I’d like to call the January 28th, 2026 meeting of the Des Moines Citizens Advisory Board to order. And the first thing that we need to do is call roll. So we’ll just go around the table.
Members present:
- Susan White, Redondo
- Lisa France, Redondo
- Barton DeLacy, Woodmont
- Colleen Gantz, Zenith
- Bettina Carey, Marina District
- Victoria Andrews, at large
- MaryEllen Laird, at large
- Corine Anderson Ketchmark, at large
- Diane Hoyer, at large
- Bill Linscott, Marina tenant
- Randy Richards, at large
- Adriana, senior apartments
- Mackenzie Meyers, businesses
- Charlene Balcazo, business
- Jeff Crompe, at large
- Eddy Duggar, Wesley Central
- Allyson Chapin, North Central, deputy mayor
- Yoshiko Grace Matsui, mayor
- Robin Desimone, council member
- Harry Steinmetz, council member
- Tara Vaughan, city liaison
Eileen Evans called me and told me she was sick today. And do we have a motion to excuse her?
Member: Second.
Chair: Moved and seconded. All oppose? Passes.
Then I would like to invite our mayor Shu Matsui to address us with some welcoming remarks.
3:47 – Mayor Yoshiko Grace Matsui
Well, thank you. I appreciate you letting me crash here today and come and say hi. Welcome to the first CAB meeting of 2026. It’s amazing to say that. That’s kind of feels like it. Yes, absolutely. I just wanted to say thank you so much for taking a part and an active part and role in our community here and representing your neighborhoods. I know that we’ll be hearing later today and also the next time you visit city council about all the tremendous work that you did with the outreach for the strategic plan.
What an amazing group of folks for you to go out and do all of that on behalf of not only the city but the other residents in your area. I really truly appreciate that. We talk a lot about wishing that folks could get more active, that they could talk to their neighbors, that they could give us that feedback that we’re always looking for. Because sometimes when you’re up here, you really hope that you are doing the right thing and really representing what folks say, but it’s not always easy to pick up the phone and call 30 or 40 people. You are one of those places that we count on to make sure that we are hearing from your neighborhoods, your concerns, and what the people of Des Moines are really talking about. And I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your active work and engagement. And I know that there’ll be many opportunities for you moving forward to continue to engage with your neighbors, folks at your church, anywhere that you interact with folks. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just get stopped at QFC and then I regret my shoe choices because I might be just standing there in Crocs and I go, “Oh, I should have put some shoes on when I left. I really I just knew it.” But anytime we are out in public and we have that opportunity to get that feedback and to engage with our neighbors and talk about what folks care about is really important to me and I know that it must be important to you as well because you’re here in this room. So, I just wanted to stop by. I’ll be here for a few moments and then I’m going to leave it in the capable hands of our other council members and our chair council member Simons. So, thank you very much.
6:13 – Member (possibly Charlene)
Mary, quick question. Just because Charlene and I, you did an official absence of Eileen. What about all the other people? I mean, I’m just curious if we’re looking for—
Chair: Not heard anything from any of the other people who are not here.
Member: No, but I mean, does that mean it’s an unexcused absence?
Chair: Unless we know something about the people that aren’t here. Several people have called me over the course of the last year to let me know they weren’t going to make it.
Member: Oh, okay. That way. Okay.
7:20 – Victoria Andrews
I also just want to welcome everybody back to the new year. And I want to give a big thanks to those of you that showed up at the Burning Boat. Everybody contributed to making it a success. And the CAB members who were there helping serve the hot chocolate and the coffee and the s’mores packages—that was such a big help. It never got overwhelming. Although there were lines as everybody lined up, but it was just great. And it didn’t just fall to one or two people. It was a group effort and it was really appreciated. And even that little booth ended up raising quite a bit of money that went towards the whole total. So thank you all for responding. I kind of put that out later in the week saying, “Hey, we need some help.” And it was great that people responded the way they did. So I just want to say thank you very much for that.
Chair: Thank you. And did everybody hear how much they raised?
Victoria: About $17,000. Goes to scholarships for Des Moines Park and Rec. It was really fantastic.
8:42 – Chair
Moving on to the agenda items. Item number one is approval of the minutes. Has everybody had a chance to look at the minutes from the last meeting? Are there any questions, comments, corrections? Do I hear a motion?
Member: Motion to approve.
Member: Second.
Chair: Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Is anybody opposed? Motion passes.
And the second item on our agenda are subcommittee reports. Arts always has so much to tell us about and it’s kind of fun. So, let’s go ahead and start with the arts.
9:32 – Arts Committee Member (likely Eddie)
Just an update on our concerts. All our bands are under contract and their deposits been paid, so we’re covered for this summer. And we’ll be coming up with some kind of little poster contest that we’re going to put out like on the Des Moines community page to have a local resident make a poster for us for the summer concerts and we’ll adopt it and use it. We’ve talked about before the backstage alley concert. After a lot of discussion and discussing it with Patrice at Legacy, we’ve decided to postpone that till next year just with the arts commission being new and having a lot on our plate. And with some input from Bettina on all of the things that are necessary to put on a big show, we figured it might be easier to defer it to next year. So, we’ll do that.
