You cut out there because we know we're being support you.

Yes.

Okay, awesome.

No, it's fine.

I just couldn't hear you counting down.

Perfect.

Thank you.

We are live.

Five.

Great.

Hello, good afternoon, everyone.

We're gonna go ahead and get this meeting started.

Lexi, can you do roll?

Yes.

Amy Ariza.

Present.

Carlos de Calano.

Chris Chavez.

I'm here.

Jackies Gonzalez.

Here.

Jose Bomaca Hernandez.

Nini Martinez.

Flatimalinares.

Here.

Jessica Lozano Alvarez.

Mark Onazorge.

Jacob Pada.

Diana Pennington.

Here.

Amanda Petagrina.

Angelica Reina.

Richard Gonzalez.

Riley Howard.

Here.

Andy Little.

We are exactly up for thank you.

Okay.

First order business is looking at the meeting minute.

So we'll give everyone a few moments to just take a look.

As you're doing that, please flag any modifications if you have.

Do I have a second?

Okay.

All in favor of approving the minute, say aye.

Any opposed saying abstentions.

Motion passes.

Alright.

We're gonna jump into a brief chair vice chair report.

Um so I'll kick it off by naming and I'll touch a little bit on that.

Hello.

Um with uh spring and summer events.

So a goal for the community advocacy committee is to start experimenting and strengthening our capacity for doing tabling.

Um that can look like a lot of different things, and so we're starting to understand that.

So in order to kick that off, um, Chris and I are going to table an event at Union High School on Friday tomorrow.

And we're doing that with the Asian Affairs Commission.

Um so thanks, Lexi, for kind of organizing that and crawling that, and we're looking forward to that experience, and obviously, we're gonna use that to kind of get a sense of what are people asking when they talk to us, what are they interested in?

Um so looking forward to doing that research.

Um, if there are events that you want to bring to the radar, um please continue to keep us informed of that.

Um this union one was somewhat last minute ask, you know, it was in the recent month, but like a lot of us have events scheduled well in advance.

So if you have things coming up, feel free to let us know because I think we're we're just trying to think about how to even weigh these opportunities.

Um I have a personal goal of getting us out to two or three events.

So and then the the other thing I'll flag before passing to Chris is that the Asian or sorry, the African American Affairs Commission have reached out to us with some questions and kind of looking for some thought leadership support on a research project that they're starting.

So I wanted to bring visibility, and if you're interested, I can connect you.

But basically, their ask is that they are starting, they have identified a need to better understand and engage a segment of the Tulsa community, the non-native-born black and African American representing 4.2% of the population.

And so they think it's important to seek input from community partners who may have relevant experiences around supporting just segmented populations and trying to make sure that they're being inclusive.

Um Lexi, do you have any updates on this request?

Or do you have any more context you want to share?

Yeah, definitely more context.

So similarly to the Asian Affairs Commission, they're really inspired by the Fourth Amendment Worksites playbook that you all put together and want to you know kind of learn and be in conversation with you all about how they can make sure that they deliver that to areas of Tulsa that have the highest concentration of black and African immigrants.

And so they've done a little bit of the data already, and as Chairwoman Gonzalez mentioned, they learned that actually like a little over 4% of the Black and African American population in Tulsa are also immigrants, which is significant.

And so yeah, they're looking forward to kind of collaborating with you all and seeing how they can deliver the resource that you have already developed to the areas and like trusted community, you know, leaders and gathering spaces to support uh black and African immigrants here in Tulsa.

Thank you.

Yeah, so I'll set if this topic is of interest to you and you want to join that conversation, just let me know.

Um we've started get ball rolling on setting something up.

So yeah, we'd love to have you.

Um the last thing I'll I'll name as well is just a chair update with regarding the playbook is on Tuesday month.

Tuesday.

Well, last Tuesday I or this Tuesday I presented to the Asian Affairs Commission about the playbook.

So we're getting it out there.

Um Chris, do you have any updates?

No, ma'am.

Okay, sounds good.

All right, up next, we're gonna have our community presentation.

So this will be about 10 or so minutes, and there will be time for questions.

Excited to have Stan here with us representing the Tulsa Visa Network.

So he's gonna talk a little bit about his work and how he's supporting our community members.

Welcome, Stan.

Thank you so much.

I'll come up here.

Well, it is an absolute pleasure to be here with you today.

Thank you, Jackie's for the invitation, and thank you for having me today.

My name is Stan Kerpak, and I'm the lead of the Tulsa Visa Network, which is an initiative that attracts talent from all over the world to Tulsa and helps retain international talent in Tulsa.

So I'll share a little bit about what the program does, who we help, and how our program touches the Latin American and Hispanic community here in Tulsa.

Uh if you'd like to, I'll put this up at the end.

If you'd like to capture my LinkedIn, uh, you're welcome to, and we can continue the conversation.

Uh we do have 10 minutes, so I'm going to give like a very abridged version of the program overview.

And so if anything we don't get to today, uh we can talk more offline, and I'm happy to continue the conversation.

