Diversity & Community Relations Committee - Regular Meeting

Seventeenth, 1PM in City Hall Council Chambers. We'll call to order the committee on citizens with disabilities. I'll begin with roll call. Chairman Ariano? Present. Councilwoman Pam Evans? Councilwoman Billy Joe Adams?

Hi. Yo. Hi. What do you know?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Committee. Committee member Kim Hudgens?

Absent.

Committee member John Gemantis?

Here.

Committee member Gary Jones?

Present.

Committee member Veronica Pollard. Absent. Committee member Riley Spreadbury.

Who? Riley. Riley. Here.

Committee member Sherry Voigt. Here. And committee member Steven Voigt. Here. Thank you.

Okay. Waiting for your guidance.

Oh, sure. First, we'll have

the first agenda item as the approval of minutes. So I have attached the minutes from 05/20/2025 for your review and approval.

You want time to read it? And then we can either discuss it. Additions, motions. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Yep. All opposed, same sign. The motion carries. Right.

Thank you. Next will be citizens to be heard on agenda items. If there's any citizens here that would like to speak on any of the agenda items on today's agenda, you'll have the opportunity to now.

And

if there's none, we can move to new or old business. We'll begin with a discussion on the July disability fair updates if there are any. I

want to emphasize how important this is. I put together some of the reasons that we need this type of event because people with disabilities are the group that's being left on the outside in terms of employment, so many different categories. And I would like for them to have a place that they can go to and be welcomed to be shown what is going on in the city of Joliet in terms of disability activities, to showcase their talent. And a disability fair does all this and leads them to places where if they have some sort of need, they can get the help that they need. We have a whole bunch of different organizations that have been invited.

ADA Great Lakes, Age Guide, Ad Monmouth's Catholic Charities, to give you some idea of the organizations we've invited, Cornerstone, all these that would serve people with disabilities. And I had meetings with Joliet Junior College, and part of the problem with a lot of the students there that have disabilities is they didn't know where to go to get help. So we put together a list of all the organizations and what they do so that they can apply to these organizations to help them in their situation no matter what it was. Okay. We have Riley approaching. So

No worries. Just for the record, Riley Spradbury is joining us today. Give her a minute to settle in. And if there are any further updates about the disability fair in terms I of know that there has been an update where we did get the special events form filled out. So that has been completed.

That is a new process with the city that cannot be overlooked. So we were able to get that completed. It is in review. And the city manager's office as well as the clerk's office have requested a meeting with chairman Ariano to just discuss the and miss Evans to discuss any remaining details so that way they could move forward with their review of the request for tables and chairs.

Yeah. And and I very much wanna be there. What it is is my wife has a four hour situation going. So what I'll do is I'll drop her off there and then come back for the meeting because they can't do it till Wednesday. Mhmm. Are you available?

Yeah. Until 01:00. 01:00? Until 01:00. Okay.

It's it's it won't be a long meeting. From 11:00?

Eleven to twelve.

Eleven to twelve. Sounds perfect. Okay. I

know in the last email update, Zoom was offered as a possibility or over the phone, whichever is going to be easiest. Is this something that everyone's attending or just the chairman? No. So this was the clerk's office and the city manager's office. They just wanted further clarification of details surrounding the event. So they had all of the information necessary and available to them. And they just requested chairman Ariano and co chair miss Heavens to just be able to supply those details.

Okay. So are you saying we don't have a location locked in yet?

So the special events form is filled out with Bicentennial, and it's been through the review process. Right now, they're reviewing the request for the tables and chairs.

I mean, we're we're we're only a few weeks away.

Yes.

It's kinda hard to invite people and Yep.

Move forward

without knowing where we're gonna have this thing. Is it does it make sense to go forward? Yes. Do.

Riley has been such a a big part of organizing this. Is it possible to add her to the list?

I I don't see why not that be something that because this meeting was called by the clerk's office and the city managers, I can absolutely let them know. I don't see it be being an issue, but I'm not the one that extended the invitation. So that's something that

I wouldn't mind. What what when is it, though?

It's tomorrow, 11:00.

Let me just double check, but I think it should be fine. Yeah. I might have to do it through Zoom, though, if that's okay. Okay.

Since that's an option, I think that would be why. Okay.

Yeah. I'll here, but too, from Zoom. Just to get in on the conversation because need as many people as possible. I don't think it'll be a difficult argumentative type thing. It's just informational. They want to know things that what we're doing. They know why we're doing it.

