CEDAW
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CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO TASK FORCE FOR THE LOCAL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN
Minutes for March 27, 2002 meeting
CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL
TASK FORCE MEMBERS Present
Emily Murase, Chair, Commission on the Status of Women
Krishanti Dharmaraj, WILD for Human Rights
Youmna Chlala, WILD for Human Rights
Carmen Herrera, Human Rights Commission
Ken Theisen, Bay Area Legal Aid
Myrna Lopez, Mayor’s Office
DOSW Staff Attending
Members of the Public
Joe Grubb, Executive Director, Residential Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board
Janet Nu, San Francisco Apartment Association
ADOPTION OF AGENDA & MINUTES
Carmen Herrera moved, Ken Theisen seconded, the Task Force unanimously approved the agenda for the March 27, 2002 Task Force meeting.
Carmen Herrera moved, Ken Theisen seconded, and the Task Force unanimously approved the minutes from the February 27, 2002 Task Force meeting
NEW BUSINESS
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEM: Updates from Working Groups
DISCUSSION / ACTION ITEM: Report from Residential Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board
Joe Grubb, Executive Director of the Residential Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board (Rent Board), provided a progress report on their implementation of CEDAW recommendations.
Data Collection: The Rent Board is using up all of the old forms, which do not have revised data tracking information on them. Once the old forms are used up they will reprint new forms, which will allow them to collect the data specified in the CEDAW recommendations. They will also modify the database to allow for their services to be tracked and analyzed by gender and/or race/ethnicity and to be tracked by landlord/tenant categories.
The Rent Board conducted an informal survey of clients in which approximately 1/3 of staff volunteered to keep records of clients they were in contact with. The preliminary results show they are seeing approximately 51% male and 48.5% female clients, and approximately 53% of their clients are Caucasian. They also attempted to document client demographics from people who access their website. Task Force members expressed concern that identification of demographic data should not rely upon the perception of the person keeping records, but that clients should be asked to provide specific demographic data. Further concerns included that data should be collected systematically and processes for collection and analysis of data regarding clients should be institutionalized.
Interagency Coordination: Mr. Grubbs was asked to chair the committee working on the housing study which will survey 1100 households who are renting rent stabilized housing units. The study will track gender as well as race/ethnicity.
Language Accessibility: The Rent Board has received $87,000 for translation expenses that has allowed them to translate approximate 67% of their materials into Chinese and Spanish. Since the Rent Board arbitration is a quasi-judicial body, all final documents related to arbitration need to be in English, however sample forms and explanations will be printed in Chinese and Spanish. Mr. Grubbs reported that recruitment of staff that can speak Chinese is a high priority as many of their consumers are monolingual in Chinese dialects. Krishanti Dharmaraj suggested that the Rent Board explore partnering with community-based organizations with expertise and experience working with specific ethnic or cultural groups.
Multi-lingual information regarding Rent Board services and programs is also available via telephone, with voice recording of information available in different languages.
Task Force members inquired about translation at hearings. The Rent Board will provide translation at hearings if the client is unable to provide their own translation and has a financial hardship. This generally means that most people who are eligible are tenants. In reality, relatives and/or representatives from community groups such as the Asian Law Caucus frequently provide translation.
Employment: Mr. Grubbs reported that they continue to offer part time work for employees, even though that supervision of part time employees requires more time from supervisors. They have had good success with their maternity policies, and most staff take between four and eight months of maternity leave. The Rent Board has historically had a high number of female staff members who advocated for policies supporting work-life balance well before the CEDAW analysis was conducted.
Department Planning: Task Force members asked about how CEDAW has been incorporated into department planning mechanisms such as strategic planning and performance measures. Mr. Grubb represented that the department does not have a formal strategic planning process and that the performance measures required by the Mayor’s office do not include gender analysis. The Rent Board utilizes management meetings, open communication with employees, client/customer surveys, and annual performance measures as planning/management tools. Most of the department feedback from clients and community members is extremely positive.
After Mr. Grubbs completed his report, Task Force members discussed the gender analysis and monitoring process. Task Force member’s concerns included the fact that most city departments have a difficult time analyzing the impact of budget, programs and employment policies and practices on gender. Although CEDAW has increased awareness of gender and responsiveness to the needs of women, city departments have not successfully integrated the intention and philosophy of CEDAW into their work. One suggestion is to conduct gender analysis on related departments in the future, i.e. all agencies involved in domestic violence intervention and/or services. This may result in a greater impact on issues related to CEDAW.
DISCUSSION / ACTION ITEM: Adoption of the CEDAW Task Force response to the Adult Probation gender analysis report and recommendations
Ken Thiesen moved, Krishanti Dharmaraj seconded, and the Task Force unanimously approved the draft of the CEDAW Task Force response to the Adult Probation Department gender analysis report and recommendations.
DISCUSSION / ACTION ITEM: Update on new local, national, international, CEDAW events including Senator Boxer’s call for a CEDAW hearing.
DISCUSSION / ACTION ITEM: Report on public awareness campaign.
The Department on the Status of Women has been invited to send a representative to Sweden to speak about San Francisco implementation of the CEDAW ordinance. Staff members may not be able to attend in which case a Task Force member may be able to go to represent our work. If a staff member is not able to attend, Carmen Herrera may be available to go. Rebecca Rolfe will follow up with Ann Lehman about logistics and participation.
PUBLIC COMMENT
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Next Meeting: Wednesday April 24, note time change to 2:00 pm.
ADJOURN
