Good morning everyone.

We're going to call the criminal justice meeting to order.

We mister Nita, start with you with a roll call, please.

Sure.

See, roll call.

Councilmember King.

Here.

Councilmember Morel.

Councilmember Harris.

Uh Councilmember Green.

And Councilmember Hughes sent.

We have three members when Councilmember Harris returns for our quorum.

All right.

Thank you.

We'll wait for Councilmember Harris if we go to minutes.

Right.

There's one, there's two voting items on there and cover it right at the pool.

I want to have a very good factory.

All right.

So you have your quorum if you want to vote on your minutes.

All right, make a motion to uh approve the minutes for the twenty September 30th, 2025 meeting.

Second green.

Say aye.

Aye, aye.

All right.

Um, I've been informed that we may be quorum challenged a little earlier, a little later, so can we take the voting items?

Sure.

The only other voting items you have if you're planning on voting on the ordinance and then the contract.

Well, Councilmember Hughes is here.

Okay.

All right.

So uh if you want to go in order, your first presentation is an overview of the crime in the city by neighborhood.

Um presented by, let's see, uh Michael Harrison, our deputy mayor of public safety, Daniel Shanks, Director of Special Projects with Homeland Security, and Nathaniel Weaver, Justice Tech Modernization Program Director.

Yeah, so those individuals who come to the desk in the front, we can start our presentation.

But while they're coming, I want to give an opening statement to kind of set the tone for this um in future criminal justice meetings.

I want to acknowledge the seriousness and difficulty of the criminal justice work being done in this city, crime prevention and responses to crime represent complex deeply human work that often unfolds in challenging circumstances.

We recognize that many of you are working directly with individuals and families during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.

If improvements are needed, we want to identify them together.

Today's conversation is about clarity, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

All in service of safer communities and better outcomes for the people affected by violence, and that's truly anyone in this city at any given time.

With that, we look forward to today's meeting, and we will have our first set of presentation presenters come to the table.

Thank you.

We also have Councilmember Hughes and Councilmember Morrell joining us.

I believe that does work.

Huh?

Yeah.

Yes.

Good morning to the chair.

Good morning to the members of the council.

Um Deputy Mayor Michael Harrison of Public Safety.

I know my name was called this morning, but today's presentation is actually going to be delivered by Daniel Shanks and Nathaniel.

We were going to be addressing the issue.

But we appreciate the opportunity to come before you this morning.

Thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Mr.

Shankston, the floor is yours.

Councilmember King, um, council members, it is a real honor to be here today.

Uh having come from the DA's office and um addressed you from that position to now being with the city.

Um and working with Chief Harrison.

Uh I'm I'm pleased to present on the progress that we've made and the direction that we're going when it comes to crime prevention, working not only within the Office of Public Safety, but with all of our criminal justice actors uh and the health department and the Office of Violence Prevention and making a more coordinated, efficient approach, targeted um and and really being meaningful and intentional, intentional, how not only we engage the problem but the community uh that's involved and surrounds these issues.

Um, before we get started uh in addressing some of the neighborhoods, I wanted to first uh give the opportunity from for Nathaniel Weaver, who has been running our Justice Tech Modernization Project to talk about the progress we've made there.

Um this council made a significant investment in our criminal justice information systems, and it has been transformative.

Um what we've been able to do and the lift that has been made is going to change uh our criminal justice system uh for generations.

Um we have been siloed when it comes to our information sharing, and what uh Mr.

Weaver and his team has been able to do is integrate systems all the way from the time of arrest, booking um to uh the courts to prosecution and public defenders.

Uh and this is this is real meaningful progress that is not only gonna allow these systems to communicate with each other, become more efficient, allow for more just outcomes, but most importantly, we are going to be able to gain analytical insights that we've never been able to gain before that's gonna ensure that we are more efficient, that it's gonna ensure that we have cost savings.

And I am really proud of the work that Mr.

Weaver and his team has done, and I'm really excited to hear him uh talk a little bit about that with you all today.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Shanks.

Okay.

Uh thank you, Daniel.

So we're excited to report the progress that we've made under the uh Justice Tech Modernization Program, which was funded by the City Council.

Uh so in the past three years we have seen a transformation in how criminal justice agencies operate uh thanks to the investment from the city council.

Uh what we realized is and what the council recognized is that uh outdated technology was a major barrier to achieving just outcomes efficiently.

So uh because so much of the work of the criminal justice system was driven by paper exchanges, passing uh paperwork such as police reports to the jail, uh passing uh uh court orders back to the jail.

Uh, that led to uh significant delays and uh sometimes bad outcomes in criminal justice cases.

Uh so when we set out on this initiative, we established two tracks in our original roadmap.

Uh the first track was developing the common infrastructure that agencies can use to share information in real time uh and to produce analytics that can benefit all of the criminal justice agencies so they have better insights into what's happening in the system and where improvements are needed.

Uh the second uh track was replacing some of the core legacy systems in the criminal justice system, a lot of times which dated back to the early 1980s.

Uh so uh you can go to the next slide.

Uh in the past uh two years, we've largely implemented the uh projects in our original roadmap.

So uh for track one, the common infrastructure, we now have an enterprise service bus.

That's a messaging platform that sends information automatically in real time as events happen in the justice system.

So when somebody's booked, a message automatically goes to the court, the court creates a case, sends that information back to the jail so that they know to bring the person to court who the judge is.

So it leads to uh instant decision making or instant action uh without being reliant on a piece of paper being manually entered.

Uh we also have the infrastructure now for an enterprise analytics platform, uh, which allows us to pull information from various sources together, uh, aggregate them and produce insights that can help drive decision making in the justice system.

Uh highlights for the track two for the legacy system replacement include the new NOPD system, uh, Mark 43, uh, which we implemented late last year, as well as the new criminal court case management system.

Uh that replaced technology that was built in 1988 with a more modern system, uh, provides better uh visibility to the public uh and better integration with other agencies.

Uh so as far as the strategic impact, uh, we're already seeing some of the benefits of the new system.

Uh, one that I would like to hand uh highlight is that uh the district attorney's office when they file charges now uh to say that they're gonna move forward with the prosecution, they no longer hand walk a piece of paper, the bill of that uh information over to the court uh that is sent electronically, uh, automatically populating the information in the court system that's needed to generate that case.

Um we also uh uh have our shared analytics platform uh up and running with uh uh key information uh uh being produced to help us identify uh where there are bottlenecks in the criminal justice system.

Uh the next step is to really tie that to uh action, and that's where we're excited about the work of uh Daniel and Chief Harrison and the Office of Public Safety is now that we have our data in a single location staged in a way that can drive insights, let's use that to improve efficiency in the justice system uh and prevent uh bottlenecks and gaps that are keeping us from getting to the outcomes that we want.

Uh the city spends a lot of money on inefficient processes.

Uh over 20 million dollars a year is spent just on pretrial medical costs for people that are housed in the jail with open court cases.

Uh if we're able to identify opportunities to reduce the processing time for those court cases through avoidable mistakes, uh, we will be able to achieve significant uh and immediate savings for the city.

So uh it's very important for us to use this, put it into action.

Uh we're going to rely on our partnerships with other city departments, including the Office of Public Safety to make that a reality.

Uh it also I think can uh be very important for the work of this committee in helping the committee understand where there are opportunities for agencies to work together to solve long-standing problems in our justice system.

Uh the last remaining initiative that we have is the new Orleans Parish Jail Management System.

So we're in the process of implementing the new jail system that will complete the full integration.

So once that is implemented, uh, we will have police reports flow electronic from Mark 43 to the new jail system.

The new jail system will send booking information to the court system.

The court system will then send back disposition information.

So what happened with the court case with the bond is uh what the release conditions are.

So uh we're excited to have that.

It's the last last major missing piece that we have.

Uh and I did want to highlight that we are receiving national recognition for the work that we're doing here in Orleans.

Uh, it really will be a model for other jurisdictions around the country.

Um this is a quote from a Supreme Court press release which described the work that Orleans has done in the last two years as the North Star for federated information sharing.

Uh so we anticipate that um others will be able to benefit from the work that we've done uh and that this will be a model for the rest of the country.

So we appreciate the investment of the council.

We're happy with the progress that's been made, and we look forward to making more progress together.

Thank you.

Um wechens on work, and so if any of the council members have a question or a comment, feel free to chime in at any time.

Uh my question is, Mr.

Thank you, Mr.

Weaver.

That was a very informative presentation.

Um, Mr.

Shanks, uh Chief Harrison.

Is it Chief or the Deputy Mayor?

I want to say the wrong title.

