So by three on the order.

Never mind.

I'll tell you what.

Well, so uh remind you of the microphone to the feeling.

Um, oh, no first.

No, the wife did.

I will call the meeting to order and ask for the roll call.

Well, she needs actually gonna send a look.

Commissioner Brazil, excused Commissioner Barry.

Commissioner Burleson, excused recording in progress.

Commissioner Don.

Present.

Commissioner Gardner, excuse.

Commissioner Gore.

Here.

Commissioner Herskin?

Yeah.

Commissioner Knowles.

Commissioner McClendon?

Yeah.

Commissioner?

Commissioner Small?

Yeah.

Commissioner Triplett, excuse me.

Commissioner Varlack is used.

We have a forum.

Thank you.

Okay, are there any public comments?

Or in the room?

Okay.

I have no speakers for public comment.

Thank you.

Okay, that brings us to approval of the September 10th, uh, 2025, last month's minutes.

Provided in advance.

Thank you so much.

Um I can get a motion, or if there are any comments or edits that are needed.

Okay, I'm on time.

Yeah, I have uh uh Shineita a motion that we uh make up that we approve the minutes for September 10th move.

And seconded.

Okay, for approval of September 10th, Commissioner Barry.

Aye.

Commissioner Gore.

Here, I'm sorry, hi.

Commissioner Herskin.

Commissioner Knowles, aye, Commissioner Sass.

Commissioner Small.

Aye.

And Commissioner McClendon, Abstain.

And oh sixty things.

Yeah, six is forums, right?

Oh, uh.

Commissioner Don't have stain.

Uh Commissioner Varlac is also online now?

She's now on.

She's just joined us.

Welcome.

Ah, yeah.

Sorry, I forgot to remind everybody else I'm gonna be online today.

Okay, and uh for approval of the September minutes.

Aye.

Okay.

Approved.

So okay.

Thank you.

Uh now that brings us to um informing change.

Uh are they online by any chance?

Informing change is the are the folks who are helping us on the data group and uh-huh.

Excellent.

So, um as you know, ECC, um so is the lead project management group for uh for the commission, and informing change is our data research folks, um, who are supervised or otherwise project managed by ECC.

So we wanted to present to you the informing change of what the work is and run it by everybody so you understand um their role with us.

So if the ECC Metitia is there, are you able to come forward and with Jared?

Can you hear us?

Let's show can you hear us?

We're ready to bring you forward.

Promote you to speaker.

Well, maybe that's not her.

Okay, paper.

Okay, so uh the why don't we I'll I'll check her um while we move forward.

So that brings us to you, um Commissioner Dones, item number six here, um, is the Mandela station, and you had mentioned it at that last and we were very excited about this opportunity as reflect both the work the reparations work in Alameda County and a large project.

So if you're ready, we could promote you to speaker and presenter.

But does he doesn't his have PowerPoint?

No, I don't have a PowerPoint.

I think I may have been a little bit um mistaken about the um the topic.

I thought it had to do with the document I submitted in as opposed to Mandela Station.

And I apologize that I did not get a chance to review the agenda before the meeting, but I did come somewhat expecting and prepared to talk about the document I submitted.

I that said, I can always do a presentation on Mandela station.

There's no problem.

I just will take it just will take me about five minutes to prepare on my side.

So if that's what the um chair um is expecting for me to present tonight, um that will be fine.

I just will need a couple of minutes to go pull up a presentation that I could share with the group.

Okay, yes, we would like to have the West Oakland Real Estate Project be presented.

So with that, we can't, so we'll give you a few minutes because now we'll jump to item number seven, and you can just flag us um when you're ready.

Um, go now to the overview of the budget form and the budget process, give you guys some information and we finally our subcommittee did some work, so I think we okay.

We can yay, Aaron!

Okay.

No, no, you can pull these agendas together and you're like, what happened?

Okay.

So I will promote Aaron and Larry and they will walk us through the uh payment process, the budget that we've established, and how we can move forward on how we spend money.

Larry, did you want to start it all?

Yeah, um, just for uh just setting up the presentation for all my fellow commissioners.

Uh one, just thanking the library for uh really going through the process and cutting well, I was gonna say cutting bureaucracy, but working within a variety, you're working within it to make sure that the mission that we all uh you know want to carry out is happening the way that we want to happen.

And so I want to say thank you for that and um yeah, and just the PowerPoint, and I'm gonna present the uh the budget year to date on where we're at, uh expenditures, and then um, and then we will have a little bit more budget stuff later when we break out in the subgroups.

Great, thank you so much.

Um, we're happy to help navigate the process um in county payments however best we can.

So, um all of this has been uploaded onto the SharePoint page so that you can see this, and it's got kind of the step-by-steps of of how to go through making sure that we can get vendors approved um and paid for everything.

Um, so if you go onto the SharePoint page and into the budget folder, you'll see this.

Um, and you'll also see the approved vendor list.

So whenever you're looking to um bring on a vendor for the listening session or another reason, the first thing to do is to check that approved vendor list on the SharePoint page.

I'll make sure that's updated as we go forward.

If you do not see the vendor listed on that list, please send their contact information to me.

I'll reach out to them and walk them through the process.

Um, I recently did that with Dr.

Long.

Um, she had some questions.

We bounced back and forth on email, and then we got everything taken care of.

I need two weeks' notice just to make sure in case, especially if we hit a snag in some of the paperwork that we can work through that.

I don't want anybody um you know scrambling at the last minute to try to get them approved.

Once the vendor has been approved, you can um go ahead and complete the funding request form.

Um, that's also on SharePoint.

The link to that goes to a Google form.

That form is going to require the vendor's name, and you'll also need to upload a quote from the vendor as well.

And this will go ahead and do that form and submit it.

If you submit it by Monday afternoon, then the budget review and approval subcommittee can review the form at the Monday meeting and make those approval decisions.

Go to the next one.

Yeah, thanks.

Um so once the budget request has been approved, the vendor can go ahead and complete their required their requested service.

After the service is provided, please ask them to send their invoice to me.

That should be invoicing the library, so Alameda County Library, and they can either choose to have a direct deposit to their account or have a check mailed, but please let them know it take up to two weeks, and that's if all of the paperwork is in place, we don't hit any staffs on that.

A reminder if you pay out of your own pocket, we can't reimburse you.

So uh please don't.

I don't have any mechanism to reimburse you.

Um so we do need to go through the process.

We've graciously been given the money to support this work.

We don't want you to have to go out of your own pocket, and there's not a reason to do that.

So please just go through the process, and if you have any questions, you can let me know, and and I'll help you through that process.

We have a couple of credit cards as well.

So we may have a visa gift card that's assigned to a commissioner for a very specific use.

Um, we have one that's already been issued for food purchases.

I have another one today that we'll need to figure out who is responsible the responsible commissioner for this one.

This will be for facility rentals, so that way you don't have to keep on bouncing back and forth.

You'll have the credit card, you'll be able to make the rentals and get that.

Uh, the commissioner that no, we'll bring it up later.

Okay, and there's there's reasons for that.

So we we have um this as a mechanism for the for facilities that accept credit cards.

We can get them through this way.

Um, the commissioner must keep all the receipts.

Um I would like people to keep a spreadsheet that lists when the purchase was made, what was purchased, how much was purchased.

Um for food purchases, we do need like one of these event flyers and a photo or some kind of sign-in sheet or something like that from the listening session that will come, that'll kind of be kept in you know, a little paperwork package.

And once the card is expended or we've finished with listing sessions, that card and all the paperwork must be returned to me so that I can process it through our finance department.

If there are additional funds needed, then that must get approved by the subcommittee.

Um I'll need about two weeks' advance notice, but we can issue another of those gift parts to walk through that process.

Those are the big payments.

Um we're working on the process of getting them for um things like the social media buys.

Um, and so we'll we'll talk a little bit more about that.

I think later this evening, um, but we have a mechanism set up to be able to do that as well.

But that's more nuanced than anybody really needs to know for the general commission.

So that's what I've got.

Awesome.

Are there um uh any questions regarding the process?

Well, yeah, hi, this is Shanita.

Um, so I would like to make a recommendation in terms of the receipt, so it's kind of uniform if we create a spreadsheet and basically.

And do I can do that for sure?

So it was uniform.

No problem.

I'll make a note and I'll make sure to do that.

