And that's the bandwidth.

Okay, I just need to complete the people.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, let's go to the case.

And Mayor Pro Tem will be here shortly.

But I uh welcome everybody.

This is a special committee on advisory boards and commissions.

And this is the chance for everyone to uh weigh in.

I'm gonna hand it over to Assistant City Manager Evan Raleigh to just give a little background and then we'll literally just open this up for y'all.

Certainly.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the committee.

Um, to get our conversation started uh tonight, we will hear a presentation from Miss Taisha Mosley with uh the Department of Community Engagement uh to recap uh some of the actions that council has already enacted related to changes to the structure and function of boards and commissions, and she'll also um kind of remind us some of the unresolved points of uh discussion that are still um being considered at this point, but have not yet been adopted.

So with without further ado, I will uh turn things over to uh Miss Mosley to take us through the presentation.

Thank you, Mr.

Raleigh.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Tayha Mosley with the community engagement department.

And I won't be before you long.

Just wanted to show you what we're gonna talk about in our few moments together before you open it up to public comment.

So briefly, I'll review the committee's charge, talk a little bit about the actions that you all have already adopted since you've begin meeting as a special committee.

Talk briefly about the status of vacancies on the community engagement board, and then to Mr.

Raleigh's point, we'll revisit some of those outstanding items for your for you all.

And so for the public's awareness, the special committee was established in March at the March eighteenth City Council meeting and was charged with reviewing the structure bylaws and composition of other matters related to advisory boards and commissions.

And here are those previously authorized actions.

So you've adopted a standardized bylaws template to be used by all advisory boards and commissions.

You've adopted guidance for those on city council who support boards and commissions as a council liaison.

You made the decision to merge the historic cemeteries advisory board, and so therefore there was a resolution that authorized the dissolution of that group so that they can be consolidated with the historical resources and museums board.

You've also adopted an ordinance to change the name of the Fair Housing previously the Fair Housing Hearing Board to now the Fair Housing Advisory Board, and then you've also adopted an ordinance to change the name of the mayor's committee for persons with disabilities to the Raleigh Commission for Persons with Disabilities in that and included aligning the board's appointment terms and removal process with your other advisory boards and commissions.

Administratively, we've clarified orientation and onboarding expectations with staff liaisons.

We're in the process of enhancing board applications to include the estimated hours per month so that when someone's applying to a board, they have an idea of the time commitment.

We've updated the work plan templates to align with the current FY2629 strategic plan.

And then we've developed a meeting structure that encourages the collaboration of board leadership across multiple boards and commissions.

Our part of the conversation since March has been looking at alignment and the strategic plan alignment and goals and missions of different boards and commissions.

And so you've had a lot of conversation around that.

And so this slide just shows you the boards who are similar in some ways, mission, vision, strategic plan alignment.

And these are the six that are remaining for discussion with a parent board and then a reorganized composition.

So in this example here, you've considered combining the Human Relations Commission as the parent board, and then some standing committees under that, including Hispanic and Immigrant Affairs, the Substance Use Advisory Board, and the unseated African American Affairs Board, as well as the Raleigh Transit Authority and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission.

There was in two meetings ago conversation about adding the mayor's committee for persons with disabilities there, but you all made a decision to remove them and allow them to be standalone.

So that's why that second line looks a little different.

This is how it would look in theory.

So multiple boards of commissions could merge to become one.

That total number of overall seats could be determined at a future date, and through expiration of terms or vacancies, your specified board size would be achieved through natural attrition.

Those former standalone boards would become standing committees, and then you would allow the committees to establish membership through self-selection.

There was also conversations or questions around the vacancies and resignations of the community engagement board.

So we just have a couple of slides to shed light on the status there.

So the community engagement board was created in 2022 to help develop, evaluate, and implement the city's community engagement efforts.

There are 16 seats on that board.

There are specific seats, like there's a seat specifically for someone who's never served on a board of commission or someone who's a renter.

To date, that board has created or reviewed surveys related to the city's public comment policy.

