Joan Ryan EST St with eles on the state of Alaska Matthew her legislative Council to the assembly Jasmine Acres Deputy Clerk and staff to the committee Lori picket Alaska literacy program great let's go through those online um I'll just go down the list um well I can see Mara go ahead Mara hi Mara Kimmel welcome and Isa hi everyone Isa State Refugee coordinator great and then we have 907 727 0805 that's Mark Littlefield great welcome and then I see another phone number coming in um Mark if you wouldn't mind just renaming yourself so we have your name that'd be great and then I see uh 907 903 7306 do you want to introduce yourself hi uh this is Carmen Peres with in lassis sorry I was hoping I could be there in person but I had a family emergency so feel at the doctor but I'm here okay great glad you're here did you say Carmen yes Carmen peretta great yes oh excellent great if you can put if I don't know if you can but if you can rename yourself on Zoom or sorry on teams so we can have your name handy that'd be great yeah in my phone I cannot do it but as soon as I get home and I log in from the computer I will do that okay no worries and Asher hey this is Asher Harley here representing Congregation Beth Shalom yet nope okay um land and labor acknowledgement is there someone who would like to volunteer today well I go ahead and read the one that we have the one that we have here we acknowledge that the land that now makes up the United States of America was the traditional home hunting ground trade exchange point and migration route of more than 574 American Indian and Alaska native federally recognized tribes and many more tribal Nations that are not federal recognized or no longer exist we recognize the cruel Legacy of slavery and colonialism in our nation and acknowledge the people whose labor was exploited for generations to help establish the economy of the United States we honor indigenous enslaved and immigrant peoples with resilience labor and stewardship of the land and commit to creating a future founded on respect Justice and inclusion for all people as we work to heal the deepest generational wounds thank you Pastor M okay let's go first to unfinished business before we um begin we had a request uh just before the meeting began to add the language access audit that we received by email to the agenda is there any objection to adding that under unfinished business okay hearing none we'll add that and um just while I'm added is there are there any other agenda items that people would like to add today okay hearing none we'll just go forward um the change lab legal analysis we're still tabling that because I think it depends a bit on our discussion today about our priorities whether we want to come back to that so um we'll just proceed with tabling that one um let's just discuss the language access audit Joan do you want to start us off yeah sure um I read the audit that like five minutes after uh jasine sent it and I in my opinion I thought it was very indepth and I think that we can do a lot of progress um I'm just curious if anyone knows who Thea on uh that is mentioned in the audit that's my only question right now Felix isn't online tonight um so I don't know Jasmine do you have any information on that to the chair I do not know okay let's let's mark that down to find out um yeah any for those of us who haven't read it can you just give us a little bit of a your your perspective on what it shares and anything that we might want to work on further yeah so the audit um uh so the person or the team who did the audit they went to different departments and just asked about their uh the translation services that they have uh the interpretation Services as well um they found uh a bunch of flaws but also they what it was really good to see was that the um the mayor's office was uh engaging with the audit and said that um they're willing to participate and um apply different recommendations that they made in the audit and that was really nice to see I'm really hopeful that this uh actually happens um so yeah there there's not very many um there are departments that have nothing on language access and there are other departments that they do have some stuff on language access that being uh translation I mean translated material um um translation over the phone uh Etc um Lori do you remember anything else I know there's way more in there um I commend those who who worked on it I mean they detailed out that even the link to report if you could not get language access did not work the link itself was broken that many departments do not have language access plans and if they do their staff is not trained they acknowledged that they acknowledged that the Frontline staff did not know how to access Language Link the one Department that was using Language Link um at all was the health department which I thought was interesting to note and and I can say that I know that a few years ago Alp did a lot of work with the health department on how that works and and the our peer leader Navigators worked with them and they committed to that so it looks like maybe some of that held so I think that when they acknowledged training was key that that's really really important but it is very um it is very telling and clear that that language access is not consistently and legally provided um by the municipality and so acknowledging that is the first step in being able to move forward with making some changes so um I I really recommend everybody read it I know that there's just a few of us that are as crazy passionate about language access but I really think that it's worth reading yeah it's it's an easy read too it's an easy read yeah and if you go to Alaska literacy programs website we have a really good public language access plan why it's important resources on how to build plans um and so um if people are just more Curious I think that that's a decent um a decent way to start but I can say that um with trying to access services in the in the municipality people are told to bring their own interpreters on a regular basis and I think that that was that was acknowledged um I just was pulling the report up and just with the question of who is the language access liaison um it says according to the office of the mayor after the creation of the chief Equity officer position an Unwritten policy placs the responsibility for language access in the chief Equity position however we were told it was the intent of the mayor's office to resume this responsibility Office of the mayor appointed a staff member to be the mayor's language access liaison a position that had previously been delegated to the municipality's office of equal opportunity so we just it never names who it is okay so there's some staff members okay and what department do they work in in the mayor's office it says in the mayor's yeah okay so Mara has has had our hand sorry about that go ahead go ahead mayor that's okay thanks um and thanks for circulating the report and I I glanced at it um and I think as was pointed out already there's a lot of work to be done I'm also curious I didn't see a place were talked about the police department and whether they were part of the audit and I'm curious if APD uh does their own or what is the language access accountability in that department does anybody know I I can just share that Felix said that he'll hop on in a few minutes he's at the airport but he'll be here to respond to questions are there any other questions or um follow-ups in terms of things that people read in the recommendations that they want the committee to kind of keep an eye on or because we can we can try and get get answers to the questions we've come up with can oh go ahead go ahead no I was just going to say I didn't have any questions or followup or anything but considering the importance of language access to many on the committee and just in general I'm glad that we got a audit report sooner rather than later yeah because that's what we have been pushing for yep yeah and for me it it's great that we have the report but now that we have the report we gotta get busy I mean I I'm disturbed to hear that it falls on a position of the chief well and maybe now in the office of equal opportunity based on what you just shared and those individuals are I'm talking about the oeo office now which is limited with its resources already um I think I think it states I think it states that that uh it had formerly been part of the eeo office and was given to the chief Equity officer but that was taken back and went back under the administration of the mayor's office so somewhere it's some staff member May so they were going too the mayor's going pointed the liaison but he didn't name the liaison that he was to appoint