Criminal Justice Committee.

So as it stands right now, we do know and have confirmed that the current contractor does not have a DBE, so we're going to work through the law department to figure out the legality of the rest of this contract going forward, knowing that the primary contractor doesn't have a DBE. Unfortunately, and as you also are very aware, we've had a couple of start and stops with the Gall Manor, primarily due to some contracting issues, and now with the city facing the circumstances that it's in, I do know that the administration will continue to work with your office on a sustainable path as we continue to try to move forward in the future. Subject to your questions sir, that's all I have. One moment. So this project started with about three million dollars on hand to do the demolitions. Demolition started, there were some legal issues, and it stopped. Yes sir. I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, some monies were spent to do the demolition. Once the legal issues created a reason for us to stop demolition, everything paused. Yes sir. About 18 months, give or take a few months. Then the demolition, the legal issues were squared away, and demolition was set to be resumed. Yes sir. But the money was gone. Yes sir. To this day, do we know who authorized the money to be taken, or where it went? No sir, I can't answer that question. I do have the CAO of City Services who's with me, and I will ask him to come up now to address that issue. Do you mind repeating your question, Councilman? Yes. Do we know who authorized the remaining funds for the demolition of the Gauld Manor to be moved, or where the money was moved to? Just so I understand your question, we're talking about the money that was, the original money that, I think there was some confusion between the department and the council office at the time about whether the money actually moved through an emergency motion, which was the process they went through at the time. And in fact, I think there was a budget ordinance that was required, I don't want to get too out of my skis talking finance or budget, but that's my understanding of what happened at the time. So my understanding is, there was roughly three million dollars set aside for the Gauld Manor demolition. The demolition started, large press conference, we went back to do the demolition, but the money was gone. And no one knew where the money went, no one knew who authorized the funds to be moved. I'm just asking, has that ever been determined? I know it was a past administration, but have we ever determined who authorized the money and where did it go? Not to my knowledge. Okay, that's all I needed, that's all I needed. Understood. Mr. Mills, are those pictures ready? All right, not much time to take. I think that's it, Mr. Wolsey. So this morning, myself, along with members of administration, the CAO, Mr. George Russo, went and we did a walkthrough of the Gauld Manor. Once those pictures come up, I just want to show everybody what it looks like. And you have people who live next to this. There are two nurseries within 20 feet of this property. You have homes, people live in this area, children walk to school in this area, children wait for the bus to go to school in this area, people walked to and from work in this area. I just want to show people what they will walk through and see every day. Can you make them bigger? That's as big as it goes. Okay, okay. Well, just keep scrolling through it, like on a repeat. I just want to give people a good idea. Now, none of us live in that area. I drive it multiple times every day, but think about the people who do live in that area. And right on the side of where CAO Russo is, is a nursery. I don't think anyone in this room would want their children going to a nursery where the grass – I'm six feet one and one-fourth. That grass is taller than me. And the summertime hasn't even hit. So you have children who have to go to that nursery every day and look at this building behind them and that tall grass next to them. This is a rhetorical question, but would anyone want their child to go to a nursery in that area? Or would anyone feel comfortable living next to this? Of course, the answer is no. My next question is, why should the people of Algiers and in this community have to face this every day? And it's been like this for over a decade. My granddad, Mr. Woelty, that was two administrations ago this started. And I know we've turned the page to the Moreno administration, and they have reassured me of their commitment to knock this property down. And I believe in that, but this is just a gentle reminder of what people live by every day. And I wish Mr. Torrey was here. He can attest to how this place has become a de facto dump site, where the trash is such a problem, the streets aren't drivable. Cars, mattresses, crawfish, sofas, love seats, concrete, you name it, clogs the streets so that the streets become undrivable. Now, again, the Moreno administration has committed to getting this done. CAO Jerusalem and I walked this property for about a half hour this morning. And I believe that they plan on getting this done. However, this is just a gentle reminder of what the people have to deal with. And we're going to have this gentle reminder every month at the Criminal Justice Committee meeting until it gets down. And the reminders will stop being gentle and be more aggressive until this property is removed, because it is unacceptable for anybody in 2026 to have to ride down, walk near, live near this. This is not in other parts of the city, not in other parts of Algiers. It's in a part that is, that has a certain demographic that lives in and around it. Councilmember Hughes. Thank you, Councilmember, Mr. Chairman. Certainly appreciate you sounding the alarm on this. Obviously, you know, I represent Forgotten City. So parts of my district, my residents deal with every day.

But while we're talking about gentle reminders, Director Davis, I know you're very busy. Last week, I requested some data around demolitions. And I just want to give a gentle reminder that I'm still awaiting that data. So if you could get that to my office, I'd appreciate it. Good morning, Councilmember Hughes. Sir, I sent that data to your chief of staff, sir. Okay, thank you. You have it. It's in your possession. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. All right, Mr. Goldstein, Mr. Davis, thank you. I want to again, thank CAO Jeruso for being the first CEO that I know of to walk the Gall Manor. And thank Mayor Moreno for her commitment. But once again, we're going to continue to put this on everyone's radar every month until this property is no longer there. All right. Hearing no other comments, I see no other requests to speak, no public comments. We're going to go to item number four. City of New Orleans Economic and Compensation. Good morning, council members, Amy Trepannier, Civil Service Director, and I have with me today, Robert Hagman on my team. He's our compensation director. Thank you, Councilmember King, for having us here today. Today, we're here to talk to you all about a living wage for city employees and how that ties into the criminal justice. meeting. So just a quote that Rob found in the city of Santa Fe and we've sort of adapted to the city of New Orleans. City of New Orleans strength lies in its people and a city prospers when everyone who works here can afford to build their lives here. So what is a living wage? A living wage is the amount of income a person needs to earn to cover basic needs without relying on public assistance. It goes beyond the legal minimum wage and reflects the actual cost of living in a specific place. So in 2003 some professors at MIT came up with something called the living wage calculator and it puts together data from various sources both federal and private foundations and calculates a living wage a basic minimum living wage for different regions and areas in America. It's data from the Department of Labor, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, HUD, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the calculator basically takes the information in from eight different areas of cost in the location for childcare, civic engagement, food, health care, housing, internet and mobile, transportation and other necessities. And then what it does it comes up with actually what a person needs to earn per hour with different family groupings so family groupings with two adults in the household, with one adult in the household, with no children, with various number of children and it comes up with exactly what that minimum rate needs to look like for somebody to be self-sufficient and not rely on public assistance as a supplement to their wages that they're earning. So Rob's going to go over what the data looks like and