We’re going to move forward with our video contest for Pacific and for Mount Rainier. And what we’re going to do is probably get it out to the schools in late April or May and give the kids over the summer to work on it and then have the submissions due by the middle of next September. And then next October or something, we’re hoping to maybe have a showing of the top 10 and a little contest of who wins somewhere at probably at Des Moines Theater hopefully.
Long term, I’m already talking to people about bands for 2027 because it’s the arts commission’s hope that in a couple three years when we put out our agenda and our bands for the year that people from all over are going to go Des Moines is having a great concert again. So, that’s our hope and we’ll be working—it’s way down the road still, but we’ll be working with the city to help with the Christmas decorations next December, November. So, there you go. That’s all I have.
Chair: Does anybody have any questions? Okay. And then last but not least, Char’s going to talk about the sculpture walk that we’re going to do on International Sculpture Day.
11:58 – Member
I did have a question about your backstage alley jazz. I forgot all the words. I’m very invested in that since I’m on backstage alley. Were you thinking it was something that you were going to do outside in the alley proper or did you—
Arts Member: No, the original thought was outside in the alley proper between the Allstar and where you and Creole Soul are. But we’re always—Seattle, we all live here. We’re dependent on it could be 80 degrees the day before and the next day it could pour and rain. So, we had a contingency plan of being able to use some facilities like the Allstar that’s big enough. And so we have a contingency plan, but again, we’ve shelved that to at least 2027.
Member: Okay. And was it—did you have what type of time of year do you—
Arts Member: It was going to be in July, like right before the summer concerts begin.
Member: Okay. All right. But we don’t want to conflict with that too much. So we might try to look at next year. It might be June.
Member: Okay. I was going to say a lot happens in July including FIFA this year.
Arts Member: Well, we won’t be doing it this year.
Member: Okay. But for next year, yeah, there won’t be any FIFA next year.
Member: Agreed. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Arts Member: You bet.
13:18 – Bill Linscott
Well, I want to—you reminded me with Christmas decorations. So, I know this year we talked about not having them up on the main drag there, right? And not enough outlets to hook them up. And so knowing that next year we’re going to have the tree lighting most likely again in the marina. Look at that when you look at Christmas decorations—consider that and go talk to them to make sure they are putting in the outlets you need back and forth to switch back. Because we were in Boulder Colorado and we saw at the end of the season they were taking the Christmas tree or trees down and the decorations—stunning down there. And that hillside—you light that hillside up with a big tree in the middle that would be stunning. Anyway, sweep that into Christmas trees.
Arts Member: Yeah, our focus will remain at the marina because it was so totally successful, but there still needs to be that draw on Marine View Drive. So that’s—yeah, that’s the mission we’ve been handed and that’s what we’re going to try and make happen alongside. Everybody else was working the marina stuff now.
Bill: No, it’s all the city, but we’re more of a helper in respect to the Marine View Drive location, but we’re going to of course even grow at the marina based on the steps and stairs and all that. But yeah, I never thought—I’m sure you just assume that they’re going to put electrical in that switchback hillside along in that development. So that’s very smart to make that a positive for sure.
Arts Member: Yes, we’re going to have electricity available. Because that is the issue on Marine View Drive. The poles, our poles, like Verizon’s poles, they have some that are newer and updated to where the electrical is on their poles. Ours are not. So, but I would guess there’s battery powered possibilities. We haven’t really gotten into it yet, it being so fresh on our plate, but we’ll get to it. We’ll get there. But in reference to international—
15:29 – Member
Mike was actually talking about what his plans are for that tree that’s going to be installed for next or this year, right? So that all has been handled and of course we’d be in charge of decorations and things like that, but the installation is already—like they know exactly where it’s going to go. He could point exactly where it’s going to go. It’s not going to be the tree that they used this year. It’s going to be a separate tree.
Arts Member: Well, I know too Mike Sleven is who I’m talking about. Also, I know that—oh, shoot. Something you said triggered a thought. The tree the tree. Oh, no. I got it. It came back. Okay. Some days. No. The fire department too said, of course, they made it a drill in putting the lights on the big tree and they already told Scott and I when we were in the tent—our city tent that night—that they will be doing it again. So, we already have that commitment from the fire department because they turned it into a drill for their firemen. So, it’s a win-win for us.
Member: Okay, cool. So, is that all for the Christmas?
16:50 – Victoria
I’m wondering if any of you sitting there know who’s putting up the little Valentine decorations on poles on Marine View Drive.
Member: Did you also put up the little Santa hat things, too?
Victoria: I just got here.
Member: Okay. I don’t know, actually. I don’t know.
Victoria: Okay. There’s some secret person out there that is doing their own little bit of street decorations. If you walk down Marine View Drive, pay attention to the polls.
Member: My neighbor does it. My neighbor is doing it. I’m gonna give away—
Victoria: Oh, okay. Somebody in Zenith. Please thank your neighbor.
