Good evening. Welcome to the February 2nd, 2025 Sacramento Youth Commission business meeting.

The meeting is now called to order. Will the clerk please call roll to establish a quorum?

Thank you, Chair. Members, please unmute your microphones.

Commissioner Sista?

Present.

Commissioner Khatri Chetri?

Present.

Commissioner Caraveo?

Present.

Commissioner Roland?

It's in absence.

Commissioner Bernardo?

Present.

Commissioner Perez-Magonoy?

Present.

Commissioner Corliss?

Present.

Commissioner Chan?

Present.

Commissioner De Leon?

Present.

Commissioner Turk is absent. Commissioner Avila? Present. Commissioner Wong? Present. Commissioner Longmire? Present. Commissioner Ruprai is absent. Commissioner Gounder? Present. Commissioner Sahota? Present. Chair Rios? Present. Thank you. We have quorum.

I would like to remind members of the public and 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 rise for the opening 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

Putwin-Wintun peoples and the people of the Wilton Rancheria Sacramento's only federally

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 acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples

history, contribution, and lives. Thank you. Please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

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

So moving on, our first business today is the approval of the consent calendar that includes

last month's meeting minutes as well as the follow-up log. Clerk, are there any members of

public who is to speak on this consent on the consent calendar thank you chair I

have no speaker slips for this item are there any commissioners who are to speak

okay so do I have a motion and a second for the consent calendar I motion okay

I have a motion by Commissioner Avila and a second by Commissioner Garabello

will the clerk please call roll for the vote and so for this one we'll just do a

a voice vote.

Would you like to call that?

Okay, sure.

So all in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say nay.

Okay, so looks like the motion passes.

Thank you, Chair.

Yep, I saw no nays

and no abstentions either.

Perfect.

We will now proceed to the discussion calendar.

Item number three is the racial

equity tool update.

AMISE ENZELAY- All right. Good evening. Sacramento Youth Commission. Happy New Year

to you all. I know it's February, but I still am saying Happy New Year. My name is Amise

My name is Zenzelay Barnes, pronouns are she and they, and I serve as the diversity and

equity manager.

Our office of diversity and equity is in the human resources department, and then I will

have my colleague introduce themselves.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Larissa Wall.

I'm the strategic workforce equity analyst, and it's good to see many of you again in

some new faces.

So our presentation is going to be very brief, but we definitely want to engage in conversation

and questions if you have it.

This is hopefully an arc of our journey together in helping you all co-create and develop a

racial equity lens and tool so that it can empower you in your decision making.

So before I ground us in some foundational concepts to remind, because it's really important

to be reminded in the equity strategy and concepts that we are engaging in and that

the racial equity tool is centered on, I really do want to start off with gratitude and thanking

folks.

I want to thank you all for your engagement and your leadership and your energy in this

process.

We've been engaging with you all for quite some time, and so it's been great.

We have learned so much from you all, and also previous commissioners as well.

I also want to thank the staff, Dominique Herndon and Chris Wimberly, and the previous

Sarah Muser for their consultation, their vision, and the capacity building efforts

that they've been engaging in with this process and along the journey.

I also want to thank the city attorney's office, Harveen Gill, for your consultation as well.

It's been supportive.

And I say that to say that this work involves collective effort and multiple offices in order to move this work forward.

So what we mean by racial equity is really important to create shared understanding.

And we've shared this with many of you before.

but for those of you who are new, racial equity means that we center race, but it's not exclusive.

We want to understand the historical legacy and impact that race has had in our institutions

and in our systems and in our government structures,

but we also want to understand that we want to improve success for all people.

And so we center race because we understand the historical legacy behind it.

And it's about closing gaps, but it's also about improving outcomes for everyone.

And so to do so, we have to do two things.

We have to target strategies that close gaps, that work for the needs of people and understanding data, how our careholders and community work and what they need.

So we develop strategies around that.

And so we really do hope that the equity tool helps you do that in innovative ways through your own lived experiences.

as well as we want to move beyond services and, of course, talk, right?

We want to put this into action.

We want to put it into changing policies.

We want to have formidable recommendations.

We want to influence practices, and we want to influence procedures.

Part of our mission of our office is to really look at how it's systemic change.

We want to look at individual behavior, but we want to look at systemic change.

We want to look at cultural shifts, what we can do for policies and practices that empower people to make those decisions, challenge, question.

That's part of the culture.

But we also want to make sure that there are systems changed.

So our policies are reinforcing individual behavior, and individual behavior is also informing policies and procedures.

And then what is a racial equity tool?

So imagine you're designing a program.

You want it to be fair, inclusive, and effective.

But here's the question.

Who benefits most?

Also, who might be left out?

Who might be left behind?

This is where a racial equity tool comes in.

A racial equity tool is both a process and an outcome.

It is not just a checklist, but it's a structured way of thinking, an approach that helps you integrate equity into the policies, your decision-making, presentations, whatever you're deciding on, whatever you're thinking about right from the very beginning.

So think of it as a lens.

It's the lens in which you view things.

And so this lens doesn't just look at race and isolation, even though we call it a racial equity tool, but it also looks through it as an intersectional lens.

So you're looking through a prism.

You're looking at race.

You're looking at income.

You're looking at age.

You're looking at ability.

You're looking at geographic.

you're looking at all of these different identities because all of these different identities and

circumstances can compound how people may be excluded or not accessing a service in that

particular program, right? So you're also looking at language, right? So all of these things and

knowing what is happening on the national scale, we're looking at and being very precise about how

we meet the needs of all people. And this can be complex, and the equity must reflect that

complexity. So it gives you a kind of, I don't want to say checklist, because I don't like to

say checklist, and I don't want us to be performative, but it does help you have a way and a method

of how you look at decisions, how you consider presentations, how you think about, so you can

ask the right questions so you can get insights and so you can also be a creative partner

with community and people who come and present to you all as well.

So who uses the tool?

Anyone that shapes decisions.

Anybody, any agency, government, commissions, boards, council, nonprofits, CBOs,

anybody that is making decisions that impact the lives of people that is who

uses the tool and when should it be used it should be used early and that's why

I really give you all a lot of kudos but also respect and appreciation for you

wanting to look at this and develop your lens early in the process so that you

can influence change and bring in the process equitable strategies. So it's a

reality for all people who live at the intersection of multiple identities.

Think of your own selves, right? You have multiple identities and multiple

identities means that you're going to engage with systems and organizations and

services in different ways. So you bring that lived experience and then coupled

with the lens is just a powerhouse of being able to make sure that what you offer as commissioners,

not only when you listen to presentations, but as you make recommendations, that you

are infusing equity into that strategy.

All right.

So I will transition over to Larissa.

Thank you.

All right.

So we wanted to take just a couple of minutes to talk a little bit about where we've been

And as Ami said, I think we've been doing this work now since October of 2024, I think.

So it's been a little while.

So I also want to highlight that this process has been iterative and collaborative, which

I know many of you have been involved in.

We've facilitated this process to center the work of all of you, right, and relied heavily

on your guidance to include what would be most useful to you.

So as we came and presented the iterations and drafts of the racial equity toolkit, we

wanted to make sure that what was included really reflects how you're thinking about things and what

would be most useful to you. So prior to what we see here in 2025, we worked with staff to implement

some facilitated conversations around foundational concepts that we wanted to make sure you all were

equipped with on the differences between equity and equality, bridging and breaking. Prior to

attending the first meeting in February of 2025

when we did a presentation on what is a racial equity tool

where we really dove more deeply into what Ami just shared

and what do you want to see in this toolkit, right?

We presented that.

And then we came back in August with a draft of the toolkit

with feedback and considerations from our office

and we went in section by section, right?

And we presented that to workshop in real time with you all,

which I think doesn't always happen.

and it was a really unique experience as well,

I think, to do that in real time with all of you

and to get that feedback.

And then since then, we have been working on a more final draft

that we are bringing to you.

And for this draft, which we hope you will approve tonight,

we really took into consideration also the request for a shorter version,

which you can use to guide questions for presentations at meetings.

So we added at the end of the tool, it's the last page in the toolkit,

we added a condensed tool which can be found in the attachment on the staff report.

So this is really intended to be a series of questions that aligned with the racial equity toolkit as a whole.

So there's nothing necessarily new in there.

There might be some different ways of thinking about the questions,

but we recognize that the toolkit in and of itself, there's a lot there, right?

There's a lot of detail, which we hope if and when you do have the time to sit down with that

and think about the work that you're doing, your presentations, that you can grapple with that.

but we also wanted to include, hey, I have more limited time.

What are the things that I can be thinking of right now

as I'm thinking of the questions that I want to ask

or thinking about what's being presented to me?

So we wanted to include that condensed version at the end.

So that's where you can find that.

And again, we intend this to help you organize your thoughts

and questions in real time and really want to, again,

thank the staff for helping us think through that approach

and what that could look like as part of the toolkit

in the best way for this body.

And so our recommendation that we bring to you tonight

is that you approve the use of this toolkit

to guide the work.

We would plan to follow up with you all in six months

or whatever meeting that makes sense to bring it back

from for any additional feedback to refine the toolkit

and we would want to work on a glossary

which I believe that we mentioned previously.

And again, I really want to reiterate

that this is continuing to be iterative, right?

So this final version will probably change eventually, right?

And we'll adapt and grow, but we hope that this version

that we are presenting tonight

will be a good launching off point.

So I think with that, that's the end of our presentation,

and we would love to open it to any questions or thoughts

and then let you all.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

I've always been an extremely huge fan

of the racial equity tool.

It's been an amazing experience to see it grow throughout.

Since we started with the commission,

and partnering it and partnering to make it grow

to this amazing blueprint of how we can move forward

as a society in a way that we address intersectionality

and tune our lenses to ensure that everyone has

an equal and fair chance.

So I'll move on to Commissioner Caraveo.

I just wanted to really thank you both

for all the work that you've put into this.

I'm really looking forward to this equity toolkit,

not just for our current board, but for future boards.

I feel like it really prepares us to look at projects and presentations that come our way through an ecological perspective, right?

Thinking about how different identities interact with each other, their relationships, the quality of these relationships, the resources that come or don't come with them.

So I'm really looking forward to putting this into practice and kind of embedding it into the way we make decisions as a board.

So thank you to you both.

Commissioner Zoda.

Hi, my name is Marit Zoda.