I by the way, I walk here from our office, which is right across the street from Gradient, so um just down the street.

So, what is the Tulsa Visa Network?

Uh, the Tulsa Visa Network's mission is to support immigrants in Tulsa by providing legal employment and community integration services, uh, ensuring that Tulsas from all over the world feel welcome and feel rooted and have great careers and lives that they can grow here in Tulsa.

Our program specializes in supporting visa processes that are on the intersection of employment and immigration.

So we work with a lot of employer-sponsored visas.

So the work that we do not only is with individuals but also with their employers.

And so that way we can make sure that people have long-term options to live and work in Tulsa and ideally be able to pursue their green card processes and create lifelong Tulsas.

The way that we actually do this work is we have a partnership with an immigration law firm.

So basically, we pay the law firm to build out the legal framework, which enables our program members to grow their lives here in Tulsa.

And I'm not going to dive into the weeds into all the visas specific visas we work with, uh, but we work with college-level professionals, and we work with international student graduates as well.

I'll kind of leave it there for this kind of high-level overview.

And I guess I should also mention that if you're wondering how is our program operating, uh, we are sponsored by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, is where we are getting our support from.

So one of the things I'd like to point out is we work with science technology engineering and mathematics professionals primarily.

About our program members are in the computer science field.

The other half are in a number of different fields, everything from business operations to technical accounting to company CEOs and company founders.

So we do prefer working with people with STEM skills, but we're not limited to doing so.

If you have really strong STEM skills, that's going to help you pursue a wider variety of visa and immigration options, and that's why we work with a lot of STEM professionals.

We can work with people with bachelor's degree only, however, our preference is also to work with master's and PhD level folks.

Again, just because it makes their pathway to immigration easier in some cases.

So our program, it's very simple.

How to apply, you go to our website, an individual can apply, they'll go through five stages, and if they pass all five stages, including comprehensive legal review, we can accept them into our program and begin to support them.

El Salvador, Honduras, Brazil, and Chile, just as of right now.

In the pipeline, we have oh, in Argentina as well.

So the work that we're doing right now is impacting Latin American community here in Tulsa.

I should also mention that I'm an immigrant myself, I'm originally from Ukraine, and so doing this work is very special for me, being able to give back to immigrants experiencing their first time coming to the United States and making a home in Tulsa.

So what do you have to do if you qualify for the program?

Well, the idea is that we want our program members to live in Tulsa and work from Tulsa.

Now their work could be here at a local company, they can even have a remote job.

Ideally, that they have a stable job, that their employer is supporting their visa process, and that they are able to do all their work from the Tulsa area.

You all may have heard of the Tulsa Remote Program.

This is kind of like the international sister program to Tulsa Remote.

So you can you can have a job in New York, California, as long as the talented individual is here in Tulsa.

That's what counts.

So you get long-term legal support, where we are able to support your short-term, middle-term, and long-term visa options.

And if you qualify, we can also support a green code process.

Now, this program is completely free for participants.

So imagine getting your whole legal case covered, and you're able to get on track to pursue your permanent residency here in the United States.

Oftentimes we work with the extraordinary ability category, which means that people are at the very top of their field have accelerated pathways to immigration, particularly in the fields of national interest that the government has identified, like machine learning or cybersecurity or some of these sensitive emerging technologies.

But that's not all.

So we'll go to an FC Tulsa game, we'll go to the Philbrook, we'll go to have dinners together.

So it's not just that we're building these legal processes, we also want to create a community where people have a sense of rooted belonging.

And so community integration is really critical.

I'll also mention that we have a social worker that we can assign to families, usually with children.

So if they're newcomers to Tulsa, let's say they just got a job, either from they're coming here from out of the country to take a job, or they've just relocated at Tulsa, we can ask the social worker to help them get their kids enrolled in school, or get their driver's license, or get their bank account set up.

So there's also this really important kind of social services that our program provides as well.

And very importantly, I also want to mention the employer partner support.

So we can actually partner with an employer and cover the vast majority of the costs associated with the visa sponsorship process.

This is critical, particularly for small and mid-sized companies that don't have the money or experience or legal know-how to hire a sponsor of foreign talent.

So by coming in and walking them through this process and actually paying for vast majority of these pieces, it makes it so much easier for a company to say, yes, we will hire this international person.

And it unlocks the ability for a company to actually bring on that talent and hold on to them.

And also, if you're aware of any companies that currently employ international talent who want to retain them, we can start there too.

It does not have to be from scratch.

You can already be employing a foreign national, and we could come into that company and say, here's what we would need to do to hold on to this person, and here are the resources to be able to do that.

So it also combats the brain drain, particularly for a lot of let's say uh TU or ORU international graduates who could get a job here, but then might have to leave without our help.

So it helps combat the brain drain.

So taking a look at some of the outcomes of the program, we have just under 80 people in our program.

As I mentioned, just under half of them are computer science specialists.

But something we're really proud of, our average salary is just around 100,000.

