 Good evening my name is Ryan Collier and I serve on the board of the future forum on behalf of the forum in the LBJ library I'd like to thank you all for joining us in this incredibly important conversation The future forum is an organization that brings together individuals with different backgrounds Experiences and points of view to discuss the issues that affect us today Our goal is to create civil informed and bipartisan discussions to introduce each other to ideas and perspectives That we may not be aware of and to always have respectful or be respectful of others opinions The future forums events are made possible by the generosity of our members and our sponsors If you are not a member, I strongly encourage you to sign up tonight or at the very least visit lbjfutureforum.org for more information Membership fees go directly toward putting on events like tonight Before we begin the discussion keep in mind There will be time for questions at the end of the panel and like the video said We have really great food and so we hope you join us afterwards for food and drink and to continue the conversation And now I'll turn it over to Alberta Phillips the editorial writer for the Austin American statesman and our moderator to introduce our guests Well, hello there and Welcome and it's my pleasure to be here tonight to talk with you about a very important topic the mayor's task force and institutional racism and systemic inequities and Before I introduced the panel. I just thought I'd read something to you these words because they're very important words and When I read them, they had an impact on me. They kind of told me where we are coming from For much of my life I have recognized race as a force in my own life and in our society and while racism is not the only Factor contributing to the diminished capacity of all people and especially people of color It is the factor which so many people of power and authority fail to effectively recognize Understand and or address and we're witnessing that now. That's my editorial comment up at the Capitol I agree with so many esteemed Austin voices from throughout the community Suggesting that this time like no other recently our city, state and nation call for us to exchange in a deeper racial truth promote intra and interracial healing and Foster foster greater social educational and economic well-being Never had I had such an extraordinary platform a combination of high-level professionalism authority and a deep personal conviction To not only name the societal challenge But mobilize self and others to address it I am leading the city in learning how to recognize Understand and address racism at its various levels personal institutional structure structural and systemic and those are the comments and the words of Mayor Steve Adler the mayor of the city of Austin who's sitting second to my left with that I Introduce him and first from my left is Dr. Colette Pierce Burnett She is the president and CEO of Houston Tillits and University Historically black university in this city and as we like to say older than UT And next to the mayor to his left is Alba Serrano she taught me how to roll my car like earlier tonight She is policy advisor for the city of Austin and she does many other things and you'll find out that from her wealth of Knowledge this evening. I've heard her on this topic and she's just so eloquent as I mentioned to her earlier Thank you and to her left is Brian Oaks He is the chief equity officer for the city of Austin and goodness knows Brian for some time We've needed an equity officer and thank goodness that you are here and working in that capacity and With that I would like to ask each of you for perhaps We have we have so much to cover here, right? We have so much this is a big report and it covers five areas and When I looked at that I thought 40 minutes. There's no way Because what we really need to do is have a Conversation about each of these in a 40 million minute forum We really truly do that's how important they are they cover education and health banking and finance Housing and there's one more education education. Thank you from the educator so So with that if you would each just take a minute or two to kind of summarize The thing that you found most important on Hopefully different topics and we'll start with dr. Burnett first of all. Thank you for having me It's an honor to lift the mayor's task for the report and for me on a very deep personal level It was to see that these were just everyday common citizens that came together as volunteers to work towards a very important topic and the mayor was I considered brave enough to Name the task force what it what it is which was a task force on Racism because it wasn't about racist people it's about racist systems and to put the word racism in the task force it gets people's attention first of all and These are citizens that were just everyday Common we care and concern from all walks of life leaders in the community Not-for-profit leaders in the community community activists people that were really committed to For the city of Austin to I heard in the in the video that we listened to to make Austin a better place for everyone Thank you, mayor I Was most taken I think with the realization that while I thought I I knew this topic really well And I thought that I knew how its manifestations and where it was I thought that I knew well how it impacted my life And certainly it's it's been a huge influence on my life It's been the subject of a lot of work. I've done with the anti-defamation league and professionally as a lawyer I was taken with the session that I had with the facilitator and with the leadership of That had come together To to work on this which is an incredible gift to the city How that I did not know as much as I thought that I did And the number of moments with that group of people that I really sat back on my heels and And when I I had that wrong Could you share a little bit more about? What finding in which area that might have surprised you most There were many But I'll but I'll tell you the the exercise that we went through that That that took me it's other question was asked In this group and it wasn't the first question. You're into the process. You're with a group of people Who you hope are going to be the evangelists? The Johnny Apple seeds to then to go back out in the community and and have this work Which is which is to a large degree even though it's systemic. It's it's personal work And it's it's it's personal work not because we're personally racist people but in order to change Systems and institutions that really requires that measure of personal commitment But the question that the that the person was leading it Asked was who was talking about racism and he said so for each of us How much has as racism? impacted your life Simple questions. I started wrestling with that obviously it's a big big deal But you know looked at other people and I thought I'm not going to say that it impacts me as much as it impacts the president So but it's it's a big impact, you know, of course there are other things that impact it I struggled on what my percentage number was Simple kind of question, and I don't know where I where I came down on number It was I don't know it was probably closer to 50% than anything else. Maybe a little bit about that And then I wrote that answer and then I started hearing other people talk about how they perceive that and and there really is only one answer to that question and It's it's a hundred percent Because there is nothing that has happened in my life that hasn't been impacted by those by racism by the institutions by the systems that There is nothing in my life that it which is not to say there are not other things that it also have impacted my life But in answer to that question How much of my life has been impacted by there is only one answer to that question? Thank you And I would like to ask on Alba So as a policy advisor and just as someone who would understand this from a perhaps a different perspective as the mayor How would you define? institutional racism That's