I'm one of the newer commissioners on this board and I got a chance to look at the racial equity tool.

I just want to say it's evident how much work that went into it.

There's a lot of thought in all the questions and even the condensed tool has a lot of the foundational aspects that are covered throughout all the different steps.

So I just wanted to say I appreciate everything that you guys have done.

And also Sacramento is known for its diversity.

It's kind of known as a melting pot and a mixing area of people from all different kinds

of backgrounds, all different kind of intersectional identities.

And so it's amazing that the Youth Commission has also taken it upon themselves to kind

of look into this, support this project, and give their own feedback as well because, you

know, youth are the face of the future.

And so I think that's wonderful.

I do agree that this is a wonderful kind of starting point of the end, kind of like a

start of where you can publish things.

And I do appreciate that you guys are still open to actually adding more, constantly improving

because, you know, as time goes on, the things in our city, in our town will change, especially

looking at current events.

It's kind of evident that things are already rapidly changing.

And so overall, I think it's amazing that this is something that the commission and

you guys have kind of taken the time to look into, put all the work into, and I'm excited

to see how this project evolves in the future as well.

I just wanted to add to that this is something that I've even brought up with some of my

school administrators to just widen the aspect of who can benefit from this tool.

It's great that this is definitely something I would bring before the school board as well

because to even expand it because of how much it changes how we look at things.

We all have bias into our lenses whether we like it or not.

So really taking time to acknowledge that,

but also have the willingness to improve upon that

is extremely powerful,

especially when you're in places like education,

which change our future.

So once again, thank you for the presentation.

It's always great to have you guys.

Okay, so now we'll do...

We need...

Okay, this item is going to require a vote,

so we'll need a motion and second to approve.

Are there any commissioners who wish to make a motion?

I motion.

I have a motion by Commissioner Sohota.

I second.

Second by Commissioner De Leon.

And then now we'll do another voice vote.

So will everyone unmute their mics please?

Okay, and then.

You'll call.

Okay, so all in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say nay.

Okay, so it looks like the motion passes.

Yes, and I'll note no abstentions to the item as well.

Okay, cool.

Yeah.

Congratulations.

You now have a new topic.

And for the record, there's no public comment on the item.

Okay.

Excellent, and I really do hope, you know,

we do intend on following up the staff.

We really do want to know how it works for you all.

We want to expand this to other boards and commissions as well,

the process, the capacity building aspect,

But we really do hope it helps you build your cohesiveness as a commission as well and centering

not only on the decisions that are before you but how you go about doing that so that

it clarifies and really matches the vision and the values and your own work plan as a

commission as well.

Because we know each commission has a work plan.

So we really do hope that you can see your goals in that.

And if there's any consultation or anything that you all need, feel free to reach out.

But thank you all.

Item number four is the Front Street Animal Shelter Overview.

Is there a staff presentation for this?

Well, hi, everyone.

Thank you for having me.

My name is Ryan.

communications and customer service manager for the Front Street Animal

Shelter. I've been there for going on 11 years now so I actually was planning on

becoming a high school teacher. I graduated college and I was out of the

I was waiting for my credential program to start I started volunteering at

another shelter and then you know just kind of kind of fell in love with that

that work. So I took what I thought was going to be just kind of a short-term job that was sort of

just a passion and a dream and it ended up somehow becoming a career. So it's cool when that happens.

And so yeah, I'm going to talk to you, just kind of give you a general overview of the shelter,

what we do, some of the different careers that kind of make up our shelter staff and kind of

how we do what we do.

So our mission statement is to protect, preserve,

and enhance the quality of life for both animals and people

by strengthening the human-animal bond.

You know, there's a lot of human issues

that intertwine with animal issues that we see.

And so, you know, we've kind of gone from,

at least in my time, being really focused on,

like, just animals and, you know,

lifesaving and animal welfare to then kind of getting into,

We know how can we support the owners and the people out there to reduce the number of animals coming in and help more animals get out.

So within the city, we are in the community development department.

We actually used to be with public safety, I believe.

So a lot of animal shelters are kind of in the police sphere, but we got moved over to community development, which I think is pretty appropriate for our current mission.

We have 63 budgeted full-time positions.

Our budget is $8.7 million, and we're expected to bring in close to $1 million in revenue.

So we are definitely an expensive department.

Animals don't, if you have pets, you know they don't pay for themselves, right?

So it's expensive work, but we do our best with it.

Here's some of our staff there.

um so a kind of overview of what we do as a shelter we're responsible for assisting lost

abused neglected animals in the city of sacramento so we're not only a shelter like an spca uh that

you might see but we're also animal control um our annual intake um is in uh 2025 was exceeded

10,000 animals, so that's the highest number since before the pandemic. There's approximately

a quarter million owned pets in the city limits, and animal issues are the second most common

issue that people call 311 about. And so our goals are public safety, as well as life-saving,

as well as community outreach.

So some of our main kind of teams at the shelter,

one is the veterinary team.

So this team is responsible for the health of the animals at the shelter.

At any given time, we have, you know, two to three hundred animals at the shelter.

And then we also have, you know, potentially up to over a thousand animals in foster homes.

So that's where someone takes an animal into their home

and gives them a home temporarily.

Typically, we get really busy there in the summer

because that's when all the, spring and summer,

because that's when all the kittens start coming into the world.

And so a lot of those come in.

Maybe they don't have a mom or they need some support,

so we put them in foster homes while they get older.

So our veterinary team is also kind of handling all those animals.

So it's a really busy, busy job.

And then we do all sorts of specialty surgeries.

We do leg amputations.

We'll do cancer removals.

We'll do eye issues.

There's just so many things an animal can come in with.

So we do a lot of fundraising as well

to help cover those costs.

Our kennel technicians.

So these are the ones who are really doing

kind of the basic care, the cleaning and the feeding,

vaccinating, and then they're also the ones

who are helping kind of match animals

with their future home.

So if you come into the shelter

and you want to adopt an animal,

it's going to be one of our kennel technicians

that helps make sure that that animal's a good fit

for your home and your lifestyle

and any other pets you might have.

They do evaluations on behavior,

they do euthanasias when necessary,

and then they support other areas of the shelter as well.

Customer service, so this is the team that I oversee.

So this team does the kind of paperwork side of adoptions,

legally transferring ownership to the new home.

They also are really involved with trying to help lost pets

get back to their homes.

So if you guys have pets, hopefully they have microchips.

So they do a lot of work tracking down owners of microchips,

especially if phone numbers aren't updated.

They'll use skip tracing technology and social media

stocking or whatever whatever methods they can use to try to find the owner of

that pet and get as many back to their original homes as possible and they're

also the main point for public communication so we get they get about

10,000 requests for information or service through 311 each year our

volunteer team so you know even with 63 full-time staff we could not do what we

do without volunteers so we have about a thousand volunteers that are considered

active and they put in close to a hundred thousand hours of time every

single year so that's not only in shelter doing laundry and cleaning

kennels but it's also those foster volunteers we're putting in all that

time you know bottle feeding kittens at 3 in the morning so and that's just

what's logged it's actually probably quite a bit higher than that and then

Then we have our animal services coordinators.

So these staff members kind of oversee various programs

like the foster program.

There's kind of a before and after of a kitten

who came in in really bad shape and got adopted

and was doing great.

And then we also have programs

for offsite adoption coordination.

So taking animals out to Petco, PetSmart,

and community events to help them get adopted there.

Like I said, we are also animal control.

So this team is called field services.

So they are 24-7, 365 days a year,

responding to all kinds of animal issues.

They're pretty busy with priority calls.

So those are things like, you know,

sick or injured animals that are loose,

but they also, you know, investigate bites,

if there's a bite in the city.

One of the main functions,

one of the original functions of animal control

has been rabies control.

We really only see rabies in a few species,

especially bats in our area.

So if you see a bat, please don't pick it up

with your bare hands.

It wouldn't be the first time.

But rabies control is really how animal control

kind of got started.

And luckily, it's very rare to see it in dogs or cats,

thanks to the work that these guys do.

And they also respond to potential cruelty

or welfare issues.

If someone's not taking good care of their pet,

they'll go out and investigate that.

If there's a pet that gets locked in a hot car, they will go out for those calls and sometimes break them out.

They will respond to illegal wildlife.

I got to go on a call.

I think someone got evicted or there was some reason the police were in the home.

But anyway, they had a monkey.

And so we went in and took the monkey and I forget.

I think we sent it to a rescue or something.

But yeah, there are all sorts of really interesting animals.

We brought in a horse last week.

which actually we're not really set up for horses

because we almost never get them in the city.

And so we have like a, it's not a barn.

It's a good, yeah, it's just kind of a yard.

But anyway, the horse was like pretty skilled at escaping

and it got out of the yard

and it was just wandering loose in the shelter

and eating out of the dumpster.

So yeah, never a dull day for field services, that's for sure.

And then again, we focus a lot on the community.

So we provide, we have free or low-cost spay and neuter programs.

Those are funded by a number of different sources, but the main one being licenses.

So if you own a pet in the city, it's kind of like owning a car in the state.

You know, we're sort of like the DMV in that sense, except I think we're quite a bit more, well, never mind.

But I think we're more fun than the DMV, let's put it that way.

But yeah, so license fees, you pay a license fee like you would a registration fee for your car,

and part of that fee goes to spay and neuter if your pet is not already fixed.

We have a pet food pantry, so this happens once a week.

This is handing out food to folks who can't feed their pets,

and this is, again, part of an effort to not only support the community

but prevent animals from coming into our shelter when people can't take care of them.

We do a monthly microchip and vaccine clinic.

So in 2025, I think we served at least 2,000 or 3,000.

I have to look at the stats.

But people and their animals giving free vaccines to prevent against things like parvo.

It's a really devastating illness that puppies get.

It can live on the ground for years.

And so we get a lot of those cases coming into us.

and so we're trying to prevent them from coming into us

and prevent those animals from being at risk.

So we do the vaccines, then we do microchips.

If you don't know, microchip is like a,

it's about the size of a grain of rice

and it's put under the skin,

usually between the shoulder blades,

and it's permanent.

And we use a scanner and we can get a number from that scan

and reunite them with the owner.

So we have a really, when animals are microchipped,

it's so, so much easier to get them back home.

We even had animals that have gone missing and have come into our shelter years later.

Maybe the dog went missing, got picked up by someone else.

