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This is Jason Kofrat. Can somebody send me or Joelle, are you on the line?

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I am, yes.

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Can you send me a link? I didn't get an email with it and Wilkie sent me his, which is what I'm on, but it has me as Wilkie.

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So can you send me one for me?

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Yep.

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Okay, thanks.

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Second.

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Thanks.

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Jason, may I?

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Mm-hmm.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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Let me just, I'm sorry. Carmelo, you said you were good to go, right?

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Carmelo did say he was ready a couple minutes ago.

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Okay, let's let's get started.

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All right, welcome everybody to the September 22nd meeting of the committee of the whole for those of you who are watching from home.

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And I'm not familiar with this type of meeting. This is a to the council meeting, but we're functioning as a committee.

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Tonight's a fine point allows us when we have meetings like this, it allows us to work on committee thing on items that we don't might not have an opportunity to discuss otherwise.

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As the president of the council, I'm chairing the meeting tonight.

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You will not see Mayor McBride in the meeting, running the meeting tonight.

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And in keeping with our past practices, we will not be taking any public comments tonight.

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On the topics we discussed tonight are assigned to a committee.

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That will be the opportunity for the public to have opportunities to comment.

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We have just two items on the agenda tonight.

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There was a third item requested by all the person Dubinsky who contacted the city's afternoon and asked that that item be removed from the agenda for tonight's meeting.

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So we have two items to discuss. The first item is an update by city staff on initiatives to build an equity focus into city operations.

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And I'll ask Mr. Archambault to go ahead on that one.

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You're muted Jim.

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Thank

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you. I was just asking to switch over here. So, if you would, we can flip to the

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next page here. We had a couple of different issues and a little bit of assortment of interrelated

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topics that were asked for and two specific agenda items for tonight is, as a Council

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Also, President Pozier mentioned one of those is postponed, but nonetheless, because of the

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confluence of the various issues, I thought I would take the opportunity to present to

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you some of the items and issues that the staff is working on, and maybe as a bit of

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a foundation or background for some of the other discussions that are both going on

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presently throughout other committees but also as a starting point for some of

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the conversation this evening. What we've put together here as Kathy described is

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is a little bit of a presentation about some of the initiatives that staff is

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undertaken or is working on presently. It is not an exhaustive list of every

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item that's been brought up from from any and all parties. It stresses or at

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understanding that we need to focus on equity issues.

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To give but one example, the city of Wauwatosa,

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while not alone, certainly did have restrictive zoning

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and restrictive covenants covering most of the city.

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And I think anyone would be hard pressed

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to not recognize that at least as a beginning point

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of the segregation that exists throughout this region.

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often times cited is that Milwaukee as a metropolitan area is one of, if not the most segregated in the country.

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If we can sort of wrap our heads around or accept the fact that that condition exists, I think it's incumbent upon us in local government to, though we cannot fix the country, we cannot fix the world to try to work on those issues as they exist in front of us in our own community.

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And so some of what we are trying to do is to undo some of the consequential effects of not just segregation as described, but also some of the other issues that have to do with equity.

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And so for that, I'm just going to describe and turn over to staff some of the initiatives we're working on.

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We by no means believe that we are the only source of good ideas.

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We are not also in this presentation intent on describing everything that's been brought up.

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But I think it will give at least some sense of the initiatives we've been attempting to undertake.

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We've been trying to do a presentation of this sort for some time.

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It has been extremely challenging because of all of the other demands on staff given

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the pandemic and other conditions that exist and bear on our work.

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But in any case, we want to build on past work.

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We want to acknowledge what's been done.

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I would admit that while we have made strides in some areas, there's an awful lot more

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work that we can do.

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And also acknowledge at the outset that this is a city-wide focus.

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There isn't a department in the city that isn't undertaking this with seriousness and

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with every purpose in mind of trying to recognize the challenge and to deal with it.

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Some of what you're going to have described here is beginning in 2020, building on those

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successes that we have had, where we have had them, but also attempting to acknowledge

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what more we can do.

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With that, I'm going to turn it over to Melissa, who I think is going to shepherd several

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staff members from a number of different departments to talk about different initiatives

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that are ongoing or contemplated.

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Thank you very much for that introduction. I would like to echo Jim's comments about

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all the city departments that are contributing to this work and you will find yourself to

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be very well resourced this evening. It was a traditional council meeting. You would

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see a very full staff table in the back and you will be hearing from a variety of

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different staff members this evening.

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But also a number of these items

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that we're going to discuss this evening have come up

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through various committees or commissions

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and our other partners and stakeholders.

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And so we would like to acknowledge that,

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particularly some of these items have been developed

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in partnership with the Equity and Inclusion Commission

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and other committees in this session.

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So we will enjoy the option and opportunity

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that we have to continue to work both internally with our staff group, but also with some of

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those committees and commission members as well as we move forward. So we wanted to cover a number

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of different items that we have underway here from the staff level with you this evening. And I'm

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going to kick it off at the top of this chart and the learning and data section to talk briefly

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about the Zygler Group and strategic planning. As I believe the Alders are aware, but we also

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We'll have some community members watching this evening.

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The city has engaged with this either group to lead us through a series of community conversations

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to obtain some additional information and feedback from the public in small circle facilitated

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dialogue about experiences that people have in Wauwatosa and how we can improve upon

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those in the future to build a more equitable and welcoming society here in Wauwatosa.

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And that will be the foundation that feedback and framework for several sessions of this meeting group, the committee of the whole in the future where that information can be used to create the framework for the next strategic plan for the portion of that plan that might be an equity focus.

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And so this committee of the whole will have the opportunity to work on that over the next several months as those meetings are scheduled and come forward with trained facilitators from the Zypher group.

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I'm going to turn it over to John Regini to talk about the next item on the list.

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Thanks Melissa.

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My name is John Regini.

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I'm the finance director for the city of Wauwatosa.

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And under my responsibilities include purchasing.

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So starting from the standpoint and recognizing that historically, there's businesses that have not received a fair share of government procurement dollars, but also recognizing that you can't improve what you don't measure.

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We're going to utilize our new financial system to begin tracking how much the city spends with businesses that have historically not received a fair share of purchase of goods and services from local governments and governments of all levels.

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So this would include minority owned businesses, women owned businesses, veteran owned businesses, and businesses owned by LGBTQ members of the community.

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So with our new financial system, we will begin in 2020 to have businesses register to self-certify under one of these categories, and then we'll begin tracking how much the city spends.

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At the same time, we'll develop strategies for connecting departments with vendors from these categories so that we can increase the amount that we're spending.

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Well, we don't know how much we're spending.

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Like Jim said in the first slide, we're not spending enough.

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And so this is a way that we can begin measuring and also developing strategies on how to increase our spend with disadvantaged businesses.

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With that, I'll turn it over to Alan Kessner.

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Thank

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you for those of you who don't know me on the screen. I'm Alan. I'm the city attorney.

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The city of Wauwatosa, as you're probably aware, and Jim mentioned this already,

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has an unfortunate history of what would be described as racially restrictive covenants

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in the private developments in the city of Wauwatosa.

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It's not directly a city issue because the city didn't place these covenants there

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at the time that those pieces were developed.

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However, we over the years have continued to allow those have been in place.

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In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that such covenants are unenforceable.

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But it really wasn't until even the early 1970s with the Fair Housing Act enforcement at the U.S. Supreme Court

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before even the non-enforcement of such covenants really came into power.

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And unfortunately, a lot of people have seen studies in the past.

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In fact, Mr. Arshambo about a year and a half, two years ago, bought, I think, ten copies of a book that was very popular and is very educational called The Color of Law,

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which describes both the legal and societal frameworks surrounding racial restrictive covenants and the term that came afterwards,

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which is described as restrictive zoning.

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A lot of people have described the fact that a lot of restrictive zoning measures that

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are in the cities, especially in suburbs of Milwaukee County, have led to a continuation

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of the unfortunate racial segregation that was started with the red lining.

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And the racial covenants that occurred. A 1979 study is really probably the biggest one

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we've seen in the county of Milwaukee. Lois Quinn at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

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did a pretty exhaustive study of racially restrictive covenants throughout the city, the county

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of Milwaukee found that all but two of the cities that she researched at that time in

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her team had racially restrictive covenants. But Wauwatosa was probably the most prevalent

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In their research, they found that at least 100 of the 300 different subdivisions that

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had developed in the city of Wauwatosa over time, at least 100, which covered about half

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of the developable land in the city of Wauwatosa, had racial or restrictive covenants against

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them.

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So what we're planning on doing as we move forward is really taking an effort to get

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rid of this.

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The covenants are not enforceable.

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Paulette will talk in a little while about how we're going to work on the zoning code to address the racial equity issues.

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But I'm really pushing, and I'm going to bring this to council later this year, hopefully then or early next year,

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a program where I really want to push city residents as a whole to look at their own properties

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and, for lack of a better term, disavow the racial restrictive covenants that may be there.

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While they're not enforceable, they still by being present in a title history whenever somebody is buying a house have a negative impact on people that are moving.

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So I'm going to work with a team of volunteer lawyers that I'm going to try to put together who can put together some documents that individual homeowners will be able to execute specific to their properties

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and record against their properties, which will disavow the racial and restrictive covenants, whether they're there or not,

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rather than try to research everything that's out there and every title history, and they'll do that.

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The title companies that serve Wauwatosa have been doing this at the request of individual homeowners when there's a purchase.

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It is quite involved if you do it on an individual basis because it can involve all kinds of processes.

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But the title companies have also really put together some statements where all of their titles, the title histories they put together, do not push forward, do not republish those old unenforceable covenants.

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So we're going to be working on that in the next year, and I'll bring that more to you, but what I really want to do is this is going to be an ability or an effort where individual homeowners who are asking,

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what can I do are going to be able to find the ability that they can take that step on

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their own property.

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We have 16,000 residential properties in the City of Wauwatosa.

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Individual homeowners hopefully will be able to take that step and move forward and try

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to, as I titled this part of the presentation, they're going to confront those historic

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deed restrictions and hopefully be able to get them removed.

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So that's one of our efforts.

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I'm going to turn it back over to Melissa for the next one.

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Thank you, Alan. The next bullet has three acronyms on it. We strive not to do that and our government talks so at the bottom of the screen you'll find that we've spelled those out.

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But I did want to touch on the first two of these items with you.

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The CPSM study, which is the Center for Public Safety Management, which was formerly part of ICMA, the International Community Management Association.

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A study of the Well Tones of Police Department was approved last night by the Ad Hoc Committee

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on Equity and Policing, and that study will take about five months to complete, and it

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will cover three items.

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One is an analysis of the recruitment strategies in the police department, so really an examination

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of hiring practices that promote diversity and some recommendations that will be forthcoming

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from that.

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a review of police department policies for equity and efficacy with a specific focus

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on use of force procedures in the police department, and third, an assessment of the training practices

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and some recommendations for coming from there on how to address mental health and

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equity issues, including race, gender, economic status, and any other factors.

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How does that training help deter bias?

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And so that will be an involved process that will take place over the next five months and culminate in reports that will come back to committee and council for further discussion.

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Next on the list is gear the government alliance and race and equity.

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This is the topic that has been discussed at least at one, perhaps two meetings of the

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Equity and Inclusion Commission recently, and I believe that they are considering a recommendation

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to the city for us to partner with here.

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It is a group of a national network of governments that are working to achieve racial equity

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and advanced opportunities for all, a variety of different frameworks for various city

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departments that you can use to look at your policies and procedures with equity lenses

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and do work to make more equitable government practices. And so we would like to partner

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with the Equity and Inclusion Commission in advancing that recommendation and initiative

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and begin that work ourselves amongst all of our departments. I will be turning it

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over to Beth Beaux, who will talk about the MMS-MMAC item.

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Good evening. My name is Beth Boe. I'm the HR director for the city. I'm going to talk

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about some of our internal efforts here. The first one being MMAC, as Melissa mentioned.

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If you recall, the city signed the pledge back in July, and what that pledges is a commitment

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to increase our diverse employment by 15 percent and diverse management by 25 percent

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by 2025. So some of the efforts that we're taking for our recruitment practices and I should say

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these are ongoing and have many of them have been in place before we sign the pledge but

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it's good work that we continue on. And that's evaluating all stages of our hiring practices

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and really making sure to standardize our processes such as interview questions,

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evaluation guides, etc. We coach hiring managers on reducing bias and avoiding what's called

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the like me syndrome where managers tend to hire people that have the same experience

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and same attitudes as them.

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We are expanding our reach of job advertisements and notifications and a future opportunity

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we're looking forward to is working on our employment branding with a focus on diversity

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and inclusion and more information about our workplace culture.

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We also are exploring internships.

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Chief Case reported on the Fire Department Internship Program.

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HR worked with the Fire Department this year to implement the program,

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and it allows potential candidates an opportunity for experience in the department

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and a potential pathway to a position as a firefighter.

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We've already seen some success with the program,

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and we're also exploring an internship program with both Wauwatosa and Milwaukee High Schools.

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We are also exploring a volunteer program for our employees to give them an opportunity to give back in the community.

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Like to give you a quick update on training, diversity and inclusion training for employees and leaders through diversity partners.

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I'm sorry, nurturing diversity partners with Reggie Jackson is underway currently.

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We are offering sessions on unconscious bias, racial disparities, and a supervisory session on hiring and retention.

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This will be an ongoing effort, and we're exploring topics for next year.

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In addition, we are working on culture initiatives.

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We have a number of workplace initiatives in progress.

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Our goal is to build a diverse work environment where all of our employees

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feel welcome, respected, and engaged in their work.

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And so therefore, it's important to focus on internal culture,

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as well as recruitment initiatives.

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Along those lines, we've worked to redesign our performance standards

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and look forward to investing in a leadership training

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and also flexible workplace policies.

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With that, I'm going to pass it over to Paulette in development.

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Hello, I'm Paulette Enders, the city's development director. Our first initiative under the development tab will be to revise the city's economic development policy with an equity lens.

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This policy informs all economic development investment decisions based on policy considerations,

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mandatory criteria, and project evaluation criteria.

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Staff will present to the council an updated version that includes social benefits and racial equity as mandatory criteria.

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The plan currently touches on those public benefits, but not in a direct manner.

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Second, we will propose creating an affordable housing fund. Housing trust funds are funds

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established by cities, counties, or states to provide dedicated and going public revenue

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to support affordable housing. They provide an important source of financing for affordable

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housing preservation and development, which mean that otherwise be reliably funded in

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city's budget. HTFs can play a role in comprehensive equitable housing solutions by focusing on

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projects that provide for long-term affordability and serve low-income households, people of

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color, and other historically disadvantaged communities. HTFs can be leveraged in a variety

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of contexts, allowing local jurisdictions to maximize the impact of other housing

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development funds, create new jobs related to housing development, and generate local

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economic benefits.

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The CDA does currently administer a housing fund that was seeded through the closure

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of TIB 5.

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Although it's a start, the funds in this account do not come close to the amount of

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funding needed to address the needs identified in the city's most recent housing study

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as it relates to affordability.

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A proposal to fund the HTF will be presented by staff in the near future.

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And as a side note, there are plans to update the study, the housing study, in 2021 pending

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funding.

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And third, we will be updating the city, the city zoning code within equity lens.

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I think Attorney Kessner covered a few of the areas that we would cover, but incorporating

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Creating equity considerations into the city's zoning code is a step we can take as we evaluate and update our existing code.

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Achieving more equity will require us to focus on neighborhood building and supporting functions of zoning, rather than just the use separating function.

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This might mean creating new zoning districts that mix structures and uses of ranges and scale, undertaking a targeted proactive rezoning process in our neighborhoods, making zoning processes more inclusive, and rethinking the use of the zoning, the use section of the zoning regulations.

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And in conclusion, I would like to mention that all of the efforts that I've outlined

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should include stakeholder input as these programs, policy and codes should be created or updated

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with feedback in order to achieve the desired results at benefit all.

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And now I would like to turn over the next step in the presentation to the police department.

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Thank you.

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You're muted.

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If I if I could I'm sorry if I could Jack. Yes. I can't I can't hear you well. Okay. Let me move over here. Can you hear me now? Yes, that's better. Thank you.

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All right, sorry about that, this speaker's not the best.

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All right, so as we look at the presentation

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that Ms. Weiss has put together for us,

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additional funding for the body cameras.

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Working with the finance department,

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it appears that we're moving forward with that financing.

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We have identified a vendor

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that we are going to be purchasing

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our body-worn camera program through.

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that vendor is Axon. It is a remarkable product. It's a product that has been in

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the Milwaukee County area for some time now. It's a pretty well-known product and

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we're excited for getting that as an addition to everything, all the other

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tools that we have available to us. The complaint and accommodation, the policy

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that was revamped recently that allows for, prior to this, this update on the policy,

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if you wanted to file a complaint against the police department, you pretty much had

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to show up at the police department to request the complaint form.

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Makes it hard for somebody to remain anonymous if they wanted to be anonymous and presenting

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a complaint against any one of our officers.

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The new complaint and commendation party was revamped.

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It now makes it easier for somebody to issue a complaint or send in accommodation for an officer for a job well done.

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And if it's able to be done over the internet and remain anonymous in that process.

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So it's a really well-written document to help us in making sure that if people have something they want to say to us, they can get that message to us and we have a follow-up process to that.

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The additional funding for more de-escalation training, when at the beginning with Mr. Arashambo with some of the things that he had mentioned were things that are already in progress.

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I just want to reaffirm with everybody that our training program here, if you were to

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talk to any other police department in the southeastern part of the United States here

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at Wisconsin.

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They would tell you that the city has one of the best training programs in this area,

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if not the state. We're well sought after as a police department. We have been doing de-escalation

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training and our training for years. It's an ever ongoing process when we look at that

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particular type of training. It continues to grow as all of our training programs here

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when it comes to what we need to train our officers in

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in all aspects of policing.

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So when you look at the additional funding

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for more de-escalation training,

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again, talking to the finance department,

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we're looking at monies that are going to help

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to buy continued training as we grow

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in our training environment.

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There are a lot of things I think,

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Melissa has some more for us to include

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at the end of the presentation just to kind of let you guys know some of the

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things that we're looking at doing. As Ms. Poe had mentioned with the fire

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department and internships, we have internships here at the police department.

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They've been a little slow this year with the schools having closed early and

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with the coronavirus being what it did to all sorts of activities and that

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result. We kind of slowed down this year on that but we do have an

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internship program. We have a CSO program that we bring in young people to help us out

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that might be interested in the job. So we're looking at the schools, recruiting those people

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that have an interest in moving into law enforcement and getting done that exposure.

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One of the things that we're revisiting right now is we're relooking at creating another

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citizen's police academy. We believe that at the time that we had that and I believe it

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kind of went off the wayside because of funding. But that was an excellent program. It was well

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received in the community. There were a lot was a lot of training that we did with the community

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as part of that citizen police academy. So that's something that's back on the table.

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The chief has seen seems to be very much approval in moving forward with that. So that's

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something that we're revamping and relooking at. The other thing that we're looking at doing

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And it's more center towards those of you that are sitting in on this meeting tonight is we've we've authored up right along. We want you to write along with us.

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So that you can see what we do out there on a daily basis. So that's that's an offer on the table. I would encourage you if you have a desire to see firsthand and meet the people that are patrolling the city.

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It's an opportunity that we present to you that's available to you to meet the

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officers and see what this job is all about if you would write around with them.

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There are some things that we have to do to prepare you for that. There's the

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waiver that would be associated with it and we get you a bulletproof vest and

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you would write it on with the officer and see what kind of calls that

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person would be going on throughout the night. So I encourage you to think

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about that and take up that opportunity. We're also trying to work with the schools,

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the academies. There are a number of us that teach at the academies here at the department.

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We're working with the schools to try to get some use of force scenarios so that you would

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have a better understanding of the type of training that's going on in the academies right

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now. Not only with the young people going through academies, recruits are going through,

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But the in-service training that law enforcement practitioners,

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those of us that have been in the job,

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have made it successful to the recruit academy.

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We go through use of force training and we're trying to set that up.

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There's some liability concerns that maybe are issues with the schools.

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But we're trying to get all those things set up so that you have a better understanding as the elected officials of the city,

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what it is, what it entails to be a police officer in today's society.

