[0:00] Heat
[0:01] >> [music]
[0:10] » up
[0:13] [music]
[0:21] here.
[0:22] [music]
[0:28] » [music]
[0:36] » Heat. Heat. [music]
[0:48] » [music]
[1:09] » Hi and welcome to the diversity, [music]
[1:11] equity, and inclusion committee meeting
[1:13] for September 28th, 2026. Can we call
[1:16] the roll please?
[1:17] >> Cramp
[1:18] >> here.
[1:18] >> Peterson
[1:21] um
[1:22] >> Aeros
[1:24] here.
[1:25] >> I forgot to ask you. Um Miller Lever
[1:30] Tolman
[1:31] >> here.
[1:32] >> Uh Deng
[1:33] >> here.
[1:34] >> Okay, we have a quorum.
[1:35] >> Thank you. And now Andy, can you please
[1:37] read the land acknowledgements?
[1:39] >> Yes. We are gathered here on the lands
[1:42] that were originally home to the
[1:43] Monomony and Ho Chunk nations. We honor
[1:45] the Monomony and Ho Chunk communities
[1:47] and are grateful for their stewardship
[1:49] of the land and waters. We acknowledge
[1:51] these ancestral grounds as sacred and
[1:54] remember the complex history of settler
[1:56] colonialism on these lands and the
[1:58] effects that persist today. We commit to
[2:01] a restorative and healing relationship
[2:02] of the original inhabitants and our
[2:05] community.
[2:06] Thank
[2:07] >> you. And now I can you read the mission
[2:08] statement? Yeah.
[2:10] The mission of the diversity, equity,
[2:12] and inclusion committee is to create a
[2:14] more welcoming, connected, and equitable
[2:16] Oshkosh by consciously including the
[2:17] richness and complexities of
[2:19] marginalized voices in its planning and
[2:21] function. Thank you. And now we have to
[2:24] welcome a new committee member.
[2:28] So this is Abby. And would you like to
[2:30] say something about yourself or
[2:32] >> We'll all introduce ourselves as well.
[2:33] Oh, that's sounds good.
[2:36] >> I'm Abby Amacher. Um, happy to be here.
[2:40] Uh, and I'm looking forward to it. So, I
[2:42] don't know if you all know anything
[2:43] about me, but
[2:45] yeah, whatever you want to. Sure. Uh,
[2:47] former social worker. Um, I currently
[2:50] have a small private practice um,
[2:52] working with kids with some behavioral
[2:53] challenges and I've been an Oshkosh
[2:56] resident for almost 20 years. That's
[2:59] awesome. Um, I'm Amanda Cramp. I'm the
[3:01] chair. I've lived in Oshkosh for almost
[3:04] 9 years now. Um, I do all kinds of stuff
[3:07] around town. Do a lot of volunteering
[3:09] with the school district. Um, a lot of
[3:11] food justice stuff. I've been on this
[3:14] committee for almost three two and a
[3:16] half years or so. Um, and I just like I
[3:20] love this city and I just want it to be
[3:21] as good as I know it can be.
[3:24] All right. Uh, my name is Ayak Deng and
[3:26] I work for the Ashkashi School District.
[3:29] Um, I'm new as well. Um, yeah, I'm
[3:32] excited to be here. My name is Andy
[3:35] Tilman. Um, I've been [clears throat] in
[3:37] Oshkosh for gez, uh, 15 years or so now.
[3:40] Um, and yeah, I'm passionate about
[3:42] making Oshkosh more inclusive space. So
[3:44] glad you're here to help out with it.
[3:47] >> All right, we'll get to Jim in a little
[3:49] bit when he gets his presentation. And
[3:52] I'm Michelle. We met before, but I'm the
[3:55] um staff liaison for for this committee
[3:58] from the city. So, and I have been the
[4:01] staff leazison since the beginning of
[4:03] the committee about 7 years ago. Okay.
[4:07] >> So, now we have to do some committee
[4:09] reorganization because we currently do
[4:11] not have a vice chair.
[4:14] So, at this time I call for nominations
[4:16] for vice chair. A second is not
[4:18] required.
[4:21] Are there any nominations?
[4:25] I'm going to nominate Andy.
[4:29] So, have a question about that. Um, I
[4:30] didn't think of this until just now. I
[4:32] think I'm technically an alternate. Can
[4:34] I be vice chair as an alternate?
[4:36] >> That's a question for Michelle.
[4:37] >> Yes.
[4:38] >> Okay.
[4:39] >> Actually, our our last vice chair was an
[4:41] alternate.
[4:42] >> Well, there we go.
[4:44] >> Are there any other nominations? This is
[4:46] the second time I am calling for them.
[4:48] >> Okay.
[4:50] >> Is anyone else interested in doing it?
[4:53] >> Third time I'm calling for other
[4:54] nominations.
[4:58] So, if there's only one nomination, I
[5:00] can ask for a motion to close
[5:01] nominations and elect the only candidate
[5:03] nominated. Do I have a motion for that?
[5:08] » So, I will entertain a motion to close
[5:11] nominations and elect Andy Tolman. Yep.
[5:13] >> Yep. I will entertain a motion to close
[5:15] nominations and elect Andy Tolman as
[5:17] vice chair by calling the vote. All in
[5:19] favor?
[5:21] >> Actually, we will do a little one by
[5:23] one.
[5:24] >> Yeah, we will do. So, um Amanda Hi,
[5:27] Cramp. I'm sorry. I [laughter]
[5:31] >> um
[5:33] Tolman
[5:34] >> I
[5:35] >> Deng
[5:36] >> I
[5:36] >> am
[5:37] >> I. All right.
[5:39] >> Congratulations. [clears throat]
[5:41] Yay.
[5:43] >> Okay. Good job, Vice Chair.
[5:46] And now we need to approve the minutes
[5:48] from the August 24th, 2026 meeting. Are
[5:51] there any comments about the thrilling
[5:54] minutes from last month? Any
[5:58] discussion? Anything?
[6:01] Do I have a motion to approve the
[6:03] minutes?
[6:10] Motion to approve.
[6:11] >> So moved.
[6:12] >> Do I have a second?
[6:16] » Yes. Second. Great.
[6:19] Can we take the role, please?
[6:22] All right. Um, cramp
[6:25] >> I
[6:25] >> amer.
[6:26] >> Hi,
[6:26] >> Tolman.
[6:27] >> Hi,
[6:28] >> Deng.
[6:28] >> Hi.
[6:29] >> All right.
[6:30] >> Do we have any public statements or
[6:32] public comments on agenda items?
[6:33] >> We do not have any statements or public
[6:36] comments items.
[6:38] >> So, now we move on to our presentation
[6:40] from Jim Bame from Father Cars. Welcome.
[6:44] >> Well, thank you. So, as Amanda said, my
[6:47] name is Jim Bame. I'm the executive
[6:49] director of Father Cars. I'm uh in my
[6:51] fifth year at the ministry and uh a
[6:55] brief history of Father Cars. So um in
[6:59] 1974, Father Carr the year he was
[7:02] ordained a Catholic priest um came to
[7:04] town and four high schoolers asked
[7:06] Father Carr that they said we need a we
[7:08] need a safe place that we can hang out.
[7:11] So the place to be and that's why it's
[7:12] called the place to be. It started out
[7:14] as a high school hangout in St. Pete's
[7:16] church basement. So, it was that and
[7:18] then and then eventually he wanted
[7:21] Father Carr wanted to uh start helping some people that need
[7:25] had some basic needs and and um uh those
[7:28] that were experiencing homelessness um
[7:31] those that needed some health care, food
[7:33] and and all that. So, he he started working with that population and
[7:38] then eventually the Green Bay Dascese
[7:39] said, "You know what, Father, you're
[7:41] doing some good stuff here. instead of
[7:42] giving you a parish, assigning you to a
[7:44] parish, your ministry will be Father
[7:46] Carter's place to be. So, um, so we've
[7:49] been doing it for 52 years. Um, because
[7:52] he was a Catholic priest, we are rooted
[7:54] in our Catholic faith, but our services
[7:56] are open to all.
[7:59] Everything we do at Father Cars is for
[8:01] nothing. It's it's it's all free. Okay?
[8:04] We there's absolutely no revenue in our
[8:06] ministry at all. Everything everything
[8:08] we do there is is free to the public.
[8:10] So, our mission statement, Father Carr
[8:13] pulled it right out of scripture. And
[8:14] just to paraphrase it real quick, Jesus
[8:16] told us to love each other, take care of
[8:19] each other, feed the feed the hungry,
[8:21] cure the sick, take in the stranger, and
[8:23] that's exactly what we do. So, let's
[8:26] break that down a little bit. Food
[8:28] security. How do we feed the hungry? We feed the We feed people in a lot of
[8:32] different ways. Our pantry is open every
[8:34] single day. Um on six days out of the
[8:38] week, people can come in and just get
[8:39] like groceries, a meal, um uh something
[8:43] to take home with them. Uh it's it's
[8:46] really geared towards daily sustenance.
[8:48] And then on Fridays, people come in.
[8:50] That's when our our major pantry is.
[8:53] People come in, they get their weekly
[8:54] groceries. They get a shopping cart.
[8:56] They go through the pantry and uh and and load up the load up the shopping
[9:00] cart. Our pantry is open to all. Um the
[9:04] only question we ask is how many people
[9:07] are in the household that you are taking
[9:10] the food to. We don't ask names, we
[9:12] don't ask income. You can come as many
[9:14] times as you want. It's uh it's open 365
[9:17] days to anybody who wants wants to come.
[9:20] Um we have a program called Table of
[9:23] Grace and what those are, those are
[9:25] frozen casserole dinners that we have
[9:27] certain organizations or parishes make
[9:29] for us. Um it is it was 2 years old in
[9:32] April. So it's about 2 and 1/2 years
[9:34] old. We have [clears throat] done about
[9:35] 2,300 meals um in that time. Uh people
[9:40] can just come in and and get a frozen
[9:42] casserole. Uh they feed about 8 to 10
[9:44] people. Our current selection is tater
[9:47] tot casserole, sloppy joe's macaroni and
[9:50] cheese and um chicken taco lasagna. Uh
[9:55] we are working on a uh a casserole
[9:57] dinner a hamal uh halo um diet. So it's
[10:01] a we we provide meals to um to the uh
[10:07] Ashkashiri school district. So we
[10:09] support we support the school district
[10:11] in that way too. We're part of the nurse
[10:12] and flourish committee. I don't know if
[10:14] you're familiar with them. Um so we are
[10:17] um trying to um diversify our menu a
[10:20] little bit so we can make sure that we
[10:22] have something for everybody. Um, we
[10:25] also feed the hungry by our community
[10:28] dinners, which we're pretty pretty
[10:30] famous for actually, our Thanksgiving,
[10:32] Christmas, and Easter. Those last three
[10:35] holiday meals, we served over 5,000
[10:38] people. The majority of those meals are
[10:40] delivered. Okay, we deliver to all of
[10:42] Winnebago County. So, I would say
[10:44] probably 90% of them were delivered. Um,
[10:47] Thanksgiving alone last year, we did
[10:49] over 2500 meals. So, we're we're
[10:51] expecting another another big one. Um,
[10:55] how else do we feed people? Our
[10:57] community cafe is is um open 5 days a
[11:00] week. People can just come in between 8
[11:02] and 5 and just get something to eat. Um,
[11:06] during the cold months, we have uh
[11:07] chili, bowls of soup, um what whatever
[11:10] we might have. Um there's no really set
[11:13] menu. It's u what was donated to us is
[11:15] what we pass along. So,
[11:19] um, so that's how we that's how we feed
[11:21] the hungry. Um, cure the sick. Well, we
[11:24] have our own St. Francis free clinic.