For the Tulsa market, that's definitely something to be proud of, particularly for a vulnerable population such as the international community.

You also might know that the green card process takes many years to complete.

We started this program in 2022.

Just last year, we saw some of our first green cards start to roll out.

So we've relocated folks domestically and internationally.

We've retained a lot of international candidates.

And so with that being my time, um, just want to let you know we have a about 30 employer partners that we're working with here in Tulsa.

So whether you represent a business or you have a friend or family member who is wanting to grow their lives in Tulsa and could benefit from the program, I welcome you to ping me on LinkedIn.

I welcome you to visit our website and contact me.

We're happy to help you, and we want to continue supporting the Hispanic and Latin American community here in Tulsa and build on what we've accomplished.

So thank you so much for your time and Jackie's thank you.

Thank you, Stan.

We definitely have a few minutes for questions.

Um Stan, one of the things I want to call out is you know, thank you for this.

I think it's really amazing that you've been a part of this work since the beginning of it.

Um, and if you've been following the Tulsa Remote News, they just had their like 4,000 members.

Dan and I were both in the year one, so um, that's kind of our connection, and now it's almost seven years, right?

Seven years.

Crazy.

Um, so thank you for this.

I did have a question around, you know, thinking about commissions and you know, you know, your hosting events and things like that.

Is do you see an opportunity or how do you engage with the city or commissions?

Is there an opportunity to do those types of things?

Absolutely.

So in the past, we have collaborated closely with the city.

I used to work really closely with NEM and Saber, and we would partner on Welcome Week, uh, for example, for the last four years.

I'm also giving a presentation to the city of Tulsa before about the program.

Um, but you know, we just actually I I met with one of our Gentinian program members who just moved here two months ago, and she's the CEO of a cancer research company, and she's like, I'm having trouble plugging into the Latin American community, and so um I know our program Spanish speaking and Portuguese speaking program members want to meet members, so maybe if this could be a uh uh more of a like a stepping stone for us to have better connectivity, so I could maybe have a way to plug in our program members to the work that you're all doing.

I would love to do that.

Uh, and vice versa, if you all, as I mentioned, have people who you think could benefit or companies that could benefit from the program, which I'm just an email away.

Um, happy to do that, but I think um finding out ways that I can actually engage our Latin community with work that you're doing would be great, and maybe we can continue the conversation after this uh presentation just to figure out like what's the easiest way to do that.

Yeah, I think that'd be really cool.

Um, a quick follow-up and like absolutely yes, to that type of activities.

Is there also an opportunity to maybe like do you have focus groups or anything for them to be sharing their experiences about what it's like to be coming to Tulsa and what like community services are like for them?

Do you how do you better understand that?

Yeah, so we do we do a number of things.

So with last year we did a panel with four of our program members who shared the topic of the panel was um uh US American workforce or American um workplace norms, and what was their experience being a uh foreign national entering the workforce?

So they talked about things like um slaying, like workforce slaying access, like people not being able to understand them, or vice versa.

They talked a little bit about like um work ethic and the differences between that.

So we do give opportunities, but it would be interesting to have special focus groups, like now that we're growing our membership with the Latin American community.

Maybe we have a special focus group in collaboration with you all where they can kind of do something.

I'll say the door is wide open.

I'm flexible and we can create whatever we we really want to, but um maybe we could even create a panel with some of some of your representation and some of our representation.

Uh I am absolutely open and really to do that.

Cool, yeah, definitely something to keep in mind.

Thank you.

Um are there any other questions from the group?

I'm gonna reach out to you personally.

I've got lots of things that came up as you started presenting here.

I'm surprised I didn't see any manufacturing companies up there.

Uh yes, so we do have that's interesting.

We do have one, uh, Ramsey Industries.

I believe it's in here.

Yes, Ramsey Industries, they create like wenches and um hydraulic lifts, and we have a Taiwanese national that's working there.

Um so actually, advanced manufacturing is definitely a place where we want to expand.

The idea really is how can we be additive to Tulsa's movement economy, right?

International talent will always be a part of the fabric of our economy, and so how do we just streamline that?

How do we how do we open up more access for high-end scale international channel to play a role?

And so advanced manufacturing is a big area where we do want to um have more partnerships.

So I'm thinking not just the manufacturing job itself, but they hire a lot of engineers.

And I know because I've that's my space, and I hired a bunch of engineers, many of whom are international and were H1Bs, you know.

I did interns and all kinds of other things because we have to get creative trying to meet our requirements.

And so there are a lot up there that I'm not seeing any on your list.

So I'm I'm gonna send you some opportunities with the job titles so that you can see what they're looking for that you might be able to connect.

Second thing I was gonna say was are you accessing the engineer guide that we created with the city of Tulsa?

Um I don't think so.

Okay, so I'm gonna send you that also.

So uh and it's all the engineering, and and it was basically a collaboration that we did.

Um what's been four years now, where we consolidated all the requirements for um individuals that had um engineering degrees, law degrees, medical degrees, um, and we translated to what is required in the United States for you to be able to uh transfer your international certification to a job in the United States.