sure seems like a a a job duty of the chief Equity officer but he took that from him so I would say moving forward uh I think that maybe we can ask for uh reports on what they're doing I don't know if the if we can do that but I think it would be great to just you know start poking hey what are you doing about this and um see if they can start whoever responsibility this is the this Le is on um maybe they can Implement all the recommendations that are in there and and us to see hey have you done this basically I mean yeah would the committee like oh sorry there's a hand up Isa go ahead I think similarly I was going to say if we could find out who this person is in the administration can we invite them to a meeting in a in three months and let them know that we'd like to ask them questions or we'd like them to give us an update on what they've done that addresses the flaws in the report I mean the report basically says there's policies nobody's following them I mean the report basically acknowledges that the policies are there nobody everybody's ignoring them or they're not trained on them or they're just not being utilized and so um if there is a person can we find out who that person is and can we invite them in like three months and find out what the plan of action is and we can ask these questions directly I think mayor's got a great question does this include the police department does it not like what was really looked at and see if we can get down to some yeah hold them accountable hold them accountable to come and try to answer to us what they are doing now that we have it and I was I don't want to say I was dismayed when I read it I think I I read what exactly I thought was happening uh in practice but the worst thing we can do now is know it doesn't work acknowledge it doesn't work and then ignore it like and so I want to if we can hold them accountable in some way to have to come here and tell us yeah we know and we're still doing nothing then at least they're publicly saying that is there any objection to following up um with as Isa suggested finding out who the Lea on is and inviting them to come three months from now I would love that okay is there any does the committee want to appoint a subcommittee to work on this or do we think that's not needed I think we should wait and hear in three months and see from there okay that's my Rec that other people agree okay anything else on this topic did the report actually provide some remedies or no there was some recommendations recommendations for every topic that they want to but I do think it would be worth maybe not creating a subcommittee but Gathering questions in addition to the two that we have oh no if you're collecting those great yeah I think we can we can find out who the liaison is and follow and and then ask specifically about departmental y uh implementation including and especially APD yep yep great thank you sorry about that yeah it's okay anything else that when they bring them in when we bring them in can we keep it under old business so we touch on it at the next meeting in case we want to get our questions and make sure we find out what the response is thank you great idea oh I guess I was thinking once we plan out who the leaon is then we could invite them to the meeting and I think Issa was saying in about three months or whatever and then I our questions or what have you I think we could ask them the question about APD as soon as we find out who it is we can just email them anything else on that topic who the chairs I emailed member Rivera and he said he will find out and let the committee know oh great perfect both both those questions who the Le is on is okay great thank you Jasmine all right let's go on to our next topic um are there any new member nominations I want to nominate Carmen Paredes she's joining us today but she can be a part of the the committee great do you want to give us any background or thoughts anything to share yes so and and last is finally finally got uh our director of programs her name is Carmen Carmen pares she has uh reach background on um corporate here in in in Anchorage but she comes with a lot of fora and um we're very happy to have her and um she will be managing all our programs we don't have very many hours but it's a really good start for us so I want her to be part of this committee as part of En lasses and uh the Latino Hispanic Community here director of programs are there any objections to Carmen joining okay hearing none welcome Carmen great any other new member nominations Paredes p r d s pares p a r that's that's correct yes p a r e d s thank you great okay welcome um all right let's go to Committee Member updates I know a lot of stuff's been happening it's a busy time of year so maybe we can just go around the room Celeste you want to start us off so the Alaska Black Caucus is um has been really busy we just finished up the Betty Davis africanamerican Summit marching till Equity equality and justice is one and moved quickly well that was after we moved from the MLK event but we are um working on a couple of Grants right now and so um healthy and Equitable communities is one and breakthrough is there other one where we're going to be um focused on domestic violence um the equity center um just got a new contract and it's being reviewed by our legal team and so we're hoping to get the equity center renovated and open for business by the end of the summer and let's see and the list goes on and on so glad to be here thanks thanks Celeste m do you want to share any updates yeah sorry I can't ever find the mic on this um I just want to let people know that in April I'm going to be heading to Dallas and hopefully Felix will be joining for uh the welcoming America interactive so I will connect with Felix beforehand to see if there's things that um we can coordinate when we're both down there in our different roles and then um my organization that ACLU continues to persist in its effort to ensure inclusion and Equity um especially for the trans Community we filed two lawsuits against the state uh one about um removing books from shelves to protect First Amendment rights and then the second about a bathroom ban in the Matsu Valley so we are continuing to monitor equity and equality issues uh for the queer and trans Community um and also continuing to monitor other essential rights like the right to free speech and assembly so we're keeping very busy the other thing I just wanted to mention because I haven't seen it reported in the paper at all uh but APD just confirmed for me last week that there have been there were 52 outdoor deaths in uh 2023 and so I wanted to surface that uh very horrifying piece of information for us here in Anchorage wow thanks Mara for sharing that Mara how does that compare to to previous years is it a significant well over twice yeah like a doubling to mean yeah one for every week one person died every week of last year I mean not technically but right yeah and the other thing is just um again I know it's not Anchorage focused but is is reminding seeing Us's face is reminding me also too of just remaining Vigilant about what our state does on our Southern border um and uh and the horrors that are happening there that definitely trickles up to the people who we um who are our neighbors in our community thanks Mara um Isa Do you have any updates to share uh yeah I'll share it sorry I was out I created this human he's come to join us my son um and uh uh the CSS the Alaska office for refugees that I lead we are hosting the first ever resettlement conference this year it's happening in April April 24th and 25th so um I'll put some information in the chat and then I'll so you can just go to CSS alaska.org and you can find it under the Alaska office for refugees we just confirmed our keynote speaker mayor Wilmont Collins from Helena Montana he's the first black mayor in the history of Montana and he's a Liberian Refugee arrived to Montana and is now the mayor of Helena so he'll um be coming up to be the keynote and the federal office of refugee resettlement and Del and individuals from the state department from PRM will be joining us and uh really centering a lot of refugee voices talking about their experiences coming to Alaska and workshops and other things so check it out there's early bird pricing through March 15th of $125 for two days so hopefully some of you will be able to join us and um learn a little bit about more as the state of Alaska has received about 250% increase in Refugee arrivals and really Statewide I know this is Anchorage based but um I'm traveling to Juno for example next week because Juno is a Rising group of arrivals in Juno Haitians as mea references the southern border so um it's happening here