Okay, good morning everyone. I like to call our racial equity committee meeting to order at 11.06.

Madam Clerk, would you call roll to establish Cora?

Good morning. Can I have Council Member Gooderra?

Here.

Council Member Jennings will be absent. Vice Mayor Telemontis here and

Sherving. I am here. Thank you so much and we will miss Council Member Rick Jennings.

He sends his apologies because he's actually speaking at a funeral today and so I just wanted

to share that with the community. Our land acknowledgement, Vice Mayor Telemontis, would you help us

with our land acknowledgement and the pleasure of allegiance?

Okay, please rise for the update acknowledgments on our Sacramento's Indigenous people in Tribal land.

To the original people of this land, the Nisanan people, the southern Maidu,

Vowelian planes, Meewak, Patwin, Wind 2 peoples, and the people of the Wilter Ranch area.

Sacramento is only federally recognized tribe. Maybe acknowledge and honor the native people

who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather

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

people's history, contributions, and lives. Thank you.

Salute.

Flag.

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

stands one nation and the God and the people with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Happy Tuesday, everyone, and welcome to the first

racial equity committee meeting of 2025. It's not our first meeting, but just wanted to welcome

everyone. We do have an item on consent, which is our minutes. Madam Clerk, do we have any

comments on our consent calendar?

Thank you, Chivang. No, we do not.

Okay, thank you so much. Is there a motion on the floor?

Okay.

All right, please call the vote.

Vice Mayor Talmantez.

Mayor Pro Temkereta.

Councilman Chinese has gone and Chirvang.

Yes.

That motion passes. And then we will move to public comments.

Okay.

Well, in that case, we will go straight to our discussion calendar.

And we have one item on discussion. This is an overview and updates of the city

y racial equity efforts that's been happening in the city. We thought that this would be a really

important presentation given that we have new members and returning members

on the racial equity committee as well to kind of reground ourselves on the work that we've

done in the past couple of years, the short-term goals, the midterm goals, and the long-term goals.

So with that, I am going to hand it over to me who is our diversity equity manager in the city

of Sacramento.

Great. Thank you. Good morning and happy new year.

Racial equity committee members and vice mayor. Also, good morning to city staff and

care holders that are in the chambers and watching online. I also want to acknowledge that

is today is the eighth annual National Day of Racial Healing. So it's great that this meeting

is happening as we embark on the year ahead. My name is Amiz Zalai Barnes, pronouns are she

and they. And I'm here with my colleague, the Risa Wall, Strategic Work for Equity Analyst.

And we're going to go over high level overview and updates and then kind of round out with a

discussion. So quickly we'll just go over some resources that we have for you framing the discussion.

We'll go into the history and purpose of the Racial Equity Committee overview of internal

efforts to advance racial equity and highlight some external efforts. And then we'll round out

our discussion and time together talking about the mandatory diversity equity inclusion,

belonging racial equity training for elected officials, council staff, and appointed officers.

So in terms of the framing of the discussion, really wanted to highlight I'm going to quickly go

through these and not speak to them, but really wanted to make sure that you know that these are

concepts and definitions to help you center our collective leadership and impact. It also helps to

be a reference for you in applying a racial equity lens and how that applies to our work as decision

makers at all levels with our care holders in applying an intersectional lens. So it's not just race.

Also aligning our approach and efforts to achieve racial equity through systemic change.

So these slides will be, of course, will be archived, but they'll also be on our webpage for

resources so that the care holders and community have these as resources in addition to the

resolutions that were passed late 2024. So we'll go right into the history and purpose of the

racial equity committee. The mission of the racial equity committee is for the city council to align.

It's intent to advance racial equity and the decision making provide a space to help coordinate.

And I would also say learn the various city racial equity strategies, efforts metrics and best

practices in addition to increase engagement at all levels, transparency and accountability

for the ongoing work that is happening through the city. So some of the stated purposes which

chairvang spoke to short term was to provide direction and development of the interim rapid response

tool that was in 2021 to our American Rescue Plan Act expenditures. And you can see that actually

on the community dashboard that is there for the expenditures which is great and there's a complete

section on equity and how that work happened midterm coordinate racial equity workshops and

series of racial equity workshops. And we'll talk a little bit more about that towards the end.

And then long term is the ongoing reporting of the multi year initiative called SCORE Sacramento

centered on racial equity and the work plan initiative. So in terms of the short term mentioned

the community investment dashboard. So you could take a look at that midterm the mandatory training

for elected and appointed officials passed with the report back on the baseline learning assessment

today. You'll learn more about that. And then the intent and has and the intent continues as

ongoing workshops will be developed through 2025. Long term just wanted to kind of highlight

the SCORE initiative. This is work that has been done with the race forward organization to facilitate

community led process and develop a co-governance model. Race forward just for making the connection

is the home of the government alliance on race and equity. And that is a national initiative that

we are part of. It is a national network of local to federal government working to embed racial equity.

