Hayward Youth Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. Welcome, everybody. I would like to bring the Wednesday, 04/22/2026 Community Services Commission meeting to order at 07:01, PM. Is there a volunteer who would like to lead us in the pledge of allegiance?

You know what? I don't have permissions because Tim has the I I can't I've been trying to Oh, that's fine. In waiting order to start the webinar to admission.

I did start the webinar. Sure. Maybe that's what's ten a week while we manage technician.

Hang on a second.

In the waiting room? Oh, start. This is the start. Sent you an invite. Did you get it in your email? Yeah. Thank you

for your patience, everybody. Yes. Okay.

We had a double booked for the webinar, so we had to borrow the city clerk. We were just kinda, you know, finding our way. Yeah. So did you email? Yeah. I went through your email. If you wanna go ahead and send it to me, I can do that. I'll get back. I can do that.

Should I start over again, or should we continue at the pledge? You let me know when we're when it's good.

Yeah. Let's do a change. Oh, no. Don't do a Teams email. Oh, wait a minute. No. No. No. Showed up. Looked it's doing it.

And then, September wants to let us know that she can't see in the room. Right. Because I have my picture on right now. I haven't taken it yet. Okay. Yeah. I think they're pretty close. My phone wasn't upstairs, I'm dancing with it. Okay. Thank you. Gents. Okay. Yes. And then

if you could share the slide.

Well, you don't wanna do the

I don't yeah. I can log on.

Okay. I've got an online too if

you want to add me. Okay. Okay. Everyone, let's stand for the pledge. 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. Leave Emily will read our teleconference notification.

Yes. So

Well Or did anybody request it?

Or Oh, yeah. Yeah. So sorry. So we did not have any request for remote participation or just cause or emergency provisions.

K. Very cool. Thank you. Miss Evelyn, would you mind taking a role?

Wheeler? Here. Commissioner Angulo? Here. Commissioner Dow? Here. Commissioner Dunn?

Here.

Commissioner Kimura? Yes. Commissioner Baderos? Commissioner Matchen? Yes. Commissioner Debdeep Singh? Commissioner Jay Anderson? Commissioner Sledge?

Here.

And commissioner Wong?

Here.

Thank you.

Leave a statement regarding public comments. There will be opportunities for public comment on items on the agenda as we get to each item. If you have a comment on something that is not on the agenda, now is the time to make those comments. Please note that virtual public comment has been reinstated. For those attending in person, please complete a comment card and give them to miss Oliveira.

You will have three minutes to make your comment. Speaker shall not use threatening, profane, or abusive language which disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of a commission meeting. The city is committed to maintaining a workplace free of unlawful harassment and is mindful that city staff regularly attend commission meetings. Discriminatory statements are conduct that is hostile, intimidating, oppressive, or abusive or per se disruptive to a meeting and will not be tolerated. As a reminder to commenters and my fellow commissioners, commissioners are not permitted to respond directly to or engage with public commenters under the Brown Act.

Next item on our agenda is the, review and approval of our March. Excuse me, our last meeting. Does anybody have any revisions? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the minutes?

Motion to approve the minutes.

Thank you, commissioner Machen. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, commissioner Angulo.

K. So who will have the minutes? Commissioner Wheeler? Yes. Commissioner Gunn? Yes. Commissioner Ngulo? Yes. Commissioner Dow? Yes. Commissioner Tamara? Yes. Commissioner Naderos? Commissioner Maxon? Yes. Commissioner Jadjipsing? Commissioner Jay Indraci? Commissioner Sledge?

Yes.

And commissioner Wall?

Yes.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

We're just plowing through. We have an informational item with respect to public comment. Isabel? Yes.

Thank you. So today is our end of public comment period. So we started when we met in March, and now it's April. So we had a month of individuals who provide public comment on the CDBG funding recommendations. You'll see one of your packets do show that there are two written comments that were sent to me to share with the CSC, and I believe there might be individuals who are coming to our meeting today to provide public comment on the CDBG recommendations or the CAF process as a whole.

Additionally, we are gonna have a public hearing at city council, so we posted a notice of that of that includes the CDBG funding recommendations and our CDBG annual action plan, and that is posted on the city's web page. And we're gonna have that public comment period on the annual action plan through May 17.

Okay.

I don't see anyone here.

Are there individuals on the Internet? We have, Kiena. Okay. But no hands raised.

Now is the time if anyone is online has public comment regarding this item. Could you please raise your hand for miss Olivera so she knows to unmute you? K. Oh, I see a hand. I can't tell the name, though.

It is miss Kina Evans.

It's me, Kina, from Bully Talk. I was just just tapping in to just see if there was any updates on everything. So I'm just really here to listen, honestly, and just to get any updates for the moving forward for 2026, 2027. So yeah. I don't have no comments.

Thank you. Sorry. No worries.

I can speak to this a little bit longer, but we'll just go with

the item. We don't typically

Okay. That's correct. Respond to that. Okay. The next item, we're gonna do a little switch a little with our agenda. We were going to have the working session, but instead, we'll have the action item with respect to the allocations and that annual action plan and the funding recommendations. And so this is a presentation by our staff team.

Hello. Thank you all for coming tonight. I appreciate your attention. For many of you, you're familiar with this process. So today, we're just gonna finalize the CDBG funding recommendations, and we wanted to provide some updates.

So, typically well, before I run into the presentation, I can do a recap of what we talked about in March. So in March, we met. Staff presented CDBG allocation recommendations that focused on one time eligible internal projects. We did the one time projects because we did get your feedback on not wanting to commit funds that are ongoing so we can ensure that CDBG is available to agencies in the future. We received your feedback and questions about the agency funding process as a whole and the proposed CDBG projects.

And we it we got a general consensus to be able to utilize CDBG in the ways that we propose them, which we can talk to we talk to you more in detail in this presentation. And then we also discussed the CSC scope of work and your working group updates. So there are two things that we wanted to bring to your attention since last last our last March meeting. So one is that the Department of Housing and Urban Development, they announced the city's actual allocation. So, usually, we're doing this way in advance of when HUD actually tells us how much money we actually have.

So now we're at a point where we actually can present to you our the updated numbers, and we'll discuss those in the next few slides. And, also, staff had a meeting with the city of Alameda's social services human relation board, and that was a recommendation by council member Bonilla to talk about more, like, overarching policy scope of work that the CSC could take on, and we'll provide an update about that. And we'd love to have your feedback as it relates to CSC scope of work. So these are updated numbers. They're also in your staff report packet if your eyes are bad like mine.

So for fiscal year twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven, the city received its actual allocation, which is one around $1,500,000. And this $1,549,000 includes the allocation and also our estimated program income for the next year. And that's loans that we've provided. So that the loan the loan payments that we receive back and also interest. I also wanted to mention that Amber Padroj Paraya is on the call today today.

She's here to help answer any detailed CDBG questions that you may or may not have today. So I'm sorry you didn't introduce her earlier, but she's with us to support. So since our actual award came in a little bit higher than we expected, we have additional funds to allocate, and additional funds have increased the allowable allocations for both public services, which is, as a reminder, 15% cap, and administration and planning, which is a 20% cap. So these two categories, we increased because that number the at the actual word that we received was higher than what we estimated. So of this, specifically for public services, it was around $32,000.

So our recommendation is to allocate these funds to the Hayward Navigation Center to be in alignment with our recommendation in March to allocate the public services dollars to to the NEF Center. And then additionally, any additional funds that go to administration and planning would be directly relate directed towards staffing costs that we typically utilize the the funds in that way. So now that we've covered the those are what I provided were more of, the line by line items. But typically, what we include in the annual action plan is sort of, like, the bigger buckets, which we'll have that table for you when you go ahead and vote, and it's also in your staff report. So in terms of next steps, so last meeting, we discussed the details of the CDP applications.

We talked about why staff made those prep proposals, answered any questions, and that's when we opened the public comment period. Now that we're in April 22, the public comment period is coming to an end related to these final recommendations and into the CSC to finalize this vote so that we can bring that to city council in May. So that that meeting is scheduled for May 5, and that's gonna be our public hearing, finalize those votes so we can include these recommendations in the CDBG annual action plan. And so, typically, we the CSC members would speak to their deliberation process and their recommendations. Usually, it's a little more detailed because you all have taken the time and attention to be able to speak to the recommendations.

This year, it looks a little different, but we still welcome that you come and you can speak to the recommendations and also the funding process as a whole if that's something you're interested in. And then moving forward, we are gonna have ongoing conversations about the CSE's work plan based off of what we're hearing today. We definitely wanna make this an iterative process that makes the most sense for all of us. So this is staff's recommendation. It's to approve the CDBG funding recommendation and recommend them to city council.

