I think he was looking okay all right hereby call to order the Roseville uh city council meeting for Wednesday February 19th 201 25 for the purpose of interviewing candidates for volunteer advisory Commissions in the city uh by way of roll call we've got council member bow council member gra council member straw and myself mayor row uh council member Scher is not able to be here this evening but we'll be watching the uh videos of the interviews uh and participating in the decision- making in that way with that uh we'll welcome our first applicant feel free to come up and have a seat at the table uh if you prefer to be closer to the water or further from the water you have that option hello and welcome thank you thank you for being here this evening and for putting yourself forward as an applicant for the equity and inclusion commission as well as Parks and Rec commission as we understand it um what we'll do is a round of questions from the council members uh and then if we have time at the end of that uh we'll uh see if there's anything you want to especially highlight uh in support of your application and your appointment uh or if you have any questions for us sound good so with that we'll go ahead and start uh this round of questions with council member B thank you thank you again for being here appreciate that um if you would wouldn't mind can you describe how your experiences and skills relate to survey on the city commission uh yes well as I understanded the commissions are for advisory purposes to the council and whichever commission you're on it's going to be a lot of complex topics with uh potentially complicated answers uh that is most of my job aside from the technical elements I'm an engineer day job which means a lot of being presented with a new and complicated problem and doing the data collection as needed Consulting people as needed coming to some sort of conclusion internally and then needing to present it or Andor defend it as the case may be to both internal and external groups um I also got a little bit of experience with that when I uh represented my company for the short viw Partners in energy um meeting with Excel for kiling the ener action plan so that was a way of seeing that the the same general social rules apply in those kind of situations uh next question from council member St um What mo what motivates you to be part of this volunteer commission I generally am somewhat new to being settled in one place permanently for the moment I had done my you know young adulthood moving around and figuring things out and being semi settled but not knowing if I was going to be there forever and then last year I bought my first house so now I'm sitting in the actually looking to a somewhat stable future in a place and wanting to be involved with it give back to it all of that part of that is also being stable enough that I feel like I can you know start doing more General volunteering of miscellaneous sorts and this is has always been an option that occurs to me because I always watched my mom do City commission County Commission um she did a combination of finance and natural resources and everything so that was one of the first thoughts I had thank you right council member gra so you know what you're getting into theoretically I can't say how much I was absorbing at age you know 11 of the practicalities but surprising how much yeah maybe so the question I have is can you explain your understanding of the scope or duty of the commission yeah mixed uh so advisory only as I understand most importantly for um equity and inclusion uh certainly advising on the Strategic racial Equity action plan and possibly other things from what I was skimming of minutes it sounds like that council's role is still somewhat in flux so I wasn't quite sure of all of the day-to-day of that um parks and wreck more concrete things about uh advising on Park status and management both from the uh recreational and the natural resources side uh the next question is um uh let's see uh sometimes the commission makes a recommendation on a matter either of the commissions would make a recommendation on a matter that has a lot of strong feelings from the public uh perhaps from opposing perspectives uh how would you expect to deal with that uh those types of situations while serving on either of the commissions um carefully would be my main answer there um understanding the different perspectives first is key so inviting comment inviting discussion Etc then with whatever those concerns are doing independent work to research what validity there is to either of them and then also internally deciding carefully with preparation to present the reasons for that thoroughly documented thoroughly explained ideally with aim to do Outreach to to present that decision in avenues that would be accessible to the different groups which might use different Outlets thank you uh and council member Bower will give you the softball question please uh this should be pretty easy since you just recently bought a house uh please tell that's what you love most about um yeah I like the general way that Roseville manages to pull off feeling like a reasonably sized city without getting into the being lost in the city feeling and similarly a pretty good sized suburb without feeling lost in the suburb by that I mostly mean it's got a good mix of residential and small business and bigger businesses available if you need them and green spaces in a way that I haven't found when living in some of the more spread out suburbs or denser City so I don't know I I like the balance uh is there anything you wanted to make sure and let us know about in our consideration of your application for these commissions or any questions you have for us uh pretty much just to contextualize the whole applying for both of them and I'm forced to put one first so I put equity and inclusion first as I mean I've said this in my application so you might have the information already but generally I certainly have far more experience in parks and wreck I can comfortably serve that kind of role with what I know um I do not have a similar level of experience in equity and inclusion I just also think it's very important so I'm mostly leaving that to you know your applicant pool management of what you think is more appropriate for what I'm bringing so I want to when when forced to make a rank list in an online form I wanted to give that the more true answer appreciate that anything else we want to cover this evening questions you have or I don't think so mostly they're the kind of logistical thing that you would get in onboarding so sure well and certainly The Next Step will be that the council will uh take this up at an upcoming council meeting I can't remember right off hand which one it is um but I think you're right so it's I was thinking it's the first meeting in March rather than the next meeting in February here so yes yeah all right well we wish you luck and we thank you again for your interest and we you know as as you may have noticed we have quite an applicant pool for uh a smaller number of openings uh so we certainly encourage folks if you don't happen to get appointed the first time you apply uh to consider other ways to volunteer Rachel is great out there with with helping people connect with those opportunities and we we do have vacancies come up periodically in our commissions over time so there there will be other opportunities as uh as comes up but we certainly wish you the best of luck and thank you again for your interest in this mode of service to the community thank you very much and putting yourself forward to serve the community in that way uh we will do uh a round of questions here from Council Members um and then if there's time at the end of that we'll have a chance to either give you a chance to sort of emphasize anything you want to in relation to your application or your desire to serve uh or if you have questions for us sure all right well with that then we'll go ahead and start this round of questions with uh council member STW thank you how do your experiences and skills relate to serving on this particular City commission sure well um as you probably saw in my resume I am a uh current a social work grad student uh with RIS and policy and uh I have a lot of passion for uh inclusion particularly around disability but also around uh race and uh gender sexuality um I have well I've served on a couple of different um uh different commissions um hiring commissions primarily but um it was very informative and what it actually uh showed me was that probably my best use as an ally as somebody who is concerned with these issues is to sort of use my knowledge to sort of uh use that lens to kind of see um where there are opportunities to sort of view things in a different way to uh consider something that maybe hadn't be considered um and to uh put forward uh voices that hadn't been heard all right council member gra good being here what motivates you what motivates you to be a part of this volunteer your commission well uh being a part of the Roseville Community uh it's important to me to contribute uh as much as I can uh but also uh just wanting to uh be an advocate in whatever way that I can personally um both as a social worker as um you know as a as a queer woman as somebody who um has uh children with disabilities who has worked in the disability field field um it's important to me to uh use my voice and to you know contribute however I can council member B again again thanks for being here um if you don't mind could you explain uh a little bit about your understanding of the scope or duty of the commissions that you applied for sure so as I understand it and feel free to correct me uh it would be to contribute to the uh the creation of the implementation of the Strategic plan that the uh commission lays out for diversity Equity inclusion uh it would also be to provide perspective and insight to the council around issues uh that where uh our opinion might be useful um if there needs to be an issue that's researched or uh presented that to get an uh you know an impact you know on diversity uh then I suppose that would be our purview all right um I'll ask the the softball question this time so what we're trying to mix it up here so we all get a chance to ask all of the questions um so what do you love most about living in Roseville oh gosh well uh moving back here uh a few years ago was a great decision I love the walkability ARs I love the neighborhoods um the community is so warm and it's you can't be the location I mean we're Central to everything so yeah all right and council member St last question certainly sometimes the commission makes a recommendation on a matter that has a lot of strong feelings from the public perhaps from a opposing perspectives how would you expect to deal with such situations while serving on a commission well um consensus is a thing that's very hard to find anymore um it's important to me to hear other perspectives and to take them into serious consideration um nobody really does their best work in an echo chamber um you know that being said I think the best Solutions are the ones that um help the most amount of people and where you know you can find what motivates another individual maybe in hearing their perspective um a lot of times you can find a way to find a solution that suits everyone's needs um but as far as you know having a thick skin those sorts of things you know I grew up in the 90s I'm okay so gotcha all right um are there uh any questions you have for us or anything you wanted to emphasize that we maybe haven't covered in our brief question and answer here in support of your application uh nothing in particular just what do you think is important for uh the commission to know about their work I'll attempt to to start that I think uh you may or may not be aware of some of the history this commission um has is is a newer commission for the city just started last year um and it's sort of the it's an outgrowth of of prior human rights commissions and human rights and engagement uh commissions and I think you know we really worked hard through a process of coming to the point of having this commission uh through the last year prior to its establishment of of you know really trying to make sure it's a commission with with Focus um and and that Focus has really been to to make sure uh and advise the city as you said on this uh things like our Strategic Equity action action plan um and other City efforts in regard to equity and inclusion iion so I think you hit that nail on the head and really that is what we're looking for and I certainly would uh open up for other council members to uh to better answer that question than I did I wouldn't say better but I answer but I would add to that historically uh Human Rights Commission had a different goal and a different model and that had become outdated over time because of the way we handle uh complaints or or so on that's really handled at the state level and it's not handled at the city level so we