 They're not answered in the next few minutes. Please feel free to contact me. Thank you so much, Pamela. Thank you for everything. You are truly an amazing force that we have, and I think we all feel a lot of gratitude. I think Councillor Walker has her hand up to ask you a question, and then I don't see any other hands after that. Councillor Walker, does anyone hear Councillor Walker speaking? I know. Why don't we have Councillor Walker send her question to Pamela so Pamela can go. And nothing is open to the question. Pamela, thank you. Oh, and that, yes. Just before Pamela leaves, this press wouldn't have been possible without Pamela's contributions. She showed up on day one and got her hands and things with me. I had, I don't know if folks know, I had some real dark days at the beginning of this thing, and she had every excuse not to stay out of it. It was messy, it was hard, and she worked herself tirelessly for me. I think there are lots of people in this room and in this town that Cress wouldn't exist without. We would not be what we are without Pamela Young, and that will be true forever. And so I know that we're having hard conversations, but I hope that folks will always remember that this woman came into a tough job in a tough moment and has worked herself to the bone for us. And I know you don't get to see it every day, but I do. Gee, she will meet with me in the middle of anything, sometimes just to talk me off a cliff and the town is better for her being here. So I just, I know we're navigating challenging things, but you're lucky to have her. I'm lucky to have her. And I just wanted to say that publicly. Thank you very much. So I appreciate it. So I can take Councillor Walker's question if she's... Can you all hear me? Yes. Okay, I was actually saying that I'm okay with letting Pamela leave and that I would be happy to send my questions to her. I have some comments, but none of them need her to be here. And I would be happy to find another time to talk with her. All right, I'll look forward to it. And thank you very much for allowing you to leave a little bit earlier. Thank you so much, Pamela. Thank you, Pamela. Feel better. Okay, so I wanted to check in quickly here. I did a quick peek at number six and number seven and we have covered a lot. We have covered those in various portions of the discussion tonight, particularly number six. We talked about the anti-racism training and other training. And number seven, we talked about the communication plan just now between with Anna's question as well as the translation pieces of things. So I think what we really have left here that folks still have, it seems to me much to talk about is the Youth Empowerment Center. And so if there's no opposition, I would like to focus the remainder of our time on the Youth Empowerment piece and maybe that we consider that 11 o'clock could be a time that we would want to... I see we're down to one page, which means we've lost some of the folks that were in this meeting. And I imagine that might continue. So... Michelle, I would just say we had like four people who had their hands up to say something about Cress. So I just wanna make sure... Okay, let's go back to that. Allegra, thank you so much for reminding me of that. Yes. Okay, so let's take the folks who, if you had your hand up for Cress, go ahead and put your hand back up and then we'll take those folks and then we'll go to Youth Empowerment. So I think, Earl, is your hand still up from... Okay, so I'm gonna go to Ronnie and then Allegra and then Councilor Walker. I'll film for that as well. Forgive me, I'm not really a nice person, but here we go. My question really was, I'm very impressed by everything you've done and the challenges of innovation. And I would like to hear a little bit more about what your approach has been about how to break this barrier. You mentioned watching what's happening in Denver. You also mentioned that you're very different from a lot of the others because the others are parts of other departments. I don't know, you gave some explanation of how you're different. So in some respects, one would say, why look at what the others are doing? Because you have an edge here. You've got your own group, you train them yourself. And I'm wondering strategically how you're thinking about breaking this barrier of innovation. For example, in my mind, and I don't know anything about this. So forgive me if I sound really naive. You've been around for 10 months. Like I would look at this point at what the police calls have been about. And I would say, okay, which of these can my team handle? Or could my team have handled and use that to negotiate with the police about what we'll start handling? So that would be one thing. And the other thing that really surprised me in the beginning was your shift, which I know other people have talked about, the nine to five thing. I'm wondering without getting a whole other shift and the alternative seems to be, do we have another shift? But actually that's not the alternative. There are many alternatives, including having only an evening shift. So you still have one shift, but it's at a time when there's greater demand for your services. And I'm assuming that's when there's a greater demand. I don't know. So to finish quickly, I'm just sort of curious and thinking about where does Crest go next? You do have to take a leap of faith. I mean, I don't see how you get around that. You've got to jump. So the question is, how much can you narrow that gap before you take that leap? And when do you want to do it? And it seems to me now's the time, but that's me. Ronnie, I'm always glad when our paths cross, you always ask good compelling questions. So thank you for being here. So a couple pieces. My approach to the work is, I mean, I just want to acknowledge that it may sound a little flowery, but it is that the thing that most folks are suffering from is a lack of relationship, that most people are struggling because, I think of how most of us solve our problems is that we reach out to someone who cares about us, who can guide us or inform us or sometimes provide the resources to solve the issue. So our approach to the work is this idea that I really believe in of, we don't