Commission on Persons with Disabilities - Regular Meeting

Just let me know.

K.

Welcome to the 12/01/2025 Social Service Human Relations Board meeting. This meeting is being recorded. The chat function has been turned off. If members of the public would like to comment on an item, there are multiple options to do so. If attended via Zoom, digitally raise your hand, and secretary Manaayon will announce when it's your turn.

You will then have the option to unmute yourself and proceed with your public comment. Email your public comment to secretary Manaayon at gmannahayon@alamedaca.gov before or during the meeting with your name, the agenda item number you're referencing, and your comment. Comments submitted during the meeting before the conclusion of the public comment section will be read into the record. Her email address is also on the meeting's agenda. If you are calling in by phone, please email miss Mana Eyan as we cannot see you raise your hand.

You can also dial 9 to raise your hand, and we will call on you. To provide a public comment in person, please complete a public comment slip with your name and the agenda item number you will be speaking on. You will be called when it is your turn. All public comments are limited to three minutes. The public has two opportunities for public comments.

First, under agenda item two, public comments, comments from the audience may concern matters not in the agenda but must deal with matters subject to the jurisdiction of the social service human relations board. Second, under each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for public comment on that specific item. So we will now call this meeting to order at 07:03PM. Moving on to roll call. Bernie Wolf. He's absent. Diana Misheraomi.

Here.

Gerald Bryant. Here. Michelle Buchholz.

Here.

Samantha Green.

Here.

Scott Means. Here. That's me. And Robbie Kritz.

Here.

And from the housing human services division, Gresha Mania Eion, program manager, and Shelby Neal, administrative specialist. And just wanna take a moment to welcome our newest board member, Robbie Crisis. It'll be her first meeting. We are moving on to item number two, nonagenda public comments. The city welcomes speakers providing public comments, but please be advised this is a limited public forum.

Comments from the audience may concern matters either on or not on the agenda, but must deal with matters subject to the jurisdiction of the social service and human relations board. Comments will be limited to three minutes. Comments concerning matters on this EV's agenda will be heard when that item is called. If speakers fail to follow these rules, they will be warned. And if they continue to disregard the rules, their opportunity to speak will end.

Do we have any speakers or comments, Gracia?

There is no public comment.

Alright. Seeing none, we'll move on to item three to the minutes to review and approve the minutes from 10/22/2025.

I motion to approve.

We have

a motion. Do we have a second?

I'll second it.

We have a a motion and a second. We will oh, actually, we can just go ahead and do a consensus vote. We don't need to do a roll call vote for this. So all those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed? Thank you. Alright. This moves us to to why everyone's in the room here tonight, which is agenda item four. We are going to be voting on the volunteer of the year award winner recommendations.

The Road Home Committee will be awarding the volunteer year honor to six Alameda residents who have served and uplifted their community through extensive and meaningful volunteer work. The community will award within two categories, adult and youth. The Road Home created and disseminated a survey throughout the community to accept nominations and has selected finalists for the awards. The board will now be voting to accept these nominations. If approved, these individuals will be honored and recognized by the social service human relation board and other city staff. So, Amgasia, will you please announce the nominees and their categories?

Yes. So I will be sharing the list of nominees here. You can't hear me. Can you hear me now? Thank you for that. So here up on the screen are the six nominees for the volunteer of the year award. We have three people in the adult category, including sister Pat Nagel, Kate Kasperger, Arminda Graca. And then for the youth category, Soleana Tess Validet, Sierra Miller, and Tate Mathula.

I vote to

Oh, I'm sorry. I I'm I should've I was supposed to do we have any clarifying questions first? No. Okay. And and one more thing. Since we have no clarifying questions, we do have we can now open it up for any public comments. Is there any public comment on this?

There is no public comment.

I now vote officially to approve of the nominees.

I will definitely second on that.

Thank you.

Alright. We have a first and a second. Again, we will go ahead and do it on a voice vote. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Seeing none. The award passes unanimously. Excellent. Mhmm. Alright. So having received a unanimous vote, we will proceed with the presentation of the awards. We will ask awardees and their nominator, if present, to come and join at the podium one grouping at a time. And then once you've actually presented the the nominee or the person getting the award, then that person should will come up here and will take a photo up up here on the stage. Okay?

So for the first award, the human relations award is for is to Tate Mathula and nominated by Yale Friedman. Will you please come up?

Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. My name is Yael Friedman Goody, and I teach English history and leadership at Lincoln Middle School. It is my honor to introduce a wonderful volunteer student and human, Tate Mathula.

As a student in leadership, Tate has made outstanding contributions to the school community. Last year and again this year, she spearheaded programming to combat hate speech and celebrate pride at school, including coordinating a school wide speak out, which consisted of a lunchtime assembly for students to share their experiences with hate speech in front of the school. Last year, as a seventh grader, she hosted and helped organize the event. This year, as an eighth grader, she was in charge of the whole event coordinating her group members, creating content for teachers to deliver to support their students in writing and sharing about their experiences, and being in touch with school stakeholders to ensure all equipment would be present. She encouraged and coached a seventh grade student to be the emcee, making sure that all members of her committee were involved and invested in the event's success.

