I call the meeting of January 15, 2026, Senior Commission to order.

The time is now 10.02.

For those who can, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

The flag is in the back of the room.

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

and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. You may be seated.

Mr. Secretary, could you do the roll call, please?

Thank you, Chair.

Chair Wachison?

Here.

Vice Chair Comello?

Here.

Commissioner Dillon?

Here.

Commissioner Lopez-Nacario?

Commissioner Michael Cady?

Here.

Commissioner Pena?

Here.

Commissioner Brennan?

Here.

and Commissioner Shalini.

And for the record, we have two excused absences

from Commissioner Shalini and Commissioner Lopez-Nacario.

Also in attendance are Mike King with Pear Street Consulting,

Liliana Gray with the Human Services Department,

Valerie Nicholas, also with the Human Services Department,

and Senior Commission Secretary Pedro Naranjo.

Thank you.

okay announcements i want to welcome everyone back i hope everyone had a wonderful holiday

and i am looking forward to a very productive year for 2026

all right and please silence any devices that would prove a distraction during the meeting

and also please remember to ask for a recess if you need to step out of the meeting as that may

impact the commission's ability to maintain a quorum also i'd like to welcome back mike king who

will be doing a presentation a little later in the agenda okay and just an fyi there is a change to

item three the consent calendar the draft agenda no longer requires approval so it will no longer

be necessary to request a bundle and approve the agenda with the draft minutes so we're now on item

3, the consent calendar. Approval of the draft minutes for the Senior Commission meeting of

November 20th, 2025. Could I please have a motion to approve the minutes? So moved. Second? Second.

Second, Commissioner Camillo. Mr. Secretary, could you do the roll call, please? Thank you. Chair

Wachison? Yes. Vice Chair Comello? Yes. Commissioner Dillon? Yes. Commissioner Michael Cady? Yes. Commissioner

Pena? Yes. Commissioner Brennan? Yes. The motion carries with six five yeses and one

extension. City staff reports and announcements. Pedro? Thank you. Just a few updates for everyone.

At the city level, I want to provide an update regarding the vacant senior commission seat. As

you know, we have a vacant seat given Commissioner McKenry's resignation. I contacted the city

clerk's office and they uh notified me that they have not received any applications at this point

uh they'll continue to uh we'll continue to follow up with them and we'll support the promotion by

including it in our monthly calendars and our social media and just as a reminder there was

a person that was about to get uh that was selected it was about to get appointed and they

they ended up withdrawing their application at the last minute.

Is this a district-wide or an at-large appointment?

This is a district.

Five.

District five.

Okay, thanks.

Whose district is five?

I'm sorry?

Whose district is five?

Whose district is five?

I think it's that's Council Member Bowen.

Bowen?

Next, regarding department updates,

As a reminder, the biannual homeless point-in-time count will take place next Thursday, January 22nd, from roughly 5 in the morning to 9.30 that morning.

As of this past Monday, we have about 47 volunteers secured.

Our goal is to have 54 in order to effectively cover all census tracts in the city.

And so please let me know.

Today is kind of the last day to recruit.

So if you are interested in helping next Thursday, please contact me as soon as possible.

And I'm happy to put you in contact with our colleague Elsa Castillo, who is coordinating this effort.

As a reminder, this count happens every two years.

is very important to get a sense of the homeless needs in our city.

The information from that count is used to inform decisions regarding funding as well as service delivery.

So next week.

One more thing to add about that is we need people to go out and help with the count,

but we also can use help here at this site.

this is kind of the staging area where people will come and get their supplies so if you're not

able to like physically go out and do the camp but you're willing to help out that day with

other needs on site also please let me know another exciting update from our department

is regarding housing support so I'm happy to report that the human service department just

executed a contract with Bay Area Community Services. They are a local nonprofit organization

to help homelessness among extremely low-income households. They will be offering modest ongoing

rental assistance to stabilizing housing for individuals and families at risk of eviction.

Outreach will commence soon with the goal of launching the program by April 1st of this year.

This will be an 18-month program funded through the California Department of Housing and Community Development and will provide rental assistance and support services to at least 70 households.

Next, I will transition to our senior services update.

And because we have our program services coordinator here that oversees senior services, I thought that it would be appropriate for her to provide this update.

So I'll go ahead and turn it over to Liliana Gray.

Thank you.

So over the last couple months, we've had several different events and programs.

And so we prepared a slideshow with some pictures featuring some of these events.

And so first off in November, we had our annual Thanksgiving luncheon.

We served a little over 180 folks both in person and to go.

It was a great event.

We hired a band this year which was really, really fun.

They added a really nice touch and everyone really enjoyed themselves.

Again, we partnered with Spectrum for the catering and they do a fabulous job.

It was a really great time had by all.

In December, December 4th to be exact, we had our second annual Senior Services Expo.

This was an opportunity for contract instructors or volunteers to come out and discuss their

programming.

We also had some of our partners here, so CityServe was here to talk about the Ride Care

Program as well as our department to talk about our different services here, both with

homelessness and senior services.

We also had a partner, our Spectrum,

and our partners with Tech Exchange

talking about their services as well.

I think we saw about 100 folks come through.

We also had a sponsorship through Kaiser,

so they provided funding for us to buy some swag for folks,

as well as some snacks and treats for folks to enjoy.

It was a really, really great event,

and we look forward to bigger and better next year.

For the holidays, we had our holiday bingo event.

We had a bingo event in October that was really, really popular,

and so folks asked us to do another one.

And so for the holidays, we had another bingo event.

We invited our ukulele group to come and play music,

and Santa also showed up again this year

and took some fun pictures with folks,

and led a conga line, and it was just a very nice, lively event that was really, really great.

We had about, I think, 40 or 50 people in attendance, but yeah, it was great.

Cynthia, one of our program assistants, she set up a little hot chocolate bar,

and again, we had some nice appetizers and stuff for folks.

We also, this year, have a new class starting.

It's called Soul Line Dancing.

And it's taught by former Raiderette Lori Hurley.

If you guys have a chance to come, it's a really, really fun class.

I tried it at another site that she teaches at.

And she's really lively.

She plays really great music, some oldies, some newer music.

But she's really, really great.

Does a really good job of breaking down the steps.

This is the second week we've had her class.

She teaches on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 2.

and we've had a mix of like anywhere from like four to ten actually the first time I think we

have 15 folks attend so her class is growing we're looking forward to more classes but yeah

it's a really really great class if you have time to come dance and have fun as you all know as well

we have our day trips that started again in December we went to Filoli actually Valerie

attended as well as Cynthia. A great time we had I think 15 folks attend that

date that trip which was really great I mean if you've ever been to Filoli

they for the holidays they do it up you know they decorate the house the

gardens and so it was really really great they also were able to participate

in a guided tour which was kind of an added bonus that we didn't know ahead

of time so that was really fun but so we're really excited about these day

trips and so are so are participants we also participated in two outreach events

in collaboration with the downtown downtown San Leandro ambassadors the

SLEA yes association yes sorry and so the first one was in November with the

neon night neon night market and attendance was Cynthia and our admin

Alicia as well as Catherine from CityServe again talking about all of our

services and programs and then in December we were in attendance at the

it's a wonderful night event in attendance with Cynthia and then Janessa

from CityServe. So I just want to say thank you Lily for providing the update

Thanks for your leadership overseeing all these activities and definitely to staff.

Staff is amazing.

And as you can see, this is just a snapshot of all the offerings that have happened since just our last meeting.

So thank you so much for all the work that you do.

And that concludes my report.

We're open to any questions that anybody might have.

Any questions?

What have you been doing in your spare time?

Lots of sleep.

Is there a...

Thank you.

Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Is there a fee for the line dance?

There is.

Oh, good question.

Thank you.

It is a $10 drop-in or it's a session class, so $80 total for the whole session.

But it is a $10 drop-in.

Okay, but it's a drop-in class too.

Oh, that's nice.

There is an option for drop-in.

Okay.

Any other questions from the commission?

No?

Okay.

Thank you very much, Liliana.

Of course.

All right.

At this time, we have our public comments.

The public is invited to make comments on items that are not listed on the agenda at this time.

Public comments are limited to two minutes per speaker, subject to adjustment by the chair.

The commission is unable to respond to your concerns today as they are not agendized.

Your item may be taken under consideration for future discussion, or it may be referred to the appropriate department.

When you address the commission, please stand if you're able, state your name if you desire for the record, and please speak clearly and project.

Thank you.

So we do have two visitors, and I will start here with Jackie, who I actually invited to come today.

All right, thank you.

Good morning.

I wrote it out, so I don't forget what I have to say.

Good morning, Chair and Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Jacqueline Scoggins, and I'm the founder of Serenity Funeral Planning Consultants. It's an independent funeral planning and educational service that I founded in 2024.

for. We exist to help seniors and families make informed funeral decisions before a crisis

occurs. And I'm not a funeral home, so I don't sell any funeral plans or cemetery property,

but it's just to be unbiased educational training, personalized guidance, and advocacy.

