Human Rights Commission Regular Meeting   6/15/2023

That works.

No, I can't do that while I'm thinking.

Maybe if there's one left over later, I'll grab one.

No, not necessary.

What you doing at First T when you have Human Rights Commission meeting?

What's First T?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, with a screened-in kind of situation.

And our asshole neighbor put a shed up in his backyard, so he doesn't have to look at our trashy backyard.

So I'm super happy about that, because it's dramatically improved the backyard in terms of how nice it's going to be and how the patio is going to be.

So I think we thought it was a real fun deal when we were like, OK.

because his big thing is, I'm going to build a fence back here.

Oh, we have all the beds.

I'm afraid to walk through if you're over there.

The doors are always open because people are in there.

So I had to sort of like take a deep breath and be like, it's not smaller than it was before, and it's more open, so it shouldn't feel smaller, it should feel bigger.

I'm going for minimal visibility.

How are you?

I'm doing OK. Tempo has been very high lately.

No kidding.

I know, same.

It's you two?

OK, yeah.

Lots of good things, but high tempo.

Right.

And my work just ramped up even more.

My kids are home, but Rebecca's home too.

Trying to get it all done.

So it's not really affecting me, but it's just like, yeah, I know.

No, that's a good thing.

I'm dialing back on things.

I was working on the project that's finishing up.

That's a volunteer thing, so that should be opening up space.

Thank you Victoria for getting us things from Roots.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, she caught us.

What was that?

That was after council meeting.

That's right.

Somebody had this idea.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We're grateful for it.

Absolutely.

It's a team.

I do.

You do?

You do when I don't?

I do.

Okay.

Anyone?

You all right?

Oh, that's okay.

Oh, her audio's coming in.

Can I play?

Is this on?

If I turn the mic on, I can put it in the speaker of the computer.

Yeah, sounds good.

Sure.

I didn't do it.

I think it's kind of on the side.

We can hear you, but you're not coming through the big speaker because we have technical issues.

We're piping you through a laptop and then trying to mic the laptop's speaker.

Victoria, do you know where the speaker is on your laptop?

Same old words.

Oh, look at that.

I will tell it.

We can have feedback and figure out where the speaker is.

Speaker is test, test.

Everybody went silent on their sound.

Hi, Mary.

Greetings.

Hey, Mary.

Hey.

What's your business?

Our business is this.

I am okay.

Full house foundation.

Oh, you didn't know that?

I mean, I know it's been in the works for, yeah, so we moved out in March.

That's exciting.

Is this exciting?

It is.

Ooh, the kitchen's nice.

I think so.

Is it terrible?

We have a contract now.

Remi, I could go get some speakers and we could put them on speaker real easy.

and then you just had to go

You know, I'm on these sort of lonely calls and health care providers, and people will be like, shit to DC.

And I don't even go to DC because people are really staying in shelters.

And evidence of allowance, there just wasn't a way, like I went up a couple times, but nobody could deal with having to pick another person.

I have to do something.

And this is actually possible.

It's small scale.

It's all small scale.

It would be interesting, because we have a bunch of cases when I was at LITC that they tend to be more knowing than you.

Even if it's not that, I think there's a lot.

We have the overall housing crunch.

Like, you know, we can also use some of the higher city folks.

Yeah.

Right?

This is still sending.

Nothing since 2010.

Oh, there we go.

So I thought, that's something I think we can manage.

I'm going to do Kristin Klein.

Do you know her?

She's doing it from a fair housing perspective, but she also did it from a regular housing perspective.

And they have testers too, so they can help you.

And then I got it from this.

But I've worked illegally, and if I know who we're going to sit on I might have to look for a legal spot.

Because a lot of things get sent to that.

I think it's like, it's illegal, but I feel like it might be.

You are on that.

I'm sorry, I'm not very onion-y.

That's so awesome.

Some bit of cheese.

My favorite one is their Caesar one.

I think that's what they have.

But it's not raw.

But it's not raw.

But it's not raw.

But it's not raw.

