Full Commission
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Minutes of Meeting on May 14, 2007 at City Hall – Room 416
The meeting was called to order by Commissioner Sonia Melara (Chair) at 5:05 p.m.
I. ROLL CALL:
Members Present: Sonia Melara (Chair), Gilberto Alexander, Jamal Dajani, Deborah Escobedo, Vera Haile, Solomon Jones, Felix Levy, Angus McCarthy, Samira Causevic McCoy, Phu Nguyen, Toye Moses and Sam Ng.
Members Absent (Excused): Diana Lau, and Elahe Enssani.
Staff Present: Dang Pham, Executive Director
Guests Present: Mariam Morley of the City Attorney’s Office and Wade Crowfoot of the Mayor’s Office.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Commissioner Melara suggested that the minutes need to reflect reasonings that caused reactions from the Commissioners. Commissioner Vera Haile moved; seconded by Commissioner Angus McCarthy to approve the draft of minutes of May 14th meeting.
III. PRESENTATION:
1. Mariam Morley – City Attorney’s Office – Commission’s By-Laws and Sunshine Ordinance:
Mariam Morley was stated that according to the San Francisco Administrative Code, the Immigrant Rights Commission (IRC) was an advisory body to the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors in the policy issues related to immigration. The Commission has no authority to appoint staff or hire and fire its employees. The City Administrator assigned staff to handle daily workload of the Commission.
The current By-Laws of the Commission does not reflect the situation correctly. As a result, the Commission should amend the By-Laws. Commissioner Melara requested that the City Attorney’s Office provide appropriate amendment languages to the Commission for considering.
Commissioner Escobedo indicated that the staffing issue need to be clarified so the members of the Commission can have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities avoid problems in the future.
The City Attorney stated that the Commission has no authority of evaluating the staff performance. The Commission has no authority to hold any closed meetings. All meetings must be public meetings, in fact. The Sunshine Ordinance is very strict about this.
In addition, the City Attorney also indicated that no one can speak on behalf of the Commission on certain issues unless these issues had been considered by the full Commission in the public meetings and the Commission had taken the position on it.
Commissioner Vera Haile stated that the Commissioners can only provide input or list of suggestions related to the staff performance to the City Administrator. Commissioner Haile asked the City Attorney whether or not the Commission can hold closed sessions to discuss personnel matters? Mariam Morley repeated her earlier answer that the Commission shall not hold any closed meetings.
Commissioner Melara suggested that the Commission need to come up with a process for the Commission to provide input or suggestions to the City Administrator’s Office.
Commissioner Felix Levy asked the City Attorney about the minutes of the Committee meetings. Mariam Morley stated that according to the Sunshine Ordinance, there is no requirement to take minutes of the meetings of the Committee but, in order to follow-up, she suggested that a summary of the meeting should be formulated.
2. Wade Crowfoot – Mayor’s Office – Issues related to the ICE Raids
The Mayor issued the Executive Directive of March 1, 2007 to reinforce the City’s Sanctuary City Ordinance and indicated that no department, agency, commission, officer or employee of the City and County of San Francisco may assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigation, detention, or arrest proceedings unless such assistance is specifically required by federal laws.
In light of stepped-up deportation of immigrants and rising anti-immigrant sentiment, the Mayor wants to ensure that the City’s immigrant population continues to use the city services and that San Francisco’s Sanctuary Ordinance is upheld. The Department of Public Health is tasked with developing and implementing a media and public education campaign to inform the City’s immigrant community of their rights and reinforce the department’s commitment to upholding the Sanctuary Ordinance.
The goals of the public campaign are to ensure continued use of the city services by the City’s immigrant residents, and to educate the public and city workers about the Sanctuary Ordinance. The campaign should employ all of the elements of a traditional public relation campaign, such as ads and media relations, and also include a community outreach component to public concerns and reports violations of the Sanctuary Ordinance to an appropriate city representative.