17:45 – Charlene (Sculpture Walk Report)
Okay. So, moving forward in reference to our international sculpture day walk. It’s international. And by the way, I went on their website, their.org website. There are 18 million participants of this event around the world. And I’ve linked up to be on their list so we can inform them of the events that we’ll have going on here in our little town. And what we have going on at this time is of course inventorying our sculptures, creating a new map and that map will be available and it’s our goal to—and the map will be done by the end of February and the event is April 25th. And so I—we’re going to have a generic posting save the date in the spring city currents. Do you know Terra the distribution day of that?
Terra: I’m gonna ask Bonnie about it.
Charlene: Okay, cool. And then we will—we’re going to activate our Facebook page to post the events that will be happening on that day because we have the waterland walkers that I’m connected with that traditionally have an event. Our map will be presented as a self-guided tour and we’re hoping to distribute maps at businesses and restaurants in our downtown core so that people can pick them up or they’ll be able to access the map online and print it themselves. So, that’s our goal and it’s going along really well. Any questions?
19:26 – Chair
Human services, you have a report.
19:33 – Human Services Committee Member
Yes, we actually had a meeting on Monday, but prior to that meeting, we went to the food bank. So, we’ve started our visits as we have done in the past, and it was a very informative visit to the food bank. We’ve shared our impressions with Jean so that he knows what he needs to do next about it. They’re definitely in cramped quarters. I think you all know that, but they really do an incredible amount of work.
One of the things that was disturbing to me was the what was reported is the lack or the reduction of food to families as a result of not feeling safe to go there because of what’s going on in the community in terms of immigration ICE. So just everybody please be aware that the families are being impacted in a pretty major way in this area as it is in other areas. And what’s incredible about what they do at the food bank is that if people can’t come there then they go there. They make sure that the food gets to them in any way that they can. And I will say and I was surprised to hear this—Amazon is doing a lot of delivery which is good for them. They could do more but you know—so yes so we had our first meeting of the year and we’ve identified other visits that we’ll be doing and other projects and one of them is to do a resource guide. So that it it’s kind of an information referral tool, but it’s a resource guide so that the council and this committee as well as other people in the community will know what the resources are in the community whether we fund them or not. But it will be a pamphlet. And this is kind of a major undertaking for us and will probably take us a little bit of time and we will probably need to rely on some city resources to be able to print and do whatever. Anyway, so we but we can talk about that later. We’re just in the beginning steps of looking at that and at this point unless there’s anything else we want to talk about from the committee that’s pretty much it.
22:18 – Member
Yeah. I just say that something like that could easily go up on the city website. You know with a link on the front page or something like that. Right. Right. Talk to the city about it. If the format works—if the format can get up on the web page, then it can also be very good.
Human Services Member: That’s the kind of help we need. We can compile it. I don’t know how to do any of this. I just—
Member: We’re going to work our way there.
Human Services Member: Yes. Yeah. Yes. I’m sure you know people. Right. Right. Right. So, yes. Okay. Yep. So, we’re excited to get moving with our committee.
23:02 – Human Services Member
Yes. Oh. Oh, I know. I have one other question. I noticed that the seniors—their work plan is included and I’m—do we need to submit something so that our plan can be included in the minutes?
Terra: So I—Barton just asked me to create a slide of theirs I think for his presentation.
Human Services Member: Oh okay. Gotcha. You guys do ever want that just email me.
Member: We can. Well, ours is still in draft form, but it could easily be finalized and so if you would like it in a final form, it’s—
Terra: It’s up to you. We have the one you submitted earlier and that’s in our records.
Human Services Member: Oh, okay. All right. Cool. All right. Thank you.
Member: I think from a record standpoint, we’re fine. But if you want it as part of the meeting, since we will be doing subcommittee reports pretty much every meeting. A little something just a one pager.
Human Services Member: One page thing. Yeah. Could do that.
Terra: I can put that in a PowerPoint or something. We can make a slide.
Human Services Member: A slide. Oh, then we could do—okay. Slip. Oh, you know. Okay. Very nice.
24:10 – Chair
Okay. And unless there is another question. That is an excellent transition to senior services.
24:16 – Robin Desimone
Oh, we do have something. I’m sorry. Again, my first time here, your pamphlet of resources, it’s resources for food, for services, any service that a human might need?
Human Services Member: Okay. No, I’m just asking for clarification. Mostly for basic needs.
Robin: Okay. And so if you’re making pamphlets and we’re going to pass them out to list, so as a business owner, would I have some pamphlets then that I would give to a homeless person or anybody?
Human Services Member: Anybody. Anybody needs to have this information because we all come into contact with people who have different needs times in their life and it would be nice if you had this information resources has got it.
Robin: Okay. I just wanted to—
Human Services Member: Sure. Thank you.
Robin: No problem.
25:16 – Chair
Okay. Randy.
25:31 – Randy Richards
I’m asleep at the switch. I’m so—down at the Adriana, we have these booklets for senior citizens. And Susan had asked about them. So, I’m going to bring them to our next meeting. I know you’re not going to be available, but we just have books and books of them that tells everything within our region here that anybody can make them they could avail themselves of those services. Is that probably something that you would like to get a hold of that and might identify?
Human Services Member: Yeah, for sure. I’d very much like a whole broader—
Randy: Yeah, I should have brought them tonight because we—
Human Services Member: Okay, very much like we got plenty.