But it's not raw.

I went into the kitchen and I was like, why are these dumb drawers in these drawers?

Victoria's laptop is in with the microphone.

Little skinny drawers.

That's in the pot's way there, and that's great.

But I don't know what I would do with those drawers.

Did you take everything anywhere?

These mics have no bearing on anything right now.

And so our entire house is smushed into the attic and there's one bedroom that we're not touching.

So what's going on?

Our city space video system isn't working properly so which means with the webinar he can't run it from over there and our mics don't work and we can't get sound for those guys and right now they're on the screen only because we've got Victoria's laptop running zoom and front of cable that will plug into that

And hard to hear.

And we may not actually be able to capture.

I can't get audio, I can't get laptop.

I'm like, I can't, I'm not allowed to say it.

We just do not allow people to participate in it.

people I like are saying the same thing.

You know, in 2006, he voted.

He's literally the person.

And he has a lot to do with why music shouldn't work with other people.

Yeah, right?

And people are like, oh, but he's a nice guy.

Good evening, can you hear it?

Awesome, good evening.

Yeah, I know.

I told them, I will not divorce you, but I will seek out what you do six weeks straight.

And I think that will be very unpleasant.

I've already figured it out.

It's okay.

There was a while when he was like, oh, you both so good.

I think so.

Jessica, can you hear me from over here?

Kind of distant.

So we'll need to speak.

Okay, it shows up on the closed captioning, so that's good.

I'm thinking about this from the perspective of Jenny trying to type minutes from this.

And I assume this is recording, is that correct?

Okay.

Cool.

Let's give it a shot.

Ernest is not here.

Jeanette?

Here.

Mary?

Here.

Wolfgang?

Here.

Katherine?

Here.

Here.

Is it better if we talk into the mic?

Alright, so the notice for members of the public participating virtually, if you experience technical difficulties, you may call 1-4-4-7-0-3-1-1-5 and staff will assist you.

Is that the correct number, Todd?

Yep.

Alright, so we will open up if there's any comments from the public.

and if you're, sorry, I agree.

The commission welcomes comments and questions.

They commit to listening carefully and thoughtfully to what's presented.

A maximum of 16 public comments time slots are allowed for meeting.

Each speaker will have three minutes to speak.

The commission requests that members of the public refrain from engaging in personal attacks against commissioners and staff members and ask that comments and questions focus upon as matters related to their rights.

So do we have any public comments?

Yup, anybody, no discussion on that?

No amendments or anything?

Jessica.

Approve.

Mary.

Look that up.

Kathryn.

Can I skip you?

Oh, you know what I did?

I marked.

Mario's you.

Thank you.

You approve.

OK.

OK, now we have to approve.

Oh, we have to approve June 12th.

I think in my hurry to type this out.

So, correction in the agenda, that would be the 18th.

Can I change my vote then?

Oh, I see.

So let the record show that the minutes labeled 6, 12, 20, 23 HRC regular meeting minutes in the agenda should actually be 5, 18, 20, 23.

And 6, 12 is just what I was typing.

So my apologies.

Didn't see that.

OK, regular, ready for the vote?

Yes.

OK. Jessica?

Approve.

Jeanette?

Approve.

Thank you.

Mary?

Approve.

Wolfgang?

Approve.

I can't forget you at that time.

Kathryn?

Approve.

Yes.

Go ahead.

I was going to say, it does count for LaDell and I because we've requested permission to be virtual.

Alright, so then we have chair updates.

We got maybe okay?

Yes.

So the other thing that I wanted to share is that I mean

in our in-person space.

I think our in-person space we're speaking often just freely and it's hard for me to track.

It's hard for minutes to keep an eye and I know that there's an awkward pause always.

It's really intentional on my end because I want to get through.

Depending on where I'm sitting on, I can't see everyone, so I'm having to turn my head to see everyone.

And so I know it's awkward, but please just, it really is intentional.

And so I love that our commission has been on here so long, we've had the same people over and over again, but I just wanted to, that was such a great practice we had to do, and just wanted to continue that in our first place.

