 Dina Rob Jackson will need to be promoted also I think to ask me to include him so. Hello. We're the first ones. I think we are. Oh, nice. Oh, Danny Patty Cisco and Dan Condren are on us. Well, I think we have Danny that makes 12 members on here now I think. So we do have a quorum to start but he still some people signing in his 12 magic number to have the quorum. 11 is yes, very cool. Okay, so we have Dina is on the phone with one of the committee members who is having some issues joining so Ron Miller so he should be on shortly. Was you going to be. I'm assuming she's going to be a tech joining maybe she's having a ship. Okay, or just a couple of minutes ago she was good to go then. I'm here now. There she is. Okay. I was having technical difficulties today has been a day full of technical difficulties so. But I'm here now. And is Patty here. Patty is here. Okay, so we do have a quorum. Dina was talking with one of the committee members, trying to help them get in. I also had some technical difficulties connecting so I'm sure it's going around. I think while we haven't started yet I'm going to close my curtain so I don't have to do it later. Okay, and we are recording we have started the webinar so we are live. We're live on the meeting now. So chairs just go anytime you want to call the meeting to order you can and then once you do I will read the housekeeping. Dino can announce the information for translation services. They'll do that after I call it to order. Yes. Okay. All right well with that I am going to reverse what our agenda says items one and two. And call to order the very first meeting of our charter review committee and ask for roll call. Okay. And ideas. Here. Adriana artisan. Christmas yeah. Just one via Lobos. Here. Yep. Chris was that you. Yep. Is here. Thank you. Last one via Lobos are you here. Here. Thank you. Here in weeks. Mark Walsh. Here. Lisa Benford. Lisa Benford. Thank you. Logan pits. I'm here. Thank you. Ernesto Oliver's. Here. You bet minor. Present. Ron Miller. Present. Thank you. Jenny Martinez. Present. Brian Ling. Here. Sorry. Thank you. Jen close. Here. Jasmine Godino. Here. Abigail Cunningham. Here. Then conjure. Here. Burn. Present. Scott Bartley. Any barber. Here. Chair Patty Cisco. Is here. Adriana ours out of zone. Have you joined us? They let the record show that all committee members are present with the exception of committee member out of zone. With that, I want to go ahead. Oh, wait. Ms. Williams is going to give us. So Dina is our zoom host and my deputy city clerk. She will, do you want to make an announcement on how to participate and the Spanish translation? Thank you. Stephanie will do for those just joining the meeting live translation in Spanish is available and members of the public wishing to listen in Spanish can join the Spanish channel. By clicking on the icon on your zoom top toolbar. It looks like a globe. Once you join the Spanish channel, we recommend you shut off the main audio so you only need translation. Would you please repeat that in Spanish for those who have yet to join the Spanish channel. Muy bien, para los que reciben la reunión, interpretación en vivo está disponible. Los miembros que deseen escuchar en español pueden unirse al canal. Para unirse, puede hacer click en el icono de interpretación que se coloca en la barra de herramientas de zoom, que parece un globo. Una vez se une al canal de español, también se recomienda que apague el audio primario para que solo escuche la interpretación al español. Thank you, Pablo. I'll move you over to the Spanish channel along with our other interpreter Charles online, and you can hand off as you see fit. Thank you. Okay, so just a little bit of housekeeping committee members if you could keep please keep your audio on mute unless you're, you're speaking. This will help with any feedback that we may get during the meeting. And as members of the public, join the meeting via zoom, they will be participating via attendee, your microphone and camera will be muted. If you are calling in from a telephone and choose to speak during the public comment portion of today's agenda for privacy concerns, the host will be renaming your viewable phone number to resident and the last four digits of your phone number. The city of Santa Rosa is committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment, free from disruption will not tolerate any hateful speech or actions and are well staffed to monitor that everyone is participating respectfully or they will be removed if necessary. We will also immediately end the meeting. Public comments will be heard after each agenda item is presented. And after each agenda item is presented chair Cisco will ask for committee member comments and then open it up for public comment. If you are participating from zoom or by telephone and wish to make a live public comment on a specific item at the time the public comment period is open. Please use the raise hand feature. If you're calling in via telephone you can dial star nine to raise your hand throughout today's agenda when chair Cisco calls for public comment and interpreter will be prepared to assist anyone needing translation services. The meeting interpreter support will be afforded additional time for their public comment as required by the Brown app. We asked those listening on the Spanish channel but wishing to make a public comment to turn off the interpreter chat interpretation channel entirely at the time you hear your name called so you can join the main channel to make your public comment heard and translated into English. The icon may now look like a circle with an ES in the middle and the word Spanish underneath. You can then rejoin the Spanish channel at the conclusion of your comment to continue listening in Spanish. Thank you. Chair Cisco handed over to you. Great thank you. And again I want to welcome everybody to our first meeting of the charter review committee. I'm sure all of our council members appreciates the hard work we're about to take on. One of the things I'd like to do even though we just did the roll call is have each of you introduced yourself again and just let us know who your council member appointed is just so we can start putting faces to name since we're on screen and that's the charter that way. Chair Cisco I just wanted to mention to that we have Jeff Cohen here our city manager, who would also like to give a welcome to the committee. Great well then let's, let's have head and do that welcome and then we'll go ahead and do our introductions to each other so thanks for for joining us Mr colon. Chair Cisco it's my pleasure to join the charter review committee this evening and welcome you. And also thank you on behalf of our mayor and city council for your service on the charter review committee. This is actually I think my third time that I've at least been involved peripherally with a charter review for the city of Santa Rosa. I've experienced this several times over the years and really value the input that we've gotten from our charter review process, and been very happy with the results we've received in terms of revisions to our city charter. For those of you who don't know me, I served as city manager here from 2000 to 2010, then retired down in Southern California moved back to the community for my retirement, and then was drafted to return as an interim city manager to be recruited for a new city manager and just very excited to welcome our new city manager, Marakisha Smith, she'll be joining the city team on January 3 and looking forward to a transition and a successful relationship with Marakisha as our new city manager here. The charter really is a key and critical document for us in the city here as a charter city. It's similar to our national constitution, it is that kind of guiding document or core document for the city of Santa Rosa, and in many ways is the highest level document that we work with here in the city. It is also one of several options available to us to provide guidance and direction to city staff and to establish permanent records of decisions, and to implement policy. There are also options like ordinances, city codes resolutions and policies that are implemented on an administrative levels an example of those are a personnel policy or a purchasing policy. All those are combined with the overarching guidance provided by the city charter to help us provide the smooth administration and guidance of our city in the implementation of services and programs for our residents. I think as you go through the next several weeks of discussion I hope that you will consider how any one of these recommended measures strengthens our abilities are cities ability to provide local governmental services programs facilities and services. That really is the question that I hope you will focus on. And as you provide feedback and recommendations back to the city council. As you do your work over the next several weeks city staff is another resource to you, if you have questions or need clarifying information or documents. You will be able to request those through the chair of the committee and our city attorney and our city clerk who are working to staff this committee. And in reality you have the whole city workforce available to you to help respond to those information needs. Once again, we're, we're honored to be working with you. We thank you for making the commitment to serve on this very important charter review committee, and we hope you enjoy the experience in doing so. So, thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening. Back to you chair Cisco. Thank you Mr Colin it's so good to see you again and so thank you so much for stepping in on the interim basis. We really needed you and and continue until our new city manager starts so but great to see you and a great experience and a pleasure to do so. Thank you. So, again, I'd like to have the opportunity for each of the committee members to be able to introduce themselves so that we can see who everybody is, and, and then you just, you know, give your name and also let us know who your council member is. I'll call out your name and at that point, remember to unmute, which I frequently forget to do, and give your name and that information, and, and then mute again and I'll call the next name. So, Abigail, can you unmute and introduce yourself and let us know who your council member is. If you know how to do that I know. My name is cutting him. I was appointed by council member Tom Schwaddle, and I'm very excited to be here. We're excited to have you thanks for that. I don't think Adriana is here has come since roll call was taken if she could. I do see here. I'm fine. Okay. Name and your council member a pointer. Adriana reason check to bits. Great. Thank you. We have Anna here where I can't see everybody. Right here. Okay. I am Anna Diaz and then I got appointed by Eddie Alvarez. Right. Nice to meet you. Thank you. Next is Annie. Barbara and Tom Schwadhelm appointed me. And I'm excited to experience this. For being here. Brian Lang. Brian Lang I was appointed by Jack Tibbets. Thank you. Good to meet you. Chris Mazia. Sorry, I'm on my