Okay.

Now we can officially call the meeting to order 5.35 p.m.

Would you mind doing roll call folks?

Yes.

Amy Orisa.

Present.

Carlos Vejano.

Chris Chavez.

I'm here.

Daniel Gomez.

Jackie Gonzalez.

Jose Bamaca.

Mimi Martinez.

Oh, hey.

You snuck in.

Fatima Linares.

Jessica Lozano Alvarez.

What is it?

Okay.

Mark Onesor.

Here.

Jacob Pata.

Diana Pennington.

Here.

Amanda Petegrina.

Angelica Reina.

Riley Howard.

Here.

Andy Little.

Here.

Richard Gonzalez.

Okay.

I need to add Drew to the list also.

Grow is going to try to meet at these meetings.

Richie is going to the committee meetings.

They're kind of splitting the duties.

Oh, okay.

Also does not get it.

Oh fucking here.

So we are now at quorum.

Okay, beautiful.

Our first item of business then is approval of last month's meeting minutes.

Hope everyone had a chance to review.

I know we reviewed in the executive committee.

May I have a motion to approve?

So moved, Carlos.

Thank you, Carlos.

Is there a second?

Adams.

Mark.

Thank you, Mark.

It has been moved to executive to approve last month's meeting minutes.

Any further discussion?

If not, all in favor.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

Anyone abstaining?

Yes.

Alright, moving right along.

Next item of business is our chair vice chair report.

Jackie's and I did attend our vice chair chair meeting with Mayor Nichols and the other Title Five chairs.

Was pretty incredible to hear about all the activities that they have going on.

We made some connections, and that's how we got the uh connection to request attendance information at Tulsa Public Schools and Union Public Schools.

So we're still working on that.

Um the vice chair of the Human Rights Committee, um, Dr.

Tamika Rogers.

So Amika Rogers is gonna help us with that.

So then hopefully we'll have some data points that we can review and see what kind of impact the whole immigration thing is having on us.

I'm an engineer, so I like to deal with data.

You don't know about the rest of these.

Okay, um we did also have um a discussion amongst ourselves, and uh this is gonna come up also at the executive committee report.

And uh just want to remind everyone of attendance requirements and or making sure that you let uh Lexi and uh the chair know if you're gonna be absent.

We've got several individuals that we haven't seen for months and months and months, and uh we're just trying to um inspire cooperation, I guess you could say, and uh attendance is one of the big things that contributes to all of us being able to do everything that we want to do in our community.

So for those of you that got a little note from us, hopefully it didn't offend anyone, and uh understand that we're just trying to be positive and try to inspire cooperation.

Any comments on any of that?

Okay, moving on.

Um, our first guest speaker today um is with the Tulsa municipal court, uh Jamie Collin.

Hello.

And thank you for volunteering to come in.

Thank you.

We appreciate that.

And uh Jamie Petiga mic is up at the podium.

There's a clicker over there.

Um if you leave the podium, take the mic with you so T-Gup can still hear you.

Okay, thanks.

I'll just stand by it so it's not too complicated.

That works.

Okay, hello everyone.

I'm Jamie Collin.

I'm the community engagement coordinator for the municipal courthouse.

Here with me today is Angel Boba Dia.

He is one of our support clerks, and we're gonna talk to you about the courthouse today.

So the Tulsa Municipal Court is a court of record.

So we deal with criminal offenses, traffic violations, misdemeanors, coding, zoning, all of those sorts of violations would come to us.

And our mission is to provide fair and partial, efficient administration of justice to everyone who comes through our doors.

So we have several programs, but the biggest thing that I want to tell you, I hope that you leave with today is that we have an add on docket.

So that's an opportunity for people who come in who have missed their court date, they need a correct citation, they have a warrant, they have something that they want to contest.

They can come in Monday through Friday, 8 to 9 a.m.

and they can add on to our docket.

And so what that means is they will be added onto the docket for that day, and they'll get to see the judge after the scheduled docket.

So it's the same day process.

And I'm gonna hand it over to Angel so he can tell you about our programs.

Alright, so as you can see, we have a ton of programs at the municipal courthouse.

I'm gonna go ahead and touch upon each of these as we go along.

The first one is night court.

So night court is essentially what it sounds like court in the evenings.

We hold it specifically on Thursdays from four to seven.

Now on these days, you can see a judge for any court matters that you have, but you can also access our court records department, pay a citation, our cashier window is open, extend any payment plans that one may be on with our cost compliance division.

And we do have a Spanish interpreting service available on those evenings as well.

We also have our special services court slash docket.

Now, fun fact, we actually held it today, and I was part of that.

Um so this docket slash court program is primarily targeted towards individuals that may be experiencing homelessness, substance use disorders, mental health issues, um, or anything of that sort.

And it's really meant to rehabilitate while also ensuring accountability while going through the court process and ultimately creating a stable environment for these for these folks.

And here are some stats also.

Now we do have two specific positions in our courthouse, uh, Monday to Friday, 85, or around that time frame.

It's our family children's services court advocate and our court navigator, which is partnered with Justice Link.

Now, these two individuals, their main purpose in our courthouse is to connect individuals that come into our courthouse with community resources that could be food, shelter, benefit enrollment, housing services, or anything of that nature.

