-: Rachel, I'll hand it off to you.
-: Thank you very much, Monica.
Good morning, everyone and hello.
I am very glad, very grateful to be here
to welcome everyone,
say hello and help kick off this workshop.
I wanna relate a story to start off.
Well, many of you I've gotten to know
as colleagues during my time at the Commission
there is actually a person
who through the power of social media,
we've realized that we are professional relationship
predates the Commission.
Charles Mason works in our news and outreach team,
and he and I realized that we both held nonprofit jobs
around the same time at... In the Bay area.
And we're colleagues in these jobs
where we were focused on environmental and social justice.
The place where I worked thought changed
by advocating in front of local governments
for more equitable community planning,
and Charles' group addressed inequity
at the regional policy level,
advocating for reallocating transportation funding
for example.
That worked was definitely not easy at the time,
because we were trying to point out
and reframe the subtleties of policy decisions
that can result in environmental and social injustice.
That was about 20 years ago,
fast forward to 2021.
And here both Charles and I are working at the CPUC,
a statewide agency with a substantial policy brief.
We regulate investor owned utilities
that serve California with electricity,
gas, water, telecommunications,
rail and passenger transportation.
We are responsible for the mandates and goals
set out in the Public Utilities Code.
We're meant to achieve clean, reliable
and safe electricity,
quality communication services,
affordable and safe drinking water,
and safe rail and transportation systems,
just to name a few of our goals.
And really what's so impressive to me as someone
who has roots in this work
is that we have not left it at the mandates
of the Public Utilities Code.
We have adopted our own stretch goal in 2019
with the Environmental and Social Justice Action Plan.
And we are pushing ourselves to think
about how we engage communities,
the data that we gather considering
where and how our enforcement work happens,
and analyzing community access to the services we regulate.
That is the work that you,
all of you and Monica and all the staff
are going to engage in over the next two days.
And I'm really so glad to be part of an agency
that is willing to not just stop
at the legislative mandates
which are significant in and of themselves,
but to add that to our work plate as well.
So Charles and I had early training
in this type of work when we were advocating
in front of local and regional government bodies.
And here we are now part of the state body,
and we are the people operationalizing
the Environmental and Social Justice Action Plan.
And I just wanna reiterate
how proud I am of the CPUCs commitment to this.
I know that everyone's speaking
and facilitating and attending over the next two days
will bring their best ideas,
and their best dialogue to this workshop,
and I really look forward to the discussion
and of course to the results.
Thank you so much, Monica, and back to you.
-: Thanks so much and that's such a great story.
(indistinct) my colleague Charles Nathan
in the news and outreach office too.
Thank you.
Next, we're so lucky to also have President Marybel Batjer
welcome us this morning.
President Batjer, take it away.
President Batjer I think you're on mute.
-: Thank you, Monica.
And before we get underway and I welcome everyone,
I do want to remind everyone that this is recorded today.
So with that, thank you so much, Monica.
And thank you, Rachel,
that was a great story and a wonderful welcome,
and it shows your personal
and Charles' personal commitment
and a shared commitment that we all have.
So welcome everyone to the start
of a two-day environmental social justice,
ESJ Action Plan workshop.
The CPUC adopted the ESJ Action Plan
as Rachel mentioned in February of 2019,
And it serves as the operating framework
for which the CPUC furthers principles of environmental
and social justice.
Today's workshop will allow us
to have an interactive.
And I really hope for that discussion
on how we can build upon these principles
in our two-year update of the plan.
Since the plan's adoption,
the CPUC has strived to incorporate the goals
as set forth in the ESJ Plan
as part of our ethos of the organization.
The Commission has a responsibility
to consider environmental and social costs
to the rate payers when conducting oversight of utilities
and the services we regulate.
We take this responsibility very seriously,
and hope that the two year updates
to the plan can help us continue to incorporate
the goals of the plan in all aspects of our work.
Environmental and social justice
is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement
of all people especially those that have historically
been left out of environmental decision-making,
which directly impacts their health and wellbeing.
Practices such as redlining and placing industrial centers
in low income communities have caused indigenous,
black and Latino communities
to carry an extremely high environmental burden
resulting in desperate,
despair, excuse me, health and financial outcomes
in comparison to other communities
largely along racial lines.
These same communities also end up spending a large portion
of their monthly income in utility bills.
A dynamic which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.
We also know that certain regions
are disproportionately impacted by industries,
which create much of Californians carbon
and methane emissions.
The Central Valley is often poor air quality, for example,
is largely a result of agricultural industry
and heavy duty vehicle emissions.
These regions also suffer from water shortages
and pollution in addition to other consequences
of climate change.
In 2019 the CPUC adopted the ESJ Action Plan
under the leadership of Commissioner Guzman Aceves
and Commissioner Rechtschaffen, (laughs)
excuse me.
Both of whom have advocated
strongly for environmental social issues,
and have worked hard much of their careers
towards a greater representation
of some of our most underrepresented communities.
I greatly appreciate their leadership for this initiative
as well as their ongoing support to institutionalize
the principles adopted under this plan.
We have made considerable strides
to incorporate the strategic directives in the plan
into our regulatory work from including environmental
and social justice considerations
into scoping memos to allocating funding especially
to specific vulnerable communities.
Our work, however is far from over.
Today's workshop is an effort to further develop
the principles and the actions in the plan
to ensure that we take lessons
from our previous two years of implementation,
as well as current thinking into consideration
during our regulatory processes.
We want to ensure that this plan contains meaningful
and actionable steps to both proactively
include vulnerable communities
in our challenging decision-making processes,
as well as develop policies and programs
that directly benefit these communities.
In addition to Commissioner Guzman Aceves and Rechtschaffen,
I would like to thank Monica Palmera,
Sarah Sharpe, Yuliya Schmidt
Nicole Cropper, Amy Mesrobian
and Kathleen Yip for organizing this outstanding workshop.
The effort to increase accessibility
by live streaming today's event on Twitter and Facebook
as well as providing real-time translation services
during portions of this workshop is greatly appreciated
and models we will like to continue
to encourage greater accessibility
and participation in all of our public processes.
I would also like to thank our group
of industry division staff ESJ liaisons
for leading the implementation
of environmental and social justice efforts
in their respective divisions,
and engaging on a daily basis with these issues.
This workshop is one of a growing number of examples
of how the CPUC is improving accessibility
to our decision-making process,
and we look forward to brainstorming with you
and hearing from you,
your input on ways that we can continue
to build upon these principles.
Thank you for joining us today
and we really look forward
to all the public comments
that we receive about ideas and actions
that we must incorporate into the update of the ESJ Plan.
And I welcome my fellow Commissioners
who have joined us today
and thank you for being here and everyone,
please participate strongly.
Thank you.
-: Thanks so much, President Batjer.
We're really lucky to have you here today.
We also have (indistinct) and Commissioner Guzman Aceves,
and also Commissioner Shiroma here.
You all are scheduled to speak
at other times throughout the two-day workshop,
I wanna invite you all if you'd like to say anything
at this point before we dive in,
if you'd like to say anything.
-: Nothing from me, Monica
just happy to be here,
look forward to the discussion.
-: Maybe just briefly wanted to respond (giggles)
to one of the comments that,
is there any concerns around ex parte
do not have any concerns with that?
This is a publicly noticed meeting
so you're welcome to speak about all issues
and that is why we followed all of those bagley-keen rules
and properly noticing this.
So I look forward to the discussion.
-: And likewise thank you for coordinating
the two-day workshop to the team.
I look forward to learning,
and looking at what else we can and must do
as a Commission for Environmental and Social Justice.
Thank you.
-: Thank you all so much.
Okay, so I'm gonna dive into kind of the format
of the workshop and what you all can expect
and how to participate.
And then we'll spend some time
doing a bit more of an overview of what the plan is,
and the purpose of today.
So if I can just get the (indistinct)
and we can dive into that.
All right, perfect.
Next slide.
Okay, so for today's workshop
we're doing two half-day workshop,
a two day half-day workshop.
And the intention is that folks
be in of different sections,
but the overall purpose of the workshop is,
we have three main goals with the workshop.
And the first is to increase awareness and knowledge
about this plan that we have it, that it exists,
that it's in place amongst CPUC stakeholders and staff.
So folks can reference it,
look back at it and hold us accountable to it.
The second purpose for this workshop
is to foster dialogue and get CPUC back regarding ways
that we can deepen our work
around environmental social justice issues at the CPUC.
And third is to collect as much concrete information,
suggestions and action items
that we can incorporate into the update
of the Environmental and Social Justice Action Plan.
We'll talk a little bit more
about this when we give an overview of the plan,
but the plan was adopted in 2019
and calls for us to update it every two years.
So here we find ourselves in 2021,
and we're looking for fresh action items
to incorporate into the plan.
Next slide please.
All right.
So in order to get at those goals,
the format of today's workshop
will be primarily discussion-based.
So you're hearing some presentations right now
at the beginning just to level set.
And one of the panel tomorrow morning
that's about data collection
will be a little bit more presentation oriented.
But for the most part all of the sessions
will be discussion oriented.
So how they will work is that you will have two facilitators
who will be co-leading a session together.
They will frame up some of the issues
at the beginning of the session,
kind of provide some background
and their perspective on the issue at hand.
From there, they will pose questions
to all of you, the attendees,
to get the dialogue going,
to get the conversation going.
You could almost think about this as a (indistinct).
So we wanna hear from you,
your ideas, your feedback, and your comments.
(indistinct) structure
most of the sessions will be here in WebEx events
and they're two different links for each day.
At 1:00 p.m each day we will have some breakout sessions
where we will focus on specific industry divisions
at the CPUC.
So we can dive into issues related to water,
energy, transportation, wildfire, et cetera.
So those will also be a part of the workshop.
Next slide, please.
All right, so this is how participation will work
and also kind of how it looks on your WebEx event space.
So at the bottom of your space
you should be able to see where you can click
and you can see a participant list,
and you also can see a chat icon.
We encourage you to have both
of those up on your events space.
And the way that we're gonna ask folks attendees
to participate is if you're were in one of the sessions
and you have a comment you'd like to give
or a question to ask,
we're gonna ask you to raise your hand
by clicking the hand icon
that will let us know that you want to speak
and say something,
and that will notify us of that.
What will happen is somebody will call your name
and unmute you and allow you to give a comment out loud.
in the session.
Once you're complete with your comment,
you will be muted and put back into the queue.
We also... Because we may not be able
to get to everybody's comment.
We also are utilizing the chat function
to be able to get feedback and your ideas and your thoughts.
So if you look at your chat function
you'll see there's different options
that you can take to who to message in the chat.
If you want the message to go to everybody
that's here all 250 of us or so,
make sure you mark all
and make sure I have the language right
'cause I can't see it.
It's all attendees.
So all attendees, we can all see your thoughts,
your reflections on what's happening in the session.
If you have more of like a logistical question,
or a technical issue feel free to message all panelists.
Panelists or the folks you see at the bottom of the screen
like myself and the other speakers.
And we can help sort of triage an issue
in that space if that's more appropriate space.
But we wanna have the chat open
so if we're not able to get everybody a verbal comment
then we can have that chat feature
and get ideas flowing there.
Next slide, please.
All right.
So just to reiterate a little what I mentioned
and just highlight those the three main ways
to participate and provide feedback
through the two-day workshop.
The verbal comment or question click your hand
to raise your hand.
When we are able to call on you,
the event host we'll call your name,
unmute you when it is your turn to speak.
And again, just keep in mind
we are gonna do our best to incorporate
as many people as many voices as we can.
But we may not get to everybody depending on the volume.
Therefore, you also have the option
of the written comment
or question in the chat box to everybody,
all attendees.
We will be trying to weave in as much
as we can from the chat box into the discussion.
One final option that you have is,
if you would like to email comments,
if you have something more substantive
or if something doesn't get incorporated in,
please feel free to email us.
We will also be taking your feedback there.
The email address is esjactionplan@cpuc.ca.gov.
So at any point, if you just wanna put anything in an email,
feel free to send it there,
and we'll also be part of the whole body of feedback
that we're getting through this workshop.
Next slide.
All right, and a few final reminders
before we dive into the to the need of this.
It's come up in the chat and it's been mentioned
but just to emphasize again.
This workshop is being recorded,
and the breakouts will also be recorded as well.
And we will make those recordings available on our website
after the workshop.
It may take a few days,
if you will, you can send an email to everybody
to let you know when those are posted.
But yeah, all of those sessions will be of made available.
I (indistinct) if you will try to capture the comments
from the chat,
even if they're not incorporated into discussion.
Again, feel free to use that as a venue
to provide some of your feedback.
And then just the occur to you
that we ask our folks if you're giving verbal comments
at any point during the workshop.
But we ask that we do try to keep your spoken comments
to about two minutes,
so we can include as many people as possible
and get as much feedback going as possible.
Please understand, and please be respectful
if a facilitator may prompt you to wrap up your comments,
just know again,
it's all in the spirit of getting as many voices
in as possible,
and please make use of the chat and the email
if you would like to further elaborate
on your thoughts and reflections.
And then again, last thing of the presentations
and will be posted like this presentation
will be posted on the recordings
at www.cpuc.ca.gov/esjactionplan.
So that is it on that.
Any questions?
I'm gonna turn to participants,
we're gonna give this a try right now.
Any questions regarding that participation.
So feel free to type them in the chat or raise your hand.