Any other questions regarding the process?

To be uh just to reiterate, um, we our goal is to meet every Monday from 6 to 6 30.

So that is the that's the budget meeting.

The goal of that meeting is just to only be 30 minutes, but if there are budget related things that are coming up from Facebook ads or ad pays, from uh getting ready to request a new card.

If you should really show up on that Monday Zoom meeting, put the request in.

If you have a request about if a vendor has made the list, when I get promoted, I'm going to show you what that list looks like so we can see it in SharePoint and what the document looks like, and um for us to uh really because I know sometimes we meet awesome people, we know awesome people who we want to do this work with us, and we just want to make sure that we're onboarding those people correctly.

We want to make sure that they know the process, especially how they get paid, they can get paid electronically or via a check, making sure that that happens, and then giving Aaron or the library enough time to actually onboard that vendor into the system.

I think is most important, and making sure they don't really start a lot of work before that happens because then uh we just can't go back and and build for the work that they've done.

Any other questions before I share?

I'm still in still in the ground.

Um you promoted okay, thank you.

Camera really does uh 10 pounds.

I'm looking at myself, you go.

So, you know, in girl, yeah, you can grab it.

So it's chocolate, so that's my yes, a lot of chocolate.

Uh the camera and the Snickers for me.

Right.

So um, all right, perfect.

So I wanted to start off with the uh the form.

So if you haven't seen this form, this uh and I'm gonna show this on the SharePoint because you can't just add a link on the SharePoint, and uh all of our information has to be on SharePoint.

The link to this this form lives in a Word document on SharePoint.

So you have to click that word document, go in and click the link, and it'll bring you directly here.

Once you get here, you can also save it to um your bookmark so you can uh get it very easily.

But this is the form.

Uh we did our best to make it as simple or straightforward as possible, and then um as you see on the form, there's uh budget categories here.

Um the priority list of where we where this request uh should be at.

Um honestly uh any priority that is high and the vendor is already on the list is probably going to move move a little quicker.

If the vendor is not approved, then it's probably going to be a low priority.

Um every time a commissioner uploads a request, uh, our amazing consultants uploads a request.

I will be looking at and making sure that that person is already on the list, and then if not, just uh notifying you that it's going to be one or two weeks for them to be approved on the list and coordinate directly with Aaron.

Aaron and I will both be the backbones in for any other commissioner, but for that Monday meeting, Aaron and I are committed to being there, reviewing this process, answering any questions about the budget process.

Um, and so this is the form uh the at the bottom is a place where you can attach those uh those quotes and any additional information, and at the bottom you can add um any notes that you know you can say I had a conversation with this vendor, this vendor fully understands it takes two weeks or uh I know that this vendor is new, so you can leave notes for the budget or the admin uh committee there so we can follow up, and so the responses go um here, and then there's a sheet that um that starts to add up all the requests, so we we have that um available for us, and I wanted to go over to the SharePoint, so um as stated that the approved vendor list is here, so Aaron will be updating this list as we're starting to build the list, and so right now we have a few uh vendors who are already ready to go who are on the list.

As vendors get approved, we will add them to this list.

You also have access to this list.

So you can also check to see when your vendors approved, because if they're on the list, you submit it.

Two weeks has passed.

You don't have you know, before you email, check the list.

If they're on the list, then they're good to go.

If uh if they're not on the list, then follow up with the email saying uh it's been two weeks.

I I submitted this vendor for uh approval.

Um and then the other item I want to show in the uh SharePoint was one.

Here's the PowerPoint that we just went over.

So if you need a reminder of the actual process, the PowerPoint lives there, and the one of the budget sheets that I'm gonna go over tonight.

Uh, we will always update this budget sheet right before we meet monthly, and this is going to uh highlight all of the expenses spent down to date.

So we're keeping track of all the requests, the amount of money that the board has entrusted us to go out into community for listening sessions.

We're also tracking the expenses from the gift card that Aaron um stated earlier.

We have two gift cards, um, and then we're gonna talk about one of those gift cards a little later today when we break out in our subcommittee updates.

Uh, but there will be a monthly form that's updated, uh, and I will change the date.

So uh this month is October, and um, and let me see.

I think that is all of the items before the budget sheet that I'm going to review.

Let me just double check.

Oh, just really quickly clicking that uh word document that I mentioned earlier, and then this is the link here, and my all my all my backgrounds are black, so I'm just blacking black, black, black, all the way around.

Okay, yeah, exactly.

So it looks a little weird, but all of my stuff is black, just as an FYI.

Nothing's wrong with my computer.

But uh, but yeah, uh we you click this link, you get to it.

Once you start using it, you should save it to your bookmarks.

Um, but that's that's how you access the budget form if you uh if you don't already have the link, yes.

So that's why that Excel spreadsheet would be for us to go in there and put our receipts.

I know, yeah, linking those to Excel.

Yeah, I think it might it might actually, I'm not sure.

I'm gonna let Aaron design it.

Yeah, imported, but a lot of the budget uh work will happen right before this meeting, and every Monday we're going to be monitoring so receipts and things like that, and uh again, a quick 30 minute meeting on Mondays at 6:30 via Zoom is the is the ideal time for us to check in about this.

Um, and then um if you you know it's hard relying on emails.

I know I get a lot of emails.

Uh so if there's something extremely important, just do your best to sign in to that meeting, uh add your order to that meeting if you want to hear, or just hop in, put a message in so we can address it.

But I would encourage people to participate on that Monday meeting.

When is when is budget-related items?

Commissioner Dones, did you have a question?

No, I don't.

Sorry.

I'm gonna mute my phone.

All right, um, I'm not sure.

You guys want me to increase this?

No.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let's see, 100.

125.

Yeah, uh, I was trying to figure out how to show all the the full page without it, the font being super low.

But um, so just to walk you through what this actually looks like.

Uh, there's tabs at the bottom for every month of expenditures against our actual budget and what we allocated for each of the categories in sections.

This is September right now.

Just if you want to review kind of what that flow is, what um what you know what's been spent, how's been spent, but primarily you want to click the month that has just passed to see the expenditures and the requests and things like that.

Let's see here, some little bigger on my.

Yep.

So right now, one of the things I want to highlight is uh some of the variants that uh are happening is that uh right now we're kind of spending a little under some of the the different areas.

Um that variants that Commissioner Gore who's uh chair gore just mentioned is because of the retainer that happened earlier for our consulting group.

But um, but this is our numbers for September.

Uh again, this will be updated regularly if you want to know uh what we're spending.

My goal is to spend a little time on it every Monday, that way it's not a lot of work before we meet for our commission meeting, and um, you should be able to get all of your updates uh from this sheet if you're curious about what we're spending.

Uh linking to the forms, link into requests as we're getting closer to the red line on some of these items, just be very uh um aware if you're asking for more uh money for certain categories.

Did you want to add anything?

Yeah, so uh overall, you know, we're under spending in the listening sessions, which is gonna create a surplus that um we can allocate to other areas.

Um in particular, uh, you know, so we should we should definitely have an action item or robust discussion of what to do with the surplus.

I don't think it I think it would not be a good look for us to be done with the project, and then say, here's 200,000 back, and there's so much more um work that can be done.

So I mean, I think, yes, we can add listening sessions, but in the data group, and please did it, please chime in here.

We really um would love some resources to do robust outreach.

Um, in particular, and I'm looking at you, Shad, where if we could hire a firm that actually could curate African American in Alameda County, we could do some targeting outreach um digitally, but that's not cheap.

Um, so that would be one way for us to gather sessions.

We could expand the pop-up in terms of um focusing on specific communities, so for example, the African-American Business Association or Chambers and do a reparations meeting with the business chambers or the um arts and culture people and do a specific more like a focus group than a listening session.

So that I think we'll would make it very robust uh community engagement part of the proposal if we find that you know we have some surpluses and then uh we need to probably go through a process of if we're moving, you know, two or three thousand dollars.

I'm sure that's not an issue, but if we're gonna move 40 or 50,000, we should take it back to the supervisor.

We should, you know, have full transparency on what that's looking like.

But if I look at the burn rate of the listening sessions and I look at the allocation, we're definitely definitely um gonna want to move some dollars around and we could create some robustness in areas that I think we're a little bit thin.

Um that would ultimately create a very um, you know, provide more of the um engagement we want with the community.