so if you are interested please come and attend the resettlement conference thanks than S yeah Isa if you can share that information with Jasmine then she'll make sure it gets on the the calendar ande Joan do you want to share any updates um yeah so Andis is doing I fingers crossed that it's April 27th we're doing a AO event and we're going to have vaccinations for kids or we're going to have different vendors uh bouncy house and hopefully uh we're gonna found out tomorrow we're going to join uh forces with so we're going to do it at um this Elementary School uh Government Hill Government Hill yes yes um elementary school and they're doing their Multicultural event that day as well and last year it was very successful so they're expecting around a th000 people so joining events that will hopefully we're going to be able to vaccinate a lot of ketos in there so that will be April 27th if everything goes well what was the name of the event Kids Day the day of of the kids yeah de and uh I believe that's all we have as of the moment thank you is that vaccinations in general or specific yeah I know it's for kids but specific type or right that's what I was yeah trying to find out if it was that type of vaccination event or was something that's delayed covid related or something like that yeah yeah okay right got you have there any um updates um I'll just say we um we're getting ready for spring Sports which this year the middle school and high school sports all start on the same day which is lovely um but and and I think in general the district does better than the municipality in terms of providing services to non-english speakers but it's definitely a barrier that there's an online at the High School level and online Sports registration piece and so where we're happy to be out there in the community providing physicals to these students they it doesn't always translate to them getting to be on like the soccer team for example um so if you and I know like the Reas team does a great job supporting these families too but um but that really is the the biggest um limitation I think to to getting kids involved so if you know any out there that need more support um you know we can do our best to try to help them or it's kind of like a one-on-one situation but yeah is there any Fe are there any fees associated with the physicals or anything like um we Bill insurance but we can wave fees because we do get a grant from the municipality that really helps us so yeah Heather has there ever been discussion just about getting rid of the requirement to do a physical for sports to me it seems like one of those things that probably when it started maybe there was a good reason for it but now it just seems like a barrier um like do you things I me I'm not yeah like like it was funny because we we did 10 kids at West today and the principal said did they all pass and I was like yeah but yesterday when we were at roig there was a girl who had a murmur and she hadn't heard of the murmur and or we haven't gotten a hold of her mom to know about this murmur and I and I think you know it's it's a small percentage of kids but like some of the more public um like LeBron James's son had a cardiac event the kid the guy in theball the Buffalo Bills player that had one um you know so that stuff is out there but um it's it's rare I know sometimes they catch like hernas and boys and things like that um so it really I mean you know we're catching some things like depression and anxiety that like or you know kids are disclosing because we have like a risk screening tool and kids are disclosing things to us that haven't been disclosed before so we've done a lot more this year um child abuse reporting um so so it's not necessarily like this like physical stuff but yeah some of these kids haven't been to doctors in the Years um so so that's good yeah Pastor May any updates I'm good I don't think I have any updates couple Okay Lori um I have a couple things I'll just mention one is last week I attended the national digital inclusion Alliance conference in Philadelphia and it's a really heartbreaking the impact at losing the affordability connectivity program is going to have uh um there's 23,000 plus families in Alaska more than 13,000 households and we know that many of those households are doubled up families that are receiving their internet through this program the internet will be turned off for them these are families who are that that we have enrolled hundreds of families through Alaska literacy program I know personally Isa it's one of the things that happens um for new arrivals it is how people are taking their English classes we've never had such robust online classes and they will all be losing their capacity to take online classes and I don't know what the impact is around people who attend school but we have moved everything online and we are not providing access to to life I don't so um my biggest concern that was has been alleviated by my conversations people cannot go into collections because they don't understand they can't just start to be automatically build if they started with internet on this program but for a family who started with internet and then needed to access this program but they were paying independently first could potentially um not be cut off and we're trying to figure out you know from GCI and ACS but even the communications that we're getting from the the telecommu telecommunication companies when I call those numbers it's inaccurate information people don't know why I'm calling that phone number they're suggesting another program like Lifeline which is a telephone so they're the the communications are chaotic confusing inaccurate it's hard for us to help share with the Community Information the school District seemed surprised when I reached out thanks Heather you shared last time but lots of families are accessing um and that's how you connect to Parent Connect or whatever the whatever it is called so that but that's how you're expected to communicate with your teachers and check on your students that's all going to be denied um so it was a it was a little bit heartbreaking and there's no indication that that they're going to pull through for us at the last minute and continue that program so it will be winding down in um March April um the other thing I'd like to share is Alp had a very particular interesting experience because we were shut down because of the roof situation and it was mass chaos we spent weeks and weeks trying to get our roof shoveled and we got a do not occupy letter and we had to close down for a for a full week while we worked to um make sure our building was safe and remove the snow and it costs um I um I think the final bills are going to come in but it was probably around $10,000 for us to get the roof shoveled the inspector in and the um the snow removed and and I know that that's a cost that many nonprofits um can't afford but also many people are at risk with their with their housing when those um those go out okay thank you Lori do you own a rent it is such a mess we own 1116 of the Ring their individual office off condos and it's an absolute nightmare for me to I spend probably onethird of my entire working time just caring for our falling apart building personally doing work that I shouldn't be doing and also writing grants and working with trying to figure that stuff out I'd like to I'd like to not be doing that had I had a question for you are the various uh uh ESL programs throughout the city directly related in any shape form or fashion to aop so we're the we are the regional provider there are a couple other places like Isa offers programming that I think looks a lot some you know providing support and services but she's not running an education program out of out of there there's certain churches that offer like citizenship classes on their own sometimes they reach out to us for for for free technical assistance and we do what we can um ninestar offers a certain amount of service I know that other places are interested in offering forms of adult education but we don't really have anywhere else that we um we really can refer to there's a real it's a very underfunded and there's a huge gap when it comes to adult education in in in the city um it's I do you know of any others that you refer to that are out there no I mean we refer to nin star and to you and that's it and I just wanted to note that also the concern around the the connectivity program you know think about all those snow days and kids were supposed to be learning remotely I mean I granted they're not doing the most in those remote learning days but our students are going to have no access it all to remote learning days and so if we're going to live in a city