HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-09-14 Human Relations Commission Action MinutesADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
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HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Community Meeting Room
Palo Alto Civic Center
250 Hamilton Avenue
7:00 PM
REGULAR MEETING
ROLL CALL:
Commissioners Present: Alhassani, Brahmbhatt, Lee, Chen, Gordon Gray, O’Nan, Stinger
Staff: Minka van der Zwaag, Mary Constantino
I. ROLL CALL
Chair Stinger: Thank you all.
II. AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, DELETIONS
Chair Stinger: We have agendas in front of us, are there any changes, requests, deletions? Ok,
then we’ll proceed.
III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Chair Stinger: The first order is oral communications and I have one card from, help me,
Lekshimi Tayyebi.
Ms. Minka van der Zwaag, Human Services Manager: You can come to the microphone over
there and let’s make sure there’s – there you go.
Ms. Lekshimi Tayyebi: Great, thank you. This is our first time for us and I’ve just learned about
the Human Relations Commission and I’ve been in touch with Minka. My association with her
began when we were trying to seek co-sponsorships for one of our events but nonetheless, we’re
here to talk about the celebration of Oneness Festival. I am the Public Information Officer for the
Bahai’s of Palo Alto and we felt that it was important to convey the idea behind the celebration
of Oneness Festival and our role and how it relates to the activities of the City of Palo Alto. We
are celebrating the bi-centenary of the birth of Bahaullah, the Prophet founder of the Bahai faith.
In the spirit of that, we wanted to have a festival based on the principles of unity, the oneness of
God, the oneness of religion basically the theme is ‘So Powerful Is the Light of Unity That It
Can Illuminate the Entire Earth.’ In light of recent events, the shootings and the natural disasters,
it’s really a time when we are calling for a time of solidarity and really connecting as humans in
support of each other; in terms of eliminating racism, trying to close the divides between
economic and social divides that we have. Also, in terms of providing opportunities, in terms of
ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
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universal education, removing the gap between genders to promote gender equality so the
Celebration of Oneness is going to be a two-day event, October 21st, and 22nd, when we’ll have a
children’s festival that is really geared towards young people just sort of instill those virtues and
spiritual values that provide a more encompassing for them. In the evening, we are going to
celebrate the festival by having a performing arts program that is going to profile a number of the
arts organizations within the City of Palo Alto and just basically highlight the diversity and the
electric nature of the Palo Alto community. Then we will have an informational session on
Sunday morning about more about the principles of the faith and basically, it’s really an
opportunity for us to get to know the City, the City to know us and how as a group how can we
engage within the City of Palo Alto and align ourselves with some of the goals that the City has.
We are all about human relations, we are all about connecting people through children’s classes,
we have junior youth spiritual empowerment programs that really targets middle school kids. It’s
a really difficult time but really helping them to engage in community service whether that is
cleaning up a park, whether it’s in a foster home, a pet shelter. Basically, to empower these kids
to know that no matter how small their efforts are, they are really able to make an impact at such
an age. That drives them more as they grow older into providing more of themselves and
engaging themselves into community service. So, we invite you to come and attend any of these
events on October 21st to the 22nd and of course, we will come back at your next meeting to give
you more details and at this point, I will let Vafa chime in.
Mr. Vafa Boyat: Hi, I just wanted to add that we really take pride in living in this area with so
many people that are like-minded beliefs and principles; as exemplified by this Commission
which is totally aligned with the principles of the Bahai Faith and we really appreciate your
work.
Ms. Tayyebi: One thing that I just want to leave with you is we are hosting an art exhibition that
we are calling for submission from the artistic community. We’ve approached the middle schools
and the high schools and we will be exhibiting their art at the Rinconada Library for the month of
November. We are hoping that we will have successful exhibitions and again, it’s on the theme
of celebration of Oneness. At the opening of the Palo Alto High School Performing Arts Center,
I don’t know if any of you had the chance to go but there’s a huge talent of artistic ability that
was displayed there. We are hoping that will be shown here at this art exhibit as well because
they are extremely talented. So, I will just leave that and please just take a look at it and we
would hope that you will be able to come and view the art exhibit in November sometime.
Mr. Boyat: Thank you for having us.
Ms. Tayyebi: Yes, thank you so much.
Chair Stinger: I do not see any other cards.
IV. BUSINESS
1. Public Hearing: Review of Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report
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(CAPER) for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
Chair Stinger: We will move onto the first order of business, the public hearing of the review of
the consolidated annual performance and evaluation report for our CDBG and maybe some
introductions.
Ms. Eloiza Murillo-Garcia, Senior Planner: Hi, good evening Chair Stinger and Commissioners.
My name is Eloiza Murillo-Garcia and I am the City’s Senior Housing Planner. I have here with
me tonight Erum Maqbool who is our new CDBG Staff specialist so she will be giving you a
brief presentation about our annual report.
Ms. Erum Maqbool, CDBG Staff Specialist: Good evening Chair and Commissioners, I am
Erum Maqbool, CDBG Staff Specialist. I would like to thank you all for giving me the
opportunity to provide you a brief overview of the consolidated annual performance and
evaluation report known a CAPER for the CDBG program. The report covers the fiscal year for
2017, starting from July 1st, 2016 and ending on June 30th, 2017. The City has 90-days from the
end of the fiscal year which was June 30th to submit this report to HUD, the Department of
Housing and Urban Development and we plan to submit the final report by September 30th,
2017. The purpose of CAPER is to provide a brief summary of CDBG funds expended and
accomplishments made with the CDBG funding during the fiscal year, which was 2017. I am
going to provide you a brief overview of the CDBG program so the CDBG program provides
annual grants to Cities, Counties, and States to develop strong communities by providing decent
housing, suitable living environment and expanding economic opportunities; many for persons of
low and moderate income. The City of Palo Alto also receives annual funding from HUD under
the CDBG program and so the activities funded through CDBG must meet one of the three
National objectives; A: benefits low and very low-income person, B: helps in either preventing
or completely eliminating blight or slums, and C: meet other community needs that are urgent for
the low-income community. The activities that the City funded during the fiscal year of 2017 all
met all of the first objectives and benefited low and very low-income persons. This is the
summary of the funding allocation which was provided to the City and the total was $754,418
for the fiscal year of 2016 and 2017. The City has five funding categories in which to allocate
funds; 1: Public Service, 2: Planning and Administration, 3: Economic development, 4: Housing
and 5: Public Facilities. Per federal regulations, we have a spending cap of fifteen percent in
Public Services of the entitlement grant and actual program income received during the fascial
year. Similarly, the spending cap on Planning and Administration is twenty percent entitlement
and actual program income and there’s no cap on the other three categories. The Public Service,
we work with five public services during the past fiscal year and so number one, Life Moves
which provided assistance to 554 homeless individuals at the Opportunity Service Center.
Catholic charities were the second Public Service provider that assisted 384 seniors in long-term
care by providing regular visitation and outreach. One hundred and fifty-one persons were
provided services through the Single Room Occupancy Resident Support Program, which is run
by Palo Alto Housing Corp; that is our third Public Service provided. The fourth was YWCA
that provided services to ten people regarding domestic violence and 99 people had improved
access to decent affordable housing through Silicon Valley Independent Living Center; that was
our fifth Public Service provider. Under the Economic Development category, the City
partnership with the Downtown Streets Team to provide assistant to 31 unemployed individuals
in securing jobs and there were 17 employers that participated in the program. For the Planning
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access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
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and Administration category, Project Sentinel with the help of the funding provided by the City
through the CDBG program investigated 16 fair housing complaints and conducted audits to
prevent discrimination against the community members. Also, in this category, we provided
administrative support to the CDBG program. This is the multi-family housing we have and this
is a standalone program, Palo Alto Garden Project. It’s a landscape renovation project and there
are 152 households and 156 people all were belonging to low and lower income and they were
benefited from this project. The project helped in reducing water consumption and maintenance
needs and enhanced the community. This was basically a brief overview of the specifics of our
accomplishments during the fiscal year across the funding categories and I’m happy to answer
any questions if you have any about the CDBG program or the report – CAPER’s report. Thank
you.
Chair Stinger: Thank you. Are there any questions or comments?
Commissioner Lee: I wanted to ask about the number of individuals served. Has the number
increased over prior years in just an overall basis and how have the numbers changed on when
we break it down as a per dollar basis?
Ms. Maqbool: Per dollar basis?
Commissioner Lee: Are we serving more people overall? Are we serving more people per dollar
that we allocate as compared to prior years?
Ms. Maqbool: I was telling you there were five Public Service providers so we have the yearend
reports and per the yearend reports that number had actually increased. Just one Public Service
provider, they were behind the goal but it wasn’t a lot but other than that the numbers have
increased definitely.
Commissioner O’Nan: I wanted to just ask for some clarification. I know that the last time that
we talked about CDBG there was some ambiguity about the funding. So, this report, it is
pertaining only to things that have already been accomplished? So, this is not the part that’s
contingent upon what funding we may or may not receive?
Ms. Maqbool: Yes, but you’re right, this is about the last year’s programs. I think you’re talking
about the contingency plan.
Ms. Murillo-Garcia: I can just add, so I know when we were here last the Commission approved
a contingency plan and the CDBG funding actually ended up being higher than we thought so
everybody was able to get an increase so it was good news.
Chair Stinger: Any other questions or comments? At least two of us were on the CDBG
Committee and we thank you for your good work. I’m looking forward to doing some more this
year.
Ms. Murillo-Garcia: Thank you for your time.
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access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
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Page 5 of 43
Ms. van der Zwaag: Do we need to open a public hearing?
Ms. Murillo-Garcia: Minka is correct, yes, we do need to open a public hearing. Does anybody
has any comments?
Chair Stinger: Should I do that?
Ms. Murillo-Garcia: Yes.
Ms. van der Zwaag: If you want to do that and then you can just wait for a comment and then
close.
Chair Stinger: We do want to have a public hearing so if there are any comments, may I have
them now? Again, I would like to reiterate my comment that I know you put a lot of time into
this and served the agencies well so thank you very much.
Commissioner Lee: Could I…
Ms. Murillo-Garcia: Thank you.
Commissioner Lee: Could I ask about how many written comments were received during the 15-
day review period?
Ms. Maqbool: None.
Commissioner Lee: None. In the past have we received any comments?
Ms. Murillo-Garcia: Typically, we receive very few comments but it’s not unique to Palo Alto
and we have a pretty good network with our surrounding jurisdictions and most other
jurisdictions receive very little comment. We receive more comments during the action plan
process which is when we’re putting out applications and people come out and talk about their
program. So, we receive more comments then so this is – as Erum said, this is our yearend report
so we’re just reporting on the accomplishments for the last fiscal year.
Commissioner Lee: Thank you.
Chair Stinger: If there are no other comments I’ll close the public hearing. Ok, consider it closed.
Ms. Murillo-Garcia: Thank you.
1. Examining Palo Alto as a diverse, supportive, inclusive and protective community from
the experience of a local student.
Ms. van der Zwaag: It will just be a few minutes while we get the technology set up.
Chair Stinger: While the technology is getting set up can I start an introduction? Just to say that
in the process of doing some Committee work to the support the Council’s Resolution on a
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access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
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diverse, supportive, inclusive and protective community, we became aware of the story of Paarth
Sharma. We were really glad that he could come and I’m going to ask Deepali to do a proper
introduction when the technology is ready.
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: I just wanted to say, Paarth Sharma, thank you for coming. This is a
very brave thing for you and we really appreciate it. You are publishing the article and bringing
it to our attention. So, Paarth is a citizen of Palo Alto, he grew up basically in Palo Alto;
elementary school, middle school and now he’s a senior at PALY High School; so, please.
