Joint Commission on Racial Justice and Equity Economic Development and Jobs Subcommittee met Sept. 11.
Here are the minutes provided by the subcommittee:
In Attendance (in person): Tom Pelger, Mark Slover, Jackie Watkins, Chris Setti, Mike Seghetti, Eric Burns, Erik Christian, Brittany Graves, Janice Zagardo, Uriah Kilgallin, Kimberly Richardson, Peter Avery Excused: Paula Nachtrieb
Absent: Patresse Moore
Guests: Norm Griffin, Brian Porter
1. Call to Order: Meeting was called to order by Tom Pelger at 4:32 PM
2. Approval of Minutes: Chris Setti moved to approve the minutes from the previous meeting on August 14th, 2023, seconded by Mark Slover. Minutes were approved by consensus.
3. Informational Items and Reports
• Brownfield assessment grant application. Information provided by Brian Porter from TerraCon. TerraCon in an information gathering phase at the moment. Brownfields are often in city’s most distressed communities.
o Brownfields are defined as underutilized or vacant properties. Potential contaminations of the fields.
o USEPA provides grants for these properties to do tests on the soil to determine contamination
o Specific focus on 61605 and 61602 zip codes with properties that have potential contaminates.
o Timeline expectations: Grant applications are accepted starting week of 9/11/2023 and have 60 days to apply.
o Part of grant is assigned to community outreach to ensure local involvement for identification and remediation of site. The grant funds can be used for historical research of the site, and if needed, up to remediation of potential contaminates (for publicly owned land).
• Steering committee liaison is assigned and present: Peter Avery
o Reviewed the liaison roles for the subcommittee that were provided during meeting. Will operate as the primary point of contact.
o Tom communicated need for a clear list of deliverables and deadlines from the Steering Committee. He also said the Steering Committee needs a better process to foster collaboration across subcommittees as there are many interdependencies.
▪ Peter said he would pursue these
o Kimberly discussed having additional directors from the City of Peoria attending other subcommittees for benefit of municipal expertise
• Status of Minority Business visits and survey completions
o Have 16 responses so far, 1/3 of total assigned
o Tom encouraged subcommittee members to strive to complete their assigned surveys before our next meeting. If their time doesn’t allow that, let Uriah know so we can get those companies reassigned to another member.
o Uriah provided a brief summary of responses so far
o Kimberly expressed desire to get at least 25 responses
o Once enough responses have been received, group will have additional information from the community to know specific things that may guide Commission and City / County strategies and potential actions
• Jobs work group – introducing Norm Griffin with Career Link
o Mark reviewed the latest draft outline new employee travel credits and transportation assistance program
▪ Included qualifications for
▪ Participants Qualification Criteria
▪ Employer Participation Criteria
▪ Government Participation
▪ Program Administration
o Group reviewed criteria provided by Mark and provided additional information and guidance on the guidelines, clarifying wording, including potential for tracking program efficacy by requesting employers to report on tardiness and consistency of attendance
o Norm Griffin will provide form that Career Link uses for employee measurables survey. Career Link could potentially be the program administrator.
o The group discussed the potential need for case management of the program recipients. Which organization has the capacity to do that is an open question for future discussion.
4. Discussion
• N/A
5. Recommendations to the Steering Committee
• Need clarity on expectations for subcommittee deliverables this year (leading into the 2nd annual Commission report)
• Need a robust process to foster collaboration across subcommittees.
6. New Business
• Next meeting: Monday, October 9th, 2023, 4:30pm at Greater Peoria Economic Development Council
7. Adjournment
• Meeting was adjourned at 5:52 pm.
https://www.peoriacounty.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_09112023-1487
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