All right, everyone.

Welcome in, welcome in.

Today is July twenty-ninth, twenty twenty six.

I'll take chair privilege and wish my brother a happy birthday.

So happy birthday, Aaron.

But you are entering into the Urban and Economic Development Committee meeting at ten thirty on Wednesday.

And uh my name's uh Anthony Archie.

I lead uh District Two on the West Side.

And first order of business, we'll call the meeting to order number two, uh Athena Laws appointment to the Sales Tax Overview Committee, replacing uh Charles uh Wilkeys, whose current term expires December thirty first, twenty twenty-six.

Upcoming term uh expires December thirty first, twenty thirty, hailing from District Two Athena.

Welcome.

Uh please why don't you share a little bit about who you are and uh why you want to want to uh serve.

My name is Athena Laws.

I need to update my driver's license.

Five months ago I got married to my best friend, and so I'm excited to continue to live in North Tulsa, mother of a 27-year-old, four grandchildren, um, and two dogs.

So I am born and raised in North Tulsa.

Um I grew up, the extent of my childhood was internally, so I live deep.

Okay.

Um, but I've l I've loved Tulsa all my life.

I went to college in Ohio, but then I came back.

I know where in Ohio.

Dayton.

Okay, went to Overlands.

So went to college, came back.

I just loved, I wanted to boomerang back in 2005.

Bought my first property in 2008 in the North Star area, Phoenix District, and I just love it.

I I can't leave it.

I just cannot leave it.

I ran for president as uh for vice president first in my neighborhood association, and then I became president.

So I've just been engrossed and ingrained in my community, and I love it.

I have been wanting to see change since 2008 because I just felt the promise.

I felt that it was gonna happen, and I knew that I needed to stand up as my neighborhood association and just embark that vision along with Tracy Chandler and some of the other community leaders on that side of town.

And so that's a little bit about myself.

Why I wanted to be a part of this committee is one because someone asked me to.

And so a lot of times in our society, in the line of work that I work in, you know, you have to sometimes you just have to ask people and then and then they want to participate.

Um, I have been a part of the Black uh Black Wall Street Legacy Festivals.

I've volunteered at the Blue Dome District Arts Festival.

I've volunteered at um Oktoberfest.

I've embraced the Tulsa Remote Program when they came here.

So I was the TN, which stands for Tulsa Native, and they are the TRs.

So I've always joked back and forth with them.

So that community, I love them.

Um and I just feel like I'm a long overdue pillar of my community.

Um, raising my son here.

Um knew it was a beautiful place to raise my son, and I just have hope that Tulsa can be one Tulsa on all parts.

I really truly believe that motto that I think the city has definitely been embracing.

And then also um, yeah, that's what I wanted to say that I'm a pillar, a long overdue pillar in my community, and I feel like I would be able to continue what my grandparents did.

They were part of uh the Black Greenwood District, but uh Black Wall Street, they had a fish market down there.

So I just feel like it's time for me to be a part, and I was asked by our fearless leader, Miss Manessa.

So thank you for asking Counselor Hall Harper.

Um Counselor Dutton, oh good.

Did you want to just thank you for your willingness to serve?

And I know you've been doing well.

Uh, like you said, she's very active in the community, and so when I had an appointment, I walked up to him and just said, Hey, I need you to serve.

So review community.

And she said, Yes, I'll do it.

So thank you so much.

Counselor Dutton.

I just want to tell you thank you for serving as well, and we don't want you to leave.

We want you to stay eternally.

Appreciate your community service as well.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Counselor Bangle, obviously, anybody who's excited is about their community as you are and has lived here their whole life and has raised their family here.

I think it's great that they're willing to serve.

And this committee specifically has always had some challenges of keeping people engaged and that and having the oversight, and that's really what this is about.

Is the oversight of projects and the spending and reporting that back to the community and seeing that what we committed funds to is actually being built.

So I I think some people think this is like a pity or you know, low level maybe.

This is the is not a distance.

Yeah, I reviewed the 165-page report.

So and I was touched and heavily honored to see that district one was embedded in a lot of the projects, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.

I knew I could see change.

I'm driving in the community, I'm seeing the Greenwood Culture Center being remodeled, and just different things that are going on.

So I'm really excited.

And I used to work for the city in the 90s, and I used to uh work at the radio shop up north.

North Tulsa has changed significantly in the last 30 years uh from what it was in the mid-90s.

So obviously it's on a path of prosperity and growth, and so I'm encouraged and uh hopefully, and it sounds like you are very encouraged.

And so I'm encouraged and hopefully, and it sounds like you are very encouraged.

So thank you for your willingness to serve.

Counselor Gilbert.

I just want to echo thank you so much for signing up to do this.

And this commission is it's it's all about energy, and your energy here at the table is fantastic.

I love it.

So you bringing that energy to this committee is great.

I love it.

Um I do have kind of a personal question to ask you.

Yes.

Are you ready?

Yes.

What kind of dogs do you have?

I have a American bully and my husband brought a German shepherd.

Oh, nice.

I love it.

Okay, best friends.

Okay, there was another amongst animal lovers.

Oh, great, yeah, great.

Yeah, we're gonna take a cartoon with Spike.

And I I appreciate you also signing up and serving on this.

Thank you so much.

Absolutely.

So, next steps, uh, we will be voting on your appointment August 5th.

Okay, and um, you know, I'll just say I'll support you for sure.

Uh, and so you will be uh able to speak at the at the meeting if you'd like, but you don't have to.

You can attend if you want, but you don't have to, but a pleasure meeting you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right, have a great council has a mark come.

Okay, all right.

This is what I want to do.

Uh we're going to uh um change up the agenda just a little bit.

We're gonna go to number nine real quick because there's a without objection.

Without objection, right?

Does anyone object?

Anyone okay?

Correct.

Let me read it and then we'll move forward with it.

Resolution of the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, urging the Tulsa County Election Board to add an additional early voting location in North and or Northwest Tulsa.

No, it's the deadline.

Sorry, there's an amended language.

So let's do this.

Amended language resolution of the city of Tulsa urging the Tulsa County Election Board to add an additional early voting site in North Tulsa for North Tulsa for the August 2026 election and future election dates, promoting the use of silly city facilities as early as possible, early voting locations, and encouraging the broader Tulsa community to support early voting efforts through volunteerism and opening the doors as potential partner locations for safe and secure early voting.

This comes with the emergency clause and is brought to us by Councillor Hall, Harper, Dutton, Bellis, and Dr.

Wright.

Yes.

And so I would like to invite uh Senator Goodwin and Alicia Andrews to the table uh for additional context.

Um I will say that um that this issue was brought to my attention about a month, a month and a half ago.

Uh and as uh Senator Goodwin will explain, she's been working on this for well over a year and a half, but it's an issue uh of grave concern, it's certainly as we are approaching elections in August, uh, and how important it is for access to voting of all Tulsas.

And so I'll I will tee this up or or share this with uh I'll pass this over to Senator Goodwin and Alicia so they can talk a little bit more about the history and and some of the meetings and conversations that's taking place uh as a result relates to this issue, but obviously uh having access to voting is important to all of us, and so I felt that this was something that we needed to resolve as a council.

Senator Goodwin.

Thank you, thank you, Chair.

Uh, to the uh city councillors that are here.

Um absolutely uh we have been working on this uh for the last year and a half, so it's not like we started late, it's not like we all of a sudden developed an interest.

Uh, what we knew is that when the Tulsa County Election Board was going to move more more than a year and a half ago, uh that because for some 40 years that site had served uh north side, it had served anybody that was in the downtown area.

Uh Republicans, Democrats, independents, black, white, Asian Pacific Islanders, Native Americans.

It's not about any of that.

It is about having a site that is accessible for early voting.

And when that site was removed that left a gaping hole and a constituency that was once served.

And we thought, getting ahead of it a year and a half ago that we could see uh what kind of satellite could be provided on the north side, as had been provided at Hardesty Library on the South Side for approximately 14 years or so.

And I am appreciated my tax dollars being used for those folks that literally said we don't want to drive all the way north, you know, is there a place that's more convenient?

Um so what we're finding is that June has been bypassed.

We had state questions.

Uh they're attempting to bypass August.

We have critical elections in August, more state questions, and actually another uh municipal question on the ballot.

Um this, you guys, we have tried to work in very uh conciliatory fashion, and it for me it's it's very simple.

We do know that the 555 North Denver building, which served for 40 years as the uh site for all of our operations, is still available.

We have offered pastors have met, we've met uh with the election board folks, they've offered their facilities on the road site, so we don't come complaining, we come with our constituency advocating for solutions, and we know we have solutions, we just have to have the collective will to move forward.

Um, and so we appreciate the resolution uh that's being offered.

We appreciate the thoughtfulness and just understanding that we got a whole bunch of folks that could utilize that's that uh location, and they have added a secondary early voting site, but they decided to move it to broken arrow.

So it's even further out than the 12,000 East Skelly Drive site that is now available.

Uh and so that is why we're here, and that is why we would certainly appreciate uh certainly you're already providing a thoughtful consideration with passage uh of that resolution which provides support.

Um do you want to address it?

Well, I know that I have more to add than what the senator said, except to thank the city council for taking this up because it is that important.

I am a voter participation advocate, and I think it is incredibly important that we remove all obstacles and we make it as easy as possible for everyone to have an opportunity to vote and having both our primary location and our satellite location being in East Tulsa, be it um regular East and way southeast, um, doesn't feel like it takes all of Tulsa into consideration.

Additionally, as the Senator mentioned, the hardest location.

I feel like when my car drove drives one way, it's the same difference when it when it comes back.

And if uh the Tulsa County Election Board felt it necessary um and reasonable to put a location out in South Hardest uh out of South RC for West folks, South Side folks, which I applaud because everyone should have access to the ballot box.

The logic of putting one back out north just should follow.

And so my my big thing is about voter access.

This is this is about equity and voter access and full consideration.

Thank you for those those words.

Anyone have uh counselor bangle and then um fellas, counselor.

I think um I would start out by a little challenged by this us taking up this resolution uh simply because this is a county issue and it's regulated by the state.

And so I think state law requires um for us to only have one early voting location.

Is that not right, Senator?

No.

Uh I I I appreciate that.

Um you're talking about Title 26, uh, and state law actually, and I'm gonna read it for you because I don't like uh a force to be uh narrow or constricting in how we look at law.

Right.

Uh I'm listening to the case.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, no, no, no.