Randy: And just one other thing to dovetail on that. Happy New Year. Go Seahawks. They’re going to win. Go Hawks. Absolutely. Go Hawks.
26:22 – Chair
And unless there is another question, Barton.
26:27 – Barton DeLacy (Senior Services Report)
Yeah, Tara, if you wouldn’t mind—
[Presentation begins]We did a slide show to summarize this is our work plan. And I want to first acknowledge that Eileen Evans has done a—she really—she won’t take the title, but she really helped put the committee together and help arrange where we’re meeting. So she’s been a tremendous resource. And then I also want to thank Susan and Randy for coming to our meetings and setting up you know doing the followup that’s necessary.
So one of the things we really see ourselves as an outreach group and would like to on a formal regular basis meet at least with the senior communities that we’ve identified Judson Park, Wesley, Adriana and Huntington Park. And be available for not only to convey what the city is doing particularly as the results of the surveys come out and as we go into the—I mean there’s the strategic plan and then that will be followed by the comprehensive plan I understand and so it’s we see ourselves as being conduits to the city council and we’ll be scheduling meetings again as needed.
I think as I note there are absent other plans we are trying to meet second Tuesdays every other month at the activity center. Something that became apparent—Courtney Wilt who is—she’s with the city and is kind of in charge of recreational activities and other things. Tara, how would you describe her?
Terra: I think that about sums it up.
Barton: Okay. All right. And so we were talking about her outreach and what we were doing and in terms of some of the programs that the senior services subcommittee used to do and realized that you know actually we might be transitioning more to you know actually reach beyond the seniors. There’s also programs where seniors are beginning to watch, you know, grandchildren, aged children, and kind of bring together the needs and the capabilities of those communities. And that our committee might actually be—because well the seniors we became aware that a lot of these senior communities already have lots of activities and are kind of self-contained. So we you know our role might be better played to coordinate them with some of the other communities of need in the city. Okay. And this will take time. It’ll be kind of iterative but I think actually given the you know activities of the city and the strategic planning process this is something that would coalign pretty well. So, stay tuned. And again, we’re a small group. And so, any of you that have interests or as our functions become better defined as we go forward, we’d welcome your input. And, you know, come to our meeting, whatever this second, let’s see, every other month. We met on the 11th. So it looks like we’ll probably be meeting Randy in March.
Randy: Yeah. March.
Member: Very good. I have a March birthday, too.
30:46 – Barton
So, I—anyway—if there are any questions, that’s that’s our plan. Kind of open-ended, but I hope responsive.
30:51 – Victoria
If I may, Barton, there are a lot of adult family homes in town, and some of those adult family homes also do home care for seniors. So they have a home care business, right, that dovetails nicely in the adult family home. So some outreach to them might might be fruitful.
Barton: No, that’s a good idea. Is there an inventory someplace or a list of who—
Victoria: That business license, but also you can go to the DSHS website and they will list every licensed adult family home in town.
Barton: Okay.
Victoria: And I believe they’ll list every home care provider in town that does that.
31:38 – Member
The other thing that just occurred to me is that there used to be some programs in conjunction with libraries or elementary schools where seniors could come in and read to the kids. And trying to get that up and running again might be—
32:00 – Barton
Well I think that’s a good example of the kind of activity again I think our role will be to try to identify where those opportunities are and provide a means of publicizing that because communication has always been an issue in the city getting word out properly helping people make that connection.
Member: Yes. Great.
32:25 – Randy
Yeah. This directory I speak of it’s a book about that thick and it lists like what’s it called? Angels off of first angels whatever. All of them in the area. So I’ll make sure to bring those.
Barton: Thanks.
Randy: We got plenty of them.
32:45 – Allyson Chapin
Since I’m heavily involved with my son’s school on the PTSA, I’d be happy to kind of work as a liaison because I’m all about bringing in—
Barton: That would be great.
Allyson: New people to give the kids different, you know, different book on life. It’s two months from now. I mean, is that is it late morning?
Barton: We meet at 11 Tuesdays the March if it’s March 20th. Is is that something you could join us? Let’s see. March 20th I think. The 20th is the second Tuesday.
Allyson: Absolutely not. I just want present.
33:31 – Member
All right. Well, but I—anybody have a calendar open? The second Tuesday. It should be the 11th. Friday. Yeah. Okay. The 10th. So it’ll be the the 10th. So—
Barton: So Allyson, if you could make a note of that, we’d love to have you. Lots of room. Only 10 days.
Allyson: Where is this?
Member: Early birthdays. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, I share March’s birthday with you. So we’ll get together little earlier. I think we’re about the same age actually. Close.
34:06 – Member
Randy, I was just curious who put that directory together and is it updated?
Randy: I will bring it. Okay. And I can’t answer those questions now, okay? But I will bring them and distribute them and we’ll know from there. And if it happens to be outdated, I’ll give them a call and say, “Hey, we need—because the building I live in, we need the most current.”
Member: Great. Thank you.
34:39 – Chair
Anybody have anything for the good of the order?