[11:25] The the clinic is the clinic is a true
[11:27] gem on the on the campus. Uh, in 19 or
[11:31] in 2021,
[11:32] we had about a little over 800 patients.
[11:36] This year we'll do over 2500. Wow.
[11:38] >> It is uh it is it has just gone gone
[11:41] crazy. Last year in 2025, we did over $2
[11:44] million worth of free healthcare to the
[11:46] community. Um I one thing I should
[11:49] mention, our services are primarily for
[11:53] Wnebago and the surrounding counties
[11:56] which would be out of gami, Kelly,
[11:58] Fondelac, Green Lake, Washier in Waka.
[12:02] So um so where the Wnebago is a center
[12:04] then and then the counties around that's kind of our core that's where we
[12:09] offer the services to. Um it doesn't
[12:11] mean any you know people from other
[12:13] areas can't can have it but there can
[12:15] use it but um we're we're completely
[12:20] privately funded. It's we strictly
[12:22] private donations. We receive no subsid
[12:25] um um we're not subsidized by the
[12:27] government at all. Um so um because
[12:31] that's where our donor bases. That's who
[12:33] we that's who we try to serve. So our
[12:35] clinic has many special services. It's run much like an urgent care. Um,
[12:40] it's open five days a week, Monday
[12:42] through Friday. We stagger the hours and
[12:44] we stagger them on purpose. On Monday
[12:45] and Thursday, it's open in the evening
[12:47] from 5:00 to 7:00. On Tuesday or on
[12:49] Tuesday and Wednesday, it's open in the
[12:51] afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00. And on
[12:53] Friday mornings or Fridays, it's it's
[12:55] open in the morning from 8:00 to 11:00,
[12:58] the same time our pantry is. So, people
[13:00] can come and get food and also see a
[13:02] doctor. And it's also open one Saturday, a month. We actually have a
[13:06] sleep specialist comes in and he will um
[13:09] he will assess you and should you need a
[13:11] CPAT machine, we have free CPAT
[13:13] machines. We have our own pharmacy. So
[13:15] we have most of the major um ma major
[13:19] prescriptions including insulin and
[13:20] again that is that is completely free.
[13:23] So we draw we draw labs, we draw we draw
[13:27] blood and um and collect other samples
[13:30] and and specimens. Uh we have great
[13:32] partners with um Ascension Mercy,
[13:36] Aurora, and uh soon to be Theta Care.
[13:38] Now, if they have a hospital in town,
[13:40] they're going to start up January 1st
[13:42] being a partner. So, they do our lab
[13:43] work for us. They also will do imaging.
[13:46] So, if you come in and you fell and you
[13:48] maybe hurt a wrist and the doctor says,
[13:49] "I think we need a picture of this or
[13:52] you got something else going on." Doctor
[13:54] says, "You might want a cat scan or an
[13:55] MRI." we can give you somewhat of a
[13:58] vulture and you can take it to one of
[14:00] those providers and and get the imaging
[14:02] done for nothing as long as you come
[14:04] through through um St. Francis Free
[14:06] Clinic. So again um open to all. We have
[14:10] a translation system. We have a
[14:12] translation service
[14:14] um that Ascension has helped us out with
[14:16] so um so we can uh we can see patients
[14:19] and we don't have that barrier of uh of
[14:21] communication. So we have about 25
[14:24] health providers between uh MDs, nurse
[14:27] practitioners, physician assistants and
[14:30] RNs. Uh we have two psychiatrists.
[14:33] Um
[14:35] we have uh we have foot doctor, we have
[14:37] kidney doctor. Um we started up our
[14:41] dental office. So we have uh we have
[14:44] dental hygiene two times a month. And um
[14:47] we're trying to get our dental service
[14:51] going. We had a dentist and then he took
[14:52] a job with uh Marquette Dental School.
[14:55] So he moved in Milwaukee and they come
[14:57] and they go, but we we'll get it open on
[14:59] a consistent basis soon. Um so uh the
[15:02] clinic again is uh just doing doing very
[15:05] well and offering a lot of help to the
[15:06] community.
[15:08] Taking the stranger. So this one can be
[15:11] a little confusing to people. Um but we are not a shelter. We don't we don't
[15:16] identify as a shelter. we identify as a
[15:19] life enrichment center. And um what that
[15:21] means is people who are experiencing
[15:26] homelessness, people who are coming out
[15:28] of incarceration, people who are maybe
[15:31] days away from being evicted,
[15:34] what whatever
[15:36] 100% of the people that come to us are
[15:38] homeless. Okay? Nobody comes to us
[15:41] because they have a place to stay. They
[15:43] apply for the program. And what what the
[15:46] program is is we we want to take you
[15:48] from point A, where you're at, to point
[15:50] B. And point B is independent living to
[15:53] get you back on your feet. And um um if
[15:58] you are ready in your life to start
[16:02] making some some um better decisions,
[16:05] change some of the habits, change the
[16:07] lifestyle that's maybe taking you to
[16:09] where you are. If you're if you're ready
[16:11] to do that, you're accepted into our
[16:13] program and the housing comes with it.
[16:17] Okay. So, what does that mean? It means
[16:19] that there'll be a daily structure in
[16:21] your life where you have to get up and
[16:24] you have to go to work. You have to if
[16:25] you have to be employed if you're going
[16:27] to stay with us. If you're going to be
[16:28] part of our life enrichment program, um
[16:30] you have to make your bed in the
[16:31] morning. You have to make your own
[16:33] breakfast. Go to work. You have to be to
[16:35] dinner at 5:00. That's our checkpoint
[16:38] for everybody who stays with us.
[16:39] Currently, right now, we've got about 42
[16:41] or 43 people staying with us. That's
[16:43] men, women, and children. We have 12
[16:45] children in the house right now.
[16:47] So, you uh you have to be at a dinner.
[16:50] It's it's it's the time where we get a
[16:54] chance to see how you're doing. Uh make
[16:56] sure that the barriers that you have in
[16:58] your life or the bad habits that you
[17:00] have in your life have not come back. um
[17:04] to make sure that you learn how to live
[17:06] in community. So you eat together and
[17:08] then you do chores together and after
[17:10] that you have some free time before uh
[17:12] before the curfew. Curfew just changed
[17:14] last night as a matter of fact to to
[17:16] 7:30. It was 8:30. So it's it's putting
[17:21] a structure in in people's lives that
[17:23] they haven't had in a while. And I say
[17:25] this a 100 times a week. You change your
[17:27] habits, you change your life. And if
[17:29] they're ready to change their life to to get rid of the habits that have taken
[17:33] them to to where they are to that point
[17:35] A, then then we we bring them in.
[17:38] There's no timetable as to how long they
[17:40] can stay. Some some it might take 3
[17:43] months, some take might take six. And
[17:45] we've had people there as long as two
[17:46] years, depending on what situation they
[17:49] they're they're in. Um, some men come to
[17:52] us, they're $500, $5,000 behind in child
[17:55] support. You can stay there till that's
[17:57] paid up. But if you're working full-time
[18:00] and there's no cost of living at Father
[18:02] Cars, that $5,000 can go away pretty
[18:05] fast. You can get yourself out of debt
[18:07] pretty fast. Get some money in the bank.
[18:09] Um,
[18:11] if if substance abuse or sobriety is an
[18:14] issue in your life, you make sure that
[18:15] you you can you can um stay clean and
[18:18] stay sober. Uh I would say with men,
[18:21] that's that's probably 99% of them are
[18:24] coming with some type of a drug or
[18:25] alcohol problem. Women is different.
[18:27] women is probably 60% and the other 40%
[18:30] are coming in for other different
[18:32] reasons. Unfortunately, domestic abuse
[18:34] is one of them. Um, so
[18:38] we do we do um background checks and um
[18:43] Father Cars is 99% volunteer. Okay. As
[18:47] the executive director, I collect a
[18:49] salary. Emily, who runs our clinic, the
[18:52] clinic director, she collects a salary.
[18:54] And then Nick, the guy who runs our life
[18:56] enrichment program, the director of
[18:57] that, he collects a statement. Okay.
[19:00] Everybody else there is a volunteer and
[19:02] there's 30, 40 people there every single
[19:04] day. So my priority, my number one
[19:06] priority is the safety of our volunteers
[19:09] to make sure that we have a safe campus.
[19:11] So we do background checks before you're
[19:12] allowed into allowed into the the life
[19:15] enrichment program.
[19:17] So, I'll answer some questions about
[19:19] that um uh in a little bit, but um
[19:24] we um we have we have the um the
[19:29] possibility of a of a man with children
[19:32] to come in as well. We have we have one
[19:34] uh we have one area that we can put that
[19:36] in if we ever have that scenario. And
[19:37] we've had it in the four plus years I've
[19:39] been director. I think we've had it
[19:40] three times. So um and the life
[19:44] enrichment also goes as far regarding
[19:46] the community. There's a lot of
[19:47] different ways you can enrich you enrich
[19:49] their lives and volunteering is one of
[19:51] them. So we try to we try to make sure
[19:53] that people understand how they can
[19:54] volunteer, how they how they can give of
[19:57] their time, their important time, how
[19:58] they can give from the heart. So and
[20:00] because we are uh privately funded, we
[20:03] find ways to touch their hearts and
[20:05] believe in what we do. The other thing
[20:07] that we do is we have two big community
[20:10] events. One is Christmas for kids and
[20:12] the other one is carnival for kids.
[20:14] Christmas for kids is people families
[20:17] come in um they get their own personal
[20:20] elf when they walk in. The elf takes
[20:22] them to breakfast and they go into uh
[20:24] the chapel and see a a puppet show. Then
[20:26] they go to a big table and they make an
[20:29] arts and crafts project. They go see
[20:32] Santa Claus and eventually they end up
[20:34] in the the clinic and we separate the
[20:37] children from from mom and dad. and mom
[20:40] and dad go in the toy land and pick out
[20:42] some presents for the kids and the
[20:43] children go in uh to a different area
[20:46] and they pick out a present or two for
[20:47] themselves and maybe something else for
[20:49] mom and dad. We in turn wrap those while
[20:51] they're separated and then when they
[20:53] come together at the front door of the
[20:54] clinic we've just provided their clinic
[20:56] their their their Christmas for them.