Because I know you understand state law, and that's why I'm looking at you.

Okay.

Um, and and and for that reason, I'm gonna read it, what it says.

At no point does it say only one, and so the law actually reads like this.

It's uh uh in Title 26 Oklahoma statutes.

It says the Secretary of the County Election Board in counties with 25,000 or more registered voters or with an area in excess of 1,500 square miles, may designate more than one location as an in-person absentee polling place for an election subject to the approval of and pursuant to the procedures prescribed by the Secretary of the State Election Board.

That's very permissive range.

Yes, sir.

Right.

Absolutely.

But I'm asking about what is required of a county election of a county election board for early voting.

Right.

Is a state required a minimum of one.

And so let me say this.

What the law says is that they may designate more than one, and I think you know, for the last 14 years, they've engaged in two sites, and they're saying now they want to engage in a third.

So that's permissive language when you know that you want to serve as many folks as possible, when you want to provide voting access to as many folks as possible.

I think they engaged in two over the last 14 years or so because they know they may do more than one location.

So again, as I read that, and you're absolutely right, it is permissive language, so we are permitted.

We may do more than one, and we have done that for a number of years.

I'd like to add something to the councillor Bankel's point.

I think that we should strive to do better than the bare minimum.

Right, right.

Cleveland County has half of the citizenry that Tulsa County has, and they have six early voting locations.

I'm not advocating for six early voting locations, but they've taken seriously voter access for their uh entire county, and I am urging uh for the second largest county in the state to do the same.

And and to add to what I was the question that I was asking, if we start down this path, right?

Um I I would argue that when the election board was here in North Tulsa, I had constituents that had that same issue of you know, driving distance and accessibility.

To me, I don't pretend to understand the site selection process that uh is going through to stand up an early voting location.

I don't pretend to understand the logistics, the training.

Um I think some of us remember Councilor Bellis, uh Councilor Miller and I all got elected simultaneously in that same election cycle, and there was one election that had to go to the court process.

Obviously, training poll workers is relevant to that.

I don't know what that ramp up time is.

I don't security, the cost that this is comes from the county budget, not our budget.

We pay for I'm talking about for our elections, right?

But this is in perpetuity that you're proposing this, right?

No.

Just for this election.

They make those decisions during each cycle, but yes, we want access.

Yeah, but I'm saying you would want this early voting site perpetuity.

Absolutely.

Right.

So that's what I'm saying.

Is I don't pretend to understand all those logistics.

So I don't know that whether a discussion has been held with the county commissioners who oversee that budget.

I just don't have enough it, and this feels a bit squishy to me.

From a personal perspective, it feels like I'm interfering in a process that I benefit from.

I appreciate that, if if I may.

Please, yeah.

Yeah, I appreciate one.

We have talked to the county commissioner.

Um county commissioner actually said they would not be opposed to that site.

I I I specifically talked, we provided a number, but I specifically talked about 555 North Denver, which for the last 40 years have served well in that capacity.

Uh the county commissioner said he would not be opposed, but he would certainly want to see what the Secretary of the Election Board says.

We also understand uh that by law uh the Secretary of Election Board makes that decision.

We were able to not as you say interfere or intervene, we're able to collaborate, we're able to advocate uh for a pre precinct that we provided, and it's in use now.

I think with our tax dollars, certainly um we don't consider that squishy, we consider that constituent advocacy.

And to your point, you know, at the state level, we have increased pay for those folks that participate in our are in our elections.

So we are doing what we can as a public body to encourage folks to get out and to be trained, and I can assure you, I would think that um a year and a half is plenty of time to get someone trained uh and ready for early elections.

What seems to happen is that we are bypassing June.

We are they're now attempting to bypass August and say, oh, we'll be ready for November.

So if you can get ready for November and bypass them, I think very critical elections.

I think you sit in the seat that you now serve, knowing that there are some elections that are coming up, some state questions that are coming up.

Um so I love the choice of words.

I think that's what freedom of speech is all about.

Would you consider squishy?

We consider um advocacy, we consider it making sense of a process that serves everybody, your constituents, everybody, anybody can use that early voting site as they have done.

Um when you say you're challenged about the process, uh what we're saying that tax dollars are being used.

We know folks want to have access, we know the downtown area in particular use that site.

So folks from all over Tulsa that drive downtown, they have the opportunity to go in there and vote early.

That's that's three days.

So that that's what we're talking about.

And and I would hope that knowing that this is a process that is about democracy, that you know it is about having access, that that would not be challenging to any of us.

I would hope that we would see how do we collaborate and how do we have the collective will to do what best serves most folks?

You're absolutely right, Senator.

I would want every citizen who's eligible to vote to vote, right?

And I think by the different avenues of mail in voting, early voting, right?

Um to me, this kind of opens a can of worms because this is a county election board, uh a county early voting location, right?

Uh we have people from Collinsville, Sperry, you know, those folks, you know, have to drive significant distances, but are we advocating just as equally for early voting for those same folks?

Because that's this is the point that I'm making.

It's not about geop geopolitics to me.

So that again, I'm sorry.

It's not about geopolitical issues.

This is about accessibility, right?

Um, and I'm going to assume that um it's kind of like when you site select what is the easiest way to access this.

What is the largest place that I can accommodate or use to accommodate as many people?

Because in my view, early voting kind of falls aligned the same way with mail in voting.

You're doing it a little early, right?

You're getting your your mail in ballot, you're having it you know, casting your vote, and then you're having it uh notarized and then mailed in right now to have your vote counted.

This allows you to vote outside of your precinct voting, which now the county election board is coming to your precincts, right?

So on election day, you stand up, you have precincts within your districts that the county election board uh sends poll workers with your roles, and folks come into their precinct and vote.

So to me, there's a lot to consider here, and I and because I like I said, this is this is new to me.

I don't know what the conversations have been and how you got here to this point, but I just don't feel comfortable, Senator, um kind of imposing or suggesting something and something I don't have purview over.

And what I mean by purview is is I'm not part of the county election board.

I don't run, I don't run their budget, I don't run their policies, the state does that.

Ms.

Anderson, did you want to say something?

I didn't throw it to Councilor Bellis.

So what I I I told you I'm a voter voter advocate.

So in the states where voter participation is high, it is high because they make voter access high.

Oklahoma always ranks in the bottom two of voter participation, and so I'm here to fight for this because I want to make sure that we have all the access possible.

And when you ask, am I fighting as hard for Collinsville and Sky took and those kinds of places?

Actually, I am.

Those places, in this world's opinion, are north.

And so when we moved everything east, and when we moved things out far south, we actually made it more difficult for those at northern locations as well.

And so putting a place out north makes it a little bit easier for those folks that you mentioned as well.

And so I'm I'm all for figuring out how we can make it easier for people to participate in this process, particularly in a state where um participation is hindered, where we are bottom of the barrel in voter participation.

I did a lot of research on you know, both traveling and using the internet on voter participation and what increases voter participation and its access.

And so I'm grateful that I live in a state that has um no excuse absentee balloting, which you what you mentioned, and that we have early voting.

We have the shortest window of early voting of any state in the nation, and so we need to make it as easy as possible to get there for those three days for the people who choose to participate.

Yeah, and I finally I would just say, and I'll shut up after this.

Um I understand the challenges of having a location that's been there for 40 years, and now it's a shock and a shift and a shift.

But I would say my voters in East Tulsa who live all the way out in Wagner County, I represent all the way to 257, have had this same challenge for decades.

Well, let's solve it for everybody, and that's wonderful.

Let's solve it for everybody.

That's what I'm saying.

So I I'm not the expert, and that's what I would expect the folks who have oversight over this to be engaged in that conversation.

I just don't feel like this is in my wheelhouse.

Uh councillor Bellis.

Um, so I think I appreciate your point just to quickly address, and then I'll go to um kind of an exhibit I have ready, and I might Sarah will we be able to pull it up, pull down all the unallides in a second.

But um, I just want to mention because I think what you raised about is it within the council, like what does it mean for us as counselors to do a resolution uh saying that we think that this should happen to the election board?

Um and you know, is that our lane is kind of what I heard you saying, and I totally get that.

Um, though, of course, we also definitely advocate for things to the legislature, and I understand you know, I don't think that's unusual for us to engage with other kind of governing bodies or um parts, you know, other parts of government to go, hey, we think this should happen.

So I kind of view a resolution as just us going, hey, we really affirm that this is something we think would be best for our community more than us, like we can't make per your point.

We can't, of course, make the county or the election board do something, but I think we can say, hey, we think this is important.

Um, and one of the big reasons, like you know, I'm a data nerd and I'm gonna van a white this, so I know um this built on the board, I think.

Yeah, oh I know I as a former teacher had a smart board, and I do not um what I want to highlight because I got curious when this was first brought to me maybe about two weeks ago.

Like, I as someone who lived near the old site, definitely when I first drove out to the U.

Oh, okay, this is a distance, um, and we know we have transportation challenges as a city.

What I just wanted to highlight with this map real quick is I got curious.

Okay, population density in Tulsa County.

Oh, I'm far away, I'm terrible.

You must be here now.

All right, I'll make population density in Tulsa County.

Um, I wanted to really look at that, and I asked um someone um within I think the planning office helped us generate this map, and I had looked at some other ones through um the you know the census.

This is 2020 census data, so fairly updated.

Um, but when I was thinking about this, and I was going, okay, where are the current early voting sites?

One I'll highlight is right up over here.

This is a big population density area, which as Councillor Bengal pointed out, obviously needed and should have had better access sooner.

And then the other second one they added in is down here.

Geographically, I could understand why that may have been a need in that part of Broken Arrow, relative to how much more population density exists throughout the rest of our city, kind of hard to argue.

And when you think about Sand Springs, Sperry, Orasso, really diff disparate.

So we're talking about a site that is um, you know, in kind of straight east Tulsa, straight east of downtown, and then significantly southern end of Broken Arrow.

So I just wanted to highlight to folks that these two sites are very distant relative to a lot of the population center.

Then I got curious um per Councillor Bengal's point and then the law that was um mentioned by um Senator Goodwin about okay, where is um you know, where are the um voting sites in other counties?

Because each one, a lot of them they only do have one.

You do have um Cleveland County that has nine, um, which is or six, sorry, six, which is an wonderful amount of voting and early voting access, but when we look at these other ones, so I um I'm gonna make a really vulnerable confession to everyone.

I used AI and generated another map.

I know.

