HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-11-12 Human Relations Commission Action MinutesADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting.
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HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION
Thursday, November 12, 2020
7:00 PM
REGULAR MEETING
****BY VIRTUAL TELECONFERENCE ONLY***
Commissioners Present: de Tourreil, Regehr, Savage, Smith, Stinger,
Council Liaison: Council Member Tanaka
Staff: Minka van der Zwaag, Mary Constantino
I.ROLL CALL
Chair Smith: I’d like to welcome everybody to the he Human Relations Commission’s regular
meeting for November 12, 2020. At this time, I’d like to do roll call.
II.AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, DELETIONS
Chair Smith: Do we have any agenda changes, requests or deletions? None.
III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Chair Smith: Right now, I’d like to open up the Oral Communications from members of the
public. This is to address any item that is not on our agenda tonight. If you can raise your hand in
the participant chat, where you hit *9 if you’re calling in by phone.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I do not see any raised hands, Chair.
IV. BUSINESS
1.Public Hearing: Review of Amended Community Development Block Grant
(CDBG) Citizen Participation Plan
Chair Smith: At this time, we want move to into our public reviewing of the amended
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the Citizen Participation Plan. I’m grateful
to Erum for sending such a detailed packet, which actually included paperwork from 2010
ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting.
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explaining a lot of stuff that I didn’t have visibility to before. We’ll turn it over to Erum, and she
will start us down the process on this. Thank you.
Ms. Erum Maqbool: Good evening, Commissioners and Chair. I manage the Community
Development Block Grant program. I’m here tonight to request the Commission to review the
Community Development Block Grant Citizen Participation Plan that the staff prepared. Staff is
proposing minor amendments to the existing Citizen Participation Plan to provide for an
expediated process for the City to allocate emergency CDBG funding, to bring the plan into
compliance with current HUD regulations and reflect general formatting updates. The HRC
recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council for consideration on November 30, 2020.
I’ll start with providing a brief introduction of the Community Development Block Grant,
commonly known as the CDBG program and why we need a Citizen Participation Plan. The City
of Palo Alto receives an annual grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development,
also known as HUD, as an entitlement city under the CDBG program. CDBG is a federal
program that provides grants to improve the physical, economic and social conditions, primarily
for persons of low and moderate income. In order to receive CDBG funding, HUD mandates the
preparation of a consolidated plan, which is prepared every five years to identify priority housing
and community development needs and sets forth a strategy to address those needs. An action
plan, which is prepared annually to identify specific projects to be funded to implement the goals
and objectives identified in the Consolidated Plan, also know as the ConPlan, and a Consolidated
Annual Performance and Evaluation Report, also known as CAPER, which is the annual
performance report that evaluates goals achieved with the annual CDBG grant. In order to ensure
maximum citizen participation in the development of the Consolidated Plan, Action Plan and its
associated Performance Report and to enhance program accountability, HUD requires that the
CDBG entitlement jurisdictions provides its citizens a reasonable opportunity to be part of the
CDBG activities from the beginning to the end of the program year. As a CDBG grantee, the
entitlement jurisdictions must have a Citizen Participation Plan for involving the citizens in the
CDBG program process. The plan must be written and adopted by the governing body, and the
plan itself needs to describe how citizens are able to provide input into the program throughout
its duration. The Draft Citizen Participation Plan, which is under review, is divided into sections
covering rules and responsibilities for the City Council, Human Relations Commission, staff and
the general public. As for the rules and responsibilities in regard to the City Council, the City
Council sets policies, priorities, and approves the overall CDBG allocations. As per the Draft
Citizen Participation Plan, the City Council will conduct a minimum of two public hearings per
fiscal year for the purpose of obtaining citizens’ views and formulating [gap in recording]. The
two public hearings will be held at different stages of the program year, and the actions of the
City Council will direct the implementation of the CDBG-funded projects. Through the Citizen
Participation Plan, the general public and other stakeholders are also encouraged to participate in
the various stages of the CDBG program by attending and commenting at the noticed public
hearings. They are also encouraged to express their views, comments or concerns directly to the
City or directly to HUD. Interested citizens are advised to review the plans, reports and other
pertinent program documents online or by downloading files, or by requesting the physical
copies of the files or the plans, and they can provide comments and suggestions via letters,
emails or phone calls. The Citizen Participation Plan provides guidance to persons with
disabilities who require assistance in using either City facilities or service or programs on how
ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting.
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they can be facilitated. The roles and responsibilities of the Human Relations Commission are
also specified in the Draft Citizen Participation Plan. As per HUD’s regulations, a minimum of
two public hearings must be held throughout the program year, and they should be held prior to
the submission of the Annual Action Plan, or the ConPlan, to obtain residents’ views and
responding to proposals and their questions. One of the two required public hearings must be
held before the Draft ConPlan or the Draft Action Plan is circulated for public comments, so the
HRC will conduct at least one public hearing, and this public hearing will be the required public
hearing that we are going to do before the circulation of the Draft Annual Action Plan or the
ConPlan. This public hearing will be followed by a 30-day public comment period and followed
by another pubic hearing, which will be held by the City Council. Citizen Participation Plan
provides detailed information of the staff’s responsibilities in ensuring maximum citizen input.
Staff is responsible for providing critical program information, such as the availability of funds,
activities to be undertaken from those funds, maintaining of a mailing list of interested parties
per grant, providing technical assistance to grant applicants. Additionally, staff is responsible for
providing sufficient notices regarding the public hearings, which are a required item, and public
comment periods on various reports and plans. Any complaints or information requested by the
stakeholder pertaining to the CDBG program should also be entertained by the staff as per the
Citizen Participation Plan. Planning staff is also directed to arrange for information to be
presented in a bilingual fashion at public hearings whenever a significant number of non-
English-speaking residents are expected to participate or when a reasonable request is made for
such a service. Finally, responding to any complaints and grievances regarding the CDBG
program is also staff’s responsibility. The Draft Citizen Participation Plan specifies the criteria of
what constitutes a substantial amendment to a ConPlan or the Action Plan and how the City will
provide opportunities to the stakeholders to provide comments on the activities to be undertaken
by submitting the substantial amendment to HUD. Substantial amendments are defined as,
number one, a change in the use of CDBG funds from one eligible activity to another; number
two, the implementation of an activity that was not previously identified in the submitted
ConPlan or the Action Plan; and number three is a change in an activity’s program budget which
exceeds ten percent of the City’s latest annual entitlement grant. Again, this is a HUD
requirement. Prior to the submission of a substantial amendment, the City will circulate the
amended ConPlan or the Action Plan for public comments for a 30-day period, followed by a
public hearing to be held by the City Council. In order to expediate the use of CDBG funds to
prevent or respond to the COVID-19 emergency, in June, 2020, HUD waived certain regulatory
provisions regarding the public comment period, which was reduced from 30 days to 5 days, and
also regarding reasonable notice and opportunity to comment. This was the time period of the
announcement of public hearings, reduced from 14 days to 5 days. These waivers apply to
Consolidated Plan amendments. In its guidance, HUD directed jurisdictions to make changes to
their Citizen Participation Plan to be consistent with the waivers, to acknowledge the ability to
streamline the lendee grant processes in the time of emergency. The Draft Citizen Participation
Plan specifies the citizen participation requirements in the state of emergency, which is to
comply with all the HUD memos and notices that direct citizen participation requirements in the
event of a local, state or national emergency or disaster. These requirements should overtake any
conflicting provisions of the Citizen Participation Plan. Following the HUD standards will allow
the City to respond in the most efficient manner to secure and access new HUD funding and to
reallocate existing funding. This will give a brief overview of the Draft Citizen Participation Plan
ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to
access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org . This agenda is posted in accordance with
government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting.
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that’s under review. The HRC recommendation – again, I’ll repeat – will be forwarded to the
City Council for consideration on November 30th. I’m going to conclude the overview of the
Citizen Participation Plan and happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you so
much.
Chair Smith: Thank you so much, Erum, for that thorough presentation and for the packet that
you sent us earlier with a lot of detail in it. What I would like to do is offer each
Commissioner…Let’s do a round robin and start with five minutes per Commissioner.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Erum, would you mind pulling the presentation down and just re-present it if
a Commissioner has a question, so we can go back to the screen with all the Commissioners on
it?
Ms. Maqbool: You are asking me to stop sharing my screen?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Yes, please.
Ms. Maqbool: Okay, I’ll do that.
Chair Smith: We’ll do this in alphabetical order. We’ll start with Commissioner Regehr. We’ll
go to Commissioner Savage, Vice Chair Stinger, Commissioner de Tourreil, and then…Actually,
it’s Commissioner de Tourreil first. I’m sorry, I messed up the order. Then, Commissioner
Regehr, and then I will be the last one on the list. Sunita, do you have any questions? We’ll give
you five minutes if you have any questions for Erum.
Commissioner de Tourreil; It seems that primarily what we’re looking at is making sure that
we’re in compliance with the new rules of decreasing the amount of time in case of an
emergency for citizen participation?
Ms. Maqbool: Yes, that’s correct.
Commissioner de Tourreil: That’s primarily the sole thing that we’re looking to adopt?
Ms. Maqbool: Yes. That’s correct, and there were minor changes to HUD’s regulation pertaining
to broadband access, like previously, when we were sending out notices of public hearings, we
were not required to inform broadband providers, but now we have to include those, too, in our
mailing list. So, minor changes like that are also part of the Draft Citizen Participation Plan, but
primarily we are amending it because of including the clause of in a state emergency, what the
City is going to do.
Commissioner de Tourreil: Which is in line with what HUD is recommending that we do.
Ms. Maqbool: Yes, that’s correct.
Commissioner de Tourreil: I’ll stop there. We’re going to do a couple round robins, potentially?
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 36
Chair Smith: Take your time now. I think it would be good to get it all in one…I’m trying to
only do one round, really. Maybe two.
Commissioner de Tourreil: That's the end of my questions at this time.
Chair Smith: Okay, thank you. Commissioner Regehr?
Commissioner Regehr: My question is about community participation and the meeting. Being
that we’re…It’s probably going to be Zoom, all of these things, probably, right? So, one of the
things that I’ve heard from people is that Zoom for people that can’t hear very well, they’re
hearing impaired. Is there a way besides the languages to have…? Because I know you can do it
for Zoom, is to have captions? Can we include captions, so people that are hearing impaired can
participate that way?
Ms. Clare Campbell: I think that we have the ability to do that. We’ll check with our ADA
Compliance staff person, just to see what we can do, but I’m sure there are…I know that Zoom
has the capability to turn something like that on. It’s sort of a normal procedure.
Commissioner Regehr: Right, because part of our…It’s not really ADA, because a lot of times
ADA does not meet…I mean, they meet the requirements, but they don’t go beyond, and I feel
like our duty as a Commission is to protect and to help people that are in need. I guess that’s my
request, that we do that, so that people that are hearing impaired can…?
Ms. Campbell: We’ll look into that to see what we can do to accommodate that request.
Commissioner Regehr: Okay, then my next question is to the City Council Member, Greg. We
are down to five, and now we are being implemented to all this by November 30th and have a
meeting. Is there a way to go back to the City Council and say we need more Commissioners?
