2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997
ANDREA SHORTER
President
KAY GULBENGAY
Vice President
DORKA KEEHN
Commissioner
CAROLENE MARKS
Commissioner
KATHERINE MUNTER
Commissioner
BARBARA SKLAR
Commissioner
JULIE SOO
Commissioner
EMILY MURASE, PhD
Executive Director
|
COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
5:00 PM
City Hall, Room 408
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
Members Present Staff Present
Commissioner Dorka Keehn Executive Director Emily Murase, PhD
Commissioner Carolene Marks Administrative Analyst Laura Marshall
Commissioner Katherine Munter Policy Analyst Anu Menon
President Andrea Shorter Grants Administrator Carol Sacco
Commissioner Barbara Sklar Commission Secretary Cynthia Vasquez
Commissioner Julie Soo Intern Mara Lazer
Intern Caitlin Campbell
Excused: Vice President Kay Gulbengay
I. CALL TO ORDER/ AGENDA CHANGES
Commissioner Munter called the meeting to order at 5:07 pm and welcomed everyone present.
Action: Approved agenda.
m/s/c (Marks/Soo/Unanimous)
No public comment.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Commissioner Julie Soo asked for clarification on the new controls for massage establishments. Commissioner Dorka Keehn asked for information on who determines the level of penalties. Executive Director Emily Murase will consult the City Attorney regarding this.
Action: Approved minutes from May 27, 2009.
m/s/c (Keehn/Marks/Unanimous)
No public comment.
III. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
A. Executive Director's Report
Dr. Murase thanked the Commissioners and the community for the condolences she received upon the death of her father on June 2. She referred Commissioners to her written report. She stated that the San Francisco General Hospital administration has resolved the rape exam room issue by returning to the dedicated exam room model for rape victims, as advocated by our Department, the Police Department, the District Attorney's Office, and the Rape Treatment Center.
President Shorter asked for details of the Department's recent award. Dr. Murase reported that the National Association of Counties has awarded the Department its 2009 Achievement Award for the Domestic Violence Response Cross-Training Institute. While other counties received multiple awards, this was the only recognition for San Francisco County. In 2007, the Department received an Achievement Award for the Gender Analysis of Budget Cuts. Commissioner Keehn recognized the work of Administrative Analyst Laura Marshall who coordinated the Institute. Dr. Murase stated that the Department shares the award with Chief Heather Fong, District Attorney Kamala Harris, Department of Emergency Management Director Vicky Hennessy, Adult Probation Chief Pat Boyd, Sheriff Michael Hennessey, and the community trainers, Emberly Cross of the Cooperative Training Order Clinic, Doreen Der-McLeod of Cameron House, Mary Twomey, formerly of the Institute on Aging, Dr. Patricia Erwin, Dean Ito Taylor, Daisy Hung of Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach and Nick Baran of the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the Bar Association of San Francisco.
Dr. Murase added that the Mayor's proposed budget preserves the current year funding levels for the Violence Against Women Prevention & Intervention Grants Program. However, the proposed budget includes a 19% reduction in staff salaries. The Board of Supervisors is in the process of determining addbacks to the proposed budget.
IV. CONSENT AGENDA
All matters listed hereunder constitute a Consent Agenda and are considered to be routine by the Commission on the Status of Women. They will be acted upon by a single roll call vote of the Commission. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the Commission so requests, in which event the matter shall be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered as a separate item. Members of the public may speak on each item listed on the Consent Agenda.
A. Resolution Recognizing June as Pride Month
President Shorter stated that this is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising and an especially important year in terms of advancing human rights. She recognized the work of key figures in this effort: Jewelle Gomez and Diane Sabin, Helen Zia and Lia Shigemura, Therese Stewart, Jeanne Rizzo, and the National Center of Lesbian Rights.
Kate Kendall of the National Center of Lesbian Rights thanked the Commission for the recognition.
Commissioner Marks requested that the partners for honorees Therese Stewart and Jeanne Rizzo also be included in the resolution.
Action: To approve the Consent Agenda.
m/s/c (Keehn/Marks/Unanimous)
V. REPORTS
A. Health
Commissioner Marks reported that she is working with Janet Reilly and volunteers in medicine to establish a free clinic in the Excelsior, staffed by retired nurses and doctors. She hopes to expand services to include vision and dental care. Commissioner Soo recommended that she get in touch with the Optometry Schools at UC San Francisco and University of Pacific (UOP) in San Francisco for volunteers to provide vision and dental care. Commissioner Marks thanked Commissioner Soo for her suggestion.
Commissioner Marks is also organizing a group of Jewish and Muslim women called JAM who are currently focused on providing meals to women's shelters and who will undertake various civic responsibilities.