Uh-huh.

So the World Education Services partnership.

I don't remember what all the short rows were, but we consolidated and used collaborated with the universities and lots of people, but it was spearheaded through the Office of Equity and Resilience.

Um deputy mayor was all on top of that.

And so I worked on the engineering side, and so I need to connect you with that as well.

Because then that shows from the STEM and engineering side what you do need to be certified in and what also translates that you don't have to have, like you don't have to have a PE.

You can do lots of jobs in the United States without having a PE, which is a professional license for engineering, and not everybody understands that.

I see.

So I'll connect you with all that.

That'd be great.

That's I'd love to talk more about that with you, Chris.

Uh the idea that we also have what we call underemployed immigrants here at Tulsa.

Way underemployed.

So that way, if we can actually link them up, let's say with one of our partners who was already hired and sponsored for nationals, they have a better understanding of these things that you mentioned.

I'd be very curious to review the information, and thank you very much for that.

And I want to say we translated it too.

It sounded that was all before.

Right, it was before you.

And I'm looking at you, but I know I know you know.

But uh, that was one of the very first things I did when I joined the commission was make sure we got that finished.

Maybe it was flourished Tulsa type of flourish toss.

That's it.

Yes, yeah.

Yep, yeah.

Fatima, you had a question?

No.

Oh, no, no, no.

Well, any other questions?

Happy to take any more questions.

Um, if not, um, just know that I am here to support you all.

Um, if you have any fun ideas of how to connect, please let me know if you have any individuals or companies who could benefit from uh the support, I'm here for it.

So thank you all so much for your time.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

And Stan, we'll send you info about an event we're having next month that might be fun for people to go and support our young people that are getting awards.

Thank you so much.

Um you're welcome to stay, or you can head out.

It's totally fine.

Thank you so much.

Okay, uh, we are gonna move on to committee reports.

Um the executive committee did not meet this month, so we'll go ahead to and jump to education.

Can I go last?

Yeah, you can go last.

All right, so community advocacy.

Um basically, I one of the goals that we have is just revisiting and looking at who's missing in our membership.

So that's kind of the the current goal of restructuring that group and also the events component.

So thinking about um just what type of events would be on the radar, how might we structure a table, what are other ways to engage, that sort of stuff.

So that's what we're working on.

Um, and I will probably be reaching out to some of you to to identify some more members for the group.

Um public safety.

So we did meet, and um it was a short uh attendance group uh this time around, and uh we did not get our uh municipal court folks invited to this one, so we're gonna do better and try to get that done for next month so that they can join us and participate in that.

Um we are going to support um the national EMS week event at the zoo on May 17th.

It's from 12 to 4 p.m.

It is on a Sunday, and uh we would like to make that an official tabling event for this commission.

So we are looking for volunteers who would like to join us for that.

Uh, myself will be there, obviously.

Uh MSA will be there, and I'm not sure if fire are you planning to be there?

Yeah, we'll be there.

So if we could get some other commissioners besides public safety to come, you know, even if it's just for an hour, bring the kids if you want, even it'll be outside the gates of the zoo, and uh it should be a fun event.

Fingers crossed the weather cooperates with this.

Yes.

Um, I'm still haven't been able to get all the details on the uh hippetis uh awareness event that's supposed to be happening in May.

I thought it was supposed to be May 9th, but uh haven't gotten Jessico didn't attend our meeting, and I haven't been able to get the final, but I wanted to get that done before our next commission meeting because this will be the last time I had a chance to present that information to you since next month is the mass beta.

So hopefully I'll get the flyer soon and I'll get that to you, Lexi.

And then Riley's promising me he'll have us a flyer in a week or so.

Yes, and we'll get that out to all the commissions, and we would like to invite the other commissions to attend as well.

The invitation is out.

Um Lexi and some others may have received it.

You're welcome to share that.

But the official press release and all the uh PR will start at the latest next week, Friday.

Um it's not necessarily it's kind of an interesting setup.

The zoo is hosting it, we are organizing it, and Quick Trip is uh sponsoring it.

So we're all kind of working together, so that's why it'll come out a little bit a little bit later next week.

But uh, we're excited it'll be a fun event.

So we'd love to have you or anyone else you think would benefit from it.

It's titled a touch a truck event, but um it's not just that, it's a community resource type fair just to really connect people uh on hopefully a beautiful summer uh Sunday at the zoo.

So we're excited about it, so we'd love to have you.

So we discussed, didn't quite formalize, but are getting close to our three objectives for 2026.

The first big one obviously was our bylaws amendment, and and following the bylaws amendment requirements.

We want to see if anyone else for their committees wants to submit a bylaws revision because we are planning to do that uh but before the end of the year, and it has to go to the city council, blah blah blah.

So if anybody else know not for bylaws needs to do that, you know, maybe we consolidate and do it all at once so that we can get it on the agenda and knock it out.

So we're looking at trying to get that done by uh early fall time frame.

So we've got a while to work on that.

