Public Health & Safety Committee Meeting

Okay, I think we're going to get started. I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Assembly Public Health and Safety Committee. It is December 4th at 11 a.m. and let's start by calling roll. Why don't we always start on the phone. Looks like Mr. Salt, are you here? Yes, Randy's here. Great. And Ms. Brawley? Hi, I'm here. Thanks. And let's go ahead and go around. Mark Littlefield. Karen Branga. Scott Myers. Cameron Perez Verdea. Okay, we have a full agenda today. Just as a reminder of those on the phone, if you want to get in the queue, just send me a text. I'll keep my phone ready to go so I can see that. And if there's anything else, let's just go ahead and start with the Department of Health. Director Rash. Welcome. Officially, Director Rash. Thank you so much. Yep. All right. Today, I'm going to be talking about a annual appropriation that the Health Department receives from the state of Alaska, and it is called TEP, which is Teen Unintended Pregnancy Program. It is a program that is run out of our clinic and clinical services. We have one staff member that is dedicated to this work, and this individual has been doing this work for many years at the health department. So it's really exciting that I get to talk about it today. So the mission of TEP is to focus on youth education around topics like birth control, sexually transmitted infections, proper condom use, consent, and healthy relationships. TEP funds are provided to HD to prevent and reduce the incidence of teen and unintended pregnancies through education and promoting long-acting reversible contraceptives. HD has been actively working to equip young people in the municipality with their knowledge and resources they need to make informed decisions about their reproductive health. We provide evidence-based education on birth control methods, healthy relationships, and preventing sexually transmitted infections. Some of the goals that we have within this program, and they're aligned to the state goals of Healthy Alaskans 2030. Under goal 19, which is to increase the number of high school students that graduate within four years of starting ninth grade. Goal 11 of reducing the incidence of gonorrhea. And goal 17, which is to increase the number of adolescents with three or more adults besides their partner parents that they feel comfortable seeking help from. The goals that we additionally have within our clinic is to increase the number of Anchorage adolescents age 10 to 25 who have received medically and factually accurate education for the prevention of pregnancies, STIs, and unhealthy personal and digital relationships. Another goal is to increase participants knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and intentions to protect to practice, excuse me, safer sex practices around unplanned pregnancy, STIs, HIV, digital safety, and healthy relationships through skills and role-playing activities. We also want to increase the number of adolescents age 10 to 25 who are linked to youth friendly clinical sexual health and interpersonal violence prevention services through referrals, education, and young adult focused community outreaches, offering resources and condoms, as well as parent education resources to facilitate communicating with about sexual health topics with their youth. The impact so far within the municipality is that this year in 2024, we have reached nearly 500 members of the target population since July through a combination of school-based workshops, community outreach, and digital resources. These numbers include attendees from 37 presentations between six ASD schools and various community centers such as the Power Center, Alaska Child and Family, and OCS. We have continued to build strong partnerships with ASD and community partners, as well as referring clients to clinical services division at AHD for free or low-cost pregnancy tests, STI tests, and birth control devices. Birth control devices offered at the health department for members of the target population provided by the TEP grant and include long-acting reversible contraceptives such as inter-uterine devices and implants. We focus on healthy relationships. Our TEP grant activities include teaching members the target population skills relating to communication, consent, respect, and understanding boundaries using the HEART, which is the Healthy, Empowered, and Responsible Teens program. So overall, we really want to aim to remain committed to improving the program by exploring new partnerships with community organizations and training more staff to provide these resources. We are strengthening our data collection and evaluation methods to ensure that we are reaching the target population who are most vulnerable to unintended pregnancies. And we also want to continue to fill gaps in teen sexual education with evidence-based information presented in a non-judgmental, thought-provoking way and provide birth control options for those who may not be able to reach those resources otherwise. And so this item will be coming to your attention on the 17th agenda. And that's it, any questions? »» Yes, Ms. Bronco. »» So I heard you say that you went to six schools. I imagine it was high schools or not? »» Middle schools and high schools. »» Middle schools and high schools. And then you talked a couple times about