Alam alaikum everyone. Welcome to another Human Rights Commission meeting. Today is November 6, 2025 and it's currently 5:02 p.m. Um we are located at the city council chambers and I am calling a meeting the meeting to order. Um, I'll
start with roll call. Um, Commissioner Kuru Pitch >> here. Commissioner Albert Tedy >> here. >> Commissioner Shayla Johnson >> here. >> Um, I would like to put on record that
um, Commissioners Dr. Garcia, Commissioners Gene Baptist, and Commissioner Victor Pelletary are not currently in our meeting today. And of course, uh, Vice Chair Shima is also here. Um, I would like to provide the
opportunity to, um, for our new commissioners to introduce themselves. Um, I would like, I'll have, um, Chief Maria Lvita start off first. Please introduce yourself. >> Good evening. Chief Maria Lvita. I'm with the River Police Department.
>> And Chief James Cullen. >> Good evening. Uh, Chief James Cullen. recently appointed as the uh chief of the rea fire department. >> Um I would like to um take this opportunity to congrat and chief cullen for joining the human
rights commission. Um I can't wait till we see how we could build this relationship especially with two of the most prominent municipalities in our in our city and how we could um build this to flourish into a beautiful relationship to make our city a more
better place. Um but congratulations uh everyone give a round of applause for our two chiefs. Um to so moving on to our next part. We're going to read the mission statement out loud. This is something that we do in our in our every meeting
just to reword I guess like to set the atmosphere for what the meeting is going to be today. I would just like to make present that Dr. Garcia has joined us today. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Garcia. Right now, um, everyone should have their mission statement in front of them
and we'll read collectively. The mission of the river human rights commission is to promote human and civil rights and empower all people of River by ensuring that everyone especially the most vulnerable and marginalized have
equitable opportunities, equal access and are treated with dignity, respect, fairness and justice. >> Um moving on to our land acknowledgement. This is something that we also do every meeting as well is um we are currently in the land of the
potucket. We uh encourage all native and indigenous peoples um to our meetings and reach out to us as a resource and we acknowledge and welcome all the natives and indig um indigenous peoples that live in our city. for monthly
acknowledgements. Uh November is the November is the Native American and Alaskan Heritage Month started November 1st. Day of the Dead or DIA deas Mueres uh was from November 1st, November 2nd, which is a Latina/Hispanic heart, a holiday that
pays respects to those who have died. World Kindness Day is November 12, November 9th. Veterans Day is November 11th. World Kindness Day, November 13th. International Day of Tolerance is November 16th. International Students
Day is no is November 17th. Transgender Day of Remembrance is November 20th. Um, these are some of the ones that these are all the ones that are currently in our calendar, but some that I'm going to add to the calendar that I think should
we should acknowledge is uh National Cancer Awareness Day is November 7th. Uh, World Children's Day is November 20th and November is National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month. Um, for anyone in the commission, oh, I also
forgot to u mention that Director Morio also is here with us today. So, my apologies for that. Um, but is there anyone here today would like to uh mention some events and holidays that we should add to our calendar? Go ahead. >> November is also Native American
Heritage Month. I believe I said that. Okay, we're Thank you. Um, anyone else? Awesome. So, uh, I would like someone Oh, this is something that I forgot to
do. Uh, I would like someone from the commission to, uh, pro, uh, set a motion to approve the minutes from the October 2nd meeting and someone to second. >> Motion to approve the minutes.
>> Second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> All right. So, moving on to our first main uh first main point of today's uh of today's meeting is the statement regarding the recent events regarding
ICE. So, something that um we've been working on especially uh director Morbid I do want to give her credit is due. Um, director Morido has been working with the solid solicitor's office to set out a motion to set out a public statement regarding some of the things or some of
the changes and um additions that have been going on regarding ICE especially regarding in the city of River and um it's I just to preface the statement that's in front of everyone right now is that on uh f uh Friday October 3rd was a
nationwide operation that was launched that is called Freaky Friday that target targeted and still targets um unaccompanied child immigrants who are 14 and older. And essentially a letter was sent out will be sent out from ICE
threatening uh the potential and transfer uh people who are already in detention or transfer to ICE at the age of 18 if they do not um wave certain jurisdictions and withdraw from any requests of relief. are uh especially
including um asking for some uh asking for support from the executive office of immigration review um or the EOIR. Um, so that's I'll provide more um I'll provide um some more information so we could put that on our website in terms
of what that is, but essentially children are offered um up to $2500 to return to their country of origin. If the ch and this is what the actual operation states um if the child does not comply with whatever uh they're
asking the letter the the letter itself indicates that their family will be arrested and sent back. um uh to and I mean a setback and the potentially even detention and um potentially the
threshold the age of pe of children who are targeted can be lowered down to 10 years of age not even at 14 and that um ICE will target those who are detained and then those who are detained and then released and essentially this especially
since River is a heavily immigrant immigration or uh migrant uh population. It definitely targets a very prominent part of our city. So the letter the statement that's in front of you essentially just lists out potential
just where for where people can get supports um the different names of the different organizations that could support these individuals. I would like everyone to I'm going to give everyone a brief moment to really just look at it and see what we could potentially add
before we um send it out and put it out as a public statement. And if we add something, we could send it by the solicitor's office so that everything is factual, everything is at a neutral ground and that this is purely just anformational um statement to provide resources for
the communities that need it in our city. So, I'll give everyone a moment and if there's anything that we could add to um the statement, I will definitely I will definitely write that down so that we could provide that to sol to to the solicitor's office and
then we could put the statement as soon as possible. So, go ahead. Yes, chief. >> I do have one thing that may be useful to add. Um ICE has an online detainee locator system that it's um you can find
it online. So I can provide that um website and information. It might be a good thing to add. >> I didn't know that there was there was such a database, but can you provide can you u provide more information what that database really like entails?
