HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-05-10 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, May 10, 2018
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
Staff: Minka van der Zwaag, Mary Constantino
Chair Stinger: Welcome to the HRC for May 2018, the last of our fiscal year. Roll call please
Mary. Thank you.
II. AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, DELETIONS
Chair Stinger: You all have agendas in front of you. Are there any agenda changes, requests, and
deletions? Ok being none.
III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Chair Stinger: We do have one oral communication. Mark Weiss, could you please set up at
the…
Ms. Minka van de Zwaag, Human Services Manager: You go over here. You’re welcome and
just turn it off when you’re done.
Mr. Mark Weiss: My name is Mark Weiss, I live in Palo Alto and I wanted to bring to your
attention and the community’s attention to a locale event. It actually happens on campus at
Stanford University and it’s Monday the 14th. I know that conflicts with City Council but maybe
tape one and go to this. It’s a lecture at Stanford by Michael McFall who is a community
member. He was Stanford Class ’85, I think they list him as ’86 Masters, a road scholar, an
Obama administration appointee of the National Security Council, and he was our ambassador –
the US Ambassador to Russia a number of years until being called back. I mean generally, Palo
Alto has an international focus even though we’re in San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Clara
Valley and Silicon Valley but we’ve always had sister cities since about 1964. So, there’s a
certain number of Oaxaca’s in town or people from Palo in the Philippians or Enschede in the
Netherlands. Now we have smart cities as well as – partners as well as sister cities but I think –
and obviously, Stanford has other events but I think Mr. McFall is a very special person and a
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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very good representing our country and our community. I met him a few times when he was an
undergraduate and I saw him once in the last 5-years. I also went to a lecture at World Affairs
Council. It says RSVPs are closed but it might be worth checking it out at [CMax]. Oh and he
has a book out. I’m not being paid to plug his book or anything, I just think he’s a wonderful
community resource and for our county. So, since I know this Commission has an international
focus as well how that impacts our community I thought I’d mention it since I’m here tonight.
Thank you.
Chair Stinger: Any other oral communication cards? No.
IV. BUSINESS
1. Human Services Resource Allocation Process HSRAP Listening Forum – Presentation
by Counseling and Support Services for Youth (CASSY)
Chair Stinger: Then we’ll move onto the business section. The first item is our first listening
forum. Some of our grantees are initiating new work and new ventures. We thought it would be
advantageous for us to hear about the new work and follow some of the progress, some of the
challenges, some of the hopes, and some of the dreams and so we’ve invited two of our HSRAP
grantees tonight. The first presentation will be Christy Hayes the Executive Director of CASSY.
Ms. Christy Hayes: Thank you all for having me.
Ms. van de Zwaag: If you want to hand me those pieces of paper? I’ll hand them out.
Ms. Hayes: I do. Perfect thank you. I have some extra copies too if you want to take some back.
Thank you all for having me and my sincerest thanks for the not one but two grants that you gave
to CASSY this year. We couldn’t have done it without the community partnership, especially
with your Committee and so that was really important to us to see the commitment to the mental
health of the youth here in Palo Alto. So, I wanted to give you all an update on how things are
going and also give you an opportunity to ask us questions. We are obviously a new grantee to
you. We’re also a new secondary partner in the school district. Though we’ve been a partner in
Palo Alto for more than 5-years our founder Liz Schoeben who some of you may know, she does
live here. She’s lived here since the beginning. She’s been a big part of the community and it was
really important to her to have continuity of services so we were really proud to tell her this year
that we were able to achieve that goal. It’s something that we’ve been working towards since
2009 when she started the program. So, the first question that we always get about CASSY
which is Counseling And Support Services for Youth is how are you different than other partners
in the community? Not just other partners servicing school districts in the community but other
mental health partners. Obviously, the Children’s Health Council is a huge community partner
here. ASC is a huge community partner here so how are we different is the first question I
always get from people who live here and have been working within mental health in Palo Alto. I
wanted to explain how our mission, our vision and how values kind of set us up to be a different
program than other programs here in the community. Our mission is to destigmatize mental
health services, that was a really crucial piece in our founding board and co-chairs and said that
we’re going to work on destigmatizing one kid at a time, one school at a time, one district, one
community at a time and make supporting student emotional and social needs in schools the
norm. That’s our vision, that’s our mission, that’s the work that we do on a day to day basis.
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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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When our work is done we envision that all students will have the continuity of services that they
need to be successful in school and in life. What makes us really unique in that sense is that we
are only school basis program. We don’t have other programs outside. We don’t have other
things that we do. Our specialty is school-based mental health services so we have almost 10-
years of doing nothing but that. Our founding chairs were both school-based therapists for more
than 30-years so they had a huge background in that so that’s kind of where we come from. Our
values as an organization are to be available to all students with no insurance, transportation, or
other barriers such as time. To partner with schools to make mental health services a natural part
of the education process. Tailor our programs to be specific to each unique need which mean
school populations, student population, age, anything that you can think of. Hire, train and
mentor professional therapists who love working with youth so all of our therapists are paid, they
are postgraduate, many of them are licensed. Especially here in Palo Alto, we do look for
licensed, very skilled therapists here in the community and they’ve worked with youth before.
We are also continuing ed. provide and one of the few in the community so we are able to
provide them professional training that works with their licensure. Then we commit to making a
difference which I’m sure every non-profit here does. That’s not unique to us but it is something
that we like to bring to the table. So, I’m going to share a little bit about our secondary program
but I’d like to see if there are any questions just about our vision and our mission and our values
before I go into that.
Commissioner O’Nan: Yes, I have a question so some children have more severe mental health
challenges that can’t be handled in a short therapeutic model so how do you refer them out?
Ms. Hayes: That’s a really great question so one of our goals going into the program this year
was to create community partnerships that made sense for the secondary youth. We’ve been
partners with the school district for more than 5-years so we’re very familiar with what other
resources are in the community. So, we sought specific partnerships and referral process with
community partners serving adolescent youth considering we were moving into the secondary
schools. So, they are specific to our organization. The referral process is to organizations like
Children’s Health Counsel so it’s very smooth. It’s a warm handoff and we also will serve the
youth until they get the handoff that they need. We don’t say ok you’re too – there’s too much
going on for us, we can’t serve you, we’re going to do what we can with you until we find you
somebody that works for you. So that’s a little bit different in our model than other
organizations. It’s something unique that we bring to the table. That’s a great question, thank
you. Anything else? So, in the community, we’ve served eight of the elementary schools and
now we’re in all five of the secondary schools. We had originally talked to the district about
providing a total of seven therapists but we actually ended up with thirteen which has been
wonderful. We’ve needed it. I mean to say thirteen is enough would be a lie, it’s not. It’s
definitely not enough to serve the needs at the district level but we do have thirteen staff on the
five secondary campuses. In the first 4-months of services we served over 375 students which is
more than 75% of the students that we expected to serve for the entire year so imagine that we
are going to overachieve out 500-550 number of students that we were going to be serving this
year. By the 4-month mark, we had provided already over 2,200 sessions so there had been 2,200
individual and group meetings. More so individual meetings when you’re starting off with
students and then moving into the group. So that’s pretty tremendous when you think about
thirteen people serving 375 over 2,200 sessions. That’s a lot that we were able to pack into 4-
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 4 of 35
months’ time so we’re pretty proud of that. Talking about some of the commitments that we
made for this school year so one of our values is obviously to find unique ways to partners with
the school. So, every program looks different, every therapist is specifically matched with the
school, some of them have specific traits or trainings that they bring to the table, and one of those
trainings that we brought was sources of strength. At Paly, we provide sources of strength which
is a program that we help youth to discover what values they have internally to help them to be
stronger. We also provide anxiety and stress management groups at the middle school level to try
and get them ready to go to high school and give them some coping skills before they go up to
the next level. Then like I said we’ve been able to collaborate with community organizations,
partners, schools, teens, parents, and youth. Parents and youth are a huge component of the
treatment process. We do not create treatment plans without at least the youth involved and when
we can parents, the administration and the community members that are engaged with the youth.
Because of that, we were able to make 1,400 connection points with parents in the first 4-months
which I think is really key. If we didn’t have parents working alongside us we will not be as
successful so our therapists are trained to reach out to parents once a month just to check in and
see how things are going on their end, get updates, see if the treatment plan is still working for
the youth, the parents, the admins, and everybody that’s involved with the kid’s case. We want to
make sure that they are all part of what’s going on. They are hearing from us what’s happening
and we’re hearing back from them a little bit about what’s happening. Any questions about that?
There’s some service level data in the document. I don’t want to go over every numbered point
but there’s definitely some information in there about that.
Commissioner O’Nan: So, Christy I was wondering – speaking of parents and how important
they are to youth health. If a family is in some sort of crisis or having some sort of dysfunction
around drug use on the parent’s side or domestic violence or divorced parents who don’t get
along well and sometimes the whole family needs therapy.
Ms. Hayes: Absolutely.
Commissioner O’Nan: So how do you handle that kind of situation since your program is school-
based?
Ms. Hayes: So, one of the benefits to being that unique model where we can tailor things is if
there’s a place to bring a family in to start that family therapy session we will do that. We
definitely bring in whole families if we’re like ok, there’s more going on here that we think that
the family could support. We’ll start that process and then get them connected to a community
provider which has been really helpful in a lot of cases just to have that starting point in a neutral
setting. The school is a neutral setting. It’s not an office, it’s not somebody where they have to
go separately, they are already hopefully on campus and sometimes we’ll work with them and
we’ll say ok we want to talk because there’s something going on. Sometimes we’ll say hey, we
want to just have a conversation about what’s going on for your kid and then they let it all out.
Right it all comes out from there so it happens organically and then we can connect with the
outside resources. Hopefully, they follow through, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t
but we do help a lot with that. The substance abuse is tough. We haven’t seen as much as of that
here although it’s only our first year but we deal with that a lot in Los Gatos as well. Where
we’ve been working with families who have a lot of concerns around substance use whether it’s
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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 5 of 35
parent use or child use and it’s something that we’re ever seeking new options for. We’ve
definitely been doing a lot of substance use training within our own team. All of our staff went
through rigorous 3-day training around substance use and I think we have more planned for next
year as well because it is such a prevalent issue in our communities.
Chair Stinger: A question, I know that your mission statement says that you’re trying to
destigmatize…
Ms. Hayes: Yes.
Chair Stinger: … the provision of mental health services but when you come into a family or a
community that really resists that. How do you help with the student?
Ms. Hayes: I mean to say that there isn’t stigma that’s just not reality and its true in every
community. Even our communities where mental health is a more natural part of the education
and the community process so we approach it from a lot of different avenues. The reality of it is
that schools bring us in because there’s an academic benefit and everybody wants their kids to be
ready for college. If they are not emotionally ready to go then it can be a challenge. If they’re not
– there’s a lot of school avoidance or if there’s disciplinary issues or those types of things
happening we approach it from a different avenue. It doesn’t have to be those mental health
concerns so you must get help. Its there’s academic concerns and this avenue might be the right
way for us to go to the look at that so we approach it through a lot of different ways. The reality
is, is that there are some cases where the family is not as helpful and the youth are able to
provide minor consent and can be seen without that as long as they are over the age of 12. That is
a very minimal case, we try not to do that because again it goes back to that whole idea of
everybody working together but when it has to happen that way it does happen that way. Does
that help?
