September 17, 2024 — 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.

[0:05] okay so I just activated recording and I'm testing here to see if the captions are on um Myra or Jennifer can you let me know if you're seeing uh captions or subtitles still not seeing them okay I don't see anything either the recording again here we go hello and welcome everybody to the September um HRC meeting I'm gonna do uh just a couple quick housekeeping items here uh we do have interpreters for tonight's meeting uh so if you would like to utilize the service please uh do select the interpretation uh channel of your choice

[1:00] down below at the bottom of your screen you should see the option it will be a little um globe that says interpretation right underneath it and um you will then click English or Spanish and I'm gonna just repeat that in Spanish real quick buas GL

[2:04] gonna give everybody just a minute give me a thumbs up once you're in there all right thank you all and I am going to share my screen real quick so we have uh tonight's agenda up on the beautiful and JH I'm gonna turn it over to you the floor is yours thank you good evening everybody Welcome to the hes meeting it is 6:05 um and we officially start this meeting

[3:01] my name is John and I'm the chair of the commission the human relation commission um thank you and welcome again so we move on to any agenda adjustment any Commissioners have any Commissioners have an agenda adjustment I can't see anybody but if nobody has anything you guys you probably Christian can let me know if not we can just um move on good to go I think we are good to go I'm not seeing anybody raising their hand for any adjustments here sorry I'm multitasking it's okay moving on to approving our previous meeting minutes at every meetings our secretary takes notes those notes are called minutes

[4:01] every month minutes are including included in our packets we review them and approve them the following month and that is always part of the agenda any adjustment to the minutes okay that so can I get a motion to approve the minutes from okay and a motion to Second the mo and a motion to second the motion second all in favor can you see me ion let see Christian there y we got all eyes all yeses Okay cool so that brings us up to item four which is community participation for Community participation members of the public joins meetings and contribute they have

[5:02] two minutes to share and staff has time to respond community members can sign up in advance uh Christian has anyone signed up to speak so we haven't had anybody reach out to speak it looks like we have give me just one second looks like we have one audience member uh for tonight so if uh they would like to make public comment we just ask that they raise their hand and I can unmute them as well so question already say it but I don't know if I should is anyone present would like to who would who would like to participate yes and if you are looking to participate in the audience tonight you can uh select the raise hand button at the bottom of your screen we'll just give him a quick minute and if if not JH

[6:00] I think you're good to keep moving Okay cool so now we move on to our action items now we're at the part of the meeting where we have discussion and informal items as a reminder we do need do not need to vote but invite you all to participate openly and just looking at the um agenda for tonight we did not have any action items uh that were highlighted in our agenda planning so I don't have anything under there for now um we moving on onto the staff update um we do have we do have a few discussion informational items uh that Aaron was to share out that would be

[7:02] next chage just to let you know so okay let's go let's go with it you know before I go to St bit okay sweet um I'm looking at the agenda and I'm seeing the first one on the list is the letter to City Manager on community tension due to Israel Hamas conflict so um I think yall remember couple months back we had Mark fierer come and speak to that and we had a little bit of discussion around um what is hrc's uh role in this um and one of the things we talked about was the possibility of HRC kind of suggesting to to city councelor city staff about maybe facilitating that facilitating or more likely like sponsoring some kind of of dialogue um and I think like to me the dialogue especially around tensioned in the in the Middle East but like I think that right now just it's really present just

[8:02] for us to have better Community dialogue like I know like with the election election there's new tensions arising and so I think it's a really worthwhile thing to look at um how do we how do we support better dialogue happening in the city that can address these these tensions and for this action item we're specifically looking at that with regards to the Middle East conflict so um I've sent out to each one of you um a draft of a um of a letter to to Nua to kind of inquire into whether this is possible and to give us some information about potential steps that we could take um going forward so um maybe I can bring that up and if there's any discussion people want to have about that then we can do that would it be useful Christian or anybody to maybe we can share share that talk um I can screen share if you allow

[9:01] me or I can send it to you Christian me one sec I think do you not have the you're not seeing screen share at the bottom of your screen Aaron uh oh it's just saying we just can't have multiple presenters so maybe if you stop sharing just making sure you got that option so I'm gonna stop so you can start there you go [Music] okay um I just had to enable it so hopefully it'll work without me restarting um my zoom so y'all can let me know if you see this uh oops we're seeing I'm seeing it at least you're seeing okay perfect great others can give a thumbs up it looks like fer is seeing it Emily seeing it Elizabeth

[10:02] JH is very very tiny though there we go might magnifying glass um okay there we go I think we can all zoom in yeah well here we go so um here's this uh what would be useful should I give some space to do it should I read it out loud and discuss um I don't know if people have read it already anybody want to pipe in with what would be useful here can I clarify what our objective is here or is our objective to get consensus um on sending this draft to nura I think so yeah maybe if there's any discussion if there's any adjustments we want to make if there's larger adjustments we can do those outside but if there's small adjustments then maybe we can just do that now and I would think that a good place to end this would be is if if possible to have consensus to send this

[11:01] off to Nua to give the discussion rolling yeah maybe Erin could you go down a little bit just so we can see most of the letter and then give us a little bit of time to read it and then there we go open up for discussion thank you e

[12:28] e e

[13:21] everyone still need a little bit more time to read it I think it looks really good uh andaron so I you you know it's a really good letter I did read it earlier when you you know when you text when you sent it um it's um a really good letter so yeah thank you Erin for taking the lead and writing it um I wrote this in the chat I think maybe positioning ourselves um with how this issue Rose to our

