On April 7, 2015, the Board of Supervisors (BOS) received a letter from the Racial Justice Coalition requesting the review of certain topics within the local criminal justice system. The Public Protection Committee (PPC) generally hears all matters related to public safety within the County and was tasked with reviewing this referral by the BOS. On July 6, 2015, the PPC initiated discussion regarding this referral and directed staff to research certain items identified in the Coalition's letter to the BOS and return to the PPC in September 2015. Specifically, this was with regard to current workplace diversity training for county employees and current data on race in the County criminal justice system.
On September 14, 2015, the PPC received a comprehensive report from staff on current data related to race in the County criminal justice system, information regarding the County workplace diversity training and examples of diversity and implicit bias trainings from across the country. At the November 9, 2015 meeting, the PPC received a brief presentation reintroducing the referral and providing an update on how a 2008 Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) report compares with the statistical data presented at the September meeting. Following discussion, the PPC directed staff to return in December 2015, following discussions between the County Probation Officer, District Attorney and Public Defender, with thoughts about how to approach a new DMC study initiative in the County.
On December 14, 2015, the PPC received an update from the County Probation Officer, District Attorney and Public Defender on how best to proceed with an update to the 2008 DMC report; including, establishing a task force to review and update findings from the 2008 report. During the 2008 study, the concept of establishing a new task force was discussed; however, the task force was not formed at that time. The PPC directed the three departments above to provide a written project scope and proposed task force composition for final review.
On February 29, 2016, the PPC received a description of the proposed task force discussed at the December 2015 meeting from the County Probation Officer, District Attorney and Public Defender. The PPC accepted the proposed task force composition and clarified that the three school district seats should be represented by the West Contra Costa Unified School District, the Mount Diablo Unified School District and the Antioch Unified School District.
On April 12, 2016, the Board of Supervisors accepted a report and related recommendations from the Committee resulting in the formation of a 17-member Disproportionate Minority Contact Task Force composed of the following:
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County Probation Officer
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Public Defender
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District Attorney
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Sheriff-Coroner
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Health Services Director
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Superior Court representative
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County Police Chief’s Association representative
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Mount Diablo Unified School District representative
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Antioch Unified School District representative
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West Contra Costa Unified School District representative
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(5) Community-based organization (CBO) representatives (at least 1 representative from each region of the County and at least one representative from the faith and family community)
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Mental Health representative
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Public Member – At Large
Subsequently, a 7-week recruitment process was initiated to fill the (5) CBO representative seats, the (1) Mental Health representative seat and the (1) Public Member - At Large seat. The deadline for submissions was June 15, 2016 and the County received a total of 28 applications by the deadline. On June 27, 2016, the PPC met to consider making appointments to the (5) five CBO representative seats, the (1) one Mental Health representative seat and the (1) one Public Member - At Large seat. At the conclusion of the of the meeting, the PPC directed staff to set a special meeting for early August to consider the final composition of the entire (17) seventeen member Task Force once all names were received from County departments and school districts. In addition, the PPC recommended changing the name of the Task Force to the "Racial Justice Task Force," which was determined to be more reflective of the efforts to evaluate racial disparities in the local criminal justice system.On August 15, 2016, the Committee approved the nominations for appointment to the Task Force, including a recommendation that the Superior Court designee seat be a non-voting member of the Task Force at the request of the Superior Court.
On September 13, 2016 the Board of Supervisors approved the appointments to the Racial Justice Task Force (Attachment A). Subsequently, the CAO's office administered a procurement process to identify a firm to provide facilitation and data evaluation services to the Racial Justice Task Force. Resource Development Associates (RDA) was selected, and on February 14, 2017, the Board of Supervisors authorized a contract with RDA in the amount of $170,000 to provide services to the Task Force through June 30, 2018.
On March 13, 2017, prior to the commencement of the Task Force project, the CAO's office received a notice of resignation from Edith (Jovana) Fajardo. The County was also notified that the Antioch Unified School District representative (Bob Sanchez) had requested to be replaced by a colleague, Cardenas Shackelford.
Due to scheduling conflicts, the Public Protection Committee has not been able to meet since March 2017. However, the Racial Justice Task Force initiated its work on April 5, 2017; to date, there have been three meetings. In order to fill the vacancy on the Task Force in the most expeditious manner, staff recommends that Tamisha Torres-Walker replace Edith (Jovana) Fajardo in CBO Seat 3. Ms. Torres-Walker is the Founder & Executive Director of the Safe Return Project. She is a resident of Antioch and a member of the Racial Justice Coalition. Staff also recommends that Cardenas Shackelford be appointed as the replacement for Bob Sanchez for the Antioch Unified School District seat. Staff notes that another member appointed to the Task Force in CBO Seat 4 has not been able to attend Task Force meetings due to schedule conflicts (the Task Force meets the first Wednesdays of each month from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.). It may be necessary to consider a replacement for that seat as well.
The packet of applications received (by the original deadline) from applicants to the Racial Justice Task Force is included in Attachment B.