Full Commission
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 Immigrant Rights Commission Meeting
City Hall - Room 416
December 8, 2008
Minutes
Commissioner Jamal Dajani (Chair) convened the meeting at 5:35 p.m.
I. Roll Call
Members Present: Jamal Dajani (Chair), Gilberto Alexander, Greg Chew, Felix Fuentes, Vera Haile, Solomon Jones, Jay Gonzalez, Angus McCarthy, Toye Moses and Chris Punongbayan
Members Absent: Elahe Enssani (excused), Alan Mok (excused) and Sam Ng (excused)
II. Approval of Minutes
Commission approved the minutes of the October meeting.
III. Public Comments: No public comment.
IV. Presentation
A. Mark Westerberg, Tho Do and Reverend Israel Alvaran of the Unite Here – Local 2
In June 2008, workers at the HEI Le Meridien Hotel and the Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf inSan Francisco petitioned their management to respect their rights. The hotel workers asked that their employers agree to a fair process that would allow them to decide whether to form a union without intimidation or coercion from the hotel management.
Unfortunately, both hotel management denied these requests even though other hotels in San Francisco have already agreed to this same process including the Four Seasons, St. Regis, and Intercontinental hotels. Additionally, Hyatt has already agreed to provide this same process to workers at all new hotels opened in the city
Reverend Alvaran requested that the Commission should consider the draft of the resolution in supporting the workers at Le Meridien and Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf Hotels.
Commissioner Gonzalez made the motion to approve the proposed resolution in support of the workers at these two hotels. Commissioner Alexander seconded it. The Commission unanimously approved the proposed resolution.
B. Ms. Veena Dubal of the Asian Law Caucus
Ms. Dubal stated that the Quake City Shuttle, Advanced Airporter and Bay Shuttle asked the Asian Law Caucus to represent them in the dispute with the San Francisco International Airport regarding the newly proposed contract with Super Shuttle. Recently, the
San Francisco Airport Commission plans to reduce the size of the shuttle services from 11 to only 1 or 2 shuttle providers.
This proposed plan would be a blow to the small business owners and over 300 immigrants who serve as drivers, mechanics, customers and owners who rely on these shuttles to travel to and from the airport on a non-reservation basis. According to Ms. Dubal, contrary to the policy objectives at hand, creating a near monopoly at San Francisco International Airport for the larger, conglomerate shuttle companies will only increase fares and decrease service by eliminating competition.
Ms. Dubal suggested that each Commissioner as a community member could sign on the petition to the San Francisco Airport Commission to urge the Airport Commission not to move backward by protecting big business and crushing the livelihoods of hard-working immigrants at the San Francisco International Airport.
V. Officer Election
At the October 14th meeting, the Commissioners approved the following nominations:
a. Commission Chair: Jamal Dajani
b. Commission Vice Chair: Felix Fuentes
Commissioner Punongbayan made the motion to approve the nomination, and Commissioner Haile seconded it. The Commission unanimously approved the nominations.
VI. Revised Draft of the 2007 Immigrant Rights Summit Report
Commissioner Dajani stated that the report of the 2007 Immigrant Rights Summit is long over due. At this point, the Commission needs to post the copy of the report on the Commission website as soon as possible.
Commissioner Gonzalez pointed out that in the final revised draft missed out the students from the University of San Francisco.
Commissioner Punongbayan and Commissioner Gonzalez concurred with the suggestion. The Commission unanimously approved the final draft of the report (with some corrections) and requested staff to post the summit report on the Commission’s website immediately.
VII. Next Neighborhood Meeting
Based on the feedback from community members at the last meeting in Mission, Commissioner Fuentes recommended that the Commission should hold the next neighborhood meeting in the Excelsior area. The Commission requested the Outreach Committee to work with staff and other local community based organizations to plan for the meeting. The tentatively date for the next neighborhood meeting is Monday, April 13, 2009.
The Commission also would like to follow-up with the list of issues that the residents raised at the neighborhood meetings.
VIII. Director’s Report
1. Letter to City Departments regarding 2009 EAS Annual Compliance Report
The 2009 EAS Annual Compliance Plan will be due by the end of February 2009. A letter will be sent out soon to the city departments regarding the due date of 2009 EAS Annual Compliance Plan. The members of the Program & Access Committee and staff will meet with some of the city departments such as Fire Department, Juvenile Probation, Sheriff’s Office, and MTA to suggest ways in better preparing for the 2009 compliance reports.
2. EAS Revision
According to Tomas Lee of the Office Language Services (OLS), some of the new elected members of the Board of Supervisors indicated their strong interest in sponsoring the legislation to enhance the current EAS Ordinance.
3. Last Neighborhood Meeting in Mission
Staff just received the copy of the transcript of the meeting. The Outreach Committee and staff will review this transcript and come up with a summary report of the meeting by the end of December. After that, the Outreach Committee will submit it to the Executive Committee for review.
4. Day Labor Program Contract
Finally, the extension contract for the Day Labor Program was approved by the City Attorney’s Office and the Office of Contract Administration (OCA). We processed the invoices for July, August, September and October 2008. The Office of Contract Administration issued the RFP for the new contract for the service according to the rule and regulation of the City.
5. Meeting/Information
a. Census 2010 Planning Meeting:
On December 5, 2008, the Director attended the planning meeting for the Census 2010. This time, the Mayor asked Ed Lee, the City Administrator to coordinate Census 2010 activities. The Mayor will appoint a number of leaders and activists to the San Francisco Complete Count Committee to assist the City with the activities to promote Census 2010.
b. Bilingual signs on MTA’s new hybrid buses
The Director met with Virginia Harmon, Manager of Equal Opportunity & Diversity for MTA about the lack of bilingual signs on the MTA’s new hybrid buses. Ms. Harmon agreed that the bilingual signs would be installed on all new hybrid buses as soon as possible. Last month, Ms. Harmon called and informed the Commission that the bilingual signs had been posted on all MTA’s new hybrid buses. In addition, Ms. Harmon also indicated that the MTA will have the bilingual signs on all buses to meet the requirements of the EAS Ordinance.
IX. Committee Report
a. Executive Committee
The next meeting of the Committee will take place on January 8, 2009 to plan for the January 12th meeting of the Commission. Commissioner Dajani strongly stated that the City took too long to redesign the Commission’s website. It needs to be done as soon as possible. On the website, we should include the photos, video clips and upcoming activities of the Commission for public outreach purpose.
b. Program & Access Committee
The next meeting of the Program & Access Committee will take place on Thursday, January 8, 2009 from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM to discuss the next steps for the EAS Revision.
c. Outreach Committee
The Outreach Committee will work with staff to produce a summary report of the neighborhood meeting and present it to the Commission for its review at the January 12th meeting.
IX. Adjournment
Commissioner Haile moved to adjourn, and Commissioner Alexander seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m.