Diversity & Community Relations Committee - Regular Meeting

I'm gonna go ahead and start the recording. Today's Tuesday, February 18. Committee on Citizens with Disabilities here in council chambers. I will do roll call. K. Committee member, Pam Evans? Yes. Committee member, Billy Joe Adams? Committee member, Kim Hutchins? Present. Committee member, John Jamontas?

Here.

Committee member, Gary Jones? Here. Committee member, Veronica Hallward? Absent. Committee member, Riley Spreadbury? Here. Committee member Sherry Boyd? Absent. Committee member Steven Boyd? Absent. Chairman Anthony Ariel? Present. Thank you. Okay.

I'd like to welcome everybody live from Joliet, the Raiders Committee. And we've got a lot of business to discuss. The first on the agenda Jackie, tell me if I'm going in the wrong direction. But we we should start with the the mental health concern. It it is something that

Anne, may I ask

you to interrupt? If we could start with the approval of minutes first from the approval of the. Thank you.

I'd like to get approval of the minutes from the last meeting, which was November. If there's any comments, additions, subtractions.

I could approve. This is Riley.

Okay. Riley makes a motion to approve. I'll All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay. Motion carries.

Thank you. Next is citizens to be heard on agenda items. For anybody that wants to speak regarding agenda items, we'll have a maximum of four minutes. I currently do not see any citizens to be heard, and we can move on to new or old business. Business.

Okay. Anyway, as I was about to say, the problem with mental health is increasing about sixty percent to seventy percent of the people that are homeless have mental health problems. There are a tremendous amount of people that are seemingly fine, but they're suffering from things that they do have control of, but they don't really understand how to exert that control. And getting mental health help helps them to cope with the things that they don't quite get a grasp on. So I've asked Caitlin to come in and tell us some of the help that's available from the Will County Health Department, and to please, if there's anything new at the Will County Health Department, let us know what's happening there.

Hello? Can you all hear me okay? Yes. Yeah. Alright. Oh, hello. It's nice to see everybody again. My name is Caitlin Daly, and I oversee the NAP program at the health department, which is responsible for completing our tri annual health needs assessment. And I know many of you from different spaces, Anthony. And Gary from Accessible County.

And I know officer Masculino from our local coalition. Thank you for welcoming me again to talk a little bit about the health department, specifically our incredible behavioral health department. You may not be familiar, but for a health department, for a county to help have a health department and be considered a certified legitimate health department, there are a couple of core programs that are required. Food, water, sewage, epidemiology, which is like communicable disease investigation. If there were ever to be another big outbreak, like, god forbid, COVID or measles, something like that.

And then also our emergency preparedness and response division, they're also kinda tied in. If there's ever, like, a biological event, they kind of mobilize the community respond to that. Now, those five core programs, that's all we are required to have to be a certified health department to serve the community. We are very fortunate here in Will County. Our constituents are incredibly fortunate that the Will County Health Department has way, way, way more than just those five programs available to them.

One of them that we have is our huge behavioral health department. I can't speak too specifically about the programs because I'm not from that department or that division, rather. I don't want to misspeak. But I can share some information. Obviously, our core is right over here in Joliet, 501 Ellett Avenue.

We're right off of Richard Street, just south of the exit for I 80 that is unfortunately closed. And about five minutes south of Joliet Central, we're tucked right behind the neighborhood, and we're located right next to Sunny Hill. We also have two site locations. We have one in Boise. It's right off of I 55 or I'm sorry, I 57 at Boise Manhattan Road and our Bolingbrook office, which is off Lily Cash in Route 53.

It's a couple blocks east yeah, east of Bolingbrook High School. The different programs that our behavioral health division encompasses, they do adult outpatient, child and adolescent outpatient, five ninety Crisis Cares, which is something that a program we used to have. It went away for a couple of years. And then within the last year or two, it's come back. Our first responder suicide response program, that's something new to us within the last year. And our substance use treatment program with naloxone distribution training. Doctor. Kathleen Burke is the powerhouse of that program.

I'm sure

you might be familiar with her name. They also do court mandated assessments and support, and they also offer mobile crisis response. So they do a lot of programs. Also within that, the County Health Department has been very fortunate. If you all are not familiar with the Will County seven zero eight Mental Health Board, That is something that was formed, I wanna say, towards the 2022.

