Housing, Community Development & Public Health Committee - Regular Meeting

Change it here. I'll change it.

I call to order the housing community development and public health policy committee for the day of Thursday, August 27th, 2026 clerk, please call the roll. Jones. Here.

Gattis. Here. Kramer.

Here.

Martinez. McPherson. Here. Meldon. Williams.

Four present.

Okay.

Today we are honored to have Dr. Valerie Walston, who is the founder of SOAR, which stands for Surviving Obstacles and Attaining Rewards. So she is here to talk about her endeavors, her activities, partnerships, about how she's giving to health, whether it's mental, physical, economic, all of that stuff. Either way, it's all about well-being. So I'm going to hand over the stage to Dr. Walston to get us started. Welcome. Can you hear me okay? Is that good? Okay.

So when, so I have, I thought I had five minutes, but I have like 25 minutes. Is that right? All right. So I want to, so let me tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to start by posing a couple questions to you and I'd like you to answer them. Secondly, I'm going to walk through the PowerPoint presentation. And then lastly, each of you have been given a folder. Inside the folder, you have examples of what I'm doing out here in these Toledo streets. That's my tagline. And you also have a paper copy of information regarding my annual women's conference. So any questions before I get started? Okay, it is my hope that by the end of this presentation, you will know and understand how my work ties to helping the city of Toledo get healthier. So my questions to you. What are you doing personally on a regular basis to protect your mental wellness? And what are you doing to stay physically active? What are you doing to protect your mental wellness and or what are you doing to maintain physical activity? So you can answer one or the other. Who would like to respond first?

All right. I try every day to give myself at least an hour to do activities that I enjoy just myself. So if it's reading or playing a game on my phone or taking a walk with my child, those things. And then I have my Fitbit and I try to get 10,000 steps every single day.

time, things that you enjoy doing, right?

Thank you.

Anybody else want to answer?

This is like 20 seconds though. I just want you guys to answer.

Anybody else want to answer?

I would say definitely rest and trying to get more out in nature and taking my children out in nature as well. Okay.

I flunked the test.

Yeah, it's something I struggle the most with too. I feel like my district's so needy and they need so much that it's very hard for me to take time for myself. So I'm interested to learn what you have too today.

Oh, I had a heart attack. I almost died. I do everything. What? Go to the Wayman Palmer YMCA and walk on the treadmill. What's this, $1,000? Wait, I go to therapy, too. I got a mental health therapist. Yep, I do trauma therapy, too. I did EMDR.

I have to acknowledge President Williams.

I go to church, too. I go to church. Now what I'm buying. All right, so I won't be moving around anymore.

Thank you so much for your participation. My work is tied to assigning value to your wellness. So in some of my workshops, I just do very interesting activities to assign value. So I did want to give you guys some money because you were honest and that's a part of your mental wellness as well. So although I'm going to walk you through lots of my program initiatives, I'd like you to watch this very quick two-minute video. This is my signature program, my annual women's event, SOAR, Surviving Obstacles, Attaining Rewards. SOAR is the Walston Theory of Optimism. I'm Dr. Walston. Don't you think that's cool? And what it is is for every obstacle in life, there's a reward on the other side. The bigger the obstacle, the bigger the reward. And so my book series, everything that I do, I base it on this SOAR theory of optimism. And I'm not telling you something that I heard about, read about. I'm telling you about things that I've lived. So without further ado, if you would entertain me, two-minute video. This is just a quick recap of what my annual women's conference looks like. Maybe. There it is.

Oh, there's no sound.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

I praise when I'm sure, praise when I'm doubting. I praise when I'm numbered, praise when surrounded. Because praise is the water my enemy's drowning. As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to pray.

