Good evening everybody and welcome to the Monday, May 23, 2026 meeting of the City of Sacramento Ethics Commission.

The meeting is now called to order.

Thank you, Chair.

Members, please unmute your microphones.

Commissioner Kelly is absence.

Commissioner of Velasquez is currently absent.

Commissioner Tao.

Here.

Commissioner Emery?

Here.

And Chair La Faso.

Here.

Thank you.

We have quorum.

Excellent.

Thank you.

I'd 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 before the item begins.

I believe are on a table outside, just outside the door of the chambers.

After the item is called, we will no longer accept speaker slips.

Uh once you were called upon.

We will now proceed with today's agenda.

And we will start with the land acknowledgement and pledge of allegiance.

Please rise if you are able for the opening acknowledgement in honor of Sacramento's indigenous people and tribal lands.

To the original people of the original people of this land, the Nissanon people, the Southern Maidu, Valley and Plains, Miwok, Putwin Winton peoples, and the people of Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous people's history contributions and lives.

Thank you.

Please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Under God.

One, I had the unenviable task of listening to myself from the tape of the last meeting, and I saw lots of heads moving and lots of voices going in and out of the microphone.

So I'm going to endeavor to keep my mouth closer to the microphone, and I'm letting you all know about that.

Secondly, um like they do at City Council, I thought I might invite other members to do to get to to lead in the uh the the tribal recognition and the pledge of allegiance.

Nobody has to do if they don't want to.

Uh we can uh work with that at the next meeting.

With that, uh next is the approval approval of the consent calendar.

Mr.

Chair, if I may.

Yes, sir.

Just as to what you brought up about the microphones.

Yes.

Just from prior experience, I find that they pick up best if they don't have the dip, but it are literally on a straight slant towards the mouth, more like clerk here.

Okay, good practice tips.

Thank you.

Uh clerk, any members of the public who wish to speak on the consent calendar?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips for the consent calendar.

Thank you.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item before we uh Commissioner Emory?

Yeah.

You know, I was reading through the complaint log.

And I noticed that so then I went because there's one that is very similar to a bunch we had last year about cannabis donations and whether this affects council meetings, stuff like this.

And I noticed that it was said that they were um the people are told to go to the FPPC, because that's that's really the most you know where it belongs.

And so I was looking at our ethics commission description on the web page.

And I'm wondering, is it possible to add something in there about just a link to the FPPC?

So that when people have these sort of questions, maybe it might just be an early start to find out is that an ethics or is it an FPPC complaint?

Just try to give people a little more help on that.

There is no legal limitation, I will say that.

Gary Lindsay, uh general counsel for the Commission.

Okay.

Yeah, just would like to make it so that we can really serve the public better and be transparent.

And so having gotten so many of those almost identical ones, there is just confusion on this, and I think that might just help.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um any other commissioners have items or questions or comments about the consent calendar.

No, the no other comments.

Thank you.

I have two.

Uh I wanted to ask staff a little bit about the same item that Commissioner Emery just referenced, all 27 lines of it.

Um when I saw that it was dismissed for not alleging facts that were uh subject to provision of the ethics law.

I guess I was a little surprised just because I saw those political reform act references, and I know that there is incorporation.

Yes, I drilled down it, and I understand that incorporation is a tricky thing because sometimes the ordinance through which the incorporation occurs only references specific actors.

Um this one I think I ultimately cut to the chase because I realized that the FPPC regulation that the complainant refers to was in fact repealed about five years ago, so this aggregation issue appears to no longer be the law.

Um I have one other follow-up question, but notwithstanding all the commentary in the box, is that essentially the issue that this aggregation issue isn't against the law anymore?

Which one are you referring to?

I am sorry, I am referring to the very number one item in the complaint log.

Um it is 2026 003.

And again, in the most superficial way it appeared like some of the matters we looked at in August.

It's it's not, I understand that, but just because I drilled down on it, is it is it basically the issue that it this aggregation issue is no longer averse to FPPC ranks.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Mindy Cuppie, your city clerk.

Um the allegations are FPPC campaign finance allegations, so if they have a complaint, they would need to file that complaint with the FPPC, not with the city.

So the city in this commission um governs city um of Sacramento campaign finance rules, but not FPPC rules.

So the the proper person to um file that complaint is with the FPPC, not the City of Sacramento.

You would arbitrate campaign finance rules that are city code.

I appreciate that.

At some point I would love to understand the logic.

I appreciate the logic of that.

At some point I would love to understand where it actually says that in our code, because again, it incorporates.

Now, I understand that the ethics, the provision of the of the various statutes applicable to the ethics commission, which is the code of ethics, references the political reform act of which these sections are part of.