that struggles to plow the streets and schools are going to be closed this is really problematic those kids are going to fall behind it's an equity issue certainly and during covid people were hooked up with internet and other resources to to be able to do that but they're not going to do that for every kid in the entire District who doesn't have internet in their home and so we're concerned about our families who are already confused enough by a remote learning day and then to have a remote learning day you can't even access in at no fault of your own so the district needs to think about how they're going to do this because you can't have remote learning days when when people can't attend sounds like a potential ACLU lawsuit about free and appropriate education maybe a little fape there thanks Mara well I just want to add as someone who has two kids in school it's not just remote learning everything requires you to they submit their assignments online like it all happens through the Chromebook so it's not just remote learning it's every day it's all the scholarships it's applying for college it's applying for anything after high school it's everything this is a good segue to Asher who is a teacher um any updates or anything you want to share no updates you want wait in on the remote learning oh home internet no I think it's a I mean the issues that were brought up it's they're legit issues if teacher by teacher it's a different story but if you're going to um make assignments count towards your final grade and people don't have access to it it's yeah certainly it's um fair and equal opportunity not hey any other updates want to share didn't get to John I really quickly I want to share and this has nothing to do with un lasses but ARP is already doing the free taxes around the municipality so uh you can find the schedule uh on their website I believe and uh yeah pretty good service for free for a community and I know aop has some other building I believe yes and and if anybody needs an appointment they just call 211 and if they're interested in being a space that's well trained in language access that's aop space perfect thank you great awesome service okay I don't think we have anyone from the assembly on correct yeah sorry for not making that clear okay we can slide through that item um okay our main topic today is to review the results of our work session that we had at the end of January and um it's a really good session we had good food and we got out exactly at 2 o'clock masterfully up run by Pastor May um and then Heather thank you heather put out a poll to everybody because we came up with you know as as always a a long list of things that we want to work on we also had a good discussion about the need to prioritize and not just to prioritize but also to communicate um with the mayor's office and with the assembly about what our priorities are um we had some reflection about the first year of our committee work there was a lot of things that we ended up kind of reacting to and responding to assembly members brought us lots of different kinds of resolutions to review um and so we were a little bit all over the place I mean we had kind of our three big buckets that we had identified the previous year but that didn't necessarily put it put many um limitations around our work so we had some conversation about the importance of us being more clear about what we want to prioritize over the course of the year um and so then Heather put together a a poll that everyone was able to respond to um there were a couple things that we didn't include on the poll one of them was that we really want to have a meeting with the mayor and with the um Chief Equity officer once we have a a game plan for the year to talk about that and to find out kind of what sort of support they're able to offer because one thing that feel like mentioned was just that almost every committee has someone in the administration that's helping move the work of the committee along and because we're all volunteers that's pretty necessary if we're going to make progress so finding out um what resources we can get from the mayor's office will be one thing we'll for sure do and then um as we get into the results I'll hand it off to Heather to talk about that in just a second um again if we're going to be working specific Al with a department or a certain area we'll need to also talk with them obviously and think about how we want to work together Pastor May anything you want to add I was going to piggy back on the uh the commentary about the chief Equity officer you know and I think it's good to to see how that office and the mayor's office can uh provide us some teeth and some structure and help us get our agenda moving along but also uh to see what the mayor's going to do about uh his job description for the chief Equity officer in regard to what the assembly has enacted as well so for me it's a two two-one thing yeah anyone else want to add anything just about the work session and our discussion okay Heather over to you to share the results yeah um so I you know set it up so I would wait each of the categories but when you look at the graph on the um the the Google spreadsheet it was like single story house single story house skyscraper single story house single story house and and so it just um you know was a clear uh winner if you will on on what the priority should be for the next year uh which is analyze engr Health Department budget and allocations within the department to make strong recommendations to effectively lever uh our resources to build Health Equity so yeah um but you know and then the other I don't want to say they were totally even but um some of them were weighted slightly higher but nothing within range of the first ranking one now we just need to figure out how to do it yeah so this isn't like a bing boat you know this was meant to kind of be an opportunity for the whole whole committee to weigh in um and and how many people did you get total responding other there were nine um primarily the people that participated in the Saturday work session um yeah I'm just so tell us a little bit more about how you weighted them then so like if somebody ranked something first then that was like three points and if somebody ranked something as their second priority then it was two points and their third priority was one point and so it was just um and everyone had three votes correct yeah um but you know so so nine people did the survey but eight of them put that as their first priority so that made it way and stronger um and the one person who their other first priority was complete an analysis of the procurement policies to identify areas to increase equity in granting hiring and Contracting and then all the other ones were second and third yeah and a couple zeros so um and then yeah the comments somebody only waited the first one um and then that you know we need to work more with the administration to identify the role of the chief Equity office are implementing the agenda and then somebody said it was hard to make choices which is true but sometimes you have to do that okay so let's have some discussion on this because again it's not it's not like we it's not a binding vote it's a it's a pulse check so especially for those who maybe weren't at the session or um any thoughts on identifying this number one as our priority for the year and then also a question you know last year we kind of had three big priorities which again didn't really help us narrow down too much um but I guess we don't necessarily need to overreact and only have one priority so is there perhaps two that people want us to kind of prioritize for the year or what just what are your thoughts I have a question so I'm very interested on number one as most of us uh my question is like how can we do this how can we actually do the work and how will the encourage Health Department be open to our suggestions or our hey what are you doing how can we help Etc like how can we do the work yeah and I was just going to say that in in that regard you know can this get broken down into subcategories of like tangible tasks I was just going to say it might be an interesting question for them to say hey where are you struggling to you know get input from the community and from different you know parts of the community it' be interesting what they had to say if they could point us in the right direction as well it also might come off better to be from the perspective of how can this committee support you versus like we're here to be critical of the work you're doing yeah um I mean I think one thing to think about is the health department has a lot of things within it so it has the childcare office snap and Wick are part of it