I will go ahead and uh Councilman Bullock will be back, I'm sure, in a moment.

Uh we have a quorum though, and call the June 29th uh 2026 Finance Committee meeting to order of Lakewood City Council.

Um first order of business is review and approval of the June 22nd minutes.

I will go ahead and make a motion to approve the minutes.

Second.

Uh motion made and seconded.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Um Councilman Bullock, do you approve the minutes?

I do.

Uh let the record reflect that Councilman Bullock said I do as he was sitting down.

Um the next uh the only uh item of business we have, which is a communication.

Um we got through a good amount last week and kind of talked about council budget priorities.

Some of them are as we discussed, more policy-based.

Um of them would affect the 2027 budget, some of them would affect future budget years.

But it really does give us a good forum to discuss these issues as a council, with members of the administration present, with the public present so that we can uh build coalitions uh and develop ways in which to fund some of these priorities or at least get them um teed up for funding, uh whether that's through city funds or third party funds.

Um so we got through the first two pages uh last time and I or maybe even um a couple pages in.

And I think we are now at we did block clubs, is that correct?

Um so we talked about that, and now we are at the mental health response team, which I believe was uh proposed by Councilman Evans.

Um so I guess I will throw it to Councilman Evans to explain uh kind of what what what we're thinking and how we may uh accomplish it.

Uh thanks uh chair.

Um I uh this is one of the ones I I can't tell you how early we are we on in the process on this one.

Um this is something that was brought up by actually a couple of members of the community um who spoke to me and has found champions amongst residents in the city.

Um it's just uh as a way to um um support our safety services um in different ways with folks who can respond in different ways.

Um obviously we we this is so early that we haven't been able to reach out to our partners at at the uh police department, fire department, and health services, um which all are important conversations.

So um this is you know we have this on the list for 2027.

Is that likely to happen?

Probably not because this is a biggie.

Um it's a big budget ask, it's a big um question of a lot of uh cooperation integration across a lot of different departments.

Um but it's a conversation that several of us are very dedicated to having, and we have again a lot of support from the community um including we we have had a couple conversations with Judge Neff.

Um so there's a specific a very specific thing we're looking at, but that may or may not be the the right answer or or the right way to go.

Um but again, this is uh in its infancy, uh lots of things to happen.

Um but we feel it's an important thing to um address.

So um again, lots of work to do during this calendar year, probably all next calendar year before this would actually you know see something implemented, um, but want to make sure it is um on our radar and something that we're thinking about.

Any other thoughts from folks that are um interested in working on this issue?

Uh Councilperson Strybig.

Thank you.

Yes, um this is very important.

Um mental health.

In fact, um the Lakewood Youth Council last year created their own mental health committee specifically because they're seeing so many issues with young people in in uh the issues that they're having may or may not be readily solved by a 911 call to the police department or the fire department, although they have great training.

I'm not knocking anyone with what they're doing by any stretch of the imagination.

I just wonder if it's a different type of um program that, and again, no offense, Chief, that a badge and a holster don't help at that moment.

Um so I am I'm very interested in in exploring these ideas and and seeing what other communities are doing.

Um we're not trying to recreate the wheel, um, but I think it's important.

Uh specifically um the LGBTQIA plus community has a lot of issues with uh dealing with mental health and maybe not getting all the resources that that they uh require.

So thank you.

Yeah, and I will quickly reiterate that I I completely agree.

I have the utmost respect for both police department and fire department.

This is this is not about anybody doing their job or doing it extraordinarily well.

This is just adding a layer of resources, uh which I think is important.

And Councilperson Hamilton Center.

Um thank you.

Uh thank you, Chair Baker.

Um, and thank you, Councilman Evans, um, for this.

And yeah, I I think this is a possible solution to an issue that we know, you know, Chief.

You and I, we've had this discussion of what who is in our jails at any given time, and we know that the majority are either they have some sort of mental health issue going on and or some sort of substance abuse disorder.

And people with mental health and substance use disorders do not belong in jail.

Um, and they certainly belong there that this is an opportunity to have some um an intervention.

So I see this is not a replacement to, you know, law enforcement and public safety.