Transcripts For CSPAN Discussion With Mayors On Coronavirus Civil Unrest 20240712

Them in a minute. I wanted to start just by saying that we are gathering at a time where we all as country, as these leaders in particular, are leading us as we go through moments of deep pain and anguish for so Many Americans. That has come to the floor in the last few weeks. A product of t is years and decades and even really centuries of unequal and unfair treatments. E murders of george floyd, breyonea taylor, ahmed arbery and Many Americans to shed light on systemic racism that is pervasive in our country. Black people are not safe here not when they go out for a job, not when they go out to church, not even when they stay in their own home and they are too often killed at the hands of police. Right now, our country is dealing with two diseases. One of them dozens of vaccines are on trial, medical professionals are working around the clock. And it is a global effort to become a common enemy. And still so many people are suffering and dying. For the other its a disease thats riddled our country. And the fix is not clear. And weve had decades in which we have really ignored the light of black citizens. So our mayors are here joining us today and theyre on the front lines of tackling both of these diseases, both of these challenges. And they are truly leading at a time where at the National Level we have a president who is incapable of that. And so were really fortunate to have these leaders who are able to develop real solutions. And im really thrilled that all four of them have been working at the forefront of federal relations developing policing cover the entire communities not just some. And so with that, i really want to get started. Ill do a brief introduction of each of our of our each of our mayors. Well have a conversation about the recent events as well as the coronavirus because as i said they are leading in those areas. Irst, we have newark mayor ras baraka, he served as a member of the citys Municipal Council and was principal of new York Central High School from 2007 to 2013. Next, we have the Atlanta Mayor keisha bottom. He became mayor in 2018 having previously served as a council member. And kate gallego took office in march of 2019. Prior to serving as mayor, she served on the phoenix city council. D a our fourth panelist is dr. Marimichael tas. Hes the youngest the citys youngest mayor and its first africanamerican mayor. Prior to serving as mayor, he served as Stockton City Council member. One programming note. We will take questions at the end of this. Ill have a time for q a with the mayors. And then we will take questions from you. In the meantime, please feel free to send any question you have, even use the question box on the right side of your screen. Ive captioning is available at americanprogress. Org livecaption ing. So im just going to get started into the event. And really grateful for our mayors participating. For each of the panelists what id really like to start with is to ask you how you have experienced the last several weeks particularly the last two weeks. As you were dealing with the continuing Health Crisis and the police rotests around brutality and systemic racism, how have you as mayors really seeing your role . How have you tried to lead . And whats been your experience . And ill start with you mayor ance bottom. Mayor lance bottom, can you hear me . I can now. Im going in and out. But i think i can hear you now. I only heard part of the question. But i think it was about the last two weeks yes, essentially how have you dealt with the last two weeks towards the protest and addressing Police Brutality and systemic racism as youre dealing with the virus . So the last two weeks have been like nothing ive ever experienced in my lifetime. Only what ive seen in history books. And i think that is the we are in this incredible moment and movement in our nation. And ive ive assumed it was very similar to that of the Civil Rights Movement, but this is happening and being amplified in the way that the Civil Rights Movement was not because the social media and our ability to access information. And because we are we have this ability to instantly see, it gives us really an equal responsibility and so many ways to equally react and respond to what people are calling upon us to do in our communities. And so when president obama sent out the call to mayors across this nation to convene entities and task force to take a look at policing in our communities, we did it immediately. We had our first meeting yesterday with an Advisory Council thats going to look at our use of force policies in our city, and what i anticipate is out of that work will probably be even more commissions and task force to look at all of our policies just across the city, just in terms of how were interacting with our communities, not just as it relates to policing. But even how were allocating our our dollars in our communities. Because what we know is that we either pay on the front end or we either pay on the back end. If we are overpolicing our communities then were going to have a heightened response from our community. Incumbent in the way that biden obama left for our policing, that we create legitimate and honest relationships with our communities so that we can work as partners. I think its incumbent upon us to continue that work despite the leadership that we now have in place from the white house. Mayor baraka . Yes, i would like to echo first, thank you for having me. I want to say hello to the mayors lance bottoms. How are you . I just want to echo some of those sentiments. But its been a difficult, difficult few months. Not weeks. Its been a difficult few months here in these cities. Basically on our own trying to keep our people safe and alive without any real direction or support in the way that we need it. And so you have to be creative as possible to make sure folks are actually doing what they can to protect their families particularly since covid has affected our lives a lot more than its affected other peoples lives. We have a heightened response responsibility to provide sympathy, empathy and care, motional intelligence for this community. And then life before covid. Unearthed. Is