Meeting Information

Full Commission

Commission’s annual goals in order to assess its budget needs.  He also indicated that the Mayor has already held two budget meetings asking city departments to try to do more with reduced budgets.  There will be at least a 3 percent across-the-board cut in the coming year with city departments being asked to keep costs down by seeking cost-cutting measures such as working across departments and borrowing staff.

The Office of Language Services to be established does not have staff.  A consultant will be retained to design the charge for the office. This consultant will provide technical assistance to  departments that have been identified as having language services deficiencies or need assistance with compliance.  Mr. Lee has been told that many departments do not have the resources to translate all of their materials.  He would like a plan to ensure that all city departments have the resources to complete translations of text, websites and other critical communication pieces to the general public.

A number of Commissioners asked for clarification about the Commission’s breadth of authority.  Mr. Lee explained that the Commission was an independent body in terms of its voice. It has independent authority to issue any opinion based on immigrant rights across departments. In terms of budget, the Commission goes through the GSA. If the Commission decides that a campaign was necessary to surface an issue, Mr. Lee offered assistance in ensuring that it was effective.  The Commission does not have administrative authority. Although, the Commission does have the authority to  exercise authority or provide remedy on individual cases, it can ensure that people who come to ask for assistance are referred to the appropriate sources for resolution. The Commission can also make sure that all communications and policies in the city are welcoming to immigrants, particularly those  who are not English speakers, to enable them to participate fully.

A Commissioner explained that the Commission’s authority comes through statute.   When asked who in Mr. Lee’s office would attend to compliance plans, conduct an analysis, assess where departments may be deficient, and draft a memo with recommendations regarding non-compliance with EAS, it became evident that the piece that was missing was the availability of a staffer with technical expertise who could act on behalf of the Commission.  Commissioners expressed the need for staff that could proactively enforce EAS.  While consultants can tackle a flexible range of issues, it was deemed important to have someone in the LSO to be responsible for raising issues; someone who could function as a compliance officer who would work under Mr. Lee and ensure that the Commission is informed and continue to exercise authority over compliance matters. 

Mr. Lee informed Commissioners that each Commission was being asked to work with Miguel Bustos, a recently-hired Senior Mayoral Aide who has been appointed by the Mayor to liaison with the President of each Commission. Through the Mayor’s Office, the Commission can use the lobbyists at the federal and state levels who can work to bring its influence beyond the San Francisco sphere.

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As the conversation with Mr. Lee proceeded, it became clear that having a compliance officer was a budget priority for the Commission for the next fiscal year.  City departments may also need some training on how to comply with the ordinance.  This would require additional funding.

Mr. Lee indicated that the Commission should consider working with other City Commissions to expand its image and authority. The Immigrant Rights Commission is one of thirty commissions. He encouraged joint commission meetings with the Police and Fire Commissions as well as the Juvenile Justice Commission.  He also conveyed the importance of informing the Mayor of the Commissioners’ desire to collaborate. The Mayor has mandated department heads to collaborate, seeing this as an effective way for the city to work across departments—breaking out of silos.

Many questions were raised about 311, the language line.   Will the language line have any publicity?  Can this Commission piggyback on 311 to educate the public about the ordinance?

Mr. Lee’s response included statements that addressed his office’s efforts to reduce duplication of contracts with multiple language services vendors.  The language line is willing and has the capacity to add other languages to the city’s services as they have done with other large cities like New York and Chicago.  The Commissioners requested for Mr. Lee to pursue additional languages as reflected by the multiplicity of languages spoken by city residents in many neighborhoods such as Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Farsi.  The Commissioners requested that the LSO go beyond the 2000 Census to determine language needs as it under-represents many other languages.  In closing, Mr. Lee committed to providing Commissioners with the school district data on LEP students to find out the number of English deficient children and the number of children who have become FEP, which will then provide an estimate of the number of parents who are limited English proficient.  Mr. Lee graciously ended his presentation with encouraging and inspirational words.

Beth Rosales, the facilitator, stated that the day’s schedule was full but doable.  She explained that the foci of this retreat were three-fold:

             1) To review last year’s goals

 2) To set goals for this year

 3) To plan for resources needed to achieve this year’s goals.

Each commissioner gave a brief introduction of him/herself.  Each commissioner was asked to introduce him/herself beyond their professional titles and business card identification.  In good spirit, commissioners described the different hats that they wore on any given day and shared insights on how they identified themselves.   Afterwards, the Commission considered short term and long-term goals.