And as you can see, we do help a lot of participants that come into our courthouse.

Now we also have Service Oklahoma in our building, and we're super proud of this.

So Service Oklahoma, also known as the DMV DPS.

Um, they're in our lobby, housed from uh Monday through Friday from 8 to 4:30 specifically.

Now we've noticed that in the past individuals have had trouble, and it's been more of a barrier to try to be in compliance with the courthouse while also you know being compliance with Service Oklahoma.

So having it in our building really takes down that barrier and helps promote compliance and facilitates that for individuals that may be that we did not know that.

Uh we also have a transportation assistance program.

So if an individual is having trouble getting to and from court, we can provide bus passes as well.

Um, and we really want to promote this so that we have people not missing their court dates.

We also created a cost compliance division recently ish.

Now, this division is specifically meant for individuals that are wanting to either extend a payment plan that they may be on already or get put on a payment plan without having to be seen in front of a judge.

Um also if an individual is experiencing some background issues or experiences that may hinder their ability to pay off their fines and fees, they can always request to be seen in front of a judge, and this division can assist with that as well.

Now they also promote and um encourage folks to get text reminders.

So if you do go to them, they can sign you up for text reminders to give you those reminders that you do owe some fines and fees to the courthouse, uh so you don't miss any payments.

And also a fun fact on average, individuals that do sign up for these text reminders tend to pay off their balances six months faster than those that don't.

Now we do also partner with the Financial Empowerment Center, which is fantastic.

So these uh this is ultimately financial counseling for individuals.

So anyone that does register with them and completes three sessions and get 250 suspended from their fines and fees without the owes of the courthouse, and every session completed afterwards can be an additional 100 suspended from what they owe.

Now, as you guys know, it is city policy to encourage and allow individuals to have access, despite English proficiency.

So on the bottom, you can see a couple of common languages that come into our courthouse.

So if anyone that comes into our courthouse is needing some sort of interpretation services, they can always call us ahead of time and get registered with an interpreter that we can provide.

Or if they come in on that same day, we can schedule them out on a future date with an interpreter that we will provide to them.

Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and hand it on over to Jamie so she can talk about community outreach.

Alright.

So community outreach is my job as a community engagement coordinator.

So the purpose of that role is to help build trust in the community, raise awareness of our programs, and to help build partnerships that result in programs like we just discussed.

So what that looks like is coming to presentations, uh, attending events, community fairs.

Today I was at McLean High School and I did a career fair all day, so that would have been really fun.

Um we also build partnerships to better support individuals.

So an example of that is this past year we did a partnership with Tulsa Health Department to provide car seat referrals for moms or parents who uh get a child I like a restroom child versus I can't remember the wording, but it's restraint on the child seat.

So if they get that ticket and they get a car seat, they get it waived down to like five dollars.

Um we also create and translate outreach materials, and so I brought a bunch of that with me today, then both English and Spanish, and they're on that back table.

And then we also offer courthouse tours and observation opportunities so people can come in and see what's happening in court, and it's a little bit less scary and because they're not in trouble, they're coming of their own free will.

And then another big thing we've developed over the past year is the internship program.

So we offer it to seniors in high school.

We have had some college students over the summer, but we've partnered with TPD and local schools to bring students in to observe different departments and the staff that are in those departments so they get to learn the operation, the key processes, and then they can take those and have opportunities on ways we can make those better.

They've also been able to attend community events so we can really emphasize the importance of public trust, and we also have them help with court tasks.

So filing, greeting, they collect surveys from citizens, and from those surveys, I've listed a few comments that we've gotten from them.

So we have different special services and from nightcore, and then also just our daily court uh arraignments.

So a few collaboration opportunities that we do with partners is invitations to events and community meetings.

Um we spread awareness of our TMC programs with the community.

So if someone reaches out and they say, Hey, I'm curious about this, we can send all the information and paper resources with them.

Um people letting us know about concerns that that specific demographic has in the community so we can address them.

Um, and then also encouraging your students to reach out to us about an internship at the courthouse.

And my email is below if you're interested in any of those, but I also have cards in the back.

This is a current list of the partnerships that we have.

It is always growing all the time.

Um, but this is we have a pretty extensive list now.

And then we're open for questions.

Well, actually, I have a question about the financial empowerment center.

Do they have that in Spanish?

Because I know you guys are doing an amazing job about putting all science in Spanish, and I love that.

And I was just wondering if by chance this one would be in Spanish for the Spanish community or the other communities.

So the representative who comes to the courthouse is not a Spanish speaker.

However, on their like on their site on 21st and Yale, I do think they have Spanish speakers.

Yeah, I love that.

I I just want to give a shout, uh shh can't say somebody helped me.

Thank you.

Because these guys, the court has uh does an amazing job.

I'm there like almost every day because I'm there to be a parleal interpreter, and it's just amazing the attitude that they have.

You know, it's just amazing.

The environment that you guys create just makes it very welcoming, and I think that's very different from other courts that I have been in.

And so, and just you can tell that you guys really want to help.

And the judges are amazing.

Always, like you guys were saying, telling them about all these different um places or things that they can use.

I think it's just amazing for job.

Thank you, Amy.

So I just have a question as far as how are we paying for all this?

Are there some grants involved?

There is.