the question at hand, isn't it? So, you know aside from being a policy advisor I also teach social justice here at UT at the school of social work And this is a question that I have my students wrestle with semester after semester and Like the mayor's reflection regarding the activity it is difficult Quite to pinpoint Exactly where race enters and exits as we live our daily lives and our daily experience but I think the The point of the reflection the point of the activity and the point of our task as a task force Was that we live in a racialized society? Meaning that there is nothing that we do nothing in our experience that is not a racialized experience So who we get to interact with? Where we get to live the jobs that we get to have and then ultimately our life outcomes This is a racialized process and so institutional racism Are the structures that hold that together and those structures are made of all the people within those structures? And then we get the diverse Outcomes That we see around us right that often puzzle us So institutional racism is about that racialized experience and the structures that hold that together And I think it kind of goes back To some extent of what the mayor was saying about the hundred percent, right? I mean because even if you're not a person of color You've benefited from racism and institutional racism is being privileged So it had it affects us all and it and it diminishes us all it can The acknowledgement of it the calling it out by its name Can benefit us all but it can also very much diminish us all So Brian oaks You are relatively new to the city of Austin as the first chief equity officer What can the city do? So what we're focused on is to sort of think about how do we take? Something like institutional racism and really begin to unpack our System or our structure as a city to see where we can make changes to have better outcomes For different races and ethnicities within the city and so for us We've really started by focusing on three principles within the city to really get to institutional racism for us And that is that we're focused on Normalizing around equity and race, which is really around developing a shared understanding Making sure that our staff Has the competencies and the skillset to really focus on issues like this and do this type of work. So it means Tackling sort of tough issues like race right and talking about that in the workplace And how do we develop training curriculum around actually addressing issues like that or unconscious bias and all those Things that we know are layered in you know with this topic We're also focused on When I like to call organizing around racial equity, which means that it can't be just one group It can't always just be people of color trying to you know do this work It really does take a coalition of everyone coming together and so it's building champions It's building support It's building different task forces and teams to really sort of cross it Cross promoting and collaborate with each other to really sort of consciously address these issues And I say last but not least and this is the part that I always kind of feel like it's probably not The sexiest thing that we do but we're focused on what I like to call operationalizing around equity And a racial equity which is to think about our policies our programs our procedures and Really sort of analyzing how they either help or hurt communities of color at the end of the day And one of the ways that we're doing that is that we've worked With the community on the only we call co-creative process to develop the city's first Equity racial equity assessment tool and we have eight departments that are actually piloting The use of this tool right now, and I'd call them courageous because in that tool We're asking some really tough questions around how you do your business as a department We're asking about do you consciously put dollars towards actually training around addressing issues like racism We're asking questions around Do you actually sort of set set goals and look at how you improve staff diversity, right? We're asking tough questions around your community engagement You have Given us a lot and I do you want to take a moment to to focus on You talked about an equity tool. Was that what you called it and you talked about policies Now dr. Burnett, I know that you've been here long enough And we're talking about policies. We're talking about an equity tool And I'm glad you began to break it down because brother you would lose using some big words there for a moment Some of that bureaucratic lingo and I was like, okay, we're gonna have to break that down and unpack that however When you talk about policies and you're talking about equity tools, let's let's just cut to the quick Gentrification the most economic segregated city in the United States The displacement of people of color from well and some people are calling it the second Exodus with the first exodus happening back in the early 1900s with the city plan that moved African-Americans to East Austin and and also moved Hispanics to different places in the city so The city actually had policies that exacerbated that that Facilitated that as you all know, you're at HT. You're in the community so How do you deal with that? First of all when I was first read I've been here I'll be it'll be two years in July and when I was researching Austin and the university The university zip code 7 8 7 0 2 Through Google, you know, that's where you find everything That's a verb They it Google told me that Person that's a person exactly That 7 8 7 0 2 had the highest amount of gentrification in the nation outside of New York City That's pretty astounding So I knew I was coming to a university that was in a highly gentrified area and I didn't quite know how to interpret that So as I when I got to Austin and began to learn about Austin and someone told me about the plan And I went to research and read the plan it helped me to understand why there was so much pain around gentrification That didn't occur in other cities that are being gentrified And with DC, New York, Atlanta, Boston, even cities that have high gentrification they've embraced their The community the original community in a way that Austin had not because of Austin's history So to respond to your question It's going to take a while because first of all that healing has to happen people are very angry We've had several forums on campus to talk about the issue of re gentrification the issue of gentrification the issue of Racism and the university can serve as an honest broker and one of the things that I'm really emphasizing as the president of Houston Tillerson is that we play a role to maintain the important culture and history in that area Irrespective of how people think that there are no more black people living in people of color particularly black people living in East Austin That's not true. I see them every day. They're people that we want to avoid There are people that we want to act like they don't live there but I live in East Austin I work play in East Austin and I come to work in the morning at the corner of 12th in chicane or chicken as my GPS says The corner of 12th in chicane. I'll see you know something very ironic I'll see a white female jogging With her baby and her dog and then I'll see the brothers sitting under what my husband calls a tree of knowledge Clearly with in a very destitute place in his life, and I you can see that in one Visual image, and that's just not okay So people are disappearing, but we're allowing that to happen because We were pretending like it happened and it's over and even on the steering committee of the task force. There was considerable Disagreement because we had developers that thought that they had done a good thing To rid East Austin of crime and know what the people say happened to East Austin And then you have people who lived in that community and can no longer afford their homes very real stories But they had a very different impression So through very courageous and continuous conversations people need to talk to each other so