All right, I won't make you go through the entire video, but I just wanted you to see a glimpse of what that conference looks like. I'm trying to minimize. I might need help minimizing so I can get to the PowerPoint. There's no mouse. Now, Mary showed me how to do this. But anyway, I just wanted you to see just the, thank you so much, President Williams. I wanted you to see the breadth and the depth of my signature program and the, are we good? Okay, and then I just advance it here, right, okay, right, great. Thank you so much. You guys are so helpful. So what I want you to take away from just watching the little 40-second segment is I'm only one woman, one woman who at one point when somebody were to ask me, what are you doing to protect your mental wellness? What are you doing to maintain physical activity? I did not have an answer because I was so immersed in work that I did not take the time to care for myself. And so I got up to about 340 pounds. My life was at risk. And so at that time, I just decided to do something about it. And so the Women's Symposium is really a platform for myself and other women to share about their experiences. I have resources there for women who feel like they need more information about wellness, whether it be physical, mental, financial, any aspect of wellness. And particularly, every speaker, every seminar, every vendor that is present, they're all aligned to what we started with, which is SOAR. somebody has overcome an obstacle and they want to just share with you what their reward was. So that's the signature program. So at this point, I'm going to just walk through some of my work and the impact that I feel like it's having in this city. So the different areas, you know, move, connect, learn, and of course soar. Those are just different areas. My wellness vision for myself, Dr. Val's Soar Elevation Network, which is, you know how Beyonce has a beehive? Well, Dr. Val has a Soar Elevation Network, people who just trust me, people who follow me, and people who support the work that I'm doing in this city. So the physical aspect, I am a Zumba addict. That is my choice of physical fitness. I think if any of you have gone to a city program and I was there, I'm doing some Zumba and probably tried to move you in to do it too. Zumba is more than just a workout. Zumba is fun for me. And so I'm going to maintain that physical activity. If somebody told me to do Tai Chi, Tai Chi is great, but it's not fun for me. so I'm not going to maintain it. And so I talk about it, I preach about it, you gotta do something that's gonna work for you. Kinesthetic movement is important, and of course important for your heart health, as you know very well. Secondly, mental stress, resilience, and healthy relationships. I won't say names to protect the innocent or the guilty, but a very, very close family member when I was eight years old attempted to die by suicide right in my presence. And in my eight year old mind, the only thing I knew to do was call my mom because my mom was at work. And so my mom came, we all went to the ER. I physically saw this person. I saw her getting her stomach pumped and it was just a traumatic experience for my entire family, particularly for me. And so as I reflect on that, I often think about, and we're a normal family, but what's normal, right? Which tells me everybody has struggles. Every family, every individual has some sort of mental struggle. And so I'm just on a platform and on a mission to normalize talking about issues associated with mental health. And my rationale was the story that I just told you. If we're normal and these things happen, it could happen to anybody. Next, women. So although I do a multitude of programs for women, men, children, whatever, women are my focus, particularly women who have been broken. Because I am of the mindset that you can live well again after a situation that has broken you. How do I know? Because I sit before you as a woman who was broken. by many things, divorce, issues in the career, you know, just lots of things, domestic violence, lots of things have happened. And somehow by the grace of God, I have found a way to live life again. And so I like to share. that information, but I also like to provide a platform so that women know you don't have to go through these things alone. Belonging, community, purpose, we've kind of already talked about that. My program is unique to no one person. No one ethnic background, religion, whatever, black, white, purple, green, everybody can soar and everybody should know more about the mental wellness, physical wellness. So I'm just going to walk through just a couple of the initiatives. So I talked about Dr. Val's SOAR Elevation Network. It's just an open Facebook page where many members have joined, and they're asking questions, and I just interface with them. That's just how I interface with people on social media. We already talked about the Theory of Optimism. You know about the Women's Conference and my SOAR book. So there are three books. SOAR