Chair Stinger: Yes. Thank you.
Ms. Hayes: Yes, of course. Any other questions before I give you some feedback?
Commissioner Lee: Regarding your mission to destigmatize mental health, I’m wondering if that
stigma has manifest itself in particularly unique ways in Palo Alto? Especially among the
growing Asian-American and immigrant population. Whether you’ve seen any particular kinds
of stigma or just whatever you’ve observed. You mentioned the academic benefits of counseling
whether that’s been a persuasive argument in favor of mental health services at lease within
those communities.
Ms. Hayes: I wish I had the full answer to that. With it only being our first year we don’t have
the full scope of that but I can say that we were pleasantly surprised by the student’s reaction; the
fact that they have access to the wellness center on campus, on the high school campuses that
helps a lot. We are in the areas with the guidance counselors on the middle school campus as
well so that makes it a little bit more accessible. There’s not as much stigma to go into a place
where there’s lots of different people helping. The same concept with the wellness center so we
were pleasantly surprised by the student’s reaction and their lack of stigma in comparison to
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Page 6 of 35
what we thought it might be going into the older ages. To be honest one of the benefits that we
have is that we serve elementary through high school now so a lot of the youth are familiar with
what we do because they’ve seen us when they were younger. We do a lot classroom
presentation, a lot of lunch bunches and other types of things that are therapeutic but they are not
counseling. So, students are familiar with CASSY and they are familiar with the types of
resources that they can get. We actually got a lot of student feedback. We do a pre-imposed
assessment with the therapist and the youth had the opportunity to give feedback at the end of
their treatment. A lot of what we heard from the youth this year was how accessible and how
comfortable it felt. Particularly after the tragedy at Gunn this year, students really felt like they
could come in and see us which was something that we weren’t expecting considering it was
only our second day there. So, it was really nice to see that, that the students felt like they were
being heard and could be seen. It’s not a clinic on campus model. We really are part of the
school and so they participate in any kind of school spirit days. Our staff are expected to go and
have lunch out with the students and have lunch with the teachers and those types of things so
they become part of the campus. That’s part of CASSY’s mission and our visions and our values
is to make the therapists part of the school campus as much as possible.
Commissioner Lee: Do you find that there’s any great stigma along the parents of minority
students or recently immigrant populations or any pushback from that community?
Ms. Hayes: Absolutely, I mean that’s why we have our minor consent process is so that students
can still get access to services when they need it. I will say that we see a lot of parents who will
push back at first and then turn the corner later. So, they may say no at first and then eventually
they come back to the table and say we’re ready now for support. It is rare that parents are kept
totally in the dark about what’s happening but it does happen but it’s not as often as you think it
would be. There’s still stigma, I’m definitely not downplaying that there’s a lot of stigmas here
but making it part of the process on a campus, you know having CASSY at regular school
functions that are not just mental health focus I think are a big part of it too. It’s not just ok
CASSY is here just for mental health, it’s CASSY is a trusted adult on campus. They are
somebody that you can go to talk to about other things that are not just mental health so that’s
really helpful. We have great partnerships with the administration, staff, the guidance counselors
are our right hands so that’s really helpful when you’re trying to get a parent in is that can
approach it through a different avenue. You can go to school staff and say we’re struggling with
getting this parent to understand, can you give them a call and kind of see where they’re at?
That’s been really helpful for us.
Commissioner Lee: I was at a school board meeting a couple weeks ago and it seemed like they
were very, very happy with the services that you guys were providing. I was very glad to hear
that as someone that’s on this Commission who helps fund your organization.
Ms. Hayes: We are so thrilled about being a partner at the secondary level and you know we’ve
had opportunities for expansion across the Bay Area but we have felt for so long that having that
continuity from K-12 is going to be so crucial. We have it in our community in Milpitas as well
and it’s so key when you’re thinking about 8th to 9th-grade transition to have a warm handoff. A
therapist that can say this is your therapist when you go to high school, they are going to be there
for you, I’m still in the mix, and I’m going to give them all the information. We’re so excited
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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 35
about next year because we think about all the kids who are going from elementary to middle
and middle to high school. We’re able to keep support if they need it. Even if they don’t need
ongoing support, they know they can go to somebody so it’s really exciting for us.
Commissioner Lee: My last question was I know that the city provided some emergency funds at
the beginning of the year. Do you find that that really helped address that particular incident?
Ms. Hayes: Absolutely. We could not have done what we did on the Gunn community without
that funding. Those two extra days of service have kept the kids so much safer. I was just looking
at the influx from Paly and Gunn. Looking at a school that went through something versus a
school that just felt it a little differently and the difference in the number of students who needed
risk assessments and who needed immediate services and needed drop in services is three times
as high at Gunn. There was no way we could have done it with just 2 ½ people there and on top
of it, unfortunately, there was a vacancy at the district level at that time in their Wellness
Coordinator and so they didn’t even have the full district team. So that extra money that was
given to us was so helpful this year. We were so appreciative.
Commissioner Lee: Well I’m glad we were able to provide that to you.
Ms. Hayes: Yes thank you so much. We were not expecting obviously to need to do that and then
to have that was very helpful. The therapists who did it they want to stay in Palo Alto. They are
very gracious to be here so their excited.
Commissioner Alhassani: You kind of answered the question a little bit but it’s a hard question
to ask because of the tragedy that happened at Gunn but ballpark roughly, are there really more
students seeking counseling at high school level verse elementary and middle or is it pretty even?
Ms. Hayes: So, it’s a hard thing to tell because we have different levels of service. The level of
students seeking when we have three people on a campus versus a 2-day person. A lot of our
elementary campuses only have 2 to 4-days of service so it’s a little different and the severity in
the needs are different. Would I say that they are seeking treatment more often? No, not
necessarily. I think there’s a lot of kids who need help and that just naturally comes out in the
secondary level. You know what we are actually are finding the most interesting population to
study right now is middle school. A lot of things that were happening at the high school level
previously are not happening now more frequently in middle school and we’re seeing a higher
level of needs in second – in elementary and middle school than we use too. We didn’t -- at the
beginning of starting CASSY, almost 10-years ago, doing a risk assessment at an elementary
school was rare and now it’s a pretty regular occurrence which is a little scary. There’s some
self-harm behaviors that are happening very early that weren’t happening or weren’t recognized
before which we’re hopeful – it’s this chicken and egg conversation. Kids have had the services
for 5-years so are they more comfortable and now seeking services than they were 5-years ago?
We’re still trying to figure that out but when I say that they are seeking more often in high school
than they are in elementary school, individually yes. From a systems level not necessarily. More
teachers refer when they are younger than they refer themselves so I have an ambiguous answer
for you but it’s something that we’re definitely looking at. What we look at is are the same issues
presenting in specific age groups and we’ve studied that in Milpitas where we have that k-12
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Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
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Page 8 of 35
model. We were seeing, ok well, we know if in middle school they are experiencing this, they
are going to experience this thing in high school so we can plan for that. We can prep, we can do
some preventive work around whatever it is that is happening for the kids.
Vice Chair Chen: I have a question regarding where or how do you recruit a therapist and would
you have a problem if your program is expanding? Do we have a problem recruiting good
therapists in the area?
Ms. Hayes: Great question so the Bay Area is very expensive to live in and therapy work
historically is underpaid. I mean we do hire post-graduate therapists so people who have gone to
school for more than 5-years and we try to hire people who are at least 1,000 hours into their
formal training. One of the benefits that CASSY has that a lot of community-based organizations
don’t is that we pay all of our employees including our interns. So, we are able to find the top-
level interns and then grow them into licensed Staff and they with us which is amazing. We do
offer a pay differential once they become licensed, we have excellent benefits, and we do pay on
a market rate. So that’s been very helpful to be able to attract the right staff so we have not run
into a problem yet of recruiting, knock on wood. Where we have actually run into more struggles
is supervision so they have to have clinical supervision and the unfortunate thing is that there
isn’t a college program for that. People go to school for years to get their MBA but there isn’t
how to be a good leader and so we have invested in some leadership training and some clinical
supervision training because it’s a very specific skill set. That’s where we’ve tried to be more
proactive in saying oh the industry isn’t growing supervisors, we have to grow our own
internally. So, we’ve created a middle-level manager so people can take the step into
management before they are having to also clinically supervise somebody as well but as far as
recruiting staff we have not run into that. We don’t have a lot of turns over. I mean in a program
of 70 therapists we’re expecting less than 9 to move on this year so it’s excellent when you think
about the non-profit world.
Chair Stinger: I don’t want to take advantage of your time…
Ms. Hayes: No.
Chair Stinger: …but I wondered if you could summarize and give us an idea of what your
biggest gaps are, wishes are for the next school year?
Ms. Hayes: That’s a great question so you know like I said there’s never enough support on a
campus. There’s always going to be a greater need than what we can provide so we will be
seeking to at least maintain current levels and hopefully expand. We want to be able to continue
to offer that competitive salary and so we’ve been working really closely with the district on
what could be an expected increase on a year to year. We’ve looked at multi-year contracts
which is really important to our Staff. They need to know that they have solid work from year to
year. That’s really important for them so those are some of the things that we’re working on from
a program level. From a clinical standpoint, there has been a lot of concern around our
transgender youth. There’s been a lot of concern in the LGBTQIA Plus community period so we
are doing some really deep intense training with an organization that is specifically – this is the
work that they do to come out and train therapists on how to keep kids safe. That is a high-risk
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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 9 of 35
population. There has been a lot of concern in the Bay Area overall and we want to make sure
that we’re being proactive and working on targeted solutions to work with our transgender and
LGBTQIA community. So those are our main focuses for the upcoming school year. We’re also
working really heavily on prevention work which starts with our elementary kids. Then we will
do some more preventative work on the secondary level but we’re working on building the
therapist capacity to provide massive classroom lessons. So that every kid in the school gets a
touch point with a CASSY therapist so that they know that there’s a trusted friend on campus
and it becomes a natural part of their day to have that social-emotional learning. Those are out
big things for next year.
Chair Stinger: Thank you on a general level. Your work in the school district is amazing.
Ms. Hayes: Thank you.
Chair Stinger: I’m glad that you can transition and follow our students through for the 13-years
that they are in the system. I’m particularly interested in the high-risk population that you
described, the transgender youth and the LGBTQ and I hope we can meet with further and look
at your work going forward in the new school year.
Ms. Hayes: Absolutely. We would look forward to that. Maybe in the fall, we can take a look at
that together because we definitely want to get everybody in the room talking about it because it
is such a crucial issue. Thank you.