So I think that it's pretty evident after just looking at August and September that that's what we're going.

Given that we have about what, four more left on the county.

Four more sessions, yeah.

We had six approved.

Right.

So four left, and would that also be an opportunity to possibly do or virtual?

Yeah, we could do virtual, even though virtual will cost us that.

Now if we were but if we were looking for a research firm to curate, that's not cheap, but so if we spend there, then uh outro be way more effective, and then the virtual be too.

The other part is if we expand a couple more listening sessions, we're gonna have to double up in a month.

So we would have to be doing two in November, do it in December.

We we have to accelerate on the number of listening sessions, um, and have some work distribution issues.

So that's why I've seen it more digitally.

The other spend could be on the last four sessions, or if we do some pop-ups, we can really spend and I'm talking for you here at Taiga on the media, the social media buys.

And you can easily, you know, you can go from two hundred dollars to ten thousand dollars on your shelter, and that can really amplify too.

And then you would have um, you know, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, and you'd have more people attend our listening sessions.

We could spend some money there too.

Um so, when you're saying pop-ups, I'm thinking an event.

Are you doing a pop-up at an event or are you creating an event to say, hey, let's create a reparations commission event, come talk and just have a large event with you know, you know, vendors and representatives from people in the county.

Is that the type of thing you're thinking of, or what?

When we had initially introduced pop-up, it was to piggyback on events already happening in the community, right?

So, but it it it could be kind of a hybrid too.

So if you're if we were gonna so the black business chamber, I just feel like that voice, so forgive me.

During black history month, if you're teaming with that and saying we're also having a showing up with you, we're going to have a reparations group there with all sorts of things there, speakers and it's what we're kind of doing in West Oakland with the sorority, the Soros, and they're having their chapter meeting, we're joining at that the third hour of their chapter meeting, so it's kind of a pop-up meet listening session.

Yeah, but I think where there's already gathering of folks, and then I think, you know, because the six only did corporate, maybe we do one or two in the unincorporated areas.

So so there if we're gonna have some surplus, I think we we should have a discussion on how to allocate and take action item of vote though, not um Commissioner Mary.

Um, two thoughts to add to this.

I I do think that um I like all the stuff that you're talking about.

So let me start there, but I do think we should um be really intentional and thoughtful about the areas that we're not getting into, so like in our original plan, we talked about the unincorporated areas, we talked about juvenile halls, there were spaces that we wanted to go into, and I think this presents an opportunity to get those voices in.

Um so just want to kind of call that out, and then the second thing, um I think we're gonna wind up having a whole lot of ideas, so perhaps we can put a little process together.

Yeah, all right.

Here's our top 10 ideas for what we could do so that we all can kind of look at that information, understand what our options are, and maybe do some sort of rank.

I don't I don't know, but think about all process for how we decide.

Yeah, I think each subcommittee should put on your agenda, your subcommittee, how would you guys like to see the surplus and at each listening for everybody?

Um and then we could then we could make a dollar amount with it.

You know, we sort of say a couple of them, we'll do all of them.

We don't know until we see what what people suggest.

Well, I won't be on the meeting next Tuesday, so one of you could okay.

Okay, sure.

Gotcha.

Any other additional questions regarding budget, budget process, budget meeting?

No.

Yes, I do have a question.

Thank you.

Oh, sorry, let me turn up.

Um, so I apologize for not being on the call on Monday.

Work went over, and I wasn't able to get a message out.

Are we meeting on Monday in light of the holiday?

And also, federal holiday, I guess, but not a thing holiday.

Oh, yeah.

It's people day.

The federal level on this.

I don't I don't think we should.

Okay, uh it's a good call out.

Um, uh yeah, we can reschedule.

We'll we'll reschedule with the um budget group.

We can find 30 minutes, yeah.

Okay.

I reschedule uh I'll move that meeting to Wednesday.

Yes, um DAR meets from five to six.

So if we wanted to do it at six, we've been going over, but I can't commit to that.

If the other committee members can do it after that, commissioner.

We can go 5 30 to 6.

Could you get could you go 5 36?

I know it bumps in your work.

No, that's fine.

I thought that maybe no, no, no.

Yeah, the our committee is five to six.

So you're saying we'll we'll we'll shorten that from five to five thirty and then go straight with the budget on Wednesday, the 15th.

Yes, okay.

Your budget.

Yeah, so do it after.

Okay, we'll do it 30 minutes after.

Well, yeah, we got it.

Sure.

Okay, take off one.

Okay, thank you.

Um, if that's any public comments for this budget item.

I have no speakers.

Okay, I will go back up uh the agenda and out of respect for Alan's uh Commissioner Jones' time, he is out of the country.

I will I hope you're okay that we're going out.

Okay.

So here uh commissioner Jones, we will promote you, take it away.

Thank you very much.

Um I am here in beautiful Johannesburg, uh, South Africa.

I just arrived here from Cape Town where I've been the last couple of days.

Literally the story of my life the last uh this is the eight the eighth trip to the continent since January, and most of these trips um start out unexpectedly with me getting a call like I did Friday and being uh presented a uh uh option to come that I can't refuse for a lot of different reasons.

Hopefully, some of them might come a little more clear during the presentation tonight.

So that's what finds me here and not where I wanted to be in.

That was with all of you tonight.

Um, but I also know that there's a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, but I think we're making progress, but so much of what I'm doing here is um also representative of the journey that has created opportunity, and I know when um supervisor Miley asked me to be on the commission, one of the things that was very important to him and emphasize he emphasized was his thought that reparations should include some form of economic participation and development.

Um that was one of the areas that, you know, I think he um asked me to kind of keep in mind as we went through our proceedings.

And everything that we've been talking about tonight, in terms of our budget and our listening sessions and everything.

I think you might find um the rationale and some of the wisdom of what Supervisor Miley was had in mind when he talked about that economic development emphasis.

What I want to do is I'd like to, and uh again, I am completely getting involved in my jazz musician.

Uh you know, want to be um context here, and you know, since I thought I was going to be presenting something else, I'm having to pivot and do a little bit of improvisation.

But you know, we we bring our music, we bring our creativity and hopefully our skills, and we can rise to the occasion.

So I'm gonna share um a PowerPoint presentation that I have up, and I'm trying to, there you go.

Um I'm not sure if my PowerPoint presentation came up for the commissioners.

Maybe someone can see it.

Oh, great, great, great.

So we're gonna talk a little bit today.

Can you put it in a larger presentation mode?

Oh, yes, I'm I'm in the process of doing that.

Uh so I'm multitasking talking and um also attempting to chew a little gum.

Okay, share our presentation.

There you go.

All right.

Um, excellent.

We see it.

So, welcome to Mandela Station.

And I think one of the reasons that you know, Mandela Station embraces so much of what I believe uh Supervisor Miley was trying to embrace uh when he talked about economic development.

Uh, this is the um, you know, what I want to present is our presentation that we're working on, not for completely selfish reasons or self-serving reasons, because I am part of an African American-led development team that is bringing this project forward, but mostly because of the fact that this is a the epitome of a community-oriented project.

It's a public-private project.

It's a project that involves uh the utilization of public lands.

It's a project that has in it a lot of potential to do a lot of intergenerational, not only economic good and wealth creation, but also a lot of restorative justice to a community um that has been hard hit over the years by um urbanization and economic development.

We all know, or we most of us probably know um the story of West Oakland, the story of 7th Street, a once thriving community that had a very, very strong black middle class, uh, a strong cultural um community and presence that contributed not only to Oakland and to our region, but nationally, um this was a a place which over the years has just produced one um artistic endeavor, um, uh social endeavor, scientific endeavor, uh one uh uh revolutionary endeavor after another that has taken root and has gone on to change the world.

Um West Oakland is our project is at the West Oakland Bart Station.

Um, my company, my joint venture partnership, which by the way is a joint venture between the master development between my company and McFarland partners, Victor McFarlane is uh a uh uh legend in the world of public finance.

Um, and you know, I'll talk a little bit about that, um, and the significance of that on many levels.

Um, this we have entered into a 99-year lease for the parking lot, you know.

Real estate is by far and away the largest facilitator of self-sufficiency, the largest facilitator of intergenerational wealth of any asset class.

Uh, and yet when you look at African Americans' ability to participate in this industry in a meaningful way, it is uh extremely distorted in a negative way in terms of our top our opportunity to really participate in the holistic value that you know this industry presents.

