AERC Commission Meeting July 2025

Absence.

Ryan Ruhle. Ruhle. Ruhle is on video.

May.

Michael is also excused. Doreen. Present. Antavia? Present.

Heather?

And Stephanie? Present.

All right, I move to approve the agenda as presented.

During seconds? All in favor? Aye. Aye.

All opposed?

Fantastic.

Doreen, would you mind reading the land acknowledgment? My glasses on, ready to go. The Anchorage Equal Rights Commission acknowledges with respect and gratitude that we are meeting today on the traditional lands of the Dena'ina peoples. We recognize and celebrate the strength, resilience, and historical knowledge of the Dena'ina peoples. Who have stewarded these lands for thousands of years and who continue to do so.

As we meet here today, we honor the contributions and perspectives of the Dena'ina peoples. Fantastic. And, um, Stephanie, would you like to read the mission statement? Sure. Awesome, thank you.

The Anchorage Equal Rights Commission enforces municipal and other anti-discrimination laws on behalf of all residents and visitors to Anchorage. The Commission also educates the public about anti-discrimination laws and seeks to increase voluntary compliance with such laws and to uphold the vision of full opportunity for all. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] All right.

Are there any corrections to the previous meeting minutes that need to be made?

No, but I'd like to say that I really appreciate the format of the minutes. So, I like it. Look good. So, well done. Thank you.

All right. The minutes stand approved.

Being said, let's move into unfinished business. Number 7A, approval of exit interview process. I believe Hayley is presenting that. Harley. Harley.

Sorry. Yes. Okay. So, we received complaints from— and feedback from complainants on cases that have been closed, determination made. Some were— had requested reconsiderations.

And one of the things that they did when they were unhappy with the determination being NSE, no substantial evidence, And they went back and they read the title.

Hey, Maya, right-click on their picture and mute them. So they went back and they read Title V, which was given to them at the complaint signing, and they would say, "I never received an exit interview." If you look at the code, it says, at the conclusion of the investigation, the staff shall conduct exit interviews and prepare a determination that a complaint is or is not supported by substantial evidence. So, I was not aware of an exit interview. I searched the database. I couldn't find any evidence of anyone, any of the staff or the investigators giving an exit interview.

There's no directives. It's just part of the code, but it doesn't look like it's ever been used. And so to clarify it, since it is in the code and we don't want complainants feeling like they didn't receive something they were supposed to get, I put together a proposal of what maybe an exit interview should look like. I kind of talked with Elizabeth Cannon, who is the Seattle EEOC Field Office Director and got some feedback from her. And I worked with our staff to try to come up with what an exit interview would— what that would consist of.

And so one of the things that we think maybe should be done is in alignment with the wording of the code is that when the investigator has completed the investigation and we're now beginning to start writing the investigative memorandum, Before we do that, we would have a meeting either telephonically, in person, more than likely telephonically, where we go over with the complainant the evidence that they submitted, witnesses that they submitted to us, everything that they wanted us to consider, and then let them know that we did receive it, just confirmation that we did receive it and it is being considered in their case. And then do the same thing with the respondent. And then at that point, if there was something that we didn't get, they have the opportunity to provide it to us before we write the investigative memorandum and the determination and submit it for the executive director to sign off on.

So I'm happy to answer any questions. It's just, you read the document and it kind of just tells us why this would be a good thing, how it would help bring some clarification to this confusion of what an exit interview is. Is this just formalizing something you're already doing, or is this something that just hasn't been formally done at the end of—. So, like I said in the beginning, we have no policies about an exit interview. There's no notations in any of the software on any of the past cases on an exit interview.

I've gone through all of our handbooks. I've gone through our G-Drive on all kinds of forms and documents, and there's nothing. So we have a code that said we're to give an exit interview, but it doesn't spell out what an exit interview is. And, you know, what does that consist of? So it's a vague.

The only thing we ever did that I'm aware of is after the determination was made, when we're ready to put that in the mail, we call the complainant and say, hey, the executive director signed off on the determination and it was no, you know, NSE, no substantial evidence, or there was substantial evidence. It's going in the mail. If it was NSE especially, it's going in the mail. You have 15 days to file for reconsideration. So be on the lookout because it's coming.

We want them to know it's coming, to be expecting it so that they can open it and read it and then see that there is the reconsideration instructions in there on what to do if they want to file for reconsideration, because time is of the essence. Once that 15 days is up, we're closing it with the EEOC if it's a co-file and that time has passed. Okay, so the exit interview has nothing to do with that phone call. This is something— if you read it, it says at the conclusion of the investigation, and then you prepare a determination. So this is something that's being done before a determination.

What is it? We need to decide what that is because there's nothing that I can find that says what that is. Just the code.