phone. I couldn't get the email as appointed by Victoria Fleming. And I will get an IT consultant for the next meeting. Okay. Great. Next Christine. Christine Byrne and I was appointed by Vice Mayor Rogers. Great. Welcome. And Dan. Dan Conner and I was appointed by a council member Jack Tibbets. Great. Danny. And I was appointed by Eddie Alvarez. And I didn't get the memo on how to fix the, the right angle for this camera. So I'm trying to get the best angle. You look, you look good from my angle. So Ernesto. Ernesto Alvarez appointed by Vice Mayor Rogers. You bet. I'm a bit minor and I was appointed by John Sawyer. Just mean. Hi, just mean green on. I was appointed by a council woman Victoria Fleming. Nice to see you. Jen. Hi, Jen close also appointed by council member funding. Great. Welcome. And Jocelyn, I think Jocelyn was not here earlier, but if she's here now. I'm Jocelyn. Yeah. And I was appointed by Vice Mayor. Chris Rogers. Great. Hi, Karen. Hi, I'm Karen weeks. And I was appointed. Right. Lisa. Hi everyone. Lisa bad before it was appointed by Mayor Chris Rogers. Right. Logan. Good evening. My name is Logan. And I was appointed by Mayor Rogers. Hi, Logan. Mark. Hi, I'm a, I'm Mark. And I was appointed by Council Member Alvarez. Right. Ron. I'm right. I was appointed by Natalie Hall. Right. Got. Scott Bartley. I was appointed by council member Sawyer. Great. Well, good to see you all. I'm Patty. So I was made by council member Sawyer. And I wonder if we could also have staff. Introduce themselves. Now. Hi everyone. I'm Stephanie Williams and I am the city clerk. And we'll be clerking. The committee. For you and with the city attorney suit Gallagher. Hi, I'm Dean. I'm the deputy city clerk and I'll be the zoom host for good and I'll be the vice president for your commission. I'll be the president for the commission of these meetings. Working with Stephanie to get you your meeting agenda documents. And getting them out to the public as per required by the Brown act. And I will say, um, Dina will be sharing a zoom, hosting duties. We do have another staff person, Sandy bliss that some of you may know who will also be sharing hosting duties. So great. And I'm Sue Gallagher, city attorney, and our office will be the primary substantive staff for the committee, and it will be me and Rob Jackson. I'll let Rob introduce himself. And I'm very excited about this process and looking forward to working with all of you. Hi, everyone, I'm Rob Jackson. I'm an assistant city attorney. I'm pulling up the Montgomery ranks along with Mr. Bartley. So we'll gladly hold those together. OK, always important, the Montgomery ranks. OK, well, thanks again. I agree with both Sue Gallagher and Mr. Cullen. This is a really great opportunity. I had the opportunity 10 years ago to sit on the committee and just found it such a rewarding and fascinating experience. So thank you all for making this commitment. It is kind of a big one. And I hope you enjoy it. So with that, I'm going to move on to item number three, which is the time for public comments on non-agenda matters. It's time when any number of the public may address items of interest to this particular committee that aren't listed on the agenda. You can participate by either raising the hand feature on Zoom or by dialing in star nine if you're calling. And so I will check with the host to see if we have anyone who wishes to speak under public comments. Chris, let's go. I don't see any hands being raised via Zoom. OK. And are we expecting any voicemail messages for this item? No, we are not. A public comment can be submitted live during the meeting via Zoom, via telephone and in advance of the meeting via email. Great. Thanks. Next, we have no minutes to approve. So we're going to go ahead and move on to our schedule item, which the first one is item five point one, which is an overview of our charter review process. Take it away. Thank you very much, Chersisco. And welcome to everyone, our first meeting a little later than we had been expecting, but we're all here together now. And it is an impressive group here and so appreciate all of your participation. So as we get underway in this process, I did want to give set the stage by providing just a brief overview of the city charter and the city charter review process. I'll try to go through this fairly quickly. Feel free to interrupt any time with any questions. I also realize that some of you, many, maybe maybe many of you will already be familiar with some of this or maybe most of it. But I do hope that it'll be helpful for us to all get started on the same page. So with that, let's move to the next slide. As you know, every city in California has a choice. They can be incorporated as a general law city, a city that would be governed by the general laws of the state or alternatively, the city can choose to exercise its rights under the homeral provisions of the California Constitution and become a charter city. The adoption of a charter does give the city a greater control over its own municipal affairs. And indeed, Santa Rosa is, of course, a charter city. Very early on, the voters decided to adopt a charter. And I've seen some conflicting dates as to when that first happened. But certainly by at least 1922, a charter was in place. As Jeff Cullen mentioned, the charter forms in essence our city's constitution and in some later slides, we'll walk through some of the basic elements of the charter of our own charter. Next slide. The adoption of the city charter gives the ability under constitutional provisions, gives the ability to exercise maximum authority over the form of the city government and its operations. The city's charter ordinances and resolutions will prevail over state law with respect to municipal affairs. Next slide. So municipal affairs, the city's authority is limited to governing on municipal affairs with respect to matters of statewide concern. State law will continue to govern. And so where's that line? It is not a bright line and it is ever evolving. And I think maybe the most ready example is local housing. So historically, local cities had wide discretion to regulate how and where housing is built. But more recently, the statewide housing crisis has turned what was once a matter of a municipal affair into a matter of statewide concern. We're going to be we'll have to be kind of watching that. It seems like kind of an esoteric area of the law, but it does become significant. The preemption of local regulations by state law applies not only to ordinances and resolutions, but also to provisions of the charter itself. So we'll keep that in mind as we as we move forward through this process. Next slide. Also, as we move forward, we'll want to keep in mind as Jeff Colin pointed out that the charter is the high level governing documents, kind of our fundamental fundamental framework. It does set the general framework for the city's governance. And in general, we'll want to keep all of the details of the state governance and operations in ordinances and resolutions. And this kind of a theme that you'll hear throughout this this effort. And why is that it's really for reasons of flexibility, flexibility to respond to changing conditions. The charter is adopted and amended only by the voters. So any time we want to make any adjustments to the charter, we do have to take, put it on the ballot and get it approved. Ordinances and resolutions give the city a little more flexibility. Those can be adopted and modified as circumstances need by the city council. Next slide. This just simply reiterates that if we didn't have a city charter would be a general law city and that it's a little bit of a surprise to me that only out of the state's 481 cities, just 121 are charter cities. So just a matter of curiosity. Next slide. So before we delve into the review process, I do think it's helpful to have just a quick grounding in the basic nature and scope of our existing city charter that existing city charter is our jumping off point. We've provided you a copy of the city charter and I do encourage everyone to read through it, just get familiar with it. So next slide. One of the most important provisions in the charter is Section 51. It's actually towards the back of the charter, but it is key. It authorizes the council to adopt ordinances in relation to municipal affairs that again, tracks the language from the California Constitution. And with respect to those municipal affairs, the ordinances will control over the general laws of the state. And Section 51 then provides the backup that allows general state laws to fill in the gaps. So where the council has not the city is not adopted in ordinance will fall back to state law. This the effect of Section 51 is that it preserves our local control and it gives us the maximum of control that the city can have. Next slide. I'm going to go fairly quickly through the key elements of the city charter. Again, we gave you a copy of the charter and again, encourage you to take a look at it. Establishment of the city, that's the main, the boundaries and the powers of the city compensation, the composition of the city council. Charter creates the seven member city council with each member serving a four year term and with minimal compensation, that's obviously a section that we'll be looking at as we go forward. Meetings and procedures, it sets the meetings on Tuesday, requires that the council meet at least twice a month. Requires an affirmative vote of four members to pass any ordinance or resolution. The charter provides procedures for filling a council vacancy and it provides for selection of the mayor and vice mayor by vote of the council and sets forth their roles and responsibility. That's another section that we'll be looking at in the charter review process. Next slide. The charter also sets forth very basic ordinance procedures, including for emergency ordinances, it contains provisions to bolster city and neighborhood participation in city government and encourages diversity and boards and commission. That's another section that we may be taking a look at. Charter defines the roles and responsibilities of various city's officers that includes the city manager, city attorney, the fire chief, police chief, city engineer and others. The charter provides for a strong city manager model with the city manager to control city administration and operations. And it allows the council to establish personnel rules and regulations and then in a provision that was added after the 2012 charter review, it provides for binding arbitration for public safety and employee disputes. I'm sorry, that provision for binding arbitration was in prior to 2012, but was amended in 2012. Next slide. Budget and finance establishes the fiscal year, outlines the budget process, requires annual independent financial audit. This is another section that we might look at. There's been suggestions of maybe moving to a two-year budget or at least allowing for that. Charter establishes the roles and responsibilities of the BPU, Board of Public Utilities, and authorizes a setting of water and sewer rates and fees, sets the timing and procedures