It was a memorandum, if I'm getting the terminology correct, on the mayor's election at the 2022. It was put up to the people whether or not they wanted to designate a I believe it was 3% of their tax levy to go towards something that is called a community mental health board. And that money is ultimately then turned into grants for organizations to then be able to expand capacity, infrastructure, all of those things to meet the needs of the community. That vote was passed, and we had a mental health board start getting formed in 2023. And just now in February, actually closed on Friday, February 14, the grant application cycle.

But specifically within that funding, I believe that first year was either eight or eight and a half million that was designated for that first year of funding. And the Little County Health Department has been incredibly fortunate to be designated $4,000,000 of that funding. And they have been using that money very wisely to expand, expand, expand. We have increased staff load, specifically for psychiatrists and therapists. We have renovated the Bolingbrook office to be able to, again, see more clients so they have a permanent space out there instead of doing an AB schedule and splitting the offices.

And they're also looking to expand the footprint in MoMi, again, just to be able to have a permanent space for behavioral health and not do, like, an AB schedule. Let me see what else do we have here. A new program that they started this year, they have a new school based health program that they're working with the Joliet Schools. They are working to provide Will County Health Department therapists and providers in the schools on designated days. I believe there was a designated one or two days a week that the counselors would be in the school to meet with students and provide them with support and resources.

And then just some additional information about where we stand with our overdoses. We have seen a reduction in overdoses from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four, fatal overdoses, if any specify. In 2023, we saw ninety three fatal overdoses throughout Will County. And in 2024, we saw a total of sixty two fatal overdoses. So we are definitely seeing a reduction.

But despite that, we are still kind of seeing some little pockets of, like, areas or populations that are still kind of having the trouble with the substance use disorder. So of course, we are still seeing the white population are having more instances with overdose. Joliet is the number one location in Will County for overdoses. It's something that's interesting. Areas like Naperville, Tinley Park, and Borderland Park now starting to see fatal overdoses and naloxone reversals, which are areas they haven't seen before.

And then the most popular age group to experience an overdose is the 25 44 age group. I gave you a lot of information. Are there any questions?

I'm just curious. In terms of accessing mental health resources in Bull County, like your specific department, how does like, payment work for? Or is or, like, services free? Or, like

So they they accept a range. They do private insurance, but they also work with Medicaid and Medicare. And if you are a cash paying client, they do fee for service on a sliding scale based on your income.

Okay. Yeah. And in terms of wait list?

They do not have a wait list right now Oh. For any any programs. Awesome. Yeah.

One one of the encouraging things that I saw in the newspaper recently was the fact that because I've been tracking this for so many years, and I used to see so many young people, teenagers that had committed suicide. And the article stated that no teenager, no young person had committed suicide this past year. So that gives me some idea that the idea that it's not a stigma like it used to be that you have a mental health problem. But the objective is to get you to seek the help that is there.

Yeah.

So it it apparently is working.

Yeah. There's I mean, there's absolutely still, like, some little pockets, communities where maybe that stigma still does exist. For example, through my assessment work, I did a focus group down in Wilmington, And we were talking about youth mental health, cyberbullying, substance use, all of that stuff. And something that they said was unique to their area was was that kind of, like I forgot the exact terminology that they used, but it was kind of that, like, you know, I went through it. It was good enough for me.

It's good enough for you. You know, I drank when I was younger, and I lived. And I wasn't hurt, so you're gonna be fine. So, absolutely, like, I have seen through community outreach, people are more receptive. When handing out Narcan, people have a story. Oh, I know someone who used this Narcan to save a life, or they know somebody in recovery or something like that. But then also, again, depending upon where you go, you might find those pockets where people are a little bit more resistant and maybe in need of some more outreach and education.

Alright. That's the key there. Operation education. As a Vietnam veteran and a service officer of the VFW, I encounter an awful lot of people that do have mental health problems, and my job is to get them the help immediately. It's a twenty four hour a day operation, and it almost requires somebody to be there.

But the key to it and it's been ongoing with the VA for an awful long time. We've been able to reduce the amount of suicides by a third. Something It's that needs hammering over and over again. The help is there. Is there any you know, because your operation is, what, five days a week, eight hours a day?

Yeah. We our normal the health department is open Monday through Saturday. I know specifically behavioral health, we have some people that do Monday through Fridays. Others do Tuesday through third that Saturday, rather. Excuse me. But to kinda circle back and uplift that,

let you know people need

help 247365, and outside of those business hours, I do wanna highlight our five ninety crisis cares program. That was a program we had. It went away more recently, and then within the last year and a half, two years, it's come back to us. That program is managed by. Tony, I can get you her information.