Also long term wanted to highlight tasks that we have been engaged in over arching tasks one

developing truth telling and trust building circles that happened in summer 2023 developed and

implemented community listening sessions and finalized the racial equity resolution. That took

place the community listening sessions through 2024 and you all adopted along with the full council

the resolution on December 3rd. The two next steps really of our ongoing work for 2025 and beyond

is to develop partnership and accountability strategy to center communities as well as to co-create

the citywide racial equity work plan. And this entails having a co-governance model.

And now I will turn it over to my apologies there is one more midterm. The midterm is the mandatory

D.I.B training and I really wanted to highlight for new members. Last year the work took place

in 2023 we started with a resolution that was passed mandating for transparency D.I.B racial equity

training for elected officials, council staff and appointed officers. We then developed a learning

baseline assessment and launched it and had nearly 100 participation in it by the fall of 2024.

It was huge undertaking and so that learning baseline assessment is actually being used by I

believe about four departments right now in training staff. So it's really having an impact on

city staff as well which is great. And as part of that that work informed the training that we did with

CPS HR consulting which you'll hear more about and then we'll talk a little bit more about what

part two is which is the racial equity focus training to be anticipated to complete in 2025.

And then I'll hand it over to the Risa for internal.

Good morning. So again just a quick overview on GARE because that is really central to

and foundation to a lot of the internal work that we do. A national network of government

agencies working to achieve racial equity. It's over a core network of over 400 member jurisdictions.

They have an online resource library and many of our employees are part of that online community.

And as Ami mentioned it is an initiative of race forward. But really central to our internal

workforce diversity and equity efforts is our race and gender equity action plan which originally

was slated to go from 2020 to 2025. We can talk about that a little bit later about what are next steps.

But the real the central goal to the RGAP is to have the workforce reflect the city to better serve the city.

And just wanted to give you all a little bit of a timeline of where we started with

the race and gender equity action plan which began in 2018 as part of a GARE learning cohort.

So there were representatives from across the city that were appointed to this cohort and it

went from August to December and that cohort really helped to design the plan that we are

implementing today citywide. They went through a six month training to develop a racial equity

statement which you saw in the beginning of this presentation in which lives on the website

and a racial history of Sacramento. And they identified major themes of workforce equity

in 2019. So you can see the RGAP was drafted in 2019 and finalized in 2020. The City Manager's

Office executive team reviewed the drafted 14 outcomes and actions and published that race and

gender equity action plan. Really launched in 2020 but when the pandemic hit there was a

restructuring and rethinking of what that looked like. I think things took a little bit longer to

come online but the department equity teams were formed in 2021 and for the last couple of years

have really been engaging in learning themselves. Looking at the plan, doing an assessment as

I said there's the learning baseline assessment that there was actually a 43 equity point

assessment which is similar that the teams went through to better understand where there were

opportunities for growth and gaps and then looked at the plan to identify which of the 14 outcomes

they wanted to work on as a department. And every department is unique in its size, its role,

its culture and its needs which just wanted to emphasize and was designed to involve folks who

have a strong motivation and interest in learning racial and gender equity concepts and approach.

And they are really now leading the department's work around moving the RGAP goals and outcomes

forward. And equity teams are encouraged to look at areas of growth and identify specific

ways to work on systems change at the department level in partnership with their department leadership.

So over the last couple of years we've hosted annual equity teams convenings provided a bit of

an update in 2023 and we are planning to do a larger public for the first time a large public

update in the coming months. So you'll hear more about that in the future.

And again what's happening now we are continuing to engage the executive team to drive this work

which is really crucial we need buy in from the top to the bottom of the department.

We are building off of a citywide year long listening tour that we did last year

and we are going to be creating a series of capacity building and training for employees this year

that's called developing equity leadership through action as well as ongoing capacity for

building for equity teams through those annual convenings that I mentioned but also through

workshops and round tables we recently actually had the city auditors.

Office team present the diversity dashboards and show folks on the equity teams how to engage

with them and how to utilize them in their equity plans as well as our annual 21 day racial

equity happy building challenge just to name a few of those efforts. And as I mentioned we are

preparing to launch our first public update which will be published on the website with annual

progress reports from all of the department equity teams and we'll be presenting that update

at the March or May racial equity committee meeting. And I just wanted to give a high level

overview of the Sacramento area protesters network which I helped to organize with a couple of

other colleagues across outside of the city. It is a network that is recognized and supported by

Gare. Gare is really investing in local regional groups to do the work of racial equity.