[14:02] attention as a body as a commission so suggested um moving um moving Mark and their role up to the second paragraph to start um just because that seems like that's how from my understanding how this came to our attention as an issue um so you think this um yeah moving that up um like here yeah okay um this whole thing could probably go away it's probably yeah um I mean unless I think you were naming a couple of I think that part is actually important to are parties in the

[15:02] council that are interested yeah yeah and then the other um small comment I had is honing in a little bit more specifically you say in the third paragraph the idea of dialogue around the conflict has been floated I'm curious if if we want to scope we want to pitch it in scoping that way or if we want to pitch it more uh explore more of like how the conflicts are presenting in our community or impacting our community something a little more like localizing the genocide I think might reinforce the case that we're making that it's irrelevant conflict to address impacts of this

[16:01] conflict on our community yeah yeah that that's good um and then getting rid of the passive voice in that sentence so like who who floated the idea like where did that idea of a dialogue come from um interesting you want to speak a little more clearly to that what you would suggest well I just mean like was it Erin like is it your is it your idea that a dialogue and then like that seemed like a generally um agreeable path to the people you spoke to was like someone I spoke to shared that a dialogue might work I I think it i' I've heard it come from multiple directions I've heard it come directly from city council people I've heard it come directly from Mark I've heard it come directly from me um that to me there's not one source it's

[17:00] just kind of been in discussion okay so something um like we've we've discussed the idea of a dialogue yeah great and then yeah getting rid of has been discussed yeah yeah that feels good um yeah um and then this this might be opening up a can of worms but I'm also curious if given um the anti-asian hate crime that happened last week if we bring that in and just say and I and again this is an open question because I I think there are threads that are related and obviously they're completely different um

[18:00] conflicts but they there's like racial oppression um in both of them so I I don't know if we want to acknowledge that um and I I think if we were a dialogue around issues that impact our community like that to in my opinion gets a little bit nebulous um but yeah curious what others think along those lines now that now that a couple months have passed since you wrote this letter and given um what happened last week yeah um um keep this open to um conflict Beyond conflict orising in our community Beyond just um um in relation to um the Middle East

[19:00] does that sound good I guess I I'm I want to hear what JH and ficker think um because I I guess personally I'm not wholly convinced that a broader conversation on conflict in our community would be effective I think something more direct um about the Israel Hamas um conflict that's happening would be more effective but I yeah I'm curious what others think well I think I think it would be important to keep them separate that's what I would say so I don't know what you think because instead of having it as a big um you know Broad conversation when it's like like

[20:01] Christian just did it's like focus on one thing and then if we have to talk about the Asian um thing we can definitely do something else and I think I've read um an email from um my past commissioner um um what's her name again I kind of forget her name Christine Christine yeah Christine s a good email out and you know Christine is a really well like an outspoken person which you know I wish was with us still and but you know but at the same time I don't know you know you guys we can make a decision and decided to make do something about that too you know and you know so far here does nothing but I'm Haitian you know you know we we have been under the scrutiny that we're eating dogs and cats as well and you know believe it or not I've been to few places here were people are nice but at the same time I feel like because I made a name for myself in this community I

[21:00] feel safe but I have a lot of friends that doesn't feel safe do not feel safe and Springfield that I talk to so at the same time so but I think again the what I would like to conclude on that is if we keep them separate make them each their own conversation it's not because they're different it's because that will get the the conversation unique and it's uh the outcome could be faster and better for each yeah yeah so maybe let's keep this last paragraph off keep this one focused and then be in dialogue about the the broader topic that this is kind of referencing definitely thank you that's great idea okay and I'm just calling out we lost speaker for a moment looks like she is coming back as the panelist I see here now okay okayy guys I'm so sorry my wifi kicked me out so

[22:01] I'm on my phone right now um so last time last thing I heard was Emily bringing up if we should bring up the hate crime in this document so what did you guys decide we were we were leaning towards not doing that and keeping this focused okay that's exactly how I feel as well cool sweet um great anybody have any more thoughts before before we like take it to a vote um I guess something about the first sentence to me is landing a little bit not great just like this is about the efficient flow of City business like yeah that's yeah yeah this is about um to me this is about like it's just that deep pain and historical

[23:02] trauma um in our community that's that's surfacing um but I know I'm curious if others have input into what they how to it even how to address tensions arising in our city feels a little I don't know okay yeah I don't know honestly that it will impact the outcome very much but I'm just thinking about someone who feels extremely impacted yeah I'm I'm realizing that uh kind of the second paragraph gets to um Community dialogue without talking about the Middle East conflict so how to address tensions arising in our city um particularly um in relation to um what is happening in

[24:02] the Middle East um and the way many Community are feeling personally affected by it how's that feel that feels a little bit better anything you'd want to change um maybe like adding something and uh the divisions this conflict is um seems to be

[25:00] exacerbating within our community yeah some [Music] um conversation with our commission about how to addess the T um I guess for me it feels a like this letter is calling to support a process for people to remain in connection and Community with each other uh through these deeply entrenched um deeply personal and painful experiences they're having yeah I I like that I'm wondering if we can you can say that again it's like this this letter is calling for um like a process process through which community members can remain you relationship with one with one

[26:02] another while having um while experiencing I don't know deep while experiencing like deep pain ner yeah think deep pain do we also want to say like and holding Divergent perspectives was that yeah and and exper experiencing different I don't know experiencing different realities or different does that work I put maybe different instead of Divergent okay different perspectives from other members

[27:05] yeah cool sweet yeah I like that it it's front loading it a bit that makes it kind of a little bit more clear what's what's going on here um cool I like it as well sweet um any more thoughts do we all feel good about sending this to TOA to start the discussion um if so then uh I will um move move to move to formalize sending this to Nua whatever the that statement should be yeah I feel good about it thank you Erin for doing that yes cool I think we we vote on this yeah vote to share this