somebodys trying to get our oy tension. Then ll, inequity and bam, george floyd is murdered almost on national tv symbolic to what happened in the Civil Rights Movement. This is the first time a Police Officer killed a black man. I think the heinous they chure created and the fkt that people became so fed up, it became a tipping point. Now, its up to us to do something about it. Were trying to maintain, increase opportunities and space for justice and equality and democracy at the same time treing to keep people safe and equal and healthy. I was just concerned as im always concerned that sometimes that we in this moment, people sweep in and doing the same thing that mayor bottoms talked about first of all, we have to do it change of use policy anyway. So were doing all those things. Were moving money more money i should say towards bias prevention, social work, pharma care all those things to help us reduce the virus. The reduction of the virus helps us to justify reduction of police, right . So we have to reduce the violence, reduce the number of cops that we need. And so we do that. Im worried that people begin to think that racism or White Supremacy begins or ends with the police dave . And its deeper than that. It would be like slaves get rid of the overseers. At the end of the day, youre still in the same condition youre in. You just have people enforcing that. So you have to will be more thoughtful about our approach to deal with this in a holistic way. Were holding on in the city. Were pushing forward, were praying and were moving. Excellent. Mayor gallegos . Thank you. It has been quite a twoweek scene here in phoenix, arizona. Weve been having robust conversations about the relationship between our police. Partment and our community this week, the city of phoenix have attacked the budget in may. And this way we passed a different budget on a bipartisan basis. The big new expenditure for office of accountibility and expenditure for our Police Department. I dont know that that would have been possible a month ago to say this is something were going to take seriously, and it is our largest new expenditure. Our Police Department has been looking at use of force alongside our community and has already made just this week some significant changes and and we have a commitment with our community that that will continue. Its certainly an issue that has been at the forefront my entire time as mayor, a fairly new mayor elected in 2019. Its been an eventful time, but. Othing like the last two weeks what gives me hope is that weve been having these conversations in phoenix for a while. But it became a much broader conversation. Now i have folks, the leaders reaching out to me and saying hat can we do to fight racism . Thoseer conversations that we didnt have as often as we needed to before. Our if you looked at protests, it is people all of backgrounds. And that gives me the confidence to say that this community will partner with our elected officials as we make real change. These conversations happen as we recover well, were not recovering from covid19. We have hit so many of the records you dont want to be hitting for covid19 from my perspective. We opened too much, too early. And so our hospitals are really struggling. The state just activated the emergency plan for hospitals this week. We are setting all sorts of records you do not want to have. One thing that i do really want to clarify is that our research is that Arizona State university as been looking at the trends. And they do not believe its a result of the protests. There are certainly some cases spreading. But if you look at where covid is increasing in our commune thank you, community. It really correlates with the stayathome order and the challenges were having with our longterm care facilities and anywhere people are living close together. But i come to you as a mayor that comes with a Healthcare System that is stressed. And im very worried about the virus and its impact on our community. Thank you, mayor gallegos. Mayor tim, how have the last two weeks been for you . And then i want to get into the particular areas of leadership youve shown on policing criminal justice and systemic racism issues. First, let me just say, i love you to all the mayors on here. Its been a difficult, difficult year for sure. Particularly the last two weeks and months. Ive seen the points raised by everyone else on the panel. The most interesting for the past two weeks and the last months has been ubiquitous and eated as normal which is our inequality toward people of color and comorbidities and are likely to die from the pandemic. And then you couple that up with murder. Ge floyd im a father of a 7 monthold son, of a mayor of a city who is charge with working with the police dave and with the community. And as a 29yearold black man whose entire adulthood has been marked by travon martin, senior year in college, troy davis. Sandra bland in 2014 while City Council Member protesting michael brown. Its a bit of fatigue as well. Here we go again. I know, given 400year of our history, seems like a moment of time. But the other mayors, im inspired to see it global lies. You have 15,000 people marching in amsterdam. You have the Democratic Caucus coming out with a set of policing reforms in stocktons case weve been lucky in that weve take then issue seriously over the past several years, which is why which is so we have relationships with folks who are protesting. We have relationships with folks who have been working to improve our Police Department. Last year we led the state in decline of shootings. To answer your question, the last two weeks has been very, very difficult in searching for the right words and action. I convey sort of the seriousness of this moment and capitalize the opportunity to do the things that weve been meaning more help in doing in pushing some of our colleagues and other systems along. I would like to follow up on that last point because youve had a big reduction in critical statistics in stockton. Could you share with us what your what the change in policies have been and then what results youve seen. And i think, you know, theres been theres obviously multiple models. We have two kind of models of police systems. One