 Perfect. Great. Okay, welcome everyone. I am calling to order the June 6th meeting of the African Heritage Reparation Assembly. Pursuant to Chapter 20 of the acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. Yes, and it's 304. Yeah. Okay, so I'm just going to make sure everybody can be heard and can hear us. Halla, one more time would you let us know that you can hear us and make sure we can hear you? Lord confirming. Great. Dr. Shabazz. Yes, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you and you can hear us? Yes, I do. Okay, Yvonne. Yes, I can hear you and I hope you can hear me. Can hear you. Yeah, and also Anika. Yes, I can hear you. All right, great. And Jennifer, you can hear us as well. Okay. All right, so we are going to begin. Let me quickly just review our agenda for today, and then we're going to jump right into Juneteenth. So we're going to start with Juneteenth, and we have Councilor Lopes joining us to talk about the Heritage Walk. I'm very excited about that. And then we are going to spend sort of as much time as we need on the designating cannabis tax revenue for reparations. And then we have some conversation related to the mass humanities application, our community engagement plan, and also an update on our vacancy position. I also wanted to briefly give us an update, and maybe someone else on the Assembly will also want to do this, including Dr. Shabazz, to talk about where HR 40 is right now, but we'll wait to do that toward the end of the meeting. So we are going to, I'm going to pass it over to Anika in a second. And just before I do, I'm going to say that Juneteenth weekend is happening in full force in Amherst this year. Once again, it's really fantastic. There are two days of events planned starting on Saturday. Actually, I think it may even start on Friday somewhere, who knows, but I know it's Saturday and Sunday, there are lots of events happening. And so Anika has been organizing the Heritage Walk that she's going to talk about that's happening on Saturday. And then I was hoping that Jennifer could speak to what is happening in the town on Sunday. And then we'll talk about how the AHRA can be of support to both of these great days that are planned. So I'm going to pass it over to you, Anika, and I'm also going to share my screen so that folks can see what we're talking about while Anika is speaking. Thank you. Sorry, Jennifer. That was me. I won't touch that again. All right, go ahead, Anika. Go ahead. Sorry. Okay. Well, thank you all again for inviting me to share this information with you. So the Juneteenth Heritage Walking Tour will be on Saturday, June 18th, starting at 11 a.m. This will be the first descendant led and curated walking tour celebrating the first Black and Afro-Indigenous families of Amherst, some of whom bridge our town to the military actions that ended slavery in America. This will be an experience-based tour with brief walking in between Epic and previously unrecognized Black historic landmarks. This stems from last year's events, which was a collaboration between the Civil War Table Committee, the town of Amherst, and the Mill District, which were the Civil War tablets served as the nucleus for that event. So where the tour takes off with the footsteps, through the footsteps of those folks and coming up through their descendants. And this is very near and dear to my heart. We will start at the West Cemetery, where the African American section is basically my entire family. So I feel very honored for us to begin there, where we will have talks, the celebration. We will have the Peter Brace Brigade, which are the 54th re-enactors with us throughout this tour. We will move from West Cemetery to the Emily Dickinson Museum, where there will be conversation and music. Music in particular music and arts is, entrepreneurship is really such a theme throughout this event. A lot of the folks that we're celebrating happen like the lesser known folks in Amherst. These were the artists, the entrepreneurs, the bakers, the designers of the lesser known. And so this will also be a first for the Emily Dickinson Museum as well. We will move on to the Amherst History Museum and another first that there will be exhibits that are curated between ancestral bridges, which is a nonprofit that will be announced in the tour. And also collaborating with artist Shirley Jackson Whitaker. So we will be fusing that exhibit, which will come forward through a campaign that is established by Shirley Jackson. Jackson Whitaker called Tote to Vote, which addresses voter suppression primarily within the African American community. So there will also be lunch there and that will be celebratory for all to walk through experiences exhibits. The Peter Brace Brigade will be camped out in the front lawn there as well. We will move on to brief stops at the two oldest Black Historic churches, which will also, which were established by the families that we're talking about. And so we will stop at the Hope Church, which will have some art exhibits as well as music. And then we will be having a brief but impactful stop for folks to see the Goodwood Church. That stop, just to point out on this here, this graphic, it looks like that's an extended stop. That's a very brief stop at that point. So also be invited to come back to the History Museum if they like, just to revisit the exhibits, continue with food and music. And the tour will go on to the Drake, where there will be more music and spirits of people. There will be transportation provided for folks who are unable to walk or for whatever other reason do not want to walk. And also due to the length, we encourage and hope that people would join the full duration of the tour, but you're also welcome to join in at specific stops of interest. I think that in a nutshell covers the tour. Wonderful. Thank you so much. And I want to give assembly members an opportunity to ask any questions they might have, Anika, about the day or the tour. And then we will talk a little bit as an assembly about how the AHRA may be able to support the walk. Anika and I had an opportunity to throw around some ideas, and so we'll talk about that as well. But let's first see if there are any questions for Anika. And I will pause now to please raise your hand if you have any questions or just comments. Yeah, Yvonne. Yeah, I, you know, having lived here a long time, I have to say that I'm really happy to see the stops on the tour and that this is like going to be a really great event. So thank you for what you've been able to put together, you know, with information that's not readily known, you know, around town. So I think that's great. Thank you. Thank you so much. I just actually the other day took another walk. It's like kind of revisiting childhood. And I, you know, purposely revisited going from Amity Street to Snell to Hazel, which was a walk that I pretty much did on a regular Neil Dele going up. And, you know, just revisiting the streets, of course, it looks, it looks a lot different now. But just remembering the time when it would literally like I'd be dragged along, but it would probably take a good hour or two just to get up the street because it was like all family. And my grandmother would be making the rounds that it would just, it would take forever to go. So it's, it's, it's surreal. But I am, I feel so honored to be a part of this. And, you know, so, so thankful for you all and your support with it too. So thank you. Thank you, Anika. Would anyone else like to ask Anika a question or make a comment? Dr. Shabazz, were you about to say something? Well, I was waiting for the follow up you mentioned you all have been discussing ways the AHRA could support. I definitely am up for that. Awesome. Yeah. So one of the ways that we discussed that the AHRA could be of support and of course, depending on people's schedules and who is available to be there, there may be some assembly members that can be there for the entire period. There may be assembly members who can only be there for periods of time. But one of the ways that we talked about supporting is being a sponsor for the walk and doing that through focusing on the meal that's going to be shared with the folks in attendance at the museum. And so we, Anika and I have talked about some ideas on who might be able to provide that meal. It is, I think Anika, you said that it's going to be sort of a sit down type of meal or is it, how would you best describe it? Well, I'd like to describe it as like a family cookout, so to speak, because how I think about these as though they're my direct ancestors, I think for all of us, especially of Black heritage, they are everyone's ancestors. They definitely made their sacrifice first of all. So I'd love to have that feel where the history museum is so important as this is what number one will be the first time that Black people have really come in the door, so to speak. And we're setting the tone, creating this exhibit. This is not led or talked through the historical society at all. And I think really just taking that space would be so important. Also, another strong connection is Shirley Jackson Whitaker's the tote to vote campaign, which really stems through an enslaved woman in South Carolina in the late 1850s, who found out with about, I don't know, it could have been 24 hour notice that she and her daughter would be sold slave auction the next day. And after quick thinking, she made a sack, but it was a tote and tote is a word that comes from what West African language we need to carry. And she put some nourishment in there, a little bit of food, she put a lock of her hair and some other information. Well, and it served really as an ancestral leak. It carried through this this sack I think is now in the Smithsonian today and it traveled with her daughter Ashley throughout many generations. And so the tote comes from there. It also comes from Tignon Laws, which were late 1700s out of Colonial Louisiana, which required women black women to cover their heads to mark them as members of the slave class. So we have kind of cloud merge as we do often as black people where we took those dusty rags and turn them into beautiful head coverings. And this goes on to the beautiful hats that you see to today, you know, especially within churches. So really just how when we are faced with difficulty, we next level it and we come together. So this campaign with a tote to vote these totes will have nourishment within them. They will have fans that will give voters education on, you know, are they ready to share how, what to do if you're not. And they also will double as a van to keep people cool. Because we know some of these laws, especially at these SB202 in Georgia has made it illegal to give voters water while they're in