Council - Special Meeting

welcome to the east lansing city council special business meeting of may 21st 2026 the meeting will come to order could we have the roll call please council member whalen here council member sing here council member meadows mayor pro tem grigsby here mayor altman Here, Councilmember Meadows is not able to join us tonight. I would entertain a motion to excuse his absence.

I move.

Moved by Grigsby, second by Whalen. All those in favor say aye. Aye. That motion carries. Councilmember Meadows is excused. Is there a motion to approve the agenda?

I move.

Moved by Grigsby.

Second.

Second by Singh. Any discussion of the agenda? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Agenda is approved. Communications from the audience. Josh Ramirez Roberts.

Hi, thank you. Okay, there we go. I should have come up with something more prepared, but I didn't. So, just coming out of Tuesday's council meeting and the comments that were made regarding the city manager there, and then also former city clerk Wicks coming out with accusations of a toxic workplace, and even though the council basically, no one from the original council that hired Mr. Bellman is still here, during that hiring process there was essentially the Lingering after-effects from what happened in Bay City and the accusations there So I hope that's something that we're looking at here And if we haven't done so already just so these issues don't boil over to this point Create an employee wellness survey that council can review and have and be able to see what's going on in the city with these employees so we can get a sense of if there's any issues that aren't being addressed and then also The Leaving that topic and going towards The officer involved shooting. I also want to say I know this has been a topic that's been frequently spoken about. And I know it's still under investigation, all those other things. But something that we can do and something that we should be doing now is specifically looking at our training procedures. That's something we have a great deal of control over. especially when we're looking at so many of the things that went wrong there in terms of not being able to recognize when someone dies, how injured someone is, feeling the need to bring out a riot shield in order to disarm someone with like essentially a pocket knife after they've already been injured on the ground, not listening to commands from other officers. All these things need to be seriously investigated of how these have been lacking from our training, if they are in our training if they're not putting them in there and then also something that I was thinking about for a while, and this happened years ago, was one of the two Chad's, I believe it was Chad Pride, who was our interim police chief before Jen Brown. And I was on, it was some promotion he was receiving, and I was on the promotion interview back in college. And he made this comment about, I think he was in charge of essentially reviewing complaints, internal complaints against officers and those sorts of things. And he made the comment that, kind of a joke, that You know, I'm harsher on my own kids than I am on my officers, right? And that's something we're said in a promotional interview, and I was kind of shocked by it. Wow, didn't know you'd feel comfortable enough saying that in a promotion interview. But making sure that that culture, right, when we're thinking about the quality and the training, the actions of our officers, Is that position being adequately performed in terms of reviewing officer complaints? We cannot allow a culture where officers are protecting each other instead of the people to persist. And if that is a culture that is maintaining or persisting under Jen Brown and she is unwilling or unable to change that culture, I suggest we start looking at leadership changes there. Thank you.

Thank you. Abby Takaki.

So I'm guessing that the city HR told you that the investigation into the complaints made by Erica Hernandez did not find any legal violations and so the file was closed and everyone did what was required by their job and the only person who had to make any change is the woman who was victimized and no one was held accountable and nothing will change. And since HR and the attorneys told her there was nothing that they could do to help her, she made an appeal to the people who can do something and I was heartened to learn that this special meeting was called. I've heard from many city employees who have voiced consistent concerns about intimidation, inappropriate comments towards women and a workplace culture built on fear and power imbalance. It's likely you haven't heard from any of them and they may not file a formal complaint because they fear retaliation. One message I've consistently heard is it's okay. Most of the staff are great and we protect one another. City employees should not have to rely on one another for protection from their own leadership. Beyond that, I have serious concerns about the leadership decisions made under Bellman's administration, including the hiring of a police chief that many viewed as the least qualified candidate. And every new media story about the issues with our police chief does lasting damage to East Lansing's reputation. It discourages Michigan State University graduates from staying here after graduation and contributing to our local economy. It hurts the city's ability to attract exceptional talent to MSU and it makes it harder for East Lansing itself to recruit qualified, talented staff. A city cannot thrive when its leadership is a liability to its reputation and its workforce. We cannot accept the response that he may be a terrible boss but there's nothing we can do There is something the City Council can do. This manager's values do not match the heart of this city, and East Lansing deserves leadership that values professionalism, accountability, fairness, and respect for employees, residents, and visitors alike, and this council should act now to restore trust in city government.

Thank you. Nadia Sellers.