that you can see the impact That you didn't even see you had an intention But it had a very different impact on people's lives And I think the report speaks to much of that to say that this is still happening So either we can continue to let it happen to Austin or we can do the very hard work To stop it from happening across the city and other areas and to that point the one thing I go to church on East 11th Street and you know as you say there can be the white woman jogging the The folks walking in their shorts and sandals the whites walking and we address to the tea to go to church And as we pass each other in the sidewalk I have noticed that African-Americans will speak but they will not make eye contact with us that the Gentrifiers they will not make eye contact with us. They will not speak to us So it is it is not just the gentrification, but it's the isolation and it's the division It's as if they don't see us and and I will say that on any given Sunday You're gonna see a whole lot of black people in East Austin because the churches are still there So mayor we're talking about in the report. It talks about the right to stay and I'd like you to chat a little bit about that because I also think there ought to be a right to return. I think so too I think that your your your goal when you're trying to Live in a city with a high quality of life has certain attributes And among those attributes are our diversity Among those attributes are our equity You have diversity and equity when you have different kinds of people in your city all over your city The goal I think is is one that The goal is one that that I think we can all embrace The difficulty comes in finding what is the path and what are the tools in order to be able to get there In Texas as a city We don't have a lot of the tools that cities most cities have across the country Because our legislature has taken those tools away from cities So the ways to be able to institutionalize equity or to institutionalize diversity or to institutionalize mixed income opportunities Have been stripped from us In fact, it was real disappointing to see that one of the new tools right this session that that we had wanted to Talk about and see if we could pioneer All we had to do was mention it in the report and quite frankly it is the one aspect of this report that Where we caused harm I'm mentioning it. You mean the linkage fees. Is that what you're talking about mentioning it by mentioning the tool Which is a tool to to promote equity and diversity and to institutionalize that well was something that came out in the middle of the legislative session and the legislature preemptively This session took away our right to be able to use a tool. We hadn't even used yet We had just talked about using much less taking away from us tools to do rent controls Or to do inclusive zoning so that when somebody gets owned to do residential structure They part of the deal is you have to put a certain amount toward homes that people can afford So we live in a city where because of state law The tools that many cities use we don't have Which just means which just means that we have to then be a little bit more creative But but I have a night I just wonder about something and and and I want to give everybody an opportunity to talk and maybe Brian out and Albert can answer this question, but you know, it seems like sometimes we're not really using the tools that we have Put a envelope we have Central health right central health is supposed to be a hospital district Bob knows that People in the audience knows that That's how it was set up with legislation It's still by definition a hospital district, but we no longer have a hospital, but Bracken Ridge Hospital once belonged to the city of Austin. It was a it was a taxpayers asset The land and the hospital now belongs to central health. They are developing it and The closest that they've come to talking about affordable housing Is in an RFQ meaning that when the RFP comes along it may or may not be there And only that has been done by a lot of pressure. So they got this asset for free. It belonged to us and How is it that? the city the chief equity officer The policy advisor the mayor the president of HT cannot bring pressure on Seaton set on central health, excuse me not on Seaton, but central health to make sure that there's Affordable units on when that Brack track is developed That's the kind of action that also needs to happen when you're talking about policies and and yes tools have been taken away But there are still some tools in the toolbox. I'll let anybody jump in I'll jump in right quick just to say one very quick thing that's where citizens like everyone in this room comes into play because you have a voice and Once this young man stopped me and said I know you're the co-chair of the task force you need to hold the mayor accountable and After I processed that my response was the mayor can't fix this It's up to everyday people that read and see these kinds of things happen and sit back and wait for someone else to do it because that became very clear with the task force that People don't realize the voice that they have and no vote is a vote That's true, and I appreciate that but let me just jump in and say but I believe the city and the county both select the board for central health so there is the so the pressure can also come from the mayor and the county commissioners and The city policy advisors and people who recognize that and say That's something we can do we can put that pressure the pressure can come from the top It's not just you know the activists. We have some sitting here In in the audience. It's not just them It is pressure that has to is that right am I right of you know, yeah, yeah Right, and he's been on the front lines a long time The the the pressure has to come from the top to they they have to wield their power to say We are not gonna. We are not going to allow this board to build with our asset a Development that only caters to The the the wealthy or the upper middle class and and I'd like to hear from Brian What what policy and equity tool do you have to address that? So one of the things that we're working on with within the city is To prioritize and look at how you consciously set goals to advance racial equity And I think what happens a lot of times within institutions is that there's never really the real conversation around What is our vision? What is our goal? And how do we actually get there and so one of the things that we're doing with the city is that our Council and mayor adopted Six priority outcome areas to really sort of help us focus our work and within those six Outcome priority areas. We're consciously looking at where the inequities are within those areas And as the equity office as it moves forward Those are going to be the benchmarks and the goals that we set set forward for the city in terms of how do we Consciously achieve it and so I would say that I'm not an expert on on central central health and and the way that they sort Of carried out their strategic plan But I would say that if leadership never has the discussion to consciously say how do we set goals? When are we going to do it by and hold our hold hold themselves accountable to it? Then you never really get there, right? And you never really have that conversation Around the decisions that you may and and whether or not they actually advance racial equity or are they are they hinder it? Right, and so it starts from the very beginning and baking it into to your goal You're not too late to have that conversation with them, and I hope you do an elbow. I'd like that from you I'd love to jump in You know my origin to this seat comes from doing community work and deep community organizing And so I don't take lightly What you're calling out as what needs to be a partnership when we do this work No side can do it alone because it takes a tremendous amount of pressure From all sides to turn a gigantic shift of institutionalized racism That we have been living with for hundreds of years. I think Part of what we need to do is to begin to redefine What return