[20:58] They've got they've got wrap presents.
[21:00] Carnival for kids is uh something we've
[21:03] started. We've had four of them and uh
[21:05] the last two years we've had about 3,500
[21:07] people at it. It is a free carnival,
[21:10] full-blown carnival, six major rides, um
[21:14] bouncy house, stock cars, um obstacle
[21:18] course, all kinds of kids games. Uh with
[21:21] last year we had 15 different agencies
[21:23] for the from the community there to
[21:24] represent themselves. Little activities
[21:27] at each tent to keep the kids busy, but
[21:29] they could also um the the resource um
[21:33] uh the resource organizations could tell
[21:35] mom and dad about what they can do and
[21:37] how they can help them. So it was truly
[21:39] a community event and um we're we're
[21:42] really proud of our carnival. Um again,
[21:45] it's absolutely free. It was about a
[21:47] $40,000 event to put on last year. did
[21:50] not cost Father Cars $1. It was
[21:52] completely sponsored by uh organizations
[21:54] and corporations throughout throughout
[21:56] the city. So, the only thing it cost us
[21:58] was we we put it together. We we uh
[22:00] organized it and uh got all it was
[22:03] almost 200 volunteers put it on. So, um
[22:06] so it's it's really turned out to be a
[22:09] very cool event. So um you know again
[22:13] going back to our to our faith um for
[22:15] the Catholic community. We have mass
[22:17] every morning and um and Father Dave is
[22:20] there for spiritual direction which is a
[22:23] big plus for for the people that live
[22:25] with us. So that's Father Cars in a
[22:28] nutshell. I don't know if I could say it
[22:30] much faster. [laughter]
[22:33] >> Questions.
[22:35] If you do not have active employment and
[22:37] are seeking employment employment, are
[22:39] you able to apply for the life
[22:41] enrichment program?
[22:42] >> Oh, absolutely. Most people don't have
[22:44] jobs when they come to us. Yeah. It's um it's it's part of it's it's part
[22:48] of the the life enrichment is is getting
[22:51] them to believe in themselves. I don't
[22:53] want to say repurpose their life because
[22:55] I I I don't know that it's that, but
[22:57] they have to start believing in
[22:59] themselves and and to give them a
[23:01] chance. I mean, if they truly deep down
[23:05] want to start helping themselves, um, to
[23:08] give them a chance to to go out and and
[23:11] find employment and to start believing
[23:13] in themselves and and and knowing that,
[23:16] you know, without having the cost of
[23:18] living and the barrier of that dollar,
[23:19] the barrier of the bills that yes, they um and we're very good at finding
[23:23] people jobs. I mean, jobs sometimes can
[23:26] be swim, but um sometimes they have to
[23:28] be a little more open-minded about what
[23:30] they want to do. Um but you know there's
[23:33] a starting point for everything. So it's
[23:35] a good question.
[23:37] >> I have a question.
[23:38] >> Yeah.
[23:38] >> Um does father cars accommodate um those
[23:40] who have employment schedules that don't
[23:43] fit the structure you have in place?
[23:46] >> So we don't. Okay. To answer your
[23:48] question, uh we don't allow second and
[23:50] third shift. And the reason the reason
[23:53] we don't is that 5:00 dinner is very
[23:55] important to us and it's even more
[23:58] important to them. We have asked a lot
[24:00] of people who have gone through the
[24:02] program successfully and they've left
[24:04] and they we maybe see them a couple
[24:05] months later and and one of the first
[24:07] things that they say is how important
[24:09] that dinner was to sit down and have
[24:11] somebody to eat with because when they
[24:13] leave most of them are going home and
[24:15] having dinner by themselves.
[24:17] >> They don't understand the importance of that community. So,
[24:23] we've we've tried to alter it and it
[24:25] really has come back and and not only
[24:27] bid us, but has not been as effective as
[24:29] it has been when we have it. And because
[24:31] most of them are unemployed,
[24:34] >> um we can we can make it so they have a
[24:36] first gift job. So,
[24:42] » so you're not subsidized by the
[24:43] government at all. So, everything is
[24:44] from donations that you
[24:46] >> 100%.
[24:47] >> That's amazing. We have a very small
[24:48] operating budget because we have such a
[24:50] small staff.
[24:51] >> Yeah.
[24:51] >> Now, our operating budget for 26 was uh
[24:54] I think it's $565,000.
[24:56] So, if you look at everything that we do
[24:58] and what we provide,
[25:00] >> that's a very small operating budget.
[25:03] >> Doesn't say if you're talking about 2
[25:05] million in healthcare, you know,
[25:07] services provided or donated to us.
[25:09] >> Yeah.
[25:09] >> Oh, I have 40ome people.
[25:11] >> Impressive.
[25:13] And and I say this as humbly as I can,
[25:15] but but it's a fact that our our our
[25:18] percentage of men who come to us
[25:21] homeless and leave is about 80% that
[25:24] leave with with with a place to live.
[25:27] Now women is a bit lower. Okay? And
[25:29] that's that's something we're we're not
[25:31] comfortable with. It's only it's only in
[25:33] like the 60% range and we're trying to
[25:35] get better at that. Okay? And and we're
[25:38] a small ministry. I mean, we're we're a
[25:40] large ministry, but we're we're really
[25:42] in the whole scheme of things, we're kind of a small ministry because
[25:45] of, you know, just mostly volunteers.
[25:49] Um,
[25:51] we know who we are and we know who we're
[25:52] not. So, so we do have to be a little
[25:55] selective about people that come in.
[25:58] People who are at the edge the at um
[26:00] past their working years, we're we're
[26:02] probably not going to be the place for
[26:04] them because there's really no end game,
[26:06] okay? We're where they're at in their
[26:07] life.
[26:09] They're they're if if they can't afford
[26:11] independent living now, just by living
[26:14] with us for a while is not going to help
[26:15] you. Okay?
[26:17] >> We're more about total healing. We're
[26:19] not there just to put a band-aid on
[26:21] something. And going back to um
[26:26] the way a person heals is they have to
[26:29] become completely honest with
[26:31] themselves. They have to understand who
[26:33] they are and where they are with their
[26:34] life and what they're doing. If if they
[26:37] keep if they keep having all these
[26:39] fantasies about what they want to be,
[26:41] but they're not but their actions aren't
[26:43] following their their thoughts or their dreams, they're never going to
[26:46] get there. They have to to get them to
[26:48] be completely honest with themselves.
[26:50] That's when the healing starts. And
[26:52] that's what we have. That's what we do.
[26:53] That's what we try to do.
[26:55] >> It's um I'm an alcoholic, so I
[26:56] understand what it's like to hit rock
[26:58] bottom. And and rock bottom is it it's
[27:01] important, you know, it's almost
[27:02] necessary to to get there. So we we try
[27:07] to take them and let them understand as
[27:09] humbly as they can like this is where
[27:11] you're at. Where do you want to be? Let
[27:13] us take you there, but you have to
[27:15] understand who you are at this point and
[27:17] we'll get you better. So
[27:22] >> that's amazing.
[27:24] So if people want to help,
[27:27] >> volunteer. Um if you know if if if
[27:31] giving of your heart is is there give of your time you know if give of
[27:36] your resources
[27:38] um
[27:40] >> I don't know that anybody has ever come
[27:41] to father cars volunteered and hated it.
[27:43] I I just don't think that's true. Even
[27:45] the people that come in for community
[27:47] service or community service they still
[27:50] continue to come back even after they're
[27:52] done.
[27:53] >> It's a great community. It really is. I
[27:55] mean, you can there's there's a sense of love there. And, you know, I'm I'm
[27:59] going to pat the Lord on on his back for
[28:01] that one. That's what I believe. But
[28:04] there it it is really a cool community
[28:06] to be part of. So, if you if if you're
[28:09] looking if you got an emptiness in your
[28:11] life right now, that's how you enrich
[28:13] it. Come and give up your time. Just
[28:15] come and work in the food pantry. Couple
[28:18] hours a month. Um you play piano, come
[28:21] and play come and play piano some
[28:23] morning at pantry. I had a guy call the
[28:25] other day. He says, "Can I come and play
[28:26] piano for your Thanksgiving dinner?"
[28:28] Absolutely. Come and play. Um, so I
[28:32] would say give up some weight. Give of
[28:34] yourself some way. That's the way you
[28:36] enrich your life. So,
[28:39] >> and monetary. Do you have a place for
[28:42] monetary donations as well?
[28:44] >> Yeah, you can either go online and and
[28:47] uh donate online. Otherwise, you can
[28:48] come right to Father Cars. I'd love to
[28:50] give tours. You know, come and see what
[28:52] we're all about. I'll give you a tour of
[28:53] the place and um you know there's a lot
[28:55] of ways you can donate while you're
[28:56] there. Um we have a Facebook page uh you
[29:00] know website uh it's fathercars.org
[29:03] so all spelt out fathercars.org. So um
[29:07] there's a lot of different ways to give.
[29:10] >> Thank you so much. Learned so much.
[29:14] >> I drive past father cars all the time
[29:16] and I now I know much more. So thank you
[29:19] so much. I I started volunteering there
[29:21] about 8 years ago and I was blown away
[29:23] by what they did though. I couldn't
[29:25] believe it and that's that's the biggest
[29:27] comment I get after every tour is I
[29:30] never knew you the scope services.
[29:33] >> Yeah.
[29:35] >> Well, thank you so much.
[29:36] >> Thanks for the opportunity. Appreciate
[29:38] it. Thank you for what you know.
[29:41] >> Thank you.
[29:42] You're welcome to stay for the rest of
[29:44] our
[29:47] [laughter]
[29:49] >> I haven't seen my wife in 3 days.
[29:52] >> Thank you so much.
[29:53] >> Thank you.
[29:54] >> So now we get to discuss and vote on
[29:56] November and December's meetings because
[29:58] usually I mean it's always the fourth
[30:02] Monday and that's usually the week of
[30:05] Christmas and Thanksgiving. So, we need
[30:09] to talk about if we want to do those
[30:11] weeks, which I don't think we do. So,
[30:13] let's actually look at the dates.
[30:15] >> Yes, the the Thanksgiving ends up
[30:18] following the Monday before
[30:20] Thanksgiving.
[30:21] >> Um, so
[30:24] >> obviously staff will be here as needed
[30:27] that week. We are scheduled, but really
[30:30] also it comes down to the
[30:33] >> uh commitment of of the members as well.
