Good evening. Welcome to the April 7, 2025 Sacramento Commission Youth Commission Business

Meeting. The meeting is now called to order. Will the clerk please call roll to establish

a quorum? Thank you. Members please unmute for roll call. Member Avila?

Present. Member Velasa?

Present. Member Bernardo?

Present. Member Chan?

Present. Member DeLiong?

Present. Member Lynn?

Present. Member Lou?

Present. Member Longmeyer?

Present. Member Merrill?

Present. Member Sitta?

Absent. Absent. Thank you. Member Turk?

Absent. Member Young?

Absent. And Chair Rios?

Here. Thank you. We have quorum.

I would like to remind members of the public in chambers that if you would like to speak

on an agenda item, please turn in a speaker slip when the item begins. You will have two

minutes to speak once you are called on. After the first speaker, we will no longer accept

speaker slips. We will now proceed with today's agenda.

Please stand for, please rise for the opening of the acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's

Indigenous people and tribal lands.

To the original people of this land, the Nisanon people, the southern Maidu, valley and plains

Miwok, and Putwin-Wintoon peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's

only federally recognized tribe. May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before

us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together

today in the active practice of acknowledgment and appreciation for Sacramento's Indigenous

peoples' history, contributions and lives. Thank you. Please remain standing for the

Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag, to the flag, United States of America, and to the republic

for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for

all.

Moving on, our first business today is the approval of the Consent Calendar that includes

the last and months meeting minutes as well as the follow-up blog. Clerk, are there any

members of the public who wish to speak on this Consent Calendar?

Can you turn your mic around?

Yeah.

Thank you, Chair. There are no speakers for this item.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

Okay. Is there a motion and second for the Consent Calendar?

Aye, motion.

We have a motion with Commissioner Lee. Lynn?

Aye, second.

Okay. And a second by Commissioner Bellosa.

Thank you. Will the clerk please call roll for the vote?

That was a motion by Commissioner Lynn, and who was the second?

Commissioner Bellosa.

Okay. Thank you.

Commissioners, please unmute for vote. Commissioner Avila?

Like aye.

Aye.

Okay.

Commissioner Bellosa?

Aye.

Commissioner Bernardo?

Aye.

Commissioner Chan?

Aye.

Commissioner DeLeon?

Aye.

Commissioner Lynn?

Aye.

Commissioner Lou?

Aye.

Commissioner Longmeyer?

Aye.

Commissioner Merrill?

Aye.

Commissioner Sista?

Is absent.

Commissioner Turk?

Absent.

Commissioner Young?

Absent.

And Chair Rios?

Aye.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

We will now proceed to the discussion calendar.

Item number three is summer at City Hall overview.

I will say we're really excited to have you here today.

Don't be stressed at all.

We're just extremely excited to meet with you, talk with you,

hear about all the things you've done,

and this is a great pathway to join the commission later.

So we'd love to have you here as well.

Is there a stop presentation for this?

Good evening.

Sacramento Youth Commissioner and City Staff.

My name is Maria Villes-Medal, and I am the summer at City Hall Program Coordinator.

So thank you so much for allowing me to be here today and share with you about this wonderful

program.

Okay.

So this is a collaboration between the two of you.

I'm going to start with Maria Villes-Medal.

I'm the director of the summer at City Hall Program Coordinator.

So thank you so much for allowing me to be here today and share with you about this wonderful

program.

Okay.

So this is a collaboration between the City of Sacramento,

Youth Park Community Enrichment Department,

Natomas Unified School District, Sacramento Unified School District,

and Twin Rivers Unified School District.

All right.

So this is a five-week summer program for current freshmen,

sophomore juniors, and high school students.

So when you're applying to that program, you actually must be currently enrolled as a

sophomore and junior.

So we're going to be doing a lot of group activities focusing on civic engagement and service

learning.

So we're going to have three credentialed high school teachers as instructors,

and we're going to be providing internship opportunities with different public sector

governmental agencies and local organizations.

Also, as culminating our program, we're going to be doing the project City Hall.

So this is when students get together, and they're going to be doing the research about

an issue or concern they have in their communities, and they will be creating an awareness campaign,

and they will be presenting in front of the City Council at the end of the program.

These are some examples of last year's billboards that they put together.

As you can see, we have a lot of concerns about mental health and also homelessness and also

creating unity with different cultures within our city.

I already mentioned about internships, so every participant will be assigned to complete an

internship.

They're going to be required to do 20 hours, and this is beside the time that they will be

attending the program, which it is from Monday through Thursday, 9am to 2pm.

We will be providing the place where they will be doing it.

Also, as a part of the program, we do a service day.

In the past, we have done different stuff like cleaning parks.

Last year, those are pictures from last year, we did a partnership with Littata Elementary

School where they actually do a vegetable garden, so we had our students come out and they help

us clean out and put together vegetable bags, and that was something cute coming in elementary

school kids to get their bag of vegetables and take it home.

So, who can apply?

As I mentioned before, current freshmen, sophomore, and juniors, that they either attend any of

the Sac City, Twin Rivers, or Natomas Unified High School districts, or they must live within

the city limit.

So, applications are available now online, and you have a link to showing on the screen how

to apply, and I also do have some flyers that I would like to pass around to you guys if you can

pass to your friends and family.

And all the qualified applicants, we're going to offer an interview.

So, the last day to apply is going to be Friday, April 18th at 11.59pm.

So, to be part of this program, you have to be committed to participate the five week of the

summer program, and also complete the internship that will be assigned to you.

And the program is held here at New City Hall.

Program dates are, we're going to have orientation day, which is going to be June 14th, which is a

Saturday from 10am to 12.30pm, and the first day of the program will be Monday, June 23rd, all the

way through July 24.

We're going to be presenting to the City Council on Thursday, July 22nd at 5pm, and we're going to

celebrate all the success on Thursday, July 24 at 5pm.

And internship assignment will begin June 30, and the last day for them to complete those will be

July 23rd.

So, here are some benefits of the program.

So, all the students that attend Sac City, Twin Rivers, and the Thomas Unified School District, they will

receive five high school elected credits.

For students that they don't attend any of those eligible schools, but they do live within the city limits, they

will receive community service hours.

Everyone received $500 stipend, and also they're going to be learning a lot about civic engagement.

So, a lot of us probably, not us, because I'm already too old, but young people, they want to do something in

their community, but they don't know where to start.

So, this is the best place to do it.

They're going to know how to have their voices heard.

They're going to know how to make a change in the community they live in.

Also, you're going to be able to build your resume with a job experience and development of your skill with a

public sector internship.

You're going to increase your network of peers, because you're going to be making friends with all over the city, and

you're going to be meeting a lot of employers and resources.

And also, you had an amazing opportunity to come back next year as a peer mentor.

Okay, as I mentioned before, we're accepting applications right now.

There is the flyer on the screen, and I will be passing the flyer to all of you soon.

And thank you.

Thank you for your presentation.

Thank you.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who should speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

There are no speakers for this item.

Are there any commissioners who should speak on this?

Commissioner Murrell.

Yeah.

Well, thank you for presenting coming here today.

We really appreciate it.

I know a ton of people who've done the program and have gone to my school or come to our events, like our listening sessions and

the youth commission events.

I didn't know about some stuff like the internship program, the day of service, creating those values, and then also giving them

a reward with this type and potential high school credit.

The only question I have is, like, how do you assign the internship?

Is it based on interest?

Is it just in the city?

Like the city departments?

Yeah.

Okay.

In the past, we used to have, like, a desire that they were, they want to go and we did our best to do it.

After pandemic, it's been hard because a lot of offices, they're not back fully in place.

So it's a little bit challenging for us to find places.

So right now, we're just, like, trying to get as many internships supervisors to get and kind of, like, assign them.

At least we try to assign them close home so we don't want to send them to another end of the city when they live, like,

you know, on the opposite side.

So, yes.

Yeah, that's perfect.