If you look at the skyline of Oakland, you see a lot of wealth being created, you see a lot of business opportunities.

You see, when you present preside over the development and planning of a project, you have a lot to do with uh determining who's going to get the jobs to build it, to design it, to build it, to maintain it, who's going to have the ability to determine how the property is held intergenerationally, who's got how it's going to be transferred to whom.

And because of the fact that so many trillions of dollars of this activity takes place without any type of real meaningful participation by uh people that look like us, it's not only something that has become really clear to me as a facilitator of inequality, but it's also something that has a significant amount of cost uh to taxpayers and to our community and lost opportunity to have a more holistic and inclusive economy and healthy sustainable economy.

This project here, um my assignment of it uh started in around 2015 when the discussion started.

Um the Alameda County Board of Super, I'm not Alameda County, I'm sorry, the Bay Area Rapid Transit District Board officially awarded it to the McFarland Suda team uh in uh 2017.

So I'm coming up on 10 years.

I did not know, I wish I knew 10 years ago that I was signing up for something that was going to take 10 years to bring to this place that we are now.

But that that's the uh time frame that we've been working to bring this about.

The project involves right now a fully entitled project that uh includes a 520 uh residential tower, 520 unit market rate residential tower primarily, uh, a 300,000 square foot commercial office building, and 240 uh um affordable units, and the 240 affordable units are being made affordable to uh across the board families earning an average of 45% of the AMI.

One third of these projects, 33%, are going to be yes.

If you're advancing slides, we are only seeing your first slide.

Okay, I'm just I have a cursor and I'm trying to show what the different elements are.

So I don't know if you're able to slide that.

Yeah, and so this is the 240 unit affordable project, if you're able to see my cursor move.

And the reason why, you know, we're we're talking about it tonight, is that um, as of last Thursday, um we, you know, over the last um few months, we've been on a very very um involved process to um uh apply for state tax credit and bond funding that is absolutely essential to um be able to subsidize these affordable units.

These units actually will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 to 800,000 per door to build.

Uh is we're we're building these projects in a manner it's not any less expensive in many ways, it's more expensive to build an affordable unit than it is to build a market rate unit.

Um so when you look at that and you compare that cost of construction to the amount of rents that you can receive uh from a family earning 45% AMI, it requires that any such project like this is um is heavily subsidized with uh state grants and uh cost-effective financing.

Uh so a couple of other things that I want to say before I move on from this slide, is that whenever you are building on transit public transit, you you have a responsibility both from an environmental responsibility standpoint, but also for a um uh an economic participation standpoint to maximize the scale of a project like this, so that you can maximize those intergenerational economic benefits.

Um if you look right across the street, you have affordable projects.

That's great when they were done, but the simple fact is is that our choice that was made, made you know, in partnership with my my pseudo partner, Regina Davis, uh, was that we were going to maximize the particip the potential of this project so we can make sure as many people as possible get the benefit of this transit orientation and the economic development part of it.

Um of the really important pieces of this is that we have entered into a partnership collaboration with the West Oakland Health Center, now known as Baywell Health, for them to relocate their um uh operation, their headquarters from their current location where they've been for the last 55 years to Mandela Station.

Uh, and that's a very very significant move.

I'll talk a little more about that.

Um by the way, you see my dad here.

I'm the third generation of my family to be involved in one way or the other in development real estate.

My uncle Sidney, who was a developer in Los Angeles, my dad and uh now myself, and one of the reasons why it's important to this story is because my dad was one of the general contractors that built uh the West Oakland Health Center and those housing units that are on either side of it, known as the Moore residential housing.

So it's just very poetic in many ways that we would now be at this moment.

The there are three high rise apartment buildings, affordable apartment buildings that are part of more housing.

And sadly, they serve as the only high-rise buildings constructed with a black general contractor and contracting team in, in my opinion, probably in the state of California right now.

And you know, again, uh that's not uh anything to be, uh, maybe we can in some ways be proud of the achievement, but we cannot be uh satisfied with the underwhelming fact that such an important uh um you know endeavor is um we're that we're basically excluded from for a lot of important reasons I will if if Chair Gore if I can just get two minutes and 30 seconds to play a little uh video if that's okay and then I'll try to get to the point where I get I wrap it up um but if that's all right with you I will take it there.

Yes please.

I'm not sure if you're able to hear me see I'm sorry.

You're not hearing the I'm not hearing the sound either.

Okay.

What what I would what I'm doing in this video and I'm gonna talk a little bit about it is just the fact that it's showing the association of transit and the fact that when you have transit um and you have um the ability to develop economic opportunity on transit you have the ability to do it in a a way that uh brings about this numerous benefits so you know we talk in this video I'm talking about the fact that it's uh a public investment that brings about you know in this particular case I was talking about how um the ability for teachers for public employees um that are of all colors to see their investments stay in their community and create that regenerative uh effect that not only provides opportunities for their families but allows for the tax base to be maximized so that their families can enjoy um or so their I'm sorry their careers can enjoy having the capital necessary to maintain the schools to maintain the public sector uh and then talking about the better outcomes associated with uh co-locating health care and housing and how that not only brings about economic opportunity but it also brings about better outcomes for the people that live in uh and work as well as the people that are treated by that facility uh people that uh have closer access to health care uh not only live healthier lives but the people that take care of them have a much much um beneficial experience by the people that they care for uh having that kind of association and again Bart's uh you know the fact that West Oakland Bart Station and Mandela Station again the name of it uh because of the history that Nelson Mandela had I that's a whole story and it's also interesting that I'm here in South Africa talking about uh Mandela Station which is poetic in many many ways to me out don't give me started I'll tear up but the fact that it's connected to this major transit system that has a hundred and thirty one miles of right away it's the only system in the East Bay where you can walk on a one seat trip to any of BART's extremities and that means all the resources of BART uh the access to jobs uh the access to uh all of the beneficial resources and the fact that you know leveraging that strategic place in a way that allows for people in other parts of the Bay Area to benefit from the BART station.

So a lot of what we're doing is on that theme as well and then finally, one other thing that I talk about in this video is the fact that BART has installed a fiber optic network uh that runs throughout that 131 mile right away.

And they also have power.

And what we all know is right now we're moving into this digital world of of connectivity, a world where the jobs of the future are going to be in in artificial intelligence and uh data-intensive ways.

And one of the the advantages, unfair advantages that uh is potentially found at Mandela Station is to have access to the um, I'm sorry, I'm gonna come back to that real quick.

The fact that when you have access to that speed high speed data, you can do all types of things that other areas like Silicon Valley uh perform roles in in our Bay Area, uh that other places that aren't as well connected uh can perform.

And so we want to make sure that we make a full meal of making sure that those business opportunities, those careers, those um opportunities to own those businesses go accrue to the communities of Oakland that have historically been uninvested in.

It's a really major opportunity for us to catch up.

I will then end this by saying that a lot of what you see is the benefit of a lot of community engagement, and we've spent a big part of this last 10 years investing and engaging in many different forms of community engagement, you know, forums where we have large assemblages, forums where we have monthly uh gatherings of community advisors, uh, and um everything in between.

And we we have been very intensely involved in that, and really I cannot take credit for the uh scale of the project.

Uh the, you know, anybody that finds this to be innovative and exciting and transformational, the reason why it is what it is is because of the quality and the benefits that come from engaging your community and the ideas that come from it, and in fact, the um ability to have partnerships that when it gets uh to advocating and standing up for the project and defending it.

Um, you know, you have people that are making it clear to our policymakers that they're gonna be held accountable for decisions that they make.

And um we've spent a lot of time like we're doing now.

We talked about listening, and then we came back to our community with all types of uh technologies and you know, state of the art, I'm sorry, uh methodologies to make sure that we heard what the community was saying, and so we can say that the project that I just presented is truly uh product of that.

I think that um ongoing, you know.

This is a project that when we break ground for our affordable project in uh the early part of next year, um, we are going to be engaging in a process that will allow us to be a new benchmark of equity and inclusion.

And so I'm finding that there's a lot of parallels with the work of our commission.

And um again, I'm the developer of a public project, public-private partnership, and it's not my project, it's our project, and it's really up to our community to really uh embrace that, take ownership and make sure that it's imperative that we not only get this project built, but really let it serve to be that kind of way to bring about the type of long-term intergenerational restorative justice that we deserve.