Absolutely. So they are supportive of this event. They're supportive of the committee and the activities that you guys have already completed. I think more so the details that they're looking for is because, one, this event has never happened before. Two, it's never happened at Bicentennial Park. And also, in terms of the budget that was requested, there's nothing within city paperwork or information that supports that. So they need to just be able to gather all the details and information. And it's as far as the tables and chairs request and the budget around that, they're kind of starting from scratch just to be able to approve that portion.

Just to give you an insight, it was a lot easier, let's say fifteen years ago, to request from the city manager funds to do something because we held annual events at Bicentennial Park, And they just wrote out a check for it. It it wasn't part of the budget or

anything. Right.

And now things are a lot tighter than they used to be.

Not so much tighter, but they are a lot more transparent with the budget. But, you know, it every single thing is public information. So they need to be able to put an itemized budget down. It can no longer be a manner of just releasing funds without receipts, without paperwork, without documentation. So a lot of the processes have changed just to be more transparent to

the public. Yeah. I actually think that's better because we wouldn't want just the city just handing out texts to anyone. Like, it's beneficial to us right now, but we wouldn't want it for other things. So I think knowing exactly where money is going is probably important.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Riley, do we have an updated list of who has accepted

Yeah. I haven't updated I update the spreadsheet regularly. I'm not sure if anyone else is updating the spreadsheet, but I the people that everyone was assigned individuals to invite. And from that, you know, if someone said yes, I put that on there. If there's a direct contact information for that individual or a point of contact for that organization, I have that on there as well.

And then I also have, have, like, just, you know, if if they need electricity. So far, every single person has said no. But and and any other, like, additional information. But every person I've invited thus far because I I invited everyone from my list and then Kim's list as well since she's on medical leave. And everyone's confirmed, so they're all in.

I think it's very important we have a representative from the Spanish speaking community there because having been part of years behind the integrating of people with disabilities than they should be.

So did you invite someone from the Spanish Center?

I invited them to the Spanish Center and they're it's one of those things that are still mulling it over. Do we wanna get involved in this?

Did you do you have like a direct contact?

Yeah.

Okay.

The director.

Okay. And they they just weren't sure if they wanted to be involved? Interesting. Okay. I also some about the Spanish community center, it's not wheelchair accessible. There's no way for someone in a wheelchair to get into the Building No. Which I noted I had a meeting there yesterday and discovered that. And so I just think that that was I I feel like they would probably have a vested interest in being involved just because they already are lacking so much in accessibility. So to at least to to, you know, open their doors to people with disabilities by being involved in this event and having outreach, think would be kind of an angle to go toward. Given the fact like, yeah, yesterday was quite an experience.

I got to the building, there was no way to get in, and so they told me to go around the block. Went around the block and the sidewalk ended. So then I was stuck in the grass, and then I went around the other way, and then I was stuck in the grass again. And then it ended up taking me about forty minutes to get into the building.

Oh,

nice. And we ended up just having our meeting in like their daycare center because that is ground level. But the the director there seemed really interested in like being involved. So I mean just I don't wanna kind of reaching out and what?

Oh, sorry. I didn't wanna interject. No. No. You're fine. I wanted to let you know. So the city of Joliet CDBG funding last year had approved stair lift for Oh, Spanish community center. So they are in the midst of building it and getting the electrical put in for it. Hopefully, in the next few months, it'll be completed. Yeah. I'm so sorry for the experience that you had. And it speaks to a lot of the frustration of not just you, but the community in need of their services and resources there.

Yeah. That was my main concern is just like if somebody has a disability and would also be applicable to services at the Spanish Community Center, how are they getting? Absolutely. I mentioned to them because ironically, I was there for a disability awareness training. So I kind of talked the majority of the meeting was kind of about that and how like it's understandable why they don't have a lift.

It's understandable like when these things are really expensive or like the sidewalk for example is out of their control. Right? Like they can't control that. But I was mentioning like, well then you should be aware of that. So like when we had a conversation on the phone, you were able to let me know like, hey, go through this entrance or hey, park here or when you told me to go around the block, like they should have been aware that there was no sidewalk around the block. So I was trying to help them out with having just more of a contingency plan. They seemed really receptive though, they were taking notes and I don't know. I think overall it was a good meeting but it was definitely an interesting experience. But I am happy to hear about the stairlift. They did tell me that it was in the process. Yeah.

