Verbal Status Update by the Police Reform and Racial Equity Steering Committee and City Staff.  (City Manager)
So our man, Jolene Rae and Sheryl Taylor are all are three of the four members of the steering committee. The fourth is Christine Chilcott. And she could not make it for this meeting, but they are going to be providing the city council just with an overview of what the process has been, what they're doing and what their plan for public involvement and public input into the recommendations are as we move into the new year of 2021. It's more of a verbal report. There was a question by a speaker, and so I'll just answer that right now about the public not having the recommendation from one of the subcommittees. The recommendations of the subcommittees did not go to the city council or the public at this point, based on timing and based on the Sunshine Ordinance. We did not get those recommendations until less than 12 days prior to the council meeting. And based on that, I've held those in order to not violate the Sunshine Ordinance. They can, after this meeting, either be distributed to the council. And then and then that will be a part of the public process. I'm going to leave that to the steering committee. Whether they want to do that or whether whether they want to wait until closer to the council meeting in the next year. But they can go into that. We can answer those questions. So just for clarity, you heard the council does not have those recommendations and nor does the public because of the Sunshine Ordinance. And based on that, those came forward to my office less than 12 days prior to this council meeting. All right. Thank you, Mr. Levitt. And I would also note that we have with this our interim police chief, Randy Finn. So welcome, Jason, and welcome to our steering committee members who I know have been hard at work well since the summer. Right. So we've got Ms.. Jolene, right. Cheryl Taylor, maybe camera shy or maybe getting here, whatever you like is fine. But we and we are very appreciative for your work and I am going to turn the floor over to you to proceed in any way you want to starting and just in mute yourselves. Are you able to mute? Yes. Can you hear me now? Yeah, that's perfect. Great. Hi. Hi. My name is Alfonso Mance, and I'd like to start by saying thank you to you, Ashcraft, and to the other members of the Council for allowing us this opportunity to speak to you and give you an update we've been working on. So together with Ms.. Taylor and Ms.. Right. We are three of the four members of the Police Reform and Racial Equity Steering Committee. In August of this year, the city approached us about organizing the effort to organize the community to make recommendations regarding reforms to policing in Alameda. And since then, we've been hard at work trying to determine the way to be most effective and make the best record recommendations. It's been an exciting process. We've put a lot of hours into it and we've learned quite a bit. And as city manager Levitt said, we have at this point made some preliminary or even preliminary recommendations. They are still a work in progress. And we're here tonight just to give you an update on where we are, tell you what our process is, and to answer any questions that you may have. The we've got about 50 members in the committees and they've been working incredibly hard. We've got some very talented folks. I think it's very important to note at the beginning that we are all residents of Alameda and we're all just civilians, so to speak, laypeople. We don't have any particular expertize in this area. So an important part of what we've been doing is educating ourselves and becoming familiar with policing in general, and specifically and most importantly, policing in Alameda and Chief Fin and other members of LAPD have been extremely helpful in giving us some insight into the way they do things. And of course, we've done other outside research as well. We've had speakers come and speak to us and educate us. You know, particularly and that has been also on a subcommittee of various subcommittees, have had different speakers come in, but people have been very hard at work and I want to thank them all for the work that they've done. So it's important to note, and this is probably really obvious by looking at us that. The four of us were members of the steering committee. Are people of color, specifically black folks. And that is something that when we look at this issue that we bring with us, and it's an important part of what colors our view of the of the situation. We are also residents of Alameda. We are devoted to the city of Alameda. And we want to see we appreciate the job that the police do. We want to see it be a situation where and what of the things we say in our mission statement is that we want it to be a place where everyone feels protected and everyone feels welcome. And that's something that. In the past, it historically has been missing from policing. So with regard to what we've been working on, I think we've got to the philosophy of the committee. We're committed to the idea of reforming aspects of the way in which policing is done in the city of Alameda. But we hope to do it in a collaborative way. We understand the policing is important to our community, and we respect the Army, the police department's commitment to the safety and security of our community. We do believe that the manner of policing can be improved. For the reasons I just stated, so that all people will feel safe, secure and respected. As I said, with a few exceptions, we're laypeople. So we are doing this because of our love of the community and work. And we're starting from scratch. What we have, what our knowledge is that of what it is like to live in Alameda. And what we're trying to do right now is add to our add to