So, with that, I'll just kind of uh you know, turn it back over, and you know, if anybody has any questions for me, I'll be happy to answer them.

Yeah, I think we have some questions here.

Okay.

Okay, we'll go first.

Uh Commissioner Barry.

Uh Commissioner uh Dones, uh, first congratulations.

Um, this is an incredibly inspiring uh vision work you've been doing over the past 10 years.

I'm really excited um by what I'm seeing here.

And wanted to offer just a little bit of commentary and perhaps um connection and resource.

Um back in the back in the 90s, um, one of my very first organizing jobs in Chicago was to work on what we back then called a transit oriented development project.

Now, obviously we didn't have all the technology that we have today, so it looked quite a bit different.

Um projects took the major uh train stations throughout Chicago off the red line and green line and did a had a very similar concept.

What would it look like to have young people doing the art in the community?

What would it look like to have black owned businesses stationed?

What would it look like to have clinics, dentistry?

Um one of the things that we were examining back then was how expensive it is to be poor.

It's extremely expensive to be poor.

And so if I think transit hub, everybody has to take the train.

Suddenly everything is accessible to me.

If I just get off at Lake Street, or if I get off at 55th, I don't have to run around, I don't have to do transfers.

Um it just made everything more accessible.

And we also saw job access significantly shift for young people in the city because they could suddenly get to the footlocker off the 55th station and work.

Same thing with um some of the older people coming into those clinics because suddenly this barrier of transportation was gone.

Um, so again, I'm super excited because I'm having a full circle moment saying sort of this kind of work reimagined.

Um, if you are interested, the organization that led that works called the Woodlawn Organization, uh was led by Reverend Dr.

Leon Finney.

Uh, he is now passed, he was one of my mentors, but I'm still very much connected.

And if there's any learnings that uh the folks in Chicago can pass forward, again, I think this project is like 10.0 from what we were doing back in the 90s, given all the technology, you know, the access that we have here, but certainly there may be things that may be valuable to you, and I'm certainly happy to make any connections.

Yeah, we have to build on those lessons learned because there's no easy project, they're all full of complexity, and you know, understanding the history of projects like that, the good as well as the bad, is really important so that you know we're we're evolving in a positive way.

So that would be wonderful, and you know, I everybody knows how to reach me, so not to breach any of the the uh the Brown Act, but as it pertains to Mandela Station, I'm completely not only open to receive that, but we need it, that type of feedback.

You can see uh the by the way, our art wall, we're we're we're fighting vigorously to hold on to that.

Um that's that's a process where that's not going to be a static wall, that's gonna be a wall that we're gonna engage um young aspiring artists and people to be able to showcase their work to the hundreds of thousands of people that pass through that BART station.

We are gonna do all kinds of exciting things associated with it to make sure that you know, we get the attention of people on the train and provide that opportunity for people to not only show what their their talents and arts are, but for us to message, you know, the importance and quality of life that we can uh be contributions we can make to our Bay Area by allowing us to participate.

So that the cost of inequality is another big big one that is so important.

And um, yeah, and you know, that's a no a whole nother meal that I hope that you know the documents that I wrote and presented to the chairman um will come through because it has the root in in this project.

I will one other quick thing I just want to say again because I'm here in Africa I would not if it were not for me and I know it seems counterintuitive but if it were not for me getting on a plane and coming here to the continent this slide that you see here would not exist.

This has as much to do with work that I do on the continent as I do in Oakland.

And I'm not saying that we all have to do that but this project was first awarded to a major multibillion dollar Chinese company.

And the fact that they were able to work with me and convey it to me and as much to do with work that they wanted to do in Africa and I had African leaders as well as African American leaders urging them to turn this project over to a black development team.

It's a whole nother story and that's about our relationship with Africa and how we leverage it as black people here to make sure that we stay relevant especially in crazy times like we we're experiencing right now.

So really embraced in this project is not only invoking the name of Madiba but also invoking that spirit of us being able to leg leverage our relationship and the restorative justice that this re means to even those populations in Africa that suffered from us being so much of their human potential being uh stolen and extracted so again don't don't get me started but I just wanted to make sure I blurted that out to this reparations commission.

We have another question here Commissioner Jones.

Well this is uh Commissioner Hurskon so first and foremost I want to say what an amazing uh innovative project and I'm very impressed um by what you all have done over the past 10 years and excited about the opportunity that you know will be coming into the community and the question that I have is how do you ensure that this project unfolds that the benefactors of you know this community development is impacted by you know blacks living in this community versus other ethnicities coming in and benefiting from this.

Because I think in other communities they they build it and others come so how do we get to be at the table.

Such a an important amazing question because it's really cuts to the essence of why it's even important to present it now because you know this type of participation um is not easily um conceded by the people that have had you know an unfair share of the ability to participate and all of that community engagement has been about making sure that there is accountability and that accountability is not only for the policymakers it's not only you know for you know the the uh the the people it's it's accountability for for me as a developer um and empowering me to be able to hold true to all of those principles and things that have created all these circumstances where we haven't been able to participate when you see those buildings being built downtown the the thing that's most ironic for me is that those aren't other people's money coming in building those businesses those are our tax dollars that provide the foundational capital that builds a project like that, or like you that like you see on our skyline.

That's it's our capital in terms of the tax dollars we build, it's our capital in terms of where our role as consumers and so far has been primarily extractive.

We pay our taxes, we contribute to the capital that builds that skyline, but that skyline gets built by others for others.

That's extractive.

And it's very clear that that's a major reason why the homeless populations, the homeless camps grow faster than the skyline, because when you have such a big part of your demographic excluded and having their tax dollars routed to others.

But the first thing that I feel is important is to educate the public about these the fact that their dollars are contributing to that skylight, making sure that we understand that we it's not only something that we have a right to, but it's something that nobody's gonna concede without us being knowledgeable, intentional, and holding fast to the principles of that equity and inclusion, and then finally making sure that it's built in a way that creates the kind of profitability that makes that investment, especially if it's one of our pension plans that has been invested with people that don't look like us, uh, but making sure that we generate returns to those pension holders and to those taxpayers.

So this is that it's gonna take to answer your question.

It's gonna take everything that we do as folks taking the time to hold people accountable, to educate our public, to hear from our public and community, and to embrace and take ownership of our right to participate in this industry.

And so uh thank you for that.

That's really why we've been able to somehow create an ability to participate when you know for too many decades we've been uh stalemated out, got a ways, ways to go, but that's why we're here.

Yeah.

Other comments?

Would you mind asking how our commission might support this?

Is that ready?

Or is it in the presentation?

Okay.

One more question, Commissioner Don.

Um, I'm curious uh on two things.

One, if uh you would share this presentation with us, and two, if you have ideas or thoughts around how our commission can be supportive of this project.

Okay, absolutely.

And I'll I'll do that and you know, try to present those things in a uh and whatever the process is so that it doesn't breach any of our uh ground rules.

Um, but I appreciate and I'm very grateful for that that request, and because that that's really what's gonna make this happen is that visibility.

I will say that, and again, I apologize for you know this journey that I've been on these months that has kept me away from the commission.

It's not that I have not been completely um you know committed to what we're doing, but I did a lot of what I wrote in those documents that I presented to you.

Hopefully, you get a chance to read, go also right to that point and really really trying to put um data and economics behind why this investment in a restorative, reparative um uh you know, process will pay demo dividends, not only to us as black people, but to every taxpayer in Alameda County, the state and and the country.

So that it it has a lot fused into the writing uh the experiences.

By the way, just so uh you know, we also have transit oriented developments at the 20th and sam pal uh 20th and telegraph that's a major project uh two months ago the BART board awarded a team that I'm part of the Ashby Bart station at Ashby Mandela Station is just the beginning and then of course we have the Bontic Coliseum project and these are projects that are going to have enough scale to make a meaningful difference and again you know uh I just would say as we go through our proceedings and I present what you've asked for you think about it in those terms as well and we'll work welcome the creativity and the ideas of the board uh of this commission in and making sure that we shape these projects accordingly thank you and uh we'll agendize your um your I would call them white papers um yeah you can present those separately under separate cover um we we thank you so much yeah right now we have them uh in our repository so they have not been presented yet so we can present those oh okay okay thank you if the if appropriate okay um I know we thank you a big agenda item that we need to get to which is um the informing change work I'd like to um bring up the ECC and I know we've got a few minutes here to go um and we gotta get to the subcommittee but um sorry to have rearranged the agenda with uh it's gonna take this much time but if you present this material that'd be great good evening commissioner sounds like good morning I'm kidding yeah good morning then you can go 5 a.m.