I also understand that it's only applicable to, quote, city employees in that statute, in that ordinance, which as defined by its own terms in the ethics commission limitations means the the council appointed officers, the city council, including the mayor, candidates, and I can't remember if there is one other.

And I also couldn't understand if this complaint was actually directed to the contributor or was directed to the elected official who is referenced in the text.

I would have to review the the uh the allegation or the complaint itself, but why this was denied dismissed is because it is not under the jurisdiction of this this legislative body.

It's under the jurisdiction of the FPPC, the codes that they are quoting.

And then they were in their dismissal letter referred to the FPPC.

I will take that at face value.

I'm still trying to understand our code.

And then if you take a look at the one below that, 2026-002, um, the disposition does state that it was a the respondent was not somebody that is underneath the jurisdiction of this commission.

So in the first one, 003, it's because it was not an ethics law that this body arbitrates.

The one below that 002 is because the respondent was not someone that this legislative body would hear complaints against.

I appreciate that.

And I w were the are what's the relationship between those two complaints?

Are they from the same person or they just happen to appear superficially similar and and have have been received at the same time?

I would have to review.

I believe it it's possible that they were the same person.

Okay.

Um I have one other since the consent calendar covers three items.

I have one other I appreciate the return of the complaint log.

And we said a lot of things at the last meeting.

Um I am one of the complaint log items is attributed to me.

It is number five.

Training on scope of ethics commission.

And that was why I watched some of the tape from the last meeting and had to listen to myself talk for three and a half minutes.

Um at roughly uh 54, 55 minutes into the meeting.

I'm not sure what I was referring to.

It is assigned to you, Mr.

Lindsay, so I'm going to direct my comments to you.

I know I said a number of things in reference to the old training for new commissioners, and I made some comment about limitations on commissioners.

And in that context, I meant things like not being able to participate in council and mayor campaigns, as well as things like not being able to serve on another city commission a year after leaving office, that kind of thing.

Yes.

I also made some comments in the context of some comments that Commissioner Kelly made about our jurisdiction and respecting it.

Um but I also made a lot of comments about context and adjacency.

So if this request is related to those comments, I I hope you're taking my request in the vein of the broader context of the good government ethics laws that apply to the city of Sacramento.

In fact, we just had a very good example, which is a little hard to understand.

Where the city council decided to say the political reform is generally incorporated, but certain things is is not our purview because it's rational, because it says it here.

Um raising a number of issues about general ethics compliance things, and I was commenting on how other, as we all know, other commissions have activities under the jurisdictions which are generally considered ethics compliance, but they're not under ours because our city is organized differently.

It was that kind of context and adjacency I was referring to when I referred to scope of ethics commission.

I guess I'll put it another way.

In my life, it's easier to be able to see a boundary if you can see what's on both sides of the boundary.

Some of our discourse is always stay on this side, stay on this side, stay on this side.

Stay on this is like, well, what's what's over on that other side?

Um I'm hoping if you've given some thought about this this request item that's been responded to you.

I'm I'm hoping you give them some thought about the context and adjacency things that I said.

Yes, and I understand, Commissioner.

I appreciate your own also have it when our one of our two newest commissioners is present.

Excellent.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Lindsay.

Okay, those are my are there any further commissioner comments before we endeavor to approve the consent calendar.

Uh would anybody like to make a motion to move to approve the consent calendar and I second that motion.

Thank you.

We have a motion and a second.

Um all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any nays?

Any abstentions?

I hear three to zero.

That takes us to our next item.

Which is sorry, Mr.

Bridberg, I somehow don't have an agenda in front of me.

I think it is.

It is what is it for?

Uh yes, item four is the City of Sacramento Ethics Commission 2025 annual report.

Thank you very much.

And uh do we do we have any public comment?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no public comment for this item.

Thank you.

Ms.

Cuppy, welcome again.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Mindy Cuppy, your city clerk and staff to this commission.

The item before you is the City of Sacramento Ethics Commission 2025 annual report.

This was continued from your last meeting.

There were some recommendations from the last meeting that which have been incorporated.

So I am here to take feedback, changes, edits, updates, and those can either be approved this evening, or you could continue that if we have significant edits to make to the report.

I am available for questions.

I appreciate it.

Any Commissioner comments or questions.

No additional questions.

I just appreciate the uh work of integrating the uh comments from the last uh Commissioner meeting.

And so I um yeah, no additional comments on my end.

I appreciate too.

It's with listening to what we were saying, because there were just some clarification.

So yes.

Uh thank you, Commissioners.

Uh I also appreciate the follow-up work.

I just have one question.

There were some things left undone at the end of last year because we hadn't caught up with all the activity of 2025.

But there's one thing I think it's on, I can't find my notes, so I'm doing this, I'm winging it on.