Mr. Paarth Sharma: I was born and raised in Palo Alto and I’m a senior at PALY and I’m the
Managing Editor of the PALY Voice which is our high school newspaper. I wrote an article
about the way that I think Indian people are portrayed in the media today and that was published
later in a major newspaper. That goes to basically -- I just want to clarify what I’m talking about
today so I’m going to be talking about the way that I feel that Indian people are portrayed in
television and film today, what I don’t like about it and what I do like about it I guess to some
extent. I think there are somethings that could be changed so the first thing is that I feel that all
Indian people on TV. Let’s just take a second and think for five seconds about an Indian
character that we see on TV. The first, if you’ve thought of one, they probably fit this kind of
same mold and it's generally pretty formulaic. They have a thick accent; they are kind of nerdy,
weak, emasculated to some extent, kind of anti-social and kind of strange people. Very rarely are
they portrayed as just normal people who are what anybody else is today. In fact, I’ve compiled a
few clips and obviously I can’t show a whole bunch of stuff but I’ve found a few video clips
from TV shows that that show what I’m saying and then after that I’m just going to talk a little
bit about what I think about those. This is not working for some reason. Oh, I do -- yes .
Commissioner Alhassani: Do you need the internet?
Mr. Sharma: This one? Oh, ok, thank you, sorry about that.
Commissioner Alhassani: There is the free city internet.
Mr. Sharma: Oh, shoot. Yes, ok. Oh, boy.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes you can use the speakers we can just do it that way.
Mr. Sharma: Thanks. [The Commission watched a short video clip] As you can right off the bat,
this character pretty much from the start of it, he wakes up and the first thing that he says is great
Ganesha, I’m a human samosa, which is a super weird thing to say. I don’t think anybody has
ever said that, ever. I’ve never said, I’m never going to say that, my parents are from India and
they’ve never said anything close to that. On top of that, this character has no identity outside of
being Indian which is the thing that I have noticed about a lot of these characters. That they are
just very one dimensional and outside of their ethnicity, they don’t really have anything. There’s
almost never been an Indian-American character on TV that’s a full character that goes beyond
just being Indian. That’s usually just the only thing that they are and they are nothing more. Oh,
shoot, it’s gone. I’ll load it up. [the Commission watched another short film clip] So again, the
theme with a lot of these characters is they are overly nerdy and just obsessed with school and
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Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
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Page 7 of 43
that is what’s kind of shown here. First of all, that’s really bizarre that he would choose to wear a
traditional outfit because he’s starting school so again, he’s just like nothing more than just a
reflection of being Indian; that’s all he really is. It’s just playing off of that to get jokes and it’s
cool, I appreciate comedy and it’s not like I don’t but it’s just my issues are that every single one
of these characters is the same. This guy is the same character as Raj on the Big Bang Theory,
which is the same character as Baguette on Phineas and Ferb, which is the same character as Apu
on the Simpsons. They are all just the same character over and over again, which is just like
painful. I’m not anti-humor or anything but it’s just my stance. Again, also, this kid has an accent
but in the show, he’s been living in the US for over a decade which makes no sense at all. That’s
really kind of my issues with it, is that a lot of times these Indian characters are just put in a box
which is just like being Indian and conforming to a certain set of stereotypes which is pretty
narrow; almost always? They never end up getting a chance to be anything more than that set of
things which is an accent, nerdy, bullied, and weak. In fact, there’s even this character on another
popular Disney show and his entire identity is just being Indian, having a thick accent and
getting bullied. The show is so self-aware about it that he pretty much just calls himself the kid
that gets bullied in a lot of episodes; that’s literally his title. In this photo, every other kid just
wears a normal Halloween costume but he wears a failed test because he’s that obsessed with
school; I guess that’s the joke there. I mean it’s somewhat funny but it’s just kind of like the
issues that every single character ends up being the same as this guy which is just a pain to deal
with. Then every single Indian character on TV except for a select one or two, ends up just
conforming to these five things; having an accent, being a nerd, being weak, anti-social and if
they are a man, super emasculated. For example, Raj on the Big Bang Theory is super
emasculated and that’s a running joke in the series. My issue is that has some issues in real life
because when I published that article, it got a lot of attraction and it got people talking to me. So,
I thought the best way to follow this up is to do a series of interviews with people and find out if
they felt the same way that I did because I didn’t want to be someone who’s speaking for a lot of
people without taking into account what the group wants or anything. I did that series of
interviews and I found that the vast majority of Indian-Americans at Gunn and PALY agreed
with my stance and they very much disliked the way that Indian people are portrayed in the
media. They felt that it was very one-dimensional, unfair and didn’t really reflect reality. I mean
they all understand that stereotypes can be funny and that’s cool but the problem is that an entire
race is basically only shown a certain way on TV. I would be ok with having a few of these
characters around if there are other characters if you understand the concept of a round character
versus a flat character, like a developed character as opposed to just being this same formulaic
approach no matter what. That’s it, thank you.
Chair Stinger: Thank you for being so well prepared.
Mr. Sharma: Thanks.
Chair Stinger: I read the article and had a reaction to it but it was much more visceral seeing the
video clip and I think that was an important piece to do. Can I ask for comment; remembering
we have a high school student?
Commissioner Lee: I wanted to ask if you had any additional projects that you were planning on
doing along this line.
ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
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Page 8 of 43
Mr. Sharma: I’m not totally sure at the moment but I may publish the interviews.. I think that’s
something that I’m definitely interested in doing.
Commissioner Lee: If there’s anything that this Commission can do to help support those efforts,
I'm sure we would help you with the opportunity.
Mr. Sharma: Not entire…
Commissioner Lee: … opportunity.
Mr. Sharma: At the moment, I’m just trying to build awareness to this issue, that way I can
accomplish something on large scale. Right now, I’m just one or I’m really the only person that’s
going ahead and moving with this cause but hopefully – I’m trying to change this.
Commissioner Lee: Well, thank you so much for your efforts…
Mr. Sharma: Thank you.
Commissioner Lee: … let us know how we can support you.
Mr. Sharma: Yes, definitely.
Vice Chair Chen: …Indian student association at PALY?
Mr. Sharma: There’s not, no.
Vice Chair Chen: Oh, yes, that would be good to have a group effect.
Mr. Sharma: Yes, definitely, thank you.
Commissioner O’Nan: I wanted to comment that I’m a fan of a lot of shows that are on British
television and what I noticed there is that there’s a big difference the way Indian people are
portrayed in the United Kingdom. You know they are doctors and police sergeants and really
competent professional people. When I see Indian people on American TV I do see the
stereotypes that you’re talking about so I would just encourage you to maybe get some
alternative clips from another country and that makes it even more clear…
Mr. Sharma: Definitely, thank you.
Commissioner O’Nan: …like here’s how we’re doing it and here’s more sensitive societies are
doing it.
Mr. Sharma: Definitely.
Commissioner O’Nan: That might help bring it home to people.
ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
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Page 9 of 43
Mr. Sharma: Thank you.
Chair Stinger: I want to echo Commissioner Lee’s comments that we would really encourage
you to take this as far as you can. I know it’s your senior year and you’ve got competing interests
but this is a really valuable contribution. I’d like to see you take it further and come back to us if
there’s intuitive that we can support.
Mr. Sharma: Yes, thank you very much.
Chair Stinger: Thank you for sharing.
Mr. Sharma: Thank you very much.
Chair Stinger: Very professionally done.
3. Palo Alto Art Center Play Update and Request for Letter of Support for New
Americans Artist Residency Program Grant Proposal
[Commission moved to item number five before hearing this item]
Chair Stinger: We’re going to return to item three, Palo Alto ART Center Play update and
request for a letter of support of the New Americans Artist Residency Program; help me with an
introduction.
Ms. Shae Iwasaki: Oh yes, of course.
Commissioner O’Nan: Can you turn on your microphone?
Ms. Iwasaki: Oh sure. Alright, so good evening, my name is Shae Iwasaki and I am here
presenting on behalf of Karen Kienzle the Director of the Palo Alto Art Center. Just a brief
introduction of myself, I run the school and teachers program at the Palo Alto Art Center. I
oversee two programs, one of them is Project Look which is our school field trip program and
this picture is from that. In addition, I oversee the Cultural Kaleidoscope Program which is a
unique art in the school’s program where we are aiming to build bridges between the Palo Alto
and East Palo Alto communities through the arts. That entails placing teaching artists in
classrooms between Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. In addition to partnering classrooms from both
school districts and they have the same teaching artist and the same school curriculum
throughout the school year. In addition, they get to send buddy letters to their classroom from the
neighboring district and go on a few field trips throughout the year where they get to know one
another and make art together. Then the program culminates with an exhibition at the Art Center
and displaying artwork that they’ve created during the year. They get to come on a field trip and
see their artwork on display and see their buddy classroom one last time for the school year.
That’s a little bit about me but I’m really here to talk to you think evening about two projects at
the Art Center that we think would be particularly interesting to the HRC. One of them is Play,
an exhibition that’s opening tomorrow and another program that we are currently developing to
write a grant proposal that’s focused on New Americans. First of all, we want to make sure that
you all have the pre-opening for this exhibition on your calendars. It’s tomorrow evening and our
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access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting.
Page 10 of 43
Friday night at the Art Center events are going to feature mini golf, balloon art, hands-on art
activities, and a cash bar so these are free for you guys to take as well. A little bit about the
exhibition Play, this exhibition really came from out of the idea that we all need more play and
that play really benefits people of all ages. So, this is our exhibition description for the show
which I’ll read. The concept of play is undergoing a renaissance. Whereas once it may have been
applied to immature behavior or used to describe the wasting of time. Now it is recognized as an
essential form of intellectual work both for children and adults; as well as a path to creative
productivity and social well-being. Then it continues animals, including humans, play under the
most adverse of circumstances; it is irrepressible. Research shows that consistent playtime
fosters empathy, makes us smarter, more adaptable and builds a framework for complex social
behavior. Some of the goals of this exhibition are to explore a variety of ways that contemporary
artists are addressing ideas about a play within their artwork to support the creation of new
artwork; which is public, temporary and site-specific that inspired by the theme of play and
influenced by community participation in the creative process. One of the artworks in the
exhibition involves balloons and so we brought in a lot of volunteers from the community to
come and work alongside the artists to help him with his artwork, which I’ll show you a picture
of a little bit later. Another goal is to promote and educate about the creative, intellectual,
psychological, and recreational benefits of play for community members of all ages and doing
this through an active series of public engagements, exhibitions, artist residencies, and programs.
Also, to explore playful artist processes for K-5 school children to increase specifically creativity
which is one of the four 21-century skills and we do that through our school tour program.