>> Sure. Um it gives people the ability to go online and search for somebody to see um if they have been arrested, detained by ICE. Um, I don't know how often it is being updated. I I believe it's supposed
to be within 48 hours you can access information. So, um, with the government shutdown, I don't know if that's being kept up or or what, but um, theoretically, yes, somebody could go on there and get information. >> Uh, Dr. Garcia.
Yeah, there's a um a major organization here in u Massachusetts known by Mira. So that seems to be added to this list. They do a actually they do a lot of educational campaign in schools throughout
Massachusetts. They also offer uh legal services and um they also have um uh a variety of resources and tools um that schools and institutions can use um
to protect um immigrant families. So that is a major one I think we should add it to this. We bring them often to our schools. They talk to the families that they provide resources So, it's a wonderful organization to add to this
list. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Garcia. Anyone else from the commission? >> All right. So, I've I've wrote those additions down. If there's anyone until the time where um we actually
uh put out this public statement has any additions that they don't really think about in this meeting, you could definitely just reach out to me and I could definitely um add those in with the help of uh Director Morabido and the solicitor's office. Um, I also like to,
you know, I'm really grateful to the solid's office for helping um, director Morabido um, create this public statement and hopefully this allows a lot of people to have access to the resources that they needed if it applies to them. Uh, yes. Uh, Dr. Garcia.
>> No, I'm good. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um, moving on to uh, number eight. I understand that this is something that which is the solidarity with the people of Sudan. Um
since 2023 there was a civil war incident due to uh the Sudin National Army and the RSF for the rapid support forces which is um basically there's a civil war between the two and over 400,000 people have
died definitely a lot more than that and over 10 million people have been displaced marking it one of humanity's one of biggest displacements recorded in history um there have been many attempts for humanitarian help um that have uh
you know but those opportunities have been fruitless um and especially around a lot of the wealthier surrounding countries um have actually been putting money for the civil war to keep on going such as the United Arab Emirates and um and the reason why I brought it up
especially regarding is that we have a Sudin population as well um and many of them are potentially immigrants who have come for that civil war and are also not only worrying about what's going on in their home country but also worrying
about their status as an immigrant with ICE. So I do want to just take um this time to just I want to provide that solidarity for the people who are from um who are from Sudan in our in uh in
our city. But also, I do want to have just a moment of silence, not only for the people of of Sudan, but just all the humanitarian crisises that are going on right now. in in Yemen, in in Ukraine that's still
going in Gaza and in Gaza and just even in locally just like the fact that there are there are people in our communities are very hurting for a variety of different things and that I want to provide not not only a moment of silence
to to acknowledge the fact that there is hurt, but I do want to let everyone know in the city of River that the human rights commission is in is in solidarity with everyone and that um and that I
just ask for not only for the from the commissioners from the but also from the fellow people of rever um uh just a um just a simple prayer um you don't even have to be religious to do it but um not
only for the Sudanese people but for everyone is hurting so I just want to take a moment of silence um Yeah. Thank you everyone. Um I all the information that we talk about in our meetings whether it be ICE things are
going on internationally the the local conflicts that we have between um the different people in our city and just like um I just want to know like spread the information about some of the things that we talk a lot about everything that we talk about in our meetings mainly
because awareness is the first step to action. Um so anything that you see that is especially even regarding the public statement whatever you think is information that people need to know about to support each other spread that
in the ignorance or rather arrogance is is just a barrier that is simp is a is a that is easy to come overcome while you provide that information. Um but the second step is just for people to listen but that information has to be there first. So, thank you very much for
everyone who took their time out of their day to come to this meeting. I understand that it's a lot of me just talking, but I did want to bring this up only because these things haven't been talked about main in the mainstream media um as much as I want as much as I
believe we should talk about it. So, that's why I wanted to bring it up now for um the update on the grants. So, we have submitted the grant uh for our commissioners. The grant that we're talking about is uh we submitted a grant
proposal to the local cultural council through the mass cultural council where we are asking for money to be allocated to one of our projects that we decide to um move forward with this with the with the fiscal year. And essentially the
grant that we the money that we ask for is to be allocated to a a circle and community tour. Essentially we go to the different wards. We host a circle and basically get more. We create
conversations between us and the community to see what each community want, what what each community needs and wants and like essentially just have a more personal a more stronger relationship so that we know exactly how
to address some of the issues that they have. Um, I'm not I'll be 100% honest. The only person that I the main person that could definitely um emphasize this a lot more is the person who brought uh brought this up a long time ago um which
is Commissioner Pitch. She's the one who really spearheaded that um that idea. So, I do want to give her the space to really talk about it just so you folks know exactly what we're planning on doing. Um so, yes, I want to give the space to Commissioner Pitch.
