Good morning, everyone, and thank you and welcome and thank you for joining us today.

Uh Tuesday, March 3rd, our regularly scheduled Board of Trustees meetings.

I will call our meeting to order and ask the clerk to call the role to establish our quorum.

Supervisor Marquez.

Present.

Supervisor Tan.

Present.

Supervisor Miley.

Supervisor Fournotabath.

President Halbert.

Present.

We have a quorum.

Would you all please rise if you can and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Our next item uh for speaking uh or on the agenda, rather, is remarks from our board of supervisors, my colleagues.

I recognize Supervisor Tam, then Marquez, then Fortunato Bass, then Miley.

Supervisor Tam, the floor is yours.

Thank you, President Halbert.

Um ask the board's indulgence.

I have some extensive comments because February was just a jam-packed month and a very short month.

First of all, I want to thank our bird our board clerk, um Brittany Davis and her staff for posting the minutes on a very timely basis.

My staff and I really appreciate it because these minutes are key in terms of uh helping uh get funding out to some of the communities that were approved.

So, as I mentioned, February has been an extremely busy month, especially because it was both Black History Month and Lunar New Year, and these past two weeks have been very jam-packed with activities.

So on February 11th, in partnership with Hip Hop TV and the Urban League of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, our office proudly hosted the third annual African American Recognition Awards.

The event celebrated inspiring black leaders whose dedication, service, and leadership continue to strengthen Alameda County and move our community forward.

On the 17th of February, we proudly continued the decades-long tradition that Supervisor Keith Carson established by hosting the county-sponsored Lunar New Year celebration at Lincoln Square Recreation Center in Oakland, Chinatown.

And in partnership with Supervisor Fortunata Bass and her office and the Asian Pacific Islander Community Collaborative, our office welcomed more than a hundred children and families for an afternoon celebrating the rich diversity of the lunar new year traditions.

Students from Lincoln and Cleveland Elementary Schools joined us to learn about cultural customs, while the festivities featured vibrant lion dancing, choral performances, Hawaiian music, Vietnamese, Mongolian, and Korean dance performances that was beautiful beautifully showcasing the diversity in our community.

And on the 23rd, uh our office hosted a sold-out screening of the Apology at the Alameda Theater, which examines the 1960s dismantling of Russell City when one when 1400 black and brown residents were displaced for an industrial park.

Sixty years later, the stories of former residents and their descendants remind us of the importance of acknowledging this history.

With a contribution from our office, the Russell City Redress Fund has now reached 1.3 million dollars.

We reflecting our ongoing commitment to repair harm, honor the community, and ensure these stories are never forgotten.

So I wanted to thank the City of Alameda, the Alameda Theater, and Cineplex for being gracious hosts, and the producer Aisha Knowles for her tireless community outreach and work during to bring the story to our audiences.

And lastly, uh this past Saturday on the 28th, many of you, Supervisor Fortunata Baths and our county administrator, um former Supervisors Keith Carson joined us in a fourth annual Oakland Chinatown Lunar New Year parade, which has been getting larger and larger over the years, and it's been more festive with over a thousand people watching the parade.

So two of the traditional gods joined me on my vehicle at the parade, and I was happy to see that many of the restaurants and the boba shops were filled with people.

There were lines out the door about regenerating Oakland, Chinatown.

And I look forward to this opportunity to work more with the merchants to bring more prosperity to our community.

So thank you, Supervisor.

Supervisor Tam, quite a busy February for you.

Great job.

And I love hearing about those events.

Supervisor Marquez.

Okay, thank you so much.

Good morning, everyone.

Um, thank you, President Howard.

Just wanted to also flag uh District 2 had a very fun and joyous month as well.

Um, just to highlight, we did participate in Lunar New Year here in Oakland with Supervisor Tam and Fortunato Bass.

Also want to thank my team for going to Lunar New Year events and new work.

Also had the opportunity to participate in IFTAR, acknowledging breaking the fast for Ramadan and for Black History Month.

We worked in collaboration with Alameda County Reparations Commission on hosting a listening session.

I'd like to encourage the public to fill out that survey.

It's still listed on their website as well as their social media account.

And also want to give a huge shout out to Deb Sika, our librarian.

This past Friday, we had the opportunity to host um Governor Gavin Newsom and his wife Jennifer Siebel, and they launched a new initiative focusing on bringing connectivity, uh reducing the level of isolation in our state and really encouraging people to connect to take advantage of their libraries, to take advantage of service projects.

So it was a very uplifting and inspiring event that was hosted at the Fremont Library.

They bust in about 300 students.

There was singing, dancing, yoga, storytelling.

It was an amazing event, and just want to thank Deb and her entire team for organizing that.

And then yesterday, we also had the honor of hosting the governor yet again in Hayward at Regis Village.

And I want to give a huge plug out to AC Health, uh specifically interim director Anika Shandri, Dr.

Tribble, Jonathan Russell, and Judge Sandra Bean for their tremendous work that they're doing related to care court.

Alameda County is on the good list.

We are doing things really well in this county, connecting people to services and housing.

So just wanted to applaud that level collaboration and that work doesn't get done without strong partnerships and training.

So we are filing those petitions and connecting people to the services they need to make them whole.

So congratulations to Alameda County.

It was a really proud moment.

And if you have downtime, watch the press conference.

It was quite interesting.

And I want to thank the governor because I took the mic from him at the end of the press conference, and he was so gracious.

But I wanted to end on a high note and close us out.

And it was exciting.

So thank you, President Halbert, for being there.

Mayor Salinas was there, and just really excited that the governor continues to invest in our district and highlight the counties that are doing the work right.

So congratulations to everybody on that note.

Thank you, Supervisor Marquez.

Again, great job.

I don't think I've ever, ever, ever seen anybody kick Gavin Newsom off the microphone.

But you did it so eloquently and at right the time, and he actually appreciated that because he he could have gone all day.

But indeed, um a lot of accolades for Alameda County.

We were recognized by uh his secretaries and himself as um being champions for progress be made with our um homeless population.

While some leaders uh may not recognize Alameda County and the work that we do, he and his secretaries did so well deserved.

Supervisor Fortinata Bass.

Great.

Uh thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

Um, I also had a number of fun events celebrating Lunar New Year as well as Black History Month.

Uh, thank you, Supervisor Tam for organizing the official county's Lunar New Year event.

Um, it's always a pleasure because there's so many young children who have so much energy and talent.

So that's always a highlight of my um of my month.

Um, I wanted to also thank Supervisor Marquez for last week's public protection committee and bringing forward the fair chance housing presentations.

I do hope that we'll act with urgency to bring the countywide policy to the board.

Uh, this issue was very important to me.

Um, I co-authored Oakland's Fair Chance Housing Policy in 2020 with a number of the advocates who were advocating for the county policy.

And I also wanted to share that um I support the advocates' requests that our county council look into applying the fair chance housing ordinance to all affordable housing projects that receive funding from the county.

Secondly, I wanted to remind folks that this Thursday, March 5th, we have our Alameda County Together for All meeting at 3 p.m.

Our county administrator's office is going to give a status report on the policies that we passed in January, the immigration enforcement response plan, as well as ice free zones.

And then I also wanted to share a couple more uplifting announcements.

One is that myself, my staff, and I believe a number of us had an opportunity to join our firefighters local 55 for a retirement party recently.

Congratulating Sean Burroughs on his retirement as well as Jess Anderson and Joe Baldwin.

So we want to congratulate them for their service as well as wish them well in their retirements and their next endeavors because I know they are not going to stop working.

They'll continue to uh contribute to our community.

And then I wanted to also highlight that this Friday is the 100th anniversary of the Grand Lake Theater.

I hope many of you are familiar with the Grand Lake Theater.

It's a beloved Art Deco theater.

It's very historic.

There have been amazing premieres, and I believe Boots Riley is having the premiere of his next film there in April.

This Wednesday, there will be free movies.

You can find that information on my Instagram.

And then on Friday, there will be free tours of the theater.

I've known Alan Michael for quite some time, who's the owner and really appreciate his family purchasing, renovating, upgrading, and maintaining the theater as a locally owned theater.

And I will be um meeting up with them on Friday to drop off a proclamation and we'll share that information with my colleagues and your staff on the board in case any of you can join.

And then lastly, um I know many of us are just uh very, very thrilled by Alyssa Liu's performance as a gold medalist.

Um I wanted to share.

Thank you.

Um I wanted to share that I will be bringing a proclamation forward so that we as a board can honor her.

Um Oakland, the city of Oakland is also planning a celebration over the next two weeks.

The details of that will be available soon.

And um, a number of us over the weekend had a chance to meet Alyssa's father, Arthur Liu, who participated in the fourth annual Chinatown Lunar New Year parade.

And he still has his office in Chinatown.

So she has much to uh make us proud, including continuing to practice at the Oakland Ice Center downtown and her um her having gone to Oakland School for the Arts.

And my daughter actually reminded me that she went to sixth grade together with her.

Little did we know she'd be so famous as a two-time world champion.

So much to celebrate.

Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Fortunato Bass.

Indeed, Alyssa makes us all proud.

We're very proud of her.

Supervisor Miley.

Thank you.

Waiting for the green light to come on.

So unfortunately, I don't have any exciting news, like all this great stuff.

But measure C, the pediatric portion of measure C.

So with Measure C, I'd like to have the board have the county administrator set a uh work session around the pediatric portion of measure C in April.

I know we have the budget uh presentation, uh, but I think that's important that we look at measure C, the pediatric portion because there's been um uh a bit of controversy regarding the use of the pediatric portion relative to children's hospital.

It's come to the health committee.

Um I think it would be very important for the board to take this up in a work session so we can determine uh what type of direction we might want to uh provide on measure C.

Um as you know we a number of folks campaigned very hard, and you know, the initial campaign wasn't successful, but then the next one was uh to get measure C passed.

And I think people feel um very uh disserved and disheartened uh relative to the pediatric board.

