Good morning, everyone.

I like to call our racial equity committee meeting to order at 1102.

Madam Clerk, uh, would you call role to extablished quorum?

Yes, thank you.

Councilmember Talamantes.

Here.

Councilmember Garrett.

Absent.

Councilmember Jennings?

Here.

And Chair Bane.

Here.

Thank you.

We have a quorum.

Thanks.

I'll lead us in the land acknowledgement, and Vice Mayor Talamantes, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Okay.

Please rise if you are able.

To the original people of this land, the Nissanon people, the Southern Maidu, Valley and Plains Mewl, Putwin and Winto Peoples, and the people of Walton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

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

Thank you.

So it pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands one nation under Godisible with liberty.

Thank you, everyone.

We have one item on consent and two on discussion.

The item of consent is our racial equity committee meetings.

Madam Clark, do we have any comments on the consent items?

Thank you, Chair.

No, we do not.

Okay, great.

Is there a motion on the floor?

Okay, move and second.

All in favor.

Okay.

That item passes.

Next, we'll move to uh open public comments.

Do you want to take for two?

Yeah, let's actually go to two first.

Okay, I think that'll be fine.

Uh we'll move to discussion calendar.

Uh the next item is update on our Sacramento Center on Racial Equity Score Initiative.

Who is that?

Oh, you're good.

All right, we good.

Uh I'm Darnell Grisby representing the California Urban Partnership.

With me is Malachi Seku Amen, the executive director of the California Urban Partnership.

Uh today I'm going to represent the slides that you see on the on the screen.

Good afternoon, members of the Racial Equity Committee.

Thank you for your up for the opportunity to present today on behalf of the Sacramento Racial Equity Alliance.

We're here to talk you through the journey that brought us to this moment.

The community engagement, the policy work, and the recommendations we believe are essential to making the score work plan a living document that delivers real outcomes for Sacramento's communities of color.

All right.

The insights from these sessions directly shape what became the racial equity resolution.

We attended the Race Forward Facing Race Conference in November 2024, specifically this place-based uh learning lab on collect collective government governance, which deepened our understanding of how cities and communities can share power in meaningful ways.

That same year, we were proud to support the unanimous passage of resolution 2024-0354 on December 3rd, which committed the city to operationalizing racial equity across all departments.

Moving into 2025, we built on that foundation.

In January, REA authored the community partner and accountability strategy report.

By July, the Racial Equity Committee affirmed our recommendations.

In August, we formally submitted those recommendations into the draft score work plan.

And we began consulting directly with the Office of Diversity and Equity on Alignment.

Now to where we are today.

Our advocacy at this stage is focused on three primary objectives.

One, the passage of the work plan.

Two, compensation for community leadership, and three, sustain investment in the Office of Diversity and Equity.

These are not separate tasks.

In fact, they are interconnected.

This slide represents what we heard directly from community members during the February 24th forum.

Breakout groups were organized around two guiding principles.

And I want to share the key themes from the first, what is missing from the Score of Work Plan.

First, participants call for a clear and sustainable funding structure.

Community members want to know what percentage of resources will reach communities directly, who holds and distributes the funds, and what risks could come from the different fiscal models.

The emphasis was that funding must be sustained through the city budget and not dependent on short-term grants that come and go.

Second, language access was raised as a significant gap.

The work plan does not adequately address Sacramento's linguistic diversity or ensure that communities can be informed and participate in their own languages.

Third, participants call for a trauma-informed approach embedded throughout city engagement, not as a standalone training, but woven into how the city interacts with its residents.

Fourth, there is a need for a stronger community accountability framework.

That means defined roles for community-based organizations in oversight and clear mechanisms to ensure implementation.

And finally, leadership development.

Residents need training on the budget process, council meetings, agenda setting, and advocacy.

So communities can, in fact, own the tools of change, which will facilitate their full engagement with the city.

Participants point to structural barriers that the city itself creates, barriers that promote exclusion.

There should be greater clarity on development of the consent agenda.

Meeting times at 2 p.m.

and 5 p.m.

impact working residents' ability to be engaged.

Agendas released on Thursday for Tuesday meetings leave almost no time for community response.

And the absence of committee structures like rules, policy, and fiscal committees that would allow for transparency and community tracking of decisions leaves an unequal playing field for residents.

Beyond process, participants called for an intersectional framework applied throughout the work plan.

They raise the need for culturally responsive care across all ages, not just youth, and for the plan to explicitly address the impacts of incarceration, the need for healing and community wellness.

I also want to note that several participants acknowledge the work plan is comprehensive, but one participant made a powerful point.

Some feel like that level of engagement would be appreciated at this time.

So the question isn't just what's in the plan, it's whether there is a political will to resource it appropriately.

So finally, what we need from the city.

So here's where we land and what we need from this committee and the city.

We recommend recognize the reality of this $62 million budget deficit, but REA is pushing a both and strategy.

