Department of Public Works 2001 Gender Analysis Updates

Department of Public Works
2001 Gender Analysis Update

1. Overview

As stated in the COSW Gender Analysis Report dated January 15,2002, the San Francisco Department of Public Works (DPW) is the department responsible for maintaining city streets and public areas, restoring public monuments, and providing architectural and engineering services to other city departments. It is still among the larger city departments in San Francisco. Since the department conducted its gender analysis in 1999, there has been more awareness of the gender effects of service delivery and employment practices. The result is that gender issues are recognized more readily and are taken more seriously. For example, there is more acceptance throughout the department for flexible or alternate work schedules for male and female employees who have childcare responsibilities. Following the survey, there have been other changes that have become part of the DPW culture, such as:

  • Women feel more comfortable speaking up about issues that affect them as women;
  • There are effective avenues in place for them to be heard and to get help;
  • Our senior management responds quickly and decisively to correct gender-related problems.

The department is now embarking on a new Project Management Training Program to prepare the next generation of project managers. This training and experience is one of the components seen as essential in order to step up to senior management positions in the engineering environment. The first ten-session program is now underway with 17 participants. Thirty-five percent of the class participants, or a total of 6, are women.

In the Operations Division, support for women employees has taken several forms:

  • A new Assistant Manager for Equal Employment Opportunity Programs has been appointed to concentrate exclusively on diversity and harassment issues in that Division;
  • At the request of the Deputy Director for Operations, a woman police officer from the SFPD now regularly patrols DPW Operations Division property ("the Yard"), and is an additional resource for employees encountering workplace issues;
  • An Employee Resource Center staffed by the Training and Development Unit staff was dedicated last May. A key feature of this Center is training and coaching on career development; · A Womens' Support Group has been established at the Yard. It meets every two weeks and features guest speakers and discussions about issues important to the women who work in positions assigned to the Yard;
  • The first and only woman crafts supervisor in the City was recently appointed as a DPW Supervisor I in the Electrical Shop; ·
  • Last summer, when a drive-by shooting in the Bayview District gravely injured the son of one of the Operations Division's employees, a single mother, the Division provided support in many forms, from an emergency leave for the mother, to hospital visits from managers and employees alike.

2. Delivery of Services

The Engineering Division

The Engineering Division provides public services through the Bureaus of Architecture ("BOA"), Engineering ("BOE"), Construction Management ("BCM"), and Street-Use and Mapping ("BSM"). A number of the projects completed recently by the Engineering Division were able to address safety important to women. In 2001, the Bureau of Engineering upgraded street lighting in the following four districts where utilities were undergrounded:
1. Laguna Street, California to Bush Streets
2. Laidley Street, Miguel to 30th Streets
3. 6th Avenue, Lake to West Pacific
4. Inner Sunset, bounded by 5th, 7th, Kirkham and Lincoln

In these districts, lights on old wooden utility poles were replaced with newer poles and lights. The new lights provided improved lighting that meets national standards for high lighting levels as well as for more uniform lights. Moreover, this new lighting system will put light where it is wanted, on the streets and sidewalks and not into people's homes. The spacing of the lights was also reduced. The newer lights coupled with a reduced spacing resulted in more illumination on these streets. As noted in the report, while this improvement is gender neutral, it may actually impact women and men differently. The risk of assault on women is more likely on darker streets than ones with brighter, more uniform lighting. Thus the increased lighting created a more favorable outcome for women.

The Bureau of Street-Use and Mapping is responsible for managing the Automatic Public Toilet Program (APT). These new, state-of-the-art automatic public toilets are placed throughout the City and provide low cost (25 cent) or free entry to single occupant public toilets. Over the last year, two additional public toilets have been installed. Additional toilets are planned throughout the City where the need is greatest and as resources allow. The APTs are self-locking and provide heightened security for all users. While this program is gender neutral, the fact that these toilets are self-locking and are equipped with emergency 911 call buttons provide added security and other benefits to women, people with disabilities and the public at large. Typical public rest rooms are multi-stalled and far from being absolutely private. In effect, the new single occupant APTs could provide a buffer from potential assault. BSM is also responsible for issuing permits and inspecting construction on the public right-of-way (sidewalks and streets). Temporary pathways that are required to divert the public from a construction area are reviewed by plan checkers and regularly inspected by BSM Street Inspectors. All canopied or covered construction walkways are required to have security lighting to assist in safe passage. All walkways (covered or uncovered) must be free of obstructions and provide a flat walking surface. As in the previous programs mentioned, these added security measures are gender neutral but as in the case of the new street lighting, added light and flat walking surfaces provides additional security for women as well as the public at large.