These are the bigger buckets that I mentioned earlier, and that will move forward that 1,549,000 for CVP. So yeah. So this is an action item. So this is how the format will go. It's forward to questions, public comments. We'll close the public comment period and then do discussion. So we just ask for questions to keep them as clarifying questions and revert reserve from sharing any, like, perspective or preferences before having public comment related to this item, and then we'll go into discussion.

Does anyone have questions about, the recommendation? Vice chair Good.

I know in previous years, there would be sort of like a question and answer format where council would ask, representatives from the commission about the process. Is that still likely to happen, or if we go, are we looking to just make a public comment?

So it would be the latter since this year, it's staff recommendations. So I wish that we could be more collaborative this year, but that's not Okay. Thank you.

I have a follow-up to commissioner Gunn's question. That's okay. I I see. Understand the q and a, but before it was kind of by ARC. And so would the commission as a whole provide a public comment, or would individual commissioners provide public comment? I see.

I think you could if there's a

I mean, you're always welcome to all provide individual comments regardless. And so I think if you want tonight

to provide a a comment from the commission, it's not a thing. Absolutely. Yeah. You can do crazy for a lot. Mhmm. So, if that's something that they would pull

Or or we wanna nominate someone to do it.

For sure, mom.

Yes. I just want to clarify. Could you explain again what what was the reasoning behind the allocating the, like, extra amount you didn't anticipate into the areas that you did again?

Yeah. So for public services oh, for administration, that's 20%. So we did that 20% of the actual award. So that ended up being more because our estimated award was lower. So we just took 20% of the actual award. And then for public services, it's 15% of the actual award. Actually, you know, I'm gonna lean on my staff member, Amber, because Amber is the one who calculated those numbers, so she'll be able to speak to it a little more in detail.

Sure. So we originally every year when we do our initial estimates, we do it based on approximately $1,300,000 plus, whatever our estimate is for program income for the following year. So that's what you would have seen, during the March meeting. When it comes to administration and public services, we, always, as a practice, allocate up to the statutory maximum, which would be that 20 percent of, the entitlement for administration and 15% of the entitlement for public services. The way that was allocated this year was, we had determined that we were going to be funding e nine r for the referral services for $50,000.

So that was a that was a set baseline number, and that whatever we had for public services beyond that would be used to help the fund the Hayward Navigation Center. So that's how we arrived at the numbers, in the, in the staff report. Does that answer your question, or would you like me to dig into that a little bit more?

No. That's helpful. It seems like you were just trying to maintain the same percentages that you had set before, Andy.

Yes. And, one of the things to point out is that those percentages are actually, based on statute. So those are imposed by HUD. We can always spend less than that. But, realistically, when it comes to both administration and, public services, we're generally, oversubscribed, and can use will generally always use up to that statutory maximum.

Great. Thank you.

Yeah. And to speak to that a little bit more, so, I think it was around a $150,000 we recommended last time around to allocate to the Hayward Navigation Center. So that additional 30 around $30,000 that we had due to the increase in our actual award, we're just putting it putting more into what staff recommended was to allocate any additional funds outside of the Eden INR allocation to the.

Alright. Thank you. Commissioner Singh?

Yeah. It seems like the you know, all boarded for the fire equipment purchases, so fairly biased, the highest number.

Yes.

In the previous years, years, has they always been around this amount, about around 600 k?

So in terms of CDBG allocation?

Yes. To the, fire equipment, which is. So

in the right

pocket there. Yeah.

I I can speak to that. So, no. We have not, we have not allocated that much to fire equipment purchases specifically, but, what we're looking at there is essentially what to do with our uncapped funding. In prior years, that amount would have been split between whatever economic development activities we were going to be doing for the year as well as any neighborhood facilities, activities we were going to be doing for the year. Since we're not doing, any sort of economic we're not working with our regular economic development subrecipients this year.

The funding was all allocated to those neighborhood facilities type projects. And that really is just based on what the eligible uses for the funding for that uncapped funding are. So once we've funded administration and once we've funded public services and our housing program our housing rehabilitation programs through Habitat for Humanity and, rebuilding together, we're really left with relatively few options in terms of what we can do with, the remaining funding. So that's kind of how we arrived at that number. We looked at what can we spend on administration, what can we spend on per on, public services, what are we what do we generally spend on our housing program?

So those are all the three top line things that are subtracted, and then whatever was left was allocated to, that fire project. It wasn't fire in prior years, but fire is one of the eligible uses. Does that make sense?

Yes. That does.

Thank you, Amber.

Nice. More question. Just a math one. I because I don't know how strict their requirements are on this. For the 15%, it looks like we're about $2,015 over on that 15%, and I don't know if it's if as long as you're within a certain amount, if that's okay. And then the administrative, we're only at about 18.3%, which I'm fine with, but, just in case that was a consideration.

So I actually love that question, because it is a little bit complicated and gets a little bit into the weeds. We use a slightly so per HUD statute, we actually use a slightly different number than just a flat 15% for public services. What we use is 15 of the entitlement plus 15% of the program income that we expect to receive not next year, but this year, which is something in the realm of $60,000. Generally, we shorthand it as 50 per 15% because that gets in the weeds, and is a relatively small variance. But that's why you're seeing that math being a little off because, technically, it's 15%, but it's based on a slightly different denominator, and that is by statute.

It's, I'll confess, very strange.

Alright. Awesome. That works.

Yes. I love that question because you're always the one I'm thinking of. Yeah.

Check those numbers. Other clarifying questions from the commission regarding the funding recommendations? Okay. Any public comments regarding the recommendations? We have received the ones that were submitted via email that are written. And I'm not sure I'm seeing anything online, although there's a red flashing light. No online presence. Very well. Okay. We can close this public comment period.

There will be additional public comment periods as Emily shared with us later on next month. Okay. Now is the time for us to have a chat. Further thoughts, reflections? Commissioner Wong.

So, I mean, based on the public comment that we received from Kristen Wagner of East Bay Agency for Children, I mean, there, she asks, please well, she says, please consider finding a way to support the lifelines that CBOs provide to the community. And so I think in part of doing, I don't know, our due diligence just, like, make sure that we are addressing this public comment, what possible options are there to be able to support them financially in this moment? Are there? Are there not? And maybe what kind of trade offs would there be if we, were to consider trying to help them with funding?

Yes. So this is a question. Technically, we're in discussion, but we can answer that question.

If you

Or address it. Oh, I thought the last one

was for clarifying. It was

for clarifying questions, and I did I I had believed the same understanding sort of our personal kind of interest and reflections was now at this point. Did I mix that up?

No? Nope.

Sorry. That's my bad. So thank you. Okay. Thank you. Very good.

I mean, yeah. So in short, the right now, the city is not in a financial position to be offering. Unfortunately, that is the stance that staff is taking right now. We're trying we're trying to prevent a budget and not go bankrupt as an organization. So we are, you know, council has asked us to come with a balanced budget, and this is one of the staff recommended approaches.

I think to your point, that is fair feedback to give to council. And I will reiterate that it's really unfortunate, and I am very sorry from the city manager's office. We're just trying to balance the budget with laying off as few staff as possible. So this is the the stance that we're taking right now. We did identify some this is this is not trying to raise expectations too much for next year.

We didn't identify some potential funding that wasn't completely spent last year that we could next year put it could only be used for infrastructure projects, not towards public services. But that is maybe something we're so what we're trying to do right now is under is is work through all the processes that we could do kind of a a funding process late for you, like, a a smaller chunk out of funding that you guys go through through this commission and that. I am making the recommendation to my supervisor who's the city manager that be set aside, non nonuse for city budget, but set aside for community project. So that's one one area. And then other than that, I I I don't have anything else more positive to share. So that's a good question.

I appreciate that. And I think perhaps in the future, maybe there are any other situations where we have these, complex funding decisions. It would be helpful to, I guess, lay out the options in a very clear manner, like, what options are the trade offs of each options, like, such as, like, telling us, like, there will be staff being laid off and, like, explicitly having that somewhere. I don't know in a document somewhere where it's, like, clear for us and, like, the other decision makers to know, like, what exactly are those trade offs? Like, if we really wanted to fund these organizations, what are the costs of doing so and vice versa? I think that would be helpful.

Yeah. I'm happy you know what, Mikey? I'm happy to do a presentation on the city's budget if that is useful at a meeting. I don't know. I don't wanna bore you guys, but but it that might help provide context too, kind of the trade offs that we're having to look at. And yeah. And that could also provide sort of a forecast moving forward too just so everyone's on the same page about about that. Anyways, that's an option.