But it's causing confusions with complainants who are reading this and they're trying to, you know, look and see if their case was handled properly and they're getting hung up on this, you know, "I did not get an exit interview." So I have a hypothetical quick question. So if you do the confirmation of submissions and they say, "Oh, I have more submissions," How many more days are you going to give them to get more submissions to you? So I'm looking at the hiccups and the little, like the one that we, one example that comes to me that they had like 1,500 submissions or whatever without one. So that was 12,000. So, oh, let me get you some more submissions.

So I see this giving, I mean, I just don't know.

How that's going to go on a timeline and that's going to expedite the process. I think it's going to slow it down because where— I don't know. And then I looked up the definition of an interview. Is this actually an interview by definition?

You know what I'm saying? Like, I just— I feel like it's going to slow the process up. So what do you think that exit interview means by looking at the code? Well, it said that—. Yeah.

It says at the conclusion of the investigation. So is that the letter that's being sent or the phone call that's done at the end of the investigation? Good question. But if you look at it,.

It says at the conclusion of the investigation, the staff shall conduct exit interviews and prepare a determination that a complaint is or is not supported by substantial evidence. So it's before the— before that determination. And that step before the determination is the investigative memorandum, which supports— summarizes all of the evidence that brings you to the conclusion of whether it's SE or NSE. So, in the order that this is written, it's some sort of— some sort of interview before we prepare that documentation of a determination.

I think we get to define, or you get to define, what that exit interview actually entails. I don't think you need to open up Pandora's box by saying, "Hey, do you have any more documentation statements and lists of witnesses?" Does that come— if you go and decide that that's— that you don't agree with the determination. I agree. In our investigative— you had asked what constitutes a proper investigation, and so I put something together for that. But one of the steps that investigators— that we take is that we should be in constant communication with both respondent and the complainant.

And we actually have a letter where we're asking them for if they have any other additional information. That would be done long before this. So—. So, you see, that's already done now. So that's why I think this is redundant.

Real quick, you know what, I see exactly what you're saying here. So 5610 reads, A, at the conclusion of the investigation, the staff shall conduct exit interviews and prepare determination that a complaint is or is not supported by substantial evidence. That's A. B continues in saying, in making a determination "The executive director may consider analogous—" Analogous. Analogous.

Analogous guidelines and precedents of the Federal Equal Opportunity Commission, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and state and local enforcement agencies, as well as the applicable federal and state judicial precedent." The other two have nothing to do with it. So it doesn't really say what the exit interview has to be, what it should be.

Potentially we could be reaching out to our friends at the state and seeing what they do.

But I agree that asking them if they have more data at the very end, the investigation is concluded at that point.

Typically exit interviews, I mean, at least by my common definition, like HR and like companies, it's, you know, it's wrapping things up. It's saying like, here's your rights, here's your letters, you agree that all this This makes sense. Boom, here's the determination, off to the races. So I think this deserves a little more inquiry. This was really well written.

Thank you. Thanks for looking into Seattle, what they're doing as well. I just think, like I said, I just feel like it's going to open Pandora's box at the last minute, and I don't think we have time. I am meeting with Robert, the executive director at ASHER, tomorrow. I can follow up with him.

About what they might be doing for exit interview. And Paul, I don't know if you had any part of things. Yeah, I think it's— I kind of agree with everything that's been mentioned, that, you know, the code doesn't specify a sequential order. It said, and, so it's like, you got to do both of these things at the conclusion, but it kind of makes sense to me to do it at the end after everything's done. It's almost like a quality control survey or like, you know, where you're having this process where you're explaining their rights to seek reconsideration, like any improvements in the process, asking them, you know, have you been treated with respect?

Is there anything we could have done better? Stuff like that. And it doesn't really make sense to do that before you've given them the determination either. It seems like you do that at the same time, to me anyways. Like you'd give—.

You'd issue the determination and contact them for the interview as part of the same process. It might speed things up. But, yeah, I agree. Like, it's customer service. Like, when you do exit interviews when you're leaving a business, that's what I'm thinking.

It's like, oh, did you understand when we— you know, I didn't understand when you were talking about this. Like, it's not necessarily that you're investigating more, you're actually trying to improve the process. Like, maybe you need to more use more lay terms, or Seems like that's the purpose. Yeah, like, I had a language barrier. It would have been helpful if I— or I appreciate that you had interpreters there.

Those are some examples that potentially— but what kinds of questions would you ask? Like, I think, you know, that's the other thing that you need to think about. Could be standardized. Yeah, yeah, so, yeah. So, in light of the discussion, I make a motion to table this till next meeting, pending your discussion with Robert.

Great. Thank you for catching that. It's a start. Yeah, no, I agree. We need to decide what we're going to do if it's going to be imposed.