Because I know that the Parks said, “We can’t do all of this from Parks,” and we are under the
auspices of helping human beings and people, and this is a lot besides what we’re supposed to be
doing, too, as a Commission. I mean, it’s a lot for five of us, especially with the Brown Act. Can
we talk to one person? Is there a chance that we can go back, because I know you were really a
proponent to helping?
Council Member Tanaka: Well, you’re just preaching to the choir here. That vote failed, as you
know, so maybe with a new Council it will be different – different opinions perhaps, but at last
Council it didn’t happen. So, I don’t know. I think we have to see if…As I said, you’re preaching
to the choir. I’ve supported having more Commissioners.
Commissioner Regehr: Because, how many staff members…? I guess that’s my question, is how
many staff members are working on this?
Council Member Tanaka: I don’t know. Staff would have to say.
Commissioner Regehr: Or Clare? And you guys, we’re five.
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 36
Ms. Campbell: I’m not going to speak for the HRC. I can let Minka speak for the HRC. I’m from
the Planning Department, so I wouldn’t be able to speak for this group.
Commissioner Regehr: No, I mean just specifically on this block, this particular issue. How
many of you are working on this?
Ms. Campbell: Our CDBG staffing is Erum. Erum is the only staff person that we have with us
as a City employee, and she is a part time person, and in addition to Erum, we do have some
consultant assistance when it’s needed for the work that we need to get done each year, and it
just depends on what’s going on with the program.
Commissioner Regehr: I guess I just don’t feel like being on the Commission – and this is a
question – I don’t feel like we should just be a rubber stamp. In order to give this time, we all
have to participate. That’s my only concern, is that…That’s my only concern, that I think that the
City Council made a mistake. Because they didn’t even have any questions. The whole reason
was for staff time, the staff efficiency. They didn’t think about us in that regard. And now we’re
making major decisions for the public. I’m done.
Chair Smith: Thank you. Erum, at this phase in the process, what is the deliverables and the work
required of the HRC tonight and moving for the November 30th meeting? I just want to make
sure I’m clear on what you need from our Commission tonight.
Ms. Maqbool: We would like the Commission to recommend the City Council to adopt the Draft
Citizen Participation Plan, with the minor changes that we are making and the substantial change
of including the emergency clause in the Citizen Participation Plan. We would like you to
recommend that to the City Council to adopt this Draft Citizen Participation Plan.
Commissioner Regehr: So, citizen participation, can we know…? I know I was done, but
I’m…Can we know what your Participation Plan is before we say we’re adopting this? What is
your plan to reach out, because it says a little bit, like social media, but what is the plan that
we’re adopting, or we’re recommending adopting?
Ms. Maqbool: The plan was part of the parcel that was sent last week, last Friday.
Commissioner Regehr: But it seemed pretty general. I read that.
Ms. Maqbool: Can you be a bit specific in terms of exactly -?
Commissioner Regehr: Okay, so what did they do last time to let participants be aware of it?
Ms. Maqbool: As per our existing Citizen Participation Plan, we are conducting two public
hearings. We are required to conduct and publicly notify public hearings. But our current process
that we are doing, we are doing five public hearings instead of two. That is part of the existing
Citizen Participation Plan. We are informing the general public, through newspaper ads and blast
emails about the public notices, when the funding is available and the kinds of activities that we
are going to take. We publish newspaper ads. We publish that on the CDBG web page. We are
providing technical assistance to the grant applicants if they need. We publish the NOFA every
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 36
year in November, the Notice of Funding Availability, and after publishing that, within two
weeks, we conduct two pre-proposal conferences with all the applicants if they have any
questions regarding the regulations of the CDBG program, or if they need any assistance with the
applications. After that, we bring the applications to the HRC Selection Committee, which you
were part of last year, and after those recommendations go to the full HRC. That's our process
that we do.
Commissioner Regehr: Minka, can we put it on our page, too?
Chair Smith: Patti -?
Commissioner Regehr: Can we put it on our…? I’m just saying that if we’re going to do be
doing this and stamping it, then I’d like to know how much outreach are we doing. Can we put it
on our Human Relations Commission that we’re going to have these meetings and put it in the
COVID Notes? It just seems like…
Ms. van der Zwaag: The Planning Department can decide if they want to send it for inclusion in
the COVID Notes. We can include it on the HRC page.
Commissioner Regehr: Okay. Thank you.
Chair Smith: Thank you. Commissioner Savage?
Commissioner Savage: It seems like there’s just a few changes from the way it was in previous
years, so I’m good. No questions.
Chair Smith: Vice Chair?
Vice Chair Stinger: Thank you. That was very detailed, and I appreciated your report. I just
wanted to make sure I understood the HSRAP CDBG overview – is that something, do we do
that among our subcommittees right now and at our HRC review? Was that to be more
formalized in the proposal?
Ms. Maqbool: That was actually part of the adopted Citizen Participation Plan, too, because we
just want to…The only reason why we include that is – it’s not a HUD regulation – we just want
to make sure that we are avoiding the duplication of benefits, that if we are providing a grant to
one agency and HSRAP is also recommending grant for the same agency, the Scope of Services
could be similar. But even if it’s similar, we are not providing them a grant for the same thing
two times.
Vice Chair Stinger: So, it just formalized what we had been doing in the past?
Ms. Maqbool: That’s true.
Vice Chair Stinger: Can we also – and maybe this would just be a note to self – when we set up
our priority needs, we might want to think of both agencies.
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 36
Ms. Maqbool: Yes.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Erum and I are in dialog during the entire process of CDBG and HSRAP.
We hold what we call our first meeting, kind of called the bid meeting, and the CDBG and the
HSRAP people that are being…Anybody who wants to apply, is required to be at that meeting,
and Erum and I both participate. We both present, and then when the applications come in, we
are in dialogue together as well, so that dialogue happens all along the way with the goal that we
each try to serve the agencies that are applying through the different programs and that we’re not
considering to fund the same type of activities. That’s something that’s made very clear during
the pre-bid meeting as well.
Vice Chair Stinger: I think you’ve done a good job of that. I think we need to be a little bit more
conscious of doing it upfront. We do it after the fact, and I think we can do a better job of doing
it upfront. Thanks. I’m done.
Chair Smith: Okay. I think I made a technical mistake. I did not ask for public comment before I
went to Commissioner questions. I apologize to the public for that. If there is anybody that would
like to make public comment, can you please raise your hand or hit *9?
Ms. van der Zwaag: I see no raised hands, Chair.
Chair Smith: Okay. I apologize again to the public and Commissioners for that oversight on my
part. At this time, I’m willing to entertain a motion.
MOTION
Commissioner Savage: I move that we adopt the Citizen Participation Plan, with the minor
changes.
Chair Smith: Thank you. Can I have a second on the motion?
Vice Chair Stinger: I second.
Chair Smith: Thank you. We will go through the vote.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Chair, may I ask just if there’s any discussion, and then you can go to the
vote?
Chair Smith: Any discussion? Any questions on the vote?
Vice Chair Stinger: My only discussion would be that we need some hand-holding this first year
through it, to make sure that we are sticking to the letter of the law. The letter of our motion.
Chair Smith: Thank you. Can I make a friendly amendment to this motion?
FRIENDLY AMENDMENT
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 36
Chair Smith: I would like to add to the motion, to ask City Council to reconsider the number of
Commissioners, because of the amount of work required for CDBG, and given the speed and
time that is required this year. Is that not part of the goal, Erum?
Ms. Maqbool: Can you repeat the question, Chair, please?
Chair Smith: As part of our goal, part of the reason we’re making these changes is because we
are doing this to be quicker and more efficient. Is that correct?
Ms. Maqbool: But that’s only for emergency funding. We are already done with the emergency
funding. It’s like in the future, if something like this happens, like COVID-19, how we are going
to utilize those funding, not for the regular grant.
Chair Smith: Okay, so I’ll take back my friendly amendment. Patti, go ahead.
Commissioner Regehr: I just had a question if our City Council Member had a comment.
Because we were on that process, and all of a sudden, the Finance Committee didn’t even talk to
us, who were on the Commission for the funding. I’m concerned about this process. We put a lot
of time into this, and I just want a commitment. I don’t know. I don’t know how to make that
amendment, but if you want community participation, then you have to…We didn’t have a
meeting at the very end, so we didn’t even recommend. You guys didn’t come to us, and then it
just skipped us, and it went right to City Council, the very end process. So, I’m trying to think
ahead for this process, because if we want community participation and stuff, you have to honor
the whole process.
Ms. Maqbool: Commissioner Patti, just to clarify, we are supposed to come to the HRC once per
fiscal year. We did come last year for the CAPER, so –
Commissioner Regehr: No, at the very end, when three of us…My concern is that we’re agreeing
on this process for the beginning, but I would like to have a process so that you do come to us
at…We didn’t vote. We didn’t vote.
Chair Smith: I have a question. One of the things I will say is I personally believe I address
patterns, not instances, and given the jumble that was last year, I think, by the language that
Erum and the Planning staff is putting to deal with emergencies, we should be good. Also, just to
be clear, I think for Council, when we make a vote as a Commission or a subcommittee or group,
they get that recommendation, and they read the recommendation, and they move ahead with the
recommendation. It’s not a requirement to come back and talk to us about it. Whatever the
recommendation or vote do as a Commission is passed –
Commissioner Regehr: But what I’m saying is that last time, there was a subcommittee –
Chair Smith: They passed up the subcommittee recommendation to the Council.
Commissioner Regehr: No, and then we were supposed to bring it to the Human Relations
Commission, and that’s what they passed.
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 36
Chair Smith: We did not meet as Human Relations, but the Council did get the subcommittee
recommendation. All right. Are there any other -?
Commissioner Regehr: My question was to Greg.
Chair Smith: Commissioner –
Commissioner Regehr: For discussion, because he hasn’t commented at all.
Chair Smith: Well, he’s an observer at our meetings more than a commenter.
Commissioner Regehr: Okay, never mind. No discussion. We don’t have to have a discussion.
That’s fine.
Chair Smith: All right. Can we have a vote at this time?
MOTION PASSES, 5-0
Chair Smith: Thank you so much, Finance Commission, and thank you for all the work you’re
doing in the city during this time of COVID, and if everything goes in Washington, we might be
getting more funding, so I know you guys have a lot of long hours in front of you, so thank you
for the work you do for our community.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Actually, Erum will be on for number two as well.
Chair Smith: I know, but I had to thank her for number one. You know, you give them the roses
while you can.
Ms. van der Zwaag: It almost sounded like you were saying goodbye to her, so I just wanted to
make sure.
Chair Smith: No, no.
Vice Chair Stinger: You’re not that lucky.
Chair Smith: Yes, I’m not.
2. Public Hearing: Review of Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation
report (CAPER)
Chair Smith: Let us go over CAPER. Erum, do you have another slide for us?
Ms. Maqbool: Yes, I’m going to share my screen again.
Chair Smith: Thank you.