Yeah. And hopefully that'll relieve some frustrations and open up more accessibility. It's something that has been a long time in the making. Mhmm. So we're happy to see that project coming to a conclusion in the next few months.

These are things we discussed there thirty years ago, getting all this done. And the one big block is the money to do it. And I'm glad to see the progress that's being made. They need it.

Yes. Yes. Okay.

Speaking of events and church politics, this next two weeks, I'll be visiting various churches with the Disability Pride flyer and the reasons that we need to have something like this. Hopefully, they'll put it in their church bulletins. And possible, I'll ask for permission to speak to the congregation about the need for all this because especially in the poorer neighborhoods because there are so many from the poorer neighborhoods that do have disabilities that were started or came about because of lack of prenatal care. A lot of the medical care that people need is not it's available, but it's not attainable by a lot of that community. And so in order to get this across to them how important something like this is, it really needs face to face communication.

So I'll have my list of churches to go to, including the Catholic churches and the various churches we have, and either write them a letter or visit them personally asking for their help in getting this. But as far as advertising is concerned, we really need somebody to volunteer to contact the radio stations to see if they will put something in to their public service broadcasts, which are no charge. And they have to by all in all law, anyway, they have to put on the error waves to tell the community things that are happening. So one one way or the other, we've gotta get this word out that this is happening.

Did we discuss discuss about the that banner against, like, across the, like, the bridge, like, having something like that. Because I don't really know if people a whole lot of people are listening to the radio station. Like, I think that the way to, like, access it

how many people Right. To station. But we discussed this before, that banner that hangs over the Jefferson Street coming down before you hit the bridge. It tells people what's happening over at Bicentennial. Do you know who would contact us and like that? Is it Bicentennial? I don't think so.

I would assume so. Ask Dan. That's something that I could follow-up with Laurie on.

Okay. There's electronic signs all over

the city too. Are they all tied in? Yeah. The electronic signs in the city could advertise the disability fair. It's just a quick clip that you put on there.

That they charge for that. You do?

I would assume so.

Yeah. Would assume so.

Mysentennial, when when they put theirs up

Wouldn't they be willing to donate time? I mean

Well, for their events, they don't.

All we can say is ask, and all they can say is no.

Mhmm. I would agree.

I'd be happy to reach out to Lori to get more information about the electronic signs and the banners as well. The one thing I can say is obviously people are avoiding Jefferson Street, especially that close to the bridge, avoiding it like the plague at the moment.

That is true.

I'm not sure if there's possible other spaces that you may wanna brainstorm on instead just as a backup.

Can you help me? Can you tell us what's happening with the bridge? Is that going to be open soon?

So that's an IDOT project as well. The city of Joliet does not have jurisdiction over the bridge. I know that they are hoping that the project wraps up before the end of the month because they will be starting on Ruby Street Bridge July.

Setting up Ruby.

That's the hope.

But I dot timelines, you could be told one thing and then, you know, eventually those timelines get extended sometimes. So I would hope by the end of the month that it will be in place before they begin the work on Ruby Street. I think maybe like a good point of advertisement is so all the people

that we invited, we can let them know to let them tell their consumers, their clients, their their clientele about it. Know for example, the special recreation associations that I've reached out to, they are advertising it for their participants to attend. And I think that is a good way to get people to go. I know like the Disability Resource Center, we are telling our consumers about the event. I think, you know, sometimes like pulling into the audience that we already have might be helpful and also affordable and maybe a little bit more like realistic.

So I mean, I don't know who has ongoing contacts with the people that they've invited, but for those of you who have invited people, maybe reaching out to those same individuals and saying, hey, since you volunteered to go, can you also let your consumers, clients, participants, whatever they're called, know about the event as well.

Yeah, that's the potential for a big audience, getting clients that are, you know, going to come down and look at all the exhibits. From what I I've seen here, we have about 40 people responding. I don't

think so. Here, can I see the

I'm not in my list?

Are there any representatives from the township that were invited? Because the township might be a good source of advertising and marketing as well.

There's a lot of grants.

Who was responsible for the township invite?

I was and they declined.

Oh, they declined. Yeah. Okay.

Julia Township declined. The with the other Township.

Troy?

Troy. Yeah. They they never responded.

Here's my.