Mr. Crowfoot would like to work closely with the Immigrant Rights Commission and staff to ensure the success of this important public outreach campaign.
IV. DIRECTOR'S REPORT:
- 2007 Language Access Compliance Plans:
I presented the draft of the report to the Program and Access Committee for their review. The Program & Access Committee asked the staff to contact the following departments for additional information: Juvenile Probation, Public Health, Sheriff’s Office, Fire, and MTA.
- Monitoring Visit to the Day Labor Program:
On May 7, 2007, Commissioners Jones and Haile joined the staff to conduct the routine monitoring visit to the day Labor Program. We visited the site located on Ceasar Chavez and had a meeting with the Program Director at the main office of La Raza Centro Legal on Mission Street.
On May 1, 2007, the Executive Director attended the Sanctuary Ordinance Public Education meeting organized by the Department of Public Health. The main focus of this meeting was to discuss the Sanctuary Ordinance and safe access to the city services for all residents including the undocumented immigrants.
On May 9, 2007, the Executive Director and Steve Wertheim of the Planning Department attended the meeting on the Local Update of the Census Addresses (LUCA) Program for the 2010 Census.
As an integral part of the 2010 Census, activities to review and update the census Bureau’s address list and related maps.
- EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S JOB DESCRIPTION:
Commissioner Melara indicated that the Commission should discuss and come up with a wish list in terms of the tasks and skills for the position of the Executive Director.
Commissioner Levy insisted that the Commission should have a better scope of actions and first, the Commission needs to revise the current By-Laws to correctly reflect the San Francisco Administrative Code. Commissioner Levy added that the Commission might need to develop a list of specific needs or tasks and forward it to the City Administrator’s office for considering.
Commissioner Melara reminded the Commission that according to the City Attorney, the Commission cannot change the employee’s job description.
Commissioner Moses suggested that the Executive Committee should discuss this issue and come up with a list of suggestions so the Commission can consider it at its next meeting.
Commissioner McCoy indicated that the Commission should come up with a list of needs instead of looking at the Executive Director’s job description.
VI. PUBLIC COMMENTS:
No public comments.
VII. COMMITTEE REPORT:
The next meeting of the Executive Committee meeting will take place on May 29, 2007 at 5:30 PM in City Hall – Room 370.
- Program & Access Committee:
The next meeting of the Program & Access Committee meeting will take place on May 23, 2007 at 5:30 PM in City Hall – Room 370.
- Outreach Adhoc Committee:
The next meeting of the Outreach Committee will take place on June 6, 2007 at 5:30 PM in City Hall – Room 370. The Committee will discuss about the next neighborhood meeting.
- Immigration Reform Adhoc Committee:
Commissioner Angus McCarthy presents to the Commission with the recommendation of the Immigrant Reform Committee to hold a special hearing on Thursday, June 7 from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM in City Hall. The Immigration Reform Adhoc Committee will take a leading role in planning for this hearing. The hearing is focusing on the immigrant and grassroot folks. Commissioner Escobedo suggested that the Immigrant Reform Committee and the Outreach Adhoc Committee should join in to plan for this important hearing.
Commissioner Jones made the motion to approve the recommendation of the Immigration Reform Committee to hold a special hearing on Immigration Reform on June 7th from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM in City Hall. Commissioner Escobedo seconded it. The Commission unanimously approved the motion.
The Immigration Adhoc Committee meeting will hold a special planning meeting on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 2:00 PM in City hall – Room 370.
VIII. ADJOURNMENT:
Commissioner Melara had to leave and asked Commissioner Dajani, Vice Chair to continue to chair the meeting. Commissioner Jones offered his support and willing to work closely with Commissioner McCarthy to plan for the hearing.
Commissioner Dajani suggested that the Immigration Reform Adhoc Committee should come up with a press statement to send to the ethnic media organizations about the hearing.
With no further discussion, Commissioner Levy moved and seconded by Commissioner Jones to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned
at 7:15 pm.