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There are a number of things that we're working on that we were really excited about.

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And they do it and not only involve the community, but we'd like to get the engagement from you as the city elected officials to participate.

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So that you have also a better understanding of what goes on here in the police department.

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Thank

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you, Captain Morrison. Moving on to the next item here, the All or Welcome campaign

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was an initiative of the Tourism Commission and kudos to them for their ideas on to give

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land to the tourism specialist for bringing this to fruition. The Tourism Commission

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asked Ms. Lance to design a campaign to work with our business community where the

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businesses could self-identify as being a business

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that welcomes diversity and welcomes diverse patrons

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and thinks that all people are welcome in our community

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and wants to hang a sign to that effect

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in their business window.

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This land designed a window plane for businesses

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and in its first week, we had 70 businesses

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that have already asked to be part of this campaign.

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It will be further carried out by tourism

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tourism to feature these businesses as well as our businesses owned and operated by minorities

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in our community through the tourism marketing initiatives.

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Moving on to community engagement, I am going to invite police departments to talk a little

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bit again about their community policing initiatives.

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So before we do that, I wanted to comment on,

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I think really the importance of,

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in addition to the internal training and understanding

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that we are developing here as a staff

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about implicit bias and the histories in this community,

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it's very impactful.

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And I think important also to offer sessions

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for the community at large.

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Staff is going to recommend that the Common Council

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council provide a portion of the council training budget in 2021 to the Equity and Inclusion

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Commission to host public sessions about these topics, about the history and about equity

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and inclusion. For a nominal fee, there could be some public meetings that would be open

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to the public, either within the Equity and Inclusion Commission can dive into virtual

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options that could be for COVID, where speakers like Raj Jackson or other speakers could come

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in and talk about the history and the implicit bias and those items. Hosted by the Equity and

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Inclusion Commission, they could pick the topic and the speakers, but we think it would be an

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important aspect for the community to have free opportunities for those additional exposures

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to the topic. We also do a robust amount of community engagement to our police

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And I know that it's a priority for them to continue to do that work as COVID restrictions kind of lighten up. Captain Morrison, if you had anything you wanted to add to that topic.

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Keep hitting the wrong button. Yeah, so one of the things that actually back when Captain Sharpie was in the administrative and then the operations captain.

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and he had started our community engagement program.

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And basically Captain Vetter with the operations

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and the things right now is a strong component of that

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as our chief, as all of us are.

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And that basically what it entails is that

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while officers are out there,

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they're not just driving around in the squad cup.

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They're not just looking all the time for violation.

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They're to get out, they're to walk the streets.

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I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a walking beat.

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like you might see in New York City, but they are to get out, go into the businesses, meet the business owners, and be a part of the community in that respect.

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Thank you. The last bullet will turn it over to Laura Stevens to talk about public health.

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Hi, I'm Laura Stevens. I'm the public health manager in the health department and currently the interim health officer while Laura Conklin is on maternity leave.

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Equity is something that's foundational to public health.

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We've been engaging in this work at the health department by promoting health equity.

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Health equity basically means that everyone has a fair opportunity to be healthy.

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It's hard to be healthy if you don't have access to a stable income, a safe home,

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healthy food, a good education.

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So while health is dependent on many of our individual choices, we can only make

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choices based on what options are available to us.

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So working toward health equity means

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ensuring that everyone has the access and the opportunity

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to make the healthiest choices for themselves.

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In law which I said we know there are social

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and systemic forces that can cause health disparities.

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These disparities are differences in health outcomes

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based on race, ethnicity, sex, age, socioeconomic status

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and so on.

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Improving health equity requires us to address

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these disparities and remove the obstacles

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that cause them.

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So, at the health department, we work toward health equity by improving access to health

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resources for the community.

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Some of the things we've been working on, we have a webpage dedicated to health equity

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that includes our health equity mission statement for the department.

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Equity is integrated into our strategic plan and our community health improvement plan

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for 2018 to 2022.

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We host an annual health equity awareness week to educate the community and provide

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resources on equity. We try to regularly post about equity on our social media channels and

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other communications. Recently, we've been providing information about how COVID-19 is disproportionately

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affecting people of color. Earlier this year, we began work on an equity project through the

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National Association of Local Health Officers. They're a strong system, stronger communities

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program. The Wauwatosa Health Department was one of seven projects nationwide to work on this.

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Our project focuses on improving mental health outcomes for LGBTQ youth in Wauwatosa.

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It's currently on hold because of COVID, but we hope to continue it again soon.

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Also this summer, we collaborated with the Greenfield Health Department and some students

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from the Zilber School of Public Health to create a health equity toolkit for the region.

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As a region, local health departments recognize that there was a gap between

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understanding what health equity is and actually integrating that into our work.

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So we created the toolkit as a resource that provides ideas and tools to help local health

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departments advance health equity in their communities. Moving forward, we plan to adapt

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many of these pieces from this toolkit so we can improve equity work within our department

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and further work toward health equity in Wallachia. So I'll turn it back over to Melissa.

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Thank you. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the next couple of slides,

430
00:41:32,050 --> 00:41:37,390
but we did put together a timeline for you so that you could see kind of where the work that we

431
00:41:37,390 --> 00:41:43,950
talked about is intended to fall as things continue. And so we have two slides that show the timeline

432
00:41:43,950 --> 00:41:51,850
that I just would like to show you here today. And I'm happy to take any questions on the timeline

433
00:41:51,850 --> 00:41:56,130
that didn't want to bog down your meeting with going through it project by project.

434
00:41:57,170 --> 00:42:08,970
And so I did just want to know what to that while Ms. Stevens did say that the health equity work is so important to them and maybe we'll work it on all the signs or priorities COVID as she mentioned right now.

435
00:42:09,030 --> 00:42:15,430
And so that may be a later phase project that is off this timeline. We'll see when we can pick that back up in earnest.

436
00:42:16,530 --> 00:42:19,850
I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Shambo to give a few closing remarks.

437
00:42:29,830 --> 00:42:30,430
Thank you.

438
00:42:31,570 --> 00:42:41,050
So I can well imagine that some of those listening have very different reactions to any of this information.

439
00:42:41,390 --> 00:42:45,350
Some perhaps thinking, you know, what in the world are you doing?

440
00:42:45,510 --> 00:42:47,330
Why are you spending time on these issues?

441
00:42:47,530 --> 00:42:51,610
And others with a disappointment of that's all you've got.

442
00:42:51,810 --> 00:42:52,870
Why aren't you doing more?

443
00:42:55,070 --> 00:43:19,090
That's ultimately our intent here is to take a first step or take a next step toward creating a baseline of understanding of our own history toward knowing full well what we do so that we consider whether we should do things differently, do more of certain things, less of other things.

444
00:43:19,990 --> 00:43:36,510
And so that we can move forward putting in front of the elected body and the electorate the kind of baseline understanding and knowledge from which to address these various issues.

445
00:43:37,310 --> 00:43:58,590
I hope also that, at least in some sense, it shows that we have and you, the elected body, have an extremely capable staff that can bring to you some of these issues and try to get at the underpinnings of what we might see as symptoms of the problem.

446
00:43:58,590 --> 00:44:04,610
A lot of this did not, as everybody knows, did not happen in short order.

447
00:44:04,870 --> 00:44:06,990
It didn't happen in the last couple of years.

448
00:44:08,090 --> 00:44:15,970
Much of what we're witnessing are symptoms of an illness or illnesses or problems that have been around for generations.

449
00:44:17,070 --> 00:44:26,110
I think if we take these first few steps of exploring what we can do and what our responsibility is in this small corner of the world,

450
00:44:26,110 --> 00:44:33,430
I think we will both come out of it with making real progress, but I also think that we'll come come out of it

451
00:44:33,990 --> 00:44:39,810
more together in terms of having an understanding and a unified purpose in what we do.

452
00:44:40,290 --> 00:44:47,610
Many of these items will be addressed or discussed in a couple different contexts, one being the

453
00:44:47,610 --> 00:44:50,570
budget process, which we are well underway in.

454
00:44:50,570 --> 00:44:55,390
Another, as Melissa had mentioned, is the strategic planning process.

455
00:44:55,770 --> 00:44:59,970
It's our intent to go right from those community conversations into.

456
00:45:00,860 --> 00:45:06,680
There are a number of issues and more than what's cited here that have been raised by different

457
00:45:07,260 --> 00:45:13,540
groups or different individuals, which aren't directly spoken to, but that don't have a sort

458
00:45:13,540 --> 00:45:20,920
of formalized access into the process, if you will, quote, unquote. And so a number of

459
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:25,280
other issues that you might be thinking about, we certainly can and will address going forward.

460
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:36,420
And I'll open it up to any questions if somebody does have a specific question, but that is at the pleasure of the Council President.

461
00:45:40,170 --> 00:45:51,430
Thank you. I just want to take a moment to thank the staff. This has been a very eye-opening for me, a very comprehensive and thoughtful approach to this.

462
00:45:51,430 --> 00:46:00,550
And I think it points out, this is not a single, this issue of equity and inclusion has many facets to it.

463
00:46:00,610 --> 00:46:07,150
And I appreciate your approach to looking at each department's functioning and where we can make things better here.

464
00:46:07,510 --> 00:46:12,790
To those of you who are listening in the public who maybe weren't on when we started meeting,

465
00:46:13,290 --> 00:46:20,170
I'm just going to remind you that we're not taking public comment tonight as we typically don't during the committee of the whole meetings.

466
00:46:20,170 --> 00:46:24,930
As these initiatives take shape and are moved along the committee process,

467
00:46:25,710 --> 00:46:27,750
you'll have to watch your agendas and announcements.

468
00:46:28,330 --> 00:46:33,670
That will be the time for you to speak publicly about the various topics.

469
00:46:34,110 --> 00:46:38,310
Of course, you can always reach out to council members and staff electronically

470
00:46:38,310 --> 00:46:40,710
and have your thoughts and comments recorded that way.

471
00:46:41,170 --> 00:46:45,570
So with that, if I see council members, you can put your electronic hand up.

472
00:46:45,690 --> 00:46:48,090
You can wave your hand in front of the screen

473
00:46:48,090 --> 00:46:52,110
And we'll get going. I see all their person cool.

474
00:46:52,930 --> 00:46:53,930
We'll start with our.

475
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:13,860
Okay, some, uh, we're having a little problem with Alderberg's and cool's connection here.

476
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:16,060
Anybody else? Did I see your hand? All the person will key.

477
00:47:18,670 --> 00:47:19,570
Jason will key.

478
00:47:20,250 --> 00:47:21,030
No, not yet.

479
00:47:21,670 --> 00:47:22,070
Okay.

480
00:47:23,210 --> 00:47:23,890
Anybody else?

481
00:47:24,710 --> 00:47:25,850
Heather help is on the way.

482
00:47:26,230 --> 00:47:29,390
All right. Thank you. I can just wait. I think they just need to move to TV.

483
00:47:29,390 --> 00:47:30,450
Anybody else?

484
00:47:33,140 --> 00:47:35,140
No comments or questions for staff on this one?

485
00:47:37,240 --> 00:47:38,860
Kathy, I raised my hand.

486
00:47:39,660 --> 00:47:43,500
Oh, Jim, you don't have your video on. I can't see anything. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Jim.

487
00:47:45,060 --> 00:47:53,360
All right. Thank you. Thank you, staff, for the presentation. I just have some, it was very helpful.

488
00:47:53,360 --> 00:48:00,680
I have some additional comments. I was taking notes here. When the, I'm going to use the

489
00:48:00,680 --> 00:48:10,620
acronym CPSM analysis that Melissa brought forward, I would kindly ask that that be presented

490
00:48:10,620 --> 00:48:17,400
to a full council of the whole, given the breadth and depth of the three areas of

491
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:24,540
analysis that that is going to cover and the importance of that analysis. I would

492
00:48:24,540 --> 00:48:31,800
kindly ask that that be presented to Committee of the Whole meeting. The other

493
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:35,500
comment that I have, and I shared this with Mr. Arshambo in a private

494
00:48:35,500 --> 00:48:40,920
discussion, I'll just mention, I would kindly ask that the equity inclusion

495
00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:50,380
initiatives be included in the quarterly management update and frankly he hit on it that we were

496
00:48:50,380 --> 00:48:57,500
going to include equity inclusion as part of some additional things we're looking at right now

497
00:48:57,500 --> 00:49:05,280
in specific to the budget and strategic planning. I would kindly ask that we all be conscious of

498
00:49:06,460 --> 00:49:17,200
costs of doing things. And as we look at all programs, this is a major initiative and it should be fully transparent. And it sounds like that is what's going to happen.

499
00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:30,380
So I would kindly ask for that. I have a question for the city attorney. Just so we're clear, City of Wabatose is in full compliance with all federal civil rights legislation as it's on the books.

500
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:30,960
Is that correct?

501
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:44,060
Yes, we are. The effort that I'm talking about here with the Fair Housing Act doesn't have anything to do, specifically with any potential violations that the city would be liable for.

502
00:49:44,540 --> 00:49:52,180
It is an effort to community-wide address some historic issues that have been addressed by state of a federal legislation.

503
00:49:52,180 --> 00:49:57,220
There will also be opportunities for states or county legislation as well, but right now

504
00:49:57,220 --> 00:50:01,780
we don't have any concern about compliance with anything in the Fair Housing Act at

505
00:50:01,780 --> 00:50:02,120
this point.

506
00:50:02,700 --> 00:50:03,220
Okay.

507
00:50:03,360 --> 00:50:04,460
And I appreciate that.

508
00:50:04,580 --> 00:50:05,860
I just wanted to be on the record.

509
00:50:05,980 --> 00:50:11,840
I think it's important that everybody know that we are fully in compliance with all

510
00:50:11,840 --> 00:50:16,700
federal civil rights legislation and you're nodding.

511
00:50:16,900 --> 00:50:17,500
And so I...

512
00:50:17,500 --> 00:50:17,980
Yes, we are.

513
00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:20,700
Thank you very much, Mr. Kessner.

514
00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:44,420
Then one last comment, I would also ask that a little more transparency on the funding that was going to be added from, I believe it was according to my notes, the council budget going to the equity inclusion commission, whatever that is,

515
00:50:44,420 --> 00:50:51,460
make sure that we have some transparency on that, so that we're all in sync on that.

516
00:50:53,260 --> 00:51:00,020
Other than that, oh, lastly, I think Melissa also mentioned the Ziebler group.

517
00:51:00,240 --> 00:51:07,840
I think all, all there's, I want to ask Melissa, are all, all there signed up for one of the sessions with the Ziebler group?

518
00:51:08,020 --> 00:51:09,940
That sounds like a pretty important initiative.

519
00:51:11,080 --> 00:51:15,780
Thank you. We have invited all Alders to participate in one of the sessions.

520
00:51:16,140 --> 00:51:19,780
We do not have all the Alders signed up for one of the sessions,

521
00:51:19,780 --> 00:51:23,680
but if anyone still needs to sign up, you can certainly reach out to me to do that.

522
00:51:24,520 --> 00:51:30,700
Okay, and I only bring that up because obviously I did sign up and I read through that,

523
00:51:30,820 --> 00:51:38,720
and it sounds like a very transparent, very valuable initiative as part of items

524
00:51:38,720 --> 00:51:45,780
that were referenced tonight and I would kindly urge my colleagues to sign up for that. It sounds

525
00:51:45,780 --> 00:51:55,160
like it's a very good forum for us to get feedback and provide input on. And I also want to end by

526
00:51:55,160 --> 00:52:03,160
thanking the police department for giving us some more clarity on the efforts to date as well as

527
00:52:04,300 --> 00:52:14,780
ongoing initiatives with process improvement. I think that's all important. We often talk about best practices and always looking at better process improvement.

528
00:52:15,100 --> 00:52:22,420
So thank you and kudos for your continued initiatives in that regard. I'll yield the floor. So thank you again.

529
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:25,900
Jim, can I just get a clarification? Just a second, Heather.

530
00:52:26,360 --> 00:52:31,260
Jim, just a point of clarification. You said you wanted the CPSM study brought to the committee

531
00:52:31,260 --> 00:52:33,400
the whole. I assume you mean what it's completed.

532
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:35,720
Of course, yes.

533
00:52:36,300 --> 00:52:38,440
Just wanted to get that clarification.

534
00:52:39,460 --> 00:52:43,360
Yeah, I want to make sure. Bottom line, Kathy, the bottom line is I want to make

535
00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:49,420
sure because it sounds very comprehensive and it sounds like it's something that we

536
00:52:49,420 --> 00:52:57,180
as a total counsel ought to be hearing about and hearing the report of and

537
00:52:57,180 --> 00:53:02,200
frankly acting upon it as as a full common counsel that's where I was going

538
00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:05,820
with that absolutely agree with you just wanted to get that clarified all the

539
00:53:05,820 --> 00:53:12,820
person cool thank you sorry about that you can hear me right can you hear me

540
00:53:12,820 --> 00:53:17,600
you're very quiet but you're all right I can talk pretty loud if you need me

541
00:53:17,600 --> 00:53:25,620
to. So first of all, I just want to thank staff for that presentation. I thought it was

542
00:53:25,620 --> 00:53:32,780
exciting and impactful to have so many different departments, not just acknowledging the sins

543
00:53:32,780 --> 00:53:39,880
of our past, but really laying forward both tangible and symbolic action items that we

544
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:45,020
can do as a community and as city leaders to start righting the wrongs of our past.

545
00:53:45,560 --> 00:53:47,280
So, I really do appreciate that.

546
00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:53,980
And I'm about to ask some fairly specific questions that it's fine if there are not

547
00:53:53,980 --> 00:53:58,720
answers today, but I just want to put them out there to maybe get answered another date.

548
00:53:59,380 --> 00:54:04,040
For Mr. Regini, I apologize if you had mentioned this and I missed it, but I was wondering

549
00:54:04,040 --> 00:54:09,240
if it's possible to dedicate a percentage of our city contracts that we award towards

550
00:54:10,300 --> 00:54:14,840
specific minority and women-owned businesses as we do the RFP process?

551
00:54:17,730 --> 00:54:22,030
It's possible outside of public construction. There's certain categories

552
00:54:22,030 --> 00:54:27,070
were required to go to low bidder by state law, public construction being one of them.

553
00:54:27,290 --> 00:54:31,170
And to be honest, it's a bit of a frustration, and I didn't include it in this presentation,

554
00:54:31,230 --> 00:54:36,410
but one of the things I want to explore long term is if we can make changes or lobby for state changes,

555
00:54:36,410 --> 00:54:40,190
is lobby for changes in state law

556
00:54:40,190 --> 00:54:41,590
when it comes to public construction.

557
00:54:42,190 --> 00:54:45,610
I think there's a lot of great literature and data

558
00:54:45,610 --> 00:54:47,670
to show that apprenticeship programs

559
00:54:48,350 --> 00:54:49,990
are a really effective tool

560
00:54:50,550 --> 00:54:53,950
for diversifying public construction employment

561
00:54:54,610 --> 00:54:57,950
and also help solving a pipeline issue

562
00:54:57,950 --> 00:55:00,330
with the lack of skilled trades individuals.

563
00:55:01,310 --> 00:55:03,450
So I'd like to work on that.

564
00:55:03,450 --> 00:55:10,230
I have mixed feelings about setting a percentage. I've worked in organizations where a percentage is set and

565
00:55:10,830 --> 00:55:15,770
The problem with setting a percentage is then it creates an incentive for people to gain the system

566
00:55:15,770 --> 00:55:23,430
What I'd rather do at least as a start is try and connect identify businesses in the community that meet our

567
00:55:24,050 --> 00:55:28,430
needs in terms of what we buy both in services and in

568
00:55:30,850 --> 00:55:35,830
products and get them in front of departments, arrange for departments to get to know those

569
00:55:35,830 --> 00:55:39,170
businesses and really measure what type of progress we're making.

570
00:55:39,510 --> 00:55:44,470
If we're not making progress, then perhaps we do need to look to a system with very defined

571
00:55:44,470 --> 00:55:48,250
goals or very defined requirements.

572
00:55:48,990 --> 00:55:50,430
That's my initial thoughts.

573
00:55:50,770 --> 00:55:55,650
What someone said, I think it was Paulette, about really listening to the community,

574
00:55:55,650 --> 00:55:59,130
I think that's a really key part of all of what we're proposing.