Chair Sonia Melara introduced this portion of the retreat.  She made brief comments on last year’s retreat indicating that the Commissioners discussed many ideas but did not come up with a plan or a timeline.  For this retreat, she asked the Commissioners to consider these key questions: What is our big picture? Who are we impacting? What results do we want to have? What difference can we make?  What do we need to do to get there?  Commissioners brainstormed

Key trends and issues that immigrant communities will face over the next 10-20 years

• Patriot Act
• Increase in number of deportations due to computerization and inability to re-enter into the country
• Racial profiling and harassment (especially at airports)
• Language access, in general
• Sanctuary ordinance, to what degree is the ordinance undermined/under attack by the federal government which is threatening to withhold funds
• Labor abuses
• Forced labor
• Sex and slavery trafficking
• Human rights abuses
• Real ID Act
• Federal Immigration Reform Bill
• Deficiency in the court system (language access and disparities in incarceration)
• Immigrant/minority school issues
• Elderly immigrant language access
• Undocumented survival guide

Seven – Ten Year, Long Term Goals

• Elimination or Overhaul of the Patriot Act
• Language Access Ordinance compliance system is established throughout the city/county of SF
• Commission operates under statute that allows it to subpoena government and elected officials (Become a charter commission rather than an ordinance commission. Requires ballot initiative.)
• Meaningful immigration reform
• Commission is well-recognized and utilized widely by communities and by departments as well
• Commission is known and trusted by communities
• Policy maker with broader sphere of influence

Two - Three Year, Short Term Goals       

• Working closely with other Commissions
• One joint meeting with another Commission within the next year
• Be better known within city departments and diverse communities
• Improve image of immigrants, make immigrant less of a dirty word (what do we do about so many day laborers on the streets? etc.)
• Establish Commission’s policies and procedures
• Review impact of ordinance and compliance
• Increased recognition of the Commission as a “Can-Do” Commission
• Increased number of community meetings, rallying communities to attend
• Community compliance with language access ordinance

Proposed Activities

• Immigrant Rights Summit within the next year. Issues can be addressed by speakers at the summit. Bring in thought-leaders to talk about what we can do to protect our local populations. Involve other key commissions in the summit. Bring people together to make improvements for immigrants, not just increase our collaboration among other groups.
• Educate departments on how to implement the San Francisco sanctuary laws
• Work with the business community—many of them are highly reliant on immigrant communities as a workforce, customers, and consumers. (a high percentage of start-up businesses are owned by immigrants)
• Provide resources to communities
• Devote part of the website to profiles of immigrants contributing resources, time, and money to community at large
• Get the word out on access channel 26
• SFGTV can air parts of meetings and Edwin’s office can set that up.)
• Be involved in the budget process regarding money that goes to different immigrant communities
• Build relationships with earlier immigrants: e.g., German, Irish, Italian, and Jewish communities
• Individual Commissioners can take responsibility for issues of interest to them. Pro-active staff and members with committed follow-through
• Report significant accomplishments to the Mayor’s Office annually
• Possibly a published annual report to the public
• Increase number of community meetings
• Develop resources and systems
• Consistent follow-through
• Create procedures for handling complaints and complaint tracking system
• Have community educate us/testify. Initiate an Information and Referral system for the general public
• Pull out policies and procedures that need to be changed to benefit the community
• Educate the Board of Supervisors as well as the Mayor’s Office
• Increase internal staff competency
• Build pro-active media contact and relationships
• Conduct an internal self-assessment process. Are our own office and website language accessible?  Utilize as showcase and model for city government
• Links and resources on website
• Develop a robust communications strategy

Four over-arching priority short-term goals (sub-bullet indicates a measure of success)

• Collaborations with community

§         One training on the EAS for department heads or individuals doing EAS reports

§         One community meeting where individuals can bring their issues to the Commission

ڤ      Internal infrastructure

§         Policy and Procedure Manual (which is read and followed by all)

§         Half of by-laws are revised by year one

ڤ      Improve image of immigrants

§         Hold Summit

§         More registered complaints

§         Solutions to complaints followed-up

ڤ      Collaborations with other Commissions and Departments

§         All departments are submitting reports on time

§         Begin contact with Airport, Elections or Police Commissions. Ask each Commission to follow up on a specific issue

2007 Year One Priority Activities

ڤ      Summit (ad-hoc committee will be developed)

ڤ      Revised Bylaws and procedures (Commissioners Escobedo and Lee will take lead)

ڤ      Language Access Ordinance revision

ڤ      Improved website traffic, language access, resources, and content (Commissioner Delani will take lead)

§         Being linked to by the general public as a key resource

§         Include visible community organizations as resources

ڤ      Improved complaint process and follow-through  with constituencies (Commissioner Alexander’s committee will examine)

2008 Year Two Activities

ڤ      More proactive with media

ڤ      Annual Report (Executive Committee will take lead)

The Chair thanked all for the spirited discussion, Commissioners’ positive cooperation toward achievable goals, and arriving with clarity, the path for the Commission in the next two years.  Commissioners added their appreciation for each other, in getting to know each other much better beyond their bios, and for the cohesion of the group.  A lot of hope was expressed for the executive committee to sort out priorities.  Extension of thanks all around to Mr. Lee – for his presence at this gathering and longstanding support.

Draft letter to the Juvenile Probation Department

The Commission reviewed and approved the draft of the letter to the Juvenile Probation Department proposed by Commissioner Escobedo regarding the new visiting procedures for the Youth Guidance Center.  This letter addressed the concerns on Juvenile Probation Department’s newly imposed Youth Guidance Center (YGC) visitation policy and its impact on youth detained in YGC who are children of immigrants.

Commissioner Jones made the motion and seconded by Commissioner Alexander and Commissioner Haile.

The annual retreat adjourned at 1:00 pm followed by a scrumptious potluck lunch prepared by the Commissioners themselves.