I guess for this purpose.

Okay.

Um can you just tell us how that works in everyday life of someone in involvement of criminal justice system, all the technology upgrades.

Yeah, I I Chief.

So I mean, um I just can't overstate uh the importance of this from every aspect where whether it's the individual who has uh been in contact with the criminal justice system to every single actor.

The redundancies that we have had impact everything.

Uh think about going to a doctor's office.

And you're writing in the same form over and over and over again.

You're writing your name, you're writing your social security number, your medications, then you go to the next form, you do the same thing.

You go to the next form, you do the same thing.

And you have three doctors' visits where you're doing that all day long.

That is what's been happening in the criminal justice system.

And all while that is happening, there are individuals who are caught up in it.

There are people employed at the DA's office, there's people employed at the public defender's office, and everyone suffers from these redundancies and unnecessary inefficiencies.

Justice is slowed down.

And I think that it's really important for us all to realize that that burden affects that individual, but it also affects retention.

When I'm a DA and I have a docket that is way too large for me to even handle, um, there's a there's a burnout point.

And the same goes for public defenders.

When I am having uh to redact files, when I am having to walk over papers, when I am having to finish my uh screenings 72 hours before they're due, um, because uh I have to make sure that the paperwork are processed in a way that someone's ready to walk it over a quarter mile away to uh the clerk's office.

It's it doesn't make sense in 2026 that that we're there.

But what I think is so important is that the investment that this council made is going to remove those redundancies in a meaningful way.

Will we have pain points through adoption?

Of course we will.

Um but but but the way that we're moving is is something that is encouraging to an individual who has worked on the ground floor of the criminal justice system, uh has been a foot soldier, uh, and and I'm I'm really proud of what's been done.

All right.

Uh thank you.

Any any comments, questions?

Officer.

Hearing none, uh that's it'll be a presentation.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Do you okay?

And so what we're gonna do is uh address the neighborhoods.

Okay, yes, yes.

Continue.

All right, Councilman's presentation.

Continue, thank you.

Yeah, so um one of the things I think is important for us all to note is I have three slides up here that looks at serious violent crime over the last three years, and really understanding where it concentrates and the stickiness of that and what can be done when we all work together in any given one of those areas.

Um so right now we're looking at violent crime in 2023, and uh we had we had a lot of concentrations, but where we see our dark darkest concentrations, looking towards the east, we see the Willows, uh, which is I ten and crowder, we see Chefendowman, uh the seventh uh the seventh ward, and we see Central City.

And we see these concentrations in these areas.

One of them in in the in the first district in Councilman uh Green's uh district is Claiborne and Esplanade.

And we work with Councilman Green and city agencies when I was at the DA's office, Office of Homeless Services, Offices of Health, the Claiborne Innovation District to make meaningful uh engagements and interventions, worked with our federal partners on uh the tire shop that used to be there, uh the hookah joint where two young women had died.

Um we uh worked on getting lighting underneath uh the interstate.

And when we look in the next map in 2024, that that that concentration is no longer there.

But what still exists, we still have the willows, we still have concentrations in the seventh ward, we still have the 100 blocks of bourbon and royal, and we still have Central City.

And I think it's really important when we look at 25 again, what remains is the Willows, the corner of Chef Endowman, 7th ward, Central City, and uh and and wider Canal Street.

Now things have moved from the 100 blocks of Bourbon and Royal further down canal, but these are the concentrations, and what I'm getting at here is that in order for us to drive crime down, and we've done an incredible job over the last three years.

But in order for us to have a sustainable approach, but also continue these reductions, is to be smart about how we approach violent crime, is to look at the areas where it is congregating, to understand those areas, and to make sure that those interventions are tailored to those areas with community input involved.

And you know, when we worked at NoDice, we brought in, you know, city agencies.

Uh, we worked with community and we brought in law enforcement.

But what I'm really excited about is how we are going to be doing this moving forward.

And I think I I don't want to steal the Office of Violence Prevention's Thunder, but we have some really innovative ways that are community-centered that are gonna allow us to intervene in meaningful and sustainable ways.

Um example that I'm I'm really encouraged about, and I've been talking with Councilman uh Hughes uh about what's been what's been done is is the willows.

Uh on day one of this administration, um the mayor went out to the willows, and she said, This is where we need to intervene.

If we're gonna turn lights on anywhere, we're gonna turn lights on here.

Um, because we know that we've seen, you know, the the casualties.

We had a four-year-old uh on January 1st who was shot there.

We had a homicide a few weeks later.

And in doing that, as a city, we go out there and we meet with Hancock Whitney, who is the trustee uh of that location right uh right now, and also the property managers.

Chief Harrison got on the phone with Hanno and said, could you guys uh go do um a ride around twice a day?

And then we got with Hancock Whitney and we said, Hancock Whitney, would you be able to provide new lighting there?

Would you be able to provide uh to fix the fences to board up the abandoned units?

And they did that.

Not only that, but they did 24-7 security.

And we've been working together, the Office of Public Safety, Healthy Homes, the Office of Community Development, and the Health Department, all making sure that each one of us in our respective lanes are moving in the right direction.

And I am really proud of what we've been able to do in the last uh six weeks and how holistic and how we're looking towards not just stopping stopping the issues, the immediate issues that are causing crime, but but figuring out a pathway for sustainable reductions in violence.

And and that's one of the ways that we have intervened now, and I think that there's even more community-based uh approaches that we look forward to seeing and look forward to working with uh the health department on.

This is one thing that I think is really important.

You guys have always seen my my maps, and maps are good, it allows us to focus in on where our issues are, but it's static, it's not dynamic.

And what we're building in the DA's office, and I want to give credit to Ryan Gomez is seeing in real time where concentrations are occurring.

So, what I'm playing for you right now, what I'm playing for you right now is looking over the course of 12 months at how crime concentrates and by animating this and seeing how it develops, it's going to provide meaningful progress on tailored interventions.

So, right now, what you're looking at is violent crime that occurred in 2025, and as the dots darken, you're able to see where it's happening.

We're now zooming in on Central City, and you're seeing in real time how crime concentrates.

So, when we look at a given map, we see what happened maybe over the course of the year, over the course of six months.

But if we can dial that in even further to quarters, to months, to weeks, then we can have real interventions that happen immediate rather than seeing what happens over the course of a year or half a year and then responding then.

And lastly, I I I want to just you know, as a city, uh I want to, you know, celebrate some uh really meaningful gains that we've had in violence reduction.

Can I can I chime in, Mr.

Chairman?

Please, please our machines are working so if anyone wants to chime in so far.

That thank you.

Um so when when we talk about New Orleans East, um was the Willows the only major hotspot, or were there were there other hot spots?

Um Chef Endowman, um we recently had a homicide uh over there.

Um that's not in District E, so I'm gonna focus on District E.

But but on a but on a serious note, and and I want to highlight this this point, not only for the public but for the media, because you know what one of the challenges that I face on a daily basis is that there's this uh misnomer, this miseducation, that crime only exists in New Orleans East and no other part of the city.

Um and and I'm working hard to truly dispel that myth uh that New Orleans East is not just this crime-written place uh that people who don't live there uh would portray it to be.

Um so uh I I thank you for highlighting that.

Um can you talk about some of the strategies though around the willows?

Because it certainly continues to be a nuisance for um that community for our beautiful community and certainly the Lake Willow community uh and the Spring Lake community that that abuts it.

Yeah, and I think it's really important that we have to engage community.

Um I want to say in late December, I I met with the Lake Willows Association and some of the other associations within your district.

And it's one thing to see dots on a piece of paper, but when you engage the community as to what the issues are, yeah, when they say there is a gate that backs up to Lake Willows, and people are moving in and out of that gate and they're going into abandoned apartments in the willows, that gives me real understanding of what the issues are.

So that's when we engage Hancock Whitney and uh Worth Management who have been great partners in in dealing with these issues since Global Ministry Foundations kind of just left the property uh to be.

And as we you know keep the willows on our radar, let's let's make sure we're keeping that gas station right next door to the willows on our radar.

If you if you put surveillance up for about an eight-hour period, you'd probably be pretty shocked that not many people going there to fill up gas, but a lot of activity in and out throughout the day.

But there seems to be uh some type of linkage uh between I I don't want to go so far as to say criminal activity, but suspect activity uh and what we're seeing going on at the Willows.

Yeah, and uh gas stations um and and corner stores uh all provide an important function in our society in our community, and I think that we really need to open up a dialogue between those owners, the community, and the city to figure out solutions for these issues.

Um and I look forward to working with you uh councilman Hughes on that.