were finding that having that in the G was somewhat misleading to the public because people thought it was something different than it is so we wanted to zero on on what the functions are and how it can work for the city to further those goals sure all right well we appreciate you coming forward and and applying and wish you very good luck with this and as you may be aware we have a few more applicants than openings uh and and so uh we we certainly want to give everybody their their uh Shake on it but we do have to make some tough decisions if you don't happen to be appointed this time around uh we do encourage you to to uh connect keep connected with Rachel because she's our volunteer coordinator she can really help you get connected with any kind of activities to volunteer in the city and participate and we do have usually openings almost every year on most commissions and so uh there will be other opportunities down the road I think several of us have applied more than once to be on commissions before we got to the place we are here uh so it's just maybe evidence that it persistence pays off uh so with that once again very good luck thank you again for for your interest and and coming forward you'll get to enjoy the rest of your evening thank you very much thank you e so I'll start and I just want to say welcome and thank you for your interest in serving the city uh and I'll describe the process of the interview so that you understand that it's fairly simple we'll ask or each council member will ask a question and then we'll get your answers and then as after that if we have time uh we will um give you a chance to ask us a question or tell us anything else you'd like to let us know okay all right and my name is Nicole and I'm here I'm deaf and Visually visually low vision I have I'm deaf my family I grew up in a family that is hearing and a different culture I have a different culture and I grew up I grew up here in America and I've been mainstreamed into different into school so in other words I wasn't in a de school so I know what it's like to have the need for accessibility that's what I I've experienced it my whole life so that's something I want to be a part of right thank you for sharing that so our our first question uh will be asked by uh council member gra hello uh the first question is hello how do your experiences and skills relate to serving honesty City commission well I also have a disability and Communications has always been something I've Challen been a challenge with people I do have experience like going to like I've been leading in a a youth program and I've learned how to serve people because again I've had to advocate for myself and to provide access to people that are as myself challenged in various ways and so equal accessibility is something I come with quite some experience thank you yes thank you the next question will be asked by uh council member bow thank you what motivates you to be part of this Commission well again I'm motivated because I do believe that everyone should have equity and accessibility everyone it doesn't matter what they are who they are whatever culture they are and whatever disability they may have everybody needs to be integrated and be able to have accessibility and so I like to have that using my skills and my experience to make that for every made that available for everyone in our community thank you you're welcome next question will be asked by council member stra hello um can you explain your understanding of the scope and duties of the commission that you applied for yes um in this position I need to make sure that we have projects maybe even new projects we can create for the community that will help people to have accessibility for everyone no matter again the culture no matter what their disability their culture I want I want to make it sure that everyone has accessibility yeah all right uh council member uh let's see I'll council member bow the next question sorry you're getting it twice this time uh thank you I'll take the softball questions since I have to uh could you describe what you love about living in Roseville oh I love I love the parks I love ice skating um I love of going out in every year we go out to in the Parks I just love to go to different activities the lights that are beautiful lights that they have um all the generations that come together even in the cold I mean it's just iceam I love ice cre that's my big thing loved ice and my family as well they just love like farming going to the farmers market and so we go there every week every Tuesday for the farmers market so we love our community Roseville and we love the city we'd love to be a part of it we love to be love the restaurants here I mean we just love everything about Roseville and my favorite part is about the about the city the RO Ville city is just like just having like like last week I went to ice went ice skating twice I just love the ice skating here and I try to go as like every week if I can thank you so much you're welcome that we'll be so happy to hear the parks director will be happy to hear yeah I really love it I'm not great at it but I same right and the last question council member gr thank you mayor sometimes the commission makes a recommendation on a matter that has a lot of strong feelings from the public perhaps from opposing perspectives how would you expect to deal with such situations while serving on the commission I would first of all listen to their perspective and their opinion and then discuss it with them and see if we can come to some kind of an agreement and so if they a compromise is what I'm trying to say that's what I think I would try to do thank you that is the end of the questions from us uh do you have any questions for us I just want to thank you for this opportunity to be able to do this it's been great interviewing it's a great opportunity I thank you for that opportunity and it's nice to meet you all as well and we thank you for that and we really appreciate your interest in serving and we wish you success with your application the city council will make our decision on March 3rd uh and the city staff will definitely follow up and let you know all right thank [Applause] you thank you e well welcome and thank you for your interest and application for the uh Equity inclusion commission as well as I believe also the parks direct commission um and for being here this evening and being available to be interviewed in person uh we find that this is a great way for the council to get to know the applicants and and really inform our decision-making uh when we have all these tough decisions to make to fill just a few openings with a lot of applicants so thank you for that we'll do a round of questions from the council members uh and then also at the end of that if there's some time uh if you have questions for us or if there's anything that we didn't cover that you'd like to make sure we know in support of your application we'll give an opportunity for that as well all right so then this round of questions will start with me so surprised I sound surprised I I have it all planned out ahead sure look at my list comes up uh so the first question is um how do your experiences and skills relate to serving on a city commission particularly either of these commissions great thanks um first of all thanks for having me it's great to have this opportunity to speak with you and and um I'm looking forward to getting more involved in the Roseville Community um in regards to my experiences and skills I think throughout my life um I've had a passion for being part of communities that are designed to allow um all types of people to feel empowered and Thrive um for over 22 years I've been an educator um and I've served diverse populations over that course of my career um so uh initially I spent time um as a public school teacher in Missouri where I'm really originally from um and in my role as a teacher in that school district I spearheaded my school's Equity team I led action research uh based um approaches to try to increase our um underrepresented Community populations in our AP and honors courses um so that was a passion of mine as a classroom teacher um following that I was the president of the district's teachers union where I worked very closely with um the HR department to try to increase um our um diverse teaching staff across the district and make sure that we were hiring uh a diverse teaching pool for our students um after that in 2015 I moved abroad with my family I liveed seven years overseas teaching at International Schools uh we lived in Turkey Cambodia and Costa Rica uh and in those contexts obviously um I worked with uh students from around the world uh from different uh cultural uh backgrounds um in those um in those contexts um and then currently I work at University of St Thomas um my role is um immigration support specialist for our International student population uh and so it's my job to help support those students prior to their arrival and then also um to maintain their F1 status why they are in the United States um so I have to make sure the university is uh meeting their needs and they're from all over the world um and then I also serve on the University's Dei working group where I collaborate with cross departmental peers to help guide the University's uh cult culture and policy through a DI lens thank you uh next question will be asked by Council M St what motivates you to be a part of either of these commissions that you've uh set up your interest yeah so as I said my family we lived outside the country for seven years um prior to that I was very involved in my local community um I you know attended school board meetings um helped run political campaigns um and so I had a really robust kind of life and Civic and governmental kind of adjacent um roles um and then we left for overseas for seven years and honestly you don't really have the opportunity to do that when you're living in a country that's not your own um you know as an expat I can't really get involved in in local governance um and so um when we decided to move back to the United States one of the big pieces to help motivate us to do that was I just really felt that connection to the community that was missing from my life um and so when we decided to move to Minnesota uh I very intentionally wanted to make sure that when we uh purchase the home and and and move to the community that we were going to stay in um I wanted to get involved so that's kind of uh the context for motivating me um but uh you know as an educator my whole life um I think that a lot of my passion is about empowering people from um like diverse experiences I worked with diverse students my whole career um and it's something that um motivates me um my uh something very personal that motivates me on the Dei focus is um both my uh kids I have a transon um and my uh oldest child who's college right now um they're non-binary um so in that regard I have a lot of I think personal and professional motivation to to focus on the issues that the commission would would be focused on um to switch the par pivot to parks and up a little bit um I think that um one of the reasons uh that uh that was a committee that I also um a commission I also focused on was that um my wife and I and family were very um impressed by roseville's um commitment to making sure that natural spaces are um are uh preserved and accessible uh in U a residential setting um so when we were looking for where we wanted to settle down uh the idea that that Roseville has really Incorporated that natural space into um um residential spaces making it easy for people to to go out in nature and enjoy um being around nature was really impressive to us and so um we spend a lot of time in our parks nearby our home and and um I think Rosell does such a great job at it it something that you know they were like which which of the two would you want to be interested in um I was motivated for that as well so right thank you uh the next question is uh can you explain your understanding of the scope or duty of the uh two commissions that you're applying for yeah I mean so I I reviewed all the documents and I took um the advice uh of the um emails I received to look into like the minutes and things of the different commissions and and kind of acclimate myself to uh the work that that the commissions are doing um and I think in general my understanding is um that the commissions serve as an advisory capacity to help support the work of the local government in the decision-making process um to be a face of the commissions to the to the stakeholders living in the community um and help communicate um you know reasoning and decision- making to um voters in the community um and certainly I know for the Dei committee we uh want the commission uh members to be involved in the um the ACT team um so that um the decisions by sorry the information that the that the commission is involved in supporting the government on can be um implemented effectively for the community um and I also know