I think, like you mentioned, even you've found it's really, really hard to, like, get internships and find them as a youth because

people think we're unqualified and it's, like, all the liability stuff.

So it's great that you guys are doing that and providing them with the opportunity, especially, like, close to home.

I think that's great.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Bilosa.

I wanted to say that I just completed summer at City Hall last summer, so did my co-commissioner, Commissioner Sista.

It was just echoing all of the things you already said.

It definitely taught me a lot of skills and I met a lot of people around City Hall.

I met people from so many different school districts, which is, like, super invaluable to meet people from District 8, like,

or districts that are nowhere close to where my district is.

It's, um, I think it provides you with a ton of opportunities that are, that you would never have known about otherwise.

Obviously, everyone here is in semester at City Hall, so they kind of know about how the program works.

And I would definitely recommend any, like, parents and family members here to recommend it to any of their, like, siblings, younger siblings.

Yeah, so I want to say I really enjoyed doing the program and especially the internships.

I think that was a pretty invaluable experience to have.

Thank you.

Commissioner Lin.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Ms. Maria, I took part in Summer City Hall two summers ago and currently I stand on the commission because I was able to connect with Ms. Dominique.

So I think that the Summer City Hall is a great opportunity for everyone and I really encourage you all to take part in it because I wasn't able to participate in the internships,

but I still gained, like, very valuable skills and connections.

So I highly recommend you guys to join.

Yeah, I agree with all the, with all the commissioners said. I think the internship is a great opportunity for youth, a great opportunity and pathway to employment as well,

because I believe like youth employment is really beneficial when it comes to helping mental health, reducing youth homelessness and reducing youth substance abuse as well.

So I think that's a great opportunity there.

What I will say too is that Summer City Hall, like, even though this is the first time it has been created, like, there's just a lot of youth and so I think that's great that as many youth as possible are being empowered.

And I will say that for all the youth that are presenting here today, all your projects, if you do, you know, present them with your council members or bring them up to your council members,

I think that's a great addition to as well to keep your ideas moving and running and making real change and continue change in your districts.

So that wraps that up. This item is received and discussed, so no vote is required. We will move on to the next item.

Item number four is the 2025 semester at City Hall presentations.

I think we have the first presentation, which is Youth for Impact.

All right. They're coming up for you soon, but I wanted to give some brief words. So good evening, Chair Rios, Vice Chair Longmeyer and commissioners.

My name is Dominique Herndon and I serve as a program coordinator as one of them in the Civic Engagement Unit in the Youth Parks and Community Enrichment Department.

At the March 3rd business meeting, I presented and shared the detailed information about the new pilot program semester at City Hall.

And at the March 3rd business meeting, you all provided robust feedback to us that we took back and you will see some of that feedback implemented in the presentations today shortly.

Within the last five weeks, these 19 young people have been dedicated to the program, showing up to City Hall every Tuesday and Thursday ready to learn.

In teams, they work together to create research, I'm sorry, together to research and to develop presentations that are thoughtful, well researched and are engaging.

With that being said, it is with great pleasure and a warm heart that I present to the commission the first class of semester at City Hall, starting with Team Youth for Impact. Thank you.

Good evening, Chair, Vice Chair and commission. My name is Lita. I attend McLeodgy High School in District 7 and I'm in 12th grade.

Good evening, Chair, Vice Chair and commission. My name is Camila Lea. I attend Sao Pa High School in 9th grade and I live in District 3.

Good evening, Chair, Vice Chair and commission. My name is Brady Mehta. I attend Leodgy Green Academy. I'm currently a freshman and I reside in District 3.

Good evening, Vice, wait, sorry, good evening, Chair, Vice, Chair and commission. My name is Grace Gao and I attend John F. Kennedy High School. I am a sophomore and I reside in District 7.

So today we're going to be talking about the rise in youth overdose and how to prevent it.

Sorry, I think, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Sorry.

Care to go back to the beginning?

Mm-hmm.

Just one.

Okay, sorry about that. So as a result of the rise in substance abuse, substance abuse within teenagers, we are seeing a large risk of accidental overdose.

And there has also been elicit drugs that have been found in street drugs as well. And between the years of 2018 and 2020, there was a 407% spike in teen opioid deaths in California.

And fentanyl is a very strong painkiller and it is also very highly addictive.

This was our data and research findings from Sacramento. As of October 6th, 2023, Sacramento has had a 230 fentanyl related deaths already surpassing the 2022 total of 228.

This is a huge increase compared to just 17 deaths in 2018, showing how serious the fentanyl crisis has become.

The overdose death rate is 3.7 per 100,000 residents, which is higher than both the state and national averages.

Although there has been a positive change in 2024, deaths have dropped by 56% with 180 deaths reported through November compared to 406 in 2023.

The policies and programs that are currently implemented are Sacramento County Opiate Collision. It is actively working to fight the crisis by tracking overdoses and offering harm reduction resources.

The next one is the fentanyl death mapping dashboard. It helps identify overdose hotspots by zip code so resources can be focused where they're needed most.

The next one is Sacramento City College. It provides party safe kits, which include free narkin and fentanyl test strips to help prevent overdoses.

The overall goal of these efforts is to reduce fentanyl deaths and raise awareness about the dangers of synthetic opioids.

These are survey findings from a survey from our local school and community around 50 students our age did the survey.

Less than 50% of the students knew what narkin is, which can treat overdoses.

Less than 50% of our students knew how to recognize an overdose as well.

Luckily, more than 90% of the students were open to learning about narkin and how to recognize an overdose.

This shows the need for more education so people are better prepared to recognize an overdose and use narkin to save lives.

We believe that to educate youth effectively is essential to incorporate overdose awareness in schools and provide harm reduction resources such as fentanyl test strips and training on how to administer narkin.

Sacramento already has two assembly bills regarding fentanyl misuse and overdose.

Assembly Bill 33 has issued a task force to combat this issue. Having youth collaborate with these groups will allow for further outreach and education within schools.

So these were our research limitations.

Trying to find bills A33 and AB 474 was difficult.

AB 33 issued a fentanyl misuse and overdose prevention task force.

But when we searched up this force we couldn't find any information on it.

It was also hard to get up to date local data.

Our plan is to add fentanyl overdose education into students health and science classes to help raise awareness about the dangers slash risk of fentanyl and its impact on public health.

By adding fentanyl overdose into our education it will help students knowledge on a clear understanding of how fentanyl works.

It will help them make informed decisions about drug use.

We're asking the Sacramento Youth Commission to ask city council to take action by adding fentanyl overdose education into students health and science classes by advocating through their networks and partnerships.

These were our sources and thank you for your guys this time.

Sounds great.

So are there any commissioners who should speak on this item?

Commissioner Liu.

First of all, I wanted to say bravo to you guys.

That was very well practiced and also just very thorough extensive presentation that you guys provided us just now.

And I had a couple of questions regarding one regarding the research and then one regarding the final call to action.

So I'll start with the research one with those 230 fentanyl deaths that you cited, which first of all is a very horrible thing that is continuing to exist within Sacramento.

So what are the kinds of deaths and youth specifically?

Do you know age wise, whether those were mainly adults, youth, if those were all youth?

I think a lot of our research, they classified youth as ages 18 to 24, but we did find research resulting in like from 12 to 18 as well.

But I'm pretty sure that statistic is from 18 to 24.

Gotcha.

So for the final call to action, which by the way, I love education is really the fundamentals of prevention, especially when it comes to like drug use and other forms of like harmful substances.

So I was wondering which levels of education were you planning on starting with this education?

Would this be at like the elementary school level, middle school, high school?

I think definitely targeting high schoolers first would be beneficial just because they are the main users of substances, maybe middle school eventually, but probably not elementary as that is a little bit too young for like subjects like this.

Awesome. Thank you.

Commissioner Bellasso.

I also want to congratulate you on creating a really good presentation in a very short amount of time.