That person didn't know that the dog had a microchip, which is why it's important for them to also have a tag,

because your neighbor doesn't have a microchip scanner.

But someone may have taken that dog for a while, and then it got lost again, and it came to us.

We've had people find their dogs or cats three years or more after they've gone missing, because they've had that chip.

And it also protects them from theft as well,

if you need to prove that an animal is yours.

So, and then we also have a program with our nonprofit

that helps provide veterinary care for folks

who can't afford it if it's like an emergency case.

Again, that prevents surrender to the shelter

and also helps people out.

Veterinary care is incredibly expensive right now,

as you might know if you have pets.

So, and then we also have our homeless outreach

and assistance programs.

That's a small team that's dedicated to helping

unhoused owners and their pets to thrive.

So it's providing food, it's providing preventative care,

you know, flea and tick medication and vaccines

and, you know, medical care and help with getting pets

into shelters and into housing,

making sure they have their vaccines

and spay neuter and everything they might need.

Sheltzer statistics, we have this on our website.

I won't get into too much detail here,

but this kind of shows our annual intake

was 10,181 animals, and then it goes over,

the breakdown between how many of those were stray animals,

which is the most confiscation would be

if an officer were to take an animal

due to either inappropriate conditions

or if the owner was arrested or went to the hospital.

So if you're ever curious to dig into our statistics,

those are on the website.

We're very active on social media.

I was gonna put a Facebook post here,

but I realized that's probably more my generation.

So put the Instagram post here.

This is our top post from last year.

So this had 24,000 likes.

So this was basically our staff stayed overnight

and slept in the kennels with the dogs for Thanksgiving,

so they didn't have to spend Thanksgiving alone

and then we also made all the dogs

like a little Thanksgiving dinner.

So that was a good time.

And these are our links for our pages.

And that is pretty much the overview of what we do.

I'm happy to take any questions

for anything I didn't cover.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

I'll start off.

Do we have any speaker slips for this item?

Thank you chair we do not.

Okay.

Commissioners we'll start off with Commissioner Soto.

Hi.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

It was wonderful hearing about the Front Street shelter because I'm no stranger to it.

I've had friends who have collaborated with it for senior projects.

I myself have donated to the Front Street shelter in the past and so it's something that's very near and dear to my heart.

I love animals particularly I love the animals in our community because it really helps build a bond between people that would otherwise be strangers.

I do have a question though. I know you mentioned how one of your guys' teams kind of deals with just miscellaneous animal calls, horses and monkeys and other animals.

But are you guys also in charge of dealing with things like roadkill and finding stray animals in like other kind of situations? Or is that a different department?

Yeah, we do like the dead animal pickups, for example. And then wildlife, we will assist if it is like sick or injured wildlife.

but otherwise it would be like the wildlife department,

which isn't in the city.

But yeah, we're not super.

So normally if we do find sick or injured wildlife,

we'll take it to some of the local wildlife rescues

because we're not knowledgeable about raising raccoons.

I see.

Yeah, I love that it's a collaborative effort.

Thank you so much for taking your time out to come talk to us.

Thank you.

Commissioner Sisto.

Hi.

First of all, I want to say thank you so much for this presentation.

I love the work that you guys do, and I'm also not so new to Front Street as I have volunteered in the past during my sophomore year, I believe.

And so I was wondering, would you be able to share maybe some more insight on what a day volunteering would look like at Front Street for youth who may be interested?

Yeah, that's a great question.

So the great thing about volunteering is you can really kind of choose, like, what, you know, what your interest is.

Usually when you sign up to volunteer, you'll kind of start with, like, basic, like, shelter 101, like kennel cleaning and basic shelter chores.

That just helps you, like, get a lay of the shelter and understand, like, where everything is at and kind of the basics.

So when you're a new volunteer, you might come in and clean out kennels, spray them down, disinfect them.

You might run loads of laundry.

You might do dishes.

So that's kind of like the intro.

And that's what a lot of volunteers stick with because it's really rewarding to come in and know,

like, hey, these dogs have a clean space because of me or whatnot.

But a lot of volunteers kind of, here you get into your cat people versus your dog people.

So I don't know if you guys want to do a vote for that.

But for the dog people, you know, we have dog walkers that will take, you know, dogs and give them that exercise and that enrichment, which they really need.

You know, the shelter is like, if you could design the worst possible place for a dog, it would probably be a shelter, right?

They're confined.

There's tons of other dogs, tons of other smells, very stressful, loud.

And so, you know, they don't get exercise when they're in their kennels.

So that is like one of the main kind of pathways as a volunteer there.

and then for the cats, cats is kind of similar. You're not taking cats on a walk although when I

own a cat I do want to like harness train them and take them hiking and stuff. I've always thought

that'd be really cool but for the most part the cats you know they're just kind of socializing

them in their cage and doing the same kind of cleaning and then for both one of the things

we're always in big need of is adoption counselors so that would be you're meeting the public, you are

asking them about their home environment.

You're making good matches and finding the right

animal for them. But there's

really so many other types of

opportunities too. You can help with off-site

events, you know, taking

animals out in the community. You can help

at our community,

you know, our community events like the microchipping

and all that.

So really there's something

for everyone's interest.

Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that. And I

had one more question.

does front street have any kind of therapy animal programs or services we don't know i mean we have

there have been times where we've taken like animals to uh you know like senior living homes

and things like that or we've had um you know people um you know come into the to the shelter

i don't know one time i um i recorded someone someone asked they they had a friend who um had

brain cancer and it was like her dream, she had seen some videos online of her dream to

be like basically in like a puppy bath or whatever, like basically like covered in puppies.

So we like kind of arranged the whole thing.

We had our foster parents bring in, we had like 10 puppies, like all different like breeds

and varieties, super cute.

And like they basically like blindfolded her and then put like earphones on, she couldn't

see anything. And then she had family and friends fly in for this. And they kind of

let her in and put her down in this kiddie pool. And then she took off the blindfold.

And she's surrounded by 10 of her friends and family, each holding a puppy. And they

all put the puppy in there. And yeah, there's a video on our Facebook page. It's pretty

old. But yeah, we've done things like that, but no formal programs.

Wow, that's really sweet. Okay, follow-up question to that.

Do you see any potential startups for therapy animal programs or services?

Because I personally believe that services and programs with therapy animals at Front Street will help increase community engagement.

So your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I mean, I think that's one of those things that, you know, it's not the sort of thing we'll probably get like a budgeted position for.

But, you know, I think something that's great about volunteers is, you know, we've had volunteers come in and, you know, have ideas like that and say, hey, I want to kind of lead that program.

And so, I mean, I think that would be fantastic.

I think, you know, certain, like, organizations, I think if you, like, for example, a hospital, they might have certain guidelines around does an animal have to have a certain certification.

Or, you know, a lot of times the shelter animals, we don't know them super well.

They might come in and only be with us for a short period of time.

But especially puppies and kittens, those guys are pretty, you know, usually don't cause too much trouble.

So, yeah, that would be awesome.

All right.

Phil, thank you so much for your time again.

Commissioner Longmire or Rube Pry?

Commissioner Longmire.

I'd also like to say great presentation.

my fellow commissioners kind of asked the question I already had

but what stood out to me was the fundraising

so I'd kind of like to hear more about that

like what you guys do

like the outreach you do

or like the

what's it called

the quantity you get from it

like the profit you get from it

oh okay yeah

yeah so like our city budget covers

you know all of our normal operations

and our staffing primarily

keeping the lights on

but and it covers like

in-house medical care, but some of the big things that we need fundraising dollars for

are specialty medical care. So let's say, you know, an animal comes in and it has like a really bad

like fracture, you know, maybe it got hit by a car or something and it needs like a,

like a specialist surgeon. That's something that would be kind of considered above and beyond

that we would need to use fundraising dollars for, right? If we can't do it in-house

and we need to send it out. So that's a really big one. A lot of our community programs that I

mentioned are also supported by fundraising dollars. We have a community program that

spays or neuters community or feral cats. As you guys know, if you live in Sacramento,

there's a pretty major, you know, cat, you know, outdoor cat overpopulation problems.

Sometimes you'll see kittens running around. So our partnership with our nonprofit over the last

several years, we've been able to get 8,000 community cats spayed and neutered. And our

Foster programs are almost entirely supported by donations,

you know, the supplies and all the things for those.

So, yeah, so we rely on donors each year.

It's hard to say exactly.

It kind of depends.

I mean, we have online fundraisers.

We do three of those a year.

We have Big Day of Giving coming up in May.

And on that fundraiser, we typically make about $120,000

Giving Tuesday, we usually make between $60,000 and $70,000.

And we do another one at the end of the summer where we normally make between $30,000 and $50,000.

And then typically we'll do several events throughout the year.

Like one that's been really popular that we're hoping to bring back is our Front Street Brew Fest.

So that's basically like a beer tasting event, which I would invite you guys to.

We've got a few more years probably.

But that one would typically raise, you know, could raise anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000.

And then we just get a lot of other donations that kind of come in,

as well as we were really fortunate to receive a substantial trust over the last couple years

that's going into a capital campaign to try to one day build a new shelter.

So we have about $1 million there.

We've got about $49 million to go before we can build a new shelter.

but yeah so those are just kind of some of the numbers and some of the ways we use it.

Thank you. Commissioner Alvillo. Hi first of all thank you for coming to talk to us

and then you spoke a little bit about your volunteers and I was just wondering are they

like to the adequate levels you guys are needing or are you at a shortage stuff like that?

Yeah, I think I would say that our levels are adequate for the most part.

We always need more.

I mean, you can't take dogs out often enough.

You know, we always need more.

The shelter could always be cleaner, right, to prevent illness.

Like we have an illness you guys may have heard about that's at the shelter right now.

So, you know, we always need more, but I would say, like,

Our volunteer team has done a great job of recruiting

and training and keeping our volunteer base engaged.

One that we never have enough of in the summer

is kitten fosters.

So if you guys want to bring home a very cute litter

of kittens and take care of them for four to eight weeks

before they're ready for adoption,

that would be an adorable summer project.

So keep that in mind.

And then I have a follow-up question.