So once again, I'd like to see that come to a work session in April at the county administrator's uh discretion and have county council and health care, and I can talk to them further about the content of what I'd be expecting at that work session relative to measure C, the pediatric portion.

So thank you, Mr.

President.

Supervisor Mellley, thank you.

Um and I know you've been busy on the month of February.

Too many to list is really what it is.

Probably too many to list.

But indeed, uh we all celebrated Black History Month and the Lunar New Year.

Um I'd like to thank my colleagues for uh recognizing those.

I would also like to disclose and mention that I attended the National Association of Counties meeting in uh Washington, DC, as I have in years past, and um uh their supervisors from and commissioners from all over the country came and uh met and uh had great dialogue.

Uh this is a disclosure that I'm required to make.

I think we all approved that travel in a previous board agenda.

Uh I would like to say that I came back from that meeting five hours late, took the BART all the way to this meeting because you guys were still going and we kept going as we had the Bellance Bellison meeting last uh Wednesday, and we certainly put in a long day that day.

Okay, with that said, remarks have been exhausted.

We'll now move on to our agenda.

Our agenda then asks for the next item being public comment on items that are on the agenda, except those listed as set matter items.

If there's anybody wishing to comment on items on today's agenda, this is not for public comment on items not on the agenda, but anything on the agenda.

Do we have any speakers?

Yes, we have in person and online.

Okay, so you know what?

I I do know that we also have two groups that are here to speak on items that are not on today's agenda.

And I you know what, let's just take those first.

I'm gonna take some discretion here.

They have two groups here with items that are not on today's agenda.

We typically take those at the end of the meeting, but we're going to move them up to the beginning of the meeting.

We will also allow for public comment on items that are not on the agenda at the end of our meeting, as we typically do.

But I know that we have two groups, uh, parent voices Oakland and up to up to uptip.

And they've each chosen a few representatives to come up and speak.

And so what I'd like to do is have the four speakers from up uh parent voices, Oakland.

Come on up and you have two minutes each, just line up, say your name.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Keila Moore, uh Oakland resident for more than 42 years.

And my public comment is that um any funds requested for UC children's hospital or the pediatric portion should be only spent in Oakland.

If they want to do expansion fund in San Francisco or anywhere else, they could go to that meeting that's in San Francisco and not at 12th Street.

Oh again, we need a good hospital.

Oakland Children's Hospital have been around for a while.

But if you guys have stepped in there lately, you will notice that they have leaks.

They have buckets in the emergency room.

And um initially they had requested for four million for EPIC and staffing, and then somewhere they changed their mind.

I'm not sure.

But um, I just wanted to bring out that if they're gonna spend that type of money, it should be on construction, initial upgrades to the building, staffing, um epic, um, and also the Ronald McDonald House projects.

Um, and also if patients are families have to go to San Francisco, provide a lift or Uber for those families that can't get there.

Yes, or pub or some type of support.

I also feel that at this time they have reached out to us, but we have not met up with them.

Um I just want whatever they do receive, have an audit done.

Show us what you spent it on, initial contacts, um, and and get feedback from their staff, the um nursing union, you know, a pub a people's post.

Have public comment within your own facility to see how if they agree on what you're spending the money on ABCD.

Um, and I'm requesting that uh certain people or whoever that's requesting funds.

We have to keep a close watch over those, and they should be audited or given um some type of that that was your two minutes.

Yeah, sorry.

I just want to make sure we keep an eye on how people are spending money when they request it from us.

So I I have a question for everyone that is on this topic.

Supervisor Miley asked that we will have a work study session on this in April.

I think if we all come back in April, that's the time to bring all of this up.

Can we do that?

Is that a good idea?

They spend the money in Oakland.

They're very good.

You can keep talking if you want, but I think we're ready to go in April.

I agree.

I absolutely agree with you.

He spoke on what my concern was.

And that's why we trust y'all, because y'all critical thinkers.

You want to serve our county.

And it's enough to go around, but charity starts at home, and I'm just grateful that I am able to be here and bear witness to this movement because it's gonna be grand.

Thank y'all for really investing in all that work that we did, starting from Measure A to Measure C.

And I really want to shout out to brother.

You one of my son's heroes at this point.

And I'm just grateful that he has somebody you can look up to outside of our circle and wanna serve.

And I'm just very grateful for that.

You still wear your t-shirt all the time.

I'll be like that.

Oh, come on, you know, more four times this week, but that's another talk show.

So thank you, guys.

And I will be here in April.

Yes.

And thank you so much.

Your beauty.

I'm gonna take our last 59 seconds and say that we do not have enough funds to share with San Francisco.

They have their own county, their own, they can do what we did.

Hit the streets, talk to their people.

This money belongs in Alameda County, period.

We we all appreciate our Nate Miley wise elder.

Come on in.

I work at Children's Hospital Oakland.

I've been there for over 10 years.

And I just want to say thank you for setting up a date for us to meet um in April.

And we just want to make sure that you see meets with us and hears what we have to say and put some action behind it.

So we'll see everybody in April.

Is that good?

Thank you.

So now I'm gonna ask the clerk.

I'm gonna ask the clerk is there anybody that would like to speak on items that are on the agenda?

Any other speaker slips.

Thank you all for coming.

Faye Darmaui, Fosco Yorkoff, Diego Castro.

If the speakers could come line up uh and be ready to speak, the floor is yours.

Welcome.

Hi.

Hi, good morning.

I'm Faye Darmawi.

I'm the deputy director uh for housing and community development at the City of Oakland.

And I want to thank Alameda County Board of Supervisors and staff from the county H C D and Housing and Homeless Services for the tremendous work in putting forth Measure W Home Together RFP to fund permanent housing for persons experiencing homelessness.

The city of Oakland is grateful for the five projects that were awarded, including Liberation Park, 500 Lake Park, 3135 San Pablo, Brighter Bancroft, and East 12th Circle for a total of 23 million four hundred and seventy-five, representing 44% of the total Ward County Countywide.

And for these projects, the city of Oakland invested a hundred million dollars.

As you know, the City of Oakland strategic plan includes an investment framework rooted in equity.

Therefore, the city is deploying our local dollars, including Measure W to maximize the number of affordable housing units dedicated to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.

And the city of Oakland's homeless population represents approximately 60% of the homeless population in Alameda County and 75% of black persons experiencing homelessness in the county.

The City of Oakland HCD is here to both thank the county for supporting affordable housing in Oakland and to advocate for future allocations of measure W dollars to support even more housing for persons experiencing homelessness to be allocated equitably in the place-based approach, recognizing that Oakland is the epicenter of homelessness.

We must partner to leverage both city and county funds.

At this time, we are thrilled that the city has over 800 new affordable units under construction, 500 of which are for people exiting homelessness.

The city anticipates breaking ground on another 600 affordable units over the six months.

And still Oakland has over 12 remaining developments in our pipeline that could deliver another 800 affordable units, including around 265 units for uh those exiting homelessness.

Members of the board, thank you.

Uh, my name is Vasco Yorgov, and I'm a project developer with Eden Housing.

I just want to give a huge thanks to the board uh for making this funding available and to thank county staff for implementing an RFP for it in record time.

Uh, we urge the board to follow staff recommendations to award all of the listed projects.

Um, but I particularly want to highlight the project I'm working on, downtown Livermore Apartments in Livermore.

Um, Measure W funding will enable the construction of 130 much needed affordable housing units, 33 of which will serve permanent supportive housing.

Uh and just again, a huge thanks to the board for this transformative funding and for making it available for great projects.

Thank you.

Congratulations and thank you for your persistence.

Supervisor Marquis question.

Of course.

Waiting for the okay, sorry, there's a delay.

Uh, congratulations.

If you don't mind just sharing with the public, I understand that project was held in litigation.

Do you know how long when that started and just the litigation against the project, I believe started in 2021.

So I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.

I'm sorry.

Uh the litigation, I believe, started in 2021 of the project phase.

Yeah.

Okay.

So again, like um President Halbert said, thank you to Eden Housing for your persistence.

It's really important that we have affordable housing in every stretch of our community.

So congratulations on the project finally breaking ground.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hi, good morning, board members.

My name is Diego Castro.

I'm a project developer with Eden Housing as well, speaking on behalf of the Brighter Bancroft project.

Uh again, I just want to echo what Bosco said and give you all a huge thanks for making this funding available, not to mention uh thank you to the county HCD staff for turning this around very quickly.

Not and also working with the City of Oakland and their Measure U funding, it was really a huge effort from both parties.

Um, the funding allows for the expansion of long-term housing for people experiencing homelessness, placement into PSH units, as well as operating subsidies are really the best way to combat this.

So again, thank you, and we encourage you to uh follow staff recommendations to award all the six projects, especially Eden's downtown Livermore project, as well as Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zones Liberation Park and Brighter Bancroft Project, uh, both located in the Eastmont neighborhood of Oakland.

Uh, Measure W funding will play a crucial role in enabling the construction of Brighton Braincroft.

My project consists of 91 units of senior housing with a mix of one bedrooms and two bedrooms, really aimed at multi-generational households.

Um, and uh because of this funding, we will be able to have 25 PSH units.

So, again, because of the work of organizations like you, Eden Housing and Bicultural Zone will be able to provide some much needed housing into the Eastmont neighborhood.

Thank you.

Emma, go ahead, you have two minutes.

Thank you very much.

Uh good morning, supervisors.

My name is Emma.

I'm representing Ebra as the administrative support.

I'm here to speak on item number 19.

So uh first, I would like to acknowledge the important work that is being done through the Measure W Together Fund.

Uh permanent housing investments are critical, and we all feel the urgency of this homelessness crisis.

So as you move forward with this contract, I would like to reintroduce a previously discussed idea by EBRA called the vacancy activation program.

So we have existing vacant units in Alameda County.

And this units are exist not because there's no demand or because owners do not want to rent them, but because um many of these units need minor NHI repairs, and this runs across plumbing, electrical updates, safety and habitability improvements.

And these are real barriers for small property owners, but they're not insurmountable.