And I want to be clear, I agree with you.

That one just seems to be a gross outlier.

Uh we have uh convenience stores and gas stations, I mean, that are cleaning up throughout the day, that are community partners that you know parts of our community of food does it, so they provide an extraordinary service.

But as we look at this linkage of crime with the willows, you know, we we've got to look at this holistically.

So, but I really appreciate the partnership.

Of course.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Any other comments?

Um, Councilman Green, Harris.

Um well, before we open up for public comments on item number three.

One hot spot in District C is uh a newly uh new hot spot on West Bend between racetrack and strip mall.

And any given time you can have a couple dozen people hanging out.

Um there's been acts of violence, there's open air, it's open drug sales, usage, prostitution.

It has um become a very a real eyesore to say the very least in in the Aldress community.

It had one um recent business owner, one business owner who recently uh invested in that area said he's second guessing his investment in that in that community because of um this the sites, just to say the least.

So we can uh we want to try to address that in the future with some legislation, but if if we can put an extra set of eyes on that because it's not just petty victimless crimes, you have had several multiple serious acts of violence along with the everyday drugs, prostitution, a couple blocks from the school board.

Just want to put that on your radar.

Absolutely.

I passed by it multiple times a day.

I shopping go to the racetrack into some of the other stores.

So we're aware of it, and we're great.

And it it will be a point of our focus.

All right, thank you.

Please keep your comments, Jermaine to item number three.

If if not, um we will cut the mics off.

You want to keep the offline this meeting running orderly, uh these decent, you know, respect for everyone's time.

Want to sp respect the speakers um at the podium, but please keep your comments.

We're gonna have uh Tony Jones.

I'm gonna uh feed my comment.

Okay.

Just just uh as a reminder, there's no no seating of time.

Gonna pass.

Thank you.

Shantae Scott.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Scott, this you you're item number five.

I just saw number five.

So did you want to speak on it number three or item number five?

Okay, you get your car says five, but you'll let you speak at item number three.

Once again, please keep all topics on point.

Hi, how y'all doing?

Good.

My name is Shantae Scott.

Um, and I'm the mother of J Slee Scott.

Uh today we are talking about technology.

Modern ties.

Technology.

And um my son was murdered in the body cameras on the police officers.

I'm still looking for that foul.

Um, since we're gonna talk about the technology that the police officers wear, where was the technology showing what took place in my son's murder case?

My son was killed November the 14th.

November 24th, 2019.

I'm sorry, excuse me.

My son was murdered by the son of NOPD officer Victor Gay.

And I'm still trying to find out what happened to my son.

Protocols was broken in my son's case.

Listen, Miss Scott, you you're you're hearing off of technology and uh the evidence with mishandled in my son's case.

Thank you, Miss Scott.

The next person we're gonna have up onto the mic is Danielle.

The next person we're gonna have is James Williams.

All right.

We're gonna move on to the next topic.

Agenda item number four.

Overview of health.

Overview of the health department's office of crime prevention.

Can we have the next one?

Can we have the next cover to Louisiana?

Can we have the next presenter come up, please?

Scott, that's your that's your time, Miss Scott.

Thank you.

Nobody's showing me.

I am tired of my hand.

Run.

He helped talk about my child's murder.

I've been trying to talk to you guys to let y'all know what's going on with this officer.

Many of you know that you don't feel the album stuff.

He's a dog.

And now you don't have to go to the male to make a man.

He stole the people.

Why do you hear the people?

Shut up the general office.

He murdered general officer, too.

He murdered my son.

And Rob Mary came to narrative.

Jason is not playing fighting on the gun.

He had no gun.

Can you get through the cover to buy your own?

If it was an accident and you get what kind of my main thing is the system.

Procedures were failed.

Our protocol was failed by EOP offers up with the game.

He murdered my son too.

And you can't murder my son.

That's not the cover like a murder.

You've got temper for me.

All right, we're going to resume the meeting.

Are you all done with the presentation?

Thank you for your presentation.

We're going to move now to item number four.

Mr.

Neuter.

Sure.

This is an overview of the Health Department's Office of Crime Prevention, including its mission and public safety strategies.

We have members of the Department of Health coming up.

Whenever you're ready, just um introduce yourself and begin whenever you're ready.

Thank you.

Can we can we have the door closed to keep the outside noise out, please?

But they you know that you all offer them an opportunity to do things the right way.

I wouldn't say the point of personal revolution.

And they will feed us that they want it.

Okay, I'm gonna do it now.

Just before before you all get started, I just want to make it very clear.

Everyone has the opportunity to speak.

Everyone is offered the opportunity to speak in order and just to respect for the meeting and everyone's time.

We ask that all comments be germane and on topic, and if they're not, the policy is the mic will be cut off.

So every again, everyone can speak, everyone is encouraged to speak, but we want to keep the meetings running in proper and decent fashion.

So that's why we actually every topic be germane.

Every comment be germane to the topic, and if not, we cut the mic off and move forward.

That's what just happened.

Um the floor is yours.

Well, good morning.

Um, thank you so much for having us.

We are the Office of Violence Prevention.

My name is Dr.

Jordan Bond.

Um, I'm fortunate to be able to serve in the Department of Health with HHS as the public health clinical director, where I have the ability, and I'm so grateful to be able to serve as a strategist.

Um, with myself, um, here we have my colleagues, the director of the Office of Violence Prevention, uh, Roberta Dubuque, as well as Jocelyn Pinkerton, who oversees our domestic violence as well as sexual violence in our office.

So, as mentioned before, it's such a pleasure to come before you guys today and just give you guys an update as far as Office of Violence Prevention, our strategies, and what we've been able to accomplish and what we look forward to in the next year, and so on.

As mentioned a little bit before in Daniel Shanks' um presentation, we you know have really looked at the trends of violence over time.

In 2022, we see that you know violence was at its peak as we look at homicides as well as shootings, but we also see this decline that's occurring between 2022 as well as 2025.

Um we don't think that that's a coincidence.

Um, through that time, we've also had the Office of Violence Prevention be placed under HHS.

We've been able to kind of strategize and develop our different programs, strengthen our partnerships with different community stakeholders as well as city entities to really develop a strategy of violence prevention out of our office.

In addition, we've had numerous generous contributions from City Council where we've been able to kind of strengthen our ecosystem, if you will, in our prevention and intervention space.

In our office, we talk a lot about our ecosystem.

And our ecosystem, as mentioned before, we have numerous partners, which all have been through generous contributions and investments from City Council.

First, I'd like to highlight the hospital intervention and violence prevention program that are having that direct contact with individuals as soon as they make it into the hospital's bedside, as well as working with them over a longer period of time with interventionists that can really focus on the root causes of violence, connect those individuals with the resources they need to be successful and thrive.

In addition, we also have our community partner at Bountu, which were initially in 2023 were awarded a DOJ grant, which is kind of upstarted our programming.

But since then, we are also given additional funding to where we could expand and highlight to make sure that we're touching not just our limited three target areas that we had previously, but we're able to expand to hit all parts of the city.

And Roberta will talk a little bit about our strategy with that a little later.

The Trauma Recovery Center.

We talk about how instrumental mental health and the impact of violence in our communities and mental health are.

And without the trauma recovery center providing those resources to members of our community free of charge, um, you know, we wouldn't be able to kind of target and be able to serve our communities in that way.

Firearm storage through different hospital partnerships with Mannings.

We're able to provide biometric gun safes through our credible messengers with Ubuntu and providing biometric gun safes, and we'll talk about that a little bit later.

But lastly, a new shift of our office has been largely towards victim services and realizing that in the acute emergent time where these incidences are happening, the families in victims are in need of like emergent services.

And a lot of times that can be a huge barrier when we're providing services to the families.

So we're in the development with developing different protocols to kind of be able to help us serve those families in that emergent critical time.

I'd like to pass things over to Roberta.

Good morning.

My name is Roberta Dubachlay, and I'm the director of the Office of Violence Prevention within HHS.

Our office remains deeply committed to addressing violence at the roots and providing support to those who have been affected.

One of our partner organizations is Umbuntu Village.

Umbuntu Village is a local organization that works with families and commun at the community-based level.

Their peace ambassadors work throughout the neighborhoods to build awareness and provide outreach and resources to those at risk to promote, excuse me, to promote health, hope, and healing.

The peace ambassadors work directly within communities to a mediate conflict and prevent escalation.

These trained professionals build trust and offer alternative solutions to violence contributing into safer neighborhoods.

As we can see that in 2025, we had made tremendous gains with increased funding, which has allowed us to be impactful in every community.