34:48 – Victoria
Just want to brag on something happening at Wesley that serendipitously involved both our former mayor and our city manager. I don’t know if they talked to one another, but the former mayor emailed me and the city manager emailed Eddie and they both suggested that we could facilitate more communication with our residents at Wesley if we did a TV show. And we’ve done our first one. It’s called What’s Happening in Des Moines. We will be interviewing our new mayor on February 8th or 9th, I think. And I’m thinking we probably are going to have to interview some of you folks as your work plans get going more. But we’re hoping we have an audience out there. It’s always touch and go, but it’s been fun to do so far.
35:48 – Colleen Gantz
I just want to recognize that the process that we went through to get the survey out and to have it be successful. Thank you, Colleen, for all your work. Was amazing to watch and it’s replicable because we wrote it all down how we went about executing it. So when I realized that and I was doing some things around the burning boat and I put out there information about the burning boat, it was for all of us to actually think about what we could do that’s same or similar to what we did with the actual survey. So that process, you know, just change the name of the whatever it is we’re doing. It’s a machine. Like we are a machine to get over a thousand surveys in. And it went from a small number to a very large number because of everybody doing a little bit here, a little bit there. And collectively that turned us into like the best marketing team anybody could ever have, honestly. And it because it’s replicable. It’s just, you know, wash, rinse, and repeat. Wash, rinse, and repeat. So, anything can be brought to this machine that we are now to like the events. We’ve got all these summer events. They’ve never had a machine to get them full. We could use this machine to make it happen. The burning boat, that was another machine that got started very collectively. And so, I think that this is something that we might want to consider. I’m not saying that you’re all signed up to be working on marketing all of the time, but everybody put in a little bit and it made a huge, huge difference to the success of the survey. So, as a marketing expert, I have to say that was phenomenal to watch.
37:39 – Member
Yeah, I agree with you. It was a lot. It was a fair amount of time. Did I just cut in front of somebody? Sorry. Okay. You were dovetailing on—
Colleen: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Member: But I think we asked 11 hours of everybody. So, it was a fair amount. But maybe we could do something, you know, a couple times a year quarterly or something like that. I think it’s a great idea and like put—I have all the notes so we could kind of put a little plan together that we can engage on another event. But I did tell you it’s my favorite community engagement project of all time. You guys did amazing and it was really impressive. So, thank you.
Colleen: Oh, you were—we had some trainings and we kind of—and Eddie had the quote of my the year by saying, you know, I just thought the strategic plan was a bunch of words, but now I know what it is and I know what my role is and educating others. I was like, oh my god, that’s amazing. Yeah. So, it was just a thank you for letting me be part of it.
Member: Yeah.
38:52 – Bill Linscott
Two topics that might fit the machine or a downscaled version because that was a big deal and it was amazing how you guys we all pulled it together. But the two topics that I think we could use some help from us into the community. One is we’ve just got a grant to continue the beach park fish estuary and in it for the first time. It’s nice we got some money we can go to the next phase. But it’s the first time that they’ve put in something about the people going to the park. Before it’s been about the fish and the estuary. Now, they’re looking for, you know, amenities that will be recreational and walkways and entrances and things like that. So, they also have in there a task eight, which is to produce a public engagement plan. It’s a little—it’s great to have that. It appears at the end of the schedule. Meanwhile, they’re doing 30% or 60% of some of the design. I just think for the first time to have the people who are going to be at the park involved would be upfront before that consultant starts the design. I don’t think it has to have everything the machine had, but it would be really nice if we had that meeting like kind of up at the school where people could get together or we could reach out to groups like you know even the arts commission might be interested in a performance platform at some point in time. There would be things that I think this group could find that would go to the consultant that would broaden their view of what the public wanted. So, it’s something to think about, you know, next time and maybe we get some ideas down and get a hold of people that are going to be project managers on that.
The other one similar but probably even a little less in the way of effort, but it’s flock cameras. It’s coming to the council for a demo on the 12th, I understand, of February. Okay. I’m not sure the path forward for closure. We won’t probably know that till after that council meeting is over. But I think for us in our areas, we should make sure the people know that’s a big deal demo because they’re getting a lot of input from the side that says we don’t want it. And I happen to be—I want to use technology wherever it can help us and I’ve been to two of those demos and I’m kind of I’m in favor of it. But you might not be, you might be. The important thing is we get the public listening to it and then encourage them to write to the council to tell them how they feel so that we don’t have a situation where you got 20% of the negatives making all the noise and really 80% is saying, “Yeah, we can do that. That’s not the kind of threat to the identity that would really do any damage.” And I think after you see the demo, you got to see the demo to understand the kind of material they’re using and the kind of results they’re getting back and I think you’ll be impressed. But anyway, those two I think would be topics where we would take some action on. That’s it.
42:26 – Member
Can you repeat what the what it is that the demo is for?
42:32 – Bill
So the demo will demonstrate how the tool that is the flock cameras—you’re familiar with what they do.
Member: I don’t know what a flock.
Bill: So it’ll also describe that but basically a flock camera is a new technology being used to capture license plates of vehicles so that you can get Amber alerts, senior alerts, stolen cars and things and the ability to collect information on the location of that vessel vehicle is really quick compared to thousands of hours of you know individual—
Member: Is that only license plates?