for municipal elections. That will guide some of our work as well. And then it confirms that the city records are subject to the State Public Records Act. That's a matter of law anyway, but it is also in our charter. Next slide. Charter establishes a basic framework for procurement and contracting, including design build as of at least 2012. That is another area that the council has suggested we take a look at, not the design build, but the basic framework for procurement and contracting. Maybe there's some areas for refinement in those provisions. Charter establishes basic ethical standards for employees, including no gratuities, no conflicts of interest and personal liability for payment of any illegal claims. As of 2002, Charter also includes provisions on campaign finance reform. Next slide. So with that background, we now we're going to move into our current charter review process, the charter review, the Charter Section 12 provides for review of the city charter every 10 years. The last charter review began in 2011, resulted in revisions placed on the ballot in November 2012. And as you all know, Council has appointed this committee to lead the 2022 charter review. Next slide. As you also know, committee has 21 city residents. I'll note that that means our quorum is 11 residents and 11 committee members. And that will become relevant when we talk about the Brown Act. Each council member, as you know, appointed three committee members and very pleased to see as we look at the screen at the Zoom screen, really a diversity of age, race, background and interests. So I'm very excited to work with this group. Next slide. So what are the obligations and responsibilities of the committee? The committee is designated to research and draft recommended amendments to the charter. Committee members will bring their own also bring their own knowledge and interest to the table. So we'll be doing some independent research. We'll be bringing some speakers to the committee to speak. But also you'll be bringing your own knowledge and interests. And in as we look at the different topics, we'll want to do some significant research on each of the topics looking into existing programs in other communities. We'll look at the academic studies. We'll want to evaluate the costs. And there'll be a number of other factors, and we'll get a little more into that a little later. Next slide. The process, the committee will put together recommendations. We're hoping that that will be done by late April or so. Those recommended recommendations for charter amendments will be presented to the city council. If approved by the city council, those proposed revisions will be placed on the November 2022 ballot for the voters consideration. And then if approved by the voters, the proposed revisions will be incorporated into the charter and the charter amendments just take a majority vote. So next slide. Charter review topics. So the councils, as you know, and as I think we've we let you know in our introductory letter, has recommended 12 topics for consideration. County can also the committee can also bring its own additional topics. And the topics may lead to revisions of current charter language, brand new charter language or deletions of existing charter provisions. And of course, as we've noted before, any of the changes are subject to voter approval. Next slide. Twelve topics recommended by the council for the committee's recommendation for the committee's consideration. Sorry. Directly elected at large mayor, this would require a charter amendment to allow for that. That would include that would entail both directly elected at large mayor and a reduction of districts from seven to six ranked choice of voting. That is where voters get to identify their top two, three, four candidates. We will be asking perhaps register our voters to come and talk to us about that. Council recommended that we that the committee consider a police auditor or a police citizen oversight commission. I'll note that the council will be considering approval of a contract for the police independent police auditor in just a couple of weeks. But we'll talk about whether we want to incorporate some provision for that into the charter as well. Next is council compensation, as you may be aware, council members receive eight hundred dollars a month for all of their time and work on as council members. Mayor gets twelve hundred dollars a month. Mayor position is a very time consuming and very involved position. So the council has suggested for some time that we should look at compensation and potentially amend that. There are some state law limitations, but we can talk about how we can address those. Next slide. So that was the first four. Next four, climate change, diversity, equity and inclusion. Both of those are very broad concepts. And so it'll be interesting to think about what is appropriate to put into our charter. These are both also very evolving areas. So what do we want to put in our charter versus what do we want to leave for ordinances or resolutions? What's the most effective way to have positive results? Excise taxes is another another topic and then regulation of rental properties, both of those kind of economic based. Next slide. This is these are the last four procurement policy reforms. Again, a very general topic, but we can talk about what some options are there. We've had issues with our boards and commissions in terms of ensuring that there are forums. We can look at whether there's anything that we could do in the charter to help address those issues. The next is the removal of a mayor or council member for misconduct. That would require there are state law limitations and that would require a charter amendment to include those provisions. And then, as I mentioned earlier, the council did request that we look at the possibility of moving to a two year budget process or at least considering whether to add that as an alternative. Next slide. So we can also have other topics. The committee members may themselves have topics that they want to bring to the table, the community as they come to speak may suggest topics that are of interest to the community to the committee. And then the council also asked that we work with city employees, unions and department heads to see if there are additional issues that they have seen in kind of the day to day operations of the charter. In the past, charter review committees have included what I've been calling kind of an omnibus charter amendment that includes those cleanup items. Next slide. So that's a long list of topics to consider. And so I did want to caution that we are going to need to be careful in terms of the number of amendments that we end up recommending. There is a significant time commitment in researching and drafting each of those topics, amendments on each of those topics. So time commitment of this committee. There's also a real concern of potential voter fatigue. If we have too many recommended amendments on the ballot. And then, of course, there is a cost to each ballot measure that's placed, each measure that's placed on the ballot. So one of the things that we'll start talking about as we move forward is trying to prioritize where do we want to really focus our attention and where do we want the voters to focus their attention. Next slide and just some examples. 2012, there were four ballot measures presented to the voters. Three of them passed the district district based elections failed. And then the three that passed were the binding arbitration for police and fire employees, the design bill procurement and what I call the omnibus bill, the charter reorganization and update. Next slide and 10 years before that, there were three ballot measures presented to the voters, the two of the three passed the omnibus bill passed the council compensation provision for additional council compensation failed. And then the campaign finance reform provisions passed next slide. So later in the meeting, we'll start talking about developing the meeting schedule, develop a work plan and then I just put down roll up our sleeves and get going. That's next slide. That's the end of the presentation. Happy to answer questions or hear comments. Great. I think it would be helpful if I already see someone who already knows the drill. I want each of the committee members, if you have questions, because there's so many of you, if you could use the raised hand feature, you could also try and wave me down, but I only have so many of you on my screen at one time. So I can I can look at this chart and see the wave hand feature and call on you. And I can also seek help from both Ms. Williams and Ms. Mannus to make sure I don't miss anybody. So I'm going to start with Karen Weeks has a question. And remember to unmute and mute. Thank you, Francesco. Sue, you mentioned that in April around April, that recommendations to go to the council. Will it go a couple of times to council or how will it just be one time? And then, yes or no, how's that going to work? Or would it be like a steady session to them? We would likely haven't decided the form. It's quite possible that it would be a steady session to start with. And then then final adoption. The reason that we want to allow a couple of months is that if the council, you know, maybe the council will accept all of the recommendations and we're good to go and we're we're on our way. But if the council wants to make some adjustments or wants to explore something else, we want to build in time in the process to allow for that. OK, Logan. Thank you, Patty. So first, if next year is the 100th anniversary, we clearly have to do a birthday party of the charter. So we'll get working on that. Two questions for you, Sue. What so thank you for going through that timeline. And maybe you don't know this offhand, but what is the deadline to get on the November 2022 ballot? It's August. In fact, Stephanie may know this off the top of her head. It's in early August, but I don't remember whether it's the eighth or the 11th. Those are the dates are popping into my head. No, yeah, I'm just looking it up right now, opening up my calendar so I can look, you know. So let me look this up and then I will get back to you. I'll raise my hand. So information, thanks, Stephanie. So well, well after we're done, I was just kind of wondering what that that time difference will be. So that's that's helpful. And then that part about the council speaking to department heads, would that and getting their input and maybe adding recommendations? Is that going to occur after our work wraps up, Sue? Or is that go concurrently with us? It'll go concurrently. In fact, I've already gotten some of that information. It'll go concurrently. In fact, I've already gotten some recommendations from a couple of department heads. I'm not anticipating a long list this year, but of course, one never knows. But I have already gotten a couple of cleanup items from department heads and we may get more from from other staff. Okay, that's helpful to know those as soon as possible. I think so we can have the whole package in mind. That's great. Those are my