Commission for Behavioral Health Meeting for November 20, 2025
Well, in my community, we sometimes say hallelujah when the great things happen for quorum. Uh, good morning everyone. I say again, good morning everybody. Good morning. It’s nice and rainy. We’re going to get we’re going to have a a a great discussion today. It’s nice rainy here in Sacramento. So, it always affords us with a tremendous opportunity to have discussion and take up the work of behavioral health for the people of the state of California. Uh everyone uh welcome to the commission of behavioral health meeting. My name is Al Rollette and I have the pleasure of serving as vice chair of the commission. Unfortunately, our chair isn’t able to be with us most of today’s for of today’s meeting. Uh so I’ll be guiding us through the uh agenda. Be kind, be patient as I guide us through the agenda. and she plans to join us um at the final item and I will resume the chair role. She’ll be here for the chair and vice chair elections. Uh I will now ask Sandre to take role and establish quorum. Good morning. I ask all commissioners joining us online to make sure to turn their camera on and unmute themselves so that this process goes smoothly. I’m asking for all commissioners attending online to also disclose if there’s anyone over the age of 18 and their relationship to you if they’re in the room with you. Thank you. Commissioner Bayer. Hi. And no one is in the room with me. Thank you. Commissioner Bernick here. And no one’s in the room with me. Commissioner Bondre here. And I am alone. Thank you. Commissioner Brown here and all by myself. Commissioner Bunch present. Commissioner Kalen present. Commissioner Carnival here. Commissioner Chambers present. Commissioner Contas marked absent. Commissioner design Schwarz here. Commissioner Cross here. Commissioner Farweather here. Commissioner Fernandez here. Commissioner Gordon marked absent. Commissioner designate Pulmano marked absent. Commissioner Hill here. Commissioner Larson present. Commissioner Mariel Weiss here. Commissioner Mitchell here. Commissioner Robinson marked absent. Commissioner Suard here and alone. Commissioner Thomas Beckett here. Commissioner Sai marked absent. Commissioner Wilks marked absent. Vice Chair Roulette here. Chair Alvarez marked absent. We have quorum. Thank you everyone. Um looking forward to a very robust agenda today and great discussion. Uh I remind all commissioners in the room that we need uh 14 present uh to maintain quorum. So, uh, thank you all very much for supporting us. I think we have one additional person. I’m noting Commissioner Designate Pulmano has joined the room. Good morning, Commissioner. First, I’d like to highlight our newly formatted agenda. In light of our updated workflow through committees, we restructured the agenda to clearly distinguish between routine items, new business, overarching strategic discussions, and items returning from committees. you. As you can see, we’re starting with opening business and administrative items. In line with our new transparency efforts, we will begin providing brief updates on recent contracts amendments during all committee and commission meeting announcements. Forformational purposes, please note that contract amendments are negotiated between the commission and the contractor and must be mutually agreed upon. This month, we have one amendment to report, an update to the commission’s program 11 contract for creative services. This amendment adds up to $95,000 to support the design and publication of a BHSA stakeholder toolkit. Now, I’d like to announce the retirement of Norma Pate, Deputy Director of Administrative Services and Performance Management. Norma Pate began her tenure at the commission on July 1, 2010. Over the course of more than 15 years, she has demonstrated unwavering dedication and leadership, rising through the ranks from staff services manager one to deputy director of administrative services and performance management. Norma played a vital a pivotal and vital role in guiding the commission to full independence following the disillusionment of the the disillusion of the department of mental health in 2012. Many of us remember that were around back then. Her efforts were instrumental in building the commission’s internal capacity in managing its own IT personnel and building service functions, laying the foundation for long-term operational autonomy. As the commission evolved, Norma led the implementation of the first ever grants program, beginning with the triage grant known as the Mental Health Wellness Act. She also spearheaded the transformation of inherited advocacy contracts into competitive agreements, ensuring fairness, improved service delivery for the population served. Norma approached every challenge with tireless commitment and courageous resolve. Her legacy is marked by her mentorship, her strategic vision, and her deep care for her team and the mission of the commission. And indeed, I will add that Norma truly did care for the people at this commission. She will be profoundly missed and especially by those who had the privilege of working closely with her and benefiting from her guidance. Following Norma’s retirement, Lauren Quantero has graciously stepped in as acting deputy director of administrative services and performance management. Thank you, Lauren, very much. We appreciate you. We’re grateful for her willingness to take on this role and for her continued support until a permanent deputy director is elected. Thank you. And I’ll pause and see if the commissioners want to make any comments regarding Norma. Yes. Um I had the pleasure of working with uh Norma uh on the strategic planning process and a number of other initiatives and I truly appreciate all that she the warmth and and her uh leadership uh that she brought to the commission and she will be missed. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? I’ll say something. I just want to say if Norma’s listening or it’s on record that I just appreciate the staff and her resiliency um and their commitment as public servants to ensure that our constituents have a voice um and that’s admirable um for civil servants and just individuals. So I just want to say thank you Norma for your service. Uh service is my only purpose and for anyone that serves is it’s one of the highest um honors. Thank you, Norma. Norma, thanks for being an ambassador for our community. Oh, Mara, sorry. Thank you. Um I too I hope Norma is listening. I want to thank her just for how she’s welcomed um the commissioners as they’ve come on to serve on this commission. and I know she was always really thoughtful about um ensuring that we had what we needed to do the work. So I want to thank you Norma for everything you did for the commissioners, for the staff, and really for the people at large. So thank you for your service. Thank you. Thank you commissioners. I miss anybody else. And I’ll ask our executive director to help me with making sure that I recognize everybody just as you you can. I would just echo what everybody else has said and I actually had the pleasure of working with Norma even before I worked uh here at the commission and just always really enjoyed um just the energy, the very positive uh energy she always brought to the work and um you know definitely that big bright smile she always has. So um she’s uh she had worked at CDCR around the same time I did and then also then she had moved on to the commission um with uh you know there was just a team that I really admired that um continued to do great work. So, I just wish her the best. She’s she put in a lot of work um over many years to really serve the people of California and I just wish her many many uh long and happy healthy years of retirement. So, thank you again, Norma. You are an ambassador for our community and we appreciate you very very much. Next, I’d like to welcome Melissa Martin Mard and Lauren Quintterrell to introduce new staff joining the research evaluation and program operation team and the administrative service team. Please note there are written bios in the packet. Commissioners, please go ahead. Melissa and Lauren, thank you so much. Um, so I’m really pleased to announce three new staff um that are working with the research, evaluation, and programs team. Um, first we have Abby Lavine, who’s here in the Yeah, come on up. Say hello. Um, Abby is a research scientist, too, and um comes with extensive experience with evaluating uh children, youth, and family programs. Um, so we’re really excited to have her on board. Um, another research scientist too that started is Dr. Chris Lee. Um, Dr. Lee also has extensive experience with uh, evaluating children, youth, and family programs. Um, and we’re just delighted that both of them have come on to our research team. Um, and then lastly, I would like to introduce Lindy Lee, who um, is our staff services manager too. She is a new chief within our department. Um she will be supporting our BHSSA efforts um and spearheading our um uh special project around um uh process improvements for our grants and contracts. Um and Lindy has extensive experience with youth development and policy work. And um we’re just so delighted to welcome these three new staff to our team. And uh I’m excited to in introduce Melissa Velasquez. Uh she’s joining us virtually uh as our new chief of human resources. Melissa brings over 18 years of experience in California state government with deep expertise in HR, labor relations, and organizational leadership. She’s worked across several major state agencies as and is known for her collaborative leadership and her ability to navigate complex personnel issues with clarity and professionalism. Uh in my past, an old boss once told me uh to be a strong leader, you should hire people who are smarter than you and uh create the conditions for them to thrive. And so that was uh what we did when we hired Melissa. Uh so we’re really lucky to have her and excited that she’s joined our team. want to congratulate all the new colleagues to the uh commission. Abby, I want to personally invite you to the ROAP family Thanksgiving. There’ll be 22 of us. We could use a research analyst, too, uh to study family dynamics and how we all go about eating turkey and ham. So, that would be very helpful. I’ll get the address to you at the end of the commission meeting. To the rest of the colleagues, again, uh thank you again so very much. We look forward to working with you and learning more about your work. I’d like to draw your attention, commissioners, to the materials in today’s packet, which include correspondence between the commission and Secretary Johnson at Cal HHS regarding community engagement in BHSA implementation. Following the significant public comment we received at our August 28th meeting during the formation of the client family and community inclusion lived experience and diversity advisory committee about the importance of elevating marginalized community voices. We sent a letter, I’ll say again, we sent a letter to Secretary Johnson on September 29th outlining our concerns and commitments and receive and the commission received a comprehensive response on October 13th detailing Cal HHS existing and upcoming engagement activities across multiple departments. I am pleased to report that the commission and Cal HHS are are actively collaborating through regularly scheduled meetings. Thank you very much, Brenda, and I appreciate your work there in that area and everybody on the team. and we remain committed to working closely with Secretary Johnson and her team to ensure that the voices of California’s most marginalized communities remain at the center of behavioral health transformation efforts. Now, I’d like to invite Commissioner Callen Yes. to share a few words about your experience in the great state of Texas. I say that because that’s where I was born. He toured Haven for Hope for a deep dive into homeless into the homelessness crisis. Commissioner, the floor is yours. Uh thank you um Commissioner Roulette. Um yeah, I was invited um on this uh trip of 60 uh public and private sector um leaders in in California to Texas to San Antonio and to Austin to look at their campusbased models that they have sort of the uh hub and the spoke models that they’re using. And um we got to meet with the um the police chiefs and see what policies they’re using that help this work. And I will tell you it was great because we had people from all over California. We had a couple state senators. We had uh administrators from many cities. And it was a really nice way to look at homelessness as and understand what that is and um understand why people are homeless and um we really learned a lot. I went there with the idea that oh my god we’re looking for the panacea one solution fits all but we found out that that’s not true. And um these these campus-based models allow um all these different services to come together and work together in one hub. And I’ll give you an example. In um in Austin, they had uh this place called um the place we toured, uh uh Community First, and people who were chronically homeless, they were in the priority groups. They were able to get them off the street and they basically gave them a home that they pay rent for with their SSI and jobs that they get within this community. They may not be able to ever work in the outside sector, but they have they built a community. What we found that having a community in these separate homes, front doors facing each other, they they built a hospice there. They said, “When you pass away, we’re going to celebrate your death.” these simple little things where everyone’s working and part of a community, a lot of the substance use disorder just disappeared almost immediately. And then the rest had had uh uh options for, you know, for other uh 12step programs and other uh MAT programs. But it was just an amazing I mean we were just looking at miracles everywhere. And uh we have a lot of land in California and a lot of money here. And uh um so everyone who went on the trip, we’re meeting again today and this afternoon and everyone’s collaborating. It’s nice to see a lot of people are looking for a solution and um you know people might have had different opinions on things, but it’s nice to hear to see that all these people throughout California are working together. Haven for Hope in San Antonio was a great example is a four tier system. people can come off the street and then learn how to uh work and get jobs and they get housing there and then they learn how to rent and and move out and then they come back and start the peer process. But it’s a very functional system. Obviously, California is a little different, a little more expensive, but um it it would just seem to solve a lot of problems and bring unity between all the services that we have and uh bring the private uh uh bring private sector in as well and make it work. So, it was really inspiring and I’m even more inspired to know that there’s so many people in California right now who are really focusing on this and I think this commission with its focus on substance use disorder and mental illness, it’s a great um combination and I think I think these models uh really offer something that we can we can match or hybrid style or but we’re working on it and um I was really grateful to go and and and thank you. Any questions for Commissioner Callen from other commissioners? Excuse my voice. So, I’m going to whisper cuz I’m losing it. What are the next steps? Well, today in the afternoon, a whole group, uh, I believe there’ll be a few mayors there. we’re we’re we’re going to just talk about it and collaborate and see how we can do it. I mean um the next steps they’re they’re different issues we can’t get into now but you know the the policy the the policies the laws um you know different attitudes on uh treatment versus um you know the the other policies more softer policies so it it’s a it’s a whole process so I think it’s first we just need to talk and figure it out and then uh um I can I’ I’d love to bring some of these people to commission and they can talk about it. Um, but the eyes are out there and people are trying to figure this out. So, the answer is the next step is we’re talking about it. Um, I’m assuming this is transitional supportive housing these um, villages. Yes and no. Haven for hope. Yes. Uh, community first, no. Okay. Which is interesting because I it seemed to me that some of those people that would be the best place for them and and it’s they don’t they can leave. I mean it’s it’s it’s a it’s a real uh it’s a really nice place. I mean rather than be on the street. Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, I appreciate you’re saying that um there is no one-sizefits-all and um my organization operates permanent supportive housing and in the past did transitional and you know we see now where people there’s this sort of fight going on between you know low barrier or you know sobriety period and y and it it it’s not one or the other and for many people as you said once they come into a community then the the substance issues can be addressed. Um but getting them into community and having those wraparound services is just so important. So it sounds like a wonderful model. Well, it was interesting because Haven for Hope was a um was a sober uh community first was not. So you could drink, you can drink there. They they the police would come in and take care of it. It was like a real city and uh uh but people did have services and it it was just amazing actually. So, but I I like what you’re saying. So, one one was abstinence and one was not. But what I appreciate about your enthusiasm is that the cultural differences between my my word Texas and California can be overcome and this model could be replicated in California. Yes. And um I think I mean I know that it can work in California. we just we have all these great programs and I think what we talk about a lot in this commission is just how do we connect them all and have everyone work together and see what’s most efficient and this was a very efficient model. Um so thanks commissioner I see a bright future for you in helping resolve the homelessness issue in the state of California. Appreciate it. All right. Lastly, I want to announce the tenative dates for the next committee meetings. The legislative and in external affairs committee and program advisory committee will meet on December 15, 2025. That’s December 15, 2025. The workplace optimizations and advisory committee will meet on December 9th, 2025. December 9, 2025. I know if commissioners, please note, if you’re on those committees, please make a note. And the budget and fiscal advisory committee will meet on December 16th, 2025. That’s December 16, 2025. The client family and community inclusion lived experience and diversity advisory committee aka also known as the CFC is still being scheduled. The program advisory committee as well as the CFC will discuss the innovation partnership fund and the upcoming peer respit grant. The program advisory committee will also discuss the behavioral health student services act administrative and evaluation funds. The legislative and external affairs committee will discuss the 2026 legislation and the BHSA stakeholder toolkit. The budget and fiscal advisory committee will discuss the innovation partnership fund advisory contract contracts, expenditure authorization, advocacy contracts. Excuse me, I said advisory advocacy contracts, expenditure authorizations, and the completed Tableau dashboard of all active contracts and grants. And I’d encourage you to really visit the tableau. It is uh excellent work by our colleagues and staff at the commission. The workplace optimization advisory committee will continue its work on the executive director performance evaluation process. That concludes our announcements this morning. We will now move to our caring moment to help us center ourselves on the purpose of our work and the people we serve. This practice is meant to remind us why we do what we do and why and what we share in terms of stories and the moments that may be impacting others in ways we might not always see. Today we will hear from Commissioner Chambers. All right. Please go ahead, Commissioner Chambers. And I would be uh remiss, I was at a CBHA conference and Commissioner Chambers was acknowledged with a gold standard around peer advocacy. So applause to you, Commissioner Chambers. I just want to thank you and I’m so honored to serve, you know, it’s it’s a privilege. So, I’m I’m grateful and uh I think that that is in alignment with this caring moment. Um so, good morning, chair, vice chair, commissioners, and community partners. Over the past several months, I’ve had the privilege of leading fellow commissioners, shout out to everybody that showed up on the site visits uh and that had interests, and commission staff on visits to several peer respits across our great state. These visits are part of the commission’s research and community engagement efforts to learn, listen, and develop a strategy for the use of the mental health wellness act funds for peer respits. In many cases, when someone is experiencing a behavioral health crisis, hospitalization isn’t the most appropriate or helpful option. I too know that so well because I have been hospitalized and there was significant times I should not have needed to go to a hospital. Peer respits is a consumer-run evidence-based short-term housing intervention aimed at reducing hospitalizations and incarceration by providing an intervention opportunity for guests to actively participate in their own journey behavioral health journey. And I also just want to interject, this is offscript, but I have to like give props to Commissioner Rolette who’s been immensely koi about your work in creating and uplifting peer respits. your organization, your past organization, we found out what is the oldest in our great state and they are doing immense work and I just was I just think that you you’re a pioneer that most people don’t know about especially in the peer movement because you don’t bolster about it peer but you’re you’re doing you you’re changing the world peer respit satisfaction rates are high as a result of the connection to uh to community and empowerment of the guests to be active in their own health. Remember that connection to community and empowerment of the guests to be active in their own health. Another key reason for this success is deeply humanizing is a deeply humanizing experience that peer support provides. We really do humanize the experience of behavioral health. Several guests shared that it was their first that that it was their first time that they felt like they were being treated like an adult or even a human within the behavioral health system at least peer respits one of which many I mean I think roulette you you run at least two past your past work um at peer respits guests are truly uh met where they are at like we are really meeting people where they’re at staff most of whom are peers with lived experience support individuals in developing life skills like cooking, laundry, connecting to services, and navigating the behavioral health system. They offer emotional support and understanding. One staff expressed, um, we need to be the ear that they don’t have and the shoulder that they don’t have. And many of these peer respides have warm lines that are available all night and get calls and do not turn anyone down while they’re providing services. So far we’ve visited several respbits including Sharon Los Angeles, Insight Respit Center in Grass Valley, Sally’s Place in Hayward, Safe Harbor and San Leandro, Monarch House in Roseville, Second Story, and how do you pronounce this word? What’s a I I didn’t know I went there. Um uh at Golden Gate in Modesto. I can’t believe we went all that those places. But I just want to congratulate the staff cuz that was an immense amount of work and uh peers are are not only essential to the success of peer respits but also to the be behavioral health system as a whole. Many have completed the medical peer support specialist certification and their contributions are both impactful and invaluable. It is one of my greatest honors to lead this project and to be able to highlight the critical impact that pure respits have on the community. And I just want to welcome anyone that has any comments or and just thank the commission staff and for our commitment to the lived experience worker and service because like recovery is possible and if we don’t have the people that have recovered present then are we really doing something? So, I just want to thank you all and I look forward to continuing to uplift pure respit and us being a part of history and and helping people not get hospitalized. And so, yeah, and then it also helps people uh stay out of uh the streets cuz it’s usually like a place where they can uh land to where the case managers can get them. So, it actually keeps people off the street. It keeps people um out of the hospital and not homeless because you can that’s like a really short term and there’s I know that Brenda is doing a lot of work with um and the staff with uh communicating with agency around like uh transitional rent benefits and different things. And so I look forward to us being able to change policy like the like and that are and have funding outside of county behavioral health which is beautiful because as we know counties can’t hold up the whole system es and and they go in between like and last thing I’ll say is that I provide commercial insurance. Our people on the commercial side are are hospitalized. Where can they go? Do they have a like do they and so I I think we need to have these conversations because they they are commercial side. Those people are still the same people that we are in our target population. They just kind of go in between. So we do have a duty to to support people with commercial insurance and ensure that they have access to this as well. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. It’s now time for agenda item three, general public comment. This time is reserved for comments on items that are not on the agenda. All written public comments received before the meeting have been included in the meeting materials. Amarani, please lead us into public comment. Thank you, vice chair. If you’d like live meeting transcription or close captioning, please activate the close captioning feature located in the control bar at the top or bottom of your screen. If there are any members of the public using translation technology, please notify the chair so that we can be mindful. You may request to make public comment by submitting a card, clicking the raise hand icon on your computer or the app, or if calling in by phone, push star9. Members of the public can also email us public comment to be shared at a future meeting at public comment bhsoac.ca.gov. I will now go over public comment procedures. For members of the public in the room, if you have not already, please use one of the green public comment cards located at the front to indicate you would like to make comment on this item and any other agenda item. Cards can be given to staff located at the front table. When it is your turn to comment, I will call you to the podium or unmute your line and announce your name or the last three digits of your telephone number. Members of the public should be prepared to complete their comments within 3 minutes or less depending on time constraints. We truly appreciate your understanding with this process. We do not have any in room comments, but we do have two virtual comments. Our first comment is from Stacy. Good morning, commissioners. Stacy Heramoto with REMCO, the Racial and Ethnic Mental Health Disparities Coalition, and Safe Passages. I just wish I could be there today. I usually go to the meetings in person. Um, but it the weather was so bad, I wasn’t feeling so well, but as soon as you started, I just wish I were there. So anyway, um I just wanted to say that I’m representing the community and we really want to thank Norma Pate. I remember way back when Norma began and there I’ve just seen so much development and leadership from her and she was always a consmate professional, polite and willing to work and support the community stakeholders. Um, in add in addition, it was such a delight because every time I saw her, I felt like I was opening up a page in Vogue or Vanity Fair. Anyway, um, lastly, and of course, more importantly, she has shown incredible bravery and courage in the past several years, and I’m really so sorry that she left the commission. And I know you’re not supposed to answer questions, but I I feel like I I must have dozed off. I did you announce the immigrant and refugee statewide advocacy grant? I’m so sorry. Somebody asked me um online. If you did, I’m sorry. Could you repeat it again? Thank you. We have not made that announcement this time. Um, our next public comment is from Kari. Thank you. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Karly Stellzer. I’m speaking today on behalf of the California Behavioral Health Association. First, I just wanted to shout out and thank Commissioners Rollette and Chambers for joining us at our 40th anniversary earlier this month and for being honored for the impact that you’ve all had on the behavioral health system. I know many of our colleagues joined us in celebration and we’re so grateful. Um, more importantly, as you all know, uh, California’s behavioral health system is in the midst of one of the most significant periods of changes in decades. Uh, providers are working really hard to implement new statewide reforms while continuing to meet rising community needs. Um, every day our members are navigating a rapidly changing policy environment with increasing administrative responsibilities and persistent workforce shortages, all while striving to maintain highquality, culturally responsive care across the continuum of care. We’ve been hearing very consistent themes. Organizations are seeing higher acuity presentations with more complex care needs and a growing demand for services among youth, older adults, immigrant communities, and people experiencing homelessness. Providers are deeply committed to these populations, yet they’re operating within financial and operational structures that are often stretched too thin and in some cases completely uncertain as programs transition to new requirements. Uh we just want to acknowledge that during this period of transformation, we really appreciate the commission’s leadership and willingness to hear from providers working in the field. You play an essential role in elevating the community voice, fostering transparency, and stewarding public investments towards approaches that work for Californians. CBHA, as always, stands ready to continue working alongside you to strengthen the system and ensure that all Californians can access care. Thank you so much. Thank you. We actually do have two in room comments. The first one is from Danny. Hello. Perfect. Hi, good morning. Uh, my name is Danny Theacle with Mental Health America of California. Uh thank you for the opportunity to make public comment today. Uh my comments and questions uh relate to the new committee process in general. Uh first I would like to say that we truly appreciate the commission’s goal to increase transparency under its new leadership. Um I come here today in the spirit of collaboration and with the goal of improving the impact of public comment. Uh we understand the new committee structure is a work in progress and we believe that uh there might be some confusion over the the role of the committees. Um I think some of the clarity would some clarity would be appreciated as to whether uh they’re required to pass items as is or if they’re allowed to recommend items um edits or suggestions to the full commission. Uh recently the innovation partnership fund framework was discussed at both the programs and CFC committees with a lot of com uh community feedback but the IPF was approved as is both committees with the recommendation included from the CFC committee. While there was dialogue among the committees during public comment, we don’t see any of the public comment from the programs committee in either the framework document or today’s m meeting materials. Um there’s a summary of the public comments from the CFC committee in the meeting materials, but the committee update today is after the IPF framework discussion. Thus, the CFC report out on the IPF will occur after the full commission vote on the same item. Uh we hope that all our prior comments from both committees will be incorporated into today’s IPF discussion somehow. Uh we are curious about what happens to the community feedback at committee meetings. What is the purpose of public comment at the committee meetings if the full commission never hears it? Is it possible for committees to send in a list of recommended edits to the commission for discussion? As members of the public, how do we know that our public comments were heard and considered prior to the adoption of the final document? We don’t just want the opportunity to make comment. We want to know that our public comments were actually considered. Lastly, the new CFC committee is set on different days than the other three committees. And while the other three committees meet in person with the executive director president, the CFC is virtual and the ED was not available to attend last month’s meeting. Uh this disparity among the committee makes the CFC appear as less important than the other committees. Um as the main vehicle for lived experience public comment, we believe the CFC committee should be treated equally with the other committees. Again, we realize that this is a work in progress and we do believe that the commission values public input. We encourage you to either clarify or refine the committee structure so that we are incentivized to comment at committee meetings with the knowledge that our comments are heard and considered. Thank you. Thank you. Our next comment is from Tom. Good morning, commissioners. Um, my name is Tom Renfrey. I’m with the California Association of Alcohol and Drug Program Executives. And I wasn’t going to actually make uh comments uh this morning, but I was so encouraged to hear that report about these uh campus programs in Texas from from the commissioner. Um, this is a great model. When I was with the National Association of County Behavioral Health Directors, I worked with a fellow who a man who was instrumental in getting that program started in San Antonio. And I just thought this is I was so excited to hear that uh you were able to make that trip and and hopefully you know bring back some lessons that we can learn from here because I think it’s a model that should be replicated uh here in California for people uh with substance use disorders having this kind of wraparound services where they can live in a supportive environment that’s a lifeline for these for these folks for those who are who are in recovery who need recovery housing in a sober living environment. that is that is uh available for them. For those who are not ready quite ready for that, they can still live in a supportive environment until they’re ready. They have, you know, low barrier uh treatment and it’s um it this is just a a really good model and I hope that the that the discussion will continue. Uh talk about an innovative project that we could do. We you know we talk about California being such a progressive state. We don’t like to think we can learn anything from Texas, but believe me, we can learn from this model. And uh I I I don’t know why we can’t do something like that here in California with the resources we have. So, please uh keep this under consideration and and uh hope these discussions continue uh for uh for doing something like this in California. Thank you for your time. Thank you. That was our last public comment. Commissioner Callum. Hi, thank you for that. You know, the question was asked what what can be done now? I before I was on the commission, I was working with a group of people who were trying to do sort of a hybrid model of Haven for Hope in California and we’ve actually started looking at sites and bringing in some of the tech companies or someone to help support and help train. So it there are different projects that people are actually working on now in the private sector to uh invite the public in to look at. So there’s one particular model called the golden gateway that a group of people are working on right now and uh have been looking at uh sites and there there’s a there’s one in mind. Um so I I’d love to get into more detail that at another meeting but things are in process. Thank you Amarani. That does that conclude public comment. It does. All right. Actually, I’m sorry. Uh, one hand just came up um online from Kevin. Hi there. Good morning, commissioners. Uh, my name is Kevin Eric Dredge. Uh, and I’d like to talk about yesterday. I did get to spend the entire day at Learn for Life Academy. It’s in Sacramento in Maronei, off Maronei. Um, and with about 50 independent study students. Uh, these are young people who carry a lot on their shoulders, often alone. What I learned was simple connection before crisis. with nothing more than a small table, a wooden nickel, a green ribbon, and one piece of paper that’s titled All About Me. Several different students came to the table and those with the peer support and mentorship, giving back uh nothing more than uh solid is to have people trust adults and and that’s what happens uh with peer support and what happened yesterday. Um they opened up about their lives, their families and their fears. There was no pressure. There was no intake forms, no crisis movement or no, excuse me, no crisis crisis moments yesterday and just a safe space where someone listened. Uh my request is this. As we continue investing in early intervention spaces, the small human interactions that keep young people from falling through the fog before it turns into an emergency. I just have a great deal of respect for you commissioners and from what has been said today by many of you. Um, thank you Norma and Lorine for taking over uh these these roles. Um, and we’re just in a a great position and and I appreciate you and thank you for your time. Thank you. That was our last public comment. All right. At this time, I I want to uh offer and invite commissioners to offer comments or ask questions. Start with commissioners online. Any Sorry. Agenda item four is the approval of the I’m sorry I skipped that. I was wanting to give you an opportunity to respond to the public to respond what was being said. It’s just a natural instinct because so many things are said that are so inviting. Uh, forgive me for my proclivity. Agenda item four is the approval of the August 28. Sorry about back to business. Okay, everybody say a. Agenda item four is the approval of the August 28, 2025 commission meeting minutes. At this time, I’d like to invite commissioners to offer comments or ask questions. This is regarding agenda item four, the minutes, the meeting minutes from August 28th. And sorry, yes, I misled you a little. Amariani, are the public comment please? Amarani. Uh, we have one public comment from Stacy. Good morning, commissioners. Stacy Heramoto with Remco and Safe Passages. I would I was looking over the minutes because um there was the item um on the combination of the committees of the CLCC and CFLC and I noticed that and maybe you’ve been doing this for a long time so please forgive me that the public comment was not uh recorded and the names of the public pe the people speaking from the public were also not recorded. I guess I I feel that that should be that that at least you should name the people that made public comment and what their position was. Um I understand when when there because you had over 20 people making public comments. I realize that that’s a lot of work, but I feel if the public is going to take the time to come to your meeting, they should at least have their name, organization, and position um noted, if not, you know, a summary of their testimony as you have done in the past. Again, I realize with 20 people making public comment, but um I just wanted to to say that and ask you to reconsider. Um also under that section, you had two people’s comments, two people um that made very good comments, but I didn’t understand why those two particular people were chosen. Um, and so that was puzzling to me also. So, thank you. That was our last public comment. You want something to say? Oh, I will say uh we’ll add uh those comments back in and we’ll bring that back to the January meeting. We’ll add those comments back in. Is everybody okay with that at the comm on the commission? We’ll do that. Okay. We’ll add those comments back and bring it back to the January meeting. So these minutes will be tabled for the next meeting when pending amendments adding those names and the individuals back into the record. Sure. Okay. So because of that there will be no vote. Uh and so we’ll move to agenda item number five, the consent calendar. This month’s consent calendar includes two innovation proposals and one intent to award. All matters listed on the consent calendar are routine or non-controversial and can be acted upon in one motion. Uh I’m going to briefly read uh uh the items uh give you a description of the items on the consent calendar. Commissioners people uh commissioners online and public. The first innovation project is from Sonoma County, which is requesting up to $684,476 in innovation funds to support an existing innovation project called Crossroads to Hope. The project, which was originally approved by the commission on February 2022, combines housing first and assertive community treatment approaches to better address the behavioral health needs of just invol justice involved individuals. Since its initial implementation, the cost of living and price of necessary goods and resources has increased and the requested extension will allow the program to retain essential peer providers and provide vital services and are critical to achieving the project’s objectives. Added funds will ensure these peer providers continue receiving a living wage and are able to successfully implement program activities. Additionally, San Bernardino County is requesting up to 30,861,260 of innovation spending authority over a period of four years to prepare for implementation of Proposition 1 by joining Orange County’s Progressive Improvements for Valued Outpatient Treatment Innovation Project, also known as Pivot. The pivot project was originally approved by the commission in November of 2024. Specifically, the county request to join the two following components: full service partnership reboot and developing capacity for specialty mental health plan services with diverse communities. Two other counties also previously joined Pivot, Contraosta and Los Angeles, bringing us to a total of four participating counties. Both of these innovation pro proposals align with VHSA and include plans for sustainability. Commission staff have sent the documents related to these projects to all commissioners and a copy of staff analysis for the proposals has been provided in your packet. Commissioners, the last item on the consent calendar is the imminent, excuse me, immigrant and refugee statewide advocacy contract notice of intent to award. On July 30, 2025, the commission released a request for a proposal to award $502,500 for three years, 167,500 per year to one statewide organization that would conduct state advocacy, training, and education, and outreach activities on behalf of immigrant and refugee populations. The application closed on September 5th, 2025. We are announcing the commission’s intent to award a contract to the following organization. California Panthnic Health Network. Please bring up that slide if it’s available. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, I’d like to invite commissioners to offer comments or ask questions. question. Yes. Uh, this is not so much about the substance of these items, but just a point of clarification for the innovation plan for San Bernardino County. I noticed that we’re approving it for four years, but in theory, our role in approving innovation plans doesn’t extend in four years into the future. And so I’m just wondering I guess the technicality of it. Are we approving just until Prop One goes live and after that they are free to do whatever innovation projects they choose. I I think I mean my understand Oh, I am sorry. My my understanding is we’re approving it. So it’s getting approved now for this year and then they’ve got the four years to spend it down. Thank you. Other questioners? Other questions? Commissioners? I don’t have a question. I just want to just say how proud I am once again to serve with the organization that provides opportunities like this. Like these communities, my community, like we don’t have the loudest voice. And I’m just so thankful that the commission provides funding for groups that are disenfranchised, have a voice, and I just want everybody in this room to know like we really are a part of something great. Um, and just being like running a peer-run organization, being a woman of color, like we really don’t have these spaces to have our voice. And so I just want you all to just really lean into that that we are really creating a space in the behavioral health system for groups that wouldn’t ra that would not have the opportunity to express their needs and their differences with respect and dignity. Any additional commissioner comments? All right, I think you can take down the slide now. At this time I Siri, I said you can take the slide down. Amarani, please go ahead with public comment. I’ll talk to Rachel Chambers while you’re doing that. We do not have any public comment for this item. Thank you, Amariani. Uh the motion that is at hand will also appear on the screen as I understand it. I’m going to read the public comment. Uh I mean excuse me and now that public comment is closed, I’m going to entertain a motion. Um and the commission will be approving the consent calendar that includes the innovation plan for Sonoma County Crossroads to hope up to $864,476. The innovation plan for San Bernardino County program improvements for valued outpatient treatment pivot up to 30,861,260. Immigrant and refugee statewide advocacy grant intent to award one three-year contract for $52,500 for three years, $167,500 per year. Do we have a motion? Thank you, Commissioner Madwis. I have a second. Oh, was that cross? Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Again, I ask all commissioners joining on us online to unmute their lines to make this vote go smoother and to turn on their cameras. Uh, Commissioner Bear. Okay. Was that a yes? Yes. Yeah. Can I have the screen down for the votes? Yes. Commissioner Bernick. Commissioner Bernick. Noting absent. Commissioner Bontrigger. Hi, Commissioner Brown. Can you hear me? Yeah. No. Okay. I’m going to vote yes on items one and item two, and I’m going to abstain on item three. Um, primarily at this point because I did not get any uh materials or information about that in in the version of the consent calendar that I had. Um, you can only vote yes or no on the item. It’s going all together. You can choose to pull it out to be considered separately, but right now we’re considering all three together. I guess then I would ask the chair to to pull the item or or ask that we vote on them separately. Okay. So, if you p you’re pulling out item number three for a separate vote, we would then restart the vote only for items one and two. Correct. Correct. Okay. So, I will need a new second just for item two. So, again, Malwise, thank you. Do I have a second? I’ll second. Thank you. So, again, this motion is only for items one and two in the consent calendar. We will be voting for item three separately. Item number for items one and two. Again, starting the vote. Commissioner Bayer. I. Commissioner Bernick noted absent. Commissioner. I. Commissioner Brown. Hi. Commissioner Bunch. Commissioner Kalen. I. Commissioner Carnival. Hi. Commissioner Chambers. Hi. Commissioner Contas noted absent. Commissioner designate Schwartz. I. Commissioner Cross. I. Commissioner Farweather. I. Commissioner Fernandez. I. Commissioner Gordon. Noted absent. Commissioner designate Pulmano. I. Commissioner Hill. I. Commissioner Larson. I. Commissioner Madreal Weiss. I. Commissioner Mitchell. She said approved. Approved. Commissioner Robinson. Hi. Commissioner Suard. Hi. Commissioner Thomas Beckett. I. Commissioner Sai noted absent. Commissioner Wilks. Noted absent. Vice Chair Roulette. I. Chair Alvarez. Noted absent. Okay. I will now call a second motion. for the approval of only item number three, which is the immigrant refugee statewide advocacy grant intent to award for one year con for three-year contract in the amount of $52,000 $52500 for three years or $167,500 per year. Motion. Okay, thank you. Commissioner, I have a question. So, by pulling this off, will this delay the awarding of the grant? No. Okay. It’s just a separate vote. It’s just cuz Commissioner Brown didn’t have the information, so he didn’t want to vote for it. They were separating the votes. So, we have a first with Commissioner Weiss. Do we have a second? Full amount of seconds. Thank you. We’re starting again for item number three on consent. Commissioner Bayer I. Commissioner Bernick. Noted absent. Commissioner Bontrigger. I. Commissioner Brown. Abstain. Commissioner Bunch. Commissioner Kalen. I. Commissioner Carnival. Yes. Commissioner Chambers. Abstain. Commissioner Contas. Oh, sorry. Noted. Absent. Commissioner designate Schwartz. I. Commissioner Cross. I. Commissioner Farweather. I. Commissioner Fernandez. I. Commissioner Gordon noted absent. Commissioner designate Pulmano. Hi. Commissioner Hill. I Commissioner Larson. I Commissioner Madreal Weiss. I Commissioner Mitchell. I Okay. Commissioner Robinson. Hi, Commissioner Suard. Hi, Commissioner Thomas Beckett. I, Commissioner Sai, noted absent. Commissioner Wilks, noted absent. Vice Chair Roulette, I. Commissioner Alvarez, noted absent. The motion passes. Both motions have passed. Thank you, Commissioners. Uh, thank you, commissioners online. I appreciate that. All right, noting the time, we will now move on to agenda item six, the advocacy spotlight. At each of our meetings, we invite one of our contracted advocacy organizations to share with the commission the work they are doing to provide advocacy around the state of California on behalf of our vulnerable and often underserved communities. Thank you so much for join taking it joining us at the table. The commission have has advocacy contracts with organizations that represent needs of consumers, diverse racial and ethnic communities, families of consumers, immigrants and refugees, K12 students, LGBTQIA+ communities, parents and caregivers, transition age youth and veterans. All of these populations experience unique behavioral health challenges that are rooted in systemic, cultural, economic, and social barriers. Our partnerships with these organizations intend to uplift these communities through advocacy and empowerment and through local behavioral health planning and state level policym. So for our advocacy spotlight, I’d like to welcome representatives for center for empowering refugees and immigrants who will present on advocacy work for the behavioral health needs of immigrant and refugee communities in the Bay Area. Welcome. We look forward to your presentation. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. We are really grateful for this opportunity to share about this work and for your partnership in helping us do this work at the center for empowering refugees and immigrants. My name is Laura Coelloo. I’m the director of communications and evaluation at Siri and I’m here with my colleague Kate Wodsworth who is our clinical director. So we’ll just jump right in. Okay. So Siri is an Oakland based nonprofit um with the mission to cultivate healing, advocacy, and empowerment of refugee and immigrant communities affected by war, torture, genocide, and other lifealtering traumas. It was founded in 2006 by Dr. Mona Afari, an Iranian immigrant and women’s rights advocate alongside Cambodian genocide survivors and community leaders. Siri first emerged a as a community mental health and social service organization to support approximately 100 Cambodian survivors of the Kamayouge genocide. These survivors who had been living in the Bay Area for 20 years had been forgotten carrying the heavy burden of PTSD and decades of silence without adequate income, access to social services, culturally grounded mental health support or language appropriate care. And that’s how ser Siri came to be. And it was through their resilience, inclusiveness, and deeply humane cultural values that transformed this vision into uh the journey of our agency today. And I just want to say that I was so touched when Commissioner Chambers talked about community and empowerment in the peer work that you do because that’s really at the heart of what we do at Siri as well. So our team, we’re very proud of our team. Um, since opening our doors, Siri has grown from serving 100 survivors of the Kamay Rouge genocide to now serving 1,200 people each year from diverse communities from Cambodia to Afghanistan to Burma, Vietnam, Tibet, Nepal, Aritra, and Iran. Our staff speak over 25 languages in addition to English. And 90% of our staff identify as refugees or immigrants or children of refugees and immigrants. Our staff are trusted messengers from the communities we serve, speaking the same languages and holding cultural knowledge and values. Onethird of our staff have been participants in our programs. And they not only bring the expertise in a variety of fields from social work, psychology, public health, the arts, but they also bring lived experience to shape our work. Hi everyone. Thank you again for having us. Um, so I’ll talk a little bit about what we do. Can you all hear me? Yeah. Great. Um, so we provide community-based mental health and social services from a holistic, culturally rooted, intergenerational, and justice oriented approach. And I’ll talk about about all of that, but our foundation to our work are mental health services and care coordination. Um, and when we talk about mental health services, we talk about some of the traditional model models of psychiatry and therapy, but we bring the cultural lens to that. But we also talk about when we talk about our um mental health services, we’re also talking about lay counselors which are folks from the community serving people from their community in the language and with the same lived experience often. So some of our folks who are genocide survivors of themselves or family members of genocide survivors are actually pro providing the services. So they’ve been through that and they’re providing lay counseling and supportive services and we find that very effective in the communities we work. We have um support groups. So, I’d love for anyone to ever come by. Our support groups are amazing. We dance, we sing together, we cry together. There’s a lot of trauma that our folks have gone through. Um and we spend a lot of time together in those support groups developing community. That’s the kind of backbone of our agency in a lot of ways. So, if you talk to an elder from our community, they might say, “I’m in Wednesday group.” And that’s kind of their their that’s they’re very proud of their Wednesday group affinity. Um, so we have a monthly psychiatry clinic which our psychiatrist has been providing once a month for about 20 years now. He does that pro bono. He’s been working with the community for a really long time and they really trust him. And that’s a party, by the way. Also, there’s dancing and singing and food there. It’s happening today. I’m missing it. I’m sad. Um, we have a clinical training program and that is I’m the clinical director, but we have a lot of different modalities that we teach folks. again those are usually are all our bipok folks from the community serving the community um and that we are really work on the stigma of mental health so that we u many of the folks that come are not saying I you there’s something wrong with me there’s something happened to me and we’re supporting them and um so many people don’t feel like coming to our psychiatry clinic or coming to groups or anything is problematic it’s actually a joy um we also u provide social services and care management to folks. So that’s um again from our trusted messenger um model and they provide everything from um both uh kind of um hands-on like helping them apply for medical Calresh all of those benefits. And we’re now doing a ton as you all may imagine um immigration support for folks who are asylum seekers from folks that are um at risk of deportation and we’re doing a lot of work around that. Um, so that’s hands-on every day, helping people, um, and also managing their anxiety about what’s happening in the world right now. Um, we have a youth group, um, which is awesome. That started because one of our youth u, one of our elders came to us and said, “We’re good now. We’re actually doing pretty well, but we’re really scared about our youth.” And so we started a youth group. And then one of our boys came to us and said, “Why do they have a girls group? We need we want a boys group.” So we started that. And that’s how we start all of our groups. say um when the fall of Cabal happened inuh 21 2021 um our elders said we can’t this is terrible what’s happening to Afghan folks can you start a group for them so we started the service for for them um let’s see did I forget anything Laura oh I want to say also that just main part of our services is the mental health and care coordination but we come from a liberation model so we also believe that advocacy is a big part of that so we do advocacy see um on so many levels advocating like here today, but also our um our elders and our community members come and advocate for themselves. We um really supported a lot of our elders to vote and so now many of them are voting and super proud of that. And when voting was really scared in Cambodia, you couldn’t do any of that stuff because it was a risk of um you know speaking up at all. Them being able to do that is amazing. And the only thing I’ll add is just arts and cultures infused into everything that we do. Having cultural foods is an important part of every group and every event. And um preserving cultural practices that were nearly lost for many of these communities is a key part um of uh sustaining mental health and well-being as well. Thank you. That’s big. I forgot that. So um with uh CBH, we are so thrilled that you partner with us to do work um for the next three years and actually for the last three years as well. And we do 12 outreach and engagement activities each year, six education and training activities and six uh local level advocacy activities. And um through our outreach engagement, we promote knowledge of culturally relevant strategies for behavioral health and emotional wellness. We connect people to community health workers and interpreters and to knowledge of public services and benefits. And it’s also a great opportunity for us to learn directly from the community about their needs and the barriers and training and education. Like Kate said, we have training programs for clinicians and community workers. And we uh really try to uplift models that work well with refugees and immigrants. And we um in our local level advocacy try our best to include our clients themselves in advocating for um to be at the decision-making table about their health and well-being. So some highlights um doing this work with you all. So um these are this we’re just sharing a few things that we’ve done in the last year. Um but we do outreach and engagement at our community and cultural events. So you’ll see here just a couple of examples. one where we had a youth event over the summer reaching 200 people with youth stories and art and also school supply distribution. But again, an opportunity to hear directly from community members about their needs. We have a an ongoing stories of home project where we work with community leaders to um create video vignettes about their lives um because we think it’s really important to create these counternarratives especially right now when there’s such a context of xenophobia. um that there are other stories about refugees and immigrants being told. Um each year we hold uh a Cambodian