Yeah. Would that presentation of the budget is that necessary to to get the full sort of context? Like, because I can appreciate commissioner Wong's statement where just even in the the staff presentation, just the table of or a second table. Yes. And not necessarily the whole entire budget explanation, but just, like because it's gonna, I believe, continue to come up. Yeah. If it feels like any glimmer of hope for any power that can be eked out. Fair enough. And it's I feel like we're asking well, I would certainly say officially shut the door and help us ourselves mentally shut the door.

Yes. Got it. Okay. So officially shutting, like, shutting the door. So we are currently still balancing. I I can give you the elevator pitch. We are current it's not a good elevator pitch. It's a terrible elevator pitch. But we are currently balancing the budget this year with I have the numbers in front of me,

but I'm not I wanna do trying

to from memory, so don't hold me fully to it. Actually, let me get close to it so I'm not totally botching it. In terms of using one time funding sources this year to balance the budget, we're looking at close to $13,000,000. And then next year, we're looking at an we're looking at close to $16,000,000. So we are still or This is using onetime funding sources.

So we are still pulling heavily on sources that will not be available to us in future years, and that is in the hopes that we can get some more revenue. We have a measure on the ballot and in the hopes that maybe the economy will start to pick up. Right now, we're in very slow. We have no sales tax growth and no property tax growth. And so we're in the hopes of not laying off more people.

We're sort of betting on the future here by putting in additional one time sources. That said, we are, this year, close enough. We had to I mean, our labor unions came through with some great concessions. We really appreciate their partnership over 7 and a half million dollars this fiscal year. And we're still there's so we're able to massively limit the number of layoffs that we would have had to do. We still are doing a handful of layoffs for next fiscal year so that this allowing us being able to use the money in this way allows us to not have to to be able to put put off more layoffs is essentially where where if that is that is

the, you know,

the elevated pitch, if that helps.

Yeah. Commissioner Singh, I think that is helpful. Okay. Uh-huh. Thank you.

So what I was gonna I'll recommend was that I know we didn't have the interviews, the orgs, you know, like we normally would've. But since, you know, since we had some money left over, and it seems like we allocated to our equipment purchases because that was a category that qualified based on the guidelines. Had we had the interviews and maybe identified some organizations that qualified for this to potentially allocated some of that money to them. Right. So, I'm not sure what the process will be going forward, but recommendation would be that, like, next year, if we're able to still interview, organizations and tell them, hey.

We're not guaranteeing anything, but if something does come available, that there is a possibility to allocate some money, whether it's from the CDGB, you know, fund or something else. Right? So at least that there's you know, something does come available down the road that we have potential, clients or organizations that are could receive that funding. Because right now, it seems like we just kinda shut everything down. Right. And so I think having that available or open, I think, would be a good idea for

next year. Thank you, mister Singh. Other yes. Vice chair. I

wanna echo what commissioner Singh was saying. I know that the fire equipment is a onetime purchase because there's some older equipment that needs replaced. I'm hoping that that's not something that will be in addition next year, and and we had to do it multiple times. I understand absolutely where we're coming from last fall when we realized we need to put the the brakes on this and get things under control. But, hopefully, we're in a better outlook now that we could start making some plans, on how to eventually reinstate this.

I know that the outlook for next year was not good, but I'd like it to at least be investigated to see if, you know, $630,000, it when the economy goes bad and what I'm what I'm hearing from my neighbors, when the economy is bad for the city, it's because it's also bad for our community. And so to cut services at the same time to cut our safety net at the same time that our city is struggling, it it's moving things from around from one pocket to the other is kind of how I'm looking at it. And I know that we needed the fire equipment. I just wanna make sure that the CDBG fund isn't locked into fire equipment every year or it's replacement of something else.

It is not locked in. Yeah. Yeah.

I'd to raise a question to the commission with respect to the city council meeting. Traditionally, the various chairs from the arts as well as the commission chair and vice chair would be present and able to answer clarifying questions, specific questions that the city council would have about decisions, recommendations, or the process. And while that will not be taking place in that being this year, I'm interested in hearing folks' feedback and thoughts on whether or not, do we as a commission still want to provide a statement, to city council? Or are there, if there I think we had three arcs. So are there I'm thinking, can we get three people?

Like, I'm trying to just open up the floor to get people's thoughts, ideas, input at all on this concept of this commission providing some feedback to city council just with respect to what has happened this year. I do believe we received feedback from our liaison councilman, Bunia junior, who said the council is interested in hearing from the commission and wants to make sure that we are behind the recommendations, which I believe we are. But I don't believe that the staff presenting the recommendations will provide the city council with a full picture of our experience this year. And so I'd love to hear you all's thoughts, feedback, suggestions, recommendations on how we approach that opportunity. Commissioner Singh?

Yeah. I think that's a good idea for one to present as a commission as long as there's some common evidence on some ideas that we all sort of agree upon. Like, if there's two to four bullet points, now we're all in consensus where we can share that as a commission rather than as individuals. In terms of how do we collect those bullet points, you know,

we agree upon, you know, this one. Do we do

it via email or if we discuss it here? I'm not sure. Okay.

So I'm hearing a commission response, provided we feel comfortable that there's some shared, feedback and reflections. I don't believe we can do emails. It's a whole Brown Act thing going on. I don't think it's inappropriate for us to have that discussion right now on the floor. Other thoughts, or reactions to commissioner Singh's suggestion?

But I've also seen in commissions before when people when there's an effort to come up, it's if you need to take, like, a 10 to write some thoughts down, maybe share back after that. Like, that's something I've seen done, but

just a just a possibility. That's fair. Are there specific elements or reflections you would like to make sure are shared with city council? I I wrote some notes just in general as I was thinking, oh gosh. They'll probably ask the chair to

say something. But I'm saying.

So I initially wrote down just the the shock of the decision and just how I think we all sort of had to wrestle with that and sit with that and or probably still wrestling with that and sitting with that. Also, just the feeling of what does that mean for who we are as a commission and and how it, is sort of facing us with, I'll use the term, our mortality, if you would, as a commission as well as an acute awareness of what this means to our CDOs and how that is sitting with us and a desire to, as quickly as possible, swiftly as possible, have some response to provide support to our CBOs, which would allow the community to have some relief as well. Now those were just initial things that I I just jotted down. And also wanting to respect this is a rock and a hard place situation. And to respect that the council and the staff have had to make difficult decisions.

There are individuals who don't work here anymore, which is hard and challenging and wanting to just make sure that there was just a moment to acknowledge and recognize that it's

a rock and a

hard place and difficult decisions have had to be made and that I believe we, as a commission, are still very much in support of our city and wanna see our city healthy and thriving and whatnot. But just even with that, it's it's an uneasy it's a hard time. And so those were just some things that I just jotted down, but you may have something specific that's on your heart and mind that you think would be important to be reflected. And I'm happy to go be here probably for another hour or so and happy to jot those down and maybe try to collate something for our commission that I don't know if it's something I can share with you, Emily, that can be shared out, or I'm I'm not really quite sure how to manage that. Do we have a quick subcommittee so we're not messing up around that kinds of things to talk that through, but, those are my thoughts.

Sorry to interrupt you. Yeah. Should we just sort of go around and maybe everyone share two to three things, and then you can compile a list of commonalities, and then we can go from there.

I'm okay with that if the rest of you all are okay with that. And I I do recognize that some people are not the best with on the spot. And so if you need some time to mull it over and think it through, I I'm happy to, allow for that opportunity as well to your suggestion, that some people may need to do that. But happy to take down your orders now.

Yeah. My suggestion would be similar to, what I have said before about if we do identify a category such as maybe, public facilities and infrastructure. Maybe we can interview those, the organization that fall within that part and just let them know, hey. We're not guaranteeing that funds will be available. But if they are, then at least we have them interviewed.

And then based on their merit, we can go ahead and allocate funds to them. And so I know that might not apply to all ours, like, for example, services. I know fall under the d d g allocation, but the ones that do, maybe we can interview those so that we can, you know, allocate some sort of funds to them. And then another thing is this is probably not related or maybe it is. You know, for me, it was a bit of a surprise that, you know, this fiscal year is that the company I mean, not the company, but the the city was in financial position that it was in.