line. So, you know, these totes are really a way for us all to signify that we're here with you. You know, we might not be there with you in physical presence, but you know, we're really there with you. So I think that, you know, really this location to really, you know, show up and be together and enjoy as if it is a family cookout would be most impactful, though I hope that you all will be wherever. And it would be nice to know when you know maybe how many of you will attend. So we can, we'd like to make sure of that, you know, we can arrange and accommodate that within, with proceeding as well, how the west cemetery is set up. Certainly RSVP now or whatever, whatever other fashion I might do so. I think you're already RSVP'd. Oh, that's good. Well, that's really, that's beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that and for including us in this really important day. And it sounds really, really wonderful. And I think one of the things Anika and I had the opportunity yesterday to go to the a pride event that was happening here in the mill district where Hazels was providing an amazing brunch. I'm still thinking about the catfish. And it was just so delicious. And so of course, as the maybe only black owned restaurant in Amherst, we feel that it would make great sense to talk to Hazels about their participation in this. And so that's something I was going to lean on you, Dr. Shavas to maybe help me with a conversation there. Given your, okay, great. And of course, we can, we can talk about some other ideas. I think one of the things, and I don't want Anika to have to stay, we have a big council meeting tonight. So we're all trying to prepare, but I think I could be in touch with Anika after we've had a chance as an assembly to talk a little bit more about this. I also want to hear from Jennifer about what's happening on Sunday and how we might be able to support and be engaged in Sunday's events. So thank you so much, Anika. Thank you for being here. And we will be back in touch with you in the next couple of days to kind of let you know what we have a chance to discuss here. Okay. All right. Thank you all. Have a great rest of your day. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye. All right. So Jennifer, would you be able to give us a bit of an overview of what's happening on Sunday? Are you prepared to do that right now? Okay. Great. Thank you. I've only been doing, scheduling it for like the last, for a very long time. So I think I can. So, you know, Sunday's event is a select celebratory event more. So we will start off on the common with the reading of the proclamation from the council and Mindy Dom will come and read a proclamation for us. We'll have the typical bell ringing ceremony and we'll have a libation service and then we have a day full of performers and artists and DJs and craft vendors and food vendors. So the day will be very exciting. We have DJ rec. We have DJ trends. We have DJ cancer. We have Wufa coming in. We've got, I mean, an Amy Salmon who last year was all over the cover for everything related to Juneteenth on the common. She'll be there. We have Amina Men, Tor, so sorry, wrong Amina. Amina will be performing in Juneteenth as well. So that's really special. Dr. Carly Tardikoff will read a poem, I believe. And so we just have a day full of, you know, we'll have the musician, the black musician, JB, the black musician will come back, magician. I was trying to get these dancing horses and I was trying to get them but I think that they're booked. We have a lot of newer folks who are going to be attending. So we have a poetry slam group that just started up at the high school. So there'll be an attendance and performing. And we have two new, well, they're not new, but two younger artists that will be performing as well. So very exciting. Lots of performances, lots of food, lots of craft vendors. So this is for Sunday. This is for Sunday and we'll be celebrating Father's Day too as well. Yes. That's right. So does this live somewhere? Is there a flyer or a place for it? There's a joint flyer for Juneteenth weekend on the town website. I'm going to bring that up real quick. I think I sent it. Is this the one that you mean? Oh, wait, I didn't share yet. Hang on. Let me share. Hi, Alexis. Is that the one that you mean, Jennifer? Yeah, there's no list on it though. So just go Yeah, you know, so I don't, you know, I didn't do that last year. I'm always caught between it because it's like an element of surprise. But I will be sending out over the next two weeks, the different artists kind of in different announcements for the event. So you guys are probably the first group that I've been so vocal about who's participating. Thank you for the sneak preview. Yeah. And so if AHRA members are available to attend, my suggestion would be that you get out and speak with the Black community and kind of make that connection. So as I've been hosting other events, you know, Crest has been going to the apartment complexes and I've been talking to people. People just don't know that we're working on reparations. People don't know about the Crest program. And so these are the people who we're doing all of this for. And so they just need to be, they just need to know. So I think the most important thing would be to connect with folks who, I mean, that was the nice, that's the nice thing about the jubilees. You get people dancing who you don't necessarily see next to each other or and so if you can, why you're dancing next to someone, please have the conversation or open up the dialogue for reparations for the community. Absolutely. And do you see any, so I know on Saturday at the walk, AHRA will be a sponsor and hopefully be able to provide the meal. And we'll have an opportunity to make some comments. I'm wondering if you see an opportunity, Jennifer, on Sunday, and I don't know exactly what the setup will be, but for there to be a table with some materials or tables not really quite the thing that happens or is there some way that we might be able to have some materials available on Sunday, just like a little postcard perhaps that we could make. And I'm happy to just pass them around if that's, you know, but if you would think about an opportunity like that, that would be really great. Yeah, I was thinking there's a couple of things. If AHRA members are there, you know, of at least a quorum amount, well I hate to say that, at least three, right? Then we could have the DJs make announcements that the AHRA is here and then we will have the DJs announced periodically that there's a table over there for information on reparations. So you guys will probably be the only folks that are going to table, but it would make sense for you guys to table. Awesome, awesome. And we can work on getting something like a nice little postcard put together, some information. I want to stop and welcome Alexis and make sure that you can hear us and we can hear you. Nice to see you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah, I'm sorry you missed Councillor Lopes. We just talked about the walk on Saturday and so maybe when the recording is available, you could listen. I think you'd really appreciate the comments that were made in that discussion. And I'll catch you up offline about what we're thinking about that. Yes, Jennifer. I just want to say quickly, Alexis, so CSSJC, I'm sending for you guys to post on your website. Can I send you the AHRA recordings afterwards? And then you can just post those on your website equally. There's no air on in here today. Michelle stepped away, Dr. Shabazz, were you going to say something? I just was going to ask Alexis if you've heard if any producer was looking to videotape any of the heritage walk. Oops. Yeah, so I'm absolutely going to be covering that. That's why I can't be there to speak in it because I'm going to be behind the camera, but I will not be covering Jubilee on Sunday, so I will definitely be able to attend it like a regular member. Great. That's great. Is somebody going to be covering Sunday's event video wise? Do we know? No. The only thing, so I did cover last year's, but because it's like sort of a celebration, there's no real, I don't know, it was a lot more free flowing rather than where someone is up somewhere speaking at something. So I definitely have footage to be able to, if someone is intending on promoting this year's Jubilee, that can definitely be done with the footage that we took of last year's, but just based off of how it went last year, I can't really make a program out of the Jubilee just because it's something that's just sort of happening as a free flowing thing. So we weren't intending on doing that, but if anybody wants to do that, great. Okay, good. Great. I wasn't going to bring this up, but I'm going to bring it up because it came to my attention about the word, the use of the word Jubilee, and I am not, I don't have as much awareness as probably you all might about that, but there was a Black resident who felt that the use of that word was not appropriate or wasn't the best use of, or the best word to use. And so I was curious what you all thought about that. I know it's already been put out in that way, but I was curious if there were any thoughts or if that was anything to address on that. No more. What's that, Dr. Schwarz? Does anyone have any more about that objection? Jennifer, had you received any feedback on that? No? Okay. It was at the, when we were at Graf Park to welcome and celebrate the new DEI director and the Crest Director, and I used the word to talk about Sunday, and this community member had said to me that they were uncomfortable with the use of the word, and there was a little bit of a dialogue back and forth, but it didn't get much further than that. So all right. So in terms of Saturday's event, Dr. Schwarz, you and I can work on talking if folks are comfortable with, so there's kind of two pieces here. There's deciding if we are comfortable with being sponsors of the Heritage Walk as a body, and if providing the meal and trying to do it in the spirit that Anika brought forward, which I thought that really resonated for me personally, if that is something that we're all in alignment with and in agreement with, and then if so, if Hazel's seems like a good starting point in terms of talking to Hazel's to see if they might be available to provide the meal for that day. I know that Anika's working on getting registrations in so that she has a better sense that's going to come next, so she has a better sense of how many folks will be able to attend and will be there for a meal. And so those are the questions. If there's a yes to the first question of sponsoring and a yes for either way, but a yes then to Hazel's, then we will need to make a