Alameda County Reparations Commission Meeting – August 13, 2026
Alameda County Reparations Commission Meeting – August 13, 2026
The Reparations Commission met from 6:00 p.m. to approximately 8:04 p.m. on the date listed above (the agenda and transcript reference April 8, 2026, but the timestamp supplied for this summary is August 13, 2026). Roll call was completed; approval of the March 18 and March 23, 2026 minutes was postponed because those minutes were not ready.
Ad Hoc Committee Meeting Discussion
- Chair Gore reported that the ad hoc committee presented a full slide deck to the Board of Supervisors and answered questions. Supervisors said the proposed 12 recommendations with short-, medium-, and long-term timelines were not realistic to adopt on June 30, and they strongly recommended prioritizing one or two achievable items.
- Supervisors advised preparing FAQs to counter opposition, and asked the commission to consider what happens after the report is delivered. They confirmed June 30 is a set matter, but the Board needs materials at least three weeks in advance.
- Commissioner McClendon recommended getting a draft to all supervisors at least three weeks before June 30 and also holding one-hour individual meetings with each supervisor. Under normal county process, that would require submission by Tuesday, June 9, at noon.
- Commissioner Sass questioned the value of a June 30 'receiving' rather than adoption, stating that after 175 years of inequity it is unacceptable to wait years. He and others supported identifying one or two 'stakes in the ground,' such as an Office of Reparations or a funded person/team.
- Several commissioners discussed continuing the work through a smaller implementation-focused body rather than the full 15-member commission. Some suggested using leftover funds for three or four people to shepherd implementation.
- Commissioner Bazile cautioned against hiring someone to simply revisit the three-year report, citing Berkeley's shelved report; he urged focusing on actionable items and existing county initiatives.
- No formal vote was taken.
In-Person Feedback Session Observations
- The in-person session was reported to have gone well, with breakout rooms, a gallery walk, whiteboards, and post-it notes. Feedback forms and photos were captured; poster photos still need to be uploaded.
- Community participants expressed strong urgency, with many saying there is no short-term, midterm, or long term—everything needs to happen now. There was widespread appreciation for the commission's work.
- Commissioner Dones said his re-entry breakout table raised issues already addressed by the commission, validating the thoroughness of the work.
- Commissioner McClendon noted that 'red dots' (priority votes) showed strong interest in creating a reparations commission/body as an immediate step.
Data, Research & Report Writing Update
- Informing Change (Michael) reported that data collection is nearly complete, with some qualitative pieces remaining. The report is currently 30+ pages and likely to reach 60+ pages.
- He initially proposed a 10–12 page executive summary by June 8 and a full draft report by June 23/30.
- Chair Gore and other commissioners objected to sending a skimmed-down summary as the main document; they directed Informing Change to produce the full, substantive report without page constraints. Any shorter companion piece would be developed by the commission afterward.
- Informing Change agreed to reverse the order: full report first, shorter piece later.
Work Plans & Subcommittee Reports
- ECC (Exceptional Community Connections) reported March work: completing vendor invoice processing, creating budget priorities, delivering recommendations to Informing Change, and conducting one community feedback session. April focus includes launching the virtual feedback session, expanding outreach, and preparing for June 30.
- Community Listening Sessions: one in-person session was held; a virtual session is scheduled for the coming Saturday; outreach will continue.
- DAR (Data, Research & Report): recommendations were delivered to Informing Change; data were organized and aligned with listening-session categories.
Budget Report (Admin/Budget Subcommittee)
- Commissioner McClendon presented the budget: approved budget is $500,000; spending to date is $307,752; remaining balance is $192,247.48, representing 61% of the approved budget utilized.
- The combined ECC/Informing Change total should have been listed as $270,000 rather than $260,000. Overages include $4,470 in documentation/media and $600 in note-taking; these would be offset by moving funds from underutilized line items.
- He proposed increasing funding for ECC and Informing Change to complete the report and project management.
- The commission discussed using leftover funds for June 30 outreach, food (up to $3,000 per vendor), photography/videography, and possibly a small next-phase team.
- Commissioners praised McClendon's stewardship and noted that community relationships produced discounts and gratis services, including from the Trusted African American Cultural Historical Society.
Key Outcomes
- Minutes from March 18 and March 23, 2026 were deferred to the next regular meeting.
- June 30 is confirmed as the set-matter date; the commission will deliver a draft to the Board at least three weeks in advance (around June 9 at noon).
- The commission will develop talking points and identify one or two priority recommendations/action items to present as immediate next steps.
- Informing Change will write the full report without length restrictions; the commission will create a shorter companion piece from it.
- The commission will pursue individual meetings with Board of Supervisors members and expand community outreach and mobilization for June 30.
- Admin/Budget will research the official process for commission transition, wind-down, or continuation, and will plan public recognition for commissioners.