Bill: Yes. Okay. Yes. Yes. It actually can be further than that. You can identify the make of the car.
Member: Oh. Oh, I’m sorry.
Bill: In arriving at the license plate, you’re right. So, you put in all these ingredients.
Member: Okay. Yeah. You put in—
Member: Yeah. Concern is how that information is being—I’m sorry. How how that information is being used and who’s using it and where—
43:37 – Bill
And that too gets addressed in the demonstration and what I think you’ll hear from the chief—yeah that’s what I’ve heard that the concern is a privacy issue and that it could be used for bad. We see all the good and I kind of when I first heard about it when we have I think 10 cameras up on Pacific Highway or something like that and the focus at that time really was in reference to stolen vehicles that I guess that’s a very high volume coming out of the airport is the stolen vehicle. So we don’t know if there are restrictions on access to that information or not.
Member: So the demo would demonstrate that—
Bill: All that idea—how it’s being used, who’s using it, how it’s controlled. And I again I’m not—you draw your own conclusions after it, but see the demo before you draw a conclusion and then tell the council how you what you think. I think that’s the important thing. So my only message was get the message out on the 12th. It’s a worthy meeting for—
44:47 – Member
Bill. Where did you see the February 12th?
Bill: So I—with the advisory board for the police advisory board says an advisory board. So I saw it there and I think some of the council have already seen it. So I’d be interested in the chief has been kind of open to you want to sit down and he can give you a live demonstration of it on his phone of exactly how it works. I don’t know if he’s asking to be overwhelmed with that, but I think he’s open.
45:18 – Victoria
Would it be helpful for me to send my presentation to the council to you to share with everybody? It’s a very basic description of—I saw the system live with the chief. The system was live. The demo is not set up. You see exactly what he sees, what the officers all see. And I explain it very simply. And I made a presentation to the council last Thursday that was—it gives you the basics of what it does and what it doesn’t do. And I’d be happy to share that with anybody if you want to see it, you know, if you’re not familiar with it, but the chief would be happy to walk you through it. It’s fascinating.
46:03 – Barton
I should read my—I don’t like reading slides and what I think the key thing I wanted to leave the committee with is that community enrichment would be is kind of the direction we’re going with senior services and that maybe that’s something we consider renaming or to broaden the mission a bit which because there’s redundancy with focusing strictly on senior services. So that I’ll leave that maybe for another meeting, but we might put it on the agenda to discuss part of your work. Yeah. Thank you.
46:48 – Member
Back to the flocks. I just want to know who makes the final decision about whether it’s used or not.
Council Member: The council does.
Member: Okay. And are you requesting input?
Council Member: Yeah.
Member: In what way? And how do you want it?
47:07 – Council Member
We always want input from the community. And I think as Bill said, more the more you know, the better the input’s going to be. Right. I mean, I’ve had the opportunity—I’ve litigated the use of flock cameras already in Pierce County. I have—I was one of five people that met with the CEO of Flock, including Katherine, our city manager, and JC Harris, our police chief, and two other police chiefs in the state for a really good discussion about what is and what isn’t. So, there’s a lot of information out there, but there’s a lot of misinformation out there.
Member: So is the information that you were just discussing—is that in the city information that you can go online and get—is there a report or something along that line from the meeting with the—
Council Member: I don’t know. I think Katherine did write something in the city manager’s report about that meeting.
Member: Okay, that would be the only reporting that I know of it. I’m just trying to figure out the best way to get the information so that I can feel as informed as possible because when I give my opinion, I want it to be an informed opinion. Right. Right. So, that’s all I’m looking for is a way to—
Council Member: Yeah.
Member: Yes. Thank you.
48:33 – Council Member
Well, one of the things that’s going on as we’re discussing this is the legislature is looking at it and they’re looking at any restrictions they might be wanting to put on it. So, there is a robust discussion going on in the legislature. So much so that it is a short session and you know they have a lot to do but stuff is like getting kicked out of the hopper just so that they can deal with this issue. So it’s not just a decision that that we’re you know operating in a vacuum here. There’s a statewide effort to look at this.
49:18 – Colleen
This is just a general comment about the topic. I think what Bill was bringing up that is that it’d be great if all of us brought people to the meeting or watch the video so that they can at least come to a general understanding of how how it works. In the interest of not having—we don’t have a presentation, it might not play out very well to keep talking about the flock cameras on one side or the other because we don’t have complete information and we’re not having a presentation here and so people might watch this and then they—my goal in speaking up is just to say let’s just move the whole conversation to where we want it to happen which is at the the March 12th I mean sorry the 12th and get as many people as we can to be able to watch it and if they aren’t able to come they can watch it on video and then they can write to the council. Because at the end of the day this could actually come down from legislation and yeah, we do have a choice, but then the legislators might choose for us, too. Anyway, we’re not making—
Member: Yeah. Yeah.
Member: City Council meeting.
Member: Yes.
50:46 – Member
What I’m hearing is it behooves us to try and attend that meeting so we can be informed and know what to share with our communities.
Member: Okay.