target population. Can you tell us how you identify which students that you're going to be doing this work with? »» So the individual, the employee actually works with ASD. So the curriculum that is provided is approved by ASD. And so working with the contact there, they actually help us in which schools to go to as well as which classrooms. »» And then are parents able to opt out? I know when I taught elementary health, they, yeah, okay, yes. »» Thanks. I have a couple of questions for you. You talked about data. Do you have, I mean, one of the things that I'm particularly interested in is what these rates are now, what the teen pregnancy rates are, the STI, STT rates are, and sort of what, if there's any data around sort of what the knowledge base is or awareness base is now so that we could be looking at the improvement of that. So that's one is to talk about if you're aware of if that data exists because I'd be really interested in knowing more about it, to knowing the sort of scope of the challenge and the problem that we are facing. And then the second is you mentioned that it's a grant. Can you tell us a little bit more about the timing of that grant and if it's something that is sustainable over a long period of time or if that's not something that we as a city need to be thinking about if the grant is going to end, we need to continue the program? »» Yeah, great question. So the grant is, runs on the state fiscal year. So from 7-1 to 6-30 of every year. And so once the grant comes to us is then when we obviously move forward with the appropriation process. This grant has been coming to the health department year after year. I don't foresee any major changes coming up, which is great because, again, this grant not only provides birth control devices but the education piece as well as the full-time employee. So it does support labor and non-labor. In regards to the scope of the problem and the data, so we do know that Alaska has the highest rates of syphilis within the U.S. We also know that without this education, I don't know a forum where we could provide that elsewhere. From 23-24, the incidence of pregnancies have decreased from 23-20 births per 1,000 females age 15-19. And so those are some Anchorage stats. But other stats I'd have to get back. »» And I don't see any additional questions for you. So thank you so much for that information and thanks for sharing this important program. »» Thank you. »» Okay. Next up on our agenda, we have the Anchorage Police Department. If you want to come up. If you could introduce yourself for the record and begin your report. »» Good morning. My name is Gina Burrington. I am the Deputy Chief of Administration at the Anchorage Police Department. Chief Case is at a training conference today. So I am here with you this morning. He asked me to provide to you an update about draft one, which you may remember is AI technology for report writing that we were testing. We had a 90-day trial of that. We were provided access to that from the company at no charge to test that. We had a number of users across different assignments within the department. And that concluded this week. We no longer have access to this program. The company has terminated our ability to utilize the program. It was a free trial and that has since expired. Overall, we did not find the time savings that we were hoping to see. We have provided feedback to the company, which they were very happy to have. They are actively working to improve the product. They said some of the things we had to say were very similar to some other things that they had heard from other departments. And we had some additional feedback that they hadn't heard or hadn't considered. So at this point, we are electing not to move forward with the product. I think we all know AI is a very new and rapidly evolving technology. And we may revisit this in the future as the product improves. But at this point in time, it was not as beneficial for us as we were hoping and not worth the benefit that we would get is not worth the expense that we would have to lay out. Can you just take a step back for us? I think many of us are familiar with what you're talking about. But can you take a step back and just again explain what this software program does and what you were hoping for it to accomplish? Yeah. So draft one is a AI program that works in conjunction with the audio from the body cams that officers are wearing. It takes all of the audio basically transcribes and understands it. And then the user asks for it to generate a report. And it will generate this this program will generate a police report based on the audio from the body cam. The officer then of course would need to go in and read it, edit it, verify that the information is correct, add things that they may have seen that they didn't, because it's only working off of the audio. So if they saw something but didn't say it, of course, the body cam isn't going to know that. So they would have to add things, subtract things, make sure that it was accurate and complete and a reflection of what they wanted their report to say. And and so that's what that program did. We were hoping that it would be providing significant time savings for our officers. But it we did not find that to be the case. Great. Yeah, Ms. Barger. I had read recently where in the medical settings, they're