Are we seeing anybody with a...
I don't think we have any questions.
Okay, straight forward,
and we'll continue to reiterate those...
The sort of protocol is getting at each session
as we have new people join us.
Oh, I do see a question in the chat.
How can the captions be turned on?
So the captions are available
on the stream on admin monitor.
We will I'll type in the...
How you can get the closed captions on admin monitor,
but that is where you can have closed captions
both in English and in Spanish of the sessions,
the WebEx sessions today.
But I will add more detail there.
And Joe actually has shared that link in the chat now.
So feel free to go there.
All right, next slide please.
Okay, so now we're gonna dive into about the action plan,
an overview and kind of where
we're going with this update to the plan.
I really wanna thank the folks
that are gonna be doing this presentation with me,
Yuliya Schmidt, Sarah Sharpe, and Nicole Cropper.
They have been instrumental
in the creation of this workshop,
alongside Amy Mesrobian and Kathleen Yip
from the Energy Division.
So you will see at other points in this workshop
in putting the vision together
for this designing the sessions
and helping to coordinate all these details.
So I'm glad to be able to do this presentation with them.
We're gonna talk a little bit about the history of the plan,
the goals,
some accomplishments that we've had this far,
and what we hope to update,
some of what we're hoping for with the update.
So to kick us off I'm gonna have Yuliya Schmidt
from Commissioner Rechtschaffen office
give us a little background about the plan
and what it is.
-: Great, thanks, Monica.
Would you mind giving me a thumbs up
that you can hear me?
Fantastic.
Thanks.
Thank you all.
It's very heartening encouraging
to see so many attendees today.
I know there are well over 200 of us online right now,
and the stakeholders represent
a variety of communities,
organizations interests across the state.
And we're thrilled to have you.
I just wanted to give a couple of minutes of background
on how this action plan came to be.
The Commission started this effort actually in 2017
because we noticed that our work
and Sarah we'll touch a little more on this,
deals with environmental social justice
issues across a huge number of proceedings and initiatives,
individual actions.
But we did not have a single coherent document
that expressed our policy vision
and sort of gathered all these actions in one place.
And so we undertook a pretty lengthy effort,
probably about two years of drafting and getting feedback
from internal and external stakeholders
to publish this action plan in 2019.
And it intends to serve two purposes.
The first, and I sure hope all 200 of you
have read the plan, but in case you haven't,
the first part is a policy statement
as to what the Commission views
environmental social justice action
excuse me, environmental social justice issues to be,
and our role, our Commission's role within them.
And the second is quite a comprehensive list
of those actions,
as I said, across numerous proceedings
and actually just about all of the sectors
that the CPCU works in.
So we regulate aspects of energy,
water, telecommunications and transportation,
just to name a few.
And those decisions have far reaching impacts
on communities identified in the plan.
So one final element that we built into the plan
that has already been mentioned,
which is this regular update,
a bi-annual updates that allows us
to take a fresh look at the actions
that are listed in the plan.
That is the accountability mechanism to you the public
and to ourselves that we can report out
on what progress has been made.
It allows us to add new actions as they arise
that we would like to undertake in the ESJ space,
and to reflect on the policy portion of the document.
So as previous speakers have said
we really look forward to the feedback we get here.
We'll be taking it very seriously
as we revise the plan for these upcoming two years.
-: Should I just jump in?
-: Yep, go for it, Sarah.
-: Okay, next slide.
Hi, everybody.
I'm Sarah Sharpe.
I'm an advisor for Commissioner Guzman Aceves.
So the nine environmental social justice goals
that are included in the plan,
the action plan are I think kind of the bread and butter.
They are the main substance of the plan.
And so I'm going to read them aloud
for those who are not able to see the slides,
as well as anybody who may be listening
to the Spanish interpretation.
But first I would just say
that these nine goals were intended to be comprehensive
and inclusive of all the ways the CPUC policy decisions,
programs and administration
can advance environmental and social justice
within our jurisdiction, as Yuliya just mentioned.
So goal one is to consistently integrate equity
and access considerations
throughout CPUC proceedings and efforts.
Goal two, is to increase investment
and clean energy resources to benefit ESJ communities.
Goal three is to improve access
to high quality water, communications
and transportation services or ESJ communities.
Goal four is to increase climate resiliency
in ESJ communities.
Goal five is to enhance outreach and public participation.
Goal six is to enhance enforcement.
Rule seven is to promote economic and workforce development.
Goal eight is to improve training
and staff development within the CPUC.
And finally, goal nine is to monitor the CPUCs ESJ efforts.
As Yuliya mentioned, that is our accountability goal.
I did shorten all of those...
The language of those goals for the sake of time,
but that's it.
Now, you can get the gist of them.
So while the goals are broad,
we identified 95 discreet action items
that are associated with these goals.
The ESJ liaisons which I think we'll talk about later.
And the core team who is presenting now,
are responsible for monitoring our progress
on these action items,
and it status report on the items
is presented to the Commission every year
in order to achieve goal nine.
And the first status report was presented
on May 7th of 2020,
which is also available on the ESJ Action Plan
landing page on our CPUC website.
During this workshop,
we hope to receive feedback on the relevance,
and any suggested edits or additions to the goals
and action plans and the first ESJ Action Plan.
And Nicole Cropper will be walking us
through some of the highlights of the implementation
of these goals and action items in the first two years.
So with that, I'll pass it to Nicole,
and the next slide.
-: Thanks Sarah.
Perfect.
So as Sarah was saying over the last two years
we have taken many steps forward
to include environmental and social justice principles
into our decision-making processes.
One of the first action items in the current iteration
of the plan actions
1.1 and 1.2 task the Commission
with incorporating environmental social justice issues
and impacts into our decision-making process.
Before I get into that,
like how we've managed to do that.
I would like to personally thank Assistant Chief
Anthony Colbert and Judge Ava Tran
along with Monica, Yuliya,
Sarah and our previous legal intern
and Commissioner Aceves office Jessica (indistinct),
who helps out in the early days
to draft the broad policy statements.
That we will use,
and it will be considered inappropriate proceedings
as well as developing internal guidance
to help us consider those impacts.
Next slide please.
So related to proceedings,
we have actually had quite a few highlights
that I would like to talk about.
In the wildfire mitigation planning proceeding,
we incorporated a new enhanced requirements
related to in-language outreach
before, during and after a wildfire
to communities with limited English proficiency
setting an important precedent
for other proceedings related to outreach.
The climate adaptation proceeding
adopted a definition of disadvantaged
vulnerable community to be utilized by utilities
and their planning for climate change impacts.
Our affordability proceeding created
the first of its kind metrics
to assess the affordability of essential utility.
And we will be releasing report
on the findings and conclusions.
I believe by later this quarter.
Across several proceedings from electric vehicle charging,
to battery storage technology
more and more funds are being prioritized
for disadvantaged in low-income community.
A large portion of environmental and social justice
is included, is including, excuse me
impacted communities in the decision making process,
education as well as meaningful engagement
is crucial to this process,
and requires forethought on how to intentionally
bring these communities into the conversation.
Several actions that task the news
and outreach office primarily
in facilitating access of environment
and social justice communities
to our processes and decision makers.
Steps taken towards implementing this goal
include creating a new public comment feature
on the Docket Card, which is very exciting.
We have also started to push out regional stakeholder
lose newsletters and increasing the focus
on around social justice more broadly.
News and outreach is also working on increasing outreach
to community based organizations
that have not traditionally participated
in the Commission's activities.
And the virtual environment has in some ways increase
that participation in our public meetings.
And will continue to look for ways to institutionalize
these processes.
Goal seven of the Environmental Social Justice Plan,
directed the Commission to promote workforce
development opportunities.
I'm very happy to announce
that we have signed and executed
a memorandum of understanding
that the California Workforce Development Board
to provide expertise and recommendations on our program.
We have chosen a handful of existing programs
such as energy efficiency,
building electrification,
renewable energy, transportation,
electrification and Vegetation Management Programs
to either review the success
of existing workforce development initiatives
or as opportunities to develop workforce standards.
The CWDB are experts in their fields
and we'll definitely leverage their expertise
to continue work on this goal.
Finally, a priority for the yesterday working group
it's to promote opportunities for staff
to learn about issues and tool to adjust
environmental and social justice in their work.
About a year ago, and this was in pre-COVID days
several ESJ liaison participate in a community outreach
and engagement training that was hosted by a partnership
with the agencies with plans to adapt the training
for our Commission specific audience.
We also held a combat CalEnviroScreen training
which was open to all staff this past summer
to familiarize staff on the office
of environmental health equity assessment tool.
While this certainly is not the only tool
to identify disadvantaged communities,
it is a great resource.
We want to encourage folks to become comfortable
in referencing this tool in their daily work.
In addition, we are creating the (indistinct)
an example of past Commission proceedings
which has had an environmental and social justice impact
so that staff has access to real world example
of how to apply these principles.
Finally, in coordination with our training office.
And I would like to give a little special shout out
to Antoinette Sequenza for helping this effort.
We are in the process of creating
a new employee training module,
which focuses on environmental and social justice
and how they using principles can be incorporated
into our work.
The efforts that I just highlighted
are a very broad overview
of what we've done over the last couple of years.
And we definitely look to successes for takeaways
and how to best incorporate ESJ items.
And I look forward to the conversations
that we're gonna have over the next few days
to kind of keep this work moving forward.
So thanks, Monica.
I'll turn it back to you.
-: Thank you, Nicole.
I think I'm gonna go one or two slides forward, please.
One more.
Yes, there we go.
Great, so this was alluded to,
in terms of how we were implementing the action plan
and just wanna highlight it for everybody
to know how we're operationalizing this at the Commission.
We've been so fortunate to have strong leadership
over the years with Commissioner Rechtschaffen
and Commissioner Guzman Aceves really spearheading
to create of this plan.
And where we are now is that we are really trying
to operationalize it and systematize
the actions and the intentions across ourselves as staff.
So the way we're implementing
this is that we have the core team,
which is myself, Nicole, Yuliya and Sarah
who helped to kind of direct and oversee
what's happening within the plan
and the action items that are within it,
and try to move things along across the Commission.
But key to our work is our environmental
and social justice liaison or ESJ Liaison.
We have one in each division of the Commission,
and we are meeting on a regular basis
to talk about lessons that we are learning
across our work sharing best practices amongst ourselves
going to training and doing training
like Nicole talked about so that we can better understand
how we can implement these principles and these practices,
and just generally working together
in an across Commission kind of way
to promote these issues.
So that's been a really fun
to get to know people across the Commission
and to really feel some solidarity in this work.
Next slide.
All right.
So now we're at that update to the plan.
And I just wanna give you all a sense
of some of what we're looking at in terms
of how to kind of structure the plan
and what direction we wanna take in this update.
These are just ideas that we've had as a core team
and as ESJ Liaisons and in where we are today
in implementing these goals,
and where we think we need to go,
and how the plan can best do that.
So first is in the spirit of the working group
being cross-divisional and cross-Commission.
We wanna prioritize more cross-divisional
and cross-organizational action items.
If you look at the plan today,
the action items are very proceeding specific
and do a really good job of cataloging
all the different ways that we are promoting
investment in communities,
or taking a look at environmental and social justice
communities in different ways.
But we wanna to challenge ourselves
to kind of do that in a more cross-conditioned
and coordinated fashion.
So we're gonna be trying to look at action items
in that spirit.
Second is that we wanna ensure that the action plan
is a resource to CPUC staff and stakeholders.
So we want it to be a document that can be referenced
in proceeding and resolutions,
in advice letters with definitions and key items
that can help further the principles
in the actual policy work that happens.
The third goal we have is to streamline the ability
to track the actions and increase accountability.
Like Sarah mentioned we have 95 action items in the plan
which is a tremendous, and we don't wanna...
We're not trying to say
that we wanna have less actions at all,
but we do wanna make sure
that we have action items that we can track,
and that we can hold ourselves accountable
to in a meaningful way.
That's a goal of ours.
And the fourth is to distribute action items
equitably across industry divisions.
So we wanna make sure that all of our divisions
are taking on these issues,
thinking about them thoughtfully,
and it's not necessarily one division
or two or three divisions doing most of the thinking
in this space.
We wanna make sure this is a whole Commission,
whole organization effort
and that the action items represent that.
Next slide.
So as far as timeline and where we are.
So just like anything with the pandemic
we are trying to create timelines
but things change so much,
and there's so much uncertainty
but here is what we're hoping to hold ourselves
to right now.
So we continue to have a liaison working groups
on a regular basis.
As Sarah, I think mentioned
we did do a status report presentation
to Commissioners back in May of 2020.
And that presentation is available
on our ESJ Action Plan webpage
as well as the accompanying report
if folks want to check that out.
Now, we're here in February doing this workshop
to kick off the process for this update.
Our plan is to revise the plan and post a draft.
Hopefully by no later than early summer, hopefully
to and we will allow folks to comment on that,
as was allowed in the first iteration of the plan.
I don't have it listed here,
but I also wanna highlight
the Disadvantaged Community Advisory Group
which we have at our at our Commission
that Cathy helps to manage.
They have also been really instrumental
in providing important feedback and leadership
on the design of this plan,
and we intend to have them help us out too.
So we definitely wanna have a plan
and a revised plan up and get some more feedback,
before bringing it back to the Commission.
Hopefully by late summer, early fall for an actual vote.