Thank you for having me. Last week, Chuck held his open community meeting. All he wanted to do was he wanted us to listen to him. That's all he wanted. I heard it. He wanted us to listen. When we come here to these meetings, that's all we want, too, is for you guys to listen. But I'm going to ask you to listen to me today because I hope you can learn from this. I had never been to a city council meeting in my entire life until you harmed my son. You keep talking about the lawsuit. Let's talk about how we got here, and hopefully it's something you can learn from. After the incident, I reached out to Jen Brown multiple times, seeking to sit down and have a conversation. But instead of a conversation, she went on an assassination defamation assault on our children in the press and did more damage. Had she just met with our families, this could have been resolved quietly, without the press, without attorneys, without a lawsuit. But instead, I was forced to come here every Tuesday night, a place I'd never been before, to advocate for justice for my son and for Mason Woods. Her comments about minorities coming here to commit crimes, that comment didn't have to be made. And had it not been made, it wouldn't have been put on the billboard. If I tell my kids all white people are bad, every white person they see, they're going to presume they're bad. You can't tell people that minorities come here to commit crimes and expect them not to fear them. That was wrong. A complaint wouldn't have been filed with the HRC or the MDCR by our families. A calm conversation, a simple conversation could have been had, but instead my request was met constantly with rejection. And after the rejection, lies after lies after lies was told to the press about our kids. Jan's leadership at the police department is one thing, Robert's leadership at the city is another. Since when do you reject having a conversation? You're elected to listen. But people don't want to talk when they're guilty. That's when. So please stop hiding behind the lawsuit and please just be honest with yourselves and say you handled this whole situation poorly. You were forewarned about the possibility of someone dying at the hands of your police officers unless you took accountability and did something about the leadership. You didn't listen then either. You refused to listen then. Now Isaiah Kirby is murdered and the innocent man is stabbed. So people are coming here to a place that they've never been before to stand in front of you to speak with you about transparency and decency. You don't have anyone to blame but yourselves. And I'm sure you know what's right from what's wrong. And even though I believe you want to do what's right, you put yourself in a bad situation. Now you have to do what's wrong because of a lawsuit. Because of bad advice given to you by your leadership, Robert Bellman, your attorneys, who by the way are not your friends, they're not your volunteers, they're individuals that's costing you money, that's costing the city of East Lansing money. the taxpayers' money. So instead of schools and infrastructure improvements and training, you're spending money on lawsuits and defending yourselves and training to be taught to do what's right when you're over 10 years old. You should know by now. You don't need to reduce a minute for public comment. You don't need a police officer to keep the black people in line. You just need to do what's right so that everyone can go on about their lives. The one person who could have been saved is Isaiah Kirby's. So I ask you to look inward, not outward, and realize you got here because of the one thing Chuck wanted was for someone to listen was the thing you denied to our families.

Thank you, Nicole Keeway-Biber.

Hello. So on the sign-up slip, it gives an opportunity to sort of say what your topic is. I thought, I guess it's representation and reputation. And for Memorial Day, I think it was the day after the city manager got exposed for his harassment, he was invited to give the presentation for Memorial Day. That's not who I want representing the city I live in. I think most people don't. It seems the sort of thing over and over that should be really a pretty easy call to make. of what is going to be, from anyone observing these things, what the reputation, as Abby mentioned, of the city is. It's not looking good. I go back to the changes made of public comment. So right now, if this wasn't still, you know, before July 1st, everyone would just be looking at a blank screen that said closed session instead of hearing what their neighbors have on their minds and their hearts. Does that help our community? Does that open doors for a sense that we care what one another has to say or that the people elected do? You know, as a result of caring about the decimation of the only Earth we have, I'm very heavily involved in politics. And whenever people run for office, they're so bold. They're so certain of what they're going to do. But then it seems like once you're in there, it's just excuse after excuse for how little you're actually able to accomplish. And yet, when there's the handful make it through of representatives who maintain their principles and their morality, they seem to be able to get a lot done. Do you really? So, okay, here's another thing I've noticed. So when you sort of allow these excuses or these passes, it enables people who already might have a closed mind and heart to double down on it. And that just further erodes any sense of belonging for people who are among the population that's being dismissed or chastised or taken to task. And just as an example, with the decision to have a sergeant at arms in here, someone made the comment, oh, I would be so scared if people booed me. That literally doesn't happen. It's because you don't want people to clap, to approve of one another. And you should want to hear what people are in solidarity about. That doesn't make people feel safe. It just doesn't. Maybe some people. Because they don't think when they see an officer and guns that it's anything that's ever going to harm them. That's what's called privilege. So really hoping that this closed meeting is taking the clear steps to salvage some semblance of the reputation of the city to get rid of a sexually harassing city manager and to finally deal with this police chief that has completely, completely eroded any trust among the public with that aspect that our taxes are paying for of that employee pool. Thanks.