on investment means? Mm-hmm, right. Thank you for a very long time We have talked about a return on investment as what profits can be made and typically because of the institutionalized Nature of racism those profits are not going To the people as as you are calling out a big impetus For the publishing of this report Was to begin to redefine that right and to begin to publicly talk about it and to bring the language of What all of us activists and organizers are talking about with each other all of the time To places where that is not typically talked about When we presented this report so we're in a process of creating this change and creating this new language and Redefining what it means to use our assets and our ROI and admittedly we are not there yet because this is something that That perhaps in the past we had not been working in Partnership to do we had been working in silos to do correct or we had been working within the hierarchy that exists That keeps these structures in place And so now we're taking the work across that hierarchy to bust up that hierarchy But when we presented this report to council to be approved and adopted and essentially assigned to the city manager One of the council members it was very striking a non-minority council member in terms of race Literally said From this day forward everything that we have to look at and decide Needs to be taken with the lens that this report's take. This is now our lens But it has to be more as you said the silo and that that's what I'm concerned about It has to be greater than the city the city and the county and I know the mayor is just so wonderful in Building consensus and I I have watched him do it in this city and I'm so glad we have a smart consensus building mayor It has come in handy many times, especially at the legislature And as well as in Washington DC the way he's gone and fought for this city and fought for each and what each of us Both citizens and undocumented people But it can't just be that the city Is on its own there has to be partnerships as you say so I look at that and say you guys have got to reach across to central health and Get in their business and you've got to reach across to the University of Texas Muni and get in its business as the mayor has done and the the other thing is you talk about the right to stay or the right to return and the demolitions in East Austin are they go on and what frustrates me is You know, I we finally have a historical survey and very grateful We do because demolitions were taking place and people didn't know whether they were you know demolishing History and they were or not And it was a very easy thing to demolish anything in East Austin very difficult on the west side very very difficult on the west side to get To get things demolished very easy on the west side to get Something tagged as a landmark Okay, something tagged as a landmark and then get the tax incentives echo with that so on the east side when a building Was taken to the city Departments to be evaluated. It was evaluated for its redevelopment value Okay, now I'm talking about to the historical commission right to the historical department They evaluated East Austin properties based on their redevelopment value not on the criteria that laid out That's why Rosewood is in danger. So when we talk about equity, why isn't that equity? kind of dribbling down To historic sites before we lose the culture you want to preserve culture Mayor, you know that question is for you Why aren't we seeing that needle move when it comes to East Austin property the black school? The Montabula school is now in danger. I Think it is dribbling down. I think it's moving down and I think it's moving down because There has been now and I think there exists now in our community Within our city and with the elected city officials There is a greater focus on Having equity Lens applied to everything that we do. I think it was what Brian said I Can't think of anything we do on the city council right now that among the city council members It's not a filter that we just that not only is there in an amorphous way It is a pointed part of every conversation we have on everything that we do. Let me give you some statistics then 600 historic sites in in in Austin 600 city landmarks 40 are associated with African Americans and Alba 13 are associated with Latinos That's our city so How is it dribbling down and saving something like the Montabula school saving something like Rosewood courts when? really the They were ready to be demolished until there was You know intervention by several parties and I hate to say what your predecessors signed off on that I'm not my I think that you you identify what is a continuing problem in the city But this is also a city that for the very first time now has an equity officer We didn't have an equity officer until just now This is a city that's taken significant city resources and created An East Spirit of East Austin project. This is a city that has created this report This is a city that is actively engaged right now in the resolution of the of the Negro school If we're going to get graded on whether we have completed the task we will fail and we and we will get a failing rate But our things different is the conversation different today than the conversation was two years ago I think the answer to that is yes. Are there things that are happening today that we're not happening two years ago I think the answer to that is yes The issue of the of what happens with central health is a is an issue that this entire city Is engaged right now in ways that might not have happened two years ago and four years ago And I don't know if the I you know I and I'll go to my kind of consensus building place on the issue that you raised I Don't know that the right answer is To put affordable housing on that site I Don't know that but what I do know is that we need a conversation in the community That talks about how to use that community asset in the absolute best way to drive Equity to drive the ability for all parts of our community to be able to live in all parts of our community I don't know that if I have a choice of putting one family in the Austonian hotel or Or ten families within 400 feet of the Austonian hotel I choose to put the one family in the Austonian hotel Because that's not to trade off mayor It really is not because we we talk about this and and I'm gonna have to To stop right there and say all of these developments that have been built downtown developers had the opportunity They had the opportunity to either make affordable units or pay fees in lieu Okay, and those fees and Lou have not come to very much money. So it wasn't about having you know 10 affordable units in One development or having all this money to build 20 that wasn't the trade-off and Because we took the fee in lieu. We let them off cheap. We let them off, you know easy We could have had scattered Housing in downtown Austin affordable units and every bit does help now. We have these fees and the land is so expensive It's hard to even you have to go way outside the city to build something I agree with that a thousand percent but think what the but I'm not here to defend the last Systems the the system that we are trying to change Which is why on June 16th? The city will see a new density bonus program for exactly that reason Because the density program that we had in a city what did not go through that lens There was not the evaluation of it to say is it in fact driving the outcome that we want Because when you look at that way it it it failed it did not work but you you said something and excuse me for one second and I I want to get Alba to respond to that because I Think we we view things differently We we view things differently because you're talking about getting the most you said a bracken ridge the black track to do Thus and thus and so and thus and so and I'm talking about Putting your mouth where putting your money where your mouth is saying that This is our this is what Austin believes we believe people of color should be living here Along with the doctors nurses, whatever