51:05 – Chair
All right. Wow, that was a great good of the order. Robin has one thing that he’d like to share.
51:17 – Robin Desimone
I wanted to say hello to all of you. It’s my first time here. Excited to be on this in this group. I do feel like I’ve seen many of you at my business. So always available to chat there as well. I did think that survey was amazing. What happened? The response was amazing—very proud of how that went down. For those of you watching, there will be gifts after from me for all the hard work these people did. Unfortunately, you’re not going to know what that is. But I also wanted to give an update on the theater. I’m at the theater. I’m working with the boys at the theater and they are getting ready to start doing some events there. Very exciting. I did—so, what I posted, I’m not allowed to say a date out loud. But I did post that the theater is now the home of the Des Moines chess club and once a month they’re going to have a chess tournament and they bring people in almost statewide for these tournaments. I think the first tournament has about 50 people at it and it’s a daylong thing and so it’s very exciting. I also posted that the theater is the home for a new aerialist group like a Cirque du Soleil. They hang from the ceiling and stuff. Super fun. So excited to announce that they will have between three or four performances there as well. So some exciting fun things coming. Give it give it a minute. But there’s been so much chatter. I’m very excited to finally say something real. And also likewise, you can reach out to me at one of my multitude of emails for information about the theater as well. So, it’s very exciting to see that progress. I know that they everyone’s like, “When’s it going to open? When’s it going to happen?” It’s happening. It’s happening. So, I just wanted to let everyone know so that you can be on alert and watch what’s happening. And as we’re planning things for the community, we need to remember that this will now be an option and we will be able to do things at the theater for the community as well.
53:33 – Bill
I understand that our governor is something of a chess player and it would be kind of interesting just occurred to me to have him—invite him or maybe build something around that. It’s—I wasn’t a fan, but I’m impressed with that aspect of his background and let’s celebrate it and bring him to Des Moines.
Robin: I will put that comment in the comment box for you.
54:05 – Chair
If there is nothing else, our next meeting is February 25th.
54:12 – Allyson
Actually, yes, I do. I’m still—I’d love to have a little bit of a 101 on how to create a subcommittee and how they interact with residents. So if there’s someone that can kind of walk me through that. I, no offense, everybody’s doing great work, but I don’t feel like there’s a whole bunch of like kids and families represented in a lot of the subcommittee work. So, I’d love to try and form something for families and even if it’s in partnership with you, Barton, to expand senior services so it’s more for community enrichment. So, that includes younger people as well.
55:03 – Barton
That would be great. I’m sure—I mean Eileen’s been under the weather, but I’ll speak for the group—if I make my own schedule. If Allyson, if you wanted to let us know, let me know—you have my email I think with the group—when you’d like to get together we could we could talk about it. You know you kind of make it up as you go along and I think it depends on just having a nice personal network and it’d be great to have your—as a father and grandfather I’d very much appreciate those needs.
Allyson: Sure. Absolutely. Okay. Great.
55:34 – Member
So that’s what I was getting from your presentation is that you were looking at more of a generational community engagement. So I think that that’s exactly—and that’s to me a wonderful thing to have happen in a community of this size. And to me it would be very doable. And so our committee would love to be a part of that, wouldn’t we?
Member: Committee, there’s a lot of energy in this room.
56:11 – Eddie
Well, that is one of the reasons we decide to have the video thing for the junior high and high school with the art commission. So, we’ve been getting a lot of different information about that from someone that has done it before. So, we all actually have a rough draft that we’ve been talking about.
56:45 – Charlene
Thanks. Just tagging on that. Yeah, we have a creative director for example for our video contest who has the experience. But also I want to point out that all three subcommittees have openings for the at large to join you know one that you find your fit in now that you’ve learned more about us including our committee senior citizen senior services as well as the human services. So there are positions available where you can be more active in that arena.
57:22 – Member
I concur. I definitely concur because of what we’re doing with the youth program that it’s got your name written all over it. But I do want to give an example of something and I really love the idea of moving this into more of a multigenerational approach. One of my dear friends that lives kind of kitty corner to me—she’s a teacher of fourth graders and she brought one of our Judson members Pat Nardo and his wife Maryanne. We see them like once a week every week. And he gave her a donation. And so she went out and she bought pizzas for the kids and pencils and they started doing artwork. And then she’d bring the artwork to Pat to look at. And then he wrote notes on their work. And this has been going back and forth and back and forth. And it’s a program in my view. They could totally replicate this in every single school. And what’s happened is the kids want—you know, they’re like, can we call them grandma and grandpa? And then you know as a teacher—Ta is her name Sukavati—she says okay well grandma and grandpa wouldn’t be very happy with that behavior and so it’s created this sort of like grandparent relationship with people that they may never meet right—he may never meet the students they students may never meet them but what’s happening is that they have as elderly people they have their heart into these young children. I think it’s about 18 of them. And these kids are getting honest to goodness feedback from him and he writes out a little one through 18 and he puts their note and it goes with the number of their art and it’s just—it’s so replicable. That’s the kind of program that you could replicate and you could work together on something like that.
Member: Yeah.