575
00:55:59,730 --> 00:56:22,350
These right now are just my ideas, but I'd like to learn more from the community, meet with some of the different chambers of commerce that represent businesses that have historically been left out of government procurement and find out ways that we can work together to increase the spend that the city does with businesses that have been left out.

576
00:56:23,270 --> 00:56:27,850
So that's not to say a specific goal is off the table.

577
00:56:28,650 --> 00:56:30,390
That certainly would be a possibility.

578
00:56:30,650 --> 00:56:34,970
I'd like to think, given the breadth of departments that you heard from tonight,

579
00:56:35,550 --> 00:56:39,310
that we'd be able to work together to achieve a greater spend

580
00:56:39,310 --> 00:56:42,490
without setting really hard and fast requirements.

581
00:56:42,890 --> 00:56:45,070
But if it comes down to it and we need to do that,

582
00:56:45,150 --> 00:56:47,870
there are areas where legally we can do that.

583
00:56:48,730 --> 00:56:49,390
Thank you.

584
00:56:49,390 --> 00:56:55,450
And maybe if that's something that we can, as counsel, leverage our power as elected

585
00:56:55,450 --> 00:56:58,770
officials, that's something that Attorney Kessner can bring to the government affairs

586
00:56:59,270 --> 00:57:03,330
at the end of the meetings usually you talk about things that are happening at the state.

587
00:57:03,450 --> 00:57:05,450
Maybe that's a presentation we can get separately.

588
00:57:05,970 --> 00:57:06,450
Thanks, John.

589
00:57:07,090 --> 00:57:13,510
Next, I – for mis-enders, I was wondering, is there any potential in encouraging developers

590
00:57:13,510 --> 00:57:21,010
who are asking for variances to include LMI units or section eight, acceptances.

591
00:57:23,500 --> 00:57:27,360
And again, I know that these are really specific questions that don't need to be answered today,

592
00:57:27,380 --> 00:57:28,680
but I just wanted to put them out there.

593
00:57:30,260 --> 00:57:36,140
So when they're asking for variance, do you mean like through the plan unit development process conditional use?

594
00:57:36,980 --> 00:57:43,340
Yeah, yeah, that, and I don't know if, you know, asking for density variances is going to be coming up soon.

595
00:57:43,340 --> 00:57:45,900
And I think if that also falls under that?

596
00:57:46,080 --> 00:57:48,940
Well, and it plays into all of it

597
00:57:48,940 --> 00:57:51,400
because a part of it is, as I mentioned,

598
00:57:51,580 --> 00:57:54,820
I think under the first bullet revising our policy,

599
00:57:55,180 --> 00:57:59,100
I think when developers ask for funding through the city,

600
00:57:59,160 --> 00:58:02,080
we have much more flexibility than through zoning.

601
00:58:04,180 --> 00:58:06,200
And Alan could touch on that,

602
00:58:06,360 --> 00:58:07,660
but legally we're,

603
00:58:08,800 --> 00:58:21,380
I guess legally we can only put conditions out that would be legally binding through the permission that we're given.

604
00:58:22,220 --> 00:58:32,260
But we have much more flexibility in making some of those requirements or putting some of those requirements on developers when we assist with funding.

605
00:58:32,260 --> 00:58:40,300
So, that's revising our policy so that when we are providing financial assistance, we

606
00:58:40,300 --> 00:58:48,600
do look at affordability and equity and those community benefits that, as I mentioned, we

607
00:58:49,560 --> 00:58:52,560
touched on them in our policy, but not specifically.

608
00:58:53,320 --> 00:58:58,040
So we do want to make that change and present it to council.

609
00:58:58,940 --> 00:59:07,740
Sure. I can add a little bit to that. The leverage we really have is money. When we are

610
00:59:07,740 --> 00:59:12,740
putting money into a project, we then have the ability to leverage that into the needs.

611
00:59:13,700 --> 00:59:22,780
State law in Wisconsin has been interpreted to provide that we can't require somebody

612
00:59:22,780 --> 00:59:30,360
to put in a policy in a development that requires them to accept lower rent, for example,

613
00:59:30,540 --> 00:59:33,340
for affordability, unless we're putting money into it.

614
00:59:33,360 --> 00:59:36,460
Otherwise, it's considered a rent control that we're prohibited from having.

615
00:59:36,660 --> 00:59:41,160
So really, state law, the biggest interpretation in Wisconsin law right now is that it requires

616
00:59:41,160 --> 00:59:47,160
us to be putting in money in order to be able to buy the ability to have affordability

617
00:59:47,160 --> 00:59:47,900
in those cases.

618
00:59:48,680 --> 00:59:50,040
That's the strongest tool we have.

619
00:59:50,040 --> 00:59:59,900
All right. Thanks. And I promise I just have one more question. Captain Morrison, while I fully understand and respect.

620
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:04,500
Perhaps that the majority of our businesses and residents are going to be thrilled with the

621
01:00:04,500 --> 01:00:14,280
idea of an increase in foot patrol and feet cops walking around. I was curious to get

622
01:00:14,280 --> 01:00:18,280
some kind of statement about your commitment or the department's commitment to work with

623
01:00:18,280 --> 01:00:23,460
various stakeholders and hear that are maybe not Wabatosa residents that are not business

624
01:00:23,460 --> 01:00:30,960
owners to hear their concerns and respond to them as we're working on reforming our police department

625
01:00:30,960 --> 01:00:31,800
and our policies.

626
01:00:36,140 --> 01:00:41,720
Well, I think, yeah, I don't oppose that. I don't think anybody here would oppose

627
01:00:41,720 --> 01:00:50,580
that. I think it depends on the forum that that's going to be presented in. But I don't see an issue

628
01:00:50,580 --> 01:00:52,940
with doing anything like that.

629
01:00:56,220 --> 01:00:57,820
Okay. All right. Thank you.

630
01:01:01,380 --> 01:01:03,860
Okay, looks like all in person will key.

631
01:01:05,790 --> 01:01:08,510
I see your little electronic hand is up there.

632
01:01:08,870 --> 01:01:09,890
Yeah, that's right. Thanks.

633
01:01:09,930 --> 01:01:10,530
Okay, go ahead.

634
01:01:11,870 --> 01:01:16,630
So yeah, I just want to also echo the accolades that this has been

635
01:01:16,630 --> 01:01:19,350
really comprehensive and I like that all the departments are

636
01:01:19,350 --> 01:01:21,010
sharing what they're working on.

637
01:01:21,390 --> 01:01:27,830
And I hope that people hear the message that we are working on

638
01:01:27,830 --> 01:01:32,850
All these facets of how we can improve our city and that it's going to take some time

639
01:01:32,850 --> 01:01:35,670
And we're working through the proper channels to make that happen

640
01:01:36,310 --> 01:01:42,870
So I appreciate everyone that's putting in the time and effort in your individual departments in ways that you can and for sharing tonight

641
01:01:43,630 --> 01:01:45,690
I had a question on a couple of items

642
01:01:47,750 --> 01:01:50,990
One would be for the police department. I was glad to hear that

643
01:01:51,650 --> 01:01:53,970
Things we've been talking about even before this summer

644
01:01:54,670 --> 01:02:00,170
body cam issue sounds like there will be requests coming through for that

645
01:02:00,170 --> 01:02:05,310
product in this year's budget I think and a couple other things like say this

646
01:02:05,310 --> 01:02:11,470
Citizen Academy being funded again or the training can we anticipate that that

647
01:02:11,470 --> 01:02:16,450
will be coming in this year's budget proposals any of that some of that most

648
01:02:16,450 --> 01:02:19,630
of it. If you could speak to that, maybe the police or John.

649
01:02:23,980 --> 01:02:31,220
Thanks Jason. I think that the early stages of the Citizen Police Academy, I used to teach

650
01:02:31,220 --> 01:02:37,280
for that. It was a great program. It was sad to see a lot of us that didn't want to stop

651
01:02:37,280 --> 01:02:43,360
doing what we were doing for that program. And I think it had a lot of value sharing

652
01:02:43,360 --> 01:02:47,780
what it is that they went through a lot of police training and they got a chance

653
01:02:47,780 --> 01:02:52,160
to see what it was like and they did ride-alongs with us and everything else. I don't see that

654
01:02:52,160 --> 01:02:57,360
happening this year. I think we still are in the planning stages of how we're going to revamp it.

655
01:02:58,140 --> 01:03:03,020
We can always look to improve our programs here. So, I think that's something that's

656
01:03:03,020 --> 01:03:10,040
going to move forward into the following year. The training, we're always training.

657
01:03:13,600 --> 01:03:16,800
I mean,

658
01:03:16,800 --> 01:03:24,880
at, for example, the crisis intervention technique training. It's a CIT, it's called CIT. It

659
01:03:25,200 --> 01:03:29,580
is a nationally acclaimed training program for dealing with people in crisis. It's a

660
01:03:29,580 --> 01:03:35,140
week-long school. It's a very intensive school. It's a hands-on training program on how

661
01:03:35,140 --> 01:03:42,860
to deal with people in crisis. And that's all crises that you can imagine. So those

662
01:03:42,860 --> 01:03:48,340
things right there, we will have 13 by the end of the week that have attended so far from the

663
01:03:48,340 --> 01:03:53,180
department. The goal is to get all of our sworn personnel through that particular type of training.

664
01:03:53,740 --> 01:03:55,540
It's just a phenomenal course.

665
01:03:57,710 --> 01:04:00,970
Those costs are minimal when we look at training though.

666
01:04:03,270 --> 01:04:08,050
Depends on like if we were to host it, there's probably an expense behind that.

667
01:04:08,450 --> 01:04:13,130
But when we send people out, those costs are relatively inexpensive for that.

668
01:04:13,130 --> 01:04:18,970
But that kind of training will continue throughout this year into next year and every year after that.

669
01:04:21,490 --> 01:04:23,330
And I can speak to the body camera.

670
01:04:24,170 --> 01:04:24,590
Okay, yeah.

671
01:04:25,350 --> 01:04:40,450
So the police department has made a selection and intends to make a recommendation to the financial affairs committee next week included in that recommendation will be a recommendation to include funding from 2020.

672
01:04:40,450 --> 01:04:47,210
And then it will also, there's an annual cost and that will be also included in the 2021 budget.

673
01:04:47,530 --> 01:04:52,270
So it's our intention to make that purchase yet this year funded in 2020.

674
01:04:52,630 --> 01:04:59,850
And then your 2021 budget will also include funding to continue to maintain the body camera program.

675
01:05:02,120 --> 01:05:11,300
That is excellent because that's, you know, a lot of extensions that we see combined. I'm glad we're seeing that we can maybe start this right away this year and not be waiting till next year.

676
01:05:11,780 --> 01:05:13,460
So I look forward to that. That's timely.

677
01:05:14,740 --> 01:05:24,380
And to those, you know, to speak to the defunding of the police department, these are things that we are trying to fund so that we can have a even better police department for our community.

678
01:05:24,380 --> 01:05:30,060
And the camera's referral will be witnessed for all sides of the story, so that'll be helpful for everybody.

679
01:05:30,600 --> 01:05:33,080
So I think that's a positive step forward.

680
01:05:33,760 --> 01:05:35,100
My other question was.

681
01:05:36,120 --> 01:05:40,100
Just to add a little more to that, it's a fantastic product.

682
01:05:41,120 --> 01:05:48,580
It's really going to give everybody, I think, but they're anticipating a body worn camera program will offer.

683
01:05:48,580 --> 01:05:55,680
It's just a phenomenal product, and we're very happy that we've gone this route with that particular model

684
01:05:57,180 --> 01:06:02,540
I look forward to when we hear about that and we make the decision. Thanks. I

685
01:06:02,540 --> 01:06:08,440
Also wanted to talk about I had a question from the beginning of the conversation with a presentation with the city attorney

686
01:06:09,800 --> 01:06:10,800
Mr. Kessner

687
01:06:11,800 --> 01:06:13,800
mentioning the that some of the

688
01:06:13,800 --> 01:06:17,420
covenants still exist for the neighborhoods and I

689
01:06:17,420 --> 01:06:22,600
I live in one of the neighborhoods that had horrible covenants and we were under the impression

690
01:06:22,600 --> 01:06:29,880
that those, when the neighborhood association, but when the neighborhood, this is a different

691
01:06:29,880 --> 01:06:37,720
name for it, I'm sorry, lost it out, but when it disband as far as a, and then neighborhood

692
01:06:37,720 --> 01:06:44,980
associations now are more of a social informal association, not a neighborhood I've, maybe

693
01:06:44,980 --> 01:06:48,760
you can fill me in on what they used to be called, where you actually had to follow those

694
01:06:48,760 --> 01:06:49,280
covenants.

695
01:06:49,600 --> 01:06:49,960
Right, let go.

696
01:06:50,020 --> 01:06:51,740
Excuse me?

697
01:06:52,000 --> 01:06:53,820
Like a homeowner's association that would have to do it.

698
01:06:53,820 --> 01:06:59,880
Yeah, homeowner's associations had the covenants that everyone must comply to, and there was

699
01:06:59,880 --> 01:07:05,980
an organization that upheld those with the neighbors or homeowners of that flat

700
01:07:05,980 --> 01:07:06,460
of land.

701
01:07:07,360 --> 01:07:11,340
And I was of the impression that those went away when those were disbanded years

702
01:07:11,340 --> 01:07:12,420
ago, decades ago.

703
01:07:13,220 --> 01:07:20,240
and a thing of the past. But can you tell me, are there still, are there still

704
01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:23,960
homeowners associations? I guess I think I've heard maybe the Washington

705
01:07:23,960 --> 01:07:26,740
Islands is still a homeowners association that might have these

706
01:07:26,740 --> 01:07:32,560
cupents, but aren't the rest this ban do the... It's a complicated network and

707
01:07:32,560 --> 01:07:36,280
that's why we're going to try to do a more comprehensive overview program for

708
01:07:36,280 --> 01:07:42,400
people. Every different neighborhood or subdivision or development that has

709
01:07:42,400 --> 01:07:47,020
these. And like I said, that's about half of the properties in Laulatosa had them at one time

710
01:07:47,020 --> 01:07:52,780
or another, according to the account. They came in quite slightly different ways. Some were done

711
01:07:52,780 --> 01:07:58,660
by a subdivider, a developer, put them on to the 27 houses that they built in this corner.

712
01:07:59,060 --> 01:08:03,980
Some were put on by individual homeowners. Some were done by a neighborhood association,

713
01:08:04,180 --> 01:08:08,540
a homeowners association. And the problem with dealing with those on an individual basis

714
01:08:08,540 --> 01:08:15,600
is that each of them has a slightly different way you'd have to officially withdraw it or

715
01:08:15,600 --> 01:08:18,960
pull it off of your deed to pull it from the deed itself.

716
01:08:19,460 --> 01:08:20,340
They aren't enforceable.

717
01:08:20,440 --> 01:08:25,220
As I said, they haven't been enforceable since 1948, and really the enforcement teeth

718
01:08:25,220 --> 01:08:29,860
or the enforcement teeth against them came with the Fair Housing Act in 1968.

719
01:08:30,800 --> 01:08:37,220
But some of them, while the Homeowners Association may have disbanded, they may not have,

720
01:08:37,920 --> 01:08:41,240
They may not have withdrawn them from the deed records themselves.

721
01:08:41,620 --> 01:08:43,660
They may not have been pulled from the deed records themselves.

722
01:08:44,360 --> 01:08:45,400
Some neighborhoods have.

723
01:08:45,720 --> 01:08:48,660
Some neighborhoods have been able to do that, a few of them.

724
01:08:49,100 --> 01:08:51,860
And some individual homeowners have been able to go through that.

725
01:08:52,180 --> 01:08:57,040
But it's irregular and spotty as to how it was done on a regular basis.

726
01:08:57,140 --> 01:08:59,960
So it may still show up on a deed even if it's not enforceable.

727
01:09:00,500 --> 01:09:04,780
As I said, the title companies now are prohibited from even republishing them.

728
01:09:04,780 --> 01:09:13,260
So they may be on a deed or in a deed record but not republished because there's some liability for title companies that are republishing them.

729
01:09:13,680 --> 01:09:25,480
So this will be a good way to sort of hopefully get a more uniform disavowal and removal of them or at least an affirmative statement against them by homeowners citywide.

730
01:09:25,480 --> 01:09:30,260
And you'll be able to do that whether or not you actually still have one existing

731
01:09:30,260 --> 01:09:35,900
entry property, the document will likely say whether or not this still isn't against my

732
01:09:35,900 --> 01:09:37,840
property, whether or not it's still enforceable.

733
01:09:37,920 --> 01:09:44,020
We understand it's not, but I disavow and move and state that going forward this isn't

734
01:09:44,020 --> 01:09:44,920
applicable anymore.

735
01:09:45,120 --> 01:09:48,980
It'll give people an opportunity to make sure that that is off.

736
01:09:50,080 --> 01:09:53,840
Yeah, to be very strong to be able to, if you thought it was a thing of the past to

737
01:09:53,840 --> 01:09:59,100
to make a strong statement that it is a thing of the past and it's over and gone, can acknowledge that.

738
01:09:59,540 --> 01:10:03,160
Will you be working with the NAC, the Neighborhood Association Council, then, to make sure that

739
01:10:03,720 --> 01:10:11,580
however this format is that you intend to do this is dispersed throughout the associations that people...

740
01:10:11,580 --> 01:10:12,600
Yeah, the neighborhood...

741
01:10:12,600 --> 01:10:13,540
What's your one to do it?

742
01:10:13,760 --> 01:10:19,040
Right, the current neighborhood associations will probably ask them to participate in helping spread the word and getting this out.

743
01:10:19,040 --> 01:10:23,340
these neighborhood associations, as you said, are not the associations that would have put these

744
01:10:23,340 --> 01:10:29,360
on in the past. Right, they're social now. But that's part of what I'm formulating right now,

745
01:10:29,500 --> 01:10:32,840
how we're going to get that out, how we're going to get the right legal paperwork together and

746
01:10:32,840 --> 01:10:37,720
the right legal language out through the title companies and the neighborhoods and the owners

747
01:10:37,720 --> 01:10:43,180
so that they can all do it in a way. There'll be some other implications I've got to walk

748
01:10:43,180 --> 01:10:47,920
through and some other parties to cooperate, but I'm looking forward to getting this out

749
01:10:47,920 --> 01:10:50,020
and hopefully making it a big community effort at some point.

750
01:10:50,960 --> 01:10:51,900
What kind of a timeline?

751
01:10:52,160 --> 01:10:52,460
Any thinking?

752
01:10:52,780 --> 01:10:57,860
I imagine we'll have a program started in the middle of winter, probably by the time

753
01:10:57,860 --> 01:11:04,140
we get that all started, I'll get some of the legal details put together in the description

754
01:11:04,140 --> 01:11:04,840
of a program.

755
01:11:05,040 --> 01:11:09,680
I've got a rough outline now, but I'll probably bring it to the council to ask for an endorsement

756
01:11:09,680 --> 01:11:13,620
since it's really not a city policy that these were even on there in the first place,

757
01:11:13,660 --> 01:11:17,600
but I think it's a good program for us to promote in the community for people to

758
01:11:17,600 --> 01:11:24,660
voluntarily do something positive to address the the past. Yeah it's like

759
01:11:24,660 --> 01:11:27,860
surprising that that hasn't happened but it's one of those things that we're

760
01:11:27,860 --> 01:11:31,580
taking a deeper look internally and we're finding you and I appreciate that

761
01:11:31,580 --> 01:11:35,800
and I can't wait till we can get that out to everybody so we can perform this

762
01:11:35,800 --> 01:11:40,060
so that is erased forever. It'll be another opportunity for legislative

763
01:11:40,060 --> 01:11:44,060
effort. There are about 12 states that have that have put the enacted

764
01:11:44,060 --> 01:11:49,500
state legislation around the country on the ability to eliminate these kind of

765
01:11:49,500 --> 01:11:53,180
covenants at the local level. It's not required that we have state

766
01:11:53,180 --> 01:11:58,460
legislation, but some states, New York, Washington, and some others have actually

767
01:11:58,460 --> 01:12:01,580
put some state legislation that makes it a more statewide effort, and I

768
01:12:01,580 --> 01:12:05,660
hopefully will be able to even move that along that way as well through

769
01:12:05,660 --> 01:12:09,440
the efforts we talked about at government affairs. Thank you.

