October 24, 2022 — Human Relations Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Manually captioned by City of Boulder staff. All segments attributed to uploader — not individual speaker labels. [MM:SS] timestamps correspond to the YouTube recording.

[0:01] sorry I assumed Lindsay was  the chair last time I was here you are correct so if you're ready  Lindsay Lynn is ready to start thanks Brenda welcome Lynn so Lynn put had put a note in Q a um  that she's also participating in crap so she may actually have stepped away from  this eating temporarily are you there Lynn and I see you're unmutedlyn but we can't hear you and we hear a little bit of you but not your voice when we're going to come back to you William Sweeney okay

[1:06] what sorry online so William we'll come back to you after lit now  that we can hear Lynn and uh Lynn go ahead okay um yeah I was at prab also um because they're  at the same time and the testimony is and I had to juggle back and forth and I listened to both  of them but I have to turn off the sound of prab because they're on two different formats like  webinar and not webinar or something because usually it takes over all this all the bandwidth  you know but I don't have two audios I can't turn their audio down and listen to you now but  anyway my concern is human resources I mean human relations Council needs to be concerned I know  you're involved with inclusionary things and uh

[2:00] um um you know the poor and minorities and all  of that but you know what your board is like opening the door in the middle of a zero degree  winter and turning up the heat to 90 degrees because you're never going to catch up with the  demand for inclusionary stuff when you there's no population of minority here and there's and it's  it's wonderful that you're doing things for the population that is here and for the lower income  folks but guess what it's it's a cycle of Despair you're never going to get there unless you say  something to the planning board which is stop funding the developers because that's where  the problem originates in equality you need to stop it or you are opening the door in the  middle of the window with the heater blasting

[3:05] it's just not gonna happen I don't  know how to say this it's it's like it's like stating the obvious you all know that you all know that but why aren't  you doing something about it because that's your mission that's in your  mission statement it's not just solving the problem by engaging and opening up to people  it's also solving the fundamental problem which is wealth inequality and Boulder is doing it worse and worse every day I know because  I follow eight City boards and I see it over and over in the prab there are 300 million  dollars in arrears because the developers aren't paying for the impact fee you know what the  impact fee is per square foot 130 dollars you know what they're paying 13. 13 per square foot  for recreation for libraries for social services

[4:08] for all of the things that human relations Council  needs so do something do something say you can't do your job you're gonna disband as an Advisory  board if you can't get the fundamentals changed and that's in other boards apparently unless you  can speak out and say to the other boards and that means Transportation Advisory Board planning board  and Water Resources Advisory Board an open space Board of Trustees and other boards that are are  that that are fighting for the funds that you need thank you Lynn your time is up well you  know inequality so do something thank you and I got the message from will Sweeney that  there's no he doesn't have any comments so we can

[5:04] um I don't see any other participants who would  like to uh participate at this time thank you Thank You Ingrid and thank you Lynn um we we have um we have two different um Community  participation items tonight uh one is the public comment um uh that we just had and then um  there's actually uh we we invited individuals who have been funded by the human relations fund  people who regularly attend this meeting will be familiar with uh with that Grant making and  we invited people to attend this meeting um

[6:00] to share their input because we've been recently  discussing some potential changes to how those funds are made including potentially that those  individuals no longer may have to attend have to attend this meeting for applications and reports  is anybody um in attendance to get that input not at the moment we did have one person  who was said um she wanted to come so she might yet um we do have a a little staff  presentation to share the survey results um from uh well from the survey we gave to green  teas so we can maybe go through that and then um if the Community member does join the  meeting to give comment we can make that happen hold on space thank you thank you Elizabeth

[7:02] you ready for that agenda item we'll end  it we'll hand it over over to you for the um for the presentation hopefully they'll give  that person some time to join and Ingrid um I hate to ask you to do one more thing tonight but can  you make me co-host so I can share screen share to our co-host Elizabeth thank you you're welcome  all right so can everybody see that PowerPoint slide okay great so um as you remember we have  been talking for a few months now about um ways in which to streamline and make more efficient  the process through HHS housing Human Services to provide grants to community groups for cultural  celebrations and other education informational

[8:05] and engagement events in alignment with  the human relations commission mission and some of the reasons that we've been looking  at this are acknowledging what you all have shared um and that is that wanting to be able to use um your time efficiently at meetings um to be  able to keep funding going but just with greater efficiency for HRC members and applicants  grantees and City staff and as we go through this process here again just are the values  and considerations that we've talked about before throughout this process of looking at  ways to improve upon the structure and process so one of our last um the items that we shared  with you back in September was that we would take this month of October and do some Community  engagement with the organizations that have been

[9:05] asking for and most often than receiving funding  through the human relations fund to be sure that we get their input and as part of that process we  developed a survey uh very short online survey in English and in Spanish and sent that out by  email to about 40 different contacts that we have in our files for organizations that receive  funding uh through the human relations fund from 2020 through 2022. and from that we've got 13  responses so far which is pretty good uh rate for responses I think it's safe to say that we will  we can continue to keep that open or reopen it um continue to engage with people um for sure  moving forward but we really wanted to be able to have a deadline that enabled us to provide some  information to you um the other thing I'll say

[10:06] about the survey before we show you some of the  summary results is that we also gave people could take the survey and be completely anonymous but we  included an option for them to give their name and contact information either if they wanted to come  to the meeting tonight um or if they just wanted to be able to engage directly with City staff to  just talk about other of their concerns and again I think most people decided to remain anonymous  which is fine but we did have um at least one if not more community members get their names  so we'll be really happy to follow up with them so this is a very busy chart um you may not be  able to see all of it so I'll kind of walk through but um the first set of questions were just about  the Grant application process and so we asked

[11:03] um we had a series of statements that you can  um see here that we provided and ask people to choose you know which on the scale  of strongly disagree to strongly agree um which of those kind of best reflected  their feelings so for example the first one um um would you appreciate the option for  a Spanish language application um most people um said they agreed with that um that's  the long kind of blue bar at the top Christine hi I'm just wondering um the x-axis is that the  number of respondents or is it is that right angry Patrick I think that's the case that  is the case we we had a really good turn um turn around of of surveys um given the the number  of services that we send out and yes seven people

[12:04] replied or eight replied uh with that answer  okay thanks I just wanted to make sure I wasn't looking at percentages or something thanks right  I see what you're asking yes so seven people you know out of the total replied they agree they  would like to see a Spanish language option um three people said strongly agree  um and then the rest were just agree um or remain neutral I think that's  the other one so um so kind of on down sometimes there are three options sometimes  four just depending on what the question is um the next one was um a preference to complete  the application as a Word document or a PDF and attach it to an email that is the way that um  we have been collecting applications through uh for the human relations fund and as you can see  there we actually got a range of options here um but more of them are actually so there  were some that were neutral that's the

[13:04] kind of longest bar there at five um four  people actually said they strongly disagree um which means like they don't like to do it  that way um three strongly agree and then one disagree so that one was kind of a whole wide  range of different responses but if we look to the next one which is asking people do you prefer  to submit the Grant application through an online form we had eight people say strongly agree  and then the rest are either neutral or agree so even though the previous one you know people  were either agreeing or disagreeing that shows a pretty clear preference um that people who  at least the people who responded would much rather submit something in an online form which is  what we do for all of our other funding programs um the next one um is uh whether or not people  feel it's important to present a verbal report

[14:02] in addition to a brief written report and there  too it's kind of all over the place you have you know a couple people strongly agreeing  and then disagreeing and then neutral you know so it's a little all over the map um and  the rest of the responses are a little more um um than a little bit more clear um the you know  we tried to ask the questions in a different way just to gauge if we go one way or another or  provide a combination of options like again presenting a written report without presenting  a virtual or in person there you have some more people saying they disagree with that so you  know one of the things um I I think for for Ingrid and I that's a takeaway here is that um  you know where where there's the most agreement um on the process just among those four those  first five questions is people definitely would like to have an online form process um as to  whether or not um the reporting is a combination

[15:08] of written virtual in-person it's really such a  broad range that I I think that really does kind of give us an opportunity to open the door  and say let's just try something different um you know what if we only collected  a brief report what if it was a virtual um you know report if we decide to do that maybe  that's not a part of a long meeting right if we change other parts of the process that could be  very very efficient um and you know not encroach on the hrc's time and not have uh grantees in  a position of you know coming into a meeting and waiting and waiting and waiting you know  something like that so I think there's some that probably is an indication where we do have  some room you know to try some different things the next couple of questions are about how  we might want to provide these application

[16:04] opportunities so as you all know what we do now  and have been doing for a while is that each um cultural event or opportunity or kind of  holiday if you will has its own unique fun round so like here's the time frame to apply for MLK Day  here's the time frame for indigenous people's day and on and on one of the options we're thinking  about is just having two deadlines per year anything that's an event or whether it's aligned  with a A you know kind of a a known kind of City uh cultural celebration or some other event on  their own calendar if it's taking place from January to June here's your deadline you know if  it's taking place from July to December here's another deadline so there too um what we're seeing  is actually uh uh uh it's it's it's not that different um responses to um um to those questions  except that for um keeping it the way we have now

[17:07] which is one fun round per every event actually  has one person who strongly disagrees um but I think you know the fact that nobody disagreed or  strongly disagreed with just having two deadlines per year I think is a good map you know indicator  that people are interested or willing to try that um the last question was just about the length of  detail requested in the application and whether or not that level of detail is kind of appropriate  for the amount of funding we have to give and I think many people on this call or anyone else  who has submitted a Grant application knows that you know a very very long process for a small  amount of funding doesn't seem fair or equitable um and so we actually have a few people  who disagreed with that statement um and that is just good information for us to  have are there things that we can streamline

[18:04] by way of like word count or just how even  how many questions we ask or level of detail um those are all I think really easily  addressed with some fresh eyes on this process so all in all I think that was some really great  feedback so far through these surveys on that piece we also um just had a series of questions  about um what would what um types of information um people who are potential applicants or  organizations would want in order to unders to know what funding opportunities are what  support might be available and how they might apply and this this set of question was kind of a  chuckle that applies so um your question earlier Christine about what those numbers represent it is  the number of responses um you know kind of given

[19:00] but it's about um but people can choose more than  one so here too is just really good information for us if we really if we as staff really thought  that an informational video was the best thing ever I think these respondents are telling us  that's probably not as not as helpful as some other things that we're going to do so that's good  maybe we still do something but maybe it's not worth the time um so it clearly just shows that  you know the you know frequently asked questions you know making information available bilingual  making sure that um we have that staff those staff members available to do that one-on-one that's  a best practice you know Ingrid has been doing that already and I think you know applicants  really know and understand and appreciate that um and it's a best practice for my other  funding programs as well so um I'll just stop there those are really the two slides we  had for the survey again it was pretty brief