They've partnered with Raleigh Television Network to produce a video that educates residents on how to prepare for public comment, and they've explored the use of digital engagement platforms to enhance resident voices in our processes.

Currently, there are two inaugural board members, so two people that were appointed in 2022 who are seeking reappointment, another individual that was been on the board for a while who's seeking reappointment.

Four members of the board are not seeking reappointment to focus on other priorities.

They were also appointed in 2022.

And then four of the resignations that you have before you are due to life transitions like the youth seat, the individual that was there graduated from college and relocated.

So different life transitions have contributed to the vacancies.

So your outstanding items for consideration include next steps for the community engagement board.

There's also an ask to consider changing the name of the Raleigh Transit Authority.

Um scope.

And so they're asking you similar to the Fair Housing Hearing Board who does not take hearings to consider a name change there.

And then the reorganization of these six boards that we talked about earlier.

So any questions for me before you open up your public comment.

Thank you so much.

For the onboarding process, can you briefly just help me understand what that looks like and if it's consistent throughout every board moving forward or how that was a good question?

So the community engagement board supports the staff liaisons, excuse me, the community engagement department supports the staff liaisons of each of your advisory boards and commissions.

So we have a standard onboarding handbook that's been updated and we train the staff liaisons on that.

And then in our last two meetings with staff liaisons, we talked to them about the importance of them developing their department-specific abort-specific onboarding expectations, and that may vary.

So our staff is working with the staff liaisons to figure out how we can support them in that.

Our primary role has been updating the general onboarding handbook so that they're receiving the same information.

And does that process include like the chair?

Is it a staff-driven onboarding, or is it um also including board members in that onboarding process?

Excuse me.

Yeah, it includes the board members.

It does.

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

And then I just had uh one question.

You cited develop a meeting structure that encourages collaboration.

And I wasn't sure exactly what that meant.

Sure.

We had discussed that instead of a summer social just being a social, that there might be some plenary where we draw together all the people on the various advisory boards for a more structured substance uh sort of gathering.

So could you just comment on that?

That is the same meeting.

So we did not have the summer social this year due to everything that's happening now.

So we're planning for the fall once we get some decisions made, how we can bring board leadership together for those types of plenary sessions, collaboration, and planning meetings.

That's correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Just one.

Welcome.

So I'm no longer the liaison to the Raleigh Transit Authority.

So when the board says it doesn't have authority, help me understand because my understanding is it's budgetary items that still the council has to dictate by everything else, where stop goes, how routes change, all of that, the authority does have the ability to do.

Yeah.

So help me figure out what should be.

The example that was given is that there are other bodies that maybe the state or other municipality levels who have different types of responsibilities that give them more governing and decision-making power.

And so that was the recommendation to relook at that word authority to make it more relations to what the board is actually responsible for.

My sense is do they have a dedicated revenue stream that they have fiduciary responsibility over?

Is an authority.

No, they don't.

So I think that was the comment.

So it's just the ability to take how the money is spent.

Is that the is it around trying to figure out because I'm saying I'm repeating what I'm hearing so y'all can see if I'm understanding it correctly.

They want the ability to dictate how the money is spent.

I think it's because they don't have that ability.

Okay.

And so therefore the having the word the Raleigh Transit Authority is why it's not necessarily reflective of their charge or of their own.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you.

You are welcome.

And so I we were just going to have three minutes per person who wants to weigh in.

Um there's no prior sign-up, so this will be a little bit more uh chaotic is what I was going to say, maybe.

But um we did want to say if there are chairs or vice chairs who want to speak and you know represent your board, I would prioritize those individuals.

And then after they have spoken, you know, anyone uh obviously can can come up, but just thought perhaps chairs and vice chairs who are here would would give you some priority.

The Quanta Copelands with the Raleigh Housing Advisory Board, she's the chair.

Okay.

She needs a mic.

Would she need a mic?

You want you would you want them to bring a mic to you, or do you want to come up?

Okay.

