 At about the budget figures. Yes, and I was able to go back and plug in the correct numbers. Great. I'm just pulling up the script. I'm sorry guys. Okay, my name is Brianna Owen and I'm calling this meeting to order as the co chair of the community safety working group. Governor Baker is March 12 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law allows us to hold this virtual meeting of the community safety working group. Given that we have a quorum present, I'm calling the May 11th, 2021 meeting of the community safety working group to order at 703pm. I will call upon each member of the working group by name. At that time you should unmute yourself and say present. This will indicate that you can hear us and we can hear you. Please remember to mute your mic after saying present and this meeting is being reported. Mr Vernon Jones. Here. Miss Walker. Miss Ferrara. Here. I want to take a couple of minutes to review the agenda. We will first hear any public comment that members of the public want to provide the working group. We will not provide, we will not respond to your comments, but we will listen carefully. We'll then move right into our agenda, which is to motion to approve the final report a draft. So without further ado, we can head into public comment. If any member of the public would like to make a statement, please raise your hand. I will recognize you and ask Miss Moisten to bring you into the room and turn on your microphone. I ask that all comments be limited to no more than three minutes. The working group will not be responding to your comments but listening carefully. There is, there are no attendees at the moment. Okay. I miss that. Hi Alicia. Hi Russ. So we're just getting past public comment, but no one's here so we can move right into the agenda. The only thing that's on the agenda tonight is to motion to approve the final draft. I hope you all had a chance to read it over and make revisions that you felt were necessary. I now want to open the floor for members to make comments on any major changes they feel are necessary to the ongoing draft. Miss Pat. I want to thank the subcommittee that worked on this. I think you guys did an excellent job. Also want to thank Seven Gen for their contribution. I emailed very late, maybe an hour ago or two of the updated budget that we put it on. So I don't know if everybody got a chance to look at it. So I'm very happy with the work you guys did. Thank you so much. Thank you. I also want to recognize the subcommittee for all of the work that went into the draft. Mr Vernon, Joan, thank you so much for starting that draft and getting it going and Miss Freira, thank you for going back and making those edits and having such a keen eye to details. One thing that I wanted to bring to the group's attention before we move forward to approve the draft. There was a small change made in changing the name of the multicultural center to the BIPOC cultural center and I want to make sure that everybody in the group is okay with that. So, Miss Pat. So I made a change because when I remember during several discussions at the group, we were emphasizing on BIPOC cultural center. So I don't know if anyone has any objection to it. I mean, anyone can utilize the space that it is BIPOC cultural center. It would be, sorry. Mr Vernon Jones. Well, given that at this point we're trying to attract as much support from the town council as possible. I guess I would rather we did the same thing we did with the use empowerment center and make it a BIPOC led cultural center. I mean, like that would keep the BIPOC focus but would make it a more inclusive kind of thing, you know, and if a group of Polish people wanted to use it, or a group of people who are deaf and their culture is partly in sign language, that it would be understood that that would be those are cultures and that the various cultures could use it. I certainly wanted BIPOC led. No question about that. Miss Pat. So if the town, I hear what you said Mr Ross, if the town approved such program, I think it will be accessible to everyone. You know, name does matter, because there are so many other space for white folks that we don't feel comfortable going to. So this will be like a space for BIPOC families. And that's what I heard from people that, you know, reach out to me that you'll be nice to have a space just for BIPOC folks. But anybody can use it if they want to. Yeah, so this is Deborah. I don't know if there's a lineup but I like I said I can't raise my hand so I'll put the little hand sign. Hi there. Is this a good time to talk or should I, is there a lineup. No, go ahead. Okay. Yeah, I mean I think I'm more kind of going with what Miss Pat said in terms of like I think I wanted to be kind of like BIPOC focused. But again, open to anyone using it because I think there isn't there aren't spaces in the Amherst community that are really BIPOC focused and to really kind of celebrate the BIPOC culture. You know what I'm saying and kind of like kind of have that focus, then obviously it's enveloping it's inclusive it's welcoming to every every group but I think it would be important to have a BIPOC focused center in our town because it would really empower the folks that don't have, you know, that space and, and really empower in terms of making sure that their services that are focused on that on that on that population to, because we know, you know, unfortunately in town, there are a lot of businesses that are focused on the BIPOC population. So for me, you know, that would be, I would be an agreement whether it be in a BIPOC center. Miss Walker, did you want to weigh in on this topic. Yeah, sorry, and I apologize for a little bit of an. Sorry. I just want to share my perspective while we wait a second. I'm in complete agreement with Miss Ferrera and Miss Pat, but I also just want to be mindful of the way the town council reads this and like be mindful of our audience and the people who are going