In general, Tate is constantly finding ways to contribute, helping many other committees and students with their events, always willing to stay after school, come in at lunch, or do extra work when someone needs a hand. She created a calendar of events last year so we would be prepared to dive into organizing at the very beginning this year. She also organized and led a month long celebration of Lunar New Year, which had not been done at Lincoln in recent memory. This involved one event during lunch each week for the month of, excuse me, of February, including games, trivia, and various competitions. Tate makes everything she touches better.

She is a model leader and organizer and makes others more comfortable to be who they are because she is so open and comfortable with who she is. The events she organizes make our school safer and more joyful. She acts as a mentor to many other students in leadership and is always willing to go the extra mile to make others feel heard and supported. Tate is hardworking, kind, and motivated. She leads without demanding and finds ways to involve as many people as possible.

She is always open to feedback but brings her point of view to everything she does. This year, she is one of few eighth graders in a class of mostly seventh graders, and everyone looks up to her. We should all be so lucky to have a Tate in our lives. And now without further ado, I'd like to invite up volunteer of the year, Tate Matula.

Woo hoo. Are we all standing?

I'm just I'm here. Wanna do this?

Yeah. Yeah. Sit. Sit here. Sit good. Thanks.

You wanna do the whole board too?

Yes. We'll go.

Just get in there. Yeah. We'll get in.

That is it. That's nice. Get everyone in there. There we go. Nice one too. Perfect. Thank you.

For our second award, we have youth youth services award, which is going to go to Sierra Miller. Sierra was nominated by Stacy Thomas, but tonight, Hannes Rodriguez is going to be doing the presentation.

Hello. My name is Hannes Rodriguez. I'm a pool manager at ARPD, and I ran the intern program this past summer. Throughout this summer, Sierra stood out for her strong ability in the water and also for her upbeat attitude and especially for her dedication to showing up every single day, including days when we did not expect everyone to show up or when we had to ask people last minute to come in on unscheduled days, including looking for watching in the water while the while camp did a cardboard boat race and during the movie night where she was in the water watching to make sure everyone was safe in the in both the large pool and the baby pool.

Thank

you.

Nice.

It's good. Alright. Thank you.

So for our third is our youth leadership award, which is going to Soleana Tess Faladette. I hope I pronounced that right. She was nominated by Mia Alvarez. Mia is unavailable tonight, so I am actually going to present. Soliana serves as the co president of the youth advisory committee, a sub a subcommittee of the Alameda Collaborative for Children, Youth, and Their Families.

She has raised over $3,000 for Dignity Village, and transitional housing site here in Alameda. During her time with YAC, she has collaborated with the SHRUB to hold events to honor United Against Hate Week. For example, in 2024, she helped plan and host a poetry slam event. And just this past October, she was a panelist at the United Against Hate film screening where she and other advocates discussed combating racial and gender biases. Currently, she and the YAC board are putting together a scholarship program to assist some of her fellow high schoolers in achieving their educational goals.

Solyana, who is just a senior in high school, has created many opportunities for youth in our city, promoted LGBTQ community nights, hosted events, and created a safe space for youth in Alameda. So congratulation on this award.

Thank you. Congratulations.

Our fourth is the human relations award, who is Arminda Graca. Graku?

Graca. Yeah.

Okay. Nominated by Shelby Neal.

Arminda or Army, as she is known to those of us who are lucky to know her, is almost constantly engaged in some form of community service, sometimes as informal as helping an elderly neighbor clean their house or as formal as keeping the Mastic Senior Center Thrift Shop up and running for over eight years now. She is part of the kind Kindness Coalition, a new group that believes that kindness should come first in Alameda. They demonstrate this by doing free bake sales and cleaning up trash in local neighborhoods. While experiencing an unhealthy housing situation, Army was a passionate advocate for environmental health protections for renters. As mentioned, she is the workhorse behind the popular Mastic Senior Center thrift store.

And without her, the store would be months behind on sorting, organizing, and shelving donations. As you know, if customers don't see new items frequently, they lose interest in the store, and Mastic would lose a major source of its funding. She provides the efficiency and physical strength to move through piles of donations in the behind the scenes work that many people don't see. I nominated Arminda because she embodies the spirit of community better than anyone I know. If she sees a need, she fills it. She doesn't wait to be asked. She's the type of villager everyone would be lucky to have in their village.

Thank you. Congratulations. Thank

you.

Alright. Number the fifth award is the social services award, which goes to Kate Kasberger, nominated by Steven McHale.