We've brought together colleagues from across the region city, county, state, and other of these

connected organizations and we have quarterly meetings that are hybrid to really strengthen our

own work together and to learn one from one another and it's been a really wonderful resource and

I look forward to continuing to have us participate and to bringing a lot of that learning to the city.

And I'm going to hand it back to me for an overview or external efforts to advance racial equity.

Okay so here on this slide you see an overview of the efforts but I really want to highlight this

is not necessarily exhaustive. This is what we know and we chose because these are some of the things

that you have learned here at the racial equity committee but this is by no means exhaustive of

what city departments are doing across the city to advance equity racial equity. But a couple

I wish to highlight because I think for the benefit of you all it will, the ones I want to highlight,

you will hear reports of, it will impact your work and it will keep us moving forward. The first

one is the Sacramento Equity Explorer Design GIS tool. That tool is an internal and external tool to

help decision apply racial equity lens. We have done presentations at Measure L, Measure U,

and other departments. It is also being utilized and highlighted as a tool for the Budget Equity

Tool which is being worked and applied by departments currently in developing the fiscal budget.

The Budget Equity Tool, this is the guide to apply racial equity lens that this committee has

called for over the last year. It is, we began looking at applying equity lens on budget

reductions for fiscal year 2425 and we are moving for 2526 also with an expanded application

over the next couple of years and that was a direction from this committee. And then the last

thing that I want to highlight is the two resolutions that were passed in December for the operating

racialized equity, operationalizing racial equity in the city of Sacramento Government resolution.

That work is central to the advancing the work of score and the tasks that I highlighted.

This you will be receiving as follow up from the racial equity committee on October 29

and direction at the city council is the infrastructure around how that happens,

what's the work plan, what resources could we currently tap into, what can we leverage

in moving that work forward knowing the fiscal landscape. And then the other resolution which is

the repair resolution which is the citywide resolution to continue to explore. I want to highlight

underscore explore reparations and what that looks like in the city of Sacramento.

And then we'll close out with the research on the mandatory training.

I just wanted to share something that I forgot to add that I want to make sure to share with you

with the what's happening now that our human resource department has implemented many efforts to

further workforce diversity and equity. The latest is an expanded gender identity option in the

city's human resources and payroll system which we're very excited about to include a gender

identity of non-binary and please see the staff report for a full detailed list if you have any

questions of all of the human resources department efforts. So a little bit about the completed

training which many of you have participated in the first part of the training was really

targeted and on diversity equity inclusion and belonging and was a series of sessions focusing

on cultural intelligence and that was with CPS HR consulting. We completed 14 sessions

including the mayor and the past mayor council in triads so groups of three who completed three

sessions of 90 minutes. There were one day trainings for the council staff separated into supervisors

and non-supervisors and then there was a cohort of appointed officers. Coming up the clerk's

office is currently working with CPS HR consulting on a new contract to complete part one of the

training which will include a new mayor and the two new council members as a triad and the new

council staff and includes those council staff who are and Laney and our interim city manager

and includes those council staff that were unable to make the past sessions so after this hopefully

the next couple of months everyone will have completed part one. And then moving forward the next

steps are part two which is really diving deeper into operationalizing racial equity specifically

in city government given that your roles are very unique. So we published a request for information

or an RFI through planet bids to better understand a possible scope of training and we received 30

submissions which is wonderful. So the next steps are to read those submissions to help us develop

a scope of work and the recommendation is to create an RFP and move forward with an RFP process.

And just an update on costs all of these were included in our last presentation on the update

on the mandatory training but the final billing from CPS HR was $28,630. That does not include the

cost for the lunches for the one day trainings but approximately $30,000 was spent of the original

$50,000 that was allocated from the mid-year funding so there's about $20,000 remaining but just

to give you a sense of how much that first part one the cost of that first part of the training

and some things to consider when we're looking at the RFP process is need to identify funding

the amount that we want to include in the RFP and a contract who will be part of the review panel

and process and to confirm the timeline which we have proposed as the following. So we would hope to

read through the RFIs, prepare an RFP to launch mid-March and then move through interviews of

applicants by mid-May have a contract by June and then working through August through October

which is similar to what we did this past year and then have everything complete by the end of

the year. So again this is just that potential timeline and we can discuss that a little bit more

and are open to your feedback and questions on this. And I think that concludes our presentation.

I'll leave up the potential timeline if you have any questions for that and we can go back to

any part of the presentation that you might have questions for. Thank you.