questions. Thank you. Okay. You have information. I do. So the last day that council can take action to put a measure on the ballot would be at their meeting of August 9th. And then we have, I have to file those with the registrar voters of office. By August 12th. So it's a kind of a tight deadline, but that is the last day that council can decide to adopt a resolution to place measures on the ballot. Great. Ron Miller. I'm thinking in terms of time commitment. How often would we meet in the past? How long in meetings lasted? And how frequent would we be meeting? And also what is our term limit? We are planning to, we'll talk about the meeting schedule later in the meeting, but I will say we are planning that the meetings will be scheduled every other week. And we will try to make these meetings as efficient as we can. You're. Sorry, I'm forgetting the other questions. You asked about a term limit. There's no. Term limit. Um, Chair Cisco and my intent that the meetings be just two hours. Five to seven. Um, we are sensitive to everyone's valuable time. Um, and we will try to make these meetings, you know, as efficient as we can. And we will try to make these meetings as efficient as we can. So. Term limit. Um, How long will we serve? Uh, through this whole process. So for this, for the 2022 charter review. So starting tonight through, um, probably late April will be, uh, when we're targeting to have, uh, the committee's work completed. Um, there may be a little bit of spillover, but I think that's a good point. Um, I'm sorry. Great. Thank you. Um, so my question may be more related to the work plan, um, but something I wanted to pose since we just reviewed the 12. Um, items that the council has suggested that committee reviews is that, um, in terms of the equity diversity and inclusion, um, I think that we might consider this as a lens through which we do the rest of our work on the other items, um, in addition to considering a revision of the, um, Um, related to this item. So I'm saying if there is an order, um, in which we will consider these 12 items. And if so, um, I'd like to ask if it's possible that we, um, consider the diversity, equity, and inclusion item earlier on so that we can build our capacity to use this as a lens. Um, and, you know, ground ourselves in what that means, um, when we consider the other subjects. Thank you. And I, I very much appreciate you raising that. Um, I had intended to, to also mention that, um, that that is one lens, one of the key lens that we want to look at, um, all of the different, um, proposals. Um, and certainly that is very forefront in the council's minds as well. Um, so I'm very glad that you raised that. And you're exactly right. It, it may also, it, it will certainly be a lens through which we look at all, all of our work. Um, but it may also be a particular item into the, into the charter. And then my other question was, um, you know, in, in, in that pursuit, will there be some sort of like training or, um, a meeting where we focus on, um, building our own knowledge of how to apply this lens, um, by like an organic expert organization. Um, yeah, we hadn't, we had not frankly built that in, but I think that, that is a very good idea. And then something that we can talk about, um, when we get into the talking about the work plan. So, um, I appreciate you raising that. And I do think that that could be very helpful. Thank you so much. Um, Jen close. Thanks. Um, first of all, plus one to, uh, just a means request. That's perfect. And definitely should be doing that. And, um, the other, uh, things that I, it would be interesting to me early on to see the ballot language from the past couple of languages on charter amendments and the results. I did look on the county site and the results are there, but not the ballot language. At least not that I could find. Thank you. Well, we will get that, um, out to the, um, out to the committee. And I agree. It's very helpful to look at that language and, uh, also looking at the results from where we're 10 years later, things can change, but, uh, that will, that's a, that's a very, very good idea. We'll get that to everyone. And I do know it's not easy to find cause we've tried to find it before and we had the, we did eventually track it down, but it's not readily available for folks. Just going online. Um, Mark. Oh, yes. Thank you. Um, and this, this is a follow up to, um, Jasmine Godino's comment on having that, that filter in that lens. There's some really good examples of a budgeting. With equity in mind that uses, um, uses data. That's gathered, um, from the government finance officers association. The city Oakland was awarded a recognized nationally as a program. The budget for capital projects and facilities. With an equity lens. And they rank safety, um, quality of services, quality of infrastructure, um, ability of people to access, access other services. Um, it's a data, data driven, um, data driven process that they used and it seems to be working. I can, I can copy you on that just directly. I'll pull it down from the web and send it to you. But there are some, there are some studies that might be helpful. I'm not sure if it needs to be an ordinance or policy or, or a charter, but there are some examples that people are starting to look at, um, at how, how the term equity really affects their processes in a detailed and data driven way. So I'd be more than willing to help on the budget stuff. Thank you very much. That would be very helpful. Any other raised hands. Nope, not seeing any new raised hands. Um, So. If there are any other questions before I turn it over to public. Comment, let me see your hand. And, uh, okay. So with that, I will go ahead and, um, open the public comment on this particular item. Again, if you're calling in, you use star nine on your phone. If you're joining us by zoom, you use the raised hand feature. You have three minutes to make your comment. Accountant timer will alert you when your time is up. So with that, I will get over to our host. And ask if we have any members of the public wishing to speak on this item. I'm not seeing any hands being raised in zoom on this item. And any voice mails. No. Okay. Okay. So, um, with that, let's go back to, um, our next item, uh, which is. Which is the five point two, the introduction to the Brown act and the public records act. And, um, Sue, are you doing that one as well? I am. And, uh, I will say this is going to be an unusual meeting. I am not usually going to be the one, uh, speaking all the time, but, uh, for this first meeting, I am doing some of these introductory, uh, elements. So, um, so don't worry. It won't be me speaking all the time. So, um, I'm going to go through this pretty quickly. Um, some of you I know have worked, uh, extensively in local government. So you're familiar with Brown act and public records act, but I do think it's important for the committee as a whole to at least have the general framework. Um, if you, if you looked at the PowerPoint earlier, it's a very long PowerPoint, but please be assured. I'll go as quickly as I can and, uh, we'll skip over things that, that are not as relevant, uh, to, to this committee. Um, so next slide. Next slide. Um, I think it's helpful to understand where the Brown act came from and, and what it's, uh, what it's really about. Uh, it is, was enacted in 1953. Uh, after, I think it was a San Francisco Chronicle did a very extensive, uh, investigative, uh, piece on secrecy in local government. So, uh, this is all about opening the government up to be available to the public, for the public to be able to easily participate. Um, and, uh, and all of the transparency, uh, that we, we, uh, kind of assume or hope for now. Uh, the principles that come the Brown act were incorporated into California constitution in 2004. It's now constitutionally based and the basic statement in the Brown act is it's the people's business. The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. Next slide. Basic rule is that all meetings of a legislative body will be open in public and all persons permitted to attend. Uh, next slide. Uh, charter review committee is a legislative body subject to the Brown act. So, um, we, the council expressly provided that, but that is also provided in the Brown act itself. Brown act encompasses any commissional committee. Board or other body of a local agency created, um, including by formal action of the legislative body, which the charter review committee was. So we are subject to the Brown act. Next slide. Um, there is an exception for ad hoc committees. Um, and so ad hoc committees that are less than a form of the members of the body. And are created to address a single subject on short duration. Uh, I mentioned this, the council did authorize this committee to create ad hoc committees. Uh, if we want to, um, you know, have a smaller group focused on an issue. Uh, and that was done in the 2012 on one issue was done on the 20, in the 2012 charter review. Um, but I know, uh, chair Cisco and I have talked about this and we do encourage to the greatest extent possible to have the full committee involved in all of the items that are, uh, are being considered. Gives that the council created a very diverse committee and we want all those diverse voices to be heard. Uh, next slide. So again, meetings have to be open to the public. So what's a meeting? It's wherever a majority of the members, uh, uh, gathered together, uh, to hear, discuss, deliberate or take action on any item that's within the subject matter jurisdiction of the body. So majority of the members. Uh, hearing, discussing, deliberating or taking action. So even if you're just getting together to hear something, that's a meeting and it's anything that's within the subject matter of, um, of the charter review committee, which is of course a very broad subject matter. Next slide. So formal or informal planned unplanned, whether it's in person meeting or whether it's through technology or through intermediate intermediaries. And I'll talk about that, uh, uh, uh, in following slides. Meeting includes everybody getting together at one time. Or people communicating in sequence. Again, I'll talk about that a little bit more in the next slides. And it's for discussion or action. So the fact that you're not going to take formal action, it's still a meeting. Again, the reason we're going through what's a meeting is that though these are all the activities that have to be open to the public, have to be noticed, have to be agendized. So. So, um, it's a meeting that's subject to the Brown act. Next slide. So it's hub meetings. This is where, um, one committee member might call. Up to 11 other committee members to talk about, uh, an issue that's in front of the committee or within the committee's subject matter jurisdictions. That will constitute a Brown act required meeting. Next slide. Similarly, um, serial meetings. So a meets with B, B meets with C, C meets with D. You're communicating. You're establishing that communication line. You're trying to potentially reach agreement on something outside of the scope of a public meeting. So. These serial meetings are