59:32 – Victoria
Also at Wesley, we have pen pals in one of the elementary schools and they write back and forth, you know, once a month and then they have a party. We’re also doing—our theater group does twice a year a program with Bezos Academy for a preschool play. So we have all their parents over and the kids get to do a play. And that’s right and we have the reading program. So I think that probably—I know when I lived in Huntington Park they didn’t have any of these on board but it might be something that they could use.
1:00:28 – Allyson
I go into my son’s class, first grade class about once a month and do an art project with the students and they love it. And I get a lot of comments from other teachers in the school that they regret that there isn’t an actual like proper art teacher or regular art instruction. It’s just not something that’s there. They have specialists in physical education, library, music—music is great that they have that there, but there’s no formal art. So, I would love to maybe come to your meeting, talk about how we can partner because I know that all of the elementary schools are probably in the same boat with this. Some of them might have more opportunities for that, but I would love to understand how maybe we can work together to—because I have some ideas about how to bring more like National Art Education Week, but it would be interesting to see if we could leverage some of the resources in the community to be part of that.
1:01:25 – Member
To answer that. Allyson, our next meeting is on Monday, February 9th at 10 a.m. at Wesley Terrace. When the front door, turn left.
1:01:44 – Member
I’m a retired school social worker and I have a long career of working with a multi-generational families and resources within the school. So I would be more than happy to help coordinate that—you know help set you—help you work do that. It just kind of hurts my heart that it there isn’t more of that in in the schools. So, yeah.
1:02:22 – Chair
All right. Oh. Oh, wait, wait, Victoria.
1:02:31 – Victoria
I think Wesley has a lot of this covered. I’m wondering if Judson Park has similar programs. I don’t know. I’m guessing the Adriana and Huntington Park would be ground zero in terms of starting intergenerational programs, but there’s a lot of retired talent—former teachers like me and many of you—who do have gifts and time on our hands. And all we need is, you know, the matchmaker and a teacher who’s willing to say, “Yeah, I’ll give it a shot.” So, so I encourage you to reach out to those areas. Randy, talk to your buddies at the Adriana. Is there anybody who loves art? I mean, is there anybody who likes to write and has decent penmanship that would, you know—all we need to do is just get the communication going and we got a program.
1:03:33 – Member
Well, I think a good name for this, my wife used to do this at our kids school. It was called art literacy. It’s a nice moniker for it. And then secondly, it sounds like what this—what our committee could do is at the very least would be to collect best practices. So if in fact Wesley is you know the best model and let’s get the word out so that it can be replicated at the other at the ground zero communities. Thank you.
1:04:08 – Member
We could hear you without it. But I’m just—
1:04:14 – Eddie
No, that was why when Tracy turned me on to this guy Serge and he had done this art video program down in LA with kids to try to expand all of our committees. I mean, it—it’s a great idea. The senior services committee could easily become the family services committee. Yeah. So, yeah, just—I think that’s a great idea to start. That’s why we wanted to try and start engaging the kids. We weren’t going down all the way to elementary school, but for video junior high and high school.
Member: Yeah.
1:04:52 – Randy
Many teachers at the Adriana—they come up to the library and read the kids. Fantastic idea. I don’t get to see my grandkids. I would love to, you know, do help with artwork and stuff. It’s just a gold mine at the Adriana. And for people that are just whiling away the time—well, I got to watch um Price is Right. Every day, keep busy.
1:05:20 – Chair
All right, Allyson, you—
1:05:28 – Allyson
Okay, Jean. Oh. So I want to just make sure I understand. Are we talking about bringing students potentially to the resident homes or is there an opportunity to bring the people—
Member: To the classroom, right?
Allyson: Okay. Great. Yeah.
Member: The discussion in the committee how it is.
Allyson: Yeah. Great. Yes. Thank you.
1:05:55 – Member
And a possible resource is the legacy foundation does fund a lot of arts programs especially like they—for the waterland children’s festival and everything they do all that and shark in the park and they do supply materials there but they also are the conduit for culture and there are funds available through there. So if you come up with a plan and you need financing resources and stuff then check with legacy.
Member: Your thoughts Randy?
1:06:34 – Randy
I was watching on the news last night. So it—myself and everybody else participating it would require fairly extensive background checks.
Member: Yes.
Member: Anything going into the schools is going to require that.
Member: Yes.
1:06:50 – Colleen
I just wanted to say way to go committee. Did you just see what happened here? Like we just made a new committee or maybe sort of evolved it and you’re all fired up and every committee’s excited. I mean, this is amazing the magic that happened and we saw it all here.
1:07:14 – Chair
All right. On that note, a semantics issue since we are now no longer the citizens advisory committee with subcommittees. We’re now a board and under the board should be committees, not subcommittees. So I’m suggesting maybe we just drop the sub because we are full-fledged now committees under a board, are we not?
Terra: I think a proposal to change the ordinance is on its way to the council and maybe that’s a good place to make that change. So yeah, that’s a good point.
Chair: You have another comment, Colleen.
1:08:05 – Colleen
Okay. Oh, well I mean we got it this conversation you just complimented—
Member: Second—I got another motion.
Member: Second.
Member: She second. Bart first. I second. Move out of here.
Chair: Thank you.
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