I think it's page seven, it's commissioner deliberations, where we itemized each of the what I call no cause hearings we dealt with in August.

I thought that list should also contain the one no cause hearing we did in October with whatever the evaluator costs were for that one also.

Is that there and did I miss it?

It should be for calendar um the calendar year, yes.

I can double check.

Okay.

So the October is what you are inquiring about.

Yes.

Thank you.

Are there any other commissioner comments or questions?

Are commissioners ready?

Oh, Commissioner Emory.

I realize, yeah, I was looking at this.

Uh when you put the um, you know, that we had outreach to various groups, and I noticed it says Notomas Community Association, which no longer exists.

It was the North Natomas Coalition.

And that was probably my mistake.

So North Notomas Coalition.

So to confirm the fifth bullet is going to change from an Atomas Community Association to North Notomas Coalition.

That's correct.

Thank you.

We have a lot of community associations in my neighborhood, so they all value their own identity.

Thank you, Commissioner Emory.

Any other questions or comments before we move to approve?

No additional comments.

Anyone want to make a motion?

Okay.

I will make a motion.

And uh actually um I'm going to ask that your motion contain the correction offered by Commissioner Emory and create space for the clarification about the October hearing that I asked Ms.

Cuppy about.

Okay.

Great.

I will uh make a motion for uh the revision, including the uh North Natomas renaming uh from Commissioner Epmery, and then also the addition of the October um as well item.

Thank you so much.

Second.

All right.

We have a motion and a second.

Uh all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any nays?

Any abstentions?

Hearing none.

Uh item is adopted on a three to zero vote.

And thank you, Commission.

And I am confirming that we are passing a motion to move that forward to P and PE and that it does not need to come back to this body.

I believe that is the motion we made.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So the uh report as amended will move forward to the P and P E committee, personnel and public employees, and then we'll be on the consent calendar for the council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That takes us to item number five.

Sacramento Ethics Commissioner Community Outreach Program Strategies.

Mr.

Bradberg, are there any public comments on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips for this item.

Thank you.

Um is there a staff presentation or is there a commissioner presentation?

Commissioner presentation.

Do I need to go up here?

You can do it from your staff.

Okay, that'd be nice.

I'm comfortable.

Thank you, Commissioner Emory.

Okay.

So this is now my second year being on the commission, and I had never even heard that this existed until I was approached by somebody.

And so Commissioner LaFasso and I got together and saying we, you know, there was a presentation, but we felt it needed to be one that'd be clearer to just the average person.

Uh not it was a lot of go to city code this, this, this, and wanting to make it that a person if they were going to make an ethics complaint could actually understand what we we cover as I'm when I've made these reports.

I always jokingly say, do not come to the ethics commission because you got a parking ticket.

That's not us.

So you you need you need to do um, you know, let's make sure that we are getting transparency.

So you know, we do have it here where we start out the purpose of the Sacramento Ethics Commission to review and consider complaints against elected and appointed city officials, as described in sections 2.112.030, to ensure those officials are conforming their conduct, city's laws and policies, and that we also do complaints, so it's the city council, candidates for that, the mayor, uh members of the that are charter members, such as the city clerk, the city attorney, uh, and uh commission and other commission members like um active transportation measure you, things like this.

And it's to really, and the whole purpose is to be transparent, to make sure that government is working for the people's understood that we are being transparent, and that if you see uh something that doesn't fit right with you, you can make a complaint, and you do not need to be like it's against a city council person.

You do not need to be in that person's district.

However, the complaints need to come from the public, they don't come from the commission.

So it was trying to really get this um get it out there.

There is a PowerPoint, and uh I've made lots and lots of marks on when I give this, that what I feel works I you know, things that I feel need to be emphasized, or that it's on the screen.

People can read that rather than me reading it all the way through, because I really always have wanted to give time to make sure people can ask questions if it's not clear.

And so started going out and uh said I Commissioner La Faso and Commissioner Velasquez have also give uh given reports.

I've been to most of them simply because people always accuse me of knowing everybody, and I sometimes think that is the case.

So go out, talk to these groups, explain what the city commissioner is.

Are they aware of it?

So many people are not aware of it at all.

And that the importance of really taking responsibility and doing uh that complaint when you do see it.

Now I think some of the questions I've gotten when doing these is I've had the question, what are the complaints against the city clerk?

It's a city clerk looking at their owns, and no, they are not.

This goes to another staff member.

Um same way if it was a complaint against one of the ethic commissions, that person would definitely recuse themselves.

Um it's um and I was glad we went through the audit because I started getting a clear idea about the FPPC, which I admit sort of flummoxed me my first year, because I knew we didn't have a contract, and on our and on our thing is we go follow FPPC rules, but we don't have an FPPC contract.