expressly prohibited by the Brown act. Next slide. And it includes electronic communications. Uh, emails and texts, uh, especially, um, be careful. Uh, on emails do not, if we send out an email to all of the committee, we'll always put at the top, do not reply all. Um, if you reply all, you have started a communication with the full group. Um, so it's our recommendation that if you want to communicate. Uh, something to the full, uh, committee that it either be done at a public meeting or be done through staff. So, um, we've had, I've had instances where well, all I want to do is to talk about scheduling a meeting. Talk to staff about that staff, then can communicate to the full committee about scheduling issues about substantive issues. Um, so, uh, again, a big warning. It's an easy, uh, easy trip trip up. So avoid sending emails or texts to the full committee. Next slide. And then what's not a meeting, uh, individual contact between the full committee. Uh, commissioners, but should be committee members and staff, legal counsel or others provided that you're not using that. You know, as a means to. To communicate between members. So you're free to talk to me or to Rob or to Stephanie or to Dina or to others, uh, other staff that might be involved in, in one of the topics. Um, but we will never tell you what someone else told us or what we're doing. That's so that we avoid any accidental brown act violation. Um, also what's not a meeting is you can attend social or ceremonial events where no business, uh, is discussed. Next slide. Uh, also you can attend conferences together, other gatherings that are open to the public, uh, open community forums. It's not a problem if the majority of the. Charter review committee attends a meeting of the, um, Uh, the board of supervisors or a meeting put on by a community group. Uh, those are all, uh, allowed and are not, uh, meeting under the Brown act. Next slide. Social media is, is this is, I want to really highlight. Um, Brown act violations are easy in the realm of, um, there is a recently enacted law that sets specific guidelines. It's helpful to have those guidelines because in the past, there's a lot of gray areas here. But now, um, you can use social media platforms to answer questions and provide the public with information. Uh, or to ask for information from the public on matters within the committee's jurisdiction. But you can use social media platforms to answer questions and provide the public with information. Um, and then you can use social media platforms to answer questions and provide the public with information on matters within the committee's jurisdiction. But you cannot respond to any communication made poster shared by another committee member. Regarding any matter within the committee's jurisdiction. And this includes, you can't like someone else's, uh, media post about something that's before the, uh, within the subject matter, uh, of the committee, you can't, you know, you can't respond to that. Um, you can't respond to that. Um, it's not easy to slip into that. Um, again, differences if it's if it's a subject matter. That is within the jurisdiction of the charter review committee, which is really any almost any city business. Please don't comment or respond to someone else's social media posting. Next slide. Um, there are. Um, there are some things that are not relevant to the committee. Um, which will be relevant for us, regular meetings and special meetings, regular meetings require 72 hour notice. Special meetings require 24 hour notice. They can cover the same item. Uh, same topics. Um, they have slightly different procedural rules. Emergency meetings would be if we were facing, you know, flood, earthquake. Fires, things like that. Um, that's not going to be something that the charter review committee would be talking about. Um, there are, um, emergency meetings closed sessions. There are brown act allows, uh, legislative bodies to meet in closed session to talk about litigation, personnel matters, real estate negotiations, and a few other. Um, Categories again, that's not going to be relevant to our committee. So next slide. Uh, regular meetings I already said post. Um, meeting and, uh, had a note there, but that's not relevant to this committee. Um, the city's open government ordinance requires additional extended notice for council meetings, but that's not relevant to, uh, uh, other boards and commissions at the city at this point. Next slide. Special meetings already said 24 hour notice. Uh, and it can be called by a chair Cisco or by a majority of the, of the committee. Um, So, um, Next slide. We can skip this. This is the, uh, And so what's going to be on the agenda. The agenda is going to contain a brief description of each of the items to be discussed. And it's going to be posted in hard copy at the, at city hall and online. Um, if people have requested mailing, they'll be mailed to them as well. Um, And, uh, so that has to be posted against 72 hours in advance. Um, and it generally prohibits any action or discussion of items that are not. On the agenda. Next slide. Materials that are given to the committee must also be made available to the public. Um, We will try to have those, um, uh, included in the, in the postings and in the noticing. Supplemental materials can be provided after the posting, as long as they're made available to the committee and to the public. Um, And we'll see that tonight when we have a very brief PowerPoint with respect to setting the meeting schedule and the work plan. Next slide. Um, I think this is not going to be particularly relevant either. You can act on. Yeah. Let's just skip over that. Public comment. We have to allow the public to speak on each agenda item. Um, And there are some exceptions that I don't expect to arise in the context of this committee. If they do, I'll let you know at that time. And then in addition, as you saw this, um, this evening already, that every agenda, um, must allow members of the public to speak on any item of interest. Oh, this within the subject matter. Uh, jurisdiction of the, uh, of the committee. Um, And then there are some exceptions on items that are not on the agenda. We can very briefly members of the committee could very briefly respond. They could ask staff questions for clarification. Uh, they could refer the speaker to staff. Um, they might ask the staff to report back, um, at a subsequent meeting. So very limited response, uh, permitted. Next slide. Um, I think it's on public testimony. Generally it's been the practice, the practice of the city and indeed most public. Um, public agencies, um, to set a time limit. Uh, usually it's three minutes. Um, and if someone becomes overly repetition or going off way off topic. Or tries to go beyond, um, the three minutes. Um, go against the city, not the individuals. But if there is an intentional violation, intentional violation of the Brown Act is a misdemeanor and subject to criminal penalties. I've never in all of my years of public practice seen that and I don't expect to see it here. So we're good. Next slide. Any questions on the Brown Act before I go to the Public Records Act? If anybody has any questions, you can raise your hand and anybody right now. I will say as we move forward, there may be Brown issues that arise over time and I'll address those when they arise. So onto the Public Records Act. You may kind of wonder why why we're talking about Public Records Act. But it is important for you to understand because all of the documents that you prepare and write in the process of the Charter Review, those will be public records and subject to disclosure. So Public Records Act like the Brown Act is all about transparency in government. And I included two quotes here from the government code itself, the provisions. See a typo in there, but access to information concerning the people's business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state. And that public records are open to inspection at all times and every person has a right to inspect any public record. So again, transparency and letting the public know what we're up to. So next slide. What's a public records? It's any writing that contains information relating to the conduct of the people's public's business, prepared, owned, used, or retained by the state or local agency, regardless of physical form or characteristics. So includes paper documents, includes voice recordings, includes emails, texts, photographs, so forth. Next slide. Again, letters, words, pictures, sounds, symbols, combinations, all of that is a writing that is considered a public record and subject to disclosure. Next slide. So it's information that relates to the conduct of the people's business, public's business. So anything related to city's business, prepared, owned, used, or retained by the city, whether the city has actual possession or constructive possession, that means that someone else may have physical possession, but we have a right to it. Emphasize that personal information is not a public record. So it's just information that relates to the city's business. So if you have a document and you've written some notes on it about your, you know, an appointment for next week to remind yourself that will not be disclosed, only the portion of the document that relates to city business would be disclosed. Next slide. A lot of exempt information. So personal information, social security, driver's license numbers, birth date, tax information. That's probably the one that will be of most concern to people as those personal matters will not be released. Other categories, attorney-client communications, medical records, a lot of different different elements. There's also a catch-all, which is a public interest balancing test, and that is whether the public interest in disclosure of the document is outweighed by the public interest in keeping the document confidential. Next slide. So as mentioned earlier, public records include electronic communications, so emails, social media postings are potentially subject to disclosure in a Public Records Act, text messages, and this includes things that are on your personal device if they relate to the city's business. Again, those things are in your personal accounts, personal devices that do not relate to the city's business are not discloseable. Next slide. So there was a case a few years ago, 2017, that the court held that when a city employee, and that includes also members of boards and commissions and committees, uses a personal account to communicate about the conduct of public business, the writings may be subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act. So this is, if you use your personal email to communicate about the committee's work, that is going to be a public record. It's about what's the subject of the record, what's the subject of the writing, not where it's held. Next slide. But the courts have confirmed that there's no particular method required for searching for those documents that are related to city business, simply that it has to be calculated to locate responsive records. And this is where I think you'll be most interested and