HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-12-07 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
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HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Community Meeting Room
Palo Alto Civic Center
250 Hamilton Avenue
7:00 PM
REGULAR MEETING
ROLL CALL:
Commissioners Present: Alhassani, Chen, O’Nan, Lee, Stinger
Absent: Brahmbhatt
Council Liaison: Council Member Kou
Staff: Minka van der Zwaag, Mary Constantino
I. ROLL CALL
Chair Stinger: Good evening, welcome to our December HRC meeting, and we’ll begin with roll
call.
II. AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, DELETIONS
Chair Stinger: Any agenda changes, requests or deletions.
III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Chair Stinger: I see no speaker cards.
IV. BUSINESS
1. History of City response to vehicle dweller issue in Palo Alto including responses to
recent increase of recreational vehicles along El Camino Real.
Chair Stinger: We’ll begin with Item One History of the City response to vehicle dweller issue in
Palo Alto including responses to the recent increase of recreational vehicles along El Camino
Real. I really appreciate you coming, this is a really complex issue, there’s a lot of history and I
appreciate you taking the time to brief us.
Mr. Rob de Geus, Deputy City Manager: Thank you, Chair Stinger, and good to see everyone.
My name is Rob de Geus; I’m one of the Deputy City Managers. I’m joined here with Captain
Zach Peron and I’d say first just thank the Commission for all the work that you do. I’m really
impressed these last couple years, especially with the depth of breath of work of this
Commission so we definitely appreciate that very much. Yes, as you said, we’re here to talk
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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about the vehicle dweller issue, particularly the El Camino increase in RVs that we’ve seen this
year. I’ll say first that this is not a new issue. This has been around for a long time and it’s not
an issue just in Palo Alto. It’s a regional issue and it really gets to the issue of housing and the
lack of housing. You all know this being on the Commission, we have a crisis – a housing crisis
that really needs every city in the region to understand the issue and coordinate a variety of
responses to build additional housing. The city is very involved in the homeless services and
investing in homeless services, as you know, through CDBG and HSRAP and our Housing
Voucher Program and case management in partnership with the county, our street outreach and
food and mental health and a variety of other services that we’re engaged in. Our primary
strategy is to try and work on homeless issues in partnership with regional and county efforts and
not trying to go it alone as one city necessarily. Any case, specifically to the RVs parking along
El Camino you can park along there and you can stay there for 72-hours in one location so that’s
allowed and people certainly take advantage of that law. What was not entirely clear to us is in
the spring we saw this sudden increase in a short period of time over one hundred percent
increase in RVs lining the streets. The police are not proactively enforcing the 72-hour parking
rule. The Police Department is a very responsive department that has many, many issues and
other issues that they need to focus on so it’s really complaint driven so when there’s a
complaint, we respond. When we saw this large uptake in vehicles parking all along El Camino
throughout the city, the complaints increased significantly as well and then that resulted in the
city having to address it or do something about it. The city’s approach at that time was first to
meet internally with Community Services, with the Police Department, with the City Manager’s
Office and think through what we might do about it. Our first thought and this is what we did, is
work with our homeless service providers and our contractors that work with the homeless in our
community and meet all the people living in the vehicles and do a couple of things. Try to
understand what their needs are, share local resources and regional resources to help those needs
and also let them know that we are receiving complaints about those vehicles that are staying
here for longer than a three-day period. We took several weeks in doing that and the next step
was the Police Department began really an extended notification period to let folks know that
they do need to move their vehicles every three days, Zach can talk a little bit more about that.
That began in June I think or in early summer and then if you want to just walk through that
extended notification period.
Mr. Zach Peron: Hello everyone, I’m Caption Zach Peron with the Police Department. I
command our Field Services Division which encompasses patrol, traffic, and special operations.
I’m also our department's spokesperson as it turns out. I think first it’s important to understand
what the state law actually says and this is a state law that applies throughout the entirety of
California. It simply says that a vehicle, very loosely defined, cannot remain on a public roadway
for more than 72-hours without moving. There is a City of Palo Alto Municipal Code that
exactly mirrors that state law so when Mr. de Geus says that this is not a Palo Alto issue that is
unique to our City, rather it’s a regional one, it is, in fact, a state-wide issue. We could go to San
Diego, we could go to Redding, and we could go to Lake Tahoe and speak with police agencies
and Human Resources Commissions there that are probably having the same conversations that
we’re having here tonight. With that as the background of what the law says, what Mr. de Geus
says is absolutely true. We’ve taken an approach to this, historically I’ve been here 20-years, and
this has been an issue that occasionally pops up over the course of 20-years of my career. Our
response has been similar the entire time which is we take a very hands-off approach. We are
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.
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acutely aware of the state law but we’re also very sensitive to the needs of some folks that may
be in fact living out of their vehicles. So, the enforcement aspect of this law allows us to write a
parking ticket, it also allows us to tow any vehicles that are in violation of the state law. Just the
same as police in any other city would so the way that we’ve approached this historically and
recently with this current case has been with enforcement, either a citation or tow, as an absolute
last resort. That is consistent with how we have approached this issue for the entirety of my
career. Back on the night of June 27th into the 28th, we created an informational flyer and our
officers put those flyers on every vehicle or trailer that was parked on El Camino between
Medical Foundation Way and Stanford Avenue. So, we didn’t go further south than Stanford
Avenue and that night there were informational flyers places on 103 vehicles or trailers. The
recreational vehicles have been the ones that have received the most attention but it’s not just
RVs, it is passenger cars, it is vans, it is trailers, it’s all sorts of vehicles as you guys are aware.
We gave that a little bit more than a week and then we went out a second time on July 5th and we
posted the same informational flyer in the same spot. We found that over the course of that week,
now we only had 65 vehicles there down from 103 and of those 65; only 38 of them had received
the first flyer a week prior. That informational flyer was not a threat to tow or sight but rather
simply to educate people about the law because while we’d like to think that everyone is acutely
familiar with the California Vehicle Code and the 40,000 laws that are in it. I probably know
about 150 of them and only routinely enforce about 20, to be honest. We found that educating
people about what the law actually says was the best course of action. So, hey, if your vehicle is
not moved once every 72-hours, you are subject to tow or citation. Clearly, with those numbers,
it moved everything in the right direction. Over the course of the next couple weeks, through
July, we continued doing causal counts overnight when staffing allowed. The numbers were
continuing to go down so on July 20th our patrol officers went out and posted a different
informational flyer with a little bit more strongly worded language that included the word-final
warning. These went to any of the vehicles that had received the initial informational twice so
these were essentially folks that the vehicles themselves had received now three warnings that
informed them about what the law was and the action that we could take. On August 1st, we went
back and placed formal 72-hour tow notices on the vehicles that had received all three of these
that were still there. There were only four of them that we posted that night, it could have been
more, staffing only allowed us to post these tow warnings on four. This towing warning is on
very bright red paper and it’s very serious looking and no one would read this flyer and think that
we weren’t serious. It says that in no uncertain terms we’ve posted your vehicle for towing,
we’re going to come back in 72-hours, and if it has not been moved or driven we’re going to cite
it and/or tow it. Of the four vehicles that received those notices, when our officers returned 72-
hours later, all four of them had been moved. So, again we’re educating, we’re following our
procedures and we’re gaining volunteer compliance from the vehicle owners which is our first
priority. Over the course of the rest of August, I had directed the patrol, as time allows, go out
and post those 72-hour notice forms on the vehicles that had received the three informational
flyers. On August 22nd, we went out and there were four vehicles that had been clearly in
violation of the 72-hour ordinance and we wrote parking tickets to those four vehicles. We also,
that same night, posted new 72-hour tow warnings on ten other vehicles but when we returned
72-hours later, they had also been moved. Again, we got voluntary compliance so that was on
August 22nd. Over the course of the rest of August and throughout September, we were
monitoring the situation, didn’t need to cite and/or tow and vehicles whatsoever but officers kept
monitoring. On October 1st we went out and posted more formal 72-hour tow notices on six
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.