The city should aggressively pursue foundation and private sector funding for this effort while also promoting and providing a concrete multi-year financial commitment.

That city commitment is what unlocks external partnership.

Foundations want to see local investment that they can match.

The work plan is designed to move forward without specifying clear dollar amounts.

That's intentional.

But we expect the city to actively help identify and unlock and secure resources externally, just as it has for prior efforts, such as the Black Wealth Blueprint grant.

Budget constraints do not need to be a reason to delay implementation.

And critically, we are advocating that the next budget maintains current funding levels for the Office of Diversity and Equity.

ODE is in fact the infrastructure that makes this work possible.

Cutting it will undermine everything that we collectively have built, have built as a community.

And finally, we also want to thank you for the time and commitment that you've already put into this issue and for the continuing partnership with the community.

I'll pause there.

Thank you.

So if there's no questions, uh yeah, no.

Um, do I have any questions for my colleagues?

Okay.

Okay, actually, stay up there real quick.

Uh, first of all, um, I want to say thank you for your presentation and your slide deck.

Um, and I really appreciate the alliance work with community to do the listening session last month to talk about the ways in which the score work plan um may um have gaps, right?

And I think that's really important for us to acknowledge.

I think one recommendation I would have is um I was typing up all of the the various themes that I heard from um, you know, where are the dollars in order to resource and implement the work plan, um language access was something that was brought up.

We do have a language access coordinator.

Um, it was also mentioned that the work we do in terms of implementation must be trauma informed.

And I'm wondering um, because it seems like the city is doing some of this, and maybe there are some gaps, if there could be a response, I think from the city end, whether that's um ODE and our and um the assistant uh city city manager to actually respond to the learning outcomes because what I don't want happening is that you present us these outcomes and that's it.

I think that we need to take these outcomes from the community incredibly serious and um respond to them of how are we gonna actually incorporate um what the community have asked for?

And if we're not going to, and there are some budget constraints, what are the alternatives that we're gonna seek in order to um address that?

And I think that's on us, and so that would be a direction that I would make as uh the chair of this committee that um we have city staff respond and work in coordination with the alliance to actually have a response to the community because we need to be able to respond to those um learning outcomes of what community has set to us in terms of the gaps missing in the uh score work plan.

And so that would be my um my recommendation because I would also like to know as we're in the middle of budget right now.

I think it's important for um city staff to also just respond to it and present what we can and can't do, and if we can't do it, don't tell me no, but tell me how, right?

What what what are some options we have on the table?

Um I think that's gonna be really key.

And so that that is my direction and my comments, and I just want to say thank you, and also thank you for laying kind of presenting where we started and where we're at now.

Um, and those are all my comments, and I just really want to thank the alliance for your hard work.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right, good morning, racial equity committee members and care holders online and careholders and colleagues that are in the chambers.

My name is Ami Zenzile Barnes, pronouns are she and they, and I serve as the diversity and equity manager.

I do that in case we have people tuning in and they have no idea who I am.

Uh, and uh so I appreciate that.

I think it's always important to level set.

So we're hoping that the next few minutes also adds and builds off of the Racial Equity Alliance presentation as well.

So the starting point, just want to ground us a little bit.

Here we know that we began with the direction from the Racial Equity Committee approximately about a year ago to develop a plan or strategy of how we would begin to implement the score resolution 2024 0354, my favorite um eight letters uh in the city.

Umperating to work with the racial equity alliance and co-creating the pathway to begin implementing what the resolution is calling for.

Um, this is the vision to move us from compliance to commitment from individual intent to a collective accountability.

In addition, the guiding principle is that equity, racial equity is both a process and the outcome.

Also reminding us why this work matters.

We know that we still consistently face persistent, historical and persistent racial inequities in various categories of quality of life, including housing, not to ex not to be limited to housing, homelessness, incarceration, education, and wealth, and on.

We also know that this work matters because of the commitment that the city has made to implement racial equity and operationalize it as a mandate for systemic change.

And the score work plan is the roadmap, the pathway for that cultural transformation as well as organizational transformation as well.

I don't want to repeat many of the things that we shared with you in the last racial equity committee.

So we're really building off of the meetings that we had collectively, the Office of Diversity and Equity with the Alliance, a deep dive into the SCORE plan, clarifying what it is and what it isn't, and how do we move forward in 2026?

So careholders engaged, includes you all as the Racial Equity Committee, District 8, and the leadership and the staff support from there, the Racial Equity Alliance, community care holders that have been consulted along the way, and also strategic touch points in the monthly TRIO meetings that were held through 2025, and I believe there were approximately nine of them held in 2025, and we've already had one last month as well, and will continue through 2026.

Since the last January 21st Racial Equity Committee, there has been the community leadership forum.

The why is to ensure that edits reflect the lived experience, the practical and tactical implementation, and to include and center careholder feedback from the community.

At the Racial Equity Committee meeting last in January, we learned from the Racial Equity Alliance in our consultation journey that to emphasize that this is a roadmap, shifting language from urgency to sustained commitment.