I'm not I don't know the complete answer to that, but I do know that ARPA funds have been involved.

Um I would have to talk to our program um supervisor to get a really good answer on that for you.

Because this is huge.

I don't recall this, it hasn't been around.

All this hasn't been around for all that long.

Um I think I've been with the city for a year now, um, and I think most of it is still pretty new within the last maybe 10 years, maybe maybe even less, yeah.

Amazing.

Wow.

We should invite Andy them to uh present to the council for safety and brands.

Sure, and then um I would love for them to talk about this on the radio too.

Yeah, we always love that.

Anything else?

Thank you so much.

We appreciate it.

I do want to say one final note that all of the programs we discussed today, language access is not a barrier for any of them.

So if anybody comes in needing anything, we do our very best to provide those resources for them.

Thank you.

Thank you guys for the meeting.

Excellent.

All right, moving on for our next presenter, and you're just gonna have to correct me if I don't get your name right.

Our next guest speaker is the uh Amber Giptins.

Um, Amber is our director, so she was not able to make it, so I will be presenting.

My name is Kennedy Dixon.

Thank you, Kennedy.

And they're with this uh financial empowerment community wealth.

Just a second.

Alrighty.

Um good afternoon.

Again, my name is Kennedy Dixon, and I am the program assistant and local government manager to the Office of Financial Empowerment and Community Wealth.

Um, so I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you guys about the financial empowerment center.

Um, and thank you to the municipal court for the early plug to the program.

So really happy to be able to share even more about the work we're doing with the financial empowerment center.

Um so just a quick who we are.

The Financial Empowerment Center um started uh and was initiated within the city in 2020, and the centers provide free one-on-one financial counseling to all people who work, live and play in Tulsa.

So you don't necessarily have to live in Tulsa.

If you frequent Tulsa, we're always happy to help.

And at the core of what we do, we focus on people, policy advocacy, and partnerships within the Financial Empowerment Center.

We have an office which provides local government oversight to the financial empowerment center, uh, which again is the office of financial empowerment and community wealth.

Um, with that office, um, includes myself and Amber Gippins, who is our director.

We have some initiatives that we are championing right now.

The priority is always the financial empowerment center because it kind of pushes forward these initiatives.

We have two main locations.

Um one at 21st in Yale and another at 16th in Sheridan.

Uh, one is fostered through Goodwill Industries of Tulsa, and the second is with Tulsa Response, and we have certified counselors who provide individualized financial counseling to anyone.

Um and again with language language access, it's also not a barrier for us.

We do have um counselors who have Spanish as their first language, so they are well versed, um, and also are able to make folks feel comfortable about the information that they share because it is so intimate with the financial counseling.

Um, again, it's free.

We do a soft pool to your credit and a financial health assessment on your first session.

First session takes about 60 to 90 minutes, but after that, at least 30 minutes, we can do smaller check-ins.

But again, the counselors are well versed in all financial topics.

So let's say you want to work on debt management.

Let's say you want to create a budget.

It could be a small problem, a large problem, regardless of what it is.

Our counselors are pretty happy to help with any issue that you may have, or just some tasks that you want to tackle regarding financial stability.

Our second initiative is volunteer income tax assistance, which we call VIDA, that is uh provided through goodwill and Tulsa response, but again, that's free.

So it's tax season.

People are really looking for ways to tackle their taxes, especially if they have no idea what they're doing, like me.

So we love programs like VIDA because they um really provide a resource that folks are in need of right now, especially with the changes that have happened within our tax regulations under new administration.

So our volunteers are well merged just in the same way that our counselors are.

Within the city of Tulsa, about 50% of Tulsons are considered Alice, which means that they're asset limited, income constrained, um, but they're employed, which means that they're barely making things meet, um, and bank on also provides a service that may be beneficial to folks who are outs along with the other initiatives.

Um, but folks, um essentially within Tulsa, not only do we have an issue with Alice or folks being Alice, we also have an issue with low access to banking institutions.

So a lot of people they have little to no access to banking institutions, they're underbanked, which means that they're using Cash App or CHIME or Apple Pay, which those things aren't banking institutions, um, and they have no protection with the FDIC.

So we try to push for these low, no cost second chance checking products so that people do have access to banking, and just a little bit of data.

Um within the five years of the time that the FEC has been opened.

We've created um had about 2,000, almost 3,000 outcomes with our clientele.

Uh, 13% of those outcomes are folks who have increased their credit score by 35 points, and that's just at least.

We have some people who get 100 points added onto their credit report just because of their consistency and the tools that our counselors are able to provide them with, and 9% uh of our outcomes uh relate to an increase in folks' savings.

Um, so if you have a flat tire, you have a plumbing issue, um, increasing your savings is valuable to you because that could be uh to your detriment if you don't have the funds available to take care of that.

So we pride ourselves on being able to provide folks with the plan to create a savings account and actually continue to add funds to it.

Currently, we have served and impacted 8,000 citizens within Tulsa and conducted over 10,000 sessions, and that's just as of this week.

As far as our demographics, uh, the typical person that walks into a financial empowerment center for 70% of our folks, they're a black woman who makes under 45,000 a year.

Um while we would like to increase the access and who actually comes into the FEC.

