Good afternoon, everyone.

The City Council's Racial Equity Committee will please come to order with the clerk call the roll to establish a quorum.

Thank you, Mayor.

Member Kaplan?

Here.

Member Jennings?

Here.

Coach Irving?

Here.

And Chair Steinberg.

Coach Irving is here as well.

Thank you.

Tom, get your good.

It's good.

With somebody who has the privilege, maybe Council Member Kaplan, of leading us in the land acknowledgement,

please, and the pledge of allegiance.

Thank you.

Everyone see it.

The Nisanan people, the southern Maidu, the valley and plains me walk, the Putwin-Wintu peoples, and the people of Wilton Rancharia,

Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk with us beside us today on these ancestral lands.

By choosing to gather today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples' history, contributions, and lives, please remain standing.

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, liberating, and justice for all.

Thank you, Council Member Kaplan.

A very good afternoon to everyone.

Sorry that we are a few minutes late.

So let us right to our business.

In the end, we want to have a special acknowledgement to the woman sitting to my left.

We'll save that to the end.

So let's start with our consent calendar.

Do we have any comments or public testimony?

Thank you, Mayor.

I have no public comments.

I'll be right back, Mayor.

We've moved in second to thank you.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye, opposed, abstain.

The consent calendar passed.

We are off to a great start here this afternoon.

Let us move now to the discussion calendar.

And we've got two key items here.

One is an update on the reparation initiative that my office has been privileged to launch with the community, of course.

I'm going to turn it over to Kelly Revis.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

Hello, Mayor Steinberg.

Members of the Racial Equity Committee and staff and the public that joins us today.

Thank you so much for this time to present this very important initiative to the Racial Equity Committee.

I'm realizing I should have snagged the pointer for the PowerPoints if someone could help me with advancing slides.

Thank you, Chenua.

Yeah, you got it.

Thank you.

So what I am going to do is to provide a very brief overview of what will be going over in today's presentation.

You should be able to see it on your screen of what we'll be going through.

I'm just going to provide the main background overall on what we have started.

If we could go to the next slide and give you an overview of what to expect today in terms of the presentation.

It will be a little bit longer, but we have three main components that it's broken down into with multiple presenters for each component.

It's really important to understand and note from the get go that this is a mayoral initiative.

It is not a city sponsored initiative yet that has been voted on by the full city council.

So it is a mayoral initiative and that this full presentation will take approximately 40 minutes.

Next slide.

So overall, we will be going over the background and overview in the next few minutes.

So we will move to the first section on community engagement that will take about 10 minutes followed by the research section,

which will take about another 10 minutes followed by the landscape analysis and additional 10 minutes and a wrap up with the next steps.

Next slide, please.

So for the background and overview for this initiative, I wanted to at least just ground everybody with what the foundational components of the mayoral reparations initiative has been.

This includes having the political will, which was established in June of 2021.

Initially, there was a ceremonial council resolution supporting the California State Task Force's work on reparations.

That is the only formal action the full council has taken is to pass that ceremonial resolution supporting the task force.

But that's also when mayor Steinberg joined the more coalition, which is the mayor's organized for reparations and equity commission.

And that was a commitment to support HR 40 at the federal level bill that's very similar to what was passed at the state level, but for the federal level.

And to really work to figure out how at a local level here for Sacramento to establish some type of reparations commission committee or task force.

In 2022, we were able to secure some funding to support the work of developing what could be considered a mayoral reparations initiative commission committee or task force.

And that was done through a mid-year budget allocation that was passed by the city council and provided us with $200,000 to support the research,

community engagement and work that you will be hearing about throughout this presentation.

We also had staff support for this.

That was myself at the time the chief of staff to mayor Steinberg.

I then was able to move into a position as senior advisor, the racial equity advisor to the mayor to focus on advancing racial equity full time.

The mayoral reparations initiative was a piece of that portfolio, but having dedicated staff was essential to continue doing the ongoing researching, networking and engagement across the country and with other local jurisdictions undertaking the same work.

The community is really the center of all of this.

And so you'll hear more about that in a little bit, but that work is ongoing.

That really included making sure that we were putting community in the center and in a leadership role for how we would go about this initiative, ensuring that we had robust engagement with our community and making sure that we established those relationships so that we could hold one another accountable with this work.

Finally, the alignment.

We had really great alignment and timing with some different grant funded initiatives that the city was able to undertake and that we were able to secure in terms of our research.

You will hear more about those in a little bit, but I do just want to highlight one portion, the African American Experience Project and the city start initiative that you will hear about.

We're both city opportunities and city initiatives that received outside grant funding to do the work.

They are not directly part of the mayoral reparations initiative, but they are really intertwined and have some very important research components that we rely on in terms of the work.

We thought it was so important.

In fact, that we did use some of that reparations funding you heard me speak about to help support the contract that's consultant is helping us with for the city start initiative that you'll hear more about later.

So before I turn it over to the next portion on community engagement, I just want to clearly state that today we are seeking your direction to move forward to the full city council with consent item that accepts the staff recommendation to one use the remaining reparations funds for a comprehensive scope of work that completes the community engagement research and landscape analysis work and to do so as a sole source contract.

We like to engage in that work with the urban league as the managing partner since they have a very demonstrated financial commitment as one of our current research partners and have the unique capacity to support smaller organizations in conducting the necessary continued community engagement.

So with that, I'd like to invite up Genoa Rhodes from the mayor's office to kick us off for the community engagement section.

Hello mayor and council.

So they told me that I had two minutes flat and don't go over.

So if any of you guys know me, that how it works.

We're going to two minutes today.

Definitely.

I'm down to 40.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So my name is Chino Rose, Director of Community Engagement for Mayor Dosedime, her office.

And I'm going to go briefly over some of the engagement strategies we used before passing it on to colleagues.

I like to call this approach to building together approach.

We are committed to engage with community and meaningful conversations around reparations and our work has focused on three core strategies to ensure that the process is inclusive and community driven.

One individual conversations I'd call these one to ones.

We've had one to one discussions with residents, community leaders and stakeholders providing space to share experiences, perspectives and aspirations regarding reparations.

These conversations are vital to understanding the diverse needs of the community and laying a groundwork for an equitable process.

Number two was informal working groups.

And we facilitated informal working groups that brought together community members, experts, advocates to collaboratively talk about what reparations could be in Sacramento.

These groups have been instrumental in generating ideas, fostering dialogue and building consistent on key issues.

And interesting enough, Mayor, oh, there's a couple of them.

And Mayor was with us at these.

And so also Councilman Bridginnings also joined us for a half day retreat in the Valley High area.

And then third is organization engagement.

You'll hear from some organizations today and some people are in the crowd.

But by partnering with local organizations, we have amplified community voices and built strong coalitions.

These partnerships ensure that our approach to reparations is grounded and lived experience and expertise of those most impacted.

Together, these efforts represent an inclusive approach to reparations, guided by the principles of equity, justice and community empowerment.

We believe that continuing to engage our communities in this way, we can develop reparations model that truly uplifts sacramentans.

And with that, I will pass it over to my colleague Robert.

Thank you, Chen Wah. I appreciate it.

My name is Robert Bill. My pronouns are he, him.

I'm the equity analyst with the Office of Diversity and Equity.

And I'm here to discuss the city level reparations community engagement grant program.

The beginning of this, we worked with Perry with Kelly.

I mean myself in the Office of Diversity and Equity to develop a city level reparations community engagement program.

Which scope was to conduct a community engagement information session and survey collection from targeted sacramental communities regarding reparations at the city level.

With that, we had three areas that we wanted to focus on was to inform the community about reparations and I will put together to a kit from Kelly.

And that toolkit was created to help grantees engage the community on a state and federal efforts surrounding reparations.

If the community supported reparations and then also gather feedback on whether the city should form a city level reparations task force committee or some other governing body around reparations.

With that, we put out a no foot and we chose five great local organizations.

We have a community of our here with us today.

And we chose them because their mission is embedded around equity work around by-pop communities within the city of sacramental.

And the list of those five organizations are right there.

California Council of Community Behavior Health Agency.

Coalition for Adjusting Equitable California.

Earth Mama Hilling Network, Shiba Farms Foundation and the Stevens Family Foundation.

I would like to give an honorable mention to Safe Black Space who worked in partnership with the grantees, our office of ODE, including Kelly.

And the sacramental states center on race and immigration and social justice to hold a community circle centered around reparations as well.

As well.

We held monthly cohort meetings to gather updates from the grantees on their progress of the project.

Offer grant technical assistance, reflection and also updates from the state of California's reparations assembly bills as well.

Next slide.

Thank you.

So in this we survey collection.

I know it says 442 there, but actually we with the help of the Stevens Family Foundation.

We actually went up to 510 and with 510 community responses.

80% of those responses were from African Americans while 65 are currently sacramental residents.

Our surveys show that over 80% of the respondents want the city to pursue a reparations program at the local level moving forward.

With that, we also learned some valuable lessons.

And from that we held close our interviews with almost all of our grantees and the surveys.

And from what we learned is that the surveys needed to be shorter and some of the community members that survey was just too long for them to complete.

We also heard that we needed immediate feedback loop from our organizations to know when the surveys are completed in real time by community.