is a series, and the third one will be released on October 18th at the conference, and it is the perseverance curriculum. So how do you soar? You got to persevere. You got to stand there long enough. So in this book, I walk you through how to persevere. Last year, I launched the community wellness series, the 419 community wellness series. And during that time frame, I learned something about my beloved local Toledoans. I was so excited to launch, as a part of this wellness series, a kinesthetic marathon. I thought, oh, we can do all kinds of different exercises. We'll have different vendors there, and we're just going to have a good time. So for three hours, you know, yoga, Zumba, all different types of aerobics. It was just, I was really excited about it. And what did I learn? Don't nobody want to exercise for three hours but me. So now, people showed up. People did show up. I partnered with Savvy Seniors, and so they did show up. Some young folks showed up. But what I learned is after about 30 minutes or an hour, people dropped out. I had different instructors come because The point was to show them various types of exercise so that you can pick your thing out. Just as excited as I am now, I was just as excited then. So what did I learn? If I do the kinesthetic marathon again, just an hour, because y'all going home. Right, you're going home. Weight and wellness education, the most recent publication is Sore for Women, Wellness and Weight Loss. It's just the five things that I learned on my weight loss journey, and I want to go ahead and share that with others. And the next is just things that I have done to build community. So Nia, Women of Influence. So I am, of course, an academic doctor. But in my travels, I've met lots of medical doctors. And what I learned is sometimes there's not a safe space for academic and medical doctors to be in one place, especially if you're a woman of color. And so I've created a support group for us, Melanin and Crown. which is, of course, about the Crown Act and hair, skin, nails, all of that. Leadership and wellness series. Everything that I do is based on leadership and wellness, different types of wellness. We've talked about the move, learn. We've gone through that. The health message. Movement supports physical health, mood, connection, confidence, and wellness can be joyful. So I think I would be remiss if I don't say here I am not a wellness expert. I am the everyday woman. I have a master's degree in counseling that I don't use. And I have a doctorate in theology that I feel like I use every day, but I'm the everyday woman. And I feel like I am more approachable and the people who I tap to speak at my conferences, that's the one criteria you have to be authentic. So yes, I do have some experts in the room, but I want to draw women and I want to draw them to have conversations with the everyday woman about things that we go through. and strategies so we can still be successful. Another, and these are just different events that I do, the Alive and Well Leadership Brunch. You'll see a theme here. Y'all see I like brunch because everything is over brunch. So Leadership and Wellness Brunch, the whole theme behind that is how can you lead if you are not well. So I had a panel of men, and they talked about their mental wellness issues. There were 80 women in the room, and I told them to shush. Let's listen to what the men have to say. What do they need in order to protect their mental wellness? And it was hard for some of the women in the room to shush, but I felt like I needed to give a platform for the men. And at that same event, we also let some women talk about their mental wellness and their strategies that they use to stay well as well. One thing that the men did talk about, and this is good for anybody who's dating or has a mate, when you work all day, give them a chance to get home and sit down before you start talking about your day. So that was one thing that I learned about it. At all of my signature events, I always make a space for seniors. I put them in kind of like a VIP section. I feel like we, yes. Okay, I feel like we learn a lot from them And I treat them really really special and I want to make sure that they remain active so I welcome them young people not so young people. Everybody is welcome but I just I just want to make that point that I try to make a special space for our seniors because they want to talk about their wellness as well. These are just different events where I have partnered with individuals. Dr. Suzette Kyle asked me to facilitate a mental wellness panel at one of the urban festivals. Dr. Marcia Dinkins and I partnered on this program, How Is Your Heart? Again, another program about men and mental wellness. Her program, I just partnered with her. Just things that I can do to support entrepreneurs, women, and positivity in the city. Different information about wellness. I have a podcast, Flight Path to Wellness, where we talk about physical, mental, and financial wellness that is co-hosted