they calculate the data every year for the year prior and it's pretty fresh data they came up with this in February of 2026. The data they come up with is associated with a particular metropolitan area and for New Orleans area that living wage was calculated to be $20.49 an hour and if to say like if you just compare it with say with San Francisco that rate would go up to 33 and 71 cents an hour. Remember the living wage is basically in effect a indicator of what actually is the cost of a basic need. The city's current city hourly minimum is $16.73 an hour and for 35 hour positions it would be $16.67 an hour. So it gives you a perspective that we're a bit below the living wage with our current minimum. The poverty wage is calculated as well as by a federal poverty guideline and that comes out to be $7.67 an hour. Right now the FLSA hourly minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and that amount has not changed since 2009. And obviously the costs of everything have gone up since then. And basically in effect as you have an adult with children in essence in effect those rates will basically go up because it costs more in effect to operate a family's basic living wage. The next page basically just annualizes that hourly rate so it's going to be so it's a it it basically says this is what it is with a based upon 2080 hours which is basically a 40 hour work week for 52 weeks. The living wage then would be $32,000 a year. The current city minimum wage for a 40 hour work week would be $34,000 a year. And with a 35 hour work week because there's less hours associated with it comes out to be $30,000 a year. Once again the poverty wage index would be $15,954 a year. And a person in effect who only made the FLSA minimum wage would amount to $15,080 a year. And then once again basically the more children you have the more the more it's gonna it's the more in effect that living wages needs to be. Where there's two adults where you have one with one adult working it's calculated the living wage would be $28.98 an hour. Right now once again in effect as you see the minimum wage for both 40 and 35 hour positions stayed the same it's still at $16.73 and $16.67 an hour. The poverty wage would be $10.40 an hour and once again the FLSA minimum wage sticks at $7.25 an hour. The next slide essentially just annualizes those amounts. And I guess that we can discuss why are the living wage is so important. Okay so why is this important? There's a growing gap between income and housing costs. There's an increased risk of displacement concentrated in certain neighborhoods because of gentrification. Earlier this year the Times-Picayune had in an article that it indicated via US Census data that New Orleans is the fastest shrinking metropolitan area losing 39,000 people from 2020 to 2024. We looked at the CPI inflation calculator through the Bureau of Labor Statistics and basically a dollar in 2020 is equivalent to purchasing power of $1.28 today so that's a loss of 28%.

And since 2020 city employees have recouped about 10% through those steady pay increases that the council has approved in the past. But obviously when as time goes on we're going to lose ground again. So Rob's going to talk to you about a proposed strategy. You know obviously we're not tone-deaf to the city's current fiscal crisis but you know I look at it as if you started to train tomorrow for a race you need to know are you going to run a 5k or you running a marathon right? We need to know what that gap is so that we need to know what the needed resources will ultimately be to bridge that gap so we can plan for it in the future and then also be ready with a plan for when the timing is right and on how exactly to effectuate that. So the two strategies that we have in mind would be first in effect to increase city minimum pay increases from $1,667 hourly to $1,936 hourly. That is essentially in effect it would be a change in base pay. Strategy number two would be basically to allow for a housing allowance of $2,600 annually for employees who are Orleans Parish residents which would be prorated over a year. So $2,600 a year equates to $100 per bi-weekly. Employees whose annual pay without overtime is greater than $71,926 annually which is the living wage with one dependent or whose total W-2 compensation meets a pay threshold of $100,000 per year would be exempted from this particular benefit. I do have a quick question. So you're saying one of the strategies is to increase the city's minimum wage from $1,676 an hour to $1,936 an hour? Yes. That would still make us a $1.13, $1.13 cents shorter than your suggested living wage. So then that's what the second the strategy two that supplements it with given that that housing allowance. Yep that bridges that gap. Councilman Harris. Do we know currently how many employees make $1,667 an hour? We have like 560, I think it's 280 people. 280 people? It's a total of 563 people I think would be impacted by this. But who make the bare minimum? Who make the bare minimum. So right now what happens to is people come in at the bare minimum and then after they're here for a year they get a two and a half percent increase for a longevity and then also those positions are usually entries in the rungs of a career series and so at some point they do start to move up. So you know our system always tries to promote where people are not stuck at that at that base rate and so that's why you'll see later some of the things that we would need to do to to put this in would be to consolidate some of those job classes in the career wrong so instead of coming in at the base and then moving up two rungs to get to a better wage you just come in at that rate but there's not as many rungs to move up after you're in. So yeah I guess my question is and I think you have this on slide 16 how much would it cost? Yes. So you're you're looking at 582 employees who would be impacted by this? Yes because remember it's going to be the employees at the at the very bottom and then because of pay compression if you raise the person at the very bottoms that they're not going to be able to make more than their boss so you'd have to push I mean their first level supervisor so you have to sort of work it up the ladder which is exactly what we did when the council approved our $15 an hour minimum wage is that you put in it at the bottom and then you have to sort of push everything up until you get to a healthy enough gap to where you can stop so that people don't make more than their supervisor. So and these are classified and unclassified positions? We just looked at the classified position. So you don't know what the unclassified numbers would be? No but we can get that for you. Yeah I mean I think it's important if we're doing the math to figure out how many people would actually be impacted and what the fiscal impact is. Absolutely. Thank you. You good? The current city minimum wage is $16.67 an hour so on the next slide it shows you in essence in effect what how this would impact a 35-hour position so the proposed minimum wage would be $19.36 an hour and with the proposed housing allowance of $1.43 hourly that would bring in effect the hourly rate to $20.79 hourly. For the 40-hour position the minimum wage is $16.73 and basically in effect a new the new minimum wage would be $19.42 and with the housing allowance of $1.25 hourly that would bring it up to $20.67 hourly. So the 35-hour position would see a 24% increase in minimum hourly pay. In the 40-hour position would see a 23% increase in minimum hourly pay. The next slide basically just breaks it down, using the living wage with the housing allowance. So once again, we see the living wage at 2049 with the 35-hour position, it would bring it up to 2079. With the 40-hour position, it would bring it up to 2067 an hour. So it would be both. With both of these, in effect, adjustments or strategies would bring it above the living wage slightly. So again, like we said, the living wage proposal could be phased in gradually as funding becomes available. We would accomplish that through class consolidations, reallocations to new classes, as well as grade and step changes. And then, like I said, the changes need to be made cautiously to avoid pay compression issues. And again, pay compressions where there are smaller differences in pay that ignore experience, skill level, or seniority. For example, if you raise an entry-level employee's pay by 15%, but his supervisor only made 10% more than him, then that would cause a compression issue, because basically the entry-level person leapfrogged the supervisor. So just something to consider when we're putting that in. And again, when the council put in the $15 minimum wage, those are the sorts of things that we had to do to work it into the pay system. But at that time, it was right before COVID hit.

