CommUNITY Alliance

STERLING HEIGHTS CommUNITY Alliance Minutes of Wednesday, September 15 , 2021 Meeting Location: Sterling Heights City Hall Conference Room 020 Members Present: Stacy Bahri, Tim Doppel, Sara Itoh, Ricardo Harris, Lea Mitchell, Nakia Powell-Thomas, Rich Rubba Representing the City: Dawn Bondarek Meeting called to order at 6 :05 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES : Motion to approve the meeting minutes of the August 18, 2021 CommUNITY Alliance made by R. Rubba; Seconded by: N. Powell-Thomas Ayes: all Nays: none AGENDA ITEMS: A. Communication from Citizens – there was no communication from citizens at this time. B. Continued strategic plan discussion :  T. Doppel wrote down all of the words that the group came up with in the last meeting and narrowed it down to three categories that each word can fall under to create our three long-term goals. The group had a long discussion and came up with the following: o Education – speaker panels, cultural celebrations o Leadership – leadership reflection, like-minded committees coming together, audit, process for inclusion o Inclusion – welcome, accessibility, beacon for diversity  L. Mitchell asked if anyone would be willing to put this into a nice organized flow chart and T. Doppel agreed that he would. OLD BUSINESS:  L. Mitchell says last meeting the group spoke about the police mural and wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to speak on it. No one had anything further to add. NEW BUSINESS :   R. Harris went to State of the City event and said that there is a lot going on in the City and he is excited for what the future holds. The event was recorded and D. Bondarek said she will send the video to the group. L. Mitchell added that watching it will help the group shape how they plan to tackle their strategic plan.  L. Mitchell complimented on how beautiful the Chaldean Community Foundation building is. S. Bahri says that if the group wants to take a tour of the building, everyone is more than welcome to come and they will provide lunch.  L. Mitchell noticed a vulgar hate sign on a house in Sterling Heights. She wrote to a council member in regards to the sign, stating that this must break some sort of rule in the City. The response from the City was that the US Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that most of what the general population qualifies as hate speech, is legally protected free speech under the first amendment and the City is unable to do anything about it. N. Powell-Thomas says she sees this out in the public where her children can see it and it is such a shame that there is nothing we can do about it. L. Mitchell adds that this shows even more so how important the work that this group does and how much more work we have to do. R. Rubba adds that we aren’t going to change everyone but we can make more people aware and the people that want change can join in. ADJOURNMENT : The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m.