with Jim Snodgrass. And this is just a slide that talks about the fact that women are at the center But I do focus, there's a focus on seniors. I do things for men. And I don't have any biological children. So I feel an obligation to make sure that I'm doing something for children. So I do sit on the Boys and Girls Club board of directors. But I'm brewing something for the children because I want them to soar too. And so more to come about that soon. Different things that I've done to elevate Toledo City, Ohio, any of that. I was on the TEDx stage representing Toledo as an emcee. Lots of different media outlets. The work that I'm doing in Toledo, I feel like it's being noticed. And Councilwoman Sassandra will oftentimes mock me But to show my Toledo pride, when I am on social media, I do say that it's Dr. Val out here in these Toledo streets. And I mean that because you have to be out in the streets and visible in order to get this work done. So just things that I've curated, the Elevation Network, the Wellness Series, the Kinesthetic Marathon that I learned needs to be shorter. We've talked about the brunch, the panels, and then partner events. Dr. Scott and I partnering on any of whatever she does with sickle cell, I will support any and everything that she does because I feel like she is doing some really, really good work in the city of Toledo. So that was just a glimpse of some of the work that I'm doing and that I continue to do within the city of Toledo. I will say that, how much time do I have? Two minutes? Who's watching? Am I good? Okay. I will say that when I became a little bit overwhelmed, I did start seeing a counselor myself. My purpose for seeing the counselor is I said, you know, I just want to get more out of life now. I want to be able to do all the wonderful things that I'm doing, but I also want to be able to appreciate and, you know, live life well and all of that. She says, so what exactly are you working on? And so then I began to list some of the things that I'm working on. And if you open your folder where it says Dr. Val out here in these Toledo streets, that's my list. And so the counselor said, my goodness, that's a lot. And so all of us, you know, women, men, whatever, sometimes we do take on too much. But my purpose, I just feel like if I have a platform and if I have a vision, I feel like I don't have a lot of power, but I do have influence. And if I can have influence in this city with regard to how we care for ourselves, I'm going to take that on in a very proud way. Recently, I've been named president of the American Association of University Women. And through AAUW, we are advocating for women's rights, voter education and registration. educating folks about Title IX and workplace harassment, very hard work. And so what I've done is partnered up with NAMI because I feel like if we're going to be doing work that is that difficult, I want to name and partner with an official mental health provider. And so now, NAMI is the official mental health partner for the American Association of University Women. I hold leadership positions probably in six or seven organizations specific to women. It is my goal to ensure that we have a specific mental health partner for each of the organizations. Because again, I pose the question, how can we do the work if we are not well? I'll close with this. Recently, I was asked to do a training for Choices Behavioral Health for their staff. So although they are the counselors, the social workers, the case workers, but someone has to care for them. And so I was asked to do a training for them, and the training was, the booklet that's being passed around now, we are at war for our wellness. We have to fight for it. We have to advocate for it. We have to be consistent with regard to our physical and mental wellness. Even the work that you do in government, it is difficult work. And so I urge you to ensure that you are caring for yourselves as well. The last thing I'll say is with this women's symposium, oftentimes I partner with people, I have sponsors, but whatever is not sponsored, I pay out of pocket because this is my passion project. And sometimes passion projects are expensive. Additionally, I don't want any woman left behind. So if they can't afford the ticket, I know every year I probably comp 40 tickets because, and I say, if you can't afford it, inbox my admin, like I want you at the table. And so one of the things that I would like you to consider is a sponsorship. because I would like to continue to, and I will, whether y'all sponsor me or not, I'm still going to do my event. I'm still going to invite women who are at a certain income level to come who can't afford the ticket because they need the information and they also need the fellowship and the strategies. So with that, I hope you will consider attending the SOAR Conference Women's Symposium. I tried to be fancy this year and call it a symposium. It is on October 18th, and I look forward to seeing all of you there. Are there any questions?