ask people to trust us. We are trustworthy in our actions and we encourage them to watch us be trustworthy in that. We talk about kindness in our office. We talk about appreciation for each other. We talk about the barriers we've had and how we might surmount them together. The shift thing, we are not working one shift. So just to be super clear, the nine to five thing has been over since very early January. Right now we are open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays. That's a kind of, if you look at the call volume that day, it does tend to be a little bit earlier. It's kind of people getting back into the week. Tuesday through Friday, we are in town from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. There is a shift that starts at 8 a.m. and goes to 4 p.m. Another shift that starts at 12 p.m. and goes to 8 p.m. And those folks, the benefit of that shift is that there's some overage. So we, from noon to four, we are able to really kind of, for challenging cases where there may be a concern and we need to send more than one team for folks who may need transportation, which is a huge issue for folks. When you think about mental health things, it's easy to refer someone to a place, but if they can't get there, then what's the point? If they can't get the medication, if they can't do the things that they need to do to get better, then you're just selling them a panacea. It's not gonna help. So that 12 to four allows us to really focus, to do some things that would be challenged with less than two teams on, or with two teams on. And then four to eight really is a team that we're really building their endurance for nine while one calls. They're taking more challenging calls during the 12 to four piece. They're doing some training and trauma work, some additional training and de-escalation because they will be the first members of our team to work at night. It's just a matter of the season's changing. And then Saturdays we're in town 10 to six. I am ready to leap. Our next leap is to take nine while one calls. That is a tremendous leap. I would say there's really three points at which a department like ours fails. One is the hiring, two is the training, three is the start of nine while one. On the other side of this, on the other side of normalizing this nine while one experience, which is gonna take us some time. Cause it's not like we're gonna do a month, we're gonna feel really good and then we're gonna have solved this problem. We're gonna start taking them during summer. This town looks pretty different during summer. So we're gonna use the summer to train. We're gonna train on those calls. We're gonna build the capacity. And we're thinking of game days is when the schools come back in, when the increase of folks in here makes it more complicated and then we'll have to normalize there. But I would say some of that feeling is having kind of active conversations with departments outside of here. But a lot of it is talking with people here. What is the kind of consistency folks need to solve their issues? What are the challenges? And some of it is the education piece. There are times where we show up and people are like, hey, I thought I called the cops. I don't know. Hey, I don't know exactly what you do and there's some education that has to happen in the field. And that does sometimes take time. There's an education that needs to happen in the community, which we're hoping to achieve with some learning opportunities for community members to come in and learn alongside our staff in real tangible trainings for them to get a sense of what we know but for us to learn alongside them. I would say I'm always eager to leap and the better part of Valor has saved me. If we had jumped too fast here, I've seen departments that got too eager and didn't make it. Even in the year I've been here, departments have failed. And it's generally not for budget. It's because they make a move without having solid footing. So like I said, Roddy and I agree with you. I think the time the jump is coming soon and I still think we'll be the fastest to our next steps. We know that the mandate here is for us to do this as quickly and smoothly, but I'm not gonna let better be the enemy of good. The work we're doing today is good. The work we'll do this summer will be better than it is today. The work we'll do in the fall will be better than that. And if you give me a little bit of time, I think, and my team, particularly my coworkers are excellent. I think we'll have an excellent department for you in a reasonable amount of time here. Did I answer your question? Okay. Super satisfying in your words. Thank you, Earl. Roddy gets me psyched up. Okay, Allegra, please. I have three things. The first is, I think, going back to the theme of transparency for the evening. And I guess we met at some point at the beginning of the budget process and we're told, you know, I present my budget to the town manager and he presents it, you know, finalizes things. So are we able to know whether the budget that you dreamed of and the budget that you are receiving is aligned? I think the town manager made a statement when he spoke about the budget that nobody got everything they wanted. That is generally not the way that budgets work. I've never submitted a budget and got everything I wanted. I think, you know, it's important for me and it's important for our team. We talk about this. We exist in a context. I recognize that, yeah. So did I get everything I dreamed about? No, that hasn't happened to me once in my career. And town manager, I'm certainly open to you filling in the gaps here. Paul, I think Earl was asking if you wanted to fill in. Oh, well, I think Earl said it. I mean, we had over a million dollars of requests that we could not fulfill from departments. I think that Earl has been superior at obtaining grants and things, but be clear on what something I said earlier, his department is funded with town of Amherst taxpayer dollars fully. That's been fully incorporated into our budget and that's been a high priority. The other point I'd like to make is that, you know, I talked earlier about why we are building these departments to survive and to last a long time. One step is to incorporate