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vehicles that had previously received all those informational flyers but they were back. So, to be
clear, these were vehicles that hadn’t been parked there the whole time but rather they’d moved
and returned and we’re giving them another warning and we’re giving them that warning based
on evidence that they hadn’t moved. When I say that, I mean the vehicles are up on jacks or there
were plants growing underneath the cars up through the concrete and of those six vehicles, three
of them wound up moving right away. However, three of them we actually wound up towing and
that was on October 25th so those three vehicles, two were actual RVs and the other was a trailer
that didn’t have a vehicle attached to it. Of those three, they are the only ones that we’ve towed
the entire time. They were not occupied by anybody and for all intents and purposes; we believe
that they were the true definition of abandoned vehicles, which is what this law was designed to
take care of. To date, no one has even come in to claim the vehicles so I think the common
perception of some in our community was that we were towing people homes. While that
certainly could potentially be the case, it was not the case with those three vehicles that we’ve
towed. Since then, since October 25th, we have not cited or towed any additional vehicles. We’re
continuing to monitor the situation and there are still some vehicles out there when you drive
down El Camino, you’ll see them. Simple because they are there does not mean they are in
violation of a law. What you need to understand, which many people don’t, is that you could
park your RV on that stretch of El Camino and you could park it there for 71-hours and 55-
minutes and then drive around a half mile is what the law requires. Come back and park it in
exactly the same spot and stay for another 71-hour and 55-minutes and you’re not violating the
law. To somebody who’s driving that route every day, they may see the vehicle, assume that it
has not been driven, assume that it’s in violation of state law and assume that the city is turning a
blind eye or not taking enforcement action and that couldn’t be further from the truth. I think that
our approach has been varied measured, it has been enforcement as a last option, and it’s been
more of an educational approach that we’ve done. Which is again, not unique compared to what
we’ve done over the past 20-years that I’ve been a police officer here. The other thing to notice
that as this issue gained more significant media attention over the course of the summer as it
called more attention to the issue that in turn generated a higher number of complaints from the
public. We got an increased number of complaints from people who said well, I saw that news
report about RVs at this location. Just so you know there’s also an RV parked by my house
which is down here. That, again, is not necessarily a violation of a law but instead we handled
those complaints as we had forever which is our Parking Enforcement Community Service
Officers respond to those complaints. We have an abandon vehicle hotline that people can call in
and leave a complaint about a vehicle that they believe is abandoned. Our Parking Enforcement
Community Service Officers post that 72-hour warning on it and the vast majority of time when
they return 72-hours later, the vehicle has left. This is not an issue that is unique to El Camino;
it’s not an issue that’s unique to Palo Alto or Santa Clara County. In fact, so far in 2017, we’ve
had 1,199 abandoned vehicle complaints to our department, citywide from January 1st through
November 30th. That’s an uptick from 2016 but even in 2016 we had over a 1,000 of these
complaints. To be very clear, those come in from all across Palo Alto and we have our personnel
that go out and response to each and every one of those. Again, enforcement is really the last
option so I think that’s a quick summary of what our approach has been, especially along El
Camino, since the summer and up to current.
Mr. de Geus: I think from there we’re happy to answer any questions. That at least gives you an
idea of how we handled this particular increase and how we are ongoing handling people living
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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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in vehicles challenge that we face.
Chair Stinger: Thank you very much. I think this is a hard issue and you really covered it with a
lot of clarity and detail that was very helpful to me. I’ll open it up for questions; do you want to
start Mehdi, please?
Commissioner Alhassani: Thanks for much again for that report. You mentioned that there was
something that happened that we saw one hundred percent increase. Do you know what caused
that increase in RVs to be parked there?
Mr. de Geus: We really don’t know that it happens over time. It comes in waves from time to
time. I’m not aware of a reason that we can point to, we obviously noticed it and then we had to
respond to it because of the complaints that started to come in.
Commissioner Alhassani: Then my – antidotally I live nearby, I’ve seen less RVs there. Even
though it’s actually relatively easy to work around the law to prove you’re not abandoning your
car but most folks have said I’m not going to deal with it and they moved away. Is that you’re a
sense of what happened?
Mr. Peron: It’s hard to say for sure. It would be irresponsible of me to speculate but what I can
say is people probably generally aren’t excited to come back to their vehicle and find a note from
the Police Department on their car so that could be the case. I mean they could just decide well,
we’re going to go somewhere else. Maybe they watched the media attention and saw the amount
of community negativity about it that came out and just figured we’ll go somewhere else. It may
honestly just have been some people that were spending the summer in this area and were
passing through town. We have no way of knowing for sure.
Commissioner Alhassani: How much is the first citation for violation?
Mr. Peron: I’d have to check. I think – I want to say it is $46.
Commissioner Alhassani: Thanks so much.
Mr. Peron: Welcome.
Commissioner Lee: Thank you for coming. I’d be very interested to know what sort of
observations you glean from some of your outreach to folks who are living along El Camino. Are
there any particular trends or things that you overserved in meeting these folks?
Mr. de Geus: That’s a good question. It’s pretty sad situation really, I think what I am observing
and I’m sure you are too. These people that are living in vehicles have jobs and they actually
work but they cannot afford a home in this region. Some of them do have a home but it is 3-
hours away and they are a service worker or a construction worker. Just for their quality of life
issues, they need to stay in a vehicle during the week and go home over the weekend. Also,
observing over time that it’s getting worse, that there are more and more people are looking to
this as an option which is a concern. I wish I had an answer, I do think it’s something that we all
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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.
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need to be talking about together with both counties and additional counties and each city. That’s
really where we can make a transformative change if there’s a truly collaborative effort among
all cities to actually do something with respect to the housing.
Commissioner Lee: Given the reasons for folks that are living on El Camino as you observed,
were you able to connect them with an appropriate agency or service that could assist with their
particular situation that might allow them to not be parked along El Camino.
Mr. de Geus: Minka can probably help more than me. She’s a little bit closer to it but the
problem is they really need housing and that’s very challenging to solve that problem. If they
need food, if they need medical support or services, they need a place to store something that we
are able to provide.
Ms. Minka van der Zwaag: I would concur with what Rob said. So, the outreach workers when
we did the concerted effort early in the summer and I know the caseworkers that we have in Palo
Alto do ongoing outreach to vehicle dwellers, not just along the El Camino Real, and offer their
services. Most of the time people are aware of the services. Sometimes if they are passing
through town, they do appreciate the local resources that they can access but most of the time it’s
the real housing need that is the linchpin and that is the most difficult. We have a rich service
community, the food, clothing needs, employment help, mental health, physical health services,
those we have a handle on addressing but the housing is a real need.
Commissioner Lee: It sounds like it's mainly a housing issue, not solvable by existing services.
For the minority there are things that you might be able to address through the services, are you
finding that outreach actually results in them connecting with them?
Ms. van de Zwaag: Sometimes they know the services and they say to the caseworker thank you
very much, I know about them. We don’t know if at a later time they decide to avail themselves
to the services or if they don’t. There are also folks out there that do decide to just live on an
ongoing basis in their trailers and prefer that over living in a fixed dwelling unit. That’s for
reason of personal preference that might be some mental health concerns that might inhibit their
ability to do so. It’s a variety of issues and you know the case managers do their best to do the
outreach, to gain the trust of the individuals, to actually have them open the door. A lot of them
when we did the outreach didn’t even want to open the door and they very clearly said outreach.
It was very clear that they weren’t PD or an y other staff that they were purely there to provide
information to them and they either weren’t home or sometimes they felt like they were home
but not opening the door. So, it’s quite a complex issue and the manner in which there is a
screening tool that the county is using and most social service providers are using to screen
people for housing to get into the queue. At this point, a lot of that is you have to have a certain
level of vulnerability and you have to have a certain score on that index to be considered for
certain programs. That is also an issue that people may be willing to look for housing but due to
the scarcity of housing available, a lot of them are going to people who are more vulnerable on
the streets.
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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 7 of 30
Commissioner Lee: I’d be interested in knowing what conversation the City Manager’s Office
has had with some of the other nearby cities and if you’ve seen any trends out of that or if there
are any currents plans that result from those conversations?
Mr. de Geus: There is an association of City Managers that meet monthly with all the cities
within the county and this is a topic that’s been discussed. I have not heard however a solution or
any major effort to look for a solution. Now I could have missed something but I’m not at those
meetings. Minka is also involved with some regional committees and other things and I’m not
sure if you’ve heard anything Minka, at the county level of this particular issue?
Ms. van de Zwaag: Not cross-jurisdictional. I know the county with the increase of Measure A
funds or just the increase of homeless service funds is really leaning into this cities. I am not as
aware of more cross-jurisdictional work.
Commissioner Lee: I’m wondering if the uptick in our region Palo Alto can be tributed to folks
migrating from another cities that perhaps had their own spike and started enforcing and if
you’ve seen any trends like that by engaging with other cities?
Mr. de Geus: We have and that’s exactly what happens. We see in Mountain View recently has
been trying to be even a little more open to allowing RVs to be there overnight and now have
become a magnet for more than they can handle. This speaks to the very problem of anyone city
trying to, with good intentions, make a positive difference. It’s not effective and it becomes
unfair for that particular city. That’s not a very satisfying answer but what remains is we need to
have some regional leadership here where each city owns their part of the issue.
Chair Stinger: I’d like to turn to the resident’s side for just a second. I thought I really knew this
issue and I found your presentation was very informative. I wonder what the nature of the
complaints is. Is it there ever a public health hazard? Is there some communication of the issue or
of the facts that you present to us that would help the residents understand your strategy and be
sympathetic and supportive of what you’re doing?
Mr. Peron: I think the best way to answer that is whenever we get an inquiry from the public
about an issue like this, we do our best to inform people about the issue like I’ve tried to do with
you tonight. So, that’s officers interacting with people if somebody has an email complaint about
this or they provide a phone number, then we give them a callback and we’ll explain the
enforcement approach that we have. Which again, the first component of it and the primary
component is education so there’s hasn’t been any widespread outreach that we’ve done to
educate the public on this issue. I’m not sure what that would accomplish necessarily but it’s
handled on a case by case basis. As far as the public health side of things, we’ll occasionally get
complaints from people that the folks in the RVs are dumping human waste in a storm drain or
something like that. In our experience, while that may happen sometimes, we’ve never issued
somebody a citation for it because we’re not observing that behavior ourselves. I know that the
City’s Public Works Department was going to do an education campaign with the folks that were
along El Camino about storm drain options and where there were free dump sites for human
waste in the area. I’d have to differ to Public Works for the answer to how that outreach went but
there are a number of places regionally were people can go to dump their human waste from
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 8 of 30
RVs. Most of them also have holding tanks where they're able to contain the waste and then
move it and empty it in a legal manner.