So I think it might be something we need to update on this just until we maybe do have that contract, just so it's a little clearer.

But it's been it's been very worthwhile.

I thought um Meadowview was very interesting.

Go down there, and they turns out they did not have a PowerPoint or computer that would work.

So we just had a nice conversation.

You know, I'd bring out the uh the brochure they could follow along.

And uh it was just a real conversation, and I think it's been appreciated by many groups that people that the city is reaching out to get opinions, and that's been really, really important.

I've also been going every month on the third Thursday as a City Connect mixer done by the outreach department city of Sacramento.

And uh I go to those as part for my neighbor association, but also as the ethics commission, I'll wear actually two name tags, and get called up and just let people know who we are and if they want somebody to come on out, I leave postcards.

I actually had young one young woman, uh, a young woman talked to me, she works for an assembly member from Southern California, and said that'd be really good to put in in some of the cities down there, because there are only eight in California.

So I gave her information that if she wanted to pursue this beyond me.

But it has been um I feel good that we're getting the word out there.

And the importance of making sure people know that if they see a problem, they need to bring it in.

It could very well be that, like we've had it going that really is not an ethics commission subject, but being a but being a but that they will be directed to the correct um office, whether it's FPPC or whether it's I know I remember last week get some and they were like um franchise tax board and state controller.

That's state of California.

A lot of people just don't know where to go.

Government is one great big entity.

They really don't know where to go.

So um I hope we can do more of this next year.

I have been really, really working trying to get District 2 to have, and I don't know why, I know all the people up there, and they and I think that's one area that could really use this.

They've had some um fairly upsetting instances with some of their representation.

So I'm still working on that one.

But uh I really do hope we we can continue and we can continue getting around.

And I know one group said they won a presentation, I got hold of them, I never heard back.

And I think with Land Park, is that the one uh Commissioner Vellette?

She did Oak Park, so I do not know it ever happened to that one.

And I know not Oak Park has several neighborhood associations.

I talked to one of them the other day, they said in a couple months we will be getting hold of somebody to make a presentation.

So uh Commissioner La Faso, I know you made a couple of these.

Any insights you have when you gave it?

Thank you for your presentation, which I'm not sure it's complete, doesn't matter.

I did, and I had a couple observations.

Um I did it three times, two times I did it on Zoom, and one time I did it in person.

The two times I did it on Zoom, the association wanted to limit me to 10 minutes.

And I pretty much kind of chopped off the last part where we go in greater detail on the specific jurisdictional ordinances and just sort of relied on the overview slide that listed the eight of them.

Um the time I gave it in person, I had a pretty uh, as lawyers say, hot bench with lots of questions, and I was in a small room and it had a pretty good sized um pretty good size monitor, probably about a 55-inch, 60-inch television screen.

And as I was going through it, and I was probably the third time, but I was getting a little bit more comfortable with it, when I got to the slide that is the complaint flow chart, I think I kind of seized up in front of my group because it looks kind of like an electrical grid.

Yeah.

And I guess the point I'm making at the moment is it doesn't even show up in a 60-inch television screen.

Um and I did get a lot of process questions from that group.

You know, what's it going to look like?

What are they gonna tell me?

When am I going to know that kind of stuff?

And I do think I think the process flow chart is very good.

You began your remarks, Commissioner Emery, talking about when you first heard about the Ethics Commission.

I knew we had an ethics commission, and I didn't bother to read a thing about it until a widely publicized hearing at the end of 2023.

And I was very curious.

So what what what what scope does this commission have?

And and if there's if there's wrongdoing, what actually can this commission do?

And I read the regs and I definitely read that flowchart, and I thought that flow chart was a very helpful tool to understand the process.

I agree.

So I like it being there.

I guess I thought if I were making revisions, and I don't know if your notes pointed revisions, I would maybe break the slide that's how to file a complaint that has the QR code and move the timeline discussion to a separate slide and try to massage it a little bit to help the member of the general public know when they're going to hear back.

Because I kind of choked on this.

I will say we also had already had a pending agenda at the time I gave it to the um, I think it was the New Era Park group, and we had a couple items in our agenda where there were some glitches on that 14-day rule.

So I remember I kind of swallowed when I was reading that slide in public.

But also as I understand our regs better, which I will admit frust me a little bit, as I understand it, if your complaint is timely rejected for, say, lack of jurisdiction, you're supposed to hear in about two weeks.

But if your complaint is not rejected for lack of jurisdiction, it may be directed to the independent evaluator who pursuant to our rules is supposed to make an initial determination of cause.

Continuing commissioners are clearer on that now after August and October, whereas to say if the independent evaluator finds there's not cause, then the matter goes to the Commission.