Thank you. Rebecca Casey.

Good evening. My name is Rebecca Kaysen. I'm here tonight again as a private citizen not representing any organization, commission, or campaign I am connected to. I am tired of this nonsense. We've been showing up for far too long. This meeting needs to be about personnel accountability at the city. Because if this council continues refusing to act, then every instance of racist policing and every act of harassment inside city government will remain on your hands. At the last council meeting, a city employee came before this body and publicly accused city manager Bellman of harassment. That should be a five alarm fire for every single person on this council, and I'm hoping that's why you called this meeting. Mr. Bellman continues to protect Chief Jen Brown despite overwhelming community concern about the racist culture within the police department. Leadership sets the culture. When racist rhetoric and harmful behavior are defended instead of addressed, employees understand exactly what is tolerated. And I want to be honest, I had hopes for you, Mr. Bellman. The city manager search was a disaster. Multiple candidates were kind of run out of town and being harassed in the press. Residents and city employees were left watching council choose between two candidates. One candidate there were concerns by current city employees about, and the other one had expressed that he had learned from his past mistakes and wanted to move forward. I had hoped that Mr. Bellman meant what he said. It does not appear that he has learned anything. Instead, we are watching him protect power instead of protecting the community. We're watching him harass instead of help. And I have questions for this council. During the campaign, Eric Altman publicly questioned whether the hiring of Mr. Bellman should be considered a done deal. He suggested the new council should reevaluate the decision. So what changed? Were those genuine concerns or just simply talking points? Because what I see from this council is not leadership. On Tuesday, while residents came forward to speak about racism, policing, and harm in the city, Mr. Altman spent an extraordinary amount of time focused on where members of the press were standing and whether they were behind some arbitrary line. Residents were pleading with this council to hear them, and instead the focus was on controlling the room or controlling the optics. You work for us. You were elected to represent the residents, not obsess over where journalists stand while public trust in the city not just collapses, has already collapsed. If personal grudges and internal politics are shaping decisions on this council, then I have to ask, is this the legacy you really want to leave? Unless something changes, this body is steering the city into deeper dysfunction. This community deserves leaders with courage, leaders willing to act instead of hide behind process, delay, and excuses. The time for discussion is over. Act now or step aside and let a real leader do it.

Thank you. Kath Edsel.

My notes are not as coherent as possible because I didn't think I'd be writing another comment 48 hours later. Mayor Altman, prior to being elected in 2023 you came by my door to garner support. We talked briefly about the first LAPOC annual report and your concerns about the use of force data as well as other racially based discrepancies. So I asked you if you were running on the narrative that the city was in chaos and you replied you felt it was an important issue. I opined that this narrative seemed to be coming from a small group of white women who seemed uncomfortable with a black mayor, majority black city council, black interim CM, police chief, fire chief, and DEI director. And then the narrative seemed racially suspect. At that point, you turned and walked out of my house. And here we all are. now with all of those positions except one filled by white people and the only black person is still under attack and the last nine to ten months feel pretty chaotic even outside of all of the issues around policing which includes lawsuits a lying racist chief protected by the city manager with a comment that it was a learning opportunity we have a city manager that couldn't pass a bond with your support. In a community that passes just about every bond because no one trusted him and felt that the community was being strong armed, as the three of you, Bellman, the chief, and you, wanted more and more money for policing. And the bond was a bait and switch. It was passed off as, the failure was passed off as people were frustrated that their taxes are too high, but yes, less than a month ago, the community passed a $99 million special ed millage with 70% of the people saying yes, demonstrating that a significant lack of confidence in the city manager and your leadership. Now we have accusations against the city manager of sexual harassment in a hostile work environment. Accusations that mirror those from employees at his previous supervisory job. Very concerning accusations and ones that I have a hard time believing that you, the mayor, were not aware of when they were filed months ago and allowed this man to continue to bring his toxicity to our community. How long have you known? Given your protectiveness of your wife when her opinion was challenged by a black man on Ellipop and she wouldn't participate in video viewing with that person, I would be very disturbed to learn that you have been aware of this accusation for months and kept it from the public, possibly from the council even, and allowed this man to continue to harm people under his employ. i realize that there's due process here but when we heard these accusations before he was hired he said he would do better we're now hearing it it continues to go on and i hope this evening this council holds him accountable for those behaviors gets rid of the city manager gets rid of the police chief and starts the healing process for this community thank you thank you karen honey

Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to start out by saying that my heart goes out to Erica Hernandez and I am so sorry that she has had to experience such harmful and harassing treatment at the hands of city manager Robert Bellman and that she's had to work in such a toxic environment. I also want to thank long term East Lansing employee Maria Wicks for speaking up about her treatment by the same city manager and for supporting Ms. Hernandez. As a female commissioner serving in a voluntary capacity for the city, I have to admit that I feel uncomfortable at the thought of having to interact with Mr. Bellaman or even worse to be left alone in a room with him. You have the opportunity to do the right thing and to terminate his employment immediately and hopefully regain some trust from your community. Nobody should have to come to work and worry about what sort of mood or behavior to expect from their boss and the city manager. The behavior from Mr. Bellaman here in East Lansing is basically the same behavior reported by employees of his when he worked in Saginaw. And know that this is not the council that hired him, so please step up and be the council that fires him. Following his removal, I urge you to appoint DEI Director Elaine Hardy as interim city manager. Ms. Hardy is the longest serving director, possesses institutional knowledge, and most importantly, is well liked and trusted by city staff and the community at large. Additionally, I was unable to call in or to attend the meeting on Tuesday night, but I fully support the demands outlined by Dr. June on behalf of the Citizens for Justice, starting with the most important first step of removing Jen Brown. I hope that you do the right thing and believe women. I imagine that there's probably more women waiting to speak up or possibly have spoken up. And we don't want to be a city that employs a toxic man at the top and where women feel nervous and afraid to come to work. So I urge you to please do the right thing and fire him immediately. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to address the council? Hello. Please state your name for the record.

My name is Tajmika Torok. I wanted to clarify a couple things that I said and just name that I am also speaking in front of someone who is a sexual predator despite the fact that he should not be here. Sexually harassing employees is obviously not okay, but asking community members to stand here and address you with him standing or sitting there is absolutely unconscionable. I will say, though, that that makes a lot of things really clear for me. It makes sense. Why would he attempt to protect a lying, evidence-hiding police chief when he's lying and hiding evidence himself? Makes a lot of sense to me. And why should we trust institutional leadership that uses power and control to limit public comment, establish rules of decorum, and lob threats of police escort after a season of black people peacefully offering public comment? It doesn't make any sense. Because the dynamics of power, control, and violence are intertwined into a knot that enables coercion, gaslighting, silencing, and enabling. And I really left on Tuesday night wondering why none of you even mentioned Erica's name. You didn't thank her for showing up. You didn't thank her for risking her professional reputation, her job, her employment status. You just let her walk out. You didn't name it publicly. that's really disappointing and chuck i do want to thank you i agree with you having those list of demands is a great place to start what feels really frustrating is i cannot imagine that through all the transcripts of everybody speaking for however long we've been doing this you could not have come up with some of these demands yourself so that labor on the community um is is not something that's always so necessary if you just listen in the first place I think that's all I want to say. I just, I really cannot believe that Robert Bellman is still sitting here. It is so disrespectful to this community. You should not be here. And the fact that you even think that you deserve to be here is really ridiculous. But here we sit. And this is what we can expect from leadership.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the council? Are there any callers?

Yes, we have one caller in the queue. Caller with the phone number ending in 955, you are now permitted to address the council.

