So good evening, everyone.

We're gonna call the unincorporated meeting Wednesday, March 25th.

To order with the clerk take the roll.

Supervisor Tim.

Present.

Supervisor Miley.

Here.

All right.

If we could have instructions in Spanish interpretation.

And Elena, can you give us the instructions for Spanish interpretation?

Yes, of course.

Um good afternoon.

Uh this virtual interpretation is being providing uh for this meeting.

Uh we will like you to for the people who is joining via Zoom to please join with the number, a webinar number 8464430209.

You go and click on the box at the bottom with three dots, and then you will select interpretation in the language you wish to be listened to.

And if you want to listen to only the interpreted language, please select mute original audio.

Presiona la cajita de thres puntos abajo de la pantalla.

Seleccion interpretación in el idioma que se desayun.

Is it in cambio prefiere escuchar solo in el idioma interpretado?

Muchas gracias.

Thank you very much.

Is there anything else?

Nothing else.

Okay.

So it's been requested that we move a few items around.

So we're gonna take public comment on non-agendized items first.

Public comment on non-agendized items.

Matt Turner.

And then Rachel Osajima.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak early.

Um is moving from uh at large elections to by district for the first time in its over century long year history.

And uh there is a website you can go to to participate uh with a free tool called uh you map it.com.

And uh we're encouraging folks to go there and participate.

There are flyers with Q QR codes at the front of the room, and then folks listening online or to a recording, you map it.com will have all the details, including links to go to Oraloma's own website where they have uh details about the schedule and how you can get involved.

That's it.

Thank you very much.

Good evening.

My name is Rachel Osajima, and I'm the director of the Alameda County Arts Commission.

And I'm happy to announce that my office is working on a new public art project.

So I thought I would mention it.

The county is building a new African American wellness hub, which will be located on Martin Luther King Junior Way in Oakland.

And um the main lead agency is Behavioral Health Care and Alameda County Alameda Health Agency.

And my office is working on the public art component for that future building that's expected to open in 2028.

And to gear up for that, we have just issued a call for artists.

It's a request for qualifications for artists to apply to be considered free future opportunities at that site.

It's available on our website, arts.

And the a call is open for artists to apply online through the deadline of April 30th, and we have an informational video on our website, and we will have an online info session and an in-person workshop at the Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland on Thursday, April 9th.

So thank you.

I hope that spread the word.

Lastly, April is Arts, Culture and Creativity Month.

So we invite people to celebrate arts, culture, and creativity and all the ways to help improve our overall quality of life and our community.

Thanks.

So we've been asked to take the action items uh first.

And I think um I think it was item five.

The cannabis ordinance.

Yes, good evening, uh Rodrigo Arduña with the county planning department.

I did prepare a PowerPoint.

I'll wait for it to load.

Thanks.

So this is an ordinance amending uh chapter 6.108 of the county general ordinance code.

And the intention is to expand the retail and delivery uh hours of operation for cannabis uh retailers and delivery oper operators.

Next slide, please.

So this ordinance modification would affect all our uh existing cannabis retail and delivery operators, so it would affect all zoning districts that have such parcels, the general plan designation, all those general plan designations with such parcels.

And um this project is uh exempt from CEQA uh due to the uh general rule that it can be seen with certainty that there's no possibility that the activity in question will have significant effect on the environment, and for the following reasons.

The reason being that we are actually complying with state uh legislation on hours of operation.

So next slide, please.

Um so basically the state business and professions code section 26200 sub A authorizes local jurisdictions such as Alameda County to adopt and enforce local ordinances regulating commercial cannabis.

Um the California Department of Cannabis Control uh adopted regulations set forth in Title Four, um, which governs state license licenses and operational requirements.

So that same title limits sales and deliveries by licensed cannabis retailers to the hours of 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

Next slide, please.

So the state uh hours again are 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

The county regulations for both retailers and deliveries are from 9 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

So uh the request before uh this unincorporated services committee uh is for you to recommend that it be forwarded to the full board of supervisors to change the hours from the current hours of 9 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

for both retail and deliveries to 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

Uh and next slide please.

So in doing so, we would align with uh the state title four um section 15403, and uh we would change the hours from from currently 9 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

to 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

Next slide, please.

So what this means is that those hours of operation modifications would not be automatic.

Those existing operators that wish to change their hours of operation because currently they are in their conditions of approval as well as in their ordinance, um, because of the Title VI ordinance, they would need to come in individually uh and petition to change their hours of operation from 9 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

From that to 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

So each individual operator would need to come in to petition to request their hours of operation.

Uh next slide, please.

And so last slide, uh staff recommends that this uh committee recommend that the full board of supervisors review the proposed ordinance modifications.

Um I'm available to take any questions or comments.

All right, thanks, Rodrigo.

So um this is coming to the committee to the board at my request.

So how many operators are we talking about?

10.

So they're yeah.

We have 10 operators in unincorporated Alameda County.

Um then the urban part of unincorporated Alameda County.

How many are two?

Two.

Uh and the other eight are in their um they're oh in rural, uh actually of those ten, they're they're eight of them are um growers.

So there's so there's fewer growers, yes.

Okay.

So the so two are retail dispensaries and eight are growers.

Right, and delivery, yes.

Okay, uh and delivery and the eight that are growers and delivery, they're in uh in the rural portions county.

Yes.

Okay.

Um the the dispensaries, they've been in operation for 20 years or so.

Uh 20 plus.

20 plus.

Um I'm putting I'm laying all this out because I know the history uh because I helped us show all this through the board of supervisors, and I know the two dispensaries, um, Garden of Eden and we are hemp.

Correct.

Yeah.

And as far as I know, uh, there have been no issues with them.

And as you said, if the board adopts this aligns with state law, they initially put this in place.

Um we didn't have um any um state law to conform with, if I recall correctly.

Correct.

Yeah, we would be compliant with state law.

Okay.

And uh we took we put in precautions so we can make sure that our dispensaries uh were operating uh effectively.

And then as you said, if the board approves the the alignment of the operational hours with state law, each of the 10 would have to come in and get their conditional use.

Right.

And and I want to modify that statement.

It's actually it this this modification only applies to the the retail and delivery operators, so the cultivators, it doesn't they're not affected.

So forget the number 10.

It's it's it's the two.

It's the two, and then there's one out in rural county that's also retailer.

Thank you for further clarifying that because I was I was wondering about that.

So the growers, this doesn't affect the it just affects the three.

Right.

And two of the three other dispensaries here in uh urban, one is in um on the welling and the other is on foot still.

Yes, they've been in operation for 20 plus years.

Right.

The one in East County, I think that's been operation maybe for less than five, correct?

Something like that.

Okay.

All right.

But each of them would have to come in and get their conditional use permit um um modified.

Their permits, yeah.

The the two existing uh have Title Six permits, the one in East County has a C UP, correct.

Okay.

Um, and that could be uh upheld or denied.

Correct.

Okay.

So it's not so what we're doing would not automatically allow it, but it would allow for each of them to um if they want to change their house of operation to uh request that and then uh that process would then ultimately come to the board of supervisors to approve a change in the conditional use permit.

Um if if it gets a uh up to that level, yes.

If it gets appealed, right.

Does it go to the BZA?

Uh the C UP does, yes.

Okay.

So it goes to the BZA, East County, West County BZA, because we got the two here and the two and the one in West County.

Okay, and unless it's appealed, right?

Okay.

All right.

So I just wanted to lay all that out because I fundamentally support this, but I wanted to make sure for the public, um, and Supervisor uh Tam, if she wasn't familiar, that we had a foundation for this.

Uh and I'm supporting this because I know uh the operators in the urban unincorporated area haven't caused any issues.

Um and if they do so uh and I think one of them is asked me uh to uh make this request.

And then do we know of any problems with the one in um West County off the top?

I mean, excuse me, East County off the top of your head.

No, not from code enforcement, not the beach code enforcement.

Okay, all right.

So that kind of lays out that um those comments and those questions.

So let me see if Supervisor Tam has any questions or comments.

Um that background was very helpful.

So of the two that are in the urban unincorporated, you expect both of them to come in for a conditional use permit to so they so those those are under Title VI permits, they don't have C VPs because they existed prior to the ordinance.

So those those those would they would only modify their Title VI permits.

They would not need to modify a C UP because they don't currently operate under C UP.

Uh so as part of uh modifying their Title VI, is there a separate review process?

Is it streamlined?

It's it's a staff level review process.

And then uh if if on appeal, then they would go to the board of the just jump in.

I do know they will, because Garden of Eden on on Foothill is very interested, interested in doing this.

Um, like I said, they've been operating for more than 20 years, and we are hemp, they're experiencing challenges because of their location.

They used to have problems even before the road improvements on the welling.

Uh but now with the road improvements, it's even exasperated, um, exacerbated their you know, their ability to operate effectively.

So I know probably both of them are gonna come in and request uh a change in operational hours.

And we are hemp possibly might even be requesting uh a relocation.

Yeah.

But we are limited in terms of the number of uh dispensaries we can have in urban unincorporated area according to our ordinance.

And we're not looking to change that.

We're just looking to deal with it, the two.

And they're both considered on the smaller side, they're not like some of the the ones we see in Oakland that are they have multiple.

They have small footprints, yeah.

What the the we are hemp is in our converted house.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah.

Um that helps.

Thank you.

Like I said, um, if they do solicit, which I suspect they will, um, and if it gets to the board, we'll get a chance to hear you know how they've operated and um here from the sheriff's department, code enforcement, public health, because as far as I know, um, and I've been tracking this for at least a decade or more.

Um, and when we established this at least two decades ago, um, I've been kind of monitoring this and meet with them operators uh periodically.

I I do know that things have been going well.

Okay.

So let's see.

Do let's see if we have any public speakers on this item.

Caller, you're on the line.

You have two minutes.

And you're name.

Yes.

Hi, my name is Sandra Archiletta.

I am a resident of district four.

Um, a mom, but I'm also a prevention professional.

And I really encourage you not to do this.

Um, access is one of the biggest issues in our community.

Cannabis is the number one substance use by our youth.

If you open at nine, kids are in school at nine.

Now you're expanding that into a time when kids are out of school, and I get that they don't go to the dispensaries that are there, but the delivery services, that's a major um flaw point because you basically just upload your ID the first time, and based on the driver, they may or might not check your ID.

We have a lot of kids that tell us they access um cannabis through these delivery services.

State law is not a requirement for these to be expanded.

And so right now you're cutting a bunch of prevention funding.

We had prevention, uh, we had uh behavioral health come in and talk about how much we're gonna be losing in prevention funding.

And now you're also increasing access in our community.

You also have to consider that next to Garden of Eden, they are opening a new dispensary, one of those big ones.

Uh what used to be, I think Walgreens right there.

We had a lot of residents come out that live in that little area, talk about all the trash that that place gets, how people just sit outside the dispensary on the next, like in the little side streets and smoke, throw out all their trash there, especially from the cigars that they're smoking when they're rolling uh joints and blunts.

So now from six in the morning, these residents are gonna be hugely impacted because they're gonna be cars lined up all down the street uh doing that.

And so I urge you not to do this.

This is unnecessary, and it's going to have a big impact on our community, and it's going to lead to more kids using uh cannabis.

It's going to lead to more trash to more people smoking outside of people's houses.

I really, really encourage you to vote against this.

Anthony, you're on the line.

Hi, my name is Anthony Escander.

I'm a 16-year-old high school student uh in Hayward Acres.

I'm representing Slam today.

Um I want to say I I urge you guys not to pass this.

Adding a couple extra hours, what does this help?

Does this this raises what?

A couple hundred bucks for these extra hours of service.

Is that worth the like the detrimenting students' health?

I as a student am at the age where I'm most impressionable to this stuff.

Keeping it at 9 a.m.

keeps me in school and I can't access it.

What is stopping me from going at 6 a.m.

to get this?

This is not right.

I don't want to be experiencing this.

I don't want my friends to experience this, and you guys are simply accepting this.

You're letting it slide for what a few hundred bucks uh uh uh just a little bit more business, a little more traction.

The current timing is perfect.

I'm like students are able to get to school.

They can't get access to this stuff because guess what?

School starts 8:30 in Alameda.

So 30 minutes after that, students aren't gonna be out of the house out of the school.

So they won't be able to reach these stores.

And then after that, after school, school usually ends average 335.

Um, let's say earliest 2.30 for middle school.

Are you telling me you want to extend the hours that the student can possibly reach these drug stores and buy marijuana?

I understand there's safety precautions in place, but how do you explain all the drugs in the schools?

I've seen it myself.

These aren't like this isn't preventive.

This is just taking away from the lives of our students.

I've seen friends, I've seen like colleagues, people I never expected smoking, and you're just letting this slide.

Thank you.

Brooke.

Hello, supervisors.

My name is Brooklyn, and I am employed in the unincorporated area of Alameda County.

As a public health professional, I want to you guys to consider strongly opposing this proposal.

So I understand there were claims made that extending cannabis retail hours will have no impact on the environment or community health, but I do just want to state that this does not hold up with current research that is happening.

Research is consistently showing that increased access leads to increased consumption and expanding hours of operation will likely drive higher sales and lead to greater exposure, not just among adults but also among many youth, as Anthony before just mentioned, and they are particularly vulnerable to this normalization and this access of marijuana.

This raises raises an important question.

What is the true goal of this proposal?

Um the answer appears to be very straightforward to me, which seems to be an effort to increase cannabis sales and in turn generate additional tax revenue for the county.

Um I do just want to emphasize, Supervisor Miley, you have often expressed concern about the burden placed on the county by state mandates, particularly when it comes to funding and resource allocation.

I urge you to reflect on how supporting this measure would align with those concerns.

Expanding cannabis access for the sake of revenue risks creating additional public health challenges that may ultimately place even greater strain on county resources that as Sandra mentioned earlier are getting cut.

Thank you for your consideration and for your time listening.

Delilah Hi, uh my name is Delilah, and I work uh with Slam and I'm concerned, I'm concerned that this proposal moves us in the wrong direction.

Expanding Canava cannabis sells hours from nine in the morning to nine p.m.

to six in the morning to ten p.m.

increases access during the exact times when youth people are most vulnerable, early mornings and late evenings when super uh supervision is lower.

