Alameda County reparations commission reports progress, outlines budget and outreach plans

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors ad hoc Committee on Reparations received an update on the commission’s work plan, operations and outreach on Wednesday, with consultants and commissioners reporting steady progress and outlining a plan to spend down a $500,000 allocation before the fiscal-year end.

Leticia Henderson, principal consultant with Exceptional Community Connections, told the committee the commission has consolidated 11 subcommittees into three focused groups — administration and budget, listening sessions, and data/research/action planning — and is organized around four crosscutting pillars used to shape recommendations. "This commission is making steady progress on the implementation plan that they identified in January," Henderson said, describing the current phase as one of organizing milestones and drilling into report recommendations.

Henderson said the commission has completed four of six planned listening sessions and has collected "more than 70" in-person surveys to support community feedback. Supervisor Marquez, who presented additional survey results, later reported a current total of 86 surveys with the majority coming from the Taylor Memorial event. Marquez said the survey responses rated scholarships, grants and direct compensation as the most meaningful reparative options, and that open-ended responses frequently mentioned taxes, land, education, health and lineage tracing.

Vice Chair Larry McClendon gave a high-level financial review of the commission’s operations. He said the Board allocated $500,000 to the commission; "To date, we've been able to bill $155,038," McClendon said, and the commission has a remaining balance of $344,961. Major spending to date includes technical support (about $73,886), promotion (under $10,000), food and refreshments (a little over $5,000), transcripts and website development, McClendon said. He told the committee the commission intends to use remaining funds for final district listening sessions, pop-up events, expanded outreach and data processing.

Marquez and commissioners described the commission’s digital and vendor strategy, noting that the commission’s website hosts event registration and participant data internally rather than relying on third-party services. Commissioners also highlighted community partnerships — including a West Oakland session co-hosted with Delta Sigma Theta’s Berkeley Bay Area Chapter that drew more than 100 attendees — and an upcoming Talk of the Town event featuring local leaders.

Commissioners discussed expanding the listening-session schedule with additional "pop up" sessions led by commissioners in communities such as Hayward and Castro Valley, and flagged a planned criminal-justice-focused pop up organized by Commissioner Jesse Burleson. A staff member told the committee he had "talked to Chief Ford and he's amenable" to a session at a juvenile or correctional facility, which commissioners said would be an important opportunity to gather perspectives from justice-affected residents.

Marquez also asked the supervisors to help fill two open commission seats, noting one suggestion to recruit a younger, 20- to 30-something community leader. She said the commission hopes to have a substantive draft action plan by June 30 and that the ad hoc committee will reconvene for an update in March. There were no public commenters on the items and the committee adjourned.

What’s next: the commission plans to close remaining listening sessions, continue digital outreach to increase survey responses, finalize data analysis and advance a draft action plan for the ad hoc committee’s review in March.