And special thanks to Todd for presenting the report to City Council.

I really appreciate it.

Just the questions and I really appreciate that City Council seemed to be very engaged with what you were doing.

Do you have questions for me before I turn it over to Todd?

And Todd, in the future, I know there was a comment at the end with City Council

And I really wanted you to present because you and your team did a lot to put the report together, but there was some discussion about that with City Council, so I just wanted to make sure that we're doing our part to also support you as you're supporting us.

No, not a problem.

I think I may have said this in the meeting like trying to remind them that you all are volunteers and you know making sure that we respect the time that you contribute and so it did sound like maybe for the next report which I assume maybe same time next year if we

And I can ask them again too, right?

Just check in like months in advance and say, are you expecting a representative from the commission to be present?

And then we can plan ahead and make sure that that's possible.

I think it sounded like mostly they wanted to maybe ask questions about the commission or something like that.

But again, maybe just hear it directly from a commissioner, but we'll confirm that as we approach next year.

So it's not a surprise.

Yeah, that's fine.

I just wanted to, in viewing it, it just seemed more negative that we, at least how I interpreted it, that we weren't there and didn't represent when we knew that you were going to be presenting.

So I just, that's why I'm bringing it up because I don't want to seem like we're not doing our part when we already discussed kind of how it was going to be.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Yeah, we can gain clarity from them.

I just want to make sure that we're doing our part as commissioners in a way that's not all on your team.

So at the same time, I want to get part of your team for all the hard work that you're doing.

It just kind of felt like an us versus them, that's all, commenting on.

I wonder if when we submit our legislative priorities, that would be a good time for commission members to be there.

So when we present the legislative priorities, we usually just send a written statement.

There's nothing to say that you couldn't

Join in for public comment to present or make a comment about having submitted them.

Yeah, what is tricky is just making sure if you want to be on the agenda, I usually need to know roughly two months in advance because I have to get on and find a space, maybe even more.

So if there's a time you want to be on council's agenda, I need to know pretty far in advance.

It's just because they have this kind of, if there's

Presenting to council about our legislative priorities.

It seems to me like we send letters and they don't get responded to.

They don't get discussed, right?

It's an exercise in our deciding what we think is important, but at least we showed up there.

I think they have to look at us and perhaps respond in some way.

Jessica.

So would you like me to ask them maybe tell me what month typically I guess you present legislative agenda items late August to early September to sort of get ahead of their submission to the Thomas Jefferson Area Planning District?

Do you want me to request to get on like a meeting, a council agenda and

August?

Like late August?

Would that be good?

Yeah.

Both meetings?

Yeah.

Because we got bumped to September.

Yeah, it's hard.

Yeah, you could always do public comment.

Yeah.

yeah so if you want to be it says thanks Jeanette for letting us know about that if you want to be on an agenda we couldn't do it in August because it sounds like the agendas in August are already full but we could potentially I could ask about September agendas or you could just show up at public comment for any of them that's also possible

Okay.

OK. Let me just jot a note here about the legislative.

So I don't have any big things to announce this month from my end of things.

I'm going to scroll through.

You've got the report in the agenda packet, so we're working on the same stuff.

Just, I think at this point, one of the things we're really trying to work hard on in the office is minimizing the navigational stuff that we take on.

If you notice, I think this data set has it.

Yeah, May, 91% of what we were doing time-wise ended up being navigational.

And I can say, without revealing much, that that was one or two people

Really taking up some time and we've had to make some hard decisions about saying to people, no more.

And especially because it's not complaint related work.

And so we're really kind of reforming some practices in the office to make sure that that is consistent for us going forward.

Because we just get so many requests for so many other things that we have to draw a line.

So we're working on that.

So that's one piece that I could say.

And we're developing some tools around that as well.

But I may just turn it back to Victoria for her outreach updates with the caveat that we are getting

investigator hiring process going.

For sure.

