On September 14, 2015, the PPC received a 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 a report 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:
- County Probation Officer
- Public Defender
- District Attorney
- Sheriff-Coroner
- Health Services Director
- Superior Court representative
- County Police Chief's Association representative
- Mt. Diablo Unified School District representative
- Antioch Unified School District representative
- West Contra Costa Unified School District representative
- (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)
- Mental Health Representative
- 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 (see Attachment A). Subsequently, the CAO's office administered a procurement process to select an organization 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 work, 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. The Racial Justice Task Force initiated its work on April 5, 2017. In order to fill the vacancy on the Task Force, staff recommended and the Board of Supervisors approved Tamisha Torres-Walker as the replacement for Edith (Jovana) Fajardo in CBO Seat 3 on June 13, 2017. Cardenas Shackelford was also appointed as the replacement for Bob Sanchez for the Antioch Unified School District seat.
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.). In order to expedite a replacement, staff recommends that Leslie Takahashi be appointed to CBO Seat 4. Ms. Takahashi is the lead minister at the Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church and a resident of Martinez. The proposed composition of the Racial Justice Task Force is included in Attachment B.