[30:36] And then I believe the December one,
[30:40] it's on the 28th. So it's the it's the
[30:42] week after Christmas,
[30:44] >> right?
[30:44] >> But so yeah, I I think I move that we
[30:49] cancel both of those meetings.
[30:51] >> Anyone want to second that?
[30:53] >> Second. Okay, good job.
[30:54] >> Thanks. [laughter] Say without a
[30:56] question mark.
[30:57] >> No.
[30:59] >> Um,
[31:01] do you want to have any further
[31:02] discussion?
[31:04] >> No. Do you want to you look at you have
[31:06] discussion videos?
[31:07] >> No, I don't
[31:10] December one makes sense to me, but like
[31:12] November we just think everyone will be
[31:14] out of town.
[31:15] >> Yeah, I think I mean cuz it's the Monday
[31:17] before and there's always people are
[31:19] traveling and
[31:21] >> it it tends to be a heavy travel week.
[31:24] It doesn't always fall the Monday before
[31:26] Thanksgiving. Sometimes it's the Monday
[31:28] after. This here it is the Monday
[31:30] before. Um, so it really comes down to
[31:35] >> again this committee and their
[31:36] availability.
[31:38] >> I have not booked anyone for November at
[31:41] this time because I knew we were having
[31:42] this discussion. So I don't have anyone
[31:45] coming in yet.
[31:47] >> Um certainly I I do get a little
[31:50] concerned about quorum during some of
[31:52] those weeks.
[31:52] >> Yeah. And since we've been having some
[31:54] quorum
[31:56] quandries, um I think that maybe
[32:01] the November meeting we should also just
[32:03] mix it.
[32:04] >> Okay. Well, that's the motion on the
[32:06] table. So, um I will call a roll.
[32:11] Cramp
[32:12] >> I
[32:12] >> Abacher
[32:13] >> I.
[32:14] >> Tolman
[32:15] >> I.
[32:16] >> Dang.
[32:16] >> I Okay, thank you. Okay. So, now we have
[32:21] discuss future DEI committee projects.
[32:24] So, I had the amazing opportunity to
[32:28] chat with Dr. Pang from the Wnebago Area
[32:31] Literacy Council. She's come in here
[32:33] before. She's great. Um, we discussed a
[32:37] lot of things. So, right now the WALC is
[32:41] drowning in support needs because
[32:43] they're they're mostly there to teach
[32:45] language learning classes, but they're
[32:47] also assisting people with all these
[32:49] everyday tasks like translating forms
[32:51] and helping people pay bills, stuff that
[32:53] isn't really in their
[32:56] like wheel. It's in their they can do
[32:57] it, but it's not like why they're there.
[33:00] Um, so this is why language access is
[33:03] crucial and not something to be put on
[33:05] the back burner. Um because the
[33:07] importance of communication cannot be
[33:09] overstated. Dr. Pang made it very clear
[33:11] that doing something at all is
[33:13] preferable to doing everything
[33:15] perfectly. So we just have to start. Um
[33:19] she also noted that this committee kind
[33:21] of exists in a vacuum and I agree with
[33:23] her. Um as a group we typically only see
[33:25] like the leader like we saw Jim and he's
[33:28] super nice but we don't see typically
[33:30] see or interact with the people that the
[33:33] organizations serve. Um, so I think
[33:37] maybe one time in the 2 and a half years
[33:39] I've been here that there was a service
[33:41] user speak like here with the executive
[33:44] director or whatever. So I think we need
[33:48] to go out into the community with our
[33:49] DEI hats on. We need to be visible in
[33:52] the city and learn as much as we can
[33:54] from the people who need DEI policies.
[33:56] So we need to make marginalized people
[33:58] visible to the people who are always
[34:01] centered. Um, she had a bunch of other
[34:03] ideas. In a lot of in some cities and
[34:06] municip municipalities, radio
[34:08] announcements like kind of on YouTube
[34:10] are a thing that a lot of um different
[34:13] communities who speak different
[34:14] languages use. So, it'll just be like a
[34:16] 30-se secondond little clip on YouTube
[34:18] like here's what's going on today in the
[34:20] city, but like in Mong. Um, and so she
[34:25] said that that's really effective for a
[34:27] lot of different language groups and
[34:28] especially because a lot of the cultures
[34:31] in Oshkosh have mostly oral traditions.
[34:33] So a lot of the older people can't read
[34:36] the languages that they speak. Um, so
[34:39] this makes it more accessible for
[34:40] everyone and it's like a quick little
[34:42] thing to do. Um, she also mentioned
[34:45] plain language training which I didn't
[34:47] really know anything about. Um, it's not
[34:49] like dumbed down language. It's stripped
[34:51] of confusing and complicated niche terms
[34:54] or jargon so lay people can understand
[34:55] it. And if you go to centerforplay plain
[34:58] language.org, they have all of these
[35:00] examples of like what a form looked like
[35:02] before they turned it into plain
[35:04] language, what a form looked like after.
[35:07] It's night and day. The form and it's
[35:09] the form before legally all this jargon
[35:12] there to for and all this stuff. and
[35:14] afterwards it just you could get to the
[35:17] information without having to like claw
[35:18] through the jargon. Um, so that's
[35:22] something to keep in mind. There is
[35:23] plain language training is available. So
[35:25] that might be something that some people
[35:28] who help create the website can can look
[35:31] into. But we also can't rely on Google
[35:34] Translate to translate the city website.
[35:36] Um because it rely it results in
[35:39] inaccurate translations and it requires
[35:42] users to click on a bunch of stuff. I I
[35:44] tested it out with my phone and I had to
[35:47] click like six things to make it turn
[35:50] into a different language. So and it
[35:52] also can give poor translations. So, I'm
[35:55] learning Swahili right now. So, kiga
[35:59] kalamu literally means to throw a pen.
[36:02] But that's how you say you're firing
[36:04] someone. Like if you fire them, you like
[36:06] throw your pen at them, which I think is
[36:07] fun. Um, but if you didn't know that
[36:10] about Swahili and you just saw Kiga
[36:12] Kamu, you'd be like, "They threw a pen?
[36:15] What?" So that's why non-human
[36:18] translations don't really capture the
[36:20] nuance and meaning of a language. Like
[36:22] the difference between must and should.
[36:25] If you say you must pay this by the
[36:27] first, that's very different than saying
[36:29] you should pay this by the first, right?
[36:31] Because one can result in you getting
[36:32] evicted.
[36:34] >> Um question.
[36:36] >> Yeah. Uh since I'm new
[36:37] >> Mhm.
[36:38] >> Uh what what is the we're talking about
[36:41] the city website? Yeah. What's the the
[36:43] goal here?
[36:44] >> Kind of everything right now.
[36:45] >> Yeah. Talking about everything, but I am getting to the city website. So
[36:50] like what was the point of the interview
[36:53] with
[36:53] >> So I talked with her because I we the
[36:56] last meeting we had we were all we all
[36:58] talked about what issue in the city is
[37:01] most important to you right now. What do
[37:03] you think that the DEI committee could
[37:04] be doing better?
[37:06] >> Um and so I'm choosing to focus on
[37:09] language access stuff. So I decid I I
[37:12] question that I asked um Dr. Pang was
[37:15] like what can we take off your plate?
[37:17] like what would what would it make what
[37:19] can the city do to make your work
[37:21] easier?
[37:23] >> And she said a lot of it is like people
[37:25] accessing city services through the
[37:27] website.
[37:28] >> So
[37:28] >> maybe maybe a different way to rephrase
[37:30] it. What is the city currently
[37:32] outsourcing to
[37:33] >> exactly? Yeah. What is the city
[37:34] currently like kind of relying on these
[37:36] outside organizations for?
[37:39] >> So although when you say forms and
[37:41] things that's people have forms they
[37:44] need completed.
[37:45] >> Yeah. taking them to
[37:47] >> they take them there and then they say,
[37:49] "Yeah, I don't understand this form. Can
[37:51] you please help me fill it out?"
[37:52] [clears throat]
[37:52] >> Yeah. Because the forms are not
[37:54] available on the website in in most
[37:56] languages.
[37:57] >> So almost 7% of Oshkosh residents above
[38:00] the age of five speak a language other
[38:02] than English at home. That's 7% of the
[38:04] population who's being left out of
[38:05] participating in some city government or
[38:08] services. Um,
[38:11] so we need to identify people and groups
[38:13] who have the time, knowledge, and
[38:14] capacity to assist with translating
[38:16] stuff. Um, there's lots of consequences
[38:19] of lack of ang language access, like if
[38:22] there's a weather emergency, like when
[38:24] we have the tornado, I didn't, my next
[38:26] door neighbors speak Swahili almost
[38:28] exclusively. And I don't know if like is
[38:32] are the radio like when your phone is
[38:34] like whack whack does like it tell you
[38:36] in Swahili cuz I know for a fact that
[38:38] iOS Apple does not support any African
[38:41] languages. Um legal issues if you don't
[38:44] know how to pay a parking ticket. Um
[38:48] feeling excluded from your community.
[38:50] That's the most that's why we're here.
[38:52] So people who don't speak English as a
[38:54] first language are not stupid. English
[38:57] is incredibly difficult to learn. I've
[38:59] been speaking it for 41 years and I
[39:00] still mess up all the time. Um, it takes
[39:03] seven years of dedicated study to become
[39:05] fluent in a language. So,
[39:08] we can't expect people to know things
[39:10] the second that they get here. So, the
[39:12] purpose of the DEI committee, this is
[39:14] directly from the city website.
[39:16] The DEI committee shall act as an
[39:18] advisory body to the city manager and
[39:20] common council in providing comment and
[39:22] support regarding appropriate strategies
[39:23] to develop activities, resources, and
[39:25] services that promote a positive
[39:28] community environment of equity,
[39:29] inclusion, and celebrate the diverse
[39:31] identities of the city of Oshkosh. So, I
[39:34] think we really need to like
[39:36] read that a bunch to ourselves and
[39:38] dedicate ourselves to this purpose. So,
[39:42] all of that to say,
[39:44] I think as a committee, we need to each
[39:47] find an organization that focuses on a
[39:50] marginalized group or a marginalized
[39:55] sector of our city and meet the people
[39:58] who use who
[40:00] use that organization. Attend a meeting
[40:02] if it's appropriate. Talk to people in
[40:05] the community about DEI stuff. Go to
[40:07] where people are. like we can't expect
[40:09] everyone to come to us. We need to go to
[40:12] them. So I understand that I'm kind of
[40:16] being mean to Oshkosh right now a little
[40:17] bit. But we need to understand the pro
[40:21] what the problems are before we can fix
[40:22] the problems. And we can do better than
[40:26] what we've been doing. So let's do it.