It was so fortuitous that the council put that in, because it positioned us to where we weren't so far behind the market. When those entry-level rates just shot up, because labor was scarce, we were already in a much better position because of that at that time. So again, what we estimated with just the classified employees, it's approximately $4.1 million increase to the city's minimum wage for approximately 582 employees, and then another 5.2 for that housing allowance for about 2,000 employees. And again, anytime you talk about this, there are additional factors that impact the cost. For example, it's impact on overtime rates when you're raising the base pay, and then pension contributions. So the city should advance it, because city workers are also consumers, and prices for basic needs have increased. Approximately 32% of city employees live outside of Orleans Parish currently, and we would hope that the proposal would encourage new employees to reside in the parish, and current employees to return to the parish. The minimum wage increases would impact about 14% of the classified workforce, again, about 582 employees, an average about 10% pay, 258 employees, and I think that's what you were referencing, the very entry-level positions, would receive about 15%. And again, the housing allowance increases are estimated to help about 50% of the workforce. So why does this matter, and how does this translate into fiscal savings on the back end? So if we pay our employees a living wage, there's going to be reduced reliance on public assistance. So when wages increase to a living level, fewer workers qualify for programs, and benefit levels decrease for those who still qualify, so lower direct government spending on safety net programs. It's lower healthcare and emergency system costs. People earning a living wage are more likely to access preventative care instead of emergency care, to afford medications, and manage chronic conditions, and that equals less strain on publicly funded healthcare systems, including ambulance services, which I know we've struggled with. Lower costs are related to poverty-driven outcomes, so chronic low income is linked to higher public spending in areas like homeless services, criminal justice involvement, child welfare systems, so a living wage can reduce financial instability, which in turn lowers demand for shelters and housing interventions, and it reduces certain types of low-level crime tied to economic stress. So it's indirect but often significant long-term savings. And then, of course, selfishly, in terms of the city being employer, reduced employee turnover in public sector jobs. Lower wages often lead to higher turnover as people seek out employment that pays more, so if we do better in terms of our entry-level pay, it'll help with our recruiting and training costs, and then overtime spending to cover vacancies that are related to high turnover, which translates to operational savings, especially in high turnover roles. Again, we're always seeking to make the city of New Orleans an employer of choice for entry-level positions, and right now a lot of the other larger employees in the city pay about $15 an hour, and so it would help us to attract and retain employees that might otherwise seek employment there. Again, improve the pipeline for city jobs, and importantly, it sets an example for other private sector employers in the New Orleans area. One of the things that the city does well is that we do look at the total compensation perspective, so living wage philosophies recognize that wages alone may not be enough, so they emphasize total compensation, which includes affordable health care, right? If you're a city employee, you have access to the health insurance for you and your family. Retirement benefits so that a person that's a laborer or a plumber or a carpenter doesn't have to do that work when they're 70 years old. They can retire on the city's pension. Paid leave, especially sick and family leave. I think the city's been a leader in parental leave, and the commission has extended and sort of liberalized the use of sick leave to care for your immediate family members, to take your kids to doctor's appointments, things like that. And again, child care or transportation support. The city has programs that allow employees to have some tax benefits to doing some pre-tax actions with child care and transportation costs. And so that total compensation perspective, the goal is to ensure the overall economic security, not just hourly wage levels, right? So if I have a child that gets sick for a week or two weeks, I can take that time off as paid time, and I don't have to worry about missing a check or half a check because I'm able to use my sick leave to take care of my child. So other things to consider. We would need to consider routinely updating salaries to keep pace. So it's not just enough to raise it up to what the current living wage is. We also have to have an eye towards what that looks like in the future. The council put in, I think the year before last, an ordinance that does require us to look at our compensation overall for city government every three years. And so in conjunction with that, we would routinely look at salaries and see, make sure that there are mechanisms to keep pace as the cost of things go up, or as that calculator, the rates in the calculator change. Again, we need to take into consideration the city's fiscal position and priorities, and then set a strategy and develop how the plan will be implemented with more details and more cost estimates. Thank you. Council Member Hughes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning. Thank you both for this great presentation.

Before I make my comments, let me acknowledge the previous council, Council Member King, Council Member Harris, our mayor, and the returning members, because I know that they had a laser focus on the living wage and got a lot of this work started, which is really great. I guess for the public at large, we need to understand. My grandmother used to say, you'll either pay me now or pay me later. The more we can invest in our people up front, it might look like a big cost, but when you take into account the cost savings on the back end, potentially lowering healthcare costs, reversing that population decline, now allowing residents who may live in surrounding parishes to be able to move back into our parish, chances are if you live in Jefferson Parish, you're probably grocery shopping and doing a whole lot of things in Jefferson Parish, so we're losing sales tax. So if we look at the big picture, investing in our people on the front end, the ROI would no doubt pay extraordinary dividends for our city. So I just want to thank you all for this data, and thank you, Mr. Chairman, for putting this on the agenda and certainly tying the economic benefits to our criminal justice system. So thank you. Council Member Harris. Yeah, just, can you maybe give me a guesstimate about what you think the unclassified number might be? The amount of employees, does it match the 563? No, it'll be much smaller, because we only have about 600 unclassifieds. Most of them are already in much higher level positions, and so there's only a handful maybe at the courts and some other places that would be impacted by this. I would say it'd probably be fewer than 100 people. And does this include part-time employees? The rate would affect their rate of compensation. So for example, if you're a part-time employee, Council Members, or part-time technically, would we get the housing stipend? Oh, I see what you're saying. So I think we need to just really refine the details, maybe do a pivot table where you literally have, this is where it would be, this would exclude part-time people, so that we can get a sense of really, as we control the budget, how much this really would cost. That makes good sense. Yeah, typically, like with a part-time employee, it's prorated. So I could say I work a half of the work week, basically, my benefit would be cut in half. But the hourly rate would be increased. But like say the housing stipend, in essence, that would be cut, you don't get 50% of that housing allowance. If you could just do the calculation so that we all are on the same page, I think that's where maybe in the past we've gotten shaken a little bit, so we can all just know what number we're actually working with. That makes sense. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member King. You're welcome. Council Member Hughes, I'm going to see your grandmother's comment of pay me now, pay me later. I'm going to raise you one that I heard, I'm going to either get you in the rinse or get you in the wash. So if we don't take care of our citizens early, we'll be taking care of them on the back end, in the wash. And I'm looking for the slide, here it is, things that we could not spend as much money in or on if we invest in our residents early, and that is homeless services, criminal justice involvement. We see right now we spend a lot of money, at least. That's the reason we're here from the state to shake things up in the city. Because we spend a lot of money on criminal justice, child welfare system. So we can give people a living wage and spend that money. Now, we're saving money and lives in the end, and improving families. So I think it's just a no brainer that we increase this. The question is how and when. But again, I think it's a no brainer that we do this now. Because you're gonna pay for it. You're gonna either pay for it today or pay for it tomorrow. As far as the $5 million housing stipend, if that's the correct term. Could any of the housing trust fund be used for that? I don't know offhand. I don't know if that, yeah. Okay. All right, just a thought. All right, if there's no other questions, we are going to go to public comments. First from Tony Jones. And next, after that, will be Ms. Scott. Two minutes, please. Hi, my name is Tony. I'm a resident. I live at 2111 Domain Street. I wanna thank you for this presentation. I do think city employees should be paid more. And this is a great argument for how we can save money. If you start funding this sooner rather than later. And I think taking action soon is important, which means there's this funding issue with getting the housing stipend and for increasing these wages as soon as possible. A lot of these workers who are city workers are black. They may not have the opportunities of overtimes, such as other workers for the city, such as police. I'm just speaking on my personal experience, police who actually have that time to get overtime and get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I know that that can be a burden of cost to the city, cuz I know as an organizer who organized the last No Kings protest, that the cost that the city was quoting was in the tens of thousands for just one protest. And as an organizer in my community, we're organizing a lot of protests. So I think the only thing I have to add to this is, to fund this, we should look at where we are experiencing money leaving the city when it's unnecessary. And I think if we look at this corruption and the Office of Secondary Employment with offices like Victor Gant, who have been. This is public record that this man has been on the news abusing the Office of Secondary Employment. Basically, if you don't stand for black families, then I will. I can comment and say that I have- Look, you got 15 seconds, I'm gonna let you finish. That's a commentable issue. I'm just talking about funding- You have nine seconds. Wages and salaries to workers. I have 30 seconds left. You wanna cut my mic. I was saying the last thing.

