 Okay, good morning everyone. I am calling to order the Friday, June 10th meeting of the African Heritage Reparation Assembly at 1037 a.m. Pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. And I'm just gonna take a moment to make sure that everybody can hear and be heard and I'll start with you, Irv. I definitely can be heard. And I'm seeing, I think. Yes, and I can hear you. How about you, Dr. Shbaz? Yes, I'm the president and I can hear everyone. Great, and Hala? Likewise, I believe you can hear me and I can hear you. Yes. All right, so Yvonne did say that she may have a conflict with this meeting and I'm not sure about Alexis. I'm just gonna send Alexis a quick text in case, because this was an off schedule meeting. So I wanna just give it a quick reminder. Okay, all right. So I called this meeting sort of out of our normal cycle in response to the finance committee meeting that we had earlier this week. And Irv, I know you weren't able to be there so we will certainly be able to give you a little bit of an update. You and I also had a chance to touch base. So if you have any questions we can definitely address those questions. There has been some evolution over the week that I'd like to share with you, but I really also wanted to give us an opportunity to take a little bit of time, not too much time, because I know our time is very precious right now, but just a little bit of time before we sort of get into the business to maybe unpack any feelings or thoughts that we want to talk about in relationship. Good morning, Alexis. Can you hear us? Oh, it was like a disappearing act there. Okay, well, hopefully Alexis will come back. So I just wanted to take a few minutes to unpack the meeting from the standpoint of our humanity. And hi, you're back. That's okay. Alexis, I was just saying that I called this meeting in response to our finance committee meeting earlier this week. It's out of cycle. I had a particular reason for calling it. There's been some evolution over the week, but before we get into business, I wanted to take a moment for us to share any thoughts or feelings. We may have in response to that meeting from like the humanity point of view, you know, if anything, we may want to talk about and process together. And there may not be anything that people would like to process, but if there is, I wanna give that space now for us to be able to do that. And then when we are finished with that, we'll move into the business. I'll give you an update and we'll have our discussion. It's gonna be very targeted to our request for cannabis. So all of the other items that are on the agenda, we will be addressing on Monday at our regular meeting. So I'm just gonna go ahead and pause now and see if anybody would like to share. Please raise your hand and the floor will be yours. Yes, Hala. I'm kind of raising my hand to not raise my hand. I had an emotional reaction, a visceral reaction, and then an intellectual reaction. And I've typed a few pages up about it, but before I speak publicly, I'm waiting for the video to come out again so that I can watch it because I'm also data-driven, so I need to not just guess the number of times a certain word that was really triggering was said, so then I can really flesh it out and be more thoughtful about it and just try to help educate people about what language we might not couple with a black organization. So I don't know if that's helpful. I just said, I do wanna share. There were a lot of big feelings, but I've also wanna watch that segment again. So I'm grounded in not my memory of it, but really now that I've written it out, looking at it factually differently. Thank you. Thank you, Hala. I really appreciate that. I do believe the video can be sent to you, so I will make sure that it is. And also make sure that on Monday when we meet, there will be another opportunity if that is a time that you feel ready at any point. So I wanna make sure we have space for that. So thank you. On Monday, are we meeting on Monday? Yes, we have a meeting. You already posted it, I believe. This was like our regular meeting that we had. Check it out and then we'll go to Alexis while you're checking that, Jennifer. Yeah, I was just gonna say, so at Amherst Media, we now broadcast the finance meetings. So it's available on our YouTube like immediately to watch after the live broadcast. Thank you. I've just been checking the Amherst town of website, but thank you for that tip and I can go back and check it out. On the YouTube? So just so you know that our IT department post all weeks meetings on Fridays. Thank you. That's helpful to know. And I've noticed that that's been really consistent. So that's great. And Jennifer, please do let me know if somehow we missed posting a meeting for Monday. We did. Okay. We can meet Tuesday though, if you guys would like or whenever. Actually that may work out even better and I'll tell you guys why in a second. But just before we move on to business, are there any other thoughts or feelings in relation to that meeting and how it was experienced for you during the meeting or after the meeting? All right. Well, I thank you to Alexis and Dr. Shabazz and Halla for being there. And I know or really wanted to be there and was unable to unexpectedly. So let me give you a little bit of an update. Coming out of that meeting, it was my understanding coming into that meeting in my brief conversation with the chair of the committee that we would be taking up both of the requests, the requests for this year and really the heart of our request which is designating cannabis tax revenue. And I think it's important just to point out that the action that was taken at the meeting, that's an action that was appropriate