Approved Minutes — original pdf

Approved Minutes

HISPANIC/LATINO QUALITY-OF-LIFE RESOURCE ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES The HISPANIC LATINO QUAITY OF LIFE RESOURCE ADVISORY COMMISSION convened a REGULAR meeting on TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2024 at 6:00 P.M. CST, in CITY OF AUSTIN BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS ROOM #1101 – CITY HALL (301 W. 2ND STREET; AUSTIN, TEXAS 78701). Chair AMANDA AFIFI called the HISPANIC LATINO QUALITY OF LIFE RESOURCE ADVISORY COMMISSION Meeting to order at 6:06 p.m. Board Members/Commissioners in Attendance: Amanda Afifi (Chair) Daniela Silva Board Members/Commissioners in Attendance Remotely: Ivanna Neri (Co-Chair) Kevin Jackson Dulce Castaneda Leonor Vargas Lysette Galvan Commissioners Absent: Vanessa Maldonado Jesus Perales PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL The first ten speakers signed up prior to the meeting being called to order will each be allowed a three-minute allotment to address their concerns regarding items not posted on the agenda. None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: 1. Approve the minutes of the COMMISSION’S REGULAR MEETING on MARCH 26, 2024. The minutes were approved on COMMISSIONER DANIELA SILVA’s motion, COMMISSIONER DULCE CASTAÑEDA’s second on a 6-0 vote (Absent: Commissioners Vanessa Maldonado and Jesus Perales). 1  STAFF BRIEFINGS 2. 3. Lila Valencia, City of Austin Demographer, Presenting to Commission on 2024 City of Austin Demographics Updates and Impacts of. Postponed. Stephanie Gonzales, Equity and Inclusion Coordinator – APD; Fausto Rodriguez, Lieutenant – APD; Sadot Azzua – Public Information Specialist, SR. – APD. Presenting to Commission on City of Austin Procedures and Policies for Senate Bill 4. Lt. Rodriguez shares that City legal believes there is a little possibility that SB4 will pass, but there is communication ready to explain. APD is here because community is important to APD. We do not see there will be [SB4] encounters in Austin, Texas. Safe harbors are in place if needed. Sadot shares that APD maintains a relationship with Mexican consulate via “Coffee with Cop” session. Sador also shares that the City provides information in the identified 10 languages; Further, Stephanie Gonzales shares that there is an immigrant services network of Austin – victim services and Equity/Inclusion coordinator meets with them monthly to share what resources are available through longer conversations. Follow up question, COMMISISONER IVANNA NERI what if there is a group of community members that would like to get access to a workshop? Answer, APD can give you information about workshops, but APD is not hosting them. COMMISSIONER DULCE CASTAÑEDA thanks APD for the briefing and explains reason for requesting briefing. Follow up question, COMMISSIONER AMANDA AFIFI, learning a language takes years, what does the learning Spanish look like in the City training? Answer, 40 hours of “survival Spanish”, what an officer would encounter while on patrol, before needing to request language access help. Spanish is a requirement to become an officer. Also, giving additional Spanish classes for some units like the child abuse unit so that they can become familiarized with vocabulary specific language. Follow up question, COMMISSIONER LEONOR VARGAS, officers inform the families that they do not have to give officers their residency status, how is that done? Answer, if this is a part of an investigation – officers share with whoever is being questioned that they are not required to answer [residency status] and that this does not reflect negatively on the case. Follow up question, COMMISSIONER VARGAS can you expand on your relationship with ICE? Answer, yes, we work with ICE for warrant arrests that are already in the works with ICE, and if someone has an ICE detainer, APD is required to hold the person and we must also verify the validity of the ICE detainer and APD has protocols to follow. Follow up question, COMMISSIONER VARGAS, are you in collaboration with American Gateways? Answer, we have a list of resources for immigrant/refugees, and we communicate that their status will never be asked for when requesting emergency services (if witnessed a crime). Follow up question, what tools are you using to communicate in multiple languages; CPIO would be the best to give a presentation on this; in APD, we use the 2 DISCUSSION ITEMS 4. City policy – we have our translations and interpretation resources. Daniela Hernandez, Workers Defense Project – Presenting on the latest Community updates with Senate Bill 4; specifically, Senate Bill 4’s impact on the Latiné Community, and how Workers Defense Project is preparing for the implementation of Senate Bill 4. Daniela shares that the other SB4 elements are increased punishments to a 10 year minimum sentence and removing a judge’s