Episode 4: A Sit Down with District 1 Supervisor John Gioia

Supervisor John Gioia has spent 26 years serving on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, making him one of California’s and Contra Costa County’s longest serving Supervisors. In this episode, he shares more about the County’s efforts to achieve greater health and equity for residents and more about what’s going on in District 1, which includes the communities of Richmond, San Pablo, El Cerrito, Pinole, Bayview, East Richmond Heights, El Sobrante, Kensington, Montalvin Manor, Tara Hills, North Richmond, and Rollingwood.

Guests: District 1 Supervisor John Gioia, and Host Kristi Jourdan

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to government Speak.
This is where we'll cut throughthe government speak to get the
information you need aboutcounty programs, services, and
events straight from the source.
Welcome to Government Speak,
Contra Costa County'sofficial podcast.
I'm your host, Christy Jordan,Contra Costa County's public
information officer, and todaywe are joined in studio by

(00:20):
District onesupervisor John Gioia.
Supervisor, welcometo the podcast.
Great to be here, Christy,
looking forward toour conversation.
let's get into it.
You are one of California's andCount Cross County's longest
serving supervisors.
It's 26 years and counting.
That's correct.

(00:41):
What keeps you coming back?
Where's the passionfor for public service?
Where does that come from?
Well, first I want to sayI I I'm really honored and
privileged to represent thecommunity that I grew up in the
the Richmond area, um, becauseI feel that the west part of
the county really understandsthe positive role that
government can play and Ican be a voice to reflect the

(01:02):
values of that part of thecounty, uh, where people feel
that government can supportpeople from a standpoint of
health and socialservices and equity.
So, um, I'm honored torepresent uh the area for as
long as I have.
I, I really thank the votersfor sending me back to the

(01:22):
board, but it reallystarted with my dad.
My father uh was a 20 year highschool government teacher at
Kennedy High School inRichmond, and he taught history
and civics and business law andI think he inspired in me, um.
A passion for civic involvement.
In fact, he used to bring inspeakers to his classroom, uh,

(01:46):
to talk to his students.
Uh, he'd bring injournalists and politicians.
He actually oncebrought in a US senator.
Uh, he brought in, uh,Congressman George Miller
multiple times.
um, he brought in localcouncil members and.
Labor leaders.
So he exposed his students,uh, and said to them, in our

(02:06):
democracy, you have rights andyou have responsibilities and
you exercise your rights by uh
by also exercisingyour responsibilities.
And so he inspired that civicengagement of value in me and I
thank him to this day.
Unfortunately, he passed awaybefore I was ever elected to
office, but um uh hisinspiration really, I think,

(02:29):
um, got me started in this.
What a what a profoundexperience for you to be, um,
you know, exposed to so manydifferent types of of public
service um and and you justmentioned it here, you know,
anyone who's who listens toyou speak, hears you often
reference health and equity.

(02:50):
um, why is that important toyou and what do you want people
in the community to know aboutthe county's efforts and about
your efforts, um, to makethis come to fruition through
programs and servicesin the county?
Well, to me, everything we do,and I have thought about this a
lot and focused on it is reallyabout improving health and

(03:11):
equity whether it's individualum health, whether it's the
community's health uh betteropportunities to prepare young
people for education and andcareers, uh whether it's about
um reducing pollution andcommunity health, whether it's
about San Francisco Bayand health of the bay.