And I gave Jennifer the sample EEOC letter that the director gave me on what they do. It's very interesting how they handle it. They actually tell them, the investigator tells them it is leaning towards SE or NSC. Anything else that is going to change that, we want to know it now. And I gave her the template.

So that's something they do before they make a determination too. So now's a good time, you know, we can hash this out. It doesn't have to be done right away, but I think that 3 people bringing it up and being upset about it, feeling like they didn't get one, maybe we should just go ahead and put something in place. And it can always, like I was telling Jennifer, it can always be modified. As we, you know, use it and get responses, we can tweak it down the road.

All right.

Thank you. So, motion to table this for next meeting on the agenda, or we can just keep talking. Oh, no, I'll second the motion. All right. All in favor?

Hi.

Hi. All opposed?

All right.

All right. So B, update on case status review.

Jennifer? I am not sure what that is referring to.

I'm wondering if that is maybe—.

Is that the over 240 issue? No, I think that there was a discussion at one of the prior meetings. Remember we had that case that we reopened the proceedings after? Yeah, where he came in, that one. Yeah, so there was a discussion like if we found improper investigator, not adequate or thorough investigations in other cases, You know, would we notify the commission that there's, you know, other cases potentially that need to be relooked at?

But I don't think that there was. Okay. I don't know what the status is or if there's—. Is that one still under investigation or is that closed out? No, it's still open.

Okay. Yeah, the one that's reopened. All right. So, but I don't know if there's anything else that needs to be followed up on for the commission for that item, or if that can, like, be part of your— yeah. The audit response that's due the end of August.

Yeah, it'd probably be the same thing. Yes. All right. And then C, discuss seated positions. Thank you for printing out the bylaws.

If everyone turns to those. So this is a bit of the literature about who we are, kind of what we do, what our purpose is. Unfortunately, our secretary isn't here today, but if you haven't had a chance to read over this document, definitely take this with you, read over it. This talks a lot about the position, the election of officers. You know, you're, you're in your seat for a year, you can be reelected for an additional year, and then that's it.

There, it also talks a bit about committees. There is an executive committee which is composed of the chair, vice chair, and secretary. This committee can be created for— can be invoked to manage items of budget, things like this, or direct mayor or conversation with the mayor back to the commission. Then you have what's called a standing committee. The commission may create standing committees, each to consist of at least 3 members of the commission.

The chair shall be empowered to appoint the members such as standing committees.

We've been pretty voluntary with those. Our group is 9 members, which means 3 is the maximum we can have on a committee. When we go to 4, then we start violating, I believe it's the Meetings Act, and now we're in open meetings. So you can only have 3 people on a committee in our commission. The special and ad hoc committees is what we've been mostly attempting to use.

These are for decisions They're developed, you attack a specific.

Issue and then it's dissolved at the end. Um, the thing about these is when we create a committee, and this is what we haven't been doing, we state a specific purpose for the committee, exactly what the committee is supposed to do. We talk about what their authority is, uh, designate their authority, if there is a budget, if there's any information like that, and then we time box the committee. The committee only exists for a certain period of time and then we ratify that through a motion. It gets voted on, it gets put into the notes, and that serves as kind of the charter for that committee.

And it says exactly what this committee is responsible for.

There are a couple other committees in Robert's Rules of Order that it talks about as far as designating authority on behalf of the commission or the group. You could set a committee, and this would be like an ad hoc where you're saying, uh, we're gonna have 2 people or 3 people go to whatever summit down in the Lower 48 to go meet with all these other people, and they're going to be voting on some measures like whether or not federal funding is coming to the local divisions or not. And you create this committee and you would authorize this committee to vote on behalf of the commission, so they'd be able to go make decisions on behalf of the commission. So that's the, the other forms of power.

Any questions about this?

All right. If that's the case, let's move on to new business. I do encourage you guys to read through this, though. It has a lot of good information. It talks a bit about like the decorum of absences and stuff like that.

It doesn't take much. I think someone called us this morning and was like, I had something come up, I'm really sorry. That's all you got to do.

So, all right. So can I ask, Maya, can you put this in the folder for when we have new commissioners that's included in their welcome packet? Thank you.

All right, new business. So I'm very excited about this one. I don't know if anybody else read through this. We did send it out a couple days prior to this meeting, so you should have had a chance to review the new Director Report. I mean, it's immediately much smaller and much easier to read through.

So I'm really happy to see that. Thank you so much, Jennifer, for that. Okay. So with that, Walk us through it. Great, thanks.

And this was sort of my first, you know, attempt with the director's report. So I know that that was something we discussed last meeting, the idea of including additional things that the commissioners might want to include. So as we move forward, we can definitely adapt that and add things that people are interested in, especially activities of the commissioners. I would love to see that reflected in our reports. So whether it's outreach activities or that wonderful conference that you all get to go to, to be able to reflect that in the report would be fantastic.