[40:28] Let's move forward. I believe in us. So
[40:32] I would like to make a recommendation to
[40:35] city council.
[40:37] The recommendation I would like to make
[40:39] is the DEIA committee recommends that
[40:42] the city hires multilingual speakers to
[40:44] translate the most often used pages on
[40:46] the city website into Mong, Spanish,
[40:48] Swahili, and Arabic, the four most
[40:50] widely spoken languages in Oshkosh after
[40:53] English. Does anyone have any thoughts
[40:56] about
[40:56] >> Can you read that again?
[40:57] >> Yeah. So recommends that the city hires
[41:00] multilingual speakers to translate the
[41:03] most often used pages on the city
[41:05] website into M Spanish, Swahilian
[41:07] Arabic, the four most widely spoken
[41:09] languages in Oshkosh after English.
[41:12] >> What does the workflow look like for
[41:14] that? So like I'm a person
[41:17] >> and I need to access something on the
[41:18] website and I speak Swahili. M
[41:22] >> so I understand the recommendation but
[41:25] in [clears throat] terms of feasibility
[41:28] >> what do you mean
[41:28] >> like website design?
[41:30] >> Yeah.
[41:30] >> Looking at
[41:32] >> is that actually accessible? So like if
[41:34] I log in to the city of Ashkosh website
[41:38] >> how am I going to get to the pages that
[41:40] are in the language that I can read? So
[41:42] like I understand we're making the
[41:44] recommendation. I would assume that it
[41:45] would have like we would I mean I'm not
[41:47] the web designer person but I'm assuming
[41:48] it would have at the top like it would
[41:50] say like Kuahili and then it would say
[41:52] like have the links in Swahili and then
[41:56] or like it would just say like Kswuahili
[41:58] and then you could click there and it
[41:59] would take you to the version of the
[42:00] website probably. This is just an
[42:03] >> Yeah. What resources do we already have
[42:06] accessible in any of those languages?
[42:08] >> None.
[42:09] >> Zero. The website is only able to be
[42:12] translated through Google Trans
[42:13] >> Yeah. It's just reliant on browsers
[42:14] right now.
[42:15] >> Yes. Which I don't like
[42:16] >> and that doesn't work for if it's a PDF
[42:18] download or something like that. So
[42:20] that's
[42:20] >> Yeah. And it takes like so many clicks
[42:22] to and I and I am a intelligent person
[42:25] and I could
[42:26] >> if someone needed to access information.
[42:28] Do we have physical forms available in
[42:32] other languages?
[42:32] >> Yes.
[42:34] >> I don't also are there any translators
[42:36] that are available like phone
[42:37] translators for that who work for the
[42:39] city? We also, sorry, this is going to
[42:40] be a nitpicky. A translator and an
[42:42] interpreter are not the same thing.
[42:44] >> So, um,
[42:46] >> I mean, maybe what I'm hearing too is is
[42:49] do we maybe need to take a a preliminary
[42:52] step and propose like hiring a
[42:54] consultant to audit first or something
[42:57] like that? I don't know.
[42:58] >> I feel like we don't have there's no
[43:01] budget for that, I don't think.
[43:03] >> But would there be a budget to hire
[43:05] multi like
[43:06] >> Mhm. There's not a there's not a budget,
[43:10] right? Like there's not a line item.
[43:13] Like so I can make the recommendation,
[43:15] but is it a realistic?
[43:18] >> If like
[43:18] >> I feel like I realistic here for a long
[43:20] time and I really just want to
[43:23] >> I want to take Dr. Pang's
[43:26] dos into consideration and like we need
[43:29] to do a thing and I feel like this is
[43:32] like the tiniest ask. It's so tiny like
[43:36] you you could
[43:37] >> the recommendation is a tiny ask the
[43:40] actual
[43:42] implementation
[43:43] and somebody who designs my website
[43:46] that's a significant amount of bandwidth
[43:48] I'm using Sony
[43:50] >> I used to work in corporate um
[43:52] [clears throat and laughter] please
[43:52] excuse my corporate terms
[43:55] >> but you know what I mean
[43:56] >> but I mean I think that's that's what
[43:58] we're recommending right is we're asking
[44:00] city manager or whoever uh
[44:02] >> like uh
[44:03] >> cuz this needs to happen. say do a
[44:06] feasibility study and say how much would
[44:08] this cost either and that's why I'm
[44:09] saying I don't know if the first step is
[44:11] you need to hire these people or if the
[44:12] first step is we need to bring in you
[44:14] again it's not up to us but what we
[44:16] would recommend
[44:18] >> doing is say the first step is actually
[44:20] maybe you need to hire a consultant to
[44:22] audit cuz even even as we've seen it's
[44:24] hard for us to have the time or it's
[44:26] hard for us to outsource to someone like
[44:28] the literacy council to say like okay we
[44:30] just hope you do this on your free time
[44:31] you know [clears throat]
[44:32] >> um
[44:34] >> and right we're an advisory committee.
[44:35] We can't actually
[44:38] the actionable things that we can do.
[44:41] >> It's ultimately the council,
[44:42] >> right? Yeah.
[44:43] >> What do you have a question?
[44:44] >> Yeah. Um, so what percent of that 7% can
[44:48] actually read in their like first
[44:50] language?
[44:50] >> I am not sure. I could not find that
[44:52] statistic.
[44:53] >> But did you say that like most adults
[44:55] can't read in their
[44:56] >> I said that so like especially for um
[44:58] older monk people, it's mostly an oral
[45:00] tradition and for older people who speak
[45:03] as well. Yeah.
[45:04] >> Um, so that's why like another easy I
[45:08] mean easy thing I just
[45:11] >> I think that we could make the
[45:13] recommendation and then they can
[45:17] they
[45:18] >> we make more than one recommendation.
[45:20] >> I mean yeah we've only ever made too
[45:23] like I like it's not specifically the
[45:27] website it's that communication access
[45:29] is a barrier.
[45:30] >> Yeah. And this is why the first step.
[45:33] >> So the website is great, but if I have a
[45:36] hard time reading my native language, I
[45:39] am still going to need to physically go
[45:42] somewhere to have someone help me. So in
[45:46] terms of Ashka, like we already have a
[45:48] free legal clinic.
[45:50] >> We have other um organizations that
[45:54] offer like bring in your broken sewing
[45:57] machine. I'll help you fix it.
[45:58] Why can't we as a community
[46:02] utilize volunte make a recommendation
[46:04] that we're utilizing volunteers that
[46:06] already speak that language? I mean, we
[46:08] could utilize volunteers, but I wanted
[46:10] to pay people for their work. Um,
[46:14] especially cuz these will be people who
[46:16] are not white people. Um, and they're
[46:19] doing work. So, I mean, we could ask for
[46:23] volunteers, but I'd rather pay. I guess
[46:25] if I'm a community member and I know my
[46:28] brother's grandma needs help filling out
[46:31] a piece of paper, I will gladly give my
[46:33] free labor to help somebody fill out
[46:35] documentation.
[46:36] >> No, I understand that.
[46:37] >> I think we can hope for that. And this
[46:38] would this would be my reason to still
[46:40] lean towards recommending um because we
[46:42] don't want to depend on that cuz not
[46:44] everyone has that. Um and once that runs
[46:47] up, it still leaves people out to dry
[46:50] who depend on these services. And if
[46:52] this is something that you know whether
[46:54] it be city forms or whatever we can't
[46:57] just hope that someone has a family
[46:59] friend or someone to help them. Now by
[47:01] all means I I hope they do and there are
[47:03] a lot of people I think that's why how a
[47:05] lot of people are getting by right now
[47:06] >> but if it's dependent on that that still
[47:09] leaves a lot of people out to dry who
[47:11] don't have that. That would be my
[47:12] >> and I'm specifically saying that we
[47:14] should hire people because I was like
[47:18] Dr. Pang has all these volunteers who
[47:22] work with her doing all this stuff
[47:25] already.
[47:27] Kind of like because the city isn't
[47:29] doing it, she's like helping people do
[47:32] it, but that's like not her job. So,
[47:35] >> does the literacy council have
[47:38] defined parameters on the services that
[47:41] they provide?
[47:42] >> Yes. And she said they are drowning in
[47:44] support needs and that this would be
[47:45] something that would be great if she
[47:46] didn't have to do anymore. Are there
[47:48] other resources within the Ash community
[47:51] besides? So I hear feasibility study.
[47:54] None of these are an immediate or
[47:57] efficient fix to the accessibility
[47:59] problem, right? So we have like it's a
[48:02] three-legged stool. The website being
[48:04] redone is great. Having people in the
[48:07] community available to help our
[48:08] community members is also great. What's
[48:11] the third thing? Right? Because if one
[48:14] of those fails, like what is our Swiss
[48:17] cheese?
[48:18] >> Well, currently we don't have any of
[48:19] them. So,
[48:20] >> and that's why I'd be an advocate for
[48:21] moving in that direction. My my only
[48:24] question going back to my initial point,
[48:25] I I just don't know if the first action
[48:27] step is hire these or if the first
[48:29] action step is
[48:30] >> bring someone into audit to even see.
[48:33] >> Yeah,
[48:33] >> you could do both at the same time
[48:35] realistically. But
[48:36] >> if our [clears throat] recommendation is
[48:38] y'all need to look at the website, isn't
[48:40] that the recommendation? Like do we have
[48:42] to tell the city council
[48:44] >> I mean yeah how to do their
[48:46] >> well we need to tell them specifically
[48:47] that this is what
[48:49] >> someone's going to have to it's going to
[48:50] take employee time and I doubt there's
[48:52] any employees who just have hours
[48:54] sitting by right now.
[48:55] >> Do we know what the most accessed pages
[48:58] on the website are?
[48:59] >> I'm guessing someone does but
[49:01] >> yeah someone that I'm sure our
[49:03] communications department does know.
[49:06] >> Um currently there is actually
[49:08] initiative to redo the website. I do not
[49:11] know specifically what that all entails.
[49:15] >> Uh what I could do is see if we could
[49:18] get someone from communications to share
[49:21] what that scope looks like right now cuz
[49:23] I I don't know what the scope looks like
[49:26] for the website. Um, I don't know if
[49:30] it's a redesign or an upgrade or or what
[49:32] the the intention exactly is, but I
[49:35] think um my recommendation regarding
[49:38] your recommendation
[49:40] >> is that um
[49:42] >> I see if I can get someone from
[49:43] communications to come to our next
[49:45] meeting
[49:46] >> uh understand maybe what the scope right
[49:48] now is of the project
[49:50] >> and that also then if we put your
[49:52] recommendation on the next agenda that
[49:55] gives people a little bit of time to
[49:57] think about do I agree with this
[49:59] recommendation since we didn't say we
[50:01] were going to take any action today. So
[50:04] I I want to be careful that and I
[50:08] understand it's only a recommendation
[50:10] but this way we can um put it on the
[50:13] next one that we are going to consider a
[50:15] recommendation
[50:17] um and we'll figure out how to write
[50:18] that off if it's exactly your verbiage
[50:21] >> um or maybe and I put in the agenda or
[50:23] similar
[50:24] >> so that we can
[50:27] >> finish vetting this out without putting
[50:29] everybody into a are we recommending or
[50:32] not recommending right this minute.