So the Commissioners will actually be able to vote
and portify this and that it has some teeth to it.
So that's generally where we are going
with it in the timing that we were hoping for.
Next slide.
Then that's about it.
We've had a couple of thank you so far
but just a tremendous thank you to so many dozens and dozens
of people (chuckles) who have helped
make those workshop possible all across our Commission,
our workshop planning team, the IT team,
all of the facilitators and summarizers
and note takers and interpreters
that you will see as well as our ESJ liaison,
all across the Commission and our division directors,
Administrative Law Judge division
and our legal division
that helps also with the creation of this agenda.
So thank you.
That's pretty much what we're up to,
and the overview of the plan.
And we're pretty a little ahead of schedule.
If folks have any questions or comments
feel free to raise your hand
or put it into the chat and we can take those now.
20 minutes.
Don't not see any hands.
We have a question from think Joe able to...
Abrams: Hi, this is Will Abrams.
-: Hi, we can hear you.
-: Great, thanks very much.
And thank you to the Commission
for holding this very important session.
It's really heartening to see the type of outreach
you're doing and continually impressed with the work
that the Commission is doing.
I just had a,
I guess a question and a bit of a comment regarding access,
and you mentioned that part of what you're trying to do
is sort of develop a methodology
for how you're moving forward,
and wanted to sort of understand the degree
to which that's gonna be a transparent (clears throat)
evaluation criteria.
So as an example, public comments
that are really wonderful to see now for each proceeding
will there be a methodology for how those comments
are evaluated so that we understand
how there'll be leveraged in a proceeding,
we'll the Administrative Law Judge take those comments
and use them in their rulings?
Understanding if you're coming to a public meeting
and you take your two minutes at the podium,
how that information will be evaluated?
I just really think it's a wonderful step forward
that you've presented and just sort of putting
some real specific evaluation criteria methodology
for how it's reviewed within a proceeding,
and more generally would go a long way to action
the plan that you've put forward.
Thank you.
-: Thank you so much for that.
I can chime in on that,
but I will invite any of our Commissioners
or executive director not to put y'all on the spot
but if you would like to respond to that,
please feel free. (chuckles)
And I'm happy to do so as well (indistinct).
All right.
Okay, yeah, I can go ahead and take that then
in terms of how we're thinking about that.
So, yes, correct.
So we do have public comment available
on the Docket Card now.
And you're right.
We are trying to get the word out
about the availability of that,
and incorporate it into our decision-making process.
I understand and we don't have administrative
law judge division on the first session now,
but encourage you to bring that question back up
at the 2:00 p.m session today
where we will be talking a little bit more about that,
you know, that kind of topic.
I think there's still a lot of room and opportunity
to think through and inform how public comment
can be incorporated into the record,
and into the decision making process.
I think there's an one way that that's happening.
And perhaps in conversation
we can think through what that should look like.
But encourage you...
If you're able to chime in at the 2 p.m session,
we will have Administrative Law Judge representation there,
and we'll definitely take that comment and build on it.
It's one of our really best avenues
to support putting more environmental
and social justice considerations onto the record.
And so it's definitely a priority of ours
to figure out how to make the most of that.
Abrams: Great, thanks very much.
-: Thank you.
-: All right.
We have about two or three more minutes.
Yes--
-: It would look like I think Rachel had a comment on that.
-: Oh yes, go ahead Rachel.
-: Hi Monica.
Thank you.
And thank you, Mr. Abrams for the question.
I only raised my hand to second what Monica just said.
First off, we're having a test on on exactly that topic
in as part of today's workshop.
And then Monica is exactly right.
It is one of the questions that we have to think through
and really be very thoughtful and deliberate about,
because well, we do want there is room
for including more public comments
in our decision-making process.
We also definitely always have to take
into consideration due process
and other considerations as well.
So largely to second what Monica said,
it's an ongoing question that we're all engaged in.
Thank you.
(indistinct) Rachel
-: Okay, I'm not seeing any other questions
in either the chat, oh, we have one hand up.
I'm sure if we can.
All right.
Yeah, we can hear you.
Abigail: Okay, this is Abigail.
Solis Self-Help Enterprises.
Hi, Monica, Commissioners.
Thank you for the time.
And for allowing me to ask this question.
So I'm very pleased with everything
that the CPUC has done to ensure equity
and access considerations throughout the CPUC proceedings
and as well as staff.
But I'm wondering what are you doing to ensure
that that same equity of access considerations
are reaching beyond proceedings
and onto the projects and the program
that come out of your proceedings?
-: Once again, I'll invite any Commissioner
or our executive director to reply.
If not, I'm happy to take that.
-: Hi Abigail?
This is Commissioner Rechtschaffen.
One answer it's a partial answer is as Nicole said,
we have an MOU with the Workforce Investment Board
and we're discussing how to incorporate workforce training
and development standards into programs
that the CPUC funds.
That is one way where we're trying to have an impact
on the projects and the communities that are affected.
We've done this to some degree
in our energy efficiency portfolio spending
but not across the board for our other programs.
So that is one concrete way
we're trying to have a broader impact,
but that doesn't answer your other parts of your question.
So I'll let others weigh in.
-: Okay (indistinct)
Oh, go ahead Rachel.
-: I'll also offer a personal answer.
Here's another example.
Another person who I believe is on the panel
during the workshop is our new travel advisor
Kenneth Holbrook.
And with his appointment to the CPUC,
we have been engaged in a good amount of thinking
and action on how the CPUC
engages in our tribal consultation
and where there are additional opportunities
for tribal consultation.
Kenneth is working with a couple of folks,
Stephanie Green, who was already implementing
our tribal content consultation work.
But Ken has really focused for example
on ensuring that the electric utilities
are in close contact with tribes
when they conduct a deenergization
the public safety power shut off,
that they conduct when fire risk conditions are high.
And so that's another example
of how we are looking to operationalize
this commitment in the programs that we offer.
-: And I'll just chime in to wrap up the question,
and I thank you Abby, for that question.
So Nicole mentioned that we're trying to work
on incorporating environmental
and social justice considerations
in things like scoping memos.
So in our proceeding process,
starting to scope in issues
at the beginning of the proceeding
so that it gets incorporated into the record
throughout the whole process
and it's not something that comes in at the end.
So we're working on trying to put in place,
guidance and just a systematic way of doing that.
But one thing that is not...
One thing that we wanna do to take that further
is not but also consider advice letters
resolutions things that happen on the implementation side
exactly what you're leading to.
So make sure that we don't leave that behind.
A lot of attention is on the proceeding process
and rightfully so,
because that is where a lot of policy gets made,
but we haven't forgotten about the advice letter process
and all of these other things.
And we intend to take the lessons
that we're learning in starting to do this,
and scoping them up,
and put it into some of these other processes we have.
We just haven't admittedly gotten there yet.
So that's the answer for me.
And then I think Commissioner Guzman Aceves
wants to say something.
-: Thank you, Abby.
It's good to hear from you as well.
And I just wanna recognize
that this is a real issue across the board
for many of our decisions and in a very parallel track.
One of the things that we've been looking at is,
you know, we have these great policies
that we set forward,
great programs that we set forward.
And many of those ensure things from consumer protection
to prioritize investments,
and you know in the implementation
it often results in a different outcome.
And one of our major focuses President Batjer
and Commissioner Rechtschaffen
have been leading is our enforcement policy
because one of the mechanisms
for some of our programs and policies
is having a citation program tied
to the programs that we approve.
And in some cases I'll give the disconnections proceeding.
Those are very clear rules,
and you have to provide people a minimum
a 12 month payment plan
or you can't charge people reconnection fees anymore.
Those are clear rules,
they can be guarded through a citation program.
Some of what we've learned in the (indistinct) proceeding
is different than that.
And so we have a different challenge
about how we make those policies implementable.
It's not gonna be through a citation program. (giggles)
It's a little more difficult
because it's about almost to the verge
of a cultural transformation.
So just wanna recognize that,
and I certainly am eager to hear about recommendations
about how we ensure that what we put out
in our decisions are truly implemented.
And so I just go to the citation example
as something where we have had a historical realization
that some of our rules are not being implemented
and that was a mechanism we did to ensure implementation
for some of our programs
particular incentive-based programs,
we need a mechanism.
And I certainly don't know what it is today
but I do wanna acknowledge
that it's a very real issue about what you're speaking to.
So thank you very much.
And I don't know if there's a particular work sessions
that can be dialogued around (laughs) that.
I'll leave that to Monica.
-: Oh yeah.
I mean, yeah.
Implementation in every session should be discussed.
So and then enforcement there is an enforcement breakout
tomorrow at 1:00 p.m.
Okay, everybody.
So it is...
I think 11 we had hoped to take a five minute break
but being that this is a virtual
just encourage everybody to kinda take (indistinct)
break as you need,
but we will take just a minute or two
to transition to our next session
and get make sure our facilitators
are ready and have everything ready.
So we will stop there,
and get ready for our 11:00 a.m
and start in just a minute or two.
Thanks so much.
(indistinct) and then Kathleen,
and Amee if you guys are ready to start
feel free to take it away.
-: Awesome, Amee, Kapil are you guys good to go?
Please get your thumbs up.
Okay, cool.
All right, let's get started.
Hi, everyone
Feel free to trickle in, get a cup of coffee.
We're just gonna go ahead and get started.
Welcome to the defining
environmental and social justice session.
I'm Kathleen.
I work on a variety of equity issues (indistinct)
joined today by Amee Raval
from the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, APEN.
And we are also joined by Kapil Kulkarni
from the CPUC Energy Division.
Me and Amee are the facilitators for the session today.
In this session we are going to be talking about
the different definitions and terms
we use at the CPUC to define and identify underserved
and vulnerable communities.
These definitions are important
because they are the basis for eligibility
for many of our equity and low income focus programs.
And it's a question that we're really constantly
grappling with what counts and what doesn't count?
So the goal of the session is really to raise
the issues around the different definitions that we have,
and have discussion to develop some potential
new action items to put into the ESJ Action Plan updates
as it relates to definitions of our underserved
and vulnerable communities.
Before we get into it,
just a quick reminder as many have mentioned,
we are hoping to make this as much
of an interactive discussion as possible,
and we really encourage you to participate.
A few reminders on ways to do that.
The first is to give a verbal comment or ask a question,
click the hand next to your name and the participant list.
The event host Joe will call on your name
and unmute you when it is your turn
and you'll be able to speak.
As Monica and many others have mentioned.
Please keep in mind
that we may not be able to get to everyone
but we'll do our best to get as many comments
and questions into the discussion as possible.
If you prefer to make a written comment or question
type your comments into the chat box,
and please send to all participants
and we will try to read in as much as we can
from the chat box into the discussion
even if we can't bring your comment into the discussion
the chat will be saved and we will record your feedback.
Finally, if you'd like to submit written comments
are a little bit more substantive via email,
for example, you can email your thoughts
to www.esjactionplan@cpuc.ca.gov.
And lastly, before we start another reminder
that this session is being recorded
so that we can save all feedback and comments.
I think that Joe mentioned
just wanted to remind us also that people
that are only on the phone line
you can dial star three on your phones to make a comment.
So that's another way to participate as well.
All right, let's get started.
I'm gonna hand it over to Amee.
-: Great.
Thank you, Kathleen.
And good morning, everyone.
As mentioned My name is Amee Raval.
I'm research director
with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network,
and I'm really excited to be here
facilitating the conversation,
offering some of our experience and expertise,
as a community advocate having been doing this work
for about five years at APEN
and really having learned a lot along the way.
So I'll just be doing a little bit of framing
before I pass it over back to Kathleen.
And really again,
grounding in the community perspective
as an advocate engaging in CPUC proceedings
and legislative advocacy,
and with many other agency programs.
So some of the takeaways that I...
Or sort of, I guess top lines I'd like to offer for us
to think through and discuss together.
First, start with the just how important definitions
are in our work.
Definitions really matter,
if we're trying to achieve targeted investments
and protections, especially for the pace places
that have experienced historic burdens,
historic inequalities, and historic disinvestment.
To make that more concrete.
I wanna uplift CalEnviroScreen
which many folks today are likely familiar with.
CalEnviroScreen is a powerful tool that for,
especially as environmental justice advocates
has helped us really policymakers
identify where these communities are in California
in order to be able to sort of target
those protections and investments.
And I think while there have been political dynamics
and over the years of in its implementation
as it's been strengthened and updated, you know,
debate around sort of how the tool has been applied,
ways that it might manifest in regional sort of dynamics.
We assert that CalEnviroScreen
is the sort of not only powerful
but a scientific model for applying data
and decision-making.
Whether that not only be around investments,
but land use, permitting enforcement
and other examples.
So I just wanna say that that for us
that tool is really an exemplary model,
and it's one that we really highlight and uplift
that's robust.
And again, over the years has been updated
and continues to be refined
to be sort of accurate and aligned
with the ground truthing and the lived experiences
of the communities we organize.
So that's sort of one I wanna highlight.
That's a foundation that we've used in decision-making
around environmental policy.
But I also wanna uplift some imaging work
that APEN has been doing around climate vulnerability
and resilience.
We really building off the work
and strength of CalEnviroScreen
want to answer a complimentary question
around sort of who and where are the communities
disproportionally impacted by climate change threats.
And partly that's because CalEnviroScreen
was never designed to really capture those threats
like wildfires or sea level rise or extreme heat.
