Meeting Information

Full Commission

Immigrant Rights Commission

Minutes of Regular Meeting on July 2, 2001

The Immigrant Rights Commission (IRC) regular meeting was held on Monday, July 2, 2001 at San Francisco City Hall in Room 400, at 5:00 P.M.

Members Present Renee Saucedo, Penelope Chronis, Samuel Assefa, Vera Haile, Isabel Huie, Diana Lau, Richard Ow, Emi Gusukuma and Phu Nguyen.

Members Absent Vram Kouramajian and Fidel Jimenez.

Others Present Dang Pham, Executive Director of the IRC

Winny Loi, Commission Secretary

William Chan, Deputy City Attorney

Sunshine

Ordinance: Dorji Roberts, Deputy City Attorney gave the Commissioners an overview of the requirements of the Sunshine Ordinance.

Presentation: Ted Wang, Director of Policy for Chinese Affirmative Action, gave a presentation to the Commissioners on the passage of the Language Access to Service Ordinance and its implementation. The rights embodied in Language Access Ordinance has been protected by Federal & State Law. Under Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, any recipients, including governmental and private entities, of federal funding are prohibited from implementing policies that restrict access to services provided based on language. Under State Law, the Dymally-Altorre bilingual service statue was passed in 1973. The Dymally-Altorre Statute requires all government agencies to make their services available to people who are not fluent in English. The purpose of the Language Access Ordinance is to establish consistent standards for the provision of services to those who are not proficient in English and would apply to all City Departments.

Vivek Malhotra, Policy Advocate for Chinese Affirmative Action prepared a 3 page summary of the ordinance. Under the ordinance, City Departments are divided into two categories, Tier 1 and Tier 2. Eighteen (18) that provide the most critical services & public contact are classified as Tier 1 Department. The Tier 1 Departments are required to translate all vital governmental documents into the languages that are spoken by at least 10,000 limited English proficient (LEP) residents or 5 percent of the clients served by the department. According to 1990 Census, only two languages that meet the citywide threshold are Spanish and Chinese. Vital documents include those that describe services provided by departments, any applications and notices that affect the rights of individuals.

Tier 2 are all other City department with 30 or more full-time employee that furnish information or provide services directly to the public. The Tier 2 Departments are only required to translate a limited category of publicly-posted documents affects a person’s rights and those that explain services provided by the Department.

In certain situations, the ordinance requires City Departments to translate documents and/or provide oral translation in additional languages. For supervisorial district that consists of 5% or more Limited English-Proficient (LEP) Person, City Departments have an obligation to also provide oral translation in the language of the LEP. If a local office of a City Department services more than 5% of LEP that share a common language, they are also required services to be accessible to these people.

Most of the city departments had to absorb the costs of implementing this ordinance, because there are no independent funding sources.

The Immigrant Rights Commission (IRC) is responsible for monitoring compliance with the ordinance and to provide technical assistance to City Departments regarding the implementation of the ordinance. One year after the effective date of the ordinance, the IRC will begin to monitor and enforce the ordinance. The IRC should develop some model forms & plans, brochures that other departments could use in developing implementation strategies.

Approval of

Minutes: Commissioners proposed to amend the minutes as follows:

Correction on Commissioner Gusukuma name & correct some grammatical errors. Corrections to the 5^th paragraph as follows:

Commissioner Haile suggested that the Immigrant Rights Commission write a thank you letter to all the organizations, such Lawyers Committee for Civil rights, Chinese for Affirmative Action, CADC, Employment Law Center and

LA RAZA Centro Legal that supported the passage of the Language Access Ordinance. Commissioner Chonis volunteers to draft the letter these community-based organizations for their support.

Commissioner Chronis moved to adopt the Minutes as amended & was seconded by Commissioner Gusukuma. The Commission unanimously approved the minutes of July 2, 2001 meeting, as amended.

Discussion: Commissioner Nguyen gave the commission some background regarding the Human Rights in Vietnam. He wanted the IRC to urge the Mayor & the Board of Supervisors to support a resolution. The Deputy City Attorney advised the Commission that the subject matter is beyond the scope of the Commission’s authority.

Director’s Report: Director Pham reported to the Commission about status on the membership, 19 applications were submitted to the Rules Committee. The meeting considering these applications was held on Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 1:00 p.m. Six seats were up for consideration Three (3) of the existing Commissioners were re-appointed to their seats. They are: Emi Gusukuma, Vram Kouramajian & Phu Nguyen. The Rules Committee appointed two (2) new individuals. They are: Marcos Eusebio Gutierrez & Joseph Nwadibia.

Director Pham would like to invite Sally Kinoshita with the Southeast Asian Task Force, to discuss about the deportation issues. He has sat in various meetings where they talked about issues relating to immigrants.

Future Activity: Director Pham discussed about the 4^th Anniversary. He wanted to have a gathering of all Commissioners (new members and the outgoing) of the Immigrant Rights Commission. He also proposed to present a certificate of honor to the outgoing commissioners. Commissioner Chair Lau proposed to the Director to get the date, places & fees needed to have this gathering. Commissioner Ow made a motion to celebrate the Immigrant Rights Commission’s 4^th Anniversary, which was seconded by Commissioner Haile. The Commission unanimously approved the celebration of the Immigrant Rights Commission Anniversary.

Commission Chair Lau also emphasize the need to conduct some public meetings in the neighborhoods in San Francisco.

Next Meeting: Next regular meeting will be held in City Hall, on August 6, 2001 at 5:00 p.m.

Adjournment: The Commission meeting was adjourned at 7:15 p.m.