Some sessions that they will have would be 40 50 people, but the surveys that were collected were around four to five and they didn't know until after we had our monthly cohort meetings.

And then lastly what we heard from our grantees is that there's a deep level of education that is needed to further understand reparations and to also differentiate the purview between the state, local and the federal level in regards to reparations.

And then moving forward, what we also learned is that continue with this civic engagement outreach is imperative to restoring community trust into government.

What we did was good. It was actually really good, but with full support we can be even better with this program.

It also gives Sacramento a leg up as we continue to be proactive versus reactive in the realm of reparations.

We also have other like Kelly was saying we also have other racial equity projects that will be discussed later on in this presentation that core late with this project.

And to continue outreach to the community that will center communities needs while engaging and involving the community is very important.

And with that, I would like to pass it over to Ralanda from Earth Mama's Hill.

Good afternoon.

Thank you first of all for allowing me to be a part of this presentation.

And thank you for this undertaking because historically this is something that most people thought they would never see the past.

And we were able to bring the hundreds of years of slavery and of systematic oppression that happened after slavery.

And so during our work, we did a lot of focus groups. We did a lot of surveys.

And the oldest person that we survey was 98. That person was born in 1926. And the youngest were like about 14, 15 years old.

And the reason I wanted to point out and being able to do these surveys is that the woman we talked to that was 98 years old said she never in her lifetime thought that anyone would ever discuss reparations in terms of because she lived through all of the systems that were created directly out of slavery.

And I feel like this initiative that you're trying to bring about can help change the hearts and the minds of people who continually living systems where they have been cut out and have not been able to build generation of wealth.

And I just wanted to say it was an honor to be able to do the surveys, to do the focus groups. And that's our PowerPoint. And I really think reparations really is about to repair people around housing, around home loans, around business loans, about schooling.

I know some of us think because they see one or two of us in positions that somehow we have made it. But I'm telling you that's not what is that's not what's going on.

I feel like reparations we need to repair. And I think that will help people change their hearts about how they feel about this system. Thank you.

Thank you so much with that we'll be moving on to the research section of the presentation and first up is Chantal Walker.

And I'm just by saying we were able to secure two grants that helped us do research by having UC Davis graduate students looking into city archives and other source materials.

Their work was really instrumental in helping us understand the deep history and specific actions that have been taken throughout. And Chantal is one of those four students who will be presenting an overview of that research.

Everyone hear me. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank you Kelly for that introduction. I am going to go to this slide right here overview research with UC Davis graduate students.

I would like to briefly introduce the graduate students by last name. So Crawford of Red Phillips, Black and myself. We're all UC Davis history graduate students.

We all looked at how urban redevelopment writ large affected black communities and Sacramento during the second half of the 20th century through archival evidence.

Although we worked on different specific projects all our work intersected with the archives located within the center for Sacramento history which pictured to my right.

So one major project that multiple graduate students worked on including Crawford entailed that affects redevelopment towards the west end by the 1960s.

So the west end is now west of the capital mall during the early 1900s.

The west end was the entrance to what Bay Area Taurus for Sal upon their visit to Sacramento. The historically black area of the west end was part of a larger revitalization effort to change the appearance of the west end into mainly businesses and government buildings.

Part of the effects of the west end redevelopment project forced black residents to relocate other communities including Oak Park and Del Paso Heights.

Another project that black and of Red Phillips worked on included the cases represented by attorney, the Fannio Colley, which provided archival evidence to center the voices and concerns of local west end residents.

And so what I worked on was I worked with as the slide points out with Dr. Troy Williams, the Chief Impact Officer for the Greater Sacramento Urban League.

And I worked on tracing archival evidence on the varying levels of investment within the community of Del Paso Heights after its annexation into Sacramento by the 1960s.

The picture that you see on the current PowerPoint slide is from the former newspaper, the Sacramento Union during the 1970s when two journalists were part of a special issue focused on various concerns of Del Paso Heights residents including housing and lack of street improvements surrounding the historically black neighborhood.

I want to underscore that all the projects worked on by myself and my colleagues show a pattern of resilience that black communities persevere.

But the fun that allowed us to work on such an important project supports and adds to previous scholarship already conducted by Dr. Clarence Cesar and Dr. Lou Bertha Banks.

In conclusion, projects like this illuminate how public history can address the semantic patterns and contribute to resolving historical injustices.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next up we have Lynette Hall, the manager of the city's community engagement team who will be speaking about the two previous grant funded city initiatives mentioned before.

Thank you Kelly.

I'm Lynette Hall, community engagement manager for the city of Sacramento and the Office of Innovation and Economic Development.

Today I'm excited to share with two programs at our Senator on racial equity.

The first is the African American Experience Product project.

I was honored to partner with our historic preservation department at the request of the director Sean DeCorsi, assistant director Henry Fuse, retired former director Carson Anderson,

and together we apply and receive the grant of $50,000 through the National Trust for historic preservation to document the African American experience in the city of Sacramento.

The goal of the grant and project was to acknowledge the racial injustices using history, document black history with an accurate narrative, recognize historic properties that are important in the black community,

challenge misinformation about the black experience and most importantly record black voices for future generations.

We selected page in termbo as our consultant, which are experts in this field.

They brought on Dr. Demani Fisher, an African American native of Sacramento, who was a graduate of C. K. McClatchy, Go Lions, and also UC Davis.

Dr. Fisher's life work has focused largely on the African American history and the Fisher family has been and created a legacy here in Sacramento.

So we felt it was important to include a local leader in this project.

The grant allowed us to create a historic statement, a comprehensive research document, and to collect oral histories.

They are available to everyone. We want we want we all know that no one can tell our stories like we can.

So it was vital to capture the voices and experiences of our elders in real time.

The stories many of us have heard our whole lives. To achieve this, we partnered with Sac State students who helped us work with elders in the community by meeting them where they are.

We created a platform that provided and allowed individuals to tell their stories, capturing them on their cell phones, and submitting them online.

Students visited elders in their homes, and assisted them in navigating their cell phones and recording their stories.

We also partnered with African American churches. And I want to give a special shout out to Henry Fontaine of Shilobaptist Church for going above and beyond.

Through these partnerships, we were able to meet elders in places where they felt comfortable in their homes, at community centers, but more importantly in their churches.

Understanding the importance of best practices, we provided stipends to individuals, churches, and community-based organizations that helped us with this work.

Again, thank you to Shonda Corsi for securing an additional $10,000 to support these stipends.

We also wanted to ensure we were able to break bread together as all meetings were catered by African American businesses.

I am proud to say this project is now award-winning. We were recently recognized by the historic preservation society, and we wanted to ensure that this document is living and breathing, and not just something that sits on a shelf.

Through the leadership of Director de Corsi and my staff, we have been applying for additional grants on behalf of organizations such as the Jorn-or-Truth Museum and Shilobaptist Church.

Most recently, we applied for a $150,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to design a new parking lot, and we'll continue to seek funding opportunities.

We want to make sure that this document can be used to leverage and be leveraged by both us at the city, but also for community, to look for additional funding outside of the city.

Because of the success of this project, the African American Experience Project, we have also been awarded a similar grant to document the LGBTQ experience in the city of Sacramento.

We look forward to winning an award for that as well, but more importantly, sintering their voices and applying for grants for that community.

The second initiative that I would like to talk about is City Start.

This is being led by the community engagement team, and I would like to thank City Manager, Howard Chan, and Assistant City Manager, Mike Jossow, for being bold and supportive of our application for this grant.

I also want to thank Mayor Daryl Steinberg for providing a letter of support, and more importantly for providing Kelly and allowing Kelly to participate as she has been amazing and a great addition to helping us with this blueprint.

This opportunity arose through our partnership with the city's for financial empowerment, and thanks to my amazing staff, Amy Williamson, she brought this $75,000 planning and technical assistance grant opportunity to me.

We partnered with Diversity Equity and Inclusion staff, Amy Barnes and Robert Bell, and we were awarded and funded through the Bloomberg Phil Lathrapies Greenwood Initiative, whose mission is to accelerate the pace of Black wealth accumulation in the US by creating a blueprint that identifies actionable steps based on financial needs of Black residents.

We are a part of a cohort of seven other cities, Baltimore, Cleveland, Monroe, Newark, North Folk, and Rocky Mountain, and last but not least, Tallahassee, Florida.

We are proud, however, to be the core hurt to specifically focus on the Black community.

In focusing on bridging the wealth gap, we examine the factors that have contributed to this, and as NALISES, the city did, showed that African Americans and Sacramento hold the lowest wage jobs.

Therefore, it was paramount that we focus on workforce development, banking access, and home ownership.

The typical Black family holds one-eighth the wealth gap of its white counterpart, regardless of education attainment.

So therefore, without immediate and innovative interventions, Black people will continue to have less economic power and fewer opportunities to thrive.

By examining our history, we must play close attention to the fundamental role that government policies have played in shaping the distribution of wealth, especially regarding the racial wealth divide.

People of color have been impacted by public policies created specifically to limit their rights as human beings and citizens.

These discriminatory policies have often systemically blocked wealth accumulation while opening opportunities and increasing wealth for white people.

Even so-called colorblind policies have been racialized.

