Alameda County Supervisors Committee Meeting: Aging, Emergency Preparedness, Refugee Services, and Child Welfare Updates - February 24, 2026
Alameda County Supervisors Committee Meeting: Aging, Emergency Preparedness, Refugee Services, and Child Welfare Updates - February 24, 2026
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors' committee (chaired by Supervisor Tam, with Supervisor Fortunado Bass) met on February 24, 2026, at 10:30 AM to receive informational updates from four county departments and hear public testimony. No votes were taken; the committee received reports and discussed next steps.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Jean Moses (public comment on Item 3 – Refugee Services): Asked whether the decline in refugee clients is due to fear of being identified by federal agents. The presenter acknowledged uncertainty but stated that the Social Services Agency does not share client information.
- Former Assemblymember Dion Aroner (public comment on Item 4 – Child Welfare): Expressed concern that the audit and updates focus on timeliness and accountability but do not address the well-being of children or the lack of community engagement. Noted that many mental health and child welfare agencies in Alameda County do not contract with the county and called for renewed coordination.
- Cynthia Oliandry (public comment on Item 4 – Child Welfare): As a social worker and union vice president, asked what type of case management experience is required for Child Welfare Worker I positions, suggesting that broader definitions could increase the applicant pool. Director Love responded that the job description is set by Human Resources and each case is evaluated individually.
- Ms. Robinson (online public comment on Item 4 – Child Welfare): Questioned whether the minimum requirements for Social Worker II positions (post-bachelor's experience) may be hindering applications from otherwise qualified candidates with relevant human services experience. Director Love noted that case management experience is required for bachelor's-level hires to improve retention.
Discussion Items
Advisory Commission on Aging Update
- Presenter: Laura Michael, Chair of the Advisory Commission on Aging.
- The commission has 11 of 21 authorized members; they are seeking more appointments from the Mayor's Conference.
- Accomplishments: quarterly senior update newsletter, a webinar on grandparents raising grandchildren, holiday baskets, and participation in RFP review panels.
- Committees: legislative, public relations/outreach, and services delivery.
- Supervisor Tam asked about food security trends. Michael noted that changes in Medi-Cal and CalFresh requirements are coming but not yet fully felt; seniors make up 40% of the homeless population.
- Supervisor Fortunado Bass asked about quorum (over half of current members) and whether need for meals is increasing. Michael reported that food availability from Mercy Brownbag has decreased, while need may be rising.
- No public comments.
Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (DPEM) Update
- Presenters: Pamela Powell (Executive Program Coordinator) and Lorena Briceño (Senior Management Analyst), Social Services Agency.
- DPEM aligned under the Office of Public Affairs in January 2025 to integrate crisis communication with operational response.
- Key statistics: 96% of agency staff completed shelter fundamentals training; during the 2025 federal shutdown, 119,000 pounds of food were distributed to over 4,000 households (13,700 individuals); supported 80 residents after the January 2026 Broadway apartment fires in Oakland.
- The Mass Care and Shelter Plan was adopted by the Disaster Council in January 2025. The agency's continuity of operations plan is under executive review.
- Goals for 2026: expand disaster service worker readiness, enhance crisis communication, and deepen coordination with cities.
- Supervisor Fortunado Bass asked about coordination with the Sheriff's Office (Office of Emergency Services) and resilience hubs. Briceño explained regular coordination calls and identified shelter locations in unincorporated areas (e.g., REACH center, community colleges). She noted that Ava Community Energy and California Forward have programs for resilience hubs.
- No public comments.
Refugee Resettlement Agencies and Support Services Update
- Presenter: Raman Zamani (Social Services Agency).
- Background: A January 20, 2025 executive order paused foreign aid, suspending refugee resettlement grants. Alameda County approved a three-month emergency contract (February 1 – April 30, 2025) for $876,050 with three agencies: IRC Oakland, Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay, and Jewish Family Services Silicon Valley. Only 38% of funds were used because some agencies received federal funding and saved county general funds.
- Refugee Housing Support Program (RHSP): $787,999 allocated; from October 2025 to January 2026, 61 clients were served across five districts, using $119,706.
- Refugee Support Services contracts: $14.015 million for core services (employment, ESL, social adjustment) through September 2026; $1.322 million for social integration through August 2026; $1.216 million for trafficking victims through September 2028.
- New arrivals to California declined sharply: 665 in March 2025, 267 in April 2025, and 105 in January 2026.
- Supervisor Tam asked about outcomes; Zamani said providers are meeting or exceeding goals but client numbers are declining. Cash assistance was reduced from 12 to 4 months, increasing pressure on self-sufficiency.
- Supervisor Fortunado Bass asked why only 38% of emergency funds were used; Zamani explained that some agencies received federal funding and saved county funds, and one agency (Jewish Family Services Silicon Valley) used 100% of its allocation.
- Public comment from Jean Moses (see above).
Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Status Update
- Presenter: Machelle Love, Assistant Agency Director for Children and Family Services.
- Update on the 2024 state audit: 15 recommendations; six (6, 7, 9, 11) have been successfully implemented; the rest are in progress. The six-month progress report is due March 23, 2026.
- Key metrics (as of February 2026):
- 10-day response referrals: 35% timely (state average 58%); attempts at 43.8%.