770
01:12:13,560 --> 01:12:14,040
That

771
01:12:14,980 --> 01:12:30,780
Thank you. Thanks again for a very informative and focused presentation. And I just have a real quick comment or addition to the discussion of Alderman Cool and Mr. Regenia, which I thought was great, looking into contracts and purchasing.

772
01:12:30,780 --> 01:12:44,600
And if they're just that we consider the ability, as was discussed, to maybe leverage and access, maybe there's existing databases out there of certified businesses,

773
01:12:46,720 --> 01:12:52,220
businesses, contractors all across the board of other units of government, state, county,

774
01:12:52,920 --> 01:13:00,420
city of Milwaukee, technical colleges, I know even the Pfizer forum had really strong minority

775
01:13:00,420 --> 01:13:02,780
women disadvantaged business participation.

776
01:13:03,220 --> 01:13:10,800
So if there's any ability to, again, leverage and access other units of government and

777
01:13:10,800 --> 01:13:14,480
other resources. It's something that we should look into. Thanks.

778
01:13:19,450 --> 01:13:24,010
Anybody else? Oh, I'm all the person who will. I just saw your hand went up. Go ahead.

779
01:13:24,630 --> 01:13:30,790
Thank you. And thanks for the presentation. I do appreciate the holistic overview of things

780
01:13:30,790 --> 01:13:35,590
that we're working on in the city and appreciative of all the staff effort that's gone into

781
01:13:35,590 --> 01:13:38,770
not just the presentation tonight, but the initiatives that we're hearing about.

782
01:13:38,770 --> 01:13:45,810
I would like to just remind us we've all, I think on this call, certainly the elected

783
01:13:45,810 --> 01:13:52,050
officials have acknowledged that we don't have the full toolkit for being perhaps the

784
01:13:52,050 --> 01:13:57,230
best in figuring out how to really design and pull off all these equity-type programs.

785
01:13:57,450 --> 01:14:03,490
So I really encourage these items, you know, be brought to those citizen committees that

786
01:14:03,490 --> 01:14:07,490
we have that have the expertise we've identified as the sounding boards we'd like

787
01:14:07,490 --> 01:14:11,590
to rely on. I know various pieces of what was presented tonight have been talked

788
01:14:11,590 --> 01:14:15,390
around in different contexts, but, you know, for instance, the Agri Inclusion

789
01:14:15,390 --> 01:14:20,350
Commission, I think, will meet in two weeks for its monthly meeting, and I'd

790
01:14:20,350 --> 01:14:24,510
love to see a full presentation like this, or at least the full overview,

791
01:14:24,610 --> 01:14:28,150
whether or not we have the full staff complement, you know, kind of showing

792
01:14:28,150 --> 01:14:32,530
how we as city leaders, our city staff sees it fitting together, and make

793
01:14:32,530 --> 01:14:36,830
sure that we're kind of doing that gut check that we've all identified

794
01:14:36,830 --> 01:14:38,110
is a need of ours.

795
01:14:42,380 --> 01:14:47,560
Thank you. Anybody else? Mr. Cofrop, I see your hand went up. Yeah, thank you.

796
01:14:48,060 --> 01:14:54,280
I agree with a lot of these other comments. This is a very thorough presentation from staff. I think

797
01:14:54,280 --> 01:14:58,440
many of us were aware that a lot of these conversations were going on, but didn't know at

798
01:14:58,980 --> 01:14:59,980
the level that

799
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:04,600
That staff was really focusing and putting in the time on some of these discussions.

800
01:15:05,120 --> 01:15:10,140
I think what's most eye-opening about a lot of what we heard tonight is, without these committees

801
01:15:10,140 --> 01:15:15,760
and without the common council elected officials forcing us upon staff to do, we have staff

802
01:15:15,760 --> 01:15:21,700
that's in place already that has the ability to implement many of these policies and discussions

803
01:15:21,700 --> 01:15:31,660
and different practices without it having to go through weeks or months of common council discussion.

804
01:15:32,080 --> 01:15:35,660
So I think the more that we have the ability, at least at the staff level,

805
01:15:35,740 --> 01:15:42,180
to implement a lot of what was talked about into existing practices and refined practices

806
01:15:42,700 --> 01:15:48,720
and make our processes that much better so that we can hammer on some of these equity issues,

807
01:15:48,720 --> 01:15:55,220
I think that's really efficient way of us being able to tackle some of these, especially in the short term.

808
01:15:55,900 --> 01:16:01,360
I might agree we're going to have a lot more discussions related to this, and we're going to have to allow some of our

809
01:16:01,360 --> 01:16:04,600
citizen committees to be able to tackle maybe some of these bigger items.

810
01:16:05,200 --> 01:16:08,900
But it was clear through that presentation that we have a buy-in from staff right now,

811
01:16:08,980 --> 01:16:16,520
and we need to continue to use that momentum that staff has on refining some of the processes that we have.

812
01:16:16,520 --> 01:16:18,540
So, thank you very much for that presentation tonight.

813
01:16:18,800 --> 01:16:19,240
Anybody

814
01:16:23,050 --> 01:16:25,410
else? I don't see anybody hands up there.

815
01:16:26,130 --> 01:16:26,310
All

816
01:16:29,570 --> 01:16:35,350
right, then we're going to move on to the second and what will be now the final item on the agenda tonight.

817
01:16:35,970 --> 01:16:41,190
And this emanates from all the person will key who requested an update from the city administrator.

818
01:16:42,590 --> 01:16:48,390
On meetings of the council leadership communications from the law house of police officers association.

819
01:16:48,390 --> 01:16:51,990
The Association and the Government Affairs and HAC Committee.

820
01:16:52,870 --> 01:16:55,710
Mr. Arshamal, I'll let you start this off.

821
01:17:03,280 --> 01:17:03,640
Yeah, I did.

822
01:17:10,660 --> 01:17:11,600
Jim, there you go.

823
01:17:11,740 --> 01:17:20,540
What I thought I would do is, I'm not entirely sure that we've captured the intent of the item necessarily.

824
01:17:20,540 --> 01:17:31,240
What we did try to do is distill into discrete items or discrete pieces what we thought we heard or what we understood.

825
01:17:32,820 --> 01:17:45,060
And so to sort of start this off, I thought I would just touch on each of these in very brief commentary and sort of leave it to leave it go at that.

826
01:17:45,060 --> 01:17:55,680
As it relates to meetings of council leadership, it has been the case for years that periodically

827
01:17:55,680 --> 01:18:04,240
the council president and the four committee chairs will meet on specific issues, whether

828
01:18:04,240 --> 01:18:08,760
it be agenda related or communications purposes.

829
01:18:08,760 --> 01:18:15,300
And I want to assure everybody that, in a double check, the attorney's office can speak

830
01:18:15,300 --> 01:18:22,540
to this if need be, but that those meetings, by the nature of the assignments that they

831
01:18:22,540 --> 01:18:28,420
have, are not in any way a violation of open meetings.

832
01:18:29,120 --> 01:18:35,900
In no case do they constitute a quorum or negative quorum of either the elected body

833
01:18:35,900 --> 01:18:46,080
nor of the any of the committees thereof. What what I would suggest however is

834
01:18:46,080 --> 01:18:50,580
that what you may want to consider related to it is to formalize it and

835
01:18:50,580 --> 01:18:57,980
I'll be very blunt here that this is a large, inordinately large elected body

836
01:18:57,980 --> 01:19:04,860
for for local government of this size and so to provide for some means by

837
01:19:04,860 --> 01:19:12,380
by which to improve communications or certainly to attempt to do so is probably an appropriate

838
01:19:12,380 --> 01:19:14,220
way to go about that.

839
01:19:17,340 --> 01:19:25,720
It's worth noting, too, that in its structure when whomever holds those seats but the possessors

840
01:19:25,720 --> 01:19:33,520
thereof, when they do meet, there is no opportunity to set aside adopted policy of

841
01:19:33,520 --> 01:19:42,880
council, no differently than for staff members. We implement policies adopted by the elected

842
01:19:42,880 --> 01:19:54,120
body as a whole. It is not by individual position but by the consensus of the majority or whole

843
01:19:54,120 --> 01:19:56,200
body that policies are created.

844
01:19:57,280 --> 01:20:02,940
On the second item, related to the various

845
01:20:05,180 --> 01:20:08,940
communications from the WPOA, and I think specifically

846
01:20:08,940 --> 01:20:13,700
as it relates to the ad hoc is the way I understood the question to come up.

847
01:20:16,540 --> 01:20:23,280
Either of the two unions and previously the five or six unions that we had is a separate

848
01:20:23,280 --> 01:20:29,440
But Alan will correct me if my terminology is wrong, but it's a separate corporate entity.

849
01:20:31,140 --> 01:20:36,360
Its relationship to the city is one of a statutory bargaining unit.

850
01:20:36,840 --> 01:20:43,720
And so for the sake of collective bargaining, we have various things that were either obligated

851
01:20:43,720 --> 01:20:52,800
to discuss and negotiate or things that are allowed to be negotiated or discussed

852
01:20:52,800 --> 01:20:54,160
and ones that are prohibited.

853
01:20:56,260 --> 01:21:00,840
The exercise of essentially a free speech opportunity to

854
01:21:00,840 --> 01:21:08,440
comment about a policy of the city is merely as a separate entity, not different in many

855
01:21:08,440 --> 01:21:14,400
ways from an individual citizen commenting about something that the council may take

856
01:21:14,400 --> 01:21:28,400
up or may have done. The third item has to do with essentially the status of the ad hoc

857
01:21:28,400 --> 01:21:36,000
committee. Herein, the Government Affairs Committee created the current ad hoc committee.

858
01:21:36,320 --> 01:21:40,940
There have been ad hoc committees created over the years for any number of reasons.

859
01:21:41,840 --> 01:22:01,160
One that often comes to my mind is had to do with the design of the, the retaining wall over by Discovery Parkway, where the Council for for its reasons at the time wanted to have a essentially a work group.

860
01:22:01,400 --> 01:22:07,800
That was assigned to look at and review the manner by which it was being designed what it looked like things like that.

861
01:22:07,800 --> 01:22:19,300
So I use that description to suggest that when ad hoc committees are created, they generally are for a specific purpose, not a general purpose.

862
01:22:20,020 --> 01:22:26,060
And that they are a subset or report to the committee that they've been created for.

863
01:22:26,060 --> 01:22:33,560
So, its responsibility is only within the breadth of what they've been assigned and in no case

864
01:22:33,560 --> 01:22:43,080
are they able to effectuate an action without delegated authority such that the current adhoc

865
01:22:43,080 --> 01:22:50,180
committee can discuss and make recommendations within the focus or the narrow focus of what

866
01:22:50,180 --> 01:22:53,780
they've been assigned, but only back to the committee that created it.

867
01:22:57,240 --> 01:23:04,780
So that's sort of a short description of what I think I heard in the question as it was

868
01:23:04,780 --> 01:23:05,200
posed.

869
01:23:05,720 --> 01:23:12,060
Hopefully I've gotten at least enough of it to enable you to discuss further.

870
01:23:18,370 --> 01:23:28,170
Okay. Jim, we had three distinct but somewhat related things here. If you want to make comments

871
01:23:28,170 --> 01:23:33,350
on something, can we kind of clump them together? I'd like to just make notes about if there's

872
01:23:33,350 --> 01:23:38,150
recommendations or a pattern of comments that we want to address somewhere or so.

873
01:23:38,930 --> 01:23:42,330
Whoever's going to start this, Jason and Lillie, I see your hand went up her so let

874
01:23:42,330 --> 01:23:47,750
start this discussion off but then the rest let's kind of clump the comments under the topic that

875
01:23:47,750 --> 01:23:56,150
Jason starts off with and that'll help me organize a little bit. Go ahead Jason. Okay and to no surprise

876
01:23:56,150 --> 01:24:00,790
I plan on commenting on all topics but I'll try to group them together. Well that's fine but just

877
01:24:01,950 --> 01:24:12,310
as far as the leadership. Go ahead. As far as my request to know about exactly what the

878
01:24:12,310 --> 01:24:16,350
there's department heads and you know just hearing about some of these

879
01:24:16,350 --> 01:24:23,590
meetings happening and wondering if you know direction is being chosen aka

880
01:24:23,590 --> 01:24:29,190
hearing certain things that maybe have been decided or maybe they weren't maybe

881
01:24:29,190 --> 01:24:34,010
just the word on the street that they were decided and then you hear about

882
01:24:34,010 --> 01:24:42,290
it in social media or the news as on behalf of the Common Council or the

883
01:24:42,290 --> 01:24:47,950
and that Common Council has never really truly discussed like what do we want our response to be

884
01:24:47,950 --> 01:24:57,730
to the protesters, how aggressive or not. I've heard from even police officers that have

885
01:24:57,730 --> 01:25:03,390
approached during an incident, asked the Common Council, they're the ones that decided that,

886
01:25:03,550 --> 01:25:10,290
you know, these are things we're specifically deciding in a meeting or at Common Council.

887
01:25:11,810 --> 01:25:15,070
I'm just wondering if some of those decisions might be being made with a smaller group.

888
01:25:15,810 --> 01:25:20,530
I'm not trying to call out whether that was legal or not for that group to meet, but I do agree,

889
01:25:20,710 --> 01:25:29,090
if you're talking with Jim, too, about this further agenda item that perhaps if there is a benefit

890
01:25:29,770 --> 01:25:32,770
to a smaller group meeting like that, because we are a large group,

891
01:25:33,510 --> 01:25:38,190
that I think it should be formalized as an executive committee or some sort of maybe precedent

892
01:25:38,190 --> 01:25:43,910
that does it in another community. Formalized, actually have like we know when they're meeting,

893
01:25:44,390 --> 01:25:49,170
there'd be an agenda in minutes so that people know and that we maybe quarterly updates throughout

894
01:25:49,170 --> 01:25:52,750
the year or at these COW meetings, we would committee the whole meetings we would get

895
01:25:52,750 --> 01:26:02,890
a update as to things discussed and the ideas or decisions maybe would come to the actual

896
01:26:02,890 --> 01:26:05,050
committees that were relevant.

897
01:26:10,630 --> 01:26:14,770
Okay, and so another, that's about that one. So I

898
01:26:14,770 --> 01:26:17,670
guess I'd like to hear what other elders think, and I don't know, Kathy, if you want me

899
01:26:17,670 --> 01:26:21,150
to stop with that, to hear what other people think about that idea, or if it's just

900
01:26:21,150 --> 01:26:25,230
to be agendized. I think it would be easier to have a discussion if we kind of

901
01:26:25,230 --> 01:26:29,990
invite some responses now to this topic. Okay, then I'll stop. I won't go on to

902
01:26:29,990 --> 01:26:33,230
the other ones, and I'll let us hear what people think about this topic, and

903
01:26:33,230 --> 01:26:36,070
we can move on. All right, I'll come back to you when this one seems to have

904
01:26:36,070 --> 01:26:39,390
play itself out, I'll come back, wave your hand and remind me to come back to you to

905
01:26:40,210 --> 01:26:45,370
let you kick off the next area. I see all the Crystal Wilson's hand up. Go ahead, Dave.

906
01:26:46,970 --> 01:26:51,790
Yeah. Thanks. And Jason, I was talking about this directly a little bit, but, you know,

907
01:26:51,870 --> 01:26:58,370
I just, for my part in some meetings that occurred in August, it was very much to

908
01:26:58,370 --> 01:27:03,190
address, you know, concerns that I had about some of what Jason, Jason just described.

909
01:27:03,190 --> 01:27:08,890
we were in a situation where the council wasn't going to meet for most of a month.

910
01:27:09,630 --> 01:27:16,770
There are a lot of messages flying around on behalf of the city, many of which invoked the

911
01:27:16,770 --> 01:27:21,670
common council as supportive of whatever the content of those messages was. And I had my

912
01:27:21,670 --> 01:27:28,030
own personal concerns, you know, that, you know, just like Jason, you mentioned that,

913
01:27:28,050 --> 01:27:32,670
you know, suggesting that new decisions had been made by the council was not accurate.

914
01:27:32,670 --> 01:27:39,090
And I didn't think it was one reasonable to have messages out there that suggested that something like that had happened.

915
01:27:40,010 --> 01:27:53,130
I didn't think that some of the issues that I saw necessarily needed convening a committee of the whole or formal action of the council, because I, you know, I wasn't looking for in the meetings I was in.

916
01:27:53,610 --> 01:28:01,710
Did we see any specific directive or direction or action of the council furthered it was, frankly to push back on my part, a little bit.

917
01:28:01,710 --> 01:28:07,490
And say, look, you know, let's not suggest that the council has taken any action because it hasn't taken any more.

918
01:28:08,470 --> 01:28:21,410
And, you know, I think we all from time to time have discussions with others on the council, the mayor, the city administrator, staff members, et cetera, about how we see things heading.

919
01:28:21,410 --> 01:28:31,590
And, you know, I think that's a characterization, you know, I'd put out there of what the several meetings I was involved in were.

920
01:28:32,070 --> 01:28:49,250
And I'll say that, you know, we were mindful of open meetings rules, but also thought that some of the discussions might be better understood if we had not just one or two alders coming but, you know, representative of, you know, it happened to be the,

921
01:28:49,250 --> 01:28:59,950
We had a meeting or two with all of the committee chairs and frankly picked them because they were the committee chairs and said let's let's make sure we're on the same page on this kind of stuff.

922
01:29:00,490 --> 01:29:11,530
And again, I think some of it was both pushing back on the idea that the council could be held up as supporting any particular actions or comments if we hadn't officially reviewed or endorse those things.

923
01:29:11,530 --> 01:29:28,670
But in addition, the other problem I think we had that was fairly acute in the beginning of August was not a lot of communication coming back to council about what's happening, what decisions are being made at City Hall elsewhere to even understand.

924
01:29:29,190 --> 01:29:39,690
I think many of us were left in the position where we understand what's transpiring as we catch up with news reports and social media and calls from neighbors the next day.

925
01:29:39,690 --> 01:29:53,630
And I think we felt that it was only fair to all of us council members to have a better understanding and, you know, maybe a more consistent set of comments, I guess, for us to understand.

926
01:29:53,830 --> 01:29:59,910
I think we saw that with Kathy forwarded updates over, you know, regular basis.

927
01:30:01,000 --> 01:30:06,800
That was the output of one of those conversations. The council needs to be served a little better

928
01:30:06,800 --> 01:30:11,300
and have information to help serve the community better. That's kind of my position. I don't

929
01:30:11,300 --> 01:30:17,360
know that I'd be in favor of somehow turning any particular subset of the council into

930
01:30:18,400 --> 01:30:23,260
a group with different abilities or authorities because I think I hear you're expressing

931
01:30:23,260 --> 01:30:27,080
this that none of us would want to think, I guess, that there's going to be another

932
01:30:27,080 --> 01:30:31,940
that's not a real meeting of the council but somehow has influenced or sets policy or direction.

933
01:30:32,280 --> 01:30:38,200
I don't know if that's the right answer. Jim, I appreciate how unwieldy it can be to deal with 16 or 17 of us.

934
01:30:38,320 --> 01:30:45,160
But at the same time, I think there's a reason that we have this structure and there's a reason that we should do our governing in our business out in the open.

935
01:30:46,180 --> 01:30:46,740
Um,

936
01:30:52,180 --> 01:30:56,260
looks like all the person verb and then Welch. I'm not sure who was first like this

937
01:30:56,260 --> 01:30:58,860
glance, see both ends up. I'll let you go ahead.

938
01:30:59,300 --> 01:30:59,760
Burn.

939
01:31:01,760 --> 01:31:03,200
Thank you, Madam President.

940
01:31:03,880 --> 01:31:06,620
Yeah, I concur with what Craig had said.

941
01:31:07,640 --> 01:31:12,940
I'm sure the concerns that Alderman Wolke had brought, I'd saw, you know, her feedback

942
01:31:12,940 --> 01:31:19,520
that this was there was police policy that was coming out of city council that we

943
01:31:19,520 --> 01:31:21,260
we had not discussed nor voted on.