[20:01] um we did have some comment boxes as well um and  we can go ahead and so we were actually collecting surveys yet today and so Ingrid didn't have a huge  ton of time to um kind of compile the comments but we'll definitely um have a look at those and be  able to share some information about that as well so let's see let me stop screen sharing  there and um see if you all commissioners have any questions and maybe also just see if  our community member is now joined um to if she wants to speak and I don't see I don't see her  so any questions or comments or input from you I want to say thanks for doing this Outreach um to  the grant recipients it's really nice to know how

[21:05] it felt about the process and good to have  some indicators about like what we can do to make it easier for people or I don't  know process they want to engage in more um and and that's a really good  turnout that's the other thing I'd say it's a really good response thanks any other comments Christine uh I just um I just  had a question and also I just I want to Echo Lindsay and say thank you for all the work you put  into this really appreciate it um I was wondering Ingrid if um just based on some of the comments  that you've read even though you don't have it as part of the presentation if you got any impression  one way or another how people are feeling thank you Christine very thankful  very appreciative of the funding and

[22:01] um that's the general sense I think um you  know most of these organizations are very small and appreciate the amount of funding and will like  to see more of it but overall gratitude and um there was a comment regarding the length  of the meetings and participating and how um that is exhausting um in in stuff that you know and organizations that have a small  allocated number of staff to do this that's what I will highlight on a couple  scope of things that's very helpful thank you

[23:06] unmute Elizabeth um any other questions Carlos did you have anything no okay  Beaker jh okay well next steps on our end um are to just continue to follow up with survey  respondents and and actually I saw your note um Ingrid that the Community member grantee  who is wanted to join tonight is not able to so we will be sure to follow up with her  um and then our plan is to just work at um providing a more detailed proposal to you all  at the November meeting for changing things up um we may at that time have some additional  staff members who will want to just pop in on the meeting an RNs who are helping to manage  some of our other funding programs um just

[24:03] so they can um see you and and say hi but we'll  bring back some recommendations at that time and then our goal would be to have these changes take  effect in January 2023 so if we for example um do decide that we want to um just have two funding  deadlines per year um we would have some time to implement that and again the goal would be to  not close the opportunity for funding on anybody um and so it may be that it's a phased process or  what have you um but I just if for any other um green teas or potential applicants who are who are  you know viewing or we'll we'll see this recording later we definitely um want to be sure we're not  leaving anyone out Christine um thank you I just wanted to add um one comment which if that of  your as you're putting together that proposal um the one question I had was about for the  applicants for the specific holidays or events

[25:06] and just wondering historically um if the timing  of when their window opens and when they get it in like I guess I guess my question is if we only do  this twice a year and sort of group them are there going to be organizations that somehow missed the  opportunity because suddenly they have to turn in an application several months earlier than  they have been in the past so just to sort of consider that yeah I appreciate that I  think that's a good that's a good point and um yeah I think we can be sure to look at that one  one advantage of that is um that we do have um we do have a grant management system that we use for  other funding programs that allows us to kind of Branch off if you enter in and pick which what  you want to apply for funding for and then kind

[26:01] of Branch off um in different ways that can be a  lot easier for anybody who's applying or reviewing um so we can provide for example different  information and requirements if they are if they are different um depending on  what exactly they're looking for funding um so that's a great point and we'll be sure  to take that in consideration thank you thanks all right I think we're all set  with that one thanks everybody thank you Elizabeth and and Ingrid for all of  your work on that um but it's really nice to hear back from people and so we are on um Billy well  we have an item for uh Commissioners and staff response to uh our um the open Comet and public  comment that we that we just did and I actually I

[27:01] have a question I've been on the commission for  some time and I found with with Lynn's comment um like lacking some I think contextual  information to bring that into into relevance and I'm curious if any staff can explain to me  and maybe others who don't who don't know this what the impact impact fees fees  that Lynn mentioned are are used for I actually would want um another colleague  to to get back on those details because I I have some idea but I also am more concerned  that I provide you with wrong information or inaccurate information but we can um I can commit  we can get back to you in writing just by email to just clarify what what she might be referring  to foreign thanks Elizabeth other follow-up from

[28:04] any part of the community participation  open comment or the input from grantees okay I see all right I wonder if we might do a  retroactive agenda adjustment because I see Wendy Schwartz is here and um we have I believe it's  two discussion information items that have staff um staff presenting am I am I correct about  that so I wonder if we can I don't see our other presenter here so I think what you're about  to suggest is good Okay cool so I'm hoping that we can bump Roman numeral six up and for those of  you who can't see the agenda for whatever reason

[29:04] um we have a Roman numeral six discussion  informational item um item on our agenda and we're um uh within that item hearing more from staff  about both the residential access management program plan um who I believe I believe based on  what I can see that that's that's the staff member who's not here yet and then we um have item Roman  numeral six B which is the alternative response model that Wendy's here to talk about um and then  as a current Roman numeral item five we've got um an action item on Election timing which um Commissioners will know that has to do with the  letter uh that that Christine shared with you all since our last meeting so my proposal is that we  bump potentially all of Roman numerals sticks up

[30:00] um but definitely Six B and out of respect  for Wendy's time and night and potentially the other staff member and then since we  all have to be here until the adjournmented the meeting we go back to five after we've  heard from all of the staff and the thumbs we'll see in some all right I'm taking it so  like let's go with that agenda adjustment and um we'll hear from Wendy first and then we'll  see after we hear from Wendy we'll see if um if we are able to hear about the  residential access management program plan thanks for being here Wendy thank  you uh commissioner loberg and um thank you to all the Commissioners uh so we  ready to to go ahead and get started on this item

[31:00] okay great so I think uh a lot of you folks  know who I am but for those who don't my name is Wendy Schwartz I am the human services  policy manager in our Department of Housing and Human Services and so I work with Ingrid  and Elizabeth there and uh I also manage some cross-departmental projects in the city and  this is one of them the alternative response program and so let me I have a little slide  deck here to talk you through tonight sort of um what the alternative response pilot program  is and where we are in the planning stages and let me see if I can successfully share my  screen here to get the slides up foreign

[32:05] I think right now you're  probably seeing it with the see if we can there we go you're seeing the um  the opening slide right now looks great great okay um so community Assistance Response Team  otherwise known as alternative response um though the way we got here um to where we are  today um I think most what most folks know is uh that nationally there's been an increased use in  interest in alternative responses to what might be a traditional police and or fire response  to 9-1-1 and dispatch calls in cases where

[33:02] maybe the underlying issue behind that call is  in fact um not criminal or not major medical um and often the form that these programs  take is the responders will be a mental health professional and in emergency medical  technician otherwise known as EMT or a paramedic um and so it's a case where a law enforcement  professional does not go on the call generally um and some some programs that get talked about  a lot um there are certainly more examples than this but frequently ones that we hear referenced  are the star program in Denver and that started in the middle of 2020 um so that's just a couple  of years old um and then Cahoots in Eugene Oregon which by contrast has been going in some  form since 1989. it's really considered

[34:03] kind of the nation's Flagship alternative  response program with a really long history um so locally here in Boulder um we've had a lot  of feedback uh from community members that they are really interested in the city exploring a  program here in Boulder that would be similar to star or Cahoots and um I was here a month  or two ago with one of my other hats on which is the project manager for the real reimagined  policing project otherwise known as the police strategic plan and one of the pieces of feedback  we've heard through that Community engagement process is that people are really interested  in exploring these types of alternatives and then our city council is also very interested  in this program option and has asked us to look at that so what we've been doing um for since  early in the year is we have a City team

[35:07] of three departments so that's housing and Human  Services my department as well as our fire rescue department and our police department meeting to  talk about what a pilot for alternative response might look like in Boulder and I think some folks  might be wondering um you know about police being in the planning of a non-police program but  obviously we really need to everybody needs to coordinate about what they're responding to  and what they're not responding to and really understand what everybody's going to do in  different types of calls come through dispatch um so it does take planning with police even  if it's a program that police don't respond on um and then another thing that we've done as  part of this process as we've been developing this concept for this pilot alternative response  program is um doing some initial Consulting with

[36:07] our local safety net Healthcare Providers and  so these are Healthcare organizations that a lot of folks would be referred to through an  alternative response program for further care um and so these organizations  are Boulder Community Health um Mental Health Partners and  Clinica Family Health Services one of the things that um I  like to talk about a little bit um is what we've already got going on in the  community that's related to Alternative response or to a potential alternative response program  because we find that often people aren't aware of all the programs in the community currently  so some things that are already happening we have our crisis intervention Response Team otherwise  known as the cert team and those are licensed

[37:06] Behavioral Health Care clinicians that respond  with police in a co-response model to calls that come in that have an underlying behavioral health  issue and if there are some folks watching right now who are wondering what am I referencing when  I talk about Behavioral Health um that's really a more modern term that combines what people  would have traditionally called mental health with substance use disorder orders and it's it's  under an umbrella now called Behavioral Health um another thing that is accessible to community  members right now is a mobile crisis response without police and that is dispatched through the  Colorado crisis line and I've put the numbers both for the phone number and the texting information  here on the slide and when people call in to the

[38:02] Colorado crisis line which will become 98 then  they they talk about what's going on and if it's determined that a mobile response is what's  appropriate and desired that can happen in the community um there is a nurse navigation program  that happens through 9-1-1 in partnership with American Medical Response otherwise known as AMR  ambulance company and so when people call 9-1-1 and they appear to have a um a medical issue  that might not require an ambulance ride or a hospitalization then they can talk to a nurse  about what their options are for seeking maybe a more appropriate lower level of care that's  going to be less challenging for them and less resource intensive for the community uh we have  our homeless Outreach team otherwise known as the

[39:00] hot team and those are police officers that focus  on assisting people experiencing homelessness in the community into housing resources and one of  the things that the hot team does is partners with Clinica for some Street Outreach medicine  be there is a homelessness Street Outreach and resource connection team run through Boulder  shelter for the homeless we have our downtown ambassadors that perform many functions downtown  one of which is assisting people with service connections when needed and desired and finally  Mental Health Partners has an assertive Community treatment team otherwise known as an act team  which is a multi-disciplinary team that goes out into the community and serves people with very  high needs um who need multiple team members to connect their social services needs their mental  health needs their physical health needs Etc

[40:05] so um as we have been working as a staff team um  to develop the broad Strokes of what a pilot might look like in alternative response then we've  developed five excuse me four high-level draft goals that are here on the screen and the first  would be really increasing that efficient use of first responder team Time by diverting calls that  could be better served by an alternative response increasing positive Health impacts for individuals  and avoiding continuous Emergency Services calls through connection to ongoing services so people  can be served in a different way and it looks like um Lindsay you have a question thanks Wendy yeah I um I find myself

[41:06] my son a call is not criminal or major major  medical it might get diverted through one of these existing services or one of the ones that  we're we're talking about that's proposed tonight um and I see here in number one um you're  talking about first responder time so when when we're talking about a medical concern  and not a criminal concern are we talking about First Responders like EMS or are we talking  about about the the police specifically so um so I'm sorry Lindsay could you could you repeat  your question totally yeah so so I um I noticed early on in your presentation you said that  the models that we're talking about tonight