request from our funds to be able to cover that, to truly be, to truly sponsor that piece of things. And so I want to put that out. We do still have, from last year's, I think it was 7,000 that Town Manager Backelman held for us, we have about half of that left after having paid for the Black Census. And that's separate from the 206,000 that was put into the account. Dr. Shabazz, were you had your hand up? I was going to make a motion. Please. I move that the African Heritage Reparations Assembly act as an official sponsor for the Heritage Walk being organized by ancestral bridges. And I second that motion. And then we'll open it up for discussion. And Alexis, yeah, please. Oh, I'm late. So I missed some things. But I guess I was wondering, is this like, so I guess I don't know the registration, is it like people with African Heritage who are registering for this meal? I don't want to be, I feel like I'm going to be that person who's going to be like, but like, is it because like specifically with this meal, I'm on board to be a sponsor. But I guess I'm wondering, is one, is there any sort of, I don't know, is this, is this making it sort of like a thing of where like, the AHA pays for this meal every year? And then furthermore, is it a meal? Like, are we doing this to support this business? I know this is part of like what they want the events to do, but is this like a part of us supporting a Black business? Or are we doing it to feed Black people? Or like what's, I feel like I missed a piece of information there. Alexis, the sense of my motion was just regarding the first part of what our chair had raised. And that is to, for us to officially endorse as a body and agree to be listed as a sponsor, a sponsoring entity for the, for this walk by ancestral bridges for purposes of promotion, for purposes of helping to get the word out. So I was leaving separately the question of the meal piece that could come as a, as a next motion, but I was just trying, the chair, our chair had kind of broken up into two parts. So I was just jumping out with that part for now that we act as a, agree here to simply be a sponsor for promotional purposes and for purposes of helping to get the word out. Does that answer that piece of the question? Okay, great. Yvonne, yeah. So are we tackling this as separate motions? The sense of this motion was just about agreeing to be listed as a sponsor. I think we should be listed as a sponsor. I agree. Okay. So let's vote on that. And then let's have a discussion about the second part of things. And we'll do it that way. Okay. So I seconded. And then we'll start with you, Alexis. Yes. Okay. Hala? Yes. Okay. Yvonne? Yes. Okay. And Dr. Shabazz? Shabazz, yes. Okay, great. All right. So now let's talk a little bit about the meal piece. And so just Alexis, so I can fill you in a little bit. One of the things that Anika and I talked about in our conversation related to what was still needed for this walk, what ways could we support the walk and learning that there was going to be a meal provided. And I'm going to pull this up real quick again. Have you seen the map already? Okay. So at the History Museum, there will be a meal provided. And Anika really wanted it to be in the spirit of like a family style barbecue feel. And I think, did I get that right, other assembly members? Okay. And so it's not going to be necessarily a sit down, but it's not going to be a cheese and crackers type of thing. It's going to be a nourishing, it's meant to be a nourishing meal, but in sort of the family barbecue style. And it will be available for anybody who's there, anybody who comes to the event. And we spoke about the possibility of hazels being the vendor for that. I personally have been incredibly just in awe of the food and the spirit that goes into the food that Hazels has been putting out at the events that I've been at. And of course, there I think the only black owned restaurant in Amherst, if I'm not mistaken, of course, I don't know the identities of all people. But so that was a thought. And that's as far as really we've gotten. So I'd like to open up the floor for us to have a discussion about the meal. And if we want to pursue that and how we might pursue that. So my, if I may, please, the only thing I was left with, and perhaps out of y'all's discussion, you know, a little bit more is just the details of, because the way I heard Anika Lopes mentioning it, there's still a little bit of RSVP or trying to get a number. I can tell you in approaching Hazels or any vendor, the first question is going to be what is the number I'm preparing something for next would then be what kind of items would you like for me to prepare. And so, you know, so I think that that is one key issue is, is to just have a sense of the head count how much you want, you want prepared to have out there. Secondly, the kind of when she raised cookout question, it also conjured some things in my mind, are you trying to have it where it's kind of prepared out at where the meal would happen, or is it something that's just being being brought in and some warmers or in some, you know, foil, foil pans. So it, I think those are just some of the kinds of logistical questions that that spring to mind. But the certainly, and then finally, the other piece is, I'm just looking right now, the organizers for the walk is both the Amherst Historical Society and Museum, and the new group, new group, ancestral bridges. But now we've just agreed to be listed as an endorser, a sponsor, a supporter. But if there are other entities, of course, the whole thing is ending at the Drake. So I'd imagine that perhaps the bid or the chambers of commerce is some is somewhat supportive or involved in some way. But if we have a kind of a comprehensive set of supporting groups, and we're all chipping in, it might not be a very big ask. And then final thing I will say towards something Alexis raised, I don't know if this is projected as an annual event, if this is a kind of one and done for this particular time. So I don't know that we are really making a commitment beyond just this June 18, in terms of if we do agree. So I think the real question is rather than the specifics of, you know, who's providing or how much is being provided is just whether what is our sense of the budget, or at least the part of the budget that we could afford to chip in, could we say out of our 3500, whatever that's remaining in our account, do we want to say we can put in 500, do we want to say we can put in 1000, and then we just kind of leave, you know, leave that offer of that contribution out there in terms of kind of picking up whatever the rest of the of the deal is. That's that's my initial thoughts. Thanks Dr. Shabazz. And I will agree. I don't think this is meant to be an annual sponsorship. It may happen annually. It may sort of evolve over time. But I do think that we're talking about just for this year on June 18. And also Jennifer, I wanted to check in with you. And I think both Anika and I may have maybe Anika did mention this, but is Cress also sponsoring some portion of Juneteenth? Or did I get that wrong? They're helping to sponsor the Jubilee on the comment. And I think he's trying to they're trying to give some type of support to the heritage. I don't know. I wasn't in that conversation with him and Anika. Okay, okay. I have so I have to get a little clarification on that, because I do remember. I thought I remembered Cress being a spy wrote it down that Cress was also sponsoring one or the other or both. So just wanted to make sure we might have some linking of arms we can do with Cress and and see how that you know works as well. Alexis, I thought you were going to raise your hand a couple minutes ago. Are you how you where are you at? I don't know. I think that I I think that what I'm trying to reconcile is just that like, this is like something that's already been set up and that we've just been asked to help with it. And I can respect that. But I guess I'm like, a part of me is like, how much of this money is going to white people? And I get that we're paying like, you know, a black owned business to do it. I don't know. I think that I just need to like process things inside. I don't know, rather than processing them outside. So yeah, I'm just thinking about stuff. Sure, I think these are all really yeah, absolutely. It's good for us to all be able to do that. Yvonne, I see that your hand is raised. Yeah, I guess my concern mostly is that we certainly need to sponsor this event. If we're sponsoring a meal, then I think we should have more details about like who is invited and how it's going to come across and what the purposes of the meal is it like to, you know, create more, I don't know, are we creating bridges or, you know, like, what is the what is the point of the meal? I mean, having said that, I mean, we could certainly vote as, you know, unrestricted money to support this and not have to deal with any issue around like a meal. So I guess so, so my point is if we're going to sponsor a meal, then this should be a reason why we're sponsoring the meal, you know, because you could just give them the money and say, do whatever you want with the money and then they would organize everything and our name would still be on it, but we wouldn't be responsible for anything specific. You know what I mean? Just give it to them unrestricted. But the minute we say we're sponsoring a meal and there should be a, in my mind anyway, I'm a little bit, you know, I see Alexa shaking her head. I just kind of feel like if we're sponsoring a meal, there should be a reason why we're sponsoring the specific, that specific thing. Yeah, I really like, oh, go ahead, please. I'll pay you back right on top of that. Like, I think that what I was trying to process was this idea of being invited to the cookout. And in this instance, we're not talking about like a sort of theoretical inviting to the cookout, but it's like, so I'm with you, Yvonne, I'm like 100% what you thank you. Okay, so it sounds like Yvonne clarified what Alexis was also feeling and what I'm hearing and I can maybe share a little bit more background. So I think from Anika's point of view, based on the conversation that I had with her and being that this is a new event and it needs a lot of support, especially day of if anyone was at Juneteenth last year, where there were so many wonderful events happening in the Civil War tablets, it takes humans to be there to make sure these things are happening. And I think one area where Anika really felt she needed support was in the meal planning, like she didn't, she doesn't have currently like support around that. So one way to think of this is I really like what you were thinking, Yvonne, in terms of like offering unrestricted