And so I'm not sure. And I I don't know what the details around that. Maybe I can speak to you, Mary, after the meeting to get more information Absolutely. Rather than speaking about it right now. But I think that that it were just sort of a surprise, right, because we had a good year last year. Right? And then all of a sudden, we find out that, funding is not available. So, I guess this is just my personal comment. It's just for me if I would, if I got more information into how that occurred, right, in terms of how did the city fall in such into such hard financial times. You know?

So suddenly, right, it's not like we were given a warning in advance last year that, you know, there might not be funding available. We were going into this year with the expectation that we would do the funding. Right? So it was a bit of a surprise, at least for me. So that's just probably a sign of a comment, but my recommendation would be just my first point that I mentioned about possibly having an abuse.

Others?

Two things. Yes. Echoing what you had mentioned, the importance of the work that our CBOs are doing. And then the the the mechanism of how we allocate and oversee our funds, the the the community oversight aspect has to be protected, I think. It must be safeguard.

Okay.

Michelle? As

I'll share in I guess I'll also just say that I'm probably leaning toward voting no under recommendation, not because I necessarily disagree with what staff has presented. And the truth is I probably probably do agree with the allocations in and of itself. But I've had since that sudden announcement was made to cancel the CAF funding pros the CAF process, it's been sitting with me and been highly uncomfortable for me ever since, especially how it was done because it was just like some random email announcement with no forewarning whatsoever. And I think it I I I'm personally fundamentally opposed to the idea that staff here, administrative staff decided to unilaterally make this decision with very minimal transparency, especially when, like, the Community Services Commission's purpose is to solicit and take in the community input, hear from community agencies about, like, about the, like, funding decisions that we make. And in this case, I I find that the decision to unilaterally cut or end the funding process to kind of be, I don't know, a massive disservice, antithetical to what the purpose of the Community Services Commission is.

And when there's this conversation about, like, how a lot of difficult decisions are being made, I I kinda feel weird about that personally as being a member of the CSC because I don't personally feel like I've made a difficult decision. I personally would have much more preferred that the we had a conversation at one of the meetings during the CSC leading up to, like, the a decision to decide to cancel the cap funding process where we could have taken input from the community agencies that we fund. We could have taken input from the community, and we would have staff and this goes back to my question earlier where we had staff list out the trade offs of what each decision means. And then we would have had to make the final decision in which if staff recommended that we should cancel the funding process because of the budgetary the budget deficit, I mean, I probably would have agreed to staff. Because I do lean on staff's recommendations heavily because you do know a lot more than me.

But I think that the way that we went about it was absolutely not transparent, and, it really does not sit well with me. And I think that, ultimately, had we gone through a more transparent process where where we had solicited community input at one of the meetings, then at least we would have had to make that difficult decision like everyone else is to say, we understand the severity of the the recommendation that we're make or the vote that we're gonna take to, cancel the funding process, but at least it's it's a decision that we are going to have to live with. Because right now, again, I feel like I'm not really making a difficult decision. I'm kind of just following what city staff has been telling me so far. And so, ultimately, I mean, coming down to these recommendations, I just disagree with how it was set up in the first place and how we got to this point.

I don't think it was very transparent, and I don't feel like, honestly, I had much of a say in the funding allocations to begin with. So I barely even had a role to play. That's gonna play into why I'm probably just gonna vote no. We didn't really have any say in it anyways. And, again, I disagree with how this entire process began with the lack of transparency.

That perspective is valid. Part of the commission will be included. Absolutely. Thank you. Sure.

Yes. Commissioner Kumar. Yeah. So,

what I wanted to share is not just for the the budget approving. It's just the overall I just feel like we just we were, like, throwing it in, like, nothing to kind of hold on to, like, direction, no expectation after the budget was cut. So, like, I feel like this is my third year. The first two years was great and sounding like from the city, maybe not just '26 to '27, '27, '28 doesn't sound like, you know, promising for funding. So I like to have, like, a more clear expectation for next couple of years, and then, like, that includes, like, meeting schedules.

Like, how often should we meet, or we should we put the pause and just, you know, communicate through email. Or just, like we're just, like, trying to figure out what we you know? I don't think it's our job to try to figure out what to do here. Like, I think city councils should tell us, like, our tasks are without the funding. So that's one of the things I wanted to bring that out.

Because, you know, we have life, and, you know, we wanna be like, this is to be meaningful, not just for the city, but for each of our, you know, here, commissioners. So, you know, I just don't I just feel like it's just hanging, and there's just no direction which way to go and kinda losing a purpose too. But if we take a clear expectation, clear scheduling, I think I'll feel more comfortable in trying to achieve something here.

Thank you.

I just have, like, a thought that's kind of just taking over my mind. But and, like, obviously, I do I know what's happening and the challenging situation we're in, but, like, somehow if we can share that even in a deficit, how we prioritize limited funding slash resources, reflects our values as a city, and even how we pivot reflects our values as a city. And so I really personally would have loved for us to fund our youth and our seniors more. However, that we could have made it work, but, you know, it's just a personal thing. Like, how we treat our students, I think, is speaks volumes.

Budgets are value statements.

Yeah. Sure.

Yeah. So something

along those lines.

Yes. Commissioner Sledge?

I guess my thoughts are similar to what's already been said. But as we sit here going through, you know, the budget sheet and the the obviously difficult decisions that have to be made, there's no question. I just get a feeling that the people who are supposed to be helping are not being seen or heard. You know? But I don't know what to do about that.

I don't know if there's a way to at least invite more people in to at least share in the, well, I guess transparency of of the decisions of how they're being made. But I I I just I'm coming away with a feeling that, okay. We have to make these cuts. There's no debate to be made. But I did but if I just keep thinking a person at an agency trying to feed, you know, people who are hungry or people who are homeless or unhoused people who are trying to deal with real world conditions, it's like they're not a part of this process.

They're not being seen or heard. And I'm just kind of coming away with that feeling. And, again, I don't know if there's a solution to that, but I but that's just what I'm being left with that. These difficult decisions that affect them greatly are sort of being made without even us or the city or or or anyone being in the position to say we we're doing this, but we certainly appreciate your dilemma, and we certainly appreciate your situation. But but we're just kinda doing it almost in a robotic way, if you will. That's kind of my thought.

Yeah. Sounds like he'd like to know and understand the trade offs on the other side.

Yes. Well And so at least to let them know that we hear them or that we appreciate, yes. We have to do this, but we appreciate that we cure enough to at least explain to you why we have to do this.

Commissioner Maxson.

Yeah. I was I appreciate everyone's sentiments. It's that all felt also with me too. But, yeah, I think, like, the reason why, like, a lot of us came into this commission is mainly to, like, be that bridge and link

of

government and then our community that we represent. And I think the piece that, like, could help get us through, like, the budget and, like, us as commissioners is hold holding that co governance type of model between us and CBOs. And I think, like, this could be a very good opportunity to express what that would look like. And then now lessons learned, like, I think the suggestions that commissioner Wong had brought up too about how we can go about transparency and budgets moving forward. But I just think about how now that we have no funding allocation to be set, what does it look like in the long arc of things?

Because who's to say fifty years down the line this will happen again, you know, or so. So what's the longevity of even this commission? And then how is it that, like, what we do now isn't just a short term, like, approval, but rather, like, this will be now what it feels like foundation setting for the commission even moving forward because it it might be an advisory or such. So, like, I think that's where my mindset is at, and I think, like, this could be even a process where we include the CBOs that we're involved in. And, like, how how do you envision what a CSC that can help survey look like?

And I know we did that with the survey, and, like, it just ended up us doing a lot of tasks, and that wasn't sustainable either. So, like, maybe even being like, okay. That doesn't work out, but what does it look like? How can we represent you in an advisory sense to city council? Because I think that's kind of where we're leaning towards more so now. But that's kind of just what I've been sitting with is just more, like, how can we co govern with community based orgs and leaders with the city's government.

And just to jump into

that point, we have another section. So Yeah. That's a to that. Yeah. Cool. Yeah.

Any other thoughts, comments, reflections? Thank you all for just thank you all.

We are doing a discussion. I I think it's okay if

I say it. So, yeah, you may

have thoughts and guesses. No. No. You don't need to be. Sorry. I just wanna make sure it's appropriate time to talk. So this is so I mean, this is not none of this is like, okay. We're gonna make this okay with community groups. And what you guys are sharing with right now is even making me change what I'm thinking about for some of our practices immediately just in terms of we haven't yet had I have not yet set a communication out to community agencies because, ultimately, we need to bring the budget to council, and they're the policymaker on what we do next fall. I will be honest with you that staff's recommendation is not to do community agency funding process next fall because of the reasons I just outlined.