Okay. 12. 3456. And then just to confirm, is

there an official flyer for the event?

Yeah. He showed it.

Here we go. So it looks like I need to get copy. 17 people confirmed so far. Right. It looks like wait. Hold on. Sorry. Oops. Okay.

Oh,

I'm just trying to figure out the Is there anybody who for those of you that were inviting people, is there anyone that you have yet to reach out to?

I've reached out to everybody twice. The only responses I've got back were two positives. One from Tammy Dunsworth staff who'll be attending, and the Parkinson's Foundation will be attending.

Awesome.

I think it was the I I got a a note from one of the legal great forget the name of the place. Mhmm. One of

the Oh, the law firm. Right. Rubens.

Rubens. Yeah.

Mhmm. Yeah.

Oh, dang. Yeah. Yeah.

But they're gonna tell their constituents. They're gonna tell everybody to call me.

Oh, it's fair.

I just wondered, do do we have an actual vision of what the day looks like, what the event day looks like? Do we have organizations? Who's gonna direct the board to set up? Who's gonna decorate? Who's who are the parking allocations? Things like that. Do we have a a day off type of action plan that we're going to move forward with?

I think the Bicentennial Park people are very experienced in that area, so I plan to sit down with them and just go over a plan and draw out where these different places are going to be, assign them a spot to come. Okay. So, yeah, we're we're working on that, but it's something that'll be completed next week. Okay.

So there'll be a point person when Yeah. People show up.

Here's what Yeah. Because I'm thinking mainly, like, what it'll be is, like, one of those outreach fairs. Right? Like, there's gonna be a lot of chairs and hopefully, a lot of chairs and tables where people are are sitting with their own like, they bring their own stuff. Right? Like, every organization brings their own pamphlets and their own, you know, tablecloths and all of that. And then and then hopefully, the the food truck situation, which I has has anyone talked to Caitlin about the food trucks? Oh, hi.

Have somebody who I

can give you information too. Fantastic. Okay. Sorry. I didn't see you behind the podium.

Once all this is finalized, we can send another email to the community services council.

That's a good point. Yeah. Kind of like where it's like, it's done. Here's the event. Invite your people. Yeah. That's a good idea. But, yeah, we do have like a flyer. It's I I made it on Canva. It's not I'm not it's this is not my forte, so I did my best. But, that's what we have right now, and that's what we've been giving people, but I'm open to changing things or whatever needs to be done.

One of the things that I wanted to have take place is like Cornerstone Services has the art They're coming.

Yeah, they're coming. They're coming.

And anybody else that wants to display their talent because we have the band show there and we can set up the equipment for them to sing or play the guitar or tell jokes. You know? Kind of like an open mic type of thing. Mhmm.

I see.

Yeah. And You know, one of the things that that is really out there is challenging people with disabilities.

Well, yeah. I mean, I like the idea of it being, like, a display. Like, that's why I like the fact that Cornerstone is being there. I also have another individual. His name is Edgar Arenio, and he is an artist. He has a disability. And I asked him if he would be interested in coming and displaying his art. And he said he'd be interested, and he would do it, you know, just for free, and people can look at it and stuff. So but, yeah, I like the idea of things like that. That's a good idea.

Yeah. It's it's a situation where they people can gather and and talk with each other because one of the things that happens is somebody have the same experiences, but they think it only happens to them. And it's a good therapy type thing to be able to talk to somebody else.

Yeah. Like the idea of an open mic. If we had an open mic where people would come up and just give testimony to what their experiences

are. Exactly.

Something like that. I'm having you know, John John came up with a good idea that where they tell, you know, this is what happened to me. Have you had that experience? And

Like, are you talking about, like, at a specific time point in the like, during the event, like like, a certain time? Like, oh, at noon, we'll do this or something like that? Yeah. Okay.

They they can just grab the mic and and talk about things that they wanna talk about.

Is there, like, a sound system in place, though, at Bic entennial? I there is Usually, it Alright. Cool. Mhmm.

I did tell the elected official that they would speak between Mhmm. Twelve and one.

Yes. That's true. Because was it oh my god. What's her name? Underwood. Right?

Right. Yeah. Lauren Underwood.

Yes. Thank you. I think Ventura as well.

Very responsive to community.

Yeah. Yeah. I really like her a lot.