So very flexible document. So I started on the 23rd, so still less than a month now. I'd like to give— I think we thanked Paul last meeting as well, but I definitely like to thank Paul for acting as the interim executive director, and he will be staying on board as the office's and the commission's legal guidance. So we're really appreciative of Paul and everything he does to support the office. So thank you, Paul.

The Audit Committee met. So, you know, the audit was released, but it wasn't until this meeting on July 2nd that the committee had an opportunity— the Audit Committee had an opportunity to discuss it in the committee meeting. And to discuss the report. We were the only item on the agenda of that meeting. Um, I thought it went well.

There were no additional findings. They didn't have anything, uh, additional. Lots of questions, but no additional findings. And we may have a follow-up audit, mini audit I would call it, in 2026. So it would depend on whether the audit office would be able to fit us in since they schedule their audit schedule out far in advance.

Uh, but it is possible for us to have a follow-up in 9 to 12 months. So I'll keep you posted if I hear anything about that. And so what we've done is taken those findings and recommendations from the audit and turned those into our strategic objectives for the foreseeable future, as you see here. So one of our objectives involves cases, having 100— the, the, the Stretch goal of the title goal of having 100% of our cases completed within 240 days. I neglected to add unless good cause is shown, which was something that the audit made clear that we need to make sure that we are being more articulate about when we decide that and how we communicate that, which I'll get to in a little bit when we look at our cases.

Finances is our second area, and that's developing a financial oversight plan by the end of August. I will have a draft of that to you at our next meeting in August. Updating our recordkeeping, so making sure that we're up to date and that we're doing all of our municipal requirements as far as keeping our documents and notices to the public and Commission documents up to date. And then also some other, you know, areas and information that we need to have to keep things up to date. Which again I'll talk about a little bit later, but as an example, our, uh, the software that we use to keep track of all of our cases is a big, is a big issue that we're focusing right now, um, as far as record keeping.

Outreach and education, so working on a plan for that. I hope to have that to you all, um, much earlier than November because it's something that we're really interested in, uh, making some moves on now for a couple of reasons. One I'll discuss later, and then the other one is the fact that whenever you have new executive director, you get a little cachet and a little introduction time where people are willing to take meetings with you, etc. So want to have our plan in place and start getting out there and getting connected. And then working on our policy and procedure manual, which Harley had started before I got on board.

So just making sure that we have all of those pieces, admin— any administrative policy or procedure that we have those on board. So we're using those as our strategic strategic objectives to prioritize the work that we're doing right now. So that's sort of the flow and format that I'll be including in the Executive Director's Report. So, so you know what we're, what we're focusing on. So you have our year-to-date cases here.

The couple of important things that I want to point out is the numbers. If you go back and look at some previous months running backwards to January, There are a few discrepancies that we were able to uncover in some month-to-month numbers that weren't caught until we started looking at things month to month. And we were able to go back and see that there were coding errors or, you know, discrepancies between doubling cases with retaliation and the initial report and just a couple easy mistakes. That the Commission would have caught, or we would have caught earlier, had we also been showing you a month-over-month number. So in addition to the year-to-date that you've always seen in the Commission reports, starting next month, I'll be including a spreadsheet piece that includes the numbers just for January, February, March, April, May, June, so that we would easily be able to catch, you know, if we added 8 in June, that means our total numbers should have increased by 8 over the last month.

So that if there are any errors, we're able to catch those things immediately. And then you're also able to see trends better. When we're just looking at year-to-date, it's harder to catch trends. So to be able to see, are we, are we looking consistent? Are we dropping?

Are we climbing? Where are those things happening? So that we know, are we getting more inquiries? Are we, is our conversion rate from inquiries to complaints decreasing, then we can take a look at what we're doing from an administrative perspective, and you can catch trends also, and then we can discuss why those may be occurring. So starting next month, you'll see that monthly number as well.

And then each month, as Paul had started out of the audit, I will be reporting on any cases that are over 240. So the 240 that you see here are the same 3 cases that have been over 240, so I didn't include that here. But we do have— Paul provided us a template.

That was mentioned also in the audit report. So we now have a template that we're going to use whenever a case hits 240 that we will be communicating to both the complainant and the respondent why— what circumstances have led to the case being extended for good cause over the 240 days so that everyone is aware of exactly what's, what's going on, what's happening. And then that makes it easier for me to share that information with you in the monthly reports as well, so we know what circumstances led to the cases being extended over the 240 days. Paul, do you have any comments about the template? I don't want to leave you out.