Um it was one of my first times doing that because I was just like, how do I scrape from this website to make a map?

So I tried it, and I looked across a list of all the other county sites to go if they only have one early voting site, some of them have one or two, and especially those much smaller and less populated counties than us.

I could get why they would do that.

Theirs were all in their city center, and that's the other thing that I actually thought was pretty wild about this.

It makes sense to me looking at that population density map to have the election board where it now is near a really dense area.

That's great.

And we also have a lot of sprawling density across our urban core, and it is pretty weird to have a major city, which is definitely in our county Tulsa, not broken arrow, not have one in our at least our urban core.

And so that's I I just think geographically that's challenging.

I definitely want to have that conversation with the election board.

I know you all have already been doing that.

Um, but I do just think logistically it would make sense for us as the population center of a city for the whole county to say, hey, like if we're gonna have early voting sites, it would make a lot more sense to have an additional one if we can only have one other one if it's financially not feasible to have more than two.

That second one being where it isn't broken arrow relative to population density, like that's doesn't make a ton of sense and is really challenging for the bulk of the population and for our you know, those outlying towns that are growing like Sand Springs.

So that's where I just kind of looked at this from this map population density perspective and just find where we're at right now to be really challenging from a voter access level, and just weird to be a really relatively big city for our state, and then not actually have early voting in or near our urban center.

I just that's pretty unusual, including for the other counties in our state.

Thank you, councillor.

Yeah.

Do you want to um add on to that, Councilor Dutton?

Yeah, so um I'm concerned as well, and I really think that it would be ideal if we had voting uh locations in all quadrants of the city.

Um I represent North Tulsa as well, and we have the longest stretch of area, and I can appreciate that we have the uh the voting location now in East Tulsa.

Um if you look at this map also, you'll notice that we don't have a whole lot of voter turnout on the east side and northeast Tulsa, which is really a problem, and I don't know if that's due to transportation, uh multiple uh families where there are double uh parents working, um disenfranchisement.

So the data income uh levels would support that this would be this area north of Admiral would be the areas that are in most need of access to voting facilities.

And with the bus station closing downtown, that's really concerning to me for people not being able to get to voting locations in a timely manner, as was said, we have a very short window of voting opportunities, early voting, and I think that by closing or not utilizing the downtown location for voting, we are creating a disparaging um lack of ability for people on the north side to be able to come and vote and process in democracy their democratic rights.

I I support, I I think it would be great if we have uh voting locations, uh Tulsa County voting locations in all quadrants.

I think it would and and the voting records also show that South Tulsa has the greatest access to voting.

You can tell by the precincts and the numbers that are reflected on the number of votes that happen each election cycle.

Thank you, Councillor.

Did you have a response for it?

No, I was just gonna say that we've offered a number of uh sites.

Uh one was the um, as I say 555 North Denver.

They're saying that's not going to be utilized.

We're we're we're saying it's sensible.

Uh well, you know, right now we know through this year they they still have ownership of it.

It we're still paying for the lights to be on.

Um and and should we need to change for next year that gives us more time to to think of another site, but we have provided that.

We worked with the uh the regional library, they talked about they were willing to to cooperate with again who had people that have provided their sites.

Um and and I think in a collaborative fashion, we could come up with something.

The bottom line is we have had time, and um, and uh to say that we're gonna bypass August.

I just think there are critical elections.

I think anybody that sits around this table.

You got there through uh a process, and we're saying let's not short circuit that process, and um there's nothing squishy about our republic, there's nothing squishy about democracy and this experiment that we are all engaged in.

And I just think that any level of government, because you do know the county, uh the city, the state are all involved in our elections to that degree.

I think your advocacy uh your concern is warranted, and I would never use the word interfering.

I would use it as advocacy, and I think you sit in your seat because of a constituency.

Thank you, Senator.

Uh Counselor Gilbert.

Yeah, I just want to say thank you for bringing this uh forward.

Um, I mean, it's it's um it's discouraging that we're not giving um other people opportunity to exercise their rote their uh uh right to vote.

But I'm just wondering, I mean, I I see that the locations of the of the tube and wanting one in North Tulsa, but I'm not seeing one in West Tulsa.

So um I mean, and I get that this is a resolution, but I mean, if can we amend it to include West as well to allow those uh people to I mean it it's it's a resolution and it's it's just asking.

This is not an ordinance, this is not a law, we're not pushing, we're just asking that you listen to us and you allow us to give other people an opportunity to have uh chances.

Hold on a second.

Oh, yeah.

So I looked at and I've been quite interested in it.

So um, anyhow, I just want to I just want to throw that out there that I'm I'm not seeing one in West Tulsa, and uh Councilor Bellas, you're talking about um uh Sand Springs uh growing in population the way that it's going.

So I'm just wondering if there's I'm not here to advocate for Sand Springs, they have to do it their own way.

Right, or broken arrow.

What's going on?

No, I'm not advocating for broken arrow either.

So I know that's what I'm saying.

So yeah, I'd like to respond to that, and then we'll go to Council Bayer.

Yeah, I I I I appreciate the question, the concern.

I would say that uh in my conversations with Tulsa County Election Board, uh, that at one time they were considering north or northwest in our meeting on Friday, they did say that it would be north, that that they're looking at north, and I think that's important because our conversations, right, have been about north, and I know what it means when even when there's a a release that says it's going to serve North Tulsa and Statuk and Turley and Collinsville and Owasso, we don't know where that is.

And what we are trying to do is have it in a place as we had been accustomed.

Again, the specifics we're not sure, but we certainly don't want it just hither or and yon.

And that is why for the last year and a half I've advocated north because I know where it was.

I know the precedent has been established.

I know the uh population density, I know the um quite frankly, how well used that site was.

And and I'm saying that provides us time to then look further.

But you know, again, if you can work with the uh the libraries, if you can work with pastors, if you can work with business owners, and they've all provided uh what we think are some very good sites, uh, but they've been rejected uh for early voting.

We're saying we have for the last year and a half been engaged, and I hear you when you say West, uh yet I I I can share with you what I have been doing and why.

And I hope I've provided that the reason.

Councillor Bang, oh, were you gonna uh counselor Councillor Bangle and then Councillor Dunker Wright?

So I have two legislative questions for you saying if you don't mind.

So a lot of times in our state laws, we're kind of tied at the hip with Oklahoma City based on population.

Do you agree?

I no, I'm not quite sure what you're saying.

You're sort of tied at the hip with Oklahoma City.

I'm not quite sure what you mean.

Some of the state languages, the population of 400,000 or more, right, is used in a lot of our state laws, which ties us to Oklahoma City.

Okay.

Basically, what they do, we have to do, right?

Okay.

Um so my question about that, right?

When you're considering, you know, multiple early voting sites.

I think Oklahoma City only has one.

In the urban core, right?

Right.

Just one.

So they're much larger population than we are, right?

They certainly have a more robust infrastructure than we do.

Um I think obviously you drive for Oklahoma City a hell of a lot more than I ever would.

But you know the traffic and and you know how what a challenge it is to navigate that area.

But um what I would ask is has the legislation thought about proposing instead of having the May language in there, potentially saying that in populations of 400,000 where you know state laws use that, you know, where Oklahoma City and Tulsa are tied by that language of population.

Has the legislation not considered changing that permissive language and says, hey, populations of 400,000 or more, you must have early voting locations relevant to population size or in urban corridors or something to that effect.

Have you have you guys run that type of legislation?

I'm just curious.

Please, yeah.

You know, I I again appreciate the question.

I appreciate you uh trying to look at the various angles.

I can tell you in our conversations uh with the county election board, they said to us any early voting site has to be able to have the capacity of serving 400,000 people.

Right.

That has been expressed to me.

I did share that uh we know that only 26% of that 400,000 actually vote.

Uh and that's unfortunate.

We all need to talk to our family members and neighbors to try to work on that.

Uh but that being the case, um uh that has not had to happen for an early voting site uh where you talk about 400,000, so there would be no need to do mandated language when you have permissive language.

So there would be no need to do mandated language when you have permissive language.

That's the beauty of permissive language.

If there is a collective will, it gets done.

And it has been done, and they have already said that they're going to do a third site.

And to your point, I don't think even the Tulsa County Election Board on any given day had to accommodate 400,000 people, whether it's in Oklahoma City, whether it's in Tulsa, whether it's in Sperry, wherever.

It hasn't happened.

And again, to your point, it is an option if you choose to vote those three days for early voting.

And most are going to use that same day opportunity.

So to your question, no, I don't think it would be beneficial to propose a mandate that it happens specifically there.

But what I do know is that there has been a collective will over the last 40 years.

What we're simply saying is that it's not about anything other than access.

And if we around this table can understand that, right?

There is no there's nothing contentious about that.

So in answer to your question, I don't think it would be beneficial to do a mandate.

I think you know when you have permissive language that's a little more broad, you are able to do more, and you know a mandate sets you and it's fixed.

This allows us to have that breadth and depth of what we need to do.

And I appreciate what you just said, the permissive language.

So I have a I'm gonna bring up my little bill that I've been advocating for our board of adjustment.

And this is where I get a little twisted with the state sometimes.

The state um when we talk about permissive language versus you shall, right?

So the Board of Adjustment is one of those things, right?

I've been advocating for permissive language that allows us, because we are joined in Title XI to Oklahoma City on our Board of Adjustment.

So what they do we're getting a little off topic.

I know.

I I'm I'm I'm gonna come back to this.

I'm so excited to do that.

He tried it though, I know.

I am, but what I'm saying is is when you're saying permissive language is fits this situation, but it doesn't fit this situation.

When you're talking about advocacy, right, how does this how do legislators determine what is advocacy and what is required in shall versus maybe how do you make that declaration?

Because in this regard, Senator, in my view, this should be a shall based on this map.

Is this map changes?

Shall should drive this map on where what we do in the county and in the city because we're a data-driven society now.

So that's my point.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I I just want to say one, I want to stay on topic in terms of why we're here today.

I um sorry, Jack.

No, and I and and to your point, what the statutes read, that's how they read today.

And that is what we are I hope that's what we're having a discussion about.

Uh, as it relates to your other question, feel free to call the office and we can talk about some other topic on another day.

Uh, but right now, if we could find agreement, I hope, on this issue, uh, that's why we're here.

And as it relates to that other, uh, I'm not quite sure it's germain to what we're talking about today.

Yeah, exactly, Senator.

I was just making the comparison of shall versus May.

Right.

