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COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
City and County of San Francisco
MINUTES
Special Meeting
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
City Hall, Room 406
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
4:15 p.m.

MEMBERS PRESENT                              STAFF PRESENT
President Carolene Marks                    Rosario Navarrette
Vice President Dorka Keehn                    Susan Murphy
Commissioner Juanita Miles                    Terence Peneda
Commissioner Andrea Shorter                    Rebecca Rolfe

1.          CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL
President Marks called the meeting to order at 4:25 p.m.
Commissioner Julie Burton excused
Commissioner Emily Murase excused
Commissioner Valerie Tulier excused

2.          ADOPTION OF AGENDA
m/s/c (Keehn/Miles/Unanimous) To adopt the agenda.
The agenda was adopted with the exception of the October 13, 2001 retreat meeting minutes and the Strategic Plan, Policy Priorities which are tabled to Wednesday, February 27, 2002, regular Commission meeting.

          NO PUBLIC COMMENT

3.           REVIEW OF THE PROPOSED 2002-2003           DISCUSSION/ACTION
BUDGET FOR THE DEPARTMENT ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN

m/s/c (Keehn, Miles, Unanimous) To approve the Interim Executive Director’s proposed reduction plans.

m/s/c (Shorter, Miles, Unanimous) To approve the Commission and Department on the Status of Women 2002-2003 Baseline Budget.

·          Rosario Navarrette, Interim Executive Director, reported that the Department held a community meeting on the budget on February 6, 2002. The purpose of the meeting was to provide information to the community about the City and Department’s budget process, the current budget issues facing the City and the Department, and to provide an opportunity for community members to identify budget priorities for fiscal year 2002-2003. Community members present wanted to preserve the Department’s existing programs and services and identified possible new sources of revenue to support this. Ms. Navarrette reported that the Department will follow up on the suggested sources of revenue.

·          In compliance with the Mayor’s budget instructions, Ms. Navarrette presented a reduction plan as an accompanying document to the baseline budget to Commissioners. The Mayor has required all departments to submit a 10% ($256,000) budget reduction plan on paper only. This cut would be implemented if the anticipated shortfall in City revenues is confirmed. In order to provide more flexibility, Ms. Navarrette also prepared a reduction plan including a 2%, 3%, 5% and the required 10% cut. Many of the Department’s budget line items are fixed, and cannot be negotiated or reduced. As an example, rent and services of other departments are fixed expenses that we cannot reduce. With cuts of this magnitude, Ms. Navarrette the only areas that can be cut are in staff salaries and violence against women grant programs.

·          In response to questions about the impact of cuts to the Department staff and the grants program, Ms. Navarrette informed the Commissioners that any cuts to the staff would negatively impact the ability of the Department to meet its programmatic goals. Since the Department has minimal administrative staff, program staff would be the most heavily impacted. She does not expect any salary savings, since she anticipates that the Department will be fully staffed as of July 1, 2002. She also announced that Susan Murphy, Executive Assistant and Commission Secretary would be leaving to pursue her production career. We are hoping the Commission Secretary position would be filled immediately. Additionally, Ms. Navarrette informed the Commissioners that any cuts to community-based programs funded through the violence against women grants program would result in a reduction of services.

·          The Commissioner’s pledged their support to advocate for the Department to receive full funding in order to continue the important Department programs and the funding for violence against women services. Commissioner Shorter requested more detailed information regarding the impact budget cuts would have on the Department’s programs and violence against women services provided by Department grantees in talking points for meetings with elected officials.

PUBLIC COMMENT
·          Gita Mehrotra, Asian Women’s Shelter urged the Commission on the Status of Women (COSW) not to make any cuts to the Violence Against Women programs. She indicated that San Francisco has created an innovative, diverse and cost effective network that avoids duplication and creates a continuum of prevention and intervention services. They focus on what women survivors of domestic and sexual violence and their children need most from the community. Because San Francisco is so diverse our approach has been to create an array of coordinated services, independent yet connected to one another. This allows more points of access to survivors, creates a network of support beyond one agency alone, allows agencies to develop higher levels of expertise in one area of the network such as legal assistance or shelter services and allows San Francisco to reach some of the most marginalized victims and survivors. (Letter submitted to the Commission.)

·          Lisa Parks, San Francisco Women Against Rape (SFWAR). The services that are being provided are so essential; we need to look beyond the immediate financial cost to look at people’s lives are worth. SFWAR has been able to restructure this year and has been able to serve more women for the same amount of money and provide a holistic approach to advocacy. She urged the Commission not to cut sexual assault programs or prevention and education programs.

·          Dean Ito Taylor, Director of Asian Pacific Islanders (formerly Nihonmachi) Legal Outreach (APILO). They have provided legal representation to survivors of violence against women in San Francisco for the past 26 years. They have always had a strong working relationship with C/DOSW. If you look at the headlines you can see that Asian women in particular continue to be the victims of homicide and serious assault. Their collective budget has been frozen for at least 10 years. The impact of inflation means that every year they operate with less spending power; therefore, to take a 10% cut would be devastating. APILO provide the only two attorneys in San Francisco in the API community who speak Asian languages. The attorneys provide 100% of their time to women from violence. If APILO is subjected to a cut they will all lose staff and will lose one of those attorneys. The money provided by C/DOSW is key funding. Mr. Taylor requested C/DOSW invite APILO to accompany Commissioners when they go before the Mayor or the Board of Supervisors to show their support and demonstrate a strong united front.

4.           Public Comment                      DISCUSSION
          NONE AT THIS TIME

5.           Adjournment
          m/s/c (Miles/Shorter/Unanimous) To adjourn the meeting.
President Marks adjourned the meeting at 5:10 p.m.

**Explanatory documents: For copies of explanatory documents listed in this agenda, and other related materials received by COSW, please contact the Department on the Status of Women at 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 130, San Francisco, CA 94102, phone: (415) 252-2570,
fax: (415) 252-2575. Also, to the extent possible, documents will be available on the COSW website at http://www.sfgov.org/cosw/.

Meeting Information