Again, we appreciate the assistance in getting that together. That'll make things much easier. Percentage of inquiries responded to is something that I did not see included in quite a long time on executive directors' reports, but it is a number that the municipality tracks as an indicator that we are providing return on investment for our office, that when people come to our office, they are listened to, they are responded to, that we answer our emails. And our phone calls and our meetings in person, and that when someone makes a complaint, we address them. And I was shocked— not shocked because I didn't think it would be this high, but this percentage is really impressive that we are taking in the number of inquiries that we are and we're able to respond to people within 24 hours.

So, um, and that's something Yeah, I'll mention that later when I talk about our quarterly report. So I'll be continuing to include that, and that's something that's collected on a quarterly basis, so I can share that. I will be including a little case management highlight just to give you all some more flavor of sort of the things that happen in the office. And again, I've only been here 3 weeks or so, um, but the investigators and the executive assistant, the physical, uh, time demand and emotional demand that I have seen the staff in responding to the inquiries when people call or come to the office, they are typically in a trauma response. They are upset.

Uh, if something happened that was the last straw that led them to taking the time out to come down in person or call, they are crying or they are angry or they are upset or they are embarrassed of a situation. And the care and compassion and instantly dropping what they are doing paperwork-wise to attend to these inquiries, some of which do not result in complaints, some of which have nothing to do with our office, um, in the long run, but the listening and compassion and helping these people process this issue on the spot and either letting them know that our office handles this issue or directing them to the appropriate place has been really, really impressive. And I just wanted to share that with the Commission, um, that we may not be getting enough people in the community aware of us or comfortable enough to come to the office yet with our community relationships, but once they're here, the care that the investigators and the executive assistant are giving is really impressive. I just wanted to share that with the Commissioners.

All right, we're going to push back until August our "What Makes a Good Investigation?" because it's kind of going to go along with the case management procedures that I'll have for you. So we'll sort of roll that into one for an update next month. Finances, a less exciting topic. So really what I just wanted to show to you is how much money we actually have, which took me a long time to drill through. Municipal budget reports, as you can imagine, but our operating budget is really tiny.

Uh, so we've got $1,200 for supplies for the year and then $12,000 roughly for our non-labor expenses. And so that has to include the things like, um, we are taking over responsibility, for example, for facilitating, assisting facilitation with the ADA Commission. Meetings, um, so we'll need to ask for money for the sign language interpreters that, that come along with that meeting, uh, our phone bills, um, our investigators are required to have a certain number of continuing education credits to be part of our EEOC relationship, so paying out for those. So It goes through, it's just like getting our paychecks. When that first of the month hits, it may look like a lot, but when that first of the month hits, it's already half gone with just our regular bills.

So I just wanted to give you a little glimpse at that. The municipal budget process, which it'll be my first time through, starts very soon. And then probably before the end of the month, I'll know what that process is. So I'll be working with the investigators, executive director, for us to put together a projection of what we think we would need. Obviously, I will be asking for more than what we have.

I don't know what that will look like in terms of our ability to be successful in that process. Some of the big things that we need, like software, We are getting statements of support from other municipal offices to sort of include in our budget process. Um, so they know how serious these things are and that they affect other departments in the municipality. When we, for example, have to call IT down, um, multiple times a day to spend hours and hours on workarounds for old software, um, That, that is a real cost in those, those labor hours. So we want to make sure we're communicating to them, you know, this isn't just because we want more money.

This is because it's detrimental to the muni to not provide us with the resources that we need to achieve the code. So I will keep you in the loop on that budget process as we move forward. I should have information for you at our next meeting on what that looks like. And I think the only thing we bought, uh, last month was renewing our membership in the International Association of Human Rights Agencies. I don't know if you've talked about that organization before.

That is the international association— it's really a national association, but I think the international, a couple of Canadian groups, makes, makes them feel, uh, like it's international. But that's our— that's the association the professional organization that oversees organizations just like us. So the two members in Alaska are us and the Alaska State Human Rights Commission, ASHR. We are the two organizations. So it is made up of state and municipal local organizations just like us across the country.

So that's a cheap membership rate for, for a professional organization, and it gives access to trainings and education. Opportunity to attend conferences, get publications, etc. So as we get information from them, that's also information I would like to make sure that we're sharing out, especially as they share best practice information with— for what other folks are doing across the country. Any questions before we flip to the second page, I guess? Okay, good.

Oh, I have one thing. Yeah. When you're talking about IORA, they're going to be having their conference here in Alaska. Oh, I think that has changed. No, did you hear anything?

Yes. Yeah. I don't think we have the go-ahead to go ahead and bring it to Alaska. I think October or November. Yeah, it was supposed to be October, but I just got some info this week that that is probably not going to happen.

Darn it. I know. I know.