>> Thank you. Um, Chair Husseini. Well, the goal is um to really solicit information from the community and learning about the community and getting feedback and they asking for information what they want to
see in our city. What are some of the issue or pressing issue that they are facing? um what are some of the challenges um from different group of people within a city and something they want to
celebrate. to really um gather those information and this um process has been I mean um identify with many of our former commissioners um as one of the need that we want to take on so that we
can have all the information from the community and then we are more informed of what's have been going on what the community needs are so that We can also share that with the mayor as
well. Um why we working to supporting developing uh city and here are crucial information that we all should have. >> Thank you Commissioner Pitch. Um based off everything we've talked about so far even like previous agenda items, does
anyone have any questions before we move on to our next agenda item? >> Yes. Go ahead, Dr. Garcia, >> I think this is a this is great. Um, all leaders actually do that and I'm I'm
very happy that finally uh we are uh opening up to these type of things because listening and learning tours are important uh because there are people out there that probably they want their voices to be heard some of the concerns they may
have. We can learn tons of things and uh we can also uh give them you know um an opportunity to express uh what they are experiencing on a daily basis. Um keep in mind that we have a city that is very
diverse with many immigrants. They may have barriers of kind of sorts of barriers. Uh and obviously if we do this um with uh good intention and be their spirit of being kind of humble and be
willing to learn, we can certainly bring a lot of information back that can certainly help the mayor, help leaders in the city um you know um learn about things that probably had not even imagined that we would learn from from
people. So I I'm I'm a big fan of storytelling and um those stories are important and I think they will they may help the fire department, may help the police department, things that probably um sometimes you know as leaders you
know uh there are things that we operate under many assumptions right so uh we may have assumptions about people and those assumptions might not be u true and by engaging that in in that type of a conversation and be authentic about it. I think they have a great deal of
things that they can give us and we can act on that. I think it's a great thing if we really do it well. So, I applaud the initiative. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Garcia. So, based off what I understand of the um of the grant, technically we won't hear
back until sometime in January. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Commissioner um Johnson, >> I I'm just going to piggyback on Dr. Cartier. I think it's very important for us to listen to the new commissioners on
what they see every day. They're in the city. They talk to the residents. They're around them. you know, the homes, the calls that they make, and they can and help us understand the things that do not make the nightly news or the paper that where's the need at
that we can focus on and have these conversations. Um I think that starts uh not I wouldn't say a completely new conversation but a side conversation um from because the way how we planned out the listening
tour is it's going to be six circles done in the six wards of rever but I think we could always find um find a way to uh create new circle and conversations even within the fire and
police department as well, right? Have an opportunity so that when we are going to be making decisions or plans of how to add programs or change systems in the city, we actually have both sides of the conversation, both what the community
says and both what I guess forces of authority say as well. And that we actually have a full picture of what exactly goes on in our community. I think have like adding that I wouldn't I mean it's I wouldn't say it's too late to add it to our um grant but we could
definitely find a way to start having those conversations with the perspective um with the respective um organizations if your your folks are definitely open to it. Um, I don't know if everyone also agrees to have to add
on to the six circles to also have one for the fire department, one for the police department, especially since they are more involved in the community in ways in many ways that we are not. Um, so what do you folks think about that? >> I'm not saying to add on to the six
circle. I just say um using their info and knowledge of what they see to bring to our meetings, our circle meetings. Talk to them on the side. What do you see? What what are the things that they may not want to share that you witness
you see every day? >> Having them have that their dialogue more integrating in those conversations. Understood. >> Right. Yeah. So, um as we and these um meetings moving forward, especially if
we do get the grand money. I do highly encourage not only you folks as commissioners, but people of your department to also potentially join those conversations. Um uh so yeah, so definitely I can't wait till I see where
the project is going to be going. Uh but that's just all the updates in regards to the grant. I know that how the grant works is that it's more of a reimbursement system, meaning that we would have to um spend money and then
eventually when if we do if we were to get the um grant money, technically it would be paid back to the human rights commission. Am I correct, director Marbito? >> Yeah. >> Awesome. And regarding that, um I do want to take this time to start planning
our first one. Right. We do have um $1,000 provided from this from the city of River for the human rights commission. I think we should take some time since it's really relatively early early in our meeting and we do have some time to really talk about that to start
planning for our first one. Um and obviously our first one's going to be in W one. I believe we're kind of um we're going in the uh order of the word. So, W one, W two, W three, all the way to W six. Yes. Director Maro, >> I have a suggestion or more of an
inquiry. Would you recommend like since we're doing ward each ward, would you recommend talking to one of the ward counselors of that like each ward this way because they can pro probably gather
more people than we could in terms of outreach as well. Um I think it's a I think it's a fantastic idea. I think they should be one of the prominent people who are attending those meetings as well so that they can see how they can help their perspective respective boards. But what
does everyone else Commissioner Fish? >> Thank you Chair Husseini. Um the goal is to collaborate with the counselors from each ward. um like director Morao said um to gather information um I mean to
gather people to invite people um and it is some instances that um we might it's depend on who would like to work with us right which counselor and if they don't work with us then we'll go ahead and
inviting people from that ward um >> and if not just to piggyback on what you're saying and if they're not interested what we can do is we can use our community liaison to um distribute flyers in the ward as well. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. I think that also um saves like based off our perspective budgets um for the new commissioners. I will provide that budget as well to see when anytime we're talking about it. This is what I'm referring to. I'll provide that right after the meeting so that you have that
on record. Um, and as well as the proposal as well to see exactly what we're talking about. Um, but I think that um I I totally agree. Like I mentioned, I do want to take this time to start planning for our first one.