Ms. Maqbool: Good evening again. I would like to thank the Commission for giving me the
opportunity to provide a brief overview of the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation
Report, also known as CAPER. This report is for fiscal year 2019-2020, which ended on June 30,
2020. It started from July 1, 2019 and ended on June 30, 2020. The CAPER is a federally
mandated document that the entitlement jurisdiction submits to HUD at the conclusion of the
fiscal year. This year the deadline to submit the CAPER is December 27, 2020. The purpose of
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access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
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Page 11 of 36
the CAPER is to provide a summary of how the CDBG funds were expended and the
accomplishments made through the funding of those projects. Community Development Block
Grant, again, commonly known as the CDBG program, is the principle federal program. The
City of Palo Alto receives annual funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban
Development as an entitlement city under this program. The City uses this grant to fund activities
that provide decent housing, suitable living environment and extend economic opportunities,
principally for persons of low and moderate income. Activities funded through CDBG must meet
one of the three national objectives. Number one is to benefit low and very low-income persons.
Number two is aid in prevention or elimination of slums or blight, and number three is meet
other community needs that are particularly urgent for the low-income community. All of the
activities funded by the City meet the first objective. In fiscal year 2019-20, the total of funding
available for allocation was around $725,000. On the screen you can see the breakdown of that
$725,000. The entitlement grant was around $500,000; $88,000 was made available from prior
year resources; and the $136,000 was from estimated program income. Out of this amount,
approximately $90,000 was directed towards the public service activities; $361,000 was for
economic development; $145,000 was granted to a capital improvement project for the
rehabilitation of public facility; $38,000 was provided to Project Sentinel for Fair Housing
services; and $90,000 was allocated to the City, the Department of Planning and Development
services for the administration of this program. There are five funding categories in which the
funds can be allocated. Number one is the public service category; number two is planning and
administration; three is economic development; four is public facilities rehabilitation and fifth is
housing rehabilitation. Per our Regulations, there are spending caps placed on two of the five
categories. Fifteen percent spending cap is placed on public services, and 20 percent is placed on
planning and administration. The rest of the three categories don’t have any spending cap. The
first activity was the public service category. The agencies funded under the public service
category in fiscal year 2019-2020 were LifeMoves, Catholic Charities, Palo Alto Housing,
YWCA and Silicon Valley Independent Living Center. In fiscal year 2019-2020, LifeMoves at
the Opportunity Service Center, 33 Encina Avenue, addressed the basic human needs of 326
homeless or very low-income persons. Additionally, 26 residents received intensive case
management services to secure employment or affordable housing. Catholic Charities, through
the Long-Term Care Ombudsman program, assisted 317 seniors, mostly low or moderate income
elderly residents at Lytton Gardens Skilled Nursing, Palo Alto Nursing Center and Lytton
Gardens Community Care. Also, through this funding, 82 complaints were resolved, made on
behalf of low-income residents by Catholic Charities. Alta Housing, formerly known as Palo
Alto Housing, provided one-on-one counseling, case management and educational activities at
Alma Place and Barker Hotel to 140 persons through the Resident Support program. YWCA
Support Network provided 20 clients with counseling, therapy and legal advocacy service. Crisis
counselors provided crisis line assistance to 40 callers from Palo Alto. The fifth agency funded
under the Public Services was the Silicon Valley Independent Living Center. That assisted 20
adults with disabilities in developing an independent living plan for housing that resulted in
improved accessibility to decent, affordable housing. Additionally, Silicon Valley Independent
Living Center provided 83 low income disabled residents with training and education to find and
secure affordable housing, or housing-related support. Again, under the planning and
administration category, Project Sentinel assisted 16 individuals in investigating the Fair
Housing complaints, and 20 residents received individual consultation relating to specific Fair
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Page 12 of 36
Housing questions, and 139 individuals were assisted through outreach and presentations. Under
the same category, planning and administration, the Planning and Development Services
Department provided administrative support to the CDBG program. Under the economic
development category, Downtown Streets Team connected 25 employers with 30 individuals
who were meaningfully employed. They were previously unemployed, and 75 percent of those
30 individuals remained employed for more than three months or longer. Under the public
facilities rehabilitation, funding was allocated to Ravenswood Family Health Network, formerly
MayView Community Health Center. They were provided funding for a capital improvement
project for the renovation of their clinic located at 270 Grant Avenue. Through this funding, the
overall safety, cleanliness and aesthetics of the clinic were enhanced. This clinic served
approximately 1,892 Palo Alto residents with medical care in the past fiscal year. Again, we
published an advertisement in the Daily Post, announcing the availability of the Draft CAPER
for public review and comment. The Draft CAPER was also posted on the CDBG’s web page
and was available for public comment from October 27 to November 12. We did not receive any
public comment or concern. The notice that was placed in the Daily Post also provided details of
the HRC meeting and public hearing. For the next steps, the staff will provide an informational
report to the City Council on December 7th, before submitting the final CAPER to HUD by
December 27, 2020. I’m going to conclude the overview of CAPER now, and if you have any
questions, please let me know. I’m happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much.
Chair Smith: Thank you again, Erum, for your second report of the evening. Do we have any
public comment at this time? You can raise your hand, or you can hit *9 if you’re calling in. We
have no public comment at this time. What I’d like to do is open up for Commissioners. We’ll
start with Commissioner Sunita. We’ll give everybody three or four minutes to ask questions to
Erum, and we’ll go from there.
Commissioner de Tourreil: Looking at the package that we received, I was just looking at the –
I’m actually on page 12, talking about the affordable housing – and the number of…there’s the
one-year goal and the actual on various topics, and I was wondering, is that something you just
normally include in these kinds of forms? Because there’s no goal and no actual for the
affordable housing. Can you tell me more about that, so that I understand that table?
Ms. Maqbool: Sure. This report, we submit on a HUD-developed website, which is called IDIS.
They provide us a template and the tables are self-populated. We don’t create the tables. Because
we don’t have anything to report this year as far as affordable housing is concerned, you see an
empty table for that.
Commissioner de Tourreil: Okay. Is that something that’s consistent year-to-year?
Ms. Maqbool: Oh, no. Because, in fiscal year 2019-2020, there were no applicants for the
affordable housing rehabilitation, but previously – I think in fiscal year 2018-2019 – we provided
approximately $250K to the Opportunity Service Center for the rehabilitation, so our goal in
2018-2019, we were actually able to assist 88 households in that category.
Commissioner de Tourreil: Okay, great. Thank you. That’s the extent of my questions.
Chair Smith: Commissioner Regehr?
Commissioner Regehr: I don’t have any questions.
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access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
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Page 13 of 36
Chair Smith: Commissioner Savage?
Commissioner Savage: No questions. Good presentation.
Chair Smith: Commissioner Stinger?
Vice Chair Stinger: It was a good presentation. I’m pleased to see the results. I do have some
questions, more peripheral to the CAPER, but I’d like to understand a little bit more about the
five-year plan that’s mentioned. When will that be drafted, and what’s our role in that?
Ms. Maqbool: For the Consolidated Plan, the new Consolidated Plan for the next five years,
starting from 2020 to 2025, was adopted by the Council on June 15, 2020, this year. The County
of Santa Clara, they lead the effort for preparation of the Consolidated Plan, and we hired a
consultant, and they did an extensive public outreach, and they came up with these goals. I can
talk about the goals if you want.
Chair Smith: That would be great.
[crosstalk]
Ms. Maqbool: [inaudible] the Selection Committee Meeting.
Vice Chair Stinger: Okay. Do you want her to speak about the goals, then?
Chair Smith: If it’s something that doesn’t take like 20 minutes, I’d love to hear the goals.
Ms. Maqbool: Sure. There are five goals. Number one is, topmost, affordable housing goal.
Number two is homelessness. Number three is economic development. Number four is fair
housing, and number five is community services. So, we have to fund, we have to look for
activities that we can provide funding to under these goals, because towards the end, like in fiscal
year 2025, HUD is going to see if our funded activities match with the Consolidated Plan goals.
Vice Chair Stinger: Great. Thank you. Just one other question. In the report on page 16, it talks
about placing individuals under Section 8. Is that Palo Alto residents and Palo Alto housing, or
Palo Alto residents in County housing?
Ms. Maqbool: It’s more of Palo Alto residents in County housing, because Section 8 does not
come under the CDBG program. We’re talking more about the Palo Alto residents, but funded
through the County, because the County also provides funding for Palo Alto jurisdiction.
Vice Chair Stinger: Great. Again, thank you.
Ms. Maqbool: Thank you.
Chair Smith: Okay. My question is this – I might have missed it – I did not see the emergency
funding in this reporting, and I know that was a significant amount. Where does that get
reported? Is that reported in 2020-2021?
Ms. Maqbool: Yes.
Chair Smith: Okay, and what was the total on that amount?
Ms. Maqbool: The total, it was provided to us in two grant allocations. The first was $294,000,
and the second is $450,000.
Chair Smith: Okay, so it’s about one year’s worth of grant was given in emergency fundings.
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access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
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Page 14 of 36
Ms. Maqbool: That's correct.
Chair Smith: So next year’s report, we’d be looking at about $1.5 million reported out on
CAPER?
Ms. Maqbool: That’s correct. I would like to mention, Chair, that for this grant, the emergency
funding, we have six years to spend that grant. If, for example, we have provided funding to
LifeMoves for rental assistance, and they are not able to spend all that grant in one year, they
have five more years to spend that grant. So, we might not report all the goals in one year.
Chair Smith: Okay. I know this is not a fair question, but I’m going to ask it. Do you have a
sense if there’s still funding that has not been used?
Ms. Maqbool: I actually have, because we received the $450,000 just now, so the projects, I
think we are going to spend the $450,000, but for the $294,000 that was provided to LifeMoves
for rental assistance – because we are constantly in touch – there is not a lot of backlog for rental
application at the Opportunity Service Center, so they are not very optimistic that they are going
to spend all that funding in this fiscal year, but they think that they will be able to spend it the
next two years.
Chair Smith: And what are the criteria for people to receive rental assistance?
Ms. Maqbool: The number one criterion for Palo Alto residents, income should be under 80
percent of the median income. Number two, they should be impacted through COVID – loss of
income or anything. Yes, so that’s –
Chair Smith: That’s an impossible criterion for our area. It’s a very difficult criteria, because if
our median rental…Okay, you know why it’s difficult.
Ms. Maqbool: But this is coming from HUD. Like in San Jose, they were able to expend all the
funding so quickly, but in Palo Alto it’s a different scenario, so I understand that these are hard
regulations.
Chair Smith: Is there any way to get an amendment? And I don’t know HUD well enough, so
these are just questions out of being naïve.
Ms. Maqbool: You cannot get an amendment on the criteria of funding allocation. What we can
do is, if you are not able to spend funding on rental assistance, we can reallocate that funding to
another activity.
Chair Smith: When would that discussion be started?
Ms. Maqbool: We’ll see, like in a year, we’ll see where we are at as far as the $294,000. If we
are at, like, $225,000, then it might be a good time to start discussing alternatives.
Chair Smith: And that would go to Council or HRC?
Ms. Maqbool: Substantial amendment goes to the – because that would be a substantial
amendment – that will go to the Council.
Chair Smith: Okay. Thank you. Council Member Tanaka, do you have any thoughts, ideas,
questions on this?