What can we as a commission and commissioners

what can we do to help you and to help the shelter oh man that's a great question

um now i know the offer's on the table to think about it but um yeah i mean i would say

you know any project that can um you know increase you know visibility for shelter animals that get

the shelters named for more people um you guys might be able to do like some sort of a service

day i don't know if we've ever done that with a commission before i know we've done it with

local businesses. People will come in for a day and help with, you know, cleaning or bagging up

food for the food pantry. You guys could do, you guys could put together some sort of fundraiser

either for like tangible, like physical objects like towels and food, or you could do like a

monetary fundraiser as well. So, or you could all foster littered kittens also. That would be great.

So, yeah, a few ideas there.

Thank you.

Commissioner Corlissor-Magnoy.

Hi.

So my family recently adopted a dog from Front Street,

and I've seen Front Street.

I know it existed for quite a while,

but never actually gone inside until recently,

and then I saw a very structured program,

program very um very big and um just informative and i wanted like wanted to say how much appreciate

that being in the city that i see a lot of pets that need to have like a home um or a temporary

home at least and i think um the shelter does a great job of doing that and uh commissioner

really like kind of went off what i wanted to say which is how can the commission help you exactly

whereas if it's like a partnership with the commission, maybe, again, like you said, a fundraiser for a specific cause or something similar.

And also I was curious about the, you mentioned making another shelter,

and I was wondering what are the specific steps to get there at that point where you would have the funds to be even thinking of creating another shelter in the city?

Yeah. Well, as far as the steps, we started in 2024, we had an organization come in and basically do a shelter needs assessment for us, which is what is our current capacity?

What is the projected growth of the city? What is our capacity going to be in the future?

How big does this facility need to be? How many dog kennels? How many cat kennels?

What public sort of areas and amenities would be helpful?

So we had a really comprehensive study done, and we also looked at could we – because we've been at this site since 1910, so been there a long time.

And I'm trying to think – this is always like kind of a – I think in the 60s, 60s or 70s is when our current dog kennels were built, for example.

Obviously, the city's grown a lot since then.

When the cities grow, more people come in, more people have pets, right?

So yeah, we're definitely undersized.

We have 99 dog kennels right now.

We usually have between 150 to 200 dogs.

Ideally, every dog would have its own kennel for disease transmission reasons and such and stress.

So most dogs are double kenneled.

If they're small dogs, there might even be three to five dogs in a kennel.

So we're definitely needing a new space.

We've had that assessment done.

We looked at could we build onto our existing space.

You know, they looked at all the options.

Could we go, like, multi-story or, like, we're kind of, if you guys have ever been there,

we're right under, like, the three bridges.

Like, you've got, like, I-5 and you've got 50.

And so, yeah, we literally live under a bridge.

I guess that was so that, you know, it's already loud, so you put a bunch of barking dogs there.

it wouldn't be as controversial with the neighbors.

And then we've also sort of looked at, you know,

basically the determination was we need a new site.

We need a new site that has more acreage, more space.

When the zoo was talking about moving to Elk Grove,

we were like, oh, maybe we could move into the zoo space.

They're not moving anymore.

So, yeah, so that's kind of where it's at.

But, I mean, really the big thing is funding.

You know, the estimate was, you know, between $30 and $50 million to build a new shelter.

And, you know, money's pretty tight in the city now.

So we've looked, the next steps would be looking at funding options.

And so that would be the next steps.

And then we're also looking at intermediary steps.

So part of that assessment was determining, like, what are some interim improvements we could do

to address some safety issues and some efficiency issues.

So we are looking at making potentially about a half-million-dollar investment

to make our current shelter better until we can get the full funding.

And one of the things that we would be really excited to do

is create sort of an off-site spay-neuter

and kind of basic medical care facility

because that's really where we're limited

is our medical facility is really small

and staff, veterinarians and registered vet technicians

are kind of walking all over each other

and we have so many animals that need to get fixed

and need to get treated that we really need more space there.

So we may be looking at creating some sort of an offsite clinic

to not only help shelter animals

but also provide, again, those services that are so needed

in the community.

Thank you.

That was really informative, and thank you for responding.

Yeah.

Commissioner Soda.

Hi.

I know I already did a comment earlier, but listening to Commissioner Sista, it kind of

popped in my mind again.

It may just be on me.

I need to check the website of Ren Street again.

However, I noticed that your guys' Doggy Day Out program didn't have any available dates

when I left in January.

So are you guys, like, still doing that?

How does that process work, actually?

because I am interested in it and I would love to participate.

Yeah, thank you for bringing that up.

That's something I should have touched on.

Yeah, our Doggy Day Out program, for those who don't know,

essentially it's, you know, instead of going through all the training

to become like a dog walker, a dog handler,

you can basically check a dog out for the day,

sort of like a library book.

And actually we have a day program,

and now we actually have like an overnight program,

so you can do like a sleepover.

And then we also have a very new program, it's Jog-A-Dog.

So if any of you are runners, it's if you basically pair you with a high energy dog and you can go take them for a run, which is great because then they come back and they're all like quiet and relaxed when they're when people come in to adopt and not bounce literally bouncing off the walls, which is kind of, you know, doesn't really attract adopters as well as a nice, well behaved, calm dog.

But yeah, so that program, yeah, essentially you fill out some paperwork, you take a dog out, you take them to parks, you can take them for a pup cup at Starbucks or whatever.

But it's very popular, hence the difficulty getting appointments.

So it's definitely a lot of work to kind of get these dogs organized.

And each person comes in like a two-hour block.

So we can only fit so many people into that block with dogs.

to get them kind of processed and out.

So yeah, definitely one of those things.

We'd love to be able to expand.

We are currently working on developing an app

that we're hoping will increase efficiency for that program.

So we actually won some funding from Petco Love,

which is the nonprofit arm of Petco,

and some other organizations.

We pitched this idea years ago

and won some funding to develop this,

not only for our shelters, but for other shelters

who wanna implement this program.

And so we've had a really hard time finding the developer

that could do it for our budget.

We finally have, and so we're moving forward

with that this year.

So hopefully by this time next year, we'll have that,

and maybe that will allow us to open up more appointments.

But yeah, you really just gotta be vigilant

with checking the site so you can get your slot.

I see, thank you so much.

And then also, I do wanna say,

your guys' volunteer kind of training process

that is mainly online is really kind of straightforward

and really helpful.

So whoever works on that, tell them that they're doing a great job.

I find it really nice and easy and simple to understand.

Great. I'll pass that on.

Commissioner Sista or Qatar.

Hi. Thank you so much for your presentation.

I feel like that is really great that you're out here to, you know, advocate for our local animals.

And, you know, I feel like maybe all of us can agree on this, but, like, when we were young, when I've always been young,

I've like just always wanted a dog you know because my grandparents had a dog my uncle raised the dog

so then like whenever they would go you know just abroad back to my home country or when my uncle

moved to Texas I used to be the like the main dog sitter for my grandparents' dog right and I feel

like that dogs or you know I feel like they're really amazing they don't not only provide mental

but as well as some type of physical support to humans as well but I feel like that sometimes it's

overlooked by people that dogs also require a lot of special needs, right? They have their own needs.

I feel like a lot of people stereotype the responsibilities and like how to take care of a

dog, like all of the, you know, stuff that comes with it. So my question was that do you guys have

any type of like educational program right now implemented or maybe in works to kind of like,

you know, educate or give like a rundown to like new parents, like, you know, who might be adopting

your dog or maybe stuff like also related with kids because, you know, kids are always, you know,

I feel like the ones that are always like pushing their parents to just, you know, get a pet.

So is there any types of stuff that right now that's in the works or anything implemented yet?

We don't have any like formal programs or like education.

It's a good idea, though.

I mean, I think, you know, something on our website or something like a kind of a primer for a new pet,

especially you mentioned kid issues.

I mean, that's huge, especially when it comes to animal safety.

You know, sometimes we see things that, you know, you'll see photos online.

and a kid's like riding a dog around the house.

So yeah, I think that's a good idea.

The way we do it is really more one-on-one.

So the kennel technicians when they come in,

or the volunteers when they're doing adoption counseling

is they'll talk to people about what are your expectations,

what is your experience level?

And it might be that a particular dog or cat

is not the right fit for that person.

right? If it's, if they're, you know, they've never owned a dog before and they're getting like a

super hyper like Belgian Malinois who's, you know, known to be an escape artist and they don't have

the right, you know, yard for, you know, so it's, it really is pretty individual. And so, you know,

we're, our goal is to, you know, make as successful of adoption placements as possible. You know, we

obviously want to get animals out the door and make space, but we also want to give people a great pet

that they can have for the rest of the animal's life.

So, yeah, I would say those are the things.

Another thing would be puppies.

Everyone thinks they want a puppy.

So we kind of help inform people about what it is actually like to have a puppy

and that, yeah, they're super cute,

but the potty training experience can be quite a nightmare.

The screaming all night if they're left alone because they miss their siblings

they were just separated from.

You know, so puppies are one of those ones

that we really like.

Are you sure I can't steer you towards this,

you know, three-year-old dog that's like,

you know, probably a lot better fit for your lifestyle.

Things like that.

So we'll have those types of conversations.

Thank you so much.

And I have one more question.

How have you guys just like seen growth

in general in Sacramento when it comes to,

you know, pet adoption as well as just,

you know, when it comes to just local animals?

How much, like how much growth have we seen?

Yeah, like from when you guys have started, like, you know, has there been just, you know, like, let's say like over the past 10 years or five years, has there been like an area where you guys are like struggling, but like you guys have started to improve on?

I mean, I would say in general, so like when I started at the shelter 11 years ago, we had a lot of programs in place that were really helpful.

So, like, you know, at one point, like, this whole thing of, like, you know, fostering and, you know, all these volunteer programs and all this, like, outreach and marketing and all that stuff was just not existent in a lot of shelters.

It was very much like shelters were just a place for animals to come in and then, you know, best of luck to them.

and you know back in you know even 15 years ago like our uh you know our live release rate for

you know the shelter's live release rate for dogs was something like it was like

in the 30s 30 percentile like 30 percent of dogs that were coming to the shelter were

were leaving alive um now of course you know as a shelter an open shelter you're always going to get

animals who, we get the dogs who are really aggressive, who are not safe.

You get dogs who come in who are super sick that they can't be treated

or they've been hit by a car and it can't be so severe

that it can't be fixed. So you get those animals, of course, but

over the course of time, that is something that's definitely increased.

I think last month,

well, now it's February. I don't know what last, I know December, I think our live release rate for dogs was

86%. So big growth there. And that really coincides with kind of all the things, all the improvements.