Hi, my name is Patrick Rose and I live at 310 Oxford Road. I watched the fleet footage, the body cams and the witness video. Fleet footage, too, is absolutely devastating, and everyone should watch it first, and then the witness video, followed by the rest of the fleet cams and body cams. The officer body cams are hard to watch, and I'm not really sure how to process this all emotionally. It's just devastating. I'd have to say gut-wrenching. I wish I could unsee it. I am so very sorry for Isaiah Kirby and for Doug Mielak. Um, I can't even imagine the suffering that Doug has gone through and I hope for a full recovery for him. And I just can't even imagine what Isaiah Kirby went through. I will never unhear the sounds of his voice as he died and was shot three separate times, two terrible tragedies. And I asked the community not to look away, to watch it. And here are my first impressions. The police pulled right up on Isaiah as he was running towards them, wielding a knife, but he was running straight down Abbott in the bike lane. He obviously had just stabbed someone. They knew that from the 911. The blood appeared to be on the knife. So the police knew and could see all that when they got out of their vehicles. It all happened so fast. Isaiah was ordered to stop, and he did not. The officer in the first vehicle came around his vehicle, was between the two, was six to eight feet away, was shielded. Isaiah was running directly parallel, not at him, didn't lunge at him. That officer issued a command that he drop the knife. I do not think he had time to process the command. Watch it over and over. Is it one second, one and a half seconds, two seconds, three seconds? And at that point, he had the kill shot and he was within range to protect himself and he could have backed up. So were every other officer. The complicating factor is he kept running and we don't know why. The officers disembarking on mass guns drawn into his path of travel had a chance to surround him and contain him. They did not. He was obviously a threat, but he was a threat to the officers that they could control. They could defend their own safety without the use of lethal force. The officer who said non-lethal non-lethal was ignored. Officers under 1983 law at the U S constitution cannot create a danger and then rely on that danger to claim self-defense. I understand that police could have approached this differently with less than lethal outcome for Isaiah had they trained differently. I also understand that second guessing officers as to that first set of shots is generally not allowed by the courts. It seems unfair to the officers who are acting to prevent another stabbing by disabling Isaiah from wielding a knife at anyone else. And I understand that they can, when they are justified in the use of lethal force, go to kill, not to injure. So put the first shots aside. After the first shots, it all gets less clear. Isaiah was clearly still able to move. He tried to get up, but couldn't. He then appears to have been trying to put the knife to his neck to inflict self-harm. I could be wrong about that, but it seems pretty clear he was trying to injure himself, not others. And he couldn't move and he wasn't a threat to the officers. At that point, they unloaded a second set of bullets. I think the city council has to be prepared for a pathologist and a medical doctor to say that no one can say if he would have survived the first set of shots, he likely could have survived or likely not. It might be a coin flip. That makes it a jury question of whether or not there was an unconstitutional death at the second and third round of shots were not lawful use of force. If that was an unconstitutional killing. i believe it was because he was not wielding a knife in a way that could harm another person and he had been immobilized police in this country under the u.s constitution are not allowed to kill a man already shot to take a knife from him if the first shots immobilized him and the fact that isaiah was trying to get up or trying to run or writhing in pain clearly unable to move and harm them makes the second and third rounds of shots unconstitutional excessive force and this is an unlawful killing if the jury finds he could have survived the first round of shots unloading the successive second and third rounds is actually shocking given he had stopped being able to move in a way that could suggest thank you for your comments are there any other callers

There's one other caller in the queue. Caller with the phone number ending in 949, you are now permitted to address the council.

Hello?

We can hear you.

Hi, I just wanted to call in to express my disappointment in the latest articles that came out about our city manager And it hopes that the council will do the right thing and put him on leave while they execute a proper investigation. The same way we have done with other folks who have had complaints filed against them. I think this is an embarrassment to our city with so much going on for the head of the administration of this city to have this many complaints against him, as well as to. just say it's not surprising as of his history and his background, but also how he has treated the director of DEI. And so I'm just hoping that the council, when they come out of their closed session, would have done the right thing to spare this city for another level of embarrassment with a leader who is clearly not capable of leading our city at this time, particularly with all the other incidents and uh issues happening with the city of east lansing it doesn't look good to be a citizen of a city with so many issues and watching the council not make good decisions about what is best for the city thank you thank you are there any other callers there are no other callers in the queue okay that concludes communications from the audience is there a motion concerning closed session

I'll make a motion to move to closed session to discuss and consult with city attorneys regarding privileged and confidential attorney client legal correspondence that is exempt from disclosure by the state law as allowed under subsection 81H of the Michigan Open Meetings Act. Second.

Motion by Grigsby to enter closed session to discuss and consult with the city's attorneys regarding privileged and confidential attorney-client legal correspondence that is exempt from disclosure by state law under MCL 15.243 sub 1 sub G as allowed under subsection 8 sub 1 sub H of the Michigan Open Meetings Act. Motion by Grigsby, second by Whalen. Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Whalen? Yes. Council Member Singh? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Grigsby? Yes. Mayor Altman?

Yes. We are adjourned to closed session. We are back in open session. We are now on to item four of the agenda, in particular item 4.1, which indicates that upon return to open session, City Council may take action on matters discussed in closed session. So I have a motion. I move to waive attorney-client privilege with respect to the November 20, 2025 investigation report and to authorize the release of the report with permitted redactions pursuant to applicable law. That is my motion. Is there a second?

Second.