their budgets into taxpayers' money and not to have them rely on grants. The other is that the eight responder positions, I asked that they become part of the union immediately. There was no, you know, usually what happens is that there's this push and pull between management and the unions where they're trying to capture positions. I thought it was important that these responders be represented at the collective bargaining table. It does add complications at times, but because most of our unions, but because most of our employees are unionized, they should be no different. So these now, these positions now have an advocate in the union when we start to talk about their disposition going forward. So those are two things that I think are really important to recognize. My mission is to have Crest succeed. It's where the future is going to be for every city and town. Earl and I and I on my own have had these presentations at different associations, management associations, and MMA and things like that. And I think we are definitely ahead of the curve. We're, and again, just so fortunate to have someone of Earl's stature to be able to visualize where this should go, have a plan of action for how to implement it. And there are a million decisions that have to be made. You have to do the job descriptions. You have to, you know, rate the jobs. You have to negotiate a lot of things. And so like every step of the way, and like for instance, we had to figure out, oh, what happens when there's turnover? We had eight responders or 10 people all go through training last summer. What happens when there's turnover? What happens when the new person comes in? What kind of training did that person do? What kind of systems do we have in place to ramp? We don't, we're not gonna bring in, you know, trainers all, so we, Kat and Earl had to figure out what that looks like and learn from that new person coming in. How do they get trained? How can they be at the same level for the other responders? So it's not an easy task. I know people wanna say, start, do this now. I just, you know, I am so privileged to be able to work with Pamela and Earl because their vision, their tenacity is just so important to have on our team. So my second question is maybe more of a statement and possibly also a question. I'll take either. I guess just thinking about CSWG and SevenGen and some of the recommendations that were made and especially looking at the SevenGen report and my conceptualization of how it should be budgeted or how it might be budgeted was kind of under the assumption that the initial thought wasn't that the police department would stay whole while Cress was, you know, this new department, there's a strategic reduction in positions in the police department as Cress was envisioned to become more functional, you know, was gaining the confidence to respond to different 911 calls. And please, any of the members of CSWG, please correct me if my misconception of this is incorrect. But I think part of the calls that have been made in the past were for a hiring freeze while we understood what Cress was taking off the plate of the police department. So that's really a statement, but I guess is that, is that how, you know, longer term big picture budgeting is thinking about the Cress department perhaps? I'll just say the unsatisfying answer, which is it would be inappropriate for me to discuss the budget of any other town department. And I would just note that this is sort of like, you know, there's a certain number of police officers that need to be on staff to serve the community at a certain level. If we want to start reducing that expectation, then there's gonna be less service to the public. We have not, that is not a direction I'm going in. I think the staffing that we have right now at the police department basically meets the needs of the community. I think Cress taking some calls will be helpful in terms of what the policing are doing because it's an appropriate response. That's what we talk about as an alternative dispatch, not just alternative response. And so I think that having Cress taking some calls, it doesn't mean that you're suddenly don't need a police officer, you know, at manning the station to take people who walk into the door. That person has to be there whether one person walks in or 25 people walk in. So I'm not seeing a reduction in the police department. And then my last point was in terms of when Cress is taking the phone calls because I was looking at the budget document, the police have things broken down by very specific call types and is there going to be an attempt to kind of make equal or similar categories so it can be compared across the two departments when we're looking at these sorts of things. Yes, absolutely. There are call, our policy that's going through a legal review right now does clearly define call types that we can take. That call type actually hasn't shifted much over the year. There's about 14 of them. And if you look at actually, if you get the PowerPoint I showed earlier, all those call types are listed there. They're a citizen, assist business, assist, you know, they're really built off of that, nonviolent school calls, things like that. And there's some folks who have some discretion. So dispatch may have some discretion to say, you know, given what we know, this fits here. Yeah, and the call types we're looking at are consistent with the call types that are being sent around the country. I'd say the only one that we don't have in there that we're just really looking to build capacity is actually more around being able to do some traffic detailing. That some departments are a little bit further along on that, we're just getting the training. There will be some of that going on. We just, we're working with UMass to get the training for staff. There is a certification you have to have to do that. So the call types are listed. They were a part of our budget document and they are consistent with the national standard. If I can just add to that. So that they will have their metrics in the budget. You know, this is the first year they were actually in the budget. So, and we will revise that as we think it needs to be done also. But note that the