But I think, you know, adoption, like what you mentioned is like people really have an awareness.

I think maybe it started with the Sarah McLachlan commercials. But people really have this awareness

that, hey, like there's these animals that are really in need. And so adoption, I think, has

become like, you know, the cool way to get a pet, you know, where it's like you have, you say it with

pride, you know, yeah, my dog's a rescue or whatever. So I think that that shift, that mindset

shift in the community has been probably one of the biggest ones that people, you know, tend to

think, well, could we, could we adopt, you know, our pet instead? And then I think shelters have

done a good job of like, you know, like we're really active on, we've got, you know, 210,000

Facebook followers, he's got, you know, 55,000 Instagram followers. So we, you know, we've really

tried to show those dogs in a positive light because people also, you know, might have negative

stereotypes about a shelter dog. Like, oh, why is the dog in a shelter? There must be something wrong

with it. And it's like, no, they're just, they're normal dogs who just found their way there through

whatever circumstance and they just need a second chance at life. And so I think that mindset shift

in the community of like, hey, these dogs not only need help, but these dogs and cats are fantastic animals.

Let me go to the shelter before I go to a breeder or something like that.

So, yeah.

Thank you so much.

Commissioner Bernardo.

Yes, hello.

Thank you for sharing your presentation.

Like a lot of the other commissioners here, I'm also familiar with the front sheet shelter.

last summer my sister and I actually fostered two kittens that we helped raise and also rehome so

it was like a really just like rewarding like experience that we had just being able to like

raise those kittens and like see like the important like steps of it and like the processes

yeah just being able to like rehome them especially knowing like how full our shelters can get

especially over like the summer and spring seasons as you mentioned but I did notice when I like let

my peers know about fostering.

Like, they didn't really, like, know much about it or that, like, that was something

available to them if they wanted to pursue.

So I was wondering if there were any, like, current steps that the shelter has taken to

youth outreach and, yeah, specifically trying to get youth to volunteer or possibly foster

these kittens.

Yeah, I mean, we have, I mean, our main strategy is, you know, social media, TV, news media,

We have some pretty major email lists as well.

We have tried to do some community events that are foster-focused,

like, hey, come and learn about fostering, and we'll tell you all about it.

But we didn't really have very many people show up.

So usually the best way is when we need fosters, that's when there's a situation.

That's usually when the media is interested.

That's usually when we can do these posts that say, hey, we're totally out of kin fosters.

We really need the community's help.

And we've had really, really good luck with recruiting foster parents in that way.

But, you know, it's interesting.

Like, I think for, like, youth, like, I think it would actually be a pretty cool idea to maybe go to schools and say, you know, and talk about fostering and that, you know, it's needed.

because I feel like youth are both really passionate

and excited about animals,

and they're also really good at nagging their parents.

So if we could get, I don't know,

100 young people to go home and say,

hey, can we foster kittens?

Here's this pamphlet.

They cover all the medical care and the food and the supplies.

Literally, all we have to do is provide the home and the love.

I think that's a really good outreach idea.

Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. I think possibly reaching out to schools, maybe having some tabling events would be a great possible step to just reaching out with youth more and like educating them more on like opportunities that they could have with the shelter to just help out their communities and also like gain volunteer experience themselves.

And I also did have another question, which was, are there any specific programs or nonprofits

that you'd recommend youth engage with?

Because I do remember you mentioning there being homeless outreach assistants in your

community service.

So if youth wanted to possibly help out with that as well, were there any organizations

that you'd recommend we share out?

out? I don't know if any of our like the organizations that kind of work on homelessness

have like youth like youth specific volunteer programs. The shelter has one where you can

you know you can volunteer once you're 16 for just general shelter stuff and I think like if

someone was really did express an interest in I mean there's definitely things that you could do

but as far as like going out with the team and doing like in field stuff I think of a volunteer

or kind of expressed interest

and kind of gained the trust to the team,

that might be an option.

But again, we do all sorts of events

that related to helping unhoused owners

that someone could definitely get involved in, for sure.

Thank you so much.

Okay, yeah, so I think that's it for Commissioner Comments.

Thank you for answering all these questions.

I know you had a lot of questions.

But I'll wrap it up really quick

with one more question, really quick.

But I was just wondering if your veterinary team

or the Front Street Shelter in general would be interested to having youth,

like are those in high school who could shadow veterinarians,

those who are interested in like veterinary in general?

Yeah, I think that would probably be fine.

I mean, the veterinarians, you know,

sometimes they're working on some pretty graphic stuff in there.

So I think it depends.

But yeah, you know, we really haven't,

I can't even think of anyone who's come in and done like shadowing

as far as like our professions, but I think we'd probably just have to do like a one-day

volunteer agreement or something like that.

But yeah, I think it would be doable.

Okay, yeah, that's perfect.

That's something like, you know, I think the biggest thing, you know, for young people

is that, you know, they'll have like an idea of what a career is like.

I love animals, so therefore I want to be a veterinarian.

But like the actual career itself, like the process, the day-to-day can be like you got

to love the process, not just like the result or the idea.

So I think for anyone considering a career, if you're going to invest four to six years in college, invest four to six days or however much you can in actually trying to get a grasp on what is this job like?

Is it a natural fit with my personality and my aptitudes?

Did I feel lit up by this experience?

Did I feel kind of bored?

you know like so um if anyone's interested in animal sheltering then yeah i would definitely

especially being a vet which requires a ton of school and a ton of most likely student debt

um definitely do that shadowing and make sure it's what you want to do before you get into it

perfect thank you so much for all your work at front street um as like the owner of a foster

chihuahua from there it's like you guys your guys's work is like absolutely great and so i

I appreciate everything.

Your presentation was great.

So yeah, thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you guys.

Appreciate it.

This item is receive and yeah, receive and discuss.

So no vote was required.

We'll move on to the next item.

Item number five is the 2026 Youth Resource

and Employment Fair.

Good evening, commissioners and staff.

My name is Chris Wimberly.

I'm the recreation superintendent

And that supports you all within the youth commission, but also our summer at city hall

program, along with our youth workforce development programming, which includes, and I know some

of you have been part of those programs, primetime teen, young leaders of tomorrow, junior rec

aid, and our landscape and learning program, along with a program that we collaborate with

Sacramento housing and redevelopment agency out in the North Natomas community.

It is a youth workforce development program that is for eight specific apartment complexes that are out in that area.

So tonight I'm here to talk to you in regards to the 2026 Youth Resource and Employment Fair.

How many of you were there last year?

Because I see familiar faces.

So this year we are going to be here again at New City Hall on Saturday, March 7th.

We are going to be opening the doors at 9 a.m., but we have a little bit of a change.

Last year, we had over 800 people register for this one-day event.

We had pre-registration and on-site registration.

This year, we are only doing on-site registration.

So registration will be a simple, we're hoping young people will be coming, having their phone.

If they don't have their phone, we will have Chromebooks available for them to register for the day of the event.

You must register on-site to get into this space.

We will have over 40 vendors again here that are going to be highlighting seasonal employment opportunities,

career opportunities, along with financial literacy, along with higher education.

We have the armed services.

We have a variety of CBOs and nonprofits that attend.

So we try to make sure it's not just about employment, but it's maybe about resources.

Because not everybody at the age they come in is for 13 to 24 years of age.

That is our focus area.

Not everybody can get a work permit at 13.

Because actually you can't get a work permit at 13.

But that doesn't mean you can't be part of some programs that are available through the city.

So, I am going to be playing a video, and I'm not sure how to do that, start that on

this.

This one?

Oh.

Thank you.

So some of you may have recognized some faces in there.

Some of you may have been in some of those photos or you may have had friends, colleagues, or peers in attendance.

I'm excited this year coming up because we are bringing back support from you as youth commissioners along with our summer at city hall peer mentors.

We're actually going to be leaning on you all to assist at a little bit different level.

You're not just going to be tabling.

we're actually going to be asking you to be coming and you may be volunteering to help our vendors offload their stuff,

get it to their table so they can park their vehicles.

You may be an elevator operator.

As you're aware, well, maybe you aren't aware, on the weekends,

you cannot go up onto the second floor without a badge that gives you access to the second floor.

So we need elevator operators.

We also are going to be asking you if you're interested.

We have a fashion gallery.

How many of you were able to make it onto the second floor last year?

You saw the mannequin that was in that slide.

We have a fashion gallery.

We really try to showcase and highlight what does it look like.

Maybe you need to see what it looks like to be business casual.

What do you wear to go to an interview?

I don't think you would wear the same thing if you were going to the beach

or going to the lake or something like that,

you're not going to wear your cutoff shorts going into an interview to try to get a job.

So we're really trying to showcase those things and have this fashion gallery

that gives you some ideas of what it looks like.

We also are going to have professional headshots.

Some of you had headshots taken last year,

and they were actually part of the display as we were highlighting it

so people would go up onto the second floor.

Having those professional headshots and utilizing them on your LinkedIn account, maybe on your emails, or I know we have teams and you're able to upload a picture in there and maybe that's the headshot that you use.

So we're really looking at you all being integrated into this event at a much more robust level instead of just tabling.

Of course, there will be tabling.

We always need that because we want to make sure young people are learning more about what you all do as youth commissioners.

Because information being shared to your peers is much more powerful than myself or Dominique telling young people, you know, what do the commissioners do?

They want to hear it from you.

So we really are excited to have you back into the mix of things along with our peer mentors.

so that's really kind of a highlight of where we're going with this year's event

again it is Saturday March 7th we will be here out into the lobby area and we

look forward to seeing you all we are working on a final flyer as of right now

we just have to save the date flyer I will make sure well I'll ask Dominique

to send that out to all of you because just like you were talking about what

can you do as youth commissioners to share the information I hope you all are

on our social media for YPSI I know you all have your own social media for the

Sacramento Youth Commission and the more times that you're sharing those

resources out with your network the better so we're asking you to be the

word of mouth and spread the information so I'm here to answer any questions that

you may have for this year's event thank you thank you for your presentation so

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

Thank you, Chair. I have none. Commissioner Soto.