Hi. I'm Steven. I'm a priest at Christ Episcopal Church just down the road here, and I nominated doctor Kate Kasberger, a pediatrician at La Clinica de la Raza, by day and, the showerhead of our shower program, on the weekends. Kate, for the last year and a half, has been organizing a shower program for folks who don't have homes. And every Sunday afternoon and sometimes on Thursday nights, we get a crowd of folks who are looking to recover some of their basic dignity with a hot shower, a meal, and some clean clothing.

As she does this, Kate has has helped the program to grow substantially, so much so that we had to build a third shower, which we finished last week. And she helped us to raise awareness and money for a new commercial laundry program that will accompany the shower program, and all of that will then reside next to the Alameda warming shelter, which opens Wednesday night over at the church. Kate organizes a whole mess of volunteers, raises money, collects all kinds of donations of clothing, helps organize meals, and just is a generally really great person to be with.

Yeah.

She's also a mom and a a wife. Whole another job.

Alright.

Sorry for that. For our final reward, we have the lifetime achievement award. And that goes to Patricia Nagel, nominated by Terry Kennedy, and I believe there are other supporters here in the audience tonight. And I'm gonna I'm actually going to say a few words, and then if if you would like to, you can also say a few words yourself. So and this is this is for everyone in the room who doesn't know who Sister Pat is.

Since the launch launch of Alameda Dining Connect in 2018, Sister Pat has provided leadership and focus for an all volunteer effort that provides over 5,800 hot meals annually to Alameda's unhoused and food insecure populations. By 2025, we saw the program expand from one church to five churches that rotate to provide weekly meals. Sister Pat spearheaded partnerships with Alameda Food Bank, Alameda All Faith Coalition, Village of Love, Building Futures, and the City of Alameda as well as individual churches. In addition to being the program's founder, sister Pat has been a visionary spokesperson in conscience, offering life supports beyond nutrition for any guest who requires assistance. Thank you, sister Pat, for all you've done and all you continue to do for our community.

Welcome.

Would you like to say a few words?

Oh, just a few? As

many as you like.

Well, I'm I'm deeply grateful. It's been a real honor for me to be a part of Dyna Connect. I've met so many wonderful folks. We have so many volunteers who give their service weekly, always ready with a meal. And I tell you, very creative.

All of our chefs are certified by the county for food handling, And they prepare wonderful meals with the help and gifts of the food bank. We're very grateful to work with the other churches, several churches in the area. We'd like to grow the program, and it will happen in time. It's taken us a few years to get this far, and we can go farther. But I am deeply grateful for this, and I feel the award belongs to everyone who volunteers for Dine and Connect.

I'm just sort of the public face and the connector, and it's my privilege to do that. Thank you very much.

Oh,

thank you.

I can't Can we open it up? Oh, yeah. Yeah. One second. Yeah. Oh. Perfect. You. You. You want two?

Let's get one more with just looking at the other.

And, also, everyone who's received an award, if you bring your award up here and get a a picture with everyone together, I'll also sign it for you if you like it signed because you realize that they are not signed.

Yep. I

just come down there for the picture so everyone is together. We'll come down there. There's more room. And then if you wanna

Either way. Here. No. It's not. That's it.

Yeah. It's good. See it. It's pretty awesome. Good. Disparate all the yeah. It's good. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you.

Hello?

Over here. Right here. Thank you. It's been before. Yeah. Six of them. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. That'd be great. So certificates. You'd have them open. Yeah. Let's open them up. There you go.

Yeah. Thank you. Alright. So I it's all kind of center. A little bit more. Perfect. That's nice. Okay. Good. Let me see. Yeah. Let's oh, there you go. Yeah. Perfect. Alright.

That's great. That's nice. Yep. Perfect. Yeah.

Here we have the main structure. Oh, it's good there. It's good. Yeah. Yeah.

In fact

Just just as

Here. We are going to be closing out this agenda item, but we do have a one of our board members has had one thing to say.

Oh, the audience as well. We know that service happens in community, and we really wanna highlight everyone who makes it possible to to to serve others. So you kinda have to pour from a full cup, and we know that having a community really makes a difference. So one of the things on our board is we wanna celebrate that community, and thank you again for everyone showing up.

Thank you.

And everyone can go because the rest of our meeting is not nearly as moving or exciting.

That's right. Yes. Thank you everyone for your dedication. At this time, we will proceed to the regular social service human relations board meeting. You know, please feel free to stay or leave depending on your preference and interest. Let me screen script. Fill space here. Alright.

Without a doubt.

Alright. This brings us to item four b, the vote on the proposed 2026 social service human relations board meeting calendar. And we have our program manager, Gracie Meneon, who's gonna present this to us. Okay.

So can you all hear me?

Yes.

Okay. So what we're gonna do a hard pivot to the rest of our agenda. That was a wonderful way to start the meeting. You all are going to be voting on your upcoming meeting schedule for the year 2026. So a couple things to note.