is one is to work more with the community. And ones that have been work on top of the community to police a Community Versus serve the community. And i think one of the things that gets lost is that the the Actual Service model. It has been more effective across the board. And stockton is a great example. I would love it if you could just share. All of you have reforms that youve been implementing. But i would love for you to talk about the experience of stockton and the statistics that hes the statistical changes and what thats meant in peoples lives. Absolutely. Im blessed to have a progressive forward thinking police chief who is a white man who has been a Police Officer for the past 29 years. But before there were hashtags. My first moment on the city council was in 2013, his first year as police chief he said lets figure out a way to transform what it means to be a Police Officer in this community. So a lot of things cant wait for the changes that you support banning chokeholds. We did that in 2014. We put body cameras in 2015. Were part of the National Program with an open door policy who has ever had a use of force incident whether justified or unjustified with stockton p. D. He meets with the family and listens. Hes dub reconciliation tours the hes apologized for things that have happened in the past in the 1930s, they bombed a filipino community. And he apologized for that. He went to black churches and aid that policing were used to stop civil rights and to watch lynching. I apologize for that. I think those things have have moved a long way to build i mean, theres always going to be distrust but theres more trust and at least he gets it and he gets that theres work to do. On the policy side since 2014 all of our officers have been ongoing in implicit bias. And in fact, although our officers not perfect go and train other Police Departments what does it mean procedurally just. People of color have issues with the enforcement of the law unequally. And to be a Police Officer, you have to see it procedurally just that youre treating everyone the same. Its been a work in progress. We have Community Members that have been victims of Police Brutality. Were hoping inform policy is a tough conversation. And the last think i would say is since 2016 myself and the police chief have been both in unitsome unison cops cant be everything. They want them to be therapist an clinicians. Law enforcement should be law enforcement. Lets figure out how to create more jobs because any time you expect one person, one sbi thats not trained to do all those things, youre always going to be frustrated. Upset. Always going to be were trying to figure that out so that our cops arent the only First Responders for every social ill in our city. And what numbers have you seen decline . Yeah, let me answer your question. Decline in shootings and homicides. Its been sustained. And its lower this year which is incredible because stockton has been double the state homicide. So weve become a Safer Community while also being a more to your point policing as a Public Service really focusing threats to life. And mayor lance bottoms, i just want to ask you, atlanta is a big city that has also had more reforms and had more had better relations than other big cities. What are the what are the ways youre thinking is changing Going Forward. I would love for you to talk about the changes youve made, but also any changes youre thinking Going Forward, and you know, theres been a big debate about moving some activitys that are that are done, you know, by Police Related to Mental Health and Substance Abuse and the overpolice problems versus trying to address those problems from a nonpolice Public Health perspective or other perspectives. I would love for you to talk about your experiences and how you see policing Going Forward. First of all, i want to thank you for convening this panel because listening to the other mayors who theres still so much we can learn and pick up from each other. And so, you know, im making sure that im taking notice so i can do some followups as well. So this is this is as much about educating me as it is for the public. So i appreciate that. But in atlanta we began in earnest to look at criminal Justice Reform several years ago. And its taken different forms. So part of what were doing in our city, we allow inmate who are transitions out of the state prison system to work, go out during the day, work as a part of our workforce and our watershed department, our public works department, transition into fulltime jobs so that when they are done with their sentences that they can transition into fulltime jobs with benefits. And it has been so heartwarming to have conversations with many of the men who are in this program and to hear them relay how meaningful it is for their families. Because part of my my background was my father was incarcerated at some point. I know how devastating that can be on families. But the other thing were doing, we eliminated cash bail bonds in the city of atlanta. And what this meant is if you get stopped for a broken taillight if you had 200 in your pocket, you could pay it in an hour and you would be back on the three. If you didnt have it, then you might end up staying in our jail for weeks and months at a time. So we eliminated that. We ended our relationship with ice. We had a contract worth millions of dollars a year to house ice detainees. And we ended that during the family separation crisis that we saw at the border. So it allowed us an opportunity really reimagine what this 400plus square foot physical jail facility could be and how it could really we could navigate this model from mass incarceration into this model of equity, health and wellness with the physical place in our community that people could come to. And with this years budget, we moved over 60 of our corrections budget. We are passing our budget in the next week or so. But we have moved our corrections budget over into the Mayors Office of constituent services so that we can begin to reallocate this money that we were using towards incarceration to be able to put it into things that help improve our Community Whether its as simple as sending people out to help pick up trash in the community