To: Board of Supervisors
From: Esa Ehmen-Krause, County Probation Officer
Report Title: Contract extension with Rane Community Development
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the County Probation Officer, or designee, to execute a contract extension with Rane Community Development to extend the contract term from June 30, 2025 to June 30, 2026 to continue providing project management for the restorative justice initiative.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is not fiscal impact to extending this contract, which is funded 100% by Measure X funds.
BACKGROUND:
The Probation Department received an allocation of one-time Measure X funding in the amount of $2 million to be used to create and implement a community-based restorative justice project in alignment with the Board approved funding priorities. The Office of Reentry & Justice (ORJ), within the Probation Department, planned a multi-year process to further embed and support adoption of restorative justice principles, practices, and programming throughout the County. With the one-time allocation of Measure X resources, the ORJ issued a Request for Qualifications in February 2023 to hire a project management consultant with a research background to support the development and launch of the Restorative Justice Initiative, which aims to conduct a robust community listening and information gathering process through community workshops, stakeholder interviews, community surveys, and focus group, as well as conduct a needs assessment to determine areas of promise for embedding restorative approaches throughout the county. Rane Community Development, in partnership with Bright Research Group, were selected by a diverse review panel made up of subject matter experts in the legal justice system and practitioners of restorative justice. The contract award in the amount of $467,000 was initially for a 2-year period beginning July 1, 2023.
To date, Rane Community Development has executed the following deliverables: (1) conducted a community-driven needs assessment from September 2023 - March 2024 and published findings and recommendations in April 2024; (2) drafted and supported the ORJ’s solicitation process for the Restorative Justice Youth Violence Prevention Pilot (RFP#2409-832) from September - November 2024; (3) developed an evaluation plan for RFP awardee - Antioch USD (April 2025); and (4) assisted the ORJ in the launch of the East County Restorative Justice capacity building project in March 2025 and currently facilitates training sessions for a cohort of local and emerging youth-serving organizations.
Extending the contract will allow the contractor to continue supporting the Probation Department with implementing the community-based restorative justice project recommendations, pilot evaluation, and capacity-building activities for the training cohort.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
The Probation Department will not be able to continue working with the contractor on the implementation of the community-based restorative justice project.