Motion by Altman, second by Grigsby. I'm going to address my motion. I'm going to read from a release that will go out with a press release that we're going to send out with the report that we are releasing. An independent investigation was conducted per city policy to examine allegations of harassment and bullying leveled against East Lansing City Manager Robert Bellman by East Lansing Grant Coordinator Erica Dziedzic-Hernandez. She filed her complaint in September 2025. City Council at that time retained independent investigators from the Miller Canfield Law Firm in Lansing in October 2025. After a thorough investigation, the independent investigators found no violation of city policy or law by City Manager Bellman, but recommended that he receive leadership training. City Manager Bellman has since then been meeting with an executive leadership expert Following the conclusion of the investigation, Dziedzic Hernandez continues to be employed by the City of East Lansing and she remains in her position reporting to City Manager Bellman. So that's reading from the statement that will be part of the public domain starting tomorrow. I want to add that the city moved swiftly. and we have a robust policy in place that governs situations like this and we moved swiftly to follow the policy and the report that we received indicated that the allegations were unfounded and Everybody deserves process. Everybody has rights. And that applies to complainants and it applies to respondents. And it's a relief for me to finally be able to make this statement to the public that these claims were unfounded. And my job in this position as a council member is to take the process seriously and look at evidence and go where it leads. and I look forward to continuing to work with City Manager Bellman in his position and I offer my support to him as he leads us through the city. You are out of order. Public comment is closed. Is there anyone else who would like to comment on the motion?

Sure.

Council Member Singh.

Yeah, I mainly. Wanna talk to staff of the city of East Lansing. I think while this is one action this evening to disclose the independent investigation that was conducted based on a complaint filed, there are, for anyone feeling that they are operating in a hostile work environment, additional issues there is a process that we will follow through on and take actions I know there's been other public comments and there may be other issues that exist and I just encourage those folks to move forward and consult the HR director if they are experiencing anything. Thank you.

Everybody has a right to speak, including city council members. Is there anyone else who would like to speak to the motion? there any mr. Whelan yes I would like to speak mayor I would we are going to take a brief recess Okay, we are back in session. We're going to continue discussion of the motion. Mr. Whalen.

I'm contemplating our conversations because there is concerns. I spent my career listening to people. I spent my career discussing things with people. And I will state on the record, outside of this context, that When there is a conversation about violence and sexual assault, I take it extremely serious from my life, from my career, So I begin by believing. That is a mantra that I have lived by. I do think people have a right to speak. There was not. That has not been discussed in these last several weeks as far as a sexual assault. There has been concerns raised and human resource policy is very specific. We've got to be very careful. When we sit here at city council and we hear people speak about different issues, It is very difficult to not be in a dialogue, to answer back with information or facts or situations. It is very difficult to sit and listen. I wish we could have more dialogue. I will not speak to human resource policies. I want to speak about a human resource issue with any city employee in the seat as a city council member. It's just not appropriate. I also will not speak of human resource issues with anyone because it's just not appropriate in my situation as a council member. We do have responsibilities and roles as council members. Mayor Pro Tem Grigsby and I just got back from a training and these are things we already knew but we're reminded of our ability to lead, our ability to listen, our ability to understand our community and our entire community. There is things we need to lead and there's things we need to respond There's things we need to contemplate. I think we need to have the appropriate time for all those things. And I think due process is critical in the situation. In every situation, due process, because everyone deserves that. I do... I think I'll stop there.

Thank you. Mr. Grigsby, do you have comments?

No, uh, just, um, I think what has been said has been pretty much, um, what I follow in regards to taking this very seriously. Um, as a person who has worked with, um, many, many victims of different things. I just know how difficult it is to come forward. I know how difficult it is to put yourself in a situation where there's a possibility for re-victimization. But if you are experiencing or have experienced any of the issues that we're talking about tonight, please come forward. Please come through for the process so we can advocate for you and advocate for due process. I respect what our community members are saying. what what you're doing right now is not going to help for the issue It's very difficult to be able to. It's very difficult to be in a situation where you have to appreciate the law. You have to appreciate process. You have to appreciate people's rights. And that is one of our responsibilities sitting here in these seats, whether you may agree or disagree with that. And again, as I was trying to say, if there's anyone out there that is going through or dealing with currently or has dealt with any abuse at all at any level, Please come forward.

Is there any further discussion on the motion? Okay, the motion is to waive attorney-client privilege with respect to the November 20, 2025 investigation report and authorize release of the report. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries and that report will be released. That brings us to item five, adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. Moved by Grigsby, second by Whalen. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? We are adjourned.