That said, it is council's decision, not not staff's. And so I'm waiting we're waiting till we have that work session, which is May 12. And then after that, I will communicate to the agencies personally, but I think also we have not done budget town halls. We've been in crisis crisis communication. We've been in crisis.

I won't go deeply into it, but this was a this budget situation was a surprise to the staff that took over in July as well. We had a very large turnover and and a higher level leadership and realized that there had not been much reporting done accurately. And we actually had had lost $30,000,000 last year, and we're on track to do the same this year. And we didn't we only had only had had $30,000,000 in savings. So we have no savings now, and we were running a pretty strong deficit.

So we had to do some immediate crisis just to stop the the flow. We have not done any town halls on those for I know when HSD was in a similar situation, they did do town halls. And so that's something that we should be doing, and we should be communicating with our especially the agencies that we haven't funded, I think, are some of our first customers with that. And so that's something I can I will incorporate? So thank you for

letting me know. And I'll

let you guys know. I think we we, just from a staffing perspective, need to get through May. But then I think after that, we can do more and share kind of what the outlook looks like.

Stuff. But you guys being you and still showing up and still coming, whether it feels like it or not, you are still representing the community. Right? You are still representing the CBOs even in just sharing this is what this feels like to me or this is the impact to me. I think it remains to be seen how we advise our our staff team and even our city council just even in sharing the thoughts and the feedback. I am total diehard optimist. It's just gonna be, I believe in the rainbow. There is silver on that other side. It has to be for me. And so I applaud you all.

Thank you all. It's great serving with y'all. And to the extent in which you're able, I ask you to continue showing up, because whether you recognize it or not, I do believe you are still making a difference even though it is not maybe in the way that we were hoping or wanting to. But I just I really just honestly truly trust and believe we're still holding space for our CBOs and our community members just by showing up and and sharing all the thoughts. Okay.

Okay. Where are we? We just had our presentation. And the action items, I think we need to take a vote. Yes. I technically, are there recommendations a tough bit. Technically, we asked for revisions, but I don't know how realistic it is to do that. And so it looks as though we need a motion to move this forward or not. We have the option to vote yes. We have the option to vote no.

We have the option to abstain from voting. But on page attachment two, there is a table with, I guess, orange, yellow, and green. This is the funding recommendation that our staff is proposing over for city council for the CMVG process, this current well, I guess it starts. Whatever. Our next allocation period. So that's where we are. Is there a motion on the floor to approve this as is?

Thank

you, vice chair Ben. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Thank you, commissioner Sledge.

Moving forward with the recommendations. Commissioner Wheeler? Yes. Commissioner Gunn? Yes. Commissioner Ngulu? Yes. Commissioner Dow? Yes. Commissioner Kramura? Yes. Commissioner Maderos? Commissioner Maxon? Yes. Commissioner Jagdeep Singh?

Yes.

Commissioner Jan Josie? Commissioner Sledge?

Yes.

And Commissioner Wong? No. Thank you.

Thank you all. We had some working groups resource. We had a desire to support our CBOs in ways that were nonmonetary to them. You all please help me as it's not gonna remember 100% where all of our working groups left off. But I do recall there was a recommendation to support with making sure the community knew what resources were available to them.

They were able to access resources, and those resources were accessible in a way were accessible, period. Smartphone, reliable, accessible, as well as all the other modes. If not mistaken, there was some feedback with respect to a website and how that is managed. And we or the city of Hayward does not have a lot of or this department rather does not have a lot of influence in how the library is managing its resource page, but we provided feedback on how they can improve and whatnot. I'm not sure if there's any further actions with respect to the resource allocation. Please don't let me misspeak.

Yeah. So we share the information with our webmaster to be able to update links. It's one person manages and I think you all also know that our webmaster is transitioning our whatever our hosting site. Yeah. And so they are going through all the different.

There was a concern about it being able to be able to work with CEO interface. And so they're working through all of the city's pages to make sure that they align and meet ADA requirements and all of that. So, if it's not looking right now, we thank you for your patience as that's something that's happening.

Yes. Vice chair Glenn? Oh, did we there was

also a suggestion about, routine or automatic social media posting about services and things like that. I don't know if that went anywhere. This wasn't at the last meeting. Was at the previous one. Just remembered.

Okay. Can you jog my memory about what the ask was?

Oh, so,

there's been recently a lot of people asking on social media groups. You know, I'm homeless all of a sudden, or I have no food for the rest of this month or week. Where can I get services? And so people are filling in the gaps and directing people on their home. But I noticed that the the official city of Hayward, social media, doesn't routinely or automatically share what those services are.

Oh, okay.

And they could. It would be easy to set up automatic posts for that.

Okay. So I would have to touch base with our community make media relations team. I can provide them that feedback. And then the next time we meet, I can provide an update on that.

Thank you.

Which in a couple action items is likely to be due. Okay. And then there was this I believe it was the working group, Vice Chiragun, that you oversaw with respect to kind of volunteer match, and we ran into a couple of snags with that. And I'm not sure where we landed. I believe each of us individually has the ability to connect with any of our CBOs and volunteer on our own and and invite others into our own post and, hey.

Come join me at such and such a location. But this idea of us helping facilitate matching, particularly as there was a desire to have young people participate, doesn't feel like the space for us because the, leaders and facilitators of that are really wanting for the young people to take charge and make sure they're making their own connections, and we're not just spoon feeding them their volunteer opportunities. Did I Yep.

Get that right? The and in addition, we got feedback from council member that this may not be within the CDC's scope to try and do that. Okay.

And then if not mistaken, there was, and I'm not sure if you all are still doing it, but we are open, some of us, and desiring to support you all with the site visits that were taking place. I know there were some, I'll say, few contracts that were just kind of finishing or finalizing. It was it had something to do with the timing and when the contracts went out. But what's being recommended moving forward, I'm not certain if that's even gonna be part of their contracts with e minor, with Vax, and any of the others. I doubt we're

gonna review the vendor who's doing

the fire equipment and what have you kind of thing. But whether or not that is anything that this body could still support with, we would need that feedback from you all.

Understood. Yeah. I think from what I understand, we talked about doing site visits when we originally discussed the conversation of

Every other year.

Every other year. Yeah. And so that's something we can talk about as we go into, like, work work plan and such like that. And then in terms of updates on CDBG projects that we are going to allocate the funding towards, we can most definitely come back with up imagine, like, orderly updates on how things are going, and we'd love to get your input. So that is an ongoing conversation that we'd love to have. I I'm what I'm hearing is that there's frustration with not being totally involved in these decisions, but we still would like your community oversight on how we implement these programs within the city.

Okay. And then if not mistaken, the last and final work group was with respect to how do we connect our CBOs to other funding opportunities, whether that's through technical assistance, workshops, or trainings on grant writing or on access to folks who had available funding. And if I'm not mistaken, there was some recommendation to do survey to our CVOs and asking them, is that even realistic or reality I can just share with you? As an executive director who's a nonprofit myself, it's like, yeah. I'm really not looking unless you literally are gonna make an introduction to the funder to me, I'm not really seeing a lot of value.

Certainly, if, you know, I can provide you all of the stats and be like, just write this. But I know the challenge is getting the stats, getting the story, doing all of that, and it's difficult to have others do that. But I'm interested in understanding if this body is still open to and desiring to query the CBOs anyway. I clearly dare not speak on behalf of them. I'm just sharing my experience and how I would respond to a survey saying, yeah, you need to introduce me to mister Rockefeller. That's what

I appreciate you guys saying. But

I'm not sure we're in a position to do that, what you're just who you're describing. Am am I wrong? Any other Well different response to that?

That is just my, I'll say, personal response. As someone leading an organization, if someone were to come and invite me, I am asking whether or not we still want to survey. Please don't let me just make a decision for our CBOs. Survey, they may say, yes. Who can write it? Here's the information. Please put it together. They may come back with that. And, I'm asking this group, is that something we'd like to lead the charge on? Because we, to some extent, have exhausted our working group committee ideas.

We've kind of gone through. We've queried. We did our research. This is the last one remaining to where there potentially can be a bear there separate from this advisory option. This there's some a staff report where we connected with the city of Alameda. I'm gonna forget the name of their human services. Very long group. Services. Or whatever. Yes. But they do some, I'll say, fact finding and research on their own and come back and present it to city council, basically educating, hey. This is what's going on in the community. They're the liaison in that way. And so, we can talk through what is our purpose, what is our point, what is our charge moving forward. Is that something?