our knowledge what it means to police in Alameda and the needs of the community on. With regard to the subcommittees and how they were selected. The city approached us in August about forming the steering committee, and we put out a call for volunteers. We received about 250 responses, which was pretty overwhelming in the responses. A number of people included detailed background information. Some did not. We felt a sense of urgency as well as as the city did as well. And as a result of that, we use the information that we had to make a solid make to make our selections. We select about 50 folks, and that was based on the fact that we had formed or envisioned five different subcommittees, and we wanted to limit those subcommittees to about ten different people. I guess it's just reviewing best practices on. The common knowledge is that it's seven is sort of the ideal meeting size, you know, give or take a few people. So we figured with ten we would get the benefit of the diverse experiences of those people, the diverse knowledge of, but also keep it small enough to be workable. And so approximately right now we have approximately 8 to 10 people on each of the committees. We let everyone put down what their first, second and third choices were. And we were able to give most people their first choices, and some people were willing to. Since the process has begun, some people have shifted from one committee to the other because it turns out that their interests are more aligned with that other committee. The subcommittees meet at least weekly. We, most of us, have standing meetings, most of the subcommittees, and additionally, of course, we communicate as necessary between those formerly scheduled meetings to get the work done. The larger group, the group as a whole meets once or twice a month as needed. The Steering Committee. The four of us meet at least once a week. We often meet with the city manager as well as other members of the city staff. And on a few occasions we've met with the chairs of the subcommittees to make sure that we are you know, we're constantly recalibrating and refocusing as we learn more information and our priorities might shift and also based on input that we get as individuals from members of the community on. As we have said a couple of times, it's community run the chairs or people who are chosen from the city of Alameda. They were chosen by the subcommittees themselves. And so it is representative. As the City Council is no doubt aware and was referenced in a couple of the public comments. We recently completed three nights of informational meetings with the leadership of APD Chief Ben attended and Captains McMullen and Emmet, who attended all three of the meetings which comprised about 7 hours. All told, they answered dozens and dozens of questions and the meetings were very successful. The almost all of the committee members were able to attend all three of the meetings, and the meetings were also shown on YouTube and in each of them has received over a hundred views. And as I said before, while it did answer many of the questions that we had, it also highlighted the need for continued communication between the subcommittees and APD, and also just the value of smaller scale interactions in that large format. We were able to ask to ask questions and get answers, but it was sort of a one way communication rather than. A give and take, which I think would be very beneficial for the committees, committees, and also for the officers and for APD. An important aspect of the process is, of course, making sure that it's public. And as I said earlier, it is comprised completely of members of the community of Alameda, members who volunteered to be involved. And we felt that once we selected those members, it was critical that our initial meetings and discussions and the workshops that we did were a safe space for people to explore their own biases, privilege, experience and expectations of the process. You know, it can be very difficult to have real productive discussions on the issue of race and the issues involving race in a public forum. So what we wanted to you know, the committees, each of the committees, people to find their voice, you know, in the sort of a more private space so that the debate could be free and so that everyone was able to you know, obviously, I think we can all agree that diverse opinions engender the best result. And so this way we were able to be sure that everyone and we do have a number of people with differing opinions, was able to get their voice heard so that we come up with the best preliminary recommendations. Now, that being said, the process obviously cannot be successful without further public input and traditionally. That's one of the things that's done is sort of by a comment period. And sometimes what happens with that is that, you know, you have the folks who have the time and the wherewithal to. Come in and make those public comments. And that's often people who are people of means. And these are the folks, you know, who have the loudest voices. And these are the folks who end up benefiting from polices from from from policing. We're hoping that in. Opening this up to the public. We can hear the voices of those people who have traditionally been policed because those are the most important voices for us to hear when it comes to reforming police policing. I think the police are pretty effective. The Alameda police are very, very effective at. Performing the traditional roles of police, you know, of, you know, keeping crime down, responding quickly. And what we want to focus on more is, you know, those are obviously areas that the police are undeniable experts in. But we want to focus more on is the interaction with the communities. As I said earlier, in focusing on this process and in moving forward, we want