when I was looking at the um goals of the parks and rec committee um I did appreciate that some of the goals of the park and rec committee focus on um accessibility and a Dei Focus there um so certainly I think any member of the parks and rec commission can help um inform and support uh those goals um yeah so basically that's kind of my idea I know it's not like uh it's not a decision-making um board that's constantly uh implementing things uh it's more um advisory and role from my understanding right thank you uh council member oh great thanks what do you love most about living at R oh wow okay so yeah um I think uh in general um and we haven't been in Roseville very long we we purchased our home and moved in August uh of last year so um relatively new to the community but um we were very intentional um in our decision to move here um I think that um you know first and foremost um I love that Roseville is still a community that um allows for um there to be a wide variety of socioeconomic levels um it's it's a place where you have a variety of of housing you you have um a wide diverse array of constituents and that was important to me my family um moving in um I I like that it's still um has like in my assessment a core middle and working class core to it which I really appreciate um like I said we actually spent time in Roseville Parks before we chose to move here just because we love how um accessible nature is for the community here and that was hugely important to us um we had lived in other areas um in the Twin Cities when we first SC here kind of feeling things out um and um one of the things that we liked about Roseville is you could leave your house and very quickly be in a park um as opposed to having to like walk or drive uh to a park um uh I I in my research about Roseville government I I really appreciate a government local government that's proactive not reactive and certainly not a government that's Progressive um I love what I see that Roseville is very forward thinking in its um approach to working with its citizens and planning um it's and so that was something else that that we liked about it um so for all those reasons uh it really became kind of top of our list when we were looking to to move into a community uh and counc member B yes thank you thank you for being here sometimes on these commissions uh they need to make a recommendation on a matter that has a lot of strong feelings by the public um perhaps from opposing perspectives how would you expect to deal with such situations while serving on the commission yeah I mean I think so initially I know usually um commissions and local governments have some type of best practice um policies in place that for communication and interaction with the community that oftentimes members of commissions and and are are meant to follow um so I certainly Think You Know It's always important to review those best practices and make sure that everyone on the commission's in line and and you know following um proper communication techniques um having said that I also know that um oftentimes members of commission can be engaged by stakeholders and community members um outside of like a very formal setting um and so for me I always think the best way to to work with someone especially someone who has opposing viewpoints I typically believe in leading with curiosity um I think that anytime you're engaged on on an issue especially if someone disagrees with you um just the first way to approach it is by asking questions and just getting to know uh the root cause of someone's disagreement or someone's opposition um talk to them make them feel heard like I said I was a teacher for like 20 years so I'm and I taught high school so I'm I'm used to the process of of engaging people and asking a ton of questions and just and then trying to make people feel hurt and and uh so that they understand that well at the end of the day like we might not come to an agreement on something um that um they were able to express themselves and then also in my experience oftentimes doing that asking questions and engaging people turns people from maybe opposition into collaborators which I think is a a pretty important um thing to do like you want to have a situation where someone might through that discussion and through that collaboration offer ideas that you might not have been thinking of um to improve processes so um I don't really don't really fear that type of of interaction in fact I think it's necessary thank you thank you um we do have a few moments here is there anything that you wanted to ask us or weren't sure about or anything you wanted to emphasize in support of your application that maybe we didn't cover in the questions I mean not really I I know you guys have a busy night I guess I would just say you know obviously I think when my application first came in you know first and foremost I think I'm best suited for the Dei commission just with my professional experience I'm I'm not I don't have a background in and um you know civic engineering or things that might relate to like technical aspects of Parks and Recreation um I think you know the draw from The Parks and Recreation side like I said is just um having enjoyed the park system here and and appreciating how systematic and well thought out and accessible it is um it is something that I I think is so important to the community so um you know I just wanted to point out like I don't know what you guys are looking for but if you're looking for people with like technical background I think the Dei committee I have a lot of ton of work in um on the parks and rec side I have enthusiasm and appreciation but probably not a resume professionally that's going to you know be very relevant but I'm certainly enthusiastic about any volunteer opportunity I can participate in so all right well we thank you again for applying and and being here this evening uh and we wish you luck in the process uh the council will be making our decision on March 3rd um and so staff will make sure and follow up and uh if you don't happen to be one of the people appointed because we do have that disparity between applicants and and openings uh we do have repeated opportunities as the time goes by usually a vacancy or two comes up either later in the year or then the next round in the spring of the next year so um you know there will be opportunities and Rachel is a great resource to be connected with on opportunities outside of commissions to to connect with the city and volunteer in Roseville so good luck and enjoy the rest of your evening I appreciate all your time thanks so much have a nice evening e e e e well feel free you've got your little name badge in the folder there if you set that out in front of you for the purpose we have one of our council members is absent this evening and so when they watch the video it's nice to have the name visually there to kind of track with things so will pick that I think we've got a camera right back here that's actually picking you up so you're good good well thank you again uh for applying and for being here this evening and subjecting yourself to this grueling interview process uh we will try to be gentle on you uh what we do is a round of questions from the council members who are here uh often times we have the chair of the commission participate as well we don't have that in this particular case but we'll we'll get by um and then at the end of that if there's some time and you have uh things you want to emphasize in support of your application that maybe we didn't cover in the questions uh or if you have questions for us there'll be a chance for that awesome and hopefully at the end of 10 minutes you're able to go and enjoy the rest of your evening while we continue through this process app all right well with that our first question uh this round will be asked by council member B thank you thank you for being here uh what would you how would you uh how do your experiences and skills relate to serving out in the city commission yeah thank you um so I've been a Dei practitioner for over 20 years um and I've done that in several different sectors I was in the arts and culture sector for a while I worked at the Minnesota historical society and when I was there I was I architected the Dei plan created a department which was the first Department in the country in the museum became the chief inclusion officer so really articulated the strategy for the or organization and then how to execute that strategy um and then when I worked for governor walls it was similar but it was just on a broader scale so my responsibility at the state was really to help each of the cabinet level agencies develop an equity plan um and really work to get the right people involved at each agency to execute that plan so the plans were flexible so they were overarching goals that we had um at as the administration but then each agency was in different spots with where they were so the plan was designed to be flexible so that um if some agencies really needed to focus on Workforce Development they could do that others might need to really focus on building cultural competence and leaders so there so flexibility there um my current role uh is very similar so I do people experience and inclusion at F Health and uh am responsible for all of our HR Dei work there um and we've brought in the Intercultural development inventory to uh help assess cultural competence with folks we have um been working to implement the concept of restorative justice into our HR work and our employee relations work so if you're not familiar with restorative justice focuses more on the person who was harmed in a situation and helping get them back to feeling psychologically Al safe to come back to work and things of that nature so often it's a conversation between the two parties and um so that's been going well so those are some examples um I'm passionate about Equity um you know I grew up uh not really understanding I'm adopted I'm I grew up in a white family so it was a journey for me to understand who I am and how I show up in this world still a journey every day um but I think what that did was help me understand that there are certain things um in our culture that privilege folks right and right wrong or indifferent that's just the way it is and it's not fair and so I'm uh very passionate about Equity work uh I wouldn't do anything else even in light of all of the um changes recently um it's still uh my life's work so thank you council member Gra what motivates you to be part of this volunteer commission uh so I recently moved to Roseville in 2021 I love Roseville Roseville is such an awesome City next question don't give it up you can say it just don't elaborate too much you're not going to have anything to say later so I will save that part for the next question but I think for me you know one of the things I'm really looking at doing is figuring out okay so I've been fortunate to gain experience in this body of knowledge around equity and inclusion and I feel it's really important right now to to use that outside of just my job um and I feel that uh for me you know this is one of the ways I can get involved um and I think people have different styles and different ways that they resist or push back I'm not necessarily that guy that's gonna be in the street protesting I don't know why um I just it's it's not how I do right um but volunteering on a commission that's going to work to embed equity in everything that the city that I live in does that is a way that I feel like I can be involved I can contribute I can make the world a better place even if it is just a little slice of the world right um and so you know I uh my wife was surprised when I said hey I'm going to apply for this and she said what I said yeah I feel like I need to do something I feel like I need to get involved um my wife also does Dei work so you can imagine the conversations we've been having over the last couple of of weeks and just so I think for me it's a way not not to give back per se but to feel like I am doing something and I'm not just sitting back and letting things happen to the world that are happening right now so um yeah so that's my motivation yeah um and I've already lost track of who who was next here but uh uh C strong want you take one um it sounded like you kind of embedded this also in the last question how can you can you explain your understanding of the scope and duties of this particular commission yeah you know in a nutshell it sounds like everything and through an equity lens right and as I read the equity strategy plan and um the work of this commission it really is and I know that the strategy Plan Focus is really on some representational diversity and things of that nature but what I loved was it's taking a lens of equity to everything right and I think that that's really how how we normalize Equity work quote whatever that is right into just work right and I think um someday I would love to not have to have a diversity equity and inclusion field right and wouldn't that