finding that there's these ghost transmit, you know, that it invents things. Did you did you know if the officer saw any of that where the AI put in scenarios that weren't? I do not believe that we saw it putting things in there that didn't happen or that weren't necessarily accurate. It put things that were unnecessary. And sometimes it would include things that shouldn't be included. Like for example, if an officer is in the hospital, and like they're in a hospital room or treatment room, like there might be a lot of conversation occurring. That certainly does not belong in a police report that the the AI might generate that the officer would then have to remove. So but I did not hear any complaints of it just like making things up that didn't happen. Thank you. Thank you for your report. Appreciate it. And just for the record, we've been joined by Mr. Johnson and Mr. Rivera. Okay, we're moving on. Do we have someone here from the fire department? You guys want to come up? I don't have any topics listed on here. But I think you may have a report you want to give is that correct? Okay, so you report? Okay, well, then you guys, you guys can can sit down. We've got a lot of other things we want to get through. I want to make sure that there's an opportunity though. So anybody from from the Department of Law, I think aside from the, the municipal attorney, is there anything separate? I think we could probably add it to when the municipal attorneys up but and then the Office of Emergency Management doesn't have to hear today. I don't believe so. Okay, cool. We're gonna move right on and I think to the mayor's office is my microphone is given out. Okay, it may be touching it. How's it now? No. Okay. All right. Great. Thanks. Okay. Mayor's office. Why don't you guys come up? I think we have Mr. Wheeler and Miss Gardner and Miss Agnew Benden coming up. If we might need a third microphone for you guys. All right. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Okay, we've got three items on here. Do you do you care how we start? Do you want to start Mr. Wheeler? That would be fine. So thank you for being here. I appreciate it. If you'd introduce yourself for the record and go ahead and give us a prosecution update. Through the chair. My name is Dennis Wheeler. I'm the Anchorage municipal prosecutor been on the job for a month and a half or so since October 7, coming in to help resolve a lot of issues in prosecution, dealing with systems and operations and short staffing, backlog of cases left over from COVID days, so on and so forth, which I think most of you have been aware of reported on earlier. So the update is we're making progress on staffing, at least with respect to support staff. I may potentially be full on the support staff side. By the end of the year, I've got some interviews looking okay there. But we're still short five of 15 attorneys, which really hampers our ability to move forward on the backlog. I've been very fortunate to have a number of folks step up to help as I reported last time, including the state DA's office being prepared to handle cases for us. I've got a couple of volunteer retired attorneys that have come in and screening cases. I've got two more under contract providing services, actually three more writing services under contract. So I've got some placeholders there. But the staffing issue for the attorneys is still the one problem to solve. I think at this point, we are making some system changes that I think are going to help caseloads long term, including creating blanket up what we call blanket offers. These are mandatory minimums for certain qualifying cases so that defendants have an offer to look at earlier in the process. So the cases aren't rolling from calendar to calendar to calendar and clogging up the system. I'm also opening up more opportunities for folks to move into the therapeutic courts like the vet court, mental health court, things like this, so that those resources, those treatment programs can be available to more people, or have those resources, and they've been underutilized more recently by us. So we're trying to step that up, get more people into that queue and out of regular court. And the benefit there for the folks involved is if they perform and complete the programs, they can have their original charges substantially reduced or dismissed. And they get the benefit of resolving their alcohol or drug issue or become more stable if it's a mental health issue. So we're, we're looking forward to putting more people into those programs and see if we can improve their success right there. That's my report, sir. Thank you. Yes. Mr. Rivera and then Ms. Bronco. Yeah, thanks. So you used a buzzword that that got my ears. You talked about mandatory minimums. Can you just talk a little bit more about what you mean? And did I? Sure. Yeah. Thank you, the chair. Thank you. So mandatory minimums are typically state law driven. Let's say if you commit, say, for example, an OUI or DUI offense, the minimum you're going to be sentenced to if you're found guilty or you plead no contest is say, for example, with three days of jail time and the certain minimum fine and probation, etc. Yeah. So I guess what I'm getting at is, is there going to be a change in in policy? Or what? Why did you bring mandatory minimums up in this conversation? Just as an