And to name that it's not a replacement,
but it's a complimentary set of questions,
a complimentary set of mapping
that can help us really depict those challenges.
Because what we know is that,
our communities face a multitude of challenges
and they're complex.
No single tool can really depict all those complexities.
And so our communities really need a suite of tools
to sort of uplift and invisibilize those impacts.
And so just as a preview,
I wanna highlight that we are working
with the office of planning and research
to sort of make this vision
for climate vulnerability platform real.
It's come up in many spaces
including at the CPUC around
there's not a robust framework for climate vulnerability,
like there is for sort of environmental health burdens
and pollution.
And so we wanna have something analogous
that can be accessible
and user-friendly for these complimentary questions.
So that's the piece on definitions.
My second of three points is around really
having an adaptive approach.
We have been learning along the way
through our advocacy in different proceedings and programs,
particularly about the lessons
that we're learning through implementation.
And different stakeholders have different perspective.
Whether a program should take a more targeted approach,
and really have a narrowed set of definitions
for eligibility,
or whether we're trying to be more inclusive
and really sort of reach as many communities as possible.
From an environmental justice perspective.
You know, it depends,
but when there is a finite set of resources
and we really wanna see substantial investments
that can deliver meaningful community benefits.
This is spreading resources out too thin.
And so that balance is tricky,
and it's an elegant balance
we have to strike between inclusivity and targeting.
But again, knowing that the communities
that we organized working class communities of color
have experienced this historic disinvestment.
We really advocate for making sure
we are being really targeted to the places
that need it the most.
And so some of that thinking around
sort of what that definition is?
Really depends on the problem the program
is trying to solve.
So you have to really start there
when you think through the right set of criteria.
But there artist's set of considerations
to evaluate those sort of set questions
and landing the right answer.
And we go through our own process as advocates
to sort of think through that program by program.
And so what could it look like just to plant a seed
for there should be more guidance available
through a framework to allow advocates
and policy makers alike
to have this set of questions to think through
when Chris (indistinct)
definitely talk more about sort of what that could look like
and how it could be helpful for policy makers as well.
But from our end,
we just do a mental exercise of sort of like,
is it focused on climate vulnerability
and climate change impacts?
Is it pollution?
Is there a constraint on resources?
Do we need to really like capture a certain percentage
of the state as some examples?
And I'm sure folks here can name more.
And then the last point I'd like to make is just,
again, the community perspective.
So to speak to data sources,
we really advocate for being holistic
that we can't just rely on sort of environmental exposures
or climate projections alone
that the science needs to be complemented
with socioeconomic factors,
and neighborhood conditions
that we know are closely intertwined
and really relate to how communities experience
and accumulate accumulate risk
whether that be from pollution or climate change.
And so that's a justice lens
that really again takes into account
those historic inequalities.
And that's fundamental to our advocacy.
So we're always trying to bring the social, economic,
the people centered factors
as part of approaching definitions.
But I will say through our advocacy
and work in local implementation,
it still continues to be hard for communities to access
the programs that we advocate for.
And we often hear from partners
that sometimes overly complicated
or restrictive eligibility can make it hard
to access funding.
And so we know we need to keep that in mind,
and not sort of create burdens for our folks
to actually access these programs through the eligibility.
And so I'd love to...
I want as the discussion continues
what are creative solutions to help
sort of streamline access to all these programs
to navigate across all the various eligibility criteria,
and make sure that our communities are able to benefit
across these programs and maximize benefits.
So I'm gonna stop there
'cause I wanna make time for the rest of the discussion
and I'll pass it back to Kathleen.
-: Awesome, thanks very much Amee.
That was such a good overview of the challenges
that the community is facing,
our stakeholders are facing.
And maybe before getting into some discussion
with the public,
I just wanted to give maybe a little bit
of thinking behind some of the next steps
that we are taking at the CPUC.
So as Amee has had mentioned,
we do have many definitions,
we have the definition
in the environmental and social justice ESJ Action Plan.
We have the definition that was provided
by the Disadvantaged Community Advisory Group
the DECAG Equity Framework.
We have definitions that are creative in proceedings
that are assigned to us by the legislature.
We have (chuckles) definitions borrowed from elsewhere,
so many and we also have all these terms,
we've got low income,
we've got disadvantaged community,
we have hard to reach underserved.
So we have, you know,
in really all these terms are just a little bit different
which as Amee has mentioned creates confusion
not just among stakeholders
but also I would say staff and program implementers.
And so a lot of...
And from there also a lot of staff resources and time
is spent recreating the wheel in every proceeding,
figuring out what the definition should be,
and we understand that definitions
they shift based on the particulars of the proceeding
or who the target population is.
As Amee has mentioned sometimes we wanna create
eligibility for a large portion of the state,
but sometimes we wanna focus resources
in the most effected areas of the state.
So one of the things that we are thinking
about and wanting to get some feedback from you all on is,
whether or not we should create some sort of framework
or template like definition,
not guide staff to a definition
that already exists and meets the specific needs
of the policy or program that is being created.
And the first step in that,
which we are kind of starting now
is to catalog all the different definitions that we have,
to help even understand the universe of definitions
we have across the CPUC.
And following that then,
we can start to think about what a potential baseline
or a template definition could be,
where we can plug in some modifications.
So we have all these income eligibility thresholds.
I mean, we have some that are based
on federal poverty limit,
we have some that are based on area median income,
state median income.
And so that would be one piece of it.
Another piece that we're thinking of including
in this framework would be tools
like CalEnviroScreen and tools beyond CalEnviroScreen
Amee mentioned that CalEnviroscreen
doesn't capture everything.
It is very focused on communities
most affected by air quality burdens,
but I've come up in the climate change adaptation context
there that tool doesn't capture
the vulnerabilities for every situation.
And so we know that we aren't realistically
going to be able to have one definition
that suits every repurpose,
but we are exploring the idea
of having this baseline definition
where we can plug in modifications.
So we are kind of some of the preliminary thinking
that we have right now.
And I would kind of open it up to comments
or initial feedback before we get into some questions.
Any thoughts panelists?
I think we have one question.
Constance I think that your line is open.
Constance: Hi, there Constance Slider Pierre
with Turn, The Utility Reform Network.
I'm just curious to know if by aggregating
kind of all of these definitions,
the goal is for the Commission to come up
with own definition that would be applied in proceedings
and across the different divisions of the CPUC
to kind of address or get at these or is...
Yeah, that's my question.
Initial question.
-: Just to make sure that I'm understanding,
so are you asking if we're gonna have just one definition
across the Commission?
Constance: Correct.
-: Okay.
Maybe I'll start and welcome Amee and others to chime in.
I think that we don't think
that we're gonna have one definition
'cause we don't...
I think they're not gonna have one definition
that suit every need.
I mean, some definitions are gonna be,
so for example a program that Kapil Kulkarni
is leading is the energy assistance programs.
And those we're trying to create eligibility
for that program on a larger swath of the state
so that income eligibility will be a little bit different
than eligibility for that.
The definition for that would be potentially different
as opposed to the climate change adaptation proceeding
that Amee and APEN was very involved in,
there was a finite set of resources
that we wanted just like very laser focus
those resources into the most effective parts of the state.
So those are two separate definitions,
but I think that one of the things
we're trying to understand is,
what is the baseline of definitions
and how can we pair related programs and proceeding,
how can we pair those definitions together?
Amee I don't know if you wanna chime in as well?
-: No, I think that...
No, it's helpful to hear from the sort of staff perspective,
because I think as I mentioned no one definition
can sort of I think apply alone across
a multitude of applications and programs.
I think that could be really reductive.
And part of the reason we're adoptive
and maybe slightly modify,
again, not only is it because we're learning along the way,
but because the problem statement,
the set of issues that proceeding
or program might be trying to address are distinct.
So I just wanna name that the set of criteria,
the indicators or data that are usually depend on that.
But I do think this piece Kathleen as you mentioned
of a foundation, a baseline,
and even just the analysis of where there's sort of overlap,
like where there are shared approaches and then distinctions
all of that as a foundation to guide folks
as we're continuing to engage in different proceedings
will be really helpful.
So yeah.
-: All right, wanna open it up to the next question.
I think we have Martha on the line.
Ms. Kelly: I'm Ms. Kelly with Catholic Charities.
What I'm hearing is really great discussion,
however, one thing that I'd like to add to that,
it's not enough just to have a name,
or an identity or a word
or a acronym or whatever you wanna call it.
It's really putting a mindful approach
to when we're even calling any one group
or even identifying one group to understand
that some of those groups have names, right?
So wherever we're able to say,
West Modesto or let's say Oak Park,
residents in Oak Park
that we'd be conscious of their identity.
If they've been identified,
or they identified themselves as a group
that we are consistent with that,
and identifying them and giving them
the due respect in who they are,
and where they they identified
and using the right terms so to speak.
A lot of times I viewed a lot of RFPs,
different documents and they say,
disadvantaged communities,
well, let's call them by what they are,
you know, like give them their name.
If we're talking about residents in Sacramento,
if we're talking about residents in Los Angeles,
wherever it is that we be conscious
that these people that are living in these environments
are duly being affected by our decision-making,
and we need to be respectful.
I think it's so important
that we're even looking at these paradigms
of environmental justice, social equity,
but what do we mean when we say social equity?
Identifying what we think and what another person believes
in as far as equity could be very different,
you know, so being mindful,
letting others know as we start today
we're going to look at equity,
and equity to us means X, Y, and Z.
It may mean ABC to you,
and we're more than willing to accept and include
your connotation of what it means to you,
and being mindful and respectful.
It's so important.
And I'm really excited to be here today.
I was looking over your budget.
And one thing I did wanna say is,
I noted that on the budget for a Lifeline Program
that you were having some problems with outreach.
So my thought process was like,
are we really involving other CBOs and FBOs to the table
to participate in those efforts,
to get those grassroots individuals
to be part of your outreach?
And in such are we able to have an opportunity
for compensation, or some type of subsidies?
'Cause if I see the people
that are out there promoting the free phones,
and I think if these opportunities
were afforded to other people
that are just trying to get by,
and we're respectful of their time
and how they are able to do these opportunities
for our programs,
let's make some provisions so that we can stipend
or actually give something back,
rather than just expect to meet our deliverables.
And that's my comment.
Thank you.
-: Thank you very much, Martha.
Maybe I'll offer just to respond to Amee first,
and maybe some other panelists.
-: (indistinct) really appreciate that you've raised that,
'cause I think sometimes in talking about definitions
in particular that lens,
that sort of the lived experiences,
and the people that are really sort of,
we're representing with these very technical definitions,
that sort of lens that it's people,
these are humans,
these are communities get sort of lost
and I think, yeah, just wanna uplift
that's part of the importance.
There is also in addition to sort of being careful
about how we name,
this principle of self-determination
that communities are also sort of named,
sort of refer to their places,
their communities for themselves.
And I think coupling any sort of work around definitions
and targeting of programs with strong community leadership
and participation and ground truthing
I think is really, really critical.
And I know CalEnviroScreen really in its inception
tried to create that tool in partnership
with community leaders and advocates.
Ms. Kelly: Thank you.
-: And I wanted to also maybe put Monica on the spot
to maybe if you want to respond
to the compensation piece at all?
-: Hi, can you hear me?
Yeah, so I am not a telecommunications person,
but I do know there's work happening in Lifeline
to really look at that.
And so the timing is actually really good.
I think there's going to be some opportunities
to think about how the outreach can improve.
So consider joining the telecommunications
breakout this afternoon.
And, but yes, absolutely.
In terms of how we can...
We have a lot of programs
that have partnerships with community-based organizations
but there's a lot of room to improve upon
what those partnerships look like.
So I'll just be brief with that,
and I'm happy to follow-up
and connect with the Lifeline team at this point.
-: Yeah, I just wanna echo Amee thanks to you
for raising that the comment that's kind
of very also just like really ground
a lot of our work in the fact that,
we're working with people
and calling up the communities
we really appreciate you calling that out.
And I think that's really important.
One thing that I had heard from Julia Jordan
from the Leadership Council
was that when she was doing this discussion on outreach
and engaging communities,
she said kind of like (indistinct)
you're just talking to people,
it doesn't have to be quite so complicated.
And (indistinct) so caught up in our thoughts
and definitions and just kind of also being reminded
that we are dealing with people
and to keep that in the front of our minds.
All right.
Moving on to...
Oh, Mr. Rechtschaffen did you wanna comment?
-: No, go ahead and get comments from the public,
I got questions for Amee but it can wait.
-: All right.
Let's move on to Will, your line is open I think.
Will: I think starting with the definitions
is a great place to start really foundational
to how we move forward.
I just wanted to inquire in terms of how you're looking
at the definitions and through what lens?
So what's important obviously
is that what the Commission comes up
with is really actionable.
And so what might be environmental and social justice
outside of the Commission,
might not be exactly the lens that the Commission
might wanna look through.
And so wanting to understand the degree
to which you were thinking about aligning these definitions
with the work of the CPUC
that you do in terms of the regulations.
So as an example, there are specific criteria
for how we're evaluating the credit worthiness
of our utilities, right?
So it's part of social justice,
and how we're trying to look at this,
and define this is what it's going to be sort
of the public definition of credit worthiness.