or something more, something a bit more robust. Other programic things in our communities. D it really is about reimagining how we interact with our communities. And Going Forward what were seeing as mayor tubs said, our Police Department is far from perfect. But there are some great things that are happening in terms of interaction with our Police Officers, with our kids. We have an at Promise Youth Center in atlanta. We are in the process of building two more. Part of the requirement in that center is that our Police Recruits go in weekly. They spend time with our kids. Theyre working alongside our kids helping to mentor our kids, and theyre learning just as much from our kids as our kids are learning from them to create some impactful relationships. And it does the list goes on. But again, the opportunity just to hear just to hear whats happening in other cities and how we really are approaching our relationship with our police in our communities is incredibly important because we dont have all of the answers in one city. And so many times we get it right. And so many times we get it wrong. But the great thing about atlanta is this opportunity to keep trying again and again. And we have this rich legacy of civil rights in our city. And so i think that we have the benefit of having this blueprint of what change should look like right at our fingertips that many other cities dont have. Thats fantastic. Ayor baraka and thank you so much for your work. Would like to ask mayor baraka, there have been significant reforms as par of that process as well. And accountibility in other areas. I would love if you could share that and the changes that have already been made. Additional changes youre thinking about. This so just what does change has meant for the community for newark . So when i came into office, i immediately had to sign the consent. So the good thing about it is that we werent adverse to that. We werent trying to fight the consensus. We welcomed i. In fact, we part we welcomed it. In fact, we put up a civilian review board that were fighting to keep now, even though the consensus decree says you have to have oversight. We established one more advanced than they want us to. So we had use of force training now. All the policies changes, implicit bias training, all of the things that mayor tubbs talked about because were mandated to do it in the city. We have to change policy. We have deescalation training, about with the help of equal justice and new community street, which is our new organization and equal justice is a national organization, they do these trauma circles with police and Community Around the city. And they talk very frankly about issues that people have in a community. And sometimes those those it goes from not just talking about the issues they have with police, they start telling police about other issues they have. My garbage can didnt get picked up. The light is out. They wind up sending notice. Listen, thats not our job. T the light is such and such that becomes incredibly important. Nd we train residents of our community under police practices, the law and policies so they know. And we give them cars. We paint an old police car yellow for citizen clergy to help us deescalate situations that have the potential to become crazy. We we use the community in many ways to help change the relationship between the police and the community. And our complaints against the Police Department are down 80 . Wow. Which is huge based when we first started, right . And like the mayor said we have reduction of homicides since 2013. When i took office in 2013, we had 116 homicides. Last year we had 51. 51 is too many. But it certainly is a lot less than 116. So we have actually been arresting less people and seeing crime go the opposite direction cause all the other social changes that take place. You have to deal with violence and thats the most important place. So the people of this community so this idea that we need to get rid of the police. My grandmother, my mother wont go for it because you know, i cant sell it in my neighborhood. And thats the policys that i support or policies i can sell to my mama and grandma ma. We have to do something with violence. Which is why we have alternative ways to diffuse violence, whether its social work, Mental Health other opportunities to get people deescalate, conflict resolution, all those things are necessary. And then Going Forward, we plan on so all these things the police already hired social workers now. So our Police Department already hire social workers. They put them in the what they call the women resource center. What we want to do is bring everybody under the us a of violence prevention and begin to put all of the folks under there and all the Community Organizations to give them an opportunity to have a constant stream of funding so they can do the work they do in a community in a more robust and expanded way. So were thinking 5 of the citys Police Budget have been able to do that. And were going to make it the law. I know a lot of people are saying im going to take 1 million away from the police. But you to do it in codify it as law because youre not going to be there forever. Somebody can come behind it and change it. Thats what were trying to do. I really wanted to highlight i think what youre illustrated and everyone is illustrating but just really to put a point on it, violence you know, these strategies lead to Violence Reduction which we need Greater Community safety. I think theres been this really false choice developed that you have to have Police Strategies that are just really, you know, almost littletaryistic in order to have safety. Militaristic in order to have safety. The data youre sharing to have police and other forces in the community, social workers, clergy, others serving people in a way that reduces violence is a way that we actually get safer. I wanted to highlight that plan. Mayor gallegos, i wanted you to talk about some of the strategies i know you came in in 2019. But even as youve come in there have been reforms. I would love for you to talk about that. Absolutely. So during my time as mayor, we have done a full deployment body cameras to all our officers out in the community. And thats an