Um, that's why we do presentations like this, so that we can foster new partnerships so that we can increase the amount of people that are coming so that it looks a little bit more equitable.

Um but right now, you know, we're happy to always network with you all.

We have 14% of our clientele are Hispanic or Latinets, 34% are Caucasian, 42% are African American, 6% are American Indian or Alaskan Native, and almost 3% are Asian.

As far as our bigger numbers, we're really proud to say that overall we've increased our clientele savings by 1.5 million dollars, and our really big number, we've reduced non-mortgage debt by 3.7 million dollars within the five years that the FEC has been opened.

When it comes to non-mortgage debt, if you think about a credit card that you owe on, if you think about student loans, that debt can be a dark cloud that kind of hovers over you.

So we are also proud to create paths where folks can kind of do a snowball method of paying down on credit, uh paying down on debt, um, and so that's our our huge number.

million dollars and our really big number we've reduced non-mortgage debt by 3.7 million dollars within the five years that the FEC has been open when it comes to non-mortgage debt if you think about a credit card that you owe on if you think about student loans that debt can be a dark cloud that kind of hovers over you so we are also proud to create paths where folks can kind of do a snowball method of paying down on credit uh paying down on debt um and so that's our our huge number and our municipal court partnership which Jamie was able to present on here's some numbers that we would like to share as a as of the end of 2025 we have waived over 67 thousand dollars in fines and fees for Tolson this integration started in 2023 and again I won't go over the details since they already share it but um just the highlight is being able to um get people out of the judicial cycle let's say you don't pay a ticket um at some point you're issued a warrant and that can be even scarier than just having to worry about the debt so this program does allow folks a way out of that judicial cycle and the debt that kind of hovers over them and with bank on previously stated we have a bank on partnership which is simply states that we have 15 partnerships with 15 established banks within Tulsa you can talk to a counselor and access any of these accounts and say hey I need a bank account I don't have access to this and we're always happy to provide you with the information to access those those bank accounts and our final service that we provide which is a newer service which launched in October of last year is legacy planning.

We provide power of attorney last will and testament living will and HIPAA authorization again is a free service that we provide you don't have to be at retirement age you don't have to be you know an owner of a home this can be anything we think about folks who have children who take care of vulnerable loved ones they fall into this category as well for our legacy planning data we have reached over 700 residents in just this small short window of time from October till today and that is a lot that's about 154 residents per month that receive these services legacy planning takes up about 10% of our clientele and 92% of these clients are under 65 so that tells us that folks are looking to protect these assets far far ahead of retirement age and what's next for legacy planning we are looking to do tangled title assistance anybody know about probate or how bad it can get oh yeah expensive no you're shaking your head I hope you never find out but probate can probate can get really sticky really fast and for folks who don't know or aren't aware within Oklahoma let's say you have a loved one who's passed and they say I want my granddaughter to own my home you can say that in your will but it will not transfer that home over to your granddaughter with ease it automatically goes into probate probate then falls to the hand of our local government and county officials and that can take years on years with added layers of confusion.

So with Tangle Title Assistance we have reached out to some of our low a local legal aid groups organizations and clinics so that we can provide legal aid to folks counselors cannot provide legal advice so we want to give citizens as much information as possible and also give them access to something that can actually help them because in some cases you do wait too late some cases you're not able to prepare in unforeseen circumstances so we are looking to create a partnership there and finally um October is legacy planning awareness month in TOCO so with that I know somebody said game we are we are developing a series of workshops that will bring legacy planning to our 65 and older citizens as well as educate those that are under 65 with that no one really plans for things to happen for people to not be here they happen kind of out of nowhere and for my community specifically I'm a black woman black people don't really talk about you know who gets grandma's house what's going to happen with XYZ those are really really hard conversations to navigate so to be able to have this service for free and be able to offer it no questions asked no judgment we're always happy to help especially before that situation arises and just some flyers we again we translate everything accessibility is our something that we champion not just within the OFE but also within the city of Pulsa so all of our flyers all of our points of access we do have language assistance in this case let's say Spanish is the bulk of your clientele we have somebody who can handle that and if you want to set up an appointment if you guys want to set up an appointment you're

We again we translate everything.

Accessibility is our something that we champion, not just within the OFE, but also within the city of Pulsa.

So all of our flyers, all of our points of access, we do have language assistance.

In this case, let's say Spanish is the bulk of your clientele.

We have somebody who can handle that.

And if you want to set up an appointment, if you guys want to set up an appointment, you're welcome to call the numbers below.

I will also drop off some flyers before this meeting is over.

And if you have any questions, you're always welcome to reach out.

Does anybody have any questions now?

So on the will um the legacy um what are the requirements for that individuals?

Do they have to have a social security number or how does that work?

Oh yeah.

Uh with legacy planning with all of our services, we do ask that you be over 18.

Sometimes we do do a credit pool, but that's at your own will.

If you don't want to provide that, you don't have to.

Um but legacy planning, same standards apply.

Um, the more information that you're able to provide, we are able to kind of give you a little bit more concrete services, but no, so we don't that's not a requirement if you have a tax ID or if you have an EIE, we'll use that as well.

Do you do like a group type of session with the legacy?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

You can do that for any of our sessions.

