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 the report with the recommendations it included.
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 that except for recommendation #18 (related to establishing an independent grievance process for individuals in custody in County adult detention facilities to report concerns related to conditions of confinement based on gender, race, religion, and national origin. This process shall not operate via the Sheriff’s Office or require any review by Sheriff’s Office staff) and recommendation #19 (related to establishing an independent monitoring body to oversee conditions of confinement in County adult detention facilities based on gender, race, religion, and national origin and report back to the Board of Supervisors.) the BOS would adopt the report its recommendations as otherwise presented. These two excluded recommendations were then referred back to the PPC on a separate referral to gather further input from both the Sheriff and the Racial Justice Task Force on the excluded recommendations. After giving these two final recommendations additional consideration, the Task Force ultimately concluded that due to existing legal limitations, recommendations #18 and #19 should be removed from the final report of the Racial Justice Task Force.
On August 6, 2018, the Public Protection Committee considered implementation of the Task Force Recommendations and provided the following direction:
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Staff should develop a recruitment process to seat the Racial Justice Oversight Body (RJOB) with the following representation:
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A representative from the Superior Court, as a non-voting member
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The Sheriff or his designee
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The Chief Probation Officer or his designee
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The Public Defender or her designee
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The District Attorney or her designee
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A representative from a local law enforcement agency, nominated by the Contra Costa County Police Chiefs’ Association
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A representative from the Contra Costa County Board of Education
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A representative from a School District
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A representative from Contra Costa County Health Services
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Nine community-based representatives, that include at a minimum:
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Two members of the Racial Justice Coalition,
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Two individuals with prior personal criminal or juvenile justice system involvement,
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Three representatives from community-based organizations that work with individuals in the justice system, including at least one person who works directly with youth
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One representative from a faith-based organization
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One representative that is either a school aged youth or from a CBO who provides services to school aged youth
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The process to fill the School Board representative is to be determined by current School Board representatives of the Racial Justice Task Force
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The Racial Justice Coalition will select its two representatives
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Terms on the RJOB representatives should be for two years
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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, before ending with Antioch Unified School District. Based on this rotation schedule, Debra Mason was subsequently seated as the first RJOB School District representative on behalf of Mount Diablo Unified School District.
Next, the Racial Justice Coalition subsequently contacted PPC staff and reported that Tamisha Walker and Jeff Landau were recommended by RJC membership to represent this group on the RJOB. The Public Defender, Robin Lipetzky, decided to represent her office, and similarly District Attorney Diana Becton decided to represent her office. The Chief Probation Officer originally designated Director Mike Newton to be his representative, but after the Chief’s retirement the newly appoint Chief Probation Officer designated Assistant Chief Probation Officer, Melvin Russell to be her representative. The Superior Court designated the Director of Family Law and Probate, James Paulsen, as its representative. Also, the Sheriff identified Assistant Sheriff, John Lowden as his designated representative, and the Contra Costa County Police Chiefs’ Association nominated then Interim Richmond Police Chief Bisa French as its representative.
To identify applicants for the seven remaining seats for community-based representatives, a recruitment process was initiated with the publishing of a press release concerning the vacancies on September 18, 2018. After a 7-week application period the County received a total of 14 timely applications, and one application that was received after the November 2 deadline which was therefore not forwarded to the committee for further consideration.
On November 13, 2018, the PPC interviewed applicants for the seven seats for community-based representatives on the RJOB and recommended BOS appointment of the following individuals:
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Superior Court representative: James Paulsen, Director of Family Law and Probate
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Sheriff or designee: John Lowden, Assistant Sheriff
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Chief Probation Officer or designee: Mike Newton, Probation Director
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Public Defender or designee: Robin Lipetzky, Public Defender
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District Attorney or designee: Diana Becton, District Attorney
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Local Law Enforcement representative: Bisa French, Assistant Chief, Richmond Police Department
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Contra Costa County Office of Education representative: Lynn Mackey, Superintendent Elect
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Local School District representative: Debra Mason, Mount Diablo Unified School District
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Health Services Department representative: Dr. William Walker
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Community representatives:
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Tamisha Walker
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Jeff Landau
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Stephanie Medley
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Tammy Appling-Cabading
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Chala Bonner
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Ledamien Flowers
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Jay LeVine
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Cheryl Sudduth
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Edward Williams
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 December 31, 2020.
On May 12, 2020, Ledamien Flowers, then filling a Community Representative Seat, notified staff of his resignation from the Racial Justice Oversight Body. Staff reported this resignation to the BOS and on June 16, 2020, the Board of Supervisors accepted the resignation of Ledamien Flowers, declared a vacancy of the RJOB Community Representative Seat 4, and directed the Clerk of the Board to post the vacancy. After a recruitment process was approved by the PPC on June 22, 2020, the ORJ received a total of 18 timely applications, and one that was submitted after the application deadline. This committee decided to consider all 19 applicants before nominating Ronell Ellis to fill the existing vacancy, and Mr. Ellis has been engaged in the meetings and activities of the RJOB since that time.
During this committee’s September 2020 meeting it recognized that all the community representatives that were initially appointed to two-year terms starting January 2019 were set to end as of December 31, 2020. This again presented the PPC with the following seven (7) vacancies on the RJOB to fill, effective January 1, 2021:
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Two (2) individuals with prior personal criminal or juvenile justice system involvement,
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Two (2) representatives from community-based organizations that work with justice-involved populations of any age,
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One (1) representative from community-based organization that works with justice-involved youth,
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One (1) representative from a faith-based organization, and
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One (1) representative that is either a school aged youth or from a CBO who provides services to school aged youth
During last month’s meeting, the PPC approved a three-week recruitment process and encouraged all RJOB members that occupied seats with expiring terms to submit an application if they were interested in renewing their membership on the Body. In preparation of considering their respective renewals, the PPC directed staff to also include a summary of each applicant’s RJOB meeting attendance while being a member of the Body. This summary of attendance information has been included as Attachment A and was derived from the approved Records of Actions of the RJOB and its three subcommittees meetings. However, the ORJ also used draft versions of the Record of Actions for the August 2020 RJOB Quarterly Meeting and the September 2020 subcommittee meetings since these bodies have not yet met again, and thus have not had the opportunity to approve these draft Record of Actions.
Attachment B is the roster of ex-officio members who have confirmed their RJOB memberships in 2021-22. Also, please note that the Racial Justice Coalition has not yet informed staff of their RJOB member nominations for the 2021-22 term. |