example, we were finding that our offers tended to be a little bit higher than the mandatory minimums. And in some cases, a defendant would be better off going to trial burning up resources, being found guilty, and still get a better sentence than our original offer that we made at the beginning of the case. So why did we spend all that time and resources on that? We need to make a better offer that comports with what both the judge is likely to give if they're found guilty and what the state was doing. So we're just out of sync. So we're fixing things like that to make the whole process better. Got it. Thank you for clarifying. Thank you. I heard you say mental health court. And was it substance use quarter? What was the other? Yeah, there's a lot of jargon in the court name. So I get I get mixed up myself as I'm learning them. But we have a community resources program court called CRP. That's mostly mental health court driven. We have a vet court for veterans. And so we have a few of those kinds of courts, we're kind of lumping into the category of therapeutic courts. So I've been, I was on a trip to look in Austin and Albuquerque. And then I've been looking into, there's a lot of communities that have a homeless court. And, you know, I was thinking possibly hooking it up with our heart team, but a service provider would handle the court case. Do you think something like that would be of value? So, for instance, if there were park violations, you know, misdemeanors of things going on in the court, instead of bogging you guys down, maybe at the Third Avenue nav, the court would be held? I don't know. Can you see any value in something like that? Through the chair, I would be very interested in exploring that idea. I can tell you that a number, a high number of individuals that are in these court programs, the state already has are in fact, people that have housing issues. And in fact, there are some individuals, I've just seen it firsthand going down to the jail court. Recently, I'm learning about that is that there are a number of people that won't even come to the jail court proceeding get bailed out that rather stay in jail, bed in the meal and etc, etc, because there's nowhere else for them to go, really. So it's an interesting issue to look at. Yes. You want to add? Thank you. And one other thing to comment on is just the kind of longer term vision for prosecution right now, it's still in a stabilizing, rebuilding, restaffing mode. But we're hopeful that phase two, once we're stabilized, restaffed, rebuilt, we can start looking at interesting, you know, innovative new ways to approach this and take kind of a whole person right, holistic view of these situations. So exploring new diversionary courts or new diversionary programs, different types of courts, those are things that we're really excited to look at once we're stabilized and rebuilt. Thanks. I did want to just dive in a little bit more to the staffing report. So you said that your support staff is almost full, I think is what you said. And then you mentioned that you're still short five out of 15 attorneys, can you give us a little bit more detail of what that who those are, how those how those attorney mixed are up and sort of the impact of that, because I'm particularly interested in once we get stable, and then the timeframe for that, and when what that is going to change as it relates to your ability to do your work. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So right now, one of the biggest things that we run into is that there are a number of court proceedings that happen every day, 24 seven. So we have people that to go to the jail court, whether it's weekday, holiday, weekend, and we have out of custody arraignments at court, we have court bail hearings, court change, all those regularly scheduled everyday court hearings, you don't need to be covered by an attorney. So when we get down to six or seven attorneys, and if somebody is out, somebody's on vacation, sick, whatever, all we're doing is just going to the hearings and tracking what's happening. We're not actually processing the cases or being able to trial a real problem this past summer and all. So we need the attorney members to come up to be able to actually resolve the cases, not just take them to hearing to hearing to hearing to hearing unresolved. That's the biggest issue is that you need that minimum staffing just to be able to take things trial. If you can't take things to trial, the defense bar knows that they'll push the cases even harder and move them. And what happens is then what you've seen is a rash of what's called speedy trial failures on our part, we don't get the people to trial fast enough. Those cases have to be dismissed. And that creates a backlog, essentially. And where is that at now? Where is that? What are those data points that we need to be tracking to know that whether it's functioning as it should be? Yeah, so through the chair, we were able to bring in some volunteers approached us, which we have a former judge, retired judge, Stephanie Rhodes, former municipal prosecutor john McConaughey, etc, really, really high quality folks come in to help us. And so I expect by the end of the year, I'll have a really good sense of the backlog being resolved up to that point. But understanding those folks are on six month arrangements. And so I've