there's aging and disability Resource Center is in there um the the homelessness uh uh coordinator is there they have a clinic so their Public Health Clinic is there they do a lot of um Capital grants for the cdbg yep so they do some Capital grant funding they would do a lot of grant funding that that's where the alcohol tax funding comes out through as well as other marijuana I don't know about the marijuana tax money well that's part of the child care one but the a tax is through the alcohol is through the health department yeah but I don't know about the marijuana one yet I okay cool have they put some of that out yet no because they're still deciding but I think it's I've heard them talk I mean like it's coming out of the health department it seems like it would I mean yeah so there's a lot going on there is there any I mean I think in the one hand all of those things fit together very well on the other are there pieces of that that that the committee's particularly interested in well I'm just looking at like the the third priority which was somebody's first priority um to look at procurement policies and and maybe that could be applied specifically to the health department first um that you know kind of a more tangible task within the bigger part of it and then and then that could potentially spread to the other departments depending on how we move forward with it you know for me I'm I'm thinking about the city's affirmative action plan that they talked about so much seems like that plan would have a lot of this information in there from the various departments um it should be a answering a lot of these questions and I'd be interested to know because that plan is it used to be in the office of equal opportunity now employee relations is responsible for the affirmative action plan I'd like to invite the ER director to a meeting to talk about that plan and is there a current plan there should be because they federal dollars y now that we've looked at a previous one but current one looks like yeah director is who you want to the employee relations director me no I was simply going to say relative to whether or not the committee chooses to go with this one as the uh major focal point of emphasis and uh if not any the others or what have you then uh I think for me a good starting point would be to if we're going to analyze uh the budget and the allocations and that kind of thing a good starting point for me would be to uh get a copy of the budget which would entail all of the Departments that you were naming and everything else in it and uh maybe explain why we want the budget so we won again can come across as combative or what have you why we want to look into it and analyze it and see where we can get in where we fit in and I'm pretty sure I know that we got I'm sure the budget's on the website although I don't know how much detail because I I remember when we looked at it before I don't know well there must be a more detailed version somewhere I know when Anna presented to us it was pretty high level for the Departments I think but but um so that's a good good question so it sounds like there's kind of two possible routes with this one is kind of about how they do their work so the procurement you know how are they allocating their budget the other one is maybe more about like the impact of all the programs that are within it and how they're organized and I think there's some good so maybe one of the things we need to do is kind of come up with some good questions like like with Wick and snap for example like What proportion of the families who are eligible are actually getting that service through the municipality like are there barriers with the application process to them like are their language barriers like those kinds of questions they've added a lot of barriers on in addition to the federal ones that make this particularly Wick particularly difficult to access they I know for a fact they have room to have more people on Wick than they have on Wick because there's a lot involved in that and in Anchorage there's a shortage of foods at the supermarkets that qualify for Wick so like you can't just buy eggs you can only buy the wick approved eggs and they often are gone when you go to the grocery store the wick cheese the wick milk the wick eggs aren't even on the shelves so there's you know the there's a lot that goes on with that and and also for me too just thinking about the programs they do have and looking at them but like we are in a Statewide crisis with SNAP renewal and Medicaid renewal and and the Anchorage Health Department is who I would think would be in capacity to take the lead instead of all the nonprofits struggling and trying to form our own little groups to figure out what's going on they should be our huge advocate with the legislature and and um I would like to refer legislative aids to the health department and say they're the expert on this I only know what I know you know it's um and and that would be a I mean what health departments do in other cities that we studied and learned is really there's a lot more going on and we we have the capacity to be amazing if we want to be um it sounds like one of our first things we need to do would be to put some kind of questions or some kind of framework together that would that we could then share with them like we need to kind of put some thought into this it sounds like um does the committee want to have a kind of subcommittee that would work on this and I'd be happy to work on this would we something I'm interested in if we all selected it as our priority I think there's at least eight of us who want to be on the we put it as our number one that would have been my commentary we first need to select it if we're going to do that as one of our priorities right good point good point Thank You Professor that's getting ahead of ourselves okay let's go let's let's stick with that then so does this group and I know that we don't have everybody here today but um want to move forward with like working with the health department as our priority this year I say yes I say yes but I also think that some of the priorities from previous year specifically I'm thinking of homelessness or I can't remember how it's worded but that would fall under this umbrella too potentially yeah yeah it does so I have a question are we going to get anywhere working directly with the health department do they even have a director yet well Kim is acting I just they're they're really busy and I just think that the the buck stops with the head which is the mayor and then I have some other thoughts but won't put those on blast they're not good I can say that I I agree with you Celesta like working with the health department probably won't get us what we want but if we if we analyze it and we look at it and then we know what we want to really recommend the mayor and the assembly do in order to help bring the health department to the one that would be the one that we want for our community um there not in a position to like say hey we should do all these things right it has to be the funds have to be appropriated and the Administration has to be supportive so we don't want to set it up for failure right yeah I mean I guess I had an experience last summer where um I was worked with the complex Behavioral Health task force that was one of the two task forces that came out of when the assembly um shut down the Sullivan and we worked for about three months it's a pretty good group we got a pretty good plan together and then we kind of prioritized three different objectives in the plan and presented those and between that was I think in September between then and now one of those priorities ended up on their their legislative priorities list and then the other one they just put out an RFP to fund it so I mean it was kind of interesting experience where when we got together and put this kind of plan together and identified these objectives they actually did There's Been There was movement on them so I wonder if maybe what we're I wonder if what we're maybe considering doing is I think what you were just saying Lori which is like almost proposing a plan or a set of priorities or set of like a Health Equity plan kind of is that what we're maybe doing for the Department like this is what we think you should do my my thinking on that is and I and I'll just be you know forthright with it and that is this I I'm trying to be sensitive in my in my head and in my heart to the uh non-combative uh discourse that overrides all of this uh versus the reality of uh if we're going to analyze and if we're going to recommend uh anywhere we get inv involved in the process because somebody's already running it uh is going to be perceived in in uh