With this expansion, we are now focused on Umbuntu's four by six strategy.

This strategy is a community-led and community-driven.

The four areas of focus is Central City, Algiers, the Eighth Ward, and New Orleans East.

During these 90 days, Umbuntu Village is in the community.

They're going door-to-door to address community issues by providing resources and referrals.

They are working with business owners, schools, churches to address blight, trash, encampments, and other environmental issues that also and bring violence within those neighborhoods.

We are excited to assist Umbuntu with this initiative.

While we, I'm sorry.

They offer a wide range of trauma-informed services, case management, and specialized care, free of charge to all New Orleans residents impacted by violence.

As we can see, in 2023, the Trauma Recovery Center had 464 participants that came in to receive services.

Now it is a thousand plus that have now come in to address grief and trauma appropriately.

We understand that communities cannot heal until these things can be addressed.

The provide a comprehensive resources with counseling, social service, and follow-up care.

We aim to provide recovery outcomes and reduce the likelihood of re-injury.

Our approach addresses both physical and emotional impacts of violence, ensuring the survivors reach the holistic care that they need to heal.

So when there is someone who comes in with a gunshot wound, a hospital team is there to work with the victims and the families and provide them with resources and referrals to promote their healing.

The best example of that is what we have seen that took place at the beginning of the year, which was in January, that took place at the Dukey Chase restaurant.

Umbuntu Village, along with the HVIF team, along with TRC, along with OVP, provided immediate services for those victims and those families.

We provided everything from transportation, funeral assistance, wholetail accommodations, and whatever else the families or the victim or else whatever the families needed.

We provide this service not just to the things that happen at Duke Chase, but we provide this service to all New Orleans residents who have experienced violence.

Along with our partners, we have been able to accomplish a lot of goals within our office within the last few years, and we're excited to see what can take place going forward.

I now turn it over to our Jaclin Pekerton, which is over RDV and sexual assault team.

Good morning, council members.

So you've heard me talk before a little bit about our domestic and sexual violence program that we are happily sort of integrating and expanding further within the Office of Violence Prevention to really focus on all types of victims of crime and advocacy and coordination in that space.

In last year in 2025, advocates from the Family Justice Center who are community-based follow up with all victims and reporting persons after every domestic violence incident reported to NOPD.

So that includes domestic disturbances, up you know, to very severe and acute instances of domestic violence.

So in 2025, our air advocates engaged with almost 3,000 people after domestic incidents reported to NOPD, and we're able to offer referrals to over 2600 of those folks, which really just speaks to the key piece of victim intervention and providing services and information and how important that is.

And I think the fact that we offered referrals to so many people speaks to the need that people are looking for information and support in that time after a violent incident or after even just an argument in the home that we want to prevent from escalating.

Most of these individuals were reached within 72 hours of the original incident, so we know that that outreach and purposeful engagement is really key.

So really trying to sort of solidify our response.

And I think this is significant because there's a lot that we can learn, as we saw from the previous presentation from the data, but also really doing some deep dives into those cases and understanding where there's room for prevention, where we can make policy improvements.

All of the work that y'all invested in, really believing in our in our programs and trusting HHS with guiding these forward.

I think our next step is a lot of these programs, as Dr.

Vond mentioned, have sort of come online in the last couple of years is to make sure that they're really integrated and speaking to each other so that all of the programs that HHS coordinates, whether it's MCIU, whether it's the hospital-based intervention, whether it's the AIR program.

We know that there are people that might be interacting with multiple of these programs.

People don't lead, you know, issue-specific lives, but their lives are complicated, and we want to make sure that our programs are addressing those complexities so that no one falls through the gaps.

Um, so like Dr.

Von and Roberta mentioned, you know, we are prioritizing that um intervention and response um with victims and survivors of incidents so that we can prevent um violence from escalating or uh you know being perpetrated in the future.

Um so just wanted to thank thank the council members um for your investment in these initiatives, and we're excited that we're showing returns.

Oh, thank you.

Um so just to mention our last program um that I mentioned a little bit earlier, um and through our partnership with Manning Family Children's just to highlight another community partner.

Um we were able to give out almost 3,000 biometric gun safes that were distributed last year alone with over 3,000 families that have been touched.

And I just like to highlight that you know, initially we started this in you know very strategic neighborhoods, um, just based on where the most recent, you know, um incidents had occurred with children that have lost their lives.

Um but we've been able to fortunately expand this and being able to have different events that have kind of touched every part of the city to make sure that we're keeping our children safe.

So again, I just want to thank you guys.

Um we can't, you know, say this enough.

Um, just an investment um into our programming and what we've been able to do for the community, and we look forward to coming back um to let you guys know about all the amazing things that we have that are gonna be going on in the next year or two.

Um, we'd like to highlight two upcoming events that are gonna be happening, so just save the dates for our Hill of the Block with our community partner at Ubuntu in Algiers, and then our peace walk that is upcoming on April 11th.

Um, so we love to see you and thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any comments from the day is Councilmember Harris.

Hi, thank you for everything that you do.

I want to focus on Ubuntu Village.

I know we had to make some cuts cuts to their budget.

How has that impacted their programming and their outreach?

Um, so I would say that it has slightly impacted uh their outreach and what their operation is, but the work still has to get done.

So we've just taken the less that we have received and just made it more.

We just keep doing what we're doing.

So while we're able to provide more services to families, we're just looking at making sure that they stay within their budget.

But we have not really felt the impacts, but we know that they're there.

But we want to make sure that our programs continue to get funding because these impact the community and they have a purpose.

And as we're talking about funding, um uh how what are you doing to maintain the grants that you have and are you seeking additional grant funding?

Yeah, so we're constantly in contact with the DOJ as far as updates as far as our program and plans, um, updating them as far as the impact that we've been able to have.

Um, and then we're constantly looking out and applying um for other DOJ fans to try to increase and kind of mitigate that gap.

Are you seeing cuts uh from the DOJ and grant funding?

So, look yes.

Um so about six months ago, there were drastic cuts um to our you know other entities unfortunately where we lost funding.

Um we've fortunately been able to still operate what's said funding, um, but that soon will expire.

So we're constantly always looking and strategizing to try to you know increase our funding um to be able to provide in fact.

Are there other private grants available that can make up for that funding?

There are, and um we've applied in Ubuntu has received other private funds, and you know, um Ernest Johnson, the founder and he's great at getting out and um and kind of advocating on behalf and finding the money, but you know, still our limitations, and we just have been very methodical and strategic as far as where we place said funding and making sure that it's obviously going to you know victims.

On the gun safe program, uh you know, I I know that you all have been everywhere, um, all community meetings and and thank you for that.

Uh are there still gun safes available and are you still able to distribute those?

Yes, there are gun safes still available.

Um actually we have received uh funding from Congressman Troy Carter, so we will continue to pass out those gun safe.

We'll still keep going into those communities, so we do have gun safes available.

Great.

I'll I'll look forward to uh having you back at one of our community meetings to distribute those.

We will be there.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Any other comments?

We have a comment card from Larry Morgan.

Mr.

Needle, are there any all our comments?

No.

So after Mr.

Morgan presents, we're going to go out of all just a little bit and address uh item number seven, which is a contract for independent police monitor.

Morning to everybody in the house.

My name is Larry Morgan.

I represent South, East, West, and North or Nord.

What I experienced was a goddamn disgrace.

All you councilmen walk out on these people.

What the hell you take the people put you there for?

They put you there for the hearing problem and solve it.

You showed me right there.

All you are about, you understand?

It's an easy road to go.

But your job wasn't bogging for that.

Your job was bogging with conflict to solve for the people.

You all are goddamn disgrace.

And I'm gonna tell the people not to vote for y'all.

Independent police monitor, please.

Thank you.

Thank you, Health Department, for your presentation.

Next up we'll have independent police lines.

You can come to the Mr.

Needle, can you uh read the Yeah, sure.

This is um a contract that we're considering pursuant to our Council Rule 57.

It's a lease agreement between the Office of Independent Police Monitor and 2714 Canal Building LLC for office space.

It's a three-year term, fifty-six grand a year.

Okay.

Ms.

Teller, the floor is yours.

Good morning.

Um I'm Stella Smith.

I'm the independent police monitor.

I'm I'm here on behalf of item nine.

Are we gonna do something about this?

I mean, okay, he's leaving.

It's ridiculous.

It's just ridiculous.

Okay.

So disrespectful to presenters, so disrespectful to the public.

It's just ridiculous.

Just leave.

Just leave, as you always should.

Okay, can can another presentation be made?

You've had your time.

