget: Teague: Great, all right. So we'll have comment on your bylaws. So, um, it will be a requirement (laughs) for you all to submit those bylaws, and we'll review them and have input. All right, gonna move on to Item number six, which is the TRC budget, and I made mention at the beginning when I read the, um, resolution that the City Council committed to allocate City funds of $1 million, which includes a variety of initiatives, among them the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and then I do know that a part of...I know that we've had, uh, some budgetary thoughts from the TRC Commission, as well, and so probably just want to open that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 10 up and I know that even our Chair Traore had previously submitted something to your fellow TRC members. Traore: Hi, um, thank you for recognizing me, Mayor. Um, so the initial budget I put out wasn't to... anything to be concrete, but was more just get some ideas on paper and just kind of hear what the public thought about it, and we did get a little bit of public feedback from that and, um, from what I gathered from that and also from just the few subcommittee meetings we were able to have prior to the suspension, got a little more work in terms of proportioning the budget (mumbled) and also by item, and at this time because we have new members coming in as well, we figured it'd probably be best to have the budget subcommittee meeting after we reform that budget subcommittee and truly talk about the budget in detail, ensure that the priorities of everyone in the budget subcommittee are truly represented, and then to bring that forward during the second meeting for everyone to then have true input and then to vote on those bylaws... and then to vote on those, um, aspects of the budget, and then also in terms of the amount in the budget, uh, it was my understanding as well that if for whatever reason, um, an ... an amount was needed to be increased for whatever reason, that we could make that recommendation to the City. I don't know if that's needed at this time, but once again, uh, the rest of the members will need to chime in on that part, and then so I just wanted to ask in terms of the entire thing, it's just the operational budget, as well, that we will be submitting to you, correct? Teague: And I want my Councilors to jump in as well, um, because, um, as to what the understanding of the budget is for the TRC. Bergus: Yeah, I'll jump in, Mayor. I think, um, so in the resolution, number 10 ... cause I think we also should address the time frame for it, just knowing that, you know, the TRC is not ... not in a position to ... to have gotten us the budget within the ... the 90 days, and I think the Council should try and articulate what, you know, if we have any expectations for what the time frame should be from this point forward, but number 10 in the resolution just says, um, `The TRC shall recommend to City Council a preliminary budget for funds needed to carry out the charges of the TRC, beyond what existing City staff, programs, and services can provide.' So, you know, in my mind that's talking with staff to see what activities that you can do that can be supported by current City services and, you know, activities that we're already doing in different departments, and then just trying to lay out on top of that what do you need and how might that, uh, how might that budget look. I really like what you said, um, Chair Traore, about going in kind of overtime and having, you know, maybe considering month by month as well as different categories of items. That's just my...my thoughts. Traore: Thank you, thank you very much. Yeah, terms of the budget, yeah, it's currently broken out in an Excel format, uh, month by month and also visually as well. So the amount of the budget that's used each month can also be seen via the graph, and so just, uh, helps anyone and everyone that looks at it to truly understand what exactly we're aiming for, and also have budgets broken out by subcommittee in terms of the priorities they may want to address. And also just looking for ...yeah, anyone that's a part of the Commission, that would like to be a part This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page I I of that budget subcommittee. Uh, we can have up to four people on that committee, and I would also like to invite at least at minimum two members of City Council to join in to that subcommittee meeting, uh, so that we can directly ask questions or if there is anything in terms of current City programs that we may have accidentally covered as well, so that we can get those removed so there's no wasteful spending whatsoever. We want to ensure that we use all the dollars, um, as well as possible and would also like to invite anyone else in the community that may want to have any input to send us an email at adhoctruth@iowa-city.org if they would like to participate in the process as well and any subcommittee meeting or in any future meetings. Thank you. Dillard: Could I interrupt for a quick question on the budget? Um ... I apologize if this is already addressed, but I'm a little confused on what exactly our budget is. It's not the full $1 million, or what is the actual TRC budget? Teague: That is a question that is often asked and so I'll ask one of our Councilors to maybe share. Weiner: So I'll give it a shot and maybe ... and maybe Councilor Bergus can, uh, can ... or someone else can correct me if I'm ... if I don't get it right. So the ... the $1 million was what we as a Council when we ... when we on ... in June of last year had... the... the resolution on a variety of different matters with respect to Black Lives Matter. The TRC is one of the aspects of that resolution, and it...it will draw ... it will draw its budget from that $1 million, um, as