I didn't- You're getting dragged out of here. All right, so first of all, I didn't cut your mic. I didn't cut it this time or last time, so your two minutes are up. Your two minutes are up. So if you're gonna continue to be disruptive, you're gonna be asked to leave again. Next is Ms. Scott. Ms. Scott is up next. I have to say, because I actually criticized- I didn't cut your mic. You can put it back on, can't you? I didn't cut it, so I can't put it back on. We've heard you. We've heard you. I'm gonna keep going back to this meeting, so stop trying to push me on it. Ms. Scott. Hi, y'all doing? Good morning, members of the Criminal Justice Committee. My name is Shante Scott. I am the mother of Jace Lee Scott. As you discussed the economy and employment and sustainability of our city, I want to remind you that true stability goes beyond economics. A city cannot be sustainable if its people do not trust the systems meant to protect them. My son, Jace Lee Scott, was murdered in 2019, and for six years, my family has been seeking answers. That is not stability. That is not sustainability. Because sustainability is not just about jobs. It's about trust. It's about knowing that when something happens, the system will respond fairly, honestly, and with integrity. If we are serious about building a stronger New Orleans, then we must also be serious about ensuring that justice is a part of that foundation. My son, Jace Lee Scott, life mattered, and a truly sustainable city must reflect justice for all families. A city cannot move forward if families are still fighting for the truth. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Scott. Next, agenda item number 5, City of New Orleans. Thank you, Councilmembers. Thank you. Number 5, do we have anybody for number 5 here? Why don't you get the technical difficulties to the side, the floor is yours. All right. I did. I did. Good morning. I'm Tammy Washington, the Deputy Director with the Mayor's Office of Workforce Development. And I have with me Ms. Priscilla Cheatham. She's the Business Services Manager for the Job 1 Business and Career Solution Center. Can you bring your microphone closer? Good morning. I'm Tammy Washington, and I'm the Deputy Director with the Mayor's Office of Workforce Development. And I have with me Ms. Priscilla Cheatham. She's the Business Services Manager with the Job 1 Business and Career Solution Center. And Mr. Jason DeGruy, he's the Project Director for Job 1. The Office of Workforce Development focuses on connecting job seekers to sustainable career pathways and providing employers with a skilled workforce. Pathways we look for are in high-growth, high-demand industries, such as health care, technology, blue and green infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and hospitality. We connect individuals by providing career readiness training, training services, support services, and job placement assistance. The Office of Workforce Development oversees the Job 1 Business and Career Solution Center and also the Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program. Job 1 administers the Federal Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act Employment and Training Program, which provides residents access to training, career services, career development, and job placement services. The program serves unemployed and underemployed adults 18 and over, youth 14 to 24, and dislocated workers who are individuals who have been laid off for employment due to no fault of their own. Our target populations include individuals who are low-income, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and individuals that have been engaged with the criminal justice system. Job 1 is a part of an American Job Center network, which is sponsored by the United States Department of Labor. And the American Job Center is a coordinated network of workforce partners. And some of our partners locally includes the Louisiana Works Office, Total Community Action, ECWAS, which operates the Job 1 Center, Delgado Community College, Job Corps, and other local workforce partners. Our Job 1 Center is located at 1307 Aretha Castle Haley, and Job 1 serves as a centralized hub for the Federal Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act Program and our mandated partners. Great morning. As previously stated, I am Priscilla Cheatham, the Business Solutions Manager at Job 1. Just to provide an overview of the services that we offer at Job 1, directly to our job seekers, clients, city of New Orleans, as well as employers and vendors, we have a couple of things here that I'll briefly go through. We assist with resumes and cover letters, supporter services and follow-up, and what supporter services looks like. And what supporter services looks like, if you're directly connected to an employment opportunity, we step in and assist with removing those barriers. So let's say, for instance, if you were to get connected with an employment opportunity with one of the employers out here, you're already directly enrolled at the WIOA, which is the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act grant. Job 1 can provide transportation to you under the amount of $750, which can be Uber, Rideshare, and or public transportation. Now we know that with public transportation, they'll probably be able to ride for the entire year. And with Uber, they'll get a couple of rides depending on the distance. We just want to ensure that we're properly educating the community of New Orleans and our job seekers, as well as our employers about the services that we do offer right down the street on Aretha Castle Haley. There's technology access, tutoring, high set for individuals that may not have completed. school or finish school, work readiness opportunities and the biggest one for me to piggyback off of the pay for it today or pay for it tomorrow, job one is paying for it now. There are scholarship and tuition assistance where individuals that may qualify under the WIOA grant can receive up to $8,000 for training scholarship assistance.