Finally, to uncover possible engagement practices around play that could be incorporated into
future Art Center programs. This is just one of the exciting artworks in the exhibition; it’s an
artwork by Andy Warhol and Billy Kluver call Silver Clouds. This is art that you can actually
play with and engage within our galleries and they are essentially just these floating mylar silver
balloons. A second piece, this was the piece that I mentioned who – the artist involved the
community members and helping him blow up all of these balloons. His piece was site-specific
so it’s not this exact picture but his name is Hans Hemmert and he’s from Germany. He creates
these balloon castles which are called Louche Schloss I guess, in German. Another one, this is by
Nils Volker who recreated this installation piece in the exhibition and these are kind of attached
to a motor and they expand and contract on their own in a certain pattern so the gallery is looking
very playful currently. The exhibition involved several partnerships from the Stanford D. School
to the Palo Alto Library. This is a time list of some of the programs that we are doing in
conjunction with the project. A full list is included in these posters that are – that describe the
exhibition and all of the events and programs that we’ve created in conjunction with the exhibit
as well. So, some other partnerships, I mentioned the Stanford D. School and the Palo Alto
Library. We also are doing some partnerships with the Junior Museum and Zoo and Jenfunira
Camp, which is a camp that does a lot of activities that all based on play. Switching gears to the
other program that I wanted to share information with you about. This is an upcoming grant
opportunity that the Art Center and the Library intend to submit together. We are planning to
submit this grant to the Institute of Museum and Library Services on – it’s a New Americans
Program essentially. So, this grant would support an artisan resident program to complement and
expand the libraries New American Program, which are currently regular programs with the
library. A little overview of the program, this grant is in the process of being created but we have
planned to have an artist residency program that involves five different artists. Four of them
would be working consecutively in their medium that they specialize in and the final fifth artist
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Page 11 of 43
would be photo documenting the entire program. Then we would have in the field and in the
gallery residencies and each artist would be on site at the library and at the Art Center doing
community engagement activities. Meanwhile, each artist would also have a gallery space where
they would work on their own art installation for the final exhibition. Then the exhibition period
for each artist would be about 2-months. Some of the goals of this New Americans Program are
to use art as a way to connect new Americans to the Palo Alto community, to create
opportunities for the community to have access to practicing artists and their materials and
processes, to promote and foster empathy in young people and adults and to provide chances for
the public to explore art as a tool for resiliency. So, some of the activities that we would create
around this program would be of course, the artist residency program that I mentioned. We’d
also involve our school tours program during the academic year where school children would
come on field trips and they’d visit the artist residency and we would also do family workshops.
We do regular public programming like our free family days that we would also involve different
activities around the New Americans Program. VTS tours of the Art Center exhibitions would
help build language skills for the New American participants. VTS’s visual thinking strategies
and its essentially simple questions that engage viewers of any age with artwork and then also
documentation which would the photograph component of the program. Some possible artists
that we have spoken to in our – have expressed real interest in the program would be Paz de la
Calzada who is a native from Spain. This artist essentially creates these nomadic labyrinths with
these precisely cut carpets and they’re really for engaging the public. It’s kind of interactive for
the public as well, for people to walk through. Another other possible artist might be Ala Ebtekar
who – oh are you familiar? Oh ok, so apparently, he teaches at Stanford and he has Iranian roots
and so a lot of his artwork kind of involves a lot of his roots as well and his heritage. We’ve
actually have shown some of his artworks in the past at the Palo Alto Art Center. So, that’s sort
of the end of my presentation and I would love to hear from you if you have any suggestions,
ideas for possible partners for the New Americans Program and then secondly, if you, the HRC,
would write a letter of support that would be a part of our grant proposal as well.
Chair Stinger: That’s all very exciting and thanks you for the presentation.
Ms. Iwasaki: You’re welcome.
Chair Stinger: Discussion or questions?
Commissioner Alhassani: Are these people Palo Alto residents or just local in the general area?
Ms. Iwasaki: I don’t think they would need to be local in particular so we would be open to
putting our feelers out and beyond. We’d put a call out so the artist would submit an application
for a proposal that they would do for the residence.
Vice Chair Chen: I have a question is that for 2-months the artist will be in his or her studio
working so the artist must have his or her own studio in the area so we could participate?
Ms. Iwasaki: Yes, exactly so the point of the artist residence being at the Art Center would be
that they would sort of engage any visitors and members of the community to do some artworks
that maybe use some of the processes that the artist uses. Then their final exhibition or their final
installation piece would sort of involve all of the artworks that the community members have
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Page 12 of 43
made as well.
Vice Chair Chen: That sounds very exciting even though they are from Spain or other countries
they work in Palo Alto…
Ms. Iwasaki: Yes.
Vice Chair Chen: …in the community with us.
Ms. Iwasaki: Correct.
Ms. van der Zwaag: At the Art Center.
Ms. Iwasaki: At the Art Center.
Vice Chair Chen: Yes.
Chair Stinger: What criteria would you use to select your artists in residence?
Ms. Iwasaki: Great question. I think they would have to definitely have ties to addressing ideas
of immigration in their artwork but their proposal would be something new, definitely, that they
haven’t done before because they would be creating it at the Art Center. That’s as far as I know
in terms of criteria. I’m sure there are other criteria that we would consider as well but a panel of
the Art Center Staff and library Staff would be the ones to choose and select final candidates.
Chair Stinger: Any project suggestions or ideas for partners to stick to the script?
Vice Chair Chen: I think we should let them know our Council resolution of building the
community as a diverse, supportive, non-discriminative community but let them know so when
they select – when you select the artists, they must have the background to fit our goals.
Ms. Iwasaki: Right, that makes a lot of sense, I agree.
Commissioner Alhassani: Do you know when you find out about the grant proposal or
application?
Ms. Iwasaki: Great question, the grant application has not actually been posted yet. We are very
familiar with the IMLS timeline and they typically post their grant in September and then this
grant period would probably close in December. Then I’m not sure of what the time period –
when we would hear back from them but I think within the New Year.
Commissioner Alhassani: So, you expect the program to be probably spring/summer of next
year?
Ms. Iwasaki: Yes, I think so and if not, one year later as well. It depends because of our
exhibition schedules. We also try and plan years in advance as well so I’m not sure exactly
where it would fit in with our timeline but it’s flexible.
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Page 13 of 43
Chair Stinger: Question of support, a letter of support, do I hear any discussion on that?
Commissioner Lee: I think I would be in support of it. Does anybody has any questions about it.
Commissioner Alhassani: I second the motion if that’s what you are doing.
Chair Stinger: Is that a motion?
MOTION
Commissioner Lee: I move that we advise the Chair to write a letter of support on our behalf.
Chair Stinger: Do I hear a second?
Commissioner Lee: Does a specific letter need to be approved by the Commission or can we
authorize…
Ms. van der Zwaag: You can authorize the Chair to write a letter. I think there is plenty of time
in that it is not due till December so there is some time for a letter to come back. I was under the
impression it was a vote of support so if there’s a specific letter of support, that’s something that
Staff can work with the Chair and the Art Center to really what they’re looking for. I think the
real nexus in bringing this to the HRC was the connection to the New Americans Project and
Ruth Ann Garcia from the Library was one of the key members of the Committee that put
together Being Different Together. The Library holds real value in the continued work of the
Council and the HRC and the community of being a diverse, supportive and inclusive
community. They have continued to support the New Americans Program and in the authors,
they choose their books of the month, have really seen this as one of their callings to be a voice
in the community. So, I saw a real nexus of the HRC lending their support to this project to
support not only the event but to support the Library’s continued work in this and the excitement
of it’s kind of this explosion. The Council is talking about this, the Libraries, the HRC, the Art
Center, and for years the May Fete theme has been about inclusion and the Children’s Theater
has used books in the school that talk about inclusion so I think it’s kind of a combination of the
City in different areas working together to showcase the voices of the immigrants in our
community. Also, to show that it is a supportive and inclusive community so what you do with
that is up to you but that’s really one of the reasons when I found out about it, I thought it would
be interesting for the HRC to consider this as well.
Chair Stinger: Thank you for the background. I’m thrilled you’ve approached the HRC and I that
the library has approached the HRC. Do we still have a motion?
Ms. van der Zwaag: We have a motion on the floor, yes.
Chair Stinger: Do we have a second?
Commissioner Alhassani: Sorry, yes, I second the motion.
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Page 14 of 43
Chair Stinger: All in favor?
Commissioner O’Nan: I’m sorry, I’m going to abstain. I’m concerned there isn’t enough
diversity reflected in this proposal. We have a very large Asian population and I saw nothing at
all here that looked like it would appeal to the Chinese community, Korean community, the
Indian community. I mean I’m just a little concerned about whether we’re thinking broadly
enough. We keep talking being inclusive and diverse but I didn’t see that represented and I know
you’re still in the planning stages but I would need to see more before I would jump on board.
MOTION PASSED 6-0 WITH COMMISSIONER O’NAN ABSTAINING
Ms. Iwasaki: I see.
Vice Chair Chen: I think when you consider the grant proposal be specific from the points in
your discussion that you want every ethnic group…
Ms. Iwasaki: Right, correct.
Vice Chair Chen: …included.
Ms. Iwasaki: Yes and I think the Library’s programs are not exclusive to any one group as well
so we’re kind of going along those lines. That we’re trying to make the most accessible that
would help the broadest majority of people in our community.
Vice Chair Chen: It may take some extra effort to reach out to the Asian community because
most Asians are quiet so you to be able to do more work on that.
Commissioner O’Nan: I did detect that you have a Japanese last name so I’m assuming you have
got some Japanese heritage in your family but in Asia, artists are seen differently. A beautiful
arrangement of flowers is art in Japan so I really want to make sure that we’re thinking in that
type of broad frame because what’s art to the West or in Europe or to a Spanish artist or Iranian
artist would not may be culturally accessible to some of our residents so we really want to make
sure that we’re tapping into our local roots.
Ms. Iwasaki: That’s a great point. I just also want to reiterate the artists that I presented here
tonight are not fully on board. They are just artists that we’ve had conversations with and they
would be interested in the project. We’d also bring in a total of four artists who would be
installing. I’m sure that we would also make it a point to make sure that pool of artists would be
represented of a diverse community as well. We’re serving a lot Asian population as well in all
of our art classes and programs so we are definitely aware of that.
Chair Stinger: I know the Art Center has an association with Hung Liu have you approached her?
Ms. Iwasaki: I am not aware if we have approached her yet.
Chair Stinger: That would be an Asian artist.
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Page 15 of 43
Ms. Iwasaki: Yes, definitely, most definitely. We have exhibited her artwork in past exhibitions
as well so that would be a good place to also talk with.
Chair Stinger: I will work with Staff to determine what the letter of support should reflect and
what would be useful and take your comment into a context that we have a particular interest in
seeing the diversity of Palo Alto reflected in the selection criteria and in the artists that are
shown. Thank you.
Ms. Iwasaki: Great.
Chair Stinger: I think it’s great to work.
Ms. Iwasaki: Thank you. Alright, thank you, everyone
4. Priority Setting FY2018
Chair Stinger: Moving onto item four and looking at our priorities through the year. I want to
step back a second, we focus so much on new activities during the retreat that we didn’t have
time to talk about ongoing activities. I’d like to begin our discussion by just refreshing our minds
about the things that are going on. We still have Being Different Together, Taking the
Conversation Deeper; we promised the community that we would do a summary to package
some of our learnings so that other community members could take that even forward. So that’s
something that staff has committed to working on and I will help them on that. One of the things
that we talked about at leadership is following up on some of the subject area resources. We’ve
had people come and talk to us about housing and we’ve expressed interest. We’ve had people
come and talk about transit and we’ve expressed interest. We’ve had ideas about recognizing
different holidays and having a calendar of events. Let me describe what I am thinking about
when I say calendar events and actually, this is a response to something you’ve talked about
Commissioner Lee. Is there something that the City can do for particular holidays; Pride Day,
Martin Luther King Day, Juneteenth. Do we want to do lights on City Hall or put flags up to
recognize holidays? Let me backtrack a little bit so those are things that I would like to discuss
when we think about the activities that we’re going to take on for the year. I’d also like to talk a
little bit more about the work that we’re doing as a Committee to support the Resolution from the
Council. We hinted at this during the retreat but we hadn’t gotten far enough to really talk about
some of the programs that we want to take forward this year. We’re focusing down now and we
still have work to do in terms of an evaluation but we’re focusing on areas of immigration,
gender identity, hate crimes, inclusive public engagement, citywide diversity learning, impulsive
bias, and gender. We’re looking at policies that will ask the Council to move forward, programs
that we’ll try to initiate with City Staff and not just HRC – not just Human Services but other
City Staff. Then what’s relevant for our conversation there are four programs that we might
consider asking the HRC to take on. One would be an assessment of gender identity and working
with the Commission’s in Mountain View and the County to do an assessment of the needs and
assets of the LBGTQQ Community so that’s one program. We’d like to propose working with
partners to expand the Welcoming American Program and we’d like to propose initiating a
leadership training program for immigrants. We want to develop a strategy for becoming a
CEDAW City. So, those are one, two, three, four programs that the Committee is looking at
continuing to evaluate to see if they make sense and we’ll be bringing them forward to you in
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Page 16 of 43
October in a more formalized way. I want to have that groundwork so as we think about layering
in new activities, the activities that we’ve started in the last fiscal year don’t get lost in this fiscal
year. Since we haven’t discussed that before, there’s probably some more elaboration that’s
required but I want to move onto the work that we proposed at the retreat and have a discussion
of those programs. I want to ask of us to talk about the topics we expressed an interest in and
particularly to think about is it something that’s in the domain of the HRC? Is it something where
we add value and is it something that we have the bandwidth to take forward? So, I’ll start with
Deepali and Steve.