Right.

When is this?

When is it relevant quality?

And why does when does the state determine permissive versus compelling?

Thank you, Councillor.

Yeah.

Uh Miss Andrews, jump in real quickly, and then we'll go to Council.

Counselor umright.

I'll I'll be quick.

I want to speak to an issue that uh my counselor um brought up about our you know, do are we fighting for West Tulsa?

And then I want to loop in what Councillor Dutton said about having having a location in each quadrant.

I'm I'm for everybody having more access.

I'm for everybody who has more access.

But um as someone who's lived in Tulsa for 50 plus years, I have watched how whenever we conflate the language, when we start out talking about North Tulsa, which I have never lived in, so be clear about this.

When we start out talking about North Tulsa and we start looping in other parts of the conversation, North Tulsa gets pushed to the side.

That's what happens.

And so I am all for let's look at the state.

Let's look at this match that uh Councilor Bell has put forth and deciding what needs to happen.

But this conversation started out being about North Tulsa.

And I want to make sure that North Tulsa doesn't get pushed to the side, move to secondary, um, oh yeah, we'll get to it, which tends to happen.

Um and then let's have a conversation about spreading the map.

But but first, let's settle the issue about ensuring that the voters of North North Tulsa continue to have access to early voting.

Councilor Duncker Wright.

Thank you.

Sorry for my lateness.

I had uh another business matter to attend to, but as you know, I'm a co-sponsor on this.

Thank you, Councillor Hall Harper, for bringing it to our table.

Thank you, Senator.

And you know, I know you all have been working on this for more than a year.

Um, as somebody who represents the district where the early voting site has been for more than 10 years, Hardesty Regional Library, I can guarantee 400,000 people could not fit on that site.

In fact, um, as someone who has early voted there and chose to then come to Denver, it was actually easier and more accessible for me as a downtown employee to vote early in downtown, which is now part of District One.

Um, so when we talk about North Tulsa, I know we're talking geographically above you know um Admiral, but when we talk about district one specifically, downtown is now part of District One.

Downtown now has more people living in downtown than ever before because of all of our housing.

So we're not we're talking about access for all, but taking that North Denver site down and then putting something way out at 121st almost way east, is not giving more access to this urban core, it's giving less.

Um, and as somebody who has voted early at Hardesty Library, has a lot of constituents who has who have voted early there, including uh folks in the county as far south as Limpool, uh Bixby, obviously Broken Arrow, there's never been 400,000 people on that site in the three days of early voting.

It has been crowded, it has caused neighborhood challenges and things that we would overcome.

So some of the arguments that I'm hearing for why we can't stay in the urban core is a little challenging for me, especially given the national and state level uh policy changes and emphasis on how certain people will be allowed to vote and others maybe not so much.

I don't know if that's causation or correlation, but it's certainly not lost on any of us at this table, and certainly not our constituents.

I think yesterday in a conversation the senator and counselor and I had there was a question posed about using the Denver location as the alternative site, it's still owned by the county.

The taxpayers are still funding its security, air conditioning lights and everything else.

So to me, that seems like an easy go-to as a secondary site now that most people will probably be going out to the Skelly Drive.

As those of us who've recently filed for office, know it's not an easy location to find.

The signage is not great, the approach, you have to be coming from a certain direction and hit that turn right at the right time.

And I did early vote there in 2024 when it was the alternative site.

We've moved away from Hardesty, moved to that site, and then Style had the Denver site.

They had us queued in the grass.

Um it was hot, you know, and so we do need an alternative in the urban core.

I don't find I don't think anyone that lives in downtown Tulsa, North Tulsa, uh east-west North Tulsa is going to find their way out south to Broken Arrow.

So then that puts them all going to the uh Skelly Drive location, which if you voted early in 2024, and I realized I was maybe one of the first times they used the site in that way, it was not a swift um process.

We were in line for a long time.

Um the other thing that I'll say is whether it's back at Denver or at some of these alternative sites that the senator and the councilor have gone to community to ask um ask where I recognize that the secretary would like to do be one and done, but we haven't been one and done.

We went from Hardesty to this new site, we've used Driller Stadium during the pandemic, so we haven't been one and done.

And so if we could just even use Denver or 36th Street North, which is on a bus line and is still accessible for Owasos, Barry Sky took Collinsville, Sand Springs, they can get to 36th Street North and uh Peoria.

Um and there's parking out there and everything else.

Um I just I think we need to run this resolution that as a unified voice of the city of Tulsa.

Um we have a very important election in August, including um several council seats and same, and um you know the ONG franchise agreement, and so um obviously people can vote by mail.

There's not um insignificant barriers to how we do that in this state with the required um uh notary.

But the final thing I'll say about it is if we have a closer to downtown core or accessible on this corridor by um highway and public transportation.

We have a lot of shift workers um who can't vote on a Tuesday.

Certainly in my community, which is more of a bedroom community, district five, more of a bedroom community, district six.

People are commuting in, whether they're commuting in to downtown Tulsa or not.

They need a Saturday site, they need a Friday lunchtime site, and there's more workers in the downtown core and closer to these alternatives we're talking about than way out here at 121st and uh Lynn Lane or 129th East Avenue.

So for that perspective as well, you know, you talk about a nurse who has to be at a 7 a.m.

Um seven to seven shift on a um Tuesday, that means they're arriving at the hospital at 6 30 a.m.

They're not going to be able to go vote in the middle of the day, but they could go on a Saturday or the Friday.

Same thing for all manner of uh third shift workers.

So again, um my understanding is county commissioners have been approached on this.

They know that the Denver site could possibly be reactivated.

So I just think the argument that we need to be one and done is not anything that we've done in the last six years, so we could wait another year or two um to figure that out, but time is at the essence now.

They're gonna have to publish that site.

I think they're about to announce it any day.

Um and taking it as far north as uh outside of the um city limits.

I just think does not solve the problem.

I mean, we're not talking about just geography, we're talking about population and access.

So um I hope that uh we'll have full support on the resolution it is on for tonight.

Um, and it does carry the emergency clause.

Uh you know, Councilor Lakin's not here, um, and I don't know if um if he would be supportive of this, but I hope those of us that are here will get to eight and send it a strong signal to the county um that we expect that not just residents of the city of Tulsa, but people who work in our city um would have access to early voting in person in a location that is um readily accessible on a lunch hour or in between shifts or something like that, not going clear across town to get there.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor.

Uh Councillor Hall Harvard, did you have your hand up?

Yeah, you just give me about three times.

Oh apologies.

It's fine.

I mean, I I appreciate everyone's comments and concerns, but I mean I just have to to speak my heart to this, and and I just think it's vote of suppression.

Point blank period.

We make accommodations for certain sides of town and we don't, and we justify it for others.

And I just I mean, I just have to call it like I see you because this is ridiculous that we even have to do this in my opinion.

It really is.

Move from downtown, way out east.

And we're not making any accommodations for when we where we left when it comes to early voting.

That I mean it's it's common sense.

I mean, and we can get all into maps and uh no the data and I get sick and tired of hearing we look we're data-driven, we're not data-driven.

We pull data, but when we when we sit down to make that vote, we do not look at data.

I just don't believe that.

So it's frustrating the tale to me, but it is what it is.

Told forward.

Anyone else?

All right, well, I appreciate you all willingness to be here, and this is on for tonight.

It is uh the charisma bursting clause, so uh people will be able to speak on it.

Uh so please, if you have additional thoughts, please come and share.

Uh thank you all.

Thank you so much.

No, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you all for the time.

All right, we're gonna jump back up to uh Mari Jayl or so for uh Mr.

Chair, yes.

I'd also like to thank Sarah Davis for jumping through the hoops pretty quickly to get this resolution language to us finally.

So um thank you.

Thank you.

There we go.

Not all heroes were cake.

Sometimes they were big blazers.

So Wednesday.

Oh we are um dealing with the appointment to the parks and recreation board slash guild priest board of trustees.

You'll be replacing Shane Fernandez term expires May 1st, 2030, coming from Council District 1.

Welcome to Mary.

Will you please share just a little bit about yourself and why uh you would like to serve?

Um so Amari Jimerson, currently involved in women's health, um, run a nonprofit organization, the Oklahoma Birth Equity Initiative.

Um was formally before this role, the deputy director to parks.

Um, so familiar with the way um the system works when it comes to getting things done um with parks and some of the difficulties that we've had in the past, um, which I've heard you guys have come along with, so I'm excited to see where things are right now.

Wonderful.

Councilor Dr.

Wright?

Thank you.

Well, I'm always impressed by people like you who do all the things and say yes when they get the call.

Um who's voluntary, yes.

Um I think it speaks highly to the fact that you did serve at the city of Tulsa in this department, and you are willing to step on the volunteer side.

That that takes extraordinary um insight from folks and a willingness to come back and serve in a new way.

So I was gonna also just want to say haven't completely stepped away, have still been involved in what's going on at Chamberlain Park.

Sure, yeah, always always from a community lens, which I also appreciate and I appreciate that.

This also includes the Gilles, that's very important, especially as a district one resident with all these folks coming through um as that reopened.

So um I'm an absolute yes.

I'm a little as your friend, like how is she gonna have time?

But as I as I understand personally uh 10% of the people usually do 90% of the work.

So I thank you for your willingness to serve and bring all um aspects of your personal and professional expertise to the table.

I think that would it's a huge coup for us to even have you considering this appointment.

I'll certainly look forward to conf confirming you on the fifth.

Anyone else?

Yeah, I'm sorry, Counselor Hall, I'm not gonna know.

I guess it didn't call.

Yeah, sorry about that.

Oh when I say um that she was full and told it was not by me.

That's not good.

It was distance yourself.

It wasn't that but I certainly got the call uh as as for my um recommendational for my thoughts on it, and I said absolutely if she has time, Lord.

Uh because I uh full disclosure, I know of her.

And so um, yeah, the things that she does just is just crazy.

But um to her point, even though she's not been with parks, whenever I have a parks question, I still call.

I still call her.

So I was looking at just me who I need who I need to talk to, what I need to do every time.

I mean, because I know she has the information in a couple weeks.

So uh but yeah, thank you for your willingness to serve.

Uh, and we appreciate you and you know.

Anyone else?

Anyone else?

Okay, so I raised my hand.

I'm sorry.

Am I invisible?

No.

Um so thank you, obviously, for serving.

I want parks.

You're serving in quality of life things, and so I think that's important.