With me working directly with employers a lot of the times when it comes to pay that was previously stated by the department prior to us it's always DOE. It depends on experience and or it depends on skill set. So we step in to assist and ensuring that our clients are one receiving the training that they need to walk into those jobs to receive that $16.76 per hour. Trainings like CDO, trainings like phlebotomy, IT and if we're currently connected with where we are today we know IT can start off at $36 per hour. That's benefiting the community of New Orleans as well as our employers by job one stepping in to pay for those services for you to get those clients and those individuals that you need. These are additional workforce initiatives that we have in place. NOLA Connects. I'm very passionate about NOLA Connects because what it does is it uproots job one and it places us directly within the center of the community. What we did was run a logistic database and what we came to is that we found that a couple of the cities within the city of New Orleans were still struggling with the unemployment rate as well as under educated individuals. Unfortunately those top cities were LGers. We just hosted a NOLA Connects event last month where we directly connected with well over 200 individuals, 30 vendors and a lot of those job seekers left out with employment opportunities directly on the spot so we do appreciate you allowing job one to come into the city of LGers. We also did one in New Orleans East where we partnered with Goodwill. That event brought in a well over 300 individuals and we're looking to go to on May 20th, shameless plug, so if we have any vendors here please feel free to directly connect with myself. We will be in the Lower Ninth Ward at the Stallings New Orleans Recreational Department to directly connect with those job seekers. As I stated earlier we understand that everyone doesn't have the means to come to our center so what we do is we go to them to connect them to employment opportunities. Walking Wednesdays, we have Wednesdays allocated to our job seekers 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. where they can come into our center. There's no appointment needed. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to directly speak with employers, ask those questions that they need to to ensure that they are getting those jobs that they desire and our Committed to Change which is our CTC. It's a four-week intensive work readiness program to provide work force preparation, excuse me, and career exploration to our justice impact individuals and during that CTC course they can directly sign up for earn and learn. What is earn and learn? You're in the class receiving those soft skills that you need by understanding that depending on your stint and separation from the community, we provide you with those work skills to build you up to be the employee that those employers are directly looking for and during that time you can receive a stipend for attending those classes and or be connected to employers like ULM that offer up OSHA, OSHA 40, CPR, forklift training to ensure that we are creating model citizens to get back into the workforce. As previously mentioned, Ms. Tammy, the Mayor's Summer Youth Program offers opportunities for our young adults. We directly connect them to employment opportunities that they may be looking to go into for their future. So if you're a young adult is looking to go into the hospital, we have those connections with LCMC Auctioner under the Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program. Already spoke, mental health and emotional wellness. We have Wellness Wednesdays where you can directly sit down with someone, a therapist, a licensed social worker, at no cost to yourself. This is an hour-long class where you can have one-on-one time to speak with someone to assist you and you can do this as many times as you like at our center. And as already previously stated, we're located at 1307 Aretha Castle Haley Boulevard. Tammy. The Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program is another program that the Office of Workforce Development oversees. We serve youth ages 16 to 24. The goal for this year is to place 1,000 youth into meaningful work experiences this summer. And we focus on two tracks. We have the traditional, which is youth 16 to 24. They are placed in friendly work environments, focus on learning the workforce norms and customer service skills. And then we also have intern NOLA, which is college students with at least 30 hours of credit hours. And we try to place them based on their career interests and what they're focusing on in college. The registration for the program, for Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program, started in early March and it actually ended on April 23rd. The last slide just give our contact information. As we said, we're located on 1307 Aretha Castle Haley. Our phone number 504-658-4500. And for more information, go to the website at job1nola.org or email us at job1nola.gov. Thank you very much. Council Member Hughes, followed by Council Member Harris. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everyone. Let me thank you all for your great work and your dedication to our city. Just a couple of quick questions. So, tell me how you're measuring outcomes. So, are we tracking an individual who comes through Job 1, if they're placed at a job, how long they stay at their job, how much they start out making, do they make more money? How are we tracking the outcomes, I guess, is my simple question. Since it's a federal program, we do have negotiated federal performance, which track wages, employment. Our first is on second quarter after exit from the program, which is six months after exit. And then also, we have a performance measure for the fourth quarter after exit, which is like a year after exit to make sure individuals are staying employed. We also track average earnings. We have a performance measure for that.

And also, looking at credentials, if the individuals actually contain the credentials or upgrading skills. What is the average wage? And if you don't know offhand, that's fine. But an individual who comes through Job 1, what is the average earning? And if you don't know it offhand, you can get back to me. Yeah, I can get back with you. But our board has said anybody who we put in training, we look at going four times that training costs. So, for instance, if the person made, if we paid $8,000 for a scholarship, they have to at least be making $32,000 for us to pay up to that $8,000 in training. Gotcha. Over the past two weeks, and you know, I'm trying to track what are the high demand jobs in our city. But I've had a lot of construction companies, for example, meet with me directly in my office over the last two weeks. I've also met with the aerospace industry. As you all may know, I have NASA anchored in New Orleans East. And they all had the same theme. They said that they struggle to find skilled labor in the city of New Orleans. Welders, for example. Every company has told me they are just struggling to find welders. So, what are you all doing to meet the needs of these high demand jobs, getting folks those welding certifications, etc.? So, as customers come into our center, we do tell them about the high growth jobs because we do have work with a lot of employers that are looking for welders and working with the training providers to make sure they have those curriculums available and trying to get individuals to select those trainings and go into it. We do try to tell them, a lot of the customers, it is customer choice when they come in. They're not selecting welding as they should, but we do try to push welding because we do work with a lot of employers that are looking for welders, pipe fitters. I met with Director Maines and Director Schwartz last week in my office. And it seems in the city of New Orleans, we have a lot of programs doing extraordinary work around workforce. It just seems like folks are operating in silos. So, how are you all working with the Career Center? And I know they're up next. And all of the various workforce programs, I guess, do you all work together at all? Or tell me how you work together? Yes, we do work closely with the New Orleans Career Center. Claire Jacklin is actually on our workforce board. So, U Force NOLA, we work with them as well. So, we try to be that hub with the workforce board who kind of oversees our work. We try to be that hub of workforce partners. And a lot of the grants, if they're applying for a federal grant, they have to come to the board because any federal workforce grant want to see coordinated services and how they are working with the local board and the local American Job Center, which is JobOne. Great. Let me now shift to the Youth Summer Jobs Program. And this is a serious question. I'm genuinely not trying to take a jab at anyone. But we know in previous years, it was public. And I don't know if this was through your program, but it was certainly through a city program where many of our youth did not get paid on time. And the response was, well, the skills that they took from the job is far more valuable than a paycheck. Let me be quite honest. And we're in a criminal justice committee meeting. And I've never heard Entergy say. Your job skills is gonna pay your energy bill. I don't think anybody can go in the grocery store and say your job skills are gonna pay for your grocery. So do we have the assurance that our youth are gonna be paid on time that are participating in the summer jobs program? Yes, there's one thing that we've worked toward the last two summers. The summer that they didn't get paid, we tried to do direct deposit and that brought a lot of errors when processing payrolls. The last two summers, we went back to paper checks and we have not had any issues. And that's one thing Ma'am Moreno is staying on top of also. She's having meetings and asking questions about that almost every week. So we're working closely with our city finance department. And that's why we work to set our deadlines of when we need to have everybody enrolled, like I say, registration ended on April 23rd. So now the staff is trying to make sure we get all of our files uploaded into the system and make sure that they all go through ADP. And so making sure everybody is in ADP and able to get paid on time before they start on June, I think it's June 2nd. Okay, June 2nd, making sure everybody is in that system and gonna get paid on time. So anybody, like if we don't make our numbers the 1,000 now after we finish uploading everybody, we have to do any extra. We'll let people know at that time, if we do any late enrollments, that they will not get paid that first payroll. They'll get paid that next payroll. They'll still get paid all their money. But anybody who we have applications for now, we're making sure everybody is uploaded into the system. Great, and I think you all are on top of this, but I know it's not lost on you all and it's not lost on me. When we talk about paying our youth, we have to tear down every barrier. I know we live in a very technology driven era, but we can't assume that everybody has a bank account, we just can't. And so youth that don't have a bank account, and look, there's reasons certain youth may not have a bank account. If you live in the lower ninth ward, for example, tell me what bank or credit union they have in the lower ninth ward, okay? So a paper check might be what some youth need, and they might have to go to a Walmart or a corner store to cash that check, because it comes down to access. So we really have to take that into consideration. And the last thing I'll say, appreciate your presentation and identifying Algiers, New Orleans, East Lower Ninth Ward, I have to correct the record. Stalins is not in the lower nine, it's in the upper nine.