And I understand that that's a point if the independent evaluator finds that there was no cause, that the complainant will be told what the status of their complaint is.

On the other hand, if the independent evaluator finds that there is cause and follows their ordinary process to continue the investigation, incidentally, I've learned that's a very precise word with a very precise meeting that I'll elaborate at a future meeting.

If the independent evaluator proceeds with the investigation, then I think the member of the general public doesn't hear what happened with their complaint until the independent evaluators' recommendations go.

So I just I want clarity for our sake about when members of the general public hear back relative to the steps in our process.

I think that will help us be clearer.

I think it will also help us understand a little bit from a public receipt, a public experience perspective.

So I don't know if that is additive to the timeline slide, or it would kind of flesh out the timeline slide in a way that would make it a little bit, well, I'll call it user-friendly.

After that, I uh I did think that the even the hot bench group, they were more interested in process, and they got a little numb about the code of ethics and the I forgot what it's called, the the fair the fairness pledge.

Um it's better you and I scaled it down better than actually I thought.

I reread it this um this afternoon before the meeting.

I even commented to you, Mr.

Lindsay, that I thought of cribbing some of your slides from a January 2024 presentation, and I realized I actually already did that.

Didn't remember that I'd done that around April-May of 2024.

But I still think we probably still could shave those things down.

So I'm very open to shaving them down.

Because I think I came in with the idea that we're gonna plant in their brain the basics of it, which is these are the people we can go after, these are the subject matters we can go after, think of it as a Cartesian coordinate and where the two meet is in the zone, but I, as a as a 27-month serving ethics commissioner, have the difficulty with that mental analysis process.

I just think that's way too hard for a member of the general public.

And I will say and finally, i i i every time I give the presentation, I say if you if you if you heard nothing else in what I said, if you were member nothing else that I say, please take away that our process doesn't work if you, if citizen, a member of the general public don't file a complaint.

If you're walking down the street wondering why isn't the ethics commission investigating this?

The answer is because you didn't file a complaint.

If you're walking down the street thinking that the ethics commission should be investigating this, you need to file a complaint, and then we can do it.

All the other things.

Anyway, those are those are all the comments that I've come prepared to make.

Um it's not I I should yield back to you, Commissioner Emery, but I did come prepared to talk about these strategies that Lynette Hall sent us in June of 2025 that I could quickly run through with my comments on.

But they're about not the substance of our presentation, but sort of the I guess the more strategic part of our presentation about how we're going to get more people to listen to our presentation.

Well just a moment on that, because um, yeah, I this flow chart, yeah, it's very difficult to see.

And I found what I would just go through with like you make the complaint, and within 14 days, you'll get a yes or no whether they're going forward, and then after that, depending on what happening, because yeah, you're right, this is a difficult flow chart on the screen.

And um, so it said I'm not a big flow chart person.

I think you might be are.

So to me, it was more like talking through the pertinent points, and that's each of our own personality.

But it would be good to maybe break this down a little bit more into yes, there is something to the complaint or no, and have two separate screens.

So um that might be a little easier for then people to understand that the time frame.

But yeah, please uh go ahead about uh yeah, I what Lynette Hall.

Um before we do that, I would love to jump in here as well with just some of the things that we're gonna do first.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Oh, thank you.

Yeah, flash drive and brochures and and and postcards.

Got it.

Thank you.

And thank you both uh Commissioner Emery and Chair La Faso for providing context as well.

Um as I was reviewing these outreach uh materials, I thought um, as well in the perspective as a community member um looking at this and hearing this presentation as well.

And so I had a couple of thoughts um just initially, which is that in reviewing um the outreach materials, I think it goes back to exactly what you lifted up, um, Chair La Faso, which is that you know the emphasis of of why we exist, right?

As as a commission and and why should community be coming to us.

So I'm I am curious and wondering if there's an opportunity to really emphasize that.

I feel like if we are direct in that and we highlight that um really clearly after the purpose, um I feel like that would just resonate with with community members as well on on why we're here and and why would they would come to us, right?

Provide some of that clarity that we talked about.

And so that was one uh point that I was curious about is could we add uh some of that direct language?

Um I also saw that there was a list of of uh neighborhood associations that the presentations were conducted uh for last year, and so I am curious just about um whether it is our hope to also reach out to other community-based uh organizations across the city, not just focused on associations.

So my overall question there was just um, you know, who is the target for for this uh outreach uh strategy and and workshops and getting some clarity with that uh given I I'm a new uh commissioner on this uh on this commission.

And so those were some of the um curiosities that I had.

And the last comment and question I will add is just I am uh also wondering if these materials are available in languages other than English.