Important Message for building trust. I also launched a program with my Council Colleagues to embed clinicians with our Police Department. A lot of the cases that have been more difficult for us in phoenix have had a Mental Health component. And even our officers agree that we need to make changes in that area. Oneer . Told us, people call 911 when theyre in crisis because they do not know who else to call. So weve tried to make sure that there are Mental Health Resources Available and traditionally, the way Government Works in arizona, we are not the Public Health authority at the city of phoenix. Its not a city function. Mental health is not a city function. But its been so intertwined with everything our fire and Police Department has been doing that we decided to as much as possible not point a finger and say its their fault and try to step up and look for solutions. Weve been able to have really good success with embedding clinicians with our department and and really also at our 911 centers so that we can get people the appropriate resources and thats been very successful. Weve also been putting a lot of investment into our crisis intervention team, officers who are highly trained at helping people in crisis. One of one of my really inspiring moments as mayor was going out with some officers on our crisis intervention team. There was a mother who had called in, military veteran with a firearm. She was heart broken. She was facing addiction. And her son had told her, i never want to see you again. Im done with you. I dont know what its like to be in her shoes. But im a mother and i i know how i would feel if my son said i dont want to see you again. Dont want to be part of your life. I mean, heartbreaking. Our officers spent time with her, developed a relationship, found things they had in common. And gave her a sense of hope. It went from a very dangerous feeling situation with a woman with the fire arm to ending up with her accepting services, seeing a path forward. So i felt like i got to witness an officer save a life without any use of force. We can have clinicians supporting that. But when there are fire arms involved, there need to be Police Officers involved. So thats been our role model for how we want to move forward in the city of phoenix. Weve had good success with programs similar that my colleagues have mentioned. When i was elected to the council, we had some significant challenges with taking away peoples drivers license as if they couldnt pay their fees. Im a proud supporter of public transit. But phoenix is still a city if you dont have your car and you lose your license you could hurt your economic prospects. So if you couldnt pay your tickets, it wasnt leading to success when we took that away from people. And that reform has helped thousands of people in our community. We heard from one woman who said i was in a Domestic Violence situation but i felt like i couldnt leave because i didnt have a drivers license. And the program helped her get into a safer situation. Uhhuh, uhhuh. Weve had good success with banning the box. And we have very successful City Employees who have had a felony at one point in their life but have had so much to offer. Once we look at our Employment Policy we felt we could win as an employer and provide needed employment to people in our community. So weve had, i think, some very successful policies. And we know were not done. We have to keep having these conversations and doing more. But i think its been an important year at the city of phoenix. Great. As everyone has been dealing with the the the the heightened attention because of the problems, honestly, mayors have been dealing with a long time, Police Brutality, systemic racism and other issues. Youve also had to deal with a pandemic. And that is obvious really often really coming on your shoulders as leaders. So i would love to just ask you each. Ill start with you mayor lance bottoms. Youre in a unique situation in that the state youre in has been very prescriptive around a reopening. And so and i know that you you have perhaps a different perspective on reopening. So i would love for you to share safety, on public literal Health Safety of atlanta s as youre in the state of georgia with a governor who really pushed reopening very aggressively, and ill just say at a time where the data really pointed in an alternative direction. So we just had to create a parallel path in atlanta. And theres been no playbook at least not for me on how to deal with the pandemic and certainly not one on how you deal with Transitional Movement like we are seeing in this country. Seeing in this country i think there has been an opportunity to lead with our head and heart. I look at the numbers in georgia with covid19 of our hospitalizations were black and brown people in our state. It really was this a moment that i could not remain silent about our reopening. With that being said, he said in the beginning of the reopening in torture, i wanted to be wrong. I know the governor was like more people would die. We are somewhere in the middle. We were seeing increases of around 25 to 30 in terms of people testing positive. Those increases are now around eight to 10 . So its a lot better but still not great. You can still see an increase in people dying and the rate of infections and those numbers are starting to take up a bit. But we did in atlanta as we had an Advisory Council with people from that Corporate Community, Small Business owners, colleges, universities et cetera to create a plan for the city of atlanta. It is a five phased approach. Says our numbers are still down in atlanta i believe many of our larger employers we have fortune 500 companies they have not open back up their companies will say the cocacola building every day. Well when cocacola has open backup, certainly helped with us not having people coming together and mass groups will see what happens on the other side of the Mass Gatherings to produce still waiting on numbers from memorial day weekend. With the Mass Gatherings we have taking testing into some of these highly Populated Areas to encourage people to get tested. And just asking people to get tested. I got tested, i participated in one of the demonstrations, thankfully my