Chair Stinger: I don’t want to continue on that thread. I just thought that when I read the articles
in the press, I don’t see a counterbalancing statement of your effort and I think that’s warranted.
Mr. Peron: Yes and thanks for bringing that up. I know that when this issue really came to life in
the middle of the summer, I did a number of press interviews and so did the City Manager’s
Office. We sent a number of emails back and forth with the Palo Alto Weekly which ran a
number of articles about it. We gave them the same information that I’ve shared here today so I
personally had explained to all our local media outlets our approach and what they choose to
publish or not publish, obviously, we have no control over. The city’s viewpoint and the City’s
enforcement as a last option definitely was a message that we put out there to the press. You’re
welcome.
Commissioner Lee: Related to the Chair’s question regarding sanitation and have you observed a
public safety issue or potential issue as a result of so many vehicles being parked along El
Camino or in other places around the city?
Mr. Peron: We haven’t. Again, it’s on a case by case basis so whereas there may be an
occasional complaint from somebody about someone who may be in an RV or in a vehicle who
may be creating some sort of a disturbance, those are few and far between. I mean if you
consider that we had the height 103 vehicles back at the end of June, it would bear to reason that
occasionally getting a call would be expected from that number. There’s definitely no prime
trend or anything that we’ve seen that’s associated with this or other public safety hazards other
than crime.
Commissioner Lee: I was wondering if I could also get some clarification, you had mentioned
that the city has an ordinance that mirrors the state law. Is there a reason why the city would have
that in place? Is it a requirement that city’s adopt something similar to it as opposed to just
letting the state law stand on its own?
Mr. Peron: That’s a great question and I don’t know the answer to it.
Commissioner Lee: Do you happen to know, does the city ordinance mirror perfectly the state
law or it more or less restrictive? Well, it probably couldn’t less restrictive but is it the same or
more restrictive than…
Mr. Peron: It’s the functional equivalent so it’s 72-hours as an abandoned vehicle on a public
roadway. It’s quite honestly that simple as written in the law.
Commissioner Lee: If there was not a mirror city ordinance, what would be required of the
Police Department under just the state equivalent?
Mr. Peron: The same expectation that the Municipal Code requires. The vast majority of time
that our officers are out conducting traffic enforcement via a stop sign or a red light or speeding,
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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 9 of 30
they are enforcing state law so that is what we do. We also enforce the city law but if the city law
didn’t exist, we would still have the state law that somebody could point to and say this vehicle
is in violation of that specific law. We would still take the same action that we take now with the
Municipal Code.
Commissioner Lee: The city would still have discretion in terms of to what extent it enforces
particular measure given the available resources available right?
Mr. Peron: Correct and in the grand scheme of the number of calls for service to which we
respond, we’re not responding police officers to these complaints. We’re responding Parking
Enforcement Community Services Officers who work during the day who monitor the abandon
vehicle hotline. We often will tailor our patrol response procedures based on the types of
complaints that we get and 1,200 complaints almost in the span of 11-months is not something
that we turn a blind eye too in my opinion.
Commissioner Lee: Is there a way for you to quantify the cost in either money or staff time to
actually go and provide these flyers and do the citations and do those patrols? Is there any way to
quantify that cost?
Mr. Peron: Not that I could give you today but of our Parking Enforcement Community Services
Officers, one of them full time is dedicated to this on a daily basis. So, whatever that cost would
be for that one full-time Parking Enforcement CSO, you could roughly approximate that.
Commissioner Lee: So, there isn’t an additional resource that you are deploying necessarily just
to address this spike?
Mr. Peron: That’s a good question so for the El Camino incident, we had patrol officers go out
overnight and place all those flyers. So, you’re talking staff time for a couple of hours
sporadically over the course of several months but those are still officers that are on duty
anyway. Midnight shift guys that are out working that would be responding to calls for service
and they are just doing this as part of their normal duties. What we’re trying to target the 72-hour
violations, it’s easiest for us to place flyers on vehicles in the middle of the night when we figure
if people where just visiting and using our businesses, they would not be there at 2 o’clock in the
morning.
Commissioner Lee: The reason I ask is that given there may not be many public safety or health
and sanitation issues, I wonder if the community would want to dedicate X amount of resources
to actually enforcing these laws as opposed to dedicating them to other enforcement actions. I’d
be very interested in knowing how much time has been spent on it thus far in light of that.
Mr. Peron: I can get you the cost for salary and benefits for the one Parking Enforcement
Community Service Officer.
Chair Stinger: I think we do have the ratio of complaints, the magnitude of the complaints that
you’ve received so there’s an indicator of community interest and concern. I think you have
given us a scope of how you handle it. I think, if there are no other questions, I would really like
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Page 10 of 30
to thank you. I’m sitting here thinking I wish there was some just beautiful ending we could have
to say and now we have a work plan going forward but I’m sorry, please, Council Member.
Council Member Kou: Very quickly Rob, what other cities have a RV plan for RV dwellers?
Santa Monica? What other cities or counties do you know of that might have something already
in place?
Mr. de Geus: I know Santa Barbara has a program…
Council Member Kou: Oh, Santa Barbara.
Mr. de Geus: …and the city of Eugene has a program that is funded and resourced where they
have a specially designated area for people living in their vehicles. I think they provide certain
services to the vehicles that are there. I’m not aware how effective and successful it’s been.
Minka might have more information.
Ms. van de Zwaag: I’m not sure, I know that those programs have waitlists and they all have
very specific rules for the folks need to be qualified to be in there. They need to follow very
specific rules, in by a certain time, out by a certain time, certain behaviors will have them evicted
from the program and that is managed with a local non-profit that oversees the program. I
believe there is some community or civic funds that go to it but in the case of Santa Barbara that
manages that program.
Council Member Kou: I was just wondering if the Commission might be interested in just
learning more about those cities that do have it implemented and to see what are all the rules.
What are the guidelines? What are the conditions? What is the funding? I don’t know if the
Commission would be interested in that but I just thought maybe that might be something to look
at.
Mr. de Geus: A little background before Council Member Kou, you were on the Council and
probably before some of these Commissioners where on the Commission, we did do a pretty
deep look into this issue. We had a big problem at the Cubberley Community Center which did
have some major legal issues with people parking overnight, many of them. There was crime and
other things occurring and at that time we looked at Santa Barbara and we looked at a number of
other options. We also looked at working with local churches to see if they would be open and
interested in allowing vehicles to stay on their property and maybe they have some access to
bathrooms. We didn’t end up getting the interest in making it work so we have gone through that
process once before. I just wanted to let you know about that.
Council Member Kou: I remember that but it just seems like the situation has ballooned right
now and I wonder if there’s some other change of heart or a different look at things. You know,
it’s good to also give the Commission the history of what had taken place in prior years.
Mr. de Geus: It’s very tough one…
Council Member Kou: It is a tough one.
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Page 11 of 30
Mr. de Geus: … and when we went through that process, we did make some recommendations to
the Council and the Council adopted them. They are still happening now and that is actually
housing homeless people with the support of the county with housing vouchers. We’re paying
for extensive case management and the county is providing housing vouchers. We’ve been able
to house how many people so far with that program?
Ms. van de Zwaag: Well, over 17 people. There’s been some changeover or even further
benefiting the program they’ve been houses in other programs where that program provides case
management which opens up more slots in our program. The greater benefit of that program is a
lot of the people that were housed early on, are still housed so that’s close to 4-years later which
is very unheard of. Not unheard of but is a wonderful success rate that someone and the terms of
this contract is they had, because of the funding source, to have some kind of current record and
for those folks to still be houses successfully 4-years later is a huge accomplishment of that
program.
Commissioner Lee: When you had reached out to the churches previously, what was the nature
of their reluctance to participate?
Mr. de Geus: I think it was a variety of things. I mean think everybody wanted to help but then
once we get into the details of what it means and access to facilities and how many, it just
became too cumbersome. Eventually they just sort of where not interested, this was going to be
too complicated for them to make it work.
Council Member Kou: Actually, if I may? I also heard from some of the churches that it was
actually neighbors and parishioners that also complained about it. That there’s smoking, there’s
late night talking, sometimes there’s drunkenness and then, of course, there’s using the
bathrooms, sometimes outside. So, there are these kinds of things that need to be worked through
but I think instead of just cutting it off, perhaps a dialog could happen and some sort of
agreement done. I don’t know, I mean there is something to explore but this is if the Commission
is interested.
Commissioner Lee: Are there any previous reports on the cities effects that you could provide to
us just so that we have some of that historical knowledge of all the efforts that you have already
done.