Mhmm. But, basically, what it is is they have a designated phone number, and people can call that 247365 in the event of a crisis. And crisis is a broad term, and Capretta told me very specifically, you know, for example, if someone was on I 80 and they had a rock come and smash their windshield and they're, you know, in the moment, they're very upset, they're afraid, they're panicked, they don't know what to do, they could call that 590 number. Someone, a designated health department employee, will come out to that person in the field, meet with them, talk them down, calm them in that moment, and ensure that they're they get connected to the help that they need. I know Caprinta has been working very, very hard to build that twenty fourseven, three sixty five capacity.

She has first shift fully staffed. Second shift is almost fully staffed, and I think she's just now starting to recruit for third shift. I do have these little program resource guides. You may have seen these before, but I have versions in English and Spanish. These books detail every possible service at the health department, what pro what the program does, are there fees, what office, all of that great information. And specifically, if you flip to the pages that are purple, that's our behavioral health. You can find all the phone numbers for the programs that I spoke about today in these books, and I'll leave them with you. If you need more, tell me. You know where to find me.

I can give you more.

But that's what I wanted to hear is if something is available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, because a crisis can arise at any time. And if there's nobody there to help, things can wind up very badly.

Yeah. Absolutely. We're we're almost there. We're eighteen hours a day, seven days a week, three sixty five. We're getting to that twenty four hours. So give us time, and we'll build that capacity. Do you know anybody looking or available for a third shift in the mental health field? I'm sure you can refer them our way. Parental will deeply appreciate that. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank

you.

Yeah. Absolutely. My pleasure. Can I, Jackie, can I

leave these with you?

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Spanish and then these ones Your English. 85. Perfect. Thank you.

Oh, it's great to have you, Katherine.

Oh, my pleasure. Thank you.

Next up on

the agenda is for the discussion for the pamphlet information.

Yeah. This is something that I handed out to everybody here. What we would like to do as a committee is to start visiting area nonprofits and businesses to get them to understand what we do here as a committee, that we represent really everybody in the city because there's a time and place that may come along where somebody winds up with a disability, and they need to know, what can I do in that event? Who is there to help? What is the city doing for me?

What is the welcome to do for me. There's a lot of information that we put out, and we want people to be able to dial a number and ask what kind of help can I get, or talk to these groups and let them know what the city of Joliet is doing for them in terms of information on what to do in any event that winds up having to need services?

I would like to thank,

missus Dusterio. She's joining us for

as a deputy city manager, to have some input on the tablet.

So, yeah, thank you.

I wanted to offer our communications department to help assist you with the brochure. So we have a department. We're trying to have all committees have some sort of uniform brochures that are going out. And we have access to Canva and different brochure software options. So we wanna make sure and we would need legal to also look at the brochure. So we wanna offer our services to collaborate with you if you wanna I did receive a copy of what was attached to the agenda, but we wanted to make sure that there was consistency. And so Rosemarie is our director of communications, so she would be able to assist you with that.

And we we can help. We will we'll be able to to help you. And what we're looking for really is maybe it could be just one sheet that that shows everything that we we do or how they contact us. But the objective is to get something out there.

Great. We do have the page on the website which gives a synopsis of what the committee mission statement is and the resolution and when it was created

Mhmm.

And what the purpose of the committee is. So until that is the brochure is solidified, I would recommend that you send people to that that site. And it does offer a chance for people to sign up if they're interested as well.

Great. Thank you. Mhmm.

We could also

move on to

the discussion regarding the JCTV access because

Oh, yeah. Awesome. See, again, our objective is to reach out to the public. And you see all those empty seats out there. We would like to see more people coming in and more people out in the television audience to tell them what we're doing and to show them what the needs are.

People who have a disability tend to be lost an awful lot of times. Look at things and say, I can't do this, when there really is an opportunity to accomplish things in their lives, things that they can volunteer for or things that they they can seek employment on. So communication is the key.

So the as you know, the meetings are streamed live audio only. The only two committee meetings, not commissions, but committee meetings that are televised are the Planning Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals. Those are committees that make final decisions. So all of the other committees, including council committees, are only audio only, and that is the way that we are continuing to operate. So at this time, we don't have anything in the budget to expand that. So it is audio only, and that is available on our website.