first before we get to the questions thank you so much for just presenting your work and i mean we've been seeing you around the city you are everywhere in and out the city out the state everywhere but the work that you're doing is very impactful and i really do want the city to partner and be more involved just what you're doing because you're out in the community and you're having all of these programs as well as initiatives and bringing in partners that sometimes are, I wouldn't say necessarily forgotten about, but they are underutilized in different ways that they can really expand their influence. So I'm giving you your flowers, I am just, very appreciative of you and your energy because listen well we already talked so I you already know but other than that um I really am a very supportive of of you and you know I'm not speaking for my colleagues but I'm pretty sure that we can try to do something in terms of helping you out and just trying to get the word out at least I will go to Councilwoman McPherson

Thank you, Dr. Jones. Thank you, Val, for your presentation. One question. October 18th, where is it going to be held or have you not solidified?

Yep. So I've reserved, well, I was going to hold it at the Great Lakes Museum because that's a really nice space. But what I learned yesterday is that I can pack that space out. And so I needed to do a larger venue. Last year, 176 women attended. So I have reserved the main event space at the fire pit. on l uh airport airport yep there's a huge uh main event space what time 2 p.m october 18th is a sunday so i figure after folks go to church come on to soar and get your inspiration and a little bit of brunch

okay those are my two two questions i do believe and because i think you have in here about sponsorships yes it's in the uh yes ma'am okay and the two lanes okay for partners okay

Any other questions? Thank you.

Thank you for what you're doing and what you do and look forward to you. I see that you are emceeing the fashion show for Indiana Avenue Missionary Baptist Church.

Yes, ma'am.

I am September the 12th, so I look forward to that. And partnering with you and other events to let me say thank you too for being the MC at the Glass City Jazz Fest. Absolutely.

I hope you have me back next year.

Thank you. You know, as long as you keep covering me when I can't show up.

Right, right, right. I got you. Okay. Any other questions?

President Williams.

Thank you. I just was trying to put it in my calendar because I'll be there. And I think that women of council probably can get together and be a sponsor. Thank you so much. Because you do be in these streets.

Out in these streets. For real.

Okay.

Councilwoman Craig.

I just want to thank Dr. Val for being here. And it's been a pleasure to get to know you. For those of you who don't know, Dr. Val and I worked at the University of Toledo at the same time. And since then, we've both shed some pounds. We look very different. We've compared our journeys a little bit. But I just thank you for all you do for our community. Because health and wellness is such a huge part of each of our journeys. and how long we're on this earth and the quality of the lives that we have. So I just thank you so much for all you do and just your positivity. And I always enjoy seeing you everywhere. So thank you for all you do. And I share President Williams thought that we can all, you know, work together to sponsor because I think this is really important.

So thank you so much. I appreciate your comments. And thank you for mentioning the university. I love the Rockets. I love the University of Toledo, but I think I'm a testimony that I worked at the university, but the university didn't make me.

Thank you so, so much for this. And actually, what popped into my head, I forgot to mention to you how we met. Because I was president of the Graduate Student Association when I was at the University of Toledo. And we would always meet with student affairs and talk about how to get more graduate students involved and how the university can help graduate students. And then when I left, then I didn't see you for a little bit, and then we got back together through some program, and then that's how our relationship really started back up, because I was like, kept thinking, how did we meet? But that's where we first met, was through UT, so just seeing... the progression of both of us through those years is, like you said, a testament. Absolutely.

That we have reconnected and just seeing you do all your work and everything. So we'll definitely be able to help and just try to even... Councilwoman McPherson, I know that you're over HR.

You know, what can we do with them as far as trying to get some of her services for the employees, city of Toledo employees? I'm ready.

Yep.

Yep. Okay. That's the way that I can see this happening. Fantastic. Okay. Yeah. We can do that. Okay. But other than that, I don't think we have any other questions pertaining to this topic opening up to the audience. Any comments, questions for Dr. Walston? Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you so much.

Thank you for your time, and thank you for having me today.

Not a problem. Okay, at this time, I know that we had some speakers for public comment. If you haven't signed in for public comment, please do. We do have a list.

Do we have a list for the...

I know somebody had signed in. It's on the podium. It's on the podium, okay. Hold on. Okay first we have Alexandria Martin.

We're both together.

Oh okay. Well could you state your name even though I just said it. Your name and your address please.

Alexandria Martin, 178 Hosman Street, Toledo, Ohio, 436.

