Alameda County Reparations Commission Progress Report and Recommendations Presented to Board of Supervisors Ad Hoc Committee - April 8, 2026
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Alameda County Reparations Commission Progress Report and Recommendations Presented to Board of Supervisors Ad Hoc Committee - April 8, 2026
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors Ad Hoc Committee on Reparations (Supervisors Miley and Marquez) met jointly with the Reparations Commission on April 8, 2026. The commission presented an extensive update on its 18-month process, including community engagement results, survey data, a draft action plan with 12 prioritized recommendations, budget status, and a timeline. Supervisors provided feedback on presentation strategy, prioritization, and realistic next steps. The committee voted to recommend bringing the full report to the full Board of Supervisors as a set matter on June 30, 2026.
Discussion Items
- Opening remarks and tribute: Chair Terry Gore acknowledged the passing of Commissioner Jesse Burleson (District 5) and thanked the Board for a commendation presented to his family. A moment of silence was held.
- Process and community engagement: Chair Gore outlined the mandate, the five UN pillars of reparation (compensation, return of power, healing, thriving, shaping futures), and the harms report framework developed by graduate student Alisa Knight. The commission held 22 events (6 listening sessions, 14 pop-ups, 2 feedback sessions) across all five districts, with 400+ surveys collected online and in person. The library was praised for critical support.
- Survey data (presented by Michael Arnold, Informing Change): Among 285+ respondents (now over 400), 83% identified as Black/African American, 70% as women, and 83% as descendants of enslaved persons. Key findings: 66% had been stopped, searched, or questioned by police; 58% reported county agencies directly damaged their emotional well-being; 60% experienced housing hardships; 48% felt forced to move due to gentrification; 85% demanded reparations focus on rebuilding historically Black neighborhoods, schools, and institutions. The data is high quality with broad age and income representation, but geographically concentrated in Oakland and Hayward, with District 1 underrepresented.
- Social media and digital engagement: Consultant Tassian reported organic growth on Facebook and Instagram, with 1,100 Facebook followers and high engagement. Most followers were women aged 45–55. The digital survey received the most organic engagement.
- Project management (Letitia Henderson, Exceptional Community Connections): The commission has three subcommittees (Admin & Budget, Community Feedback, Data Analysis & Reporting) and held a planning retreat in January 2026. They are on track to finalize the report by the June deadline. Commissioners identified 12 recommendations in March.
- Budget and resources (Vice Chair Larry McClendon): The Board allocated $500,000. To date, $307,000 has been spent, with $192,247.48 remaining (61% of budget). Largest expenditures: consultants, communication/design/printing, facilitation/community engagement, documentation/media, and wellness/food/participation support. Vendor discounts due to mission alignment contributed to savings. McClendon noted that the compressed timeline (funding received after a year of work) limited deeper outreach. The commission will adjust budget line items at its full commission meeting later that day. Supervisors requested a lessons-learned section in the final report.
- Recommendations (Chair Gore and Vice Chair McClendon): The commission presented 12 recommendations following the state task force format, ranked by priority and timed as short-term (1–12 months), medium-term (1–3 years), and long-term (3–5 years). Top five short-term priorities: 1) Housing and economic opportunity/closing the wealth gap, 2) Administrative (establish an Office of Reparations with dedicated funding), 3) Health equity, 4) Family and youth, 5) Justice and public safety. Other priorities include education, accountability (harms report, equity tracking), culture/memory, civic power, data transparency, and climate/environment. The commission emphasized that the plan is a living document.
- Supervisor feedback:
- Supervisor Miley praised the work but cautioned that the Board is unlikely to adopt the action plan on June 30. He noted that past similar reports (e.g., Office of Immigrant Services from 2021) took years to implement. He advised narrowing the focus to one to three critical priorities for the first fiscal year and highlighted the need for realistic cost estimates. He also questioned the $2.6 billion public safety figure cited in the presentation (the county budget shows public safety at about 26%, not that dollar amount). He requested a lessons-learned case study to improve future commissions.
- Supervisor Marquez echoed the timeline concerns, noting June is chaotic (budget, HR 1, Prop 1). She recommended a 20–30 minute presentation at the full board, with the report delivered three weeks in advance, and a separate subsequent meeting for adoption discussion. She suggested the commission connect its recommendations to pending county initiatives (e.g., Fair Chance Housing Ordinance) and improve outreach to District 1 to address criticisms of geographic imbalance. She also expressed support for commissioner stipends if funds remain.
- Commissioner responses:
- Commissioner Dr. Philip Gardner acknowledged District 1 underrepresentation and reported that an online blog from that district is mobilizing opposition to reparations.