[42:00] um might get employed if if a call is not  criminal in nature or Major Medical in nature and you talked on the last side about um about these  already existing Services where like for example a nurse might be called um or uh the mobile crisis  response uh might be appropriate if there's not a major medical concern so what in in those cases  when we're talking about a concern that may or may not be major medical rather than may or  may not be criminal are we talking about First Responders like EMT or fire rather than police  yeah so in those cases it's a question of like to be dispatched does an ambulance really need  to be dispatched or could there be some um some more appropriate resource you know if if it's a  lower level issue um you know perhaps the person

[43:05] needs stitches and what they need is maybe not an  ambulance ride and spending a bunch of time in ER maybe you know Urgent Care could you know could  suit their needs Etc and I definitely um you know can get I I mean I think more information you know  for you if it's desired from our fire department um because they're a little bit more deeply  involved in you know looking at those types of calls um but but yeah there's both um there's  you know the potential to um you know make more efficient use of both our police and our fire um  Personnel time as well as some service is that are contracted so for instance our ambulance  services in the city are contracted thank you

[44:03] um and I think we were on about goal  three here we left off cost savings from reallocated responder time to preventative  Community work and increasing health and service engagement by ensuring referrals  to the most appropriate level of care when we think about the types of services that we  would consider this pilot program providing the first one is the one that really everybody thinks  about and is well known through other programs like star and Cahoots and that's that um basic  Community response um the actual response to the call the types of calls we just talked about low  Acuity Behavioral Health Human Services medical calls that don't involve safety concerns and as  we've been exploring the idea behind doing this

[45:04] alternative response pilot one thing that's really  come up is some of the support that's needed after that initial response for some people especially  if they've got multiple complex needs and they're going to have a really hard time in some cases  following up with that community health care referral or that connection point just because  their needs are so complex and so what we're going to propose is not just having the initial response  with the behavioral health professional and the paramedic but having some intense intensive case  management built into the program for people that do have those those complex needs and are going  to need a lot of help navigating the system the Staffing that we do Envision for the program  I've talked a little bit about it already but it would be Master's level licensed Behavioral  Health clinicians paramedics and case managers

[46:07] um some of the response characteristics the  way this looks is again we'd have to do some some new screening and training through  dispatch so that there's the protocol to sort out appropriate 9-1-1 calls or calls  into the police non-emergency line for this team and then route those calls directly to the  team for response some examples of categories of calls that we've looked at that we currently  receive that would be appropriate for this team welfare checks loitering behavioral checks  and um we came up on the First Data pass with a really high-end estimate of 5 000 calls  annually we don't think it's going to actually

[47:02] be that high in Boulder because once you  really dig through those individual calls you would find some that for a variety of  reasons wouldn't actually be appropriate um but that's kind of what we would see as um  the the upper estimate if you will of how many calls uh potentially this team or these teams or  other could respond to over the course of the year so um looking at how how would we assess how  well we're doing in achieving goals for the program that we talked about a few slides ago  so these are some of the um potential pilot success measures that we've been brainstorming  and the first the first bullet there is that we definitely want to commission a formal evaluation  of the program and external evaluation because

[48:01] this is a really important investment and we  want to see what's working and what's maybe not working the way we hoped it would we would  certainly look at those changes in what police department and fire Personnel spend their time  on um and is it less on certain types of calls um how does this affect response times on priority  calls if it does if Personnel aren't getting tied up on some low lower level calls we'd absolutely  want to look at client satisfaction with the outcome of their interaction with the team and  one thing we've seen when we looked at some some things that some other  teams measure is questions about how clients feel about their ability to manage  further issues in terms of really those connection points those strategies that the team is hopefully  passing on to them people remaining safely in the

[49:04] community whenever possible so really that's a  broad Strokes Healthcare best practice is you know you want people to be able to be in the least  restrictive care environment possible behavioral health and substance treatment referrals reduced  Emergency Services utilization by people with frequent system interaction enrollment and  follow-up Services reduced hospital and emergency room visits what are the differences between  the pilot and traditional police response and um and how do the number of ambulance rides look  after the during the pilot compared to pre-pilot um we've talked a lot about what are some  potential challenges that we have to get rid

[50:00] of rid of that we would love to get rid of  but we'll have to we'll have to prepare for um so this is something that I think  everybody's aware of um lack of what we'd call Upstream resources needed by some  people so if you've got the best response team and the best case managers in the world and  that residential treatment program substance use treatment program or that Housing Resource or  what have you does not exist or does not exist in a way that's really accessible or usable for that  individual in the community then you're you're really going to be challenged on your outcome  um because every response program is you know is really only as good as the resources that exist  in the community to to Really connect people to um certainly program data across multiple  organizations and especially when you're talking about sensitive data like healthcare data  including Behavioral Healthcare data that takes

[51:06] some work to get the right data with the right  protections um integrated and analyzed enough to really both serve the individuals with Coordinated  Care and to really understand how the program is and isn't working um and then another issue is  um particularly in Behavioral Health there's a national Workforce shortage um and that is even  more acute for diverse providers like if you're looking for providers who speak Spanish or who you  know just have diverse demographics backgrounds um that's that's tough in all the services right  now um and as a side note I just today learned that the Cahoots program in Eugene is in the  middle of a commissioned evaluation process and

[52:03] um I watched part of their their Council study  session on their evaluation and when they were talking about some of the big challenges faced  by the program and I had prepared these slides last week then the three things on this slide  came up as big challenges for a program that's been in operation since 1989. um so there's good  news and there's bad news we're not alone but um some of these challenges are are tough  challenges so next steps uh we have a city council study session December 8th and we're going to be  giving a presentation um similar to this to to city council and um get their Direction on really  proceeding with implementing the program in 2023 and then at that point in the first quarter of  next year we'd be looking at hiring staff doing

[53:05] some of the work in dispatch and Data Tracking  that needs to happen to make the program happen um certainly ongoing coordination with our health  care providers is going to be really important because they'll certainly be impacted by this  program and then um setting up an ongoing process to evaluate outcomes um and making sure we get  that Equity lens in there and that client feedback to really adjust those pilot Services according  to the people who are experiencing the services um and with that I'll go to the final slide which are  the questions I prepared for Commissioners first does the commission support the pilot concept  as it's been presented um and do Commissioners

[54:04] have any comments about the program goals and  metrics or any other questions or feedback Lindsay go for it um thank you uh thanks thanks  Wendy uh for your presentation I have some questions here I can begin with one that you asked specifically um one critique I've read  about star um in particular is that a really a very small percentage of calls to police  currently get routed through star and it's a

[55:02] it's a newer program than kahoots I've read I've  read three percent per star and then and then um something like 17 percent Fork Hoots so it  seems to me like um a metric around call routing if um if you know these are the um these  are the methods that were were considering um or the model that we're considering uh would be  really useful and um then I have other questions too but I see some other Commissioners with  their hands up so I'll I'll hand it off to I think Carlos was next or at least Carlos  was first in the stat that I see and then we can Circle then we'll go to Christine and then  we'll see if anybody else has questions and then we can Circle back to me Lindsay would you would  you like me to um answer your your question or

[56:04] before we move on or oh please protocol okay yeah  thank you sorry that wasn't clear so the um the percentages that you just mentioned are a really  interesting question um because the you're correct that is about three percent for star and uh the  if we hit the high end of our estimate the 5 000 calls which like I said I don't think we're going  to hit once we um once those calls get refined um we'd be closer to six percent um of the  calls that come into dispatch here in Boulder um and the Cahoots uh numbers are an interesting  question because what first got published um if you look at the the percentage of dispatch  that Cahoots serves in Eugene you're right it like

[57:01] it hangs out in that 15 to 20 percent range but um  when they sort through what police would respond to it comes out in more the three to eight percent  range and um and that's partly a function of a program that's been around since 1989 because over  the years what has happened is that people have started to call into their dispatch for services  that um that they would not have called in previously so you know someone who needs a ride to  a food bank well probably right now in Boulder or Denver someone's not going to call in to dispatch  for that but at this point in Eugene they might so um so anyway I think you know the the percentages  are pretty consistent in that three to eight percent range with those programs um but Eugene  has kind of the unique situation of essentially

[58:06] adding on a set of calls to its dispatch that  that didn't previously exist if I I hope what I just said made sense um it's a little bit complex  with the percentages but if that's helpful to you that was that was informative and um  I'm wondering if we can put a a pin in the metric uh the metric thing  and loop back to talking about that I'm sorry I'm like heavily participating  and and trying to facilitate which is sometimes weird but thank you Wendy um and I'm gonna hand  it off to I'm going to hand it over to Carlos Lindsay for what I see the program I like  it I think it's very interesting

[59:06] and yes I believe as a commissioner of  human relations I am willing to support this program I like this program and I feel  that it is an interesting one thank you um I I apologize for this I I realized Midway  through Carlos's comments that my translation was not working appropriately and  I fixed it about halfway through um and so I heard the end of the comment  um Carlos that you think I think you said you think this program would be a good  one um but please let me know if there's a question or a comment earlier in in  the comments that I need to respond to [Music] no what I said is that I am interested  I I feel that this is an interesting program

[60:06] and as a commissioner I think I will  be willing to support it and back it up thanks so much Carlos and I  appreciate you being willing to um repeat since at first my translation  wasn't working but now we're on track Christy thanks everybody thank you  Wendy for the presentation um I also have a whole bunch of questions but  maybe I'll ask a couple and then kick it back to Lindsay and then um and then all I can pick  up again um I also want to Echo Carlos I I am in support of the concept of this pilot I think  it's um I think any any way we can can explore

[61:00] alternative responses that are perhaps you  know more uh appropriate to what the situation calls for I think is something that is very  important and I'm glad we are looking into this um I had a I had a I was wondering you know  we were talking about this being a pilot and I was wondering what kind of time frame we're  looking at you know there was a slide you had about what success looks like and over what  period of time are we are we talking about um before the city takes additional steps to to  either make it no longer a pilot or make changes um and then I also had a specific question uh  when you were talking about the challenges and one of the challenges being the lack of  Upstream resources um I was wondering if if we already have some clear idea of which  lack of resources we think might be an issue

[62:02] sure um so I'll start with your first  question Christine about the time frame um and so we would want to have a full year  of piloting the program and then looking at the information and data we have after that year  um so that we could um could get a better sense of what's Happening we know there are seasonal  differences in calls in the community and also for any new program there's just kind of some like  getting started noise sometimes um in the data and then for your second question about Upstream  resources um unfortunately that's a long list um and a couple of them are examples that I mentioned  in my presentation which is housing um and so you know we know we've got a significant issue like  many other communities with people experiencing