So kind of the thing that I think is probably the, well, maybe there's two biggest ones, but the biggest one that just happened is we wrapped up the video that we've been working on, the animated one with the graphic artist in Richmond.

And so that's done.

It's about two minutes long.

It features the voices of everyone in our, everyone I think minus you.

Everyone in our office.

Home to HOPE staff and also downtown job center staff and also our team.

So that's pretty exciting.

And it ties into our second exciting news, which is we will be showing it for the first time at our open house.

Yeah, so if you all are obviously very invited, we'd really much love to have you.

If anybody wants to get the invitation by email, please let me know.

Can you just send it to the whole commission?

I think besides that it's getting to be events season so we have a couple that we are involved in coming up.

There's actually one this weekend which we are not tabling at but we will have some of our information available.

It's the Juneteenth parade that's going on from I think it starts at seven or eight in the morning and festivities will go on until 3 p.m. at the Jefferson School.

Besides that, we're participating in a couple of community events with Region 10 and with FAR.

And then as the summer rolls out, we're starting to work on getting tables for Pride and Seville-Sabroso, like we did last year.

So if any commissioners would like to show up to these and table with us, you're again invited.

I can send out more sort of concrete details about tabling opportunities as they arise.

This is Jeanette.

Yes.

Yes.

Sorry.

In August.

Yes.

I had a question and a comment.

I don't think they're not, we're not tabling for that.

Can you explain?

So we were going to co-table with the Albemarle Office of Equity and Inclusion.

But the actual leadership of the Juneteenth event is exclusive to African Americans.

Participants are welcome from.

I'll keep in mind the future dates then for tabling.

It should be a great parade if you, like everybody's invited to attend.

They were just very sort of respectfully asking that that administrative integrity be.

Yeah.

We respect that.

It's a, you know, from their perspective this is a

It's an African American holiday celebrating.

Basically, as they framed it, it's the African American Fourth of July.

And so they're really trying to be very intentional about who presents the event.

Yeah.

Yeah, without sharing too much personal information, it's been probably a couple of individuals who needed or asked for an extreme level of support.

which we attempted to accommodate for a while and unfortunately had to say no to recently which is not easy.

But yeah, I think that's particularly what that is.

It's been a learning experience for our office and we're really trying to

kind of gained some knowledge through those experiences and developed some new practices to make sure that we don't kind of go down those paths as often.

Yeah, I noticed you had said that for the navigation, but just the total number of contacts was high, too.

So that's just kind of showing what we were experiencing from navigation.

Yeah, exactly.

Great question.

My thought on that timing-wise for the year, we wanted to get through our annual report, which we did.

I wanted to get the investigator hiring process underway because hiring is a huge endeavor in the city because there's like a lot of steps.

And the reason also to pursue it this way is that we want to make sure we have the infrastructure to enter interim certification to actually meet whatever comes down the line.

We have a pending FOIA request from HUD to actually get the numbers back to say like

How many cases should we be anticipating based on the last five years of data that you have?

We haven't gotten a response yet, but when we do, I think that will be very informative.

So my thinking is, get that hiring process underway.

In the meantime, we'll start modifying the ordinance.

Jenny's been working on a little piece of it, because I think there's some other pieces we can further tweak as part of the package.

It'll be mostly on my plate, because I was in the meeting with Eric.

to then modify the things that he suggested with regard to substantial equivalents to federal fair housing law, get it back to him for review.

My goal would be to get it on an agenda like late fall, winter of this year.

But I just want to make sure that we're, I don't think it's anything to rush into just given what we've already learned about the workload and the cases that we currently manage.

And so do it well, do it right is kind of my thought.

And so yeah, that's kind of my thinking.

I don't think the amendments will take very long.

I think the hardest part is getting it on the council's agenda again.

So yep, but we'll definitely work on that.

And that reminds me, maybe I'll ask, if I get myself a target meeting, that will be helpful for the future.

So I'll ask.

When I'm asking about legislative agenda, I'll ask about when can we get on to the other thing.

Maybe we double them up, I don't know.

Any other questions about stuff in the report?