The second thing is um we want to try to do um some greater awareness uh especially around uh traffic laws and traffic safety, so the move over law um is what came up at our discussion as kind of to make it a focal point.

Um the national move over month is November, October, October.

I knew you would help me with that.

Um so we have time, we're gonna put our uh plan together for that, and then we are gonna want city support for that.

Um we just don't know what all it's gonna entail, but we wanna try to make it a big to-do, and then we want to include the other commissions as well since it affects them, and they also have international and and immigrants and that type of thing.

Um so if they've got input on move over situations if they want to send that to us.

And the women's commission is focused on um safety for women, so we may you know see what we could come up with to try to support that to show kind of some camaraderie, you know, between the commissions since they're focusing on that for public safety.

Am I missing anything?

No, I don't I think that was it.

So I know FIRE uh graduated a fire academy.

Uh don't know if you had details for us on that yet.

Uh we graduated 23.

I'm not sure exactly how many are Spanish speakers, as they have not taken that test yet.

We have some that are you know very little and some that it will qualify.

So we'll we'll find that out probably in a few months when they get their time on.

Okay.

Any questions?

That's all we got.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ummigration.

So we met yesterday, and um I was uh I'm a little concerned because I had a mother that called me saying that her son had a DUI and ended up at municipal jail, which is usually very different from David Moss uh talking about ice.

So we know that whenever you get into David Ramas, you get a halt, an immigration hold, right?

Whenever you go to municipal jail, usually you don't get an immigration hold.

That's what it was.

Now it happened this time that they actually detain him.

And that was very strange because I never seen that before.

Only one time, and I asked why, and they say it was because he had a deportation, and so if they had a deportation, they had to notify ice.

But this guy never had a deportation, so this was very strange.

And so I um I was talking with a comedy and we were trying to find out how to get information about if they change anything in the jail uh way of working.

I don't know necessarily if I who should we contact to find out because this would be very concerning.

Um and so that was one of the things that we are trying to figure it out.

Um and the other thing is that we kind of follow up with um we talk about maybe namings or or putting the names of the parks or not the names, but like the instructions in Spanish.

And so um Cien, who is one of our committee and members.

He actually went to different parks to see from the people, you know, these funny people that usually go to these parks.

And we were amazed that a lot of them they actually already have the Spanish language in there.

So that was pretty neat.

So we uh Sienna is gonna help us go and look around and see which ones now, so we can maybe suggest those.

So that would be awesome.

And then the other thing um that we kind of follow up was for the pro bono attorneys to find out if there's any attorney that would like to do the HPS corpus.

And then the other thing um that we kind of follow up was for the pro bono attorneys to find out if there's any attorney that would like to do the HBS corpus um and whenever they need that and so we CN got us the list and now we're trying to figure it out if we because I know that whenever you call the attorney's office usually they'll say oh no or you know they'll kinda just don't follow up really and so um I was hoping maybe we can do an email but I don't know if you have any suggestions like see on maybe how we can so they know this is you know formal you know this is and it's not just a crazy person calling it to C Vic again you know so you have or anybody has any suggestions I would open it to the group before I insert some yeah I mean curious what Lexi has to say but I think you know if if we need to draft a letter and like me and Chris need to sign off on it or something that could potentially be helpful I think so yeah so that way they know it's coming from these uh you know the committee and explain a comedy and that we're trying to call the the community and so is not like oh somebody else you know would we need to vote on like doing that type of conference uh if you want it to be per like on behalf of the full commission then yes like that would be something that like you know the committee could draft and have that draft at the next meeting to be voted on which of course would it would be June because Tomas Rivera in May but um that also you know gives you a little bit of time maybe you could have some folks you know do some help with the drafting and things um but yeah I think I think that's a great way to make it look more official rather than you know yeah raising answering more questions than it would raise right if that timeline makes sense for you like that that can work is there a way to do it like does that timeline make sense for you?

I mean that's yeah the sooner we can right but I understand that we're kind of having so much going on but yeah I think Lexi can we not just make the vote on we agree that a letter needs to be drafted and sent on our behalf and then leave it to our chair to kind of check on it.

Revise it and work with you know legal I think if we proactively make the motion now and approve it I think we are within like it's documented now in our meeting minutes for next because I think to her point yeah like we're taking so long and so I think to work around that would it not be like if I if we give the right for our chair.

Right, right right right I think yes because the immigration committee just met yesterday I think this is something that could be would qualify as a new business.

Okay.

Um I just I wouldn't want you all to take a vote on something that wouldn't like follow the open meetings act okay because you can't typically you can't just like vote on things that aren't on the agenda to vote on.

Okay.

And because the immigration committee just met yesterday um if you look at your agenda there's like a little clause at the bottom around the restriction around new business um so I I think it would be uh accurate to say that this isn't something that we foresaw as an opportunity prior to filing this agenda because you just met yesterday and so we could take up that vote under new business in a moment.

Okay perfect if that feels right to you all so I'd like to suggest that we invite the sheriff to come speak to us.