discretion for human smuggling and operating of the stash house. The big fear of the community is the impact: the community ends up being afraid of their status. Workers Defense Project is responding through Know Your Rights workshops. Workers Defense Project is not the only organization doing this and the organization is working with local elected officials to learn how the law will possible be enforced. Workers Defense Project would like to see more City official sharing information and resources to keep the community as informed as possible. COMMISSIONER LEONOR VARGAS thanks Daniela and Workers Defense Project for their work. Follow up question, COMMISISONER DANIELA SILVA, how does the community find out about the workshops? Answer, we can send the information to the commissioners or go to our social media. Follow up question, COMMISSIONER IVANNA NERI, how can someone get involved? Answer, Workers Defense Project would love any new members and can learn more on their website. DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS 5. Approve a recommendation on the FY 2024-25 Budget for Increase Funding for Community Navigators in the Economic Development Department’s Arts Funding Programs. COMMISSIONER IVANNA NERI provides context from November community meeting which Commissioners Vargas, Neri, and Afifi attended. COMMISSIONER NERI shares that the recommendation is a follow up from that meeting and that some of the members joined a Commission workgroup. The Economic Development Department just released some funding, and the community needs it. COMMISSIONERS LEONOR VARGAS and AMANDA AFIFI share that one of the community feedback items was that they translation in Spanish on the application was terrible. COMMISSIONER DANIELA SILVA asks if the Commission can find out what the language in the navigator contract language states; would the recommendation include using the current BIPOC orgs, including the navigators? COMMISSIONERS NERI and AFIFI read the text of the recommendation into the record. Recommendation PASSES with COMMISSIONER SILVA’s first, COMMISSIONER LYSETTE GALVAN’s second on a 7-0 vote (Absent: 3 WORKING GROUPS/COMMITTEE UPDATES 8. Commissioners Vanessa Maldonado and Jesus Perales). Conduct officer elections for the Chair. COMMISSIONER AMANDA AFIFI shares context on terms. COMMISSIONER IVANNA NERI is APPROVED as Chair on COMMISSIONER DANIELA SILVA’S nomination and COMMISSIONER LEONOR VARGAS’ second on a 7-0 vote (Absent: Commissioners Vanessa Maldonado and Jesus Perales). Conduct officer elections for the Vice Chair. COMMISSIONER DANIELA SILVA is APPROVED as Vice Chair on COMMISSIONER IVANNA NERI’S nomination and COMMISSIONER AMANDA AFIFI’s second on a 7-0 vote (Absent: Commissioners Vanessa Maldonado and Jesus Perales). Budget & Policy Priorities Workgroup – Updates from the last workgroup meeting related to policy matters and the FY 2024-25 budget. (Amanda Afifi, Jesus Perales, Dulce Castañeda, and Leonor Vargas) Update on May 7th virtual meeting for Commissioner follow up on budget recommendations. COMMISSIONERS IVANNA NERI, DANIELA SILVA, AMANDA AFIFI, and DULCE CASTAÑEDA attended. Language Access Workgroup – Updates from the workgroup on issues pertaining to their assignment. (Amanda Afifi, Dulce Castaneda, Vanessa Maldonado, Daniela Silva, and Hector Ordaz) COMMISSIONER AMANDA AFIFI shares that the Commission received information from the Office of the City Clerk, STEPHANIE HALL, and that the role is within the Communication and Public Information Office, which is hiring. Public Safety & Immigrant Affairs Workgroup – Updates from the workgroup on issues pertaining to their assignment. (Dulce Castaneda, Leonor Vargas) COMMISSIONER LEONOR VARGAS shares that she attended a meeting with CM Fuentes and Vasquez with American Gateways, the biggest take away was the need was to educate the community on their rights and how to avoid being pulled over from police officers (fixing lights, and ensure children are safe). Arts and Culture Workgroup – Updates from the workgroup on issues impacting Spanish speaking artists and performers. (Ivanna Neri, Leonor Vargas, Ana Laura de Santiago, Norma del Torro, Priscilla Cortez, and Luis Ordaz) Update is agenda item #5. Joint Inclusion Committee (JIC) – General update and discussion on the coalition building work of the Committee. (Amanda Afifi and Ivanna Neri) 4 6. 7. 9. 10. 11. 12. Budget recommendations were passed in the March meeting. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS City Demographer, Lila Valencia, coming in June. Discuss Commission Vacancies. Share list of Recommendations that were approved for Community. ADJOURNMENT: 7:54 pm -- The minutes were approved at the May 28th, 2024 meeting on DANIELA SILVA’s motion, JESUS PERALES’ second, on a 6-0 vote. (Off the dais: Commissioner Kevin Jackson; Absent: Commissioners Vanessa Maldonado and Lysette Galvan). 5