Ms. van de Zwaag: I can provide this with some staff reports from when it was discussed at
Council and Policy and Services in the past.
Commissioner Lee: I want to thank you for all your efforts and I know when we did our On the
Table conversation, I spoke to at least two RV dwellers and they had only nice things to say
about the Police Department. So, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that so thank you for that.
Mr. Peron: Thanks for letting us know.
Chair Stinger: I’ll let go that for my table. We heard good responses and a lot of positive
comments, I was surprised. We like living here. Captain Peron, Rob, thank you very much for
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Page 12 of 30
your time. Thank you for being so thorough and I would appreciate the staff reports. That would
be a great way to continue. Good evening.
2. Status update on FY2018 work plan projects.
Chair Stinger: I think we can do this quickly as a discussion. I’ll mention each work plan if the
responsible people could just give an update. Specifically, any resources or assistance that’s need
from the rest of the Commission or any questions that you have that staff might be able to help
with and just in terms of time I don’t want to take a lot of time to elaborate on each proposal and
I guess a lot of these are mine. The Council referral, we are planning to summarize our
recommendations in seven areas. That was something that we wanted to finish in quarter two,
we’re going to extend that to quarter three so that we have a chance to speak to the City Attorney
and be more direct in our recommendations to Council on analysis of SB-54 and SB-31;
regulation – state regulations on immigration control and registries, gender identity, assessing the
needs of the LGBTQ community. Commissioner O’Nan and I are working on that. I’ve been
talking to the county and we have a date March 29th to run a hearing – a listening session with
allied groups and we’ll come back with more in January. Inclusive public engagement, there are
actually I guess three components to that. Commissioner Chen and I are working on a leadership
training program for new immigrants. I’ve reached out to some community partners on
Welcoming America Week in September and we look like we can have a collaboration to make
that a strong event. Do you want to brief us on the third element?
Commissioner Alhassani: Yes, so for the community dinner, I’m still aiming to have it in the Q.1
of spring of next year. I reached out to a speaker and said I’ll make it work around your schedule
so that I could try to get the speaker come but I think in the coming weeks we’ll have to make a
decision and let’s book a venue in Palo Alto. I also need to talk to Commissioner O’Nan about
some ideas in putting it together.
Commissioner O’Nan: I’m in.
Chair Stinger: Next element I’m going to differ to agenda item three and citywide learning, that’s
Commissioner Brahmbhatt who is out tonight. So, unless there are any questions or concerns, I
know that’s a quick brief but I know we need to reserve some time for item three.
Commissioner O’Nan: What about the CEDAW?
Ms. van de Zwaag: That’s item three.
Commissioner O’Nan: Oh, that is item three.
Chair Stinger: Ok.
Vice Chair Chen: Let me just mention one thing, I really need some leads to who the contact
within the organization for training for the new immigrants. I really need the program so if
Minka or…
Ms. van de Zwaag: Right, I think the three of us should probably meet. I just wrote myself a note
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Page 13 of 30
of when to involve the City Manager’s Office in that. If this is something that the HRC is just
going to be doing on its own as it’s program or if it’s going to be a city involved in that way. If
the Vice Chair can just set up a time to meet with me in January, we can talk about next steps.
Vice Chair Chen: Ok, very good.
3. Consideration of updated recommendations in relation to Council Resolution #9653-
Reaffirming Palo Alto’s Commitment to a Diverse, Supportive, Inclusive, and Protective
Community.
Chair Stinger: Moving onto the Council resolution, specifically focusing on CEDAW. Do you
want to take this conversation?
Commissioner Lee: Sure, I was hoping to be able to present a memo and specific
recommendations on CEDAW to the Commission this evening. After some deeper reflection and
conversations with the Chair and staff, we decided to revise it a bit and take some more time to
consider exactly what we want to present to the Commission before we come and asked for it.
So, I wanted to provide an update of what we’ve learned today. I think the Commission is
somewhat familiar with CEDAW. It’s a UN convention on the elimination of all forms of
discrimination against women. It was passed back in 1979 by the General Assembly and the US
is one of a handful of counties that haven’t ratified the treaty. So, across the US there are Cities
for CEDAW group whose goal is to adopt the principles and efforts on a city by city basis in lieu
of any national action on the item. It’s very unlikely that the Senate would ratify it in the current
climate and so the Cities for CEDAW has been working on the city and county level to get cities
to first pass a resolution in support of the principles of CEDAW, which Palo Alto did back in
2002. Typically, the next action is to pass a CEDAW ordinance and that ordinance consists of
designating a task force oversight body to conduct a citywide gender analysis. That analysis
consists of looking at citywide policies, programs, initiatives, employment practices, resources
and grants that provide sort of everything the city does taking an examination of that and looking
through a prism of all women being treated fairly and equally. Are women having access to all of
those resources in an equal fashion and so it has three components, again as I mentioned. It does
need an oversight body authorizing an analysis and providing funding to conduct that analysis.
So, that’s what the ordinance does is quite a bit of the heavy lifting because while doing the
analysis itself -- during that evaluation of all those different things that the city does and then
coming to specific recommendations as to what should be to address gender issues in our
particular jurisdiction. Me and Commissioner Gordon had taken a look at some of the other
jurisdictions that had done this and most of the cities that had done it previously and who have
been doing it for a while are significantly larger. So, San Francisco was one of the first cities to
adopt an ordinance but obviously, they are significantly larger and have more resources than
Palo Alto. We weren’t really able to identify any cities that were similar in size to Palo Alto
which had completed their analysis and that we’re further along in the process. So, as a result, I
think some of the questions that we need to address as Commission is to what extent do we want
to predefine what that analysis looks like versus leaving it up to a task force to investigate and
steer its own direction. To what extent do we need staff and other financial resources from the
city to conduct that analysis? How much time do we need to do it and just everything that’s
involved with that? I’m hoping that we can, as a Commission, discussion folk’s initial thoughts
on it. Any open questions that we would need to address prior to making a recommendation on
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Page 14 of 30
CEDAW with the hope that at the next meeting we come with a bit more information that
enables the Commission to feel comfortable about making a recommendation. I would imagine
that recommendation would look like asking staff to look into what an analysis might look like,
what would be involved in doing it and determining that first, prior to deciding whether we want
to go ahead and actually do the analysis via enacting a CEDAW ordinance. I think that’s where
we are right now; I think we do have some folks from the public who have been working on this
issue for significantly longer than I have. I think if they would like to say anything or if there are
any particular questions that we’d like them to answer, I’m sure they would be more than happy
to do so.
Chair Stinger: I would invite you to speak. Maybe you could fill out a speaker card and we
would appreciate if you could give us some scope of what the cities for CEDAW – a little bit of
your experience with other cities or with other communities and some of the outcomes. I’ve been
impressed as I’ve been reading the ordinances and the resolutions as the ones that I’ve read seem
to strike a nice balance as I read them to becoming advocates for principle then drilling down to
something that’s meaningful and relevant to the locality. I think it opens up a door for us to make
a statement but make a statement with some legs on it. I would like to asked help me, Sejla?
Sejla, I’m sorry, would you like to come…
Commissioner Lee: Maybe they could join us at the table in case we have some follow up
questions.
Chair Stinger: There are two mics. Would that be ok Minka?
Commissioner Lee: Do you want to join?
Ms. Constantino: No, we need to get you on the…
Ms. van de Zwaag: You need to be recorded.
Chair Stinger: If you could introduce yourself.
Ms. Shelly Kosak: My name is Shelly Kosak.
Ms. Sejla Avdic: Sejla Avdic.
Chair Stinger: You are both with the City for CEDAW intuitive?
Ms. Kosak: I’m actually with the United Nations Association, the Mid-Peninsula Chapter and
with that a whole bunch of different groups are working together with – we’re starting to build a
task force right now. It’s including an AAUW, WILPF and other local non-profits that are
women or peace and justice issues. We’re just getting underway and the c ities for CEDAW
movement and women associated with it have been going on in Palo Alto for several decades
actually. We are obviously young and recent converts but the people who really could sit here
who have been doing it for 30-years are still in our community. They are just older and in fact,
Helen who couldn’t come tonight is just not feeling well but she went to Beijing and some of the
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Page 15 of 30
major events that have been a part of the whole CEDAW movement since it fell apart in the
1980s when the US didn’t ratify it. There was Mexico City and then there was Beijing and so a
lot of women in this community are part of it, it’s just that nothing has ever gotten – there’s been
no footing. We started with that resolution in 2002 and then there was no push to move onto an
ordinance and like Steven is talking about, the big problem is that you do need a gender you need
a gender equality analysis to happen. In places like LA, they used Saint Mary Mount College,
one of the colleges and so the whole gender equity study for the City was of Los Angeles was
done through that University with that help. I don’t know what they paid for that or whether
there was pay or how much money was associated with that but there are other ways to go about
finding the information that we need locally for our city. I mean we can ask Stanford or we can
ask Santa Clara County. In fact, Santa Clara County, as Steven knows the county actually just
agree unanimously on an ordinance and it was the Santa Clara County Law Department that
wrote it for them. So, there are resources all around us, we just need to kind of tap into them and
get the help that way I think.