Great. Thank you so much on me and Laura Estelle. I really appreciate the high overview of all of

the incredible internal work we've done as a city externally and I would say we're just barely

scratching the surface of this work. I absolutely just want to say thank you so much for everything

that y'all have done and appreciate the overview because we do have new members on the committee

who's dedicated to equity and racial justice and I want to give a shout out to Mayor Pro Tem

Eric Guerra because he started this work before Vice Mayor Talimontes and I actually came on

the city council way back in 2017 and so I want to just appreciate his leadership that racial

equity work isn't something that happens overnight and it's an ongoing process to really disrupt

the system that we have now and to make sure it's working for all of our families. And so with

that why don't we take because we have two public comments why don't we take public comments first

and then I do see my colleagues in the queue for questions. We actually got one and more additions

we have three today and the first one is going to be Lambert. Good morning Mr. Lambert.

First of all I would like to say congratulations to Chair Mai Vang and also Eric Guerra. I'm glad

to see they're still involved with this because this is a it's not complicated it's just a matter of

things that are dug in and it's called systemic and just systemic when the systemic is very

difficult to to remove because a lot of people benefit from it being systemic. Now the only reason

I'm here is because my family and the Millennial Army I have with me contacted me I was on the road

because our cheesecakes have gone viral all over Northern California now. I mean I really don't

understand social media but I'm getting a hang of it now because these Millennials and young

people during the pandemic somehow they found me and they told me this is what you need to do

and this is what you need to do with City Hall and so I said well why don't you go down there and do it

well it's not easy to come up in front of this podium and talk to City Hall like I do but I have a

clear conscience. This I keep hearing and I will end because I'm going to come back for public

comments but I learned long time ago from my elders that if you study too long you're studying wrong.

I think these two people over here are doing a wonderful job but they have to be implemented. When

it says mandatory that means everyone in in in not mismediens not excuses not whatever

they should be held accountable for taking those courses what harm does it do maybe they're the problem.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker is going to be Zion.

Hi everyone thank you thank you for having me and thank you my van and thank you Eric for

doing this. This is really an amazing amazing initiation and work that you guys have done

for the past eight years is eight years six seven years that's a long time to get racial equity

going so for me like I said it's a common sense our community needs housing our community needs

nutrition food most of where our black communities are really food desert so we need food justice

and we need housing we need health care alternative health care especially for the black community

because you know the different what we go through is different than everybody else and the

education the education our kids still sitting on the bench and we need to have alternative

education when it comes to art and culture music and we also need alternative

fund for our businesses and for our nonprofit as you know businesses business people create job

opportunity right now our business is only three percent black people wear white people 65

percent that is a huge disparity and as you know business people hire especially community like

as more businesses so we really need equity I mean it's we can't wait another seven eight years

like we need tomorrow especially for for the youth and the business community so I really recommend

you for doing this and and where we're going to get it from the budget put it on the budget measure

measure L and also if we have to come up with another measure you measure L to fulfill

the this equity then we're going to have to do that so not only at the city level we need some

equity at the equity at the county level also the state level that's the only way our black

community can really compete with the rest of other community and thrive so thank you guys

appreciate it for all you do thanks thank you for your comments last speaker I have is Marbella

good afternoon first I want to congratulate all of you for your leadership in in moving this

forward and having a racial equity document regulation and then army who's worked tirelessly

to push this forward even even when there was times and I know there were times when it wasn't

moving fast enough but she didn't give up and so thank you and also I think it's so vitally

important that the training you're doing is starting with the leadership and then with the staff

it always has to start with the leadership and typically it starts with the staff and then goes

up and so I think that's important I'm here to just put on your radar to think about and maybe

can't happen this year but one of the things I notice is that community we all think that the

community is on the same page that community based organizations community neighborhood associations

that we're all on the same page and we're not my understanding of DEI may not be the same as

someone on my board or someone in the community and I I really believe that those in especially

neighborhood associations the leadership of those neighborhoods associations those advocates we

all need to be on the same page and understand what you're all about and have the same common

language and particularly right now and so what I want to propose is that do online once a month

training for us the same training maybe not as intricate and as intricate as what you're doing for

the staff but a bottom 101 DEI for the community you can do it online you can even charge for that

a minimal and offer grants but then we'll all get on the same page and we'll have the basic

understanding and I think we could all benefit as a community so thank you thank you for your

comments that is all the public comments for item two thank you so much and thank you for the

public comments vice mayor Talamontis and we can have on me a la Rissa back at the podium I

both of my colleagues are cute up to ask questions oh actually I don't have any question to think

it's just remarks yesterday was you know a MLK day you know something that here in Sacramento

we celebrated far and wide it was also inauguration day along with that a lot of executive

borders from the new administration and you know I was in I was in my feelings yesterday