test came back negative. Weve got to continue to encourage people to do that and continue to make decisions that are best for our community. Because nobody knows their Community Better than a mayor knows their community. I remember the first time i met Vice President biden, him saying, being on city council was part of the ming Vice President. I was shocked to hear him say that. I said why . He said because Everybody Knows where you live. That is a reality of being a mayor and even in this time period, knowing where you live means that at least in my case, protesters even show up at your house sometimes. Were just just trying to figure it out as we go and make decisions we know are best for our communities. I think in atlanta those decisions are helping us to save lives. And mayor i wanted to followup with you on the issue on the disproportionate impact with communities of color that the virus has had. There any strategies on how you have to address those issues or redress that whether its more resources to hospitals serving communities of color, changing the way the Health System is dealing with these issues, and anything you would like to share about how you are tackling the virus . The one thing were doing now is to mitigate those things. Some of those things cannot be fixed in the middle of covid we are going to have to restructure with the system with access to healthcare. Access to quality food in the community, decent housing so whats been happening in some people get covid they take home to their family. So. [inaudible] only apply more support, give more support for the cities and hospitals in the area make sure they have it they need there are areas where folks are not going to come out have to go to each community. So we no longer use the police anymore. We send folks out with flyers and information in my get a bunch of people hanging out get tested get asks get flyers get information to be used in these communities that do not have access theyre not watching cnn, they are not watching fauci, they dont know who he is. Theyre not watching any of this that very little information. So we have to take the information to them. That is really the only way to address or mitigate some of this stuff have to let them know when they open things up is how to stay safe in a place thats concerned about other things in your health. Do not have any cases because theres a different demographics and the governor says this is what were going to do for the state, its not onesizefitsall. It may be beneficial to everyone else, but its hurtful to us for cities like newark. Thats a very critical point. Will be taking questions from the audience in another minute. Will go to the mayor about your experience and what you are doing to address the health needs of your community . Particularly in the state like arizona who seeing a surge in cases. It reopened more radically than other states seen a large search. And now has the Hospital System incredibly stressed pretty want to ask you give a governor sending a very different message than you are. And you have a big Population Center in arizona. How are you handling that . What advice are you giving to people . What are your strategies on that issue . Mayors really lead the effort to fight covid19 in arizona. Early on, i joined this is the represent the largest city and i work with the mayor who has the largest city in Southern Arizona but we did executive orders and implemented social distancing moving restaurants to take out, shutting down bars, different Safety Measures which we have data from a university showing it didst slow the spread. The governor followed us and eventually went to a statewide order in a stayathome order. The mayors Work Together to really talk about what needed to be in the stay at home order. Originally the list of businesses considered essential was quite quite broad and included things such as nail salons were reachers has said theres significant transmission rate look at community with good Contact Tracing we have seen transition link to some of those personal services leading to some of the regional outbreaks. Again i was proud to work with other mayors to send a strong message of safety when the governor lifted his state home order he preempted mayors and cities from doing our own precautions. You will see raging nightclub parties in arizona. That is not what the cdc recommends. They recommend a gradual reopening looking more and essential services. I am trying to use whatever i can as a pulpit to remind people if you can stay home please do. We are talking about masking as much as possible and continue to have a debate with our state we went to required masks we had legislators saying this was tyranny. I have not been a hugely National Prominent mayor, it was eyeopening for me when i would get from all over the country, people saying she is the gestapo some pretty rough things. Im jewish and think im intact with some other jewish mayors theres been this weird not see terminology thrown at us and were talking about u. S. Governors. And jewish governors as well we are talking about how not helpful that is in our community. I am trying to work as closely with our healthcare leaders to put good data out there and help people. I went to help them to get information about what they can do to stay safe. We, in phoenix are sort of in a weird way proud and we feel its tough and nothing can withstand it and i think there many people in this community who thought flu tends to decline dramatically we did not have to worry but if you look at the hospitalization number and critical licensing equipment that that capacity right now, summer was not a cureall. We are unfortunately looking like we are next financial growth right now im taking seriously and asking my residence to your tired of staying home and being frustrating to think about those in your life were most vulnerable whether true grandmother, other is facing cancer, maybe that will help you realize how important it is to take this seriously. It is deadly leave already lost too many. Thank you so much mayor. I do think its a great irony that we have on this call the governors preempted mayors and their ability, they know their communities really well. I want to ask you