I wanted to speak on the name change for the Fair Housing Hearing Board.

Um, in more recent years, the board have not heard any cases, but that's only because council would not give the substantial equivalency for us to be able to have subpoena power.

However, we are a legal board that is mandated by state ordinance as well as federal.

So when you all voted to change our name, it wasn't within your power because we're under ordinance to be a hearing board.

So when you may when you change us from a hearing board to advisory, everything concerning our board will change.

Our mission, our vision, the action goes from action prone board to advisory.

I do thank you all for not considering trying to merge us though.

Thank you for that.

But the legal portion of changing our name, it hinders or it conflicts with the state ordinance that we have that we're mandated by that the city is mandated by.

Okay.

But um and when we had our last board meeting that our liaison was in, we were told that you all will come back to us with the conversation after talking to legal because neither elected the council nor staff knew that we were under legal ordinance and that you all should not have voted to change our name.

So I understand if you want to, but we still have a legal requirement to represent the city in this, especially with the Human Relations Commission from the state going from eight um investigators to two, as well as the um legal aid.

I'm sorry.

Elderly mine right quick, I'm sorry.

But um, legal aid just went from 103 um employees down to three.

So federally, they're gonna pull on the municipalities.

We've had the conversations with our liaisons.

She stated her concerns as to why we shouldn't do hearings, but we still have a requirement to address things in the way that we were already established.

So technically, council did not have the ability to change our name.

Thank you.

All right, next speaker.

Yeah, uh good evening, uh, mayor and council members.

I, you know, wasn't sure exactly what to say tonight because after all this time, I still don't know what direction you guys are actually going in, so I don't know what to speak to.

But I do think that the the boards and commissions do need some attention paid to.

I think there are great things you could do to help us be more effective, like organizing and getting standards in place, like actual training so that we know what we're doing when people come on board.

We can have actual rules outlined so that people know what to expect of the commission when they come on board.

There's none of that.

There's no way to find documents.

I was speaking to Christina about how it would be great to have a SharePoint page so that myself right now and going forward ten years from now, the HRC can easily reference what's been done and what the what has been done in the past, what did in the future.

There's none of that.

It is owned by each chair.

Like there is no housing to that.

So if when I leave that information leave, I was going through some old minutes and I saw that we actually were given a SharePoint page in 2020 that nobody knows about.

And this is the type of stuff that we should really work on to make us a lot more effective.

I think it'll improve communication between liaisons, between the staff, between everybody.

If everybody understands the ground rules when they're on the board or commission.

Yeah, I think that's about it.

Before you start away, could you give your name and what board you're on?

Jamie Robinson, I am the chair of the Human Relations Commission.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Uh my name is Saul Prada, and I'm the chairman of the Substance Use Advisory Commission.

Thank you for your continued support for our work and for the guidance of our Council City Council and Staff Liaisons.

Communication between council, staff, and commissions is essential for us to be effective.

As council considers changes to boards and commissions, I encourage you to define and share your goals for these bodies.

Boards and community commissions often serve as the bridge, connecting community voices and information back to council to serve better in this role.

We need clear expectations, so our work not only informs but also supports the direction you want to see for Raleigh.

I also urge collaboration over consolidation.

Boards and commissions with related missions can sh share resources and expertise without merging.

SUAC exists because substance use is among Raleigh's like many other cities, most pressing and nuanced challenges, particularly as it affects individuals facing homelessness and mental health crisis.

We want to advocate for uplift vulnerable communities.

Working towards a healthier and more compassionate Raleigh.

The work deserves its own dedicated space.

On behalf of SUAC, I ask you to continue supporting our independence while encouraging and supporting the collaboration across boards and commissions.

So together we can best serve Raleigh's residents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Come on down.

Hi, uh Jen Truman.

I'm chair for the Raleigh Transit Authority.

Um I didn't prepare comments because I wasn't sure exactly what we were going to be talking about tonight.

Um, uh I will say that myself and the other members of the Transit Authority that are here tonight were surprised to hear that the name request change came from us.

