Citizens’ Engagement Advisory and Review Commission (CEARC)

City of Hampton, VA Meeting Minutes Citizens’ Engagement Advisory Commission Members: Sanket Acharya, Steve Bond (ACM), Chris Bowman (Co-Chair), Steve Brown (Chair), Celeste Carter (LOA), Larry Enscore, Leroy Foster, James (Jimmy) Gray (Councilman), Joshua Head, Kimberlee Humphrey, Ebony Majeed, Henry Mills, Will Moffett (Councilman), Ahmed Noor, Shawn O’Keefe, Ryan Taylor Staff: Synetheia Newby - Executive Director & Wanda Ferrell – Program Coordinator Attendance: Sanket Acharya, Steve Bond, Chris Bowman (Co-Chair), Steve Brown (Chair), Leroy Foster, Joshua Head, Kimberlee Humphrey, Ebony Majeed, Will Moffett, Ahmed Noor, Ryan Taylor Absent: Celeste Carter (LOA), Larry Enscore, Jimmy Gray, Henry Mills, Shawn O’Keefe __________________________________________________________________ Date: July 20, 2016 Time: 6:30pm Venue: Community Development Conference Room, City Hall, Hampton __________________________________________________________________ Call to Order: Chair – Steve Brown at 6:45pm Item 1: Welcome New Executive Director and CEAC Members  Synetheia Newby was welcomed as the new Executive Director of the CUC and asked to give a two-minute reflection.  Introductions by Current CEAC Members  New CEAC commissioners Joshua Head, Ryan Taylor and Ebony Majeed were welcomed the CEAC and asked to give a two-minute reflection.  All prior commissioners were asked to tell how long they have been involved with the CUC and CEAC and given 1 minute to reflect Item 2: CEAC Overview and Purpose of Convening This meeting was called as we felt it necessary to come together to have conversation around current events. CEAC is the reactive arm of the Citizens’ Unity Commission. CEAC has 4 levels of engagement with the first level being monitoring. It is important to disseminate credible information. CEAC is the ears of the community and it is our job to disseminate information 1 properly and present it correctly, dispel rumors, and miscommunication. We need to make sure we have a strategy in the case of being called to action. Item 3: Current National Climate There has been national climate of tension and concerns regarding local protests and HPD officers have been having conversations with people attending the protests. There have been a series of vigils and conversations around these issues and have provided an opportunity for people who don’t normally talk about these issues to contribute and express concerns and thoughts regarding our city. The CEAC is supposed to always be in a monitoring stage and, according to City Council, monitoring means seeking to understand general community sentiment around potential divisive issues. The CEAC has a citywide perspective, meaning that they can potentially be called or asked to convene to review a situation involving any City Department or even conflict between private parties that threaten to divide the community. In stage one, the CEAC is monitoring to determine whether any such situation exists. You were selected to be on CEAC because of your connections to the community. If you hear of any situations that may occur as it is your job to get that information to the group to avoid any potential conflict. A. Discussion  It was suggested that we take a proactive stage to ensure that the community understands that Hampton is different. Offer to have police present and have discussions at these protests. HPD did reach out to the organizers once they became aware that a protest was going to happen, they took proactive steps to reach out and meet with them. They made allowance for parade permits knowing that this was people just wanting to be heard in a peaceful way. HPD and CEAC may have missed chance to have open dialogue with the community.  Dialogue is good but we need to be deliberate and get an understanding of the groups and their differences. CEAC now has time to build a team, get some training, and come up with a plan.  Protesters now are professionals and are from all over the country. They are not just Hamptonians and we need to plan and be trained to deal with all types of protesters. B. Community Observations  The organizer of the Black Lives Matter protest, in Hampton, had nothing but good things to say about the HPD on his Twitter account.  Police have a tactical plan on how to deal with protest including how many officers need to be on standby. They also have a phone system to send out a reverse 911 alert in an emergency situation; we also have the Marketing department for those alerts.  Mary Bunting wants feedback on what we think the community is feeling. What are you feeling and what have you heard? Item 4: Stages of CEAC Involvement and Engagement  Current CEAC Stage: Level I 2  A. Discussion  Is there any existing social media presence for CEAC to respond to situations?  The city has a social media presence, but CEAC does not have its own social media outlet.  Joshua Heard was asked to work with the group on communicating through social media after connecting with Ms. Newby.  There was a sub-committee that was put together to work with Robin in Marketing to update website and deal with social media. Larry Enscore was in charge of this sub-committee; we need to get an update from him.  Staff needs to look at website and make some preliminary suggestions to help Larry with the project.  More guns are being seen in the stores since the national events. Is there a way to get a record of gun sales in the last 2 weeks?  Again, as CEAC members we must ensure that the information that is being shared is accurate, whether in writing or on social media; it is the inaccuracy of information that can be detrimental to what we are trying accomplish. Item 5: Next Steps  Meet with City Manager to talk about other recommendations, which may include a forum with the community to engage them in the conversation.  If you have any thoughts or ideas before the next meeting, please contact CEAC Co- Chairs to share your ideas.  How can it be explained to people who are angry or confused about everything that is going on that they have to give people the opportunity to vent their frustrations? o Understanding more of how cultures express themselves. Ex. blacks tend to be more expressive with body language, hands and tone that can be considered aggressive. o Have another person try to talk to the person to give another perspective and can better get point across  CEAC needs an orientation process for new members; we need a sub-committee. Co- Chair Chris Bowman and a couple new members will be asked to work on this committee.  With the arrival of a new Director and new members, we need to have a retreat, possibly sometime in September. Orientation could be included in this retreat. Adjourn. 8:12 3