All right, okay.

Thank you.

So let me ask you a question.

Is this is this con is this contract represent an increase, or is it the same amount?

Is there anything that should be relevant to our budget in terms of what um we've seen?

No, no.

Um uh no, sir.

This contract is the same amount that we've been paying.

Um hold on.

And this let's let's miss Mr.

Morgan exit the room.

You should be sitting there absolutely disrespectful.

Absolutely disrespectful.

Rude, common, ridiculous.

All right.

Okay, if there's no um changes involved with this product, um, if you have no special presentation to make, I move for approval of the contract as per council rule number 57.

I stink.

What an idiot.

Okay.

Um I move for approval of the contract as outlined here.

Second.

All in favor?

All right.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for being present.

That threw me off a bit.

Number five.

So next up we have a presentation from uh Healing Minds Molline.

You mean your mic is on?

Presented by uh Janet Hayes, founder, and the honorable Judge Kern Reese.

Look at everybody.

For once I'm lost for words.

I don't know what to say.

How do we work with that?

Reese is there this much excitement.

Not civil code.

So I want to ask across it briefly.

So it will be able to see where you will.

Okay, yeah.

There you go.

So good morning, Council.

Members.

And Councilman Green, I've been around you long.

You don't sneak.

Somebody would have told me by now.

Hope so.

All right.

Yeah.

Okay.

I need a quick refresher on how to use the clicker to advance the screens.

And okay, so good morning, council members.

We're here to present today on Healing Minds NOLA, the contract with the city and the AOT court program.

And with us is the Honorable Judge Kern Reese, Brittany Harrison, who is the director and founder of Mindful Horizons, and Gina Rickazner, who is an attorney with mental health advocacy service.

And it was working.

I think I clicked the line.

Oh I can just use the key.

Oh we go.

Oh, no, I just thank you.

And I am Janet Hayes, director and founder of Healing Minds Nola.

So who are we?

And thank you for inviting us to present today.

So Healing Minds NOLA, we began in 2015.

We're a 501c3 nonprofit organization, and we seek to uh advocate to remove barriers to treatment and care for people with severe mental illnesses.

In 2017, we began uh efforts to implement assisted outpatient treatment programs across the state of Louisiana.

And our goal vision uh is to build a full continuum of coordinated treatment and care systems that meet all acuity levels.

That's the uh you know the North Star.

Um in our role with the AOT court, uh we're contracted with Orleans Civil District Court, Division L, Judge Kern Reese, um, and we are the first point of contact for AOT referral.

So assisted outpatient treatment is a program that is specifically designed for people with severe mental illnesses who lack in we typically they they lack insight that they have a mental illness, they will not adhere to their medication, um, and so they have through periods of non-adherence repeat hospitalizations, maybe incidents of homelessness, uh, incarceration, and they end up in these revolving doors.

Um also coupled with that, with that treatment non-adheren uh non-adherence, lack of insight, history of treatment non-adherence, that's typically what qualifies them to be under a judgment of what we call involuntary outpatient civil commitment.

The uh other way of saying that is assisted outpatient treatment, and Judge Reese is gonna comment more about that.

Um, my particular role with the court is to prepare cases, and in doing that, we assist interested parties with drafting and filing petitions.

We uh order and coordinate psychiatric evaluations if the court finds probable cause.

We coordinate with outpatient services and providers to certify services.

Um draft dockets, troubleshoot cases, and ensure continuity of communications between inpatient providers and outpatient providers in the event someone needs to be re-hospitalized.

Uh our my city con the contract with the city, healing minds and all is actually contracted with the city.

Um we are at we act as a conduit, healing minds and all that nonprofit acts as a conduit for city funds that are allocated for the the court.

And the reason for that is we are contracted also with the two-lane department of psychiatry.

Um, and so when the court needs an evaluation, they can request that through Healing Minds NOLA, and we would um have the evaluation done and then be reimbursed by the city.

And so that's how the funding is flows through for those that that particular um part of the process, which is really what the judgment rests on.

And then we also have money for an assistant to me.

Right now I don't have an assistant, but there is funding there for data collection program development and assistance with new case referrals and to enhance and expand treatment and care services.

So that's my role.

And I'm going to pass the mic over to Judge Reese, who's going to talk a little bit about what AOT is and how the law works.

Yeah, thank you, Janet.

Good morning, Council members.

I guess the quick history.

In 2008, there was a police officer by the name of Nicola Cotton.

And she was summoned to a strip mall off of Simon Bolivar near the train station.

And she encountered a mental patient who had just been released from an uh in-house hospitalization.

They checked with it and said, Do you need backup?

She said no, she thought she could handle the situation.

But in the course of that discussion, something triggered the mental patient, and an altercation began.

He wrested her gun from her and he shot her and killed her.

And she happened to be pregnant at the time.

From that incident, a law was passed in the legislature called Nicola's Law in 2008.

And Nicola's car set up assistive outpatient treatment or AOT.

It is Louisiana Revised Statute 2268 at SEC.

And it calls for court oversight of individuals who have had a history of hospitalizations who are over the age of 18, who have shown a repeated habit of noncompliance with medication regimens.

And where the process works, a family member, a concerned individual, a medical director can file a petition in the civil jurisdiction.

This has no criminal considerations.

And also that AOT is the least restrictive means to treat their mental illness.

At which point treatment plan then is promulgated by the court, it becomes a judgment.

And it's good for a year.

It saves the city $2 million a year in terms of police calls, EMT calls, incarceration, et cetera.

I have been with this program now since December of 2018.

We started our court hearings, and folks have found us.

My hearings used to last an hour or two.

The last hearing we had lasted till four in the afternoon, and there was no lunch break.

Just go straight through it.

But we have seen literal miracles with this population.

We have seen people who were constantly hospitalized, who were constantly being arrested, who were homeless, etc., who now live, they graduated from our program and live very productive lives.

And it has been inspiring in that regard.

Now with this population, you have to expect that it won't be a hundred percent success.

And we have had people who have relapsed.

That's part of the process.

But in dealing with the population, you accept that and go forward.

So I'd like to ask Ms.

Gina Ricasley with the Mental Health Advocacy Service to speak to the population that she serves.

Because once a person has a petition filed, her agency then represents them in court to make sure I adhere to the law and follow the process, Ms.

Ricasman.

Thank you, Judge.

Thank you, Judge.

Again, my name is Gina Ricasner.

I'm an attorney with the Mental Health Advocacy Service.

Before joining the mental health advocacy service, I was an attorney with the Louisiana Department of Health, where I filed judicial commitment petitions in Orleans Parish, which committed individuals to inpatient facilities.

Now, since my retirement from the Louisiana Department of Health, I'm on the other side, representing individuals with the mental health advocacy services.

My clients are individuals who are seriously mentally ill.

Some have insight into their mental illness, some do not.

Some agree to voluntarily participate in the program, some need some nudging from the judge.

These are individuals who need help.

They need assistance.

And without the assistance, um, they will not be able to leave productive lives.

So with the services provided through a sort of community treatment teams, ACT teams, and the AOT program, they are able to get services they're otherwise wouldn't be able to do on their own, such as housing services, medical services, of course, and psychiatric services.

So this program helps to link services for individuals who could not do it on their own or their family members don't have the know-how or wherewithal to do that for them, and it helps them to get the services that they they need and are entitled to.

Dr.

Harrison.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Dr.

Brittany Harrison.

I am a doctor prepare psychiatric nurse practitioner and the owner of Mindful Horizons Urgent Care, which is the city's first mental health urgent care center.

I work in coordination with Judge Kern Reese and Ms.

Janet Hayes for the AOT court program, providing psychiatric evaluations for the participants, medication management services, and also coordinating psychotherapy services and case management services for the participants.

Yes, thank you.

And so Brittany is one of our one of the providers we partner with, so we don't have funding for our own in-house act services, sort of community treatment services or the kind of services that Brittany offers.

And we also don't have in funding for our own in-house attorney at the moment.

We don't have there's a lot that we don't have funding for.

So what we do is we partner with already existing resources in the community, and our team is really the whole city.

Um when there's a need, we um innovate to meet the need, and as we're a new program, we're still kind of we're we're we're a pretty solid program, but we're still um you know, uh building the plane as we fly it, so to speak.

So um, and I wanted to just um touch on a couple of things that were said.

So, you know, we um provide we're our goal is to provide continuity of care, right?

So our we don't look at our role as we have to keep people out of the hospital, we have to keep people out of the jail, we have to keep people out of homelessness.

We know that those things occur.

Our job is to try to provide the continuity of communication and care, the best care we can provide to, and the byproduct of that is reductions in those situations.