[28:03] formally yeah you're muted J we can't hear you J I'm I apologize um do we need to take a motion to all for it yes no I should I don't know I think it wouldn't hurt um You probably can just you know no kind of note that you all have consensus but um if you want to take a vote that you know always helps for the record so whichever you choose I'll say for the record can somebody make a motion to approve that later I'm I motion to send this letter to nura and I second it and all in favor for eyes okay good that's perfect um and thank you again Aaron for doing

[29:01] that so and Emily for putting your fine touch on it as well so well um is there anything else guys should we move to item six oh I think there's a few more options in this so I'll stop sharing um how I do that stop share cool uh let's see there was on the agenda I think we had something regarding the human relations or the human trafficking meeting so this was a um yeah topic of conversation um also a few months back um and I volunteered to attend a meeting with Christian and Elizabeth um where we met with um Anna Anna Sylvia um and discussed uh the issue of human trafficking and the role that human relations Commission might plan that so this was about a month and a bit over a

[30:02] month that this met so I'm going to share um my perspective and then maybe maybe Christian or Elizabeth can help fill in some things but um basically the gist of it is that um yeah so um there was a nice presentation on kind of a little bit of the issue of human trafficking which is something that's like not affecting us profoundly in Boulder but is still an issue somewhat here and in especially throughout Colorado and so it's something that's worth noting um and it's just um there's going to be people in our community who have felt the impacts of it and so um it's just kind of in dialogue about whether this is something we want to um be take more of a role on um some of what's already happening is that uh city employees are this there's a class that's been being offer to city employees to help city employees know more about it um and and uh yeah um I think in the meeting we

[31:02] talked about like it might not make sense to like have like a formal training for HRC members but potentially there's an option for HRC members to join when the city employees are doing it so we can be informed about it um I think if if I'm remembering right we were like discussing that it might not make sense for us to do much formally without of course having more of the knowledge that's going to come from this and so um it seems like that option is there for any of us who want to to be more informed um yeah and that's that's about the extent of my memory this is about a month ago so Christian maybe you can help out from there or Elizabeth no I think you did a great job there I'm just looking back at the notes that I'm you're probably also referencing and um where my recollection of leaving that conversation is um having Commissioners who might be

[32:02] interested in attending uh an upcoming training at that uh training to see sort of like what the content would be and if it's something that um to bring back to discuss and see if it's something that um maybe would be worth pursuing uh bringing to the community or supporting in some type of way that the HRC can yeah yeah right yeah think that was the the needed point of like there's a possibility of like the HRC recommending like hey this should be a training that's offered for anybody in Boulder who wants to attend maybe to nonprofit leaders or like other leaders in the community or just community members there's a few different ways that that could happen and so like that was just floated as an option of something we might support but before we support that it would make sense for maybe some of us to attend one of the the future trainings if we feel called to get more involved yeah Emily I have a couple of questions can I ask

[33:00] them um so how did the did can you remind me their name was it Anna or Anna Anna Sylvia Anna um can you did Anna mention any ways that Boulder is tracking the incidents of human trafficking in the city I don't think so Christian you want to take that Christian or should I if you can that would be great because I'm not sure what the answer is to that yeah so um and I'm not 100% sure what the answer is either except that and I was gonna mention this anyway um that um the city of Boulder is not an agency that would be is is kind of first and foremost enforcer of any kind of laws on human trafficking um that primarily uh comes through the County District Attorney's office so um it so what we

[34:03] don't want to do I think is and you all we as staff kind of give community members an impression that the city is an enforcement agency on human trafficking um whether or not the city keeps data kind of tracks data separate from the District Attorney's office I don't know but we can certainly find out um but the the outcome if you will um or kind of the Imp imp that if the HRC were to ultimately host some kind of event on human trafficking would would by Nature be more along the lines of this is information that we want everyone in our community to be aware of you know what to look for kind of breaking some of those stereotypes that we sometimes carry with who is impacted directly um by who is Being Human who who is being trafficked and what it look like in a community for general information um and

[35:02] you know kind of Engagement so we're all better better aware and have better capacity to support people um who might um be experiencing that but it would not be to um you know kind of get the city right to to take on an enforcement role that it it's it just doesn't have it's it's not within the city scope it's more of a county um State um other government agencies um role yeah that may be more of what you were asking for Emily but just wanted to toss it out there thanks for that Elizabeth yeah the the reason that I asked the question is just that with it being a like by Nature a crime that's very hidden um I guess it it concerns me to say like it's not an issue in our in our city um before ingred left she told me that that was a an issue that she was concerned about and that she would potentially like us to take on so that's

[36:01] in the back of my mind um that that she had that desire and then also just want to share like a personal experience that um I was driving a couple of weeks ago down by like Baseline and 30th um and they're like on the backside of a highway sign it said like human trafficking Hotpot in somebody had tagged it and said that and then someone said that's right or agreed um so that again this is this is just like it it called my attention um and so I would I would really like to attend that training and and I would like to continue to explore um what what ways one to get more scoping and understanding of like what if it is a county level um thing that is tracked like what is it what's the um incident incidents that

[37:00] we're tracking on a county level um and then I don't I don't know much about how to prevent human trafficking and so would love to take the training to learn more about what methods are effective so that maybe um like you were talking about Elizabeth maybe as body uh we can put on a training that supports our community and understanding how to intervene effectively sounds good to me me too that was really well said Emily thank you a little additional information as well on this the um looks to me like the next training opportunity for City staff

[38:02] and so um that we would make available to you all would be through um in the spring of 2025 is when that would happen I'm not sure um the organization that uh actually puts on the training is the laboratory the lab to combat human trafficking um and this is a large uh sort of like part I guess Community Education is a large part of what they do um and so uh if there are opportunities for training that are in the area or that are open to the public that you're interested in attending there's um I don't think anything saying that you need to wait until the spring but just want to put on your radar that is when um the next training would be on tap for City staff cool are we also able to meet with