(03:32):
Everything uh revolves aroundindividual or community health
um and and then about equitybecause we live in a society
that has too many inequities,uh, a long history of racism
and injustices and um you knowwe wanna make sure not just the
county services, uh, bringpeople to a position where we

(03:55):
can achieve equity but reallychanging society, changing.
Um, how, how we think aboutproviding everyone an equal
level playing field and countygovernment has tremendous power
to do this because we providealmost every type of service.
Think about it, we deal withthe criminal justice system, we

(04:18):
deal with health and social
services and preschooland planning.
And the condition of ourcommunities and infrastructure
through public works, so wetouch every aspect of people's
lives and it can have enormouspower to achieve equity through
our work and so for me healthand equity drive uh everything

(04:41):
that I do.
One of the ways that I thinkthat that came to the spotlight
very quickly for a large numberof us was during COVID and the
global pandemic.
Can you talk about the county'sefforts in response to the
pandemic and the ongoing COVIDissues that still exist today?
And then how did the county'sefforts close the disparity gap

(05:03):
in that response?
Well, I think COVID was aperfect example of um Um, of a
tragedy that really exposedmore of the inequities in our
society, in our country, um,and that came about when you
looked at the disparity intesting rates between African

(05:25):
American, Latino and nonLatino white, for example.
Uh, it was also, um,displayed through the, um, the
difference, the disparity invaccination rates, um, and for
a long period of time, uh, theAfrican American community and
Latino community were gettingvaccinated at a much lower

(05:47):
percent than thewhite community.
And of course, uh, AfricanAmerican community especially
suffering the most fromimpacts from COVID.
So I am working with the healthdepartment, I think we were
able to really work hard toclose that disparity gap on
vaccines in the Latinocommunity, not quite close it

(06:08):
in the African American
community, but closedit significantly.
And um and we did that throughuh messengers in the Latino and
African American communities
that were trusted and respected.
So it wasn't just the messageit was who we engaged as
messengers and um but as I say,I think COVID exposed a lot of

(06:31):
what is wrong um in in thedisparities that we have and
and I do.
Applaud the hard work of themen and women not just in the
health department but acrossall aspects of county service.
I, I, I just wanna say I thinkpublic service uh is a noble
profession and I acknowledgeall the county employees across

(06:53):
all the departments who steppedup to keep our community safe,
safer during the pandemic and
uh help close the disparity gap.
Um, there's other things thatthere's still a lot more work
that needs to be done, however,but that was at least one
effort, um, that, thatit was accomplished.
One of the um.

(07:16):
Points that you just focused onis something that from a public
information standpoint I'mreally concerned with making
sure that we do have theright folks carrying the right
messages at the right times.
How were those trustedmessengers identified?
Can you talk about some of therelationship building, one of
the the ways thatwe communicate, um.
From a county perspective, wewant to make sure that we're

(07:36):
not just posting things onTwitter and next door and
calling that good.
It's it's identifying thosefolks to truly connect and talk
about all those great services
that you were umcommenting on earlier.
So how were thosetrusted folks identified?
Well, the good thing isthey reached out to us.
I mean, we, we all did outreachinto communities, um, they also
spoke up and said, look,Uh, we know how to reach our

(08:01):
communities, for example, thefaith community, uh, a number
of pastors in the AfricanAmerican Latino communities,
uh, spoke up and said wecan be, um, impactful and
meaningful messengers, andindeed they were, uh, so that
was an example.
I think the community rose upwith its own voice and said,
uh, ask us how best to reachour community and the health

(08:25):
department listened.
I think the county listened.
It took a while at first, um,in fact, uh, one of the things
I strongly advocated for isthat look, when we're putting
out communications we need todo it in Spanish at the same
time it goes out in English.
It's not equity to say we'regonna put it out in Spanish a
day or two later, needs to beat the same time and we did, we

(08:46):
did that.
So, um, there's, there's alot we can learn from that and
there's a lot we can.
Uh, take, uh, you know, feelproud of, but also learn that
we can continue todo things better.
Um, and, um, we've done a lotto also expand health care, uh,
to people regardless of theirimmigration status, uh, because

(09:07):
when everybody's healthy,everybody's healthier and, um,
uh, we saw that with, withthe COVID that it doesn't it
doesn't only attackcertain people.
Some people are more impactedby it, but it affect affects
everybody so um.
There's, there's, there's alot of initiatives we're, we're
I'm really one of the ones I'mreally excited about is the