Council Member Tanaka: I don’t, thank you.
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access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with
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Page 15 of 36
Chair Smith: Thank you, sir. All right. We don’t have to make a vote on this, do we? There is no
motion on this? Anybody else have any questions for Erum? Yes, Patti.
Commissioner Regehr: I was just going to go back. When we were doing on liaison and talking
to the Opportunity Center, at that point they were saying that that’s one of the things that they
would like us to do as a Commission, is to help them put out the word that this money was
available, and I think that that’s…Because they were saying that not everybody that is needy
thinks about going to certain places, but if we promote it more. They were asking us to promote
it more, because for some people it’s a first time. I’m thinking that that’s something that we
could…
Chair Smith: I think there are some people in the community, and some lists, that me and Minka
share in the faith community and in the nonprofit space that could really use it. I think the real
challenge is the geographic limitation of Palo Alto and the income limitation. The math, because
of the median income, it just doesn’t work right here. Erum, if you could send me an email, me
and Minka, tomorrow, I will get you…I have two or three contacts that I can give you that have
list serves that go out to faith institutions of many different faiths. That probably would be good
to reach out and let them know this exists.
Ms. Maqbool: Okay, great.
Chair Smith: All right, if we have no further questions for Erum, I want to thank her supervisor,
Clare, for being on the line with us tonight. Thank you. Erum is really good. We enjoy working
with her, and she’s done a phenomenal job making some complicated stuff somewhat transparent
to lay people, so thank you all. We can move to the next item. Staff, are we good?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Actually, we might need to take a couple minute break. I’ve been off for the
last 10 minutes because my internet went down, so I am trying to reload my presentation. If you
just give me a minute to try to boot it up, that would be great.
Chair Smith: Let’s do this, Minka. It’s 7:54 now. I will see everybody back here at 8:00, to give
Minka some time to get the presentation together.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Thank you.
Chair Smith: And not have everybody stare at her. Thank you. Erum, can you answer? There is a
question in the chat.
Ms. Maqbool: I’m actually looking at that question, and I’m not sure if I can right now answer,
but there’s noise limit. I just want to tell that. Let me just see if I can respond.
Chair Smith: Thank you, Mora, for bringing that to our attention.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I actually have my presentation up, but if we’ve told people there will be a
few-minute break, Mary wasn’t prepared for that, so we don’t have the slides, so we can wait ‘til
Daryl, or we can just keep going. Commissioner de Tourreil is taking a short break as well.
Commissioner de Tourreil: She’s back.
Chair Smith: We are efficient. Thank you, Commissioners.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Thank you for your patience. I just had to slowly let me computer come
back. It looks like Council Member Tanaka is on a break, so we do want to wait until everybody
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Page 16 of 36
is back, especially since we said that, so we are still live, so if people want to go off-screen until
8:00 p.m., why don’t we do that, since that’s what we said we were going to do?
[break]
Chair Smith: Thank you, everyone, for being so prompt in your return. Staff, are you ready to
present?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Thank you all for bearing with me through my technical difficulties. I am
here this evening to present to the Human Relations Commission the Needs Assessment results. I
just wanted to give a very quick overview of HSRAP. This slide is duplicate to what I talked
about at our meeting last month, but for anybody that wasn’t here, I wanted just to quickly give
this overview of HSRAP. It stands for the Human Service Resource Allocation Process, and it’s
the procedure in which we identify, prioritize and support grant allocations in the community. As
we are looking at the applications that come to us during that process, the primary goal is to meet
the needs and improve the quality of life of low income and vulnerable populations, but the
Review Committee also takes into account the financial, social, cultural, psychological and
physical barriers that prevent Palo Alto residents from accessing the human services they need.
There is currently $550,000 in that account. We are presuming it will be around the same amount
in the next budget cycle, but those decisions, or final decisions, are made when the City Council
makes recommendations for our budget for next year. HSRAP is on a two-year cycle. The
Priority of Needs, that’s the report that’s before you tonight. Just to give you a little background
on how we have assessed these community needs before, we do it every two years. In 2012, the
HRC, with the help of a summer intern, conducted an in-depth survey of the needs in the
community, and they spoke with residents, clients, providers, experts in the various fields, and
produced a very detailed report for City Council. Since that time, every two years we have
continued to update the needs and to reassess the needs in the community. We have done that
mostly through the assistance of a survey tool to update demographic information. One year we
also did in-depth interviews of each of the currently HSRAP grantees, all with the goal of
coming up with a Priority of Needs, which is just a more formal way of saying the allowable
funding categories that we include in the HSRAP application, so that anybody who is interested
in applying knows if the need that they are meeting in the community, if it’s included and if they
may apply. This year’s process – this year, I sent the survey out to 40 agencies that serve Palo
Alto residents. They did not need to be Palo Alto based, and that is current HSRAP grantees.
That is also a list of agencies. When I look into the current Priority of Needs and the types of
needs that they meet, I try to look at other agencies that are serving Palo Alto residents that also
address those needs in the community, and I send them the survey. We received 27 responses. As
I mentioned in my staff report, some agencies turned in more than one response, and often that
was to amplify the need of a different service agency. For instance, an agency that has a program
for seniors, but it also has a program for maybe individuals with special needs. So, they wanted
to make sure those different needs were amplified. What we’re trying to do with this Needs
Assessment is to check the needs, gaps, barriers and trends in the community, check those
against years past of the same survey. We also wanted this year, because of the COVID
pandemic, we wanted to really see how COVID was affecting our human services providers. We
also continue to update specific demographic information, and you will see that that was
included in the packet of information. We always try to include the most up-to-date information
that is available, primarily through the American Community Survey, which is part of the Census
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Page 17 of 36
survey. Sometimes that’s 2019, sometimes it’s 2018. Different data points sometimes have
different years in which they are collected. I wanted to tell you a little more about the HSRAP’s
Priority of Needs. HSRAP has historically had a really wide scope of allowable funding
categories, and some agencies have been receiving funding for years. Now this is fairly unusual,
because most funders, or even other communities that I have looked into, have a very narrow
funding category. They will, for instance, say, “We’re helping youth and individuals with special
needs.” Or, “seniors and preschoolers.” But HSRAP historically has had a very wide limit of
funding categories of agencies that can apply with their needs. In the past, the HRC has
recommended to staff some additions based on the results of the Priority of Needs Survey, and
you saw that in your report that is included, things such as elder abuse, after school tutoring, and
so forth. When you’re reviewing the results, what I hope that you did – and I’ll just mention this
for anybody that is listening – we are really trying to look at the needs that present in the
community in a variety of ways. We want to make sure – what are the gateway needs? Or, if
you’re looking at it in a Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, what are the basic needs that people need
to meet? And how are they possibly interconnected? So, we ask the HRC to consider that in their
review. For instance, how is homelessness connected to mental health? At times it is. At times it
isn’t. How is hunger connected to economic dependency? We also asked you in your reviewing
it, to say, “Are there actually needs that are not included in the Priority of Needs, and can
HSRAP play a role?” There are many needs in the community that aren’t listed on the HSRAP
Priority of Needs, but the real question is, with the limited scope of HSRAP, can it really have a
positive impact, or can it really make a difference in this area? I also wanted to point out to the
HRC and to those listening that the Need Assessment is just really a snapshot into the needs in
the community from the service lens of the providers. So, what you see in the results is very
valid information. It’s very deep information, but it is from the lens of those who replied to the
survey. What we often do with HSRAP and when we’re looking at the results, is say, “Okay,
from 2016 to 2018 to 2020, how are things different? What were the top five needs in 2016
compared to ’18, compared to ’20?” That type of comparison was extremely difficult, because I
would say that the majority of answers this time were all through the lens of the agency’s
experience of responding to COVID. Most often, we get the responses, it’s one of pre-responses
given, but what I noticed in the survey responses this time is that the majority of what people had
to say came in the “other” category, and you will see that in the responses and the reply that I
gave to you, as far as what those people who responded to the survey had to say. They had a lot
to say and, really, we’re really open to sharing what their struggles are now and how COVID has
completely changed the landscape of how they provide services. I wanted to speak a little bit
more about the challenges that I just alluded to, that the agencies are facing. They have had
challenges as far as their service provision, their funding, they needed to meet the expanded
needs of their clients, the expanded needs of their staff. Their volunteer pool – some of them had
less volunteers, or some of them had no volunteers, when they very often in the past used
volunteers to provide a lot of their services or complement the services of their staff. As I alluded
to before, there really was a changing landscape of client needs and how they would provide
their services. I have been meeting with different grantees and different providers in the
community since the pandemic began in March, and I can tell you, I am extremely proud of our
local human services providers and how they rapidly adapted to meet the needs of our residents
in need. They dealt with change that sometimes came weekly from the County and the State
Health Department that sometimes affected the work that they were doing. They adapted, and
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Page 18 of 36
they added services based on their clients’ needs. They went to virtual services very quickly and
overcame a lot of hurdles in the process, from technology to a lot of the mental health or physical
health services, had a lot of HIPPA requirements to overcome, but they did it all. One of the
additional extraordinary things they did, they offered mutual aid to their fellow agencies. I heard
several stories of, for instance, an agency – I’ll just name it, La Comida – who serves older
adults, that reached out to a local housing provider and a local provider of services to unhoused
women, and offered their services to provide meals for their clients. So, not just being concerned,
“Oh, how can we meet the needs of our own clients?” they were reaching out to see how they
could help other service providers in the community. As far as the key results of the Need
Assessment, as I state in my report, housing is a huge need. Housing has come up on the top of
the list since, I think, 2012, and it’s a huge need that I think is beyond the scope of HSRAP to
take on housing itself. I know that our Planning Department and our City Council is very
committed to work on issues of housing across the income spectrum in our community. What I
did see was digital inclusion that was a big issue that came through from most of the individuals
that completed the survey. Their services have been moved online, but they notice very quickly
that either some folks didn’t have the technology to access their services, or know how to use the
services, so that was a big need that everybody noticed. Your job right now is to have a
conversation that is looking at the results of the Needs Assessment and to see and to compare it
against the current Priority of Needs and to see if there is any needs that you think should be
added to the Priority of Needs. You can also see if you want to make a recommendation of, if a
need should be taken off the Priority of Needs. I listed in my report that I caution against taking
off a need just because you perhaps didn’t see it amplified in the survey results due to the fact
that sometimes clients and sometimes agencies don’t mention needs if they are already being
met. In these types of surveys what you usually hear about are the needs that aren’t being met.
So, your role right now is to look at the results and to have a discussion about them, ask me any
questions you may have about the survey results. I see that many of the participants are current
grantees or current service providers in the community. They might want to give comment
during Oral Communications, but you, at the end of this, will be providing me with a
recommendation as to the HSRAP Priority of Needs. There is a lot of rich information in the
report on how COVID is affecting the service provider community. I would say that’s a very
important conversation to have if you want to dig into the information deeper and perhaps at a
future HRC meeting consider some of the other effects that COVID has had on the nonprofit
community and see if there’s a role for the HRC to make any recommendations or any actions
regarding that, but your sole role tonight is to discuss the results through the lens of making a
recommendation on the Priority of Needs. I have the requested action in front of you right now,
and you have this in your packet, but there are the current Priority of Needs. I put the Draft, but
there are really the Priority of Needs that were included in the last HSRAP cycle. So, Chair
Smith, that concludes my presentation.