So your regular meetings occur the fourth Thursday of the month at 7PM. However, there are going to be a couple exceptions. So the January meeting is going to be held on the third Thursday to accommodate the point in time count that is happening on the fourth Thursday. You we are proposing that you all not have an August meeting because city council is in recess during that time, and most boards are in recess. And then as typically done every year, you all combine your November and December meeting to one early December meeting because of the the major holidays during those months.

So this is the proposed schedule for you all to discuss and vote on.

I move to vote. Yeah. Why not?

I I'll I'll call for it. Why not? It seems like a a regular schedule program, though.

Yeah. Yeah. There are there I'm sorry. I'm I just I lost my my place here.

Hold on

a second.

Take your time.

Do we have any clarifying questions from the board about about what what was presented? Great. Are there any public comments at all?

On the calendar?

There are no public comments. Oh.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's we're we're gonna be voting on voting on it, so we have to allow for people to do that. Right? So now we can what? Now we can now we can go ahead and do more instructions.

Try to put the point in time also on our we don't have to that doesn't have to be on the calendar. Right?

Well, this is just your meeting schedule. Okay. So it's not like a shrub calendar of events. It's just your meeting schedule.

Gotcha. Yeah. So

wait. Did someone say they wanna do a motion?

I did.

Okay. Do we have a second? Second. And we have a second? Alright. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? None opposed? Alright. That was easy. Now we'll go on to item four c, the work group reports. This item is for board discussion only. There won't be any voting. There's no staff presentations. We'll right into public comment.

Just double checking. There is no public comment.

Okay. So we can now just open this up for discussion and comments by board members. Just so we're actually missing the entire work group because Bernie is not here. Do we Christie, do know anything at all? Do we have anything to that you know of that has been done in that group? Or

Yes. I do. So the domestic violence task force met in mid November. It was a great meeting. There were about five different organizations in attendance, and we had the DAs, the county of Alameda DA attend and give an overview of the work they do and answer questions. We did post the minutes of that meeting as an exhibit to this agenda item. So if the public or you any one of any member of the public is interested in reading a summary of the discussion in that meeting, they can do so through the exhibit attached to this agenda item.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Alamedians together against hate?

We really just kind of spent our last scheduled time together enjoying each other's good company. I'm going to be losing a fellow compatriot.

This is

our last meeting together, so we had a couple of minutes after our last meeting to just sit and talk about all the things that we covered as part of our board position here and how much we were looking forward to the new things that were going on. And it's gonna be my real hope that we will be able to continue with getting support from Diane in the future even while she's helping out in more important jobs of raising a grandson. I think it's gonna be wonderful, and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to spend more time together to do so. And thank you for all the time and all the years. Thank you. Thanks.

Yeah. Yeah.

We we can keep moving. So road home, people experiencing homelessness. Just wanna remind anyone who's listening that the point in time count will be on 01/29/2026. And to please sign up as a point in time count volunteer if possible.

Does anyone know clarify, like, when it ends? Like, what time it's because I know it says in the calendar, it's, like, till eleven.

Yeah. It's usually till eleven.

It goes to eleven. Can you and for people trying to get involved, can you do partial shifts, or can you you do have to do the whole shift?

Usually, you have to do the whole coverage map. So the teams go out. They cover their full map. So some teams may be able to cover their maps more quickly. Right? And so they'll return more quickly. But it's asked that you would complete the whole route area that you're assigned to. So and then the idea is that all teams would be back and completed by 11:00. Is that correct?

I would say that Yeah.

Last year, I was done with my brow, I was able to still drop my daughter off at school.

I think it's just I was trying to encourage people, like, who have to go to work at, like, eight Yeah. How if they could

It's hard because you never know. You never know how many people you're actually gonna run into and how many people are gonna be able to do with a survey. Yeah. So it's difficult.

So tell people to really plan on it till eleven. Okay.

So I'm just gonna repeat what Simone Falls from human housing and human services said so that it's going so that it's in the record, which is that there is an estimated commitment of 5AM to 11AM, but it depends on how long it takes to cover your section is what I heard.

Is it possible for volunteers to, like, split the shift? Like, have someone relieve you? Or or is that that won't work?

One of the difficult parts of it is you don't know where the groups are going to be at any given time. Right. So you're in a coverage area and you're out in the field, so it might be hard to coordinate a meeting place to meet by partway through. Because everyone meets at the beginning in one I'm not sure where the meeting this year, but we all met at one place.

Yeah. Yeah.

The for the Road Home Committee, the only thing I'd like to just update and suggest is this was quite a success. I was so moved by it. And that maybe we could consider that, I think, being in the fourth of July parade and having the award winners

That's good.

Be a part to just highlighting volunteerism might be something we could consider. I know we've always sort of been talking about the board being in the fourth of July, but I think it could I I think it could be really fun to highlight the award winners

Yeah.

And the parade. We just need to get I hear someone has a convertible on Write those on the board.

Not me. Mine is a hard top bumper.

