Racial and Social Equity

A title on a committee list doesn't do anything by itself.

The Council made me its Racial and Social Equity Liaison. That assignment comes with no budget, no staff and no authority to make anyone do anything. What it does come with is the ability to convene people, ask the City uncomfortable questions in public, and put things on an agenda. So that's what I intend to use it for — three small working groups of people who already know this town, meeting on a schedule, with what they find written down where you can read it.

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The Assignment

What a liaison can and can't do.

I'd rather be straight about this up front than have you find out six months in. Most of the frustration around equity work in small cities comes from a mismatch between what people reasonably expect the title to mean and what it actually carries. Here's the real shape of it.

What I can do

  • Convene residents, business owners, school staff and faith communities in the same room, repeatedly, and keep a record of it.
  • Put an item on a Council agenda, which forces it into public session with staff response and public comment.
  • Ask City staff direct questions — about hiring, contracting, policing data, complaint handling — and publish the answers.
  • Carry what a group decides into budget discussions, where I also sit on the Budget Committee and chair Enterprise Fund Oversight.
  • Introduce people to each other. A surprising amount of this work is that and nothing more.
  • Report back, in writing, on the record, whether or not the news is good.

What I can't do

  • Direct a private business — a supermarket, a landlord, an employer — to change how it treats people. I can convene, ask and publish. I can't order.
  • Run a school district. Sebastopol's schools are governed by their own elected boards, not the City Council.
  • Direct the Sheriff's deputies who police Sebastopol, or discipline any individual officer.
  • Investigate a crime, or substitute for one being reported. A hate crime belongs with law enforcement, and separately with a civil rights complaint.
  • Act as the Council. One member is one vote out of five, and nothing here commits the City to anything.
  • Keep what a group finds to myself. Carrying it into City conversations is the job — see On the record for how I handle names.

Goals

Five things, each with a finish line.

A goal you can't tell you've missed isn't a goal. Each of these has a condition attached that I can be held to, and I'd rather publish them and be judged against them than keep them vague.

1

Standing groups, not a task force that sunsets.

Committees that form after an incident dissolve once the attention moves on, and the next incident starts from zero. I want three standing groups, meeting on a known cadence, with facilitators who aren't me — so the work survives whoever holds this assignment next. Three rather than six, because a half-empty room stops meeting.

Done looks like Three groups with named facilitators, each having met at least three times, with dates published on this page.

2

A reporting path a person will actually use.

Right now, if something racist happens to you in Sebastopol, it isn't obvious where it goes. The Sheriff's office handles crimes. The schools handle students. A business handles its own staff. The City handles almost none of it. Most of what happens falls between those, so it goes unrecorded, and then we argue about whether there's a problem because there's no number to point at.

Done looks like One published route to report an incident, a named person who responds within five working days, and a count reported to Council quarterly — including the quarters where the count is zero.

3

Each group brings me something specific, not a mood.

Not a plan covering "the community" in general. Each group is made of people who already have standing somewhere — a school gate, a shop floor, a congregation — and who can tell me what would actually change things rather than what sounds right.

Done looks like Every group has one concrete ask on the record, and I've either got it or been told no in public.

4

The schools and the City stop working on this separately.

The districts and the City are separate governments with separate boards, and that separation is real. But the kids in those schools walk through this town, and the families dealing with an incident at school are the same families dealing with one at work. Nobody currently sits between those two conversations. I can.

Done looks like A standing liaison relationship with each district that has a Sebastopol campus, and at least one joint session a year.

5

The work is legible from the outside.

This is the one I care most about, because it's the failure mode I ran against. Equity work gets announced, then disappears into meetings nobody can see, and residents are left to assume either that everything is handled or that nothing is. Both are corrosive. So: what happened, when, and what came of it, on this page.

Done looks like The log below is current to within a month, and every meeting held appears in it — including the ones that went nowhere.

The Situation

What actually happened, and where it stands.

Everything below is drawn from the City's own public agenda reports — Item 9 of 4 August 2026 and Item 13 of 6 October 2026 — and from what the Police Department, Safeway and Analy High School put in writing to the City. I am not characterising it second-hand. The four young people involved in the April incident were juveniles and are not named here, in those reports or on this page.