Chair Smith: Minka, thank you again for the thorough work you do year in and year out. I also
know that I want to add a little bit to what you were saying. I want to go to the Council with a
recommendation. Not tonight, but sometime in the spring as I get into the budget cycle, to allow
us to do an in-depth re-evaluation of the community. The last one is almost a decade old, and I
think things have changed. That is extremely…Minka, do you want to say something?
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Page 19 of 36
Ms. van der Zwaag: No, I just want to thank you for your support in doing that. That is
something that staff would really like, to work to have a more thorough assessment of the human
services needs in the community that goes beyond the work that we were able to do in this
survey, so thank you.
Chair Smith: You’re very welcome. At this point, I want to open this up for public comment. If
you would like to make a public comment, we give you two minutes. Wow, they moved quick on
that one. Is there anyone else? I’ll turn it over to staff for the two-minute public comment. Thank
you.
Ms. van der Zwaag: The first person I see with her hand up is Michele. Michele, I’m going to
give to you the ability to talk, and then you will have two minutes.
Ms. Michele Schroeder: Good evening. I’m the supervising attorney at SALA, Senior Adults
Legal Assistance. SALA is a nonprofit law office that provides free legal services to seniors
countywide and in Palo Alto. We target clients that are low income or at risk of abuse, isolation,
or institutionalization. We currently receive HSRAP funding, and we are very grateful for that.
The funding has enabled us to expand the availability of our services to Palo Alto residents 60 or
older. Seventy-four percent of the Palo Alto seniors we served last year were very low income.
Fifty-eight percent were 75 or older, and 36 percent had a disability. These factors place them in
great economic and social risk. Legal assistance continues to be a critical need for seniors, even
more so during the pandemic. We are seeing clients with legal problems involving the public
benefits they rely on to shelter in place and to meet basic needs, such as Social Security, SSI,
Medicare and Medi-Cal. We are seeing clients that are worried about eviction, even during the
COVID-19 eviction moratoriums, and clients whose housing is otherwise in jeopardy. We see
clients that need to do basic planning incapacity to enable them to live with dignity and choice,
but they can’t afford to pay a private attorney $400 to $500 an hour to do this. This planning has
become even more important during COVID-19 if they become gravely ill or are dying. Last but
not least, we are seeing many clients that are victims of elder abuse, usually by someone living in
their homes, or someone that they know, such as adult children, grandchildren, caregivers or
tenants renting rooms. Based on what we are seeing, elder abuse is on the rise during the
pandemic. Many of our current cases involved abusers living in the homes of our clients and
sheltering in place with them during COVID-19. In any case, we thank the HSRAP staff for
recognizing this as a priority, and we hope that the Commission will agree with the
recommendation for funding. Thank you.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Thank you, Michelle. The next speaker is Kory Amaral, you have two
minutes.
Ms. Kory Amaral: I’m Executive Director for the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Bay Area
Chapter. We are a nonprofit service organization who serve veterans who have spinal cord injury
or disease. We actually did a presentation earlier in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic
happened, so I want to thank you all for allowing us to present to you. Right now, the situation
has changed, obviously, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Veterans suicide is now higher than
ever, due to the pandemic. We must adapt our programs in order to serve our veterans. All of our
fundraisers for the Chapter have been on hold, so where are looking for new funding to help
support our programs. I know that we are new this year to the City of Palo Alto, but we are
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Page 20 of 36
definitely been around since 1962, so we really appreciate your time and dedication to our
chapter, and we look forward to the future. Thank you for your time.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Thank you, Corey. The next speaker is Sara Baltierrez. Sara, you have two
minutes.
Ms. Sara Baltierrez: Hello, everyone. I work for Downtown Streets team in Palo Alto. We
provide services for adults experiencing homelessness through our volunteer work experience
program. We also serve over 300 individuals every month in our food closet in downtown Palo
Alto. I just wanted to take this time to really thank Minka and Erum and the rest of the nonprofits
that we’ve been able to collaborate with during the time of COVID. It’s really been amazing to
see the community come together. There were times when we needed supplies or referrals, and it
was really nice to have the City to lean on, as well as our fellow nonprofits. A huge thank you to
Minka, again, and to the Council, to the Commissioners. I just hope that we can get support for
this funding for those most vulnerable in our community.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Thank you, Sara. Are there any other individuals who would like to speak?
Please raise your hand. Chair Smith, I don’t see any further hands.
Chair Smith: There is one more.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Oh, hold on. Thank you. Gezel, if you would like to speak, you have two
minutes.
Ms. Gezel Frederick: I am from the DreamCatchers organization, offering academic support to
low income middle school students in Palo Alto. I just want to say thank you, Minka, and the
team that you work with for helping us and supporting us in providing academic support to
students in Palo Alto. We’re very grateful for the funding that we received. We were able to
bring on a third full time member. We are a very small team, so we were able to add an
additional member to our team to help push DreamCatchers in a whole different dimension. We
were able to offer drop-in sessions, enrichment programs, and really expand our services during
such a really, really precarious times. I just want to say thank you so, so much for everything that
you’ve done for us at Dreamcatchers.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Thank you, Gezel. We’ll just give it another moment if there’s anyone who
wishes to address the Commission. I do not see any other hands, Chair.
Chair Smith: Thank you. I just want to take a moment to thank Human Services staff and for
these nonprofits. One of the things that they’ve done during the COVID pandemic is be very
nimble and meet people where they are, and if you at a nonprofit, or if you work in the Human
Services office, I just want to tip my hat off to you during this period, because I think the work
you’ve done has been so critical to our community. What I want to do is I want to start with a
round robin really quickly, because I’m pretty sure there are some questions for Minka, so I’ll
give each Commissioner three minutes. We will start off with Commissioner Sunita, and then
after we do the first-round robin, we’ll see if we need a second, or then we can into a discussion
or a motion. Thank you.
Commissioner de Tourreil: Wow. If I understand correctly, what we’re looking at is making sure
that we have our Priority of Needs really squared away for the next funding cycle.
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Page 21 of 36
Ms. van der Zwaag: That is correct. It’s looking at the Draft Priority of Needs, which is the same
one that has been used before, and then making any recommendations to staff if you think
something should be added or something that maybe should be taken off. You have either option
to recommend. I will provide feedback or answer questions for any of your recommendations.
Commissioner de Tourreil: So, it seems there’s nothing really to take off. I, frankly, am just
coming up to speed and feeling a little bit overwhelmed with the variety of the problems, all
exacerbated by COVID this year, and not sure where to start in terms of adding anything. It
seems more like we’re highlighting certain things, or really vigorously circling certain things that
have gotten much worse and exacerbated during COVID, so I think I’m going to hold off any
comments as I listen and try to learn a little bit more from other Commissioners who have more
experience in this space, but I look forward to digging into these issues.
Chair Smith: Thank you so much. Commissioner Regehr?
Commissioner Regehr: I just want to thank Minka and everyone that spoke. I think that I, too…I
think that when it says the human service needs, I think that we have to clear that this is the
service needs of the agencies, and I would promote, but when I was on the County Commission
in Massachusetts, we had a human needs survey that went out to residents, and I think that that’s
a really good one. It was a doctoral dissertation, and I think –
Ms. van der Zwaag: I would agree.
Commissioner Regehr: That we have to be clear that our mission as a Human Relations
Commission is for the needs of the community, not for the social service agencies. I mean, we
can support it, but…I guess that’s my only comment, that I think that it’s great that you did this,
but we have to be aware that our needs are also just further…I mean, our desire to help.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Right, and I think I would respond to that. I would maybe phrase it a little
bit different. I would not say that HSRAP or this Needs Assessment is instituted to meet the
needs of the nonprofit agencies, as an entity. The Needs Assessment was sent to the agencies to
be a conduit for the needs of their clients and especially at a time during COVID. If it would
have been a different time, even with the time that we had this year to do it, we might have said,
“Hey, can you have these surveys out at your front desk? Can you send them out to your email
list?” COVID presented a much different time, so I count on our agencies to have a really good
pulse on the needs of the individuals they served, and I think that is clearly demonstrated by
some of the responses and some of the pivoting that the nonprofit agencies did. I think that’s
especially shown for the agencies that, let’s just say they provide seniors legal assistance, or just
another service in the community, but they still heard from their clients that they needed, for
instance, groceries, that they needed legal, that they needed medicine, that they needed rental
assistance, and they heard those needs of the client and they expanded their services to meet the
needs of the clients. So, my lens would be a little bit different. Yes, we just talked to the
providers, but we asked the providers, at least for the questions on the needs in the community,
to answer it to reflect the needs that they are hearing from their clients. The second half of the
survey was clearly to hear about the health of the agency during COVID, but I really do feel like
the first half of the survey that all the providers answered it thinking of, “What is my client
thinking right now? What are my client’s needs?” I think it’s a great staff. I’m just saying that I
think that nothing should be taken off. I think it’s a great first step, but what I’m saying is that
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Page 22 of 36
there are a lot of people that aren’t clients, that are not going to these agencies that really do need
help, too, and I think that we need to broaden our…But that’s my only thought.
Chair Smith: Commissioner Regehr, I one hundred percent agree with you. I think that’s why we
want to send a recommendation before City starts doing the next budget cycle, that we have this
funded so that the Human Services office can get the staffing needed, so that we can do a broader
community survey, particularly given some of the challenges that we’re having at this period of
time. I think you have an excellent point.
Commissioner Regehr: Which brings me back to the next step again, that I think that we, as a
group, should really tell City Council that we cannot function this way with only five of us. I
think we need…Just like the Parks and Rec Chair spoke at the City Council meetings; I think we
need to really push all of this again with a new Council.
Ms. van der Zwaag: It would be my hope that the next assessment could be done by a consultant,
because even with a commission of seven last time, it was probably…The lead person was a
fully retired person. So, I would say, it would be my hope, that the assessment could be done by
a professional agency that does these assessments of the community on a professional basis.
Commissioner Regehr: I guess we could discuss that later, because I would prefer –
[crosstalk]
Chair Smith: I think we should bring that…Let’s bring that as a retreat discussion. Council
Member Tanaka, hopefully as you start a new Council in January, you can bring some of these
requests to them for us, so we can start the process.
Council Member Tanaka: I’m very supportive of it, and –
[crosstalk]
Ms. van der Zwaag: He’s been very supportive.
Council Member Tanaka: And I’ll continue to try.
Chair Smith: Thank you, sir.
Commissioner Regehr: I think we as a group…
Chair Smith: We will. Commissioner Savage?
Commissioner Savage: Regarding the Needs Assessment list, it is a pretty comprehensive,
exhaustive list. I certainly wouldn’t want to take anything away, and I can’t think of anything to
add, so I think it’s right on the way it is.
Chair Smith: Commissioner Stinger?