We already know that the actor drives drives a oh we already know that um actions drives youth.

That's not an opinion, that's well established prevention work.

So it is difficult to understand why we would not only increase availability when expect expecting different outcomes.

I'm also concerned about delivery right now.

Enforcement isn't consistent, and ID checks at the point of delivery are not always reliable.

Expanding delivery hours only makes the cap the gap um wider and harder to manage.

So beyond access, the decision sends a message and normalizes cannabis um as something available throughout most of the day, which directly impacts how young people perceive risk.

As decision makers, you have the responsibility to weigh not just what is allowed, but what is right for the health of this community from a prevention standpoint?

This proposal raises serious concerns and lacks a clear youth impact analysis.

So we should be strengthening and strengthening protections and not weakening them.

I urge you to vote no and prioritize the long-term health and safety of our young people, and thank you so much for your time.

Marcia?

Could you please change also the interpreter, please?

Include me.

I'm sorry, this is the interpreter Elena Veles.

Gracias, supervisores fora.

My name is Marcia Lopez, soy leader community, and mama the hijos que stand in lay Madre Donales.

Can you hear me?

I'm sorry, this is Elena Vélez's interpreter, and I'm trying to interpret myself too.

We need to do switch between interpreters.

Perdoneme señora.

Oh, okay.

So can you please include me and I can switch with okay?

Okay, let me know when just one moment.

Thank you.

Disculpame señora, es que tenemos que hacer combinarnos con la interprete.

Gracias.

Muy amable, no se preocupe.

Okay.

Okay, Elena, you're in the Spanish channel.

Marcia Lopez.

Hello.

We can hear you.

Okay.

We can hear you in English, yes.

Yeah, and no quisiera que se apruebe esta propuesta de adelantar el horario de apertura para la venta de marihuana.

Porque si lo abren a la 6 de la mañana, eso va en contra de la salud de los niños, porque ellos van a ceder más antes de ir a la escuela.

Entonces, si ya hay un crisis de niños que están usando marihuana, ahora se va a aumentar mucho más.

Y eso va en contra de ellos.

Entonces, por favor, no apprueben the abrir a las 6 de la mañana atrás de la noche, que se permanece at the 9 la mañana donde los niños están in la escuela.

Muchas gracias.

Samantha.

Hello.

Samantha.

Yes.

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay.

Hello, my name is Samantha Ramos, and thank you so much for the opportunity to speak.

I'm a lifelong residence of Cheryland, which is in the unincorporated area.

I'm a youth leader in SLAM, and I'm here to speak on the proposal to expand the cannibalist retail and delivery hours.

I care about this main issue because this will affect our schools and how they will operate.

For expanding these hours will lead to a significant increase in access.

And changing these hours from 9 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

from 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

in our community.

This will have an effect and impact in our in our schools, and many students can and will be influenced.

Now deliveries will be the easiest way to access cannibals and will seem to have no effort, especially since I've seen that there's gonna be no ID checks that should be required to carry a substance like this.

There should also be a limitation when it comes to easy access to youth, and having a resource like this will take a negative toll on many young people and creating a health risk factors.

I believe that the planning com the planning department should show a pattern in this and this has shown in the past where these ideas are passed and there's no reinforcement and this seems not to be research or follow-up again.

This will also continue to set us back.

Thank you again so much for your time and have a great night.

Oscar uh my name is Oscar.

I'm a slam youth leader who lives in Thailand.

I urge you to go against the 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

proposal.

If our community can't get groceries to feed their families at 6 a.m., which is a true necessity, we should not be available either.

Because if this proposal goes through, it reflects bla badly on the entire community.

It's saying we value drugs more so than life necessities.

In addition, this proposal would only serve to facilitate youth plugs in their illegal business.

It aids in obtaining weed to sell in high schools by being able to purchase weed before school, and this is only made worse by the delivery services, which would be more able to sell at uh expanded hours.

Thank you.

Matthias.

Yes, you hi, my name is Matthias, and I'm a slam and I live in Hayward Acres.

Changing the cannabis dispensary hours from 9 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

to 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

increases access for kids and students to pass by it before and after school.

Many families feel worried about younger people being exposed to places like this.

Keeping the current hours helps reduce how often youth might be around it.

And respect the concerns of parents in the community.

Thank you.

Awesome.

One more speaker.

Cheryl.

Um, yes, hi.

My name is Cheryl Lighthoven, and for everybody that spoke, you understand that the supervisors don't live here.

They don't care.

I don't have no more speakers.

Okay, I want to thank the speakers.

Um before I see if Supervisor Tam has any other comments or questions, I'm gonna make some comments and ask some questions and use this as a teachable moment as well.

Um, Rodrigo, you said there are three operators that this would affect.

Correct.

Two are dispensaries, one is a delivery.

Correct.

Okay.

And then if we pass this ordinance, change the ordinance, all three would still have to go through additional approvals to change the hours.

Correct.

And changing hours is not automatic.

Correct.

Just have to request the change hours.

Okay.

And um and all of these operators, the delivery operators have been in existence for about five years or so, and the dispensaries have been in existence for more than 20 years.

Correct.

Okay.

Um, so now let me use this as a teachable moment.

Um, because I appreciate SLAM and appreciate Sandra.

You know, you're doing your job, but let me let me tell you.

First of all, I've been a strong advocate uh for uh cannabis.

I don't use it, but I've been a strong advocate ever since my days on the city council when I saw people come in and need it for medicinal purposes.

Then when it became legal, I continue to be a strong advocate as long as it's regulated like any other drug, tobacco and alcohol.

I have a working group that's called the alcohol and other drugs working group that meets periodically the regulations that are basically in place in unincorporated area dealing with alcohol tobacco and cannabis.

If I didn't um if I wasn't involved with uh um uh pushing some of those regulations, uh they might not be in existence today.

I'm not saying I pushed all of them, but I know I had a hand to play in most of them.

Cannabis is a legal product.

We have very limited operators in the unincorporated area, in the urban unincorporated area, we have two.

As far as I know, alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis are not legal to be sold to young people under the age of 21.

21.

If any of our cannabis operators sell any of their products to youth under 21, and law enforcement or code enforcement knows about this, that would be subject for them to be um out of compliance and potentially lose their ability to operate.

They know that supervisor Miley, and I'm speaking for myself because I have a long history of working on this, going back to the 1990s, 2000, 2010, up to this point.

They know supervisor mileage.

I don't play that.

I don't play that with alcohol outlets, I don't play that with tobacco outlets, and I don't play that with cannabis outlets.

If you sell to minors and we catch you selling to minors, if we catch you doing anything that's not part of the uh regulatory uh abilities, and it comes to our attention through planning through the sheriff's department, and it's brought to the BZA and to the board of supervisors.

I will be one of their hardest critics, and would unless they can demonstrate leniency, I'll be the toughest on them.

I was that way when I was in the city council in Oakland, and I'm that way as a county supervisor in the unincorporated area.

I can't regulate what happens in other jurisdictions, but I can out here, and I'm very, very um very, very strict on that.

So to say young people are gonna have access to it, if they're gonna have access to it, they're not getting it through our dispensaries and our operators because if they are, you need to bring that to the attention of code enforcement insurance department, and we'll shut them down.

So I don't like red herrings.

Furthermore, because it's a legal business, I want to support legal businesses as long as they're operating legally.

Now, if we had a proliferation of cannabis dispensaries, then I'd say maybe we shouldn't consider this.

But we have two in the entire unincorporated area.

And we have one delivery in the eastern part of the county.

That's not over saturation.

We regulate alcohol outlets, so we have limited the number of alcohol outlets, and we limit the number of tobacco outlets.

But we want to support legal businesses.

Addition, the public health person who called in said that we tax cannabis outlets.

I think it was the public health person.

We don't tax cannabis outlets.

Because there's too much of a black market out there, underground market, that if we were to tax them, they'd go out of business, because everybody's getting their product illegally.

I don't control what happens illegally, but I do have the sheriff's department trying to crack down on illegal operations, and they do a damn good job of it.

And we'll continue to do a good job of cracking down on illegal operations.

So if kids are getting cannabis, they're getting it from illegal operators.

And you need to bring that to our attention so we can crack down on them.

Trying to think if there's any any other comments I want to make on this.

So yeah, I don't know what if if this will get through this committee with Supervisor Tam, but if it does and it gets to the board, you'll have a chance to convince the board.

But I'll advocate as hard as I have presently and in the past for legal businesses that operate legally and that are regulated, of which we do a good job of that.

So once again, I'm not trying to be critical of SLAM, but when you come, make sure you you give people all of the facts.

Two operators in the unincorporated area, you know that, and you know those two operators have not been bad operators.

And you know, selling a product is illegal to sell to young people, and it's not our operators that are doing that.

So access is not being increased because we give our operators an opportunity to continue to run unappropriate business that's legal.

So my job is to ensure that there's equity in the sense of having businesses of all types that are um uh legal.

Cannabis is legal, alcohol is legal, tobacco's legal.

We don't want to have an over uh proliferation of any of those, but we want we do want to regulate them and allow them to exist.

And then once again, Rodrigo from the planning department pointed out, just because if we approve this ordinance, this modification, it doesn't automatically allow them to change their hours.

They still have to um request that change.

And if there's reason for them for that not to be approved, the the staff will know that.

And if and if you don't agree with the staff, that can be appealed to the BZA, I believe, and ultimately to the Board of Supervisors.

But I'm not gonna just jump up and say the boogeyman's coming when the boogeyman's not coming.

So I'm gonna I think I've said enough on this, because I like sorry, so sorry to hand and for the public, but I've had a long history.

You don't have to educate me around this.

It's somebody talking to me about prevention.

Hey, I've been working on prevention before you probably were born, going back to the 1990s on the Oakland City Council.

So I don't need to be lectured about prevention.

So don't use my name in vain unless you do your homework and find out where Supervisor Miley's coming from, because I've had a long history of working on these issues, particularly alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, firearms, and public safety.

Because I don't play when it comes to public safety.

Oh, I'm done.

Supervisor Tam.

Thank you, Chair Miley.

I just had some clarifying questions.

So right now, uh state law would allow the county to modify its ordinance to go from 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

But we necessarily we won't necessarily need to do that under a title six permit application review.

Is that my understanding?

So right now the the ordinance, which is Title VI ordinance, says that the hours cannot be before 9 a.m.

or after 9 p.m.

So those are the hours that we said.

We can choose to follow state legislation.

But if we do that, because it's because uh it is not only in the ordinance, but it's also in their conditions of approval, their operating hours, they would need to petition to change those conditions of approval.

Right.

But what I'm saying is that if you um got an application from these two dispensaries, and um uh you know, let's say they wanted to start operations at seven in the morning and go till 10.

And uh I'm I'm thinking that it's part of that approval process.

You're gonna look at their history and to look at um their proximity to schools, you know, whether or not there's security issues, and and then um make some discretionary um choices and maybe having them go from like 9 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

instead of like from you know 6 a.m.

Rodrigo, make sure supervisor dam and the public understand these operators are not near sensitive receptors.

Right.

They're they're located in areas uh, for example, on Foothill Boulevard and Lowell Line Boulevard, which uh Foothill is is you know high traffic.

I see you know that I guess I know where Foothill is.

So yeah, so so we would check the background, we would check with code enforcement, we would check with the sheriff's office, find out what their calls for service are, if there's any issues that that would, if there's a recommendation, for example, from sheriff's office, no, this is a high whatever uh call for service uh business, then then if the recommendation is against, then we would take that into consideration.

Yes.

Yeah, I I know the planning department and our sheriff's department have done a really good job because uh even on the board of supervisors planning uh meetings, we have had at least two smoke shops come to us where they have uh sold to minors people under 21, and they've had a pattern in practice, and we not have not only find them, but we basically shut them down.

So that's something that uh we're very um consistent about.

And I just want to make sure that we are consistent uh going forward on all uh of these substances, whether it's alcohol, tobacco, or cannabis.

Correct.

There's a there's an internal enforcement review to find out how how good a business they've been.

Okay, thank you.

Because sorry, just get a little um emotional about this stuff.

Because yeah, I've got grandkids, I've worked with youth over over time, but I also believe in um supporting businesses, particularly businesses that operate um appropriately and under the law, and if they're good operators.

Um Supervisor Tam, I'll make a motion that we uh approve um the amendment to the ordinance uh so that it can align with state law.

Uh I'll second it in terms of moving it to the full board for consideration.

Okay.

So move the second clerk want to take the roll.

Supervisor Tam.

Aye.

Supervisor Miley motion pass.

Okay.

Okay.

Now, the next item is the next item.

Is our fireworks ordinance?

Something I think we've been waiting for a long time.

Good evening.

Thank you for uh having me tonight.

My name's Sergeant Curtis Imperial.

I'm a uh sergeant of our property crimes unit with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.

Uh my unit is in charge of fireworks suppression every year.

Um, so it made sense for us to uh draft this ordinance.

Uh tonight we're gonna take on public comment and consider a proposed ordinance amending the Alameda County municipal code to expressly prohibit all fireworks in the unincorporated area, establish a social host ordinance and fine structure, and uh forward this action item to the Board of Supervisors for adoption.

Why an ordinance uh on June 14th of 2023?

ACSO acknowledged uh concerns of the Fairview Mac regarding the use of fireworks, stating a team would conduct research to see what could be done to create a fireworks uh social host ordinance.

Go over a few stats here quickly.

So back in May of last year, when I came into this unit, ended up going over these stats.

These are calls for service in all of our sectors where we patrol.

Here we have San Lorenzo and Hayward Acres.

Just kind of gives you a visual idea of where most of these calls are coming from.

We go to the next slide.

Ashland and Cherryland.

Castor Valley on the upper and lower ends of Castor Valley, quite a few.

There weren't too many.

And finally, out in our Tri-Valley area where there were very few calls.

There are only two calls for service out there.

But in total, we're just shy of 645 firework calls that were reported to us for one month period.

And again, that was from June 4th to July 6th of last year.

So in addition to those stats, we conducted extensive research with neighboring agencies, code enforcement, county council, and fire agencies into developing this ordinance we'll be discussing tonight.