Yes about this it's beyond time.

It's beyond time.

We we need to invite him we need to ask him these questions directly um that's my opinion that would be the June yeah that's my opinion yeah because that would be the June would you like to invite him absolutely what about the who is in charge too of the municipal well that would be the other one if you want to do a because that's uh the the the one that is concerning right now because this was not happening.

Yeah because it the sheriff we know the sheriff right David Mall.

Yeah but not with me can we make like a record or can we ask what is your policies and procedures around that type of situation for the municipal board like I think but i if if it's all of us together we would have to make a vote or each one of us individually could also request a policy and procedures like I just yeah I mean as an individual member of the commission like you're you are well within your rights to like reach out to you know a city county you know whatever staff person and conduct research for a project that you're working on and so you could reach out you know as the the chair of the immigration committee like you know we've had questions raised in our committee meeting and I would like to you know learn more about this.

I mean, as an individual member of the commission, like you're you are well within your rights to like reach out to you know uh city county, you know, whatever staff person and conduct research for a project that you're working on, and so you could reach out, you know, as the the chair of the immigration committee, like you know, we've had questions raised in our committee meeting, and I would like to you know learn more about this.

That's a good angle.

Okay.

All right.

I want to do a quick time check because we do still need to do talk about education.

So if we can keep it moving, revisit in a second.

That'd be great.

Um Jose isn't here for business engagement, but does anyone have any type of report there?

Okay.

Um education.

So Tomas Rivera, right?

It's coming up.

Um we have our 10 heroes chosen.

Uh the represent I can't say names because we haven't contacted yet, but we have representation from City of Tulsa, Union Public Schools, Impact Hosa, Tol Sanders Academy, TIA, Broken Arrow High School, TPS and TCC.

So we have a wide representation of education uh places like TPS.

I earlier I was like, no, we don't have any TPS representation, but I went through it and I was like, Yes, we do.

We have a teacher, so that's good.

And uh we have um two organizations that will support with providing food.

Um one of them is um Pedrosa Pedrosa, the lawyers, and the other one is Tia.

So thankful to them.

Um and Peggy flavors, uh, she's giving us um desserts.

So that's that's cute.

So um we're still working on logistics of how we're going to get all that food delivery here, whether we're gonna have to pick it up and bring it, or we're still trying to figure out uh based on what they tell us.

Um and I'm working on the agenda.

Um I'll be reaching out to Jackie's Lexi to um to get those sorted out.

Um we have um we should have the um students, the scholars' names by tomorrow.

Uh we did run into a hiccup of who to choose.

It was great uh nominations.

I think this year has been the year that we received the most with 56 nominations.

Um we all wanted it targeted from different point of view.

Um but it was um decided to target it based on the nominations per uh per group.

So we had TPS, union, toll Sunners Academy, and Glenpool.

We haven't seen Glenpool for a while in this uh nominations.

Um they nominated two, but uh and we automatically granted those two.

Uh their nominations was great.

Um we run into hiccups between uh union and toll centers academy since they had up about the same amount.

Um and we kind of escalated it to seeing like the percentages of the schools and how big they were and so on and so on.

Uh but I kind of brought them back to how we how we are um choosing these kids with GPA.

Um I just want to say that the kids that we are graduating this year are fantastic from TPS, from union, from all the sites, and I'm sure Broken Arrow, I don't know why they they're gonna be represented in the heroes, but they didn't nominate any students, but I'm sure that they have too much.

Yes, yes.

Um I will just whispering to Genna when Stan was talking about engineers.

We have a lot of people that are in the engineering program right now, like a lot of our kids that are from Union and Tol Sanders Academy.

I was like, all of them are engineers, like all of them.

You know, all of them.

Um that's where we act.

So TPS will get 12 students, union will get six, Tol Sanders Academy we will get 10, and Glenpool will get uh two, and that's based on the nominations.

TPS nominated 26 students, union nominated 11, Tol Sanders Academy nominated 19, and Glenpool too.

So we did the percentage of divided by the nominations by the award, so we only give 30.

Um Gloria or other members was like, is there a way that we can give it to all of them?

And then maybe we can revisit for next year, you know.

Um because I remember one year we gave like 40, 45, if I remember correctly, and the ceremony went so long.

Like a graduation, yeah, like a graduation.

So uh, but it sure gave us different perspective of do we want to talk about you know the background of the schools, do we wanna keep basing it up based on you know the nomination uh numbers that we receive, but um but we still do what we have right now.

Um we for sure want to make changes for next year, of course.

Um at first we were like 30 is a lot, and now that we received the double of that, we're like maybe 30 is not enough.

Um we will want to open it up.

Um trying to be fair with all the school districts and all the representation that we have.

Um note, I'm just proud to see all these nominations that came through, and they uh they're all high level, they all deserve it, you know.

If it was up to just oh yeah, let's just change it right now, you know.

All of them will get it for sure.

But um we did have to keep the 30.

So uh we're in a good track.