to make this a collaborative process. And that means in this instance, making sure the police are able to listen and able to hear the voices of the police populations. So what does that mean that the public process needs to look like? Well, we will be submitting, obviously, our recommendations and our tentative recommendations, these draft recommendations to the public for evaluation. And it's our expectation, actually our hope that as a result of doing that, the opportunity for public comment will result in revisions and improvements. In addition to that, I think it's necessary in order to institute long lasting change and to improve policing in Alameda, that we create an environment in which the police are able to have a continuing conversation between the police and the public who are on the receiving end of that policing. One of the big topics that's come up repeatedly for us is the idea of procedural justice. There was there's a Yale Law School professor named Tom Tyler and who wrote a book Why People Obey the Law in 1990. And what he determined in his research was that people don't obey the law because they fear punishment. They obey the law because they believe that the authorities have the right to tell them what to do, because they believe it's legitimate. And when he further found them, what and what subsequent studies have found is that what gives the law legitimacy is how people are treated. This is a quote from him. What people actually pay attention to when assessing behavior of people in legal authority is not how good they are in reducing crime or whether they get a ticket . What people care about is how they're treated and the particular ways in which they're treated. So I think in order for our process to be successful, we have to open up a discussion between the police and the public, particularly those populations that are traditionally policed and the police themselves. So that, you know, we all obviously necessarily work on stereotypes, we work on generalizations. Alameda is a relatively small city and it's a city in which, you know, the residents of the city are very involved. People in Alameda know each other. They know what's happening in the city. And so we have an opportunity to bring these groups together, to have these groups here, each other, to create different understandings and to increase that level of respect and to concentrate on that level of respect. So that way, procedural justice, actual justice in the procedure, in the way that the interaction occurs regardless of the outcome. Is something that's traditionally been a concept. We can make it a reality. We have the means to make it work and we have the desire to make it work. And I think that's very exciting thing. I'd like to say in closing, just thank you for allowing us to begin this process. Thank you very much for including us in this process. And thank you for giving us the opportunity this evening to let you know where we are. And I'll return the floor to the mayor and Jolene and Cheryl and I are happy to answer any questions that you might out. Thank you, Mr. Mats, for your comments. And I would also say to the three of you on the steering committee who are here and to Ms.. Christine Chilcott, who couldn't join us, thank you for saying yes when the city approached you and asked you to be the steering committee. I think it was a huge labor of love and devotion to your community at a very, very fraught time that is still all around. Is that it? Just I am grateful, just hearing your description of what has gone on, some of your ideas for purchasing your report. Ms.. Right. Ms. Taylor anything you'd like to add? Oh, I mean, it's just been such a joy. Working with this group. I've just been super thankful. So I have to shout out to the steering committee and all of our subcommittees. We see you and we appreciate you. Yeah. And just to echo that, I'd also like to extend appreciation to the staff. I think there was a tremendous amount of work that they did in support of this effort that is continuing. It is ongoing. I think, as Al Mance mentioned, that there are a lot of questions that came up in all of the the during the Speaker series, which was very informative, very enlightening, but just a huge shout out to the staff. Thank you for recognizing the staff. Ms.. Taylor and I watched all three of them police those sessions in, and it was intense. And I, I commend Chief Dan and the captains who were involved in all of you for the good work and the questions that were submitted and the answers. And and for anyone who has had a chance to watch them look them up on YouTube, actually, you can get to them from the city's website. So with that and chief fan, is there anything you might like to say? Well, we've we've got you here. Here he is. By. The evening. Good evening. Thank you, Mayor and council and for committee members. Thank you for working. With us and for a process that I think has been informative for us as well. And. I personally appreciate that. It's been a very thoughtful process that we're we're doing a lot of hard work here. You're doing a lot of hard work because I think that's what's that's what's important. And this is a big topic, not just locally, but nationally. And that's something that we want to wade into without a lot of this type of work. So thank you. Thank you to your fan councilmembers. Comments. Questions of many of our guests. One sister. Oh, they're usually such a shy and retiring group. Really. Councilmember Odie I don't have much to add because I thought that was a very thorough update and I appreciate all of the hard work that all of our members of the community are putting in, and especially you three, for preparing for this presentation. You all get a chance to see what it's like to make policy. And, you know, maybe one day I'll switch places with