I wanted to say that your ideas about bringing the training and the test strips and specific to schools, I think is a great addition to like based off of the research you found.

I think I agree that that is a really good suggestion.

I think your idea of bringing in youth partners as well would be hugely beneficial because we're talking about dealing with something that's affecting the youth and a lot of the times with presentations and like really connecting with them, that's the best way to go about it.

I would say that we can absolutely, like I think obviously this has become like an issue that's rose up so quick with what you were saying about it starting in like 2018, the deaths started skyrocketing.

So I think at this time it's something that there's not like enough resources yet created for it and I think we should definitely like, like as a commission, I think you've brought up like a very good issue for us to be focusing on.

But yeah, thank you for giving us that presentation. It was very well researched.

Commissioner Merrill.

Yeah, I just want to reiterate what everybody else has said in terms of just congratulating you guys on coming and being like the first presentation.

I know that's like, like in school, it's like a little nervy, but other than that, I really enjoyed your statistics.

Like also seeing what currently is going on and what currently like the limitations. I think that was really cool because these youth who maybe want to learn more if you addressing the limitations in terms of finding information was really cool to add.

And then, yeah, I think the only how the only question I have is in terms of like engagement and like adding it into the curriculum. How do you think we you could like engage the youth or engage our the student like are the classes and like a safe manner in terms of like making

sure they know the they don't make fun of it because I feel like that's a big thing. They see the severity and see how to like actually address it like here personal stories. Youth mentors and stuff like that like how how how will you engage them and make sure they

understand the impact and then also how to like use the

So we thought of a plan is to like start like workshops kind of like.

Sorry, I don't really have like my train of thought is not really here. Sorry. Thank you. But basically we can just like host like workshops. It's like.

It's like spread this issue and to like make.

Sorry about sorry. I'm just to like spread like the information about how like fentanyl is like a very bad drug that could lead to like overdoses since like our schools there has also been like people that are doing like drugs and like vaping and stuff so it's like a very important issue to address and we just think that

hosting like workshops would be a really good idea to bring the community and to just like tell and to like educate them about like this issue.

Yeah, it's great.

I think it's also like you mentioned it's wait where are you are you trying to continue. Wait, are you done or sorry. I don't want to run. Sorry. No, no, you're good.

Yeah, I think creating workshops, making it hands on and engaging. That's great. Yeah. And then also it's like a taboo subject. We don't talk about in school. So bring it to them and like actually talking about it because it's real.

Thank you.

Commissioner Lynn.

Thank you guys so much for your presentation is very informing. I remember doing a presentation similar to this like two years ago about the fentanyl crisis. And I feel like it was really enlightening to see like new data and like your guys survey and your guys is like work put into this presentation.

And I was just wondering like how are you guys going to carry out like the ask because I think that we can also reach out to the school districts but do you guys plan to like continue this project like outside of summer semester at City Hall.

No, this was just something that we were doing during like semesters City Hall. So yeah,

I think I would definitely be interested in collaborating more with the commission or any other programs involving this issue.

As this is a really big issue. It's a little bit difficult to know where to start, especially with how the company programs are, but I think definitely reaching out to different coalitions and seeing if they're open to continuing with these programs at schools or just, you know, at like, I know way MCA's they do like lifeguard training.

Or CPR training, maybe getting like programs like on like how to administer Narcan trainings and just like having resources like that. So I'd be definitely definitely be interested in that.

Commissioner Longmar.

Hi, I also like to say thank you for your presentation is very informative. When you're going through the presentation and the slide where it talked about your survey findings.

There was a question that I think you like it's something to consider about adding 20 or questions like asking if like the person taking the survey is around like those type of drugs.

Sorry, I don't know. We put question much. Yeah, like if they're like exposed to those types of drugs in like household or they know somebody that like basically a question about easy access like do you have access to these like, or even if you're not taking it like yourself like just ask that question to see how.

Like easy as for youth our age to like get those drugs in their hands.

We actually did have a question like that I it was I'm not sure how it was worded I think it was more like do you know anyone who has who does drugs or like for non medical purposes I think it was mostly no.

But I think there was like may have been like 30% yes.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah, I will just say like you guys did a great job in your presentation you had nothing to be worried about you guys presented your words very well and the message very well as well.

I think you guys will I believe you guys brought up a pressing topic against the youth community that continues to take lives.

And so I think there was really nice that you guys brought that up. And so yeah congratulations.

Good evening chair vice chair and commission. My name is Bernice Ng I am a current sophomore at NP three high and I reside in District one.

Good evening chair vice chair and youth commission. My name is Tonya Leis I live in District three. I'm a sophomore in Irkham high school.

Good evening chair vice chair and commission. My name is all in the Kandola I attend NP three and I'm currently in the ninth grade and I reside in the district seven.

Good evening by the chair vice chair and commission. My name is Jalen Carter Ray. I am a freshman at Intercom high school and I reside in District one.

Good evening vice chair chair and commission. My name is Yubia Sosa I attend Christian High School I'm an 11th grade in District six.

Hello all we are team Lidia's anti-literals and our focus is on environmental waste more specifically littering.

These are the topics that we will be covering in our presentation please take a second.

So why is littering important because the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers are prone to frequent flooding it can cause many unnecessary things to spread such as pesticides micro plastics and plastics to go into natural habitats and large local plantations which can ultimately destroy them or severely damage the environment.

And it can really impact the life there illegal dumping has increased by nearly 32% over the last three years which has caused cleanup costs to double.

We focused on two essential questions throughout our research. How does the heightened public littering in Sacramento affect today's youth and daily lives and what can be done about it.

Littering can cause many hazards such as when we're driving it can create distractions cause irregular maintenance schedules which can increase maintenance costs. Additionally blockages can create traffic.

It can impact our health by creating toxic substances diseases dangerous inhalants and injuries. It can really impact the use as it can cause dangerous and dirty play areas and unsafe traveling conditions.

These are some images that our team has taken over the past five weeks.

What can who can we rely on we can rely on the environmental management department or AMD.

By sharing the environmental regulations and solid waste management and working community partners from a responsible water waste disposal.

We also rely on the Sacramento County Code enforcement combats littering and illegal dumping by by enforcing audience for moving junk and debris and using legal procedures like crossing and abraments.

The people Sacramento are also another another thing we can rely on with to not litter in the city or in the environment.

Waste management combats littering and illegal dumping by accessible by by moving.

Providing accessible convenient to pull the pull options.

Sweet sweeping service.

Combats littering and illegal dumping by moving debris and trash from streets and preventing accumulation and potential clogging storm drains.

Title 13 chapter 10.1.13 0.

Violations of dumping refuses less than one yard squared punishment could lead up to six months of imprisonment and fines from 250 to $25,000 title 6 chapter 20.7 10 no person shall dump in bodies of water public and private properties with the with the reward being $500 but but you must be over the age of 18.

If not, the reward will be given to the person's parent or guardian.

This could be tedious and time consuming.

We have seen these policies and laws don't seem to be very effective, which is why we have implemented some possible solutions.

To reduce littering, the Youth Commission should advocate for more trash cans, education for youth, raise awareness and support through artists.

These solutions work together to create a cleaner, more sustainable and aware environment for Sacramento residents.

We can invest in more trash cans, which will only be effective if people use it.

We can place these trash cans in bus stops, parks, shopping centers, which includes plazas, nature, natural reserves, trails, low income communities.

We can hire more volunteers and city cleaners and the average trash can can cost $5,000.

The room one is a non-emergency call center to report any issue within the city about potholes, noise complaints or any local services.

The main purpose for this call center is for citizens to ask any questions and make non-emergency calls such as an arcade or a bus stop.

The city has a number of public and private properties, which is a very common issue.

The main purpose for this call center is for citizens to ask any questions and make non-emergency calls such as an arcade or a bus stop.

