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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, May 13, 2024 Page 2 Mr. Montez concurred. He explained that as the purpose and role are discussed by the Council, staff wanted to give the Council some space to talk about what the purpose and the role of this group look like in the Council’s eyes, as folks that are representing the community. He gave the Council some recommendations as to what staff felt makes the most sense. Councilmember Groff thought this sounded good and includes what people want in the city. He also thought it sounded like what the Council and staff have been discussing over the past year and it gives enough leeway in the phrasing of “city policies, procedures, projects, program and initiatives” that people on the Commission would understand those things are valued. Mayor Roe concurred and as it is the purpose statement there does not need to be a lot of detail but it does provide that framework for the rest of that document. He thought that seemed to be the kind of thing that the Council would be talking about as a part of this discussion. Councilmember Strahan appreciated that this specifically mentions “to city policies”, noting she has looked at the requests for Council actions and the racial equity impact summary on each and wished that there was a bit more input from a certain commission, that they would have somehow taken their voices with that intent of looking at that and truly, not just kind of generically saying “no equity concerns” and applied equity concerns to these policies. She appreciates when those are there and wants them to be meaningful parts of the City policies, things the Council considers, and that these have had thoughtful consideration from the equity point of view. She knows it has not always worked that way but she thought if things were working well, they would have had some kind of voice to that piece and offered, especially things that are potentially looking for reflective voices of more than just one or two City staff, not to diminish, but the more voices the better the relationship. Mayor Roe indicated he was thinking about some of the same things. From a practical view perhaps, it would be a challenge for every single request for Council action to be pre- reviewed by a commission that meets monthly. It probably makes sense to be a feedback loop mechanism as the commission. On the flip side, if it is a new policy that the City is putting in place, he thought it did make sense to have the pre-review of what the impacts are, figure out how that works, and is that an extra step in the decision-making process that is built in or what does that look like. He could see where it could be both. Councilmember Etten thought in having discussion with current and previous HRIEC members and other folks in the community, this, and hearing from the HRIEC, people are currently saying this is a much more focused thing that allows more depth. This allows depth on something that he felt was important and multiple people agree that is what should be focused on. He thought it cleared away some of the clutter and confusion of what is currently before the HRIEC and provides a real focus on something that is critical to the future. Qbhf!:1!pg!354