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Home My WebLink About2019-11-14 Human Relations Commission Action MinutesPage 1 of 47 HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION Thursday, November 14, 2019 Community Meeting Room Palo Alto Civic Center 250 Hamilton Avenue 7:00 PM REGULAR MEETING ROLL CALL: Commissioners Present: Kralik, Lee, Regehr, Savage, Smith Absent: Stinger, Xue Staff: Minka van der Zwaag, Mary Constantino I. ROLL CALL Chair Kralik: I think I can go ahead and call the meeting to order. I’m going to ask our former Chair, Daryl Savage, to sit in for me tonight because I have an end time of 8:20 and I don’t want to interrupt the speakers during the agenda items. So, thank you, Daryl, for agreeing to take over the Chair role tonight. Commissioner Savage: Ok, here I am. Let’s start with the roll call. II. AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, DELETIONS Commissioner Savage: Alright, our second item are agenda changes, requests, deletions. Does anybody have any of those? Ok. III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS Commissioner Savage: The third item is oral communications. I see we have two speakers, Alexis Crews-Holloway. Ms. Minka van der Zwaag, Human Services Manager: I believe… Commissioner Savage: Oh. Ms. van der Zwaag: …yes, they’re for Item Number One. Commissioner Savage: Oh, ok. Ms. van der Zwaag: I don’t think they’re for… Commissioner Savage: Oh, I see, ok. 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. 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 2 of 47 Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes. Commissioner Savage: Got it, alright, ok. IV. BUSINESS 1. Presentation on homelessness by Kathryn Kaminski, Continuum of Care Manager with the County of Santa Clara Office of Supportive Housing Commissioner Savage: Item Number One. Commissioner Lee: So, let me provide an introduction. I think we’ve all heard as a community, as a region about the homelessness problem and it’s only getting worse. We know that in the last Point In Time Count the homelessness numbers have gone up about 31 percent in Santa Clara County, about 13 percent in Palo Alto, and for the most part in most cities across the state those numbers have gone up by double-digit percentages in the last 2-years. So, it’s becoming very evident that homelessness is an issue and it intersects with the huge housing crisis that we’re seeing around the state and in the Bay. A couple months ago when we learned that the county was conducting it’s Point In Time Count I had requested at that point that when the count was done, when the report was ready that we’d have folks from the county come and present on what they found during that Point In Time Count as well as talk about some of the county’s efforts. Hopefully we’ll hear about some of the city’s efforts to address homelessness and we as a Commission moving forward can think about how we might be able to add value in terms of addressing homelessness in Palo Alto and else ware. So, with that I wanted to introduce Kathryn Kaminski from the County Office of Supportive Housing. She’s the Continuum of Care Manager. Thank you, Kathryn so much for coming. Ms. Kathryn Kaminski: Thank you. Ms. van der Zwaag: If you can just push the button when you speak Kathryn and maybe angle the microphone. Thank you. Ms. Kaminski: Great. So, thank you, Steven. Thank you all for having me here today. As Steven said I’m Kathryn Kaminski with the County Office of Supportive Housing. I’m the Continuum of Care Quality Improvement Manager so you’ll understand what that means a little bit more. I basically oversee our Continuum of Care Programs which is our largest federal funding source for homelessness programs as well as policy around how our system serves clients and our Homeless Management Information System which is where we collect all the data about our programs. So, when I was asked to speak tonight, I pulled together some information from the Point In Time Count but also from our Homeless Management Information System which I think tells more of the story in addition to the Point In Time Count. Also, some of the things that have been working and how we assess how we’re doing in terms of homelessness. So that’s what you’ll see over the next slides. I mostly said that already. We’re going to talk about what the supportive housing – when I say Supportive Housing System is, I’ll explain what that means because that’s a term that we use, but isn’t necessarily self-explanatory. We’re also in the process of developing our next 5-year plan to end homelessness. We hope that everybody sees 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 3 of 47 themselves as part of this 5-years plan. So, I’ll explain a little bit about where we’re headed and what we’re thinking in terms of our direction for the next 5-years. Then I added some just potential opportunities for local Cities. So, these aren’t necessarily Palo Alto specific but the types of things that we generally recommend if in areas or regions are interested in getting involved more than you already are. So, the population in Palo Alto, so the PIT Count we have seen an increase in the Palo Alto Point in Time Count. Are you all familiar with the Point in Time Count? Ok, I won’t explain what that is. Commissioner Smith: How often do you do the Point in Time Count? Ms. Kaminski: We do it once every 2-years in the same night in January. It’s actually done over two nights in our county so it’s every other year in January. We usually have 300-400 volunteers that go out on that night to visually count the number of people sleeping on the streets and we match with the number of people staying in shelters for our overall count. Commissioner Lee: And that includes vehicles too. Ms. Kaminski: And vehicles, vehicles, RVs, yes. So, anybody sleeping in a shelter or in what we call a place not meant for human habitation. So, it could be an abandoned building, it could be a tent, it could be sleeping on the street, could be in a car or an RV. So, the count in Palo Alto has increased over the last four counts so that’s since 2013, but that increase was also seen across the county. We had the largest increase in the last year across the county but a little bit smaller increase for Palo Alto. What you’ll notice here in this chart, the orange is the sheltered folks and the blue is the unsheltered. All that means is you don’t have a shelter here in Palo Alto so if folks are sheltered from your community, they’re probably sheltered in another location like the Mountain View shelter or Sunnyvale shelter. So, they would show up in that count in the city where the shelter is located. So, new this year we were able to provide some more detail on the dwelling type. So, like I said we count the number of people in shelters and then we just had this everybody else. We had some countywide data on who was staying in tents versus vehicles, but we didn’t have that at the city level. So, here this chart is showing blue bars are the Palo Alto folks that were counted and the orange is across the county. The biggest difference here I think is clear is that across the county we have a lot more folks staying in tents and a little bit more staying on the street or outside and in Palo Alto you have far more in vehicles. More RVs, much higher percentage of the unsheltered count is in RVs and a little bit more in vans and cars. Commissioner Smith: Is the percentage number beside it the percentage of our community? Ms. Kaminski: That is the percent of people of that count, the unsheltered count, the percent that are in RVs. So, of the total that where outside 54 percent of them are in RVs and that equaled – that was 157 people for Palo Alto. So, one of the things we often get asked is where did people come from before they were homeless and I think there’s a perception that a lot of people are coming from outside the area. So, we asked this question, we added it several years ago to the survey. One of the things we do in conjunction with the Point in Time Count is we conduct a survey of a smaller sample, not all, 10,000 or roughly 10,000 that we counted but we did over 1,000 surveys to get more information on people’s situations. So, one of the questions we ask is where did they live before they became homeless and across the county 81 percent were from ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting. Page 4 of 47 Santa Clara County, 15 percent from another county in California and 4 percent from out of state. We don’t have large enough sample sizes from all of the smaller Cities to be able to pull this information at the city level, unfortunately. That was the summary of the Point in Time Count. I think you have the entire report so I brought a copy for reference if you have specific questions that I can address, but I also wanted to look at a little bit more data from our Homeless Management Information System. All of our services, all of our providers, our shelters use the same management information system to collect data. One of the things we do the first time or as early as possible when somebody is looking for assistance is conducting an assessment to identify what type of needs; they have and we prioritize the most vulnerable individuals based on that assessment for referral to housing services. That assessment gives us a lot of information about our homeless population. One of the things we added to the assessment is some questions about where folks live, of course because homeless folks don’t have an address most of the time so we ask questions to get an idea of where they’re staying. If they’re employed, what city do they work in, if they go to school, where do they go to school, which city do they spend most of their time, and where did they live prior to becoming homeless as well as the zip code of their last address. So, when I pull city-specific data from our Homeless Management Information System it’s coming from those questions. We pulled the data for the last year, October 1, 2018 through September 30th, 2019 and there were 302 households that did – took an assessment during that year that were affiliated with Palo Alto. That was represented 5 percent of the total number of households who took the assessment during that year. You had a question? Commissioner Regehr: Oh, I just had a question about Hotel Zink because you didn’t have places of worship on that data where people stay. You just had shelters and you said we didn’t have a shelter but, in some ways, … Ms. Kaminski: Right, so that’s probably the small number of sheltered beds. That small number is probably Hotel de Zink, the 14 from last year. Yes, sorry. Ms. van der Zwaag: Right, they have a maximum capacity of 15 and then there’s the rotating Women’s Shelter that’s 3-months during the year. Ms. Kaminski: Right. So, I apologize, yes you have a shelter. They are counted. If they’re sheltered at a non-traditional shelter but it’s still counted as a shelter, we include them in the sheltered count. Commissioner Smith: Oh – thank you. Where does someone take the assessment? I see somebody in the street today and I’m engaged in the system. Where would I as a Palo Altan get somebody engaged in the local community? Ms. Kaminski: There are several places, we call them access points where people can access the assessment what we call our Coordinated Entry System. The one in Palo Alto that takes walk-ins would be the Opportunity Service Center. I think that’s the only one in Palo Alto that would take walk-ins. Ms. van der Zwaag: Right. Also, to add to that if anybody ever has a concern about someone and was wondering if they had the assessment done. They can contact me and we have a contract 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 5 of 47 with Downtown Streets Team. And Alexis and Sarah and their team will actually go find a person and see if they’ve done the assessment yet. Ms. Kaminski: Right. Ms. van der Zwaag: So, if you want to know you can just contact me, you can contact just Downtown Streets Team directly. I don’t need to be any part of the intermediary. Ms. Kaminski: That’s great. Yes, we have no wrong door approach so wherever people show up, hopefully they’re able to do the assessment there. If they’re not if they don’t have folks trained in that they will know where to send them. So, whether that’s outreach teams or folks at Hotel de Zink should be able to do it; Opportunity Service Centers I said. So, we have 60 to 70 agencies across the county that are using HMIS and most of them are doing assessments. I pulled some information about assessments that were done with people affiliated with Palo Alto and then just included the countrywide information. That assessment gives a score and that score is related to what type of intervention we think that individual or family needs. So, the minimum rapid rehousing and permanent support of housing is sort of a level of need. Permanent Supportive Housing being the folks that need long term, deep subsidies with probably services for a long period of time, supportive services. Rapid rehousing is folks who we think need short period of assistance in terms of rental assistance so 6 to 24-months generally and minimum intervention are folks that are not referred to a Housing Assistance Program. They would be referred to other resources in the community. Commissioner Regehr: So, I have a question. On the rapid rehousing, further in your thing, you said we had zero percent of rapid rehousing in Palo Alto in one of your… Ms. Kaminski: Zero percent? Commissioner Regehr: I was just wondering what that meant? I guess it is was in one of your slides. It said we had zero percent and it seemed that was… Ms. Kaminski: So, how this system works… Commissioner Regehr: … because its… Ms. Kaminski: … is it won’t matter where folks were assessed or where they’re from to get a referral to most of our Rapid Rehousing Programs. Most of our Rapid Rehousing Programs are county-wide so if somebody was assessed and they were in that rapid rehousing range, when a slot opens up, let’s say it’s a program for families. We have programs for families across our system but let’s say it’s at the Bill Wilson Center has a Rapid Rehousing Program for families. They have a slot open; they ask one of our matchmakers who're the next most vulnerable family and we refer them no matter where they’re from. So, if they happen to be from Palo Alto they would be referred if they happen to be from Mountain View they would be referred if they were the most vulnerable on the list. Does that make sense? So, it's not location-specific unless it's funded by a specific city and they say we want to serve folks from our city. We have very few of those so almost all of our rapid rehousing resources are countywide. Yes? 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 6 of 47 Commissioner Smith: Which category would those that are working but don’t have enough income to afford rents? Where do they fall in minimum, Rapid Rehousing, Permanent Supportive? Ms. Kaminski: Could be any of the above. The assessment is based on risks, wellness, daily functioning, there’s a myriad of factors. You can look at the assessment, it’s on our website, it’s called the VISPIDAT. It’s a silly name but it stands for the Vulnerability Index Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool. We all just call it the VISPIDAT because nobody can remember what that stands for. So, you can look at what that assessment is and sort of how it looks at the vulnerability of that household and whether it’s individual or family. Commissioner Regehr: One thing that I was wondering too is on the rapid housing, how many of those are with children do you know in Palo Alto? Do you know what the percentage because if they have to move to a different school district because of their address I mean… Ms. Kaminski: I don’t know that specifically off the top of my head for the families associated with Palo Alto. I don’t think I pulled that information. Ms. van der Zwaag: But isn’t that with the McKinney-Vento Act even if they were housed somewhere else, if they started in Palo Alto those children would still be able to stay in the Palo Alto school district I believe with McKinney-Vento. Ms. Kaminski: I don’t know. Ms. van der Zwaag: Ok. If that’s something specific you’d like to know Commissioner, I could… Commissioner Regehr: Oh great, I would. Thank you very much. Ms. van der Zwaag: … look that up for you. Commissioner Regehr: Great. Ms. Kaminski: So, in terms of Palo Alto versus the rest of the county the level of need is very similar and the household composition is pretty similar. A little more single adults than families, so I don’t have this broken out by the level of need but I do have across everybody who was assessed in Palo Alto; 90 percent of those were single adults, 7 percent were households with children and 3 percent were households without children. That should be a household with only children I think so youth and young adult. So, then I pulled some information about where folks were receiving services and so this is program enrollments, and these are different types of programs we have. Permanent Supportive Housing, shelters, and so this is of all of the 308 that were folks from Palo Alto that were enrolled in any program. This is sort of the distribution of where they were enrolled. So, of those 308 folks that access services, 39 percent of those were in Permanent Supportive Housing, 24 percent access shelter and so on. That was just to show a distribution of where your homeless population is receiving services. We always look at race and ethnicity and gender distribution across our system to ensure we’re address racial equity. We know that people of color are over-represented in the homeless population across our county. 