needed for operational expenses. Let's say, for example, you hire a facilitator. You will need money to pay the facilitator. If you ... if you have other expenses or you decide you need to bring in a couple of other fact finders or...or change facilitators, you'll need... you'll need funds for that as well. So I also see it as somewhat fluid. You may come up with an initial budget and then decide .... and then conclude that in fact you need to, uh, you need additional funds for something else. That will need to be approved, but it's, um, it's essentially what you need to op ... from, as a ... as a portion of that million what you believe that you need to operate effectively as a Commission, um, and that may change over time. Dillard: Thank you, and my last question is there an expiration to these dollars? Teague: So currently the TRC is in session, uh, or is a Commission until 2022. I believe it's June, if I'm not mistaken, June 30, 2022, and so as long as your budget is within that time frame, that ... that would be the time frame. Dillard: Thank you. Teague: Uh huh, and I would probably make mention that potentially there could be some things that could go beyond that time frame, but that's something that we'll be aware of. Ali: And, um, I have a question, and this might be something that could be answered in another agenda items, so just let me know if I need to hold off. Um, but if we are going to be submit... obviously we're not going to be able to spend a dime until you guys approve of it. But This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 12 how would we submit that to you, and if we are let's say submitting X amount for, you know, this, uh, would it be something that you guys discuss in a public meeting or in a closed meeting or how does that aspect of it work? Teague: It'd be in a public meeting, um, where we receive your budget and, um, it would be on our agenda... and then, um, so yes, it would be in a public meeting, and then you'll receive word back. All right? Traore: Oh, one last thing. In terms of the format, um, so would you also like the broken out format month by month, item by item, or would you just like that in the format of just a word document, where each line item is broken out and then explain... explanation of what generally the funds would be looking to address (mumbled) we would just like to be as transparent as possible, not only with the Council, but also with the people of Iowa City, so they truly do understand what we're looking to do with all the dollars, instead of just like a vague explanation or a line item. Teague: Uh huh. I'm going to ask... actually ask and put on the spot our Councilor Mimes to maybe talk about best practices for things that are submitted from ... for Council approval when it comes to funds. Mims: Did you say, uh, Chair Traore, that you already have it in a spreadsheet, kind of by time frame and by category? Traore: Yes, that's correct and then there's also an attached draft that just shows how much of the budget money would be used and, um, started with the million -dollar amount and then just basically how much of the budget would eat into that, and as it currently stands, uh, it doesn't use the entire amount by any means, so... Mims: Yeah, I mean, I think if you presented us with both documents, with that spreadsheet that kind of shows what you expect to spend kind of on a monthly basis and the general topics for that, um, you'll need to work with staff, because I think once we approve the budget you'll probably be working more with Stefanie and/or other staff in terms of getting access to the funds. I ... I do not expect that once we've approved the overall budget that we're going to be .... that the Council's not going to have any direct oversight of the actual expenses. That'll be working through staff on that. But I think your spreadsheet and then if you do have some narrative that goes with it, I think that would be fine. Traore: Thank you very much. Facilitator: Teague: All right. Any other items on the TRC budget? Item number seven, facilitator, and I know that a part of the budget (laughs) we just talked about, um, the facilitator and ... and such, and so, um, just wanted to open this up. I know that we just, um, you all experienced a facilitator and if This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 13 there's any questions related to that. I don't know if, Chair Traore, if that's a part of your budget. Traore: Yeah, in the current budget that's written out, that is a part of the budget, and the way it's also written out is that of the original amount that the former facilitator asked for is the exact amount we would also like to offer at minimum to the next person to accept the position, because we just want to ensure that we are offering, uh, at minimum the same terms to the next person to ... to come in as facilitator, but also I would like to not give them anything less, regardless of the time frame, just because of the fact that we are asking them to do the same amount of work in a shorter time frame. So they will more than likely have to work a little harder, and with that being said, I do have a line item in there for a co -facilitator, but this is another reason why I want to ensure that we speak about this in a subcommittee, uh, prior to bringing this forward for a vote, because the opinions of everyone in the subcommittee and the Commission are highly important before making any decisions on that, and also any, um, suggestions anyone has (mumbled) facilitator to bring in, so that we have the best pool of candidates possible and that we can get that out publicly, so that we have a true application process and also a true interview process. Thank you. Teague: I know that one of the things that came up when we were having our Council meeting was