[50:34] >> Okay.
[50:34] >> If that is comfortable.
[50:37] >> And yeah, I like I like bringing someone
[50:39] in from the communication engagement
[50:41] division um
[50:42] >> and seeing what is the current
[50:44] initiative.
[50:45] >> I I'm trying to think of it might be
[50:48] nice if we had some questions prepared
[50:50] for them ahead of time so they could
[50:51] come in with some of that.
[50:53] >> Um I'm sure we all have our own
[50:55] questions. That's one of the big one is
[50:57] like what's the website? But this this
[50:59] is beyond the website, you know, the
[51:00] communication engagement. This is just
[51:01] like a one first little step to
[51:04] >> Can you give me an example of what
[51:06] they're asking? A lot of this like in
[51:08] terms of social services, a lot of that
[51:09] is coming through the state of Wisconsin
[51:11] like access.gov. So we wouldn't have any
[51:13] control over that in terms of like if I
[51:15] need access to food share gradu
[51:20] when you go into the website it is just
[51:21] in English. So if you want it at the top
[51:23] it's like government what to do? No,
[51:25] [laughter] no, no. I understand that.
[51:26] But I'm saying like
[51:27] >> so those type of services I don't think
[51:28] what we're talking about
[51:29] >> literacy council what you brought up as
[51:32] Dr. Pang said people are bringing in
[51:34] forms for us to help fill out. I am
[51:37] asking
[51:39] >> for that was just her example. She
[51:40] didn't tell
[51:41] >> cuz my question is if it's forms that
[51:43] are the city of Ashkosh owns right then
[51:47] we can say hey we're recommending this
[51:49] change the website. No how often do we
[51:51] go on the city of Ash website? I go on
[51:55] maybe twice a year. So if I'm looking
[51:57] for a specific form, that's why I'm just
[52:00] asking if Dr.
[52:01] >> P. I initially had had when I was
[52:04] working on this, I initially had like
[52:06] let's find out the four most used forms
[52:09] or whatever,
[52:10] >> which that could be something too. But
[52:13] also, if you try if you go to the
[52:14] website and you're trying to find the
[52:15] forms and the website is not in the
[52:17] language you speak, you can't find the
[52:18] forms in the first place. So
[52:20] >> sure, like
[52:21] >> but if we're So I think there's two
[52:23] different things. there's accessibility
[52:24] to the website and then the literacy
[52:26] council doesn't have enough bandwidth,
[52:28] right? Those are two separate things.
[52:30] >> So, this isn't really even about the
[52:31] literacy council as much. It's about
[52:33] like this is the notes that Dr. Pang had
[52:36] about things we can do to actually like
[52:40] make change in the city and a lot of it
[52:42] is the language access stuff and
[52:46] it's frustrating to go that there's it's
[52:49] only in English and there's so many
[52:51] people who don't speak English. So that
[52:53] is just why I was focusing just on the
[52:57] website in those four languages. I think
[52:59] that we can get real big with it at some
[53:03] point if we want to, but from my time on
[53:05] here, I have learned that things move
[53:08] very slowly and that you kind of just
[53:11] have to focus on little bits. And I
[53:14] think that this is a good bit to focus
[53:15] on. I think yeah, getting people in from
[53:17] the communities like what how like maybe we can even ask people who come in
[53:24] like can you just like test like use the
[53:26] website like give them a little homework
[53:28] like find this form
[53:30] >> and like see if it's possible see how
[53:34] easy it is. I don't think anybody
[53:35] disagrees with you that there's a access
[53:38] barrier. Like that's not a problem. But
[53:40] what is the purpose?
[53:43] >> We are recommending to city council that
[53:47] the website needs to be evaluated for
[53:50] >> language barriers and access and needs
[53:53] to be updated into the most common
[53:54] languages.
[53:55] >> Yeah.
[53:58] >> And I understand it's the government.
[53:59] I'm failing to see
[54:02] how that's the only thing we can do. I
[54:06] >> You never said it was the only thing we
[54:07] can do. It's not the only thing we can
[54:08] do. It's just this is my focus
[54:12] for that. We decided that we were each
[54:14] going to have a little focus. Mine is
[54:16] language access. I had seen Dr. Pang at
[54:20] an event. So, I set up a coffee with her
[54:23] because she knows a lot about language
[54:25] access in the city. So, that is why that
[54:28] is my focus.
[54:29] Okay. What have other members brought up
[54:32] as what like what their focus is?
[54:34] >> This this is a pretty new initiative.
[54:37] >> We've really actually had someone come
[54:38] back with
[54:40] >> a recommendation from their passionate
[54:43] area of focus.
[54:44] >> Yeah. So that's why this is mine.
[54:46] >> Right. Right.
[54:48] >> Andy, what was yours? Did you want to
[54:49] share what you
[54:51] >> um Yeah. And I haven't had much time to
[54:53] look into it. I have had some
[54:54] conversations. Um what I was focused on
[54:56] was uh civic engagement pipeline and
[54:58] making sure that we have more
[54:59] representation around town that people
[55:01] understand how to
[55:02] >> be civically engaged and access and have
[55:04] more um just diverse representation.
[55:09] >> Um one not to get off too much tangent
[55:12] but this could be something we could
[55:13] talk about another time. I don't have
[55:14] much information about this yet but you
[55:16] had brought up earlier
[55:18] as you were talking through about even
[55:21] just informing people that like this is
[55:22] here. We want to talk to people. I know
[55:25] some other boards and commissions do
[55:27] things in the public like I know the
[55:28] sustainability board like they will go
[55:30] table at um the farmers market and stuff
[55:34] like that. So I that was one idea I
[55:36] thought of like oh we could do things
[55:38] like that too. Maybe we could find
[55:39] spaces where we go out but again that
[55:41] takes volunteer time for us to say okay
[55:43] we have a couple of us who are going to
[55:44] go do something. Maybe we could even
[55:46] team up with some other ones who are
[55:48] doing stuff like that and say, "Hey,
[55:49] let's go out in the community and say,
[55:51] does this community, you know, what
[55:53] areas of Oshkosh feel inclusive or not
[55:55] inclusive and what should we be aware
[55:57] of?"
[55:58] >> Um, that was one idea.
[56:00] >> I enjoy volunteering. I don't have a
[56:02] problem also saying, "Hey, as a
[56:03] committee, shouldn't we be volunteering
[56:05] at the places we have people coming to
[56:07] tell us about?" So, if we want to meet
[56:09] the people,
[56:10] >> we go volunteer.
[56:12] >> That's something we talked about. Uh
[56:14] we've talked about this several times of
[56:15] even just instead of only just bringing
[56:17] people in us finding opportunities to
[56:19] say you even Jim tonight said you know
[56:21] give tours for us being able to reach
[56:23] out and say let's go take Dr. about that
[56:25] too of taking a tour through the
[56:27] literacy council coming back and
[56:29] reporting here and saying this is what I
[56:30] learned and essentially what I mean you
[56:32] didn't tour through the literacy council
[56:33] but you had a conversation essentially
[56:35] that going out talking and bringing that
[56:37] information back and saying now what do
[56:38] we do with this information
[56:40] >> or like OASD also right good resource
[56:43] they have a lot of people [laughter]
[56:45] >> so in terms of
[56:47] um when I
[56:51] hear we're making this recommendation to
[56:53] a government body knowing it's going to
[56:55] take time, money, and energy that the
[56:58] city doesn't have to spare at the
[57:01] moment. Is there a way that we can
[57:08] I'm trying to think of how to phrase
[57:09] this.
[57:11] What is the handoff? Right? Like we make
[57:13] the recommendation
[57:16] then what? Then it goes to city council,
[57:18] >> right? city council would then discuss
[57:21] what if any action they would like the
[57:23] city manager to take. Um because
[57:26] realistically
[57:28] it is an advisory group. So anything
[57:31] that's recommended
[57:33] um I would of course forward that
[57:34] recommendation to the city manager and
[57:36] council um and then they would discuss
[57:39] and decide if they want the city to take
[57:42] any any specific action. Obviously, they
[57:44] do understand any action that they ask
[57:47] the city to take is going to potentially
[57:50] take staff time or dollars or both to
[57:53] implement and that is part of their job,
[57:56] right? Is to decide where the city's
[57:59] resources should be implemented. Yeah.
[58:03] >> Right. Right.
[58:05] >> And I think it's worth acknowledging
[58:06] that everything takes dollars. It's just
[58:09] whether or not we prioritize it. And if
[58:11] we want the city of Ashkosh to be an
[58:12] inclusive city, we need to say there are
[58:15] dollars.
[58:16] >> They just for whatever reason haven't
[58:18] been allocated this way. And if we want
[58:20] to prioritize this, let's allocate some
[58:22] dollar. We just This is one of the areas
[58:23] I think we've struggled with in the
[58:24] past. No, what does it actually look
[58:26] like? What do you allocate them to? And
[58:28] this is a practical example
[58:30] >> uh or a practical idea of we could
[58:33] allocate to this. And they may hear this
[58:35] and they may say, "Actually, we think
[58:37] it'd be better to do that." Mhm.
[58:39] >> But then at least it's [clears throat]
[58:41] in the city council record. They've
[58:42] discussed it. Like it's something we
[58:44] could bring up again like, "Hey, could
[58:45] you revisit this recommendation we
[58:47] made?"
[58:48] >> And I think like it is like a practical
[58:52] thing that you can point at and say,
[58:54] "Our committee did that." And also like
[58:56] now more people actually can find out
[58:59] how to pay their parking ticket or
[59:01] whatever and maybe not, you know, have a
[59:04] ding on their record or, you know, or
[59:07] ding in their credit. Dr. Pang told me a
[59:09] story of this woman who she didn't
[59:13] understand how to move her utilities
[59:15] like from one apartment to another
[59:16] apartment. So she had just been paying
[59:18] both utilities for like a month and a
[59:20] half cuz she didn't know how to do it
[59:22] and she didn't want to stop paying one
[59:23] cuz she didn't want to get a ding on her
[59:24] credit. So it was like
[59:27] >> that's a good that's a good example
[59:29] because that is a city service you ask
[59:31] before was like and so
[59:32] >> I think if we can get more stories like
[59:34] that even be able to bring the you know
[59:36] council if you know
[59:38] >> when we
[59:39] >> write a resolution or recommendation for
[59:41] resolution I don't know what the proper
[59:43] terminology is
[59:44] >> and say we are seeing these things
[59:46] happen exe y and z and this is why we're
[59:48] proposing you to do this I think that
[59:51] would really help
[59:52] >> would you be able to ask Dr. paying just
[59:54] like the difference between
[59:58] somebody coming in cuz I need help
[1:00:00] understanding something read to me
[1:00:03] >> or city service assistance, right? So,
[1:00:07] like I think having some statistics to
[1:00:09] say like, hey, this one specific thing
[1:00:13] is super confusing and nobody can figure
[1:00:15] it out.