Uh, it was actually on here and then I deleted it when I heard that that might not be happening. One moment. Yes, please. Um, I was going to ask you, what can we do to help you advocate for software? Because I hear the work stoppage or slowage in there, and that's concerning.

So that is a great question. Um, that same sort of ask that we did with IT about providing like a statement of support would probably be helpful. I should have more information on.

At next month's meeting when I see what the process is and what stages we have to go through for approval. So, yeah. So, I want— so the last time you guys attempted to do this, I was working at the city when it happened, so that's why I know what kind of happened. And there was a really sharp drive for a very specific piece of software that Kiyoki and his team wanted to use, and it just to be blunt about it, it rubbed IT wrong. And so they couldn't find a good way to support it and it just kind of got dropped and it was very expensive.

This time around, it looks like the PM assigned to this project, project manager is Dan Barnhart, who works under Steve Burns in the IT department.

So some of the key takeaways from the last attempt was hard measurable data. Saying IT comes down is one thing, being able to say, here's all the tickets and here's the exact hours was so much more impactful because there's a direct cost there. The second thing is, and it does look like they looked into seeing if there was any in-house product that could be used, and it doesn't sound like there is anything. But this time what Dan is focusing on is finding other departments that could use this software. Unfortunately, like, our budget is $1,200— $12,000, and, and that's not enough to cover any software outside of like Outlook.

So, um, it's gonna be leaning on other departments. Which takes me into my very next— that is the very next agenda item under records. Yeah, I have a couple of things. The first one is I'd like to make a motion that you add one more thing to the strategic objectives. Okay.

And that you take a look at the job descriptions and then if they need to be edited, revised, and then do a cost now or cost comparison for same type of cost now or job analysis. Yeah. Yeah. Across the country to see if it's on par. And I know HR does that on a— I don't think it's semi-regular basis.

I don't think— I can find out when they'll do it. I'll second that. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed?

All right. I have a couple more things. Real quick, May, if you're voting, for those online, if you're voting for, just hit the raise your hand button and that'll show us that you're for it. And then when I call for opposed, raise your hand for those opposed. Yeah, just like Ryan did there.

And then you can drop your hands. So that motion passes. And I just—.

Who was that?

Okay. And then the second thing is just, I think you mentioned continuing credits. So when you were talking about staff, like, really doing that, the listening, the active listening, the trauma response, I'm assuming and I'm hoping that The training that they have to secure for those continuing credits also includes some, some of that. And then the self-care piece of it. Yes, 100%.

Make sure that that's getting—. It gets 100% in the budget. Yes, that's very important for sure. And then real quick, before you move on to the next one, that's something you've been talking about for a while. Do you have knowledge of that or know groups, or is that something that you know you could connect with?

Okay. Thank you. Awesome. And I know it's probably not room for this, but there might be other memberships and potential trainings for that. And then the 5th thing that I have, something is that if you can send us information on that International Association for Women's Rights, that would be great.

We'd like to learn more about what's going on internationally. Yes.

Canadian. Canadian. I don't remember, but there's been other commissioners that attended those. Right. But it would be nice if they do do a newsletter or they have a website or they have like social media.

Me too. Go back. Yeah. Okay. Nice.

That's it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. That was helpful.

So flipping over to page 2, that's my very next thing.

The investigators are looking at different products. So we've completed an RFP with Haiku and we're still listening to additional RFPs. The cost is a concern. The HyQ quote was $50,000 a year, but this is something that we really need to work with legal to figure out. Legal has also been using Time Matters, and they are switching to a contract with HyQ, so they have many more folks that will be in the system and much larger caseloads.

So we really need to work with legal and HIQ to figure out if there's a way that we can just drop 5 of us in there and have some sort of, I don't know if firewall is the right word, to keep our data and their data protected from each other. You may want to look at HHS and APD. They're also using Time Matters. So, Okay.

Segmentation. Yes, thank you. Segmentation.

I use Notcheap. No, no. Unfortunately, it's Notcheap. If anybody knows of any platform out there, this isn't uncommon, but unfortunately they're all— they know that it's a niche thing and they just They gouge hard. So if anybody knows of anything, let them know.

It's case management software? Yes. Okay. We are— I don't know if this— my— you'll have to make sure we're aware, but part of our record-keeping focus is making sure that we are tracking all of the marketing materials and items that we purchase and track where we're taking them and track as they leave our space. So I'm not sure that was in place before, before I started.

Okay, okay, perfect. So just wanted you to be aware, you know, when we take pins out or items from our marketing area, we are tracking all of that, where it's going, etc. And that'll be, as I mentioned, the outreach— oh no, well, yeah, the outreach and education plan will also include those sorts of things so that again we we can make sure we're doing a better job of tracking our return on investment. What is the impact of these, uh, using these materials in the places that we're going? Um, outreach and education events is another thing that is included in our quarterly report to the municipality as part of our return on investment, that our office has a commitment to engaging in the community.