concerned is that the city can reasonably rely on you, the members of the committee, to search your own devices and send over to us any writings or communications that you have on your own devices that relate to the city's business. So we will not, and that has been the city's practice and will continue to be the city's practice. So if you are using your own phones or own computers, laptops, we will not be asking for that, but we would ask you find any, if you can keep your records related to the committee in a single location, that's going to be much easier for you to then send that on over to us. Next slide. And this I just included in, it's not, you individually will not be responding to any requests. That'll be within the city staff's responsibility, particularly in the city clerk leads that effort. But I just think it's relevant for folks to know that the request for documents really can be in any form. It can be in person, it could be phone, in writing. We ask people to put it in writing, but doesn't need to. Prestor doesn't need to identify themselves and they do not need to identify the reason for the request. So all it takes someone to ask for the documents related to the Charter Review Committee and we're on it and gathering those documents and producing them. So be thoughtful as you prepare records related to the committee's work and just be aware that whatever documents you produce could be subject to public release. Next slide. Any questions? So any questions on this? I have a couple. I don't see anybody else raising their hand. One of the questions is in our introduction matter, we have to, as committee members, take the conflict of interest training online. You gave us information about how to do that and I think Ms. Williams was going to look into this. I'm curious about when we might anticipate that the next anti-sexual harassment training might be offered or if there is a way to take it online. I don't know if she was able to find that out or not, but the sort of committee members know what they have to do within this period. I have not been able to find out that information yet, but as soon as I do I will send it to the committee. And I do want to just say that all of the committee members have been issued city email addresses and so that is the email address that we will be using to send you any documents. So I would encourage you to make sure that you're checking that email because that is how you will be getting the meeting invites to be placed on your calendars and how you'll be getting any other documents that may not have been published with your packet and how you'll be notified with that your agenda packet has been published. The city clerk's office will be using the city email addresses and it really also helps if we ever do get a request for communications by the committee members for us to, you know, search the city email addresses. So just, you know, recommend that you use that email address and communicating with staff too. And then thank you, I'll follow up if I may, Chair Sisco. Thank you very much because I do, I've been to note that and really encourage people to use your city email. Also want to note that we do have city iPads available. So I know a few people have accepted that offer. If anyone else would like a city iPad, they are the smaller iPads, not the larger ones, but do just let me know. Yes, and I can give you the, you can also contact me and I can give you the information. If you haven't already been contacted by Tara Norman in IT to schedule an appointment to get your iPad issued to you, you can and if you don't have her information, I'll be happy to send it out. And the other question, Ms. Williams, on our, I believe there's a website specific to the Charter Review Committee. Are those emails going to be posted there so that if a member of the public wanted to contact the committee member, that's where they would look? Yes, yes, the committee roster will be posted on the Charter Review 2022 webpage. And then there is also an email address for the public to send a communication to the committee and it will be sent to the full committee as well as the city attorney's office and the city clerk's office so that we all get it. Yeah, and I would just recommend that if as individual committee members, if you happen to get a communication that you always forward it off to staff so that we all will benefit from whatever that communication is. So you're not being single though. And that's when you don't want to reply all to. This is very similar to what we do for city council. City council has a general email address that the public uses to send their comments of concern and so none of the council members reply to it. We administer those here and so we would ask the same of the committee members to not reply all or to those emails that you see coming in from the public. Great. Thanks. Ms. Mannes, you have your hand up post that for when I do public comment or are you going to jump in here? I just wanted to also just make a brief announcement that starting with the next meeting we'll set up a reoccurring Zoom credential. So it'll be the same one for the duration of your service on this committee. And it touches on what Stephanie and Sue were talking about making sure you use your city email address when you're logging into your Zoom account. That will get you into the panelist portion of the meeting rather than participating as an attendee that needs to be promoted. It's a security issue and we ask that all of our boards and commissioners make sure they're logging into their Zoom meeting from their srcity.org email address. Thank you. Great. If there aren't any other questions, then I will move as we're supposed to onto public comment on this item. Again, if any member of the public wants to comment on this particular item, if you're calling in dial star nine, if you're using Zoom, use the raised hand feature, you will be given three minutes to speak. And I will check with staff to see if there's anybody waiting to speak. Chair, I'm seeing no hands be raised in Zoom for public comment on item 5.2. Okay. And I see no vote. Great. Okay. So with that, we're going to move on to 5.3, our charter review work plan. Thank you. And again, I'll emphasize this is unusual that you're hearing from me so much. This will be a much more diverse meeting going forward in terms of speakers. But now is the opportunity, and this is I really am going to hand this over to the committee after just I think showing two slides for your discussion. So first next slide. We talked about the meeting schedule. We are looking to meet every other week starting again tonight. And so our next meeting would be on Wednesday, December 1. The following December 15. And then of course, off for the holidays. And then starting again on January 5 and January 19. And then so far on down. But that's just our proposed initial meeting schedule. So we open it up to the committee that that kind of a schedule works. Again, we've talked about meeting on Wednesday evenings, five to seven. But it is up to the committee. And then if I I think I'll go ahead and just get to the we'll skip quickly through the next the next three slides are really the the charter review topics. We've already gone over those. So I won't repeat them. And next slide. But we have them in case you want to we have that list in case you want to talk about it or look at it. And then the next slide, the last slide. And this is as we talk about the meeting schedule and the work plan and how you want might want to organize it. Think about we need time to research and draft items. Again, I talked earlier about prioritizing our efforts. Where do we want to focus first? And then that ultimately, we're going to want to have a limited number of proposed amendments. There's not a set number, but trying to put all 12 and perhaps some additional ones on the ballot would be daunting. And again, that we're looking to complete the process by late April. So those are the kind of parameters, the initial parameters. So I hand it back to the chair and and and to the committee. Great. Well, let's start with the proposed meeting schedule on any comments, concerns, suggestions about our initial meeting schedule. It is important that when Sue and I met about this, we really wanted to make sure that there was a reasonable amount of time. We figured Wednesdays were the best evening because of council meetings and other board commission meetings trying to have it every other week. There may come a time when we have to have more meetings and we may need to do that. But we just thought it's an initial schedule. This would work. And the five to seven time was probably the most compatible with those that are working and for members of the public to be able to have an opportunity to participate, but definitely open to suggestions or concerns about just the initial meeting schedule. The other thing I do want to say is, well, well, two things. In keeping our meetings efficient. If you have questions, please use your city email and email those questions in advance of the meeting to Sue and Rob so that they can come forward with an answer that will make our meetings more efficient. They'll have ready answers to questions that pop up in between meetings. So please use that way to communicate your questions. We'll also be taking questions obviously in the meeting, but some might require more research and the sooner that staff has those and can get going on those, the more efficient our meetings will be. We really want to keep the meetings to two hours just so that it's not exhausting for us. We're all busy people, but we want to we want to efficiently run meetings and we want to have them done well. So that that was the thinking behind this meeting and the timing. So the other thing too is to remember if you do have to miss a meeting, I would appreciate if you would let both me and Sue know in advance as much as you can hear. If you do have to miss a meeting, my understanding is recorded, they'll be on video accessible the next day. So if you haven't missed the meeting, you would be able to watch the video and catch up to whatever work has been done in your absence. So I just want to say those few things. And then first, anything you want to say about our meeting schedule proposal? Jocelyn? Yes, for me personally, Wednesdays don't really work because I have a JC class from five to seven. I had to call an absent today, but I was wondering if any other council members would be okay with moving it to either Thursday or Friday possibly. So committee members, that's everybody. Thursdays are not a possibility because there are other board and commission meetings that conflict with what staff has to do. Friday, I don't know, how does the committee feel about Friday? Nobody wants to say. Fridays are a tough one, I think. Yeah, I think it is going to be a tough one. Is it possible to maybe do a doodle pool where we can see what would work best and then work from there? Because having a set time right now may not work for everybody, but if we can do that offline, do a little bit more research to find out if everybody is available