So as we're say, as an example increasing rates
and what that does to the credit worthiness
or the insurance issues associated with utility,
are we expecting that we would have a like measure
for how that affects credit worthiness
and insurance issues within a particular populations.
And so we might use a cost of living index,
or other types of profiles.
Again, to be actively used within proceedings
and within the Commission's deliberation
so that we are looking at what are the cost
and benefits on who we're regulating
and also the implications for the public
and the communities we're talking about.
And didn't know if you were sort of thinking it through
in those terms.
Thank you.
-: A really good comment maybe I'll respond first,
and open it up to Amee and other panelists.
I do think that's a really good point.
Thank you for raising that.
I think that we are looking...
That's kind one of the questions
that we're looking to understand
is what are the other indicators?
What are the other tools
that we should be thinking out of outside of the ones
that we already know, you know,
CalEnviroScreen was brought up,
we've heard social vulnerability index,
we've heard healthy places index,
but bringing in these others,
I think that as you framed it like life indicators,
data points, and that's a really good point
we should try to figure out how we can incorporate
some of those relevant data sources into our definitions.
That's very good feedback.
(phone beeping)
-: Thing in particular to add there beyond what we should.
-: All right, thank you for your comment.
Let's move on to Nathan.
Nathan: Hi there.
Yeah, Amee already addressed my question.
This is Nathan (indistinct)
I think, the definition question is so hard
and (indistinct) how does the baseline
that you all develop tie into the broader definitions
that are being developed at the other agencies?
And I'm sure that's you've all considered,
but I'm curious if there's sort of an explicit effort
to think about that and (indistinct).
-: Yeah, thanks for raising that.
I'm just browsing (chuckling) seeing your question now.
I did just wanna raise that the climate adaptation team.
We did talk with ICAP and OPR and a couple of other agencies
in the creation of the definition
for we have this term
that was created disadvantaged, vulnerable community.
We did do a little bit of browsing (chuckles) around,
including Amee, UC Berkeley, Leadership council, OPR.
We did talk to a lot of other folks to see
how we can incorporate their definition
and then the arts.
And what we learned from talking with ICAP
was that they're working with APEN
and others (chuckles) to develop some kind of tool
and definition for climate vulnerability.
And I think that in terms of working with other agencies,
we are that's I think that maybe even the second part
of there's this bucket of cataloging internally CPUC
what our definitions are,
figuring out what the baseline is,
and figuring out internally,
but then also working externally,
we do often work with ARB and CC
but I think that's like a very large (laughs) effort
to align amongst agencies.
But I think that that's a really good...
We want to create more alignment,
but it's a very large effort that we are...
We keep in the back of our mind,
but it's right now this this particular focus,
the smallest segment we're working on first is CPUC focus
and then trying to broaden it out to ARB.
But we are in regular contact with ARB and CDC.
So thanks (indistinct)
-: I would just add that too.
I've been really impressed with the CPUCs
approach in particular proceedings to sort of reach out
and coordinate with other agencies and offices
that have more expertise.
So bringing new (indistinct) and ICAP staff
to sort of just connect and coordinate across agencies
for the adaptation proceeding
was really, really, really helpful.
And I just appreciate not operating in silos
when we know the Department of Public Health
similarly has a lot of expertise around these questions.
But yes, as a preview,
independent Greenlining are in the process
after a few years of advocacy
to really realize a quantitative data visualization platform
for climate vulnerability in part
because it's hard to really operationalize
to someone's point make actionable a qualitative definition
and I know that utilities are working
on their own vulnerability assessments,
and we hope that this can be a resource for the work
that the utilities are doing too.
-: All right, before we turn the next caller
I just wanted to check in if there was any comments
or questions from the Spanish line?
Okay. (laughs)
Let move on.
Bruno, I think is next.
Bruno: Thank you very much.
I'm kinda new here to this conversation.
I just happened to have some time on my day
to be able to join in and listen,
I've been tryna listening to a lot of what the CPUC
has been involved with,
just because it affects my community so much.
I'm a District Supervisor for the County of Lake,
and we are a raw resource type of community
where there's definitely been some abuses in our environment
and it has not helped us in reaching our economic goals
for individuals within our community
and that's where I see a lot of environmental justice issues
is typically in poor areas.
We'll go ahead and install certain industries
or certain types of economic drivers.
But I'm seeing on the other side,
which to me environmental justice,
let's say if your definition of environment
includes the social economic demographic of a community
is the lack of infrastructure.
And COVID-19 is absolutely highlighting that,
when we do not have the broadband infrastructure
because things have been deployed in more affluent areas
and not necessarily been deployed in less affluent areas.
And so not only do we get knocked on one side
where we may get some sort of industry
that might pollute our lake,
might pollute our creeks and other things like that.
But on the other end we do not get the infrastructure
to be able to move forward
and keep up with the average Jones's
of the state of California,
which keeps us even further behind.
So I don't know if that's necessarily within the topic
that you're talking about.
I love the topic that you are discussing,
and we'll continue to listen.
But I thought I'd at least introduce myself
and express myself while I had the opportunity.
Thank you so much.
-: Nice to meet you virtually.
I don't know Amee wanna to respond, anybody?
Panels I also invite you to respond?
Go ahead Commissioner Guzman Aceves.
-: Thank you for allowing me to participate in your panel.
(laughs)
I just wanna respond to the supervisor in that.
It absolutely is,
I think we see the areas of the state
that are not served properly
in their telecommunication needs,
and it's an area that is overripe for action.
And I think as we look at the different strategies
for meeting our goals within this action plan,
we have a particular opportunity now
with the new administration in DC
to finally get to a place where we can regulate
and ensuring that all Californians
have access to this service.
So I absolutely...
This is absolutely part of the action plan
and I would just encourage you to join the breakout session.
(laughs) Thank you.
-: All right.
I'm going to look through the chat.
We have one question.
Sorry, I just lost it. (laughs)
Maybe we can get Commissioner Rechtschaffen
to ask your question and then I'll (indistinct).
-: (indistinct) a question or a comment
or I don't know just expressing (chuckles) a challenge
in what you said, one of the things you said.
You said it's important that we have sort of simpler
less restrictive definitions
because it's very hard for some communities
to access programs,
but you also said it's very important
to target programs at the people who need them.
And I think that's a challenge
that we've seen in our programs.
We wanna design programs to get to the neediest people,
to the most deserving.
But when we define some of our criteria
a little bit more loosely,
we're not always successful in doing that,
others take up some of the program budget.
we have limited funds, and we do wanna target them
to the most disadvantaged communities.
But sometimes that does mean making the requirements
more limited or restrictive.
It's a dilemma.
I don't know the answer,
I'm just posing if you'll just to think about,
and for the larger group and stakeholders
to help us think through how to deal with that.
Because we don't wanna be overly technical,
we don't wanna exclude people
because it's so difficult and so specific.
But if we don't we run the risk
that the program funds will be depleted.
-: Yes, thank you Commissioner for that comment.
And I do think that that is a again a tricky complex.
It's a wicked problem,
it requires a lot of collaboration to figure out
and really land on what's again that balance.
But I do think that as I mentioned,
being adaptive is really important
and really think through what are the challenges.
I think sometimes the critique
will be while the definition was really restrictive
but there's no applicants, right?
So there, you know, and there's other programs
that are oversubscribed.
So the communities don't even want the funds
or they don't need them,
and that's actually the wrong I think assumption
or conclusion to make.
I think sometimes even with those risks,
it's not just the restricted definition that's the problem.
It could be lack of access technical assistance
and making sure that communities
who are included and eligible have the support
they need to be connected
and apply and secure the funding.
So I do wanna offer that to the group too,
is sometimes it's not just the definition,
that's the problem,
but actually the technical assistance,
the barriers to applying that might be the problem to solve.
So there's a lot there,
but one of the offer that to not always sort of...
We shouldn't just focus on the definition piece
as the key challenge.
(indistinct)
-: All right.
I'm gonna move to a question from the chat
but I also wanted to remind folks
that if you have your hand raised
and you have already spoken
please put your hand down,
unless you have another question (chuckles)
and then we'll get you back in the queue.
So one question that came up was this question
I wanna first post to Amee
and then invite any of the other panelists to respond.
It was a question about the term disadvantaged community,
sorry, the chat is moving so I can't see who submitted it.
I'm sorry about that.
But the question is basically the term
disadvantaged community, the negative term,
we have heard from many folks
that may not be the appropriate term to use,
and I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
-: Yeah, this is an ongoing debate in conversation.
And I think where we are at this stage
in the sort of development of CalEnviroScreen
and the caudifying disadvantaged communities in policy,
has meant that while that debate continues
and I think is important to have,
there are a lot of programs
that have sort of implemented
and really rely on those terms
to refer to the top 25 percentile, most impacted,
most burdened CalEnviroScreen
community identified by CalEnviroScreen.
'Cause what I just said is more loaded
than just saying disadvantaged communities.
And that's been socialized too.
But that doesn't mean the debates don't continue,
and I'll be honest at APEN while we recognize
that in policy and legislation there is a need
because of what people understand
making it accessible to our policy makers.
In terms of our messaging,
the way we talk about our communities,
and talk about ourselves
we don't use disadvantaged communities.
It is problematic for many reasons.
And again, with the value of self-determination,
you know, in our advocacy,
we use environmental justice communities,
we use working class communities of color,
or communities of the beliefs material resources.
So we've thought through sort of alter,
I guess adapting our language,
and being fed in the places that we organize about that,
that aligns with what how people refer to themselves.
But in the policy sphere,
it's a little bit more challenging.
-: Great, thanks very much Amee.
Let's move to the next comment
from the verbal comment on the line.
Daniel: (indistinct) your line is active.
Mark: Sorry, who's the queue?
-: I think Daniel, your line is acive.
Daniel: Okay, great,
sorry, I didn't realize it was me.
Thank you all for participating today
and for offering this opportunity to engage
and to get our viewpoints.
I think it's really important
that we contextualize where we're at today.
The world is changing very fast.
Climate change is moving quickly
and I think we're getting key signals from federal
and even state authorities that we need to move faster,
we need to move quicker,
we need to move better in our climate, strategy and actions.
And it really dovetails with the work of the CPUC.
We are working right now,
I'm with the Center for Human Rights and Environment,
and also the Institute for Governance
and Sustainable Development.
We're working closely with CPUC
and CAB to try to find areas where collaboration
interagency could really help,
and we're finding spaces where
that currently isn't happening.
And I think it's really important to think of ways
where energy efficiency
and cost benefit can also work with air quality
and climate strategies,
because the push will be to address the climate
in the AV627 space, for example,
air quality is so critically important,
and yet it doesn't consider urban heat as a priority.
If we can promote avoided warming strategies
through public utilities
that really helps bring the temperature down
for certain communities that really need it.
It's an environmental justice action,
and it could lower the need for energy.
We need to think about those cross-sector,
cros-program, cross-agency approaches,
and ways that we can help climate change
but at the same time help EJ communities
while addressing it all through things like the programs
that are coming out of CPUC.
So I hope that we will be taking the emerging federal policy
the executive orders,
which are just rich in this sort of approach
and these issues, and use those to think through
this reform of the action strategy plan.
Thank you very much.
-: Thanks very much, Daniel.
All right, let's move to the next question on the line.
We've got Leslie, your line is open,
and let's follow by...
Let's follow Leslie with Central Valley Urban Institute.
Leslie: Hi folks.
This is Leslie Martinez.
I'm with Leadership Council.
First of all, thanks so much for having this Amee.
I love hearing you speak about so many of the issues
that I think we collaborate a lot in the same space.
There was a few things that through this conversation
I think are important to acknowledge a race specifically,
the comment regarding barriers,
you know, in the Central Valley,
and then in the East Coachella Valley
resources are so limited in like just overall,
that there has to be some type of way
where we can get those types of communities get feedback,
to figure out how we can get them at the table,
how we can get them to ensure that that they like
what are their like really figure out
what exactly are their barriers?
How we overcome them?
Specifically thinking about the rural communities
often in proceedings.
I think a lot of the times everyone wants a document,
like a very a formal piece of that describes the community,
but the reality is that in order for us
to I think...
In order for us to move forward
is we also have to recognize
that racism red lining segregation
have actually hindered so much of these so many communities
that none of this information is available for them.
When it comes to census the actual number of folks
that live in communities what their boundaries are?
And some communities do not exist technically,
but they do (chuckles) if that makes sense.
(indistinct) and that's really important
for the rural context
because that's what really inhibits them.
It's the idea that they don't even exist.
So really encouraging to think about being adaptive,
but also flexible to the needs of communities
to ensure that there are other ways
to show that they are community.
And then the other thing
that I'd also like to raise
is thinking about disadvantaged communities,
also including like the geography,
you know, the San Joaquin Valley turns into a bowl.
So like for example, during wildfire season
a lot of resources and attention
are always focused on those areas
that were definitely hit very hard by wildfire,
but I think it's also important to recognize
what happens when the smoke comes back to the Valley
and it stays here for a very long time.
And I agree with the comments made before me about climate,
but I also think it's extremely important for us
to not undermine the importance of health,
and what that means for communities.
What disadvantage means in terms of health,
how close are folks to hospitals?
Do they have access to primary health care?
And then the third part it's cost.
I think that an important thing that we need to recognize
about disadvantaged communities
is often specifically during the pandemic
we saw so many folks lose jobs
with absolutely no lifeline to help out.