I'm not gonna lie I felt good in the morning and then as the day progressed it just kind of hurt

because I had a lot of community members asking me like what do these new orders mean for me

for my family how do I protect myself and also the city of Sacramento is a sanctuary city

so how does that impact us when it comes to federal funding for the various projects that we work on

so for this committee the work that we're doing here is wonderful and like it makes me so excited

and it's good like we're just such an inclusive city where we love each other um obviously the dynamics

right now in the country are not bad and uh I'm kind of thinking in my head like how do we use this

racial equity committee as a way to let our community know about federal policies I may or may not

be impacting us as they come down also not I mean also staying in our lane as a government jurisdiction

right but just that education component and seeing how we use this committee um to discuss these

tough issues um and to discuss legislation that's going to continue to impact us and to discuss

legislation that's we currently have in place right now that provide protections for people uh so

just some kind of like thoughts as I you know just this is the first uh Tuesday back and you know

yesterday was a lot so I just some thoughts on my head and so I guess our city manager like maybe

if we can bring back our governmental affairs uh Consuelo to come back and maybe give us an update on

federal policies and any funding that may be impacted I'm not sure if you want to chime in and see

um

um

I think what we need to

discuss the most appropriate committee because although this

comes that racial aspect

there's a lot of knowledge

I think that it's something might be to budget not it so we're going to have to feel the right um mechanism to have conversations but

I too one of the lists on our things to do is kind of a federal funds by department to understand

you know given our current sands as a sanctuary city how that might um impact us the whole notion of

we're gonna swipe away with one pen dei at the federal level is not something that we're going to do

as a city so we remain committed to that um and we'll have to seek balance around if there are

threats to um funding or to our city because of the actions that we take but that's going to all be

on a case by case and I appreciate you bringing it up and we're going to give it thought as to where

it um best belongs for those conversations

and that's it chair I just think I think of how we can use this committee thank you vice mayor

telemante is really uh important insight and really appreciate you you uplifting uh that and I

I do think that in this space in this committee is where it it can happen um in addition to this

committee these conversations should be happening in other committees as well uh so uh you know

law and ledge sounds good I think that's a good step to and maybe it can come forward to the

full council for a discussion right but really appreciate vice mayor telemante is bringing that up

so uh mayor pro tem aragara uh thank you very much uh chair on uh on this and uh I do want to thank

also on the work that our department heads in our solar city attorneys office has been prepping

what there's some of our standing resolutions on how to respond on these issues and I know there's

already work on that some of that will be um you know litigious in nature so you know to the

interim city managers point um you know those those if if it's a case of litigation then we'll do

those in closed sessions so we're appropriate is important I think the you want I just want to

recognize you know how much work we've done and where we are today and in that process I mean

this report itself shows that um the only I guess uh in thinking back back to 2017 it was it was you

know um what is the phrase I learned English when later when you learn american idiom so I always

mess them up here so but I think it's how do you eat an elephant is that the case sounds kind of

terrible you know but uh but uh so it felt that way you know uh in 2017 and still it even though we

made a lot of progress feels that way but so my advice I would say is is to think through and I'd

like to take some time after seeing this of where we want to focus in 2025 and where can we truly make

some impact uh one in our authority as a locality uh and um and and not get too sidetracked on too

many issues um we know uh the the budget will will be a significant piece of it already and that in

itself is a significant a a a lot of workload in the size of of the conversation so I'd like us to

to think through uh and uh maybe in the upcoming meeting and say you know for 2025 let's try to

hone in on a particular area one that I feel has lagged for a long time and is is probably more critical

now is looking at um are the the process of the language access policy uh and at the end if we

if folks can't access the their resources if we're having challenges with our information um you

know where our you know our uh our material is our websites now technology is advanced quite a

fair bit since that time automatic translations weren't as readily available as they are today um

through different apps so I think an assessment on that so that's just one example but uh what would

be fruitful is to hone in uh and I'll say I'm not saying we can't chew gum and walk at the same time

but um with with the budget always being in the top of the conversation I I think we need to

try to narrow down on what we want to achieve out of this committee um for uh for that and not get

too sidetracked on a number of issues and um so that's my comments chair and uh thank you for the

report um looking forward to the rest of the year

I mean uh reaffirming the work that uh we have already done and must stay the course um and so