Crest has also purchased a software package that actually the fire department uses as well. They've customized it to their needs so that they can actually account for every call that comes in and track that. You might want to talk a little bit about that, Earl. Yeah, yeah, we're using the ESO which is the software, the dispatch, the kind of CAD software that the fire department uses. A, it's allowed us to onboard it much faster than if we had selected a service that wasn't used in town before. We were able to preload their locations. And frankly, you know, what we find is that the fire department's approaches fairly similar to ours in terms of how they look at things like harm reduction and that there were call types they were using already that flowed pretty eloquently. We also then have the, and I owe the Amherst fire department a great deal of gratitude for this, the technical expertise that they have spent to prepare us to use this software so that when we do get those legal things across and we decided to turn on that 911 switch, we will have all of the technology that we need to do that work. Everything from our radios, which are such an industry standard at the fire department and Amherst College are looking at using those to our laptops, which will be the same grade as the police department. I think as much as we're moving towards something, we are also making sure that things we get are durable, are top of the line and will allow us to kind of develop and grow as we move forward. It's a big deal. That this is software that dispatch is familiar with. And we're trying to, I think it's important that we remember that dispatch is also a big part of this process. Their understanding of what we can do. They have a lot of nuance in their work. And so anything we can do to make it easier to streamline it, and we will spend a lot of time this summer getting into no dispatch in a better way too because that will also help us. And anybody who really wants to nerd out over software just come over to the office, kill a couple hours. Thank you, Earl. All right, Councilor Walker and then Councilor Steinberg. Thank you, Michelle. I have two questions. One is for Paul that just came up in response to something he said and the others for Earl. And so I'm hoping that Paul, you might be able to elaborate a little bit more on the plan in regards to how Cress and the PD will function together because I guess my understanding was also that eventually there will be changes in terms of like Cress taking on police calls. Like I think that was my understanding that that was the whole idea. And so I'm a little bit confused by the statement you just made in terms of like level staffing. And I understand that you're saying there's a certain level of staffing we need to maintain services, but that's talking about services as is now. And so what do we expect to happen when there's a change where a possible fluctuation in services due to Cress taking 911 calls? And so like the moving of calls from police to Cress. And I know you said something also about like how do we account for people needing services and then not getting them? But I think that also is vice versa. And so like we're not accounting for that in terms of Cress. And like we're not considering like what happens if there are eight people who need Cress's help at the same time. And so I'm just trying to really understand how we realistically expect to address that possible fluctuation in the future theoretically, but also in terms of funding because I know that's a big piece of it. And so like when Cress does grow or does become full-time and then that's a whole slew of salaries we're gonna have to pay and operational costs. And like when and how are we accounting for that increase or that expectation? And do we know like in X amount of years or in whatever like how are we planning for these things? It's basically essentially my question. So I think, you know, we are 10 months into the Cress program. They have not started to take 911 calls yet. That will happen. It's really hard to judge the impact on the police department. That's something the police department cares a lot about as well. And so it's really hard for me to project out. What I'm saying is of today I'm not looking at any reductions in the police department. And we need to see how the Cress department is. If we are able, as we start to transfer calls over it might be generating new calls, additional calls. I'm not sure of how call volume is gonna continue going forward. If people are gonna be more comfortable calling 911 or calling Cress directly to respond to things that people might not have called for support before. So I can't speculate on it. I'm just saying that at this moment in time I'm not promising any reductions in the police department. And until we can really understand how Cress is going to impact that department. Thank you, Mr. Bucklin. And so is the expectation then at this point because I know we can't really, we can't predict what will happen in the future. But I know that the town does for almost every single project plan ahead. And so what is our plan ahead with this? Just leave the PD like as a non-factor and just look at Cress growth on its own and determine its funding and functioning based on that itself or are we looking at them conjoint together? I think we need to see how this plays out. I mean, we haven't done this before. We haven't built a new department that's handling 911 calls before. So I really need rather than speculate and say something that would please everybody. I think my realistic response as a manager is that I need more data. I can't be speculating on what's going to happen if until I see how everything works out with the police department, with Cress, with dispatch and understand how it all is all functioning together. It's a very complex system and everything intersects with everybody else. Our model is different than many other cities and towns. We have placed Cress squarely in the public safety realm. Others communities have placed it in public health, which is a different area. And I think that that makes us somewhat unique. Earl knows this better than I do in terms of where we have located our response because that