Oh, it's a hard top.

Top. Yeah.

You can ride on top of the hard top.

Oh, on top of that.

On the front bumper side while we're Yeah.

Yeah. Flatbed truck. Those works too. If you wanna try to do a you could do a flatbed truck with a bunch of shrubbery on it. Yeah. I

think it's a

I I I think this was a success and that we should make sure this continues to be an annual celebration. And I think about how more we can highlight volunteerism in service in our community because I think that's just meaningful.

I also hope that we can find a way to celebrate all the volunteers that were nominated, those that didn't win as well. Right? Because it was you know, while it was a small group of individuals that were nominated in comparison to the largest of the community, I think it's still really important that those folks,

you know Yeah.

Are all A great idea. Right.

Yeah. I think so.

And I

think and maybe the also just like the as we continue to grow to think about, like, our service and community of the human relations board of, like, I think this reminded us that we need to be doing continuing to do this and having more Mhmm. Like Yeah. Showing up and celebrating. So maybe we could even think about the library of, like, having, like, highlighting volunteer like, volunteer. And then the oh, sorry. This But the I wanted the Almeda post highlighted your volunteer list. Did you see that?

Yes. Yeah.

So I was really pleased.

Yeah. I I I still wanna, like, get more on there too. I think it's really good to have that. You know? Anything else that we need to report on that since our last I don't think so.

I'm sorry to interrupt. Did you all cover the film screening? No.

It's for the So go back to that.

I'll do back then before we left this section.

Oh, yes. Okay. Yes. Go ahead. Yeah.

I just realized as I looked at back at the notes here that we we were there right before the actual film, and we had spoken about the United Against Hate Week proclamation. We didn't actually speak about the film presentation itself. And since time flies so much in this town, I thought I should at least go back and say we had a really good turnout. We had over 30 people here in City Hall in Council Chambers. We watched the movie right here.

I felt like you could tell by the questions and comments that were coming from the various people who were here and the answers that we were getting from the panel that it was a a real discussion of people actually staying to hear what the final answers were and to find out more about what was going on. I was very pleased with the turnout, and I hope we'll get another opportunity to do similarly very soon in the next year.

How did this feel compared to the poetry slam?

There were at least 30 times as many people. The poetry slam. That's enough impetus for me to say yes. Yes. Going in the right direction. Yeah. I I I think that the reason the poetry slam didn't work was because we weren't doing the proper advertising to the people that we needed to do it. So with miss Salara's help, we may bring that back again in the future as part of yeah. I mean, it's not like we have to only do one thing for the United Against Hate Week. It's a whole week of time where we can do various programs.

So it'd be nice to be able to get some of the youth involved and have them really do it. I remember miss Yael from the poetry program over here at the comedy club asked me if we were gonna be doing it this year. I was very sad to say that we were not. And I had another person who had done it with us a year before who asked if we were gonna do it. They wanted to know if they could bring people by.

I said we were not. So, yeah, these are opportunities to bring people in and and and talk about the same things and have a bunch of different ways of doing it. I still believe that if we use poetry and art and music as part of our platform to be out in in public as part of the community, it allows us to spread the message that we really are looking for on an everyday basis, especially with volunteers. So that was the report part that we left out. Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah.

No. Thank you. You know, I think, you know, watching a film can be a really passive activity, but it didn't feel that way that evening. People were very engaged. Yeah.

And I felt like with with the audience we had, it was weird because you could tell that there were people who had something to say, and there were people here who really were here to listen. And I was more interested in hearing what people had to say. I don't like to be passive in something like this. It's not like watching a movie in a movie theater. This is something where people should be getting involved, and I was very happy to see people who wanted to get involved. So yeah.

Yeah. I was kind of moved by a a family that was sitting in front of me and watching the conversation between the daughter and the mother.

Yeah.

Because, you know, it it it it was really nice to see the the daughter questioning, well, why? You know, why? And the mother trying to explain. So it you know, it's it's just it was just a good way to, you know, engage people Yeah. And and kind of push their thinking a little bit.

And I thought it was nice that the mayor showed up, and we had the vice mayor, and we had Tony Dayshog, city council. They all showed up. And I know because that was the day that the the folks were at the Coast Guard Island area and that whole I see. Coast Guard Island moment that was going on. So all that happened within that same period of a day. So the fact that she was here for the entire showing of the movie gave us, you know, real feeling of good of good a real good feeling all the way around about what was accomplished and the fact that we do have the ear of city hall to work with us. I thought so. Their support. Yeah.

So I also wanted

to thank into the mic? I'm sorry to interrupt you.

Yeah. Is this on? Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to thank staff. Absolutely. Shelby and Simon and Gracia for helping us set this up, and we really enjoyed the hot meal before the show. So thank you for that. And I just wanted to hear from you what what your daughters were saying about the events. It'd be interesting to hear their perspective. Did they talk about it? No.

I thought it was a great event.