We're not aware that it did.

Um I pulled up in front of me and double check that I'm not missing anything.

The original charter for the Raleigh Transit Authority from 1975.

This is 50 years of volunteer board uh work that has made the Cat Bus system and now the Go Raleigh system in cooperation with staff and the management companies what it is today.

Um really love my friends at BPAC.

We get along great.

We talk often, um we come to each other's meetings so that we can coordinate things.

I can understand some logic behind wanting to merge the boards, but I really hesitate to say that we should actually do it at this point in time.

We have a lot of transit-specific work um over the last 10 years and the next 10 years that Raleigh has to accomplish.

Um my vice chair Latoni Williams pointed out that the Raleigh Transit Authority has partnerships outside of Raleigh with Campo, with Go Triangle, with um through our staff and through their um other volunteer boards where we're coordinating and negotiating agreements for services and routes in the function of an authority.

Um in really there's nothing in our original charter from 1975 that we're not still doing today.

Um so I wanted to bring that to your attention and say that we would really love to have some joint meetings, some more structured collaboration between bicycle pedestrian, their staff with Vision Zero, and those transit depart transportation departments and our transit staff.

I think I won't speak for staff, but I imagine that um they would also appreciate collaboration of the different people who care about how people get off the bus and walk.

Um but if you're not going to think of reorganizing the staff in those separate departments, it seems a shame to cut down the number of um passionate advocates that you have showing up to meetings regularly about those topics.

I probably left something out, so please come up, my other board members.

Um, and also we love our friends at the uh mayor's committee, persons with the disabilities, um, but we recognize that they don't only ride transit and they have other needs, so we're appreciate you keeping their um board as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Robert Kortz and I serve as the Secretary to the Human Relations Commission.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to convene an informal meeting with members from several of Raleigh's boards and commissions.

Nine of us participated, representing the Substance Use Advisory Commission, the Raleigh Transit Authority, the Fair Housing Advisory Board, and the Human Relations Commission.

Our goal was simple to connect across boards, share experiences, and explore how we can best represent the communities we serve as the city moves forward with its reorganization efforts.

From the start, it was clear that what unites us is our shared commitment to the work of our boards and commissions.

We see ourselves as bridges between residents, staff, and council.

Our members are deeply invested in the work that we do, and we all want to ensure that Raleigh's boards and commissions continue to strengthen the city and the people we serve effectively.

We also discussed areas where the process has represented challenge.

Members shared that communication has sometimes been unclear, and that more opportunities for input could help capture the real experiences and perspectives of those servings on boards and commissions.

These conversations were honest but always constructive, with a focus on solutions rather than blame.

Importantly, our discussion was very optimistic.

We agreed that thoughtful restructuring could make boards and commissions even stronger, more effective, and better equipped to serve Raleigh.

Achieving this vision requires clear goals, consistent guidelines, and the insight from members of boards and commissions, both past and present, who understand the work firsthand.

We hope to continue a collaborative dialogue.

We encourage council and staff to involve board and commissioners members meaningfully as the process moves forward.

And we welcome opportunities for ongoing communication and feedback.

To my fellow citizens, your voices are vital.

Attend these sessions.

Share your experience and engagement with the council and staff so that we can work together to strengthen citizen involvement in Raleigh.

Council members and staff.

We, the Board and Commission members, stand ready to partner with you in this process.

Together, we can build boards and commissions that reflect the dedication, diversity, and energy of our community, ensuring that Raleigh remains a city where citizen engagement thrives.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Greetings, uh member of the Raleigh City Council.

My name is Manzur Tima.

I am a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina and a grassroots social justice organizer for the last 25 years.

I am also a member of Raleigh Human Relations Commission.

Our fellow Commissioner Robert Kortz mentioned, the Raleigh's Commission and Board and Eyes and Ears for the City.

We are working in the community.

I am working in the refugee, low-income black and brown community members who are paying 50 to 60 paternity income on rent.