So right now we are investing heavily into new development, and that is important.

But it can be quite expensive and slow, and it can take years before someone receives a key to their home.

Meanwhile, we do have existing units that can be brought back online to the market in months or even weeks if we have targeted repair funds that are available.

So activating existing vacant units is one of the fastest and most cost-effective supply side strategies that are available.

It uses existing infrastructure, costs less per unit, and it supports responsible small rental housing providers.

So this idea is not about replacing new development, but complementing it.

So as Measure W investments move forward, I strongly encourage the board to consider allocating a portion of that fund towards a structured vacancy activation program to solve this crisis.

And we all know that once that is solved, we'll have less homelessness being experienced in the county.

Um that's all.

Thank you.

Have a great day.

You have two minutes.

Go ahead, please.

Please unmute your phone.

You have two minutes.

Hi, um, my name is Nan Mai, and um I am a senior project manager, Sah.

Um, on behalf of Sahar, I would like to extend um our heartfelt gratitude to the county of Alameda HCD staff for awarding us uh three measure W Home Together Fund awards in total of 16.6 million for the following projects and 3135 San Pablo, People's Park supportive housing, and Thornton Avenue Housing.

Collectively, these projects will create 242 new units with 84 units specifically designated for individuals experiencing homelessness or formerly homeless households.

These projects are a um significant step towards addressing the housing needs in our community, and we are committed to ensuring their successful completion.

We are truly grateful to the county HCD staff for providing us with the opportunity to apply and for recognizing our efforts with these invaluable awards, and I would like to urge the board of supervisors to approve you know the item number 19.

Um, thank you once again.

Obi U Waka, Samuel Raimi, Buffalo Sajorn.

Members of the board.

My name is Obi Walker, and I'm a project developer with Eden Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer working across Alameda County.

Eating Housing currently has three affordable housing developments in our Alameda County pipeline, totaling 340 new affordable housing homes.

Projects like residence at Liberation Park in East Oakland, a 119 unit affordable housing development serving working families and special needs residents.

So exactly who measure W is meant for.

I appreciate the committee's work in advancing the Measure W Housing Trust Fund recommendations.

And I encourage the board to approve and continue treating housing as a core public health investment.

Thank you for your leadership and consideration.

Good morning, I'm the National Homeless Union Mental Health Outreach.

We had a state emergency a couple weeks ago.

And I had to leave going to Chicago.

So we got 58,000 inflation almost in Chicago.

58,000.

Right now down.

So yes, me, what we're gonna do.

So we're gonna build facilities and get them off the street.

And how?

Same thing we'll do here.

Um glad Joe Biden saved the money for us.

He put away 5.8 billion dollars for us, and no one else would be able to check.

Oh, we should have low-income veteran.

We need to afford the senior system, we can't afford it.

So we want to fix the income.

It's all paid for right that carry out.

Give me the link.

My fact, we suppose the uh local navy for senior system.

You know what they did?

They got the money for, they would have made three motels.

And um 50 mochail.

Instead of building them a rent for sure.

Well, I had got the money for.

I'm working hard.

I did that about five, six years ago.

10 years ago.

And they did.

So I mean over here, should I say they ain't building that?

What?

So I won't be open new development.

We are paying for the federal government, we are paying for not y'all.

We are.

We need house.

You've got seniors that are your homes.

Come on now.

You're taking out things from another.

Can I put them over here?

So we're gonna do a string process.

Okay, all people don't take now the government, give us background.

Give us the background.

If they're not so people living in these places, don't need to be here.

You got senior citizens and homies when people walk around, especially my belly.

I think you put people work and walk around.

You got people on the street, homies.

Yeah.

This is going for the people.

So yes, we have this.

I'm waiting.

I can't wait too much longer.

I had it.

In fact, it's my lead challenge.

You're gonna be well, friends, enemies, and political operatives.

I think the first thing I need to do is speak for the record.

Today I took a knee.

In the context of my lifetime, I haven't saluted the flag since the end of the 3K coup, November of 68.

A.

B.

I don't know who voted for the fringe on the flag, but I ain't saluting the damn thing till I find out why we switched our flags to maritime law.

Now, on to the items at hand.

Back in the day when I was actively working, organizing with respect to the National Unit homeless.

So went to DC, met a great man there, and I saw an interesting problem.

There were people there taking grants to talk about the issue, not to address it.

Here we have the same problem.

You pat yourselves on the shoulder because the governor gave you props, but I remember when they took back the money because there was an output you was funding, who confused keyholders, which is a tailhouse institution with peer counselors.

So I'm addressing the issue of who is making money talking about the issue and who is addressing it.

Since I've been here, we can speak so many minutes per item.

There's six items I want to speak on in two minutes.

It's part of the hustle.

We got a satellite senior housing.

Bad enough when drug dealers are inhabiting the citizen senior housing, but when the management are dealing, that's a drag.

Hey, when we have people talking about the issue rather than addressing it and overlooking those who are taking advantage of the system, and I must say, whoever said maybe need more people to take advantage of that, one of you said that.

No, wrong word.

There are no more speakers.

Thank you.

I would like to note that since I allowed members of the public to speak on items not on the agenda.

If there's anybody in the room today that would like to speak on items not on the agenda, I will allow it.

We will also have items at the end of the meeting.

A time for us only speak on items not on the agenda.

Do we have any others items not on today's agenda?

Yes, there are two speakers.

Let's call them Samuel Raimi, Buffalo Sajorn.

The food we are eating, they're screaming with herbicide and pesticide.

We got bad mental health problems behind these chemicals.

We got people sick behind these chemical.

The budget, the medical bill is higher than the pentagon behind this.

And we got stops.

They can't check the food.

So when we come back here, we just take any chance on what we eat.

Why not go to America first?

Make America healthy.

This is what we're talking about.

It has to.

And you're gonna give people opportunity to.

They stopped in the small farmers.

We were gonna stop that.

USJ said it has to change.

All this got this whole system be overhauled.

Don Trump got on point, but he ain't on point.

He's helping the crooks.

You gotta get rid of these groups.

First, to get rid of these fruit.

I'm glad Secretary Hudson said you're not gonna do nothing.

He houses senior system veterans first.

Nobody else.

And you don't go through the screen.

All you can public house isn't illegal, they're going to jail.

Thank you.

I know some of you tired of seeing my face, but until you reduce public comment to 95 seconds, you gotta deal with me.

Well, our first game, we were trying to keep it on principles and policy.

I had to make an exception on a personality that needed to go somewhere else, or else go sit beside Larry Reed in jail.

Um, I think off the what you call it suggested minutes of the day.

Before Occupy Oakland, 80% of the homeless in Oakland were from Oakland, and there was enough again real estate properties housed all of them.

Likewise, San Francisco.

The joke of occupy Oakland, 25% of the people came with a different definition of occupy than we here.

So we have it now.

If you were to do a statistical examination of those that have been housed since the panic demonemic, you would find that 50% of the people moved from tents to permanent housing, our speed freaks, and 25% of them are not from here.

If you would review that statement about what did the lady say, uh 75% of the homeless around here are black.

Hey, take a look at C.L.

Dillum's building.

Political operatives want to destroy that, kill old and disabled people who that was set aside for to get out and in the meantime give shelter to fat Ukrainians and the housing authority thiefdom is busy making sure that no black people in Oakland know enough about Section 8 to get a house in Oakland.

The truth is a light.

You have the leverage and power to correct it before it wrecks.

I can't ask you to stop the mouthpiece of your predecessors.

Very good.

With that said, we will now um recess into closed session.

We're in recess.

Supervisor Merquez.

Present.

Supervisor Tim.

Present.

Supervisor Miley.

Supervisor Fortnite Bass.

President Halbert.

Present.

We have a core.

Very good.

I'll ask our county council.

Is there anything to report out from close session?

In close session today, the board authorized um settlement in the matter.

Uh I'm sorry, in close session today in the matter of Newsom v.

Trump, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, case numbers 25-5553 and 25-781.

The board authorized at the appropriate time, authorized the county to sign on on behalf of the county.

I'm sorry, authorize the county council at the appropriate time to sign off on behalf of the county in Amicus briefs supporting the city of LA and the position of um Governor Newsom in these cases.

In addition, in close session today, with respect to um potential exposure to litigation.

Um in a confidential matter, the board authorized the county council to retain counsel to represent uh individuals in this litigation and um delegated authority to the county council to designate the retention agreements, and that concludes my report out.

I'm sorry, and both of those if I didn't say it were on votes of five zero.

Very good.

Thank you.

Next, we have um item approval of minutes.

The special meeting of Wednesday the 25th, regular meeting Tuesday the 10th, another regular meeting Tuesday, January 27th.

Is there a motion to approve those?

I will move approval a few minutes as listed.

I'll second.

Motion's been made by Supervisor Tam, seconded by Supervisor Marquez.

May I please have a roll call vote?

Supervisor Marquez.

Aye.

Supervisor Tan.

Aye.

Supervisor Miley.

Supervisor Fortnite.

President Halbert.

Aye.

For now to the point of making our mass motion.

After we conclude voting on our mass motion, um, we'll have then take up our two o'clock set matter.

It may be a few minutes after two o'clock.

But we'll take a mass motion up now at uh Supervisor Tam.

Sir Mass Motion be made.

Um thank you, Mr.

President.

I will move uh one, the consent calendar, item two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, comments on 15.

16, 17, 18, 19, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, comments on 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, and 47.

Mr.

President, uh, may I just add that item 38 was pulled at the request of the department.

Thank you for that.

Supervisor uh question, Supervisor Fortnite.

I do have a question on uh 28 and 29.

Okay, thank you.

President Halbert, those are not included in the motion.

28 and 29 are not included in the motion.

Okay, thank you.

The first item that we have questions on is uh Supervisor Miley question on item 15 comments, rather.

Thank you.

Wait for the green light, yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Uh thank you, um president.

Yeah, the reason I I don't have questions on 15, I just want to make some comments on 15.