As part of this process, we first went to the MACs to review fireworks calls for service and our suppression plan for the summer of 2025.

That's the dates listed there when we met with MACs last year.

And we did that in order to seek input on the development of a fireworks ban and social host ordinance, which would provide another enforcement tool to uh discourage the use of fireworks in unincorporated areas.

For the past 10 months, uh this ordinance was developed with county partners to ensure the ordinance would work for unincorporated Alameda County.

Uh prior to putting this draft out to the public.

And they've tentatively agreed to oversee the administrative hearings when needed.

I have yet to speak with the East BZA, but they have been notified via email.

We subsequently presented the draft proposal to all of the MACs to seek their recommendation to the Board of Supervisors on the proposed ordinance.

And those presentations were in February and earlier this month.

Unanimously voted to recommend the Board of Supervisors adopt the proposed ordinance.

The Casser Valley MAC, however, did not support the ordinance.

Some of the comments and concerns from the MACs and the public from the past uh MAC meetings.

Uh included the issue of uh property owners uh being issued citations when they are not present, and we address that issue by explaining the appeals process and uh the administrative process, which I'll discuss a little later.

Uh if violators have to pay fines prior to appealing, and no, they do not.

Uh they just simply fill out the appeals form that we'll cover.

Ways to report a violation uh of this ordinance anonymously uh to avoid conflict between neighbors.

Uh we recommended that uh the reporting party could always, like in any call for service, uh, they could always remain anonymous.

Uh they they do not have to identify themselves.

And dealing with non-residents of unincorporated Alameda County who are using and possessing fireworks.

So, in other words, uh folks that are coming in from other cities into the unincorporated areas and they're shooting off fireworks.

How would we deal with them?

And we would basically just deal with them the way we've been dealing with them for years.

We would contact them, we and deal with them on a criminal level.

So they would be issued criminal citations.

And the issue of notifying the public of this new ordinance prior to it going into effect.

We would be doing that in a series of public service announcements through social media and TV commercials.

That is our hope.

So I don't think we got too much of the public comment that we were hoping for because it was pretty late.

And I don't think that they really grasped the idea that this ordinance was actually a collaboration with county council, other fire agencies, and it wasn't just my ideas and me conjuring up these rules.

So hopefully tonight we we could clarify that make this ordinance a little bit more clear.

So the title of this ordinance, uh it shall be cited as the fireworks and social host ordinance.

ACSO shall administer the provisions of this ordinance and shall have the authority to designate employees or other members of public service agencies as enforcement officers with enforcement responsibilities.

Hearings or appeals uh shall be heard by the Board of Zoning Adjustments.

ACSO or their designees shall have the authority and discretion to issue verbal warnings, written citations for civil violations, issue notices and orders, and/or place individuals under arrest pursuant to any applicable laws of the United States and State of California constitutions.

Admissible evidence for a violation would include law enforcement reports documenting persons being observed in the possession of any fireworks or discharge of any fireworks or fireworks being discharged at a specific property under the control of the responsible party andor property owner.

Photographic or video evidence taken by ACSO or their designees of persons in possession of any fireworks or discharging any fireworks at a specific property under the control or the responsible of the responsible party and or property owner.

Secondary evidence can also include photographic evidence, video evidence, and statements submitted to ACSO or their designees by residents when deputies are on scene investigating the illegal discharge of fireworks.

Some general violations for firework use.

No person shall possess manufacture, sell, offer to sell, use or discharge any dangerous fireworks and/or safe insane fireworks in unincorporated Alameda County.

Individuals who are found possessing and manufacturing, selling, offering to sell using or discharging any of these dangerous fireworks or safe and sane fireworks shall be subject to verbal warnings placed under arrest and/or issued a criminal citation pursuant to any applicable laws of the United States or State of California constitutions.

So basically, we would deal with them the way we've been dealing with them for years.

They could be given a verbal warning and released.

Fireworks could be confiscated, fireworks will be confiscated.

Or they could actually be placed under arrest and taken to jail.

Again, that's for the people actually using the fireworks.

The violations for social hosts, it will be unlawful for any responsible party andor property owner to permit, allow or promote the discharge of any dangerous fireworks or safe insane fireworks if they know or reasonably should know that an individual is discharging fireworks on his or her residential or private property.

A responsible party and/or property owner who permits, allows, or promotes the discharge of dangerous fireworks or safe and sane fireworks at their residence, makes them strictly liable for any violation of this ordinance.

Continuing with violations for social hosts, no responsible party and/or property owner shall aid or abet another person's violation of this provision of this chapter.

So a responsible party and/or property owner aids and abets another person's violation.

Uh if he or she knows of the other person's unlawful purpose, and the responsible party andor property owner specifically intends uh to and does in fact facilitate, promote or instigate the other person's commission of that violation.

So oftentimes when we're out enforcing uh fireworks uh fireworks oppression, we will contact a group of folks in the middle of the street uh where there's a party going on, they're letting off fireworks.

As soon as we show up, everybody leaves and they go into the house uh where the party's happening and they shut the garage or they shut the doors and uh they refuse to come out, uh or uh the homeowner will refuse to identify the people that were that went into their house that uh were shooting off the fireworks.

So that's basically the eating and betting portion of this.

A host is not in violation if a responsible party and/or property owner initiates contact with law enforcement to assist in removing any person from their property in order to comply with this chapter, and if the request is made before any other person contacts law enforcement to complain about the violation of this chapter.

So individuals who are social hosts of fireworks activity, they will be subject to receive a civil administrative citation, which is this here.

Uh the document to the left is an example of the citation that's been drafted.

In section A, uh, it would include the report number.

Uh if it would be their first, second, or third violation, which we'll go over.

Uh in section B, that's the name of the folks that will be receiving the citation, and we'll go over it who will be placed where in that section, and then section C, the violation itself as applicable to the uh ordinance, and section D, the serving uh citation information by the deputy.

Yep.

Thanks.

Uh when an enforcement officer declares a fireworks social host ordinance violation, they shall issue an administrative citation and a notice of violation within 30 calendar days of the violation to the responsible party and/or property owner.

Most of the time it will probably be that same day when it happens.

Uh if an enforcement officer is on scene, uh, efforts may be made to identify the responsible party and/or property owner.

If the responsible party is identified, the enforcement officer shall determine if the responsible party is the property owner or a renter.

So if the responsible party is a renter, efforts should be made to identify the property owner.

In situations where the identified responsible party is a renter and the property owner has been identified, so they're being cooperative, and they told us who the property owner is, an administrative citation shall be issued, naming both the responsible party and the property owner.

So on that citation in section B, the renter would be number one, and on number two would be the property owner.

That does not necessarily mean the property owner would be responsible for the citation, that's giving them notice that their renter was issued a citation.

And at this point, the property owner will be identified through Alameda County Assessor's Office Property Records or their website.

So if again, if we show up and everybody retreats back into the house, everybody's refusing to identify themselves, uh, they are not being cooperative.

Uh or if deputies show up and it's sometimes it is too dangerous for us to get out.

Uh we can just observe and report.

And the way we do that is we could take photographic and video evidence with our body warrant cameras.

Now we don't even have to take our body warrant cameras off and hold them up.

Uh that that same technology is uh through an app process on our county cell phones, and so we could simply just hold up our county cell phones and record that way.

We could take photos.

Uh and so really we would just document the act the actions of the party goers that way, and at a later time, or actually that night, uh, we do all have access to the assessor's website to identify the property owner.

And if that happens, the uh responsible the I'm sorry, the uh citation will go to the property owner at that point.

The responsible party, property owner and/or legal occupant shall pay the violation only by check or money order made payable to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office within 21 calendar days of the date the citation was issued.

The penalties would include the first violation of $750, a second violation would result in a $1,500 violation, a third or subsequent violation uh would result in a $2,500 violation.

There would be no grace period for repeated violations by the same responsible parties.

Any subsequent violation, regardless of the amount of time between violations, will assess the fine to the next level fee not exceeding $2,500.

So basically, if we show up, we issue a citation at 7 o'clock, and we get called back at 8 o'clock.

Uh they could get the second citation for $1,500.

Uh we show up 30 minutes later and they're doing the same thing.

Uh, they could get another citation for 2,500.

Uh again, there's no grace period, but it will not exceed 2500 uh after the the third violation.

If payment is not received by the date listed on the citation, a second notification letter will be sent to the legal property owner advising they will be accountable for paying the unpaid fines and will have the right to appeal within 10 calendar days on the date of the listed on the date listed on the notification letter, or the unpaid fines will be sent to the Alameda County Central Collections Agency.

All funds collected under this ordinance shall be retained by the Alameda County or by the County of Alameda in a separate account and used exclusively to fund the enforcement and public education of this ordinance.

This is the appeals process section.

Uh, this is the form that would be mailed along with the citation and the first notice of violation letter.

It's pretty self-explanatory.

Uh and we'll go on to this a little bit further.

If the responsible party, uh property owner andor legal occupants wish to appeal the citation, they must file an appeal again within 10 calendar days from the date the administrative citation was issued.

And they do that by completing that form and returning it to ACSO.

The BZA shall then conduct an administrative hearing within 45 calendar days from the date the appeal was filed.

At the administrative hearing, the BZA shall hear and consider all relevant evidence, objections, or protests, and shall receive testimony under oath relative to such alleged violations.

The hearing may be continued from time to time, and the B BZA's decision of any appeal may be sustained or determined to be unfounded.

The responsible party andor property owner andor legal occupants may appeal the BZA's findings to the county of Alameda by filing an appeal with the clerk of board of supervisors within 10 calendar days of the BZA's decision.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, Sergeant, you know, I've some comments and questions, but I couldn't let this one go.

You said under oath.

Yes.

They're gonna think witness when when we met uh on Monday, uh when I spoke with uh I believe Nancy Vos, she's the West BZA chairperson, and we had that discussion, and she said that that is possible for them to do.

Yes.

Is she the attorney in county council?

She said that she would she would definitely find uh a person that would be able to administer that oath during these hearings.

This person you talk to, is she in county council's office?

She's the she's the chairperson of the West Board of Zoning adjustments.

Check that under oath.

Okay.

Okay.

Because I don't know.

I mean, when people even come to the board of supervisors, they're not under oath.

So we need I believe they may do that uh under the alcohol ordinance uh administrative hearings that they hold for for those.

And so that's the case, and great.

Okay.

Go to the next slide, please.

The Board of Supervisors shall then set a date to hear the appeal, in which the date shall not shall be not less than seven calendar days nor more than 45 calendar days from the date the appeal was filed.

Uh again, that's if they appeal the BZA's findings.

And upon conclusion of that hearing, the Board of Supervisors shall determine whether the responsible party andor property owner uh andor legal occupant were in violation of this chapter.

And if so, a resolution shall set forth the time within which compliance shall be completed.

Any person aggrieved by an administrative decision may file a petition for review with the Alameda County Superior Court uh in accordance to California government code uh 53069.4.

So what we're requesting tonight, ACSO is requesting the unincorporated services committee to consider this proposed ordinance, provide direction and advance the ordinance to the full board for adoption.

The next steps, uh, we we hope uh that this would make uh the board of supervisors first reading on April 21st, and then hopefully for the second on April 28th, and we hope that this ordinance uh is put into effect by early June uh before 4th of July, because people definitely start shooting off fireworks uh well in advance to 4th of July.

They usually start in May uh in some places.

That concludes my presentation.

So if uh we'll go ahead and open it up to public comment.

All right, Sergeant, uh thank you.

So I'm gonna start with Supervisor Tams uh to see what questions and comments she might have, and then I've got a few myself before we um see what the public has to say.

Um thank you, Chair Miley.

So you mentioned that you had a total of 644 fireworks calls last July.

And uh I'm trying to understand if you had this tool, this ordinance in place, what would have been different with those calls.

I believe if if we had this tool over the last several years, uh neighbors would have been seeing that their neighbors are getting cited.

Uh property owners would probably put the word out to their renters uh that they received a citation, even though we weren't there, you know, and and again, they could go through the appeals process if people have questions about that.

But I think uh if we have this tool and if and we are out there every 4th of July, uh and the weeks prior to 4th of July, enforcing fireworks suppression.

Um, but usually by the time we get there, um the fireworks activity is stopped, they're gone, um, and we can't find the fireworks activity.

Uh, but for this, this tool would at least allow us to do some investigation.

We could do uh, you know, for detectives in unmarked vehicles or even deputies and patrol vehicles, they do have the ability to kind of sit, watch, kind of figure out where that fireworks activity is going.

They could, again, they're gonna have they for this, they are gonna be required to videotape, take photos of where this is going and document it.

Uh and I think once these fines are levied, uh that would be a big deterrent to a lot of people from setting off fireworks and hosting parties and allowing people to come to their parties to set off fireworks.

Um thank you.

I was actually thinking in terms of like workload.

Do you think over because 644 is a lot of calls for the entire unincorporated?

I don't know.

We are trying to deploy all the sheriff's departments to different locations and start video taping, it's it's a lot of work.

So are you hoping that over time that the number of calls will significantly decrease?

Yes, and so again, that's that's just that's for one month.

Uh and I I would hope that the calls would decrease significantly.

Yes.

Um, in terms of responsible party, uh, I understand there might be some concerns that the Castle Valley Mac had expressed about you know, an absentee uh property owner, for example, an apartment complex.

How do you zero in on who the responsible party is and not for example get other neighbors within that apartment complex involved that they weren't um like let's say somebody from out of town was video visiting somebody and brought fireworks and started shooting it off, and then like you said, they would scatter.

Uh how would you pinpoint that if you end up, for example, with uh an absentee property owner that lives in I don't know, Illinois or something?

Sure.

Uh so this issue came up in in our development of this ordinance, and there was a lot of debate, there was a lot of disagreement.

Um the deputies are gonna have to at for an apartment complex, the deputies will have to do some investigation.

Again, they'll have to observe, watch, uh, they will have to go out if contact folks, all right.

Um, and try to figure out who lives in which apartment that was hosting.

I mean, if it's multiple apartments, uh multiple responsible parties, and like the all of their guests are shooting off fireworks.

Um, you know, that that might be a little bit more difficult, but I mean it's possible.