And so if you ever want to partner with my office and bring something to the lower nine, I'm definitely happy to partner with you. We do have facilities that could host that. So with that, I appreciate your work and look forward to working with you all moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Council Member Harris. Thank you, Council Member King and Council Member Hughes, you're exactly right. We need to make sure these kids get paid on time. So that was one of my questions. So are you planning on paying everyone with paper checks again this year? Yes. Okay, and have you thought about partnering with any financial institutions, like Liberty Bank, I know Hope Credit Union is right there, to get some of our younger people set up with a bank account? Yes, and we have done our events. We invited the youth out. We had banking institutions there to provide information to youth. So we are trying to do that also. Okay, great. And are we at the 1,000 mark? The goal is 1,000 kids, not children, 1,000 young people signed up for this. Are we at that mark yet? Well, as of last week, we had 801 youth that were fully enrolled and had all their paperwork in, and we were working on some partner applications this week. We do have some partners like Job Corps, Youth Force NOLA, the youth that they could not take in their program. We're working with them to get other youth enrolled. And we do know that sometimes, too, we're trying to go over 1,000 with registration because some youth drop out because of summer school or other activities that they might have to make sure that we get as close as the 1,000 that we can. And how are you promoting this? I just went on your social media, on Instagram. I know you have some posts up, but how else are you promoting the summer youth program? Through our partners and through schools, letting everybody know that we were taking applications. And just generally, how are you promoting the programs that you offer? Through the social media, we have had some radio ads in the past. We did some TV ads with the regular job one in the past, but as funding decreased, we couldn't do as much of that, but we do a lot of promoting through our social media. I would encourage you to use all seven of us to help promote and cross-promote the programming that you have. We have a housing fair that we have every year, and I would encourage you to table so that people can access the services that you have. I'm happy to repost any social media that you have going out, and I'm sure the other council members are as well. Thank you. And I think that's all I have. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other comments? None. Thank you for your presentation. Next, we're going to move on to NOLA Public Schools and the New Orleans Career Center. All right, so we're going to, Councilman Hughes is leaving. We're going to be quorum challenged, so if you could kind of give us a cliff note version of your meeting, of your presentations, so it's just not me up here. Nobody said no. I just want to thank public schools for coming out today and at our career fair. I want to thank Mr. Brian Egana, who's in the audience, for helping coordinate all of this and every time we need. Our partners from public school, Mr. Egana is right there, John on the spot, connecting the dots. So thank you, Mr. Egana, thank you, Dr. Fatima, and the floor is yours. Good morning, Councilmember King and members of the Criminal Justice Committee. Thank you for inviting us to speak with you today. I'm Dr. Fatima Fullmore, Superintendent of NOLA Public Schools, and this is Claire Jeklin, the founding executive director of the New Orleans Career Center, NLCC, and I'm also joined here by Julianne Lunn with our governmental affairs for the district. This month's committee theme, Workforce Development, is perfectly aligned with the work we are doing to give our young people real pathways to success through career and technical education. CTE is Workforce Development in Action. It equips students with the exact skills, credentials, and experiences our city's employers need right now. At NOLA PS, we believe every student deserves to graduate with more than just a diploma. We want them to be ready for life, and therefore, they need skills, confidence, and a clear plan for what comes next. So in our schools, we are excited to talk about the offerings that we provide, whether it's through dual enrollment, work-based learning, and targeted programs at the Career Center. Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to celebrate a special milestone at the Career Center when we closed our capital campaign. And so we were excited to have so many supporters there championing the work that we do for career education. We know by connecting students to high-quality training in fields that match the needs of our growing economy, CTE gives them a tangible stake in their future and in our city. So I am delighted to have Claire talk about the work that's happening at the Career Center. Claire, you want to take us away? Sure. Good morning, council members and community. So the mission of New Orleans Career Center is to serve as our city's hub for high-quality technical training, and training skilled and prepared graduates. We aspire to the day when every NOCC graduate has the power to shape the future and the future of New Orleans. Our history is here, but in brief, we opened our doors in 2018 with 120 high school students, and this year we serve 880 students, a 550% increase over seven years. Over time, we added training for opportunity youth, and we partner with Clover to train Head Start parents in the evening. In partnership with NOLA PS, we moved to our long-term renovated home at the Old McDonough 35 High School. And I want to thank the council and the city for a $2 million ARPA investment in order to equip the building, which is something that is very expensive to put together at scale.

