A proclamation in support of "Start by Believing" Public Awareness Campaign. In support of "Start by Believing" public awareness campaign.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. We are off to our second proclamation and proclamation, two of one sponsored by Councilwoman Shepard. Will you please read Proclamation 201? Thank you, Mr. President. In support of START by Believing Public Awareness Campaign Proclamation number 201 series of 2015. Whereas the city and county of Denver shares a critical concern for victims of sexual violence and a desire to support their needs for justice and healing. And. Whereas, in 2014, the Denver Police Department received a total of 1251 sex crimes reports. And these victims needs were served by the blue bench. And the Denver Health Medical Center conducted 350 forensic exams in support of these reports. And. WHEREAS, a national average of one in four women in Colorado will experience a completed or attempted sexual assault during their lifetime, and one in 17 men in Colorado will experience a completed or attempted sexual assault during their lifetime. And. Whereas, according to studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sexual assault is the most underreported crime in the United States, with 54% of sexual assaults committed not being reported. And. WHEREAS, research documents that victims are far more likely to disclose their sexual assault to a friend or a family member, and when these loved ones respond with doubt, shame or blame, victims suffer additional negative effects on their physical and psychological well-being. And. WHEREAS, the start by believing Public Awareness Campaign, a program of End Violence Against Women International is designed to improve the responses of friends, family members and community professionals so that they can help victims to access supportive resources and engage the criminal justice system. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Council of the City and County of Denver, Section one, that the Denver City Council, in concert with the Denver Department of Public Safety and the Denver Sex Assault Interagency Council, supports the launch of the start by Believing Public Awareness Campaign this Friday, April 17th, and declares this day to be the start by believing day throughout the city and county of Denver and Section two that the clerk of the city and county of Denver shall at test and affix the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation, and that copies be transmitted to the Department of Safety and the Denver Sex Assault Interagency Council. Thank you, Councilwoman Shepard. Your motion to adopt. Yes, I move that we adopt proclamation 2a1 series of 2015. It has been moved and seconded. Comments. Councilwoman Shepard. Thank you so much and I really, really, really appreciate our Public Safety Department for taking on this issue. It's a very, very important issue. The statistics that I have repeated as part of this proclamation are really startling that one in four women will experience a sexual assault and one in 17 men in their lifetime. Yet the majority of those are not reported. And that is largely because people feel scared, feel that they won't be believed, fear that they're going to be blamed, and you know that nothing will come of it or that they may be retaliated against. One thing that is interesting in the information that I've been reading about this is this because rapists attack an average of six times, one failed response can lead to five more victims. And that just underscores why it is so. And that when people have these experiences that they come forward and why it is so important that friends and family members and emergency responders start from a place of belief, they need to be treated with compassion and respect. It's interesting that when someone says my house was broken into or, you know, I was a victim of a hit and run accident, nobody says, Well, what did you do to deserve that? But that's what happens more often than not. Even in today's society when it comes to sexual assault. So what is also interesting about the start by believing campaign, it was started in Chicago in 2011, right around the same time period. And some other communities across our country have also instituted this. And two notable examples are Kansas City, Missouri, and also San Luis Obispo. And in both of those cities, part of it was a billboard campaign to help get the word out, which is very similar to what we'll be doing here in Denver. And in both of those places, once those billboards were out and widely seen by the public, there were significant increases in the in the number of incidents that were reported to the police. So it's clear that when we let people know that it is okay and safe to report that this goes up, and then hopefully that means that we catch the perpetrators and prevent future crimes. So, you know, I think this work is tremendously important. And I also want to say a bit about the Blue Badge. It may be one of the most important nonprofits in this city that you've never heard of. Actually, they used to be known as the Rape Awareness and Assault Prevention Group. They did start there. It changed their name, I think, about two years ago. But this is an organization that is very low profile but has been serving victims of sexual abuse for decades in our city and has brought a lot of healing and help and resources to victims who are trying to get their lives back together and and heal and move on. So I really want to thank everyone for their work on this. And I'm really glad that the city and county of Denver is going in this direction. And I'm very pleased to support this and ask my colleagues to support as well. Thank you. Councilwoman Sheppard, Councilwoman Canete. Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you to my colleague, Councilwoman Shepard, for bringing attention to this important campaign and to our mayor for actually lending his personal support and name to this effort. I began my work in my career in doing anti-violence work with women particularly, but also with male victims. And the. Experience someone has of telling is, you know, very, very scary. And I think many of us think, oh, you know, of course, I would believe someone if they told me someone broke into their house or that, you know, they were accosted in an alley on the way home. But I want to challenge our community, because perpetrators are often people that victims know and sometimes their family members. And that's when it's really hard. Right. So if a child, a daughter, a teenager, a sign says to you that an aunt and uncle, someone you know, someone you respect, maybe a family friend, that's when it's critical. It's critical to begin by believing and help to investigate what's going on, because it is those cases. So many of these perpetrators, unfortunately, are people that victims know or where it's a dating situation. It might even be a boyfriend or a spouse who has perpetrated. And so these are the cases when it really is important to take the time to listen and to help steer folks to supportive services. We hope that folks report to law enforcement because that is the place where we can catch perpetrators. But even if they're not ready for that, having them start by getting the medical help they need and the support they need, and to help them make the decision about reporting, getting, getting that attention that they need. That's what I'm asking our community to be a part of. Even in these really hard cases where it's someone, maybe it's a coach, maybe it's a trusted teacher. But these are the cases where it's critical to believe. And I hope that our community gets on board. And I appreciate that we're having an open conversation about this because it has touched the lives of so many of us. If it's not you, it's a family member. And so the more we can talk about it and make it a safe space, I believe that we will make a difference. So thank you, Councilwoman Shephard. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Safety Department. And thank you to survivors for telling your story because each time you do, you help break the silence around this issue. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman, can each Councilman Lopez. I just wanted to chime in and then Councilman Shepard for bringing this proclamation forward and thank our minutes of from men and women in the Department of Safety for working on this, bringing this campaign to the public. I think it's really important for the different reasons that both my colleagues Canete and Shepard had said. But also, you know, as a man, I think it's important that we must make sure that our brothers are and our fellow man know the rules. And it's up to us to help keep them in check and to put them in check from going too far and from from doing that. I think there's a there's a culture out there that's that's growing that is very, very misogynistic. It's very macho. And it is it is frowned upon if you don't act that way. And if and I think, you know, our young people are subject to this and they're pressured into this, and they that brings us false reality in their heads and it builds that. And I think it's up to us to reverse that. But it's also, you know, I think, you know, yes, this this happens to to men as well. But I think it's very important that that men be taught how to be a gentleman and and respect women and respect members of the opposite sex. And I think it's that is a huge, huge part of it, although I know it happens to, you know, in reverse. But I think it's I think it's up to, you know, strong people in the community to help that send that message and also to to to publicly have the backs of victims of of sexual assault and to be that that rock and to be that support system and and to create that place of safety. So I really appreciate what my colleagues said. I really appreciate you bringing this forward. And thank you very much, Department of Safety, for building this campaign. I think this is going to be very successful. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Lopez. Councilwoman Robb. Thank you, Mr. President. And I, too, am offering my thanks to Councilwoman Sheperd and to our police department, Department of Safety. I know this proclamation and the campaign in great part, talks about the cases that we don't hear about and the necessity. But I will never forget 2005 when the police arrested Brant Bretz after assaulting several women and children in my district and anything we can do to prevent in. I also spent a fair amount of time talking with the woman who owned the pet store on Sixth Avenue, who now is a victim. Advocate at the DA's office. So that sort of personal anguish gives me a heightened emotional reaction to this situation. But Councilwoman Shepard, I'm just so glad you brought this forward. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Rob. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. I, too, would like to express my appreciation to Councilwoman Sheppard for bringing this forward and the sexual assault unit in the police department that deals with these kinds of situations day in and day out. I appreciate the referrals to the Victims Assistance Unit to make sure that the victims are in fact receiving the kind of support and counseling that they need. I've served on the board of a nonprofit domestic violence organization, and when you hear some of the stories that people have experienced and sometimes how long they endure it before they finally reach that breaking point to reach out and ask for help. And when you realize the impact that it has to their children, you know, having experienced and seen some of the horrific incidents that they've had to they've been exposed to, is is concerning. So to make sure that the not only the parents, but their children are getting the counseling that they need is is very, very important. And to the providers in our community who also do this day in and day out and work side by side with the police department to ensure that, you know, we have resources for people to go to is just so important. And so to all of you who who deal with this issue day in and day out, thank you for providing that service to our community. It's it's so important and so desperately needed. One request that I have