Um, you know, it's dealing with the illegal dumping uh statewide conference, fifth annual statewide conference.

Um of you and others in the public as well are aware that um really since 2016, 2017.

I've been on a quest to address illegal dumping, uh, not just in Alameda County, but trying to come up with uh approaches statewide because the legal dumping knows no bound boundaries.

You know, we find illegal dumping in cities, in suburban areas and in rural areas, many times in rural areas, it's off the beaten path, and you don't really see it, but it's it's there.

You find it in creeks and streams and other places as well.

And so uh my office uh in 2016-2017 thereabouts with my uh uh one of my former chief of staffs, uh Mika Dunlap.

Uh we launched an effort to address illegal dumping, Aaron Armstrong, presently deputy chief of staff has been heading up our efforts around the legal dumping.

And this will be our fifth annual statewide conference.

Um we've had representatives attending our statewide conference from throughout uh the state of California, uh the country, and even internationally, and the conferences have been uh initially in person, but we've had virtual conference as well as hybrid.

And this year it'll be uh a hybrid conference one day in person one day uh virtual.

Um we've done these statewide conferences once again because one jurisdiction can pass uh rules and regulations and have practices that address illegal dumping, but the illegal dumpers, though maybe I was getting cut off with the mic, I was being yanked.

Uh, but the legal dumpers, you know, they'll they'll just dump anywhere, anytime.

Uh and you know, we've even had examples of folks illegally dumping uh in the front of people actually picking up the illegal dumping.

They've been that brazen.

Um initially, we also had the cooperation of the district attorney's office and the sheriff's department and our efforts to address illegal dumping as a pilot effort in the city of Oakland.

Because what we also have found through our efforts is that we need to employ the three E's: education, eradication, and enforcement.

Uh, you know, people need to be educated around why they shouldn't illegal dump, um, which is important and we need to eradicate.

But in many instances, when we eradicate, you we're really just providing a free service because people once again come back and they continue to illegal dump illegally dump.

That's another reason why we feel enforcement is an important aspect of this through the three E's, education, eradication, enforcement.

Because it's sort of like I often tell people if we didn't have law enforcement, uh making sure we obey traffic laws, and even though we have law enforcement helping us to obey traffic laws.

I don't know if there's a person in this room who's listening to my voice who's never gotten some type of traffic um uh ticket for either speeding, talking on your cell phone, moving violation, or you know, whatever.

So I I know I have um maybe for all three, talking on my cell phone, um, moving violation and speeding.

Um hasn't been of late, but uh all three.

And yeah, it's just confession.

But um, but not re but not recently.

Um so we need law enforcement to make sure we as a society abide by some rules and some regulations, otherwise it's law of the jungle, it's chaos.

Um, and that's what we find with illegal dumping.

So that's why enforcement's important.

Enforcement doesn't mean everybody needs to be locked up, go to jail, but there needs to be penalties as well as um there need to be appropriate sanctions.

Sometimes it's just a matter of having an illegal dumper go back and clean up their illegal dumping.

And for that matter, the county uh will be bringing bringing forward a model ordinance around illegal dumping that we've crafted with county council uh to get the board to consider adopting, and with this model ordinance, it's an ordinance that other jurisdictions can follow and embrace as well.

And if everybody adopts uh this model ordinance, it will help to address this of illegal dumping.

The issue around illegal dumping, once again, isn't just a localized issue, and that's why we hold the statewide conference because in many instances, people whether they're from the private sector, the public sector, CBOs, or just concerned citizens, come together in many instances concerned citizens uh feel that they're isolated trying to address this problem on their own.

And so through our statewide conferences, we're all we're able to talk about lessons learned, talk about best practices, and move forward and build a sense of hope.

Um how this can be addressed uh comprehensively and maybe um even up specifically in your particular uh locale, but there is a role for the state to play, and that's why we're constantly trying to look at statewide approaches as approaches and bring everyone together around this.

We know that um Senator Jesse Arguing, he will be carrying legislation around illegal dumping, and I think there's a number of legislative bills uh that'll be in Sacramento.

And one thing we've been trying to work on through illegal dumping is to try to get a registry of all the unregulated haulers, you know, the franchise haulers, we know about them, the republics, the waste management, etc.

We know about them.

But there nobody knows how many unregulated haulers there are in the state of California.

It's guesstimated there could be um uh upwards of 10,000 or more, we just don't know.

So we want to regulate these regulated haulers, could oftentimes what they do is they pick up items to be dumped, and sometimes they unscrupulously don't take them to the dump.

They just dump them any place, and then we got other people that just dump anyway, any um anywhere, any time.

So these are some of the things we've been grappling with.

And the reason this is such an issue for me, I just get disturbed about illegal dumping.

I know Supervisor Howard, you were a boy scout, I was a boy scout, and we know you know we try to keep our communities clean, and and that's kind of how we're wired, and it just bothers me.

But in addition, illegal dumping is a public health issue, an environmental health issue, and a public safety issue.

It's a crime against our communities, as my good my good friend council member Ken Houston often says when he was leading the beautification council that worked with us a lot on illegal dumping.

So I just want to put out all this out because I have an opportunity to talk about illegal dumping, something I feel very passionate about that affects the quality of life that I know some communities feel uh illegal dumping is the norm.

They live with this and it just isn't right, and we need to try to address it.

And it's something that doesn't have to occur.

So we'll be doing our our fifth statewide conference on April 30th through May 1st here in Oakland.

We invite everyone to consider registering and joining us either uh virtually on the virtual day or coming in person because you'll learn a lot.

You'll become part of an effort that's constantly trying to stick at this, and we're not about you know just getting the you know, oh, a press on this.

That's not what this is about.

We we're about really trying to fix this and uh diminish illegal dumping, uh, not just in Oakland, not just in Alamandy County, but throughout our state.

So I had the bully pulpit.

I took an opportunity to talk about illegal dumping item 16.

Oh, item 15.

So those are my comments, Mr.

President.

So thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Miley.

I share your passion for curbing and eliminating eradicating and educating around illegal dumping.

I'm supportive of item 15.

Would you remind us where your illegal dumping statewide conference will be?

Where in Oakland?

And how can people sign up?

Contact Aaron Armstrong in my office uh to sign up for the conference.

I'm pretty sure you can go online as well.

And the conference will take place right at our uh training center here in Oakland across from the county administration building.

This is the kind of problem that if it's not taken care of, it gets worse and worse and worse, and people's expectations change and communities can go downhill very quickly if this continues to persist.

Uh thank you very much for your continued passion on this.

And I pray you receive full absolution from your traffic violations.

We have um item 19 is our next item that we are gonna uh have questions on, and this is from both Supervisor Fort and Nato Bass and uh Marquez.

Thank you.

I just wanted to flag this critical item since we are advancing nearly 53 million dollars for Measure W.

This is uh a significant investment um for nearly nearly every uh stretch and part of our county.

Um, want to thank the voters for their patience.

As everybody knows, this was in litigation for four years, and we developed the framework back in July.

So I just wanted to thank staff who's worked incredibly hard with launching the RFP.

I'm very excited.

Um really um excited for the city of Newark that's going to be getting funding for one of their senior affordable housing complexes and looking at the um disbursement of funds, it is heavier North County, but we know that this information investment is really tailored to the point in time count.

So we are trying to be uh geographically um diverse in our funding, but also making sure that we're targeted and where the need is the highest.

Um, but looking at also the applicants that did not qualify, they were not, they did not have shovel ready projects.

I'm also noting in the attachment that there were no applicants from district one or two.

So I can't get upset about no funding if there's no application submitted.

So, question to staff do we know of projects that are getting closer to being shovel ready?

Just want to make sure that we um have affordable housing opportunities throughout our entire county.

So if you can kind of just speak to like technical working groups and what we can kind of expect for the future.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak.

Um, Michelle Starrett, Housing Director under the community development agency.

Uh, we're tracking about 85 to 90 projects across the entire county.

And I can't speak specifically to how many in district one or two or three right now, but I can let you know that all of them are in some phase of pre-development and without a new source of capital funding.

Um, you know, they're they're stuck in the pre-development phases.

The projects that did come in under this RFP were shovel-ready projects, meaning they're ready to apply for their state funding sources.

Uh, we didn't want to provide pre-development funding to projects that could take many years to get to construction.

We really wanted to focus on those that were ready to go.

And then with in with in respect to uh these projects receiving state funding, the tax critics, the home key plus, where will we receive updates?

Will that go to health committee?

Just want to make sure we're tracking like when are these units going online?

Just want to make sure that we're um keeping the public well informed of these significant investments.

Yes, we will definitely come back to the health committee with updates and specifically we can let the whole board know when we actually are able to leverage those funds and bring them into the county because they represent such a a large amount of funding that goes into construction into jobs into economic benefits.

Okay.

And I certainly don't want to hold this up, but I do want to flag um as the chair of public protection.

I hosted uh a committee meeting last week with myself and Supervisor Miley, where we got an update on the fair chance ordinance.

Um, and you know, staff shared with us that they're reviewing the ordinance.

We hope to have an updated version brought to the full board in the summer.

Um, so this isn't the opportunity to regulate funding for these specific projects to allow individuals with uh criminal backgrounds to actually reside at these complexes.

Um if we were to amend the ordinance, we would have to hold off on these projects.

Is that correct?

No, we can um, you know, once the ordinance is actually adopted, and if it's adopted by this summer, this resolution for funding is not the contract and not the loan documents.

Okay.

So it's an opportunity.

Yeah, if the ordinance can get adopted and the policy then created from the ordinance, we can then move it into loan documents and regulatory agreements, which will happen later this year.

Okay, that's good to know.

Just want to make sure we're we continue to uplift care first, Gells Lance and our reimagine adult justice uh initiatives that we've passed by resolution and uh reports were authored in the past to make sure that we are giving people that um a re-entry population a chance to thrive.

And we heard testimonies from people last week and how successful it is to identify and have affordable stable housing in order for them to thrive in the work and meet their health and medical needs.

So I look forward to getting those updates, but this is tremendous work.