We we could investigate this, and but again, if if they're um being uncooperative, then we would just have to uh rely on the county assessor's website and uh identify the property owner.

But the property owner, again, will have the right to appeal this, and they could say, hey, I live in Illinois, all right.

Um, and my renters in apartment 10 are this person and the my other renters in apartment nine, where you saw the fireworks activity, because it'll all be documented in a report that a property owner will have the right to see out of hearing.

Um, and at that point, the BZA could uh dismiss the whole case if they want to, uh, or they will transfer the responsibility to the peer to the renters that have been identified.

Uh so um, as part of your enforcement, you will try to basically get footage or observations of people in the act, right?

Not people like, for example, neighbors coming out just to take a watch and see.

Yeah, so we we would not be it, it would be the the people that were so first of all, we there's there's two parts of it.

Again, there's a criminal side and a and a civil side.

So the people actually setting off the fireworks, we would deal with them criminally, issue them a citation for health and safety code 1267, then they go to court 60 days from there, and we take their fireworks.

Uh, and then the second half would be all right.

Uh, we saw you go in in and out of this specific property.

Um, we have video of you.

Um who who's the who's who's hosting this party?

Um, and hopefully we could identify that person, their cooperative, um, and we go from there, and that person receives the civil citation for being a social host.

Okay, thank you.

Oh, and I'm sorry, and it is very possible that if a social host is hosting a party, and if the social host is setting off fireworks themselves, they will get hit with both types of citations.

So they could also get a criminal citation and a civil citation.

Okay.

So first of all, I want to say thank you to Sheriff Department for finally getting this done.

Because this has been something that people have been talking to me about in my office about for years.

So I'm happy it's done.

It seems very thorough, extremely thorough.

And I don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good.

So if this isn't perfect, it's a good start.

And if we need to, if the board passes this and we find out through its implementation and execution, we need to make some modifications.

I'm sure we'll do that.

So that's the first thing I want to say.

I'm 110% behind this because I want to eliminate illegal fireworks activity in the unincorporated area.

Let them go somewhere else.

Because there are jurisdictions where we see a lot of this, and jurisdictions where we see little or none of this.

Am I right?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Do you um the ordinance was patterned?

You got information about the ordinance from other jurisdictions?

Yes, sir.

Um we contacted other agencies, uh, neighboring agencies such as Hayward, Livermore.

Uh I even contacted the Sacramento Fire Department who oversees their fireworks ordinance.

Uh and so we develop some ideas from all of those.

And then uh the legality of things, we we went to county council uh to make sure that you know we we could kind of tweak uh some things that were gonna be different from other agencies and and most of the other agencies, if if I could point out uh only go after the property owners.

Um they only figure out where the property, you know, they'll they'll throw up a UAV in some instance and they'll just record the fireworks activity out of property, uh, and then they go to the assessor's website, and then they just mail a citation to the property owner without contacting anybody with us.

We're gonna do our due diligence uh and go beyond that.

We're going to try to figure out uh who is actually responsible for that particular party, and we are gonna try to find out if you're a renter or a property owner, because we don't want to give the property owner uh a citation if they don't deserve it, uh if we're there and if we could actually identify these folks right then and there.

But yes, in some instances where uh you know we don't have the resources, and and if that's what if that's all we have is to identify the property owner, then we have the appeals process to sort it out later.

That's very magnanimous, because we're doing something greater than what other jurisdictions do.

So the MAC wanted it not to be um the responsibility of uh homeowners being liable for their renters, but we're gonna just notify the homeowners, the property owners, yes, potentially they could be liable, but really it's just a notification.

So the renters ultimately, if he or she is the person um uh illegally doing the fireworks will be held responsible.

That's correct.

And and if if that payment is not received in like 21 days by anybody, or if there is not a response for from the renter or the property owner, uh unfortunately the that payment will be the responsibility of the uh of the property owner.

So like I said in the presentation, a second notification letter will be sent to the property owners, letting them know hey, again, somebody was was cited on your property uh on this date at this location, uh, and now with the second notification, you you now have 10 days to pay this this fine.

Uh and so that again, that even though they have given been given notice, they're given a second notice uh to have their renters or themselves pay, uh, or if they do not pay, then that payment or that uh that fine will be sent to the uh central collections agency.

Okay.

Um if the renter doesn't pay and the property owner is held responsible.

Now you might not be able to answer this, but I want to flag this so we get an answer to it by the time it gets to the board of supervisors.

Would the property owner then have the um legal ability to evict the renter?

We need to know that.

And like I said, you might not be able to answer that, but I we need to know that because I know they're gonna be who people are concerned about tenant protections, and if they think a property owner can has to pay for this and then evict the tenant because the tenant didn't pay for it, that that's gonna raise some angst for some people.

So we just need to kind of flag that and and get an answer to that.

And if it is a concern, we need to figure out how we might want to mitigate that.

But I just want to flag that.

The next thing I want to flag is this whole oath.

Now even catch it, and I've been on the board for a few years.

Um ordinance, uh, if they go to the BCA, they're on their they're they take they sworn they're sworn under oath.

That's my understanding from what I read from the alcohol ordinance.

Uh and I I didn't get that clarification from Nancy, but uh I could definitely get that clarification from her tomorrow.

Okay to see if they actually do it for the uh alcohol.

Yeah, because that's interesting.

But she did br she did bring it up because she did ask, Oh, do you did you want us to do it under oath?

Yeah.

And I I said, Yeah, I I thought you guys actually do that for the alcohol.

And she said, Yeah, we we could find somebody that's capable of doing that.

Okay.

That was my understanding of our conversation.

Yeah, find that out and then I want to confirm with county council if if because maybe that's something we've been doing and we we can't do.

Because suppose somebody is sworn in under oath and they lie.

Sure.

What's the right sanction for that?

Do we have any sanction?

So I just need to understand maybe we've been doing it and maybe we shouldn't be doing it.

Uh, but if we are doing it and we can do it, I need to make sure that county council, you know, affirms that.

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Um the next thing, uh I quite frankly don't think the penalties are higher enough.

Why don't we start at 750?

Why don't we start like that?

So that was the standard uh penalty that that we saw from neighboring agencies.

So 750, actually that same uh violation schedule was was almost exact to like Haywards and Livermores.

Okay.

All right.

So maybe we can go with that.

Now, with the quarter um with the 2,500, did you say that that's the max that anybody can be fined regardless of the number of times?

So they are in violation.

Yeah.

So uh if they hit the third violation, it's 2500.

If we go back for a fourth violation, it's 2500.

Uh we go back for a fifth title.

So that's cumulative.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

That's good.

Okay, I didn't catch that at first.

Now the ordinance itself, is the ordinance just um in uh enforceable during a certain period of time, like between like the middle of June to the middle of July, or is it enforceable year round?

It's indefinite.

So uh this would include, say, when uh the warriors win a championship, uh, or when Alyssa Lu comes and wins a gold medal and everybody's shooting off fireworks.

Okay.

Um and it it you know, New Year's Eve, of course.

Um, and again, it's it's the times per se and usually the the busy time of shooting fireworks are a month before uh you know, a couple weeks before New Year's Eve, and definitely way before Fourth of July and a little bit after Fourth of July.

Okay.

Yes.

Um that's good to know now.

Uh so I could I could be fined for this at the uh in January, let's say at the new uh uh around New Year's or thereafter, then I could be fined for it again at the fourth July time.

Yeah, so the That's your second violation.

So now you're hit with 1500, yeah.

I could be fined again in the fall because you know, yes, can't you have a birthday or something?

I do some respectfully if you're the same person living at that address.

I mean, if if we find out that hey, it's a it's a new renter, and you know, we're gonna have to, you know, either we're either gonna find that out through contacting them, uh, or we're gonna find that out at the appeals process.

Um, but yes, if you're the same person living in the in the same l location hosting parties, you're you're gonna receive multiple violations regardless of the time past.

Like I said, I don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good, because this is I think this is a very important step forward.

Now it you mentioned in your presentation that there were we're you're gonna we're gonna notify the public of the ordinance.

Yes.

So how will that notification take place?

Are we gonna we would we would uh I for myself I was talking to uh Captain Madust, she's she's in charge of our multi uh media unit, and so we would do that through public service announcements through like Instagram, Facebook.

Uh I would notify uh the sergeant of that unit, uh Sergeant Morales.

I don't know if you know him, but he would put out a um public uh announcement to the media.

Um usually it's in the form of a memo and it's very official, and then all the media outlets would receive it and hopefully they would push it out in their news outlets.

We're I also talked to Captain Midust about maybe even possibly doing like commercials, just so we could it's really out there so that people uh have fair warning that that this is in effect um by the time fourth of July comes around, hopefully, or you know, when whenever it comes into effect, we want to make sure we immediately put something out so uh people know.

Yeah.

Would we want to uh send a notification to every uh property in the unincorporated area?

Is there is that two that expensive try to do that.

I don't know how we discard or something.

Yeah, I mean, I I I don't know how we could possibly do that.

I could uh you know, that's something I'd have to talk to my administrators about, but I'm sure it's possible, yes.

Yeah, like well, maybe think because I like the social media, uh the press, maybe we could do a press conference as well.

Yes.

Um, you know, the sheriff and supervisor um Dan and myself, you know, uh with the community warning folks, don't come to the unincorporate area and do fireworks.

Uh, cause you know, you're gonna get fined.

I don't want to tell them it's just seven fifty, but you know 'cause they might say, well, seven fifty I can afford seven fifty.

But yeah.

Um but then yeah, if we do a mailing, then no property owner could say we did not know about this.

Right.

Because sometimes people say, Well, I don't watch TV, I'm not on social media, I didn't know about it, but yeah, uh on appeal or something.

Um so that was another concern I had.

And let me see if there's anything else.

Um suppose it it's kids using fireworks, who would be responsible if it's an underage so if it it well, if kids are using fireworks depending on their age, you know, if they're I mean, if they're juveniles, like under 18 and we catch them using fireworks, normally we issue them a notice to appear.

Uh but oftentimes and not we are so busy on fourth of July uh with fireworks suppression and we're usually it's the spirit of the law, if you will.

And so it's we will if it's kids, we will give them an ammon verbal admonishment and we will take the fireworks as you know, and most of the time it it is the dangerous aerial fireworks.

Uh but in cases where you know, if if they're using it, you know, if they're uh using them around other, you know, if they're like using them in a field, uh then yeah, we they they could be issued a a notice to appear and uh given a uh a juvenile citation.

But so that the to answer your question, if a juvenile is a social host, all right, say that the parents are out of town, uh, and then we contact uh the the party goers and we find out that the host is a juvenile, um the parents will be financially responsible for uh paying the fine.

Okay.

And in the ordinance, will there be like a preamble or anything in the ordinance that talks about why we feel those ordinances important that you know for public safety?

Yeah, so in the uh in the draft itself, that should be uh I think it's the first couple pages uh of the draft itself.

The wearances and all that okay.

Yes, right.

Um I think had one other question.

Yeah, you got Leo DiCaprio in your slides.

Did you see?

I I I did.

Yeah, uh he that's the closest thing I could find to a host.

He looked like a host there, so that's why I put him in there.

Okay.

I all right.

I was curious about it.

It captures the uh the audience.

Okay.

Certain members of the audience can't.

Yeah, let me see.

There was one other one other question I had about the ordinance.

Um, well, this isn't a question, but yeah, your time frame.

Yeah, getting it to the board on April 21st, first reading and the 28th or second reading.

I think that's really important.

Uh and then it could get it implemented before July 1st so the word can get out and circulate in in the unincorporated area.

And this would go to both um residents as well as businesses.

Yes.

Okay.

Um, because I think that's important.

And you know, with this being the 250th anniversary of this country, there's going to be a lot of people doing fireworks.

Sure.

So I think it's in incumbent upon us to pass this and get this out.

And if folks want to do fireworks, they can do them somewhere else where it's legal, but not in the unincorporate area.

Yeah.

Um, because it is, you know, it's a public safety issue and concern.

Okay.

Well, like I said, I don't want perf, you know, perfect to be the innovative good.

I really appreciate the work that the um this is this is good.

Very good.

Yeah, and it wasn't just me.

It was again, it was uh it was a collaboration with with county council, sheriff's advisory, code enforcement, okay, uh, and and several other people.

Right.

So let's call the speakers.

Could I ask just one more clarifying question?

Yes.

You know, around uh Lunar New York Chaidich year, there's a lot of firecrackers, waterway evil spirits.

Sure.

Uh those are not considered fireworks, right?

They they are they yeah, they um if if they're not uh stamped with uh safe insane, like uh by by the I think the fire marshal, uh then it then they are considered uh dangerous fireworks, but like the safe insane ones again, they could only be used in like Dublin, New York, Union City, and then like the firecracker, you know, the like are you talking about like the packs of like red fire, you know, the brick red firecrackers typically.

Yes, yes, those are considered dangerous fireworks.

They're um and so technically, yes, they somebody you found in possession of those or lighting those off could be cited for 1267.

But if you have a permit, a legal permit to uh set off those fireworks, um and I you have I I'm not quite sure how you go about getting a permit to set off fireworks.

Uh usually that's done with by like the big pyrotechnic folks that get those.

Uh but if you have the right permits, then you know you you are not going to be in violation.

Well, I'm thinking about more like ceremonial when you usually have a a lion dance or something, there they set off these little firecrackers, right?

And and I think usually for those ceremonies, typically I I think those the those uh groups will try to get like the proper permits to set off those fireworks in a given area uh for at that time.

But I did you want to answer answer to that about like that California.

I am uh I'm Brandon Fields, I'm with the county council's office.

Uh I don't know the answer to that question specifically, uh, but we will look into it and get back to your office.

Yes, and you know, there I I believe in the in the ordinance there is yeah, I don't want to leave the mic.

There was a release.

Yeah, Sergeant, you can look for that and yeah, we can come back.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

Uh and at the end of public comment, uh, you can answer that question.

And that might be a good one.

We can go ahead and page two because I can see Celine, you know, someone knows the fireworks doing Chinese New Year's and stuff, and you know, yeah.

We don't want to get Selene in trouble.

Yeah, they we we did cite uh provision in the California constitution regarding religious ceremonies and the exceptions to um setting off fireworks, but uh to that I I believe you groups did have to get the the proper permits to set off the fireworks and uh but yes, we we will look into that further.