The purpose for me talking to you all today is also I've been working with the San Leandro

Library. We have a program that's coming up, and it starts this Thursday. It's called

peace of heart, peace of mind. It's about preparing for life's final act. It's from 6 o'clock to 730.

Every Thursday, there's an eight-week series. And I mentioned that to Jane, and I asked her if I could

just inform you all about that opportunity for anyone to come. It's free. And so there'll be

several different conversations going on every week regarding preparations. The second thing is

that every third Friday I have a group that I meet with 55 plus at Zenti Bistro from 10 to 12.

And it's about gathering and just talking about topics that's relatable to the community.

And so that's my pitch for today.

And I would look forward to hopefully being a resource for the senior commission and the community we serve.

Thank you.

And?

My name is Guy Wu and I have no comments.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

No public comments were received via e-comment,

and the commission was informed on Wednesday, January 14th.

Presentations.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I got Boston thought.

the FlexRide program assessment update presentation.

I understand that Liliana is going to spearhead this

and make introductions.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Chair Watkinson.

So the FlexRide assessment was built into

the city's age-friendly action plan,

specifically under priority number five, transportation.

Over the years, we've heard directly from participants about what's working well and

where there may be room for improvement.

The goal of the assessment is to help increase ridership and improve services overall.

To support this work, the city brought on a consultant, and we selected Parish Street

Consulting with Mike King, serving as principal.

based on their help in designing the Age-Friendly Action Plan.

And so Mike is here today to present an overview of the assessment

and share key findings.

Thanks, Lily.

You're welcome.

Wonderful to be back.

Nice to see you all.

It's been too long, but really honored again to be selected by the city

and by the great team here with the Human Services Department

to continue to spearhead different aspects of your Age-Friendly Action Plan.

And it's been particularly fun for me because, you know, doing that action planning exercise a couple years ago, right, starting pretty broad in our discussions with community and with you all to then doing the implementation plan last year and really getting much more detailed about particular steps and projects that we wanted to undertake to finally now doing an assessment of one program, right, under the umbrella of the action plan and the human services department.

It's just been great to get into those details and really get to know a program at a much deeper level.

So I'll try to be very brief with my remarks so that we have time for question and discussion.

As Lily mentioned, right up on the screen here, and as a hard copy, you have the presentation as well in front of you.

So this is page three of the hard copy.

assessment goals were threefold. We wanted to identify barriers to usage. I think anecdotally,

there was a sense that usage of the FlexRides Paratransit Shuttle Service has gone down over

the last couple of years, and maybe particularly since the pandemic. And so wanted to validate that,

but also understand if that is the case, what some of those barriers are. As Lily mentioned,

And we want to provide recommendations as a product of this assessment that will hopefully increase ridership, make it easier for folks to use the service, to access the service, and improve overall service quality.

Also, as Lily mentioned, this is directly aligned with our goals and approach outlined in your Age-Friendly Action Plan.

On the next slide, as Lily mentioned, domain number five, transportation.

Project number 10 for the action plan is to expand accessible transportation options for seniors and persons with disabilities in the community.

That's broad language.

Within that, we specifically called out doing an assessment of the FlexRides Paratransit Program.

That's exactly what this project entailed.

And within that, we also accomplished action step number three under this project,

which was to have an opportunity to work with community members,

whether through listening sessions or other engagement,

to understand their frequent destinations

so that we can make sure to tailor our transportation services to meet those needs.

Okay.

It was a relatively short time period that we had,

and so I'm really proud that we were able to bring a number of different methodologies

to our assessment within the last couple of months.

worked with MV Transportation, who's the operator of the shuttle service, as well as with Valerie and the rest of the human services team to review program documents to understand all the ways in which the service is being promoted and guided through policy.

We did an analysis of ridership data. TripShot is an application, a platform that MV Transportation uses to track and count rides on a daily basis.

So we use that data. They also keep a written log, the drivers do. So as folks come on and off the shuttle, they're noting it on a clipboard on paper that they print out. So we used both in our analysis of ridership.

But we also did a very brief survey, short survey, to a targeted population, so those folks who are eligible to use the shuttle service.

So that's anyone over the age of 50, as well as anyone with a certified disability over the age of 18.

And so we were able to get 174 responses to that survey, so we'll talk about that a little bit later.

We also did five focus groups targeting that eligible population, as well as interviews with the Lynx Shuttle Service, which is operated also by the city of San Leandro, with HOP, which is the Hayward Operated Paratransit Service right next door in the city of Hayward, as well as with AC Transit.

So using their expertise and how they operate their programming to help advise and give us some perspective on changes we might want to make to the FlexRides program here.

I also did some ride-alongs on the shuttle to get a very clear in-person view of how things operate, driver interactions, timing of the routes, and so forth.

And then lastly, kind of pulled all this together to do a strengths, weaknesses, opportunity, and threats analysis.

So really kind of understand especially what are some of the areas for improvement and then ultimately how we can turn those into opportunities for the program.

All right. In terms of findings, just as a caveat to starting to talk about ridership,

we found that the data quality around ridership count was not as accurate or as clean as we would

like it to be. There's definitely some discrepancies in terms of the data that's on TripShot.

and so largely we're relying on the written logs kept by drivers.

There's potentially some questions that we have about that data as well,

but what the city has reported to the Alameda County Transportation Commission

as part of its public presentations every year

are these figures showing the count of one-way unduplicated trips

by the FlexRides Paratransit Shuttle Service the last two fiscal years.

We are in the middle of fiscal year 25-26.

We don't have that data yet.

But according to this data, at least over the last couple years,

ridership has increased slightly.

What's an unduplicated trip?

Yeah, so this would be, it's not counting, you know, both the person getting on and getting off, right? It's just counting the person getting on and using the service, right?

So basically, they don't get counted twice for going from point A to point B, but they will get counted if they also get back on the shuttle service after doing their shopping or being here at the senior center and then going back to their original destination.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So we wanted to share more about ridership.

That was the only snapshot that we felt confident that we could share with you at this time.

So that when we talk about recommendations, really tightening up data collection around ridership is important for this program to understand the impacts of the changes that ultimately we're going to want to implement.

I do want to give a little bit more information about the survey that we did.

And so, like I said, we got 174 total survey responses over a roughly three to four week survey open period.

It was not like the survey we did for the Age-Friendly Action Plan, which was community-wide, wanted to hear from folks of all ages, all residents.

This was very much targeted.

We only wanted to get responses from folks who are eligible to use FlexRides, and we were successful doing that.

So as you can see from these graphs, we got a nice mix of folks both without disclosed disabilities as well as those with a range of disabilities.

The most common being a difficulty or disability regarding walking or climbing stairs.

And so that's obviously a huge component of thinking about ridership for this service.

folks that may have difficulty driving, mobility issues, and so they require this service to be

able to get out into community. In terms of age groups, also I think we hit the target perfectly.

We know through this survey and through previous assessments that folks will choose to drive

their own vehicle as long as possible. They appreciate that flexibility. We also heard

from a lot of folks who appreciate taking other modes of public transit as well as walking and

biking. Biking, the least of those options, but a lot of folks indicating that they enjoy walking.

And so really kind of reaching an older population, more in the 70s, 80s, 90s,

is critical for this service as folks develop difficulties potentially driving on their own.

We asked whether folks had ridden flex rides before, and if so, how often.

And so, again, a nice mix, getting folks who have used the service as well as those who haven't.

Among the roughly one-third of survey respondents who did use the service before,

it's notable that none indicated that they use it daily.

So I think we want to understand that nuance as well, which to me, through conversations and this data,

indicates folks are using this for specific needs that they have, whether that's shopping,

whether that's coming to a class or multiple classes here at the senior center,

getting to BART for longer trips, getting to the hospital. But these are things that

are scheduled in advance and are not daily appointments. There's something that may be

weekly, maybe monthly, and so the data indicates that folks are using it in a variety of ways

from a couple times a week to once a month or so.

Okay, we also asked folks as part of the survey sort of where they would most likely want to travel,

and we used the stops that currently are offered by the FlexRide Shuttle Service,

as well as a number of other prominent San Leandro locations.

And we gave folks the opportunity to write in additional locations

that they would like to frequent.

And what we see in terms of the top six most popular destinations

are Kaiser Hospital, Costco, downtown San Leandro,

the San Leandro BART station, the main library,

and the senior community center.

So no big surprises there.

I think this is really instructive, though,

as we talk about recommendations later, folks really were adamant about being able to use the

service to get the health appointments. So Kaiser being the most prominent, but other health clinics

were mentioned as well. Costco, we'll talk more about that, but I think is emblematic of the fact

that folks do grocery shopping through this service, and we want to, whatever change we make,

we want to continue to keep that in mind. That's true also of downtown San Leandro.

and then the library service was and continues to be very popular.