Behind Safeway, on the Pitt Avenue side

On 27 April 2026, at 4:32 in the afternoon, police were called to racist and antisemitic graffiti — hate symbols and slurs — on the rear wall of the store and on the utility box facing Pitt Avenue. Officers were on scene within four minutes. Three juvenile suspects were identified that evening and a fourth shortly after; all four were arrested and referred to the juvenile justice system by 4 May.

On 28 May, neighbors called police about a group of youths behind the store making monkey noises toward residents of color. The City's August report describes those noises as directed at a child.

In June, the Pitt Avenue neighbors met Lieutenant Bauer and wrote to Safeway. They asked for a fence, a no-trespassing sign, a camera, cleanup at least weekly, staff or security walk-throughs before and after school, police presence at the hours that matter, and removal of the concrete structure that hides people from the street. They also reported broken glass, dumped furniture left for weeks, and bottles.

On 20 September a resident reported a harassing email connected to the April incident; that investigation is open and the District Attorney's office has been consulted. Separately, the City was told of a Sebastopol resident who received a message through her professional profile using racial slurs against her and her children, telling her to get out of Sebastopol, signed with the name of the Charleston church shooter.

Between 27 April and 28 September, the Police Department logged close to 400 officer-initiated security checks and extra patrols at Safeway and Pitt Avenue.

What the City found it can and can't reach

This is the part worth understanding before anyone asks why the City hasn't simply fixed it. On 1 September the City Attorney reported back that the City generally cannot require physical improvements on private commercial property outside the permitting process, and that no legal tool available to us can guarantee the absence of future graffiti or an isolated act of harassment.

What the report identified instead was voluntary cooperation with the property owner as the most effective tool the City actually has — alongside a possible graffiti abatement ordinance, trespass authorization, and restorative justice. That is a narrower set of levers than most people assume, and it is precisely why the convening work on this page matters more than it sounds like it should.

What Safeway has put in writing

Provided to the City on 30 September. These are commitments, not completed work, and checking which of them have actually happened is near the top of my list:

  • Increased staff monitoring at the front and rear of the store.
  • Cameras purchased for the rear exterior, with installation planned. Footage goes to police where appropriate, not to the public or the media.
  • Exploring removal of the small equipment-shielding wall and installing bollards instead, to open sightlines and remove hiding places.
  • A graffiti protocol: log the time of notification, have police document it, temporarily cover it, then schedule professional removal as soon as practicable. Paint is kept on site.
  • Store managers reminding student groups on the property of behavior expectations.

In return Safeway has asked Analy to inform parents of expected behavior, and asked parents and school staff to keep a consistent adult presence on the adjacent public sidewalk at peak gathering times.

Analy High School

Principal Wade has said he is willing to meet with the City and the neighbors. In a letter to the City Manager dated 22 September, Analy set out work it has underway: a new District board resolution on hate speech; ninth-grade expectations addressed directly with every incoming student this fall; an Access and Belonging Committee and Coordinator, which adds an educational and restorative dimension to discipline; and ninth-grade teams that place new students in smaller groups so concerns surface early.

Analy also notes it regularly brings outside speakers to campus — the Holocaust Story Project, Sonoma State's Institute for the Study of Genocide and the Holocaust, and in past years the ACLU and the NAACP — and that this is a standing educational effort rather than a reaction to individual incidents.

Brook Haven

Speakers at the 1 September Council meeting were clear that this is not one incident behind one store. They described a long-term, systemic problem that takes in school climate at Analy and a past, similar situation at Brook Haven School. The scope of work the Council considered on 6 October names Brook Haven explicitly among the school partners to bring in.

How The Groups Work

Small, specific, and on a schedule.

Six to ten people

Big enough to disagree, small enough that everyone talks. Past ten, a meeting becomes a presentation and the quiet people stop coming back.

Facilitated, not chaired by me

A sitting council member in the chair changes what people say. I'll convene the first meeting and then hand the room to someone from the group.