We also learned in our conversations to embed equity as an accountability and transparency throughout the work plan.

We also understood and had a shared understanding of how it is important to break down silos and center the human experience and lived experiences of our community members to align timelines and the capacity of all partners and the resources there, and to embed the community and accountability report as more integral to the process.

In working with the Racial Equity Alliance, the updated draft of the SCORE Work Plan was part of the attached document.

So definitely want to reference that.

Key work efforts that have been happening.

We will continue to update that as we are along our journey.

And that we also included at the request and great suggestion from Councilmember Jennings to include a little bit more detail in the staff report as to what has been some of those key efforts in a summarized way so that you can see how things are progressing.

So it's actually really great to be able to document this work and so that we can bring it and continue to add to it.

Also from the January 21st Racial Equity Committee, you will see in the SCORE Work Plan Strategy draft that we adjusted and really great feedback from the Racial Alliance about matching strategy with tactics for greater accountability and greater specificity.

So you see that the phases were adjusted a little bit to include some of those overarching strategies, which you see here on the slide.

So there is a little bit different, but the pacing is still very much the same.

I also want to reiterate to you all, very dynamic and very iterative.

This work plan is not meant to be static.

It will change over time.

But wanted to kind of highlight that because that was a really great shift, I think, that improved the document and the plan for the team or collective that will be helping to move the work forward.

The community leader review, this is kind of a snapshot of what the agenda looked like, the outcomes, and the guiding questions as referenced earlier from the Racial Equity Alliance.

So this was I really want to acknowledge the Racial Equity Alliance and how they framed the information for such a heavy document.

That work plan is hefty, it's complex, there's a lot of moving pieces, there's timelines, there's definitions, really appreciate how they framed the document for community leaders, how it was presented, also how they framed and focused the input that was needed in order to focus in that very limited time, and also connecting the work to partnership to co-creation.

So really appreciated how the Racial Equity Alliance framed and coordinated and grounded that particular meeting.

The community leader forum on the 21st.

Here's some of the feedback in addition to what the Racial Equity Alliance just shared in the previous presentation.

We heard from community care holders, uh, the clear funding structure, and you saw heard that detail, defined community accountability framework and meaningful compensated participation.

We definitely highlighted that that needs to be an ongoing conversation with city leadership.

What does that look like?

How it's defined.

Um training residents for civic engagement and advocacy, addressing structural barriers, language access, intersectionality, meeting times, transparency, need for relationship and trust building with new local administration, and that's mayor's office, that's new city manager, and so I think that's the opportunity that's before us in 2026.

Recognition of community expertise and the need for ongoing outreach and collaboration.

The questions that we raised that we heard as well, again, in addition to what the alliance provided is where's the funding and how will it be allocated or sustained?

How do community organizations fit into the work plan?

This was a really powerful experience in the small group that I was in.

Um, that it was really highlighted that it's important for us to make the connection for community groups, how they see themselves in the plan.

How can their mission and purpose help advance the work?

And so it was a really thoughtful and generative question that I feel is really important for us to explore moving forward.

How will long-term resourcing and infrastructure be ensured?

Key considerations.

Where is the funding?

How will it be allocated or sustained?

Continue to see a pattern here.

Um, how do community, oh, that looks like there's a duplicate side, my apologies.

How do you see yourself in the work plan?

What is the best way to engage your work role in the score work plan?

I really want to say again from the small group that I was in, really want to acknowledge these really insightful questions that were lifted up by CAO Yee, who was facilitating our small group.

And I think this is a question that all of us could answer for ourselves and then bring to the group.

How do you see yourself, your role, your function, your authority in the work plan?

Where do you see your particular role and function?

And what is the best way that we can engage your role, function, and authority in advancing the work plan?

Thought those were really great questions that we need to build into our conversations moving forward and maybe uh explore collectively.

Thought those were great questions and really appreciated Cowy lifting those up in that time.

Key considerations in approving the work plan, these are really important.

Clarity on the score, work plan, what it is, what it's not, importance of setting clear goals and defined actions for strategy and accountability.

Acknowledge that the work plan may shift and it will shift based on what emerges and what is going to be an ITERA strategy, resourcing, community decision and participation moving forward and what that process looks like, and grounded in our sustained commitment to partner and co-create.

So the recommendation before you, I really appreciated the alliance starting off with the both and we would like to have the racial equity committee move the work plan draft forward, knowing the direction that was just provided, and knowing that there's some key questions that we still need to answer.

This literally describes that iterative process that we're going to be engaging in.

But we need something, we need a document to move us forward so that we can focus on those key considerations, answer some of those strategies, and know that again, this document is going to unfold with the co-creation with our office, with you, city leadership, community care holders and the alliance and and other um council members and their staff.

So we hope that's something that you feel comfortable doing, and we're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Um.

Thank you, Ami.

Um, do we have any questions from my colleagues?

Question thoughts.