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 7 of 47 Specifically, black, and African American and American Indian and Alaska Natives make up a smaller portion of the total Santa Clara County population than they do in the homeless population. So, that is something that we’re working on addressing you’ll see in our community plan. Then the ethnicity breakdown is on the right. The way HUD requires that we look at race and ethnicity, they’re tracked separately so they’re two different questions. They first identify race and then ethnicity after. In terms of gender and age break down, the Palo Alto populations looks pretty similar to the entire Santa Clara County population; 66 percent male, 34 females. It’s slightly more male than the Santa Clara County population but fairly similar and you see the age distribution is fairly similar. So, your questions, I think addressed some of this but so how are our supportive housing system works is we have outreach teams, we have shelters, both of those as well as other access points. Both of those serve as access points to our to our Coordinated Entry System. They conduct the assessment and after an assessment if we have enough resources, they’re referred to one of the types of programs listed here; Permanent Supportive Housing, Transitional Housing, Rapid Rehousing. Now the reality is we don’t have enough of those services to serve everybody so some folks get assessed and never get a referral enough if they need housing assistance, unfortunately. We also have a Homelessness Prevention System to help folks who are at risk of homelessness and provide financial assistance and some short-term case management. Commissioner Smith: Excuse me? Ms. Kaminski: Yes? Commissioner Smith: There are page numbers at the bottom of your description. Where would – the next – previous slide. What are those page numbers? Oh. Ms. Kaminski: Oh, this is from our Annual Report… Commissioner Smith: Ok. Ms. Kaminski: … which is from our website. Commissioner Smith: Ok. Ms. Kaminski: So, I think this map we did in our 2017 Annual Report of the Supportive Housing System. So, you’ll find that but we also pulled this out as a separate downloadable document if you are interested in looking at it. Commissioner Smith: Yeah, I’m interested in more information so that’s why I asked. Ms. Kaminski: Yeah, that – the 2017 Annual Report, it was the first one we did like it and so we kind of described the whole system. All of it and all of these components are – we provide more information, how many people are served, things like that. Chair Kralik: I wanted to ask a question about mental health issues. I meet homeless people in the context of their mental health crisis and some of them are Veterans, others are just homeless people in the community. When they’re released from psychiatric hospitals, have – do you have ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting. Page 8 of 47 an outreach to that available and how does that work for them? Ms. Kaminski: We have some outreach teams. We have connections with… Chair Kralik: Does the hospital call you or? Ms. Kaminski: In some cases, I think they probably will reach out. I can’t say that every case they do, but yes, we have connections with hospitals so that folks can be connected to services as they’re released. We have mental health outreach teams so if the folks are on the streets, we have homeless mentally ill outreach teams that have clinicians on staff. Our outreach teams across the county like Downtown Streets Team and Abode and we have outreach teams at OSH are all amazing at what they do and connecting with folks that have severe mental illness. If they need treatment trying to build that repour with them and get them into treatment, but whether we catch everybody before they’re released, I think that’s something that we’re trying to work on. A better systemic solution for our community plan both with mental health, with the criminal justice system, with hospitals to ensure that when folks are receiving services anywhere in the county, they have a housing plan when they leave. Commissioner Regehr: That’s what I was going to ask because one of the reasons what ensure that all people that have been released from criminal or hospital, but you didn’t say mental. Ms. Kaminski: Sure. Commissioner Regehr: So, is that going to – so is that… Ms. Kaminski: Yes. Commissioner Regehr: … is that medical, is that what or are you going to... Ms. Kaminski: Yes, either – yes, if they’re being released from a psychiatric institution or a treatment facility, yes. Commissioner Regehr: Because it didn’t… Ms. Kaminski: Yes, sorry, normally I say criminal justice system or safety net system. When I say safety net system, I mean broadly hospitals, mental health, even working with our partners in the county. So that when folks are touching systems like our General Assistance Program, that the folks are not accessing those services and later becoming homeless but finding ways that we can do better and catch it earlier. We know that outcomes are better if we are able to help people before they lose their housing rather than waiting until they become homeless. So, when I say systems I’m talking as broadly as possible. So just a little bit of sort of where we’ve come over the last 5-years. This is what we’ve been looking at and I wanted to share a little bit about how we measure our success and whether we’re doing well or need to improve. We’ve housed about 8,400 households since 2015, we did release the new Veteran’s number this week; 1,600 Veteran households. We’ve increased the capacity across our systems so we have more Permanent Supportive housing, more Rapid Rehousing, more temporary shelter by almost 100 percent in some of those categories. Of course, we’re implementing Measure A, our housing bond, to 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 9 of 47 develop more supportive housing and more extremely low-income housing, and our homeless prevention system has grown dramatically. Your homeless prevention system provider is LifeMoves I think, is that right Minka? Ms. van der Zwaag: I think so. Ms. Kaminski: Yes. Ms. van der Zwaag: Well, they’re the ones who get the… Ms. Kaminski: Emergency Assistance Network. Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes, the EAN. Ms. Kaminski: Yes. Ms. van der Zwaag: They’re our EAN network. Ms. Kaminski: So, when I say Homelessness Prevention System, we have seven providers across the county. We used to operate very much based on zip code. If you lived in a certain zip code you had to go to a certain provider. We’ve tried to be more flexible so that people can access those services anywhere. So, have taken away that sort of zip code restriction because if somebody might live in Mountain View but work in Palo Alto and they need to access services during the day they might need to come here. Commissioner Lee: Do you have a sense of – if you go back one slide – how much we would need to increase the capacity of those three categories to actually meet the current need? Is it double… Ms. Kaminski: We are developing the targets right now for our next 5-year plan. It will be very significant. Yes, we will need to increase those systems. So, I can tell you right now so we have our Permanent Supportive Housing capacity – I didn’t have it on here, but we have about 3,200 slots of Permanent Supportive Housing. When I say slots that’s a household that can be served at any given time with intensive case management and permanent rental subsidy, but we know the need is greater. We have folks that have been assessed, we know they need Permanent and Supportive Housing, so we need to grow that system. What we do know is that when folks received permanent assistance through our Permanent Supportive Housing System, most of them are successful in staying housed. 92 percent of the clients that were housed more than a year ago have been stably housed for at least 12-months. So, across our system we are very client-driven and sort of a do whatever it takes model so if a client is struggling and loses their housing they stay in the program. We try to work as hard as we can to get them rehoused as quickly as possible. Those that exit Permanent Supportive Housing we don’t see that a lot because generally they need assistance for a long period of time but some of them do improve their situation while they’re in housing and exit and 94 percent of those remain housed after 2-years. So, the biggest chunk of our Permanent Supportive Housing is what’s called our Care Coordination Program. That’s coordinated through our office and I pointed this out because Palo Alto is contributing to our Care Coordination Project which we are very, very grateful for. The support essentially pays 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 10 of 47 for a Case Manager to work with clients from Palo Alto and not all Cities do that. So, we appreciate that and we also know that folks from Palo Alto are being served in our Permanent Supportive Housing System beyond just the 20. So, currently there are 113 individuals associated with Palo Alto that are enrolled in our Care Coordination Project, 99 of those are housed so there is still some searching for housing. Commissioner Smith: So… Commissioner Lee: Do you happen to know how that number has changed over the years? Has the city’s contribution to that particular program increase or…? Ms. van der Zwaag: That contribution has stayed the same, so we’re in the second year of the third renewal of that contract. So, we’ve been committed to the program for 6-years. It’s $125,000 a year so it’s not an insignificant amount of money. Commissioner Regehr: That’s a lot. Commissioner Lee: So, we’ve don’t $125,000 per year for 6-years already? Ms. van der Zwaag: That’s correct. Commissioner Lee: Gotcha and you said we just renewed it for an additional… Ms. van der Zwaag: We’re in the second year of the third term of the contract. Commissioner Lee: Ok, ok. Commissioner Smith: I have a question. Ms. Kaminski: Yes? Commissioner Smith: So, there are 93 people from Palo Alto that our funding doesn’t help? Ms. Kaminski: That is supported by the county. Commissioner Smith: Ok. Ms. Kaminski: Yes, so this is simply to show that just because you’re funding 20 slots it’s not limited to only serving 20 people from Palo Alto. All of the county funding is countywide and so we’re serving folks from all over the county. So, I pulled this to show that Permanent Supportive Housing, it involves very intensive case management so $125,000 is one Case Manager. One Case Manager generally has a caseload of about 20 and we have many more than that across the county. Commissioner Lee: So, has the city or the county set, in the past, goals in terms of the percentage that city should be contributing? So, if we’re looking at 20 versus the 113, is that meeting any sort of set goals or policies by other Cities or counties in terms of how much of the burden the ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting. Page 11 of 47 city should be shouldering versus the county or? Ms. Kaminski: On the county side we don’t have a specific goal, no. Commissioner Lee: Ok and the city doesn’t have a goal with regards to the percentage that’s coming from the city? Ms. van der Zwaag: No, the city has no policy of funding based on percentage of total homeless. This was an agreement that was arranged 6-years ago to be able to work in partnership with the county. So, the city pays for the Case Manager to do – in the sense of case management and the county is picking up the housing vouchers so it’s collaborative. So, we each… Commissioner Lee: The county is picking up the… Ms. van der Zwaag: In this one, we each need the other to help this person become successful. Commissioner Lee: How is Palo Alto doing with respect to other Cities in terms of these numbers here? Are we doing above average or on par with what… Ms. Kaminski: Not many of the cities contribute in this way. Every city does different things, so some cities are contributing to Rapid Rehousing or they set aside Tenant-Based Rental Assistance. So, it looks a little bit different everywhere, so I don’t have a comparison of cities in this. This is – in this – how much they’re contributing to the Care Coordination Project. San Jose contributes quite a lot but again not nearly enough to cover all the folks that are from San Jose that are being served in the system. The vast majority of this is through county funding, federal grants. So, most of the Continuum of Care grants are good portion of them. Support – Permanent Supportive Housing and the Care Coordination Project as well as the Housing Authority vouchers. So, some of the projects we have Housing Authority vouchers that match the case management. So, it’s a system-wide effort and every contribution just means we can serve more people and increases the capacity. So, if a city contributed it wouldn’t replace county funding. It would be in addition to county funding. It would allow us to expand capacity. Commissioner Regehr: So, the $125,000 did we target Care Coordination, or did we just say here’s the money? Ms. van der Zwaag: While we were working to address a specific issue in regard to homelessness in the community, we worked with different partners to see what could be done. The county approached the city and talked about this one option for the Care Coordination Project. It wasn’t even called that way back then. Ms. Kaminski: Right. Ms. van der Zwaag: It was the Reintegration. Ms. Kaminski: Housing 1,000? 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 12 of 47 Ms. van der Zwaag: Housing 1,000 or Reintegration. It was past Housing 1,000 and it seemed to be a good use of both entities' resources to solve a specific need for a specific community we had at that time. Commissioner Lee: And is this project sort of reevaluated as part of the 5-year planning process? So that would be the proper venue… Ms. van der Zwaag: The city reevaluates this every time the contract comes back up. That may not be the way the county looks at it. So, the CCP might be different but as far as the city’s capacity to look at how it wants to spend its dollars. I mean this is just one contribution among many that the city spends on homelessness. Commissioner Lee: So that’s every 2-years? Ms. van der Zwaag: That’s every 2-years. Commissioner Regehr: I guess my question is because it seemed like in one of your stats is that people don’t really want services to much but they want housing. In one of your things, it was the higher and then I was thinking 47 percent I think said Rapid Housing was important in Palo Alto. It also said in your something that Rapid Housing was very expensive; you didn’t use expensive, but it said it was costly. Ms. Kaminski: I don’t know. Permanent Supportive Housing would be the costliest intervention that we have because it’s permanent. Rapid Rehousing is a short-term subsidy. I think there are folks in Palo Alto that need Rapid Rehousing just like everywhere across the county. It’s pretty similar in terms of the need. So, yes. Commissioner Regehr: I guess the question is since it doesn’t seem like we’re contributing to that and yet it was 47 percent of the population it was the biggest need. Ms. Kaminski: That is a big need. Commissioner Regehr: Yes. Ms. Kaminski: Yes, that is a big need but again it doesn’t mean that folks from Palo Alto aren’t being served in Rapid Rehousing. Commissioner Smith: Can I? Ms. Kaminski: Yes. Commissioner Smith: I’m going to ask Minka if she would please run through everything the city does do-over -- as an overview because I think… Ms. Kaminski: Sure. Commissioner Smith: … if we only look at this as a small sample, we might miss the big picture. 