be nice but for now we are where we are and so you know I think that that really is cool and when uh when I we were looking at Roseville to move into the the city here that was one of the things that to be quite honest was kind of surprising right I didn't think that Roseville would have an equ like Equity plan right and it just didn't for whatever reason I don't know why it didn't Don I mean it just didn't right and it's nothing against Rose I love Rose I think it's so diverse that was one of the things as we continued to look for houses and we would see people walking on the we're like this is our place absolutely it is um and so I think it's really that opportunity to support a group or participate with a group that is taking that Equity lens and looking at all aspects of what Roseville government does right um and I think that that's awesome I think that that's really cool thank you yeah uh council member Bower next question kind ofed this Choice already we let you answer it now what do you love most about Roseville well so I I did mention um the the diversity right and just looking at the numbers and I think you know so I grew up in Maple Grove and I moved out there in 1984 so I went to a a high school that had 2,000 students and we had a 0.4% minority right so I've experienced that right and that's not Roseville that's not what Roseville is and I love um you know my first kind of uh experience at Fairview was juneth and my team is one that works to work with Roseville to sponsor the juneth event and I'm like you know of all the places where you would think I'm going to go celebrate juneth Roseville probably isn't at the top of the list but it is so cool that it should be right and that's that's what I'm saying and I don't say that to disparage in any way shape or form I just don't think that people would think I think people think Minneapolis or St Paul or like whatever so that's cool and it's been a something that I know has been a commitment for for the city um just being on the other end of it with Fairview uh and I think that's great and juneth is such an important holiday and the fact that you know there's that recognition I think it's cool other things I love about Ros I love the parks I love being just quiet I live over off of South aaso and I just I love love how quiet it is I love that you constantly see people walking right regardless of race it's like just a thorough fair in front of my house and people are out and active and enjoying uh life of course there's rosale right there I I got reintroduced to golf I love Cedar home and I love Island Lake because that's my speed for golf sure I don't have 6 hours to chase golf balls around the cour so um so just things like that that I love right um and we we my wife and I are definitely well she's Minneapolis I'm St Paul and you know that there's Opposites Attract right but the thought of moving to the suburb for us was just kind of like oh I don't know if we can do it we love it we absolutely love it so uh best decision we've made got that recorded now so that'll be on the Roseville promotion exactly that appreciate that I signed the release when I came [Laughter] in uh so the last question uh in this round is uh uh sometimes the commission uh makes a recommendation on matters that uh have a lot of strong feelings from the public perhaps on opposing perspectives um how would you expect to deal with those situations while serving on the commission you know I think people's feelings are valid regardless of if they agree with you or not and I think you have to hear those folks you have to entertain you have to understand what they're saying right and so I think often asking clarifying questions you know what what do you so fundamentally oppose let's unpack this right and I think in this day and age and I'm not I'm not I don't want to get into the political landscape here but you have to ask questions you have to get to the facts and I think being able to have that of ration out but also you know being calm right like you can't you can't get agitated back and I you know there's times when you just want to be angry um and I'm sure you all deal with that on a way way larger scale but you know those th the people who have the opposing views also have every right to share those and you know you you hope that your view carries the day or that you can help make sense you know I don't think it's always about changing somebody's mind I think that that's becoming more and more impossible these days because people just continue to be entrenched in what what they believe and and that's fine but I think you know when people understand that you've heard them you understand what they're saying and you have a rational uh reason for why you want to move in the direction that you do they don't necessarily have to agree with it but at least they're Hur right and I think one of the bigger compliments that I get in the work that I do when I'm doing trainings or facilitation or workshops is the ability to make really hard content easy to consume and it's it's about a demeanor and it's about how you show up and it's about understanding that you can't just shut people down you have to listen to them sometimes people need to be shut down now that's it's not a it's not a universal hey everybody gets to say their peace but as long as people are being respectful and you're staying on the issue I I think it's great to have dialogue and those types of things so you listen and you know the vote carries the day or you know however whatever decision making tool you're using and that's the direction you're going so there's always going to be people that don't like what you do so true enough all right um is there anything you wanted to uh make sure that maybe we haven't covered that that we know about or any questions you have for us no I don't think so I mean I guess one question I have and I don't know how much you can say about it but my work right now at Fairview is consern consumed by these executive orders and things of that nature and I don't know to what extent that's caused you know the city to have to review programs or really think about being a federal contractor the funding that comes and things of that nature and just wondering how much harder that is making the work right now and and and does that does the commitment waiver at all in the face of what's going on at the federal level I think the the quick answer is that you know as as our staff has looked at it you know we don't necessarily receive a lot of federal funds uh that might have sort of those types of strings attached to them we do receive some assistance for Public Safety uh um and in a couple of other areas um I think that uh uh you know my personal perspective is that if if somebody starts saying they want to uh they want to not award a grant to the City of Roseville say uh we we're looking to hire 15 new new firefighters theoretically over the next couple years uh we're we the FEMA has the safer grant program which is a way to help with Staffing you know if if that program suddenly said well we're not going to you know consider your application because you still have a an equity and inclusion program or Commission in the City of Roseville you know I I guess my short answer might be well you can take your Grant and stuff it but uh um I might be a little more tactful in your response but uh but that's my own perspective on it that's great so just help I think I think that's pretty pretty well felt in the organization too I think we've really done so much work over the last five years and more um uh to to get to the point we're at now that it just doesn't really make any sense to just walk away from that um both from the point of view it's it's not good for for what we do it's not good for what we do in the community or with the community and it's not good just generally to walk away from this type of activity and and and and you know it's not about it being over an overwhelming Focus it's just about like you were saying making it kind of the way of doing business yeah that's great that's good to hear right well with that we wish you uh success we really appreciate you coming down from these lofty levels of you know um you know executive at fair viiew and working for the governor's office and and and you know ding to be with us lowly city Folk but we really do appreciate it and I sure put a note here that says make sure you know about juneth planning so obviously you already do yes my uh my team works with that the community advancement team really is the one that does that but my I have a twers Dei team that that helps out with that it's such a cool event so yeah really appreciate Fair's presence there so wish you luck in this a particular Endeavor and if you don't get appointed uh there's there continue to be opportunities during the cycle of people uh ending their terms on commissions so and of course Rachel is a great resource to connect with the city on volunteering in any number of ways so we appreciate that and we wish you luck uh our decision will be made at our March 3rd council meeting uh and staff will certainly follow up fantastic thank you all I really appreciate being here very nice to meet you have a good rest of evening take care you too thank you for everything we do as well e e e e e e e e e didn't even had time to visit the City Council meetings understood thank you so much for having me today yes well thank you for your interest in serving on the uh Equity inclusion commission uh and for being here this night this evening and uh subjecting yourself to the interview process uh what we'll do is we'll do a round of questions from the council members uh and I uh and then after that if we've got some time if you have any questions for us uh or anything you want to emphasize in support of your appli that maybe we didn't cover Through the questions there'll be a chance for that sure absolutely aome thank you all right well let's see for this round of questions I think we're starting with council member St thank you so how do your experiences and skills relate to serving on a city commission well uh other than my academic background which is in education and I'm currently an addiction and mental health counselor uh I have served before moving to Roseville I used to live in Wilmer it's a small community in West Central in CI County about 19,000 uh and then I used to serve as the H board member I was a commissioner for the h board uh where I have advocated for Equitable housing uh and affordable housing so that opportunity has given me a firsthand experience of the systematic barriers you know uh different community members face in accessing r sources uh and also making decisions that are strategically uh planning the city for development so that has given me a firstand experience uh working across board you know we were seven Commissioners and uh having consensus on to what project to prioritize you know was always tedious involving a lot of discussions and and I've been a team player in that uh always looking to be impartial and then uh looking for a consensus on what we wanted to do for the city uh besides being uh a a board member for the h Board of commissions in cand County I was also a member of the Wilmer uh cand County Vision 2040 leadership program uh from the University of Minnesota extension program so this was uh basically a program that was looking at how cand economy will look in 2040 uh so what we did was do a lot of community engagement uh asking uh different stakeholders and community members about what they perceived to be their top priority uh and that has given me an insight into what uh planning strategically for the future looks like equipping me the skills uh to work with diverse uh board members uh across sectors uh both private and public uh yeah that were basically the things I've done I'm also a board member for the United Nations uh Association for the minister a chapter where uh we advocate for uh Global Peace and romancy so these have been some of my experiences regarding with board and commission members thank you uh council member B on the next question thank you uh what motivates you to be on this particular commission well uh I think uh being Somali uh minority uh you know uh many of my community members do not have a say uh on the decision making board and there have been a growing number of people like me and and I I I think I'm the first person of my kind you know to be uh applying for these positions I guess because many of the community members do not even uh are not even aware of what's going on the city they live in so uh being from that background you know it gives me a firsthand experience of what it looks like to be a a disenfranchised Community member who does not have a say in the decision makes uh makings you know so uh that bring gives me the opportunity to bring their unique perspective in terms of their way of life you know what barriers they face uh in terms of their uh daily lives and how the the city programs can uh serve them too so this brings me from that background