for the finance committee to take and it will now go to the town council and it will be voted on there. The cannabis designation decision is really a policy decision. And it's a new revenue stream for the town and it's never been decided how that money is to be used and whether it's to be earmarked or whether it's to be part of the general fund. And so the question there really is a council question. It's a policy decision. And so my understanding with the chair was that we would be addressing both of those pieces but that if we weren't able to get through the discussion, we would have a meeting shortly thereafter to complete it so that we could bring this to the full town council in the month of June. And what became clear toward the end of the meeting was that the chair and I had a misunderstanding of sorts and that the chair was not planning the next meeting of the finance committee until July which would mean that our request wouldn't come before the town council until August most likely because of the meeting schedule that the town council has. So I was concerned about that. I felt that we have made this request in June, 2021 first. We made it again in October, 2021 and we made it again about a month ago. And we've done a lot of work. There's been two significant memos that have been written. There's been a lot of public support that has uplifted our request and the momentum is important. So I was going to ask this committee to consider bringing it on Monday without a recommendation from the finance committee because again, I feel like it's really a town council decision. We got the temperature of the finance committee pretty clearly and really at the end of the day it's going to be the council who's going to have to decide. However, that's an unusual circumstance and I think that the chair of the town council understood where I was coming from and where we might be coming from and worked with the chair of the finance committee to schedule a meeting for next week. A special meeting that will have two items on it. One will be our request to designate cannabis tax revenue and the other is something that involves CPA. So that's the evolution. It was a, I will be honest, it was a challenging few days and I feel satisfied that we have this upcoming meeting and so now we need to really, I want to share with you what I'm thinking based on everything that I've sort of taken in. But before I do that, Dr. Shabazz, I see your hand. Well, maybe you should proceed. I was just trying to revisit a matter of the timeline but we should, you should go ahead and proceed as you need to in a row. Thank you, Dr. Shabazz. I just want to clarify something. Is this for 23 or 24? Right. So, and I apologize or let me give you a little bit of a background about what happened at that meeting briefly, okay? So the action that was taken at the meeting was in relationship to 23 in that, and I'd like to be able to pull the motion up actually that we voted on because it's not the most direct motion in my opinion. It basically what it allows for is, it sort of is a commitment by the finance committee to in the fall look at what's available in free cash and then make an appropriation into the stabilization fund equivalent to the actual cannabis tax receipts from FY22. So it's the designation, the policy decision that we're talking about is for FY24. So it's not until for the next cycle and on. Dr. Shabazz. Thank you. So just really trying to use our time most efficiently. It seems to me at best what we can, I want to talk about what we can anticipate. So this matter comes up, it's going to go into referral. There won't be a vote. There won't be action on it as a policy item. There's going to be referral to craft a motion that motion will have to go through GOL at the very least and then come back to the council, what for two different readings, how does it go? Can you kind of discuss what is to be anticipated? Because clearly there's not going to be a motion and there's not going to be a vote on a motion at this upcoming meeting, right? No, actually, let me let me, and I see why you're saying that. So you're not, you know, you're on the right track in terms of what normally happens. But let me explain to you what my understanding is at this point. So this request was already referred. It was referred to the finance committee. That was the meeting that we had dealing with the referral, which we didn't complete. We didn't complete the discussion and the recommendation was not made. Remember when we met last time and we talked about whether we wanted to sort of leave it open or whether we wanted to create some framework. Some particular framework, exactly. Thank you, Dr. Schwarz, yes. So what the business of today's meeting and Tuesday if we need to meet again, which is probably a good idea, is the chair of the council has agreed to work with me in through you, you know, to create a policy that includes the motion that will come before first the finance committee late next week and then go to the town council on June 27th. So what we need to do here is we need to create a framework. We need to basically create the policy together. We need to say, this is what we're comfortable with in terms of how much we want every year for up to how many years? What are the emergency clauses? What allows the town to pause the program? What allows the town to take money out if needed for some other emergency? And what are, I want us to really think about because if we want consensus and we want this policy to pass, we want to think about what counselors are thinking about. And the number one thing is the health of our financial situation in the town. And I want us to think about putting in some