Examples are the GI Bill of 1944, allowing, although African Americans who served in World War II were entitled to free college education and subsidized home mortgages, many universities systemically blocked them from becoming students, and real estate owners, brokers, and local ordinances prevented them from buying homes and desirable neighborhoods.

The Social Security Act of 1935 excluded about half of the workers in the American economy, including agricultural and domestic workers, many of those were African Americans.

The homestead Act of 1862 gave American-seeking farmland the right to apply for ownership of government land that accounted to over 160 million acres.

This was given away to 1.6 million white home stethers. All those slavery was abolished in 1865, and the 14th Amendment passed in 1868 enslaved and free blacks could not benefit from these acts.

Last but not least, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, this federal law granted reparations to Japanese Americans who had been wrongly interned in during World War II.

This provided them $20,000 in compensation. For this initiative, the City start with knowledge local government policies such as zoning, land use, and predatory banking practices that have historically disadvantaged black residents.

Our goal is to begin and pass on generational wealth within the black community, but if people don't have high wage jobs that support home ownership or relationships with banks to provide creative financing, it defeats the purpose.

That's why it's important to continue programs like culture, which was funded by the City of Sacramento, and provides first time home owners down payment assistance.

Over the past year, we have met regularly with key stakeholders in workforce development, housing, and banking, and we have drafted a blueprint that will be available for review soon.

Thank you to Ari Green, soon to be Dr. Green on my team, for helping bring this blueprint to the finish line.

The purpose of this blueprint is to create strategies and recommendations not only for the City, but for our key industry partners.

These recommendations and strategies are pending federal, state, and local laws. As we know, the City faces challenges when it comes to focusing on specific protected classes due to the implications of Prop 209 being appealed.

Therefore, grants like these and partnerships with philanthropic entities like Bloomberg allow us to continue this work.

This effort cannot be accomplished without the support of our leadership from both the City Manager, but also the Council.

As reparations have become one of the many recurring themes that have emerged from the care holders, not stakeholders, and are among the many recommended strategies to move forward.

Again, I want to thank my City Manager for supporting this effort, and we look forward to presenting the blueprint in the next few minutes.

Thank you for your time and attention. These initiatives are critical steps towards achieving racial equity in our city, and we are committed to continuing this important work and fostering relationships that will have a lasting impact on our community.

Together, we can make significant strides towards racial equity and economic empowerment in Sacramento.

Thank you so much, Lynette. This brings us to the last section of the landscape analysis for the presentation.

We have two presenters for this one. The first one will be Chris Longson, with the Coalition for Adjust and Equitable California to provide an overview of what's happening at the state and federal levels.

Thank you very much, Mayor and Council and team, and I also want to give a big shout to you, Kelly here.

Kelly has been phenomenal. I think you all know that, and we would not be here without Kelly, so I want to give a big shout out right now.

Right on, right on. Also, I want to shout out to people behind me, all of the community organizations that put in a lot of work, and also the rest of the staff, Army, Robert, I mean, everyone has been phenomenal.

They have represented you all very, very well, and that is being said and felt inside and among the community members that we have been talking to.

I'm here to talk about what's going on at the state level and at the federal level, though.

So I'll start with the federal level, because that's going to be quicker.

So as folks have already mentioned, there has been a bill at the federal level for about 40 or so years now, almost every year introduced and reintroduced, called HR40,

that will create a federal level commission to study reparations and then develop reparations proposals.

That bill was first introduced by John Connures in the 80s, and then I'll take an over by representative Sheila Jacksonly, the late Sheila Jacksonly, who passed away, I think late, I think early this year actually.

And we expect that bill to be reintroduced in 2025, but we're not sure which legislative will be introducing that bill at the federal level.

However, in California, we in 2019 and 2020 did something that the federal government had been trying to do for 40 years, which was introduced and then passed the first ever state level bill to create a state level reparations task force.

And that task force started working in June of 2021, for those of you who don't know, and spent two years from June 2021 to June of 2023 doing three things.

First, documenting the harm, going around the state of California, hearing from witnesses, hearing from community members, and documenting the harm that was visited upon black residents specifically, black American residents who are descendants of people who were enslaved in this country.

That's the first thing this task force did. The second thing this task force did was to work to educate the public. Now, that work is ongoing, but what the task force did to satisfy that work was first to hold something like 16 public hearings across the state in different cities across California Sacramento had about three of those public hearings.

The task force also produced a 1000 page report that really does seek to educate the community about what it learned as it went around and documented the harm that it was working to document.

The recommendations included who should be eligible for reparations what the reparations should be when, where, how. So specifically on who should be eligible the task force decided that those who would be eligible would be residents who are black Americans who are descendants of people who were enslaved in this country or the descendants of free blacks who were living in the United States prior to the year 1900.

The task force also recommended that these individuals be given direct compensation free college tuition that there be a state agency specifically set up to facilitate and implement the recommendations of the task force that a state fund be created to help facilitate funding for the work that the state ultimately would eventually do.

And then the third thing this task force was asked to do was to then of course make the recommendations that I just talked about and then give those recommendations to the governor to the state legislature for them to then implement.

And that's what it did in July of 2023. There was a warm handoff from the state task force to the state legislature and then in the fall of 2023 which was last year the state legislative specifically the state legislative black caucus started to develop policies and bills that would reflect the recommendations of that task force when we hit January one of this year when the state legislative season started something like 20 different bills 18 to 20 different bills.

And then the last thing that I would like to do is to introduce those bills were introduced based on recommendations of the state reparations task force many of those bills right now are either on the governor's desk or we're close to the governor's desk.

And I'll just you know what would be remiss if I don't mention here that you know I'm sure all of you have seen a lot of the press over the last week or so about all the happenings at the capital here with regards to several of the bills that did not make it to the governor's desk.

And I think those are was a part of the groups that have been fighting to get many of those bills to the governor's desk.

Many of us are very very hurt right now because a lot of those bills didn't make it but we are very very determined to see that those bills and those policies ultimately not just get to the governor's desk but pass.

So I'll stop there. That was a lot. And thank you very much.

Thank you so much Chris.

Next up we have Kelsey Liles who will be presenting a little bit more on the local networks and resources and work that's been done by Barhai.

Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Kelsey Liles. I'm the director of health repair at Barhai and I'll give a really quick overview of our government reparations community of practice work which Kelly has been a wonderful participant and also leader in and helping to shape.

We can go to the next slide. Thank you. Barhai is a public health advocacy think tank. One of our focus areas is a campaign for public health and wealth for black health and wealth.

As a movement partner in the growing reparations ecosystem were inspired by the recent progress in the movement nationwide and we're also mindful of the challenges.

Since 2020 in particular over 200 jurisdictions declared racism a public health crisis across our nation.

Hundreds of organizations have endorsed the California reparations task force report to the legislature as Chris was just sharing in 2021.

I'm sure many of you are aware that Evanston Illinois launched the nation's first local reparations program to address disparities in housing discrimination.

And seven local government entities including Sacramento have since then made commitments to reparations across our state.

And so this has informed our key focus on both supporting advocacy organizations on coalition work and legislative change as well as facilitating a community of practice on reparations that is specific to a government audience.

Our focus on a learning network for government is in part inspired by the United Nations framework that illustrates how important it is for government to be an active and informed partner in repairing harm.

We can go to the next slide please. We find that government has a unique role in the reparations movement and champions within government benefit from having a network where they can problem solve issues in real time.

We can also build relationships and also be frank about challenges to building political will and support in their departments and agencies.

So through a number of interviews and conversations with government staff we found that while reparations are unique to the community of eligibility where they're created.

And we found that there are trends that are starting to emerge in the field regarding how government organizations create and ultimately implement reparations programs.

For example, some cities like Boston or the city of Hayward for example have created governing bodies to advise their programs and policies.

And so we found that there are a lot of different organizations that are completing robust research and documentation of harms.

Several jurisdictions such as Sacramento then work to build trust and community support through a lot of stakeholder engagement.

And ultimately all of this information then helps shape the nuances in determining program design eligibility and policy proposals like we saw with the city of San Francisco.

We're here to help facilitate a space for shared learning and problem solving.

We've partnered with folks to launch a cohort model where folks that are working in government or our members of task forces and commissions on reparations participate in a monthly virtual learning series on topics that are emerging in the field across across the nation and also attend an in person annual convening.

This past May we held our first in person meeting where there are presentations by Kelly here with the city of Sacramento alongside government champions from the cities of Berkeley and Los Angeles.

And our hope is to continue to create a space where people are really grappling with the complexities around legal preparation and defense for example.

And also exploring additional funding strategies and public private partnerships for ultimately implementing reparations for the communities that are harmed.

And in closing I'd like to invite all of you on the council to participate in the learning network and to continue to be champions for this work.

We've launched we have also expanded to have more of a national reach with government staff from Boston, Massachusetts, Evanston, Illinois, Denver, Colorado and also Mecklenburg, North Carolina.

So we plan to continue to expand and encourage folks to be active champions for reparations.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Kelsey.

Okay, we have reached the next steps portion which is the final portion of our presentation.

I'd like to introduce to all may Zenzell A Barnes who is the manager for the Office of Diversity and Equity.

Thank you, Amy.

Thank you Kelly.

Hello, racial equity committee members.