And there's more activities all the time through the library for older adults.

And so I think keeping that in mind is important.

We also wanted to get a sense from folks whether they've used the service before or not,

what would potentially lead them to using the service more.

and we heard this anecdotally in our focus group conversations as well.

You know, a fixed route shuttle service is potentially difficult for this population

because they have to get to the stop, right?

Obviously, San Leandro has understood that.

That's why you have the on-demand flex ride service, right?

That is door-to-door.

Folks can order their Uber to get to a wider range of destinations.

We want to maintain that accessibility.

We do think a fixed route shuttle service still has a place within your transportation system.

But we do need to figure that piece out, right?

Because if folks can't get to the stop, it's not going to work.

And so that's a big takeaway from this data and what we heard from the focus groups.

We also heard, and it's indicated here, the loops currently for this service take an hour.

So if you miss your bus by two minutes, you are waiting quite a long time to get the next one.

There aren't necessarily seats at many of these stops.

And so for this population, that's a major issue.

So just want to highlight some of those areas.

We'll talk more about them as we get into the recommendations in a second.

but I would say those are the two biggest areas that came up through the survey.

So putting it all together, this includes what we learned through the survey,

through the focus groups, through our conversations with other transit providers.

These are the big things that we want to keep in mind as we consider potential changes

to the fixed drought shuttle service.

As I mentioned, loops are often too long for folks

and it also puts pressure on the drivers, which I saw during the ride-alongs.

It's very difficult with any traffic or if they get caught at a train track

for drivers to be able to get back to the senior center to complete their loop within an hour.

And so that is leading to drivers often not stopping at stops.

They look to see if someone's there.

You know, if it's an older population, that person may have decided to sit around the corner because that's where they could get seating.

Now they're not seen, bus goes by.

And that only needs to happen once for a rider to say, I'm not going to use this anymore.

All right.

So we have to really think about the service in terms of reliability because that is what is going to ensure that folks continue to use it.

beyond that we know that a lot of folks just simply aren't aware of the service we had a

really great focus group at Fargo Senior Center in which we signed up I don't know how many was it

Lily like 15 people maybe 10 to 15 people who were there because they heard about it for the

first time and saw the value and instantly wanted to become members and be able to start using it

So the more we can get this word out, work with senior housing developments, I think that will get our ridership up as well.

As we look to make the loops faster and simpler, there are certain locations, especially street stops.

So this ties into what I said about making the stops as accessible as possible.

if it's not curbside, you know, out in front of a shopping location, out in front of the

Senior Center here, or out in front of Kaiser, they're less likely to be used. You can see this

in the data. So if it's just a stop on the street, just like an AC transit stop, this population is

largely not using those particular stops. And so those would be the candidates as we think about

how to maybe reduce the number of stops so that we can shorten the route.

As I mentioned, seating, shelter at stops, you know, important for everybody.

You know, this is a conversation I know AC Transit gets these sort of suggestions all the time.

There's a maintenance aspect to it.

We won't get into all that.

But especially for this population, it's essential at least to have seating and shelter as well.

And then lastly, what we heard from especially our focus group at Krill, folks with disabilities would love to take advantage of these transportation options more, but it's a real barrier for them that they have to be East Bay Paratransit certified.

And we've heard this over and over again.

And the reason is to be certified by East Bay Paratransit, you have to go to Oakland for an in-person interview.

And so if you're already challenged being able to get to the locations you want to get to, that can be a non-starter for many folks.

And they just they don't engage at that point.

And so that's something we want to explore.

When we talked with Hayward Operated Paratransit, they have figured out a way that they think works well for them.

to be able to have a requirement, have some sort of certification,

but not this particular obstacle.

Are they covering this area too?

They are not.

They do unincorporated Alameda County.

But we have a program that people can use.

Correct.

That's right.

Yep.

Okay.

So in terms of next steps,

These are some of the preliminary recommendations that I'm in conversation with Pedro, Lily, and Valerie about, as well as other stakeholders that we've engaged.

So these are, you know, just to kind of emphasize the draft form of this, and this is certainly where we would appreciate your input.

What the data is telling me is that we need to change, instead of 14 stop loops that take an hour, we need, you know, something more akin to like four or five stop loops that take a half hour.

so that folks, if they know it comes every half hour,

they don't have to plan so far ahead

and they don't have to figure out how to get to certain stops

because I think we also should concentrate on serving

largely senior residential facilities

and have this service be something that operates where

we're going to Broadmoor Plaza, we're going to Farger Senior Center,

the Mission Bay, Mobile Home Park, et cetera, bringing folks from that location to one grocery

store, to one public library, to the senior community center, to a local hospital, and then

back again, right? So their core needs are being met, and it's happening every half an hour.

That is going to potentially irk some current users who do not live at a senior housing

development. It will also potentially get pushback from younger members of the community who live

with a disability, right? Because that would, you know, what we're going to say is we're going to

get far more ridership, really concentrate on serving those housing centers, but we're not

going to serve the broader community. And right now the loops are trying to do that. They're trying

to serve sort of everybody. And I think we're finding that by trying to serve everybody,

we're actually kind of getting lost in our mission.

Yeah.

We want to, you know, if that's the approach that we want to take,

coordinate the schedule so that, you know,

folks especially are given great opportunities to get here for programming, right?

And so we want to coordinate the schedule to make sure that that's possible.

There is a want to expand from the three-day-a-week service,

so Monday, Tuesday, Thursday currently.

add back in Wednesday, Friday. Folks are talking about how oftentimes when they make appointments

with Kaiser or when there's a program here at the Senior Center, those fall on Wednesdays and

Fridays too, and they don't have control over those schedules. So giving them the flexibility

to be able to use the service for all the needs that come up is something we want to definitely

explore. And regardless of any changes to the route, we want to update the schedule so that

we can address some of these reliability issues that I mentioned earlier so drivers are not rushing.

Next slide. We mentioned the ridership data. If we're going to continue to use TripShot,

which I think makes sense, I think it's a good platform, we need to ensure that it's working

properly and the drivers are properly inputting the data. So we've got to work on those issues.

Semi-seats is a relatively affordable option in terms of sort of two seats on both sides

of the stop pole. So it would provide some seating at these stops. And think about canopies as well,

where the city has jurisdiction to make those improvements. It will be a much longer process

at sort of private store fronts where the city might not have the same level of control.

We can look at the disability requirement, as I mentioned.

HOP uses a medical form that can be completed by any professional

who can attest to the rider's disability.

They've partnered with Krill, who's located in their community, to do that.

It's a very trusted resource.

San Leandro could think similarly about partnerships that could also take that

and be a lot closer than folks having to go to Oakland.

As I mentioned in terms of serving the senior housing developments,

working with those folks, working with other transit partners,

community-based organizations, a lot of the stuff that Valerie, Pedro, Lily,

the team are already doing as part of the Age-Friendly Action Plan.

Just what we saw at Fargo Senior Center, what we're seeing at other places,

You know, Valerie's doing a great job doing these info sessions at Brockmore Plaza at other locations on a monthly basis, right?

Let's really, you know, build those relationships and do that work because it is, I think, producing some great outcomes.

And then lastly, I know I rely on Apple Maps.

You know, if I want to get somewhere, even if I'm driving myself, I want to, you know, understand what's the best way to get there.

folks use all sorts of apps. Currently, FlexRides, this fixed route shuttle service,

doesn't show up in the same way that AC Transit and other public transit routes do. So it is

another sort of promotional tool so that folks know that this is available to them if they meet

the eligibility criteria. So I think we want to explore that as well. And then lastly, just sort

by way of giving you a sense of where we go from here.

As I said, we're still working through these recommendations.

We want to get your input today and in the coming days.

And so we want to finalize those and submit a final report

back to the Human Services Department by February 25th.

So we've got a little over a month to have all those conversations

and to do that work.

That will inform the presentation that Human Services gives on an annual basis to the Alameda County Transportation Commission.

I believe your submission for that presentation is by the end of February, but the presentation itself is probably in April of this year.

So that will be upcoming.

And then this was all in preparation so that coming July 1, those recommendations that have been finalized, the team can build those into its work plan with MV Transportation into the contract, implement those changes, and then ultimately monitor and evaluate to see have they been successful in increasing ridership over the next year, and we can course correct at that point.

So thanks for that, for listening to the quick overview there.

Welcome your questions, your comments.

I'll turn it back over to Chair Wachison.

Can I add something real quick?

Yeah.

So I just want to add before we open up for questions and comments from both commissioners as well as the public.

Thank you, Mike, for the presentation.

And as always, thanks for the very thoughtful and intentional way that you do the work, but also the way in which we are engaging staff, partners with expertise, and the community.

So really appreciate that.

And to Lillian and Valerie for working with Mike and also working on this program on a day-to-day basis.

So they're here today in case there's any questions.

from an administrative standpoint.