Ms. van der Zwaag: This refers to the document that Staff sent out; the proposal template to just
get you thinking about the types of questions to consider as you’re looking to bring something
forward as a focus area or focus project for the HRC this year.
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: Steven and I, we did a good job with the three that were assigned to
us so we are most prepared.
Chair Stinger: I have no doubt; new energy we are going to take advantage of. I’m just taking
these in the order that they were written.
Commissioner Lee: For the cyber – online cyberbullying, our thoughts were as an initial step
October is a cyberbullying month and maybe using that as an opportunity to kick off the
conversation with experts in that field. So, folks like phycologists, administrators, leaders in tech
and get their thoughts on this sort of emerging phenomenon of online cyberbullying. So, get their
thoughts on what the problem is and what might be possible ways for local government to be
part of a solution. I don’t think at this point in time we have a clear sense of what that
involvement would look like but sort of as an initial starting point of just having that
conversation with the various stakeholders. We are Silicon Valley and I think this is a very
pointing topic and it’s one that can have a very important role in facilitating. Is there anything
that you wanted to add Deepali about this particular…
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: Yes, we also wanted to request comments or feedback from the
citizens of Palo Alto of personal incidents where they faced a certain issue so taking words that
the experts are saying about online social media behavior and the impact of that on the brain.
Then connecting with actual incidents and taking learnings from those two to solve the problem
but something that would make it better or a solution that would help. I think this would also
impact some of the high-profile citizens that may have also experienced some of the
cyberbullying incidents.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Are you suggesting that as an Ad hoc subcommittee and that you do this
research and bring it back to the HRC or are you suggesting that these speakers that you
mentioned come and speak at an HRC meeting?
Commissioner Lee: It could work, either way; we wanted to get the thoughts of the Commission.
As an Ad hoc Committee we could meet with a panel of those folks who to get that research
done and present it to the Commission in a more condensed version. I don’t know what our
October schedule looks like but we could do it in October.
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Page 17 of 43
Chair Stinger: I think that remains a question and that makes me choke a little bit because I know
we have a lot in October. I understand the timing and I also think about our bandwidth. I’m
saying our bandwidth, your bandwidth to get a survey done and get interviews accomplished by
October.
Commissioner Lee: I think we were thinking of more of just inviting three to five experts to meet
with Deepali and myself and we just have a conversation on the issue. So, do some good old
fact-finding that way. I think we were planning a survey and we were thinking (inaudible) than
that because that’s an initial starting point.
Chair Stinger: Was there a survey of community members? Did I misunderstand?
Ms. van der Zwaag: I would think that before it got to a survey of community members, there
would have to be a lot more definition, understanding and buy in of the whole HRC of the
project to get a scope and size. At this point what the Chair is looking for is just more of a
definition of the projects that the Commissioners are suggesting. Then making a decision, is this
something the full HRC wants to go forward with and then set up, ok we’re going to do this,
we’re going to that, we’re going to do this. I think if it’s something as simple as inviting speakers
to talk about a topic, we definitely do. We call a variety of speakers to come and talk about a
topic but I think there’s a full clearinghouse to do any kind of deep community survey that would
be up to the will of the rest of the HRC to be in dialog with you about.
Vice Chair Chen: So, excuse me, what is the definition or the goal of what you want to achieve
by doing so? Let’s get a goal first and then we know what to do.
Commissioner Lee: I mean I think the goal was to identify what is and what is fueling online
cyberbullying and we can we do as a community to reduce it?
Vice Chair Chen: So, how do we know what you need some sort of in-depth research and then
maybe some academic research; statistics. I don’t know, it turned into be a very large project in
my mind.
Commissioner Lee: I think initially that’s why we wanted to meet with some experts to get a
sense of…
Vice Chair Chen: So, a subcommittee to meet with the experts and get information from them
and you guys can present in our HRC meeting.
Commissioner Lee: Sure.
Vice Chair Chen: Is that the idea?
Commissioner Lee: I think that’s what we can do.
Vice Chair Chen: Then we decide what to do next.
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Page 18 of 43
Commissioner Lee: Yes.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Do we know what the status of cyberbullying is?
Vice Chair Chen: We have no idea, I have no idea.
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: No, I have heard of incidents from people like personal – you know
people have shared their experiences about their fear of hanging out
Vice Chair Chen: That’s why a survey is good.
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: …or something like fear to go school because of something that
happens. I have heard those things so that’s why I was saying part of it could also be experiences
from the City of people who have actually faced those issues and see how we could help them
get better.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Some baseline questions.
Vice Chair Chen: The baseline is to do a survey and see how many people get involved.
Chair Stinger: I’ve heard a couple words that I really like, one you used to be awareness of a
campaign and that’s consistent with our mission. We might not be solving it or addressing it but
just increasing awareness. Commissioner Lee, you said something that really struck home, oh to
do an assessment to see if it’s something that we want to explore; to interview people and get a
lay of the expertise that’s available to us. Then decide if it’s something that we should pursue
further.
Commissioner Lee: I mean I think Commissioner Deepali and I thought that was good starting
point, was just to meet with folks who specialize in this thing and that we don’t have a proposed
– a concrete proposal at this point in time.
Chair Stinger: Are you looking at adult or student communities in your mind?
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: Both adult and student.
Commissioner Lee: I would imagine that one of the things that we would want to look into is to
what extent are folks doing things addressed to the youth community. We don’t want to duplicate
what’s already being done there and thinking how we can complement or fill in any gaps in
terms of this issue.
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: Yes, we’d meet and research what’s happening on the outside from
the school communities and you know.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: I wonder if there’s anything in Project Safety Net. Is there any
aspect of that do you know? We could relate it to cyberbull ying and make a connection between
teens feeling marginalized or ostracized.
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Page 19 of 43
Ms. van der Zwaag: There definitely is a connection. I mean there would be contacts within
Project Safety Net…
Commissioner Gordon Gray: That might be…
Ms. van der Zwaag: … who you can talk to.
Chair Stinger: That seems really interesting to me but I might ask the Committee to focus on
what we can add value too. It seems like the adult community might be something that is less
covered and where we would really add that if your research and your interviews suggested to
you that there was some direction for the City, I would suspect that the adult population is less
well covered by the school district and different agencies who work with youth. It might be a
more fruitful use of your time if that was your interest.
Vice Chair Chen: So how do you get this expert on cyberbullying? Do you know the experts in
the area who does that?
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: I have researched that and I think there are experts at Stanford who
have research how the effects of different social media on the brain and I think we have a very
rich community and we have access to great resources. We will finalize. It was just more a
preliminary thing.
Commissioner Lee: I wanted to get some clarification since this is the first time I have been on
the Commission and we’re starting new initiatives. It was not quite clear to me what the process
is and what each of the Ad hoc Committee should be doing, at least initially and what we are
bringing back to the Commission. Before we continue the discussion if we could get some clarity
as to the process just so that we can be a bit more structured in our approach.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I think that was the purpose of this sheet. Just to be able to say you have an
idea, it’s something that you are passionate about and let’s take that passion for the idea just to
run through a series of questions that you are able to present to the full HRC to say this is what
we’re planning on doing. This is what we have considered, this is what approach we’re thinking,
and this is who we think we’re going to reach then maybe just have that presentation and answer
some questions from the full HRC about that then say ok someone else makes their presentation
so we have four presentations or four ideas that are out there and then look at the full scope of
the work plan for the HRC. See what the abilities of the Commission are to take on if the HRC
says yes, we think that’s great, go for it. If you are doing two other projects and you’re willing to
take on a third, that’s wonderful. I think it was just the concern is that just looking at what’s on
the HRC’s plate and you all making the decision, it’s not Staff’s decision, it’s your decision to
say ok, this is what we’re able to take on. Now, if it involves Staff and if it’s going to be ten
public forums that Staff has to support then we’ll probably have an opinion about that. If this is
projects that you’re doing the research for then it’s the will of you and your colleagues to see
what is feasible. I think was just to be used as a mechanism to help you think about it a little bit
more and have it kind of be a level playing field for people bringing a proposal saying hey, I’ve
done this work and everybody getting the same type of information about the different proposals
and then the Commission being able to make a decision.
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Page 20 of 43
Commissioner Lee: So, for speaking for myself, personally I feel like I’m not at a stage where I
can propose a concrete project proposal. I know we discussed the general topics and have been
sort of thinking about it since the last meeting. So, I personally would prefer some additional
time to get some more facts so that we can actually come with a fully filled out sheet. I mean had
to do it before the meeting but it’s very rough at this point in time because we have done the
initial fact finding.
Ms. van der Zwaag: That makes complete sense if you just suggested it last time and you’re
looking at this. I think it would be a time just for general feedback by your HRC colleagues but I
hear your point that in colleagues are probably at this point saying oh, that is really interesting or
I have some concerns. Let’s talk about it the next time a little bit more when you have been able
to look at it in a little more depth. I think as an HRC work plan, I think there’s something that is
to be said of starting out the year and saying ok, as a Commission we’re going to do these four
things. Well, your proposal is something that would come to fruition maybe in January,
February, March because it’s not at that level; you’re still doing some thoughts about so not
everything has to be decided by September or October. There’s –like it said, you want to certain
things definitely decided upon it are core issues and the others that you decide upon but if it’s not
decided this time, you can bring ideas throughout the year. I think the thought about kind of
having an idea about then now is for bandwidth.
Commissioner Lee: Yes, ok.
Commissioner O’Nan: I would like to say that as we are heading into a Study Session with
Council, I think we do have to start to sharpen up what we’re going to be focusing on because if
we bring up ideas that we’re still bouncing around, that may come up later as to whatever
happens with that. Then it’s a little awkward to say well, it didn’t really have legs and in the long
term.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Thank you Commissioner O’Nan. I think if this is something that is just at
the point where you haven’t developed that I would say these are what we’re starting out at the
year, we’ll revisit some other ideas mid-year but I think there is a point where if you mention ten
things and you do two things then the Council might give a little pause.
Chair Stinger: I think to use your word that this stage of the investigation is totally appropriate
for this project. To keep bring it back each month until you’re ready to really say do I have the
sanction of the HRC to proceed. Is it something that interests people that are willing to take on
the work to help with makes sense. I think your start gives me comfort. Can we move onto the
teaching the history of racism?
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: I think we had that and I discussed that with Steven as well because
that was his original proposal. So, what we were thinking to have a Ted Talk or a presentation by
a historian starting with the effects of being in a group or out-group and how it affects people and
going through time; here different races have been considered out the group and not American.
For example, starting with Russians or Irish people and then how they assimilated so they now
are considered very much American so now I think the in-group is facing that little bit of an out-
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Page 21 of 43
group kind of issue. Then we go through the time and have snippets of how those different
groups faced that issue; like the Japanese with Hiroshima Nagasaki time frame and then the
Chinese. So then have a historian talk about those issues at different forums and educate them
about the history of racism.