And I think that's what when I think of the definition
I would like to see a definition that includes,
that targets these specific types of communities
where we know that they need extra help,
but we know that the data is not there,
and it needs to be,
because that is where we will create resiliency
through the most deprived community.
So, yes.
Thank you.
-: Great, thanks very much, Leslie.
Amee, I don't know if you wanna come up very quickly
to I'm just wanting to know we have 10 minutes.
All right.
So I'm gonna do one more verbal line
who knew there was gonna be so much interest
in definitions so that's great.
And then I'm gonna answer one question from the line,
and I'm gonna answer one person from the chat
and then we move to summarize the next steps.
So let's move to center four.
Who is it?
Sorry. (laughs)
Central Valley Urban Institute.
Eric: My name is Eric Payne.
I'm the Executive Director of the Central Valley
Urban Institute.
Commissioners and staff.
I wanna thank you for creating space
to have this conversation
and looking at this document as a value document
as it operates from a place of equity and inclusion.
I wanna center my comments on access.
And my comments speak to the full alignment of goals six,
seven and four in your document.
Specifically, I wanna talk about like,
when we talk about our love languages,
there are many different love languages.
And I see this document as the verbal communication
to affirm our love for environmental
and social justice communities.
But I think I wanna see the action
behind how this document is lived out.
And when I say that,
I mean looking at the investments done specifically
here in the Central Valley,
I don't know, there's not even a presence,
a physical office from the CPUC.
And I think that's where the rubber
can begin to meet the road,
in terms of investing in those communities
that see the most environmental degradation across the state
giving a community is in this somewhat of a black box
in the state and giving us access
to the staff, to the leaders
and give us boots on the ground
so they can see firsthand the issues
that we are experiencing here in the Central Valley.
And that will also, you know,
it helps the organization and meet this triple bottom line
of right,
the environmental and social justice aspect of it,
looking at the economic and workforce development components
of having a presence here in the Central Valley,
and then the public good
and the public benefit of giving a community
that is plagued by a public health crisis
as we center around water issues and disparities, right?
In our schools, in our urban schools,
looking at ensuring that our utility companies
do what they say that they're gonna do,
when you have a merger like Sprint and T-Mobile,
and they say they're gonna put a job center here
in the Central Valley,
and then after they get their regulatory permits,
they renege and they take a step back and say,
"Well, no now is not a good time."
So I just really wanna elevate these issues
to know that we are here for partnership.
We are here to share the experiences
of the residents that we work with and that we serve.
And we have seen some of the transformational changes
in this document play out in our region.
Especially when you talk
about having the utilities,
have a presence here with the workforce team,
while they came we haven't seen the fruits
of that through procurement opportunities
for our small businesses,
and building the capacity of our micro businesses
here in the Central Valley.
We know that we are at a huge disadvantage
when you talk about capacity
and so my hope and my desire is that the CPUC
will look to the issues that we're experiencing
and that we're elevating here on this conversation
and reach out so we can move this work forward.
Thank you, Commissioners.
-: Great, thank you very much.
All right, I'm gonna do the last question
and then moved to Kapil to help summarize our action items.
The last question that was raised
was talking about basically what the baseline
of questions may look like?
And how that will be structured.
And that's something that we are looking for feedback on,
both from staff and from stakeholders.
Our thinking is that,
yes, it will be a little bit of a plug and play,
and if you can answer some questions, okay.
So you're trying to get eligibility
to this percent of the state
then maybe go with this income threshold.
And then if you're looking for vulnerabilities
for folks affected by climate change,
look at these set of tools
and these set of indicators.
We are looking exploring the development of tools
to help staff make more informed decisions.
So we're trying to build up the qualitative
and quantitative kind of knowledge, I guess.
So how do we use both qualitative
and quantitative information to inform our thinking
around definitions and our creation of definition?
So if we wanna use 60% area median income,
how many households would that affect?
What parts of the state does that affect?
And so we're we're trying to think through all those pieces.
So we don't have necessarily like something
in (indistinct) yet of what we think it will look like,
but we do think it's gonna be a little bit
of a plug and play with questions
that will help you decide,
okay, this is how you gonna plug it in.
One of the things that I've been thinking about
it's a little bit like Madlib,
but I don't know if that's kind of like (laughs) an ancient,
like reference now but a little bit
of just like plugging in.
Okay, these are the options that you have,
you can plug in this way.
And others one last question on the line,
but we're gonna have to skip it,
because we are only have four minutes left.
So I'm going to move to Kapil,
if you can help us summarize,
highlight the key action items
or next steps from the conversation.
-: Sure, thanks everyone.
There are a lot of good comments.
So I'm gonna try and get through kind
of a high level summary as well as some action items.
So Amee talked about how the tool
is very useful at the organization level
for identifying where actions should be taken,
and that the tool should be adaptive
to be able to include... Be more inclusive
or whether it should be kind of targeting
certain communities.
And then also what are the data sources
that can be used to make it a holistic exercise?
The question about whether there's gonna be one definition
and I think the overall consensus
was that the there won't be one specific definition
but that it will be inclusive
of all the information out there.
And based on what Kathleen just mentioned about
using the Mad Lips approach to inform,
what are the different impacts of area median income
versus federal poverty guidelines
and all the different definitions out there
that right now are determining eligibility
for many of these programs.
Martha from Catholic Charities had a good comment about,
how the names of these definitions
can impact the communities
and to make sure that there are names and communities
behind these definitions
that we're not just using the technical definition
when we're trying to do outreach
or include these communities in programs.
Let's see there's discussion from Nathan and Amee
about definitions from other organizations
and trying to make sure all of the different information
out there can be utilized
and not wanting for each organization
to have their own definitions,
comments about aligning definitions inside and outside
the PUC relating to credit worthiness of utilities
versus wholesome credit worthiness of communities
or households,
comments from Daniel and Commissioner Guzman Aceves
about making sure that the action plan
can adapt to changing political considerations
and kind of a new political environment for us
to meet and to address the supervisor's point
about bringing more resource to areas
that have been neglected in the past.
So that's...
And then Daniel's point about inter-agency collaboration
which is something that I think we can all improve upon
to make sure that if our goal
is to increase climate resiliency
that we're looking at both say energy efficiency
and air quality.
-: Awesome, thanks very much Kapil.
Wanna thank everyone specially Amee for joining us today.
It was a great conversation,
who knew that there was gonna be so much interest (chuckles)
around definitions.
I just wanna ask if you did make a comment,
please lower your hand,
this helps our IT process the next session.
If we did not get to you today, I'm very sorry,
but please do some of your comments in the...
Please join the other sessions,
make your comments there.
Please send your comments to us via email,
your comments and feedback will be considered
in the update to the plan.
We intend to release a draft of the updated plan
later this spring, maybe early summer (chuckles)
depending on how things go,
and that will allow for additional public comment
at that time.
So thank you again very much for joining
and we will see you next time.
-: Thank you, Amee, Kathleen, and Kapil for that.
And thank you everybody for participating.
That was the first session.
So glad that we were able to figure out
how to work all the different pieces.
And it looks like just making sure
that we don't have any comments on the Spanish line
so we're okay.
So all right, so we will capture the chat
and make sure all of that is saved.
So if you have any last thoughts,
please feel free to type them in.
And now we're gonna take a lunch break from 12 to one,
at one o'clock we will be in breakout sessions.
So we will have a flight up in this WebEx
that has the links to the individual breakout sessions.
Unfortunately, they're in individual WebEx meetings.
And we'll also make sure the links are in the chat
so that you can just directly link to them.
They're also directly linked on our website
and on the agenda.
So hopefully everybody can find those easily.
And then we will be back at 2:00 p.m in this venue
to talk about incorporating environmental and social justice
into scoping memos and toward decision-making process
more broadly.
So thank you so much.
And we will see you at one in the breakouts.
Thanks.
(indistinct)
Judge Ava Tran from our Administrative Law Judge Division
at the CPUC as well as Mad Stano
from the Greenlining Institute.
We also have Nicole Cropper are helping
to catch those action items on those chats
and summarize at the end
so asset to judge transfers.
-: Good morning.
Think, oh no, good afternoon. (laughs)
And thank you, Monica.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you for joining our breakout session today.
My name is Ava Tran,
and I am one of the Administrative Law Judges here
at the Commission.
I am excited to be co-facilitating this afternoon sessions
with Mad Stano from the Greenlining Institute.
During the session we will focus
on the issue of systemizing ESJ considerations,
and how we can do a better job
of incorporating yesterday issues
into our proceedings and processes.
As we discussed briefly this morning
the Commission is making stripes
to scope leadership considerations
into relevant proceedings.
The staff here and our leadership teams
have been encouraged to discuss the goals
of the ESJ Action Plan, and weed issues
and potential impacts to ESJ communities
into our proceedings were appropriate.
During the session we will discuss
how this is being undertaken internally as the CPUC,
we would like to bring some with parties
on how we can get work parties
and other stakeholders to help support this effort,
and also identify what other ways the CPUC
can ensure that your share considerations
are being taken into account.
Our goal of course, is to be able to get out
of this session some new potential action items
that we can use to update our ESJ Actions Plan.
So before I turn this over to Matt
who will help frame the discussion,
and wanna note that we really hope to make this session
as interactive as possible.
I'm sure we're all familiar by now,
but just a few reminders
on how you can participate during the session.
First, you can provide a verbal comment
or ask the question by clicking the hand next the name
in the participant list.
The event hosts will call your name and unmute you
when it's your time to speak.
And we apologize because we will not always
be able to get to everybody,
but we'll do our best to get to as many comments
and questions as possible.
Second, if you would like to make a written comment
or question,
you can type your comment or question into the chat box,
and send it to all participants.
Again, we will try to leave as much as we can
from the chat box into our discussion today,
but if you're not able to leave a comment
into the discussion,
the chat will be saved and we will (indistinct).
And third, if you would like to submit written comments
via email do that as well.
You can send your comments to www.esjactionplan@cpuc.ca.gov.
And lastly, I will remind folks that this session
is being recorded so that we can save
all of our feedback and comments.
With that I will turn it over to my co-facilitator, Mad.
-: Thank you so much, Judge Tran,
and thank you all.
And thank you to the CPUC
for organizing this incredible event.
My name is Mad Stano
and I'm senior legal counsel on the energy equity team
at the Greenlining Institute.
We are racial justice nonprofit
working on community led solutions
to the ongoing impacts of red lining
on communities of color located in Oakland, California.
I personally came to energy work at the CPUC
and this conversation due to my experiences
working in partnership with environmental justice
communities largely in California, San Joaquin Valley
as a community-based attorney
at the center on race poverty and environment,
and then theater in my career
with California Environmental Justice Alliance.
(indistinct) attorney but wanted to offer a brief grounding
on the themes of this sessions
before opening the conversation to you all
just really wanna tee up some of the things
that stand out to me, some of the tensions,
some of the possible solutions,
and really just give you some food for thought
to stimulate your own brainstorming
on these important questions.
And those themes are why we should be incorporating
environmental and social justice considerations
into policymaking at the Commission?
How we can all do that from our respective roles
and contribute to treating that?
And the importance of a flexible yet systemic
consistent approach to incorporating
environmental and social justice at the Commission.
A couple of thoughts on why,
as has already been highlighted
and as many of you are aware,
but it's important to always bring in this space service.
(indistinct) burdens related to utility service
are inequitable.
The pollution burdens, the reliability,
the ability to influence decisions at the Commission
are currently an equitable.
While the Commission and many of you all
in this virtual space are doing incredible work
to change that, that is our starting point.
The burdens of utility, cost, pollution,
access, safety and reliability for some communities
are truly life-threatening,
and deeply impact folks quality of life.
And I think it's important to root our thinking on this,
not just in processes and regulatory approaches
but actually on improving and responding
to real life and community impacts.
One can and we often do make the case
that some of these disparities are illegal
under civil rights, legal analysis,
and counter to the Commission's mission
and regulatory scope.
So that's some of the why,
we also have guidance from AB 1628
defining environmental justice
that requires the meaningful consideration
of recommendations from populations
and communities most impacted by pollution
into environmental and land use decisions across California.
Those are some of the justifications,
but also right.
There's always the moral case
that these disparities are wrong.
And I think it's okay to enter this conversation
around justice from a value standpoint.
So whatever the statutory.
Then you also have kind of the efficiency
or the business case,
whatever the statutory target
or regulatory requirements going on in a particular
proceeding at the Commission targeting
and achieving environmental and social justice
is essential to reaching whatever goals are.
We can't decarbonize,
we can't achieve (indistinct),
we can't mitigate wildfires,
we can't just have in reasonable rates
or universal service without centering
those most impacted and their leadership.
So thinking about the how,
how do we achieve environmental and social justice
from an incredibly large active decision maker
and body like the Commission?
Making the case for systematizing this approach.
So how do we ensure that the three justices,
so distributive, procedural and corrective justice
are meaningfully considered,
are able to be achieved, are able to be furthered
through the Commission's activities and actions?
So thinking about how do we reform the processes?
How do we reform the criteria
of which decision-makers are held
to in their decision-making?
And then evaluate the success
following the leadership of those environmental
and social justice communities.
So if I'm part of being a facilitators,
you get to ask those giant questions
and then just walk away (laughs)
and rely on the collective wisdom of the room.
So with that we'll open up the conversation here
and... -: Mad.
-: Yeah, yeah.