But before we do that, the last working group that we had already talked through before our last meeting and this idea of moving the CSC work to a policy level came up, the last one to sort of vet was this, how do we connect our CBOs to other funding sources? Is one way we thought about that was providing them technical assistance to just improve their current grant writing practices, their current grant research practices. Can we provide technical assistance to them? That was one option. And believe the best way to get clarity on that is to ask them. So I'm asking if there is still a desire and will from this group to do that.

I would say I I wouldn't personally feel qualified to advise a nonprofit on how they can improve. I've never been a nonprofit. So, I think that that's something that, you know, if if we have people who are like, yes. I do this all the time. I help nonprofits improve. Fantastic. But I don't know if that needs to be a commission sort of focus, unless we have a bunch of us to do that.

I just

wanna step in really quick, if you don't mind. So just thinking about for future years too. So I wanna be mindful of what how involved a commissioner might be Mhmm. In an agency's operations because that might impact how how you can be involved in making funding decisions. So, yeah, that that's just something to think about in the future of, you know from what I'm understanding is that the CSC heavily cares about being able to provide funding recommendations to agencies.

So if you're gonna be really involved to, like, say, like, write a grant or talk to an agency very specifically on how do they run their operations or get money, I would be concerned from, like,

fairness subjectivity perspective when it comes time to score.

Thank you. It's a conflicts of interest.

Lots of interest. Thank you. However, some other things that I have heard you all talk about in terms of supporting agencies funding. Funding sources is looking for funding sources, and then we can as staff can send out a list. If that's something you've developed or even if, so say someone has a very specific skill, I think, commissioner Wheeler has mentioned, like, looking at the different grant funding platforms. That could be a webinar that individuals can come to. So it's a little bit more of, a public space rather than private.

More in the TA world Yeah. Around yeah. All of the CBOs are you you we still have the ability to reach out to them. Is there any desire to a quick Google form and even ask their interest of what would be helpful or supportive in this thing for them? Yes. Commissioner Google.

I have a question. Is Tina Evans still on? Like, maybe we can pass. Yeah.

She she dropped off. She dropped off. Okay. Yeah.

Probably when she got the update.

Yeah. Yeah. She was like

Alright. Not

Wasn't there

a question posed to CBOs already about what do you need, and they gave, like, survey responses. So we kind of know buckets of the types of things they're named just on specifics. I

recall when Amy was still here, she presented to us some information that had gone out to them initially. And I'll be honest with you, I don't recall exactly what was included in that survey. It feels like it was so long ago, even though it was not that long ago, but there has been a lot of information that's gone out. I don't know if you recall what we're talking about.

So I think we're kind of like working in a circle here because I believe we have presented like needs other than direct fundings. And that's sort of like how these working groups came to be. But if it makes sense, we can bring that cert those surveys results back next time. If that's something I'm always happy to either email them out or we can talk about them again, or I can also quickly look

them up.

I mean, what you you had mentioned city managers, the I assisted excuse me. For Alta. I I'm worried that I don't know Alta's too much. But you had mentioned the idea of, like, a a budget town hall specifically for CBOs. I'm wondering if if we get if that happens and we get good feedback from that, maybe we can that can be shared with us on something that we see.

Yeah. And I think you guys will all make sure that you're aware

of when we do that so we can do that.

We we could ask some additional questions.

It's not yeah. He's not diagnosed, but I think hearing from them.

So I do have just an update on the conversation with the city of Alameda. Please.

But I also don't No.

Yeah. Would like I think I'd like to hear that.

I was gonna recommend I love how we're all, like, having the same thoughts right now. I was gonna recommend because it feels like the future of CSC and potentially what we may talk about in the next meeting when we do get together when our point, our purpose, and understanding more of what you learned with the city of Alameda and how that may inform us. Yeah.

Just one quick question. Is it okay if we find, like, websites, etcetera, organizations within the barrier that are helping nonprofits and send that to you so you can send it to so so organizations you're enabling. Is that okay to do?

Yes. That is totally okay to do. I'm I'm I would love it if it was, like, from the commission or if, like, the working group of some sort because then I can compile a list. So it's not like if I get one from you and then one from someone else a week after, like, that was just, like it would be nice to have, like Mhmm. Just

You could

have a little would say

one of the We can partner on that list creation together.

Yeah.

That goes to Emily so she gets just the one. Yeah. Okay.

I can send you links, and then you can add yours and send it to Emily.

That would be great. That was our remaining CSC group. Uh-huh. Subgroup. Whatever we're called. Committees. Whatever.

Alright. Floor is yours. Great.

I just wanna say I really appreciate the

heart that

everyone's bringing in these conversations. I'm really grateful that I get to work with you all. And we had I had a good conversation with the city of Alameda's social services human relations board. So we'll call it SHERB. And SHERB is run by a program manager, I believe, that they're housed under the housing and homelessness division that's under the city manager's office at the city of Alameda.

They serve as an advisory body that assesses the reports to city council on social services needs of Alameda residents and encourages the development of private social welfare organizations to address unmet needs, essentially encouraging nonprofits to be able to support individuals that are vulnerable. So in the staff report that is in front of you, So there is more detail about what their scope of work is. But as, like, a summary, they review and score applications for social services funding. So they, like you all, review CDBG applications, but only for social services agencies as it relates to their scope of work. They also provide input on strategic plans and needs assessments.

So what I know right now is that their staff is working on a needs assessment right now, and they develop that with the board. So develop the survey together. They get the input from this board, And then also, like, the outreach plan and rely on the board to be sort of the eyes and ears of the community to share that needs assessment out to get as much input as possible and essentially guide the efforts of that division in their strategic plans for the next five years. They also convene three working groups. So there's yeah.

And from what I understand, it's based on, the board's interests as a group. So, there's the domestic violence work group, Alameda's United Against Hate that focuses equity across the city, and the Road Home Working Group, which is specific to addressing homelessness in Alameda. They also, from what I understand is that the individuals that are part of the working groups, they attend stakeholder meetings to be able to provide, like, sort of, like, this is what's happening related to this working group in the city. And so when they get together as an entire board, the working groups provide their updates on, I attended this meeting, this is what we've heard, etcetera, etcetera. They also host events.

So from there's around, like, one or two community events annually, such as the volunteer of the year recognition event and also an open mic night that was specifically supporting individuals who experienced domestic violence. And staff would help, like, help find an event event venue or support, like, on the overarching details and also put out the, like, communications, and then it would be run by the board, the day of planned by the board as well. And then lastly, they also would draft proclamations. So, and it was all specific to their interests. So there were people who were interested in, like, senior senior services in the community.

So they would survey senior organizations to get a better sense of what's going on and and then write in collaboration with staff at Proclamation to acknowledge organizations that support seniors. So one thing that we sort of called attention to us as we were having these conversations was that, the city, the last time we performed a community needs assessment was in 2018. And, yeah, that was a long time ago, and we believe that we should it's time to do that as an update. And with that, the reason not only would we like to do that to help guide how the city approaches, like, meeting unmet needs in Hayward, but also it is a key requirement of CDBG. So when we go into our five five year action plans with CDBG, we have specific data and guiding documents saying we are we are addressing the community needs, and this is how we're doing that.

And we have this needs assessment to show you these are the unmet needs in the community, and this is how we're using our CDBG funds to meet those needs. So an option and opportunities that we can work together with the CSC to develop community needs assessment. And yeah. So that's that's one option. And then also, you know, we can talk about the working groups, but certainly, from what I know is that you all are still still inch inching away on the work that's being done, but that could be another conversation after hearing about an example.

Any questions for Emily? Yes, vice chairman.

I love the idea of doing the the needs assessment. I'm wondering if if we as a body decide to do some of these things or something different. It seems like we would probably need council direction to make sure that we're still within the what they've designed for CSC. Has there been any, discussion at council about what their vision of CSC is during these off years, for example?

I'll be honest. There is not.

But yeah. But that is something that we could and I think I I do I think, one of you brought it up that you guys sharing that with them, but that would

be helpful feedback on that.

And

to spend some time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up.

Yeah. I I also think doing a community need needs assessment or, yeah, doing a a community needs assessment is a good idea. But I also wanna think about, like, what will we do with that data in particular? And I kinda want the CSC to have some sort of an active role in taking that data and actually helping put into action in some way. And I can't recall where or who, but I believe it was from multiple city council members who may have, suggested maybe even the idea of the CSC getting involved in kind of being more involved in developing a understanding of whether or not agencies are actually, like, meeting needs, of, like, in some auditing type role.