Vice Chair Stinger: Thank you. Thanks, Minka, for the report. I have always fought this Priority
of Needs, and I’ve found myself relaxing. When you said something, it should be called the
Breadth of Community Needs, or Scope of Needs, and just retitling it would make me feel more
comfortable. That’s just one comment. The other comment I had was a reaction to something I
think you said earlier – that we might want to think about focusing on COVID-related issues, but
we also need to think about the basic needs that have existed in the past and continue to exist in
this community. I think this list addresses both. I might just, in our comments, think about three
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Page 23 of 36
things that I think are particularly true in the environment, besides the increased need for food,
nutrition and housing. Digital inclusion – I think a lot of the clients don’t have access to digital
technology. I think some services need help with outreach. We just heard that in housing. I heard
ACS talk about that earlier today, that people who have never needed their services don’t know
where to go for their services, and the agencies don’t know, or have not had experience
outreaching to different communities. The other thing I think that maybe we might want to focus
on is socialization. Younger children and in seniors, particularly. The lockdown, the absence of
socialization, I think, is maybe traumatic is either too soft or too harsh a word, but I wouldn’t add
those to the Breadth of Community Needs. I would just be looking for services that address those
needs. Those are my two comments.
Chair Smith: Thank you. Minka, my comments are…I notice on question two, question four and
also alluded to several times during the questionnaire, people mention the digital divide, or the
lack of technology or the significant issue of technology. I know it presents a lot of issues. It’s
almost, given that we live in a virtual space – we are on Zoom right now, right? – we’re running
business on Zoom, the digital divide now stops people from getting, even seniors, doing medical
work. I remember taking one of my parents to a doctor, and they had to punch in on an iPad kind
of thing to check in, so this technology divide is significant. I would like to…I don’t think this is
here to cut anything, but on basic needs and given the fact that we are going back into a
significant rise in the COVID count and counties are dialing back, I think we need to have some
language on basic needs around digital. Not inclusion, because inclusion means I’m including
you, but that digital divide that limits people from receiving social services, limits people from
getting to doctors or education or even working. Or even participating in government at this
point. And that seems to be a common thread throughout your report. Is that correct, or am I
jumping?
Ms. van der Zwaag: That is correct. No, that was mentioned by multiple agencies for multiple
questions. It all seemed to come back to access and ability to use certain equipment. I know I
listed in my report that has been around for a while, but it’s clearly been exacerbated during
COVID. Now, it’s not that agencies have forgotten the human touch. Many of the agencies have
started welfare calls for their clients, calling them on a once-a-week basis, trying to connect
different groups, different client bases, to see if maybe some of their younger clients could call
some of the older…some younger volunteers would call older clients, just to try to set up unique
opportunities for different segments of the community to be in dialogue with each other. I know
that’s happened, so that has been so important, because I think we’ve all had that experience that
we’ve been distancing for so long that when we see someone we know in the grocery store, it’s a
very visceral experience, and for seniors or for other individuals who are at higher risk, if they
contract COVID who are being much more careful, they are just much more isolated. Seeing
someone on the screen, or seeing their grandchild on the screen is helpful, but just that old
fashioned getting on the phone and talking to someone, or dropping off some groceries and
backing up on the driveway, but still having an in-person conversation, has been really amplified
during this time. The digital divide has been amplified, but that real need for human contact has
also been amplified as well.
Chair Smith: Council Member Tanaka?
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Page 24 of 36
Council Member Tanaka: I don’t have any comments at this point, but I think one thing that you
guys probably all know is it’s pretty tough times for the City. I’m hoping that we’ll get more
funding from either federal or state government, but just keep that in mind as you guys do this. I
think really prioritizing and figuring out what’s needed most. I would love to see kind of like a
rigorous prioritization for you guys, because I think it’s going to be hard to do everything. I’m
hopeful that we’ll get more, but it’s not going to be easy, so just keep that in mind as you do this.
I know it’s going to be challenging for you guys, because these are all good organizations. Then
also, think about…I’m not sure if you guys heard the peanut butter analogy, but sometimes you
can spread things really thin and not make much of a difference, versus focusing on the few, so
that’s something else you guys could think about. On the Council level, we really don’t have
time to, or the knowledge, to really look at this stuff very closely, so I’m hoping that the HRC
can do that deep dive for us and really figure out what is the right way to allocate very, very
scarce resources, and it’s going to be scarcer than usual this year. Just keep that in mind. It would
not be helpful if you just said, “Okay, we’re going to everything we did last year, and no
prioritization.” That’s not very helpful. What would be helpful would be some sort of priority
list, so that as we know what the budgets really are we know what can we fund and what can we
not fund. I’m hoping we’ll get more, but really what the HRC could do is provide that
prioritization.
Chair Smith: Thank you so much, Council Member Tanaka. I’m going to open up for discussion.
Does anybody have any initial thoughts on this list? We’ve had our chance to ask questions of
Minka. Now I’d like to hear if anybody has an thoughts, suggestions, ideas. Yes, Commissioner
Regehr?
Commissioner Regehr: I guess, about money, I think that I’m totally sympathetic to our City, and
I guess that’s back to hiring a consultant to do a survey. I feel that that would be…There’s
probably plenty of graduate students that need to write a dissertation and to write about poor, a
Needs Assessment, and that would be a free cost to the City. I guess that’s my…I wouldn’t want
to spend money with a consultant to find out what the needs are and spending lots of money
when that money could be going towards that. I think back to about the digital access, I think
that’s not just being able to interact with people. Once our libraries closed down, once all the
businesses, there were a tremendous amount of people that were unhoused that had no access to
the internet, and we’re still seeing that with students. That’s something that I just wanted to say,
that it’s not just being not able to connect. It’s not even being able to connect.
Chair Smith: Yes, I think you just really highlighted a new dimension to that. Particularly those
that are unhoused, if you can’t walk into an office now…You can’t walk into a social service
office. You have to do it online.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I think one of the survey respondents indicated for the unhoused that even a
lot of the services are being done by phone now to be able to access the County’s hotline for
shelter services. You need a phone, because you need the County to call you back, so it’s not
even more advanced technology. We’re talking not about iPads. It’s just the basic ability to have
a telephone has been really crucial, and then going back to having places where you can actually
charge your phone.
Chair Smith: Yes. You know, I have the general sense – and I’ll probably end up throwing a
motion out in a second – I think the process, I think it’s one thing for us at the beginning of the
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Page 25 of 36
process to over-define priorities, because I believe we’re heading into very uncertain times, and I
think we’re going to see different kinds of applications and different…It’s obvious from reading
the survey and the Needs Assessment that we are in a different environment now, so I think we
should let the application process really help us define some of the stuff in there. Do you need a
motion, Minka?
Ms. van der Zwaag: I would like a motion that is a recommendation to staff on the Priority of
Needs for the next HSRAP cycle, yes.
Chair Smith: Okay. I think I want to talk about the digital divide being added to the list. Is there
anything else any of the places, spaces, things that people see need to be added, need to be
removed? Anything else that spoke to you during this report?
Vice Chair Stinger: I want to think about the basic needs. Part of me wants to put overcoming the
digital divide under the basic needs.
Chair Smith: I believe it is a basic need, because if you cannot plug into the services you need,
then it’s a nonstarter. You can’t even get anything else.
Vice Chair Stinger: And then, that leads me to a question, which I really can’t answer. Part of me
is thinking maybe we ought to be focusing on just the basic needs for the next year, but then part
of me thinks that some of those basic needs are the ones that the community is funding in other
ways. Now I’m forgetting the community funds that exist. Giving Tree. So, maybe some of the
other services are less funded, so there’s a question of where is the need?
Ms. van der Zwaag: The response that I would give back, Vice Chair, is what I’m hearing from
nonprofit providers is that a lot of the funding sources are saying no to new agencies. I would
have a hard time taking away something from the current Priority of Needs in a year when
everything else is in such a flux, that there is, to kind of respond to what Council Member
Tanaka said as well, these Priority of Needs, there is nothing in the request for proposals that
requires the HRC to make a recommendation that we meet all of these. These are just the
allowable funding categories, so these state what the allowable funding categories are, so that’s
the baseline. From there, when the HRC is making the recommendation, it can go through and
make its funding recommendation. I would go back to the philosophy of HSRAP, which I can’t
quote exactly, but is the purpose of HSRAP is to assist agencies help clients with their basic
needs, but also other needs that…basic needs for low income clients, but that is also considers
the needs of other clients that might be higher income, but they have a need as well, such as a
mental health need, and so forth. When you consider HSRAP, these would be the baseline needs
but in reviewing it, you would look at the philosophy of HSRAP, which has been approved by
the HRC in the past, and you would look at the criteria that is in the RFP, and make your funding
recommendations based on the philosophy and based on the funding criteria and go from there.
So, does that answer your question, Vice Chair?
Vice Chair Stinger: That really helps a lot. Thank you. Given that, then maybe I might say, can
we just add overcoming the digital divide to basic needs?
Ms. van der Zwaag: I won’t dispute that. It will be a challenging year for the HSRAP
subcommittee to really review it, because I think there will be a lot of needs that will be coming
through from the community from providers that have received HSRAP support in the past and
from new providers that you probably haven’t traditionally heard from.
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Page 26 of 36
Chair Smith: Commissioner Regehr?
Commissioner Regehr: Well, that’s what I was going to say that I think that because of the
unhoused and because we are starting to take on the Safe Parking and…There’s not that many
organizations that have been dealing with digital divide. There are private organizations that
can…like Comcast will give free internet. But I guess my point is that I think an overall – and
Minka, this is to your question, too – I think because money is really tight, I would think that part
of our criteria should be looking at the agencies and making sure that they don’t have any legal
issues. I mean, because I think this is money that we’re giving, and also to see what their
reserves are. I think some agencies are very good about asking for money that have lots of it. I
think that we…I would say that there should be a criterion.
Chair Smith: I would push back against that, because my number one evaluation of programs is
the effectiveness of the program and what we’re funding, and is it impactful to the community?
For example, if you look at – and my focus is I run a nonprofit church – I have significant
reserves, but they are set aside as funds that are restricted funds, or they are different categories
of funds that can’t be used all the time for new programs. So, I think –
Commissioner Regehr: I totally understand about the needs, but I also know that there are certain
things that you can’t restrict, but I’m just saying that I think that when we look at, especially for
new organizations that haven’t been able to get up the reserves, and if we’re talking about basic
needs, that we’re funding an organization…I mean, I just think it’s important to look at their
funding sources. If we’re a city and we’re giving out government money, then I think that we
need to look at are we giving the money even though they might have more money than we do?
Do you know what I’m saying?
Ms. van der Zwaag: I hear you, Commissioner Regehr. There are questions in the HSRAP
application that ask what their funding sources for their program that they’re requesting funding
for, and there is also a question that asks if they would be able to continue this program, what
their plan for continuing this program if they did not receive the funding in question. So there are
questions that address that.
Chair Smith: Commission Sunita, do you have any questions? I know this is your first go-around
on this priority. Are there any points you would like to address?
Commissioner de Tourreil; I’m just wondering, it seems like we’re getting…I thought that the
point was to figure out that we make sure we have all of our needs there, that there’s going to be
later discussions around who are the right organizations to fund [crosstalk] be the most effective?