Um I also know I'll just flag there was an article about Measure W that was published and just want to flag a couple errors.

Richmond is not in Alameda County.

Um, so if we could please look at that article carefully and respond because it's really important that we provide accurate information to the public.

There are other uh discrepancies, can't recall what they are right now, but if staff could please look at that article carefully because we're accountable to the voters and we want to make sure we have long-term sustainability funding.

So it's really important that we're given out accurate information.

So if we could please respond to the deficiencies in that article, thank you.

I'll add on and say um that I know many of these projects have been in the works for a long time.

I note that one is in district one, it's in downtown Livermore.

I think that's been in litigation for four or five years.

So you guys have been working really hard on this.

I want to echo Supervisor Marquez's comments.

Uh, we know that people who have been impacted by justice find it very difficult to find a place to rent.

They don't have a place to live unless they have a relative that will take them in or a friend.

The projects that we fund, and there are a whole bunch of units here that we partially fund.

Some units are, I mean, we know that this is just a portion of the cost to build, but I mean, they're upwards of a million dollars per unit to build.

If we're going to provide funding for these operators to build and operate, I think we need to do everything we can to make sure that they take in those people that have formally been incarcerated, because otherwise they will end up on the streets, and then we have to unfortunately see bad outcomes for them.

So I think that it's different than a private landowner.

This is something where they take public funding.

We should do everything we can to require them, require them or somehow enforce that they will take in people that have been formally incarcerated because they want to turn their lives around.

They can't if they can't find a place to live.

My comment.

Supervisor Miley, then Supervisor Ford, not a best.

I guess I asked Supervisor Bass if I could jump in front of her.

I wasn't gonna say anything, but the staff um they are aware of this and county councils looking at it.

With the fair chance ordinance, and no supervisor Marquez and Tam, I think know this as well.

First of all, uh the uh the the fair chance ordinance that we're gonna pass will deal with incorporate area.

That's the first thing.

Secondly, um county councils researching whether or not we can have it um have the requirements that people are looking for relative to projects to the county funds, both either within the incorporate area or outside of the incorporate area, the two separate types of legal analysis.

If we can't, then we've also asked county council and staff to look in if we can incentivize it.

So it's it's being explored, but it's you know, they're doing their work on it and they'll be coming back to us.

I know people are very passionate about it, but uh, we want folks to understand unincorporated area, fair chance only beyond the unincorporated area, and if projects can any uh any funding that the county is providing to projects, uh, we would have to determine whether or not we can legally mandate that in an incorporate area or outside of the incorporate area.

And if we can't, then they're looking at other approaches that might um be able to uh satisfy um the public policy concerns that we have.

Um I know Andrea's there, but I just wanted to point that out.

Any uh additional I'll I would thank you for those comments, Supervisor Marley.

Do we have any additional to say it is a two-fold question?

One is the unincorporated incorporated area issue, but also whether or not we can make that linkage with a contractual requirement.

So what a dormant commerce class type of analysis.

So we have to analyze those two questions, but we are obviously doing so with an eye toward um how can we make it work at all possible legally?

I love the idea of incentives.

Uh I'll say that if we can find a way to make it happen, let's concentrate.

Like Pastor says on Sunday.

Tell me what you can do, not what we cannot do.

We will get this done.

I'm confident of it.

Supervisor Marquez.

Did you want to add on before Supervisor McDonald's has been waiting for a while?

Go ahead.

Okay.

Okay.

Um, thank you.

I also wanted to comment on item number 19.

I am really happy to see that we are moving forward to support 10 affordable housing projects with measure W funding, 950 affordable units, including 310 for people who are experiencing homelessness.

Um, also very happy to see that even though the initial allocation was 50, that the staff saw that there was a need to allocate additional funds, and so we're allocating 53 million dollars today uh to help meet that need.

Um to also see that we are um aligning with the goals that we set out, including investing in line with our point and time count.

So uh thank you for all of that.

Like uh President Halbert said, many of these projects, and I'm familiar with some of them.

They've been on in our pipeline for a long time, so I'm glad to see them move forward.

I do have one question, which is uh, what are the other opportunities that will be coming forward?

Measure W to fund homeless affordable housing, not only construction, but potentially acquisition conversion or small sites.

I'll defer to um director Chaudry with regard to uh other home together funding um initiatives as it relates to the capital.

There was a total of uh 150 million that your board approved in terms of their plan for capital in terms of uh next steps on that.

I'll I'll defer to director.

Thank you for the question, Supervisor Chowder, and I'm director for Alameda County Health.

Um, I think you're referring to the planned RFP that we want to do for um uh rehabilitation and sort of uh and shelter expanding that particular one.

Yes, there are other opportunities for projects that are looking to say convert existing motels or additional projects that are in the capital pipeline.

Um yes, so we have a capital housing acquisition, rehab, preservation, operating reserves, and shelter preservation RFP that we're working on that is planned to be released um toward the latter part of this calendar year.

Uh and to that uh it sort of hits our home together plan categories of increasing housing and shelter.

Okay, thank you.

And um, I'll note for the public we did have a measure W update at our February 3rd work session, I believe.

And so that's uh in the PowerPoint and also for members of the public.

And also for members of the public, I understand we'll have another Measure W update next week at our work session.

Is that correct?

Okay, great.

And certainly encourage people who read that article that was in the paper yesterday to tune in so they can be up to date in terms of what we are doing to be both as expeditious as well as strategic in terms of deploying these funds to address homelessness.

Thank you.

Very good.

Supervisor Marquez additional comments.

Yeah, I'll be brief.

Thank you.

So I'm also gonna just ask, just because as I said, it's really important to me that we give out accurate information to the public.

And I apologize, but I am literally aging in place.

I now have readers and it's very confusing to be looking up and down without them.

So I apologize for the distraction in that.

But um if we could specifically for next week's work session, if we could frame the discussion related to measure W with how we got here, I think there's a lot of misinformation that we're sitting on all this money and we're not.

There was money that was collected during the time of the litigation.

That's already been um appropriated, and then there's revenue that's coming in on an annual basis, but we have to be explicitly clear on the numbers, because this article also indicates we're sitting on 700 million dollars and we're not.

So if you could please contextualize, give background so all of us up here know it by heart as well, because it's gonna be really, really important with framing and messaging.

Um so if we could please have that prepared as well for next week's work session.

Thank you.

Okay, very good.

The next item that we have questions or rather comments on, Supervisor Four 40 or the item 40, Supervisor Lena Tan.

I wanted to take the opportunity to thank the Alameda County Public Works Department for leading the long-awaited project in Hayward Acres, which is in my district.

The neighborhood residents are really excited to see a lot of the improvements moving forward and deeply appreciate the county's hard work and dedication.

Um our office especially grateful for the outreach efforts and organizing the public meetings because we get a lot of calls when that doesn't happen.

So thank you again to the public works agency.

Indeed, the improvements look amazing.

Thank you.

With that said, we have received um the masked motion by Supervisor Tamed by Supervisor Marquez.

Is that right?

The county administrator will speak to 28-29 separately.

Correct.

Those are not included in the motion.

Can we have a roll call vote, please?

Supervisor Marquez.

Hi.

Supervisor Tan.

Aye.

Supervisor Miley.

Supervisor Four.

I vote yes.

Item passes.

We have now comments on item 2829.

Uh yes, item 28 is a recommendation that your boy board appoint Cynthia Cornejo, the current deputy registrar of voters as the acting registrar of voters effective March 29th, 2026.

As you know, the current registrar of voters, Tim Dupuis retiring effect of March 27 after almost 24 years of service to the county.

Your board does have an active recruitment underway to fill the permanent position of registrar of voters, and I believe that closes on March 20th.

And I am also required to read into the record um the salary for the acting registrar voters.

It's 8867 and 20 cents bi-weekly effective March 29th.

Are those items to be voted on separately or are they just report outs?

Is there a motion to approve item 2829?

Do you want to do them together?

Let me read if you're gonna do them together, let me read item 20.

Let's do let's do 28 first, I guess.

Is there a motion to approve on 28?

So I'll second.

Supervisor Marquez moves to Supervisor Tam seconds.

Roll call vote, please.

Comments.

Supervisor Miley.

Thanks.

Um yeah, I just want to um Sam really pleased uh that the board's taking action to put Cynthia in this acting Mr.

Voters.

You know, um I've worked with Cynthia for many, many, many, many years.

Um in our capacity in the registrar's office.

And I know we've had challenges with the registrar's um office being combined with information technology.

And when we made the decision, uh prior boards to combine those two positions, it was at the advent of the voting machines, the uh devote uh voting machines, and then we've seen a lot of uh use of technology over time with voting, you know, now voting in the states all by mail.

Um and I know our attempt to has taken a lot of um uh criticism from a lot of folks um serving in the position of registered voters and information technology.

And I just once again want to say I think Tim's done as a good job as he could have done under circumstances, and I also know that with the you know the atmosphere that's coming as res that has come about as a result of you know the present administration and the uh in that admin in that same administration when it was in office uh prior to that has caused a lot of consternation and fear and trepidation for registrar voters throughout the country.

So I'm just really thankful for uh Tim and the work he's done.

But I'm also appreciative of the fact that we're taking uh action to decouple the positions and to bring Cynthia on in the acting position uh at this point in time.

So I just wanted to speak to that, Mr.

President.

Very well said.

With that comment, we have a motion in a second.

Rocko Bo, please.

Supervisor Marquez, hi.

Supervisor Tan.

Hi.

Supervisor Miley, Supervisor Fournard Bass.

President How item 29 is a recommendation that your board appoint uh Andrea Weddle, who is currently the Chief Assistant County Counsel as interim county counsel effective March 29, 2026.

As you know, this is to step in upon the retirement of our current county council, Donna Ziegler, who's retiring effective March 28th after more than 26 years of dedicated service to the county.

Miss Weddle's appointment is pending recruitment and appointment of permanent county counsel, and per your board's direction, the human resource services department is in the process of securing an executive search firm to conduct the recruitment for a permanent county council.