[63:05] homelessness and housing instability and um really  what most information shows is that it's going to be very difficult for people to make Headway on  other mental health physical health substance use Etc issues that they might have if they're  unstably housed um you know Maslow's hierarchy of needs we're all gonna like worry about that first  and other stuff later right um also substance use treatment especially if you need more intensive  treatment you need Residential Treatment um and you know and that ties into my first point  right I mean if if you're if you don't have a stable situation then showing up to outpatient  treatment that's probably not going to happen

[64:00] um and culturally competent treatment um  you know if you if you go and do a search um on psychology today or another referral  resource for therapy for mental health treatment um then you can pretty much you know start by  like you know looking for in your area and the more filters you put on like if you're looking  for you know treatment for an adolescent and you need someone that works with that age group  if you need someone that takes insurance if you need someone that takes Medicaid the more filters  you put on the smaller your world is going to get in terms of your options and it might come  to zero so um there's a lot of Behavioral Health Care needs and the cam Boulder County is  working on a project right now for Behavioral Health roadmap for the county and part of that  work is really that analysis of all those gaps um but it's um unfortunately it's a longer  list than any of us would like it to be

[65:08] thank you I'll jump back in and other Commissioners  feel free to indicate that the race hand is a really lovely feature when we're in  this format because it maintains a stack so if you have a question please  just jump in with the raised hand um feature so um I have um  I have one one clarification um star and Cahoots they're essentially the  same model is is that right like they're they're the same model across like the scope  of models for alternative response programs that are up applied maybe in a different way  and different in different municipalities

[66:05] um yeah star and Cahoots I would call very  similar I mean if we want to get a little bit weedier there's some differences so  for example um star has a different set of experience and educational requirements  they have a higher level of experience in education required for their their behavioral  health clinicians on the team then Cahoots does um and so there are like there are differences  but in terms of kind of the core elements of how the program works I would call them kind of the  same model we've looked at we've looked at some other examples across the country and I think  what you find a lot of are programs that are specifically geared toward assisting  people experiencing homelessness

[67:03] and so star and Cahoots when I've looked at  their data in the past anywhere from like 50 to 70 percent of the folks that they respond to  and work with are people experiencing homelessness um but that's not the same as a program that's  just devoted to people experiencing homelessness um so there's a lot of these  types of programs getting going um with a fair amount of variation but  those are some of the the best known ones that are like exclusively um response  or almost exclusively I guess I should say responding with police both of those programs  do have times when they get there and then they realize they need to call the police but  they're primarily non-police programs foreign are we or or did you all consider  any of those like Mental Health

[68:09] First is one that I'm familiar  with uh in Sacramento and Oakland um you know we like we're open to a  lot of different configurations because our goals are doing what  works the best to help people um but we have our direction from city  council has been focused on um implementing a program more in the star Cahoots model and  uh the I would say the majority of community feedback that I have seen will specifically  reference um one of those two programs or both

[69:00] thank you um I'll just I'll just jump in since I think  I'm the only one with the hand raised right now um just kind of as a follow-up to commissioner  loberg's questions you know while looking at other models in the country you know both  Eugene and Denver are significantly larger then Boulder is and so I'm just curious if  we've if we've looked into or if there are even other programs for similarly sized  municipalities elsewhere in the country um so sorry I'm just writing down the  question so I can also remember later for um for good information for everybody else um so you're right that Denver in particularly  in particular is significantly bigger than us

[70:03] um Eugene is more they're still bigger  than us but they're a more similar size um and so we'd look at that a little as a little  bit more in our our weight class so to speak um one interesting comment um that when  I was watching the presentation by the Consultants that are evaluating Cahoots today  is they said like it's real it's kind of hard to pull one of these programs off  once you get below a certain size um just because kind of the you know the math  doesn't work out with the resources required um and the community volume um so uh  you know when we look at our peers um then we're right now with our code our  existing co-response program our cert team um we're ahead of a lot a lot of them in  implementing things like this um and um

[71:06] but first for cities our size um I what I have  not seen is a lot that are um broad-based which I you know has been part of the feedback so in  other words what we haven't heard is um feedback that we want another program that's for instance  just focused on people experiencing homelessness um people are looking you know the feedback we've  heard is really looking for an alternative to those you know police calls right now um so we  haven't seen a lot of other models for cities are size that um aren't similar to Cahoots or  similar to other things that we already have in the city like co-response or other programs  listed on the slide that I showed you before great thanks um and if it's okay I have  another question um you know we last month we

[72:06] we heard from from police chief Harold about this  reimagining police and you know I think one of the one of the questions I have is to what extent um  what extent we think that this may play into that um both practically speaking but also you know  the city having recently passed its budget um you know one one of the goals I think in  here was was ultimately cost savings based on preventive measures that could be done through  this program I'm wondering if any projections have been made what what the math might look  like what we think this looks like long term yeah so um one thing I'll note is that um there  was some funding passed in the 2023 budget for

[73:01] this program because as we we've been working  on it we anticipated having to build it into our budget um and the projections for the percentage  of um of police calls we you know we would expect you know to our earlier conversation um to to hit  probably in that three to five percent range like other programs um and but it seems like the real  question you're asking has to do with you know um what what might be we be able to  reduce then in other places in the city um and so there's a couple there's a couple of  options there that depending on how things work out Could Happen long term um one thing is um  there could be reduced some reduced ambulance transport costs if people are evaluated um and  assisted with different resources on the front end

[74:07] um another another option is you know we talked  about reallocation um in some of my slides I talked about reallocation to preventative work and  if you remember Chief Harold talking about kind of those prevention oriented Community Partnerships  um and really that best practices in policing are not about being reactive they're about being  preventative in partnership with community members so right now our police what the the external  consultant report about our workload analysis for our Police Department revealed is that our  police don't really have enough time to work with Community groups and community members  on preventative activities to prevent crime and prevent bad things from happening to people  and that is because they're they're running call

[75:04] to call to call in a react reactionary um way  and so this is a long way Christine of saying I think that the you know what we might  not see right away and especially since we're already 29 officers down in  the department would be you know less um less police officers or necessarily less less  budget um for the police department maybe maybe not but I think what we would be able to see is  moving toward those best practices of um of Police Department Personnel having the opportunity to  work in a preventative way with community members and reallocate their time from situations  where maybe they're not the best resource

[76:00] that's helpful thank you I'm curious who when we're thinking about um dispatch and how these these  calls are routed and who responds um cool designs that decision making tree oh how's that determined  yes so um so that is going to be a partnership um of police fire and HHS um and we also would be  using some models um like I mean like the decision

[77:03] tree from Denver for instance um we might as well  we might as well not reinvent the wheel right um and so and then I think you know as with  anything there might be some refinement and some adjustment as we go on and we learn um  but initially it would be us working together um in our departments to look at at what  calls we think could be safely rerouted and as the team gets more experience  there might be some adjustments in there thank you Wendy I'm I'm wondering um can we  see your questions slide again or your prompting slide to us please  yeah absolutely um let me foreign

[78:25] did you get a verbal on that yes thank you foreign just uh following up on that could we actually see the slide with the goals  again absolutely uh let me okay are you able to see all four  goals right now yes thanks okay

[79:12] and then if you wouldn't mind if we could see  again the slide with the measures of success absolutely um everybody ready to go on to that  one or does anyone need more time with the goals okay I'm seeing people looking  like they're ready to move on

[80:00] foreign foreign I personally am just taking some  time with these so I'm um uh you know just giving others that that  time too um and uh curious if if you know Commissioners who haven't jumped  in with any questions or comments yet

[81:04] um if you want to use that time please  just use the raise hand feature foreign yeah I think that you said that this would be a  rare occurrence but do you imagine a situation where um a call is rerouted or diverted um but the  police are necessary and how would you proceed in that way in that situation yeah so um the way  they describe this in other programs is that um sometimes when the alternate their occasions when  the alternative response team gets to a situation

[82:03] and you know the way it sounded on dispatch was  that there was not a different resource needed but they get there and they either find there's  a a weapon or a threat of some kind involved um or perhaps the the medical situation is  far more serious than the way it initially appeared and this person needs an ambulance  and emergency responders for major medical um and so the way that would happen is  that the response team once they the alternative Response Team once they got there  and they realized the situation was different than what it sounded like At first is  they would call back into dispatch and request a different resource  depending on what the situation was

[83:03] that makes a lot of sense um I I brought that up  because I worked as a resident advisor at CU and I noticed a lot of the as a as an RA um the students  would really downplay the situation because they didn't want to take a ride in the ambulance but  the finance Finance reason so a lot of times when we get there they've really downplayed everything  and sometimes time is up to us and so it can be really scary yeah and our hope would be to get  the dispatch protocols and kind of that dispatched sense of the call um really well honed so that  they would be able to to kind of sess out when maybe a situation like that was happening um  and you know I think in both Eugene and Denver

[84:01] um they've seen relatively few like like  they've they've honed those protocols pretty well so that it's relatively seldom that  they have to call in police or major medical um but you know nothing's perfect so  sometimes that's going to happen and um and then we have to be ready to  bring in a different type of resource Steve um uh I guess uh one one  last question that I have is in looking at Eugene and Denver  and you know maybe other programs what what have we learned about maybe things that  mistakes or things that were maybe misguided that later on became evident that we have avoided in  crafting our pilot what are some of the some guard

[85:02] rails that we now see that we might not otherwise  see without having evaluated other programs sure that's a great question um you know that's  first of all that's one of the reasons that we are suggesting from the get-go um building in  like that intensive case management capability um and you know in Denver  they've done some subsequent um rfps some requests for proposal to  bring in some additional Community groups um we've definitely consulted with um our health  care providers and we'll continue to do so um because we know that this can't be happening in  isolation um from from that part of the system and that coordination is not going to be simple so  we want to start as far in advance as possible

[86:03] um and we really want to build in  good evaluation from the get-go and like even a program like Cahoots for  instance um you know one of their they're being evaluated now after all these years and  um one of the comments from the evaluators in the the preliminary report is you know there's a  lot of issues with the data and not really being able to see what's going on in the program  because of the way the data is collected um and we want to also um really try and find  a way the best way possible to capture that client experience or you know what they  feel like they're prepared to do next um and you know that kind of end user feedback  isn't always easy to get some sometimes people

[87:00] don't really want to deal with that but we really  we really want to try and and get that feedback rather than other people trying to assume what's  working or not working for people in the program foreign thank you I think I'll do some facilitator things first  before I talk more um does anybody have uh do any of the Commissioners  have um input on these metrics

[88:23] I I find I find myself really wanting to to sit with  them more Wendy I I feel like I could I I I could um you know offer some more good suggestions  I I I heard what you said earlier about um you know the difference between Star and Eugene  um about like the the the three and the 17 and and that there's just like a different type of calls  that they're receiving like perhaps because I don't know the type of the community or like how  long Cahoots has been around compared to Star