non- too healthy whatever you know and so if if I if I was is actually about equity and if we can find inroads and say hey have a meeting of the minds and that kind of thing that helps uh but many times we're going to be talking about stuff and recommending stuff that's going to go counter to what's actually taking place and so that's you know I mean it's sort of a Nike thing you know just do it kind of um I'm very curious about their procurement I don't know if I'm pronounce it work correctly but good job on I I with the state I do work with the health department and the health and Equitable Grant was sitting for over a year um and nothing happened because of uh there was no people however when we started pushing them a little bit and we I do work with Kim um apparently they Pro they did some updates to procurement new protocols and we were talking since October of last year for this grant to move forward and the assembly just passed it this year I mean this this uh week and uh she was talking about procurement and so I'm very curious like what's going on in there for them to hold this I mean this is over a million dollars like why is it so hard to go out the door if the fanss are there what are they doing um so that's and and my other thing and and I talked about it in in our session was about uh how they do their grants in my opinion the health and Equity Grant was very hard for some agencies it it it should have been a little bit um simpler you know um so I'm just I don't understand why there are so that that bureaucracy around all that and why funds cannot just you know move a little bit easier very yeah you're yeah believe me we really know about that all just shaking our head like yeah I mean I think what what I could see us doing is kind of what we're doing right now which is like what recommendations would we make for each of these areas within the department like like like with the procurement I feel like we were just talking about this there is a whole like body of re in philanthropy about how to fund in a way that promotes equity and it it simplifies things it employs more trust it doesn't put as many it doesn't micromanage I mean all the things right and and that's research that we could find and bring for talking to the the head of the department and the assembly there's something in the middle that is not working yeah you know so I wonder if how can we ask like okay how can we help or what is going on for this to be easier and I bet it's not just the grants I mean I saw it on on our and with the health and Equitable Grant you know and at the state we were just pushing and he was just talking there oh oh within the munic so at the state you were pushing them out but at so it would get stuck right at the city yeah so I I I work at the healthy un equal communities unit at the state level and the the fundings were there and they it was stuck it was stuck in there it's still stuck I mean well they it yeah on Tuesday it's okay so my my issue is maybe I didn't explain it properly for it to be comprehended or understandable for some I've been in this work for a long time and we have been at the table um trying to get make change and if you don't have the folks at the top this is just how I see it if you don't have them at the top and understanding why this has to happen it's not going to happen it's going to get you know it's not going to move and so we can we can do this and make these recommendations and write up the report and all these good things but what where is it going to what is it going to get us um at the end of the day and I and maybe some of y'all are new and got this energy and stuff but I'm just thinking if we're going to do something let's make it something that's going to be effective my thought on that is if you have state appropriation and uh you get to the municipality level and it's not being pushed out for whatever reason you know get starting point is okay uh share your process with us you know when what once it's been approved and you have it what's your process for getting it out and then how can we streamline that the mayor is over the municipal I mean everybody works for him and they for the mayor yeah I can share that we've had a grant for nine years that should have taken one year that we are held hostage as an agency by a very particular Grant it doesn't matter who the director of the health department is who the mayor is who's on the assembly there is something broken within their Grant process on how they support agencies and how they move money and it would be amazing if we could get that cleared up I mean our whole agency is at risk of being shut down because we cannot finish or satisfy Grant requirements that we have been held to for more than nine years for something that should have taken one year and it has taken years from my life so so seeing seeing that you know those types of things are major issues you know that may be a good point to start and and and see what the process is why is it like it is and what can we help to recommend to shift the process and move it along and uh if we can get some buyin from the health department side uh then maybe we can see some of this stuff start moving from the inside M and and relative to I think what Celeste was alluding to is if you got a problem with the director who's over the the department and stuff is not flowing like it ought to flow then the the one who appoints the director ought to be able to say Get it flowing and I guess that's kind of where she was coming well I just remember back in the good old days when we had you know Administration that was supportive of the work in the community you could talk with the mayor if there was an issue or what and it would funnel down and it would get resolved and so that's why I say I I that I the buck stops at the top in addition to the uh mayor and the directors there's also within the health department there's five commissions um four of which are relevant to us the animal control Advisory Board probably not a priority um but Health and Human Services housing and homelessness uh senior citizens and anguage women's commission and so I don't know if any of those commissions if it would be worth interfacing with them to learn more about you know what they're doing to advocate for some of these issues and um promoting Equity U it just could be a starting point I don't know I think the other thing just remember that we're an assembly committee so if we do a plan or or come up with recommendations then that really is going to the assembly too so I mean I could see coming up with a set of recommendations that says you know there are this many families in Anchorage with children under the age of five in you know a loow income category and we're only funding child care for you know 15% of them we need to allocate enough funding to you know what I'm saying it's like I feel like we could come up with some recommendations that also could just go to the assembly around how to appropriate because um in our Charter like that is kind of our scope of work is really advising on budgetary matters and we haven't really gotten into that too much yet but I feel like there's a lot of potential there I I get the sense that Mara wants to say something I see her facial expression and she knows how the administration I mean if if I remember diversity month I mean there's all kind of programs when you have at the top support and I just don't see the support for Equity I just don't maybe maybe I'm missing something but Celeste I think that's my under that was my face damn you can see me pretty well um yeah I think the question is the commitment to equity and all the concepts that go with it including inclusion and access and um you know even in the the language access audit I think it underscores that um and so maybe it's just what I've been thinking a lot about is um and I hear you uh theia I think that's really true just to understand the role of this commission and at the same time we're a group of organizations that can use this time together to come together and brainstorm because I think one thing that all of these cycles of leadership have demonstrated for those of us who have been in this field for many many years is that we need to come together and hold governments accountable when they're not and it's up to us um and so recogn it yes we're all volunteer I think it's okay to request staff support I think need to request staff support um and that we and then we need to just con continually remind ourselves that our role is to hold government accountable as a as a Citizens advisory commission basically what or what you know who we are and what our our ultimate purpose here is and recognizing that we're lacking leadership at the top for