and that's why I'm trying to be a voice for them and amplify their ideas on the decision making so that the city knows uh what the community faces and how they intend to be making rosevi uh their home that's why I want to be a member of the City Commissioner can you confirm you here have equity and inclusion uh although you spoke a lot of planning you're just looking to be on the equity and inclusion commission at this time right right yeah right yeah you also had the human rights equity and inclusion which is the predecessor to the equity inclusion I just wanted to make sure we knew no no no I know the reason I was adding that was because you know this uh commission Service uh as an advice to the city council so which also makes the decisions regarding the long-term strategic plan for the city too so that's where my input is coming from even though I'm going to be in the inclusion uh council member gra question thank you for being here thank you can you explain your understanding of the scope or duty of commun the commission you applied for well uh the scope of the Comm of the commission is to serve an advising role um review and and give feedback on the city council in terms of the departmental uh work plan is on equity and inclusion uh review the uh strategic uh planning for equit and inclusion to and give advice on what positions with the city needs to to take in terms of making resources Equitable to all uh members so uh representing the city when authorized to do so by the city staff or the city council representing being an ambassador uh and also playing that uh important role of community engagement you know making sure whatever the city council is doing uh should be something that's coming from the community service you're welcome thank you um so I get to ask the the the the fun question this time uh so I see you lived in Roseville for about 5 years what do you love most about living in Roseville well uh like I said when I came to the United States I first come to Wilmer uh I've been working with the school district there for eight years uh it was a very small community uh we have access to you know uh Parks we trails and everything so when I wanted to move I was like I'm going to a place that gives me the same feel you know and when I've looked at them the Twin Cities you know rosille rosevi became the best place you know it kind of gives you that uh Community family friendly space you know Parks Recreations and also the the entertainment dining from the Metropolitan you know you in an upan area while also in Suburban you know and the feel of you know that family friendly you know and having the the Tranquility you know trace this little guys here you know yeah so that was the best thing you know so the city program is you know the school district was one of the things I was looking at even though I'm on the North side and my kids go to monsview PR again you know it was the city of rosevi that has enabled me to to be able to have access to those kind of uh school districts so the city program is you know the closeness to both Minneapolis and simple you know uh all of the things have been part of the reasons why I've made rosville my my hometown thank you uh council member St final question certainly sometimes the commission makes a recommendation on a matter that is a lot of strong feelings from the public perhaps from opposing perspectives how would you expect to deal with such situations while serving on the commission well uh like I said you know when I was serving uh the Candi County uh Board of Commissioners uh I was always an impartial you know I wasn't paying attention to the political pressure or you know specific groups you know I was trying to be in paral looking at what is the long-term benefits of the programs we are trying to implement in the city so having none of those political influences you know gives me uh the non-judgmental uh eyesight I need to see at things through you know so that's number one and then the other one is community engagement you know talking to the community uh telling them what this city intends to do all the policies uh we would like to recommend so having different opinions and perspectives you know will give me a bigger understanding of where the community members are standing against those ideas you know uh then I will also be a data driving you know whatever decisions I will recommend to the city council have to be based on the numbers and and figures you know those don't lie so having the city's best interest at heart you know I'll be looking at the numbers and then I'll be basing on my decisions on the on the numbers I see and then like I said you know uh I was someone who was a team player who always you know crosses lines to make sure he gets consensus you know when the city and the community members have a strong feeling support then I will listen to them and see where the majority of the people stand and then that's why I will always join I will never say it's either my way or the the highway you bringing those kind of things and I will constantly educate myself you know if my uh perspective changes you know if my knowledge regarding that certain topic change you know I will keep you know updating and saying hey this is where I will understand and lastly I will be uh transparent with whatever I'm doing you know being to build that Public public TR I will have to be transparent and tell them the reason why I'm recommending this you know trying to explain the reasoning behind uh from that thank you well thank you those are the the official questions here uh you made it through um was there anything you wanted to ask us or emphasize like I said before in support of your application this evening while you've got us in front of you absolutely you know uh I would really you know I appreciate the opportunity having come before you today uh to talk about my perspectives and ideas you know like I said you know I have these two kids and another two kids in my house us so they want to be seeing people like themselves Who present or even you know uh programs that can also their needs you know since the population is growing and Roseville is becoming more diverse by the day you know uh I would you know request you to make a decision based on the representation of the community so that you know you hear what everybody else is talking about out there I mean that's just going to be my my only request or concerns yeah sure I I did want to follow up just very quickly on the uh CYO County H is that an appointed position or an elected position well uh you have to run for office you no I was nominated by the county commissioner okay so since it was a county level so the county commissioner nominated me to be serving absolutely I was just curious if you had elected elected office in your history okay maybe you will have it near future you never know absolutely all right well we wish you luck in on this appointment here we've got a lot of people applying for a small number of positions so um if you don't get appointed the first time uh which uh many of us have experienced ourselves uh you know certainly keep trying and definitely uh stay connected with Rachel she's our volunteer coordinator and she can really get people connected with things that they can do to to volunteer in the city uh but we certainly uh wish you luck and uh we'll be making our decision on March 3rd and staff will follow up with everybody awesome thank you so much and nice to meet you to meet you and I don't think you're the first Somali we've had others on commission not very many but we have service you know is just if someone e e e e even and subjecting yourself to this process uh we appreciate you applying for the commission and your interest in serving the community in that way um what we'll do is we'll do a round of questions from the council members who are here this evening uh and then at the end of that if we've got some time if there is anything we didn't cover that you want emphasize in support of your application or if you have questions for us there'll be some time for that at the end as well so with that we will begin this round of questions with council member gra you thank you for being here how do you how do your experiences and skills relate to serving on a city commission so most notably I was formerly a librarian my first career I'm an editor now U but I was a librarian including a library director so I'm familiar with processes you know of serving on uh City commissions and I have a lot of work with I've done a lot of work with um equity and inclusion much of that was Library Focus like going to a library conference and telling people here's how you can build a more inclusive collection or writing articles on here's how you can make a more accessible Library facility or more accessible programs things of that nature and many of those Concepts apply more broadly not just to libraries thank you all right uh council member bow thank you um following up on that what motivates you to be on this particular commission so an article came out few days ago which unfortunately is relevant right now I would say in general principles of equity and inclusion are under attack but I saw one in incidentally it's Library related but there's an elementary school in Clarksville Kentucky where the Librarians are going through now and removing any book that is related at all to that mentions slavery or Civil Rights Movement that's a real threat um and that's not happening here but I don't want it to happen here um I I want to make sure that we have things in our community that support equity and inclusion and that that we don't start erasing history you um the next question is um can you explain your understanding of the scope and duties of the commission that you've applied for so what particularly is coming from a background where I was a municipal leader and I was responsible for making decisions this appeals to me because I'm not responsible it's an advisory capacity and there's a certain relief in that uh that's my understanding that that we do do our research and gather the data and interpret it to our best best we can and make recommendations but then it's up to you guys thank you council member strong um yes well it looks like it's not a very long tenure but what do you love most about living in Roseville right so I moved to your last May um so and part of the reason I moved to the Upper Midwest from the south was because I do love winter um I think this weather is great we could have more of this it builds character um Roseville in particular appealed to me when I was looking for a place to live because there is an emphasis on parks in nature I can walk outside I if it hadn't been so cold today I could have walked my dog to the vet I would have done but he doesn't like the cold as much as I do um but I love that I can have the amenities of a city nearby one mile in One Direction I can get to some fantastic restaurant or a mile in the other direction I can get to Fantastic Trails love that environment um council member Bower thank you um last question sometimes commission has to make a recommendation on a matter that has a lot of strong feelings on it sometimes opposing uh perspectives how would you expect to deal with such situations while serving on the commission it happens to everyone if if you care about something there are going to be times when you disagree with either what the public is how the public will react to your uh recommendation or where you might disagree with your uh fellow committee members um and that's that's what it means to be part of community at times there will be differences of opinion uh the way that I've always gotten through that is to understand that sometimes I will disagree with the det s but as long as I'm committed to the overarching mission that's what matters you you just have to keep your perspective You Can't Sweat every little time you have a disagreement well got to the end of the questions um is there anything you wanted to add that maybe we haven't covered through the questions that you wanted to emphasize in support of your application or any questions that you've got for us um oh I think I everything all right well we wish you luck with this process here and we thank you again for coming forward and being willing to serve the community in this way uh we have the uh the uh difficulty of having a lot of applicants for a couple of openings on the commission so we won't be able to appoint everybody but we certainly encourage everybody regardless of whether you get appointed uh to to find other ways to connect with the city through volunteering Rachel is a great resource for that uh and loves to help make those connections uh and certainly if you don't happen to be appointed this time uh there's usually openings that come up in subsequent rounds so uh certainly hope that you would keep that in mind if you don't happen to be appointed this time you thank you and enjoy the rest of your evening good to see you again all right just getting our paperwork in order here all right