(09:30):
working on.
creation of our Office ofRacial Equity and Social
Justice, something I knowSupervisor Glover and I had
talked about fora number of years.
And um
We, we, uh, we had talkedto a number of people in the
community who, who believedthat, uh, the county could play
an important role in achievingequity across race, ethnicity,

(09:54):
gender, sexual orientation,disability status, language,
uh, all, all these across many,um, uh, many populations, uh,
and so we, uh, SupervisorGlover and I took a proposal to
the board.
In the middle of the pandemicafter we passed Measure X to

(10:14):
actually create this office umand use Measure X funding to to
really um staff it and getit going and what we did
differently I think than anyother county is we didn't just
say here's how we think theoffice should get established
we actually went out and raised
a couple $100,000from foundations.

(10:35):
So, so there could be anindependent non-county run
community process led bycommunity to to to determine
what the priorities of theoffice should be, how it should
be established, and we, um,that process took about 18
months, longer than we thought,but takes time to really engage
the community, especiallyduring the pandemic, and um the

(10:59):
community came back with um.
A great uh series ofrecommendations that the board
of supervisors implemented anduh we're we're glad to have our
co-directors on board and theoffice is now being staffed up
and there's a lot of issueswe're taking on including the
establishment of a new AfricanAmerican wellness hub in Contra

(11:20):
Costa, uh, new youth centers inparts of the county that don't
really have them.
Um, and, and really looking atall the work that we currently
do across departments, not thatthe county hadn't been doing
work on equity.
I think this just pushes itfurther and also changed the
changes the model of how we doit by engaging the community

(11:41):
more for we did have, you know,we do have an a racial justice
oversight body which used to bethe racial justice task force
that came up with a seriesof recommendations to look at
disparities in thecriminal justice system.
Where African Americans have,um, are, are have arrested and
incarcerated at much higherlevel than their percent of the

(12:03):
population and um so we, we umare looking forward to to that
work and and how wecan be effective.
So, uh, the board appointed theco-directors last year, Kendra
Carr, Peter Kim, um, and theyare staffing at the office.
I saw they just had their newoffice over in 1026 Escobar.

(12:23):
They're they're workingto kind of ramp that up.
They're also hiring.
Do you, do you have any detailsabout how they're trying to
build the team, whattheir areas of focus are?
Yes, there's, well, there'sgoing to be uh uh um there's
gonna be positions todo with language equity.
So I mean that's a key issue.
Uh, positions to look at, uh,doing data analysis so we can

(12:47):
come up with the best policiesbased on real life data.
Uh, they need their own supportfrom a policy standpoint, and
administrative support, uh,I think the language equity
position will be very important.
We're we're a county where 25%of the people who live here
were born in another country.
Um, um, my mother was animmigrant to this country, uh,

(13:09):
from Italy, and, um, my son'smom was an immigrant to this
country from Peru.
I think we are, we are a, um,a county of immigrants and many
many languages are spokenand part of it is achieving
language equity.
You had mentioned also thatit's Measure X funded for those
who might not be as well first.
What is Measure X?

(13:29):
Well, um, I am really proudthat the voters in Contra Costa
in the middle of the pandemic.
Supported a sales tax, thefirst sales tax to Contra Costa
County government ever, uh, tosupport our safety net, um, and
that was supported, uh, rightin the middle of the pandemic
in November of 2020, raisesabout $110 million a year.

(13:53):
And so far with that money wehave done a lot of really uh
impactful things we've reopenedfire stations we have improved
emergency medical services umwe have um made more robust our
county health system.

(14:14):
We're funding so manyimprovements to our, our, our
county health delivery systemand people may not realize it,
but nearly 200,000people in this county.
Um, get their health servicesthrough our own network of
physicians and nurses andand other professionals.
So that's, that's a great thing
we need to supportthat structure.