Chair Stinger: One of the questions I might have is if the county is doing a gender analysis under
CEDAW, would that include Palo Alto?
Ms. Kosak: That’s a very good question, that’s a very good question. It would be on their five
pages and I don’t know how they are going to do gender equity in an entire county. I don’t know
how they would go about that. I know the City of San Jose is also undergoing an – there are
people building an ordinance there as well. I personally don’t think that they are exclusive
because the county can have a different oversight than a city and the City of Palo Alto could
have its own. I don’t think they cancel each other out I don’t think.
Chair Stinger: One of the things that I’d like to ask that we consider in the next month is, as
we’ve already said, the amount of work that we’re either taking on or asking staff to take on. So,
when I ask the question about the county, if they’re doing that, that might – back up a second. I
think there’s a lot to be gained by having a focus on gender in Palo Alto but I want to be sure that
the CEDAW process is warranted. There might be other avenues that we could take. We might
drill down on a particular issue so a question I have is how much are we asking of ourselves?
How much of that is redundant that the county is doing?
Commissioner Lee: If I could elaborate on that. I think to some extent there might be some
overlap and some possibility to collaborate with the county. Certainly, there are some aspects
that only the city itself could do or the city would empower a third party to do so a lot of these
cities own practices and policies and procedures. Certainly, it wouldn’t be something that the
county would evaluate. They might evaluate county specific operations or needs within the
county as a whole but things that happen at an institutional level in the City of Palo Alto as an
institution would certainly not be captured by a county effort.
Chair Stinger: That would be my assumption but I’d like to test it so that we have a good handle
on what we’re asking for. In your experience, can you talk to us about some of the outcomes that
you’ve seen that have been particularly impressive?
Ms. Avdic: There’s one city where they mentioned – let me go over my notes.
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Ms. Kosak: I think part of what would be useful for Palo Alto is simply that because our city is
not struggling with a lot of the things that actually 30 articles of the treaty go over. Some of them
are about just basic human rights that’s why all of the 189 counties in the world that have
adopted it, is the very minimal amounts needed to be met for most women. Obviously, we aren’t
dealing with those things here; access to healthcare or just kind of very survival issues. What
we’re talking about is, as Steven’s excellent memo that he wrote in preparation for tonight, was
discussing about equity in the City of Palo Alto. Sejla was telling me about so many of her peers
that are looking for work and that are in job interviews at big high-tech companies are actually
being asked questions about whether they plan on having children and questions that are
inappropriate, that are discriminatory and yet there’s no public local institution that they can take
those complaints too because one doesn’t exist here. So, that’s a very real thing about women in
our society that are being unfairly treated but it’s subtle so having some kind of CEDAW based
ordinance alive in our city would be a very powerful tool to make sure that that wage and gender
parity is met in our society; which is obviously a goal that we would want.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Can I ask a question in regards to that? When a city has a CEDAW
Ordinance, does the Oversight Committee, that is required as far as CEDAW, do they become
the entity which hears those types of complaints from…
Ms. Kosak: The community.
Ms. van de Zwaag: … the community, ok.
Chair Stinger: Let me ask the question again because I want to make sure that I understand it.
The Oversight Committee that writes the resolution could that be different from the ongoing,
long-term monitoring?
Ms. Kosak: Yes, I think so. I don’t think it has to be – I think each City can do – I mean the way
that CEDAW Ordinance is implemented in San Francisco is not the same as the way it’s
implemented in LA. So, you could make it unique to your city and your needs I think.
Chair Stinger: So, Commissioner Lee, you asked very carefully how we want to organize the
Oversight Committee or taskforce and I think we have two Committees that we’re looking at;
one to author the ordinance and then the other to maintain it over the long term.
Commissioner Lee: I mean I think we’re at the stage now where we would like to have – well,
where I am at right now, I’d like the staff to be directed by City Council if they feel appropriate
to actually go and draft an ordinance and help us figure out what sort of options we have in terms
what that analysis would look like and what resources might be available? Then based on that
research, determine if and how we move forward on what our ordinance actually looks like. Was
that responsive to your question?
Chair Stinger: And more.
Commissioner Lee: Ok. To give maybe one example of something that a task force could look
into, I mean assuming there are so many things that they could look into, is if they wanted to
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Page 17 of 30
analysis the number of women represented on city appointed Commissions. For instance, they
might unsurprisingly find that women are drastically underrepresented and take steps to figure
out why is that the case and what steps can the city do to increase women representation on those
point policy bodies. There are certainly so many other things that they could do in terms of
domestic violence type maters or making sure that grants issues by a city are benefiting women,
at least equally, to other proclamations and such. So, there are so many different ways, different
topics that the task force could look into. If I could, Santa Clara County did pass their ordinance
earlier this week and they listed in their ordinance some general topics that would guild the work
of their CEDAW task force. If I could read them just to give the Commission a sense of one
jurisdictions ordinance. The work of the CEDAW taskforce shall be informed by the following
statements which reflect CEDAW principles. The first one is economic prosperity and the county
is committed to eliminating discrimination against women and girls in Santa Clara County
regarding employment opportunities and other economic opportunities. That could certainly be
with respect to employment opportunities within the county itself and probably more generally
speaking. The second one is gender race violence, the county is committed to taking appropriate
measure to prevent and redress sexual/intimate partner violence, dating violence, stalking, and
harassment and trafficking of adults and minors. That one, I would imagine, might speak to
determining whether the county offs sufficient services that address that particular issue or it
might involve how the police is or is not responding to those sorts of issues. The third one is
health care; the county is committed to taking appropriate measure to eliminate discrimination
against women and girls in a provision of healthcare. That’s obviously something more
applicable to a county as opposed to a city. The forth on is affordable housing, the county is
committed to taking appropriate measure to ensure women and girls have adequate access to
adequate and affordable housing. Again, that might an evaluation of these services and
opportunities the city or county can provide to ensure that women are benefiting equally from
those or determining to what extent their needs are being fulfilled. The fifth one is education and
leadership, taking appropriate measures to improve women and girls to have access to all forms
of education and leadership opportunities. Again, that could be programmatic things or it could
be ensuring that women have an opportunity to advance in the county or they have leadership
opportunities so that they can assume a management position. Then the final one is access to
justice for women and girls, taking appropriate measures to support the application of a gender
lenses where appropriate to policies and practices related to justice-involved to women and girls.
They laid out those six general commitments or statements; however, you’d like to read them,
and charged the taskforce with using them to guide their work. Certainly, we could do something
similar; we could make ours broader than that or more specific than that. There is really quite a
bit of flexibility but really the aim of Cities for CEDAW is to get cities to commit to doing
something. That’s mainly conducting a gender analysis in whatever form, using whatever
resources it deems appropriate to that community. I think yes, we should do this. Let’s figure out
how we want to do that but let’s get started doing it. I think as a Commission we determine to
what questions do we need to answer now in order to get an ordinance underway versus what
questions can we leave for the taskforce to actually accomplish. Hopefully, that provides some
more clarity as to what CEDAW is all about at the local level but I would appreciate feedback
from the Commission so that we can come back at the next meeting with some either additional
information or specific recommendations so we can move forward as a City.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Just for clarification, the recommendation from the HRC would be that
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Page 18 of 30
Council considers enacting…
Commissioner Lee: Consider…
Ms. van de Zwaag: Consider an ordinance.
Commissioner Lee: …or ask city staff to look into or – yes.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Right so that wouldn’t be the HRC drafting the ordinance or approving an
ordinance, it would be asking the Council to consider.
Commissioner Alhassani: From a process perspective, is it that you ask the city to consider
making an ordinance and then, in turn, a taskforce is launched, the gender analysis is done, is
that what triggers those two steps?
Commissioner Lee: So, the way that many jurisdictions have done it is the ordinance itself
creates a taskforce and authorizes the gender analysis itself but in places like LA, for instance, I
believe the Mayor’s Office as a Mayor) intuitive said, we’re going to go do this analysis with
Saint Mary’s or whatever that other University is. There are different ways to do it but generally
speaking, you enact an ordinance that creates taskforce and authorizes them to go and do the
analysis. Then from that analysis is the heavy lifting, then a big part of the effort. They would
then come back at some period in time with specific additional recommendations as to policies
that should be changed or other initiatives that could be undertaken by the city to address these
CEDAW principles. The initial task would be to ask staff to look into an ordinance and the
ordinance itself would begin the work.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Right because you’re not coming to them with the actual ordinance.
Commissioner Alhassani: Right that’s…
Ms. van de Zwaag: So, it would be to start that process.
Commissioner Lee: Even once we get an ordinance in place that would begin the work of
figuring out what we want to do to actually address and live up to these CEDAW principles.
Commissioner Alhassani: Typically, what does the scope of these gender studies look like as in –
we have talked about a lot of different issues today already addressing violence and workplace
interviews. What kind of guidance do you look at something specific or do you look at
everything?