framework that says potentially X amount of money, one third, one half, whatever you all think is appropriate will be directed toward community benefits that are already in front of the town council because of the work of the community safety working group, for example. So things like the Youth Empowerment Center, the BIPOC Cultural Center, the community wide reparation healing process with Dr. Barbara Love, these things that the community safety working group, these are things that from the council's perspective, they're gonna have to fund at some point. They're gonna have to figure out a strategy for funding. So if we can say in our policy that we're willing for X amount of, whether it's a percentage or a dollar amount of our fund to be dedicated toward those community benefits, I think that's gonna help us a lot in getting the consensus of the counselors. So I'm gonna pause, but number one priority right now is that financial health of the town, four capital projects, a new DEI department, a new Crest department with 10 responders, and then all of the recommendations the community safety working group has made, which through the community safety and social committee will be carried forward. And we'll need to be financed somehow. Okay, let me just see. I'm not sure whose hand went up first, but I'm gonna go with, I think it looks like Dr. Shabazz and then Earth. So here's what I guess I've been holding a bit that goes to where you started earlier in the meeting. What came through loud and clear for me is that the president, chair, whatever you call it of the town council has a basic opposition to earmarking any fund, funds, any revenue stream, and she made that very clear. And what has been particularly kind of challenging for me to deal with in this is just as you relate at the timeline, we've been asking for this, let's have the discussion. Maybe you're right, maybe this isn't the way to go. Maybe as one of the other finance committee members, non-voting raise, there's other ways to approach this than earmarking cannabis or any other fund. Maybe it's a direct line item discussion year by year in the budgeting process you commit to doing, okay? But if we never have the discussion, we just sort of drag along here and we're sort of spinning our wheels. In my view, it's a disrespect of my time and my time is precious. Dr. Rose, Alexis, Paula, Jennifer, Madam Chair, as it is, I'm sure for each and every one of you, our time is our life and our lives matter. They're precious. So I felt like I've been jerked along, okay? That's fine if you oppose it, Madam Chair, but like other contentious issues in the town that divide you maybe from other counselors, you ultimately have to do your job as chair and let there be a discussion and let there be a vote, okay? You can't just jerk us around on the question of the debate around an earmark because you don't like earmarking. That's fine, but let's have the discussion and let's have a vote. Maybe there's a better way to do it. We'll never get there if we don't have to do it, okay? So that's what I've been holding and I'm glad there's been, as you put it, an evolution to begin to get the matter out there. So to talk about a framework to talk about, I don't wanna go into a quick and dirty fix. I wanna really be thoughtful because as one of the other finance committee members raised, maybe it's not even about earmarking cannabis in particular, although I think there's great deal of support for that, but maybe it is something to say a policy commitment to each year as a line item in the budget to try to figure out, because then you can vary how much you're trying to go for to save and debank for reparative justice purposes based upon what the financial outlook looks like. So again, maybe that is a way to proceed rather than trying to come up with some convoluted framework around earmarking that says, well, we're earmarked X% for X number of years if things are healthy, but if things aren't healthy, we don't have to do it. Plus we're already going to give a percentage of the earmark to go toward these other purposes. That all to me, I call it convoluted because then what is going to be the actual role of whatever decision-making body we recommend to do. It's already, most of it's gonna then be tied up in the framework of where the money is going, of where the funds would go. So there wouldn't be very much for our successor group to even be deliberating on if we tie it all up within a framework. So again, I just wanna say, and maybe there's a way through the convoluted nature of it in my mind right now, maybe there's ways it can be clarified or worked out. Dr. Rhodes will proceed me. He's got his ample years in finance committee and in other kinds of budgeting processes that he can illuminate me and perhaps others. But I just wanted to first of all kind of express that's where emotionally I've been since the meeting but I'm prepared to try to move with this evolution. But to me, the evolution really opens up a more serious consideration about how do we approach generating a revenue stream, finding revenue streams to begin to build a fund and a fund that the black community, okay, the African heritage community will have a stakeholder decision-making body that will actually approve disbursements from through the authority granted it by the town council. That's the vision I have, but how we get to it is I know the debate here today. Thank you for listening to me. Dr. Shabazz, thank you so much for sharing that. And I really share that concern about sort of being jerked along. As I said, we've made this request multiple times but this is, you know, unfortunately in municipal government and I'm not making excuses but in