We all kind of take on different roles,

but programmatically they are working very hard every day

to provide the best possible service,

and that's one of the big reasons, as you heard earlier,

why we're doing this assessment.

As I mentioned in previous meetings,

while we are doing this assessment,

before doing this assessment,

we were already aware of some things,

some challenges that we were hearing from our users,

and so because of that,

we have standing meetings with MB Transportation.

Every two weeks we meet with them and we discuss specific things that we're hearing from our

riders or issues that are coming up in a way to improve the quality of our services.

So all that's been happening and Valerie and Lily have been a huge part of that.

And so the last thing that I want to say is the tight timeline, the short timeline, but

also the tight timeline that Mike mentioned, right, with the assessment.

And now we are considering all these findings and trying to figure out, like, what do we do with the recommendations.

We're getting ready to submit an application to ACTC at the end of February.

So I just want to say that, as with any assessment, right, there's going to be things that we're going to be able to implement right away.

And so we are going to be having sort of an internal visioning session in a couple weeks to kind of work through some of those questions.

what can be incorporated into the fiscal year 26, 27 application?

What's the following year?

But as part of those conversations, the long-term vision, right?

What do we envision this program looking like in the next five, ten years

so that we can work toward that, right?

So I wanted to just provide that context.

And today is an opportunity to share what we know,

share what we're doing, get questions and comments from all of you. While we can't engage with the public on a discussion, we definitely want to hear also your comments.

And we're available after this meeting to speak to you at more length if needed. So hopefully that helps. And then I'll turn it over back to the chair.

Okay, what I'm going to do is I'm going to go around the table. So I'm going to start with Commissioner Pena. Did you have any questions?

Well, yes, I have never really been familiar with the flex rides, but I just had a question, and I know it's a silly question.

When it says East Bay Paratransit certification, is that for the rider or the driver?

Is that just anyone can ride it, right?

Or do you have to have, you know, that's not important.

Right, so the eligibility criteria is anyone who's an incorporated City of San Leandro resident over the age of 50, right?

So similar to the eligibility for programming here at the Senior Center.

And then also anyone over the age of 18 who's been East Bay Paratransit certified.

So that's the current disability criteria.

So anyone in those two population buckets can use the service.

And there is a short application process that gets submitted to Valerie and ultimately approved.

and then the person gets a card.

And that's what the driver essentially checks

just to verify that they're eligible.

Any other questions?

No, no.

Okay.

Commissioner McMichael-Cady?

That was my question.

Why isn't it just open to the public?

Is that a funding issue?

Why should people have to prove they're over 50 or disabled?

That's a great question.

I think my understanding is that, right,

this is a service that, well, one, can only serve so many people at its capacity, right?

So that's a big thing to consider.

And these buses, I don't think I, there might have been one photo that I took from a ride-along

that you can see.

It's sort of, I think, maximum of 12 to 15 seats within the bus.

So they're not huge vehicles, you know, so we have to take that in consideration.

They're not the same vehicles that AC Transit is using.

And also, you know, the needs of this particular population, right,

are uniquely served because they're wheelchair accessible, right?

In many cases, AC Transit is as well.

But I think, you know, and this is something that I heard from the disability community

more so than older adults that we spoke with,

there's a real sense of safety taking these kinds of transportation options that are particularly suited or created for them.

And they feel safe from harassment, safe from judgment.

And so I think there's a dimension of that as well.

And I think that also probably applies to certain older adults, that the comfort and the welcoming aspect of it makes it something that, you know, at least we should consider keeping it particularly to these populations rather than the broader community.

As we wrestle with the recommendations and what I'm seeing that having simpler routes that folks can follow, where they can, you know, understand that, hey, if I'm not here right on time, all I have to do is wait a half hour or less.

You know, that's another aspect that, you know, if we tie it to certain senior housing communities or certain routes, we won't be able to serve the whole community.

And I think, again, that's part of what we're learning is it's really difficult to do that unless you're going to have a lot more vehicles and have them just running a lot more often.

That's what I mean. I wouldn't think you would have a lot of members in the public who want to get on at Broadmoor Plaza and go to Kaiser.

Right, yeah.

There are many requirements in the first place.

I think the routes as they currently look, they could serve a broader population and you could increase ridership that way potentially.

I think that's a question for human services in the city.

The intent and I believe probably the funding that you're using dictates that we're serving these problems.

Those are the elements that we have to consider.

I think if there were a way to do both, we would consider that.

But that's the logic as I understand it, and I don't know if the team has any.

Yeah, I think everything that you just said makes a lot of sense, and I would say primarily

the funding.

So this is Measure BB funding specifically designated for paratransit services focused

on older adults and people with disabilities.

Outside of the fact that then we're talking about relevancy, right?

So then when you're talking about the program design and the destinations, obviously we are

tailoring it for an older adult population.

Yeah.

And, you know, similarly we gave a presentation about Lynx a number of months ago.

So Lynx serving folks from the BART station to the western side of the city where there

are a number of employers and that's funded through the Business Improvement District.

Right.

So it's the same kind of thing.

is open to all residents but yeah a lot of this gets dictated by who's providing

the funding yes

Commissioner Brennan two questions number one I look at the map and five of

your sick of the our six highest destinations and then the six owners of

community center are all in the north loop and so is that division I know

I know that's up for reconsideration as to making smaller, tighter loops.

But if I, living at the very southwest corner of the city, wanted to take flex to get to Kaiser,

I'd end up coming here first, having to change buses, and then going to Kaiser.

That is, you know, I could probably walk in faster.

So if you look at the map, there's this huge hole in the center.

and Broadmoor is not on this list

but it's on North Loops

and all of the major destinations

if you count the community center

they're all on North Loop

and so that division may be

maybe four smaller loops

six smaller loops

I don't know how many buses you have available

or have the buses alternate

which loops they're doing

rather than this

you know, this kind of cycle

anyhow, be creative

Second thing, is there a chance, since they made number one, is there a chance of imposing on the Kaiser Foundation for some funding for helping folks like me who are 25-year Kaiser members, you know, getting to their appointments?

That's a good suggestion.

Yep, within their, deep in their mission.

and we're not.

Facilitating this cross-section

of getting to effectively

to their appointments at Kaiser

I think is absolutely,

somebody in their organization

has that as a go-do it.

So I would just say

we got to find that first.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you.

We are strengthening our partnership

with Kaiser.

There's actually an update

about Kaiser a little bit later.

So I think there's a connection there

to what you're suggesting.

Yeah.

That's it.

Is it?

Oh, that's it.

Sorry.

I'd be talking if I had more.

Commissioner Camillo.

Most of the time I see the flex sort of empty,

only one person inside or two persons.

So I was wondering if before we had three shuttles only,

two shuttles going around and one used for medical.

So I wonder whether the groups can be combined

so that one could be made available for medical appointments only.

That is just a suggestion.

I don't know whether it's possible.

Any other?

Anything else?

Commissioner Camillo, anything else?

No, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Dillon.

Yeah, a couple things.

Very interesting presentation.

Thank you very much.

So, okay, so first off, the frequent senior destinations, action step number three, is that based on the available routes?

Or is they just go there and they say, oh, this is where I want to go?

Well, there's kind of two things.

So the action step number three that you're referencing from the H-Friendly Action Plan, right,

the original intent of that action was more broadly to understand where folks want to go, right,

So not tied just to the current fixed route loops,

but just understand where do folks want to go in the city

and how can we meet that need,

whether it's through this particular paratransit,

whether it's through the on-demand service,

or ride care, or any of these.

So there's that.

And then the survey kind of blends the two

and gives them very specific stops

that are part of the current service,

as well as giving them the option to go beyond that.

And so the data is based on particular stops that they could choose from.

Now, they chose stops that are currently served by the service, with the exception of Costco.

That's my next question.

That is interesting, because if you're using the shuttle service and you have some mobility issue and you're going to Costco,

is it for the pharmacy usage,

is it grocery,

what is the need there

that Costco is providing

that's so specific

because you're not bringing home

gallons and gallons of anything.

Milk.

Right.

The hot dog deal.

Hot dog deal.

Hot dog deal.

We did it.

Yeah, it's a great question.

It would be good to know that

because from my perspective

and the drivers sort of, when we spoke with them, said the same thing.

You know, I'm not a member of Costco, but I have gone to Costco.

My understanding is that, unlike other grocery stores,

they don't bag their groceries.

So that's another aspect of this is how are folks,

especially folks that may have different type of mobility challenges,

challenges, going to get

these things onto the

shuttle and then

back off.

I think we want to meet people where they're at,

but Costco may, for a variety of reasons,

not be a good fit.

The other thing is, if you've ever

gone to a Costco,

finding parking,

the amount of time it gets

to get in and get out,

so for the driver,

There's Costco people and non-Costco people.

You can tell the difference.

If you go to the entrance and then you try to get out of that parking lot,

you've got to build in five minutes at least to be able to do that.

So there's some challenges with Costco.