Commissioner Lee: The idea is really using people’s own sense of identity right now, especially
if they’re in the in-group and give them some historical context as to when it may have been
when they were in the out-group and that identity. So, that even if they are in the majority or in-
group now, they can have empathy for those who are in the current outgroup. I thought that
might an interesting way of…
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: Yes, I mean for this I think we would need a really good historian
who could bring up some interesting facts and prepare a slide deck or something. I mean we
would work with that person but we didn’t know how does the Commission sponsor some
amount to hire somebody to do a program like this or no?
Ms. van der Zwaag: We don’t have a lot of money.
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: Oh, ok.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I would say the Commission in and of itself doesn’t have money. Mary and
my little operation does have some funding and we have been able to support HRC events in the
past and if this is a project that you go forward with, we just have to see how the year runs and
how the other events and being able to make that consideration. So, it isn’t that we don’t have
any funding but it there’s not a budget specifically for HRC events.
Commissioner O’Nan: I wanted to mention that this might a topic where we don’t have to really
reinvent the wheel because we have wonderful Stanford University over here teaching things like
the history of racism in politics and so forth. I think from what you’re describing, an
anthropologist as well as a historian to talk about how human groups relate to each other as well
as the history of those groups. So, this might be an opportunity for the people on this
subcommittee to reach out to the contacts at Stanford and see if we can maybe sponsor a
Stanford related event for Palo Altans. We often don’t take advantage of this potential
partnership that we could have with the University so this could be something really interesting
and exciting and I know because I’m a Stanford employee they would like to be more active in
the community but often feel like it’s difficult to get into Palo Alto and they don’t always really
know what’s going on in Palo Alto. We’re side by side but living in different bubbles so this
could be a real opportunity to take some of the heavy lifting off of the HRC. Maybe leverage the
resources of the University has but provide a forum, provide a place, do the marketing, make it
very inviting and I think a lot of people in Palo Alto would be very interested so think about
tapping into that.
Commissioner Lee: I think was precisely out thought which was really leveraging the resources
at Stanford. Perhaps we come up with the specific topic or the spin on the topic of something or
what he does research on or speaks about and presenting a forum for him to do so, so definitely.
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Page 22 of 43
Chair Stinger: I think those are good suggestions for resources, another idea might be a
partnership. Looking at the work that we’ve been doing on the Council Resolution, the Library
has been interested in doing programs of racism and might be able to help and be interested in
working with you on this particular topic. It might even have been that something can be done
with the Children’s Theater. Is it a big read program?
Ms. van der Zwaag: That was a grant they had. I actually looked into it and they haven’t had the
grant in couple years but I know.
Chair Stinger: I think there are other departments in the City, in the Art Center particularly and
the Library, where there would be some interest in collaborating and giving some breath to the
depth of the program that you are suggesting. I would like to encourage you to continue to look
at that. The next was a discussion of On The Table. We had a speech from Silicon Valley
Community Foundation, I think in July, about On The Table. I think most of you remember that
there’s one day in November when they will sponsor different discussion groups; dinners,
coffees, throughout the City. Our suggestion is that the HRC can add some value by including
our HSRAP and CDBG grantees to participate in these community discussions on housing. I
remember Commissioner O’Nan had said last time that Palo Alto has sponsored programs in the
past about housing and there was a good chance for people to speak about how they felt but there
wasn’t really a lot of action taken. I think the difference this time would be that we have a chance
to tailor question to have a more productive conversation with people. I think the HRC would
miss an opportunity if we didn’t participate in the City’s program so I’d like to encourage us to
do that.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Just an update, the City Staff has met about this so the City will also be
hosting several conversations and we are working on asking questions that are very specific and
implacable to Palo Alto. Not just asking some general County questions about housing that the
City would find very interesting and possibly actionable in upcoming conversations about
housing. I know the City is working on hosting some of these and they were very glad that the
HRC was considering doing so as well and really looking at the value added of the conversations
that the City host be with audiences that maybe some of the regular City conversations don’t
reach so as Chair Stinger has mentioned, either with our HSRAP grantees, either with just
clientele of some of our HSRAP grantees so that would be the real value added of hearing that
voice at the table – On the Table.
Commissioner O’Nan: Do we remember what date? Is it November 10th?
Ms. van der Zwaag: It is November 15th.
Commissioner O’Nan: Ok. I was trying to look it up and I can’t find it.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I have one of these if you still…
Commissioner O’Nan: Yes, I need one of those.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I don’t think we want to get into those specifics tonight but it would be
that’s if this something the HRC goes forward with that there’s going to be a framework to all of
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Page 23 of 43
this. Then they would set up the time, set up the audience, provide the facilitator and the note
taker, add one or multiple locations on the 15th.
Vice Chair Chen: I’m asking to just to clarify how much work we have to involve? If we have to
go invite the audience, that’s a lot of work.
Ms. van der Zwaag: You would have to work with Staff to help plan the event. I mean my hope
is if it’s inviting an audience it is you’ve chosen a sector. So maybe your meeting with the clients
at the Vista Center, I’m just mentioning something off the top of my head, then you would work
with a partner to say this I really what we’re trying to accomplish. Do you think this is a
conversation that your clients would be interested? Can we come or can we facilitate a
conversation with your clients?
Vice Chair Chen: I see.
Ms. van der Zwaag: We’re not trying to get…
Vice Chair Chen: Individual.
Ms. van der Zwaag: … individuals from a whole group. I think that would be much too difficult.
Vice Chair Chen: Yes, I had that experience.
Ms. van der Zwaag: We’re really looking at what the questions turn out to be and really what
demographic could be a value added to help the City move forward in that area.
Vice Chair Chen: Thank you.
Chair Stinger: The venue or the environment would be like a coffee and doughnuts or lunch. You
wouldn’t be having an audience forum.
Vice Chair Chen: We’d have a table…
Chair Stinger: Right.
Vice Chair Chen: … with about ten or twelve people.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Correct.
Vice Chair Chen: Those people are from a specific population that the City has set up for us?
Chair Stinger: That we would set up.
Vice Chair Chen: We would set up.
Ms. van der Zwaag: You would set up in collaboration with Mary and me. So, the City in
general, they’ll be working on setting up their own.
Vice Chair Chen: Alright.
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Page 24 of 43
Ms. van der Zwaag: So, they would look to the HRC to work with Human Services Staff to work
out the logistics for the one their planning.
Vice Chair Chen: It just that literally that we have to seek that population ourselves to bring it up
to Minka and Mary to get it up. That is not very easy to do.
Vice Chair Chen: Fair enough.
Ms. van der Zwaag: If there’s a weekly meeting of homeless service providers and we go to their
weekly meeting and get their feedback, I think that’s going to be a lot easier than just sending out
announcements and hoping someone shows up. It would be my idea to do the prior to make it
easier.
Chair Stinger: And more specific, ok. We had an idea to host a community dinner; did you want
to elaborate Commissioner Chen and Commissioner O’Nan?
Commissioner O’Nan: Well, I’ll start, my colleague Mehdi Alhassani brought this idea up
originally last year and I think part of the genesis of it was that for 20-years the White House
host what’s called an Iftar dinner, which was held during Ramadan. I don’t even like to say his
name, President you know who didn’t do it for the first time in 20-years and it was really I felt,
like a slap in the face. My colleague brought this to our attention and was suggesting that perhaps
the HRC could sponsor a community dinner here in Palo Alto but because of timing issues and
new babies coming and so forth, it didn’t quite work out. I really loved the idea so while Mehdi
was on maturity leave, I did make a few forays into a exploring this issue. One idea that I have is
to have a Middle Eastern theater troop called Golden Thread which is based in San Francisco
come and do a performance piece for us. They do all kinds of Middle Eastern related themes and
they even act out children’s fairytales. We could make it very lovely, I think family-oriented
event and I think our issue, do we still want to do Iftar theme which would mean I think we
would be pushing it out till June of next year. Do we want to go back to the original idea or have
we gone past that now? How do we want to partner with other people and how broad of the net
do we want to cast so let me turn it back to Mehdi.
Commissioner Alhassani: Sure, thanks, Commissioner O’Nan. I don’t want to broaden it a little
but I think frankly, what you’ve heard in today’s meeting between the Bahai celebration, the
New American artist grant proposal, the student talking about stereotyping new Americans, I
think there’s a hunger in Palo Alto too…
Commissioner O’Nan: President?
Commissioner Alhassani: … to protect – yes, protect our pluralistic community but also but also
getting better at it. What my ideal scenario was to actually broaden this and make it a series of
dinners and talk about diversity and maybe at one point we do something around the Iftar dinner
and another dinner maybe it is Bahai event for example basically, to have a series of learning
about our diverse community. Sorry, Commissioner O’Nan sent me this theater group that she
was familiar with and I thought they were very good and might be, I think welcomed here.
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Page 25 of 43
Commissioner O’Nan: My thought too was that I loved the idea of doing a continued series of
dinners although again, that would depend on our bandwidth as Commissioner Chen as pointed
out now several times, this isn’t always easy to do all this event planning. I guess I’m
particularly concerned about reaching out on behalf of the Muslim community because that is, I
think, our target community at the moment that has been under tremendous fire at all levels of
government and even culturally right now. So, to me, the tremendous response there was to
Supervisor Simitian's education series on Muslim cultural and customs was so overwhelming
and so positively received in Palo Alto, that I feel like our community would welcome a chance
to have a Muslim or middle eastern themed event with a dinner and possible the theater troop
performing. Then from there maybe we could reach out and do a Chinese American or Asian
themed group. We could reach out to the Jewish community as well and Indian community and
share our cultural traditions and food with each other and really walk the walk instead of just
talking the talk about inclusion and diversity; just really share with each other. I think it’s a very
lovely way for people to truly experience a culture even if it’s for an evening versus seeing
people but not really knowing them or hearing things or reading things in the new but never
really connecting at a more intimate level.
Vice Chair Chen: It’s a very good idea but my question is so what are the detailed planning? Are
we going to invite a whole community or are we going to invite a few people or the leaders of
the community because it’s going to be to involve the whole community? How are we going to
handle the situation; logistics?
Commissioner O’Nan: I think that it would depend, if we had our theater troop perform, we
would have to find a performance space and enough room. We would have to have some
registration system because we can only hold so many people. We may have to decide if we want
it to be a potluck or whether we have enough budget to provide some of the food or ask people to
bring a signature dish from their culture to share or we have to really think about all those things.
Vice Chair Chen: Yes, the details, it’s just you have to think about ahead of time so we can plan.
Commissioner O’Nan: Right.
Chair Stinger: I had two minor points; one is that I’ve seen that Theater Company and I think
that’s a great invitation. I think they would be a different kind of keynote and a refreshing
keynote to a community dinner. The other piece was when you mentioned Simitian’s series, that
was well attended and it was well received and at the then, there was some adversity in the
audience that needs to be addressed. I think that just emphasizes that we’re not there yet and we
still have more work to do. If we can help move that familiarity and that discussion forward, I
think that would be a continuation of what we’ve started to do and what we want to do in the
future. Would be fair to ask you to flush out the proposal?
Commissioner O’Nan: Yes, as I’ve said, I just had a very brief preliminary meeting Golden
Thread just to get there – to see if they are on board at all and they loved the idea of coming here
and performing and getting themselves known in Palo Alto. They are very willing to come down
and they will probably charge something because it’s a big deal for them to transport their cast
and all of their equipment down here. So, there’s budget and we’re going to have to talk about
that but a lot of this, I would really want to kind of let Mehdi take the helm on again because this
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Page 26 of 43
was originally his idea and I want to make sure we realize his vision for whatever we do. I kind
of would want to partner with him and with Commissioner – I mean with Vice Chair Chen and
really come up with something that’s solid and bring it back to the HRC. Also, hammer out all
these issues that we’ve been discussing because there is a fairly large amount of logistical
planning that we’d have to come up with.