I'll I'll talk a little bit about that so first uh thank you Ami and Larissa uh just for the

overview of the internal external collaborative work that we've done with the racial equity

council I see members in the audience the alliance um all the careholders and community um we've

done so much work in the past several years from the mandatory training of elected and appointment um

to our budget equity tool to our racial equity resolution which we just passed a month ago um you

know we are starting to just lay the foundation for the work in this city um and something I also

want to share I often hear in organizing spaces and policy spaces is that good vision good policy

and good ordinance uh goes to die in implementation if as a governing body we don't monitor the progress

of our work um internally alongside community and so I just wanted to name that um that's really

important for me especially as chair and someone um on the city council is that good policy goes to

die in implementation if we're not monitoring progress and um and fighting to make sure it happens

very similar device mayor uh what she uh mentioned uh earlier in her comments is that uh you know

yesterday as a city uh as a nation we celebrated the legacy of Martin Luther King um and um yesterday

this month 365 because we shouldn't just be doing this work on MLK day but it should be something

we do every day um as we reflect on his vision and um reaffirm our own commitment to equity and

justice I want to take this moment just to remind the public uh really around the three evils that

kings talked about um so passionately and that's poverty that's war militarism um and he names racism

as one of the three evils and I I mentioned this because um all three of these are so interconnected

in the ways that impact our community um and really underscore the importance of why the ongoing

racial equity work in our city is so important as everyone is quoting MLK and talking about his work

these are the three evils that he mentions in his teachings and racism is part of it and we simply

can't shy away from it um whether we're discussing housing or transportation or walkability or

minority owned businesses it doesn't matter matter the topic right um all of the decisions we make

as policy maker we should be doing it through a racial equity lens and so um I say all of this

because uh we've begun the work we barely have just begun the work and addressing all of the issues

that we have in the city um can only really happen in a just way and we stay focused on our racial

equity work and I want to uplift the score initiative um that army and lurissa presented we have

only done phase one and phase two passing the resolution was just the beginning we actually have

to implement the resolution right we can pass a policy but if we're not going to implement it

then we have an issue and so for me as chair of the racial equity committee and as for the next four

year as councilwoman I want to see our racial equity resolution be actually implemented that is how

we can really begin the structural change um and so that work is actually in the score initiative

uh we still got phase two phase three but we also have to figure out if there's funding for this or be

flexible and figuring out how we're going to make this happen and so I just want to name that I

think um committing to this work and staying um the course and not getting sidetracked is how we can

reaffirm our commitment to dr king's legacy and so just really wanted to say that and um as you

heard from our interim city manager and vice mayor um is that now more than ever uh the work we do

is so important especially given the federal administrations and their direction to pull back on

DEIB right departments are being shut down and here in sacramental we're saying no we're going to

double down on this critical work we are committed to racial and equity and justice in the city um and

we're going to do this alongside community and so really appreciate uh and want to name um uh

that um as a city council and as our interim city manager um as appointed officer and I see our

city attorney that everyone's committed to this work and so really just wanted to say that um

mayor pro tem talked a little bit about um being focused and so I want to dimension the score

initiative uh is one of is a main one of main component of saying focus um and then absolutely

our budget right as we embark on making tough decision it is no secret that we have a budget deficit

and because of our deficit it's an even more important than ever to actually operate from racial

equity lens um because we have to ensure that we're doing the least harm on our most vulnerable

communities because cuts are coming and um you know there could also be uh revenue generating

proposals that could harm communities as well and so um I just want to also just mention that

last year we learned to actually do the seed and budget equity tool early I remember that was like

a lessons learned from last year and so just wanted to flag that and I I believe in conversation that

I have had with the interim city manager we've already starting to do that work early so I just

wanted to name that that we're not having committee meetings just to have it but I recall like

lessons learned so let's make sure we apply that for this year and so budget is definitely a

focus of this committee um implementation of the score initiative is a commitment and focus

phase three and four we have not even touched touch that yet implementation of the racial equity

and then the language access um ordinance I also just want to mention for mayor pro-tem is that

that item did come to council we didn't really get to discuss it last year uh but I know that

we're in the process of higher-language access coordinator and hoping to work with the staff

on a policy and ordinance to bring uh to mayor and council and actually think that policy should come

through the racial equity committee and so uh wanted to just say that that is a priority so budget

equity tool making sure we stay the course on our score initiative um and uh the language access

ordinance and obviously the training because we still have a lot of work to do on the training

just because we take a train it doesn't mean that our learning is done you don't take a mandatory

training and then you know everything about racial equity as a woman of color as a mong daughter I

know I to have blind spots of being cisgender and so when we think about training it's ongoing and

so really appreciate the follow-up of phase two training for elected um something I know this

is going to be a little bit more long-term um that we can discuss about I appreciate that we're

starting at the leadership level because as you heard from one of our uh community members usually

the staff and it goes up really appreciate we're doing it at the uh leaders level but eventually

hopefully we get to the conversation of how do we implement this with our 6,000 staff I know that

deals with negotiation all that so I want to name that but just want to let the community know

because I've heard well electives are doing why aren't all city staff doing it like you know our parks

and our firefighters and folks like that that deals with negotiation but I think long-term