I'm just going to call you Ray K if that's all right instead of trying to write out your whole last name on my piece of paper just say I pronounced it kanzenbach kinach okay well thank you uh for applying uh to serve on this volunteer Commission in this case the finance commission for the City of Roseville uh and for being here this evening and uh and I'm glad that you're in good shape to be here thank you me too cuz I'm not sure you were so sure about that that uh I wasn't oh yes uh and we won't get into any more details on that uh but uh what we'll do as far as the process here is we'll do a round of questions from the council members who are here uh We've also got our uh is it Vice chair yes sir Vice chair of the finance commission here Joe you're on finance to participate as well uh and then after that if we have some time and there's anything we haven't covered that you want to make sure we know about uh you can let us know then or if there's a question you have for us uh we'll hopefully have time for that as well very good with that we will go ahead and start this round of questions with uh council member V thank you and thank you for being here tonight uh how do your experiences skills relate to me serving on this particular commission well I've uh was a an Institutional investment manager in bonds primarily municipal bonds for 51 years so I've analyzed credits of literally thousands of municipalities looked at them in details and I'm familiar with with all kinds of financings that are done Goos of course leases Water and Sewer revenues tax increment revenues sales tax revenues uh you know I looked at all of those excuse me I'm also familiar with the uh criteria that uh rating agencies use S&P and Moody's course we're AAA by both which is really good for a 36,000 population uh server we can't do much better than that so uh but I I am familiar with you know what they look at at because I've looked at thousands of those reports too uh I understand gasby accounting well maybe I should say I I'm highly familiar with gasby accounting and I almost understand all of it does anybody really it all I I've been to several seminars and I've read the 600 page book and I yeah it's so much more complicated than corporate accounting and in the annual uh comp apprehensive Financial reports so I I read through ours uh last year I noticed that we got it out in under four months which is really fast anything under six months is good I think and I use that as a as an indicator of quality of management and uh so to get it out in four months is great and by the way you beat a Dina by full six weeks so way to go uh Finance Finance team uh I understand uh sources of revenues uh you know where the city comes from the general fund and all those other funds uh I know what comprises the assumptions for uh unfunded liabilities on Pension funds and OPB uh and so I'm I'm familiar with all that and I'm also very familiar with the uh Minnesota statutes for allowable Investments for cash reserves so I think you you know the kind of experience I had is right up the line for for you know Finance of a city sure well that might actually get into the next question and I I'll turn to our vice chair Joe to ask the next question all right uh and with regard to uh what motivates you to be part of this volunteer commission well I just retired as of the first of the year so I'm looking for Meaningful things to do congratulations and this uh thank you and U you know I saw that dis position came up uh and uh you know I looked at it I said that's right up my alley and I'd like to do uh meaningful things um my wife and I have lived here 48 years uh we like Roseville so you know being able to contribute in a small way to uh you know the welfare of the of the city is something that seems like meaningful meaningful work and and is a fit for what I what I know thank you thank you very much uh council member gra thanks for being here uh can you explain your understanding of the scope or duty of the commission you applied for well first of all I know it's advisory only commission is not the decision makers I don't want to be the decision makers and so it's to give advice uh maybe describe tradeoffs uh any ideas to have the decision maker counsel and the staff to help them make uh the best decisions they can but not the decision maker just advisory uh council member strong but a trusted advisor well you know one has to earn that yeah well we just assume I look at it and go oh gosh I hope they know what do you love most about living in Roseville for 48 years well I don't think there's a better location of a suburb in this metro area I mean it's it's close to both downtowns it's not too far from the airport but it's far enough transportation is good uh my wife and I uh like the feel of Roseville it's just you know we're Roseville people we're not wi Isetta people uh the quality of the services here we've had experience with police fire unfortunately and it was good experience for uh streets snow plowing snow plowing is excellent here uh water sewer uh parks and it's just it's clearly a well-run city it's it's a nice place to be people say well you're retired now you're going to Florida no to Florida you know we got central heat in the in the house and heated seats in the car so we're we're good here yeah so it's just been a real good fit for us you asked a question I can't remember don't ask me [Laughter] question we we're kind of getting a little it's yeah you been at it for an hour and a half well I've been I've been doing terrible record keeping so I guess it's back better uh sometimes the commission makes a recommendation on a matter that has a lot of strong feelings uh perhaps those feelings might be opposing of yours how would you uh expect how do you expect to deal with such situations while serving on the commission well first of all I am comfortable with diverse opinions but you know so much of the stuff in finance isn't there's not a crisp right and wrong answer to it a lot of it's tradeoffs and and I think you know a lot of what this is is more pointing out what the tradeoffs are uh you know the pluses and minuses uh I can see on a lot of things I I might not even have a recommendation it might be point out this that and the other let the deciders decide but you know like what's the right discount rate on Pension funds is it you know 6 and a half% or seven that there's no right or wrong answer to that um and so I don't and you're not the decider you know we just point stuff out make recommendations uh and we don't there may be a consensus there may not and it's up to the deciders to to decide I I don't see that as much of an issue for me well that those bring us to the end of the the questions we have for you this evening okay uh we've got some time if there's anything you want to make sure and let us know about or if you have a question for us we can attempt to answer it I don't have any questions I I think when I saw in one of the Publications that this was available I thought you know that that could be worth I think I can add value to it uh the experience I have is a little different than what some others have and Ian it's just right up my alley and I can I can use what I've learned in 51 years and you know I'd rather not just have that all go away I'd like to be able to utilize it and I think this would be a perfect uh kind of lowkey way to do it to add some value so uh I'd be very pleased to contribute in that way well thank you again for coming forward and wanting to serve and for being here this evening uh we wish you luck in the appointment process here the council will make our decision on our appointment on March 3rd and staff will follow up and continued good healing yes so delighted at how I'm feeling e e I think you have a a name badge there it's primarily because we one of our council members isn't here and it's helpful on the video watching later to actually have the name uh in front of the person so we appreciate apprciate that it's good to see you again yeah thanks for having me uh we appreciate your interest in uh serving on the equity inclusion commission for the City of Roseville and for being here this evening to subject yourself to the interview process uh we'll do a round of questions from the council members here uh and then at the end of that if there's time uh uh if you have a question for us or two uh or there's any information we maybe didn't cover Through the Q&A uh that you want to make sure we know about uh that's your opportunity to let us know okay so with that uh our first uh round of questions we'll start with council member St thank you so how do your experiences and skills relate to serving on this city commission sure well yeah thanks for having me again everyone and um as far as yeah my response to that say so I've worked in the nonprofit and public sectors um so worked with a number of volunteers so as far as being um on a volunteer commission I think I've got good experience with interacting with volunteers and just trying to um participate in things that you know align with my values and try to um contribute back to my community um as far as specifics with uh working with racial Equity so that is a major goal within Rams County where I work right now and I oversee a Parks and Recreation uh racial Equity leadership team I also have participated in a racial Equity cohort through the burns Institute nonprofit organization that U focuses on identifying areas of systemic racism in uh public entities and how to deconstruct uh those uh deconstruct racism that culminated in a trip to montgomer Alabama to visit the national museum for peace and Justice and that's uh Brian Stevenson Works closely with that he's the um author of just mercy and so you know done a lot of reading uh kind of educating myself on that and just going through that you know the history of of uh in you know slavery through mass incarceration really you know once you go through all that I think you can't unsee it and so I think you know my experience as a white person um although I haven't experienced that racism I think you're really motivated to uh communicate with others about um you know our history and how this affects you know people within our community and we can you know our job and bringing people closer together instead of being like divisive and dividing so all right uh council member gra thanks for being here again what made what motivates you to be a part of this this volunteer commission sure so yeah I think as I mentioned some of those experiences um you know some of those experiences were really eye opening I think I see the you know the tenor and conversation within our country right now and again I think the need for people to be champions of bringing community members together to recognize our common Humanity um to really work to make sure all of our residents have an opportunity for success to make sure that their you know the color of their skin isn't a determinant of their health outcomes um and so I think you know that's highly motivating for me as I you know rais my sons in this community have my family here just making sure that you know I want to be in a community that um you know embodies those values and is something that I want to help contribute to and help contribute to my my fellow citizens so they feel welcomed and so they can be a you know have a good life in this area so and and I think just you know looking at the commission and looking at I at least pulled the past strategic racial Equity action plan from 2021 I don't know if anything been updated but just looking through those things and what work has been done um yeah it's motivating to just see you know what work is taking place and just trying to build a more Equitable Community great um can you explain your understanding of the scope and duties of uh this commission that you've applied for sure so yeah I looked on the website um you know I understand that's voluntary advisory capacity and so you know we're not the elected officials that are out speaking for the city um I think we're here to you know really help from my understanding put together um with probably other engagement this Equity action plan and help to execute on it so I think we're you know taking direction from you know if the if the U oet officials here have have Direction staff have Direction I think we're here to help you know gather that information make sure that there's a um a relevant Equity action plan and that that gets executed um and yeah just understanding that the frequency of meetings you know I saw it was meeting like the third Wednesday of the month you know throughout the year and the length of time that you serve on the commission um you know yeah working through Equity inclusion plans um Equity action plan so yeah I think I think a lot of it is yeah again just just trying to execute on you know the plan that's that's put forward and to seeing how we can um create a strong Community through through executing that plan right um council member strong what do you live love most about living