So, as you can probably understand, outreach and education has been down because staffing has been down. So we're really excited to pick that up. I have asked the investigators to continue doing whatever they already have scheduled. We have some things scheduled with the police department, for example, that the investigators are doing. But to just sort of put a pause in place for a second on other things until we get the basics of a plan put together and make sure that we're connecting things to our strategy and that we are using our marketing materials and that we're understanding what our assessment of that is going to be before we go out to events.

So again, I'll have that to you all shortly. But excited to—. Can you add one thing? Just the website that needs to be updated. Yes, that is on our master list.

A website, social media, all of that. All of that. Yep. Those haven't been touched in a while. Great.

Procedures, collecting policies and procedures for our administrative procedure manual. So again, Harley had started that already. So putting that together and developing procedures as we go. So, for example, the other day we were talking about subpoenas and working with Paul on how do we— what is our process for that? And then instantly working on turning that into a procedure so that whoever had to do that initial sort of fact-finding and figuring out how something worked, we instantly turn that into a procedure.

So then we don't have to turn around and keep reinventing the wheel every time trying to know how we're supposed to do things. We're instantly turning those into procedures as we discover that we did not have a procedure for those items. Hey, Jessica, just before we move on, I just want to make everyone aware of the time. Next meeting, I'll time box all these. I'll put some times on everything because we've only got about 10 minutes.

Okay, sorry for speeding. So real quickly, these last items for your consideration. I don't know if you were aware. I was not. That every quarter we submit this report, which is linked in your document to the Office of Budget and Management.

You can take a look at that, and we'll be adding that to our website. Uh, I'll have the audit recommendation plans for you next week. I would like to put on your radar the idea of a commission retreat. There has not been a retreat in a really long time where we get together outside, professional development, speakers,.

Plans for the future. Our Commission strategic plan, our last plan went from 2020 to 2025, so that might be a good retreat focus is looking at the next— 5 years is probably too long for us, but maybe looking at the next 3 years and determining what our strategic plan should look like. And then the last thing, which is really exciting, and I really hope that the Commission is very interested in taking this on, is it is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Equal Rights Commission in the charter in 1975 this year, and I would like to really celebrate and do a lot. And I just found out this week that it is also the 50th anniversary of the unification of Anchorage, when the city of Anchorage and the borough joined forces and became the Municipality of Anchorage. So there are going to be a lot of events that the municipality is going to be holding in the fall around the unification that we can piggyback on to celebrate and share about the Equal Rights Commission and have our own events.

And so maybe we can sort of utilize those as a budget-saving measure for ourselves while also celebrating. So I would really love if we could strategize and plan some ways to celebrate that. So sorry if this took a minute. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] I'd like to make two motions, two main motions then. One, let's make a motion to add to the next agenda Commissioner Cheat, talking about education and the strategic plan.

Yay! Second. Thank you.

And then all in favor, those of you on Teams, just raise your hand if you have your camera on or use the little hand clicky thing.

Perfect. All opposed?

Great. And it passes. The second motion is let's put the 50th anniversary of ARC onto the agenda as well.

And let's review what we can do as a Commission to kind of adopt that charge.

That's exciting. Thank you. Thanks. All in favor? Aye.

All opposed?

Any abstain? All right, and it also passes. So we'll add both of those to the agenda.

We have a number of things to get through here.

So, and 7 minutes. All right. Committee training. In light that we're going to be talking about the retreat and kind of folding training to that, I make a motion to table that for that discussion. Second me.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed?

All right. That passes. We'll move that and fold it into next week.

3, Or next month rather. Changes to the executive's direct report, including Commissioner Outreach. We've discussed a couple changes already. Were there any other changes you guys wanted to see in this? Any feedback you wanted to provide?

Fantastic. Outreach and education plan.

I'm not trying to rush us through things, but make a motion to table this as well. We're going to be talking about that heavier when Jessica brings us kind of the outreach—. Jennifer. Sorry. Yes.

Yeah, I'm sorry. That's okay. That's okay. So I just have a point of clarification. On the agenda, we said that we're going from 6 to 8.

Is that Not what we're doing today. Oh, we are doing 2 hours now. Oh, okay. I thought these were an hour. I think that— Oh, mine says 6 to 7.

Yeah, I think there's a typo somewhere. Okay. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

That was the older one. Yeah. No, no. So I know I motion we table this though. Yeah, no problem.

I motion we table this until we get the executive report for that. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Fantastic. Passes. Um, so the meeting and schedule location, um, I did reach out to the gal who was on the show. She never got back to me, um, but I don't know if maybe you could ask her. Um, she said she knew of like other locations we could meet that were like free.