2. Human Services Resource Allocation Process HSRAP Listening Forum – Presentation
by La Comida de California
Chair Stinger: We have Bill Blodgett, past Chair, and Michael Patrick, Co-Chair, of La Comida
going to speak to us now. This was my HSRAP site visit this year so I think I had a preview
maybe of some of the good news that you’re going to bring us. We’re anxious to have you here.
Mr. Michael Patrick: Thanks so much. I’m Mike Patrick, I’m the new Co-President of La
Comida. The other Co-President who is also new is Peggy Simon. She couldn’t be here tonight
and she wanted to be but couldn’t make it. I moved to Palo Alto in 1986 and started working as a
lawyer for the high firm of Fenwick and West where I was for 30-years. I just retired about 2-
years ago because I wanted to start focusing on other things, particularly on community work.
About a year ago I joined the Board of Directors of La Comida and then just 6-months ago I
became Co-President along with Peggy Simon so it’s a new venture for me. There’s a lot of new
folks on the La Comida Board and in the organization. We added seven new Board Members in
just the past 18-months and in the past 3-months we added two; both really dynamic marketing
senior executives for high tech companies. On June 4th our next Board meeting we are
anticipating adding another new Board Member. He’s an international investment banker who
just moved into the Bay Area and we snatched him up before he got consumed by everybody
else. So, we’re feeling really excited to have a chance to grab somebody with that much talent as
well to join our Board. We also have added in the past few months two wonderful new advisors.
One is a long time high tech person who started out as a founder of a tech company and then
went on after he made enough money to become a venture capitalist. Now he is an advisor to
tech companies and executives. He’s teaching and he’s very active in non-profits in Palo Alto
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access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
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Page 10 of 35
which is how we met him. The other is one of the Senior Partners at the venture capital firm of
August Capital. They made a pretty good investment a few years ago and bought for $1 million
10% of Microsoft when it was a private company so they’ve done awfully well. One of their
Senior Partners now is also joined us as an advisory and he’s also very passionate about social
justice and social causes and so we’re really excited to have him join as well. So, talking about
La Comida I kind of think of what’s the story and what’s new? I think you all are generally
familiar with who we are and what we’ve done. I summarized the story since this last September
as a loss. We lost our home in downtown, recovery and now challenge. I want to walk you
through those three pieces, particularly the recovery and the challenge part. As I think everyone
knows at the end of August we lost our home right here on Bryant Street, just a few blocks
down. We moved over to on a temporary basis only so it’s not a permanent solution and it’s one
of the points that I think is really critical for us to convey to everyone in the community. We
went to Mid-Town and are now cooking and serving out of Stevenson House. Obviously, it was
a sad time for us but more importantly, it was a really sad time for a lot of our diners. We went
back and looked at what happened to our diners wherein during the months before we left
downtown and then the months when we started up in Stevenson House. We really did hit the
ground running at Stevenson House. We did the move over a long weekend and very quickly
ramped up to really substantial numbers but we lost about 300 diners moving from downtown to
Mid-Town. That’s not a net number but there are 300 people who use to eat downtown who
don’t come to Stevenson House. Now we picked up some new people downtown and that’s the
exciting part of the story to see that there’s demand in other parts of our community but there are
300 people who don’t have La Comida anymore. I actually was having lunch with Gloria Hum
this past Monday and she was telling me how disappointed, particularly folks in the Chinese
community, were when we left downtown. I think there’s a significant community in Lytton
Gardens and she told me that they expressed to her that they were saddened and disappointed and
that while they certainly liked the fact that La Comida offers low cost or free meals everybody
likes to get a deal, that’s not what it was about for them. It was about having a place to be
together and to be in the heart of the community. They felt, according to Gloria, they felt a little
let down I think was the way she put it. They are not fully integrated into the community and
obviously part of that is language and culture it kind of contributed to a feeling of not being part
of the heart of the community. Obviously, it was a blow to us too in the sense that our identity
has always been we’re in the heart of downtown and do not have that identity was something that
we felt very keenly. We moved to Stevenson House in September. The move went smoothly.
They couldn’t have been more welcoming or gracious. The Board of Directors at Stevenson
House has just been amazing. They had to overcome some concerns on the part of their own
residents about opening up their home to strangers and have strangers coming into their home for
lunch. They worked hard for quite a while having Town Hall meetings with their residents and
addressing those concerns because the people were worried about well gee who are these folks?
Are they homeless people? What’s going to happen? Are they going to hang out on our common
areas and not leave? Are they going to take over our central dining area which is also sort of their
living room/lounge area? What’s going to happen but the Board worked really hard with they
own residents and with us and I think showed some pollical guts and said no, this is the right
thing to do and we’re going to do it. So, we’re so appreciative of what they did but the key point
as I mentioned before is it’s not a long-term arrangement and Stevenson House were very honest
with us right at the beginning. They said you guys have to keep looking for your permanent
home. This isn’t it. We can’t guarantee you that and so the arrangement we reached with them
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Page 11 of 35
was just for a 1-year deal. The understanding being you keep looking. Now we had looked for
quite some time before and one of the things we learned is finding the kind of space that we need
for serving folks and having a good industrial-sized kitchen is very, very tough to do, in
particularly in downtown. I think we’ve talked to just about every church and community center
in the town and it’s sort of an almost impossible combination of things to find to get something
that would suit our needs. So, understanding that we needed to keep looking, we did that.
Meanwhile we were pretty happy with how things went at Stevenson House. We did lose some
volume from the move but the drop-in volume was not too significant. I think we went from
having about 144 meals served a day on average to about 130 and given the move and given that
Stevenson House is a smaller facility than what we had before. So, it’s a little more cramped to
get around and it wasn’t as spacious as the Bryant Street facility but we feel very good about
that. It’s been hard work for our volunteers because they are now having to navigate through
tighter spaces and more crowding. We’re having to turn tables faster than we use too which
makes it feel less like a community place that you can just sit, relax, take your time and talk. You
were there, I’m sure you got a feel for it. That’s the situation through the move to Stevenson
House. Now for the great news which is we’re coming back to downtown this summer. We’ve
continued searching and in January of this year we signed an agreement with the Masons to use
their facility which is right here on the corner of University and Florence. It’s literally across the
street from the Apple Store. They have a really nice, very large serving area on the second floor.
Obviously, we would have preferred first floor but the location is unbeatable. It is literally one
block from the Bryant Street location we were at and so everybody who came to us on Bryant
Street will have no increase in logistic problems or transportation problems coming to the
Masonic Center. We are locked and loaded to be back and serving lunches at the Masonic Center
this summer. I think it’s going to be in July. We’re still working through some issues. We’re
having fun with things like having to install mop sinks to get our environmental health permit
and stuff like that but we’re on track to do that. We’re also staying at Stevenson House so it’s not
just moving back to downtown. It’s we’re going to stay at Stevenson House, continue doing what
we’re doing there and move back downtown. So that’s a big expansion of our reach and the
number of people that we’re looking to serve in the community. One important wrinkle is to
understand is that the Masonic Center doesn’t yet have a kitchen that is big enough to meet our
needs to serve the people downtown. They have a catering kitchen but it’s not a commercial
kitchen that you can serve 150 – 170 meals at. We’re in discussions with them about doing a
significant remodel over there which would be on our nickel and I’m optimistic that we’ll be able
to get there but we’re certainly not there now. It’s not 100% clear if we’ll be able to do it so we
are relying on continuing to cook all our meals at Stevenson House which has a spectacular
kitchen. Then packaging up meals, box them up, put them on a van, bring them to the Masonic
Center and serve them there. That’s not absolutely optimal, people prefer to be served with
something that’s cooked on site but we’re confident that we’re going to be able to make that
work on an interim basis. The other thing we’re doing in addition to now serving out of two sites
is we’re experimenting with serving dinners. This is something that we took a hard look at, at the
request of Stevenson House who has interest in their residents to try a dinner meal. Also, at the
Senior Nutrition Program in the county who, as you know, is our major funder was looking for
new innovative programs that the Senior Nutrition Programs could do. One of the things they
mentioned was dinners and that catalyzed our thinking as well. We are going to start an
experiment of doing that once a month, see what the demand is and we’re going to have to get
volunteers who are used to coming to lunches see how it works to get them to come to dinners.
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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 12 of 35
It’s an exciting experiment and it could expand outreach and we’re really excited about giving
that a try. The bottom line is we’re going to expand our footprint substantially in serving more
people here and that’s really thrilling for us. The “but,” which comes next, and the challenge is
this is expensive. We’ve always operated on a really lean budget. We served 41,000 meals to
roughly 1,200 diners in the last fiscal year. We did that with one paid manager and this isn’t an
executive director. We don’t have an executive director. The executive director is the 18 board
members who essentially collectively have to serve in that role so our one paid Manager
manages the operation on the site. She manages our kitchen staff of three, she’s phenomenal, and
she has spectacular relationships both with our diners and with the Senior Nutrition Program
folks. She’s a great ambassador but she is not an executive director.
Commissioner O’Nan: Is that – you mean Mary Ruth?
Mr. Patrick: Yes.
Commissioner O’Nan: Ok.
Mr. Patrick: Yes, absolutely.
Commissioner O’Nan: She’s awesome.
Mr. Patrick: Yes, she’s fantastic and one of the constraints that we are looking at now is we can’t
continue to put all this load on her. It’s too much, it’s not sustainable, you know we have got to
take things off of her plate and that means we need to hire. We have made some decisions to
spend more money to accommodate the move and the expansion back to downtown. They’re not
inexpensive. First comes rent at the Masonic Center and while they’ve been great to us and they
are really interested in reengaging with the community at the Masonic Center, it’s not free. So,
they are charging us $3,000 a month in rent plus any incremental expenses they endure over their
baseline as a result of our coming there. We’re estimating, hoping, it’s about $1,500 so we
penciled in our own budgeting process about $4,500 a month in that combination of rent and
expenses so that’s about $5,400 of additional cost off the top. We just hired a new – I always
refer to him as sort of a strong senior Lieutenant for Mary Ruth and we just hired a terrific young
guy to do that because with two sites there’s no way that we can just do it with volunteers. Also,
Mary Ruth needs back up and relief and on a fully loaded basis. We’ve penciled in that’s about
another $60,000 which is still when you think about Palo Alto is shockingly inexpensive but to
us, it’s a lot of money. Then we’re going to have the costs of packaging all these meals,
transporting them, etc. That’s some additional labor and I think we’re going to have to lease a
minivan. We haven’t fully worked it out but that’s going to be another $20,000 - $25,000
roughly. So, all in we estimate it’s probably about another $145,000 of expense per year that gets
added to our budget. You know as you can see from the annual report that we provided you with
we had a $407,000 budget all in and even in the last fiscal year, even then we had a shortfall
between the Senior Nutrition Program funding and the City funding that we had to make up on
our own and so that’s the gap that we’re facing. Also, obviously if we do have the opportunity to
remodel the kitchen at the Masonic Center that’s another significant expense and I wouldn’t be
surprised based on the information we’ve gotten if that isn’t another $250,00 to $450,000 of
expense. The challenges we face are today we don’t have a long-term home yet. Stevenson
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Page 13 of 35
House gave us a 1-year extension so we now have time to stay there through the next coming
fiscal year. Our agreement with the Masons is also a 1-year agreement and it’s pending whether
or not we can reach a deal on a remodel. If we can then we’d get a 10-year lease and that kind of
becomes home base but we don’t have that yet. So, we’re in two locations but we can’t count on
either one and obviously, we have a budget gap that we need to address. The good news is we
can absorb the blow in the short term. We do have the resources to do that but we can’t absorb it
in the long term. How are we going to pay for this? The answer is that we have to convenience
the community and we have to convince the city that continuing to have a Senior Nutrition
Program in the city is vital and it’s worth supporting so that we can stay here. That’s our job.