on a particular day and do it that way. Okay. You're nodding, Mr. Walsh. So what's involved with that, Ms. Minor? I'm not really familiar with that term. We can do a doodle pool. We've done that when we've had to schedule some council meetings. But I will say that usually the doodle pool will, we give options as opposed to keeping it open. And as Chair Siscoe said, Thursdays are really hard and Tuesdays are out of the question. Fridays, we could do it. It may require some staffing because our work schedule, our staff, doesn't work on Fridays. So it may be, but it's not impossible. But I can certainly send out a doodle pool to the committee to see, but your options are probably be pretty limited because we do have a lot of other boards and committees and commissions that staff is also working with that will conflict with on some of those other days. But I'd be happy to send out a doodle pool tomorrow to the committee. Sorry to jump in, but the class event, is that going to be through next year or semester ending for you in December? Sorry, there was the conflict on for Wednesdays was because there's a JC class happening, correct? So I was wondering if the classes through this fall semester only or if it continues until next semester, because if it's just this fall, maybe we can make some accommodations and then return to Wednesdays for the next year. Ends in December. Scott, you have something to say? Once I unmute myself, while having been there, I know there's, I'm not sure the doodle polls going to give us a whole lot of guidance, because we don't really know what's, I mean, staff, you know, the city attorney's office has a million other things they're doing. We're working into their schedule, not just our schedule too. And I'm a skeptic of the doodle giving us any valid information that we can really focus on. I suspect Friday's won't work in at least and Tuesday Thursday's off that leaves Monday and Wednesday. So I'm happy with Wednesday, five to seven. I mean, it's a good night in the middle of the week. And when does when does her class end in December? What's the date? I believe the 15th. So you would miss two meetings. Does anybody else have a conflict with the Wednesday? I've got some hands raised. Annie, was that you talking? Yeah. So, Ron, you want to weigh in on this? The option of Monday has not been raised. And Sue, you want to say anything about what Monday we're hearing there's staffing problems on Friday? What are the issues with Yeah, I was just trying to look at the calendar. Monday evenings are a possibility. Mondays are often quite busy with council meetings on Tuesday, but we can make that work. I think Fridays are difficult because we're also going to be asking us guest speakers from other jurisdictions, from other agencies or organizations, and I think to ask people to come on Friday evenings is a little bit challenging. But we could look at Mondays, even if we tried to do Mondays just in December, but I don't know if we have anybody who has conflicts on Mondays. Also, maybe, sorry to jump in, but I'm just wondering, maybe I missed it, but what time is your class? Like if in December, if we could just push the time one way or the other, that helped. That's the class is actually also five to seven exactly. Man, we do three to five on those for two meetings or seven to nine or something. So Logan, you have something to add? I'm sorry, Jocelyn, the next two meetings don't work for you. I have personally, for me, they do work. And those four dates are good for me. And I just speaking generally, I think Wednesdays are good days for public meetings. I think you tend to get higher attendance in the middle of the week from my experience. So I would support us going with that. I guess, is that the first and the third Wednesday? Was that your scheme, Patty? Yeah. That works for me. Well, I'm going to, I'll get to Karen in a minute, but one of the issues, I really would like to get that settled tonight. Doing a doodle pool puts it up. I already had to put this off and so I'm concerned about that. I think we can do it here, kind of find out what the majority of people can do by just letting it, letting me know. So it sounds like for the majority, unless I hear something from somebody else that Wednesday works for the most part. We do a show of hands also for Wednesday or Monday because maybe that people can't make it on Monday and it may be irrelevant. Right. Was it Sue that recommended that we do Mondays for the month of December and then go to our Wednesdays moving forward? Is that an option? Either way, for me, Wednesday works ideal as well. Sue, I don't know if it's a Brown Act violation, but I can use the polling feature for like the equivalent of a straw vote in Zoom and throw up a quick poll that says day of the week, preference Monday or Wednesday to get the quick count, but I don't know if that's acceptable via Zoom for a Brown Act. Yeah, I'm thinking that it might be better for Brown Act if we had maybe and maybe the questions are posed. Everyone would have to take down their hands to begin, but the question is posed who cannot make it on Mondays, who cannot make it on Wednesdays and see if we have clear results from that. Okay, so we're going to do that now. We're going to ask, yeah, take your hands down and who cannot make it on Monday? Looks like six people cannot make it on Monday. And then who cannot make it on Wednesday? Jocelyn is in here and two people have problems with Wednesday. I have something to offer that might be helpful. I can offer myself to meet with Jocelyn for the two meetings where she, if that does not violate the Brown Act and kind of get anything that she wants to show with the committee and report back after the meeting to fill her in for those two dates, if that would kind of be helpful for December. I was going to maybe suggest that too and because the videos of the two meetings will be accessible the day after the meeting, maybe it's something that you can view Jocelyn and then maybe meet with Justine to, you know, submit any comments or concerns so that she can report out for you or, you know, you can submit them to send them to me and I can, we can, you know, disseminate that information to the committee. Yeah, that sounds good. And then wait, Anna, saying that Wednesdays was difficult. Anna, where are you on that? I'm sorry, that was an accident. I forgot to just press to raise hand off again. So I apologize. That's great. And then Karen, did you have something you wanted to say? You had your hand up. Yes, thank you. I just wanted to go back to Logan's comment that it's the first and third Wednesdays. Is that correct or is it every other Wednesday because the first and third isn't necessarily every other Wednesday? So can we get that clarified tonight? That would be great. Thank you. Yes, sir. Our discussion was every other Wednesday. I don't know if it's, I don't know how many meetings we would miss if we just went first and third Wednesdays. So that's really up to the committee and up to the chair. I'm fine with that. I just wanted to clarify what it was. So thank you, Sue. I appreciate that. I think it's going to be easier to remember every other. Right. Yeah. Well, let's say we can make a calendar and send it out so that you have it. Plus you'll be getting the meeting invite like you did for tonight's meeting through so that you can put it on your calendars also. Okay. Mark. Thanks very much. I was wondering, and I don't, as long as Jocelyn already said something works, I don't want to put it behind the line, but Jen Close had a good idea is if it's the two meetings in December, is it possible that we could adjust the times so that the December attendance was okay? That's just one idea I wanted to consider. Jocelyn, are there different times that you could make and then could we see if anybody has a conflict with those times for the two December meetings? Well, for me, probably three to five or either just like seven to nine afterwards, but I feel like that's either too early, people are still working or it's probably too late. So. Okay. Jocelyn, what's the solution that Jocelyn came up with? Correct? Okay. Okay. Good. So I think we have our schedule at least started. And then we, what else did we need to do tonight? Were we going to remind me, Sue, what? I had hoped we could have some discussion on the work plan. I realized though we're getting late, we only have maybe 10 or 15 minutes. So maybe, you know, maybe what would be good for us and helpful for us staff is, is there, where would you like to start? And, you know, we heard earlier, you know, the possibility of maybe we should start early on with discussion of DEI in terms of that being a lens for us to be considering. I don't know that we'll be able to get speakers here in at that time, but I can certainly, we can certainly try to do that, if that's where the committee would like to start. Or would you like to have, I just want to make sure that next, the next meeting is helpful and that we are moving forward. So I hesitate just kind of putting off the work plan discussion, but maybe we have the diversity equity inclusion discussion and then a broader work plan discussion. People can think about at least those 12 items, think about whether there are more items that you would like to consider. In the meantime, we will start to try to get speakers. The order in which we take up topics may also depend on when speakers are available. So I open that up. Renesto, you have your hand up. Yeah, thank you. I think that some of these items are relatively clear as far as what their intent is. Others are a little bit more ambiguous. For example, we talked about climate change. What does that mean? The excise tax. So maybe spend some time to get some kind of clarity on what each of these items means. That way we'll be better able to prioritize and identify what kind of things we want to tackle first. Karen? I would like to early on talk about DEI and even equity principles that we're going to use during this process. I think that would be very helpful. And then the second thing is I would also like to know what items on the list that the council provided can only be done in the charter and what can be done via an ordinance, code change, whatever. And I think that would be, for me, that would be very helpful to know where we really need to focus. Scott? Well, actually, Karen just that was the question that Karen's question was mine. But the other one that maybe has a starting point for the next meeting because I don't think we're going to be able to tackle all this tonight. I'm looking at the charter, you know, section 10 and 11 basically are the two sections that in the existing charter deal with, you know, the citizen task force diversity. Maybe we start just as an organizational thing sort of start to have everybody review those sections and then taking from that kind of go through that list and tear because I could see that that would tear off into council issues of salary, blah, blah, blah. And maybe that'll give a structure that sort of will help prioritize us in terms of where we go with it. Does that make sense? It does. It's