The Urban and Economic Development Committee met on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. to discuss several items, including appointments, a license agreement, a proposed moratorium on data center building permits, and presentations from the Tulsa Women's Commission and on charter amendments.
Thanks. Okay, thanks. We're live. Okay, we are live. Good morning, everyone. It is the 1030 a.m. Wednesday, March 11th, Urban and Economic Development Committee meeting. And I am Councillor Ballis chairing this meeting. First item on the agenda. I call this meeting to order. Second item on the agenda, Renita Bolden, appointment to the HUD Community Development Committee, filling a vacant seat. Term expires June 30th, 2027 from Council District 6 is Renita. Oh, great. You want to come up to the table. Absolutely. There you go. You can take a seat anywhere. Sorry, there you go. Yes. If you wouldn't mind telling us a bit about yourself and why you're interested in survey in this role. Worked there my entire career. I worked for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for 24 years. And in that capacity, I served several well, I I was appointed on several positions, including supervisors deputy, office manager, administrator. My most recent experience, I I did work with the community a lot. Everything from case management to director over a certain certain departments and everything. I have so much experience. But I I served from I think senior secretary five to office manager to deputy to office administrator. And in those positions, I actually worked with the community a lot from hands-on grassroots serving, uh taking complaints, um, liaising with the departments to resolve those complaints, and um more recently as the um I was in charge of operations for Justice Care and Opportunities Department, where um I helped to facilitate community meetings and um set up trying to say that sorry, a little nervous here because I am okay. Well um we don't bite sure, I'm sure. I'm just I really want to do this because I feel like I have a lot of experience working with the community. I've done everything from uh handling budgets, contract management, RFP processes, you know, facilitating, and um I really wanted to talk about the Justice Care and Opportunity Department where Measure J, I'm not sure if you are familiar with that, but they had to take existing funds from uh law enforcement agencies to serve just as impacted individuals and their families, and um especially those that are marginalized and don't really know about the services, and so we did have to facilitate uh numerous uh community meetings to uh receive impact um input from the communities and um to see where those services should be directed and things like that. So um I had to facilitate or secure or procure um venues, equipment, um, behind the scenes, and also note-taking, um, just like I said, everything that I I like to fill in where the gaps are. And because we started this from scratch, I did have to do a lot of the um or handle a lot of the assignments until we were at capacity and hired other people, so uh everything from hiring staff to training them and so forth. So, anyway, uh since I retired, and my and I've been back, I've been to Oklahoma over the past uh my husband and I will be celebrating 40 years this year, married, and he's from Oklahoma, so we've come back to vacation here all the time, and I loved it and everything, and so I still have family here. Um, and now that we've purchased a home here, uh I'm all over the place. I I'm not content to sit around just because I'm retired. I I am involved in the community in my church. I volunteered over 30 years in the church and everything. So I just feel like I have a lot to offer and am looking forward to um if appointed, uh, helping our community in whatever way possible. Counselor D. I just wanted to say it sounds like you're a super volunteer, and you're probably gonna be like most who retire and do more than before, which would you all just describe the city of Los Angeles seemed like a lot. So thank you for your willingness to serve. I'm also a transplant, and I think um it's great to have a variety of perspectives. Right. I just did want to ask have you worked specifically with um voucher-based community. I did not, I just have to say the closest I came to working with housing was to um help with those re-entry services and things like that, where the people who had been incarcerated before our program when we weren't able to divert. Um, then we uh worked with the providers who provide services or housing and sure things like that. Uh I think that's gonna, I mean, we're we have the highest rate of incarceration, one of the highest, and it's definitely uh re-entry and housing is an issue in our state and certainly our community, so I think you'll have a valuable lens to bring to that. And I'm just appreciative of your willingness to say that thank you. And I I I do have to say, as a deputy to um the county supervisors, some I I was able to connect people who had problems with housing to those departments like uh our housing authority, but not actually working where I facilitated it.