Who are going to be live living there? We believe people of color should be able to live Downtown Austin on this track that we once owned and was an taxpayer asset and you got for free Now when I asked central health They told me well, you know Alberta, you know, we have to do our main thing is health So we have to make sure that whatever we develop is health and and and we serve You know poor people and I'm like so you don't think housing is part of health. You don't think environment is part of health So Alba, I would like to hear from you About the idea that we should just allow like the mayor says that track to be developed and maybe be used in some other way And by the way, I was not recommending that okay I was saying that is the conversation that we as a community need to have okay Fair enough well and part of it is that that is a conversation that we as a community now get to have Because we have brought transparency to the issues of racism And I don't say that to say that this is the first time that we are talking about race Those are bars who are of race and at the bottom of that racial hierarchy have been talking about that all along But we get to have that conversation with the context of racialization now and to make that part of the ROI that we've been talking about tonight Because we've got folks like the mayor who are saying this is my task force This is what we need to be talking about So I think that it is an ongoing component on that and we want to hear people talking about that we're not Shying away from that as a city and in fact I Keep going back to the day that we presented the task force plan but you know the other thing that was on the agenda for the work session of council that day was the housing plant and the Council members stood up and said actually there's a whole chunk of this task force report That is missing from that plan housing department Right, and that is the beginning of being able to publicly have That conversation in the halls of power in a way that it hasn't been before and that's that's wonderful So we hope that if this is one of the first cases out of the gate, right? That has come post this plan That that will be incorporated Thank you. I want to ask dr. Burnett and Mr. Oaks or Brian There was a question somebody submitted to me about Banking and finance since the city has doesn't really have control or authority or regulate those industries Why include them? What can they really do? What was the purpose and I'd like to ask you Should they have been included and why and what it what are your thoughts about that? What can the city do the two things? Five pillars if you will that were chosen for the working groups there was a lot of discussion that went on behind that that didn't just happen and The thought how we got to that was that each of those areas hold up a community Individually and collectively and you made a really good point earlier that I want to really make sure I'd live is that no area Stands alone. Well, the report says that if you are poor You can't get alone It dictates where you live it dictates the quality of education and they eventually can dictate your health So there's this interrelation among those five working groups one of the one of the working groups was Police and one of the judges is on the steering committee Raised to our to our attention that it really isn't about police brutality It's about the civil and criminal justice system And that's how that became one of the pillars and the second part of that the banking a group We had several bank. Well, we had bank presidents on the steering committee It was really a good mixture of people from all walks of life And they as a group have decided to do things collectively and to look at the way loans are brought the way loans are done way loans are Processed through their systems collectively and normally banks are very competitive So for them to say we want to sit in one room and if nothing else comes of this There have been things like that that have happened to what I consider move the needle forward and to have a ray of hope Because as a black female When when black people get together all we talk about is white people You spend a lot of time talking about what white people are doing to us And I don't think white people get together and talk about black people so like all the time at a party and You know I say that broad brush But generally the conversation eventually tends to move to that because we it's something that we live with a hundred You know hundred percent of the time like the mayor was talking about earlier. So this task force is not to dismantle racism We'd have a magic wand and we'd be we'd be wealthy if we could think more than wealthy It's a continuation of a lot of hard work. That's already happened by People whose voices have not been heard. It's easy to change policy etc for wealthy people It's very complicated and hard and very courageous to do things for people that Are not wealthy or people that don't have a voice and that's what I was speaking about earlier that Every day people have to do that in your every walk of life. So for the task force. It's at the next step Dr. Cruz and I had to call people to see if they would serve on the steering committee And I received responses from activists in the community that said oh not another task force You know, I don't want to do this again Austin. It's famous for task forces, but okay I'll try it this time and those same individuals by the end of this process We're had a very hopeful attitude that maybe because we have the leader of the city Championing this and we had people on the on the task force who had not really thought about their own privilege and How in their walk in their life how they hire what vendors they work with Through this courageous conversations training to to come into touch with your own Self because it really has to happen at a very personal level on how you walk through your own life So it's not to dismantle racism and racism is going to be gone in Austin in a month or a week or a month or a year It's to begin the process of moving the an entire community Forward because we can be a prosperous city But we're not really a prosperous city if everyone is not having the opportunity to prosper Because we may be equal as a nation, but we when there is no equity and there's a huge difference between Equality and equity And if you're not a person who doesn't feel like you're not treated equitably You don't really think about it So the purpose of this was to raise the the lens almost because this nation built the TSA an Entire branch of the government which takes an act of Congress Almost overnight Because we responded to fear We chose to do that because we responded to fear until people who are not affected by it feel it in a very deep way Then we won't invest in making these changes So it's 70 pages That's what the report is. It's got over 200 recommendations in it Because the mayor's charge to us was to include every recommendation so that every voice could be heard Most people that criticize the report I had someone criticize the report and then at the end of our conversation He said where do I find it? I said you haven't even read it So people need to read it because it lifted it right so it lifts Your awareness and in your own walk, whether you're with the health system or education or whether you're a Banker in the F that we call it the FBI the finance banking industry. That's ironic Arm of the task force Read it. It's 70 pages and it has a wealth of information Which just lifts the way people think it just changes your perspective Irrespective of you know, your socioeconomic status irrespective of your education level Irrespective of your your race your gender your ethnicity It just makes you aware of how far we have to go as a city To make changes and and it is a ray of hope and I've seen an awakening because we've been asked to speak about this In several forms and so people are interested people genuinely want to know like I said earlier It's really not about racist people. It's about you being engaged in a racist System