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Meeting Information



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Immigrant Rights Commission
Minutes of Meeting on October 10, 2006 at City Hall – Room 416

The meeting was called to order by Commissioner Felix Levy at 5:05 p.m.

I.          Roll Call:

Members Present: Commissioners Dajani, Enssani, Haile, Jones, Levy, Melara, Moses, Ng and Nguyen were present.

Members Absent: Commissioners Alexander, Escobedo, Lau, McCoy and Lee.

Staff Present: Dang Pham, Executive Director

Guest Present: Edwin Lee, City Administrator

 

II.        Election for the new Chair and Vice Chair:

The Commission moves the election to be the first item on the agenda.  Here is the result of the election via secret ballots:

 

For Chair:                    Commissioner Sonia Melara                   13 votes and 1 blank vote

For Vice Chair:           Commissioner Jamal Dajani                   8 votes

                                    Commissioner Vera Haile                      6 votes

 

Total ballots received:    9 presents and 5 proxy votes via e-mails.

 

Elected Chair:                        Commissioner SONIA MELARA

Elected Vice Chair:                Commissioner JAMAL DAJANI

 

III.       Approval of Minutes:  The Commission approved the minutes of September 11, 2006 meeting.

 

IV.       Public Comments: None

 

V.         Presentation:

 

City Administrator Edwin Lee reports to the Commission of the Language Access Summit in New York City from September 27 to 29, 2006 organized by Annie Casey Foundation.

 

The goals of the Summit:

  1. Support the expansion of promising and cost effective language access practices in social service and other public agencies;
  2. Support capacity building and peer-learning between practitioners; and
  3. Identify clear outcome measures to access policy support and increased language access services.

 

At this Summit, the participants help to shed light on what is needed to strengthen the language access programs generally and what issues and challenges should be the focus of the Summit’s future activities.  In addition, the participants continue to identify and develop a national cohort of professionals dedicated to strengthening language access services in public agencies.

 

Despite issues and problems, San Francisco still do a better job to deliver its services to all residents including the limited English speaking residents.  The Commission’s Report on the Equal Access to City services (EAS) and the Report from the Mayor’s Cultural & Competency Task Force did provide a fresh look of the efforts in dealing with the language access.

 

In the area of emergency preparedness, the City Administrator’s Office commits the adequate resources to assist all residents to understand the necessary steps to prepare for the natural disasters.  The City wants to go ahead to correct any problems and make it work for all residents including immigrants.

           

VI.       Create the Executive Committee:

 

            Commissioner Melara presents the revised draft of the role and responsibility of the proposed Executive Committee to the Commission for approval.

 

            Commissioner Dajani made the motion to approve the draft and Commissioner Jones seconded it.  The Commission voted unanimously to approve the creation of the new Executive Committee and its proposed roles and responsibilities. 

 

The new Executive Committee will meet once a month to work with staff to develop the monthly meeting agenda based on the Commission’s priorities and needs.

 

 

  • Proposed Attendance Policy:

 

            Commissioner Melara suggests that the members forward to staff any suggestions or recommendations regarding the attendance policy.

 

VIII.    Non-Compliance Letters:

           

            The Commission unanimously approved the draft of the non-compliance letters to the Adult Probation Department and the Sherrif’s Office.

 

IX.    Revoked visas for Iranian nationals:

        

         Commissioner Enssani reported to the Commission of the revoked entry visas for Iranian nationals at the various US ports of entry, including the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in early August 2006.

 

         These Iranians are coming here to attend the fourth reunion of Sharif University of Technology Association (SUTA) from August 4 to August 6, 2006 in San Francisco. The immigration and border control officers at the these ports of entry revoked about eighty (80) visas without any advance notices or stated reasons.  Most of these individuals were informed upon their arrival at these ports of entry where they were detained and returned for attempting to enter the US illegally.

 

         Commission voted unanimously to approve the draft of the Resolution proposed by Commissioner Enssani to urge the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors to send an official letter to the US Department of State to abolish the “black list” of the Iranians who had gone trough the appropriate security checks by the US Department of State before they were granted the entry visas.

 

X.      The Director Report:

 

         1. The Mayor’s Cultural Competency Task Force:

 

The Mayor released the Recommendation Report of the Mayor’s Cultural Competency Task Force.

 

2. New appointments:

 

The Board of Supervisors approves the nominations of Elahe Enssani and Angus McCarthy to the Immigrant Rights Commission. 

 

3. San Franciso Police Department’s General Order:

 

The Language Coalition consists of different ethnic community groups, the representative of Office of Citizen Complaints and the representative of the Immigrant Rights Commission to work with the Police Chief and her senior staff to enhance the Police Department’s General Order regarding the language access services for limited English speaking proficient persons.  The Language Coalition sent to the Police Chief the latest revised version (09/24) of the General Order for her review and feedback.

 

IX.       Committees Report:

 

The next meeting of the Program and Access Committee will take place on October 25th at 5:30 PM in City Hall – Room 453.

 

The Finance & Operations Committee will meet on October 18, 2006 at 5:30 PM in City Hall.  At this meeting the members will select the new Chair and select the monitoring date for the Day Labor Project.

 

X.         Adjournment:

 

Commissioner Haile moved and seconded by Commissioner Levy to adjourn the meeting at 7:05 pm.