And we do see successes, and there's national research across the country that also shows those same successes.

I just wanted to go back real quickly, also.

Um, it's so the AOT court is different than a mental health court.

So mental health courts are typically specialty courts within the criminal justice system.

Um AOT court, as Judge Reese mentioned, is a civil court program.

It is not criminal, and the the judgment is a commitment.

Um a mental health specialty court is voluntary uh and it requires the commission of a crime.

And AOT court is involuntary and it does not require the commission of a crime, and those are key differences.

Um I also I'm not gonna dwell on these slides, but um, and another uh thing that Judge Reese also pointed out is there's no contempt of court in our program.

So if somebody's non-adherent to the judgment, we don't put them in jail.

Um, and the judge is always clear about that.

The consequence.

Um I'm just gonna go to the case.

Well, let me see.

Jan, if I could say something right there.

If someone is is non-adherent, then and they have an ACT team.

The recommendation is that this person is decompensating, and as a result, they're being recommended to be hospitalized again.

Because the optimal scenario for us is to catch somebody who's coming out of the hospital when they've been brought back to baseline where they have a medication regimen that has them stabilized.

And then we bring them into the program and try to maintain that and keep that going.

So Jan, go ahead.

Right.

So and that requires a partnership between the court, the inpatient provider and the outpatient provider.

That's something that does not often naturally occur in the community, which is part of the reason we we have problem or problems with patients that go to the hospital, they're stable, they're medicated, not necessarily stabilized, they're discharged, they go off their medications.

And sometimes the outpatient provider who's been seeing the patient doesn't even know they were in the hospital.

When they get discharged, though, patient provider may not, they may not refer that person back to the same person.

They might refer them to another person.

We have cases of people who are in two different programs at the same time.

They get two different medications from two different doctors, and it has an adverse reaction, it's called polypharmacy, and they end up, you know, back in the hospital because they commit an act of aggression or something like that was really precipitated by the medication, not necessarily by the um organic behavior.

And so there's a lot.

We do have a question from a day as judge.

Thank you.

Uh Ms.

Hayes, thank you.

I know you and I, Miss Hayes have gone round and round on email about uh homelessness, mental health issues.

Do you have a budget where you can break out what this 450,000 dollars is going towards?

So we don't have so the 450,000 is over the course of the contract with the city.

So last year we were cut to 75,000, and so approximately half of that goes to psychiatric evaluations.

The rest of the money was going to pay an assistant who could uh assist me with data collection and analysis, which is really important to us because we want to show our outcomes, good or bad.

We're gonna be honest about the outcomes, we're not looking to show you good numbers to get money, right?

So, and then also I need uh help with new case referrals and program development.

These are all things that are you know we we're short of bandwidth and can never get at.

And so um we did I did have an assistant um due to um a delay in um the contract with the city last year.

Uh we did not have funding for six months, and we were not able to take new case referrals, and our my assistant left.

So we haven't replaced her yet, but you know, that is definitely in the works.

So about half goes to psychiatric evaluations, and about half goes to other program development.

So your program is not 450 in aggregate, it's 75,000.

Yeah.

Well, we started out with 100,000, and we had to because due to budgetary considerations got cut back by 25,000.

Right.

Yeah, I mean, we're all having to cut back.

Um the point about data.

How many patients or uh people do you see who are in the program?

So right now we have about there are 55, 55 or so people who are active, and so that means that they're either under a judgment of treatment already, so we have about 47 people who are currently under a judgment of treatment, and those people are called back in every other week to report to the court on their adherence.

We also require our service providers to be adherent to the judgment and provide us with timely reports.

Um and then we have about 10 people who have been petitioned uh for AOT, so they're in process.

We don't have a judgment for one reason or another, maybe we haven't just maybe we just haven't had the hearing.

Maybe we haven't been able to find the individual in order to get the evaluation done.

Um, maybe the um you know there may be some other holdup with the sheriff's service that we have everything done, but the person hasn't been served by the sheriff yet, and so they don't want to, they don't want to come to court, and we can't force them unless they've been served by the sheriff.

And Mr.

Cast to make sure that we adhere to the law and provide our due notification.

Yeah, absolutely, as as one should, and I wouldn't expect anything less, Judge.

Um what is your interaction, Ms.

Hayes, with the Office of Homeless Services and Strategies as well as the mobile crisis intervention unit.

Good question.

So I was invited to participate in the critical case uh case meetings uh every every Tuesday, um, and so looking at the most entrenched and chronic homeless situations to to provide AOT if appropriate.

Those are difficult cases because with the homeless population, if you can't find them, you can't serve them, and we're a lot, we're a legal system, right?

And if you can't find them, you you can't, I mean you can't serve them with the petition.

If you can't find them, you can't serve them with services either.

Now we do have some people in our program who are homeless who are with ACT providers and they're maybe living at the low barrier shelter, maybe they're at the Oz, and the services come to where they are.

So that's the other thing with AOT.

Typically, the services we mandate are assertive community treatment if the person has Medicaid, right?

So ACT is called assertive community treatment or an ACT is only reimbursable by Medicaid, unless, for instance, the LGE, which in our case would be Metropolitan provides them a surplus, in which case then they could provide the same level of service to people that don't have Medicaid.

But we don't have that here.

They do in Jefferson Parish.

And so we're limited if the person doesn't have Medicaid to other outpatient services like IOP uh IOP.

So mental health intensive outpatient programs, which some hospitals have that.

Ums Harrison, Dr.

Harrison, she um provides outpatient services where it's not act where they come to the individual.

But the person can go to the clinic and they can receive robust services at the clinic.

So it just depends on the insurance.

And then the second part of your question, the mobile crisis intervention unit.

Unfortunately, we don't interact with them enough, and in fact, just had a case recently where we have a respondent who unfortunately adherent to the long acting injectable, not the supplementary oral medications and deteriorated.

This individual, however, called 911 himself.

Um the police uh arrived, or I think MCIU arrived, or police, or they arrived together and they de-escalated the situation.

They they reported that they had called his ACT team and that they were going to ACT team were going to come out the next day to address what they thought was a medication issue.

So I did contact the ACT team.

They had not heard from the MCIDIU, they didn't even know who what had happened until I mentioned what had happened.

Ultimately, that individual was OPC'd yesterday, I think, or the day before at 3 a.m.

By the way, I take calls 24-7.

I'm often on the hot on the call the hospital in the middle of the night.

Um OPC is an order for protective custody which allows law enforcement to transport an individual to treatment inpatient treatment facility for evaluation.

Right.

Okay.

Thank you so much for seeing that, Tina.

So I I would encourage you, um, even with your limited funding to work with the mobile crisis intervention uh unit.

Ms.

Harris.

I also work with with Michael Horizons, my uh mental health urgent care.

I work directly with the mobile crisis unit.

So they bring patients to my facility almost on a daily basis.

Yeah, and and doctor, I I think it's amazing that you have a mental health urgent care.

I think that's something that we should be looking at.

Um, all cities should be looking at.

Uh Judge, I know you're retiring.

Yeah, that's what the Constitution says uh referendum in May.

We'll see what happens.

Well, it's rings eternal.

Right.

I I I know.

Um if you retire, who will take over the has any judge?

I've been talking to several of my colleagues at the court.

Uh Judge Shepard has indicated she has an interest.

Judge Medley has indicated she has an interest as well as Judge Laurie Jupiter and Judge Omar Mason, all of them had manifested an interest in helping manage the AOT program.

Okay, yeah, I I hope it doesn't uh I hope it is successfully transpired, or you don't have to retire.

Well I still can use some help.

I just want to point out that a retired judge can run an AOT court.

I just want to throw that out there.

Um and then finally, Janet, uh again, you and I have gone back and forth um over email for many years about homelessness and mental health.

And I've often said to you, what are what are you doing at the state level to see if we can increase mental health services because it really is not the city, we don't have we don't run hospitals.

Um there is state funding that should come to run hospitals that was taken away, mental health hospitals that was taken away in the gendal administration.

So is there any advocacy that you're doing at the state level for uh getting that funding back?

There is, and I I I so I have a couple of things.

Well, I did list challenges, so our challenges with AOT is same similar challenges to a lot of other departments, but so homelessness, right?

We've already talked about that.

If we can't find them, we can't do anything for them as far as a commitment because there's a legal process involved, right?

So it's not going out on the street and saying we're gonna have, well, maybe judge if you'd be willing to go out on the street and support um in the middle of places.

I love edge court at roads umc definitely we've done you've done them in UMC, but we they were confined and we knew where they were, and there was also security, but anyways.