Raphael Rodriguez, 178 Hosman, Toledo, Ohio. okay please all right so i was supposed to come to the last meeting i ended up getting caught up but um the reason why we're here is all right the reason why we're here today is um we were on the news multiple times for our house being destroyed by the city um turned on the the abandoned house next door and You know, I've had videos go viral on Twitter, on Facebook, on TikTok, all these different things. And I've talked with Councilwoman McPherson, and I'm just here wondering, like, you know, I have a child on the way. Our child's doing, what, four weeks? At most. At most. And it's been over three months since we've heard from anybody about, you know, getting my porch fixed. It dropped the roof of my porch at least two feet. It separated from the house causing even more water damage. You know, it messed up our fence in the back. We have multiple dogs that I've had to basically kind of jerry-rig my gate together, you know, so that way my dogs don't get out and run the neighborhood. So I know you guys have said that you guys were starting to pay out the, what is it, the damage caused through the city, you know? So I was just wondering, like, do you guys have any... update on that how work i've already went through all the the jump to all the hoops and everything i've gotten all my arm yeah i've gotten all my bids together i sent him into the city and nothing nobody's contacted nobody's reached out nobody said hey you know we're sorry you know i was more angry that uh... Our neighbor was standing outside when they were tearing down the house next door, and when it fell on the porch, you know, she had said something to him. And the person basically said, excuse my language, but she was like, man, you guys tore down, you know, the porch. And he was like, well, thank God we didn't tear down the whole fucking house. You know what I'm saying? Like, do you guys know if the construction crew was ever taken in for a drug test? Were they, you know, alcohol? Is there any accountability that's going on with these? Yeah, is it the same crew that's destroying, you know, everybody's property around the city? There's just so many questions I want to ask. I don't even know how to go about it.

And we just want the house fixed. You know, it's been months. We just want it fixed. Like, if it was somebody else's house, you guys would be highly upset.

Like, if it was your house who was destroyed or if it was your front porch who was destroyed, if it was your front porch who was destroyed, you know, how would you guys feel?

And then they didn't say nothing. They didn't even, and they knew I had a camera. They didn't wave. They just put the podium up on the porch laying down and walked away. Like.

got video of it we have at least yeah I have not heard any updates as of yet but I will check at least with code enforcement and law because that's unacceptable as well my colleagues president Williams

Thank you, ma'am. I am so sorry that happened to you. I know Councilwoman McPherson was taking care of it because I'm not on social media like that. Shoot me an email. I don't do TikTok and I don't even know what a TikTok is. I don't do it. But she was taking care of it, I know for sure. This situation has happened numerous times over the last... I want to say since we start doing a demo projects because the money has to be spent by the end of this year, that has no reason why they're rushing in doing this. So I apologize that that happened to you. And I will personally check on it today before I leave this building. Do you remember when Galena, do you know where Galena is? Yeah. So Galena, actually they experienced a massive water main break and lots of people lost their homes because of that and that was actually a city issue. Some of those claims just paid out.

but I will and they were it was a bunch of red tape for it and so I will personally check on it myself when I leave before I leave this building thank you and I just want to say thank you to Councilwoman McPherson because she actually reached out to me um through Facebook after she's seen the video so I thank you and I appreciate you for taking that initiative speaking of Councilwoman McPherson

Thank you. Yes. And I reached out to you because Blair Johnson, you were asking, who do I, how do I get to, I didn't know anything or knowing. And that's why I saw that. And when I saw the video, I had to, because that should have never happened. And I too apologize because I don't know where the administration is or why they're moving so slow on this, but I am very upset because of three reasons. One, anybody can make a phone call and say, we're looking into it. We're working on it. Give us time just to be respectful. Two, they have not done that. And I'm really upset. Three, it has been on the news. We have several houses that are still in the same disarray that have not been fixed or anything. And yet we have this money sitting in this fund to do this. And we are not being good about where our people messed up. It is unacceptable. On all, on all broad. I thank you for coming and bringing it to our attention again. That's one of the good things about having community meetings so that we can hear these things and not just me, but my fellow colleagues can see. And two, would you expecting that house right now is probably inhabitable on that front line being unsafe.

Yes. 100%.

Because it could fall in at any time.