Uh shout out to Carlos, he's not here, but he reached out to me.

He's like, Hey, I'll help you with the uh presentation, and I was like, Yes, thank you.

Um so I'm I'm working with him to get the presentation, and we are uh last year we did pictures with uh um like a little biography of the of the kids.

Um this time we decide to ask them for a quote, like a quote to live by um that we can put it in there, it's easier to translate, it's shorter, um, and the families can see their kids.

It'll look good for the pictures, yes, and the picture, the name, the school, and then the quote to live by um just to make it quicker and more fancy, something different this year.

Um Jesse's on board to be our keynote speakers still.

Um we're really excited to have him.

And what else am I missing?

Can you remind us what time um we should be there?

So we're having the meeting the or regular meeting before the event.

So the event will start at 6.

Um we will meet 5 30 for regular because that meeting goes quick.

Okay, I didn't know that you were planning because last year we didn't have a regular meeting.

We well, we still we still did roll call and we still do the general business requirements.

Okay, um it's up to you guys if you want to do that.

You don't if we don't have to do it, then I know there was a two.

There was an idea that was floated of maybe like having a soft start at 5 30 and then programming starting at 6 to say, like, hey, get here at 5 30.

Just to make sure we'll tell them actually like 5 45, 6 you know, yeah, we'll tell them before I leave that up to you guys.

I just need at least 10 days.

No, I mean preferably more, but like it's we don't have to have the meeting time, then we can just leave it at six, and um we will tell the guest to get right by 5 30, which they won't so yeah.

So leave it at the same time as we have exactly we have had it every year.

Okay, so six.

And so for commissioners, so you want to say five things?

Yes, 5 30, just like last year.

Um we have the equipment for interpretation, um, the library already checked in with me.

They have uh they're ready for us, so yeah.

I think we're good just working on the agenda, working on um the flyer, which I'll be reaching out to Lexi and having the names for the diplomas as well.

So great, yeah.

Awesome.

Uh one thing I'll name is you know, we were talking about the June meeting.

Um we don't have a meeting in July, right?

Correct.

Okay.

Um in August, I guess maybe.

Um I was thinking about asking the Asian Affairs Commission to come and talk about um two particular things.

One is their subcommittee structure and just how they they run their committees, but also they're working on a scholarship, and so just talking a little bit about how they've created their TCF fund and how they've gotten sponsors for a scholarship.

So and for their Asian event, yeah, yeah.

But the scholarship piece sounds really compelling.

Even if we weren't able to give scholarship to everyone, like maybe we could experiment with like a five scholar, you know.

I feel like there's a possibility to test something if we really want to.

That's great because we have we have talked about it before of how we can turn this to be a scholar.

And Crystal, um, Crystal Ray has already connected me with somebody from OKC that wanted to do something, they just like just lead us lead us in the right way, you know.

So um the opportunities there, we just have to figure out the yeah, the inside work that we'll like visit that in August.

Cool.

All right, uh any old business.

Okay, moving to new business.

Do we want to make a motion for the last discussion?

Yes, please.

Yes, I need to.

Can you formally entertain a motion to find what you are introduced?

Yes, yes, yes.

Um we are looking for a motion to draft and send or to have the executive team or the immigration committee draft and send a letter um seeking pro bono support for the immigration committee.

Is that appropriate enough?

I motion.

My second.

Okay.

Those in favor?

Any opposition.

Any abstentions.

Great.

Motion passes.

So we'll work on that.

Get that out.

Thank you, everyone, for backing that.

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Moving on to announcements and public comments.

I wanted to will make the invitation for the event tomorrow.

You are gonna be there.

And it's a it's the high school students.

There's an alliance, cultural alliance, that they're putting together a cultural showcase.

But it's international.

And obviously the department of English as a second language is supporting it and coordinating it.

But uh they're gonna have music and dances and show their cultural and different countries in like a half countries.

So it's gonna be great.

And uh thank you for the commission for putting it together too to be there because it's important for us to the people don't know what we do or who we are, and and especially immigrants from different that's what I was saying.

If if other commissions wants to be there, you know, like the Asian, we have actually it's gonna be African, um, Hindu, uh, Turkish, Spain, Mexico, there's a lot of countries that they're gonna be presenting, and families from those uh from those students are coming.

So to be able to tell them that there's commissions voicing them, uh, the Tulsa CD, that's important.

That's important for them to know that they can have something and have an approach.

So and all of you are invited is tomorrow, the doors open at 5 30, so people can start visiting the tables and everything that's in the program starts at 6 from 6 to 8.

There's an intermission, but it's in the high school on the south entrance.

That's the PAC that's up behind the high school.

Um, where the big outitorium is on the side, there's the theater, the PAC of union, and um the entrance is free.

And so anyone that wants to attend or take their family, so it's it's gonna be something interesting.

So doors open for public at five.

5:30.

I have a couple things as usual.

Um is uh there is another another tabling event on the horizon.

Um so the city's neighborhoods team as well as our Office of Financial Empowerment and Community Wealth are hosting a resource fair on May 7 from 6 to 8 p.m.

at Roosville Library.