Vice Chair Chen: Yes, the detailed planning is important.
Commissioner Alhassani: I would think that maybe the three of us can meet offline between now
and and October 12th and we can commit to coming up with a flushed-out proposal at October
12th meeting if that’s ok?
Chair Stinger: I would welcome the elaboration. I think it will be strong, I’m sure it will be.
CEDAW?
Commissioner Lee: Did you want to explain?
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Sure, so I think most people know that CEDAW stands for a
Convention of Eliminating all forms of Discrimination against Women. It’s been ratified by a
number of countries but not in the US so an organization formed Cities for CEDAW and they
approached us. Valerie and I had met with them originally and then Steve and I met with a
broader group of CEDAW advocates and they are urging the City of Palo Alto to adopt an
ordinance. So, in 2002 the City passes a resolution but it’s an Ordinance so there not policies and
programs in place. So, where we are is, feel free to jump in but basically where we are is in order
to even been on the mat for developing an ordinance we have to do a gender analysis so that
would be the first thing. You conduct a gender analysis and we have to find out what that means,
what have cities done in that vein? I mean what does it look like to do a gender analysis and then
out of that, that would basically determine or drive the policies and programs that we
recommend. The stage that was at now is we have a list of Cities that have CEDAW ordinance
and they are good examples. So, Steven and I are going to basically divide and conquer and
contact some of those Cities and find out what they are doing. We had a meeting the other day as
part of the Council resolution and basically, what would be the basic ordinance that the City
could pass that would designate us as a CEDAW City. Then what’s the gold plan, what are other
interesting things that Cities have done that we might add to it? Steven please weigh feel free to
weigh in but in my mind, we would begin with the basic plan and then a plan with more options
based on what other Cities have done successfully.
Commissioner Lee: I think we’re still in the investigative stage where we’re going to be reaching
out to the other Cities and find out what they did. Then we’ll brainstorm what we think might
work for Palo Alto in terms of a basic version versus a …
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Gold Plan.
Commissioner Lee: … gold plan and then we’ll come back to the Commission and present.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: I mean our goal is to do that in October so that’s actually one of the
things that we are hoping to be able to do is to come up with some outline or here’s what we
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Page 27 of 43
discovered. Here’s our…
Ms. van der Zwaag: So, for clarity, they would bring back information. They wouldn’t actually
be performing this gender analysis.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: No.
Ms. van der Zwaag: What they are doing is they are giving the background information so if the
HRC feels like they want to pass it on to the Council as part of what the HRC would like the
Council to consider as far as a response to the resolution. Then if that’s something that the
Council so chooses and they feel there’s the Staff capacity to – not – that’s not just Mary and I.
This gender analysis that’s our HR and that but then they have to make that decision that that is
something that they want to commit Staff resources too. So the HRC’s role and what these two
have dedicated their time to is really looking at well, what does it mean? What’s involved and
then, in a way, presenting that to the Council to say it could look like this, it could look like that.
We’re in favor of the concept so what do you think? It’s information gathering and then
presenting to you which presents to Council, which would then give Staff the authorization to do
whatever this investigated work is, which will then eventually go back to the Council if that
makes sense.
Commissioner Lee: Conceivably, one possible scenario is that the HRC might be involved in any
sort of execution implementation; possibly.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Right, if one of the programs is HRC related or if the Council decides to
explore this option, it might say well HRC, could you do that aspect of it and Staff you do this
and so forth. I think at this point myself as Staff; I’m relying on you to come back with that
information so I have a greater understanding of possible Staff impact.
Vice Chair Chen: May I ask, what is gender analysis? I don’t understand.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I think they are trying to figure out what exactly they mean by that.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Here’s an example, one of the things we heard is that and I don’t
know, I’m just the messenger here but we were told that when the City sends out bids, it doesn’t
always consider women-owned businesses, women contractors or female, women-owned
businesses so we would identify those gaps or those things that are missing; how that all gets
implemented, we’re not sure, that’s part of our research.
Ms. van der Zwaag: You don’t know that point but that’s what some of the other Cities…
Commissioner Gordon Gray: That’s some of the feedback that we’ve heard.
Ms. van der Zwaag: …some of the Cities have looked into.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: I think we should make it clear that an ordinance can’t happen
without this analysis. That’s what we understand from the City; CEDAW Cities that you have to
do that in order to say yes right now we’ll pass an ordinance. You can’t pass an ordinance
without an analysis.
Commissioner Lee: I think there are two ways to do it. You could do the analysis first and then
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Page 28 of 43
vote an ordinance around what you discover in the analysis or you could pass an ordinance that
authorizes an analysis and then you sort of do…
Commissioner Gordon Gray: You can’t bypass the analysis.
Commissioner Lee: … establish an Oversight Committee to implement or whatnot so there are
different ways to do it.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I think the Council would be very interested in your analysis if the HRC
decided to bring this forward. Not just what is required initially but what is required ongoing
because if they would consider that…
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Like if it has to be an annual thing? Is that (inaudible)?
Ms. van der Zwaag: If it has to be annual, if there has to be certain Staff ongoing attached to it, if
there’s a certain report or reporting that is required as part of it. They would want to know all of
that in their deliberation process.
Chair Stinger: I think the Commission would also want to know that because we’d want to make
sure that we make a sound proposal to the Council to say this is the symbolic benefit, this is the
actual benefit and this is what it’s going to cost us in time and effort to do that.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: I’m not ok – I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to do all this by
October. Just…
Chair Stinger: I think it’s more important that it be done right.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: So, I guess we should talk about this.
Commissioner Lee: Yes.
Chair Stinger: I think since we’ve set up a category of investigation, this is…
Commissioner Lee: I mean we can certainly provide an update in October but I don’t think we
will have a proposal for the Commission to consider.
Chair Stinger: If you did I don’t know that we would believe it; well-rounded. There was one
other topic that was discussed at the retreat and that was diversity in tech.
Commissioner Lee: This was an issue that Deepali and I had discussed before the meeting. I
think we’re still in the investigative stage at this point. Some things that we are considering are
whether there should be some sort of tracking mechanism so that we can see how Palo Alto and
the employers of Palo Alto are doing in terms of diversity. A lot of companies are already
providing a diversity report of some sorts but obviously, that’s not all-encompassing. They’re
saying what can we track on how we’re doing and that’s one thing that we would be interested in
possibly doing. Another thing is acting as a convener of sorts of the various diversity officer
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Page 29 of 43
folks in charge of diversity programs at various employers in Palo Alto to bring them together to
collaborate, share best practices, and again, act sort of as a convener of the various initiatives
going on in Palo Alto. That’s as far as we have thought it through so far so we’ll continue
thinking about it and brainstorm some ideas and provide some additional updates at next month’s
meeting.
Chair Stinger: Sounds good. I think for both of those I think about what’s our role as an HRC
and what – do we have the authority and the…
Commissioner Lee: I mean one of the things we would consider is to what extent local
government can play a role in this issue can and if so, what does that look like?
Chair Stinger: Would you consider working at partnerships with groups like the Chamber of
Commerce?
Commissioner Lee: Definitely.
Chair Stinger: I think that would be useful. Well, when we listed these topics at the retreat, I
didn’t think there would be this much progress made as we’ve talked through tonight. I think the
history of racism and On The Table, are things that we can go forward with. We have some
elaboration to do on hosting the community dinner and some more investigation on online
cyberbullying, CEDAW and diversity in tech. I think we combine that with the work that we’re
carrying over from the past year, we have more than a full plate. I think in our October meeting,
maybe we ought to look at which ones we actually really want to go forward with. Does that
make sense?
Vice Chair Chen: Exactly. I would like to remind everyone the Commissioners that we follow
this table and try to fill it out. I learned from our Chair, she always has it so I would follow her.
You know it keeps – it does keep me thinking about it more in detail when I follow this.
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: Yes, I think Steven has the digital copy. We did fill it out.
Ms. van der Zwaag: He’s not old school like the rest of us.
Vice Chair Chen: Yes we are here
Commissioner Lee: Deepali and I went through and tried to create these worksheets earlier
before the meeting and I think filling them out made we realized that we are still in the
investigative stage versus flushing it out just yet..
Vice Chair Chen: Oh, ok.
Commissioner Lee: … flush it out, run deeper. Just – yes, so it was a good exercise.
Chair Stinger: Well, that’s good because when you asked it initially, what is the process? The
process is that’s an active word. We’re experimenting with process and this is the first time
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Page 30 of 43
we’ve had these many demands of our time. So, there’s a little tentativeness in how we focus on
the ones that we’re actually going to carry forward. I think to investigate a little bit further will
do a person good stead. I think just in terms of…
Commissioner Lee: Could I ask a quick question about On The Table? I think at the last meeting
we had discussed maybe involving the Planning Commission. With that, do you happen to know
if they are planning on doing the On The Table?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes, the Planning Director is part of the City Committee and I passed on the
HRC’s desire that the Planning Commission will also hold one and she will be bringing that to
them.
Commissioner Lee: Ok.
5. Planning for a joint HRC/Council Study Session on October 2nd.
Chair Stinger: Let’s try that, let’s move to item number five which is planning for an
HRC/Council Study Session on October 2nd. There’s a draft template at our At Places, which I
have now misplaced, I’d like to walk through that.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Do you want mine?
Chair Stinger: Thank you.
Ms. van der Zwaag: You’re welcome.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: There are a lot of slides?
Chair Stinger: Yes, the Human Relations Commission’s study session with City Council.
Ms. van der Zwaag: We’re still on for October 2nd as we speak and for the new Commissioners,
we’ve been canceled or rescheduled two to three times so hence the joke.
Commissioner Alhassani: Did we not meet last year?
Commissioner O’Nan: No, we never even made it last year.
Ms. van der Zwaag: No, you did not have a Study Session last year.
Commissioner Alhassani: (Inaudible) 33:13
Ms. van der Zwaag: I would agree that that’s a very interesting point. I’d have to look, I thought
I saw something from 2013 and then I said to myself we’ve must have met since 2013. Have you
been to a Study Session?
Commissioner O’Nan: The last time we met, I was still Chair and it was before Greer and
Valerie took over leadership.
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Chair Stinger: It was before Greer and Valerie joined the Commission.
Vice Chair Chen: That was the year before.
Chair Stinger: Greer may have been.
Commissioner O’Nan: So, it was before…
Commissioner Alhassani: We met in Council Chambers
Commissioner O’Nan: Filseth and Karen was Mayor
Ms. van der Zwaag: Oh, ok.
Chair Stinger: Well, that’s a strong point Mehdi, Vice Chair Chen and I have met with Mayor
and the Vice Mayor and went through an outline, which they seem to agree with and that’s
reflected here. We wanted to begin with some introductions of people and the mission statement
and talk about our accomplishments on beginning on slide four. We’ve begun with our core
responsibilities, HSRAP, CDBG, accomplishments that reflect work that the Council has
directed us to do, and then some accomplishments, the community forums and civic engagement
in areas that we may have initiated on our own. So, we talk about the community forums, work
with Health Cities, liaison work, Study Sessions at our Commission meetings, and may choose to
elaborate here on projects that have come to flourishing prior to this past year. Then we begin
with looking ahead and this is the part where we want to lay enough groundwork so that we can
have a discussion subsequently. We want to talk about our continuing work on the Council
Resolution that work has stemmed from their statement of values in December of 2016 and then
as our Committee has met; we’ve identified and focused our work in two areas. We saw that
there were segments of our community where voices are unheard and there are segments of our
community that are confounded by the changing environment. So, our work will steam from that
in general and then we also have some initiatives that will take that work forward.