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 13 of 47 Ms. van der Zwaag: So, roughly in contracts grants the city gives just under a million dollars for homeless prevention or services. So as far as grants that’s about $500,000 so that’s to the Streets Team, LifeMoves, we’ve given grants to Peninsula Healthcare Connections, Heart and Home which is a women’s shelter. The city, through CDBG, -- so all those are through HSRAP. Through CDBG we have a contract for close to $300,000 with Downtown Streets Team to do job development and training with the unhoused and LifeMoves to do case management. We’ve already talked about the county contract. We also have a service agreement with Downtown Streets Team which is really unique to provide worker services. So, we support Downtown Streets Team to do cleaning of our ball fields, some of our plazas, and some of our special events. So, we actually have a contract for services to do that and then… Commissioner Lee: How much did you say that was? Ms. van der Zwaag: That contract is about $175,000. So those are really grants and contracts so they’re a little bit different. I mean that could be a conversation for another time but as far as city leaning in on homeless services, so I chair a Committee that works on homelessness issues with several of the providers in the room. Mary attends a monthly meeting with services providers; DA, PDs, across cities to address issues of homelessness. I attend county meetings when they have it. Mary attends a monthly meeting of services providers countywide to help us always be in the know of what other cities are doing and what are the providers are doing and she brings that information back. As far as safe parking, so that’s just hot off the presses. So that took a next step on Tuesday night in which the city’s Policy and Services Committee agreed to bring a recommendation to the full Council to for consideration of safe parking on religious institution locations and with looking into some other locations as well. We work with our staff to do training on working with the unhoused in libraries, in our public works, in our recreation staff, so that’s like a 3-minute overview of homelessness. I know in the last couple of years the Committee that I work on was concentrating completely on senior homelessness and that’s especially in relation to homeless senior women who are incredibly vulnerable on the street. Street team, all the other providers for homeless services are on that Committee as well as senior providers like La Comida and Avenidas. There’s cash investment by the city but there’s also staff investment to work with our local providers to try to find solutions and programs not just in Palo Alto but to hear best practices from other communities. Commissioner Savage: If I could in the interest of time can I ask the Commissioners to hold their question to the end of the presentation so we can get through this. Ms. Kaminski: I’ll pick it up here. So Rapid Rehousing, this I just wanted to show the type of Rapid Rehousing Programs we have and some of the outcomes that we looked at. We’ve doubled the system in the last 4-years, we target specific populations, we have a lot of Rapid Rehousing for Veterans, some family programs, some for the reentry system. That’s folks reentering from the criminal justice system and one of the things we look at is those who get housed in Rapid Rehousing, how many of those exit to permanent housing when their Rapid Rehousing program ends. That’s at an 87 percent success rate and 88 percent of those who exited Rapid Rehousing stayed house 2-years later. They were still housed. Transitional Housing, we have much less of this than the other interventions, but we do still have some transitional housing. A good amount 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 14 of 47 of it is Veterans, families, little bit for youth, and this is usually 1 to 2-year program where folks can stay and get services and usually it’s a site-based type program. Homelessness Prevention has grown tremendously over the last 4-years so you can see our target was to serve about 880 in last fiscal year and we had far exceeded that through the EANs and other homelessness prevention providers. Those outcomes that we look at, we have sort of traditional homelessness prevention and then what we call our Homelessness Prevention System. It’s that network of providers that work together collaboratively. 97 – I know this is probably too small to read, 97 percent of those remain stably housed while they were receiving services and we now have data – this is one a couple years old. So, we now have some longitudinal data that shows the vast majority of those are staying housed as overtime. So, the biggest challenge we face is that more people are slipping into homelessness than we’re able to provide assistance. We measure on a monthly basis how many people we see coming into the system for the first time. They are doing a new assessment, we’ve never assessed them before, and we use that to sort of think about how many people are entering our inflow and compare that to how many people we’re placing in housing. So, annually we’re placing almost 2,000 people into housing which we celebrate and is amazing and our partners are incredible at the work that they do, but we have two times that becoming homeless for the first time. So, that’s where we’re shifting to look at what are the root causes of homelessness. Steven asked for some resources that folks could review and I think SPUR’s Homelessness in the Bay Area Report – 2017 report talks about some of the structural causes of homelessness. More than just what do we do when somebody is already homeless and house them, but how can we think about what are those root causes? So, those are things like economic dislocation, we know our social safety nets have decreased overtime over the last couple decades, SSI has been dramatically cut at the federal level, those kinds of safety nets systems that use to be there; mental health institutions. Those have all been reduced. We know housing policy is a challenge in California and it’s difficult to get more housing built. We know that mass incarceration has made many more challenges for folks that are released from criminal justice system to get housing and employment and maintain their housing. Family instability, structural racism, and of course individual causes. So, this report tells you a lot more about these. It’s very rich and it’s really interesting and I think it’s regional. So that it speaks to our issues in our region that we need to address but it’s also quite broad in terms of the way they’re looking at homelessness. We are using that report, along with the work that we do and what we’ve learned from the data that we’ve collected and from our partners to develop our new plan. That has three pillars. We’re looking at increasing the size of our system, we need more, we need to do it better. Addressing those root cause through system and policy change and while folks are still on the street, improving the quality of life for those individuals. We know that with all the money in the world we won’t be able to build all the housing that would be needed available tomorrow. So, folks will be on the street in the meantime and what can we do to meet their basic needs and ensure healthy and safe neighborhoods for everybody? So, we’ve been doing community outreach over the last several months. We’ve talked to over 500 folks; we have a survey where we have 7,500 responses at this point. So, we’re in the process of gathering all that information and putting it into our next 5-year plan. We’ll share that with folks, I think we’ll have a draft to share in probably December, maybe early January. So, in terms of opportunities, like I said earlier, these are not necessarily specific to Palo Alto but for any city in Santa Clara County. We know one of the main causes of homelessness in our community is the lack of affordable housing. The need for extremely low income and very low-income housing is extremely high. So, one opportunity is for local jurisdictions to fund low-income housing and support 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 15 of 47 implementation of by-right legislation. In terms of services there are opportunities to fund homelessness prevention which sounds like you already are, Rapid Rehousing Programs, Permanent Supportive Housing Programs or Temporary Housing Programs. When I say temporary, I mean shelters. Supporting things like shelters or transitional housing. I was specifically asked to talk about the Shelter Crisis Declaration, and we had some state funding last year called HEAP, Homelessness Emergency Aid Program. That pot of funding, in order for capital dollars to be spent the local jurisdictions had to declare a shelter crisis. There – so that was the case for last time. We did set aside some capital dollars, about $3 million of the $17.5 million that was the award for capital expenses and those capital expense could only happen in San Jose who had declared a shelter crisis. The rest of that funding, the other $14.5 million is being put toward services all over the county. So, we’re funding a good chunk of that, $6 million went into the Homelessness Prevention System and shelter operation support. So, it wasn’t as all of the funding if was just that capital. We expect another round of state funding. They’ve changed the name to HHAP, Homeless and Housing Assistance Program I believe so it went from HEAP to HHAP. We don’t what our allocation is yet but we will be finding out soon. The county will receive an allocation as well as the Continuum of Care will receive an allocation. The state has indicated that the shelter crisis declaration that provision won’t be in the new round of funding in order for capital expense to be used in a jurisdiction. I’m not a land use or a code expert declaring a shelter crisis does allow for some additional flexibility in terms of the provision of emergency housing. I would recommend getting more information on this from your Planning Department or your City Council or City Attorneys. That’s it. Thank you. Commissioner Savage: Thank you very much. That’s a lot to digest. Ms. Kaminski: It is. Commissioner Savage: Alright, any more questions before we go to the public? Commissioner Smith: Two really short questions. What program are you seeing across the county that’s really cutting edge that you think is making a significant impact, just one? Number two, if you had a dream partnership with a city what would that look like? Ms. Kaminski: Wow, tough questions. I think our Permanent Supportive Housing System, although it’s well established when you look at what we’ve done compared to around the county I think we are cutting edge. The fact that we’ve had housing first approach for so long, we were leaders in that effort and our success rates are quite strong I think when compared to other communities as well. Because of that dedication to housing first and sort of do whatever it takes model, I think our Homelessness Prevention System is also on the forefront of looking at prevention in a different way where a lot of programs it was, I’m about to get evicted, I need a check to pay the rent. We’re now taking that to the next level and saying what’s causing the homelessness? Do you need some employment training? Do you need maybe not just the rental assistance but maybe it’s a family that needs childcare? They couldn’t pay rent because they had a disruption in their childcare and had to pay more. Grandma wasn’t able to watch them and so now they have to pay for childcare. So, sort of looking more holistically and that’s been really successful. So, I think those two stand out to me but honestly, I mean I think we’re seeing success across the system in several different types of programs. A partnership with a city what I 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 16 of 47 would look for is someone who’s interested in coming to the table and being part of the solution with us as we move forward across all these areas. So, in terms of developing affordable housing, in terms of supporting the system and just working with us to make sure we’re addressing the needs. This is meeting the needs to folks in Palo Alto and also that you feel like you are part of the solution. Chair Kralik: I just wanted to ask you how you became involved in homelessness and what drives you? Ms. Kaminski: I have a background in working in non-profits. I was a community organizer in my 20’s and I was working on public safety and violence prevention. I just found that the root of a lot of issues that we were working was housing instability. I was motivated to work on that issue. I went to grad school and studied public housing or housing policy. In terms of here, I think it’s a massive issue but I think it’s an issue that we can solve so that drives me. I know it seems unsolvable at some points because the problem is huge in California and in Santa Clara County. I think we truly can solve it with the right responses. Chair Kralik: Thanks for coming. Ms. Kaminski: Thank you. Commissioner Lee: I have… Commissioner Savage: Alright, one last question. Commissioner Lee: I wanted to ask for clarification in the community planning process and timeline, what role will the cities play when you go and present the plan to them in January/February? Does each Council have to vote on it or how does that work? Ms. Kaminski: How it works is we’re reaching out to all the cities now to ask if they’re interested in, at the city staff level, in talking with us and developing the plan. We will go out to ask City Council’s to endorse the plan and so we did that in the last round as well. We’ll plan to do that. So, the COC, the Continuum of Care will adopt it, then we’ll take it to the Board of Supervisors for endorsement while we’ll do a roadshow and talk to all the cities. I think the way some cities are looking at it is thinking about how do they fit into the plan and what’s their implementation plan that’s related to that? So, some of the cities that we’ve been talking to have been looking at where we are in terms of developing strategies and what’s their role and what are the next steps for them? Commissioner Lee: And then they typically endorse the plan? Ms. Kaminski: A lot of them did last time. Commissioner Lee: Was Palo Alto… Ms. Kaminski: It was 5-years ago. 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 17 of 47 Ms. van der Zwaag: We did last time. Commissioner Lee: Has the Commission been involved in that process historically or? Ms. van der Zwaag: No, because they were looking for support of City Councils. Ms. Kaminski: Yes. Commissioner Lee: I mean but we are advisory to the Council on these sorts of issues. Ms. van der Zwaag: The Commission was not involved in that because the county went straight and gave presentations directly to the City Councils. Commissioner Lee: Ok, gotcha, ok. Ms. Kaminski: I think last time Destination Home, one of our non-profit partner agencies, went for (inaudible)(crosstalk) Ms. van der Zwaag: I think we actually brought that the same time we requested funding for this so we did both things at the same time. Commissioner Regehr: I know you said one more question, but I had one thing is the Library in December, they’re focusing on housing. In one of the things that we saw you had pictures of people and is it possible that we could get some of those pictures if we decide to do more of housing in the Libraries in December? You know could we work with you to have something… Ms. Kaminski: Sure. Commissioner Regehr: … and just say what the city does. Ms. Kaminski: Yes, absolutely. Commissioner Regehr: Ok. Commissioner Savage: Thank you again and let’s go to some questions. Alexis. Ms. Alexis Crew-Holloway: Yes. Commissioner Savage: Yes, if you could just go up to the microphone. Ms. Crew-Holloway: I think Jack was going to speak first because he was going to talk more about the organization and I was going to go after that. Is that ok? Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes Commissioner Savage: That’s fine. Ms. van der Zwaag: Just go up to the microphone there. 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 18 of 47 Commissioner Smith: Chair, is there a time limit? Is there a time limit on public comment? Commissioner Savage: What’s that? Commissioner Smith: Is there a time limit? Commissioner Savage: Yes, 3-minutes. Mr. Jack Hopkins: Hi. Commissioner Lee: It was on. Ms. van der Zwaag: Oh, you turned it off. Instead of turning it on. Mr. Hopkins: Oh, my mistake. Ms. van der Zwaag: There you go. Mr. Hopkins: Perfect. Hi, I’ll be short and straight to the point. My name is Jack Hopkins, I’m the Americorps Fellow for Downtown Streets Team’s Palo Alto office. For those of you that don’t know but I feel like most of you do know, Downtown Streets Team is a non-profit that’s focused on ending or addressing the issue of homelessness in the Bay Area. We have locations as far south as Santa Cruz and as far north as Sacramento. So, we have a work first experience program so we basically recruit people who are currently unhoused or very low income. They volunteer 20-hours a week of their time. In return, they get case management from Alexis who helps people get housing. She recently cleared someone’s debt with the government, get’s them medical services. We also have our Employment Specialist Bella, she gets people jobs, she’s very good at it. So, our role in the community is basically finding people who are unhoused and helping them work to improve their situation and move towards a self-sustaining lifestyle. So that they can move into permanent housing, they can get a job that will actually pay their bills and they will live a better quality of life. That’s sort of what we do. You guys make a lot of that possible. We rely on the city for a lot of our contracts and because of that we are actually able to maintain a team of 35 people. Those 35 people do a lot of good in the community but there’s always room for improvement. I’m just here to say we appreciate you guys and our Case Manager Alexis has a few more points. Commissioner Savage: Great, thank you very much. Ms. Alexis Crews-Holloway: Alright, hello everyone. My name is Alexis Crews-Holloway, I’m the Case Manager for Downtown Streets Team in Palo Alto. I’m also a local to this area, I grew up in Palo Alto and I went to Palo Alto High School as did my mom and most of her family. Since becoming a Case Manager I’ve noticed the severe lack of affordable housing in Palo Alto and by affordable, I mean rent below $1,000 every month. Palo Alto Housing Corporation is the only affordable housing in Palo Alto and their waitlist tends to be between 2 and 8-years. So, I end up having to house people outside of Palo Alto when the majority of these folks have lived here their whole lives and this was their home first. Before the tech boom, before they got priced out of the area, and displaced from their homes. Many people in this area have the idea that 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 19 of 47 unhoused people came from other Cities and states to be homeless here in this city and this county but in reality, 81 percent of folks lived in Santa Clara County prior to becoming homeless as we heard earlier. As a Case Manager in Palo Alto almost everyone I’ve worked with so far grew up here and they don’t where to go because this has always been their home. They are not alone; my family was also priced out of Palo Alto as along with many of my closest friends and families. Aside from expanding affordable housing in Palo Alto, as a city I believe we need to reconsider our stance on allowing unhoused people to stay here. By this I mean we need to create safe parking program as I know is in the works and safe pop up tent spaces for those who are living in their vehicles and on the streets. They need to be able to access clean and safe public bathrooms and showers to at least be able to meet their basic human needs. We also need more permanent housing subsidies so low-income folks can afford to live here and we need more rental assistance to ensure that even more people don’t end up homeless. We need to change policies to allow for affordable housing to be built here and we need to make every effort to destigmatize and decriminalize the homeless population in our city. Most importantly, I urge our community to remember our shared humanity, to make eye contact, smile and just say hi with those they see on the streets. We all feel as though we want to be acknowledged. Homelessness is an experience, not an identity and that’s what we really believe with our organization. As a city I hope that we can try to be more inclusive and excepting towards everyone in our community. I hope that we can work together to proactively address the housing crisis issue in Palo Alto. Thank you all for your time. Commissioner Savage: Great. Thank you very much. 2. Presentation by Soheila Razban, VP Strategic Innovation and Community Engagement and Bryan Neider, Chief Executive Officer of Abilities United on their new affiliation with Gatepath Commissioner Savage: Alright, moving on Item number Two, presentation by – I’m going to need some help with the name. Ms. van der Zwaag: Soheila. Commissioner Savage: Soheila. I need more. Ms. van der Zwaag: I have to get… Commissioner Savage: Ok, I’ll let you go ahead. Ms. van der Zwaag: Soheila and who is the Vice-President of Strategic Innovation and Community Engagement and Bryan Neider, the CEO of Abilities United. They’re going to talk about their new affiliation with Gatepath. Abilities United has been a long HSRAP grantee and partner with the city in many ways that I know Soheila and Bryan are going to go over. Commissioner Savage: Great. Ms. van der Zwaag: So, if you wanted to sit at the end. 