The Operations Division

The Operations Division provides public service through the Bureaus of Building Repair, Streets and Sewer Repair, and Street Environmental Services. The Bureau of Building Repair ("BBR") repairs, operates and remodels City facilities and also provides limited new construction, contractual service and custodial services. The Bureau of Street and Sewer Repair ("SSR") repairs potholes, paves streets, operates bridges and tunnels, and repairs the sewer system as requested by the Public Utilities Commission. The Bureau of Street and Environmental Services ("SES") cleans streets, maintains landscaped areas adjacent to City streets, removes and discourages graffiti, and enforces "relevant Public Works, Police, and Public Health codes."

The Operations Division has increased its efforts to make the City a cleaner and safer place to live, work and visit for all people, and this has had an even more beneficial effect for women, especially elderly women and women with small children.

Better lighting is just as much a priority in Operations as it is in the Engineering Division. Richard Cunningham, Director of the Bureau of Street and Sewer Repair, reports: "By way of improvements, and specifically in the area of permanent walkway lighting, SSR originated a well-received capital improvement project to replace all the fluorescent lighting in the Broadway Tunnel with high-efficiency, very bright sodium vapor lamps.

This will increase the light falling on the tunnel walkways by several orders of magnitude while sharply reducing energy costs." This is a project that still has not been funded by the PUC, and so the benefits will not be realized until such time as the funding is approved. One major selling point of this project is the increased safety that will be provided for pedestrians using the Tunnel to walk between Chinatown and North Beach to the east and the lower Nob Hill and Russian Hill and Marina District to the west.

As part of the Clean Team efforts to do district by district cleanup, SES has responded to requests from community groups and cleared out problematic areas of shrubbery along walkways, public stairways and parkways to create better visibility and better access, and to increase public safety. For example, crews cleared out undergrowth along Brotherhood Way to discourage homeless encampments and drug activity. In the future there is the possibility of an exciting innovation coming about through the work of the Clean Team. At the upcoming Clean City Summit, scheduled for June 20, 2002, a major topic of discussion will be a proposal to light and landscape the freeway underpasses throughout the city. This proposal is an outcome of the visit that Director Ed Lee and Deputy Director Mohammed Nuru made to China this year with Mayor Brown, where they saw lighting and landscaping used extensively to beautify and improve freeway underpasses.

Another proposal to be discussed at the Summit is to increase the number of community gardens throughout the City, an initiative that will provide more places for men and women of all ages to enhance their sense of well being, both for themselves and for their families.

3. Involvement with Clients and Community

DPW continues to maintain an advanced "customer satisfaction approach" to its service delivery. Changing priorities have led to changes in the forms of outreach that are used by the department. The neighborhood City Halls are not expanding beyond the two that are in place in Chinatown and the Richmond district. Both are bilingual; Chinese is spoken at the Chinatown office, and Russian at the Richmond office. The Quality of Life Meetings are no longer being held by representatives from a consortium of City departments. Instead, Public Works has initiated the Community Clean Team, a citywide outreach effort centered around cleaning the City district by district. As part of this effort, the Public Affairs and Operations staff contact and meet with neighborhood organizations, merchants' groups and schools to establish partnerships and recruit volunteers. On three Saturdays each month, DPW crews work side by side with volunteers to clean streets, parkways and the areas around schools and other public buildings. As part of planning these events, the Clean Team staff consciously chooses base sites such as schools and parks that have restroom facilities to accommodate the men and women volunteers. Among the groups that are part of the volunteer effort are Sigma Omicron Pi, a statewide university sorority; Hamilton Family Shelter, which serves women with children, and Walden House.