And I was thinking a little bit about that. And maybe maybe the CSC can have some sort of a greater role in trying to find a way to match the community needs assessment, the outcomes of the the data that we identified, and actually the work that the community agencies are doing. And in a sense, you know, how, like, in a regular funding cycle, agencies put out, like, their metrics and how much they wanna achieve, how many people they wanna serve, things like that. And then it's kind of just like, okay. We give you funding in the following year.

We kinda hear how whether or not they actually met these metrics. Maybe during the year, commissioners can actually be assigned to, certain agencies and to get a little bit more intimate with them, learning a bit more about what they're doing to, hit their metrics and kind of hearing about what the diff like, whether or not, like, they believe they're doing enough or not enough and having those, like, more intimate conversations. I mean, I mean, I know, Emily, you touched you talked a bit about, like, the concern of possible conflict of interest, but maybe there is a way to resolve that where, like, we have our three different arcs. But, maybe we'll have to change up the structure of how we do arcs, but maybe people who are in one ARCs are assigned to be, like, in that auditing role for, the agencies that are part of another ARCs. And maybe we can focus on agencies that are the most, most high most high funded in each ARCs to just make sure that we're making sure that the money, is being used in an effective manner.

It is meeting these community needs. And I think in having this sort of audit, type role would actually help give commissioners a little bit more authority to speak on, whether or not agencies are doing, like, good work, especially when we bring recommendations to city council. And I think that does I think this kind of an auditing role type idea does kind of mesh well with what city council kind of wants us, to do as well, which is kind of to help provide, that sort of voice for, whether or not agencies are doing good work. And so I think having this sort of audit auditing type idea, and maybe it can be flushed out more, would allow us to be better informed on what different agencies are doing, whether or not, like, just merely getting metrics is enough or if there's, like, something, more that we need to do or agencies need to do or maybe, like, there's a different direction we need to go and how we think about funding. And I think it also provides city council with, some deeper insight, as well into each of the organizations, especially since, like, I know city staff.

Like, you kind of already do that auditing work, but there's so many agencies that you have to, like, oversee. You can't go that in-depth with each of them. But if we were able to have, like, commissioners assigned to, like, the top, like, three funded agencies in each ARC, maybe we can go a little bit deep deeper than what staff can do in that in that auditing sense.

You guys want to pilot the auditing this year? We are funding agencies. I mean, we are funding facts through the NAV Center and the Eden INR and if you if you have something I don't know if there's a limitation.

Well, this is so we do quarterly reports, and we review the reports every quarter. And I know that in previous years, we were a little bit better about bringing the metrics and doing performance reviews with the CSC. So we can be a little bit more meticulous about that when we come to you all, and you can ask, like, follow-up questions. I know that's not specifically addressing what you're looking for. Another thing that we're doing is that we are doing desk audits right now.

So we monitor all of our agencies agencies every year just to make sure, are they qualified? Are they staffed with people who are qualified to be able to provide these services? Are they meeting their metrics? Do they have a fiscal like, are there, as an agency, able to handle funds in general? So it's sort of this, like, larger audit.

And we, as staff, are completing our monitoring process, like, just looking at their documents. And then we have to go and do site visits and site and monitor individuals that sort of, like, are red flags in a way. Something that I had mentioned to Mary is that we could invite CSC members maybe one at a time so we don't have, like, a whole crew of people showing up to shadow us in that process. But, yeah, that's just initial thoughts.

Other reactions, thoughts, or questions for Mary with respect to the SHERB interaction or meeting? Yes. Commissioner Matching.

I think what could be helpful is, like, I'm curious to also, you know, like, council's POV about, like, oh, like, this like, what they're at what's generating in their head too because there are a lot of things that that SHERV does that I think I think it is the ask of, like, a lot of our commissioners, like, willing to get, like, hands on, and and we can really do some meaningful changes with it too. So I think now I I don't know. Like, I think I'm just waiting on, like if council's like, yeah. This is good. Check.

They can also do this and this. So, yeah, I I would love to know, like, if there there's a way to get, like, a report back on their insights of, like, if this is a good to go, or is it more so, like, we're gonna do the community needs assessment. That's kind of our lane. So

That's fair. As it feels like we're still coming off the heels of what felt a bit of a spanking to me. I don't know if it felt that way to others. But Yes. And I think that's I think that's fair, and I think that's reasonable. Commissioner Kimura mentioned it. Yeah. We should receive guidance, some guidance from city council. Although I do recall a councilman Bunyan Junior was encouraging us Yeah. To come forward with things.

Right? And so the sheriff. So

yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes. I

think I wanna add is I think and this is me being, like, a downer because you're so positive.

I was like, oh, I'm not gonna

take back. And I just feel but I feel like after that spanky, equity was off the table. And so I'm kinda like, don't get too hopeful, but I'm, like, excited that the sherb gets to work on that. And I'm like and their council members, like, talk to our council members and, like, put that in their ear because, like, we would love to do equity work with the commission. But, yeah, after this meeting, I remember that standing item was removed. And so Yeah. Hopeful, but not hopeful. So we'll see.

Is there a specific?

No. I'm sorry. I was just curious. Is Alameda the only nearby city that has a served, or are there others who could be a template in, you know, for

That was just the one person that we were able to reach out to to be able to report. We can also look at other commissions or boards as examples. But, yeah, that was just as much as we could do in in in the time frame, but

we can also do.

Okay. Because other cities may have encountered similar situations and may have some advice.

Sure. My recollection of the backstory on equity feeling like it came off the table. Oh gosh. I'm gonna get the years incorrect, but it was twenty twenty two ish, twenty twenty three ish time frame, if I'm not mistaken. This commission was able to do some work and bring some things to light where the city of Hayward City Council essentially issued a letter of apology.

Thank you. Twenty two thousand twenty one. Thank you, miss Oliver. An apology to individuals who've been harmed in the past, the people of color, individuals who were part of Russell City. And it was in response to a lot of what was just taking place in our country at the time, and the city of Hayward was acknowledging and recognizing that it had past practices that contributed to inequity.

And it it was indirect result to this commission, which at the time was larger, bringing forth saying, hey, city council. This this is a challenge. And several years after that, there was I'm gonna get the name wrong, but there's a Russell City reparations committee that was also established for identifying descendants who were able to connect and and show and prove how harm had come to their families, land had been taken, so on and so forth. And that task force had put forth some recommendations and whatnot. And this commission was receiving periodic updates on how that work was going, how that task force was going.

Some of us signed up for the different notifications. And then that work sort of started to branch out into other areas, particularly as it related to public safety in the city and how there's an equity in public safety and in some other areas. And I don't have all of the then it gets a little muddy for me. Somewhere, somehow, a landmine was stepped on, and it it and we got a stagging and said, this is your lane to stay in. The city council will decide and make a purview of what your focus should be.

I believe that it perhaps felt on behalf of city council that the CSC was perhaps maybe questioning them or maybe even attacking them. And the size of our commission has gotten smaller. We don't have bylaws, and the scope of our work has been clarified to focus very specifically on the CAF process and providing funding recommendations. And this was literally

100%.

Fourteen months ago or, like, barely a year ago, which is why and then we run into this funding challenge, and now the door is open to do all these other things. So just giving some greater context into why it feels like, is this a trick?

Right? Because we're No. I mean, they've recently gone through there and and they I guess so. Yeah. So they so just from a Brown Act standpoint, like, the logistics of them being able to, like, come together and talk about something like that. Sure. They can pull together an ad hoc committee and then form, which is three of them, and they talk about it under the guidance of the council handbook. And then they can make a recommendation of the full council and, like, go from there. They're not otherwise allowed to well, that's not the other way to get at it is Jen sorry. City manager can ask each of them kind of this in their one in her one on ones with them, like, do they have any thoughts on this?

And we could share more informally. This is where some of them are going. That, we can share on a, like, a quicker basis. The other one might take, like, a few months for them to be able to get all that together. But I can absolutely ask Jen just to ask them that. Especially if if there's we can I can just go and there's a couple approaches? We could just say this is what the SHRB does. Do you have any thoughts on what the SHRB does? Mhmm. And just generally. Or the commission has expressed specific interest in these particular things. What do you think about these things? Either way is fine. So, yeah, if you have any thoughts on that. But I I can I can absolutely add that to Jen's agenda in the next month with them and bring you that back? Okay. Awesome.

That context was for you to understand why we're saying, no. No. No. You tell us. Right? Yes. Versus No.

It's very helpful. It seems I'm newer. I I was intentionally following all of this, but not but I wasn't in a space. And so thank you for explaining. And and then, yeah, I think hearing explicitly if you're like, what parts of the equity work would be appealing to the group

If any.