Maybe also just a note, I forgot to say it.

You'll notice at the bottom I added the summary of the actions that you all have done, the commission itself has done in the year, because I think that was missing from our report before, but it's something we included in the annual report.

So that those parallel better, we can start including those things at the bottom, just in a chart format, just simple, something reasonable you've done thus far.

So if you notice anything that I've missed, please let me know.

But we've tried to track it pretty well.

We have a tool for that now.

But yeah, I want to keep including the work that you're doing, making sure it's out there.

And that'll go, the next time this goes to Council will be in July for a little bit of a report.

So next month.

All right, yeah, next month already.

I can just see Jeanette and everyone with Jeanette on.

So now we're moving on to the draft resolution for A21

dash one housing advocacy priorities.

So Jamie put this together for us.

Do we have comments and or we'll have to have a discussion about this.

When you passed your plain language resolution, we decided to write all resolutions in plain language just from the get-go.

So we didn't do it that way.

We just went ahead and put it in plain language right off the bat.

I don't know that we have in trouble doing it this way, so let's go for it.

It's really internal for you.

No.

Okay.

Your resolutions, you pass resolutions within the commission to modify your work, right, and the actions that you are choosing to do, and so you sign that as chair, it doesn't go to council.

This is Jeanette, I said one comment in the email and I'm not sure if it was

If I was missing the bigger context, but the second bullet, it talked about pushing the city to enact policies that would preserve an increased shot of spills with racial diversity.

And I thought, I wonder if we wanted to include, you know, encouraging the city to enact policies that would do all of the above, not just on racial diversity.

So the way I worded it was advocate to city council to enact policies that would put into practice each of the above recommendations, including preserving and increasing

Ask us to speak.

Oh, yeah, I can't see that you're...

It's kind of hard to see, y'all.

So, like, if you just say, hey, it's Jeanette, or hey, it's your name, you can move forward.

Okay.

Because I can only see, like, one half of the table.

So, I'm sorry.

I missed you.

Hey, it's Wolfgang.

I also support that.

Yes.

Thumbs up.

I was trying to see if there were any other comments.

Okay, this is Wolfgang.

I have my hand metaphorically and physically raised.

So great.

I love that suggestion.

I don't know if we're voting on that particular thing or the whole document.

Don't want to belabor it.

The whole thing.

Okay, there's a little bit of like red text that's in the middle of Miller.

So we probably want to get rid of that.

It's a very tiny thing.

At the red text, this is Andy, I was just looking at, like, it doesn't quite read as clearly as it could.

I wonder if that's why it's red text.

More affordable and other housing.

Accessible?

But this, I mean, it seems a little unclear.

I think the point to that is

and maybe I'm just reading my own bias into it, is that we need more housing.

That more housing will lead to more affordable housing.

Would that make it clearer?

So work to undo racial discrimination, codified in our zoning with a focus on the creation of substantially more housing, particularly

Affordable housing?

It's like with a focus on the creation with an emphasis on that.

I think this is an internal document.

It doesn't have to be.

I love it and I think it's great.

Would someone like to read that sentence in its entirety and say how you'd like it changed so we could make sure we write it correctly for you?

Sure.

Work to undo racial discrimination, codified in our zoning, with a focus on the creation of substantially more housing, comma, with an emphasis on affordable housing, such as work to support the rezoning efforts underway in the city.

Is that clear?

Is this genetic?

And Andy and Kathryn.

This is Jeanette.

Just to add another comment, do we want to switch the order and focus on affordable housing?

So just for record, I'll read, well, Jeanette already read it,

Is it clear to everyone what Jeanette's changes were?

Okay.

So with two changes, then we're all in consistence and they can vote?

Yes.

Okay.

Roll call vote coming up.

Jessica?

Approve.

Jeanette?

Approve.

Mary?

Approved.

Wolfgang?

Approved.

Kathryn?

Yes.

Linda?

Approved.

Amanda Foxes?

We'll get those changes for you in the document.