So one, if you know anybody who would benefit from uh connecting with or even receiving on-site financial empowerment resources, you know, you guys already know all about that because you have the great presentation from that team.

Um, but also just general city resources and connections as well.

Um there will be free food available.

Um, and then additionally, we have three shifts of just one hour between 5:30 and 8:30, the events six to eight.

Um if you we will have a title, a shared Title V commissions table.

Um so we just need a handful of folks from from all the different Title V commissions who are willing and available to come spend an hour or more with us.

So if that sounds interesting to you, let me know, and I would love to add you to my little spreadsheet here.

Um the other one, this is like way on the horizon, but um we are working with Tulsa Young Professionals, type rose on um collaborating with them on an event, and we'll be hosting a commission's fair during one of their pub clubs, um, which will be a really fun opportunity to meet um, you know, to talk in community about the work of the commission and maybe meet potential future new commissioners, um, which will be really great.

So that'll be in July and more to come on potential needs and and volunteer opportunities for that.

Uh the last thing is Saturday, May 16th.

Um, under the Department of Resilience and Equity are um opioid abatement response coordinator.

I'm almost certain is her title.

Um has been organizing a summit.

Um called Rising Together, Tulsa Recovery Summit.

Um, and participants will be able to learn about the addictive brain, how to help someone struggling with addiction, recognizing opioid overdose signs, and how to properly administer Narcan.

I have a couple of flyers here if this sounds interesting to you, or you know somebody who's for the public safety committee.

Um feel free to grab a flyer, and I think it's gonna be a pretty incredible learning opportunity.

Can you get into those camera?

They're regional and you send it to me.

I can translate it just the same and then start promoting it too, because that's interesting.

Yeah, especially in Spanish.

Yeah, I would have to check in on the capacity to have interpreters there.

You know, show up who would need interpretation services, and then we're we're not providing them.

So I will check on that.

Well, then let me know because I can help her that check.

Is that right?

That's amazing.

Yes, because that's that's important.

Oh, she's gonna be able to do it.

And it's totally free to attend.

You don't even have to register, you just have to show up.

Oh, wait, amazing.

Oh, there we go.

Sorry, y'all.

I've been in all day workshops for the last two days, and my brain is completely yellow.

So I'm very holding it all right now.

Um it's already in Spanish.

So does that mean there will be interpretation to I still want to double check on that.

That has not been explicitly said to me, so I will still of that again.

Rising Together, Tulsa Cut Recovery Summit.

This was also in the Title 5.

So D interpreter that I lovingly put together.

Yeah, you already know all that.

Oh, so you already have it too.

So DCC is hosting a conference of a Spanish for bilingual teachers and professionals in the area.

And I would like you to help me to promote it.

Um we're hoping to have like a hundred uh participants.

Right now we have just 30.

It's just 30 dollars in breakfast, lunch, and great um presentations.

Okay.

So the the line for up for register is May 1st.

So you can uh promote that, that will be very helpful.

Also, can I take the time?

So we all know that our commissioner Mimi Martinez uh was in a car accident a few weeks ago.

Uh she's going well, right?

We'll have a little bit more information, but uh I got us a card, so you can sign it and Lexi's gonna send it by mail.

You can sign up.

And I did hear there is a meal training.

There is, they just released it.

Yeah.

So I can send it to Lexi and Lexi can send it to everybody.

But they they cynically just put it up today.

So good.

Oh, and also for the conference, you're welcome.

We're welcome to have a table for the commission.

Yep.

Can we have it in the chance?

Okay, thank you.

Any other announcements?

So I just have a question.

Sure.

Um we do have an opening on the commission now.

And I know we have application.

Oh, we have two.

Excuse me, correction.

We have two openings now on the commission.

And so I'd like for us to collectively start thinking about how we'd like to fill those two slots.

Gloria, Kate Patrick, I know her invited her month ago.

So I don't know how she's gonna ask me.

Is there a online?

So I don't want to make this a business event for today, but I just want to bring that awareness is that we do now have two open slots, and we do still have one non-participant that we're gonna continue to address.

Um, I insist first.

And so we've all the record it's crashed.

I'm just kidding.

And that's fine.

Because you may deal with me however you want.

Um so I just want you to to bring that up.

So if you do have qualified individuals that you think would be a addition to our commission, please get them submitted.

If you need help finding the application, we'll help you with that.

And then we can go through the process of figuring out who we want to bring on board.

That's all on the side.

He goes through the process of deciding who they would like to bring on.

Yes.

Yes.

We just gotta get applicants.

But you are you're always welcome to send an endorsements.

So yes.

Appreciate the call out.

Okay, I know that we are at time.

Do we have any public comment?

Okay.

Great.

Uh that said, do we have a motion to adjourn?

I so move.

Great.

Thank you.

Those in favor of during the meeting say aye.

Aye.

A oppose.

Meeting adjourned.

Thank you so much.

And we'll see you at the awards.