was how CSWG had envisioned that it was an alternative response. It was public safety and community safety that we were talking about. So yeah, I'd love to be able to speculate, but I can't. Thank you. It's somewhat helpful, but I don't think what I necessarily was asking for was speculation, but more, I think maybe I was asking it in the wrong way, but what I'm looking for is like, what is the plan? Because respectfully, I don't think the town approaches any initiative new or old with the, we'll just see what happens. I think we usually have some sort of plan, even if it's a loose plan. So are you saying like the plan is that like maybe in one year, in two years, we'll do an evaluation and then we'll determine at that point if Cress needs more funding or like I'm just trying to figure out like how do we know when we're moving to the next step? Or do we have like milestones or timeframe markers or like what in what way are, I just feel like I'm, I don't really know how to ask what I'm asking, but I'm looking for more information in terms of what the plan actually is. Do you mind if I take this Paul? Just, I think where I'm at, the 911 is our next step. Then to think about are there reasons to grow? Are there things, do things to try to settle there? But I'll tell you the, what I understand is that people who look too far ahead don't seem to make it that far. So 911 is our next step and then potentially growth and what that growth looks like, I think we're all, we're still navigating, whether it means a team on an existing shift that looks different, whether it means different hours, specialty teams, teams that work with specific populations at specific times. I think the world is open to us. And so I think it's hard to ask that question because I think the community has the biggest voice in that. I think as we go on the 911, the things that we struggle with will look to grow. And if, when we run out of things that we struggle with them will just look to grow laterally. But that's my plan for it. It's not to get too far ahead of my skis. Yeah, I think, thank you, Earl, that's helpful. And I think that leads into like, sort of the question that I had for you, which is very similar. But my question for you was that, I think earlier you said something about, in regards to Crest being full time and not being ready yet, which I respect, but I'm just wondering, so like what would indicate to you that you're ready for that? So sort of a similar question in terms of, so we know we're going into year, we will be going into year two with the new budget and we're not proposing any expansion or any additional staff for year two. Is that a possible thought for year three? Are we just assessing year by year at this point? Like how will we know? Because it seems like the community is ready for 24 seven. And so how will Crest know when Crest is ready? Yeah, so for me, it's really the kind of looking at the staff we have when they start to get comfortable with the work, which is, public safety is a feeling. I think it's really easy to talk about as a science, but when they have the trust of folks in the community, when the handholding can pull back a little bit and that's a delicate thing, right? As we came out of training, there was a lot of handholding and then we pulled back on that. Then when we split the shifts out, there was more of it. Kind of every time you add something, we want to make sure we're providing the structure to be successful. I think it looks like the responders being comfortable, 911 being the next step, it looks like the response, me feeling comfortable that every team we have can deploy to every 911 call we have and ultimately be successful there. That they have the skill set, that they have a nuanced understanding of the training, that we have the right people, because there's always that assessment, is everybody gonna be able to safely make it to the next step? And there is no roadmap for this. So sometimes someone looks great until you get to that next step and then we really need to pause, see what we can do to firm them up. For me, what it looks like is the team being comfortable, the administrative stuff being doable. Likely if we were gonna grow to another shift, we would need to grow the leadership team first. We would need to build the supervision components out for it. Cause as I'm realizing tonight, I cannot stay up all night. So there'll have to be someone who I trust deeply, someone who I believe understands the values and mission of this thing in a real core way. And I think Paul was mentioning something that I think is really important to mention, which is, and I think this is a testament to the CSWG and a testament to folks not taking half measures. We're the only department of our type in the country that is a standalone department. The only one in the country that is a standalone department and that we get to charter a course this way. So I also just wanna be honest that I feel the pressure of, there are probably about 20 or 30 small towns that have reached out to us and are watching us. And I feel the pressure of this thing failing because I get over enthusiastic, doesn't just impact me or Amherst or my team, it impacts the potential of this idea growing in this country. And most departments in this country will need to look like crests. They will need to, they'll need to be this size. So I guess the answer is, I hope that that's a decision we'll all come through together. I know I owe the town council a report one year from our beginning of operations. So that would be September of this year. And I hope that at that point we'll have more information to share and that as a group, as a community, as all the folks at the table here will all feel a sense of what it's like, that we're ready to move to our next steps. I'm clear though, that everyone knows we're ready for 911. That is gonna happen. Thank you, Earl. I'm still excited for it, Alicia. Thank you, Alicia, and thank you, Earl and Councillor Steinberg. Yes, I'll try and be brief because like Earl, I have limits of how long I can work 24 hours a day. Really, I've always been impressed by CSWG's thoughtfulness in the way that they approach trying to visualize something. But I'm gathering, Earl, that