And so having people that are experienced in this and have some understanding of it, I think is just beneficial to all of us across the city.

So thank you for serving that capacity.

No, anyone else raise your hand real high so I can see anything.

I'm gonna put buzzers on the table.

That's right.

All right, we will be uh voting on you next week on the fifth, and you are more than welcome to attend and speak if you'd like.

So thank you so much for your desire to serve.

Thank you.

All right, item number four ordinance amending the fiscal year 26-27 budget, the transfer unencumbered and unexpended appropriations of various gold bonds uh series.

Also, we are welcoming Paul Zachary to the table.

Some of the capital budget manager.

Absolutely.

Well, take it away, guys.

Well, just wanted to highlight we're today in action public works.

We're just going through and cleaning up for digital balances and the 28 projects.

I won't go into all detail of all the projects further out there.

But the key is we're clearing for digital balances and also working with grants that we've received, which is helping us to take the money back to these other projects that voters have voted on and making sure that they can get completed in the format.

And Mr.

Zachary can go into more detailed questions you may have.

All right.

Any specific questions that we have?

Well, that's all right.

Are you getting on following?

Well, well, okay.

What are the projects, the other projects that might need additional we have 246 projects that are in the description?

Could you tell us each?

Yes.

Just so you know, in 2023, after we had the spike, we had anywhere from 50 to 70 percent increases in commodity for projects.

Um the then council, we talked with counselor Q.

We were what were we going to do with all this inflation?

And so we reported in 2023, prior to the vote for IoT 3, that we were projecting 147 million dollar shortfall industry program.

So in the 19 in the 2023 program, we got 93.8 million additional to help make up for inflationary issues.

Uh we were then also going to be we looked at savings potentially like these, uh, that we just roll back into the transportation program and use that, and then also increase our uh going after STP uh projects, which is federal grant transportation money.

Uh we had planned on doing 12 million uh in those programs, and now we've exceeded over 20 million uh in that.

So what we're doing is we're chipping away at that projected 147 million dollar shortfall.

So um one of the reasons like we really want to put the a hedge around these dollars, these are needed dollars for capital projects.

So what we're doing in each, we sweep this at least once a year, but we sweep it all into citywide arterial and non-arterial rehab, and that allows us to work across the board uh in all these projects.

So it's it's critical that it stays in the transportation program, and that's really why I'm here and I appreciate Jake mentioning it.

But I just want to let you all know we have 246 outstanding projects that are getting funding this year, next year, and the following year that are in the design and construction, and it's everything from getting in the field.

We have a couple of projects in uh in your area where we ran into a total reconstruction requirement that we were planning on doing mill and overlay.

So there are some things that are unforeseen, it's cost issues and just things we can't overcome by altering scope.

So it's uh it's just a balancing act, and we want to just keep this going until we finish every project and our sales tax overview.

We are batting a thousand percent with those folks.

We've not not done a project, uh, and we take that very seriously, as do you guys when you process that the sales tax packages that says that we can all lose our jobs if we spend money inappropriately in these programs.

So we are we are rotating this back in, and we're gonna spend the oldest money first, and you'll read that there's IRS penalties that we actually pay if we don't spend it fast enough.

So we get the old money and then we spend it first, and we just try to keep as current as we can.

So we appreciate your uh hearing all this, but we would really uh ask for your approval of this so that we can keep our house in order in the street program.

Absolutely.

Anyone else?

Any additional comments?

Sorry, I just had to ask.

No, I appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

All right, thanks for that.

Moving the right along item number five housing and urban development grant funding recommendations from the HUD community development community uh committee or program year 27 in accordance with Title 12, Chapter 8, Section 804, uh, etc.

etc.

brief with us.

Um just to clear up is there's no recommendations being made with this item um every year during an Arana plan.

We're required to uh the committee puts together a priority needs statement.

So we have a needs assessment here in um as you guys are aware, we are in the first year of okay.

So we just finished the first year of a consolidated plan on 630, so we don't actually have any data yet for that year.

So the priority needs are pretty much the same as what we would do in a consolidated plan.

So I won't read them out to you guys, but same.

We have not solved council's issues in the first year of a consolidated fund, so we still have affordable housing issues and homelessness issues and low-income people.

Councilor Bells.

Yeah, totally fair that um it was simple, we'd have it done.

So of course it's really complicated, and there's multiple years needed for implementation.

I was just curious if it within this first kind of year of I know, like kind of ongoing um planning for implementation and things like that.

Are there any specific barriers that have come up?

I know that could be from like a grants um like you know uh fidelity side of things, or also I was just curious, just knowing lots of different things cause friction in these types of processes.

If there's something that you think we should that would be helpful for us to be aware of, or something we could do to make things smoother or yeah, um, I don't think so.

I was just curious if within this first kind of year of I know like kind of ongoing um planning for implementation and things like that are there any specific barriers that have come up and that could be from like a grants um like you know um fidelity side of things or also I was just curious just knowing lots of different things cause friction in these types of processes if there's something that you think we should that would be helpful for us to be aware of or something we could do to make things smoother or yeah um I don't think so we've had a few agencies struggled to spend them but more based on like regulations from HAND um changes to you know requirements and verifying people have made it a little bit harder on them to qualify people so that's no not from the essay but just on based on federal regulations of the regulatory whiplash kind of thing because did the regulations shift after they had been granted dollars or so no without with a latest grant agreement there was an addendum in there which included language people had to be checked through the save US immigration um how we're supposed to issue guidance on that here we are a year probably 18 months later we still don't have any guidance on HUD and as recently as like the last couple of months that save is through the US immigration service you were able to put in a name and a social security number and it would come back they've taken away the social security number so we currently don't have a way to verify people that were actually born in the country because the only the only documents you can overload uh um like you know naturalization certificate number like birth abroad like currently right now like our housing and demolition program don't have a way to verify using the system somebody that was actually born in the US so yeah well we will not be able to solve for that that that is I mean I think that's a helpful thing for us to even know especially just as I know we're always trying to figure out community partnerships and how to make sure that dollars like you know we're removing friction red tape for all the partners we need to make all this work happen so that's just helpful to be aware of so thank you.

Anyone else thank you Reese for being with us item number six resolution approving the issuance of indebtedness and the amount not to exceed two million by Teo Tulsa Authority of economic opportunity by the issuance of its promissory note and other evidence of indebtedness in connection with the authorities loan to the TD and Catherine T McArthur Foundation for a program related um investment PRI loan regarding the equitable housing demonstration project this covers the um emergency clause Aaron is with us and this is a long time coming all right so I'll give a quick intro that when Nia take over the show I don't think there's anything more Tao than this project here.

So I want to apply applaud Bernita Nia's retired and partner Tulsa for bringing this opportunity to our city basically what you're seeing here is opportunity for us to take people in our community who have been incarcerated and help them to find housing we saw just the issue of how hard it's for those are incarcerated to find housing but also helps our homeless issue as well because but for finding proper affordable housing could end up on the streets.

So this hits a twofold level a two million dollar loan to Tayo at one percent interest that will help support like I said affordable housing for those in our community who have been incarcerated and once again kudos to Nia and her team for making this happen and bring this opportunity to our city and I'll now turn over to her to dive deeper into this program.

Thank you.

Thank you Aaron good morning counselors this uh is related to the Just Home project uh Aaron gave a great background but um we tulsa was selected as a site for national demonstration of equitable housing uh for justice involved individuals I'll read the purpose really quickly but uh it's the purpose is to break the connection between housing and stability and justice involvement by increasing access to quality affordable housing for individuals returning from incarceration while reducing disparities within the criminal justice and housing systems excuse me to have my tea this morning uh but the local goal for Tulsa is to provide at first we were looking at just 20 units but once we identified our development partner Robinson properties excuse me let me do it I think we're gonna thank you all right um but we've identified that we'd be able to provide 23 affordable housing units for justice involved individuals I do want to highlight the partners that we're working with for this project MacArthur Foundation who is the founder of the the program uh urban institute uh operates as our technical assistance uh provider they were just here over the past two days uh kind of having in depth conversation with all of our community partner partners we're working with housing solutions Terrence Crutcher Foundation Family and Children's Services thank you uh Robinson properties as our development partner and the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office

MacArthur Foundation, who is the funder of the program.

They were just here over the past two days, kind of having in-depth conversation with all of our community partner partners.

We're working with housing solutions, Terrence Crutcher Foundation, Family and Children's Services.

Thank you.

Robinson Properties as our development partner, and the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office.

They're like our evaluators, so they look at the process that we are implementing as far as identifying the participants in the program and kind of track where they are and basically the success of the program.

They look at them for at least six months after they've been placed in the housing to identify whether the program was a success and being able to compare it to other sites that are selected for this project.

So specifically the request of the council is to uh allow or authorize Tayo to incur the indebtedness of up to two million dollars for the loan we plan to receive from the MacArthur Foundation.

As a an authority of the city of Tulsa, we are required to seek city council approval for incurring any debt.

So it would be a two million dollar loan, as Aaron mentioned, uh one percent interest that would be repaid quarterly, uh, and then a balloon payment at the end of 10 years uh to repay that two million dollars.

Uh the council is not approving uh any borrowing of funds.

Uh this is a loan directly to TAO, and council or city would not be responsible for um returning payment on this debt.

Thank you.

So to go through how the uh PRI loan will be utilized.

Uh we've broken it down into two phases.

Uh we've identified uh housing properties within district three and district four.

Uh there will be two sites uh within the first phase.

We'll be deployed one million dollars from the MacArthur Foundation that will go towards the uh the standing up of 10 affordable units.

Uh one site within the first phase will have uh eight dormitory-style units, kind of what we just call a boarding house, uh but it'll be eight rooms, they'll have access to a small refrigerator, but there'll be common amenities within that first site uh for the the participants to use.

But that will constitute a refi and a rehabilitation of those units.

Uh a lot of the partners and the urban institute, we were able to tour these sites just Monday.

Uh so we're excited to see what will come of them once they're completed.

Site two within phase one is the acquisition and rehab of another property.

That property uh has it's a four plus and it has four units total, but only two of the units will be dedicated to the just home participants.

So again, all of phase one will uh deliver 10 units, and we're looking at a six-month delivery time frame for those units to come online.

Phase two of uh the project will be the second million dollars from the loan, and that will be able to deliver 13 affordable units uh for at one property.

Uh that will be a refi and a rehabilitation of that property.

They it's a mix of one bedrooms, one bedrooms, and uh studio units within that property.