When would we like to have it? Um, what would you would you like to start having them in the beginning of the new year? uh where spec I mean we could definitely go into the nuances of the planning as we go to the next um as we go to our
next meeting so that we actually take the month to really research with for for HR but I want to start some brainstorming right now just so we could get the wheels rolling. Um Commissioner uh Johnson >> I think we should start at the beginning
of the year. Right now is a difficult time. would benefit the government shutdown. There's a lot going on for people. So, the beginning of next year would work. I want to suggest in terms of just like
a brief I understand that I did mention that I do want to start some sort of rough brainstorming for the first one but I want to be um if we are going to start potentially promptly in the beginning of the year um I want to see
if there's any way that if if each commissioner can take care of each ward right do some research to find some potential places that we could and we'll have all these months, you know, the rest of November, December, January to have all those ideas thought out so that
in January we could actually start putting things into place. Uh, Commissioner Pitch, >> I also would like to put together a one page of what we're looking at and what we're looking for. It's like a clear
message why we doing this like creating that one page. I can start with it and then we'll share with all the commissioners um to look at it and then um the first step I would like to send those invitation the one pagent
invitation to all the city counselors and counselors at large and um asking them to work with us um if they're interested um so that would be the first step we can start it now developing that
creating that and then we and plan on it's like January, February, let's say within three months we want to hit all of these wards and where we would like to do that right um and then we can look
at um the involvement with the logistic with food with anything and then also the circle keeper and we're looking also we need to have an auditor as well who capture all the information and audit um
all the information. >> Um yeah, we could definitely start on some sort I believe you mean like a flyer or is it like an actual like onepageformational document? We I could definitely get that document started. Of course, everyone
has to be working on it individually so that when it comes to the following meeting in December, that's when we could deliberate and make decisions about how to move forward um in respect to open meeting laws, but I could definitely get that document um started.
Uh does everyone want to um I'm gonna I'm not going to I don't know if I need to make a motion for this, but I want to propose if um this is something that I said like about like five minutes ago. if each commissioner if they have the time and availability to do it um to
take to really focus on each ward and then do the research for each one like I'll definitely do war two because I live and I've been living in war two um but if anyone wants to go with that idea I just want to set a motion for that.
>> Go ahead Dr. Garcia. >> So I don't know if you know um this would be a good I don't know. But um so I would propose I know time is real issue an issue for
all of us but maybe organize a planning session maybe one hour or two planning session just to plan for these type of things because um letting people go on their own and develop developing you know uh information on their own uh can be
disjoint and you know it might be uh incoherent. uh because if if the goal is really to study each award and see what's there the characteristics of some of the problems they may have I think we have to really probably go you know maybe
plan things properly delineate the goals uh properly and then based on those design or developing a an action plan in terms of when we show up what we really want to what we trying to
target, what we're trying to accomplish, things like that. It's just a suggestion. I just don't I don't know if let letting the commissioners individually work on on a particular thing could be a little bit disjoint. I think if as a group if you organize a
planning session for us really to discuss and see what goes into the fly and things like that, to me it would be more um more effective. Uh but just my suggestion I I go with whatever you guys you know you think it's more
appropriate. >> Go ahead. Thank you very much. >> And I agree. Um also we have to keep into consideration the uniqueness of every ward. Uh what may be concerns um
to residents of ward one may not be a more pressing issue to people in ward six. So I guess the question is how do we identify what's going to attract or appeal to those residents and also we
have to keep in mind the districts have changed and the boundaries. So are we looking to have a location a circle and a location that's central in the ward? Um, I think there's just so many moving
parts and we really need to work it out together because to have one person who's not familiar with like ward one, ward two, ward three because it's like a w like five that starts at the point of pines and ends on the other side of
Broadway can be completely confusing. So when you have one person working onformational uh anformational piece for award, it may be difficult. Um the outreach I'm not worried about. Um it may be very time
consuming because we we only have like two people in community uh outreach. So they basically be putting flyers in everyone's door, but we could use social media to get the word out. So I I guess the outreach is what I'm concerned about
and how do we target the people in the community and what how do we um make issues that are relevant to them because every ward is completely different. >> Um thank you very much uh director Morabutoo. Uh Commissioner Pitch
>> um I agree with Dr. Garcia and I also mentioned this earlier um chair Husseini that it between two months will this month and next month we can develop a one page >> so that it's like a united front
information from all the commissioners and then um after that we can create a flyers um after that we inviting all the city counselor having conversation with city councelor
and send invitation to them and explain to them why we want to do this so that they um they are clear when they share the information with their constituents >> and um director Morao thank you so much for
mentioning that I think we to get more from the community we have to go to where they at you know um it might be more important to be let's say in W one and who where the central place for W