I'm so glad to be here with you.

Offer thoughts that we want to highlight in our drawn from the section of the mayoral progress report that was attached as part of this of this meeting and the public notice.

Particularly pages 56 and 58.

And the great work that you've heard about the intentionality and the strategy of where the next phases of this initiative goes.

So we have several thoughts here that just want to highlight.

Engaging with community via this grant process provided valuable lessons that should be considered with any ongoing reparations initiative.

The three main lessons we learned can be summed up in our guiding principles that you will find in the progress report.

To center community in the development of a reparations process and program.

To move at the speed of trust with common community partners and careholders.

To create a reparative process.

Not just aim for reparative outcomes.

Other of these principles help build a new foundation for repairing past harms and building new co-creative partnerships.

Feedback from community members, coalition members.

The grantees confirm that of the most effective ways to overcome the distress that exists between community and government.

It's the center community and the decision making process and to help design the initiative moving forward.

This requires patience and understanding to move at that speed of trust with one another, developing and reinforcing relationships over time.

And so the process is reparative and I want to say plus, plus, plus on that.

The eventual outcomes will be a result of that work.

So it's the invitation to the next mayor engagement during the grant process provided opportunities for both the mayorial candidates and expressing support and commitment for ongoing reparations.

The invitation to the city council additional resolution or other support to be a city initiative versus a mayorial initiative.

For community centered engagement considerations include the initiative is off to a great start.

As you've heard and as we're learning, the community is clear that reparations conversations need to continue by building upon the reparative and community center process that has begun.

We learn that this is still a lot of education that needs to happen around reparations at various levels of government and throughout our communities.

Any reparations and initiatives should continue engaging and working with community in this regard. This is capacity building.

Also, it is difficult to reach everyday residents and in doing so, the great work that our grantees did, that was something that we need to be able to support them in and learn from them and how to do.

So, deepening that reach to everyday residents and doing so requires sustained commitment and effort.

The coalition engagement considerations there include continuing to have discussions with engaged community members and leaders, maintaining connection and participation in monthly, weekly and some of the strategies that Chen Wai offered earlier in the presentation.

You heard a little bit about the great research that UC Davis graduate students did and see if we can get and lean into more in understanding how the impacts can inform a reparative process.

Continuing accessing the data from the survey and maybe peeling it a little bit more and going and diving deep into the survey information that was provided that is also in the progress report that was attached.

The landscape analysis work considerations include there continuing to review the various reparations, commissions, committees and task force that is not only happening within the state but across the country and also understanding the legal analysis and implications that are happening across the country as well.

And how are these reparation programs holding up what strategies have they engaged in to a battle or even deal with legal ramifications or legal challenges and if so, how are they overcoming them, adjusting them, how did they retool and refashion their programs.

So those are kind of the legal landscape. So we're here in some, get the racial equity committee feedback and direction on that research implications on the landscape analysis, legal analysis piece that's being considered in more detail in scope of work that Kelly mentioned at the beginning of the presentation.

And then also following what is happening at the state considerations that Chris lifted up for us.

So our recommendation and direction is that we are seeking feedback and direction to move forward to the full city council with a consent item.

Second that accepts the staff recommendation to use the remaining reparation funds for a comprehensive scope of work that completes the community engagement research and landscape analysis work.

And as a sole source contract with the urban league to be the managing partners since they have demonstrated financial commitment as one of the current research partners and have the unique capacity to support small organization in continued community careholder engagement.

And with that, thank you for your time and attention for the presentation and we look forward to questions and discussion.

Thank you so much. Thank you to all of our presenters. I think we got this done in 43 minutes. So my apologies. It wasn't quite 40. But with that, I'll hand it over to the committee.

Could have gone for 45.

It was Chinoa. It was it was fantastic. I'm going to read a lot of comments, but let's turn it over to the public here first.

Thank you, Mayor. I have four speaker slips for this item. Our first speaker is Kim Stevens followed by Henry Harry.

If Kim Stevens comes coming right up.

And I'll just quickly let the committee know that Miss Kim Stevens was one of the five grantees for the city level reparations community engagement initiative. So we think her for all of that hard work.

First and foremost, I want to say thank you for the opportunity. I want to say thank you Kelly and your team. Robert Bill in Army.

For the great work that we all participated in. It was definitely a task. Thank you to my city council member, my van, who's always there when you call into all of you who are here today.

The Stevens Foundation did participate in this initiative. It was definitely a task. It was the hardest part was reaching out to the community in explaining to them what reparations is and the importance of the survey.

It's not that they don't care. It's that they're frustrated and they need it more information. So as you've heard from everyone, it was that we went, we held me, we held events, we went to events, we tried to connect.

But the time of connecting and completing the survey was just too long and too broad.

So in the future, if we're granted this opportunity, what will be great is if we had the additional information to give follow up, give the survey, make the survey a little shorter, more understanding, and so that we can get engagement from everyone again. Thank you everyone for this opportunity. My name is Kim and I am with the Stevens Foundation. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Henry Harry, followed by Courtney Thomas.

Thank you folks and good afternoon. I'll be brief here. I just like the people in the audience to imagine a place that is clean and safe and free of drugs for our kids, a place that we can build from the ground up.

And that's what we can do with the 102 acres of land in Medavue if this committee and then the full council would grant us this land under a package of reparations and that some people here know I was here last week at the council making that request and I'll keep pushing it in the community.

One of the gentlemen said that Congress has been working on something for 40 years. So we can talk about this for the next 10 years or the next 40 years, but we can also take some action.

This city ought to have the capacity to take a chunk of land and turn it into something wonderful for the African American community.

I'll hit on a couple of topics. I think that you've got to create a large group of African Americans to discuss this. I don't know if we get 100 members or a group or a council, but citywide to discuss these issues and get them moving.

I'm going to suggest to you that you take this PDF of this presentation, condensing into a booklet and distribute it across the city because I think that would be a good thing.

I'll go back to the 102 acres. Maybe I'm dreaming, but my brain is already thinking about the wonderful things that we can do there, how we can educate our community and deal with the issues of housing, education, and crime.

And so when I look across America and it's wonderful history of helping people around the world who suffer, I just think that we ought to be able to do that here in Sacramento.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Courtney Thomas, followed by Sion Tatter.

Good afternoon. Thank you for your time, Mayor and staff. First of all, Courtney Thomas and the senior manager of operations and special projects from CBHA, the California Council of Community Behavioral Health agencies.

And a couple of things I want to be mindful of time is that first off, CBHA is an early and consistent supporter of the enacting legislation that established the reparations task force.

We follow the convenings closely and are proud to be recipients of the Sacramento City Grant. I was going to say this towards the end, but really the staff, Kelly, on me and Robert were really delightful, always helpful, and so committed to this process.

So really commends and kudos to them.

But I'd like to just say that our commitment to LV and the voices of the populations is actualized through this grant.

And to echo my fellow cohort attendee and participant is that when we are engaged with the community and discussing and trying to get these surveys out, it was a little bit challenging to try to convey how important this topic of discussion is to engage in reparations and to have such a limited amount of time when we're out when we're at various mental health.

So we're really looking forward to the engagement of engagement. So if we are moving forward, which hopefully we are, want to be really mindful and engaged of what are we asking from our community, what are we asking and how are we asking them to participate and to be engaged and to receive thoughtful feedback from them.

So all of that to just say is that we want to continue to raise awareness about the opportunity for the black community to benefit from long overdue reparations.

And again, just appreciate to Kelly and to Amie and to Robert for this. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Our final speaker is Zion.

Zion.

Hi, everyone. Thank you for having me again. Thank you for thank you, Mayor and thank you, Kelly and thank you, Robert, for doing amazing job.

And I was, of course, part of the survey team. And I believe that, you know, from that opportunity that you gave me and I'm really grateful that I really believe the survey is the really the important part of really fine.

Really finding what is it our community needs that I believe been so much the state level or the city level is so disconnected to the community, especially the black community that they serve.

So this survey was really able to help us to really identify what is it that community really needs because what I need and what, you know, other community needs is different.

So through that, you know, what the solution is really finding the funds most of our most of our community need fund. They need resources.

They need spaces, healing spaces that we don't have. So this survey were able to really help us identify and connect to the community.

I wish we had more time and more fund really to bring the people really to know what is really they looking for us for the solution.

And I was able to do podcast and as well as, you know, like education and marketing.

So from that, it was, you know, it was just hard for our community even to trust in what we're doing because of the distrust that we have when it comes to the government finding our solution.

But I think I really believe this is the beginning of the solution.

And together, we could really figure out what our community needs and thank you, Kelly, and thank you, everyone, for giving us this opportunity.

Just keep it going. And we'll find the solution for your comments.

Thank you.

Mayor, I have no more speakers.

Thank you very much. Mr. City Clerk, let me turn it over to my colleagues who would like to start Council Member Bang.

Please, coach here.

Yes, I'll start. First, just really want to thank Kelly.

I know this is actually your last racial equity committee meeting.

And I know we're going to be doing some, saying some words and giving you kudos.

But really, this project would have happened without making sure that we had capacity internally to make this project a reality.

So really want to say thank you to you and City staff.

And especially our community members, our care holders who are here today just thank you, everyone who came to present from our City staff to our local leaders.