Based on data that shared by the City of Sacramento Recycling and Solid Waste Division in 2024, there has been from 651 up to 1039 calls regarding illegal dumping in six months with the given reports from March through May and October through December.

We can see how the year started off with receiving many calls and later on decreasing a little more towards the end of the year.

There are approximately 530,000 residents in Sacramento since 2023.

This graph shows how many residents have called in to report an issue using this call center.

As we can tell, not many are aware about it, which is why implementing more education for the youths should be prioritized as they are the next generation and could be the beginning of a better change.

We were inspired by Capital Box Arts and Mission and as well as Coachella's trash bins and getting local artists around Sacramento to help out.

We want to apply this to the newly implemented trash cans around the city.

This would mean talking with the Sacramento Arts and Culture Division and the Sacramento Office of Arts and Culture.

Painting trash cans is eye catching for those who are outside and can help make our city fun for those who enjoy art, such as the youth.

We would even want to get youth involved in painting trash cans to let them display their art for the public to see.

We can create fun activities or even events where youths are able to create and express themselves while also helping the city out.

Our group created a survey to gather knowledge and perspectives on environmental waste in litter in Sacramento.

Our survey received 112 responses, majority being youth.

These are the questions we asked. Have you ever littered before?

Majority said yes. Do you think littering and waste is a big problem in Sacramento?

An overwhelming majority said yes. Do you think the city should provide more trash cans?

Majority said yes.

Should the city promote classes and resources to learn and prevent waste and littering?

Majority said yes.

Would the resident of Sacramento, would you benefit from the city providing resources and education?

Majority said yes.

These are some of the limitations we had researching this project, such as finding time-relevant data, effectiveness of city policies, reliability of survey answers, and seasonal variations on data.

We have a three-pronged solution to help clean up Sacramento's public spaces for the betterment of our youth's environments.

Number one, investing in trash cans and placing them in metropolitan and populous areas.

We hope by having more bins in high-traffic areas, more people can properly dispose of their waste.

Number two, teaching the youth and other Sacramento residents about 311 and what they can do to limit their street waste.

And number three, hiring local Sacramento artists and getting youth involved in painting new trash cans to grab the attention of Sacramento's while beautifying Sacramento.

We hope that you, the commission, will take our solutions into consideration in order to have a cleaner Sacramento.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for your presentation. You guys did an excellent job.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

Commissioner Bellosa.

Thank you so much for your presentation. Again, this was very well researched.

I commend you on doing such a good job considering this short amount of time that you had to complete this.

I liked all three of your solutions.

I think the, especially because like you were saying, so many people that you surveyed, which I think it's very cool that you went out and found that data yourself.

Like so many youth said that they believe that littering is such a problem and that they would really benefit from having like education and things of that matter.

And I think that the information that you showed us, and I think that you showed us, and I think that you showed us that this is definitely a direction that we could take this issue in Sacramento.

I think the information about how three years ago or so we started seeing like a spike in the amount of littering and illegal dumping.

Oh my God. Illegal dumping was, could possibly be related to like the pandemic.

I think that as a youth commission, as the youth commission, we can take this into account and look into ways we could implement your solutions of having like a youth driven, a youth driven program to really address this issue in Sacramento.

Thank you again for presenting. That was a very good presentation to reiterate. Thank you.

Commissioner Daly on.

Yeah, thank you for your presentation. That was very thorough. And I just wanted to learn more about like, for your, the 311 thing, like how are you planning to like educate more people about that or incentivize more people to take to make available of that resource to help dumping in this area.

With the educating people on 311, that was coupled with the education for the youth. So through public classes or in schools, programs set by the Sacramento government into schools, they can also teach this, the youth about the 311 program and what they can do to report littering.

Thank you.

Commissioner Merrill.

Yeah, well, you go to my question, but I really liked in the beginning how you like framed it littering as a major like health issue. I think when we think of littering, we, we think it affects us, right, but we also think it mainly affects like nature and like turtles.

But framing it as, as a distraction in terms of like traffic and accidents and also in terms of pollution in our waters and in our air. I think that was great. Great way to start it and great way to like lead into the importance.

Other than that, I think like creating like bringing art with trash is awesome and awesome idea in terms of engagement and then kind of beautifying trash cans which are inherently not that pretty and yeah.

Yeah, the only thing that I can think of as a recommendation or as something to think of is like trash is an important issue but also like in terms of sorting trash because if you all, if you just throw it away and one, one, one can then it's all going to be in that landfill and it's going to continue to pollute in terms of like air pollutants and stuff like that.

So also like education in terms of how to sort trash. I think that's a big issue and and something I think I know yet a little bit of time and you probably thought of that as well. But just something to think of. Yeah.

Commissioner Chan.

Thank you so much for your presentation. Again with the 311. I don't think a lot of people know about 311. But if you're like recycling then or like trash can is broken, you can actually call 311 to replace it and they'll the city will replace it for you for free. And if your trash can is broken then obviously more later, right. But yeah, thank you so much for your presentation.

Vice-chair Longmar.

I'd also like to like to say thank you for your presentation. I love the idea about the painted trash cans. I felt like they'll like really beautify Sacramento because sometimes like really run down looking at times.

And I also wanted to know what forms, what other forms of outreach you did for like this health issue. Like was there other ways you went about publicizing for it or do you understand my question?

Like, like did you make posters about it? Did you post on Instagram? Did you make flyers? Or like if you haven't done that, do you plan on doing that in the future?

During our time here we did not make any posters or flyers to advertise through social media. However, part of the idea of the painting local, like the trash cans is that there can be words that say hey report trash to 311 and stuff like that.

So that while people are disposing of their waste they can also have a little more information on what they can do to help Sacramento's environment.

Thank you. I love that.

Commissioner Bernardo.

Yeah, thank you for your presentation. It was very well researched. I like how you incorporated the statistics and also added an emphasis on how littering poses in both an environmental risk to our communities but also a safety risk.

I did have a suggestion. I think that also encouraging like community cleanups could like help solve this problem with littering and also like increase awareness on the importance of like sustaining our environments and being responsible to our communities.

One question I did have was like how do you think education on like littering would be implemented into our current curriculum? Like would it be put in our science classes or like our health classes?

So for the education, if the city could provide programs like prompt time team but for environment like waste and littering providing stipends that encourages youth.

Commissioner Lou.

Before I get into my questions I wanted to echo what Commissioner Bernardo just said regarding the suggestion with cleanups and like community service related like events to help address like the current littering issues that we see in our, than the Sacramento area.

I also had one, I also wanted to celebrate the fact that you guys had like actual photos of littering in Sacramento because that really brings it straight to us and provides physical evidence of what is happening which is really helpful with just making, spreading awareness for the cause.

I think my one question for you was that you mentioned was on punishing illegal littering to be kind of tedious and time consuming. So did you have any ideas for streamlining those avenues to help with littering prevention?

So with the inclusion that the reports to 511 are tedious, we mostly included that to show that the current laws are somewhat unhelpful and we did not take that into consideration.

Got it. Thank you.

I think you guys did an excellent job brought up littering which continues to like plague our societies.

And I think we have a lot of time to think about what is going on in our community and how we are going to be able to do that.

I think we have a lot of time to think about what is going on in our community and how we are going to be able to do that.

Got it. Thank you.

I think you guys did an excellent job brought up littering which continues to like plague our societies.

Littering has been active in society for like as long as we can really remember but it's really about, and you guys brought this up about creating a culture, teaching new generations to think against littering and promote a healthier way of living.

Personally, I have never really fully understood littering because it's like, you know, like why would you want to live in your own trash but at the same time it's about just creating a community where we care about where we live in, we are proud of where we live in and we want that to continue for future generations on.

You guys brought up a great idea about painting trash cans and I think that can be something where, you know, the commission can either organize community cleanups that include painting trash cans with the city's permission, but also involving local youth art groups and even art classes.

I think a field trip to go paint some trash cans would actually be really fun for youth and involve them in their community and the environment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, chair, vice chair and commissions. My name is Amanda.