one that people can have easy access to with packing with you know child care we have to think about that I know the money is not a lot we what we're receiving um and at the same time if we want to
have it um available and encourage people to We should think about what child care should look like, activity, transportation and all of that. And then food also
bring people together, right? My other question is, you know, like in terms of invitation and outreach, um, you know, we usually get like the census send it to us. Um,
you know, it's like all of that. like can we send something from the city to um the residents? >> I believe you mean the the the weekly newsletter. >> Yeah. Anything that can get to a
resident? >> I honestly don't have an answer. Typically, it would come out of the board's budget if they were sending out anformational if they were sending out a mailer. Um, I I would have to get back to you on
that. I don't want to speak on something uh that I may be incorrect on. >> Thank you very much, Director Marggo. Thank you very much, Commissioner Pitch. I hear you. >> No, I'm good. >> Oh, sorry. It's because your mic is on. Um, >> wow. I do want to hear from the other
commissioners. Commissioner Tachi, Chiefs, do you have any thoughts and opinions about how we could um how we can move forward with this? Go ahead. Yeah, sure. Just um me speaking from law enforcement, I don't know which way that would that would cut if I was to do
outreach, I I feel like um one, some people might be afraid to talk. And two, I might get a lot of uh parking complaints, speeding cars, and things like that, and that wouldn't necessarily come under um under the commission. So,
I just thought I'd mention it. I mean still you do provide like very good very good point. Uh director Morbidito >> I also want to say uh as I'm not an official um commissioner but I I act on it as a executive director I can be that
buddy system for anyone everyone. So I'm I'm willing to dedicate the time. So anyone who h doesn't have sufficient information, I can provide them with information, help them with the outreach, help them with the connection to the counselor and all of that.
>> Thank you. Uh go ahead. Uh Commissioner Ti, >> I really like the idea of getting the commissioners on board and trying to drive outreach through that if we can. I mean, if if they're um or city councilor,
sorry, commissioner, city council, whatever. Um I if we can get them behind this, we could even plan it as we're doing a planning session and putting together our materials where we could just roll out a social media campaign for them that
they could just post themselves. We write up everything. We could just tell them this is when you post this, this is when you post that. This is our messaging. all we need you to do is show up and we're gonna kind of take care of all the work for you. >> Um just so we, you know, we don't want
to put too much on them. They're also volunteers um trying to do as what they can for the city. Um and it keeps our message singular about what we're looking for and um hopefully get the
same information that we're looking for out of these listening sessions. if we could keep our invites and our messaging the same for every meeting. Um, so I I know a planning committee was was brought up. I'd be I'd love to be a part of that um and jump on that and try to
get the language um right so we could get who we're looking for to come out. >> Thank you very much, Commissioner Touchy. Commissioner Johnson, >> um, two questions. You mentioned renting. Are we renting a hall or trying
to find some place to free for them to gather with $1,000 as a budget? I don't how is that? So, what's the plan on that? >> So, I mean, that's what the the planning
is for, but um in uh in the grant itself, there is uh money allocated for uh renting out of space for each one of the wards collectively. Um, so that is part of our the budget that we asked for
from the local cultural council. Um, however, in terms of the logistics of how we're kind of do our first one with only $1,000, that's what the next couple of months is for to plan out like the intricacies um or just especially like utilizing
um the resources that we already have so that we don't need to necessarily spend the budget, right? We could um uh use potentially use the community liaison, social media, things that don't necessarily cost well community leaison,
they need to get paid. But uh in terms of uh social media outreach, you know, everyone, especially since uh we have a huge senior population, everyone's on Facebook. So we could utilize that as well just to find ways that we don't
need to necessarily spend out of our budget that we already have at our disposal through city hall and just our connections especially direct through director morbido. Um so that we have enough money to allocate for everything else that we do need to have money for.
So I guess what moving on from uh from this I am going to start a document I'm going to share with everyone here. um just so we could get that planning process started and that um somehow start working on it within the the rest of the month so that when
we meet again in December we have something to like go off of and um and especi you know I understand everyone has they're very busy everyone has their own thing but at your own time throughout the entire month whatever
resources that you think hey we should think about this we think about that um I'll have the document uh split into six different um six different areas so it could represent each word and then we could put down our ideas for each one.
Um does anyone have any questions or concerns regarding that? >> Director Morito, >> I just want to touch on a question that Commissioner Johnson asked about um resources like think I correct me if I'm wrong. Were you just
talking about locations like the cost of holding a facility like where we would have the circle? So, one thing we're lucky to have good neighbors, but also for instance, we have like the community room and the police station. We have the new point of pines uh fire station in W
5. We also have apartment buildings and community rooms um in those apartment buildings that we have good relationships with that they may be willing to um let them let us use their function room or like VFWs or civic clubs in W three. So um that's where
I'll step in as well. So I'm here to help 100 and 200%. >> Yeah, >> that's was thinking community service community halls. I know we have a few here. Um I did have one another question. >> Oh yeah, sorry. I totally forgot a second. Go ahead.