And at the same time, there's clearly an interest among riders to want.

I'm interested to know what the interest is

because it's so specific compared to the other stated desires.

What we were saying, they also do hearing aids and vision.

Yeah, and I have another kind of a follow-up to that is Walmart.

Was it mentioned at all?

Yeah, so Walmart, there's two locations, one on Davis Street, one on Hesperian Boulevard.

They both received quite a number of selections.

They just weren't top six.

but yes I can actually tell you

and why I mention Walmart

is that there is a pharmacy

they have groceries, they do bag

they're very senior friendly

and so I wonder if that would be

Costco is the thing

I feel like it's a red hair

and I'll kind of give my perspective

which is I think if we're serious about creating loops that are faster,

that adjust the main needs, which are grocery shopping, hospital,

senior center, and library, and potentially BART as well,

then we, I think, need to choose the grocery shopping based on affordability.

And what you'll see, and I'm happy to share the raw data,

whenever I get the go-ahead.

But essentially, people have their preferences.

They want to go where they want to go.

This service isn't going to make everybody happy.

If we try to do that, we're going to find ourselves back

into a similar place that I think we're trying to correct for now.

And so what I would say is let's lean into making choices

that make it as affordable as possible for folks

and really are trying to serve the lowest income older adults and people with disabilities.

And so I think Walmart's a great suggestion for that.

We'll look at other potential grocery shopping options.

But yeah, I think we're not going to go to all of them.

We're not going to make everybody happy.

We're going to choose based on criteria that makes sense for us.

And yeah, I think there's some serious challenges with Costco where that may not meet the criteria.

Because it, yeah.

All of our trucks are a lot of boxes.

I agree.

And then, that was that question.

The certification part.

So that's through the Guantayven, what we're doing now for certification from Plex Rai?

Right, so East Bay Paratransit is, yes, countywide.

Okay. And you're looking at how to maybe move that certification to another entity.

Not necessarily another entity, but give the human services team reassurance that people are not...

Taking advantage of the program.

Right.

You can say that.

But, you know, that there are sort of a list or certain criteria for a professional to attest to that,

that that is not East Bay Paratransit.

So East Bay Paratransit, if somebody wants to go through that process, certainly would always be accepted.

But we would now contemplate, you know, if a trusted social worker or, you know, potentially, I don't know,

maybe a community educator or someone here at the senior center

who's very familiar with that person and has been working with them or serving them.

Okay, so one idea just comes to mind.

Maybe San Leandro Hospital, someone can come here certain times,

once a month or whatever,

and be that person for this period of time to do that certification.

people come here to have that evaluation and then get their certification.

Yeah, I think that's a great suggestion.

Like minds think alike.

I was just going to ask that question too.

And then how does the driver, how does the driver,

like how does a person prove their certification?

There's a card.

Yeah, so they're issued a card once their application has been approved.

Like a wallet kind of card.

Yeah, yeah.

And in many cases, in the current, you know, Commissioner Camelo mentioned, I'm seeing only one or two people on the bus at any given time.

There seems now to be sort of a core set of users, and the drivers know them really well.

Okay, just another quick, like, detail, I suggest to me, is for the driver to be able to easily and quickly recognize someone who is a FlexRide

is like a you know the IDs that you're wearing around like a lanyard yeah that it can fit in

and they can spot it from a distance so that you know if they are walking nearby then oh I see that

I should you know and then maybe there's fewer of those kind of myths I agree and I also would

like to use that as an opportunity to reiterate, I think we need the bus to stop. Not necessarily

for a minute. It doesn't have to be a long dwell time, but at least 15 seconds and give

an opportunity for folks to make themselves known before moving on. So that, I would love

to see routes that allow the drivers peace of mind to be able to do that.

If I can just add a quick, that is a requirement actually.

That is a requirement of our provider that they stop at every stop.

And so when we, if and when we get comments from the public or complaints that that is not happening,

those issues are addressed during those standing meetings.

That's a requirement.

It's actually, I think it's embedded into the, it's actually embedded into the contract that they have,

regardless if there is an individual at a designated stop, the shuttle needs to stop at every stop.

My interactions with the drivers have all been really positive.

Yeah, they're very nice.

Yeah, I think they're great. I think they're doing the best that they can. I think they care a lot.

They know the clients and they wait if you're just walking or something and you're within a few feet away from the stop, they'll wait for you.

Yeah.

They're very good in that.

So, yeah, in all of those conversations, I don't want to in any way say anything disparaging about the drivers.

They, I think to pay those points, I think they know the policy.

they also know that

there are folks at the senior center

waiting if they don't get there

within

so I think they're put in this tough position

I was personally surprised on the ride-alongs

they know that I'm

there to sort of assess performance

and they're just flying by the stops

I mean they're telling me

that they're doing it

so I think that says something

they're just looking at the time

and they want to complete their loop

so that they can start and be back on time for the next one.

So that's a big thing we need to address

so that they can follow the policy as it's written.

That was all my questions.

Thank you.

Commissioner Brennan.

Yeah, my question kind of ties to that.

I have my driver's license out on.

I'm thinking to myself, why are we having another piece of plastic

that we're handing out to people?

All you need is a reader and zap the back of either a California ID

or a driver's license, which I'm pretty sure 99% of the people

are going to have, I think, and no need for an additional city-issued process to get yet

another card in your wallet.

So you've got the sign on the bus, I think, there should be one that says 50 or over a

disability, so you won't have a bunch of high school kids getting on to ride McDonald's.

I mean, which is, I think, where that safety issue comes along, the comfort issue, I'll

call it.

the comfort issue comes along.

They're not the ones getting on the list.

But I'm saying, look at the whole idea of what do you actually need to identify people

and are they already carrying that?

And I don't know if it's feasible, but it was voiced and I think it's an interesting

idea.

It sort of goes against what you're describing, actually, but I want to mention it because

of the ridership data quality issues.

you know part of you know what we don't have a view on is um not only a best possible count

but you know who are the folks actually using the service right and so there's been some talk

among in our focus groups of you know could the membership card be scanned and you can see so and

so got on the bus and now you can think about you know your ridership in terms of demographics in

I was just in Prague, and every person getting on the tram flips their car.

They've got it around their neck.

They have it in their wallet.

They pull it up.

It's like everybody gets on the tram, shows their monthly card,

except the tourists who all had to buy a ticket.

And it's like this is standard procedure elsewhere.

I just say all we have to do is adopt that.

That might mean that a reader needs to be either available in the bus

or carried by the driver or something.

but I think there's technical solutions here.

You get the same information that I did cover.

The Flex card looks like this,

and every year they send a little sticker

so that you can peel off that old sticker

and put a new sticker.

That's a very good way of,

you don't have to make that card every year,

so that's a good thing.

Let me just say that seems like a lot of overhead

for a rather modest incremental benefit.

personal comment okay got one more one more and it's quick um so i i agree that the seating needs

to be a thing i i'm glad that that's i am obviously right um maybe the um

business community can be talked to about that or approached about that because riders are going to

their businesses and that is you know it could be part of them giving back to the community

kaiser included it would seem to me that you know if you're going to a grocery store you need

and and the loop is right now an hour okay i go to safeway down at greenhouse there is no seating

there well there is one seat i take it back in front of pet smart but really the flex

which pulls up in front of the grocery store.

So who's going to supply seating at that business?

Even if you have to wait half an hour, groceries are heavy for people,

especially the elderly.

And they're certainly not going to be able to walk a block

in order to get on the flex shuttle from the grocery store

or any place else they've been shopping with heavy bags.

Yeah, it's a win-win for businesses.

I think absolutely that's an argument that can be made, and we can create some partnerships there.

And I just wanted to also add, I think Kaiser, from my ride-along, is one of the few that already does have seating in a canopy.

So there's, you know, but the point is well taken.

I'm talking about stocks, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There can be a pool going into it.

Yeah, absolutely.

I have seen a move away from public seating due to concerns around loyering.

I'm sorry. Oh, loitering, right.

You know, I've seen even bus benches be removed, or the bus shelters be removed

because they're being used by unhoused folks,

and a lot of folks don't believe it's a curriculum.

Semi-seats don't offer a lot of space for loitering.

I mean, they're just the size of your rear end and, you know, both little posts,

so that's why we're in a space.

Yeah, that's why I'm highlighting that.

We don't have to go that direction,

but that is one that is trying to...

And the installation is four bolts to a concrete pad,

and that's really, really achievable, I think, which is a good...

Now, canopy is a whole different thing,

but with our terrible weather here, it's only an occasional disruption.

It's mostly for the sun.

I was just going to share real quick, thank you for that suggestion.

Our other shuttle program in town, the LYNX program,

which Mike referenced, is actually partially funded by businesses.

But again, the objective of that program is to support the economic development efforts, right?

So we want people on buses so they can go patronize different businesses.

So a small portion of the cost of that program is offset by businesses.