I am a sophomore at Christian Brothers High School. I reside in District seven and we are team environmental warriors.

Good evening, chair, vice chair and commission. My name is Callie on the palm. I am a student and I'm a student at Leeward Green Academy. I reside in District three.

Good evening, chair, vice chair and commission. My name is Akbar Sadro. I'm an exchange student from Kyrgyzstan currently attending Grand Union High School in District two. I am at 11th grade.

Good evening, chair, vice chair and commission. My name is Julian Gounder. I'm a sophomore at West Campus High School. I live in District seven and the topic of our presentation is the mitigation of carbon emissions and planting of trees and also the engagement within our youth community.

Carbon emissions is carbon dioxide and other carbon based gases are released into the atmosphere, which is primarily caused by human activities like burning fossil fuels deforestation and industrial processes.

This contributes to the greenhouse effect which traps heat in earth's atmosphere and leads to climate change. As a result, we experience rising global temperatures, melting ice caps, extreme weather events and disruptions to ecosystems.

Climate change is making Sacramento hotter, drier and more prone to extreme weather. The city faces more frequent heat waves with projections of up to 49 days with over 100 degrees Fahrenheit annually by mid century.

Drawouts and shifting rainfall patterns threaten water supplies while the risk of severe storms and flooding is also increasing. Wildfires are becoming more common due to dry conditions and rising temperatures. These changes are impacting insurance costs and property values.

Local agencies are working on climate adaption strategies to address these challenges and build resilience. However, we can fight carbon emissions by switching to clean energy and protecting and planting trees.

Trees trap carbon in our atmosphere within their roots, trunks, branches and leaves. With more trees, there will be less carbon in the atmosphere that causes radical weather changes and a hotter, drier climate.

Transitioning into our survey data, we created and sent out a survey to around 90 different high school students from different schools and different districts. The first question students were asked was were you taught about climate change in school and how often?

Majority of these students or around 64% said yes. They were taught but not often or they know they were never taught at all.

The second question students were asked was do you know about the importance of dealing with climate change? Majority said yes. The third question students were asked was on a scale of one to five how important is climate change to you and each and majority of the students said four to five.

The data shows that the students and youth community weren't fully taught about climate change while two and three show that dealing with climate change is important to the youth but they have no opportunities to deal with themselves.

Programs and policies already implemented. The first is the climate action plan which was approved in late 2024 around November. The climate action plan is a multi-stage plan for reducing greenhouse gases. The urban forest plan is the city's primary tool for enhancing Sacramento's urban forest aiming to expand canopy coverage from 19% to around 35% by 2045.

While the urban forest plan and the climate action plan helps improve the environment, it takes a more general approach when it comes to engaging with the youth community. This general approach is seen within the Sacramento Tree Foundation.

Sacramento Tree Foundation is a group focused on caring for and growing the trees within Sacramento through community engagement.

Within this foundation they run a program called seed to seedlings. They have a curriculum on climate change aimed to third grade students. The kids get to grow acorns into native oak seedlings while learning about trees, science and the earth.

They witness the life cycle of an urban forest as well. The seed to seedlings program gives third grade students the opportunity to learn about climate change, learn how trees can deal with climate change while the students have fun at the same time.

So our ask is for the Sacramento Youth Commission to advocate to the Sacramento Tree Foundation for expanding their seed to seedling curriculum to also educate fifth to eighth graders on the science behind carbon emissions and the importance of trees in our city.

So these are the three main benefits of implementing a new curriculum in the Sacramento Tree Foundation. So firstly, more exposure. With this program, more kids are going to learn how their actions can affect their environment.

Second, a lasting impact. Climate change is not an issue that can be solved within a few years. So when the duty of protecting Sacramento's urban forest is given to our youth, they can be better prepared to handle it.

Lastly, greater inclusion. With four grades being invited to this program, kids will be more inclined to make positive changes to our community together.

I think a new curriculum should be created for middle school kids because as kids grow, they have better memory retention and reasoning. They can use more effective techniques like not taking, analyzing and making connections.

They can grasp more abstract concepts like greenhouse gas, carbon footprints and long term climate change effects. And they can connect the topic to real world issues and see its relevance in the life.

And also middle school is an age when people start forming their long term habits. And also students can implement this climate change issue in their middle school subjects like biology, chemistry, earth science and geography.

So our survey shows that majority of kids don't remember stuff from third grade. 59% of them answered they don't remember much and 21.7% answered they don't remember nothing. And only 18.5% of high school students answered they remember something.

So on our way of doing research, we faced some challenges with finding information about already existing programs that educated youth about climate change issues. Also, we faced some challenges with finding information for our climate action plan.

And also, not all the statistics were seen the last two or three years. Thank you.

So these are our resources. And here are our takeaways. So firstly, we highly recommend that the Sacramento Youth Commission advocate to the SAC Tree Foundation to broaden their curriculum to help educate more kids about the importance of carbon emissions.

Because with a curriculum that reaches more kids, we can ensure that the youth will be better prepared to deal with carbon emissions in the future.

So we thank you for your time and attention and we hope our proposal leads to a greater awareness about the importance of fighting carbon emissions in Sacramento. Thank you.

Thank you for your presentation. Are there any commissioners who would just speak on this item?

Commissioner Paloso.

Thank you so much for presenting. That was a really good presentation. I'm very impressed as I was with all of these presentations.

I think that your proposed solution of extending the, like, creating more opportunities for education about carbon emissions for, like, the middle school age range is definitely helpful because, like, I think around our age, like, middle school to high school, kids really start to get more involved in, like, like, in the

you know, third grade, you don't really have a way to properly participate in those things. I think we actually did hear a presentation from the Climate Action and Sustainability Commission here in a different business meeting as the commission.

And that other commission in the city has seats open for youth, like, around our age. So if you guys are, like, interested in this and would like to continue pursuing it, there's definitely opportunities.

And this applies to the other group that was speaking about, like, climate change and environmental related things.

Yeah, and I think things like the urban forest plan and all, like, extending that knowledge to more students, because I remember finding out about it and thinking about, like, how that really affects our daily lives and how it's, like, very interesting how they're

planning for the future by planting more trees because they realize how many more hot days we're going to be having over our summers.

So, like, I remember I personally thought it was, like, when I go outside to run in the mornings, there's, like, no shade in my neighborhood, like, district one kind of area.

So, yeah, thank you so much for your presentation. I really appreciated your guys' solution and I thank you guys again for putting this together.

Commissioner Merrill.

Yeah, well, thank you for your presentation again. The thing I really loved how you focused on fifth to eighth graders in terms of, like, creating habits and creating, like, knowledge of what's going on and climate change and, like, how they can take action in terms of, like, tree planting.

And then also, you made, your group made me think of it, but all these presentations are very practical and, like, actionable. I think we tried, we tend to, like, especially at our age, like, kind of focus on, like, stuff that would be ideal, like, I don't know, like, going, like, fully clean energy or, like, creating food waste into energy or something like that.

But all these are really practical, practicable, practi- yeah. And have long-term impacts, which is really cool. And also, like, even for those who think it's climate, like, spending money on climate-related issues is a waste.

Having more trees and having more shade, I think, is an agree-to-ball, agreed-upon, like, fact that it's better for a city and more enjoyable to live there. And also, like, increases home prices and stuff like that.

The one- one question that I have, and I don't know if you thought of this, but, like, how do you- I think when we learn about it, a lot of people want to take action, but they don't know how.

So how do you see, like, creating curriculum for fifth- to eighth graders and, like, mid- high schoolers? Like, how do you- how would you, like, implement, sort of, maybe, that's local presentations or implement, like, ways they can get involved or things they can do into the curriculum?

And how they can take action.

Thank you so much for your question. So the SAC Tree Foundation and their program, Sea-to-Sea, Ling's, is actually where they contact the school itself and they discuss what sort of material they need to get the whole curriculum across.