got to be able to bring in the attorneys to take over that work as they ease back because I can't expect people to volunteer forever or work under a contract. They came out to help with a short term problem. They're not committed to doing something longer term that they were probably higher. That's really the issues. Okay. I don't see any additional questions for you. Thank you for being here. And thanks for taking this job. We appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, we're gonna move on next to Mrs. Gardner. I think you're gonna give us an update as well. Thank you. So I think my update is largely on the APD outside investigations and where those are. So just to recap, and maybe you could just for those that that may be new, just give us a recap as to terms of what you're doing and why you're doing it. And then give us the update that might be help. Sure. After a series of officer involved shootings, in particular, after the August 13 death of Easter Leafa, and the mayor and the chief police committed to some outside investigations. So one was specific to the August 13 officer involved shooting. And that was an outside investigator to come in and do what is typically a purely internal review process of that incident. And it's typically a disciplinary internal review process. And another was a broader policy review of APD is use of force deescalation policies. So on the first one, the incident specific one that review has been completed, we cannot, it is still a personnel investigation. So we cannot provide the full report, but there will be public recommendations. So the outside investigator prepared a set of recommendations, they're being kind of finalized into a PDF right now. And those will be made public along with some explanation. And again, there are limits on what we can say about the subset of the findings of the investigation, because it is an internal personnel disciplinary matter, but the recommendations themselves in terms of changes to training or policy will be public. And then the other review is the outside policy review, which is much broader, and it will kind of pick up where this left off. And that RFP is being finalized with purchasing now and we expect to have it publicly posted by definitely by the end of the year for the work to start in early 2025. And you said when is that going to be posted the RFP? In the next few weeks by the end of the year. And can you can you give us I know we don't have it yet. Generally, what are we looking for? What is that RFP? What is the scope of that? So that will take a very broad view of all of all of the inputs that APD officers get when it comes to decisions made regarding use of force deescalation. And also look at cultural competence and cultural awareness. And so and it will kind of look at all those things. It'll be a three phase approach where you might be able to describe it to help me with with the RFP, but you may be able to describe the phases in more detail in terms of what we anticipate. Yeah, so the first phase would really be a series of both quantitative and qualitative data gathering and review. So APD already has a lot of data that they can share and that's actually already been kind of reviewed through these recent reports. And as well as they would engage in a set of interviews with a set of key informants. And then that would be pulled together into a memo that would kind of share some initial findings from that first phase. That would then inform the second phase, which would be to really go through not just the policies that are available to the public, which are on online, but also internal APD policies, as well as their training processes. And we've identified in the RFP, a pretty lengthy list of areas that they should be reviewing. And they should also be comparing that to best practices and policing from around the country. So it would be kind of taking those first phase findings, marrying that with their review in the second phase of the policies and the training procedures. And then in that third phase, developing a set of recommendations, many of which would be kind of internal recommendations, but also some of them would relate to how APD communicates with the public and engages with the public. In the phase three? That's the third phase. Yeah, that's the kind of development of the final recommendations. Yeah. And then in terms of work product, it'll be a report. There'll also be a summary version of the report. And we envision having some public presentations of that. Right. And just in terms of time frame for the completion, what do you anticipate the final report being done? The RFP estimates six months. Right. Any questions at this point? I don't see any. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. Also, just to be clear, kind of about the qualifications that we're looking for. We're looking for someone who's done work with police departments of a similar size and scope to APD, and who've also completed projects of a similar scope. So it's probably going to be an out of state person who meets our qualifications. And we have reviewed some similar reports from other jurisdictions and kind of, you know, gathered an idea of some of the experts in the field. So we'll be hoping to kind of make sure that it gets out broadly enough that those folks would know. I don't see any questions on that. Thanks for that update. That's great that that's moving forward. So we anticipate the RFP coming out somewhere in the new year and then anticipate, yes, RFP coming out in the next two weeks, and then the project starting possibly in the new year and then going six months. Okay. I don't see any other questions on that. Great. Okay, let's move on to our next item. Miss Ben Ben, you have an update on the mayor's public safety strategy development. Yeah. Hi, everyone. I'm Thea Agnew. Ben Ben, I'm one of the special assistants to the mayor. This is going to be a short update because we don't have anything to share with you yet. But just want to let you all know that the mayor's asked us to develop a public safety strategy. We you know, hear a lot from the public on this topic, obviously. And it's one of the mayor's top priorities is that we really improve public safety here in Anchorage. And so we've been doing some interviews with APD with AFD with the municipal attorney and prosecutor's office. And so we're working with those departments as well as the municipal manager right now to get a draft together. I've also interviewed Cameron about this as well. So we'll be bringing a draft for your review, hopefully, in the next month or so. What is the goal? The goal is to really articulate to the well, there's kind of two goals. The external goal is to really articulate clearly to the public. One that we're hearing the different concerns and kind of the the detail of them, and that we're addressing that through some new actions that we're going to be taking. And then internally, we're gaining agreement around what are the actions that we're taking? And what confidence do we have that they'll actually lead to the improvements that we want to see? So there'll be an external facing document that that we can communicate broadly with, but that'll be married with a set of projects that we'll be working on internally. And do you see alignment between that and for instance, the the report that we may receive after the new year and other information that we're learning as we're gathering more and more information about training and those kinds of things? Do you see a relationship there? For sure. I mean, I think just timing wise, like those recommendations, we're not going to have until probably like third quarter of next year or so. But there's definitely already work underway at APD and AFD and new things starting in the new year. So we're certainly not going to wait for that report, but we'll be, you know, working towards it. Mr. Rivera. Yeah, thank you. And thank you for the update, Thea. So I guess a few questions for me. You said we a few times, who is the we that's going to be sort of in control of the document? Yeah, that's, I think mostly, it will be the departments implementing under the supervision of the municipal manager. And the strategy is really the mayor's strategy document to ensure that the mayor's priorities are being worked on and achieved. Thanks. And then I didn't hear it. But is the health department one of the departments that you interviewed? Yeah, we actually have some really good discussions starting with the health department around how we can. There's so many things at the health department that are great resources, the public health nursing program, the clinic, of course, the housing homeless and stuff. But we've covered that in a separate strategy. So, yeah. Great. And then what role do you and the department see in community stakeholders in terms of this strategy? Because you said this is you're hoping to roll the strategy out in some form in January. So what role do community stakeholders have? Yeah, I mean, I think we've already been having a lot of conversations with different stakeholder groups. We've we're meeting with businesses, community councils, faith communities. There's, you know, we're doing that on an ongoing basis. So right now, what we're trying to do is really reflect. And obviously, we also meet with all of you on the assembly, and you're hearing from everybody. So what we're trying to do right now is really make sure that our document reflects the main things that we're hearing over and over again. And so that's kind of the first step is to marry what we're hearing with the actions that we want to take to address those things. And then I think it will be rolled out through those same channels through those same meetings that we're already engaging in. So community councils, business groups, folks that come and meet with the mayor directly. And we're always with any of these strategy documents we're making, we're always interested in feedback. That's why we usually have draft plastered across them is that we're seeing these as living documents that we that we update. I don't see any other questions. Thanks. Thanks for being here. There's only one other item that I have that I wanted to bring up under unfinished business, and I don't believe we have any other reports. I wanted to just take a moment of privilege to to share with the committee that sort of a reflection on the the item that was brought forward related to the budget recently recently, the item where there was a request. There was a proposal of the assembly to add $75,000 to engage in a public process to really look at the what kind of what kind of community involvement and oversight could we or