Hi. Thank you so much for taking time and presenting this all to us. I'm one of the

newer commissioners, so I haven't attended this on kind of the inside sort of perspective. However,

I have heard a lot of good things about this event. I know last year was kind of,

I want to say exponential in the amount of people that showed up. And so I hope this year

as a commission we're able to help run things more smoothly however I do have a question as

for the flyer is there any sort of message that you want to send with the imagery I know nowadays

there's a lot of kind of like suggestions or kind of implications using certain colors using certain

imageries using AI to kind of create graphics as well what's your guys's approach as far as that

goes and then also how are you guys wanting us as a commission I know you mentioned social media but

is there anything else that you'd like us to do to spread the word is there anything that

You kind of have been considering on whether or not you should pursue regarding spreading the word about this event further than it already has spread?

So we work with our PIO, our public information officer, as it relates to the larger network of media and such.

We will start that campaign probably in the next week or two, and we rely upon our PIO, that's what their acronym is, to spread that information.

We also utilize you all as the network to share the information.

We use our graphics team to create our flyers.

So we are making sure that we are providing them.

You'll see on the final flyer that comes out that will have photos from the events.

So we're making sure we're making them fresh and clean and not just relying upon what we think,

because that's not my expertise.

I'm going to be relying upon our experts that we have within our city,

within our department, and within the citywide social media

and outreach through our PIO.

For the AI stuff, that's not my thing.

So that's why we do have a team of staff that all have their own assigned areas.

Dominique is actually part of our logistics.

she's doing logistics and our special events for like the equipment so everybody has a little area

that they're focusing on so we have a planning team that is meeting weekly to discuss the event

and making sure everything is on top of it but if you have suggestions please filter them through

to Dominique and she can share them with the planning team thank you so much commissioner

Caraveo. I just wanted to say I really like that you guys will be providing headshots and also

business attire. I currently work at American River College, so I see students all the time

who struggle with getting access to resources like business clothing, even learning how to be

prepared for interviews, figuring out what to wear, what not to wear. I often find myself

finding out giving students advice on these things.

So I just wanted to say I'm really looking forward to it and also participating.

And when we talk about the fashion gallery,

that is something we also integrate into our stipend-based programming, the curriculum.

They talk about dress for success.

They have those conversations on how should you be coming prepared for an interview.

Landscape and learning, the young people that come,

We want to make sure that they're aware of what it looks like.

So when we have young people that are returning youth aides that want to get rehired,

we do have those conversations.

You need to stand out.

You've been here before.

We need to make sure that you are showing what you've learned

because it's a learning environment that we want young people.

It's not just we give you all the tools.

You have to also utilize the tools.

Commissioner Kazari.

my bad yeah thank you i definitely say that the i'm looking forward for this fair last year i

couldn't come but i was so excited i was like yes and um i definitely um just um i'm in favor of the

fashion gallery i feel like it's something really unique um i still remember my first time when i

was um applying for landscaping i wanted the job so bad i wore a whole suit and tie because you know

I was able to do some research.

I was like, you know, don't wear anything, like, informal, right?

And then, you know, it was really great because I was able to get the position.

But I talked with the person that interviewed me as well as other folks,

and they were like, yeah, you definitely stood out just the way that you just dressed.

You know, it really makes you stand out, like, from the whole crowd.

And definitely the headshot, I'm definitely in support of it.

I definitely do one myself.

But my question is, is there anything like some kind of, maybe some kind of station

where kids can do some type of mock interview

or just get a feel of how does it feel

to really do an interview, right?

Just maybe like a 90-second or a minute or 20, right?

Just some questions that a person can just ask them

and see how they respond and just kind of give them feedback.

I would love to be able to incorporate that into the event.

Unfortunately, in a two-and-a-half-hour time frame

and with the volume of people,

if anybody was there last year, when you have hundreds of people in the space in which we utilize

and we have to monitor the in and outs, we just don't have the capacity to do that in the two and a half hours.

We did used to have this event until 2 o'clock, and we did have workshops,

and we did have tips and techniques on interview skills.

But we've had to reduce down the length of the event due to those that are coming for the event, our nonprofits, our city staff.

We've had to be creative at making sure that we are not causing undue stress on some of our CBOs, nonprofits, and even our city staff and watching budgets.

So we've really made sure that we are being very intentional with what we do and what we provide.

Would I love to have something like that? Yes.

But I also know that there's opportunities within stipend-based programming that we offer.

Primetime teen, that is a component of that program as the requirement to complete a mock interview.

So we do have some things like that within our programs integrated into those.

Thank you.

Commissioner Zotto.

Hi, just one last question.

I know you mentioned you had, I think, 36, 37, maybe 40 vendors coming to this event.

Do you plan on, like, publishing a list prior to of who's going to be there?

Is there anyone new that you're particularly looking forward to?

And then also, do you have any sort of, like, partnership?

I'm kind of new, so I'm not too sure if you've maybe discussed this in the past, but are there any partnerships with, like, high schools or, like, young people organizations?

Like I know there are some like international clubs that are at local schools.

Are you doing anything in that kind of sense or?

So what we do is we have priority registration.

So any vendor that had participated the prior year, not just registered, but actually showed up the day of the event gets priority registration.

Today was actually the last day for our priority registration to take place.

And we will be sending out the lead on our vendors.

will be sending out a notification to resource contacts that we go to also job fairs and

collect information from those job fairs or we table it schools local schools and we get

those information that information and what will now go out is a secondary email out to

those contacts and it's first come first serve this is a free event there is no cost to the

vendor to come in so that's not always the norm so it's a pretty high demand to

get into this event and we do have school resources that we share it with

and so if there are resources like you have clubs at your schools that may be

something we can look at but we also know that we serve so many different

school districts that if it becomes very focused on what's offered you know at

one school then that takes away from a broader representation of our vendors.

Not to say we couldn't do it but maybe that's something we look at differently

and maybe have a different event. Maybe that's something that the Youth

Commission can take and you can look at doing something like that as a Youth

Commission and highlighting the resources that are at your schools. Thank

you so much for taking the time to explain that.

Commissioner Sis or sorry.

Yeah, I just want to take a moment just to thank you as well as all of our admins for just organizing something like this.

I would definitely say that I've just always been an advocate for just stuff related with youth within the city of Sacramento.

I can definitely vouch for myself that if I had never done primetime scene, I would have never ended up on this dais.

I would definitely say that, you know, I've moved a lot in my life.

I've went to Woodland, Davis.

I went up to Oregon.

but in not any of those places I've ever seen,

just a city so dedicated to their youth

and just providing so much stuff

to make sure that they're ready for adult life,

that they're ready for all the challenges

that they're gonna face when it comes to

for their professional workforce career.

So thank you, thank you so much for that.

And I can also vouch for myself

as well as just people I have seen

that I've worked with in landscaping and primetime teen.

When I see them in the beginning, I saw how they act,

but over time, as the program just progressed,

I definitely saw like a change in their attitude as well as just their behaviors, right?

They were a lot more professional.

They were just a lot more brighter.

So I would just like to say like thank you, thank you so much for this.

And if it wasn't for those programs, I would have like never, ever like have found so many good opportunities.

No, and I appreciate the thanks on that part of it, but that is the uniqueness of the work in which we do.

We're adult care.

We're adult and youth care holders.

This isn't about us.

What we do is a passion and we do it because it's the right thing to do.

Young people, not everybody has an advocate in their corner.

We know that not everybody is going home and maybe there's young people that aren't going to a home.

So a lot of what we look at and what we value is youth voice and youth choice.

And that's kind of the premise of why we do the work in which we do and we are passionate about it.

We are integrating within the operations that I manage the youth development, the principles of youth development, safety, relationship building, youth participation, community involvement, and skill building.

Without those five components of the supports and opportunities, it's very difficult.

If you don't have a safe space to be in, it's very difficult to go to the next step of relationship building.

It's kind of like a tiered cake.

You got a foundation.

Safety being the foundation.

Agreements.

You all have agreements.

When you start talking about these things, they start building upon each other.

You fill in a safe space.

You start strengthening the relationships that you have with not just the adults, but also your peers.

The space is safe.

You can confide.

You can share things that you may not want to share if you don't know the people that are in that space with you.

We also encourage once you have a relationship building youth

participation what you guys what you all are doing right now being a

commission member is youth participation you're actively voicing your concerns

not just for yourself but for your communities. We also want you to have

community involvement giving back pay it forward. With my kids when they were

younger they went to events with me they went to meetings they were seeing they

They knew what was going on and it has paid off dividends as they've grown because they see the value in themselves.

And then the fifth one is skill building.

Your capacity building workshops.

There are skills that are developed during those things.

Communication, leadership.

It may be something so simple that you never realize that all of a sudden that epiphany happened and you go, oh, that's it.

so we want to make sure that we as the adults are making sure there's that space that allows you to

be able to make mistakes because what's the worst thing you learn make a mistake you learn from it

we're not here this is a judgment-free zone we're not here to judge you we're here to guide and help

and support so I love the work in which I do and I'm glad Commissioner that you have taken advantage

of these programs. Many of you have. And I encourage you to encourage your peers. We're

out there. We want young people to be able to participate and communicate. My hope is

we can get back to having members of the public in our audience engaging in conversation with you

all. Thank you for that. It was really beautifully said. I really appreciate how you hit on those

five key components. They really are the reason why we're all here today. I believe a lot of us

did participate in city programs before joining the youth commission. So it really did build up

who we are as people and who we are as leaders for the youth community. Employment is huge in

our generation. And I think it's like 10 twice as more powerful to have youth be able to connect it

to organizations that they can grow within. Sometimes it's not just about getting a job to

earn money but getting a job to do what you love and to target that passion because I guess I could

see a lot of emptiness in life if you're just doing a job for money rather if you're doing it

for the actual passion you have so I love how the youth resource and employment fair really connects

those together to ensure that we have a youth who we have a youth community who are being

compensated for their work but that are also working towards our passion so thank you for that

I think that is it.

This item is received and discussed,

so no vote is required.

We'll move on to the next item.

But once again, thank you for your presentation.

Sorry, to add to your question.

So we're here a month earlier than usual.

Last year we came in the month of March

and we were kicking off and just advising.

So we came a month earlier.

Unfortunately, I don't have a list,

but yes, you will have a list.

And we will be coming back and announcing

at the next commission meeting, who the vendors are and such.

We just don't have that right at this moment.

And I had one recommendation to have like count,

maybe some council members here if they could

to like have a meet and greet with your council member,

especially it's important to like connect youth

to those who like represent them especially,

especially if we're here as well,

like we have their youth represented,

but also their council members.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So this item is received and discussed,

so no vote was required.