One way we think about it is that the city use to support us with in-kind services in a major way
with very low, almost essentially free rent at Bryant Street. That’s now gone and what we are
positioning the request to the city is you now need to simply restore the support you use to give
us but if it’s not in-kind then you need to help us with paying for the place we do land. I heard
this from Gloria Hum too it’s simply unimaginable that a community like this one would lose La
Comida and wouldn’t have a Senior Nutrition Program but it’s possible if we can’t generate the
support that we need to close that budget gap. Our senior population, as you all know, is growing
and without a Senior Nutrition Program downtown, our view is we’re all worse off. We’re
impoverished if our seniors become less visible if they are not included as part of the heart of
downtown, and we need them to have a place to communally connect and dine altogether in
downtown. That’s the message to the city and the community even more important is that we’re
in the process of reaching out to convey. So, what we’re doing now is we’re in the process of
reaching out to community leaders in Palo Alto to tell them what’s going on, what we’re doing,
and to ask every one of them to take a stand publicly saying yes, La Comida is vitally important.
That they support the community doing what’s necessary to keep it here. We’re talking to faith
leaders. My goal is we talk to every single one of them if we can and ask them to raise their hand
and say that and let us publicize on our website and in our materials saying hey, here’s a list of
community leaders who think this is really important. We’re also talking to business leaders,
high tech community leaders, we’re going out and going to talk to the presidents of all the
neighborhood associations the same request, we’re talking to service clubs, and we’re also
talking to other leaders in other parts of the non-profit community who clearly understand the
issue. We know there’s a lot of support out there for what we do. There’s a lot of people who
know who we are but they don’t know the situation we’re in. One thing that was really striking
for us is in connection with the recent nominations for the Tall Tree Award we were encouraged
by Lydia Kou to go out and get nominated and get some public support for our nomination to be
the best non-profit. Obviously, we didn’t win and Ada’s Cafe won and more power to them.
That’s great but what we’re excited about is we got 500 people to fill our nomination forms for
us and that just told us internally that we can generate a lot of support for our organization.
We’re really confident that we will, if we work hard enough, we’ll find the support that we need
to find both in the community and in the city but that’s a task that we have to roll up our sleeves
and do. So that is the story and I’m happy to answer any questions but that’s our current
situation.
Chair Stinger: Thank you for putting that together; the good, the bad and the hard. Given time
constraints we’ll take one or two questions. You have your light on Jill.
Commissioner O’Nan: Yes, so thank you so much for your presentation. I was curious about the
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Page 14 of 35
connection or is there any connection between the Café style food that Avenidas is going to be
serving and your kitchen. So, in other words, is there going to be multiple options for seniors
now downtown? Are you concerned at all about some former clients may drift over to the
Avenidas side? Are you sure about your demographics?
Mr. Patrick: We’re not terribly concerned about it for a couple of reasons. Number one, we going
to be there in July. I think they are more than a year out. Number two and more importantly my
view – my understanding is essentially it’s a café is what they are contemplating. Obviously, we
haven’t seen all the details but another sort of grab your food and go café is not something that
isn’t already available on University Avenue so it seems to us that it is largely already there.
Now they may offer it at lower cost but it’s largely already there and most importantly I think
what they don’t offer and they won’t offer is any community. So, you can go to your café and
grab your sandwich and your bowl of soup but you won’t have the community. I don’t think they
can match the price of from $3 to $0 so, we’re not too concerned. We’re mindful of it, we’re
aware of it, we’ve answered this question before but I don’t think we’re directly competitive with
Avenidas and I think we can be. We certainly don’t want to be. Nobody wants to fund a non-
profit that’s competing with another non-profit and so it’s really important to us that we not be
competing with them. I’d say more power to them to do the café. I think it will serve a nitch that
isn’t the same as ours and so I think we’re fine with that.
Chair Stinger: I had one question that was slightly different. Your transitioning it seems like to a
different kind of board. You talked about the professional skill sets that you were bringing in.
I’m just curious if there’s a program of you doing some transitioning work with your board to
bring old skills and new skills together in a compatible manner or if it’s just automatically
happening?
Mr. Patrick: No, I think it’s not automatic although we have had some vacancies that were
available to be filled and so we’ve taken the opportunity to start filling them. I think we are in the
process of a transition from a board that didn’t have to fundraise because for the past 45-years
we’ve been lucky enough that between Senior Nutrition Program funds and Palo Alto funds we
didn’t have to do it. That was an amazing thing for a non-profit not to have to raise money but
that’s over. We have to raise money and so it does call on us to bring in board members who are
more suited to going out and doing the things you have to do to raise money. It’s not a fungible
skill but we’re working really hard to make sure that we continue to preserve the benefits of all
the -- we have amazing experience on our Board. Of Members who have been on our Board for a
long, long time that an institutional knowledge that I certainly don’t have and a lot of us who are
new don’t have. So, we want to keep that but we do need to go out and get some aggressive
fundraisers.
Chair Stinger: Well I really thank you for the update and we will look forward to hearing how
you progress through July and in the next fiscal year.
Mr. Patrick: Great. You won’t have any choice but to hear from us. Brace yourself. Alright.
Chair Stinger: We’re ready.
Mr. Patrick: Thank you.
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access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
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Page 15 of 35
Chair Stinger: Our other learning series have always been really helpful and I think this is going
to follow suit. I’m really impressed with what we have heard from CASSY and La Comida. I
think appreciating the changes that they deal with in their service organization and in their board
structure is valuable for us as a Commission. Let me just make sure I’m on the right – we’ll try
to speed up and get back on to our time schedule.
3. Discussion of FY2018/19 work plan projects
Chair Stinger: I wanted to ask for some updates on specific work plan projects. Theresa…
Vice Chair Chen: Oh yes.
Chair Stinger: … can you help us on…
Vice Chair Chen: Sure.
Chair Stinger: … inclusion.
Vice Chair Chen: I am so glad I have a chance to talk about what we did. Valerie and I, we
worked very hard to try to get this thing started. What we’re doing is to foster an inclusive,
welcoming community and there was public engagement with newcomers. Including immigrants
and then not immigrants coming from outside of Palo Alto and at first, we thought we’re going
to start with the Chinese population Mandarin speaking program but they didn’t work because
we decided with, well I did, that reflect the Mandarin speaking population that they want to have
inclusive training or leadership training including other ethnic groups speaking English. That’s a
very good sign. They are willing to reach out to other communities. Let me just say the program
goals ok? Then we want to create a welcoming environment for all newcomers as I said, improve
our mutual understanding, promote respect, inclusiveness and involvement. Then what we’re
going to do is try to organize some activities to enhance their understanding of government and
city services and school board functions and community issues and then local activities. Then
after all this, they are going to understand what’s going on and we can encourage them to
participate in civil programs. Civil engagement is our ultimate goal but for them to come out and
work with us. So, in order to do that we have to build a leadership capacity so that’s the final
goal before we reach them to get involved in civic engagement. Alright so we did some research
on the existing models and then the ones that stand out, there are three programs we looked at.
The first one is the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce and it’s called Leadership Palo Alto. A lot
of people know about this program. It is an extensive spread around 10-months. Every month for
a whole day and there are maybe 2 dozen people, not very many. They pay a fee, quite a higher
fee. I don’t know how much, it didn’t say it but they the fee to be involved in the program. I
suppose they have one day to go to Stanford and Stanford people talk about them. In one day
there is government day and, you know, it’s so extensive. So, the goal is to in-depth understand
out Palo Alto life including local economies, social and government challenges, opportunities
and trends and also consider Palo Alto as a global influence I guess so international affairs and of
course, it’s fee base. Then I’ve talked to three Chinese people and Debra Cen who we know and
the second is Amy Yang. Amy and Debra, they are co-founders of Palo Alto PTA and the third
person is called Nelson Ng. He’s my Tai Chi teacher and his wife is called Kimberly Wong who
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Page 16 of 35
is very enthusiastic about community issues. So, I started talking to Nelson and he said oh I’m
taking that program so it’s very good to get feedback from those people and I’ll talk about what
kind of feedback they have. The second program that we looked at was Mountain View based.
It’s a similar program, like 9 instead of 10-months and it’s fee-based. It says the fee is $1,850 to
pay for the 9-months training but this program is set up by the City of Mountain View; similar in
Palo Alto. The third program which interests us a lot is Mountain View’s the Spanish Civic
Leadership Academy which is focused on Spanish speaking population. This is short, it’s 9-
weeks every Wednesday evening from 6:30 or 8:30, something like that, training on Wednesday
evenings. Now here in the last batch is from March 21st so there is still one going on right now.
Still, this is organized by the city and then city staff from various departments design and
facilitate this curriculum. It’s a city project and of course free. You have to apply for it, the
number is 30 and you have to be accepted. Alright so what we did was first of all Valerie and I,
we met with the Chamber of Commerce, Jack Goode and Iris? Is it Iris Chan? Yes and two
people and Iris speaks Mandarin and then asked them for whether they would like to help us set
up as a partner to set up this program. They told us they are very busy with their work and that
they are not ready to do it. They can do two things, one is to help us to get speakers if we start an
event. The second thing is to help us to advertise to the community and that’s the two things that
they want to do. The second thing we talked to the YMCA people and talked to Lee Phfab and
she talked to them and we had some success. We’ll talk about that a little later. Twice I wrote an
email to about a dozen Chinese community leaders that I got an email from another source and
asked them what do they want? Do you think that they think this is a good thing to do? What is
the content? What are the speakers and stuff like that. I get very minimum response but I do get
some people talking to me and emailing me so I got some sense. First of all, when they said we
don’t want a lengthy program. We don’t want 10-months and pay a fee, they don’t want to do
that. They want a shorter program and the second thing is they want an English-speaking session.