That is the site to use it.

Sorry, question.

Oh no, you keep going.

Okay, shining the chairman.

Okay, that's we go attention.

Thank you.

The um this is the site where we plan to have one-site case management, uh, but someone who will be able to provide case management for the entire project, so for all 23 units, uh, but we'll have a dedicated space for case management at this third site.

And this last slide just kind of goes through the structure of the program and because it's a 10-year loan and uh a 10-year program, uh, how we look to the future and how we will try to measure success.

Uh so as I mentioned, we'll get a two million PRI loan from the MacArthur Foundation.

It's a 10-year term.

Uh then Tao, so Tayo borrows those funds, and we work with the community partners to identify how the participants will be successful and what their own ongoing services will look like, uh, how we identify the participants.

Well, that's what right now we're going through that process to determine working with the jail and with family and children's services, housing solutions, building up the criteria to identify the participants.

Once we have the funds, that first phase we work with Robinson properties to do the rehab of the units that we've identified.

And if you know Robinson properties, they're also management, they also manage their properties.

But they'll be a sublan recipient, so they will technically be responsible for that balloon payment at the end of the 10 years.

So once we deliver those housing units, those 23 housing units, we'll look at having ongoing case management, where we're providing supportive services for the participants, just making sure that they remain stable and successful in those units.

So once they're in a home, you know, if they're coming from incarceration, they may not have couches, beds, pots and pans.

So we're also looking at uh being able to provide those needs and um even things like gas cards or uh just minor things that think people you know regular day person takes uh takes for um takes advantage of or takes for you.

So um, but yes, we want to make this a an ecosystem for the participants uh where they have access to different resources and are able to be successful in the long term, excuse me, in the long term.

Um just at the bottom, I just just stating how we're kind of making protections for Tao for the loan.

Uh we are making sure that we're in first position uh for these loans.

Um we require financial, well, MacArthur requires financial reporting, uh, but also requiring that from uh the Robinson properties group to uh ensure that we're just in compliance with the with the loan agreement.

Uh, we'll have restrictive covenants that state that these units are to remain affordable for the 10 years uh at 60 percent uh AMI and below.

Um, and they have also provided us with a personal guarantee to ensure that loan, ensure repayment.

Uh so that is really all I have.

I know there's a lot of details we could probably get into, but I'm happy to answer any questions about it.

Thanks so much for this presentation.

Uh very nice.

Counselor Bellis, Dektor Wright, and then does it actually first?

I'll go first and I'm sure that'll tee you guys up.

Right.

Um, thank you for this presentation.

I'm glad to hear it's Robinson properties, a local owner operator that's operated in good faith.

Um even when they've had to come before us for you know little codes here and there, it's always been remedied, and so I appreciate uh the ongoing relationship.

I know that they have intentionally redeveloped properties that were in blighted areas and made sure that they are affordable, whether it's required by their loan or not.

I did want to get some clarity.

When you say affordable 60% AMI, are we talking from a pricing standpoint or actual voucher acceptance?

We wouldn't have right now we won't have access to vouchers.

Okay.

So it is just based on uh the units.

So yes, so because it's all of these are one unit uh bedrooms, uh, one person, it'd just be based on the HUD specification.

That was the other question I had.

Is it um restricted to one person or would couples also be allowed?

We are right now, I think we're looking just at single people.

Um that boarding house that I mentioned, that would likely be one uh sex of a person, one gender that would be able to occupy those units.

Uh but right now we don't have any two bedrooms or anything larger than a bedroom.

And is the concept that this would be transitional housing or more like permanent supported housing?

Permanent supportive housing, but with a time limit.

Well, we're just I'm just saying it's a minimum time time alignment, not yes, I'm sorry.

So maximum.

Yes.

So we would want them to stay like the boarding house, we're looking at maybe six months as a minimum stay, and the others a year, especially we don't want the Robinsons to be inundated with people turning over so quickly.

So yes.

That's more stability.

Yes.

Um, also for the caseworkers.

Correct.

And then so the lease terms would be six to twelve months minimum.

Correct.

Okay.

Um these units be inspected by the city of Tulsa's multifamily team or HUD.

Um we have talked about working with the the C D BG group grant group to do inspections.

We haven't spoken with them yet.

Okay.

I think that's a good overlap to be able to use them for inspections.

Uh, but we do require through the Robinson Agreement that it is uh up to HQS standards for inspections.

And there'll be regular inspections.

Yes, annually.

Okay, great.

And then on the case management side, obviously that's not through the property owner.

Where is that coming from?

The from family and children's services, uh their staff will be able to do that.

Yes.

Okay.

I think that covered it.

I saw the um map, it's in D3 and D4.

Um, when will we know will we know locations or is it just going to be in general?

I did speak with uh the counselors for district three through four.

We don't want to release addresses right now, but we do we are looking towards once we have work completed, uh especially the last unit, there's kind of a story to tell or less property, there's a story to tell that we would want to be publicized.

So we would look at having like a grand opening once everything is completed.

So yeah, there's always I'm fully supportive of this.

I know these two counselors have advocated as well.

Um in my community, we have transitional housing for people coming out of um rehab.

Some of them are justice involved because of that.

Uh for the most part, uh those properties operate quietly, just everyday folks trying to get to work, yeah, take care of kids, reconnect with family.

And so I know you know, uh there's always strong emotions around these things.

I frequently say to my own constituents, if you've called City of Tulsa to complain about people sleeping rough and unsheltered, this is the solution.

It's permanent supportive housing.

Um transitional housing, affordable housing.

So I'm grateful for the um grant and the you know the ability to activate these dollars.

I think a 10-year term will give us a lot of information about how it's working or not working or needs to be improved.

And uh I know that my partners on the council will certainly be very involved with their neighbors and balance neighborhoods.

One of these will be my neighbor actually.

Yeah, and balance neighborhood concerns with the overall strategy that we have in place.

So thank you for being willing to take the lead on this, because I know it's not easy.

It's one thing to talk about, it's another thing when it's showing up literally under doorstep or in your backyard.

And um I think we'll educate as we go along.

And you know, knowing what we know about Oklahoma and and the rate of incarceration and who it impacts and how I think this is just a greater way to uh understand how those policies show up in an everyday situation.

Um more question.

So what sort of vetting process of the tenants will there be?

Is there like a history of violence, domestic violence, you know, those kinds of things?

That is what we're the conversation has started now, or as of you know, two days ago, uh, what that process will look like.

Um the family and children's services has an agreement with the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office to have them be able to get information about um inmates who have either recently left or are about to be released.

Uh we do I think one item we're looking at is just making sure someone that's coming out doesn't have like a pending case that they could potentially go back to jail.

So we're um we're going through that vetting process and what that looks like right now to identify the criteria to um uh one assess uh a participant and then kind of drill down on what would be the best fit for them and with this program be a good fit for them.

The other thing I would just say or would be remiss if I lived out right now in neighborhoods across the city, gated all the way down to affordable and below market rate, we have people who are just as involved.

Sure.

And a lot of them we wouldn't even ever know.

So the second chance housing and that leads to jobs and just uh you've paid your debts to society and you're re-integrating is exactly how the system is supposed to work.

And so I would just encourage anyone who wants to just kind of marginalize a group that's already challenged to just think about the people in your own circles that you know that have you know had to be justice involved for whatever it is.

Um a lot of it is substance use related or poverty related, and so those are all things that affect our community.

But I would say even in the more affluent communities, there are people that are justice involved living in your neighborhoods, um, shopping in your grocery stores, working next to you, and it's not our business to know.

Um I think if there's a violent history, um certainly uh registered sex offender or something like that, we we would know about those things.

So I would hope, um, especially in a group setting.

So I feel confident that, especially under the leadership of these two counselors, that those kinds of things will be asked and answered and reviewed, family and children's um and certainly partnered Tulsa's taking some sort of risk here, but it sounds like you guys are balancing that.

And thank you again to Robinson properties for being willing to step out in this way, which seems to be an extension of how they've already chosen around their business, which is you know, before government or uh nonprofit dollars were even in the mix, they were putting their own skin in the game, their own financial uh future on the line, and they have children that they raise in this community and they show up in this community um in lots of different ways.

So again, just thank you to them for being the the willing partner.

We'll go Bellis dozen and counselor uh Gilbert.

Gilbert is going to be a good thing.

Okay.

I um yeah, I was just you know, I'm excited about this.

As I just mentioned, ones that in really close proximity to me, so I will be a neighbor, and I'm excited about that.

Um I know I'm a classic, yes, in my backyard person for things, I own that.

Um but I and I I'm really excited about um the dorm style one too.

I've actually been to the buildings that are the ones in your district before, and they're both so cool.

So I'm excited to just also see properties that have been vacant for selling get revitalized.

Um I was just gonna surface to my colleagues as just like a food-for-thought thing.

I've had a few, this is related, I promise.

I've had a few developers over time bring up the dorm style housing as like right a way to because it's so hard to get developers who are willing to do affordable housing because it's not that feasible for them to be able to even break even.

Um I know that there's zoning complexities, and maybe it's not very clear in our zoning code what it looks like to create this kind of dorm housing where you have you know several units and certain shared um you know, kitchen or laundry or things like that.

And I just I think um as we see this play out and get success from that, I think it is something worth pursuing within our zoning code.

Um just going, hey, this is an important path for affordable housing.

I don't know if aging, maybe they've been looking into it, but I think it is something that we need to further visit.

Um I've had other developers mention it as something that would be good for like even just older adolescents where you know maybe they've finished high school, they're going to college or not, they're new in career.

It's just like kind of an affordable communal space for them.

Kids aging out of the foster care.

Absolutely.

Yeah, especially, yeah, yeah, transitional.

I think it could be when we talk about transitional housing, we can think about it for a lot of different types of transitions in life.

Um, and it is something that just makes things affordable and feasible to build and offers people built-in community.

Um, and so if there's something we need to do with our zoning artist housing project, kind of like that.

Yeah, there's yeah, there has been one.

Are you are you gonna tell us more about that thing here?

Yeah, it just says something that if there's something we need to do to make this easier to like for people to affordably build, and one of the like again within this work, we have like a core example of one of these in a really cool building.

Like, is this like did they are they having to do something unique with the BOA to make this happen?

Do we so I'm not uh expert on this specific issue, so I think I'm what I'm about to say is correct.

G Bullmes, by the way, senior advisor to the mayor on housing.

Um thank you for inviting me to the table.