Because of their visible presence throughout the City on a daily basis, Operations Division work crews are often a conduit for information from people in the community, both men and women, about concerns having to do with safety and security and the quality of life. At the request of Deputy Director Mohammed Nuru, the work crews have recently been instructed to be more aware of signs of dangerous activity as they go about the City. They have been asked to report any unusual gatherings of people and incidents of hate graffiti to the police as a means of increasing the safety and security of all areas of San Francisco.

Within the next few months, the department plans to conduct another customer service survey on the subject of our street cleaning and tree maintenance services in the community. There will be an opportunity to include questions related to gender issues in this survey. Also, in recruiting participants for the Clean City Summit, the Clean Team will be making every effort to insure equal opportunity for all, including women.

Project managers often conduct community meetings in the planning stages of their projects. They are also sensitive to gender issues. For example, a project manager who works on Recreation and Parks Department projects and has conducted several community input meetings in the past several months (herself a mother with young children), reports that gender related issues have come up in these meetings with regard to park design. The issues center around the need for better security in the parks, including the need to keep shrubbery that borders park areas low, so that there is better visibility both night and day. As part of park design, she and her team have contacted local police stations to consult with them about ways to improve security and visibility for the users of the parks, especially for women with children. Another issue that has come up in these input meetings has been feedback about an existing area of one park that seems to be an "attractive nuisance", where teenagers congregate and drink. The project team is relaying this concern to the Department of Recreation and Parks.

4. Employment Practices

a. Workforce Data

The DPW maintains a workforce data breakdown by race and sex within each Bureau and within the Department by classification and occupational categories. This enables the DPW to ensure equal opportunity in its workforce at all levels of our organization, and to see where under-representation exists.

Analysis of Workforce Composition Data

As of 12/31/01, the DPW's workforce is:

 

  White Black Hispanic Asian Filipino Am. Indian Total %
Male 360 173 184 263 80 6 1066 74%
Female 65 55 54 138 44 0 356 25%
% 30% 16% 17% 28% 9% 0% 1422 99%

The most current SF Labor Market Availability Data is from the 1990 US census, and looks like this:

White Black Hispanic Asian/Filipino Am. Indian Total

Male 28.8% 4.4% 7.3% 13.5% .2% 54.3%

Female 23.2% 3.8% 5.5% 12.9% .2% 45.7%

Total 52% 8.2% 12.8% 26.4% .4% 100%

Overall, the DPW has racial significant and gender diversity. However, the DPW is still challenged to ensure equal employment opportunity for all. The DPW is a department that provides many employment opportunities in the engineering, architectural, construction, and skilled crafts professions; these jobs are not traditionally occupied by females.

The number of women and people of color in our workforce has increased over the years. This progress is best illustrated by looking at the department's workforce breakdown over a span of time. In 1992, the occupational category Officials and Administrators was 91% White and 95% male. This category contains the department's top-level positions such as Director, Deputy Directors, and Bureau Heads. As of 12/31/01, this occupational category was 50% people of color (17% Black, 6% Hispanic, 27% Asian or Pacific Islander) and 28% female.

There has also been significant progress in our Professional occupational category. In 1992, there was 32% female representation, and as of 12/31/01 there was 45% female representation. There has also been some progress in our engineering and architectural occupational categories. In 1992, females comprised 11% of our engineers and people of color 73%. As of 12/31/01 females made up 18% of our engineers and people of color 76%; in 1992 females comprised 10% of our architects and people of color 48%. As of 12/31/01, females made up 13% of our architects and people of color 53%.

The DPW's Student Engineer Trainee Program has provided a means of transitioning employees to engineering and architectural positions. As of 12/31/01, over 91% of the Student Engineers Trainees are either females or people of color. Through the Student Engineer Trainee Program, the DPW has enhanced the equal employment opportunities for females and people of color to enter our engineering and architectural classifications.

In the DPW's Service/Maintenance Occupational Category, females have increased their representation from 16% in 1992 to 21% as of 12/31/01; people of color have increased from 65% in 1992 to 76% as of 12/31/01. The DPW continues to work at insuring equal opportunity for females and Asians in the Skilled Crafts Occupational Category.

The DPW has entertained the idea of helping establish apprenticeships, which we believe will improve equal employment opportunities. However, due to the complexities of negotiating and obtaining agreements with the Unions and other necessary authorities, this is a very slow process.

b. Recruitment and Professional Development

The DPW continues to engage in efforts to ensure equal employment opportunities and professional development of our workforce. We also encourage and provide training of our employees to enhance their ability to be successful at work.