is that maybe at some point our safety committee can have an update on the Rose Interim Domestic Violence facility in terms of where they're at in the process. We never want to disclose the location because I think it's critical to the safety of the people who utilize these services, which is predominantly women most of the time. But from time to time, we've had male victims as well. But I think just knowing where they're at in that process would be it would be wonderful to hear. So. Thank you. Councilwoman Ortega. Any other comments on Proclamation 201. Scene nine. Madam Secretary. Roll call. Shepard. Hi, Sussman. Hi, Fats. I can eat Lemon Lopez. Hi. Nevitt Ortega. Rob. Mr. President. I. Madam Secretary, please. First of all, you announce the results tonight. Tonight is proclamation two. Oh one has been adopted. Councilman Sheperd, is there someone you like to come to the podium to accept the proclamation? Yes. Thank you. I would like to invite manager of safety Stephanie O'Malley to the podium. And please feel free to introduce the team that has come tonight. Thank you, Councilwoman Sheperd, and thank each and every member of city council. I do want, as I accept, the proclamation for Chief White Commander Sonya's members of the sexual assault team, and Scott Snow, who our director of our Victims Assistance Unit, to please stand with me and accept the proclamation as we say. Thank you. As was mentioned, this is a very, very important initiative inside of the city and county of Denver. I can tell you all that often in the Safety Department, things tend to move at a glacial pace. We want them to move swifter and faster and of course, more efficiently. But when the notion of the start by believing campaign came to the forefront, there was no pause with regards to the time at which we wanted to accelerate and get the campaign kicked off because of the importance that we recognize associated with us. Start by believing each and every one of us individually can do that. You as members of City Council can do that. I wish that some of you could have been present when Mr. Matt, I believe his name is actor who was a victim of sexual assault himself, came to our kickoff and described for himself how empowering it was for his mother to believe the fact that he had been sexually assaulted and how that gave him some spirit to move forward to to get the help that he needed to share. But to have his mother believe his experience in the first instance, without hesitation, without pause, spoke volumes as to the criticality of each and every one of us. To start by believing will continue to put efforts into the campaign, will continue to put the message out via all types of communication mechanisms, including those boards that you all have seen, hopefully out in the community with real survivors of sexual assault, their courage speaks volumes. We want to continue to applaud them for that. And just think about it. The moment that you start believing somebody, you potentially have saved a life because when we don't believe things to the negative can happen and to the contrary to the point where people lose their self-esteem, where they don't want to be integrated into our community , into our society in a great way, in a healthy way. But if you do believe them, it again, it's a very, very empowering situation. And we want that spirit to be alive. We want it to be well, and we want it to continue to be supportive of victims of sexual assault. So thank you again for recognizing the work. And we'll continue to work hard to assure that this is an integrated part of our community. Thank you and thank you, Councilwoman Shepherd, for bringing that forward. That concludes our proclamation. Moving to the resolutions. Madam Secretary, please read the resolution. From safety and well-being 170 resolution approving the measure. Supporters of the Denver Immigration Immigrant and Refugee Commission. Moving on the bill for introduction. Madam Secretary, will you please read the bill for introduction. From Business, Civil and Development 48 bill for an ordinance proposed standard, especially retail concessions basically between City and county of Denver Marshal Retail Group, LLC Zoning Concession at Denver International Airport 183 A bill for an ordinance for any proposed airport baggage system. License agreement between City, County and Denver. How do we is de Margo S.A. de C.V. concerning the use of certain baggage system facilities at Denver International Airport 184 bill for an ordinance approving the Post 10th Amendment to agreement on City and County FMB Concessions LLC concerning concession at Denver International Airport 185 Bill for an ordinance approving new post Sixth Amendment to agreement between City and county over CAA concessions of Colorado, Inc. concerning concession at Denver International Airport 186 A bill for an ordinance approving a proposed agreement for snow removal services between city and county of Denver. Aero Snow Removal Corporation at Denver International Airport 187. A bill for an ordinance approving a proposed agreement between city income AECOM Technical Services Inc., a cancer oncologist, data and development services at Denver Ash Airport from Infrastructure and Culture 149 Bill for an audience of Rooney second mandatory agreement between City and County of Denver Wink Associates, Inc. for design services to improve Confluence Park from Safety and well-being. 162 A bill for an ordinance approving and providing the execution post grant agreement between city and county. Denver United States of America because you're Brian White part a fiscal year 15 program in the funding therefor 177 bill for Norton's opinion pro-Second Amendment or Agreement between City Encounter and Denver Health Hospital Authority for Health Care and Developing School Readiness for Denver Great Kids Head Start Program. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Council Members, this is your last opportunity to call out any bills or the resolution. I will start at the top. The one resolution is not called out bills for introduction. We have Council Bill 48 called out by Councilwoman Ortega and bills on final.