ancestral holiday event, Pachcham Bun, um that we do in partnership with Prescidio Trust and Golden Gate National Parks because we want our refugee and immigrant communities to know that their local neighborhoods, their parks are for them as well. And we have about 400 people from across the Bay Area region show up to that event each year. We also recently had a beautiful photo exhibit in San Francisco, our language, our stories to uplift the experiences of refugees and immigrants. Um we hold a um annual celebration of Deshine and Deepawali which is a significant celebration in the South Asian community and we are so proud to uplift our um Kamai Amathak youth dance troop which is completely youthled. They started in 2023 with just five young women who wanted to preserve cultural practices that were nearly lost in the genocide. And now they have over 20 participants. They mentor each other and they go across the Bayer area region to um dance and also to share about SE’s work. Just this year alone, they’ve already done 10 performances. So I’ll hand it over to you for training. Okay, great. Um, so, uh, many of our communities are living in fear because they are being targeted by ICE, um, or facing extremely restrictive policies when seeking asylum and they need specialized care that understands the unique immigrant stories. So, this is where the know your rights comes in. We were doing tons of know your rights trainings kind of all the time and this is going to be in each language that um, the communities we serve. So we serve we have 25 different languages. So we are able to go to lots of different communities and um do trainings on know your rights and to support people in kind of feeling more empowered in their bodies. Even though there’s not a lot we can do in some ways there’s a lot we can do to help them kind of feel more empowered. And then we have kind of a like a quick um crisis line that we’re involved with lots of different agencies. If we do hear of specific things that happen we’re responding right away to that. Um our other trainings that we do is um we are about to launch I’m really excited about this because I’m the clinical director. We’re about about to launch a training for our um new clinicians. So, folks that are doing their masters or just uh graduated in internally family systems, which is a model that really um again kind of is a strength-based a non-pathiz non-pathologizing model that really works with people on accessing all their different strengths and their different parts. If anyone’s ever heard of parts work, it’s really exciting. I can geek out on this, but I won’t. Um I’m listening. What’s that? I was like, I’m listening. Well, I can I can talk about it for a long time, but we’ll talk later. Um, anyhow, so this is something that we’re going to be launching for about 12 to 14 clinicians. I’m very excited about that. And this will be for three years. So, thank you again for the funding on this. Um, and then we have um what’s that? Oh, yeah. Then any other on the um oh I wanted to also talk that we are excited to also launch an interpretation training because a lot of this work we also have to use interpreters because there’s so many languages and being an interpreter is really really hard when you’re doing it for mental health. So we’re going to be doing a training on both for the interpreters and the people who are providing the services and using interpreters. So that’s going to be you know around the whole area for many people. So that’s exciting. I’ll talk a little bit also about our um advocacy. So for measure W, we’ve been advocating around funding for this um because of Prop One, which has been really actually we understand kind of the dilemmas around what would needed to happen with that and the housing and how important that was and I can tell tell some stories. We’ve had some exciting things around supporting our U members with housing. but also we need to advocate around continuing these services because um of the way that the way that it’s funded. So, Measure W, we’re we’re advocating with our board of um supervisors in Alama County and we have a lot of our elders come and those are some of the pictures. So, they get very excited about coming and sitting there and kind of speaking up and it’s scary for them, but it also empowers them. Um let’s see, we’ve also been um I’ll just add one thing here with measure W just to give context. Um, Measure W is a general tax in Alama County primarily intended for housing and services for houseless people. And there’s just a small portion that we’re asking for mental health services to be um included as an essential service um for a homelessness prevention strategy. Um, so just to give a little context about that. Yeah. And one of our people that attended that said, I learned that everyone has a voice. I learned how public funds are used and that going and showing up in meetings actually matters. So, this is kind of the work that we’re doing. Um, we’re also advocating for our pardon refugee campaign, which includes a press conference at the state capital in Sacramento as part of a collective effort to fight for pardons for Southeast Asian refugees and immigrants facing deportation. Sir’s part of uplifting the campaign with over 10 partner organizations. Over 200 people were in attendance from diverse backgrounds. One participant who shared, “This event helped me see how forgiveness can play a major role in emotional mental healing. Hearing stories about refugees being pardoned made me understand that carrying guilt, trauma, or fear can deeply affect mental health and that being forgiven can bring relief, peace, and a sense of belonging. Um, in September, as part of a convergence organizing interfaith movement for human integrity, Siri team members joined 200 community advocates outside ICE detention centers in California to uplift those inside and remind them we are fighting fighting with you and for you. I get everything. Yeah, she’s keeping Okay. And so, just want to brag a little bit. We got some awards that we’re really proud of this year. Um, we got the UN Global Citizen Award which was given to us by the Bay Area’s UN Day Celebration um, which was titled Beyond Borders: Uplifting and Protecting Immigrants and Refugees. It was a huge honor to be um, recognized alongside Senator Alex Padilla, the ACLU of Northern California, Alamita Health System Refugee Clinic, and Soccer Without Borders. And we also received city and county recognitions this year during um Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month for our legacy of leadership and resilience. And we’ll just close with a couple of recommendations. Um as we mentioned, while we understand the critical importance of uh directing funding to those with significant mental health needs, we have also seen the power of prevention. We want to uplift the importance of continuing to find ways and resources to prioritize and support preventative mental health um care. So we are starting to move towards a shift from MHSA to BHSA and um moving towards CALIME and being able to um provide um intervention services and therapy and continue those services. We also want to recommend that there be resources and assistance directed to CBOS’s like Siri to support the change process so that we can also continue to provide our fabulous groups and some of the more preventative services. Um there’s so many um examples in our community of ways that we have helped um you know uh reduce homelessness from um examples like just being able to provide mental health services, care management, helping them get their benefits and stabilize them so they don’t lose their housing to working within community members. Sometimes people come to us and say, “I’m at risk of losing my housing.” We go to our community, we say, “Does anyone have a room?” when we do things like that that are kind of invisible to kind of the homeless. They’re not on the streets, but they are at risk of being on the streets if we don’t intervene in these ways. So, we want to just continue to kind of advocate for that. And we see a lot of friendly faces here. So, we feel good about this this um advocacy. Thank you. Thank you. And sorry, I I lied. That was not totally the end. We have I’m so sorry. That was the last thing we’re going to say. We’ll let you keep the global citizen award. Okay. So, um, so, um, we have just a short video, um, since we couldn’t bring a community member with us today, we do have a short video of, um, our work, um, directly from one of our community leaders. And I’m not sure how I can play this. Awesome. That just happened. Hey, nothing. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Um, thank you so much. I just want to apologize. I should have given a trigger warning at the beginning of that and I’m so sorry that I didn’t. Um, so thank you so much for listening to our Ming Chong story. Um, it yeah, it’s a very powerful story. Thank you. Indeed, it was. Thank you for sharing and again thank you for being a global citizen. Uh at this time I would like to invite commissioners to offer comments or ask questions. Well, I always got something to say. Um thank you for letting us have the trigger warning. So I a lot of my work I wrote a lot for refugee communities and the API community. most of my background was API and mental health and so this is close to me um because I mean I’ve I I know too well of of you know the stories that you know the clients where we used to work um and it they’re just like was a hidden a hidden group of disenfranchised individuals that did not understand because of stigma or whatever or cultural differences um just didn’t have a voice. And like I said earlier, like I’m so grateful that you all are like leaning into cultural like literally cultural like that’s like that embodies like culturally specific traumainformed services and just the way you even approach your training and like I I geek out on like training clinicians and training peers and just like I’m I’m excited for all your clinicians that are going to come out and uh I’m from Oakland too. Um, and so that made me proud in my hometown and I grew up with neighbors just like them, like Vietnamese neighbors, other neighbor like, so Oakland is such a welcoming city. Um, and I just am so proud of you all and I see you. I was just texting somebody about your organization and I’m looking forward to learning more. You’re not going to forget about me. Thank you. Thank you. Other questioners? Questions from commissioners? Commissioner Robinson. Thank you. Uh incredible work. Thanks for for being here. Just uh two quick questions. One, um can you just share with us how u the current climate on immigration is impacting your outreach and uh people’s willingness to come to receive services and if it’s if you’re seeing that as a barrier. And then the second question is um how do uh participants particularly with receiving behavioral health treatments how do they graduate out of that? Are is or is it kind of ongoing forever or are you seeing people improve and no longer need to use services? Yeah. So for the outreach we have had to pivot sometimes. So there have been events where we planned an event and we’d had to say like actually we need to pull back or let people who are at risk who have removal orders know that we don’t know that it’s safe for them to attend. So we have had to make some pivots here and there for some of our groups for folks who are directly impacted who have removal orders. For example, many of them are now not coming to the office but we are holding the groups online. So we are making changes to be able to meet the needs of folks who are scared of um deportation also like and in for folks who are are not directly impacted even folks who have citizenship status we have found that the fear is is is very high. So it’s it’s people who are not directly impacted are still impacted right. So, we have noticed that the support groups and our therapy and the lay counseling has been really essential in just like continuing to follow up and offer that kind of support um for um to help people feel as ease as at ease as they can feel. I mean honestly I think um we don’t always know what’s going to happen and so we also have to be transparent about that and we are offering know your rights as much as possible with especially giving people the red cards and the yellow cards too so people feel well equipped if they have to um uh navigate ICE. I I will share one example. We had an elder who does have a son who um is at risk of deportation. ICE did show up at her door and because of our training she did not open the door which is the one of the main things is like do not open the door because if they have a valid warrant they will knock down that door. So if they don’t like do not open the door and so that was that they left and nothing happened to her but um so yeah so we’re finding that having the trainings and having the mental health services available both um with clinicians and with leg counselors is really essential and in groups. Um and maybe you can talk about the um the graduating. Yeah. Yeah. Before before you go to that, just to follow up around immigration, uh if you just had to give me a ballpark figure in terms of the decrease in participation you’ve seen just because of that climate, if you what would you say that number is? And I appreciate that you afford for uh virtual options. That’s incredible. But just if you had to uh scale the decrease in participation based on the immigration climate, what would you put that at? I would actually say that it’s increased. Although we have had this issue around like people being afraid. We really do do I think a pretty great job of either being able to go into the community. Um I will tell a little story. Then when we um when we when COVID hit um we had to go to um virtual and we realized right away that our groups had to continue because people were getting so isolated and afraid. Um but kind of imagine trying to get um a hundred elders who speak mostly Kami onto Zoom. If you all can remember how that was for all of us. I mean it was like press the green button. No, press the green button in Kami. and then actually going to their houses getting their like calling the daughter and saying, “Hey, can you help your mom? I know you don’t know how to yet.” So, we got everyone on Zoom, which was really amazing. So, we use Zoom a lot now and we do um work with the family members that people are afraid. Um so, I think more and more people are coming to the office because they are so scared. So, they’re actually applying for like green cards and all that and we’re helping people with that. So um and there’s more and more needs and people are like oh see we can help and so they come to us for that and we’re working with a lot of lawyers who are supporting folks. Um so yeah I don’t think we’ve really had a decrease in services. We’ve just had to make pivots to meet people where they’re at. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of promised myself in January I would scale back on work and that’s not happening. But that’s okay because I love what I do. Um so secondly in terms of um graduation we don’t really formally kind of anyone’s ever always welcome to come back but we have so many clients who um you know we won’t see for years and then they’ll call me and say like do you remember me like of course I remember you and they’ll just come back if they need have needs and then many of our elders do keep coming for groups that’s their community and so that they come and they eat and they cook at the you know you come into the kitchen anyone can cook at any time so they’re making meals they’re dancing they’re hanging out. They come, you know, their spouse comes to group, they come because they want to see their friends. So, um, we don’t, but usually it’s within a year. Like, we offer at least a year of services. Yeah. For therapy, people have about a year of therapy services, but a lot of times they just come, you know, whenever they need. Yeah. The groups, they can come forever. Yeah. Commissioner Call. Wow. Amazing work. Um, I just have a question. Um, how how do you break through the stigma? I I I I love how you use the word community multiple multiple times and I know that’s part of it. Do you work through the elders or how how is that I know that’s a often a big problem in a lot of communities. Yeah, I think I I would say yeah, we work through the elders or for community members. So people come to Siri and then they kind of spread the word. So I’m so amazed so many times I’ll run into someone they’ll be like that’s my therapist and I’m like okay I’m not can’t say that but they are happy. I’m like yeah cool. Um so people are sort of proud of being in that. And so um we you know obviously we’re very careful if there’s some people that don’t want people to know and that is really we honor that and we were very careful about that but we also really um you know we we take their lead on that. So um I’m just always amazed. I mean the as I said the psychiatric clinic everyone comes and you’re going to see the doctor you see you know and so it’s very much that way some of our younger folks are a little bit more private and we we keep that private for them. So yeah, commissioners, because of the time, we’re going to take two more questions and Commissioner Bear has had her hand up for quite a while online and Commissioner Farweather in the room. You’ll be the last two uh comments again. Uh it it does not speak to the enthusiasm about your work. Uh everyone would love to ask more questions. Okay, Commissioner Bear online. Thank you for your work. You’re doing great work. Um, I just have one question. What would it take um for you financially and operationally to formalize some type of formal partnership with a local hospital? Um, because at the front doors there’s so many problems um and there are so many kind of lowhanging grants for this. So, have you looked at that at all? I don’t we have partnered with our local um health I don’t know how do you call it Asian health services and so we’ve had some um partnership um with that kind of local system. I’m we also work with Highland Hospital and so we have a lot of clients that go to Highland Hospital as their main provider and so we work with them. So Asian Health Services or Highland Hospital but maybe we could hear more from you about these opportunities. Yeah, I could I could have a sideline conversation, but they’re not Highland’s not funding you or giving you grant money for any of this pro. Okay, so that’s a sideline conversation. I can maybe connect some dots for you. Please, please, please. And I did want to just um come back to your question, Commissioner uh Kalen, um that um one of the things that helps our um reduce stigma is the cultural aspect. It’s like if we have cultural foods, if we have cultural dance that makes like a therapeutic group or a therapy situation feel less um I don’t know some like there’s a less of a barrier. It’s more inviting and more welcoming. So the cultural part is just so important in reducing stigma. One more thing, when you walk through the door, you take off your shoes because that’s very South Southeast Asian. So people that always say like I felt like I was at home because they take off their shoes and we have to remind people to tell socks cuz some people don’t like to take their shoes off. Sorry, I know there’s one more question. I know. Sorry, we could talk about this. Um actually a lot of my questions were covered. So I’ll just say I mean it’s just extraordinary work and I teared up as you saw. Um I also just loved what you said about um trauma and it’s not something’s wrong with you but something happened to you. Um uh so um I just I’m blown away by your work. It’s just amazing. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Amarani. Do you have any public comment? We do not have any public comment at this time. Okay. Thank you all again so very much. Uh rockless round of applause. Thank you so much, Commissioners. Uh, as I implied, don’t throw anything at me. We’re going to forego our stretch break, okay? We are well behind and uh really need you to lean in now uh to this next agenda item uh just as you leaned into the previous uh agenda item. Thank you. Agenda item eight, innovation partnership fund. The uh the pack committee met on September 18th and discussed the item we will be hearing today. For agenda item 8, the commission will re will review and consider approval of the innovation partnership fund IPF framework 3.0 0 for the upcoming IPF grant program with the goal of securing commission approval for of the request for proposal outlined at the January 2026 meeting to enable timely release of funding in alignment with behavioral behavioral health services act BHSA implementation beginning July 1, 2026. I’d like to draw a commissioner’s attention to several public comments we received that is in in your packet that includes commentary and a Proposition One analysis submitted by Commissioner Carnival who wasn’t able to make our previously scheduled meeting in October but he’s here today and so he will have the opportunity to also provide verbal insights. We will hear from Melissa Martin Mard, acting deputy director of research and evaluation and program operations. Melissa, thank you. Please uh and uh proceed with the uh presentation. All right. Thank you, Vice Chair Rolette, and um thank you for the opportunity to share our updates on the innovation partnership fund today. Um before I begin this presentation, I want to just extend sincere appreciation to commissioners Sai and Magical Weiss um who as chair and co-chair of the program advisory committee have really supported and shaped the stakeholder process that the commission initiated about six months ago. I would also like to acknowledge and extend sincere appreciation to all the community members who attended listening sessions and who have weighed in on our framework. Your feedback and input has been so valuable and the framework is stronger for it. So we have about an hour for this item. I’m going to try to keep my presentation within 25 minutes um so that we have plenty of time for commissioner discussion and public comment. Okay. So the IPF was uh created as part of Prop 1 and shifts innovation funds from being county directed to state directed administered by this commission. Starting July 1, 2026, CBH has up to 20 million per year for 5 years for a total of 100 million. So, I want to reiterate what Vice Chair Roulette um said about the action or vote we’re we will be asking you to make today. We are requesting a vote to adopt the framework for IPF that was developed through a stakeholder engagement process and essentially offers clarification of the law and statute and includes guiding principles and a definition for innovation. The adoption of the framework will keep staff on track to release the RFP early 2026 so that we are ready to make awards July 1, 2026. Um, I also want to point out that with our current budget climate, delaying adoption of the framework and subsequent release of the RFP may risk partial or full loss of these funds. And I know that we um in early spring saw that risk with the mental health wellness act funds which luckily we were able to um to retain. Okay. Um so this slide just kind of provides an overview of the stakeholder process specifically um that we it started back in July. Um so we held our first program advisory committee where we talked extensively about um the first iteration of the framework. We then went into three separate um uh virtual community engagement sessions. Um that happened through August and September. Um we also met with the uh program advisory committee again followed by the CFC committee. Um we had just again amazing turnout from the community and our our stakeholders who gave us valuable input on the framework and we tried to iterate um each time throughout this process uh leading us now to today where we have version 4.0 uh for consideration. Okay. The definition that um we’ve been working with with um is that we’re defining innovation as a new or adapted approach to solving persistent problems in California’s behavioral health system. These funds are really meant to be a break from the status quo to take big swings at these problems and barriers that impact equity, access, workforce shortages, and service fragmentation. Well, in the previous slide I mentioned the timeline for the the stakeholder engagement process that was actually nested in a broader effort to clarify and operationalize the IPF. Um so starting back in fall of 2024 um we or earlier in in 2024 we did internal analysis of the IPF um including looking at how it was nested within BHSA. We did um an internal analysis of our previous county directed innovation funds. Um, in uh, February of this year, we released an open call for concepts. Um, that or apologies, in April of 2025, we did an open call for concepts, received a lot of, uh, incredible ideas from the community and our state agency partners and others. Um, which we presented at the May uh, commission meeting. Um and then that uh commission meeting launched the stakeholder feedback feedback process that I just referenced. And that today represents kind of the culmination of of those efforts with our framework 4.0. Okay. Um we learned a lot from our stakeholders throughout this process. Um, one of the uh the earlier public comments that we received was on, you know, what happens to the comments made at listening sessions and committee me. Um, and I I really hope that these slides and this discussion um indicate that we we we hear you. We we um really analyzed and looked at the stakeholder input and feedback we received. um we aggregated and and kind of grouped that feedback into various themes that that are reflected here. Um I also want to acknowledge that we’ve received uh quite a bit of stakeholder input that relates more to the nuts and bolts of the RFP uh itself and not the broader framework document. Um, so for example, Mental Health America in one of their public comments listed in the the packet um talked about wanting to see um uh smallcale grants included in the RFP. Um and we’re considering that and and have kind of taken all of those RFP and procurement related uh feedback um and are are considering it for the next part of our process. Um, so a couple of things I I in the interest of time won’t read through all of these these uh bullets, but some of the things that we learned from stakeholders included um really wanting and and uh needing clarity on the statutory mandates. Um so a lot of our the time during our sessions was spent on on clarifying those statutory mandates. Um we talked a lot about the target population and who should be prioritized. Um we also heard that the commission should ensure opportunities for robust community participation throughout the entire planning process. Um that funding should be prioritized for public agencies, nonprofits, and tribal organizations um with the for-profit sector as as subcontractors or vendors. Um and that the definition of innovation should be defined to include communitydefined non-clinical approaches um and not only medical models. Um and of course a lot of what the subsequent presentation will talk about is some of the principles that we’ve tried to infuse into the framework um which are really around it being centered around equity, sustainability, and long-term community impact. So some of the ways that we address the stakeholder input I’ll also share in subsequent slides but we did incorporate some of this additional information directly into the framework. Um we uh clarified statutory mandates and um also uh updated our um interpretation of those as we went through our iterative process. Um, we like I said around thinking about the input we’ve receive re received on the nuts and bolts of the RFP. We are exploring the possibility of awarding additional scoring points to the procurement process for proposals that have a CBO as lead. Um, we’ve clearly called out in the framework that community defined evidence practices are an important part of the system and continuum. um and created room for nonclinical strategies and approaches. Okay, I have a lot of papers here I’m trying to keep organized. Um so this slide highlights um where there really is is alignment where we saw alignment between how we were conceptualizing and beginning to operationalize IPF and what we are hearing directly from uh our community partners. And so these um kind of six principles or or elements I think are are where we um have evidence of strong alignment and they are equity, finance and sustainability, public private partnership, lived experience and community leadership, alignment with state efforts and agility and quality improvement infused in in the um IPF process including the RFP and way that we evaluated success. So we do all agree that IPF should be equity focused that it should involve community and lived experience have a focus on sustainability leverage data and and look at specific outcomes and include community centered solutions. Um and this is um I think grounded in uh this agreement is really grounded in the statute and and policy, our community partner input um and our discussions at both the committees and um full commission meetings. So, the next few slides just really um clearly point out how these elements got incorporated into the framework. And um again, in the interest of time, I’m not going to read um every single part of of the slide. Um but you can refer back to the framework. We’ve indicated what page these um elements are on. So on the left uh kind of discusses that the IPF should increase equity, reduce disparities and ensure innovation serve underserved and those most in need. On the the right then is how we feel like the that principle or crosscutting uh element is directly incorporated into the framework. So, um, we state that proposals should demonstrate how they will advance racial equity and close gaps in access, experience, and outcomes for communities historically underserved by the behavioral health system, including communities of color, LGBTQ plus individuals, people with disabilities and substant substance use disorders, rural residents, and others marginalized by systemic barriers. for our uh lived experience and