Steering Committee Monthly Meeting

Date:January 9, 2017

3:00– 4:30pm EST; 12:00 – 1:30pm PST

On-line: ko text:joinUrl

Phone: +1 (224) 501-3412; Access Code: 533-297-309

Participants: Mary Morrison, Karen Shaban, Cedric Baker, Leon Andrews, Sara Treufelt, Joy Marsh Stephens, Nora Liu, Simran Noor, Dwayne Marsh, Rachael DeCruz, Ben Duncan

Absent: Janine Anzalota, Melissa Gombar

Item / Notes / Action Item(s)
  1. Welcome – Janine
Quick agenda review / Both Janine and Melissa had conflicts, so Julie chaired the meeting. Julie introduced Rachael DeCruz, who has been with GARE / CSI on a contractual basis, and will be coming on as a staff member, with one of her primary assignments being staff support for the membership network.
  1. Schedule for membership meeting topics (attached) –Janine
/ Julie reviewed the schedule for the first three quarters of 2017.
Mary asked about how much time should be allotted for each topic? Julie suggested, and the group agreed, 20 minutes to an hour.
Julie also noted that in addition to sharing best practices, we also want to provide a venue for sharing and strategizing about challenges. Cedric added that creating a learning environment will be essential for us to feel comfortable sharing challenges as well as successes. Joy agreed that we need that type of support .
  • Rapid Response Work Group – Julie
Members –
  • Janine Anzalota, City of Boston, co-chair
  • Jessi Kingston, City of Saint Paul
  • Mark Bishop, Michigan Department of Civil Rights
  • Kellie Watson, City of Louisville
  • Kathi Schaff, Alameda County Public Health
  • Nolan Atkinson / Nefertiri Sickout, City of Philadelphia
  • Deepa Iyer, Center for Social Inclusion
  • Melissa Jones, Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative
  • Jonathan Heller / Lili Farhang, Human Impact Partners
  • Tracy Delaney, Public Health Alliance of Southern California
  • Jonathan Blazer, ACLU
  • Aileen Carr, Racial Equity and Leadership / National League of Cities
  • Dwayne Marsh / Rachael DeCruz, GARE / Center for Social Inclusion
Potential actions / strategies
5 action steps
Kellogg Day of Healing – Jan 17
regional convenings with elected officials (TCE)
webinars
  1. PolicyLink webinar on Sanctuary cities (open)
  2. Threats from white supremacist organizing (member only)
Topic papers
  1. Analysis of different responses to protect immigrants
Strategies individual jurisdictions are considering / Julie reviewed the list of who has stepped forward to be on the Rapid Response Work Group and the overall direction. She indicated that we have a bit of an unknown right now, given that we aren’t entirely clear what will be proposed and how much traction it will have. The first meeting of the group is on the 18th, and Janine and Rachael have agreed to co-chair.
Julie shared that GARE received a small grant from the CA Endowment to do webinars and regional gatherings of electeds.
Ben asked whether anyone is capturing or tracking the increase in hate crimes / incidents,and suggested that we should be proactive in responding. Multnomah and Portland are exploring the idea of a hotline to report on incidents, but that he is not aware of an overall tracking of the cumulative impact of such incidents. We need to understand the degree of prevalence.
Dwayne suggested that, given the amount of uncertainty, it will be good for the group to think about who will be responding. Julie added that what we can anticipate is attacks on immigrants and refugees, budget cut-backs, and privatization.
Julie asked if anyone saw any gaps?Ben suggested that it would be good to make sure law enforcement is engaged. Mary said Tacoma’s assistant police chief might be interested, and Dwayne said the same for the LA County Sherriff.
Sarah shared that the PolicyLink webinar on sanctuary cities has been announced; two of the speakers are from CA, and they are working to include greater geographic diversity. / The Rapid Response working group will work on the details of the webinars and convenings.
Mary and Dwayne will check to see if either makes sense, and let Julie, Janine and Rachael know.
  1. Work planupdates / reports, as needed
Regions
Subject area groups
Work groups – annual meeting planning group / Health (Simran) – Multnomah, Madison, and Alameda have formed a working group, and Boston will be joining. Metrics / evaluation of interest. Also submitted a conference proposal for the NACCHO conference.
Libraries (Simran) – Madison, Saint Paul, Seattle, Multnomah Library representatives will also be meeting. A conference proposal was submitted.
Arts (Simran) – there is a group working on an issue paper
Parks (Julie) – doing a webinar with National Recreation and Park Association in early March
Planning (Dwayne) – need to get a more complete list. Want to have a strategy conversation at the membership meeting. / Rachael is developing out the data base to make sure that all the point people identified by jurisdictions on their membership forms are included in the subject area groups.
  1. Emerging issues / planning for the full membership call
/ Julie shared that Raintry and Sonali have been talking about the “GARE University” / leadership development ideas that came out of our last in-person meeting. Karen noted that leadership development continues to be a need, including organizational change and adaptive relationship skills.
  1. Closing
Recap any action items, follow-up and strategizing needed / See above.