equity and so in the meanwhile uh we really need to express and connect with each other to make sure that we can keep tracking all of these variables thanks Mara so let's go back to our original question um do we have consensus that we want to focus on the health department I guess I'm hearing a few different things one is analyzing the budget one is analyzing the programs um maybe making some recommend ations for each program in terms of Health Equity I I think I think all of those are one and the same we're just having various uh inflection points relative to that one y yeah I pulled up the budget online and it's interesting because it also has priorities within the department or um performance measures um and I think reviewing those could be relevant um to this discussion of like you know where where are they putting energy now and and then you know what's their progress on that are any of the ones you're seeing like relevant to Health Equity uh I haven't gotten that far again it's like you know Health Food you know food inspection child care licensing response time you know things like that so I'm just doing a quick skim I mean when I listen might because the health and um Health policy committee HD always gives a report every month but the report is entirely process like how many inspections did we do how many it's just all very short-term measures of work not really of outcomes so that's one thing I always think about when they're reporting it's like yeah there's a there's work going on but like what's it doing you know are there other priorities that people would like to bring forward for the committee for the year in addition to this one sorry can I just add and I apologize I wasn't able to be at the the meeting where excuse me where these priorities were generated but I also think it would be easy enough to wrap in the language access piece into the health department yes and and given our earlier conversation it feels like that's a priority for us too yeah yeah that seems key number three was a big one for me procurement policies yep as it relates to identifying areas for increase equity in granting hiring and Contracting um yeah and then there were a couple that could have compacted in that for as far as I was concerned about it but that one was yeah one that uh I think deserves a little emphasis and so this kind of brings us back to the change lab analysis because that's what they were originally potentially going to be able to do what do you think about seeing if we can get their help but to direct it at the health department I mean the health department does a lot of procurement and grants and contract s and there's a lot of issues with them as we've just heard what do you think of that Pastor mate I I think I think I think we if the health department is our major one then uh it's going to consume most of our uh time but as you relate you know there's procurement in in that department as well uh granting hiring Contracting the whole nine yards uh but it goes to I I guess when you look at some of the all of these kind of play in when you look at the diversity questions uh throughout the entire Administration and municipality and all of that and all of that plays into uh number three it plays into number one it plays into all of this and uh so it speaks to equity you know how Equitable are we being being in in all with all of these diverse cultures this Melting Pot that we know is how Equitable are we being across the board you know and and and regard my thing is regardless to what we choose that's the thing that we can't not lose sight of you know the diversity question and the Equitable question across all of the gamut of our diversity and and who all are being equally and equitably benefited by everything the municipality has to offer it's kind of you know I I think that's kind of why we exist and uh uh Mr Mr legal person how would you even Define the word the term liazon well it depends now um I'm sure there's a better definition out there but the term liaison is generally used as to describe someone whose job is to be a conduit for information um and to facilitate uh cooperation uh between two bodies um so it's not necessarily a position where somebody has um decision-making Authority um but instead they're there to be a representative for one agency with another agency another agency and vice versa thank you sir that's kind of that's kind of my thought process on it as well and uh yeah I think it's it that's a good point for us to keep in mind relative to the liaison question in general whether it's whether it's language access or whether is this commited yeah yeah to me it seems like we've got a couple different directions one is programs that are already um in place that it can be accessed directly by the people right I feel like that's where if we knew what some of these programs were you know part of what we bring is coming from a lot of different communities that we can you know bring awareness to programs especially with um you know language access stuff the other would be new programs that aren't yet there which would be a totally different route so we have those things going on but I feel like if we understood hey here are some programs out there that can be directly accessed by um by community members but grouped from certain communities for whatever Equitable reasons you know don't have the same access then spreading information you know is is one way to go I I don't know I think it's hard because I don't know what those programs um are right now but that's part of the power I think that this group has like we aren't assembly members um you know but but we have access to a whole bunch of different groups that we can help spread information and that's the kind of stuff that can be measured so I think it would be interesting that's how I see the couple different directions you know we can go um but again what programs are there to begin with that we can help either augment or spread the word and but I also think that the language access is one that we shouldn't Overlook that could be a major component of what we're doing because so much of the communities that I think are don't get um you know an equal say has to do with language yeah just just for example like not providing language access to help people become a licensed child care facility is directly impacting the amount of childcare facilities we have right now that we're in desperate need of and Isa has led the chart on that for years um and and so has no from from my office been really active in trying to figure out what's wrong with the system there that we cannot make it accessible to more people when when it's it's you know it's a huge crisis so they all kind of tie together but I think that's where like you know anecdotally we could say to the assembly okay this is a problem but I think we need to look at it more in depth to then make recommendations of like that the assembly can then tell the department these are changes that need to be made and not I know we talked about this a little bit in January um now we're at the end of February and by our next meeting our uh mailboxes will have our ballots for the election by April potentially a mayor or runoff ballots and and so you know we can't just wait around for changes but um you know we have to consider that we're either going to be going down the same path for three more years or um that it might be a change that and and how would we want to if there is a change when that's identified being involved with um potentially a new Administration as even before you spoke about that I was thinking about well wonder if we focused on making sure communities were registered to vote and voting and put all our efforts to get out the vote not saying who to vote for but to really make an impact um in all of these diverse communities by making sure folks were registered and voting I heard something recently on the on the radio they were asking this question is voting and getting people to vote political I think that's something that hasn't been answered yet I think that's I like the idea but right do you start running down the um you know the issue of whether it's political or not I don't see it as political getting people just to vote I mean that's that's a democ we're not endorsing candidates we're not saying you know but we are I mean I think it's our duty to make sure our communities are registered in voting I I agree that's where the real power is so so in terms of just wrapping our conversation up for today do people feel enough support for the health department project whatever we decided to be to kind of take the next step in in kind of defining it like does a small group of people want to come together between now and the