Just really for all your hard work to get us to this moment.

Also just want to give a shout out to Chris.

Thank you for providing the federal and state status on these efforts.

I think sometimes we're so focused on the local level that we may not be paying attention to what's happening at the state and the federal level that can align with the local works.

So really appreciate you sharing that update.

And then me, thank you for that critical slide at the end, right?

Because we can come up here and present, but what are the key next steps?

Definitely have some comments on the key next step.

But I'm going to make a few more comments before I go back to the next steps.

And then I want to thank Kim and Rolanda and Zion and all the organization that worked with City staff to really engage and educate the community on reparations.

I think Mama Rose said something during her presentation that really spoke to me about how reparation is really about healing and repairing people.

People who have suffered from decades of institutionalized racism.

And so this is really about repairing and healing.

And so really want to uplift what Mama Rose shared with the public and my colleagues on the dias.

I think one of the biggest things that's sticking out for me right now is that this initiative has been under the watch of the mayor, which is amazing.

And I want to commend the mayor for his leadership on this.

But as you all know, he's done in a few weeks.

Three months from today.

He's counting three months from today.

And how we carry this work forward is going to be so important.

And ensuring that we have the institutional knowledge on the city staff end.

I know we have on me, Lynette, the team, I know Kelly before she leaves is going to transition provide all the information.

But you know, that's one of the main thing that I'm really thinking about is ensuring that we move this from a mayor initiative to a full council initiative.

That is, that should have happened sooner.

But I really appreciate the community and city staff repeating this piece in particular.

And I was whispering in coaches air, councilman, regentings air that perhaps what may need to happen as a next step.

I mean, obviously I like to move this item to the full council to vote on this.

But I do think that perhaps this committee along with city staff and the careholders work together on a resolution to make it a city-wide initiative.

And I'll pause there real quick because I do think it needs to be a standalone resolution just given the scope of work and the intensity of what we need to do.

And I say that because I also know in parallel, there's also the racial equity resolution that's going to be presented this fall.

But I actually think the racial equity resolution can have a wear-ass or this work, the reparation work, is just as critical.

We can name that in the racial equity resolution.

But I do believe that the reparation work in itself should have a standalone resolution as well, just given the intensity and the scope.

So I want to just name that and that that needs to happen.

I don't know the time on that. I'm going to look at city staff right at help figure out what that may look like.

But I do think, you know, I will move this item to the full council.

But I do think the next step is ensuring that we create a resolution to turn this into a city-wide initiative.

Before I finish my comments, though, I will also name that we can pass a resolution to name in a city-wide initiative.

But if we don't have the resources to support a staff member like Kelly, it won't happen.

The only reason why this happened was because Mayor used his resources to make this happen.

And so an initiative is great. We're going to do that too because I'm adding that to our to-do list.

But we got to figure out whether that is a full-time staff internally, whether that's an external staff, or whether that's an internal staff.

And on his office that is dedicated to this or else this work will not happen.

And so I just want to say that on record as well. I think those are things that we need to consider as a mayor and council as we move forward on this work.

And really thank you, Kelly. Thank you to the community for all your hard work to get us to this moment.

We have a lot of work ahead, but we can't do this without you. So thank you so much.

Thank you, Council Member Coach here, Bang. Council Member Jennings.

Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Bang took all the air out of the room by letting you know how she felt.

And I did all her on everything that she said. But I couldn't be more proud to be in Sacramento after hearing the presentation that was made today.

I couldn't be more proud to sit here on this committee and to hear what you presented today and to hear your heart.

And not just the words that came off the sheet of paper, but the heart that came out of your mouth.

And that's what I heard. And it just made me glow in and so happy and proud to be a part of what you're doing.

I want to just call out some names. We know Mayor Steinberg and Kelly and we thank them for their role in making this happen.

But from Robert Bill to Rolanda Wilkins to Shantel Walker to Lynette Hall to Kim Stevens to Omni Barnes to Kelsey Laos to Chris Lotson.

And I hope I didn't I hope I didn't miss anybody. I know I probably did, but you know you guys you were just so incredible.

And I believe so much in building a team. And if I were to build a team tomorrow, you'd be my first round draft picks every last one of you.

And I just wanted to kind of acknowledge you for the work that you've done and getting us to this point.

And I won't repeat everything that you said in your presentation, but it just touched my heart to where we are now.

And someone who has gone through civil rights movement and has seen racism directly and marched in the March on Washington and at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Where I grew up to see us at this point now compared to where we were. There's progress. But we can't we can't stop.

We have to keep moving forward. We have to keep pushing the agenda. So you know, I'm I'm willing to if that was a motion that was on the table to move this to the full council.

I'm willing to second that motion with that direction with that direction. I'm willing to second that motion because I think we do need to get the full council involved.

In this process. And I'm willing to do that and put that second to the table. But my whole point I wanted to make to you today is that your work has not been in vain.

It was it's been incredible and it showed today in your presentation. And I thank you for your commitment to this project and just process process that we're going through.

I'm saying there's no time no time to get tired. It's time to continue to endure and to take on the hard task of moving this forward.

I just wanted to acknowledge one more thing. City Attorney let me know that in our office is the nephew of grandson.

I'm sorry grandson of Daniel Colley. His name is Gary Lindsay and he works in our legal office in City Attorney's office.

And I just I can just imagine and I think we all know the great work that Nathaniel Colley did. I can just imagine that his work influence his grandson. His grandson is carrying on that legacy.

And when I look at your work your work will continue through those who are come after you. And so I just want to let you know your work has not been. Thank you so much for all you've done.

Thank you.

Councilor Jennings is always for.

Being so moving in your remarks. Councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you mayor. I just want to did oh instead of reiterating a lot of the thank yous you've said and knowing that this is you know a mayor's initiative.

I think it's important that you know I want to hear your thoughts mayor and your vision as to what you envisioned the next steps and then ask that same thing of Kelly because you have been working on this for so long.

Yes I might have opinions but I'm the newest member here and I think it's more relevant as to this has been something that you've embodied both mayor and Kelly.

Where do you see the next steps and how can I be supportive of that of what your work is.

Thank you councilor. Maybe I'll take a shot at this. I mean I my heart like councilor Jennings and banging cap. I mean my heart's really full here and I can't help.

I do have three months left and will be passing this gaville and this experience has meant so much to me and it's meant so much for so many reasons including the fact that my city.

The city that I love is choosing to tackle the issue of reparations that makes me proud and I want to thank all of you who have been named and excuse me if I don't name all of you individually the grantees the tremendous staff.

Maybe I'll have a chance at the last racial equity committee meeting before I leave to call you all out appropriately by name but today is Kelly's last meeting and by the way even though she's leaving I'm sorry I'm going to take your line here.

She's already drafted a reparations resolution so you know we we get we get a head start here on that and thank you for that.

This woman and this leader is meant so much to my life over these last nine years really because she was my campaign manager so all my critics you can blame can blame Kelly.

She was my manager and we have done and lived through so much together over these years that really mark the pain but also the progress of our city and to hear all of the compliments and the kind words that you know you can tell are not just.

For functury they are very real because of the way that you have a.

Dived into this work with your heart and your head.

It is you have laid a foundation here that is going to pay incredible dividends for this city and its people for many years and decades to come and so I'm going to have more chances to say thank you to you over the next week but let me just say publicly.

Thank you for all that you have done to help me in my mayorship through such challenging times.

All the experiences and the stories that we know and maybe we will share.

Some we may not share and and but today for choosing to transition to this role and breathing life into this in such a profound way so thank you Kelly.

And the work itself I I'm really glad to hear and I know my colleagues the one sitting here at the day us and those who will continue will want to make this a city council resolution we have this system which I talk about all the time with many great people and mayor does nothing alone obviously not.

Not on the city council and and not in the community so I think it's totally appropriate that this becomes a citywide and a council resolution and you know I'm torn on some themes here.

About what is reparations especially from a city perspective I know what it is in my view from a national perspective is that there ought to be a lot of money paid to people who have been victimized by the history of slavery and race racial discrimination in our country which is better but still continues in many respects through today.

At the local government I feel like reparations must be both programmatic but it must be more than programmatic it needs to be embedded in our culture in every single thing that we do in the way we think in the way we act in the way we make decisions that may not seem directly related to reparations but actually is.

And so one of the themes of these last eight years is can this and it's begged here with this report and a hundred thousand dollars soul source and as council member van said well then where is the money going to come for the programmatic initiatives.

The name Nat Colley of course is legendary and I never had the opportunity to meet him and I didn't know that Gary Lindsay was not colleagues maybe I did know and had forgotten but that's really important that that legacy continue the story that I remember from one of my state of the city addresses was how Nat Colley and his family was one of the first African Americans to integrate Southland Park.

And this is not the good part of it that's the great part of the story the not so great part of the story is that the only way they were able to buy the home during an issue of abject overt race discrimination was Mrs. Colley was presumed to be the maid for a white family standing outside and so nobody raised questions in the city.

The moment about whether or not the realtor was going to follow through on the sale of the home to the college imagine this I mean imagine how sick and awful that is and that doesn't happen I don't think as much today certainly not as overtly but we are living with the history and the remnants of this and this is where the question of what is a modern city about.

