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City of Lebanon, NH Live Meeting Stream

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Oh, okay.
Okay, I will call the meeting to order at 6 o'clock p.m.
Could each of you introduce yourselves so our transcriber can recognize our voices?
Yep.
Oh.
Do you want to go first up?
Sure.
Devin Wilkie, city councilor.
Tia Winter, the chair of the DEI.
Ash Burley, secretary.
Beeswood St. Eugene, public representative.
Andrew Hosmer, city manager.
I am also a public representative, if that's important.
Okay, so do I have a motion to approve the minutes from July 21st, 2026?
Devin Wilkie, so moved.
Ash Burley, seconds.
All right, do we have any corrections, comments, questions?
I do not.
All right, all in favor?
Unanimous, 4-0.
Old business.
So the Welcoming Lebanon Task Force update.
Devin, do you have an update for us?
Sure.
The Welcoming Lebanon Task Force met for its, well, theoretically, its last meeting last Wednesday.
It voted unanimously to endorse a resolution and to pass it forward to the city council.
And that resolution is going to be presented to the city council at its meeting tomorrow night.
There's no, I will be presenting it on behalf of the task force, but I've invited other task force members or supporters to attend, should they so choose.
It is not at all required.
It is not at all required.
All right, thank you.
So the next one is the Nexus Music and Arts Festival update.
Do we have, so I guess I can provide it.
So Devin's not the only one talking.
So we did have a table and we had a few people come up and approach us and discuss.
We had the Welcoming Lebanon Task Force, the, it's not the ordinance, but what would the resolution at the table and available for people also to provide any comment if they wanted to.
Anything else that we'd want to put on the record?
No, I think, I would just say that I think attendance was light at the tabling all around.
It wasn't specifically our table, but the people who were there were happy to see us there.
Yes.
I think attendance was also light because it was a weekend of several ice arrests in town and I think it depressed a lot of public turnout, people of color.
Right.
That is true too.
Okay.
There is no new business.
So right now I'm going to open it to the public.
Any member of the public who desires to speak on any items may do so when this time is taken up by the commission.
We'll be allowed to speak on the subject for not more than three minutes.
Speakers are asked to state their name, word of residence, and use the microphone provided.
Andrew, do you want to give your, were you supposed to do that at the beginning of the meeting?
Probably should have done that.
Sorry.
Probably should have done that at the beginning.
Why don't we do it now?
Let's do it now just so we can say we did it at least.
Absolutely.
So thank you, Madam Chair.
This meeting is being conducted in accordance with New Hampshire RSA 91A.
It's being conducted in person in the Lebanon City Council Chambers.
This meeting can also be accessed through the city's virtual platform.
Instructions on how to enter the meeting remotely are available on the city's website at lebanonnh.gov backslash live.
If there are any problems with the virtual platform, the meeting will continue.
It's the only legal requirement under RSA 91A is to have the quorum of members present in person.
Individuals participating remotely who wish to speak when public comment is allowed can unmute themselves and ask to be recognized by the chair.
Individuals attending in person who wish to speak when public comment is allowed can raise their hand and be recognized by the chair.
Individuals attending in person should approach the podium of the presenters table to use the microphone so that everyone in the room and attending virtually can hear.
For all individuals speaking either remotely or in person, please state your name and ward of residence in Lebanon or the name of the community where you live.
If appropriate, please be prepared to spell your name for the recording secretary.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
I don't see any members of the public.
I don't see any online.
Can you confirm that, that there's no online?
So confirmed, Madam Chair.
Okay.
All right.
So I will close the public session.
Do we have any future agenda items that we want to add in for next time?
When are we revisiting the question of the actual mandate of the commission?
I would posit that that would be a good item for next month after the task force's final recommendations have been presented to the city council tomorrow.
Okay.
I think that would be the best opportunity while it's fresh in our minds.
Yes.
So the question about the task force, what's the process when you move that, I mean, when you submit the report of the task force to the city council, what's going to be the process?
What should people expect to see?
So really the one recommendation from the task force was the resolution that will be presented to the council.
It was also interested in ensuring the DEI commission focused its efforts on ensuring it can protect, on doing what the city can to protect Lebanon residents, the community in which we live.
But the task force also felt that because I believe four of us on the task force are also members of the DEI commission, that that's something that the commission can discuss itself and can do itself within the confines of the existing charge of the DEI commission.
So my intention for tomorrow night is to briefly summarize the process of the task force and that perspective as well as presenting the resolution to the city council.