Because like I said, if if the ordinance is passed by the board and we need to make some modifications with implementation, we you know I know we'd be open to that.

Um but yeah, and it's and if this if this needs to be further um refined by the time the ordinance gets for the first reading, let's make sure we do that relative to the oath, to cultural type of events, to um um there's one other thing we're looking into as well that I don't recall at the moment.

Yes, yeah, the eviction piece.

All right, let's have our speakers.

Dale Silva.

Hi, excuse me, I am Dale Silva.

I live in Fairview.

I'm speaking for myself and not as a member of any group or commission.

Um I encourage you to approve this legislation.

It's important legislation because it gives enforcers, as you've heard, a huge tool in combating fireworks use.

The key component is property owner responsibility, the social host aspect.

The theory in this is sound.

It's it's much easier to identify a property than it is to identify a perpetrator.

Now you've heard many say, you've heard it reported here that some will say that it's not fair to go after a property owner for the um uh to uh uh to make the property owner responsible for the actions of a tenant over which they have little control.

But property owner responsibility, social host responsibility for tenant activity is well established in Alameda County and is successful, for example.

If a tenant lets weeds grow tall, they dry out, they're a fire hazard.

Code enforcement or the fire department will go after the property owner, not the tenant.

If a house has three cars on blocks in the front yard, code enforcement goes after the property owner and not the tenant.

If a tenant imports loads of toxic soil on a property, good enforcement goes after the property owner, not the tenant.

Now, of course, going after the property owner doesn't mean they're gonna the authorities are gonna run right out and issue a fine.

That's um believe in the fairness of our of our authorities and the fairness of the code here.

The last thing they want to do is find somebody.

What they want to do is fix the problem and establish a deterrent against bad behavior in the future.

There's a process, there are warnings.

Ah there are there is an appeal process, there's a public hearing, at least one more.

This is um good legislation.

I I encourage you to approve it.

Thank you.

Fran, Fran Cru.

Good evening, Fran Krug, and I'm speaking to you tonight in full support of the fireworks ordinance before you.

Stronger enforcement is needed in Alameda County in the unincorporated areas, both urban and rural.

Urban and rural neighborhoods are both at risk of fires, loss of property, and personal injury.

Calfire designated sections of our county as high-risk fire zones.

Neighbors have experienced cancellation of homeowners insurance due to this rating.

A strong local ordinance will act as a deterrent and may result in the reduction in the number of incidents.

For example, a neighboring jurisdiction, right nearby, reported a significant drop in the number of incidents after the implementation of a similar ordinance.

This ordinance also empowers citizens to be part of the solution.

It is not realistic to think that the deputies can respond to every call on holidays and new years to witness the activities.

But residents can file a complaint with photographic and video evidence, which will be investigated by the authorities and followed up on with the appropriate action.

The ordinance gives enforcement officers discretion for using a wide range of consequences for violations depending on circumstances.

The consequences include verbal warning, notices, written citations, as well as fines.

Thank you.

So after Hayward adopted this, they saw a decline.

Yes.

Okay.

Bobby, you're on the line.

Unmute your microphone.

Brenda, you're on the line.

Hi, I was hoping that.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi, Brenda from Fairview.

This is very important to me and very important to a lot of residents.

I just wanted to say that in order to set off any fireworks, anything.

Firecrackers, anything, you have to have a license bearing the seal of the um uh state of California Fire Marshall's office.

So I don't think they're interested in issuing any more permits, but we'll get back to that.

I want to thank um uh Todd Englin and Vanissa Vanissa, I'm sorry, Vanessa Rhodes from the Fairview Mac.

Uh the MAC um created a subcommittee to work with the Sheriff's Department in developing and getting this done.

It's been a long time.

I wanted to tell you we've had a great success with the road show.

The road show was developed for all the MACs and uh and in Channel to weigh public input uh not just the opinion of individual board members.

So it went it went perfectly.

We had no pushback, we had so many people working hard on having a zero tolerance as other jurisdictions do, and we were all surprised at a quarter to 10 at the Cassor Valley meeting that it kind of went the other way.

But everybody else in the county wants it, every jurisdiction.

Um I wanted to tell you that I watched the news uh show today, it was very old from 2015 when Channel 11 News announced on the air that Santa Clara County who's had um uh an ordinance since 1978 and added in 2015 a social host ordinance and made the news.

And that's how long this has been been going on.

And I thank you for considering unincorporated county.

Bobby, you're on the line.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

Bob Clark, resident in Fairview.

Thank you to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office for creating vetting and presenting the solid and concise fireworks ordinance.

In May of 2023, a group of concerned residents spoke at the Sheriff's Advisory Committee meeting and requested that Sheriff Sanchez consider strengthening enforcement procedures regarding discharge of fireworks in our unincorporated area.

Uh everybody with a little history.

City of Livermore adopted their ordinance in May of 2023, and it was enforced before the July 4th ceremonies.

City of Hayward enacted their fireworks ordinance in 2022.

In 2021, Contra Costa County amended their existing complete ban on fireworks code to also include social host and property owner liability, strengthening their ability to enforce.

As Brenda said, Santa Clara County has had a ban on discharge of fireworks on record since 1978 and amended it in 2015 to include social hosts and property owner liability for fines and emergency response costs.

All these jurisdictions are total ban on fireworks, including those labeled safe and sane, and the components of this ordinance being presented tonight are completely compatible with all of our surrounding jurisdictions, which include a social host and property owner responsibility.

So three almost three years ago, Service Chance Sanchez heard our concerns, agreed to organize a task force to uh create what we have here tonight, a very well-crafted ordinance.

Uh and we just encourage, please move forward expeditiously, get the first and second reading done and adopt this ordinance to give the sheriff's department time to get the word out via the media sources well before July the fourth.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have no additional speakers on this item.

Right.

I want to thank the speakers for providing that additional uh testimony, because once again it seems like what we're doing is pretty much in alignment with with other jurisdictions.

Um I have no further questions, but appreciate um the presentation and the follow-up.

I do want to mention that my office has been working um closely with Senator Grayson's office, who covers Castle Valley, San Lorenzo, and San Lambo.

He um has put a budget item request in terms of um wildfire prevention and with the package primarily um that's around $2 million with half of it going to Oakland.

And he wanted to make sure that um there was funding for the unincorporated area.

And I think uh any enforcement of this uh ordinance and any efforts to try to um clear um property around the perimeters to prevent fire, I think would uh be something that would fall under this budget item.

Okay, that's great.

Thank you.

You want to make the motion, Supervisor Tim?

I will move that we um recommend this proposed ordinance uh amending the county's municipal code to prohibit all fireworks in the unincorporated area and to establish a social host ordinance and fine structure and forward to the board of supervisors for adoption.

So I'll second that and quick want to take the roll.

Supervisor Tam.

Hi.

Supervisor Miley.

Hi.

Motion Pants.

Okay, so uh the next step is to bring it to the full board on April 21st.

Correct.

And then if these questions that we raised tonight, if they can be responded to at the board meeting, and if there's any tweaking that needs to be made to the ordinance, uh, you know, uh, we should try to make sure we do that before the first reading.

Sure thing.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you, supervisors.

Well, thank you.

Thank the folks from Fairview working on this, driving this thing home.

So it was said, so it was ordered.

Okay.

Now let's go to the item number one.

Because Supervisor Tim and I want to know about our fire stations.

All right.

Well, good evening, supervisors and audience and the guests.

I appreciate you being here.

Um, supervisor, should we wait or okay?

Perfect.

All right.

Well, good evening, everyone.

Um, for those that don't know me, my name's Eric Moore.

I get the pleasure of overseeing our capital projects um within Alameda County Fire.

And I'm here tonight to talk about our Measure X fire stations, specifically our phase one.

Um, if you may recall, we were here probably about six months ago and I presented and um and he's not here right now, so I'll have to remind him he he gave me a challenge to make sure that we keep this on on point and on track and moving forward.

And so I'm here tonight to give some really positive updates on our progress in the unincorporated areas for our fire stations.

Next slide, please.

So for those that don't know, we had a voter approved bond measure in uh November of 2020, and it was 90 million dollars to upgrade or replace our existing fire stations in the unincorporated areas.

Next slide.

So those fire stations in uh no order is fire station seven in Palomares Hills, Fire Station 25 and downtown Castor Valley and Fire Station 22 directly across the street and Hisparian here in San Lorenzo.

So we are under contract with each of those three fire stations, and we are well underway.

Um, and I will be giving updates on that.

We're also working with race Rachel Osajima and the public arts department to make sure that we um are able to get that public art component in our fire stations because we believe it's a vital component to um representing the communities we serve.

Next slide.

So the first station I'd like to talk about is fire station seven.

And as mentioned, that's up in Palmer's Hills.

It houses three individuals and one type one um fire engine, and it actually is in the areas that we're just talking about with high fire severity for the um the fireworks ordinance.

So it is near and dear to uh close to our heart.

The next slide.

So this construction started in the beginning of the year.

I know that the supervisors were there for our groundbreaking opportunity.

We are now under construction.

Uh the site has been cleared, it's been grubbed.

We're in we've completed the installation for the underground uh utility and the infrastructure for that, and our foundation work is in progress.

And I got a couple pictures to highlight our progress here for the group.

Next slide.

So this is a uh an aerial view.

You could see on the back where the tractors located, that's gonna be an apparatus storage building for some of our additional apparatus that's in reserve status.

And you could see the uh the the form work starting up on the fire station.

Next slide.

You could see some updated underground utility construction, the pipes, the utility lines.

Next slide.

Here's our electricity, our utility room uh for fire station seven.

Next slide.

A couple more pictures of some foundation rebar just to make sure we're structurally sound when we pour that foundation.

Go ahead.

Next slide.

All right.

So fire station 25.

Oh, sorry, station seven.

So as mentioned, we will have the foundation.

They're actually pouring tomorrow, our foundation for fire station seven.

So we're excited about that.

They will come back and put the slab in by the end of April.

And then our superstructure is indicated here will begin in early May, early May.

We'll get those walls up in June with a on track to complete this by the end of this calendar year supervisor.

So we're super excited about that.

All right.

That's for station seven.

Let me switch to station 25.

We've had big milestones in the last week with station 25.

And you can see the future rendition of station 25.

This houses two apparatus for us and a battalion chief.

And if we go to the next slide, we have on March 18th, just a week ago, we moved this fire station to the former CV sanitary building located on Marshall and CVB.

It was a huge undertaking for us to get an existing building retrofit it to um house eight individuals, and it's been um very successful to date.

And I've got some pictures on this.

So if we go to the next slide, you can see our old um existing station 25.

It may be one of the last pictures we have of this station before it gets torn down.

Go to the next slide, please.

And here is our new um interim fire station.

As you can see, logoed we called it a temporary fire station 25.

On the right is our apparatus building to make sure that the apparatus has a weather tight location to be stored in.

And on the left is our actual fire station where our individuals are are living.

Next slide.

Next slide.

So here's our progress update for that.

For this, we are gonna be working on demolition.

We're actually targeting for April 9th to start the teardown of our exit our old station 25.

We'll do be doing site cleanup in May with excavation and grading also in May.

And we'll be starting the installation utility undergrounds in June and our foundation work in late June.

Uh, supervisor, we are still working on getting a groundbreaking ceremony for station 25.

So I'm working with your um respective chief of staff to make sure that we can get something on the calendar for June for that groundbreaking for station 25 as well.

We haven't forgot about that.

Next slide.

All right.

So near and dear to this community here is our fire station 22.

It's a three-person company, and you can see renditions of what this station is gonna look like right across the street from here.

Next slide.

So this one's a little bit behind the other two stations, as I mentioned.

We are now under contract with Overa construction to um BR DBE.

We gave them a notice to proceed in January, and we've hit the ground running.

We still are working with our environmental health department to make sure that we have the site cleaned and ready for construction as we move forward.

We're also working on getting those PGE um utility poles off our property and have it relocated and underground here on Hisparian, turning right down Paseo Grande.

So this one should be starting construction by the end of this calendar year.

Um, but we're working through these um bullet points so we can get to the finish line, the starting line for for station 22.

Next slide.

This is just what I currently mentioned.

So here's our timeline.

We're gonna start construction um by the end of this calendar year.

Next slide.

Um, and last but not least, a big thank thank you to Rachel for being here tonight.

So to support um ACFD and our ventures of new builds.

Um, we have selected our artists for all four of our projects.

That includes our training tower and our three fire stations.

We did go to the board of supervisors and that uh those contracts were awarded on March 3rd.

That's a huge step forward for us.

And now we're working on um finalizing the actual artwork and working with the construction teams to make sure that that art's gonna fit nicely in our fire stations.

And if you want to see the art, we can you can click on that web page to uh view our art that we've selected.

So thank you, Rachel, for being here and supporting us tonight.

Next slide.

All right.

Before we go into questions, supervisor, I do want to just mention that we are working on phase two.

I think you gave me a challenge last time to make sure we stay on track on our our next fire station.

So I have under contract and coming to your board in the next probably month is our sequel study for our two new fire stations as well as our bridging architects to make sure that we stay on track for the two remaining fire stations that we're planning on building, station 24 and station 26.

So super happy to be here tonight and happy to take any questions or feedback on this project as we move forward.

So I just have any questions or comments?

No, thank you for that presentation.

Um great progress on the stations.

And I did um get a rendering uh from Rachel based on the link that you showed.

Yep.

And I am glad that the artwork that got selected was very um appropriate for the stations.

And I understand that your department had a lot of input and influence because you're gonna be living in those stations, right?

So thank you.

You're welcome.

I I would like to recognize Rachel's team.

It was great to work with as well.

And we had public um went through the public process and had members of the public actually sit on those committees as well.

So it was a really good partnership.

Um so the uh three stations, uh roughly what's the um the cost.

How money are we putting in to building the total?

Sure.

So for those three fire stations, we're at 65 million total budget.

Um, it's roughly about 20 million per station, but our bigger station was a little bit more, it's right around 30 than one on San Miguel.

Okay.

So once again, you know, for folks in the unincorporate area, those are some you know, some of the um measure uh X measure X, measures A.

