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<br />Regular City Council Meeting <br />Monday, April 8, 2024 <br />Page 2 <br />saw an example of that in their last item. He suggested a group that would not be limited to the <br />SREAP but thinking equity and inclusion more broadly in the functions in the City. He also <br />thought with the hiring of Mr. Montez, the City has the opportunity for some members of the <br />HRIEC to be a part of the hiring process and to think about other ways, as the MAC does with <br />police officers. He asked if there are ways for this group to have a role in that process. The one <br />thing he would push back on, in the review of what came out of the Commission, is the sense that <br />a Commission is what worked best. He thought there were a lot of ideas, up to three different <br />groups. He noted one Commissioner had talked strongly about that as a thing to have a <br />Commission. But, he also thought there was a lot of discussion about two or three groups. For <br />him, it was the purpose that the City needs to come back around, nail that first, and then discussion <br />can be around the process for how the City would get to that purpose. <br />Councilmember Groff indicated he did want to hear what Mr. Montez has to say as well because <br />Mr. Montez has a breadth of experience that the City needs to capitalize on in making this decision. <br />As far the discussions about the committee to be more like MAC or a Commission, one of the <br />reasons he was hearing is because the Commissioners were thinking that an organization like MAC <br />would not follow the same structure as a City Commission. He thought it was important that this <br />Commission does follow the same structure as a City Commission because it needs to be <br />transparent. He indicated he does not like the idea, even though the Commission said it might <br />make people more comfortable having conversations, of this being off the transparent structure for <br />the public. <br />Mayor Roe indicated the Commission definitely had a lot of back and forth in their discussion <br />about the structure of the Commission and a lot of ideas were out there. But, he thought most of <br />the Commissioners agreed with the idea of a structured Commission. He noted this was an <br />evolutionary discussion and he appreciated that is the way it worked. He thought it made sense to <br />have a draft purpose statement if the sub-committee is willing to look at that as something to <br />respond to in the discussion on May 13. He noted it helps to have that guided discussion about <br />drilling down on some of the other points about the roles, how the group would interact with <br />SREAP, and the equity statements in the RCAs. He can envision ways in which that could work <br /> well and ways it can’t so he thought that is an appropriate conversation to have at that meeting. <br />Mayor Roe thought it was interesting that the discussion talked about whether the Commission <br />wanted to make sure that it matched what the Council was looking for. He noted there was some <br />pushback on that which was appropriate because he did not think the Council intended for the <br />Commission to read their minds. He appreciated that the Commission thought more from the point <br />of view of what made the most sense. The other piece he thought was interesting was that former <br />Equity and Inclusion Manger, Thomas Brooks had the Commission look and do a sounding board <br />sort of activity related to the original SREAP. This was done when SREAP was first introduced <br />and the Commission was confused as to why they were tasked with doing that because it did not <br />seem to match with their understanding of what the Commission was supposed to be doing. That, <br />to him, was a very insightful thing. There was other related feedback about the tension between <br />what Commissioners thought the Commission was supposed to be doing and what was before them <br />at each meeting for them to discuss. Certainly, that coincides with the sense of tension through <br />the last few years on the Commission. <br />Qbhf!98!pg!354 <br /> <br />