particular, this feels like we've really got that there have been, that there's been in my opinion at some time sort of a lack of reverence for what we are trying to do here and what we've been asked to do. And I'm not okay with that. And I don't think any of us are. I do want to quickly respond before I move on to Irvin Alexis to one piece that you talked about which was the suggestion. I believe it was Bob Rob Hagner that suggested in his strong support that we have a fund and that reparations continue and develop, he suggested that we add a line item in the budget for reparations so that it could be determined each year how much could go into that line item. I might be wrong about this and I'm getting clarification as we speak but I think one of the reasons that it was set up to go into a stabilization fund as opposed to being a line item is because a stabilization fund requires a two third vote of the council for appropriations to be made out of it. So there's a control in place. If it's a line item, I think we're talking about something different. So I'm getting more clarification on that. I think that if it's a line item it will not require that same. I know other appropriations that we've had to make as a council out of the stabilization fund have required that two third marker there which is definitely more stringent. And then to respond to the framework I'd like to help us get through. I did learn from the council president that I think if we can come forward with a framework that is clear, it may not have to have all the convoluted sort of aspects that you're talking about but that is clear policy that this body is comfortable with. I do think that we can move this forward and get this voted on on June 27th and I believe will be successful in that endeavor. So Dr. Rhodes, please. This is a, I may ask a question but I don't want you to answer until I have to finish talking. Why is June 27th important if we're talking about FY24? So that's the first question that I have. Secondly, in terms of a line item, that's an interesting concept because the line item can be created by the town manager himself and or the council. Because that's a budget issue. And the town manager presents and creates that budget even though all the inputs come from the finance committee and all that stuff but it's the town manager's budget. So the line item is there. The other thing is, and this is something that I've said before and all of us need to bear in mind is that the municipal budget is in trouble for 24 and 25, especially 26 is a cliff. Right now, all kinds of preparations are being made behind the scenes to prepare for 24. So there's this giant vacuum cleaner out there in terms of municipal budget looking for funds to plug all kinds of holes that are gonna be coming up in 24. And it is a serious, serious issue and will become more serious as time rolls on. So we can expect not only us, HRA, but other areas of town budget to have incredible fights. To maintain any kind of semblance of what we want to do budget-wise. So what we are seeing right now is the beginning of what we will see more strongly as the year goes on headed towards fiscal 24 budget. It's gonna be all kind of pushback. And the thing that we have to keep in mind is we need to make the strongest case right now and Dr. Shabazz is right. We need to have the vote. I'd rather have the vote than not have the vote and have the vote based upon our requests for that cannabis money coming to the HRA for reparations. That's very clear, it's unambiguous and we should force that vote as soon as possible. We need to know. And like Dr. Shabazz says, hey, let's stop playing around with it. At least we can have the vote and we have some information. Let's go ahead and get Lynn to put on a calendar and have a vote. Thank you, Irv. Jennifer, did your hand go through? I mean, I just had a question in that. But if it goes on a line item, does it become part of the general budget? Very good question. Because then there's all kinds of weird restrictions with what can happen at the general budget. Maybe unless you have approved policy that it can go into the stabilization fund. So my understanding like things go in the general budget, you have to have all of those same municipal red tape that makes it so you can't do anything basically with money. Yeah, I mean, you're correct. However, the town manager can put it as a line item on his budget. Like all the other line items are there. And then the finance committee and the council could say, oh, no, you can't do that. However, the town manager definitely has the ability to do that. I think the question becomes, so there's a matter of moving money in and there's a matter of taking money out. And moving money in is the easier part. Taking money out is where we get into all sorts of, and by the way, I have a consult, I'm hoping to consult with Evanston over the next day because they do have a line item on their budget, but they don't, so they have a different, their policy, the way that it's been handled is a little bit different. But I wanted to answer your question, Dr. Rhodes about why June 27th matters. And the reason it matters is because if it's not June 27th, that means that we're looking at this getting in front of the council in August. And as you said, because we take some time in July, we don't have as regular meetings. So the budget cycle for FY24 basically begins in August. I mean, I know it, but it kicks off, discussions start to happen in the early fall and those guidelines are basically getting determined in late September, early October for the FY24 budget. So we need that commitment now. We need to know now if we're gonna be included in that. And in fact, the town