finally, how are you handling the virus . You probably would handle it differently other stresses of the virus any ideas on the best way to address it . I am laughing because i have been questioned as a Health Professional biology was my worst subject. The governor has remade the way so the tension and my communities us in the county, or surrounded by those who are most likely to die from covid19 are essential workers. And theyre working with some of the cities and counties i say that because we have been having a very vocal for one or 30 million care zac went directly to our county. We of the population live 0 in the county to address the crisis and theyre coming to me saying do this, do this, do this. Additionally ive been calling for we have been opening up and as i have shared several times the Public Health officer she said she is scared to say you have to wear masks in public be because of safety and security. I put on my agenda for the council on monday the Council Voted six to one against an ordinance to wear masks. Citing bias that does not exist, citing the people when they meet their wearing masks. That is the frustrating things ive theres amount of easier to get people covered. Ive been sounding the alarm, this is how we have to do it. In the last thing i have to do is trying to fill in the gaps of putting the Food Delivery Program for seniors on mothers day we had or 25 mothers to give them what they need to do to take care of themselves legal work with the homeless shelter to try to figure out different ways to deliver services to what we can to protect the most vulnerable. We know at times when people were hit hard before got hit even harder for everyone. Deafly not perfect live ideas such as wash her hands, and wear a mask when you go out in public. Ticket office soon as you get in the car when youre in the public protesting whatever youre wearing a mask because as far as ive seen the virus will continue to spread it doesnt care about her feelings or the weather doesnt care about how tired we are. Its a virus and its really have to mitigate and move it to the new normal. The thing thats the greatest challenge on you reference the masks and how the science on masks is really vital and yet we live in the country where the president says you dont really need to wear a mask. On the same for a minute that makes all of your jobs harder right . Because people dont wear masks and virus outbreaks, that happened in phoenix, atlanta, newark, its been one of the problems for mayors to deal with. And other countries deal with it are unique in the world. Brazil is another example. Basically hearing masks and making that political. When they get to questions the funding rethinking or redesigning is just one step wetter other areas that you have been thinking through and solving the challenges when hit communities of different colors the question is the systemic institutions and as youre thinking through your budgets, are you redirecting resources, not just to Mental Health services in others but education, job training, resources to build essentially capabilities and communities of color . Ill start with the mayor into a quick round if we can. Sure. All of the things are important they help us have better housing, better education, so were trying to to spend more money in those areas. Always say is the city budgets are not as big and huge as people expect them or think they are. Most of the cost is personnel. The more people you have the more money you spend. We rely heavily on the federal and State Government to help subsidize some of the work we are doing our own housing and other issues. Force them to deliver services to us that we need in order for them to get Business Done in our community. But specifically we try to create public under ford of the housing for people in the city, land trust is important creating opportunities where they have to hire local residents and they have to invest in local businesses. They have to spend their money locally with the businesses here and our community. In the city of newark spending more money try to give Early Childhood folks access to more opportunity. Being in school to get them started in school early. And expand the Summer Program to be yearround but thousands of more kids to work at more meaningful jobs and an opportunity to just cleaning up a vacant lot. Theres a million things that we try to spend out money on to get people to help us with that there are systemic changes that need to happen. We need to get into that as well. Mayor . Jimmy haner . As we have tried to recover from covid19, we are really trying to be intentional in the city of phoenix for addressing equity concerns with the very significant smallbusiness aid program. It is for businesses that are in low income census tract. We know communities of color have been hit hard by this and they have not had access to traditional Banking Institutions and others that would have helped them get federal aid. We are trying to say we want to target those who have been hit the hardest. We also have a multi milliondollar program for Refugee Community that has struggled to get access to the traditional aid programs, many of which have expensive forms and you have to document income and prove you were impacted by covid19. We are developing programs that are only for our Refugee Community so they get that much needed aid we are very diverse city and have been very welcoming to refugees and they have given back to us whether its powering the air force or designing one of our police substations. We have a significant Iraqi Community including people who translated for our troops when they were in iraq and saved american lives i hope people say the city of phoenix is stepping up for those who stepped up for us. We have one of the largest programs to support our arts and culture institutions from covid19 in the country, trying to get grants out to artists who create a great city. Great Cultural Institution that interrupted their prime season to help us hit home and slow the spread of covenant tenet trying to be intentional about putting that in multiple languages with talents arts and culture to get it out to the full diversity of our community. We help as we recover from covid19, we are