Community Relations Commission - Regular Meeting

Test. Test. Test. Test. Test.

Commissioners, I'm gonna start turning the microphones on just so you guys know. I

know.

I didn't mean to say it like that.

That's what I

need. Oh,

yeah. Well,

We have reached 05:30, so I'm gonna go ahead and call the Community Relations Commission meeting for Thursday, January 2026 to order. We start with a roll call, please.

Commissioner Barrero? Present. Commissioner Bravo? Present. Commissioner Present. Commissioner Credup? Present. Commissioner Garwick? Absent. Commissioner Call? Absence. Commissioner Martin? Absence. Commissioner McDowell? Present. Commissioner Pekayla? Present. We have

a call.

Thank you. The, first thing on our agenda is the acceptance of the journal of proceedings for the community relations commission held on 12/11/2025. We'll entertain a motion to approve. I approve. Do we have a second? Second. And any discussion related to the minutes from the last meeting? K. With no discussion, all in favor say aye. Aye.

Any opposed? The journal is approved. Do not believe we have any public speakers tonight, so we'll move to our unfinished business from previous meeting. You all have in your packet, the annual report that normally goes to the mayor. So those who were here last month, you all saw the draft version of it. I just made a few minor tweaks based on what we talked about. I think today would be a good day to approve that and send it off to the mayor. So give you all a chance to review if you need it. Otherwise, we can, entertain a motion to approve.

I so approve.

Do we

have a second? Second. Do we have any discussion related to the report? All in favor of approving the 2025 annual plan, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The plan is approved. So the next thing is developing our agenda for the street planning session. Actually, I'm gonna let Mikayla walk us through that because we have a nice tentative agenda in front of us.

Hi, everybody. Hi. I'm getting really excited about our strategic planning session. This I did share this before. Everybody really seemed to like it.

So I wanted to do it one more time because it was a few months ago and make sure that we're on board with that before I finalize things for our planning session. So obviously, we'll talk about the year end review, some organizational effectiveness for the group. We've talked about things about communication flow, how to communicate certain things out to the group, how we would like the CRC to be communicating. We had that email set up and then we ran into some issues with like the Opens Meeting Act and things of that nature to make sure that we're complying with all those things. So just having some discussion around that.

And then before we break into the small groups, there's going to be community needs and landscape scan. And really, that's just to kind of talk about what we 've discovered over the last couple of years, what areas that you all personally feel are gaps that you'd like to address or discuss. Things of that nature is what that discussion will really take place. But the bulk of our time is going to be spent in small group discussion ideas. So in your packet, it's a very basic format here.

But there are on the agenda, we're going to break into three small groups. So I hope everybody can attend. I think there's one commissioner that cannot. But we're going to break into three small groups and two if we have to. And I'll divide the small group discussion ideas. They're like priority areas within our community up between those groups. And then we're going to use our sheet here to develop goals, action steps, a lead person. So in the past we've done subcommittees. There might be some items that we're going to have to have subcommittees on. And then a timeline for that.

I'd like to plan out the next two years. Some items might only take six months, some might take twelve, some might take the full two years. So based on your group discussion, you guys are going to be determining what those timelines are going to be. And then there's going to be outcomes. What are we going to want to see happen from these goals and these action steps?

And then we're going to take these sheets that you all do. And that's how we're going to build our action plan for 2026 and 2027. Because we want to make sure that our agendas are what you guys are passionate about, what you're hearing about from the community and things that align with the commission's mission and what they're supposed to be doing. So do you guys have anything that's discussed. Okay.

Is there a priority area or a discussion topic that anybody has preference to be in? Because I will I'm gonna break these up and then assign them because I'm gonna have cards and everything at your guys' tables to give discussion topics, of like starter things, rumble starters, that sort of thing to get you

all going. I guess housing will have to be one of our biggest topics.

Okay. You like to be on that one, Jiria? Oh, of course. Okay. Alright. Anybody else? I would like to be on that one as well. Mary Jude. Okay. Thank you. I'd like to be on that one as well.

Mikaela, you're talking about number six on the last page. Right? That has all of the

Yep. Mhmm.

I mean, I think for me, obviously, accessibility and disability inclusion. But I would also add what I don't see here that we've talked about a lot is our approach to regrow, and I understand that that's out of our hands for a moment, but we should probably still have some conversations around it to make sure that we're prepared should it end up in front of us again.

Speaking to regrow, it did die in committee. As of right now, there's not a consensus to discuss the program. I want to maybe encourage you all to have conversations with your alderman. If you have ideas of ways that this program could really thrive, I think council really wants to make sure that the funding is spent in the best possible way and helping the population at the way it's supposed to. So I think they're looking to hear from folks to understand what it is that the community wants to see, what are some gaps or things like that.

So I would encourage that. If you'd like, I can add that to the agenda. But as of right now, as far as like the application rubric, all of that has been paused and moving forward because we don't know what direction council is gonna wanna take the program.

So with that in mind, maybe it makes sense to not have it, but to address it. If it comes forward to us, we need to schedule an entire meeting to focus on it probably.