And what are our responsibilities beyond being a direct service provider has been the debate that we have had in this city for eight years and it's going to continue one could argue rationally but incorrectly that we don't have room in our budget and of course we have deficit room for things other than what we are have been traditionally required to do.

And yet if you look at the reparation issue from a broader perspective around inclusive economic development and investing in neighborhoods and our young people and in the infrastructure for example to attract more high wage businesses with local hiring agreements that are mandatory that pertain to the the young African Americans and other people of color who are living in those neighborhoods.

I would ask how can we not afford to find a way in this city to develop the finance mechanisms and the creativity to have a consistent funding strategy for uplifting the economic future of our communities.

And I hope that this effort as well as the racial equity committee as a whole and the item we're going to discuss in a few minutes about the SCORE initiative is a constant reminder to the future leaders of this city, the president future leaders of this city, that it is not a choice to fail to prioritize direct investments in our traditionally disenfranchised community.

And that's and I hope that in our way here and it's Kelly and it's all of you but in my small way that by saying this is important to the office of the mayor of Sacramento, whoever that mayor is, that this work will not only continue but it will be dramatically elevated because it needs to be.

Great start everyone and thank you. All right I'm tired Kelly go ahead.

Thank you I'll keep this short I want to thank the members up here for the motion so far and council member Kaplan as well for your question I'll keep my response very brief for the sake of time and for other community members on the next discussion item.

But I really am grateful to community that came out today all five of our grantees others from the racial equity alliance and council thank you so much for being here it means a lot as well as city staff that I see her thank you so much I really want to say thank you to you mayor.

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process and ultimately for that resolution to come forward.

We did have the good fortune of a wonderful event that was held by Zeon and Chris, where

both mayoral candidates attended and were asked the direct question about whether or

not they would support and continue to work on reparations initiative if they were mayor.

Both of them affirmed that they would, they gave commences to why that was important,

and they also both affirmed that they would continue to have a racial equity advisor in

the mayor's office, which I'm really grateful for.

That was a position that had never existed before, that mayor you gave the opportunity

to me to be the first, and so I'm grateful that the expectation is that it will continue.

I wanted to share that.

You can also watch that for yourself by clicking on the hyperlink in the 2024 Mayoral Reparations

Progress report.

Thank you for that, Kelly.

Yeah.

And the next mayor to it.

And with that, I'll pass it back over to you for your vote.

Thank you.

We do have a motion and a second on the floor all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

No.

My apologies.

Can we clarify the motion made?

The motion is to move the council with the direction for this committee to work with city

staff and the care holders on the reparation resolution to turn this into a citywide initiative.

That is the direction.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kelly.

Kelly, this is how good I want to double check with you to make sure.

That sounds great.

I can restate the full motion with the original staff recommendation.

Okay.

So the full motion then, and please correct me too, is to move forward to the full city

council with an item we originally set a consent item that accepts the staff recommendation

to one, use the remaining reparations funds for a comprehensive scope of work that completes

the community engagement, research and landscape analysis work, and to do so is a sole source

contract with the urban league as the managing partner.

With the additional direction from council member Vain, co-chair Vain, for the committee,

staff to work with community on bringing a resolution forward that makes this a citywide

initiative.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed abstain?

That's very good.

Let's move to the second item.

I've got to run back for just about two minutes, five minutes, and we'll be right back.

The next item we have is on the score initiative update, and I'm going to hand over to Kelly.

Thank you.

I have members of the community present for that.

I don't have the ability to promote our race forward member Jesse to panelist position

who's attending by Zoom.

But we'll do so, Jesse, if you're listening, just one moment.

Thank you, Kelly, and I'm listening and just testing that folks can hear me.

Yes, we can hear you.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

My name is Jesse B. Alobos.

I'm the senior director for play space strategies at race forward.

And I help lead out our project here supporting the convergence of community and local government

for racial equity and deliverables around the score initiative.

Wanted to thank the committee and city staff for this time today and for the opportunity

for the leaders from the racial equity alliance and the racial equity council to present

an update on the work.

Joining us today will be Kim Williams, Alberto Mercado, and Ryan Clinton, both from the

racial equity alliance and the racial equity council.

And I would also like to thank the other RIA and REC members and attendants and community

members and a special thank you to the folks who worked on the reparations initiative.

Congratulations on your great work.

I would like to provide an overview before passing it on to the members.

Wanted to talk about today just a few themes before we focus hyperly on the recent community

listening sessions that took place over the course of July and August just this summer.

We've come a long way.

And you'll remember back in earlier part of the year in March, we were asked to provide

more detailed reports and updates on the progress of the work.

And we had reorganized the groups into one to actually focus resources on driving toward

the deliverables and the score initiative.

And much progress has been made.

In fact, incredible progress has been made.

Mostly due to the incredible work of the members who have provided hours upon hours of summer

in particular of dedication.

And it's really set us up for success and meeting all the goals of the score initiative.

All members and leaders are deeply aligned and connected now through the strategy toward

these score efforts.

August updates you were, remember, were provided early in August on the work group progress

towards score deliverables, both in the newsletter form to this committee.

But also an update that was given in person at the August committee meeting.

We're driving toward the score deliverables.

We're close to achieved number two, which is the community partnership piece.

And we are on target to offer the resolution for racial equity to the committee next month.

Innovation in this work at the national level, really coming out of much of what's taken

shape here in Sacramento and just want to continue to encourage and congratulate and push

the city to continue to invest in this work knowing that there are many jurisdictions across

the country and leadership and community leaders that are paying close attention to the work

in Sacramento that we're engaged in.

And folks are really depending on the success of this work to inform the local strategies.

On a side note, a hybrid city and community team from Sacramento will be participating

in a national convening on place based focus racial equity efforts.

In November at the national facing race conference in St. Louis, and the focus will be learning

about different approaches to the work of place based racial equity, addressing some

challenges and building a community of practice nationally.

So congratulations on the Sacramento team on that.

Today's report from the RIA and REC leaders will focus on the recently held community

listening sessions, as I mentioned, on racial equity in Sacramento.

There were four sessions held overall, two were virtual and two were in person.

The goals of the listening session included the opportunity to test assumptions, but also

generate and assess promising practices that can promote community-centered partnership

with local government for racial equity.

Also one of the goals was to build community trust and deepen community power for racial

justice by engaging and not only engaging community, but actually positioning community to lead

the solutions.

Three, it offered the city an innovative model and a set of promising practices, which

will actually be a part of the score deliverable number three, that the city can adopt and

continue to strengthen in partnership with communities of color in Sacramento.

So last, I'll ask what, how does this all tie together with the score initiative efforts?

You'll remember last summer's trust-building and true-telling process around this time of

years where we started with the circles.

Those processes continue to inform the current work and practices and also the culture that

we are hoping to co-build with city leaders and our collective efforts between community

and the community, the RIA partnership with the city.

These practices promote community power and foster trust.

Both these processes and outcomes inform the forthcoming resolution and offers insights

to build deeper understanding of community racial equity priorities as we look toward future

work.

So with that, I would like to pass the baton to the racial equity alliance and racial equity

committee leaders and members and to take on the next report.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, racial equity committee, Mayor Steinberg, Council members.

Jesse, I appreciate you for kicking us off and again, thank you all to my racial equity

alliance and council member as well.

I'm going to share a little bit about our vision of purpose as well as some of the outcomes

that we saw throughout this process.

Our vision for a racial equitable Sacramento is one where all residents and communities

feel included in valued.

The racial equity alliance and racial equity council aim to create solutions and policies

with the city that are both rooted in and produced racial equity, so that Sacramento

can thrive with power and purpose.

Most importantly, we want to invest in historically disadvantaged communities, communities

of color who have been targeted by systemic racism across many generations.

We want to implement lies in not just naming the inequities, but building the culture of

partnership with local government so that communities can have, excuse me, who have been most

impacted, help guide the course of how we address historically, historical and systemic barriers

to continue to divide us and threaten democracy to its core.

Residents offer and we agree that ample affordable and quality housing, equitable resources for

education, health and a just justice system can help heal in the United Sacramento.

Ultimately, our vision is a Sacramento where community and government work in deep partnership

to achieve a racial justice, a resilient city where all residents thrive.

Our purpose, the racial equity alliance hosted a series of four community listening sessions

as part of the city's Sacramento standard on racial equity initiative, the score initiative.

Due to the racial inequities that have been historically created and perpetuated by government,

we believe that community ownership and meaningful partnership with local government as in all

policies is needed to develop the racial equity resolution and ensure that the city boldly

prioritizes and invests in racial equity.

The outcomes that we saw, residents across race and geography who are too often left out

and find themselves on the margins of civic participation, find their voice and begin

to see the possibilities in community center partnership with local government.

We want to co-create a local culture where residents will see themselves and their priorities

in these racial equity efforts and therefore want to continue to dream, build and partner

with the city but also hold our city accountable.

Residents, stories and perspectives gathered from these sessions will strengthen and help shape

our joint racial equity resolution as we work to model transparency and accountability to our

communities that we serve. We appreciate this partnership with you all. Without turned over

to our Alberta share a little bit more about our process.

Good afternoon, my name is Alberto Mercado and I'm a member of the racial equity alliance.