So, if you want to say a Chinese speaking session you have to run it in parallel; one English and
one Chinese. So, we can do both because Chinese people don’t want people to look down on
them; so, I can only understand Chinese not English so they want to have a choice. That’s a good
point and so the very last thing that we did was to talk to Nancy Shephard our Former Mayor and
we talked to her yesterday at length. Nancy is very creative, she knew a lot of things but her idea
is that you don’t want a training session. People don’t want to be talked about, you want to create
a social gathering so like neighborhood meetings or a community lunch or a dinner cooking
together. So, they can merge together instead of being taught so they gradually capture the idea
to participate in the community. I think about this is a little bit difficult, say you have a
neighborhood party and suppose the neighborhood there’s very few immigrants or very few
other ethnic groups. How do you merge them together so it’s a difficult issue and that’s a city-
wide dinner? Anyway, that’s their ideas. Alright so the model that we’ve been thinking about is a
short 3-hour program with a panel of speakers. Who do we get as speakers? We can get city
departments to talk about the history, government structure, services of each department and then
how can we involve a lot of people they don’t know that there are committees and commissions
in the city that we can participate in. They don’t know anything about it. I go to bible studies
and I talked to them and they say oh, we didn’t hear about this. So, I think this is good to let
them know that the citizens and residents in Palo Alto we can do this kind of things; let them
know. The second thing is we are very interested in the newcomers. They move to Palo Alto and
a lot of them the parents want to go to the best school. We know that Palo Alto School District is
very famous but however they don’t understand how a school board is formed and how it works
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Page 17 of 35
and how can the parents participate in the school board situation? It would be good to have
school board people give some sort of ideas. Then lastly is this Chamber of Commerce, they
want to broadcast their business outlook, opportunities and challenges and international business
and etc. The Chamber of Commerce, they could talk about their lengthy leadership programs so
they can sell it at this short meeting. In this way, this little short program could be a stepping
stool for the lengthy leadership program for the City of Palo Alto so that’s serving good. The
other thing actually Jill was suggesting is we put all this information that we think the resident
would like to learn on the city website; like a clean, cut website so people who don’t want to go
to class they can come to the website and then click on it and learn about it. I don’t know
everybody would like to go to the website because I don’t use the website very much for the city
and I use websites but not city websites. Now the partners, the most promising one is the YMCA
so they’re scheduled to have a Welcome to America event in September. We think maybe part of
it could be Welcome to Palo Alto and then we have this program as part of the program in their
welcoming week and that would be good. Now what are we going to do? I think HRC, we think
the best way is to form a subcommittee to really, really pencil out the program and what are we
going to do about this? So, the subcommittee then could go out and talk to the Chamber, talk to
the city, to other community members to organize this event. Good? Yes so, I’d like to see if
anybody has any ideas.
Chair Stinger: Thank you, Theresa. You’ve done a lot of work on that and really taken it to a
level that we didn’t have in our work plan and I’m really enthused. It was an area of focus that
came up in our investigation of needs last summer that the Mandarin community is not as well
integrated into leadership as we might like for that size of a population in Palo Alto. We went
through a lot of models and have come to this Welcome to Palo Alto Newcomers and a bridge to
leadership Palo Alto. I think it makes a lot of sense and initially, we were very taken by the
model in Mountain View; the Spanish speaking program but as we thought about the advantage
that a lot of people tell us that they get out of Leadership Palo Alto was the networking. If we
want people to network we want them to network with a variety of – we want the composition of
the networking to be diverse and so we think this might work better. I also – I wanted to
elaborate a little bit on the Welcome America program that the Y does – puts on. A Welcome
America is a…
Ms. van de Zwaag: Welcoming America.
Chair Stinger: Welcoming America, thank you. I’m consistent; I get them wrong every time. It’s
a separate program and the Y has done small efforts in that regard and when we were doing our
need assessment a year ago, it was one of the programs that this Edie suggested. She’d like to
emphasize, build on it and make it more of an event in Palo Alto. It’s the third week in
September. What they did last year as an example was had a map in the library where you could
put where your parents came from, where you grandparents came from and show the variety of
the backgrounds in Palo Alto. It was nice, it was a good display but there wasn’t really a lot of
action going on with that. I had taken a proposal to their Diversity and Inclusion Committee for
Welcoming week partnership with the Human Relations Commission where we would focus on
profiles of heroes who remind us of our American values. That would specifically be profiles of
immigrant stories of immigrants who have gone through a particular hardship and taught us
something about ourselves. I can elaborate on that but I’d rather build it through the
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Page 18 of 35
subcommittee that Theresa has proposed. Just as an update the Diversity and Inclusion
Committee liked the idea and would take that on so there would be perhaps two events. A
newcomer’s event to encourage people to transition to Leadership Palo Alto and then a more fun
event where we would do a fun event where we would acknowledge and respect some of the
immigrant stories in our community. I think the action item on the table is a subcommittee and I
would like to work on that to continue if somebody else would, that would be great. If we need
to take it to our new appointments we can do that also but I will ask some people to express
interest offline and carry this forward to finish this year’s goal.
Commissioner Lee: Could I ask if Vice Chair Chen would be able to continue to be involved
with that initiative even while she terms out of the Commission?
Vice Chair Chen: I will do it when I can. As you know I have family not in the area and when
I’m stepping down I plan to spend more time with my grandchildren so I will try my best.
Chair Stinger: I just want you to know that that wasn’t a plant because we have asked the same
thing. We really would like to do that and there’s a precedent for community members being
strong contributors and you’ve taken this so far.
Commissioner Lee: So, would the timeline be between now and the 3rd week in September?
Ms. van de Zwaag: Yes, it’s pretty tight. If we wait for the new members to come on board, I
mean I know that’s only the June meeting but before some of them might be really anxious and
say yes, I’ll do it. It’s pretty tight now and obviously once we determine a scope for it and if the
upfront work is just saying let’s identify five speakers and we’ll put all those speakers on the
book but some of the more nuanced things we’ll do a little bit later. There is definitely some
work that needs to happen pretty soon.
Commissioner Lee: Is the target demographic still the Chinese-American community or have we
brought in the target demographic?
Ms. van de Zwaag: How I see it is that is still one of them but you know it’s Welcoming
American, Welcome to Palo Alto. That could be someone who moves from New Jersey and
someone who moved from Ukraine. It’s a diverse group of people who have come or just people
that just never paid attention. They were busy in their lives and they never paid attention to any
community things and just said hey, I can get a lot of that information in one place. I think the
marketing of this will be pretty interesting.
Commissioner Lee: Well I’d be happy to pitch in. I’m relatively new to Palo Alto even though I
grew up in the Bay Area.
Vice Chair Chen: That’s good.
Chair Stinger: Thank you. Thank you for getting that started and we will be a subcommittee of 2
½.
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Page 19 of 35
Vice Chair Chen: Ok, 2 ½.
Chair Stinger: We’re going to keep you on a short leash. The other…
Commissioner O’Nan: No, you just turned off your button again.
Chair Stinger: The other just quick update I wanted to give was on the LGBTQ Listening
campaign. One of the things that came out of that was I’ll call it sensitivity training, language
training and of the Office of Human Services has hired or has contracted with Outlet to train the
summer camp program staff on LGBTQ sensitivity so the same or a program similar to the one
that’s offered in the school to school staff to be offered to our camp staff. I’m thrilled to see that
outcome.
Ms. van de Zwaag: May I add that our LGBTQ survey is still live to June 1st so to still encourage
people to take it. We’ve have 100 responses so far which 60 – wait, we looked at it today Chair. I
think…
Chair Stinger: It was 100.
Ms. van de Zwaag: It was 100 but the majority of people that have done it so far have been youth
so that will be really interesting and helpful information that it is pretty significant the voice of
the youth in our community which will help us in our further relationship with CASSY and with
the outlet and with the safe space that they have at Family and Children Services. The LGBTQ
safe space so I think it’s interesting that partnerships can happen once the group that worked on
that event can do some debriefing on the survey information that comes in.
Chair Stinger: Thank you. Does anybody else have anything they want to share or mention?
4. Consideration of options for HRC involvement with an event organized by AACI
(Asian Americans for Community Involvement); a Community Watching of the film,
The Chinese Exclusion Act: American Experience
Chair Stinger: If not we’ll move on to Agenda Item Four. Commissioner Lee had met with the
Asian-Americans for Community Involvement and had a brilliant idea. I’d like to ask him to
present that to us.
Commissioner Lee: I’ll try to keep it relatively brief. I met with Allan and Mary Seid, two of the
six or twelve Co-Founders of AACI, Asian-Americans for Community Involvement. They
actually formed that organization about 45-years ago out of their living room in Palo Alto. They
started with the idea of getting Asian-Americans more involved in local government and
addressing stereotypes and other laws that adversely effected Asian-Americans in our
community. They had this idea for just a very simple event, to do a sort of a watch event around
this PBS documentary, that’s coming out on Tuesday, May 29th I believe, about the Training
Exclusion Act: An American Experience. They – AACI is planning on hosting a watch event at
the Channing House that evening and they are working on securing some panelist to talk about it
the hour before the documentary starts. Allan Seid would certainly be one of the panelists, he
taught Ethnic Studies at Stanford and was one of the first Asian-American members of the State
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Page 20 of 35
Board of Education and so he’s very knowledgeable about that. We’re also trying to get some of
the folks involved in making the documentary, since it was a KQED production, a lot of the
people who narrated it and formed are based in San Francisco. So, we’re hoping to get one or
two of those folks to come down and speak on it. I’m hoping that the Commission will be on
board with this as a Commission sort of co-organizing this very simple and straightforward event
on Tuesday, May 29th. It really would just involve me creating a flyer and doing some publicity
and getting folks to get out to Channing House on Tuesday night to watch the documentary and
hearing from the panel. If the Commission has any particular questions or concerns about them
I’m happy to answer them but I’ll just keep it short and sweet for now.
Commissioner O’Nan: I just wanted to clarify so are we sponsoring the event with we’re helping
to organize it?
Ms. van de Zwaag: No, he’s using the word endorsing or co-organizing. Sponsor or co-sponsor is
not really within the realm of the HRC’s lexicon because that involves a gift of free city funds as
far as the city uses the language sponsor or co-sponsor. So, endorse the event is just more passive
in that you think it’s a good idea. Co-organizing is saying hey, we are willing to do some of the
work or get people out there. We’re willing to send out some invitations or whatever the level of
involvement that you would like to assist Commissioner Lee with. I think he’s going to do it
regardless but would – you know he’s coming to you because he would love to either get you
involved or just feel like he has your backing in the role that he is playing. Is that correct?
Commissioner Lee: Yes, that’s right and I think it’s particularly timely given the growing
Chinese-American community both immigrant populations as well as multi-generational in Palo
Alto. I think even for folks who have been here for a while there isn’t a lot of knowledge about
the sort of discrimination that Asian-Americans face, Chinese-Americans face in this county so I
think it’s important. You know if we really want to integrate that segment of our community
into our work and what this community is all about. I think it’s important that we help them
understand some of the historical struggles that Asian-Americans and Chinese-Americans face in
this country.
Chair Stinger: I would just like to comment that as a standalone event I would think it seems
important but particularly since one of our priorities this year has been inclusion efforts. This just
slips in there nicely and I think it would be a tribute to acknowledge the work that they are doing.
