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Immigrant Rights Commission
Neighborhood Meeting in Richmond
Richmond Recreation and Community Center
251 18th Avenue
San Francisco, CA
June 09, 2008
SUMMARY REPORT
Commissioner Jamal Dajani (Chair) convened the meeting at 6:05 p.m.
I. Roll Call
Members Present: Jamal Dajani (Chair), Gilberto Alexander, Greg Chew, Elahe Enssani, Felix Fuentes, , Vera Haile, Solomon Jones, Chris Punongbayan (Vice Chair), Angus McCarthy, Alan Mok, and Sam Ng.
Members Absent: Jay Gonzalez (excused) and Toye Moses (excused)
II. Remarks
1. Commissioner Jamal Dajani (Chair)
Commissioner Dajani welcomed everyone to the Commission’s neighborhood meeting in Richmond. The Chair provided the overview of the Sanctuary City Ordinance and invited the residents and immigrants shared with the Commission and the city officials who attended the meeting about the most concerns and issues. The Commission concerned about recently raids conducted by the federal agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Francisco. The Chair also informed the audience that the interpretation available in Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin) and Spanish. The flyer about the meeting has been translated into Chinese, Spanish, Tagalog, Russian and Vietnamese.
2. Jeff Adachi of the Office of Public Defender
Thanked for the opportunity. The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office provides legal representation to over 25,000 indigent people charged with crimes each year. The Office aspires to be a nationwide model for the delivery of indigent defense services and programs to help people turn their lives around. The Public Defender’s Office offers the Clean Slate Program to clear the records. In 2007, the Office helped to clear over 2000 records. The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office can help to clear the criminal records so that your past mistakes won’t affect your chances for a job, a professional license or credit now that you’ve finished paying for your offense. If you’ve ever been arrested, convicted of a crime or been found delinquent in juvenile court, you could be eligible to have your criminal record “cleaned” by a simple process. At the Public Defender’s Office provides translation service to the immigrant residents to make sure that their legal rights be protected.
3. City Administrator Edwin Lee
The Office of City Administrator worked closely with the Immigrant Rights Commission in different areas such as: immigrant rights summit, immigration reform, public safety, language access, day labor program, etc.
The City Administrator’s Office and staff continues to assist the Commission in the effort to better serve our immigrants.
4. Chief Heather Fong of San Francisco Police Department
The San Francisco Police Department respects the Sanctuary City Ordinance. The Police Department will not enforce the immigration laws in San Francisco. We are required to cooperate with the federal agencies in the criminal cases. The San Francisco Police Department actively recruiting more immigrants to be our police officers. The members of the San Francisco Police Department, are committed to excellence in law enforcement and are dedicated to the people, traditions and diversity of our City. In order to protect life and property, prevent crime and reduce the fear of crime, we will provide service with understanding, response with compassion, performance with integrity and law enforcement with vision.
5. Immigrant Rights Administrator Sheila Chung-Hagen
Ms. Chung-Hagen provided the background of the newly created position of the Immigrant Rights Administrator. This position charges with the responsibility to monitor the compliance of the Sanctuary City Ordinance. In 1989, San Francisco passed the "City and County of Refuge" Ordinance (also known as the Sanctuary Ordinance) which prohibits City employees from helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with immigration investigations or arrests unless such help is required by federal or state law or a warrant. The Ordinance is rooted in the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980’s, when churches across the country provided refuge to Central Americans fleeing civil wars in their countries. In providing such assistance, faith communities were responding to the difficulties immigrants faced in obtaining refugee status from the U.S. government. Municipalities across the country followed suit by adopting sanctuary ordinances. In recent years, the Sanctuary Movement has experienced a rebirth, as grassroots organizations, faith communities, and local government have stood firmly against repressive immigration proposals in Congress and immigration raids that separate families. In February 2007, Mayor Gavin Newsom reaffirmed San Francisco’s commitment to immigrant communities by issuing an Executive Order that called on City departments to develop protocol and training on the Sanctuary Ordinance.
In addition, last November 2007, the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor approved the developments of the municipal ID program.
6. Kitty Ha of RAMS
RAMS is a non-profit organization based in the Richmond and provide service in the area of: public safety, homelessness, beautification of the neighborhood (remove the graffiti). Based on the daily contacts with the immigrant residents and clients, RAMS would like to share with the Commission:
* Limited access to city services due to the language and culture barrier
* Immigrants do not familiar with the government process, development of policy and program
* Need more assistance in the area of mental health
* After school activities for immigrant youth
* More education opportunity and jobs for the immigrant youth
* Parenting class for the immigrant parents so they can educate their children more effective
7. Phu Nguyen of the Vietnamese Community Center in San Francisco
Mr. Nguyen shared with the Commission of the following issues:
* Urged the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors to request the Governor not to eliminate the CAPI (Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants) program. CAPI is a 100 percent state-funded program designed to provide monthly cash benefits to aged, blind, and disabled non-citizens who are ineligible for SSI/SSP solely due to their immigrant status. The welfare reform act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193) eliminated Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) eligibility for most non-citizens. As a result, most immigrants who were not receiving SSI/SSP in August 1996 are no longer eligible for SSI/SSP
* Increase more languages to be served by the city departments under Equal Access to Services (EAS) Ordinance. Vietnamese4 language should be added to the list.