[39:03] someone from the county who who is actually in charge of enforcement just to get a better again a better understanding from their perspective I think I don't know but I when clay was there I've tried to meet with uh the person in the county because I got concern about it and I think I told you that guys um but it's I don't think there's any enforcement on it to be honest with you because I think it's a subject that's hot everybody is afraid to touch it and I think there are people I can forward you the email and the contact I think clay shared with me that I've been that I talked to if you want but uh you know I have tried and it's like there are a lot of loose to go to and it it gets to a point where um even

[40:02] though you want to help it gets to a point where you feel like okay if D there their authorities to pick action they don't so how do I I am the volunteer and I bring the information and they have it all they have all they need they still um I don't know I'm not gonna say they don't think any action but they still a barrier that something you can't see with your eyes it's probably some kind of blockage or like speed bump they have to go over so yeah but I can share that with you if you need to thank you JH and um am I understanding you correctly that you did meet with someone from the county and that I did okay yeah I did and uh this is um I think it was like three years ago when I first started and then I experienced something like uh in allance where it was these people that were packing those walks you know and the and the queries that's

[41:02] their name for them and I show up there everybody was like gone because they didn't know who I was and they were all like you know people from outside of here some are Hispanic some was all black and then when I talked to a guy there and he said you know it's it's like they live here and they give them like little how would I say it like little tense kind of but you know if you go like in the parking lot of the Home Depot you will see those little houses they put two three on two three of them in one yeah and then I think when clay was there we tried but you know it's in the county and they really give me the you know warning go and I tried to so like labor exploitation is what I'm yes yes he's pretty much human trafficking

[42:03] yeah I know earlier in the year um before or prior to the staff training that um that I know I participated in for city of Boulder staff there had been the district County District Attorney's office did kind of co-host um a session that was specific for people who are um front-facing Community facing kind of engaging with um community members or agencies where they may may be more likely um to encounter people who are being human traffic if there's an interest um in uh reaching out to County staff again that's something um in addition to the contact that J um will share something Christian and I be more than happy to help uh connect right and if you do decide if it's going to this training first first it seemed like there were some head nods to that um and then kind

[43:01] of seeing what kind of event you might want to host for community members in city um there's certainly always an option of of inviting or asking someone from the District Attorney's office to come as well um so I think there are lots of opportunities there moving forward however we might want to approach it yeah I guess I'm just um recognizing the the timeline of having having the training be the hold hold up for us moving forward um in doing something as a commission for this um so just just noting as we try and initiate projects like the dialogues project um that that could be a you know something that pushes this back quite far um if we wait for that so um I'm I'm happy to and and would be interested Elizabeth to meet

[44:00] with people from the county if that's um okay with you all the rest of the the other Commissioners um and I'm also happy to do some background research I'm sure that some of the data is publicly available and some of the like research on what interventions are effective for human trafficking um so I'm happy to do some background research if people think that would be helpful great yeah I'm interested as well and it seems like JH is interested so are we able to have someone come talk to the HRC as a whole Al together I don't know Elizabeth is that possible it is I'm just wondering I'm just thinking out loud so the um the Colorado lab the organization that Christian mentioned earlier and Erin um the group we were talking about with Ana syvia that that is their role to to kind

[45:03] of be the the education kind of little a advocacy Wing um on this issue um and so if you if the concern is that you're thinking like oof spring 2025 that seems like a long time away we might not want to wait for that the I believe the other or another option that and Christian and I kind of heard from Anna syvia is you could you know we could reach out directly to the Colorado lab and just start talking with them to say hey we're potentially interested in having a community facing event um can we talk with you so I they're they're open right to kind of right sizing their presentations or their format based on community interest um so if if if you if you as Commissioners really know that

[46:00] you want to move ahead with something you're just like wof we don't want to wait till next spring or don't feel like we need to go to a training first ourselves that's fine um we can certainly help to just continue to connect you to the to the Colorado lab and you know just talk about that in terms of the scope and you know we'll have to it'll take more conversation and certainly chrisan and I would flag like o That's starting to get into a budget line item now it's like you know renting SP you know there are all sorts of like logistical considerations that we'd want to have plenty of lead time about and you as well if it seems like it's going to be a pretty substantial amount of time then we as staff might need to you know again like get some clearance so you have kind of Direction so you can so we can help you um to the extent that we would need to for a quality event but but an occasional special event like

[47:00] this if it's not you know incredibly you know logistically demanding um and not costly um is something we can we can help move forward with but anyway backing backing up into the question again um if you you don't have to go to a training first yourselves in order to think about doing something publicly in the Boulder Community if you know you want to go in that direction we can certainly reconnect with the Colorado lab with help from Anna Sylvia yeah and I guess just to fill in a little context one of one of the reasons we were having the conversation and it didn't feel like too big of an issue for it not to be happening till spring is it doesn't feel like there's a huge amount of urgency with this like it's a useful thing for us to be aware of it and potentially to see if there's any meaningful actions um but at least from the conversation it didn't feel like there was like a a sense that like this is something something we have to do right now but that doesn't mean it's something we can't do right now and so I

[48:00] think if if y'all are feeling like a sense of like that this is a high value item for you and like you want to move on it I think I think that's great I think for me personally given the the nature of the crime and that it is hidden um J's experience in Lions and the graffiti that I saw the other day I respectfully disagree that it's not an urgent issue if people's lives are if they're basically being enslaved that's an emergency um so I and I know I know that our time is finite we're we're volunteers and there are many meritorious issues um but I think you know as we talked about in our last meeting of like what can we be effective at um perhaps putting on an event is something we can be effective at um promoting Community awareness of