Okay, um, I have some first of all, just some comments, and then I think I just want to reiterate the next step.

Um, I was gonna text my actually my staff about this.

When's the next racial equity committee meeting?

June 9th, I believe.

That's budget adoption.

That um, if I may, that's one of the reasons why we want to wrong move so that many of these that those responses that you asked for, um Madam Chair, and you know, and uh the questions that I that our team also lifted up that we began to build into the work plan, but we need that starting point, and given that amount of time, unless there's another strategy put forward by the committee.

Okay, um, several thoughts right now, um, just because we're in the middle of budget conversation.

So, first let me just pause real quick and say thank you, Ami, um, for all the great work that you and your team is doing to work with community to get us a draft score work plan, which is the roadmap, um, which is different from the citywide racial equity action plan because this is the roadmap to actually get there.

I just want to remind folks that exactly um Seleni and I are on the same page on that.

Um, and um really good to hear from you just reaffirming the same themes that we heard from the alliance.

So there's definitely alignment um in terms of what you heard and what the alliance presented.

Um, I will go back to my same direction when I spoke to the alliance that um that when they presented earlier that I do believe that we need to respond to those learning outcomes.

Um, and I believe you and assistant city manager might have a better grasp of what are the resources and assets that we currently have in the city and what we can and can't do, and if we can't do it, what are options available?

I think that's really important for me as a chair of the racial equity committee as a councilwoman.

I want to know basically this is what the community said.

Great job on the work plan, we're starting it.

Here are the gaps.

I want to know as a city how do we respond to that because this is reiterative and it should be city and community working together to develop this work plan.

So that I remain consistent on my ask that the direction is due, whether that that's a memo, a response to the alliance, but to work through saying here's everything from language access, right?

To all of the items that they mentioned, I think we need to be able to respond.

The other part that I'm grappling with right now is this draft still needs to come to the committee to be approved.

Um that's my understanding, right?

And if our racial equity committee meeting is not until June, budget would have already been done.

Um, and so I'm trying to right.

I'm just you know, naming that because I think that's really important to acknowledge whether we have a special meeting.

Um, we may need to have a special meeting.

It is March, and our next meeting is not till June.

And so I would like to request for us to schedule a meeting in the middle of budget conversations that the draft comes back.

I would like the draft to come back before we vote on the budget.

Um, you know, mayor and council will debate it, you know, and and we'll, you know, we'll see where it lands.

But I do think that we need to have an approved work plan before the budget is adopted if we are to move.

I don't want to use the word urgency because about sustained commitment, but we are in the middle of budget discussion right now, and I think that's gonna be key.

So my recommendation would also to work with for us to work with um the city clerk to get a meeting on the books.

Um you know, I'm thinking April or May, we'll we'll work.

We'll yeah, there's yeah, we'll we'll need to look on the calendar to figure that out.

But my recommendation is we need to have a meeting before in the middle of a budget conversation.

I would like for us to have you know an approved work plan, um, draft of score work plan.

I think that's that's really key.

Knowing that it's not static, it is constantly changing, but I do think that that's gonna be really key.

Um that's just my recommendation.

I'm seeing that 100% behind.

Okay, great.

So assistant manager uh is in alignment with that, so I think that's great.

So those are my recommendation.

Just because the community has done a lot of this great work, and we at the city have to hold ourselves accountable in terms of how do we move this along that is true to community.

Um so great job.

I don't know if my colleagues have any thoughts or comments about this, but I think that we need to schedule a special meeting to to be able to answer those questions from community our proposal of what we can and can't do based on budget, and then we'll have a discussion and forward it to the full council for consideration.

That's what I think needs to happen.

Yep.

Okay, I did you have a response?

I do, but I can wait until I'm gonna do that.

Okay, yeah, let me get Jennings.

That was exactly what I Jennings is.

That was exactly what I wanted.

Um I wanted a response um just to her idea because I wanted to support her idea, but I don't want to do that if there's another idea or concern.

So I just want to hear your response.

Yes, um, thank you for that.

I just want to be very clear that because of the work and the commitment that has already been done and the investment.

Um not only just human capacity and energy and time.

I want to make sure that we don't conflate that we're not moving forward with the work if the city finds itself not able to do things because there are a lot of things that we can do without necessarily having it be a budget, but there could be a commitment, right?

Um I know the you you all know the budget better than I do, but I just want to make sure that the work doesn't stop because there may be a lot of no's and still questions, right?

Um, and that that could the commitment to do what we can and have it be this level setting of what our office can do, what the alliance can do, what we can do together, how can we bring because right now we're still in this we don't have a plan, so I feel that it's difficult for us to move forward with some of the work that is in there.

That to me doesn't necessarily require a budget, it's more of how do we create that agreement and understand each other's capacity and resources to move some of those things forward.

Um, like for example, you're gonna hear in the next agenda item uh the wonderful blueprint from disparity to prosperity.

You're gonna see that there could be work in the city that could be already leveraged that we can connect to.