And so what they do is they actually give them- first give them the materials and then tell the school when and where to meet for a field trip where they have volunteers and also people presenting why we need trees.

And so that was the main point of our presentation is while the Sea-to-Sea, Ling's is a great way to educate younger kids, we do think we need to step it up to a little bit of an older range of kids and a wider range.

So not only are they being included, but they're also being faced with more complex subjects.

So the actual science behind how trees capture carbon in the atmosphere in their trees and their trunk, sorry, and their roots.

And so, yeah, the difference between what we want to implement and what has already been implemented is we want to address more complex information to them because we think at that age they can be better prepared to actually process it.

And say, hey, what can I do with it? And what can I do about it in our community?

And we have actually reached out to the SAC Tree Foundation on this topic and they said they were open to discussing this with the Sacramento Youth Commission with adequate funding and everything.

So, yeah.

Thank you for your question.

That's great.

Yeah, it's solid.

That's perfect.

Yeah.

That would be awesome to have like that curriculum in our school or learning it at our age or younger than this. But yeah, thanks.

Commissioner Liu.

Starting with echoing what Commissioner Mayerl just said, I think a big thing with a lot of these large problems and addressing these large problems is that a lot of people are like, what can we, what can be done?

And that's a really paralyzing question that a lot of people kind of stop at when they're trying to address these matters.

So starting with these solutions, which as a whole for all of the presentation we've heard are very tangible and very practical, as I said before, it really is the little things that start and compound to make a difference.

And I want to highlight that again.

And I have a couple of suggestions from the presentation as well. Starting with the survey, I'm not sure if this was just not said in the presentation, but for the third question when you put like on a scale of one to five designate which one is like very important and which one's not like one is very important or one is not important at all.

And then five is very or not important just for the sake of clarity, I think that could help with the results.

So as well as a second recommendation regarding the education expansion plans, I would advocate for more hands-on experiential learning, especially for younger kids.

I think a lot of the experiences at least from my education that I found most memorable from like third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, even in middle school were things where I got to engage directly with the content that I was learning.

And having that, especially at a young age, helps with just carrying the message forward.

Thank you guys again.

I think you guys bringing up climate change is a great topic. It's kind of sad, but oftentimes, not oftentimes, but there are adults out there who don't believe in climate change, but happen to be the same people that complain that, you know, their summers are getting warmer and their winters are getting colder, but apparently they can't put two or two together.

And so, yeah, I think there's also a landscaping learning, which is a like a landscaping youth employment option, which will help further educate youth about the environment and other opportunities there. So yeah, thank you.

Good evening, chair, vice chair and commission. My name is Joanna and I go to Intercom High School as a 10th grader. I live in district three and I'm part of the team, the recyclers.

Good evening, chair, vice chair and commission. My name is Rayleigh and I Harris. I'm a junior and I attend the accelerated Academy and district six.

Good evening, chair, vice chair and commission. My name is Camille Dixon. I'm a sophomore at Covis Center High School in our Resilient District three.

Good evening, chair, vice chair and commission. My name is Riley Johnson. I am a sophomore at CK McClatchy High School in district seven.

Good evening, chair, vice chair, commission. My name is Jbysad. I was a ninth grade at Westlake Charter High School and I resided district ward.

Good evening, chair, vice chair and commission. My name is Pertesh Mida. I go to Lila Green Academy and I'm currently a freshman. I reside in district three and I'm part of the team, the recyclers.

Our topic is recycling pollution in Sacramento and we'll be discussing possible solutions and we'll be going over the topic about recycling pollution in Sacramento.

So what exactly is recycling pollution? Recycling pollution is the contamination of the environment caused by recyclable items. If items are contaminated or if the wrong type of items are recycled, recyclable items can join trash into overfilling landfills and polluting the land, air and water.

We see this through the air pollution caused by burning materials such as plastic and water pollution caused by the plastic bottles in the ocean. These are just some examples of a large everyday problem caused by the lack of recycling as an increase of items that could have been recycled and polluting the environment.

Some of our concerns regarding recycling pollution are that only 20 to 40% of recyclable materials are actually recycled while the majority of them end up in landfills. Many recycling facilities are currently not equipped to handle the intake they receive.

Excuse me, and a large issue is that a lot of their machinery cannot sort out small plastics or plastics that are not meant to be recycled.

Another part of this is that a lot of people don't know what can and cannot be recycled. For example, here, there are a lot of different types of plastics, many of which are not recyclable while some are and a lot of people just don't know the difference.

As you can see down in the corner, a lot of the times it's people that are sorting out contaminated materials, so any cans or bottles that still have food residue on them, soiled cardboard and paper. So a lot of the times the issue regarding recycling is that a lot of these things cannot be processed and end up in landfills, which only furthers pollution.

Our overall goal is to push for an overhaul of waste management, especially regarding recycling to mitigate environmental damage, spread awareness, and to just overall have recycling be handled better in our community.

Here are some causes of recycling pollution. Many experiencing homelessness don't have access to recycling bins, leading to recyclable materials being discarded as waste.

Public spaces often lack recycling options making proper disposal difficult. If recyclables aren't separated, they end up in landfills instead of being reused.

Without proper waste management, including recycling options, people both housed and unhoused may not recycle due to inconvenience.

And if a neighborhood lacks recycling services, people are less likely to recycle. Many don't know what items can be recycled or where to take them so they throw everything away.

Also some facilities get overwhelmed with too much material. If recycling centers are full or have limited space and it's too hard to recycle, most people won't do it.

One key policy that prevents recycling pollution is the Breathe, California Food Scraps and Recycling Program. This program was designed to reduce the amount of recyclable trash that ends up in landfills across the city of Sacramento.

Ensuring a future of clean air. Breathe hosts educational sessions that inform youth on how to responsibly recycle and sort waste.

Established in 2016 with the purpose of mitigating climate pollutants, Senate Bill 1383 is an additional preventative measure that is currently in place.

Methane, a common pollutant, is released in the atmosphere of landfills often. In fact, it is a direct result of decomposed organic waste that contributes to overflow in landfills.

We have created a survey of several questions to evaluate the impact of recycling pollution on our community. We collected data from 49 respondents who were mainly used of our age because they were our social media followers.

Some questions were on a scale of 1 to 10, with one being the least and 10 being the greatest. Based on these first two charts on the right, participants responded that the recycling problem in their neighborhoods were not very severe, but it was still inherent.

In the bottom graph, 44.9% people answered yes and having concern for the lack of recycling in our city. Data of the other questions are summarized on the left.

75.4% of respondents often recycle a 6 to 10 on the scale of 1 to 10.

52.2% say accessibility to recycling centers is moderate, responding between a 5 and 7, while 70.5% of the people say recycling cans are very accessible with a score of 8 to 10.

98% are aware of the environmental problems from lack of recycling, and 93.9% say the city should take action on improving recycling.

In summary, use of our age agreed that there is a slight problem with recycling pollution, which is not largely caused by accessibility to recycling cans and centers.

However, the majority of our participants say that the city should take action to improve recycling in light of the environmental problems caused by the lack of recycling.

Recycling may be reported based on collections rather than successful material reuse. Surveys only provide a snapshot making it harder to assess progress.

There might be inaccuracies in the surveys, results, like for example, dishonest answers. Surveys only cover a small percent of the city population.

These are some of the solutions that we come up as a group.

We spread them into three different categories to make them easier to understand, and I'll be saying one of the solutions for each category because of the lack of time.

To begin with, the first one, reopen or replace recycling centers, increasing access or possibly upgrading infrastructure.

CBS 13 reported that in just one year, recycling centers closed in Sacramento, 10 recycling centers closed in Sacramento, part of the loss of the 1,340 recycling centers, which closed in California between 2013 and 2019, according to Sacramento B.

This shows us that people are willing to recycle when given incentives, but the lack of recycling centers nearby will make it harder and discourage people to recycle.