Um we have folks who bring their husband and their kids and they say we're gonna do a full counseling session, and it's really beneficial for folks to do it that way because not only you know handling your finances with just one person, the whole family gets a chance to learn about financial stability and how to kind of you know take care of the household.

And what's gonna happen just in case you get the idea.

Any other questions?

No, thank you.

Thank you so much.

I'll be reaching out.

This is so cool, thank you.

Kennedy, right?

Well, Kennedy.

Kennedy Dixon, yes, ma'am.

Are you blaming cards back here also?

Yes, I will.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

We're gonna move on so we don't run out of time.

Um, our next item of business are committee reports.

The first being the executive committee.

Uh, we did meet um, our big discussion surrounded once again um meeting our commitments, attendance, participating in committees.

Um, if you did have a chance to read last month's meeting minutes, uh Jackie's did a really good job of providing her three major goals that she wants to accomplish for the year, and she needs our support and participation in order to make that happen.

The first one is strengthening committees, building the consistent cadence with community engagement as part of that community engagement.

We want to build up our committees, and we announced that we're going to start a business engagement committee.

So what we did was there were a few of us that um had uh greater than 30 percent um attendance issues, and so we reached out to them individually and just tried to figure out if they were gonna be able to continue to be serving on the commission, um, and if not, uh give them uh a little out to be able to do that.

So we did hear back from two out of the three, and uh one we're still kind of waiting.

Along with that, we asked our committee chairs to send us a synopsis of what their activities and membership consists of, and uh we did receive information from all of them, and so when we get to their committee reports for everyone else, we're gonna give them a chance to present what it is that they're doing with each of those committees.

And if you have not signed on to a committee, we are highly encouraging for you to hear that information today, and then before you leave today, make a commitment, and then we'll start getting more information to you in order to help facilitate that.

Was there anything else I messed up?

The executive committee that you can think of.

It was the three goals, right?

Uh-huh.

Three goals were the big thing.

And then, as you can see, the two guest speakers that we had today were pretty darn dynamic.

Yeah, and complimented each other perfectly.

They did.

And I can't say that we did that on purpose, but it worked out.

Um, so thank you so much for for doing that.

All right, we're gonna move on then to the education committee.

Um, we have not met this month.

We'll be meeting next week.

Um and although we are in the community in the um education committee, we focus a lot in mainly in the Domage Venera Awards, which that kind of bubbles up the whole uh meaning of it.

We plan it, we um from point A to point C to make it happen the day of uh we do we do the whole event.

So uh my community is formed by uh four members and four members, including myself, um Amanda Pedigrina, Gloria Arias from TCC and Feli Carina from TCC and myself.

Um throughout the years that I've been chair, we've had other people join.

Um people just want to join at the time of Dom Gemera, some people just want to be during the year, but um it's been basically used for yeah, so you're welcome to join if you want to.

Um our Domage Event is May 14th.

Uh we have received about 107 submissions of uh nominations between heroes and uh scholars.

So right now we're in the process of reviewing who's us are and starting to if people are and could you use some more help from the commission or we always can um but it's maybe especially the day of the event as we've been doing it for years.

Um we partner with Lexi a lot, you know, when it comes to the sign paperwork agenda, all those things that I basically put together, I send it to her, and then the seating takes over and then they fix it and tweak it how we need to be.

But that has been really helpful.

And thank you for sending um in your report.

Um we're hopefully gonna send those out as attachments with these minutes.

So if you want to make any addendums, you'll have time to just get it back to her before she sends the minutes out.

Um so this is your opportunity to ask her questions about her committee if um you have any questions or thinking about helping her and joining the committee.

I'm sure she would love your help.

Okay, moving on.

Um community advocacy is normally Jackie's.

She said they did not meet this past month.

Where did Carlos no claims have to speak out?

He had to leave.

Yeah, you had to leave.

Um so she apologizes and says she will get something to Lexi that we can send out.

But for the most part, the community advocacy focuses on any issues that are happening in the community.

Obviously, immigration is a big um thing that we're focused on right now, and that's kind of how the playbook got started with having information off of uh that so uh what I know from commissioners that are on that committee is Jackie's Carlos.

Anyone else serving on the committee advocacy?

I'm on that committee.

And Mimi, okay.

I did not know that.

Okay, I will put you down, Mimi.

So the three of you.

Anything you want to share from the committee?

I mean, we I I did not I was out in January, I was sick, so I didn't attend, and then I was I was in conference last month, so this is actually my first month.

Okay.

Um insight as to what the committee might be focusing on this year.

Uh like I said, I was not present.

No, okay.

All right.

Um moving on to public safety.

Oh, you have Lexi's comment.

Yeah, sorry, I don't usually insert myself.

So um, but I can say I I know that you know the next phase with the Fourth Amendment Works Sites playbook is really focused on distribution.

So any like trusted organizations that would be a good avenue to get that information out to the community, any businesses, especially customer-facing businesses that you have relationships with that would want that information, you know.

Um we have it available digitally.

There is a bitly, so a short, pretty easy link uh to get that information out there.

Um chairwoman um Gonzalez might have also made a QR code.

I can't remember off the top of my head.

Um, but we're we're focusing on digital distribution to start, and then there is a mechanism for organizations to request a paper copy, and we will um get those printed and distributed as requested.

