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Minutes of Meeting on May 12, 2003
A meeting of the Immigrant Rights Commission (IRC) was held on Monday, May 12, 2003 at City Hall, hearing room 416.
I. Roll Call: Members Present The meeting was called to order on 5:07 p.m., Commissioners Casillas, Gonzalez, Gusukuma, Haile, Huie, Lau, Nguyen, Ribas, Tran, Zheng were present. Commissioner Lau arrived at 5:07 p.m. Commissioner Tran arrived at 5:15 p.m. Commissioner Casillas arrived at 5:31p.m. Commissioner Tran left at 6:30 p.m. Commissioner Zheng left at 6:15 p.m.
Members Absent Commmissioner Atay, Berumen, Nwadibia were absent.
Others Present Dang Pham, Executive Director, Winny Loi, Commissioner Secretary,
William Chan, Deputy City Attorney
II. Approval of minutes for Apr 14 2003:Commissioner Haile move to approve the minutes and was seconded by Commissioner Gusukuma. The Commission unanimously adopted the minutes.
III. Public Comment: Marie-Loraine Mallare a former Commissioner addressed the commission on the issue of Tagalog/Filipino bilingual education at the San Francisco Unified School District. The Filipino-American community considers Tagalog/Filipino bilingual education to be an integral part of the educational experience for Filipino youths. It is needed for the Filipino youths can maintain their cultural identity. The Vice Chair assigned this matter to the Policy & Legislation Committee for consideration.
IV. Presentation: AB292 that bans the use of children as interpreters by any state department or agency, or by any organization receiving state funding. No one from Assemblyman Yee’s office appeared at the meeting.
V.Upcoming Neighborhood Meeting: The Commissioners decided to have one neighborhood meeting in the Sunset District on September 8, 2003. The Commission will invite Supervisors Tony Hall & Supervisor Fiona Ma to the meeting. The Commissioners would like to schedule another neighborhood meeting in the Excelsior District on November 10, 2003. The Commission will invite Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval to that meeting.
V. Director’s Report:
Director Dang Pham asked the Commissioners to participate in the Mayor’s First Summit on Aging on May 27, 2003 at the Herbst Theatre.
Mr. Pham gave each Commissioner a copy of the Board of Supervisors Resolution No. 0249-03. This resolution urges City departments to consider conducting a CEDAW Gender Analysis an analysis of the impact on the city’s equal access to city services for limited English speakers, of departmental budget cuts affecting city services to these individuals.
Two days ago, Mr. Pham received an e-mail from the City Attorney’s office indicating that the Mayor’s office recently rejected all proposals submitted in response to the amended RFP issue on August 26, 2002 for the Day Labor Program . The City intends to issue a new RFP for the program & the Mayor had requested Judith Blackwell, Director of Office of Contract Administration (OCA) to oversee the bid process. Her department will handle all of the RFP submissions.
Mr. Pham & Ms. Loi has been meeting with each department to go over the compliance plans. Letters regarding the implementation of the Equal Access to Service Ordinance for the Tier 2 department has been sent out.
Mr. Pham informed the Commission regarding a meeting with 2 FBI agents from the Oakland office. The agents indicated that they would like to meet and work with the Commissioners to address the concerns over treatments of Muslims & Arabic immigrants in San Francisco.
VII. Draft of Summit Report: Commissioner Lau reported on the progress in finalizing the Summit Report. She has found a printer willing to donate printing services. Commissioner Tran would like to see flyers advertising the report to be in Chinese & Spanish. Commissioner Tran requested the names of the Commissioners to appear in the front of the report and would like the complaint forms attached to the report. Commissioner Haile suggested adding the names of CBO that received awards during the summit. Commissioner Lau requested that the Commissioners should call, e-mail or fax her any typographical errors to her. Commissioner Haile move to approve the Summit Report, which was seconded by Commissioner Ribas seconded. The Commission unanimously adopted the Summit Report.
VIII. Program & Access Committee Report: none
IX. Policy & Legislation Committee: New meeting date for May 29, 2003. Commissioner Casillas would like to support the AB 292 & would like it to be on the agenda for next meeting.
X. Finance & Operatons Committe Report: The Committee reported that the City Administrator’s budget did not include a budget line item for the Commission. Commissioner Huie would like to hire a grant consultant to do fund raise for a Summit in 2004.
Adjournment: The Commission meeting was adjourned at 6:40 p.m.