I think hopefully we'll get there but right now let's make sure that we get our electives

our appointed officers in that training and looking forward to that so those are all my comments I think

the only thing for next meeting uh which is in March as that I know that as chair we'll be discussing

items that are going to be coming to this committee but I believe you know um making sure that our

budget equity tool is part of uh the um agenda item is going to be really key as we're garing up

conversation around potential budget cuts or revenues increases um that would say that's probably

one of the most and then also status on the implementation the score initiative for phase 2 and 3 I

know that there was a request um from mayor and council in the December meeting to bring back or

propose budget of what it will take to actually implement a racial equity resolution right um so

hoping that we have that um I know it's a little okay and I think and then um and then so I would

love to see those two things I think budget equity tool because we are about to jump into our budget

and then status on score initiative phase 2 and 3 and budgeting around that so with that um that's

my only kind of direction I see um our city manager um Elstein in the cute

and uh we have to um make sure that we can move them on board I know our person has been brought

on board and I think starts in a couple of weeks so that's very exciting so we are moving on that

front um on the status of the score I'm going to probably bust it out a little bit and have staff

working um right it too is a small baby elephant and it is better probably in chunks and so we will

be looking at the assessments that are necessary in order to create a plan and then you have a plan

which leads to implementation and so we're going to kind of try and um chunk it out like that so it

may not be the here's what we need for everything but here's what we know we need for the very next

priority steps and that's kind of the way we're going to take those bites and chew them up so I

just wanted to share that with you on our strategy for March and then there are a couple of other

things that we're pending on some work that we're doing internal to the city around our race

and under equity action plan um that perhaps we're going to think about bringing to you and March

and some changes um that we think are important to have this committee and council support um for

moving forward and how we bring people up through our organization and how we reduce barriers

there so those are all good things coming to you um soon it i guess a committee meeting near you so

awesome thank you so much city manager appreciate that um do we have any questions or comments

like we have more like questions just comments about the overview i don't see any more additional

questions or comments so thank you so much on me and loris i don't know if you have anything to add

or in response um yeah yeah i really want to encourage

that we understand the complexities of all of this work and so there are a lot of moving parts

and i think really approaching the score i think the elephant metaphor is a very good one

in this work um because it's not linear um you have to pivot um and when you want to center

community you also have to be very flexible in your timeline as well but i think having at least

an intended timeline that we could share and have that looks at the first phase of like a year

to as the interim city manager said and then we know there's going to be work beyond that i think the

wisdom of the community in developing the score resolution is that they understood that that

is generational work and that is going to take multi phases and how we do that i think what would be

helpful um as we have that discussion in march is understanding how do we make sure that um there

is that education there is shared knowledge and that we're moving forward together um i think that

for me is just being a practitioner that becomes very key because it can't just be a couple of

people talking about it we really have to bring and include and lift up everybody that's involved

in that conversation also leveraging what other work is happening in the city right as i mentioned

earlier in the presentation that's just a snapshot of some of the equity work that is happening

so how do we leverage that knowledge and expertise of city staff across you know that's what i'm

hoping we can kind of bring in to the conversation around the score resolution and then a little

bit more locally or focused to this meeting any feedback direction on the direction of going for the

RFP because that is a a very set uh task of work that has a proposed timeline um we do our goal is to

have the part one and part two completed and that was our intention when we presented it a year ago

it that we knew it would take two years right with schedules with the focus so we're on track

very much on track so just you know i just we just want to be mindful of that um moving forward

and with that that you all are good and we have the support of that RFP process moving forward

given the 30 submissions from the RFI and yeah and then of course potential infrastructure in terms

of resources particularly funding thank you so much and maybe that might be a March conversation too

yeah that would and maybe that fits into the score initiative you know like you see how once you

have like a plan and you have that really that you can leverage it to say it's that way to communicate

to everybody and say what can you contribute to this particular plan so it's not just us here in the

room but it's the entire city and it's maybe even our boards and commissions what equity worker

they doing right and i know they're looking at equity so how can we bring um that into the space

so it's going to be an exciting 2025 and i would say just haven't had the experience i think 2025

is identifying those priorities thank you because if we have our magic three then we know to stay

grounded and at the same time how do we continue to have that conversation through the year around