Another resident, which I found during my research, stated that when he recycled, there was long lines of bundit, which shows us that we need more recycling centers present in the Sacramento area and areas where there's a lot of people.

So more local recycling centers would make it easier to recycle. Residents would be more encouraged to recycle, also helping to reduce pollution and land for waste.

For the second awareness, enhancing, working with community organizations and committees to share in partnerships to promote recycling.

This is one of the other solutions that we thought would be good to discuss.

Another major issue is improper recycling. In 2019, a study found items like greasy pizza boxes, used mayonnaise jar, and a bottle of barbecue sauce discovered in a recycling bin.

These items cannot be recycled. Aaron Chedville from the Sacramento waste and recycling explained that these end up straight in the dump, which increase pollution and affect climate change.

On the second one, strengthening enforcement. We also need to enforce recycling laws for businesses. State law AB 939 requires business to recycle at least 50% of their waste, but only 15 to 20% were recorded to do.

The Sacramento Business Recycling Ordinance book, which I got this information from, even says we need more recycling from the business community. We can address this by raising fines and encouraging people to report businesses that don't recycle, and doing regular checkups, which I've listed above.

Sacramento's current state in regards to the harmful effects of pollution and recyclable items is often overlooked. It is crucial that we advocate for the reform of the existing waste management system.

The contaminated recyclable items pollute our city, introduce health risks, and overfill our landfills. The disastrous effects of polluted recyclables ultimately create an unsafe environment for those who are exposed to it.

We highly encourage you all to use the information provided to you to educate others on this issue as we foster Sacramento into the greatest version of cleanliness and sustainability. Thank you for listening.

Great job on your presentation. Are there any members of the commission who would just speak on this item? Vice Chair Longmar.

Hi, thank you so much for your presentation. I would like to bring up the summary of the recycling pollution survey, where it says 70.5% say recycling cans are very accessible. So going back to the questions, I don't see a question like a frankest, but you should probably ask what's stopping like sacramentans from actually recycling.

I feel like that's important to know and it could be like an open question where it's not like you don't click a number. And I'd also like to go to the data research limitations and probably like doing greater outreach.

And also like the importance of boots on the ground when like working on projects such as like recycling. It's like the city can only do so much like they can provide the resources for us. But as a community, we also have to take the initiative to actually though recycle the proper way.

And yeah, thank you.

Commissioner Bernardo.

Thank you for your presentation. I think it really shows and demonstrates how important on this topic is because it affects our communities and environments.

I think a suggestion that I have is also encouraging like youth to avoid like harmful materials like plastics and instead like to utilize reusable or sustainable alternatives like washable water bottles and yeah just reusable containers and a question I had was what age do you think

education on recycling should be like introduced to

I believe it's appropriate to educate all ages on the importance of recycling because we really want to emphasize that due to some communities might have a lack of knowledge in that area. So all ages.

Commissioner Beloso.

Sorry, excuse me, you go ahead. I would also say in the sense of education, not even just like, you know, proper things in schools but something as simple as like those trash cans that have the little placards above each bin of like what goes in each bin.

waste management much more accessible.

Commissioner Beloso.

Thank you guys for your presentation. I was impressed with all of the groups that spoke today. And I was very impressed with the amount of solutions that you guys were really thinking through and presenting.

I think that the like the importance placed on like being able or the need to educate people on the do's and don'ts of recycling, even in like the form of just like those placards.

I think there's like, I personally cannot remember off the top of my head the things you need to recycle and things you don't. So those things I find very useful and I agree with what you just said.

I would also say that you pointed out the limitation in your survey about the fact that it's like a small sample and like you the information not necessarily will apply to all of Sacramento but I think it does like bring up a good point that a good percentage of people in like there's a good chance that a lot of youth really care about this issue.

I think adults are or I think I think youth are more likely to see how it's something that affects them and how they have to kind of live with it throughout their lives, especially like climate changes.

Something that I think youth are more worried about in general because we're going to live into that time period, I guess. So, yeah, I think it sounds like people would really be interested in getting involved in like making recycling.

Making recycling facilities and all of these things more available.

And I appreciate all of the like all the focus and research put into this presentation, especially in such a short time. I was very impressed. Thank you so much for presenting.

Commissioner Merrill.

Yeah, just to reiterate what said, I grew with everything. And then also like your team size like it's impressive how you guys broke it up and we're able to like bigger the team and harder the presentation.

So congrats on breaking it up and I think you did a great job dividing the work, but also like assisting each other and stuff like that.

Also the one point you made or you guys made about like if they don't know how to sort, they're not going to do it. And I think that's the big thing or they're just going to like throw away anything and like everywhere and that's like creates a bigger problem.

So like even as simple as putting a black card kind of gives them a hint of like where to put it and give even if they don't want to like spend an hour like looking up or researching or learning about that.

The little black card 30 seconds look, they can do it and it gives them it doesn't make it hard and makes it easy. Yeah, thank you.

Commissioner Daly on.

Thank you for your presentation.

I was just sort of wondering is like the problems with the recycling plant and not having enough capacity. Is that due to like too many materials that are not recyclables being put into them? Or is it more due to them just not having enough capacity to recycle all the recyclables put in?

A large issue that we found is that part of the sorting is done by people. So there's also a lot of safety hazards that come into play when people throw away like broken glass and things like that.

And then when it comes to the machine side of the sorting, the machines are not able to sort out really small pieces of plastic. And also if it flags anything that's contaminated, it's going to toss the entire batch.

So like something as simple as like a small bottle cap isn't going to get recycled unless it's on the bottle because the machine just cannot sort something that small.

So a lot of the issues that the facilities are running into is that their machinery just is not equipped to handle like realistic amounts of recycling and what's being recycled and how people recycle it.

And then on the human side of it, it's just that like staffing is hard and it makes people's jobs really hard. And you know, when it comes to sorting that kind of stuff, they run into a lot of issues that kind of force them to just throw things away instead of recycling it and processing it properly and giving it to someone to actually reuse the materials.

I think you guys did an excellent job on your presentation. Your message was extremely well crafted. And it's nice to see you so excited about creating the change as far as recycling goes. Oftentimes like there are machinery problems that are barriers and it may seem like, you know, just had a huge barrier but with the right amount of youth, the right amount of support and passion, it can definitely be solved.

I do think that, you know, if looking back in 2019, if we could get you so excited about saving the turtles and using metal water bottles, metal straws, I think we could do the exact same thing as far as recycling goes.

So I do, I'm a strong believer that if we do want to promote a culture, if we want to promote a habit, we can't expect the community to come running to us, but we do have to put resources out in the community to make sure that changes being made.

So yeah, great job.

Clark, are there any members of the public who should speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair. There are no speakers for this item.

Great. Before we move on, I just want to take a minute and send a really heartfelt thank you out to everyone that participated in today.

You students are magnificent. And just to break it down from a data perspective, because there was a lot of data shared today, they were with us for five weeks, two hours a day for two days a week. That comes out to 20 hours.

That's less than one day together that they all had to come together, decide on a project, create chemistry, research, and put together a full-fledged presentation.

So if we could just give everybody a round of applause one more time, because you all did a fantastic job.

They also couldn't have done that without some amazing staff, so I do want to send a huge shout out and thank you to Tino, who's in the back bound, Tino Gomez. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I hope you can just, like, walk it out with them.

Day in and day out.

Help them create that chemistry.

It's hard to do.

Thank you for putting the time in.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you to parents, families and guardians and anyone else out here to support.

We can't do it without you and just as Chair Rio said, nothing about us without us.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

And I would like to extend the invitation out to all youth and, you know, all parents

who are here today to feel free to attend any of our meetings.

There are all like all the dates are posted online.

We'd love to have you here.

There are seats open too.

There are seats open too.

So even if they're not opening exactly in your district, we do have mayoral seats which

are open to youth of any district.

You either have to reside in the city or go to school in city limits.