(14:35):
We, I, I'm really proud thatwe established this very
innovative, um, A3 program.
which is a mental health crisisresponse system where you could
call 911 or another number andhave a mental health behavioral
health specialist show up uh ina crisis and that could be with
or without law enforcementdepending on on the situation

(14:58):
and um we're supporting more
funding for foodinsecurity and seniors.
Um, and developing a youthcenters, so, uh, and more, a
lot more, and so I, that, that,that measure is, I think really
uh going a long way toachieving better health and
improved equity in the countyand it is funding the Office of

(15:20):
Racial Equity andSocial Justice.
So, uh, a lot of goodthings came out of it.
I think the public during thepandemic realized the important
role the countygovernment plays.
We were very visible,uh, we would have had.
Uh, significantly moredeaths that we not acted as
aggressively and thoroughly as

(15:40):
as we did, andI'm proud of that.
So, um, I think our, our impactand visibility, um, went up
during the pandemic and onereason why people supported
this measure, we were one of
the only countiesin the Bay Area.
That did not have ourown dedicated sales tax.
Now we do.

(16:02):
um, and there's more to comein that discussion is more to
come, a lot more issues anduh but as some say it's a lot
better to argue how to spendmoney you have than to not have
the argument because youdon't have the money.
So look, it's it's OK.
It's I really appreciate thework of the Measure X Community
Advisory board thatwe established.

(16:24):
Uh, we funded, uh, theirrecommendations, I think
guided, overwhelmingly mostof our decisions on investing
these dollars, not all, butmost, um, so it's, it's a good
thing and we, I reallyvalue their input.
Another major project that thecounty has been working on is
updating the general plan.

(16:46):
Um, what is the general planand can you talk about some of
its areas of focus,uh, specifically around
environmental justiceand sustainability?
So I want to step back and dowhat my father often did and
teach for a second.
So because the general plan ispart of our power on zoning and
planning in theunincorporated areas.
But to step back for a second,

(17:06):
I think one thingpeople should realize.
Most of what county governmentdoes is we provide, we are the,
the, the social safety net,health, social services, and
many other services to allcounty residents whether you
live in a city or inthe unincorporated area.
We're a county of nearly 1.2million people, about 180,000
of them live in theunincorporated area.

(17:28):
The rest live in cities.
So whether it's the criminaljustice system, it's whether
it's our assessor's office,the treasurer's office, animal
services, library.
Public works is justunincorporated, but these other
functions are across the county.
Then on top of that we are likecity government or municipal
government if you live in anunincorporated area, whether

(17:50):
it's Kensington, El Crante,Alamo, North Richmond, Bay
Point, Rodeo, um, so ourplanning and public works
departments only have authorityin those unincorporated areas.
So getting back to thegeneral plan, it is like the
constitution ofland use planning.
Um, it develops the policies ofhow development occurs in the

(18:12):
unincorporated areas only andwe haven't updated the general
plan in over 30 years and sowe're finishing up a multi-year
process um that started frombefore the pandemic for a new
general plan which for thefirst time will have new
policies on environmentaljustice, sustainability.
Economic development and health.

(18:36):
It will also lay out ourvision for how we achieve more
housing, more affordablehousing, which is a major need
in a crisis in the Bay Area.
Also, how does thiscounty transition.
Away from fossil fuels, we arethe 2nd most industrialized
county in the state after LAwith 4 refineries, 2 of whom

(18:57):
are already converting to beingthe world's largest renewable
fuel, uh, facilities wherethey take soybean oil and other
types of, uh, feedstock that'snot crude oil and, and, and
produce renewable diesel.
So, these are important.
How, how does thisaffect existing workers?

(19:17):
How do we create um a what Icall the new energy economy in
Contra Costa.
So our general plan.
Uh, is look is really settingpolicies for that frontline
communities like North Richmondthat have been on the front
lines of pollution becausethey're near industry or
refinery need to also be on thefront lines of the benefits of

(19:38):
our transition to aclean energy economy.
So our general plan is layingout a lot of those policies and
will guide our developmentgoing forward, which relates
to, you know, pollution issues.
I spent a lot of time I'mon the Bay Area Air Quality
Management District board.
And then for 7 years I wasGovernor Brown's appointee to
the California Air ResourcesBoard setting a lot of

(20:01):
statewide policies on cuttingpollution, addressing climate
change, and, and howwe move, move forward.
And um there's a number ofcommunities in Contra Costa
that are impacted by pollutionour industrial waterfront from
Antioch, Pittsburgh overthrough Martinez, Rodeo into
Richmond, have the highestrates of asthma in the county.