council and the finance committee needs to know now because they need to be able to include it in those financial guidelines, which are beginning to be developed in September. The other thing is we have momentum right now. We have a ton of support for this. We have counselor support, I'm sure because we heard it in the first meeting. We have a lot of public support and a lot of things can change. We need to secure this now. We can't keep waiting for something else to hit and then turn us on our head again and I mean, so that's the reasoning for that, Dr. Rhodes. And yes, Dr. Shabazz, you're muted, Dr. Shabazz. Thank you. I just wanted to say to our assembly here that in my judgment, going back to our thinking back in September and October, we talked about multiple streams. The cannabis earmark is just one and in my view, it's a very modest one. It's not only that it's new and so we need to try and get the thinking on it wrapped around. It being dedicated to reparative, restorative, justice, equity-oriented issues, but that it also be, again, recognize that within our reparative justice framework, we're talking about a set of funds that now becomes, you know, engages the African heritage community to direct where that, what are the priorities for that funding? That is what is novel here in my view. That is what is novel for the whole country. I think in fact, if it's done the way I envisioned it could be done, I hope it could be done, will even surpass Evanston because frankly, Evanston's, you know, program that was the first program that came out of Reparative Justice, it wasn't from the kind of, it really didn't reflect the full consensus of a genuine consensus of the African heritage community. It was something that, yeah, various stakeholders contributed to the elected official worked on, but you know, there was ample disagreement about it in terms of going forward. But here, us being a smaller municipality, a smaller town, getting at the black census, getting them fired up, getting them to understand that this is something we will direct, I think can be really a game changer. It can be truly a remarkable development in the history of this country, but we've got to get there. And so for me, just to get back to the notion of a framework, I think the framework that we have to clearly delineate is that, okay, we understand we can't become another one of the vacuums trying to suck up all money and being totally unmindful of the four big capital projects and of the two new departments that have some relation to what we're charged with responding to, but in some respects, are also beyond that. And then we also have the other kinds of recommendations that the community safety working group made that also requires budget. I get all of that. But for me, the earmark of cannabis as a very limited pool of the millions of dollars that the town collects every year, we're talking about 150K to 200 and something K who knows more or less, could go a little greater, could go less than that 150 to 200K range. But whatever it is, that is a very modest drop in the bucket of the millions that's collected every year. I'd like to get a up or down vote that just says, look, let's earmark this to go into the reparative justice process for them, for that process to determine the priorities. No provisos, no put the pause on it. No, but we may wanna direct it over here for having trouble for this program or that program. No, let that body that you charge with being the reparative justice stakeholder body. Let that body hear the arguments and give the response and say, yes, this is the best use of the money this year. It should go over here to support the African indigenous people of color cultural center that's trying to get off the ground. Let's direct the 50,000 or let's direct whatever the amount we can out of the fund to that. But let that group be the decision-making group. If you go ahead and set it up all now in advance based upon your priorities, then to me, you strip that group of having any real work to do and of any real authority over the funds. So again, two quick points. One, this is a very modest amount that we're talking about here with the cannabis earmark of the entire revenue picture. And two, I think it ought to be really something that is preserved to become the basis of the reparative justice program. That it has funds and that the stakeholder group that will have the autonomy, the power to say and to recommend and to say how those funds are used have something to work with. Otherwise, again, as I say, it seems to me we're spinning our wheels. Give that group something to work with. And this particular earmark will be a very modest amount to me out of the total revenue stream. Thank you. Thanks, Dr. Shabazz. Jennifer, before I go to you, can I just respond to Dr. Shabazz? Cause I'm going to lose my track of thought unless it's- I did have my hand up. Oh, I don't see your hand. I'm sorry. It was up before, but it was up so long it took itself down. Okay. It just walked itself down. Okay. I'm going to hold my thoughts then. Jennifer, go ahead and then Dr. Rhodes and then I will respond. Please. So I was actually wondering if we couldn't do like, and I kind of thought Dr. Shabazz was going to lean more towards this, but I don't know. There's something about the cannabis for me that I, the cannabis money that I question only because there's so many cannabis shops. I don't know that how, any of them. And I have this thing that, because Northampton opened up their shops first that we have folks here who go there instead of just buying in house here. And so I don't know how stable that is, but I don't, I don't, I think that we should have not only the line item