The salary for Miss Weddle is 15,985 and 60 cents biweekly.

Thank you very much.

Is there a motion to approve?

Second, second by Supervisor Tim.

I'll note this is one of the most difficult positions in the county.

And I uh one congratulate Donna Zigler on deciding to retire and congratulate.

Let's give her a round of applause, yes.

Is there any begging that we could do to keep you to stay alive?

We've already tried.

We've already tried.

But to congratulate um uh Andrea Weddle as the interim, she's gonna do a great job and cares a lot about this department.

Again, the most difficult job, one of the most difficult jobs in this county.

Motion's been made and seconded.

Go ahead and roll call vote, please.

Oh, Supervisor Miley.

Okay, go ahead.

Pretty soon I'm gonna have to stand up and you know, wave my arms and and try to get recognized.

Yeah, I just wanted to speak to this as well, Mr.

Uh President.

Um first of all, yeah, it's with you know um you know a sense of uh sadness, but total uh respect um that we are losing our county council, Donna Ziegler to retirement.

Um as the county administrator pointed out, she's been with the county for uh a few decades and been the county council um for 13 years, 14 years, 14 years.

Um and you know uh when we hired Donna as county council, it was as a result of Richard Winnie, our former county council passing away um in office.

Um and we had two very excellent candidates choose from internally, uh Donna Ziegler and Brian Washington.

Uh Brian went on to become county counsel in Moren County and Donna is our county council.

And you know, Donna has really kept us, you know, kept us honest, kept us on track, and um she doesn't uh you know she's not bashful, let's put it that way.

Uh and she, you know, she thinks she's the smartest person in the room, and quite frankly, she might be.

I don't know.

Uh, but we're really so you know, I'm really sorry to see her retire, but I'm happy for that.

And I know we'll have a chance to celebrate her retirement uh later this month at her retirement celebration.

And I'm just very thankful that her uh chief deputy, uh Andrew Wooddown uh has decided to stay with us on an interim basis while we do a national search.

Um, you know, the two different personalities, but both are very competent, capable, and extremely qualified um attorneys, and we're very um uh we're you know, we're we are very what's the word I'm looking for.

Uh fortunate, yes, somebody said that, to have um both of them and and definitely have Andrew Widow stepping up to be the interim while we do do a search for new county council.

So I I just wanted to state my um thoughts on this um because yeah, look as you pointed out, Mr.

President, the county council along with the county administrator, they work very, very closely with the board, very, very close to the board, and we rely on on them tremendously.

And uh, and I just know like during the pandemic, how they and other county staff like Lori Cox, who is social services agency director at the time, um really come through to help this county achieve what it's achieved and do what it does, and to stay um at the top of being one of the the best urban counties in the nation of about 3,000 counties.

So with that being said, I probably have gone on too much, but thank you, Donna, and thank you, Andrea.

We're not counting the minutes that each of us speak, supervisor Miley, but if we were that's okay.

A motion's been made in second and can have a roll call vote, please.

Supervisor Marquis.

Aye, Supervisor Tan.

Aye, Supervisor Miley, Supervisor for Nother Best, President Halbert.

Aye.

Okay, our next motion's been completed.

We now have our two o'clock set matter.

This is a continuation from item that we took up last week on the 25th.

This is a continuation of the Beyonce Act.

Oh no, Bellenson Act.

That's what we followed.

I had to do that.

I had to do that.

Bellenson Act.

Belinson.

All right.

Good.

We're gonna have our uh county administrator um regale us with a little bit of the history of what we had and talk about where we're gonna go from here.

But I will say that we have closed public comment.

Now is a time for us to deliberate.

We invite the public to watch us do that.

But public comment has been closed.

I also have a a bit of an announcement.

It's very important that we include our Spanish speaking colleagues, and we're going to talk about how we will do that because we have Spanish speaking interpreters here, and we'll ask them to come up to the podium here and explain in Spanish how members of the public who are in this room can um participate more uh freely and easily with their services.

So if you could please tell people how they can receive Spanish interpretation services.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

With that said, I'll ask our county administrator for a few comments.

Thank you, President Halbert, members of the board.

What we've distributed to you are simply copies of uh the board letter and the attachments from last Wednesday's hearing as well as the PowerPoint presentation that was provided by Alameda Health System.

Um I'm gonna walk through uh some background just to set the framework for today and your board's further discussion and deliberation.

Um on January 6th of 2026, uh Alameda Health System notified the Board of Supervisors of its proposed reductions.

And on February 11th, the county and AHS posted the notice of B.

Lenson hearings scheduled for Wednesday, February 25th.

Last week on Wednesday, February 25th at 3 p.m., your board held a special meeting to conduct the B.

Linson hearing.

Labor, specifically SEIU provided comments, and you took extensive public comment.

Subsequent to the public comment, your board closed public comment on the matter and continued the hearing to the today's regular meeting for board discussion and deliberation.

Your board also provided direction to staff last week.

You requested that the county administrator, auditor controller, and AC Health Interim Director identify options to mitigate an estimated $10 million in budgetary savings that AHS could achieve from its proposed staffing and program reductions during the final quarter of this fiscal year.

You also suggested that the Board of Supervisors would consider convening a collaborative working group that would include two members of the board, AHS leadership and labor representatives, to identify options and solutions to address AHS's structural imbalance and the impact of federal HR1 reductions over this fiscal year and next year.

And you also requested that the county and AHS jointly advocate for additional state funding through our professional associations and organizations.

Before you begin your discussion deliberations, just wanted to highlight a couple of other considerations.

In the ensuing time since last Wednesday, there have staff have met and discussed options.

We've also been in communications with the AHS CEO.

And it is clear that AHS is committed to addressing its structural imbalance this fiscal year in anticipation of federal HR funding cuts that are expected to go into effect next fiscal year.

Also, your board is aware that the impact of state and federal budget reductions, including the impact of HR 1 on other county programs and services, are not yet known.

The estimated statewide impact of HR1 for California counties is $9.5 billion, largely borne by public hospital systems.

You're also aware that the Prop One shift from Mental Health Services Act to the behavioral health services will reduce local funds for behavioral health services.

And you're also well aware that economic forecasts project that the county will continue to face funding challenges and uncertainties with continued inadequate ongoing revenue to support cost increases and service demands.

AHS is exploring options that would address the board's expressed concerns about the proposed staffing reductions and layoffs at AHS, including deferring the March 9 layoff date and identifying alternative non-patient facing position reductions to achieve its targeted savings goals for the current fiscal year.

AHS is also continuing to explore other revenue enhancements and cost reduction strategies to address its structural financial imbalance during this fiscal year.

The county is committed to working with AHS on adjustments to the behavioral health contract payment schedule and terms, what was referred to as the 20% withhold during the hearings.

We are also committed to continuing discussions regarding potential adjustments to AHS's line of credit with the county treasury, what's often referred to as the net negative balance.

And we're committed to discussing alternative service models related to AHS's behavioral health IOP program reduction.

What staff is proposing is that based on our preliminary discussions, the county and AHS staff continue discussions and further refine strategies to help AHS achieve its budget reduction targets this fiscal year and report back to your board on March 17.

We are also suggesting that if your board is to designate an ad hoc committee that would include AHS leadership as well as labor representatives, that that group identify additional options and strategies to address AHS's structural financial imbalance in preparation for additional federal HR reductions and report back to the full board.

That concludes my overview.

The one pending item from last week, um, the board letter before you last week had a recommendation that you conduct a public hearing.

It also had a recommendation that you designate Alameda Health System to provide 24-hour information service and receive and respond to complaints from individuals eligible for services under the Health and Safety Code sections 1440 to 1498.

And we do recommend that your board before you close today take that action.

Very good.

With that said, we're going to continue with our public hearing.

Again, noting that public comment has been closed, we'll bring it back for deliberations and discussion, noting that before we leave, we will take up item 48B designating the Alameda Health System to provide the 24-hour information service that was just described.

Do we have any discussion or deliberation from any supervisors?

We now are ready for action.

Supervisor Tam.

Thank you, President Halbert.

And I wanted to uh thank staff both at the county and at Alameda Health Systems.

And Supervisor Halbert keeps turning off my mic for some.

And basically to take the board's direction to heart to minimize the impacts of HR1 on our hospital system.

This is very important to me since three out of the four county hospitals, Highland, Alameda, and San Leandro are squarely in my district.

And I appreciate the efforts to defer the reductions in force and to provide the budgeting support to AHS so that we can look at a system that will be sustainable for all of our residents in the long run.

Supervisor Miley.

That's a very wise choice.

We're gonna go to Supervisor Forts Not Abbass.

Thank you.

Um thank you to our county administrator.

I appreciate the conversations that uh they have had with AHS, and I think this summarizes where we left off the Beelinson hearing.

Um I certainly am supportive of what was discussed in terms of looking at what the county itself can do, state advocacy for additional resources, and having a work group uh that would look at uh some additional solutions as well as postponing or deferring the um March 9th reductions.

Um I I do want to ask if it's possible for um AHS to speak to what the process would be for deferring those reductions.

Obviously, that's not within the purview of this board, and so what would be some of the next steps in terms of doing that?

We can invite AHS to come up.

Is that what you'd like to do?

Yes, if that's possible.

I I think we should, and as we do, I'll just make a few brief comments.

Um, we should all keep in mind that the reason we're here is largely almost exclusively it is because of HR1.

It's not because of anything we have done internally or that AHS has done internally.

They have constraints that are imposed upon them by the federal government.

You did a great job explaining that last week.

We're gonna continue to talk about how we can work through a temporary reprieve and a delay and how we can have a process going forward for continued discussion, which again you were very um emphatic is you're all ready, ready and willing and able to do that.

So with that said, I would like you to respond.

Supervisor Fortunato Bass asked you to come back up and explain the process.

Please.

Happy to do so.

Thank you, President Halbert.

Thank you, supervisors.