to make our recommendations reality. So that's the only setback in my mind but I do completely agree I feel like every space and Amherst is a space for white people, but I can't say the same for members of BIPOC communities. Well, given your comments, I'm happy to support calling it a BIPOC cultural center. But since you all said it would be open to all peoples and cultures. Why don't we simply insert that as the second sentence in the paragraph that talks about it. So call it a BIPOC cultural center and say it would be, it will be open, open and available to all people and cultures. Yeah, to all people to all residents and culture. Miss Bowman has her hand up and then Miss Walker. Sorry, I had to unmute. I like how Mr. Vernon Jones said it. You know, one of the reasons why we're kind of like, because if it's like we're kind of steering it away and looking at multicultural center rather than BIPOC multicultural center is because we definitely want it being run by the BIPOC community, but on either particular days or through particular sessions or whatever we do want it to be a place where non-BIPOC people can come and do research, get information, like and feel like, you know, it's like it's a it's a weird dynamic because it's like, I don't want you to feel comfortable but I want you to feel comfortable. I want you to feel comfortable to walk in the door but I don't want you to feel comfortable like you're okay with the status quo, if that makes sense. It totally makes sense to me. But I like what Mr. Vernon Jones said I think that that's a good way of looking at it. You know, yeah, I like that. I like that. That's all I was saying. Ms. Walker. Ms. Walker, did you have your hand up? Yes, sorry. So I was going to say previously that I had the same conflict because although I want it to be BIPOC led and BIPOC focused that I don't want to miss appealing to the other members of the community. Yeah, I think the way that Mr. Vernon Jones put it like solves the conflict that I was having before though, so I am in full agreement with what Mr. Vernon Jones proposed. Awesome. Are there any other areas of the draft that people want to bring up because it sounds like we're all in agreement about the BIPOC cultural center, Ms. Pat. Yes. So, in listening to the last week from Council meeting, I think Cress has been proposed as a social services program. I just want to remind ourselves that Cress is a public health program. That will be staffed by professionals who have social services background. So I don't want, I'm just expressing my opinion, I don't want Cress to be on that social services in town. Because it sounds like that's what is the thinking. It should be an independent alternative public safety. Did I say health, I'm sorry, public safety, public safety, I apologize, public safety, public safety, not not social services. If that makes sense to people. Is that is that the way people are reading it because. Ms. Walker. Um, so I actually agree with Ms. Pat I would I actually just realized that same thing today earlier today at our meeting. I didn't realize it was listed under social services. And I agree, but I'm not sure how we could propose something like that I think it needs to be listed under a public safety because that was its intention. Yeah, department of Cress, you know, which is in a public safety alternative public safety or something like that. I just want us to be clear when our representatives are presenting the report just to make it clear that it's not social services department that it's going to be a public safety department. So I think that's a complete agreement and I think that's like the first part of our charge, I can imagine people, I can imagine they're trying to probably move it to social services because people don't want it to fund the police. So, this is Deborah. Yeah, I mean I'm in total agreement with it to I just say, isn't that how we describe it in our report. We pretty much focus on that right because today the focus is the report. I guess we're going to talk about the presentation later I just want us to stay focused. Is that how because obviously I'm in agreement with it but that's how we represented in the report right. Yes, Deborah, I just I'm just so I'm just raising an awareness. You know that's how it was really in the report as a public safety, but I believe you know the town manager and the town council I think they're thinking it's a social services program. I just, you know, want them to know that we're talking about public safety run by a social services professional. That makes sense. Definitely agree and then, like you said, we definitely need to make that very clear when you do the presentation. Yes. I completely agree with that and I think. I think it belongs in our presentation. You know the very first page of our report after the table of contents is our charge and the first sentence is the community safety working group was assigned the following purpose to make recommendations on all alternative ways of providing public safety services. So it's there in line one in our report. And as Pat said as well taken and should be thought about in the presentation. I agree. Are there any, are there any other major concerns people wanted to bring up about the draft of the final report. So, um, I know that we're going to almost that. I know we're going to include the report from seven. Am I missing something I didn't say. Are we going to include that or not. Yes, we are going to include it. The reason why it wasn't in the Google docs is because I was going to put it all together once I added graphics to everything so I apologize it wasn't all there but yes we are going to add the report for sure. Okay. And when we vote on this report do we have, you know, some time like give it five 10 minutes I have, you know, other ideas I want to throw out. How, or should we just do it now. Oh, do it now. So, um, I'm thinking. I know that, um, you know, we have read who