and some money from the cannabis fund, right? Like I think that that would, because that gives us a little bit of stability there. And I definitely don't think we should make up any kind of framework of what we should do with the funds because again, I've talked to too many people who don't even know that we're doing reparations. So we haven't gotten that word out in a way that people can even, that people even know, right? So I don't know. I think that's just pretty much what I was trying to say. Thank you, Jennifer. Yes. First Dr. Rhodes and then, although Alexis, you haven't had a chance to speak yet. So, but go ahead, Dr. Rhodes, go ahead and then we'll go to Alexis. You know, first of all, you know, Dr. Baez is correct. This kind of this fund at $200,000 is less than a quarter or 1% of the entire operating budget. It's the minuscule amount. So it's, again, it's not about what we wanna do with the money we're putting in the line item or in terms of the cannabis money. And I will say this over and over again so people understand it. The any amount of money that is available to be put into the general fund that can be then put to municipal uses will be vacuum up for that purpose. And although we look at it as a minuscule amount of money, I can assure you that the budgets going forward from this year, fiscal 23, and the holds that that creates for fiscal 24 and 25 are immense. And so if we get on with what we need to get on with and get the vote to put this cannabis money into fund that's accessible by the AHRA and or successors, we need to get their vote. Now, I mean, I think, you know, I've said it, Dr. Baez just said it, that we just need to get the vote. So Mike, what I wanna know is what can we do? What do we have to do today or on Tuesday to ensure that we get the vote? Otherwise, you know, I'm thinking, you know, we just keep talking about, I think we, I'm like Dr. Baez right now, I'm being like, wait a minute. How much more time we wanna talk about this? How are, so I wanna know what are the steps we need to take to get the council to vote? Thanks, Dr. Rhodes. And I have, yes, I have a proposal to make that will respond directly to your question, but please, Alexis. I would love to yield to you. I might not have anything to say after you respond to everything. Okay, so just to hit on some of the points that have been raised, I do want to remind us that this is one funding stream. So we will have opportunities. I completely agree with you, it's less than 1%. It's minuscule. I think that the earmarking piece of it is sort of what is most being debated, but it's one stream that we're trying to secure now and I am in complete agreement that we need to do it now. And so put that aside for a second. In terms of the cannabis stability, Jennifer, I do agree with you that there's some concern about competition. There's concern about the number of businesses that are gonna open, but I am fairly confident given that we have three more licenses that we can put out and that right now we're bringing in between 150 to 200. I believe that that will remain somewhat stable at that level. What I also believe is when the word gets out that this town is designating that tax revenue to repair the black community, people will flock to our shops and they should flock to our shops for that reason alone. And so we can't, of course, count for sure on that, but I have a strong sense that in this community and the surrounding communities, people may come over here from Northampton. People may come over here from all sorts of places, Springfield, Holyoke to shop at our shops knowing that that's where that money is gonna be going. So here's what I have in mind and what I have heard and I take very seriously that, so we're not gonna get out of writing a policy without parameters, okay? There's no way that we're gonna be able to get a policy pass that doesn't have some parameters to it. However, what I've heard loud and clear is that the parameter that any use of the funds would be included in the policy is not acceptable to this committee. We do not want to include that in any policy. So the parameters then that I see are any policy will have these, even in Evanston, the policy has included these. There have to be legal ways to use the money so they will have to be in alignment once there's a consensus with the African heritage community, for example, or that stakeholder body. The lawyer will have to say yes, this is a legal use of these funds. So that will definitely have to be part of the policy. There will also have to be part of the policy ways that if the town falls into some emergency situation and that would be true for this stabilization fund or any stabilization fund. What I'm gonna suggest is that if you're all comfortable with it, I'd like to work with the president of the council to over the next three days to develop some parameters that are legally sound, that are not specific to us because of X, Y, or Z reason, but because it's a policy that the council's making within the governmental jurisdiction that it has. And then bring that back to you all, maybe include Lynn in that meeting, invite Lynn to the meeting because I do think that her position is very important and I heard her concerns during the finance committee meeting. And I think you all may remember actually last time around when Lynn finally said that she was ready to do the stabilization, free cash situation, it turned it in a positive direction. So I do think that Lynn's voice really matters. I think having her help us to create this policy is really important. So my proposal is that I work with her over the next few days. We do not include anything in the parameters that outlines where or how the