(indistinct) (laughs)
-: Before we open up the the discussion in the Q&A session,
I just wanted to spend a couple of minutes updating folks
on what we're doing here internally
at the Commission,
since we officially launched the ESJ effort.
Probably, over the last six plus months or so,
the Administrative Law Judge division
our there's Commissioner offices
in all of our industry division
we've been working pretty closely
on how we as a Commission can work
we're actively approach the ESJ issues
in all of our proceedings.
So for, you know, some of the proceedings
that we oversee the scope of issues of inquests
naturally lends itself to ESJ considerations,
and those are the ones that are specifically targeting
either low income or vulnerable populations.
So it's been a little bit easier there.
However, there are so many, many more other proceedings
that we had over where it may not be as obvious
that there are impacts to communities
and it's within these proceedings
that we really need to be more proactive and ensure
that they are not overlooked.
So what we started doing internally is to require
at the onset of every new proceeding
that we received the assigned judge,
the assigned Commissioner
in consultation with our industry division (indistinct),
we have a discussion on the onset
and (indistinct) pretty early determination
as to whether or not there any (indistinct) impacts
that need to be included in the scope of the proceeding.
And at that very pleriminary stage,
the goal is not to identify all of the impacts
because it would be probably too premature
to identify them all.
But the goal is really to simply identify
if there are impacts,
and if so then the theme of initial considerations
will be included in the scope
so that we know that we're getting, you know,
not only the folks internally at (indistinct)
also all the parties on alert that this is something
that we'll consider within the scope of the proceeding.
So there's been a lot of discussions internally
and we've actually developed a guidance document
to sort of help guide some of the the analysts,
our Commissioners, and our advisors
and even the LJ division
on how to go about identifying some of these issues,
seeing whether or not we have the right party
present in our proceedings
and sort of how to go about ensuring
that we are capturing as much as we can,
and not overlooking into impacts
that might be within our proceedings that's hidden.
So one of the active rules
that we will be doing is to determine the parties
to any proceedings directly
represent the potentially impacted communities.
And if it's determined that it's not
then the Commission work specifically
the news and outreach team would be looking to develop
some sort of outreach plan
to make sure that informing the interested groups
about the proceeding,
and Commissioning them on how to become a party
to the proceeding,
or how to provide public comments.
I know that Nicole spoke earlier this morning
about a couple of comments portal
and how we've been using that.
So that's always another great option for us
to be participating in.
We just need to educate folks (indistinct)
there are other options.
But even with sort of the process
that we build out internally,
I will note that there still are challenges,
and those challenges is how do we ensure
that we've have sufficient representation
in our proceedings.
And I don't wanna say that we need more parties
in our proceedings although that might be the case
for some proceedings.
But I think (indistinct) think about how do we make sure
that we have the right parties in right interests
or various interests represented.
So at the end of the day
the decision makers are receiving
a full balanced perspective.
So I just wanted to provide a really quick update
on what we've been doing internally,
but I'll turn it back to you Mad
to start off the discussion and Q&A session.
-: Thank you so much.
And thank you for sharing those updates.
Wonderful.
Well, getting into our first question for you all.
So can we better scope environmental
and social justice considerations into the proceedings?
We just heard a little bit about the approach now,
what should we be looking at when we open proceedings
to help understand it impacts maybe there,
so to Judge Tran's point there's internal analysis
going on to see whether or not environmental
and social justice themes are present
in any given proceeding.
And then there's the decision of how to apply
that in scoping the proceeding.
If folks have thoughts that they wanna share
on those questions,
and it looks (indistinct) some comments too
in the chat as well.
But we'll open up our first set of questions
on scoping considerations and how to approach that?
-: I'm gonna ask that IT open line for Leslie Martinez.
I see she has her hand raised.
Leslie: It's Leslie Martinez
with Leadership Council for justice and accountability.
I think the first, you know,
we're an advocacy organization,
but also we're organizers at hearts.
And I think when I hear the word scoping
my first comment would be,
it's not very difficult to know
where some of these proceedings
are going to be what locations are going to affect.
And I also think that with that being said,
there needs to be a greater emphasis on hearing directly
from the people that are going to be affected
by the decisions that this body is making.
I think that as someone who has recently started
to engage with the CPUC,
and has had to work with the CPUC
alongside community residents,
it is one of the hardest organizations
for the Commissioners to hear directly
from residents in the San Joaquin and East Coachella Valley.
I give a lot of kudos to Commissioner Acaves Guzman
who was so accessible to community residents
that they were allowed to feel heard.
And I think that that went a long way
in the San Joaquin Valley proceeding.
But it's unfortunate that as an exception
and not just a good practice,
I think that in order for us to...
And this goes far beyond just proceedings in general,
but as we're thinking about projects and programs
that are being implemented,
frankly, all of us on the phone here,
or most of us probably do not benefit
from any of the programs.
We work with people who benefit from the programs.
And I think that it is our role to connect agencies directly
to those who are going to be using these programs.
What is the reality?
What do they look like on the ground?
How are they affecting lives of people?
I don't think that these programs
can genuinely be better or grow better,
or be adjusted at all
if we don't hear from those at the front.
Meaning black indigenous and people of color
specifically mobile home parks,
I'm thinking the East Coachella Valley
that I feel it often is not being highlighted,
even though they have some of the most extreme
climate issues, and there are frontline community.
So long story short,
I really think that there needs to be a practice
that there is a difference between notification
and that's the list that's emails that's called,
and there's a difference between outreach.
And outreach takes a long time,
it takes door knocking,
it takes directly engaging with people.
And I don't want the two to be confused
because I think that if we continue to confuse the two,
we're not gonna be able to achieve
what we genuinely want to achieve
which is real meaningful input from community.
Thank you.
-: Thank you you Leslie for that really thoughtful comments.
And I think that we...
I think probably lessons learned specifically
from what Commissioner Aceves has done
and with the proceedings
and how we do want to hear more from the communities
that are directly affected
and that's why we have began thinking about
how we plan the outreach to these communities?
So as we begin to sort of flash out
some of the details of how our news and outreach team
we'll go about meeting these efforts
and see which groups to (indistinct) with.
You'll probably hear a little bit more from us
as we reach out to some of the community groups
and how to make sure that these efforts
are more effective.
-: That's reflections, Leslie.
And I think some of the pieces
that stood out to me in that reflection
are the community engagement
in terms of sequencing needs to occur
throughout the entire process, right?
Ideally in the policy development,
once we're at the CPUC
we're getting towards that implementation phase
that geographic analysis can influence
that stakeholder engagement and community outreach
but it has to be a substantive
and longstanding commitment that starts
before that scoping that should inform the scoping
not just how the Commission responds
to whatever the issues are in the scope.
And I think certainly as a practitioner
or folks that are practicing at the CPUC
we've all seen the gap from where we feel
like we're trying to force environmental
and social justice issues in once the Commission
has already committed to a narrower
or distinct scope.
So thank you so much for that reflection to folks.
Other folks on the line have reflections
on the scoping portion too
and what should we be looking to in addition
to impacted community expertise,
and just noting the difficulties of navigating
and participating in the existing system
for environmental and social justice communities
despite some of the public outreach efforts
that the Commission has engaged in over the last few years
especially other reflections or answers to this question.
-: Feel free to call out the name.
If IT actually could unmute Daniel
that would be great.
Daniel: (clears throat) So just a little further
to the comment I made earlier on this point,
you know, one way to go about this in terms of scope
is to look at where environmental justice policy is,
and social justice policy plays out
in California policy like (indistinct)
or in the cap and trade,
transformative climate communities,
in all of those spaces,
you're dealing with EJ policies,
and grant making and community engagement.
And it would be interesting to try to understand
where CPUC policy dovetails with those.
And maybe through some of the community steering committees
for example, in the (indistinct) process,
I'm sure you're gonna be able to find people
that are engaged on public utilities
relevant dynamics and actions that are happening.
And it's gonna require a little bit of outreach
and thinking about where to find those spaces,
but they are out there.
That's important that you are sort of bridging
to those other spheres of action and policy (indistinct).
-: Thank you, Daniel.
So thinking about how other agencies are approaching it,
community experts that are active with other agencies
what are the major environmental justice policy spaces
and how can CPUC both learn and integrate with them?
Thank you.
Okay, it looks like we have Abigail.
So (indistinct) as well.
Abigail: Yes, thanks Mad.
This is Abigail Solis with Self- Help Enterprises.
So I think this is the right time for me
to make this comment.
When you think about how the CPUC
can work better with communities
and what they can do to encourage participation.
One thing, really,
in addition to the things that Leslie mentioned
and others about obviously the difference
between just a service list
and actually engaging with communities
and a true community engagement
and through community outreach.
You know, when you think about the small group of people
that influence these proceedings,
and the small group of people
that are actually involved in the decisions that are made,
it's actually quite scary
when there's such a huge community out there
and other residents that are not part of the process.
But one of the things that has in my experience
kept community-based organizations from participating
is the long wait time to receive intervener compensation.
Now, maybe it's just my organization's personal experience.
We began to engage in a proceeding
about three or four years ago,
and submitted for intervener compensation
for that proceeding about I think two years ago
have yet to receive any of that compensation.
You know, not that we do,
you know, obviously CBOs (indistinct) participate,
even if we do a lot of things for free,
but sometimes we spend a lot of time and energy
on certain proceedings and it would really help
if this process was expedited or maybe made easier.
I think that would really encourage participation
moving forward.
-: Thank you Abigail for that comment.
I don't have too much to say about the process
because I know that there is a process
for how intervenor compensation is allocated,
but I will say that we are very well aware
of the issue and we understand that it is a major barrier
into getting parties involved in our proceeding.
So I just wanted to note that we definitely
acknowledged that.
-: Absolutely huge barrier,
I think even filing that Icomp request (chuckles)
is a very detailed and challenging endeavor
especially for community organizations
that are focused on many other things
in addition to CPUC engagement.
And we also have agreement from Laura from NRDC
on IComp improvements,
and reaching out offering contact information
to (indistinct) on some solutions there.
And I think we had lead hand also from James
and then maybe we'll move onto our next question.
Mark: You're unmuted.
-: James, do you have a comment?
All right, well maybe we can catch you in a few
but in the interest of time we'll move.
And I think both... (indistinct)
Yes, yep.
Oh, we have another hand.
Monica: It's Marybel Batjer.
I just want to respond about the slowness
in the intervener compensation
and the commenters are absolutely correct.
I just called to the statistics the other day.
They're not good.
We have three people and a supervisor in that unit,
and that's two limited resources.
And I think it's been that way for awhile.
And I plan to put forward a request
from the Department of Finance to improve that.
It's been a concern of mine and ours,
the Commissioners.
We have comments occasionally in the public comment period
of our Commission meetings that raises the same issue.
That's why I called for the statistics and watch over them,
and see where we are in terms of tardiness and lightness
and meeting the schedule.
And we're very behind.
And that's inexcusable
and we're going to work hard to change.
I know many of the interveners,
non-profits, small budgets dependent on contributions,
and they run on a very slim margin.
I'm very aware of it,
I've worked in the nonprofit world.
It's difficult.
So I wanna thank you for your comments
and I wanna assure you that I understand.
-: Wonderful, thank you.
And relatedly to the last few offerings
to what can the Commission do,
or what can we do as a professional community
to get more parties and stakeholders involved?
So in addition to kind of Icomp reform
and financial support,
Leslie also mentioned some of the procedural barriers
that exist to participation,
geographic timelines,
all (indistinct).
So how can we get more parties and stakeholders involved
or I guess broadening the question too is that a solution?
Is that the correct pathway
to ensure achievement of environmental social justice
or do folks have other suggestions?
But thinking about quality
and meaningful stakeholder engagement
and knowing too that those processes
are time and resource intensive.
So how to balance some of those tensions there.
Folks have comments or reflections?
Mark: Leslie Martinez has raised her hand again.
Leslie: Hi, this is Leslie Martinez
with Leadership Council.
I think about this question a lot as someone
who came into proceeding and kind of in the middle
of and trying to understand what was happening?
(chuckles) (indistinct)
I think that one of the first things
was important to recognize is how attorneys are...
Attorneys who have CPUC experience
and understand how to go through the system
are those that are often in nonprofit CBOs
often rely on those folks,
and if those folks are at capacity
then there's no way for smaller organizations
to be a part of the CPUC experience really.
I think that's something that is really,
that I would...
I think is needed is how to technical assistance
for organizations who filing their Icomps
technical assistance for smaller CBOs
that want to be involved,
but perhaps do not have the funding
to have an attorney.
I think of smaller organizations who work with folks,
who like work with monks,
monk community members, Cambodian,
that I think the CPUC needs those voices
and they are not being heard,
because of the various barriers.
The other thing that I think is also really important
to recognize is that,
if the CPUC wants to engage with community residents more,
I think that one thing that has to be recognized is that,
the time that residents give to CPUC
often folks who are living under the poverty line,
folks who are farm workers who have to come
straight from work to a meeting,
like CPUC doesn't doesn't fund outreach,
they don't fund like a space
like if a CBO would like to provide dinner for residents
who they know that are coming straight
from a day in the field,
that's something that the organization has to cover
and that's not possible for all the small ones.
And finally I really think that in order for the CPUC
to hear more often for community members,
there needs to be more access.
I think of how CAB but not I'm sorry.
I think how the San Joaquin regional air district
is huge air basin.