944
01:31:21,460 --> 01:31:22,940
That was not a policy for us.

945
01:31:23,080 --> 01:31:26,260
And then other communication was coming out

946
01:31:26,260 --> 01:31:29,000
that I had questions about.

947
01:31:29,160 --> 01:31:32,500
And I appreciate because twice I had been in City Hall myself

948
01:31:32,500 --> 01:31:36,000
and talked with Jim and talked to our communications department

949
01:31:36,000 --> 01:31:40,980
to try to figure out sort of why certain blips

950
01:31:40,980 --> 01:31:42,700
were coming out of City Hall

951
01:31:42,700 --> 01:31:43,800
and were coming to the media.

952
01:31:44,100 --> 01:31:47,900
And I appreciated the time talking to my colleagues

953
01:31:47,900 --> 01:31:53,120
and talking to Jim and talking to our communications department to figure out to make sure the information

954
01:31:53,120 --> 01:31:56,860
we have is the right information to discern to the public.

955
01:31:57,680 --> 01:32:03,460
So that is – it was more of a reaction to communication, I think, than any kind of

956
01:32:03,460 --> 01:32:06,320
an agenda on our part in August.

957
01:32:06,720 --> 01:32:06,960
Thank you.

958
01:32:26,650 --> 01:32:26,850
Nancy?

959
01:32:27,290 --> 01:32:27,530
Go ahead.

960
01:32:27,690 --> 01:32:28,150
I was muted.

961
01:32:28,310 --> 01:32:28,430
Sorry.

962
01:32:29,250 --> 01:32:29,890
All right.

963
01:32:29,890 --> 01:32:38,030
And I just want to, you know, reiterate the concerns about any policies being made or discussed

964
01:32:38,030 --> 01:32:43,230
or directions being given in meetings that aren't being discussed by the full council.

965
01:32:43,810 --> 01:32:51,350
I heard the reference to there was no open meeting violations that basically having elders

966
01:32:51,350 --> 01:32:57,690
getting together and talking about issues and responses that isn't then followed

967
01:32:57,690 --> 01:33:04,790
up in the public forum to my mind is in fact a open meetings violation. We should be meeting

968
01:33:04,790 --> 01:33:11,250
to discuss policy that should be discussed in the open. And I think particularly when we're

969
01:33:11,250 --> 01:33:17,190
dealing with some of these sensitive topics, part of the focus of that meeting should be

970
01:33:17,190 --> 01:33:23,530
providing much of the information, not just to the committee members discussing it or the

971
01:33:23,530 --> 01:33:28,290
council members, but also so the public can get that information as well.

972
01:33:28,830 --> 01:33:33,770
I think when we start using the excuse that the common council is too large to discuss

973
01:33:33,770 --> 01:33:40,570
these issues, that's really just an excuse to avoid discussing those issues in public,

974
01:33:40,570 --> 01:33:43,430
and I hope that we're not going to go down that road.

975
01:33:44,010 --> 01:33:44,390
Thank you.

976
01:33:45,170 --> 01:33:45,710
Thank you.

977
01:33:45,950 --> 01:33:47,610
All the person who will.

978
01:33:48,410 --> 01:33:49,170
Thank you.

979
01:33:49,170 --> 01:33:51,290
I guess my question is for Alan.

980
01:33:53,890 --> 01:33:58,110
I kind of understand the idea that the chairs met while we were on recess,

981
01:33:58,630 --> 01:34:04,350
because so many things are happening so quickly right now that they do need to be discussed.

982
01:34:04,810 --> 01:34:13,470
Is it an ethics violation then for, say, Jim to disseminate that information to us separately

983
01:34:14,010 --> 01:34:20,850
via a phone call or to have the chairs contact us individually to let us know what's going

984
01:34:20,850 --> 01:34:23,130
on if we're not going to be having meetings about it.

985
01:34:24,210 --> 01:34:28,450
Probably the way to the best describe it, and we've gone back to the open meetings

986
01:34:28,450 --> 01:34:28,810
law.

987
01:34:29,410 --> 01:34:30,790
The chairs are a group of five.

988
01:34:31,810 --> 01:34:32,350
That's just five.

989
01:34:32,550 --> 01:34:35,450
The four chairs plus the council president is five people.

990
01:34:35,530 --> 01:34:37,530
That's not a quorum of the governmental body.

991
01:34:38,170 --> 01:34:42,430
The group of chairs themselves is not a governmental body subject to the open

992
01:34:42,430 --> 01:34:48,530
and meetings laws. So there's that. What you do with that information becomes separate.

993
01:34:48,690 --> 01:34:58,470
The real violation, once you get beyond that, is when a group gets together, a group portion

994
01:34:58,470 --> 01:35:05,830
or a quorum-based portion of the whole group, so eight or so, gets together and agrees upon

995
01:35:05,830 --> 01:35:10,670
a course of action in the future. That's really where we're trying to be careful.

996
01:35:10,670 --> 01:35:11,950
And they haven't done that.

997
01:35:12,110 --> 01:35:17,810
The group of five, as I understand it, was talking about where the agenda setting is going and where it's going

998
01:35:17,810 --> 01:35:20,950
and what they're going to do, what items are going to be on the agenda.

999
01:35:21,330 --> 01:35:24,330
But not really setting the policies themselves or setting that discussion.

1000
01:35:24,930 --> 01:35:27,490
And that in and of itself is not a problem.

1001
01:35:27,570 --> 01:35:31,850
You have to be able to do those logistical things in a group like that.

1002
01:35:32,010 --> 01:35:39,510
But the key is not to sort of, I told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on

1003
01:35:39,510 --> 01:35:45,370
and get to a group where you've got a group agreeing upon an actual decision-making process.

1004
01:35:46,270 --> 01:35:50,170
Moving into the agenda setting and deciding what issues are going to come forward is a

1005
01:35:50,170 --> 01:35:55,590
logistical issue that has to be taken care of, but once you've decided what your final

1006
01:35:55,590 --> 01:35:58,690
course of action is going to be, that's what you need to do in the full public meeting.

1007
01:35:59,630 --> 01:36:04,310
From my understanding, I've not been in those meetings myself, but I've been paying

1008
01:36:04,310 --> 01:36:10,590
attention and consulting with Mr. Arshambo and the Council President on that topic.

1009
01:36:10,790 --> 01:36:15,850
And I think, from my understanding, they haven't been doing anything that's a violation of

1010
01:36:15,850 --> 01:36:22,310
law and seem to be moving forward with the proper agenda setting and logistical type

1011
01:36:22,310 --> 01:36:22,710
arrangements.

1012
01:36:24,350 --> 01:36:25,970
So, the short answer is no.

1013
01:36:26,530 --> 01:36:26,890
It's not.

1014
01:36:28,130 --> 01:36:33,010
It's not an ethics violation for the city administrator if our chairs are going to

1015
01:36:33,010 --> 01:36:40,090
continue to meet behind closed doors, not breaking any rules, not holding a quorum, is not an

1016
01:36:40,090 --> 01:36:43,990
ethics violation. And maybe it's something that needs to start happening, that our city

1017
01:36:43,990 --> 01:36:48,570
administrator or our chairs are keeping us as council members that are being held at

1018
01:36:48,570 --> 01:36:53,710
the same standard as they are as elected officials, abreast of what's being said and

1019
01:36:53,710 --> 01:36:54,330
done in our names.

1020
01:36:54,770 --> 01:36:57,810
Yeah, and I know that the committee council president has been making an effort to

1021
01:36:57,810 --> 01:37:04,750
do that as well. But we, I think we haven't gotten to the level of a walking quorum, which

1022
01:37:04,750 --> 01:37:11,210
is the concept we really talk about, because what they're doing is really that forward

1023
01:37:11,210 --> 01:37:16,670
is taking that action and moving it out as far as setting the future agenda, making

1024
01:37:16,670 --> 01:37:19,970
sure you know where you're going. So I don't think you've got that quorum issue.

1025
01:37:20,190 --> 01:37:23,330
So yes, I'm the lawyer. Of course, I'm not going to say a short answer is no.

1026
01:37:23,330 --> 01:37:30,430
But yeah, I think you're right that I've not seen a problem from that now because it's an informally constituted group right now.

1027
01:37:30,590 --> 01:37:32,390
It becomes more formally constituted.

1028
01:37:32,870 --> 01:37:39,710
It probably has to follow more formal rules about agendas and openness and open meetings and stuff.

1029
01:37:39,810 --> 01:37:43,810
But as an informally constituted group just arranging for the bigger group, it's not a problem.

1030
01:37:44,730 --> 01:37:45,270
All right.

1031
01:37:45,430 --> 01:37:45,790
Thank you.

1032
01:37:45,990 --> 01:37:46,270
I yield.

1033
01:37:47,750 --> 01:37:48,470
Thank you.

1034
01:37:49,030 --> 01:37:51,630
Looks like all the person called for off the top.

1035
01:37:51,630 --> 01:37:58,950
Yeah, thank you, Madam President. I think just this discussion and the perception that there is

1036
01:37:59,510 --> 01:38:05,690
is an indication that at least the other elected officials that are unaware of at least some

1037
01:38:05,690 --> 01:38:10,210
of the conversations or the outcome of even those conversations are unaware of and we're

1038
01:38:10,210 --> 01:38:16,130
uncomfortable with it, is an indication that the process or the practice should be at least

1039
01:38:16,130 --> 01:38:24,070
changed or stopped. The simple fact that it's just simply an agenda setting is not consistent

1040
01:38:24,070 --> 01:38:29,210
with common council practices in the past anyways. Agenda setting has usually happened

1041
01:38:29,210 --> 01:38:34,950
is handled by the common council president and maybe a chair or two will get involved

1042
01:38:34,950 --> 01:38:39,830
in something that's specific. Having all five of them meet together to quote-unquote

1043
01:38:39,830 --> 01:38:45,330
plan an agenda or to schedule things is just not consistent with past practices

1044
01:38:45,330 --> 01:38:51,610
especially when we're talking about topics like this that are extremely important to the public

1045
01:38:51,610 --> 01:38:59,330
and to the other elected officials. And even if we want to accept that these meetings are appropriate,

1046
01:39:01,270 --> 01:39:06,610
the fact that we don't know about them and aren't getting any information about them

1047
01:39:07,810 --> 01:39:13,950
is unacceptable as well. So let's all accept that for a second that it's perfectly fine,

1048
01:39:13,950 --> 01:39:21,750
it was just agenda setting. It fits, doesn't break any quorum rules. Then why aren't we getting a

1049
01:39:21,750 --> 01:39:26,470
report on, okay, here's what came out of those. Here's what we're planning for these agendas

1050
01:39:26,470 --> 01:39:31,510
moving forward. Like we've been told very little, if anything, related to these until tonight,

1051
01:39:31,570 --> 01:39:36,390
where we're getting descriptions of what was discussed and what wasn't discussed. But if

1052
01:39:36,390 --> 01:39:41,170
everything is just about agenda setting, why aren't we getting that information so that

1053
01:39:41,170 --> 01:39:45,830
But we're able to communicate that to the residents that are asking us, but what are

1054
01:39:45,830 --> 01:39:49,090
happening to these topics that were brought up in June and now we're at the end of September

1055
01:39:49,090 --> 01:39:50,470
and we haven't heard about any of them yet.

1056
01:39:51,430 --> 01:39:54,970
Well, we don't have a good, we don't have a good response to them because we don't

1057
01:39:54,970 --> 01:39:56,410
know what was going on in those meetings.

1058
01:39:57,310 --> 01:39:59,350
So I don't, I don't think they're appropriate.

1059
01:39:59,850 --> 01:40:02,230
I'm not a legal expert related to those.

1060
01:40:02,270 --> 01:40:03,470
So I'll leave that up to the city attorney.

1061
01:40:04,170 --> 01:40:07,650
But I think at least the practice that needs to be addressed is if these are going

1062
01:40:07,650 --> 01:40:10,950
to continue to happen, we need to at least give reports on what's being discussed

1063
01:40:10,950 --> 01:40:11,910
anybody

1064
01:40:19,240 --> 01:40:28,500
else not seeing any electronic or I don't I don't know where the notion

1065
01:40:28,500 --> 01:40:33,620
of agenda setting comes in and frankly I don't know for the way that this this

1066
01:40:33,620 --> 01:40:39,180
particular topic tonight has morphed from a message that was emailed by

1067
01:40:39,180 --> 01:40:43,100
Lerman Wilkie a couple weeks ago I'm not exactly sure what the focus of this

1068
01:40:43,100 --> 01:40:46,980
discussion ought to be I was speaking to a couple of meetings several

1069
01:40:46,980 --> 01:40:51,000
meetings that I was in in August that included the other chairs and the council president

1070
01:40:51,840 --> 01:40:58,920
included the city administrator at one point included the mayor at one point and included

1071
01:40:58,920 --> 01:41:04,300
leadership from police department at one point and I think the point of all those meetings was

1072
01:41:04,300 --> 01:41:11,940
not I mean it it wasn't agenda setting it was focusing on the concern that several of us

1073
01:41:11,940 --> 01:41:17,440
were reflecting that a lot of communications on behalf of the city and invoking the council's

1074
01:41:17,440 --> 01:41:23,720
support had been flying around and it wasn't appropriate. And so it's in fact the opposite

1075
01:41:23,720 --> 01:41:29,140
of this notion that we were out there doing something to set direct direction from the council

1076
01:41:29,700 --> 01:41:34,160
because they were all topics that we were told very directly by all those people we met with

1077
01:41:34,160 --> 01:41:39,160
that the council doesn't have any direct control over and, you know, aren't matters for the

1078
01:41:39,160 --> 01:41:43,400
And we weren't looking to insert ourselves where we didn't belong other than to relay

1079
01:41:43,400 --> 01:41:48,580
that we understood the council to be, we as members, and we understood our colleagues

1080
01:41:48,580 --> 01:41:52,640
and peers on the council to be frustrated by how those things were being addressed.

1081
01:41:52,940 --> 01:41:55,720
And so that's the sense of my involvement.

1082
01:41:56,120 --> 01:41:59,300
Agenda settings have occurred every other Thursday for as long as I've been on the

1083
01:41:59,300 --> 01:41:59,580
council.

1084
01:41:59,880 --> 01:42:05,300
And I think they're relatively not well attended by elected officials from time to

1085
01:42:05,300 --> 01:42:12,160
But I didn't know I've been in others in many years past where there have been multiple elected officials talking through particular issues.

1086
01:42:17,360 --> 01:42:24,240
Clearly this is something that needs attention. Jason, I thank you for bringing it up and we'll.

1087
01:42:26,450 --> 01:42:29,170
To work its way through the committee level to have a more thorough.

1088
01:42:32,430 --> 01:42:33,910
Directive discussion about this.

1089
01:42:35,390 --> 01:42:39,750
All right. I don't see anybody else's hands with more comments on this topic, Jason.

1090
01:42:40,390 --> 01:42:45,270
I'm going to go back to you and let you go ahead with them with a second on your list.

1091
01:42:45,730 --> 01:42:53,610
Just to wrap up that topic, that because it wasn't just agenda setting discussions is why I thought

1092
01:42:53,610 --> 01:42:58,630
if it's going to take place it should be more of a formalized meeting agenda,

1093
01:42:59,330 --> 01:43:05,850
minutes so we know and a response of what kinds of side are discussed. That's why I brought this up.

1094
01:43:06,290 --> 01:43:12,730
I apologize if I was unclear and calling it agenda setting. It's not the formal agenda setting that

1095
01:43:12,730 --> 01:43:17,390
we have for the actual meetings but setting the course and trying to discuss what topics are

1096
01:43:17,390 --> 01:43:21,690
moving forward I think was my, that was my impression of what was going on I think.

1097
01:43:22,090 --> 01:43:26,730
I'm not sure you're correct because if they're meeting with the police and maybe it was

1098
01:43:26,730 --> 01:43:30,110
as how to deal with response level to protesters?

1099
01:43:30,490 --> 01:43:31,910
I don't know what was that about,

1100
01:43:32,390 --> 01:43:35,870
but again, I'm not here to dissect what was and what wasn't.

1101
01:43:36,130 --> 01:43:37,770
I'm more, unless you want to share,

1102
01:43:38,270 --> 01:43:41,390
I'm more, if it's going to happen, formalize it

1103
01:43:41,390 --> 01:43:42,290
so it's on the up and up

1104
01:43:42,290 --> 01:43:44,030
and it's part of our, one of our committees

1105
01:43:44,030 --> 01:43:46,070
and people are aware and people know

1106
01:43:46,070 --> 01:43:48,010
and have a report back on what got discussed

1107
01:43:48,470 --> 01:43:50,510
and actual decisions or directions are made

1108
01:43:51,050 --> 01:43:52,670
at a committee or at the council level,

1109
01:43:52,670 --> 01:43:57,370
not with just four or five people from our 60 percent council.

1110
01:43:58,070 --> 01:44:04,410
So I guess I'll move on from there to the – my other topic I wanted to kind of touch

1111
01:44:04,410 --> 01:44:08,350
space on was the responses and the letters and the emails we've been getting from

1112
01:44:08,350 --> 01:44:10,750
the Wauwatosa Peace Officers Association.

1113
01:44:11,570 --> 01:44:17,390
I feel that – and I can sense their frustration and a lack of response in some of the letters

1114
01:44:17,390 --> 01:44:18,710
or maybe the most recent one.

1115
01:44:18,710 --> 01:44:24,670
And I feel that we as a group haven't acknowledged these because I guess we're all getting them.

1116
01:44:24,750 --> 01:44:25,790
And it's like, okay, noted.

1117
01:44:26,790 --> 01:44:28,210
But should there be a response?

1118
01:44:28,690 --> 01:44:31,230
Should there be a discussion of those items that have been brought up?

1119
01:44:31,990 --> 01:44:33,730
When is the appropriate time to do that or where?

1120
01:44:34,250 --> 01:44:42,050
But I think that a response of some sort is probably, you know, at least an acknowledgement should take place.

1121
01:44:42,110 --> 01:44:47,270
And I don't know who that would be or what or if there's any of those items that we should be further looking into.

1122
01:44:47,270 --> 01:44:53,390
because some points may have merit from my personal perspective when I read it,

1123
01:44:53,790 --> 01:44:59,270
but these have been going on undiscussed and unresponsive.

1124
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:05,460
As far as I'm aware, unless, again, this leadership group might be, I don't know, or if

1125
01:45:05,460 --> 01:45:09,400
people are individually. So, I just wanted to put that out there, too, as an opportunity

1126
01:45:09,400 --> 01:45:17,520
during these meetings, we can talk about that or send it to some sort of other agenda or committee

1127
01:45:18,300 --> 01:45:19,500
or former responsive.

1128
01:45:22,210 --> 01:45:23,670
So, thoughts on that, anybody?

1129
01:45:25,820 --> 01:45:26,260
Anybody?

1130
01:45:31,920 --> 01:45:36,400
This is something that I've been struggling with, too, as I may have mentioned

1131
01:45:36,400 --> 01:45:39,100
and some conversations. If you as a teacher and parents and

1132
01:45:42,260 --> 01:45:45,800
my preferred, if it were me

1133
01:45:45,800 --> 01:45:50,460
personally, I would probably just not, you know, just not make a response, but I'm not

1134
01:45:50,460 --> 01:45:58,480
going to take that posture on behalf of this group. So, if no one is, wants to add something

1135
01:45:58,480 --> 01:46:00,540
tonight, if you want this agenda is to.

1136
01:46:05,500 --> 01:46:07,520
Kathy, I had my hand raised, Jim Muldenar here.

1137
01:46:10,080 --> 01:46:12,340
Okay, there, it just went up. Let me just finish my sentence.

1138
01:46:12,940 --> 01:46:16,500
Well, go ahead. I'll wrap my thoughts up later on. Go ahead, Jim.

1139
01:46:18,900 --> 01:46:24,220
I just sensed that you were inquiring as to if someone else wanted to speak on this issue.

1140
01:46:24,220 --> 01:46:29,900
Yeah, frankly, I totally agree with Alderman Wokey.

1141
01:46:30,080 --> 01:46:31,440
We need to have transparency.

1142
01:46:31,600 --> 01:46:35,400
Moreover, we do need to come up with a response to this.