funds, but then as a separate thing as a volunteer, as a resident of this community, or as a member of the AHRA, if you're available to be able to help that day with the meal, and it feels like you're in alignment where you can help organize, I certainly will be there to help doing do that. And I will do that on my own personal kind of just volunteerism, you know, so it doesn't have to be affiliated, like the meal doesn't have to be affiliated necessarily. So we could say we're sponsoring, we're gonna, we'd like to make a motion to offer unrestricted funds in X amount, however much we decide. And then just hearing what Anika has said about needing sort of support in terms of the meal, if anybody else is available to work with me in that respect, that on the day of or even just helping me to make connections like with hazels, then we can do that too. So does that kind of make things a little more pure and clear and clean? It felt for lack of a better way of saying it. Okay, so before, so it sounds like maybe we want to put a motion on the table for unrestricted funds of a certain amount. Is there are people, any comments before we go ahead and do that, Dr. Shabazz or Hala, would you like to offer up anything before we do that? And I'll wait a second for you, Hala, to find the mute button. No, I'm good. Thanks. Okay. So would somebody like to make the motion and the dollar amount? I think before we make a motion, do you know what they need? Not exactly. I think that we thought about the meal is what they need from a financial perspective sort of that's still like for example, I was very inspired to learn that UMass Amherst donated the transportation. So they're providing buses to take people to the various parts of the walk that may not be able to walk or maybe too hot to walk or whatever the circumstances might be for free. They've provided that as a donation, which I thought was really great. So a lot of the things that they have already set in motion have and that doesn't I would personally never want to ask a Black owned business for a donation to do this kind of thing. If we were asking a white business to do, you know, or a non Black owned business to do cheese and crackers, that would be a different thing. But given that it really that that what Anika would like to have as the feel for the food and the and what we're doing here, it makes more sense to use a Black owned business if possible. So we were going to even kind of get a sense of numbers based on a registration that's going to be going out this week. And then have so we still have time basically is I guess what I'm saying, we don't have to make this decision today, we can gather some information. And then at our next meeting, we'll still let me just take a look, we'll still have time to be able to discuss and make a final recommendation on that. Can we recommend a range today and then give you the ability to earmark the funds specifically within that range? That would be most helpful, Yvonne, that would be most helpful. Jennifer, is that is that legit? Can we do that? So my guess is because you guys are doing something unrestricted that you guys have a lot more flexibility than anything else, because typically town I always run into problems trying to do stuff. So with town funds. Exactly. So I just did a little math and even if it was $25 a person and there were 50 people, that would be 1250. And I think that's I don't know, Shabazz, I don't know, you might you might know more, maybe I'm not being or someone else in the room, I think that that's not enough. But I think that seeing that we've only got like 3000 something left, that's a good chunk of the money we have left. And I'm not, you know, I think that, you know, we might, we might be able to partially fund this thing. I don't think $500 looking at that. Maybe that's enough. I don't know. Picking an amount is hard, not knowing like some of what, you know, agreeing with Shabazz, if we don't know how many people or what, you know, and I do think that if we're gonna, if some of this money's getting earmarked for, or, you know, it'll be unrestricted. But if we have a say that it goes towards a black business, black owned business, I think that that would also, I would be good with that too. Yeah. Yeah. Hala. I'm wondering, am I misremembering? I think that the money you mentioned is from the previous year and then this year, I thought our committee was also granted like almost 200,000. Is that right? You got that right. So that money from last year, I have to get the exact amount. It's between six and 7,000. We've used a little over three of that for the black census, but we still have the remaining of that money from last year. The 206,000 hasn't been touched at all. And I don't expect that it would be with this. And in addition to that, there's a gift fund that I think people, there may be some contributions that have been made to that. And I have to get an accounting on that. So you are absolutely right, Hala. Just in case they bond didn't know, we wouldn't be depleting our whole fundage. I think the number that you came up with, I'm not sure about like if it's $25 a person or if it's $10 a person or if it's somewhere in between there, it might be more people. But I do feel like that number is a really good number and something that I could personally support. I don't know what others think about that number, though. Would anyone else like to speak to that? So for myself, I was looking at it from another direction, not how much would, could be donated to help the meal cause for the June 18th. But I was looking at it from what else I think we might be projecting over the coming months. And as we lead up to our report that's due a year from now, what are the other expenses? And so somewhat in my mind, I was operating from, okay, this is really kind of all, all we have left. But of course we have also talked about if we did have other expenditures or consultant help or things that did require money, we could make a request to the council to then, you know, transfer out of the stabilization fund, additional funds to help support that. So with that idea in mind, then I'm a little less, I guess I could feel a little, a little more generous, but I do think that going down the line, if we are talking about a community kind of outreach where we're talking about having some events actually in the AHRA's own, you know, own behalf to get people out, we might need a little budget just to have some water. If nothing else and bottled water out there for people to drink that might come out for an hour to discuss reparations to say nothing about, you know, trying to feed them a meal or anything, but at least have a few bucks for some water. So initially in my mind, I was more like, well, if we could contribute 500, but if, if the spirit of the group is more toward 1200 or 1250, whatever was the quick math that, that Alexis worked out, that, that I could, I could go up in my, in my, you know, in my regards. Yeah. That was my quick math. And, and I wasn't suggesting that amount. Yeah. I was just saying, you know, if we were thinking about port, it would be great for us to know from Anika, but I'm, I'm all for the $500. I just, you know, I think that that is a, is a, you know, I'm just wondering who does that, is that enough? I guess, you know, is it, is it a substantial gift? I'm not sure. And I think it's hard for us to know without talking to Anika, you know? Could anybody refresh me where in the itinerary, the meal piece was supposed to happen? Yeah. I'm going to bring it up just because Alexis also wasn't here when we did that piece. So let me just, and also I could see if Anika can either jump back on with us or maybe we cut her, cut her loose too quickly. Or if she can come back, you know, it would probably be best to do it sooner than later. But to answer your question, it's going to be at this right here where I, my cursor is the 12.45 p.m. When we land there, that's where there will be music and lunch being served between that time and the 2.30 p.m. Is there still a tent there outside the Jones? Or are we talking about just in the, in the little garden area or what? This is actually at the History Museum. Right. So there'll be tents out and the fire department will come with their misting machines and having a cooling center. And so things will be, they'll actually the fire department will go to both days. But we just remember last year was really, really hot. And so they're going to have tents, I believe. And yes, the one at the library is still up. Okay. For extra space. So I'm just kind of getting a visual sense of, of where and, and what not. And yeah, if it's there, that's, that's really close and convenient for, for Hazels as a possible vendor. There's literally just right across the street in terms of bringing things over to support, to support the, the food piece. And okay. And then from there, before everybody gets the itis, it looks like they get back, they maybe either, those that want to walk, could walk right down to Gaylord to the, to Hope Church, or they can get on a quick bus ride around the corner to Hope Church and, and then get out there and be able to see what is, yeah, be able to do the next leg of it. All right. So I'm getting a kind of a picture of things then. So some, some outdoor food, it sounds like is what's being projected. And yeah. So I think also Dr. Shabazz, after 3pm, between 3 and 5, it doesn't go from Goodwin immediately to the Drake, people will be invited back to the History Museum. So if there is still food hanging around, there's still going to be music. So it will, I don't believe anything would get wasted, is what I'm saying. But I don't know, I think that the RSVP, the register, it's going to be a free registration. But I know that Anik is trying to get that out and launch the sort of website for this, so that at least we'll have some sense of who is registering for the event this week. Yes, Yvonne. I was going to say, I have a hard stop at four. I didn't have to go. I'm all for supporting it. I know we kind of went back to talking about, about food, because we're trying to come up with a dollar amount. But I would say anywhere between five and the $1,200, I would vote yes for that. I think I don't necessarily agree with the $1,200. I think that might be higher than we want to give. And I don't know what the total budget is for this event. We might want to do a little more research and figure out exactly what it is they need and try to support them in a substantial way. You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to figure out if $500 isn't a substantial enough amount to give them to be, I mean, they'll list us as cosponsors anyway, or as sponsors anyway. But as the reparations committee