I have to say that I am greatly encouraged by certainly the feedback that we've received from the supervisors and the partnership and collaboration that we have experienced with the county administrator with the director of Alameda Health.

And so what we presented to the supervisors last week was how AHS was prepared to make the changes we believe necessary to have the sustainability that you referred to, President Halbert.

Um, what we've heard in the intervening time is that the supervisors and the county leadership is prepared to step in with us.

And so we're not having to resolve this by ourselves.

And I'm just beyond words to try to express my appreciation for that.

But having heard that, to answer the direct question, our board is meeting tomorrow night.

Um, we will have a special meeting, and that will be the opportunity for my this administrative team to talk about um how we move forward with the possibility of a of a deferral of the action and get our board's approval so that we can take the actions necessary to achieve what you asked, Supervisor Fortunato Bas.

Um I will just make one final comment which is that from the hearing that we had last week um I do believe it is important to have a working group um one of the things that really struck me was the testimony that we heard from a number of uh clinical staff medical staff about wanting to really have collaboration with AHS executive leadership around the future um I think we're all committed to ensuring health care and patient care here in our county and I do think that uh piece along with all the other pieces is really important um you know we can only the county can only control what is under our purview and so that collaborative conversation and dialogue I think is important and that work group could help achieve that as well as looking at some other options including those uh revenue enhancements that the union has um apparently put forward I think those are really important to look at as well thank you thank you I'll recognize Supervisor Marquez President if I may I apologize and supervisor marquez with your indulgence I I just wanted to acknowledge what you just said supervisor ports not a boss we have made many changes and adjustments since since the initial um scope of the reduction in force was identified and that's really because of the feedback that we've received from those clinicians that you talked about and others and so by no means is this a monolithic you know action that we are taking that's not informed.

Could it have been better informed prior to saying absolutely and I acknowledge that and as the CEO I have to own that having said that nothing has been done that is um irreparable that cannot be adjusted and we've made significant changes based on the feedback that you've just acknowledged and and there will be more and so I I just want to acknowledge what you said and to just agree we need that input we're better for it very good supervisor thank you for that uh Marquez okay thank you everyone for coming back and really appreciate um the testimony and everything that we learned last Wednesday so I concur with my colleagues I really appreciate the next steps want to thank the CEO and Al the Meet of Health System leadership for um coming together to figure out a path forward.

I know action still has to be taken by your board tomorrow but I think with the comments that they heard last week and today it's clear that this board is lockstep and in support and we really want to find a path forward this is truly um our collective responsibility um as I mentioned last week it's critical to me that we continue to center the needs of patients and we could we cannot provide care to patients without our amazing workforce.

So I'm confident that we'll figure out a path forward.

Just want to thank Supervisor Miley as well for the creativity around the motion and um also just going to ask I know um as you mentioned things could have been done differently but I'm also going to ask if we could all just agree to kind of reset if we're truly going to do this let's kind of just have a clean slate and figure out how to move forward collectively to minimize the harm and also want to see how the state can provide support as well with respect to HR1 definitely and uh in support of exploring the net negative balance and flexibility there and the other issues that were brought up in terms of behavior health I know in a couple weeks we're also um I'll stop with my comments there but I'm just I'm just confident that we'll be able to figure out a path forward to minimize the cuts the pain and the harm in this county and as was mentioned and I'll continue to repeat we're here by design this is a deliberate attempt from the federal administration to um to be very surgical and um cause more pain and I think all of us took an oath of office and responsibility to not do that.

So I I'm looking forward to the partnership and definitely support the working group and I'm not sure if there's parameters on that in terms of uh how many months they'll be meeting the frequency but also looking forward to hearing feedback on that.

Thank you.

Thank you Supervisor Supervisor Miley Thanks President Howard yeah a few things um we're deliberating and I just have some uh reflections on last week's Bill and hearing as well as um uh the the the motion I want to make eventually when you're ready for a motion um first of all I want to thank uh everyone from uh labor who showed up last week and those who are virtual everyone from labor who's talked to the five of us over the course of the last month or two or three relative to this and I want to thank HS other um administration and the board of trustees um I think we all recognize the importance of uh of services um we want to make sure we ensure that you know there are services um and that uh as one of my colleagues put uh we're putting uh the needs of

Um I think we all recognize the importance of uh of services, um, and we want to make sure we ensure that you know there are services.

Um that uh as one of my colleagues put uh we're putting uh the needs of patients first.

I think that's important.

I do think it it pains me, and that's why I want to try to see how we can come up with a win-win around this.

Uh, and I'm pleased that the colleagues on the board are very open to working with HS so we can try to achieve a win-win with HS and working with um uh the rank and file frontline workers who provide the services um to the uh patients and clients of AHS.

Um so I just want to state that that it just pays me that we have these divisions, and as it's been pointed out, it's not because of anything that was done locally, it's more as a result of of uh policies and attitudes and laws that are coming out of um uh the administration in Washington DC and the the impact that's having uh some of that impact too is as a result of of prop proposition one uh here in California.

I also want to state, and once again, this is not to be how should I say not to be mean nor evil, but I think it needs to be stated, and I need to state this.

Even though I have friends uh who are trustees and I have to respect them, even though I respect the um this the CEO, um James Jackson.

I do think, and you answered the question about the bonuses to Supervisor Bass.

I think it was an appropriate question, but I think the context of that based on what we had before us with the Billington hearings needed to be uh taken under consideration uh prior to getting to us.

It shouldn't have had to be brought up here.

Um even though it was justified some kind of way, the trustees in the administration should have looked at that.

I mean, you and maybe did, and I'm not aware of it, but it should have been looked at it before it got got to us.

Furthermore, and I think I've mentioned this to um the CEO.

Uh once again, I like you, James.

You know, you're you're a good guy, you know.

As this once again, it's not trying to be mean or evil, uh, but I do think it moving your offices over to Jack London, I think was a big mistake.

Uh the county spent nearly I just want to I hate to stop you, but uh we try to make as welcoming and invitive environment as possible.

And I just would like to caution the audience.

We're trying to think up here, we're trying to deliberate, we're trying to talk, and I know that people are passionate, but let's please everybody just remain silent while we do our work.

Supervisor Miley.

Okay, thank thank you.

So once again, you know, I like you, James.

You're a good guy, you know.

And you know, I think you know, a lot of respect for you, and it pains me that um the folks who work at HS and and maybe you and the administration are at loggerheads, and they've looking they're looking at you in a certain way.

And I do think the perception of moving your office from the Wilmachan Highland campus, I think that was a big mistake.

I think the office, I mean, we spent the county, we spent after financing nearly a billion dollars to seismically retrofit the Highland Campus upgrade.

It's beautiful.

I was just there, I hadn't been there in a while.

I was just there uh last week walking around.

Um, and things are just wonderful.

And I'm sure there were reasons why he did that.

Uh, and I think I've heard the reasons, but once again, the optics, and I just need to say this, just don't look good.

When you do that, and then we move forward and we're looking at reductions.

It just doesn't look good.

And I just need to point that out to you and the trustees and some of your folks, many of you I know well.

So you've heard that.

I stated that that's on the record.

I think that office, if you can move it back, it's it would be great to do that.

Um, because quite frankly, when I come over there to see you, I'd like to see you at highland at the Roman Chan Island Hospital campus, as opposed to going down to Jack London.

Uh, we can go down there to have some drinks and stuff, but you know, let's go back to the campus and be with your be with your people.

Um the working group, I do think the working group uh should be ad hoc.

And I'm I'm proposing that the working group, you know, uh I'm proposing that supervisor bass and I uh form the the ad hoc working group as the two supervisors, and then we would invite um stakeholders uh to participate in this ad hoc working group because we need to make it ad hoc because first of all, we want it to be time limited.

I want to get this resolved over the next few months before we enter into the new fiscal year, and we want to be able to do this in the context of it not being subject to the Brown Act.

So I would ask County Council how as long as it's a working group or an ad hoc that Supervisor Bass and I serve on.

We can invite anyone in to participate, and we can also keep it um non Brown Act um regulated.

So my understanding is that your intention is to create an ad hoc committee, a true ad hoc committee, meaning uh committee comprised of two members of your board only, um, and that that committee is convened for a specific purpose of limited duration, limited duration.

Um, and if that is the entity you're creating, which is what I understand the intention of your you intend to make them to do that.

Um that that is uh a body that is not subject to the Brown Act and that it can meet.

Um, and you can invite people to the meeting um and you can discuss with people and groups or what have you.

Um, and it's not subject to the Brown Act.

Okay.

So that'd be my intention, because I do think we've heard folks from labor state, and I know we've heard you state uh, and I've heard that there's I just see a disconnect because you're saying you've talked to them, they're saying you haven't talked to them, this and the other.

So my colleague and I are gonna take this under our she's smarter than me.

She's gonna provide the brain, provide the muscle, and we're gonna deal with this over the next couple of months so that we can try to address the need, you know, the structural um uh fiscal problem uh that AHS has, at least for the next year or two.

Um, like I said, Supervisor Bass has the brains, I have the muscle.

Um, and neither of us serve on a committee together.

Um I'm on a committee with different people up here, but I'm not on a committee with Supervisor Bass.

So I want to I want to get on a committee, Supervisor Bass that's limited.

We want to get this accomplished before July 1st, and we will be calling in uh folks to help us figure this out, and then we'll report back to the health committee and then ultimately to the full board.

Now we did uh agree, I believe, at a health committee meeting that AHS would present its budget for fiscal year 26-27 to the health committee prior to it going to the board of trustees.

Is that correct?

Yes, we did.

Okay, all right, okay.

Um so I I think that's all I want to say at the moment.

I do appreciate Supervisor Bass willing to serve on this ad hoc committee of limited duration, non-subject to the Brown Act, so we can get um so to speak.

I don't want to curse, so so we can get stuff done.

Yeah, get so we can get stuff done, yeah, and get it done expeditiously with our county staff, with the HS and with stakeholders uh from uh rank and file.

Is that a motion, Supervisor Mellon?