[49:00] how to properly intervene and I wonder in terms of the timing Elizabeth with the training I think perhaps um you're talking about like you know these events have a lot of logistics um there's a lot that goes into them so I think potentially a springtime event um that is after the training but we're working on simultaneously um before the training is perhaps a a timeline because of course I wouldn't want to I wouldn't want us to put a put on an event um and us not be very well informed um but I think by that time we could be well informed as we plan the event and I'm curious curious how others feel about that I think that's a good idea I honestly at first I wasn't necessarily thinking of putting on an event as an HRC I was thinking of having someone come to speak with with us in the meeting as an education aspect just

[50:02] because it seems like that part is already lacking and we could use the information and after that meeting we can kind of decide where we want to take it so an event would be great but I don't know if that needs to be the first thing we do yeah I definitely appreciate that point that maybe meeting with the lab they will say x is a better use of your time and and resources So yeah thank you it's a good point great cool that feels like some some good clear direction to to get moving there definitely can I quickly just repeat back what I think for Christian and I um so it

[51:01] sounds like you're interested in the next elegant step is having a conversation with the Colorado lab to kind of further explore the idea one option might be to have them come to you all which is what I think I just heard we just heard from Feer another option could be just based on their experience to say you know just see whatever what recommendations they would have um one would be coming to you all another would be com you know kind of helping the HRC hosting you know some type of event for community members at large or perhaps there a third or fourth or fifth option but um but the next step is that you all want to speak with them is that something you want to happen in between now in the next meeting for like one or two Commissioners to say we're we're going to meet with them again like Aon volunteered the first time to meet with

[52:01] Anna syvia or is your desire to have them a representative come and talk to you at a meeting and and do we want um like somebody specifically from lab or do we want like Ona syvia to come from from staff personally I was thinking for the entire during our next meeting or whenever you know the lab is available just so we're all together and able to kind of get educated together and make decisions together sounds good to me okay just checking okay great I think that's all we have for the that

[53:03] discussion that was good we have one more thing on the agenda in discussion items that's this one is not me Q4 2024 scheduling who's who's that you want me to do that Christian or you want to yep um I think you have a little more uh background on that so if you can pick that one up that's great yeah so Q4 fourth quarter 2024 hard to believe we're almost in the last three months of this year um just wanted to lift up because we've had have a couple of new Commissioners um what um JH and fer already know is that uh heading into the multitude of fall and winter winter holidays scheduling can be pretty challenging it's not uncommon for boards

[54:03] and commissions generally or committees to not have for example a meeting that would normally land on the third or fourth week of December right between you know kind of Christmas New Year other holidays um similarly oftentimes the the week of the HRC meeting falls on Thanksgiving week so just really wanted to have some time of call out your time to to kind of talk about that so Christian and I can support your planning one thing also that we wanted to share that um for our housing and Human Services Department back in 2020 preco so early 2020 we as staff had a plan to bring together in one place at one time um all of the members of boards which would be housing Advisory board our commission which is you all and then the housing

[55:01] Human Services Department also works with like eight or nine committees um who are city manager appointment um committees that help us make um funding decisions for our competitive fund rounds tenant advisory committee we have an older Adult Services advisory committee really bring everybody together and so you can meet each other you're all supporting the work that we do every day serving our community in different ways and there's really never been a time to bring folks together just to have some shared focus on the work that we do as a department to serve our community um and by extension all of you so obviously covid completely scrapped all those ideas um but we've recently as staff begun talking about that again and would really like to make this happen uh we have a very specific um um uh topic that we' love to engage with folks about and that is we're looking at

[56:02] creating um a different kind of annual report if you will um for a department that really allows community members to look and see um how the work that we're doing as a city staff and the Investments that we make in other groups to help um achieve our outcomes um how that's going and share some stories about um you know the needs and the work in our community so we would really love to have input from all of our board commission and committee members on that and we are thinking uh that the first you know part of December just a very front edge before things right kind of after Thanksgiving before the craziness of the end of the year might be a really good time to do that so we're floating this question to all of the uh four mentioned um board committee Commissioners including you all to see if if you're interested in

[57:01] that and if so um maybe the most convenient thing for most of the groups would be if they have a regular meeting to just you know kind of name this as a December meeting rather than having a regular meeting close to the holidays and again um it's totally up to you typically HRC meetings are not held right kind of that close to kind key holidays um so just wanted to bring out just the general question about scheduling for those two months so we're not kind of in a scramble and trying to get a hold of people and saying you want to meet don't you and having that kind of fenetic communication but also I'm just posing this concept of having all of our board commission and committee members come together in early December for definitely meet and greet networking you know share some food and beverages but actually have a time for you to to give us some of your smart input um on some

[58:02] communication and evaluation plans that we have I love that idea um early December are we talking like like 9th the 13th or more like 16th to the 20th what we would earlier in the month the better um so what we would do is just go ahead and and one of our admin colleagues in our department has already started to look at some potential dates and locations just in case in case you know all y'all um like this idea and so we would probably put out to you all um a c a couple or few different dates just to see which one works best because we're probably talking about you know 30 plus people collectively um including but but certainly Beyond yourselves um to try to to try to find a date but the earlier the better just because a lot of people certainly for us as staff and many other