when will there be another facilitator and the importance of having a facilitator, and so..at least what I would propose is to our City Council... Councilors is that, um, we do know that they're going to be having conversations about, you know, what ... what will be their facilitator style. I just heard the word co -facilitator and... and... and a facilitator, so what I might suggest is that we just kind of stay tuned to see how they're navigating, um, to getting a facilitator. There... at least one of my personal concerns, you know, has been, um, when there wasn't a facilitator, you know, there were just some challenges and then when there was a facilitator, we, uh, saw some great opportunities starting to arise. So what I'm ... I don't know if...what my suggestion would be is before you really get into any deep dives of anything you kind of wait for your facilitator .... to help you all navigate through that stuff. There'll be so researching and maybe you all can, you know, start to ... I'm not sure how you can start some of your initial conversations, but just keep in mind when the facilitator really was, um, seen as a crucial part of helping the TRC accomplish some of its goals. Traore: I would definitely have to agree, which is why, personally, I would like to submit the budget in short order, within the next 30 days maximum, and also to get a recommendation for facilitator candidates no later than Memorial Day weekend, so that all of that can be decided prior to the end of May. As the Divided Community Project that the Vice Chair Ali has been so gracious with connecting us more with and working with in Carl Smallwood. We have asked them if they can set up, um, basically a formal training, as well, for not only the Commission, but also for whatever facilitator we bring in, so that there is more of a concrete process, and, uh, we asked them to set that up for June. So in terms of a timeline, we're just working to make sure that we keep ourselves on a schedule. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 14 Teague: I did want to just acknowledge, um, the resolution from ... the resolution language from, um, which is item number six, and it says, `The TRC shall be facilitated by an independent consultant, funded by the City, with expertise in group facili ... facilitation and human rights, and to the extent possible, experience with diversity, implicit bias, mediation, and conflict resolution, until such time as the TRC concludes by the favorable vote of at least three-fourths of all the members of the TRC that facilitation is no longer needed.' So when you all are having that conversation, I would suggest you keep this at the forefront of the conversation, as well. Bergus: I would just add that it may not be one person. You know, I ... I think, at least from ... from my perspective, when we imagine the facilitator, it's that you all as Commissioners we appointed for your experience and not having the expectation that you would have to be carrying out yourselves all of this work of the three charges, but that you would have the opportunity to have someone or someone who can, you know, be doing as the Mayor said, the research; who can be pulling together events; who can be, you know, managing agreements with third parties if you're doing things like video or music or, you know, those types of things. And so there's certainly a wide variety of skill sets that we can imagine you would need to pull together for that, and so I think, at least in my opinion, if it's not just one person, but you approach it as `what do we need help with' and then identifying hiring that. That's what ... what would be one way to approach it. Traore: Yes, thank you. I'm very glad you said that as well, actually, as the Divided Community Project's team was very gracious with letting us know that it is very important to delegate these tasks out, so that we aren't all over the place and that we can truly focus on everything within our meetings that we need to, and I do also realize that while this Commission is for the City of Iowa City, we are also in a unique situation where we do have the Coralville and North Liberty communities basically intertwined with us, and that in terns of our work in terms of restructuring the police, uh, I know that we do have police contracts intertwined with Coralville and North Liberty, as well. So we will definitely need a facilitator or two that can really manage all of that, and that's such a large stretch of people and also space, and just a lot to really ask you just one person to deal with, and in the case of just one person getting sick or having to attend to something else, I just think it would be wise to just have the co -facilitator, so that they have someone else to lean on in ... in case anything were to ever go wrong or if they ever had anything else that they needed to ... to get to. Weiner: And I would just add that as ... as Councilor Bergus has said, I think you may end up with situations where you also need to bring someone else in for something specific, for ...for a certain period of time, um, and ... and that may well be something that's necessary for the Commission over time. Sub -committee: Teague: I think there's some Commissioners that have some unique experience with, you know, facilita... facilitating. Uh, some of them are ... like, um, Dr. Wangui (laughs) or she... she... she has some great ideas and knowledge and experience when it comes down to that, and so I think you all will have great conversations relating to that. Yes, so all right, unless there's nothing else, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 15 we'll move on to item number eight, which is subcommittee, and you know, I just heard Chair Traore just talking about subcommittees. One thing that I said when the Councilors met, when we