in Roseville well I like that I like it's not a question of if it's it's how much what of yeah so of all your possible choices exactly uh it's yeah I mean it's been a great place to a great place to live you know again that sense of community I feel like my value set and um you know the people that I've met in the City of Roseville and just kind of where I fit in society I think it's you know it's got a good mix of um you know different Soo socioeconomic background um racial diversity for my son's coming to come to school here they've gone to public schools and are in Roseville you're in middle school and high school right now um you know I'm I'm a Parks guy I'm Parks director for Ramsey County I like I like Parks so park system is great but yeah it just it just feels like um a close-knit community that I think uh cares about its residents cares about quality of life and so I like that yeah council member of power thank you uh sometimes the commission makes a recommendation on a matter that has a lot of strong feelings in public perhaps uh from our closing perspectives how would you expect to deal with such situations while serving on the commission sure so I think you have to stay focused on you know what the mission is of the um commission what they're what they're here to do and you know serving all residents and making sure people are treated equitably and are welcomed um so I think it's again I'm not you know in serving on a commission you're not speaking for the uh elected officials that uh operate the city um I think with those opposing views you can respect people's difference of opinion but um you know go back to relying on the values of the organization or the you know the public entity in this case and just what we're trying to accomplish so I think respect those differences um but yeah also be grounded in you know what you're trying to uh accomplish as a member of this commission and a member of trying to trying to equitably serve our community well that gets us through the questions here was there anything you wanted to ask us or anything else you wanted to mention this evening sure yeah just I mean in my in my research again I what I found was the 2021 action plan I don't know if that's the most recent version or if there's something you know more recent than that I think uh probably is the most recent we are due for some updating okay all right yeah CU I look through activity of the commission for sure okay good yeah I mean I look through and saw some of the accomplishments that have happened but I I wasn't sure you know how current that was and if there's other things that have been accomplished or again in like a changing um National environments uh political environment if there's other things that are now focuses that weren't before um so yeah I was curious about that and uh I'd be interested and if if the need is to go through and update that um yeah I would have have interest in that and just you know if if part of it is engaging with public to try and find out where they think the priorities are then that's of interest to so I see yeah I guess maybe another question so there's the Strategic racial Equity action plan and then I think within it yeah Equity development plan like there was another maybe second part of just kind of a plan to it okay so I guess there's the the overall plan and I think it was just the actionable items I guess that were broken down into these various gos here okay um yeah so I guess that I guess that lays that up Prett clearly yeah and just in terms of the sort of the timeliness of the plan I think we've had over the since that was adopted by the council there's been a little bit of transition in Staffing and and you know some ups and downs within the organization that just I don't think have gotten us to a point where maybe we'd even like to be in terms of the pursuit of that and and updating and and adding to it so hopefully we we'll get back on track soon enough with that and I think the commission has certainly has a role in that okay yeah and in you know full transparency I worked with Antonio Montes uh at Ram County and he was a I'm sure you know but in his role as a racial Health Equity officer um and that was a really good partnership I think he really helped us with um working to diversify our staff um the parks department that I operated was something like 97% white when I started and now it's like 78% and he really helped us in the recruitment process and and really uh did a lot of work to uh engage with community members and really help us OTE positions um you know I don't see this necessarily in the plan but other areas of like opportunity I know what I try to work on is investments in um you know minority owned businesses things like that so getting that word out there to um you know different opportunities that that we can connect people so they can uh have opportunities of employment or opportunities to you know have their business be successful so you looking for a new job feel like there's a lot have a job for him so anyway I I'll respect your time but I I just yeah I think there's a lot of opportunity appreciate looking through this and seeing the work that you're doing so yeah if I had a chance to serve on that commission I would definitely put U you know put my full effort into it and do what I can to uh help make a positive impact on our community so thank you all right well thank you again uh and we wish you success in the application process and staff will inform you after our meeting on March 3rd as so who who got a pointed okay all right thank you e really well had a couple kid pretend I'm what was her face on laughing thank you all right well uh welcome thank you for being here this evening and subjecting yourself to this interview process we appreciate your interest in serving on the police Civil Service Commission uh and uh what we'll do here for the interview is a round of questions we've got uh four of our five council members with us as well as our chair of the commission uh Bob Murphy um and so we'll do uh like I said a set of questions for you and then at the end of that uh if there's some time if you have any question for us or anything you wanted to emphasize that we maybe didn't cover Through the Q&A part uh but if that sounds good yep we'll go ahead and uh start this uh set of questions with council member graph thank you thanks for being here um how do your experiences and skills relate to serving on a city commission uh I have a goofy background so let me see if I can make it as succinct as possible um my first job out of college I was um a news reporter and I ended up in a town a medium-sized town over in Wisconsin and as it turns out you know you cover the police beat Sheriff's Department city council County board so you kind of get a good background in um that um the Civic part of of um a city and how it operates and Sheriff's apartments and how they work with police departments and so forth and then you know I was a young girl and so I married a cop why not so I lived with my um husband uh as a cop for something like nine years while we were in uh Wisconsin before we moved because he did not want to be a cop in a relatively medium to small-sized town and raised children so we moved out we moved to Minnesota not here at the time so I have that background I lived with a a patrolman for uh i n n was about nine years when uh together there in in Stevens Point um and then we opened a business when we moved to Minnesota and so I have a background in as only a small business you get to wear the HR hat as well so I have a lot of skills in terms of hiring um interviewing coaching um and firing um which is the hardest part um with a small business and so I bring a lot of skills in in that respect and then I've also worked um for some large corporations and and have a feel for um I don't know if you've ever heard of fenol but I work for them down in Winona um and working in a large corporation gives you a whole different set of skills but I happen to work because of my background in the government section selling to governments and dealing with contracts and so forth so I have a mixed bag of skills thank you the next question uh council member strong what motivates you to be a part of this volunteer commission um my interest because I was married to a policeman for starters okay um I've always had an affinity to towards policemen uh they wear they wear kind of a unique position in their Community they have to always be on their toes um people recognize them when they're in the grocery store fill in their gas tank everywhere in town and so they wear um when they're on their in their uniform it's one thing but they also carry that over into their private life and I'm very aware of that and so I kind of have this feeling that I want to kind of protect them the mother and me kind of comes out but I'm also um kind of a straight shooting girl and can call a spade a spade um as I mentioned I ran a business for a while and you learn to read between the lines and know when someone's walking the straight and narrow and when you have trouble in the in the ranks and have to do something about it uh chair Murphy yes can you explain your understanding of the scope or duty of the commission no I was hoping you could tell me what I read up on is more um definitely an advisory role um and I guess I would more expect to learn moving along I'm I'm not sure I have a solid understanding of exactly what's expected of you know this role I do know that I have the skills and ability and the brains to work on it and learn what it is um and that's what excites me because I like to learn new things I like and I like to have input into my community I I come from a family both past and present where you get involved in your community you live here you get involved um I've been involved with many different um volunteer organizations here in Roseville since I moved up here because I felt that was kind of necessary as well so I'm hoping through guidance if I'm selected that is that I will be a good person on the commission and you know will learn fast Mr Murphy I'm going to give you an opportunity to use your 30 second elevator speech about the commission uh to to help Miss Lynch a little bit with her understanding yes that the the role of commission is to ensure the police department follows standard accepted procedures in hiring promotion and if necessarily offer dismissal officers there's a u handbook that we uh just recently updated last year that describes the the police department uh uses in hiring interviews commission members can be uh observe the any of the hiring questions any of the promotion uh exams but we are not a oversight commission right okay then that is my understanding I make it to the top floor you had some time to spare as far as I'm concerned no well done thank you um with that um let's see the next question would be um for council member Bower uh thank you what do you love most about living in Roseville oh well I felt I came from Winona okay which is a down river and um it's nice to be up River little joke anyway um I got it it's um it's a welcoming Comm Community I I have I found it to be i' I've made very good friends here um which really helps um but I've also gotten involved and found that it's nice to get not nice to get it's welcoming to get involved in different volunteers like I volunteer over at the Nature Center um on a regular basis so I'm over there Wednesday afternoons in fact I was there this afternoon was very quiet there today though I like it when there's more activity but um and then I also volunte ER over at um every meal which is a food a food site and then couple years back I was at the wildlife center and then I do some one-off things both for Rachel um here and um do good Roseville as well there seems to be a wonderful community in Roseville because each of these volunteer activities that I that I am involved with have tons of people that volunteer and they're also let's dig in together and just make this community better and I boy I like that's my cup of tea so I picked the right town to move into as I plus I think the town has their act together um living in wiona for many years I got very involved in in same kind of stuff down in Winona but there seemed to be an awful lot of infighting and Old Guard versus new guard kind of thing and I don't get that feeling in Roseville I get the feeling that everybody's in this in it to win it to use a phrase and that makes me feel good too and I kind of stumbled here and moving here but I picked the right place thank you all right uh and the final question uh which I'm not 100% sure it's terribly relevant to the PCS commission but uh we have to ask it anyway okay uh and maybe this can apply in other are my coffee black if only that was the question uh the question is sometimes commissions make recommendations on matters that have a lot of strong feelings from the public perhaps from opposing perspectives how would you expect to deal with such situations while serving on the commission okay so