[89:02] um and I I still think it would be helpful  um for a um to to measure how the calls are routed because in the critiques that  I've read about a Cahoots type model um most of those critiques are oh not most of  them but some of the critiques are around the dispatch itself and how how those decisions are  made um and and um and who who they're made by um which I I think is another thing to discuss  but it's getting kind of it's getting outside of the metrics where I um you know I'm  trying to focus the conversation right now thanks Lindsay and um another thing while we're  on this slide that I should have mentioned earlier um that I want to make sure I mention now is um  that some of these metrics frankly are ambitious

[90:03] um because some of them are things that are  difficult to measure some of them are things that require um either self-reporting by people who  maybe don't want to spend a lot of time talking to you about a bad experience they had I mean a  bad moment they had in their life hopefully it's a good experience on the response but you know  it happened because the person was not in the best situation at the time um and some of them  really require um being able to share a lot of information that has to do with health care and  um and and that's sometimes easier said than done um because even though there are ways to um  produce um uh privacy agreements protection agreements um get releases of information  there's there's still a lot of complexity there

[91:03] um when it comes to sharing Health Care  information and um for a very good reason there's even higher standards of protection  for information related to behavioral health um and so um so I think our approach is really  let's aim high and then if we have to adjust something um based on what is or isn't  immediately available we can do that but um but we really we're aiming high and we're  aiming higher than star and Cahoots frankly on what we want to be able to report on and  measure and and link to success metrics so um you know just in the interest of  kind of full disclosure and transparency um you know there could be some of these  areas where we could run into some roadblocks

[92:01] but but that's not going to keep us from  like Aiming High we have high standards so I'm I have I have one more thank you for that  Wendy and I have um one um I have I I this this isn't fully formed in my mind but like  it it sounds like I I hear you know some of the difficulty like the like like collecting the  data and determining these metrics one thing I'm curious is um this client satisfaction with  outcome and ability to manage further issues um one thing I'm curious about is  if there's a way to ask people if they were met with the kind of  professional they needed um or if they uh

[93:10] they got um foreign got the service they needed and I think that  could look a lot of different ways right like did you did you talk did you talk with a mental  health professional when you needed a mental health professional um uh I think I think this  is another Branch but were you able to speak with someone were you able to speak with  someone were you able to speak with someone who speaks the language you speak um  I think it's another really uh critical thing yeah yeah I mean in the end really what people  I mean people have are going to have their own personal situation and personal criteria for what  met their need at that moment and um and so for

[94:05] example you know we would still want to know if it  was a mental health professional that responded to them but maybe that person did not seem empathetic  or helpful or or what have you then it may be for instance that you know technically the you  know the right professionals so to speak the right category responded but if the response  did not feel good or helpful to that person then you know then that's still not um client  satisfaction with the service right right right are there um I heard you say that your  standards for training and hiring

[95:01] um are also in addition to the data like like you  want to do more than Cahoots and star um are there goals around recruiting people who um will be able to like meet uh the like like linguistic and cultural  needs of the people they're interacting with yeah there are um and that has that's a goal for  us um actually for all of our hiring including um hiring for our cert team and so we um we have  two new clinicians for instance on that team um who do not identify as white or do not identify  as white only and so we're really working on

[96:04] diversifying um a lot of our staffing and this  program would be no different um you know we want to do as much as possible to um you know to have  staff that really need the needs in the community um that being said um it's it's not always  simple it's not always easy and in this field um there's well there's a shortage of  Behavioral Health Care Professionals period um and like I said it's even tougher  when you're really trying to be to meet the those diverse needs but that's  a very very important recruitment goal hiring in general

[97:07] other input on measuring pilot success or goals tree I think we already moved  down from um okay then Wendy could you move us one more time over to your prompting  slide to us please no problem no problem um so we uh we um heard a little bit from uh  Carlos um and we heard um you know appreciation for this work but circling back uh to does HRC  support um does HRC support the pilot concept

[98:04] I am seeing a thumbs up from Christine  I heard thumbs up from Carlos um seeing thumbs up from picker I I have some well I have to I have I think  two buckets of of things that I'm thinking um personally and one is I  I would like to um see some modifications um and then and that's one bucket  and then I'd also like um I I recognize this as uh um and and this I kind of I have a process point  question about our role as HRC and just curious

[99:05] some and maybe I'm a lone person here right um but  I'm curious about the role of HRC because I heard Wendy I heard you say that the direction from  city council to staff was to explore a program like Cahoots and star and it seems like you've  really done a lot of really thorough work into looking at a program that's like kahoots and  star and one thing I'm wondering about is um if like I'm curious about the thinking behind that  direction right if if counsel was aware of other other models that exist and um I'm curious about  because I know that there are some limitations for our charge right to uh we can make recommendations  to city council um and city council directs the

[100:08] staff we don't direct the staff we we have to  would I I what I feel or what I feel like I know from my time on the commission is if like we're  we as a group diverge from that initial direction we actually have to go back to city council and  say like hey we heard this really like thorough presentation from Wendy on exactly what you  asked Wendy to do and um we actually hope like you could consider some other models too um  and I'm just gonna let that sit for a minute I'm not sure how the process works I'm going to  hand it over to Christine thanks Lindsay um so I I just I I guess I want to clarify that I I  do support the concept of the pilot um because

[101:01] I do I do feel like we are overdue as a city for  exploring alternative methods of response and so I'm I'm very much in favor of the concept of the  pilot um but I also uh agree with Lindsay's line of questioning just sort of it would be helpful  to understand um a little bit more about that um Commissioners uh if I can jump in  and um maybe I can make us a suggestion um I mean we certainly we don't want to be  um unnecessarily limited if you will I mean you know good ideas to help the community are  good ideas to help the community right and so um and I think like what we try to do is  be kind of goal oriented right because um it's less about the you know the program if  you will like we want this model of program or that model program it's more about like what are  the goals that you're hoping to accomplish with

[102:03] that program and so my suggestion would be um if I  I heard Lindsay mention um Mental Health First in San Francisco and I think um one nice path forward  depending on the the opinion of the commission would be that if you folks want to um give me your  suggestions for what other things you're you're interested in why then um I could take that back  to the team the you know the team that's working on this the three Department team in the city and  um and we can you know we can discuss like what's feasible and you know what could look into more um  there might be some ideas that we can include in our Council memo because you know if we explored  one of these other models and we were thinking

[103:05] well geez this is a much better fit for Boulder  and for the problems we're experiencing then as staff we would definitely want to recommend  that to council I mean Council can always say no please do this other thing but as staff  we want to recommend what's best for Boulder um and so you know so I think if um if if you want  to let me know like you know what you're seeking um in terms of kind of that additional exploration  then you know then let's look into it as staff and we you know and we can Circle back to you  um because again we're we're interested in the most helpful options for Boulder and  being able to present those to council foreign just real fast I um agree with Wendy um  I think you shared earlier Wendy is going to be

[104:08] pretending or pretending sorry presenting  it's getting late to your city council this month and um and that memo is a good you know  as as you all know we've got to provide memos to council ahead of time a presentation  and I imagine they would want to know um about this conversation the questions  that you're asking the issues that you're raising and it's important for us to relay  that to them and to really have you know enable you to have some kind of conversation even  in that way um with city council as well so I would just Echo um Wendy's suggestion um that you  know either directly or Ingrid and I can certainly help gather comments and questions any others um  from other than the notes we're taking tonight

[105:02] that come to mind and I am guessing that Wendy  would also be happy to come back at some point after the council meeting even if it's early  in the year and the new year to kind of share um a status or any other community  engagement opportunities there will be absolutely absolutely and again as a staff  person what what would be helpful to me is so to use the example of a program Lindsay  mentioned you know what would be helpful to me is like not just you know let's look at  mental health first but it's like is there something specific about you know your knowledge  of that model that you're really looking for for Boulder for an outcome and that's you know  that's why you're interested in looking at it um because that type of those types of  hopes for outcomes really help us to look at those other programs or ideas  in the right lens if you will foreign

[106:07] thank you Wendy and Elizabeth that's that's  really helpful or I find that really helpful so to summarize what I'm hearing you say um  you're you're looking for more input about uh what outcomes and characteristics from other  programs um that we find compelling or helpful or useful to consider and we should send those  to you Wendy ahead of with enough time for you to prepare your memo for the December 8th meeting  I think I think all of us regardless of how long we've been on the commission are pretty like  like unaware of those timelines can you let us know about when you would need that in order to  prepare sure um so I have um I've got a deadline

[107:04] I've got to turn in the final memo all locked  down by November 18th and so what that means is that and so and when you folks so I'm gonna need  if I if we're gonna if our team is gonna look into other options and do some of that and investigated  investigative work that you folks are interested in then we would need a couple weeks in advance of  that um to be able to to look into the information um and really have a conversation about you  know does that change our staff recommendation um does that you know do we think that has  the potential to meet goals in a different way um and so you know we are here tonight  on the 24th of October and so I think

[108:00] you know we'd really be looking for that  at by you know in like the next week or so um you know to just to hear what you know  what you folks are hoping for us to look into that's that's different than kind  of the star Cahoots model and and what your hopes are for those Alternatives in in  ways that they might work better for Boulder thank you Wendy Wendy um okay so there's some uh follow-up  uh with Wendy on um our action items uh for those of us who who um it sounds like I have  some input and anybody else who has any input um uh so I can actually take on checking in uh  with uh Commissioners outside of the meeting to see if they have anything to add to um Wendy  thank you so much for being here um and uh

[109:06] presenting uh the the proposal and the research  that you've done to us uh we really appreciate it and I'll leave a little space for anyone  else to jump in with anything that feels really important before we move on to our next item but  thanks so much for being here with us foreign thank you Commissioners for your time tonight it  was really great to be able to discuss um the the pilot concept with all of you and um absolutely  look forward to getting you know any further input um you have next week and um and always feel free  to to reach out to me with you know with questions or comments um because I really I want to support  Commissioners um as we're all really working

[110:05] together um for the city here foreign thanks Wendy  thank you so much have a great evening everyone okay um back to our retroactive agenda adjustments  thank you all uh for your input on that item um and um retroactive agenda adjustments  um we also have a staff presentation residential access management program  Plan update and input otherwise ramps um uh Elizabeth do we have the staff member  no actually so Ingrid actually reminded me we actually don't have um Samantha Bromberg here but  we do have um the questions that um she posed in

[111:06] the memo that were in the packet so um we thank  You Ingrid um we'll just kind of screen share um the um the questions again and if  you have comments that you just want to share we're absolutely can take those down  and and have them as part of the minutes um if you wanted to you know reach out to  her uh after the meeting and provide any um any responses to the questions  that would that would be fine too um the questions just briefly as Ingrid  is uh scrolling through the document are um there they are do the Commissioners have any  questions on the implementation of Performance Based pricing or ramp strategies do  the Commissioners have any questions