the score initiative because it is a multi-year plan it's not something that's going to be done we

want to be very transparent it's not a two to three year like that resolution is going to be

implemented it's generational work but what does that look like and so 2025 is where we can really

have those deep conversations and consultation about how we move that work forward

right thank you so much on me and thank you for your leadership thank you so much all right

uh we have our items next but we do have public comments we have two public comments uh on items

on the agenda can i please have Lambert come up and then after that is going to be um can i bless

you

yes i'm glad that my family uh encouraged me to come today it's going to take people like that in

the millennial army to get me down here this year because i've seen enough here i've seen enough

with this race equity and now you got a person that's coming into the white house that's on a mission

to abolish this i mean they're organized too and so my thing is okay budget wise how about this

very few people listen when i bring this up people working remotely should not get a raise what's

the raise for they don't have to leave the house and i think that people who are very cruel will

talk about unions and things like this that's where the racism is i thought i heard the fire

department this Sacramento fire department has been called in many scandals and i heard the human

resource was mentioned those of you who are new or not new you are to google the barnum and

Bailey racist scandal article that was in Sacramento news and review i had no idea what that was

and then when i studied it i found out about a group called the a a e l c and the a a e l c is a

group of black women that are inside city hall that are uh embroiled in very toxic hostile racist

environments and it's not the Sacramento news and review telling us that i know for effects

submitting a lot of paperwork to this city it's a miracle that we have gone viral nobody asks us

well how did you do it money wise well we didn't steal it and we're never in a deficit structural

deficit to me means mismanagement and people should be fired for structural deficits thank you

for your comments Keon and then after Keon our last speaker will be Zion

i really want to thank you uh chair vang for no uh for just speaking what really needs to be said

and what we actually need to hear from more of your colleagues on this council and not just

heard but actually seem reflected in action and attitude because we are facing a uh like a

very different world going into this new administration uh and this racial equity initiative this

racial equity tool uh needs to be more than just a pipe dream and you have the power to do that

see what's going on at the federal level um you know there may be immediate impacts particularly

for those of us that are uh living that are here um with either on a documented status who are

queer trans and who are black and brown and uh in general dealing with the federal uh uh law

enforcement we're going to be on the front lines of that but you all as elected bodies as local

elected officials by far have the most impact in fact city a le city and county elected by far

impact more millions hundreds and millions of more people than congress and the federal and the

president do uh on an immediate day or every day lives so what you can do is really have imagination

and actually stand on principle because as far as i can tell and i know that i'm not alone in thinking

this i haven't seen a lot of uh a lot of you stand on going to stand on principle you talk a good

game but you don't actually stand on principle and take the hard uncomfortable votes uh especially

when it's uh especially when it's inconvenient for you and you also like you also don't listen to us

the people who are most directly impacted by this because it's oftentimes a key trade of white

supremacy this paternalism that thinks that those who are in power who are elected to power have like

are the most qualified and entitled to tell us what the standards are when really like the

and what do not have to listen to those of us or think it's necessary to actually uh consider our

viewpoints our experiences within this thank you for your comments thank you mr. bliss thank you

so much for your comments please listen to us the last speaker we have a ziyah

so i thank you for having me again so what i wanted to really say is uh is that you know we're

talking about human rights the basic human rights access to nutrition food access to housing

access to health care access to education basic education and uh better opportunity equal

opportunity and then you got to go and see the statistics where black communities are right now

we are on the bottom of the bottom when it comes to compared to every other community so this

racial equity so important uh you know i don't even know how to say it um but we i just don't want

us to just sit on it another year a year a year less plan on it what is it we need the statistics

the poverty 30 percent poverty black people poverty even in Africa i'm from Africa was still

30 percent in poverty so we need to get out of that poverty through education in housing in

the basic human right and we don't have that we still have to beg for money from the budget transport

and fixing the road we need our community to be fixed we need our businesses to be to be invested

on we need our youth to be invested on in their own uh the women and children have housing

there is a lot of women and children in our community even though we are 2 percent in california

40 percent of the homelessness are black people i mean you got to go and check the statistic to

put that's what equity is so why we shouldn't take seven years or another a year or two years

to see what is the disparity between the black community and everybody else when actually

the black people paid for it for this country for 400 years wouldn't you think those are the

community who should benefit for it first before all of us coming to in this country and benefiting

and that's what i see and we keep on talking about it this equity and this we need it today and

tomorrow honestly because our youth are dying our you know women childrens are suffering this is

America the richest country in the world thank you chairman that is all the speakers we have

thank you so much i believe that is it on the agenda um and so this meeting is now adjourned at

12 oh five thank you so much everyone okay

so