[59:00] folks in your personal lives um things get a little crazy as we end to in the calendar year so earlier the better in that month cool cool yeah I'm I'm in a a master's program now and so I'm now kind of along the the academic calendar um and then you know uh the 12th 12th of the 13th I think is the last day of cu's Academic Year um which could be nice to have it before that because then I'll go on vacation but also like could be could be nice to have it afterwards so it's not conflicting um um yeah because because actually yeah I might be missing one or two of the next couple meetings just because I have a a class like right now I'm skipping a class for for this meeting um and hoping to do that minimally for the for the rest of the semester which is just October and November um but just have that in aware awareness that Tuesday evenings are challenging for me for the next couple

[60:03] months for in terms of scheduling our next couple of meetings I'm wondering if there's an option where we choose to convene only if we have agenda items similar to we chose to I believe skip our May meeting or something like that because we didn't have an agenda item so I'm wondering if that's possibility rather than say we're not going to convene in in November or December because of the holidays we'll only saying something like we'll we'll check in early in the month to see if there's any if there are any agenda items I think that's mostly a question for Commissioners yeah uh I'm super down to to not meet if we have if we don't

[61:01] have any clear agenda items um yeah I mean like I said like the the next couple months are hard for me to attend anyways um so um but yeah I think in general um it's good to to meet if we have a good reason to meet and I'm also in support of like giving us good reasons to meet because I think it's better for us to to meet and so yeah orienting less towards like oh nothing to do like let's not meet and orienting more towards like let's be active and engaged so that there's reasons for us to me would be my expanation yeah I think that's a good idea as well yeah can I ask a clarifying question just make sure I understand and your question and the response is Emily if you were

[62:00] to is there interest in having um the commission's December meeting be the gathering with other board commission committee members are you saying regardless if we have that meeting you'd still want to determine whether whether you'd have a meeting later in month that would that would be my preference not to to having it be December meeting um I I see the the value in our input and I appreciate you all asking for input and I think there could be I don't know what what we might be doing in December but I don't necessarily want to say like no we're not going to meet because of this um convening that seems pretty separate from our typical functions I think that's great yeah I think understood just to making sure we understand thanks yeah if there's good reason for it I'm okay with meeting two weeks in a row or twice in one week or or whatever

[63:01] especially if it's very different kind of meetings so yeah me too yeah cool that's good sweet does that give um Elizabeth and Philip and Christian does that give you all the information you need from us I think so um it just um if any of you all are planning on taking time off around Thanksgiving and those end of year holidays um and again I'm just calling it out because most times that is what happens um and if if we're lacking two Commissioners we won't have quorums so if you're if you're taking vacation if you're visiting family if you going on a trip just taking station like whatever that is um and it would affect the normal kind of third two Tuesday meeting time let Christian and I know right away so that we can change the date or again

[64:03] that could impact your decision as to whether or not to have a meeting we're not trying to push you in that direction just it's it is an annual question and so the the further ahead we can get on it um the easier it is for us to to plan and for Carlos and JH to you know kind of meet with us for that agenda prep and um either move ahead or or not perfect yeah I I will probably be around early December I'll probably travel the week of Thanksgiving but it doesn't seem like that's something a time we're planning to schedule something right um I'm not actually looking at the November calendar right now I'm GNA be honest I'm just uh taking notes but our November our no sometimes it is that week and sometimes it's the following week we're scheduled for the 19th so I don't think it's an issue yeah the Ed break is 25th to the 29th so I'll probably travel then so yeah week of thanks the week of

[65:02] Thanksgiving follows the week that we would be meeting gotcha thanks I will be on work travel um on the East Coast um but I should still be able to make the [Music] meeting great I don't have any travel plans so I should be able to attend that meeting I will be here and you know if we hav it it's fine if we don't to it is what it is so great thank you everybody cool thank you so are we moving on now to stop update okay thank you we're like right

[66:00] on time this period was supposed to end at 710 and we're at 708 so love when that happens so now thank you um thank you Elizabeth any question or clarification needed from any Commissioners I think we already passed that moving on now we can move on to the agenda item 8 which is update from Commissioners wow we already did that too that's F we are we do have staff update slides sorry I might not have heard you okay cool thank you let's do the toop update then and I'm gonna go turn the light on because it's getting dark I'll be right back you get your glasses on too all right and sorry to be toggling sort of like

[67:01] back and forth so much tonight uh I wanted wanted folks to be able to see each other while you're uh talking rather than just looking at a PowerPoint screen and maybe a strange thumbnail of just one person um so on your screen here you should be seeing um we have a number of updates to share with you all um Elizabeth I know you've been talking quite a bit here so I can um just mention what I'm seeing here and then if you want to jump in I have a bunch on the next slide here um so as you all may or may not uh be aware the city manager did release the 2025 um budget city council is going to be considering And discussing the budget in upcoming meetings uh including on October 3rd um as always there is the option to tune

[68:03] in um to those meetings provide public comment um as well as uh just be present there for the discussion so um if you would like to do so and are not aware of how to do that just uh get in touch and we can make sure that you have that information at your hands there um anything else to add to that Elizabeth all right um city police oversight panel recently updated it bylaws um including some modifications to its process meets on the second Monday of every month and the meetings are open to the public um I know this group has uh in the past prior to my time here um expressed interest has discussed uh sort of matters relating to the police oversight panel and so just

[69:00] wanted to bring this to your all's attention um very similar to City Council meetings and very similar to this uh group's meetings they're open to the public um and so you can check out uh what their meetings look like I believe there should be links here but we can share that out as well if you're interested anything that you want to add to that Elizabeth no okay and then the child friendly cities initiative um there's going to be an upcoming youth action plan workshop on September 30th and I know Elizabeth has an update for this one as well so I'll quickly speak to this one um thanks Christian so JH and fer will remember that we have occasionally presented about the child friendly cities initiative it's a collaboration between the city of Boulder one of our long local nonprofit agencies called growing