This is just you know, my thoughts around that.

So I just I'm I'm for it.

I just want us to be very clear that we're not conflating because of budgetary restrictions and limitations, that racial equity and equity work doesn't stop, and that we are lifting up the both and strategy until we are or the city is in a better position to do any kind of strategic uh development.

So that's that's really my um biggest uh consideration for you all.

Yeah, thanks, Ami.

I I appreciate that.

And I want to want to hold space and acknowledge that the work does continue.

Um that the work does continue, but I see here that the recommendation is to approve the score work plan draft with key consideration in forming next iteration, right?

Right.

Um so we do have a draft, then a work plan draft.

Yes, yes, and that was with great input from the alliance.

Absolutely.

Because of timing with the community leader forum, I think what you're calling for in terms of those responses and what are the potential strategies and what are the potential investments.

That's the next reiteration.

Yes.

But it's something that we have, but again, I know you all must feel comfortable with the draft as well.

Yeah, but we do have a responsibility to address the questions that both of our teams lifted up, you know, in terms of language access.

That would, you know, necessarily that would definitely be something that I would want to consult with our language access coordinator.

Um, the community engagement team, economic development, you know, to see where the bandwidth and capacity is.

They are a one person show, um, and I know how that is.

So there's just a lot of those nuances, but it it kind of gives us a focus of how we can move forward to respond.

But we have something that we're working with.

Yeah, that's we feel confident that can move forward.

That's great.

I just spoke to assistant city manager that um the item is not a voting item for us to approve, so we will have to do a special meeting to bring the bring it back.

So I just want to clarify that.

That said, though, I absolutely do believe that when we bring the score work plan draft back for our vote.

I would like a response from the city from assistant city manager and ODE's office to respond to the learning community outcomes.

I think that's gonna be really critical in my decision of like voting on it.

And do we need to like make adjustment accordingly?

And that should happen.

We'll figure that out with city clerk, but I'm thinking April or May, but yeah, so um, but is that mixed, does that it does?

Okay, I want to make sure because I know uh councilmark Jennings asked as well, like, does that make sense?

I want to make sure that the direction I provide is um that it's possible, right?

Like, I don't want to constrain um city staff or the alliance.

I want to make sure that um that direction makes sense.

Um yes, and then the other piece I just want to just um pin as well is that from the alliance and from your presentation, I also heard about um community capacity and building community capacity on understanding city processes and budget, and I'm thinking about our end dat team.

I'm thinking about uh looking at but like there are infrastructure in place within our city, uh staff that does really great work, and so that's the reason why that response memo is gonna be key because it's like how are we partnering as city and community to to do this work together, right?

And so I just wanted to depend that as I'm thinking about all the things that the community laid out in terms of the outcome.

So um that's my direction is that we schedule we schedule a special meeting, make sure we bring this back item for a vote, but that the city has a response, a realistic response to um what the community is asking for, what we can and can't do, and other options on the table.

I think that that'll be important.

Yeah.

Um, just to add on to that, I think it's in both of our uh best interests to schedule that meeting as soon as possible.

So I would not be waiting, I would not want to wait until April or late April or May.

Uh we are in March 3rd, I think the date is.

Um, and the earlier we can get that going.

Okay.

So the earlier that we can get that going and we can figure that out.

That's my whole point.

Um, I think it's better for everyone.

Um I heard that there's some work that we could be doing right now while we're waiting on the plan.

So at this meeting, we can be clear on what that work is that we can be doing while we're going through this process.

And so I just want to make sure we emphasize sooner is better for everyone involved.

Um so I just want to move that forward.

That sounds great.

Uh, we'll work with the city clerk.

Um, assistant city manager's gave me the agenda, the kind of the calendar for the year.

So it looks like we may have maybe early April, but I want to make sure we work with the city clerk to make sure that we can get it in.

But I hear you on on that urgency, Councilmember Jennings, and we'll do our best to get that calendar in.

Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I sit on the personnel committee, and you know, we have a lot of work plans that come through the various boards and commissions that we have, and a lot of them are requests for additional funding, additional resources.

And obviously, we're having like a big budget deficit.

So the conversation as we move forward uh should be what are we cutting?

Because we can't add on capacity for a lot of these commissions and you know, requests that come in.

So it's like, so it's it's what can you keep, right?

Is kind of the frame of how we should be framing the conversation as things come forward.

Like, let's keep the staff on board and keep it as is, and also see what we can do, like Ami said, without dollars.

Like we need to stay committed to the issue, but also being realistic with the fact that we have a budget deficit, but also saying what can we do that doesn't require additional dollars?

And ultimately, that I think that's the question that we have to pose ourselves as city staff and as us here on the dais and the community leaders, it's what can we do with the resources that we currently have now to uphold our commitment to racial equity.

Um, and that's something that as it comes back to for further discussion um that we have to really consider.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Talamantis.

Yes, I uh I'm looking forward to the meeting that we're gonna schedule, the special meeting we're gonna schedule to have a conversation about that.