Particularly a welding lab, health care simulation, and that really drove our enrollment and our ability to meet demand. Great. So as you can see, we have high school, we have Extension Academy, which is an optional fifth year of high school funded by the state, which is a really growing population of students that we can serve as part of their high school career. And then we do have the post high school training. We are one of the largest opportunity youth training providers in the city, as well as the largest high school training provider. As you can see, we offer pre-nursing, medical assisting, EMS, licensed practical nursing, pharmacy tech, carpentry, electrical, HVAC, and welding. I will be reaching out to Representative Hughes. We have a lot of employer partners, but we always need more. Culinary arts and engineering. I just want to highlight that there are a variety of depth and breadth of programs here, and registered apprenticeships, union and non-union, are a part of what we do. We're responsive to the jobs. So we're looking at how do we expand into plumbing, cyber security, and other areas that align with family sustaining wages. Slide. These are all the open enrollment high schools in New Orleans, and they all send students to the Career Center. for half-day programming. As you can see, we provide a robust experience in addition to supports and barrier reduction services and case management. Students attend for five days a week for one to two years of high school, which is a significant investment in high-quality training. And it's aligned to both the goals of academic readiness and the credits and the high school diploma. It's not just right to work. We want young people to have an opportunity to advance in the workplace, whether it's on the job, earn and learn, direct to work, or continuing education, whether it be right away or as part of their career journey. Highlights from last year, and I'm excited to be able to talk about future years. This year, we're just finishing up our school year, but you can see that 90% of students earned the industry-valued credentials. All of our credentials are validated by the Louisiana Workforce Commission, and we guide the jobs that we provide direct connection with to a living wage in New Orleans, so timely presentation. As you can see, we have a robust set of employers who are engaged in the Career Center. There are a few of them. Shout out to our employer partners. We have four different hiring days this year that are coming up, which are super exciting. As you can see, we work at the center of a lot of different partnerships, both job one, both directly with the city, in partnership with others, economic development. It's all a part of quality career training. We also provide a lot of spaces to gather and partnerships. We have some co-located mission-aligned partners. Operation Restoration has a lab tech program in the evening, Thrive New Orleans, and the Trombo and Shorty Foundation all provide programming and or are located in our building. We also host a lot of community gatherings because we have the space and because we are also a part of this work. So in particular, the Citywide Youth Master Plan, the City Children's and Youth Planning Board, we host for NOLAPS, NSNO, you name it. We've probably hosted some sort of meeting in that ecosystem. I also wanna shout out that we host a Claiborne Corridor business development cohort that's in partnership with the City of New Orleans as well, and that's been really rewarding. I wanna highlight the Youth Master Plan. There are six parts of the Youth Master Plan. Obviously, the one that the New Orleans Career Center has been working on as part of the 30 solutions is economic stability. Slide. Thanks. Okay, so obviously, these goals are our goals and your goals. Decreased percent of families who live at or below the ALICE threshold, asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed individuals. Through an increase in wages, increasing the percent of young people who are connected, and then when we look at the solutions, advocacy for increased minimum wage, hey, we're with it and excited, early exposure to career options and training, workforce training, and community-based job training sites. So we're very excited to both lean in and work with others in the community to really measure these results and to discuss them. Finally, I think we also, you may know, were part of and hosted the NOLA EMS Recruit Academy. It was an effort to meet increased staffing challenges by bringing EMS on par with public safety partners at NOPD and NOFD. I know this has been a hot topic. I think the other part of this is that there was a creation of a recruit path that allowed us to intentionally fill, aligned with the civil service requirement of matching the population and the current residents of New Orleans. It's a five-month paid training with low barrier entrance requirements with a high success rate of 90% in each cohort. It was an ARPA program, so the question is really where it fits as we move forward, but I want to call out that in the current lateral recruit process, four people are from out of state and a variety of folks are on a wait list to try to be a part of this, so looking for funding collectively together as a solution, but really excited to continue to work to prepare young people, and I'll be sending some follow-up information to each of you, both about the high-wage jobs question, for employers, and also a link for those who want to apply. Thank you, so as you can see, our young people are involved in a number of opportunities towards post-secondary readiness, so in short, investing in workforce development today is one of the most effective ways we can reduce youth involvement in a justice system, so thank you for highlighting that opportunity today, and with that, we'll take your question. Thank you, I have no questions. Councilman Harris doesn't have any.

Great job, great presentation, we appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Next we have Elgato Community College. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Ernest Frazier. I'm with Elgato Community College. I'm coming to talk about our program that we're working with those individuals who have been formerly incarcerated. Right now we're offering a training that covers CPR, OSHA 10, and Falklift certifications. It's a four-year program, and it's a four-year program that's a four-year program that covers OSHA 10 and Falklift certifications. It's a four-day program offered Wednesday through Saturday. The first portion of the program is offered at the City Park Campus, which is the OSHA 10 and the CPR. After that, they go to the River City Campus, which is in Avondale, to take the Falklift training. All these classes are done from nine to four. At that point, the individual is complete. The individual will receive three certifications, the CPR, the Falklift, and the OSHA 10. And it's at no cost to those individuals who are formerly incarcerated. And today we're outside at the job fair where my colleague is passing out information and explaining to them what they need to do to register. Well, look, since this is being recorded, can you quickly give us, for the public, for the record, any contact information? I just wanted to get in touch with you. Yes, for those individuals. Also, earlier, I think Councilman mentioned that they were looking for welding. Our River City Campus is very strong in welding. If they were to call the River City Campus at 504-342-3402 and mention that they were interested in welding, Ms. Patricia Marshall will take care of that for them and line them up with the registration process. For the individuals who are looking to get into the justice-involved portion of our course that we're doing with those individuals who are formerly incarcerated, they would contact Terry Jordan at T-J-O-R-D-A at dcc.edu. I'm gonna do that again because I jumbled it a little bit. It's T-J-O-R-D-A at dcc.edu, or she can be reached at 504-671-6487. Thank you, Mr. Frazier. Very important information, and I'm glad that you all have a station outside for those walking up to the job fair. I appreciate it. And I will send some information to the Council so that you can put it out as well. That sounds good, thank you. Thank you. All right, next we have the pillars of a thriving community. Is Mr. Vils here, Mr. Mark Vils? Ms. Nita, can you play that video? Oh, silence, I didn't see the sound. Sorry about that. So before we go to the next, our final presentation, I just wanna show this quick video of an individual expressing just how important a job is and how, if you multiply this by 100, how much different and better our community can be. So we'll let Mr. Myers take it from here. I'm Darion, Darion Tinson. I'm a garbage truck driver for Ivy Waste. In 2009, I caught my first heroin charge. That didn't stop me. I'm on probation. I'm still in the streets or whatever. I wind up getting 90 months in federal prison. When I came home, I vowed not to never go back to jail. I've been job to job because nothing really was paying me what I needed to make in order to stop me from wanting to go back to the streets. I called Freddie King and I asked him if he can help me get a job. He was like, well, I'm gonna reach out to somebody and you should get a call within like two days or three days or whatever. So we talked and they hired me. I got hired, got some good word put in for me through Freddie King. He's trying to do these job fairs. trying to help people who's been in prison, incarcerated, who don't want to go back to prison, who want to work. Go out to the job fairs, you know, introduce yourself, you know, meet people and nine out of ten times you're gonna find what you're looking for. At Ivy Waste we're really big on giving people a first chance, second chance, and even a third chance. A lot of people coming from prison or whatever, you know, they be feeling like it's over because a lot of companies don't feel like you feel, you know. They look at what you've done and they'll never give you a chance, you know. It could have been a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes, you know, but... No, I just want to say at Ivy Waste, you know, we love working with Councilmember King. We love being able to be part of the job fair program to give people second chances. We're all about giving second chances, sometimes even third chances, and I'm gonna thank Councilmember King again for referring you to our team. So thanks again and we were happy to have you as part of the Ivy family. And I appreciate being a part of the family, man. Thank you. Thank you, my brother. Thank you. Thank you. That was a real, real story. Someone I went to undergrad with who reached out to me saying he needed a job at night. He's gonna go back in the streets and commit and make money the best way he could, and that's what we're trying to prevent today and really every day in this city. So if we can just multiply that effort, no telling how much better we can be. So Dr. Ishmael, we're gonna ask that you come up for the eighth and final presentation. We're not trying to rush you, but if you can be concise as possible, that would be great. We'll have you in the future. Thank you. Appreciate you all having me today, and I won't be too long. My colleagues were unable to make it today, so they'll be able to join us in our next meeting. Some of the things I wanted to highlight as part of our Criminal Justice Committee, I know the focus today was on workforce development, and one of the things that we are doing at, we know the issues with the minimum wage and poverty, unemployment, which has been highlighted by earlier presentations. And so one of the shifts, and we know higher education and how, again, costly it is.