- Chair Gore pushed back on the request to narrow priorities, arguing the mandate was for a comprehensive plan, and noted that the commission could instead recommend a handoff body to continue work.
- Vice Chair McClendon proposed that the commission explicitly recommend the next governance step (e.g., a smaller task force) to avoid the report sitting on a shelf.
- Commissioner Gardner emphasized that the report is the beginning, not the end, and that the commission should make a recommendation on a successor body.
Key Outcomes
- Motion: Supervisor Miley moved to recommend that the full report be brought to the full Board of Supervisors as a set matter on June 30, 2026. Supervisor Marquez seconded. The motion passed unanimously (aye: Miley, Marquez).
- Clarification: The June 30 presentation will be for receiving the report, not for adoption. The Board will likely refer it to a committee or schedule a future work session for action.
- Next steps: The commission will refine the report and coordinate with the supervisors' offices on presentation content and timing. The committee may meet again before June 30 for a final preview. The commission is to include recommendations on next governance steps (e.g., a continuing task force or office) and lessons learned for future commissions.
Meeting Transcript
And I think the chair of the commissioner is slated to provide that overview. Good afternoon. So we've been looking forward to this meeting for a long time. We finally have our recommendations. So I what I provided for you in the packet is the slide deck. There's a lot of material, so I'm gonna go pretty quickly so you can uh um you know go back and forth to it. Okay, does the clerk have a slide deck because you have to make everything available to the public? You you've got it. Okay, I gave it to her, yeah. Okay. Oh, and you're gonna do this meeting. Oh I thought Light was gonna do it. Okay, okay. Um, so just the order. So on the left hand side, we had a feedback session. I so we so much appreciated that you guys came to so many of the listening sessions, but the feedback session was quite different, and so you're gonna see some information on both the feet the listening sessions and the feedback where they um went into breakout rooms and then did a gallery walk. So this is the because this this was the day everything was happening. So y'all were at the women's thing and the no king's there was just a lot going on that day. So I put that feedback information in there for the good of the order, and then you have the slide deck on the right hand side. So I will get promoted here, and share my okay. Okay, so continue to share. So I'm gonna take you through sort of the beginning and end, and then have uh informing change and except exceptional community connections, our consultants. So it's all gonna flow through the slide deck, and so I'll take you through it. Uh, first, you know, I want to recognize that Jesse Burleson, uh commissioner out of D5 did pass away. I I really do want to thank the um Board of Supervisors for so swiftly responding and signing the commendation. We were able to present it to his widow. Um a small group of commissioners went to the memorial service. Uh so here's a photo of the we framed it up and we gave it to the family, and then we went to this event. It actually was um part of the Alameda Public Library, so uh keeping it all in the family here. So just wanted to acknowledge that we lost Jesse Burrows, and he was the commissioner instrumental in um representing the formerly incarcerated. So it was really um his vision to have an event with that population, and he had it all set up, and so we were able to have the event and honor him. And so I just wanted to um thank you all for the commendation and just have a brief moment of silence. Okay, thank you. Uh so the agenda, like um supervisor Mali said, the strategic overview, what our process was, the timeline for finishing the work, we'll have our consultant speak, then the vice chair will get up and share where the budget and resources are, and then we hope to get your um motion, a motion and action item. So, of course, you know the mandate, the process we ended up having 22 listening uh and uh feedback session. We may have one more, I'm not quite sure. Uh we um so it was quite rigorous. We really got going like January, February is like back to back to back. We do we did land on some findings, and and the goal obviously is to deliver you guys a final um action plan. Of course, uh you all passed the resolution, we set up the commission, and our uh we always do a land acknowledgement, and our um our vision was where African Americans and all county residents can thrive. So, as you recall, we have the um the local, so Alameda County specific, where we are identifying um a process and a plan, then at the state level, we really did incorporate much of the um reparations task force report. Then at the state level, we really did incorporate much of the reparations task force report. They generated 1,100 page report, which is my understanding one of the premier reports in the whole country and is serving as a backbone for a lot of the reparations work throughout the country, but in particular in California. And then we have the Macro View where we're using the UN five forms of reparation. So we have quite the global all the way down to the local view. Here are the five pillars. We have when we have had our listening sessions, you all familiar that we told the community it's not just about compensation, but it's also about power, returning power, healing, thriving, and shaping their futures. So we you know constantly socialize this with the community at the listening session and the feedback session. So we also benefited back in the spring of 2025, which feels like so long ago. Alisa Knight is a master's student.
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