Thank you for the opportunity to be sharing. So my piece is going to be a little bit of where we are

right now. So during the summer we had a very, very basic summer with the community members.

We were able to compete complete for racial equity listening sessions

throughout the communities in Sacramento. This was the first run we understand that we still

are in the learning phase and we hope to continue to work with partnership with the city

as we refine and improve this community partnership practices. We are currently working on data

analysis and this is very early data that we're going to be sharing and there's five key points

that I want to share out today. During each of our sessions we were around 120 minutes each of them.

The format included both full group, group, smaller breakout group sessions,

language groups included English and Spanish. We had over a hundred residents participating in

the sessions combined. We also hold two virtual sessions. One of them was World More Community

based organizations. We had close to 50 community based organizations that participated in that

and the demographics were multiracial and primary people of color. We had a very strong diversity

across generation and age. One of the things that we also want to highlight and we want to give a

huge thank you for the support is the city staff because without your support this wouldn't be

a collective success. We want to make sure that we give a special kudos to the office of equity

office of community engagement. The offices of the mayor and council member may vang

because they offer a promising demonstration of racial equity values in practice. They showed up

in service to our community, invested their time for careful preparation and offer their

expertise when asked. Thank you for your collaboration city partners. Without you we couldn't

have done this. There's a few key learners and key takeaways that we want to share with you and

you will be able to get a preview in the community partnership and accountability report that

will be coming later this year. A few of them are the model that we implemented allow us to gain

initial trust with residents and promote adapt to the resident conversations. This community

partnership and accountability model constitutes a set of new and emerging racial equity practices.

This gives us the approach with which bills community power and voice and will be and will

continually improve as we put into more practice. Much of this experience is new for the RIA and

RSE members and we expect that the city is also something new that we're embarking on and we

will continue to learn from that. Another thing is that this process also presents opportunity for us

to address gaps such as more to be more effective, to do more community outreach and resident organizing,

to know our tech capacity and limitations and our ongoing work to deepen trust among the RIA,

the REC and the city staff and the members of the community. Now pass it over to Kim.

Good afternoon. It's been a while since I've been in front of you all. I'm happy to be here.

I will say before I start my piece that one of the reasons this work getting involved in this work

was so important to me is I sense I think I told you mayor that when we first started this I said I

feel this is going to be different because we've done initiatives, we've done these things

in the past and they've never come through and I think one of the things that makes it different

is because I could honestly say there's partnership which we city and community and we just don't

see that often. So I'm really I'm really still excited. I mean it's been some ups and downs don't

get me wrong but I'm really excited about where this this is going to take us and then listening to

our folks on the reparations side. I'm like there's there's so much potential what Sacramento can do

and what we can be and if we stay the course. So with that we did do our listening sessions and

there is some data that came out of that and I will say we've done some early work. We're still

compiling everything because we have people doing dots and sheets and stickies and so take some

time to pull all that together but what we're seeing is some of our priority issues that have

surfaced have really been housing justice which I'm sure is no surprise. More affordable housing,

available housing, quality housing, investment in Sacramento youth, more equitable resources and

supports opportunities and economic justice. Living wage, more economic, more equitable employment

and investments in people of color owned businesses. Some of our additional learnings have been

there's a deep we learn so much and we had some elders in our spaces and some of the knowledge

that they share was so deep and the expertise that they have on history and issues that they've

dealt with on racism were really powerful and we really want to be able to capture that. And so

and they and they told us like this is the first time we've had these kinds of discussions and we

need to have more and how do I be a part of this and so it really set us up for you know as we

start thinking about the future how do we continue to gather that. Definitely a difference between

the zoom and the in-person sessions the person sessions were rich we had wonderful discussion.

The zooms were very difficult to do that and you know I'll dare mention a little bit about the very

last one I know it was everybody was we had bots in our zoom space and so you know first we got

excited like oh there's like 600 people that are going to show up and like no they're not they're

fake people but we still ended up so weeding the bots out in the city staff did an amazing job

helping us weed bots out so that we could get to real people and so but we definitely realized

the difference between having in-person discussions and what that means on zoom. Residents were pleased

with the experience they asked really a lot of questions around when are we doing this again

when are we coming back how do we stay involved and so I think as a group we really need to look

at how we want to keep folks engaged in this work. Our next step and where we're going with this

is finishing up the data analysis so that we can give a full picture of what came out of the

listening sessions. We do have a fall timeline the city's trio group is going to be getting

together to finalize the resolution. Our group that racial equity alliance has been working

over the last year and trying to put some things together taking the information from the past

resolutions draft that had been put together and then looking at talking to folks and really

untrying to get an understanding of what really needs to be included so we're going to workshop

that with each other very soon before it comes to you all so we that's scheduled to happen on

October 10 and in the days following we'll have it ready for the y'all's review and then the

accountability to community that's the other piece that we really want to spend some time in the

coming weeks is really developing that feedback and communication loop so that the community can

definitely be aware and have voice and feel like they're a part of this work many of them asked

about wanting to come when it got to the council that they could come in they you know how do

they get to know what what we what they shared with us ended up or that thought process ended up

in where we went so we want to make sure that we figure out a way to make sure that that happens

so people that do feel like that they were heard and we listen to them and again it's all about

trying to help continue building the trust with community. So again we want to say thank you

just you guys have been amazing Kelly you know it still hasn't sunk in yet but I won't be seeing

you all the time but I'm sure we'll hit me at some point but it's been it's been a wonderful

opportunity and I look forward to continuing this work with all of you and seeing what we can really

do to make Sacramento the place that needs to be for everybody. Thank you thank you thank you so much

really appreciate it do we have public testimony? Thank you mayor I have no speaker slips

so I just want to say one thing about I mean obviously kudos again to community driven process and

yes there was a point in time maybe six or eight months ago where you know it was one of those

inflection points for for everybody where we go is this really is this really happening you know

frustrations all ends etc and then what happens sometimes when you stick with it we all stick with

it is that boom you cross that tension point and then you're on your way to create something great

and I think that's exactly what is happening here so I want to say this in the right way I really

would love to see this resolution come to the city council before I leave office and it's not at

the it's not the end of the world if it doesn't really because who cares in a way I mean

get it let's just get it done right and and I know that the next mayor whoever it is is going to support

this and the work that you've done so I just want to say that because there's pressure and sometimes

the pressure is good because you know when you when we all have deadlines it makes us then get to

the point in time but I don't want this it's not about me I don't want it to be about me I'd like

to get it done before we leave but let's make sure that we get it done right okay thank you uh

Rick Cancer Jennings sorry so you asked the question who cares and I'm raising my hand I care

I want to get it done while you're here I want to make sure that we do this and bring it forward

to the full council while you're here so you can see this move on under your watch so I I care

and I'd like to see that happen I think most of us in this room would like to see that happen

so great report um miss Williams I wanted to ask you a question if you would do me the kindness

of coming back to the microphone um and I hope I'm I hope I didn't miss this in your presentation um

so the responses from our elders to what they've gone through as a result of racism and

discrimination and lack of housing lack of jobs lack of education their comments

is there any um desire to take those comments and share them with the broader public

is for as like having the Sacramento uh observer potentially do something on a dedicated issue

um long as they had permission from each one of the speakers I'm just wondering is there any way

to take what that rich history and be able to share it with the world and has that been thought

about we have not met as a group to have that discussion yet that's on our agenda to have that

discussion um I definitely will bring it to the group I do mean me personally I feel if they're

agreeable to it uh we could definitely put some things together we had notetakers in all of our

groups so hopefully we captured um in writing a lot of those things so that we could be able to um

have that posted up you know of course we could also easily put things together that share history

without using names but saying you know maybe was you know from resident who lived here for 65

years and just use some quotes and some sound bites from some of that we can definitely look

into that once we get um go through all the notes to see what we can pull out I can definitely bring

that back to the group I was strongly recommended um I happened to have a mother-in-law who is

95 years old 95 years young as she says and um to be able to listen to her stories

has enriched our lives and the lives of our our grandchildren and our children um and so

we have that at our disposal because we can go there and knock on the door as long as she's still

here with us but for those who don't have the ability to hear from their elders this would be a

wonderful way of hearing what they went through and how they wanted to make sure that life was better

for each person that came after them and so I would be more than happy to get involved and help

find a way raise some money whatever it takes for us to be able to put some publication together

that told the rich history that they shared with with each one of us.

Definitely and now I think that's a wonderful idea that we can definitely figure out a way to

consider that because we've also talked about how we're going to go back and continue engaging

people so that might be an opportunity for us to use as a way to continue bringing folks into

the process. Chapter one chapter two chapter three chapter four so like I say we can go from a

magazine to a book and from a book to a documentary but I just think it's a wonderful opportunity.

I just wanted to kind of put that on on on everybody's mindset. Okay thank you.

