Family Violence Council:

Addressing Violence Throughout the Lifespan

 

Minutes

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

400 McAllister Street, room 617

San Francisco, CA 94102

 

Members:

 

Mayor or designee: Nicole Lindler

President of the Board of Supervisors or designee: Samuel Bennett, Supervisor Stefani’s Office

District Attorney or designee: Chesa Boudin

Sheriff or designee: Katherine Johnson

President of Commission on the Status of Women or designee: Dr. Emily Murase

Chief of Adult Probation or designee: Chauncey Robinson

Executive Director of Department of Emergency Management or designee: Maura Moylan

Executive Director of Domestic Violence Consortium or designee: Beverly Upton

Director of Human Services Agency or designee: Sophia Isom

Director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing or designee: Abigail Stewart-Kahn

Director of San Francisco Child Abuse Council or designee: Katie Albright

Director of the Department of Public Health or designee: Dr. Leigh Kimberg

Director of Department of Aging and Adult Services or designee: Akiles Ceron

Medical Examiner or designee: Dr. Ellen Moffatt

Director of Department of Child Support Services or designee: Freda Glenn

Chief of Juvenile Probation or designee: Paula Hernandez

Director of Department of Animal Care and Control or designee: Judy Choy

Superintendent of San Francisco Unified School District or designee: Thea Anderson

Executive Director of First 5 San Francisco or designee: Shelli Rawlings Fein

 

Absent:

Presiding Judge of the Superior Court or designee; Chief of Police or designee; Executive Director of Consortium for Elder Abuse Prevention or designee; Director of Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families or designee; Public Defender or designee; Human Resources Director or designee; Chief of the Fire Department or designee

 

Others Present:

Al Cabebe, Sheriff’s Department; Gena Castro Rodriguez, District Attorney’s Office; Linnea Fox, Department on the Status of Women; Elise Hansell, Department on the Status of Women; Ryan Hunter, Controller’s Office; Jonathan Kuhns, Sheriff’s Department; Michelle Lau, Department on the Status of Women; Andy Mullan, Supervisor Stefani’s Office; Jenny Pearlman, Safe & Sound; Kyoko Peterson, Department on the Status of Women; Glynis Startz, Controller’s Office; Rick Yuen, APA Family Support Services

 

I. Call to Order/Agenda Changes

Agenda approved (Kimberg /Albright).

 

II. Trauma Informed Check-In                                                

 

III. Approval of Minutes                                                                                                                  

November 13, 2019 minutes approved (Anderson / Ceron).

IV. Department on the Status of Women Announcement             

Dr. Emily Murase, Director of the Department on the Status of Women, announced that she was leaving her position, effective March 20, 2020. Dr. Murase has served in this role for 15 years. Family Violence Council members offered reflections on their work with Dr. Murase and wished her the best in her next role.

 

V. Update on Gun Violence Legislation  

Andy Mullan from Supervisor Catherine Stefani’s Office provided an update about a local ordinance to support Gun Violence Restraining Orders (GVROs). This program allows family members to petition the court to remove a firearm from an individual who poses a significant risk of harm to themselves or others. This program was previously infrequently used, and the aim of the local ordinance is to strengthen the program.

• Gena Castro Rodriguez, District Attorney’s Office, offered to connect Supervisor Stefani’s Office to the SFDA’s training team.
• Beverly Upton requested a fact sheet on the process to obtain a GVRO.

 

VI. Update from District Attorney’s Office

District Attorney Chesa Boudin updated the Council on his office’s priorities. He emphasized that the SFDA will continue to work closely with the Police Department and law enforcement to prosecute domestic violence and homicides. The SFDA is expanding its focus on victims by hiring additional advocates with diverse language skills and developing a fund to pay for victim needs; the SFDA has requested $1.3 million for victims of auto burglaries and $200,000 for emergency resources. The SFDA Victim Services Division served 9,000 victims in 2019, an increase of 40% from the previous year.

• Members of the Council questioned the low prosecution rate for family violence cases compared to other counties. Boudin responded that family violence cases are difficult to prosecute because of the lack of cooperation from victims. For child abuse cases, it is challenging to put children in the witness position. For elder abuse cases, it can take a significant amount of time to gather evidence and the victim may have cognitive disabilities that hinders their ability to be an effective witness.
   

VII. Mapping Resources to Prevent Child Abuse 
Jenny Pearlman, Safe & Sound, and Ryan Hunter and Glynis Startz, Office of the Controller, presented their efforts to map child abuse prevention resources in San Francisco.

• The goal of this work is to support collaborative local efforts to develop a county-wide child abuse prevention plan and develop a comprehensive view of prevention efforts.
• The Controller’s Office worked with City departments through data requests and interviews to develop a dataset of available programs and their attributes. This dataset is available through the City’s open data portal.
• Key findings include: there are 375 distinct programs costing over $143 million in San Francisco; 85% of these programs are administered by contracted organizations; secondary prevention services were most common; programs for children predominate; and mental health was the most common service.
• Council members were interested in additional programming to strengthen social connections in communities, including models around intergenerational social cohesion and nurturing relationships.
• There was also an interest in incorporating men (e.g., fathers) into prevention programming.

 

VIII. Preliminary Findings from Family Violence Report

Michelle Lau, Policy Fellow at the Department on the Status of Women, presented preliminary findings from the annual Family Violence Report, covering fiscal years 2018 and 2019.

• Key findings included: there are clear racial disparities across all three forms of abuse, particularly among Black/African American and Latinx populations; women and girls are disproportionately impacted by family violence; there have been increases in 911 calls and domestic violence incidents where a weapon was involved; and there remains a significant need for shelter for survivors of family violence in San Francisco.
• Council members expressed concern about the low prosecution rate for family violence cases and requested more information to explain the drop-offs between incidents reported to SFPD, arrests, cases presented to the SFDA, and prosecution.
• Council members also requested additional information about homicides that occurred within the last two years, including if the suspect had previous domestic violence related incidents or arrests and if the victim was known to be at a high lethality risk.
• There was interest in using restorative justice principles to increase offender accountability and support survivors.    
   

IX. Key Issues in Family Violence                                                       

A.Domestic Violence Update – Beverly Upton
Beverly Upton, Executive Director of the Domestic Violence Consortium, expressed concern over recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests in Sonoma County. The Domestic Violence Consortium is also continuing to work with native communities.
 

B.Elder Abuse Update – Akiles Ceron
Akiles Ceron, Adult Protective Services Director, Department of Disability and Aging Services, shared an event for the LGBTQ community to learn how to avoid elder abuse on March 5, 2020.
 

C.Child Abuse Update – Katie Albright                                                                                             

Katie Albright, Executive Director of Safe & Sound, reminded the Council that April is child abuse prevention month.

                                                                                                                                          

X. Public Comment

No public comment.
             

XI. Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 5:05pm.