money should be spent that will be fully decided by the stakeholder group that is an African heritage makeup completely. And then we bring that back whenever we, if we can have a meeting in Tuesday and I invite Lynn to come with us, what will happen at that point if we can settle something? Is that what will be brought to finance on Thursday or Friday? So that policy that we've created will be brought with a motion to finance and they will make a recommendation and then it will be put on for that final vote on the 27th. So let me pause there and see Alexis, please. I'm sorry, I forgot to put my hand down, thank you. Okay. So I'd like to hear thoughts on that if that works for the group and if inviting Lynn to our next meeting at least for some portion of it to review that policy prior to taking it to the finance committee is acceptable and Dr. Rhodes. Dr. Rhodes, you're muted. For some reason this sounds weird in terms of having a policy for expenditure of a specific income stream to a specific group rather than it being something that's a part of the regular budget-making process. For whatever reason, it sounds strange and weird to me because I think about a thing, hey, is there a policies that says we're gonna have X amount of dollars go to the police department? No, no, that's not there. Do we have it for any other department that X amount of dollars are gonna go to any other department or any particular line item or project or purpose? Is there a policy on that within the council? So if you see where I'm going, it just sounds weird to me. It doesn't mean that it's wrong, it just sounds weird and strange that we would be saying to the town council, we want you to create a policy. We have to do that, Dr. Rhodes, because it's a new funding stream and we're asking for it to be earmarked. Oh, interesting. It's a new funding stream, but the funding stream has been in place for about three years now and it goes into the general fund and then from the general fund it gets used in one way or another. So I guess it just sounds weird to me, but it seems that if Lynn says that we need a policy on this and for this specific spending, then fine, let's do that. But if I were president of the council, I would think, good God, do I want to set this kind of precedent? Anyway, there you go. Yeah, and I think you're exactly right. So basically, and I spoke with Alyssa Brewer at length about this because Alyssa was actually, and you may have seen she wrote a public comment to support this because she was part of the select board when cannabis legislation was being developed and then of course went to the council and what she explained, and I went through all of the select board meeting notes when cannabis was being discussed, it was never decided, it was a new revenue stream that came in and basically at some since it was never decided how it was going to be used, town manager Backelman just rolled it in to the general fund. And that means that basically that cannabis money that we feel should be used for purposes of preparatory justice and other purposes can be used to pay for anything. It can be used across the board of the budget in any way. And so what the policy is, and this is what Evanston also their legislation is also, we're modeling after, is that we're saying we want this new revenue stream not to just be going into the general fund but we want it earmarked for these purposes. And because of that, there needs to be some policy in place to do that. And I think that's where the resistance is, right? Because the town doesn't generally earmark money for a particular purpose. And our argument is, but there's a reason to do so in this case. Alexis. Sorry, I feel like I'm processing things very slowly today. So I may be going back a little bit, but I guess I'm wondering. So I remember hearing at one point, I think it was Kathy Shane who had said, talking about other ways to get money into this fund and one of those being fundraising. And I guess I'm wondering like, is that even technically a funding stream in this case? And I was like looking up funding stream and I thought that that was like distinctly from a source from like federal or state funding. And so like, could there even be this idea that like, oh, you don't need like this and such of earmarked or like you don't need this funding because you can like go raise the funds. Thank you for the question, Alexis. And I will just, this is a real point of contention for me because that narrative is in my view, a way of distracting from the town's commitment. And Kathy is my colleague and I respect her dearly and greatly, although was very disappointed with her vote in the finance committee meeting, but fundraising is absolutely something that is possible. There's a gift fund set up that's attached to our fund that I could write a check to today and put money into. I have all sorts of thoughts about that based on like my taking in what other communities are doing. And it's probably gonna make a lot more sense for African heritage residents to have a private fund where money is being put into so that it can be controlled by the black community and it's not limited the way the municipal fund is limited. So we don't, what Kathy said about fundraising and this and that is a way to distract from, no. This is the town made a commitment. I'm not saying we should vacuum up every last dollar. Of course, as Dr. Shabas said, I think we need to be mindful and reasonable and Dr. Erv said the same thing, Dr. Rhodes and so, but I think that we need to secure something, some commitment from the town. Please, Alexis, yeah. So I guess I'm wondering, is there a way that we could, so I'm thinking to myself, you know, like, okay, what