Okay. Well, we we need to get that word out to the city of Georgia. We have that. It's it's available and where it's available.

Right. So when the agendas are published, a media release does go out to the public notifying them. So the public is notified that you are having a meeting today at that time. Even after it's over, all of the audio for this meeting stays out on our website. So people can can hear it after the fact and listen to it.

And and I think we have at least four or five years out there. So they and you can even put in the topic and your committee, and you can go just to those meetings and that section of the meeting. It it does go to those specifics. So if you wanted to just hear on mental health, you could put mental health disability committee, and it would pop up today's meeting. And you could just listen to what she just spoke about. So that is available, and it does go on our Facebook and our social media sites. So and the media release is sent out for all of your meetings.

How many people do you think that's available or know that that's available?

I know we have I mean, I I guess it would depend on how many people

are looking at Facebook.

And we also have the, you know, the we do regularly promote that. And I can bring it back to our communications department to try to mention the committees more than just the council meetings as well to remind people. So we can see if they can advertise that. And they come up with with posts, and maybe they can work with you to to make it more of a.

Would it be possible for, like, us and I don't know if it's the question for you specifically, Tanya, of, like, just going to, like, more, like, like, outreach trips and just letting people know like, having a a booth or a table. Like, for example, I just went to one, like, this past weekend, and I mean, I was there representing the Disability Resource Center, but you know, we were able to give out information about like because I think the issue, I mean, we definitely it's all published, so it's not like that's the issue. I think the issue is more so than having people be aware of it. I think I don't think the issue is being on TV. I think the issue is not getting people aware that audio or anything is even available or that this meeting even occurs.

Right. So what I would recommend, and and maybe I'll bring it back to the communications department too, is, you know, we regularly go to neighborhood meetings, and those are generally people, residents that are interested in government and being involved. Right? So I

can see if we

can come up with some kind of pamphlet with all of our committees and maybe give a brief overview. And then as we get more information, if they're well maybe somebody could come to one of their meetings as well. So I can ask. That would that's where I would think that would probably have a better outcome than more Facebook posts, I guess, in general.

It's the only thing that we need to as a committee to

support you.

You know, I can get back to you on that. Let me think of some, you know, options. We're always looking for new, you know, marketing campaigns and trying to get people more involved, but I can definitely get back to you on suggestions going forward. I appreciate that. Any other questions?

No. I think what really we need to keep communicating and seeing what the needs of the committees are. And, obviously, one of the biggest things that we would like to see happen is bigger audience.

Okay. Yeah. So I will speak to Rosemarie in the communications department and see if she can come up with a sample brochure, and maybe you can email it out. Obviously, don't respond all to the email because then it's an open meetings act violation. But if you just respond with your thoughts on it, we can see if we can start bringing that to neighborhood meetings in the meantime.

Okay. I I would like to see some sort of timetable. When should we come back with this? You know? You're you're gonna start with

It would not need to be on your agenda. As soon as I receive something from her, I will have her like I said, we'll send an email out. I will I will work through Jackie.

Okay. Okay? Appreciate it. Thanks.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Vanessa.

The next item

on the agenda is the City of Joliet, ADA transition plan updates. I know it had been discussed. Your concerns have been discussed regarding the delays in the transition plan and any updates that the city had, but we did wanna remind you that the both the budget has just been approved and the winter season delaying any beginning of new projects. There's no update to give since the last time Sean Migos came, so it kinda lead in September.

Okay. For those who don't know what the transition plan is, the Americans Disabilities Act mandated that each city make a self evaluation, see what was lacking in terms of opening up the city in all aspects to persons with a disability. That means in hiring, that means in public facilities, sidewalks, talking, know, lights that tell you when to stop and go, all sorts of things that are going to make life easier and more beneficial to persons with a disability. And it's something that to anybody that has a disability or anybody that doesn't have a disability, should be important because it is something that makes the whole city accessible. Who knows when somebody is going to wind up with a disability?

So it is really for everybody. And and the thing of it is we wanna see it keep on track. And whenever there's a delay, we wanna know how long the delay is and when are we gonna start up again and what area are we gonna start up again. So it's something that every three or every quarter or every once in a while, we wanna get an update on because, as I said, it's very important to everybody to have a transition plan in effect. And it's something that doesn't end after five years, after ten years.