Recruitment and Hiring

The DPW continues to maintain and utilize a mailing list of various professional associations, crafts and trades groups, universities and colleges, and other such sources catering to all segments of our community. We continue to attend Job Fairs and speak at gatherings to inform audiences of employment opportunities and career possibilities with the DPW. Most recently we have attended Job Fairs at Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Santa Clara University, and Cal Poly. We are scheduled to attend Job Fairs at San Jose State, San Francisco State, and UC Berkeley again. We have spoken to students at San Francisco State, UC Berkeley, and Stanford about employment opportunities not only with the DPW, but also with the City & County of San Francisco generally.

Our Project Pull Program, created by DPW employees for San Francisco High School Students, continues to be a success, and has grown to include other City departments. The program is now sponsored by the City. This Program is intended to expose High School Students to career possibilities in engineering, architecture, business, or the sciences, by pairing them with mentors in each profession. Year 2001 participation in this Program was 60% female and 100% people of color.

The DPW has also had one meeting with the Business Manager of the Carpenters' Local Union 22, to discuss ideas about ensuring equal opportunities for women carpenters in the DPW. The DPW also met with a representative from the Women's Building to find out the services that they provide that might be of benefit. With the recent hiring of another EEO professional, the DPW is hopeful that it will be able to provide more time to meet directly with Unions, community organizations, and other interested parties in order to ensure EEO for women.

During the year 2001, the DPW has made some significant hires of females in a variety of positions. The Department hired its first female supervisor in the trades, an Electrician Supervisor I. In addition, women were hired in a variety of other craft and professional positions such as: Street Environmental Operations Supervisor; Street, Construction and Building Inspectors; Civil Engineering Associates; Managers V, VII and VIII; an Electrician; an Architect, and a Planner III.

Professional Development and Career Advancement

The department continues to recognize the importance of affording employees opportunities for professional development and career advancement. In addition to the extensive high-quality training that the Department's Training and Development Unit continues to offer every year, Public Works has added two more significant developmental resources for its employees in this past year:

  • The Project Management Training Program is an important vehicle for career development for the department's engineers and architects. Traditionally, any professional who aspires to a coveted project manager position must complete this training program, either at a university or within the department. After an absence of eight years, the internal DPW Project Management Training Program is being offered again. This exciting new version of the program, coordinated by the Training and Development Unit in partnership with the Assistant City Engineer, embodies the highest standards of quality. The faculty is made up of the executives and senior managers of the department, all of whom received training in how to make professional training presentations as part of their preparation. The information they are sharing with the program participants is invaluable, based as it is on their personal experiences in managing projects throughout their careers in the City. Recruitment for this program has been open to all engineers and architects in the department, and is now being opened to engineers and architects in other City departments as well.
  • The new Employee Resource Center, located in a new double-wide trailer at the Operations Yard, was dedicated in May, 2001, with the full support of Director Ed Lee and Deputy Director Mohammed Nuru. The Center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and earlier or later each day whenever possible, to accommodate drop-ins from employees around the Yard. Training and Development Unit staff at the Center offer one-on-one counseling on career management, problem solving and conflict resolution and provide information about training opportunities. Employees can avail themselves of computer skills training at the center; they can learn how to get their GED's, and the unit stands ready to develop training on any topic that employees request.

The Center's Vision Statement is: "A neutral and safe, creative place where DPW employees can get support, training and skills to retain their jobs and advance in their careers." The Center is open to both men and women. The values that are core to the operation of the Center and make it so important reflect values that are important to women-support, nurturing and development.

As a direct follow up to the recommendation that came from the initial CEDAW Report, Training and Development staff trained all the managers and supervisors in the OFFMA and DDE divisions in Performance Management during 2001. The course specifically emphasized the importance of discussing career goals during the performance appraisal process. This has carried over into the Project Management Training Program, where the faculty members are encouraged to share their career histories with the participants as a way of providing role models for them.