So I know that that is really the next phase with that playbook because you want that actually in the hands of people and not just living on the internet with nobody accessing it.

Good point.

Thank you.

Of course, appreciate that.

Okay, uh public safety.

We did meet um last Thursday and um we had almost 100% attendance, so it's fantastic.

Had some great dialogue.

Um we covered our percentages for um what personnel um targets we have.

Um I'll let each of them share um anything uh pertinent.

I know fire, we had the seatbelt workshop this past week.

If you could touch on that real quick.

Um, so we partner with Safe Kids, and we have every other month we have a Spanish speaking uh car seat installation event.

It's actually a uh they have to take a class first, an in-person class.

But if they do the class, they actually get a free car seat, um, which is a pretty big deal.

Um it's uh like a scheduled appointment only event, so it's all it's not super long, but we have 13 uh families that uh came and 11 of those families got seats, and then we had a couple they just checked, but uh it was a great event or went really well, and I didn't know there's a Iowa Patrolman that volunteers to help with it as well.

So but the sad thing is um one of the um participants came in, had a child that was probably two years old, super cute little boy with a little cowboy hat on, and we were asking where that the mother wanted the seat, and she said, you know, on the passenger side, and the assistant fire marshal put his hand on the car seat and just pushed it over with the boy in it.

So the car seat was in the car, he was buckled in, but it wasn't attached to the seat.

Wow, you know, which is sad to me because like that mother clearly went through the effort to to buckle him in thinking that she was protecting him.

She wasn't, you know.

So but the car seat was not secured.

Yeah, but I mean, just the fact that he was strapped shows that she went, you know, she was trying to make this child safer.

She just didn't understand that it needed additional, you know, restraint.

So it's a great event, you know, 13 families safer.

Yeah.

So TPD had their women in policing events.

They had 18 attend and three applicants the same day.

So whoop whoop.

But I forgot to ask you, were there any Latinos or Spanish speaking individuals in that class?

Oh I don't know the answer to that.

Yeah, okay.

And I did find out that we have upwards of 50 applications that we're looking at for the next class, possibly.

So that would be more than we've had in the last several years.

So you also let us know that at the next FOP open negotiation, they are going to be talking about language serpents.

I've asked them to we'll see if they will.

I don't know.

I don't have control over that.

Not that they'll get to compete with fire, but at least they know about it.

Um staffed, so they're doing really well.

They've had an uh academy, an EMT, and a paramedic class.

Yes, we're actually this is kind of exciting to say.

This is the first time since 2014 that we have paused hiring any additional paramedics because we're 100% staffed on paramedics at the moment.

Wow.

Um we currently have an EMT class that's full, uh, paramedic class and an academy of new uh hires there as well.

So those are still coming in on top of what we had, so very exciting for us, and that's our goal to keep that uh keep it like that.

The only other thing I really wanted to touch on was our EMS week celebration that we mentioned previously.

Um we'll have flyers and information on that by next month at the latest early April, but I'll make sure to get that to Lexi, and then of course the uh courts and the financial empowerment center.

You guys are welcome to join.

We're having a large community resource fair, so I'll be sure to share that information with you guys.

It'll be at the zoo.

Yes, at the Tulsa Zoo.

So it'll be a lot of fun.

And April.

Uh May.

It's gonna be May 17th.

It's a Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.

It'll be right outside the zoo entrance, so it's free to the public.

You don't have to pay anything to get in, and we have about 30 plus partners and other agencies that'll be there.

So that'll be a good time.

Great partnership.

Yeah, yes.

All right, uh Tulsa Sheriff's Office.

We do have a liaison now.

That's Richie Gonzalez.

Uh Ivan has left the sheriff's office and has moved to a private position, so hats off to him.

Um, the Tulsa Health Department is focusing on um.

She did not have any data on it any of her HR positions, uh, but she's gonna try to get us that for April.

They do have most of their communications in multiple languages, and she says they are focused on hepatitis screening and uh STDs for the short term, and they are partnering at Uma Tulsa in our Hispanic community to have a hepatitis awareness event to include testing and counseling, and they will have translators and they're asking for volunteers with translations to help with that.

All right, as you know, Mark and I are on the public safety committee along with our liaisons.

If anyone else would like to join, you are more than welcome, and we are going to try to update the bylaws to include health, and then uh as an additional goal, we may look at something for um things like tornado planning.

Apparently, um the chat in Spanish, there were quite a few Spanish speakers that didn't know what the alarms were when we had this weather event earlier this week.

So we may take a look at what we can do to broadcast and start getting some more information out on that.

So we'll add that to our disaster planning.

So all right, moving on.

Any questions?

I'm happy to have you.

Thank you.

I do have a question.

Um you mentioned Richie is now the liaison for the is he is that temporary until this temporary.

Okay.

I remember they said they had hired someone.

So Drew is supposed to come to these meetings.

I forgot to add him.

That's my fault.

So they're kind of sharing the responsibilities right now.

Yeah, Richie hadn't called me to let me know that he wasn't gonna make it today, so I think he did intend to be here, and I know that he's trying both of them have these.

Um I sent both of them the calendar invites to them, I'm pretty sure.

So I think between the two of them, they're they're gonna each try to make both meetings.

Yeah, but now at least we've got connected again.

So that's against okay.