This is an ongoing type of thing, because a good example is sidewalks wear out. They start becoming uneven. Part of the transition plan says you have to maintain those so that anybody walking on the sidewalks is not going to trip, that somebody in a wheelchair is not going to have an impediment there because of uneven sidewalks or or a street light in the middle of the sidewalk. These type of things have to be eliminated. So it's important that we know that it's going to continue.

I will hope that in the next quarter now that the engineering department is aware of the budget that they're working with and able to begin outlining their perspective new projects, Sean has guaranteed that he will stay in communication with this committee to kind of outline their future goals.

Okay. The the next thing that we have according to the program program is volunteerism. This is something that we really need to get more involved in as a community, especially people with disabilities, because it gives them the opportunity to be involved in something that is work, something that gives them experience. And there's no greater opportunity than the Americans with Disabilities Act anniversary, the thirty fifth anniversary, is coming up in July. And it doesn't have to be necessarily a volunteer day, but it has to be a day that is commemorated as an important event in the history of America, that we did have somebody care enough about including everybody to create Americans with Disabilities Act and say that we are not going to take being second class citizens anymore.

We're going to be part of the community. We're going to be part of society. And this is not going to end. This is something that's gonna be ongoing. So

So wait. Is there a a particular event that you're referring to that we're doing?

Disabilities Act in July. This is the event. The occasion would be something to commemorate it.

Okay. So not an event that already exists. You're saying we need create one. Okay.

Yeah. We need to create an event. And I I would suggest you to volunteer day because it's an opportunity for people with disabilities to show that they do have abilities, and they can get involved in the library, or they can get involved in the park district. They can get involved in so many nonprofit organizations as a volunteer. There are things that need to be done, and people with disabilities need to show they can do it.

So that's that's why I chose the volunteer day to to commemorate it. But, you know, it's it's something that needs work on, but we don't really have that much side of life over here before you know it.

Right. I just do not understand. Like, are we like, what what sort of steps are you thinking of in order to, like, create this, like, day? What like, are you saying, like, nonprofits are getting involved? Involved? Like, are we, like, having a specific day where, like, we're asking people with disabilities to volunteer? Or

or we're asking people you know, this is, I guess, it's something we need to to work on fast because it'll be here before we know it. But what I'd like to see is the nonprofits to get involved, the mascupination to get involved, to get people to realize that I have an opportunity to showcase my talents, and I I need to get involved in this kind of a project. And like some of the things, it may start out small, but it can become something that's much bigger than the initial event. That's that's what I'm I'm seeking is the the committee

Yeah. Because the thing that I'm thinking of and I mean, I I don't know. I might just not be visualizing it. Right? But, like, I'm not totally sure how in, you know, less than six months or whatever that we can really coordinate with, like, multiple nonprofit organizations to, like, to, like because I don't really know specifically what we would be asking for, whereas, like, maybe, like, an event might be something where we can have booths so we can have people come and be aware of more services that are available.

We can have a booth that shows like what we offer. Like I know for instance in Chicago, have like the Disability Pride Parade. So So maybe something kind of more involved in that might be something. I mean, I don't know what everyone else's

space on. This is

the kind of feedback that I wanted. We could work with a bicentennial park and have booths there or, you know, pick pick a location and have music, like like you say, and something sort of refreshments for the attendees, but something to get people to get together and not only people with disabilities, but the Julian community to celebrate their fifth anniversary because it's it's vitally important.

Yeah. What if we do more like a a press event here at the with the city, and we could do a rollout with our pamphlet at that time, like, any kind of roll in. Riley's idea of, you know, maybe this is then we have also a list of agencies that are looking for volunteers and looking and and also Good. Considering having, you know, soliciting more volunteer you know, more attendance for our our meetings, you know, just telling people what we are and what we do, and encourage people to to come out and and make that a precedent and,

you know, mayor there. And as an aside, I would like to have a meeting at your location because it's very convenient to see if we can get other area nonprofits involved in in putting this together. Yeah.

Leading to the president or or or in a conference room. It's pretty low and large.

Yeah. Because, I mean, I do think, like, about a debate thing, like, I wouldn't know that this committee existed if it wasn't for the like, my place of employment. So I do feel like a lot of times, like, even people who are interested in, like, getting involved and stuff just, like, might not know where to go or where to start or, you know, sometimes it can be kind of overwhelming to, like, know, like, what resources are available. So I like the idea of getting the word out and having that good like, I like the idea of the rollout of, like, the pamphlet during that time. We can even have, like, one of us as the representative of the committee to explain, like, maybe what we do and how we work together.