I would like to endorse it. Let me have some discussion.
Vice Chair Chen: Sure, I was wondering do you know if AACI extended invitation to this new
immigrant community like Chinese PTA? That community includes more new immigrants like
younger generations.
Commissioner Lee: I think certainly that’s a good idea and if we’re involved we will work to
extend invitations….
Vice Chair Chen: Yes.
Commissioner Lee: …to that community and to…
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Page 21 of 35
Vice Chair Chen: That’s right.
Commissioner Lee: … Allan was looking for a bit of human power from me and so that’s why
he had requested a meeting with me on Sunday to see if I would get involved. I certainly was
interested in personally getting involved as an individual but I would love it if the Commission
could sort of put its name to it so to speak. So that the community realizes this is a community
event co-organized by the Commission and by this prominent Asian-American group. Certainly,
maybe we can get the…
Vice Chair Chen: Yes, I could introduce you to Debra and Amy. Have them put it on a WeChat.
Commissioner Lee: WeChat is very popular.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Yes, I think what you’re already doing is thinking beyond the Chinese
community because they are familiar with that history. I think other people who have vague
knowledge or no knowledge of it, I think that’s the more powerful alliance.
Commissioner Lee: I think already they’ve gotten quite a bit of interest from folks who live at
Channing House who aren’t from the Chinse-American community who just want to know more
about it. So, it would be very educational for the entire community.
Commissioner Alhassani: What’s the capacity for Channing House?
Commissioner Lee: I thought it was something like 80 or 90 in there…
Chair Stinger: No, that auditorium is huge.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Well no, my daughter has danced in that auditorium. I wouldn’t doubt that
it's 80. If it’s the one…
Commissioner Lee: It’s the downstairs one.
Ms. van de Zwaag: The downstairs one on the right?
Commissioner Lee: On the right, yes.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Yes, 80 might be it.
Commissioner Lee: I think it’s around 80.
Commissioner Alhassani: This is the first time I am hearing it so this is just a total guess but my
instinct, just seeing other events in Palo Alto and given that the subject matter of this and the
timeliness of it, my instinct is 80 is a number that will fill up pretty quick. I would almost say
that if you do find that it does fill up quickly then if you’re willing to run with it, it may even be
worth it to do two showings.
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Page 22 of 35
Commissioner Lee: That’s definitely an option. I’ll make sure to record it.
Chair Stinger: You’re thinking two showings, I think it’s on at different times or you’re thinking
the same time in two places?
Commissioner Alhassani: Sorry I meant different…
Commissioner Lee: Well if you’re up at 2 a.m. I think they are doing a rebroadcast at 2 a.m.
Ms. van de Zwaag: They’re actually watching it when its live on KQED.
Commissioner Alhassani: Sorry I meant maybe show it again or something.
Commissioner Lee: Yes, definitely.
Ms. van de Zwaag: I think that’s one of the limitations so if they showed it again that would need
to be, I believe, with the permission of KQED, especially this kind of public showing. If the city
was at all involved, we’d need to do it in a way that was within the guidelines of what KQED
wanted of course.
Chair Stinger: Would it be appropriate to look for a different venue?
Commissioner Lee: I think given the timing of it I think we would be happy if we sold out at 80
but if we had 50 that would be fine as well.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Right and I’d hate since it’s at a senior citizen complex than to move it
because that this might be part – do they live there?
Commissioner Lee: Yes, Allan and Mary live there.
Ms. van de Zwaag: See so then it’s like an event for their community as well and then to take it
away I have a hard time doing that.
Commissioner Lee: They’ve already asked some other event to reschedule their event so that
they could get that bigger room. They are committed to having it there at least for Channing
House but they would like to include the larger community and there should be capacity for 50
or so community members. So, it…
Chair Stinger: I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that. Is there outreach or could you outreach to some
youth groups? I think that would be…
Commissioner Lee: Well I was thinking maybe if the history teachers wanted to give extra credit
or something for their students to either come and watch it there or watch it at home and write
about it. Certainly, would try to reach out to as many different people or groups as possible who
might be interested.
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Page 23 of 35
Ms. van de Zwaag: Just at Channing House, you do have to be careful; everybody that comes in
needs to sign in and they have a pretty strict sign-in policy there.
Commissioner Lee: It seems like they were pretty comfortable with it though. It seems like Allan
has hosted quite a few events there so he’s confident that the sign in process should go relatively
smoothly I hope.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Is it going to be like an Eventbrite or something like that so people realizes…
Commissioner Lee: Yes, I would probably create an Eventbrite for it with a flyer just so that we
don’t totally overwhelm…
Ms. van de Zwaag: Right, that is my concern.
MOTION
Chair Stinger: I would like to make a motion that we endorse the AACI community watching of
the Citizen Group Exclusion Act: An American Experience.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Like endorse or co…
Commissioner Lee: Could I ask that we co-organize it?
Chair Stinger: Endorse and co-organize the event.
Commissioner Alhassani: I second that motion.
Chair Stinger: Speak to your second?
Commissioner Alhassani: No, yes, I think it’s a good idea, sorry.
Chair Stinger: May I have a show of hands all in favor? Any opposed?
MOTION PASSED 5-0 WITH COMMISSIONER BRAHMBHATT ABSENT
Commissioner Lee: Well thank you very much. I realize this is sort of last minute but I’m hoping
in 2 ½-weeks we can pull this together so I appreciate you guys signing on board for us to co-
organize it.
Chair Stinger: Thank you for identifying the chance to collaborate on something that’s really
important.
Commissioner Alhassani: So really quickly, when you have something online that shareable will
you guys send it to us?
Commissioner Lee: Yes, I will send that through Minka.
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Page 24 of 35
5. Discussion of the Human Relations Commission Retreat
Chair Stinger: Now we’ll move on quickly and talk about the upcoming retreat. Leadership has
been talking to a consultant with staff or staff has been talking with a consultant on a chance to
hear some her ideas. I’m really excited about it. We’re going to do it in two parts this year. We’ll
have a June meeting and our City Attorney will gladly help us with some roles, responsibility,
procedures that are appropriate for the Commission. That will be something that existing
Commissioners and new Commissioners can become grounded in. Then we will have our retreat
which is now scheduled for June 16th and the goal that it will be fun, interactive and also
productive. We’ll do some re-grounding, coming together, some team building. Do some
strategy development, look at continuing work, new programs and…
Commissioner Lee: Have we finalized the time on June 16th?
Ms. van de Zwaag: I think 9-3.
Commissioner Lee: 9-3, ok.
Commissioner O’Nan: So are we having a regular meeting on the 14th and then having…
Ms. van de Zwaag: We are. There was the thought not to but the City Attorney wasn’t able to
make it on that Saturday and she was able to make it that night. We also have a HSRAP grantee
that is very anxious to come so we decided when we looked through our series of summer
meetings we decided that we would meet in June and July and then take August off. I was going
to talk about that in a little bit but made that decision after looking at schedules and as those of
you that are continuing know that I polled you.
Chair Stinger: I think there will be an advantage to having them linked more closely in time so
that we have the serious discussion of roles, responsibilities, and procedures. Then have that as
background for our discussion of strategy and work plan actually for the next fiscal year. Any
comments on that? I hope the 16th works for everybody.
6. Human Relations Commission Chair and Vice Chair elections
Chair Stinger: Then I’ll turn this over to staff.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Thank you Chair. I will be just leading the explanations for the selections of
the Chair and the Vice Chair. It will be a little bit different than some people expect. We usually
do elections for a year of service but as you know we are doing it tonight. We have the end of
term for some folks and we have the beginning of the terms for next time and its always been
that awkward discussion of should we do it before the new people or after the new people and so
forth. Mary and I looked into it and the Council changes in January, our fellow Commissions in
our department, Parks, and Rec and also the Art Commission, they all changed their leadership to
January. So, with Vice Chair Chen leaving what staff and leadership have decided to do is do 6-
month elections. So, we will be electing leadership for 6-months and then we will be looking into
that again in January to then elect a team from January to the next January. So that there might
be people terming out a couple months after that but the new people will have been here 6-
months and I think what happened last year is we had new people and you’re electing people and
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Page 25 of 35
it’s like well, I like her green shirt instead of her brown shirt so there really wasn’t that level.
This is a Committee that is working on a lot of important things and we need the leadership to
really be grounded in the work of the Commission and those that are electing them just to know
people’s strengths. That is my preface to the process which I always have to look at my book to
do so because we want to do it right. The first step is that the Chair explains the general duties
and responsibilities of that role including the monthly time commitment to facilitate the
meetings. Chair.
Chair Stinger: When I first read that I thought the focus was on leading the monthly meetings
and that is a fraction of the work. It’s an honor to be able to work with a Chair and a Vice Chair
and staff and set the agenda for the meeting but that is maybe a 1-hour or 1 1/2-hour preparation.
Much more time I think goes, in my experience, has gone into working with the different
Commissioners and on the work plan to take it forward on communications. If I were to estimate
the time I would say that maybe this is 10% of the effort that goes into it and other 90% is behind
the scenes work. I would also say that the enjoyment is 10% here and 90% doing the background
work.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Ok so I’m going to read the next couple steps because they kind of all
happens in a flurry of discussion. The Chair will then open the floor to nominations for the
position of Chair. The Commissioner’s nominate one Commissioner at a time. The person
nominated must be present at the meeting. A Commissioner may enter his or her name in the
nomination. The person offering the nomination can explain why they have nominated the
person or why they would be appropriate for the position. The Chair asks the nominated person
if they are willing to accept. So, you continue to do that if there are more nominations till that’s
all closed and then Mary hands out these very fancy, high tech ballots in which you write the
name of your candidate. Even though there is only one candidate we still tend to do that just for
officialdom. I will then have the Chair open the floor to nominations for the position of Chair
and as you might imagine we’ll do the same thing for Vice Chair.
Chair Stinger: The floor is open for nominations for the Chair for the June to January period.
NOMINATION
Vice Chair Chen: I’d like to nominate Valerie to continue for the next 6-months at least because
this guarantees the continuation of a project that she has been working throughout the year.
Ms. van de Zwaag: You have to ask yourself…
Commissioner Lee: Do we need a second?
Ms. van de Zwaag: No, she has to ask herself if she’s willing to accept the nomination.
Chair Stinger: I am and thank you Commissioner Chen.
Ms. van de Zwaag: So, then any other nominations?
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Page 26 of 35
Commissioner Lee: Are we allowed to speak to the nominations?
Ms. van de Zwaag: You certainly may.
Commissioner Lee: I would unofficially second that nomination. I know the Chair has been so
generous with her time. I know when we were working on CEDAW at the end of last year she
met with me many, many times over coffee at Coupa Café and so I appreciate her time and her
insight. She asked really great questions and she’s very determined to make sure that all
proposals are as strong as they can be and are proposals that the entire Commission can get on
board with. So, I appreciate her perspective and her devotion to make sure that we act together as
one Commission so that’s why I would second that nomination.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Mary, will you please distribute the ballots?