Commissioner Lee: I think, generally speaking, correct me if I am wrong, but the goal is to take
concrete – I’ll read from my draft memo. Take concrete steps towards addressing barriers for
equality for women and girls in all areas of society. Including but not limited to discrimination in
the political, social, economic, and cultural fields. So, assuming as a city a lot of that would
maybe focus around the political aspects and the social aspects as it intersects with the social
services we provide to our citizens but certainly economic and cultural as well. It has a very
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Page 19 of 30
broad reach and it’s really up to each jurisdiction through the analysis to figure out what would
we like to focus on and what are the issues that we are seeing in the community and how do we
want to go about addressing them? I know that’s not particularly useful but it would really be up
to the community to figure that out. Part of the question that we are struggling with is to what
extent we, as a Commission, need to figure that out in advance of asking for an ordinance that
begins the gender analysis. To what extent do we want to define that as opposed to just blanket
says we’d like to conduct this analysis so go and do it and while you’re doing it kind of define
what you want to do.
Ms. Kosak: There’s actually a really good document that the Columbia Law School produced on
this topic. It probably would answer any questions of this kind so I could get copies to everybody
if that would help because it’s a wonderful document. It would help fill in all of this because this
stuff has already been thought out and answered but it’s in these huge documents by law schools
that I haven’t memorized.
Ms. Avdic: We have full-time jobs so it’s hard, it takes hours to go through these documents.
Ms. van de Zwaag: I think speaking from staff perspective, I think what we’re really looking at, I
personally, and I realize that difference cities have different issues and so forth. What I’d be
interested in seeing if and when we bring this forward to our Council is hey, to be a CEDAW
City, you need to do these three things. A gender analysis, these are the six things that a gender
analysis sa ys usually includes. To go to Council and say hey, it could be 57,000 different things
because you know we have all these focus areas, that’s going to go nowhere and if it involves a
gender analysis of the entire community, is it just the city and our programs and services? I really
urge the HRC to have that type of clarity at least as a first step in what you’re looking for and
that’s the kind of clarity I’d like to see for the staff report. We are concentrating on the gender
analysis of these three areas, what that would include would be looking into these seven things
because without that lack of clarity, our Council will not know what to do with it. It is an
impressive list from the County of Santa Clara but if we went to Council with that. They are
wonderfully intelligent people who deal with a lot of issues but if you’re bringing ten issues to
them, then each of those can have an analysis that asks 50 questions. There needs to be a little
more focus to the Council if and when it goes to them.
Commissioner Lee: I think that’s something that I struggle with. I mean there are so many
specific things that I would like to see the analysis to be done and I laid those out in my draft
memo. I wouldn’t want to pre-judge or pre-determine what the taskforce does because certainly
other taskforce members might have different ideas. I mean if staff’s recommendation is that we
really come with more specific sense of what the analysis would focus on then I mean we could
have that discussion as a Commission to refine…
Ms. van de Zwaag: I would definitely suggest a focus area that initially would be your initial
focus area that you could recommend to the Council. We’re interested in city services programs
and staff hiring practices. I’m interested in seeing this document but I think it needs to be a little
more specific and just say and these are the typical kind of questions we would ask in the type of
analysis; otherwise, it just becomes too big.
Commissioner Lee: I guess connected to that, my question for the Commission would be how
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Page 20 of 30
would we prefer to go about doing that? I could certainly come with a list of things that I
specifically would like to see and use that as a discussion point for the Commission or I think the
Chair might prefer that we add another member to this Committee now that Commissioner
Gordon has departed. We could as a Committee come up with a list for the Commission to
consider or I’m trying to get a sense of how the Commission would like to proceed with that
based on staff’s advice.
Chair Stinger: Either from Commissioner Lee or from CEDAW subcommittee or a group of two
Commissioners, I think the whole Commission needs to really weigh in on what our focus is.
There are so many issues that affect women and it’s so important that we focus in on the one or
two priorities and I think it’s something that we all need to weigh in on. We may have a list
prepared for us so that we have a starting point. We are different ages, different genders, work in
different environments, and I think we could all bring something to the table and I want that
discussion. In fact, that was where I was going to go next, I think there are two levels of
questions that would help me feel comfortable going forward in January. One is what our study
areas are, our focus areas and what is the work involved? So, then if I ask Council for staff time,
I know that I’m making a legitimate request.
Commissioner Lee: Like how much staff time or what the time frame would be for – ok.
Chair Stinger: I do have another question for you. Is there a stamp of approval? I mean if we just
wrote -- like one of the ordinances that I looked at was an ordinance from the City of Honolulu
and I just thought that it was a nice balance of principles and action items. How did they become
a CEDAW City? Did they submit it to an organization that said…
Ms. Kosak: It’s good whether they’re signed off on it or not. The Cities for CEDAW is simply a
grass root organization so in the State of California we have two strong organizations that are
promoting Cities for CEDAW. One is the Women’s Intercultural Network who’s lead by
Marilyn Fowler and there’s also the CWA, California Women’s Advocacy or Association, and
they are both, in their way, trying to help California Cities get Cities for CEDAW. You simply
need to be a representative in the community. You become an activist basically which Steven put
at the beginning of his memo, the City for CEDAW initiative website and their website gives
you everything you need to know about how to encourage the discussion in your community. I
think each one, as you said Honolulu, all the cities that I’ve looked, there are so many different
cities and they all come at it in a different way. What we want in our city. The people who really
know this information, we do need to follow the template, don’t we?
Commissioner Lee: I mean I think they offer templates as a starting point but I didn’t get a sense
of it was necessarily required.
Ms. Kosak: No.
Commissioner Lee: The only requirements were mainly the analysis and an oversight body and
funding or at least those are the three components that they recommend.
Ms. van de Zwaag: But there’s not a registration with an entity.
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Commissioner Lee: No.
Ms. van de Zwaag: So, it’s just an adherence to a principle.
Ms. Kosak: Correct, correct. In Berkeley, we were in contact with many of the people who
actually got their ordinance up and running. I think what you’re saying about giving something
large to a city body and asking them to do something with it. It took almost 10-years for the City
Attorneys to actually draft and get things going. It took a long time and it was a very painful
process so each city handles things differently so we obviously don’t want to go that route.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Who else is in the process other than Santa Clara County, San Jose, what
other cities around California are in process or contemplating?
Commissioner Lee: When you say in the process, you mean in process of developing an
ordinance or in the process doing the analysis?
Ms. van de Zwaag: Either.
Ms. Kosak: The list of the number of cities who have resolutions is very long now in California
but in terms of ordinances, I don’t know.
Ms. van de Zwaag: So those cities have done what Palo Alto did just without the ordinance, we
are symbolically in support…
Ms. Kosak: That’s right.
Ms. van de Zwaag: ... but the list that is actually having an ordinance is…
Ms. Kosak: Less.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Ok so the HRC would really be or the city would be turning a path that
maybe isn’t chartered yet.
Commissioner Lee: I could certainly come to the next meeting with a more concrete plan for the
Commission to at least consider. That way we go to the Council with a specific recommendation
and again, that’s sort of my – I apologize for that. My initial draft, I didn’t want to impose too
much of my own bias into it. I wanted to leave it flexible but after some further thought, I think I
should come with a more specific recommendation and use that as a way to spark conversation
and refinement at the Commission level so I can certainly put that together.
Ms. Kosak: Did you submit your draft to the rest of the Commission?
Commissioner Lee: No, we decided not to circulate it around.
Chair Stinger: I would – besides the question of workload…
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Page 22 of 30
Ms. van de Zwaag: Chair, could you please turn on your microphone.
Chair Stinger: Thank you. Besides the two questions that I previously asked, I would like to
confirm the minimum that we would be expected to complete to call ourselves a CEDAW City? I
mean I understand the three elements but…
Commissioner Lee: I think as Shelly was mentioning there really isn’t any criterion that
someone would judge us under to be a CEDAW City. I mean they have a list of all their cities
that have done some sort of initiative, either a resolution or an ordinance. I don’t think they
necessarily go through and judge each one and say this is a CEDAW City. Though certainly if a
city tried to pass something as CEDAW and it was drastically not like totally the opposite, they
would probably say so but I think they just list everyone that has taken some steps towards…
Chair Stinger: I just wanted confirmation of that.
Ms. Kosak: Well, we would have an ordinance. The City would actually have an ordinance that
was CEDAW based so that would be the proof. How in depth or how broad and how much it
covered, again depending on each individual City’s needs but the main test would, of course, be
that we have an ordinance passed.
Commissioner Lee: And that is references in some way CEDAW.
Ms. Kosak: Yes.
Ms. van de Zwaag: That’s a question that I had. So, the ordinance isn’t so much CEDAW, it’s to
the principles that CEDAW is bringing forth. The ordinance is that we are now a CEDAW City,
the ordinance is be it resolved that the City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against – I mean I
think that type of clarity would be helpful because I know that there is a lot of anti-
discrimination languages just that the city follows in hiring and contracting. I think that clarity of
if there are sample ordinances if it’s adherence to CEDAW in its principles or just that language
I think would be helpful. Also, it would be I think, interested in what the hiccup in Berkeley was,
was after they did the gender analysis or they couldn’t get the language together to bring to
Council to even start the gender analysis; I think I’m curious about that.