(20:23):
And um some of that due to topollution and so uh there's a
lot of progress I think we havemade not just at the county but
with with the air district andand with community rising up to
say, you know, um, we need tobe aggressive about improving
health and equity bycutting pollution and.

(20:46):
The air district has passed.
I'm, I'm proud to say a numberof new regulations that reduce
air pollution in communitiessurrounding these facilities
and um and so the county willcontinue to look at, you know,
what eventually replaces thisthat keeps our economy strong,
provides workforce

(21:07):
opportunities and um is cleaner.
So to make all that happen withthe general plan update, what's
the next step on that interms of getting approval and
actually laying out the next,
you know, decade'sworth of vision?
Well, we're hoping to approvethe general plan in the fall,
September, October range,um, and then the planning

(21:28):
department will, will, um,amend our zoning code, update
our zoning.
That can't happen until we uhchange the amend and update the
general plan.
Here's an example of of one ofsome of the policies and we've
already started thisin North Richmond.
So FedEx came in.
And so I want to make this real.

(21:51):
FedEx came in and wanted tobuild a major distribution
center housing 100 trucks.
So the community in Northtonsays, yes, we want jobs, but we
don't want the diesel pollutionthat goes with those jobs.
Um, so what we did is, uh, weactually imposed a condition
and we worked withFedEx on this.
Uh, so that, uh, that they'veopened now when they opened a

(22:12):
third of their trucks, deliverytrucks, uh, were zero emission
non-polluting, and by year 5,100% have to be zero emission
non polluting fastesttransition to electric trucks
anywhere in the country.
And these we're we're able todo this in this project, but
these are the types of policieswe are gonna put in we're

(22:34):
putting in the plan to protectcommunities we're saying yes we
want jobs but we don'tnecessarily want all the
pollution associated with that,um, so these have significant
effects on on communities andI'm proud to say that even
FedEx holds this up as a model,uh, facility and says we want
all our facilities to be likethis eventually so we can work
with business.

(22:56):
And we can still holdthem to higher standards.
But that's also a great exampleof listening to people and
actually putting theirfeedback into action.
You know, we want the jobs but
not at the expenseof our health.
That's right.
Yes, I think we can do both.
It's not either or, and I thinkthat's a really important thing
for us.
So we talked about generalplan, we've talked about

(23:17):
Measure X, we talked a lotabout really big important
projects and issuesin front of the board.
What about criminaljustice reform?
What is the board worked on,um, you know, in recent years
to reform our criminaljustice system?
I think one of the things wedid a number of years ago was
um realizing that take ourjuvenile justice system.
Most of the young people in ourjuvenile justice system as in

(23:38):
this country are youth of color.
Um, African American.
For and Latino youth, weeliminated, uh, we were one of
the first counties to eliminatejuvenile justice fees.
These are these fees thatfamilies pay for young people
in the juvenile justice systembecause those fees further set

(23:59):
back that family and thereforethat young person from
achieving and moving forwardbecause it places an economic
burden on thesefamilies of color.
And I I remember afterwe adopted this, um, this
groundbreaking uh ordinancealong with Alameda County, I
went to Sacramento andtestified um on a state bill

(24:20):
which then eventually outlawed
prohibited these fees statewide.
So our work was in advanceof what the state did.
And, and what we're also doingthough in addition to to just
eliminating fees is we'retrying to provide alternatives
to young people.
Um, to thrive and the riseYouth Center is a perfect