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 20 of 47 Mr. Bryan Neider: We will come again. By the way I wanted to say you are doing great work. Ms. Crews-Holloway: Oh, thank you. Mr. Neider: It was great listening to you. Ms. Crews-Holloway: Yes, no thank you all for everything. We really appreciate your work. Commissioner Savage: Thank you. Ms. van der Zwaag: Oh, it’s Bryan, I’m sorry. Mr. Neider: Alright thank you. That’s ok. Ms. van der Zwaag: I didn’t have my glasses on and I said Byron and I got it wrong so… Mr. Neider: That’s fine. I answer to Byron, Bryan. Ms. van der Zwaag: No, but my apologize. Commissioner Savage: It’s pretty close. Mr. Neider: Not a problem. So, I’ll give you a quick overview so Gatepath and Abilities United completed a merger on September 30th. It had been in the works since about this time a year ago and mergers are very rare in the non-profit space. We’re really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish over the last roughly 6-months of starting to integrate the two organizations. Gatepath is primarily based in San Mateo County, Abilities United as you mentioned is located in Santa Clara County right here in Palo Alto. We’ll be celebrating our 100th anniversary coming up in May. Our combined organization serving the intellectual and developmentally disable community is the largest in the peninsula; roughly $22 million now that we’ve merged. We have 13 locations from Sunnyvale all the way up to Daily City. Over 300 dedicated staff, we serve 15,000 families every year and I’ll walk through our services and roughly 1,500 individuals and families every single day. So, we start with early intervention and from early intervention we provide therapy services from occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech, and we have an inclusive preschool program. So, we have three schools, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Burlingame serving probably about 250 kids. It's an integrated setting so our schools are all- inclusive. Then we have therapy services right nearby for families so it’s very convenient if their kids need have access to the early intervention and therapists that we provide. We are a family resource provide. What that means is we have parents who have children with special needs and they help support other parents. Not only with parent groups but also how to navigate a very complex system of support that the state of California offers. It is a freightenly complex system and it really is great to have parents who’ve gone through it educating other parents about how the system works. We have a program with the local junior colleges where we have what we call a college path for clients of ours that are able to go to junior college and continue their education. We have three learning sites where it is both job training, life skills training, that we provide those job coach skills that lead to employment. We have a Community Access Program or Community Connections and that is where you may see a lot of our folks in the community 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 21 of 47 every single day volunteering at many locations as well as some doing work and doing other activities. I’ll need my glasses for the last one here because the font is small. I mentioned employment services and then we provide independent living skills. So, a lot of our folks are able to live independently and then we have essentially life skills coaches that check-in and make sure that they’re doing well and have all the resources they need. So, that the span of services. I’m just going to do a little bit of into the weeds here. We provide support and services up to kindergarten roughly, then the school system takes over until age 22 and then we see the children as they graduate from the school system back into the state system. So, you have this kind of disconnected system and parents call age 22 the cliff because they’ve been in a very sheltered environment inside the school districts. They leave that and then go into sort of the cold cruel world which is very different than what they experienced for roughly the last 12 plus years, 15 plus years; whatever it might be. So, that’s into a very important area for us to be there to take that handoff from the schools into adulthood and what the kind of program that are available to the folks we serve. These are our mission and vision values. Everything we do kind of go through this filter. People first, collaboration, inclusion, dedication, innovation, and community. We worked on this roughly 4-years ago, we have annual awards where performance is based on this nominated by team members peers for each one of these values. We try to make our decisions about we operate our programs all around our values. The overall focus is around acceptance, respect and inclusion and that kind of drives how we design our program for the participants we serve. Community Connections, which you know is right here in Palo Alto, Abilities United was founded in 1963; 15 plus years of grant funding supporting child and adult programs here in Palo Alto. Again, we have a therapy program, we have a family support group here as well, and then we have a Stanford special needs family appreciation game. This came about, about 4-years ago so when I was sitting in a parent group and parents are describing the circle of isolation that they felt they experienced as their kids aged. So, when their kids where young they had a lot of friends and all the kids would interact together. As they got older, they felt that a lot of the community wasn’t sure how to interact with their child. When they’re talking about maybe their kid’s development and growth, they weren’t sure how to interact with the parent who maybe had a special needs child. Listening to that feeling of isolation, you know I wanted to set something up where we’d celebrate special needs families. We had about 250 people for the first game that we did at Stanford. We pick a football game each September, we had about almost 400 this September that went to the game. Commissioner Smith: 400 families? Mr. Neider: 400 individuals so families, we had a lot of the adults that went to the game had never been to a sporting event in their entire life. To see that kind of a celebration and really celebrating families and for them to feel truly accepted and part of the community. Stanford set it up so we have about 100 people on the field at half time so when the teams were back on the field the families, kids, adults are high fiving the players as they go into to start the second half. So, it was a pretty cool event and then local employment and community partners are critical for making inclusion and volunteer support for our programs happen. I’m happy to answer any questions along the way. You don’t have to wait till the end, just feel free to shoot away. Here are just some of the community partners here in the Palo Alto area. Employment is such a great way of I think bringing inclusion to the community overall and also empowerment. It’s amazing the power of getting a paycheck and it says I am part of the community as well. There’re some 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 22 of 47 folks that we have that may not be able to do competitive employment that we’ve provided employment opportunities so they can get a paycheck. I can’t tell you how powerful that is to be able to cash that check; $50; $500; $5. It doesn’t matter, it’s I earned it. I’m just like you and I’m earning my way here with the job that I was doing. These partners all make it happen and these are programs that are continuing to grow but somebody took a chance. What I will tell you the folks that are in competitive payment we have lower absenteeism, greater retention, love their job, great attitude, and they bring a lot to the workforce. It’s not a charity case. It’s an additive to the work environment. The slogan up there, I worked at Electronic Arts for 26-years and EA was a very early employer of special needs adults in the campus of about 1,200. I don’t have a special needs child or relative but I worked in an inclusive environment and I saw the power of what everybody brought to that campus. That’s what lead me to here after retiring from the EA about 4-years ago. It’s amazing what everybody has to offer and to see that firsthand. It’s something that certainly we’re very passionate about, but I think everybody gains from it. It isn’t just a one- way street, it’s a two-way street and I’m very proud of the partners we have helping make that happen. So, program expansion in Palo Alto so we have two locations right kind of kiddie corner each other. One on Middlefield, one on Charleston and right now we’re in the middle of remodeling the Charleston site. So, the interior was gutted, we’re redoing it, we’re going to create an art program expanding what we had, and we’re going to create a computer and media art programs expanding what we had there. So, in fact I was looking as some pictures that the contractor sent over just a little bit ago. Kind of went whoa, this looks pretty cool. So, the interior for the art area is going to be one for all sort of art programs whether it’s music, dance, painting, charcoal, whatever it might be. Then we’re going to be able to have set up where we can roll out a display so we can have art shows. If you’ve had a chance to ever attend our author’s luncheon or see the calendar we send out. The art is absolutely outstanding. I’ve got a – when I first got to become part of the Abilities United team, they presented a piece of art that I kept eyeing every time I was going to Charleston and gave that to me and that sits in my office at home. It's really some spectacular stuff. The computer program, we’re looking to grow that and have computer training. Soheila is actually working on a program with Cisco to do kind of network training, technical training and then we also want to do media arts. We’ve had a program where we do a film program all year and then have a film showing at the end of the year which is really pretty amazing to see what is inside come out on film. I think it’s the same thing with what you see is inside going onto the canvas. It’s very, very powerful stuff. We are going to be looking at making these programs inclusive so they’re available to the entire community. We think there’s a lot of power in an inclusive setup verses a sheltered setup. So, we’re going to be working through how to make that a reality here in Palo Alto so that the entire community is part of it and that integration inclusion that we are so passionate about becomes real for those two programs. So, we’re going to be considering senior center, Veterans, maybe folks leaving the criminal justice system. How do we bring our community at large into the kind of programs that we can offer with that space over on Charleston? Yes? Commissioner Smith: Thank you. Where on Charleston exactly? Mr. Neider: So, it’s right sort of on the corner of Charleston and Middlefield. Commissioner Smith: Ok. 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 23 of 47 Mr. Neider: So, there’s the I think Pete’s Coffee, we’re right across the street from Pete’s if you know where that is. Commissioner Smith: I pastor two blocks down, there are about six or seven churches on this street. Mr. Neider: Yes. Ms. Soheila Razban: Yes. Mr. Neider: Yes. Commissioner Smith: So, I know the Middlefield pastors would be interested in working with you. Mr. Neider: That’s great. Ms. Razban: That’s wonderful. Mr. Neider: We’ll be in touch. Commissioner Smith: Ok. Mr. Neider: Alright. So, we’re really excited about that and once this is done, we think we’ll be ready to move back in about 2 to 3-weeks. Then we’ll start doing some remodel work over on Middlefield and Middlefield is where the larger part of our programs is offered in Palo Alto with the adult programs, therapy, and the preschool. So, we’re going to start some of the – I’ll call it refresh work over there hopefully over the holiday break. So, community support makes the difference. The support that you’ve provided makes a difference to our programs. I’m going to talk a little bit about the way the funding works in our system and how important your support is but also from donors and the community at large. Whether it is opening doors for employment or it’s helping us develop programs like you’re supported with our social program and our Community Connection program. All those are critical. We want to continue the partnership that we’ve established over the last 15 plus years. We share best practices with any non-profit in our space. We actually opened up all of our 13 facilities for any non-profit to use after hours when we’re not using them. They just need to give us a certificate of insurance. We’ve housed a lot of programs around some youth programs at our facility in Sobrato in Redwood Shores. We’ve helped host HR training programs. We’ve put together many MBA program with Notre Dame de Namur in Belmont and offered it to cohort of 34 students to learn about non-profit management. Only half the students who were in that program were from our agency, the other half were from non-profits in the area. We’ve done several studies, one with a group called Tape Root, the other was with the Stanford ACT Team, talking about how do you build more collaboration and share resources? As the cost of the Bay Area has gone up for non-profits to operate, for everybody to operate, our funding has not kept up with that base and I’m sure that’s a theme that you hear a lot about. So, this have been an effort that we started 4-years ago, we have to get better at collaboration, we have to get better at sharing, we can’t be crossing the same ground at five, six, ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting. Page 24 of 47 seven times. If somebody’s done it and they know how to go, lead the way, and share your knowledge with others. We’ve held a lot of HR conferences. I can go through the list but where we can we want to make sure that what we have is accessible to anybody to use. So, if you have a non-profit or anyone who’s interested, don’t hesitate to ask and we’ll certainly share what we have. Wrong-way but I’m happy to talk about the expansion of Palo Alto again. Alright, so the California gap, following the great recession California cut funding for the Development Disability System by about a billion dollars. The state did a rate study last year, they commissioned a third party to do, that study said the funding in the State of California was short a billion-eight. So, if you part that into Bay Area it’s even a great impact because the way we’re paid is the average rate that they set over a decade ago across the entire state. So, that average rate takes a Yolo County with downtown San Francisco, it says here’s the average, you’re both getting the same amount. Commissioner Smith: Wow. Mr. Neider: So, you part it in the Bay Area, it creates a funding