could be like a worse? I guess like my mind goes around that type of person. But like, what's a worst case scenario, right? So like, I'm imagining like, let's say, like we are a budget line item and some sort of crisis happens. And so whatever's going into that stabilization fund decreases however much amount. And then, you know, it has to be seen as a priority to kind of like go back or to even to be added more to it. And I guess I'm wondering if there's any expectation of like, yes, we should be like committing at least this amount of money each year to this because of our commitment and that like, you know, Dr. Shabazz and Dr. Rhodes should be able to, you know, ideally be able to seize, you know, some of their work manifested, you know, before, you know, or even, you know, before I pass, I'd like to see some of the work, you know, manifested. And so I guess I'm wondering like how long are they kind of able to delay it because we've sort of already seen the delay, you know, some delay happening in, you know, something that we've been charged to do by them. So I guess I'm wondering how far that can go and if that can be limited by whatever we're talking about, the policy. Yeah, I think we have to safeguard from that possibility. I don't think that a policy should include, you know, an easy way for the program to be paused or for money to be moved out of it. I don't foresee that at all. One point you're bringing up that's really important actually is the gift fund. So the gift fund that is set up for reparations, that is not something that can be taken away. That is not something that can be moved around. That if somebody wrote a check and people have and put it into that gift fund, that stays no matter what. So I have to get more specifics. I don't foresee, if we get a good policy in place that says that the marking of the cannabis happens and our fund is developing and growing, I don't really see a situation unless, you know, literally things just come down to such a bad level that where we would be at risk of that. But any council in the future could reverse this decision. So when it comes to this funding stream, any future council could turn around and say, we don't want this earmarked anymore. And then of course we would have to fight for, well, if this isn't being earmarked, then what is going into the stabilization fund? Dr. Rhodes, please. My time is drawing close to an end here. So I would like to suggest that we have some kind of motion that would allow you, Madam Chair, to go forward with putting together a policy and then bringing it back to us to vote on. That would be great. That would be really great. And wondering when you all are available to meet, we need to make sure we can meet that quorum. I think what I'll do, if it's okay with you all, because I want to check with Lynn as well, is send out a poll with some dates like we did to get this meeting established. I'll do it later today, because we don't have Dr. Chavaz or Yvonne here. And so if that works for everybody, but expect Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest because finance will be on Thursday or Friday. And we can't have a meeting until Tuesday at the earliest at this point, noon, right, Jennifer? So actually, why don't you tell me, what is your general availability after noon on, let's do, what is Wednesday morning like for people? Wednesday is the 15th, Wednesday morning works. Or even like Wednesday at maybe, what is Wednesday at around 2 p.m. Okay, I'm gonna wait to hear from Dr. Rhodes. What's Wednesday looking like for you? 2.30 is better for me on Wednesday. 2.30? Is that acceptable to Jennifer, Alexis, and Hala, okay, that works for you, okay. Jennifer, you can just post the same agenda again that we've been using just to cover everything. And we'll do it for 2.30 on Wednesday. But before you do it, since we have a minute, I'll just check with Yvonne and Dr. Chavaz and text you if that's okay. I just, we have a lot of things listed on it, and I don't think that any of those things we're talking about. So it should be just about what we're gonna talk about. So what would you like that? Cause like a NECA June 14th is still on there and that doesn't- Oh yeah, yeah, okay. Although we may want you on Wednesday, firm up details for Juneteenth, you can take a NECA off, but since Juneteenth is that weekend, maybe we do keep Juneteenth on there as one item. And then the other item is designating cannabis tax revenue. I'm just trying to think if there's any, there are some deadlines, but I think we're okay to wait until the following week for the mass humanities. And I wanted to also talk to the group about a community forum, having a community forum, which is something we haven't done yet. So let's do a doctor, Dr. Rhodes, do you have a motion that you can bring forward? Yeah, yes. I'll move that the chair be charged with putting together a policy proposal to bring forward to the town council on the airmarking of cannabis fund for AHRA purposes. To be approved by AHRA at its next meeting. Move the chair to put together. That's a chair. So move. I'll get it. You'll get it. Okay. Is there a second? Is there a second? Second. I second. Okay. I'm going to call a vote. Okay. Alexis. Okay, Alexis. Yes. Okay. Dr. Rhodes. Yes. And I'm a yes. All right. Awesome. Well, I will send you all. Oh, let me make sure there's, there might be, if there's anyone in the audience. Okay. There's no one in the audience. So we do not need to do our public comment. And I will make sure I firm up that time for 230 on Wednesday. Send an email to you all. Thank you so much. And I'm adjourning the meeting. If there are no other comments at 1142. Okay. Bye. Three. I'm still recording and on.