this goes back to my my first job um in my schooling I was a journalism major we deal in facts okay I have I'm I've never strayed from that I am a girl who goes to Great Lengths to get to the facts and I don't people have opinions and people um have feelings and people have emotions that run High I deal in facts I listen I'm a very good listener though because that's crucial when I had a um I rate customer in the the retail store that we owned you have to learn to listen and deal with their emotions when they come in um whatever has gone wrong and it might not even be what they're complaining to you about it could be they had a bad cup of coffee that morning and you're the person they're taking it out and but you just have to listen and I'm I have schooled myself because I can get kind of hot under the collar myself but I've schooled myself to learn to just take her down and just listen and once everybody has had their say then you take it back and deal with the other commission members with facts and make a decision jointly about how to go forward where to where to bring in the differing opinions but also to make sure it fits into what is factual and good for the spit it out Rita good for the community uh well those are the questions uh is there anything you wanted to emphasize to us in support of your application that we maybe didn't cover or any questions you have for us other other than what the commission does no I really didn't um I've talked to Rachel at at length um through different times that I've and I've talked with her about you know volunteering at different times and and different commissions and I never felt I was a strong candidate and she actually encouraged me and she said you you know Rita you've got something to offer just put your name in and see where it goes if you select me fine if you don't I am still going to be a proud person living in Roseville not a problem we don't want to drive people away move away because of the outcome no no I mean I I made I told the gentleman out there I said hey if they pick someone better than me more power to him cuz I'm not perfect um um but but I do I do get excited about my community I I do I I like being involved I you know I think it's something that my mom and dad kind of drilled into us as kids and I've just gone forward with that and every town I've lived in I've gotten involved somehow some way women in business in one Community another woman's thing in a different Community Chamber of Commerce you name it I've gotten involved and I I just think that's important great well thank you again for your interest in serving here and we wish you luck in the process L YN CH just so you don't forget thank you thank you everybody for your time I appreciate it and thank you for the job you're all doing by the way thank you appreciate that I appreciate it trust me well enjoy the rest of your evening I will it's Bal me out there great e yourself forward as a candidate for appointment to the parks of Recreation Commission in Roseville uh we appreciate your interest in serving uh and your willingness to put up with our interview process here this evening um so what we'll do is we'll do a round of questions uh from all the council members here sure uh and then if there's time at the end if there's anything we haven't covered you want to talk about let us know about or any question you have for us so we hopefully have time for that okay sounds good good so with that we'll start this round of questions uh with uh council member strong thank you how do your experiences and skills relate to serving on a city commission well I I work in government relations so I'm pretty familiar with government right I I am the executive director of The Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs um so I represent an advocate for Boys and Girls Clubs um locally Statewide nationally so that's kind of my my day job right um say I'm a lobbyist for kids which is not not necessarily true but um and so I'm pretty familiar with government I've been doing public affairs a long time but that's not why I want to do this right I'm I'm familiar with it I know how how it works for the most part but you know for me I I just I really I'm a huge proponent of the parks I grew up a park kid in South Minneapolis I grew up at the you know learning how to play tennis and going to arts and crafts and playing ball at a park the same park that my grandparents met at you know when they before they got married when they were kids right so I've always been a park kid at heart and um I have worked in Youth Sports um and um really enjoy just recreational activities and and feel that they're kind of a almost a right I think for communities to have recreational activities for adults and for kids um so that's I really feel passionate about that and um my previous line of work I was the executive director of the twins Community Fund and so we um our main main goal was to fund and help design Youth Baseball Fields across the five State areas so I know baseball fields I'm a baseball guy I love baseball I know longer work for the twins um but um I am on the board of the Roseville Youth Baseball Association I um volunteer I'm out there raking you know raking uh dirt and and sometimes pulling weeds when I see weeds and things like that and so I I really you know parks are kind of what I just believe are are right and a something that's you know just very very primary to the the health of a community and I've always like I said I grew up in Parks I'm a park kid growing up and uh um I always tell people they ask me did you grow up in the Boys and Girls Clubs because I work I said no but I grew up in the Parks and you know in Minneapolis they're kind of one and the same so well and I think just as a side note I think there is a field that was uh put in by at least partially supported by the twins Community Fund Dale and be in Roseville yes yes that field actually went away because of the the um you know the water project but that's okay it was it was that's all right you know I think the sign might still be there yeah I keep you know what and I keep meaning to take that sign down all right anyway that's a side note um uh so this this may tie into your previous answer but the the the next question is what motivates you to be part of this volunteer commission yeah I think I I like to I want to give back right I like to be in the community um I've I've done a number of nonprofit boards and other you know um Civic rotary things like that so I just it's what I like to do it kind of fills my bucket right to help and be in the community um for me I we live right on Central Park our house backs up to Central Park um so between playing baseball and tennis and living on the park you know my family is super users of the rosille parks right and we've done all the te ball and Sports of All Sorts and all those things when my kids were little and um you know swimming lessons which is a community ed thing but you know still I mean just to to utilize all the resources and the and the recreation opportunities of of the city so for me you know if I'm going to help anywhere it's going to be in my own backyard which happens to be Central Park and the ball fields that I care about and um you know the trails and and and not just the recreational things too but the the you know the urban forests and you know I think that some parks they do a great job of of maintaining the urban forest and making sure that you know you can be on a busy street one minute and two minutes into your walk you feel like you're in the middle of the woods like at you know like at villo or something like that so to me it's like if I'm going to do anything it's going to be Parks because it's what I care a lot about and it's my own backyard you know thank you uh council member power thank you can you explain your understanding of the scope uh or duty of the commission yeah I mean I I think that from you know what I understand and and what I've seen in in some meetings in the past it's it's just you know it's a it's to hear kind of the the comments and and just to be good listeners for the the people the you know the citizens and what they want and what they think um and to be able to kind of be a listening board for the the council um and to be able to help the council make the decisions um that they need to to make to say hey we've heard this or we've been approached about this or um here's what we think about this is so really for me it's you know it's an advisory it's kind of that that middle sounding board for for the public to talk about the parks in this entrance and instance and for us to be able to pass that along to the council and what our you know what our advice might be as well council member gra what do you love most about living in Roseville well um that's a tough one I mean I you know for me I think it's a couple things number one it's it's it's the diversity right I think that's why we live here because it is a diverse um Community for the most part um and we you know we really want that for our family to live in a diverse community so I think for me it's diversity um it's size right it's it's not an overwhelmingly large community it you know in some ways I think there are a lot of more resources and and um and just things for families to to love about living in this city than a lot of cities our size um but also it's a pretty small community right I mean my my in-laws live a block and a half away from me you know most of our friends are within walking distance um or a quick drive away it's it's a very tight-knit community so I think those are the things that I love the most it doesn't hurt the distance from you know the main downtowns and things like that that's that's also a huge when I tell people oh there's a house for sale it's only you know and you only be 10 minutes from your office in downtown St Paul right so again council member strong I just like to add my kids crew up at Windom okay okay sure in the aabon Park neighborhood uhhuh Sibly park for me yeah yeah I'm sorry when you're when you're a Minneapolis person these things mean something it's not called SI Park anymore but yes yeah um sometimes commission makes a recommendation on a matter that has a lot of strong feelings from the public perhaps from opposing perspectives how would you expect to deal with such situations while serving on this commission yeah I think the best you can do is is just to have made sure that you are well educated and have heard all sides and then when you make the decision you do you can at least be confident and that you have made it from an educated perspective that you didn't you don't want to leave any stone unturned when you need to make those tough you know tough advice um situations and there are going to be people who are not happy with it and there always are on all sides of issues right and I think as long as we have done our homework and we have been good listeners and made sure to include uh opposing voices or voices that may not always get heard that we can say that we made the decision um with the most information available and then at least know that you did the best you could there um and again not all people are going to be happy but I think if you to go to them and say hey these we've heard from everybody we gave everybody a chance to be heard on it we researched all these things we went to the ends of the Earth to figure out exactly what it is that that matters the most here and this is the decision we made then they may not like it but at least I think you know they know that you worked hard to get to where you're at versus just saying this is how I felt from day one and I wasn't going to change my mind right thanks well those are the questions this evening um you made it through that there's uh anything else you want to make sure we know about or any questions you have for us this is that opportunity no I think for me it's just a yeah I I really believe parks are integral you know to to communities as a whole and you they been a huge part in my life growing up and they're playing a huge part in my own kids life growing up um and I you know just I want to be helpful I want to be able to say that that you know that I gave back to the community and it was a part of the community that I really cared about and that's parks for me so well thank you again for your interest in in applying and wanting to serve and we wish you best of luck in the process here we've got some tough decisions to make uh we certainly uh encourage you if you don't happen to be appointed to keep trying opportunity keeps coming around every every few months here for our commissions so uh you don't always have to make it on the first try uh but we wish you luck and uh the uh uh staff will follow up after our meeting on the third to let you know what the decision was all right well thank you very much I appreciate it enjoy all right I think it's journ we are ready to adjourn uh are we okay with adjourning hearing no objections we're adjourned thank you thanks for that reminder I want to get