Um I am a bilingual uh speaker myself, and so for me it's it's important that if we are really trying to reach community, we are also uh understanding that there's you know that the language uh as a barrier potentially as well.

So I'm curious if um if these uh materials and documents are already in multiple languages, but that those are my questions and comments for now.

Well, I appreciate those comments.

We can have the city we have to ask one about the language, I think is good.

We really want to reach out to anybody as long as that you do need to be a uh resident in the city of Sacramento.

So I know we have a lot of groups and they expand all over, and I think that would just be making it clear that um it this is this is the city of Sacramento.

It's not if you have a problem with the county board of supervisors, that's not us.

So or anything like that.

Um yeah.

We would like people just to know about this.

Yeah.

You can be talking to your neighbor about it.

That's fine with us.

Um I would address to Ms.

Keppy about other languages.

Because that's a really good point.

Thank you, Commissioner Emory, and thank you, Commissioner Tao, for the question.

At present, this has not been translated into any digital languages.

Um this was a goal from a commission's goal uh to do outreach.

Our community engagement manager, just to I'll step a little back, give you a little history.

Our community engagement manager did reach out to the neighborhood associations that they had contacts with and offered to make the presentation.

Um but commissioners were also encouraged to organically reach out to the agencies that they are a part of.

Um I know you might be a part of different agencies, and so it was casting the net wide and talking to whomever would listen.

Um the materials that are in your packet, um, it's on a thumb drive, um, and commissioners were encouraged to customize it for themselves.

And I think we heard that this evening that um some of you skipped slides and and used different language.

So really the intent was to give you the PowerPoint, you customize it for your voice and share the information that you feel is most relevant.

Um and all of those materials, if you need postcards, uh you need the threefold brochures because you are doing an event, I'd be happy to print those for you.

Um I ask for at least 24 hours if I can, but I if it's um quicker, I will do my best to get those to you.

Um but again, the PowerPoint is in its native format.

Um, and there are also notes um in the section uh what the intent of that slide was.

We don't expect you to read the slide, but the notes will give you the intent of that slide so you can customize that for your voice.

Can I ask one quick follow-up question on one of the items you addressed?

So again, I have this uh Lynette Hall email from last June.

And item six of it is titled Language and Cultural Access Through NDAT Community Ambassador Program.

Now I know a little bit about what the community ambassador program was, and we had discussed previously that uh former Chair Ng was among the first class.

But I'm you don't happen to know if that initiative in Ms.

Hall's office involves any kind of translation activities.

And I asked that question, understanding that translation is an expensive service, but I'm I'm still fishing.

So the NDAT um program um is still happening here at City Hall.

Um it's a group of people that have connections in their communities.

And so oftentimes they would be the people that were translating that PowerPoint and making that for you.

I know Annette did present to that group, very diverse group.

Um if you check our website, you can see who are members of of that group.

Um Commissioner Emory did make a presentation to them and then encourage them.

If you'd like me to come to one of your neighborhood associations, I'd be happy to.

And and there are connection to our community, so they would assist us in those translations.

And typically I would think that if it's a language that we're not comfortable with, I can work with that group to have it translated, um, or they could present, co-present with you and assist with that translation.

Appreciate that.

Yeah.

Um you may want to comment on this, but I'm directing a comment at one of a Commissioner uh Tao's other comments, which was uh the target audience.

And I do think that one of the issues that we're grappling with as a group is there's some ambition to reach out to audiences, but it ultimately boils down to commissioners' willingness to go to meetings and evenings.

And for me, I think it was a little bit of a um uh feast and famine kind of thing.

Um they started to come, and I think we had three pending at one point, and I noticed a couple times we had to ask the neighborhood association to postpone in a meeting or two out.

In fact, I think there was one where I kinda kind of got frustrated that we weren't gonna make it, and I I double booked something that e even so I could do it at that neighborhood association.

Um I think I hope that we will think broadly in terms of our outreach, but it only works if we if we I mean I want to support you in doing it.

I'm willing to do more, you know, I want to pace myself.

I don't want to do I don't want to do it every night.

But but anyway, I think that's I think that's our guidepost.

Um I do I do think there's some uh marketing opportunities.

Um and I I know and I and I think that you are, Commissioner Emory are more attuned to some of these in detail than I am.

I'm going to go through the Lindet Hall email because some of these things are easy.

Um she listed seven things.

The first one was tabling a community events.

Um that is a that is a time-intensive activity that I'm never fond of.

So I'm not hip to doing that unless somebody has an event where there's lots and lots of penetration potential.

Uh the second one was a feature in the monthly communication toolkit.

I think I forgot to follow the links on that one, but I kind of uh that the this toolkit reaches neighborhood associations, PBIDS, Chambers of Commerce, et cetera.

I don't know if that's the thing that Ms.