Communications and gender, two thematic statements that we have for the year going forward
focusing on the continuing work, remind them of the Resolution that they passed, I’ve lost track
of the count. I think we’re about 3, 6, 9, and 10, the work plan for the Council Resolution, the
area where we’re going to make recommendations, we’ll talk about some new initiatives this
year under the thematic statement of communication. That slide is intentionally left blank for
now but when we’ve had our discussion of priorities, we’ll fill that slide in before we leave. We
also talked about doing some work on gender and then we’ll go into a discussion with the
Council of where’d they like us to go deeper on the Council Resolution and on our work plan.
Do they have additional themes and expectations that they have for us? So, we have about an
hour with the Council Study Session.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes.
Chair Stinger: Our hope is to make this maybe a 15-minutes presentation so I’d like to open it up
for comments.
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Commissioner O’Nan: I have some comments, one thing I noticed is I think we missed an
opportunity to promote that we wrote our new HRC mission and that’s actually an
accomplishment of ours. So, I think that slide should have some introduction that we reinvented
ourselves in light of the changing political climate both with here and nationally. Secondly, I
think that the flow is difficult when we get to supporting the Council Resolution plan because
there’s the blank slide is in between that slide and the gender slide but gender is part of what
we’re going to do to support it. So, I think it might be good to move it to be the first thing. In
other words, we’re going to look at these areas and one of the first things we’re going to do is
gender so that it’s clear that we’re already taking action under that initiative. Then finally, I’m
not sure it’s a great idea to end with all these questions at the end because it sounds like we’re
not clear on our direction and we’re looking for a lot of guidance from Council. I think it would
be better to state where we’re planning to go and offer them some chance to give us or some
opportunity to give us input but not be quite so questioning as if we haven’t plotted our own
course.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I think one of the reasons the subcommittee did that is since it was the
Council referral and they were trying to get any feedback the Council had, to be able to address it
in the time period between that meeting and when they hope to bring the report back to them in
December. That’s up to the will of the HRC but I just wanted to provide some background
information from the Ad hoc subcommittee that was working on it.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: I’m not confused but it might be confusing. So, we have as one of
our initiatives for the year is gender and looking as CEDAW. It’s also part of the Council
Resolution recommendation so how are we going to distinguish that when we present to
Council? Are we going to say we’re wearing two hats about this and I’m not sure what the
thinking is there?
Chair Stinger: That’s a good observation. I want to highlight it and I don’t want to lose it as far
as the Council Resolution and I want to highlight it at the same time. So, I think what would be
different then? What we’re prosing to Council and then what we’re going to take up as an agenda
item for the year or as a focus? I guess that’s what I would want to sort out. You don’t have to do
it right now but that would be something that…
Chair Stinger: I think we need to carefully construct that. I’d like to have it under the Council
resolution but it’s going to take more work so it also needs to be highlighted. Maybe there’s a
way to reiterate it as a focus of the – as we go forward.
Commissioner Alhassani: It may not be fundamental to what we do but I wonder if adding being
a liaison to the Police Department might be worthwhile to add only because we did do the forum
a while back. Obviously, former Chief Burns has spoken a bunch of times. Did I miss it?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes.
Commissioner Alhassani: I apologize, sorry.
Ms. van der Zwaag: It’s on slide number six, page two on the bottom. Serve as Liaison to Palo
Alto Mediation, Project Safety Net, Avenidas and Palo Alto Police Department.
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Page 33 of 43
Commissioner Alhassani: Oh, I totally missed it. I saw PAMF and sorry about that.
Ms. van der Zwaag: That’s ok.
Commissioner O’Nan: Actually, to take Mehdi’s point and sorry I’m getting my teaching hat on
now. A better way to, I think, to present these bullets would be to break them out into sub-bullets
and have each organization as a sub-bullet instead of all one long sentence where it’s easy to
miss some of these organizations.
Commissioner Alhassani: That’s actually what I wanted to say.
Ms. van der Zwaag: We can do that or Mary can do that. I’m not going to take credit for what
I’m not doing.
Chair Stinger: Going back to your comment early Mehdi, are there accomplishments that you
would like to add from the fiscal year ending – 2015-2016?
Commissioner Alhassani: I guess we actually need to go back in the calendar and see if there
were big events that were not in this year but wherein the gap between when we did the study
session last time.
Ms. van der Zwaag: We can look into that. The things that come to mind would be the Vet
Summit, the Domestic Violence, and the first Being Different Together. I don’t think I have that
with me but we can look at the larger things and we can slip them in and say just as a reminder.
All three of those were really significant and kind of was a pivotal year for the HRC as well.
Commissioner Alhassani: Yes because now that I’m thinking about it our last Study Session was
before we had done the Vet summit because I remember talking about it and that we’re going to
do this
Ms. van der Zwaag: Ok, we’ll write notes about that.
Vice Chair Chen: I have a comment in terms of the words. There are so many words in one slide
and it’s hard for people to catch it’s from the beginning. What about just give the titles and have
the person or people who are presenting give the details. That would be striking important
because it’s hard to read sometimes; it takes time to read.
Ms. van der Zwaag: We’ll look at this. They will be getting this that evening and we’ll project it
but we’ll look at that. We definitely do want the Commission Members who will be assigned a
page to not just read the slide but we also are on such a quick time frame because we want you
want to have the majority of the time for feedback. We also don’t want Commissioners to highly
expand on every area as well so we can definitely go back and see what the happy medium is for
that. I understand what you’re saying, it’s very text heavy. I think it is a draft that we just cut it
from our accomplishments document so we can look at recrafting some of the wording.
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Page 34 of 43
Vice Chair Chen: I think we should have a sub-bullet and highlight this title and then a little
description and then the person who presents it can describe it in detail.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Like I said, I would caution about describing in detail because there’s a lot
to cover and there’s nine Council Members and there might be significant feedback.
Commissioner Lee: I was going to ask about that, in terms of how much of the study session is
going to be actually going over what we did as opposed to just providing them a summary but
they can read in advance and use the study session more as a discussion then…
Ms. van der Zwaag: They tend to like the presentation so I think heeding Vice Chair Chen’s
words, looking back at it and giving them a flavor. A lot of the events that the HRC has done
they are aware of. They were either invited to or they came to or have received some good
publicity. I think looking back at it with that lens but I hear that the majority of the time we do
want for comments so the hope was this is 15-20 minutes at the most and there are 45-minutes
for the time where the Commissioners can interface with the Council.
Commissioner Lee: If there’s any information that we want to provide in addition to that 15-20
minutes, I would recommend that we provide that in writing to them in advance and they can
come having read that. Again, it’s because they are learning things and can be refreshed about it
before the meeting.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Because our Staff reports go out so far in advance, it used to be just the
weekend and now it’s two weeks in advance, so we have to see if that was possible to give
something At Places for them to read later. They have so much to read, I think they like to get
just this high-level overview of what the Commission is doing.
Chair Stinger: That was my sense from the Mayor and the Vice Mayor, that we should have it
encapsulated in the meeting that the time that we have with them. I wanted to concur with you
also, Vice Chair Chen. I thought about that when I was looking at the draft and skimming
through it just now thinking it’s a lot of text. I think we can move some of the text for the
speaker as a reminder but make the slides lighter.
Vice Chair Chen: On the side…
Ms. van der Zwaag: We can provide a portion with speaker notes so in essence, maybe this
becomes the speaker version and a more bulleted or less words becomes the version that the
Council sees.
Vice Chair Chen: I have another comment in terms of looking ahead, that slide continuing work
that would include the support of the Council resolution. So, the slides on the other pages, they
actually belong to this page, right? It’s like an expansion of the Resolution if you look at this, it
looks scattered and it doesn’t have this whole system. In doing work, the big title is support the
Council Resolution and then what details you can put in, we can do it. Right now, it’s like this
way and that way and to me it doesn’t flow.
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Page 35 of 43
Chair Stinger: I see your point. I was thinking of it when I looked at it as what are we doing this
year? We’re doing some continuing work; we’re doing some new initiatives as an introduction.
Now let me focus on the continuing work and the new work but I can see that it has gotten
confusing so we’ll take these recommendations. Do the Resolution as continuing work and then
stretch out to additional work that we’re taking on this year to show that it stems from the
continuing work but takes a new flavor.
Vice Chair Chen: Yes, we have to make it clear in the slides so we know what belongs to which
part.
Commissioner O’Nan: Yes, I agree with Vice Chair Chen’s comment and I do think the flow is a
little off but also the word communications. Well, it’s plural in some places and singular in
others but it’s not clear what’s meant by that. I think the slide before the blank slide with
communication, doesn’t suggest what we’re flowing into there so should communication be one
of the seven areas that we’re talking about on the previous slide?
Chair Stinger: I can see the confusion. That slide is blank until we talk about what are initiatives
are for this year. We’ve talked about On The Table, we’ve talked about bullying, we’ll fill that
in.
Commissioner O’Nan: Ok.
Chair Stinger: I don’t think we have enough to work with yet.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Can I ask a question?
Chair Stinger: Yes.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Having never attended one of these, what are we expecting from
the Council? Are they going to say well, we think that’s probably not a good use of the HRC’s
time or I wouldn’t do X, Y, Z.
Ms. van der Zwaag: You’ll get some congratulations for the hard work that you’ve done…
Commissioner Gordon Gray: After the cootos.
Ms. van der Zwaag: So you’ll get cootos, you’ll have some questions of clarification. I think the
Council Resolution will have some comments but you have to remember there are nine Council
Members and they each have their own opinions. The HRC will have to distinguish if one
Council Member had an opinion, that’s the opinion of one person but if a significant amount of
the Council Members have a real interest in a certain area, then I think the HRC needs to go back
and debrief next month about the Study Session and say they seem to have several Council
Members have a real interest in X, Y, and Z. Why don’t we discuss that for a moment and is that
something that we should add into what we are doing or does it help us focus on what we’re
already going to do in a little bit of a different way. I think you have to look at the whole of the
opinion or the sense of the room as we go onward. Unless they specifically take a vote on
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Page 36 of 43
something or make a specific recommendation to the HRC, I have not seen them do in that
setting
Commissioner Gordon Gray: They don’t do that?
Ms. van der Zwaag: I’ve never seen that so most of it is just comments, opinions and thoughts. If
they felt really strongly about something, I think then they would look for when that would come
up in just a Council conversation that they are having or ask that something is agenized or
forwarded to the HRC. They could say, oh wow, we have that issue coming up and the HRC
should really look at it. Unless they specifically vote and refer it to the HRC, it’s just their
thinking at that time but that doesn’t mean that four or five of them say hey, I’m really interested
in having you look at the gender issues a little bit differently. I think that’s Council you should
take but unless it’s specifically voted on, that gives it a lot of different weight.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Thank you.
Chair Stinger: Can I ask that over the next few days…
Vice Chair Chen: I would like to make some comments and send them to you.
Chair Stinger: That’s what I was going to ask from you.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Read my mind.
Chair Stinger: I’d also like to ask if I could have people take responsibility for pages and I’ll ask
this is what I’m going to ask and you can respond to it. Deepali, could you do the mission
statement?
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: Sure.
Chair Stinger: Steve, could you do the accomplishment, HSRAP, and CDBG?
Commissioner Lee: Since I wasn’t here for any of those, I think I cannot speak to those.
Ms. van der Zwaag: You will be, by the time we have this, we will have had our first HSRAP
meeting.
Commissioner Lee: Ok.
Ms. van der Zwaag: But that’s up to you, I’m just pointing that out.
Chair Stinger: That was my thought process. I wasn’t trying to throw you a fly or…
Commissioner Lee: I think at this point I would feel comfortable at all.
Chair Stinger: Jill, would you – that makes total sense.
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Chair Stinger: Jill, would you be comfortable taking on the HSRAP and CDBG?
Commissioner O’Nan: Ok, so which slides are those?
Chair Stinger: Four and five.
Commissioner O’Nan: Four and five, yes.