putting in programs that will address the equity issues over the longterm. We dont want to wait and say were in at one crisis we cant address another area hopefully we can walk and chew gum at the same time. As you are thinking through rebuilding efforts, i wanted to ask you, also there issues around Police Brutality and systemic racism issues all the mayors have talked about in vesting in alternative policing but its also about ensuring all communities have the resources they need to actually thrive. Im just wondering if you are thinking about allocating resources across the budget into the future . Fleming is right at my fingertips because we are in the midst of getting the Budget Approved are the budget book. We think its a pretty big book. For people who live and breathe municipal government, there is an understanding and recognition it is a complex document. There are some things reflected inherent summary things that are not. So for example in the city of atlanta that we do not control her public schools. You will not see that money in here, particularly by public schools. Something people have certainly been crying out for because it is an independently elected body. You will not see what we are setting aside in large part for Affordable Housing and our community that is the purview of the Housing Authority thats not reflected in here. You also wont see a project we have with our Corporate Community and the atlanta technical called the center for workforce innovation where we are looking to train people for jobs at Delta Air Lines as mechanics with 100,000 plus. Week as alignment with georgia power, plumbers with home depot, as coders, the list goes on. There are so many things that we are working on in conjunction to not just how we allocate our city dollars, but how we maximize the partnerships that we have available to us in atlanta. What i would like to say is we combine compassion and commerce inner city. We are very fortunate in our city at the fortune 500 company thats based here they are invested in a very meaningful way. Even with the Blank Foundation they honor the Atlanta Falcons in our citys website. There is a huge robust jobtraining program through an entity called the west side teacher funded nonprofit entity that works in conjunction with the city and the Nonprofit Community to make sure people have the Wraparound Services they need so if they need to get a ged or looking for Affordable Housing, if they are looking for job training, even they are looking to continue their education beyond high school. Those resources are at their fingertips. So we continue to be creative in atlanta and think outside the box. I encourage people, as they are becoming more interested and more informed of how the cities are allocating their dollars, they dont just stop at the instagram poster the social media headline that they really do educate themselves and become more informed so you can get a complete picture of whats happening in our city there is so much happening not just in atlanta but across this country i think it is great people are interested in whats happening in our city. Think the key to success for us to be able to do the work is for us to Work Together and not necessarily work at each other. I love what the mayor said if he cant sell it to his mother and grandmother, it is not going to fly for me. It is my mothers saturday bridge club meeting. I think about what does this mean . Our Start Talking about equity. Somebodys going to say what exactly does that mean . If i talk about how much your power bill is and the reason we need to take at installing solar panels and our underserved communities who may not even speak the language of Climate Change but they know it highpower field means, that is a true test of how our messages read with our communities, how it feels on the ground. I just encourage people, let your elected officials know what you care about it is not have to be in a fancy municipal government language, just continue to push out to us what you care about. Because if we dont hear from you and we do not know the issue in the community there is no way we can begin to change it. I would just like to end with you, youve been doing a lot of innovations and innovations we been hearing they are targeting where they are redressing the systematic way they have been treated for decades. Yes, i think part of it is, as we have heard from the mayors the folks on the front line, we are doing everything we can to fill in gaps. The income with covid the program more every senior go through three are for your trade school but necessary but not sufficient to the point that was raised earlier, we are really in structural violence. The City Government is not equipped to handle that. Its a National Policy conversation. Think what we are seeing with the civil unrest is that people are tired of Police Violence they are tired of violence have not been able to afford housing their tired of the violence of healthcare. After reimagining our self contract we should include things like healthcare, it should include things like Affordable Housing. I think those things are what are required because it is a mayors we would love to do those things we just cant. Our budgets are not equipped, they are police, transportation, garbage, cities like newark but we dont have the budget the money for the district the county board of supervisors is as a framework and new deal if you will for the 21st century and recognition or george floyd issue. I cannot think of a better way to end this program then reimagining the social challenges we have seen perhaps thats an opportunity to see the profound changes we need to address these things im grateful for the leadership of mayors we need National Leaders as well. I want to thank each one of you for being part of this conversation has been so incredibly helpful. But were really grateful for your leadership across the challenges you are seeing. Thank you so much. Reform, protests, coronavirus affecting the country, watch our live, unfiltered coverage with briefings from the white house, congress, governors and mayors from across the country, updating the situation. And from the campaign 2020 trail. 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