[1:00:16] >> Cuz resource-wise, updating a website,
[1:00:19] literally it took me 7 hours of code to
[1:00:21] update my own business website last week
[1:00:23] and that was for one page. that I think
[1:00:27] like it would be a lot easier to have a
[1:00:30] translator redo a form that you can make
[1:00:35] as a resource like here's this form in
[1:00:38] your native language
[1:00:41] >> it's available.
[1:00:42] >> Yeah. I just feel like cuz the forms you
[1:00:44] have to like
[1:00:46] >> I don't know. I think that the website
[1:00:48] >> I have found in helping people access
[1:00:51] social services, it's often easier to
[1:00:53] physically hand someone a paper form to
[1:00:56] fill out than it is to try and explain
[1:00:58] and navigate a website.
[1:01:00] >> Yeah. And I can't remember this. I And
[1:01:02] this is why I said we might need to do
[1:01:03] some sort of audit cuz I thought like
[1:01:05] legally we have to have some of those
[1:01:06] things on hand.
[1:01:07] >> You should.
[1:01:08] >> I think I I don't know. I think legally
[1:01:10] the city has to have some of those
[1:01:11] things on hand. Typically in Wisconsin,
[1:01:15] >> um, public information should be
[1:01:16] English, Spanish, Mon,
[1:01:18] >> but that might just be physical. I don't
[1:01:20] know what the
[1:01:21] >> Yes, you have to have a physical
[1:01:25] theoretically have to have a physical
[1:01:27] copy of that available.
[1:01:29] >> But I'm saying I don't know what the
[1:01:30] Does that apply to digital copies too?
[1:01:32] Does
[1:01:32] >> I don't think so.
[1:01:34] >> So that I mean that's something we need
[1:01:35] to figure out. And all all that being
[1:01:37] said, like even the things that I don't
[1:01:39] want the city to do just what's legally
[1:01:41] required cuz we know that's always the
[1:01:42] bare minimum. Um, and that's where I
[1:01:45] want to figure out
[1:01:46] >> where are people struggling to navigate.
[1:01:48] And even this I think this is really
[1:01:50] good information you got is hearing that
[1:01:52] people are struggling. There are still
[1:01:54] forms they're bringing brought in
[1:01:56] >> and and maybe we find out, oh, there
[1:01:57] actually was a translated form. It just
[1:01:59] wasn't easy to know that or wasn't easy
[1:02:01] to find it. And that's a different
[1:02:02] solution.
[1:02:03] >> Exactly.
[1:02:04] >> It wasn't easy to know. It was an easy
[1:02:05] to find. It was translated poorly. It
[1:02:07] was
[1:02:07] >> maybe it's out of date. Maybe it never
[1:02:09] got updated the last one.
[1:02:10] >> That's true. Cuz like maybe they updated
[1:02:12] it on the website, but no one thought to
[1:02:15] translate an update like you know
[1:02:17] >> my background is in organizational
[1:02:18] behavior management. So that's why I'm
[1:02:20] like very
[1:02:21] >> I like put things in columns and then
[1:02:24] check them off.
[1:02:25] >> [laughter]
[1:02:26] >> Um thinking you had mentioned though and
[1:02:30] I want to focus on that the the elderly
[1:02:35] people.
[1:02:36] >> We know mom wasn't written
[1:02:39] >> until the 1960s. I don't know the
[1:02:41] history of Sweet Lee. So
[1:02:43] >> it was more like more recently
[1:02:45] >> but thinking about in terms of right a
[1:02:48] whole website redesign is hard. Is it
[1:02:51] possible to add oral
[1:02:54] >> like a video of somebody giving the
[1:02:57] directions
[1:02:59] >> as if they can't read it anyways?
[1:03:01] >> Yeah.
[1:03:01] >> No, that's that's that's an idea that
[1:03:04] >> I think that's that's something that
[1:03:05] could come up if we get something like a
[1:03:07] feasibility
[1:03:09] >> making a recommendation. It could be
[1:03:12] evaluate this and then I don't know
[1:03:16] whoever does that feasibility study. But
[1:03:21] yeah, I think that the notes are good
[1:03:24] and we can discuss about how to put it
[1:03:27] on for next time. We can I'll I'll talk
[1:03:30] to Dr. Pang and ask her for if there's
[1:03:31] like any specific forms that people come
[1:03:34] to her with a lot. Um,
[1:03:38] and then I'll try to do some My
[1:03:41] husband's a data analytics manager, so
[1:03:43] I'll use his skills. Um,
[1:03:48] well, and I can see what I can find out
[1:03:50] from the most used forms. I mean, I
[1:03:53] don't I don't know what data we have,
[1:03:55] but I'll certainly see what I can find
[1:03:57] out from our um either communications
[1:04:00] department or even the the departments
[1:04:03] themselves that are
[1:04:05] >> I mean, obviously, there are forms that
[1:04:08] the clerk's office
[1:04:10] >> um you know,
[1:04:12] >> needs people to fill out. There are
[1:04:14] people applying for services and
[1:04:16] community development.
[1:04:18] >> Um there are people paying their utility
[1:04:20] bills.
[1:04:21] >> Yeah. uh online or in person.
[1:04:25] >> Um and we are I know we are putting more
[1:04:29] and more forms online.
[1:04:32] Um
[1:04:34] there's still obviously option to come
[1:04:36] in and and pay bills and and pro and
[1:04:39] have things done in person, but um there
[1:04:42] are more and more forms going online
[1:04:46] >> and I'm not overly familiar with the
[1:04:50] >> the platform that we're using. Um, I
[1:04:53] think it also has translation
[1:04:56] now, but I I will not pretend to be an
[1:04:59] expert
[1:05:00] >> on on the software or the
[1:05:04] translatability
[1:05:05] >> of uh some of the new online services
[1:05:08] we've been providing.
[1:05:10] >> And I'd be willing to guess it's a whole
[1:05:11] suite of different software providers.
[1:05:14] Mhm.
[1:05:14] >> So even if one software provider has the
[1:05:17] ability that does this thing and
[1:05:18] everything does
[1:05:18] >> overall city website is not
[1:05:22] it doesn't flow very well.
[1:05:24] >> Yes, this is we have discussed this. we
[1:05:26] have discussed this
[1:05:27] >> and and like I said the there is a
[1:05:30] project at this time
[1:05:32] >> that's a big [clears throat]
[1:05:33] >> yes to redesign
[1:05:36] >> and especially since that project is
[1:05:37] ongoing this is something that
[1:05:40] >> right
[1:05:40] >> it's a good time to at least be looking
[1:05:43] at this as part of the website redesign
[1:05:48] >> and also making city council aware that
[1:05:50] this is
[1:05:51] >> is important yeah
[1:05:52] >> and I think when we get to that point
[1:05:54] too uh one of the things that would
[1:05:56] matter to me is that not only do we say
[1:06:00] let's [clears throat]
[1:06:00] fill the holes that have existed before,
[1:06:03] >> but I wonder if there are some way that
[1:06:04] we can recommend to council to say we
[1:06:07] don't want to have this problem again in
[1:06:08] the future. So making sure anytime a new
[1:06:10] form or new like there's a requirement.
[1:06:13] >> I don't actually know what council is
[1:06:15] able to do cuz that's more of a
[1:06:17] department policy, but they might be
[1:06:18] able to
[1:06:20] >> legislate something that says we want to
[1:06:22] require that every time this happens, it
[1:06:24] needs to be translated into these. Mhm.
[1:06:25] >> Seven language or what whatever it is so
[1:06:27] we don't have this problem in 5 years
[1:06:28] when all we have all these new forms.
[1:06:30] >> That's a great idea
[1:06:31] >> and and that's where I would say that
[1:06:33] could fall somewhere between the
[1:06:36] authority of the city manager and the
[1:06:38] authority of council. Um so I would
[1:06:43] as I mentioned I would share this with
[1:06:45] city manager and council. Um because the
[1:06:48] city manager directs staff
[1:06:50] >> the council directs city manager. So,
[1:06:54] you know, ultimately the city manager is
[1:06:58] going to direct staff to have policies
[1:07:00] and procedures in place for everything
[1:07:03] that we do.
[1:07:05] Okay.
[1:07:08] Anything else on
[1:07:10] you? Yes, I'm not on this. I can share.
[1:07:12] >> Yeah. Um, so I've been working on just
[1:07:16] looking at different resources and
[1:07:17] assets that we have in our community.
[1:07:19] Um, so I started with food. We actually
[1:07:22] have quite a few different um like
[1:07:24] entities that are making their own
[1:07:26] resource maps. Um so like the Winnebago
[1:07:29] County Health um has interactive food
[1:07:32] resource map and a local like food list.
[1:07:34] So it lists all our pantries in the area
[1:07:37] um just like when they're open um
[1:07:39] eligibility, things like that. Um the
[1:07:41] Ashkosh Area United Way connects people
[1:07:43] to 211. So, there's that website that
[1:07:46] you can navigate um look up different
[1:07:47] resources, but you can also call the
[1:07:49] number um and then the city of Oshkosh
[1:07:52] and housing authorities share housing
[1:07:54] resources and public health and ADRC
[1:07:56] also um publish help and support
[1:07:59] information. So, I've just kind of been
[1:08:00] pulling those different ones and just
[1:08:02] seeing like
[1:08:04] >> like which resources overlap and maybe
[1:08:06] which ones are missing. Um and I'm just
[1:08:09] going to continue doing that cuz I think
[1:08:10] a lot of people are already doing the
[1:08:12] work. It's just kind of putting it
[1:08:13] together.
[1:08:14] >> Yeah. Mhm.
[1:08:15] >> Yeah.
[1:08:16] >> That's great.
[1:08:16] >> I think we kind of discover today um I I
[1:08:20] don't think we all knew in this room
[1:08:22] what Father Carr
[1:08:25] >> was all doing. I didn't realize that
[1:08:27] they had a a food
[1:08:30] >> uh pantry. Um so I think again
[1:08:34] >> knowing what all the resources are for
[1:08:36] people in the community is something
[1:08:38] we've been trying to work on in this
[1:08:41] committee. right, is getting the word
[1:08:43] out there because there are a lot of
[1:08:45] great resources out there to help
[1:08:46] people.