>> On the um once the event actually does happen with me being in Ward 4, would I have conduct these circles alone or will I have the commission with me or
>> No, I could definitely speak. So I expect most Go ahead. >> I commit to buddying up with everyone. >> All right. It's it's Yeah. Go ahead, Commissioner Pitch. Yes. >> The circle practice um people people who are trained can host the circle. Not
everybody can just host the circle. Um it's a very you know well kind of coordinated even those we are the host and at the same time we have to look at like how do we take care of this whole
circles and stuff. we can partner with each other as well. It's like I've been doing um I'm a circle practitioner. I've been doing this work for 15 years, hosting circles um from community building to healing to addressing harm
to celebrations and all of that. So, I think we should look for expertise as well. And you're not out yet. um we're looking for expertise and then we can also partner with that expertise.
Um I know that in a grant we also um collaborate with the um visioning bear intertribal coalition um so that she has she's an indigenous she can also partner with us to host the
circle as long as we have one practitioner we can also have another commissioner with um the experts um so yeah I mean Dr. Gasi also um practicing circle as well um I mean circle
practitioner as well. So there are many of us here and plus um the visioning bear um people that we we should have in mind. Good question though. >> Yes. >> Thank you. So the way how the the way
how the budget is allocated is that there's there's um money for facilitator fees in that that's what the facilitator is for. So the person who is actually running the circle um but the the what
is it called the circles that we're going to have inah um in each ward is not going to be a solo mission. Uh what is it called? I expect at least two or three commissioners to be at each one so that not everything falls onto one
person. Um um so it's going to be also one of those things where uh yeah so it's not going to be a solo mission. I the plan is to have more than one commissioner be there so that it's not all falling off of one
person. Um yes, Commissioner Pitch >> Chair Hoseni I mentioned it earlier. I think it would be good to have a consistent um to have a person who consistently going to all the board to capture information
um to like um take notes and then um analyze and also put all the artists together. So we have circle host and then we need
someone to take notes from each individual, from each um board, from each circle. >> Um I mean the I I definitely agree with that. I think the the logistics is that we do need to, you know, we need to make
sure we're taking people's permission to be like, okay, we're going to not record, but we're going to be taking we're taking notes on to what people are saying. um not necessarily record them, but if we are going to be noting and jotting things down about what people
are saying in these circles, um I think it's only just fair to have people um I I don't know what the legit I guess like the breakdown of how it works, but like have some sort of uh waiver that says, "Oh yeah, I have you know, you
have the permission, you know, to take quotes from me or take pictures and just like a media release type permission stuff." I don't know if uh I don't I've uh I don't and I know there's people here who have more experience with doing such a thing. So if anyone can speak on
that, please do so because I'm not an expert. Yep. Go ahead, Commissioner. So um normally what we do it's like right now we doing um the circle um listening learning with our um
survivors and staff and community. Um so what we do the person who facilitating I mean who hosting the circle will host the circle and the information are shared. It's not like we write with
what each individual said per se, but we they going to capture all of like okay what are the current challenges and then they they take all of that and then they will look okay
let's say um housing need right 10 people might say housing need then they will say housing need 10 people um some other challenges um so we need somebody who is skilled normally we work with the
researcher um we don't have to go through that extreme but someone who have experience gathering information I know Dr. Gasia you a researcher you can speak eloquently to this um someone who
have experience um you know taking information and then put it back out if it make any sense. >> Are you envisioning a master report or document to be
produced from all these meetings? Okay. >> No. Yeah. I like that idea. and then present it to city council or mayor or whatever. Yeah. To the community in general. Post it wherever. So it's community information. >> Um thank you very much, Commissioner
Pitch and Commissioner Ti. Any any other comments regarding this? Um I've written that down. We could definitely have that in our planning. Um I believe in our planning document that we're going to be working on in the next couple of months. Um um of course we don't need to find
someone at this current moment, but over time we'll definitely find ways to um fill in the gaps of uh of where uh fill in the gaps in our plan so that by the time we do get to the new year, we have everything solidified and there are no
holes for us to really worry about. Um, before moving on to our next agenda item, I do anyone have anything else to add? Any questions, comments, concerns? Awesome. Um, I do uh the next uh agenda
meeting uh agenda item is meeting with the River High School student. So um to preface this in the beginning of the month of October um Dr. Garcia and I um had a small conversation about how can
we get um involvement with some of the students in the city and he prevented he presented me a um a very very amazing high school student um who is the uh person who runs
the the uh welcoming committee at at River High School and we did set I did set this meeting up. So, thank you very much, Dr. Garcia for giving me the opportunity to do that. Um, and I had some of the commissioners, I had Irby,
uh, vice chair Irv, and, uh, Commissioner Tedi to really talk with the student. Um, and I do want to give space to Albert. Um, uh, just to provide just like things that you folks discussed in that meeting. What would
what would he what would the student like to do, especially in collaboration with the commission? um things of that sort. So I want to give you that space. Go ahead. >> So the meeting was probably about two weeks ago. Um it was with actually the
staff adviser Lo Paulo Cabral for the uh welcome club. Just just a little background on what the welcome club is. There uh about 20 students at Rivera High School. Their main focus is to help integrate new students um to the