Um I wasn't planning on uh talking through this, but uh it is allowed in certain zoning districts, and the planning office is looking at kind of simplifying the zoning code and expanding it.

So um I think they are working on some uh structural changes to the zoning code, which is gonna go before the TMAPC, and then we'll come before you all uh hopefully in the coming months.

Sorry, we'll come before the new uh planning commission, uh not the PMAPC, which you'll hear about later.

Um and then come before you all soon.

So again, it it it is allowed in certain districts by right, uh, some by special exception, and this the planning commission is looking to make it more uh accessible.

Okay, great.

Yeah, because I I just know that it's what makes some affordable housing builds or rehabs of buildings feasible for developers as well.

So it just yeah.

Council Council Bit.

Yeah, I want to thank you, especially for meeting with me as well as the whole team that got this together.

I know that Robinson property is very happy and um really excited to get going on this.

Um I do have I also wanted to acknowledge uh my colleagues' comments about uh youth aging out of foster care and group homes.

Um is there an idea to partner with like youth services at Tulsa to start looking at avenues for we hadn't um they're not a partner curtainly, but I think that's definitely a a space to look at to identify any justice involved over and then um family safety center, are they also um involved?

Yes, but I'm just saying that I've kind of come onto this project a little later because um I'm not sure clients.

Yeah, that's a good point where you have people as like still she has a lot of clients where it's also moms who have like ended up justice involved from an abuse situation, but they themselves have injustice involved.

Yeah, and I think we're looking at to make sure, as I said, we're trying to create an ecosystem uh for these participants.

So once we identify someone uh looking out and engaging with other social services to ensure that they their needs are met, and you know, there's youth services or some other uh socialises that's able to uh address any of the the needs that they have.

That's what we will bring them in for sure.

I appreciate that.

Um I'm just excited for it, especially in my district, and I can appreciate Robinson properties for being great stewards in my community.

Thank you so much.

Counselor Gilbert.

I'm good.

Okay.

Um so I you may have already answered this.

Robertson property Roberts and properties is um doing the property management.

They will repay the loan.

Correct.

And if they repay it from just the profits of what the uh Justice Involved folks pay in rent.

Right, correct.

Yeah, so um, but then like I said, one of the units or properties, they'll have um two units that will be market rate as well.

So that helps just build help with their cash flow uh for repaying the loan.

But yes, they'll repay quarterly uh one percent, it's one percent annually, but repaid quarterly, and then at the end of the 10 years, they'll have to repay the two million dollar loan.

If they up to that, they may not need to use all of it, but yes.

Okay, well no, I appreciate that.

I've toured some of his homes and he's doing a lot of great work.

So him and his entire team.

So thank you so much.

Yeah, with us.

Um, all right.

Any anyone else?

Thank you.

Thank you, Gene as well.

And Aaron all right, uh number seven.

Let's go.

Re uh resolution declaring the intent of the city of Tulsa to re-establish the Crutchfield Neighborhood Local Development Act Review Committee.

This is for the purpose of considering an amendment to the Crutchfield Neighborhood Economic Development Project Plan.

Aaron is staying with us, and Mike Dickerson has joined us at the table.

Thank you, Counselors.

I'll do a quick uh intro and then turn over to Mike to dive into the details.

Uh you may remember that in August of last year, I think it was that we actually um approved this plan with the LDARC process.

And now, because go back a little bit.

I want to give a shout out to Councillor Hall Harper who's not here.

This crutchfield TIFF has been going for quite some time.

I've worked over eight years working on this crutch field uh TIFF.

It's because of that that now that we've gone to the process that we need to um up the levels of some of the project financing on those TIFFs in the crutchville area.

So because we're already gone through the LDARC process before, we're now making a major amendment to that uh plan because we have up increased um the cost on some of those districts within Crutchfield.

We need to go back to the LDARC and get this one approved as well.

And so that's where we are at this state.

Once again, a big shout out to Councillor Hall Harper, to Mike and Karen, who have really pushed this through uh over time.

But we're now finally getting to a point where I think once we get through this process, we're there, we're truly there.

So I'm gonna let Mike take it from there.

Thank you.

And uh Mike Diggers and partners also when we came through last August and we approved the project plan for these districts.

We have been working for many, many long months with most of the developers that were identified as the catalytic drivers of projects within those districts.

In the last 11 months, we've seen their construction costs increase by between 10 and 20 percent.

The local development act only allows us to administratively increase budgets by 5% without going through the major amendment process, which essentially starts the entire process over again and requires us to reform an a local development act review committee, propose a new amended project plan and then bring it back to city council at the end yet again.

So here we are.

We have worked with all of the catalytic developers in all of those different uh districts uh on their budgets over the last few months.

We have now received and compiled all of those together, and the only change that is being made to the project plan will be to increase those budgets.

And again, I do want to remind council and everybody who's listening.

You know, these are not these are not costs to the city, these are costs that would be generated from the increment of the new projects that will be coming along from the developers that we've been working with.

So no cost to the city, just trying to get more development to happen.

And as those those construction budgets have increased, so have the expected values of the projects upon completion.

So it will be a corresponding wash, if you will.

Great.

Anyone this is just affecting the whole TIF area rightline.

Correct.

And so are all of the costs specific to one of the disputes within that tech area.

No, they are spread out.

They are spread out proportionally across across the what we ended up doing was, like I mentioned, we had the initial discussions with one of the developers was they had seen costs increase by more than 10%.

Right.

So at that point, we knew we had to reach out to all of them and see if they were seeing something proportionate.

And as more time went by, they kept increasing.

And we're at the point now where even if we do the a flat 20% increase, we will accommodate everybody, but we will not have very much buffer.

So it's important that we get it through as quickly as possible so that they can get underway and lock in their contracts with their construction firms.

Thank you, Mike.

Anyone else have a question or concern?

All right.

Thank you all.

Thank you for being with us, Mike and Aaron.

All right.

Uh and finally today, item number eight ordinance amendate.

Tulsa revised ordinances Title V, Chapter 1.

Human Rights Commission requiring the compliance official to provide quarterly reports of all complaints filed pursuant to this chapter, deleting the requirement to file complaints with the city clerk in addition to the compliance official.

I knew it was from Councillor Gilbert because it included quarterly reports.

Oh, that's your bingo card.

It is.

I like those.

I'm gonna kick it to you and you leave the way.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, without objection, I'd like to call uh Ms.

Hayes to the table and um the chair of the um human rights commission, Mr.

France.

So if you all recall, um it was probably about uh a month or two ago, we had a an appointee come to us, um, and the one thing that she uh had mentioned was to if we would work on the reporting mechanism, um and through that process and through uh working with counselor Bellis on her initiative with the ordinance.

That was one thing that um that I kept mentioning because it seemed to be the one hurdle of people actually making reports because when uh when we heard it the reporting mechanism uh previously, not very many people were were reporting.

Um and so what this is this is this is very simple.

Um the human rights uh commission has also been uh helping with this.

It's just striking the clerk and making reports and uh just making it simple for people to call 311 to uh initiate uh those reports.

So um, I mean, this again, we we talked about this several times about people having to walk through City Hall and getting to the clerk's office to make those reports after uh some of the things that they have experienced.

So we can't diminish their um their lived experience, but we can um try and make things a lot easier for them to for reporting.

So this is what this is all about, along with quarterly reports uh coming from uh I think it says mayor's design, which it will be us, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Council than so much for that initial but counselor Bellis.

Oh, well, I wasn't sure if there was more.

Was there oh yeah, but that from the truth would you like to speak of it as well?

Or I really the human rights commission will really since Councillor Bellis was directly involved, I think has had the observation that the current process has written in the ordinance may be operationally outdated and that there's room for change and improvement.

I would defer to DeAndre in her capacity to really articulate what what could happen next if this passes.

Yeah, so what this does for us, we're having some internal discussions, as you know.

Yeah, so what this does for us, we're having some internal discussions as you know, when you touch one process, it can touch a multitude of departments.

So we see this as being a kind of low lift.

We're revitalizing the policy as it stands now, but residents now have three ways to file those complaints.

The one that has been most utilized has been them downloading the form online and walking it into City Hall or mailing it in, and that discussion is what I think kind of kickstarted this need to put in the ordinance to say it doesn't necessarily have to start in the clerk's office.

However, we are having discussions with the clerk's office just in full transparency because they are the repository for the city, so that documentation and how we move about that may not change, but we're thinking about ways of how we can make this more accessible to Tulsa residents, but internally we would like to have an online option that kind of cuts out some of the steps that people have to take now because if you're not familiar with the process online, it can be a little clunky going through 311 to file the complaint, and we recognize that.

So we do want to modernize within the department.

So this is the first step to us moving forward with this process, having these internal discussions and our action plan that touches IT, it touches the clerk office and a multitude of other departments in City Hall.

Excellent.

Yes, uh so councillor Bellis and then Bangle.

Yeah.

Um first I really want to thank Councillor Gilbert for like really being committed to human rights and alleviating burden on people who, as you said, like have a lived experience and then having these extra arduous steps.

So I'm like really grateful for your help, like doing this really critical next step.

Um and I've like seen random things out there on the like misinformed public record that you've ever been like a no to anything related to human rights and just want to make sure that like putting it out to the public that she's always been like a consistent champion to diligently doing this work and making sure that we're helping everyone be safe, so thank you.

Um and then I had kind of this is like more of the logistics ends of moving forward.

I'm really excited to hear you say, Hey, we're gonna try to take the online part out of 311.

This is like years ago when we first like it took so long to even get it in 311, and then that turns out to be so incredibly inaccessible.

And that was just with the goal of getting it online when I was in the human rights commission, like we tried this six different ways and we're always told no.

So I'm glad that there's like an internal to the mayor's office champion to like go, what's the other tech option here?

Um, because just some quick like history.

Um, when I first was on the human rights commission when there was still a human rights department, they would bring an actual like this spreadsheet of human rights complaints.

They're mostly housing ones that actually had people's identifying information on it to our public commission meeting, which was obviously so like I'm just naming this for once once you all figure out what quarterly reporting looks like.

I I remember like the second that department was gone, and then there was other leadership, they were like, Whoa, you all should never have seen all that.

That was like that said though, then after that we didn't get any reporting.

I was like, okay, well, now we don't know what the ongoing issues from those reports are.

A lot of this had to do with um, like you know, physical accessibility and disability challenges.