I mean, you know, a lot of us are a part of other organizations. We can talk about it that way too. Because, yeah, I mean, I think that a lot of, like, especially, I think, like, parents of younger people with disabilities are always eager to, like, get involved and know what resources are available. I think it's becoming more common to be, like, politically engaged. And so I'm sure that there are more people that are willing to kind of learn about their rights and resources. At least that's what my experience is working here like that. I feel like people are coming in and being more interested in what's going on and what's involved.

And, you know,

than having extra people to come in front of us.

You could even just

go to hospitals, health care,

places like that. Yeah.

And I yeah. I I love the idea of going to places and just being like, hey. Can we talk for a little bit about, like, what we do? You know? I think, like, for example, like, you know, the this is a resource center, like, in Cornerstone. Like, we know what we do. Like, we've communicated. Right? Whereas, like, I feel like, you know, maybe I none of us have, like, maybe gone somewhere on behalf of this committee. Yeah. And so, yeah, I do like that. You have more people being aware of what we do and yeah. I like

the idea of being fair bear in the summer. Right. You know? Without moves and food. Even has some children too. So Yeah. Showcase during that when we are doing

Sounds like a disability Pride fast.

Exactly. Yeah. I like I'd like to say something there at one of the booths one of the fire district saying that this is what we have available for children with disabilities because I don't think it's really they they promised it to to help and and purchased equipment that children with disabilities can use, but sometimes they have to be spurred and and reminded that you promised to.

Well, how I guess my it realistic and impossible to take I mean, in my head, I think it is, but I'm just curious. If we were to have, like, Disability Pride Fast, right, let's say we call it that or we workshop it, but that has the booths with different organizations and maybe even there is, like, where, like, a press event happens. And we speak on, like, you know, we have, like, maybe the mayor is able to come and and just whatever. Like, we try to make sure that all the local Joliet organizations that serve people with disabilities are there. And I mean, maybe even within our own kind of circles, we are able to kinda let

people know, like, what's available.

And have this really pride event celebration thirty five years of econ.

Yeah. Yeah. I like that. And I heard that's a and you can also I mean, I think it would be cool if we maybe talked about at at the event both how far we've come, but also maybe how far we need to go because there's definitely Mhmm. You know, we've definitely come very, very far, but, obviously, we all know Mhmm. There's many

Barriers now.

Yeah. Exactly. So many barriers. But I I I do like that. Like, maybe even, like I'm honestly thinking about so like at DRC, like one thing we do is we have like those peer groups that meet and, you know, they're usually run by someone with that specific disability and we can even talk to those people and be like, oh, let's use that as a way to promote the event. Like, okay, we have an adult autism club, having them be aware of this event and going, I don't know, trying to reach out to a variety of coalitions of people with disabilities, deaf and hard of hearing people, like, military users, all that kind

of stuff.

Think we should include the caregivers as well. Have some sort of national dime thing they can

do here.

Of who?

The caregivers.

Oh, yeah. Definitely. I think that's important. I think a lot of, like, parents and caregivers should wanna get involved too.

I'll I'll I'll give you a call to if we can set up a meeting and include one night.

Get early? Yep. Okay. Okay.

I I think we need to get some things started pretty pretty quickly. Yeah.

Yeah. That's

the bum location today.

The nice thing is it's it'll be the summer, so we can be outdoors. We hope. Well, yeah. Yeah. So that that will be good, at least. We don't have to deal with, like, Yeah.

As as far as I know, we have a relationship with Bicentennial Park, and that they they can use the the city insurance for events held by the mayor's committee being a part of the city. So it's important that the mayor's committee kind of be the the parent for this this type of event.

I know that this committee was previously held at Bicentennial Park after he had with the director there.

Yes. Yeah. We we can stop off and talk with the director over there.

And just a reminder, if you have the meeting over there, it will not be streamed live. You would still need to do a media release or reopen meetings at violation. So just a reminder, you do fall underneath that. So any meetings outside that scheduled meetings would need to have a release. The public would have to be invited if there's more than a a majority of a quorum present in your talking business.

I think we're just my mom.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think we're talking about, like, actual, like, mayor's committee meeting. Right?

This is an event.

Right. Like, like

the mayor's meeting.

Right. But not, like, an actual

Meeting. Meeting.

Right? Yeah.