They are living in rat-infested, mold-infested housing.

They don't have education justice, health care injustice, transportation.

We are seeing those things with our eyes, and we are working on those communities.

And those Raleigh Human Relations Commission meetings and our teams then advise and uh you know give uh feedback to the city.

And these in that sense, the human the different commissions and boards as an asset for the city.

Uh any conversation, even about the uh these uh boards, whether they need to be merged or what the efficient has to be done in consultation with the actual board members and commissioners who have dedicated decades of their work in uh responding to those crises in the community, whether it makes sense for us to have 42 members or a current size of 16 members.

We have to be a feature, and we have six different teams in the Raleigh Human Relations Commission.

We also uh discuss the more than a million dollar grants.

So we need to go to uh and oftentimes even there we say not a lot of people in the city of Raleigh even know about those grants.

So we want to make things efficient, but the whole process should have the actual board members and commissioners in table with you and discuss what is the best way to move forward.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Cole McMullen.

Uh I've been on the police advisory board for two years, and I am currently vice chair.

Um relationships between the Raleigh Police Department and the community, review existing RPD procedures, contributing to fair policy development, and engage community members through educational outreach on RPD directives.

The police advisory board's mission is distinct from that of any other board or commission in a forced merger or disbandment of the board raises concerns that our work may go by the wayside, which would be a devastating loss for the community.

That said, I realize there may be opportunities for boards and commissions to collaborate with each other on certain issues so as not to duplicate efforts, and maybe those collaborations aren't happening in our current structure.

However, uh I'm skeptical that a top-down reorganization is what is is what is needed to enhance collaboration and communic communication across boards and commissions.

And uh get those boards and commissions in contact with each other.

It is essential that City Council provide a clearly defined goal and solid guidelines as a starting point point for the hypothetical collaboration.

That way board and commission members have a clear understanding of what is being asked of them and they can provide valuable input and insights on how the issue might be addressed.

I don't think personally that any board or commission should be merged unless the majority of its members agree that a merger is in the best interest of the community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Um Joe Caruso, I am the current chair of BPAC of the Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Commission.

Um I largely just wanted to echo the um comments from Ms.

Truman and our friends at RTA.

Um I I feel that both BPAC and RTA have quite a significant number of items that are currently in flight and hopefully um over the next decade, um, both with RTA working through the Wake Transit Plan and BPAC with a number of initiatives that uh the city has to improve uh multimodal um access to the city.

I I feel that both both commissions have a large amount of work um on uh every every month on their agenda.

And um I feel there's a there's a real concern that if the two commissions uh were uh merged together that there would there would be even less time to address these these critical items and and really get into the details um that um that is really required to to make the the best decision the the best decisions and um the best plans um moving forward.

Um the as was mentioned um the a number of the members of BPAC um already attend the uh the committee meetings on RTA and and vice versa.

So there already is um a bit of collaboration between the the two commissions.

Um I certainly feel that we could we could do more um in that in that arena, but I don't feel that sort of formally merging them together would be um in the best interest of of the city.

Um especially considering that as far as I'm aware that the staff resources that sort of align with those commissions would will still uh remain separate.

Um if there was sort of a larger scale reorganization where everything moved together, then that may make more sense.

But with our our staff liaisons continuing to be in in separate departments, um I I feel that there is uh a lot of um concern that it would end up just leading to items not getting the appropriate amount of attention that they deserve.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Carmen Coffin.

I am not a member of a board or commission any longer.

I was on the community engagement board.

And that was quite a piece of work to begin to create that from the beginning.

What I really want to say is that I would like, as you all are going through this process, to recognize, as someone said, some of these boards and commissions are 50 years old.

When they were started, it was because there were issues, black and white in this city that haven't gone away.

The history of some of these boards and commissions needs to be re-evaluated, and the people who are on the boards and commissions, as well as the council members, need to understand why they were started.

Some of the powers that were originally in some of these, I would say the Fair Housing Hearing Board and the Human Human Relations Commission were started because there were serious issues with people in the community.