community leadership piece. Um we have defined that uh proposals should demonstrate how they’re co-designed with people with behavioral health conditions and lived experience um and should demonstrate meaningful engagement of individuals, families and communities who are most directly impacted. Um everything from co-design uh through leadership roles in the implementation. So really the idea that the lived experience has to inform every step and of the process. Um for sustainability um we state uh and really uh want to emphasize that we want the projects and um innovative approaches to extend beyond the life of the grant. Um so we will be incorporating into the um proposal development process that proposers or proposals should demonstrate a clear feasible plan for long-term sustainability. And this can look a lot of different ways including alignment with medical uh commercial health plans, philanthropic investment, public private partnerships or local funding streams, but some pathway for um ongoing sustainability of the work. and then our um uh leveraging data and um demonstrating agility and and QI or quality improvement integration. Um so the idea we’re capturing here is that we want to be um nimble and able to assess early uh whether something is working and if it’s not working to be able to course correct. So the language um in the framework talks about um building the ne necessary infrastructure, cultivating a culture of continuous learning and developing teams who can rapidly iterate, pivot and operate under a continuous quality improvement philosophy. And then lastly for um our cross cutting elements um the definition itself which um I spoke to a few slides ago. Uh so that the definition should include and scale um practical community centered solutions which can include communitydefined evidence practices that increase access to behavioral health treatment and recovery supports particularly for those underserved historically underserved populations and inclusive of harm reduction approaches. Okay. So I’m going to shift a bit to talk a little bit about the um elements informed by the statute and policy itself. Um so we um in terms of the role of prevention, we acknowledge and our our updated 4.0 framework uh acknowledges that the IPF may focus on population-based prevention. it it can focus on the entire spectrum of prevention. Um, however, indicated prevention may best ensure a focus on individuals at risk of SED, SMI or SUD. But that doesn’t preclude um receiving uh proposals that have a population-based focused or um are along that earlier side of the prevention spectrum that I’ll share in the next slide. Um, we uh know from the statute that the IPF must focus on strategies, partnerships, programs, and efforts that support county behavioral health programs and services. Um, and that any strategy or effort of the IPF has to align with county and state efforts to successfully implement BHSA. And then finally that those efforts uh must align with the broader BHSA goals and consider the quality and equity metrics that are currently being shaped uh by DHCS. So this is um just to uh bring home the point about the prevention spectrum and kind of where um where we see where we had been talking about the indicated um wedge as potentially being um a good fit for the IPF funds. But we’ve we’ve after close um analysis of the the statute and discussions with um with the community and and others um have determined that that this entire spectrum um would fit uh the IPF um uh funding. Okay. Okay. So, in terms of the county priority populations, um a lot of what the stakeholder input sessions um focused on was around identifying the priority populations for IPF. And so, I want to be really clear that the priority populations listed here are in statute under BHSA um within which IPF is is nested. So um the to meet the statutory intent projects must improve county BHSA programs and those programs prioritize the following populations. So these priority populations identified in statute are children, youth and adults who are chronically homeless or at risk of homelessness. Um are in or at risk of being involved in the criminal justice system whether in the on the juvenile justice side or in the adult side. Um for children and youth who are re-entering the community from a youth correctional facility or on the adult side re-entering from a state prison or county jail. um and for youth uh involved in the child welfare system uh adults at risk of conservatorship and for both children youth and adults um those at risk of institutionalization. So th this is simply a a restatement of the priority populations identified in in statute. Um the county program county program priority populations um identified in the statute are not meant to exclude or deprioritize bipok, LGBTQ plus, older adults or other marginalized and/or vulnerable populations. Um the IPF statute specifically calls out the following populations. uh underserved populations, lowincome populations, communities impacted by other behavioral health disparities or other populations as determined by the commission. Um so we see this as a pretty broad umbrella for um who the IPF can focus on. Um, this slide just lists some of the broader BH BHSA goals, um, as well as some of the DHCS, uh, statewide populationbased goals. Um, so BHSA goals include prioritizing people with the most significant needs to integrate mental health and SUD treatment, expand housing and community based services, grow and diversify the behavioral health workforce, advance equity and reduce disparities, strengthen oversight, transparency, and accountability. Um in addition to the um DHCS statewide population goals, um they are also working on more targeted behavioral health goals um that have recently been released and um folks are are giving comment on um those metrics and indicators that have been developed or identified. All right. Um so together these provisions provide a clear statutory mandate that Prop One funding and specifically IPF must be directed towards innovative mental health and substance use disorder programs and practices that improve county BHSA programs. County programs that must prioritize the populations with the highest behavioral health needs who often face structural barriers. projects must align with the statewide goals of the BHSA and demonstrate innovation in serving eligible priority populations or groups as defined by law. Um before we go to the um motion for this group, I did want to share the two recommendations received from our committees. So at the program advisory committee, the symbolic motion that was passed was that the program advisory committee recommend the adoption of the IPF framework 3.0 to the full commission. Um between that pack meeting and this meeting of course we did some further um iteration and incorporation of feedback which is why we’re at version 4.0 now. and those um uh that discussion happened with our chair and vice chair of the program advisory committee. Um for the CFC, the symbolic motion that passed is that the CFC committee recommend the adoption of the IPF framework 3.0 to the full commission and emphasize and incentivize communityrun organizations and community- based practices. Um and we are um exploring the um feasibility and legality of that um added incentive recommendation to the RPF RFP process. So um just to quickly kind of convey um the next steps in this process um and why there’s a sense of urgency for staff in adopting the the framework. Um so here we are today um and are asking you to consider adoption of the IPF framework. Um we are continuing to engage um our state agency partners uh particularly those mandated by the IPF um so Cal HHS, DHCS um CDPH and uh HAI um if the framework is adopted today um we will continue to incorporate recommendations from community partners, state agency departments and commissioners into a request for proposal. within the legal scope of what is allowable. We will bring that outline to the full commission in January 2026 after running it um through our committee process. Um if in January the RFP outline is approved, we will start the um release of the RFP, initiate that procurement process and target target issuance of grant awards to begin the IFPF project implementation by July 1, 2026. Um before I I’m looking at my time, so I have two more minutes before 25. Um so before I turn it over to the co-chair to facilitate commissioner discussion, I do want to speak to the sense of urgency I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation. I know I’m not the only person in this room or online who has lost loved ones to serious mental illness or substance use disorders. Two of my losses are weighing heavily on my heart and mind today because it is the one-year anniversary of both. One year ago today, my mother Eleanor died of liver failure after a long struggle with alcohol use disorder. That same day, my dear friend 16-year-old died by suicide. These were preventable deaths had they gotten the right services at the right time. I know we all show up to do this work because we care deeply about working on behalf of individuals like my mom and my friend’s child who struggle with serious mental illness and substance use disorders. And I urge you to consider adopting the framework today so that we can keep the momentum going on the IPF, make big big bold swings to supporting our system of care for these individuals. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you for your uh presentation. Uh before we engage in u comments from the commissioners, I’m going to take a little bit of a chair prerogative and I’m going to ask the chair of our pack committee uh to share comments first because I know you will have some and then uh uh Commissioner Carnival to uh share. If Relle was here, I would have her go after you, but she Relle’s not here and Mara’s not here. And so uh uh I I would ask Commissioner Margarel Weiss to share first and then followed by Commissioner Caraval. Thank you Melissa. Thank you for the presentation um and also for sharing your experiences. I would just like to say that um you know we just began this process. the committees um you know we were tasked with this mission which was a huge mission and we were learning about each other as commissioners commissioner Sai myself um having the mission and really just trying to how do we do this as we’re trying to learn you know honor the process um honor the participation of the community um and everybody feels very passionate about passion passionately about this and we want to get this right and we’re going against the clock. Um, and we see need every day and I think everybody involved does have um, what drives us and so um, Commissioner Carnival, thank you for what you wrote down for us and the conversations. I think it’s important. I think that why we wanted to get this forward to the full commission is because you’re right, we have new perspectives. We have experiences in this room that we do need to have the perspective of everybody because we are stronger together. And that’s why we wanted to lift up this framework here. And so with that, we want to ensure that the commissioners do provide input to this process so that we can make this collective important decision together. And so, um, I’m glad we got it here today. Um, and I hope that we can take a vote after discussion so that we get this right and we do start moving forward, um, whatever that looks like. So, thank you. Um, sorry, not to go out of order, but can you clarify the timeline issue because you both brought it up. Well, if we hold that’s an important question. I think that we’ll we’ll uh we’ll get that because I I think there are a lot of commissioners who have that that question. Um, but I’m going to uh pivot right to Commissioner Carnival and then right to back to the timeline so you can be prepared for that. Commissioner Carnival. Thank you. That’s a very important Thank you, Vice Chair. And I will part of my comments will include that. Um I’ve taken the time to write something which I’ve never done before. Usually I’m more spontaneous. Uh but I think this is important and I wanted to get it right and uh and I can provide this these comments to staff uh for inclusion in the uh in the minutes. Um to this is really to my fellow commissioners more than anybody. Um before we talk about this particular item, I I want to begin by grounding us in something that I think is fundamental, something that’s essential to who we are and why we are uh why this commission actually exists. We’re the only independent objective public-f facing institution in California’s mental health system. No other state body has our autonomy. No other entity has our transparency. No one else has our mandate to provide open public access and real public oversight. And I personally have really appreciated that. Uh we are not armed with we’re not an arm of any department. We’re not tied to any single funding stream. We are not captured by any institutional agenda. We exist so so that the people of California have a voice. And we exist so that youth, families, peers, counties, advocates, clinicians, community leaders, and yes, those with lived experiences can speak directly to the system, not filtered, not constrained, not invisible. I think this is pretty unique. We’re the one place where the public can see how decisions are made, where accountability and innovation meet, where policy is shaped in the open. And let me say this clearly, our independence is not a luxury. I think of it as a responsibility. It means we must rise above silos. It means we must ask the broader, harder, longer term questions. It means we must think like stewards of the entire ecosystem, not administrators of a single platform or program. In this postprop one moment where governance, funding, and responsibilities have all been reshaped, California needs an independent leader more than ever. And I believe the commission must be that leader. That’s why this item matters so much. Not because of its dollar amount, but because it tests whether we are willing to fully inhabit our role as our independent, forwardthinking, strategic conscience of this system. And with that responsibility in mind, I offer this recommendation. I strongly recommend we postpone action on the innovation partnershipship fund, not because it’s unimportant, but because the moment we are in is too consequential to rush. We are standing at an inflection point and the ground beneath this system has has shifted. Prop 1 did not make minor adjustments. It fundamentally reshaped the landscape that we operate in. And yet, as a commission, we have not had the time to fully absorb these changes. We’ve not aligned our priorities. We have not even met as a fully reconstituted board to discuss who we actually are. In the last seven months, we’ve added 14 new commissioners that have joined us, 14 new perspectives, 14 new lived experiences, 14 new voices California needs to hear. This is an almost entirely new commission as as as it stands today. These voices from substance use, veterans, aging, disability, homelessness, youth, housing, community defined practices were not present when our strategic plan was crafted. They deserve to help shape our path forward as we make these decisions that will influ influence the innovation statewide for years to come. And so I ask as a full commission, have we taken the time to ask these questions? Who are we now? What do we stand for? And what should our priorities be under Prop One? That’s fully within our ability to make those decisions, not withstanding what we what we heard presented here. We cannot build a house before we agree on the foundation. And let’s be honest, there’s no urgency to act today. The grants will not begin until July of 2026, 9 months from now, and then we have a full year to make them, which is, I understand, you know, disconnected from the needs, which are always urgent and and powerful and compelling. This is not about timing. This is about alignment. It’s about strategy. It’s about leadership. And our strategic plan is structurally sound, but it predates Prop One. we must update it together to reflect our expanded mandate. I believe our January meeting gives us that perfect opportunity to align as a team and give clear direction to the program and to the budget committees and the other committees as well. Um, just putting my other hat on for a second as the leader of the the sustainable finance initiative, I I need to address this other concern that I think carries tremendous weight. It’s a concern. It’s an opportunity. The way we finance healthc care innovation in this country is broken. It’s not inadequate. It’s not inadequate. It’s actually broken. We are trying to solve a mortgage-sized problem with the financial equivalent of a credit card. That’s why we don’t have enough money today anywhere in our system. Every year we spend tens of billions. Actually, we spend over $50 billion dollars a year at the federal government level supporting NIH, academia, philanthropy, and the science is often extraordinary. But but only a small fraction of that that science actually makes it into real world practice. And it’s not because the science has failed, but it’s because our capital stack has failed. Our capital stack meaning our capital structure and our strategy. We are literally asking venture capitalists to finance long-term high society value innovations that take years to mature. But but they don’t operate that way. And I’m one of them. So, I understand even though I don’t operate in this particular system, and that is trying that’s like trying to finance a 30-year home with a credit card. Once in a while, you get lucky, but most people end up living would end up living in a tool shed instead of a real home if that’s the way we financed our houses. Meanwhile, the public sector, which is us, pay the price for this failure. uh the crisis care, homelessness, incarceration, disability, hospitalization, foster care, emergency systems. All this immense human suffering, I would suggest comes from our broken finance system, not from our decisions that we make about the programs that we all care about. We pay for that failure, but we do not strategically uh create financial prevention. This is not good governance. It’s not good economics and it’s not good stewardship of public resources. But here’s the opportunity we have and I think it’s an extraordinary one. Our our innovation partnership fund at hund00 million could be so much more than a granting program handled strategically. We could be anchored literally in billions of dollars of public private financing. By some measures, there’s a trillion dollars standing in the private sector waiting to finance the systems that we need. A and California could be the first behavioral health mortgage system. Just as we finance bridges and roads and transit and clean water with long-term lowcost debt, we can finance validated behavioral health innovations which we don’t today that have social impact bonds outliner loans, blended capital, debt back future avoidance costs. I know these are terms not everybody understands and we can discuss what all this means at another time. But these tools would lower the cost of capital, widen the innovation funnel, attract pension funds, insurers, large-scale investors, enable innovations at scale, and dramatically expand our reach and our impact. But if we act today without aligning or analyzing those opportunities, we may lock ourselves into a traditional grant structure that permanently caps our ambition at hund00 million when the true opportunity might be measured in billions. So I’m asking us to be wise. I’m asking us to let’s pause. Let’s not delay, but let’s choose wisely before we commit funds. We must understand the financial landscape, evaluate every strategic option, engage in especially I want to make this point not just with HHS, we need to enga engage with the legislature and with the governor to get their input because they’re important parts of this process and we must align as commissioners on what we want to build. So let us not finance the future of health care with credit with credit cards. Let’s build a health care system on 30-year mortgages that are steady, scalable, strategic, and worthy of California. In conclusion, we’re not making this decision in isolation. We’re making it in a moment of profound transport transformation. If we act prematurely and we act without alignment, without clarity, without strength of our collective voice, if we pause, if we align, if we plan, we can make decisions that are coherent, strategic and transformative and worthy of the independence in our responsibility. So this moment, I think, calls for courage, for reflection, and for leadership. Let’s take this moment not as delay, but as a choice. A choice to be thoughtful. A choice to be strategic. A choice to fully embrace who we are as the only independent public guardian of this California mental health future. Let us be the commission that California deserves. Thank you to my fellow commissioners for your leadership and your partnership. Thank you, Commissioner. Now I’m going to transition back to Commissioner Bunch to ask that very all-important question again. So this makes me even more um curious about the timeline because on this side I hear that there’s kind of a a a need to go fast and over here I’m tell I’m hearing you say slow down. So um can you clarify the the timeline issue? Sure. So from an RFP procurement process, if we want to if if you of the commission decides that um you want to have the first round of funding released by July 1, we working backwards, we would need to have the RFP outline approved by this body in January. Then um we would target release of that RFP in early to midFebruary. And then because of just the procurement process, it would take between 4 to 6 months to be able to get to an intent to award, which would put us at about, you know, being able to grant out the first round in July 1, 2026. And what happens if we miss that deadline? that we I think the the risk is um what happened with the mental health wellness act funds that with the the budget climate that those funds are at risk of being swept from the commission. Okay. start with uh Commissioner Farweather and we’ll go over here and I’m just we’re just going to go and Robinson and with so we got one, two, three, four, five comments and six and I’ll ask you all uh and first uh let’s acknowledge uh thank you again. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you commissioners and members of the public. Uh we’ve got a again a a unique scheduling uh challenge. At some point we may need to pause during public comment, recess to launch lunch and go into close session and then come back and continue this discussion where we leave off. We must have a quorum when we come back. Okay? Really must have a quorum. So we because we want to make some decisions. Okay? Um, oh, sorry. Um, so some clarifying questions because I’m not privy to any of these subcommittees. Um, so we’re talking about $20 million a year over five years, right? Um, each 20 million comes in in the next uh budget which happens in June, July, July. Um and then uh the the the the question being asked about the framework I don’t quite understand but I think that it would be that the funding like it these could be awarded to forprofit entroversy is um that is developing this question um and you know I mean so yeah if you could just clarify like what what’s underneath all of these words what what do people want and don’t want um is your qu your so your question is for commissioners and so uh I will uh commissioner carnival Sorry, Commissioner Carnival and Commissioner Mural Weiss. Do you want to speak to again you have a perspective and then you represent a a committee. Do you want to you want to restate your your very specific question? What is the problem? What what is the disagreement? You’re talking about it in concepts and in legislative language, but obviously there is an actual question here. um you know what what does one party want to do that the other one doesn’t? So in summary, as I appreciate this, we we have a motion and a vote on a framework today or a input that recommends that we that we delay for all the reasons that Steve articulated. I still don’t see what I mean there was a lot of articulation of concepts but like what actually would change under a different structure. So for the purpose of discussion I’m going to ask to hold that question until other questions get asked and then Steve you’ll cuz I’m sure you’ll get other questions. So if you could just make a note of that and then be prepared to speak to when you speak again that question. Uh, Commissioner Margaret Weiss, did you want to speak on behalf of the I it’s it is a very good question and I guess where I struggle is because it is a very new process where we have a committee and we have some commissioners on that committee who know more of it, right? because you’re saying I I don’t know what what we’re talking about and yet we’re bringing all this information forward to all commissioners and it’s a very valid question and what we’re talking about and I don’t want to oversimplify but what we’re talking about is a process a framework to outline how and to what these funds are going to go to and that is our framework getting community input. This is how we should do it. this is what we’re proposing we move forward as a commission and I’m going to very simplify this commissioner carnival is saying if we use that framework then we’re locking ourselves in only to that where there’s other considerations we could have for the dollars that’s that’s at the most basic and so that’s where we are at without without going through the whole packet he’s just saying okay thank you committee this is what you did you took all this feedback in here’s a framework New York. The concern is from my understanding is Commissioner Carneal is saying, “Look, we need to slow down. We need to get input from all commissioners with all perspectives before we lock ourselves into just this framework at its most simple. That’s that’s what we’re saying.” All right. Thank you. I appreciate that. That That was a splendid uh summary. Splendid. Splendid. Okay. We’re going to go to uh uh Commissioner Palmano and then we’re going to go come back this way and we’ll start with Commissioner Larson and we’ll just go in order. Uh so everyone who have raised their hand I think everybody did and then at some point we’ll come back to Commissioner Carnival. Okay. Thank you. We’ll get the commissioners online as well. Yes. Thank you first off to staff. I actually went through the um meeting uh agenda items couple of times and actually checked that with SB 326 or popularly known as Proposition 1 to ensure that there is really consistency and I can I can confidently say that there is consistency in what the statute speaks of as to the target population, the priority population and what we should be doing with these funds. I know the word innovation sometimes it procures this mindblowing activity or uh projects right that we need to be uh funding and in a way it is because Proposition one really restructured what Prop 63 was previously doing. The administration and the voters of California rearranged the buckets. They specifically mentioned um who are the priorities for these funds and you know uh Melissa did a great job of articulating those and when I think of innovation it really is the transformation on the delivery of care. This is just a framework that we are voting on. We will be seeing the individual applications from entities. It is within those applications that we have further input on whether we should have um changes or we should be requesting changes or you know getting some clarification on what those uh projects that we would be approving uh would be. So to me this is not like the end of the world kind of vote. It’s actually very simple. It does not need to include everything because like I said the nuts and bolts would be included in the individual applications of which of which all of us uh board members uh would have the ability to comment and uh you know ask questions. And lastly, I echo the urgency that Melissa and our uh commission staff uh speaks of. We cannot let this money be dormant. This is a yearly allocation. Let’s get this moving. And I also want to let you know that when we were doing 326, the legislature was the one that put that 100 million in SB 326, not the administration, the the legislature, assembly, and the senate. So I just wanted to be clear that you know the legislature has always supported the work of this commission. Uh but also there is an urgency uh that we need to move forward. Thank you. So I will be voting yes on this one. Commissioner Larson and then we’ll just keep going around the table. Thank you. Uh I uh I’m just going to do a little history to remind everybody that before MHSA there was AB34 and AB2034 which had similar target populations or priority populations and as MHSA has evolved over the past 20 years we’ve kind of got away from that and a part of it was the focus on prevention and now with Prop 1 they’re saying actually specialty mental health plans the counties are responsible for the sickest of the sick and our we exist only for that reason to support that goal of supporting those priority populations. The reason we have an innovation partnership fund is because counties lost the innovation funds and the legislature said, “Hey, we don’t want to lose the innovation forward progress, so let’s set aside this money.” And all of that being said, it is very clear that this commission has a little bit of a target on it from the administration. And with the looming budget issues that are coming, billions of dollars worse than were originally anticipated in the most recent LAO report, we cannot afford to delay action on these dollars because if we do, I think we’ll just lose them and I would hate to have that happen. And so I fully support aligning the innovation partnership funds with the priority populations al uh within Prop 1. Thank you. Uh thank you. I hope I’m not being totally redundant with some of the things you just said, but um I I do want to um continue the point you made about the beauty of this commission. It’s made up of very diverse