We move on to the next item.

Item number six is the selection of chair

and vice chair for calendar year 2026.

Is there a staff present?

I think.

Thank you, Chair.

So there's no formal staff presentation on this item.

All the information is detailed in your staff report,

but I will remind commissioners of a few things.

Members may nominate another member or themselves

for the chair or vice chair positions.

Typically, we hear nominations for the chair first

and then do nominations and a vote for vice chair.

And a member may serve as chairperson or vice chairperson

for no more than two calendar years.

So the current roster, every member on this dais

is eligible to be either chair or vice chair.

And then the newly elected chairperson and vice chairperson will start their terms at the next regular meeting, so the March meeting.

And so, yes, I'm here with any questions, for any questions that you may have.

Commissioner Soda.

Hi, yeah, I'm sort of new to this whole commission process.

However, I was able to speak with some of the other commissioners prior to the meeting starting.

I was wondering, so when it comes to the nomination process, whether you're nominating someone else or yourself, do you give like a brief statement?

Is it simply like I want to nominate blank or how does that process work?

Is there sort of kind of like eligibility kind of thing?

Someone gives reasons A, B, and C why they would be a good person in this position?

Or is it purely like if you feel like it, you can give them the fact that you're on this commission board?

it's really choice of the of the member making the nomination whether it be

themselves or another member nominating another member whether they want to give

any reasoning behind it typically if there's I've seen if there are two

people vying for the chair position each one will kind of give just you know a

breakdown of why they want to be chair why they think they would be best for

that position, but it's not a requirement for the item to do that.

I see.

Thank you.

Commissioner Garavillo.

Yes, I actually moved to nominate myself as chair.

I know I haven't had the chance to speak with many of you individually, although some of

you I have, and it's been great.

I just would like to tell you I have a lot of experience in leadership putting projects and plans to action.

I really hope that some of you have had the opportunity to see me in those instances,

whether it be when we talk in capacity training meetings.

I'm very passionate about this commission, and I hope that if you all give me the opportunity,

I can help get us some plants on the ground and hopefully have us be more present in our communities.

I would really love to see more action as far as getting more of us to be engaged with youth,

whether that be at our schools and our neighborhoods and our neighborhood association meetings,

for those of you who have gotten the chance to meet that side of your community.

I feel like I have a lot of qualities that could help us improve the quality of our work.

Thank you.

Commissioner Soto.

I just have one more question.

So when it comes to someone nominating themselves, are the other commissioners allowed to ask that commissioner a question?

Or is it like we speak to the chair and then the chair allows permission?

How does that process work when it comes to figuring out whether we would support this candidate?

not saying like any sort of personal thing this is general kind of moving forward how do i kind

of like process this yeah so you could obviously yeah request to speak and in that if someone had

nominated themselves and you had uh you know follow-up questions for them uh regarding

their qualifications or something like that uh you may ask that uh that commissioner those questions

oh okay so can i go ahead and do that right now or do i stay certainly okay perfect how

Hi Commissioner Carabella, I'm Amrit Sahota, I'm Commissioner for Underneath the Mayor's Office and I do understand that you have such wonderful passions.

However, my main concern is that how do you think that this coming year you'll be able to, I guess, dedicate time strictly to the Commission or dedicate an adequate amount of time to get all these plans and ambitions that you have for the board and for your vision this year?

Is there a sort of kind of like gap in your schedule that allows for you to dedicate an adequate amount of time?

Or what's the process that you have behind this kind of sentiment?

So a major component actually of my free time is public service.

As everything under the sun from supporting my own council member and his initiatives along with some others,

I've actually volunteered for quite a few other council members in other districts.

so most of my initiatives are not even necessarily district specific.

I offer all kinds of support Sacramento citywide.

It's a huge component of my free time.

I mean, I spent my Thanksgiving Day this past year giving out 175 free meals.

So the question is never really time for me.

it's more about support and having other people who want to be just as present and committed

to putting these plans to action right because it's not just about one person having the time

or capability it's about being able to bring the team together so we can collectively take action

so yeah it's not about my time it's how much time do you all have I see thank you and then also

So could you provide your opinion on some kind of like on the current events going on in Sacramento?

I don't know if you're aware, but this past weekend, there were a lot of sort of protests.

A lot of schools had walkouts.

What's your opinion on all of this?

And then also, I know this commission has opinions about the Vote 16 movement.

I'd love to hear what you think about that as well, whether you're in support, whether you're in opposition, where you stand on that.

And then anything else that you think is important for this upcoming year as far as your opinion as you would be the chair?

Yeah, well, I'd just like to say I 100% support Vote 16.

And as far as the walkouts go, it actually gave me a lot of joy to see so many students taking part in collective action.

In the past, it's not been my experience to see as many youth to be engaged and involved and willing to be there.

So it was really nice to actually see and even get to be a part of it with my community.

I fully support the walkouts. I actually was near the Capitol as well that day, so it was really

great to see everyone in action, and not even just on the walkout day. I actually got a chance to

protest on MLK Day as well, and doing a kind of a walk around our neighborhood, so it's really nice

to also connect with youth at that event as well. I fully support youth, encourage them to project

their voice and let their concerns and opinions be heard and the walkout was the

perfect way to do that for this case in this pressing matter. Thank you for

voicing your strong opinions or strong form of support for the vote 60 movement

however I'd like to hear more about like your concrete reasons for why you

believe that this should be implemented here in the city of Sacramento. Yeah no I

think youth have to be more entitled and also brought more into the bigger

conversations that happen without us. I feel like most of the time youth aren't

as prioritized as they should be when it comes to bigger conversations that

concern us, our rights, our opinions, and I think that the Vote 16 would help get

youth to projectile their voices and opinions. I mean I'm actually surprised

that this hasn't happened sooner. I think it's a great way for youth to do what

we're doing right now be civically engaged and participating. I actually was

a past participant of the summer at City Hall and the emphasis on youth civic

engagement could not have been more. It was almost understated. I actually got

the chance to do a presentation on it for our City Council and through that I

got to interview youth about being civically engaged and it was so sad to

hear that many of them didn't know what it meant, they didn't know what it looked

like and many of them didn't even know that being civically engaged was

something that youth had all the power in the world to do. So something like the

vote 16 is very much a tool that youth can use to actively participate and be a

part of the bigger discussions that are going on, especially in this day and age

in this political climate. I see, thank you. I guess the next point I would pose

is if you've been hearing that youths don't really understand what it means to

be civically engaged or they're still in that kind of questioning phase why do

you think that there should be a sort of push for youth to have this kind of

like opportunity not saying that they shouldn't I'm just wondering is there

kind of like other reason besides oh I want youths to be civically engaged

because if the true goal was to have them civically engaged I'm speaking from a

parent like a from a perspective of concern mainly because you know youth

have been targeted from both sides I feel like they've been very intensely not

necessarily thrown into but it's kind of like a mutual kind of thing like a lot

of adults in the world tell youth what they should believe and what they

shouldn't believe and so my concern is how do you think that if vote 16 should

pass how would you as chair kind of like be able to look over or be able to

speak about how like information is being passed on to youth because 16 is a

very young age. I'm speaking from my personal perspective now when I was 16 I

graduated high school I started college I had got my first big kid office job I

was doing all these things at 16 but looking back I don't know if I was in

the right mental headspace if I was educated enough to have that kind of

opportunity to vote and I understand that there is kind of like youth want to

be civically engaged. I'm so for that. I am so encouraging of that. I myself was a youth ballot

collector when I was 16. It's just I'm unsure of if the vote 16 movement is something that

is a really big part of this commission as well. I wanted to know more about that just because I am

you and then also because you want to be chaired next year. So if I'm understanding you correctly,

you want to know more about why I think youth should be civically engaged. No, that is not what

I'm asking. I'm asking why do you think the vote 16 movement is the right way to

get youth engaged because there are pliardly of other ways that youth can be

civically engaged. They can come to council meetings, they can submit public

comments, they can protest and they can make movements like that as well but why

do you think the vote 16 movement because you said you were 100% for it.

Why do you think that's the best form of action? I just would like to say that

although vote 16 is one initiative that can potentially help youth to be more

civically engaged, I do not think that it's the only method or modality that youth should be

utilizing to get engaged with their community. I think a lot of the initiatives that you also

listed are great. So it's not more so that I think this is solely the only thing that will help

propel youth to be more civically engaged, but I think it's meant to work as a tool to help them

do that. So it's not the act of voting itself necessarily is where I feel like that's an avenue

for engagement. But think about it. In the ballots maybe that you've seen or that you've heard being

proposed, before you make a decision like that, do you kind of stop and think to yourself, well,

why should I be agreeing or not agreeing with this? I think this vote 16 will actually help

educate a lot of youth to even understand how our political processes work. That's why I think it

would be a great tool because it can actually be used to educate youth on everything that you said

you were concerned about. I see. Thank you so much for fielding so many questions from me. I'm purely

looking at this from an objective perspective and also from a learning perspective. I'm trying to

learn more about you as a person and where you stand on these kind of issues because it is very

important and I appreciate you taking the time to kind of thoughtfully think out whatever you

were going to say. I do apologize if anything came across as brash. I am just a little bit,

I guess, single-minded, and I really want to get to the space of information when it

comes to-

I thoroughly enjoyed your questions. They should be asked.

Thank you.

Commissioner Avila.

At this moment, I'd like to nominate our current chair, Reyes Rios, for chair.

I'd like to add that coming to the commission, I've watched as our chair has really displayed a calming sense of leadership and not only speaks for his beliefs, but also participates in them and his action in the community.

and I've come to really admire him as a leader

and I believe that he is one of a good candidate

that I believe is the best candidate for chair in the foreseeable future.

Commissioner Bernardo?

Sorry.

First of all, I'd just like to say that I really appreciate all the effort and passion

that all of my fellow commissioners display,

especially especially with Commissioner Caraveo I really admire how like active

you are in our communities how yeah just like the effort and passion that you

speak with every time you share your experiences and your plans for the

Commission so yeah I'd really like to see where that goes but I would also like

to nominate our chair Rios outside of school I've seen him we didn't like all

sorts of places whenever we're volunteering in our district or just in

school in general I think like just being able to like work together with

him both in those different environments such as like here in the Commission or

at school or just in our community like his leadership just really shows and

it's consistently shown like throughout the years as we work together. Vice

Chair Longmar. I'd just like to agree with my fellow commissioners that nominated our current

chair, Chair Rios. As chairperson, they kind of already said what I was going to state already.