Some of the things that they had to deal with were taken away in other mergers.

And I believe it is important for the history of why boards and commissions were started to be carried somewhere in their charge, in their onboarding, so that that original vision is not lost in the process.

And those of you who know that I'm a historian know that that's important to me, including my mother was on the original housing, not fair housing, but the Human Relations Commission.

And it was done because of housing in Primeira back 50 years ago.

So I think it is important to recognize why things are started and what the needs still are, even 50 years out.

And so I would urge you to make that to be part of your deliberations and your decisions as you go forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the council.

I wasn't really going to speak when I came because I was hoping our leadership was here, but I did want to say something since we brought up uh a little information about the CEB.

I've been involved with citizen engagement for years, as you know.

I'm in it to win it.

I'm not in it for the residents, so no matter what happens, but I did want to make a few comments on some things about this C B board to remind us that this was one of the newest, newest newer boards that developed, and I think this board tried to develop in a way to address a lot of issues that other boards may have gotten away from.

And so we try to develop some things there.

And in developing those things, uh we even try to develop a unique mission.

But in some of the ways with onboarding that was mentioned, we notice that individuals have to have this orientation before they come on the board.

For example, they have to have a um onboarding from the council members that's appointing them so that they know what their expectations are and what to support.

They have to have the onboarding orientation from the staff, and they also have to have the onboarding orientation from the committee officers.

There's a lot going on when they come on, and these individuals may get shocked when they come on and say, this is not what I've been looking for.

I'm out of here, because you got volunteers, you got students and everything of all different ranges.

So we really have to prepare them for that next step.

And then some of the other things is that this board, you mentioned the way we're uh um assigned to the board to it looks like diversity.

It is diversity because you say you may have a person representing a senior, uh, you may have a person representing uh uh Latins or Hispanics or or uh uh uh what other area youth or whatever.

Well, I think it would be more effective if that individual not only represents that, but is active in that area.

So, in other words, if I'm a senior, I'm going to reach out, connect with all the senior organizations in the city, bring their issues back to this committee to identify.

So I'm not so that kind of affected me when I came in.

I said, Well, which what am I supposed to be?

Just because I'm a senior member, or I'm going to represent the seniors.

And to make it more efficient and effective, I should know what the senior concerns are.

We go there.

The other thing is that the district representatives should be in tune with in the district so that they bring the district concerns back to that committee.

So we got the in this spectrum of uh community engagement that I see there's a lot of gaps.

But there's room for everybody to fill the gaps and make a more efficient and effective program to uh uh to impact some of these diverse issues that we talk about.

The impact on diversity is real.

Now I'm running out.

Can I take a few more minutes?

Thank you.

So you know, my thing is about being informed plus engaged equals empowered.

But this trust and transparency that I've been trying to work with, you kind of make it hard for me to do that.

When I talk to the people, they say, uh, they're gonna do what they're gonna do.

So what I'm seeing now is they don't need to hear, we need to show them the results.

This is what we have done in your area.

Exactly.

So not the broad result, but this is in my district in your community.

And then I think maybe they can relate to that rather talking broadly like that.

So I think those are some of the things that we need to deal with.

And uh I just want I mean, I want to be fair to everybody said.

I'll stop there.

I just felt that I need to say those few things.

Yeah, appreciate it.

Hi, I'm Veronica Clark.

Um, I'm gonna be reading from my phone, so I'm sorry if I don't make eye contact.

Um I have served on the community engagement board for over a year, and I would just like to share some additional context about the board, as I know it's a fairly new council, and that not everybody was here or in the position that they are in in 2022 when the board was created.

Well, I wasn't an inaugural member.

I did have my eyes and ears open and was playing very close attention to what was happening in the city.

So I feel that as a board member and an engaged citizen, I have a good idea of what the board is about and why it is still important to the city.

Even as CACs are being brought back, all groups, including the CEB are valuable assets to the city's engagement network.