points of view and very diverse life experiences. Um, and so I think we have to try to find a way to meld those when we are moving forward. I I do want to underscore that it is not a 100 million all at once. It’s going to be a individual 20 million each year dependent on agreement of the legislature and the governor. So if we hold off and don’t spend it, we are again at risk of being criticized for not being able to get our funds out, which we were last year and was one of the reasons we nearly lost the allocation from last year. So I I would strongly encourage us to try to find a way to combine some of the concepts that Commissioner Konavali is bringing forward with moving forward to be prepared to spend the money that we do hope will be in this year’s budget. uh I we it’ll only be the first fifth that we will be allocating and the I think the framework is broad enough or we can revisit it. We could have additional motions to revisit the framework for out years uh looking at some of the uh concepts commissioner Kavali has brought up. But I the only caveat to that I I do want to say that again back to diverse points of view he has a view of us more globally but in reality we have a very limited control over the behavioral health system. We do not control any of the other funding. We would only be making recommendations with regard to substantial refunding or reconfiguring of the broader behavioral health system. Thank you. Excuse me. Yeah, I can probably tailor my comments because of a couple things have already been said. Uh I think Commissioner Carnival made some excellent points around the finances of healthcare. he’s he’s he’s spot on. Um and if there are ways to leverage uh the money that we have to grow it, um it really should be considered. Um that being said, I don’t like to let progress get in the way, you know, perfection get in the way of progress. And you know, I I I think there’s ways we need to try to move faster. So, I would ask, you know, Commissioner Carnival, you know, what are the specific uh metrics or um states of of the of the proposal that you’re looking for to that would make you feel like we’re ready to push this forward. I when you comment, I’d love to hear more uh explicit detail around, you know, what you’d be looking for to make you feel comfortable with moving it forward. Other commissioners at the table on this side? I thought I saw other hands. Okay, you bring it really close. I It’ll be very short because it’s all been said, but to uh Commissioner Robinson, I agree. I would like a little bit more specificity from Commissioner Connory if he could. And then just my question, does this framework inform the RFPs? Is that so can you explain that a little more? Mhm. Yes. Sure. Um yes, the framework is meant to inform the RFP process but not preclude additional discussion from this commission from the community partners and uh you know state agency partners as well. So it is broad uh and meant to capture the the principles and crosscutting elements that our stakeholders communicated throughout this stakeholder engagement process. Um, and yeah, but again, the the RFP itself can still be shaped by this this commission. Okay. Before Commissioner Cronabali, was there any other commissioners? Okay. All right. I know there’s Commissioner Southern online has a comment. So, Commissioner Sard, if you could unmute yourself and make your comment, I’d appreciate. Uh, I just wanted to say quickly that I support moving forward. I think the chance of uh having this money taken in this environment is quite large. So I support moving forward. And before Commissioner Carnival, I know that there were two qu Oh. Yes, Commissioner Ken. I just have one quick question. If we were to move forward today based on the concerns we’ve heard, would we couldn’t we implement some of Carnival’s concerns and thoughts on a um on a program basis on meaning on once we are deciding which um programs to fund and and approach it in that manner. That’s actually three questions that uh Commissioner Carnival will be as asking here momentarily. Uh conceptually uh I understand your question, but uh I don’t want to speak for him, so I’ll let him do that. Were there any other commissioners who have questions? Yes, if I could. I I would just like to say that I agree with what um Commissioner Schwarz said too and and Robinson and what Ken is asking. I For a long time we have heard from Commissioner Carnival even in February when you gave the report. I think where the struggle has been is we hear of these great ideas. I mean I think from you it’s money is not the problem. You know money is not the problem. It’s it and but it it’s when we don’t get to the next steps and I think that’s where the true struggle is. And so if there was a way to incorporate it and and I don’t know if it’s here but but if there is a way because we do need to change it. We do need to flip it. We need to flip it on its head and and be the body that does and it’s how do we get there? So I I just you know I’d love to hear and follow back up with with our chair. Um how do we do that and still move this forward because we cannot run the risk of losing it. I 100% believe that. So, I hand it back to you. Okay. Uh, Commissioner Carnival, uh, I’ll, uh, uh, shift it to you and if you could in your comments just include those three questions and then I don’t see any other commissioners on the line with their hand up that I just after Steve talk, this is Mike Bernick. After Steve talks, um, I’d just like to say something very brief. Uh, Commissioner Bernie, why don’t you go ahead now and then Well, I was just going to say, you know, Steve and I have talked about this for some time. Um, I think he’s got a very good point about the amount of money we have. The 20 million is not very much. uh if there’s some way we can use this to leverage other funds and Steve I know you’ll talk maybe now a little bit more about that leverage and specifically what we can do but um I think that’s something we really have to look at how we move forward today um is another question but I think there’s no question that 20 million is going to disappear pretty quickly Commissioner Brown I see that your hand is up if you want to go ahead and make your comments now. Uh, thank you, Vice Chair. Um, yeah, I actually I I just want to echo what we we lost you, Commissioner Brown. Uh, and I want to just again reiterate for Commissioners when Commissioner Brown, he can come back. Um, after Commissioner Carnival uh addresses the question, we’re going to transition to public comment. Um, so, uh, again, Commissioner Brown, are you there? It looks like he actually dropped off the Zoom call. It might be internet connection. Oh, okay. So, we’ll go right to Commissioner Carnival and then we’ll expect that he’ll be back with us after lunch perhaps. Yeah, he could Commissioner Brown is in London right now. So, I think that’s part of it. I I think there are two issues and I don’t want to conflate them. There is the whole question of the financing strategy and I pro I hesitated to even bring that up. I I don’t want to make that a topic today. I’m happy to go into details separately and that’s its own big conversation and I hope we’ll all be interested in making this turning this pot of money into something bigger and and taking on the financing strategy and catalyzing the whole system to your point uh commissioner where we don’t control but we do we do influence most of what we do is influence I I think the point of the delay is is reflected in my concern that the the um framework that’s being laid out now has not been informed by individual commissioners establishing their priorities. And I am concerned that the way the framework is laid out. it’s eliminating the needs uh or or the interests of some of the fellow commissioners who have come on this commission with very specific backgrounds and the way the wording which I don’t entirely agree with but that’s another subject that the the way we’re structuring this now limits our ability in some of those areas and so I I’m not opposed to passing this if we understand that there may be some inherent limitations in the current framework that we can reconsider going forward as we think about all of the other new commissioners and their own areas. And I would ask each of you to, you know, as you read what you heard, is your area reflected or not reflected in those priorities? and and I I have had my own analysis done and it’s my opinion that this commission has the autonomy to make whatever decisions it wants. Now it has to do that within the reality of a political framework that we have to be relevant but I do not believe we are constrained by the prop one language alone. You have to go back to all the original language that established this commission for which Prop One did not change. Prop one did not change our fundamental mandate as a commission in my estimation. But again, I don’t want to turn this into a big technical debate. I think uh the question is is what do the commissioners want to do here? It’s our decision to make. Okay. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you, Commissioner Caravali. We have time for two public comments at this time. We’re going to transition to close session. And yes, um we have Commissioner Brown just rejoined. I think he has his okay line unmuted. All right. And we’ll get Commissioner Brown’s comments. I’ll state my commitment of two public comments and then we’ll come back from uh close session and we will uh recommence public comment uh and any additional questions. Uh so with that, Commissioner Brown. Thank you, vice chair. Sorry about that. My phone died in the middle of the uh middle of my starting to speak. I um just wanted to say um a couple of things and one is that as the senior member of this commission um I’ve seen many times where innovation or what’s being offered as innovation and brought to the to the commission has been less than innovative and and and it’s essentially um a situation where I think there’s been a a a tendency to to not think outside the box a little bit and to see the the funding that has historically been available from the commission uh requiring commission approval from the state that that funding basically gets almost um locked in as a way to continue um the status quo even though the the the purpose of it is clearly to try to do things that are beyond the status quo. And I think that um we as the commission do have an opportunity to really lead the way here in terms of looking for different ways of doing business. And as mentioned by uh Commissioner Brennick, I couldn’t agree with him more. This money, it’s not a lot of money. 20 million a year for five years spread across the state of California and all of the behavioral health agencies that we have is very, very limited. And although I know a lot of work went into this um this process to develop um this uh this uh proposal uh with a lot of input from stakeholders. Um the stakeholders um they understandably bring uh a perspective to the table that typically will want to ensure that the people that they are representing um are are mentioned on this list. Conspicuously absent from this list uh in my estimation is any anyone any mention of anyone who’s incarcerated or recently incarcerated about to be released into the community. Um, and I can tell you, and I’ve talked about it many times firsthand, that there is a significant need for additional and perhaps um much more innovative ways of doing things in terms of how we prepare people with mental illness who are concurrently uh facing or involved in incarceration uh for criminal activities and then them getting released. into the community. I’d like to see and and and and hear that population mentioned uh as well. But I do agree that um I think this money really would there’s an opportunity here to use it or at least a large portion of it to leverage it potentially by looking at what other organizations, what other um uh states, what other countries are doing in this area. And and examples of that could be working particularly to develop an approach to try to prevent early onset psychosis to um particularly look at youth prevention and uh treatment and trying to to stay the um the impacts of this insidious uh twin pair of problems and issues of mental illness and substance use that we are now responsible for. So I would I I agree with Commissioner Carnival and I I think he’s to be commended for um challenging the status quo within our uh commission uh in in terms of in terms of trying to look for alternative ways and bring in some approaches that are going to need to be fleshed out and re refined a little bit further than they are now. If that can be done um with you know this passing um and we can tweak this uh then uh I think that would be fine. I I just don’t know that there is this extreme urgency that we have to um move it um so that we have to have everything ready to go by July the 1st. Um, could the state sweep the money? Potentially, but I think it’s probably unlikely, particularly if uh we have a a plan that we’ve adopted on how to frame the selection of these um these grant awards and uh and and have things lined up. And I think that we need to uh recognize that we need to make sure that the governor and the legislature are behind our efforts in this area. Thank you, Melissa. If you could speak to Commissioner Brown’s question regarding um Oh, people incarcerated. Yes. Uh, thank you. Um, I did just want to um point to slide 20 um because I I want to just state for the record that as part of the priority populations identified include youth who are in or at risk of being in the juvenile justice system and those re-entering the community from a youth correctional facility. And then on the adult side, similar language. um adults who are in or at risk of being in the justice system uh and or are re-entering the community from a state prison or county jail. So I I do think we tried to attend to the CJ um involved population reflected in the BHSA statute. I I got that from um from slide 20, but on slide eight, Melissa, what what we learned from stakeholders, there’s no mention of that at all. this. Yeah, we didn’t hear that as much input from stakeholders on that and perhaps it’s because it’s already in the uh framework and associated documents. Well, and it is identified as a priority populations. I want to make sure that every all commissioners know that. With that, thank you, Commissioner Brown. Uh thank you, commissioners. Uh, Amariani, do we have any public comment in the room? We do. We have three public comments in the room. For individuals online, we are going to ask that after the public comment in the room. We will identify a time that we will reconvene. Amarani will resume the public comment. It will be online. uh you go get a great lunch and come back invigorated and uh uh to share your comments. We do as always appreciate your comments. They are very important to this commission. But we’re going to take those three in the room and then then commissioners we will transition to close session and we will uh tell you what time we will be back from close session prior to leaving the room. Our first in room comment is from Danny Good afternoon now instead of good morning. Uh my name again is Danny Theacle, public policy coordinator with Mental Health America of California. Uh again, I do want to thank the commission and the staff for all their hard work on the innovation partnership fund. Uh and we really appreciate being able to be involved and provide input. Uh I just wanted to uh come here and to reiterate the uh comments we’ve already made regarding the IPF uh and to reiterate our recommendations. Um first uh regarding the um changes in the BHSA allocations have significantly limited revenue available for behavioral health uh supports and services formerly known as community supports and services. And so our recommendation would be just to ensure that um the IPF and this framework uh prioritize investments um within the behavioral health services and supports component. Um second um it was spoken to before um but just to reiterate uh the importance of uh supporting local community based organizations or CBOS. Um the current framework uh does not really mention community based organizations specifically. it does mention community based services or community led but the actual phrase community based organizations is actually not even uh mentioned. So we just thought that this uh framework and uh the IPF uh outright call that out and and prioritize it. Third, our recommendation regarding uh smallcale funding opportunities for CBOS. Um, we’re glad to hear those previous comments before and so we wanted to highlight that again as an opportunity for the IPF to support those projects that don’t need uh large sums or investment funds um to be successful and they can be successful with even smaller investments. And then lastly would be that the current framework uh doesn’t address the opportunities that the commission has to identify other populations that can be served. And so if moving forward if something come out to help clarify how does the commission intend to identify those other populations what’s the process and then how can the uh public also uh provide input on other populations that can be served in the IPF and so al together we believe that these four recommendations will help enhance innovation for the BHSA um and ensure that populations with significant behavioral health disparities are not excluded. Thank you. Our next in room comment is from Nicole. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Nicole Chilton and I am the program manager for Access California from Cal Voices. Um, I want to thank you for the opportunity to provide public comment and just in regards to the innovative partnership funds and referencing the eight dimensions of um, what to include in proposals for these funds. Um, leveraging emerging technologies. We want to uplift our concerns to ensure that um data received on behalf of our community members and um folks utilizing any technology uh within these funds um that the data gathered may not be used for big tech for financial gain. And knowing that data breaches do happen, we want to know what strategies would be employed to protect our vulnerable community members and their protected health information. Thank you. Thank you. Our last comment is from Divia. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Divia Shiv and I’m the new senior policy advocate of behavioral health at the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, which represents over 200 nonprofits that work with children, youth, and families across the state. I look forward to working with you in this new capacity. We are greatly appreciative of the commission’s work on the innovation partnership fund and we recommend that in the in discussing and implementing the IPF framework um some of this funding be used or targeted to support programs that offer prevention and early intervention services for children and youth including uh youth in the child welfare programs. Uh we have been in meetings with counties who have indicated that their prevention and early intervention programs are going to experience funding cuts which will impact our members that provide prevention and early intervention programs as well as other CBOS who serve underserved BIPO and low-income communities. In addition, as medical implements highfidelity wrap to support behavioral health for children and youth, it is necessary to increase medic the number of medical providers to support this expansion adequately with appropriate quality measures. Thus, we request that the Innovation Partnership Fund include in its framework and allocate some of its grant funding to help providers meet medical certification standards and requirements to ensure that a robust network exists that can support foster youth to access behavioral health services. Thank you for your time. Thank you. That was our last in comment. For all those who like to make public comment online, we are going to Sandra, I’ll uh solicit your assistance now. We will return at what time, Sandra? Um, it is 12:11 right now and we would like to say that close session will resume at 1:30. So, we will put a notice on our communication hoping and that we’ll put a notice up to update if that return time is updated after um 1:30. So, please stay tuned and we will be back. So, everyone online expect that we will return at 1:30. Thank you all very much. We will now uh adjourn and trans and readjourn in close session. Commissioners online, please look at your email address from Amarani. She has sent you the link for closed session. So, you can leave this meeting and join us in close session. Okay, I’m reestablishing quorum after we’ve returned from closed session. I hope we have it. Let’s go. All the folks, do we have commissioners joining us virtually to please turn on your mic and so that I mean your camera so that we can see you as and unmute your mic so it makes um roll call smoother. Thank you. Commissioner Bear marking absent. Commissioner Bernick marking absent. Commissioner Bontrigger here. Are you remote? Yes, still remote. Perfect. Thank you, Commissioner Brown. He might be in the restroom. I’ll come back to him. Commissioner Bunch here. Commissioner Kalen here with no one in the room. Thank you. Commissioner Carnival here. Commissioner Chambers here. Commissioner Contas absent. Commissioner Design Schwarz here. Commissioner Cross here. Commissioner Farweather here. Commissioner Fernandez here. Commissioner Gordon marking absent. Commissioner Design Pulman here. Commissioner Hill here. Commissioner Larson here. Commissioner Madre Alwise here. Commissioner Mitchell. Commissioner Robinson here. Commissioner Suard here and alone. Thank you. Commissioner Thomas Beckett here. Commissioner Sai marking absent. Commissioner Wilks marking absent. Commissioner Vice Chair Roulette here. Commission um Chair Alvarez marking absent. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And Commissioner Bear is on. Commissioner Bear has joined. Thank you. We have quorum. Yes, I’m here. Great. Thank you. We have quorum. Thank you, Sandra. I wanted to provide an update on what actions were took place during close session. The commission voted to approve Brenda’s 2025 2026 and that’s uh Brenda Grey, our executive director performance goals in which she will be evaluated in May of 2026. the executive director performance evaluation plan for 20, excuse me, the executive director performance evaluation plan for 2526 and and the commission voted to approve staff to work with the attorney general’s office to initiate a complaint against Baywell Health for breach of contract. In line with our ongoing commitment to transparency, we will begin sharing brief updates on uh con uh ministerial contracts under $100,000 that are executed under the executive director’s delegated authority. Following the conclusion of the October 2nd meeting, the workplace op uh optimization advisory committee after conducting a competitive request for quotes has engaged leading resources in a leadership performance firm to conduct confidential performance surveys for the executive director and provide executive director coaching to work with the broader leadership team over the coming year. LRI will work closely with Brenda and her team to support their development leadership as the commission transitions fully into into implementing the behavioral health services act. Thank you very much. That concludes uh comments regarding close session. Okay, at this time we are going to transition back to public comment. We are because of the uh again number of comments that we have. Uh we are going to ask that you try to keep your comments to two minutes and if your comments are repeating the comments uh that was that were previously shared by someone else from the public. You can emphasize uh the points that were made. We appreciate that and say you’re repeating or agreeing with the other comments with that. Yes. is public comment for the item prior to the break or for what happened in close session? Uh public comment is con the continuation of the item that was uh uh prior to the break or at the break the uh uh the innovation partnership framework proposal that was uh presented by Melissa. In fact uh at some point we’ll put the uh motion that was the last slide uh back up. Will uh there be a chance for public comment for what happened in close session? We could we could add it. Yes, we could. Okay. I think we should. Okay. Do you want We could do it before or after. Do you have a preference? Okay. Why don’t we do the Are there any Is there any Amariani? We’re going to go back to uh Commissioner Bunch’s request that we u uh take public comment regarding the items that were reported out in close session. So uh with that with we don’t need to vote on that correctly correct Sandra. Okay with that for folks online if you are trying to make public comment on the IPF item can you please lower your hand at this time just so we can see if there’s anyone making comment on close session. You want to pull that down. Yeah. Let’s pull this down. Cody, move the mo remove the motion. Thank you. Thank you. It looks like we may have one public comment from Alberto. Your line is open. If this is for the close session item, that hand has disappeared. Yeah, disappeared. So, I don’t think we have any Oh. Um, okay. So, I do not believe we have any public comment for close session report out. We don’t have any comments in the room. So, we’ll move back to IPF. All right. Thank you. Thank you everyone. If you could raise your hand again for IPF, we’ll give you a moment to do that and I’ll I’ll I’ll make the the process comments again. Uh for those who are going to be making comments online, if you could keep your comments to two minutes, that would be greatly appreciated. And if the comments were made pri that you were going to make are made prior to you making your comment, you could note that you agree with the previous comment and even identify the name of the person. Just say uh I agree. That would be helpful for the commission. We’ll note that uh as we have a number of individuals that want to make public comment, we’re asking you again to keep your comments to two minutes. So thank you very much. I’ll go back transition back to you or Mariani. Thank you. We have 16 virtual comments. Our last comment will be Regina Mason. Our first comment is from Ash. Your line is open. Thank you. Um, good afternoon. I’m Ash Wilhelm. Uh, I’m a macro social work uh, graduate student at Cal State East Bay and an intern at Safe Passages. Um, as reviewed today, this commission has a fundamental commitment to advance equity and reduce disparities. I want to say I respectfully disagree with Commissioner Carnival and uh urged the staff to proceed with the RFP. We’ve all made sacrifices to participate in this process and showed up to provide the input. Um and with all due respect, it is possible that the sense of urgency is not tangible to those who are not experiencing the turmoil and despair that our communities and the communities we serve are currently facing. Regarding the frame framework, I would like to bring your attention to a change that you made to slide 18. Um the slide is titled uh statute and policy. To the first point in the orange section on the left reads, IPF may focus on different elements of prevention. However, indicated prevention may best ensure a focus on individuals at risk of SED, SMI, and or SUD. Uh this is different than the previous slide on statute and policy. And while we strongly support the first part of the bullet point, IPF may focus on different elements of prevention. We respectfully challenge the second part of the bullet point. The second part that reads indicated prevention may best ensure a focus on individuals at risk of SED, SMI, and Sud. We do not believe that this is necessarily true, especially for BIPO and LGBTQ communities. Community-defined evidence practices, CDEPs, have shown to be more effective in reducing disparities for our communities and often preferred by people from our communities, including those individuals at risk of SED, SMI, and SUD. Um, since CEPs generally do not require an examination or a diagnosis in order, they may not be categorized as indicated prevention, but more as selective prevention. can deny that these programs utilizing seedups have many many individual time is up. Please wrap up your comment. All right. Um so again indicated prevention programs may not best ensure a focus on individuals from BIPO and LGBTQ plus communities at risk of SED Smi and SUDD. Thank you. Thank you. Our next comment is from Joel. Your line is open. Thank you so much. And uh I uh just um really appreciate the opportunity to add to the the conversation. My name is Joel Bal. I’m also with Safe Passages. I use he and him pronouns. Um and also disagree with the decision to consider putting this off. You have to vote on this. Months and months of work has gone into this. Um and and commissioners certainly, I think, have had an ample opportunity to engage with the process. I also do want to echo the importance of bringing all of the commissioners full uh backgrounds and experiences into this process and would assume that would be a major part of the the lens with which they would look at any of the um uh different proposals emerging from this. I really want to thank you for recognizing the concerns that our communities have brought and and the process of of refining the uh the the the document. Um, and I also appreciate that you’re trying to align the IPF with statewide objectives. And in fact, my broader, this broader perspective really informs my comments. Um, you know, DHCS recently released an issue paper in which they stated the BHSA rebalances funding priorities without abandoning prevention efforts, including prevention and early intervention services um, for individuals at risk and uh, of uh, who do not have a diagnosis. Um, the vast majority of funding under Prop One does go to people with serious mental illness issues. We do not oppose that, but funding must also be allowed to go to people who have not been diagnosed. And this is going to be one of the few places where that funding can be in fact um, earmarked and highlighted. So I strongly encourage you um as you move forward and I know some of that language is in uh the document but I hope that it will be there not only in um reality but in spirit as well that this need for um supporting innovation prevention and early invention um has to be maintained. So, uh, we hope when the RFP comes out that language is clear and there’s no absolutely does not discourage folks from providing CDEPs or, uh, prevention programs from applying. Thank you. Thank you, Joel. Our next comment is from Alberto. Your line is open. Good afternoon, commissioners. Uh, my name is Alberto Perez Randon. Uh, I work for La Clinica in Oakland. I’m the manager of the prevention and early intervention program here and I have two comments. The first one is echoing what my previous uh the two previous com um speakers uh said around not delaying this process further. We have done already um a lot of work uh a lot of comment a lot of feedback to you all about this uh framework and um as it was said before um our communities need these resources now and so any delay on uh the allocation of this funds will really cause some stress in many of our participants and um community members that we serve. And the other piece is also following up on what is being said before. Our community defined evidence practices have proven to be effective. Uh and they do not require a diagnosis. Uh but we have proven uh by way of some exhaustive evaluation that’s been conducted through CRDP that we do deliver and preventing uh uh further illness. We are the ones out there with our interventions um that are culturally, linguistically and otherwise competent. uh catching individuals before they become severely mentally ill, before they get a diagnosis, before they start using, before they go into the streets. And so, please u make sure that prevention is continue. It’s part of the continuum of services um that we’re trying to address and uh with proposition one. Um and so that’s my comment. Uh thank you. Thank you. Our next comment is from Anastasio. Your line is open. Thank you. Uh, good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Anastasia Flores with Asian-American Recovery Services, a program health 360. Thank you for this opportunity to speak and listen to our recommendations. We are privileged to have been one of the 35 programs under CRDP providing services for the Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander NHPI community in the San Francisco Bay area. In the last eight years, we have become a trusted entity in the NHPI community like many other communities of color. We are not helpsekers. If we do, we do so within. This prevents our community members from experiencing mental health. those experiencing mental health and substance use challenges from receiving services they desperately need. RCEP has been able to educate, create awareness, reduce stigma around mental health, SUD, and most importantly, engage those experiencing challenges into services. The value of our CEPS is that we have a relationship with the community we serve. We have the ability to reach a person in isolation and make referrals to services. I’d like to quote my and honor my late colleague Nani Wilson. We are a bridge to services and wellness in our community. Uh lastly, the strength of our CADEP is due to the California reducing disparities project as they have provided support technical assistance and building our capacity. The structure of CRDP allowed us to learn from other 34 programs and their expertise in serving their respective communities. also be a part of an advocacy group that has uplifted the voices of our communities and and most importantly by providing a local and statewide evaluation process that has proven that our CEPs are both effective and impactful. I ask to please prioritize CEPs for funding and continue with the RFP process as a gap in services for some of these programs can result in more deaf anniversaries. Thank you. Thank you, Anastasio. Our next comment is from Kevin. Your line is open. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Kevin Eric Dredge. Again, thank you for the chance to speak. Yesterday, I spent the entire day reaching out to them via their help. Who’s that? Am I on or what? Yeah. Yes, we can hear you. Please go ahead. I just had a Can we redo the time? I just had somebody appear in my screen talking. Yeah, go ahead. We’ll start now. Okay. Thank you. Um, again, good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Kevin Eric Dredge. Thank you again for the chance to speak. Yesterday I spent the entire day at Learn for Life Sacramento, which is a learning academy with about 50 independent study high school students. These young people carry a lot on their shoulders. Family instability, loneliness, fear, and pressure to navigate life alone. What I witnessed was simple. Before crisis, connection works. I didn’t bring intake forms or appointments. I brought a small table as shown, a wooden nickel, a green ribbon, and the simple piece of paper that’s all about me. That was enough. It really was. I can remember five different students offhand and um they opened up about their lives. One student overwhelmed by family addiction. Another student struggling with identity. Another student who said nobody asks him how he’s doing. A student sharing her parent separation. A student who handed me a wooden nickel with a heart on it and said, “Keep this one.” None of these conversations happened in a crisis moment. They happened before the crisis. That is what early intervention looks like. This is what prevention actually feels like on the ground. Small tools, small moments, and a big impact. My request is this. Whatever decisions that you make today on the innovation partnership fund, please ensure the framework supports simple community level early intervention spaces, the kind that meet people before the emergency call, before the hospitalization, and before the fog closes in. We save lives quick. We save lives quietly. We save lives. Is that please wrap up your comment? Yeah, I was just going to say we save lives quietly, cheaply, and consistently. We support these early moments and I just wanted to thank you again for your time and your services and your commitment to making California’s mental health future um better. Um respectfully Kevin Eric Dredge. Thank you so much. Thank you Kevin. Um our next public comment is from Stacy. Thank you Stacy Heramoto with Remco and with Safe Passages. I really want to thank Melissa Martin Mard for a couple things. First, for your honesty and letting us know about your situation and how that motivates you because I know you are motivated because you and the commission have been very very good about collaborating with the community and listening to us and I really want to acknowledge that. Uh, second, I would like to um thank the commission for having Siri on this earlier. And I hope that you noticed that Siri asked for um prevention programs because that is what is again so effective for bipok and LGBTQ and obviously immigrant communities too. So that’s why we always are trying to get prevention funded with these dollars. Um I also want to support the comments of Ash Wilhelm about the premise that indicated prevention that that you um have that may be best. It is not necessarily best in this grant over selective and other types of prevention. um that thought that it is as detrimental again to bipok and LGBTQ communities. Then on slide 11, you have a focus on sustainability. Well, while that is important, you need to understand that seeds are very difficult to be funded with medical dollars. and just saying that you’re going to um make um or you’re going to help or you’re expect all of these CBOS to become medical certified is not is not good because that’s not appropriate. Some of them don’t want it. Um and so I please consider sustainability. Thank you again so much. Thank you Stacey. Our next comment is from Monica. Your line is open. Thank you. Thank you. Um my name is Monica. I just want to agree with what has been said by Stacy Alberto. I urge the comm the commission to move forward with this project and vote. Erh, I just want to highlight the importance of the prevention and early intervention model in mental health in California supported by CRDP. This model has helped many community programs become become community evidence-based mental health programs and these efforts represent some of the most innovative work in our state to promote equity, expand access and ensure long-term impact in mental health for vulnerable and underserved immigrants community. This contribution should be recognized and fully included in the innovation partnership fund. It is important that no diagnosis be required to receive services under this fund. There is also no such requirement in prevention and early intervention. Nor is there any rule prohibiting services for people who do not have a diagnosis or who do not have any serious mental illness. We understand that most proposition one funding will go to people with serious mental illness and we do not oppose that. However, funding must also remain available for individuals who have not been diagnosis or who have experienced mild to moderate needs es especially within innovation prevention and early intervention. Early support saves lives, lower cost and strengthen our communities. I respectfully ask that these preventative approaches continue to be a central priority. Thank you. Thank you. Our next comment is from No. Your line is open. Hi, good afternoon. Thank you to the commission and staff for meeting with uh community stakeholders like myself. Uh my name is Noam Tunui. I was born in Parangari, Mitraakan, Mexico, and I work with Miko India Community Organizing Project, a community-based organization that serves California Central Coast in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Liso Bispo. We serve women, men, and non-binary migrant indigenous uh Mexican and Latino community members, many who are farm workers. Um, most of which was uh speak a multitude of variants within the Miksteeco language from Waka, Mexico. Others speak indigenous languages like Sapoteco, Trii, Buricha, such as my grandmother. Uh I oversee living with love which is a mental health and domestic violence prevention and early intervention program that uh is also a CDEP here in Oxnard or she mashlands and it’s been part of the California reducing disparities project uh where we’ve been leading rigorous uh research to prove that innovative culturally and linguistically appropriate programs really do work. Um, this year our community faced the biggest and most violent ICE raids in our county, kidnapping 361 of our mothers, daughters, grandparents, and even resulting in the violent death of Haime Alanise. Many of those families continue to sit in for-profit detention centers across the country without due process or fair representation. And this crisis has only heightened the mental health needs where we’re witnessing higher levels of domestic violence, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideiation among our community. We need resources now. Our families can’t wait. We urge this commission to specifically prioritize programs aimed at supporting BIPO and LGBTQ communities that you move forward with this project and complete the RFP by your January committee meeting. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next public comment is from Hosaphina. Your line is open. Oh, thank you so much. Um, I am I I guess I mean I want to support the comments of the previous speakers, but also I want to commend the staff and the commissioners uh for the courageous uh leadership that you’re demonstrating in the development um and the um approval hopefully today of the framework that’s been put forward. given the context at the federal government, the state, you are demonstrating a tremendous amount of courageous leadership on behalf of the state of California and I want to appreciate all of you for your tremendous work in putting this forward. I also want to state that um this has been a very collaborative uh process uh with a tremendous amount of stakeholder engagement. Um many of us have been to numerous meetings about this particular topic and contributed really valuable insight uh and experience about um how things have rolled out previously and how we would like things to roll out in the future. So I really want to appreciate the staff and the commission for the leadership that they’ve demonstrated through this process and urge you all to vote today to approve the framework. Thank you. Thank you. Uh there were hand raised but it seems like Zoom might be glitching and lowered hands. If you had your hand raised please go ahead and raise it again. Our next comment is from Teslim. Your line is open. Uh great. Thank you so much uh commissioners uh for all of the work done on this framework. Uh my name is Tesla Maro, executive director of supportive housing community land alliance. Uh we’re an MHSA innovations funded project. Um and uh we’re a community land trust um that uses the community land trust and partners with supportive services providers to provide housing for individuals with serious mental illness. Um we would like to urge the commission to prioritize uh previously innovationf funed uh projects. Um at least creating a set aside with the understanding that you know I think there was a comment earlier that some of the previous innovations projects were not as innovative as some commissioners might like. um but hope that there is no delay in the release of the RFP given the alignment with the uh fiscal year of most uh counties and uh the uh ability for the commission through the RFP to specify more innovative concepts like social impact bonds or other innovative financing uh mechanisms. So, um, appreciate all of the work and again, uh, our recommendation is to not only create a set aside for previously in innovative projects, um, but also, uh, maintain the, uh, timeline for release of the RFP. Thanks. Thank you. Um, it looked like Zoom did the glitch, but we took a screenshot. Um, I believe the next person was Carly. Your line is open. Oh, okay. Thank you so much. Hi everyone. Carly Stzer again. Uh, for the sake of time, I just want to uplift comments that have already been given by some of our member organizations, including staff from Safe Pass, Safe Passages, HealthRight 360, and Llin Laaza. We will also follow up with written comments, but want to emphasize the comments that have already been given and the importance of the commission moving forward with the partnership fund. Thanks so much. Thank you. Our next comment is from Si. Your line is open. Hello. Hi. My name is STO Tala. She her pronouns. I’m a MSW student at UC Berkeley and I’m also a intern at Safe Passages. Firstly, um I also wanted to thank the commission and staff for u meeting with and listening to community stakeholders. We really appreciate this um open forum. Secondly, I also wanted to uplift uh previous comments that were made about moving forward with the with the project and not delaying the vote. And then lastly, um you know, we wanted to acknowledge that the working framework has been changed. you know, several times, but it now includes new language um that addresses our our previous concerns. And those original concerns were that the innovation partnership funds would be strictly limited to only people with serious emotional disturbances, SED, serious mental illness, SMI, and/or substance use disorders, SUD. And so we understand that the BHSA emphasizes serving children and adults that have those diagnosis or fall into those categories. Um we believe strict that strictly limiting programs and services to only those populations doesn’t serve the communities that we represent as many BIPO and LGBTQIA plus communities don’t always engage with, you know, more traditional mental health services or the behavioral system as a whole for a variety of reasons. And so, um, we just really wanted to thank you for listening to us and implementing that like new language. Particularly, I wanted to highlight, um, the third paragraph on page one of version 4 where it says that the BHA, BHSA focuses on individuals with the highest behavioral health needs, including those who suffer from SED, SMI, SUD. And so, previously that sentence didn’t have the including those part. And you know, even though it is small and people might not notice, we did and we want to show appreciation for y’all making, you know, the language more accurate so that we’re better able to serve our communities and provide a more holistic time to wrap up your comment. Thank you. Yes. Um and so we appreciate that language change and so um it allows us to better serve our communities and provide a more holistic and cultural approach to addressing mental health needs. Thank you. Thank you. Our next public comment is from Regina Mason. Your line is open. Thank you for um allowing me to speak. I appreciate this. Um, I just I was prepared to say something totally different than I am now, but after listening to what I’ve heard today, um, I just want to say that to give you some sort of perspective on why it’s important to, uh, to really prioritize SEPS. our organization came to fruition. We served African-Americans in Monterey County and for the first time in the history of Monterey County, African-Americans who had been unserved, underserved, and inappropriately served had no place to go to heal. And now they have the village project. It was uh born out of uh funding from Prop 63 and 17 years later we now have a SEP that’s been going on for nine years serving children of African ancestry um in grades K through four, teaching them about their ancestry and heritage to reduce the long-term debilitating mental health issues that uh that present themselves when children of African ancestry really don’t get the kind of culturally affirming services that they are should be entitled too. And I want to say that as the commission continues shaping priorities and funding structure, I want to uplift the importance of uh of supporting programs like ours that were created because uh we dared to imagine uh different communitydriven approaches to healing. The Village Project is living proof that when community need, cultural knowledge comes to light through funding, then everyone benefits. Not only do we serve uh African-American people, but we have various programs over the past 17 years that serve bipok LGBTQ plus individuals from a culturally affirming perspective. and we have uh churned out uh nine practitioners that were seeking lensure that now are all over the state of California providing cultural healing from a cultural perspective. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Our next comment is from Benise. Your line is open. Uh thank you. Um, my name is Vin Gonzalez and I am the evaluation coordinator with the MTCO indising project, uh, also known as myop. Um, and I’m with the living with love program. That’s a mental health and domestic violence prevention and early intervention program which is part of the CRDP. Um, at MCOP, we support, help, organize, um, and empower indigenous and migrant communities in the California Central Coast, most of whom speak amigo or indigenous language. Um, we just really want to thank the commission staff for recognizing our concern and changing the language in the framework document. Uh, while we would have liked the language to have been a little bit more clear or stronger in this regard, we do acknowledge that it was changed. Um, and just want to express that we appreciate this very much. Um, I just want to echo what several folks have mentioned about the importance of prevention programs for underserved communities such as the community that my cop serves. Uh, and we hope that the RFP language will be clear and does not discourage people providing seeds or prevention programs from applying. Thank you. Thank you. Our next public comment is from Fernando. Your line is open. Uh, thank you. Just a quick question. I I was just wondering how I could further participate on the conversations on budget optimization. Not that I think that any of the funding should be delayed, but I don’t think anybody disagrees with making the most out of what’s there. Were you able to hear my question? It was just how how can I participate in a extended conversation about the budget? Fernando, we will get a response back to you later. There will be an opportunity for you to participate. I thought you were going to make additional comments after that. So that’s why Okay. Okay. Thank you. Uh staff will reach out. Um, our next comment is from Laurel. Your line is open. And that will be our final public comment as the queue closed. Uh, good afternoon. Hold on. Can I start my video? Yes, I can. Yes. Okay. All righty. Uh, I’m Laurel Ben Hamida and uh I’m still with Muslim American Society Social Services Foundation uh based in Sacramento but with the statewide reach and with REMCO the Reducing Mental Health Disparities Coalition. Uh this this process uh was much better than previous processes. uh and I want to agree with those speakers who have commended the commission uh on on the process. Uh our organization mass SSF uh like Reginist was very tiny until this funding was awarded to us and gave us the chance to grow. And now uh people in Sacramento and some statewide. We even get calls from overseas uh can can get help uh for their their challenges and their distress. That distress is only growing with the current situation. we aren’t any worse off than any of the rest of the people here who have talked about uh all the awful things that are happening. But it does put us in a quandry. Uh Commissioner Carnival has offered us something with much much more money, but we think we should stay with the government. Although we know now how it can change so fast if we’re not careful and we should continue with the process as it is and perhaps he can take more time to give us examples of how would work. Thank you. Thank you. That was our last public comment. If you want to make public comment and didn’t get the chance, please email us at public comment bhsac.ca. ca.gov. Thank you, Arani. Now that public comment has closed, if we could put the motion uh back up on the screen. While we’re waiting for that, uh is there any final short brief comments? Brevity would be appreciated from commissioners in in the room. And so I see uh Commissioner Robinson, Commissioner Carnival. All right. All right. Two comments. Yeah. Just and maybe it’s to Commissioner Carnival. Is there a midway or kind of middle ground on um your concerns that could be uh let me say it a different way. Can your concerns be addressed within you know this January time frame? Is there a way to address the issues you raised within the time frame so that it’s there’s no delay? Uh thank you commissioner. That’s actually a great question. I mean whether we go forward or not with this uh framework, I would still recommend we need to go through a strategic planning review and to try to accomplish the objectives that I addressed. Um, and my mind was not going to be a comment, but a question because it’s clear people want to be responsive as I do to the the needs out there, which are tremendous, and I I I support them all, but inevitably there are going to be people that spoke passionately today, who are not going to get funding because there’s more needs than there is funds. So my question is this as we rush into this process as we have for years on what basis are we going to make the decisions within this framework because the the the input I’ve had for a long time has been all the commissioners agree we do not have any basis upon which to make decisions that differentiate from one contract to another that is is transparent or meaningful to the at the commission level. So, I’m just wondering what is the process and how are we going to be able to tell the difference and choose one person over another person when we go through this process. I’ll turn to staff and see if uh you’d like to present an an answer. And Brenda, if you also um Melissa So I think what what your question is related to is a scoring criteria um which is part of that really important nuts and bolts piece of putting together an RFP that that RFP has to specify how proposals will be scored. So um at the next pack meeting which is scheduled for December 15th that’s where should the framework be adopted that’s where those conversations will start and we can um you know continue those discussions about the nuts and bolts including scoring criteria and how to um you know ensure that the selected proposals meet the uh objectives that we’ve discussed here. I don’t know if Brenda wants to anything. Oh, go ahead. Sorry. Oh, no. Yeah. No, that’s perfect. Yeah, I think that would be helpful. And I think we ultimately need to elevate it to this. And I’ll just remind everybody there was a part two to our strategic plan, which again was never implemented to create a more uh robust data system to be able to evaluate grants. And I think there’s still that opportunity, but I know there’s going to be this pressure. Everybody’s going to say we’re delaying putting out the money by trying to make our process better, but uh I can’t help but do that. Maybe part of the answer to Commissioner Robinson is is that, you know, maybe we’re granting money in the first year, but I would like to see enough money put aside during the first year to be able to address both the criteria for decisionm and separate from that money available to pursue uh larger financial strategies that could create a larger uh amount of money. Thank you, Commissioner Carnival. Any other comments? I’m going to ask the chair who has has arrived. Chair Alvarez has arrived. So, she could bring your chair that you’re with you over here or we can we have room. All right. All right. Very good. Very good. So, uh uh any with without delaying this any further, uh we have a motion that’s being presented on screen. I won’t take the time to read the motion. Uh there are no additional comments. If someone would like to move to adopt the motion and then we have a second. Okay, there’s a Thank you, Ros. And a second. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We have a first and a second for the motion that’s on the screen. All commissioners on camera, please uh turn your camera on and unmute yourselves. I will need to see your face when you make a vote. So, please um Cody, you can take the the slide off because I want to see folks and unmute your lines so that I can, you know, see that you are voting. Commissioner Bayer, hi. Commissioner Bernick noting absent. Commissioner Bontriger. I. Commissioner Brown. I. Commissioner Bunch. Hi. Commissioner Kalen. Noting absent. Commissioner Carnival. I. Commissioner Chambers. Abstain. Abstain. Yes. Okay. Commissioner Contas. Noting absent. Commissioner designate Schwarz. Hi. Commissioner Cross. I. Commissioner Farweather. I. Commissioner Fernandez. I. Commissioner Gordon. Noting absent. Commissioner designate Pulmano. I. Commissioner Hill. I. Commissioner Larson. I. Commissioner Madreal Weiss. I. Commissioner Mitchell. Commissioner Robinson. Hi. Commissioner Suard. Hi. Thank you. Commissioner Thomas Beckett noting absent. Commissioner Sai noting absent. Commissioner Wilks noting absence. Vice Chair Roulette I. Comm. Chair Alvarez I. Motion passes. Okay. Thank you commissioners. Thank you members of the public. This has been a great conversation and and a robust discussion. Thank you, committee chair uh Mar Weiss and thank you Commissioner Carnivali. I really appreciate your comments very very much. It’s been very helpful and I look forward to the innovative ideas that we will have coming forward to the commission in the future. Uh and staff Melissa, thank you uh for your presentation and your heartfelt comments. Uh at the end we are going to uh use a little bit of an executive summary format in our next series of presentations. I believe we are moving to agenda item 11. Help me make sure that’s correct team. Okay. And at any point if the chair uh Alvarez wants to uh re-engage and uh taking on the chair, let me know. Uh We’re happy here too, but we’re happy to see you, chair. Okay, we’re now moving to the portion of the legislative and external affairs committee. The LEX committee met on September 18th and discussed the transition age youth advocacy contract request for proposal outline as well as additional items such as a 2026 legislation that the full commission will hear about and the full commission will hear about future meetings. As a reminder, the commission has recently affirmed its commitment to including the client, family, and community inclusion, lived experience, and diversity advisory committee in providing feedback on our grant making processes. Given that the CFC meeting was fully dedicated to the innovative partnership fund which is it which is operating on a compressed timeline. There wasn’t capacity to add this item to the com to the agenda. However, the CFC will be engaged in shaping future advocacy grants. It’s also important to note that this grant was informed by, as you’ve heard, extensive community engagement efforts, including outreach to diverse stakeholders. With that, she’s all ready. We’ll hear from Ryan, assistant deputy director of leg uh ex legislative and external affairs. Go ahead, Ryan. Thank you. so much. Um, chair, vice chair, and commissioners, you’re going to get the cliff’s notes version today, but if you feel like you’re missing out on the entire Ryan presentation, I would refer you to the lex last lex committee. That presentation is um recorded and then also posted on our website, very similar to here. Um, so staff’s been working uh on a transition age youth advocacy proposal for our next contract um to work with transition age youth. We did extensive community engagement um prior to this which included um a lot of commissioners. We had Commissioner Ken, Commissioner Thomas Beckett, and um Commissioner Wilks all participate with us and we appreciate them for their work. Um the advocacy goals you can find in your packet. That’s something we talked about in a previous commission meeting where we developed these goals for overarching o across our advocacy contracts. And then the history of take is also in the packet if you want to go ahead and take a look at that. I do think it’s important to highlight some of the feedback we got from Tay when developing this proposal. And so I don’t want to gl uh skip over this this slide, but um what we heard from Tay during our listening sessions at Sacramento City College and then in person um on our statewide listening session were some of these comments. Um but what we heard from them is that they realize that they’re the most happiest when they don’t have a dead end, right? They feel like they have options in life, but a lot of them don’t even realize what those options are. They don’t understand that they have a choice to live in a way differently from the way that they’re living. Um, we heard a lot of a need for connection, a need to feel welcome, safe spaces, um, using funding to serve people, provide connection to services, and, um, talking about the the part of advoc advocacy that’s building community and not just making policy. That was a huge um theme that we heard throughout our engagement with this population. Um and then they talked about a lack of systems knowledge being weaponized against them and not having credit for having experiences and how do they get over that? Um and then finally um something that was so important was that they knew that when they advocate for others, it helps with their own life improvement. And I think that’s something that we really need to take to heart here, right? Is we can show people that there’s a better way by showing them how to help other people and we feel more valued and when people feel prioritized and um that’s something that we we do in therapy practice as well. So I just want to make sure that we highlight they took the time to give us that information. I think we need to really listen to them. Um so this is just part of the themes that we heard throughout community engagement. Um they asked to build resiliency. Um they talked about skill building and they talked about peer connection. Um they also talked about the at risk which we discussed priority populations uh in that conversation talking about safety nets connection through partners and also relevant resources. So what we came up with is kind of a pretty exciting outline for advocacy and it’s a lot different than what we’ve been doing here um in our our previous advocacy contracts. So what we’re going to ask folks to tell us about in RFA is a development of a Tay-led Taycreated leadership training for Tay. We’re going to ask them to have three cohorts with uh working towards a final project in the advocacy realm. So the cohort is going to build their skills, teach them leadership skills, connect them to um service pathways and also connect them to um career pathways uh and show them that they can continue advocating postcohort, but the end of the cohort they’re going to identify a project and work to that and present that to a policy or decision maker. Um, we’re asking that the recruitment efforts focus on promoting presentation or participation to the populations we wouldn’t typically see in this type of uh leadership cohort. So, a lot of times when we’re engaging in this type of advocacy work, we get a lot of students that are like future psychiatrists, right? Future therapists. And we really want to connect those kids with kids that we wouldn’t normally get in those situations and kids from priority populations or marginalized and vulnerable communities. For the first time, we’re including some data collection and evaluation in the RFP requirements. So, we’re going to ask them to evaluate organization capacity, um, execution of the cohort in the training, participation, growth, engagement, training, and curriculum, skill building, systems exposure, um, community connection, and influence. We’re going to give them a six months planning phase up front and then three cohorts and then an eval evaluation period at the end. again, Tay led and Tay developed. And we are also going to ask them for a cultural responsiveness report at the end so that um Tay can tell the world how to interact with Tay and present what they have to offer and include um resources statewide. When we presented this concept in the Lex um committee meeting, we got um some really important feedback from the commissioners there. So, um I just wanted to say that um commissioners Bontrager and Farweather asked us in the EVA in the eval to really focus on that peer connection and to ask them if they felt different after going through the cohort if they felt more connected to TA that they wouldn’t normally feel connected to. Right? Um Commissioner Mitchell asked us to compile a list of resources. We’ve made that a requirement. Now, we’re going to have them publish a list of statewide programs and services for Taye. Right. Um and then um Commissioner Callen also asked for resource connection. It’s now a part of the RFP. And Commissioner Larson um kindly offered that we add to our connection uh career connections uh SUD council counselor. So we’ve added that in there along with peer specialist, wellness coach, uh community health worker pathways. So we’ve included the pathway to the certified SUD counselor. Um, we’ve been talking about the priority populations and um, so I’m not going to read them out for you again. They’re in the packet. But one thing that we’re really excited about in this um, outline is uh, two things really. We we constantly hear from Tay um, that they’re not compensated for their time on working on these types of things. And so we’re building into the outline a percentage of the contract that should be used for recruitment and retention, right? And so those would more commonly be known as like a stipend for their for their work, right? and that will also help them to stay engaged. The second um set of funding that we’re providing them with is equity access funds and we’re asking them to reserve 10% of the total contract to be allotted to provide supports to participants to ensure that they can participate and this directly correlates to those priority populations. Right? So the kids that don’t have laptops and can’t log on to class, we’re going to get them a laptop. Right? the kids that don’t have nice clothing to wear to their present their final report to a decision maker. We’re going to allow them to buy them clothing, provide food, provide transportation. Um, we do outline a process for approval and uh we’re going to collect receipts and document all the money that’s spent in the in that way. Um, but we we’re really proud of of that concept and that part of this contract because we really think it’s going to level the playing field and and bring a population to the work that we haven’t necessarily been able to um previously. That’s it. So before we go to the motion, um, I’d love to hear any comments, questions, kudos for the team. Commissioners, are there any comments? Um, I just want to say that I’m like I’m over here trying not to cry because I’m a part of this community. So like I’m hearing you. I’m reading what it says and I’m just like, man, I feel alone, but there’s a lot of other people who feel alone as well. And that’s where our empowerment starts to kick in where we’re like, “Hey, you’re struggling. I’m struggling, too. How can we not struggle together? Let’s go over here and we’ll do this. We’ll do that.” You’re like, I don’t I’m sorry. There’s like there’s always one person in the world, you know, like there’s going to be somebody who says good morning to you and that’s going to be enough for your day. The fact that someone made you smile today is what’s important, right? And I think that I think that there’s, you know, I was a child at one point in time, you know, and I got older and older and it came a point where it’s like I’m old enough to take charge of my life and like change the world. And there’s a lot of other people out there who have the same mentality. They just can’t do it yet. There’s no one telling them that they can do it either. So I think when they’re talking about systems as well, we should be looking at like public information or like public education campaigns because a lot of people are not educated on resources. They have no knowledge of it. No one’s ever told them anything about it. Uh a lot of stuff is, you know, culturally not appropriate for some people as well. And when you’re Tay and you’re culturally inappropriative and you get kicked out for having issues, that kind of that it’s a more than hurts, you know, and there’s no community for you to go to. So, I really think that like it’s it’s just hitting home for me. It’s it’s hitting that confidence that I know everybody has, but no one’s telling them that they can do it. And I think investing in it is extremely important because once you feel that community connection, we’ve been talking about community like this, sorry, this whole time. For someone who has no one but says nothing has a community. Like I’m looking at all of you right now like I have a community. Like I know I’m 25 but like I know each and every one of these people if I asked for support they are there and I know that but I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t put myself in a position. So I’ve also seen situations we were talking about uh clothing. I went to a clothing closet because I wasn’t able to get any professional clothing but I had an interview I wanted to go to. I had a business fraternity I wanted to go to, but I didn’t have clothes to walk in there and look like I was a business professional. So, there are so many resources out there. And the fact that there’s funding to do so for 3 years, that is so important. Imagine what you can do in 3 years. You’re 16 to 25. A 16-year-old will be 19 by then, and they’re going to be like, “Wow, I’m out of high school. I have the ability to go do something with my life. I know I’m 25. 3 years from now I’ll be 28. So So I have I know, right? I have a dog. Okay. I have a I got myself a little baby. He’s 6 years old. He’s a husky. Um but I’ll be at a point where all of these resources that I would have had puts me exactly where I am. It gives me that confidence to empower others to empower myself every single day. And I think that having funding going towards it is it’s impressive. I mean, we talk about immigrants and refugees as well. I mean, they need the exact same services as anybody else here, right? Sometimes they need clothing. Sometimes they need friends. Sometimes they don’t have a teacher they can talk to. But there’s advocacy events that go on and you go to them. And when you go to them, you meet people and you’re saying, “Hey, maybe we can go get lunch or something.” Like there’s just one thing that someone can say in your day and it changes it. So I really think that every youth age 16 and 25 cuz we’re talking about Tay, but K through 12, my friend, K through 25, we need that pre, we need that intervention. Like we need that help. And to be honest, when we start with early intervention, I feel like it saves money for prevention because you’re stopping the trend before it starts to happen. And that’s what’s important to look at that to say you have these services. You see what it takes to get to where you want to go. Run with it. Keep going. Fight for your dreams. Like you have that support. It’s there. So, I just want to say thank you for presenting that. I’m old, but still still still a Tay. Still a Tay. Oh, but I I would love to continue having these services past 25. But I really do needed to be there for 16 to 25, all races, everything. Just put everybody out there, get what you need from the state. Just get everything. Honestly, you Yeah, that’s what I mean. Like if there if we’re going to offer this stuff and it’s for a good thing for Tay for people who are going to actually start having children for us to say like, “Oh, I’m a child. Guess what? Your kids’s going to get older. Are you going to take care of them and like invest in their mental health when they’re young, their professions when they’re young, your kid wants to be an astronaut? Take them to uh what’s it called in San Francisco? The Exploratorium. like invest in what you feel like your kid is interested. By the time they hit 16 and 25, they’ve already been empowered by their parents, their aunts, their cousins, just people in their life where they feel confident enough to step out there. So, I’ve done a lot of talking. I’m sorry, but I’m I’m passionate. I’m really I’m passionate about it, man. I appreciate it. I do want to add cuz I I left it out in my rushing through my presentation. We are going to connect them to educational resources as well. We’ve written it in there that we’re going to teach them about the promise grant. A lot of kids don’t know they can get a free AA degree in California. So, okay. Valid. Valid. So, we uh uh chair, it’s a very tough act to follow uh Commissioner Cross, but um thanks Ryan for the the presentation. I I did have a curiosity and you have likely thought about this, but I think it’s important to put on the record. uh you know a lot of what you’re talking about in creating these career pathways there is uh millions of dollars in investment through the department of healthcare access and information particularly around wellness coaches and peers and community health workers. Can you talk a little bit about the opportunity for the commission to work closely with HAI and leveraging this to support those pipelines with the resources we’ve already identified? Absolutely. we um are going to ask our contractor and in our research I should say we’ve reached out to all of those folks and we’ve done an analysis on how likely it is actually for folks in this age group to qualify for those things because we didn’t want to require them to connect them to a pathway um for example like we’d love to connect them to like a psychiatrist pathway right but we know that at 18 to 25 that’s not a likely reality we can inform them of that and and kind of get them set on their way but the the ones that were uh through HAI or the peer certification, the wellness coach and all of that, they are attainable for folks within this age group. And so we have talked to all of those agencies and we’ve talked to some community- based organizations that also offer some assistance in getting those certifications and we’re going to require that our grantee work with those folks to coordinate those efforts and include those in their um resource document uh and their final report. Thank you. Any other commissioner comments in room or online? Oh, I just wanted to say kudos to you and your team. Good job. I know. I really just want to uplift your work, Ryan specifically. You are just a light to work with. And as a clinician, as an administrator, I just need to put it on the record so people know how great you are as well. And I just put my hand in the cake, but you are amazing. Thank you for your work. Okay, let’s move to public comment. Mariani in the room. We don’t have any public comment in the room. We do. Oh, we just Sorry, we do have one. Um, it is for Divia in the room. Good afternoon. Uh, my name is Divia Shiv from the California Alliance. Thank you once again for the opportunity to comment. Um, we just want to thank the commission for your work in supporting transition aged youth through this grant. Uh, the California Alliance works closely with the youth advisory board under our catalyst team or uh, which is our TA and training arm to help influence our policy priorities. Last year, the California Alliance participated at Cayenne’s Tay at the Capitol Day and really appreciated the ability to advance Tay advocacy goals through this grant with leadership from MHA’s Cayenne’s program. We look forward to collaborating with the commission in Cayenne through our youth advocacy youth advisory board which is made up of a diverse group of young leaders with lived experience who seek to drive change through advocacy and policy work. And we also just really appreciate the importance that the commission has placed on peer connections within this grant. Um the California Alliance is co-sponsoring a bill with the Children’s Partnership uh to ensure that current and former foster youth can become peers at community care facilities by streamlining the background check exemption process for those with a criminal record. We welcome support from the commission and our partners once the bill is introduced. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next comment um from online is from Laurel. Hello again. Uh I’m still Laurel Ben Hameda from Mass SSF and Remco. Uh thank you for the presentation. I I have to apologize. My bandwidth needed a few minutes to recover from the previous uh discussion. Uh did you include um a the urgency of including people young people who are not collegebound at least at the time that this organization might reach out to them who might want to be tradesmen uh who might not want to go to college. Um I I feel that uh that has been ignored in the past. We had a long time to just get the uh get get non-ol students uh included in previous policy matter. So uh if you mentioned it, I apologize, but I’d like to know. I do know that we had a good group from MassF uh two of whom that I’m still in contact with. Uh and uh it was a great project. it was good for them and they’re going on to do great things. Thank you. Thank you, Laurel. I just want to maybe make a clarification. The connection to the pathway would be an option for folks. It’s not necessary for um participation in the group. Those are exactly the kind of kids we want to talk to, right? We want to we want to mix everybody together and get everybody’s feedback, but we will prioritize all um transition age youth regardless of their desire to go to college or not. Thank you. Thank you. And that was our last public comment. If we could put the motion back up on the screen, please. All right. Do you have a commissioner who would like to move this? Thank you. Thank you, Sandra. We have a motion. We have a motion. first in a second. All commissioners on um serving virtually, please turn your camera on and um unmute yourselves for the vote. Commissioner Bayer Comm noting absent. Commissioner Bernick noting absent. Commissioner Bontriger I. Thank you. Commissioner Brown I. Commissioner Bunch. Hi. Commissioner Callen, noting absent. Commissioner Carneali, yes. Commissioner Chambers, yes. Commissioner Contreras, noting absent. Commissioner Design Schwarz, noting absence. Commissioner Cross, I. Commissioner Farweather, I. Commissioner Fernandez, I. Commissioner Gordon, noting absent. Commissioner Design Pulmano. I Commissioner Hill I Commissioner Larson I Commissioner Madre Alweis I Commissioner Mitchell approved. Okay. Approved. Commissioner Robinson. Hi. Commissioner Suard. Hi. Thank you. Commissioner Thomas Beckett noting absent. Commissioner Sai noting absent. Commissioner Wilks noting absent. Vice Chair Roulette I. Chair Alvarez. I The motion passes. Thank you so much, Ryan. We are now going to uh make a slight adjustment in the because uh we need to make sure we have quorum when we get to this item. We are going to commissioners go to uh and members of the public and staff. Agenda item 16. We’re going to go to agenda item 16. And we just lost two commissioners in the room. You got to move fast, huh? Yeah, we’ll get them back here. Uh, agenda item 16 and we’ll need to get them back here in a moment. Okay, thank you. I’ll let them know that we need to come. We don’t want to lose anybody. Just hang on. Agenda item 16. Oh, okay. Mackenzie left. She’s out. We’ve got two more, please, but we’re prioritizing the right elections. Yeah. And for members of the public, we have a little sidebar going that we we’re pausing until we get quorum back in the room. Okay. We’re going to pause until we get quum back in the room. and we’re moving into the next item which will be the chair and vice chair elections that have to happen during this calendar year. So that’s why we’re we’re moving the agenda around. So which next expensive. Well, we Okay, folks. Getting back here. We’re going to start the presentation. I think we think Commissioner Fairweather is in the restroom, but we’ll be coming back. Calling people out. I’m sorry. Let’s see this way. So, let’s go. Let’s get started on this agenda item and hopefully she’ll return soon. Okay, Sandra to you. All right, folks. This is an annual thing. On an annual basis, the commission elects a chair and vice chair, and those offices take effect on January 1st of the following year. There’s no term limits or restrictions. The chair and vice chair elected here today will start their term on January 1st, 2026. Can you move to the next slide? Yes. Um, we are now in that step of the process. The way this will work, we will open the floor for nominations. First, for the chair, we will handle each position separately. First, open for nominations for the chair and give each nominee an opportunity to speak. We will hear comments from the public. Then we will encounter entertain nominations for the vice chair and also hear comments from the co public. So now we’ll go into this and we’ll go straight for the chair and there will be two motions, one for chair and one for the vice chair. Are there any nominations for chair of the mental health of the behavioral health oversight and accountability commission? Uh I’d like to nominate commissioner roulette as the chair. Great. Second that. And any other nominations? Hearing no other nominations. Okay. Commissioner Roulette, do you have any comments? I will make I will make a comment. Mhm. So, uh, uh, I’m being entertained by Relle to my left, and so that’s why I’m smiling. But let me just again pause and gather my thoughts and say I’m I’m deeply honored uh by the nomination to serve as chair of the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. Serving with Chair Alvarez uh as her vice chair has been uh amazing. She is a super genius. Chair Alvarez, I want to give you a round of applause. I think the uh implementation of Prop 1 uh was uh strategically handled by you chair and it’s crucial that you stay involved. You need to know that I’ll continue to lean on your wisdom, your intellect and your prudent judgment as we move forward. Uh this is an opportunity in California for behavioral health system to be recreated in ways that as uh all of us envision is transformative and is impactful in the lives of so many people that we’re privileged to serve in the state of California. I want to express my sincere gratitude to Governor Nuomo who appointed me to the commission. uh he appointed me with the understanding that I would be with some of the most talented, innovative and quite articulate people in the state of California. Commissioners, thank you for your service. Thank you for your commitment and thank you for always being here so we can have quorum. I look forward I look forward going forward to having robust discussions with the understanding that our commitment to our nation state of California is a one that we indeed love uh and are are delighted to be a part of. I would be remiss without acknowledging my late wife, Evette, who always said to me, uh, Al Roulette, it is better to be kind than to be right. Her kindness has directed my life in many ways, and I look forward to representing you in a way that’s kind, informative, and transformative. Uh, my journey in life has always been shaped by my faith. My experience with Christ Jesus with God has provided me with fundamental understanding that teach people with respect regard them from a position of strengths and always affirm the uniqueness of every person beliefs uh brings to every conversation. I also carry the stories of my late son Kirkland who died because of substance abuse and my brother a PhD who died who struggled with substance abuse. Uh I thought I could get through that without cracking my voice but they’re up there in heaven looking down and saying go Al and go Cowboys. So I note all of you family members, Melissa, your words were so heartfelt when you express what your family went through. For I too indeed understand the struggle that we all all engage in when we are trying to help family members who are experiencing behavioral health challenges and problems. To my again to my fellow commissioners, I want to express my profound appreciation to the staff of this commission. You all are pretty talented people. Uh I continue to regard uh Brenda uh the team, the directors, all the staff, and uh I’ll share one anecdote. Am Mariani with tolerating my last minute phone calls asking for a parking place and then always saying Commissioner Rolette, whatever you need, we’ll get it done for you. You are tremendous and I want to pause and applaud you as well. To the people on the staff who aren’t seen uh in this room, Amy and all the team, thank you very much. You are again the visible although not present individuals that make this commission what it is today. Lastly to the community and the great nation state of California with great humility and gratitude I accept the nomination to be chair of this commission. Uh I will show up. I will be on time and I will work every single day with all of you. Thank you very much. I’m like made me cry. Okay. So now I have a motion to move the nomination and for the commission to elect Al Rolette for the office of chair for calendar year 2026. Do I have a motion? Thank you. So, I have Commissioner Pmano and Bunch. Thank you so much. Again, folks online, turn your camera on, unmute yourselves, and we’ll start the vote. Commissioner Bayer, hi. Commissioner Bernick, yes. Commissioner Bontiger, I. Commissioner Brown, I. Commissioner Bunch, hi. Commissioner Ken, absent. Commissioner Carnival I. Commissioner Chambers. I. Commissioner Contas marking absent. Commissioner Design Schwarz marking absent. Commissioner Cross. I. Commissioner Farweather. I. Commissioner Fernandez. I. Commissioner Gordon. Marking absent. Commissioner designate Pulmano. Hi. Commissioner Hill. I. Commissioner Larson. Hi. Commissioner Madre Weiss. I. Commissioner Mitchell. Commissioner Robinson. Enthusiastically, yes. Yay. Commissioner Sard. Hi. Commissioner Thomas Beckett marking absent. Commissioner Sai marking absent. Commissioner Wilks marking absent. Vice Chair Roulette. I humbly. Chair Chair Alvarez. Absolutely. I motion passes unanimously with members present. All right, folks. Now, we’re moving on to the vice chair. Same process. Are there any nominations for the vice chair of the behavioral health services oversight and accountability commission for the year 2026? I will nominate Michelle Chambers to be the vice chair of the commission. Thank you. Any other nominations hearing? None. Commissioner Chambers, do you have any comments to provide? I don’t know how I can go after that sermon. And uh I just want to go praise God and walk out here and say our great state of California and and hug everyone that won’t think I’m insane. But I just want to say uh first giving honor to the most high. I’m so grateful. Uh this commission has enabled me to find greater purpose as a woman, as a black woman, as someone with a disability, as someone that has been psychiatrically hospitalized, who has multiple degrees. that meant nothing when you were sick in the hospital or when your sister’s is dead. I am also thankful to Gavin Newsome for appointing me in this position. I’ve been able to advocate for people that will never know me. I get to share the story. I get to go in the Senate. PBS asked me about my Senate testimony the other day and it was only by this platform that I was able to go up there and advocate for women and children and families that will never know me. And if I didn’t do anything else on this earth, I think that would be a job well done to have served. So, I promise to be on time cuz I’m late. That is like one of my biggest It is on record. On the record. That’s right. No. And I I also promise not to joke so much, but I like the joke. Um, but I do. And I promise to continue to be the biggest geek in like behavioral health policy and systems change. I also commit to respecting everyone with dignity and treating people with respect and listening first and foremost to the community and then being unapologetic to tell the truth. And that’s what you’re going to get from me on record. You won’t get me being disrespectful. You won’t get me being I rate mostly, but you will get me to tell the truth. And you should know that Californians, peers, and consumers do trust me. Directors do tr people trust me. They trust. They know that I’ll be able to come here and share their story with dignity, with with force, with passion. And I think that that’s that’s my commitment to tell the truth. And please hold me accountable, hold my organization accountable. Thank you. Great folks. So we have a motion to move to nominate and for the commission to elect Commissioner Rachel Chambers for the office of vice chair for calendar year 2026. Do we have a motion? So, we have a motion by Commissioner Cross and a second by Commissioner Bunch. All right, same drill. Folks online, please unmute yourself and make sure your camera’s on. Start the vote. Commissioner Bayer, I. Commissioner Bernick, absent. Commissioner Bontrigger, I. Commissioner Brown, I Commissioner Bunch. Commissioner Kalen noting absent. Commissioner Carnival. Yes. Commissioner Chambers. Yes. Commissioner Contreras marking absent. Commissioner Design Schwarz marking absent. Commissioner Cross. I. Commissioner Farweather. I. Commissioner Fernandez. I. Commissioner Gordon. Marking absent. Commissioner Designate Pulmano. Hi. Commissioner Hill. I. Commissioner Larson. Hi. Commissioner Madreal Weiss. Hi. Commissioner Mitchell. Commissioner Robinson. Hi. Commissioner Sard. Hi. Commissioner Thomas Beckett. Marking absent. Commissioner Sai marking absent. Commissioner Wilks marking absent. Vice Chair Rolette. I. Chair Alvarez. Absolutely. I anonymous. Uh unanimous. Um for those all present. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Sandra. Thank you, commissioners. And again, on behalf of Michelle and I, thank you very much. Uh we will hold on to that commitment to be here and on time. All right. Uh so, commissioners and members of the public, we will be omitting agenda item 15 from today’s agenda. Uh so, we will not be discussing agenda item 15. We want to make sure that we maintain quorum. Uh agenda item 12, we want to move to Okay. Oh, I was wondering about that. That was very good question. Oh my gosh. We have to go back. I apologize to listen to public comment for both votes. So, for the public comment for the chair’s vote and then a separate public comment for the vice chair’s vote and I sincerely apologize for that. I don’t know how I skipped it in my script. Thank you for catching that. Too much emotion. Uh, we do have one comment from Carly. Your line is open. Hi, Carly Stellzer with CVHA. I’ll be really quick. Just want to share our complete support for the nominations of Chair Al Rolette and Vice Chair Rachel Chambers. Two incredible leaders who are always rooted in service and care. We’re so proud of them and know that they’ll continue to serve as an inspiration to all in these new roles. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you, Carly. Any other public comments either in the room or online? Doesn’t seem like it. Okay, we can move forward. Okay, we’ll go back to agenda item 12. Let’s the budget fiscal advisory committee section. The BAFF committee also met in September on the 18th and discuss the next two items. We will hear the expenditure authorization for the crusade contract and the contract process for contracts. We will begin with reviewing and considering the approval of up to $150,000 for a three-year contract with Crusade for website maintenance and hosting. I’d like to remind everyone that although this is within the executive director’s purview, Ministerialio, our rules and procedures of rules of excuse me, our rules of procedure for uh procedure state that any contract over $100,000 requires commission approval. Uh we will hear now from Lauren Quantero, acting deputy director of administrative services and performance management. Thank you. So, I’m presenting the item that was previously reviewed and recommended for approval by the budget and fiscal advisory committee at its September 18th, 2025 meeting. Uh, we are requesting that the full commission approve a three-year contract with Crusade for up to $150,000 for website maintenance and hosting. The commission’s current contract with Crusade um for website maintenance and hosting is set to expire December 30th, 2025. Uh in anticipation of that, we’re proposing a new three-year contract for up to $150,000. Staff conducted a targeted vendor search using the Department of General Services uh vendor list. We focus specifically on small business and disabled veteran business enterprises with experience in web development. In total, 12 contractors were invited to submit bids and those bids were reviewed by staff uh from both communications and IT. Uh in terms of the selection process, the vendors who responded were generally similar in qualifications, but the proposed costs varied significantly. And by significantly, I mean like per month, 30 or $60,000 more than what we went with. Um after careful review, Crusade, who is also our incumbent contractor, submitted the most fiscally responsible bid. They are a certified small micro business and their past performance has been consistent and reliable. Um, if any funds go unused during the contract term, they will revert at the end of the agreement. During the BFA meeting, commissioners asked about historical costs for these services. Those have ranged from $50,000 to $100,000 per year depending on the scope of work in a given year. Um, so with that said, the $150,000 for three years is reasonable. Um, we want to clarify also that this was not a formal RFP, but it was a competitive process conducted within a targeted group of qualified vendors and it did follow state procurement guidelines. So today, we are asking you as the full commission to accept the budget and fiscal advisory committee’s recommendation to approve this contract and to formally vote on the motion that will be shown on the screen at some point in time. Oh, and there’s the motion that the commission approve a three-year contract with Crusade for up to $150,000 for website maintenance and hosting. Um, so with all that said, any questions from commissioners? Any questions? Stunned into silence. That’s good. I just I just think that seems like a really reasonable price. It was a lot. I’m like I was like looking at the numbers. Yeah, we get a lot. And it even has some extra money built in um for uh new stuff we’ll be posting like the community engagement toolkit. So yeah, the price was right. They are micro business. So we were we were pleased with it. Seeing no other comments from the room. Mariani public comment. We do not have any public comment. All right. Uh, I think I am the chair of the fiscal committee and so I’m going to move this item. All right. We have a first and a second for the motion that the commission approve a three-year contract with Crusade for up to $150,000 for website maintenance and hosting. You know the drill. People online, please unmute your lines and have your camera on. We’re ready to go. Commissioner Bayer. Hi. Commissioner Bernick marking absent. Commissioner Bontrigger. I. Commissioner Brown. Hi. Commissioner Bunch. Susan. Okay. Commissioner Bunch. Are you voting? Thank you. Commissioner Callen, marking absent. Commissioner Carnivali, yes. Commissioner Chambers, yes. Commissioner Contreras, marking absent. Commissioner designate Schwartz, marking absent. Commissioner Cross, I. Commissioner Farweather, I. Commissioner Fernandez, I. Commissioner Gordon, marking absent. Commissioner designate Pulmano. I. Commissioner Hill. I. Commissioner Larson. I. Commissioner Madreal Weiss. I. Commissioner Mitchell. Commissioner Suard. Hi. Commissioner Thomas Beckett, marking absent. Commissioner Sai, marking absent. Commissioner Wils, marking absent. Vice Chair Rolette, I. Chair Alvarez, I. Motion passes. And I for Robinson, too. I don’t think you call me. I did. Did you? Okay. I know. Roll the tape. Okay, now we will transition to agenda item 13. Okay. I’m going to invite uh I’m going to move right in to invite our executive director Brenda Gradish to lead this item. Yeah. Very quickly. All right. Thank you so much. Um so I’m here to this is Brenda Gish, executive director for the commission to talk about the consent process for our commission contracts. Um essentially uh the team we’ve all developed a consent process for the commission for um certain items to go into a consent calendar. Um I’ll provide you a little bit of a background of the over uh our welfare and institutions code and the rules of procedure that we have that support this uh this action um as well as our current consent process and the newly developed pro process. So in terms of uh the welfare and institutions code uh 5845E um this section outlines the authority of the executive director. It states that the commission may delegate to the executive director any power, duty, purpose, function, or jurisdiction that the commission may lawfully delegate including the authority to enter into and sign contracts on behalf of the commission. And this is essentially the foundation of our uh of the contracts authority that we’re discussing today. Uh for rules of the procedure, um uh they were most recently updated in January of this year and those our rules of procedure built on that delegated authority. Um section 2.4 in particular outlines the executive director’s contract authority. Specifically, it allows the executive director to enter into contracts on the commission’s behalf in the amount of $100,000 or less and to enter into inter agency agreements in the amount of $200,000 or less. And you can find these rules of procedure on our website. The rules of procedure also define how our consent agenda works. So the way it functions is that non-controversial or routine items may be placed on the consent calendar and that all consent all items on the consent calendar are voted on as one single unit, not individually. Any commissioner may request that an item be removed from the consent calendar and that the request does not require and that request does not require a vote. If an item is removed, it can be discussed at the same meeting or um be agendaized at a future meeting depending on what the commission decides. And finally, there’s no dis there’s no discussion or presentation for items that remain on the consent calendar. Uh in terms of briefing materials um for each item on the agenda including those on the consent calendar uh our team will brief uh prepare briefing materials in advance of the m meeting. Uh these materials are going to include a detailed description of the proposed course of action, background information, what the fiscal impact the the imp the fiscal impact analysis will be, the pros and cons of taking the proposed action um and any uh similar information for any alternative actions. Now clarifying that the contracts approved under the executive director’s authority uh meaning those under 100 or $200,000 $100,000 or $200,000 for inter agency agreements are not uh eligible for the consent agenda. However, in the interest of transparency, we will continue to provide a report of all contracts approved by the executive director on uh the announcements component of our agendas for our commission meetings. So now that we’ve covered the background, let’s talk about the new pro process that we’re proposing. Uh the objective um that we’re looking to do is establish uh criteria, clear criteria and procedures for placing contracts on the full commission’s consent calendar, consent agenda, excuse me, but only when um those contracts have already been reviewed and recommended by two advisory committee meetings committees. So it would be either the budget and fiscal advisory committee and either the legislative and external affairs advisory committee or the program advisory committee. So this process is grounded in our rules of procedure and the Bagley keen open meeting act. So to be eligible for the consent agenda under this process a contract must meet um criteria um under the following four areas. Uh there’s committee review requirements, uh committee recommendation consistency, there’s going to be substantive requirements and procedural requirements. And I’ll go through each one of those. In terms of the review requirements, the contract must have been formally presented to and substantially reviewed by the budget and fiscal advisory committee. As I just mentioned, it must also have been reviewed by either the legislative and external affairs advisory committee or the program advisory committee. Both committees must have voted to recommend the contract for commission approval. If it does not get recommended, it will not be put on consent which and will instead be an agenda item. And those reviews must have occurred at properly noticed public meetings with an opportunity for public comment. But again, just to clarify, the contract doesn’t need to be reviewed by all three committee meetings. It’s just the definitely always the budget and fiscal advisory committee and then either Lex or in terms of committee recommendation consistency in order to meet the standard. Uh there must be no material modifications to the contract terms. There must be no significant concerns or reservations from the committee members that remain unresolved. Um, recommendations from the committee and the staff must be consistent and any committee requested modifications must be incorporated into the final contract. Substantively, the contract must meet the following criteria. The funding must be confirmed uh by the BFA, the budget and fiscal advisory committee uh to have the funding. The scope of and objectives must align with the commission’s priorities. That’s essentially what pack and again no material changes sent reviews. Procedurally the contract must comply with all applicable state procurement requirements be approved as to form by legal council and have no unresolved legal, ethical or conflict of interest issues. Some contracts will be excluded from the consent agenda, including those with unresolved material modifications with nonunanimous committee votes unless descent was procedural that have generated public controversy that have involve new or experimental programs that set new spending precedents that are multi-party or involve litigation or where material information has changed since the committee last reviewed it. In terms of committee coordination requirements, um staff are going to coordinate with the advisory committees to schedule reviews in a logical sequence based on the contract timeline and committee meeting schedules. the committee reviewing the second at the second this I guess it’s the second committee reviewing will be provided from the re with the recommendations from the first committee um so that we’re networking that information or carrying that information over and we’ll ensure consistency in the information presented to all committees. So each committee review is going to include a comprehensive staff presentation covering the contract scope, terms, fiscal impact, and policy implications, a written staff report with committee specific analyses, an opportunity for public comment in accordance with the Bagley Keen Open Meeting Act, and a formal committee action with a recorded vote and recommendation. If a contract doesn’t meet eligibility for criteria for the consent agenda, it’ll be agendaized for full commission discussion. In those cases, the staff will document and share any dissenting committee views, any unresolved concerns, and any public opposition that may have emerged since the committee reviewed it. This ensures that full commission has all the relevant context when considering the item. In terms of staff procedures, our our staff will perform an eligibility determination before recommending a contract for a consent agenda. So, we will verify compliance with all eligibility criteria and we will document the date and outcomes of the committee reviews, the consistency of the committee recommendations, the resolution of any concerns or requested modifications, and confirmation that no material changes have occurred since those reviews. for each consent agenda contract. Then we will also provide an executive summary noting the committee recommendations and the vote tallies and confirmation that all committee requested modifications have been incorporated in terms of the consent pre uh agenda presentation. So once the contract’s completed this process um and it’s placed on the commission’s consent agenda, during that consent agenda presentation, the contract will be clearly identified as having received committee recommendations. The chair will summarize the committee review process and outcomes and any commissioner may request removal of the item for individual consist consideration which is consistent with our bylaws. In terms of commissioner removal rights, um, like I just said, commissioners may request the removal of any item from the consent agenda for any reason, including the desire for further deliberation, regardless of the committee recommendations. And again, there was those removed items will be scheduled for individual consideration either at that same meeting um, if there’s time permitting or at a next regularly scheduled meeting. And just as a reminder, uh, removal requests do not require justification and will be honored without discuss discussion. In terms of public participation, it’s obviously key in this part key part of this process. Uh members of the public will have the opportunity to provide input during the committee review process then uh which will be built into the structure of our advis or which is built into the structure of our advisory committees. And during the commission meeting, public comment on consent agenda items will be taken in accordance with Beagley keen requirements. And staff will note that these agenda items have already received public input during committee re reviews and will note any public concerns. Can’t really see it super well, but this is basically a flowchart that shows how the process will work start to finish. So you can see that it begins, you know, there’s the begins with the contract, starts with the committee reviews. So those two decision points between the BFA and either the Lex or the PAC and then if um they recommend it then both recommend it going forward. It’s the purple there with the consent calendar and if uh either of them say no then it does not go into the consent calendar. Okay. All right. So I think that pretty much is an overview of the proposed consent process. So the motion on the table is that the commission adopt the proposed procedure permitting contracts previously recommended for approval by the budget fiscal and advisory committee and the lex legislative external affairs advisory committee or the program advisory committee to be placed on the consent agenda for full commission meetings. So and lex or or pack. Yes. Yep. To be on this BFA and then the other. Yeah, that will not go on consent. It would have to be agendaized. Yep. Good question. Any other questions from commissioners? Yeah. Um, can you give us a sense of like the quantity of contracts? like this feels very management versus governance where so can you explain like what how many contracts are we talking about here? Well, I mean I don’t think it’s a a huge volume. I don’t know. We’ve got our innovation part. Well, I guess the IPF Yeah, it’d have to be the like is it the standard contracts like our advocacy partners, the ones that we know are already going through the process? It just feels Let’s not. Yeah. Oh. Um, so, and you’re going to see this at the next BFA meeting. Um, it’s probably what’s going to fall into this most is those operational ones like security for the building, the one that we did today for crusade software. Those are the kind of ones where it’s above the executive director’s authority. Um, we need them. Those are exactly the ones that I I don’t know. No, I’m speaking for myself as a commissioner that I was approving a $150,000 website contract felt like a um not the best use of our time. Not the best use. Yeah. So, we would take it to the BFA and then now it goes through those things. Pack or um Lex if it doesn’t apply to them, they would just affirm that. Okay. And then it’s on the consent. So then we don’t have to take up an agenda item having the full commission um approve. No, no. I I I I completely understand and I actually really appreciate that you’re leaning into the transparency that we want to make sure the public knows we’re being good stewards of public dollars and at the same time I don’t want to lean in so far that we are taking on responsibilities that don’t necessarily fall to us. So I’m just I’m I’m putting that curiosity out there for us to consider. And just to to kind of piggyback on that because I was having the same question. How often does the BFA meet? By by month. Oh, by monthly. They’re meeting by monthly w with the rest of the committees. Who’s on this? So, Commissioner Roulette, Commissioner Carnival, Pomano Pommano was asking all the questions at the last PFA on Crusade. So, we chose you, Ros. Yeah. Me, uh, Cont. Cont. Uh, I can’t. Wilks. Commissioner Wilks. Yeah. And Commissioner Wilks. And Gordon. Commissioner Gordon. Yeah. Dave Gordon. Yes. Yes. And of course, Commissioner Carnival. Yes. So maybe like what we did with the CFC where it was like, let’s try this out, right? You’re trying something out. Um, and then that way over the next, you know, 6 months, you can assess, are we slowing you down? Is it not is it procedurally causing roadblocks for progress? That might be something that we might want to re we could definitely do. I think the the goal is to try to get it off of full agendaized items so that we’re leveraging our committees and then just having being able to take it from the committee straight to the commission without having to have a full commission discussion because it’s already happened in the committees. So, and just because we have the option to do it like Brenda presented when things are controversial, we won’t even consider it for the consent agenda. It’s really for stuff like crusade. We want to have the discussion. We want the public to know that yes, we did it competitive in such and such way. get all those comments, document it, but then not have to do a whole another discussion. Yeah. What I did earlier, just what Lauren just did, we wouldn’t do that. We would just put it on the consent with a write up of what I said verbally. And in terms of volume, we that’ll I think we’ll see how it goes. And I love what you just said, Myra, in terms of like, let’s try it out. Let’s see what’s going on. And then we can just refine or adjust if it’s not working for us and we could try something else. So another question just briefly, how do you define controversial if there’s any opposition to to Yeah. And it may be that there’s something we don’t think is controversial and then based on public comment at the BFA or at the other one it’ll be apparent if it’s controversial and immediately we’ll be like, “Oh, it’s going to the full commission.” And again I assure commissioners that commissioner Palmano and uh uh Commissioner Carnival at our last BFA meeting there were there were there was robust discussion about this and this process and uh uh we uh came to this conclusion and sharing and and having this come to the full commission after that very robust thorough conversation and discussion. Commissioner Palmono, do you want to say anything else about that? I think that we adopted this process uh for the sake of transparency. We heard a lot of the and you know I just started here February 2025 when the speaker had appointed me but I think we heard what the stakeholders have said and uh the members of the public and you know respecting that desire uh and of course uh making sure that there is a level of accountability. This is the process that we adopted. We adopted this consent process so that we will have that robust discussion in the budget and fiscal committee. And when I say robust, it’s very robust. We promise. And then um we bring that to our full commission meeting uh so that they’re uh you know so that it’s uh we make that decision together but in a faster way. So that really was the gist of this uh the discussions and appreciated of course all the work and it is a lot of work but I think we made that commitment as appointees of the board. So, and at the same time, if Commissioner Carnival, if you have any other comments also, uh affirming what the chair said about management and management input and really wanting to make sure that it not create uh barriers or slow down the process of management uh doing the job that the leadership and management of the commission needs to do. Commissioner Carvad, you okay? I think you just said it. That’s good. Okay. Any other comments from commissioners? Commissioners online. Any comments? I think we need public comment for this item. We do not. Okay. All right. We need a motion. All right. We have a motion and a second. That’s amazing. Who seconded? Who seconded it? Uh Raw. Who did Mara? Okay, we have a motion in a second. Can you put the motion on the on the thing for the commission to adopt the proposed procedure permitting contracts previously recommended for approval by the BFA committee and Lex advisory committee or the pack to be placed on the consent agenda for the full commission meetings. Okay, if you can take the motion off so I can have our online commissioners have their camera on and to be unmuted as we go to our last vote for the day. Commissioner Bayer. Hi. Commissioner Bernick marked absent. Commissioner Bontraor I. Commissioner Brown. Hi. Commissioner Bunch. Hi. Commissioner Kalen marked absent. Commissioner Carnival. Hi. Commissioner Chambers. Hi. Commissioner Contreras marked absent. Commissioner designate Schwartz marked absent. Commissioner Cross I. Commissioner Farweather. I. Commissioner Fernandez. I. Commissioner Gordon marked absent. Commissioner designate Pulmano. Hi. Commissioner Hill. I. Commissioner Larson. Hi. Commissioner Madreal Weiss. Hi. Commissioner Mitchell. I. Okay. Commissioner Robinson. Hi. Commissioner Suard. Hi Commissioner Thomas Beckett marked absent. Commissioner Sai marked absent. Commissioner Wilks marked absent. Vice Chair Roulette I. Chair Alvarez. Hi. Motion passes. Right. Thank you. I believe this is the last item requiring a vote today. We still have one item we are going to discuss and that is uh agenda item 14. Uh I’ll ask the chair chair Alvarez uh I know that you if you would like to uh facilitate this this item uh as I know that you have been instrumental in leading all all of this a diverse constituency and uh uh uh I appreciate it very much. Uh you we’ve gotten lots of feedback regarding this item. I’ll read and then I’ll I’ll transition right to you. I’ll um uh I’ll cuz I know you weren’t prepared for me to say that but I’ll I’ll read this for you. Uh the agenda item 14 is the commission will hear an update on the inaugural ch client family community inclusion lived experience diversity and advisory committee that’s diversity advisory committee or CFC committee meeting the meeting which occurred on September 25th including discussion held and feedback on the commission’s innovation partnership fund. I also know Commissioner Chambers will probably have some some things to say about this meeting as well. Chair or actually I will gladly turn it over to Commissioner Chambers um as the chair of the committee, but I appreciate it. I I do want to emphasize, you know, um the team at the commission, the staff has worked so hard to institute committees that are functional and that serve real purpose in moving this work along. And I I recognize we’ve received a lot of public comment on the coming together of this committee, but I hope that with Commissioner Chambers leadership, um the commitment to meaningful input and a feedback loop is is part of this process and I just commend her for for that commitment. And so I’ll hand it over to her to talk about our updates. I I’ll try to be I have a long page, but I’ll try to cut it down. Um I also want to just thank the the public and for their patience and grace uh as we try to navigate this as well and for folks still showing up. So really the I really respect y’all. Uh so is it good evening or afternoon? Should I still keep talking? Okay. It was a privilege to speak with you all today as the client uh and family was am I if we just finish that’s no I mean I’ll just stop it’s fine if we’re going to lose quorum actually I I guess Bagley King requires us to stop and so uh we can we can table this Are we deliberating? Okay. So, two minutes. I’ll just be I’ll be one 30 seconds during 30 seconds during August commission. Sorry. Thanks. Uh, Commissioner Sai and acting director of the status of the commission’s IPF work. Uh, the staff create uh talked about created a framework for the project based on things full commission meeting, three listing sessions, committee meeting. This framework will be used for the RFP. During the presentation, we learned that our partners asked uh us for clarity on who the the IPF is meant to serve and how the commission is defining innovations. There was an emphasis on datadriven approaches and evaluation. Uh following the presentation, community members and partners shared insights that stressed that inclusion of marginalized community voices as well as community based organizations and community defined evidence practice was a big priority. uh public comments uh encouraged us to use subject matter experts and scoring the eligibility determinations stressing the importance of sustainability options for existing programs and not just for new projects. The commission was urged to ensure that the scoring criteria uh takes effective community-based approaches, experience and diverse expertise. At the end of the meeting, the CFC recommended the adoption of the the framework um with this is important. We did uh we did say that we wanted to additionally recommend the emphasize and incentivize communityrun organization and organizations and community based practices as some as a as an emphasis are potentially higher scoring. Um that’s it. Our next meeting is on December 17th and um I’ll make sure we can not have to rush through this because I’m I think this might be another issue what the public might be thinking like. So, I want just in true uh transparency. I’m sorry, but we’ll make sure that we can go faster and we can add this item again at our next Yeah, I think we should because I just I mean, you’ve seen all the public com I don’t think anyone said so many things about this committee and I feel like I don’t want to lose the trust of the community and it’s already bad with all the stuff with going against DEI and just all the stuff we have. So, I I do want to just put on public comment. I’m sorry, but yeah, that’s it. And can we just move it to January then? Yes, we can just move it to January. There have been multiple meetings where people had to leave and left here without a quorum and the meeting continued. So if this is something Yeah. It’s not it’s not new. It’s that deliberations are not allowed. So I’ll allow public comment to go after we lose quorum, but actual conversations are not allowed. Okay. Well, my Uber’s here and I have a Okay. Uh we’ve officially lost quorum, but uh this item will be moved to the January agenda. Okay. I think that’s it. Oh, and the Mental Health Wellness, the Mental Health Wellness Act discussion that was uh going to be removed from the agenda. Item 15 will be moved uh to January as well. Okay, with that uh we we have lost quorum. So I will accept a motion to adjourn our uh adjourned. We’re adjourned. No motion. We’re adjourned.
Review highlights or watch the full recording. See meeting materials online: https://bhsoac.ca.gov/connect/commission-meetings/commission-meeting-november-20-2025/
00:00 Intro
02:55 Announcements and Caring Moment
32:14 General Public Comment
46:41 August 28, 2025 Meeting Minutes
50:19 Consent Calendar
1:03:57 Advocacy Spotlight – CERI
1:39:24 Innovation Partnership Fund
2:59:54 Report Out from Closed Session
3:01:48 Innovation Partnership Fund – Continued
3:45:23 Transition Age Youth Advocacy Grant
4:10:10 Chair/Vice Chair Elections
4:29:26 Expenditure Authorization
4:35:35 Consent Process for Commission Contracts
4:56:15 Committee Update – CFC