A private space per group

Approved members get a sign-in to their group's own space on this site — discussion, shared resources and meeting RSVPs, visible only to that group. No public roster.

A standing cadence

Monthly or six-weekly, set by the group at its first meeting from the availability people give on the form below. Not "when something happens."

One concrete ask at a time

Each group works toward something specific enough to either get or be refused. A refusal is a result; it tells you where the actual obstacle is.

I approve who joins

Not to keep people out, but because an open-door forum on this subject becomes a target. I read every request myself and I'll tell you either way.

The Record

What has actually happened.

Dated, sourced, and including the parts that are uncomfortable. Everything from April 2026 onward is drawn from the City's public agenda reports and from the Police Department's own timeline. If this list stops moving, that tells you something real, and you should ask me about it.

  1. 6 Oct 2026

    Council takes up the committee-or-liaison question

    Item 13, brought by the City Attorney and City Manager: create a two-member Ad Hoc Committee to Address Racism, Social Bullying and Mockery, or have a Council liaison lead the community meetings. The same item covered a draft graffiti ordinance and racial-bias training for Council and staff, funded through the City's risk authorities and from training budgets that Vice Mayor Maurer and Councilmember Zollman offered to give up.

  2. 30 Sep 2026

    Safeway puts its commitments in writing

    Staff monitoring front and rear, cameras bought for the rear with installation planned, a graffiti protocol with paint kept on site, and active consideration of removing the equipment wall for bollards to kill the hiding places.

  3. 24 Sep 2026

    Police take a report on a harassing email

    Reported on 20 September and connected to the April incident. The investigation is open and the District Attorney's office has been consulted.

  4. 22 Sep 2026

    Analy writes to the City Manager

    Principal Wade sets out the school's work — a new District resolution on hate speech, ninth-grade expectations and teams, the Access and Belonging Committee and Coordinator — and says he is willing to meet with the City and the neighbors.

  5. 1 Sep 2026

    The City Attorney reports back, and the room fills up

    The finding: the City generally cannot require physical improvements on private commercial property, and voluntary cooperation is the strongest tool available. Public speakers called the situation urgent and unacceptable, and described a long-term problem taking in school climate at Analy and a past similar situation at Brook Haven. Council voted 4–0 to have staff return with a committee or liaison proposal.

  6. 4 Aug 2026

    Council funds the legal research, 3–2

    At Councilmember Zollman's request, ten hours of City Attorney time to find out what the City can actually do about conditions on private commercial property, with a focus on restorative justice.

  7. Jun 2026

    The Pitt Avenue neighbors put their asks in writing

    After meeting Lieutenant Bauer they wrote to Safeway asking for a fence, a no-trespassing sign, a camera, weekly cleanup, walk-throughs before and after school, police presence at the hours that matter, and removal of the concrete structure that hides people from the street.

  8. 28 May 2026

    A second incident behind the store

    Neighbors called police about a group of youths making monkey noises toward residents of color. The City's August report describes those noises as directed at a child.

  9. 4 May 2026

    All four juveniles referred to the juvenile justice system

    A fourth suspect was identified after the first three. None of them is named in the City's reports, and none will be named here.

  10. 27 Apr 2026

    Racist and antisemitic graffiti behind Safeway

    Hate symbols and slurs on the rear wall and the utility box facing Pitt Avenue, reported at 4:32pm. Officers were on scene within four minutes and three juvenile suspects were identified the same evening. In the five months that followed, the Police Department logged close to 400 extra patrols at Safeway and Pitt Avenue.

  11. 15 Feb 2022

    Resolution 6403-2022 — Public Statement on Racism and Social Equity

    Adopted after a Black Lives Matter banner was burned at the Sebastopol library branch. The Council declared that hate has no place in this community and committed the City to using every tool available to eliminate racial and social disparities. Residents cited it from the podium this year, which is the real test of a resolution.

  12. 21 Feb 2017

    Resolution 6127 — an Indivisible City

    The Council declared Sebastopol a safe place for everyone, committed the City not to tolerate acts of hate, discrimination, bullying or harassment, and called on residents, departments and employees to speak out and stand up for those targeted.

Resources

Where to take something, and what to read.