Um, I think it is no secret that uh we are facing a budget deficit and that there are gonna be some tough decisions made.

Um no but but and that a budget is a reflection of our values, and so I look forward to those conversations.

Um, and again, that's why I think the response memo will be important because we also have to be honest with the community of like city staff and what we can and can't do.

I think I that's fair.

I hear Vice Mayor Talamontes on that.

That said, I think it's important to lay that out to the community and be like if that is the position of city staff and council members, we need to be very honest with the community, but engage in that conversation because there'll be some pushback, and I'm and that is where the work happens, right?

Or the advocacy with the work happen where we we figure that out together, and so I'm looking forward to that conversation.

So direction is to special to schedule a special meeting to have city staff uh work on a response from the learning outcomes from February 24th, um, and to bring a draft back um for approval.

So is that clear?

Is that good?

Yes, okay, great, awesome.

Thank you so much.

And then do we have we have comments on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

We have three speakers.

Can I have Lambert, please?

And after Lambert, Cow Yi Tao, and the final speaker will be Henry Harry.

Hi, Mr.

Lambert.

Hello.

Um what I just heard.

This is this is absolutely stunning.

I I saw two people get up and give a great presentation, and then I listened to the response from the Rostrum.

Now, first of all, as a native, I attend a lot of meetings, commission meetings, and I've never seen a commission that has such a large gap before they meet again.

That's a recipe for uh making sure you're not successful.

Because what are they what are their what are they selling you right now?

They're selling you speed of trust.

Okay.

How in the world can you trust this situation when they're telling you you have a deficit, and then I just heard somebody from the Rostum say try to make it happen without funding?

Well, why don't they try to make it happen without funding in their own situation?

That's insane to have somebody try to accomplish something without funding.

But I'll tell you what I will tell you.

There's a term in the deep south, they used to use this, and the speed of trust reminds me of that.

It used to say they used to say deliberate speed.

That was a delay tactic that would make you not successful.

And I'm talking about black people in the deep south during Jim Crow.

Also, they had a term called in due time.

In due time can mean anything.

Now, June 9th is a long way off.

Why is the race equity the only commission that I know because I go to all of them that has such a gap that's a recipe for failure?

It's a complete recipe for failure.

Complete recipe.

Thank you for your comments.

I have Kal Yi Tao.

Hello, council members.

Um, my name is Cal Yee with the Racial Equity Alliance, and um I just want to underscore um the process of community partnership in this.

Um, the Racial Equity Alliance, we are not just an advisory body, we are an active implementation partner.

Um the score initiative at its core was about building trust, accountability, um, and partnership with the community, because we know that these procedures and the system is inherently inequitable for our poor, our working class communities of color that can't be here.

Um, and so with that in mind, I think it's really important for our racial equity committee members, not just my to really describe and affirm your commitment to community partnership and shared proud power in this process.

What does that mean for you?

Because at the trio meetings, um, I see council D8 staff there, but I don't see other city staff.

And so uh I think it's really important to make sure that as we move forward in this process, you all as policymakers are affirming, or at least we have an idea of what that vision looks like so that we can continue to commit whatever resources and time to building that community infrastructure to really move this process forward.

So, you know, um council member Talamantes and Jennings, um, what does your commitment to community partnership and shared power um in this process look like?

Um, and also as policymakers, how will you ensure that we sustain our progress?

Because the budget conversation still goes back to you as council members.

So I do think that you all there is a position that you all will need to be ready to take.

And I think as a community body that wants to sustain the progress, we know that we need to, but we also need you to be committed and take that position to sustain um the progress that we have through sustained funding, for example, with ODE.

Thank you for your comments.

Final speaker is gonna be Henry Harry.

Thank you, members, and I want to acknowledge that I'm probably gonna overlap some of the things that have already been said here.

Um back in 2012, Wells Fargo settled a 175 million dollar settlement with uh black and brown borrowers because I think they somewhat admitted that they were charging people who were in similar circumstances more money for loans.

And when I read that article, I always thought about what did that mean to those black and brown families over 30 years.

Was that a car for their kids?

Was it the ability to help their kids when they move out of their homes, or was it the ability to help those kids when they went to college?

And so um I'll say here tonight, and I'm using the sports analogy.

You know, you need a coach to focus and get things moving, and I would like to see Mayor McCarty do a video on this and really inspire us to get this thing moving, to keep it moving.

Um the same way I see him on his Facebook page doing things and talking about the bike trail.

Um again, a sports analogy.

You need a backup quarterback always ready.

And what I'm saying, you have the city, you have the council, but do we have a citizens committee ready to step up if in fact there are cuts?

And I would encourage you, let's make sure we got somebody ready to step up from the city on some type of city.

I mean, I'm from from the public on a committee ready to step up and get this done if we in fact have some fallbacks on the budget.

And um I'm gonna leave it there.

But one more thing.

Wells Fargo also uh settled a thing in 2025 because they were running sham uh interviews with minority candidates.