And then, would you like me to email it to you, Jessica, for a signature?

Yes, please.

Quick reminder if everyone could talk into their microphones and make sure they're unmuted.

Good, I just turned it back on.

I have an update.

Is that okay?

So I did miss one of the meetings I was supposed to attend because I had a conflict with something that I couldn't do.

But I wanted to let the commission know that there's a coalition that includes Livable Seville working on a sort of consensus letter that will be public and they're going to want

organizations to sign onto it around supporting generally the changes in the zoning code and making suggestions about how to improve the zoning code so that there will be more housing, more affordable housing, more equity in the plan.

And I guess that's going to come out sometime in the next, I think, week or so.

and I'm going to want to be able to get signatures rapidly.

This is Wolfgang.

Jeanette, I do too.

Catherine, can you send that to me when it is available?

Oh yeah.

And is that something we can do Todd?

I'm checking with Todd.

From two different standpoints, I guess, one, you have a resolution that says that the chair can take action between meetings on behalf of the commission, because that was something we had talked about before, like how do we resolve that when we want to be able to take quick action?

Number two, yeah, I think you guys can sign on to letters.

Just as a commission, I don't see any particular conflict in saying that you support a certain proposed way of moving forward with the zoning ordinance.

I don't think that's a problem.

That falls within your role as you're providing advice to council in that sense and you're saying we agree with this position.

You can do that.

Oh, yes Todd.

And Catherine, was that all of your updates?

Yes.

Okay.

This is Jeanette.

I have an update.

The Seville Plans Together Steering Committee had our final meeting where we reviewed the third module of the zoning ordinances.

The presentation is available online.

I can share that with everyone.

I recommend like some of the support documents, the one that Kathryn referred to, are much more digestible.

But both are very interesting.

So that's the end of a two year long community engagement process.

So this letter that will be going out I think will be very important as we move to the final stages.

And I was also supposed to attend the PHA meeting and there was no one on.

I had a hard time disconnecting so I'm not sure what the problem was.

I apologize about that.

Those are my updates.

I don't really have an update, but I did want to say, I drafted this and as I read it,

It actually commits us to doing a lot of things, and we're not doing all of those things now, so it seems like at some point we should have a discussion about what we're really taking on.

Seeking reparations for those harmed by the destruction of Vinegar Hill, that is very compelling to me.

On the other hand, we're not doing anything related to that, right?

So taking this and deciding on the work plan for the year, what we're really grappling with this year, I think would be helpful.

Because I think I may have just included everything that

This is Jeanette, Mary, I'm glad you brought that up.

As I read it, I was thinking of it more as work to support, or support the work that others are doing, because I think as a body, the actual work we do is very limited, as you said.

I was going to make a proposal that we could tweak that language a little bit to say support, work toward and shorting in each of the areas.

So just for the record, y'all are going back to a different point.

Yes.

And so, I'm sorry, we'll change the text.

Personally, I don't object to changing it, but I would also be comfortable with our sort of crafting a work plan that's derivative of this.

I mean, in lots of strategic plans, right, there's lots of things, and we can prioritize in any given year.

So I guess I'm open to recrafting it if people think it's important, but I'm

I was supporting what Mary said.

Let's just move ahead with the work plan.

This is Kathryn.

I don't know if this is our next agenda item or if we should talk about it now.

But I can't come to the next work session.

But I'm going to propose what people do at the next work session.

How's that?

So, Kathryn, hold on, sorry, we keep joking around on this agenda and it's driving me a little crazy.

Can we save that for the next one?

Because we do have to talk about if we want to have the next work session, which would be great to bring for what you want to discuss.

OK, I wasn't sure if this was action or if this was whatever, so fine.

Yeah.

Okay, if there is no one, yes, feel free, Kathryn, to share topics for the next work session.

Yes, I sadly will be in Lisbon and cannot host it.

So tragic.

I'm so brash.

I'm sad.

But,

I feel like that we each year spend a fair amount of discussion item on potential legislative suggestions to council and I'm wondering if we can put that on a work session agenda but also put it on a work session agenda with maybe some time limits around it or something.