should we have here in Anchorage. And it was really an effort to engage in a community process, which relates in some ways to Mr. Rivera's quick question to to miss. of what's the public process and so I just wanted to engage the committee in a in an update and see if anybody had any questions. I really believe that this this committee needs to continue to pursue a public process for identifying what is what is a process that we can go through to determine meaningful involvement from the community in both involvement and oversight. So it's my intention. And I believe there are other members of the assembly that intend to continue to move forward to look at ways of engaging in that process. So just wanted to make sure that that was said on the record here. And that and that I I also believe that that the narrative around the actions that were proposed on that, and that item, I think were misunderstood in many ways. And I think it's it's a it's a it's a thoughtful process for us to engage in. So just want to put that on the record. And, and if there's no other business, do I see any other questions or items? We have a very efficient meeting we had today. Thank you all for being here. I appreciate your time. This meeting is adjourned. Oh, wait, hold on. I'm sorry. I do want to make sure I forgot the most important part. And that is that is public participation. So I apologize. Cameron? Yes. And let's let's start with those on the phone. And and is this I'm sorry, I don't recognize your voice. Is this someone who wants to testify? Yes. Right. I have a really bad echo for some reason. Okay, well, I can turn on turn off my mic. But is this Amanda Roach? This is Amanda Loach from the Office of Emergency Management. I was prepared to brief but perhaps I missed you calling me. Yes, I'm happy to give you some time now. We did miss we did pass over your your session, but I'm happy to give you a few minutes now to go ahead and give an update. Go ahead. Yes, thank you. I just have a couple brief items. So we do have an item coming to you for appropriation, which I have already brought to you before a $200,000 emergency management performance grant that is supplements the for the city for our office. We also have $103,000 grant, which is coming to you for preparation for a terrorist scenario exercise in June 2025. And also some Anchorage Fire Department radiological hazardous material. I can pause there. I'm still getting a pretty bad echo. No, I think we heard you pretty, pretty clearly. So and and and when will we be able to see those items? Okay, one more. And then I have $100,000 for cybersecurity grants. It is to ensure that the comprehensive emergency operations plan, which is our all hazards promulgated plan is crosswalk with the planning that the that the IT department does to increase our cybersecurity for the city. And then last, I have one item that should be coming to you shortly for a capital project. This is an investment in our planning and development of a project, which will be a new emergency operations center facility, coupled with a primary 911 dispatch. And the money that will be coming to you is some leftover funds that we have from turnover staff turnover this year. And we are going to put that forward for conceptual drawing with for this capital project. And that should be coming to you for the next meeting. And I'm happy to take questions. Looks like we have no questions. Thank you for your update. We appreciate it. Thanks for putting me in. Of course. Okay, let's move on to audience for participation. Let's start with the phone. Is there anybody on the phone who would like to to speak? I'm on the line if you can hear me. Yep, you can if you can share your name for the record. And I'll set a timer for three minutes. You'll hear the little ding when you're when you're done. Go ahead. Okay, thank you. Yes, for the record. This is Mercedes Arciniega. I am a resident of West Anchorage. I'm actually really happy with some of the comments I heard today in the committee. Also, there's really bad echo with the comments from Mr. Rivera, as well as Mr. Presbyteria regarding civilian oversight and public participation in the process of law enforcement reform and just public public safety at home. I think, yes, I, I completely agree that the intentions of the narrative around the proposed budget item was wildly misunderstood. I appreciated the debate that was around it because it gave me and the rest of the community idea of what people prioritize and what their views are regarding this subject. I just want to echo though, or what a lot of people have said on this within the community, whether that's on public record or just in conversations around me and my neighbors, that this is not meant to be something that is scary or inflammatory and accusatory. Let's just face it, there has been a rash of events that have happened in the past year that call into question what policies and procedures and training and so many other items that need to be aggressively looked at and aggressively revised to say that, you know, public participation should be somewhat limited or having certain talks, or, you know, we're establishing this committee and advisory meeting. There's already been plenty of people who've spoken out that saying that that's clearly not enough. The huge part about what we're talking about in