And so as a university, we've also kind of shifted focus to workforce development as well, and we've developed the last two or three year certification programs focused on art and design, business, computer applications, computer science, construction and trades, health and fitness, arts and design, business, computer applications, computer science, health and fitness. And more specifically, we have certifications focusing on public health pathways, veterinary assistant, medical administrative assistant, pharmacy technician, online free brokers, paralegal certifications, medical billing, registered behavior technician, video gaming design training, certified administrative professionals, information security manager, and Microsoft Office certifications. And as part of this, and we have a very detailed website on each of these areas. Not only do we provide certifications and asynchronous courses in which people can work at their own pace anywhere from six weeks to a year, but they also provide salaries. And we also, as part of statistics, also show the opportunities and the jobs that people are getting once they receive their certification. And so a lot of folks who are looking for opportunity and may not be able to want to focus in on four or five year degrees are, we're trying to kind of start recruiting methods and be able to get funding and stipends, as some of my colleagues have mentioned earlier, to be able to push forward with certification trainings in areas that are very much needed. You know, these are very, very applied areas that do have opportunities out there, but we just need to do a better job of getting the word out and working with organizations like JobOne and Goodwill, et cetera, and getting information out and trying to get some resources as well to be able, or stipends, to encourage people to get into these programs. They're very cost-effective. They don't cost very much. And again, they do provide opportunities. We show the numbers. Not only are we keeping track of who's getting certifications, but they are getting employment after. And so that's one of our focuses in terms of our committee, in terms of providing opportunities and getting the word out in terms of these various certifications. Thank you. Council Member Green, any comments? No, that was pretty concise. But you do so much. And I just want to say that, you know, whenever I have a chance to participate in a program in which you're participating, I can feel your enthusiasm and motivation for wanting to do more to enhance the, you know, quality of life for so many people in our city. And I'm appreciative that the Dillard University community supports you in many respects at some of the activities that I've attended. So thank you very much for that. And looking forward to continuing working with you. And you know how to reach me if there's anything that I can do. Right. We appreciate that. I know Council Member mentioned using social media that you all have as well. I think part of it sometimes is branding, getting the information out. But the information is there and resources are there to be able to provide these opportunities for our folks. And Mr. Neal, I just want to recognize that Council Member Green is present at today's meeting. All I want to say is, we talked about jobs and how important jobs are to a growing community. And that's for those looking for their first job out of high school or out of college or those re-entering society. That's how you, that's one of the number one ways to prevent crime in our community and to build a growing community. That is to give somebody not just a job, but ultimately a career and a well-paying job. And we just appreciate the work that you do with our office and throughout the city, Dr. Ishmael. And I want to thank everyone who came today and made a presentation to stress the importance of employment, gainful employment within our city. Before we adjourn, we're going to have one comment call from Ms. Scott. And after that, we'll adjourn. I do want to take an opportunity while Mr. Scott is coming forward to thank you for the job fair and for your commitment to seeing opportunities available for people. Today, there was a pretty good announcement that the mayor announced that a number of people have been hired to engage in street work. You know, that's a good, that's a good sign that the city is, in the spite of its, in the midst of its challenges, moving forward in a direction that may provide more employment opportunities. I just want to say to folks that there are employment opportunities. Councilman King's job fair today and job fairs that I've done and participated in say that the jobs are there. If there's anything that we can do, if you have difficulty in moving past the ceiling that you may see out there that stopped you from getting that job, you can call a council office such as Councilman King's office and mine, because we want those jobs to be filled and we want to provide opportunities for people who are interested in a second chance. Thank you, Councilman Green. Ms. Scott, the floor is yours. Yeah. Good morning, members of the Criminal Justice Committee. My name is Shante Scott. I am the mother of Jace Lee Scott. As you discuss building a thriving community through economic opportunity and meaningful employment, I am here to remind you that a thriving community must also be built on justice, accountability and trust. My son, Jace Lee Scott, was a young man with a future. He was a part of the very population you are discussing today. Young people who deserve opportunity, growth and protection. But my son was murdered in 2019. And for six years, my family has been seeking answers. You cannot talk about stabilizing communities and reducing crime without also addressing how the justice system responds when lives are lost.

Because when families are left without answers, when transparency is lacking and when accountability is unclear, that affects trust in the entire system. And without trust, no community can truly thrive. Economic opportunity builds communities, builds accountability and sustains them. If we are serious about building a safer and stronger New Orleans, then we must also be serious about ensuring that every case is handled with fairness, transparency and integrity. My son, Jace Lee Scott, he mattered. And a thriving community must reflect that. No justice, no peace, justice for Jace Lee Scott. I again demand the firing of NOPD officer Victor Gann. Yes, his economic Okay. Thank you, Miss Scott. Thank you for the meeting. Yeah. Thank you, Miss Scott. There is no, uh, forum. So meeting potentially continue.