Hall is already doing that has been referenced.

And you might have an answer, Commissioner Emery.

You know, I I totally forgot about that.

They send out each month a calendar of things going on through her office.

So let me take another look at that and see whether there's a way to tag onto that of things that could be scheduled.

Because I forgot all about that.

So I'll make a note to myself to take a look at that.

Appreciate that.

Number three was appearances on the city's podcast SAC vibes.

I just took a quick look at the city's website, but I think I think that means either one or two commissioners participating in an in a podcast with some interviews, or it means are producing some kind of video media.

I kind of get the sense if we said yes to Ms.

Hall, she would tell us what the next step is.

Um I'm certainly willing to do that.

That sounds to me like a high penetration relative to the effort kind of thing because it's recorded and it gets to be viewed over and over again.

Um the fourth is attendance at City Connect mixers, which Commissioner Emory mentioned she is doing and I've done once.

Uh five is presentation at uh neighborhood association and community ambassador meetings.

We have talked about that.

Number six is the language and cultural access one that I asked Ms.

Cuppy about.

And the seventh is ongoing visibility through the CE link tree.

And I forgot what CE stands for, but I looked at the link tree, and it looks like a link tree like you'd see on a social media account.

It has resources applicable.

Bless you.

It has resources applicable to the various things that are important to the city.

I don't 100% know what Ms.

Hall had in mind, but maybe it's it's a button, which is a fancy term for link, um, with some resources applicable to the ethics commission, and maybe they are existing links, maybe there are some materials.

Uh I I this is my this is me reading into it on my own.

Maybe there are some uh reduced or abbreviated or easily digestible materials along the lines of our presentation.

Um I'm sure Ms.

Hall would have the answer.

So I think this I I'm I'm running all this to get Commissioner comment.

I'm interested in staff has any ideas about how we can loop back to Ms.

Hall and avail ourselves of some of these opportunities if uh uh critical mass of commissioners are interested in the.

I also just had a thought that I think Mr.

Lindsay can answer.

Uh you know, you mentioned like the pod podcast, and now there's this thing called a bridge that they're doing through KVIE.

It's uh uh community focused journalism.

Does the city need to go and sign off before a commissioner goes on the media representing the ethics commission?

There is no media limitation on the commissioners.

Okay.

I thought figured I'd better ask.

Yeah.

It so it would be basically the same as we're going out to community groups.

Now we're just going out to community groups, but it's a different a different medium.

Okay.

Thank you.

Is staff interested in devising the commission, whether if there's some level of media contact that's at the level of, say, a bridged or capital public radio or something like that, whether it's advisable to consult with the city's communications, office, department, whomever.

Um are you referring to the PIOs, for instance?

Is that what that is the term that I couldn't conjure up in the brain?

Yes, thank you.

I can look into um putting in contact with the um PIOs for the city if that's what you would like to do.

Okay.

Appreciate that.

Yeah.

Just we we want to make sure that we're representing the city fairly, and that um, you know, it I think that's a big thing.

We want to make sure that we are fairly representing the city.

We're being represented in the city in a way that will reflect what we really want to get done.

And which is communication on that there's an ethics commission and what we do.

Yes.

And thank you, Commissioner Emory, for that question and conversation.

This is really a rich conversation.

Commissioners can act in their individual capacity and speak with media.

However, you can't speak on behalf of the commission.

You would have to have approval from the full commission to speak on the behalf.

This group, it's really organic.

If there is outreach, if you want to reach out to media, we would encourage you to do that.

But you can't, you can as an individual be but you can't speak collectively as the commission unless the count commission takes action to give you that authority.

Thank you for that.

Ms.

Cuppy, while you're up there.

Do you have any thoughts on looping back to Ms.

Hall about the podcast, the link tree and well, maybe tabling?

I believe our community engagement, that email is exactly what you read off.

It is an offer to do any of these things.

And I did not hear that the commission was interested in moving forward with any of those at that time.

I know Commissioner Emory did do some somewhat tabling at events at the commit the City Connect events, not necessarily a table, but make being at the mixer and talking to people.

There were a couple other things, um, tabling at community events.

I heard um Chair LaFasso that that was not something you were interested in.

Um being featured in the toolkit.

That's something that if you want to, um, I can as your staff reach out to our community engagement team.

You talked about podcasts and that you would be willing to do this.

Um I did not hear correctly from the commission that you guys were interested in that that, but you would work through me and then I would reach out to our community engagement team.

Um you mentioned City Connect.

I know Commissioner Emery has attended those.

Um and then ongoing visibility in the link tree.

So your meetings are posted to that link tree.

So these are just events that are happening in the city.

Um and your commission meetings are on that linked tree, I believe.

Thank you.

Um I got some of my answers in that.