and whether you work in a school whether you work on for an Industry a startup just process your own walk and how you're you're interacting and acting on your own privilege So I think she handled that question very well I'm gonna move to the criminal justice question for you because we have a criminal justice system here in Austin and Travis County and Disproportionate number of African-Americans and Latinos and in particularly African-Americans the numbers are really staggering are in jail incarcerated and Yet, you know, and there's a whole discussion about this There seems to be synergy by conservatives and by liberals about reforming criminal justice But there's not been a whole lot of movement In the system because the results don't show that movement We have had a little bit of progress the sobriety center drug courts a Little bit of progress, but even the drug courts turned out to be racist so Give me your perspective on how we move that needle So I think one of the most disturbing things for me In Austin is that African-Americans we represent a percent of the population but I think about 22 percent of the arrest and so We like to do a calculation that we we call sort of disproportionality or are the over under Representation and so when you look at that Being black in Austin you are 235 percent more likely to be booked and taken to jail and So for for me, I think we have to consciously begin to look at How do we sort of address the bias that is within our criminal justice system? And how do we sort of look at policy opportunities to really kind of get at Having better equitable outcomes as it relates to the criminal justice system And so almost for like this is one of those those things that the community can really get involved in in terms of Accountability standards, you know that that that we set for law enforcement and our police departments, right? It also sort of takes Community being aware and aware and conscious about those opportunities to really sort of make their voice be heard When those windows sort of open up for the community to get engaged But I think it's really for us to really consciously think about how do we really address the root cause of What we see in the system and and knowing that there's areas to fix in the system because we're seeing the outcomes That are disproportionate at the end of the day and so What would be Alba one recommendation that if you could give to a PD a Simplice department as well as to the Travis County Sheriff's Office about the criminal justice system Well, I think There are many recommendations in the report to be taken very seriously But you know some years back the justice percent dissent decree came down On the fire department, for example, and we've had other things that have come down on a PD and etc all of these Units of public safety and so a big Attention needs to be paid to Who is wearing those uniforms? What their training and awareness is Whether we are steering that ship in the direction of Militarization or whether we're steering that ship to really do public safety and public safety looks many ways and When I was Involved with community organizing one of the things that we brought to counsel was to think about The assets a little bit differently and to think about what else constitutes public safety And we talked about things like lighting in the neighborhoods things like after-school programs and all sorts of Different investments that aren't typically thought about public safety And we brought the case of a police officer who's involved with the police activities League The police activities League is literally police officers who run Programming in neighborhoods They do soccer they do Basketball they do all sorts of different things and it's a completely different way to think about the role And therefore to think about who the residents are in your community and what your relationship there and interject something because so just This past week my husband happens to be a lawyer So he got this case from a friend. It's a friend's kid 18 years old He was smoking a joint in the park He's African-American with some white kids so the police come along they smell the marijuana and All the kids are doing it He goes and he searches the black kids car He finds the marijuana and he arrests the black kids the black kid Now he never searched the white kids car. He only searched the two the one black kids car So he was the only one arrested So the others got to go home And that's not an uncommon thing So when you say the community has to see the police a certain way the police have to see the community To see the community a certain way right right that we need to begin shifting the way that police and people in uniform Think about our community, right? Are you thinking about your community as people that you are serving and protecting? And are you thinking about being a part of your community a way that you are an integral part that you are there With people in their experiences or are you criminalizing them? So I was exactly saying the opposite right and the example of the police officer being involved in that way that in that community I do want to give the name of that officer. Her name is Officer Paula Aguilar And she is a model because she has brought hundreds of kids together in this type of programming and Is spending her time doing that in a way that says I see you as children That need to have these experiences. I don't see you as criminals waiting to feel beds in prison So precisely the opposite of but mayor Do they really think we are the community when? Almost what well to third at least two-thirds of them Live outside the city. Do they really see us as their community? They live in Kyle. They live in Buda I've seen as far as Fort Worth I've seen I don't know Western far Western Travis County. Well beyond Travis County Burnett County Can they really see us as the community? We're not the Boy Scout Girl Scout troop that That they're involved with you know Some police officers when I've interviewed them and told me I would never live in the city of Austin. There's too much crying Police officer told me that I would never send my child to an Austin school. There are no good schools police officer told me that So Did that can they really see us as a community? Not the way they would have they lived in the community, right? And and what can we do about that? Well For the first time the Council is taking a much more active role in the negotiation of public safety contracts this year Then I have ever seen happen in my time in the city of Austin We basically have stopped the negotiations while we just work through and and and and discuss those those issues I think that's going to be one of the issues that gets discussed councilmember Houston has already raised that issue But the larger issue and just to touch on real fast Because it looks like people are waving They are what precipitated this report at this time was not only the general need for this report because Every moment of time has been the right time But what precipitated this was the events that happened a summer ago The last incident there were two incidents there was the the black child naked running down the street there was shot and there was the woman who was being like a doll and and we were Reflexively as a community because we're a good community went to a place to have Gathered together people that have a good meaningful conversation And it was looking at having yet another meaningful conversation where we said can't do this again We actually have to have specific things But it started off talking about criminal justice But in the conversations about how to tee up getting specific answers to deal with criminal justice We realized that you that it goes back to the point that you made at the beginning that Perhaps one of the most significant things you can do our criminal justice is to is to change access to capital Or to change housing or to bring communities together And in a very real sense, that's as much public as you said public Safety spending is anything else. So This this was began with