So, I think that, from what I gather, it does seem like in many places in the reports and looking at
the different needs, digital divide seems like one that’s really standing out. It seems strange, but I
think it’s super exacerbated by COVID right now, and some of the offices being closed. I would
agree that that seems, even though it seems strange to say it, it is a basic need at this point. So, I
agree with Vice Chair Stinger that that might be something that makes sense to add. But beyond
that, I thought that the more detailed discussions around funding, is that going to be something
we’re going to be looking at at another time?
Chair Smith: Yes.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I would say that the HSRAP, how we evaluate the grantees is put in the
HSRAP application, so there are a series of evaluation criteria that are included in the RFP,
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Page 27 of 36
which is the application for the HSRAP program. So, when the subcommittee looks deeply at the
applications, when you’re looking at the applications, you will be making, the subcommittee and
the full HRC, will be making recommendations based on those evaluation criteria that are
included in the RFP. You cannot, at that point, add more criteria or say, “I’m not going to fund
them because this,” or, “I’m going to evaluate them about that.” Those are included in our RFP,
and that’s going out probably in the next week or so. This was the last piece of the puzzle. This
was the Priority of Needs. Yes, there are very clear evaluation criteria. The committee gets a
grid, and this process is governed by our purchasing process, so it’s a very rigorous process.
They will be evaluating each applicant by a list of like 13 evaluation criteria and each applicant
will be reviewed on those same criteria, and then when it comes to the full committee, you will
also get that spreadsheet to be able to evaluate them on those same criteria. You will get a
recommendation from the subcommittee, and that’s a good starting point and like with any
recommendation that comes to the HRC, you can go with it as a full committee, or anybody on
the HRC is, at that point, able to express their own opinion, but once again, the agencies have to
be evaluated based on the criteria that we told them ahead of time that they would be evaluated
on, or it would not be fair to them.
MOTION
Chair Smith: All right, so I want to make a motion that we add digital divide to the basic needs
of the HSRAP.
Ms. van der Zwaag: You can make a recommendation to add that.
Chair Smith: I make a recommendation to add that.
Commissioner de Tourreil: I second that.
Chair Smith: Okay, let’s take a vote.
MOTION PASSES, 5-0
Chair Smith: We have updated that, and I think that takes care of our final item for this evening.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Can I interject, Chair?
Chair Smith: Yes.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I just want to thank the HRC, because I each and every one of you take very
seriously your role of reviewing and making recommendations for HSRAP every step of the
way, and I just want to thank you for your diligence in reviewing my report and the assessment
results today, to hearing the needs that the providers in the community have amplified, as far as
their clients, which are the residents of the city of Palo Alto. So, I just want to thank you on
behalf of Mary and myself for your time tonight.
Chair Smith: Thank you so much for the hard work you do in our city.
Ms. van der Zwaag: Mary did all of the demographic work, so I know I’m on camera, but Mary
is my partner in Human Services, so she gets equal thinks.
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Page 28 of 36
Chair Smith: Thank you, Mary.
Ms. Mary Constantino: You’re welcome.
V. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. October 1, 2020 Draft Regular HRC Meeting Minutes
Chair Smith: Has everybody had a chance to review the minutes from October 1st? Are there any
modifications or changes that anybody would like to make to the minutes? Can I have a motion
on the minutes?
MOTION
Vice Chair Stinger: I move that we accept the minutes.
Chair Smith: Can I have a second, please?
Commissioner Regehr: I second.
Chair Smith: Thank you. We’ll do a vote.
MOTION PASSES, 5-0
VI. REPORTS FROM OFFICIALS
1. Commissioner Reports
Chair Smith: Do we have any Commissioner reports? Yes, Commissioner Regehr?
Commissioner Regehr: Do you want to go in order?
Chair Smith: Since we’re sheltering in place, I don’t expect us to have the same level of reports,
and I’ll have the Vice Chair do a joint report for both of us.
Commissioner Regehr: Okay. Daryl and I were on the Emergency Funding seat, and I’ll
just…It’s called Emerging Needs Fund, so I just wanted to say we met and we’ve put
some…Anyway, do you want to hear what we gave out, the money?
Chair Smith: Yes.
Commissioner Regehr: Okay, so the applicants could request $10,000, but this is a cycle. Right,
Minka? There’s four of them, so we didn’t want to give out all of the money at once, so we gave
$3,500 to DreamCatchers, and Chita [phonetic] spoke and thanked us about that. Kafenia Peace
Collective. That was $1,500, and that was asking about digital needs. Karat School project, we
gave $5,000, and Ravenswood MayView Clinic, we gave $2,500.
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Page 29 of 36
Chair Smith: I love that clinic. They’ve been a lifesaver. We do a lot of work with my church
with foster care, and Ravenwood does amazing work providing services to those children.
Commissioner Regehr: And then I wanted to also just say that I was asked to mention that the
Mountain View HRC is going to have a community engagement on the 18th, Wednesday, and
they asked us to promote that.
Chair Smith: It’s on police reform, and IdaRose is an amazing Chair for that Commission.
Commissioner Regehr: Right, so she was asking to promote that. And also, I wanted to give a
shout-out to Sunita, because in this she was mentioned. I just wanted to say thank you, because
she was mentioned for giving out food, and it was just…It’s not my report, but I’m just saying.
And she had a great quote. She said, “It’s not that I’m just delivering this food. There’s an
intimacy and social bond that’s there,” so I just wanted to say well done.
Vice Chair Stinger: Yay.
Chair Smith: Good job.
Commissioner de Tourreil: I don’t know what that thing is that you’re showing, but –
Commissioner Regehr: It’s called, The Info Palo Alto. The Year That Changed Everything, and
it talks about people.
Chair Smith: Your good works leave a mark. Vice Chair Stinger, can you give a report on our
activities for this month?
Vice Chair Stinger: Okay, I will do that and then I’ll add some things to it. Chair and I are
subcommittee working on the history and current manifestations of racism in Palo Alto, and
we’ve collected a good amount of history. We’ve given some thought to some themes that fall
out of that. We’re going to prepare a video and a presentation, and we’ll bring that draft to you
in the December or January meeting. There is one element that I think we need to very clearly
add to the work we’ve done, and that is that the lawn signs of Raven Malone, who ran in this
election campaign, had been marked, seriously marked, and I think we need to say that that’s
just inappropriate, campaigning or community response.
Chair Smith: I’m actually going to write an op-ed probably next week about the dangers of
white supremacy in Palo Alto, because starting this summer we saw several houses getting
defaced, their Black Lives Matter sign. We saw several letters being left on properties. We saw
art projects by the City were defaced. Then, we see the only black candidate have her sign put
“white lives matter” all over it. I know Palo Alto often pushes that, and I’ve read some of the
comments in the Palo Alto Online, and I know Palo Alto also often pushes back and says, “Oh,
that’s one or two people.” Dylann Roof was one person that went into a church and shot it up
because of racial violence, and we as a community need to address this and be very serious
about this, because at this time it is not just an incident. It now is a pattern of behavior of our
community. So, I think we have to be very specific. We have to be very clear, and we need to
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Page 30 of 36
write this down, because I was speaking with Minka earlier, and she said, “One of the things
that was disappointing in the demographics was that the black community in Palo Alto is
shrinking.” Why would I, as a black person, move to a community that has low grade racist
behavior happening at a regular basis? I think this is something that is more than just one
incident. This is now a pattern, and it’s a disturbing pattern for those of us that are black and
brown skin in our community.
Commissioner Regehr: I think that it’s a disturbing one for all of us, because I think our past
Commissioner talked about Asian. I think it’s a racial, and I think it is…I would hope, Kaloma,
that we could all write it together, as a Human Relations Commission. Or maybe you just want
to do it as…
Chair Smith: I was going to write it from the perspective of being a pastor of the University
AME Zion Church, but I’m willing to make it an item for our next meeting, and we can write it
together as a Commission.
Commissioner Regehr: Because it is a human relation…It is an issue for all of us.
Chair Smith; [crosstalk] to do that.
Vice Chair Stinger: Could you do both?
Chair Smith: I could do both, but I’m going to write it. Council Member Tanaka?
Council Member Tanaka: I think that’s really unfortunate, so we shouldn’t tolerate this kind of
behavior, so I would love if HRC kind of dug into it and tries to get to the bottom of what’s
going on. Yes, I guess, speaking as a candidate also, my campaign signs disappeared but maybe
that was for a different reason, but yes, surprisingly bad behavior happens sometimes. That
really shouldn’t happen.
Chair Smith: You told a story this summer, Council Member Tanaka, about somebody hurling
anti-Asian slurs against you when you are coming up.
Council Member Tanaka: Yes. That was actually kind in the March timeframe, just as COVID
started to hit. At that time, there was a lot of thoughts that it’s from China, and you know, you
hear our current president talk about how he references the coronavirus. I came home from my
office hours on Middlefield, stopped at East Meadow in Middlefield, minding my own business,
waiting for the light to change, and then this white van pulls up next to me, this minivan, like
five young white guys in there, and they started yelling at me. I grew up in kind of sketchy area
when I was little, so I learned not to engage, especially when there’s five people and only one of
me. I hadn’t felt that kind of racism in a long time, and I never felt that kind of stuff in Palo Alto
before, either. I’m on the City Council, too. It’s kind of shows that racism is sort of blind to
whoever you are. It doesn’t matter who you are or what position you hold, but it’s like wow.
That's not right. But I think much worse happens all the time, and we don’t want that. We want
it to stop, so I think it would be great for HRC to dig in and figure out what’s going on and try to
see if we can stem the tide here. I didn’t actually hear about Raven’s signs. I didn’t hear about
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Page 31 of 36
that. I did get reports about my signs being stolen, and like, how’d they get stolen? But, I think
that could be a different issue.
Chair Smith: I’ll send you an email of the picture. Commissioner Sunita?
Commissioner de Tourreil: I was just wondering, if our very long list of emails that we got there
were some pictures and a story about the church on Embarcadero. I can’t remember the name of
the church, but the big Black Lives Matter sign that was stolen. Prior to it being stolen, there
were some images of some folks standing in front and had changed the B and the L and the M to
different words. I guess my question is – well, a couple questions. What do we…These
corespondences, they’re for us to know and get a pulse of what’s going on, but how does this…?
Is this information collected anywhere? Do we have ways of tracking it? What do we…what’s
actionable?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Could I just interject? I think these are important discussions. I just want to
be careful it doesn’t go into an actual discussion on the matter when this is just announcement
time. Because this topic wasn’t –
Chair Smith: It wasn’t agendized.
Ms. van der Zwaag: So, I concur with the importance, and I think in the guise of writing the
letter next time, you can have a fuller discussion on this, but I just want to give that caution at
this time.
Chair Smith: Thank you. Commissioner Sunita, if you reach out to me next week, early in the
week, I can give you an overview of some of the tools that the HRC has at its disposal and how
we track things and different approaches, to answer some of the more nuts and bolts questions
on that.
Commissioner de Tourreil: Thank you, Chair Smith.
Chair Smith: All right.
Vice Chair Stinger: Can I -?