community of the school. They pair one-on-one the new student with the current student based off of cultural background, language, and just help them integrate into the school, into the city. Whether it's show them how to get
around the school quickly or they it sounds like last year they started an initiative doing travel training, how to use the buses to get to school um and get school on time. Um it's sounds like it's basically studentr run. um a group
of great students that put together all the initiatives and generate all the ideas of how to support the community from their own. Um you know it it was brought up the idea have they reached out to the student population and got more ideas and is there like an avenue
to kind of piggyback off their work? Um they they don't right now. They kind of come up with all the ideas themselves and it found sounds like a pretty diverse group of students too. So there's a lot of different ideas that get generated just from the 20 students
as it is. Um they they're willing to expand their scope um in the way that they help out the community and from what um Mr. Paulo Cabraw explained they're energetic and they are
willing to jump in and help out any ways that they can. Um, you know, some ideas that we came up with that can help them support us and we could support them in their mission is like they could attend any meeting. They're open
meetings. They just have to show up. Their voice is here. Um, anyone's welcome. Um, possible meet and greet before one of our meetings where, you know, they come out 4:30,
4:00, what, whatever. Um, and we just kind of sit with the students, get to know them a little bit better. Um, let them know what we do. I offered, and I don't know if anyone else, I offered to attend one of their meetings at school, um, and, you know,
tell them what they do and, you know, help get more involved, just like make that connection a little bit better. Um, so there's a liaison from us to go to their meetings. Um, and you know, as we're talking about everything that we
might need for the uh the circles that we're putting together, they're willing to volunteer and everything. The what Lo said was just let us know where and when and he could uh let the students know and and we could just try
to figure out a way to get students there. I mean, that most of them don't drive. So, um, you know, it's just trying to help them figure out how to get there, how to get home, and and, uh, they seem willing to jump in any way possible. >> Uh, thank you very much, Commissioner
Teshi, for taking the time out of your day for meeting with, uh, Mr. Cabraw. And um I think some of the ideas they presented are very very great first steps to really building that comm that um that connection with students. I
think a meet and greet is I think a meet and greet is awesome. Um especially if we do it right before our monthly meetings so that it's kind of like a dedicated twohourish um meeting where we first start with the with the students once they got out of
school. before we meet them potentially even over here. Um, and then once once we're done, they could stay and watch our meetings together and they have the opportunity to even speak on some of the things that we're going to be talking about for the agenda. So, I think it's a great idea. Any anyone else would has
>> Yep. Go ahead, Dr. Garcia. >> I just want to thank you for meeting with them. Um Lo Cabral is one of our he's a driving force behind this uh movement of kids that we created at the high school. These are kids um by the
way this club was founded by students. So they took upon this initiative because uh sadly they noticed that a lot of u of our immigrant children uh ELLL population they do come and they kind of feel kind of sense of loss in a huge
high school like regular high school and the middle schools as well. So they took upon themselves to create something like that that welcome um new kids. It was a student center initiative. That's what we want in our schools and they started
a high school they now they are in all middle schools. Now they trying to go to middle to elementary schools as well. So it's great to see students uh exercising leadership and taking responsibilities
and uh I personally have taken them to Boston. They participated in uh conference in Boston. Uh Lyn is an immigrant himself. So it's a it's a call very close to him. So uh I'm glad we
involving them in the process. Here we talking about listening and uh learning tours. Why not engage them that so they can potentially help us take some notes uh help us with the process with the planning and things like that. So these
are all things that we're doing to support students and they really have marked have certainly um have contributed to um to fostering a climate that's very inclusive, very supportive
um you know amongst students and also um it's a great thing to see. That's what I can say. >> Thank you Dr. Garcia. Um, Commissioner Fish, >> Chair Hoseni, beside um beside having
them helping with the circles in different ward, I am wondering because I would love to have their voice in this audit as well. Um, is it possible Dr. Garcia, we can work with Lo
um to coordinate like a couple of circle with probably high school students to get some information from them as well about their experiences in the community. >> They're there for a reason. So Lyn would
love that. Yeah, I think this is something that was brought up I believe sometime last year where one of the I believe the yeah River High student no River High teachers reached out to us. I
believe it was the history teacher, American history teacher. I'm not 100% sure. I definitely need to double check and I'll correct myself on that when I once I do. Um, but I think the welcoming community is the perfect, you know, is
the perfect um entity to use that to really get involved especially with the high school students. Um and that you know since it's going to be in a localized area which is the River High School um I
think it will be somewhat easier to plan out compared to our to the bigger circles that we're planning on doing. Um obviously um we can definitely I'll definitely add that to our document of the different circle of the circle world
circles that we're planning on doing. I'll have that as a separate section for like okay here are some um circles that we just want to do specifically with the students um and things like that so that we could get that more um because I feel like it's going to be a lot more straightforward than whatever than the
bigger circles that we're planning on doing um especially with the help of Dr. Garcia and um the rest of the student organizations. So, I I I think that's a I think it's a great it's it's something that we have talked about sometime in the past, but I feel like it's finally