what you're experiencing is what I experienced when I used to run programs and develop new programs, which is there's always a need to evaluate each step of the way and make modifications so that a plan that you start with isn't necessarily the path you end up on totally, but you try and stick to the vision but work the details. And it sounds to me like that is what you're doing. And so I just wanted to see, get your response to that first and then I had one other thing. Yeah, we often talk about it as steering the ship and it requires lots of small adjustments on an almost everyday basis. It's as simple as where are we starting our days? Where are we going to engage with folks? What resources do we bring to the table? I'll tell you, it is not uncommon that we start using a resource and then we get feedback from the community that that resource is not offering what it told us it would offer and that we need to pull back and find another resource to fill that gap. It's the relationship building. Sometimes agencies want to work with us and sometimes it's like, while you guys are new come back when you figured it out and we have to kind of adjust that. And then the responders, this is hard work and I just want to acknowledge that these folks are seeing hard things on an everyday basis. The responders have seen people they work with pass away. We've had things like we work months to get a gentleman to a nursing home and he didn't make it 10 days there. These folks are doing incredibly challenging and emotional work. And my career in human services has taught me that learning how not to empty your whole cup out every day is a skill. And it's something that we need to cultivate. We have supervision. We do lots of supervision, lots of training because I don't think the worst scenario is that this thing doesn't work. I think the worst scenario is that I destroy people in an effort to make this thing work. So there's, yeah, Andy, I would say it's a lot of and being reasonable about what's the right thing to do and what's my ego. Because I would love to move faster but I recognize that on both sides of this equation are human lives and that I have a responsibility and the town has a responsibility to be thoughtful about that. And so I do. And I appreciate that response and it's a perfect segue into the second thing that I was going to bring up which is that I have great appreciation for you and for the people that you've hired and are working with and hear about them deeply. But I want to make sure that we're doing two things. One is that we are protecting their safety. And secondly, that we're putting them in situations where they have the capacity to solve a problem because there are times when we need the authority of a police officer to solve a problem. We can't solve it without and we're in to put your people into a situation where they have no legal authority and no ability to use the skills that they have so wonderfully developed to solve a problem. I think we'll create a real catastrophe for us and which then leads to the second problem which you cannot respond to because it's a police question which is how much police do we need and how much coverage do we need? I think my, and I'm just saying this to the group at large that having looked at the police department over a long period of time during every budget season, I think that they're not as well staffed as people think they are for a department that's covering us 24 seven and that there isn't the level of flexibility to make significant cuts in the police department but I think others envision and so you don't have to take ownership of that statement but it's my additional observation with that I'll let it go. I'm just saying, you nailed it with the safety that is the most important aspect of my job is that my folks make it home in one piece every night that they get to go home and love the people they started I've looked their families in the faces and made that commitment to them but I just wanna be realistic about it. No community responder in the country has been seriously injured or killed in this line of work and there are thousands of people doing that. We received situational awareness training from the PD from folks tied to the police academy. We've received it from lots of other places and I just wanna say the other piece which is I sometimes wish Amherst could see Amherst this is a relatively safe community and even today I had someone very upset with me very angry, very loud and then in that moment what I recognized was this is a person who had experienced some real harm. This was a person who had been really hurt and there was nothing about our engagement that was gonna harm him. He was not gonna be forced to go to a place that he didn't wanna go to. He wasn't gonna lose any money. He might call me some bad names but I'm big enough to brush that off and I'm sure I will see him tomorrow and we will have another chance at it. I think that there is a real approach to this work that I would encourage folks to look at the Leap Report because it lines it out. I read that thing several times a month. It really does line out the approach and the reality is we do not take violent calls. If a call appears violent we refer folks back to the PD and we're very clear with them about what that might look like and if they're uncomfortable doing that then we connect them with folks. We do our best to make sure that connection can happen smoothly but we do not intend to be heroes above our belt. We have a specific responsibility. Same way you won't see us rushing into a house to put out a fire. We don't intend to do police work. Thank you Earl. Okay, it looks like Councilor Pam is the last hand up that we have here and then I'm gonna make a suggestion to try to maybe get us into bed. Councilor Pam. So I'm getting some really good clarification here today and I'll start off with some of my understandings and then you can tell me if I have it wrong. The police had been asked to do many things that was really not appropriate for their roles. A lot of social work and that was because we didn't have anyone else to do that work and so they did that with their other public safety work. So Cress is here meeting, not