* Thanked the Mayor, the Board of Supervisors and the City Administrator for supporting the Little Saigon Project in Tenderloin neighborhood.
8. Svetlana Kaff of the Russian Community
The Russian community requested for the assistance from the City and the Commission in the area of:
• Language Access: need to add more languages to be served according to the EAS Ordinance
• Lacking of the voting documents and materials in Russian such as voter guide, information about the Measures, etc.
• 6 to 7% of the population in San Francisco is Russian speaking immigrants
o Need support from the San Francisco Unified School District for the Russian International School in San Francisco
• Need to learn from the City how to acquire for the surplus property
Suggestion:
The representative from the San Francisco Unified School District proposed that he will make the arrangement for Ms. Kaff and the community members to talk to the Real Estate Division of the School District about the under utilized school facilities.
9. Jack Allen – Resident in Richmond
Mr. Allen, a resident in Richmond for 17 years and wanted to share with the Commission of his concern:
• MUNI – Public Transportation
Despite the improvement in the bus running on time. 75% of buses ran on time according to the schedule. But, the MUNI and MTA must take a look at the condition and the cleanliness of the buses.
• Pedestrian Crossing Zone in the neighborhood
The Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) needs to take a close look at the pedestrian crossing situation in the Richmond. Many times the car drivers did not allow the pedestrians to safely cross the street.
Suggestion: Mr. Allen Segal of the MTA thanked for the feedback and he will bring back this concern to the Central Control so the Central Control can pay more attention to the condition and the cleanliness of the buses. Mr. Segal thanked the community for their input. It is very important issue to the MUNI and the MTA in the effort to improve the quality of services.
Since the DPT is a part of the Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA), Mr. Segal will inform the DPT of the concern and hopefully, the DPT will work closely with the Richmond Police Station to give out the tickets for the violators.
10. Sally Doher of the Arab Cultural and Community Center
The Arab Cultural and Community Center is the only organization serves the Muslim and Arab community. The Center provides services in the following areas: after school program for youth, domestic violence, program serves the Arab women and other social and cultural services. Ms. Doher shared with the Commission of her concern regarding to the impact of the budget reductions from the State of California and the City and County of San Francisco. The Center serves about 30,000 clients annually. It is very crucial for the Center to maintain the current programs and services to the Muslim and Arab community.
Suggestion: Mr. Edwin Lee, City Administrator shared with the audience of the serious situation of the budget shortfall in the City and County of San Francisco. The City projected that the deficit for the current fiscal year about 300 million dollars. Therefore, the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors need to reduce the spending in order to balance the book by the end of the fiscal year. In addition, the City Administrator will share with the Department on the Status of Women of the issue.
11. Chuyn Hyn Park of the Korean
Ms. Park raised the following concerns to the Commission:
* Include more languages to be served by the city departments under the EAS Ordinance. The list should include Korean language.
* Department of Elections should translate the voting materials into Korean
* More services to the Homeless
* About 20,000 Korean in the City.
Suggestion: Commissioner Alexander, Chair of the Program & Access Committee informed that the Commission developed a language need survey and the survey has been translated into different languages including Korean. Commissioner Alexander encouraged folks in the Korean community fill out these surveys. The outcome of the survey is very important to the Commission in the effort in improving the EAS Ordinance.
12. Hydra Mendoza – The Education Advisor to the Mayor
Thanked the Commission for the opportunity to share with the residents and the Commission about the issues related to education. The Mayor extremely supports of the education, especially in the area of bilingual education. At the San Francisco Unified school District, we do have the successful immersion bilingual programs in Spanish and Chinese. The Mayor worked closely with the Youth Commission to develop the Jobs for Youth program. The City created opportunities for youth can participate in the City’s internship and training program. The Mayor will continue to work with the Commission and the immigrant community to improve the services.
13. Mike Farrah – Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services (MONS)
Thanked the Commission for holding this neighborhood meeting. MONS would like to hear from the residents of their concerns and issues. MONS wants to work closely with the residents, especially the immigrant residents to improve the city services.
14. Tommy Tang – Chinese Immigrant Resident of Richmond
Mr. Tang raised issues related to the City’s Minimum Wage Ordinance. He suggested that the OLSE needs to conduct more outreach to the small businesses and the community, especially the immigrants about the minimum wage ordinance. The current minimum wage in San Francisco is $9.36 an hour. On January 1, 2009, the minimum wage in San Francisco will be $9.79 per hour.
According to Mr. Greg Asay of the OLSE, the OLSE also enforces the Paid Sick Leave Ordinance. It requires that businesses provide paid sick leave and employees accrue paid sick leave in the amount of one hour for every 30 hours worked. The last ordinance is the Health Care Security Ordinance. Any business with 20 or more employees must provide health care services in San Francisco. San Francisco is the very first city in the country to have paid sick leave or to require the businesses provide healthcare services.
III. Adjournment
Chair Dajani thanked the members of the community, community based organizations, community leaders, the representatives from the Mayor’s Office and the city departments for their support and attending this neighborhood meeting. The next neighborhood meeting will be posted on the Commission’s website at www.sfgov.org/immigrant.
The neighborhood meeting in Mission adjourned at 8:05PM.
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