crisis and we’re 50th out of all 50 states in per capita funding for developmental disabilities. Not a proud stat for California. What I will tell you I spent time in Sacramento when I first started in 2016 trying to understand the lay of the land, the way the funding worked. It was clear that at that time Governor Brown had vetoed pretty much every measure to increase funding for our category. So, that felt like a dead- end. There was a chance to where he was trying to put money away for the Rainy-Day Fund and I get that but our system had been so pounded that the only way he would allow funding is if we passed a separate tax. You may recall the Managed Care Tax for healthcare? There was a 1-year tax, that funding went back into the Developmental Disabilities System and that was the only way Jerry Brown let funding go into the IDD System. He leaves and Newsome comes in, we started a campaign because we felt one there was a change in tone and tenor and we’d spent the last couple of years trying to educate legislators on the significance of this gap. We had a letter written that we took the cost on and our agency shared it across the state. A letter-writing campaign and email campaign, we had probably up to 80,000 letters and emails that have gone to the capital since we started that last year to increase the funding. So, they gave us an 8 percent rate increase which is obviously better than zero but that doesn’t come close to closing the gap and as only you can do when your managing budgets, the 8 percent was applied in January. So, it’s really a 4 percent increase for the year but they can say they gave us an 8 percent rate increase so pretty clever. So, we’re going to go back, we’re going to dial it up again coming this winter so December going into January. Getting ahead of the budget cycle and I didn’t know about it until I entered the system. You can hear about how difficult it is but until you get into the weeds really how it works and then you can start educating legislators. I will tell you that they’re all very, very supportive of rectifying this injustice because it is an injustice. The folks that we serve their homes are being closed, the group homes they live in. In San Jose just middle of October, six group homes which probably displaced about 40 people closed with no housing. They moved them to the Central Valley. We had clients that we’d been serving for over 20- years, their group home closes, they moved them in the middle of the night to Modesto and didn’t tell anybody. Didn’t tell us until we didn’t know why they weren’t showing up to program. You think about that and you think about the funding – by the way we get funding for the services we provide. There’s not another support area for things like mental health issues, memory loss, memory care, and you go through this. It’s like this is a huge injustice and so I 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 25 of 47 have no problem getting on the bully pulpit and talking about it and I haven’t found a legislator that isn’t willing to help find a way to fix it. We have some great advocates for us to get that 8 percent through and I’m confident we’re going to be able to go it again. I’m spending time on this to let you know what we’re facing and where your grant support is what helps us keep operating. I have to raise over a million dollars every year on my own and I’m not talking about grants. I’m talking about from funders and donors to keep our doors open because the state doesn’t cover it. That is the reality being in the Bay Area. That’s why this merger was so critical. We’ve been able to, using our infrastructure, take almost $800,000 of cost; 40 percent of that went right back to staff salaries because staff needed to be paid to provide great care. So, this is where you’ve got to be really creative and use a lot of business skills to be able to do the hard skills of caring for the folks that we serve. So, just again I wanted to share more about how meaningful what you do is and how significant it is for us being able to carry on our work. So, the takeaways, you know what it’s all about talented people. Every organization is powered by it, we’re powered by it, our incredible teachers, our therapists, our caregivers, and our administrative and development staff. We’re motivated by a vision for the future. Our vision is about inclusion. We are continuing you innovate in the way we design our programs and even though I was talking about the funding problem, we’re looking to a bright future. I think when you talk about what is possible, that’s a lot more motivating than sitting there and talking about the challenges that you have because everybody’s got challenges. I’m excited about what we can do in the future and I think you’ve heard this from the earlier presentation. Everybody wants to conduct and have purpose and that’s part of what we’re trying to do for the folks that we serve. Make sure that they have purpose. We haven’t defined it; they get to define what they’re purpose is. Our job is to enable and empower them. You’re always going to have challenges. It’s about attitude and how you overcome challenges and innovation is critical to what we do as it is in any other business. I was in high tech for 30-years, we’re innovating how we design our programs to make opportunity possible for the folks we serve. Last but not least, it is about making acceptance, respect, and inclusion a reality for everyone in our community. So, we celebrate our 100-years on May 14th. That’s my shameless plug for our biggest fund-raising event. We have Henry Winkler as our MC and Dr. Temple Grandin who is very famous women with autism who overcame the odds to get a master’s degree and a Ph.D. If you haven’t seen her TED Talk, I recommend you see it. She’s going to be our key speaker and there you go. Thank you for your support and for your time and I’m happy to answer any questions. Commissioner Savage: Go ahead. Commissioner Smith: Thank – amazing work. Mr. Neider: Thank you. Commissioner Smith: Thank you so much for what you do. As you were talking about funding, I leaned over to Minka and I know you do HSRAP but have you started working with the CDBG? The funding that we have for the City. The Community Development… Mr. Neider: I’m not aware of that. Ms. Razban: We don’t know about that. 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 26 of 47 Ms. van der Zwaag: So, I can just pass on your contact information next time… Mr. Neider: Great. Ms. van der Zwaag: …that comes up. It has a very low amount for the same type of programs you get through HSRAP. There is an Economic Development category now that we’re funding Downtown Streets Team for their job training. They're very specific income levels of the recipients that HUD has so I’m not sure how that works with your participants but seeing your job training program… Mr. Neider: Great. Ms. van der Zwaag: …I’m not sure if that would qualify at all but I will pass on your information. Mr. Neider: We appreciate that and we’ll definitely check that out. Commissioner Lee: Hi. Mr. Neider: Hi. Commissioner Lee: Thank you so much for coming. Mr. Neider: Sure. Commissioner Lee: I’m wondering if you could speak to how the housing crisis is impacting the work that you’re doing? Obviously, in addition to funding, cities are the primary land use decision-makers and so how has the – the decision are inaction by local Cities. You don’t have to talk about Palo Alto specific but how have some of the decisions or inactions by various cities… Mr. Neider: So, housing is a significant issue for adults with developmental disabilities and there’s a woman that I work with that has an electronic cart. She’s a client of Gatepath and she worked at EA for 19-years. When she retired, she was homeless for almost 4-months and I’ve been going to City Council meetings when I’m aware of the zoning issues or project to advocate for our participants who have them included in the housing mix when they’re looking A) low income. Many are seniors and with a developmental disability would qualify for some of the development projects because what’s been interesting nobody has thought about our population being in their mix when they’re doing the planning. So, the more that we’ve done that Steven, it’s really helped to raise awareness because we have some loose advocacy groups up and down the peninsula advocating for the folks that we serve to provide housing. Almost everyone as they leave the school system and maybe leave their home are on SSI, right? So, everyone’s well below that CAP. Even if they have employment because of benefits they try to stay below the SSI CAP so that’s a key benefit issue that is managed very closely. So, long term vision, in the Charleston site it’s a fairly big lot. Waiting to get time with the Supervisor Simitian to talk about how to use that property in the long run to do something that would be maybe mixed-use with both participant housing and workforce housing. We have a project in Burlingame, we’re 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 27 of 47 underway right now. We own an acre lot where we have our preschool. The design that we’re working on is a 4 to 5-story structure that would maintain the preschool and then have three to four floors of housing for workforce, low to middle income, and for the participants we serve. So, we’re trying to find a way to take advantage of what we have and make sure we’re meeting our mission as well as the community’s mission and providing a ray of hope for our staff. That they have access to some subsidized housing. So, those are the two big projects and as you can tell, if you give me the mic all night, I could probably keep talking so I apologize. Commissioner Savage: Thank you very much. Mr. Neider: Sure. Commissioner Savage: I’m glad you ended on an optimistic note but the funding issue, lack of funding is real scary, really. Mr. Neider: You know it’s probably been the most challenging job I’ve had of how do you 1) pay the staff a living wage. So, we’ve done a lot to put pretty much any savings we get back into staff compensation. 2) Then how do you take resources to invest in programs so that you have to keep going with innovation and quality for the folks that we serve? We’ve been fortunate to have some bequest that have allowed us to do a lot of that but it takes a lot of energy because you’re running on a very, very razor-thin financing model. I feel blessed that I was in finance rolls off and on for 30-years, but I can tell you it’s a lot of work and we’re fortunate to have a very strong and generous donor base that have continue to support us in our mission. So, I feel good about that. Commissioner Savage: Alright, thank you very much for taking the time to come here. Mr. Neider: Our pleasure, thank you for having us. Thanks. Thank you for your support. Commissioner Smith: Do you have a card? Mr. Neider: I do, absolutely. Chair Kralik: Ok, you’re on your own, good luck. Commissioner Savage: Ok. Commissioner Lee: Would it be possible to get the slides circulated to us after the meeting? Ms. van der Zwaag: Pardon? Commissioner Lee: Could we get the slides circulated to us after the meeting? Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes, I can do that. Commissioner Lee: That’d be great, thank you. ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting. Page 28 of 47 Ms. Razban: Hopefully after the campus is finished, you can come for a tour. Of course, Minka and Mary can come. [many people were talking off mic] 3. Panel presentation on adolescent and teen vaping by Becky Beacom, Health Education Manager, Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Philippe Rey, Executive Director, Adolescent Counseling Services Commissioner Savage: Ok, we’re going to move onto our third item. Ok, third item, the vaping issue is something we’ve been concerned with for a long time. I just see there was a fourth vaping death in California yesterday and I’d like to introduce now two of my very favorite people; Becky Beacom who is with Palo Alto Medical Foundation as their Health Education Manager and Philippe Rey who is the Executive Director of Adolescent Counseling Service and a great chief. So, please go ahead. Ms. Becky Beacom: Do you want to go first? Mr. Philippe Rey: Yes, I think I’ll start so thank you so much again for having us discussing this issue. So, just to again, to give you a background for those of you who may not be as familiar with Adolescent Counseling Services. We have been in supporting the mental wellness of the Palo Alto community since 1975 and actually you all started us. We were started by the City Council of Palo Alto and as I said it’s been around for 44-years. Our anniversary is coming up in a year in November so watch your email and community announcements about a big party because we need to celebrate all that we’ve done for the community. So, it’s kind of a joke but it’s not but for those who have known me for now -- I’ve been with Adolescent Counseling Services 22-years. You may have heard me say this a lot, I will come to City Council, come to HRC, and say watch my words we have a problem. Then people will say oh yeah, it’s just a little problem and 6-months to a year to 2-years here I am back saying yeah, we do have a problem. Now you’ve recognized it, thank you. So, my joke basically is once I retire, I hope I go down in history as being the medium. It is a good reflection of our own organization that we respond to community needs and we know our teens. As I said I would say that ACS is Palo Alto community because we know what’s going on here. Some of the statistics, before I delve into what we are doing with the epidemic of vaping, is as you know what’s changed is that currently 1 out of 4 high school students is vaping. The other thing as you heard from Daryl, we use to have 25 death from e-cigarettes and vaping, we’re not 26 and 450 cases nationwide of people that have been hospitalized with breathing and lung illnesses due to e-cigarettes and vaping. The thing that concerned us and we started seeing this wave of the vaping epidemic, more and more teens. Especially what was alarming with the middle school emerging was maybe about 5-years ago it started slowly, but because we operate what’s known as the Adolescent Substance Use Treatment Program. We basically look at everything as a possible addiction. It is always good to remind ourselves that 75 percent of youth individuals who use any type of substance also are dealing with mental wellness issues. So, be it depression, anxiety, stress, so that’s really important. We do see that with the youth that we work with who are using e-cigarettes, nicotine, to deal with stress and deal with some emotions. So, 75 percent do suffer from a major emotional disorder. Let me see, so what we have been doing, so last year about the same time as now so ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting. Page 29 of 47 last November, we started getting a lot of phone calls from local school districts, local schools, other communities saying we don’t know what to do with the vaping on school campuses and parents calling us and all that. So, we put together a big curriculum so we wanted to respond so we’d have a response when people called us. So, we put together a curriculum that basically is all-encompassing in terms of education, assessment, and treatment. So, we put that in place with very talented staff and experts from the communities and we launched this curriculum in August of this year. We were doing it currently and I’ll tell you more about what it is and what we are trying to offer and come up with a solution. Especially with the Palo Alto Unified School District and the City of Palo Alto. So, we are currently doing it at Los Altos Saratoga School District, we are in Half Moon Bay and also in the Redwood City and Shoreline, San Mateo School District. Basically, what we put together and what we’re doing it’s a five-component that basically that we work with. So, the first component is we work closely with the students and it’s not just any students. It’s all students throughout the entire school so mostly middle schools and high school. What we do is we go into the classroom, we for the school districts to give us 2-hours to be able to get into the every single classroom where we talk and raise the awareness around vaping, substance abuse, behaviors, de-advertising, false advertising, the chemistry of vaping, the danger of it and its very broad in details and broad in terms the information that’s going to the schools. So that’s the first component. The second component is that we then organize because we know how peer pressure is really important, we put together student workshops where we ask peer to peer conversation and this is basically because we are a treatment organization so we do treatment of substance use -- it’s mostly directed and targeted to the students who are in what we call the early experimentation. So, we know they are using nicotine, vaping, e-cigarettes because there might something going on in their lives. There might be signs of depression, anxiety, they use it because they’re relieving stress. We also work very closely with the family by doing what we call family genogram. That’s a historical component where we go back three to four generations wanting to know was there any substance abuse in your family? Was there any signs of depression and again, that puts the student at a different level of being targeted? So, that’s psychoeducation on the group, it’s basically a 6-hour curriculum so the students are