[1:08:47] >> Uh, but the the issue is people don't
[1:08:50] know what resources are out there to
[1:08:52] help them.
[1:08:54] >> Yeah. And I think that's where like
[1:08:56] Amanda, your language piece comes in too
[1:08:58] cuz I'm finding that like everything's
[1:09:00] typically in English obviously. Um, but
[1:09:02] it's like once we have like a knowledge
[1:09:04] of what these resources are, then we can
[1:09:07] think about like can people access and
[1:09:08] like what are the barriers and language
[1:09:10] is a common barrier and like
[1:09:12] transportation is a common barrier. So I
[1:09:14] think it'll be nice to identify those.
[1:09:16] >> Yeah.
[1:09:16] >> Based on the resources.
[1:09:18] >> Thank you. That's awesome.
[1:09:21] >> Anything else
[1:09:27] before we move on to the next thing?
[1:09:31] Okay. committee table committee member
[1:09:33] round table share DEI related activities
[1:09:35] and events in the area.
[1:09:38] I didn't write anything down cuz I was
[1:09:40] doing this other stuff. Does anyone have
[1:09:42] anything that they what's going on in
[1:09:46] September and October? So, I did just
[1:09:48] write down one that I know is coming up
[1:09:50] dia del uh dia de los mutos at the
[1:09:55] museum every October. Um, this year
[1:09:59] people can participate by submitting
[1:10:01] photos of loved ones to honor. Um, they
[1:10:04] can do that through October 23rd. They
[1:10:07] can drop off a copy during museum hours,
[1:10:09] which are 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
[1:10:12] Tuesday through Saturday. The event
[1:10:14] itself is Saturday, October 26th.
[1:10:17] Certainly, if you're looking for more
[1:10:19] information, the Ashkosh Museum um has
[1:10:22] more information out there. But this is,
[1:10:24] I think, their fourth annual.
[1:10:27] >> Yeah.
[1:10:28] >> Um and it has been more and more
[1:10:31] attended every single year.
[1:10:33] >> It's amazing.
[1:10:34] >> Yeah.
[1:10:35] >> At the public museum.
[1:10:36] >> Yeah.
[1:10:36] >> It's at the public museum, correct?
[1:10:38] >> Yep.
[1:10:39] >> It's so fun. And that's so nice that
[1:10:41] they're doing pictures of love.
[1:10:43] >> Yeah. I think this is new this year. I I
[1:10:45] had not heard about this in previous
[1:10:46] years. So
[1:10:47] >> that's nice. Does anyone have any other
[1:10:50] fun events?
[1:10:51] >> I'm trying to find the date. Um there's
[1:10:55] two different hotels in the area that do
[1:10:59] a sensory
[1:11:00] >> friendly free trick-or-treating event.
[1:11:03] So different area organizations sponsor
[1:11:06] a room.
[1:11:07] >> Mhm.
[1:11:07] >> Um and I cannot find the date, but I
[1:11:11] will find it and then we can add that.
[1:11:14] Mhm.
[1:11:14] >> Um
[1:11:16] there's also one in Watertown, but
[1:11:18] >> yeah, that's far away.
[1:11:21] >> Um and then the
[1:11:24] church,
[1:11:27] Kitty Corner from here,
[1:11:31] they do a trunk or treat.
[1:11:34] >> Oh, wow.
[1:11:34] >> That's daytime,
[1:11:36] >> very small,
[1:11:38] >> very accommodating.
[1:11:39] >> Yeah, that's there are a lot of really
[1:11:40] nice trunker treats. And I trunker
[1:11:42] trading was not a thing when I was a
[1:11:43] kid. And it's like
[1:11:45] >> kind of fun. People really go all out
[1:11:47] with their trunks.
[1:11:49] >> And you don't have to walk far.
[1:11:51] >> Yeah. And then no one's home anyway cuz
[1:11:53] everyone's at the trunk.
[1:11:54] >> Yep.
[1:11:56] >> Is there any other any other fun events?
[1:12:00] There probably are. I just don't know
[1:12:01] what they are.
[1:12:04] there any do we know what's going on
[1:12:05] in in council meetings of outstanding
[1:12:08] items? Future items?
[1:12:10] >> Yeah. Unfortunately, no. I did not um
[1:12:13] >> Don't worry about it. I did not collect
[1:12:16] what's going on on council
[1:12:19] >> um right now. Budget, budget, budget.
[1:12:23] >> Um there will be all sorts of budget
[1:12:26] meetings coming up throughout October
[1:12:29] that anyone who wants to watch them is
[1:12:31] welcome to tune in. Um, off the top of
[1:12:34] my head, I know the the next the I think
[1:12:38] the first operations part of the budget
[1:12:41] meeting is October 13th. There's one
[1:12:44] October 13th, one October 14th. I think
[1:12:46] there's one October 15th, and then I
[1:12:48] think there's another couple of days
[1:12:49] after that.
[1:12:50] >> Um, and that's the operating. There have
[1:12:53] already been a lot of meetings on
[1:12:55] capital improvement. Um but operating
[1:12:58] budget which is basically all of our
[1:13:00] budgets that we spend on
[1:13:02] >> people
[1:13:03] resources websites fuel uh you know all
[1:13:08] of the things that uh
[1:13:10] >> make the city run.
[1:13:12] >> Yeah.
[1:13:13] So those are important meetings.
[1:13:15] So watch those or go to them. Are those
[1:13:18] open to the public?
[1:13:19] >> Generally yes they are open to the
[1:13:21] public. Um
[1:13:22] >> I started saying it. We don't we don't
[1:13:23] have a lot of people that come for the
[1:13:26] budget workshops necessarily. Um it is
[1:13:29] not an open forum but anybody is welcome
[1:13:31] to come watch.
[1:13:33] >> No
[1:13:34] >> I can't be a spectator. I don't know
[1:13:36] >> and you I mean you can get those uh
[1:13:37] forms and everything the slides
[1:13:39] everything afterwards and review
[1:13:41] >> that's my suggestion to people is is to
[1:13:43] read the stuff afterward and for anyone
[1:13:45] watching if anyone like that actually is
[1:13:47] super helpful because that is where you
[1:13:48] see different areas of inclusivity and
[1:13:50] diversity like saying cuz sometimes you
[1:13:52] miss those things I mean we can't know
[1:13:55] everything there's only a few of us on
[1:13:56] this board and council can't know
[1:13:57] everything like
[1:13:58] >> even as we're talking about
[1:14:00] >> tonight the example of uh language
[1:14:02] access
[1:14:03] >> you don't know unless usually you are
[1:14:05] someone impacted by it
[1:14:06] >> and some people might see that in the
[1:14:08] budget um issue uh budget discussions
[1:14:10] that
[1:14:11] >> budget is disproportionately impacted
[1:14:14] because it always is we just don't know
[1:14:15] where and that's what we need to know
[1:14:16] and I would love if people brought that
[1:14:18] forward to us and said hey did you know
[1:14:20] this you should talk about this
[1:14:21] >> um same thing goes with zoning uh which
[1:14:23] is a conversation happening
[1:14:26] >> um right now too um is just how that
[1:14:28] disproportionately impacts other people
[1:14:30] of how we update our zoning codes and whatnot Um I have uh different
[1:14:36] thoughts but nothing gather enough to
[1:14:38] talk tonight but definitely would love
[1:14:40] to hear from people who are watching
[1:14:41] those things, listening to those things
[1:14:42] and saying hey this is
[1:14:43] disproportionately impacting and we need
[1:14:45] to think about this as a city how we
[1:14:47] handle this.
[1:14:47] >> Yeah for sure people in the community
[1:14:50] you can tell us email us. All of our
[1:14:52] email addresses are on the city website.
[1:14:54] So if you have things you want to tell
[1:14:57] us nice things maybe um cuz we we are
[1:15:02] here to help.
[1:15:02] >> Right. There is a specific DEI email as
[1:15:06] well. Um, off the top of my head, I
[1:15:08] think it's just DEIshwi.gov,
[1:15:11] which does come to me and then I can
[1:15:13] distribute to all of the the members.
[1:15:16] Um, and I'm saying that very not 100%
[1:15:20] sure that's the [laughter]
[1:15:23] website. Verify on the website.
[1:15:25] >> It sounds right. So, for future agenda
[1:15:28] items, we are going to have Nami here in
[1:15:31] October. Yep.
[1:15:33] >> So, are we also going to try to bring in
[1:15:36] communication?
[1:15:37] >> I'm going. Yes. I'm going to see what I
[1:15:38] can do for October to um number one,
[1:15:42] have some information, and two, see if I
[1:15:44] can get someone to attend.
[1:15:46] >> Um I can't promise cuz I don't make
[1:15:50] promises for other people, but I will do
[1:15:52] what I can. [laughter]
[1:15:54] >> Is there anything else anyone wants to
[1:15:57] say?
[1:15:59] So uh question about that next agenda
[1:16:01] too. So is the goal that we would have
[1:16:04] something written uh that we want to
[1:16:08] vote on to advise a council on by
[1:16:10] October?
[1:16:12] >> Yes. So, I'm generally going to take
[1:16:14] Amanda's recommendation and unless she
[1:16:17] comes up with something different and
[1:16:19] put um some ability to or something
[1:16:23] similar to that so that we can have
[1:16:25] discussion and then um vote on that or
[1:16:29] we can amend that to something else. But
[1:16:32] there would be an action item on the
[1:16:34] agenda that we're going to potentially
[1:16:36] vote on that recommendation. Again, that
[1:16:39] way people if they have an opinion about
[1:16:42] that recommendation, they would know
[1:16:44] that they can come to the meeting and
[1:16:46] talk to us and we can gather some
[1:16:48] information and like I said, I can bring
[1:16:50] in information from communications
[1:16:53] regarding what they are working on when
[1:16:55] it comes to website and the
[1:16:58] translatability which again I'm not an
[1:17:00] expert on. um so that we can utilize
[1:17:04] that to potentially sculpt
[1:17:07] >> um any recommendation.
[1:17:09] >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to make
[1:17:10] sure that was on the October agenda
[1:17:11] because
[1:17:12] >> it's going to be because then it'll be
[1:17:13] like
[1:17:13] >> December
[1:17:14] >> January, right? [laughter]
[1:17:16] >> Right. Um do we have a motion to
[1:17:21] second?
[1:17:22] >> You have to make a motion. Shoot.
[1:17:25] >> You leave a motion to adjour.
[1:17:27] >> So moved.
[1:17:28] [laughter]
[1:17:30] Huh?
[1:17:31] >> There we go.
[1:17:32] >> I was so confident.
[1:17:33] >> No, wait. Beth, you got to lead with
[1:17:34] that. I love it. All in favor?
[1:17:36] >> I I [laughter]
[1:17:42] [music]