Ms. Kosak: I’m not 100% certain but I think it was in the implementation, it is the legal
implementation of the ordinance. The ordinance was done, it was how they went about; the point
with an ordinance versus a resolution is it’s not simply speaking about it. It’s about having real
laws that will then affect things so for the lawyers to take that long was about simply how they
were going to legally implement these new rules.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Ok, that’s helpful, thank you.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Council Member Kou.
Chair Stinger: Council Member Kou.
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Page 23 of 30
Council Member Kou: I’m glad that you brought that up about how they are going to implement
those laws. Now is this upon the city or with regards to employers in the city? The ordinance,
does it affect them as well?
Ms. Kosak: The employees or employers in a city?
Council Member Kou: Employers in this city.
Ms. Kosak: It should.
Council Member Kou: It should, right? Then in terms of implementing it, then we need that
office that you were talking about of where people who have been discriminated against or feel
that they could go and report such a thing, right?
Ms. Kosak: Correct, it’s an oversight body.
Council Member Kou: Oversight and is the oversight body city appointed or is it outside
contracted or I mean, how does that work?
Commissioner Lee: Generally speaking, the oversight body is some combination of appointed
members of the community, staff members, outside experts so basically, another Commission or
a sub-body of a Commission or office within the city.
Council Member Kou: Would that be appointed by the Council or by…
Commissioner Lee: It would be up to each jurisdiction to determine how it wants to structure that
taskforce. So, like Santa Clara County, they have a taskforce consisting of members appointed
by each of the Supervisors and designates to folks from particular offices within the county to
send people in addition to members of their Commission on the Status of Women so it’s a
combination of folks. Again, it’s flexible and to clarify, I think if the ordinance was specifically
just to say we are interested in doing a task force and doing an analysis, that doesn’t necessarily
automatically have implications for the private sector. I mean one of the things we might analysis
is to what extent are private employers doing X, Y, Z or to what extent can cities support
initiatives at the private sector level to help women enjoy the full social and economic benefits.
It’s not necessarily something that would be binding on private employers in that sense, it’s more
of let’s authorize a study, figure out what’s wrong or what we can do better at the city level both
institutionally and through our influence, and then from there take additional steps and measures
if that makes sense.
Council Member Kou: Absolutely. Yes, I’m always concerned about ordinances without the
enforcement behind it and then the teeth and it’s again, just something on paper, right? So, I’d
like to make sure that part of it is doable – enforceable.
Commissioner Lee: One particular thought that I had in mind and again, this may not end up in
whatever we ultimately decide to do but at the intersection of the city and the private sector, one
idea I had was as part of the business registration process we include a gender and diversity
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Page 24 of 30
survey to get a sense of to what extent are women represented in the private employers in Palo
Alto both at a staff and management level. Again, I’m not sure if that’s possible or if that’s
something that we would want to do but that would help us get a sense of to what extent is
women enjoying in the economic and leadership benefits within the private sector within our
community. That’s one way we could address the private sector without I mean it would be a
very low bar. I mean it wouldn’t be asking too much, in my opinion, of the private sector but it
would allow us to at least have those numbers and find a way to address the larger picture over
time. That’s one example that we could do.
Council Member Kou: That sounds good and I’m sure that this is going to have to go through
attorneys to review and to determine but I think it is very impressive though Steven.
Commissioner Lee: I mean that particular example, I initially recommended that we do that in
the ordinance as a requirement but certainly one way we could do it is say, that’s a topic that we
would like the task force to explore as part of this gender analysis. Then come back a year or so
after the ordinance and come with back with specific recommendations to the Council about hey,
we want to add this to the business registration thing. Can your analysis and see if we can do it?
So, there are two ways you can do it, you could include it in the ordinance or you could have it
as part of the work of the taskforce and the gender analysis.
Chair Stinger: Another example that I had read about and I’m not quite sure about the
implementation of it but was legislation within a city to say was a salary history law. To say that
you can’t ask somebody’s salary history and so that would allow women to come in at the same
pay scale as a male counterpart. There might be examples that we could find. I don’t know if that
one’s but we need to think that through as we go forward. I think…
Commissioner Lee: There might be - sorry, go ahead.
Chair Stinger: No, no, I was going to close so why don’t I go back to you.
Commissioner Lee: I was just going to say for that particular example again that could be
addressed in a number of ways. You could say as a city, as an employer, we want to make it our
policy that we don’t ask for salaries and then you could also explore ways that you can
encourage or require that from private employers. I don’t specialize in that particular kind of law
so I can’t speak to whether we could do that but there are multiple angles. Certainly, there might
be things that you could do as a city, as an employer itself, as an institution versus things that
you require of other employers and bodies within the community. I think I have sufficient
direction at this point to come back at the next meeting with a more concrete proposal that really
defines what the topics or areas of exploration that we would recommend a taskforce to look into
as part of the analysis. What sort of commitment would we envision from that body and from
staff? I’ve already started thinking about it in my head as to how we can maybe manage it in a
way that is respectful of the city’s time and resources. I can bring that in the form of a memo to
the next meeting and we can discuss it as a Commission. Hopefully, at that meeting refine it and
then pass it along as a recommendation to Council to do something.
Chair Stinger: I think that sums up my request of what I would ask of you. I think my request of
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Page 25 of 30
the rest of the Commission is that we really think through the areas where we would want a
CEDAW – a Palo Alto-specific study. Which areas we would like to investigate? I think there
are some big areas – topics as Santa Clara County ordinance has outlined; prosperity, violence,
healthcare, affordable housing, education, leadership, justice. There may be other topics that
we’d like to look at and then there are specific within those but I want to have that discussion
about the meat of our proposal. I think I started this way and I’m going to end this way. I think
this is an outstanding way for us to make a statement about gender equity but I would like to
have something and this is what it means for Palo Alto. This is why we went through the effort
and that has to be everybody’s assignment for January.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Commissioner Alhassani.
Chair Stinger: I didn’t see you, I’m sorry.
Commissioner Alhassani: Oh, no problem. The only thing that I just want because I think what I
understand is you’re going to come back to us with here are the areas that we’re going to focus
on to ask the Council to look into. Is that accurate?
Commissioner Lee: I think I would phrase it as if we ask the Council to authorize an ordinance
as a taskforce and gender analysis; these are the areas that we’d like that analysis to be focused
on. Also, what is the time commitment to do that analysis? What is the expectation from staff
and from whatever body that we set up to do it?
Commissioner Alhassani: It’s not policy recommendations?
Commissioner Lee: I will try to make it not general but make it very topic specific as opposed to
specific recommendations. For instance, one of my initial recommendations was having gender
parody on city appointed bodies within 6-years. That one is very specific and something that I
personally think is doable and is something we should commit ourselves to doing. There might
be topics like addressing sexual harassment which I don’t have a specific recommendation on
and so most of them would be in that second category of general topic areas that there might be
one or two suggestions where I have a specific metric or goal in mind. Obviously, the
Commission would weigh in as to whether we want to include that specific goal or make it more
general. So, for in that first example say we would like to see gender equity on city appointed
bodies’ period and then have the analysis look into that. Whereas my preference would be to say
we are going to achieve that within 6-years. Again, that’s just how I approach things but again,
the Commission can refine that.
Commissioner Alhassani: I guess my reluctance about that is it feels like we’re throwing out
rules without a lot of diligent and data and analysis.
Commissioner Lee: Sure.
Commissioner Alhassani: So, I agree with your second example that you made it broader like we
want to focus on hiring practice in Palo Alto. We think it’s very important because here’s the
study that we’ve done to show this is why it’s a big problem in Palo Alto versus other issues.
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Page 26 of 30
Again, to your point that the countries that adopted the treaty, a lot of those issues we don’t have
here. So, let’s focus on the issues that are in Palo Alto and show us why they are issues in Palo
Alto and let’s dig into those. Then figure out ok, here’s what we want to do about it.
Commissioner Lee: I think for the most part most of them are going to be how you describe it.
The reason why I had specific goals for city appointed bodies was because I know it’s an issue
and it’s very easy to determine how big of an issue it is. I didn’t figure that it was inappropriate
for us to set an actual concrete goal to achieve it by in that specific example. So, I said 6-years
which are two complete cycles of a Commission. So, regardless how big or small that particular
problem was, I thought it was achievable and that we should make that amendment from the
upset. Obviously, the vast majority of the topics would be very general and up to the taskforce to
explore and then come to a recommendation and metric – oh, metric if it would like.
Chair Stinger: I think there’s going to be a philosophical discussion there on how much we want
to pre-determine and that would be the question that we would have in January.
Ms. van de Zwaag: You may just want to go and say policies and programs that are, I don’t
know, a little more umbrella than just very we want to look at the gender equality on city
Commissions. You know maybe it should be initially that it’s city programs or city staff. I’m not
encouraging any of those specifically but I think there should be some more umbrellas and then
some suggestions under the umbrellas if they wanted examples of what you had considered.
These desperate three things that don’t have this common ground, at least initially, I think that
would be a little confusing.
Commissioner Lee: Yes, the ideas that I had that were very specific, I would classify them under
an umbrella and I probably did have it in my initial draft but I think generally speaking most of
them were going to be in that umbrella category.