together that we’ve identified for 6-hours during the school year and send them out with homework. There’s a lot of self-reflection on why they’re doing it, what’s going on, what is the physical and emotional response to using e-vaping and nicotine. The third component is parent education. Again, as you know and you’ve heard from our experts would say most of parents don’t even know what they’re dealing with. I mean if you look at the devices if you look at the effect of nicotine on the developing brain so a lot of parent education. This is several 2-hour workshops with each individual school sites so the middle schools and the high schools basically educating parents. So, the more they know how to recognize what the dangers are and what they can do in terms of conversations to open up with their kids is what’s important. The fourth component that we do is basically a comprehensive substance use assessment, so all the kids are referred to us by guidance or identified as possibly having some addiction features. Then we do substance abuse assessment and basically, the way it works with us and this is pretty unique. It’s a three-part assessment so first we meet with the kid and the family and the reason why we involve the family because we see it both as a resource and I hate to say that but sometimes as possibly the cause of what kids may be really stressed. So, we meet with the family the first session, then we meet individually with the parents and the student where we do the personal assessment. Then we again meet together to talk about what our findings are and what the recommendations are. So, this would be to work with all the students who were identified as possibly having it or abuse ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting. Page 30 of 47 beyond experimentation. Then the fifth component is teacher and administrator training so again, spending a lot of time. What we’ve realized is, especially in middle school, we have tons of kids who are using in the classroom. Some of the devices are odorless, they’re smokeless, and here they are just with their little what looks like a computer chip or memory card and just vaping away while the teacher just staring at them not really realizing what it is. Then that component also is not just how to recognize it, it’s also the danger and development education of their students. Then additionally what we offer too is basically the treatment. So, when youth are identified as having a substance use problem then they can be referred to our substance abuse treatment program. So, as you know we have five offices here in Palo Alto at Grant that is used for that and then we’d be working with family. The referral or the substance abuse treatment component is actually at cost to the family. So, then this is not covered by the school district or the Cities that we work with. Basically, to give you a good idea of the bottom line of this is in terms of us to be able to be effective and put together that curriculum, it comes to around $15,000 cost per schools. So, all the school districts that we are working with actually pay us for that. We have some help with some of the other local cities and I mean this is just an overview. What I’d like to do is actually send you more details to see what it would entail if the City of Palo Alto would be interested in funding that program. The good news/bad news, the bad news is that we would not be able to put it place until next school year. I think I’ve been with the organization long enough that I have said yes to many times and not be able to deliver and do a half hazard – half mat – whatever you say it in English job. So, for us to implement a program, it would be to begin next school year to be completely effective. Commissioner Lee: What is the name of that program? Mr. Rey: Its what we call the Alternative to Suspension Program. So, I will be sending you an email with all the details and all that because currently through our HSRAP funding I think we do address substance use. Our goal through that is to touch 30, 3-0, Palo Alto residence throughout the entire year which we’re doing that but it’s mostly dealing with harder drugs. The other thing to I want to stress and you’ve heard that maybe from Kyle who did a presentation is I’m sure you all remember when we use to say marijuana was the gateway to harder drugs. Now it’s nicotine and we see a lot of kids sadly that bypass marijuana to go on. Especially we’re starting to see an uptick in speed which makes sense with the academic achievement. Let’s not be blind, let’s not be in denial. We’re starting to see a lot of kids coming to us with crystal meth and another type of speed who started with the e-vaping. Commissioner Savage: Wow, thank you. I thought I was pretty well versed in all of this, apparently not. Alright, Becky, you want to take over or? Ms. Beacom: Oh. You can stay there and unless you have to go. Good evening. I’m Becky Beacom and I work at Palo Alto Medical Foundation in health education. I can’t help but have to start by saying how impressed I’ve been with the people that have come here tonight and the level of service that is provided by the City of Palo Alto to help these wonderful organization; including ACS and Abilities United. I come as a partner. I’ve worked for Palo Alto Medical Foundation for 40-years and the last 25-years a good portion of my position has been to do community partnerships and have had the pleasure of working with this guy for a long time and PTA council. I’m here tonight because I just want to add a little bit of extra perspective or 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. Page 31 of 47 different little perspective on this community-wide effort to work on this crisis which is this incredible increase in vaping. So, I know you had a comprehensive presentation a couple of weeks ago and so I’m just going to add a little bit to that. So, I think yes there we go. So, this will be short, but I wanted to add to the conversation and efforts that are happening right now. You may or may not be aware of how big the effort is among the parent population in our local schools and at the PTC council level. It’s a pleasure to work alongside them in even a small way and also, I wanted to give you some local data because one of the things that really important to me as I’ve worked with drug and alcohol use and suicide prevention mental health and just student wellness, in particular, is that we collect this data and we own it to students to use that data in our efforts. To date I haven’t seen a lot of local data being used. So that’s one of the things I want to share tonight very briefly because that data – I usually when I do bigger presentations, I slash that word data and use the word voice. The developmental assets that the City of Palo Alto has really organized itself around youth development. The schools have really recognized that one of our biggest challenges is to actually bring that voice out and to work with students more directly. So, that’s really my main purpose tonight. Something that I ask students to do when I’m in living skills is to handle the messiness and the complicated nature of this. That there’s a lot of scary stuff but there’s also a lot of hope and so you heard that tonight from the previous presentation from Abilities United. I’m hoping to piggyback on that, and I also wanted to let you know about an idea that came out of our Healthy City, Healthy Community meeting which was a community leader breakfast for this January. Just really quickly, the value of data to students and to the community, local data gives us an accurate snapshot in time. We hear a lot about national data which is what we need to do is sort of focus in using that national data, but then zero in on state and local data and look at how that compares. Is our data valid? Are student voices honest? It informs our efforts, it should, our strategies, our priorities, our focus, and that should be based I believe on an accurate reflection of what students are doing, what they’re attitudes are and what they value. It’s respectful to young people if they give us their time and their honest answers it’s important for us to constantly give back. It also provides an opportunity to work with them to improve our relationships with students, young people, and a very big piece for me is somebody who’s sort of has not worked in the intervention realms such as Philippe. Really at that high level or prevention and health promotion we know that students having an accurate perception of what’s going on is critical to their decision making. It gives them an opportunity to tell their own story rather than us assuming we know what they’re doing. So, with that I want to show you this piece of data. For the last 3-years I’m in Living Skills classes, this represents about 1,000 – what do I have here? 1,107 students in Living Skills classes asked the question how frequently do you ever receive the results when you’re surveyed? 93 percent is the average say never or rarely and then I asked them how many would like to have your data back and yes, they would. That’s another conversation but when we talk about hope there are lots of opportunities to turn some of these things around. So, here’s just some quick data snapshots you might have seen before. Monitoring the Future is a huge national survey that’s been tracking drug and alcohol use in the United States since 1974 and every December. So, we’ll get new data in about another month from now. They surveyed 8th, 10th and 12th-grade students and they never release data early but they did this year and some of you might have seen this in the New England Journal of Medicine. Specifically, if you look at this data, you’ll see that they started in 2015 asking about any vaping and then in 2017 they decided maybe we should break this out. Find out what they’re vaping so they asked for any vaping, vaping nicotine, vaping marijuana, and vaping flavorings only. Well, those of us who’ve studied this at all know that there’s 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 32 of 47 probably a lot more nicotine going on because students think they’re only getting flavoring but in fact they’re getting nicotine. However, Monitoring the Future last year really raised the level of alarm on this rapid increase of vaping and you can see that when you look specifically at nicotine and they released the date early for 2019 on nicotine. Basically, what they’re saying is we’ve had a doubling of incidences of vaping since 2017. Again, trying to balance this – juggle concern and hope at the same time, it does look like, if you just look at this, at least in the past year the level of the increase has slowed a little bit. So, that’s a small ray of hope. Palo Alto schools just recently completed the California Healthy Kids Survey last week so we should have some more local data from 2019. Our most current data ends at 2017 so we’re working with 2-year old data. When we get to that there’s going to be some opportunities, possibly to get that data early. Normally we would get that in the last spring. Commissioner Lee: Do you know if they include any specific questions about vaping? Ms. Beacom: Yes, I’m going to show… Commissioner Lee: Oh great. Ms. Beacom: This very next slide, actually the California Healthy Kids Survey does ask about vaping. They actually do ask about vaping marijuana. This slide looks at the – I don’t have a pointer. I don’t think they work on these things but if you look you see that PALY lifetime and Gunn – what you’re really looking at is the similarity between these two high schools which also lets you know this is very valid data. Those are essentially within the margin of error. PALY and Gunn, there are some differences in terms of alcohol and drug use but with regard to vaping they’re actually very, very similar and you are seeing the similar trend that we see nationally. Maybe not the same level of increase. Generally speaking, Palo Alto tends to be a little bit lower than the state and definitely lower than national data on drug and alcohol use. So, you’re looking at PALY and Gunn's lifetime – these are juniors. I selected data the oldest students because it’s an increase as students get older. We’re looking at – what is that? This is small on the screen. 17 and 18 percent of student’s lifetime, we have about 4,000 students a little bit less than that in our two schools so if you do the math that’s a lot of students. Even those that may look like a low number to some people, it may sound jeez, that looks lower than I expected. When you really break it out that’s a lot of students. It’s close to 20 percent and that was 2-years ago. We expect that this number is going to be higher but it… Commissioner Smith: 720 students. Ms. Beacom: So, that’s a lot. How many did you say, 20 percent of 4,000? Commissioner Smith: I did. Ms. Beacom: Yes. Commissioner Smith: And you get 720. Ms. Beacom: I guess is that right? 20 percent? 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 33 of 47 Commissioner Smith: (inaudible)(crosstalk) Ms. Beacom: I trust you’ve got the calculator there. Commissioner Lee: I think those numbers are very consistent with what… Commissioner Smith: 18 percent (inaudible)(crosstalk) Commissioner Lee: … the Youth Council found. They did a small survey and they found around 20 percent based on their small sample size and they’re looking too… Ms. Beacom: Small comment on that and that’s interesting – and that’s great because that is valid to them. Often times those are not very accurate, and one of my hopes, whether we’re talking about vaping or drugs or alcohol or mental health or anything is that we will use the purpose of the California Healthy Kids Survey data is to share it with the community. So, that we can work together on issues so I’m really hoping we can make this part of the culture because we’ve got 3,000 voices in this data. It deserves to be heard. So that’s good that it was consistent. So anyway, next… Commissioner Lee: I’ll just mention they are looking to do an additional survey this year. So, to the extent that we can empower them with existing data sets or existing resources to help them continue to have ownership over it. Ms. Beacom: Yes. Commissioner Lee: Because they really brought up the issue before this Commission did and so we want to continue to find ways to engage the Youth Council. Ms. Beacom: I wonder if it’s even part of their psyche to think about the surveys that have been asked of them. It’s been so long that we – that it doesn’t get back to students. Philippe and I worked on drug and alcohol collaboratives in the early 2000s and huge parent ed. push conversation starters, and narratives to work with students to develop a narrative on what is this and it’s not just about vaping. There are some beautiful data in there about what they care about, developmental asset survey has that too; to get a bigger picture of the state of health of young people and let them tell their stories instead of me. I just try to reflect their voices and look at the data in interesting ways. Just like we heard earlier, there is hope and there is opportunity even as we work on these things that concern us. So, anyway, I’m going to keep going here. So, again this is small for my screen here but how do you know that this is accurate data? I just wanted to show you that other districts that are local to us that do complete the California Healthy Kids Survey. Mountain View Los Altos is one San Mateo Union is another, Sequoia High School District is about to start up again, Saratoga, Los Gatos does not use the California Healthy Kids Survey. So, I’m just going to show you where Palo Alto is next to some of these other schools. So, the first thing you’re looking at here is national 8th grade from Monitoring the Future; 6.6. This is current use meaning in the last 30-days they’ve used. There’s Palo Alto 9th grade. Is that right? Yes that’s 9th grade at 5 percent, Mountain View 3 percent, San Mateo Union 14 percent, and then we go up to 10th grade again. Monitoring the Future does 8th, 10th, and 12th grade; that’s 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 34 of 47 at 13. I should probably look up there, it’s easier. 