I've seen how you worked, how we worked together, being like inviting you to the events with my

council member. You're very supportive of the community and youth in general and your excitement

as chair is all like just rubs off to like the other youth that are like listening to you.

And I did previously state that I was gonna run for vice chair,

but I would like to withdraw and I would like to

nominate Commissioner Carabello for vice chair.

So I was just informed by the clerk

that we're a little bit short on time.

Commissioner Soto, if you had any questions,

I'd be like, love to answer any.

Did you wanna move forward with the vote?

That is up to you.

If there's other questions in the queue,

You may go to those, or we do have a motion by member Avila

and a second by member Bernardo nominating you, Chair Rios,

as chair for calendar year 2026.

I'm assuming you accept the nomination?

I do.

So if you'd like, you can call the vote,

or if there's more questions, you can go to those.

I'll call the vote for no.

All right.

So I will do a roll call vote on this item.

One moment.

Thank you for your patience.

Members, please unmute your microphones.

Member Sista.

And this is for the chair position?

This is just for the chair position, yes,

for the nomination for current chair Rios

to serve for another year, for calendar year 2026.

Nay.

Member Khatri Chetri.

Um, nay.

Member Caraveo.

Nay.

Member Roland is absent.

Member Bernardo.

Wait, this is for nominating Reyes, or sorry.

Correct.

Commissioner Charias.

Aye.

Commissioner Perez.

Pérez Maganoy?

Aye.

Commissioner Corliss?

Aye.

Commissioner Chan?

Aye.

Commissioner De Leon?

Aye.

Commissioner Turk is absent.

Commissioner Avila?

Aye.

Commissioner Wong?

Aye.

Vice Chair Longmire?

Aye.

Commissioner Ruprai is absent.

Commissioner Gounder?

Aye.

Commissioner Sohota?

Am I allowed to abstain?

I feel like I don't know enough of you as like personally,

but professionally, you know,

I feel like I'm not in a position where I can say aye or nay.

You may abstain.

Okay, I abstain.

And Chair Rios?

Aye.

Thank you.

The motion passes with 10 yes votes

and three nay votes and one abstention.

So, Chair Rios will serve another year as Chair of the Commission.

I did want to give a couple comments before, like thank you everyone for your support.

Any questions you have after, I'd love to answer them.

I'm really focused on creating the Commission as a united front.

I put my work and time and effort to where my mouth is.

So especially with the Vote 16 initiative, I've attended every meeting, the California

coalition meeting really moving forward on that bringing it to school boards this upcoming couple

of weeks I'm presenting it to a couple of parental boards as well as local boards of education so

really bringing this and moving it forward another thing just what you hit on earlier about like you

having the need to vote big part on cognitive what is it cognitive capacity which is the same as an

an 18 year old, but also that they face homelessness.

We've seen the, there's thousands of youth homelessness

in Sacramento.

So they face adult issues that some of us can't even explain.

Some adults haven't even witnessed it themselves

and youth have to struggle with these.

Also it secures youth funding,

which is an extremely important part of it.

Our city has been in a deficit these past couple of years

and the first thing that they cut is youth funding.

And so that is just a temporary bandage on the deficit,

but later down the line it affects how youth,

members in youth substance abuse, youth homelessness,

youth development zero to five.

So they're healthy development that we need to secure.

So the same way that we are allowed to vote

in the first place to have checks and balances

for those that we elect into power,

youth need the same to ensure that they have funding

to give them a successful life.

Thank you, Chair.

So we do have a nomination by current Vice Chair Longmire

nominating Member Caraveo for Vice Chair

for calendar year 2026.

Member Caraveo, do you accept that nomination?

Yes.

Excellent.

So is there a second on that nomination?

I'll second that nomination.

All right, I have a second by Chair Rios.

I will also do a roll call vote on this item.

Members, please make sure your microphones are unmuted.

Member Sista?

Yay.

Member Khatri Chetri?

Yay.

Member Caraveo?

Yay.

Roland is absent.

Member Bernardo?

Aye.

Member Perez-Maganoy?

Aye.

Member Corliss?

Aye.

Member Chan?

Aye.

Member De Leon?

Aye.

Member Turk is absent.

Member Avila?

Aye.

Member Wong?

Aye.

Vice Chair Longmire?

Aye.

Member Rupri is absent.

Member Gounder?

Aye.

Member Sohota?

I'd like to again abstain.

Extention for Member Sohota.

And Chair Rios?

Aye.

Thank you, the motion passes unanimously,

with one abstention.

Congratulations.

Do you like to make any comments, Vice Chair Carabello?

I actually first would like to thank

previous Vice Chair Longmire, thank you.

And also I'm really looking forward

to working with you more, Chair Rios.

So the next item is member comments, ideas, questions,

and meeting conference report.

Are there any commissioners who is to speak?

So before we do that, I know typically we kind of go round

table for everybody.

The time is 723, and this will likely go past the two-hour

mark, so would you like to do a vote to extend the meeting?

Could we just go and see how it goes until we hit about two minutes before?

Yes.

All right.

Excellent.

So, member Sista.

Aye.

Oh.

Oh.

So, this is the member comments question.

Oops.

Sorry, guys.

Oh.

Wait.

Sorry.

Could you repeat what this is for?

Yeah.

The member comments question, if you'd like to introduce the item.

Yeah.

So this is just when we talk about recent updates.

Oh, OK.

I don't know if anybody wanted to unmute and say if they wanted to extend the meeting

to keep talking about it, if they had any questions for me, or if they were ready to

conclude the meeting.

It's up to you guys.

If you guys just want to go quick run through your member comments ideas, or if you just

want to pass on it, that's completely up to you.

OK.

I don't really have any new comments to make.

I recently just started my second semester of college, so that's going.

Hopefully in the next two weeks, I can start picking up volunteer shifts at the hospital,

and I definitely want to get more involved with volunteering as well.

I'm hoping to also eventually get into some medical research over the summer

and hopefully some shadowing as well.

So I definitely do have a lot of future plans to get more involved in the community,

but that's about it for me.

and then any other members who'd like to speak on commissioner comments ideas and questions

if you could go ahead and queue up in the system here and then yeah those who don't have anything

to say yeah you don't have to queue up so our next speaker is commissioner sohota hi everyone

i feel like you've all heard a lot from me this meeting however i do want to run through a couple

of quick things one arcs club and events board is having two events one on the fourth one on the

10th. The one on the 4th is a general kind of club day. We've had two of these I think last semester

and then the one on the 10th is a love your community event so we will potentially be working

with the horticultural department and then we're also having clubs bring out activities, games and

other sort of things so that the community connect with them on a more kind of like casual level

and then I attended a district one Lisa Kaplan event I think either in December or early January

and I was able to connect to the Women and Girls Youth Commissioner, I think Yachting Campbell,

and she introduced me to the Youth Commissioner on their board,

and she's also a commissioner on the county's board as well, so the county's Youth Commission,

and I'm looking forward to meeting with her, I think, in February on the 13th.

We're still conferring on a date, but I'm looking forward to that,

And then also I was able to reach out to the Arts Board's Youth Commissioner.

She prefers Roma, but her name is Rosa, and she's really nice.

We're also planning a meeting soon just so that we can introduce each other,

and I'd love to hear more from her.

And then also, on top of that,

SAC Library had their teen talk over January 24th,

if anyone was able to attend.

It was a really fun event.

And then I think that's about it.

I'm looking forward to getting my focus area signed,

and I'm looking forward to working with all of you guys.

I know on the dais I'm here professionally, but personally I'm also here for all of you guys as well.

Instagram, phone number.

I reached out to commissioners already.

I want to hang out with all you guys and get to know you on a personal level along with a professional level this year just because I am new.

And so that's about it for officer reports.

Thank you.

Commissioner Avila.

Or Commissioner Carabello.

No, it was Commissioner Avila.

Oh, okay.

First of all, congratulations to the both of you.

Recently, just, oh my God, I lost my train of thought.

But recently I acquired an internship at the Capitol with La Mesa Verde Group,

which is a lobbyist group for immigration rights.

And with that, I was able to get that connection through CLYOP,

which is the Chicano Youth Leadership Project here at Sac State.

It's for juniors and sophomores and juniors, and it's catered towards the Chicano youth, but it's open to everybody.

So I really encourage it, encourage you all to apply and attend if you're eligible, or encourage people you may know that are eligible.

And if you have any questions about that, please reach out to me.

and then personally just getting ready to launch my campaign for student body

vice president so Melody and then yeah that's basically it thank you

a few things one I am looking forward to potentially bringing a project up to

the commission soon. Without saying too much, this project will require help from every single one of

you guys. If we're all in agreeance, when I do decide to present this at one of our upcoming

meetings, I'm hoping this will be a great chance for all of us to get to know each other. And

I don't want to say too much, but I'll probably be connecting with some of you individually,

along with Dominique. In addition to that, we actually have an organization called United

Latinos. And in the wake of everything going on in our political climate, they are actually

hosting a coalition meeting at Sac State on February 28th. If this is something anyone is

interested in, please let me know. It will be in the evening. And actually, Council Member Guerra

will be sponsoring the event.

So this might be something that all of you

can potentially participate in

or just show up to learn more

if that's kind of more of your groove.

And other than that, yeah, I'm really excited

with the potential upcoming project.

Commissioner Sista.

Hi.

I just want to say thank you all.

It was definitely my first meeting.

I was definitely nervous at first.

like my heart was beating like you know just to make sure that I wouldn't mess

up or anything but I would just like to first and foremost thank all you guys

on this Commission I feel like that all of us here come together on the same

goal of just advocating for the youth of Sacramento and I'm really happy that

and now I'm in a position where I am connected with other youths that have

the same motive as me and I look forward to I'm having a really successful just a

a time with you guys and uh commissioner turex actually have heard about the um yes yes um i was

actually searching up um just things to do for the summer right and then um actually found one

of that and i made a count so i'll definitely not get in touch with you just to um see you know just

get some information yeah for sure please for sure all right thank you so much guys yep okay yeah so

i think this concludes our meeting um yeah the last item is public comments matters not on the

agenda declare do we have any members to speak we have none okay so this concludes today's agenda

thank you everyone for your participation again if you have any questions for me please come out

after the meeting

We'll be right back.