You do not have to join anything to use these. If something happened to you or to someone you know, the places below have powers and deadlines that I do not. I add to this list as the groups surface things worth having.

Loading… If this doesn't fill in, the list is temporarily unavailable — email me at phill@philist.org and I'll send you what you need directly.

Join A Group

I need neighborhood advisors and community leaders.

If you live or work in Sebastopol and you want a hand in this, this is the form. It takes about two minutes. I read every one of these myself, and you'll hear back from me — not from an autoresponder pretending to be me.

Which group or groups?

Pick as many as apply, and don’t agonise — these are three doors into the same work, not three different jobs. If you sit in two of them, say so; the overlap is useful to me.

When could you actually meet?

This is the part that decides whether a first meeting happens in weeks or in months. I'll pick the slot that works for the most people and set a date off it, so be honest rather than generous.

Anything from "I've worked in that store for nine years" to "I can translate" to "I run the Thursday group at my church." Specifics beat enthusiasm.

Could you host or facilitate?

This is the single most useful box on the form. A group needs somewhere to sit and someone to keep it moving, and if that is always me then these are my meetings rather than yours — which is exactly the failure I'm trying to avoid. A back room, a church hall, a classroom after hours, a living room. Running the agenda counts even if you have nowhere to put people.

Your details stay with me. Nothing on this form is ever published, and there's no public list of who signed up — see On the record for what I do with what the groups find.
Goes to me directly. Not a mailing list.

people have signed up so far.

Got it — and it's saved.

Your request is recorded and I've been notified. Here's exactly what happens next:

  1. I read it myself, usually within a few days.
  2. If you're in, you'll get an email from me with a sign-in link to your group's space.
  3. Once there are enough people in a group, I set the first meeting from the availability everyone gave.

If you don't hear from me in two weeks, chase me — phill@philist.org. That's a failure on my end, not a decision about you.

After You Sign Up

No black box.

  1. Your request is written down before anything else happens. It's stored the moment you hit send, so it can't be lost to a failed email. This site has been bitten by that before and it isn't happening on this form.
  2. I read it and decide. Me, not staff. I'll tell you either way, and if I say no I'll say why.
  3. You get a sign-in link to your group's space. No password to invent or remember — the link signs you in, and it works the same way every time after. Inside is your group's discussion, its shared resources, the meeting dates with a one-click RSVP, and who else is in the room.
  4. The first meeting gets set from real availability. Not a date I guessed and then asked people to work around.
  5. What comes out of it lands in the log above. Dated, public, whether or not it worked.
Already approved? Sign in to your group — put in the email you signed up with and a link arrives that signs you in. There is no password to invent or forget.

On The Record

What this is, and what it isn't.

Worth two minutes before you sign up, so that nothing here surprises you later.

These are my working groups, not City committees.

I convene them. They are not standing committees of the Council, they take no votes and they bind nobody. That is deliberate, and it is the whole advantage: we can meet when it suits the people in the room rather than waiting on an agenda cycle, and we can talk properly instead of performing for a podium. The trade is that nothing decided in one of these rooms is a decision of the City — it is something I then have to go and argue for.

Your sign-up is not public.

Your name, email, answers and availability go to me and are visible to nobody else. The only thing this page ever shows publicly is a count of how many people have signed up. There is no public roster and no page that can list members — not hidden, not unlinked. It doesn't exist.

What the groups find, I carry into City conversations.

That is the point of the assignment, and it is meant to be useful to you rather than about you. When I report out — to Council, into a budget discussion, onto the log above — it is the substance that travels: what the group found, what it is asking for, what it needs from the City. I don't put someone's name or someone's story into anything public without asking them first, every time.

This is not where a crime gets reported.

If something happened that was criminal, it belongs with the Police Department, and separately with a civil rights complaint. Those have investigative powers and deadlines that I do not — the April graffiti was reported, investigated and resolved in a week because it went to the police, not to a working group. Tell me as well, by all means. Just don't let me be the only place it goes.

Not ready to join a group?

That's fine. Tell me what you're seeing and leave it there — you don't owe me a commitment to be worth listening to.

Send me a note instead