Commissioner Lee: One thing that I can take on though is the new intuitive gender slide. I mean
maybe Shelly and I can do that since we…
Commissioner Gordon Gray: I’m not going to be here.
Commissioner Lee: You’re not going to be here, ok.
Chair Stinger: Since I had asked Shelly to do it, I really appreciate you stepping up Steve, thank
you.
Commissioner Lee: Yes, I mean since we’re working on CEDAW anyway so does that make
sense?
Commissioner Gordon Gray: I’ll make sure he’s well prepared.
Chair Stinger: Perfect. Theresa, can you take on the accomplishments?
Vice Chair Chen: Sure, but may I change the slides to my taste?
Chair Stinger: We will change the slides. I was going to do the introduction to the vision for the
year. The thematic statement for the year but that slide is changing so I’m just going to put a
question mark by it. Mehdi, you’re on the Committee for the Resolution, could you take on the
work plan and I’ll take on the ongoing work. Jill, when we fill out the communication slide, can
you want to take that?
Commissioner O’Nan: I’ll need some help on that though. I don’t know exactly what we’re
going to put there.
Chair Stinger: That will come after the priority discussion.
Commissioner O’Nan: Ok.
Chair Stinger: Then that takes care of it.
Ms. van der Zwaag: These will all be resent out again with specific names and we will again, do
our best. It will be a public document and then there will be just one with speaker notes. Like I
said, we should probably look at how many slides and look at how much time we have so if you
do veer off the script, that you know how many minutes we have per page. So, we’ll get that kind
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Page 38 of 43
of feedback to you when you get the more final document. If you want to make changes, we
really need to get it by like next Monday or Tuesday. The slides are reviewed by the City
Manager before they go to the Council so it has to go through that review process. So, if you
could look at it quickly over the weekend, that would really be appreciated and send it to Mary.
Commissioner O’Nan: So, I just want to make sure, are we going to get the PowerPoints and be
able to modify our slides?
Ms. van der Zwaag: We will send this out to you tomorrow, first thing and then you could do
some modification or you can wait till we actually do modifications. First thing tomorrow
morning I’ll probably do some stripping of the text unless the Chair wants to take that on.
Chair Stinger: I think that would be great to strip, thank you.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Ok, why don’t I strip first and then send it on to everybody.
Vice Chair Chen: So, we’ll have it tomorrow?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes.
Vice Chair Chen: Ok, have to work on that soon.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes.
Commissioner O’Nan: But then how are we going to merge all these different versions?
Ms. van der Zwaag: What I’d like to see is that you are just making comment as to the public
version. If you want to make your own notes of what you’re going to say in your slide, that’s for
you just to write in the margin and to use that evening but there will be one public document that
will forward to the Council. Once we’ve stripped it down to say hey, that works for me, hey that
doesn’t or what you think about it.
Commissioner O’Nan: I agree with Theresa, there’s too much even the topics, there are so many
topics on the slides. So, for example on one of my slides, I would break up CDBG and Palo Alto
Mediation because they are completely separate and shouldn’t be smooshed on one slide so I
would add a slide; just a really quick short slide. So, everything has its own dedicated slide
because that’s a better presentation format and adding pages doesn’t necessarily add time
because it helps you focus on what that topic of the slide is.
Ms. van der Zwaag: That’s fine.
Vice Chair Chen: How do I send it to you to add other comments that I have in general
organization?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Well, why don’t you wait till this is re-vamped and then make changes. You
might make changes that are not warranted once you get the new version.
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Page 39 of 43
Vice Chair Chen: The new version will be tomorrow?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes, ma’am.
Chair Stinger: Thank you.
Commissioner O’Nan: I still think it’s going to…Oops.
Chair Stinger: Commissioner O’Nan, are you comfortable with that or do you…
Commissioner O’Nan: I was muttering to myself, I do think it’s going to be a little bit hard to put
all these edits together and so I’m just kind of wondering if we can we use like Google Docs.
Does Google have slides that you can…
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: Google Docs, you can share with different people and then it still
remains one document.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I’m just trying to think that would be a Brown Act violation.
Commissioner O’Nan: Oh, yes, yes, yes, you’re right, sorry.
Ms. van der Zwaag: That’s ok.
Commissioner O’Nan: Sorry.
Chair Stinger: I under…
Ms. van der Zwaag: Your comments would go directly back to me.
Commissioner O’Nan: I’m thinking though, what we should probably do since we own specific
slides is like if I’m going to be say I insert a new slide and split up the content. I think I should
heads up whether it’s Mary or Minka or both, hey you the two slides that I’m responsible for are
now three. Check what I have here so that Mary or you know what to import into the master
version.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Well, my hope if that’s the will of the whole group that I will have done that
before it gets to you.
Commissioner O’Nan: Ok but I love to edit so there you go.
Chair Stinger: That is your profession and I’m glad you like it and I also thank you. We’re under
a time crunch just because of the timing of our monthly meetings and the timing of the Council
Study Session. So, I realize this isn’t ideal for putting together a finished document but if we can
draft by Committee and edit by Commission, I think we’ll be fine.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Do you want to put any deadlines on this?
ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting.
Page 40 of 43
Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes.
Chair Stinger: Monday.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: You want this done by when?
Chair Stinger: Monday.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Monday. Just look at your own pages.
Chair Stinger: You get a pass because you’re not here. Great.
Vice Chair Chen: We’ll do it later.
[Commission returned back up to item three]
VI. Reports from Officials – Chair Stone
1. Commissioner Reports
Chair Stinger: Any Commissioner reports?
Commissioner Gordon Gray: I would like to make a report. For those of you who don’t know,
I’m actually leaving the Commission so my last meeting is in October. I’m actually moving to
Arizona so that’s my report. I wanted to thank everyone for the opportunity to be on the
Commission and it’s hard to go but I’m going to look into Commission – HRC. Minka has
already done my background homework for me to where I’m moving, which is Mesa, Arizona.
So, we are planning to move the end of October, we’ve sold our condo so thank you.
Chair Stinger: I knew that was coming so I can’t say I’m surprised but I can say that I am very
sad. We’ll miss you very much on a professional and a social level; that’s a big loss.
Commissioner O’Nan: I have a brief Commissioner report. I am happy to say that our new
Council buddy system, I have already scored my first meeting with my Council buddy, which in
the past has been very difficult to do but thank – I am actually Council buddies with liaison
Lydia Kou. We already met and a really great, very productive conversation and looking forward
to meeting with her again. I hope all of you have similar success with your Council buddies but
do take the intuitive and reach out and try to connect.
Vice Chair Chen: Oh, I have to report, I saw Liz in my neighborhood walking so I said hello to
her and she said well, we need to have coffee sometime but we haven’t had a chance yet. Alright,
but I do have a report regarding the email sent by Mary a couple days ago or yesterday. It’s about
the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association Silicon Valley Chapter. They
have a civic leadership forum on October 14th. I cannot be there, I really want to be here but I
will on my flight to Boston, I can’t be here. So, I wish every Commissioner to please come. Go
to that meeting and learn something about them and see what’s – they have very good speakers
and we should…
ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting.
Page 41 of 43
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Where’s it going to be?
Vice Chair Chen: Where is it going to be? It’s – there’s a flyer and I’m not sure.
Commissioner Lee: In Palo Alto.
Vice Chair Chen: In Palo Alto.
Chair Stinger: Yes, it’s very local.
Vice Chair Chen: It’s by invitation only.
Chair Stinger: I think it was the golf club that they…
Commissioner O’Nan: We have to crash a party?
Vice Chair Chen: Yes, you can crash too, go for it. Wine tasting and a discussion.
Chair Stinger: My Commissioner report is that I attended the ILG Institute of local government
meeting with Minka and two other Staff members. There aren’t very many a benefit to being on
the Commission but one of them is you get invited to the great meetings. This was a really well-
done meeting, the presented a lot of data on the economic importance of immigrants in the
community. They presented different ways of reaching out to the immigrant community and
some of them are lessons that we’ll probably try to institute in the year. Working with partners to
do a leadership academy for non-English speakers, which the Mayor and Vice Mayor were
interested in independently. They just a wealth of ideas so I was really appreciative so thank you
for including us.
2. Council Liaison Report
Chair Stinger: Our Council Liaison isn’t here.
3. Staff Liaison Report
Chair Stinger: Staff Liaison report?
Ms. van der Zwaag: I just wanted to do a couple of reminders. This Saturday is the
Commissioner Recognition event. Commissioner Gordon Gray, Commissioner Lee, and former
Commissioner Stone have RSVP. Are there other Commissioners that are able to make it
Saturday, 2:15- 3:45, Mitchell Park Bowl?
Commissioner O’Nan: Yes, I’m going and I did tell David Carnahan that I would be there.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I’m sorry to hear that.
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: I can be there too.
ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting.
Page 42 of 43
Vice Chair Chen: Yes, I think I told him too.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Ok, well…
Chair Stinger: I will be there also.
Ms. van der Zwaag: So, who cannot make it?
Commissioner Alhassani: I’m cannot make it.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Ok.
Chair Stinger: We’ll share the…
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Is there going to be food?
Ms. van der Zwaag: There will be food and there might even be an appreciation gift.
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: I think there’s going to be ice cream, right? It’s an ice cream social,
right?
Commissioner O’Nan: It’s an ice cream social.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Oh, there will be an ice cream social, ok.
Commissioner O’Nan: I’m definitely going to be there.
Ms. van der Zwaag: So that is one, a reminder that next Monday night, 6 o’clock is a
proclamation in honor of the service for former Commissioners Savage and Stone. It is first on
the agenda and there is a study session on another matter from 6-7 so granted that they get out on
time. It is special orders today so if you are able to make it, I passed on Vice Chair Chen’s
regrets to our former Commissioners but if you are able to make. The whole process is 5-minutes
long so if you are able to make it, that would be wonderful. The third item, of course, is our
study session on October 2nd that should be at 6 o’clock. As that all becomes available, I will
specifically send it out to you all.
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: Here right? In the same room?
Ms. van der Zwaag: It will either be here or in chambers.
Commissioner Brahmbhatt: Oh, ok.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes.
Chair Stinger: Tentative agenda…
Ms. van der Zwaag: Oh, and I have one more thing. So – I’m sorry Chair Stinger, to interrupt
ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting.
Page 43 of 43
you. I just – I created this little pocket guide for services to homeless individuals for another
project that I’m working on but if any of you just want to take a couple or if you say you if you
need more. If you meet an unhoused person on the street, it does or if it’s just for your own
knowledge I will pass these out. If I run out and there’s not enough I will create more but again,
I’ve given it to our homeless service providers. Some of them had their own and we collaborated
on this but if – just wanted to let you have this.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: Sorry.
VI. TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR NEXT REGULAR MEETING: October 12, 2017
1. Palo Alto Mediation Program recruitment and bylaw update
2. Ad hoc Subcommittee recommendation to the HRC for Human Services Resource Allocation
Process (HSRAP) funding for Fiscal Years 2018-19
3. Discussion on a recognition policy
Chair Stinger: Agenda for October 12th, we have three items; an update from Palo Alto
Mediation Program.
Commissioner Gordon Gray: CEDAW progress report.
Chair Stinger: Definitely. HSRAP and Council Resolution update.
Commissioner Lee: Would we need something specifically for On The Table given that it’s
November 15th?
Chair Stinger: Oh, yes that’s good.
Commissioner O’Nan: I think Chair since our next meeting is immediately following our Study
Session, should we include a debrief item on the study session?
Chair Stinger: Thank you. I think not only a CEDAW update, certainly maybe more focus on
that but also updates on all the investigative projects.
Commissioner Gordon-Gray: That will be a long meeting.
Chair Stinger: I was going to say everybody bring sleeping bags. We're not going to get into that
habit. If there are no other items, we’re adjourned. Thank you all.
VII. ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 9:26 p.m.