Thank you for your comments.

Chair, I have no more speakers.

Thank you so much.

We'll move to item um item three update on City Start initiative and next steps.

Uh, this is uh voting item to to pass a motion to the full council.

So can you guys hear?

Oh, okay, sorry.

Hi, good morning, racial equity committee, everyone online and in the chambers.

My name is Ari Green, and I'm a community engagement analyst in the Office of Innovation and Economic Development.

Um, as the project lead on the City Start Initiative, I am here this morning to provide an update on the initiative and our next steps.

So the CitySTAR initiative began as a collaboration between the community engagement team, the Office of Diversity and Equity, and the Mayor's Office.

Lynette, Ami, and Kelly von Ringvis, uh former mayor Daryl Steinberg's office applied for the City Start grant.

In April 2023, Cities for Financial Empowerment or CFE Fund awarded Sacramento a 75,000 grant to develop and implement strategies that address historical disadvantages in Sacramento's Black Wealth Gap.

Um behind me, I have my colleagues Lynette and Amy here in support.

Um CFE Fund has supported 40 cities through the City Start initiative since 2015.

But in 2021, with the support of Bloomberg Philanthropy's Greenwood Initiative, CFU Fund added a racial wealth equity component.

As such, Sacramento became a part of the second cohort among cities like Baltimore, Maryland, Cleveland, Ohio, and Monroe, Louisiana.

So what is the City Star Blueprint?

You may be asking.

I did hand out the copy of the blueprint, um, so it should be in front of you.

Um Sacramento is a unique city with a complicated history, and so the City Star Blueprint is a bold initiative rooted in equity, empowerment, and economic mobility.

It represents a strategic roadmap to expand access in three key areas workforce development, housing, and banking services with a defined, a redefined lens on improving outcomes for black residents who have been historically and structurally excluded from upward economic mobility.

Um in developing the City Star Blueprint, we took a two-prong approach where we not only identified new strategies to address Sacramento's Black Wealth Gap, but we also chose to look at ways to enhance already existing programs and policies.

In working with our consultant, RW Ventures, we recommend consider expanding local guaranteed income and financial empowerment programs.

Continue neighborhood specific investments, such as Aggie Square project, increase opportunities for local black developers such as our small developer boot camp, uh, working with the treasurer's office on socially responsible banking, and lastly, through this process, we realized that Sacramento does not have a strong philanthropy connection.

Therefore, we recommend building out public-private partnerships through the Sacramento Local Impact Funders Table, also called Sack Lyft Initiative.

After finalizing the Blueprint, we celebrated its release in May 2025 at a black owned business in collaboration with the local black nonprofit Universal for catering, which teaches black youth culinary skills, and hired a local black band for entertainment and of course a performance by Grant High School's band.

Are we allowed to play a small clip so you guys could see a small version of the release?

It's this video right here.

It's hyperlinked.

Okay, sorry.

Are we able to go back to the presentation?

There it goes.

Okay, I don't want to hold up the meeting, so I will hold it.

I will pause.

You can visit our YouTube, SAC Vibes, and you can see the release of the Blueprint.

We had a great time.

So we are quickly approaching a year since its release, and we are keeping momentum by continuing conversations with financial partners and expanding our philanthropic ventures, further aligning with financial empowerment city initiatives, and we are gearing up for the March 2026 kickoff of SACLIF, led by my colleague Amy Williamson.

We are continuing to work with the city treasurer to develop community-centered banking criterion.

And lastly, we are in the process of creating an event that allows our local high school youth to further engage with the blueprint.

We have partnered with SAC Unified and Twin Rivers to host local students for a day with the goal of teaching them about home ownership, workforce development, and banking access.

To close us out, I leave you with our lessons learned.

Throughout this process, it became very clear that we needed to develop alternative methods and language to conducting this work due to the limitations of Prop 209, especially under the current federal administration.

It's also important to note that this work would not have been possible if it were not funded by CFE fund due to Prop 209.

We also learned that plainly speaking, there is a serious need for foundational skills, skills that prepare and to train our residents from historically disadvantaged neighborhood and Sacramento's leading workforce areas.

And finally, an overall need to address the racial wealth gap.

If I could call everyone's attention to the last page of the CityStar Blueprint, there is a diagram titled Boost and Blocks to Building Wealth.

And this graph highlights the federal, state, and local policies that contributed to the wealth accumulation of white people, but stymied or blocked economic opportunities for black and brown communities.

Thank thank you, Ari.

It's really great presentation.

Let's take public comment.

Okay, yep.

On the item, and then yeah.

And yeah, thank you, Chair.

I have one speaker.

Will Lambert please come to the podium?

Very proud of the pacerette.

That's a grant pacer that speaks like that.

People who come from where we come, we we we come to you with actual facts, and we don't.

I can't speak for her, but I'm speaking for me.

I don't really care.

I'm not trying to be popular.

That's not something I'm about.