Yes, ma'am.

That's what makes me angry about this. And everybody from Abbey on down have seen it. I sent it to everybody. And nobody's moving on this. And you're right. If it was my house, oh, yeah. Not a month. And there's no reason why they have not been out there because you've done everything that they asked for. I know you have. Everything that they've asked for, you've done it. So, apology from us does you no good, I know, I know. But we apologize sincerely because this should not be happening to the citizens of Toledo when our demolition crews are going out to demo houses and then they end up tearing up other people's houses and then we don't even move on it. and hide behind the fact that, oh, there is a stipulation where we really don't. But if we're good about who we are and we respect our community and our citizens, these things should be taken care of immediately. Yes, ma'am. It's on us. So as President Veniz, she says she's going to get on it today before she leaves. And I'm going to echo that, so they're going to get emails and phone calls from everybody, because this needs to be done and taken care of. So when you go into the hospital and you bring your baby home, you can bring your baby home to a safe front porch and not have to worry about this. Because this is not just affecting where you live, it's also affecting your health.

Yes, ma'am. Like I said, it separated the roof over the porch, and it's starting to, you know, cause just a little bit of water damage. Oh, gosh. Sit down, baby. Sit down. Sit down, baby. Sit down.

We don't want you standing too long. You sit down. Yes, you sit down.

If that would have been taken care of, you know, a little bit sooner, I wouldn't. Now I have to, you know, it's causing other problems. Yes. You know what I'm saying? So, like... do appreciate you i just wanted to bring that to everybody's attention and just you know was kind of figuring out you know how do we get the ball rolling so the ball is rolling thank you i appreciate you guys and thank you i'm done and you guys i appreciate you still stay in touch we got one more hold on one more council member gaddis thank you

I can't tell you how mad I am about this because I've, I seen it. I seen the news report on it. This is, you are one in a long line of people that are suffering, um, We pay a lot of money for a communication team. And I want to say, after this, I'm going out to Brent Industries, correct? Because those neighbors, I spoke to all of them, they've not heard from our communication team. Why are we spending millions of dollars to have a marketing and communication team, and we are leaving our residents without any communication? i believe that because we have seen how big of a problem this is you have a baby on the way we have winter coming like how are you going to winterize your house we need to have a committee hearing and hold these departments accountable i want to know what their communication plan is what does the plan look like for when a house is damaged we need to see specifics and i appreciate All the work that my colleagues have done and are continuing to do. But we need to bring them here because this is unacceptable. There is time coming and we're seeing it playing out in neighborhood after neighborhood. And you said you wouldn't want it to happen in your neighborhood. It shouldn't matter if you live in the nicest neighborhood in town or A neighborhood full of abandoned houses. It shouldn't matter. You are a resident. You are our community. We are neighbors. And it's unacceptable. And I'm so sorry you went through this. But I hope that we as a committee can make sure that we have the administration down here to answer for all of this. Thank you.

Thank you. I echo that. President Williams.

Just real quick, I just got a text back. I'll call you tomorrow. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate you.

Well, look at that. I know. Too bad it took so long.

So I echo apologies as well.

Can I have the floor again? I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry. The problem is a lot of our constituents don't know how to get in touch with us. And that's the issue because y'all shouldn't just have to come down here. You should be able to have our phone numbers. We should be in the community. And we try to be as much as possible. This is why the town hall meetings, the community meetings are important. So... And we try to work together to get this done. I'm glad that you came down here. I'm sorry you had to come down here. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, my cell phone number is 567-377-3792. I'll give you a card before you leave. But you will hear from me tomorrow. And like I said, we try to be in the community as much as possible. People don't really know the levels to this government thing, and we need to do a better job educating you guys. So thank you so much, and I'm sorry that this happened. And congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you guys. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Brian. Yes. Thank you for what you're doing too.

Yes. Any other public comment before we close out?

Texas when the baby is born, Texas.

I still have your number.

Okay, okay.

Okay, with no further business, this meeting is adjourned.