When CACs were disbanded in 2022, that was obviously such a shock for these groups and residents that have dedicated years and hours of their time to being engaged citizens.

The community engagement board was established as a sort of throwaway way for the city to say, we're not completely completely shutting down engagement.

There's still a board, and the board will take a look at everything we're doing and make recommendations.

It was very vague.

Um it is the board is completely different from CACs.

It was created with very little guidance at the time, but since becoming an established board, we've made great strides in our progress towards honing in on the questions of where is the city missing the mark when it comes to community engagement, what does the community need in order to become more engaged, and how can we help bridge that gap?

As we've begun to begun to dig deep and explore these questions, really making progress as a board, is when all of this turmoil began, which halted our progress.

The community engagement board should have always existed independently of CACs.

Its existence should have never been tied to the existence of CACs because they both do extremely different but extremely important work.

While CACs are so important and do need to be fully re-established, and you know, everything, the community engagement board shouldn't be disbanded or ignored.

There's been some concern with why don't we have many members anymore?

Um, that was sort of explained by Tahisha's slides.

I can explain specifics if you guys want.

Um, but it seems like there's been a clear refusal, but no explanation as to why the new appointments and term renewals are not being paid attention to.

I personally have three recommendations.

One, resume appointments and term renewals immediately.

Expand the age range for the youth member to eight to be eighteen to twenty nine instead of eighteen to twenty-three, because that's just too much transition happening in their life at that time.

And then think about what you want to see from the board and ask that of us, because it's still really important.

Um, but we are completely open to you know, direction and guidance and oversight and whatever you want from us.

Dis disbanding the board and ignoring us would send a clear message, not just to us um as citizens, very caring citizens, but to every engaged citizen that community engagement doesn't matter.

And I know that's not true.

Um thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Honorable mayor, members of the city council, everyone present.

I bring your greetings from the Hispanic and Americans Affairs Board.

I'm a member, not a chair, the chair is absent today.

Uh, but uh my name is Carter Zaru, Resident of Raleigh.

Uh we have a concern about the consolidation.

Number one for the Hispanic and Immigrants Affairs Board started, you know, a few years ago, uh, supposed to be anchoring the immigrants community to the city, uh city politics and communities, and consolidating may lose focus, uh, may undermine some of the work we have been doing for the last five years.

And the third really issue that we have is when you merge people together, or you may lose members, members may be shifting between boards uh and we have uh lost already members on our board.

Uh so we think it's uh kind of productive to consolidate at this time.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Yep.

Hello, uh Ian Burnett, um on the Parks Recreation Greenway Advisory Board.

Um this is more of a general uh logistics uh suggestions for all of the boards is to uh set a more effective cadence for publishing the minutes on board docs or whatever, however you want to post it.

Um when I looked back in March.

The majority of the boards had uh about a two-year gap between when the meeting happened and when minutes were published.

Um and that's just for the main board, the which a lot of them are televised, so you could watch the videos, whereas the committees are you know it goes into the ether.

So if if the minutes for the committees and for the main boards could be um published to a central place um so we could see what's happening, that would be great, I think, for for all of the boards and commissions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else wanna weigh in?

All right.

Any uh I will just say thank you.

I know everybody in here is serving on a board and commission and spent a lot of time and energy as as many of you uh explain.

So um don't, you know, not only thank you for coming this evening, but for everything that you do.

Anything else?

Okay.

Yes.

No, just just a couple of thoughts for me before we leave.

Um I definitely don't feel we do need to merge the transit authority or the um bike impairs, and that's something I've said from the beginning, um, just with their roles and the works they're doing.

I like the comment that was just made about minutes.

If we can just have staff follow up and figure out, you know, what we need to do to get those minutes working with the I know we have things over in in I think three different departments.

So if we can get those departments between a clerk's office, between communities um affairs board, um, and then I think even the council's office it has been a liaison to some boards.

If we can just try to get some synergy there, I think that would be helpful.

Uh yes, sir, absolutely we can do that.