1143
01:46:35,780 --> 01:46:46,240
And many of these items that have been raised in those letters are concerning and they merit a response.

1144
01:46:46,240 --> 01:47:04,180
And the, I sense, I don't want to speak on behalf of, I think one of the reasons why we're getting, we're seeing the communications and some of the tenor of that communication is the fact that we have not responded to this.

1145
01:47:04,180 --> 01:47:11,040
So I just want to underscore that we as a body, I think, need to be responding.

1146
01:47:11,420 --> 01:47:18,120
We need to hear and come together with regard to communication on this.

1147
01:47:18,300 --> 01:47:24,500
And so I'm just seconding Alderman Wilkie's desires in this regard.

1148
01:47:24,720 --> 01:47:25,440
So thank you.

1149
01:47:26,100 --> 01:47:26,800
Thank you.

1150
01:47:27,220 --> 01:47:30,280
Looks like all the personal Riley.

1151
01:47:30,280 --> 01:47:40,300
Thank you. I don't really have a fully formed opinion, I think, yet on whether or not we

1152
01:47:40,300 --> 01:47:47,880
need to respond as a council on this, but I know that our council president knows that

1153
01:47:47,880 --> 01:47:55,160
recently, when there were members of our community who were contacted about this Kibwa

1154
01:47:55,160 --> 01:48:01,360
white group or whatever it was that was out there. At that time, I was gravely concerned

1155
01:48:01,360 --> 01:48:07,480
about that and reached out about when something like this happens, what do we do as a council

1156
01:48:07,480 --> 01:48:14,940
and do we release a statement? Do we speak as a voice when something outrageous and appalling

1157
01:48:14,940 --> 01:48:22,240
happens in our community? So I think what's dovetailing for me here is that it seems

1158
01:48:22,240 --> 01:48:26,980
like there are things that are going on that are troubling to us individually, that are

1159
01:48:26,980 --> 01:48:32,300
troubling to us as a group, and it also becomes troubling to the community that we seem to

1160
01:48:32,300 --> 01:48:40,000
be staying silent on these issues, and sometimes silence is because, you know, there's a pandemic

1161
01:48:40,000 --> 01:48:46,400
and we didn't meet in August, and sometimes silence means that you are complicit.

1162
01:48:46,920 --> 01:48:48,840
Silence can be construed a lot of different ways.

1163
01:48:49,840 --> 01:48:54,680
So that's the piece that I think is is hanging for me is sort of as a as a new

1164
01:48:54,680 --> 01:49:00,940
member of this body you know when when do we come out and say something and it

1165
01:49:00,940 --> 01:49:03,900
seems like we're going to be asked to do that more and more so perhaps we should

1166
01:49:03,900 --> 01:49:05,600
have a longer conversation about it.

1167
01:49:07,910 --> 01:49:08,770
Mayor McBride.

1168
01:49:09,910 --> 01:49:10,610
Thank you.

1169
01:49:12,010 --> 01:49:16,190
I certainly am not in a position nor do I want to be in the position of

1170
01:49:16,190 --> 01:49:18,750
telling the council what to do so I'll just speak for myself.

1171
01:49:18,750 --> 01:49:27,650
The WPOA communications have typically, I think in every case, I could be wrong, but typically

1172
01:49:27,650 --> 01:49:34,050
have been addressed to me as well as to the council. And so I have responded on a couple of occasions

1173
01:49:34,050 --> 01:49:38,070
and I have copied the council on my responses.

1174
01:49:40,530 --> 01:49:43,850
The primary goal of the

1175
01:49:43,850 --> 01:49:48,970
The communication seemed to be to challenge a statement that I've made in emails that

1176
01:49:49,730 --> 01:49:52,370
officer men's situation is unique.

1177
01:49:53,290 --> 01:49:59,710
And when challenged on that by the WPOA, they cited one example that proved that officer

1178
01:49:59,710 --> 01:50:02,990
men's situation is not unique, meaning one of a kind.

1179
01:50:04,110 --> 01:50:08,570
But that was the only other example given, and so I pointed out, well, if it's not

1180
01:50:08,570 --> 01:50:17,750
unique. It's certainly extremely rare. And then we kept getting challenged on that and they wanted

1181
01:50:17,750 --> 01:50:21,570
the identity of the experts that I cited and I mentioned that.

1182
01:50:31,640 --> 01:50:33,320
And Mayor, I think you just muted

1183
01:50:33,320 --> 01:50:34,240
yourself accidentally.

1184
01:50:39,860 --> 01:50:46,820
I don't know how I did that. Anyway, I also said in my responses that

1185
01:50:46,820 --> 01:50:55,840
But rather than have a battle by media, by press release, that would be better for some

1186
01:50:55,840 --> 01:50:56,600
of us to meet.

1187
01:50:57,420 --> 01:51:03,100
And it took quite a while, but we are actually going to have a meeting tomorrow, and Alvin

1188
01:51:03,100 --> 01:51:07,020
and Kofra would be part of that, be assisted in setting it up.

1189
01:51:07,920 --> 01:51:17,660
So, you know, the battle by accusation and by media and press release is not useful at a time like this.

1190
01:51:19,460 --> 01:51:31,080
I also didn't think that it was warranted providing dignity to repeated attacks on a particular older person.

1191
01:51:31,900 --> 01:51:34,700
I want main names. You know who that person is.

1192
01:51:34,700 --> 01:51:44,380
I thought it was unfair. There were attacks and suggestions that the older person should be recalled, which is inappropriate.

1193
01:51:45,420 --> 01:51:51,520
So there comes a point in which you said what you're going to say and what's the point.

1194
01:51:52,280 --> 01:51:53,040
The other thing is,

1195
01:51:56,260 --> 01:51:59,940
you know, the statements often are intended to provoke a response.

1196
01:51:59,940 --> 01:52:07,960
And if you get into it too often, you suggest that there's merit to the controversy.

1197
01:52:08,480 --> 01:52:11,860
And the controversy, again, boiled down to four-year experts.

1198
01:52:14,080 --> 01:52:15,460
Officer Masse isn't unique.

1199
01:52:15,940 --> 01:52:18,720
Well, I already responded to that once or twice.

1200
01:52:18,840 --> 01:52:20,640
So how many times am I going to respond to that?

1201
01:52:21,020 --> 01:52:26,600
So, again, the council can do what it wants and it should.

1202
01:52:26,600 --> 01:52:35,300
and if the council has a particular response in addition to mine that it

1203
01:52:35,300 --> 01:52:41,900
thinks is appropriate I will not criticize that in any way but I just want to

1204
01:52:41,900 --> 01:52:46,460
point out that I don't know that there's much merit from my point of view in

1205
01:52:46,460 --> 01:52:51,200
responding further except for through the meeting I hope will be productive

1206
01:52:51,200 --> 01:52:58,960
tomorrow with the WPOA. I hope that we can get back on common ground. We have challenges as a city

1207
01:52:59,620 --> 01:53:05,360
that require all of us, I think, to pull and harness rather than to pull away from each other.

1208
01:53:05,900 --> 01:53:10,760
We should try to be on the same page as mayor, common council, police department,

1209
01:53:10,920 --> 01:53:15,980
and whatever, so that we can get through what everyone would acknowledge is a very difficult

1210
01:53:15,980 --> 01:53:20,460
time. So I'll leave it at that, but thank you for allowing me to talk about it.

1211
01:53:21,100 --> 01:53:22,540
Thank you. All the person cool.

1212
01:53:26,410 --> 01:53:27,090
Thank you.

1213
01:53:28,410 --> 01:53:34,410
I will only speak for myself as someone who has several times been called out

1214
01:53:34,410 --> 01:53:38,390
specifically in the press releases from the POA.

1215
01:53:40,530 --> 01:53:44,110
For me, I think it would be extremely helpful if we had,

1216
01:53:44,110 --> 01:53:51,590
had, whether it was in a closed meeting session, had Allen, had the mayor, and Jim explained

1217
01:53:51,590 --> 01:53:59,330
to us exactly what we are allowed to say because there's a lot of undertones in these press

1218
01:53:59,330 --> 01:54:05,010
releases that we are going to be held liable for what we say in making statements.

1219
01:54:05,850 --> 01:54:13,150
It has been, and I don't believe that I stand alone in this thought, that we,

1220
01:54:13,150 --> 01:54:21,350
For me, I don't know what's okay to say anymore because it seems that these press releases continue to escalate and to provoke.

1221
01:54:22,250 --> 01:54:27,150
And whether you think that there's merit in responding to them or not, that's not my issue.

1222
01:54:27,470 --> 01:54:37,730
But I think it would be extremely helpful to have the support of our administrative staff and our legal counsel to let us know what parameters we're allowed to speak within,

1223
01:54:37,730 --> 01:54:47,230
what we should say, because we, well, I made a statement on my own. The majority of council came together and signed that resolution together.

1224
01:54:48,070 --> 01:54:55,290
And so I think it would be very beneficial if we met as a council and discussed exactly how we're supposed to move forward from here.

1225
01:54:55,610 --> 01:55:04,290
Because I quite frankly have felt very hung out to dry with no support, with no advice, with no check-ins, nothing.

1226
01:55:04,290 --> 01:55:20,350
And for me, there's absolutely no way I'm responding to any of those press releases and giving more opportunity for myself to be a public target of threats on social media and via phone.

1227
01:55:20,990 --> 01:55:32,630
So, again, I'm only speaking for myself, but I feel like I have seen a real lack of support from our staff in letting us know how we should proceed in an appropriate manner.

1228
01:55:41,710 --> 01:55:48,000
Thank you. Anybody else want to add on to this? All the person who will be.

1229
01:55:50,220 --> 01:55:54,060
This is exactly what I was talking about this discussion here is what we can have.

1230
01:55:55,080 --> 01:56:03,240
We're learning a lot. I didn't know about, you know, brought this up a week or two ago to have this scheduled this meeting for this discussion.

1231
01:56:03,620 --> 01:56:09,220
And tomorrow, the mayor and one elder is having a meeting with them regarding this topic.

1232
01:56:09,220 --> 01:56:16,080
seems odd. We didn't know that. I don't mind. I'm glad someone's talking, but it's

1233
01:56:16,080 --> 01:56:20,420
just kind of odd. And Mayor, your comments, you talk about what you decided to do,

1234
01:56:20,500 --> 01:56:24,420
what your response was, and we can go do what we want. It seems kind of odd, too,

1235
01:56:24,500 --> 01:56:31,140
since we're being addressed, I think, as the entire, as you and all of us. And I

1236
01:56:31,140 --> 01:56:35,680
did know about a resolution that some alders signed down with for cool,

1237
01:56:37,340 --> 01:56:43,140
I don't know how a resolution can be made and signed on to without a resolution to be

1238
01:56:43,140 --> 01:56:47,300
passed by the council, but it was just a statement or what it was, maybe not an actual resolution,

1239
01:56:47,400 --> 01:56:52,400
but I thought it was going to be passed by the council, because I did hear back from

1240
01:56:52,400 --> 01:56:56,780
some people, did you sign that, or are you one of the people that signed that resolution,

1241
01:56:56,920 --> 01:56:58,060
and I'm like, I don't even know about it.

1242
01:56:58,640 --> 01:57:02,060
So it's just kind of like having these discussions, and I'm not blaming that you did that

1243
01:57:02,060 --> 01:57:02,980
or whatever or judging.

1244
01:57:02,980 --> 01:57:08,100
It's just things are happy individually, but yet if we can have discussions like this

1245
01:57:08,100 --> 01:57:13,460
on the topics and the merit within those, and what is like like Old Woman Cool saying

1246
01:57:14,100 --> 01:57:20,820
some counsel advisory on what's collectively a good idea to respond to, what's not.

1247
01:57:21,600 --> 01:57:26,500
And if a meeting is going to be set, who's going to be at it to have communication.

1248
01:57:26,680 --> 01:57:30,660
Because I think communication, whether this is trying to provoke negative communication

1249
01:57:30,660 --> 01:57:38,600
or not it's communication that we need to make and not let walls get built by bad communication

1250
01:57:38,600 --> 01:57:44,800
maybe or lack of because unintended walls based on all this stuff going on we still

1251
01:57:44,800 --> 01:57:51,700
are one city with leadership and staff of all departments that are working towards

1252
01:57:51,700 --> 01:57:59,140
keeping TOSA a great community even as we work on improving some areas where we are

1253
01:57:59,140 --> 01:58:03,680
realizing we need some improvement whether we agree or not all yet on those

1254
01:58:03,680 --> 01:58:07,200
areas what they are specifically. But this discussion like this and I had asked

1255
01:58:07,200 --> 01:58:10,400
if we could go into closed session tonight for specifically the reason

1256
01:58:10,400 --> 01:58:15,700
Alderman Kuhl brought up to have councilor advisory on a breakdown on

1257
01:58:15,700 --> 01:58:19,580
what's when you do make statements or you do what is and what's not

1258
01:58:21,980 --> 01:58:25,640
potentially something like to be litigation or something if things advance

1259
01:58:26,340 --> 01:58:32,020
down a worse road, which hopefully they don't. But, you know, yeah, I was told we were not,

1260
01:58:32,080 --> 01:58:38,140
there's no merit to us having closed session. There's nothing that I sort of disagree with

1261
01:58:38,140 --> 01:58:42,120
that. But you just having this discussion now and bringing this out and seeing what people

1262
01:58:42,120 --> 01:58:46,440
are with this and me and then hearing that some discussion or response is happening that

1263
01:58:46,440 --> 01:58:50,280
there is going to be a meeting, at least there's something happening that's an update

1264
01:58:50,280 --> 01:58:54,820
in itself. So it's been helpful. I don't know if there's anything more we can do

1265
01:58:54,820 --> 01:58:59,060
with this but we can't just let these things sit on the side lines and then

1266
01:58:59,060 --> 01:59:02,820
build up when we're all on it together.

1267
01:59:05,460 --> 01:59:08,200
Okay Mayor, I had Jason Kofroth's hand up

1268
01:59:08,200 --> 01:59:13,520
first and then I'll call you Jason Kofroth go ahead. Yeah thank you so I'll

1269
01:59:13,520 --> 01:59:18,620
address the meeting that Mayor McBride brought up that I don't think that

1270
01:59:18,620 --> 01:59:23,120
should be a surprise to anybody because that was requested and I believe

1271
01:59:23,120 --> 01:59:27,520
the mayor said that he would work on scheduling that in one of the email

1272
01:59:27,520 --> 01:59:33,640
responses that he sent so I think we all expected that so I would I would hope

1273
01:59:33,640 --> 01:59:39,380
after that meeting that there would be a report and there would be a release of

1274
01:59:39,380 --> 01:59:44,660
kind of what kind of response or what what came out of that because I think

1275
01:59:44,660 --> 01:59:48,540
there's a benefit to it to the response that or to the other comment that Mayor

1276
01:59:48,540 --> 01:59:55,780
McBride had, I think having these arguments over email with the union is not beneficial.

1277
01:59:56,760 --> 01:59:59,840
So as much as that can be handled in person.

1278
02:00:00,020 --> 02:00:06,500
And in the public, I think, is a benefit so that we can figure out a way to work with them.

1279
02:00:07,260 --> 02:00:14,820
This is not a policy discussion with them because they're not in a bargaining capacity to bargain with us on policy.

1280
02:00:15,520 --> 02:00:24,920
So I think there needs to be an understanding of kind of what their role is in all of this and how they really play into it as the bargaining unit.

1281
02:00:25,360 --> 02:00:32,380
I completely agree, though, with All the Woman Cool related to what can be said and what shouldn't be said.

1282
02:00:33,020 --> 02:00:41,580
There's kind of this emptiness since we had that one meeting of, okay, we made this statement.

1283
02:00:42,700 --> 02:00:47,920
You can try to explain yourself to the public, but I'm not going to tell you exactly what you're allowed to say

1284
02:00:47,920 --> 02:00:53,860
and what you're not allowed to say, but you're going to hear from a lot of people and just be cautious about what you say.

1285
02:00:53,860 --> 02:01:06,220
And I don't think that's an appropriate kind of mechanism for us to have public discussion by not having the legal guidance that I think we all kind of expect to have.

1286
02:01:06,220 --> 02:01:21,260
So I support other women cool and whatever more we can get on here is what is able to be shared with the public on the discussions that were had in closed session.

1287
02:01:21,400 --> 02:01:27,360
And here's what is not allowed to be shared with the public. I think that would be appropriate at least moving forward.

1288
02:01:27,360 --> 02:01:28,160
I don't know.

1289
02:01:28,260 --> 02:01:33,740
We obviously can't make up for statements that maybe have been made already, but I think

1290
02:01:33,740 --> 02:01:40,000
as this goes down the line and some of these topics are brought up again, I think a clear

1291
02:01:40,000 --> 02:01:46,060
guidance on what should or should not be said and who is going to be saying it I think

1292
02:01:46,060 --> 02:01:46,540
is important.

1293
02:01:48,240 --> 02:01:52,260
One of the things I think is important I think for us to recognize is us as a common

1294
02:01:52,260 --> 02:01:58,940
council do have a common council president that we rely on for um some of these uh for making

1295
02:01:58,940 --> 02:02:05,360
making comments for the public. I believe though our ordinances say and you can correct me if I'm

1296
02:02:05,360 --> 02:02:12,700
wrong attorney customer that the mayor is the spokesperson for the city so how that kind of

1297
02:02:12,700 --> 02:02:17,820
plays out and what the mayor is and isn't allowed to say I guess is up to interpretation

1298
02:02:18,460 --> 02:02:21,160
But it doesn't surprise me that the mayor has made comments.

1299
02:02:21,760 --> 02:02:26,220
I mean, I'd agree with everything that's in the comments that he makes, but he is in

1300
02:02:26,220 --> 02:02:28,880
that role, and I believe the ordinance is provided for that.

1301
02:02:29,780 --> 02:02:34,740
So as much as we can criticize comments that have been made, like, we need to at least

1302
02:02:34,740 --> 02:02:36,760
have somebody that's able to make the public comments.

1303
02:02:37,320 --> 02:02:40,260
And so I think they were appropriate in many of the cases.

1304
02:02:40,480 --> 02:02:43,400
I think is what all the women of Riley brought up, that situation.

1305
02:02:43,760 --> 02:02:46,800
I think the mayor are taking a leadership role in that and having that press conference

1306
02:02:46,800 --> 02:02:53,320
that announced was brought up there was I think a great step in the city taking a stance on it

1307
02:02:53,320 --> 02:02:58,840
without all of us having to meet and come up with a statement. There's just deficiencies in

1308
02:02:58,840 --> 02:03:03,600
allowing the mayor to be able to come out and make those obvious statements announcing

1309
02:03:04,760 --> 02:03:11,220
what was what was disgustingly sent to those residents. So I don't I don't know what exactly

1310
02:03:11,220 --> 02:03:16,460
do with those comments. I think that from the union, I think some of their concerns, though,

1311
02:03:16,480 --> 02:03:22,040
related to the ad hoc are valid. I think some of those are what should be discussed if we have

1312
02:03:22,040 --> 02:03:22,540
a discussion.

1313
02:03:24,840 --> 02:03:29,900
Us having a statement coming out to some of their responses, a formal statement,

1314
02:03:30,000 --> 02:03:34,920
I don't know, is really effective or not. But I do think having the discussions on some of

1315
02:03:34,920 --> 02:03:40,360
those specific topics related to the effectiveness, even of, like, what the ad hoc and the reason

1316
02:03:40,360 --> 02:03:44,260
for why that was created. I think that's valid. I think there's an opportunity for maybe government

1317
02:03:44,260 --> 02:03:51,780
affairs to look at the ad hoc and take the feedback from the department and take the feedback from

1318
02:03:51,780 --> 02:03:56,420
some of the residents that have contacted us since it's been created. So I think that would be if

1319
02:03:56,420 --> 02:04:01,080
we have any kind of takeaway from what's been sent in those press releases, that's probably the

1320
02:04:01,080 --> 02:04:05,800
one that I think has at least the most merit for a public discussion moving forward.

1321
02:04:05,800 --> 02:04:17,910
Thank you, Jason. Mayor McBride? Thank you. First of all, I'm kind of surprised that a

1322
02:04:17,910 --> 02:04:22,130
negative inference was drawn from my comments about the Common Council can do what it wants.