And they have three separate offices,
where folks are able to connect
through the three regions.
And I think that's really impressive.
And I think that we need to figure out more ways
to leverage, sorry, like our distance (giggles)
what we've learned through this COVID experience
in a way that we can create more access to folks
while also recognizing that they're still folks
who don't have access to broadband.
Thank you.
Awesome, thank you so much, Leslie.
Fantastic suggestions and reflections
solutions oriented
and yeah excited to continue talking more about
some of the specifics.
Do folks have other suggestions
on stakeholder engagement and supporting engagement?
Monica: Hey, this is Monica.
Sorry to chime in.
I think you have three folks queued up.
-: Oh, (giggles) all right.
I think (indistinct)
(indistinct) (laughs)
No, I'm sorry (indistinct).
-: Perfect.
Go for it.
(indistinct)
Martha: Hi, this is Martha
I'm Ms. Kelly and excuse my nickname being on my phone
but I had to drop someone off.
I just wanna say that for us at CBOs
it's important for our residents and community groups
to understand what your role is.
I know for my own understanding,
but I would prefer for most (indistinct)
they don't know how to protect connection,
and if I think more folks were aware
and you did more of a campaign
or letting people understand the importance of your role
and how you affected decision-making
for their communication,
that would be the start.
And again, I'm in total agreement with the previous speaker,
we're always... My Boulevard agendas
and on our deliverables that we wanna meet
but we don't really take time to engage with the community
by rewarding them or even acknowledging them
or their participation.
And right now with COVID like for myself and my own work,
I sometimes have to say,
"Hey, it's not about my deliverables.
"It's about how can I meet the needs
so they could even attend
or be part of these tables?
If want them to engage and they're hungry
I better show them resources.
I better give them opportunities
so that they can engage
and they're going to be full
or their bills get paid
or something where there's some type of an exchange.
And information is crucial,
not just what we want to give
but what all the other information that's available
through your department,
you have a bevy of knowledge
with other departments of things and resources
that they could receive.
If in a meeting you would provide something
as a support to those residents understanding
that they are in... Their climate has changed.
You know, their environment has changed,
their needs have changed,
and you're cognizant of that,
then that makes that level of integration
just that more rich for our community residents
and those that may be participating.
So that's really important.
Thank you.
-: Thank you so much for the super thoughtful reflections
and getting to, yeah, the why the stakeholder engagement,
not just to engage,
but really making sure that that engagement
is rooted in in those tangible benefits
that we're encouraging to participate.
So thank you so much for sharing that.
Stan and then Debra.
Stan: Hi, this may be slightly beyond
the purview of your the CPUC
but you know, I've been doing this for a couple of years
and I've seen funding sources, for example
like the USDA in a meeting a couple of years ago
giving their report of the amount of monies
that were given for the broadband infrastructure programs
were underserved communities.
And I looked around the room
when the representative said that,
they have not given any grants to the Central Valley
and only like one state in California,
I can't remember it's officials
but 2019 planning cycle, I think.
So then in 2020, I thought,
well let's work on a grant for a small community,
a farmer community of about 7,000.
But we're already up against the clock
and then there's a 15% matching,
it's up to $3 million dollars
that you can get for projects
to bring a broadband to an underserved or unserved community
or section of that population.
We had overcome first, well the definition of need,
and once again, we're up against the ISP saying,
are we providing it to that area?
And then I look at their (indistinct),
and I say, "No, you don't."
And it doesn't meet the minimum definition,
but okay, so we got through that,
but then there's just a question
of you have to almost go back to the same ISP
to ask them to collaborate on a funding application.
I guess my point is this,
I think communities and community groups, CBOs,
and a lot of people out there,
there's a lot of money right now because of COVID.
It brought to light all the disparities
and the injustice in the what I call the digital desert.
And so now that we need to address it,
we see large amounts of funding available
through the FCC to the I think the Employment
Development Administration, the CPUC itself,
through CASF or CASF funds or whatever the case is,
but and the USDA has a huge amounts money,
but we don't have the expertise
to say just even put together an application.
You're almost forced to go out and hire a consultant
paying $50,000 to put together an application
be very complex.
You don't necessarily get the buy-in,
from the internet service providers.
So then you gotta deal with that.
There's a lot of things there,
but now is it within the CPUC's for example
agenda or something to maybe provide training
and help to facilitate through any types of either funding
or just their expertise.
Really, this is the funds that are available
in California to Central Valley,
these are the programs, the category,
this is how you apply some workshops on how to do that,
because otherwise it's gonna be a repeat
of that same cycle,
and truly unfortunate right now in the time of need.
So if I could,
or you may not be able to answer that,
but I mean, if we could just keep that,
thank you.
-: Thank you so much.
And then in the interest of time,
we'll move to Debra.
Debra: First, I wanna thank everyone for this panel
and this discussion today.
My name is Deborah Bayles.
I represent the California Environmental Justice
(indistinct) in a number of Commission proceedings.
And just wanna echo some of the points.
(indistinct)
And I think there's somebody on this phone.
Okay.
(indistinct)
(indistinct) I'm gonna remind all attendees,
if you're not speaking,
if you could please mute your line.
(indistinct)
Mark: Nicole, I'm going through the roaster
and looking for them.
-: It's (indistinct).
It's (indistinct)
-: Mark, I can see her microphone (indistinct).
-: I'm sorry.
-: Go ahead. (laughs)
Mark: Looks like we're all sorted out.
Thank you.
Apologies for the interruption.
-: Can we get Debra back on?
-: Back to you, Deborah?
Debra: I don't know where I stopped,
but I'm at Deborah Bayles.
I represent the California Environmental Justice Alliance
in a number of proceedings.
And I wanna echo some of the statements that Leslie made.
It takes an incredible amount of resources
to fully participate in a Commission proceeding.
And every year there's way more proceedings
that we are interested in participating in,
than we have resources for.
Many organizations don't have full-time staff
that they can devote to Commission proceedings,
and so if there is a way to make proceedings more accessible
so that community-based organizations
and community members can give meaningful comments
that will be used to influence decisions
that would be a positive change.
I know that there were changes,
the public comments are now considered
and included in the docket,
but it's still very hard, for example,
for community member to navigate the docket.
It's very hard for a community member to figure out,
it's even hard for me to figure out
which advice letters impact which proceedings
and which areas of the state?
And so I encourage the Commission
to think of ways to make all of this more accessible.
More accessible to the community,
it's a visualization tool, it's an outreach.
There are a number of different methods
that other agencies have used
to make their information more accessible.
And by making it more accessible
that'll empower communities to be able to have a voice.
But if we don't know where to find the information,
and what decisions are being made
then we don't have the tools that we need
to be able to influence those decisions.
And thank you again for having all of these discussions.
-: Debra, can I keep you on the line for just a moment?
This is Nicole.
Would you be able to provide examples of organizations
that have those kinds of resources?
I think that would be helpful for us and as moving forward.
Debra: That have resources to participate or?
-: Yes, because the examples
that you were just outlining here.
Debra: Yeah, so, like I mentioned,
I've been representing California Environmental
Justice Alliance.
California Environmental Justice Alliance
has 10 members including leadership consoles.
And so we're able to draw
on each of those community-based organizations
to help provide resources
to participate within the Commission proceeding,
but where we are to able to participate
in some Commission proceedings,
we by no means have enough resources
to participate in every Commission proceeding
that potentially impacts the community members
that we work with.
And that's because of resources,
and it's because we obviously know that in order to be able
to participate, we need to fully participate
for the most of the proceedings
we can't drop in and provide a comment,
which would be a better way for us to have a voice
and more decisions.
But it doesn't appear that those substantively change
the decision-making process.
So that's... -: I guess what I'm asking,
are there other state agencies
who are doing a good job about that?
I think, for us the agency,
I think it's hard to navigate,
but there are examples of other state in the future
do it really well because I have to take those examples
and see how to implement that here.
Debra: Yeah, that's a really good question.
I will talk to the members about
and see if we can put in some comments on that.
-: Absolutely, that'd be great.
Thank you.
Monica: I'm just gonna reach out to judge Tran and Mad.
We need to wrap up,
and move on to Commissioner Guzman Aceves.
-: Great, Nicole, I know I have you on the agenda
to do a quick summary and takeaways
and maybe list some potential action items.
Do you have anything to report or shall we?
-: I'll be really fast.
I can (indistinct).
So I won't reiterate everything that we spoke about today
but it definitely sounds like finding a way
to provide resources for folks to participate
in our proceedings, making it easier,
doing fact sheets,
doing more meaningful engagement outreach,
probably some tangible things that we can do.
I do look forward to getting examples
of other state agencies that do do a good job of this,
because I do think that would help us
figure out how we can do better.
I think generally speaking
those are all kind of the action.
And then also the Icomp program
that was another item that IMF folks
that we need to revisit.
So I think those two are the largest takeaways from this.
-: Okay, thank you Nicole.
So I just wanted to take this opportunity
to thank everyone for participating
to Mad for helping facilitate this section.
This is really valuable feedback that we received.
We hear you loud and clear. (giggles)
And I just wanted to note that all of your comments
and feedback will be considered in how we move forward
to updating our ESJ Actions Plan.
We will be releasing a draft.
I know they've mentioned either late spring or early summer.
So look out for that.
And in the meantime if there are any additional comments
that we're not able to get through
but you would like to submit through email as well,
it's www.esjactionplan@cpuc.ca.gov.
And with that I thank you all
and I turn this back to Monica.
-: Thank you so much.
And thank you everyone.
I know there's still a few hands up
and we were trying to figure out
some other logistics in the chat box.
So apologies we weren't able to get to you, please.
You can put it in the chat now,
that chat will be captured
or emails just like Judge Tran said.
So we have only about 10 minutes left.
We are lucky to have Commissioner Guzman Aceves
on the line, and we will turn it over to her
to give us some closing remarks.
And then I'll talk a little bit
about what to expect for tomorrow.
Take it away.
-: Thank you, Monica.
Well, first let me thank our staff
for putting all of this together
and for really taking the lead on updating the work plan.
We have as President Batjer mentioned the ESJ Liaisons
from each of the divisions,
and the facilitators and really the core team
that you have met today.
Sarah, Yuliya, Kathleen, and Amy
and I did wanna recognize a couple of folks
who are now CPUC alumni,
Adenike Adeyeye my former chief of staff
and Alice Glassner the former Energy Division staff person
who really did a lot to get this to where it's at today.
And of course, special, thanks to you, Monica
and all of the substantive
and non-substantive needs to get to today.
I just wanna reflect a little bit about where we are today,
as opposed to two years ago
and obviously the events of our world over the last year
both COVID, Black Lives Matter,
all the unrest in our democracy (chuckles)
has really provided us an even greater clarity
and purpose for this plan.
And all the work that all of us do
to make greater social and environmental justice.
So it's actually a very exciting time
with so much pain in the world.
It's very clear that more direct action needs to happen.
So I wanna thank you for the discussion this morning
that we had on really how we define communities
particularly heartfelt when somebody discuss
the importance of naming the communities,
which is something that I absolutely agree with,
as we look at these macro level statistics
and really going back down
to what is the actual community impact?
We heard in my breakout session
that I participated in a lot of recommendations
on the telecommunication sector
and really the continued gaps in service.
So lots of work to do.
I really encourage you to come tomorrow
and continue to engage all of your thoughts,
both verbal written and hopefully an email will be updated
and I can't tell you how much we appreciate
really hearing from you directly
on some of the small and big pieces
that we can work on.
So thank you very much for all of your time today
and I hope to see you all tomorrow.
-: Thank you so much.
Commissioner Rechtschaffen not to call you out
but you are here.
Just wanna make sure
if you wanna say anything, (laughs)
feel free to chime in before--
-: No, I appreciate everything
Commissioner Guzman Aceves said
and I don't wanna say anything
because I want people to come back tomorrow
'cause they'll hear it from me
at the end of the day tomorrow
and I don't wanna put a spoil that.
-: Excellent.
I appreciate the cliffhanger for that.
Okay, so thank you everyone again.
So tomorrow it will be a similar format
as today where we will be in the WebEx event
for a morning session.
We will have 1:00 p.m breakout,
and then we'll be back in the session here at 2:00 p.m.
Yeah, and so the links are all in the agenda.
Please keep us posted on logistics.
We're gonna be continuing to try to triage those
as much as we can.
The morning session tomorrow is on data collection.
So how we take in so much data here at the CPUC
and across all across our divisions.
And so how can we do better by incorporating environmental
and social justice kinds of analyses?
And what do we need to do to facilitate that,
will be the first session led by Kathleen
who facilitated one of the sessions this morning.
That session will be a little bit more of a panel.
So there's definitely still will be question and answer
and discussion,
but there'll be a little bit more framing
and perspective from the panelists.
And then we'll have our breakout on energy, water
and safety and enforcement.
So those are the three breakouts at 1:00 p.m tomorrow.
And we're gonna close talking
about marketing education and outreach plans.
So if folks have been involved at CPUC,
you know that all a lot of our programs
and incentives and whatnot have these Emmy
and our marketing education outreach plan
but there's not always a lot of coordination
across them or an evaluation of their impact.
So we wanna think about how we can maximize those resources
are going through those.
So that's for tomorrow.
And so with that, with a few minutes to spare
thank you all so much
and we will see you back here at 10:00 a.m tomorrow.
Take care.
(chuckles)