[112:05] or input on the next steps for ramp and the  associated Trail access management work group and do the Commissioners have any  questions or input on the results from putting ramp and performance-based  pricing through the racial Equity instrument so if folks had a chance to read the memo  beforehand or need a minute to you know to do that now or maybe if you have read it already  and kind of have some questions and observations to share that would be great if people need  more time it may not be a great use of time at the meeting tonight to have people do that but  I think that's up to you and Lindsay how you'd like to move through this piece yeah thank  you for that Elizabeth it might be good to just kind of get a little temperature check from  people because this was a big big big big report um and um I uh I myself don't have like a really  I don't know comprehensive transportation and uh

[113:11] like land use background so some of it was really  like it some of it was really difficult for me to get through and I skimmed a lot of it and um  one thing that felt useful um was having the um the completed racial Equity instrument and  the plan and I noticed that one of the questions specifically is about this um and that's on page  50 of uh not our agenda but then I think it's like the number 50 um on on the packet which  is really just like the number for this report um so um my question then is um do uh do  Commissioners do you feel prepared to discuss this um or would it be uh beneficial  for you to spend some more time

[114:09] looking over um looking over  the um either the report or the racial Equity instrument  which seems most relevant to us Christine so I I would say I have skimmed the top third of  it and have not finished skimming the rest of it never mind actually done a thorough reading so I  do not feel prepared to discuss this this evening thank you for said oh I am in  the same place as Christine I support figure and pristine I read more than  half but I do not feel prepared to discuss it

[115:13] I think we do need a little more time to be able to thoroughly read it and have  the responses and the discussion further on thank you thank you Carlos JH any input from you what do you say Lindsay do you are are you excited  to have a conversation about this ramps item oh I know I mean I you know I mean I listen more  than I talk so I'm just paying attention carefully okay perfect thank you JH thank you uh yeah  you're so welcome um I think then it would

[116:04] um it would be best um to follow up with staff um  uh over email Elizabeth am I am I right about that that's fine that's totally fine we can um we can  let um let our colleague know that you just all needed more time there's a lot of information  to go through and you're right it can be pretty um yeah just pretty heavy so if there are any  conversations um that you might want to have with her um you know it could be a quick you  know check-in with Lindsay and Carlos it could just be an email exchange um please just let um  Ingrid and I know what you'd like communicated thank you no problem and then I just you know

[117:01] it I um the way I engaged with this because I  I did skim it first and then I saw the racial Equity instrument was on page 50 and then I  kind of just started there and I read the racial Equity instrument and if that then if there was  anything like I was curious about in the rest of the report I like referenced that just because  it seemed like the racial Equity instrument was the most relevant thing to our  work um and I'm curious if like staff or anyone Commissioners who might have like  a more complete understanding of of ramps um uh I don't know maybe like jump in if you think  like oh that's a reckless approach but for me it just seemed like a time efficient approach um  and um I uh I feel like it it helped me like

[118:00] bring the input that I might have as a member  of this commission into context and relevance um and so I figured I would just share that with  the rest of the Commissioners because this is a a dense report um and um Elizabeth what's can  do you know do you know anything about our timing yeah the timing is actually pretty  short um so I mean I think um obviously they'll would speak for themselves but I I think  it's safe to say that um staff would welcome any input any and all input from the HRC for the  questions in the memo and um it's not a bad idea um to just focus on that you know racial Equity  um instrument if that really kind of helps you um kind of frame your comments and and think about  it and go back to the other parts of the packet and you know kind of do it reverse in that way if  that's um if that works for you please please do

[119:05] um we I believe Samantha probably I'm not sure  exactly which date would have to submit it this week um usually on a Thursday so um I would  suggest that if if other Commissioners do have time you know off outside of the meeting  whoops um kitty cat I wanted to say hi um to go ahead and do that as soon as possible  and again you can share questions or comments with Ingrid and I we can get them over to her  or feel free to communicate with her directly thank you thank you um hey good I think we're good on that item um right and  then we have a staff update in sixth discussion or

[120:00] Roman numeral six discussion informational items  um I'm wondering if we can just wrap up Roman numeral six with the staff update and then we  can Circle back to our action item with election timing sure and I can make this pretty brief I  just have one um slide to share and I'll just say well I'm bringing it up um any any questions that  you have um afterward we'll obviously can send this out in the um send the slides out uh as an  email afterward let me just go to the right page so just a couple of comments um Citywide Christine  you mentioned earlier that the city about the 2023 budget um it did pass at the city council meeting  last week and so just wanted to let you all know

[121:01] that if you as an HRC are interested in having us  a short briefing about you know what that budget looks like um you're obviously more than welcome  to watch the city council meeting the link that is in this this slide will take you right to the  2023 budget page where you can you know read all about it we have a new budget platform an online  platform called opengov which is designed to be a little bit more user friendly and transparent  about what the components of the city's budget are telling some actual more of a story um some  narrative about out what the projects are what are some new you know items to highlight Etc  so we encourage you um to have a look and if you're interested in having a presentation or  a discussion at an upcoming meeting we'd be

[122:00] more than happy to do that um we can also just  specifically highlight some elements of the HHS or the housing Human Services budget or any of it  so please just um again let let me know if that's something you're interested in actually having a  presentation and discussing at a future meeting a couple of other nodes again this is just a  really some highlights that we thought you might be interested in um at the city council meeting  coming up this week there has been a subgroup of City staff member and um and um boarding  commission members across boards and commissions that have been working on recommendations to  improve the boarding commission process and that's going to be presented to council Lindsay  may recall and I'm not quite sure maybe fiker and um um and JH as well um that this is a process  that clay had provided some input on Ingrid has

[123:05] provided some input onto the Citywide team so  anyway um in this slide what you'll receive is just the online Link where anyone including  you all can can watch City Council meetings if that's a presentation you're interested in and  obviously we in other staff will be reconnecting um just on this these topics with board  and commission members in the new year and then another note is that we've  you know been in this virtual space um all during covet except for the retreat back in  August and starting in the next couple of months um boards and commissions are going to be able  to go back to a hybrid model um and then Ingrid and I have both been getting more information  from other colleagues on what that process will look like and so you can stay tuned for  more information and guidance from us on that

[124:01] and then a couple of other things um just some  key HHS or housing and Human Services issues um also at the city council study session  coming up with this Thursday is going to be a presentation from our staff colleagues on the  inclusionary housing policy and to get some input from City Council on that it is an issue again uh  we're just talking about kind of the complexities and the dense or heavy nature of the information  about the transportation on the amps plan same could be true for things like housing policy  but it's obviously something that's a major focus of our department and making sure that there  are affordable housing options in Boulder um so if that's something that you're interested in  or would want to have some separate conversation or information about please let us know I  sent a note out um to our HRC grantees um uh

[125:09] uh last week and copied you all on the survey  that we discussed earlier along with that was a flyer about some mental health trainings that are  available to our non-profit agencies to City staff and I would just really um encourage any of you  that want to take part in any of those trainings we are offering them free through a partnership  with some other government agencies and Mental Health Partners so please spread the word on  that and lastly as a heads up again which we're more than happy to have some other discussion and  get input on um on these from from the HRC we're moving forward and within our department and as  a part of the city um with making recommendations and allocations through the American Rescue plan  act or arpa that is the current stream of funding

[126:08] available from the federal government to support  covid-19 recovery response and recovery and we have several um Investments that we're already  making to help people who are low income who are experiencing disparities economic Prof or  otherwise from covid and that includes a water utility assistance program funding going out for  financial assistance we have something that we're very excited about a pilot project that we are  working on designing and hope to launch in early 2023 a guaranteed income project which gives  people who need it money no strings attached um as a pilot project we're going to be one  of around 100 municipalities in the country

[127:00] using some using local federal or a combination  of funding to make that program happen and so um that and other mental health Child Care other  projects um that we're planning on launching and supporting um through these arpa funds we're going  to be presenting on an update on all of that uh to City Council on December 1st and so it's just  another heads up and if there are some areas in there that you're particularly interested in  please let me know and we can talk either come knock at a nature meeting just provide you  with some information to consider otherwise so that's why I have for an update we  have a lot going on all the time but um anybody have any questions  or comments on on these items a lot going on a lot of good stuff going on

[128:05] um really excited about guaranteeing income pilot  project cool to hear about that oh Christine so sorry I I see a you are you are off commute I  think I might have jumped in ahead of you no it's fine I was going to say at that guaranteed  income pilot project I also think that sounds very exciting so I I would definitely be  interested in learning more about that um let's plan on it yeah I would really like to  hear more about that and then um the other the other question I had and I don't know if this is  the right place to bring it up or maybe later but we're talking about possible hybrid meetings in  November and December and if I recall from last year our pre-scheduled meeting dates in November  and December tend to run right up against the holidays and I know that last year we made some  adjustments in our schedule just to accommodate

[129:00] for people not being able to make those dates  so I don't know if that's something we should uh to work out over email later or discuss  now but I just wanted to erase that too that's great um we actually yeah so  the dates that we have thank You Ingrid um that would be the dates for the meetings  are November 21 and December 19 which fall before but still relatively close um so maybe we  can work off outside of the meeting just to either confirm that those dates work for folks or propose  an alternative if we did it would be moving it earlier rather than later which feels like that's  tomorrow to me but we certainly can accommodate um you know if that's going to be  a if that's going to be a challenge thanks for bringing that up Christine Carlos

[130:03] see you again to mention something about  this program but but I think on Thursdays I think on Thursday I think we have a  meeting about this program for Ponderosa Mr louder but that's actually a different  one Ponderosa manager is going to be there no it's not the same it's actually different um  but I'll mention what that is as well um so yes Carlos is going as a it's another arpa or American  Rescue plan act project um that will focus on um second mortgages a kind of a revolving uh fund  that community members primarily in mobile home communities would have access to and so that's  that's another project where we're hoping to to launch if it's if we get the green light  from city council and Carlos is one of some

[131:00] community members that were um connecting with  um just to get similarly like here's the project idea what are some thoughts about burden  benefit kind of applying those racial Equity um questions to it so thank you  for reminding me of that Carlos foreign well that's all we had for the update um actually  you know Ingrid I'll just say really quickly has been doing so much um including having gone to  some conferences and meetings Ingrid we should have I should have thought to have this on here  too um on immigration um and maybe if there's time um she would be willing to share just a  little bit about um about that experience but that's all I had for now thank you  Elizabeth it will now be the right time to do so

[132:03] I think that would be the right I think that would  be the right time Ingrid uh because I imagine that our action item Roman Roman numeral five will be  pretty quick because Christine did a lot of work checking like like making sure that like everybody  had a chance to contribute feedback to the letter already um uh so I think I think that would be  this would be a good time very Fallen is not is it's actually not extensive [Music] um it was  interesting to attend last week two weeks ago time flies by um to a round table on immigration  and refugees matters where municipalities across the the Front Range met um in Denver and there was  a very clear desire for municipalities to really

