Task force unveils proposals to engage, heal Sonoma County

Mental health counselors in every school, a dozen new murals in the Roseland neighborhood, a countywide student congress and more restorative justice options for at-risk students are just a fraction of the ideas proposed by a task force created by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to channel community unrest after 13-year-old Andy Lopez was killed.

The ambitious proposals, presented over two Mondays by the subcommittee on Community Engagement and Healing, would easily exceed $1.5 million, according to rough estimates provided for only some of the ideas.

The programs would dip into the budgets of schools, law enforcement agencies and county government. In some cases, the ideas seek to restore programs cut years ago during the height of the nation’s recession.

But bold ideas, even if costly, are what county supervisors wanted the task force to create, Supervisor Efren Carrillo said during a break in Monday’s presentation.

“They are not charged with formulating decisions on what they think we can afford and what we can’t,” Carrillo said. “I hope they prioritize recommendations that really help fulfill the board’s desire of creating community resiliency.”

Perhaps the most significant proposal - a model for independent citizen oversight of law enforcement - has yet to be presented. The subcommittee studying this issue will present its ideas Jan. 26 and Feb. 2.

More than a year ago, the Board of Supervisors formed the Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force and asked its 21 members to develop an action plan aimed at building better relationships between local government and law enforcement and the communities - especially among Latino residents - they serve.

The Community Engagement and Healing subcommittee of the task force was asked to develop ideas about how to help the community talk and heal in the wake of traumatic events, such as the Oct. 22, 2013, shooting of Lopez by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy.

On Monday, about 15 children from El Verano Elementary School who participate in the Valley Vibes community music program started Monday’s meeting by playing some lines from a Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky composition for the group.

They were there in support of forming a countywide music resource center to help schools start orchestras and other music programs - costing an estimated a $691,000 - that is on the subcommittee’s list of 10 draft recommendations.

Another recommendation was to boost restorative justice programs for delinquent youth, which is currently only available to Santa Rosa students recommended by the probation department. Lopez was taking part in a 12-week restorative justice program when he died, subcommittee Chairwoman Judy Rice said during the meeting.

She pointed to statistics that show Santa Rosa’s program dramatically reduced expulsions - from 106 during the 2011-12 school year to only three in 2013-14.

“With a relatively small sum of $100,000, we could help an additional 150 youth annually,” Rice said.

Other ideas and their estimated costs include:

Mental health counselors in each middle and high school, $60,000 to $80,000 per counselor

Continuing community forums, no cost estimate

A dozen new murals in the Roseland neighborhood, $96,000

A countywide student congress and leadership program, $75,000 per year

Adding school resource officers, $280,000 per deputy sheriff

Establish a community service officer in Roseland, $125,000

$100,000 to help a local nonprofit develop a program to address a lack of belonging among some students, especially children of immigrants.

Pamphlets educating the public about how to interact with police, $12,000 to $24,000

Adding three “Citizen Academies” to train people about law enforcement practices, including youth and Spanish programs, $38,000

Several people questioned the county’s ability to pay for even a portion of the proposed programs or make sure they are built to be long-term.

“Will there ever be a budget for it? Who knows. Will it be remembered down the road? Who knows,” Eileen Morabito said.

But Oscar Chávez, assistant director for the department of human services, in his presentation to the task force said they plan to fold the ideas into the county’s ongoing strategic plans going forward, particularly how they stay connected with people as county demographics change.

“It is going to be long-term work because we don’t want it to be intermittent or episodic,” Chávez said.

Francisco Vázquez, subcommittee member and Sonoma State University history professor, said during the Jan. 5 meeting that the recommendations may seem “like Band-Aids, small compared to the issues they’re trying to address.”

“However, I believe that history shows that any social change comes from people who organize in order to become active partners with their government,” Vázquez said.

The group will take community feedback, hone their ideas and come up with a tighter list. County staff will then develop more specific cost estimates. They will present their ideas to the Board of Supervisors later this year.

The task force’s work is just one example of a public project - and public spending - that has been spurred by Lopez’s death and the community uproar that followed. The Board of Supervisors has approved more than $200,000 to fund the task force, including staff time supporting their work and travel for a group to attend a national conference on police-review boards.

At Monday’s meeting, Carrillo updated the group about the status of a park at the vacant lot where Lopez was shot. A park had been conceptualized for the site as far back as 20 years ago but never realized. Spurred by community demand to build a park on the dusty, dry lot, the county acquired the land in December.

“This project is finally going to happen,” Carrillo said. “It’s been two decades since this community was promised a park.”

The park will cost between $1 million and $2 million, including acquisition, design and other costs.

The healing subcommittee is one of three subcommittees of the task force that have been examining ways over the past year to improve community-police relations, models for civilian oversight of law enforcement, police practices like using body cameras and other areas of concern that emerged after Lopez was killed.

Members of the community policing subcommittee in December suggested the county assign two deputies to work five-year assignments in the Moorland Avenue neighborhood where Lopez lived and died.

They also suggested other changes, including hiring more women and Latinos, aimed at strengthening community policing as a means to improve the relationship between residents and deputies.

The Law Enforcement Accountability Subcommittee will present draft recommendations, most significantly a proposed format for a citizen police review board, on Jan. 26 and Feb. 2.

Members of the public can review and comment on the draft recommendations online at http://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Community-and-Local-Law-Enforcement-Task-Force.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.