like do our homework in advance. That does make sense. Jen? Yeah, I was going to suggest that I know that you would prefer not to have subcommittees and I agree generally, but I was just going to suggest that to accelerate and get a head start on the DEI conversation that a subcommittee be formed for that just since we seem that seems to be something we want to address first before we get to anything else. So I just want to make that suggestion. Ms. Gallardo? I mean, part of what why we wanted why we want to keep the committees together is in keeping with the DEI lens. So, you know, I understand there's a lot of information and that's where again, bring your personal expertise to the conversation. But I definitely agree that we can start there and use that lens, but I'm concerned about breaking apart to do it isn't in keeping with that. So, okay. Adriana? So still on, I think on that note, I was just wondering, does the city employ any staff that has any knowledge or expertise on this subject that could probably facilitate this process without breaking up the group or at least to get started on this? I'm just curious. Yes, we do. And what's two people in particular coming to my mind? I mean, I've already reached out to one is Sakura Shields, who is our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Equal Opportunity Officer in our HR department. And then also Magali Teyes, who is heads up our Community Engagement Division. Both are experienced and knowledgeable and could start that conversation. So, I was going to reach out to, I'll reach out to both of them to see if they might be available next week. I mean, in two weeks on the first. And then also, we'll look at the Oakland's policy. And if folks have other resources that they think would be helpful, go ahead and send them to me and to Rob. And we'll work on putting something together. Logan? Thanks, Patty. Yeah, so I definitely support Jasmine's recommendation to start with DEI, the Lens, to do all this work in. And so the first meeting would be ideal. If we can't get someone scheduled, let's try to get that as early as possible. And then the second thing I think that would be helpful, and I can't recall who said this, is getting a summary of what the meaning, the intent was maybe behind the council placing those items on our list, the 12 items. And I know that that might be difficult to interpret, but maybe just a video from the meeting or something that you could do, Sue, or just a short summary on each issue. And then I think the third thing for efficiency would be deciding what we don't want to work on. So getting that stuff out of the way, and I'm just hypothetically, if we're not going to do a short term rental ordinance and put that on the ballot for folks, and we're going to direct that back to the council, you know, getting that out of the way first, I think would help with our workflow. Yeah, I think that, and again, in keeping with both Karen and Scott's thinking, finding out what can only be done in the charter, looking at this list, a lot of what some of the items on this list have already been handled or are in process of being handled by ordinance. So again, just trying to get that clarity of what's really important to be focusing on. So definitely agree with that. And the video is available to watch for committee members, you know, you get a sense of why those items might have been on there and the struggle of whether to pass them on to us, all intact 12 or to have limited them. And there was a little bit of differences on that. So might be interesting to watch that video. And Karen, you have another comment. I just wanted to do an FYI that videos are on the charter review website. Oh, they are. You don't even have to go scrolling through all of the council items. So great. They are there and they're helpful. I was thinking that's also for the public's benefit to just get a summary. So they don't have to go back and watch that whole video. Yeah, I definitely think we need to summary, but just for the if you want to watch the whole thing, it's available to be watched. But I think your suggestion is in keeping with what's sort of narrow the focus on what's been done, what's most important, what can only be done by the charter. So anything else? I'll go ahead and repeat what we've got so far, at least what I've heard so far. Mr. Walsh is going to be submitting Oakland's accounting policy, equity policy. So you're getting that. Chair, I already forward it to Dina. You're fast. Okay, let's check. And the committee would like, it doesn't have to be this next meeting, but soon what the actual language was on the ballot so that we have an idea of what we're aiming for here. I'm hearing agreement that we begin with the diversity equity principles and that there's some staff that can give us some information about that so we can begin to develop that as our lens for everything else. And then we'll be looking at what cannot be done in the charter, what the summary is of of just the idea of what has already been accomplished by ordinance or might soon be accomplished by ordinance so we can decide what we don't want to work on. And then Mr. Bartley's suggestion that we all take a look at section 10 and 11 of the charter to have an ability to use that information as we have those discussions. What a cute little dog you have, Jen. So anything else that we and I do see a hand raised. Can you tell me who it is? Oh, it's Ron. There's Ron. I was wondering just in terms of efficiency, if we could have and the agenda items, maybe as much information as the staff has and provided to us in an email by one week prior to the meeting. And then what we could do is send you our thoughts so that when we come to a meeting, it will already you'll already know what we plan where we each come with our own ideas and expertise. I'm I'll respond. Yes, in an ideal world, we'll we'll try to get out information as early as possible. I would vote that for next week, next week's the holiday week, I'm going to be out for much of the week. And I know Rob will be out at least some of the week, I believe. But we will get as much as we can to you in advance. And we will try to always make that a practice to get materials to you. It'll be through the have to talk with Stephanie and Dina in terms of we would normally provide those materials through the agenda posting, because we need to when we provide materials to the committee, under the Brown Act, we need to be able to provide them to the public at the same time. So that's going to be a little bit a little bit difficult. I also recognize that because we're meeting every other week, unless we have the schedule really worked out going forward, we're going to be jamming right after the meeting to prepare for the for the following meeting. So we will do our best to try to get things out as early as possible. We'll also talk to Stephanie and Dina about this week we did this for this meeting we did post the agenda on the Friday. And maybe what we'll do going forward is to try to post that sooner. But I know that City Clerk's Office is already posting quite a few different agendas. But I agree. Ideally, so we deport with that as well, try to figure out the best. Yeah, the sooner that we have the information and the sooner, like you said, Mr. Miller, we can submit questions so that the city attorneys are prepared to give us those answers. That's definitely our most efficient method to the degree that we can do it. Exactly. Thank you. And then Annie, you have a question. Actually, I have more of a comment related to the last comment. I don't I don't know that we should be like sending in emails to state how we feel about I think that it's something that we need to hash out a little bit. And people will have other opinions that we all need to listen to and take into account. And I feel like that's part of what we're supposed to be doing. But maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, I agree. It's not just your opinions or your thoughts already, because we want to be sharing those within the meeting with each other, submitting questions is really where where I'm going with that. So yeah, our thinking needs to be shared, because we'll influence each other as we should as a committee. And then Rob, yes. I just wanted to add that if there are communications directed to Sue, if you'd be kind enough to see me on those, it'll expedite the process as well. So she doesn't have to relay it in turn to me. And that also goes for if any committee members are sending anything to the clerk's office, please make sure you include me as well. Me, Sue, and Dina, but so that we all have the same information and don't have to forward everything. And I would include Rob on that as well, include anything that you send sent to both Rob and to me. And then likewise, if it's going to the clerk's office and send to Rob and to me as well. I'm going to have a hard time remembering that. Can somebody put those things in an email to us, like when sending something to you? Which group do we send it to? Thank you, Ron. I would have the same problem. Maybe if there's an email group on the website, for instance, then we would just now send it to all of you. Yes, that would be great. Annie, did you have another question or you just didn't put your hand down? No, I just didn't put my hand. Thank you. Okay, so I don't have any other questions. Sue, anything else you need clarified? No, I think that that's very helpful. We will put together a list of the topics clarifying the topics and also what can be done only by charter and what can be done by ordinance or resolution. We will try to get the prior ballot language out for folks and then we will get, we will also try to get the diversity, equity, inclusion speakers lined up to talk about equity principles and using DEI as a lens to look at all of our other topics. It sounds like our next meeting will involve that in particular as a starting point and then some working together about starting to prioritize or eliminate or add things. Yes, great. Okay, anything else before I ask the public if they want to add anything? I'm not saying anything. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and ask if the public wishes to make any comments on this particular item. If you do and you're on Zoom, you need to do the raise hand picture. If you're calling in by phone, you have to dial star nine and that can let me know if there's anybody waiting this week. Chair, I'm not seeing any hands being raised from the attendee side and we've received no voice messages or emails on this item. Thank you. So with that, the next item, we have no subcommittee reports. We have no written or electronic communications and right now no future agenda items or pertinent. With that, I'm going to adjourn our first exactly on time of the chart. Thank you all for participating. It's going to be a lot of work, but it's going to be really exciting and fun, hopefully. Thank you for taking on the role of the chair, Patty. I'm sure it's not easy. Thank you, Chair Siscoe. Happy to be chair. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Patty. Nice to meet everybody.