X.

X, yeah.

Yep.

Measure X dollars at work, three stations uh coming along.

Um, and you know, folks should be really proud of what's occurring and appreciate the voters supporting Measure X, and those are your dollars at work.

And it's nothing fonder than uh a groundbreaking.

Anything better than that is an actual grand open ribbon cutting.

Yes.

So we'll be anxiously awaiting those ribbon cuttings.

All right.

So do we want to have Rachel's talk and then we'll see if there are any speakers on this?

Is Rachel going to talk on this item?

No.

Okay.

But there will be public art, right?

Interstations.

Okay, great.

Um, so let's see if we have any public speakers on item one.

I have no speakers on item one.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

Um Deputy Chief.

Yeah, I have to remember.

Deputy Chief, right?

Eric.

Yep, yep, yep.

Chief Moore.

Okay.

You know, Chief Chief.

We we get confused within our own organization too.

It's really hard to keep it all straight.

All right.

Well, thank you.

This is great presentation.

Good update.

We'll be looking for some more good stuff down the road.

Perfect.

Okay.

Well, happy to be here and uh look forward to to the groundbreaking at station 25 and hope we're we're gonna get you there.

Okay.

Thank you, supervisors.

Okay.

So let's see here.

We have item number two.

Good evening, supervisors.

Allie Avers with the planning department here to present um the first annual environmental justice implementation status reports.

This is for the environmental justice element.

Um, next slide, please.

So we're asking that your committee hear this presentation, take public testimony, and provide comments to staff on the draft EJ element implementation implementation status report that I'll present this evening.

So um just a reminder for uh your committee and for folks listening about what the EJ element is.

So uh this was adopted by the Board of Supervisors in August of 2024 as a chapter of the county's general plan.

It was developed in collaboration between CDA planning and AC Health.

Um it was also a collaborative effort with other county agencies, um, area service providers, the Eden Area Communities Collaborative, and residents of uh of the area.

It covers uh about an eight-year period beginning in 2024.

Um, and it outlines policies and programs to improve health and equity in the unincorporated EJ priority communities, uh, which are on the next slide.

So those priority communities are the entirety of the Eden area.

That's Ashland, Cherryland, San Lorenzo, and Hayward Acres, and five census tracks in southern and western Castro Valley.

Next slide.

So the EJ element in development, this is a you know long-range process of developing the EJ element.

We heard from many of the stakeholders that participated in this process that active implementation was something that they really wanted to see.

They did not want to see this document sit on the shelf.

So to support this priority, the EJ element's implementation framework is guided by principles of accountability, transparency, equity, and collaboration.

And the implementation strategy includes things like identifying identification of catalyzing actions, which are actions that can help promote other actions, and commitment to translating the EJ element into Spanish, the development of a staff technical advisory committee to help with interagency coordination, an ongoing staff participation in the Eden Area Communities Collaborative, and a commitment to annual reporting.

Next slide.

So that brings us to annual reporting.

So the purpose of the report that we're presenting to you this evening, you know, beginning with just fulfill fulfilling that first annual implementation reporting commitment that I mentioned.

The report actually has been delivered already.

It says will be here, but has been delivered to advisory bodies.

And it provides the public with an opportunity through these public forums to weigh in on the progress that we've made so far and on priorities that we might have in the future.

It includes updates from all of the county agencies that have actions in the EJ element.

It documents accomplishments and challenges, it discusses changing priorities, and it assesses our progress.

It also importantly establishes a baseline for tracking our progress across county agencies over this eight year implementation period, which aligns roughly with the housing element.

So that's 2024 to 2031.

Next slide.

So I mentioned the contributing agencies.

So many of the county's agencies have either are either leads or co-leads on a variety of actions within the EJ element.

So the community development agency has the most actions at 59.

AC Health, Public Works, and Board Offices, sort of as a lead are the next three in order.

We have a number of actions from the Social Services Agency, the Sheriff's Office, the Library, DSL and All in Eats, which I note is has refocused its mission a bit, but there are some actions that identify DSL All in Eats as a lead, probation, and the AC Arts Commission, the County Administrator's Office, General Services Agency, and the Workforce Development Board.

So this is really a collaborative effort of all of the agencies of the county.

Next slide.

So there are 162 action items in the EJ element.

And what this report does is it summarizes our progress, identifies responsibility and the reporting agencies, and it assigns an implementation status for each one of those actions.

And we've we've uh we created in this report a simplified key with five different statuses that an action can have.

So the first, which is represented in uh with that blue circle, is implemented.

The second means there's been significant progress.

Uh, the third, which is represented by that yellow circle means it's in progress, or there's been progress made on an alternative action.

Red is not yet started, and then there's a little circular diagram, which indicates that an item is ongoing, which means that it is part of an agency's regular regular work, so part of their ongoing work plan.

Next slide.

So using that key, um 58 of the total 162 actions are ongoing.

So those are, like I said, part of the county's core function.

So what this chart does is it looks at the remainder.

So those items, those 103 items that are not ongoing, but that are new and that have a distinct beginning and end.

So of those remaining 103 distinct actions, um about 9.7% or 10 actions have been implemented.

6.8% or seven actions show significant progress.

Uh, 53 point uh 58.3 are in progress, and 25.2 or 26 of the actions have not yet been started.

So next slide.

So this chart is also in the report, and what this does is it breaks down the implementation progress by each of the EJ element's seven goal areas.

So those are centering environmental justice, which is sort of a general catch-all category.

Um, we have reducing pollution and improving air quality, promoting access to public facilities, promoting safe and sanitary homes and neighborhoods, promoting access to healthy food, promoting health and physical activity, and promoting civic engagement.

I won't go over the details of this chart, but there is importantly the report revealed that there is progress against progress across all of these environmental justice goal areas, and there are no areas where the county has failed to make progress, which I think is a good sign for our first year.

So some of the barriers to implementation.

So addressing those, that 25-ish percent of measures that haven't started yet.

So for those measures where work has not yet started, some of the responses that we received when we talked to county agencies or analyzed our own work was that this was often because there was a practical barrier, because uh it would involve a separate, a new effort that had not yet been clearly funded or staffed, or because policy and program priorities may have gone a different direction in response to changing circumstances or needs.

Next slide.

So I thought it might be helpful because there's 162 actions to just give you a few examples to give you sort of a flavor of what has happened in implementation.

So actions 4.2B and 4.2C are kind of a pair.

They involve online code enforcement forms.

Um and these actions have been implemented.

So just a bit about that.

Um CDA's code enforcement team developed an online complaint form that's available in English, Spanish, and Chinese.

And members of the public are now also able to look up the status of code enforcement cases on Maint Star, which is the county's building and planning portal.

Next slide.

So this is another example, which is action 4.3A, which Supervisor Miley is probably particularly familiar with.

This addresses the lead poisoning prevention and JPA expansion.

This is currently in progress.

The Alameda County Healthy Homes Department is exploring a potential ballot or funding mechanism to adjust the assessment for pre-1978 dwelling units.

Um, and in 2025, that uh that department issued a phase one request for proposals to conduct campaign analysis, feasibility studies, and polling to inform strategy.

So, just a note about these updates also, they they uh sort of end at September 2025.

So we're about six months from that.

So, progress has happened on these since that time, and we'll report on those in the next year's report.

Next slide.

Um, so significant progress has also been made on this action, which is 5.1D, which involves uh developing a healthy store conversion program.

Um your board approved a mini-grant program to support five up to five neighborhood stores that are committed to offering healthy food and beverage options to customers.

And in fact, eight stores countywide received grants of up to 25,000, including one store in the unincorporated area, and that was in Cherry Land.

Next slide.

So action EJ 5.6A, which involves the transition of the all-in-eats programming, has also been uh been implemented.

So the all-in-eats circular economy food programs, which were initially incubated by the Sheriff's Office and the Deputy Sheriff's Activities League, have been successfully transitioned to the Alameda County Community Food Bank, and that was in 2024 and 2025.

Next slide.

Significant progress has also been made on Action 6.6A, which is a commitment from Alameda County Health to prioritize disaggregating unincorporated area health data.

The public health department has implemented disaggregated race and ethnicity data for the unincorporated areas and is working toward requiring disaggregated data collection from its contractors.

The health status report that you're going to hear next is actually going to be a demonstration of some of the data, the disaggregated data for the unincorporated areas.

Next slide, please.

Action 7.1A discusses exploring establishment of a central office of unincorporated services.

And this is also in progress, which I think you're both very familiar with.

So in fall of 2025, Supervisor Miley dedicated funds to engaging a consultant to research and scope this role, consultants in the room.

And this work will help prepare the county for eventual consideration of this role.

And we've got significant progress made on Action 7.1C, which was a commitment from the county to support the ongoing work of the Ashland and Cherry Land Healthy Communities Collaborative as it was known at the time.

So in 2024, ACHCC, as it was called, received funding for organizational development, and it has since rebranded itself the Eden Area Communities Collaborative to better reflect the geographic scope of this group's work.

The EACC as it's now known has developed bylaws, they hold regular meetings, and they've established subcommittees that are focused on food justice, lead poisoning prevention, and community health workers, which are some of the major theme areas and priorities that are also identified in the EJ element.

So very aligned with the work of implementing the EJ element.

And our final highlight, Action 7.4C was a commitment to pursue changes to United States Postal Service place names for the unincorporated areas.

And this action was successfully implemented in March of 2025.

And as a result, Ashland, Cherry Land, Hayward Acres, Fairview, Castor Valley, and San Lorenzo are now the official USPS mailing address placenames for the urban unincorporated county.

The county also launched an outreach campaign beginning in April of 2025 to make sure that the public was aware of this change.

And we continue to work with major service providers like the DMV, PGE, or Loma Sanitary District, the Assessor's Office to make sure that they are also aware of the changes and that residents have a more seamless experience.

So next slide.

So what is next?

We made a note in this report about what EJ implementation looks like in the political landscape that we find ourselves in.

So the EJ element was developed between 2021 and 2024, and it was shaped by the goals, mandates, and priorities of that period, focusing primarily on things like increasing civic engagement, decreasing pollution, improving physical and environmental health, and importantly increasing equity.

Since adoption of the EJ element, the political and social landscapes have shifted significantly, particularly federally.

So some examples include federal immigration enforcement and ice raids, federal legislation and HR1 with changes to state budget, cuts to county funding, cuts to safety net programs supporting health care and supplemental food access, and cuts to eliminate environment to cuts to climate, environmental, and DEI programs.

So these were things that were not anticipated at the time the EJ element was developed.

So as the counties agencies continue to implement the EJ element, it's going to remain important for us to be nimble, responsive and sensitive to the changing needs of the priority communities and to adapt our strategy to this shifting landscape.

Next slide.

So what's next for EJ implementation?

Year two, which we're in now, is focusing on strengthening the coordination of that interagency technical advisory committee, enhancing community engagement, publishing an EJ element companion guide, which is going to be a web document that's going to help make this dense material more accessible to folks in the community, translated into multiple languages.

We're also working on translating the EJ element itself into Spanish, which I anticipate before the end of the fiscal year.

So our baseline data for the health data for the EJ element was from 2020, and it would be really important for us to be able to see where we are now in 2026.

Refining our reporting tools and, like I mentioned in the last slide, balancing the long-term goals of this document and of your board with emerging needs.

So we did bring this around to the MACs in the impacted areas.

And this is just a summary of the comments.

There's more detailed list of comments in your packet.

So some of the council member comments.

Council members at the Eden Area MAC, which we went to in January, were generally supportive, particularly of tackling sort of the low-hanging items, but noted that future implementation is really going to require deeper collaboration and maybe more challenging in this shifting landscape.

They requested that we collect these data from our colleagues throughout the county more efficiently and able to, in order to enable more frequent reports.

So they were asking for more than more than annual reporting on our progress, and they wanted to see a searchable web tool to help them navigate this rather dense report.

They encouraged greater involvement from partner agencies and coordination with the city of Hayward on shared open space and airport related issues.

They highlighted interest in things like park accessibility, receiving updates from Hard, particularly on the San Lorenzo Creekway Trail, and stronger language access, recommending that we really start with making sure that the Eden Area MAC has a good language access system.

They also praised code enforcement for the the for translating their forms, but they questioned why the mobile citizen app remains a monolingual English service.

So public comment praised again, praise the EJ element and the status report is valuable, a valuable record for the unincorporated area and a roadmap for where to go in the future.

They urged a commitment to equity despite conflicting federal policy.

They recommended pushing forward creation of an unincorporated specific youth advisory committee in support of one of the actions in the EJ element.

And they raised concerns about Sky West, the Sky West development in Hayward as an EJ issue for nearby unincorporated communities.

Next slide.

So later in January, we went to the Castor Valley Mac.

The Castro Valley MAC was also generally supportive of the progress and urged continued results focused action.

They suggested that future reports be more pithy and brief and that we develop clearer metrics for determining whether an item is complete or not.

They requested an update to the EJ element health and demographic data, which is something we're definitely interested in doing.

And they also expressed hearing from our colleagues in AC Health the report that you're delivering this evening.

So Castor Valley Mac would love to hear it too.

They asked for us to hold an EJ, a community EJ meeting this year.

And they also asked for a hard presentation on the Creekway project.

In fact, all of the bodies that we supported that we reported to wanted to hear about the progress of the Creekway project.

And they were also in support of code enforcement's portal, and they further requested tracking for sidewalk vending cases.

And they also encouraged financial incentives for tree planting.

Some of the public uh comment from Castor Valley Mac included uh a request for this report to be more navigable navigable, potentially an online document, um, and for there to be clearer standards for determining when actions are complete.

They supported the Calfire Urban Greening Project that CDA planning is starting, but they questioned whether the two-year timeline for implementation would be reasonable.

Um and they expressed frustration with the public works agency's communication uh and urged stronger public engagement for infrastructure planning.

Next slide.

So finally, we went to the planning commission in early February.

Um, council members were also pleased uh with the progress and the momentum.

Um they urged assigning leads to any measures that don't already have leads.

So we do have a number of measures in the EJ element where no leads had been assigned at the time that the document was adopted.

So uh they urged that you know, by this time next year we should have all of those assigned.