next meeting to kind of write up what that would look like I mean I think we've brainstormed a lot of good ideas today but we need to sort of think about it and frame it out a little bit I I think are people supportive of that next step or or celest were you proposing this committee no but I I do like what Heather shared though we you know there there could be some changes in in a couple months yeah and and what I shared was I don't want to waste time I mean I'll certainly support whatever the group decides but um you know so I mean just to be clear like the health department has gone through a lot like with covid I mean where it was pre-co then we went through covid then we had this whole change and it's completely different now so there's not like a even if even if everything changed with a new Administration there's not like a a normal to go back to I feel like so I feel like actually no matter what happens with the election if we care about the health department we have kind of an opportunity to say here's priorities for this important department whoever is in charge you know starting in July I I think it's really important Ian especially like I see it from a different level and I wear two hats one here and one with a nonprofit right and there's there are issues in there that can be solved and I think this committee has the opportunity to go and see and ask and and move pieces or recommend like why are you putting all these barriers to organizations why why and I think that we are in in a place where we can ask and recommend and and make things easier for organizations and people I think that's my opinion I will be happy to work on that let if I may yeah just Mar okay Mar go ahead sorry Pastor May um just really quick problem think circling back to what I was trying to say before too I think it's the obligation of this committee to or commission to keep the goal of promoting equity on the Forefront and keep our leaders accountable to that so what I really like about the idea of focusing on the health department is we can use that as sort of a model maybe and articulate that vision statement that we have for our city to be more Equitable inclusive and accessible or whatever it is which is part of our work and then I I I appreciate the work that's been done so far to recognize these pieces and parts bring them within the health department and then maybe we do that then we can you know if we're successful within whatever period of time we're setting out to do we can replicate it in other departments especially Frontline departments where there's so much interaction with the with the community so I do like this idea because I think that it could potentially be be done again if we can get it framed out okay yeah now what I was about to say uh uh my state co-host has been talking grounded for quite a bit and that is nailing down what we're going to do and accomplish throughout the place so so being a co-host I I I'm not going to make a motion but I'll make a recommendation that we target uh number one and number three uh for this year number one and number three and then all of these others pieces they all kind of correlate most of this stuff does and uh wherever those pieces fit in they can get in with those two that's a recommendation so I mean we you know before our meeting ends we need to make some decision on on what we actually going to do and so my recommendation is that we do one and three and make that an annual thing for this year and then all the rest of it gets in where it fits in somebody can make a motion well or we can just say is there any objection I I like that not consens yeah yeah can you say what one and three are here one and three analy anage Health okay there it is yeah number one's Health Department number three is about procurement granting and Contracting are there any objections to those being our priorities I'll abstain un abstention now that I'm looking at it two kind of overlaps with it it's about you know making recommendations of Grant requirements and stuff so there's there's a lot of similar we're kind one two and three really that's why I the others got to get in they all fit some kind of way yeah okay we're good to go with that all right um what about a smaller group that would be willing to we meet between now and our next committee to kind of start I like how Mara was talking about kind of a framework for this that we could apply to other departments too Heather I do my best to be there yeah okay I think what we've done last time is we've just kind of we've scheduled it for the folks that sort of said they wanted to be there and then we we open it up to everybody so whoever shows up shows up does that seem good so don't forget about your when you not physically gathered the rulle of three I think as long as it's publicly noticed it's okay so that's why we would have Jasmine through the invite what's that if it's more than three people you'd have to record it too okay we'll go through you to schedule it Jasmine okay so there's like three minutes okay any audience participation okay any final comments or items yeah I have a final comment and uh it piggybacks on what Miss Mar was talking about and whatever we done we let's never lose focus uh you know on Equity inclusion peace uh across all of these uh uh parts and participles of what we're dealing with uh I'll say this and if I can be transparent uh when we when we were working as a as a uh community health committee during the co time and all of that I think we had power uh to do various things because we were uh I I guess outside of structure and working with structure kind of thing and I think I mean we accepted this model but I think to a degree we kind of got pigeon H hold uh and and there are so many stipulations and loopholes that you have to jump to uh the get of accomplishment rather than being an outside entity and just dealing with what you need to deal with so I think that's somewhat restricting but I also think it's a good place to be you know uh from the inside working but we can't lose sight of of those things that we need to affect we we just have to hammer and Hammer and Hammer even though we working on the inside and we are uh we we're labeled the Anchorage Equity Committee of the assembly and so because of that there's so many stipulations and things that we have to do and then we have to put everything in the hands of the assembly and uh even work working with the administration and all of that so we can't lose sight of the equity inclusion piece and and just have to keep hammering on what we have to hammer on in spite of looking combative are y'all feeling me now relative to to the piece that we're talking about in number one uh even though we have to do this overall thing to look at pieces and and pull some things together and out of it and all of that we've got some stuff on the table that folk have issues with you know within the department and and I don't think we should wait until we have all of this stuff together and all of that to start wrestling and grappling with those pieces if y'all feel what I'm saying am I making sense well well well plus the assembly received the audit findings right so I'm just wondering so when did the finding when did the audit come out and because to me like if I were an assembly member and I saw the the audit I would have questions I mean I would you know and so I'm wondering what has t are are they I mean was there any red flags to the assembly members we I was hoping to hear today yeah what their feelings were on it and we're going to keep it on unfinished business for next time when Felix will be here we don't have an assembly member but I think Jasmine emailed the questions that we had so we can take that up at our next meeting for sure but I I think I hear what you're saying wait even even with that they're receiving what we received by way of the report and all of that but yet and still we were in here pushing for the reports yes and it got delayed month after month after month and then we finally got it you know and so worth waiting for yeah so so so my point my point is though even though the assembly gets it and what whatever we'll see what they do with it but it doesn't mean we should leave it there exactly I guess that's my point yeah yeah real quick 10 days until um voter registration ends and you can do it online if you have a um if you have internet access and a driver's license otherwise there's paper forms through the state and thank you for all your work oh yeah yeah thanks so much other okay thanks so much everybody really good discussion and um we'll be in touch to schedule a small group meeting between now and next uh committee meeting drive carefully everybody yeah drive carefully it's a mess