You want to make the motion?

When you're ready for a motion, I'll make it ready for it.

You're ready for a motion.

Let's get stuff done.

Okay.

So I'd like to make the following motion that the board concurs with AHS's direction to defer the March 9th, 2026 layoffs and identify alternate non-patient facing positions for reduction layoff to address its structural imbalance.

uh from uh rank and file is that a motion supervisor mile you want to make the motion you're ready for motion almost ready for it you're ready for motion do it let's get stuff done okay so i'd like to make the following motion that the board concurs with a just's direction to defer the march 9th 2026 layoffs and identify alternate non-patient facing positions for reduction layoff to address the structural imbalance to that the board directs the county administrator auditor and alameda county health interim director to continue working with hs leadership to refine options to amend the behavioral health contract payments but just the line of credit with the county treasurer or treasury and discuss alternate service models related to IOP program three that the board schedule a report back from AHS in the county edit March 17th 2026 regular meeting four that the board designate an ad hoc committee and awkward group whatever we want to call it comprised of supervisor bass and myself and this ad hoc committee will interface with stakeholders including age as leadership and labor representatives to review options to address age fiscal imbalance um for this and the next uh fiscal year or uh further into the um the fiscal year 20 uh 728 that's my motion i will second the motion we have a second and a third um motion's been made by supervisor miley i think i heard supervisor for not a bass second it sorry that's fine i'll make the other motion on designating ahs okay with that said uh motion's been made seconded uh roll call vote please supervisor marquez aye supervisor tan aye supervisor miley supervisor for now present halbert aye supervisor tam um thank you president halbert uh in addition as we go through uh some of these talks i'd like to designate the alamed health systems to provide a 24 information service and to receive and respond to any complaints from individuals that would be eligible for services under the health and safety code chapter 2.5 is there a second and then we'll go to we'll go to discussion uh president halbert i'll I'll say that procedurally do we need to close the public hearing first yes okay so before you make a motion i'll move that we close the public hearing motion's been made to close the public hearing by supervisor miley seconded by a supervisor marquez local vote please supervisor marquez aye supervisor tan aye supervisor miley supervisor for now the best president halber i vote yes now we will take up item 48b okay i i had moved that we designate almighty health systems to provide the 24 hour information service and to receive and response to any complaints from individual individuals eligible for services under the health and safety call chapter 2.5 seconded by supervisor miley a motion's been made and seconded roll call vote please supervisor marquez aye supervisor tan aye supervisor miley supervisor for now president halber aye with that said i'd like to thank a members of the public who have shown up to watch the um baylinson hearing balance and hearing uh it is now concluded we have uh uh achieved our two p.m set matter the only other item remaining before us is public comment on items not on the agenda and we take it in the morning we did in the morning but I said we would do that we have any public speakers well we'll have a two minute um recess while everyone can clear the room thank you we're in recess could you establish our quorum by calling roll call supervisor marquez present supervisor tan present supervisor miley supervisor for no best present halber present would the county council care to report out any additional comments from closed session yes thank you um in the matter of Jose Mejia Valle the County of Alameda et al Superior Court of California County of Alameda case number two three C V045974 which is a lead case consolidated with Norma Marino Lopez v County of Alameda at all Superior Court of California County of Alameda case number two four CV072031 which has already been resolved the latter at a closed session on July 22nd 2025 the board authorized settlement of an amount of 1200 and with an agreement to waive court ordered sanctions against the plaintiff and his counsel

County of Alameda at all, Superior Court of California County of Alameda case number 24 CV 072031, which has already been resolved, the latter at a closed session on July 22nd, 2025, the board authorized settlement of an amount of 120,000, and with an agreement to waive court ordered sanctions against the plaintiff and his counsel in the amount of 4800.

Supervisor Supervisors Halbert Miley Marquez of Fortunato Bass voted yes, Supervisor Tam was excused.

So this matter is now settled.

Thank you very much.

With that said, the last item on our agenda is public item input on items not on today's agenda.

I understand we have four in-person speakers.

Anyone online can now raise their hand and seeing none will call the four speakers two minutes each.

Welcome everyone.

Glenn Kingby, Mark Evanhoff, Jane Kramer, and Kilkeila Moore.

Thank you, Ms.

President members of the board.

My name is Glenn Kirby.

I live in Hayward.

I urge through the grapevine, which I think is appropriate given my comments are directed to the East County area about this informal RFP that is being discussed to further amend Measure D, the Agriculture and Open Space Initiative.

I don't know what an informal RFP is, but uh to the point I think it's an important process that should be made more public.

I'm asking that be agendized so that the public, especially if there's public funds being spent, that the public has some um interest in the intent and scope of the project.

I had some questions.

I see where, for instance, um in the scope, it looks at studying re-establishing the Board of Supervisors as the legislative authority in uh general plan amendments, which I see is in direct conflict with the intent of the voter initiative.

And also in the background, it says that um this initiative was a no growth or slow growth initiative, which is in direct conflict with I think what I understand the intent was was to encourage growth in the cities while protecting agricultural and open space, commerce and habitat and the unincorporated areas.

So I uh strongly encourage you to have this be an open and public process before you uh complete this informal RFP and allow for public input.

Thank you.

My name is Mark Egonoff, I'm a 20 or 31 year old, uh 31 year resident of Alameda County.

And I'm just building on what Glenn said, just as a reminder of the uh measure language, it said, quote, the portions of the county plan enacted by initiative may not be amended except by voter approval, with the exception that the Board of Supervisors can impose more stringent standards.

The RFP informal RFP was issued last week entitled Measure D Initiative Campaign Analysis and Strategy Development.

And the informal RFP specifically seeks a contractor to quote assess the likelihood of voter approval of specific changes to measure D that can resolve limitations of the border supervisors' inability to make changes without voter approval.

It also requests election strategy recommendations.

Basically, the bottom line, measure D was approved by the voters.

It's inappropriate to use public funds to solicit a contractor to develop a strategy to overturn the will of the voters.

I am urging you this the proposals are due on March 20th.

I'm asking you to bring this back and to withdraw the RFP.

Bottom line, it's not appropriate to use public funds to create a political strategy to overturn the will of the voters.

Thank you very much.

Jane Kramer, um, two thoughts.

Um the health department is investigating food is medicine and in oncology.

Why wait for the trauma?

Why does not the health department set up uh uh citizen um a program that informs the public as to good health?

Now the public does its own shopping, it makes its own decisions as to what it is going to eat.

Why not put together an informational program on availability of food, cost of food, body metabolism, and incitance?

Second thought.

The chair's department is sending a person to an international association of chiefs of police officers, safety, and wellness conference.

That begs the issue because the issue is what are the stumbling blocks to police and community cooperation and communication.

How do you establish trust between the police and the community?

Thank you.

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Yes, go ahead, please.

Okay, hold on to turn my phone up a little bit.

Oh, my name is Venus Gist.

And um, thank you for allowing me to speak today.

I just wanted to give some updates in regards to an issue that has come up quite a few times in um our public comments, which is the probate court uh reform.

And I just wanted to inform you that we are making um we're back again, you know.

We haven't really left, but just really bringing more structure to the national probate reform coalition, the structure of it and what's going on.

We are now hosting a monthly town hall for a year.

You wanted to inform the community in Alameda County.

Um, Board of Supervisor Nate Miley is supportive and aware of it.

Um, it's a town hall once a month for a year.

The next one is March the 5th, which is this Thursday, and it'd be on our it's on Zoom.

And we are looking for resolutions and solutions to improve areas in the probate court system.

We have a couple cases we're very concerned about.

One involves the Kia Jandeyi, who's about to um be put out of her home by a judge, Judge Bean, and um the whole court process.

There's been um some um conflicts, so we want to address these issues and be able to create reform.

There's another case, the Gums family, and they're about to lose their property.

So we are just concerned about our Alameda County community and families losing their assets and uh during the process of the probate court system.

So we want to provide education.

I'm also a board member with United Seniors Oakland Alameda County with Board of Supervisor Nate Miley.

Want to bring education regarding families, getting their trust, becoming cohesive, communicating, um, just talking about family business so they don't lose generational wealth.

And so I just wanted to kind of give you an update on that.

I know my time is up, and we will be back in regards to certain requests and how we can work together as a community to bring healing to the probate court um reform movement here in Alameda County.

Thank you.

Very good.

With that said, we've exhausted all of the items before us, except we're going to close in honor of and in recognition of and in condolences to Betty Reed Soskin.

I'm going to ask Supervisor Tam to regale her life.

Thank you, President Halbert.

On Sunday, uh we bid a fond farewell to the amazing Betty Reed Soskin was held at the Oakland Convention Center, and I'd like to adjourn the meeting in her memory.

She was honored and for her extraordinary breadth of her impact in Alameda County, the Bay Area, and the nation.

She served not only as a historian but a living witness to the social, racial and political transformation that shaped the East Bay.

She passed at the age of 104.

In a county known for activism and social consciousness, Miss Hoskins embodied both memory and momentum.

She modeled lifelong civic engagement, reminding residents that participation does not expire with age.

Her memory will continue to inspire, educate, and encourage institutions to embrace complex, inclusive storytelling.

And it's particularly noteworthy that this month of March is dedicated to Women's History Month.

So let us remember and celebrate Miss Betty Reed Soskins' extraordinary contributions.

And I also like to um close in memory of San Lorenzo community activist Dorothy Moring, who passed away.

She's affectionately known in our community as Puffy.

She was a beloved artist, devoted mother, and cherished presence in her community.

When COVID had limited in-person contact, she uplifted others by sharing daily positive messages online and later found renewed purpose in volunteering for the San Lorenzo Village Homeowners Association.

She was a familiar and welcoming face at the association's free advice booth and senior coffee club, where she helped neighbors feel connected and supported.

Puffy had a remarkable gift for making everyone feel valued and her community returned that love, especially during her long illness.

She was a bright light to many and will be deeply and dearly missed.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you very much.

With that said, we will adjourn our meeting.

Thank you.