paused the TRC, was, um, I know that there were several subcommittees that were created by the TRC, housing and education and a variety of others. One of the questions that, you know, I had when ... I think it's great like for the TRC to ... to want to talk about these. I think it's necessary if you're ... if you're going to navigate, you know, the charge to really ensure that we have some end to systemic and persistent racism, and ... and so I ... one thing that I might suggest to the TRC is that we have some of the subcommittees that are already created, when it ... or some Commission or committees already created. Um, affordable housing, you know, that's been, you know, something that this Council has been working on. Um, I gotta give it again to our Mayor Pro Tem for being our champion when it comes down to `Council, let's talk about affordable housing' every meeting (laughs) No, but ... but it is important, and you know, she was very instrumental in getting the Council to really clearly see that we need an affordable housing plan. And the Council has agreed to that, and there is affordable housing, uh, affordable housing group being formed, and I think it's, you know, we've said it, I've heard different Councilors say ...we're not affordable housing experts. We are champions, but we're not affordable housing experts, and so that's where I would suggest to the TRC to maybe when you're talking about your subcommittees, depending on your angle, I don't know what your angle will be, but maybe trying to see if you can't connect with some existing groups that are already created by the City. Um, you may do that in addition to whatever you choose to do, but that's what I might suggest is ... there are some experts out there, talking about some of the things, um, that you might really benefit from, and so that's ... that would be my comment there. Traore: 100%, I definitely have to agree. We're not looking to reinvent the wheel if something already exists. So I think the main point of the subcommittees is just so we have direct outlets, so we have people on the Commission focused on groups that they can continually reach out to in that, so these other groups within the area also have a direct contact point to relay information to, and to set up meetings with our subcommittees, and to bring all this information together, and we would also really like to leverage the fact that we have such a lively student population in the area as well, um, and that we have a School of Sociology and we have Schools of Social Work and Economics, Statistics, and Education, Social Justice. So we have a lot around us that can really help inform us, and also the College of Law in the area. So, um (laughs) none of us are, you know, complete experts on anything and everything, I mean we do have a doctor on the Commission now, but, uh, other than that, yeah, I am just really looking forward to learning from all of these other groups in the area and bringing them into the fold. Teague: Great. Any other thoughts on subcommittees, and I know that the TRC is ... will have conversation and again, I'm going to pick on Dr. Wangui again because she has served on a past commission, and we have other people that, uh, when I read through your applications, you served on boards and... and... and so that's great. You have some experience about meetings and trying to ensure that it's very productive. One thing that I have to say is that the most important thing that I think o£..no matter what you do, is ensuring that the charge is fulfilled... and ensuring that the charge is fulfilled, and I think that, um, you know, the subcommittees and even This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 16 the big groups and the small groups, I think you all are going to do really well, um, moving forward and looking forward to that. TRC Electronic Zoom meetings: Teague: Item number nine is TRC electronic Zoom meetings. So we are on a Zoom meeting right now. Um, this item is really related to what are the capabilities of electronic meetings. Currently we are in a work session, um, where ... all Council work sessions we do not have the public a part of the work session. (mumbled) your meetings you will. Uh, the Commission meetings do have to allow the public and you don't have the option not to, um, not on your routine meetings. So ... so (coughs) um, I know that we ... when we go into our formal meetings, there is an opportunity that we have where we really see someone hand raised, and we acknowledge who that individual is and call upon them to speak. One of the challenges that we saw with the ... with the past meetings were, you know, members of the public, their voice is so important, and they were just jumping in, jumping in, even in the middle of, you know, when ... when a chair has closed, you know, the public opportunity and someone just wanted to chime in. So I personally would like to suggest that you all use our form of meeting. We have that set up for the next meeting. Uh, you'll still be able to call individuals, the public will still be present, you'll see their hand raised, um, and then your Chair and your Vice Chair are really... are the ones that are ... your Chair is responsible for acknowledging and calling out who would speak. So that's what I would really suggest and Mayor Pro Tem! Salih: (mumbled) just add, yeah, the ... the Chair, of course, will be responsible for calling people, but I will encourage, you know, Commissioner Ali to take time, because you are not going to give like everybody ...be fair to everyone, uh, just like keep the time on. Uh, you have to decide this is three minutes or five minutes, so and ... and you let him know. I always do that with the Mayor. I text him. I say, `Hey this person is five minute, you should stop him,' when you know the Mayor when he