Um but you need to wear your robe anyway.

Anyway, um, okay.

So uh so that's a problem.

Workforce shortages.

So right now we're working the you know what, out of our act providers.

So we have one team with one of um a great act uh team who only have two folks right now, and so they're not able to come to our court reviews, which is a problem because in court, it's kind of like family court, right?

So it's a collaborative process where we bring everybody in the room together, and the respondent is also empowered.

Can I can I just interrupt uh and try to get an answer to my question?

Have you done any advocacy at the state level?

Yeah, I'm getting to that.

So um so, but I do need to talk about this, right?

So because it's all tied into the same thing.

In fact, all of our systems are interaction.

I'm gonna interject here like I do in court.

Answer the question first, then you may explain your answer.

Well, I'm gonna okay.

Well, I'll answer the question by saying this.

I have seen New Orleans go to Washington, D.C.

to advocate for better for funding for infrastructure.

I have seen New Orleans go to Baton Rouge to advocate for all kinds of different things.

I saw uh Mayor Landrew go to Baton Rouge to advocate for funding for charity hospital for City Hall.

I've seen City Hall go to uh Baton Rouge and Washington for all different kinds of things.

I will say that I am not the I don't have that kind of leadership title where I can influence the state.

I can do my best to advocate for what I think I need and or we need as a city and a state and round up as many folks as I can who have time to um work with um you know providing their testimony in their cell, their bodies, um their their time into into advocating.

Um I will say that the most powerful way to advocate for what we need is if you have a title.

You are all council members, we have a mayor, we have deputy mayors, we have judges, we have sheriffs.

I'm nobody, you know, in as far I know what we need.

I can help inform what we need, and I will show you the slide with what we need.

But I will I will say that we need to address these barriers.

Jan, hold on one second, and you're advocating, and I appreciate that.

The councilwoman's question was have we gone to the state?

We have gone to the state.

Senator Jimmy Harris has been an absolute godsend.

We have received some funding for state, but obviously nowhere near what we need.

Right.

So that's for the AOC.

That's what we program.

Thank you, Judge.

So we we we have advocated for funding for the AOT court program, but to the barriers, which is what we were talking about, they're listed there.

I would love the partnership of city council or the mayor to work on these initiatives with the state to produce longer term, longer length of stay in psychiatric hospitals so people can experience true stabilization rather than what it feels like to be medicated and kicked out on a loading dose of a long-acting injectable or any kind of psychotropic.

I would like to advocate with the city that we that we uh to the state that we build intermediate levels of care in between hospitals and the community to catch people when they are stable but not ready yet to live on their own or to you know to have a job.

Some of those people are what we call permanently gravely disabled.

They are never going to get better.

And if they have nowhere to live with the right support and professional support in a residential setting with 24-7 clinical services on site, they're going to end up back homelessness in the criminal justice system and in hospitals, and we know that because we see it every day.

Also, that we standardize that we work to standardize quality of care in psychiatric facilities.

Nobody wants to go to a crappy institution.

So those are things that I would love to advocate with the city on to the state because it's our problem, right?

It's not a state problem.

Okay, but I I so and then I will say that the AOT court program has been driving change.

It's slow, but there are some things that have happened as a result of our existence, and one of those things that just happened, just as an example, is there is um so I said active.

Let me finish.

I'm gonna go.

And we have items to vote on coming up.

Right.

What's that?

Okay, that's fine.

I'm just gonna finish though.

We have a medicated section.

We have your item to vote on program.

I'm just gonna.

We hear you.

But I tell you, I'm gonna follow up if you don't mind on what council member Harris talked about.

You're telling us very technical things.

There's monies that's involved, there's policy that's involved.

Tell us how we can assist you.

Because at the end of the day, I can't go and ask for a number to build infrastructure based on what you do and what you see every day.

I think that the answer, unfortunately, to the question sounds like you haven't done that advocacy that you are saying that the city council should be doing.

But you are out there every day in the field.

And with all due respect, I see you also in the comments that you send to the council all the time, the criticisms that you have of the entire system.

But you live it every day.

So we really need you to advocate and tell us how we can help you to advocate.

Invite me to come to the city.

Invite me to come to the state legislative committee meeting where we can advocate for the city in terms of what needs to be done, but recognize that you are in a unique position.

Your suggestion that because you don't have a title doesn't give you the clout that we have is absolutely wrong.

Because we are political, and sometimes that works against us in New Orleans.

But if the in Louis in our Baton Rouge, but if you go there passionately and have the support of political infrastructure, I think that your voice will be heard.

Well, hopefully we can go as one team, one city.

Well, wait, not hopefully.

We can, but I'm asking you to initiate it.

Well, then I don't I don't want to lose a initiative.

And if we lose a core, we can't vote for your item.

So that's fine.

There are initiations that we can discuss further.

And uh in our when we have time.

Okay.

We want to we want to acknowledge our uh common cars.

Ms.

Carrie Estes.

That in.

Oh, okay, Miss Esther's okay.

Hi, thank you for having us.

My name's Carrie Estes.

I'm a single mom of four kit for now grown children, the oldest of whom suffers from serious mental illness and has for the last 12 years.

I was just struggling for the first eight years of that time period.

I was never told about healing minds or AOT.

Uh it the whole time it was terrifying and lonely and frustrating and scary and exhausting.

I mean, I could go on and on trying to do this all by myself.

My son was hospitalized five different times over those eight years.

And then thank goodness I found out about healing minds and AOT, and he was put into the program a couple months shy of four years ago.

And in the very beginning, Janet told me, you know, this isn't your son, it's the illness that has hijacked his brain.

We're gonna give you your son back.

And I was kind of like, yeah, right.

Like, I didn't think it was possible.

And they did.

Um, he went back to UNO after taking some time off and graduated in accounting with the highest grade in his class.

He is pretty much back, I mean, as close as he can be back to his old self.

It's amazing.

It's truly miraculous, and it would not have happened without AOT and healing minds.

My life was so hard.

I was like hanging on by a thread, and I thought the thread was gonna break.

And they saved my son, they saved me.

They saved my other children from having to deal with this.

Um, so I implore each one of y'all to please vote to approve this funding.

It is money that is so well spent, and I don't know what I would do without it, honestly.

It's been a godsend.

So thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Um, next is Mark Arnellis.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Mark Arnellis, and I'm here as a father who has spent the last 13 years watching my son fight a battle.

He didn't choose.

My son is 32 years old.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 19.

I want you to understand what that means for our family.

The hospitalizations, the fear, the phone calls in the middle of the night, the helplessness of watching someone you love suffer while feeling like the system had no real answers for us.

For years, the hardest part wasn't just the illness.

It was that my son couldn't consistently recognize he needed help.

He would stop taking his medication, and everything would unravel for him and for our entire family.

Then came AOT.

We have only been in this program for a few months, but I'm standing here today because I've already seen a difference.

My son is stable on his medication in a way he hasn't been in for years.

That may sound like a small thing, but for our family, it is everything.

Stability means he is safer.

It means I sleep at night.

It means he has a chance at a real life.

AOT is a lifeline for people with severe mental illness who cannot advocate for themselves and for the families who love them and never stop fighting for them.

I urge this council to support and strengthen this program.

There are families in this city going through exactly what we went through.

Please give them the same chance you gave us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I just want to say there was a recent situation in Algiers where a young man suffered from schizophrenia, had an episode.

He ran away and never never returned.

So thank you for your testimony.

This is a very serious topic, and we're very appreciative of all the work you all are doing.

I believe Mr.

Will Baum is next.

Good morning.

Thank you for the opportunity for me to speak.

I'm here to endorse the work of the AOT program.

Again, my name is Will Baum.

I'm a licensed clinical social worker and a mental health provider.

I work uh with age uh Merricky Behavioral Health as part of their act program.

The clients we serve or consist of uh it's a population of individuals with severe and persistent mental illness and who don't respond to traditional clinical settings.

So um I'm sort of out in the trenches working with these guys, and we have partnered with the AOT program, they have been invaluable to the work we do.

Judge Reese, the entire AOT staff is consistently empathetic and supportive.

Um they've been involved in making helping assisting individuals with really positive transformation in their lives.

It's really wonderful to see.

So again, I uh am very grateful for their work and um I endorse them and I hope to continue to partner with them in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next is Dijon Latrice Wacku.

Good morning.

My name is Daon Latrice and Mock Hill.

I would like to thank each of you, councilpersons for your service.

I would like to thank each of you presenters for your service as well.

I am one who experienced every result of my mental health diagnosis.