Um I'll leave it to I'm not sure we we circled around to get Commissioner comments on their interest in all of those things, in part because I was trying to flesh out a little bit more about what they might mean before I ask people to say, yeah, I'm for that.

Um I'm going to slow down and look for further comment from other commissioners.

I would just say I would really encourage Commissioners to become familiar first.

I feel more comfortable on that after we've had some of the presentations.

Um just encourage you to go and talk to people and see if there's interest.

Because that's the most important thing is getting that first step out there.

Great.

Thank you so much.

And I um last comments for me.

I would be very interested in the podcast idea as well.

I think it's important to continue documenting and recording things that we can, you know, then share at a later time, and it's a good use of resources.

So I'd like to definitely expand on that as an opportunity.

I also agree that tabling at a community event is also a lot of of work having come from community myself.

So I think um, you know, I'd love to also hear from some.

I know we have some of our commissioners who are not present as well.

So I think um hearing from uh folks like that.

But I I also agree that it's important to get uh in front of folks and continue the workshops.

I think that that's an effective uh strategy, but I would like to revisit our um maybe even just goals as a commission for the year in terms of the number of of workshops or events or activities once we land on those strategies will be.

Um but I would be very interested myself in in conducting some of those workshops as we get more familiar.

So it, you know, for me when I was asked to join um the commission, I I also was not aware that this commission existed.

And so uh to me um, you know, it's important to get the word out as well.

Um and and uh hope to work together with you all on that this year.

So those are my closing comments.

Appreciate that.

Commissioner Emory, can we get a third shout out for the podcast?

The podcast?

Sure.

Okay.

I I think a podcast does sound like a really great idea.

To uh to go and let people know that you know we're here to keep transparent government government transparent and the ethics commission is one way of doing that.

So don't just complain.

Actually, you need to have action to get things done.

And we want to, and we could use the podcast to tell people how.

I think it's a great idea.

Thank you.

Um I only have one item that I want to focus on before we conclude.

Are you concluded with your presentation?

Appreciate that.

So I just want us to stay on track, because as my my experience was they the requests are coming in and then they atrophy and then they come in.

We had talked about as a commission last year, something like a standing agenda item, or at least something on our agenda that would enable us to, for lack of a better term, check in on our progress on our latest presentations or where we are, maybe figure out if we've dropped the ball on something in terms of getting sustaining potential interest.

Ms.

Cuppy or Mr.

Lindsay, does that have to be a formal standing agenda item for us to be able to kind of sort of review ourselves or check in as a group on a every time we have a meeting, just so we can keep our outreach program on track.

You mean it uh here in an actual meeting, we'd be an agendized item, yes, on the uh good evening, Chair.

I believe that it was agreed that on under Commissioner Comments idea of questions that you would share if you had presentations um pending, or you had made a presentation so that we could make sure that we were tracking all of those presentations, which we did for our annual report.

Um so if you wanted to simply make those comments that you have one pending or or approaching uh that under Commissioner comments, ideas, and questions, that would be the appropriate place.

If you wanted to talk more depth about um a presentation you made, connections you are making, trying to make, then we would need to put that on the agenda as a standing item.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Ums or questions before we close out on this item.

Just one.

I do need more postcards, Ms.

Cuppy.

Thank you.

No additional comments from either.

Thank you very much, Commissioner Tao.

Um we are concluded with item five.

It's receive and provide feedback.

I think we did that.

Uh no vote required.

Um next item is Commissioner Comment's ideas and questions.

Commissioner Emory.

Last uh weekend I went to the tour in the City Historical Cemetery on women.

And I'm so pleased that we are meeting in the Luella Johnston room because she was elected to the Sacramento City Council in 1912, and was the first woman in California elected to sit to a city office and one of the few in the country.

And as she was running, the men said, oh, she's just that petticoat politician, which I rather like.

But she just focused on safety and uh clean water and things that you know just help everybody.

After one term, um, unfortunately, the men of the town decided they were done with this nonsense and they acted very unethically and spread lots of rumors around her, and she lost her seat after one term.

But I think it's wonderful being in this room named after the first woman elected to a citywide political office in the State of California back in 1912, since California did allow women to vote before the Feds got on board that it was a good thing to do.

So that's all I want to say.

It was just it was very interesting learning more about her.

Thank you.

Thank you for that history, Commissioner Emory.

Any other Commissioner comments or questions?

No, no additional questions or comments on my end.

Thank you.

I guess we have done a lot of commenting and suggesting.

Um I think we're closed with that item.

I believe our final item, Mr.

Breadberg, is uh whether there are any public comments on matters not on the agenda.

Thank you, Chair.

I have none.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Unless there is anything else we need to attend to, I think our meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.