Um then I went to try to get reporting from 311 to find any type of trends, and the only report I was ever able to get from them was just about how many calls they got that were in Spanish versus in English.

And so, like getting even just reporting and data trends from them at that time was also challenging.

So I'm just thinking through like once you smooth all of this, and then we're getting, I think quarterly reporting is so important because you really learn so much about what people are saying is an authentic challenge, even if it turns out to not be an official like rights violation, you're still usually gonna see a barrier or a safety issue or violence or accessibility challenges.

Um but I'm just trying to think of how to make that data look meaningful.

So if that's something that we can look at counselor Gilbert, I'm like for Siggybility, so the first time would be on this one.

But um, I'm like thinking through like once you figure out that internal tech challenge piece, then for what the reporting actually looks like that could be meaningful, not share anyone's sensitive information, but show us the trends that would help inform policy decisions.

Like I think that could be tricky.

So if there's an opportunity for us to circle back with you to do next steps on that one, like please let us know because I'm sure that'll be like just uh stick, it's just sticky to go, what's the level of information that helps us make smart decisions, but isn't it intrusive for anyone's privacy or you know, sometimes these incidences have to do with demographic information, like race, sexual orientation, physical ability, age, where you're really getting you can end up really narrow if there's only so many reported cases where if we discussed it more publicly be so clear who it was.

So I'm just thinking through that.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Counselor Bellis.

Let's go to Counselor Bangle and then Dector Rag.

Yeah, so walk me through the IT challenge.

So the IT challenge as it stands now, individuals who like to file a complaint online, go to Tulsa 311.com and make an account.

You have to first find it under H under human rights complaint.

Oh, really?

And then you go in to put in your information name, user name.

It's a registration process, and then you walk through the complete intake form alone versus call in 311.

And what we are seeking to do internally is you wouldn't have to go through those multitude of steps for 311 if when we're able to modernize the process.

Okay.

I'm curious.

Um apps because everybody loves apps now, right?

Not just like mobile friends.

There's an app for that.

Online is cheapable.

Now what everybody says now there's an app for that.

No, that's ten year old.

Obviously, I can't see it in the because I went to go search, is it apparently the 311 app still isn't in the store.

Um I don't know what happened.

They haven't obviously the potential to people do use apps more frequently to add like you know, a point in that app because I we use it for yard making.

Yeah, potholes and sounds like they're trying to get it out of the 311 process altogether.

But this would be something that someone would actually report to the app as that baked that IT coding would send that case directly to you, and that would be another data.

I get the challenge because I find the city's website terrible myself.

We should have hired a web designer to make this more simplistic and easier to navigate.

So I totally with you there.

But because everybody is now driven by that thing in their hand, um, is there that potential where it might be um where there might be the ability to do that specifically on that app if have you explored potentially those challenges?

We haven't gotten that far yet, but I think all ideas are valid.

I think insights are essential to this process as it evolves.

We have looked at best practices.

We have looked at other cities and some of the things that they're doing, and I know Drew can speak to that because our committee members divided and conquered to kind of do some of this concrete work.

So it's been a really collective effort.

Um, so as we roll this out, there will be voices that are welcome to the table so we can co-develop this together.

But our first steps were to imagine what's possible to look at what currently exists, to look at any third-party software that other municipalities maybe utilize it in a similar system to this.

So there's a lot of research that has gone into this before we decide what exactly we build out, and there is a funding mechanism, of course, that will need to be discussed in terms of investment of what this system could look like.

So as much as we can do in-house with support is the our priority effort and what we want to focus on, and then anything we need to acquire or licensing or any type of technical support, that's an additional conversation, and that often sometimes comes with apps.

You usually have a technical assistance.

Right, we have development dollars that are associated with it.

We already own the app, right?

Yeah, and so those development dollars and buying a new application, because I would want something that we already own.

Is there the potential to develop something we already own and commit funding towards that is versus going and buying something off the show?

Just as a layer to you with what two and one's done.

Sorry, just to be really tangential real quick because this used to come to the table a lot under Fair Housing stuff, where they went to build out an app, and a lot of different initiatives have done that over time.

Um and then they realized it was much more cost-effective, like Eastern Oklahoma to one does this, like just have mobile web friendly like page, which I know is like always like you know, the underpinning of like what makes things accessible on any website at this point, that's way cheaper than app development, and then you don't have to do system upgrades and all those things, and outside of like whatever that web platform is.

But I think the challenge point had that I was always understanding historically was just like there's a high level of security that pairs with what this data that's being collected is because like I used to just be like, why can't we just have a Google form?

It's so easy, I can make one, but obviously that's not the right type of security.

I know you're an expert.

I don't know about that, but I just to your idea of thought partners.

The mayor heard this challenge, his first recommendation was have you talk to Black Tech Street who's working with Microsoft to think about civic uh workflows and civic accessibility.

So we have that opportunity, it may go nowhere, but Microsoft was intrigued, and I think the black tech street was intrigued.

So we're shopping it around to try and get all ideas, not read about the wheel, learn from others and do things that are cost neutral or more reasonable.

So we know there's a better way, and we're kind of early stages, but I think this kind of housekeeping is a necessary precursor to what comes next.

Totally.

Uh Counselor Decker, right?

Yes, um, thank you for doing this work.

Um, sometimes the wheels of government turn so slowly that it can feel like we're going nowhere, but um, I'm encouraged.

But I'm encouraged.

I did want to ask on the quarterly reporting since we do have best practices and examples.

Is there something that you could provide to us?

Because what I don't want to happen is that first quarterly report comes and we're like, I'd like to have this information.

So I would rather know that either the information cannot be shared or make that request so that we have a baseline report over report that we can have this through line through.

And to Counselor Bellis's point, there could be things that don't actually rise to the level of being like a human rights violation legally, but if there's trends that we need to know about, then that would also help us as we're making capital improvement suggestions or policy suggestions.

So I don't know if there's some reporting that you're already looking at as a template, but maybe if we could just put our eyes on it and this meets our needs.

I think we're doing that in the housing space too.

As we start to ask for these things because you know, ideally these reports create a collection of things that we can go back and analyze and then layer in the other reports we get, like from the equality indicators and things like that.

I'm sure there's a crossroads here in a Venn diagram that will not be surprising to us once we start seeing it.

Also, as people are assured of the ease of the process and the confidentiality, we may get people engaging more.

Yes.

Because I think anecdotally we hear a lot of things, but they just don't rise to the occasion of going through the formal complaint process.

So thank you for engaging in this work earnestly.

And you know, um I will also echo what Councillor Bell has raised around other human rights conversations and policy work we've been doing at this table.

Um it's a challenge, and we know that every time it comes up, disparately impacted and marginalized community members are at the forefront of fighting literally for their rights.

Um, and so we're very thoughtful and intentional about how we do this work moving forward because uh we cannot afford to fail.

Um and I would just say thank you to the counselors here today and those that aren't here, but I know if engaged in the dialogue and the work, um, and certainly the civil service that is advocating for it and our volunteers, we have an ordinance that needs to come for a vote, and it will when we feel confident that it'll pass.

And so um part of that piece was these barriers as well for new people engaging in the process.

Um, again, I know we don't move fast enough for people who need the protections yesterday.

I also want to say I don't think anyone at this table is against providing protections to people.

So we just need to go about it in the most thoughtful way and make sure all of our um ducks are in a row so that when we say um this is the process, it can be engaged in in a way that's accessible and actually meaningful.

So I think we're going in the right direction.

And um, I will certainly stand with um sponsoring that ordinance when it's time to bring it forward.

But I think if we can get these different mechanisms in place, that's gonna position us better overall.

I see this just as the the beginning point of collecting the data to help us move forward.

Absolutely.

So that we haven't had previously.

Thank you to the human rights commissioners as well.

I know you guys have done a lot of the deeper dives uh as she shared, you know, kind of the divide and conquer of really looking at every facet and then putting it back together in a way that's gonna work for City of Tulsa.

It's one thing to say we have human rights complaint processes, another thing where it's actually meaningful and moving the needle, protecting people and improving outcomes.

And that people know it exists.

Yeah, know that it exists and you know how to engage with it and and also know that we're not just gonna collect data and go, there's nothing we could do about that, you know.

Right.

We earnestly do initiatives and policies to try to improve outcomes.

And that's that's my point of the my quarterly report on counselor quarterly report.

Um but uh to help us with all that information and make sure that we we continue to be engaged.

Um especially just moving forward.

But um, before we close out, I just want to uh give a uh a big shout out and thank you to the legal team helping uh put this together.

Um I'm always used previously I was used to being told no that we can't do things, but um I appreciate um Jack's hard work on this and along with his staff and helping us move forward.

Okay, so Drew, did you have something that you were gonna say?

I think I got everything.

Okay, well, finally uh Counselor Bellis.

Yeah, just to tag on, I didn't like um, which yeah, thank goodness for you.

I wouldn't have run for office if it was still the other city attorney.

Literally, I will tell anyone that.

Um I am I know that's what brought me here is that we have more neutral city legal now.

He's like stopped and talk about the table.

Um how do we get in that so much to know it can't be?

How do we get data and not so much to know it can't be yeah it's just good to have someone who's willing to explore your legal options.

No, I was just going to surface as one quick note like that I know that this is going to be really important and make it more accessible for people to um you know submit reports and I want to acknowledge real quick that you know this type of data can't be the end all be all and there's a lot of people right now who would justifiably be afraid to submit any type of personal information to any governing entity because they're afraid of like if any other jurisdiction might be able to get that information if there's someone if they're not documented or they're afraid of being on a list for their gender identity or whatever it is and there are people justifiably who are you know nervous or afraid of that.

So I also want to say that I think with whatever we figure out tech wise and from a data privacy standpoint, whatever we can publicly communicate about who holds that data, who has accessibility to it, how secure it is or subject to subpoena or court you know whatever we can assure people at you know I see the health department for instance you know different government bodies have to do this a lot just if they've handled any type of sensitive information for people that are vulnerable.

Um and so I know a lot of people may not feel safe filing reports in the first place i for especially right now no matter what we do.

So I just want to hold space for that you know we're only going to get data of people who feel safe to report to us so what we can do to one make them feel safer assure them.

Um and I know for certain folks that might never feel safe enough but I'm glad we're still pursuing to learn what we can and help how we can all right well wonderful we uh we'll get together again live at 2 30 even though we do have a line we have is that televised televised join us at line join us at 2 30 and then join us at five we'll see you we are adjourned