supporting Juneteenth, I'm trying to figure out what is that substantial amount where we can kind of flex our muscles and say, we supported this. $500 may not be it. $1,000 might be it, but I don't know. Yeah. Why don't I do this? Since you have to go, Yvonne, and we need, we have a couple other things we have to get to. Why don't I try to collect some more information between now and our next meeting, which is next Monday, and that's the 13th. And then we'll be able to make a vote on Monday for a certain amount. And then if Anika is available to come back during that meeting and we need that, we'll ask her to come back and be able to have more discussion with us. Okay. Does that work? That sounds good to me. Okay, great. Great. All right. I know you have to go. Yeah, I have another call it for. Bye. Good to see you. Yeah. Why? All right. So we still have a quorum, which is the good news, because we do, is everyone still able to be present for like at least the next 10 minutes? Because we have a pretty important item that we need to just cover before we end the meeting. Okay, I see you, Dr. Shabazz. I know Hala's not going to come to the camera, but Hala, are you still with us? Yes. Okay. Okay. So I'm going to do a brief quickly. Maybe Alexis will come back. I'm going to just, I'm going to do a quick call to public comment, because we do have to do that since we have attendees. So during the public comment period, the chair will recognize members of the public when called on. Please identify yourself by stating your full name, pronouns, and residential address. You're welcome to express reviews for up to three minutes. And we will not engage in dialogue, but we'll be taking notes and listening. So if you would like to make public comment, please use the raise hand function now and we'll bring you into the room. Okay. So not seeing any. Great. Look at that timing. We just finished public comment and all. So we're going to try to wrap things up, but we do need to cover this very important matter that is very present for us right now, which is our request to the town council to designate kind of as tax revenue for our reparations fund. And I want to give just like a quick background of where we're at right now with that. Hopefully some of you had a chance to read the packet information and the email there. We had our presentation at the town council meeting on May 16th. It was referred to the finance committee. During that period of time, I, you know, did kind of the things that I do, like having some different dialogues, conversations, trying to research more, look into checking what Evanston's doing, what other, what's happening, just so that I can have the most current information. I had an excellent conversation on Thursday with Jerome Crawford. Jerome is the legal counsel for pleasantries in their corporate level. Pleasantries, if you don't know this, has a cannabis retail operation here in Amherst. Jerome was very much in support of the work that we're doing and felt that it did align very well with what the cannabis industry overall would like to happen with these, with these monies that are becoming available. So Jerome is going to be our closing argument at the June 13th town council meeting. He has agreed to come and to speak to this. He's also the director of social and racial equity. So I'm really excited about that and that he'll be coming. But what's going to happen between now and then is tomorrow there's going to be a finance committee meeting. Oh, I think we lost Hala, which means I've got a pause for a second. Let's see. Oh, there she is. Okay. Hala, you're back, right? I am. I wonder if I should call in. If I drop off again, I'll just call in, but it's not a great internet spotty. So tomorrow what's going to happen is at three o'clock, there's going to be a discussion at the finance committee about this matter. And the finance committee is going to make a formal recommendation to the town council. And then on June 13th, this will come back for its second discussion with that recommendation from the finance committee, excuse me. And then the town council will take a vote. So bearing that in mind, first would like to know who is able to join tomorrow at the finance committee meeting. I know that Irv will definitely be there. Wasn't able to be here today. Hala, you are able to attend? Yes. Excellent. Okay. And how about you, Alexis? Are you available to attend tomorrow at three? Oh, three? I know. It's a change time. Oh, okay. I'm so glad that you said that because, oh my God, okay. So I run the meeting. So I'll be there, but I won't, I'll be there as the inverse meeting, but I can, do you want me to like attend separately? I'll just note that you're there. I would like to make sure that I note that you're there, that you're covering the meeting, but you're also there in case questions arise. And what about you, Dr. Shabazz? Are you available? I hope to be there, yes. Okay, great. So I'm working on a memo right now, and I have not completed the memo in time to get it to you all in the packet. There are a couple ways we can go about this. I can share it on the screen right now. And you can give me, you know, the thumbs up or the thumbs down, you can say run with it. I do need to get it unfortunately into the packet, but I thought I could go and give you a quick overview. And if there was anything that stands out that's glaring that you want me to remove, or if there's something you want me to add, we can do that. You'll also see in your packet that I created a template that you should feel free to use as members of the assembly to send to anybody you may want to come and make public comment or leave a comment. There are three different opportunities there. So I'm just going to go ahead and pull. Let's see here. I'm not sharing. Let's see. Share screen. And do that. Oh, that's right. This one wasn't coming through, was it? Here's the template. Okay, can everyone see that? So this was in your packet, and basically you could feel free to use it, feel free to change it, to add language, to take language out, but it gives you the information on the virtual meeting links for tomorrow's meeting. Tonight's Town Council meeting, which is a place that anybody would be welcome to make public comment about this, even though it's not on the agenda tonight. The Finance Committee meeting tomorrow, and then of course on Monday, June 13th at that Town Council meeting, I don't have a link for that yet, but that's another option for public comment. I think it would be really good to hear from members of the Black community that do support or Black residents that do support this request to come to one of these or to use the form here and provide a written public comment. So please feel free to use this in any way that you all would like. And I did, Jennifer wasn't able to open it because I originally sent it in pages, so I'm going to resend it in a document that you can edit. But the memo that is in discussion here is this, so I'm going to pull it up and I'm just going to quickly review it here with you. So I start here by just really upfront letting people know what the request was and that the purpose of this memo is to address questions and concerns that came up at the May 16th meeting. I go on to give a little background information about the stabilization fund and the assembly that was formed in June 2021 with links to the approval order and to the charge for the assembly. And then I go on to say that the assembly was charged with identifying a plan for developing ongoing funding streams. I talk about a memo here, and now that I've daylighted this, I can send this all, I'll send it to you. It will be in the packet. But there was a memo that the town manager, finance director and comptroller last June wrote that where they made this recommendation to create the stabilization fund to put the $210,000 into it. And also in that memo recommended the adoption of a funding policy to provide ongoing funding to and appropriations from the stabilization fund. So then I go on to say that we have to do that now because of the budget cycle and our limited time here in this assembly. And then I go on to talk about the concerns that I have heard raised. The first is in relation to earmark or not earmark. It's not been a practice of our town government to earmark. And the reasons to do so is one, because the CCC and the mass general law related to cannabis legislation states very clearly that cannabis tax revenue should be earmarked for these purposes, purposes such as proprietary justice. That's not filled in yet, but it will be. I'm also going to talk here about what happened in Evanston last week, if any of you did not catch this. Evanston made 16 benefits reparations of $25,000 each for home down payments and or fixing up a home. And they realized that they have not collected enough in their cannabis tax revenue in order to make those payments. And so the question became where else do we take the money from? And what their lawyer basically argues is that taking money from the general fund is really not advised because that money is meant to be available for all citizens of a community or all residents of a town. So taking this discretionary money is makes the most sense. And so sort of there was a tension around that. And you could look on Evanston roundtable. That's the newspaper in Evanston and there's a whole write up about it. It's really interesting to follow. But I'm going to fill in with a little bit about that. And then here, another concern we've had is that the plan hasn't been developed yet. There are two things that I want to speak to about that. The first is that the potential buckets, even though we haven't planned anything yet, are we've talked and it's sort of known in municipal reparations, I think to the extent that municipal reparations are known, that there are potential housing benefits, business ownership education. And I'm strategically also adding in here that the CSWG recommendations including the BIPOC led youth empowerment center, the cultural center, the community wide healing process. These are all possible community benefits that will come out of our final report. So essentially, the money that we are asking for is being put into a savings account that is going to be reinvested back into the community. So it's very low risk, even though it may seem risky, because it's not with the control systems aren't there. But then I will go on to say that there's a process in place that ensures that the initiatives have been vetted by African heritage residents, the town attorney, the town council, all appropriations will have to have a two thirds vote. So there's plenty of controls in place is my going to be my point here. There's nothing to, you