On June 25, 2018, the Public Protection Committee (PPC) accepted the "Racial Justice Task Force--Final Report and Recommendations," as prepared by Resource Development Associates, and the committee recommended the Board of Supervisors (BOS) adopt this report and the recommendations included in the report.
On July 24, 2018, the BOS considered adopting the "Racial Justice Task Force--Final Report and Recommendations," as prepared by Resource Development Associates and decided to adopt the report and recommendations as presented, except for recommendations #18 and #19. These two recommendations were referred back to the Public Protection Committee as part of a separate referral to gather further input on these recommendations from both the Sheriff and Racial Justice Task Force. After later consideration, the Task Force ultimately concluded that due to existing legal limitations, recommendations #18 and #19 should be removed from their final report.
On August 6, 2018, the Public Protection Committee considered implementation of the Task Force Recommendations and provided the following direction:
- Staff should develop a recruitment process to seat the Racial Justice Oversight Body (RJOB) with the following representation:
- A representative from the Superior Court, as a non-voting member
- The Sheriff or his designee
- The Chief Probation Officer or his designee
- The Public Defender or her designee
- The District Attorney or her designee
- A representative from a local law enforcement agency, nominated by the Contra Costa County Police Chiefs’ Association
- A representative from the Contra Costa County Board of Education
- A representative from a School District
- A representative from Contra Costa County Health Services
- Nine community-based representatives, that include at a minimum
- Two members of the Racial Justice Coalition,
- Two individuals with prior personal criminal or juvenile justice system involvement,
- Three representatives from community-based organizations that work with individuals in the justice system, including at least one person who works directly with youth
- One representative from a faith-based organization
- One representative that is either a school aged youth or from a CBO who provides services to school aged youth
- The process to fill the School Board representative is to be determined by current School Board representatives of the Racial Justice Task Force
- The Racial Justice Coalition will select its two representatives
- Terms on the RJOB representatives should be for two years
- Return to the Committee for consideration of the second part of the Task Force recommendation for a RJOB regarding the need for additional resources necessary to staff and facilitate the work of the RJOB.
After the Public Protection Committee met on September 10, 2018, the Racial Justice Task Force school board representatives were consulted and determined that their rotation on the RJOB should begin with Mount Diablo Unified School District, followed by West Contra Costa Unified School District, and ending with Antioch Unified School District. A representative from the Mount Diablo Unified School District was nominated to represent the school district on the RJOB. The Racial Justice Coalition subsequently provided the names of their initial two representatives on the RJOB. The Contra Costa County Police Chiefs’ Association nominated its representative as well. In addition, the other seven Ex-Officio members were confirmed by their respective departments and agencies.
To identify applicants for the seven remaining seats for community-based representatives, a recruitment process was conducted. On November 13, 2018, the PPC interviewed applicants for the seven community-based representative seats and recommended BOS appointment of seven individuals to the RJOB.
On December 4, 2018, the Board of Supervisors appointed the 18 individuals recommended by the Public Protection Committee to serve on the Racial Justice Oversight Body. These appointments were to be for a two-year term commencing on January 1, 2019 and ending on December 31, 2020.
A list of all current RJOB members can be found in Attachment A. |