with criminal justice and the way it manifested itself was in the five pillars And and the hope coming out of this report is to look at this issue and say It is in everything. It is in where we live. It's where our officers live It is it is everything and it is pervasive and it is the same thing in many different forms in as many different places I did not ask the task force to focus on the city or what the city could do In fact, the charge was specifically don't do that look at our city not city government look at our city and and and and if You look at the recommendations and a lot of these recommendations don't have anything to do with city action And the fact that one of the first things that's actually happening this community is The presidents of the banks are getting together To work through this chapter City's not do making them do that County's not making them do that The newspaper is not making them do that This is having one or two evangelists who went through this experience With the president and with these heroes up here and they said this is our deal This is in in their personal This is our deal and they are meeting collectively to in the way that they never met collectively to do anything And this is what they're focused on now. I applaud these folks with for the work that they did because There are a lot of things that have gone wrong and there are a lot of policies we need to change But but I see signs that this is in fact constructive. Thank you mayor. Good place, too Are we okay with questions? Okay? Thank you so much for this wonderful talk. I Want to let you know I am the new appointee for central health's board of managers and Would you like to have my chair I Will stand up as being first of all the first Muslim to be on the board and understanding what racism is and has Experienced it. I will do everything that I can with my will to make sure the decisions that we make are right for a community Are just and equitable and talking about housing addressing social determinants of health is definitely a priority and health is not within the walls of a doctor is outside and That's all I want to say. I will do everything we can. Thank you. Thank you the city Not only the newest member, but the city council's appointee Thank you mayor for for coming here, we really appreciate it my name is Michael Lewis and I've been living here in this community for almost 30 years and All of those all up those years. I've seen People get their houses taken away over in East Austin because they cannot afford to pay the property taxes And you stated that we don't have to tools that other cities might have What can we do? To have those tools necessary so that we don't have people getting pushed out of East Austin because they can't afford their property tax We don't have a lot of tools that city says but we do have tools to go to to Alberta's point and we need to use them We have the ability to do density bonuses where we give people additional Opportunity to build and and to get a commitment for them. We have homestead preservation districts We have the ability to be able to take property off of the tax rolls You know that we've talked about incentives in the city in the past where we've attracted big companies with big jobs And we've those are called 380 agreements We've now asked the staff to go back and take had a whole new way we look at incentives If there can be an incentive program that deals with property taxes for a big company moving in Why can't we have an incentive program that deals with property taxes on a lot? Yes now The law was not written to allow for that We're gonna try that and then I will tell you two years from now. We will be fighting to keep that Because that's not what that maybe that's not what it was written to do, but we're gonna use it that way So it is it is doing as many of those things as we can we're trying to put together a strike fund now That doesn't have philanthropic dollars that has investment dollars for a low return But still a positive return and while the my July is going to be taken off trying to to promote that and And then make that go so we have those opportunities to it is Cobbling together as many of the little tools we do have and trying to use them in new and creative ways I didn't mean to suggest that because we don't have those tools We've given up because we haven't every bit of our energy and effort is directed toward maximizing the tools that we do have Thank you. Thank you mayor had opportunity to talk to hundreds of people when I ran for office last year That was one of their major concerns my concern was education because we do need to have more qualified individuals to get the good paying jobs that are coming to Austin But they was really concerned about being moved getting put out of their house because they could not afford the property tax Thank you Evening y'all my name is Dorothy Garrison and I had the privilege of serving in the education work group in the in the task force and Question that was brought up in our group frequently was Students are at the table students of color weren't at the table parents weren't at the table Communities especially Students and families of color dealing disproportion out Disproportionality and discipline weren't at the table. We just the 40 of us or so were in a group Siloed it felt like Creating these recommendations and so my question from that experience and moving forward How can we ensure that the task force as well as the equity tool are more open and not siloed so that the community We all but not just us in this room, but folks of color disproportionate disproportionately impacted by our institutions have a voice at the table there were It was very complicated to create the steering committee because we wanted to be diverse So a lot of work went into diversifying that steering committee and even more work went into diversifying the working groups It makes me a little sad that you felt as an individual that those voices weren't heard because out of 40 people We worked very hard to make the voices heard and not to be siloed In fact, we had meetings after meetings opening it up so that people would continue to have their voices heard once the report was released we encourage people to read through it as working group members and then to add their input so to address your your concern which is a Extremely valid one we want if we because Dr. Cruz and I have committed to stay engaged and to Continue to work for towards action. They're actioning these these Recommendations at least some of them So I'll keep that on top of my mind that people still feel that voices weren't heard Because we we've worked very hard to be sure that all voice are it's very complicated It's very complicated. I mean it was like herding cats almost Because everybody is busy, right? Everybody's worried in fact when the mayor called me One evening to ask me would I be engaged while he was talking in the mayor's way? To get to what I knew he was going to ask me to be engaged with something and my mind I was thinking I can't I'm gonna say no Because I'm too busy. I mean I'm working at an institution that we're we're we're challenged We're very challenged. We have a wonderful mission, but we're challenged because of all these things that we're talking about today But my heart was saying you would be a hypocrite to say no because I talk about people that talk about stuff But don't do it like I get very frustrated when people say oh, I don't I don't like the way this is happening This is racist and then when you say, what are you doing about it? I'm just talking about it So I didn't want to be one of those persons. So when the mayor finally got to the ask My mind was like no But my heart said yes willingly Because it is important work And so we need people to step up to the plate to be engaged in it So I encourage you and it doesn't have to be with the mayor's task force. It could be Very small things that you get engaged in And I understand to the top of the charge that I gave to this group again Because there's a pretty high caliber group and thank you for