Um, the city council, um, the city council can then choose whether it has any additional comments or thoughts or, um, wishes to take any other action.
But the one action that the task force will be requesting of the city council is that it passed that resolution.
Um, public comment won't be expressly sought because we've had numerous opportunities for public input throughout the process.
But if anyone wants to speak during the meeting, they will of course be welcome to do so.
So that's always the case in council meetings.
Um, but I think in general, it's really going to be me presenting those results to the council and asking them to take action on the resolution.
Do you mind provide a, like a preview of concrete, um, protection that, uh, this will provide for residents?
There, the resolution itself is light on concrete protections.
I think the big concern that the task force ran up against was that the most effective protections from the ordinance that was rescinded last year are those protections that are no longer allowed under state law.
And so in lieu of trying to offer any, uh, any impression of concrete protections that, that aren't actually there, that can't be fulfilled, um, the resolution presents the community's values, asks that, um, enforcement agents treat residents and community members with respect in their dealings.
Um, but it doesn't, uh, it doesn't actually, uh, uh, it doesn't actually, uh, create any new ordinances or, um, rulings in the city, uh, largely because the ones that we felt were most important are the ones that, um, we can't have anymore.
What can the city council do, I mean, in partnership with, um, law enforcement to protect information, um, you know, residence information that are not, um, related to immigration enforcement?
Because, like, uh, most recently we're seeing a spike in, um, ICE, um, detention that are being done, um, based on the access that they have, um, through police departments.
They are able to see anyone who's detained for any reason and therefore they can search, um, based on names that, that sounds foreign and, you know, put a retainer and, and, you know, detain those folks.
Yeah, I think, um, yeah, I think, unfortunately the short answer is there's not much that the city council can do that's allowed under state law.
Um, um, thinking about this, you know, individually, not, I don't think the, um, the task force really considered this or had this in their scope to consider.
But I think, um, um, one of the, uh, data security measures that always makes sense to me that, um, I think is probably much more general than what you're thinking but is still appropriate and relevant is, uh, to only collect that information which is relevant, which is necessary for the provision of services that we have.
Um, um, I, I think sometimes we collect additional information for, uh, for our own, uh, what do you call it, being able to, um, analyze data, but I think it's, it's worth considering if, if people want to, uh, you know, determining whether we can set policies around only collecting essential data.
Um, I know that in the original 2021 ordinance, there were some concerns that if we limit data too much, it limits our being able to provide essential services, things like, uh, human services assistance and, um, you know, the, the services that we provide at the clerk's office.
Um, but, um, um, I confess I don't know much about the data that we do or do not collect.
And I think, um, you know, it's worth always keeping that in mind, but I don't know that there's really anything that the city council could do to, for instance, limit, uh, federal agents from accessing the information about an individual's name and a traffic stop that occurred.
Okay. So, so what I'm talking about is more like, um, you could have like a system that, you know, like a blindfold, like people cannot like that will just like go in and just like, like a website, like something that is open to the public and just like, um, fish in, on there.
And just like, um, just like find any names that is foreign and then put a retainer on them and kind of thing.
That's what is being done, um, across New Hampshire right now.
And so there is no, um, I would say, I mean, federal agents could request if they have like specific individual that they're looking for.
Like they know they have something on something on somebody, um, they could like request, like get access, but like just have a website where they just have access to the database.
When you have information about like someone who got, uh, the traffic ticket or got, um, um, um, arrested based on like a traffic violation or a dispute with their spouse or, you know, and then that leads to, you know, removal or, you know, detention, you know, ICE detention.
Yeah, I think that is specifically the sort of, um, the sort of access that the state bars local governments from limiting.
So, um, I think in this very broad state legislation, um, the city council would not be able to restrict federal immigration.
Agents from accessing that database because that is, that could be considered restricting local agencies ability to cooperate with federal agencies.
So I think restricting anything of that sort would be, um, in violation of the law, which is not to say that it's,
what's just, of course, the law is not necessarily what's just, it's what's legally permitted, but, um, I, I don't believe within the, uh, confines of state law that there's anything the council could do about that.
Thank you.
Do we have any other future agenda items?
All right.
Well, if you guys come up with anything else or if I come up with anything, uh, you can email me, um, and I can have them added to next meetings agenda.
Uh, we don't have any other business.
Um, does anybody else have anything else they want to add before we adjourn?
I got nothing.
Nothing.
All right.
Well, I will call this meeting adjourned at 6 16 p.m.
Thank you.