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Meeting Information



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Immigrant Rights Commission
Minutes of Meeting on September 8 2003

A meeting of the Immigrant Rights Commission (IRC) was held on Monday, September 8, 2003 at Sunset Recreational Center located at 2201 Lawton Ave.

I. Roll Call:

Members Present            The meeting was called to order on 5:44 p.m., Commissioners Bondoc, Casillas, Gonzalez, Haile, Lau, Nguyen, Tran, Zheng were present.  Commissioner Tran left at 6:44 p.m.

Members Absent            Commissioner Atay, Nwadibia, Huie, Ribas were absent.

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

Welcome New Commissioner: Jose Ricardo Bondoc
           

II. Public Comment: The Commissioners invited Supervisor Fiona Ma, Lieutenant Dominic M Celaya of the SF Police Department, Carlos Colon from Muni, Joe Grubb from the Rent Board, Camille Ramani from Upwardly Global.

John Zhao, a parent, came to the Commission to address his concerns & concerns of other parents regarding the school district.  His child lives near Lincoln High School, but his child is sent to Galileo to attend school.  The total bus ride to & from school is 3 hours each day.  John’s child gets home at 7pm & completes her homework by 12am.  She only gets 5 ½ hours of sleep each night.  He feels that this unfair for his child.  John also suggested to Muni to run a bus line closer to the school during school hours or even an express bus.

Monica Quach also another parent came to the commission to address her concerns of the school assignments.  She also feels that it is unfair to the children & parents.

Supervisor Ma will be speaking with Muni to hold a public hearing to address the issues of the parents to provide more express bus service line. 

The Commission will invite someone from the school board to address the parent’s questions at next months meeting.

Jim Nakamura, Dominique Rodriguez, Tam Ted & Rig Samanl address their concerns of fairness for Taxi Drivers.  A taxi driver may wait as long as 15 years to get his own permit, but if he’s unable to work for 3 months, even if the cause is an accident on the job, he loses his taxi permit.  When he returns to work, he’s back at entry-level earnings for another 15 years.  They feel that the law is so harsh that it has never been enforced since it was instituted 25 years ago.  Public safety is jeopardized when aging taxi drivers are forced to drive more than they should.  Proposition N benefits the public as well as the cab drivers.

Commissioner Gonzalez asked the Policy & Legislation to look into this matter. 

Mr. Tran came to address his concerns of raising of the Vietnamese flag in front of City Hall.  He feels that the Mayor’s office should not put the Vietnamese flag when Vietnamese delegates come to the City & County of San Francisco. 


III.   Approval of minutes for May 12 2003:
Commissioner Bondoc moved to approve the minutes and was seconded by Commissioner Haile.  The Commission unanimously adopted the minutes.


IV.  Approval of Resolution supporting Immigrant Pride Day:  Commissioner Haile moved to approve the resolution with a few changes.  Changes on line 5 to line 7 states: Whereas 36.7% of residents of the City and County of San Francisco are immigrants who deserve the recognition, respect and dignity for their many contributions to the social, religions, cultural and economic life of our City, and; Commissioner Haile made a motion to pass the amended resolution, which was seconded by Commissioner Casillas.  The Commission unanimously adopted the resolution.


VI. Resolution opposing Prop 54: Commissioner Haile moved to approve the resolution with a few changes.  Changes on line 14 on the first page: capitalize Initiative; on line 20-delete color; on line 1 & 2 on the Third page, Further Resolved, That the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission will conduct a press conference in September, 2003 to announce the adoption of this resolution and to address the Summit Report.  Commissioner Haile made a motion to pass the amended resolution, which was seconded by Commissioner Casillas.  The Commission unanimously adopted the resolution.


Adjournment:            The Commission meeting was adjourned at 6:44 p.m.