Well um always a pleasure so honored and excited to be working alongside you as your consultant your consultancy team we got my partner in good trouble all things Sean Johnson here tonight um and I I won't be before you long you all have this report that we put together our narrative report covering phase one and phase two of the work that we committed to perform on your behalf and in concert with you um at your last meeting last month I talked a lot about phase one project launch and just getting the work off the ground and I won't do all the talk and I'll ask some of you the facilitator of me like in project phase one um commissioners can you call out what are some things that you all have noticed we've been doing like the ECC team working with you all um just popcorn style what's what's different now with the mission hi this is shanita so um I noticed that a little bit more structure in terms of the meeting um taking action items and having follow-up with that yes you do other things just popcorn not you chair gore anyway what have you noticed about your ACRC structure and just the work that you all are doing with the support of your ECC team far more focus focus anything else we'll bring it on everything else I was just taking a look at this right here I haven't had any any meetings with uh uh Chega but yes uh working with uh Sean is really great to we're able to you know really detail what we're looking for and uh you know and streamline the process so yeah.

So that's my report.

No, I'm kidding.

But most of what we've been doing in uh phase one is just really understanding the intentionality of this commission and what you all have been charged to do by our board of supervisors and put you on a pathway towards getting there.

You all are already moving, you're making things happen, but how can we um you know massage things so that you're moving much more efficiently, right?

So when we started back in August working with you all, we were trying to figure out, you know, what are the dates for the listening sessions?

How are we gonna, you know, fast forward?

We're in October.

We have these now.

We have all the dates of your listening sessions and two locations already booked um for the next uh two sessions.

So um our really the the major byproduct of our work and working with you all is being able to do the work in between these meetings, in between your conversations, um, as we're looking at phase two, that's what we're in right now.

Um it's working hand in hand with the subcommittee co-chairs.

So Sean and Brandon, Ada and I meet, or and I are like roommates now.

We meet often, right?

Lots of conversations, speed down.

If you move to page two under meetings and coordination efforts, we have a bulleted list of the weekly standing meetings, and this does not include the sidebar text messages, just in the spirit of keeping going, right?

Um, you know, I probably owe Bert and Rodney uh Starbucks coffee or something under five dollars.

Okay, so lots of movement, lots of but it's in the spirit of communication, right?

And connectivity, and so that's what we've been up to.

Um you all have we we've have each of the subcommittees listed.

I added uh some acronyms just so you all are aware of you don't have to keep these.

So you notice on page two that says admin and budget A and B community listening session CLS, that's just kind of shorthand, and then data collection analysis and report writing.

That's DAR, everyone.

So you'll hear Taya saying, DAR, DAR.

Oh my darling.

Yo, I was dark that's the DAR.

That's the data analysis, data collection and analysis report writing subcommittee, which is brand new, um, but meeting very strong, deep conversation, and that's where the development of the report will happen and the policy discussion and the recommendations.

So you all are doing great work.

Um, it is a labor of love, um, to do this work.

And so I'll just pause and ask Sean.

Did you want to add anything?

No.

Okay, awesome sauce.

Any questions?

I'll let you all read through.

And if you have any questions, okay.

Um the part that was agendized was the informing change.

Oh, yes, discuss that.

Well, you all have a copy of their scope of work, right?

We sent, but we were gonna share it with, we only shared it within the group.

We were gonna share it with the commission at large.

Oh, I got you.

Agenda is Jam.

Somewhere, yeah.

So we have to table it and bring it back.

Let's table it and bring it back because then also we can have Michael and Johnny present from informing change, the writing trying to get them here.

They can share, yeah.

Okay, for your table it, what is informing change?

Oh, that's right.

I introduced that.

I said informing change is the people who uh their subcontracting that was the thing that I was talking about at the beginning and had to move it to the agenda.

Yeah, so they're the folks who are doing the research and doing the report.

And I mean we had to really sharpen our pencil on what that scope of change is.

So but they're subcontractor.

I don't I don't know if that's the appropriate word, but they're being guided by the ECC folks.

And how we bundle it, so that's what informing change is actually the name of that work.

No, I knew that, but you kept saying informing change, and I'm like, okay.

So thank you for giving us an update on the C and we'll table and bring it back uh next.

Uh okay.

So we can have a question.

Public comment.

No, okay.

So now we can go to the working groups.

Um, and if there could be some report-ups, and if there are questions, that'd be great.

Let us start with the community listening sessions.

CLS.

Um we have we're on track for the uh the 25th.

We have the um, of course, the location, we have some flyers, we have I'll let you talk about social media and um getting other stuff out.

Um we are going to be missing um Dr.

Gardner, he'll he will probably be there, but I might not be in shape talk.

He's having shoulder replacement because he has a new pitching job next year for the Giants.

Um, and uh Artavia and um Kenny will not be at that uh particular session, so we're uh just adjusting who uh then we'll do that next week who is going to be um picking up the slack on the slides.

So are you looking for commissioners to step up?

What roles you need?

How can we best support the letters?

I don't think do I don't think we need to in your opinion additional people to step in and cover the slides because you can do mainly most of Dr.

Gardner's part, right?

I don't have strong opinions either way.

I mean, the more the merrier, but also fine.

Folks have other commitments.

The problem the problem we're in with the exception of next week's meeting, if we were to bring someone else in, and we'd be in violation of the Brown Act as far as having too many to cover the slides.

So they don't have to attend your meeting.

They you could so like I can volunteer and you can assign me a role and you can just toss me and run a show and boom boom.

Um that would be your meeting.

I see that would be kind of difficult.

We do we do go over the slides to know who's doing what, and you know, creating that.

So it would be kind of difficult to just throw, say, here are your slides and go.

Except we have all been at the first.

We all were at the first one.

So like if somebody had, because I know the the you did the 15 commissioners, but I think anybody could do that, or you just follow the script, right?

The other workaround is I cannot come to because we do rehearsals is what I think you're expecting.

So I could sit out since I'm not gonna be there.

So whoever steps up, they can come and rehearse with the group.

Well, I will not be there next week.

So if you guys want to decide the following week, we can um we can just uh go with that.

So I will not be there on Tuesday.

So if you guys want to use that format and yeah, just say who's going to be in there, then the following week we can do that.

The on-site rehearsal.

Wanna talk about the uh the word out?

Yeah, so um things um the website.

You all please go check out the website.

It uh has been it works, it works.

Oh yeah, I've been breaking all of it.

I try to break website.

Listen, too.

Yeah, everything.

Um, it works all the um all the uh connections, everything jumps to the um to the uh registration.

Which does that registration piece feed somewhere so we can see who's already so let me talk through this.

Um, so the first piece is that the website is completely updated.

This landing page is completely done.

There's one thing that I've done.

Can I submit?

Can I can I request everybody send it to your supervisor?

I send it to mine because he had some questions.

What's going on?

We had meeting, and then I sent him the website and he no longer has questions.

Okay, very cool.

Very cool.

Um, yeah, so so there's two things that still have to be done on the on the website.

On this first page, we're gonna add a button so you can just jump up and toggle a little bit easier.

But we've updated the whole thing, all the links works.

The social media links are linked to the pages that you set up, so that's in place.

Uh we rebuilt the section that you're looking at right now.

Uh before it was just sort of uh like a post of the dates.

This is actually an event management system built into our website.

So click on the first.

Learn more.

And you go in and there's you know the logos of who skit sponsor, a little bit about you can RSVP right here on the site.

So the idea is that we drive all traffic to our site.

Our analytics will be amazing, right?

So this is where people should be coming.

Uh you go in, you RSVP on the back end, these uh RSVPs fill into kind of like a table uh or excel spreadsheet, and um we can get this every day sent to whomever wants to manage the manage the guest list.

We can get it sent once a week daily, but um this way we're owning all of our data and all of our content right here on our site.

And then can that be used for yeah, that can be used for of course to promote everything.

Absolutely stuff.