one of you and you'll be on the dais. And, you know, I can I can be on a community committee that you guys formed. So I appreciate. Appreciate the update. And I'm glad to hear that that we're moving forward in a positive direction. Thank you. Thanks, Councilmember Odie. Did I see your hands go up and count them? Because would you like to head the council this year? Leavitt. City Manager. Mr. LEAVITT. Yes. And I meant to say this at the beginning, but I definitely want to say that I do appreciate everything that the steering committee has done, as well as all the committee members, all 50 plus committee members. I think they've put a lot of time, a lot of work in thus far. And I also appreciate what the police staff has done as far as getting information as much as we can to the committee. So I think it's been a very cooperative environment. Not everyone always agrees, like they have said on everything, but I think people have been very respectful of each other and of each other's opinions. And I think that that is going to take this process a long way and you will see a lot of hopefully positive results from it. Thank you, Mr. then Councilmember Geller. I just want to thank everyone for all the time that they're putting into this. And I was one of the. The views on the YouTube videos for for each of the sessions. And I learned a lot as a council member. And I think a lot of the questions were really, you know, it's easy to ask a lot of questions. It's hard to really kind of steer things in a direction of getting information that's going to actually be illuminating to the process. And so just I know it was it seemed like it was a very intense and somewhat sometimes awkward format. But I think that there was a lot of information that came through, and it was very clear just from the questions that were being asked, that there was preliminary work that had been been done to really kind of develop themes in terms of where it looks like each of the committees are going and what you're focusing on. And I just also want to recognize that this is such there are so many different elements of what you could be looking at. But it seems even though there's differing opinions, it seems like there's a commitment to really focus on a few elements. And so it's interesting to watch this process as it moves forward. And I look forward to the recommendations that you'll be making to us. And I feel, you know, I'm happy that we're finally going through this exercise as a community and that it is being community led. And so I just want to thank you all for it to be community led. We have to have volunteers like yourselves to put in the time. So thank you so much for for doing this for everybody here in Alameda. And I'll just echo it. My colleague said that I'm always so inspired when I start meeting and interacting with members of the community because we have so many smart, talented people and you're all extremely busy and I know you're working from home while your kids are in the next room, or maybe just down at the other end of the dining room table. I don't know how you all do it, but you managed to squeeze in community service on top of all that. I'm really grateful and I want to hear any other accounts of comments. And then I'm also going to ask city manager Eric Levitt and I know Assistant City Manager Jerry Bowden had a big part in this, too. Just tell us about next steps, what they will look like, that public process, how will how will that take shape? And then real quickly, on the police, the sessions with the police, yes. Really thoughtful, tough, hard driving questions were asked and the police answered them. And I don't think they had the questions ahead of time or anything. It was it just in in real time. And I think I'm pretty impressed. I'm not sure that every department would have would have done that and then that, as candidly as we all did on both sides of the equation. So thank you for that. Mr. LEVIN. Mr.. You want to tell us about maybe dates that you have in mind moving forward? And then I know a couple council members haven't been heard from yet. So I'll start and then Jerry can add he may have more detail than than I have. We are tentatively planning on having the reports back to the council, the first meeting in February timing wise, and that you could be giving direction as far as how you want to move forward on the the recommendations. I think we're going to be there, the the anticipation and we're actually having a meeting later this week with the steering committee as far as public input process and engagement. And so we're trying to start that off before it comes to you in February, but probably have some continuation after the February meeting. I don't we haven't had all the specifics yet because that meeting is actually scheduled for later this week to discuss the details. But I don't know if Jerry might be able to add anything or if Joline, Alfonzo or Cheryl have anything to add to that. I mean, I could certainly just talk there's some talking points of things that we've discussed as options that would be helpful. I'm just going to go down our list here. You know, we were certainly thinking about conducting more proactive public engagements, which could include, you know, surveys getting the word out through community based organizations, social service providers , churches presenting to other relevant commissions and hosting more virtual community forums just to get some more organic, you know, feedback. I think one of the biggest things that we are really bumping up. Against in this is that that the communities that are most affected and that are most. Policed are sometimes the communities that have the least access to technology, to being able to to be on these zooms. So just really kind of thinking of how. We can reach people where. They are. I think