And I want to remind everybody in here that before Donald Trump came to office, there was resistance to DIE in City Hall.

There was resistance before he got there.

They're trying to blame everything on him, but there was resistance, well documented because during core meetings or during these meetings, uh, it was confirmed that certain people that were on the staff were supposed to take these courses.

It was just to take a course, and they resisted it.

And I put the light on it because why would you resist a course unless you're resistant to DIE?

This situation, uh, when I hear the word blueprint, I have a blueprint too.

And we, when you draw up a blueprint, you have to implement it, and you have to fund it.

No blueprint for building a house.

You cannot build a house without funding.

You could have the best blueprint, you could have the best presentation, you could have the best graphs, the best score, everything, but without funding, it's not gonna succeed.

Anything you do, you must have funding.

If you take fund, listen at how they're reacting to a budget deficit.

Funding is crucial to anything.

I own a cheesecake business.

I would my family would run me out of town if I came home talking about a five-year projected deficit.

Thank you for your comments, Chair.

I have no more speakers.

Thank you so much.

I have uh counts Councilmember Jennings in the queue.

I want to make sure that um thank you.

I want to make sure that I acknowledge the work that's been done on this and the incredible work.

Um I haven't had chance to read through the entire report, but from what I've read, I'm just very impressed with the opportunity that we have in front of us.

And so, with that said, I think our our what we should be doing today is to submit this to the entire city council in order to be able to approve this work and let it go forward.

And so I want to make that motion because I want to take this work seriously and I want to move it forward.

We have that opportunity, and I want to do so because of the great work that's been done so far.

So, congratulations that I like to move this forward to the folks of city.

Oh, second.

That's great.

Um, so we have a motion and a second, and I just wanted to take this moment to thank Ari, Amy, and Lynette, and the entire team.

I just for your incredible work.

Everyone.

Yes, yes, everyone on the team.

Thank you and on me, everyone who works so hard to um to basically center this in the work that we do here at the city of Sacramento, right?

Um, this issue is just it's not static.

It's um it's not like a historical talking point.

It is the work, this work is so important because it's directly tied to the prosperity of all residents in our city.

Um, and when one segment of our community lacks that access to generational wealth and home ownership and business opportunities and fair wages, it actually um ripples throughout our entire city.

And so I really just want to say thank you so much for your your heart work.

Um, and I support moving this item to the full council for consideration.

And so all in there's a motion on the table, a second, all in favor.

Aye.

Okay, that item passes.

Great job.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

We have public comments.

Thank you, Chair.

We have one.

Can I please have Lambert come back to the podium?

Mr.

Lambert.

Okay, good luck.

To me, it's amazing that nobody has any comment on such a crucial item is this.

Um department called Diversity and Equity.

Is it funded?

We're going to find that out.

We're also going to find out.

Why are there so many retreats?

What are you retreating for?

Retreating costs money.

I'm not sure if when I go to a retreat with my better half, it costs money to go places.

Hotels, whatever.

So when I hear retreating, you should stop retreating.

Stop that.

Because that's a waste of time.

And it's also a waste of money.

Also, I was the one who said in front of City Council, people who are working remotely shouldn't get a raise.

We're going to find out about that.

Because the only one at this city to me who should get a raise is Menticuppy.

Why?

Because she's at every commission meeting I go to, and she's training a lot of people that are starting to do it like she does it.

And she can operate this too.

A lot of people during COVID on the roster were exposed.

They didn't know how to use this remotely.

To me, they shouldn't have been paid.

If you don't know how to use this remotely, you shouldn't get paid.

You should know technology.

This is 2027.

And the more I hear them move your schedule to 26 and 27, that's pushing you out further.

But you should protest no meeting until June.

I just heard somebody up here say that the budget would almost be complete.

So they would have accomplished their mission, not fund you.

That's their goal.

Thank you for your comments.

I have one more speaker, Henry Harry.

Thank you, members, and thank you for your generosity and let me speak.

I hope that this information will be received the way I intend it, and that it might be something for you to think about and hopefully use.

Without a strong phone foundation, uh people feeling safe, a city has failed at one of its core missions.

The challenge of rebuilding law enforcement to adequate staffing levels will be with us beyond the next decade.

And it's critically important.

Another point.

Each year, this council gives us a um either-or scenario.

Either fund the police or fund other programs, and I think we need to move beyond that.

I'd like to see us implement some type of plan that has non-conflicting police funding as is as a permanent stream.

Plus, I'd encourage this council to understand and stop using harmful language about police overtime.

Officers working long uh hours of overtime is just the nature of the job, and it comes with the way we run the city when we don't have enough officers, so officers have to work overtime to meet that need.

So I hope that at some point we can let the citizens decide how they want to fund and grow their police department.

Um, and I think it's a uh although we have these challenges, it's an exciting time to want to fix those challenges.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, Chair.

I have no more speakers.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, everyone who attended today's meeting.

Our meeting is now adjourned at 12.06.

Thank you so much.