Available in Ventura. One of the things that I want to get feedback on is what's happening in the community. And I gave you a sample of a questionnaire and questions that I had. Pam gave me some feedback on that. You know, the reason for this is to find out what the needs of the community are, which would give this committee a direction things to explore.

If they're lacking this, we can talk to the city hall and say, well, we got this feedback that this needs to happen, or there's a lack of something here. But there's only so much that we know. And this is a marvelous opportunity to you just to find what the needs of the people are. And we discussed that a while back, Jackie, you and I. And I think this is something that's essential.

We did this once before about ten years ago and got some feedback then. But with changing conditions, know, there's different city out there right now than there was ten years ago.

So just a little bit of feedback. And the reason why that survey has not yet been placed on the committee's agenda or moved forward for approval through the city yet is because they wanna know obviously what the intentions are around the results of the survey. How many actionable items would either this committee or the city itself be able to respond to? Unfortunately, without the city being, you know, a housing jurisdiction, there's certain things that is informational, but there's no actionable items that the city can move forward from there. What I will also say is there's a bit of hesitancy because the city is in the midst of we just completed our five year consolidated plan which went over a lot of those questions already.

We are in the midst of completing our comprehensive plan which asked a lot of those questions already. The fire department will be undergoing their risk assessment and safety assessment which will be going over a lot of that information. And we also just did an existing conditions report and an advisory board as well. So there have been a lot of community engagement engagement just within the past six months and will continue for the next six months. That is almost like if we're reaching out to the community and we're asking the same questions over and over and over again, will there be some at a point the community is going to say we're tired of answering these questions we just want something done.

And so is there any way that we can take one of the existing surveys or boards or plans and respond to those questions that the committee plans on asking instead.

The only thing I have to say is that this specific community has not been asked those questions because it's a different community. And I don't know if they participate in all answering a lot of these surveys, but we would like to have a copy of that consolidated plan to see what already exists so that we can get an understanding of what we should know.

Yeah. So we're happy to I know the consolidated plan has been drafted, that's going to be presented to committee counsel and be public information at the end of this month. The comprehensive plan is a little bit of a longer timeline that'll be the next few months I believe. The existing conditions report there is already a draft available. On urban studies report, there is already a draft available. And the risk assessment will be underway through the fire department, I believe, in the next few months as well.

Okay. So your advice is presented, but don't be disappointed if they say no.

Well, my advice would be to see if a lot of those questions are overlapping with questions already asked. And it is kind of hard because you want to target specifically the disabled community to respond to these questions, which is it's a pretty targeted area. I'm just trying to think ahead for when I bring it again to the city manager, to the clerk's office, to put it on an agenda for an approval. Just trying to think ahead. How would you target those populations?

Again, what actionable items will be foreseeable on the city's end? Because it's great to have the information. But if there's no action that they can take, what will they do with said information after? And specifically, how would you target that population to get the information that you're seeking?

Disability culture? I'm going to put this there where the arts and literature is there any way of obtaining a lot of what the disability culture is all about?

For what exactly?

Well, art. Is there a disability culture in art, in literature? What books have been written about disability?

Are you asking for a database? I'm sorry. I'm not understanding what you're asking.

Oh, okay. Material that they can go to find out about you know, this person had a disability, wrote a book.

Okay. So you're asking, like, a database Yeah. For these I'm sure there's, like, a lot of them. I can I can definitely send you some information?

What I'd like to do is get them a list or have samples of some of the books that have been written because in reading these type of books they'll learn more about themselves and their potential because these are people that have gone through the experience that Mhmm. They're going through. Mhmm. And I think that would be a useful asset to have.

Yeah. No. I can definitely send you along some some resources. And then just let me know when I send them to you that it is what you're looking for. Like, if it's not, just let me know, and I'll switch things up.

Yeah. It's something that, you know, that would be a benefit to them because it might lead them in the direction they wanna lead. And here, they are adrift, and they see something that gives them some sort of inspiration and something that they would like to pursue and lead to getting an education in that area. Or Yep. Can lead to so many things if if somebody opens the door for it.

Yep. Definitely.

Mayor's committee pamphlet, is is everybody satisfied with it so that we can have that as part of our table there? This is what we do, and we're invited to be part of the audience or to participate. This has been my goal from the start, to get more people out there interested in what's going on in the disability community.

Do we have a sample pamphlet here right now or no? Do you

have some more of those?