Um they also urged prioritization of actions that involve the air district, um, airport pollution review and expanded proactive code enforcement.

Um they strongly supported the creation of uh, as the the Eden Act did, um, creation of an unincorporated youth commission, um and they requested that we um expedite assigning a lead to this action, which does not currently have a lead.

Um, and they also requested an update uh from HARD on the San Lorenzo Creek Way Trail project, which we communicated to them to HARD.

Um, and then public comment, uh, they called for um for uh translation between the progress that the EJ element uh is happening in the EJ element and improved public health health outcomes.

So, how do those two things connect to each other?

And in conclusion, um this first EJ implementation status report um demonstrates the county's progress in transitioning the EJ element from a planning document into action.

And it demonstrates um the county's commitment to fostering equity, health, and environmental resilience.

Most actions are now underway or embedded in ongoing operations within agencies.

And this also reflects the county's success in institutionalizing environmental justice principles across programs and services.

Um this first year has also highlighted the need for us to remain flexible and responsive to changing circumstances and external forces that shape the daily realities in the priority communities.

And under your board's leadership, the county remains committed to the implementation of the EJ element to support the ability of every resident of the unincorporated communities to thrive in a healthy, safe and inclusive environment.

And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you for this presentation.

It's very contemporaneous, not just uh comprehensive.

Um I I appreciate the reflections on what's been happening with HR1 and with the impacts on immigration.

Do you know besides the ones that I hear about in my district, like in uh San Lorenzo at the high schools, there's been some concerns about ICE activity.

Has that been in any other parts of the unincorporated area?

So I the only thing I can point to anecdotally is um that I believe this year's um FAMFES was canceled because of concerns about ice rates.

Um so that's that's the only one I can specifically point to.

Okay.

Uh and you know, it's really uh gratifying to see like some of the work that uh we've been doing, like when I first started the all in eats, how that transitioned and got incorporated uh with the community food bank, and I know Celine's um work got uplifted on the Healthy Homes with her translation on the complaint form.

Um the reason I I'm I'm struggling a little bit when I read through the EJ element was that there was always things that affect the entire county versus a focus on the EJ areas within the unincorporated areas, because it it seems like um the unincorporated area has some different demographics when it comes to the EJ element.

I and it's not clear to me that the disparities that we see um countywide also translates directly to the unincorporated area.

And so um trying to get that sense uh more crystallized would be helpful.

And um, but other than that, I think it's it's a very comprehensive report.

Uh, the only thing I might want some more detail on because uh Supervisor Halbert and I, thanks to Supervisor Miley nominating me, serve on the air board.

And uh if there's some priorization of actions that they would like to see from the air board, um let us know specifically what those are.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yes, good.

Thank you.

Good good presentation, good questions.

So it's um it's really good to see the progress, the progress key.

162 actions, 58 are ongoing, 103 actions remain.

And all of those are underway except for 25 percent.

Have not yet started.

Um it's and it's good that this is it was built in that there'd be an annual report to track implementation.

So this is yeah, this is very uh impressive just to have the information is impressive.

And it's not a report that's just sitting on a shelf somewhere.

Now, is this your own only assignment?

No.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, um, I think it it's it's a good first year's report.

Yeah, I think.

And I'm glad we're glad we have it in front of us.

Yes.

So let's see if we have any speakers from the public.

I have no speakers on this item.

Okay.

So with the report, Ali, is this is it just coming to this committee, or is this something that's gonna go to the full board?

So it will be um, it was included in the presentation, the annual status report, or sorry, the APR annual progress report for the general plan.

Um, and it will be transmitted to the state as part of that.

Okay.

All right.

I do have a speaker.

Okay.

Anna.

Good evening.

My name is Anna Raskiza.

I'm the director of uh community development at resources for community development.

And I just wanted to thank um Ali and the department and the county um for this presentation and for the EJ element in general.

It's something we've are really proud to have been working on with uh the county.

Um it's such an important tool for action in the community.

Um, I know I myself reference it at least once a week.

This work, like the Office of Unincorporated Communities, the Eden Area Communities Collaborative, the USPS Place Name Project, um, and investments in Promotoras are things that we're really proud to be working on with you.

Um, and just to share an anecdote to your point, Supervisor Miley, about how this isn't something that's just on a shelf.

Um, as folks may know, we've been working with youth in the unincorporated area around lead justice.

Um as we know, led um this community is one of the most lead poisoned parts of the state.

This weekend we actually had the EJ element um in front of these students, and they were using this as a tool to kind of ground their learning.

Um we had them with their phones out, um basically charged with Googling like what can we make of this EJ element?

How are we learning more about it?

How are we looking up the pieces that we don't know and really using it as a tool for them to connect their learning to real action that's going on in the community and and that's something that I think we should all be proud of.

It's a really powerful tool, um, not just in spaces like this, but also like in spaces with youth and with community to connect um to action and change.

So wanna thank you for that and proud to be working with you on it.

Okay.

And then there was a recommendation that we have a youth commission.

What and that was related to which EJ element?

Yeah, so it's um one of the measures in the civic engagement chapter of the EJ element, and it was to explore potential to create an unincorporated area youth commission as an advisory uh to your board and to other groups potentially.

Um the the idea was modeled in the development of the EJ element off of the youth commission that the city of Hayward has.

Oh, not and how is that function?

How is it?

So um theirs, I believe, is advisory to both the city of Hayward and to Hard.

Um, so to the district as well.

Um I can't remember if theirs is, I think theirs is managed by hard.

But don't quote me on that.

So we've been doing some, you know, this past year.

Our uh our progress on that measure was looking into you know getting uh a variety of of agencies together.

So we we connected with libraries, ACSO, we connected with uh AC Health, um, so agencies from across the the county to ask what this might look like in their experiences and the where it landed at the at you know the time that this report was written was that um the uh Alameda County Office of Ed has a countywide youth advisory board.

Um, and they do have at this time two unincorporated area youth on that board.

But as Supervisor Tam was saying, it is countywide focused.

Um, however, they can create special um like subcommittees to focus on areas that they're particularly interested in.

So we talked about the potential of an unincorporated area subcommittee to potentially fill that role.

Um but the public comment that we heard on that progress was was that that um that would was insufficient and that the unincorporated area should really have its own body.

So that was the the feedback that we received when we um let folks know about the the progress we've made.

Yeah, because I'd be interested in knowing more about the um if it's if we're looking at something that Hayward has, what their experience has been with their youth commission.

Um sometimes you know people have good ideas, but those ideas aren't really you know, they don't really pan out.

So and I know we're very sensitive to creating more commissions.

In fact, Supervisor Dam knows we have commissions that we have, boards and commissions that we want to either consolidate or eliminate.

Uh and we've got at least a few that are in the harbor to be created.

So we just want to really look at that very um carefully before we approve any new commissions.

Yeah.

So that's what was asking more about that one.

Yeah.

I think the city of Dublin might also have something.

So we do have a few models just locally that we can look at and and others as well.

And I'm also pleased that this is going to the Macs.

The Macs had a chance to look at it and give their feedback, which is really good.

So thanks.

Thank you.

So let's see if we have any speakers on this item.

Oh, or do we do we took all of our speakers okay?

All right.

Okay, so we're ready for our final agenda item for the evening, Alameda County Health Status Report.

And apologize for you being last, but you know, you're the best.

Thank you for the it's such a privilege to present to the unincorporated services committee this evening.

Um I'm Julia Reifman.

I'm the director of community assessment planning and evaluation at the Alameda County Public Health Department.

And I'll present with my colleague Trem Wen, who's uh joining us online this evening.

We'll present on health in the county and in the environmental justice area, reflecting our commitment to understanding and improving conditions that drive health inequities in the unincorporated communities, including by providing this report every three years in accordance with objective 6.6 B in the environmental justice element.

So Julie Julia?

Yes.

Okay, so you're not with Alameda County Health.

I was thinking of the hospital and you're with public health.

I'm with and we sit at the intersection of Alameda County Health and the agency and the public health department.

So we're glad to serve everybody.

But you're you work for the county's public health department.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay, go ahead.

All right.

So what you'll see in the data are that historical and modern day policies have shaped stark racial and ethnic inequities in health in our county and in the unincorporated area.

We'll also see that the unincorporated area faces challenges with structural drivers of health, such as low high school complete completion rates, and with chronic disease mortality that's especially high in middle age, all characterized by racial and ethnic disparities as well.

There's a high portion of the population in the environmental justice area that is covered by Medi-Cal.

And so supporting the population in maintaining Medi-Cal coverage in the face of HR1 will be important.

All right.

We hope these data will be helpful for informing efforts to improve health in Alameda County and in the environmental justice area.

Health inequities and life expectancy, additional health inequities by race and ethnicity in Alameda County, and then our conclusion and key findings.

Next slide, please.

And now pass it over to my colleague Tram, who's I'm joining us online.

Thank you, Julia.

Good evening, supervisors.

Thank you for having us for this presentation.

I'll cover some context of the demographics of the people that live in Alameda County and in our EJ area.

So you can see on this slide, we have a very diverse population in our county.

I'll just highlight that the population of the EJ area is also incredibly diverse, but looks a little bit different than that of our county as a whole.

The Asian is uh above 28.7%, uh white, 30.9%, multiracial, 22.6%.

Those populations are smaller than they are in the county as a whole.

African American population at 5% is almost the same, while Pacific Islanders and American Indian Alaska Natives are larger than their county percentages.

And the Latino population is significantly larger than the countywide, uh, at almost 42%.

Next slide, please.

Our county also has a large immigrant population, and this slide shows the region of birth among people in the county and uh also in the EJ area who are born outside of the US.

Over a third of the population was born outside of the US.

And here you see the regions that they're from.

Next slide, please.

These are the non-language, non-English languages spoken in Alameda County.

Um we have a very large mix of languages with Spanish and Chinese as the most prominent non-English languages spoken, followed by Tagalog, Hindi, and Urdu.

Next slide.

Uh the population in our county is aging.

Um I'll uh just show the slide but move uh through.

I wanted to highlight a few key slides and just for the sake of time, um, move through quickly.

Next slide, please.

Also, as well, we have diverse sexual orientation and gender identity, um, as you can see with this slide.

Next slide.

As well, uh, there's a diverse uh geographic variation of people living with disabilities, where you see um the darker uh areas on this map are uh concentrations of people between 13 to 16 percent um uh of people living with disabilities in our county.

Next slide.

Um now I'll focus on some of the conditions that impact health outcomes because um before we share the health data, we wanted to spend a bit of time discussing how current health trends are shaped from not just individual behaviors and risk factors, but uh influenced by um physical, social, economic environments throughout the life course.

Next slide.

And uh this slide is just to highlight uh some of the key structural and historical uh factors that uh shape the large and persistent health inequities.

And as you can see, you know, some of these major factors, such as enslavement and removing and relocation of people, redlining, housing discrimination, inequities and educational opportunities, discrimination, employment discrimination, are some of the overlapping structural barriers that have taken place throughout the 19th and 20th century.

Next slide, please.

Poverty is highly correlated with a myriad of poor health outcomes.

And so in our county, African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to live in poverty than our white residents.

For children, this correlation is even more stark.

African American children are over seven times more likely to live in poverty than our white children.

Next slide.

And here we see the racial break, or sorry, uh the break breakdown of poverty by geography, and which is another way to look at how it spread.

And as mentioned earlier, the way that this looks geographically is really influenced by the history of our county, including racially restricted covenants and redlining policies that really impact where we see poverty today.

Next slide, please.

This slide shows disparities in high school non-completion rates.

Educational tame is a strong predictor of health status over the life course.

And non-completion rates as shown in this slide are highest among Latino and Pacific Islander students.

Next slide, please.

This is showing high school completion by geography.

We see lower levels of high school completion in several areas in the EJ area compared to the county overall and to other cities.

So the county's overall rate is 92%, while the EJ area is almost 86%.

And within the EJ area, Cherryland has the lowest rate at 72% high school completion.

Next slide, please.

This is just goes further into data around opportunity youth, which are young people 16 to 19 who are neither in school nor employed.

And I won't go through this, but uh just in the interest of time, but you will have this in your packet.

Next slide, please.

Next slide, please.

And we wanted to highlight overcrowding, which is another key measure relating to poverty and health.

13% of people in the EJ area communities live in overcrowded homes, which is uh 1.8 times the rate of overcrowding for the county.

So overcrowding is especially worse in Cherryland, Hayward Acres, and Ashland.

Next slide.

This also shows some of the housing burden in terms of rent burden.

And as you can see, overall in the county Pacific Islander populations are the most severely rent burdened, and in the EJ area.

We see that housing rent burden is also very high as well.

Slide, please.

Um just want to note that Cherry Land, uh, Hayward Acres, Ashland, and San Lorenzo have some of the highest menacal coverage by city place in the county, um, uh, which really supports uh the need to mitigate the impacts of HR1.

Next slide, please.

Finally, this site shows the amount of access that residents in our county have to open access parks, which is critical not only for recreation, but supports physical and mental health.

And as you can see in the small area that the EJ area has fewer green areas, which designate the parks.

Next slide.

And then tree canopy is my last slide that I'll cover.

Um trees contribute to protection from and prevention from extreme heat and keeps uh helps keep air clean, um, which is important for exposure to pollution.

So residents in the EJ area are especially susceptible to this because they're exposed to pollution from three freeways and have limited access to the open access parks.

As you can see, the uh Castor Valley, EJ area, Cherryland, San Lorenzo, and Hayward Acres are highly here for tree canopy coverage.

I'll stop here and turn it back over to Julia.

Thank you, Trem.

I am looking forward to sharing the data on health in the county and in the EJ area.

Ahead of sharing the data, I want to share that the historical policies that we've discussed, shape unjust health inequities that you'll see in the data.

So please take care of yourselves as you process these data.

And know that we take very seriously the importance of using these data to inform improved health and health equity in Alameda County and in the EJ area.

Next slide, please.

So the slide depicts trends in life expectancy in Alameda County, California, and the United States.

In Alameda County, we benefit from higher life expectancy relative to California and the United States consistently over time.

We had less of a decline in life expectancy in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID pandemic, thanks to an evidence-based and equity-oriented COVID-19 response.