Likewise. Yeah.

Same. And I won't let you have it this time when I'm out of town. And there is the season of nonviolence that's coming up at the March, and I've been speaking to Camille about doing something in partnership with ACCYF for that. So that's something to look forward to.

That's really good way to go.

Violence. That's one of the best programs that we do every year. It really kind of spreads the message, and I think it's nice we get it at both ends of the year. We get the season of nonviolence at one end and united against hate at the other. So it's a really good combination always.

And, Gerald, I wanna acknowledge how are you feeling to go with your without your yang for your yang? Like, are you ready to approach in the next year? Well, we're gonna

be looking for new people to work with us, So the goal will be to build a community from the ground up and and get as many people as possible involved. I was really glad again to see miss Salara as the youth. We've talked about having somebody from the youth on the board with us. I still think it's a good idea. And with people like her and other students that are involved, we could probably make united against hate even more popular, especially I mean, if you listen to what they were talking about earlier and the different programs that she's doing, they're doing parallel stuff to what we're doing right here. And so it just makes good sense to me that we bring somebody in of that caliber. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. This moves us to item five a, the SAS report on the city of Alameda's housing and human services. Gracia, are you gonna read the presentation?

Yes. Yes. So I will verbally share out our staff updates. So first up, already mentioned by Scott, which is that the point in time count or pick count is scheduled for January 22 from five to 11AM, and we are seeking volunteers. The pick count takes place across the count. I apologize. This is probably very repetitive. Are we we might have I might be reading verbatim what you had, Scott. The PIT count takes place across the county to estimate how many people are experiencing homelessness in each city. Data from the PIT helps each city secure the vital funding needed to provide housing and services.

You may register at alameda.pointintime.info. And if you have any questions, please reach out to Camille Rodriguez, program manager at Housing and Human Services, and that email is cRodriguez@AlamedaCA.gov, crodriguez@AlamedaCA.gov. In addition to PIC count volunteers, the youth advisory committee of the Alameda Collaborative for Children, Youth, and Their Families are seeking donations for people who are currently experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the city of Alameda. I'm going to share that QR code now so that if you are here in the room or you're watching online, you can scan that QR code. Let me zoom in.

And this will take you to the wish list that staff has put together for items that will be packaged as what I'm calling care kits or kits to be handed out during the pick count. A flyer is also flyers are circulating. Please share these. We will likely attach the this flyer to the minutes, and please share with your community. Next, our next meeting will be on January 13, 7PM, to accommodate the pick count.

I you know, so that staff do not have to work from 5AM to 9PM. And a couple city council items to update you on that are going to city council tomorrow. The winter warming shelter agreement, if approved by council tomorrow, the shelter will open on December 3. There are we are going to counsel for additional CDBG funding for the day center relocation project. There will be an amendment to the village of love ESH contract to extend through February 2026, and ESH is emergency supportive housing. And lastly, there will be the CDBG need statement brought to city council for acceptance. And that concludes my staff updates.

Thank you.

Yep. Thank you. And I I actually didn't have that information handy, so thank you for providing that. So we now are going to board communications, not agenda item. Yeah. Diane wanted to

But before I leave, I actually wanted to raise this issue about the lack of quality skilled nursing nursing home care in the city of Alameda. My good friend's mother recently was placed in a Alameda can I even say the name of the organ? Alameda Health Care and Wellness Facility. I'm sure people are familiar with it. There's so few places that folks can go to once they leave the hospital for nursing care.

And at any rate, she almost died there. And luckily, my good friend and his wife were able to extricate her from the facility and then brought her back home. So now she's thriving, which is, you know I mean, it's it's just a testimony to, you know, the kind of care that people really need. But I there was an article that was circulated amongst families who have elders who may be in that same situation, and it came to my attention. And I wanted to bring it to all your attention that an elderly man died while in the facility, and the family did sue and was awarded 7,400,000.0.

This is this was not the only lawsuit. There were other lawsuits. So the so this one couple own, I think, 18 nursing home facilities throughout the state, and a number of them have been cited for, you know, not taking care of their patients. Yes. Yes. And so I was asking Scott if there's anything that the board could do to ensure that the residents of Alameda are protected and guaranteed quality health care, especially our frail elders.

Yeah. And this is this is something that's big that's been happening that just gets highlighted once in a while by these situations. I I did reach out to the senior services coalition, you know, and they they do put some political pressure. But one of the problems is they said there's not enough ombudsman. And it's a really tough job, but they're the ones who go in and suss out these issues and bring it to people's attention, you know, before harm occurs.

The one thing that people can do as individuals immediately is there is a website that has excellent resources for seniors and family members. And I'm just gonna read out the website. It's it's called theconsumervoice.org. So it's just those words, theconsumervoice.org. And that has tools that that families are can use.