- Immediate response referrals: 82.5% (goal 90%).
- Vacant child welfare worker positions: 70.
- New exam (March 16, 2026) received 140 applications.
- Caseloads (all below state guidelines):
- Emergency response: 296 cases, 31 workers.
- Dependency investigations: 154 cases, 17 workers.
- Family reunification: 245 cases, 19 workers.
- Family maintenance: 126 cases, 10 workers.
- Permanent youth connections: 421 cases, 25 workers.
- Adoptions: 118 cases, 5 workers.
- Diverse Ideas Work Group meets monthly; recently improved referral assignment timeliness by having supervisors assign cases jointly with clerical staff.
- Supervisor Fortunado Bass asked about quality outcomes beyond timeliness. Love explained that court report templates have been updated to document services (therapy, medical/dental) and are reviewed by attorneys and judges, providing external accountability.
- Supervisor Tam asked about obstacles to closing old cases. Love noted that cases were found dumped in unexpected places after worker resignations; a meet-and-confer with the supervisors union is underway to set firm closure timelines.
- Love expressed concern about hiring bachelor's-level workers for emergency response, as a pilot had limited success; she plans to discuss with auditors.
- Public comments from Dion Aroner, Cynthia Oliandry, and Ms. Robinson (see above).
- Love agreed to present federal child well-being metrics (e.g., re-entry rates, permanency) at a future meeting, possibly in summer 2026.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken; all items were informational.
- The committee directed DCFS to present a progress report to the full Board of Supervisors in March 2026 and to include child well-being metrics in a future presentation.
- The committee acknowledged the work of the Advisory Commission on Aging and encouraged continued communication.
- DPEM and refugee services will continue monitoring federal policy changes and report back as needed.
- The committee will receive the DCFS six-month audit response by March 23, 2026, and a full board update in March.
Meeting Transcript
26 may have roll call, please. Not a mask, present. Advisor Camp, present. We have a quorum. Thank you. Can you go through instructions on participation? All participants, please state your name for the record prior to your comment. If you wish to speak on a matter not on the agenda, please wait until Supervisor TAM calls for public input on non-agendized items. Only matters within the committee's jurisdiction may be addressed. To notify the clerk that you wish to speak, please listen closely. For in-person participants, please fill out our speaker card in the back of the room and hand it to the clerk. The clerk will call your name to allow you to speak at the podium. For online participants, please use the raise hand function. The clerk will call your name and allow you to unmute when it is your turn. For dialed-in participants, please dial star five to raise and or lower your hand. The clerk will allow you to unmute when it is your turn. If you no longer wish to speak, lower your hand on Microsoft Teams or simply notify the clerk that you no longer wish to speak when it is your turn. Thank you. Thank you very much. I would like to start with the first informational item, which is the advisory commission on aging. So we'll call um Laura. Laura Michael, uh, thank you. I'm the chair of the advisory commission on aging. Oh, there we go. We are the advisory body for the area agency on aging, and we are appointed by the Board of Supervisors and by the Mayor's Conference to provide advice and oversight to the area agency on aging in terms of funding for local services for seniors. We advocate, we advise, we provide a conduit for information to flow between local seniors, the triple A providers of services, and the board of supervisors, and we are planning to speak in front of the mayor's conference, although we're still in the process of setting that up. I mean, currently we have about 11 commissioners. Our full number would be 21. So we are really looking to get some more commissioners appointed. The board of supervisors has been doing a great job of that lately. The mayor's conference, not so much, so that's why we wish to speak to them. And in terms of our accomplishments for the past year, we are continuing to put out our quarterly senior update newsletter, which has articles on various senior resources throughout the county on Medicare, Medi-Cal, health and mental health issues, recipes, advice. Um, and I think we get a lot of positive feedback on that. We also did a webinar this past year on grandparents raising grandchildren and hoping to do some more webinars in the upcoming year, um, particularly around senior isolation, which is a big issue in Alameda County and elsewhere. Um, we have been advocates, we have signed on to letters. I think I said that before. Well, but we've signed on to letters, and I think the letters make a difference. You look at those letters, and you think is this really gonna help? It has helped, it's helped with the budget impacts on the budget. We also did uh holiday baskets, that's an annual thing that we do. It's as much fun for us as it is for our seniors that we deliver to, and it uh kind of helps get us out to the community. Um we serve on the request for proposal review panel, which you know I've just finished one on INA. We did nine bids and we sat and we rated and provided feedback on the bids for funding for information and assistance fines. In terms of our committees, we have a legislative committee which keeps track of legislation that affects local seniors, helps the commission to determine recommendations to the board of the super board of supervisors. We have uh one um California Senior Legislature member and another one who was previously on our commission. So we are kept up to track on what's happening with them. We also have a public relations and outreach committee that interacts with local seniors, provides information and support through our newsletter, attends the events, as I said, our senior update newsletter, which seems to be well received and has a pretty wide distribution. And we have a services delivery committee, which has been very active, going out to the community, um, visiting some of our funded agencies, meeting the clients, coming back to us and letting us know what's going on and what the needs might be. We're also a presence on the um senior services commission and um the uh age-friendly commission, or age from the council. And in terms of what we want to ask for from Board of Supervisors, just keep an active channel communication open, acknowledge us if we send you information.
openpublica.com