The Women's Mentoring Program went forward following the initial CEDAW report. More than 80 women engineers from seven City departments attended the kickoff breakfast for the Mentoring Program, held at the Educated Palate Restaurant at the downtown campus of City College. Over 60 women engineers participated in the mentoring training program and were paired with men and women engineering managers for a period of 4 to 6 months. The visibility gained by the women engineers through this medium was directly responsible for a number of promotions that occurred throughout the City's engineering community over the course of the past 18 months. This mentoring program will serve as a successful model for future programs in other career areas. It is recommended that each mentoring program be dedicated to a particular area to maximize its effectiveness-i.e., programs for architects, health care professionals, public relations professionals, accountants and so on. This is one way to guarantee that women get the necessary visibility with high level managers to ensure equal opportunity.

The Communications Process Improvement Team (ComPit) developed and administered a Department-wide communications survey at the beginning of the Year 2000. The survey received an unprecedented 50+% response. It asked, among other things, for demographic data to identify how women and minority employees feel about how they are treated in the DPW workplace. An analysis of this data showed that most women employees do not feel any different than employees as a whole about the quality of their work life, and do not feel they are treated differently because of their gender. It was clear, however, that many employees, men and women alike, feel that their supervisors do not communicate as well as they could with their employees and that supervisory skills at maintaining good relationships with employees need more development. In response to this information, the Training and Development Unit has emphasized better communication in its supervisory training programs.

In collaboration with the EEO Unit, the Training and Development staff has conducted two comprehensive trainings in sexual harassment prevention for all managers and employees in the Operations Division in the past two years, and is now collaborating with EEO and the Director on a new training on preventing harassment in the workplace. This new program will be co-taught by Deputy Director Mohammed Nuru.

One final note: in preparing this update, the DPW Director of Training and Development contacted Phil Chin, Director of Emergency Response Training for the department to discuss gender-related issues in the training he conducts for all members of DPW. Currently this training stresses that the first priority for all DPW employees is to see that their homes and families are secure during an emergency, and that they have a family plan in place for survival during such events. Asked if he makes any specific reference to the fact that women can be at heightened risk of assault during an area-wide emergency situation such as an earthquake, Phil responded that while it is not currently a part of the Emergency Response Training, he now plans to add a discussion about safety precautions women should take during emergencies.

c. Work Environment Data Collection

The Department has developed a database that monitors and tracks employee FMLA leaves, including leaves to care for a child, parent or spouse/partner, paternity leaves, and maternity leaves. The database allows the Department to track the number of employees requesting family leave and the duration of such leaves.Data collection for flexible schedules requests has not been as readily accessible for review and analysis.

Family-friendly Work Policies

DPW has found work-life policies and practices to be very effective in the retention of valuable employees, improving morale and helping employees deal with balancing their family obligations and career demands. The Department continues to offer part-time, flex-time, and compressed work week schedules to employees to help accommodate the variety of work-life styles.

Anti-Discrimination Policies

The DPW continues to train all its employees regarding sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and equal employment opportunities. This training is on-going. The Director of Public Works issues a memo, annually, to all employees, reaffirming our commitment to a discrimination, harassment, and violence free work environment. Included as part of that memo is a listing of agencies that employees can contact for assistance regarding discrimination or harassment issues.

The Director of DPW has taken a personal interest in issues of discrimination and harassment in the department, and has demonstrated his interest and commitment by convening an EEO Task Force, consisting of representatives from DPW, DHR, and the City Attorney's Office to address issues of this nature. The Director chairs that task force. He has also made personal appearance before the Civil Service Commission in order to express his personal commitment to zero tolerance of discrimination and harassment in the work place.

Contracting Policies

During fiscal year 2000-2001, DPW awarded 16 contracts to women-owned businesses or companies in joint ventures with women-owned business. Three of these contracts were for construction contracts amounting over $2.7 million but recent economic conditions required that one of the contract awards be terminated for the City's convenience. Over $4.2 million for professional services were awarded to women-owned business. Note that some women-owned businesses may not be certified by the HRC, as they may not have an office in San Francisco. 4.

Budget Allocation

Currently, DPW has no process in place to assess the Department's annual budget for general services, gender specific services for women, and gender specific services for men. The current budget information is still viewed as services that impact the general population, and not as services that impact women and men. The Department will review any information provided by the Commission the Status of Women and the CEDAW Task Force on conducting a gender analysis of the department's service budget.