[133:04] um continue ongoing Communications that is  not only once a year where we get updates on um where are we at um in regard to public charge  and also DACA status and refugees influx so um all that to say that there's changes  that are happening as we speak that all should also need to be um messaging should  be consistent across municipalities to avoid um Confusion And even creating strategies uh in  contingency plans as things are changing rapidly um DACA right now is um on the line and um there's  potential changes that are coming pretty soon so

[134:04] creating strategies to support communities  will be crucial and then um there were some really positive changes to public charge that  um so creating strategies to communicate that to the community that are streamlined is ideal  um collaborations was highlighted too so it was nice to see people from Longmont and and more of  the clothes neighbors that we have um that are expressing that desire to communicate and and get  more collaboration to support these communities um we really it was a very  basic orientation and very basic um um update to what's happening but um there's  a desire as well for municipalities to learn more

[135:00] about the specifics and the nuances of these  issues so there's there's more to come there's um more conversations to happen and more  collaboration so it was really good to be connected with those um who are in alignment  with elevating and supporting all communities Ingrid I just I just I have a question if I may um  thanks for that report it sounds super fascinating and I kind of wish I could have gone with you  um I'm just I'm just curious because um in the last 12 months 14 months or so um there have been  like two two really large Global events that have caused a refugee movement around the world you  know specifically Afghanistan and Ukraine and I'm just wondering like what was discussed about how  refugees from those two places are are being you

[136:03] know integrated in the Front Range and you know  it's they're just like very large Global events that I think people didn't necessarily anticipate  um and were surprising when they happened right um and I have to say Christine that was not  necessarily um spoken that way as I said a lot of um municipalities came with very  different approaches and different um information and different levels of knowledge  about what's happening in their own municipalities and throughout the state so it was a very  aha moment where everybody was like wait you're doing what what's happening here um and  so having that cross um information was was great

[137:01] um I have to say that the city of Boulder is  looked after and that was um you know um nice to be in that seat right where other community  policies were wondering about wait do you have a language access office what does that mean  how does that work do you have a racial Equity plan can we can we learn more about it so we are  at the at the Forefront of a lot of advancement in terms of serving diverse communities and  yet there's so much more to to do right so um Longmont in in Boulder we look at each other  like yeah we're we're more in sync and in because of proximity as well as the issues that we should  be more informed about and the influxes that we don't our clo are to be following closer  to as well so um yeah it wasn't um

[138:07] that was not a dress I'm sorry Christine and  there was so much more that was discussed though I don't know that's just super interesting I  was just very curious but um but it's nice to hear that uh that others are looking to us to see  what they could be doing yeah and there was more than local government there were agencies there  were a non-profit so I think the round table is open to learn you know every there's place for  a lot there's place for people to um collaborate and and really build a strong Foundation to  better serve communities um yeah and I'm happy to share materials because I got licensed to  do so so if you're interested I can share that

[139:02] Thank You Ingrid sorry to put you on the  spot that's okay I'll keep taking minutes bye we do also provide as I think you all know funding  um to organizations that provide support for our immigrant community members and um yeah have  have sought their advice and guidance and made sure you know when we had Afghan Afghani  refugees coming to this area um and again with Ukraine just making sure we're keeping tabs  as City staff on what those Refugee kind of resettlement agencies are are are doing and what  if anything we need to be aware of to support foreign now we're done with the staff update  thank you thank you Elizabeth and thank You Ingrid

[140:00] um and uh Christine is fixing  an audio issue um which um might be really critical for our next item because  uh Christine uh was really leading that item up um the election timing letter to city  council um Christine are you able to hear us and ask once more Christine  are you able to hear us okay um I'm actually I'm going to move us on  to Roman numeral seven and then we're going to loop back to action okay Christine never mind  all right so we're going to we're going to loop back now to Roman numeral number five um action uh  our only action item on the election timing letter

[141:00] that Christine shared with you all um and that we  need to decide tonight whether or not to um send this to city council so I'll hand this off to you  Christine thank you for your work on the letter um and we'll let you take it away great  um thank you everybody so I think you all received uh messages from me late last  week with the draft of uh of the letter and um I thank you all for taking the time to  read it and offer feedback um I guess I I have uh I I'm I'm not deeply familiar with the  process around what we need to do also I think um uh I think you've all received a copy from me  and I think you've all seen identical copies that incorporated what feedback there was but I don't  know that it's been sent through the HRC email or is part of the packet or if we can simply  just go over it now together I don't really

[142:07] um really know what the process is so uh I guess  two things one you know is there further feedback and then two um Elizabeth and Ingrid I just  I don't know what the process is around this I think once you've decided um on what a final  on the final letter um that week as staff can just enable delivery right I mean it's it's  I don't think we're violating anything by forwarding and yeah you know kind of an official  on be uh email on behalf of the HRC so got it um okay so I I guess maybe before we  get to any decisions I is there anything anybody wants to offer as feedback or to discuss

[143:07] I suppose for the for the sake  of the minutes I'll just maybe sum up briefly what what the letter says  that might be helpful um so I think we uh we as a body are not permitted to take a position  on behalf of the city but we are allowed to urge city council or encourage city council to do so  um so this is regarding measure 2E which will which is on the ballot right now for the election  that is uh that is happening right now hopefully um hopefully people have received their  ballots already and the measure is to um to change Municipal elections to even years to  coincide with state and federal issues as well and in this letter uh We've we've drafted we explained  the reasons why namely that it will increase voter

[144:06] turnout and in particular it will increase voter  to net with underrepresented groups um so uh um just one one other question around the process  also I um we have a Spanish translation and I had asked uh I know someone who is a Spanish teacher  who went through and cleaned up the translation and I hope it is considered a sufficient  translation um I guess that's also a question for Elizabeth and Ingrid if we should approve it  tonight if it needs to or if it can go through official City translation if you're not okay no  that's one of the that's one of the things I think we can't do sorry okay so hopefully hopefully it  was a good translation um and um and so I I guess uh that's really those are those are the basics  I wanted to know if um anybody has anything they

[145:03] want to discuss about this or provide any  additional edits uh that we could do or not mine is a really fine point um uh just kind of  like piece of historical knowledge I'd like to share with the the group because it's from my  my my earliest days on the on the commission um and around that time there were um  some Community groups who were interested in advancing non-citizen voting um so my I  have a fine point suggestion to just replace um citizens or residents and citizens with  residents because I think that like nothing's lost if we do that and if I think I think  those groups have mostly like like put down

[146:01] those efforts for the time being but if they  ever pick them up we don't like unintentionally um uh under undermine them um with our word choice  yes um that's great thank you Lindsay I I know you had provided some feedback specifically  on those places in an earlier draft and so um I took all that feedback and made those changes um I do believe that there might be one or two  places where citizens is mentioned but we also say citizens and residents so uh I'm hopeful  that we've addressed all those fine points um if you feel like we need to make further  changes I think we would have to go back and re-translate it so that could slow us down  a couple days um and so my feeling is that given the timeliness of this we should you  know I would be in favor of moving forward um the the other the other context I wanted to  provide to everybody is that um I think it was

[147:04] two or a week and a half ago um city council did  take the step to endorse certain County measures but they decided not to make any comment on City  measures and they may or may not choose to do so um so you know we should we should sort of  understand that it's possible that that may not happen but nonetheless do think it's important for  the HRC to reach out to City Council in this way ever response I'm fine with that thank you for  thank you for um integrating my my concerns um uh with with that uh with that verbiage and then  I just want to throw support behind what you said like I think even if something's unlikely to  happen um in general you know it's important to

[148:03] say something in general so I'm really  I'm really supportive of that in general if if an issue feels important to us we  should just do something similar to this regardless of the likelihood of outcome I just want to note for audio that uh ficker wrote  in the chat that um I accidentally misspelled her surname so that is a very important fix and  also a very fast fix and one that does not require additional translations so uh we can we  can very easily after this meeting amend that thank you Christy sorry I think it I think then if there's  no other input from people and and

[149:08] it sounds like Commissioners have already had the  opportunity to look at the letter um we can make a motion to approve just second everybody  approve and then it sounds like Elizabeth um uh or or staff um Elizabeth said that staff  should have no problem just forwarding this along yeah and I will check in first thing in  the morning just to make sure that's right um but yeah if you if you just want to let  us know um when you have that and if it's if it turns out it needs to go directly then  we'll let you know and and Elizabeth um would would it I'm assuming whoever makes the motion to  approve it would be a motion to approve with the spelling correction on ficker's name but also  would we need to change the date to tomorrow

[150:04] I don't think so okay not if you're approving  something right now with that change okay yeah historically we we don't need to do that okay I agree okay motion to approve foreign I would ask that in accordance  with all of you that we vote to go ahead and give this  letter to the members of the um

[151:05] the board thank you Carlos yes um anybody wants to Second my motion a second but Wilson okay and I'll say and then yeah I'm watching  when I hit it it doesn't work thank you Gage um uh okay great so pen um so uh  petting this spelling change that we talked about um uh Christine will send on to Elizabeth and  Elizabeth will send on to city council and if

[152:06] that can't happen Elizabeth will let us know  indeed thank you and um uh Christine just want to say thanks for all your work on this letter I  could tell it's really um thoroughly researched um appreciation for you for doing this in  particular particular and then also kind of just like serving as as an example of a commissioner  like taking up an issue and um uh and making a uh like like leading a uh recommendation  to the city council we appreciate it okay and then we are on um one of our  last items the framework for discussion on protected classes and it's it's been some  time since we discussed this item this was one

[153:02] of the items that kind of got that was on it  wasn't on our initial work plan but it came up um uh in in the spring um outgoing commissioner  art beagle um shared with us on the commission um uh some an article about other  municipalities that we're considering um uh including um homelessness as  a protected as a protected class and at that point the commission and some  Commissioners started having conversations with community members mainly or groups or  representatives from external groups about what that might look like um what the impacts of  that would be both like intended and unintended um and then um uh commissioner  feagle completed his term and then

[154:06] um we had quite a considerable turnover  of uh like both Commissioners and staff so um uh picker and Carlos if you remember like this  was this was kind of in conversation when you joined the commission and along with some other  items um we we were having these conversations and um uh one thing I think that like maybe even  everybody thought was like like wait we need to to know more and then on um the city end um  there was there was like a sense of like of like okay we need to like reorganize capacity and  that's kind of like where we've we've where our conversations have been based for the last several  months um and that's where we're at right now but

[155:00] we wanted to pick up this item um because it was  one important one left and hanging during some of those transitions um so that kind of just brings  us up to speed on the background um to what brings us to this moment right now um does anyone have  anything really just to add as far as context okay in the interest of time I'm going  to move on um and oh Elizabeth I saw you on mute yourself I'm gonna hand it to you oh I  was gonna say I've got a uh did you want to go I've just got like a little slide with just  kind of some kind of recapping some of what you just shared Lindsay if that's helpful  um yeah I'd love to kind of get some next you know what kind of desired next steps  are elegant next steps that I like to say um thank you Elizabeth yeah so and and part of  this again is that when um when clay left his