Commissioner Lee: Is this like Survivor where we can (inaudible -off mic)?
Commissioner Alhassani: I wish we had it more like convention like with balloons and
streamers.
Ms. Mary Constantino: Just right the name and then fold it over and we’ll pick it up.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Hand it to her when she walks back.
Commissioner O’Nan: Thank you, Mary.
Ms. Constantino: You’re welcome.
Commissioner Alhassani: Thank you very much.
Commissioner O’Nan: I’m writing with my special Mehdi pen. What would I do without you?
It’s ok.
Ms. van de Zwaag: So, it is unanimous so congratulations Chair Stinger for another 6-months.
Now we will open nominations – oh would you like to say something?
NOMINATION PASSED WITH A VOTE OF 5-0 TO MAKE VALERIE STRINGER
CHAIR WITH COMMISSIONER BRAHMBHATT ABSENT.
Chair Stinger: Thank you.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Ok.
Chair Stinger: I just want to comment, I have to comment on that. I expected you to say issue-
oriented but it is really the Commission that I care about and bringing it together. I’m pleased
that you noted that, thank you very much.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Now we will go to open nominations for Vice Chair.
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Page 27 of 35
Chair Stinger: May I have nominations for Vice Chair?
NOMINATION
Commissioner Alhassani: If you’d accept I’d love to nominate Commissioner O’Nan who’s been
a steady rock on the Commission since I’ve been on and has always helped me think about
things in a better way. I think we’re going to get a crop of new Commissioners and having an
anchor of Chair and Commissioner O’Nan I think would make a really nice compliment to set us
up for success.
Commissioner O’Nan: So yes, I would be willing to accept the nomination, thank you.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Ok. Any other nominations?
Vice Chair Chen: I would like to speak of Commissioner O’Nan. She has really been very
helpful in my kind of work. She will spend time and discussion with me in terms of what
direction to go so I really appreciate her encouragement over the years.
Commissioner O’Nan: Thank you.
Chair Stinger: I’d like to speak to the wealth of information that you have and convey and
communicate so clearly. To articulate and reduce facts to a very cohesive argument and I
appreciate that.
Commissioner O’Nan: Thank you, Chair.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Is the Commission ready for ballots?
Commissioner O’Nan: I think someone has to second it.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Oh yes you need to be seconded.
Vice Chair Chen: I will second the nomination.
Ms. van de Zwaag: I forgot Point 7, thank you.
Commissioner Alhassani: Further proving the point.
Ms. van de Zwaag: That also is unanimous. Congratulations Vice Chair O’Nan.
NOMINATION PASSED WITH A VOTE OF 5-0 TO MAKE JILL O’NAN VICE CHAIR
WITH COMMISSIONER BRAHMBHATT ABSENT.
Commissioner O’Nan: Thank you, everyone. I appreciate your confidence.
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Page 28 of 35
Chair Stinger: Well, I think we’re in for a good year. This will be fun.
V. Reports from Officials
1. Commissioner Reports
Chair Stinger: Commission reports -- Commissioner reports?
Commissioner Chen: I can start with this meeting that Commissioner O’Nan and I attend and it’s
called 2018 Adolescent Mental Wellness Conference to place at the Santa Clara Convention
Center on April 27-28. I went the first day and then Commissioner O’Nan, she went the second
day and it’s very interesting. See their subtitles is overcoming cultural barriers it says so it
includes break out sessions and I went into this one and it talked about this community in Indian
– American-Indian community at Humboldt County. It’s called Two Arrows and because these
people had discrimination against them they suffer a lot. Plus, they are so poor and there are a lot
of social problems. They have sent people there and they organized the community, they started
this mental program and it really helped them out a lot so I’m kind of very impressed. I went to
another one in the afternoon session and it’s about immigrants in San Francisco. This school has
a program that’s gear toward immigrants. It’s a specific program for immigrant’s problems and
they have special counseling in each program. It was pretty impressive. It’s only in San
Francisco.
Vice Chair O’Nan: I would just add I attended the second day as Vice Chair Chen mentioned and
it was a very interesting conference because I had recently been involved with the LGBTQ
Listening Forum and the survey that we’re doing. I chose to attend some breakout sessions on
transgender youth and gender identification and I learned so much. I feel very inspired to create
an event or maybe community education event where we can help educate people about the
needs of what are considered nonbinary youth particularly. The whole distinction between
gender assignment, gender identity and gender expression which is just very crucial for people to
understand so that we can be not only more tolerant but more inclusive of transgender and
nonbinary and gender fluid people.
Chair Stinger: Thank you. I’m really glad that you both went. Commissioner Lee.
Commissioner Lee: I have a couple of updates so Commissioner O’Nan and I – was it yesterday?
On Wednesday?
Commissioner O’Nan: Tuesday.
Commissioner Lee: Tuesday, it’s been a long week. On Tuesday we went and did a site visit at
KARA at there All Saints location where they provide spaces for their youth, teen and family
grief support services. I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting but I was really pleased with the
visit. We got to see the various types of rooms they have for those group support sessions. They
had one room with a lot of pillows in the room where they are able to come and be in a very
comfortable setting and discuss various things. They had another room where they do arts and
crafts and for young people who aren’t able to necessarily vocalize their feelings that activity
provides them an activity in which some of those issues could be expressed. They also had a
room called the Sting Room which is where they go in and get their physical frustration or I
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Page 29 of 35
think they have pillow fits there right? Yes, pillow fights and other types of physical ways of
expressing their emotions and so I thought that was a great visit. It really helped, for me, to
solidify in my mind the great work that they are doing in our community as opposed to just
reading about it in the applications. So, it really gave me a deeper appreciation for everything
that they were doing. Thank you for that invitation. I really appreciate it. I think they mentioned
that they were going to send to us an invitation to go visit their camp this summer so I’m
definitely available to do that. If other Commissioners want to join me we can maybe carpool up
to Livermore and do that. Some other, I attended the May Fete event this weekend with the Chair
and I thought that was a great event. It was my first May Fete. I did some waving. I actually
knew some of the people in the crowd so I’m starting to get to know people in Palo Alto. I loved
the event afterward, a lot of the non-profit organizations that we work with and fund were there.
It’s where we got these green ribbons for Mental Health Awareness Month and I think that’s
especially a pointed issue in the community so glad to see them and glad to see some of the other
organizations we work with. Some other things that I’ve been working on that is not necessarily
my role as a Commissioner but of note to this Commission. This past weekend I served on the
Fred M. Yamamoto Scholarship Committee. As you know in the aftermath of the whole school
naming debate this community really came together to raise a lot of funds through establishing a
scholarship fund in his name. So, to-date the GoFundMe campaign has raised over $15,000 and
this year we were able to provide a $4,420 scholarship. The reason for that number is because
that’s the unit number that Fred M. Yamamoto had served in, the 442 and so we had 5 or 6 very,
very great applications. It reaffirmed my optimism for the future that we have such great and
inclusive young people in our community who are doing great work at such a young age. It was a
tough process but we did select someone and as soon as we make it public I’d be happy to
introduce the individual to the Commission.
Vice Chair O’Nan: Commissioner, can you tell us what kind of scholarship? Is it a college
scholarship?
Commissioner Lee: It’s a scholarship so yes; it would be for a high school senior. Let’s see, I
think that’s it for now. Maybe the last thing I’ll say is Downtown Street Team, last year they did
their first drop event where you can repel down Adobe’s building in downtown San Jose. I know
that then-Mayor Scharff did it and the former Police Chief did it and I think there might be some
interest in getting a group of Palo Alto folks together to do that again but maybe collectively
raise some money. So, they had raised $2,000 each – they each put in $200 themselves and
committed to raising $1,800 themselves. So, I’m exploring just on my own whether there might
be some interest in getting 10 to 25 Palo Alto folks together to collectively pledge to raise
$50,000 for Downtown Streets and go together to go repel down that building. I’m seeing if there
might be some interest from different people within this community to do that and I don’t think it
would necessarily be a City of Palo Alto event but I’m gauging interest at this point. I’ll provide
further updates if and when that happens but that might be a good way of supporting one of the
great non-profits that we support here on this Commission.
Chair Stinger: I’ll use that as a lead into my Commissioner’s report. I did my site visit with
Downtown Streets Team and I was overwhelmed by the spectrum that I saw. I knew what they
did physically on the streets and with individuals but I didn’t see the whole scope from their
involvement with the court and the referral services from the court to the teams on the street. I
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Page 30 of 35
was thrilled with my day there and what particularly pleased me and I’m not going to share some
goals with their economics. They will be coming to us I’m sure to reach out. I also was
impressed that they were recognized as a California Best Practice to end homelessness. They
acknowledge that they work on the peninsula but consistently say but they were started in Palo
Alto. They say that besides doing all the good work they’ve taken out 5.2 million gallons of trash
to keep our city clean. We were walking through some alleyways and I was thinking boy this
sure beats Market Street in San Francisco. Also, thanks to Vice Chair O’Nan I attended a
monthly presentation at Adult Counseling Service on what they do for the community and they
went over the four programs that they have. Particularly of interest to me was Outlet, partly
because that is one of the programs that we sponsor but also because of the listening forum that
we just did. What impressed me was this is a growth area for ACS and I’m glad to see that they
are putting in extra resources into that area of their work. It’s growth in the sense that they’ve
added some clinical support to that track. Since it was just after our Listening Forum I was
interested to hear that they were hearing and dealing with some of the same issues that we were
hearing. The language of otherness and the sensitivity and we particularly talked about different
cultures who have different ground rules and how that affects a child or student who’s trying to
deal with their gender identity. They acknowledged that is a hard population to deal with but
they were going to focus more on that in the coming years. Especially looking at more parent
education meetings and in groups settings and one on one so that they have parents available to
support the student. The last site visit that I did was to La Comida and I think you’ve heard
everything I heard during my site visit. They are very grateful to Stevenson House and it is a
beautiful kitchen. I can see why they are happy working there but their reduction in the capacity
is something that concerns them. Not only the numbers but they can provide nutrition but they
are not providing as much socialization. They have to turn tables over more quickly. One of the
things that we didn’t discuss that wasn’t presented to us tonight that concerned some of the board
members that I sat with was the senior programming in Palo Alto might needs more attention.
We’ve worked on senior transit, we’ve talked about senior health in terms of the application for
an age-friendly community and as a Commission we’ve talked about senior issues but we’ve
done a lot with that this year. We might want to think about senior services in this community
when we are in our retreat. Then as you see I’m wearing my last site visit.
Vice Chair Chen: I did do two site visits alone by myself. One is Life Moves and I was
impressed. Philip Dah was the person I spoke with and so we knew what they’re doing but there
were two things. One thing is I realized they’re population going to the Opportunity Center there
are a lot more Asians going there because in Asian community the mental health is a stigma. You
know you don’t want to let your family go to that place but there are mentally ill Asians at the
Opportunity Center. It’s not one or two it’s quite a bit so I’m impressed, that was one thing.