[70:01] up Boulder and UNICEF uh the international um uh organization in which the um it's a youth Le process that involves looking at a wide range of different um needs and opportunities that specifically affect um and could be benefiting our youngest community members ERS so this has been um a process in place for uh over the last year and we have a little ways to go yet um but just wanted to share that the next milestone for the process is a youth action plan Workshop that's taking place on September 30 from 9 to 11 a.m. the reason that we pick that date and time is because that is a school off day for bvsd students and therefore um a higher likelihood that

[71:01] students would be able to participate um the reason that we have made some of these um uh let the HRC know about this process is be number one because one of the areas of focus of of Unicef and of course generally um of the city and many of our nonprofit agencies um among all of issues and impacts on children and and ways in which children can engage in city um are regarding you know safety you know kind of the rights of the child um those are some of the areas that globally um municipalities are are kind of incorporating into their child-friendly City plans so just wanted to bring this up more of as an update even though Aaron and Emily you're hearing about this for the first time um if any of you I sent the information to JH because he's really kind of shown in the past some interest in this topic I know the

[72:02] daytime hours make it a little more challenging for a lot of adults to come um and if you can't make it that's fine there'll be another Workshop in November and there will always be opportunities if you all are interested in um us kind of providing some updates um on this process in the future if you do want some more information about that Workshop or about the um initiative in General feel free to let me know and and happy to to speak to you yeah I would like to have some rainfall is it happening during the day Elizabeth no yeah I sent you um an email last week but I know you've got a lot of those emails that is so I can go ahead and send that again um or just send it the flyer to all of the Commissioners if if any are interested as well thank you great of course all right um then an update on the minimum wage discussion as many of you

[73:01] will remember we had City staff member Taylor Ryman uh come and give an update that would have been at the July meeting um and shortly there after Taylor was taking that presentation to a city council study session that study session took place um which is the the uh YouTube link that you see on your screen if you are interested in checking that out I will say um the conversation on minimum wage uh Taylor mentioned begins at about two hours in um so if you're just looking for that content uh you can save yourself some time uh just bump ahead um the next steps for uh this um initiative here is Council is considering a draft a vote on a draft ordinance at the October 10th um council

[74:04] meeting just for folks awareness there and then lastly just wanted to bring to your attention uh some events that are happening in the community um and opportunities to provide uh some feedback and input um two service providers in the city so uh we are just at the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month which runs uh September 15 to October 15th uh there were five Central American countries that celebrated Independence Day on September 15th and Mexico on the 16th um the uh Festival delil is going to be happening that is that will be this upcoming weekend and over at the Colorado shiaka and um you can find some more information about that looks like

[75:01] there's going to be plenty of opportunity to um learn engage with uh different types of vendors different types of music different types of food it looks like it'll be a great opportunity so please do check it out and report back if you do go um and then the next two uh bullet items that you see there are uh more sort of Human Services focused there's a Naro inclusive housing Summit um on Monday October 28th from a 00 am to 5:00 pm um you can register lunch will be provided uh and it's an opportunity for uh community members professionals anybody who has an interest in um housing specifically uh with a focus on folks with disabilities as invited to attend it's put on in

[76:01] partnership with Boulder County Housing and services Denver uh City and County Housing and Human Services as well as um Colorado Housing Finance Association or chaffa uh and that will take place at oncu campus um and then the Boulder County Human Services is hosting a number of um Community input sessions uh to get uh feedback and ideas on how they deliver their services Boulder County Human Services administers um The Lion Share if not all of the federal public benefits for our area uh so things like uh food stamps Medicaid um cash assistance or Colorado works for families uh those types of benefits um so there's going to be the in-person session in Boulder on uh September 20th

[77:03] to 2:30 p.m. and then there will be a number of other sessions throughout Boulder County and virtual sessions they each have a unique registration link um so I have on here to contact me if you are interested in attending I just got some flyers that I'll push out to you all um that have a QR code for those individual um sessions so no need to get in touch uh I will send out the flyer to you all and you'll have access to all of the registration links um and I do not have any uh Community event or anything um identified at the moment for indigenous people's day which will be October 14th just before our next um meeting but did want to call attention to that I know there will be um there will likely be events that uh come up for the community just have not found

[78:00] them yet I have a meeting with our commun uh Communications liaison um to start discussing our uh October uh events and everything so I may have some more information that I can share with you later in the week that is all I got for you any questions from anybody or anything to add Elizabeth maybe just one thing to add again mostly for Aaron and Emily's sake is that um for many years up until about a year and a half ago the human relations commission was um one of their uh functions although it had been it's not in the ordinance it's just kind of had been a habit or tradition for the HRC to be helping make funding decisions for our human relations fund which provides resources to lots of events including those for Martin Luther King

[79:01] Day juneth indigenous people's day immigrant heritage month so among among others um and so um what chrisan was just mentioning about you know like not having the information yet on the events we definitely know some events are happening um and it typically just takes a minute you know once um for those ages agencies to get the city the information that we can then help promote on web pages and impr press releases and whatnot so we'll definitely share that with you um that funding process is now being managed by our our departmental investment staff um who are a mighty mighty small But Mighty force and um and so so the city does continue to support um events like that when we get requests um and so we'll be we'll be happy to share that information with you when we have it just like Christian said just a little bit of background for you the two of you and an update for JH and

[80:03] fer yes thank you are we no longer being asked to serve as reviewers for those funding decisions no we're not nope y there is an opportunity if any of you are interested moving ahead um to help fer was serving in this role um for for a while kind of when we were making the transition from HRC to staff we do have a a team of Staff members who are not in our department who are kind of community connected um have um other types of lived experience um to just help review applications as they come in and and make and help make decisions and but yeah it it had become a process I think it's safe to say JH and fer that was um had more inefficiencies than efficiencies including for folks who were requesting funding and so with