9 percent, this is Palo Alto 11th grade; Mountain View Los Altos 13; 16 percent San Mateo and the national at the senior level is at about 16.6. So, there are differences but they’re all still within a realm of each other. So, to me that says that’s very interesting data and Philippe I’m just going to piggyback on some the concerns about mental health and the connection. If you look at other questions on the survey and I think that’s an area of opportunity to look at the connection between mental health, anxiety levels and vaping that can be done with good data analysis. California Healthy Kids also looked at the students that said vaping on school property and again these numbers look low but if you do the math it’s going to show up on a campus as huge. So, Palo Alto 9th 3 percent; Mountain View Los Altos 1 percent; San Mateo 4. All within the realm of each other. That was 9th grade and you all look at 11th here, 4, 3 and 7. Very similar numbers. You don’t see huge swings there. This is the number of students at those schools who said they used marijuana in a vaping device and with the date we have now or the concerns that we have about putting oils into vaping devices, this is an area of concern. There’s hope there in that those numbers are very low in terms of percentage of study body and that is an opportunity actually to engage in this full story of all students which you said. Philippe you mentioned working with all students upstream, downstream. The vast majority of students are making a different decision but we care about these students and we want them to get help. One of the big fears is nicotine addiction as you’ve heard from multiple presenters. It’s a very big concern and we really need to lean on you guys because I’m hoping that the community leader breakfast will talk more about that. You know and are we asking the right questions? Instead of just use and behavior here’s a question that I don’t have a lot of numbers on this because I just started using this and let me give you a little background about why I ask this question. I’m in classrooms and in living skills in the summer and also, I work with Menlo School, a private school up on the peninsula. I was curious because one of the things that happened when you have a lot of kind of scary data, there’s a huge national and local conversation about vaping. We’ve been talking about this in classrooms for a couple years. I was curious if the tide was turning and I thought well what if we ask the question how concerned would you be if you knew your friend was vaping? As a possible indicator of if their attitudes had been changed and this is the data that we got. So, this is a very low number of students but I’m going to start asking this because my sense is in being in front of them is, they are not ignorant. They’re aware and we’ve at PALY and Gunn student efforts working on peer to peer work on this. So, I thought this was really powerful. Not only is it powerful for me to see it but these are clicker questions where students are weighing in anonymously. It’s important for them to see how they’re peers are responding that they’re peers are concerned. They underestimate the health that’s in their community and the attitudes of their peers and it’s a hugely important thing to share back to them. So, what is that? Almost two-thirds of the students are concerned or very concerned if their friend was using so that’s an opportunity. So, nicotine and mental health, I’m so glad that Philippe is here because this has been a big question of mine. We know that anxiety levels are going up and that nicotine is something that may be answering the call for some of those students. So, there are opportunities to dovetail and work with mental health efforts going on in Palo Alto and in our community, which have been enormous over the past 10-years. Here’s some data over the years on PALY and Gunn students. Again, these are 11th-grade students, fairly consistent well since 2011 but it has gone up over the last few years. PALY and Gunn basically the same but almost 30 percent of students who are talking about sad and hopeless feelings in the past 12-months. Also, our suicide ideation data which has been fairly consistent. I did add in Mountain View Los Altos in here which was a little bit higher and San 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 35 of 47 Mateo was also a little bit higher. I find that’s interesting because their vaping rates are just slightly higher than ours as well. So, the concern, as you’ve already heard, we have serious health concerns; addiction; lung damage; even death. One of the concerns that I haven’t heard people talk about that somebody who’s looked at the trends and has been really excited about to see these huge declines in alcohol use. Even in other serious drug usage over the last 20-years. I’m worried that if we don’t stem the tide on vaping that we may see those historical trends start to turn. So, to keep an eye on cigarette use, on alcohol use, on marijuana use, as sort of proxies I like everybody’s a little concerned about that. We’ve known for a long time that nicotine is the gateway drug because in order for students or young people to engage in that behavior they have to have crossed a line to make a decision to do something illegal, to hide it, to purchase it. Those behaviors are the slippery slope and so I am zeroing in on concern. I’m going to pivot on hope. Again, is this a response to anxiety and self-medication? Lastly and something that people who know me know that I’ve studied this for a very long time but in our concern the language of concern may contribute to misperception about youth and actually potentially drive higher use. Let me just say a little bit about that. So, if we use mental health or suicide, we know the importance of language around suicide prevention, stigma, all of those kinds of things. In terms of perceptions, we know – science shows that we are social and cultural beings and what we think is going on, especially in peer intensive periods like teen years and college years. What we believe is expected of us? What does a high school student suppose to do? What is a college student supposed to do? Those expectancies are extremely powerful in driving public health behavior. When I’m in the classroom the students actually create a huge list interesting enough around cigarettes about what do you think contributing or what influences in our health decision making? One of the most powerful predictors is what they think their peers are doing and actually that perception they actually overestimate and underestimate the health that exists on anything. So, just giving them their own data back would give them an accurate reflection. Student voices, nobody else talking, just their voices and for us to be careful as we talk about concern we also have to talk about strength and hope and that’s a challenge. It’s not easy to do that without making it sound overly positive and overly doom and gloom. Does that make sense? Yes. Commissioner Smith: You could be going too fast and too cotton candy. Ms. Beacom: Can’t be to cotton candy and that’s a risk. Here’s I’m finishing here that the hope and opportunities that national increase was slowing. We will and we’re going to have our data, I imagine it will be bigger than what you just saw but I’m hoping that it will slow down. Some of the indicators from the data are that the student majorities are not vaping, big student majorities. The students are leading this along with parents. They have concern for their peers and we’re going to have some new data in 2019 around use, around perceptions of risk, around their ease of access. We’ll see if those are indicators of what may be happening and there are some historic examples of big turn arounds, sudden turns around. When ecstasy made its resurgence and there was some very big health scares that happened around ecstasy. We saw a huge decline within a year. I’m hoping that’s going to happen with vaping. Can’t predict it but I’m hopeful. The Palo Alto Council of PTA, the high school parent ed. people are just doing an amazing stuff. The student themselves are holding these honest conversations and efforts and strength-based approaches give me hope and opportunity. Here’s just some examples, a quote from Mary Pipher but these are all student-run programs around mental health. They are driving this and Bring 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 36 of 47 Change to Mind, Sources of Strength, Safe Space, Youth Speaks Out, all those things going on. The conversations, as long students are involved in those with parents with community, we can move into something bigger and brighter. These are just examples of what students have done. I’m going to move quickly into this and finish on the Leader Breakfast. The Palo Alto Medical Foundation of the last, I don’t know, 20-years have had about six of these when there’s been an emerging issue that the community would benefit by coming together with representatives from different sectors of the community to hear the same message from a panel of speakers. Also, with the wisdom in the room, give people an opportunity from those sectors to talk about what they’re doing. So, student perspective, parent ed. perspective, school perspective, law enforcement, Chamber, healthcare, addiction specialist, youth family-serving organizations, Chamber, and the media. So, what we’re hoping to do and Minka’s on that as well as Valerie Stinger, both from the HRC. Linda Lenoir will come in when she returns and with generous support from the PTA council in terms of piggybacking on their work. We’re looking forward to doing this on January 23rd and with that… Commissioner Lee: So, I didn’t… Commissioner Regehr: What time is it? Ms. Beacom: It will probably be early in the morning like 8 o’clock, probably a 2-hour. Commissioner Lee: Ok. Yes, I just wanted to make a comment that if we really want to engage students, we need to make sure that the timing is accessible. Ms. van der Zwaag: (inaudible – off mic) Ms. Beacom: Yes. Commissioner Lee: Ok, great. Ms. Beacom: Again, this format has been done on other topics and out of those breakfasts often have come structures. The drug and alcohol collaborative came out of that. Also, the work that the students did on Changing the Narrative, yes, there we are. On the Oracle, that came out of the last leader breakfast when the City of Palo Alto, police department and PAMF brought and Project Safety Net brought Madeline Gould out to talk about suicide contagion and Changing the Narrative, which is exactly what we’re talking about in terms if you can do it with suicide prevention to talk about hope and the significant concerns that we have around this. It can be done with this as well. So, yes, I know Valerie will probably report back to all of you on what we’re doing. I want to end on we really need to get the student voice out and using their local data that we have. As a healthcare organization, it’s been drummed into me and efforts need to be data-driven and local data matters. So, that’s it for me. Thanks for listening to all of that. Any questions? Commissioner Savage: Thank you so much, Becky and Philippe. Just an amazing presentation. Ms. Beacom: Well, thank you. 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 37 of 47 Commissioner Savage: Any questions from…? Commissioner Lee: I wanted to ask if you’ve had a chance to reach out the Youth Council? Youth Council is our official youth advisory body for the city, and I met with their staff advisory and they have decided to make vaping their priority for the year. So, to the extent that the HRC or other city bodies are having vape presentations like this or having resources like this. It would be great if we could just make sure that we are connecting them with the Youth Council as the city’s official youth body in addition to all of the efforts being done at the schools themselves. Ms. van der Zwaag: We were planning on connecting with the Youth Council to invite them to this event. Commissioner Lee: Great. Commissioner Smith: When you send out the notice, can you send it out to faith leaders also? Ms. Beacom: Yes, definitely, definitely. Ms. van der Zwaag: That was on our list to ask you… Ms. Beacom: Good. Commissioner Smith: To send it out. Ms. van der Zwaag: … to send it out. Commissioner Smith: Good I will. Ms. Beacom: Just didn’t make it on my chart here. I just want to make a quick comment. One of the challenges when you have an emerging issue like this, which is why you want to do a convening, is that we don’t have the structure to tap all the important people. This breakfast may bring about that structure and we know that from the past 22 to 25- years how important that structure is. Some of those structures have gone that were in place and maybe this is an opportunity to bring some of that back. Mr. Rey: What I would say in conclusion, I think it’s really important for us to wait until data comes out because then it will give us a good idea of where we are. If it’s on the up or the down and then we can start working together. Ms. Beacom: Just a comment on that, I would agree. I would love to have that data. We know already, with or without the data, we have work to do. Some people are really doing the work of the students who are really struggling right now. I would love to see that data. I know with California Healthy Kids you can purchase the data ahead of time and if you have somebody willing to analyze it, we could get that. The district you know they have other things that they’re doing with data but that is a possibility of asking them if we need that data ahead of time. The one good thing about waiting until January, many good things about that, is that we will have 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 38 of 47 national data at that time and so that could be helpful. Commissioner Smith: And you have people that can show up because this time of year nobody makes it to anything. Ms. Beacom: The parents – and we’ve had (inaudible). The students right now are working on college apps and finals and holidays so yes. Commissioner Lee: Sorry, one last question. Do we know if students want to attend the breakfast if they’d be able to get out of school because I think they start at 8:20? Ms. van der Zwaag: I know when we did the one with Madeline Gould there was conversations because the school district was a huge partner in the Project Safety Net Coalition. There were several students there so it would be our hope as Becky and I and Valerie and others continue to work on this that we’ll lean into our partners either with the PTA or directly with the school district to identify if youth do come. So, it’s a Leader Breakfast and we will be sending invitations out. Commissioner Lee: It would just seem to me that that’s sort of the most important group to try to schedule any sort of summit around and that demographic has regular control of its own schedule. Ms. van der Zwaag: Right we’ll definitely be in conversation. Commissioner Lee: So, I just want to make sure that we’re… Commissioner Smith: Thank you, everybody. Mr. Rey: Thank you. Ms. Beacom: Thank you very much. Commissioner Savage: Thank you. We have one last speaker, Grace Mah. Ms. van der Zwaag: Just hit the button, Grace. Ms. Grace Mah: Ok, thank you. My name’s Grace Mah, I’m on the Gunn PTSA Advocacy Chair and I’m also on the Santa Clara County School Board. I just wanted to bring attention tonight to a new ordinance which was voted on in the City of Burlingame and the City Council Members there decided to impose a permanent ban on the retail sale and delivery of all flavored tobacco products in the city; traditional and vaping. They also did that so that it would restrict the delivery of these flavored tobacco products and that’s one of the things that makes it one of the strictest anti-vaping regimes in the county. That they have penalties including escalating fines and the possibility of a company having its Business License revoked. They really figured that blocking delivers helps discourage the online sales and that ends up being the backdoor for many of these companies to get their products into the hands of our children. So, just an additional bit 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 39 of 47 of information on the latest that’s going on with respect to city ordinances. I’d like to just inform both the Commission tonight and kind of find out how and which ways information can get led to the City Council being able to consider ordinances in a similar vein. That’s it, thank you. Commissioner Savage: Great, thank you very much. V. REPORTS FROM OFFICIALS 1. Commissioner Reports Commissioner Savage: Alright, moving on, Commissioner reports, the people who are left. Commissioner Lee? Commissioner Lee: I’ll keep it short and I actually pointed out I typed up and printed out my report for this group because I know we always run late. Nothing to fancy, it’s very rough because it was the first time that I did this but if you guys have any questions on that let me know. One thing I did want to flag is the Wonder Movie Event was pretty good success. We had about what, 80 folks so that was a great thing to do. Yes, based on feedback I got at the last meeting, engage with parents and PTA members to get their feedback on childcare. So, I really appreciate that sort of direction that the Commission gave me last time so I’m going to continue that process. Hopefully, sometime in the new year I can come back with a revised presentation based on the feedback the Commission and others gave me. Commissioner Savage: Alright thank you. I will read this later. Commissioner Lee: You don’t have too, but if you want too. Commissioner Savage: No, it sounds like interesting reading. Commissioner Regehr, anything from you? Commissioner Regehr: Yes, I attended the Project Safety Net and that was a great event. I picked up from brochures and stuff if anybody wants to see them. I also went to the Palo Alto School Board Sustainability meeting and one of the things that was interesting about that was the teachers and staff really want air conditioning in there because it’s affecting the children’s learning. There might be a bond issue on that and also, they want kitchens in the schools and then there’s more about that too. Then I also attended – were you going to address – because we voted and we gave the money for the… Commissioner Lee: Do we want to do that during the Staff Report? Commissioner Regehr: Are you going to do that during… Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes, I can do that during the Staff Report. Commissioner Regehr: Ok. I also went to the International Bullying Convention and that was really interesting. Some of the people that Project Safety Net quoted were there about… Commissioner Savage: Was that in Chicago? ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting. Page 40 of 47 Commissioner Regehr: That is in Chicago and I met with Lady Gaga has a foundation and… Commissioner Lee: Lady Gaga? Ms. van der Zwaag: You met with Lady Gaga? Commissioner Regehr: No, I didn’t meet with Lady Gaga but… Ms. van der Zwaag: Ok. Commissioner Regehr: … that’s what everybody always wants her. They have a program called Kindness and they want cities to have a resolution to have a kindness 21-day challenge. I know that sounds silly but they said that they would work with us if we wanted to promote just people picking different kindness projects and quite a few. I mean he’s already quoted about the movie and I think what happened out of that too is Rockette? Commissioner Lee: Rock. Commissioner Regehr: Rock, which is a teen group at Gunn and PALY but the Gunn one said that they would meet with us because they meet on Tuesdays. If we wanted to talk with them about the issues, about vaping or we could come at lunchtime. So, I think that’s one of the things that’s good about showing movies and just getting people involved. Commissioner Savage: Alright, I’m glad 80 people showed up. That’s pretty impressive. Commissioner Regehr: I guess my only concern was two things, was one is – I was hoping at some point we could start putting down on our own webpage about what we’re doing and what… Ms. van der Zwaag: That will be during Mary’s update. Commissioner Regehr: Ok and also, both Steven and I talked to the liaison through the Palo Alto Weekly and that wasn’t even mentioned in the Palo Alto Weekly. Commissioner Lee: Sorry, the Weekly? Commissioner Regehr: Well just the Weekly, remember – it wasn’t in the Weekly or… Ms. van der Zwaag: What wasn’t in the Weekly. Commissioner Regehr: The notification about the movie and… Ms. van der Zwaag: Well, they – they’re not… Commissioner Regehr: No, no, no I’m just saying we just kind of… Ms. van der Zwaag: That after it happened? ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting. Page 41 of 47 Commissioner Regehr: No before. Ms. van der Zwaag: Did you send a PSA to them… Commissioner Regehr: You did. Ms. van der Zwaag: …or did you put in the calendar? Commissioner Lee: I submitted it through the online calendar. Ms. van der Zwaag: Right. Commissioner Lee: I didn’t meet with them though. Commissioner Regehr: No, but I talked with the liaison and also, one thing that was good… Ms. van der Zwaag: I don’t know. Commissioner Regehr: … about the movie too was that I worked with the library and they had a presentation in the library at Mitchell Park about bullying and kindness and resources. So that’s good too that came out of the movie. Commissioner Savage: Great, ok. 2. Council Liaison Report The Council liaison was not present. 3. Staff Liaison Report Commissioner Savage: Alright, Staff report. Ms. van der Zwaag: Thank you, so I think the only thing was to give an update and Mary will have to help me with the numbers because I think I’m already having a block. So, the Emerging Needs Fund was very challenging this time. We had five applications. The Committee– that was Commissioner Lee, Regehr and a city staff member who worked – Elise DeMarzo who is the Manager of Public Arts and works a lot on grants. They reviewed all the applications and two were approved. One was a $7,000 grant to the Magical Bridge Foundation to work on expanding their Kindness Ambassador Program and the other one was to Peninsula Healthcare Connections. That is the clinic that is at the Opportunity Center and they had an unusual need but they needed a piece of equipment, copier/fax machine/scanner, to be able to continue to keep up with the paper documents that they were receiving that needed to be input into their electronic Health Management Program to continue to be eligible to be a federally qualified health center. So that they can get reimbursed by Medicare and MediCal for the people that they see. Ms. Mary Constantino: The shredding. ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting. Page 42 of 47 Ms. van der Zwaag: …that they had, they had a backlog of shredding of documents that were already in their possession. So, this grant will help to clear that backlog and to help them in the future be able to keep up with this. So, their staff can spend the time meeting the medical needs of underserved members of our community so those are the two grants that were provided. I thank the two Commissioners for their time. We actually met two times or two or three times, what it two times or three times? Twice? Commissioner Regehr: Three times. Ms. van der Zwaag: Twice? Commissioner Lee: I don’t know. Commissioner Regehr: Twice. Ms. van der Zwaag: Twice… Commissioner Lee: Twice, yes. Ms. van der Zwaag: … I really liked the process that my Director implored. I met with her to give the recommendations of the subcommittee and we had a long discussion because we had a plethora of applications. She felt she really could not make a decision unless she really wanted to hear first hand the voices the of the Committee. So, then the Committee came back together with her and she still made the final decision but it was basically in keeping with what the Commission had recommended. So, that is what I have. Commissioner Lee: There’s $35,800 left out of the $50,000. Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes, thank you. Commissioner Lee: I think we saw an increase in applications. Ms. van der Zwaag: We definitely saw an increase of applications in now that the ability to apply with an expanded definition of emerging needs. Commissioner Savage: Thank you. Ms. van der Zwaag: You’re welcome. Commissioner Savage: Mary, did you have something to say? Ms. van der Zwaag: Oh, that was… Ms. Constantino: Minka just wanted me to talk about the website. So, it’s taking a little longer than we had thought because I was having a hard time connecting to the right person to help me. He’s also done a temp. page for us. Minka and I are just working out how we want it laid out. So, it’s coming soon, I promise. ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting. Page 43 of 47 Ms. van der Zwaag: So, for others, that’s just the ability to add more information and have the HRC’s landing page be more dynamic and reflective of what the HRC is doing or has done in the past of loading up presentations from maybe some of the forums that you have done in the past. VI. TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR NEXT REGULAR MEETING: Thursday, December 12, 2019 Commissioner Savage: Alright, next month’s agenda. What do we have so far? We have a couple of speakers. Ms. van der Zwaag: That is my understanding, yes, regarding vaping. Commissioner Regehr: Isn’t Kristen speaking… Ms. van der Zwaag: That was my understanding as well. Commissioner Regehr: … about… Commissioner Lee: So, December is pretty much full? Ms. van der Zwaag: My understanding is this is what I had so far. If it’s already that Kristen O’Kane would give an update on staff’s work on inclusion programs, the vaping panel, Commissioner Lee I’m not sure at one point I did check in with you if there was an update on your childcare. You said… Commissioner Lee: It’s not going to be ready. Ms. van der Zwaag: It won’t be ready yet, ok. So, those are the items that we had. Commissioner Lee: If there’s any extra room, again this can be like last priority but if there is extra room in December, based on the first presentation it would be great to invite SPUR to give a presentation on their work on homelessness. I believe Kathryn had sited… Ms. van der Zwaag: Right. Commissioner Lee: Was it 2017 report and so I think that might be a nice follow up if we have room. If not then… Ms. van der Zwaag: Right, you know I would ask – what I would ask and that’s up to the two of you… Commissioner Lee: … or we could always talk. Ms. van der Zwaag: …because you’re the subcommittee on this. I would maybe encourage the two of you to meet, say what did we hear? What next steps would we like to take? Now if it is like what we’ve done, we’re very interested in this topic and we want a series of speakers to help build a real complex understanding of the issue. I say go for it, let’s have SPUR come but so that 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 44 of 47 feels a part of something – you know building that complex story instead of just a little piecemeal. So, staff would be happy to support that but just wanted to give you those thoughts that… Commissioner Lee: Yes, let me chat with Patti about it. Sorry… Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes, that have you two… Commissioner Lee: … didn’t really have a chance… Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes, to have you two chat about because it is definitely a very complex issue. Commissioner Regehr: So, one of the ideas that I was bringing back the stuff that you sent us about the housing. They had these incredible photos of people and when I was talking to the librarians, I was thinking that would be a really good way of showing kind of like a shared humanity what Downtown Streets were saying. Is that I would like to have something about housing and homeless in the libraries. Like showing those pictures of people that have become homeless and make it seem like a little bit more humane. I don’t know if I need to… Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes, I’m trying to think. I mean that’s really just entering into a conversation with the libraries may be as a private citizen or just to share an idea. I’m trying to think the HRC cannot really direct the library to do something. I know that different entities at times have had traveling shows or compelling exhibits that I believe have possibly been in our libraries or different public spaces in the city before. I think if it’s a project for the library to take on and then for them to do all the reaching out, I’m trying to think this through with just a… (crosstalk) Commissioner Lee: We could just see…(crosstalk) Commissioner Regehr: If I… Commissioner Lee: …if they like the idea. Commissioner Regehr: No, I’ve talked to them because we were talking about different programs like the housing. They’re going to have housing in December and we were talking about displays and she said they – this is Mitchell Park Library. Ms. van der Zwaag: Ok. Commissioner Regehr: So, May is mental health month and if we could just have what we’re doing as a city around… Commissioner Savage: Yes, it sounds like a really worthwhile thing to do. I just don’t know if it falls under the HRC roll. 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 45 of 47 Ms. van der Zwaag: If it’s something that, for instance, you’re interested in creating an HRC collaborative with the library or offering a collaborative -- I think in all of these collaboratives, offering it. I think what I would just think of as staff is as we have this issue, I mean you’re just beginning to unpack it, and you might come up together with 20 ideas just as you two think, in your smaller circle. That at one point when we get to the point of taking this issue and saying these are five actions or two actions that the HRC is wanting to do or wanting to explore more. That comes back to the bigger group because I’m assuming at some time the two of you, after hearing whatever series of presentations you’d like to hear that you will come back and say based on that this is the HRC’s involvement. That’s not saying that there are any rules that say you can’t do it a little piecemeal but there’s only so much energy you have. So, I would ask that you two start that conversation together and then make a decision on if that’s something you’d like to bring forth to the Commission. If you just want to do it as an individual, that’s fine, but if you want to say hey, is the library interested in entering into this collaborative with the HRC? I think that has to come back to the full group. Commissioner Regehr: Ok so I guess I would like that on the… Commissioner Lee: It sounds like we need to… Commissioner Regehr: Well because we have. Commissioner Lee: …discuss it. Commissioner Regehr: We have about the library doing this because we discussed it about the bullying but I guess we’ll discuss it more. I just feel like I’ve been here for 6-months and I’ve already talked to the library; I just didn’t know how we proceed. Ms. van der Zwaag: Right, if it’s something that your subcommittee wants to bring to the full HRC for its consideration, that is completely within your ability to bring it back. So, I’m just saying you two chat. That doesn’t mean if you two feel like you still need to have some dialog about that and then get back to me in the next week or so to keep in with those guidelines and say yes, if you’ve had some exploratory conversations with the libraries to see what that might look like or that they might be open to it before making this huge decision that you’re going to collaborate with them and then make the first conversation with them. So, I’m going to leave the next step up to you two and then you just let me know. Commissioner Regehr: Ok. Commissioner Savage: Alright, so are there other items that I’m not aware of or are we… Commissioner Regehr: Well, do you have a report, Daryl? Commissioner Savage: No. Ms. van der Zwaag: Depending on the number of people on the next vaping conversation and if Kristen comes as well. I think tonight there were three very full conversations. I would leave that to your own internal feedback to say if that number of presentations or that length of presentation 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 46 of 47 really works. Usually, I try to think after hearing someone for close to 2-hours talk to you, that’s a long time. Council is used to that but so I just want to hear your feedback on that. I usually try not to have more than three issues on the agenda or try to be conscious that we keep it around a 2-hour timeframe. There are no rules about that but just in trying to be the guardian of your attention and involvement. We already had two members leave during the meeting due to timing issues. Commissioner Lee: Personally, I’m ok with having three meaty items. I think we just need to be a little bit more realistic with how much time we put on the agenda. Commissioner Savage: I agree. Commissioner Lee: So, like if we said 40-minutes or something just so that we can plan in advance and the speakers can know ok, we’ll I’m third so maybe I’ll come at 8:00 or I think you told them but… Ms. van der Zwaag: I did let them, but they said oh, we – yes. Commissioner Lee: I’m ok with it but again, I have a lot of free time so. Commissioner Regehr: I guess my question is two of them had action items, but we didn’t… Commissioner Lee: I’m ok with where we ended on the first one. I think I wanted to reserve the ability to take action if something jumped out at us at the presentation, but it was sort of like 95 percent I… Commissioner Regehr: Well, I guess that was my concern because I had thought we had an action item and it was cut and I was going to bring up about the library at that point because you and I had already talked about the library doing that in December. Then I guess my question about yours is if we knew that Commissioner Kralik could have moved three to one so that he would have been able to hear it? Ms. van der Zwaag: In theory yes. I think there was a commitment to Kathryn that she knew she was first on the agenda but in theory, we did that last month when Commissioner Lee asked if an item could be moved. That was the will of the Commission that that was fine, that’s why there’s agenda changes, additions, and deletions. Commissioner Savage: Right so... (crosstalk) Ms. van der Zwaag: Number Two so in theory… Commissioner Regehr: Right, right, I saw that and… Ms. van der Zwaag: … that could happen. Commissioner Savage: Had anyone spoken up we could have done that but yes. Alright. 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 47 of 47 Commissioner Lee: Are we doing like a holiday dinner or something after the next meeting? Commissioner Savage: Well, in the past we would have a very short meeting in December, and we would start early and then that would enable us to have a little holiday dinner, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen this time. Commissioner Lee: Could we do it on a different night potentially or no? Are folks pretty busy? Commissioner Savage: Sure. Commissioner Lee: I would be open doing it a different night. Commissioner Savage: No, when it comes to a party, we can do anything we want. Commissioner Lee: I would be in favor of that. I think it’s a nice way to end the year. Commissioner Savage: Well, with only three of us here I don’t think we can come to any decision, but we can talk about it next month. Commissioner Regehr: I have one more question. I know you want… Is there a reason or a way that we could get the City Council more coming or when is that up? I mean is there a limit of how many times they could miss, or this seemed like it was a very important meeting, or could we request someone else that might have more time to come? Commissioner Savage: Well, we have asked our liaison to join us and I don’t think that he doesn’t want too. They just have so many other commitments going on it just makes it very difficult to attend everything they’re coming too. It would be preferable to have someone here from the Council but… Ms. van der Zwaag: So, new liaisons will be appointed in January. Commissioner Regehr: Thank you. Ms. van der Zwaag: You’re welcome. Commissioner Savage: Ok and we are adjourned. VII. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned at 9:35 p.m.