She reported that Healthy San Francisco, the pioneering universal healthcare access program, is advancing. Commissioner Keehn asked if the program has been expanded to include artists. Dr. Murase reported that initially the program had started with clients earning 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) guideline for income, but will be expanded to 500% of FPL. Commissioner Marks stated that the program was being rolled out by neighborhoods, beginning with the most vulnerable.
Commissioner Keehn asked if there has been an analysis about the impact of budget cuts at the Health Department. Commissioner Marks stated that she will meet with Deputy Health Director Barbara Garcia about this issue.
B. Justice & Courage
Commissioner Keehn thanked Beverly Upton for presiding over the last Justice & Courage Oversight Panel as she was ill. The newest panel member Dion Roberts attended. Implementation of JUSTIS remains problematic. Commissioner Keehn will meet with Dr. Murase and Grant Administrator Carol Sacco tomorrow to discuss a strategy on advancing JUSTIS and planning for the Justice & Courage planning retreat. The Panel will plan to meet with the new Police Chief once he assumes his position at the end of July.
C. Women's Human Rights Treaty
On behalf of Commissioner Gulbengay, Policy Analyst Anu Menon reported that the Department has organized a webinar in July featuring Anne Denecke, an attorney who is expert in employment/labor law. Sun Microsystems is underwriting the cost of the technology for the webinar. The focus will be on the legal context for employment targets and other recruitment issues.
Ms. Menon further reported that the UN Global Compact has posted our San Francisco Gender Equality Principles web pages in 6 languages, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Russian, available at http://www.unglobalcompact.org/Issues/human_rights/5March2009_Women_Principles.html
D. Violence Against Women (VAW) Prevention and Intervention Grants Program
Commissioner Katherine Munter thanked Commissioners and community members who advocated on behalf of preserving the current year VAW Grants funding level. The Board of Supervisors did not request any additional cuts. The final vote on the Department's budget is scheduled for Monday, June 29.
E. Family Violence Council
Administrative Analyst Laura Marshall reported that the next meeting will be held on Thursday, July 16, 2009,
3-4:30 pm. The theme of the most recent meeting was intervention programs. Council members shared information and identified gaps, such as the lack of community-based programs in the areas of elder abuse. Commissioner Sklar stated that elder abuse programs had existed in the past. President Shorter asked that Commissioner Sklar take an active role on this issue. She stated she would be happy to do so. Commissioner Soo reported that in her professional role at the State, she is seeing much more elder abuse of a financial nature. While several federal agencies work on resolving these issues, she pointed to the lack of prevention and education.
VI. OLD BUSINESS
A. Election of Officers
The Commission elected a President and Vice President for FY09-10 for a one-year term beginning July 1,
2009. President Andrea Shorter and Vice President Kay Gulbengay have been nominated for President and Vice
President, respectively.
Action: To elect Andrea Shorter as President of the Commission for FY09-10.
Action: To elect Kay Gulbengay as Vice President of the Commission for FY09-10.
B. Update on Strategic Plan
Executive Director Murase will give a mid-year report on the progress of the Strategic Plan and share the results of the Report on the Status of Women in San Francisco , 2009.
Dr. Murase reviewed the document that included the Commission Strategic Plan as well as statistics about the status of women. Commissioner Keehn stated that she expected to focus on the current economic crisis and recommendations based on the testimony the Commission has received. The Commission would like to be responsive to the economic status of women during this economic downturn/crisis.
Dr. Murase reported that a letter was sent to the Mayor’s Office with recommendations based on the testimony received from the March Commission hearing. The following were the recommendations.
- Strictly enforce the Recovery Act requirement that not less than 10% of transportation infrastructure funding be expended with women-owned and minority-owned businesses.
- Include more women in workforce development programs. Currently women represent less than 10% of the workforce in the construction and trade sectors. This is an important opportunity to train women in non-traditional sectors. Workforce development programs should be partially evaluated on the basis of the racial and gender diversity of participants.
3. Develop and sustain women-owned and small businesses. This can be achieved by expanding microloans for small businesses, renewing the first-time leaseholder grant program for shop space, and support community-based programs that train women entrepreneurs.
4. Direct stimulus money aimed at childcare to expand the total number of childcare spots in the City, rather than solely provide vouchers to parents to use for the limited spots that are currently available.
5. Address the reality that direct service providers, while facing significant budget reductions are at the same time seeing significant increases in demand for services. Identify opportunities to use fiscal stimulus dollars to strengthen safety net services such as those provided to women survivors of violence.
6. Launch a publicity campaign to inform San Franciscans of federal tax credits and increased benefits is a low-cost and effective way for the City to stimulate the local economy by bringing millions of dollars in and help struggling families access assistance that is already available to them. The federal stimulus bill, for example, expands the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit for low and moderate income families, creates a new American Opportunity tax credit for education, and subsidizes healthcare premium payments for the newly unemployed who sign-up for continued coverage under the COBRA program.