But but, unfortunately, a lot of it has to do with the narrow margins of funding and predatory for profit nursing facilities. So I think one of the things we can do is try to have systems in place, for example, age friendly cities, to to make things easier for people to keep their senior parents at home. You know, adult day care is one big thing that helps because then people can work, and they have somewhere safe to drop off their parent. And day cares tend to be better, licensed day cares than than, you know, overnight. Yeah. Exactly. I was looking at day cares and what the reimbursement rates were for Medi Cal, and, of course, they have them all on the same page. And I was like, well, there's gotta be some weird extra money here. This can't be for overnight. We weren't looking for overnights.

We're really day care. This can't be for residential. I was like, no. That's it. And I that's part of it is is the problem is is not funded appropriately to actually have the quality care. Right? Because they're called skilled nursing facilities. Right?

And currently, with the reimbursement changes of Medicaid and Medi Cal starting January 1, there's gonna be even less reimbursement rates. So it is unfortunately, that those changes will make the matter worse.

And to be honest, I for those of you who who were here when I was doing it, I was taking care of a family friend who had a stroke a couple years back and was in similar facility. I might even have been in the same facility. And had it not been for the fact that I said we're taking her out on hospice, she would have died in there because they simply were not treating her properly. She wasn't getting what she needed, and I was watching her slowly fade. And had it not been for me saying, you know, I'll just be there at the house she didn't have anybody at the house there with her, and there was no service available to be able to have that.

And it was it was just a a comedy, a tragic comedy, if you will, to watch how they worked to keep the money inside of the system that they had and not let her live outside of it. And so everything she's talked about here is 100% true, and it's a topic that I have much interest in. And I feel like if Me too. There's more that we can do as a board, I think we should. I've seen it with more than just her.

I've had other seniors and people who've had disabilities who've been in those same facilities, some of them within the last year. And I can't say that they've had a whole lot of success. I can only say maybe one out of every three has had anything in the way of a way out without them trying to keep them in there. So, yes, anything we can do with the board, I think, is an ideal thing. It's a really important issue.

I think one of the things that comes to mind too is through the age friendly cities and having more conversations with caregivers and providers to really understand what could be done at the city level, right, and what as community to assist. I think in our last age friendly city listening session, one of the things that we talked about just briefly was end of life care, right, and end of life decision making and how those discussions discussions are are very much we don't like to talk about death, and we don't like to talk about dying, and we don't really like to talk about aging. And so how do we, as a community, make those conversations more accessible and more successful so that folks actually can have a realistic expectation of what the end of their life can look like and what systems are actually there to support them and which systems are not there to support them. Because what we see in the movies is not how it actually works. Right?

Someone who's taking care of a lot of people that have passed away. It's Right. Yeah. That way.

No. And people think, like, oh, there's gonna be a hospice worker that just comes and stays with my family member, right, until they pass or something like that. Right? And that's not the way that this works. And so having realistic conversations, I think but we just don't have a space for that. So perhaps as part of age friendly communities, we can make more of that space.

And That include mental health, though, because the families have to have that backing, the mental health part of it, because dealing with someone who's in hospice or somebody who's dying requires that you have a a way to get out these emotions and get out your feelings and have somebody to do it with, and that requires having that mental health side of it too. It's everything that we are talking about as a board is wrapped up in what she just brought up right here. And, again, I can't say strongly enough about how important it really is. And things like mental health, we need to be focusing on that as part of this as well. To watch somebody you know debilitate in a in a place like that is just terrifying, and you're you're almost at your own wit's end trying to figure out what can you do.

And sometimes drastic measures are required, so this is where we need to have our our ducks in a row.

As a board, I mean, I'm biased by my work, but I think the intersection of people experiencing homelessness and hospice Mhmm. Is at having taken care of people

Yeah.

On the streets that are palliative and hospice care. It's a it's a really challenge. And and I think maybe if we kinda think about the that lens of that is even more when you don't have a lot of advocacy or or or support systems.

Yeah. Well said. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Diane.

Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So I I have something that I wanna

make sure.

We get I

want to give a little bit

of form to Ravi to introduce herself if you wanna say a little bit about your background or what brought you to the board so we can get to know you guys. And I don't know if maybe after the agenda, we could briefly share our background so you can get to know us.

So oh, actually. Yeah. I don't know if I'm, like, playing musical chairs. I am I was born and raised here. I'm born open, but raised in Alameda. I think I taught your kids to swim at Harbor Bay Club. Oh, okay. Like, I've been around a long time. And my parents worked in the school, so, like, this has been home. I I'm a special I'm a director of special education.

I was a special ed teacher for over twenty something years in Dublin and then went to administrator in Berkeley and then a charter, and then I just recently moved to become a director at a school district. But I moved back here, back over the hill from the valley, two years ago when my father passed away. And so it's like, when I came back here, I'm like, I gotta do something. I gotta get back into it. I was a recreation leader with ARPD and worked at Harbor Bay Club.