1323
02:04:22,290 --> 02:04:29,090
I wasn't being demeaning. I wasn't being dismissive. I was just suggesting that you all are separately

1324
02:04:29,090 --> 02:04:36,630
elected and you have the right as a council to do what is within your sphere of authority.

1325
02:04:38,030 --> 02:04:45,230
I have a separate sphere, you have a sphere, and the council certainly takes actions.

1326
02:04:45,890 --> 02:04:48,390
You set up the ad hoc committee, for example.

1327
02:04:49,310 --> 02:04:51,750
I didn't have a role in that, that's fine.

1328
02:04:54,310 --> 02:04:57,830
So, don't draw any negative inferences from that.

1329
02:04:57,950 --> 02:05:05,570
I was just merely saying that I was responding on my own to the WPLA statements which were addressed, that I thought to me.

1330
02:05:05,570 --> 02:05:15,650
So new folks have the right to speak collectively as well for those things that were addressed to you. That's all I meant by that.

1331
02:05:15,910 --> 02:05:25,170
Secondly, when Alderman Wiltie was talking about, I don't know what this resolution was, that Alderman Kuhl was talking about.

1332
02:05:25,170 --> 02:05:33,050
She's talking about the July 14th resolution that was passed 14 to 1 by the common council and signed by me the next day, which

1333
02:05:33,810 --> 02:05:42,270
was a directive to the city administrator and the police chief to facilitate the transition of officer Joseph Mencer from these

1334
02:05:42,270 --> 02:05:46,510
Employment by the law to a police department for them quote. That was the resolution

1335
02:05:46,510 --> 02:05:52,710
Directing if I'm wrong all the women cool that you were referring to she's nodding her head. So that's that's the point

1336
02:05:52,710 --> 02:05:54,150
There was no separate resolution.

1337
02:05:54,870 --> 02:05:59,470
She was just, the WPOA had any express releases

1338
02:05:59,470 --> 02:06:01,890
has attacked the Common Council and me

1339
02:06:02,250 --> 02:06:04,650
for that July 14th resolution.

1340
02:06:06,450 --> 02:06:10,450
That's what the genesis of the criticisms

1341
02:06:10,450 --> 02:06:13,850
from the WPOA was kind of all about.

1342
02:06:17,050 --> 02:06:19,970
Going on to the meeting that's happening tomorrow.

1343
02:06:19,970 --> 02:06:32,510
As mayor, I have meetings every day with people. I've met with protesters, I've met with community groups, I've met with concerned citizens. I've taken phone calls from Kimberly Motley.

1344
02:06:33,190 --> 02:06:46,390
I've met by Zoom with members of the Wisconsin legislature. This happens on a daily basis. There's not only nothing wrong with it.

1345
02:06:46,390 --> 02:06:49,130
It's exactly what the mayor should be doing, I believe.

1346
02:06:50,190 --> 02:06:56,470
I'm trying to respond to people who call me and write to me

1347
02:06:56,470 --> 02:06:58,330
every day saying, can I have a meeting with you?

1348
02:06:58,430 --> 02:07:01,770
I want to express my concerns about X, Y, or Z.

1349
02:07:02,870 --> 02:07:05,170
And I'm sure you get all those requests, too.

1350
02:07:06,070 --> 02:07:08,270
Dear older person, I'd like to meet with you

1351
02:07:08,270 --> 02:07:10,690
because I'm worried about the Johnny Visala development.

1352
02:07:10,870 --> 02:07:12,890
I'm worried about rats in my neighborhood.

1353
02:07:13,130 --> 02:07:15,730
I'm worried about protesters marching through my neighborhood.

1354
02:07:15,730 --> 02:07:18,330
but you have meetings like that all the time,

1355
02:07:18,470 --> 02:07:20,530
and I have meetings like that all the time.

1356
02:07:21,370 --> 02:07:24,450
And Alderman Koforowski is absolutely 100% correct

1357
02:07:24,450 --> 02:07:29,690
and one of the responses that you all received as CCs,

1358
02:07:31,310 --> 02:07:34,190
I said to Mr. Malowski, I'd like a meeting,

1359
02:07:35,310 --> 02:07:38,110
and I'd like it to be soon, and this was in mid-August

1360
02:07:38,110 --> 02:07:39,390
and he had a week of training

1361
02:07:39,390 --> 02:07:41,610
and it took a while for us to set it up

1362
02:07:41,610 --> 02:07:43,570
and Alderman Koforowski helped us set it up.

1363
02:07:43,570 --> 02:07:47,250
So that you've known about this meeting for a month.

1364
02:07:47,950 --> 02:07:49,470
And so we're going to have it.

1365
02:07:50,610 --> 02:07:59,570
And I'm just going to try to get on common ground with the police union and find out where we can go with this so we don't have a war of press releases.

1366
02:08:02,550 --> 02:08:09,270
The other thing I need to say here is that I'm almost literally asked for comments every day about everything.

1367
02:08:10,150 --> 02:08:18,890
Today's request was the Wisconsin Department of Health and Human Services has recommended

1368
02:08:19,710 --> 02:08:20,830
against trick-or-treating.

1369
02:08:21,990 --> 02:08:23,430
What is the city's position?

1370
02:08:24,470 --> 02:08:26,750
I said I wasn't aware of that recommendation.

1371
02:08:27,650 --> 02:08:32,310
The discussion hasn't occurred at the city level, and I'm sure that if a discussion

1372
02:08:32,310 --> 02:08:37,230
does occur, the recommendation of the state will be taken into account.

1373
02:08:37,230 --> 02:08:43,850
It was a no-comment comment. I try not to make comments about things that are

1374
02:08:43,850 --> 02:08:48,710
getting out ahead of the council. I try not to make comments about things I know

1375
02:08:48,710 --> 02:08:54,550
nothing about until I gather the facts. And there are times when it's best to just

1376
02:08:54,550 --> 02:09:00,250
shut one's mouth so that you don't get into it with the police union or a

1377
02:09:00,250 --> 02:09:04,270
protest group or something else. So there are many times I have not

1378
02:09:04,270 --> 02:09:10,290
comment when asked for comments. I probably have, all the times I've been asked for comments over

1379
02:09:10,290 --> 02:09:16,110
the last several months, I've probably responded less than 50% of the time, because I just don't want

1380
02:09:16,110 --> 02:09:22,370
to get out ahead of all 16 of you. It's more prudent, and I say this many times, for the

1381
02:09:22,370 --> 02:09:27,210
matter to come to the council to be fully discussed and debated, and then we'll go ahead and we'll

1382
02:09:27,210 --> 02:09:31,730
talk about it. When the council has already issued a resolution that I've signed, I feel

1383
02:09:31,730 --> 02:09:39,350
that I can talk about that. In fact, again, the broadcast people, the print people, they're

1384
02:09:39,350 --> 02:09:46,290
always asking for comments. And so that's someone who is elected by the voters of the city. And as

1385
02:09:46,290 --> 02:09:53,730
someone who, as Alderman Kofa was pointing out correctly, is in my job description, official

1386
02:09:53,730 --> 02:09:58,610
spokesperson for the city, there are times when I have to comment. But as I said, I try

1387
02:09:58,610 --> 02:10:04,050
not to get out ahead of the council because I recognize the system we're in and it's more

1388
02:10:04,050 --> 02:10:11,050
prudent for me anyway not to do that. So I hope that responds to your concerns.

1389
02:10:16,640 --> 02:10:21,200
Thank you. Looks like all the person friends them. I saw your hand going up.

1390
02:10:21,480 --> 02:10:26,860
Yeah thank you and I appreciate the discussion we've been having and what you've all had to say.

1391
02:10:27,520 --> 02:10:32,760
I have a question for Alan, though. On the issue of what we can say or we can't say,

1392
02:10:33,560 --> 02:10:38,860
I always thought it was pretty clear. If it takes place an open session, we can talk about it.

1393
02:10:39,400 --> 02:10:42,900
If it takes place in closed session, we shouldn't or we can't.

1394
02:10:45,000 --> 02:10:48,420
Never quite that easy, of course, because it's a lawyer thing.

1395
02:10:50,420 --> 02:10:52,040
That's sort of the gist of the thing, isn't it?

1396
02:10:52,040 --> 02:11:00,640
Yeah, that I would probably say the best way to describe it is most things that are appropriate and are done in closed session are things that you shouldn't talk about.

1397
02:11:01,000 --> 02:11:15,760
Right. There may not be an absolute prohibition on talking about them. However, different things that occur or discussed in closed session may or may not be it may be against the interest of the city for you to discuss them.

1398
02:11:16,300 --> 02:11:23,760
And as a fiduciary, as an officer of the city, you may have that obligation not to do things that would damage the city in that regard.

1399
02:11:24,060 --> 02:11:29,940
So it's not quite an absolute prohibition on speaking what's in closed session, but it is what's not in the interest.

1400
02:11:30,380 --> 02:11:36,020
This discussion about whether some of these items that you're talking about tonight can be in closed session.

1401
02:11:36,200 --> 02:11:44,920
It's really been difficult. We don't have, we just, the open meetings law is very restrictive on what reasons you can have a closed session and go into closed session.

1402
02:11:45,400 --> 02:11:52,960
And we haven't been able to visualize one of those appropriate reasons out of the discussion

1403
02:11:52,960 --> 02:11:55,680
that was coming up tonight, so we haven't been able to do that for tonight.

1404
02:11:55,900 --> 02:11:59,380
But yeah, the general rule is it's a should more than a can't.

1405
02:12:00,100 --> 02:12:07,500
And in terms of what we can talk about, I don't know that we should talk with one

1406
02:12:07,500 --> 02:12:07,960
voice.

1407
02:12:08,900 --> 02:12:18,220
I do not agree with everything that, surprisingly enough, that Alderperson Byrne may think that

1408
02:12:19,020 --> 02:12:24,940
we have different opinions, we represent different parts of the city, and we should be talking

1409
02:12:24,940 --> 02:12:31,460
and discussing things from those perspectives. We do not have to agree all the time. We

1410
02:12:31,460 --> 02:12:36,120
do not have to speak with one voice. The mayor speaks for the city, and I would

1411
02:12:36,120 --> 02:12:40,760
argue maybe the council president would speak for the council but we also are

1412
02:12:40,760 --> 02:12:46,080
allowed to have our own opinions and to issue our own statements. I would not

1413
02:12:46,080 --> 02:12:54,360
want to see any of that crimped or put an edge on because we're afraid to talk

1414
02:12:54,360 --> 02:12:54,940
about something.

1415
02:12:57,280 --> 02:12:57,640
That's all.

1416
02:13:00,300 --> 02:13:00,800
Thank you.

1417
02:13:03,590 --> 02:13:04,470
And anybody else?

1418
02:13:11,070 --> 02:13:15,770
No, no, no, you're, oh yes, Jason

1419
02:13:15,770 --> 02:13:20,850
Cole-Propos, your hand just went up again. I think that just the last comment, I think

1420
02:13:20,850 --> 02:13:27,130
that the concern that I have, and I won't speak for all the women cool, but it sounds

1421
02:13:27,130 --> 02:13:34,290
like that she has is the closed session discussion. It's easy to say, okay, it was

1422
02:13:34,290 --> 02:13:36,250
happened in closed session, we can't discuss that.

1423
02:13:36,870 --> 02:13:40,030
The problem with it is, is the resolution was passed

1424
02:13:40,030 --> 02:13:42,510
in open session and a statement then came out.

1425
02:13:43,050 --> 02:13:45,710
And the expectation then is, how do you,

1426
02:13:46,090 --> 02:13:47,730
and at what point are you able to defend

1427
02:13:48,290 --> 02:13:50,670
your decision for supporting that?

1428
02:13:51,230 --> 02:13:54,050
And what can you use then in open session to support it?

1429
02:13:54,350 --> 02:13:56,350
I think that's where the issue comes out.

1430
02:13:56,450 --> 02:13:58,610
If it was something that was clearly in closed session,

1431
02:13:59,290 --> 02:14:01,850
like what we talk about with TIFFs,

1432
02:14:01,850 --> 02:14:04,950
when we talk about TIFFs and those are bargaining things

1433
02:14:04,950 --> 02:14:07,990
and staff then goes back and negotiates with the developer.

1434
02:14:08,390 --> 02:14:11,070
That's an obvious one because we're not having

1435
02:14:11,070 --> 02:14:13,590
that discussion then or passing something in open session.

1436
02:14:14,210 --> 02:14:16,130
So I think when we have something that is discussed

1437
02:14:16,130 --> 02:14:17,930
in closed session but then a statement

1438
02:14:17,930 --> 02:14:19,690
or a resolution comes out of that,

1439
02:14:20,210 --> 02:14:23,010
there's then gray area related to how

1440
02:14:23,010 --> 02:14:27,590
and what for when and how do we then respond

1441
02:14:27,590 --> 02:14:30,310
to questions related to why you supported that.

1442
02:14:30,870 --> 02:14:33,930
And I think the easy thing to do is just not respond to it.

1443
02:14:34,950 --> 02:14:38,850
Oftentimes though, a lot of our residents get very frustrated when we decide just not to respond.

1444
02:14:39,790 --> 02:14:48,930
I would like to let you know that if we fail to give you that clarification when we're in that close session about what's appropriate to talk about and what's not,

1445
02:14:49,590 --> 02:14:52,410
I invite anyone to do to call me as necessary.

1446
02:14:52,850 --> 02:14:57,110
If you have questions about it, I can try to help you walk through that.

1447
02:14:57,110 --> 02:14:59,970
it may never be easy with it. I'm available if you need that.

1448
02:15:00,210 --> 02:15:01,970
Concerned. If you have that concern.

1449
02:15:04,420 --> 02:15:24,000
I appreciate this discussion and I appreciate hearing your different perspectives on this. I guess I'm going to take something back that I was looking for a very simple answer to is we've received publicly several letters from the police officers association challenging us to do the things.

1450
02:15:25,260 --> 02:15:27,100
I, we have not made a response.

1451
02:15:27,560 --> 02:15:33,320
Mayor has responded on behalf of the city and tried to clarify, and I guess I need to know from you folks.

1452
02:15:34,340 --> 02:15:36,580
Maybe I'm being a little dull about this.

1453
02:15:38,040 --> 02:15:44,960
If you expect a response from the council to some of the more provocative statements that have been lobbed at us.

1454
02:15:46,100 --> 02:15:50,020
And I don't have a quick picture that I understand the discussion about what we talked about.

1455
02:15:50,980 --> 02:15:55,780
I was looking for a little bit more direction, I guess.

1456
02:15:56,820 --> 02:16:00,020
Dennis is the spokesperson for the city. I don't have that status.

1457
02:16:00,840 --> 02:16:04,640
And to the practicality of talking to each and every one of you,

1458
02:16:05,900 --> 02:16:11,880
it's difficult to accomplish and probably inappropriate in some ways.

1459
02:16:11,880 --> 02:16:19,580
But I feel like we've been challenged publicly by these letters and haven't made a response.

1460
02:16:19,900 --> 02:16:25,240
When I started this out, my response comes on being a parent, being a teacher, is to not

1461
02:16:26,960 --> 02:16:29,900
respond to what were some fairly bullying statements.

1462
02:16:30,760 --> 02:16:35,920
So if you're going to just leave that there and you're comfortable with where this discussion

1463
02:16:35,920 --> 02:16:39,940
is gone, and we certainly can arrange, we have a gender setting coming up on Thursday.

1464
02:16:39,940 --> 02:16:45,100
there's obviously a desire to have some direction

1465
02:16:47,180 --> 02:16:48,360
here.

1466
02:16:49,660 --> 02:16:53,680
If a TAN will just set a committee level for information, that's fine.

1467
02:16:54,040 --> 02:16:56,280
Maybe you want to reach out to me.

1468
02:16:57,420 --> 02:17:01,860
I'm not completely comfortable with the fact that there hasn't been a response from the council

1469
02:17:01,860 --> 02:17:04,720
about the different press releases that we've been seeing.

1470
02:17:05,120 --> 02:17:08,060
If you all are comfortable with not making a response,

1471
02:17:08,060 --> 02:17:15,000
or Nikki certainly can make her own. I guess I need a little bit more conversation or direction

1472
02:17:15,000 --> 02:17:21,120
on that. So, we'll leave that there for tonight or we can keep going on this topic. Heather?

1473
02:17:25,020 --> 02:17:29,000
Sorry, couldn't find my button. Well, I mean, if we're going to sit here and have a

1474
02:17:29,000 --> 02:17:35,580
festivist airing of grievances over how this is being handled, I'm not entirely sure how

1475
02:17:35,580 --> 02:17:44,460
I or council are supposed to respond when there are public statements being made by the Peace

1476
02:17:44,460 --> 02:17:49,940
Officers Association trying to directly tie me to violence at Officer Men's House.

1477
02:17:50,660 --> 02:17:59,080
And not menacing words, directly saying that. I'm not sure how to respond to an open records

1478
02:17:59,080 --> 02:18:08,520
request for three months of every email I've sent out of my city email. How do you respond

1479
02:18:08,520 --> 02:18:14,240
to that? Who responds to that? Because that is not something you can respond to. That is

1480
02:18:14,240 --> 02:18:19,560
literally intimidation and bullying tactics that don't warrant a response because all

1481
02:18:19,560 --> 02:18:22,300
a response from me is going to do is going to feed that.

1482
02:18:25,100 --> 02:18:27,620
And it's going to make it

1483
02:18:27,620 --> 02:18:33,060
died down a little bit. And I have concerns that now that we're probably talking about

1484
02:18:33,060 --> 02:18:38,800
this, it's just going to go right back up again. My name's going to be out there again

1485
02:18:38,800 --> 02:18:43,600
and mentioned again. And people are going to be threatening to show up at my house with

1486
02:18:43,600 --> 02:18:49,660
guns again. So I'm not sure how we're supposed to respond to these things when all it is

1487
02:18:49,660 --> 02:18:50,740
is intimidation and bullying.

1488
02:18:51,780 --> 02:18:58,020
And I don't have an answer. I know we have access to staff. If there's staff

1489
02:18:58,020 --> 02:19:03,720
guidance that we should be accessing, Alan or Jim or Melissa, I'll kind of throw

1490
02:19:03,720 --> 02:19:09,500
this back at you. If you folks don't want to, this needs another forum to have

1491
02:19:09,500 --> 02:19:19,330
discussion. I'm sensitive to your being out there, Heather. I am. And no, I don't

1492
02:19:19,330 --> 02:19:24,790
I don't think anybody wants to draw attention that's needed to inform,

1493
02:19:27,030 --> 02:19:27,750
re-inflame things.

1494
02:19:28,090 --> 02:19:32,930
Right, and I'm fully open to private discussions about this, but if we're talking about how

1495
02:19:32,930 --> 02:19:39,210
these are emails that all of council have gotten, everybody has seen emails where they're,

1496
02:19:39,350 --> 02:19:46,070
I was in New York and I was being directly tied to the People's Revolution and saying that

1497
02:19:46,070 --> 02:19:49,670
I was a participant in what happened at Officer Mensa's house.

1498
02:19:49,670 --> 02:19:54,950
Everybody saw that. No one reached out to ask me how I felt about it, if I was okay with

1499
02:19:54,950 --> 02:19:56,130
it, what I needed.

1500
02:19:57,090 --> 02:19:57,310
Heather?

1501
02:19:57,790 --> 02:19:58,230
Mm-hmm.

1502
02:20:02,730 --> 02:20:03,650
Is this still going on?

1503
02:20:05,010 --> 02:20:07,230
It is still going on, John.

1504
02:20:08,570 --> 02:20:09,370
I'm done.

1505
02:20:09,530 --> 02:20:10,190
I'm done.

1506
02:20:10,430 --> 02:20:16,690
I mean, I just felt like if we're going to say, if we're really going to just discuss

1507
02:20:17,110 --> 02:20:20,430
how we're supposed to respond to these things, I think we just really need to be

1508
02:20:20,430 --> 02:20:25,250
honest about what we're supposed to respond to. So I just felt compelled to share

1509
02:20:25,250 --> 02:20:33,710
my experience. I can yield the floor. Thank you. I'm gonna hold this

1510
02:20:33,710 --> 02:20:37,910
discussion on it. Obviously this is something that I feel like this is

1511
02:20:37,910 --> 02:20:44,310
something that needs some more attention and we'll figure out how to handle

1512
02:20:44,310 --> 02:20:48,210
that and reach out to people and so we get a little bit more clarity on this.