independent review is the civilian oversight part of it. And why would you not want your public to be a part of their democracy, their right to be able to have participation in this process? While in a utopic society, we should be able to trust that our leaders and our, you know, legislative representatives to speak on behalf of their constituents. But clearly, and no disrespect to the people who've been serving and who are serving, but that hasn't been enough. And I get it, you have so much on your plate that you have to juggle in terms of prioritizing taking care of the city. But this is something that is, is frankly, a failure. And we need to accept that. And we need to address that, to just be scared of it or to call it something to be just to rip apart an institution and to make it a super negative situation. Why would you not want to continue to improve your department and your policy? Even if we didn't have these issues, why would you not want to be at your very best? While I appreciate what the mayor and the chief have brought to the table and certain assembly members, we're still missing the huge component of civilian participation. There has to be an integration of that. Otherwise, you're missing a huge part of it. And you really need to rebuild your trust in the community. Thank you for letting me speak. Thank you for your testimony. Is there anyone else on the phone who'd like to speak at this point? Hi, this is he was for justice. Great. Go ahead and go ahead and begin. You'll have three minutes to share your comments. I overheard the policy proposal for public safety for the community. And I wanted to highlight a municipal project called the Alaska domestic violence and sexual assault intervention project. And it's a grant between star victims for justice and awake. And it's funded to help with referrals from the prosecutor's office, so that we can help with their with the victim when they need to get relocated or just be able to work with them while the prosecution does its job. And we kind of work with the crime victim, make sure they're able to attend the court hearings be available to the court hearing. And this is the last year of that grant and it expired. And although our three partners do get alcohol tax funding, which is wonderful, it is not able to also cover things that were previously covered in the Alaska domestic violence and sexual assault intervention project. And that grant has funding that is that helps us provide direct assistance to victims of violent crime. So we're able to help with, say, if they got their house, we're able to help relocate them. If there's an arson, we have been able to pull these crime victims out of shelter to help them with funding to get relocated, maybe a hotel for a week and then use the violent crime compensation board, which is the state to further their funding to get relocated to they're not in shelter. This is a really amazing grant for crime victims in Anchorage. And I really hope that it gets renewed. But this is the last year and I would really encourage you guys to think about it. As you think about the public safety planning and policy for the municipality. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your testimony. Is there anyone else on the phone who'd like to speak at this time? Okay, hearing none. Is there anyone in the audience? You're in the room that'd like to Yes, come on up. We give them a microphone. I'm gonna sit right there. Yeah, that's a little bit more comfortable. And can the person on the phone please mute as well. We can still hear you. All right, if you would share your name for the record and where you live in Anchorage, and you'll have three minutes. My name is Sasha Kramer. I'm a resident of East Anchorage. Today I came to speak on the proposal to use AI technology to write police reports within a PD. I'm glad to hear that APD will not be utilizing this program anytime soon. I do still want to bring your attention to the reason I oppose the use of generative technology now and in the future. A study conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner confirms that AI technology perpetuates racial discrimination. This report examines four crosscutting ways in which AI can contribute to the manifestation of racial discrimination. That's through data problems, algorithm design issues, the intentionally discriminatory use of AI, and accountability issues. Additionally, there are some concerns from lawyers who are concerned about AI reports in policing and in the court. They are raising concerns over accuracy, transparency, and potential bias and are concerned that AI reports won't be admissible in court. With all of that in mind, I hope that the Anchorage community will continue to say no to AI technology within policing. I would also like to echo appreciation for the comments made here about public involvement in police accountability. I don't want to place blame on anyone, but I am disappointed that the final report won't be out for another six months. The Anchorage community feels deep urgency on this matter, and I would like to feel like that's taken seriously. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Would anybody else like to speak at this time? Any other comments from members? Nope. Okay, now we can officially end the meeting. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you.