Corrected Minutes — original pdf
Approved Minutes
REGULAR MEETING of the LGBTQ QUALITY OF LIFE ADVISORY COMMISSION Monday, January 8, 2024, at 7:00 P.M. City of Austin Permitting and Development Center, Room 1401 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Dr., Austin, Texas 78752 MEETING MINUTES Some members of the Commission may be participating by videoconference. Public comment will be allowed in‐person or remotely via telephone. Speakers may only register to speak on an item once, either in‐person or remotely, and will be allowed up to three minutes to provide their comments. Registration no later than noon the day before the meeting is required for remote participation by telephone. To register to speak remotely, contact Alyssa Parra, the Commission’s staff liaison, at 512‐974‐2934 or Alyssa.Parra@AustinTexas.gov. Appointment Commissioner VACANT District 1 District 2 District 3 District 4 District 5 District 6 District 7 Mariana Krueger Brandon Wollerson Marti Bier Charles Curry Dr. Melissa Taylor Morgan Davis VACANT Minutes Appointment District 8 District 9 District 10 Mayor Stakeholder Stakeholder Stakeholder Stakeholder CURRENT COMMISSIONERS: Commissioner Dereca Sims Christian Aguirre Yuri G Barragán VACANT VACANT David Garza J. Scott Neal, Chair CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL: Absent: Melissa Taylor Dereca Sims Chair Scott Neal called to order at 7:06 PM Page 1 of 4 Present: ● Christian Aguirre ● Marti Bier ● Yuri G Barragán ● Charles Curry Mariana Krueger ● Morgan Davis ● Brandon Wollerson ● David Garza ● John Scott Neal PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL The first ten speakers signed up before the meeting is called to order will each be allowed a three‐minute allotment to address their concerns regarding items not posted on the agenda. MOTION TO SUSPEND ROBERT’S RULES OF ORDER Motioned by Commissioner Neal and seconded by Commissioner Curry, passed unanimously by roll call vote with Commissioner Garza abstaining. 1. Motion by Commissioner Garza, seconded by Commissioner Davis, to approve the minutes of the Commission’s Regular Meeting on December 4, 2023. Passed unanimously. APPROVAL OF MINUTES DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS 2. Discussion and possible action to approve budget recommendations. Ideally, we would have budget recommendations at the February meeting for voting. Need to think about what is under the control of the city, and what areas we can have influence over. Where do we focus our energy on? Likely topics for budget recommendations: o Technology recommendation for the housing department to have updated database o Our recommendation is to ask all city departments to collect demographic data from Housing systems. all city services. Mental Health o Resource navigation o Lives under Austin Public Health(APH) in the City of Austin o Meeting with APH for a conversation about this topic Page 2 of 4 Gender Affirming care‐ Protect Trans people in Texas Homelessness‐ Many shelters in Texas are binary o There is a city shelter dedicated to Trans services o Request presentation from the homeless services division Trans Rights Detailed demographic information o Need to have the data, metrics, KPIs on how city programs are affecting the o Need to see if objectives are being met across all city services, homelessness, housing community etc. o Portal or recurring report would be valuable Additional funding for public safety The budget working group will meet and discuss. Other working groups should send draft working group recommendations to the budget working group for review so we can vote on items at the March 7th meeting. The budget working group will bring items to the commission, the commission will vote, and passed recommendations will go to JIC for possible endorsement. That is not required. We can submit recommendations without other commissions' endorsement, and what we pass will go to the council. Share out to commissioners' previously passed recommendations to see the format. In the past, our recommendations have been for X amount of funding for Y purpose. But there is no reason you could not make a recommendation for the whole budget. Ideally, we should give the reasons why we need the funding and the purpose. What will have the most impact a single most important request or more commissions signing on to the recommendation? The community investment budget led by equity action, had only 30% of the recommendations they suggested adopted into the official budget. Last year 0% of the LGBTQ Commission recommendations were adopted. Many of the other commissions don’t have demographic data either, many of the other commissions have similar problems as us, and our voice can be more impactful if we speak together. We have previously focused on budget recommendations, but we can also make policy recommendations. We should be thinking of a parallel track of policy recommendations that can move us forward. 3. Approve a recommendation to the council on vacant commissioner positions. We have vacant spots in districts 4, 5, 8. 4. Approve the commission's direction and strategic priorities for the next year. Page 3 of 4 Set a retreat date. Set a date to engage with the community. Combination retreat/ engagement? 2 hours for forum, food, then 2 hours for retreat. Motion by Wollerson, seconded by Garza to schedule the April 15 commission meeting to run from 6 pm to 9 pm and the focus of that meeting will be to engage the community on the strategic priorities of the LGBTQ commission. Passed unanimously by roll call vote with commissioner bier off the dais. WORKING GROUP UPDATES 5. Update from the budget working group. Members: Curry, Davis, Wollerson No update. Members: Neal, Garza, Aguirre, Sims, and Bier The draft recommendation will come next week. 7. Update from Housing Working Group. 6. Update from the New Commissioner & Increasing Community Input Working Group. Members: Curry, Davis, Aguirre, Griffin, Haskins, Church, Newton, Fierroo Met twice with great engagement from community members. Lack of knowledge on commissions of housing, where the money comes from & how it is spent. The housing department supported the idea of a workshop with all the JIC commissions to build an understanding of the housing issue and what is being done about it. Date TBD. Try to have it sometime before March 30. Homeless services are separate from the housing department. 1. Emergency housing assistance‐ I belong in Austin. 1st round had 800 people sign up. They think the current funding will run out in April this year. The housing department will provide a monthly report. 2. Tenant relocation 3. Demographic database‐ funding for software to make that possible. 8. Update from the Cultural Center Working Group. Members: Wollerson, Davis, Barragán Meet once and will be again soon. Angelina Alanis is interested in joining. 9. Update from the Demographic Data Working Group. Members: Curry, Aguirre No update. Page 4 of 4 FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Recommendation from Commissioner Curry on demographic data. Update from homeless services, regarding the rebranded homeless shelter. ADJOURNMENT The chair adjourned at 8:58 PM. The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Reasonable modifications and equal access to communications will be provided upon request. Meeting locations are planned with wheelchair access. If requiring Sign Language Interpreters or alternative formats, please give notice at least two days (48 hours) before the meeting date. Please get in touch with Alyssa Parra, the Commission’s staff liaison, at 512‐974‐2934 or Alyssa.Parra@AustinTexas.gov for additional information; TTY users route through Relay Texas at 711. For more information on the LGBTQ Quality of Life Advisory Commission, please get in touch with Alyssa Parra, the Commission’s staff liaison, at 512‐974‐2934 or Alyssa.Parra@AustinTexas.gov. The minutes were approved at the 2/12/24 meeting on Commissioner Wollerson’ s motion, Commissioner Davis’s second on a 12‐0 vote. Page 5 of 4