call on somebody, I'm the one who make him do that because he focus on calling the people and I'm focus on taking taken time, so, you know, do that so, yeah, your meeting will be organized. Mims: If I could just make a quick comment. I would encourage you to think carefully about how long your public comment is and how long the individual comments are allowed to be. I would suggest, in my personal opinion, that if somebody really gives some thought to what they want to say and to be a little more direct and organized in their comments, giving people say maybe three minutes maximum allows you to hear more voices within the same period of time. I would also encourage you to remember that even if you shorten it say from five minutes to three minutes, you're not limiting public input, um, no more than we would be at Council members. People can always email you; if you make your phone numbers available, they can call, but they still have that opportunity for public input. But you have a lot of...I think really important and hard work ahead of you, and so to maximize the time that you can really have to work, uninterrupted, is important while balancing that need for that public input. So I would just encourage you to think carefully and really have that conversation as a group, as to how This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 17 long is your public comment and how long will you allow each individual to talk, so that you can get the most public input and still have time to do your work. Thanks. Teague: One ... one key thing that I haven't mastered yet is, um, at the top you'll see how many people, it'll give you a number of how many of your hands are raised. Um, I've been ... I'm so used to going down and counting that I forget that I can look up top and see how many hands are raised. Well right there it'll kind of give you an idea of how many minutes that you need to allocate, as well as sometimes individuals are moved to maybe, you know, they want to now raise their hand to, you know, speak and so, as you know, if the numbers are increasing, you may have to drop from five to three minutes, and that's something again that I believe that the Chair, um, as ... as the Council has given, you know, me that, um, you know, authority to kind of monitor that, so that we can definitely allow for the voices of the public to speak. Traore: Yeah. Thank you, that's a great point, and I'm also wary of the fact that there may be some situations where someone may say something (garbled) or someone may say something in public comment and then someone may, uh, say something else after that, and someone that replied earlier may want to speak again, and I would just, you know, like to say at this time that once again our emails are open and that we do have the subcommittees as well, uh, for that reason, if..if there is something that directly relates to a subcommittee that someone would like to speak to us about at length, uh, you are more than welcome to ask to participate in those meetings, because, uh, personally I do want to make sure that we are respectful of everyone's opinion, uh, because this really is about the thoughts and feelings of everyone in the community, and not just the people that are able to make it to meetings. Salih: I'm not sure when, uh, you know, Council Susan Mims said, uh, it is, you know, keep an eye on your like public comment. Yeah, did you mention also about like how long supposed to be, like, for example, the Council have only (mumbled) supposed to be from, you know, after we finish from our consent agenda until 8:00. You know, that's supposed to be the end of the public comment. I don't know... you... like for you like sometimes it's one hour, sometime maybe less than one hour. That's supposed to be ... unless we have, you know, like really hot debate that everybody went to talk about it, like last time we give you more than what we normally do. But you also have to have a link for the comment, like, uh, because you are not going to sit there for entire time, you know, it is depend on how long is your own meeting is, uh, and if you have a lot thing on the agenda that you want to accomplish, so maybe your public comment will be for one hour, 45 minute (mumbled) Ouestions/Comments by Council and TRC members re: TRC: Teague: All right. Great! Item number 10 is questions/comments by Council and TRC members related to the TRC. This is just time for any final ... final items. Traore: I just want to welcome all of our new members in and, you know, we welcome in the old members and also to thank the City Council for, you know, having this meeting with us just to ensure that everyone can be on the same page and that we can go into this new relaunched TRC This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoe Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 18 with a renewed focus, but I would also just like to take this time to just apologize to anyone that may still feel that they were disrespected by this Commission in the past. If anyone does feel that way, I would like to personally apologize, from the bottom my heart for that and to say that we are still looking to speak to anyone and everyone that would like to work with this Commission. So if it takes a little time for people to realize that fact, then that's okay. Just don't ever be afraid to reach out and always available by phone or email and also within the subcommittees and yeah, thank you, everyone, again. Taylor: Thank you, Commissioner Traore. This ... this is Pauline. I ... I'd like to thank you and the rest of the Commissioners and welcome and ... truly from the bottom my heart feel that this is ... this is such an important task that you've been... you've been given. This is historical, historical Commission. We haven't had anything like this before. Closest