Chair Smith: Yes. You were doing the staff, your [crosstalk]
Vice Chair Stinger: And update, yeah. But I do feel really strongly about that. I will hold my
tongue, Minka, but I do feel strongly, and I’m glad we’re going to agendize it. What I wanted to
do was talk a little bit about a neighborhood meeting I went to for Safe Parking. First, I wanted
to recognize Commissioner Regehr for all the attention you gave to the Safe Parking program
during the shut-down, during the months that we weren’t meeting. You had a wealth of
information for me, and I really appreciated that. This was a meeting October 22nd. It was held
by Zoom, moderated by Rob Schulze at Peninsula Bible Church. He’s put in an application for
four Safe Parking spaces. I think basically this was a community meeting with the surrounding
neighbors. I thought he did a brilliant job. There were a lot of concerns going in the meeting,
and I think he handled them all well. We saw the benefits to, obviously, the people living in
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Page 32 of 36
vans, the neighbors and to the churches. Those benefits were clearly laid out. There is one issue,
and that is that he has put his application in four weeks ago, and he hasn’t heard from the City. I
wonder if that’s something that we can follow up on. The second item that I just wanted to bring
to your attention was November 17th at 6:00 p.m., there is an Intentional Community: How
coops, community land trusts and co-living could change our city. That’s sponsored by the same
group that did the renters program for us. I can forward that to you, Minka, just forward to the
group. Then the last thing I wanted to say was that one of our grantees under HSRAP is
Adolescent Counseling Services. Their director, Philippe Rey, received an Angel Award tonight
from the Kiwanis Club. They do an annual award program. This was their ninth award, and he
pointed out that, to the day, this is the 45th anniversary of ACS, so he thought that was very
appropriate timing. They serve 7,000 youth a year. He said two things that I thought were sort of
startling. Fifty percent of the adolescents they see under COVID are suffering from depression
and anxiety, and one in four have thought of suicide. That's where my comments about
socialization came from. That's my update.
Chair Smith: Thank you so much. Staff, before I forget, I think Planning, or somebody is
working on an event in December around renting? I lost the details. Can you help me with that?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Right. I will send it out to the HRC in that they are working with Project
Sentinel to do an event for renters in December and partnering with Human Services. I will get
that out to you. That is kind of a companion piece to an item that will come up on the January
agenda. Some of you may recall, a little over a month ago I sent you a notice for the Planning
Commission meeting. They were giving a presentation about renter protections from a special
Fellow that they have attached to Planning Department for a year from PolicyLink. I have asked
that that fellow also to give the same presentation to the Human Relations Commission as you
look at renter protections as well from the more human lens in the community. So, we can look
to having that presentation in January, but as part of that, Planning Department is looking at
ways in which to further engage the renter community, so they are going to be partnering with
Project Sentinel for this workshop in the community. I will let you know when that will be, but
you have that special presentation in January from the Planning Department.
Chair Smith: And just so everybody remembers, we had Anand Subramanian, who is one of the
managing directors from PolicyLink actually speak with use around policing and policy this
summer. They are probably one of the best policy shops in the Bay area by far, so I’m excited to
even work with him again.
Ms. van der Zwaag: This is a special, I think…I don’t think I’ll get the wording exactly right,
but it was a special Fellowship opportunity to get a Fellow that the City applied for and was
granted one, so we are very lucky that we did. Lauren Bigelow, who is the Fellow, will be
giving a presentation to the HRC. We also have luck in that she is local. She used to work for
Alta Housing, which was Palo Alto Housing Corp., so she brings to her not just this PolicyLink
experience, but experience in Palo Alto as well.
Chair Smith: Thank you. I think we’ve covered all our reports.
Commissioner Regehr: I forgot one. I’m sorry.
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Page 33 of 36
Chair Smith: Go, Commissioner Regehr.
Commissioner Regehr: I just wanted to say thank you to the City, because Magical Bridge is
opening up on the 17th, I think, and they’re also asking for volunteers. There’s a City person
that’s coordinating the volunteers to help staff it, so I just wanted to say thank you it’s opening
up. That’s going to make a tremendous impact on all of us.
Chair Smith: Thank you. If somebody has a little one at home, I can’t wait for it to open.
2. Council Liaison Report
Chair Smith: Council?
Council Member Tanaka: I just want to thank you guys for your work. I know you guys are
down a few members. I definitely will try to advocate for more, but I know you guys are doing
amazing work. It’s really important, and just really value you guys’ effort and all the time you
guys spend on this, so thank you guys.
Staff Liaison Report
Chair Smith: Staff?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Chair, I just had a couple quick things. One, as it regards to HSRAP, I think
I mentioned this at the last meeting, but the rigorous review we do of the grantees when they
currently have the grant, Mary and I just completed doing virtual site visits of all 16 HSRAP
grantees. That's an hour-long review of the grant with the grantees, so that was a really good
experience and is part of their contractual obligations with the City. The other announcement
that I had is the City has posters of the Black Lives Matter mural that was in front of City Hall,
in front of King Plaza, because now that has been removed, and there will be more permanent
art installed at that area, which the Public Art Commission is working on. I believe it will be on
King Plaza, but I don’t have the exact details on that. But, if you would like a copy of a poster
that has the Black Lives mural on it, if you raise your hand, I will somehow find a way to get it.
It sounds like all of you want a poster with the mural on it. They’re available also at Bell’s
Books and the Art Center, so if there are members of the public that would like one, Bell’s
Books, which I believe is in Menlo Park, and the Art Center, and they are free of charge. Yes,
Commissioner Regehr?
Commissioner Regehr: I was wondering, too. Are we giving them to the artists?
Ms. van der Zwaag: I would assume we already have, but I’m just conveying this message, but
I’m sure the Public Art Commission has already worked with the artist on that. I can’t imagine
that they didn’t. Thank you.
Chair Smith: Thank you.
VI. TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR NEXT REGULAR MEETING:
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Page 34 of 36
Chair Smith: We are at our last action for tonight. We have three items, because I don’t want to
make this an extensively long December meeting. The Vice Chair and I will bring forward a
report that we want to present to the City, concerning black and brown history and current
community in Palo Alto. A second item, a letter to Counselor and whoever else we need to send
it to about the escalation of race-based attacks or provocations or incidents in our city, and the
dangerousness of that pattern. The final item will be to discuss the timing and nature of the
Human Relations Commission retreat in January. Generally, the process is we will vote for our
new leadership in January, and we want to time the retreat after that, allowing the leadership to
have the time to set the guide to goals moving forward. Is there anything that anybody feels I’m
missing from that meeting?
Commissioner Savage: Are we talking about next month’s meeting?
Chair Smith: Next month.
Commissioner Savage: Okay, I just want to let you know that December 10th is also, at sundown,
the first night of Hannukah It’s not the highest, holiest holiday of the year…
Chair Smith: No. If there’s one person that understands about Holy Days, it’s me.
Commissioner Savage: I did want to bring that up, if there’s any chance for a date change.
Chair Smith: Can we do it the week before? Can we do it the Thursday before?
Ms. van der Zwaag: Why don’t we send out a couple of dates. It’s hard to put Commissioners
and their schedules…We’ll maybe look at the week before and just another night that week, but
we will look at some other dates. If you already know some limitations that you have for that
first or that second week of December, if you send it to Mary before she does any type of doodle
poll for another meeting night. We don’t have to worry about finding a space anymore. That was
often a barrier, seeing if the room at City Hall was available, so we don’t have to worry about
that, but please send Mary your availability the first and the second week of December, please.
Commissioner Regehr: I have a question. When does the new City Council take…when do
they…?
Chair Smith: In January.
Commissioner Regehr: In January, so can we, because I know it was very effective when the
Parks and Rec Commission spoke and the Chair spoke about being…Could we write a letter
about the need of how we would like them to rethink about putting us back to seven?
Ms. van der Zwaag: That would need to be an item that you agendize.
Commissioner Regehr: That’s what I’m saying. Could that be on the agenda?
Vice Chair Stinger: Could I make a suggestion?
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Page 35 of 36
Chair Smith: Yes.
Vice Chair Stinger: That we do that in January, when we have our priorities for the coming year,
as a result of the retreat?
Commissioner Regehr: Except that I don’t want…If they are only saying five, it’s going to
change our workload.
Ms. van der Zwaag: But you have to be honest that, even if you sent it to the Council, by the time
anything was agendized, you might be February, March, as far as being able to get on the
agenda, if it is decided it’s going to be agendized.
[crosstalk]
Commissioner Regehr: So, if it is January we’re looking into May, and then I’m just saying I’d
like to get a head start.
Ms. van der Zwaag: I hear you, but what I’m saying is I’m not sure if you can completely align,
ensure, that one happens, or one discussion happens before the other, the retreat happens. I don’t
see any possibility that this would…If you’re looking to having a retreat in January, I don’t see
that there would be any chance of Council having a discussion about that before January or
February.
Commissioner Regehr: I totally understand that. I totally understand that, but what I’m saying is
we wait until after the retreat, that’s pushing it even further.
Chair Smith: This is what I will do. We will agendize the item for next week. Commissioner
Regehr, if you can pull together the format of the letter, so it’s more of a review of the language
and not a writing of it at that time, I think that would be extremely helpful for the entire
Commission.
Commissioner Regehr: I’ve spoken a lot. I would like it to hear it from other people besides me,
because I’ve spoken at the City Council, so I know my viewpoint. So, I would rather have
someone else draft something, because I feel like I’m…I mean, sure, I’ll do it, but –
Chair Smith: What I believe is we will vote as a Commission on the letter. I just want somebody
that is passionate about the topic, which I believe is a valid topic, to write it so that it expedites
the process as a Commission. If you can bring the points forward so that we can just approve and
all sign and move ahead and get it to the Council. We’ll see how my schedule works. I will call
in one Monday and make a point after we vote. As long as the Commission votes and we have a
winning vote, I will go there, and I will speak for us. That’s where I stand.
Commissioner Regehr: I wouldn’t mind, but I feel uncomfortable writing a letter ahead of time.
I’d rather have a discussion and then I write a letter and have it on the agenda. I just don’t feel
comfortable writing a letter without hearing from all of us, and we can’t really discuss it, except
at a meeting. Because if I’m off, then I don’t want to be…you know what I’m saying?
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Page 36 of 36
Chair Smith: No, I think what will happen is that you’ll bring forward the pertinent points in the
letter, and we’ll be able to discuss. I think everybody has a general sense of it, but I think you
have a more intricate sense of it, and we’ll be able to approve or make slight modifications
instead of discussing, writing, coming back and voting and trying to fast-track the process.
Commissioner Regehr: Okay, got it.
Chair Smith: Make sense?
Commissioner Regehr: Yes, so will it be an action item?
Chair Smith: Yes, it will.
Commissioner Regehr: Okay.
Chair Smith: We’ll have a discussion and vote on it. Is there anything else from anybody else?
Commissioner Regehr: Thank you.
Chair Smith: You’re welcome. Is there anything from anybody else? Well, I pray that all of you
have a…Well, I can’t say that. I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving. Be safe. Stay in
small groups. See those in your immediate family. Zoom with those in your extended family, and
I will see you in December. Thank you, everybody.
[Unidentified Speaker]: Happy Thanksgiving.
Chair Smith: Happy Thanksgiving.
VII. ADJOURNMENT