know, be overly concerned with just because we haven't developed, you know, that we don't have the specifics of a plan yet. And then the last is, should we should that AHA receive 100% of the tax revenue or should there be other other ways that this particular money should be used. And here I'm going to talk about Evanston's budget. So and compare it to our budget and talk a little bit about how in order for us to do the work we want to do, we need to have a meaningful amount of money to work with especially because it's set up as an endowment. It doesn't have to be used that way, but that's how it was intended. So the question I have for you all, this is a lot of talking, is first of all, is this memo looking all right to everybody? Is there any glaring red flags that you'd like to call out or anything at all? And also, does it make sense for us to cap what we're looking for from the town out of the cannabis tax revenue? Like if we can assume that there might be other ways that we can get funding, whether we apply for CPA, whether there's grants available to us, whether there are other ways that we might be able to develop this fund, would it strategically make sense for us to say we're looking for $200,000, for example, every year out of the cannabis. So if your cannabis goes up to 500, we're looking for 200 every year for 10 years until our fund hits $2 million, for example. And I think that I'd like to get a sense from this committee about that because this conversation at Finance Tomorrow and in the town council, I believe that having, if we are able to identify how much we want each year and if we're able to give a cap amount so that it's not in perpetuity, we might be more successful. But I'm totally open. That's just what I've been kind of getting. But I'm totally open to thought. So I'm going to be quiet now. So please, yes, Alexa. Okay, I, okay, I guess I want to preface this with like, oh man, I'm definitely going to be looking to you guys in terms of like strategy, because a lot of this feels over my head. But I guess I'm wondering like, I don't know, is there like no sense of irony at all? Like, I, I guess I'm frustrated by like, I feel like we keep hitting this sort of thing like, well, the law says this and the law says that. And I'm like, yeah, well, like the law didn't, like, according to the law, my family ain't human. So like, there's that piece of it. And then there's also like, like, is there no sense of irony in like black people being like having to ask for money? And then white people being like, Oh, well, how are you going to use it? And like, there's no like, there's like that control piece. So I don't know, I just feel like there's like no like real sort of like reality situation here. Like, but I wonder like, is this, this, is this the game we play? And then we just have to be strategic about playing the game. So I guess, I guess I'm wondering is, is, well, yeah, I guess I'm, I, I forgot what I was going to say, but it was going to be something about strategy. And I guess I'm wondering, yeah, I'm wondering how that goes in terms of like, because I feel like some people forget that like, we are creating the wheel in a way. And so like, we should be able to amend or like change or create new laws. And so I feel like people get like, like stuff on that. But, and I guess I'm wondering, are, is there any way that we can sort of guide them to like, oh, yeah, and like, we can sort of be the ones to change that rather than like, or, or, or, or, or is there any sort of movement towards that or is like, Oh, how do we, how do we fit within the rules that we have set up now, even though we add, acknowledge that the rules and the system is set up to disadvantage these however many people. So I don't know, I feel like that wasn't a comment, maybe that was just me more venting, I don't know, but thank you for listening. Yeah, I heard that all. Would anyone else like to comment either in response to Alexis or just with their own comments? So I'll, I'll say a couple of things. Yeah, so first of all, as was noted at the top, this meeting is ultimately archived and live streamed on YouTube. So I think we have to be, you know, mindful about our, our strategy and our, you know, where, where we're coming from on this. My essential question though, Madam Chair concerns the, what is the parameters, what is the scope of what the finance committee as an entity is charged to weigh in and because to some extent what the document that you've, you've highlighted for us, in my mind, maybe it's all of that is necessary relative to the finance committee's deliberations. To me, I just wonder, is anybody else on that committee working besides you? You know, what is the process by which, by which they, they, they are going to deliberate and arrive at some recommendation to make to, to the council about this, because you seem to be covering a lot of terrain in what, what's your, what you're putting together there, that it makes me wonder, well, what is the scope of their recommendation? To me, I would think it has to do with thinking about this particular piece out of all of the revenues that the town collects this relatively new piece of revenue and, and, and whether looking ahead at, at the finances of the town and so forth, that to reserve this amount, and I, I get you, there isn't, there hasn't been a pattern of doing this. But again, as Alexis says, you know, that's life, new, new patterns emerge, new things occur, and you have to be thoughtful and open about it. So if you want to accomplish certain goals. So for me, then it would seem to me there, the deliberation should be how much what is the financial impact to reserve this piece that again, people talk about is very erratic, it's based on consumer action, consumer action may go very high, consumer action may go very low, people may choose to go to Northampton dispensaries, they can go right down the street to Hadley dispensaries, they're all along Route 9 and opening up on Route 9. So, you know, or conversely, people knowing that this revenue is going for this particular purpose, people may say, rather than go use the, the Hadley or the Northampton or whatever dispensaries, maybe I will go to the Amherst dispensaries, understanding that they have made this bold step of reserving this particular set of funds to do something to address the harms that Black folk in this town have historically experienced. So, you know, for me, I just think that the, the, I really am wondering the scope of what the, the finance committee is being, is expected to, to really advise the council on, because if it's that, look, we can live with carving this, reserving this piece out, and the town won't go into a depression, you know, or the town is not going to fall apart to do that, then, then okay, let's give them, let, you know, I think that's where your McDonald's and your, your, your other people need to kind of weigh in to let us, to give us, you know, that, to give the committee that data, and for the committee to then be able to report that out. I think the real question of the why, the will to do this, that's got to be at the council level, that shouldn't be at the finance committee level, but again, maybe I don't know the, the scope of what they're looking to, to you and Andy and Lynn and all the people on the, on the finance committee, what are y'all really being expected to come back and advise about? So I'll stop there to see if you can give me some feedback on what, what's, what is finance committee trying to accomplish for the council here? Yeah, wow, you've raised some really excellent points, Dr. Shabazz, and I really want to raise up the point you made about the statement that the town of Amherst could make and how that positively, positively impact sales at the cannabis retail operations we have here in Amherst. I think that is a really powerful point. And given what I know about this community and also our, our anchor institutions and folks that may think about driving down the street to Hadley or staying here, you know, it makes a whole lot of sense that this statement would, would really gain a lot of support from the people in this community. So thank you for, for bringing that up to answer some of your questions. So the finance committee, I think based on the little experience I have, does the recommendation does matter. So, and the recommendation will always come with a report. So even if we don't have a unanimous support, for example, it will be reported to the full town council why that was the case. I think what the finance committee is tasked with doing is looking as, as you said at the, what is the financial impact that this would have. And right now, for really very good reasons, there is a sense that this budget is going to be squeezed and squeezed and squeezed. We have four capital projects on the horizon. We've got new two new departments. We've got a lot of, there's a lot of unpredictability in terms of inflation and other aspects. So the sort of carrying narrative right now is that there's a little bit of fear about what's going to be happening over the next few years. That being said, the town with the recommendation of the finance committee made this commitment last year to the fund. And I think that there is a will for this fund to be developed and to be developed in a meaningful way. So I personally think strategically that if we were to be able to be very clear and say this is what we would like from the cannabis money each year up to X amount, we would be a lot, we'd be in a lot better of a position than if we just say we want 100% of cannabis tax revenue and we want it in perpetuity and we're not going to even put any limit. In Evanston, it's up to 10 million, but if you look at their budget, their budget's very different than ours. But even if we don't do that, if we don't put any guidelines around it, that's what they'll do. So it's really a matter of do we want to come in with the strategy and the plan and the guidelines or do we want to say we want 100% in perpetuity and let them create the guidelines. And so that's kind of like the way I look at it. And it's very possible that the finance committee could vote not to recommend and it gets to the council and it still gets approved. Finance committee is five people. There's 13 and we need a majority vote. So I'm not going to speak for anybody, but I'm just going to say that just numbers wise, it's very possible. But I think strategically it would be wonderful if we were able to get to that meeting tomorrow and I was able to really make a solid case for this is what we need every year. If your cannabis money goes up to 300 to 400 to 500, we want 200. We wanted over 10 years, we want $2 million in this fund. Maybe you guys have a