I think we

to counsel, but in a vacuum, not much happens with them.

And it always, sort of thinking back over the years, it doesn't strike me as a great use of our time to spend a lot of time on legislative proposals, unless there's something really brewing that seems like it's really going to have some action taken on it.

This is Wolfgang, sort of a clarifying question.

The legislative agenda that we propose every September.

I would also suggest that if there's something that we really want to support, that we need to do more than send a note.

We really think there is a thing that can pass that we want to put our weight behind, then we should be meeting with members of the City Council and asking if they will support our proposals and not

Just sending a letter.

I take responsibility as chair.

All I did was send a letter.

I just missed the, I heard what you said about it's not a good use of our time to be drafting.

Sorry, not resolutions.

The legislative?

The suggestions for the legislative agenda.

Sending a laundry list of suggestions for the legislative agenda does not feel like it's been a good use of our time.

No, that's not exactly what I'm saying.

We just had a discussion earlier in the meeting about going to city council to publicly present our suggestions for the legislative agenda.

Did I misunderstand that?

We talked about that, right?

And if we are going to do that in August or September, that at least in July, we should be talking about what we might want to suggest.

What are we going to go to them and talk about?

And if we're going to go to them and talk about something, that it needs to be something that we've really thought about carefully, that we have something more than just an idea that this would be a thing.

This is Wolfgang.

I agree that we spend, I think, it's a very short amount of time that we spend on those ideas.

I know because I've written a lot of them, I used to not throw out, like, this is a great thing, this is a great thing.

And then there's no follow-up on those.

And it might make it more meaningful if when we choose what the legislative agenda is, we then follow up during the general session and we find things that we might be able to support that impact Charlottesville that, hey, you should support this particular bill.

And that way, it sort of has this yearly cyclicality and meaning to it.

Is there some meaning that we could be like, hey, these are bills that would impact our locality, that would impact affordable housing so we can amplify those as like additional stakeholders as we amplify other community stakeholders?

No, we cannot.

Jessica, may I jump in?

Yep.

So just want to make sure we understand.

So your role is to advise counsel.

It's not to act independently of counsel.

So you've got to be careful.

I do think that it makes a lot of sense to align your legislative recommendations with what you talked about in your retreat.

You've identified housing as your priority.

You've proposed some broad areas of focus around housing.

And as Mary was talking about,

narrowing it down because you're not going to be able to do all that and if you can narrow down what you're focusing on within housing and then seek input you can definitely seek input we've talked about that right you can go to meetings like you've like you've done right you've set up these liaisons you can ask legislators to come to your meetings and talk about what bills are being proposed at the General Assembly you can do all that gather your facts

then narrow it down to provide some legislative recommendations around your area of focus to council and then talk about your strategy for presenting those and talking with counselors so that it's harder to ignore I guess is the point because

Sending the letters, they get a lot of stuff.

And I think when Jessica and Ernest met with Michael Payne, the advice that he gave them was, you've got to be consistent, and you've got to bring it up multiple times.

So Todd, this is a question about the process.

If we write a compelling letter to city council, are we permitted to CC our local delegate state senator?

As the information, this is something we have sent to the city council.

I assume you can.

I think that what

Understood.

And part of that I think is about how do we strengthen the relationship between council and the commission, right?

When I sent during the presentation of the 2022 Annual Report, and then when I sent the amended version the other day, I said, re-emphasizing,

The commission is here to advise council.

You created this commission to advise you on human and civil rights issues.

But they need to hear from you.

If you want them to do things for you in that advisory capacity, you need to talk to them.

And so we need to strengthen that relationship.

And I think this is a way, this is a venue for that, right?

You can say, hey, you have an ordinance that says we're gonna give you advice about legislative issues, but if it feels like we're providing those legislative recommendations,

and they're not being looked at, then that doesn't feel very useful of our time, so how can we strengthen that relationship so that what we're providing you is useful to you such that you actually do something with those?