So I'm saying that to say that there is a model around that with the city, and we can follow up with our colleagues to see how they're incorporating that into their design, but also their budget.

So thank you for that.

Okay. All right. At this time, if there are any comments from the public, I'd be willing to entertain it.

But you've got about one minute. No? No?

And we just had a young lady join us? No? Okay. Thank you.

I'm going to take a five-minute break. Five minutes. Okay.

Okay. So I declare the meeting suspended for five minutes.

Thank you.

The Senior Commission meeting for January 15th is reconvened at 1123.

We are now on Action Item 7A.

I will turn it over to Pedro.

Thank you, Chair.

I am happy to provide an update to the Commission regarding our age-friendly initiative progress since our last meeting.

And so as you may recall from previous updates, this is an opportunity to share some of the work that's happened between meetings.

It's also a good opportunity to get your input.

Questions are always helpful also to help us think about things from a different way.

and this is also a good opportunity for me to invite you to support some specific efforts

at a different level okay so to kind of keep that in mind as we're going through these updates

and so I will start by again giving context this the city council approved the city's first age

friendly plan July 15 2024 if you all were part of that we engage the community through that

process what was produced was six priorities which are the ones you see on

the screen and within those six priorities are dozens of projects and so

I want to just call your attention to to the four three the three columns on the

right of this chart which indicates if a project has started if it's completed or

ongoing or the target year. So I've gotten

updated this chart.

You will notice that most

of our projects have actually already

initiated.

The ones that haven't initiated

some of the ones that haven't initiated are

targeted for either

year three or four.

There's actually one there that

I need to place in Exxon which is

the presentation from the transportation

and engineering division to this commission

which is going to happen next

month that will have an X on there the next time you see this but just for

referencing purposes these are all the activities within the six priorities and

this is a snapshot of where we are in terms of the implementation of each of

those projects. Pedro can I ask for one change to the table? Yes. Could you split

ongoing and completed? Say a little more. Could you make two columns out of ongoing

and completed because it's a bit misleading to not be able to tell.

So completed means we're no longer focusing effort on that.

Ongoing would mean there's still effort.

Yeah, that's a good point.

I think that's very helpful.

Yes, I agree with you, and I'll go ahead and incorporate that into the next update.

Not a priority, but what do you mean?

Yeah, no, I think it provides more clarity, so I agree with you.

Thank you.

So now on to our updates.

And so the first priority is plant sustainability, which includes implementing the structures and systems necessary for long-term success of the Age-Friendly San Leandro Initiative.

And so I want to share that, as many of you know, we are members of the Alameda County Age-Friendly Communities Council.

This is a council that meets on a monthly basis.

We have various public, nonprofit cities also participate in this meeting.

It's a good opportunity for us to look at H-Friendly work at a sort of more regional level,

a good opportunity to share resources with each other and collaborate.

And so Lily Gray participated actually in these last two meetings.

So during the November meeting, a presentation by the Alameda County Public Health Community

Assessment Planning and Evaluation was provided and included data on older adults in Alameda

County.

In addition to that, the organization by the name of Empowering Aging gave us the member spotlight presentation.

If you recall, there's a member that's providing a presentation about the service that they provide,

and they were the provider for the month of November.

During the December meeting, an informational presentation was given by the Alameda Alliance

about the new dual needs plan that's launching on January 1st, 2026.

This is a Medicare Advantage plan for individuals eligible for both full scope Medi-Cal and Medicare

designed to simplify coverage, improve care coordination,

and provide supplemental benefits beyond the original Medicare.

The member spotlight for the December meeting was the City of Oakland's Adult and Aging Services.

They provided an update regarding the services they offer seniors in their community.

In addition to that, there was resources and information regarding upcoming events that were shared.

So we will probably be up in the future to provide the member spotlight and we look forward to doing that.

As far as implementing the age-friendly San Leandro communications plan, as you heard from Liliana Gray, our staff completed the second annual Senior Expo.

She provided some detail about that, so I won't go into that.

But in addition to that, we were also at its wonderful night on December 5th.

She provided a good update about that, but I'll add just a reminder that the staff member from the RICARE program,

which is the program that we just launched, was also there helping with outreach.

and I was informed that Rive Care was able to speak to about 40 people at that event.

And then we also estimate that our staff member, Cynthia Lopez, was there.

She spoke to about 70 people, sorry, 75 people about senior services.

So I don't know how many of you made it to us a wonderful night.

It's an annual event.

It's usually a little cold out there, but people will come out.

And so that provided an opportunity for us to be able to interact with the community and support some of our services.

And then upcoming promotion opportunities, tomorrow, actually, our program services coordinator, Liliana Gray, will present to Leadership San Leandro.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with leadership in San Leandro, but folks from different entities, businesses, nonprofit, public sector go through this leadership program.

I think it's a year or close to a year.

And they learn about many different aspects of how the city, what the city does and how the city operates, both public and private.

And so she has been invited to come and present about the work that we do within our department.

And obviously, because of the work that she does here, she will be highlighting senior services.

So that's happening tomorrow.

And then also coming up in the next few months on March 24th,

we are going to be participating in the Kaiser's Aging Whale Resource Showcase.

And so this is by invitation only.

So Kaiser invited us.

They, as you heard earlier, were sponsors of our Senior Expo.

And so they were here that day and were super impressed with all the services that are provided to our older adults.

here in San Leandro and they wanted to make sure that we had an opportunity to

highlight these services at their event and then to Commissioner Brennan's point

earlier about further conversations or discussions regarding potential

partnerships to leverage resources or solicit additional funding I think

that's a great idea so I'll have to say that we've been cultivating a very

I think a very meaningful partnership with Kaiser

that I think is going to provide a variety of different opportunities in the future.

So more to come about that.

Where is that going to be held?

It's going to be at Kaiser here in San Diego.

At Kaiser?

Yeah.

Do you have a timeline?

I don't yet.

No, not yet.

But as we get closer to the date, I'm happy to share more details.

And as always, if you're interested in coming and helping promote some of our services,

you're more than welcome to do so.

And then as far as coordinating age-friendly city staff and community partner trainings,

again, this is connected to building capacity to be able to provide the best quality services that we can.

There will be another de-escalation training for our staff, our partners, and volunteers

that actually other colleagues from the city will also be participating in.

and that was scheduled for February 25th of this year.

I say second round because we organized something specifically for our staff

and so this is more citywide

and so we will be able to engage staff that might have missed the first round

but also we want to extend that to some of the partners that come in here

to the senior center and as well as our volunteers.

The more aligned we are around how we respond to different types of needs that come up here,

I think the more effective we are.

So that's going to be taking place in February.

I'll pause there to see if there's any questions or comments.

I was just going to comment.

A surprising number of Kaiser employees live in San Landro.

Since the hospital moved there, it's been increasing.

So we forget about that, that they're not only a major entity,

they're a major place where people go for services the people who are the source of

the services our neighborhood is full of Kaiser employees of many types so I

think that's just another connection that is all kind of recursive yeah just

again just reiterating the importance of constantly doing promoting and outreach

right you never know who you're talking to and keep growing the connection yeah

absolutely thank you for that comment in the area of personal protection which

includes protecting the physical, psychological, and financial safety of residents of all ages,

whether at home, in public, or across cyberspace.

As you all know, we recently partnered with UC Berkeley and California Walks to conduct

the community pedestrian and bicycle safety training program.

A report came from there, some recommendations that we're also looking to implement.

As part of that program, California WACS offers technical assistance to organizations that have gone through this process to support the implementation of some of the recommendations that came from that report.

And so we met with them a few weeks ago, and so we decided that some technical assistance in the development and the implementation of what we're calling safe routes to the senior center might be helpful.

Some of you have heard of safe routes to schools, so it's kind of mirroring that same approach, but specifically looking at it through the lens of how do we ensure that older adults have an easy, safe, and accessible way to get to the senior center.

So as part of that process, we'll be looking at the data from the assessments that we did, some recommendations.

And so we're looking to initiate that technical assistance component in the spring.

And this is based on just our capacity projects that we're working on right now, but also the availability of the California WOCs staff.

So more to come on that.

Next item there, engage MB Transportation, Lengs, L-Trans, AC Transit, Uber, Lyft, and other transportation operators to explore getting into contract for evacuation services during an emergency.

So as mentioned during the last update, we've incorporated this into our contract with MB Transportation.

And so in February, we're going to be convening a group of key stakeholders, which will include entities like MB Transportation, our fire department, our police department, our staff,

maybe some nonprofit organizations that work with older adults or people with disabilities

to help us develop a plan for when an emergency happens. We have a playbook that we can follow

that will help us effectively coordinate who's responsible for what, how do we leverage our

collective selves to support older adults that may need help evacuating with evacuation when the city

activates a shelter.

And so this is part of our paratransit program

that we've gotten approved from the county.

My hope for the next few months

is that we can convene this group,

come up with a very practical plan,

and then possibly even do one or two drills

before the end of the fiscal year

so we can identify a site

where we can practice this plan

that we're going to be creating.