But how about how does that affect data and report writing stuff?

Data collection analysis or report writing.

Does that have any effect on that?

Uh oh, no, not necessarily because what we're gonna collect here is what you see, right?

Names, email address.

So if we want to do mass communications, we'll have a full list of all the people who signed up, whether for more information or to attend the listening session.

Okay, so like yeah.

Perfect.

Yeah, and so um, so this was exciting.

It took it took a little bit more time than I uh anticipated to build it, but we got it done.

And um, so we should be driving traffic to our website.

You know, Diego was able to post to social media the flyer and the information, it all drives to the website.

All our QR codes drive to the website.

As far as commissioners, if we put a tag, let's say on our Facebook or Instagram there, would that be a brown act violation if everybody had this link on there?

On their personal page.

My understanding, having the link, you can't like each other's links.

I don't like anybody, but yeah, like we can't all comment.

Right, so but we can have the link on there and send it forward.

Okay, perfect.

Okay.

Um, couple other things.

So prior to tonight, we thought we couldn't do ads, but so I'll come back to that.

I sent out to folks cop digital copies of these flyers.

Really, really want to encourage everyone, send it out to your networks, invite people, text it out, email it out.

I sent it out to about a hundred folks I know throughout the bay.

I'm stressing them out.

Get your buttons in the space, pick one, come so we can get as much community input as possible.

Our social media sites are brand new.

So you're gonna go on there and it's like five people, right?

So we can't lean too much on social.

We actually have to build our social media presence and following.

So we just learned tonight that we can, in fact, uh do ads.

We'll be able to do ads.

So the thing that I need to know is who the person who's the admin on the social sites.

Um, and then we can set up a meeting either Friday or Monday or you know, early next week, so that we can sit down with my finance person and get them in the system and figure out how that's gonna work.

Okay, yeah, speaking.

Commissioner Barlack, are you still there?

Yep, she is.

I had my hand raised, but I didn't want to interrupt.

Um Commissioner Barry, are you still presenting?

Because I didn't want to jump in.

I only had my hand raised to make sure Aaron knew that I was going to be discussing the um social media.

I get I've got like maybe 60 seconds left and I'll and I'll be done.

So you all have the site, you have the flyers, you have the digital resources.

Um, we'll add the jump up on that front page, and then I have an ask for you all.

If you go to the resources tab, it's empty, right?

I need help.

I need you all to help me figure out what resources do we want to share on our website.

I don't feel comfortable being a person to go and select all these things.

So if everyone would at least send me maybe two or three suggestions, and please don't send me on a treasure hunt.

No, but when you see where it is.

From your mind, yeah.

Well, from one of our earlier conversations, not just for me, uh, we talked about things like the California reparations report, um, data that maybe we've collected or other presentations that we found useful in the process.

Um, you know, I'm really open.

I think it's our decision, right?

So feel free to send me what you think the public should have access to, right?

In terms of resources.

Someone had asked me, hey, can you make sure we have links to the work in Evanston on there, right?

Right.

So I do have a list of some ideas, but it's not enough to populate that page.

Okay, can you send me the list of what you have, and then that will help me my brain?

Yeah, for sure.

So if everyone could just think about that, please again send to the stuff.

Uh, I want to make sure we get that page going into a place where we all feel very proud of what's represented there as well.

Um and with that, I will pass to question question.

So, how do I get this?

So I'm getting this now, but how am I alerted that the flyer is ready?

Comment on the flyer because I'm not in the listening session group.

So you're so now I'm like, for me, I'm seeing these flyers for the first time.

So what's the process that we're gonna have for okay?

You know, we just finished the OIBCs, now let's do the West Oakland one.

I feel like I'm out of the loop as a commissioner.

That's a great point.

You know, we might want to update.

We're talking about this, the project plan.

We might need to add a couple steps because I can't send it to everyone, right?

Oh, that's why.

Maybe we need to add a step of review by the commission.

Maybe we I sent it to you.

No, it would be within your subcommittee.

It would be the community listening session.

We'll be branding.

Um, all the subcommittee members, you would present the final flyer.

Because like this flyer, Sean produced, and it was more of like a save the date, and it was more like a nudge, like do you all like something like this as all the dates?

But it wasn't intended for you to use it.

It was just to kick start the conversation, but he did a wonderful job.

Right.

So we're still in love with it.

So yeah, so that's one of those types of when you're looking at say, okay, do we need to get the entire commission approval because that's not I'm not a matter of fact?

I am I could have sent these out last week, but I didn't even know they were done.

I think we do fresh off the yeah, we just got them done.

Yeah, but but you're right.

You said they went.

Oh yeah, as soon as I got them done like Thursday, I started emailing people.

They're emailing.

Yeah, but see how the rest of the commission is aligned to that.

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.

Yeah, the part of that is how do we I know it's in it's in SharePoint.

It's in SharePoint.

So we can alert you that it's in SharePoint, but the hard part is with the Brown Act, we can't put a mass email out.

That's okay.

So okay, if Sean knows uh that the flyer has been finalized, then we can send out the flyer.

We can send out the message, we can upload it in SharePoint and let you all share under final draft flyer folder.

Yeah, okay in SharePoint, right?

A good call out because I I thought about and I was like, wait, I can't send it.

That was the issue.

And so now they are on SharePoint now.

Yeah, it's a SharePoint, yeah.

These are on SharePoint.

Iriam uploaded it, the final you sent me Sunday.

Yeah, it's in there.

It is in there.

And um, do you have SharePoint notifications on?

Alert.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that would have you would have been alerted because I got about 130 of them recently.

I get it.

I don't know which ones are flyers.

Yeah, but it does say, it does say flyer on it.

So that's so and is there um can we designate that some of these are drafts and some of these are finals, like that we make sure we're all sending out the same one, like final or send this one.

The finals, where I'm looking at, looks like the final, it's still in the draft order.

Is that I see the I'm gonna try to move.

And what I'm looking at in the final looks like the draft.

Yeah, then in the draft looks like I'm gonna move this over to the final.

Okay.

And then yeah, then we know what to do.

Can we also on the website?

So the September one is done.

Is there a way to say completed?

Is there something?

It's completed on there.

Yep.

On our website, it says, yeah, if you click it, it says that the event has passed.

E and R C P.

Um, mine looks like this.

You click in there.

Oh, I have to click to try to go.

I was thinking, is there something that could say oh completed or completed?

Well, the data's on there, right?

I know, but it's yeah, but I know what you're asking for.

I I you make me work through.

Oh, it's not August.

It's October.

If this could just say it's fine.

But yeah.

Yeah, I shouldn't have.

If I click on this, you're saying yeah, right at the top, this is then it's passed up top.

Okay.

You say it says it's events.

This event is passed.

Yeah.

They click.

Well maybe event is passed.

You said same language here.

Oh, then we'll well, each one of these will tick off as we're done.

Those are filled.

So it's so I won't promise, but I will try.

So we're just saying completed.

So if I may through the chair and that's why we have like the task lists for each subcommittee.

So on the task list for listening sessions.

So I think this might be under admin and budget.

There's a communications like protocol or just connect it to the website.

So we can talk, because we and I can walk you through like what could that look like because what's coming up here is absolutely why that task is there?

It's to specify what are the steps.

If any other subcommittee wanted to create a flyer for something, what steps should they follow?

So we can work towards that because that's one of the tasks on the task list.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, I like that.

Good questions, okay.

Any any other questions about the site, the RSVP list, process, any of that?

Thank you.

All right.

So I'll do that you told me and I was like, because we had our meeting money.

Documents, darn nearly like your menu.

Look.

Um, so any anything for you and Commissioner Verla?

Commissioner Verlack, you wanted to say something about she she wants to when we get to her part of the agenda.

Okay, okay.

I think the only thing for the listening, I have this gift card money, and I did already upload a spreadsheet on there in the budget.

Yeah, my finance person gave me the tip.

So it's all there.

So oh, I'm sorry, do you have a person to give the facilities on too?

As far as far as stepping up, if someone can pick up food, the problem with me taking cards is because of my license, I would have to file with FINRA an outside business activity, and then I'm handling money for an organization.

Anyway, so if um, you know, some of you were asking how can we help if someone could pick up food for the Saturday 25th event, that would be fabulous.

There's the card here.

And if you're looking for someone to give that card to, I don't know who yet at the moment, because you know, me handling that causes a lot of paperwork that I don't like to do.