Okay I'm next I'll I'll take the initiative mayor. You can have a moment. I want to thank race

forward with facilitating all the work from the racial equity alliance and racial equity council

as well as under your leadership Kelly you know during the April 30th meeting I think that was

a pretty tough one if we were saying we want to move a little faster we were saying things but not

a lot of implementation and you know we've really seen you pull things together to work

since then and I know there has been a lot of investment to build the momentum and as you've

talked about having these works working groups and maximum maximizing capacity to build trust

because to get to the information you know it is about building trust and as an aside if you

haven't seen the racial equity sack dot org website it is up and it shares ways to engage which

I am happy to share in my community because I think we need to continue to cast a wider net

and get more engagement so I want to just bring up one concern though and I have already

expressed this with Kelly you know you did host two in-person working groups and two virtual

I had one of my staff who is an individual of color attend one of them the moderator is of concern

for me because they made comments of getting in the face of elected officials and having no problem

holding them to account but also making my staff feel very uncomfortable when they express what

the purpose of their attending the meeting was and the moderator forcing them to get involved

moreover only two of the seven questions did the group actually get to so then that when we talk

about trust when I hear back from my staff that the full discussion of information that we're wanting

and you're wanting to gather that that small working group only got through the first two general

questions it's of concern to me because when you look at the other questions you wanted to get to

those are what I really want to hear where the community is but how that moderator created a

room of creating it very uncomfortable for my staff makes me concerned and so I think further

engagement but also double checking and and and looking at what happened in those rooms and was

note taking actually accurate and being aware that some moderators made individuals feel very

uncomfortable to participate which I know is not your intent but that did happen and I think it's

important that we discuss it because it is about building trust and about getting that honest

engagement so for me I have expressed that concern and and do want to see how we can further

address it and that we make sure the engagement and the questions and the feedback that we get

are honest so again I know this was one incident but it did cause me concern but I want to thank

everybody for the work you're doing but just continue to encourage continuous community feedback

and honest dialogue but being aware of you know that's safe space should include everybody thank you.

Thank you councilmember Kaplan councilmember van thank you mayor really just want to thank

race forward and our racial equity alliance and council for all of your hard work to get us to this

moment also appreciate councilwoman Kaplan raising that issue I wasn't aware that that happened but I

do think perhaps the follow up with the racial equity alliance and council may be good with councilman

Kaplan I will say that my staff also attended one and we had a very different experience right and

I'm hoping that that one incident is not reflective of the entire work that they've been doing for

several months and years and so but that is concerning and I want to name that and center that and

hope that the alliance and the council will follow up with councilwoman Kaplan on that issue in

particular but I I was at one of the community meeting and we went through all of the questions

in in the group that I participated in and it was really robust but we want to make sure that you

know that moderation is consistent that's important right for the data and so appreciate councilwoman

Kaplan for bringing that up I think one thing that just wanted to share with you is I wanted to share

with the mayor my colleague is that my understanding is that we are on track to get this to the

racial equity committee for vote and to the full council for vote before the mayor leaves so

according to a timeline that I received and I think it would have been helpful also if we had

presented that timeline because I think it would have just reaffirmed to my colleagues because I

did get an email kind of sharing a little bit about the timeline but just to let you all know

the next racial equity committee meeting is October 29th which is about a month and a couple

weeks from now and hoping that that data will be done and a draft resolution will be brought forth

on at the next racial equity committee and then we will have a discussion about that whether there

are any edits that needs to be made and anticipating that sometimes in November if we decide on a date

based on working with the city clerk and our city staff to get a resolution to the full council

sometimes in November before the new mayor and council is sworn in in December and so that's my

understanding so just wanted to reiterate that timeline as well and just say a great job on the work

and again councilman Kaplan thank you for bringing that up because I wasn't aware of that but I

trust that the alliance and the council will follow up with your office to address that so thank you

so much. Yeah Jesse Vialobos did you have a comment on council member Kaplan's concern?

I did and I just wanted to speak from my from my experience in the preparation for this

councilperson Kaplan I appreciate you you sharing this news it's disappointing but I do want to say

that I witnessed the fact that many of the process is leading up to the sessions there were some

deep careful planning and preparation particularly preparing the facilitators and the note takers

to show up in the spirit of our values with community and so that was really at the heart of

the planning and so it really troubles me that that experience happened with your staff person

I also want to say that you know and our work to explicitly name the role of government and

creating the current structure of racism that communities experience it's oftentimes just you know

we don't we we lack the language publicly we lack the practice of talking about

race explicitly publicly and it does cause some discomfort and so I just want to acknowledge that too

and then the last thing I wanted to say is just that the focus of these sessions was really about

centering community and I think there was I wanted I want to take a little ownership but I know

that the racial equity alliance and council wanted to offer some some kind of tips and suggestions

for the way that city staff and elected officials show up in these spaces just again in the spirit

of these values are on racial equity and I think they made those those expectations clear and maybe

it wasn't enough lead time maybe there wasn't enough contextual information to kind of make that

real for folks but I wanted to take some acknowledgement in terms of maybe we need to get that out

in a more explicit way and maybe have more conversations with with staffers and officials before we

dive into these public meetings I think that's helpful I mean if I may on this you know anytime

there's conflict there's the opportunity for a teaching and a learning moment and and so you

know we had to use this such that I appreciate you bringing this forward and you know these are

I really think a lot about this and obviously been confronted a lot with it over these eight years

when public officials first of all being a public official or a public official staff is not for

the faint of heart neither is being a community activist who cares about changing systems that

seem impermeable to change okay so we're all we're all in it together right I struggle sometimes with

where lines are and whether it's even appropriate for me as a public official to try to define a

line right like when somebody I feel like somebody is overly harsh and toned to me is the mayor

I take offense to that and I'm told then but that's an expression of pain and so I listen to that

and I hear it but I do think that there is more work to be done to step into one another's shoes

and how to be more effective with one another because in the end we are in the business there's

politics here in the way in the in the best sense of the word where we're trying to build coalitions

the broadest coalitions possible to move really important work forward and we never want it to be

distracted or diverted because somebody feels on in any way from any any corner that they've not been

treated with with respect and so there's more to there's more to peel as they say on these issues and

I really appreciate you bringing it up because it's not popular maybe not even right to say well

you don't know what an elected official or a elected officials staff member goes through but it is

I think it's important that we talk about how we how we talk to one another always okay yes please

this is not prepared or scripted but I do feel I feel that very similar to you this is a learning

moment for a learning moment as we cultivate curate embed a culture of learning what I would love

to say for all of us here that as we work and as that happens I would have loved for us to all hold

that space for that staff member and for us to feel that we could reach out to you in your office

and and I just sorry to interrupt I just want to say I did bring this up to Kelly and was told to wait

for a conversation or somebody would get a hold of me and they have not so I notified a couple

weeks ago and nothing has happened since then so we are been open okay and I have been waiting

but I we are here at this committee and I have not and I just want to make it really clear my staff

knew they were to there to go as a note-taker and not participate but were put in a situation a

force to participate so that's what made them feel very uncomfortable right and and and again

and that's why I felt compelled to come up because moving forward I think let's set expectations

about how when any of us are in that space that we have a kind of an expectation and a process

to reach out to each other so because I felt our office could have helped with that as well

because that's how we're going to embed this culture of true partnership so thank you for lifting

it up I think one of the learning moments too was the roles of note takers and facilitators so

that was a learning moment in that process and that was something that our alliance and council

members highlighted but I would love for us to maybe as a follow up to this and our team can

spur it on talk with Kelly talk with our alliance and our care holders and alliance and the council

about and Jesse and you and Nora talking about when that kind of outchappens it's like a touchstone

it's like a agreement learning agreement when that outchappens that we can collectively come together

and talk about it so that we can really all learn and I also want us to also make sure that we

and that's not necessarily coming from you council member Kaplan but I think all of us are still

grappling with the lines council council staff community care holders and those lines need to be blurred

if we're going to truly be in this partnership and understanding how we can support each other

in this because we're probably going to step in it again just being very real about that and so

that for me I felt very moved to just then I don't normally do that but I really wanted us to think

let's as we do this reflection and as we come to this resolution let's think about how we interact

on an interpersonal individual level so but I would love to follow up with your office and your staff

as well so we'll do that thank you excellent thank you so much assistance city manager millstone thank you

I mean you say unscripted be you played thank you you said a table for me because your words of

partnership and blurred lines and that's what this has been from the beginning we without Kelly

without Allison sitting in the audience without azalee without the crazy writing sessions that we

had in that back room without being able to hand off to race forward into the alliance and the

council we wouldn't be here and I'm going to quote Kim twice I hope she's paying attention first

she said something to the effect of paraphrasing this seems real and I think it's real and different

this time because of the partnership because of a partnership we've not had on prior initiatives

because this is so different with with the elected site and staff and I hope that that continues even

in whatever resolution we bring forward whoever owns this initiative that it continues to be a

partnership because without that partnership on this side of the day us I don't think it will

continue to move the same way it has moved and then I want to end in quoting Kim again because she

sends something amazing to me I wrote it down it said making Sacramento the place it needs to be for

everybody that's it that's it I think that's appropriate is the last word here today too if if nobody

minds thank you to all of you Kelly thank you again all right Allison thank you we are a journey

what oh I have no public comment so sorry there were two quick committee comments one was just to let

you know you had requested at our last meeting in August for the draft urban forestry plan to

come back after a legal analysis they requested to come back in October because of the time that it

would take and so that is being a report back for October okay okay that's all thanks hey now we're

really a journey thank you everybody so my fault

yeah

hi