And just, yeah, going off of what she said, excellent crafted messages, excellent speaking.

And yeah, thank you so much for being here today.

We'd love to have youth in city chamber, in council chambers.

So this item is received and discussed so no vote is required.

We will now move on to the next item.

And the next item is member comments, ideas, questions, and meeting conference report.

So before I do that, I would like to have our newest commissioner, Commissioner Avila

introduce himself.

I know we have a little bit of more of an audience here today.

So don't be too afraid.

But yeah, we really appreciate having new commissioners and we're excited to have you.

So if you want to just share a little bit about yourself, you have hobbies or anything.

Thank you, Che Rios.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Santiago Avila.

I go to CK Macalachee High School.

Obviously I reside in District 7.

I just want to say I'm really excited to be here.

I really enjoyed everybody's presentations.

I just found them very informative and very well put together.

Thank you.

And we're really excited to have you here.

Thank you.

So now as far as members, comments, ideas, and questions go for our new commissioner,

Commissioner Avila, this is just a time to share any ideas you have as far as like if

you'd like to add anything to the agenda next time or propose anything.

But also just for the commissioners to kind of give us an update about what's going on,

what work have they been doing to their districts.

And if not anything, as far as that, just how you're doing, we really care about you

and everything that you do for our committee.

So I think we'll start kind of call a roll through there.

Member Avila.

Do you really want to start over here?

We could go backwards.

Member Young is absent.

Still?

Yes.

Member Turk and Sister is absent.

So Member Merrill.

Yeah.

Well, thanks again for, I'm just going to say thank you for being here and thank you

guys for coming and making the time like to come each week and be present and create these

presentations that were really enjoyable to learn about and then also just hear about.

In terms of what I'm doing, there's stuff that I don't want to keep everybody's along.

The only thing we amaze originals Saturday, or Saturday, and one of the presenters is

going.

So good luck, Julian.

I had my stuff.

Other than that, we're preparing for Green Week, for Green Team, creating videos.

There's other stuff, but yeah, thank you again, guys.

Yeah, bye.

Thank you.

Member Lu.

Yeah, reiterating what Commissioner Merrill said.

Great job, everyone.

You guys all put just really strong presentations together and delivered your points really

well in a short amount of time.

It just hit me again just how short those 20 hours are.

And so, again, I just want to commend you all for your efforts here.

As for stuff regarding me, this is kind of actually on the topic of a lot of the presentations

on climate change.

Our school is doing a thing on Earth Day, and so there's going to be some live music

performed by our student ensembles, and I'm going to be a part of that as well.

And just bring the awareness, spreading some love in that.

In my district, there were a couple of firsts that we did.

One was an X Street Good Neighbor meeting, so it was just kind of a new thing that they're

doing where it's like a quarterly update panel, just so the community can be more informed

on what's actually happening down at the City of Sacramento.

And then we also had in the end of March a Fit and Fun Wellness event, which was a partnership

with Alex Garcia Fitness.

So just another little event that the district put together to expand fitness and just wellness.

And then for me specifically, I'll keep it pretty short.

I'm closing up my senior year at Christian Brevers High School, and so I'm just excited

to go to college and just close the year out.

Commissioner Lin.

Thank you guys all so much for your amazing presentations.

I was very much informed throughout this entire meeting, and as for my district, I will be

meeting with my District 4 City Council member for a coffee meeting, and I've just been working

on my senior project recently, which is building little free libraries in low-income areas in

Sacramento.

So if you guys can donate any money or something, please let me know because we are looking

for funding, and we're just two youth that are working on this project alone.

And recently it's been really hectic because I've been opening college decisions, and I'm

excited to verbally announce that I'm committing to UC Davis for neurobiology, and that's it

for me.

Thank you, Commissioner DeLune.

Thank you all for your presentations.

It was really fun to see all your hard work play off tonight.

Not a lot happening for me.

Last weekend, me and Commissioner Turk volunteered at a tree planting in Tahoe Park in our district.

I went to prom last weekend, and not much else.

Member Chan.

Hi, thank you so much for your guys' presentations tonight.

It was really informative, and I loved seeing all your guys' hard work put together and shared.

Not much going on with me, except that I have a math exam tomorrow, and I'm not very happy

about that.

So I've got to get home and study for that.

But again, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Member Bernardo.

Thank you all for presenting.

All your presentations were, again, very informative, well put together, and I can tell that you're

very passionate about what you presented on.

There's not much going on for me either, but we do have prom coming up in a few weeks,

so we are preparing for that.

Member Balissa.

So I want to reiterate and also close out.

I'm the last person.

I would like to thank you all for presenting.

That was very impressive.

I've said that a few times, and thank you all for being here today.

Recently, I've been working with my focus area on the commission to distribute a mental

health guide created by the Youth Commission, and obviously, finals season is kind of upon

all of us, so I'm wishing everybody luck on all of their tests and all of their college

decisions as those are coming in.

Yeah, so thank you all for being here today.

Thank you.

Member Avila.

Again, thank you for your presentations.

I found them very well put together, and I'm very impressed with the quality considering

what I was informed was not so much time for me personally.

I've been working quite a lot, especially with this new administration with NorCal Resist.

It's a nonprofit specifically aimed at struggles that Latinos and other people of color are

going to be facing, so I really encourage anybody to go out and get involved with them.

Recently, they did an event here, or closed down on Front Street, just a cultural event.

All profits were aimed to fund immigration lawyers for those who were unjustly deported

without due process, so I just really recommend anybody who is interested to go out and get

involved personally.

I'm just pretty busy, school and baseball, but other than that, that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Longmire.

There's it.

Well, this week, oh wait, first I'd like to say I got, oh my gosh, sorry, I'm stuttering.

We had elections recently for student government, and I won Senior Class President, so I'll be

my class's president for four years in a row, which I'm really happy about because

it's closing off four years of high school with them.

I'm also nervous because I applied for this program at Princeton, and I'm just waiting

for it to, if I get it, I'm really nervous.

Honestly, I didn't get it, but we'll see.

This week at our open house on Thursday, I will be presenting with this group about mental

health, just the importance of it.

We've been working for a couple of months, so I'm excited about that.

I'm also excited about the program on Saturday, which I'm also excited about.

I think that's it.

Thank you.

Chair Rios.

I've just been busy with school.

I have a lot of AP classes right now, so I've just been trying to get through the homework

into a moment classes too, like applying for my summer classes and everything.

But with my council member, we are planning jump into spring.

It's like an introduction to spring event with different activities for younger youth.

I'll be volunteering at that with Commissioner Bernardo, and that's on April 26th.

If anybody's interested in either volunteering or attending, please go.

Then let's see, for this summer, I'm applying to different jobs and internships around Sacramento.

I have different internships at law firms and other jobs to make some money for college

on the side.

I have a couple offers, so I'll see which ones I feel like doing.

Then there's also this conference I might attend in Pennsylvania over the summer.

I'm thinking about that one too, see if my schedule can fit in everything.

Other than that, just been busy with school, like I said, and excited to bring all of your ideas

to my council member.

I have been talking to her about incorporating, this is a bit more fiscal, but incorporating

almost like a tax.

I guess you could say refund for local businesses or law firms or STEM organizations to be given

this certain tax refund if youth are employed over the summer and stuff like that, to give

them that incentive, but also to give youth experience in person as well.

Also, let's see, in the Berkeley school district and Oakland school district, they allowed

students 16 and 17 to vote in school board elections.

That would be really nice to see brought here to Sacramento and even expanded.

I'm really excited about working with that and working with our new commissioner here

in our focus areas to bring change to the Sacramento community, especially for youth.

We'd love to have your help once again, either attend our meetings or doing events with us

or even joining the commission, which we really love.

That'll be it for me today.

The last item is public comments, matters not on the agenda.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

There are no speakers for this item.

It's great.

This concludes today's agenda.

Thank you, everyone, for your participation.

This meeting is adjourned.