that's something we really want to focus on. Thank you. Thank you for this observation. Anybody else? Steering committee, Jerry Boden and then Vice Spirit. That's what it is next. The only thing I would add is that we want to be cognizant and conscious of the holidays. So we're really trying to. We want that public engagement in that public input with the process. But we also wanted to make sure that we didn't drop it on folks for just a limited amount of time through the holidays. So you can expect that the more robust public engagement to happen in January and possibly even into February, but starting in January, that's when we'd like to to make that that stronger push. But we want the recommendations to be out in December so that folks can digest them in between in between different festivities and then and then engage in January. So more to come on that as city manager Leavitt said, we're meeting later this week. And so I just wanted to put that out there and let the community know that they'll be there will be opportunity, even though the recommendations are out. Great. Thank you for that, Mr. Burton. Bass player. Not quite. Great. I want to express my great thanks to Mr. Mance and Mr. Taylor and in absentia Mr. Lockhart as well for your service. I think the work that's being done in the forums that have been held have been really, really great. So thank you for that. I have a couple of just kind of process questions that I thought were best asked of the steering committee because, you know, I was a big supporter of the idea of this being community led. And I think over the last few months there have been questions that as a council member I've received about why aren't you? Why aren't you me, the council doing X or Y? And the answer is being, well, we're kind of waiting to hear from the committees and tying off of Councilmember Vella's appreciation, which, you know, of, of trying to really focus in on some very important key issues and dove deep on those. I'm wondering if has the steering committee considered kind of scope and time like how long you think you see this process going for you? Is it a is it an infinite thing that we'll address everything or more so? And I know you didn't sign up for that, but. Or is it more of a you know, hopefully in the next six months, we will come out with, you know, 15 recommendations. And then anything else is things other people get to work with. I'm curious if you've kind of thought about that and given any thought to, are there issues that might not focus into the the mission that the steering committee has put together that might be good for at least putting out a list for the future for or for another group or for the council to address more independently or anything like that. I don't know if that question answers. Hey, that was a very lie. Was written as one sentence on my computer. Okay. We're sorry. And Mr. Manson unmuted himself. So we're going to drop that right in your your lap. So, you know, it's it's in terms of the timeline, we've been, you know, one of the things we've been short on, one of the reasons we've been trying to move quickly is because we're trying to sort of tie things into when budget discussions occur because, you know, it seems like some of these things are going to definitely take some money. You know, we're doing it a little bit differently than some other areas because it is community led. So the education process has taken a little while for us to get up to speed and we're still never going to be subject matter experts. But we are thinking this is something that will. The the the. The assignment that was given will be completed in the first half of 2021. We're hoping to make recommendations to you sometime in March or April that can hopefully be addressed and implemented sooner rather than later. From what we've seen so far, it does seem as though this is what it would be beneficial. This is an ongoing project, not necessarily in the form of the 50 person committee, but it seems as though there should be a smaller sort of subcommittee that or commission that continues continues on because we're going to just making recommendations . But in order to ensure that those recommendations are implemented or to encourage the council to implement those recommendations, it would be it seems to make sense to have some continuity. So I think that's I believe I'm asking the questions. If there are any other parts. Vice Chair please let me know. No, I think that's great. So it's I think yeah. What I hear you saying is your, you're, you're, you're on a kind of time limited subject, limited to try to get some things in for the budget. But there's probably also a need for retooling some form of what's happening to ensure that there's some consistency and some ongoing . The knowledge doesn't get lost. We just start a whole new group of people in June of next year or something like that, and that's the kind of that will be a next step after those recommendations. Yeah. That sounds fair. Okay. So I think the one question I'm a little curious about, just as we head towards the June meeting, is whether or not the steering committee or any of the subcommittees have looked into identifying kind of a policy document or a policy statement that really defines you have a great mission statement. I'm wondering if we've looked at do we have a policy statement that actually defines what the role of policing in law enforcement in Alameda is? One of the things that in some of my study that I've been I've come across is this kind of awareness that actually a lot of police departments across the country aren't actually grounded in any sort of real policy statement. It comes more from just a historical they do law enforcement and public safety. But what how that is defined and I'm wondering if that's a part of the work that