So we offline that conversation.

I I don't need to understand how do we pay location?

Like I don't even understand what we have to do.

Is that on online?

I I don't know if I well.

Yeah, we can talk about the current location paid.

No, it's not paid.

Okay.

So this is uh they're not paid yet.

And in fact, I think there's an email still out to try to figure out a date to walk the site.

But that's on Friday.

Okay, Friday morning.

Would we pay them before or after?

Because if you don't pay them before, then you have the card on Friday anymore.

They don't have to be uploaded.

No, so we can pay them with the credit card this way.

Okay.

But you like once the card to like she needed to have the food.

Right, that's this one.

It that's not necessarily designated to her, allocated to her.

She can just pass it to the next person the next one.

Correct.

I just we want to make sure it does not get lost.

And everybody keeps a receipt.

Yeah, so preference would be to go to available.

But again, you're still looking for a volunteer today.

So if facilities, yeah, you can do the facilities, but for for the twenty-fifth for the twenty-fifth, is there someone that's how we can support it to someone who's able to pick up food for that event and Shanita can email the list that we did before if we have a rough estimate of how many people we have now.

Okay, yeah.

You gotta get it from you.

Yeah.

Is it gonna be?

Oh, it'll be a cool refrigerator and a cooler.

You are right off.

Give me a refrigerator 24-hour food.

You can't even oh, so you can start.

Yeah, I picked up everything.

But yeah, we can talk.

Oh.

I can order it to be that that'll work.

Okay.

Did you want to give me the code?

Please take this thing.

That's just interesting.

So that's something we can put in the run of the show.

So then we all know.

It's like, oh yeah, the run of a show says, be delivered.

Right.

Then you look for the sake, or you know, now, okay, I'm there that day, I'll take the delivery.

That's the running show.

And that will actually help with the other ones.

The ones to look forward.

Because we just have a delivery, we don't have to sit there, slipping it from your car.

So you don't have to put it into your car.

Okay, the whole world.

And there is a safe way close by, so uh, you know what, Tiga, let's jump to you.

Let's go to the DR subcommittee.

Thank you, my dear.

Okay, yes, definitely.

Um, thank you so much.

Uh it's a very short report.

Let me get to it.

We had a few great meetings, and we have decided as a committee that we're going to have a second survey, and I'm currently working on.

I'm reviewing the harms report, which we all received a copy of the capstone report earlier this year, and I'm gonna be using some of the identifiers as well as the platform pieces that Chair Gore Mann came up with to come up with a few more questions to get survey responses for from members of Alameda County who may not attend our listening sessions.

So my goal since we didn't meet today, since we had this meeting, is by the time we meet next week on the 15th, is to have um definitely streamlined the second survey.

I started working on it with the committee um last week and we came up with some additional questions to get the demographics taken care of as well as thinking about accessibility because we do have some room in our budget.

I do need to start exploring finding a vendor or maybe some type of consultant that can help us with the margin of error because we need to determine if we open up the survey, which we intend to through our social media platform, as well as a button on our website, we probably will get some spam or some answers that are not particularly helpful, so we need to investigate how to weed out the information that we're not gonna need.

Um we also came up with a potential sample size, even though it's not perfect of 400.

Um the work plan calls for us to have between 50 and 75 surveys in two SharePoint no later than December of this year, and I want to give Commissioner Small a big shout out because he already got 29 in.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on a number.

So we're very close to almost getting halfway there, but if we can get the additional survey launched with the goal of reaching a total of 400, including the uh surveys we'll get from the listening sessions, I think will go a long way towards having a lot of data to use for our report.

Um, we also were able to finalize our note taker, and so I do want to thank everybody for helping with coordination.

My understanding is that Dr.

Laquita Long will be the note taker on the 25th, and then going forward it will be Alicia McKnight.

But someone please correct me if that's incorrect.

As we continue to meet, we'll think about another way of capturing the notes because one of the issues is especially if all of the commissioners cannot be at the listening session and this in DAR is technically not a part of listening sessions.

We need to create a uniform process for the note taker to get the notes into SharePoint or to the commissioner that needs to upload it.

So I'm still thinking of how to kind of do a standard operating procedure to get the notes to the right people and into the right place.

And that is pretty much the report.

Um, Chair Gorman or Shad or someone else, if you have anything to add, please let me know if I forgot something.

Yeah, the social media buy.

Oh, yeah, the social media buy.

Okay, so also I do have a potential consultant that I met with.

Her name is Tacean Kwamaleli, and her group is called the Pamalili Law Group.

Um, I do want to thank um Miss Ian Koya for sending me a list of community partners that we can link with in order to push out our social media, and so as far as the Quamalelli law group, Kamalelli group is concerned.

They sent me a proposal as well as some of their prior work.

So, my goal, since we're we're not meeting for budget or DAR until Wednesday is to present her plan to both subcommittees.

And that should definitely help us with the social media push that we're aiming for.

The only thing is once that vendor is approved, if she's approved, one of my other goals is to have additional content to put on social media other than just our flyers and our survey.

So I will be working probably across committees with the listening group to get to capture the content that our videographer is getting so I can try to flesh that down into some still shots or other content we could use to kind of build out our social media presence.

And so hopefully by the beginning of I'm gonna be ambitious and say before our listening session.

So it will be the week of October 20th.

We can at least get that vendor into a process of getting approved because I already checked and she's not on the approved vendors list yet.

So there will be a little bit of red tape if this the vendor is approved to get her set up to help me essentially manage the project of moving social media into something where we're working with community partners as well as showcasing the work of the commission in a way that is gonna attract the kind of attention that we want.

Were you on the call earlier where we have the process where you can just send the vendor name in help form?

Yes, I saw that.

Yes, I love it, and I'm gonna do it.

Uh thank you, Chair uh Vice Chair McLendon for getting that in SharePoint.

So yes, I saw that today, so that's very helpful, so we can kind of get the process going before we go to the presentation.

The Commissioner Burlack, there was one other process that Air needs.

Air needs um or someone from the library needs to be added as the financial director for the Facebook.

That's the way that they pay for the ads.

It's a different since we're not doing credit cards, we have a different process for the social media.

So can she reach out to you to uh be added to the actual Facebook uh administrative page?

Yes, we are gonna have to do that.

That's probably gonna have to be through my data center because the Facebook page is linked through my account, so we may need to unlink it and fix it, but that's definitely something we could work on so we can get those ads going.

Okay.

Awesome.

Great.

Yeah, just connect with me directly and we'll figure out what we need to do to get it all set up.

Right.

And definitely one other thing we can think about for financial is if you wanted to do a TikTok once we have the media content with the moving videos and things, so that might be something we could also independently set up with um the library as a financial director.

Awesome.

And each commissioner has to do a TikTok dance.

That's right.

You know what?

We're gonna we're gonna do it with boots on the ground, we're gonna do it together.

Bring it up.

I got to teach me the dance, I don't know.

Okay.

Uh so it we will um jump to the admin budget, but I think we're done.

Okay, you covered everything you needed.

Okay.

If there are no other open items, good of the order, over comment.

Oh, I don't think we have anything.

I do have one item for the good of the order.

Um Deb C could share with me on October 19th, there will be the impacts of community segregation in the Bay Area, past and present at the Castro Valley Library, and there'll be a presentation by Aisha Knowles, Steph, Steven Menendian and Leah Rothstein.

And so this might be a good way.

If someone can go, I will be out of town.

But if we have flyers um in hand, maybe um one of the commissioners could go and just leave them on a table or something like that, since it is the week before um our listeners.

And that's from um it starts at 1:30.

Oh, you think showing shown on the 19th?

Sunday Sunday it's at the Castro Valley Library.

So Deb and I will both be there.

We'll make sure, but you know, it would be a great event to come.

Uh Commissioner Knowles, also on the 19th the apologies being shown at the I will try to get I'll be back one o'clock that's where I will be so maybe that can get on a website resources as an event right I'll send it to you okay and that one also the um the the information at the uh the E D O C that we're gonna meet I think E O Y D C I'll get it sooner or later.

Saturday yeah they yeah we could put things like that as resources also that would be fabulous.

Okay.

With that then I will move down the meeting at church.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right you get some sleep now thanks to you guys thank you.

Bye.

You can keep sitting here