[81:02] input from the HRC and the um granty agencies that have been receiving human relations fund we reached out to everyone this has been a little minute a minute now um got their input about several things and ideas and options that we had to to try to make that process a little more efficient and And Timely especially considering that um most of the organizations who are requesting funds are very small some of them are all volunteer agencies and just you know they don't have like development staff right to manage and go through our process so we we've done a lot to streamline and simplify and one of the things has been to you know just kind of re readjust um you know how we're able to make the decision so it was great to have the HRC helping with that for a very long time and I think it's again to say everyone was kind of eager for a little a little change to the

[82:02] process got it thank you for that history Elizabeth cool thank you Elizabeth um sorry my voice is going out um moving on we are uh now we can move on to agenda item 8 which is update from Commissioners that usually includes any events update and other items are there any updates from Commissioners I think we already did that but you know if you guys have any updates no updates I haven't attended any events over the last two months unfortunately okay thank you we are almost at the end of the meeting which is with that I

[83:01] would like to pass it on to staff to resume the follow-up items you know if you guys have anything elizabe or question you want to add yep I have two follow-up items uh identified here and Elizabeth correct me if I'm wrong or Adam on there um but number one um I will communicate with uh the HHS uh Department director and City manager's office to let them know that uh the human relations commission will be sending a letter uh to the city manager's office and to be on the lookout for that and I will be available and uh ready willing and able to support and any communication um wherever helpful and then the second piece is uh we'll reach out to our point of contact with

[84:01] the lab uh to combat human trafficking to discuss uh getting a staff member at the upcoming October HRC meeting I the third no I think the third thing is just as I mentioned if we um um are going to be reaching out to other HHS housing Human Services um board commit board and committee members about a joint gathering in early December so just watch your email for some dates and uh hopefully we'll find one that works for most people okay looks like Emily's raising her hand yeah can I ask a question oh yes please go ahead um so I Believe Christian you

[85:01] sent in our meeting packet the response to the um our commission's letter to city council I'm just wondering if there will be an opportunity to discuss that and if there's interest from the other Commissioners at some point to discussing that response I think that would be that's a good idea to discuss it when we get it if we do sorry can you clarify your I don't think I totally understood what you were asking so I believe Erin before we started and Christine forwarded us this um letter but we couldn't sign it because we weren't Commissioners yet um a outlining some concerns about our commission's role and wanting more clarity um and Christian

[86:03] provided us in our meeting packet the response that I can't believe I can't remember who signed it um mayor and mayor Pro yeah yeah Aaron Brockett and Nicole spear um signed it so I was I was wondering if we could discuss that um and I know it's well we still have half an hour I don't know if everyone's gotten a chance to look at it um or if we want to postpone the discussion to a future meeting but wanted to bring up um I would like to go through it and see if there's any follow-up items we can pick out um I wasn't really I didn't really um understand I guess to put my cards out there I didn't really understand where our role was clarified or what they were asking us to do um and I was curious if anyone else

[87:01] had anything they wanted to talk about related to it I actually missed totally missed that that was included um so I I'm gonna go ahead and read that it has been a while since I've also looked at it so I wonder if having the discussion next meeting would be best yeah ideally even though I think you know it would be comprised its own agenda item for like discussion um so following process it's probably better to put it on an agenda for a future meeting however before then um I think Christian and I would just encourage you if you have specific questions or if you would want um either Christian or I or another staff member to come if if you have questions that JH and Carlos know about ahead of time when Christian and I

[88:02] meet with the two of them before the October meeting then we can talk about that and and kind of for agenda planning um so it's tiny bit of an extra step or you could just say you know the request to JH and Carlos is just to like let's just have time on our on our meeting next week if you won't need additional support um I can share just briefly that it is um the content is um really describing where city council landed on its General priorities for the next couple of years so um it's likely a a communication that went out to all boards commissions and committees it wasn't necessarily just a very direct response to to y'all yeah I'm looking at it now it definitely seems like a copy piece to to most people like tweet thanks for your priorities here's where we landed on and not there's not a whole lot of direct response to us in

[89:00] that and that's not at all dissuading discussion but maybe just some context um but if folks haven't had a chance to review it it may be best to request that it it you know the the topic goes on the meeting agenda for next month yeah I would like to request JH that the letter go on our agenda for next one's meeting wow I'll put it in thank you for making that request thank you J and then Elizabeth am I understanding you correctly if we have any questions that might require followup to email you and Christian before the meeting a week before the meeting with those questions yeah or or via J and Carlos really either way but just we we want to be sure we're as responsive as possible so if you have like a burn learning desire for information and someone to speak to it that's not one of us we work ahead of

[90:00] time to see like hey is there someone else who you want to or again or sjh and Carlos to try to invite to ask right kind of ask us to to make available for this meeting so you can have a productive conversation sometimes it's not necessary but sometimes it's if you think it's helpful and you want somebody to come speak to it Christian and I can help find that person or get the information to relay on to yall so you have a good good discussion sounds good thank you yep well looks like we're finishing early is that correct I'm sking something think we're good well cool um thank you everyone with that we can move on to ad joining tonight's meeting at 7:33 and thank you all for your participation

[91:01] tonight thanks so much uh Christian Elizabeth should I send you that letter and then you send it to Nua you could send it directly to her and Christian as he mentioned earlier and I can just kind of give her and our director the heads up um or you can send it to both of us and Christian can forward it on to her either way doesn't doesn't matter to us okay um trying there there neither way is better than the other doesn't matter okay uh then I guess I'll just uh send that to her and should I see see you on the email that would be helpful yeah perfect sweet I'll do that then y thanks so much good night good night thank you everyone take good care