you're doing in terms of coming forward, as is looking at that larger, you know, how what is the work that's being done? Where where is that getting placed in in how do you how do you take your mission statement of safety for all and turn that into kind of an actionable policy that that is adopted by the city? I'm curious, is there a place that that's happening or do you see that as something that once the recommendations come forward, might be a next step for a council on a policy body? We haven't come up with a specific policy statement for regard to that. That is an interesting idea. We our recommendations, you know, we've got the five subcommittees. One of them is unbundling, which makes some recommendations with regard to, you know, sort of addresses the issue of these are the areas we want police to concentrate on. These are areas that we believe can be handled by different agencies. So that. Sort of, you know, sets up a loose definition. And I think a lot of the recommendations will sort of make that clear. It might be useful for us to come up with the policy statement. I'm not sure we saw that as our role just because, you know, we we are not the police, but. But I think that it's something that we should look into and we'll have discussions about that because I. Think it's something we could center in some. Of these public. Discussions, you. Know, as we're meeting with the. Community to kind of develop what that is. Mm hmm. Yeah, I think that's true. I think it's part of our mission statement in terms of what's going to make people feel as though, you know, welcome and safe and protected, you know, a definition of what policing is. Goes to that end. As a council member, I think I would welcome whatever input the steering committee, the subcommittees bring to us. And I think probably at the end of the day, council will make that final decision. But to the extent that you all are able to work with the police, I think that that would be you could probably make a lot of a lot of progress towards bringing us that recommendation. I think that's a good idea. Vice Mayor. Anyway, thank. You. And obviously, as a non Bronek thing, I will I will let them decide how they're going to how they're going to work this together. Again, I'll just add that that was my last big question. I'm interested to hear if we have any public comment. But again, I just I appreciate I appreciate this much in this conversation. I know we're I knew we were in good hands before I saw it. And seeing this conversation confirms all that belief and I will just echo my colleagues. Great. Thanks for all the time. I know that you've put in a lot of time on this and it's probably bigger than you ever thought. And it's I mean, yeah, herculean really is not is not the wrong word for what you've been asked to do. And I appreciate that you have continued this long. Thank you. Thank you. She said. I don't know. I keep thinking I'm seeing your hand go up out of the corner of my eye. Did I see your hand go up? No. Probably cause I'm taking notes here. Okay. Okay. I'm a note taker with you. All right. That's good. I am. It's not easy conducting a meeting from a screen. Sometimes I get the names of my own council colleagues wrong if they're in front of me. But. Okay, um, Councilmember Desai, I don't think we've heard from you. Great man. Yes, for sure. Well, first of all, thank you very much to each and every one of you, as well as all the different individuals who are participating on the subcommittees. I know that is taking up a lot of your time, and I'm quite sure that you're having to deal with a lot of perspectives. So I appreciate the work that you're doing on behalf of the city of Alameda in improving our police force. I appreciate that deeply. The thing that I look forward to certainly is your findings. What are what is it that your findings and also your recommendations and to see how the two are related? You know, I think there's a lot of things that we can do to improve our police force. Alameda for the most part, as a as a safe city. But but, you know, we shouldn't sit on the laurels. I think this is clearly not just a national issue, but it's also a local issue in terms of improving our police force. And and we can certainly do our our play our role in doing that. So we appreciate you helping us in that regard, each one of each and one of you. So I look forward to, you know, your findings and your recommendations. I think if I have one suggestion, it would be in terms of framing your findings and recommendations, it would be helpful to for me if I could understand what are the low hanging fruit issues and items, whereas a medium hanging fruit issues and items and what are the high hanging fruit issues and items? So that would be kind of helpful if we understand how you believe the community would like to frame some of the findings and recommendations. So thank you very much. Appreciate that. Councilmember Day So anything else from anybody at City Attorney San? Did you want to chime in with anything now? Members of the steering committee. City staff. Okay. Well, I and I should ask the city clerk, do we have any public speakers on this item? We we still do not have anyone that has raised their hand. Oh, we have one person that just raised their hand. Jane Garfinkel. Okay. Good evening, Mr. Garfinkel. All right. Several references were made to public participation and YouTube. And it's not clear to me how we see these YouTube meetings. It isn't clear how the public is participating. I understand that there are members of the public on the committees, but it's not clear to me if the larger public is participating in this process or how we might go about participating in having some input before a final report is submitted to the Council, which will then have a two week public presence, after which the council will vote yay or nay or maybe or whatever. So I'd like a little more information on these issues. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Garfinkle. Do we have any further public comment on this item? We do. One more. Treasurer Spencer. Good evening, Spencer. Evening. I would also be interested in knowing where the agendas are so that we can follow along during the Zoom meetings. If there are Zoom meetings, I don't recall seeing agendas for these meetings or if in fact it's something that is just tape recorded and then we can watch it after it occurs. You know, all of our other subcommittees I'm sorry, committees and commissions are publicly noticed for public participation. Thank you. Thank you. Spencer. Any further speakers? Spencer. Aaron Fraser. Good evening, Mr. Fraser. Good evening. I just wanted to take slight umbrage with one thing that the steering committee said. In particular, Mr. Mance, I am very, very grateful and very, very fortunate to work with the steering committee and they are all great. And I am so, so thankful to be working with them and with my other committee members. The one slight disagreement I would make with what he said was that we are starting from scratch and there are no experts on this committee. He is underselling himself, is underselling so many of our community members. And he's wrong. You know, there are many experts on this committee, including a person who spent, I believe, her entire career at APD. So and public defenders, former prosecutors, former probation agents, people who work with community service organizations. We have the steering committee assembled, a group of people from this community that demonstrates the depth and expertize that make Alameda a great place to live. And so, with all due respect to Mr. Mance, I disagree with that statement, but otherwise. Thank you. There is smart, talented in there, also humble. Anyway, further public speakers, Madam Clerk. Yes. They just put their hand down, so. No, no. Okay. Going once. Going twice. Okay. Well, huge. Thank you to all of you. And yes, they they are. I hope they convey that these are incredibly talented people, as are the members of the the steering committee is very lucky to have you all volunteering your time and your talent in the service of your community. Thank you. Yes. What? Yeah. I just wanted to make sure, because there was so much work that went into all of the questions. The YouTube is posted, I believe. And so if we could perhaps put have our staff put the link in the chat and get the information out there. There has been noticing of when the meetings were going to be posted. We posted it on our social media. We posted it in a few different places. You could watch the YouTube. Basically, the YouTube was allowing you to watch the meeting even live. It was there was a slight delay, I think. And so so there's different ways to watch these meetings and not all of them are. Our agenda is necessarily as we do for Brannock meetings because of the type of committee it is. But there have been a number of publicly noticed meetings, so I just want to make sure that that's noted. And there will be going forward. And I encourage all of you who haven't had a chance to view the YouTube video, go to the city's website, Alameda, S.A., type it in the the search box police YouTube videos or APD, and you will find them. There's three of them. And then settle into a comfortable chair because they are at least an hour. And I think the first one might have gone almost you to Mr. Barnes. Go ahead and mute yourself. I was just saying, I think that the first meeting is 3 hours and the other the second and third are 2 hours. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of time was put into it, so. All right. Well, with that, we're going to thank all of you will look forward to, you know, from here on out, we'll be hearing more about the public participation in different ways. And so we'll look forward to hearing more from you. But again, thank you so much to all of you. Take care. Stay safe. Bye bye, Chief. Thank you to you and your department. Okay, great. Everybody, we are okay. So we could call a quick break before we go to item six. Um, b b. Um. You know, let's, let's do that actually. We're going to come back at 905. Everybody quick break and we'll be back at 905. Probably want to mute while you're on. Hello, everybody. I a variety. I see. And you, Thomas? I feel like there is Randy Range there. Hey. Hey. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. Would you like me to read the title? Mayor of the City? Yeah, that would be great. Let's just make sure. Is Councilmember Thelma. And she is. She's there. She just read it. Yeah, I think we got it. We should probably vote. Yes. Yes. Okay, so let's. Let's resume the meeting then. It is a little after break. So we at six be. Recommendation to review and comment on association of Bay Area Governments bags Housing Methodology Committee's proposed methodology for distributing the regional housing needs allocation RENA among Bay Area cities and counties and proposed process meeting scheduled to update the city's general plan housing element for 2023 to 2031. Good evening and I want to welcome our planning building and transportation director Andrew Thomas this with us and also we are very honored to have with us from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Mr. Randy Rentschler, who is the Director of Legislative Affairs and communications for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Toll Authority and the Bay Area Association of Governments. He is also an Alameda resident. And so I just briefly I represent our city on the Association of Bay Area Governments, also known as a big which is the Nine Bay Area counties, which comprise, Randi, 110 cities, hundred and 901, 79 counties.