participating on that working group Because I had people that were participating in this that did not have the time to be able to participate in this I Dictated a process that would be up and down in like 90 days Because that's how we got both commitment to people and to a degree the work will always expand expand at the time You have to do it recognizing that there were sacrifices and compromises that would be made in giving People such a short time to get something done. So I appreciate that I own that I created Problems with setting up systems. Well, that would have had this work better because I required that this be done fast The the timeline was March 31st and Which was 90 days which felt extremely daunting in Hindsight if we hadn't been given a timeline, we would still be talking We'd still be meeting we'd still be trying to involve other people and we turned it in on March 31st Like what was it all about? What like 107 a.m. 107 a.m. Which was really March 31st Because I hadn't gone to sleep yet And then we didn't go to sleep and then we came here and we continue to go to other places and all sorts of places Church communities venues like this. We're willing to take that anywhere and not only to Spread what's in there, but to talk about what's not in there and what needs to be Continue to be built That needs to be in there And even to the county we've actually been to the county the county leadership has expressed interest in it and Did the academic community one of the questions I got was the there was so much expertise from on Inequities and racial racial inequities in the academic communities and and they weren't tapped to be part The steering committee or whatever Richard Reddick was on there right Richard was and we had Dr. Rhodes Dr. Roads several people from My own and from Dr. Tang even from my own institution, so we just couldn't include everyone But that those are great people right but the work continues. I mean, it's it wasn't like it's not a coffee table Thing it has a beautiful cover Beautiful cover But it's not a coffee table item It's a really a living and breathing document and and we're committed to not letting it die Because in my own and work I see young people every day that are have rays of hope and they may Be poor some of them, but poor doesn't mean that you're not smart It means you haven't been exposed and this is all about giving opportunities and exposure To to people who wouldn't normally have right and one of the other things that came out of the test was is we don't have enough data Right that really tells the real story So the charge is back to institutions of higher education and other think tanks to really Find more data about people of color people who are different than we have already So this is gonna be our last question So my question is about historical and Institutional knowledge with so many people moving to Austin these days You talked a lot about the past and the idiosyncrasies that is Austin. What can be done to help inform? Folks who are moving to the city For instance, why there's a community center in their bar district on rainy Street? What can be why can what can we do to inform people about the idiosyncrasies that is Austin? I think one of the things that I really appreciated about this report Was that it really gave a lot of focus to the to the historical? Issue of race in in Austin and one of the things that we talked a lot about in the work that we're doing with our departments at the city is that Acknowledging that that history is the first step, you know to know where you're going you have to know where you've where you've been and so for us That's one of the things that we want to really bake into to our training and our development for staff as we move forward So that they know that that racial history in the city when they come on board to to work for us And so, you know, I think a lot of times what happens is that I Like to say community sort of gets amnesia about certain things as it relates to to race And so I always think that it's so important to keep that front and center and to really acknowledge, you know That history and that's one of the things I really appreciated about this report really kind of calling out things like the city's couch and Fowler plan of 1928 and really sort of like explicitly talking about how that segregated our city How that led to sort of devalue in a property and if you think about it from that point on You saw a systematic under investment In the eastern crescent of this city and I think that that calling attention to that and just being truthful and Honest and open about that is so important to do and and not try to sort of cover over those things And I'll add that part of it is having Conversations about this and non traditional places where this happens You could say that this space is a pretty traditional place for this type of conversation to happen if it's gonna happen anywhere in the city But part of what we did was, you know, the finance banking industry at first it was like We need to look at banking practices, right? And that was one of the things that we had a lot of awareness about and then we sat back and thought We need to add industry What does industry mean that means all of the tech industry and all the other types of industry That are in the city and we need to charge these folks to think about Themselves as employers right and as the engines of the economic development of the community a completely different way And what you're talking about is a need to take the conversation to those spaces so that people And institutions that don't traditionally feel like they have a dog in the fight feel like they have a dog in the fight And so that's part of our work now As you know a second act, right the continuing act of where we're taking the conversations Who we're asking to give us an airspace to have Some time with them to to think about themselves in a completely different manner So I would just have on the roof asked that question Feels like nails on a blackboard to me Why is there a community center in the middle of a bar district? I mean, that's a really good question But the real question is why is there a bar district in the middle of the community? Because that was the question that we wrestled with as a as a community So I think the point that you make in that question is is Incredibly salient point because if we don't know our history don't we don't know who we are and and I can only say that that There are many of us that talk about this at every opportunity we can as many different groups as we can That that that one of the priorities while the city is moving forward and talking about doing a great Waller Creek Linear Park and people are talking about doing a convention center expansion There are those of us that are saying none of those get to move forward until we use whatever Economic momentum there is to not only fix the homelessness there at the arch But also to fund the completion of the Mac that community center that that is that community on the ground My salient moment of this Evening tonight. It's gonna be that question. I was just gonna simply add We start the report off with a letter to the mayor and in it we quote we quote congressman lbj Where he talks about that he loved Austin very dearly But it was the tale of two cities and the point there was we're still talking about this Several years later. So at what point do we as a community? Embrace it and say we're going to really move the needle and make a change and the quote was actually from congressman Lbj. Yeah, and as I remember reading that Austin was known as the city of the violet crown crown And he said that there's a stain on the violent crime violent crown So that that was pretty impressive that he would say that at that time and that we are still talking about it So and it's something that we'll probably talk about for a while, but we also need to move out of the talk stage Into the action stage and that's gonna as you all said build consensus and take all of us to do that With that I want to thank everybody and I think that ends the program