The Department has listed various information and resources for accessing stimulus funding. Commissioners requested follow-up on the recommendations that were made to the Mayor’s Office.
Commissioner Soo stated that one of her priorities is to get more information from the Human Rights Commission on its certification process. Currently, women have to choose from being listed as a woman owned business or identifying as a minority. Commissioners requested clarification as to why business owners must choose between the two.
There is a Census Count that will be taking place in 2010. President Shorter has been asked to co-chair the Census Committee to ensure that the process is as accessible and inclusive as possible.
Commissioner Keehn pointed out areas where additional data is needed. She would like to know, for example, how many women have healthcare or do not have healthcare? How many women have childcare or do not have childcare? It is important to create a mechanism to ensure that the recommendations that are made are being addressed or responded to. Commissioner Keehn requested follow-up with the Mayor’s Office on the recommendations made by the Commission.
Dr. Murase suggested having various City Departments present before the Commission on what work is being done by their department to ensure that the needs of the community are being addressed.
Commissioner Soo reemphasized that the Commission should ask for data. At this time there are no concrete statistics to show what is currently being done and to show the gaps that need to be filled. We should also ask the various departments how they collect their data, what challenges they face in collecting data, and how the Commission can provide technical assistance with gathering data.
President Andrea Shorter requested that Aileen Hernandez and staff of the Human Rights Commission be invited to the July Commission meeting to answer questions from the Commission regarding the Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise Ordinance.
Commissioners suggested making deeper inquiries when collecting data. Commissioner Soo noted that a child can stay with family and still be a part of the foster care system. Commissioner Soo used the example of when women are incarcerated, with whom are the children living with – other family members or foster parents? Are they under the foster care system? And who pays for these services? This is needed in order to have a clear understanding of the how one situation affects another and how city funds are being used.
VIII. PUBLIC COMMENT
Commissioner Soo announced that the Academy of Art University organized a peaceful vigil to support the effort to free Euna Lee and Laura Ling who are currently detained by North Korea for this evening, 6:30-8:30 pm at the Morgan Auditorium, 491 Post Street at Mason. She is a co-sponsor of the event, as is the Department.
IX. ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn in the memory of Dr. Kenji Murase, who passed away June 2.
m/s/c (Shorter/Soo/Unanimous).
The meeting adjourned at 6:45 pm.
City Hall is accessible to persons using wheelchairs and others with disabilities. Assistive listening devices are available and meetings are
open-captioned. Agendas are available in large print. Materials in alternative formats, American Sign Language interpreters, and other accommodations will be made available upon request. Please make your request for alternative format or other accommodations to the Department on the Status of Women at 415-252-2570. Providing at least 72 hours notice prior to the meeting will help to ensure availability.
The nearest BART station is Civic Center Plaza at the intersection of Market, Grove, and Hyde Streets. The MUNI Metro lines are the J, K, L, M, and N (Civic Center Station or Van Ness Avenue Station). MUNI bus lines serving the area are the 47 Van Ness, 9 San Bruno, and the 6, 7, 71 Haight/ Noriega. Accessible curbside parking is available on 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place (San Francisco City Hall) and Grove Street. In order to assist the City’s efforts to accommodate persons with severe allergies, environmental illness, multiple chemical sensitivity or related disabilities, attendees at public meetings are reminded that other attendees may be sensitive to various chemical based scented products. Please help the City to accommodate these individuals. For inquiries or requests for accommodations, please call 415- 554-6789 (V), 415-554-6799 (TTY).
Know Your Rights under the Sunshine Ordinance (Chapter 67 of the San Francisco Administrative Code)
Government’s duty is to serve the public, reaching its decision in full view of the public. Commissions, boards, councils and other agencies of the City and County exist to conduct the people’s business. This ordinance assures that deliberations are conducted before the people and that City operations are open to the people’s review. For more information on your rights under the Sunshine Ordinance, or to report a violation of the Ordinance, contact the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force at 415-554-7724. To obtain a free copy of the Sunshine Ordinance contact the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, City Hall, Room 244, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102-4689, phone: 415-554-7724, fax: 415-554-7854. Copies of the Sunshine Ordinance can also be obtained from the San Francisco Public Library and on the City’s website at www.sfgov.org.
If any materials related to an item on this agenda have been distributed to the Commission after distribution of the agenda packet, those materials are available for public inspection at 25 Van Ness, Suite 130, San Francisco, CA 94102 during normal office hours.
Lobbyist Registration and Reporting Requirements
Individuals and entities that influence or attempt to influence local legislative or administrative action may be required by the San Francisco Lobbyist Ordinance [SF Campaign & Governmental Conduct Code § 2.100] to register and report lobbying activity. For more information about the Lobbyist Ordinance, please contact the San Francisco Ethics Commission at 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 220, San Francisco, CA 94102 ; telephone 415-252-3100; fax 415-252-3112; website: sfgov.org/ethics.