1513
02:20:48,210 --> 02:20:49,470
so I get more clear to you, you know, Craig.

1514
02:20:52,610 --> 02:20:54,510
Go ahead, Craig, yes, Bill?

1515
02:20:55,150 --> 02:20:56,610
I still don't have anything to say, Kathy.

1516
02:20:56,890 --> 02:20:58,310
Okay, I'm sorry, your box lights up

1517
02:20:58,310 --> 02:21:01,230
and I think that means you're gonna speak.

1518
02:21:01,630 --> 02:21:03,150
All right, let's move to the third,

1519
02:21:04,910 --> 02:21:07,470
which was Jason's comments on the ad hoc committee.

1520
02:21:10,460 --> 02:21:12,960
Jason, will he just want it?

1521
02:21:13,500 --> 02:21:15,560
The presentation at the beginning touched on that

1522
02:21:15,560 --> 02:21:18,220
and gave some what they're working on

1523
02:21:18,220 --> 02:21:20,780
and a little bit of an idea of a timeline

1524
02:21:20,780 --> 02:21:23,760
And that's kind of what I was looking forward to hearing.

1525
02:21:24,020 --> 02:21:26,740
So I think that kind of covered the topic.

1526
02:21:27,580 --> 02:21:31,460
But in general, I've also been hearing about, you know, people,

1527
02:21:31,640 --> 02:21:35,300
lots of emails coming in that we put it on the agenda to disband it

1528
02:21:35,300 --> 02:21:37,120
and that ad hoc committee.

1529
02:21:37,380 --> 02:21:39,800
And that was not at all why I put this on the agenda.

1530
02:21:39,820 --> 02:21:43,660
It was to hear some status updates, what they're working on,

1531
02:21:44,700 --> 02:21:48,560
you know, if they're meeting and able to work on some of those initiatives.

1532
02:21:48,560 --> 02:21:54,000
because we did hear stuff about certain individuals on the committee or who's

1533
02:21:54,000 --> 02:21:58,560
talking to who or you know so it's like what what's the status we heard they got

1534
02:21:58,560 --> 02:22:02,620
I think I wrote down like five or six things that they're working on or

1535
02:22:02,620 --> 02:22:06,660
suggesting that we work on the study that's going to happen which is

1536
02:22:06,660 --> 02:22:11,000
obviously something that you know in a timeline five months for that study so

1537
02:22:11,000 --> 02:22:16,680
I'm I would encourage that that ad hoc committee to stay intact until say

1538
02:22:16,680 --> 02:22:21,660
that study is done and there's a response to it or acknowledging the content is completed

1539
02:22:21,660 --> 02:22:30,440
for that study and goes on to the committees for discussion that we invest in these people

1540
02:22:30,440 --> 02:22:36,700
and we make sure that they have the tools and the ability to attend, get the information

1541
02:22:36,700 --> 02:22:42,720
they need for the meetings, this ad hoc committee and participate to the fullest and not

1542
02:22:42,720 --> 02:22:49,280
just cut its life short just to move on from it because we have those five ideas

1543
02:22:49,280 --> 02:22:54,740
or whatever I think we need to carry those through and was not encouraging to

1544
02:22:54,740 --> 02:22:59,880
like bring us up just to disband it for the record so I do appreciate the update

1545
02:22:59,880 --> 02:23:03,300
tonight and I don't know if anyone has anything more to say about that but

1546
02:23:05,220 --> 02:23:11,260
that's what I was referring to let's see anybody else now I have something to

1547
02:23:11,740 --> 02:23:12,540
Go ahead, Craig.

1548
02:23:12,960 --> 02:23:16,460
So we actually had a meeting of the ad hoc committee yesterday.

1549
02:23:17,220 --> 02:23:19,340
And so I'm glad there's a bit of an excess here.

1550
02:23:19,480 --> 02:23:22,720
Again, there's the vacuum of no council meetings for a bit.

1551
02:23:22,920 --> 02:23:28,380
Obviously that committee is a an arm of the government affairs committee.

1552
02:23:28,860 --> 02:23:32,720
And so making sure those topics kind of track back I think is important.

1553
02:23:32,940 --> 02:23:36,380
And I think we kind of covered that last night and some other discussion in the ad hoc committee.

1554
02:23:36,380 --> 02:23:42,220
I talked about the extension of the CPSM review with the particular topics in mind.

1555
02:23:42,560 --> 02:23:55,260
There are kind of some topics that the council had raised to the ad hoc committee that are related to that, including things like overall strategies for using resources, are they all within the police department is a coordination with other departments, etc.

1556
02:23:56,080 --> 02:24:02,960
I will tell you though, to the point that that was just raised about the potential of disbanding the ad hoc committee.

1557
02:24:02,960 --> 02:24:07,900
committee. There were some pointed comments from members of the committee that I agree

1558
02:24:07,900 --> 02:24:13,640
with, that it would ring very hollow if we as a council or the government affairs committee

1559
02:24:13,640 --> 02:24:22,020
as a committee of the council, not just invested in these folks and setting up this committee,

1560
02:24:22,140 --> 02:24:28,500
but we actively looked to include members of the community beyond the council's demographics,

1561
02:24:28,500 --> 02:24:34,340
the council's, you know, typical participants to help us see, you know, what we might need to look

1562
02:24:34,340 --> 02:24:38,020
further at. I mean, similar comments earlier when we were talking about the overall equity plan,

1563
02:24:38,060 --> 02:24:43,380
but it was a plan of discussion last night, and I'd encourage anyone to go back and review

1564
02:24:45,000 --> 02:24:48,760
the comments from the committee in that regard, because I think they're especially

1565
02:24:48,760 --> 02:24:56,000
appointed, and we should think through those, where those committee members minds are at

1566
02:24:56,680 --> 02:25:00,600
as we continue to ask them to serve the city.

1567
02:25:08,110 --> 02:25:09,230
Heather, is that your hand up?

1568
02:25:11,350 --> 02:25:13,450
Yeah, thanks. I feel like this is more than I've talked.

1569
02:25:13,770 --> 02:25:16,650
I feel like this is more than I've talked in the last two and a half years I've been at council.

1570
02:25:18,150 --> 02:25:22,690
I just, I sit on the ad hoc committee as well and I know that there's been some rumblings about,

1571
02:25:23,150 --> 02:25:25,670
or rumors I hope, about wanting to disband it.

1572
02:25:26,130 --> 02:25:30,230
And I just want to be clear that the conversations we're having are robust.

1573
02:25:30,230 --> 02:25:36,870
the members of the committee, every single one of them are respectful. They are there in their free time.

1574
02:25:37,290 --> 02:25:45,950
Some of them are not TOSA citizens that are there because they genuinely are committed to making Wauwatosa a better place for everyone.

1575
02:25:46,210 --> 02:25:55,230
And I know that it can be really easy for people in authority to smear the character of individuals and try to remove them.

1576
02:25:55,230 --> 02:25:59,390
I think that that might be a really good excuse to not participate in the meetings.

1577
02:26:00,490 --> 02:26:09,470
And I hope we do see that Wauwatosa PD is ready to sit at the table with us so that we can actually move forward together,

1578
02:26:10,330 --> 02:26:12,190
because I think we could do a lot of good work.

1579
02:26:12,710 --> 02:26:20,370
The people that are on there are really committed, and it would be a shame and a show of hypocrisy if we were to disband it

1580
02:26:20,370 --> 02:26:23,190
before even letting them start getting any traction.

1581
02:26:23,190 --> 02:26:28,850
So I'm excited to be on that and I'm excited to see what we can do. Thanks

1582
02:26:29,670 --> 02:26:30,330
Thank you

1583
02:26:33,560 --> 02:26:37,600
Did I see a hand Jason? Oh, bro. I

1584
02:26:37,600 --> 02:26:43,180
Didn't have my hand up, but I can comment. Oh, okay. I can. Oh, you're just in your camera. Yeah

1585
02:26:43,180 --> 02:26:45,540
I don't feel pressure to it if you don't

1586
02:26:45,540 --> 02:26:47,920
I will I I

1587
02:26:49,540 --> 02:26:54,280
Went back and watch today the conversation that we had when we created it

1588
02:26:54,280 --> 02:26:58,960
There's a couple of observations I have based off of why it was created.

1589
02:26:59,720 --> 02:27:07,180
One, it was a good example of why these Zoom meetings aren't an effective way of making policy

1590
02:27:07,180 --> 02:27:13,860
or making decisions because it was extremely hard to follow with different members commenting

1591
02:27:13,860 --> 02:27:16,820
and making motions and comments that aren't on the committee itself.

1592
02:27:17,740 --> 02:27:23,020
Don't blame anybody, but it was extremely hard to follow what was actually decided that night.

1593
02:27:23,020 --> 02:27:27,940
But a couple of comments that I thought were interesting I'll bring up is, one, there was

1594
02:27:27,940 --> 02:27:34,740
a comment by an alder that this would be a commission or an ad hoc for about a three-month

1595
02:27:34,740 --> 02:27:35,140
period.

1596
02:27:36,340 --> 02:27:40,960
And I don't know if that's the right amount, but it was a comment that was made and quite

1597
02:27:40,960 --> 02:27:46,060
frankly we're at that three months already from when it was created at the end of June.

1598
02:27:47,100 --> 02:27:53,500
The other comment that Alderman Wilkie made, which I think is, I completely agree with now,

1599
02:27:53,600 --> 02:27:59,960
but it wasn't taken, taken, taken heat of, was that we would kind of structure it,

1600
02:28:00,040 --> 02:28:04,620
take some time to structure it and then bring it back so that we had a better idea of what was

1601
02:28:04,620 --> 02:28:09,240
actually approved and what was built into it. I think the problem with what we did was we kind

1602
02:28:09,240 --> 02:28:14,360
of hastily put it together without like a true structure of who's going to be on it,

1603
02:28:14,360 --> 02:28:20,680
one's going to meet, who's going to kind of make decisions. And so it took them a while to really

1604
02:28:20,680 --> 02:28:25,180
have an effective meeting. And I listened to the meeting last night. I thought the meeting went

1605
02:28:25,180 --> 02:28:31,260
very well. My concern, though, with what was discussed last night at it is there's two topics

1606
02:28:31,260 --> 02:28:39,700
that, in my opinion, can be sent to government affairs to have discussions and then move

1607
02:28:39,700 --> 02:28:45,680
down to the Common Council. And one was related to the body camera policy and one was related

1608
02:28:45,680 --> 02:28:51,560
to the citizen complaints. And my biggest concern with the ad hoc right now is it's going to

1609
02:28:51,560 --> 02:28:55,740
blog things down more than anything. Like I think there was good feedback related to

1610
02:28:55,740 --> 02:29:00,040
the body camera discussion yesterday. But I think that feedback can be used and then

1611
02:29:00,040 --> 02:29:04,680
sent off to government affairs so that we can have a discussion on it. If we consider

1612
02:29:04,680 --> 02:29:09,160
that we want to have like the body cameras implemented by the end of the year, like

1613
02:29:09,160 --> 02:29:14,180
We're at a pretty tight timeline of having the ad hoc look at it at least one more time

1614
02:29:14,180 --> 02:29:18,260
in a couple of weeks, and then sent off to committees to have discussions.

1615
02:29:18,940 --> 02:29:22,760
So my encouragement to kind of the committee members, and I've shared this at least privately

1616
02:29:22,760 --> 02:29:28,340
with at least one of you, is like, we can't allow that to kind of be the black hole for

1617
02:29:28,340 --> 02:29:29,040
some of these topics.

1618
02:29:30,060 --> 02:29:34,120
So if we can find some efficiencies of, okay, here we go, we're going to, we

1619
02:29:34,120 --> 02:29:37,720
had these two topics, we had good discussions on them, we need some feedback, but

1620
02:29:37,720 --> 02:29:41,260
that feedback and then be presented to the committees

1621
02:29:41,260 --> 02:29:43,060
and then the Common Council for approval.

1622
02:29:43,880 --> 02:29:46,640
I think that would be an effective use for that ad hoc.

1623
02:29:47,400 --> 02:29:48,740
I think it's good that the study

1624
02:29:48,740 --> 02:29:50,920
was approved last night at that meeting.

1625
02:29:51,120 --> 02:29:53,100
Like I think there's a benefit to that study.

1626
02:29:53,480 --> 02:29:54,940
I supported the funding for it.

1627
02:29:55,620 --> 02:29:58,080
But my biggest kind of long-term concern with it is,

1628
02:29:58,180 --> 02:29:59,880
it's gonna slow all of these topics down.

1629
02:30:00,000 --> 02:30:06,500
Because, like we saw last night, there's follow-up that needs to happen from those items

1630
02:30:06,500 --> 02:30:12,680
that were there. And it's just one more session of meetings that we're going to be bypassing

1631
02:30:12,680 --> 02:30:17,320
before the Common Council has a chance to then have their discussion and finally approve

1632
02:30:17,320 --> 02:30:19,180
some of the policies that are there.

1633
02:30:24,350 --> 02:30:27,590
Thanks, Jason. Looks like Nancy?

1634
02:30:28,530 --> 02:30:35,150
Yeah, and I want to say that I agree with everything Alderman Kofra said.

1635
02:30:35,850 --> 02:30:42,350
As someone who originally suggested the idea of the ad hoc committee, I've been a little disappointed

1636
02:30:42,350 --> 02:30:50,890
because my expectation was that that committee would start to filter through all the suggestions

1637
02:30:50,890 --> 02:30:54,310
that had come forward in the past months.

1638
02:30:54,310 --> 02:31:01,110
things that were so many different topics that if council committees took

1639
02:31:01,110 --> 02:31:05,890
them on directly it would just bog down all the rest of the business the

1640
02:31:05,890 --> 02:31:12,430
council needs to handle. The problem is it shouldn't be bogging down the

1641
02:31:12,430 --> 02:31:16,870
specific discussions that the committee is having. They should be

1642
02:31:16,870 --> 02:31:22,230
providing a structure that gets all the different topics related to equity

1643
02:31:22,230 --> 02:31:31,130
you know, into process referred to the best committee for future discussion, having good

1644
02:31:31,130 --> 02:31:36,890
discussions so that they can recommend things to the committee so that we can actually work

1645
02:31:36,890 --> 02:31:41,610
through all of these different things more efficiently. And I think if there's one thing

1646
02:31:41,610 --> 02:31:46,970
I've been frustrated by, it's the fact that this is a topic I have experienced in,

1647
02:31:46,970 --> 02:31:51,530
I'm very interested in, and I've basically been closed out of the entire conversation.

1648
02:31:52,170 --> 02:32:01,130
So I think it's time to come up with a more distinct process, more distinct topics, let

1649
02:32:01,130 --> 02:32:06,190
the ad hoc committee structure that, but then make sure it's being referred to the proper

1650
02:32:06,190 --> 02:32:07,270
committees for action.

1651
02:32:10,730 --> 02:32:11,190
Thank you.

1652
02:32:11,390 --> 02:32:11,770
Thank you.

1653
02:32:14,030 --> 02:32:18,870
Jason, look, I see your hand up, is this from before or is this an add-on?

1654
02:32:18,870 --> 02:32:25,570
I just wanted to kind of wrap up with apologize an elder woman cool for

1655
02:32:26,830 --> 02:32:27,630
The other

1656
02:32:28,230 --> 02:32:31,310
Resolution that I thought she was referring to that actually people

1657
02:32:32,030 --> 02:32:35,790
Referred to it as her resolution when we did put that one out in July. I know it was a mis

1658
02:32:36,530 --> 02:32:42,050
Interpretation, I thought there was another one it was people's misinterpretation of what that resolution was or who it all came from

1659
02:32:42,050 --> 02:32:48,410
So I apologize. I do say the elder or the mayor had put out that he welcomed a meeting with council

1660
02:32:48,410 --> 02:32:54,350
president city attorney and the city administrator with the WPOA. I did not know that was happening

1661
02:32:54,350 --> 02:32:59,550
already or that, you know, so I'm glad that's happening and glad there's communication on those

1662
02:32:59,550 --> 02:33:04,510
couple items. I just wanted to backtrack and apologize. But thank you. I think this discussion

1663
02:33:04,510 --> 02:33:10,550
though has merit hearing or people stand hearing that maybe some closed session with, you

1664
02:33:10,550 --> 02:33:14,610
You know, legal advice might be good, all the things that we talked about, the updates

1665
02:33:14,610 --> 02:33:19,490
and people hearing where they are with the ad hoc, because it was hastily put together.

1666
02:33:19,730 --> 02:33:20,050
I agree.

1667
02:33:20,510 --> 02:33:25,030
I did want structure and things like timeline would have been identified in that, so it

1668
02:33:25,030 --> 02:33:27,230
would be understood by the public more clearly maybe.

1669
02:33:27,650 --> 02:33:33,870
But now that we have it in place and we have these people picked out, I think we should

1670
02:33:33,870 --> 02:33:40,230
cautiously decide when to terminate it so that we don't wreck relations too

1671
02:33:40,230 --> 02:33:44,550
hastily as we forward it. Thanks, Jason Heather.

1672
02:33:46,860 --> 02:33:48,180
Thanks, I promise this will

1673
02:33:48,180 --> 02:33:54,780
probably be the last thing I say. Just to be clear that part of the reason that

1674
02:33:54,780 --> 02:33:58,640
what we discussed yesterday is being postponed is because we didn't have a

1675
02:33:58,640 --> 02:34:01,120
representative from the police department to answer our questions

1676
02:34:01,120 --> 02:34:05,780
directly. So all of our questions had to be collected to then be brought to the police

1677
02:34:05,780 --> 02:34:09,680
department, which is not the point of the ad hoc committee. The point was to have a direct

1678
02:34:09,680 --> 02:34:14,440
representative to answer our questions in real time so we could move these forward in a more

1679
02:34:14,440 --> 02:34:20,660
timely fashion. And I don't, it's my understanding that any other older person can show up

1680
02:34:20,660 --> 02:34:25,320
at any of these meetings and speak out and have their voice heard. I don't think

1681
02:34:25,320 --> 02:34:29,920
that anyone is trying to shut anybody out of these meetings. So, Alder Woman Walsh,

1682
02:34:29,920 --> 02:34:37,800
If you are inclined to, please show up at the meeting and share your views on these things because we need a variety of perspectives as we're discussing them.

1683
02:34:43,090 --> 02:34:43,770
Anybody else?

1684
02:34:47,030 --> 02:34:50,470
Well, I'm going to just wrap this up and it's getting to be close to 10 o'clock.

1685
02:34:51,490 --> 02:34:55,350
I mean, this has been a very useful decision or discussion tonight, rather.

1686
02:34:55,350 --> 02:35:05,510
I have a few takeaways, the biggest ones being the conversation about having executive committee

1687
02:35:05,510 --> 02:35:10,870
or how to handle the meetings, the pre-meetings we had over the summer or where to go with

1688
02:35:10,870 --> 02:35:11,030
that.

1689
02:35:11,210 --> 02:35:18,830
And then the topic that we talked about, the how to say things or what not to say or

1690
02:35:18,830 --> 02:35:21,930
how to get the advice from our legal staff.

1691
02:35:21,930 --> 02:35:28,670
So got a couple things to flush out here and I will do that and you know free to

1692
02:35:28,670 --> 02:35:31,590
reach out with me if you have comments about tonight in addition to this.

1693
02:35:31,630 --> 02:35:35,630
But otherwise thank you for this. This has been very helpful. Mr. Dubinsky, I see

1694
02:35:35,630 --> 02:35:42,390
that you joined us. I hope things are well and we'll depend on you

1695
02:35:42,390 --> 02:35:46,650
when you're ready to reactivate your the third item that we are not going

1696
02:35:46,650 --> 02:35:49,850
discussed tonight. So thank you. Thank you.

1697
02:35:52,640 --> 02:35:53,800
Have a good evening everybody.

1698
02:36:00,370 --> 02:36:00,650
Thank you.

1699
02:36:04,220 --> 02:36:04,880
Thanks Kathy.