And we've recovered life expectancy faster following the pandemic.

Next slide, please.

Unfortunately, we don't see all populations in Alameda County benefiting from that high life expectancy.

We have a very large life expectancy gap by race and ethnicity.

So this figure depicts trends in life expectancy by race and ethnicity in the years prior to and then following the pandemic.

There was a 13-year gap in life expectancy by race and ethnicity in 2018 and 2019 before the pandemic.

Next slide, please.

This figure depicts life expectancy by city and place in Alameda County.

The EJ communities are depicted in red while other cities and places are depicted in pink.

And life expectancy in the county as a whole is 82.5 years, and in the EJ area is 80 years.

But structural drivers of health shape a great deal of variability across the county and across the EJ area.

There's a 12.5 year gap in life expectancy by city and place in Alameda County, ranging from a low of 75.2 years in Hayward Acres to a high of 87.7 years in Piedmont.

Ashland, Cherryland, and Hayward Acres have the lowest life expectancy in the county by city in place.

While the San Lorenzo and Castro Valley communities have slightly higher life expectancy of 81 or 82.

Not captured in this figure are that four regions of Oakland also have life low life expectancy of around 76 years when we disaggregate different neighborhoods of Oakland.

Next slide, please.

Now including the Oakland regions.

And you can see here life expectancy and how the structural drivers of health differ in settings with differing life expectancy.

So in Piedmont, the life expectancy is 87.7 years.1% of the population lives in an overcrowded home.

And high school educational attainment is 98.9%.

In Hayward Acres, the life expectancy is 75.2 years.

Poverty rate is 10%.

Crowded homes are 16%.

High school educational attainment is 78.9%.

And in Elmhurst neighborhood in Oakland, the life expectancy is 76.2 years.

There's 16% poverty rate, 15% of people live in crowded homes, and high school educational attainment is 69.9%.

And you can also see there are racial and ethnic differences in these communities where the Piedmont neighborhood is predominantly white and Asian, whereas the Hayward Acres and Elmhurst neighborhoods are predominantly African American black and Hispanic and Latinx.

Next slide, please.

Next slide.

And across all of these leading causes of disease of mortality, we see that there are stark inequities where African American black people are three times more likely have a three times higher mortality rate for heart disease, 1.8 times higher for cancer, 3.4 times higher for COVID, 10.3 times higher for overdose, 2.1 times higher for stroke, and three times higher for diabetes relative to Asian populations who have the lowest mortality rates for these conditions.

And this just highlights that there are these structural drivers of inequities across leading causes of death.

Next slide, please.

We see a very similar pattern in the environmental justice area where there are racial and ethnic disparities across leading causes of death with African American, black, and Pacific Islander populations disproportionately affected by several of the leading causes.

Next slide.

The EJ area is affected by inequities, as is evident data in the data on life expectancy.

And what a detailed analysis of the data revealed is that there are higher rates of mortality in middle age in the environmental justice area relative to Alameda County as a whole.

The mortality rate for people age 45 to 74 is 49% higher in the EJ area relative to the county.

And it's tragic to see such high rates of mortality in middle age when people might otherwise live decades longer, when many people leave behind family members who are affected by substantial emotional and financial impacts.

And the mortality rate is also 10% higher for people older than age 75 in the EJ area relative to Alameda County.

Premature mortality rate due to heart disease is especially elevated in the EJ area relative to Alameda County.

Heart disease mortality is more than twice as high for those under 45 and is 62% higher for those age 45 to 74 in the EJ area relative to the county as a whole.

It's not significantly different for those over 75.

Heart disease occurs when blood vessels are blocked by buildup of fatty deposits and coronary arteries, and it's elevated by tobacco use, affected by diet and exercise, and exacerbated by pollution.

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, alcohol use, low rates of exercise, diabetes, overweight, and obesity can all exacerbate heart disease.

And long-term exposure to pollution, specifically particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, can also increase vulnerability to heart disease by prematurely aging blood vessels and contributing to more rapid buildup of deposits in arteries.

Next slide, please.

Premature mortality due to cancer is also elevated in the EJ area relative to the county.

Cancer mortality is 30% higher for people age 45 to 74 in the EJ area relative to Alameda County, and not significantly different for other age groups.

The leading causes of cancer mortality in Alameda County and the EJ area are lung cancer, followed by breasts, prostate, and colorectal cancers.

Approximately 85% of lung cancer is thought to be attributable to tobacco use.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors passed a smoke-free multi-unit housing ordinance in January 2022 and a tobacco retail licensing ordinance in spring 2020 with a good record of enforcement by the community development agency.

Hopefully these policies will make a difference over time.

And in addition to tobacco, long-term exposure to pollution, such as for motor vehicle traffic, is associated with elevated rates of lung cancer and could be contributing to elevated rates of cancer in the EJ area.

Next slide, please.

And because of that, we looked to data from the state of California to understand inequities.

This figure depicts maternal mortality in California by race and ethnicity, and maternal deaths are deaths while pregnant or with one year of giving birth, and maybe due to causes related to our aggravated by the pregnancy.

The maternal mortality rate was highest for African American or Black people, which was three times higher than the rate for Hispanic or Latina people who had the lowest maternal mortality rate in California.

And we're grateful to our colleagues at CDPH for disaggregating the data for Asian and Pacific Islander populations for the first time through their collaboration with us.

And we learned that the Pacific Islander population has the second highest rate of pregnancy-related mortality in the state.

Next slide, please.

Next slide.

More than a third of all children and more than half of Latinx and Pacific Islander children in Alameda County were at risk for being overweight or obese by fifth grade, a trajectory that is challenging to modify once a person is affected.

Supporting access to healthy foods and exercise for households with young children and throughout the life course is helpful.

And next slide.

This figure depicts geographic inequities in the burden of asthma hospitalizations for children under five in Alameda County.

Next slide.

And we see that there are large racial and ethnic disparities in the burden of asthma hospitalizations for children under five and children age five to fourteen with Pacific Islander and African American black children disproportionately affected by asthma hospitalizations.

Next slide, please.

Finally, we see inequities in youth suicidal aviation by sexual orientation and gender identity, where 45% of transgender youth reported considering suicide in the past 12 months relative to 9% of cisgender and straight students.

And these data from a couple of years ago.

And of course, the environment and structural stigma against LGBTQIA people has grown has grown worse.

Next slide, please.

So in conclusion, next slide.

Key findings for the health of the county and the health of the EJ area are the African American black and Pacific Islander people in Alameda County are disproportionately affected by income inequities and by all leading causes of death, especially leading causes at young ages.

Residents in the EJ area face higher overcrowding and have high health inequities and chronic disease mortality in middle age compared to the overall county.

To address health inequities, we must address social inequities, especially in support of healthy childhoods, housing and economic security, educational attainment, family supports, as well as access to health care.

Supports are needed for populations specifically affected by concentrated inequities alongside programs that serve everyone.

Next slide, please.

Thank you.

That concludes our presentation, and we look forward to questions.

Okay.

I want to thank the public health department for putting this data together because I don't think I've seen it before.

This is good work.

So let's see what Supervisor Tama's questions and then I'll ask any.

Um thank you for this presentation.

It's very data-rich and um most of it we've seen uh actually last year when um Supervisor Carson and I had been on health committee, because we were looking specifically at the disparity studies and looking at each of the different affinity groups.

The um but it's still starking to see the life expectancy difference of 14.7 yeah, I'm I'm surprised um Asians have a higher life expectancy than Pacific Islanders and African Americans in terms of they seem to have the highest in the county at 87.2.

But when you look at um the unincorporated area in the EJ element, Ashland, Cheryland, and Hayward Acres show the most significant or the lowest life expectancy.

But uh how do you simultaneously do some interventions with both race and geography in in this kind of a situation?

Yeah, thank you.

I I think that's a really important question to grapple with.

And um, you know, I I think we can look at the intersection of like which places um are most affected by inequities, and we do see a lot of places in the EJ area um disproportionately affected by health inequities as well as regions of Oakland.

Um, and I think it's making sure we do outreach and like have culturally affirming programs within those geographies, and so bringing both lenses.

When we look at the intersection of neighborhood poverty and race and ethnicity, we see that that um mortality does increase by neighborhood poverty, but that the racial and ethnic disparities really dominate what we see.

And so even African American black and Pacific Islander people living in low poverty neighborhoods that are higher income have much higher mortality rates than people living in very high poverty neighborhoods who are of different races and ethnicities.

So it really underlines your point about you know making sure that we're um concentrating supports on the populations most affected intersectionally.

Yeah, that's definitely true.

Uh so the reason I was thinking about this concept was because when uh Supervisor Chan, the late supervisor Chan uh spearheaded the food as medicine program, uh, I think Dr.

Chen looked at uh partnering with Tiburcio Vasquez and and distributing you know produce in terms of prescribing.

And I was just trying to get a sense of like uh the effectiveness of those kind of programs uh regionally in in the uh unincorporated areas, specifically the EJ areas.

Yeah, um it's been wonderful to um get to work with Dr.

Chan and um I we would be glad to uh take a deeper dive into looking at those data together.

And I know they've been um doing some evaluation of their program, but um, you know, I I think we do see food contributing to um leading causes um uh and risk for leading causes like heart disease and diabetes and cancer.

So um it is really important work to make sure people get healthy food.

Um, you know, and it's prevention as well, not just um I know it can it's easier to prescribe it as a treatment, but ideally we want to prevent people from getting sick.

That's true.

So thank you again for the presentation.

Thank you.

Uh yeah, so you mentioned the key findings, then looking at the key findings and thinking about the EJ element.

I'm just uh trying to put together the key findings in the in the EJ element.

Um in terms of addressing the key findings.

That's I was trying to kind of get a sense of uh is that mapped out already, or do you know?

Uh well, I think um this is a great opportunity to you know see that as just the start of the conversation.

This is the first time we've really pulled these data, you know.

I think it really um helped raise awareness for us and for our department about the inequities affecting the unincorporated area.

Um, and I and so I you know, I think I it's a real opportunity for us to lean deeper into like how do we use the data to inform action.

Exactly.

You hit the nail on the head, because that's what I'm looking for.

Because I was trying to get a sense of the key findings and the EJ element.

So, how do you use the data to inform action?

Because you know, clearly the findings, all this data is really uh rich and telling.

But then now what how do we take this data and use it to put together you know actions that um hopefully over the course of time, and and hopefully we could measure that we would see some results.

That's what I'm trying to, and so that's why I was trying to get back to the EJ element.

And so we don't have that correlation just yet.

No, okay, okay.

Is that am I asking too much or is that possible?

Oh, okay.

Okay, because yeah, I'd like to see with the key findings and all this data.

What are we doing to try to begin to address some of these disparities and then trying to measure if we're getting results and maybe to get results, we're not going to see that in you know, two, three, four years, five years, maybe it it's five years, ten years, but you know, trying to see how we take what we have here and then put in place actions that are going to lead us on a path of getting results.

And then if we have to uh tweak those actions, because you know, we can throw money at stuff, but if the money we're throwing at it isn't really addressing the ability to get the results that are going to, you know, improv diminish the disparities, then we're just kind of throwing money and spinning our wheels.

Yeah, and I think I think um we take very seriously that responsibility to translate data to action.

So internally, we're thinking about a lot.

We had a meeting with our healthy schools and community team today that talk about the opportunity youth and you know how we support them and what the work that's happening at REACH.

So there are a lot of people who are eager to help, and and we're really grateful to be working with the board to think about it.

So because I didn't catch it at first, Julia.

So you're thinking you are the director of the CAPE unit.

Because I haven't met with the CAPE unit in quite a while.

How long have you been with the CAPE unit?

I had almost three years.

So you see it.

Yeah, I would be glad to have the opportunity then.

I haven't talked to the Cape unit in quite some time.

Obviously, I talked to Kimmy quite a bit, but yeah, because this is this is fascinating data.

Yeah, like I said, I've never seen this before.

And then to have it, I mean, obviously we get data countywide, but then to get the data in some instances comparing the county with an incorporate area, and then with the EJ community, I mean that's kind of like really good stuff.

Yeah, so I'd like to see how they can take this, see what the EJ element has to say about it, and if we're on the right track with the EJ element.

Um, and if we are great.

If we aren't, then do we have to make any modifications?

And then what's missing?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, thank you very much.

Thanks for the opportunity to present this evening.

Okay.

So I hope um I hope you'll be back again.

Yeah, and we'll see where we go with this.

So let's see if we have any public speakers on this.

I have no speakers on this item.

Okay.

So um, will you be working with Julia and the okay?

And then you're going to be talking to the um Center for Healthy Schools and Neighborhoods.

Okay.

And then if there's any other entities that need to be brought into this, let us know.

Yeah.

Because I really want to see what you come back with down the road.

Because I I'll remember this when it comes time for Allie to do her update a year from now.

And so maybe you will be able to kind of give us a context of this data and maybe how EJ element fits into some of this data, and maybe what it either what's missing and or what additionally we need to uh consider, yeah, in terms of strategies and and interventions.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, the un area collaborative communities as well.

Oh yeah, we would be glad to cart.

Yeah.

Do to the uh eaten area communic community collaborative.

Okay.

Yeah, that'd be good.

That'd be good.

Okay, good, good, good.

Because you know, yeah, I think it's important because you don't turn this around overnight, but we need to put in place actions and steps to begin to turn this around.

Yeah.

Okay, good.

Yeah, and we're grateful for the leadership of the community here.

Um developing the EJ element and um well, we would be excited to meet with community groups.

Yeah, and I don't want to um editorialize on this any uh further, but you know, uh for a long time the county wasn't thinking like this, yeah.

We're decades and decades and decades, so it's just really good that it's taken time, but we're slowly moving in the direction I was kind of talking to Brianne and some folks earlier today.

It's like, you know, first of all, understanding as opposed to just um taking advantage of communities and situations, beginning to understand we need to do different things, and then beginning to turn the you know, turn things around like an aircraft carrier, turn it around and begin to start moving in a new direction.

So I think this is this is very helpful.

Yeah, okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so I think we already took public comment, but once do we have any other public comment on non agendized items?

I have no speakers so the unincorporated area meeting, Board of Supervisors Committee meeting for March the 25th is adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.