And I think that's part of it.

Thanks.

I'll be really honest and say that I've kind of lost track of things.

It feels like we're bumping around a lot.

I mean, everything is not that anything that's being said is not important.

It's just hard to follow everything.

And I'm worried that there were members of the public, they feel the same way.

It doesn't feel as though we're following the process.

I guess what I'm trying to say is first I agree with what Todd said.

Thank you.

Yeah, so I appreciate that comment.

Yes, I think it is really hard for us to follow this.

So where we are currently is we're supposed to be making a decision of confirming if we want to have a next work session.

It sounds like we do.

What we're talking about from the background point of view of what I was hearing is to be a little bit more strategic about

What we're wanting to present to City Council in a more efficient way.

We talked around a lot of that.

This is Jeanette.

So Jeanette's not available, Kathy's not available.

Are others also?

That's also like 4th of July week.

So I think it was Wolfgang said I am available, someone said I'm not, and I'm not sure what Linda said.

I sound like I heard you saying you were available.

So would it just be just Wolfgang available, potentially me?

Yeah, it's a little bit complicated because I think that, you know, I've reserved these from January 1 of this year until the end of time and I think other people may have done the same.

PCOB meeting is on the 13th at 630 here.

And so I do have the reservation on the books for the six.

Right.

Yeah, Todd, that's what I was asking.

I don't know how the 13th got thrown in there.

I kept saying the first Thursday, which is July 6th.

Sorry, then we moved on to a discussion of should we move it because so many people weren't available.

That's how the 13th came up.

Okay, I didn't... And the question I had is could we, if, and we haven't resolved this, obviously, but if we wanted to move it to the 13th, could that be one of our virtual meetings such that we wouldn't be competing with

someone else for this space.

I think we should not meet because so few people are available and so we meet August 3rd should be the next one.

So I think I heard you say to not meet because there's not a lot of people that would be able to attend and just agree to meet in advance for next month.

This is Kathryn, can we make a proposal?

There's nothing that precludes us from having a work session during our regular meeting in July.

So could we just put a work session on the agenda?

Yeah, we can, Kathryn.

Right, well, since so many people are out of town, and we can't move the meeting, let's just have the work session during our meeting.

This is Jeanette, I think that sounds good.

We don't know who they are yet.

Who are legislators, well me.

Okay, so we're,

Not to have the work session in July, in just proportion to have it as a work session, but other things that I was hearing, so the things for this work session are to talk about, potentially to have someone come and talk to us about legislative initiatives, and then having a work session about how we can efficiently identify what that may look like, and also strategize about how we can present it to city council, because I've heard numerous times from many people in the room today,

There are a few people in the room today about city council.

We're submitting this to city council, but they are not acting on it.

And for Todd's comment of how to better formulate a more active relationship with city council.

Is that the nature of the work session?

Or did I miss something?

Okay, so any other comments about this?

So we will not have a work session on July 6th, but we will have a work session during our regular meeting on July 20th to talk about legislative instruments that will turn into potential recommendations to city council and strategies for city council.

OK, then we're going to move to public comment.

I don't think there's anyone from the public here anymore.

And we'll move to, are there any commissioner updates?

So next steps, Todd will modify per what we discussed today.

I think Todd will be sending me the updated draft of the resolution for me to sign and then we will have our work session on July 20th.

Did I miss any other next steps?

Just maybe I'll say it because I know a few people committed to doing things.

Victoria would send the invitation to the open house to everybody, and I think there was a request for upcoming tabling opportunities.

I can send it to you.

This is Jeanette.

The transport says you're sending the money, so.

I'll be getting yours.

Not very articulate, am I?

I heard what you said, Todd.

There was a couple of action items from Victoria.

There was a sign-up sheet and she was going to send us some tabling opportunities and Victoria will also be sending us that video clip.

Right, that's what I was saying.

Okay.

The open house invitation.

Alright.

Anything else that I missed, Todd?

All right, then.

Well, we will adjourn at 7.58 PM Eastern.

Thank you.