No immediate fiscal impact. Contract facilitation services related to the work of the proposed Task Force is scheduled to be bid out following review and approval by the Public Protection Committee. The Committee will hear its first report on the proposed Request for Proposals at the September 26, 2016 regular meeting.
On April 7, 2015, the Board of Supervisors received a letter from the Contra Costa County Racial Justice Coalition requesting review of topics within the local criminal justice system. The Public Protection Committee (the "Committee") generally hears all matters related to public safety within the County.
On July 6, 2015, the Committee initiated discussion regarding this referral and directed staff to research certain items identified in the Coalition's letter to the Board of Supervisors and return to the Committee in September 2015.
On September 14, 2015, the Committee received a comprehensive report from staff on current data related to race in the Contra Costa County criminal justice system, information regarding the County's Workplace Diversity Training and information regarding diversity and implicit bias trainings and presentations from across the country.
On December 14, 2015, the Committee received an update from the Public Defender, District Attorney and Probation Department on how best to proceed with an update to the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) report completed in 2008. At that time, the concept of establishing a new task force was discussed. The Committee directed the three departments above to provide a written project scope and task force composition to the Committee for final review.
At the November 9, 2015 meeting, the Committee received a brief presentation reintroducing the referral and providing an update on how the DMC report compares with the statistical data presented at the September meeting. Following discussion, the Committee 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 initiative in the County.
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
- Mount 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 (not a County employee)
- Public Member – At Large
Subsequently, a seven-week recruitment process was initiated to fill the (5) five CBO representative seats, the (1) one Mental Health representative seat and the (1) one Public Member - At Large seat. The deadline for submissions was June 15, 2016 and the County received a total of 28 applications.
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. The PPC nominated to following individuals to be considered by the full Board of Supervisors:
- CBO seat 1: Stephanie Medley (RYSE, AB109 CAB) (District I)
- CBO seat 2: Donnell Jones (CCISCO) (District I)
- CBO seat 3: Edith Fajardo (ACCE Institute) (District IV)
- CBO seat 4: My Christian (CCISCO) (District V, but works in District III)
- CBO seat 5: Dennisha Marsh (First Five CCC; City of Pittsburg Community Advisory Council) (District V)
- Mental Health: Christine Gerchow, PhD. (Psychologist, Juvenile Hall-Martinez) (District IV)
- Public (At-Large): Harlan Grossman (Past Chair AB 109 CAB, GARE participant) (District II)
During the meeting, it was noted that Ms. Christine Gerchow had an exceptional background in mental health that would be very beneficial to the Task Force discussions. Ms. Gerchow is a County employee in the Health Services department working in the juvenile hall. In light of Ms. Gerchow's qualifications, the Committee voted to recommend her for appointment to the Mental Health representative seat and request that the full Board remove the requirement that the Mental Health representative not be a County employee. At the conclusion of the of the meeting, the Committee 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, school districts, etc. In addition, the Committee recommended changing the title of the Task Force to the "Racial Justice Task Force", which was determined to be more reflective of the current 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 identified in Attachment A, 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.
The Board will not have made formal appointments to the Task Force.
Speaker: Jeff Landan, Contra Costa County Racial Justice Coalition.