different number of mine, maybe it's three, maybe it's one, maybe it's 10. I don't know, but that's the question on the table is like, are you prepared for me to ask for something specific at that committee meeting tomorrow or do you want to leave it open and let the finance committee let it sort of balance itself out in that way? But if I quick follow up. Of course. So I'm still trying to get is the burden all on your shoulders with respect to coming back on that or is anybody else reporting in with any other kinds of information relative to this decision making or is it just you and your memo? Thanks for that question. So because of open meeting law, you know, I'm not entirely sure who's going to be bringing what and I could get blindsided, you know, I don't know, I don't think that's going to be the case. But I think that at this point, Sean and Paul are really concerned about the budget. And I think that there is still resistance, I think around this is my sense of things and not because folks don't want to develop the fund, but because it's just God, I see work. Did it help at all that we've clarified? We're not asking a rework of this budget that they're working on that for this budget, we understand that cannabis is in the general is is directed to the general to the general fund. We're saying that we're talking about a principle for for future budgets going out. Number one. And number two, we're saying that coming off the end of each fiscal year that if there is free cash, if we didn't go in the red and we finished in the black, and there is some free cash, try to take close to what the cannabis revenue was as close as you can get to what the cannabis revenue and put it in this reparations fund. Okay, so for the for the current year we're in for the year that's being planned, we're not trying to we're saying continue your the practice you started with last year. But for future financial planning, make a decision to reserve this this piece out. Secondly, to get at your, well, so let me just see if we're on the same. Did that help at all to make that clarification? Very much, and very, very much. And I've made that framework very clear to the finance committee, with respect to what we'll be discussing tomorrow. So a two part discussion one, for this year, continue on with what you've been doing, just like you did last year, and then the second conversation about the policy of designating the cannabis in future years. So yes, absolutely, same page on that. I guess the only thing that I wanted to add, and thank you for saying all that because it was very helpful for me to understand even how this works. So I guess one thing that I'm thinking of is that I know that the cannabis industry is projected to grow from 28 billion, which was what it was last year, to 197 billion in 2028. And so my thinking is like, like, they're going to continue to get like, I don't know what the graph is going to look like, I don't know if it's exponential or what, but they're going to continue to get more and more and more money from the tax revenues like as time goes on. And I guess I'm wondering like, are we starting to ask them, like, I like the idea of building up to a number. But I guess I'm wondering like it makes it sound like the more that we're able to work with this fund, possibly the more money that we get out of it. And so I guess if there's any way to even like, I don't know, like how is the only way that I guess that we sort of like put a stake on a time period is if we say like, we want to build up to this amount of money. Yeah. That's a really great question. And I think any decision for better or worse can be, it can be reversed or it can be, I mean, any future council, that's another concern by the way is that what we're asking for is tying the hands of future councils, which is not untrue, but my rebuttal to that is any future council can reverse a decision, can reverse a decision by a vote. So there's nothing that's really locked. You know, yeah, okay, if we take money for a school building project, and we've made a commitment, a future council probably can't reverse that while we're midway through, there are certain things like that, but mostly anything can be can be changed or reversed. So I think the real question is what framework can folks wrap their minds around right now? And we don't want to give any outs, we don't want to give, we don't want to put such an ambiguous thing out there where anything can then, then it goes out of our control and we're like, so my recommendation is that we're being really clear, like that we, and maybe what Dr. Spas said, you know, about like, if we're getting to, we're making this case for why cannabis tax revenue should be designated, but like, if we're getting X amount of money per year, and wherever it comes from, do we care? You know, as long as that commitment is there, maybe we do though, because maybe a future council would then look and be like, well, we don't really have a strong case now, and you know, whereas the cannabis piece was so locked in and strong that, you know, so it's so hard to know what might happen. But my feeling is that we should ask for a certain amount each year, and we should have a cap. And I know we don't have all of our members here right now. And this is making a decision that's a tough decision, but you know, we just raise a different framework. Um, so again, in the Evanston framework, it's take all that's there up until a certain amount being 10 million. So it's not setting a timeframe. You're setting the framework you're proposing is let's set a timeframe will take whatever comes in or a percentage of what comes in up to 10 years, and then we stop. And in there, but there is another way, which is to say, let's take what comes in and get to a certain financial goal, be a 2 million, be a 10 million, and you keep taking until you've you've gotten to that goal. Maybe it comes in, in, in five years, maybe you could achieve that goal in, in 10 years, maybe you don't achieve that goal, you know, until even more years beyond 10. But it just seems to me that's a different framework is to think about if the town is setting sets of goal to create an endowed fund of X amount and that we take these sources, such as cannabis, such as free cash on on on years where you didn't spend all the budget, such as other kinds, such as private donations that people might make to the town earmarked to the reparations fund, you could you could have all of those streams. Now, I think we've got to let people know that in the plan we're developing, we will project plans for CPA, but CPA Community Preservation Act has a very distinct set of criteria as I read it. And so we can't, you know, there's there's only so much recreation, only so much, you know, historic preservation, there's only so much open green space, there's only so much that, you know, can fall under, you know, relate to reparative justice for African Americans that that would fit those that criteria. Okay. So, but yes, we will make recommendations in our planning regarding, you know, where we could see funds coming from that, but that's that's a is a recommendation that in some ways isn't even on the council to even deal with that'll be going to that particular committee to to then see if it fits their criteria and they want they want to fund it or to support it. So I just think with respect to the to the council, and in respect to these resources out of the council's budget, I get the projection of, you know, the tightness of the budget, I get the projection of, you know, the all the big projects that are going on and and the equity and inclusion director ship office and the crest office and all these things. But again, this is about a distinct project and creating the fund for a distinct project. And the only reason we are trying to grapple with the the planning, the financial planning piece now is that it's all for not for us to give some bold dreams and ideas of where to spend and go rev up the community about what do you want as repair. And then there's no money. Exactly. There's no financial plan. There's no money. It's going to be very disheartening in my view. So what what what can give us the heart and give us the encouragement. And I think and I'm speaking now within the community within the African heritage community, what gives us the encouragement to really begin to think about our harms and and the way we can repair those harms is that we see the town making the hard decision now to begin to build out a financial resource resource pool beyond the 200,000 in the stabilization fund now that they've begun to think about how and so again whether it's over over a 10 year set percentage or if it's over 10 million you know up to 10 million we're trying to build however long it takes to get there. That's just logistics. The real thing is is that they show that they show improve the commitment financially to doing a reparative justice project and therefore I think it will encourage the planning process and of getting the community engaged in coming in to talk about what this might look like. Okay. Above and beyond the asks that have happened for youth empowerment centers for crests for equity inclusion office. That again is all separate. I know it's all expensive in addition to the other big four capital projects and in addition to other deferred maintenance and and and all of this and projections of recession. I get it you know but but if you but if you make a commitment and it can scale up it can be what it is now it can happen but but show that you're committing to a rep to building out a revenue stream that creates a resource pool from which we can do this work. That's going to go a long way to helping us get out there into the community and saying to the community what would make this people of African descent in Amherst really be a part of this community in a way we've never been before. What would be the work? What's the repair? What are the projects? What are the initiatives? Let's list it out. Let's think about it. Let's let's put our heart into this. If they see that okay they're planning they're already planning the resources for this so it's just like you know with with the library or the or the commitment to a new fire station people get engaged because they say yeah decisions have been made we're going to get a new fire station decisions have been made we're getting a new DPW we're getting a we're going to you know have an expanded renovated library so now people are all at the table on it because they know it's happening but it's hard to get people at the table on something and in the background they're hearing people say we don't have money we're not going to have money everything's too tight we can't we can't make any decision