thing would be the Human Rights Commission, but yours is even above and beyond that, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes out of your Commission. Ali: And, um, and just as a suggestion for some of you Council Members, I have been reading a really phenomenal book. It's called We Do This 'I-11 We Free Us. Um, it's by Mariame Kaba. It's a really quick read. They're a bunch of little stories and like news articles and things like that, but this has just shed so much light, um, and given me so much hope and helped reignite the fire when I felt extremely hopeless (laughs) uh, when the Commission was paused. Um, so I would really recommend if you ever have time, just get this book and read it. It's ... it's got some really incredible life -changing stuff in here, um, so yeah. Mims: I'd just like to say thank you to all the Commissioners, both those of you who are original members and to the new ones. This is, as ... as Councilor Taylor said, this is really historic and important, um, and you volunteered for some very, very important and very, very hard work. I think probably as ... as Vice Chair Ali and maybe Chair Traore, if you've talked with the divided groups out of Ohio and it sounds like I'm really glad that you've been able to connect with them. (mumbled)t heard really good things about them, and giving you some, you know, some of their wisdom and guidance and helping you along this path, and I would just say, from my perspective as a Council Member, it was never my intent, nor do I believe it ... believe it was ever the intent of any Council Member to be controlling or punishing in any way in the suspension. We ... my view truly was we felt it was imperative that you have a full commission to really be able to work effectively together and move forward as a cohesive group, and I'm glad it's over. Um, I'm glad we've got a full group for you, and just really excited to see you move forward and if there's anything that ... that I can do to help, and I'm sure the rest of the Councilors feel the same way, we don't want to get in your way, um, but we're here to help if there's anything we can do so best of luck. Traore: Thank you all, thank you very much. Weiner: I ... when we first launched this, we were sort of in a situation of we don't know what we don't know, and there's still an enormous amount that we don't know. I'm glad you found some resources. I hope you will use them. I would also like to at least for my part personally This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021. Page 19 apologize for not giving you everything you needed at the beginning, um, and for any... anything that we did that contributed to difficulties during the first months of it. Um, that was never my personal intent. I don't think it was the intent of Council. I really, you know, hope that we can all go ... that you are able to go into this knowing that, um, there are always people you can reach out to, whether in other groups or in the City, the Divided community, the group (mumbled) Center at George Mason University to ... as resources and and wish ... wish this Commission only success, because I think we can only really learn and grow as a community from what you are undertaking, so I'm grateful to all of you. Teague: And, Commissioners, feel free to share. Traore: Well I would just also just like to say that I don't hold any ill will towards any of you, just want to make sure that's clear. Uh, I do know that we're going to have disagreements over time. I mean not everyone thinks the same, and that it is a good thing, because if we are going to agree on anything and everything, then what really is the point of doing any of this. So if any of you felt differently, I hope, that's no longer the case and yeah, if you'd ever like to sit in on a meeting to just hear what's going on, or maybe just to hear what anyone from the community has to say, please do so and don't ever feel like you just need to, you know, stay away completely, cause it really is important that you do hear what everyone in the community has to say. Salih: I think, you know, how much disagreement is really healthy and the... the... the key thing is, you have to respect each other. You know, yeah, you can disagree as much as you want, but at the end of the day all of you have to respect each other opinions, and when you are sitting there making a decision, yeah, you do it as individual. As soon as you get off from there, all of you are you are (mumbled) friends, and you know, yes, you will be disagreeing but don't do it in a (garbled) disrespectful way. That what I really think, yeah. And as a everybody said, you guys are making history here, so ... (mumbled) you should be proud of (mumbled) you're going to have that title ... in your resume and everywhere that you make history on the first, you know, people who (mumbled) this kind of Commission, you know, Commission, that never happen in Iowa, so here you go! Teague: Well, I really want to thank all of you for your time tonight and again, thank you to Commissioner Navarro -Jackson for your contributions. Thank you so much, and for those that are continuing this work, whether you're on the Commission or not, this is very, very meaningful work. It's heart work, not hard, heart work. It's heart work. Thank you all so much, and we are looking forward to seeing fantastic things that will bring us to those goals that we want to achieve within our city. Thank you so much for your dedication and your work, uh, that you're going to perform, and the response to really figuring out how we can be better as a city and as an extended community. Thank you all, and with that I will adjourn our meeting. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session/joint meeting with the Ad Hoc Truth & Reconciliation Commission of April 15, 2021.