(24:42):
They have partnerships with ourprobation department, with our
example of that.
district attorney's office sothat young people, uh, aren't
incarcerated, um, but firsthave an opportunity to, um,
let's say be in a program in ayouth center and, um, which is
shown to be much more effectivethan incarcerating a young

(25:02):
person in juvenile hall.
And that's an example of aproject that started over 20
years ago when listening to
students at RichmondHigh School.
I remember um.
Uh, talking to and listening toyoung people who said we need
more places for young peoplein the after school hours.
And so, um, I worked with, um,

(25:23):
With a woman named KimberlyAceves who was executive
director of Youth Togetherdoing work at Richmond High
School and said how can welocate a place uh for young
people and um we identifieda vacant county building in
Richmond, but here's what wasmost important we didn't just
say, OK, we have a building
we're gonna setthis up we stopped.

(25:44):
We invested in a process whereyoung people said this is what
we need and are looking for ina youth center sort of like the
community process we did forthe Office of Racial Equity and
Social Justice.
I really believe in thoseprocesses and so uh we
developed a um a nonprofitwhich was called RIS and it it

(26:09):
had built out a youth centerbased on the needs of young
people in West County.
And uh the good news, thefortune, the fortunate thing
was the county owned all theland around it so over time
they expanded and now own allthe land uh that they are on.
They actually have ahealth clinic there.

(26:30):
They have recording studio,career programs, arts and arts
and culture programs,um mental health.
Programs just, it's just fun.
It's a fun.
I wish there were a place like
that when I wasgrowing up in Richmond.
It's really fun.
And, and to me, I get alot of, uh, I learn a lot.
I learned a lot of that processbecause I, I originally said,

(26:51):
let's just open the center.
And young people said no, weneed to spend some time and the
reason that to to to investin in what that center should,
should have, and I think that'swhy young people go there,
that's why it's successfulbecause they were invested in
it from the very beginning.
And I think that's a modelwhere county government can

(27:11):
play a really important role
but not necessarilycontrol the process.
We do provide a fair amount offunding, it's property we used
to have, but itwas community led.
Uh, likewise, this projectwe're working on in North
Richmond with Urban Tilth, agreat, uh, nonprofit in the
community that's using, uh,3 acres of former county land
plus other land to create acommunity farm that's also

(27:35):
about stewardship of theland, healthy eating.
Um, talk abouthealth and equity.
It's a perfect example ofthat, and Doria Robinson, their
executive director who's now onthe city council, has, has just
an amazing jobimplementing this.
So it's a place where, whereuh young people can work, where
they can learn about healthand nutrition and environmental

(27:56):
stewardship and so to me
projects like thatare uh are important.
It's not just about the policyand that's what's great about
county government.
We're not, we don't just get tomake policies, we get to figure
out how we're implementingthose policies in a meaningful
way and um.

(28:17):
That's, I think what makescounty government the best
level of government to be atand why I love it and why I
didn't run for the statelegislature or anything else
because I get, you get tobe in touch at all levels.
So if there's one takeaway fromfrom today's discussion for our
listeners, what would you whatwould you want them to leave,
um, remembering about all ofthe, the information and all of

(28:42):
the topics thatyou covered today?
What's the big takeaway?
That that residents can make adifference if they get engaged
doesn't it can be a differencein their neighborhood, in their
church, in their workplace, intheir community in the county
at whatever level.

(29:03):
Um, it is, uh, you can makea difference and a lot of the
things we've done.
Uh, to achieve health andequity happened because
community spoke up and said wewant these things to happen,
and that's the power.
So I think when government canreflect the voice of community
and that power.
Uh, we build supportfor what we do.

(29:24):
That's why residents approvedMeasure X to give us more money
to do things like that.
And so you can make adifference in being involved
and um caring about yourcommunity and put pressure on
us in elected office to dothese things because most
elected officials want to hear
from you and wantto be accountable.
That's it for today's show.

(29:47):
Thanks for joining us onthe Government Speak podcast
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Stay curious, stayconnected, and stay informed.
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