And I just wanna

I know that the mayor appoints all of you, but the the name of the committee actually is the and I don't wanna actually wanna the committee on citizens with disabilities. Right. So I just wanted to remind you, but if you are talking about it here and doing it as a part of the committee, even though it's an event, if you're planning that event, that falls under the Open Meetings Act. So I just want you to be mindful of that as you plan. Okay.

All it means that we we have to have your taxes and follow through with the procedures.

Yeah. That makes sense.

The the last thing I had Yes. I

think we need to start. I'm going this more in March. Maybe the day. And

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The last thing I had was something called DEI. And I know this is getting battered currently, but I just wanted to go over what does it really mean.

What it really means is that everybody is evaluated individually, not as a class, because what we're dealing with is what people feel about a class of people sometimes carries over into the hiring of that person. There are so many persons of color that have been turned down simply because they're persons of color, not because of their qualifications. So it goes against the popular belief that the DEI means you hire unqualified people. It does not prioritize diversity over qualifications.

If you

look at the Americans with Disabilities Act, it clearly states that this is not a license for people with disabilities to be hired just because they have a disability. It's a license to be looked at and evaluated for their talents because it's something that's the right thing to do, is to look at everybody and say, is the best qualified? Who can do the job? Not what is the person's color of their skin or their disability or the fact that they're a woman. The very fact that women have been the greatest, taken the greatest advantage of DEI.

More women have advanced into the workplace as a human being. Wasn't in the seventies that women had to couldn't hone their own credit card. They had to get a man to sign for them for them to be able to get a credit card. So the advancement of a whole bunch of classes of people have been great because of DEI.

And I apologize. But just to so that way I'm clear in my minutes, are we tying the DEI conversation into the Advocacy for the Americans with Disabilities Act?

Yes. Yes, we are. What I'm saying is that we need to look at persons with disabilities as a hiring opportunity for people with disabilities from the city. It's been government. I worked with the state of Illinois for twenty three years in Springfield, and one of the things that impressed me was the number of people with disabilities that were on their payroll, not because they had a disability, but because they were able to do the job.

And it's been so much of a missed opportunity for the city of to really get involved in hiring people with disabilities. What we're asking for is that we use the principles of DEI in terms of hiring for the city of Joliet, because there are so many people qualified out there that need to be given that opportunity. And one of the ways that I have been suggesting is to have internships for young people with disabilities that they can learn on the job and get that experience that they need. But this is something that we we need are trying to communicate with the city, Joliet, is to think more about hiring people with disabilities.

Okay. If there's no further comments or discussions on that,

we can

move to a public comment.

Anything, Kaitlyn? You're my colleague. No.

I mean, if there's anything that I can do to support with the the event you were speaking of, just reach out. We have a health equity team that coordinates events for the county all over. And so he has, like, a rolodex of contacts who come out and do these tabling events. So you like, you know how to get ahold of me. So if you need help with that in any capacity, let me know.

Can can you suggest any other organizations that would be interested?

I could probably get, like, a lot of the hospitals to come.

Caitlin, what do

you wanna send me? Just so

I can make sure

everything's captured

on the report.

I can probably promote to all the hospitals and the community health centers, the clinics. I'm trying to think who else is on there. I have connections with, like, behavioral health, access to health care, like, our food and pantry operators, as well as, like, our stabilizing the built environment, so, like, our housing service providers. But I I can ask I ask Robert. He's our health equity manager. Mhmm. I can ask him about his contact list and if he thinks it would be a good fit. But, yeah, keep keep me in the loop. I'm happy to provide support.

Yeah. We we would like to have you join the meeting over at we're coming up to plan this.

Yeah. Okay. And

as far as that that meeting is concerned, do we we have to advertise that as part of the open meetings act?

Yes. If you're speaking business, yes.

Yes. We'll be speaking business. Okay. Well, we'll we'll we'll notify you when that meeting will take place, and we can

Jackie should be able to assist you

with Jackie. Yep. We'll let you know. And we need just a week ahead of time to to notify her so that she can publish it.

It we do have a an approval process here through the city that goes through various departments for all of the committee agendas. So I would recommend at least ten days ahead

of time. Ten days? Okay. Alright. So we at least ten days from now before we have the meeting. But we'll we'll let you know. Thank you very much. Jackie, that's all we had. There's anybody else that has something you would like to add, now is the time. If not, that was unease.

Somebody like to motion for adjournment?

I need a motion. Motion. His dog is very