I mean, this is, home. Well, it is home. And so I looked on online, and I was due diligent. And I filled out the application and did an interview with the mayor. And she's like, Robbie, and who I've known for years. We have this thing. And I'm like, oh my god. Yes, please. One of my best friends was on Shreve years ago, and I was so jealous because we didn't have anything out in the valley. And so I'm like and she passed away a couple years ago, so I'm so excited. And she's like, this is her. So it was really fun and really honored to be part of this and come back and kinda come full circle. So, yeah, it's it's I'm I'm pumped to be here. Yeah. Well, thank you.

Welcome, Rob.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Is it okay if we use some of this time just to introduce ourselves? Chris, yes. You think it's okay? Oh my god. We're That's a good spinner. We're not it's not really

Poor communications. Yeah.

It's fine. Oh,

I'm Sheryl Buckholz. I came to this I do my work as a nurse practitioner for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. I serve people experiencing homelessness. I'm also faculty at UCSF in the school of nursing. And I am a mother of two small children, a two and five year old, and I think have the privilege of bringing the the youngest person to a board meeting and brought my two month old to the board meeting, and that was really highlight. But I'm really passionate about human connection and community building and homelessness.

I'm Samantha Green. I am a stay at home mom. My background is in social research, most of it around housing, homelessness, and mental health. And a lot of the point in time questions always get, like, looked at because that was what I used to do for a very long time. And I really came to this work because it was what I used to do to get paid, and now I get to do it for free, which is way more fun.

And yeah. So and then I've been working with Scott on the age friendly cities work. So he and I have been well, Scott is really doing most of it, but we have been trying to find some money to do some of that work as well. So yeah.

We actually had some time to introduce ourselves over there,

so Okay.

I've been in Alameda for over forty years, raised my family here, and recently became a grandmother. So now I have a three month old. I know. It's just it's just great, and I'm really enjoying spending time with her. But at any rate, I've been on the board for four years plus probably. Yeah. And to tonight is my last night. Yeah. So I I just feel like I need to spend time with the baby while my husband and his wife have to go back to work, so we're there to kinda fill in for them. Part time, maybe. I don't

know. Part time. In the community. But

at any rate and, you know, served with Gerald on the United Against Hate work, which I'm very passionate about since that's my whole life. It's been fighting racism and hatred. And

Gerald Gerald Bryant. This is my first foray into public service. I've never done it before. Like you, I saw it in the newspaper and was very diligent about filling it out and had the interview with the mayor, and she said that she really wanted me to be on the board for my lived experience. I've lived here in Alameda since 1999.

I've raised all three of my daughters here, and they're now all grown ups. And I have two grandchildren, and it's wonderful to see how how well they turned out. But they also went through a lot here in Alameda, and so I use these as ways to talk about the things that go on when it comes down to racism in Alameda. I mean, it's not a thing that's hidden. It's very obvious.

And the best part about it for me is I get to talk about it with passionate people who are like minded individuals who wanna do good things in the community. And so that's why I'm here. This is my third year. Well, gonna be third going on fourth year next, because I came in on a half. I filled out I was filling one other person's position for the last year, and now I've got three more or four more years. So this means I'll have year and a half two more years left. So, really, I'm glad to have you. Yeah. So I'm glad to have somebody else on the team. Welcome. Welcome. We are looking forward. Thank you.

And before we close the meeting, I wanna just take a moment to thank Diane

Mhmm.

For your your service on this board. And this has become all too usual of a thing because she just stepped down from the East Bay Foundation aging board too Oh. Which I do support.

Too many boards.

I I'm just I'm with you on

that. Yeah.

Well, thank you, Scott. Yeah.

No. I've it's been really a joy working with you. Just you know, I don't have anything formal to say because I think we had a really great working relationship. You know, it's one thing you tell people in certain generations. One thing I was like is I could call Diane on the phone, and she'd pick it up, and we could talk. I'd have to ask for permission to call you in advance. So I always appreciated that, and you did the same. So it was good. It was it was great to have you as a thought partner on both boards and really I I you know my contact info. So if there's anything you have any brilliant or kooky or even bad ideas that you wanna run it by me, you know, or or was there.

I wanna just highlight the warmth and grace that you brought to this board. I think you really grounded us you grounded us in evidence based compassionate interventions, and I think your your your presence just really elevated and created a wonderful tone. So we're really thank you for all that you added to our board.

Thank you. Thank you for all the great work you're doing too,

so all of you.

We'll be looking forward to it.

Oh my goodness.

Okay. I hope we got allergic

to the first.

God, that's beautiful. Thank you. Hold on

a second. Let me do something right here.

It's the first day. No.

Doesn't have nope. No. Just the barcode, unless you have a barcode reader. Alright. I'm sorry. We've had a lot of extra stuff tonight. I wanna thank the staff for all their patience, everyone else for staying engaged, to a very involved meeting with lots of different things that we're not used used to. And with that in mind, we can adjourn this meeting at 08:09PM.