Absolutely. Yeah, because we were moving forward in that direction. We had some really great ideas for the rubric and stuff that I was excited to bring you all. So when that does happen, make sure that we'll get you guys up to speed on that so we can move forward with the new rubric and things of that nature. So, so far I have Crudit Bravo and Pekala, did I say that right? Pekala. Pekala for housing. Eric, you said you'd I first first we're of of

ir I We're And then and public messaging. Okay.

Let me find that. I'm public. K.

Also interested

I'm sorry. Could you say that again? I couldn't hear you. Equity and inclusion. Okay.

Additionally, you can add me to the, talking point related to domestic violence.

Domestic violence? Okay. Can you tell me what oh, there it is. Okay. Pastor Martin. Oh, are you saying okay. Equity. Equity. Alright.

And community safety and trust building, please. Okay.

And I'm always good with communication. That's kinda what I do. Okay. And housing has always been to draw my beat every day. So if you wanna stick me in there. Sure.

Mikaela, I'll be added also to equity and inclusion. Okay.

I'm not gonna be available for this one. So going forward, I would like to be involved with policy and advocacy focus areas.

Okay. Can

I just have one request and she won't be there? Is there could you give us some of your notes? Could you just share some stuff with us Sure. Prior? And then that way we can we're all included. I think that'll be good. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. Okay.

Great. Okay. Absolutely.

It it does seem that community engagement and communications and public messaging kind of overlap in a few areas.

Yeah. Community engagement and I mean, we can combine those two. So these were just kind of areas as I was researching and things like that that they do. So we can you're right that they can kind of, I think the communication and public messaging is something like more of what we want our social media to be like and engagement could be more of like any type of events or that type of thing that we were looking to do or participate in.

There's the overlap.

There is. Yeah. Absolutely.

So I'd be up for both.

Maybe put those together.

Makayla, to add to that overlap, I I would almost take the where'd it go, accessibility and disability inclusion and just put it under the equity lens. It's it's the same. Okay. I would just add that under equity.

Okay. So are we adding four and five together? Is that what we're doing?

Yeah. Or one and five. The community engagement outreach with communications and public messaging. And then adding, you said, item e under six to Yeah. Equity. Equity and inclusion number two.

And I almost wonder if we would add in that same line, I wonder if we would add d, the hate incidents and bias response under equity as well.

Use let's see. So item e, we're gonna add to number three. And then what else? Item d to number three? Yes. So other items up under there. Does that make sense?

Yes. Okay. Yes.

Mikaela, could you also add me to policy and advocacy? Policy and advocacy. Okay.

K. I got you.

Can you add me can you add me the community engagement outreach, please?

Absolutely. Perfect. So I'll make those tweaks. I'll send out a final agenda before our meeting. And if you guys think of anything in the meantime, please let me know.

I'm happy to add anything that you guys would like to have as part of this. But like I said, the majority of our time is going to be spent in those small groups and really building out and beefing up our action plan for the next two years. And then we'll come back together. Then we're going to review all of those small group discussions, make sure that the whole commission is on board with what the small groups had discussed. And then kind of finalize those items and formally add them to our action plan.

And that would conclude our meeting. I will bring donuts and coffee and bagels. I'm not a donut person, so I'm going bring bagels too. Is there anything else that you guys can think of that you might need for the the session?

No? Thank you for organizing. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you very much. So with that, we have reached the commissioner's reports part of our agenda. So start on this side of the room. Are there any commissioner's reports?

I have something new.

I like what she said about commissioner coming alongside a alderman. I think that would be cool if one of us would walk alongside them, you know, hear hear the region that they're in charge of, and then it'll get us out there more that people would know that we they can come and talk to us as well. You know? So I I really like that idea. Idea.

I

just need to have on the record. I had a actual grantee reach out to me in regards to a grant, about Brook Road, and I talked to Mikaela, and it was she had resolved. They already resolved it in the tech council, but I just wanted to be able to put on the record that I did follow through with it. Awesome. Thank you.

I had a meeting today with, both alderman Tamir Bale as well as, alderwoman, Karen Hoffman, particularly with, the re grow. So this past Monday, it it basically died in the water. And so my my recommendation is that to city council is that it comes back up, for reconsideration. Secondly, I I reviewed, on the, city of Rockford's, website in regards to the description of the regrow, and it's very broad. And I think that once it comes up for reconsideration that we need to really look at it.

My recommendation is that it it drops from city council back down to the CRC, that we have the opportunity to look at it and and create wording, that will that will help what we need to do and then push it back up to to there. And the reason why I I say that is because with, president Trump, blocking $10,000,000,000 worth of of funding that is used for many of our nonprofits dealing with childcare, after school programming, things like like that, we need to really kinda look at how the city can handle and at least give some level of a stimulus and use the the funding from the regrow to to kinda help stimulate what they're the work that they're already doing. And so that's my recommendation.

And the only other thing that I will I guess, a question. So at the end of our meeting last month, there was some desire to get, some memos from city departments. Do we have an idea when we might receive that information?

I did talk to, our public works director and asked for the memo and gave some notes, but I will follow-up. I have not received that memo as of yet. Awesome. Thank you. Yep.

Anything else from commissioners before we adjourn for the evening? I will take a motion to adjourn then. So moved. Do we have a second?

Second. Second.

All in favor? Aye. You all at the strategic planning meeting. Now

you didn't even we we didn't even acknowledge our two argument that we asked.