Sorry, Chris, before you continue.

I have a correction.

I forgot to add the anap and attend to my committee.

She's she's been part of the committee.

Thank you.

Okay, very good.

Ummigration.

Okay.

So we have been having a meeting on basically we're gonna have a meeting uh the first Wednesday of every month at 5:30.

And it has been pretty interesting.

Um just a little bit of what we saw last time is that um we're trying to see the possibility of uh with Tosa County Bar Association identifying some attorneys that might be willing to assist pro bono habias corpus cases.

That's what we talk, not I don't know if many remember, but we talk about that is the only way for people in this moment who are taken by ice and they're in custody to be able to get out because they're not giving them bots.

So that would be something that maybe we could do.

So we're trying to find out information about different attorneys and see if they're willing, and um, and we'll see about that, and then we talk about how um ICE has been stopping a lot of people with specific the state truths straight.

State sorry, I'm tired.

Yeah, so that's another thing that we have been seeing.

They're basically out there trying to, I guess, look at traffic citations or whatever, but if you're one of them, they take you if you don't have documentation, they take them, or they call ice and they ice arrives and they take them.

Um another thing that we were talking about was we had a guest and he was telling us about this amazing thing that he does.

He basically goes with people who have an appointment with immigration, and he actually takes them, and it's kind of like um a company for them, and so that makes the person who has the appointment make feel so much comfortable because they don't have to drive, and they know there's somebody there waiting for them, or actually he's gonna it's really sad because he told us that a lot of the people that he has been accompanied to these appointments is being stopped by ICE, and they're not able to return home.

So it has been really hard for him because he needs to tell the family, you know what, he was not allowed to come back, and so at least he was saying that he's trying to make sure that they go with them and they know that whatever happens, somebody's gonna be telling the family.

It's really sad, very, very sad.

But he was inviting uh if we knew anybody who stressful, if they wanted to be part of it, he was you know saying that we could make in touch with them so that there's more people because there's a lot of people that is having to go to these appointments.

Um another thing was the we thought about maybe drafting a letter to the governor and then bringing it to the the this committee so that maybe they can you all can review it and see if he will help.

And basically is kind of like letting know the governor, you know, we wanna prevent what happened in other states with highs.

We want to prevent this chaos and we wanna you know make our people safe, yeah.

So we're still talking about that.

We haven't done anything like that.

Um now who is in the committee right now?

Basically, it's just um Amanda Peregrina, Cien Carmona, and myself.

So if you would like to be part of it, you're welcome.

Um, like I said, um it's every Wednesday, the first Wednesday of the month at 5 30.

Um some of our goals is to increase awareness of immigration resources and services available in Tulsa.

It's to encourage community and collaboration between immigrant communities and local institutions, promote education and information opportunities related to immigration topics, um support community outreach and engagement efforts, and lastly identify community needs and connect individuals with available resources.

So thank you.

Anyone have any questions or comments?

Okay, I want to move on so that we can't question uh who who do you say was going to the courts?

You referring to a person that was didn't help the attorney.

I can tell you later.

I wouldn't Oh, you didn't say the name, I thought I missed it.

Okay, okay.

Just the habeas corpus parties.

Okay.

Oh, you're talking about who is going to somebody that needed help with the uh that's going to the courts.

Yeah, talk to me later and I'll I just thought I missed the name.

Okay.

Yeah, and I did mention him just to protect him.

Okay, um, business engagement.

What so did you wanna say anything about what you already have planned?

He just shared uh a huge document with a lot on there, and um we'll be discussing with the individuals who want to be on the business engagement.

He has a uh quite a list, that's all I can say.

So for Stoh, I want to share one small thing.

That it's up in personal to me, as of the business uh business owner.

Uh so I'm about to open a coffee shop, right?

Uh, which is great for for Tulsa for uh the idea that I'm uh implementing in this business.

Uh so when I'm open at this coffee shop, uh my landlord told me that it is 40,000 to improve it.

When I'm open this business.

So but if I'm going to open a business in East Tosa, zero.

There's no money.

There's no how I can incentive money to help.

Exactly.

So in this business, I have the opportunity to grow quickly.

20 years, it's been the same business.

It doesn't grow.

But they'll talk, they'll get their taxes every year.

So this is the things that I would like to change.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

I can join your committee too.

So again, I can join your committee too.

So I have a lot to say, but this is some of the things that's a big document.

So we're gonna try to narrow that down to a couple of things, one of which is the city permits and those types of things.

We want it to be business friendly to our community, so we're gonna see what we can do to try to help city services, and um I liked what I saw.

Um, I mean, there are initiatives I would say like the Tulsa Global District, like that's been correct me if I'm wrong, that's been the idea for the longest, right?

Like to have like FATSAR grants and like improvement grants, and part of it is the incubator space, but the downside to that is that you do have individuals that privately own the buildings that I think put a lot of like obstacles in that because at the end of the day they are also looking for their profit, right?

And it's it's it's like yeah, we want to help the community, but at the same time, once you know that happens, if an improvement happens, then I'm gonna charge you twice the rent.

So um and sadly, you know, these are like a lot of the people that own the the buildings in East Tulsa are Latino own uh building you know so it it you know you're kind of like in this catch 22, like where you want to like help your community, but at the same time, like the community doesn't really want to help the community type of thing.