Chair Stinger: I look forward to that.
Commissioner Lee: I would imagine that would take at least an hour on the next meeting. I mean
it’s not something that we could do in 20-minutes so if we can plan accordingly if there’s interest
from the Commission to set aside that amount of time at least in January that would be…
Chair Stinger: We will take the suggestion. I look forward to that in January. Thank you very
much.
Commissioner Lee: Thank you for coming out.
Chair Stinger: … put you on the spot. I appreciate your taking the time.
4. Debrief On The Table events held on November 15, 2017.
Chair Stinger: Debrief on On The Table. It seems so long ago, that was several dinners away.
Commission Lee: That’s right, 3-weeks away.
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Chair Stinger: Can I ask you Commissioner O’Nan how you felt about the morning session?
Commissioner O’Nan: Yes, I in concert with Chair Stinger and Vice Chair Chen and staff
members Minka and Mary, we hosted a very successful event at Hobees in South Palo Alto. We
had good attendance; we were able to break up into two smaller groups. We divided our own
questions based partly on suggestions from Silicon Valley Community Foundation and partly on
question that City Staff had developed. We blended the two and confined ourselves to three
questions because we wanted to cover things in depth within 1-hour and we think we had some
good insights. We did reflect the polarity that exists in the community between people are more
focused on advocating for housing and people who feel like we are maxed out and simply cannot
accommodate more people here. We urged them to listen to each other with an open mind and
not debate or try to change each other’s minds. Simply to be respectful and hear each other out
and I think for the most part we were able to achieve that. We sent in a number of surveys by
hand that was completed by some participants via snail mail. Other participants were
comfortable at taking the survey on their smartphones and I think we had pretty good compliance
and attendance with that. On the whole, I think it was a good event. I think it remains to be seen
what will happen with this data because as we have discussed, in Palo Alto we have had these
types of conversations before and they haven’t always lead to anything concrete happening or
changing. I have a hopefulness that this data that we’ve gathered will somehow inform
lawmakers or policymakers but as I said, it remains to be see exactly what the long-term
outcome will be.
Chair Stinger: Thank you. Did you want to speak Commissioner Lee to your evening session?
Commissioner Lee: Yes so, we had an On The Table conversation at First Presbyterian. I believe
it was part of LifeMoves, one of their evening meals and so Chair Stinger joined me there and so
we broke up into two groups. My group maybe had 4-5 individuals, four of them primarily
engaged in the conversation and the other folk’s kind of listened. Two of them were folks who
lived in RVs and two were folks who were homeless so it was quite interesting. It was a lot of
listening to individual stories; it was difficult to engage in a conversation with a group even of
that smaller size. So, we’d listen to one person’s story and I would try to get the other folks
involved but it was very much listening to one person at a time and so I thought it was very
insightful. One of the folks who lived in an RV mentioned that he faces substance abuse
problems and has a particular lifestyle that he would like to maintain and so that’s why he lives
in a RV. Nonetheless, he seemed like an individual who works every day, he just happens to
work different hours and doesn’t make enough money to actually afford a place to live in Palo
Alto. The other person who lives in an RV had a different situation; they had a job but just
couldn’t afford to rent something here. For the folks who didn’t live in RVs, there was a sense
that they really do want to improve their situation. They have some sort of skill set but often
times their inability to find permanent housing prevents them from tapping into that skill set. One
individual had quite a bit of experience as a forklift operator and could make a decent income to
support himself if he had permanent housing but because he wasn’t in permanent housing, he had
to do jobs that did not tap into that particular skill set. He had 20-years of experience doing
forklift operating but he wasn’t able to do that so he took odd end jobs to try to support himself.
One thing that was particularly interesting, as folks try to apply for permanent housing,
obviously there’s a long waiting list and so agencies can be somewhat selective in terms who
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 28 of 30
they provide housing to and so they have particular criteria. So, a lot of these folks would be on
the waiting list for 6, 7, 8-years and there might be one thing that disqualifies them from getting
housing even though getting into housing would enable them to tap into those skills and actually
support themselves. It was insightful; I don’t think I left with any particular action plan. I mean I
guess that should have been obvious, I mean these issues are complex issues and there aren’t any
easy answers but it was good to put a face to folks on El Camino who have been struggling.
Chair Stinger: It was a good session, both sessions where good and I congratulate you both for
taking them on. Thank you Minka and Mary with your efforts with the city, it was well
organized. I agree with both of you that it was a little fuzzier than I might have hoped for and I
also think that it was an exercise and civic engagement. As well as hearing about the particular
issue and so I’ll be interested in Silicon Valley or …
Commissioner O’Nan: Community Foundation.
Chair Stinger: The Community Foundation and the umbrella organization that they were working
with, their report to see what we can learn about housing. Also, what we can learn about civic
engagement from their research. I was just going to say one of the quotes that I heard in the
morning session that might be a way for me to wrap this up was, we need to own what we are as
a city. If we claim to hold values, we need to act accordingly. We need to embrace our place in
the work and deal with it. Thank you for everybody who worked so hard on making that a busy
day in Palo Alto. Question to staff, will there be a report from the city on the different coffee
sessions?
Ms. van de Zwaag: I need to look into that. I know I have turned in my compiled notes from that
day so we’re still looking into staff and how that would be reported out or how that will help
inform future conversations on housing and the implementation of the Comp. Plan.
Chair Stinger: Thank you.
V. Reports from Officials – Chair Stone
1. Commissioner Reports
Chair Stinger: Any other Commissioner reports?
Vice Chair Chen: I have two reports. I went to the…
Ms. van de Zwaag: Can you turn on your microphone?
Vice Chair Chen: I went to the Buena Vista Posada.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Wait, wait.
Vice Chair Chen: I went there early because I had another engagement later in the evening so I
went there around 5:30, just the beginning and had half a cup of a hot drink that was very good.
Then I saw Winter and then saw a Professor from Stanford, what is his name?
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 29 of 30
Commission O’Nan: (Inaudible)
Vice Chair Chen: Then his wife and they had a room for children and they were doing math. So,
they doing afterschool tutoring in that room so it was interesting. They were very insistent about
day one to find out about HSRAP application and I said talk to Minka as soon as you can so she
will probably talk to you. Alright, that was one thing; the second thing is I went to the Art Center
to do the Play. I had a picture in there but anyway. I don’t know, when I would start doing that,
the camera stopped clicking. I don’t know, I didn’t ask them to be around. After that, I went to
this very meaningful exhibit. It’s put on by an artist who came from France and lives in Palo
Alto. She’s lived in Palo Alto for 20-years and she went to Iraq. In the north part of Iraq there is
a village that is occupied by refugee family and then she started an art project with the children
there. She advised and teached the children how to paint big murals on this wall and she took
pictures and had an exhibit in the back of the Art Center. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, for
some reason, their publicity events didn’t happen so she said to bring some cards to distribute so
we’ll just pass them around. Her name is in there and there’s also a website if you want to go and
if anyone is interested in contacting her. If you want, there you go.
Chair Stinger: Thank you, thank you very much.
Vice Chair Chen: It’s a very, very good cause. I think it’s helping the children feel proud of
themselves and doing something and also beautify the whole community. This is a wonderful
thing for her to do, for her to take time and effort to do that.
Vice Chair Chen: That’s a great Commissioner report, thank you.
2. Council Liaison Report
Chair Stinger: Council Member Kou, anything we need to be…
Council Member Kou: I was also going to report on the Posada at Buena Vista. I went later, I did
go around 6 o’clock, but I think one of the things that they are very, very grateful to is to
everybody in the city who supported the whole entire effort. That extends to the Human
Relations Commission as well so just wanted to say they did say thank you to everybody here.
Chair Stinger: We are thankful to see a good outcome.
3. Staff Liaison Report
Ms. van de Zwaag: Just a couple quick things. On Monday night the second round of HSRAP
was on the Council’s Consent Calendar that passed unanimously with the Council Members
there. Now Mary is doing the fun work of finalizing the contracts or amending the contracts for
the agencies that were currently getting funding. Mary and I will both be out the last two weeks
of December so if you have any burning issues, you have to get them in by a week from
tomorrow. Mary’s in the next week a couple days but just wanted to let you know that.
VI. TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR NEXT REGULAR MEETING: Thursday, January 11,
2018.
Chair Stinger: We know we have one agenda item for 2018. We also have an invitation to the
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 30 of 30
City Attorney’s Office to speak to us on SB-51. They could not come this evening and will
confirm either January or early 2018. Other topics? We’ll certainly do an update in more detail in
January. Anything else? One thing that I’d like to ask for, not for January but I think we’re
starting to look at questions in a more in-depth way than we have in my tenure. At some time in
the new quarter three, I’d like to ask if we can work on process and procedures. If that’s it, have
a good vacation.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Thank you.
Chair Stinger: Enjoy your holidays.
Commissioner O’Nan: Aren’t we going out to dinner?
Chair Stinger: And we’re going out to dinner but for the…
Commissioner Lee: Is there going to be karaoke?
Ms. van de Zwaag: We are adjourned.
VII. ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 7:01 p.m.