replacing many things they did but meeting a lot of unmet needs which may in the future involve some crime reduction but we don't know because we're not there yet. I mean, some of the senior services, the work in the schools and the work with the immigrants. So it's public safety and as you said, community safety and what's really interesting to me is hearing how you're organizing and developing it. I'll tell you that it's the same thing that is happening in teaching right now. I go to all the different, the course of the year and we're doing our equity education and we're getting rid of so many of the rules that we had spent years learning how to do, how to give points, how to give deadlines, how to do the whole strictness and it's teaching as an art again. And I can see that Cress is growing organically and it's experiment, Paul used the word experiment. It's more like an art and I think that that's good because it's really improving the quality of life for individuals which will improve the quality of life for all of us in the town. So I really like what I'm hearing and it's an act of discovery and I think that's why Earl is saying, let's let it grow at the speed that seems to be right for it. And Paul, I think this is the first time that you really came out and said it may not necessarily reduce the police force and I think you're right but I think it will improve the quality of life for the individuals that they're dealing with and for us because how can you go have fun and sit at a sidewalk cafe when somebody is having personal distress, the stranger's having personal distress right there on the curb in front of you, at least I can't, I can't. So I really do appreciate what Cress is doing and I appreciate you're giving them the time for them to grow as they see how they should grow and with the back of the police which is I think totally wonderful and essential that they're working together. At least that's what I'm getting the full image that there's a lot of cooperation going on there. So have I got it right or have I overstated it? Councilor Kim, I would say that largely, that yeah, that feels right on. I would say when people ask us are we replacing the police, what I would say is what we're more replacing is a social work system that has become so involved in your insurance plan and what job you have and what level of care you have is solely determined by the amount of money in your pocket. The idea that poor folks, that folks who don't have that access could still have regular access to care that they could get transitional support that was meaningful and robust and then just drop them off at an appointment and hope that worked out. That folks who saw people who lived happy life is violence prevention. To me, that's the most revolutionary piece of this thing. And if you, a place I look for inspiration often is Rwanda post genocide and the way that that community had to figure out a way to deal with itself that didn't involve violence, that didn't involve violence to the perpetrator or the victim and the kind of revolutionary steps that took to take that. I think folks can talk about it now, but this council, this town has taken revolutionary steps and we aspire to live up to those every day. Thank you. Thank you for getting it. Thank you. If you wanna write that up and put a picture under it, we'll send it out. I do need to add something, Michelle, if that's okay. Of course. Pamela and I both said neither of us wanna follow Earl. I mean, that's just perfect example when nobody wants to follow Earl on these things. But I think what's important, I am really sold on Crest as being the third leg of our public safety system. That's why I think that's going to happen. I wanna tell you about some examples. People are on their own thinking, ah, this is a problem that Crest can address. It can be this library saying they've got a real problem and then Crest actually goes and helps figure out what that problem is and helps to address it in a really informative and also kind way. It was the DPW saying we could use Crest, we need Crest in this situation because it's really not for a police officer, but a Crest officer would be helpful. When we had the, you know, the Tibetans do in the March, Crest responders were the ones leading the march. It didn't, we don't need to have uniformed officers, you know, leading them out of the town, you know, to Northampton. When, you know, the town clerk had a need for constables, Crest stepped up and did it and there was a good reason for that. One was it was also to give a higher profile to Crest. So our voters started to see Crest and it was a dual win there, I think, and they got to meet a lot of our voters who are going to the polls every day. You know, they are able, you know, he talked about going upstream, they are working with the inspection services on hoarding situations where inspection services goes in, they're typically just doing something and then moving on. Crest works with the individuals and helps them get support and, you know, figure out the next thing. So it's just the number of things that we've discovered along the way that Crest can do because of their orientation, they've, nobody on Crest has ever said that's not in my job description. They embrace every challenge and every new thing and a really, and I think that's in a really terrific way and I think that's a credit to Kat and to Earl for making that their approach to things is, yeah, we'll take it on and see how we can do. Can I just say one last thing? One of the reasons I don't want us to be guessing what it's gonna look like in three years isn't because I think it'll cause an issue or I think you might underestimate us. I think anything but letting us figure it out and get there, we are you. Like this department is made up of people from this community. Like just bet on ourselves. Let's just bet on this community. Let's see what happens. And either way, if it doesn't work out we will have helped people on the way. We will have done good on the way. But the other thing I see with these things is we start saying what has to look like this and what if it looks like something different but it's still is good, it's still worthwhile. And I just don't wanna