about you know putting even you know this this this this piece of money that you didn't even have two years ago. Yeah that's my that's my word on it. Yeah absolutely and I think that that's exactly what the strategy was in Evanston is they wanted that guarantee first and then they developed the initiatives for exactly some of the reasons you're talking about and in our case we actually don't have time to this is the only time we have given the budget cycle and when our timing ends but on a deeper level and I think what you're really speaking to is yeah and no one's going to come to the table for this if they just if they think that this isn't going to be developed in a meaningful way if they think that you know it's and and it's very subjective I think you know amongst counselors on like what each individual counselor feels is a meaningful amount you know and what each individual counselor feels part of justice should look like and even though we know that this is something that the African heritage community should be fully in control of developing there are still these ideas that folks have so you know one so given that it's 444 right now I just want to sort of bring us home here to say what I need to know from you all as a chair and going into this meeting tomorrow is if you would like me to leave our request as open-ended as it is right now which is that we want 100% cannabis tax revenue and perpetuity or if you would like me to have a stated goal X amount of dollars whether I think I take your point Dr. Shabazz it may you know I had sort of set it up like thinking okay we're about 200 right now that's been brought in we can open up three more retail establishments as I understand it so that number should grow based on what Alexis said that number should grow the other side to that as we've got a lot of competition around here as Dr. Shabazz points it out and people grow marijuana around here nothing wrong with that but they do so I think that there are a lot of forces and factors by the way you should also know there's a movement to do away with the community impact fees that cannabis retailers were responsible for because it's sort of become known that there aren't very many negative impacts like they're like it was thought there would be and so why are we taking money out of these startups and making them pay this fee when there isn't even real impacts to be talked about here although I would make a case that the impact money could go toward things like crests because we're talking about potentially diversion programs and different things that you know that would fit into that category but the question I really have right now is would you like me to take this into the finance committee tomorrow open ended or would you like me to come in and say listen this is our goal we want this fund to grow to whatever amount and let's figure out a way to get there together we want you to designate the cannabis tax revenue if if you know if you've got some other way of doing it but we want a commitment on our goal you know or so that's what I'm looking for right now I'll say quickly from my end I think we've been moving a little quick to to kind of close in a vision on this right now we haven't brought it up before back in October I threw my vision out there already the CPA model is what I envision how do we build an endowment let's say 10 million dollars that would then generate like 40 to 50 thousand a year okay that could go toward whatever a designated body said this is what we want to spend on that comes from the community somebody could get burned out of their house somebody could have you know being evicted somebody whatever the issues are there's this fund it generates a certain amount of interest every year and it's there to be used for the projects as they come in that's been my view like the CPA model how to get there is what we've been trying to look at nobody's talked about trying to put in the case of the CPA it's three cents on the dollar it's a designated percentage out of taxes okay so sales or whatever property tax whatever it is it's a designated percentage out of it that then gets even a matching amount from the state we don't have all that set up here but that's been my mind is how could we develop a resource pool build out an endowment and then live off of the interest fund projects off of the interest from that uh from from from that pool so that's how I saw cannabis streams other streams could go in and flow to build up that fund that's just me we haven't voted that we haven't decided on that so I don't expect you to carry that into a meeting no more than I would say carry into the meeting you know we only want cannabis for for the next uh um you know 10 years or for the you know at at 25 percent of cannabis revenue I just don't know that that we we can calculate that out right at this right at this minute and and I'd like to see from their end if the if what is the imperative to calculate that out uh number one because if they're saying the budget is so restricted and the financial projections are so gloom and doom in Amherst that we can't see living without again an amorphous amount because you don't know if it's going up you don't know if it's going down you don't know how much it's going up that's all voodoo economics to try to project that it's all voodoo economics I could sit here and tell you if we made a bold statement in Amherst that the funds are going to go toward this that will help black people that could even help diversion programs that could even help something Cress is doing that's beyond the scope of its budget and they would put in a proposal to the repair of justice fund look next year we need 30 000 to help youth that have that have gotten busted to you know for the diversion work we move the group deciding this might say yeah that's a great use of reparative justice funds let's support that to or to give some scholarships to black youth that are that are coming out of a jail or whatever it's all open so so yeah I just think that the real question the economic question I see is how dire is the is the town trying to say we our finances are that this revenue of stream that again you don't even know where it's going cannot you can't live without it or you can't live you know begin to think about living without it over the next you know up to where it generates x amount of money or or in your case a madam chair over the next 10 years you know you can't see living without it and again understanding we're talking about putting the money away and that means it's not being spent the principles not being spent so if there was a financial doom yes that same council that said let's squirrel it away could say let's repurpose it because we're in a depression and we need this now and we'll try to come back to it later once we get through this tight period where you could do you can make all those decisions the money isn't lost the point is the statement you make by committing to by committing to create the funds to create the funding the pool of resources that to me is the real question that's in the balance for for other than if the finance committee it has some information coming in saying that it that every penny coming in is is can't you're not going to be able to live without it because we're going to be in such deep economic despair that's the case well I'll be listening to the meeting tomorrow over here yeah yeah I appreciate that and you know I it's frustrating because I wish that in my experience the discussions aren't able to be as deep as what we're talking here and aren't able to be as sort of like what you're describing is like a sentiment it's a it's a you know and and what the finance committee just says does is like a yes or no thing so it's like a way different approach but I think what you're saying is to come into the meeting and carry the sentiment that you're describing and that I will do in the best possible way and you'll hopefully all be there to be able to support that I know that Andy who's the chair of the finance committee has made it clear to me that there is not a ton of time for this and this is sort of always the way it goes because there are several other things on the agenda and we will still have that time at the June 13th meeting where this is ultimately decided um so I think that you know what I'm hearing you say is let's go in with what we've already asked for let's not put any limitations let's have a conversation about working together to develop this fund in a meaningful way um and and sort of that's it and seeing what comes is that Alexis and Hala are you on board with that or would you like to add anything or I'm on board with that okay thanks Hala you too Alexis okay cool okay um and you can always reach out to me and Jennifer just don't write anything that's to everybody please um if needed please you know you can reach out to me to me and Jennifer and um so let me just make sure I just want to check my agenda because it's getting late here um the the ahra meeting has been posted for tomorrow I sent you all the agenda so you'll just want to use that link unless where you sent did you get a panelist invite Jennifer do you know if panelists invites are going for tomorrow's finance meeting or should they just enter um if you would like them to then you should send that information over to Athena I think that's what she said in the email otherwise she'll just pull them okay I think we're not we're not presenters though right no but I want you in the room if you don't you know I'd like you to be in the discussion um we're not really going to be presenting much they'll see the memo that I wrote but really it's going to be for those committee members including myself because I happen to be one to have a conversation about this and for you all to be there for that discussion I I am going to try to frame it as much as possible for it to be a discussion and I do think Andy feels similarly but we just have a time constraint and I know that's always going to be you know the issue so um why don't you all just use the link there instead of me putting another thing on Athena's plate and we'll make sure that everybody gets brought in um if that works and Alexis I know you'll be um you'll be there um and feel free to open a second lap like a second computer and come in if you want um all right this has been a great meeting um and I'm afraid I'm gonna have to go so I can prepare for the next meeting um but we are meeting next week same time three o'clock I'll send out agendas thanks thanks so much to all of you just really appreciate this work that we were able to do together so thank you thank you thank you and uh we'll see you tomorrow okay all right meaning adjourn at four fifty six Jennifer bye