Alternatively, we could look at rec centers. With that said, I'm looking at the room, I'm not seeing a lot of public, so I kind of think we should just stay here for now. A couple of the people last meeting mentioned that they couldn't find parking. I did talk to those folks and I was like, you have a full free parking lot here, and they, they just weren't aware of that. So I don't know if maybe we could put something on the website that says, hey, there's free parking.

We can add that to our, our public notice. That there is free parking and that any issues they can check with the security person to make sure they can park.

All right, and Tavia, I'm sorry, we only have 4 minutes. That's all right. We can—. Commission, uh, Chair Ilan and Commission, I would like to make a motion that we engage, we engage legal counsel exclusive of what we are receiving now, I do believe that we are in violation of Title V. And so I'd like to make a motion that we get external legal counsel for the ERC. So when you're making the motion, you have to explain what the violation is.

No problem. I do think there's a violation in the hiring process. I do think that the The, uh, the Commission was unfairly influenced and pressured to make the decision that they came to, and the vote was not good. And when I, when I went to look through the process and everything, there's a lot of questions on how the process even began and how the people on the hiring panel even came to be seated.

So I believe that falls under a main motion. Right, Paul? So there is debate allowed if there's any conversation we'd like to have on this before, or does someone have to second it first before there's debate? That was the one thing I couldn't figure out. May?

She says after a motion is made and seconded, the chair has stated the question, debate on the motion is typically allowed. Okay. So, Unfortunately, there has to be someone on the Commission that seconds it.

Okay. Seeing as there's no second, the motion does not pass.

With that said, I want to give you an opportunity to kind of talk, just explain it a bit more. I feel like it was rushed. Maybe you didn't get a full chance to explain the full motion or what your intention, the goal was. I think it's good. It's died on the table.

Okay.

The subcommittee response, one of the first things we talked about when we sat down is that we weren't, or I wasn't convinced that we really had a good subcommittee. We didn't have a good goal. To just kind of chat, the 3 of us. So there really wasn't a subcommittee or any kind of official anything that came out of that.

I think a lot of tough decisions were made, and there was a lot of action that happened quickly. Something that I would like to address, though, is the policy for hiring. And so what I'd like to do is make a motion that we review that at our next meeting and ensure that we're following those the next time we have to come through this.

Second. Okay. All in favor? So I'm going to make a recommendation. Oh, sure.

I will make a recommendation that we also include HR and legal in that because I don't think it's our decision. This is the municipality HR on the policy and procedures of hiring. Yeah. So if they could come in and talk to us what the policy or procedures are, that would be perfect. Thank you.

Okay. Yeah, I agree. So all in favor, raise your hands or say aye. Can you state the motion, please? So the motion is to have HR and legal come and explain to us the hiring policy, ensure we understand our role in it so that the next time we come through this, we have something.

Written, we know what we're doing, it's in black and white, and there's no question.

I'll second that motion. Okay, all in favor again say aye or raise your hands.

All opposed? Any abstain? And the motion passes.

All right, um, moving on. We are right out of time, so we'll flash these last couples. Requests for future agenda items and Commissioner comments. I open up the floor to all Commissioners to say whatever they need to.

All right, um, public comments and audience participation. I see we have a lot of folks from the public, so I welcome any conversation or anything you want to talk about. I saw someone, I believe it was Jasmine Smith, if I saw that correctly, try to second. Unfortunately, only the commissioners can second something, but here's the time where you can offer conversation if you'd like.

Can you guys hear me? Yes, ma'am. Okay, yeah, I actually was not trying to second. I was just commenting on the process for Robert's Rule of Order and parliamentary procedures. Um, just listen to it.

Yeah, just have a couple meetings. I think that's something that should definitely be— maybe everyone should get a cheat sheet, that way you're doing business properly. So I was just commenting on how you're supposed to do a motion and what happens, um, from there. So that's, that's all I was saying. But I'm, yeah, I'm just here as myself, but I do Mountain View Community Council, NAACP, Black Chamber of Commerce, Juneteenth, and some contract work with the city.

So Yeah. Thank you so much, Jasmine. I see Cheryl has her hand up.

If you're trying to speak, Cheryl, you're muted.

Unfortunately, you can only mute people. I will try to get a hold of Cheryl after this, see if there was something she wanted to say. All right. With that said, the date for our next meeting is August 21st, 2025. Same bat time, same bat channel.

Anything we need to adjust?

All right. With that said, I move to adjourn. Second. All in favor?

Any opposed? And the adjournment fails because we didn't get a majority. No one leaves. No, it passes. I will see you all in August.

Thank you. Thanks.

Well, thanks for the pin.