- Further discussion on the post-June 30 structure will continue at the May meeting.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome, welcome. I'm followed the meeting disorder. Right. Yeah, that way we're not going to Commissioner for added class. Oh, here. Commissioner Canida Gretchen. President. Here. D Johnson. Do I have a fundamental? Here. Excuse. Commissioner Jennifer A. Gaydon. Here. Present. Here Deborah Gore. Present. Commissioner Chadrick A. Smith. Present. Thank you. Committee to Jones is present if I didn't get my name. Oh thank you. Thank you for joining Commissioner Dones. Thank you. Okay. So our minutes for both the last March 18th and our special meeting are not ready yet. So we won't be able to have approval of the minutes. We will roll it to the main meeting. So with that, we can have a discussion on the ad hoc committee meeting. So we I don't know how many of you got to join online. But we did present a full slide deck of all of our work. And we then have a robust questioning the answer period with the commissioner or with a supervisors. My apologies. So we had um we had good representation of all the work that we did. I would say that we were thorough and that we covered all the topics, and then we went to QA. And the I'm just going to summarize high level and then anybody else can chime in. The feedback was it will not be realistic to try to adopt the plan as we have it laid out. Short-term, medium term with 12 recommendations. And they gave us multiple examples about setting up an office in particular Office of Immigration, Immigrant Services, excuse me, which was recommended in 2021, and they are just now studying it in 2026. So they gave us some examples of you know some of these things that may not be able to happen, and so they were strongly recommending that we prioritize one or two things that we could get done. Also talked about being prepared with what I would say FAQs for people who might be trying to look for reasons not to support the effort, which you know for us to um focus on our work, like what are the you know the disparaging things or the quality of the work, what that we be prepared with some sort of FAQs and responses. Um and that also um what happens next with the commission? They had proposed some concepts that were like, well, we can't get that done by June. Uh what would like that in particular uh if we were to make a recommendation of next steps or make a recommendation of how we could um uh go beyond just the plan, but actually some action items. Well, that would take an extended amount of time, so um sort of we should have a discussion here on what that looks like for us as a what does that look like? Um, if we were going to uh continue the work with a slight, I would say change of scope because we will have finished the plan. uh go beyond just the plan but actually some action items well that would take an extended amount of time so um sort of we should have a discussion here on what that looks like for us as a what does that look like um if we were going to uh continue the work with a a slight i would say change of scope because we will have finished the plan some of the elements could be um sort of an evaluated process uh a case study sort of format um there's only one other county doing this work that's fulton county in georgia so i don't not sure they they did a much um smaller version of what we're doing so they so that there was a bit of for me new scope that they were proposing which then begged the question what what's the role of commit the commission then moving forward so i would say those were kind of the highlights uh we do if we are going to narrow down some priorities we will need to work two offices and then probably have another meeting in May so that we could finalize what we're going to present oh we are set for June 30th we did get that clarified and it will be a set matter we got both of those things clarified that June 30th will be our day but what would be presented that day we need to give the full um board of supervisors three weeks give a draft or some version three weeks in advance um which we didn't had a chance to even talk to the consultants here um if there would be a a draft version that be materially completed that we could share or even if we sat with each office and said look at this is where the is um so that they have a heads up in advance so they're they they need advance notice and at least three weeks so that puts us you know doing something next month um so those were my highlights let me stop there I know there was uh um some conversation about the budget as well there could um you know learner was there so let me let me open up to the floor on what y'all heard and um what you think yeah how you think that ad hoc committee meeting went uh commissioner mclinton yeah I would say uh one of the things I want to lift up that you just uh provided the update on which was that uh there was a um clear recommendation and suggestion that we get the information over to all of the board of supervisors at least three weeks prior to June 30th so that they can absorb the information now if uh we can't for whatever reason consultants data if we cannot get them the presentation and a draft report so they can absorb it three weeks prior to our meeting the other suggestion was that we schedule individual meetings with each uh board of supervisors member for one hour to then debrief our work with them directly um and so that was the recommendation and the reason I'm lifting that up is because uh both one one strategy relies on our consultants to say we can produce something that is close to final but in still draft format for elected official to consume if they say they can't we have to build the time so we have to organize our schedules to have that lead up and and get with the legislative aid so we can get that one hour in their office so there's a time commitment related to this if we can't get the uh the written uh work over to them i'll just add that the county timeline is three weeks and it's the Tuesday at noon is the deadline before the the three weeks before the actual meeting so the Tuesday before three three weeks on the Tuesday at noon is the is how the normal process works for submission of information to the June 9th no June 9th by noon so who knows yeah can other uh who are there well I just have a question on that um if we are going to have to meet with them um do we have talking points that we can highlight that we are all speaking in one voice well that's would be the work to do here yeah so I that would be the work right if we're going to if we're going to take that approach then as a commission we should decide what the process is talking point draft of the report power point that they review we should be talking about the I understand that because we are because we have our next meeting and then we don't have a meeting yeah with our next meeting and then meeting before we would meet with them would be we have one more meeting where we would have to have the deliberal let me uh let me let's you should hear the whole story okay it was quite a presentation the um gave um and the slides are here I thought you were actually going to recreate it for this body um the whole presentation again can't can we have the video we had ECC speak we had informing change speak we had Larry speak we had every single it was quite it was an orchestration right it was um and I think the punchline I think um Um the slides are here.
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