Lack of insight, medication noncompliance, consistent mental health ward hospitalizations, as well as incarcerations and homelessness.

I did not volunteer to join this program, yet I am grateful that I was provoked to participate.

This program has helped me through consistent monitoring of my life on biweekly basis, activities inclusive of medication compliance, legal activities such as monitoring court cases, court judgments, legal compliance, legal awareness, legal communication with other judges, arrest awareness and communication, as well as employment assistance, peer counseling and support.

My own nurse for medication compliance as well as my psychiatrist for consistent monitoring and awareness and comprehension of my behaviors, how to improve and make necessary adjustments.

I have been unaware of my behaviors and at meltdown moments, and this program has greatly impacted the frequency in which has decreased tremendously in concerns of my hospitalizations, arrests, and incarcerations, negatively impacting life activities, and awareness of how I maintain stability and decrease the onset of such realities.

This program is not needed.

It is required for persons such as myself who went through and is still reaching a total complete balance and stability of beneficial life.

This program is required as I am not even one who is gravely affected by my bipolar schizophrenic diagnosis of 23 years in which I was incarcerated for approximately 10 to 15 times and hospitalized approximately eight times.

As a result of this program, those realities are dramatic dramatically and drastically decreasing for my thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Um we have two comment cards.

Okay, okay, you're for this topic.

Yes, sir.

And we have uh maybe last name is Cook 1010101 Lake Forest Boulevard.

Is that person here?

No?

Okay, uh, Mr.

Leader be our last public comment.

Good morning, City Council.

Thank you for having me.

My name is Dolita Willhike.

I am also a case manager at the Little Berry Shelter, so I deal with a lot of this uh in the scope of my job and in my private life.

My son suffers from uh schizophrenia.

Um I am so very happy and so very grateful that uh I have Judge Reese, I have Dr.

Brittany, and respectfully uh mental health court, Judge Marcus Delorde DeLarge.

Um recently, uh so the thing about my son is he never used to want to participate in anything.

He's been in and out of the mental health hospitals, every hospital in the city of New Orleans.

He's been in and out of jail for stealing peanut butter and water, things that he feels in his mind that should be free.

However, um recently um one of the act team, my son met with someone from the act team, and unbeknownst to me, they changed his medication to well but everything was fine in AOT court, everything was fine in Judge Delorge section.

My son took well butrin for one date, and this is what happened to me.

You can see my face.

Um I had to call the police.

So I am so grateful to have these people.

I had no quality of life, and I'm able to have a little quality of life because of these people.

And I know in life, we don't worry about things that does not directly affect us.

If you don't have a kid with mental illness or a family member, then you won't relate.

But I am so grateful that I have you, and thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

We have a few additional cards.

Stephanie Martin.

I have a nephew.

He just came home from doing 15 years.

And he's just making 40 years old.

His mother's deceased, and my brother just turned his back.

My nephew was oh my God, just doing all kinds of things.

I had him put in the hospital about five times since he's been home.

They have give him a little medicine and sent him home.

So I said, well, Lord, all the other family done turn their back.

I'm still standing.

And the boy, he's doing all kind of things out there.

He's sick, and I know one thing.

If somebody in the family didn't stand, he was gonna kill somebody, or somebody was gonna kill him.

Walking around saying, Oh, I need a gun.

I need a gun to got people follow me.

I'm a uh, oh, I'm just gonna kill these people.

And I'm like, Lord help me.

What do I do?

I kept having him calling the police, putting him in the hospital, and he told me he said, Oh, when he came home, I did wrong by putting him in the hospital.

No one else in the family will step up.

My brother, he just everybody just disappeared.

So now that when I went to the corner the last time, I found out about this young lady here.

So, and then the court going in the court, the boy is doing much better, taking medicine.

He's I could see him.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And um, I can't make out the handwriting, but Liv Arm Burgundy.

Good afternoon, council, and thank you for the heart wrenching testimony of everybody in the city that deals with this every day.

And thank you for Janet, this team, Judge Reese.

As a community leader, as someone who lives on a street where we have so many people walking up and down the street with so many issues, and there is never anywhere to go.

But as a police community advisory board president, over the last four years, that has been a place for people to come because they're caught in a gap that Councilman Harris spoke of earlier when she spoke of losing our mental health facilities in the institutions under Gendal.

We lost options.

So as president of the police community advisory board, we have people that show up to our meetings that have no other option, and we are the boots on the ground that tries to connect them to other options.

So right now our PCABs are in a state of suspension.

We don't know what's going on, but we are a great resource, and we're a great connectivity to the rest of the criminal justice and mental health system because we know our community.

And when we know we have neighbors and we have families that are going through something, um, and we know that they're acting out and that they're getting into the criminal justice system again.

Um we can intervene in terms of collaborating with NOPD and other resources to say no, this is a family member, this is a person who is dealing with mental illness, and how can we prevent them from going back into the criminal justice system?

So I urge you to support this effort, and I urge you to also support the effort of the police community advisory boards.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms.

Williams, good morning.

Um, I just wanted to be here in support of Judge Reese and Janet.

I had my son in the AOT program and is been a real game changer.

He um suffers from schizoaffective disorder, which is bipolar and schizophrenia.

Um, and he was just, he had been very successful.

He graduated from Willow, which was Lesser at the time, and went to tech on a full scholarship for physics, um, and then started to slip into psychosis, and I could not get anyone to really hear or help.

And then when he would enter that system, I realized how it just doesn't function.

It's completely dysfunctional, and this is a band-aid.

I have people coming to the house now, helping, helping me support him.

I can leave the house sometimes.

Um, but we need more than this, but AOT is crucial.

It is absolutely necessary.

Um but we also need systemic change because my son really shouldn't be living with me.

I'm hoping that he will get better, but he is gravely disabled, and he needs housing.

He needs funding.

He has none of those things.

So I can't tell you how grateful I am for what is here though, how wonderful Judge Reese and Janet have been.

Janet will pick up the phone any time of day or night for me.

She's been there, she's helped me, she advocated to get my son in this program, and without this, I don't know where I'd be.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Ms.

Williams.

Are there any online comments?

One.

We'll have the online comment, and we'll go to item number six with the vote for the contract.

First, I want to thank you for supporting AOT as you're doing it now because it's definitely definitely needed.

Uh I come to realize that a lot of my daughter on her behalf, her biggest challenge is not being consistent with the medicine.

She honestly believed that she doesn't need to take any.

And that's one of the biggest challenges that we've been having since she's been voting all the way up to 31.

Uh, she's been to probably every hospital in this local area.

Um, the police department for LG is, I pretty much know half the policeman there.

And and I so the support you do in the AOT, uh, Judge Reed has so much patience.

Ms.

Janice has so much passion to correct anything that we can do.

So I want to thank the AOT and thank you as well for supporting the AOT as well.

Because it's a huge challenge involved.

And I also want to thank the LG's police department, uh, the Ford District.

They have helped us so many times.

So I love the support y'all already been doing.

And please, please continue supporting it because it's definitely definitely needed.

And I just want to say thank you very much.

Very much.

Thank you.

This comment is from David Loke.

He says Healing Minds NOLA provides invaluable active support, collaborative services, and continued engagement for families with members with serious mental illness.

During a period of dire family crisis, Healing Minds NOLA was instrumental in assisting my family's navigation of medical care through intervention inpatient and outpatient care and well beyond.

Their rapid medical referrals and coordination streamline the availability of necessary immediate and continued family services.

In addition, Healing Minds NOLA also supported my family through essential legal documentation and court representation to allow for the charting of a course which could and most likely would have otherwise ended in criminal court.

Healing Minds NOLA continues to be part of my family and is a true beacon of support within our communities.

Sure, you have um ordinance calendar number thirty-five thousand three forty-one by Councilmember King by request.

Um it's an ordinance to authorize the mayor of the city to enter into amendment number four to the previously executed cooperative endeavor between the city and healing minds NOLA relative to the public purpose of supporting New Orleans assisted outpatient treatment programs' ability to coordinate physicians to conduct mental health evaluations for pro prospective AOT participants in compliance with the Louisiana Revice Statute 286 at SEC and to compensate physicians for same by operating the AOT programs through the Orleans Parishable District Court and working to connect people in need of mental health treatment to appropriate resources through case management and course a court supervision to modify the provisions thereof and extend the term thereof for one additional year as more fully set forth in the amendment number four.

All right, make a motion to approve.

So second by councilmember Harris, all in favor?

Aye is no names, thank you.

Uh this time about the call uh to adjourn the meeting.

So moved by Councilmember Hughes, second of Council Green.