So we don't have any printed out this time. I know it was on an earlier committee agenda, so I apologize. I know at the last feedback that we had, images were suggested to be a little more inclusive. I don't believe we've received any specific examples from miss Pollard or anybody else on the committee. But if anybody has any images that they feel are more inclusive to the disabled community.

I know Ms. Pollard spoke specifically to the limited hearing disability as well. That would be great to receive those images. I haven't received any other feedback, but I'm happy to email the brochure again. Everybody can take another look. And if there's more suggestions aside from the images, I'd be happy to plug them

in as soon as

we receive them and go from

there. Okay. Sounds good.

Great. I I would like to, from this point on, have on the computer a meeting at least once a week so that we can keep ourselves updated.

About the fair? About the fair? Or okay. Because

before you know it, it'll be here. Right.

Very much so. Yeah.

And we need to to make sure that we're preparing in the right way. And if somebody somebody spots something that hasn't been done, let us all know so that somebody can work on it. I want to stress the importance of something like this because, as Janke said, this is something that hasn't been done before in the city of Joliet. In the city of Chicago, yes. Various areas, you look on the computer, disability by affairs, there's tons of them.

Never here. So we're going to be learning step by step what needs to be done. And at the end of this affair, we need to get together like we did at Cornerstone and say, did we do right? What did we do wrong? How could we improve the situation?

Because I think we need to have another one in the coming year because there are so many people who tell their friends that this is what they found, and we'll get more response probably in the second year. Right. But that's all I had on my agenda. If anybody else has anything, I'd like to hear it. Yeah.

I think we just really need to know about the tables and chairs. And once we know about that, we'll be able to kind of press

along. Yeah.

Tomorrow 11:00.

11:00.

Via Zoom.

City Hall or on on the Zoom. And

then Jackie, would you be sending a link? Or

So I didn't I didn't send out the invitation in the first place, but I will follow-up with the clerk's office. And if they'd like for me to send out a link for the Zoom, I'm happy to do so to the three of you. And Tony, I'm not sure if you spoke to Lauren about coming in person or not.

In person. Yeah. I'll be in person.

Okay. I'll confirm that with her as well. Okay.

What what office is there?

So the clerk's office is located behind the, service desk at the at by the front door.

Yeah.

So, yeah, they'll be, like, kind of up some stairs or there's a ramp on the other side.

Her name again is

Lauren O'Hara. She's the clerk. Oh, Lauren. Yes. Yes.

And then Do food trucks generally have liquid you know, water?

Was the question if you could have water?

No. Do they have food? A food truck. Do they always have water or a pot? Is it

I'm not completely familiar with. I can double check that by sometime. Yeah.

I feel like usually they

Yeah. Yeah.

Usually sell food. They sell

drinks. Okay. I think that would be. Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I guess that would be pretty critical.

Yeah. Right. Okay.

If anybody has any other updates, I just wanted to one update. The proclamation is scheduled the proclamation to celebrate the thirty fifth anniversary of the ADA is on schedule for the July 1 council date. So if any of the committee members wanted to be available for that, July 1, 06:30, they typically do the proclamations towards the beginning of the council meeting. So, you wouldn't have to stay for the whole agenda. They can get quite lengthy. So, that proclamation is set.

It will only take you can go out after the proclamation is presented. But I think it's very important that we have people here to celebrate this because it shows that, you know, we are here and we are part of the community. Mhmm.

So And that's July 1 at 06:30 for the Yeah. I won't be able to, but the reason I won't is actually I so John Lucanzig that was here talking about the emergency from the director of emergency management, he was talking about the community emergency response team. So I actually joined that class. So every Tuesday for like three hours for the next nine weeks, I'll be involved in that. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go.

I congratulate you on that.

I'm excited. It's really so far, it's been fun. I have my second class tonight. Nice. They gave us homework, though. Was like, oh my god. I know. I'm, like, reading. I'm like, oh my god.

How big are classes?

So at home or They do they do, like, two different sessions. So I don't have, like, a full number, but when I was there, I would say it was probably between, like, fifteen and twenty. But then they also have a Saturday class. So I think altogether, I think he mentioned that by the time that this cohort graduates, the CERT team will have about 75 members, which is the same amount as Chicago. So which is pretty, I think, impressive.

That's very impressive.

I mean, provided I graduate. Who knows? No.

My mother told me.

Thank you.

One do it.