coming to fruition. So, I'm glad to I'm glad that you did bring that up. Um, any other commissions would like to present anything. All right. So, like I mentioned, I'm going to add that all into the document. So, everything we've talked about today will be in the
minutes so that you'll have that for record, but it'll also share with everyone a separate document so that we can start planning everything out. Commissioner Pitch, >> can I move to the question? Um, thank you. No, no, no. Um before I forget,
um I also want us to visit the um the review history that former commissioner McGee put together and I do not want it to get lost in the shuffle. So if we can
also continue that project and if we can have a committee who can help shape that and work on that and finishing that up that will be great because it's such a great project and she started it and she
gathered a lot of information. She interviewed many people from the community. Um so it it doesn't have to happen today or have conversation today. maybe for next month to bring that back. >> Yes. So, because of all the the
different things that we're pl we're planning on doing for the new year, um I've already started planning out um a different set of focus groups. I know that we've created um different focus groups like the community events focus
group and um all the other focus groups that we've done before. Um I'm actually planning on going back and revising those groups and then I guess reforming them to fit the projects that we're currently working on right now. Um, only
because we haven't been I'll I'll be quite I'll be quite honest. We haven't been um really focus on those focuses for a really long time. So, I think it's good to, you know, scratch off and start a new with what projects that we have now. Um, so that is something that I
plan on bringing up in the following meeting where I actually itemize those specific groups. You know, um, I don't have any um any names for the groups just yet, but that's something I'm going to present in the following meeting and
then we can determine who wants to be part of what group so that um, not everyone in the commission is involved in one thing. we have different people doing different things and that we all come together every meeting to really talk about that. So yes, that that is already in the works. So thank you very much for bringing that up, Commissioner
Pitch. Um so we'll definitely have that sorted out um in December. Any other questions, comments, concerns? Right. Then I do want to echo Dr. Garcia. Thank you very much um uh Commissioner Teti for taking time out of your day for really speaking with Mr.
Cabraw. Um it definitely spearheaded a conversation that we couldn't wait to have and now we finally had the chance to do so. Um so yes um and I can't wait till I see all the plans that we're doing come to fruition inshallah. Uh
lastly well we do have an open forum now so we could discuss of whatever you folks would like to discuss on things that we haven't talked about before. um things that you would like to bring up again that I really haven't mentioned in this meeting. Um yeah, I'll leave it
open. All right. Um awesome. I'll just say something. I'm in the process of I know uh Commissioner Johnson had brought it up in the previous meeting regarding establishing a relationship with the senior with the senior population
especially regarding the senior center. So I'm in the middle of creating an email trend uh email thread between uh with me and you and whoever else would like to join. Obviously, we can make that decision when it comes to December when there's a group specifically for,
you know, creating uh conversations with the seniors, but um I am working on an email to reach out to the um senior committee to really talk about how can we start having conversations with the seniors, how can we start getting involved with the seniors only because
that's something that was um uh highly talked about in the previous meetings and I you know I want to I want to be one of the people to also spearhead that because um I would like to be part of that project as well. So just be on the
lookout if anyone else is interested in being part of that email thread with um and getting involvement with the seniors just let me know. I'll add that in of course within the standards of the open meeting laws. I can't have too many people um within that conversation. But whatever is done, just like with
Commissioner Teti, whatever is done in that meeting will just be brought up in our main meeting so that everyone can share that information. So just be on the lookout for that. >> That would be great. Thank you. >> Yep. Thank you. Uh yes, director Morita, >> just one suggestion. Um I would
recommend contacting Deb Peza who is in charge of elder affairs. She could probably connect you um with the seniors um especially where um they have daily lunches as well. she could probably help organize something as well. >> Um, yes. Can you provide me uh their
name at >> Absolutely. I'll email you. >> Oh, awesome. Thank you very much. Um, all right. Uh, like I said, it's open meeting. Uh, Commissioner Pitch. Um I would like to also
um to bring the voice um to connect with LGBTQIA+ community and also people with disability as well. Um it's it's important I feel it's important for us to connect and and support and then to
also bring their voice to the room. >> Yeah. So, uh, in terms of creating those conversations, um, we definitely have the, um, the the disability commission, right? We could definitely have conversations on that. I know, um, I
believe, uh, Ralph is still on there, so we could definitely have conversations with him. In terms of the LGBTQ community, um, if there's anyone that you folks know within the city that we could definitely talk to that is, uh, a prominent member of that group that and
does and actively does things in rever that we could collaborate with. Um just provide that information to me through the email and then I could get those conversations started with whoever wants to be part of that conversation. Um just so uh like I mentioned not too many
people in email because we don't want to break open laws but um I could start that email thread so that when it comes to our December meeting if anything does happen with those prospective groups um we can definitely talk about it. So, let me know if you have people in um in the
city who are prominent members of those communities or people who can definitely we could ask for support and collaborate with, just let me know. We could get that conversation started. Awesome. All right. Well, um if no one has anything else to say, I think we had
a great meeting today. Thank you very much everyone for taking the time out of your day for meeting um for joining us in today's meeting. everyone who's watching, thank you very much for um taking your time out of your days to watch us. Um I uh the meeting is adjourned. Uh thank you very much. Have
a great night. Apparently we don't