Philip wanted me to let everybody know that they have a special program to set aside funding for
people who need help with utility payments. That one we knew before but he was just like oh
you know we have this program going on so that were two things that I wanted to mention. The
other site visit was Momentum for Mental Health. Cedric Anderson who’s a manager talked
about an overview and what they are doing. A second one is Kyrie, remember Kyrie? He went
all the way from San Jose just to talk to me but he didn’t say much about it but he said he even
went to court with these homeless people and tried to get them out of court and settle them out.
It’s a lot of work that we didn’t know so I think that was very interesting some inside
information about their work. They want to talk to us but depending on what we have time for
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Page 31 of 35
them and the program they are running we’re not sure yet. I didn’t promise anything.
Ms. van de Zwaag: All the HSRAP agencies got an invitation to share their new programs or
things they’d like us to know. I was curious if we’d get any takers and I’m scheduling people
into September there were so many takers of agencies that wanted to come speak with us.
Chair Stinger: I just wanted to follow up your comments. I think we read the HSRAP
applications so carefully and we listen to the presentations and we think we have a good grasp of
what the agency does. We do have a good grasp but there’s nothing like a site visit to add depth
and breadth to our understanding and appreciation for the individuals who work so hard and the
work that they accomplish. I’m glad you did those and thank you for reporting back.
Commissioner Alhassani: Chair, if I may I have some also news. Today is my last HRC
meeting. I’ve been contemplating this for several months now mostly feeling guilty that I haven’t
been being able to give enough effort to the HRC as it deserves and so yesterday I came to the
decision and talked to Minka and the Chair. I told the city that I’m rolling off at the end of the
month. Between my kids and more travel for work I just haven’t been able to be as good as a
Commissioner as I wanted to be but I wanted to thank the Commission for an amazing time. The
best part is getting to know you guys and our friendships and the staff. Then also going back I
wouldn’t have known the community as well as I do without being on the HRC. Especially to
your point, I wouldn’t have known Philip from the Opportunity Center or Barbara from
DreamCatchers or gone to All Saints to see Downtown Streets Team. Definitely, my perspective
is dramatically different because I’ve had this chance so thank you very much for giving me the
opportunity to serve with you guys.
Commissioner O’Nan: Thank you, Mehdi.
Vice Chair Chen: Same speech with me. This is my last meeting as well because my term is
over. I’m not reapplying but it’s been really, really good to be working you. I’m appreciative of
your guidance, for your help, conversation, and friendship. I’ll still be around but I’ll be traveling
a lot.
Chair Stinger: I’ll acknowledge with sadness that two Commissioners leaving you have been a
mainstay since my first day and I’ve relied on both of you for a lot of wisdom and I’m really sad.
Theresa, you’ve worked 8-years responsibly and thoroughly. You’ve worked on housing. The
first year that I was on the Commission we had a learning series that I know that you worked
really hard on immigrants in the community. That is a resource that we haven’t used as much this
year as we did that year and I want to bring it back because it was very useful. It helped me
understand and grasp the issues that immigrants deal with in the community. I know the Council
quoted what they heard from the sessions and you just contributed so much through that and
through the translation. When we worked on the senior transportation we were able to take a
survey to the Mandarin community that would have been totally excluded from that survey and I
just can’t thank you enough for the detail and the care that you bring to every issue. When you
ask a question, you dig for it and get the answer and that just enlightens all of us and I really
appreciate that.
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Page 32 of 35
Vice Chair Chen: Thank you very much. Thank you for everyone’s support.
Chair Stinger: Mehdi, I’m still disappointed with your phone call yesterday. I said to you then
that I understand and respect your decision but that doesn’t mean I like it. My first year in
October you did the Veteran’s Homelessness Forum and I think that was one of our better
forums. He brought in such spectacular speakers and actually had an outcome for improving the
situation for Veterans not only in Palo Alto but on the peninsula. I am always impressed when
we’re in a discussion here and we’re lost in the dust and wondering where to go next you come
up with this question that just clarifies were we should be and it brings us back to our strategic
and direct focus and adds such clarity to the discussion. You don’t let us get off track and every
time I’ve needed help on when we’re in a subcommittee you’re the first person to call say what
kinds of questions should I be asking? You always said just a crystal-clear insight into the
direction we need to take and I’m going to miss that very much. So, I’m going to miss both of
you for that and I think it’s an important part of what we do in our retreat and I might ask both of
you to come back and help us with the transition. Specifically, how do we get the information we
need to make good decisions? You’re both excellent at that.
Ms. van de Zwaag: I had a few to add if I may?
Chair Stinger: I have a right to open it up.
Ms. van de Zwaag: So, for Commissioner Chen she may not win the award but the award in my
recent memory maybe with Vice Chair O’Nan but three-time HSRAP Committee member. So
that was really awesome and also serving on the first Human Services Emerging’s Need decision
to give the money to Peninsula Health Care Connections and I think was it Ada’s? Ada’s Café.
Also serving as a liaison to Avenidas is another thing that I noticed you helped us with so thank
you very much for that. Commissioner Alhassani we counted two times, it might have been three
times you were on the CDBG Committee. It might have been three, my memory felt like it was
three but I could only put two down with good conscious and also, your work on the Council’s
Resolution subcommittee last year and when you served as a liaison to Palo Alto Mediation
Program. Thank you for your…
Commissioner Alhassani: My pleasure.
Ms. van de Zwaag: …commitment to this Commission and the community in those capacities.
Thank you both.
Commissioner O’Nan: I was wondering if I could just share a couple of memories. When I
joined the HRC I believe it was in 2010, Theresa Chen and Sunita and I were one of cohort
together so I feel like now I’m the last women standing because I’ve lost Theresa. We’ve
literally been on the HRC the whole time together so it’s really heart wrenching for me to say
goodbye to Theresa. I’m so glad that you’re going to help us out when you can and still be
working with us because we really have needed and utilized your skills over the years. We need
your voice of reason and I think we are going to need to still count on you in the times to come
but I know you need to move onto a new chapter of your life so we’ll try not to overburden you
but I really value the connections that we’ve made and I want to maintain those. Secondly, I
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Page 33 of 35
remember some years ago now as I recall it was a birthday party for the late Ray Bacchetti who I
believe who had turned 80 and his birthday happened to fall on an HRC meeting night. So, we
surprised him with a birthday cake and in the audience watching us was this young guy on this
laptop and I couldn’t quite figure out who he was. If he was a journalist who was observing or a
member of the community and I kept trying to offer him a piece of cake and he was a little bit
(sigh). I think I finally got you to take a piece but hopefully your wife wasn’t watching but
anyway it turned it was Mehdi and he was doing some personal research before he applied.
Anyway, that was…
Ms. van de Zwaag: One of the few ones that have.
Commissioner O’Nan: Yes, and then I was just delighted to find out why he was observing us
and that he was really serious about joining the Commission. It’s been so valuable over the years
having someone who served in the Obama Administration and brought a national consciousness
and awareness to Palo Alto. As Minka and Valerie and others have already said he has great
ideas and a really a way of just cutting through the fog and getting us back to where we need to
be. So, I’ll just really miss Mehdi, I mean I miss Ray, I feel like I’m starting to have served long
enough to really feel sad about saying goodbye to so many great colleagues. I hope some good
years are still ahead of us and that the new people that are joining can move up to the footprint
that’s being left behind because I think it’s big shoes to fill.
Commissioner Alhassani: I’m sure it will be better. Anytime you want to get Peets let me know.
(inaudible)
Vice Chair Chen: Tin Pot
[The Chair handed out gifts -no mics were on]
2. Council Liaison Report
No Council Liaison was present.
3. Staff Liaison Report
I just had a couple things, the report along the recommendations for the Council Resolution are
still on the June 11th Council agenda. I will continue to make you aware if that stays on the
agenda. It’s also budget season so I’m keeping my double fingers crossed that will stay on the
agenda.
Commissioner Lee: If it does stay on that agenda when will they be releasing the…
Ms. van de Zwaag: They will release the report then like two Thursdays ahead of that.
Commissioner Lee: Two Thursday ahead, ok.
Ms. van de Zwaag: So like June 1. Let’s see we talked about the retreat already, we also talked
about meetings in June and July but not August. That’s all that I have at this moment.
Commissioner O’Nan: Minka could I ask do we have a location for the retreat?
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Page 34 of 35
Ms. van de Zwaag: Yes, we do. It’s in Mitchell Parks Center’s Matadero Room so it’s a larger
room. It’s the corner one where we’ve had it before. It’s also I think a couple years ago where we
had the countywide HRC lunch in, yes.
Chair Stinger: (inaudible – mic not on)
VI. TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR NEXT REGULAR MEETING: Thursday, June 14,
2018.
Chair Stinger: Tentative agenda, next meeting? We have City Attorney doing roles and
responsibilities and we have a HSRAP Learning Series?
Ms. van de Zwaag: ACS.
Chair Stinger: Oh great.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Adolescent Counseling Services are with the Outlet Program and wanted to
come…
Chair Stinger: That’s perfect. I think I’d also like to talk a little bit about the importance of
liaisons and either open it up for people to sign up for a liaison or have that done offline. Our
liaisons need some attention and I don’t know if there’s anything else?
Commissioner O’Nan: I think we may have some new members so should we have a special
welcome to new members? Then a debrief with Commissioner Lee on how the event went? The
Asian- American experience.
Chair Stinger: Maybe an update on Welcoming America because we’re waiting on July but we
should have something for June.
Commissioner O’Nan: Maybe a preparation for the retreat? An overview?
Ms. van de Zwaag: I’m, not sure because this one is a little bit different in that the consultant will
be doing the majority of the work. What we might have is an update saying hey there’s going to
be a couple homework exercises to do before the retreat but as far as the content the consultant is
setting the content.
Commissioner O’Nan: Ok I was just thinking again of new members so it might be good to just
have …
Ms. van de Zwaag: Oh yes.
Commissioner O’Nan: … it as an agenda item where we just discuss the retreat, prepare them for
it and give them a heads up on anything.
Ms. van de Zwaag: Right and that’s – as soon as the new members are selected that’s along with
a welcome that’s one of the first topics that we need to get on their agenda. If there is, at that
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Page 35 of 35
point, a majority that can’t make it then we will have to look to reschedule but if we do get the
majority we will be going ahead with that date.
Chair Stinger: Any other agenda items?
Commissioner Lee: Could I ask that when you adjourn you adjourn in recognition of Mental
Health Awareness Month?
Chair Stinger: That’s lovely. Everybody have your ribbons?
Commissioner Lee: After we adjourn can we take a Commission picture since we have two
people who are leaving us?
Chair Stinger: If we don’t take the picture does that mean they stay? Ok, I will adjourn this
meeting sadly. Wish you well, lots of good luck and recognizing Mental Health Awareness
Month and all of our HSRAP grantees who work so hard to help address mental health issues in
our homeless population, in our school populations, and in our general community. Thank you.
VII. ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 9:18 p.m.