[156:07] staff member and I came into this role in Ingrid  and still kind of a relative relatively new role um trying to backtrack and kind of understand um  where where we are now and how we can be helpful in um making sure you all follow through on this  issue if it's something of interest and in a way um that is kind of mind that part of that context  is mindful of the um you know what else is kind of happening in the realm of of homelessness  in the city which is a lot as you all know um and so one of the things um that I that we think  is really was really helpful I think you you all indicated it was was why we had um Lucas Markley  come to the retreat and just kind of give a very broad overview of the human rights ordinance like  really looking at what that background is what's

[157:05] included in the ordinance and why what isn't there  and why um and it may be helpful to just probe um probe a little bit deeper on that like broad  contextual level um and look at you know the history of the boulder ordinance that of other  cities possibly maybe including you know some of the locations that are had considered or have  implemented an expansion and protected class Ingrid and I in some of the conversations that  we've had with some of our predecessors who worked as HRC liaison in housing Human Services  and our human rights office for a long time have shared their perspective and and you know  their longer history uh in the role and why um for example the human rights ordinances  tend to focus on individual characteristics

[158:01] and identities less so on one's circumstance  or situation um so again that may be um just on you know kind of hearing from some of that  background um maybe more than what has been so far or revisiting that for new Commissioners maybe  may be helpful um in terms of outcomes having some sense from Commissioners what desired outcomes you  might have as a part of looking into this issue would be really helpful for us to understand  and it may have been articulated previously um Lindsay and Christine and jage but really  helpful for us to know is there is there a problem um that we're trying to solve for or you know  are there some specific outcomes that you have in mind you know for approaching this this issue  and then the last you know part of this and then

[159:01] um would love to hear other thoughts from you is  um you know we talked about Lindsay you talked earlier and others who have reviewed the amps  um documents that what was really helpful is to look at that racial Equity instrument which is  something that we are you know continually trying to utilize as City staff and and more and more  and and in everything that we do and we also have a kind of rapid response Equity assessment that's  a calm down version of that that really is just a couple of key questions and they are who would  benefit from a change um a policy a project a change of some some sort and who might be burdened  or what unintended consequences there might be and you just mentioned that kind of in your intro and  Lindsay kind of setting the context for that and that's just those are good questions for every  disc discussion like this if we're thinking about changing something usually because we already know  or believe that someone might benefit from that

[160:08] um but but what else and really kind of  digging deep into those questions as a group um with with you know with as many inputs  from diverse community members as possible so that's just kind of a way uh one again  additional way to kind of think about this and to get some input from you all as staff  as you know we have so many different kinds of programs from Investments to you know  planning things that are happening within housing and Human Services broad you know  kind of cross departments city-wide programs um that we Services we provide and Investments  that we make in homelessness and so um it it can be a large scope that could involve a lot  of people or it could be a focused conversation

[161:00] um we want to be able to do you know to  help the HRC follow through on interest um issues that you're really interested and  concerned about and also just help to provide whatever guidance we can um to just have a  really productive and focused conversation so um I'll stop there and just see how this  lands and if there are any specific other issues that or next steps that you'd  like for us to um to consider take on we are we're reaching that point of the night I  mean it like I can speak for myself I'm reaching the point of the night where my thinking is  becoming like less clear and I'm becoming

[162:01] lessons I think we're hearing Spanish  in the English Channel apparently my capacity is is  diminishing as well no worries so um I I am I I would I I have some thoughts  on those specific props um that that were asked but I wonder if it's the best time to get  into those that that full discussion tonight um I would if but if we're going to move it to  like a future a future meeting I'd like a couple a couple things with the agenda item and one that's  to like move it to the beginning of the agenda

[163:01] um and um uh and so we don't  find ourselves like repeatedly in this problem or this like this issue is  getting our depleted attention um and then um um I'm wondering if it makes sense to share some  uh really there's just the thing that that uh that commissioner Fugal art shared with us wasn't was  an article um so maybe I could share that article to include in the packet so that Commissioners  who were brand new maybe or who just like haven't thought much about this issue for some months now  um could re-familiarize themselves with their the um uh the initial like what what started  the conversation um and then a third thing is considering if we since we're going to be  on the topic anyway if we wanted to invite

[164:08] um invite some some guests to talk more about it  so a staff member and then potentially the the group I was ultimately directed to was was someone  from the ACLU so that's the that's what I would who I would consider inviting if we're going  to give the item like the full attention I think it deserves who we consider  all because I consider all of those things on the slide and Christine did you  have something I was trying to do a thumbs up but I don't think I can do that in this  webinar format so thumbs up I support that thank you thumbs up from Carlos and food cart the one thing I will share and you might remember  I think I shared this with you earlier Lindsay but

[165:04] like months ago um and I'll have to check with  our city attorney's office just because there is an active litigation um that involves the ACLU  and other community members on homelessness we may be constrained as to whether or not we  would be able to engage with it I don't know that that's the case but I absolutely would need  to check on that um but I think in terms of just like who who do you who do you collectively  want to have as a part of that conversation um there may be other you know individuals again  that have you know kind of perspective either from the staff perspective or again like former staff  other other people that have kind of regional or national perspective on this that might just  be good people to talk to um to really just kind of work through the questions um that  you that you may have and so I think we can

[166:03] certainly help do that whether it involves  you know a specific organization or or not yeah I I would just be interested in I mean I don't even know whether this has been done  in other municipalities before or not but um to the extent that we don't have to reinvent  the wheel with the discussion I I would be really just interested in hearing somebody who's  really thought through the implications I can I can share that article from what  I remember there were some municipalities considering um a similar that's why that's why it  came up in the conversation there was there were some municipalities considering a similar move  um and um I think still in the considering phase

[167:05] um but I'll I can easily um find that  in my uh in my old emails and share it uh with uh with Ingrid and Elizabeth for the  package so everybody can have access to that and maybe to help things move along and I totally  agree just generally that we can and should you know adjust the agenda however we need to to  make sure something's got to be last um but I think we can be really flexible to just figure  out what you know what topics will get people um yeah to to not continue to have this problem  but we could again maybe just set up our meeting with Lindsay and with Carlos um to talk about  the agenda for um November and if this is one

[168:00] of the things that might um that you might want  to talk about then really kind of put together some options for that those those people um  to help kind of share their perspectives um with with the commission if that sounds good and  if you anybody else has specific suggestions in the meantime um feel free um and I can certainly  um check in on the issue if there is one um with the ACLU presenting during uh at  a time when there's an active litigation thank you Elizabeth okay so then I think we I got I got um  thumbs up I I was just um I didn't see your thumbs up JH or here uh verbal from  you do you do you feel good moving forward um with those things I proposed putting  it on the next agenda item but ideally

[169:03] like earlier on in the meeting um checking  in with uh with potential attendees pending the thing that Elizabeth mentioned that we  may not be able to invite the ACLU and then sharing the letter that commissioner fiegel  initially shared does that all sound good okay foreign okay well it's it's just a thumbs up so I'm just  we let's just move forward let's just move forward that way no I didn't I didn't see that affirmative  yeah I think you might be having some technical

[170:01] difficulties um and um uh that brings us to Roman  numeral eight which is updates from Commissioners um first uh with event updates what  events did you all make it to foreign I am I went to oh Carlos I'm  gonna hand it to you first we know uh the first event I went to  was last week in Breckenridge I was having at a housing conference quiz and my what I discussed was how to

[171:03] hi and how I came out of the community became a  community leader and got to where the point where I am today even being a commissioner on the Human  Rights Commission that's what I spoke about and we represented I was representing on my powerful  community and I was invited bye the older city of Boulder I wanted to to share that it was one of  the most important events I went to this month thanks so much Carlos it sounds lovely having seen  Carlos speak and the Forum I can just share that people really heard and appreciated um what he  shared um there is another woman on the panel who

[172:04] also was very instrumental in organizing um her  mobile home Community um to get what they needed in terms of safe and affordable uh housing  and Carlos and I thought they they are their stories and experiences in some cases were very  similar but Carlos really again just talked about the leadership opportunities that this has created  for him and it was very impacting thank you Carlos this little bit I attended um some of the indigenous people's  Day events um I really enjoyed um [Music] a a dance I wish I could remember the  the name right now of of the group whose

[173:03] um the dance the dance Collective that I watched  um at the dairy uh but I really enjoyed that okay in the interest of time if there are no other  event updates from Commissioners will make space for other items remember other items an ambiguous  item it's if something um something came up during the meeting that feels very urgent but we didn't  get a chance to address it during the meeting and then follow-up items um this is where staff shares their action items  uh with the level of specificity they choose

[174:03] so I think last thing first we'll plan on  connecting with Carlos and Lindsay to talk a little bit more about the protected classes  a discussion and who else to involve there um we'll check in on making sure um  we have the right process for getting their your letter on Election timing  over to the city council members so um I'll probably be emailing uh with Lindsay  and Christine first dish thing tomorrow um to make sure we're we're enabling  that happen within within our guidelines um we had uh we'll take in any  comments that you all have by email um about the um ramps proposal um hopefully to  get it over to our colleagues at the city staff um so they can include any comments  in their final memo to city council

[175:04] there are several Milestones coming up um in the  next several City Council meetings in November and December um including on the alternative response  program that Wendy discussed and so we'll again um do whatever might be useful to you to help  um connecting questions or comments that you have for Wendy and certainly can plan to  invite her back to another HRC meeting uh after the council presentation and um let's  see then we've got some other potential issues um for future meetings based on your interest it  could be something um input on guaranteed income projects several of you are really interested  in hearing more about that um potentially other issues like budget other projects that are that  are happening now are critical issues you'll want

[176:04] to know about last we have a lot to do to get  some recommendations to you for the November meeting on the funding program change I think  that's got it um Ingrid anything else on our deck the only um missing item is dates  for November and December HRC meeting um to be determined um and let me review here I think that's that's all I have thank you Elizabeth and thank You Ingrid um one quick clarifying question Wendy  said that she wanted that input for the alternative response program by November 4th  am I remembering that right correct go ahead

[177:06] I think that's right so she can have  it to prepare the memo to city council and then angry did you did you ever just agreement no that is correct December I  mean November um November 4th thank you um and then follow up on um is there  amps or ramps I've been I've been saying ramps in the memo it is ramps okay I've just  closed that document but I think it's right highlight on those deadlines and um thank  you all um thank you all so much uh for

[178:04] um your attendance and your participation and for  um your contribution to um run the meeting and do the work thanks to Commissioners and staff  and interpreters and attendees and guests um we hope you have a lovely rest  your night thanks for being here good night thanks everybody appreciate you  can I get a motion please oh I'm so sorry thank you thank You Ingrid for reminding me  of the process point to adjourn the meeting um can we get a motion I move that we  adjourn tonight's meeting thank you my second tip and everybody says

[179:01] thank you good night everybody hi good night good night  thank you thank you very much good night everybody thank you