let better be the enemy of good. I don't wanna tell you what it's gonna look like in three years. If the people I have continue to be the people they are, I would bet on us. I would bet on us every time. No, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Earl. Okay, so given the time and the previous discussions that we've had about number five, six and seven, I think, and I'm gonna check in with the other chairs but unless there's something pressing that should be said now about the Youth Empowerment Center it sounded like Pamela was very open to receiving feedback from the CSSJC, from the HRC and also from anyone that's here who would like to provide feedback while that's in the process of being explored and developed. So I am gonna ask for hands just to see if there is something that somebody would really like to say tonight and otherwise suggest that we send our suggestions to Pamela so that and then at that point I'll turn it back over to Lynn to close out the meeting the way that she sees and into the other chairs. Yes, Fricka, nice to see you. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, I'd like to thank everyone for their patience and frankly for endurance, this has been a marathon. I just have a few comments to make and I think it will be beneficial for discussions as we go forward because I don't believe this conversation has ended. I think it is going to be ongoing as we proceed. The first that I'd like to point out is that the CSSJC is an advisory body and what that means is that our role is to make recommendations and it is the responsibility of the town council and the town manager to accept those recommendations. That actually I find is a relationship that works well because what that does is that we get to bring the diversity of views that we have within the committee to the council and this diversity then means that we are not representing one particular group or another but we're simply bringing the diversity of these different groups to the committee and that's something that I think we should pay attention to. I think another thing is giving the letter that was read today where we have distinctive and broad discrepancies on what we are aware of from the events in July. This goes back to the reason why we really need to find out what exactly happened. I don't think we have scripted the bottom yet and except we do that then it's very unlikely that we can in any shape or form redress the harm. We don't know exactly what the harm is so what would we be redressing? So that's I think something that we also have to pay some attention to. I think the fourth thing relates to something that was said or the third thing relates to something that was said earlier today as well which is that we could have outreach from the town council and from the town manager to groups that are unlikely to go into those spaces where political leaders might be. I think that's right and that is something that should be done but I also believe that it is imperative on us as much as we can being part of different groups and communities to find ways in which those communities can interact with both the town council and the town manager. So I don't believe the traffic should be moving in only one direction. I think the traffic can move in both directions and that is how we can build this trust. Trust is not only something that is going in one way it's earned in both ways. And then I think finally when we bring issues up in these kind of meetings for those who are not participating in these meetings it is best that we don't bring their names up. They may be unable to defend themselves. I think it's decent and it's courteous to do that and in a space where everyone is able to defend themselves then we could bring up whatever issues we find with those people. But anyway, I'm sorry I've taken your time I just wanted to say that I enjoyed listening to discussion and being educated by everyone. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. And I know Lynn will say this but just thank you to everybody who's been involved in this. Thank you to the CSSJC, the HRC, to the staff and thank you for giving me the opportunity to facilitate and I'm going to turn it over to Lynn. Thank you. And Michelle, thank you so much. This was a very, this is a conversation we could not have had a year ago, okay? This is a conversation that most communities still can't have and a lot of very, very important things have been said tonight. Some were related to the items that were listed on the agenda and some are related to items that are not. I know the town manager has taken notes. I have taken at least 16 pages of notes. I'm looking for the themes. I'm not going to try to come up with them now. I just want to thank all of you and all the people that did decide they needed to go off to bed because of the hour. I want to particularly thank CSSJC. Actually, I want to go back and thank CSWG and then thanks CSSJC and the Human Rights Commission that have joined in this really important conversation for our community. And it's had its bumps and it's had its challenges but the thing is we're working on it. And what we've seen tonight is progress. Maybe it's not the progress that some wanted to see or maybe they wanted to see it differently but we're moving forward. And that we owe to Paul and to Pamela and to Earl and to their staff and to the ongoing vigilance of everybody's who's here and all of the committees that are represented. So I will say I will be now formally requesting that the town manager continue to update us on the seven items and any other relevant actions or items that have come up as part of this conversation. And he do that through his monthly report or in other means, should he seem necessary? With that, I'm going to ask Philip to adjourn what's left of your committee. You just need to say the... Yes, the Human Rights Commission has adjourned. Okay. And Allegra, go ahead for CSSJC. So CSSJC had this bold idea that we were going to meet afterwards. It's 11.25 and our meeting is hosted. Are we rescheduling our meeting? Okay. We are adjourning. We are adjourned at 11.25. I'm not even sure you have a quorum anymore. The town council is adjourned. Thank you so much, everyone.