I'd also point out the board should be adopting their minutes in their regular open meetings.

So that should be happening as well.

Yeah, so if we can make sure that's on the agenda, if it's not on your agendas, no, let's try to figure out going forward.

And the last thing I will say, and it goes back to something that Ms.

Kaufman said about the human relations boards and why things were started.

Um I was on the council when the human when the Hispanic and Immigrants Board was started.

And it was started because council um was contacted and informed that they didn't feel the human relations board was addressing their issues or their concerns.

Um and the council decided decided to make that creation.

Um I think what we really have to do is go back and look at these boards, how they were created, why they were created, and if they're not doing the job in the roles, just creating new board on top of a new board.

I think it goes to the point you made at our very first meeting.

It doesn't really solve the issue of people fulfilling their roles and responsibilities.

It's just punting an issue from one base to the next.

So I definitely wanted to go back and really look at that.

And I'm gonna I'm asking, you know, those who hear from the human relations board, send email us ideas of how you think we should look at some of the requests that have come before council.

No, we've had requests come to council asking for a board to represent their particular community because they felt it wasn't being represented.

So I just wanted to share that thought as we figure out um our path forward.

Great.

Thank you.

Uh yes, thank you all for being here.

Um this is a really big topic, and I know that this may feel a little bit messy as we don't, you know, there's confusion about the date of the meeting, and I know that that kind of may maybe ruffled some feathers, but we're trying, and you have a dedicated council up here who wants to get it right, and we want to figure out how to work with you.

Uh I want to uh acknowledge and commend uh Jamie Robinson from the Human Relations Commission, who when we sat down a few months ago, handed me this report from Asheville and was like, hey, they've already done this.

They've done this, and here is their report.

And I went through and I read it, and I've been sharing it around.

So I I I know a lot of people in the audience have read it.

If not, please email me.

I will send it to you.

I've sent it to the task force as well as as council to review.

Uh they're saying a lot of the same things.

They they they've been through these same concerns.

And uh in my mind, so you can see what I'm thinking is how do we more so than does this board merge with this one, is more how do we receive your information and how do you see it reflected in policy?

Because that's where when we're talking, that's what I feel like I'm hearing that you're missing.

And I think that as we build this new strategic plan, um, and we're coming up, and I think that's being finalized now.

Um, I would love to see not a merging, but an assignment to those to say, all right, if you have a question, your committee is let's just say growth and natural resources, or is it Safe Vibrant Healthy Community Committee?

So then you know that there's a spot for you to land to ask questions because it's intimidating.

You know, uh I will say there's eight of us, and there's 28 boards.

Um so it's not at all intentional.

I understand how that can feel confusing, but boards and commissions are just one thing that we think about.

And so there's a ton of other things that are going around in our in our minds, and to give you a place where you can be heard by council, maybe not just the liaison, um, might give us some more footing to work with.

So that's where I'm going.

That's where I think the Asheville report does a really good job of of centering that.

Um, so so please read that.

And then for council, my last thought, and then I will stop, um, is beyond what we do with the boards and how we assign to them.

They can come to Growth and Natural Resources, they can come to here.

I think there's a missing gap of how we, as liaisons, transmit that information to each other and how we update that.

Because I can say, like, I meet with SUAC, I'm so proud.

Hey, Sal, I had a great meeting with you guys before when we talked about this, but I don't necessarily transmit all of that information to you, and vice versa, you know.

So I think there has to be uh uh something there that tells if we're gonna have a liaison, where do all those conversations happen so that all of council can benefit from the work that we are doing as liaisons with these boards?

Um so those are my thoughts.

Um again, thank you so much for being here.

Your your work is very appreciated, and you do have a council that wants to get this right.

And uh so sometimes it's gonna be a little messy, and then we'll figure it out and we'll be great.

Thank you.

Yep.

One small thing.

If legal can go back and look at the fair housing board and let's get that right.

Close down.

All right, thank you.

Um all right, well, appreciate everybody, and uh we will adjourn.