In the area of coordinating emergency services and response workshops at the Senior Community Center, I'm happy to share that, as you may recall, our emergency services coordinator, Libby Besman, was here in our hallway.

She set up a table and kind of just made herself available to have informal conversations with people.

There was a series of these tabling activities that she did.

And so on average, the average number of people engaged per tabling event was about 30 people.

I asked, so in terms of what we offered them during these events,

There was information that was shared, resources, giveaways, et cetera.

I was curious what were some of the areas of special interest.

And I was told that every quarter had a different focus, as you know.

But people were really interested in the topics of staying safe in the heat.

You know, it's hot.

They were really interested in the great shakeout and preparing for the winter session.

Those are some of the top topics.

And then I asked Libby what her recommendation was in terms of whether she thinks we should continue to do this in the future.

And if so, like in what format?

Do we continue to do informal tabling like that or do we do a presentation?

And she said definitely, definitely we should continue providing information to older adults on a regular time schedule.

she said many of our older adults live alone so this provides an opportunity to get new current

information they they may not have access to and she said she is she would recommend a combination

maybe doing a few uh informal like informal tameling and then also schedule some more formal

large like large group presentations i'll pause there for any any questions or comments yes

When we met last time for the Safe Track, there was some, they said specifically there

is some money for grants and I was just talking to Scott.

So he said it was possible to Mike King and he said he is looking into it and he will

talk to you about it.

So if you can get some funding from somewhere the more the better, right?

Absolutely, yes.

We are definitely open to you.

Is this a good time to ask about the share line?

Actually, that's coming a little bit later,

during the transportation priority.

I think Commissioner Brennan had a question.

Yes.

So when we're doing the evacuation services discussion

with our transportation provider,

is there an overall plan in the city that tells us

where we would evacuate to?

The city has an emergency safety plan.

Actually, there's a few related plans that, as part of those convenings with those stakeholders,

we're going to be referring to.

Yeah, because to me that's one of the, where can you assemble a multitude of people that have been evacuated?

Right.

And so the idea with this program, just to reiterate, it would be if the city, it's when the city activates a shelter.

And so examples of places where the city might activate a shelter.

So there's shelter in place and then there's evacuation.

Evacuation into a shelter.

Yeah, so just that terminology for the non-primary English-speaking residents is really difficult to understand.

They don't fully understand the difference between, you know, close your windows and shelter in place.

Yeah.

And you need to get out of here now because there's gas in the air.

I agree.

Yeah, so, which was a specific example that happened over here by Washington.

so

that's a separate issue from the transportation

but I'm just saying

and maybe we can have a further discussion

with Libby about this

and make sure that

because I think the seniors and the disabled

are going to be a

high order constituency

of who needs assistance in this area

so just a thought

thank you for that

also under personal protection

we do participate

in the Alameda County Access and Functional Needs Advisory Committee.

And if you recall, this is comprised of organizations

that are meeting on a, I think this is bi-monthly basis,

to better understand the needs of vulnerable populations

that sometimes are disproportionately impacted during an emergency.

And so we're part of that network.

So our next meeting is going to be on January 20th.

And then lastly, under this section here,

scheduled presentation from the city's transportation and engineering division

to the senior commission.

They will be here in February for the February meeting.

And so they will be providing some information regarding what they do within their division.

But there's also, as part of our H-20 lead work,

there were some questions regarding certain programs like the sidewalk repair program,

crosswalks, and so forth.

And so they'll be here in February.

I also want to pause you for a second.

Commissioner Brennan, during the last meeting,

you brought up the payment condition index during the commissioner comments.

And so I think what you were suggesting was that we discuss,

have a discussion regarding how information from that index can be incorporated into our assessment

or even just learn more about it.

So I wanted to just see if you had anything else you wanted to share about that.

So it certainly impacts, especially people using wheelchairs and things like that,

if the road surfaces are really terrible.

There's no such measurement, unfortunately, for the sidewalks yet,

but San Alejandro does not look particularly good on this pavement quality index.

And so I think this is a question we can ask the city, the transportation folks, to address.

If you can ask them to include some comments about that, what the plan is for improving our performance in that report by the next time.

It's not something you're going to change overnight.

It's big city infrastructure.

And so changing it requires funding and program attention over the space of years.

But what is their plan there?

Okay.

I'll bring this to their attention in preparation for next week's meeting,

and so that way they can come prepare.

Say that has been asked.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'm moving right along.

Under our health and wellness priority,

which includes ensuring San Leandro seniors have affordable,

equitable access to physical and mental health care,

especially the basic needs of food, clothing, and hygiene.

As you may recall, we partnered with the Alameda County Public Health Department, specifically the division working on the Healthy Brain Initiative.

And so we provided a series of Healthy Brain Initiative trainings.

They were all online, but the last two took place in December.

And so a quick recap of those trainings.

There was an average of nine participants per class with a total of 28 unduplicated participants.

They were mostly women with an average age of 71, mostly residents of San Leandro.

We had a lot of requests for in-person trainings.

trainings and heard that online is hard for some folks or they don't have access to a computer or

internet. So we are going to be working with the health department to see if this is something that

we can provide again in the future, but obviously maybe looking at it, but providing them in person

instead of online. Similarly, under that category, we're partnering with our colleagues with the

San Leandro Library. The library recently received a grant to establish memory kits, a memory kits

collection at the libraries. They are currently preparing the steps to launch the collection and

begin the acquisition process. As part of this effort, they will work with us to coordinate

possibly a session here at the Senior Community Center to introduce the

collection to our patrons, share details about the kits, and to discuss how they

can be helpful. As you know, we also have initiated our senior day trips, as you

heard earlier from Liliana Gray. So one idea that we're considering is maybe

doing a day trip to the library, and specifically on a day where there's

going to be something happening around this Memory Kit program. So more to

come about that. And then lastly this HBI work is really taking off.

There's going to be a couple key stakeholder meetings that are scheduled

for this year. Liliana, Gray and I are participating in some of these planning

committees and so the idea is to bring together key stakeholders to have a

conversation around Alzheimer's and dementia and to see like how can we

better support our community and so that may lead to maybe some additional

presentations or programming that happens out of this community center. And

then lastly happy to share regarding our food access priority here in NEEDS.

we are now launching we have just launched our senior food delivery pilot

program and so I'm passing around a flyer for members of the public there are

flyers on the table that you want to take a look at it so so one of the one of the

needs that we have been tracking the last few years is a need of

of individuals who rely on food pantries to have access to food.

And these are specifically individuals who, for a variety of different reasons,

may be having troubles getting to the food pantry site.

And so some of these limitations might be as a result of just getting older and having

limitations there.

Is it a chronic illness?

Maybe there's an acute injury?

And so the idea is that then

through this program,

we have contracted with

the Vietnamese American Community Center

of the East Bay

to deliver the bags of groceries

to individuals who meet the criteria

of not being able to come to a site

to pick up their food.

And so we,

where are we right now?

We,

we have

we are planning to launch the program

on February 4th

so far we

officially have two people that have been

enrolled and are in the process of

enrolling more

and so what this entails is

distributions to those individuals

that are participating in the program

to be made on the first and

third Wednesdays of the month

this is separate to Mercy Brownback

Absolutely, yeah, correct.

What is the criteria for getting people to this program?

Yeah, so it's basically in three areas.

One is if a person has a chronic health condition that is making it difficult for them to come to the site to pick up the food.

One, if a person is just having, you know, due to age, has mobility limitations.

second and the third one is you can be a person that is an older adult that is that

that maybe suffered an acute injury right maybe you fell down and you broke your hip or you broke

your knee or you hurt your knee and because of that you're not able to come pick up that bag of

groceries.

Is there an

income limit?

No, not at this point.

I have a question.

Does it have a

poundage limitation like

you can't?

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry. If you could wait until

the end of the presentation, then we'd be happy to

take your question. Thank you.

I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Is this for people who are already enrolled

at the drum day program?

No.

No, it's completely different.

And the first and third, what day?

The first and third Wednesday of the month.

Go ahead.

Yes, thank you.

I'm looking at this and I can see that my neighbor

who's 80 years old can't get out

to benefit from this.

Great.

So this is a wonderful thing.

I'll do this to her.

Yeah.

But it's a pre-configured bag of groceries.

Yes.

Okay.

Correct.

It's not like they're shopping.

No, no.

Okay.

Moving on to transportation, which includes providing affordable, reliable transportation

that takes into account residents' mobility and cognitive differences and personal destination

needs.

We have launched our ride care program.

You met staff and you learned more about their program last month.

So I'm happy to report that as of last Friday, the program is off to a good start.

We have 17 people that have been enrolled into the program and happy to report that one volunteer,

you know how difficult it is to get volunteers for this program.

We've talked about that.

One volunteer has officially been registered, and RideCare has actually already administered at least two trips.