are going to be presenting. I think it will make our case very powerful. If we include reps from seven gen. I don't know what we're planning or thinking about doing, but it will be nice for them to actually present their own. Research, and we don't have a lot of time. Yeah, the council council chair. You know it's giving us 10 to 20 minutes for everything question and answer so I don't know how we're going to work this but I would very much like to see reps from seven gen to participate when CSWG reps present. Definitely the subcommittee met today and seven gen was part of that conversation. I think it's an outline of the presentation that is this is an ongoing work in progress, maybe we can include it in the packet tomorrow so group members can get an idea of where we're at, and also add things that they think we're missing. But that's that's where that is now. Mr. I may be wrong but the way I read the email was we have 10 to 20 minutes to present and question time would be in addition to that. If, if I'm wrong about that they'll correct us but I think I think that's what we should plan. But in terms of tonight's meeting. Do we want to go ahead and vote on this report. Yes. Well, well, before that just one quick thing yeah definitely. I hope that that's going to be on the agenda like the presentation because I definitely want to. I definitely want to get more of an idea of what, you know, what the draft has been. So I definitely want that on the agenda, and then there was one other thing that I wanted to get a case me if it comes back to me. I'll say it. Sounds good to our is everybody comfortable with moving toward approving the draft. Sorry, I just, I just remembered it. Sorry. If there's any question about how much time we have miss oh and can you contact the town council like Lynn, remember it is that contact that is just to kind of get clarity because we definitely want to know how much time we have for the presentation and how much time we have for the q amp a. Definitely. That's going to be important. I see Lynn is actually in the audience. I will reach out to her after this meeting and ask her what our timeline for that presentation is going to be and also the q amp a I think that's really important and thank you for bringing it up. Yeah. Okay. So one more thing I promise the last thing. Oh miss Pat. So, you know, have we decided they will be meeting with the finance committee and the, and the school and the council members or something. So we have a date for that. So I believe that miss Walker. So that was actually something I wanted to bring to the group. So town counselor, Lynn Grishmore I believe I'm sorry I don't know how to pronounce her last name was at our meeting earlier today and she did comment on the, the finance committee meeting and that we would have the opportunity at a time specifically set aside for our group to make a presentation to the finance committee at a following meeting. So remember the date of that meeting. So the date, the dates that she threw out was May 26 with which falls on a Wednesday and then May 27. Can we try to pick a date now. Yeah, so we did move the meetings to Thursday so I think to maximize our time if people could meet Wednesday we could do that, or if we met the 27th they would probably take over our meeting time. Can we meet on Thursday also because we'll be moving our meeting on Thursday, or because of me. Okay, I wonder if with the finance committee be okay for six o'clock on Wednesday. I can run that by them with that work for everybody else. On the 26th. Yeah, I can't, I can't check my calendar because I'm driving so I can't commit to anything right now. Can we just talk about this tomorrow. Yeah, it's on Wednesday when we meet, we typically meet on Wednesdays. Yeah, I get it but we switch some things that we're going to meet on Thursday so I might have something Wednesday sometimes I have, I've, I've been kind of like not going to a Wednesday evening meaning that I have once a month for my job. So if I'm able to do that I might not be able to do that Wednesday, you know, Mr. Vernon Jones. I think we do need to get back promptly to the town council and the finance committee but I think tomorrow is fine to finish that up if everybody can look at their calendars and let's just agree that we'll make that decision. Tomorrow. Sounds good. Sounds good. Will you entertain a motion to that we approve our report. Yes. I got that. Oh, not done yet sorry. I move we approve our report. As amended tonight with the one little sentence we inserted. And, and refer it to Miss Owen for formatting and graphics and release it promptly to the town manager and the town council. And committee. And finance committee. Thank you. Yeah. Do I have a second. Do we have to do a roll call for this miss moiston. Yeah, I would just go ahead. I mean, it doesn't really hurt. So yeah. Yeah, you probably should. But for something important like this, like a report for the town council, probably better do a roll call. Okay, so we'll do a roll call of an agreement to move to motion. The final draft for part a of our charge. Mr. Vernon Jones. I miss Walker. I miss Pat. I miss Bowman. I miss Frera. I. Okay, awesome. So I think that that's all we have as well, Brianna. Oh, okay. I sorry. Facilitating these meetings doesn't get less awkward. You're doing good job. You're doing great. You're making me, you're making me turn red stop. Okay, so I think that's all we had tonight. So I motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? Second. And we'll do a roll call and then I'll be out. Mr. Vernon Jones. Miss Walker. Miss Pat. Yes. Miss Bowman. I miss Frera. I. I thank you guys for coming today and making this date work on such short notice. I appreciate coming and I will get to work on those graphics and have that to the group. ASAP. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Anybody help get us there. Congratulations to everyone. Everyone. Good job. All right.