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Immigrant Rights Commission
Minutes of Meeting on December 6, 2004

A meeting of the Immigrant Rights Commission (IRC) was held on Monday, Dec. 6, 2004 at Benjamin Franklin Middle School audit. 

I. Roll Call:

Members Present            The meeting was called to order on 6:00 p.m., Commissioners Alexander, Escobedo, Haile, Huie, Jones, Lau, Lee, Melara, Nguyen, Specktor, Tran were present. 

Members Absent            Commissioner Kaff, Ow & Zheng were absent, but they were excused.

Others Present           Dang Pham, Executive Director & Winny Loi, Commission Secretary

II.Approval of minutes for Nov 8th: Commissioner Haile moved to approve the minutes & second by Commissioner Tran.  The Commission unanimously adopted the minutes. 
III.Public Comment:
Lieutenant Franklin Lee from the SFPD of the Northern Police Station:
Lieutenant Lee mentioned due to the holidays that there were more crimes happening in the area.  He mentions that people who park their vehicles need to park in a well-lit area & place any items in the truck of the car.  Always shop with others & keep an eye around your surroundings.  He also mentioned that there is more crime rate in the project areas.  When they are under the influence they are known to do illegal activities.  When they arrest a person who are under the influence of drug or alcohol, they can go to rehabilitation centers which they can seek treatment.  The Northern Police Station provides translation Chinese, Spanish, German & Swedish languages.  If they do not have anyone present, they always call AT&T translations services for help.
Joseph Jung from the Korean American Community Center:  His first concern, he wanted to see if the commissioner could help assist with paralegal assistant with immigration or legal papers.  He would like to know where he could get advice.  Second, he wanted to have Korean translation services in public hospitals, court clerks & public departments.  Third, can he get funding to get tutoring services for the new immigrants who don’t understand English and lastly, can the city departments get their phone messages translated to Korean.  The Community center gets many volunteers to help out with translation.  They also would like to know how many departments have Korean staff.  They have a 20-member board, that pay their annual dues & they also get donations from merchants.  The Commission advised Mr. Jung that they could go to the school board to ask them to get materials translated to Korean.  LA has the largest Korean population, but San Jose also has a large population for Koreans.  The Commission suggests contacting the Community Based Organization (CBO) in San Jose & seeing how they are getting assistance with language access.  They can also set up a meeting with the superintendent & also set up a meeting to meet with the board members.
Angela Louie from the District Attorney’s Office:  Ms. Louie mentioned that the DA’s office has a pilot program known as Community Courts.  If this is a first time offender, and they agree to successfully complete the program, this means the offender will not have a criminal record with a conviction for a crime.  Additionally, participants have also been referred to anger management classes, drug and alcohol counseling.

They are doing outreach programs to San Francisco communities.  They are partnering with CBO’s to get materials translated. 
Matthew from the public came to address their concerns about the African community to the Commission.  They wanted to know where they could hold meetings for 500 people.  They also wanted to know where they could find jobs & support groups for the African Community.  They also wanted to know where they could get help, when they do not understand the English language. 

Supervisor Ross
Mirkarimi:  He came to the commission to listen to issues of the Immigrant community & to give input on issues on the immigrant community.  He mentioned the African community could use the Police community room & libraries to hold their public meetings.  He suggested that the IRC can do some advertising, so the community would know that the IRC exist & immigrants would be able to come to the commission for advise or where to go for help.  He also suggested going to nonprofit organizations. 
Joe Lam with Mayor’s Office of Community Development (MOCD):
The Mayor’s Office of Community Development and Mayor’s Office of Housing are announcing their funding of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the 2005-06 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) programs.  The Economic Development GrantProgram provides grants to non-profit organizations to support job creation activities that lead to employment of-low income individuals. Grant writing assistance will be made available to those agencies seeking Public Service grants. Their department supports many newcomer programs & assist many non-profit organizations. 
Alem Ambadew from the Ethiopian Community: 
Many immigrants from Africa come to San Francisco as immigrants & they do not understand English.  Where can they find help if the families do not speak English.  When they come to America, there is assistance in the beginning, but after they get their papers processed; they are on their own.  They feel so helpless & don’t know whom to turn to. 

Adjournment:
            The Commission meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m.