Okay, so the program is in progress.

And then lastly there, I won't go into it because you just heard a very lengthy presentation regarding the FlexRights assessment.

That's part of our plan.

And then our last update here with social connection, which includes combating the epidemic of isolation and loneliness to create varied opportunities for trust building, social interaction, and shared learning.

This includes amending the contract with MB transportation to provide senior day trips.

You saw the pictures earlier during our presentation about senior services.

I will add that the next trip is scheduled for January 23rd, and it's going to be to the Chabot Space and Science Center.

I understand that this is a very popular program, as you can imagine.

So I understand that that particular trip is already full with 14 registered participants.

We have six people that are on the waiting list.

and then staff has been intentional about outreaching to men.

Men have not necessarily participated in some of these trips in the past,

and so I understand that there's four men that have been enrolled to participate in the next trip.

So this program definitely ranks among one of the most popular here.

And so that concludes my age-friendly report.

I'm happy to receive any comments or questions from the commissioners before we move on to public comment

Any other questions from the commissioners?

Is she registering only at some certain time?

Catherine, or she's here every day?

How does the registration take place?

Yeah, thank you for that question

I know she's here

I don't have the specific information regarding when exactly she's here

but I know she's here on a regular basis.

She works out of the consultation office here,

very accessible because it's right in front of the hallway.

And so I don't have that information in front of me,

but I know she's here on a regular basis.

I can get it for you.

But when you put a board or something,

registration is on for right share or something like that.

Yeah.

Because it's difficult to find her.

Okay, yeah.

Yes, and now.

We'll try to put a, we'll see about putting a sign up there so that people know when she's going to be here.

I think the information also may be in the senior services calendar.

So we'll be promoting it or sharing that information via that calendar as well.

Commissioner Brennan?

So in that light of what's at the desk, some of the concerns I raised several meetings ago about the Clipper availability have been solved.

They introduced this thing called Clipper 2, which now has online registration.

You don't have to go to Oakland anymore.

So maybe some information up at the desk about how to get your senior Clipper card might be useful,

which means that you don't have to set up anything.

You just have to have an information sheet there.

Maybe they have, I don't know, the agency would have it already.

We just have to have it on the desk.

But all the concerns I raised about the ability to get that and get your senior discount are now apparently solved,

although I've heard they've had some teething problems getting it going,

but, you know, the structure of the program is now more soothing.

Great. Thank you. Good to hear. Good to hear. Thank you.

You had a question? You had a question?

Where's your mic?

Huh?

Where's your mic?

Oh, we don't have one. Sorry. You'll have to.

Darlene Evans, 78 and a half.

The senior commission should be, and the city and the police department should be aware.

ABC is the Alcohol Beverage Control Act.

On the internet, it says 500.

Another one says 600 feet.

Our two high schools, we have a $5.5 billion gymnasium.

If it were leased privately, the Mercado, former Walgreens, has a liquor license, 1231.25.

I've lived seven years at Metro Park.

I've seen the damage around here that the control here is only inside this building,

not outside this building.

So thank you.

Sorry to interrupt.

Do I only have two minutes?

No, no.

What I want to say is that comments right now are, we're welcoming comments specifically

for the topic that we just finished discussing.

The public comments were already.

So the general public comment section was earlier in the meeting.

But you had a question.

But then you said public comments were at the end.

No, no, I'm sorry.

That was a confusion.

The questions on the specific item we're discussing right now,

which you seem to have a question about a minute ago,

that's what is being addressed now.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for the confusion.

Yes, there's a waiting question.

Okay.

All right.

We're on to 7B, which is lunch with the seniors discussion.

I believe, Bevo, that was your item.

Yes, I'm sorry.

No, I have an update.

So the topic about revisiting a previous practice of the commission, right, to have lunch with

with seniors was discussed during the last meeting.

As a next step, I agreed to,

as part of that discussion was an idea to,

or a recommendation to invite supervisor Lena Tam

to see if there's interest and availability.

I did reach out to that office and was informed

that the supervisor is interested in participating in that

and potentially may be available in May.

So my thought was in order to ensure or to support a higher participation by this commission,

it may be helpful to schedule it to pick a day after one of our meetings.

So those are the dates that I provided.

And so the response was that there potentially is an availability to do this in May.

Thank you.

So do we want to discuss this and suggest that we do this in May?

Do I hear any comments?

So to clarify, it would be May after our regular week.

Yes.

And that's a good day because every year we used to do it with Wilma Chan.

And she provides some funding for Spectrum for the lunch.

So it's good to invite her to see what we are doing with the money that she gives.

She's on social services.

It is a good thing to do.

We just want Pedro to keep coordinating and report back on what happened next couple meetings.

Every year for a long time.

I think the last two years we didn't do it.

We haven't done it for a while since before the pandemic actually.

So what would the May date be?

I believe it's May 17th.

May 17th?

Okay.

If we plan that far ahead, is there anyone that would not be able to participate just off the top?

Because you know you have to.

Oh, sorry.

May 21st.

21st.

Yeah, sorry.

Thank you.

so of those of us here is there anyone that would not be able to stay after our meeting

to have lunch okay all right i guess we'll have to pull the other two missing commissioners uh

so uh let's go ahead and plan then for the 21st do we need a motion to do that we don't okay

Okay, so the 21st of May.

Subject to supervisor time.

Yeah, subject for sure to the supervisor.

So if you could maybe get back in touch with her and ask if that's a good date.

I appreciate that.

And then the other thing is that we would need to make reservations to let them know that we're going to be at the Spectrum Lunch.

And I don't have any clue what they're serving.

but I guess we have to eat whatever they have.

That's the way it works.

That's the way it works.

Okay.

And so just so you know, generally speaking,

when we have a lunch like this,

we usually spread ourselves out so that we're not all at one table.

We like to mingle with the people

and obviously give the supervisor a chance to address the lunch group.

Okay. Any other questions?

No? Okay.

All right.

Okay.

So now we're on to commission reports and announcements.

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for a great meeting.

I think it was very productive.

I want to thank Commissioner Pena for attending the city council meeting in December

where I got my 15-year plaque.

Actually, it's a certificate now

and a nice little crystal remembrance.

So 15 years is a long time.

And I would like you to remember to respect your elders.

Learn from people who have walked the path before you.

respect them because someday

and sooner than you can ever imagine

you're going to be old too

and yet already dead

so I will now take

our ending comments

Commissioner Pena

okay

Commissioner Michael

Katie

I just want to say I sit on the

age friendly council

and we'll be attending their meeting tomorrow

also the senior services coalition

which I always get confused between these two, but anyway, they put out a draft plan for their action for the next year,

and it's very comprehensive.

If anybody's interested in seeing it, it's mostly about how do we maintain funds for seniors.

They're working really hard on homeless and nutrition funding and all of it,

and things just keep getting crazier and crazier with the new pyramid for the nutrition.

Anyway, if anybody's interested in their draft, I can send it out.

Oh, great. Thank you. Okay.

Commissioner Brennan?

I'm looking forward to the upcoming meeting with the Department of Engineering and Transportation

and hope that they can have read the report from the Cal folks

and be able to tell us how that might be incorporated in their plans.

To me, that's one of the more important things we've been looking at.

Thank you.

Commissioner Camillo?

Oh, I've got one. Since Claudia is not here now, Claudia, I'm taking her place. As part

of the beautification, I think that monitor at the entrance of the thing has to be changed.

It is there. It is not working for so many years. Can you either throw it out or get

a new one please, right?

It's not working, right?

So that will be part

of my update next month.

I may have something exciting to share.

Yay!

Well done, Bella!

She's always very timely.

That board is looking like a village.

The board below the monitor

looks like a village

where you can stick anything

about lost dogs and this and that.

So can you take out this little...

whatever...

...and put it somewhere else

and make that place a little better

by putting some border or something.

I think these ladies are very good at that.

Cynthia especially.

So you can ask her to beautify it

and have something done there.

So that will be not an ISO reader.

Yeah.

So more to come next month.

That's the part.

May have some exciting news.

And I will say that related to that, the TV monitor that also was in that same situation

that's in the activity room has now been activated.

So you walk by there.

Yeah, I saw that one.

Now it's being used.

So thank you.

I saw that.

It is silent.

The people are not able to put it very loud, I suppose.

Yes.

So that is a good thing.

Thank you.

Commissioner Dillon.

No comment.

No comment.

Okay.

All right.

There being no further business to come before the Senior Commission,

I will entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting of January 15, 2026.

Commissioner Dillon, second Commissioner Brennan.

Roll call, please.

Thank you.

Chair Washington?

Yes.

Vice Chair Comello?

Yes.

Commissioner Dillon?

Aye.

Commissioner Michael Cady?

Yes.

Commissioner Brennan?

Yes.

And Commissioner Benya.

Yes.

The motion carries.

Okay.

I declare the meeting adjourned at 12.08.