So I think that that conversation is very I think it's gonna be very interesting to see how like to navigate that space because I know like Tulsa Colo District has tried for years to like facilitate those conversations, but at the end of the at the end of the day, like the privately owned like who owns the building who owns the buildings, even if it's Latino or not, it's still maybe that's another opportunity that we need to educate our own people out there to help each other out.

But how many business Latinos are in downtown?

How many little crossing?

Not a lot, yeah.

It's expensive to come down to five, six, seven, and yeah.

But to his point, like sometimes like one of I'll give you an example.

The girl that does like my um facials, she had um when she moved into her building, she was renting in East Tulsa 31st and 129th, 30 41st and 139th, and she came to 41st in Yale, and she actually got an incentive to build there.

They gave her a four thousand dollar incentive to build there, and also discounted her rent for the first year to move there.

So, you know, you do have those opportunities, right?

So, anyway, so your point there's a lot of we need to also work with the city councilman out there, also because he is actually saying the same complaint, but then we need to work together, right?

Okay, we're gonna move on because it's already 632.

Um, was there any old business that we needed to discuss?

Any new business?

All right, how about any announcements or public comments?

I always have something.

Um last chance to fill out the survey to have input on what topics we bring to the commission retreat in July.

So if you can get that in by tomorrow, if you haven't already, those surveys are anonymous, so I don't know like who's filled it out and who hasn't.

I think I've already filled it out twice.

Okay.

I mean, I said I think I can.

So yeah, I didn't get my questions after I sent the reminder earlier this week of like, wait, I thought I filled it out already.

I don't know if you have a happen.

So the reminder went out to everybody.

Um, also, one of the things that um came up in the immigration committee, which thank you so much, Commissioner Aritsa for including me, um, was a question around having um signage in city parks that's also in Spanish.

So I already took that question to um DeAntree, our chief resilience officer, and her question back to your question to this commission would be if you were gonna pick three parks to prioritize, and you don't have to answer right now, but email me or go through the chairs or whatever.

If you were gonna pick three parks to prioritize, um, getting starting with installing Spanish signage, which three parks would it be.

So if you have ideas and want to send that directly to me or send it through um the chair and vice chair um in the next couple of weeks, uh please do so so that we can bring that information and that recommendation back to the parks department and start that conversation.

Thank you so much, Lexi.

Yes, of course.

Perfect.

Okay, the last thing that I had was I wouldn't want announcement, I'm sorry.

Taking advantage of all of the city services that are available to us.

One of them is the neighborhood academy, and they're putting on two academies per year.

So the spring session is already uh started, but you can sign up now for the fall, and then you get a graduate certificate, and they basically provide you with all the services you need to have a vibrant and uh welcoming neighborhood in your community.

The second one I attended was the district the destination district.

Destination district retreat, and all these fun things that I don't know are happening in Tulsa that I don't think anybody else is either because there weren't very many people there, but there were a lot of city resources there, and one of the pre people that I got to sit in front of and and ask questions face to face was zoning.

I said, Oh, said needed to be here with me so we could ask those questions.

And so we had some discussions about food trucks, and I found the fun fact that um the city is not gonna be going out and uh issuing citations or doing the inspection portions of the food truck fire safety, and I don't want to say that as a bad thing, it just means because the state gave that new food truck act that it basically tied their hands.

So that's a good news to know, right?

I had no idea, so fun things that we learn.

Um, and then the last thing was I did attend our um city councilor meeting out in District 6.

If you haven't had a chance to do that as a counselor, as a commissioner, is to go to your district council meetings and your town halls, you're gonna learn a lot there as well.

And so I didn't know that we had a data center going in in district six on the east side of town, three miles from my house.

I went so fun things.

Okay, yes, sir.

Uh you guys may have seen this in the news, but the police department is opening a fourth patrol division for the first time in 36 years.

So uh we're opening a division central to Tulsa is gonna incorporate downtown Cherry Street, uh south to Gathering Place, northwest to uh Edison and Gil Crease.

And they're calling on names, they want to name it.

Yeah, we're looking for names to uh to name the central division.

So um, and I'll be moved to Central Division to open it.

So no, congratulations.

Yeah, we'll see.

We'll see what the office looks like.

No, see what happens.

Okay, and the last the last thing is uh they did bring up at the council meeting that we have a lot of unlawful weapons discharges, especially around the holidays in district six, and they would like the commission's help in trying to address that with our community members.

So you guys will stop shooting guns off.

I appreciate it.

We're we're gonna keep bringing that up with our public safety.

But if you all have some ideas, I know part of that is also culture, but in a city that's very dangerous.

So we need to do some more awareness, some public outreach and try to address that as well.

Mark, what did you just say the office is anything?

The division, it's downtown.

Uh, we're gonna start in the main station, but the main station's closing in about a year, so it'll have to move somewhere else to be determined.

So we'll see.

So you're still looking.

Yeah, kind of still looking for a home, but for now we'll be um in the main station right by the civic center.

So that's all I've got.

May I have a motion to adjourn?

A motion to adjourn.

May I have a second?

I second all in favor?

I anyone opposed.

Meaning adjourned.

Thank you.

I think a lot of people don't realize if there's a stray baby go.