One last reminder aside from the July 1 council date for the proclamation. One other reminder is there is not a July meeting set for this committee when the frequency was decided. It was July would be one of the off months. I think you'll be busy planning the event fair anyway, so it probably will save you a little bit of time. But just a reminder that there will not be a committee meeting next month. And then, Tony, I believe through the city managers or the mayor's office, it was suggested to move the frequency to every other after that.

Yeah. The mayor's office called and said they would rather have it every other month. And I I said I would bring it up and we could vote as a committee to do it every other month. Yeah.

So there was an overall review of all of the city's committees, boards, commissions where every single agenda for the past year had been submitted. And for any committees that were repetitive in their agenda items and it can be consolidated to lesser meetings, they would suggest it to them.

Yeah. I got the message.

Yeah. That helps.

Mhmm. Okay.

Caitlin, I I wanted to see if you have anything to say because you've been a very important part of all this. Yeah.

I've been, like, out of the loop the last, like, six weeks, two months or so just finalizing the reports. So I wasn't sure if there's a I I know I missed a lot.

I know

I missed a lot.

Going to ask you if Riley, if we could meet at the near center and and have a meeting like we did over at Cornerstone.

Okay. Yeah. At DRC?

That that that way we we could meet a person where we don't have a quorum, so we can't make any decisions. Yeah. We can at least talk to each other.

Yeah. No. I And know. Then, like, I'm I'm, like, the odd man out. I'm not on the board. So

yeah. Alright.

I just wanna make sure, like, I'm still holding myself accountable. Okay. Yeah, like, if we can maybe if there's, like, opportunity to do a meeting before next Friday or within the next week and a half?

I don't know. Before next Friday? I think probably, yeah. We probably should just for planning purposes.

Would you let us know?

Yeah. I mean, like, I can I mean, I can let you know right now? So sorry. I'm getting confused about my dates. What about, like, Wednesday or Thursday of next week? Oh, wait. No. Thursday is oh, wait. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wednesday or Thursday. So the twenty fifth or the twenty sixth?

The twenty fifth would be a lot better. My day is wide open on the twenty fifth. The twenty sixth, I have, like, stuff intermingled throughout the day. Okay. But twenty fifth, I have open availability, and I'll keep it that way. So just let me know what's most convenient for

everybody, and I'll be there. Shoot. I forgot that I'm I'm picking up my new wheelchair that day.

I forgot. That's important. I forgot that

that was happening. Sorry. Okay. Hold on.

Monday, Tuesday?

Yeah. What about I feel like Monday would work better for the art center. We're just like more open those days. Mhmm. So June 23, anyone?

I won't be able to make twenty third. No? Twenty third and fourth, I'll

Okay. We might we might have to have a meeting where maybe somebody's not there. I don't know who Yeah.

Think it's in the twenty fourth, Tuesday.

Twenty fourth, you can do?

Yeah.

Oh, okay. Perfect.

That

works. Yeah. What about, like, the the afternoon of the twenty fourth? Sounds great. Like, I'm available anytime after, like, 01:30.

I have I have a Zoom meeting from two to three, so I could either I we could do, like, after three or at three if it's on Zoom or after three if it's in person.

That sounds good to me. Okay. Yeah. Let's do well, you said it's two to three that you're

doing this? Yeah. But it's a Zoom meeting. So

Okay. And, also, like, we can meet through Zoom if it's more convenient for everyone. Yeah. That's obviously an option. But what about for now? We'll just say 03:30. Yeah. At DRC. At DRC. Okay. Then if anyone needs to do Zoom, we can definitely accommodate that as well. But yeah.

So Alright. 03:30 DRZ.

On the twenty fourth.

On the twenty fourth.

Alright. I'm putting it in there.

Got it. Okay. Where where's that at? I'm sorry. I don't I'm

not sure.

You have to just find it. No kidding.

I'll just follow you.

It is on do you know, like it's on infantry right off of Jefferson.

Oh, okay. Behind the

Yeah. Like, right behind the bank.

Right there? Yeah. Okay.

Do you know where, like, big McBride's is?

Yeah. Right.

It's, like, across the street from McBride's.

Yeah. I think right there. So, okay. Perfect. D d n c what's

it called?

Disability Resource Center.

Thanks. Okay.

If there's any public comment on either agenda or non agenda items, open up the floor. Seeing none.

Calling for chairman.

I. Thank you.

You being adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Show it to me. Thank you.