Commission Meeting Minutes May 8, 2025

Commissioners Present:
First District: Nancy Padian
Second District: Katie Gordon, Shernaz Mejos
Third District: Ofra Isler, Melanie Jones-Carter (Vice-Chair), Katarina Giudice-White
Fourth District: Gina Fortino Dickson (Chair), Letitia Hanke, Izzy Arreguin
Fifth District: Elizabeth Beaty

Commissioners Absent:
First District: Joanne M. Brown (OAL), Haunani Pakaki
Fifth District: Zobida McCorquodale (Leave of absence)

Meeting held through publicly available link via Zoom Meeting, and in-person.

1.Call To Order, Roll Call
Meeting called to order at approximately 6:07 PM.

2.Land Acknowledgement
Chair-/ Fortino Dickson read the Land Acknowledgement.

3.Open Time for Public Comment
No Public Comment.

4.The 2nd Annual Jan Blalock Award Ceremony
The Commission acknowledge Commissioner Ofra Isler with the Jan BlalockAward for her years on the Commission and for her involvement with the JuniorCommission Program.

5.Consent Calendar
a.Approval of the February 13, 2025 Meeting Minutes
b.Approval of the April 10, 2025 Meeting Minutes
Motion to approve the Consent Calendar. Motion passed.
No Public Comment.
Motion: Commissioner Beaty 
Second: Commissioner Padian 
Ayes: 7 Noes: 0 Absent: 3 Abstained: 3

Commissioners Brown and Pakaki were absent. Commissioner McCorquodale is on leave of absence. Commissioners Mejos and Arreguin abstained. Chair Fortino Dickson abstained as Chair. Motion passed.

6.Officer Reports and Administrative Updates

a.Chair Fortino Dickson reminded everyone to submit all reimbursements by June 6th because the fiscal year ends June 30th.

b.Vice-Chair Jones-Carter asked for volunteers to participate at Sonoma County Pride on Saturday, May 31, 2025 from 9-1pm. Commissioners Giudice-White, Beaty, and Arreguin volunteered to help out. They will ask past Commissioners and perhaps Commissioner Isler and Chair Fortino Dickson will help.

c.Spirit Award Ceremony will take place on CSW regular meeting on June 12, 2025 at the Museum of Sonoma County, 425 7th St, Santa Rosa. Commissioners Giudice-White and Isler will be helping Vice-Chair Jones Carter with the Spirit Award Event.

7. Commissioner Announcements and June 12, 2025 Commission Meeting
a. July’s meeting will be a hearing on Mental Health and Commissioners Beaty, Giudice-White, Hanke,  Gordon, and Mejos will be coordinating the hearing.
b. September’s meeting will be a hearing on Immigration. Commissioners Beaty, Hanke, Padian, and Arreguin will be coordinating the hearing.

8.Openings and Appointments
a. The Commission welcomed Sharnaz Mejos representing the 2ⁿᵈ District and Staff performed her oath  of office.
b. Chair Fortino Dickson announced one vacant position in the 2nd district and one in the 5th district.

9.Ad Hoc and Product Updates
a.  Junior Commission Educational Project announced that graduation is Saturday, May 10, 2025 at  1pm at the Central Library Santa Rosa. The Juniors will present on their projects. Supervisor Lynda  Hopkins will be distributing the certificates and Molly Murphy MacGregor will be speaking.  Recruitment is happening for the next cohort. 16 applications have been received.
b. Reproductive Equity didn’t have anything new to report.
c.  Biz Entrepreneurship will be hosting their unconventional industries event. The location and  date are still being determined, but there was a preference for dinner time from 5-7pm.
d. Legislative Advisory Group working on 2-3 matters of legislatives and is working on letters for  CSW to approve.
e. Communications Teams shared that CSW has an Instagram page: CSW_SonomaCounty. They suggested Commissioners to follow CSW Facebook page: Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women. They are working on a LinkedIn page. They posted posts for Demin Day and pictures. They will  explore the idea of having bilingual posts.
f.  Community Engagement Working Group will be partnering with Biz Entrepreneurship ad hoc to make the event bigger.
g. Bylaws submitted the final draft to the Commission to vote on them.

10. Business Items
a. Nomination and Election
Chair Fortino Dickson led the nominations for officers for the fiscal year 2025-2026. Nominations were taken.
Chair: Commissioner Padian nominated Commissioner Fortino Dickson for Chair; Fortino Dickson accepted.
Vice Chair: Commissioner Padian nominated Commissioner Jones-Carter; Jones-Carter accepted.
Officer-At-Large: Commissioner Padian nominated Commissioner Brown; Brown accepted had verbally accepted prior to the meeting.
Officer-At-Large: Commissioner Hanke nominated Commissioner Giudice-White; Giudice-White accepted.
The Commission had a discussion of having two Officers-At Large positions. No action was taken until the Commission gets clarification from County Counsel. More nominations and the elections will take place on June 12, 2025.

b. Unhoused and Unheard White Paper
The Commission had no discussion on the content of the white paper. The Commission had a citation discussion whether to site the information or not. They concluded that they could add a disclaimer instead of citing all the facts. There were proposed changes such as adding the panelist contact information, adding a disclaimer that the information was provided by the panel, and changing the term of white paper to position paper. The paper will be distributed to each Supervisor, to the clerk of the Board to include in the agenda packet, to the entities who presented and perhaps creating a press release as well. Motion to approve the position paper with the changes. Motion passed.
No Public Comment.
Motion: Commissioner Beaty 
Second: Commissioner Gordon 
Ayes: 9 Noes: 0 Absent: 3 Abstained: 1

Commissioners Brown and Pakaki were absent. Commissioner McCorquodale is on leave of absence. Chair Fortino Dickson abstained as Chair. Motion passed.

c. Bylaws Revisions
Commissioner Gordon led the bylaws discussion. Proposed changes to the bylaws were mentioned:
1. Article III. Section 2: number 7: Add the language that a Commissioner on leave doesn’t count for quorum.
2. Article III. Section 3. Number 3. Change the amount to $500 and add majority of Officers
3. Article III. Section 3. number 5.3: Add the number of positions for Officer- At- Large
4. Article III. Section 5: Change the language of the overall budget
Motion to approve the bylaws as amended with the following changes, change language to the budget approval process majority of officers, and up to $500 changes as designed to the lead and forum sections and changes to as an additional to allow an additional up to 2 officers that level. Motion approved.
No Public Comment.
Motion: Chair Fortino Dickson 
Second: Commissioner Arreguin 
Ayes: 9 Noes: 0 Absent: 3 Abstained: 1

Commissioners Brown and Pakaki were absent. Commissioner McCorquodale is on leave of absence. Chair Fortino Dickson abstained as Chair. Motion passed.

d. Budget
Staff led the budget discussion. The Reproductive Equity Ad Hoc will not be using their allocated funds of $1,500. The Junior Commission Educational Project would like $1,000 more due to having a large cohort this year for their graduation celebration and end of the year gifts. The general fund can also use more funds to cover business cards, name plates, name tags for new Commissioners. Motion to allocate $1,000 to the Junior Commission Educational Project and $500 to the general fund. Motion approved.
No Public Comment.
Motion: Commissioner Hanke 
Second: Commissioner Beaty
Ayes: 9 Noes: 0  Absent: 3 Abstained: 1

Commissioners Brown and Pakaki were absent. Commissioner McCorquodale is on leave of absence. Chair Fortino Dickson abstained as Chair. Motion passed.

11. Adjournment
This meeting was adjourned at 8:29 p.m.