We could sort of test that, test the waters on that, yeah, if any.

And then one thing just to say, I think the one thing council agrees on is we have to not focus on what other commissions and committees are doing. But, that was the one thing that was the line in the sand for them. I think that was the landmine. But, yes, I love the idea of getting up with them. Because I remember councilmember Goldstein said several times, he said, if you guys want to do something different than what we've given you, just ask. And so I would like to ask.

Okay. So I'll bring back the sherb. Yeah. And then we'll just say, hey. This is what this commission does, and here's I do think

if if it is of interest if it's

not of interest, I think it's fine. It's fine. But if it's an interest, I do think staff, not just from, like, community services standpoint, but from some other program standpoint too. Like, a needs assessment could be a very useful undertaking for the next year or so. We started or beginning the conversations, think through the conversations of, like, are there non general fund funding sources that we could use to support a little bit of that work?

It would essentially be a guiding document for how the city provides services, and we would also want to focus on vulnerable individuals as well. So if we're able to do that with the CSC, I think that would be too much more impactful.

Yes. A lot has changed since 2018. Mhmm. A lot. The entire world has changed multiple times over since 2018. So Maybe they might have different what their needs.

Thank you all for your engagement. Thank you, Emily, for reaching out and having that conversation and bringing us back the information. We're now pointing to our agenda to talk through our planning calendar. Currently, we today is April 22. And our next month, May, there is no meeting.

The time and opportunity is for us to attend the council work session. There is one on the fifth and one on the seventeenth. I believe the next step is for me to try and put in together the feedback you all gave with respect to what this process has been for us this year. And I'm hoping that's something that Emily can send out and folks can send their feedback to you, and then you can send that feedback to me. Is that the way to avoid us having a whole big email group conversation with the feedback?

Okay. And so I'll work on getting that to you ASAP, and then you'll get that to us ASAP because I feel like May is, like, tomorrow. Yeah. And and then we would come back on the June 17. And it has on here a working group in progress, but I believe we've talked about a couple of things that I think would be helpful for us to flesh out more, whether or not we'll have feedback from council on any seeds planted with you. What do think about this year? What do think about equity remains to be seen. But I think there may be some value in us talking through some of the thoughts we've already had about, okay. There's a community needs assessment that sounds like it's a viable thing. How do we support with that?

How we would need to learn more about that. And I think it could be an opportunity for some of the things we shared about how is it transparent, how does it involve our CBOs, how do we make sure the voices are heard, and all the other considerations we wanna talk through show up in that. I think this could be a time for us to have a real opportunity to shape a process. And then also, yeah, that's those those are my thoughts on that.

Yes. Question. Have a question on the needs assessment. In what format would it be released? Is it multiple choice writing and in what languages? Sorry.

Yeah. So that would be something we would develop together. Okay. Awesome.

Like, you guys would great. Yeah.

Yeah. We'd like to understand that. We'd we'd probably draft a plan and then get your feedback on that. So it'd be a brief iterative process. Also, understanding that staff, we are limited in our time. We would want to work in part with a consultant who has needs assessment and evaluation skills. So that would take some time for us to set that up and find someone who is someone we wanna work with.

I know we're off just a teeny tiny bit down the road over on this side. However, the Alameda County Oakland Community Action Program, a c hyphen o c a p like Paul. Many months ago, I sat on that board as well. They do a community assessment each year. It's part of what they do for their funding process. And certainly, they have

a road map. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. No. That would be I think and I think, like, understanding them

Very good.

Understanding all the needs for everyone, obviously, probably we can't do that. And so so how you guys, like, helping us understand what leads we should prioritize first. It's something that hopefully can provide, like, should direct you to, like, this is kinda what they're looking for. Part of that's gonna be what can the city actually help with versus, like, if that's what ops ever per you. But

And they do a road map Specifically for CDBG.

Yeah. Oh. Oh, okay. Great. That's exactly why they do it. Yeah.

Because they support get their CDBG funding. Okay.

Cool. And

I can I know the former chair of that?

I can ask who's the

current chair unless you're like, well, we know who runs

out of Glender, whatever. But I can look into that and send that to you when I do my little draft work

as well. Okay. Just totally random. Worked out.

And back to our calendar. Can I get a motion for someone to approve this? We would essentially be on, I guess, summer break

till fall after June. Because July.

That's right. Yeah. Okay. So, can I get a motion to ex one, are there any revisions or recommendations or changes desired to this calendar? Yes, vice chair then.

I'd like to rename the working session to the something in in the vein of, planning for the next year Sure. Based on council guidance.

Got it.

And we will commit to get it. Then we have

two months. We or Mhmm. Most almost two months.

Cool. We can

then and with that, I'd like to motion that we approve the calendar with that change.

I will second that.

Thank you. So it's to, change the working group to something that potentially looking forward for. And you were first, and miss Lanita is the cricket. Alrighty. Commissioner Wheeler?

Yes.

Commissioner Gunn?

Yes.

Mister Ngulos? Yes. Commissioner Dow? Yes. Commissioner Kumura? Yes. Commissioner Maguru? Commissioner Baxter? Yes. Commissioner Jagdeep Singh?

Yes.

Commissioner JP? Commissioner Sledge? Yes. And commissioner Wong? Yes. Thank you.

Do we have announcements? Yes.

Commission vice chair Dunn. This Saturday is the fifth annual Hayward lit lit hop. It is a great event celebrating literary culture and books and poetry here in Hayward starting at 2PM with the East Bay Symphonic Orchestra, I believe. The mayor is gonna be announcing who the new poet laureate is and the youth poet laureate. So it's a great event. Bring your family, and it winds its way through downtown with different events where you can hear authors and poets reading.

This Saturday? Mhmm. Mhmm.

What does it start? Do have city hall?

It starts at Heritage Plaza

Okay.

At 2PM.

Any other announcements? That was a

good one.

If you wanna have a really long Hayward centered Saturday, birthday cleanup is happening in That's true. Let's see. Saturday morning, I think it's eight 8AM check-in, 08:30 beginning at Weeks Park.

Okay. We have been on. That's. What? He's got a formal announcement.

Am I allowed

to make formal announcements? No.

I'm just making sure because I I thought it's a formal announcement.

There's a there is an Earth Day or cleanup at Weeks Park starting at eight 08:30 on Saturday.

08:30.

You know, that straight to Lit Hop.

Saturday is the April 25.

I think it's been the same day. It had three years in a row.

It's They're they're the same. I was talking to Juntie about it. They're, like, the same week. Like, they celebrate. So Mhmm. Earth and poetry go.

Any other commissioner announcements? And later that evening. I'm

just kidding. Yes. Know.

Right. I'm driving outside of the. Yeah.

And I played the big thing.

The after party. Yes. Right. Do you have any announcements? Yeah. Yes.

So Mary shared this. Union Pacific reached out. There is a funding opportunity. It's called the Union Pacific Community Ties Giving, and they have actually don't know how much money they're giving away. I don't it's on the website.

This is a QR code for accessing the website, and they have their funding priorities they decide defined as safety, workforce development, community vitality, and environmental sustainability. As always, whenever we get funding opportunities, we share them out. But I can when you send out this sort of like a resource guide or if anyone has anything else to share with community based organizations, we can sort of do a joint email and send them out. And

it's like the 5 to $30,000 range for any nonprofits.

And if it's helpful, we can I can always forward my email that I send to the agency? So if there's anyone that you wanna send it to, you can as well. That'd be cool.

Could you do that? That'd be awesome. Do you have any other announcements?

I don't.

I just have a question. I don't know if it's announcement. I'm just curious. We saw the email about the other commissioner Singh.

Oh, yeah.

Will that affect the quorum of being commissioned, or are we still staffed?

So I wanna con I would like to confirm with the city clerk's office because he only has one absence right now. And just based off of, like, the handbook, it's, like, 75%. So if he is able to con he emailed me individually. I think there might be an opportunity to keep him on. I just wanna confirm before we we do, like, a full cut

off.

So in terms of quorum, typically, when someone leaves, we have, like, sort of, like, the wait list of people who applied to bring back on. So that would if if he leaves, then you'd be 10 if and then we'd want another person to be able to meet Quorum, but that that's a conversation for after. I'd like to I'd like to see what the options are for commissioner Singh before cutting him off completely.

Yeah. Okay.

No. I was just curious if that was gonna affect I mean, I was feeling wishy well, but if that was gonna affect the rest of us.

Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Only if you don't come. Yeah. If

if I don't come.

Anyway. I

believe we are able to adjourn the meeting at 08:52. Thanks, everybody.